Japanese Stores

BACHAN ASKED ME TO TAKE HER AND ASAKO TO SAN JOSE TO STOCK UP ON Japanese food. We have our fav stores. You're probably not familiar with them. They'd be a fun day trip for you and your fam.


I-280 Freeway, De Anza Blvd Exit

--  Marina Foods, 10122 De Anza Blvd, Cupertino, CA 95014. This is a Chinese grocery (you can always tell because it smells when you walk in), but it has a large selection of Asian food at a cheap price. They also sell hot food at the left side of the store. If you're not Asian, watch where people line up and and what they do and then get in there. Someone shorter than you will probably get served before you, but eventually you'll be allowed to buy something, like roast duck or cha sui (Chinese bbq pork). I rarely buy anything because I don't trust the quality of the food or the labeling, but Bachan and her friends love it because it's so cheap. If anything, it's entertaining to walk down every aisle. You've never seen so many different kinds of rice and tea!


I-280 Freeway, Wolfe Rd Exit

--  Marukai, 19750 Stevens Creek Blvd, Cupertino CA 95014. This small Japanese grocery has a good selection of food at a reasonable price.

--  Shhh! This is our secret source of kawai (cute) gifts. Don't tell anyone. Daiso (next door to Marukai), 19750 Stevens Creek Blvd. Cupertino CA 95014. The U.S. has the $1 Store and Japan has the $1.50 Store. Girls LOVE the kawai staitionery, pens, stickers, etc. I LOVE the bento (lunch) boxes, cute toothpicks, shaped sandwich cutters, etc. And there are other items that are sooo Japanese, like this:

 

--  Beard Papa (about two stores from Marukai) makes yummy cream puffs. Try the dulce de lech (vanilla custard with a squirt of caramel) or hold out for strawberry available in the summer. They also feature a weekly flavor, like Green Tea. Somehow they're only 220 calories each so you can enjoy one guilt-free. We buy boxes for friends and neighbors.

--  Yogurtland is several doors down from Beard Papa. It's one of those serve-yourself-and-put-anything-you-want-on-top-of-your-frozen-yogurt places. We like it 'cause it has unusual toppings like mochi (squishy rice cake).


I-280 Freeway, Saratoga Ave Exit

--  Mitsuwa Marketplace, 675 Saratoga Ave, San Jose, CA, 95129. This is THE Japanese supermarket. It's clean (no smell when you walk in) and carries authentic Japanese products, including bakery goods shipped from Japan, kitchenware, tableware, video rentals, etc.

--  Kinokuniya Bookstore. Across the parking lot from Mitsuwa is a large Japanese bookstore. Great place for J fashion mags, books, kawai stationery (including Hello Kitty and all the other kawai critters).

Abraham-Hicks Calendar Quote:  "The statement, 'What's been bothering me?' is a powerful statement that will help you to uncover your resistance. If you've got a pattern of resistance relative to something so that you are not allowing the stream--out of habit, but not consciously knowing you're doing it--then that's why it feels like diseases creep up on you. Things that are unfair or unjust are happening to you. Because it feels normal in most cases. Most of you feel resistance and think it's normal. And we want you to know it's not. It's abormal. It is not anything like who you are.

What is normal to you is enthusiasm. What is normal to you is laughing a lot. Many, many times a day. Feeling strong and secure. Feeling so much self-confidence, so sure about who you are, that when you look at others, you're always in a position to uplift them. What's normal for you is to have so much energy that at the end of the day you are still looking for things to do. Having such a passion for life that you're eager to get together with other people to hear about what they're doing, to see if it's anything you might want to turn a little of your attention to. To have so much energy at the end of the day, that you're already eagerly planning tomorrow. Feeling disappointed that the sun goes down and enthusiastic that the sun comes up. What is normal is a zest for life beyond anything that most of you, over eight years of age, have remembered or felt in a long, long time. That's what's normal.

It is our anticipation that 30 days of talking the resistance down, to feel a little better, and writing on the Universe's side of the Place Mat what you'd like the Universe to work on--will put most of you in a position 30 days from today of feeling an enthusiasm for life unlike anything that you've felt for a lontg time. Give that six months and people won't even recognize you as the same person, truly."

What have you gotten so used to that you now consider normal?

May insights surround you,


Catherine