こんにちは。
Saturday, February 19, 2011 at 12:01PM Though I listened to my Japanese podcasts a couple of times during our flight in the hope that some of it would stick in my mind, we don’t get much further than this. Oh, we can manage “Domo arigato gozaimazu” (Thank you very much) as well as “Sumimasen” (Sorry!) but much further than that and we are totally and utterly lost.
Anyway, we are here in Tokyo and the Saturday afternoon shoppers were out in force. Having arrived around midday, we showered and changed before going out to mix and mingle and get ourselves tuned in to a totally different pace from the one we’re used to.
It’s been a little overcast since we arrived and a little on the brisk side of seasonal temperatures. As usual, I dived straight into Tokyu Hands which wasn’t Edward’s idea of a perfect Saturday afternoon – but hey, did he have a better idea?
His reward – and ours – came later, in the form of a yummy meal of Udon noodles with duck meatballs. I settled for a bowl of tempura prawns and vegetables which was delicious.
Each of the tables in this delightful small restaurant had an induction hob in the centre – though none seemed to be in use. That was a shame, because I was rather curious to see how it would be used!
As usual, we smile at the quaint and sometimes totally peculiar English language to be found on packaging. Above, on a small package of postit type notes designed to sit vertically on a keyboard
This rather profound statement on the front of a notebook I bought left us all scratching our heads.
As usual, I had fun opening many small packages this evening – a few packets of small paper stickers for bookmarks etc and some new washi paper tape designs because this has really taken off since we were last here. I immediately put the “elastic belt” into my basket – not for me, but for my holiday journal, which always ends up bulging and in need of some gathering in.
Another funny little statement on the paper stickers – the girls will love these but I’m not sure they’ll get the message!
We spent a short time in Kinokuniya, where I was organised enough to have the ISBN number of this new book by Suzuko Koseki. Having a helpful assistant find it for me was useful, because he also led me to the Quilt books – not always easy to identify. I must write the ISBN of the Boro book too in the hope that it might be a yen or two cheaper here than elsewhere. We’ll see.
Finally, no KitKats tonight ;-( There was one, 70% dark chocolate KitKat in the local shop, but since I don’t care for such dark chocolate, it’s still there. Instead, we bought home (and ate) a box of Pocky, some Galbo Mini strawberry sweets (odd, cross between chocolate and a kind of powdery honeycomb inside (but nothing like crunchie…) We’ll look for KitKats in earnest tomorrow. I wonder what weird flavours we’ll find this year?
or should I say おやすみなさい。!
Rachel, the earphones were comfortable and though I didn’t wear them for the whole flight (I watched the films using the aircraft ones) I didn’t have to take them out once because of discomfort. Not only that, but they didn’t “leak” much, I was told.
Japan, craft, food, travelling 
Reader Comments (2)
happy happy holidays! as a washi
tape obsessive, am v. jealous of your first shopping trip!
What fun! I remember (and still own) tiny delights full of novelty and whimsy bought from 'Amah's markets' in Singapore in the 70's. I do wish we here in GB got 'whimsy' - might lighten our spirits!