Shopping and Photos of the Day

What a beautiful day it was today, made all the more lovely thanks to my day off. The sun was shining, the sky was a wonderful shade of blue and the breeze was just a little cool. Now that I have to line-dry the laundry, I recognized today as a great laundry day, too!

The boys went outside to play, Ridge, of course, riding on his bike. I was hanging up wet clothes when I realized it was a bit too quiet. Poking my head around the bushes separating us from Ryuya's house, I saw my children gleefully helping Grandma Otasaka (Ryuya's grandmother - they live in a mult-generational house) shell soybeans. The past few days have been clear and dry, so many people are harvesting thier gardens. As you can see in the picture, she has a pile of beans she spread out to dry. The boys seemed to be having fun and she looked happy enough, so I left then alone. I went into the house, grabbed a pile of unintelligible bills, and darted across the street to seek some translation help from my friend Fusae. Whenever we get mail, I take it to her so she can tell me what it is. Turns out, Aaron had paid the water and sewer bill (someone showed up yesterday and wanted money, so Aaron just paid and figured he would sort it out later), we had a couple of things informing us of when a certain bill would be paid, etc., and that we did not owe an electric bill just yet. I also had to show her my bank book. Several of our bills are automatically deducted, but - Duh! - I can't read the printout in my bank book to know what bill was paid. Oh, I should back up a second. When we take money out (everything here is totally cash - no debit cards, no checks), we insert our bankbook and it is automatically updated in the ATM machine. So, I saw a withdrawal that I did not make, and wanted Fusae to tell me which bill had been paid. Fun, huh?

Anyway, to make a short story longer than necessary, when I went back across the street, there were Ridge and Holt, decked out with hats and playing next to Grandma Otasaka in a box of dirt she put out for them. They must have played like that for an hour or so. Then, when she was done, she nudged them up and out of the yard, saying, "bye bye!"

After nap, we ran into Monbetsu (an hour away, remember) so I could get some things for work. We needed to go to the toy store, and Aaron amused himself by taking pictures. Later, at the grocery store, he did the same thing. So, here is the explanation for the pictures. Click on each link to see the photo.

Toy store: just a shot of a typical Japanese toy store - Hello Kitty, Lego, and that's "Anpanman" off to the upper left. I don't know what he is, just that he is some sort of baked good. His arch enemy is a chartoon character with Sushi on top of his head. Go figure.
Toy Store

This toy store has a big section of food "goodies". These pictures are a couple of "yummies" that kids can whine and beg their parents for. Ours didn't, though. Wonder why? Hmmm....could it be that our children don't seem to crave dried squid or shrimp cakes? Sorry for the fuzzy closeup, but if you look closely, you can see the shape of a dried squid. A whole, dried, squid. As a treat. I don't care how long we live here, that will never seem like a treat to me.
Squid Treat
Shrimp Treat

Here is an impressive assortment of Thomas the Tank Engine die cast toys. He's a popular character here. Not as popular, though, as Anpanman. Anpanman has a television show.
Thomas Toys

If you have seen the wonderful Japanese animated movie called "My Neighbor Totoro", you'll appreciate these fuzzy characters. We watched it in Juneau, dubbed, of course. It's a very cute movie. All these little guys are different kinds of spirits.
Cuddly Spirits

The grocery store has a little dinning area where we ate dinner. Every Japanese resteraunt has a display of fake food so guest can really see what they will be getting. That is what this first shot is a picture of - the menu. The second is a poster advertising one of the snack foods they serve. Yes - that is a tentacle with suckers on it. Did you ever wake up one morning and say to yourself, "gee, I sure would like some octopus fried up in a little ball,"? Me neither.
Menu
Yummy, Yummy Octopus