I am working on posts about Sports Day and my trip to Osaka, but in the mean time here is a quick little story!

Today I tried to bike to a town two train stops away (~10 km). I thought such knowledge could prove useful in the future, but unfortunately the space for bikes and pedestrians on roads that lead most directly to my desired destination gave out after 8 km.  Just as I gave up hope and turned back I noticed this:

I’m pretty bad at Japanese, but I can tell you that the big red letters say TAMAGO — aka my favourite food, the egg.  Also the picture of the rooster holding eggs helps a little. This is what it looks like from the front:

I thought the boxes might be coin lockers– or maybe chicken coops. Coin chicken coops?

How about an EGG VENDING MACHINE!!! For when you need tamago-on-the-go.

Although in previous posts I have asserted that there is a Myth about High Tech Japan, I would concede that Japan really ♥s vending machines — it’s not a myth!

This is my bicycle. I got this bicycle because it was one of the few bicycles with gears at the store. The other one was dark red, but I thought black was a nice neutral, classic choice.  But not long after, a Japanese friend/acquaintance sees this bike and exclaims, “Whhat?! This is your bicycle? Black?!!!?!?”

I was surprised by her response. Is it strange to have a black bike? But I had been noticing that the bike parking lot does tend to resemble a rainbow:

There is something very different about colours here. Continue reading →

Recently I attended some classic Japanese events. Both involved looking at things in the night sky. Hanabi taikai is a fireworks festival, and tsukimi is a moon viewing. Although I was aware of these activities as part of Japanese culture, actually attending them has given me a better appreciation for culture as a practice. Even though in Canada there may be events that at first seem similar, the social meaning seems different. Unfortunately I can’t tell if I am just exoticizing the culture so that I see only differences. So I will be more descriptive and let you judge for yourself.

Continue reading →

Perhaps you are a family member and you are worried that I am not eating properly.  I understand your concern. I did not have the most amazing cooking or food management skills to begin with and it has been challenging to face a new kitchen (no oven and gas range=scary) and grocery landscape (I understand no cheese, but why no canned beans?) combined with packaging illiteracy.

This post has two purposes. 1) To let you know that I am not starving. And 2) to share this amazing thing that is school lunch!!! It is both super delicious and has an impressive variety that I could never approach. Certainly worth the $3.10 per day. (!!!)

Continue reading →