Do! Do! Fun!

Tonight I went shopping at YouMeTown, a local store. I needed some fruit and the commissary is closed on Mondays. YouMeTown is a department store, but all department stores here have grocery stores and bakeries on their first floor. I bought some fruit -- four apples, five bananas and some mikans (tangerines) and it came to just under $21. That is cheap for Japanese fruit (I picked out the lower quality fruit on purpose; it's hard to pay $5 for an apple when you're from Central Washington). On they way out I noticed a Christmas baking display that had tiny pots and pans and kitchen utensils. The brand name on the products was "Do! Do! Fun!" That's very Japanese. Before I left I bought some pens and then stopped at The Crepe Deli (I guess to counteract the fruit). I got two crepes (hey, they're small) -- one banana and one strawberry. The cutie pie that works there likes to try to practice an English word or two when I show up, so today she made a grand display of saying "thank you" in English. Out of habit, I said "thank you" in Japanese (arrigato gozaimasu), and she giggled that we had traded languages. Today she put a little sticky note on one of the crepes so I could tell them apart in their wrappers. On one she wrote "banana" in Japanese (I can't read Japanese but it's easy to recognize that word). It reminded me that last time I bought two crepes (hey, they're small) she did the same thing, but she put a sticky note on the strawberry one and wrote "strolbely." I love the "L" and "R" thing they do here. My neighbors call me Kimbeary or Kenbari. I hope they never learn the other way to say it!