Points-so card-do

     "Points-so card-do?" Experienced Whole Food or M & S members quickly recognize the request for a loyalty card with payment. Respectfully, the cashier pauses. In a country where the shopper packs her own groceries, the cashier next places plastic store bags upon the purchases or even helpfully fiddles with the bags. (Management leaves a damp washcloth at the packing area to wet fingers to help with pulling open the new bag.) When no card is offered, the shopper places cash on the awaiting tray; credit cards are the exception. No matter how large the bill, the cashier accepts it politely and produces change. Holding a note to the light to check for counterfeiting is not done.

    Milk comes in quarts and pints, rice in grain bags, and the fish section is three times as large as the meat counter. Sushi is available for take away, as is tonkatsu (fried pork chop) and onegiri (triangular sandwich of rice with tuna or other filling). Celery is sold by the single stalk, carrots are bagged in threes (four is unlucky).

    What is the advantage to a grocery store Points-so Card-do? Don't ask me since the application is as undecipherable as the Rosetta Stone, even for someone who has passed JLPT Level 4. How clever for the local drugstore and cleaners to simply give out the Points-so Card-do with receipt, which insures complete monogamy. A bow of recognition at the drugstore for the gaijin lady who comes in for a weekly supply of cat litter and laundry detergent, followed by stamp-stamp-stamp on the card-do. Some brands of cat litter are made of tofu scraps, which stick to neko no ke (cat fur). With a drugstore full of exotic items (collagen drinks, skin whitening lotions, Can Make cosmetics, heated insoles, face masks in different strengths, etc) the shopper must put a time limit on browsing.

       Fastest route to the dry cleaners from the Manor includes the shortcut through a back alley and down a steep flight of stone stairs, past a statue of the guardian of children, Ojizo-sama. In his red bib, one-yen coins piled beside him, Jizo protects the mizuko or "water babies" in the afterworld. Next door to the neighborhood tofu maker, the dry cleaners expects customers to bring an "eco bag" in which to carry away their neatly wrapped items. With minimal street crime, the dimly lit alleys are busy and litter free.  
 
      T minus 16 days until the Room to Read event. At today's monthly Library Committee meeting the Japanese Librarian reported that copies of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World are selling briskly. Is it too early to consider my opening remarks? More importantly, must arrange for an appointment with the hairdresser.