Japan Diary, Part One

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had agreed to go to Japan to cat sit while my brother and his wife went to Hawaii.

May 27-28  My trip was on Air Canada, via Toronto. It was about an hour to Toronto, then about 12 hours to Tokyo. I left Boston on the morning of the 27th and, having crossed the international date line, arrived in Japan on the evening of the 28th. From Narita Airport, it was about an hour's ride to the Tokyo City Air Terminal, where my brother met me, and then something under an hour via subway and taxi to his place.

Their house is the one with the carport. Just beyond is my sister-in-law's mother's house.

The house used to have green shutters, and with the clapboard siding (unusual in Japan) it gave a first impression reminiscent of my grandmother's home. My room was in the front of the house, over the carport.

The cats had been on my bed, when we arrived. When I appeared at the door of the room, they both jumped off, and the little female cat went under the bed.

It wasn't long before both of them realized that I was okay and allowed me to pet them, but neither went back on that bed as long as I was there.

Here's a picture of the male.

He's a fairly normal sized cat, while the female much smaller. You'll note that he has a short tail. That's fairly common in Japan, but the female's is normal length for her size.

For my welcoming dinner they had bento of sushi from the neighborhood sushi place, which my sister-in-law supplemented with fried chicken. It was all very tasty.

There was a bento for each of us.

May 29  On Wednesday, my brother showed me the supermarkets and shops where they buy their groceries. Although I don't speak Japanese, the cash registers display the price. The clerks keep up a fairly steady stream of conversation, but it's not necessary to understand what they're saying, as long as you know to put the money in the tray. In the larger markets, they don't bag your purchases. As they check the items out they transfer them from your shopping basket to another, which you take to a nearby counter to bag the things yourself.

There were four supermarkets, two adjacent to the train station about 10 minutes' walk from the house, a convenience store, about halfway to the station, and another supermarket not far from the convenience store.

In the evening my sister-in-law's mother and brother joined us for dinner.


Are there any questions?