What I first noticed was that it is HOT! Japan is not on daylight savings time, so the sun rises early. Today, that worked out since I am still jet-lagged, so I got up at 6am and decided to do some walking and exploring around the neighborhood. About a km from the house I am staying at, is the extensive Mizumoto park. Its got a large lake in the middle (with plenty of morning fishermen with their umbrellas and fishing poles). As I meandered along the paved walking and cycling paths, I saw plenty of morning walkers, lots of elderly on their bikes, even a few joggers- with the amount of sweat that was already pouring out of me, jogging seemed unbearable! I exchanged a few "ohaiyo gozaimasu" (good mornings) with some locals! That put a smile on my face.
My other goal for the day, was grocery shopping. About 2 blocks from the house is a fruit/veggie/fish market where I looked at everything, but only picked up things that looked safe: tofu, peaches, cucumbers, bok choy, green beans, carrots, tomatoes and garlic. There I exchanged several "ohaiyo"s and "arrigato"s (thank you) and "konichiwa"s (hello). The store clerks were very friendly.
Closer to the train station, just over a mile away, is the shopping area where there was a larger grocery store. There I found fresh noodles, bread (six slices of "wheat") and some cooking sauces. I searched for soy milk, but was unsuccessful- I guess I need to find the correct japanese letters for soy milk!
All ages are riding their bicycles all over town and there are long lines of parked bikes outside of the grocery stores. As I walked down the street, a lady was turning her bicycle around and came close to me, I heard her bow "gomen nasai" (sorry), which is one of the only other phrases I know.
I'm cooling off at the house before I go out again.
Wow wow wow. Rani this all sounds so exciting (and overwhelming). Congratulations on already doing so well with your japanese phrases, even on day one! I know how fun that is. And it sounds like you'll be eating very healthy with all those yummy fruits and veggies -at least you don't have to decipher words on the packaging for those. Also, I added Tokyo to my Ipod weather app, which I check ritually every morning when I wake up. Tokyo looks just as hot as Singapore, even with tropical storms; this surprised me.
ReplyDeleteThat grocery store looks less intimidating than I expected. I see eggs, and veggies. I'm surprised you found bread, I feel like (unlike Chileans) the japanese don't do much bread. (One student once commented to my host mom about how much bread the chileans eat and she was like I serve bread less than the average Chilean house...if you don't have bread what would you be eating???....The concept just didn't exist to her)
ReplyDeleteDid you notice that in the grocery store the sign that probably should say DAIRY says instead DAILY? The R sound is one they really can't figure out. I guess your new name will be Lani.
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