Costco, the balm that cures ills!

Months ago when Shelley and I were starting to think seriously about our move to Japan, I was anxious about whether I could provide her enough of a life that resembled "home". As you can imagine, life can be very different here. I was really excited to learn that there were a number of Costcos in the Tokyo area. That certainly had me excited. Turth be told, the Costco that we go to in the States is really crowded and a big huge pain to navigate through, as people seemingly buy up cart loads of things they don't need...at least from our eyes. We go to Costco in the States to get stuff at a discount not to load up. Little did we know, however, that the Costco here in Japan would be the balm that cured our ills.

Naturally, this is the biggest move that our family has had to make. And we really didn't think that it would be this physically draining and somewhat emotionally taxing to live in limbo for a while before you can feel totally settled with your new life, all your stuff, new friends, different language/culture, etc. And so, for the first week to have only gone grocery shopping for a few things and to only have to eat "little smokeys" sausages for breakfast every day can push someone over the edge! We debated whether or not to ask our relocation folks to take us to Costco as it seemed like a glorified taxi service, but we were desperate.

In preparation for our trip, we had to get enough cash. Since we hadn't funded our local bank accounts, we had to max out our daily ATM withdrawals...for the both of us. We also had to make a list of the things we wanted. About two minutes into the planning we just decided that we would go up and down every aisle and throw into our cart anything that looked remotely good.

It was the most wonderful Costco experience of our lives. If we wanted it, we threw it into the cart. We filled up two big carts worth of goods and we looked like those people that you see at Costco that you hate. We were unashamedly those people. We were the happiest people that ever walked through check-out. It took forever to load the car, unload the car, lug it all up to our apartment and then put it all away. But when we were done we had huge smiles on our faces. It was a big mental hurdle that we had cleared and suddenly we felt so much better about our lives here in Japan.

Without disclosing the total bill, the receipt did run up from the floor to reach Shelley's waist.

Introducing Shelley's Blog

At the urging of Shelley's friends, Shelley has finally started a blog about her experiences in Japan. Please do take a look:

http://shelleyintokyo.blogspot.com

We'll try to bring it inhouse to the Cannoncenter.com family, but as of right now you can find it at the link above.

The yakitori truck...the new taco truck?

Our family was taking a walk around our neighborhood when we happened upon a guy selling yakitori. What's yakitori? Well, if you ask Shelley, she'd say that it is simply burnt meat on a stick. More on her disdain later. Yakitori is literally translated to mean "grilled chicken". Think of them as small Japanese shish-kabobs with chicken (all sorts of parts of the chicken!) and vegetables.

By the way, if you're reading this and you live in LA, then you should run, not walk, to Little Tokyo and go to a place called Kokekokko which quite possibly could serve the best yakitori in all the world. I'm dead serious about this. Of course, it is because of Kokekokko that Shelley, and my Mom for that matter, don't like yakitori. You have to sit on these hard stools and the food comes out stick by stick, you have a minimum order and it takes a long while to get your food. The owner is a bit of a Soup Nazi to his staff, but it's worth the wait. The yakitori is wonderful. No reservations, get there early, and order right away. My Dad and I go there when our wives are out of town or otherwise indisposed. So maybe this a guy thing.

So, yes,I love yakitori, I see this small truck and I have to stop and get one. Anthon sees a chicken meatball stick and starts screaming, "meatball...MEATBALL!" So we get him one and this kid who really is ambivalent about eating in general eats, no devours like the most voracious carnivore, the four meatballs in about 30 seconds. And he's screaming for more while his mouth if full of meatball. So we hurry back to the truck for one more. I have only seen this level of crazed passion towards a food a few times before. Tacos comes to mind!

If you know me, you know that I also love the taco truck, a small catering truck in Pasadena that our family has been going to for years...more than 15 to be exact. And seeing Anthon go ga-ga for not only the taco truck as well as the yakitori truck is more solid than, I think, DNA evidence that Anthon is my child. So, being in Japan I know that I am not going to be able to visit the taco truck but a few times a year. I will have to have a substitute go-to place for my late night food cravings. Maybe this yakitori truck will be it.

