Regular

One thing I really miss about living in Japan is that when I went to my favorite places, I was treated extra special, as a regular. And it never took me long to become a regular because I stood out. Basically, by the second time there, I was officially a regular. My favorite places where I knew the staff were mostly restaurants. A bakery where I would get my morning pastry, 2 restaurants owned by the same person: Okoge and Spice Ya, and the local Japanese style pub named Murasaki (Purple).

I used to joke with Dama that he became famous in our small town and became a regular because he was dating me :) Now he tries to reverse that and say that we are regulars at some places here because of him :) Not so!

Here are a couple places I/we are regulars and get treated extra nice:

1) my local Jamba Juice: I probably get one once a week. The gal behind the counter and I always have a nice chat and she'll offer me samples.

2) Peking Restaurant: We have been coming here for years. Dama used to bring Lucas here when he was an only child and I was off scrapbooking. Then he added Ellie. Now we all go and the ladies there love the kids.

3) Best Teriyaki: our local Teriyaki shop. The owner is THE nicest guy ever and he and I have great conversations about Asian culture. He too loves the kids and gives them lollipops when we go in.

It's harder to get to know people up here. We had a lot of places we were regulars at when we lived in Renton and in Japan. It's much smaller there. It just seems like there are more places to go around here and more people. I really miss that.