Will Miss #147 - Yutakaraya

There's a discount fresh food shop chain called Yutakaraya about 10 minutes from my apartment. It's often crowded with old people or housewives and a pain to navigate because people block the narrow aisles, but there's something very gratifying about going there and finding chicken on sale for 29 yen (31 cents) per 100 grams (3.5 oz.) or a bag of 6 carrots for 50 yen (85 cents). It's much, much

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Won't Miss #147 - loveless Valentine's

I realize that a lot of people hate Valentine's Day and think it's already a Hallmark holiday designed to sell candy. I'll grant that confectioners have exploited it for all it is worth. That being said, people who choose to use it as a day to celebrate their love can do so because at the heart of the holiday (no pun intended) is romance. There is some meaning if you want to find it there. In

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Will Miss #146 - Shinjuku

My favorite place in Tokyo is Shinjuku. It is a district which isn't far from my home and has more of a modern feel to it than other similarly set-up areas. I worked there for about 10 years and always enjoyed walking around and exploring when I was there. To me, it's got everything you might want in one vast place including big electronics shops, department stores, bakeries, import shops,

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Won't Miss #146 - big biters

There are a lot of food programs and commercials on Japanese T.V. and most of the time the people who sample the food seem to think they have to eat as much in one bite as they can cram into their faces. More often than not when I see food being eaten on T.V., people look like chipmunks with gigantic nuts stored in their cheeks and labor to chew and continue to speak at the same time. I don't

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Will Miss #145 - Family Mart

It may not look like much from the outside, but I always enjoy going to Family Mart convenience stores ("conbini") more than the other chains. The ones in my neighborhood are bigger, more frequently remodeled and cleaner, and they carry a lot of the best new products compared to their competitors. If I want to find interesting new sembei, the latest Tirol chocolates, weird KitKats, or strange new

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Won't Miss #145 - gobbing and spitting in public

I've heard that China has one of the worst problems with public spitting and that Japan's expectorating populace pales in comparison. That being said, they are leaps ahead of what I was accustomed to in terms of public gobbing and spitting when I grew up in the U.S. Public spitting isn't super, super common in Tokyo, but it is far from rare. Both men and women do it, so it's not one of those

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Will Miss #144 - Crunky

One of my fellow food review bloggers once said something about Crunky possibly meaning "crunchy" and "funky". The truth is that I'm not sure how the name came about, but I liked his thinking. I've always thought of Crunky as a weird form of "crunchy" since the Crunky family of candy is based on malt puffs. Some people really go for Crunky and some don't like the flavor of it's crispy puffs. I'm

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Won't Miss #144 - cleaning out the drain trap

Most Japanese apartments do not have garbage disposals. This in and of itself is not a problem for me as I grew up without the benefit of one. However, the plug/drain trap in sinks back home were stainless steel and small. They were easy to clean and empty after washing dishes by hand and finding food bits collected in them. In Japan, the traps are usually made out of plastic (and there is no

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Will Miss #143 - making up on trains

Japanese people will tell you that they don't like to see women putting their makeup on when they ride the trains and that it is bad manners. The thing is that it not only doesn't bother me, but I get a kick out of it for several reasons. First of all, there is a certain amount of risk undertaken when you put objects near your eyes on a moving train. Second, it requires some pretty spiffy

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Won't Miss #143 - restaurant squatters

This may be an issue in cities around the world, but it's something I never encountered until I came to Tokyo. People will buy one drink at a coffee shop, fast food place, or restaurant and occupy a space for hours (literally). I can't say for certain, but I'm guessing this is one of the reasons that drinks are so expensive in general. They know people are going to do this so they want to make a

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Will Miss #142 - mild winters

Japan has a humid subtropical climate, but some northern areas do have abundant snow and very cold winters. Tokyo, however, does not have much of a true winter season at all. Since coming here about 20 years ago, I've probably seen 4 days of (appreciable) snow at most in any given winter. Most of the time, there are a few days or no days with snow at all and heavy winter clothing is not necessary

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Won't Miss #142 - communicative "insecurity"

Part of my former office job was doing brief telephone lessons with students from all over Japan. In a very "light" year, I spoke to 500 students, but in a "heavy" year, I would speak to closer to 900. I was at that job for 12 years so it's no exaggeration to say that I have spoken to literally thousands of Japanese people in many populated areas. I can add the experience of hundreds of

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Will Miss #141 - fukubukuro

On New Year's Day, many shops sell fukubukuro uniquely tailored to represent their stores' goods. This is often literally translated as a "lucky bag" or "happy bag", but it's better called a "grab bag". Shopkeepers compile an assortment of goods and set a price that (at least supposedly) is cheaper than the value of the goods.Though these bags are sometimes hit and miss on being worth the price,

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Won't Miss #141 - Japanese wieners

Back home, I rarely ate sausage or hot dogs. In Japan, sometimes it's a little hard to avoid incidental use of "sausage" or, as they are often called "wieners". They're often used as part of pizzas, gratin, or other dishes. There is a distinct flavor to Japanese wieners (and no double entendre is intended there, my dirtier-minded readers) which I find very off-putting as do some other foreign

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Will Miss #140 - unicycles

One thing you notice in summer in Tokyo is that there are far more kids, especially girls, riding unicycles. It's quite impressive to see their balance and speed on them. I've been told that elementary school kids, and girls in particular, join unicycle clubs or teams. I'm not sure why unicycles are relatively common in Japan, but it is always interesting to see as one tends only to see acrobats

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Won't Miss #140 - gropers

Click the image above to load one which is readable.During my early years in Japan, when I was still young enough to be of interest to random men, I was riding an escalator down into a basement store to meet my husband. A man walked down the escalator behind me and touched my ass. I assumed at first that he had accidentally bumped into me after walking a step too far so I moved forward, and then

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Will Miss #139 - Pearl Center

In my neighborhood, there is a long and winding street full of different shops that snakes from a major street near my apartment to the local JR station. I've never counted them all, but I'm sure there are over 100. The variety of places is amazing, but more importantly, there is a good mix of low-priced food shops and interesting specialty shops. You can do all of your daily shopping and pick up

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Japan Times profile of this blog

This comes under the heading of "shameless self-promotion". The Japan Times interviewed me and has published a profile of me and both of my blogs (both this one and my snack reviews blog). If you're interested, you can read it on the Japan Times web site here.

