domino pizza

We recently ordered from Domino Pizza

They had a curry pizza that I wanted to try

Also if you ordered a large you could get it at the medium price

 

The Summer Curry Quatro :

Summer Veggie Curry, Butter Chicken Curry, Mayo Potato and their Kalbi

I was surprised that on the receipt they tell you what each part of the pizza is, so you’d know what you were eating

Unfortunately, the way I took the photo of the pizza was not the same configuration as the receipt

still I thought it was a cool idea, and the pizza was ono

Actually, I was thinking of ordering two types because I wanted to also eat the kalbi one, but after seeing it was one of the toppings for the quatro, I just ordered the one pizza

the poop test

For most physical check ups they check your poop for large intestine cancer (not sure but maybe small intestine too?!)

Two days before your appointment you gotta take samples

This is the thingy you put your samples into

the directions...unscrew the cap 

The cap has a little "brush" at the end for you to "touch" the poop with to take the sample

Then put the cap with brush back into the container which already has some testing liquid in it then you turn these in when you go for your physical

Some kits also give you a tissue thingy to line the toilet so that you can "catch" the poop for you to take the sample

That tissue thingy usually stresses me out because if the tissue touches the water it starts to disintegrate

If there is no tissue thingy, some kits tell you to sit facing the toilet tank so that the front part of the bowl will catch the poop

I usually pour a large amount of water into the toilet bowl to "drain" the water, then I can take the sample without having to hurry

I haven't done this test in several years now, so I don't miss doing this and I also don't miss the barium test which gives you white poop

putting out your trash

In Tokyo, since the roadways are sometimes narrow, there are areas to put trash out, this is so the garbage truck can easily access it

For homes, they seem to have "groups" where they (the housewives) take turns cleaning their trash area after it is picked up

Most condos in Tokyo, seem to have a "room" to put trash into and have staff to take it out on the trash days

When we lived in Osaka, our apartment only had an area that we could put our trash, the people who picked up the trash had access to it so no one had to put it out for pick up (photo from 2018 when we moved from Osaka to Tokyo) and we were only allowed to put the trash out on the morning of the pick up not from the night before

Sometimes, if you miss the time for trash pick up, you can “sneak” your trash under another net/area

The nets are supposed to deter the crows, but if you don’t cover the trash properly, the crows pull out the trash bags and make a mess!

I took this photo (above) when the guy in beige brought his trash down the street and tried to put it under the net and the lady in black ran out immediately to tell him that he wasn't allowed to put his trash there

I think she didn't want his garbage there because if the crows made a mess, she'd have to clean it up...

in the photo, you can also see a lady on the left cleaning up what the crows did to a "groups" trash area

Lots of unwritten rules, yeah?!

danshari

Lately we’ve been danshari-ing (purging)

We are lucky because in Japan there are a lot of places that will buy the purged things 

Not all places pay you a lot of money for the purged items but it is better than “just throwing it in the trash” or paying for seals so that the city will pick them up...

I recently took my beading stash in as well as some jewelry

We also found out they will also take our old smartphones, so I was trying to erase all our info from the phones

Since I forgot how to use the old models, I was glad that You Tube had tutorials on how to use them

Top photo: my very first iphone…3GS?! so teeny

And my second iphone 5S, this was teeny too

We still have a lot more stuff to purge but since the shop we go to only gives 30 minute appointments, we’ll just keep doing a little at a time

Hope you have a safe weekend

finally

I’m probably way behind the times, but I just found out that google maps (GM) has icons for your saved lists.

I don't know about you, but I have so many lists on GM, so this is kinda helpful

When I’m out and about I try not to use cell data, so now that I can put an icon to represent the list, hopefully I’ll be able to remember what the icon means when I see it 

cool

noticed something cool (to me) with this potato chip bag
 

there are two spots to tear the bag open (arrows on the side)

one arrow up top, when you first start eating

the second one is mid-way, so that you don't need to cut it with a scissors to reach the chips near the bottom of the bag

and the bag stands on its own

do you eat your chips with chopsticks?

I do, so this is perfect, fingers don’t get dirty & no need to hold the bag

huge

I've been seeing these huge type of shoes lately

Dunno if my photos show how big they really look

But for me, I think I would fall down wearing them

Have you tried this type of shoes?
 

my number

Well 10 years have passed since we got our My Number cards

In that time some things have changed with it

Like your health insurance card info is on it now

You can access some documents which you normally would have to go to the city office for, from the printer at a convenience store

Instead of going to get your photo for the ID from a professional photo studio, you can now take your photo with your smartphone and even renew the card online

I think you can even put your driver license on it too

So..I now have a new card that should last the next 10 years...

