Fruitless.
This jet-lag thing is proving tiresome, so on my 6th day of getting up before 6am, I have decided to do something about it. Maybe sweating the jet-lag out will help. I went on a bike ride to check out the local scene. And more specifically, to see if I could find myself some monkeys. Unfortunately, the monkeys must be in a bunker somewhere planning their attack. Instead, I found some rice fields, some forest land, some more garden plots, and a surprising number of roads to nowhere. The road itself seems quite new, and I am not sure why they took the time to start mini-nowhere roads off the main road every 20 feet or so, but this is more or less what they look like. Maybe they are for snow pile-up in winter? Maybe they are the sites of many many future homes? I can’t decide. What do you think?
In addition, I also saw a number of signs warning against bears all over my village. This is actually just a tease because I didn’t see any bears either. They must be with the snow-monkeys.
Upon my return home, I was, naturally, starving, which is a common condition of mine. Luckily I had made a brief foray into town yesterday to harvest myself some goods at the local grocery store. This is the delicious lunch I painstakingly threw together. Look at that cute little peach butt nestled in its protective wrapping! (More on Japan’s packaging later.) How delicious! Look at those “salad” flavored potato sticks! Yum! A full serving of both fruits AND vegetables!
And truly, how delicious it was. I proceeded to house my lunch in a very un-Japanese-like way. In Japan, this delicious peach would have been lovingly peeled, sliced, served in a bowl, and eaten with a dainty desert fork. My gaijin/barbarian ways resulted in the following:
You can’t say I didn’t enjoy every last dripping down my hands bite.
Why does each peach come individually wrapped like the one above? Where do they grow these peaches? In one way, it could be good because the peaches have not been modified to survive long shipping hence needing extra packing and being more tasty. On the other hand, that’s a lot of packing.
I want to know what else you found on your adventure to the grocery store…
Do they have an open-air market?
Ah yes, the grocery store. Enough for it’s own full blog probably. I’ll update as I go 🙂
Don’t know exactly where these peaches come from but I am assuming green houses in southern Japan. I’ll find out. Aomori, though, is known for its delicious apples!