Supermarket items (2)

Here are more items I bought from the supermarket.

By the way, please don't imagine that I only buy crap. I do have fresh fruit and vegetables in my house, I promise! I just didn't happen to buy any on that particular outing.

This 'stick donut' is from the bakery connected to my local supermarket. As far as donuts go, it's not greasy, but rather cakey and crunchy. It's nice as a not-excessively-sweet dessert. 98 yen ($1.20). It was a toss-up between this donut and an apple pie, same price. Donut won because I knew I could eat it without wanting cream on it. ^_^

Margarine. In Australia I used to get an olive-oil-based spread, so coming to Japan, I found the smell and taste of proper margarine a bit hard to get used to again. I like this brand fairly well. At 300 yen, it's one of the pricier ones (for 180g; a pretty typical size, and smaller than the typical Australian tub of margarine). I have tried cheaper brands, and also brands that claim to be low in fat, but their margariney smell was so cheap and bad it made me feel a bit sick. So I stick with this Koiwai brand.

Not being able to read most labels, I don't know where Japanese margarines stand in terms of cholesterol, unsaturated fats, etc. This brand I buy claims to be 'healthy type' margarine, but goodness knows what that means, if anything.

Frozen pasta. I wouldn't say this is good, but to be honest, it equals most of the carbonaras I've had in restaurants here. (In Japan, cream-based pastas are usually insipid. Imagine a bowl of pasta to which someone has added milk and a little cream, with half a dozen sad pieces of bacon or mushroom.) It was only 200 yen ($2.40) for a packet. If I empty half a jar of parmesan cheese onto it, it scrubs up well.

Tirol chocolates. These are little chocolates, in a pack of 8. Only 80 yen ($1). I was encouraged to try them after reading the Japanese Snack Blog. Their flavours were 'castella' (a type of cake), 'white chocolate and cookie', 'coffee' and 'milk'. They were all okay, I guess. I like trying Tirol chocolates because they're very small and they have loads of different kinds; you can often buy them individually or in variety packs, so it's easy to sample new flavours.

Frozen pizza. You probably can't see from the size of this picture, but it does have corn on it, in notorious Japanese style. Not much though. ^_^ Cost about 300 yen ($3.50) for two pizzas.

Packet of tissues. I didn't buy this. People stand on the street and give them out for free; they have advertising on them. I've received seven or eight packages in the last two months. If you are interested, this particular package is advertising an 'exciting weekend' at a local pachinko parlour. I certainly shan't be going.

Sansai vegetables. Let me give you a close-up.

These are 'mountain vegetables'. I don't know exactly what they are; they look rather exotic and wild, and include a mix of greens and mushrooms. They are popular in soba and udon noodle dishes. In many small restaurants you can buy a bowl of sansai soba for as cheap as 300 yen. It's my favourite kind of soba.

This package of sansai vegetables was about 100 yen ($1.20). I shall add them to soba; they'll make a tasty and easy way to add some veggies to my diet.*

*(I don't know how you are supposed to cook hot soba in broth like the restaurants do, but I just boiled the water, chucked in the soba noodles and sansai vegetables, and waited a couple of minutes. Then I drained half of the water, added liberal amounts of tsuyu (soba sauce) and ate it. It tasted good, anyway. ^_^)

Useful everyday kanji - eating and drinking

Quite a few food and drink names, particularly in fast food joints, are written in katakana. I recommend brushing up! However, here are some handy kanji.

酒 means 'alcohol'. Very nice kanji to learn. ^_^ You'll see this on convenience stores too, to show that they have alcohol for sale.

焼肉 (yakiniku) is Korean barbecue. You might think that's not very important, but I'm here to tell you otherwise. Ha ha ha. But they are good kanji in their own right and seen quite often; '焼' means 'grilled' or 'fried', and is also found in yakitori; 肉 means 'meat'.

飲み物 (nomimono) is 'drink'. The verb 'to drink' is 飲む.

食事 (shokuji) is 'meal'. Both these kanji are very useful. The first (食 'shoku') is also 食べる, 'to eat', 食べ物 (tabemono, 'food') or 食品 (shokuhin), meaning 'food (goods)' or 'groceries'.

