the last day of november

Well, the last day of November was brrr...cold. For the past week or so we have been enjoying temperatures at about 21C (69.8F) during the day. The temperature dropped all of sudden with the high today at about 12C (53.6F) and low at about 7C (44.6F).

Since it was Ladies Day at a movie theatre in Minoo, I decided to see a movie that Satoshi had seen a couple of weeks ago when I wasn't feeling too well; "Always: 3-chome no yuuhi". It was a great heart warming movie set in the Showa period (about 1950's) in Tokyo. It was great to see the simplicity of life in those times. A lot of people cried in some parts of the movie, even the guys!!

The reason I decided to go to this movie theatre was that you can you pay for your ticket using the "debit card". (If you remember, I won an Edy card with 1000yen on it). So, I used the card to pay for my movie. Another reason that I decided to go to this movie theatre was that with your movie ticket stub you can get discounts from participating restaurants in the mall. I chose to have lunch at Baqet.

At this restaurant, with your meal comes all-you-can-eat bread, and with your movie ticket stub, you can either receive ice cream after your meal or a bag of 6 assorted rolls to take home. I decided to get the rolls. I was a little disappointed with the choice I made for my meal though...what I chose was roast duck with wasabi flavored vinagrette. The Japanese word on the menu was "fuumi" which I thought I understood as flavored or hint of. When I got my dish, it was like I was eating wasabi with some sort of meat and salad that had no taste...with the wasabi zooming through my nasal and sinus passages I thought I would surely start crying...boy, was I glad when it was over...whew!!

Well, it is 31 days until the end of the year...are you ready?

Minoo Visola Shopping Mall
1-17-22 Nishijuku
Phone: 072-729-1090

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.