Japan Minutiae

just a list of things and moments I want to remember…considering I’ve already forgotten lots of them… will be adding any that pop to mind (fingers crossed).

  • Qoo (pronounced “coo” like a dove), best juice drink ever.
  • Morning set (preferably with Hotdog!)
  • Green tea “milk” (latte)!
  • incredible vending machine proliferation
  • yes that gives you change for 100,000 yen ($100)
  • Pocari Sweat!
  • Calpis (swoon)
  • “winning” the toy at the arcade (thanks to the arcade manager who apparently really really wanted me to win and moved the toy into an “impossible to lose” position)
  • random shrine in the nishki market
  • Japanese boy scouts spotting Americans: “Hi! Hi! Hello!” (my reply, of course: “Konnichiwa!!” which made them giggle like crazy)
  • unbelievable proliferation of smoking. for a country obsessed with cleanliness…
  • no glitzy postcards. plenty of other trinkets to buy, but…
  • heated toilet seats
  • noisemakers attached to toilet seats
  • blue button = “for washing of the buttocks”
  • pink button = “for Ladies only” (?!?!)
  • the morning bowers/greeters at BIC camera in Kyoto
  • cartoon characters hanging from phones, bags, jacket pockets, pants pockets…
  • ancient hunched over grandmas & grandpas totally kicking our asses on the steps (both up and down) at Fushimi Inari
  • duck ramen in Tokyo at the place Christoph found a “shortcut” to (ha ha ha)
  • the japanese restaurant meal we had in Kyoto where Jackie made our reservation and pre-ordered all our food
  • hmmm, I wonder what this is. fish? tofu? root vegetable?
  • that is one LARGE piece o’ tentacle.
  • “green pea soup”
  • the first ramen restau we went to in Higayashima.
  • teddy bears on benches
  • rachel shutting the taxi door and the uproar it caused
  • japanese set at the Hearton in the morning