色々なこと

When I remember that I have only two more months left to be here in Japan, I feel a bit down. Everything in Japan feels different, in a magical sort of way. Therefore, even just walking around and noticing things is really enjoyable for me.

For example, while tights and frilly hair ties/scrunchies seem to be worn mostly by young elementary school age girls, trendy college females here in Japan wear tights and frilly hair accessories. Supermarkets hold different sales daily instead of weekly as in America, so it makes more sense to go shopping everyday instead of stocking up for the entire week. Here in Japan you can alter certain physical qualities such as the following: you can buy shoe inserts to add inches to your height or purchase stickers that will give you a double eyelid. Also, most of the ladies here prefer engagement watches to engagement rings, because they feel that the rings are too fancy and are difficult to match with everyday clothing.

Also in Japanese restaurants and food shops, people are allowed to smoke inside while dining. In order to satisfy both smoking and non-smoking customers, there is usually a separate room for smoking customers. When customers enter the shop, they are asked how many people and then if they would prefer the non-smoking area (kinenseki-禁煙席) or smoking room (kitsuenseki-喫煙席). This picture is of a table in the non-smoking area. As you can see, it is labeled.


Also, since Halloween has ended, many shops are preparing for Christmas. Many of us exchange students were surprised, since in America, most shops begin decorating for Christmas after Thanksgiving weekend.


This is the Kitsune Udon on the Tokiwa School Cafeteria menu. The flat things on top are aburage、a kind of fried tofu, which I have been told is the skin of inari zushi, which is the type of sushi that has the fried tofu skin from the picture with rice stuffed inside. In Japanese, Kitsune means fox. It is believed that foxes like aburage. Thus, there are shrines with foxes (Inari Jinja) where people leave inari as a food offering.


There are many interesting and tasty foods to try. This is a spring roll/sushi fushion dish with Japanese mayo. Presentation seems to be very important in Japanese cooking. I loved this dish.



Also, the cars in Japan are very small compared to American cars. This is probably because the streets are extremely narrow (due to the limited land space in Japan). A Japanese car is small enough to drive easily through this sidewalk.


Until next time,
Germaine