Yesterday I went shopping in Tokyo.

Yesterday I went shopping in Tokyo.
I bought Tide and a big* box of cereal.
HA! ;D I know these are not what people typically think of when they hear the phrase "shopping in Tokyo", but I can't think of anything I could have bought that would have made me happier than these two essentials.
I was there with my friend James...in the international grocery store we laughed about how excited we were to find such basic items as laundry detergent we can identify and cleaning products whose labels we can read. Here they really are rare luxuries found only in select places. We were in the uppity Roppongi district where the grocery store was full of people (ambassadors and such) wearing diamonds like they were going to a gala, and the parking lot was full of BMWs and Audis.

*By "big" I mean a box of cereal that would be considered "normal" size at home, but here is exorbitant compared to the "normal" size Japanese cereal** boxes that last me about 4 days.

**Note of Interest: You know how the cereal boxes at home usually have serving suggestions like, "add strawberries" or "sprinkle on top of yogurt"? Well, in Japan the serving suggestions show pictures of the cereal drizzled with salad dressing and mixed with lettuce and tomatoes.