pointo caado

"Read it and weep," I said to my husband as I showed him my brand new card. "Can you beat Tower Records?"

"Two words," he said with confidence. "Bic Camera."

Oh! Snap! Trumped by the electronics store again!

Since coming to Tokyo four months ago, we've started to adopt some pretty cool Tokyo traditions.

We now all eat with hashi (chopsticks). (Some of us are better than others.)

We are all learning how to speak Japanese. (Some of us are much better than others.)

We remember to take our shoes off at the door. (Some much, much better than others.)

We bow while talking on the phone. (Ok, that was just me. And, it happened once.)

We sumo wrestle (Ok, that's just our 11-year-old son. He lost his first tournament, but did catch two goldfish with rice paper. So it was a win afterall.).

And, now we are starting to collect store point cards (or pointo caado, as they say here).

It's easy as ichi, ni, san.
1. The clerk of any store: "Fastjapaneseyoucan'tunderstand pointo caado des ka?"
2. You: "Hai."
3. They give you a card!

It's the easiest and most rewarding task I've done in Tokyo. And, now I'm addicted. It doesn't matter if I'm at a supaa (supermarket) or depaato (department store), I will say yes to "....pointo caado des ka?". And, I hoard and value my point cards like a 10-year old with his pokemon deck. "Mr. Donut-san, I choose you!"

"Do you even know how many points you have on the cards?" my husband asked me.
"No," I said.
"Do you know how to redeem your points?"
"No," I said.
"Do you know what prizes you could earn with the points?"
"No," I said.
"You're just excited to answer 'yes' in Japanese, right?"
"Hai," I said.

To be honest, I had tried "moo ichido onegaishimas" (one more time please), but "hai" is soooooo much easier to say....and if I play my cards right I just might get a cool prize. I'm hoping for a "Misdo" (Mister Donut) chef hat.