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I like to take pictures of my food, so I figured I might as well put them in a post. Now you can see some of the things I eat here in Japan. Though this post will make me look very unhealthy. I eat healthy stuff too, but taking pictures of things like potatoes and carrots isn't as much fun as taking pictures of candy. :)I bought tomato soup at an import grocery store... yum! :)

Mochi (explained here) with red bean paste inside. That is a real leaf. I don't think you're supposed to eat the leaf but I'm not really sure. I didn't eat it.

The bakery in the grocery store was getting rid of stuff at the end of the day, so this was only a couple dollars. There is a cinnamon roll, chocolate doughnut, apple pastry thing, cheese bread, and a roll with sweet red bean paste inside.

I love how pineapple juice is common here. :)

pasta with hot sauce

I went to school for about half an hour on a Saturday morning to help the teacher record the listening test. She brought me food. The sandwich was filled with mochi and cinnamon cream. The triangular thing is onigiri (rice ball). This one had tuna salad inside.

Happi Setto! Japanese Happy Meal... :)

The package says "Unagi Pai" which means "eel pie." I'm not sure if there was eel in this. It wasn't pie so maybe it wasn't really eel either. I think it probably did have eel though because it was listed on the back and I think it was an ingredient list. It tasted really good though. I didn't taste anything seafoodish.

Sometimes I'm lazy and buy premade food from the grocery store. This was yakisoba and Japanese style Chinese fried rice. Very delicious!

And me???? No wonder they were so sweet! :)
These are really yummy. :) I thought I was buying wasabi peas, but these ended up being even better! They have sweet cracker-ish stuff on them.

Pineapple Fanta! It's pretty good, but I like the melon flavor better. Haha, look at the freaky duck on the TV.

soba noodles with curry sauce and carrots

Mmmm... yummy fruit!

The outside of these candies was like the texture of yogurt raisins, but it was fruit flavored (I think) and then there was a thin layer of chocolate surrounding a gummy center. This is actually one of my favorite candies that I've tried in Japan so far.

I couldn't resist these at the grocery...

Aggghh! Pikachu is in my noodles!!! I'm not sure what the picture things were made out of (fish most likely) and they were a little rubbery.... not bad though really.

some convenience store food

This was a souvenir from one of the teachers at school after the school trip to Kyoto. It was two pancakes with sweet red bean paste in the middle.


There was also a chunk of butter in there! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!! :) I've had azuki beans (the sweet red beans) in many things, but I think they are best with pancakes and butter. :)

huh?

This was a cake filled with banana cream (very similar to banana pudding). Tasty!

This is my favorite candy bar I have had in Japan. It is a green tea Oreo bar! I had seen the regular Oreo bars often, but I hadn't tried them. When I saw the green tea one I wanted to try it. Sooooo good! Now I want to try the regular ones as well.

mochi with red beans

Guess what's inside this one.



Yup, read beans.
Hamtaro Curry!!!!!!!!!



These are like ice cream bars except not on a stick. The package comes with a toothpick to eat them with.


mixed juice Kit Kat (orange, strawberry and peach I think)


mochi with a strawberry! :) This is called daifuku.

I thought these could be cookies but they were crackers. The combination of cracker and sweet lemon cream was a bit weird at first, but they grew on me.

I couldn't believe the packaging for just one cupcake. They even put a cold pack in there!

I just couldn't resist wasabi Kit Kats. They're actually not horrible. I have eaten several. I'll probably save the rest to let other people try though.

curry

This had the texture of a chocolate bar, but it was mango flavored. I loved it!


One of the many gifts at school. A lot of the random cracker and mochi and azuki things have been from school.



This was similar to the mango candy bar above. I didn't care for this one that much though, which surprised me since I love strawberries more than mango. It was actually a bit too tart.


This was taken very soon after moving into my apartment. I love Ritz crackers!

this was a green tea Kit Kat on the outside and Sakura flavored on the inside.


Haha, look at how the Parmesan cheese container is only slightly bigger than the juice box.

random snacks

I didn't even know what I was buying, but I liked the shiny packaging and thought the name was funny. It turned out to be berry flavored gum which was good. :)

I think maybe I already posted this picture, but I'm not sure. Anyways... it was cookies and green tea ice cream! It wasn't as good as just regular cookies and cream, but it was still very good. :)

Yesterday was my first payday since I came to Japan. My camera has been having some issues lately and I wanted a nicer camera anyways. So I planned on buying a camera after I got paid.

