日本人の読者さまへ：このポストは、普通のより長くて、今のところが日本語に書いておりません。ご迷惑かけてすみませんが、英語を頑張っていただけたらと思います。よろしくお願いします！
A while back, I was trying to find ingredients for a recipe I wanted to test out. One of those ingredients was apple sauce. I went to my local Marunaka, Seven, and both the larger shopping centers near my house. I looked and looked and found nothing. My Japanese reading/decoding skillz got me nowhere.
Finally, exasperated, I asked an employee. She lit up and answered, "Hai, kochira de gozaimasu!" (Of course, right over here!) I was surprised, and somewhat dubious, by how familiar she seemed with it. We approached the dairy section, and my doubts weren't assuaged in the least.
Suddenly she gestured upward towards the top shelf, above the selection of yogurt. There I saw strawberry, blueberry, and other fruit-based, syrupy sauces. Meant for putting on top of yogurt or pancakes or the like. Certainly not the apple sauce I was looking for.
That's but one anecdote illustrating a fundamental truth of Living in Japan versus Living at Home. The fact is, there are some things you won't find, anywhere, short of making them yourself. But I imagine most people (hopefully) have some expectations of that prior to moving here. What continually surprises me, even after over a year and a half, are the little gadgets and things that make me think, "Why don't WE have this in the states?!" Usually they are little items created for convenience's sake, and they're striking in that they display a level of consideration for customers' needs that I'm unaccustomed to. Or, they're innovative in a way that makes them useful specifically for the Japanese lifestyle.
An example of the former is, oddly enough, chewing gum. There are two basic kinds you can buy in Japan, sticks in a thin box, and pill-shaped gum in a plastic container. The nice thing about a lot of the stick gums is that they're designed to have the end exposed when you pull it out of the box. That is, you don't need to fumble with the wrapper; you can just bite the exposed gum and pull the wrapper off.
The gum that comes in a plastic container also has a nifty feature: something that appears to be a small post-it note pad included inside with the gum. At first it's confusing, but when you need to discard your gum, the purpose becomes clear. It's meant to wrap your chewed gum up in when you want to throw it away. No more tearing corners off of your napkins! Dude, how smart is that?
An example of the latter is this little doodad:
A while back, I was trying to find ingredients for a recipe I wanted to test out. One of those ingredients was apple sauce. I went to my local Marunaka, Seven, and both the larger shopping centers near my house. I looked and looked and found nothing. My Japanese reading/decoding skillz got me nowhere.
Finally, exasperated, I asked an employee. She lit up and answered, "Hai, kochira de gozaimasu!" (Of course, right over here!) I was surprised, and somewhat dubious, by how familiar she seemed with it. We approached the dairy section, and my doubts weren't assuaged in the least.
Suddenly she gestured upward towards the top shelf, above the selection of yogurt. There I saw strawberry, blueberry, and other fruit-based, syrupy sauces. Meant for putting on top of yogurt or pancakes or the like. Certainly not the apple sauce I was looking for.
That's but one anecdote illustrating a fundamental truth of Living in Japan versus Living at Home. The fact is, there are some things you won't find, anywhere, short of making them yourself. But I imagine most people (hopefully) have some expectations of that prior to moving here. What continually surprises me, even after over a year and a half, are the little gadgets and things that make me think, "Why don't WE have this in the states?!" Usually they are little items created for convenience's sake, and they're striking in that they display a level of consideration for customers' needs that I'm unaccustomed to. Or, they're innovative in a way that makes them useful specifically for the Japanese lifestyle.
An example of the former is, oddly enough, chewing gum. There are two basic kinds you can buy in Japan, sticks in a thin box, and pill-shaped gum in a plastic container. The nice thing about a lot of the stick gums is that they're designed to have the end exposed when you pull it out of the box. That is, you don't need to fumble with the wrapper; you can just bite the exposed gum and pull the wrapper off.
The gum that comes in a plastic container also has a nifty feature: something that appears to be a small post-it note pad included inside with the gum. At first it's confusing, but when you need to discard your gum, the purpose becomes clear. It's meant to wrap your chewed gum up in when you want to throw it away. No more tearing corners off of your napkins! Dude, how smart is that?
An example of the latter is this little doodad:
It may be hard to tell what it is at a glance. It's a donut mold. Meant for making (healthier) donuts in the microwave. The desire for such a thing is due to a unique feature (or lack thereof) of your typical Japanese kitchen: no oven. While many microwaves have oven-esque functions, they're neither that reliable, customizable, or accommodating for larger recipes. This mold allows you to make a single portion of a baked good (it includes a recipe), using the equipment you have (not the oven functions, the normal microwave settings). As icing on the cake (donut?), it's INCREDIBLY easy to clean, and can double as storage if you want to stick your creation in the fridge for later. I have two, which came in a pair, and I use them all the time. Love 'em.
One more example of this. Another deficiency of most Japanese kitchens is a lack of counter space, which makes housing many of the appliances we like to have at home a bit of a challenge. Including a coffee machine. At school we have coffee machines, but they are a workhorse of a machine that could probably seat six. You can see the not-miniscule water heater next to one in this picture.
One more example of this. Another deficiency of most Japanese kitchens is a lack of counter space, which makes housing many of the appliances we like to have at home a bit of a challenge. Including a coffee machine. At school we have coffee machines, but they are a workhorse of a machine that could probably seat six. You can see the not-miniscule water heater next to one in this picture.
And sometimes you don't want instant coffee, so what do you do? You buy handy-dandy single cup drip coffee filters. I was gifted some, and the engineering that went into them just astounds me. Basically, the filter with the coffee is hung hammock-style inside a stiff cardboard stand, sort of like one of those coffee cup things around your drink at Starbucks meant to keep you from burning your hand. This stand has little dents in the bottom meant to sit on the rim of your coffee cup, so the filter with the coffee grounds in suspended above. Then, you simply pour hot water into the filter, wait for some to strain through, and keep adding water until you have the amount of coffee you want.
There are many, many examples of this kind of thing. You may see me posting on this topic again if I find a particularly note-worthy one. In the meantime, I feel like having a donut.
Ja, mata!
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