Lioness in Japan

With gorgeous sakuras blooming outdoors, this also means it’s hay fever season with lots of pollen hanging around in the air.

When I first arrived in Tokyo, I thought mask-wearing folks were afraid to catch germs, but I found out later that they are trying not to spread their illness to others.

I still think it’s a weird habit to wear a mask when you’ve got flu or sinus problems. I mean, what if you want to cough or sneeze? Wouldn’t the ah contents remain in the mask? Wouldn’t it be too moist for comfortable breathing? Lots of questions in my mind but it’s one of those things that I don’t want to try. I’ve given most things a go, like raw fish testicles and raw chicken, but not this…

Photo: monsieurlesensei

This is probably not such a rare bob of information — we all know precious fruit like square watermelons and honeydews cost the earth in Tokes.

But let’s look at some real evidence on other less sensational fruit from Isetan.

Not only do these strawberries cost a whopping 8,400JPY per tray, they look absolutely unreal and give off a heady fragrance of sweet strawberries.

That’s what you have here: the Porsche of all strawberries. I don’t think my stomach deserves such royal treatment, but I like looking at perfect fruit.

Any other sightings of pricey fruit that knocked your socks off?

Back in the day (like a few months ago) when I was still a snack junkie, I would try the plethora of offerings at the conbini. The colourful packets and flavours beckoned my curiosity and here is a pattern I spotted with less run-of-the-mill ones:

Snacks try to look or taste like a Japanese dish.

Check out the endamame “chips”:

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Sometimes this amuses me, or it irritates me, but ultimately, I wonder, “Why?”

For those of you who are living here or have lived here, you will know that almost everything in daily life goes the opposite way to what you are used to:

+ You have to turn your key left in the keyhole to lock and turn right to unlock.

+ You are allowed to smoke indoors, not outdoors.

+ University students are not expected to study at all (because they are preparing for a life of office imprisonment).

+ Traffic lights turn blue, not green.**

+ ATMs ask you how much you want to withdraw before requesting your pin number.

+ Photocopying machines are laid out “landscape” and not “portrait”.*

*Personal experience: I photocopied 50 pieces of what I wanted portrait-wise and got half of what I wanted cut off from the pages. I had to re-do the lot. Perfect.

**Many moons ago, I asked a couple of my beginner students what colour traffic lights were, and they both replied, red, yellow, and blue. They did not have poor English. They really meant blue.

Photo: iandoubleyou

Quite a few of my posts are about food, eh? Well, Japan has a lot to offer in this department.

Sure, there are plenty of perfect-looking fruit to choose from, but one of my faves has to be Aomori apples. They are not as big as the Fuji ones and taste extremely fresh and crunchy.

Aomori is way up north of Honshu and is the gateway to Hokkaido. Produce is so much better from up there because there’s less pollution — so I was told when I did a press junket of Hokkaido many moons ago.

I like my apple slices with a bit of peanut butter. The kangaroo thinks it’s weird and only Americans eat this way. But it’s so so so good. Try it.

This is something that always makes me giggle: smiley-faced deep-fried potatoes come with your pizza if you order take-away from Domino’s Pizza. Not fries or wedges, but these silly-looking things.

They are quite fun to chomp on — kinda fluffy in texture. Kawaii, ne.

I’ve blogged about heat pads, or hokkairo, before and it’s a nifty Japanese invention for cold, windy days.

Since I’ve been back in icy Tokyo, I did toss a couple of hokkairo in the futon and my skin got a little burnt when my PJs got hiked up and exposed skin while I was sleeping. I realized the error of my ways and found that the pharmacies sell hokkairo covers.

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This is something that always makes me giggle: smiley-faced deep-fried potatoes come with your pizza if you order take-away from Domino’s Pizza.

Not fries or wedges, but these silly-looking things.

They are quite fun to chomp on — kinda fluffy in texture.

Point cards to create a loyal customer base is nothing new but you’ll be amazed that virtually every Tokyo store you frequent has a point card system — from Starbucks to Haagen Daz to kusuriyas (pharmacies) to chocolate counters to Subway to stationary shops.

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Today’s tidbit on Tokyo is one of my pet faves, freshly squeezed (nama) grapefruit juice sour (shouchu).

It’s more refreshing than a gin and tonic, and I always think it balances out the bad (alcohol) with the good (tons of vitamin C – yay!). I prefer grapefruit over lemon, or kiwi even, because Japanese grapefruit is not sour at all, especially the pink variety.

After wrestling a huge grapefruit halve on a metal juice press, you feel like a big gulp of the stuff is such a delightful reward.

Available at most good izakayas…