Our Little Drugstore

So for those of you who read this blog who aren’t Expats, here’s a little confession.

We’re sort of drugstore hoarders.

Most of us have some sort of “secret closet” where we stash away toiletries and medications from America that we can’t purchase here in Japan.  We first brought a ton over in our shipment container and then continue to do a big drugstore run before returning from home visits.  It’s a little frenetic and twisted, I admit.   Especially because we certainly don’t live in a Third World country.

But you know how you tend to have some brand loyalty about certain things?  Well imagine that issue, compounded by the fact that you likely can’t read what you’re buying in a local drugstore because it’s written in another language.  On top of that, the Japanese have a preference for heavy scenting in their toiletries, so we’ve had some fairly comical experiences ~ like the time I was wandering around after my husband showered wondering what I was smelling and he finally told me that the bottle in the shower that looked exactly like the unscented Dove body wash we buy in America, was not the same, and that’s what I was smelling and to please stop sniffing him!

So that’s the back story on how we ended up with this:

Which was rather difficult to find anything in since we’d pretty much tossed everything inside, and quickly shut the door upon returning from our summer vacation.

So today I ran to the hyaku yen store {our version of the Dollar Store} and grabbed a few containers and set to work to corral everything into some sense of order.

About an hour later we were in muuuuuch better shape.

I organized things by purpose instead of simply stacking them by size so that someone could find what they needed a little bit more easily.

The small tags are cardboard key tags you can find very inexpensively at an office supply store or Target in a multi-pack for a few dollars.

I also made His & Hers bins for our prescriptions medications.  Previously I had both of ours in one large bin and we had to sort through everything when looking for a refill.  This makes much more sense, don’t you think?

This project ran about $10 and was very easy to do in a rather short period of time.  It’s also one of those things that I don’t mind investing a bit of money in since the white bins could be used in any house in a number of locations to better organize us.

And since I’ve been a good bargain shopper today I thought I’d also share with you my lunch.  It’s ridiculously hot and humid still in Japan and the last thing I want to do is turn my oven on and cook for just me while everyone else is at school or work.  So I popped into the Sunkus across the street from my apartment building (like a nicer version of an American 7-11).  For about $3.50 I can get a bag of edamame and an onigiri.  Yum!

Even better, my lunch had a theme, LOL!

Linked to:

A Bowl Full of Lemons

And They’re Off!

I officially have a Fifth Grader and a Third Grader today!

We met their teachers on Friday, saw their classrooms and found out their class lists.

We are ready to go.

Which in Tokyo, when you ride the bus an hour each way to school, means you are ready to go at 6:50 am.  Yikes!  Thankfully returning to Japan from America meant that everyone was waking up early and we never slipped back into our summer habits of late mornings so it wasn’t too painful today.

And yes, since it’s still in the 90s this week, it was a Lilly kind of day, even in Asia!  We commemorated the day with the little Organic Bloom frame I snuck into my suitcase.

Their brand new back packs were loaded up with fresh school supplies {I don’t normally buy new back packs every year, but we found that all our travel seemed to abuse them a bit more than usual}.

And inside were packed lunches for the first day, complete with notes from Mom.  I hang my head in shame at the awesomeness that are true Japanese bentos and love to browse the many supplies available here.  I’m sad we didn’t live in Japan while the girls were preschoolers and would have enjoyed a lot more “cute” in their lunches.

{lox & cream cheese roll ups, bell peppers with salad dressing dip in the heart containers, honey-dew melon and each girl has their favorite snack treat plus some dried pineapples}

All packed up in a lunch box with a bus snack ~ remember that extra-long bus ride~ and a water bottle {Thanks for the snack packs, Cute Auntie H!}.

And they were off!

And me?

Well my gym clothes are already on, and I’m off to my girlfriend’s for tea.  It’s been great to be so carefree this summer, but I can’t wait to get back into a routine!

To Market, To Market

In the short period of time between our return to Tokyo and the start of school we decided to head to the World-Famous Tsukiji Fish Market {also, by the way, a terrific activity for a family with jet lag, still rising very early in the morning!}.

I contacted my friend Reiko, who is an incredible chef, caterer, and cooking instructor, here in Japan, and asked her to be our tour guide.  Thank goodness we had her with us, since Tsukiji is the biggest seafood market in the world, moving more than 700,000 metric tons of seafood per year, netting {ha ha} more than five billion dollars!

We did not attend the early morning auction as that is limited to only 140 tourists on a first come first serve basis, and we had Reiko to show us around the different stalls.

Of course, immediately upon arrival, The Cuties saw food and were hungry.  Guess they’re on a see-food diet {I’m just a yuk-fest today!}!

This was a serious onigiri stand, with great choices and even better prices.

