A vacation from my vacation!

In just a few minutes, I will hop on a plane and take a mini vaca to Okinawa. The islands in the Okinawa area are tropical and they are the number 1 site for diving.  I don't know how to dive but I can snorkel.

We had to get up early to go and I was surprised by the doorbell.  It was my mother-in-law with soup! I had mentioned a great soup she made of winter melon on my last visit so she delivered some to my door at 6am!  God bless her, that was yummy!

Licensed Illiterate!

That:s right, I got my international driver's license but I can't read the signs!

Yup, that's me behind the wheel, driving on the other side of the road. What a friendly and trusting nation!

Japanese haunted house

This house is a few blocks away from my apartment and I pass it every time I go to my mother-in-laws house: 

Look at this huge gourd they are growing:

They should leave that hanging and carve it and put lights in it....spooky!

Japanese candy

Gawd, I love candy! It's gotten me into a lot trouble.  I divide candy into chocolate and non-chocolate or the good stuff and the bad stuff.  Japanese chocolate is fabulous and hilarious! They choose the weirdest names; weird enough you can make up stories. See what I mean, you could make a story out of this:

I present a story in candy:

"Dutt dutta doo...why do I feel a breeze?"

 "Eeeaak! Cover your butt, dude!"

"Pbbbbbst"

"Yay naked guys!"

"Doggone it!"

"What's the big deal, I'm a little bear all the time."

"Dammit, that's freaking me out. Lets go have a drink."

Matsudo, Sky Tree and the return of the butt model

Today was a free day, meaning for most of the day, I was on my own. I decided to take the local train to Matsudo where they have more shopping than my neighborhood. I wore myself out shopping at the Boxhill shopping mall but I didn't buy anything because it was all tooooo expensive.

I wandered over to Daiei (pronounced die-yay) which is a lot cheaper but has a good selection and, as an added bonus, has park next door. This is one of the things I love about Japan: cheap and healthy fast food! For about $3.50 I bought a really good salad, spaghetti salad and a cold coffee.  What makes this salad really pop is that it has slivers of daikon radish with the matchstick carrots.

 It is not considered nice to eat in public on the street.  In the past when I've gone to this little park the men, who look a little like bums but probably are just bored retirees, look at me like I'm a bum because I'm eating in public in the open air!  Today, no one looked at me for that reason, just for the regular reasons (I'm a gaijin) because there was a celebration in the park so everyone was eating.

At 4:00, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law took me to the Tokyo Sky Tree and the Sky Tree Town Tokyo Sky Tree. This is the newest and tallest structure in Japan. The shopping is crazy! it is all branded with the tower on it.

   
Of course in all the wonderful and ritzy shopping, I had to find the wierd. Its the return of the butt model (see Butt Models for the first time)!  This time, sheer panty hose, oh my!

And last, Japan's spooky take on Halloween:

Sayorara, baby!

Japan Redux

I am back in Japan for 15 days.  My husband and I have not visited his home for 4 years. This time, I get to experience apartment life because my sister-in-law has decided that we should stay at her apartment and she will bunk back with Mom and the brothers.  Thanks sis!

We woke up and went to Mom's for breakfast.  She cooked like an invading army was arriving! Look at this spread:

She had grilled salmon, fried boneless chicken (karage), ham, boiled egss on sald, chicken meatballs, grilled mushrooms, inagri (fried tofu pockets filled with rice), onion and shrimp tempura, a spicy chicken stir-fry, oden, and of course rice. We also had green tea and coffee. If she keeps trying to feed me like that I won't be able to loose the 10 pounds a always loose in Japan!

Japanese food is good but often unexpected and sometimes gross. I of course must try the gross stuff first: is this brains or tasty inari?

 Fortunately, its two kinds of inari, one with the right side out and one turned inside out just for novelty. I ate the one that looked like brains!

T and his mom also visited one of his dad's old school friends.  He lives in a prefecture that grows many types of fruits. They brought this mystery fruit home.  It kind of looks like a purplish potatoe:

Inside:

You eat the inside that looks like a large white larvae. My brave husband scooped some out and tried it first:

 Verdict: yummy, so I tried some. I wonder what it is? Anyone know?

After that we walked back to the apartment. Oranges and other citrus friut ripen in the fall-wniter. Look at how many organges are on this tree:

 Sayonora for now.