Thursday, November 15, 2012

Meron pan is a fantastic dessert here.  It is a sweet roll topped with a cookie.  It is called meron pan because pan is the word for bread here and it looks like a cantaloupe because of the texture on top.  Some of them are flavored with melon extract, and some of them are chocolate or have mini chocolate chips in the cookie dough.  They are quite delicious and are sold at most grocery and convenience stores.

Speaking of convenience stores it seems like there is a 7-11, Family Mart, or Lawson on almost every street corner throughout Japan!

There are also quite a few American chains like KFC and McDonalds, although their menus here are quite different from back home.  However, a very good Japanese chain that serves hamburgers is called Mos  Burger.  They make a very good burger.

The other thing that you will find a lot of on the streets of Japan is vending machines that sell drinks!  They are everywhere!

Hand towels are a prominent thing here in Japan.  Toddlers carry a towel with them to Preschool.  It is a practice that remains with them throughout their life. They don’t have paper towels in the public restrooms so they bring their own towel with them.  They sell them in all of the department stores and people give them as gifts.  They are made of cotton and are very beautiful.

Here is a picture of a stop sign.  Sometimes they write the word on the street as well.

This is a picture of some men making Tako Yaki outside of a grocery store.  Scott loves this so much that he bought a Tako Yaki pan so we could make this when we get home!  I might eat it if we can put something other than squid inside of it!

It is always a challenge to go to the grocery store and try to decipher what we are buying.

Last week we wheeled our clothes to the laundry mat in a suitcase.  We had too many to wash in the bathtub.

You even have to take your shoes off in the laundry mat!

It is actually getting cold enough here that we had to turn the wall heater on last night.  The apartment is not very well insulated and it only has one small heater in the bedroom and no other heater in the house!  The wind was blowing last night and walking to English class we were cold even with two jackets on!  It’s supposed to be in the mid 60’s with lows in the mid 40’s here all week, so we really can’t complain! I can’t imagine how we will feel when we get home and it is really cold!

Last weekend we went to Fukuoka and Kagoshima with our friends the Petersen’s.  Scott even had the opportunity to share in the driving experience with Dennis and I guess he was successful because he didn’t put any dents in their car!  On Friday we went to the Fukuoka Temple. 

Then we went to Costco!  I haven’t seen such big things since I left America!  We bought almonds and dried blueberries and a big pack of peanut M & M’s jumped off the shelf into my arms begging me to take it home!

Later that night we drove to Kagoshima and got a hotel room.  We went to dinner at a Hawaiian restaurant and had a huge pile of fruit and macadamia nut pancakes. 

This church is at the top of a very steep hill!

There is a large active volcano near Kagoshima that erupts over 900 times per year.  It puts ash out all over the city and it runs black ash down the gutters.

They have interesting parking garages here.  You pull in and they put your car on an elevator thingy.  When you get your car back they bring it down to you and put it on a turntable to get it facing the right direction.

It is quite humorous to read the English inscriptions on things here.  I found these chocolate treats in the train station.

I saw a guy wearing a sweatshirt yesterday that said the primary colors are red, bule, and yellow!

We got heart attacked by the sister missionaries the other day.  It was so sweet of them to ride the train all the way out in the boonies to decorate our door.  They were thanking us for teaching English classes at the church on Wednesday nights.  

Here is a picture I took last night of the children playing Duck, Duck, Goose!  It was pretty funny to watch them play a game they had never heard of before!

They have these "good luck" cats in front of many businesses.  The other thing that they have is a large raccoon dog.  It is supposed to bring good fortune as well.  

Here is a picture of one of the many road side fruit stands that they have here in Japan.

I am keeping busy teaching Kindergarten every day.  Scott is keeping busy programming and the time is going by very quickly!