Monday, February 12, 2007

Attack of the Killer Carrots

Be warned; what I am about to show you is visually frightening. It is recommended that small children and those weak of heart refrain from viewing the images.

This, people, is a carrot. Yes, that is a Bic Clic and an A4 sheet of paper that the carrot is posing with.

The specimen in question was found in the Vegetable department of a Max Valu supermarket (parent company AEON) located in Akita Prefecture, Northern Japan. The discoverer of this monstrous vegetable at first thought they had found a new variety of daikon, but on closer inspection it became clear that the root was, in fact, a carrot.

Pardon the silliness. This was the highlight of my Saturday.

Look, here is my hand holding the giant carrot:

This humungous carrot cost me all of 38 yen. That's all of, what, NZ 45c? Sumiko and I were talking about the giant carrots (basically saying "OMG what am I going to with a carrot that size?") when I asked her why the carrots were so cheap despite their gigantousness. She said it was probably because of their size that they cost so little. Because Japanese people prefer little things. And that is so true. Next time I buy a cucumber I will take a picture and blog it: they're tiny!

Yesterday I went to see Sumiko. She and I went into Honjo to a little bit of shopping. I bought a new turtle-neck jersey (for going under other jerseys), a new bowl that matches my plates, and some groceries that I can't get in Konoura, such as cheese. I also found Crunchy Nut cornflakes! Then we went back to Sumiko's house and made beef stew for dinner.

After dinner I got to play on Sumiko's new Wii. So. Much. Fun! The only game they have so far is the sports one that was released at the same time as the system. I did a bit of bowling on my own. Turns out that I'm fairly good at Wii bowling (I doubt I'm so good at the real life version). Then Sumiko's husband came back and I played tennis against him. I lost. I lost against Sumiko too. Then I played boxing, and I was really good at that! Yeah! But I have sore muscles today. Playing sport on the Wii is pretty much as tiring as playing it for real. Which is a good thing! I would lose so much weight if I had a Wii.

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