Japanese Trash

I finally woke up early enough to take the picture of the trash system at our house. You know the big trashcans and huge dumpsters used in the U.S. ? The trash in Japan does not work that way, in addition to sorting the trash about 6 different ways (we have tons of trash cans!) each type of trash also has its own scheduled day. So on Monday we have burnable trash which consists of food, diapers, paper (but not newspaper or magazines or food boxes, that is another trash) anything gorss like band-aides, personal items, q-tips, etc. Then Tuesday is plastics and packaging which consists of all the plastic packaging that comes on stuff you buy, potato chip bags, bottle tops, one time food packaging(yogurt, sour cream) toothpaste containers (cleaned) shampoo, conditioner, lotion, etc, (all cleaned!) Wednesday is Cans and Bottles (cleaned and dry) then Thursday is burnable again. SO we have 4 days of trash. So your regular bottle of water would consist of paper trash, plastic trash and plastic bottle trash!

Sometimes the crows get to your trash then your trash ends up all over the street and if you are not home you don't know about it until a neighbor tells you. That is when good candy comes in handy :)

These people are lucky: in addition to a net they also have a container, it gets folded up after the trash people come. No trash is allowed out before 6 am in the morning and if the nets arn't out yet and you need to leave for work- you can't leave your trash.... It is a little difficult to get used to. I wish we could just pay for a trash service to come and pick up our garbage :)

Japanese Kitchen Small and Cramped

Here it is, small and cramped. I think it is the smallest kitchen we have ever had.

We have babies

in our yard. Racoon Dog babies. We saw 2 tonight- they were cute, they have weird tails though. I wonder how many babies are back there.

Guess who came back

no, not the racoon dog! The fruit guy with his big cart of cases of fruit. We bought more oranges today and got some peaches as a present! The price went up on the sour oranges since they are at the end of the season but he threw in some extras and then the 2 peaches which are easily almost $8 at the Japanese store...so I guess it wasn't to bad of a deal :) They will be enjoyed!

Design Festa

Spent a longgggggggggggggggggggggggg day yesterday at Design Festa at Tokyo Big Site- Here are some very different things I saw.......... I really don't get most of it..... whatever :) Some things were VERY strange, I forgot to get a picture of the yellow guy (he was there last time too, so maybe next time!) Some things were cute and fun! Enjoy or be grossed out! Sorry :)

Running away to Tokyo

Thinking of doing it again this Friday, if it doesn't rain :) It was soooooo much fun last week, heck- if it rains we might just take off to Yokohama instead! So much to finish before the Design Festa next weekend, not sure if I should run away....... My husband offered to drive- what a RELIEF, I spent over 30 minutes today trying to get Japanese people to understand my English on the phone- what a nightmare.... it is soooooo much easier to speak to someone in person.

Kore wa Nandeska ? (What is it)

Something different and interesting happened today while I was at home. The doorbell rang so I went outside to find a man with a wheely cart with about 10 large boxes on it. He took a box and started talking- I had no clue what so ever what he was saying- but figured either he was trying to sell me something or someone was having a gift delivered to us. It ended up he was selling fruit and it was 2500 yen for the box (about $25 which is average for a box this size in Japan) no clue what it was, how it would taste but decided what the heck, it's not everyday someone comes to the door with something that you actually need - FRUIT!!! They ended up tasting really good, kind of like a lemon and an ornage but more on the sweet side- Everyone likes them:) Then to top it off I sold a miniature original this afternoon which made my fruit purchase almost nothing. I think there is an order form in the box. Wouldn't it be cool if I could get fruit delivered every week :)