Update: I went to Quarter Pounder in Shibuya after work today, pictures at the end of the post and also a picture from the Omotesando shop after going there Saturday.
On Saturday i thought i was seeing things, i noticed a girl walking from Yoyogi Station with a “Quarter Pounder” bag in her hand. It wasn’t a McDonalds bag but it was sort of close. I detoured to my local McDonalds and confirmed they haven’t introduced the Quarter Pounder to the menu, somthing i’ve always hoped would come to Japan.
I then find out, not only has the Quarter Pounder come to Japan, there’s a whole shop that that’s all they sell, the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, starting price 600 yen set and the regular Quarter Pounder with Cheese for a 500 yen set.
I hear there’s a line, surprise surprise, but i have to have a crack and try and buy one of these this weekend.
Shops are in Omotosando and Shibuya, 2 places i’m sure will get massive amounts of traffic due to the youth that knock around in these areas.
Some people bump their gums and say “why come all the way to Japan and eat McDonald’s?” well, it can’t be sushi all the time every day, sometimes you need something quick and easy and familiar from back home.
Stop 10 on the 29 stations of the JR Yamanote Line series was Mejiro. I’d only heard of Mejiro once and that was a few weeks back, let alone bad i been there.
Sunday i headed out about 6 stops from home and had a walk around Mejiro. First impressions were it’s a pretty quite place with not a whole lot to do, those impressions carried on throughout my walk and stayed with me as i headed home a few hours later.
Not all the stops can be as exciting as Shibuya, Akihabara and Harajuku and Mejiro certainly doesn’t come close, it was however a nice residential area with quite a few foreigners calling it home.
There was quite a bit of action outside the station for a Sunday.
Too early for lunch and Sushi wasn’t on the menu anyway, although there were a few shops selling it.
It’s not all semi-naked girls and food over here at neilduckett.com, i’ve learnt quite a bit in the last 2 yrs in Japan.
Something i find interesting about living in Japan is there is often a word for everything whereas in English just one word often doesn’t suffice as descriptive of the situation or topic in question. I’ll use a definition from wikipedia to assist with my example.
Aizuchi (相槌 or あいづち) is the Japanese term for frequent interjections during a conversation that indicate the listener is paying attention and understanding the speaker. Aizuchi are considered, by Japanese, reassuring to the speaker, indicating that the listener is active and involved in the discussion.
Aizuchi are frequently misinterpreted by non-native speakers as agreement on the part of the listener, because common aizuchi include:
- “hai”, “ee”, or “un” (yes, with varying degrees of formality)
- “sō desu ne” (that’s how it is, I think) This is also the name i refer to my local sushi bar by, due to Taisho’s habit of over using this phrase.
- “sō desu ka” (is that so?)
- “hontō” or “hontō ni” (truly)
- nodding
