(no subject)
Well, in about 20 minutes I'll be on a bus to Narita, then a plane to Chicago, a plane to Portland, and finally a happy car ride home.
Figured I'd leave you all with a funny little story from yesterday.
For the last week I've been suffering from some weird asian stomach rot (which today finally seems to be a bit better thank goodness). To help calm it yesterday I decided I'd buy a banana for breakfast on the way to work. There's a nice fresh grocer on the path in and when going by I saw an nice display of bananas. I picked one off of a small bunch and went to go pay for it. When I got to the register the cashier started freaking out when she saw my banana. She was shaking her head and then she scooted outside to look at the bunches of bananas and then on the way back in stopped at a smaller display with bananas wrapped singly in plastic and tried to get me to buy that one, even though by itself it was nearly twice as expensive as the whole bunch would have been. I pieced two and two together, understanding the Japanese concept of certain "packages" that go together and if you try to break them up they frown on it. Apparently bunches of bananas fit this model too, so I went out, found my unwhole package of bananas and reunited the bunch into a pleasing zen unity once again. She was happy and I paid less for 4 bananas than her single premium grade banana. Grading is important to fruit here - a "Perfect" cantaloup, which is exactly round and has the stem attached and curling in a particular way can fetch $100 each, no joke.
Anyway, gotta head out. See you all soon!!
Figured I'd leave you all with a funny little story from yesterday.
For the last week I've been suffering from some weird asian stomach rot (which today finally seems to be a bit better thank goodness). To help calm it yesterday I decided I'd buy a banana for breakfast on the way to work. There's a nice fresh grocer on the path in and when going by I saw an nice display of bananas. I picked one off of a small bunch and went to go pay for it. When I got to the register the cashier started freaking out when she saw my banana. She was shaking her head and then she scooted outside to look at the bunches of bananas and then on the way back in stopped at a smaller display with bananas wrapped singly in plastic and tried to get me to buy that one, even though by itself it was nearly twice as expensive as the whole bunch would have been. I pieced two and two together, understanding the Japanese concept of certain "packages" that go together and if you try to break them up they frown on it. Apparently bunches of bananas fit this model too, so I went out, found my unwhole package of bananas and reunited the bunch into a pleasing zen unity once again. She was happy and I paid less for 4 bananas than her single premium grade banana. Grading is important to fruit here - a "Perfect" cantaloup, which is exactly round and has the stem attached and curling in a particular way can fetch $100 each, no joke.
Anyway, gotta head out. See you all soon!!