Letters from Japan Sept 2, 2002 "A Quickie"

As you know, I passed on writing yesterday because it would have been more of my day-to-day drivel so I spared you all. And this one will be a quickie because I still have nothing of interest to share with you. The one BIG thing is that I gave you the wrong number to call. Actually, just leave the 0 off the number. Everything else is correct. I guess you just use that first 0 when you are calling someone in Japan. I also heard from a few folks that those calling cards at Sam's can let you yap for .14 cents a minutes. That's a hell of a lot better than $5 bucks a minute that Michael was paying! Just thought I'd pass that very important tidbit of info your way so I can speak to some natives.

Here's another interesting fact...Japanese grocery stores are underground. They can usually be found in the basement of department stores. Can you imagine going to Sommerset Collections to grab some Oscar Meyer wieners? I guess it is their version of Meijers or Super K-Mart...one-stop-shopping. But the good news is I FINALLY found a damn grocery store. For a while, I didn't think they existed. The bad news is that all the kuso is foreign (please see previous emails for translation...). So I can't read any of the labels. And I really don't think they put much money into advertising because even if they have pictures on the labels, I STILL don't know what the hell it is. So here I finally find the grocery store and what do I buy? DORITOS, BREAD, AND KIT-KATS!!! Yes, all the same kuso I buy at good old 7-Eleven! Also, I had not eaten ANY fruits or vegetables since I have been here (which may be the cause of my other problem) and I thought now that I found the grocery store, I could buy some broccoli and spinach and salad stuff as well as some apples and other fruits. well, they didn't have any broccoli. In face, they didn't have ANY vegetables that looked like anything I had ever SEEN before! And the fruit that I COULD recognize was mega-bucks (cantaloupe was something like 3 bucks a pop) so I said FORGET IT! IT"S CHIPS AND CHOCOLATE ALL THE WAY! I won't even begin to tell you how confusing the store was. I'll just say that there are some things that you can purchase as the checkout line and there are some things that you purchase at the counter and other things that you purchase at other checkout lines and it only gets crazier. People that work there stand around chanting stuff in a monotone voice (much like they do at the department stores...like carnies at a carnival who stand around harassing people to come to their booth and shoot ducks or somethin'.) So it is an experience to say the least. I think I'll stick to 7-Eleven...