The second, (事 'ji') is also 'koto', meaning 'thing'. It's in heaps of important words, such as 仕事 ('shigoto', job).

込 means 'included'. So if you order a meal and it says ドリンク込, it means 'drink included'.

果汁 ('kajuu') means 'fruit juice'. You will see it on drinks to show how much actual juice is contained, so when you see 'apple juice' with '果汁10%' you'll know it's not that good after all. ^_^ By the way, that second kanji 汁 can also be pronounced 'shiru', meaning 'soup', such as misoshiru, miso soup.

Clothes shopping

About clothes shopping (for girls) in Japan. If you go to a girl's clothing shop, clothing may be on the small size, but if you go to a 'family department store' like Jusco, where older ladies often go, you can find cheaper clothes in a wider variety of sizes (though perhaps less stylish).

Now it's winter. The fashion tends toward baggy tops over undertops with high necks or turtlenecks. Mostly you don't see a lot of skin-tight tops on Japanese girls. They tend to wear baggier, looser tops which are quite modest in terms of showing skin. This look is quite fetching on slim Japanese girls, where it hangs flatteringly on their slight frames. It is not flattering on me. If I stick my arms out, I feel like I'm about as wide as I am tall, ha ha ha.

Tunic tops (in Japan, called a 'one piece') are popular. Lots of girls are wearing short shorts or skirts with black tights and boots, often topped with fur. Jeans are also popular, of course. Sweaters with pom poms and/or wintery designs (snowflakes, reindeer, etc) are also popular. Tartan and plaid coats are popular. Some girls wear scarves or earmuffs.

Musical petrol tanker

I mentioned the yakiimo truck and the garbage truck. Recently I noticed a third noise polluter - it was a petrol tanker, playing ads and a cute jingle. I couldn't understand what it was saying, but a musical petrol tanker is really quite singular.

My friend thinks it was probably selling kerosene to people...?

Christmas

Christmas is almost upon us. You might suppose that Japan - which is not a Christian nation and does not make a national holiday out of Christmas - would hardly bother to celebrate it at all. However, Western holidays are appropriated with enthusiasm, particularly when there is a marketing and/or decorating opportunity associated with it. ^_^

On November 1st, it's down with the Hallowe'en decorations and up with the Christmas. Some stores will start their soul-destroying Christmas carols at this time; others wait until December. Unfortunately there are many, many carols, usually in English, although Japanese versions of many carols also exist.

In Japan, New Year is the biggest holiday, and has some parallels with our Christmas - it's often spent with family, people go to religious buildings, (in Japan's case, Shinto shrines), people send New Year's cards, children get gifts (money), loads of people have time off and travel.

Christmas in Japan, on the other hand, is more of a romantic holiday for couples. Even more than Valentine's Day, it's a time when young singletons will sigh and wish they had a special someone to spend Christmas with. Apparently Christmas is a popular day for weddings.

However, Christmas Day is still celebrated to some extent by the populace at large. Some people exchange gifts and many parents give gifts to their children, although less excessively than in the West. It's common to have Christmas cake, although Japanese-style Christmas cake is just regular cake decorated with Christmasy themes, rather the rich, heavy fruitcake we would call Christmas cake.

Many popular city hotspots will features 'illuminations' (Christmas lights) which people will go to see in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Some businesses may have Christmas parties (though the 'year end' parties are more of an ingrained phenomenon).

Another custom is to eat chicken on Christmas Day. This is a huge, huge day for KFC. I'm not joking. The places are packed; people pre-order buckets of chicken more than a month in advance. Colonel Sanders will be outside each store wearing his Santa costume. In Japan, it's like 'what do you associate with Christmas? Well, there's Santa Claus... couples... KFC...'

In my case, I'm going back to Australia for the holiday period. Yay summer! I've written a few posts' backlog to post in my absence. I hope you all have a nice Christmas and New Year. ^_^

Supermarket items (1)

As mentioned in this post, I thought I'd post about the items I bought from the supermarket that day. Note that prices are just what I happened to pay that day, and the actual price varies depending on store and area. ^_^

This apple juice is the long-life kind. I can't drink fresh juice fast enough. However, fresh juice is cheaper than in Australia, you can easily get 1L for about 120 yen ($1.50). This ?800g bottle was 300 yen ($3.50). Hmm... I didn't realise it was only 800g. That seems overpriced to me. I should switch back to fresh!

