Tidbits

Just came back from the nearby coin laundromat.  While I was there I took notice of the music being played over the PA.  It was a kind of catchy R&B fused dance/lounge tune, the type which one would catch by chance whilst dining or shopping in Tokyo.  I thought to myself "This kind of music is so far from Yonezawa".  Then it struck, "Yes, of course...if the coin laundromat is about the only place in town where one would hear something like that".  Given that this particular coin laundromat just opened a month and half ago, it's decor, equipment, furnishings, and style is very much up to date.  This is in comparison to the place I used to go to which someone I know labelled as "Showa", meaning it's at least thirty years behind the times in looks.

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Over the last seven years I have on a number of times caught myself thinking "I'm washing my garbage".  Well, not exactly garbage.  Recyclable plastic items.  But it's something which never crossed my mind back in Canada.

Oh, yes.  I remember reading about an issue with recycling on the CBC website last year.  The article was looking at the problem with plastic labels left on recyclable PET bottles.  It was being made out as an issue since people don't remove the labels before tossing the bottles into a recycling bin.  If I recall correctly there was a fuss being made about manufacturers not coming up with a solution.  I find that a bit odd.  Over here, plastic labels can be quickly removed from PET bottles.  There's usually a tab of some sort which can be pulled on to peel off the label.  For the type which are snug on the bottle, such as those for Coca Cola or Pepsi, there is perforated tear-off strip.  Tear off the strip and the label falls off easily.  There.  Done.

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The manager at a cafe I frequent, mentioned that she had seen pickled crickets/grass hoppers on sale at a local shop.  She wondered out loud who would purchase any.  "Probably some grannies", she said.  Then the conversation with her daughter, who also works at the cafe, went off on a tangent to their experiences with eating "inago"(sic).  Her daughter mentioned that her son was introduced to them by her grandma.  At first her son wouldn't go for them but later on seemed to like them.  The cafe manager recalled when she was a kid and her mom told that "chawan mushi" contained "mushi", insects.  She refused to eat it for some time.  "Yes, grannie is like that", she said....

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I still had more than half a bag of agetofu left from my "akebi" cooking experiment of the previous week.  So I decided to make a quick stir fry dish.  When I was at the supermarket I decided to purchase sliced bamboo shoots as a substitute for water chestnuts.  The verdict on that experiment: No.  It doesn't work.  Oh well.  Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.