To my friends in LA and Pasadena, please do think of me when you go to the taco truck. And for those who haven't been to the taco truck, it's on Fair Oaks, just above California in Pasadena. Don't be fooled by the one just above it. The real taco truck is in the Nishikawa Auto Parts parking lot.

I love Japanese toilets

I'll be honest, I love a lot of things about our new place. But I love nothing more than the toilets. These babies have a little sensor that causes the lid to open up when you approach the toilet. Come on. Really.



The seats are always warm. You never have to touch any part of the toilet. There is a little remote control that you push to flush, bring the seats up or down, activate the bidet, or hot air spray, etc.

Japan has come a long way in their bathroom technology. I used to live in fear of having to use the dreaded "squatter"...I think you can visualize what I'm talking about. If not, then think of a hole in the ground.

As is the case with any new revolutionary, life-changing technology, you're going to get those who don't totally embrace it at first. Shelley was a little annoyed that the toilet would raise the lid in excited anticipation whenever Shelley entered the bathroom, even when she only wanted to brush her teeth. She at first made me turn off the automatic setting, only to come around after pushing a few wrong buttons and almost falling in late one night.

I'm not sure what one of these babies cost, but as Ferris Bueler once said, "It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up."

I think the only thing it doesn't have is captured nicely by Saturday Night Live...


The Love Toilet

Our apartment

We've been buried in Tokyo without internet access and so we haven't had a chance to update our blog with pictures and stories about our first few days here in Tokyo.

Our apartment is on the third floor of this four story building pictured to the left. We live below a friend of the family who I've known since my days in La Canada...small world. They've been incredibly nice to us...so much so that Anthon has a new "Grammy" that he talks about all the time.

We live in the relatively quiet urban neighborhood of Yoyogi Uehara. It's about a 15 minute walk to Tokyo's version of Central Park with lots of green space, ducks, dogs and open space to run around. The area has a lot of expats as its the closest bus stop to the American School. So there is a nice mixture between local and expat families.

We've found this life in this area is very different from our life back in Pasadena. We can walk pretty much everywhere we go and for longer trips we take the train. Talk of buying a car has been put on hold until at least our little girl is born. Then we can revisit that topic at a time when many expats move home. But we are a two minute walk to the grocery store, three minute walk to the train station and within 5-10 minutes from a variety of small, family owned restaurants, flower shops, book stores, bakeries, etc. It's what I imagined living in New York would be like.

The apartment itself is quite spacious. It's double the size of our Pasadena condo and normally wouldn't have been within our housing budget. But it sat for 6 months open and I think the landlords were looking to get any cash flow possible. We lucked out because they recently upgraded the whole place. While our place is sterile and drafty because our stuff is still on the slow boat, it has a lot of potential. The kitchen, living and dining rooms and master bedroom face the western sunset. While all this light is a blessing in this cold winter, I can only imagine how hot it could get in the summer. The view to the west is of a mosque. Not what we thought we'd be looking at, but as you can see from the picture to the right, it does provide quite the view at sunset.

The kitchen has tons of storage space, granite counter tops and US-sized fridge, dish washer and oven. The bedrooms are large and afford Anthon to have his own room, Ella her own room come May, and an office.

If you're a Google Maps geek, like I am, then here is an arial photo of our place. Yes, it doesn't look like much.


View Larger Map

We'll pass along a more detailed video of our place. But in the mean time, please enjoy a few pictures of our place.

How to Contact us in Japan

Though we're now on the other side of the world, we don't want to stray too far from our family and friends. There are a number of ways to get in touch with us while we're in Japan.

Email
These stay the same. If you don't have our email addresses, click on the "Email Tony and Shelley" link on the top right hand column.

Address
Tony, Shelley & Anthon Cannon
3-37-3 Nishihara #301
Shibuya Ku, Tokyo
Japan

Phone Number
Email us and we'll send you a US-based phone number that will ring our phone in Japan. The only charges incurred by you will be what it costs to call the 626 area code (Pasadena, CA.)

If you use Skype...our user name is: tokyocannons.

AIM / iChat

We bought a Mac and are looking forward to using iChat with family and friends. If you'd like to see what we're up, add us to your buddy list. Our username is: tokyocannons.