I still wish they would use it for more "useful" things like when there is an earthquake, the survivors could just scan their card and be able to "check-in" 

But I guess that might make too much sense...

danshari

Recently Satoshi sent some boxes from MIL’s to Tokyo

They were filled with photo albums because he just does not have the heart to throw them out which means they also weigh a ton!

The way our apartment building is constructed it is so wonky, I swear the designer was on drugs

I felt so bad for the poor mail dudes that had to carry them up the last 12 steps up to our apartment!

And luckily with some tetris moves, Kat found space for these boxes in our apartment 

After looking through Satoshi’s treasures, I really wanted to keep this vintage Citizen Doraemon watch

and these vintage colored pencils...but decided against it and had Satoshi sell them to a recycle shop

I gave up this coach wallet

I really loved these but they didn’t love me, the buckle would always dig into my foot…ow

And these sketchers always made my feet black

loved these boots

am giving up this coach, I had taken a photo of it after we got broken into, so that I had a record of what valuables I had

Gave up this LV

and this too

Gave up these two Hanshin jerseys because the material is too hot to wear 

got to keep this clear file because the place Satoshi went to sell some of his treasures didn't want it

We still have so much stuff but will continue to clear out more in the coming months...

kotowaza

V's comment about the yuzu reminded me of a kotowaza (proverb) in Japanese 

The proverb is “kuri momo san nen, kaki hachi nen”

Which means chestnut & peach take 3 years to bear fruit, persimmon take 8 years

And there is another part of that kotowaza “yuzu baka juhachi nen” that yuzu takes a krazy 18 years to bear fruit 

This proverb was often heard among farmers and their families and not only tells how long trees will take to bear fruit but it also teaches us that in order to obtain something, it requires time and patience.

ambulance

Did you know that if a train is coming, the ambulance also has to wait until the train passes?

Sometimes the crossing area stays closed for some time until the train passes and whenever we see an ambulance waiting there we always worry that it won't be able to get to the person in need in time...

Another thing I noticed is that whenever they come to an intersection, they stop to make sure other cars know they are coming.

Oh and they also have speakers, so they can tell you "to move" or "thank you for moving"...(the police also have this)

What kinds of rules/actions do the ambulances in your area have?

25 C

Are you a mosquito magnet?

Apparently I am

I recently learned that the temperature that mosquitos start to look for me is 25C (77F)

Which means they apparently don't during the major heat of summer here...

good to know...

Since the temps have dropped a bit, I've started to spray myself with repellent...

Hoping I will stay bite free...

1st world problems

I would say that customer service in Japan is pretty good except when it comes to banking or in this case credit cards

The other day Satoshi updated his bank passbook (yup Japan still has these) and noticed a charge from a credit card that he doesn’t use

He wanted to call them to ask about the charge but their hours were only until 17:00 on weekdays! 

and they aren’t open on weekends 

of course there was a holiday the other day too

so Wednesday Satoshi came home early so he could call this company

well if you wanted to actually speak to someone the wait was over 30 minutes on hold!

you could request for them to call you back but it wouldn’t be on the same day!

Since satoshi doesn’t have much patience these days, Kat sat near the phone for 38 minutes and waited for someone to answer 

it turned out that the charge was his annual fee for the credit card 

it was discounted because he now uses online statements

whew it wasn’t a fraud charge 

but! less than a minute after hanging up with this company they sent him an online survey for feedback on their service!

I told him he should tell them that their operating hours and wait times are too inconvenient

1st world problems…

atsugari vs samugari

Some people here when the calendar changes to September, they automatically start wearing long sleeves and shoes…

me, I’m still in slippers and using my secret weapon

In Japanese they call people “atsugari” those that cannot tolerate heat…the opposite is “samugari” which is cannot tolerate cold

me I'm atsugari while Satoshi is samugari...

We're supposed to have krazy rains again today...hopefully there won't be any damage

are you atsugari or samugari?!

latch bolt

Always learning something new...

The word I learned was "latch bolt"

Our latch bolt hasn't been working...the dead bolt is the "lock" on the "top"

The latch bolt is the "bottom" one that is whitish

Satoshi hadn’t noticed that it wasn’t working, but it was working before I went to Hawaii, so we weren't too sure when it stopped working.

We emailed our building management.

Unfortunately, it was O-bon, they called us to find out more info, but won't be able to do anything until after the break is over...