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Won't Miss #139 - expensive, tiny Halloween pumpkins

I'm not crazy over Halloween, but I do like to make a jack-o-lantern for the holiday because the warm glow of a candle inside one of those big, round squashes is a thing of beauty. It's also simply an enjoyable seasonal craft. The last pumpkin that I carved in Japan was about 5 inches (12 cm) in size and was so small that a tea candle put inside of it burnt the cap within a minute of lighting the

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Will Miss #138 - Choco Cro

Choco Cro is a chain shop which sells baked goods and beverages with the main product being croissants filled with chocolate (hence "choco cro"). I've read that these are the closest one can come in Japan to pain au chocolat from France, and, in fact, that some Europeans consider these Japanese treats to be superior to the ones you can get in their country of origin. The ChocoCro croissants are

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Won't Miss #138 - no one taking responsibility

Back when I was working in a Japanese office, we had continuous difficulties with things that were not getting done because the person who should look after that particular duty was not exactly specified. There were plenty of ridiculously obvious problems that could be solved in a short time with almost no effort that would be ignored because no one was willing to just do it without some sort of

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Will Miss #137 - Yaki Imo Men

One of my earliest experiences with Japanese cart food was hearing a recording of someone half singing the words "yaki imo" (roasted sweet potato) as a man in a cart roamed my neighborhood. I'd have my husband run out and flag down the yaki imo man and he'd buy me a fresh, perfectly cooked over wood chips sweet potato. The experience of buying one of these potatoes right from the men themselves

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Won't Miss #137 - kiddy seats on bikes

One of the amazing things you see in Japan are bicycles with the equivalent of a baby seat attached to the front and/or back. What is more surprising is the way you see mothers (and on rare occasions, fathers) lurching or speeding around with their kids plopped into them. They are often helmet-less and not strapped in. If the mother were to lose her balance or have an accident, the kid could

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Will Miss #136 - New Year's Ema

Several years ago, my husband and I started visiting the local shrine on the morning of New Year's day. There are always prayer boards or "ema" on sale so that people can write their wishes for the coming year and hang them in the appropriate places at the shrines. These wooden plaques show the animal for the current year according to the Chinese zodiac. You're supposed to write you wish and

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Won't Miss #136 - view of the homeless

I'm not going to assert that the homeless are treated or regarded well in any culture, but most people in Western countries tend to view them with some level of compassion and there are many programs to help them in most cities. In Japan, the general attitude toward the homeless is quite different and programs to assist them are few and far between. They are viewed as failing to work hard enough

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Will Miss #135 - being in, but not of, the culture

Most foreign folks in Japan focus on the part where you will never fit in or be accepted because you cannot assimilate. This does have a lot of negative effects, but there is also a very positive side to being in Japan, but not of the culture. In fact, I wouldn't want to be in Japan if I had to live any other way. It's a little hard to explain because it covers so much cultural territory, but

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Won't Miss #135 - "giri choco"

On Valentine's Day, women are expected to give men chocolates. They don't give them to the men they love or even like, but rather out of obligation ("giri"). As a foreign woman, I was never expected to observe this dubious custom, but I heard plenty of complaints from women in our office who had to do it until the president finally outlawed the practice (likely out of fear of full-fledged

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Will Miss #134 - Seijin No Hi

There are quite a lot of public holidays in Japan. In fact, it's surprising that the Japanese get more random days off than Americans. Few of those national holidays carry a great deal of meaning, but "seijin no hi", which is sometimes translated as "coming of age day" or "adulthood day" is one of the few which is observed in a very visible manner. On the second Monday in January, you see a lot

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Won't Miss #134 - Suginomori

It seems that nearly everything in Japan has to have a mascot. In many cases, they are crudely drawn or poorly designed. You get the feeling that some of them were just created by someone in the office who could doodle a bit rather than by a professional artist. The ward I live in has some peculiar worm-like creature called "Suginomori". It's all over the place in my neighborhood - on signs, on

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Will Miss #133 - clean, safe, modern bus service

Buses are used far less in Tokyo than trains because of the traffic. It will usually take longer to get there by bus than subway or train, unless you're lucky about where the bus lines run. That being said, I have taken buses a fair amount in Japan and find them to be impeccably clean, safe, and modern. They're especially good as an alternative to the crowds you have to put up with when using

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Won't Miss #133 - "if you don't like it, leave"

Everyone complains. It's a fact of life that we will be unhappy about some experiences and lament about it to someone. Back home, when your boss screws you over or someone treats you badly, people may empathize, offer constructive solutions, or let you know if your response is too extreme for the situation. In Japan, other foreign people tell you to just leave if you don't like it. I don't know

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Will Miss #132 - response to peanut butter cookies

Every Christmas since buying an oven, I have made copious amounts of peanut butter cookies for my coworkers, students, and my husband's students. They are a huge hit with everyone because they are so unusual as a cookie offering in Japan (and because they are high fat and not overly sweet, which suits Japanese tastes). Back home, they're seen as pretty mundane, but they're always received with

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