Care package

A couple of weeks ago, Kity offered to send me a care package. I struggled for a while with what to put in it, and we eventually canned the prospect. We've been remarkably fortunate. We find quite a bit here and, what we don't, we can manage to stuff in our luggage on our few trips home. What doesn't fit into those two categories is missed, but we're almost home and can get it all in abundance.

We've brought back taco seasoning and learned that we can make pretty decent tortillas with a few hours on a weekend. Yeah, we miss more complicated Mexican food, but it's good enough for now. If we get really desperate, we can actually get an Old El Paso (I think) Taco Kit (complete with sticker translating the instructions into Japanese) at the store. This last trip, I couldn't find any Wolf brand chili so we haven't had a makeshift chili cheese burrito in a while.

Turns out, I can bake a decent lasagne in a convection oven. The pasta is imported, mostly from Italy. I can usually get some button mushrooms if I go to the right store. Black olives are pitted; green ones aren't - we don't buy green anymore.

Both of those require shredded cheese. Here, it's simply called "mixed cheese." I have no idea what it is. It's not mozzerella. It's not cheddar. It's not bad, but I certainly wouldn't call it good. I'll be glad for some variety when we get home.

Chrys makes really good cheese blintzes. It took tracking down a source of cottage cheese, but turns out that what I can get here is amazing and very easy to cook with. I'm guessing that the lack of baking in the home (and corresponding abundance of bakeries) means that ingredients shouldn't require mixers - quite nice.

Spaghetti is no problem. I prefer to make my own sauce for that as the others are in small jars or local (very sweet). Turns out, I can make decent meatballs, too. What Chrys wouldn't give for an italian sausage, though.

Deli meats don't really exist - I can get ham and salami. Nor does much beyond white bread, though it's REALLY good white bread. I can occasionally find a loaf of wheat, but not reliably. Chrys wants some rye, corned beef/pastrami, and a can of saurkraut.

Alcohol...is horrible. I bought a local brand of white wine and it was insanely sweet. I tried a bottle of red and it was so dry that my lips puckered. We caved last night and bought a bottle of Gallo Chardonnay - we've stooped that low. I bought Chrys a bottle of local rum - it was strong and not in a good way. We used it as wound cleaner or in splashes in Coke so you couldn't really taste it. When we came back this last time, we splurged in the Duty Free and came back with a bottle of Bacardi - ahhh.

I can get donuts. They were really good at first. I didn't know how I'd go back and not miss them. These days, they're getting old. Same goes for McDonald's - it's better here, but I'll be done with it by December.

The store down the street started carrying bagels a few months ago. They even have cream cheese. They're not bad, but they're just not the same for some reason. They come in plain, blueberry and (really, really cinamonny) cinnamon raisin. We're looking forward to some variety in those and the cream cheese flavors.

I can get Oreos and Coke at the store and they're really better here, anyway. I'll stash what I can in a box for the movers. Ditto Pocky and various other Japanese snacks, i.e., Pretz, sesame crackers.

I'm rationing the butterfingers that a friend at work brought for me. We're working our way through the last of our Code Red. I brought back some chocolate chips (since the one thing they don't seem to bake is cookies), but have yet to do anything with them.

Now...here's the meat of it. I'll bring back Pocky. If I can, I'll stash some Oreos and Coke in my luggage, too. The first person that shows up with a chili cheese burrito and a hot Krispy Kreme original gets half the Pocky. The other half goes to the person that brings a good bottle of red wine (Merlot?) and a block of sharp cheddar. (Alternate trades can be negotiated if, for some reason, the idea of a chocolate coated bread stick doesn't appeal to you. If that's the case, I will postpone judgement on your sanity because I'm really desperate for the CCB. I have a fun one in mind for Kity, especially.) Anyone? Anyone?

It's.a.bug

I'll be the first to admit it - I am totally not a bug person. Most of them I will just dodge and let them go on their merry way. If they get too eager, or enter my house, they're going to get squashed. This is especially true of spiders, but goes for any bug.

Given that, I don't get people that voluntarily buy bugs to keep as pets. At home, it's tarantulas. Here, it's the Hercules Beetle.

