And for micherre.
Would you like some Orive Oil spaghetti??
I had to take a picture since it immediately reminded me of micherre.
Japanese computers do have spell check for English so really, USE SPELL CHECK.
Or maybe, I hadn’t thought of this till now, but maybe Microsoft has a secret joke where they programmed Asian versions of Microsoft Office to leave the “r”s because its funny. I like this explanation better.
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I forgot all about it until just now, but a couple days ago I was sitting at my desk working on something, and I was getting annoyed at one of my guestmates who was blasting music. I was getting really annoyed because the bass was so strong that my desk was starting to wobble. And then my desk started quivering more and more, and the bass just kept booming, and I was about to get up to get the person to quit the music, when duuuh, silly me, it wasn’t the bass, it was an earthquake!
So then I started freaking out inside, although how funny that I didn’t start freaking out until I realized it was an earthquake, and sat frozen in my chair because I didn’t know what else I was supposed to do.
What are you supposed to do when things start shaking? I figured I should grip my desk, which is super flimsy and not really going to help if things actually got bad. Also, I remembered that someone got saved in the Indonesian tsunami aftermath a few weeks ago because he had a cell phone, so I grabbed onto that too.
As I was waiting for all my trinkets in my room to stop rattling I realized, wtf, if this house did splinter and collapse, and I did survive and had my phone and could call someone, I wouldn’t know how to call the police, or the ambulance, or the fire department because I was pretty sure the number wasn’t 911.
I very quickly hoped/wished/prayed?? to someone that the earthquake would finish soon so that I could look up the emergency numbers. I now know so now I’m all prepared for an earthquake.
Police: 110
Fire Department/Ambulance: 119
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Ten days ago, I realized I couldn’t hold out any longer on buying a cell phone. I’m a super popular girl over here with lots of boys and girls to meet up with… so yea.
I was looking for the cheapest phone, to use with pre-paid service, since I didn’t (still don’t) know how long I’ll be here for.
I first went to Softbank, one of the major carriers here. Softbank bought Vodafone Japan 3 years ago. At the store, a Softbanker, while holding one of Softbank’s info packet which he gave me, told me that I won’t find what I’m looking for in Japan. We don’t sell it, no one else sells it, so you won’t find it. really? Yea, and we definitely don’t sell it. And then he basically kicked me out the store! So after I left, I got all huffy and upset but went to another provider called Docomo, the giant of Japan’s cellular market.
At Docomo, I was there for an hour because one of the salesman was trying to help me find the best solution in the event that I’m only here for 3 months. They didn’t have a pre-paid service either, so he was telling me I can sign up for a 2 year plan, cancel, only get charged x amount. etc. Expensive and inconvenient. Told him I would think about it, then called my mom and asked her to help me research it.
My mom calls me a few hours later and basically um, Softbank, you lie. I go and actually look at the info packet and there’s a whole section on pre-paid service!! (Ok, my fault for not reading it.) Not to mention, its a well-known (to the Japanese) tidbit that Softbank is one of two carriers to have it. Apparently a few years ago the gov’t passed a law here that made it harder and probably less profitable to sell pre-paid service in an attempt to curb illegal activities. And also made it really hard for foreigners to get a pre-paid SIM card. Not an issue for me since I’m so Japanese.
Regardless, I got my phone from Softbank, but I’m still displeased with them. Not to mention, this pre-paid service charges 9 Yen/6 seconds = ~ $1/min!
Silver lining though – I have a great excuse to not call people I’m not interested in, “You’re too expensive.”
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I went to a fun izakaya (bar with food) last night and there were eight of us sitting at a long table on the side and we’re all talking, hanging out, when two people left the table and came back with baskets and baskets of junk food. I was confused because it was a lot of junk food for a bar to give out for free. So my friend says here, I’ll show you.
On the other side of the room, there was a whole wall of baskets filled with all sorts of Japanese candy and junk food. Shrimp crackers, corn puffs (like cheetos, actually exactly like cheetos since those are made out of corn anyway), flavored gummies, weird soysauce flavored chewies, and umeboshi chewies (pickled plum) that were dehydrated, and other random snacks. Apparently this place is a snack bar, where the cover pays for your snacks.
