shopping list lost in translation

Hidemi and I have been taking turns cooking for eachother. She made soba with octopus tempura last time so I whipped up some bean tacos last night. The lime I bought turned out to be some funky Japanese fruit, the spinach was this weird waxy leafy green, and the green onions were garlic shoots. It was way garlicky, but good. Asian/Mexican fusion I guess.
I mentioned something a friend said about the presidential election coming up, like "people are all freaking out about the US election process, nobody believes in it anymore..." and she looked totally puzzled, then laughed like crazy and reminded me of how the Japanese cant really distinguish r's and l's.