Ryanne and I were cruising through the toy section at Jusco one day. I look over and see the little bug boxes. I'm familiar with seeing them (with aforementioned tarantulas) in pet stores at home. Here, I figured they would be empty, especially in the toy section. I mean, they're great toys for catching bugs outside to look at and release. Imagine my surprise, when one of those beetles snaps at the side of the container when I approach! It took everything I had to not squeal as I jumped back. Bugs are not toys. What are they doing in my toy section?

These things sell for crazy prices. The bigger the better. Many people appear to raise them to fight.

Kids are also obsessed with the video game. They flock to these games in the arcades. They're kid sized and easy for them to reach. They get to fight these beetles in the game and get cards for scoring well. Some days, you can't get past the arcade because of the group lined up to play.

It's insane. I just want to yell, "It's a bug. Just a bug," but I think that would make me an even bigger freak than I am already perceived as being.

At least you know it's fresh

I think it's a tuna. They have one about once a week. They'll have the carcass and the head on display, cleaned. They're laid out across a couple of carts in the fish section, which happens to be right next to the dairy section. The meat is all packaged up and ready for people to take home. Sometimes they use the carcass as a little display shelf and have the packages sitting on it. Sometimes there are samples (raw, of course) and soy sauce for dipping.

What *really* gets me, though, is when you walk through and there's pieces that have been knocked loose from the carcass all over the floor, all mushed up. Blech!

Chotto

Turns out that those little cards/envelopes that everyone in America uses for RSVP'ing to wedding invitations are too small to be sent through the Japanese postal system. Of course, this was the first time I've had anyone actually check to see if they're big enough - gotta love their manuals that tell them everything they need to know. Fortunately, when she discovers that it's too small (chotto) the nice lady will give you an envelope that you can address and stuff your envelope in. Now, I feel silly for spending the effort to get that $0.37 stamp off.

The quest

Reflecting, I supposed it's silly to expect a culture that typically refrains from catering to large groups in their own homes would make it easy to find a set of anything greater than 5 pair. Nevertheless, that's what I did.

I needed two sets of chopsticks. I wanted more than 5 pair. I have searched high and low for a set that I like. It hasn't been easy. I want them to look good with my kitchen at home. I wanted them to be square tipped. I wanted them to match.

Last Saturday, I finally came across 2 styles that I liked at the Jusco in Omura. They had 4 of one and 5 of the other. I decided that Jusco, being a chain, had to have roughly the same products at all of their stores. I bought them, and decided to drive to a couple of other Juscos and just pick up the rest that I needed.

Last Sunday, Jusco #1 in Nagasaki didn't have any of them. In fact, they have an incredibly small selection of chopsticks, in general.

Yesterday, Jusco #2 in Nagasaki taught me that I should do my kitchen in red. This was the second store that I found the same styles that I picked in the right numbers, but in reds.

Today, we went back to Jusco in Omura. They were still sold out of the ones I wanted. In fact, their chopstick selection was SO picked over that I decided I was nuts to even be looking for more. I decided they must be seasonal and I had bought at the end of the season, etc.

After that, we drove up to Sasebo to the big Jusco. Eureka! They have enough to finish one set and 4 more of the other. I was relieved. I was close enough. I was happy.

Having driven all the way up to Sasebo, we decided to wander around. Our last exploration was around Christmastime and we didn't really know what we were looking at. We stumbled across yet another Jusco in the arcade. We didn't know it was there. They had the remaining pairs of chopsticks. My quest was complete.

Now, you may be asking yourself why this is such a big deal. Chopsticks are, what, $5 for a pack of a billion. Well, these are *nice* chopsticks. They are wood. They are meant to be used and reused. They aren't painted so they won't chip like the set we have right now. They are amazing. They're also about 800円 per pair. That's not something to be trifled with when you're buying in quantity. (It was actually pretty funny. When I bought the last ones I needed in the arcade, the woman that rang me up had to do a double take because she was pretty sure there was no way that little could cost that much. She actually declared them expensive and asked if they were a gift. These aren't even the most expensive they have, much less the most expensive I've seen. Somebody other than me has to be buying these things. I guess when they're lumped in with a pile of china for someone you don't notice, though.)