Dougy Mak's Blog

Woke up in the morning around 5:30AM JST to a new ceiling. Realizing I was in Japan, I went over to my girl friend’s room to wake her up. By now, the dogs were already awake. I could hear them barking like they want me to come downstairs. My girl friend’s parents were waking up as well as they are very early people. We (my girl friend and I) went downstairs and I noticed her mom was cooking. I didn’t really care, but my girl friend called me over to show me something. The yolk of a tamago here is orange which was interesting because in America, the yolks were are yellow. She told me they had yellow ones here too though, but the orange one was probably the default (or more used) since all I have seen on TV were the oranges ones being used. We gathered around the table where a home cooked meal was in its last stages of preparation before we could dig in. There was miso soup, mentaiko, tamagoyaki, nori (dried seaweed), hakusai no tsukemono, gohan, and tomato. “Itadakimasu”, I followed my girl friend saying. The combination of mentaiko, gohan, and nori was great. Every family has their own style in foods, and her family’s miso soup was very light. There was less miso, and it had cabbage.

By the time I finished eating, everyone pretty much left for work already. My girl friend and I went to the bank for currency exchange. We found out the rate of the day was not going to come out until after 10AM, it was 9:50AM at the time. To pass the time, we went to the grocery store nearby, so I could buy more snacks and drinks. What I noticed different about their grocery store is, they had electronic price displays. Unlike our paper price displays, they could efficiently change prices. Their employees (and all employees) are very welcoming too, well this applies to all the Japanese businesses. They all greet you with “Irasshaimase”. No exaggeration, every employee that I came close to greeted me. Fast forward – we went back to the bank for an exchange and I was surprised with the rate they were offering. I did an exchange anyways, since I needed the money, but only for $200. It is really hot over here and these vending machines are probably making loads of money during this time of the year, at least off of me. Fast forward again – My girl friend’s grandma and aunt came to pick us up for lunch. We had sushi and it was great! We ate at a kaiten sushi place. The system was interesting and fun. It was basically a sushi boat kind of concept, but instead of running tracks around an oval table, the tracks would run through the kitchen and out to the booths. Each booth had its own electronic touch screen display where you would order the sushi of your choice, maguro, ikura, uni, sake, and even takoyaki… umai. I did not hold back, but I was concerned over how much I was eating. So on your display, you would order the sushi and then it would be delivered on the track. When your order was near your booth, the display would let you know that this order is for you. In America, the plates would be picked up by an employee, but it was all automated here. They had a system where you could just insert the plate into a slot in your booth, and I guess it would go back into the kitchen. The system also served as a game. For every 5 sushi plates you insert, you get to play a mini game on the display. If you win, you could get a YoYo that lights up when spinning (we got one). What a great idea! By offering mini games and mini prizes, they are able to incentivize eating sushi. If you ate only 3 plates, would you want to eat 2 more just to get a free game? Probably right? When I was finally full, the bill between us 4 came out to be 3000 yen (~$30). It was so cheap! I had never has such great sushi for such a great price! In America, this stuff would be way overpriced where $30 could never fill up a group of four but maybe a party of 1 or 2. Technology is definitely utilized a lot more here, and in a better way.