Wednesday 10 September 2008

brown bear and the honour box system

Ha, that title sounds like a fairy tale title or something!
As you know, if you read my waffle regularly that Ebi-kun has had a crazy stint of cutting up paper  so I thought we would try an idea out that I have seen bouncing on several blogs. We got out Eric Carle's Brown Bear book and Ebi-kun picked which animal he wanted to make - a brown bear! and then I sketched it out on a piece of card, I thought it would be easier if he had some kind of frame to work within. We worked together to make the picture, Ebi-kun got bored near the end and let me finish it off, which I was happy to do, I really enjoyed myself!


The other part of todays title is about the honour boxes we have around here. I love this idea and I'm so chuffed that I have discovered them, We live out in the sticks a bit and there are lots of these little boxes around next to allotments or just outside houses that have a big garden. Inside are bags of fruit and veg and a sign with the prices on, they are cheap usually ¥100 for a bag of whatever. I have found that the goods are fresher and cheaper than the supermarket and have developed a little route so I can pass as many of these boxes as possible when I am out on the bike. There is no-one manning the box you just put your money in the little box provided. back home in the UK, I expect that not only would the money be nicked so would the goods and quite possibly the whole box!
In this box is eggplant, blueberries, figs and cucumber, the money goes in the big bottle!

7 comments:

  1. what a great way to shop for groceries! thanks for sharing a bit of Japan with us. My dad grew a patch of watermelons and pumpkins this year (in Kentucky) and has a wagon set up by the road with an honor box. I rummaged my inbox to find the pictures to send you but suppose I deleted them.

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  2. it's like a wonderfully healthy vending machine! awesome!

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  3. I agree,in the uk that wouldn't last a day!
    Back in germany , where I grew up , they have them,too, with flowers & strawberries & potatoes,mainly.
    I love the idea, & i love it that there are still places where things like this are possible!!!!

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  4. It does work in the UK. My sister-in -law has been selling fruit and veg using this system all summer and no-one has ever taken anything without paying. In fact she took her 2 little boys for a day out on the proceeds. Not all the UK is horrible and untrustworthy you know. Some parts are nice!!!

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  5. Yeah, I know not all the UK is riddled with yobs etc. It was a generalization. I am from a tiny village in the middle of no-where but I can't imagine it working there these days. Such a shame, where we live in Japan is quite a big town in comparison.

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  6. It works in the US, too, even on the super-cynical East Coast! Our neighbor up the street has the same system.

    I love the brown bear - what a great idea!

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  7. My 2 year-old just saw this post as I was reading it and said "That's brown bear!" :) I bet he would also enjoy this activity.

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