Drama, Mail, Wheels & Weather

Last Monday Rita took us to the Christian Academy of Japan’s drama class production. It was a spoof called “Murder at the Orient Express”. The students did very well and we were not able to solve the mystery until the very end!! Lots of humor – Japanese and American! She also took us to a Chinese restaurant where we both ate our fill for about $7.

We just returned from our daily walk to the grocery (& other) stores. Today we went to a new store, a hardware store. However, they didn’t have what Roger was looking for. He’s been asked to put wheels on the large garbage bins that collect garbage until it can get picked up. The mission had one set, but we haven’t been able to find another set. Finding almost everything is hard. However, we found the butter we wanted almost right away, so I guess we’re getting better!

The mail is delivered via motorcycle. He doesn’t turn it off, just puts the kickstand down and hops off and on as needed.

Today is cool and cloudy, but the park is full of kids. We start a Good News Club there on Monday, so we pray for warmer weather. However, we are limited to 15 people; if we have more, we’ll move up to our roof-porch; or if rainy, we’ll invite them into our apartment.

More Observations and a Correction

First the correction – I posted that there are 6 plus different types of garbage – I was off – there are 26 I was told!! We don’t have to do all that sorting, thankfully, just into 6 or so categories!

Bikes are everywhere – they are the family taxi. Often a mom or even a dad will be seen riding with a child seat in the front and one in the back. They can be completely covered, so they don’t get wet. Some front kids riding up front face frontwards and some backwards. When they go shopping, they just leave the bike outside. If someone is driving a motorized bike, they can even be left running on the sidewalk! We’ve been told there’s no theft here.

Another thing we’ve noticed is how many people wear face masks (like surgeons). When we asked about that, thinking there was some reason, we were told it was just a way to keep healthy – no coughing, sneezing, sniffing on others and vise versa. We see joggers, bikers, men in business suits, etc. with their masks on.

We were amazed to not see dogs anywhere – the first 12 days here we saw 1 seeing eye dog and about 4 others. But when we were out on Sunday, so were the dogs!! While there aren’t many, we probably saw 10 in our walk to and from church (40 minute walk each way).

In fact, on Sunday all the streets were mobbed. Guess that’s the big shopping day. (The picture doesn't do the crowds justice!!)

So far we’ve only heard one car horn and one bike bell. Since there are no shoulders on the road and bikes use the sidewalk, we’d like to hear their bells more often!

Groceries and Food - So Necessary and so Loved!

One thing that’s different shopping here – the stores are very loud. Music plays over the main speakers; meat vendors shout out their latest/best price on some item; clerks talk to each other over all other noise; a speaker is placed in the middle of a display (like cheese), extolling each one’s virtues (we assume that part, since it’s not our native language!); samples are available for the brave; and a lady is promoting some “joining” (or other) benefit she has to offer.

Not only do the noises assault our ears, the smells assault our noses. We can’t identify the smells although we certainly recognize some of the items. But it’s not pleasant to our noses!

We bought some red long potatoes we assumed were sweet potatoes. They weren’t sweet, but they were good!

The carrots here are short and very fat, but good! I haven’t been able to find sweet, green peppers, but there are small green spicy peppers packaged about 4 to a bag. They do have yellow and red sweet peppers.

White potatoes are available bagged about 6 to a bag. They are small. I haven’t found any larger ones that would work for baking (so I’ll bake the small ones!). Celery comes with much more of the “base/root” than I’m used to, but it tastes the same. I cut it up for casseroles.

Yesterday we braved buying something that looked sweet with nuts – I call it Japanese peanut brittle, although it wasn’t just peanuts nor was it brittle, but rather quite sticky. We’ll buy that again – it was yummy! We also couldn’t find the milk carton we had gotten used to (sold out?), so we had to experiment with a new carton. As long as they have a picture of a cow on them, we figured we’d be o.k. We ended up with 1 liter whole milk and 1 liter non-fat milk, so we mixed the 2 and they taste just fine! Just remember to look for the cows!

We shop in 4-5 different grocery stores, and they all have different items. So we try to remember where we saw “such and such”. Cream, sour cream & butter are all somewhat elusive. We like to buy meat that comes from the US. Both beef and pork are available, if we are in the right store. Bacon is just as we were told – it doesn’t get crisp and doesn’t have much taste.

So much to learn - so little time! & neither one of us has lost any weight, so you see we're adapting well!