You’ll notice there’s a LOT of eating and not so much sharing going on…

Once we arrived at the different stalls, it was cool to see the different varieties of the same seafood side by side.  Here are octopi from Malaysia and the Sea of Japan.  Notice they are slightly different colored with different sized suckers.

Octopus is a delicacy and Reiko’s teenage son is about to head back to America for boarding school so she wanted to get a treat for him.  So she bought a single long tentacle.  And even though it had been severed from the body it was still writhing and pulsating.  We’re all about sushi in the Felt So Cute household, but “still moving” isn’t quite in our comfort zone.

The next group of stalls sold Fugu.  You might better know it as Pufferfish or Blowfish.

We passed on buying any.  Mostly because I’m not licensed to prepare it as is required in Japan, and therefore they wouldn’t sell it to me, and also because I’m not interested in accidentally poisoning my entire family.

{and when it was “Fugu High Season” this year, this was all I could think of}

Next up, was the shrimp guy.  Little Cutie LOVES shrimp.  It’s her favorite kind of seafood, so she was pretty excited by all the different sizes to buy .  And we did.  Those prices were great and were for the entire tray.  Since Reiko buys from these guys all the time, she helped us negotiate only buying a half tray and we were on our  way.{I should tell you that they were all cooked and eaten by The Cuties within an hour of arriving home, so in hindsight we could have bought the whole darn tray!}.

We finally made our way to the star of Tsukiji, the Tuna.

This guy was cutting a fairly small one by market standards.

Reiko explained to us that all the best tuna in the world is auctioned at this market.  No matter where it’s caught.  So if you’re a tuna fisherman in Boston, MA in the United States, you ship your tuna to Tsukiji Market in Tokyo, Japan to be auctioned off to get the best price. It makes such a difference, it’s worth that kind of effort!

Got a few thousand dollars to spend on some really amazing fish?

Tsukiji is constantly a really busy place; even after the auction hubbub dies down.

Years ago, seafood was run all over on carts like these:

Today, the Market looks a little more like this:

Or, if you happen to be extra Cute, and know someone, it might look more like this:

Barbies’ New Dream House

Little Cutie loves her Barbies.

She can retreat to her bedroom and play with them for hours on end and I often walk in to something like this:

{which always looks a tad too Barbie’s Jonestown for my liking}

But storage for the Barbies has always been a bit of a challenge.  This has only increased now that Big Cutie has outgrown her Barbies and passed them down and we are in the Japan apartment, and The Cuties each store their toys in their bedrooms as we are without a separate playroom.  Up until now, Little Cutie has had a large bin on her bookcase and an even larger rolling bin that sits in the corner of her bedroom.

In addition to taking up precious space, the real problem with this system is that every time Little Cutie is searching for a specific Barbie {and she can, of course, keep them all separate in her mind ~ how do kids do that?!!!}, she has to essentially dump out the big container.

While putting away some of our suitcases, I came across an over-the-door canvas shoe rack that had been shoved in a closet since we unpacked our sea shipment.  For some reason the movers only packed one of the hooks for over the door, so I wrote it off as useless.  However, inspiration struck today when it occurred to me that hanging it over the door would be way too high in this apartment, and dug up some 3M command hooks, and hung it on the back of Little Cutie’s door.

And voila!  Just like everyone else in Tokyo, Barbie now lives in a high-rise apartment!

This worked perfectly for all of her dolls and we were able to put all of the additional clothing and accessories into the smaller bin back on her bookshelf and eliminate the larger floor container completely!

She’s now able to see all of the Barbies at a glance and easily grab the ones she wants without the “great floor dump.”  It also seems more entertaining to clean them up, so clearly that’s a good thing!

And for those of you with Eagle Eyes, I just want to point out what a completely selfless mother I am.  Did you catch that I gave up MY collectible Lilly Pulitzer Mother & Child Barbies years ago to The Cuties?  OK, they’re not really mine, but were bought so we could play together.  But in the interest of full disclosure, when the Barbies are done for, I’m keeping those two on my desk.

Especially since they look just like me and Little Cutie!

Light & Healthy Lunch

The Cuties and I are back in hot and sticky Tokyo and recovering from our jet lag.  We are  waking up at all sorts of crazy hours and eating at random times as well.  As a result, our food situation is equally out of whack and we’re not always sure what exactly we’re hungry for at what time, LOL!

So yesterday we decided to make one of our favorite salads as our lunch so that we could graze on it throughout the afternoon whenever we were hungry.

We started with a half head of Bok choy {in Japan, Bok choy looks a little different than it does in America, so we use two of the petite heads instead}.  Slice it up thin and then give that a rough chop until you have about 4 cups.

Next cut up one large red apple into bite-sized pieces.  I like to use something you’d eat right from the tree like a Jonagold.