UPDATE: they are coming on Tuesday to check it out...Hoping they will be able to fix it on Tuesday...

live and learn

if you remember, back in April I found this...

well, this past Sunday was the day that started the 2 month period for me to pick it up.

we should've read the police report because the department that handles the monies aren't open on weekends or holidays...boo!

so we went all the way over to the station for nothing...

Satoshi was upset but we should've read the report...

Yesterday was a holiday, so I went back today.

Like most Japan public offices, you need to show them your paperwork, show identification.

Then they make you wait...thank goodness not for very long

I had to sign that I received the 5000 yen bill and was on my way.

On the way home I stopped in at Shirai to buy us some inarizushi and dango with part of the money.

All in all this was a good learning experience.

semi-rant

The other day, Satoshi and I went to see this movie "Kokuho".

Nowadays, we can reserve seats in advance, pay online and then when we go to the movie theatre, we can either print out our tickets or just scan the code on our phone at the entrance to the theatres.

Anyway, I wanna rant about the movie staff...they do not show people to their seats after the movie starts...

So, there were these 2 ladies, going up and down the stairs looking for their seats! with their cell phone "flashlights"...

And at one point, one of the ladies fell and hit the lady sitting a row above us and also partly hit Satoshi...

Grr...

Luckily, no one got hurt but we all missed a good 2 to 3 minutes of the movie...

The movie was good, I'm not a total fan of Kabuki but it was interesting and entertaining.

docomo hikari

So...we got new routers for wifi from the reno guys...

I thought we could return our old router to Docomo...

We made an appointment with Docomo, to tell them to cancel our Docomo wifi...which is called Docomo Hikari

I dismantled the router, put it back in its box and carried it to our appointment

The guy at Docomo, was the same condescending guy as when Satoshi bought his phone..sigh

He told us, he cannot cancel our wifi, we would need to call the Service center...and he gave us their number.

So we went home and tried to call the Service center with our landline...but our phone was dead

(After dismantling the router, I had plugged the phone into that dark beige area in the photo)

Panicking.. I put the router back together, plugging the phone into that tiny slot to the bottom left that is marked with the kanji "hikari"

Doing all of this, we were able to call using our landline...whew!

When we finally got in touch with the Service Center, the woman on the other side kindly explained that Docomo Hikari is not only wifi but also telephone lines

Our landline and wifi was a fiber optic type...

She then explained that if we cancelled and only wanted phone line, we would have to have them come in to set up an "analog" style phone line (the dark beige area) and our phone number would change...sigh

Since we didn't want to have to change our phone number, we decided to just keep the fiber optic line...though if and when we need to move, we'll definitely get rid of it.

We learned a lot from this experience...small kine stressful, but grateful it all worked out. 

mukan

1st time coming across this frozen mikan (tangerine) called "mukan"
 

This needs to be taken out of the freezer about 30 minutes to an hour before you intend to eat it.

the reason it is called "mukan" is because you don't have to peel it.

"mukan" is a casual way to say this in Japanese.

It was delicious! I hope to be able to find this again during the summer.

this and that

saw this interesting plant in someone’s yard (mussaenda parviflora) called konronka in Japanese

Yesterday, the reno guys finished by 14:00! 

So Kat got to take a nap!

The thing that peeved me about the reno though is that without saying anything, they started moving stuff in our bathroom so that they could access the breaker

I wished they would tell us where to clean or move ahead of time so I can have it ready before they come

Like the area I thought they were gonna work on, I had all clean and  ready and they didn’t even touch that area…boo! 

I did “scare” the guy installing the door knob, he was in full concentration mode and then jumped & screamed (a little) when he realized I was watching what he was doing…oops!sorry!

After they finished working yesterday, I asked where they were gonna do work for our next appointment 

The guy pointed to the thing that I use for my closet…I had to open the door to let him see inside...so shame, my closet is a mess! 

gotta move some stuffs in my closet, but it should be fast because the next appointment is only half a day…

The other day, I heard a crow and I also heard something with a lower "voice"...it turned out to be baby crows!

Kinda hard to see but there is a nest on the electric pole! 

You might be able to see metal hangers...they warn us to keep hangers and such away from crows because they take things to make their nests...I even saw a crow scraping ground cover nets to use for its nest!

Yesterday, I called the electric company, hopefully they will be able to dismantle the nest soon.

Our temperatures are July or August high also with humidity, blah!...and are apparently gonna go down to April lows...talk about roller coaster!

Have a safe weekend.