Words of the day

I've been somewhat jokingly throwing out words of the day in the car while we've driven around from place to place. One of them was car (kuruma) after it took Chrys over an hour to exchange our 3 day rental car (a Toyota Noah that we lovingly called Ark) to a month long rental car (a Toyota Fun Cargo - where do they come up with these things??).

Another day was bank (ginkō) and telephone number (denwa bangō) because I needed those to talk to the lady about my mitome inkan.

Yesterday's was photo (shashin) because we now need more passport photos to get our alien registrations taken care of. We only ended up with one photo each over here so we're kind of hosed for a bit.

Today's words were mayonnaise (マヨネーズ) and soy sauce (shōyu or しようゅ) because I needed those at the store. Today Owl learned that the bottle with the yellow fruit that's on the shelf next to the orange juice isn't lemonade - it's grapefruit juice. I bought some ham and some bread (105¥ for 6 slices) for sandwiches. We even got donuts for breakfast tomorrow.

Anyone that tries to tell you the Japanese subsist on rice and fish is lying. In the past few days, we have had some of the best baked goods ever. They are light, yet filling. They aren't greasy. They have a very interesting flavor. They're SO fresh. I see the women in the shop filling trays with these items. They love to fill breads with meat and potatoes and custards. Lots of interesting varieties and, so far, none of them bad.