April 24

Fukuoka

Miss Day 6? Catch up here.

Tuesday was my first full day of school. I did my homework before leaving because there was no way I was staying up any later Monday night. (I went to bed after 11 PM, which is much later than I normally go to bed!) I managed to get to the station and the school without incident.

A konbu (seaweed) filled onigiri (rice ball) and some smoked salmon I brought from the U.S.; I ate these rice balls a lot during my time in Japan.

I started the day off right by eating breakfast in the classroom XD I wasn’t the only one. I don’t think you’re technically supposed to eat in the classrooms, but as long as you’re not making a mess, it may be fine? I didn’t see any problems come from it.

Thanks to WaniKani, I can read a lot more kanji than I can write. I missed writing one hiragana in though: 伝えて should have つた over it in furigana, but I only wrote the つ. ^^;

Tuesday’s classes were primarily focused on kanji. I was happy to be able to help others and contribute with my kanji ability; at the same time, I was sorely reminded of my lacking skills in other areas. I enjoyed the classes though!

Some grammar crept in there too.

Afterwards, classmate Cian showed me the “guy who sells cheap bentos around the corner” (a.k.a. Nobu-san). I didn’t expect it, but Nobu-san really does have his little stall set up literally right around the corner. Each bento sells for ¥250-300! I couldn’t find my wallet right away, because balancing a bag and an umbrella is not simple, so Cian bought mine for me. It was a vegetable and rice bento with egg, and quite good!

Cian, Katiya and I hung out in the student lounge chatting, and later another girl named Ellen chimed in. I guessed where some of them were from, and actually wasn’t far off! Cian is from Ireland, Katiya is from Germany, and Ellen is from Denmark!

At some point I decided to go ahead and rent a pocket Wi-fi since I wanted to have it at Sharely Style as well as walking around in the city.

You need a credit or debit card to place your order. All you have to do is figure out how many days you need it for, and then talk to the reception staff and they’ll get it taken care of. It takes about two days to arrive at GenkiJACS, and to return it, just put it in the mailer it comes with, and drop it off at a post office or post box.

After I ordered my pocket Wi-fi, Katiya and I finished our homework and began planning a trip to Kumamoto on April 30th. I knew my JR Pass would expire before then, but I thought it would be fun to travel with a fellow student, and she was interested in Kumamoto.

Since we planned to go buy groceries and I wanted to get back before dark, we finally left for Sharely Style, armed with umbrellas. Once relieved of our heavy loads, we headed for the nearest supermarket Cian had told us about, which is an Aeon Max Value supermarket.

First you walk to Ijiri Station.

Visual learners like me greatly appreciate Google Maps’ street view.

Once you cross the tracks, turn left.

Walk past the station, and if you cross the street and immediately start looking to your right, you’ll suddenly see it. From this entrance, you’ll see stairs going to the second floor (above the supermarket is a 100 yen store) and past that is the prepackaged meal area – bentos, salad mixes, sweets, onigiri, seasoned and cut fish, prepared veggies, etc.

I almost got lost going back to Sharely Style!! If Katiya hadn’t turned left, I would have kept going. Wow. I really do need to not get lost in thought so I don’t get lost for real. -_-

Let’s end this post with what I bought!

Cooked veggies (lotus root, mushrooms, burdock root, carrots, taro root) for a 20% discount
Hand towels or cleaning cloths (I actually used one as a washcloth, one as a hand towel, and one as a “mat” in the bathroom)
Organic chia seeds, which I was so happy to find!
Paper hand towels, which were the closest thing I could find to paper towels (known in Japan as “kitchen paper”)
Disposable bento boxes (4 to a pack) – I used these for all my food, and just rinsed/washed them out between uses
Avocado!!!
Himalayan sea salt
Alkaline water! I was so happy to see this.

I took the following photos the next day; hence the reason they look like they’ve been refrigerated XD

Salted, grilled salmon!! I split this into a few meals.
Salad, sans dressing, with sliced boiled egg–another purchase I split into several meals.
Precooked white rice from Family Mart (from the other day)
Konbu onigiri, like at the top of this post
Grilled salmon onigiri!~
Chocolate almond milk~ It was a bit too sweet, but Glico’s almond milk had less filler ingredients than the other option, so I went with this one. (Apparently it has a day’s serving of Vitamin E!)
Ingredients start off with sugar, then almond paste, inulin (more sugar), cocoa powder, salt, “processed” almond oil (may mean expeller-pressed), cellulose, a pH stabilizer, flavoring, sucralose, and then added vitamins and minerals, emulsifiers, etc. I can’t read all of it. Not the best, but at least almond paste was higher up the list.
Behold, my mini fridge in all its glory.

3 Replies to “Japan Trip 2018 Day 7: Class and Aeon Max Value Supermarket

  1. I instantly smiled when I recognized the teacher in that one picture! 😀
    What level are you on WaniKani? ^^
    I miss being able to buy a cheap healthy meal at the supermarket (as in not having to cook anything) 🙁

    1. I’m on level 27, I believe! I’ve been awful at keeping up with reviews orz
      Me too! XD It was so nice…

      1. Haha 頑張れ! I just finally reviewed all the 500+ reviews I had gathered in the past half year… 😛
        Ah, convenient Japan! 😀

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