Literacy is Priceless

No English in sight, but the one on the left is Choco-flakes and the right is Corn Flakes.

The other morning I decided to have cereal for breakfast.  Cereal is not a common breakfast item in Japan, so when I saw the bags of it in my local grocery store, I grabbed them.  Oh, I’m exaggerating a little bit.  If I go to the International Supermarket, which I do rarely, there is a small selection of cereals.  There’s always rice crispies, frosted flakes, and granola.  In the past year, Special K has been available.  These boxes, however, run upwards of $5 for a box a quarter of the size of those available in the U.S. I try to stay out of the wildly overpriced International Supermarkets anyway, of which there are two.

So this particular morning, I opened the bag on the left in the picture above.  I looked inside and a very particular smell came up at me.  Chocolate.  I had bought chocolate cereal.  Me, in all of my attempts at healthy, Japanese-style eating, had bought chocolate cereal.

“Mom, Bailey said, taking the bag from me, “It says ‘choco’ right on there in Katakana.”  Then I showed him the other bag of cereal.  “Corn Flakes,” he assured me.

Hm.  It might be time for Mom to learn to read.