Distractions, reflections

Living in South Riverdale in Toronto, there’s not much of the city south of us. Between our home and Lake Ontario, there’s the Port Lands — an industrial area gradually being taken over by movie production. Since I hadn’t been around Toronto for much of the summer, I hopped on my bike just to see what’s new. The first big change was the opening, on Cherry Street, of a T&T Supermarket: a branch of the upscale, full-service chain originally in Vancouver area, with some branches up in the northern suburbs of Richmond Hill and Markham.

I used to shop in this location when the store was a Knob Hill Farms. That was a downscale warehouse experience, with lots of European imports and low prices. The T&T store was a complete renovation of the building, and it’s well lit, with extensive services of take-out food (dim sum and sushi), a bakery, and tanks of live fish.  Read more... (221 words, 3 images, estimated 53 secs reading time)

The Ginza is famous for luxury shopping. Since I travel so much, it’s not the luxuries that attract me. Almost a week into a 3-week trip in Japan, I was looking for the basics: more fruits and vegetables in my diet, and laundry facilities to freshen up a suitcase of clothes. Some detective work on the Internet suggested Hanamasa as a good place for groceries. Since we were staying in a hotel without cooking facilities, Diana and I bought veggies we could eat raw: tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and carrots.

The vegetables and fruit were, of course, more expensive than in North America. The Hanamasa prices seemed reasonable, though, when compared to shopping in department store basements. We might have bought bananas, except that huge bunches were by a sign to not break them up. Plums and peaches were in season and probably local, so they were a better choice.

 Read more... (423 words, 6 images, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)