Suzuki Palette

Today we went to to the Suzuki dealership to get the Wagon R it’s annual check up, and I saw the most amazing car. It’s called the Suzuki Palette.

This car is part of the smallest size car class, but It was the most spacious car I have ever seen. The space for the back seat was incredible. In fact you can see in a picture I scanned from the brochure a small child can stand in the space between the seats. I sat down and I had around three feet between my knees and the front seat.

The backseat can slide back and forth like the front seats so if the trunk is empty the passengers can have a lot of room. The seats also fold down flat to the floor so that you can even fit a bicycle standing up inside.

One of the most impressive things was there was no need for keys. The key fop have a transmitter in it so if you’re within a foot or two of the car it knows it’s you and you can just push a button on the door to unlock the car. Also inside there is no key hole, just a push button to start the car. So the key fop never even has to leave your pocket. That’ll keep you from locking your keys in the car! Oh, and I have to add the back doors slide open automatically by pulling the handle or using the key fop from a distance. And finally, it’s cheaper than any new car that you can buy in Canada. You can see the commercial below.

Super Potato

Thanks to the guidance of a fellow foreigner, I finally found “Super Potato” in Sendai. This is a legendary chain of video game stores. You can see the sign for the store above. You can see the little potato in the bottom right corner. I’ve probably walked by it so many times, not realizing it was there. Inside it is basically like a video game museum.

They have games from every generation. The picture above just shows part of the Famicom (NES for you western people) section. The selection is amazing. They even had game stategy books in perfect condition that were well over 20 years old. Lot’s of nostalgia.

Swiss Pringles

Today I found a brand new flavor of Pringles, “Swiss Cheese Taste”. Swiss cheese being my favorite cheese I had to buy it. They were quite delicious and actually tasted like Swiss cheese. Over here new flavors of chips and snacks seem to come out every week or two. They stick around for a few weeks and then disappear forever. That can be sad if you really like the flavor.

Garden part two! The Flowers Strike Back!!

When my Mother-in-Law saw my post about the garden she remarked that I didn’t show any pictures of the beautiful flowers at the entrance of the house. So, on that note I bring you “The Garden 2” the sequel. As you can see below at the front door of the house there is so many nice flowers.

There’s so many different kinds. I took a close up of a particularly beautiful one.

We also have a vegetable garden too. Where we grow all kinds of stuff like tomatoes, green peppers, and egg plant.

Here’s a view from the second floor balcony of most of the garden. You can see it’s quite big when you look at it from this angle.

Tatami

Tatami is like the Japanese version of carpet, except it’s a lot more troublesome. Tatami are woven straw mats. You can see a close up just below.

Most houses have at least a couple rooms with this as flooring. It looks really nice, but it’s also kinda fragile and easy to damage. You can wear shoes or even slippers in rooms that have this. Just bare feet or socks. A lot of furniture can’t be used too, because it might damage the tatami. Before I first came to Japan years ago, I thought that it might feel a little soft to walk on, but it’s actually quite hard. When I ask anyone, why they still use this troublesome stuff, nobody seems to know. Much like a lot of traditional Japanese stuff, you just do.

Spaghetti Kewpie

In Japan a really popular brand of spaghetti sauces is Kewpie brand. They have many types of different flavours. I really love the cod egg flavor sauce. The other day we bought some.

It came with a free strap for a cell phone.

You can see it’s a little Kewpie and he’s bundled up in a tarako, which is what the cod eggs look like before they’re all broken up.

Unfortunately I didn’t get the one that has a single tear as shown to the side on the package above. I don’t know why he’s crying, but it’s really funny looking. Last year there was a really popular commercial for Kewpie Tarako, you can see a couple below. The song was a really big hit in Japan and actually made it high in the singles charts

Astro Boy

In Japan Astro Boy’s real name is actually “Tetsuwan Atom”. Which kinda means “Mighty Atom”. As some people might know I love Astro Boy, and it’s really hard for me to pass up cool Astro Boy merchandise. That’s why I bought this amazingly cute figurine the other day.

It’s part of a series called Tezuka Moderna, and is done by a cool design house. I found it at Toys ‘R Us. Yes they do have Toys ‘R Us over here, and yes it is more awesome than in Canada.

Tokura Temple

Today we went drive up a nearby mountain to visit Tokura temple. Once you drive up most of the way you then have to walk 10 or so up to the top of the mountain. Then you’ll get to the temple. It’s surrounded by forest and the only way up is a pretty steep path.

There’s actually a few temple there the main one is for the Buddist deity Kannon.

She’s the goddess of mercy and supposedly has one thousand arms. There was a lot of statues of her all over, as you can see below.

There was also lots of really old lion statues. They protect the temple.

Also there was a small really old Buddha statue. He had his own little temple. You can see someone left an offering of a bottle of sake.

Inside the main temple it was full of idols and golden stuff and lots of different warrior god statues.

In behind everything was a huge Kannon statue made of gold. It had lots of arms too. Sorry it was so hard to take a picture as it was dark inside and blocked by a lot of stuff.

There was a completely different large temple on the grounds.

It had a smaller shrine next to it.

Inside there was a bunch of cat gods.

They sold various charms at the temple so to increase my good fortune I decided to buy a lucky cat one.

There was many different colored cats that you might get. They give you different kinds of good fortune.

I got a white one which is for good luck with everything. You’re supposed to keep it in your wallet so the luck will be with you all the time.

Learning

Lately in my quest to learn Japanese, I’ve been learning hiragana and katakana. Which are kind like the Japanese alphabet but syllables, and times two. Now learning all of these, which is over 80 different symbols, can be very difficult. That is until I found this home made software for DS. It’s called Project JDS.

This software lets you practice recognizing the different symbols over and over again a few different ways. Thanks to this program I now know how to read all of them in just a couple weeks! Now that is amazing! You can see the home page right here. Project JDS

Return of Kewpie!!

As I am unable to resist the lure of Kewpie cuteness, I purchased another figure. This one is a mix of Kewpie and Kamen Rider, which is a popular kids show over here. Kamen means masked and he rides a motorcycle so hence, Kamen Rider. The one I got is cleverly named “Rider Man”. I really like his cute hook hand!