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).