grocery shopping in japan

Sorry for the lack of updates!! (and I don't even have pictures for this one)

I wanted to share that I saw the busiest supermarket I have ever seen today. I think (I'm not exactly sure since I don't understand Japanese that well) that there was some kind of sale at the supermarket today. I believe that if you have a certain type of credit card you could get 5% off your purchase. And there were also other sales going on at the same time. So the place was PACKED. The lines went from the registers all the way to the back of the store, and then people were squeezing in between the lines to do their shopping. They were also giving out balloons to the kids (nice mylar ones), handing out samples of food and other products and there was some kind of blue animal/alien character you could take pictures with.

There were also specials where you stuff a small plastic bag full of certain products for a flat price. I saw people stuffing yogurt drinks in one part of the store and nori in another part. I wasn't sure if I could get the flat rate without the certain credit card but I thought I'd try anyway (because it looked like fun...haha). I managed to stuff about 35 yogurt drinks (they look like yakult) into the small plastic bag... but I think some people probably got over 40 in it. One lady stuffed 3 bags to take home, so I guess it was a good price. I was able to get the flat rate without the credit card and it was 198yen for the bag.

K A S S O

I've been watching High School Musical: Get in the Picture and I just found out that one of the finalists, Christie Brooke, is a fellow Castle High School alum. There's been quite a few Castle grads in the spotlight lately...

Mark Kanemura made it all the way to the semi-finals of So You Think You Can Dance. He was one of my sister's choreographers when she was taking dance at Castle. This is one of my favorite routines that he danced while on the show:



Cara Horibe is dancing with Fanny Pak on America's Best Dance Crew. When I was living in LA I went to a restaurant to celebrate a friend's birthday and happened to see Cara working as a hostess there. I recognized her because I went to a lot of 24/7 danceforce concerts when my sister was dancing, and Cara was always one of the top dancers. So I didn't think she would know who I was but I went up to her and said "umm... did you go to Castle?" and she said "yeah, aren't you Sharyn's sister?" She knew me! Haha...well, sort of.

Last but certainly not least, Bryan Clay is going to be representing the US at the Olympics in the decathalon! He was actually one of the people that helped convince me to run cross-country in high school. Although the year I decided to run I think he decided to focus on track so he didn't end up doing cross-country.

Food Post! - Formaggio Grill

Actually I don't have a picture of what I wanted to blog about which are the truffle fries. And I guess it really isn't about Formaggio Grill either.. I really just wanted to share that truffle fries are delicious. I first had them at Downtown Disney in Anaheim at the UVA bar. My roommate and I would choose to eat there just for the truffle fries. Until one day we went and found out that they were no longer serving it. So we've been on the lookout for them ever since.

But last night I saw it on the menu at Formaggio! So if you go there I recommend that you try them. They can be very addictive. You can order them as a side, or if you order a panini you can request them instead of regular fries (which is what Keao did and she generously shared with me).

Since my last post didn't have a picture either I'll include one here of what I ordered (Prime Rib Fajita Pizza). It was okay... I liked the crust part.


But the real winner are the truffle fries. Go and try it for yourself!

ten year what?

I told someone yesterday that the longest I've gone without moving since graduating high school is about 2 years. And I think that was the first two years when I was still at home going to WCC. It's been almost 10 years since graduation. The other day while driving past my high school I saw a few banners for reunions and then went into shock when I saw my year up there. Well not really shock, I knew 10 years was coming up, but it was still kind of a weird feeling to see it.

Food Post! - Boots and Kimo's

Yesterday I went to Boots and Kimo's in Kailua with Nate who is back "home" for a week.
Boots and Kimo's is famous for their pancakes with the macadamia nut sauce. I got the plain pancakes and Nate got the banana-nut ones. I think the mac nut sauce is what makes these so good though. Here's a picture!

there are three pancakes under all that sauce!

After eating it all up we went on the Maunawili Falls hike...which I don't have pictures of. It was raining when we set off on the hike so we left most of our things in the car. It isn't a very long hike (1.5 miles to the falls), but going up and down the mountain and crossing the stream on the way back was a lot harder than on the way in. I stole the picture below off a website so you can kind of see what we saw...