When buying juice, the key kanji are 果汁 (kajuu, it means 'fruit juice'). If you see 果汁100% it means 100% fruit juice.

Chu-hi. This is like a soft drink with alcohol. It's similar in taste to a Vodka Cruiser or a Smirnoff lemon drink, I guess. The alcohol in chu-his is usually shochu. You can also get 'STRONG' chu-his which have 8% alcohol. Regular chu-his can be anywhere from 4-7% alcohol. This one here is 6%, which I think is a good balance. The STRONG ones are really good, I must admit, if you want to get drunk quickly. Not that I would advocate such a thing, obviously. Drink responsibly.

This grapefruit chu-hi (果汁 3%), also, is labelled 'zero'. Usually that is in reference to calories, but this drink does not have 0 calories, so I don't really understand... I have a wee bit of a weakness for chu-his. At my supermarket they're only 98 yen ($1.20) for a 350ml can. Japanese alcohol is generally *much* cheaper than Australian.

Gouda cheese. I mentioned in my supermarket post that decent cheese is hard to come by. According to this post on the Japanese Snack Reviews blog, Japanese people eat far more processed cheese (relative to natural cheese) than any other country. I am not at all surprised to hear that.

Neither of the supermarkets I frequent sell nice cheese, so when was in an unfamiliar supermarket and saw this gouda cheese - an old favourite from Yokohama days - I snatched it up. It tastes good. ^_^ Similar to what we'd call 'tasty cheese' in Australia.

It was about 180 yen ($2.10) for 50g. For point of comparison, Coles (in Australia) is currently selling a 750g block of Tasty Cheese for $7. If you bought 750g of this gouda, it'd cost over $30.

Karubi-don. This was from the ready-made meal section of the supermarket. Basically it's gyuudon, but with karubi (a type of beef, popular in yakiniku ^_^) - beef on rice. Yummy. You can probably see in this picture that there's bright pink stuff in the corner. This is beni shouga, a pickled ginger that is a popular condiment in yakisoba, curry rice and various other dishes. It tastes very sour. Happily, I managed to eat all of this karubi-don without getting any beni shouga in my mouth. ^_^

Meiji chocolate. Recently I've been enjoying Japanese Snack Reviews. Since reading it, I've felt inspired to try the odd snack and sweet that I wouldn't usually buy. I have a bad habit of finding something I like and then buying it again and again. And despite living in Japan, I'm constantly eating Tim Tams.

This was about 100 yen ($1.20). After trying this chocolate, I would say: I like Tim Tams better. Hahaha. This chocolate is slightly bitter for my taste. More bitter than I would imagine 'milk' chocolate to be. I do like the packaging though. Japanese chocolate bars look really cool and stylish, I think. They make me think of the chocolate bars in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I bought other items today, and shall post about them in due course. ^_^

A Day In: Kawasaki (again)

I went back to Kawasaki for the weekend, and how I enjoyed it! For me, even more than Yokohama, Kawasaki feels like home. For a general overview of places in Kawasaki, see this post and this one.

I suppose for most people, Kawasaki just feels like any Japanese city. There are too many bicycles, and old drunk guys and a red light district. But I do like it better than any other place. I suppose that's mostly because it's full of good memories for me, but also, its layout feels satisfying.

For example, while Kawasaki station is a hub of three train lines, the station itself is compact; there is only one exit, and it's impossible to get lost. The department stores and entertainment areas are all immediately around the station. In Yokohama station or Nagoya station, the department stores are rather a mess of underground and above-ground all mixed up into one immense labyrinth. Even now, while I can find my way around in Yokohama station, I can't remember which mall is which.

In Kawasaki, everything is distinct; you can tell the stores apart and most of the department stores are not underground. In LaZona and Citadella you have nice outdoor public spaces where there are often free concerts. There are lots of places for karaoke, games or movies, and all my favourite chains and franchises are in the area, from Krispy Kreme to five different Starbucks. There are lots of different stores, including large electronics stores, bookstores and so on, and everything is nearby. There's a
good variety of different food, not only Japanese.

