Sometimes it's the smallest things...

Sometimes it's the smallest things that throw you for a loop and make you realize you really are living in a foreign culture. You get used to the big things, like not being able to read most of the signs, and understanding only a few words that people speak.

One day last spring I said to Nick, "Sam really likes that gum that comes with the free post-its."

"Free post-its?" he asked quizzically. "Which gum is that? I haven't seen any free post-its."

"It's the cube gum," I answered. "I don't know why you get free post-its with the gum." It did seem like a very odd combination, free office supplies with your gum.

But I had already seen some odd giveaway combos, like the Miffy phone charm with the new flavor of fruit juice. And someone is always handing you a pack of tissues with advertisements from health clubs, gentlemen's clubs, restaurants and plastic surgeons. So while the combination was odd, it wasn't completely out of the question.

We were in a gum sampling mode last spring - all the different flavors here in Japan! No plain old bubblegum flavor, but exotic things like citrus soda! Grapefruit! Grape-cassis! And the very scary looking "black mint" gum where the gum really does look rather gray, resembling a pepper flavored Jelly Belly jellybean. And then we had the cube gum, with the free tiny post-its.

I finally caught on one day when Sam announced that his gum had lost its flavor and he wanted to throw it away. There I was, standing on the sidewalk, fishing through my handbag looking for a scrap of paper - an atm or grocery receipt, a used tissue, anything. The bell finally rang in my head - Aha! That's what those post-its are for!

You see, the cube gum comes in a box and there are no individual wrappers for each piece of gum. So what is a person to do when they need to dispose of the chewed gum? A very tidy, neat Japanese solution. You provide the disposal papers with the gum. They are also very handy for marking pages in books, so I keep a few extra "post-its" with my book group books. And since I used most of my used tissues to toss the chewed gum away, I have a very good supply of the tiny post-its.

Sam's Birthday

We took the boys to the National Children's Castle for Sam's 5th birthday. It is an entertainment complex in Omotesando with a play area, arts room, music room - all with drop-in activities. The art room has a 20 foot wall that kids can paint on! There was an art activity set up for girls day that I really wanted to do, but - no girls in our party except for me, and I was too shy to stand in line (with no kids) to get the kit to make the origami dolls. 

There are computers with games (some in English, thank goodness), computers to explore music, and foosball and pool for older kids. There's a gym, a pool, and an outdoor roof garden with tricycles to ride on. It is definitely geared toward younger children - Chris was quickly tired of the set-up, but a very good day out for the younger boys!

On the way to the Children's Castle, we spotted an amazing bakery with the most beautiful fruit tarts I have ever seen. There were gorgeous confections of mango, green melon, all sorts of berries. There was a tart with soba noodles and strawberries sprinkled with white sugar - and one with whole pears, peeled, sliced and fanned with the stems still attached. Another with mochi rice cakes in pink and white studded around the edge. Well, Nick's birthday was in 4 days, I was absolutely cupcaked out after Sam's birthday, so we stopped and ordered a mixed berry bavarian creme 15 cm tart for Nick's birthday. If you send me an email, I will tell you the price! I am too embarrassed to post it publicly. But I will post a photo of the most beautiful, tasty tart - Mixed berry with bavarian creme and chocolate straws... yummmm.