edy, tortillas & saita 2

In Japan, a lot of food items have contests--turn in the bar code to be entered to win a prize, answer a question to win and so on.

In September, I had bought 2 desserts from a convenience store and was eligible to enter their contest. All I had to do was send in my receipt and I had the chance to win an "Edy" card. "Edy" is the latest way to pay for things in Japan.

Some cell phones have this chip installed so that all you need to do is swipe your cell phone over the vending machine and it pays for your juice. A lot of convenience stores also have this system, and recently some train lines also have this system. You can put money into the card and it will subtract from your card to pay for things. Another type of "Edy" card is like a credit card where you pay for things at the end of each month. I was lucky and won one of 6000 cards with 1000yen (about $10) on it!!...what to buy next. :)

If you are like me and like Mexican food, you'll realize that a rare commodity here is tortillas. You can find salsa and avocados, but tortillas...A while back, I had found some in a gourmet supermarket, but after that never saw it again. Recently though, while doing my daily grocery shopping I found some. There were only 5 in a package and it was close to $3!! Still, I bought them and made us some soft tacos for dinner--they were good.

In October, I had bought a "healthy" box lunch which 7-eleven and Saita (a ladies magazine) produced. This past week, they came out with the 2nd version of their "healthy" box lunch. This box lunch has hijiki (seaweed) with komatsuna (a type of chinese cabbage), sweet potato boiled in a lemon sauce, tofu hamburger with minced chicken and tomato sauce, kinpira (burdock root & carrots cooked in sugar and shoyu), broccoli & carrot and 7-grain rice with soy beans and adzuki (red) beans...Yummy!!

Well, after a week of losing my voice, I still have the sniffles, but other than that am feeling much better!! Hope you all have a great week.