Today's goal, buy a new television. We went to Yodobashi Yokohama across from Yokohama-eki.
A successful trip, it will be delivered on Wednesday, just in time for the upcoming Sumo Basho!
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| Yokohama Station |
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| Inside Yokohama Station, busy but not oppressively crowded |
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| 8 floors plus a restaurant level, electronics super store, way way bigger than any Best Buy I've seen. |
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| A little nervous while we work out the purchase |
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| A quick stop at Sogo, for breakfast cereal... |
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| Heading home on the bus |
We went to dinner tonight for Minami's 16th birthday. Sushi via boat; it was very good. Then cake at Fujiya.
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| Haruhi and Shizue |
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| Minami and Ryoga |
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| Masa and Noriko |
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| Delicious! |
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| Birthday Boy |
I took a little walk this morning, thought I'd check out the Yamate-eki (Yamate train station). This is a 15 minute walk from Mom's place.
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| Two ladies with scooters. This narrow street has many small shops as you approach the train station. |
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| Koban is a neighborhood police station |
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| The train track is above the station. |
At Ito Yokado again with Shizue
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| Shizue and Suzue |
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| Cham-pon! Crispy noodle with stir fry on top. Comes with gyoza in a set for lunch, around $5. |
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| After you pay for groceries you move to this type of station to bag it yourself. |
Random array of pictures
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| K.K. Slider! |
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| For your coffee |
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| Maccha Kit Kat |
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| Lady Liberty? I may have to take a closer look later... |
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| Each bus stop on this big street has this kind of sign. #105 will arrive in 1 minute. Nice. |
Fresh young wakame seaweed (Mom calls it "sashimi") is a seasonal delicacy, like hajikami. Prepared simply by washing, cutting and dressed with grated ginger and soy sauce. Very good. We also had hiyashi chuka, a cold ramen noodle dish topped with myoga, ham, cucumber and onion.
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| Fresh Wakame |
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| Wakame! |
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| Cool food for warm weather |
The picture a few days ago from lunch partially showed a fast food chain called LOTTERIA.
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| Lotteria Fast Food |
They do have lottery gambling here, all over. Mom is not supposed to play, as her money comes from the city government and is for living expenses. Only residents of Japan can win. There is no tax on the winnings and even children can play.
Here is some info I found on all the lottery types (from this link). There are apparently also many local and group run lotteries, both on a regular basis and for special events.
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"Today, authorized lotteries are called takarakuji (宝くじ). These lotteries are the most popular form of legal Japanese gambling. For those speaking our language you can learn all about them at the official Takarakuji website. In this article I provide only a brief overview of the most popular national wide lotteries. Other lotteries (not mentioned) are run by banks, charities and by prefectures or major cities.
Nationwide Japanese Lotteries (Takarakuji)
Year-end Jumbo Lottery – (Nenmatsu Jumbo Takarakuji) – is the largest lottery not only in Japan but in all of Asia. Tickets costing ¥300 are pre-printed so the exact number of winners is known in advanced. Tickets use numbers 0-9 for its 6 numbers and also has a group number (1-68). The drawing is held on New Year’s Eve. For 2012, there were 68 first place winners of 400 million yen who had the exact match 195280-61. The 204 winners of 30 million yen are those who held one before (195279-61), one after (195281-61) and all correct except the bonus (195280-XX). There are smaller prizes for third, fourth, fifth and sixth place.
Jumbo Lottery – there are 4 other Jumbo lotteries each year that work the same as the one described above. Three have long been held which are Green held in March, Dream held in June, and Summer held in August. One additional Jumbo has been added where the proceeds go to an earthquake relief fund. 2013 scheduling for that added draw is still pending.
Mini Lotto – released in 1999, Mini Lotto is a weekly game drawn on Tuesdays costing ¥200 per ticket. There are 5 slots that and a bonus slot. For each you must select a number up to 31. If you get all correct and the bonus you win the jackpot which is generally between ¥6 million and ¥14 million. If you get 4 of 5 numbers and the bonus correct you win about ¥150,000. If you do the same without the bonus you win about ¥10,000. Also, 3 of 5 correct pays ¥1000.
Lot 6 – released in 2000, works similar to Mini Lotto. However, it is drawn twice a week on Monday and Thursday. The cost is ¥200 per wager. The major differences are this uses an extra slot and the numbers range up to 43. That’s six numbers 1-43 and a bonus number. This pays 5 places. The first place jackpot can be up to ¥1 billion with carryover but this is rare. If there are winners on back-to-back weeks the prize may only be ¥60 million. Big jackpots do happen. The December 24, 2012 draw paid ¥374.4 million as there were no winners the previous two draws.
Numbers 3 – this, along with Numbers 4, is the standard daily numbers game in Japan. You pick three numbers (1-9) at a cost of ¥200 per wager. The prizes vary a lot. All three in exact order is often around ¥80,000, the box (any order) ranges ¥12,000 to ¥30,000 for most draws. There are also prizes for first two, first two any order, and mini which is last two in exact order.
Numbers 4 – All details regarding this lottery are the exact same as the above except it is played with 4 numbers not 3. The prizes paid are all four exact order (straight), all four any (box), first three exact (set-straight) and first three any (set-box). The prizes vary a lot. In January 2013 first ranged from ¥723,000 to ¥1.3 million.
Scratch Cards – scratch cards, also called instant lotto have been offered in Japan since 1984. They can be purchased at nationwide lottery stands. Most versions including Premium Scratch, Mrs. Happy Link, Puzzles Scratch and Scratch Lottery cost ¥200 per ticket. There are ¥100 tickets such as Lucky 3. Playing involves simply scratching the card and then looking at the instructions on it to see if you’ve won.
The takarakuji lotteries are strictly considered an amusement by Japanese law. This means there are no age limits or taxes owed on winnings. Even children can purchase tickets. Also by law, you must be a bona fide resident of Japan to collect a prize. Tickets are not sold abroad."
Kitchen ga Hashiru (English: Go, Kitchen, Go!) is a current cooking show on NHK. I love it! I don't enjoy most cooking shows nowadays because of the reality show angle; all the fierce competition and harsh criticism. I don't like seeing people crying because they failed.
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| Kitchen Wagon |
The host of this show travels in a yellow kitchen wagon to various areas of Japan. Each week he is accompanied by one chef. They visit a few local food producers (farms, fishers, specialty food makers, etc.) and see how things are made or procured, and talk to the people. Then the chef takes all the food gathered and makes a delicious meal. The food producers all come together and get to taste the interesting menu. Very sweet interactions between everyone. A bit like a travel show too, you learn about the local area.
I couldn't find any video online, maybe because I'm searching from a Japanese IP address. It airs on NHK World too. Here are some links.
Kitchen ga Hashiru (NHK in Japanese)
Go, Kitchen, Go! (NHK World in English)
Dinner tonight: Hotate (scallop), spinach, hajikami (young ginger), and rice
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| Hajikami |
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| Hajikami with miso |
The young ginger is raw, very delicious.
Ito Yokado is a shopping center near where my aunt lives. We stopped for lunch and then grocery shopping.
No luck anywhere in the search for green tea kit kat...
I took this video because the background music was unusual, but the lesson in pronouncing "ume" is kind of funny.
Posted with Blogsy
