Outside a Shop that Sells Glasses

This is a well-established chain of shops. It's been in Japan for a long time.

These are current photos. The mascot for the shop is holding a sign that says, "Ganbarou Japan! Hang in there, Japan!"

Japan is still recovering from last year's tsunami and earthquake.

Here is a place outside the shop to stop to clean your glasses. It's a free service.

The name of the shop "Megane Drug" is on the right panel of the sign and "one year guarantee" is on the left panel. Megane is "eyeglasses" in Japanese.

Here is a link to a post about the eye chart used here.

These photos were taken with a Panasonic Lumix 10x.

Eye Chart

These are samples of questions or tasks used in an eye test here in Japan. Usually, there are rows of circles with a piece missing in each. You must tell where the missing piece is. Top, bottom, left or right. The doctor may point to the circle and ask or the doctor may tell you the line to "read". The doctor would then say "next" after you tell about each circle.

Small children hold up a finger and point where the gap is. They point to the ceiling if the gap is at the top, to the floor if the gap is at the bottom, etc.

This sheet shows some hiragana, one of the writing systems for Japanese. The character next to the top circle is yo. I have been given an eye test with hiragana. I think the circle test is more accurate. It is almost impossible to guess where the missing piece is. I remember being able to guess the letters in an American eye test.

Can you guess what the letters are in an eye chart even if they are blurry?

Children's eyes are checked at school. If there is a problem with the results, they are given a slip of paper recommending that they see an eye doctor for a more thorough test. So far, Little Brother and Big Sister haven't had any trouble passing the school eye exam. Recently, I get my eyes checked at a frame shop where they use a machine that automatically measures my eyesight.

Check this post to see a complete eye chart that is used at the doctor's office. It was used in an ad.

Kids Web Japan--language

Hardware Shop Demolition

The hardware shop on the right is being prepared for demolition. The shop on the right is a drugstore. The red lettering says kusuri in hiragana. It means "medicine".

This is the old hardware store.

Some old buildings need to be demolished. See the big crack in the middle? It looks like the building has been weakened. Still, it's sad to see it go.

Preparing the Hardware Shop

See all of those metal shutters? When the shop was open, the shutters were opened for business.
These ladies walked into my picture. They are wearing funeral clothes.

For the demolition, poles were placed around the shop. Workers will hang pieces of canvas from the poles.

First, they drilled holes into the concrete walk around the shop for the poles.

Details of the Hardware Shop

Cornerstone covered in tiles.

Click on the picture to enlarge. This is an awning to shade the shop's windows. It is opened and closed by pulling the chains on the left. What is that reflected in the window?

Roof tiles.

Window guards on the upstairs living area.

Making Taiyaki

I bought three custard taiyaki at the new shop and asked if I could take a picture through the window. They were making some. The worker on the right is making okonomi taiyaki (see post below). She is closing the iron mold (actually it looks like Teflon).

The worker on the left is squirting batter into a mold. She has already squirted batter into one side of the mold. She will then squirt custard or adzuki beans onto one side. She will close the mold when the outside of the cake is browned. Then she will flip the closed mold from one side to the other on top of the stove.

The cooked taiyaki are placed in a rack in the window. The sign says "custard 130 yen".

Shop Opening

A new shop opened in our neighborhood on the 29th. It makes and sells taiyaki. A pancake-like snack shaped like a fish. This shop sells them filled with the usual azuki beans, but also with custard. there is also one called okonomi taiyaki that is filled with cabbage, carrots, bacon and mayonnaise.

Too bad it was raining on their opening days, but people were still lining up to buy them.

Well wishers send big bouquets of flowers for a shop's opening day. On the third day after the grand opening, the arrangements were separated into small bouquets and put in pails outside the shop. A salesclerk was handing them out to customers.

This is the shop's sign. The blue fish on the left is holding a real bamboo fishing pole. In Japanese, it says yume aru machi no taiyakiya san. Big Sister translated it as "A Taiyaki Shop in a City that has a Dream". Papa called it "Dreamland Taiyaki Shop". That doesn't really mean the same thing, does it?

Medicine Shop

There are pharmacies in hospitals and in neighborhood shops. There are also shops that sell traditional medicine. These bottles of ginger or ginseng root are in the front window of a medicine shop. See the brown spout on the right? That's a tea pot. I'll go back and get a picture of that.

There is a snake in the jar. Can you guess how the wooden thing is used?

This is the shop. Click to enlarge.

This is another view of the shop.

Note: There was a downpour off and on today, so I wasn't able to get out to take pictures. I took this picture a week or so ago.

Tatami Shop

This shop has been closed for a long time.

This is the same shop at a distance.

Prepared Anyway

This month was supposed to be the rainy season. There wasn't much rain in Tokyo in June 2007, but this shop was prepared. Some shops put plastic curtains up to protect their wares. Click to enlarge.

Drugstore

This drugstore has a lot of stuff outside. They put it out every morning and then pile it inside at night. There are many different items but mostly boxes of tissue and rolls of toilet paper.

Some of it is put outside even if it rains. It is covered in a tarp. This is the same store. The picture was taken from across the street. Click to enlarge.

Cake Shop

After the ceremony, Papa and I went to a cake shop. The shopkeeper gave us cups of tea and samples of cake. The design at the bottom of the cup is an ume blossom.

This is a chalky "cake" that is sold during this time of year. (Papa doesn't know what it is called or why it is sold.)We didn't buy any. It isn't our favorite.

We bought sakura mochi to celebrate Big Sister's graduation. We also bought some of these. They have black sesame seeds and bamboo charcoal powder in them.

Red Rice

Big Sister and I went out to buy sekihan, red rice, this afternoon. The white rice turns red after it is cooked with azuki beans. She took entrance exams for two high schools this month. She passed the first exam and found out today that she passed the other one. It is the school she really wants to attend, so she was happy. We decided to celebrate. Red rice is eaten for celebrations.

Baba was going to make it, but then she reserved some at this neighborhood shop. This shop also sells Japanese cakes called wagashi.

The shopkeeper was upstairs eating his dinner when we walked in. A bell sounded as we opened the door. How did we know he was eating dinner? It was dinner time, and he came downstairs chewing and wiping his mouth!

He weighed the red rice and then put it in a plastic container. He wrapped it in a narrow sheet of paper.

He also gave us a small bag of black goma, sesame seeds. They are sprinkled on top of the rice.

Hot Buns and Drinks

There are cases of hot drinks on the counter of this convenience store. Customers can choose what they want and then take it to the register. On the left are hot buns. Most of them have meat in them. This is not self-service. The clerk serves them to customers who pay first.

Down the street at a vegetable stand, there were more hot snacks for sale.

Valentine's Day

Some coffee shops and restaurants served special things for Valentine's Day.

This coffee shop had some special "drinks which make you happy."

Remember the big Halloween pumpkin that was painted white and made into a snowman for Christmas? Well, it was still outside the cake shop. It was wearing a hat with hearts on it! The shop's window was decorated for Valentine's Day, too.

This shop was having a sale on chocolate. The yellow lettering says "balentain se-lu" (Valentine sale) in katakana, the script used for foreign words.

Baskin Robbins, known as "31", was decorated too.

Kids Web Japan--Valentine's Day

Kids Web Japan-- katakana