And Sometimes Why

Here’s another “Hey, that’s a good idea” moment.

Convenience stores in Japan often sell small buckets already filled with ice, as well as individual plastic cups filled with ice (including lids and straws, if you look carefully).

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.

Fish heads like this are available in most supermarkets with a fresh fish section. While the fact that that’s a large majority of supermarkets around here may not be surprising, perhaps it may surprise you that I know of only ONE supermarket with an actual deli counter. (And would you believe that they only have one variety of ground beef that isn’t mixed with pork?)

One of my … eccentricities … is that I dislike picking food off the bone and despise picking bones out of my mouth, especially finicky little fish bones. Despite that, I’ve eaten this particular type of fish head on two separate occasions. The cheeks are each about one small bite each, and the rest is just a PITA.

If you’re curious, this is 鯛 / たい / tai, which my dictionary tells me is “sea bream,” but seems to be sold as “red snapper.” The fish makes superb sushi, and has earned its place as my second favorite fish to eat raw (after salmon, not counting o-toro, which would be like saying you prefer 1947 Cheval Blanc over a $5 bottle of merlot). But I digress.

On the upside, the heads are pretty cheap, at only about $1 each.

And because I know you’re waiting for it:
Fish heads, fish heads, roly poly fish heads.
Fish heads, fish heads, eat them up, yum.

I took this picture at my bank while waiting in the lobby.

This poster explains how the bank’s ATM lottery works. Instead of cash, you’re basically using the funds in your account to withdraw lottery tickets, which pop out of the same slot.

I’m not sure if this would be illegal in the US (Can banks get a gambling license? There’s a scary thought.), but even if they could I can’t imagine a bank ever doing it because at best the gambling association would seem in especially bad taste after the recent financial sector turmoil.

At worst, I could see people getting the idea that their money isn’t safe in a bank that likes to promote gambling.

I haven’t noticed the bank gambling away my money, though perhaps that’s why Japanese banks don’t pay interest on deposits.

It may seem obvious, but unsliced sashimi is available from every supermarket in Japan.

On the left is tuna (maguro) and on the right is salmon (sake).

Breakfast cereal isn’t consumed in Japan the same way it’s consumed in the States. Most Japanese people prefer a traditional Japanese breakfast including rice, fish, vegetable pickles, raw egg, and/or miso soup, with hurried professionals and college students recently starting to eat dry toast (by itself), but the drink is always green tea.

Because of this, the variety of breakfast cereal available here is very small, consisting mostly of corn flakes (in plain, frosted, and chocolate varieties) and a few varieties of granola, which is what I usually eat for breakfast.

You can get boxes of stuff like this in a few places around town, but it’s really expensive. This box was about $4.50, and is barely big enough for two days’ breakfast. You can see my cell phone there for size.

If you live in Japan, your Christmas packages might have been delivered by this type of Japan Post delivery motorcycle. These are the standard delivery vehicles for mail and small packages, thousands of which crisscross the country daily.

I spotted this Japan Post Honda Cub outside EPIC, the Ehime Prefectural International Center, idling where the driver left it to go inside for a delivery.

This is my old apartment in Kuwabara. It’s owned by ALS Matsuyama, my former employer, so when I left the company I had to move out.

It’s not a bad place, cozy-small, but the kitchenette was hard to work with sometimes. There was only one electric burner, built into the counter next to a sink smaller than most bar sinks, and the fridge and microwave were both dorm-sized.

I salvaged an unused plastic filing cabinet from work to use as a makeshift pantry because there simply wasn’t any suitable space otherwise.

The apartment was definitely built for a single person to live in, though at one point I had a 30-something couple and their infant living next door. I always wondered (a, how they kept the kid quiet at all times and b,) how they managed to keep from killing each other in such a small space. Maybe that’s why they moved out.

If you look closely, you can see four of my five bins for sorting refuse. If you look REALLY closely, you can see that the stereo has a front-loading slot for MiniDiscs.

If you’re interested, here’s a slideshow of the rest of the apartment:
http://www.davidhed.com/blog/2010/12/23/kuwabara-apartment/

Japan has hot drink vending machines (think cans of hot coffee), which is neat but unsurprising at this point. I think this is the only dual-temperature vending machine I’ve spotted so far, though.

The drinks above the red line are hot, and the drinks below the blue line are cold. In the winter here, you can easily find hot tea in plastic bottles, as well as the aforementioned hot canned coffee.

I took this picture at a small neighborhood market near my apartment.

In Japan, eggs aren’t sold by the dozen, they’re sold in packs of ten.

They’re sometimes even sold in packs of four, though mainly at convenience stores. Also at many convenience stores, you can buy just one hard-boiled egg.