The candy that I found most interesting, not tasty at all though, were cigarettes!!!! They had little mini boxes of candy called cigarettes (clever) packaged in pink and purple boxes with pretty pastel sticks of “cigarettes” inside that were about 2 inches long. I really wish I had taken a picture but I forgot. I can tell you though that the candy version smells much nicer than the original – if only people stopped at the candy, but everyone smokes here everywhere. 
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Someone asked me what all the fingers are called in English today. We started off with the thumb, then the index finger, the middle finger, the ring finger, and finally the pinky. When I said pinky though, this guy looked at me quizzically, so I thought he hadn’t heard me so I said PINKY, in a louder voice, while waving my pinky at his face. He started laughing really really hard and couldn’t stop for two minutes.
Is it really that funny that the finger is called pinky? I guess it is pretty kawaii.
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When i first got here, my grandma came for a week to help me register. You have to go to your old city bureau, in my case a suburb outside of Tokyo where my parents used to live, and retrieve paperwork that documents where you have lived during your life, (it also has your family history on it too), and then you have to go to your new city bureau and register yourself there.
It sounds pretty simple i guess but I didn’t know all this existed, and didn’t know there was an extra layer of paperwork because I’ve been abroad in the U.S….and basically ended up in a panic 2 hours before I left for the airport because I didn’t tell NYC that I was leaving. (Bye, NYC – I’m leaving!) It’s a problem if you mess up when dealing with paperwork, Japanese bureaucracy will make you want to cry.
Things went fine until I got to the end of a long process, when this sweet girl comes over with a massive map of Tokyo and tells me she can’t find my new address. I spent the next 90 minutes telling her my house is here, and she said for the next 90 minutes, no i’m so very sorry but that’s not your place. Yes it is. No, I’m really very sorry but I don’t think it is. YES IT IS. No, miss, I’m truly sorry but I don’t believe it is.
I wanted to cry because we kept saying the same lines all over again for 90 straight minutes. But she was so very polite that i could not yell at her. I asked her if we could use google maps but she said no. It turned out that on this special map of hers, each building is marked by the owner of the property. And the house name that the landlord gave me just wasn’t matching up with the owner on the map.
In the end we all gave up, and I ran out of that building as fast and as politely as I could, but I’ll have to go back when I leave/move and we’ll probably go again for 90 minutes about this discrepancy. But anyway, Tokyo now knows that I’m here.
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Desserts in general are really tasty, especially desserts from Japan. One of my favorite places to grab a dessert in NYC is at the Japanese chain, Beard Papa, which sells amazing cream puffs. Sweet and creamy on the inside, light and crisp on the outside.
I highly recommend picking up a dozen. Right now.
look up location: http://www.muginohousa.com/index.php
I love these cream puffs so much I contemplated a Beard Papa franchise so that I could eat them all the time.
But the point of this post isn’t about the freaking cream puffs. It’s about a little shop called Choco Cro that sells the best chocolate croissants I can remember eating. I’ve eaten lots of chocolate croissants and aaaaah, i want to eat mountains of these.
The puff pastry was super flaky and crisp, but buttery and warm, and i hate to use the word but moist in the most pleasing way. All of this, surrounding really gooey, melty dark chocolate that still had enough firmness that I felt like I was still biting into a bar of chocolate. It was out of this world.
so good so good so good
Although when I first bit into it, I burned my mouth, but kept eating because they were so good that I burned my mouth again, except I still didn’t seem to learn because I continued eating and when I was done, I realized the roof of my mouth was raw. It was well worth the discomfort that followed for two days.
The cute part is, while I’m sitting and eating at a table, lots of middle aged businessmen came in to eat their share of Choco Cro. And they all seemed really content even though most of them were dropping buttery pastry flakes all over their suits.
If you come visit me, I’ll take you to Choco Cro.
the chocolate croissant in all its flashy goodness
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