iyokan

There are many times when my lack of Japanese knowledge creates problems. At the time they happen they are problems, afterwards, it turns out to be a pretty funny story.

Seeing the iyokan in the market recently reminded me of this story...

Awhile back, while I was in Hawaii, a relative called from Japan to say that she wanted to send a couple boxes of "iyokan", one for my Grandma and one for us.

("Iyokan" is actually a type of citrus, which I've posted about previously here.)

Since I didn't know (at the time) that what she was talking about was citrus, I heard "ii yokan", which I thought was "good yokan" (bar of sweet bean paste).

Thinking that the boxes were small, I told her to send them to our Osaka address, thinking that Satoshi could forward the boxes of yokan to us later.

A couple days later, I get a phone call from Satoshi..."there are 2 HUGE boxes of oranges (citrus)..."

I told him, I thought she said "ii yokan", he said no, "iyokan" is a type of orange....sigh.

Since I knew he couldn't send them to us in Hawaii (agriculture restrictions), I asked him to send a box to his mother and bring the other box to work.

Then I called the relative to thank her (without telling her my mistake, of course).

I still have lots to learn when it comes to Japanese.

Fast forward to the present...I made some muffins using the juice and zest of one iyokan. I also added a handful of pecans and dried cherries. This was nice with some earl grey tea.

And since I'm talking about citrus/orange, I wanted to share with you something I found at the convenience store, Orange M&M's.

These are not only orange in color but orange flavored too. It was interesting to see these white M&M's in the bag.

It's Friday here, hope you have a nice weekend!