Too many vending machines

Really, is Sweat any worse a name for a drink than Gatorade?

Sort-of food

Weak coffee in Japan goes by the name American Coffee.

Energy drinks

Shouldn't this be La Cola, grammatically speaking?

Valentine's Day is coming 2

Ads at the post office:

Valentine's Day is coming

Which in Japan means women have to buy a lot of chocolate. Men give chocolate a month later, March 14, White Day.

Local winter vegetables

From the farmers' market 10 minutes' walk from home. The total came to 1020 yen, a little over $10 U.S.

Except for the bananas.

Big America (burgers, from McD)

McDonald's Japan has a new series of hamburgers, Big America cheeseburgers. They come in four varieties:

• Texas Burger -- with smokey bacon and spicy bbq sauce
• New York Burger -- "clubhouse sandwich style' with bacon, lettuce, and tomato
• California Burger -- with red wine sauce
• Hawaiian Burger -- with a fried egg

I don't suppose any of these are available in the U.S. are they? Or maybe under different names?

Historical food week

They're having an historical food week at my daughter's school.They're showing them the history of school lunches in Japan. At least, the post-WWII history of school lunches. As far as I can understand from the handout she brought home:

• Monday they had grilled fish and onigiri, a rice ball with a strip of nori wrapped partially around it.
• Then they had an American influenced lunch with bread and milk added.
• Finally, they get their regular lunch of rice, soup with vegetables, and meat and vegetable main course, and milk.

It should add a little interest to what is, after all, pretty much the same old thing. My daughter asked me what I had for school lunch when I was a kid. Now, that was practically in the Jurassic Era. In elementary school, I brought a sandwich or two and maybe some fruit. (and chocolate?) In junior high I went across the street and ate two hamburgers. In high school I chose whichever of the two horrors presented looked less horrible. I've had Japanese school lunch a few times. It's no improvement.

The same goes for Japanese hospital food. The only good food is the sushi your friends and family bring in to you.

Winter crops

Carrots under plastic, peas out in the air

No, the winters aren't very cold here.

Lotus field in winter

Good name for a large supermarket

Gone to seed and overwintering rice

Grandma's homemade sushi

Well, technically my mother-in-law's, but the usual way to name people within a family makes her Grandma.


It's saba, horse mackeral, with a little uzu peel added into the sushi rice and sliced ginger on top. I ate three of these for dinner last night and one for breakfast this morning. They're that good.

Japanese cakes

Here's the ad from Il Rosa.

They have, as you can see, gorgeous cakes and cute cakes. I wish I could say they have delicious cakes, but they're just sort of okay in the taste department. Like nearly all Japanese patisseries, their cakes lack the depth of flavor that you would expect from someplace where they take such care with how the cake looks. They're sweet and creamy and the fruit toppings are fresh and attractive.

I mention them because we have four chou au crème in the refrigerator right now. When we went to the wedding on Saturday, my daughter made friends with another little girl and invited her over. Her parents dropped her off for two hours yesterday while they went shopping. They brought over a box of what is called in Japanese "shoe cream" or at least least, that's what it sounds like. These shoe cream are pretty popular here, and Il Rosa has the best, at least the best I've had so far. Too bad I don't really like them. I prefer anything with chocolate. (Valentine's Day is just over the horizon!)