Food & Bugs
So, things are moving along. I start Japanese classes tonight, which I am looking forward to. It's half conversation and half hiragana/katakana. It'll be a start towards deciphering the gibberish I am constantly surrounded by. Maybe someday soon, I'll be able to go to restaurants that don't have picture menus, and buy products at the drugstore that don't have a pictures of their functions on the front.
I have discovered some great stores. Fred Meyer-like, Walgreen's-like, Target-like stores: Create, Shimachu, and Tokyu Hands. I have been able to find turpentine at last, so I can start painting again. It's nice to know that all stores aren't like the high-priced depaato department stores) around train stations.
We have started, by default, Friday-night dinners at our house. Macky has been coming over with the fish he caught, and we usually have Taeko, Toru and sometimes his family. Good eatin.' Our first meal was shabu shabu, which was like a hot soup kept on a burner at the table, and we swirled our fresh fish around in it until it cooked. We ate it with some greens and a lemony sauce. Yum!
Fish! Macky taught me how to fillet them easily.
Jeff and shabu shabu
Speaking of food, I have pics of some interesting differences in the grocery stores. For one thing, the fruit is pretty pricey, and the variety small. Apparently, produce prices fluctuate a lot, depending on the season's weather. It rained a lot this summer, so the fruit didn't do as well. But, man, is it pretty.
Biggest grapes I have ever seen.
Gorgeous apples
On the other hand, if it's tofu you want, there is no shortage there:
Or mushrooms. Of infinite variety and price. Some cheap enoki, or the ones I saw last weekend, which were about $35. For 3, I think. Macky tells me they're really good, but geez.
Milk comes in small containers. A quart is as big as you can get it, and it's about double Seattle's price. It took awhile to figure out which was milk and which was thins weird yogurt drink. (A bad surprise when you're not expecting it) Also, I have recently learned where to look for the fat percent, which comes in 4.5, 3.7, 0.8, and other unfamiliar things unlike 1%, 2%, and whole.
Our favorite 'milkmaid' brand is 3.7%
and sweetened condensed, in a tube! I may do a future blog on all the things that come in tubes...
Grocery-store bread, sadly, sucks. I have no gripes about cutting off the crusts for the kids' sandwiches. And it comes in 6 or 8 slices, nasty white or nasty wheat (the kids refuse). There are real bakeries near train stations, but I'm usually not around one when I need bread for the next morning.
BUT it has a Fine Aroma!
To turn the conversation, I promised bugs last time. I honestly believe that the little critters (and not so little) had a lot to do with easing D's homesickness. First it was the ubiquitous cicadas, which have thankfully begun to die off and shut up as the weather cools. Then grasshoppers and other large bugs. Then it was tiny lizards and salamanders. Last week it was moths and a (gak) cockroach. All these things can be found in our apartment complex, and he is an avid collector.
D with grasshopper-thing
M, too
Giant praying mantis - so cool! He was probaby 5-6" long.
A couple lizards. D had 5 at one time. He has let them all go, since none of them would eat the mealworms we got them.
Finally, here's a picture of Yuta (who stayed with us in Seattle) and a girl I met called Hiro. We were at Club Doctor on Saturday to see Sparks & Twinky, whom we unfortunately missed. I did see a band called Shell Rockets I really liked, tho. There's another Macky-DJ'd event this Saturday. It's another Buzz Attitude party at Club Lizard, which means we've been here a month already. Wow.
I have discovered some great stores. Fred Meyer-like, Walgreen's-like, Target-like stores: Create, Shimachu, and Tokyu Hands. I have been able to find turpentine at last, so I can start painting again. It's nice to know that all stores aren't like the high-priced depaato department stores) around train stations.
We have started, by default, Friday-night dinners at our house. Macky has been coming over with the fish he caught, and we usually have Taeko, Toru and sometimes his family. Good eatin.' Our first meal was shabu shabu, which was like a hot soup kept on a burner at the table, and we swirled our fresh fish around in it until it cooked. We ate it with some greens and a lemony sauce. Yum!
Fish! Macky taught me how to fillet them easily.
Jeff and shabu shabu
Speaking of food, I have pics of some interesting differences in the grocery stores. For one thing, the fruit is pretty pricey, and the variety small. Apparently, produce prices fluctuate a lot, depending on the season's weather. It rained a lot this summer, so the fruit didn't do as well. But, man, is it pretty.
Biggest grapes I have ever seen.
Gorgeous apples
On the other hand, if it's tofu you want, there is no shortage there:
Or mushrooms. Of infinite variety and price. Some cheap enoki, or the ones I saw last weekend, which were about $35. For 3, I think. Macky tells me they're really good, but geez.
Milk comes in small containers. A quart is as big as you can get it, and it's about double Seattle's price. It took awhile to figure out which was milk and which was thins weird yogurt drink. (A bad surprise when you're not expecting it) Also, I have recently learned where to look for the fat percent, which comes in 4.5, 3.7, 0.8, and other unfamiliar things unlike 1%, 2%, and whole.
Our favorite 'milkmaid' brand is 3.7%
and sweetened condensed, in a tube! I may do a future blog on all the things that come in tubes...
Grocery-store bread, sadly, sucks. I have no gripes about cutting off the crusts for the kids' sandwiches. And it comes in 6 or 8 slices, nasty white or nasty wheat (the kids refuse). There are real bakeries near train stations, but I'm usually not around one when I need bread for the next morning.
BUT it has a Fine Aroma!
To turn the conversation, I promised bugs last time. I honestly believe that the little critters (and not so little) had a lot to do with easing D's homesickness. First it was the ubiquitous cicadas, which have thankfully begun to die off and shut up as the weather cools. Then grasshoppers and other large bugs. Then it was tiny lizards and salamanders. Last week it was moths and a (gak) cockroach. All these things can be found in our apartment complex, and he is an avid collector.
D with grasshopper-thing
M, too
Giant praying mantis - so cool! He was probaby 5-6" long.
A couple lizards. D had 5 at one time. He has let them all go, since none of them would eat the mealworms we got them.Finally, here's a picture of Yuta (who stayed with us in Seattle) and a girl I met called Hiro. We were at Club Doctor on Saturday to see Sparks & Twinky, whom we unfortunately missed. I did see a band called Shell Rockets I really liked, tho. There's another Macky-DJ'd event this Saturday. It's another Buzz Attitude party at Club Lizard, which means we've been here a month already. Wow.
posted by Sandi at 3:43 PM
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