Components Of A Weird Day

[snarp]

1) A job interview.

2) Finding a kind of chocolate you've been on the lookout for for a couple months, and on your way to the checkout being stopped by a woman who'd also been looking for it to ask you what aisle you found it in.

3) Seeing somebody for whom you bought dorayaki last weekend mentioned in an entirely non-dorayaki-related-context on a blog you read every day.

4) The Metro goes aboveground sometimes?!

Comments

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Maybe not! I was kind of preoccupied hauling around a bag full of giant creepy dolls, not to mention being in a massive antihistamine haze.

Have you already found your way to Hana Market on U Street?

[snarp]

I have not been there yet, but now I guess I must go! A friend tried to take me to a place called Daruma Market in Bethesda the other day, but it had gone out of business. Thus was my quest for anko thwarted.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Hana is great -- there are a ton of much much bigger pan-Asian markets out in the VA/MD burbs, but they're mostly Korean-based and if you're looking for specifically Japanese products, their selection isn't always as extensive as one might like. Hana is pretty tiny and their selection of fresh/frozen stuff in particular is very small, but for more shelf-stable stuff they probably have the best selection of Japanese nummies in the area, especially now that Daruma and Nani-wa in McLean have both closed. :( (Go on Thursdays if you're looking for vegetables, that's when they get fresh deliveries.)

It's very very Metro-able, too -- only three blocks from the U Street station on the Green or Yellow lines. (If you drive or have a friend with a car, the Fairfax Super H Mart is probably the hugest and nicest of the Asian mega-marts in the area -- or Great Wall in Merrifield is the best bet if you're looking for specific Chinese ingredients, now that the last supermarket in Chinatown is closed. :(

[snarp]

I will definitely check out Hana when I get the chance. Thank you for telling me about it!

[snarp]

(Dolls from the stand where people were making dolls, or anime plushes from the insanely crowded booth down near the J-pop stage?)

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Ah, nope, the crazy resin ball-jointed things...although I know a couple of the girls at the kimekomi dollmaking school booth also had their BJDs hanging out with them there, and lots of the doll forum folks who'd come downtown for a dollmeet in the Haupt Garden were dropping by their booth to say hello.