On The Go!!!: April 13th

Hello World!!! Nothing new to report today on the house hunting, we're waiting to hear from the guarantor company for the paperwork on the new house we looked at yesterday. When the call comes in we won't answer it, rather let our Realtor know and he will call them on our behalf since he can speak Japanese etc. We were content to stay at home today anyway and recover a little from all our running around yesterday. I know we walked miles and miles yesterday and Gary's knee needed a break as did my poor feet! So I took care of business around here...a couple loads of laundry as usual, and made a candy care package for Hopie and Gary Jr. When I went back Stateside in January I brought them a big selection of Japanese candy to try and they really loved this one!

Apparently, it's like cotton candy but as you eat it there's pop rocks inside so it starts exploding in your mouth too. Anyway, they will be happy to get their treat AND I found a new flavor in a green package...I don't know what flavor it is so they will have to let me know. (I'm not a big candy person myself unless it's chocolate!) I also filled out a couple of postcards for a second grader at an elementary school in Wisconsin. His class is doing a special geography project and my sister sent me his address. (If any of my foreign readers would like to help by sending him a postcard as well just let me know and I'll send you his school address)
After I finished doing that I headed to the post office on the bike, however I forgot it was Saturday and the post office was closed so I'll have to try again on Monday.
Then I headed to the grocery store. I had taken all our empty plastic bottles with me as they have to be recycled. I pass my Suica card in front of a machine and then a little conveyor belt starts and I individually place the plastic bottles in the machine and it smashes them -at least that's what it sounds like. I get points on my Suica card for each bottle. The Suica card is a rechargeable card that is used here for buses, trains, convenience store purchases and some restaurants even. It makes travel around the city much easier as you just swipe your card when you board transport and when you get off it discounts the fare from the card so you don't have to dig around for money. Besides, it has a cute little penguin on it!

Anyway, I turned in the bottles and then shopped for groceries. I was feeling like American for dinner so I got us a couple of nice little steaks, some potatoes and salad fixings. The meat here is very tender and even pan fried you can cut it with a butter knife!

Last night on our way home we found an interesting little shop that sold these. We weren't sure what they were but they looked and smelled good so we bought some. They came with some shredded cabbage and a Worcestershire based sauce (Japan is in LOVE with Worcestershire sauce and mayonnaise) but we ate them solo with some Ponzu sauce for dipping.