Yes, I like Kawasaki a lot. You could say that as you get further from the station, some of the areas get a bit dodgy, but I've never felt it unsafe.

One of my only pet peeves with Kawasaki is the bicycles; people ride them on crowded, narrow pedestrian streets where they really shouldn't. The streets are half-jammed with parked bicycles, and in the space left, there are lots of pedestrians walking. But people still don't get off their bikes. I've never seen anyone get hit, but it's a bit of a miracle.

Kawasaki bicycles.

I went back to Kawasaki last weekend. I always feel great happiness at going there, like 'I'm going home'. As far as I could tell, all of the things I mentioned in the aforementioned blog posts are still valid. There are a few new things. For example, Saika-ya (the department store I described as the least interesting) now has a big Kaldi Coffee, which has lots of import foods. There are a few different stores here and there. The clothes and accessories store at the entrance to Citadella, for example, is now a kushi katsu (fried pork on skewers) restaurant.

Cinecitta, in Citadella

Since it's coming up to Christmas, Le Front had Christmas characters on its front steps, and Cinecitta was lit up with Christmas lights (in Japan, 'illuminations'). In Citadella there was an open-air ice skating rink.
Considering the temperature on Saturday was a pleasant 17 degrees, this seemed a little premature, but oh well. I'd never seen an ice skating rink in Kawasaki before, although I know there is an indoor one near Higashi-Kanagawa station in Yokohama nearby.

While in Kawasaki this time, I went to the Peruvian restaurant, Inti Raimi, which is a little down the street which runs between Muza and La Zona. It has good food and is reasonably priced.

I also went to Salvatore / Crystal Jade, a rather odd fusion of Italian food and Chinese food, which is in Citadella. Within the restaurant there are two kitchens, and both types of cooking are good quality. They have a wood oven for their pizza. Sitting in this restaurant, you can order from either menu. I gave my friends leave to order anything they liked - they had the Italian menu open, and it's full of delicious things, so I couldn't imagine they could find anything I didn't like.

The dishes they chose included deep-fried chicken cartilage, and a dish of motsu (entrails). Hah! It amazes me that so many people like eating chicken cartilage (which tastes exactly as you would imagine), or that anyone would think to seek out cartilage and entrails on a menu. But we also had many delicious things. :)

Salvatore pizza (nothing weird on this one, only deliciousness ^_^)

Japanese supermarkets

Compared to your average Aussie supermarket:

• Japanese supermarkets have a better range of fresh tofu, seafood, rice crackers, seaweed and two-minute noodles ^_^

• Japanese supermarkets tend to sell smaller cuts/amounts of meat, rather than large steaks, big sausages, etc

• There's usually a big section of curry sauces and pastes, but virtually all of them are for Japanese-style curry. Some larger supermarkets, or supermarkets with lots of international foods, will sell other kinds of curry paste. My current supermarket, though not at all small, has only Japanese curry. I can't believe how many different pastes there are when they all taste pretty much the same.

• Generally speaking, obviously, it's cheaper to 'eat Japanese'.  The cheapest food you can make yourself is probably soba or udon. You can get a package of fresh soba for, like, 40 yen.

• Japanese supermarkets have a ready-to-eat food section, which typically includes a sushi section, a deep-fried section, a bento section, and various salads and other miscellaneous items. You can often buy just-cooked fried rice, yakisoba, spring rolls, gyoza, tempura, katsu, yakitori, and many more.

• Japanese supermarkets have a poor selection of good cheeses. For someone like me, who likes a mature cheese with a bit of bite, there is very limited selection. Apart from the occasional wheel of Camembert, you'll mostly get 'cheddar' or 'natural cheese' (?like cheddar but with even less flavour?), but not mature cheddar.

• Japanese frozen food tends to come in smaller packages. A frozen meal in Japan is quite a bit cheaper than its equivalent in Australia.

• There's usually a good range of vegetables. Some of this is the same as you'll find in Australia. For example, it's easy to find broccoli, potatoes, onions, carrots, beans, etc. but Japan has various fruits, vegetables and mushrooms that I've rarely/never seen in Australia, such as piman (green peppers), negi (scallions), hakusai (Chinese cabbage), daikon (giant radish), nashi (Japanese pears), etc. 

