Yakimo Truck

On the way home from school, I found the yakimo truck. What is a yakimo? A yakimo is the yam I've been ranting and raving about and there's a truck that rolls around town selling yakimo. BIG ones. By big, I mean weighing more than 600 grams.

A friend of mind told me about it. "It drives around singing "YAAAAKIIIIIMOOOOO." And that's exactly what I heard. At first, I didn't see anyone around, and I didn't see any potatoes. But as I was walking away (still turning back to see if anyone showed up) the seller came up and beckoned me over and I pretty much ran. It cost 400 ¥. Pretty high for a potato I though, but I might never see this truck again, so why not? When he pulled it out and weighed it, I was kind of stunned. 600gs of yam...That's a big yam! I at first thought it was raw because it was dark and I just saw yam. I would of easily microaved it (cause we have no oven), but would of been peeved that I paid 400¥ for a yam.

He chatted me up a bit while I got my money out. He was very nice and soon enough he handed me my potato. He handed it over and it was hot and a bit soft. It was already cooked.

It. Was. Awesome.

It was plain, of course, but it as hot and soft and the yam was sweet and just really delicious. I managed to take a picture before I devoured the thing.

 

That was after a few bites and, though you can't see it, I'm still holding a good potion in the bag. I couldn't finish it. I am ashamed to say that I could not finish my yakimo. I was hungry when I started and stuffed by the time I finished. I didn't want to throw the rest away, but food is frowned upon on the train, and I already get looked at enough.

If I see the guy again, I'm buying again.

On the train today, there super duper tall guys were at the station. What is "super duper tall" to me? The tallest, I might of hit his chest, maybe! The other two with him were at least two heads taller than me. I was not the only one looking! Never thought I'd see that in Japan!

Alien Registration Card

All I have to say is that it is awesome! I finally don't look like I'm about to mug someone. Yay!

In japan, they have passport photo booths almost everywhere it seems. You go in, put in about five or seven dollars, and they walk you through it. They tell you to sit up straight, to put your face in the center or between the lines (depending on which booth you get), you can see your face, "pose," and take your picture. Don't like it? You can take it again! I didn't get stuck with a seven dollar mug shot! I was so amazed by it. I'm keeping these pictures for everything until I not longer look anything like the picture.

The card:

More useless things I bought.

Well, today we went out to buy a pillow. A girl I'm friends with has a really bad pillow and hasn't been sleeping well and I wanted to get one as well because the pillow in question is amazing.

He's pretty big. I'll be mailing this home of course (I had it all planned while I was buying him). It's very soft and nice. We're not sure if it's supposed to be a llama or a sheep. After that, we went to get some food (at a place that has huge servings) and we were to look around a bit and we stumbled by a store that was really cute little things, a lot of them disney related. So here's what I wasted money on.

Pencil case. 'Cause it's super important.

This had a purpose. The produce store doesn't provide
bags. So I bought this one for 300 ¥. Yes, I have saved
plastic bags, but this was cute (wish it wasn't so pink though).

Note book.

 

That was all. They had a lot of nice little stuff there. I won't be going back because I'd like to not be broke before March.

Ginza+Shibuya

So I went to Ginza today. For you guys that don't know, Ginza is the "rich" part of town. All the fancy, foreign name brands (ex: Chanel) have stores there. They look really cool, especially when it gets dark. The reason we went to Ginza was just for the Hello Kitty store. Of course we got lost, but everyone we asked for help from was super helpful. On to the pictures.

I took a picture because it looked fancier than the one
I've seen in the states. I bought things there. Purchases
are below.

It says "Soap - Wash - Dry" all in a row!

If I get married, these will be present at the ceremony.

I don't know what this is, but it looked cool.

Food!

After an hour of wandering, we
arrived.

The woman on the right is wearing the uniform.

What I bought.

Got lazy. Just imagine it on
a body.

What I got at the Hello Kitty store.

Added on the bag.

I also took a video of the store:

 

You're probably wondering why I didn't  spend more at the store, but it was expensive. It was in Ginza after all. My little charm was almost five bucks (and the one I really wanted was close to ten, but I just couldn't do it). The F21 stuff was cheap, but the hello kitty store was pretty expensive. Because of that, the people I was with decided to go to Shibuya for the cheap stores. So more pictures! Our first stop was the pet store and they were ADORABLE.