One of things I love about produce in Japan is that despite how expensive it is, it’s always absolutely perfect and comes individually protected.

Next add four thinly sliced scallions {please note my awkward blogger self-photography as The Cuties were too busy watching a movie to help me!}

Finally, make your dressing out of 1/3 cup of low-fat plain yogurt and two tablespoons of lemon juice {do you know the trick to squeezing the juice out of a lemon by sticking a fork in your lemon half before squeezing?  makes it much easier to get the juice out!}

Mix everything together in a bowl, add a bit of salt and pepper to taste, and serve!

So yummy and delicious.  I brought the bowls to the table and Little Cutie’s first words were, “Awesome!  I love this salad.”

{This recipe has been tweaked from Real Simple ~ many thanks!}

Bok Choy is high in Potassium, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin C and Folic Acid.  And one cup of it has only 9 calories and almost zero fat!  Have I convinced you to try it yet?  :-)

It’s Baaaack!

When I wrote this post about packing my carry-on for long flights, so many of you wrote in to ask me about my orange tote bag.

At the time, it was out of stock at LL Bean, but it’s back!

{Unfortunately, they have raised the price a bit to $79, but it’s still a terrific bag}

I have schlepped this thing all over the place and still love it as much as I did when I first purchased it!  It holds a ton {mine currently has a laptop, an iPad, a zippered pouch filled with assorted nonsense, a wallet, 2 pairs of glasses, cords, a file of papers, a water bottle, socks, a scarf, passports, a sweater and has room to spare!}.

Last week, The Cuties and I arrived at the airport to find no sky caps in sight, and so I quickly converted my tote to a backpack and loaded our bags onto luggage carts for the three of us to do it ourselves.

And then when we arrived at the hotel, there was no bellman in sight {clearly, this was not our lucky day, LOL}, so this is what I had to do as well!

{That was 10:00 at night after almost twelve hours of travel ~ weren’t The Cuties being good sports!}

When I bought my Expedition Tote, it was only available in Canyon Orange, and I really have enjoyed that.  However, I think the Carbon is super-smart, so one of you should buy that one, OK?!

Not that the good folks at LL Bean are paying me, but I’m a happy customer, so I’ll officially remind you they always have free shipping and if you have an LL Bean Visa you get free monogramming as well {don’t think I haven’t put that to good use!}

My Most Favorite Thing

I have waited all summer for this week.

Do you know what it is?

It’s New Agenda Week!

{While Hallmark seems to have created a holiday for almost everything they haven’t for this yet – so patent pending!}  As a Mom, I find it’s much better to use a calendar that functions on the school year than the calendar year.  When I didn’t, I often ended up having about a month where I carried around two agendas, and that was just a recipe for disaster.

Over the years, I’ve tried to go paperless, attempting a Palm Pilot and Google Calendar and everything in between.  It’s simply not how my brain works.  I prefer a week at a glance, I like to have The Cuties’ activities and information written near mine – but separate – and I find the physical act of writing things down helps me remember.

I admit it: I’m old-fashioned.

So I broke the seal and cracked the spine on my sixth Mom Agenda this week.

{the color is slightly off in this photograph – it is really a beautiful plum!}

For years, I tried every different calendar/agenda system, but this one truly fits my life best and I’m a convert.  You can read about how I use mine here and also how I use their Kitchen Portfolio as well.

As I’m setting myself up for a new school year, I also ordered new pockets for the inside of my Mom Agenda, as well as a To Do list pad.  I really like how it divides out my lists into phone calls, errands, etc.

I treated myself to a few other goodies as well, including some calendar stickers from Lilly Pulitzer and I think the gray elastic band from the Martha Stewart line at Staples will compliment the plum nicely!

Big Cutie asked me to teach her how to be better organized this year, so I bought her this smaller agenda in the adorable bright orange, so we’ll share all the fun stickers and things.  I thought it was the perfect size for her to learn to write down her homework and activities on each day.  She’ll be in fifth grade this year and we can practice being on top of everything now before she moves to Middle School next year and things get more complicated.

Finally, these are my absolute favorite pens since moving to Japan.  They are completely erasable {unlike the ones that existed back when I was in high school}, and come in very fine points, which I prefer.  I also love that the colors are deep and don’t “skip,” unlike other erasable pens.  While you can buy them everywhere and anywhere in Tokyo ~ they often come a la carte in dozens of colors and thicknesses ~ Frixion is owned by Pilot so you can buy the basic colors at office supply stores or on Amazon in the States.

I love seeing how my Agendas start as a completely blank book in the beginning and end the year, filled with colorful memories, adventures, meals and some boring old appointments thrown in there too!

Wishing you a terrific {organized!} school year.