Part of this Complete Breakfast
Today I took a brief trip to the big grocery store in my neighborhood to buy ingredients for my tokubetsu (special) oatmeal and pick up a few things. After a few minutes it became apparent that I was on the wrong bus when it turned where it was supposed to go straight... but I decided to stay on anyway and rode until the last stop. I've already mapped this area well enough to know I was only one long block over and down from where I wanted to go. Anyway, it's not so hard to find your way around Tokyo if you have some general idea where you're going. I can always orient myself to Shinjuku in my neighborhood.

At the store, I found some minor variations on all the things I wanted to buy and picked them up for a grand sum of about twenty-six dollars. All this for:

-One box instant oatmeal ($3.50) [they don't seem to have real or whole oats here... I went to three grocers and they all had the same ONE box instant oats]
-One tiny bag mixed dry fruits ($2)
-One bag almonds ($2.50)
-One bag walnuts ($1)
-One bag mixed raisins ($1)
-One tiny bag mixed seeds ($1)
-One bag "wild" blueberries ($3)
-One stick butter ($2!!)
-One small carton milk ($1)
-Pancake mix ($1)
-Tomato paste ($2)
-Real Canadian maple syrup ($7)

Though the maple syrup seems exorbitantly priced, I think that's pretty much universal for pure syrup. The only prices that surprised me were the oatmeal (but not by much), the blueberries, the dry fruits (again, specialty items) and the freaking butter--- two dollars a stick?!? WTF??? I didn't think milk was that expensive here but I could be wrong. I don't exactly buy it often.

I got the pancake mix on a whim (hey it was cheap and I figured I could put the blueberries to use) and purchased the tomato paste in the event that my boyfriend or my family sends me some Bear Creek chili mix so I can whip up an easy (and tasty!) batch of chili for my family. As is, I'm making them American Breakfast some time this weekend on either Sunday or Monday morning. I'm quite apprehensive about whether or not they'll like oatmeal but only because I have to deal with whatever weird variety of Quaker Quick oats I'm stuck with. There really is no replacing whole oats. Quick oats are mushy nastiness. I think I can work with them though. I look forward to anything resembling American breakfast.

We talk a lot about food in my family. My host mom is well aware that I'm health conscious but still insists on serving me enormous quantities of (albeit low-calorie density) food and often even dessert. I can't really object since it never seems like TOO MUCH but of course, I eat all that's put in front of me because it's how I raised. I hope my upbringing doesn't go to my waist. I do hate feeling rude but I hate feeling self-conscious even more.

Today we chatted about the use of mayonnaise in Japan. They love that nasty white goop here. Japanese put it on everything it seems... takoyaki, okonomiyaki, sandwiches, salad. Seems they haven't realized that it not only tastes bad but is also bad for you. Uck. That and my host mom (along with everyone else in Japan, I bet) seems to think that because Mayo comes from America, it must be REALLY POPULAR with Americans. While that might once have been the case, I think mayo's been on a tremendous decline in recent years. Does anyone even like it anymore? I don't think I know anyone who likes mayo. I know people who hate it and people who tolerate it... but put it on salad and use it in cooking voluntarily? Dare mo inai yo.

Mom and I also talked about the differing phenomena of conbini (convenience stores) and supa (supermarkets). In Japan, conbini are a dime a dozen. Everywhere you look (literally, I kid you not) there are 7-11, AM-PM, Family Mart and Lawsons' convenience stores. Note that these are not drug stores like Rite-Aid. You have to go to a Kusuri-ya/Yakyoku (pharmacy) to buy even the weakest cold medicine. And I think most Japanese even go to the doctor for their inaffective Sudafed.

Anyway, my point is that the convenience store here is something completely different than in the states. Everyone uses conbini all the time. They're open 24-hours, of course, because the grocery stores are not. You can't really get groceries there but they certainly seem to have a greater variety of actually edible food than the US convenience stores. There certainly is a different vibe, too... something more comfortable and familiar about the Japanese conbini. In US convenience stores, I always had the feeling I might be held at gunpoint or accidentally associated with a shoplifer or fat man buying a forty. US Convenience stores seem distinctively lower class somehow. I tried to explain to my mom why it seems only certain people use US convenience stores at certain times but I couldn't really come up with a good explanation. The only concrete word I have for the US 7-11 is ghetto and you try to translate THAT.

I think the big difference is that, in America, grocery stores are by far both larger and more affordable than convenience stores and are also almost always open 24-hours now. Because our neighborhoods are less condense and contain fewer shops, going to the grocery store is just as about convenient as a "convenience" store. Mainly, in America most people can drive places and don't have to walk to the neighborhood quick-e-mart. Most true "convenience stores" are thus located at or around gas stations to promote convenience in a driving culture. The only time I feel normal going to a US convenience store is when I'm at a gas station.

That being said, I really miss US grocery stores. They really are uber-awesome. It is interesting comparing the differently stocked foods in Japan (such as, for example, the "curry" aisle) but Japanese grocery stores just fall somehow short. Even the incredible and upper-class department store basement groceries are lacking. The food quality is good but, you know, I'm an American and I want choices damnit. I don't like that I can only choose from two kinds of crackers and three brands of yogurt. I don't care if in the US it's all pretty much from the same company anyway... I like the variety!

While I'm being mostly facetious, I'm serious that I miss shopping in the US. There's something really satisfying about all the ingredients one can choose in an American supermarket. There's just more of everything... from ever culture. I could make authentic Japanese food with the ingredients from almost any American grocery... but I don't think I can make very authentic American food from the supa.

However, the Japanese have concocted a variety of ingeniously wonderful foods that I will surely miss when I return home. Among them:

-Conbini onigiri. Onigiri are rice balls with various filling wrapped in nori (seaweed). The problem with onigiri is of course that if left alone the nori becomes soggy and tastes not nearly as good as when crisp. To fix this dilemma, store-bought onigiri are wrapped in an amazing way that allows, within a single plastic wrapped package, the nori to be separated from the rice ball itself. To unwrap, you simply split the package at tab 1 and pull from the corners at tab 2 and 3. Voila! Your onigiri is assmebled! Some foreigners seem to find it impossible to unwrap these goodies. Baka.

-Choco-ice. I dunnoe exacly what these are called but they're rougly equivalent to some movie theatre snack we have in the US. They're small, chocolate covered ice cream bon-bons that come six to a package. You eat them with a plastic toothpick thing. YUM.

-Pocky. If you don't know what pocky is, you should be shot. Pocky comes in fifty million flavors of yum. Greatest Japanese snack ever.

-Nomu-yoguruto. Drinkable yogurt. I don't know why there isn't more of this in the states. It's really tasty and quite healthy. They seem to have a limited variety of flavors (mostly strawberry, blueberry and mixed berry) but you can occasionally find something odd like Aloe flavor.

-Hot vendable beverages. Japan is famous for its vending machines. Somehow I expected more than drink and cigarette machines though. There are of course other machines but these two are by far the most common. They are EVERYWHERE... every TEN FEET or so. Though the legal smoking age in Japan is twenty, there is of course no way to prevent anyone who wants from buying cigarettes from the machines. I don't know how much of a problem this is. But I digress. From your average drink machine you can get tea, sports drinks, cola and coffee products. Along with cold beverages, there is usually a row of "hot." On a cold day just buy one of these babies to have an instant one-dollar tea or coffee. I think I'm in love with Milk Tea. mmmmm.

So, yeah. That was a lot of talk about food. This is a pretty neat-o place as far as food goes. As I've said before, more restaurants per capita than anywhere else in the world. By far. Far.

And, um, in conclusion... I'm hungry again. Drat.