Supermarkets

Collecting points for your purchases at supermarkets are a big thing here in Japan. I’m a lazy shopper so use the three supermarkets in my vicinity. Hanamasa (good prices but larger sized packs as it targets the catering industry), Peacocks (middle of the road) & Life (more expensive & partners to Amazon to offer groceries in Tokyo). We decided to succumb to the offer of a Life Point Card and a charming saleslady duly set off installing it on my phone. But the process came to a juddering halt when she realised that my phone doesn’t have a katakana keyboard. She was horrified! And must have said ‘no katakana?’ several times. She rushed off to find a colleague to assist … and once again we listened to the gasps of horror and pity that my phone is so inferior. I guess I will do without Life points on my infrequent purchases.

I wonder if they will report this ‘fail’ to head office … they must feel that they had covered all bases when they handed us this slip –

Politics

It is noisy in the weeks leading up to any elections – local or national, with cars & vans driving around blaring out pre-recorded messages. But whilst noise pollution is accepted, fly posting isn’t. Election boards are put up and posters are pasted up; one per box.

• 

• 

This was for the Tokyo Metropolitan Election, that had been run by a coalition of the Local Democratic Party and TOMIN First. They failed to win a majority so I guess much negotiation must be taking place.

The Japanese ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party, is referred to as the LDP. Friends in UK will know that LDP is the acronym for the Local Development Plan …. I still bear the scars of two years painful work of negotiating the LDP in Powys to the satisfaction of both the Welsh Government and the citizens of Powys!

Honesty.

Yesterday, Geoff lost his phone on the train. He realised as soon as he left the train so reported his loss. He was two stops from our nearest station on his way to a meeting. This morning he found out that his phone had been handed in … and at our station. Thank goodness for the honesty of the Japanese … and to the phone gods for making collection so easy!

Best invention… ?

We are currently in rainy season, tsuyu, and we are heading into summer; high temperatures and high humidity for three months or so. I am not looking forward to it but I am grateful that we can open windows onto the balcony and use fans … but also have effective air conditioning to use when that isn’t enough.

Then I saw this guy walking in front of me – he has a fan built into his jacket. Fabulous, but I think I start off too wide to consider wearing such a garment. I doubt I could find one to fit me in Japan anyway!

Kokeshi

I have been hunting for these for a while and recently bought some from a flea market in Shinjuku. Kokeski are traditional Japanese dolls shaped a little like skittles. Now more than 150 years old, they originate from the north east of Japan.

Cheese

Cheese is horribly expensive in Japan so our cheese consumption has dropped dramatically. It is now a treat rather than something for everyday consumption and regardless of price, supermarkets stock little. On Sunday we visited a supermarket that imports food from around the world … and look what we found –

• 

• 

For non-Welsh friends, that is a Welsh cheddar! But at 4-5 times the cost of it back home, we left it on the shelf.