We went out two nights ago to a restaurant right below where we live. It was an interesting experience. I don't know how many of us there ended up being, 15 or so, but everybody sat on the floor and we kept ordering trays of different meats on sticks and eating those. I don't know what most of them were, but favourites include pig foot, pig face and cow heart.
Work is draining me a bit. It's not so much the work as the feeling of spending 11 hours (including commute) every day doing something that I may or may not end up getting paid for. Today after work I stopped at Jusco in the mall and bought some groceries. Grocery shopping is kind of weird. It's not something you think about much, but it's a bit bewildering to have all the brand brainwashing and years of accustomizing yourself to certain foods ripped away. For example, I wasn't planning on getting chips in the first place, but when I saw the chip display I stopped and took a look. I didn't recognize a single brand name though, and I know from years of experience which types of chips I like and which I don't, and now that's all meaningless! Also, cereal is crazy expensive. While I'm on the topic of food, I'm going to mention vending machines. Japanese vending machines are notorious, and rightfully so. Despite the fact that you can find them everywhere, I've been disappointed to find them mostly limited to drinks. I'd say that about 80% are strictly drink machines, with the other 20% a combination of cigarettes, booze and snacks (in decreasing order of popularity). The drinking machine ones have quite a range of drinks though. Of the machines, Kirin (I think) has like 50% of them, with Dydo and Coca-Cola having around 20% each, and the rest various brandnames. (Coca-Cola is Cola for short btw, not Coke). Despite this, I was amused to read the front page of a major Japanese newspaper today where they talked about a police officer that was shot in the buttock with his own gun after getting into a scuffle with pornography vending machine bandits.
I think everybody is going out tonight, but I need to get up at 7am again tomorrow for work, and I was exhausted today, so I'll probably just stay home this time and try to build up a bit of energy.
Hope everybody back home is taking care.
-Richard
3 comments:
Glad you got your Gaijin card and your phone. You'll have to send the number. It seems that things are slowly falling into place. I guess the next big step is a paycheck, another couple of weeks to hang on.
Hi,
I guess grocery shopping there is like buying "NO Name" here when you're not familiar with the brands.
Good to know that you finally got your phone, and I assume therefore bank account.
It sounds like you're running pretty well flat out with work, socializing, and getting paperwork done.
Hopefully Nova will pull through and things start to run smoothly.
It's still really warm here...25 today.
We have Nicholas here for the week end.
I have to go to a conference in Orillia for a couple of days next week but maybe able to pick up a wireless connection there.
Still enjoy reading your blog!
Oh gosh! I love Jusco! I remember feeling at home there because it was the only grocery store that faintly resembled Western ones. :) I also remember being shocked to no end when I found a package of prawns there that had been packaged alive. The things were flailing in terror. (http://mauhk.blogspot.com/2005/11/other-tidbits.html)
Glad to see you're adjusting well!
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