I have to say that I often feel like it is only me that really feels this weather. Japanese are already dressing as if it were in fact fall....ok....maybe it is on a calender but not in terms of temperature. It was about 27 Celsius plus 80% humidity...how could wearing a turtleneck sweater be comfortable?!
Ok...I will stop complaining about the weather.
The other week I was talking to my student about how much I missed spaghetti squash. My hubby and I had eaten it in Canada and we both missed it a lot. At first she didn't know what I was talking about and then she figured out that I meant "somen uri". "Somen" are thin white noodles eaten mostly in summer so we call it "spaghetti" and they call it "Somen". Anyway, she said she had only eaten it once in her life and it was a long time ago and she didn't really like it. She had eaten it boiled with "ponzu" which is a tart citrus sauce (I am pretty sure I wouldn't have liked it that way either). So I told her how I cooked it....roasted in the oven with butter and salt and pepper. She said it sounded interesting. Well, last Wednesday she came bearing gifts! She found 2 small spaghetti squash for only 100yen (about $1) each at a vegetable stand. Apparently, they aren't very popular so not many farmers grow them. She bought 2 for me and 1 for her. She cooked it the way I had told her and she loved it! Tonight I cooked mine and was in heaven!
Yesterday I worked my butt off doing some work on our http://www.from-japan-with-love.com/ store. We now offer gift certificates! I have had many customers ask for them but we weren't able to do it until I did some things to the site. Anyway, we now offer them in $25, $35, $50, $75 and $100. Here is what I made for our site yesterday. They are emailed out but I wanted a pretty graphic for the site.
I state that I email it out within 3 business days. But I was thinking about stating that I could send the email with the gift certificate code in it to the buyer if they wanted to print it out and send it in a card. It won't be pretty like this but rather it will have all the info on where (my store), how to use it, the code etc. Hmmm...maybe I could work on making a pretty one for people to print off themselves. Any thoughts?
7 comments:
You're not the only one who feels it. I have student who complain about it, though generally women do not have as many problems with it.
Japanese people have a lower average body temperature than most foreigners and I think that makes them more comfortable in hot weather and less comfortable in cold. Also, many Japanese women have low blood pressure which means their rate of pumping hot blood through their bodies is different. And they also have less body fat (and therefore less insulation). They don't feel the heat like we do, but they do feel the cold more than us.
On balance though, I'd rather not feel the heat. :-p
Well the taxi driver was telling the truth we had real good weather here, very humid and hot, well now it's rainy, and winter is knocking at our door, uh i hate winter specialy the -30.
Love your blog !!
Good job on making the gift certificates! Yet another thing to do on my list. So sorry about the humidity. It's the same her in California. Just makes you not want to do ANYTHING :(
It definitely isn't hot out here in Canada right now...living in a similar location to where you used to live (Brantford...I recall you saying that family was from Cambridge / Southampton?) - well, it was quite cold out today! Maybe 14 degrees Celsius? A little cold for this time of the year...very cold wind though and rainy. Not a very nice day. I'm wishing it was a bit warmer out!
You could make the gift certificate a pretty one, and make it so they could print it out. Maybe put a number on each one sent out so you could have a record of who got sent what. We had to do that at our store so we could keep track at what was being redeemed. And specify that you're not responsible for anything lost or stolen and they have to treat it like cash. that way you're not liable. We would have people try to redeem ones more than once.
loving the blog! I love all things Japanese, unfortunately i didn't have enough time when i was in Korea to pop over, one day!
Check out my food blog and tell me what you think: http://thegodscake.wordpress.com
Michael
Oh Brrr, i'm freezing here in Michigan- if only you really could bottle the air- i'd send you a case!
~m
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