Manju!

After showering and eating a bowl of noodles that I bought at Odakyu Ox the night before, I headed out to the train station for Ebina via the Odakyu line toward Hakone. On the way to the station, I stopped at a Manju-ya (Manju store) and bought my favorite manju, which is one with lima beans inside and kinako (crushed roasted soybeans) sprinkled on the outside. Mmmmm! The o-gi-san (older man) helped me, and he asked if I were Japanese or not. I told him I was "Nikkei-America-jin". He smiled, and we somehow had some sort of conversation. I was surprised how much of my Japanese just came back. Oddly enough, compared to German, I can easily form phrases to respond. Perhaps it's because I grew up listening to Japanese. Either way, it was a lot of fun to use my Japanese in a decent Japanese accent!