• Japan has a similar range of fruits to Australia, but fruits tend to be massive and rather expensive.

• Fruits and vegetables as usually sold 'per unit' (eg, 150 yen for one broccoli) or in bags, unlike in Australia where you usually take as much as you want and pay per weight.

• Most of the bread section is made up of packaged, not-very-fresh-looking, junky snacks, and white bread. Even bread purporting to be 'rye' or 'wholemeal' is usually pretty white. Hahaha. Some supermarkets have a bakery - a store separate from the rest of the supermarket - on site, where you can buy fresh bakery goods.

• When you buy at the checkout, clerks usually put your items into a basket and give you a plastic bag or two (here in Nagoya, you are expected to bring your own bags). Then you take the basket to the nearby counters and bag your own groceries. Sometimes the clerk will give you chopsticks if you've bought a ready-made meal.

• Rice tends to be sold in very large bags. The assumption is you're going to be using a lot of it. I have a 2kg bag in my kitchen - the smallest available - which is not being used because I realised Japanese rice gets very gluggy when not cooked in a rice cooker, which I don't have.

• Japanese supermarkets tend to have a lot of very irritating jingles playing. Sometimes there are different jingles in different parts of the store, or sometimes they are the store's theme song playing at regular intervals throughout the whole store. I don't know how anyone can work in a store in Japan without going mad.

I went to three supermarkets today on my way home. Soon I might post about my purchases, because I'm sure you're all dying to know. ^_^

Duffy

Did you know that Mickey Mouse has a teddy bear?

Well, he does, and his name is Duffy. This character is sold en masse at Tokyo Disney Sea.

Why am I writing about this? I teach at a university, and I can not believe how many female students have Duffy toys. Everywhere you go you see girls with little Duffy stuffed toy accessories hanging off their bags. One of my students has seven of them.

There are, of course, 'seasonal' and 'themed' Duffys (Duffies?), which one can rotate according to the time of year. Aforementioned girl with seven Duffys did have a Hallowe'en Duffy on her bag; now some girls are busting out the Christmas ones.

I have also just noticed that there is a female version of Duffy, called Shelly May. Basically identical except she has some pointy eyelashes and wears skirts. I've seen several girls with twin Christmas bears - this year's Christmas Duffy and Shelly May - hanging from their bags.

Disney Land and Disney Sea are extremely popular here. I could write reams on this subject. I'm not sure why this particular teddy bear is flavour of the year, but it could be worse. At least Duffy is cute, in a bland and benign sort of way. Better by far than those creepy Cubic Mouth products. Excuse me, I think I have to go hide under my bed...

Winter handbags

I was shopping for a new handbag the other day and noticed that most handbags were decidedly 'wintery' in appearance. By that I mean that many of them were edged with fur or wool, many were made from the same tartan material as this season's coats, some were knitted. They looked warm and cuddly.

This is one of those times where I think 'well, maybe it is like that in Australia and I don't remember 'cos I've been away too long'. But I don't think we have handbags so obviously designed to complement winter clothes?

Commuter passes

If you frequently commute between two train stations, it's worthwhile investing in a commuter pass, available from certain stations and ticket machines. You specify a starting and ending station, and travel between them is covered by your card/ticket. This means you can just use your pass every day without having to buy tickets every time you travel.

For example, when I was living in Yokohama, if I had been paying for daily tickets 5 days a week to and from work, I would have paid over 8400 yen per 4 weeks. But I paid about 6300 yen for a monthly commuter pass. Not only is it a decent saving, bear in mind you can travel between any of the stations on your commute at any time, including weekends, for free.

Often your company will pay for this pass.

In the Tokyo/Yokohama area, you can use a Suica or similar card as both your commuter pass, and a general 'credit' ticket for any train. So let's say you have a commuter pass set up between Yokohama and Tokyo stations. And you've put a random 5000 yen on the card. If you travel from Yokohama to Kawasaki (a station between Yokohama and Tokyo), it's free. But if you travel from Yokohama to Akihabara (a station further than Tokyo), your card will automatically have the extra money deducted.

One thing I was wondering was how much gets deducted. When I had a Suica, I never remembered to check; I couldn't remember how much I had on my card when I went in or out of the station. Now I live in Nagoya so I decided to try.

