Quiet people like quiet meals, even on vacation.

I’m currently listening to the audiobook “Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi, but this is not about that. It’s a treatise on the power and importance of networking, useful in the work I am doing (coaching software teams and building positive team culture), but a lot of the book is a big stretch for introverts (that’s me). This naked truth was revealed when I escaped for a 2 week vacation to Fujikawaguchiko, one of the popular lakeside resort towns with views of Mt Fuji. Energetic snap-happy tourists roamed the streets, and I frequently felt the need to seek quiet.

I would not have thought of finding serenity in the hotel dining room, but that’s where I spent a refreshing rainy afternoon. Dining room B was tucked away in the hotel’s annex, very importantly separate from the front desk where the afternoon check-in traffic was (as opposed to the rambunctious luggage trundling horrors of dining room A). One imagines 4-7 pm as peak tourist expedition time, but because of an all-day rainy front, I instead that sodden afternoon picked a private-ish table to whip out the ol’ laptop, and happily sort, arrange, label, caption, record, archive, upload, plan, write, re-write.

It was quickly 6pm, and instead of braving the rain and the dinner crowds (sunset was 5.15pm, rendering ineffective our early-dinner tactics), we bought cold dish bentos  for 2 beforehand for dinner. Potato salad, maki rolls, kimchi, red bean mochi, and a Highball in a can pre-chilled in the hotel room’s mini-fridge proved most satisfying, all the more so having cost ~¥1500 at the nearby OGINO supermarket.