Makin' Groceries

 My awesome friend Laura invited me to go out in town with her, and I was excited to do so.  We made several stops, but silly me didn't think to grab the camera till we were at the grocery store.  So, here is what one might find while makin' groceries in Japan!

These are pears.  I know, they look like apples.  But they are pears.  Ginormous pears.

Seriously, this is not a photography trick. It really is that insanely huge! 

Little dried fishies, anyone? 

Ooooh, they have the best bread here!  This kind comes in a square.  The squares are the same size, but the width of the bread varies.  You can get 4, 5 or 6 slices in your square of bread.  4, meaning super-fat slices, and 6 being a wide, but manageable thickness.

What the back corner of the store looks like. It is all crowded and narrow, but interesting! 

My favorite section!  The ice cream! 

And look!  A familiar name.  Sorry about the glare, but you can probably still see the Hagan Daaz.  

More frozen goods. 

The soy sauce selection. 

Juice? 

Hmmm... the carton is familiar, even if the writing is not. 

Butter!  Now that, I can't live without. 

Beans that don't come in cans.  Very interesting. 

Adorable little mushrooms! 

Nice!  Who wouldn't want to try some "Softly Chocolate Bread"?  Yes, I got it.  It had a chocolate cream filling and the kids scarfed it up, so I assume it was yummy.

Guess what?!  I totally bought this and ate it for lunch!  Don't ask me what it was.  It had noodles and cabbage and sauce and I think, a fried egg on top.  I felt all adventurous, and it was tasty!

 See, here I am, at the supermarket in Japan, feeling all cultured!

What makes me smile this week

This is Marian at our General Conference meeting.  This girl sat just like this for the entire 2 Sunday sessions.  She was awesome!  

This is Rylee's Yochien Bus!  Not only is is cute, it picks her up in the morning and returns her in the afternoon.  I love it!  

This is one of my new plates.  The "Recycle Shop" I was introduced to today had 12 of these that I now call mine!  Made in Japan and gorgeous.  Bonus..... I paid less than $2.50 for all of them.  Hooray!  Now I have enough plates for lots of company!

Mayajima Island: Part 2

 After the Aquaruim, we meandered back to the ferry.  It was a mostly delightful walk.  Rylee had a minor meltdown because I refused to buy her all sorts of toys at the little shops. She did great for all the walking though and I was pleased with that.

I asked if she would sit on that tree limb for the picture, but she wouldn't.

A shrine. 

Ooooh, it's me at the shrine! 

Rylee was grumpy that I wouldn't stop for food, but she also couldn't find anything she would eat.  Until we saw this!  She chose a bubblegum flavored icee. 

This 5 storied pagoda is an attraction here.  We did not hike up to it.  I took selfies with it while Rylee finished slupring her icee. 

Me and my girl, enjoying our day together. 

We did stop to pet all the deer and Rylee posed with most of them for me! 

I thought this was fun. Probably a touristy event, but it looks cool. 

Petting more deer. 

The little ones with spots are adorable.   

Selfie with the deer! 

 Selfie with the Torii in the background. We walked all the way past that in our trek to the Aquarium.

Selfie with Rylee and the beautiful background. 

This was too funny.  The lady shouted at the deer, who stole her sushi and was trying to grab her beer.  However, this couple didn't move or even try to shoo the deer away.  They just sat there and philosophically let the deer finish off their lunch.

This deer fished out a snack from the red back pack there.  They are aggressive in the search for food! 

Ice cream here is amazing.  So delicious!  And later, when I asked Rylee what her favorite part of the day was, she told me it was the cookie spoon they give you to eat your ice cream with.  

(It WAS a tasty cookie.) 

This big guy was one of the few deer that looked male.  Most of the deer looked like the one in front of him.

Mayajima Island, Part 1

 Rylee's Yochien had a field trip on Friday to Mayajima Island.  Super fun!  I wanted to go!  Fortunately, parents are required to go, that worked out well for me.  The preschool field trips are quite a bit different than in the US.  We met at the school, got on separate busses, rode the ferry together, then walked to the Aquarium.  Once at the Aquarium, we dispersed and were on our own till 2pm, when we were to all meet back at the busses.  It was kind of nice to do it that way so we could all spend time doing what we wanted.

So, Mayajima Island is about an hours bus ride plus a 5 minute ferry ride from Iwakuni. It has several attractions: a large shrine, some hiking, the Aquarium, and the deer that freely roam and are really just like untrained dogs.  There are lots of little touristy shops and eateries. I was not brave enough to drop Y800 on something I couldn't identify, so we snacked on the food I brought and limited ourselves to ice cream.

On the ferry.

Gathering on the island for the 30 minute trek to the Aquarium. 

Walking in lines with their buddies.  Rylee is with one of the 3 other American students in her class.

(Don't they totally remind you of "Madeline"?!) 

Someone wants in the shop! 

It was so fun to see the deer everywhere!  I wanted to go pet them, but we had to wait. 

This mom went to say hi to the deer.  The deer put its nose in her son's face and the kid freaked out.  I love how the mom is laughing.  (It was pretty funny!) 

There are 4 or 5 different classes.  This is Ryee's class.  They were trying to get a class shot with the parents. (Rylee is in front in the middle.)

They did another class shot once we reached the Aquarium. You can see it was a stinking hot day and all the kids ditched the jackets.  Now you can see who wore the appropriate white shirt underneath!  (Not Rylee!) 

Finally at the Aqurarium and on our own! 

The tide pool where you could touch stuff. 

There were some beautiful starfish in there.  You can't tell but the one was a really pretty purple. 

These little eels were the creepiest things ever!  They just poked out from the ground like snakes and swayed around. 

Such pretty fish! 

Thank goodness for a traditional toilet, and check out all the fun extras you can use!  

This section was neat.  They had an aquarium with the fish in it, then a display with the dishes made with that fish, and then an info card that told you (in Japanese) about it.  It was fascinating. 

And icky. These eels are cooked, but look at those teeth! 

Back at the tide pool 

And on to the penguin display. 

Rylee even got to pet the penguin. Adorable! 

Aaaand back to the tide pool.  You can see what the favorite place was!  This was a 4 legged star fish. 

And my girl was brave enough to pick this up! 

A Sea Cucumber!  She said it was squishy.