Bread ears

...so it turns out that Japanese envelopes don't come with built-in adhesive.
This is my face right now:
>:I
Next time someone starts telling you about how technologically advanced Japan is, just tell them, "NO BUILT-IN ADHESIVE ON ENVELOPES."

What Japan does have, however, is hyakuen.  A hyakuen (literally "one hundred yen") is like the Japanese equivalent of a dollar store, but way cooler.  Whereas dollar stores are generally full of stuff that A. doesn't cost a dollar (what does "99 cents and up" even MEAN?) and/or B. you don't want to buy, hyakuen are full of EVERYTHING.  I went to one today (to get the aforementioned envelopes) and they sold food and dishes and towels and umbrellas and envelopes and notebooks and bags and pet bowls and tupperware and spatulas and scrunchies and pretty much everything else under the sun, all for 100 yen (105 yen with sales tax).

In other news, in Japanese class today the foreign students had to explain some Japanese idioms.  The idiom I got was 「手がたりない」(literally: not enough hands), which has a direct English equivalent ("don't have enough hands"), so it wasn't too bad.  (Our sensei said I explained it very well, so YAY!  Even though I had to speak really slowly so that I wouldn't stutter...)  Meanwhile, one poor soul got 「パンの耳」 (bread ears), which, weirdly enough, means the crust of the bread.

In other other news, no one ever spells my name correctly in Japanese.  It's not THAT hard.  デイナ (deina).  Not ダナ (dana) or ディナ (dina)  or デーナ (de-na).  And especially not だんな (danna, which means "husband").  Of course, spelling my last name is a nightmare, so it's understandable if people screw it up, but, seriously, first name, not that hard.

Also, in response to question from last time, I have never had aloe juice, although I have heard of it.  I think it might be more popular in Korea and Taiwan than Japan, though.  At least, when I've heard about it, it's always been from Korean and Taiwanese students.