The Japan Study Students met and went with their host families today which means Karen and I are back in Tokyo and have access to email, the internet, phones, and food. Karen is no longer sequestered in Musashiranzan with 36 20-22 year olds. That was an experience she will need to describe.
We did celebrate the autumn moon festival with moon cakes (actually we split one), tea, and the closest thing we could find to a pommelo (a large grapefruit). The moon was big and bright.
We have discovered that we can get anman (red bean paste manto) and three different kinds of onigiri–ume, kombu, wakame–from most convenient stores. Actually the convenient stores here are really convenient. We shipped our luggage from musashiranzan through a convenient store so we didn’t have to take it on the train. It was delivered today in the evening when we asked them to deliver it. One can also pay most bills, get money from the ATM machines, and recycle, cans, bottles, and plastic trays.
Wow! Convenient stores that are convenient! Shipping luggage so you don’t have it on the train! What will they think of next!