In Nagoya, if you use the subway, you cannot use Suica. You have to get a commuter pass which is like a ticket, a little card. You can't add extra credit to this ticket, nor can you use it when departing from a station not on your commute. However, if you leave from a station on your commute, and travel to a station which is not, at the other end you can put your card in the 'fare adjustment machine' and buy a ticket to cover the balance.

What I wanted to check was:
Say the fare from my station to Sakae (on my commute) is 200 yen.
The fare from my station to Kamimaezu (not on my commute) is 230 yen.
And the fare from Sakae to Kamimaezu is 200 yen.

If I travelled from my station to Kamimaezu, would I be charged 30 - the total difference - or 200 yen - the fare from Sakae to Kamimaezu? Nobody could tell me.

I tried it, and needless to say, I was indeed charged the full 200 yen.

Trucks

I remember coming home from work once, and there was unfamiliar music playing in my neighbourhood, with a kind of wailing chant. It sounded rather like the Muslim call to prayer, and very solemn. My first thought was that there might have been a funeral or perhaps monks were chanting some ancient rite.

Then I realised what they were saying - 'yakiimo-o-o! yakiimo-o-o!'

It was a sweet potato truck.

These trucks cruise around the neighbourhood playing their jingle to attract customers, much like icecream trucks do in the West. The yakiimo man actually has a kind of fire burner on his truck to roast/grill the sweet potatoes.

The odd thing is that in Japan, the trucks that play bright, happy music are garbage trucks; the trucks that sound like a funeral dirge are selling delicious snacks.

I remembered this because right now as I sit in my room, the exact same tune is playing outside. The yakiimo man was in the neighbourhood last week and this; perhaps he has begun because it is winter, and sweet potatoes are popular winter foods.

Random pictures (2)

Bon Jovi slot machine. I don't know if the machine plays 'Livin' on a Prayer', but if it did, you probably wouldn't hear it over the din in the pachinko parlour.

 Someone decided to take their rabbit for a walk. In a public crowded space.

It may not be clear, but this rabbit is On A Leash.

Chewing gum vending machine. When the half dozen stores immediately around it - also selling gum - are not enough.

Useful everyday kanji - trains

Since I am taking an interest in kanji myself at the moment, I thought I'd start this little series on kanji for everyday life. As I've said before, I am not an expert, and please note that most of these kanji have several different 'readings' (that is, ways to pronounce them); I haven't always listed them all.

If you're in Japan for any length of time, you'll see most of these kanji a lot. Seeing them frequently will help you remember them.

Train stations

駅 (eki) means station.
車 (sha) means 'car' or 'vehicle'. This is a very good kanji to learn. It can also be pronounced kuruma, which means 'car'. 電車 (densha) means 'train'. You'll also see the 車 on train carriages to tell which car number it is.

入口 (iriguchi) means entrance, and
出口 (deguchi) means exit. The kanji 入 and 出 are useful to learn as they appear in many words. By itself, 口 (kuchi) means 'mouth'.

東 (higashi) means 'east'
西 (nishi) means 'west
北 (kita) means 'north'
南 (minami) means 'south'
Usually, train station exits are labelled as 'north exit', etc, so this may be handy.

Note that the pronunciation of kanji can change depending on the word they are in. For example, many kanji have a different pronunciation when they are a standalone word, or when they are in a compound word.
For example, 東北 is not pronounced 'higashikita', but 'touhoku'. Touhoku is the name of a region in the north-east of the main island of Japan. The Keihin-Touhoku/Negishi line is an important JR train line in Yokohama.

各駅 (kakueki) - a 'kakueki teisha' is a 'local train', ie one that stops at every station. If you take trains, this is probably one of the first words you'll learn, as you'll hear constant announcements like 'kakueki teisha mairimasu' (the local train is coming), stand behind the yellow line, etc.
In some areas, local trains are called 普通 (futsuu) - like 'normal' trains.
快速 (kaisoku) - a 'rapid train', which skips some minor stations
急行 (kyuukou) - an 'express train', which only stops at major stations

線 (sen) means 'line'. As in English, it can have the dual meaning of 'stripe' ('please stand behind the yellow line') and 'train line' (please change here for the Keihin-Touhoku line).