omiyage

the reason I previously blogged about takkyubin was because I was reminded about omiyage (souvenir). just my thought process got a bit diverted as it does. yuka is away in taiwan this weekend (the island the japanese foriegn minister recently described as a 'country' whilst in talks with the chinese foriegn minister) but before she went she got a mail order catalogue from sanyodo who specialise in hassle free souvenirs: basically you don't have to go through the inconvenience of searching for and carrying back a present. as easy as it sounds I always thought the personal touch was half the deal, but no, no the japanese simply order or even pre-order. I guess at t he end of the day you don't really care what you get as long as it's sweet/strong and you can eat/drink it.

checking their site, I was impressed to see some beers from my local brewery on Arran included in the British list as well as tacky-tastic terry's chocolate orange: a thing of wonder from my childhood.

I have my fingers crossed for the panda topped tissue box cover but I'll just have to wait and see.