Senbei shopping and the "virgin road"

Lately, I have been really into eating senbei. Senbei are Japanese rice crackers. They are delicious but finding some without wheat or soy sauce is very difficult. Even the "plain" ones often have soy sauce. We found out that near us is a famous senbei shop. Here are a few things they offer.

So we went yesterday and I bought some. I was a bit sad because most of the nice ones in the pictures above I couldn't buy...in fact I could only find the plain ones-still....better than nothing.

Apparently this senbei shop is so famous that you can even buy the water they use to make the senbei-it is pure mountain water -100 yen (about $1) for 10 liters. The place to buy the water is attached to the store. Here are the pictures!

Now, the "virgin road" story. Even after 11+ years, I learn new things all the time! Yesterday my student was telling me about a new hotel that was built here in our city. Apparently it is hoping to be popular for weddings as they built a chapel inside. My student said: " They are very proud of this chapel because the designer drew the plans so that the sun would shine on the virgin road". I was a bit lost and though I must have heard her wrong...perhaps she meant a statue of the Virgin Mary or something. But no. She meant the virgin road. She then looked at me like something was wrong with me. Why didn't I understand? It was English after all! Turns out that when the bride walks down the church aisle (with or without a father), she is walking down the "virgin road". And no, that is not the translated version...they say it in English. When it is just a regular church day it would be translated into an "aisle" but when a bride walks down it, it is the "virgin road". I was speechless....never heard that before! My students were shocked because they thought that was how we say it in North America. Umm...no. We don't. We all got a laugh out of that one!!