Errand Boy

One more step Theo has taken on the slow road to independence is going on little shopping errands for me. At the end of our street is the Takegaki, a small neighbourhood green grocer that Theo and I have been to hundreds of times since moving to Fukuyama. About a month ago, I decided that he was trustworthy enough to write out a short list in hiragana, not lose the money I gave him, walk there by himself, buy the correct food, and manage to get himself and the food home safely. For the record, I would never have allowed him to do this in Canada where I would almost definitely be reported for negligence. Here in Japan though, children walking unsupervised to and from school, the park, and extra curricular programs is completely normal after the age of 6. Since April, he has been walking over a kilometer to school each morning with a group of other children and another kilometer back home in the afternoon, sometimes with other students and sometimes by himself. I was very incredulous of this system at first, and sure that Theo would get lost or hit by a car, but after only a few minor incidents in his first week it seems to actually work just fine. 

Theo was very excited when I explained what I wanted him to do and was eager to be entrusted with this little errand. He set off on a trot down the street promising me that this would be the fastest trip to the Takegaki ever. Fifteen minutes later he was back again and so proud that he had gotten every single thing on my list. The shop owner had even sealed up his change in a paper envelope and taped it shut. Thank you Theo for not letting me down, especially since your dad thought I was insane for trusting you to do this. 

It will probably be a big adjustment for both of us when we get back home and he is not allowed the responsibility and freedom he gets in Japan. But until then, we'll enjoy it while we can.

Milk in Japan

I am not too picky when it comes to milk. Because of all the traveling and moving I have done in my life, I have gotten to try milk in all sorts of forms. I liked the whole pasteurized stuff we drank when I was young, the UHT milk that came in a cardboard carton in Cambodia, the unpasteurized milk I ladled from a tank into a pail when I stayed in North Dakota, the powdered and canned milk I drank the summer I was building trails in the woods, goat's milk when I have had it, and even fermented mare's milk. Yes, I love milk, so I was curious what I would find when I came to Japan.

The day after we arrived, I wandered into the dairy section of the grocery store and bought 2 cartons of what looked like milk. It had a cute smiling sun and a happy cow on it so I grabbed 2 and brought them home. It wasn't until later that evening when we had made a brimming jug of iced coffee with this "milk" that I started second guessing my purchase. The iced coffee was awful and when it tasted the liquid in the carton by itself, I realized it was drinkable yogurt. Oh well, we like that too, just not in iced coffee.

When I did finally find where they kept the actual milk, I surprised to find that the different varieties don't really stick to an even milk fat percentage. There is 0.4%, 0.7%, 1.7%, 2.5%, whole, and probably a lot more variation in between. In Canada, you are faced with four options: 0, 1, 2, and 3.25% milk. I now feel like I have to try every single milk brand and find the exact percentage that suits my taste. Maybe 1.2% will be slightly better than 1.3%, who knows? They also only sell milk in 1 litre containers, which is nice since our fridge is minuscule, but means that we buy milk four times a week. It does taste very different from the milk available in the U.S. and Canada. There is this hint of UHT milk in every sip. It tastes as if you mixed about 1/5 of a cup of UHT milk into "normal" milk, and must have something to do with the temperature at which they pasteurize milk in Japan. Dustin actually prefers it to our milk back home and Theo hasn't said anything about the flavour. I wonder how long it will take before this milk tastes completely normal to me?

Just in case you are wondering, the price of milk here is only slightly above what we pay back in Canada. If I were to buy four 1 litre containers, it would come out to about $5.10 Canadian. You also don't pay tax on milk here. I was also happy to discover that Japan, like Canada, Australia, and the EU, has banned the use of growth hormones (rBGH) in their milk, so we can all keep on drinking with much less worry.