Jacob came in to town and after a good night’s rest the first thing we decided to do was give him a dose of Japanese culture. And possibly get on TV 4 times.

As we were walking down the main path it suddenly came to a halt. I saw a boom mike in the air so it was somebody doing a TV program. It turns out it is this comedian I saw the a few weeks ago on TV with these two ferrets (that I also saw on TV). Everybody was following them. We weren’t supposed to take photos, but when has that stopped anybody? I of course only took it with my cellphone and posted it to my moblog.

After walking around and teaching Jacob about Japanese culture a bit, we decided we should probably get at least one photo together while he is here. We look hard and find somebody so I ask them in Japanese if they could take our photo. As often happens half of the time they are Chinese or Korean. This time was no different. But he had a friend or girlfriend who was Japanese and we got our photo taken. I need to fix it in photoshop first though as my flash wasn’t working.

Next stop was to find some おみやげ for Jacob’s teachers. The main drag was quite expensive. On our way we see camera number 3 but the Geisha were more interesting.

After taking some photo we popped into a small stall that looked like they had various inexpensive yet neat things. I greeted her and told her what we were looking for. We spent a good 10 ~ 15 minutes talking and comparing things with my occasionally asking jacob what he wanted. When it came time to pay though, she noticed that Jacob was paying. She asked how old he was and she said it was かわいいそう (pitiful) that he had to pay with his own money. She then changed the price from 3,160 yen to 3,000 yen because of Jacob. Rock on.

We walked around with our おみやげ we decided we had enough of this popsicle stand and decided to hit up Akihabara. We got distracted in Ueno and never made Akiharabara, but just as well. We walked into the park and saw some beautiful blossoms…and christmas and king kong lights still up? Maybe to keep Godzilla away?

We walked around the park for a bit and decided to just start walking and see where it took us. We stumbled upon a neat grocery. Vegan grocery. During lunchtime they also have a restaurant.

Since it was the first Vegan/Organic grocery I’d in Japan I asked how long they have been around. 30 years. We then went on and talked about the scones we were going to buy, purple sweet potato and sesame flavour.

We were about to leave when she gave us an Onigiri (rice ball), normally 160 yen. It wasn’t your regular onigiri as the rice it was made from still had the husk on it. This means it was full of 控訴 (enzyme) . How did I know that word? I looked for my electronic dictionary and realized I forgot it. The owner ran off and found one for me to use. Then another women came out. Asked me how I liked the onigiri. She started talking something about 唾, another word I had no clue what it ment and wasn’t appearing in their dictionary. She kept on repeating the word and pointing to her mouth? Teeth? Tongue? Enamel? I hadn’t a clue.

At this point there were a few other female shoppers in the store. They took notice and came to watch and join in the conversation. One of them looked up 唾 in their dictionary on their phone. Not something I was expecting. It turns out 唾 means saliva. Oh the joys of communicating in a language that you aren’t fluent in.