I found the camera I want at a store in Mishima (about an hour and a half away) several weeks ago (well they carried it but they were out of stock) but it was much more expensive than it was in Tokyo. It was a little over $100 difference. Sooo... I decided to go to Tokyo to buy it. Even with the train ticket I would still save money! I could have waited until the next time I was in Tokyo but I wanted the camera soon to use it when I start doing some more traveling.

I got up a little after 5 to catch the bust at 5:59. I had looked up train times using a website and it said I would get to Tokyo a little after 10. However, I got to Tokyo around 9:30. As soon as I got off the bus I bought my train ticket. As I was buying my ticket at the machine, I heard the bells start ringing to signal that the train was about to leave. So I ran to the train and made it on just as the doors were closing. Then when I switched at the next station I also ran to the train. My train station skills are getting pretty good. :)

So in three and a half hours I went from a super small town to one of the largest cities in the world. Japan is awesome like that. :)

First I went to Akihabara and found the post office bank there. Then I headed towards Yodobashi Camera. The store in Akihabara is the largest camera store in the world!

I found it pretty quickly. As soon as it was in sight though I stopped to eat breakfast. I got a cinnamon roll and cappuccino. The cinnamon roll was so yummy and warm.
Then I went into Yodobashi-Akiba!



The store was super awesome. I think they pretty much have every camera that's made right now. I don't know that much about photography but I was still amazed by all the expensive stuff they had. Here's the camera I bought! It has a fun swivel screen. :) I wanted to use it so badly yesterday but I couldn't because the battery needed to be charged.


Oh, and they have an awesome point card system. 10% of my purchase goes onto the card and I can use it like a gift card next time I go! So now I have like a $45 dollar gift card. :) At least I think that's how it works... the sales clerk was explaining it to me in Japanese... Well, actually I also read about it online. Otherwise I might not have understood the sales clerk so well. It's easier to understand Japanese when I know what they're probably about to say.

Anyways... Yodbashi Camera is one of the best stores ever. Their selection on everything is insane. Even in the toy department (they had more than just electronics) they had sooooooo many puzzles! :)
Here is the one I bought:

It's so super Japanese looking!

Oh, the store also has a theme song. I feel very sorry for the people who work there. In the hour and a half I was in the store I heard this song twice. Another time I heard another rendition of it with just a woman singing. I didn't want to walk around taking a video and wanted to stay by the speakers anyway, so here is a beautiful video of the ground. Though I do bring the camera up for a little bit. This was the model train section.



Akihabara is a really fun area. There are all sorts of colorful signs with anime characters and girls dressed up as maids advertising the maid cafes.


Next, I went to Nippori to visit the fabric district. If you have read my post from the last time I went to Tokyo, you know that the last time I went the fabric district was closed. Well, this time it was open... yay! It was soooo crowded though. The only store I went in was Tomato because it is the largest and I figured it would be the most likely place to find fleece. They had tons of fabric... but NO FLEECE!!!!! Grrrr! I have given up on fleece now. However, I did find some nice fuzzy fabric, but it still does not replace fleece. :(

I decided not to waste any more time searching for fleece and headed for Ikebukuro. There I ate lunch at KFC and shopped at Tokyu Hands. First, here is a video walking down the street in Ikebukuro.



Tokyu Hands is one of my favorite stores. They have all sorts of things ranging from bikes to furniture to tools to kawaii stickers and stationery. I bought some really pretty paper to hang on my walls. There are pictures in my facebook album.

On the top floor of Tokyu Hands is Nekobukuro. You pay to go in and there are a bunch of cats that live there and you can pet them and play with them. I went in. It was really cute! Only one cat was really active and walking around. The rest were asleep. It was like playing hide and seek trying to find the cats hidden in different places.

Well, this cat wasn't asleep, but it wasn't walking around. Isn't it sweet?

It tried to bite me. It tried to bite other people too.

Though they did give me a paper before I went in that said, "Let's be friends with kitties" and then explained how to approach the cats. I like how it says "the kitties are moody animals" and "when they get angry, it's possible to be scratched and bitten by them."

But it was a fun and cute experience even if most of the cats were asleep and one tried to bite me.

I headed back home around five. I took the shinkansen back home. In the morning the train ride from Mishima to Tokyo took about two hours. The shinkansen only took about 45 minutes from Tokyo to Mishima.
Here are some videos I took from the train:





Today I played with my camera. So far I love it. :) It works much better than my old camera. Even when lighting conditions aren't the greatest the pictures still turn out nicely! Here are some of the pictures I took!


Here is my facebook album of Tokyo: MORE PICS!!!