Clik here to view.
Look what I found!
Pinto beans! And this teeny little bag cost 400 yen. I am soaking them and will make them into chili tomorrow. “Pinto bean” in Japanese is “uzura mame,” which means “quail bean.” I assume this is...
View ArticleI am accomplished.
I just spent the whole morning setting up an account at the delivery company’s entirely-Japanese website so I can make them redeliver my packages at times when I’m not at work. I used Moji a lot. (I...
View ArticleOkay, guys.
There are some little windows in the classroom so the parents can watch classes from the waiting area. Obviously, when there are other kids out there, they come over to the windows and wave and pop up...
View ArticleI return, triumphant.
Actually, I feel pretty gross. How I Know I’m In Japan: An old lady made a disapproving noise at me when I jaywalked. Old Kentuckian ladies jaywalk faster than I do.
View ArticleI need to go to the grocery store
but I can’t right now because I’m craving feta cheese, and in addition to making me sick, feta cheese is 1200 yen. I also need to buy tea. Going home and drinking my Celestial Seasonings green tea has...
View ArticleClik here to view.
JAPAN RAIL ADVENTURES!!!
In the not-a-train category, this inscrutably Italian Mexican pimped-out car was in my office building’s parking lot the other day. But anyway – the JR system is exciting stuff! When I was passing...
View ArticlePersistence of location
There used to be an empty lot I had to go through on my way to the mall. One morning at the end of March or beginning of April, still sleepy, I was walking to the mall, and found that there was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Conspiracy theory
I think Japanese grocery stores artificially scent their produce sections with whatever fruit they’re currently pushing. The Uoroku’s present strawberry scent is intense and pervasive. I keep...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stuff
Bonze’s egg! (That’s my box, not the one he used. It had 100-yen-shop marbles in it.) The other Niigata Station naked lady statues. You need to click and zoom in, but there’s only two of them, so...
View ArticleYukata and eggplants.
I now own this yukata, and have learned how to put it on. Yukata obi are easier than Nagoya obi, but I still don’t have the motor skills for them. I’m also shaped like an eggplant. Kimono are designed...
View ArticleI am a terrible kanji student – but let me tell you about OTHER people’s faults.
In this post, I mutter about poor graphic design decisions to downplay my own laziness in kanji study. For a while my mail wasn’t showing up. I got it fixed, but I only figured out why it had happened...
View ArticleEchigo-Yuzawa
Went to Echigo-Yuzawa and rode the skylift and ate soba and suchlike with Mo today. There may be mountain pictures later, depending on whether they look horrible when I unload the camera. I brought Mo...
View ArticleMilestone
Went to the doctor for the first time in Japan. I navigated it mostly-successfully, except that I just got a call scolding me for leaving without my medicine. I’d thought the nurse had just been...
View ArticleStuff
Successfully acquired rice cooker off Craigslist for 1000 yen. (Not from the guy before, from another guy.) The rice is soaking, and shortly I shall test it. Went to Koishikawa Kourakuen. In January,...
View ArticleOh, hey!
Koishikawa Korakuen was put together by Tokugawa Mitsukuni. I thought that name sounded familiar, and I just googled it. That’s Mito Koumon! I went to Mito Koumon’s garden. I kind of feel like I’m...
View ArticleThe Happiness Realization Party
I wince and have to leave the room when American politics does stuff like this. Not so with Japan, apparently! I guess I don’t take it so personally. Japan’s Happiness Party plans to attack North Korea...
View ArticleToday was Eccentric Old People Day in Tokyo, I guess.
This afternoon I tried to go to the Fukugawa Edo Museum, but when I got there, it was closed for renovation. This is about the third time this has happened to me – apparently Japan’s economy really is...
View ArticleRecord of last full day in Tokyo.
Because I’m so exhausted I’ll forget everything if I don’t write it down. Week-before-last I tried to make reservations for the Imperial Palace tour thing – the only day that wasn’t full was at 10:00...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The most Tokyo place in all of Tokyo.
Several months late, I reveal to you Tokyo’s very soul! It’s basically a grumpy cat in a chair. I hope you’re not too disappointed. In Tokyo – and I’m assuming in other major Japanese cities, though I...
View ArticleMy apartment complex would have yelled at me if I’d actually done this.
Text of the sign I came up with for my door: エホバの証人になりたくない。 (“I don’t want to become a Jehovah’s Witness.”) チーズをたべることができない。 ピザショップのチラシが必要ない。 (“I can’t eat cheese. I don’t need an ad for a pizza...
View Article