He could of fit in the palm of my hand. It took everything
in me not to just smuggle him back to the dorm and then
home. He was just so cute.

He was so small that we were wondering where his mom was.
He seemed too small/young to be alone.

 

See the video at the bottom to see why this was cool.

What I bought in Shibuya. A mouse for my computer.
It was actually on my list.

Shibuya videos! I have some from the pet store, the noodle thing, and some performers. It was a neat evening.

Late Night Snacking

I didn't realize it when I went out, but it was after 11. Sorry mom.

Either way, I got a snack because for some reason I was ready to start eating my bed. I got something called "雪見だいふく." It comes in this package:

 

 What it is is ice cream filled mochi (sweet nice based sort of thing. Sticky and soft). It comes with a little stick inside to poke the ice cream and eat it. I've seen commercials for it and it was cheap, so I went for it. Here's a commercial.

Now, there are other, much more excited commercials, but this is the one I saw. I feel cheated because mine weren't as stretchy, but it was tasty none the less (I didn't realize there was ice cream inside. I was pleasantly surprised). I'd buy it again. :) I also bought some bread since I was out (and it was what I originally needed). Did you know that 7/11's in Japan are amazing? They have spaghetti (prepared), Doria, an array of sandwiches (I got a chicken one today. Blew my mind!), pastries and breads, hot and cold beverages, fried foods, and are usually cooking something at the front counter. Also, if you buy a meal (noodles, pasta, soup, whatever you fancy) they'll heat it up for you right there. I  want to know when American 7/11's are going to catch up. Here's a link to a video of what the typically look like. It's long, so I'd just skim through it. 7/11

I also bought Japanese fanta:

 

 I think I got white grape (there are grapes on the bottle and it's clear. It's a total guess). It tastes like like something I've had before, but I can't really remember it. I don't know. I enjoy it. That and water and I'm pretty much set beverage wise (I usually have water and something with flavor).  I also bought a really good peach juice, but I can't remember the name of it. I'll have to bring it up next time.

Tomorrow: Ginza

By the way! I wasn't eating tempura potatoes, I was eating tempura yams! Purple, potato like yams!  Picture I am going to find these in the states and live off them because they're amazing.

The Mundane

Nothing exciting to report except things I found interesting...Like chocolate soda!

It's kind of weird. It tasted like drinking sparkling chocolate syrup (except not thick). You almost expect it to be brown like cola, but it was clear. Which made it even weirder to me personally. Took me two days to finish it. Not sure if I'd buy it again, but if someone offered it, I'd take it.












Another sweet I've been eating is something called a "Chococo Lotte Cookie." In it's white chocolate and regular chocolate form. They are really small cookies. Only 36 calories a piece, but that's because they're super small and super thin.  Think the size of a chips' ahoy, and then cut that to the thickness of maybe a slice of ham. They're really, really good though, so I can't complain too much about them (but I will anyway).



For the second time I've gone to a place called Sukiya. It has pretty cheap food (380 Yen for what I bought) and it actually tastes good. I had a generic bowl (cheapest) and some miso soup I think the bowl I had ws something called "Gyudon". I didn't take any pictures but it sorta looked like the picture to the right. I enjoy it and it comes in large sizes. I would of ordered the biggest, but they show the calorie count on every damn thing so I can't even pretend not to notice.  I'm going back with a friend on Friday to try something different.  We were thinking about going for dinner, but we're gonna make gyoza for dinner instead.

Nothing else to report except that I bought more potato tempura. That stuff is addictive!

Tempura: My new love

I had squid tempura and potato tempura yesterday and fell in love. Needless to say, I went back to the store to buy more for my lunch (I want to put that bento box to use.).  Picture of it.

It's huge! And the potato is so yummy!

I might just live here just so I have a constant source of these potatoes. Anyway, I also bought some things to try for other lunches besides buying deep fried things. I bought these two: 

Curry sauce. I have to buy like...everything. The vegetables,
the meat. Needless to say, this won't be done till next week.

I've had this before. It's already seasoned (quite well).
Just put some oil in the pan and cook it up. It'll last a bit.

  

I also bought myself something sweet:

 

Looks good to me. :)