And Sometimes Why

I took this photo at an airport Pizza Hut in Guam that is frequented by throngs of Japanese tourists.

The names of the coins are on the left, and the values are printed on the right.

Here is the 海苔 – のり – nori (shredded and formed seaweed) shelf in a local supermarket.

In this photo alone, you can see over a dozen varieties, and you can tell the shelf is in need of restocking.

Japanese people eat a lot of seaweed, let me tell you.

I can also tell you the names of the kinds I don’t like, and ways to prepare it that taste like slimy, salty rubber.

“Las Vegas Spareribs” flavored Pringles!

All the time I spent growing up there and I didn’t know Las Vegas was famous for spareribs.

Can anyone enlighten me?

I took this stealth photo with my phone in a smoky arcade & pachinko parlor here in Matsuyama.

There wasn’t anyone else around, so the baby was definitely with the two gentlemen playing pachinko. I’m not sure which of them was supposedly taking care of him(?), but for the kid’s sake I hope he doesn’t do so regularly.

Like Las Vegas, Japan has an unpublicized population whose gambling addiction sometimes leads to familial neglect.

I found this bag of cat food in the pet goods aisle of a hardware store.

It’s Tuna-flavored Cat Smack!

まぐろ味のキャットスマックだ！

This industrial power switch resides backstage at Hakuho Hall (白鳳会館), an office building with a large rental stage hall near Miki Study Pals, in which we rent a room for overflow classes and hold our twice-yearly holiday parties.

The interesting part is that the big red button is ON, and the big green button is OFF.

And so I ask Why, Japan, Why??

I spotted this mid ’60s Ford Mustang at a used car dealership near Miki Study Pals in Matsuyama.

You may not think a classic Mustang all that odd, but I’m pretty sure it was never sold here.

It looks to be in great condition though, for whatever lucky collector snapped it up (it was there for less than a week).

Also note the (early ’80s?) Porsche 911 in the background.

I snapped this with my cell phone in a 100 yen store.

If you aren’t familiar with them, Japan’s ¥100 stores are far superior to dollar stores in the United States; they have much more stuff, of higher quality, and actually venture into low end housewares. They sell knives, tupperware containers, dietary supplements, and all manner of stationery. I’ve even seen toy badminton sets there.

These little bottles were next to the register. It’s exactly what you think it is- it’s glue you roll on your legs so your socks will stay up.

Yuko says she used to use it when she was in high school, and that many girls still use it today to keep up the extra tall uniform socks that they’re required to wear. She says it was especially popular during the “loose socks” fad a few years ago.

I’m still not convinced I’d be interested in gluing socks to my legs.

I found this knockoff Famicom (NES) in a random clothing store in Matsuyama.

As you can see, it’s sitting on a shelf with some accessories, happily waiting for customers to pick up a controller and pause a few minutes from browsing among the t-shirts and overpriced jeans.

They had about five classic games and five Japanese games I’d never heard of. After knocking off a few levels of SMB and snapping a cell phone pic, I moved on.