semai

In Japan, you always hear about how space is a premium, houses/buildings are built so close together that some are only inches apart from each other.

In Japanese, this is referred to as the area being semai (say-my) (cramped, narrow). The opposite being hiroi (he-roy) (spacious, wide).

Our apartment is quite small, and most furniture is sold by measurements. I never realized how much you had to measure the space before buying, until after I had purchased some items...sigh. Even some of the stuff we bought in Hawaii and brought over had a hard time fitting in.

As for sports, most teams have to share the field with each other, I recently took a photo of these little leaguers, the center fielders are almost facing each other (I circled them in pink). I asked Satoshi, "don't they get hurt?", and he said, "sometimes".

He also said that it cannot be helped because there just aren't enough fields to go around for a team to have their own.

Most fields are not free either, you need to pay to use them. (I think if I needed to pay to use the field I wouldn't want another centerfielder in my face.)

If you also notice, there is no grass in the outfield, somehow practicing out here in summer doesn't appeal to me...

Other examples are the roads. The road that runs by our apartment is actually the width of one car and traffic flows in both directions, most drivers have to pull over to let the other pass, but on a particular day when this l-o-n-g trailer came to pick up a bulldozer thingy, he actually caused a traffic jam.

The long trailer was actually on the side street (where the man is walking), but couldn't put down the ramp to load the green bulldozer thingy, so he had to move out onto the main street.

I was amazed he got back out onto the main street without jumping the curb or falling into the ravine. (we have streams that flow on both sides of the main road).

It took some time and many were impatient, but it was interesting to watch from above.

p.s. recently at the market they had a special of shiso (perilla), I bought a packet of 20 leaves only 98 yen (about US$.98) and made rolled beef with japanese tartar sauce and ume pork. We have also been enjoying this Ravenswood Merlot. I first heard about this brand on Jen's blog and was surprised to find some of their Vinters Blends at Yamaya.

Hope you have a great week!