Weird and Wonderful

Most of my posts lately have been heavier-hearted...time for less heavy.  This post is simply some of the strange, wonderful, or perplexing things I've seen here in Tokyo in the last few months.

Food

Um, there are noodles on your sandwich...I don't know why the idea of noodles on a sandwich is so wrong to me - I eat garlic bread with my spaghetti.  I have yet to try this common deli sandwich so don't ask me how it tastes.  I just think weird...
 The orange in this pic is the size of a satsuma - followed by an onion the size of a baseball.  The apple is obviously bigger, followed by the biggest asian pear I have ever seen.  We stopped at a fruit stand near our house and picked up the pear for about $3.  Five of us snacked on it and there was still some left...crazy!

This little meal was a kids meal that Jaxon ordered while we were out one day.  It is curry and rice, broccoli and potatoes, a piece of chicken and a few french fries.  Of course there is corn in the curry because here in Japan corn goes in everything.  The strange thing to me - the American flag.  Why?
 How cute is this little lunch?  This is a traditional Japanese bento that my co-worker brought today.  All the little containers were stacked up together and tied up in the cloth.  So cute!  The little bottle has sauce in it - mayo maybe as that is the condiment of choice here.







I love these little ketchup/mustard packets.  To use them you just fold it in half and both condiments come out at the same time.  Some how it is always the right amount...now if you happen to be Jason and don't like mustard, they're not as cool for you.
Skytree
Somewhat recently a building opened here in Tokyo called Tokyo Skytree.  It is the biggest freestanding broadcasting tower in the world - or so their site says.  It is a pretty building either way.  Visitors can ride to the top of the building for a mere $30 or so.  At the base of the building is a little shopping plaza.  We went there purely by accident.  Here are some photos:




































































Notice the giant golden sperm?  I really don't know what that is.  I'm sure I could have asked and found but it's probably a lot more fun to just make fun of it.  Maybe it escaped from this park bench near-by:
"Meet me at the sperm..."
















Etc...
Cars in Japan are so small, and so are the parking spaces.  But this might just be the tightest squeeze I've seen.  I'm not even sure how the car got in there...














 It is cold, cold, cold here in the winter.  Not really much colder than Seattle, but there is a difference.  Here the apartments and homes are not heated.  Heaters here are small space heaters.  Many homes have what is called a Kotatsu table which is a table that has a heating element installed underneath it.  During the winter people install this blanket that lays over the table and traps the heat so that the people sitting around it can stay warm.  Or, why not just sleep under the table?  Many Japanese people sleep on the floor on futons anyway, is it a huge stretch to sleep under the table?

And, finally...the biggest nail clippers I have ever seen!  We went for a walk the other day and stopped by a barber/salon to get Lily's hair cut.  It was an adventure just getting her settled in and trying to communicate with the little old lady that was going to be cutting her hair.  But, we were able to use our fingers as scissors and illustrate what we wanted done, so it all worked out.  Like TB says, 80% of communication is non-verbal!

Anyway, we were sitting at the table waiting and there were some brochures, magazines, tissues, etc.  There was an ashtray and a pack of complimentary cigarettes.  Then we say the basket of nail clippers.  There had to be 6 or 7 pairs of nail clippers in the basket.  Kind of a weird thing to have a collection of if you ask me.  I understand having a pair or two, maybe even the small ones for your hands and the larger ones for your toes.  But, these?
What the heck do you cut with these?  They filled up my entire hand and when placed on the table by Jaxon's glasses they were the same size.  They were not easy to squeeze either.  I fear that I there may be a lost of limb if I tried to use these...

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