Chris and I went to El Torito last night. ...I have to say it...it's up there with some of the best Mexican food I've ever had. Chris and I both had low expectations going there. We were thinking, how would a city with only a few Mexican restaurants actually have really amazing Mexican food? But sure enough, we were amazed at how good the food was. I promise I am not exaggerating when I keep saying much of the food here is really good--it really is good! The quality is just so much better than in most restaurants in the U.S.. And this El Torito was even cheaper in price than the California El Torito...that was an unexpected surprise. And it's on the 28th floor with a view of the city. Now we have someplace to go when we want good Mexican food.
Today I had my first pottery class. It's about a 20 minute train ride and 10 minute walk away. The instructor spoke English very well. I don't know if he understood everything I said to him, but at least he can speak it well enough. The other students included a 70 year old woman and a 60-something year old woman. Both women were very kind, and spoke no English. Smiles go a long way when you can't communicate. But this is a great way for me to learn Japanese in the class and motivate me to learn more Japanese on my own. I spent about 3 hours in the class working the clay by hand. I made 5 different cups (errr...clay vessels that hopefully resemble cups ;) ). Next week I will "carve" (I don't know what the pottery terms are yet) the clay cups so they look more like the shapes I want. I've signed up for lessons until the end of March. We'll see if it might be something I'd like to do long-term.
