It was torrential downpour when we woke up. It was also Saturday and on our school calendar, it was Monday, so that our Monday can become our Saturday!
The girls worked on their Social Studies, Joe on his work, and me on my Norwex. Even had a brief live appearance over in my VIP group!
We made another tofu miso noodle soup for lunch, and then the girls and I went grocery shopping. It was our only excursion this entire rainy Saturday! It was actually nice and dry on our way to the store, but Joe tried to tell us all to wear our rain jackets. Of course only the oldest (me) didn’t listen.
I love going to grocery stores abroad! I was able to Google Translate my way to something I needed in the drug store section, with the help of a kind worker.
Then the groceries. Our main goal was to get a main course for dinner. We had rice at home, just needed something to go with it.
The ready to eat section in a Japanese grocery store is just impressive. All of the below is already prepared seafood, eat cold or reheat. There are at least four different areas, entire fridge sections with easy to grab, easier to eat ready meals, and it’s all so … fresh! Nothing is packed full of preservatives so it can sit longer, which is also why everything gets discounted after 7pm, to get rid of the rest.
We ended up picking some dinner items and a few snack items (this is why the girls always come with when I go to the store). In the below picture we have (clockwise from top left): purple sweet potato pastries, “melon pan” (a sweet bun, this one with a mystery filling), fried octopus, pickled assorted veggies, and a tray of meatballs, siu mai (Chinese pork and shrimp dumplings), fried sweet and sour shrimp and spring rolls.
I also grabbed a new flavour of potato chips. Refreshing they may be, but I’ll pass on these next time…
We discovered this chocolate stick pastry the first time we visited this grocery store, and it was so delicious we just had to try it again. Still delicious, I’m happy to report!
When we were researching all things Japanese, they were all praising the flavour of the milk here. I didn’t get it then, because I hadn’t tried it, but now I have, so now I do, and I think you should try it too! Seriously though, there’s a reason we eat so much ice cream here, it’s made from Japanese dairy and is that much more delicious!
Téa loves orange juice, but we have discovered that all juice is not created equal. In Japan, if a carton had a drawing of an orange, it’s orange flavoured. If it has a picture of a whole orange, it contains some orange. If the picture shows a sliced orange, then it’s pure orange juice! It took us a while to learn this, but I think we’ve finally got it now…
Of course it was raining cats, dogs, cows and horses by the time we left the grocery store, but luckily we brought the biggest umbrella, and the smallest umbrella, and the girls in their rain jackets were quite dry and toasty by the time we made it home. Good thing the store is only about 5 minutes away from the house!
Other rainy day activities: When we don’t have a ton of furniture, it’s not hard to rearrange things. We put both girls into the bedroom with the air conditioner, so we can have the bedroom closer to the stairs.
