Happy Birthday to Russell

There are five minutes left of Russell's birthday here in Japan, but since it is only 7am in Oregon I'm not going to worry if I'm a bit late.

Russell had a rather unfortunate birthday in some ways - namely getting food poisoning from a restaurant in Osaka yesterday when we went to get one of his birthday presents. He's okay now, but he spent most of the day less than happy.


On the other end of things, he is one lucky boy when it comes to all other aspects of the day. He managed to get three pretty sweet prizes for his birthday this year. A Play Station 3 console, the new Final Fantasy game (in Japanese, so the voice acting is excellent) AND a multi-effects stomp box for his guitar. The last gift probably shouldn't count since he gave it to himself as something he needs and wants for playing with his new band, but I'm tacking it on the list anyway.

Russell was a little sheepish that his stash was going to be posted online, but the way I see it, all he got for Christmas was a $10 takoyaki pan.

We run a little hot and cold in the 'ole gift giving department in this family. The way I see it, he should revel in the fact that he is making out like a bandit because it may not happen again for a very long time.

We also celebrated with a classic Japanese birthday cake. The standard white cake with strawberries on top is emblematic of birthdays in Japan. All the television shows, animation and movies show exactly this kind of cake. It seemed very important to follow tradition. It was tasty, too! All that "frosting" is actually whipped cream, so its not super sweet. Just right.

Happy Birthday, Russell!

Weekend Stuff

The last few weeks have been really tough at work. Good, but tough. The students suddenly realized they had to take final exams, give final presentations, turn in papers, redo rough drafts, etc, before the end of the term. (Monday is the last day of Final Exams week - not counting second chance and third chance tests... but that's another post) .

Long story short, I have been swamped in the office. This is partially my fault for being as transparent as possible for my tests. Students knew exactly what they have to do, and realizing it will be difficult, decided they actually did need come see me. Many were also writing students with questions about their final reports. This has resulted in a revolving door of students. From 9am to 6 pm and sometimes later, I have been fielding questions, giving practice questions and giving feedback on papers. On good days I can squeeze drinking coffee in before the 9am rush and buying rice balls for lunch while someone is in the middle of working on a project in the office. I generally eat at my desk between students or occasionally while helping students. Being a good American, however, I have so far refused to skip lunch.

This has made weekends all the more precious. While I wish the last few weekends had been a break from the chaos, they were really more of a staging ground for the following week - still good, though.

Weekends give me a chance to catch up on grading and get laundry done. Of course, always one to procrastinate, I also get some web surfing an blogging in between grading projects. Today a case in point.

This weekend things are finally starting to wind down. I have to give final grades to the 50 reports I collected, but I am finished giving and grading my listening exams and the oral presentations on Monday should be graded before I leave school that day. Its nice to see the light at the tunnel. So nice, in fact, that Russell and I have been putting extra energy into getting organized this weekend. We finally did a good job cleaning the house (as opposed to just straightening). This hasn't happened since before Russell's sister came in November - and wasn't even done especially well then. It is a huge relief.

We have also been doing mega-ammounts of laundry. Three loads yesterday and two loads today. Its almost finished. Of course, the quantity is partially due to washing all the bedding in anticipation of a guest next week. We have also been airing out beds and trying to de-fume the large futon (the one that got the bleach treatment a few months back). We think the bleach smell has been thoroughly baked out now.

Finally, on Saturday night I finished grading my last listening tests while Russell launched into a PlayStation3 game he bought to go with his shiny new PS3 console. We are waiting for Final Fantasy XIII to come in the mail, but in the meantime Russell found a samurai game to tide him over.

Hanging out in a fresh and shiny home with lots of snacks and something interesting to watch felt awesome.

Round Two for Rockstar Russell

Russell's first band (Green Day cover band) wasn't really working out. The bass player quit before Russell started (he had to get a job) and the drum player was sick and then too busy. Russell met up with the other guitar player a few times, but it had fizzled out lately.

Finally having given up and reinvigorated by Rock Fujiyama, Russell went searching for a new band. He seems to have found one, too. Now, instead of Green Day covers, he's going to try covering Ai Otsuka. She would be more in the "super sugar coated Japanese pop" category. All of her albums include the word Love. Of course, her name, Ai, also means love, so she isn't JUST being girly.

Russell met with the band today (or at least some of the band members) and he has hope for this group. He hasn't played with them yet, but he seems impressed so far. I think what he's really hoping for is a band where he's not quite up to snuff and can rise to the challenge. In the meantime he will assume as much and hope he is good enough to at least be kept once they do meet again and start playing.

Time to tune the 'ole axe.

English to Japanese word of the day: "Akugi"

Submit your guesses in the comments. Your hint? Russell learned it today when he met with the band.

Stealth Holiday

We damn near missed one of the coolest Japanese holidays ever!

Thankfully, my co-worker tipped me off at work, so we were able to salvage some of it.

Today is Setsubun! Setsubun is apparently the last day before Spring according to the Japanese lunar calendar. It can fall on February 3rd or 4th. This is a day to get rid of bad spirits and bring luck into the house.

So how do you do that? From what I hear:

1. Dads around the country come into the house wearing a demon mask and their children throw roasted soy beans at them until they leave the house.
2. While throwing soy beans, the chldren yell "Oni wa soto, Fuku wa uchi" or "Devil out, Good luck in!"
3. The children eat their age's worth of the beans (on the floor?) I think so...
4. Hang burned, dried sardine heads outside your house so the strong smell will drive away evil spirits (not largely practiced anymore).
5. Clean the house extra super good.
6. Various regional traditions. In Kansai, (where we are) someone offical announces what the lucky direction is for the year (as my co-worker pointed out, this seems not unlike Mr. Punxatawny Phil). Everyone then eats a futo-maki (long rolled sushi) facing that direction. They can't talk until they finish.

I didn't have a demon to throw beans at, unfortunately, but I did throw peanuts at my students. That was fun. It was their idea, by the way. Four of them took one bag of peanuts to the bottom floor of the school (outside) and the rest of us stayed upstairs on the deck and we threw peanuts at each other and yelled "Oni wa soto!" A couple of us threw a few peanuts at the school and yelled "Fuku wa uchi" for good measure.

Russell and I also ate our age in - well, not roasted soy beans but peanuts again. I thought I had found soy beans but I was lead astray.

We also ate our futo-maki facing West Southwest, which I was informed was the direction for this year. I made the mistake of assuming that I should eat it fast. My tummy kind of hurts now. In retrospect, I don't think there was anything about speed in the directions.

In the end, we are hopefully a bit better off for luck this year than we would have been otherwise. Hopefully if we did anything too grievously unlucky today we will get a few passes for being foreigners. Next year I will be better prepared!

I tried to take pictures, but they didn't turn out - and my computer is currently refusing to recognize my iphone when I try to transfer photos...

End of the School Year... Almost

The school year in Japan starts in April and ends right around now. We are in the middle of finals week, but after next Monday I am done with my first year of teaching.

Of course, there are plenty of other projects to keep me busy until the new year starts in April, but its hard to believe my classes are done.

At the moment I am buried in nervous students wanting my help before they take their final exams. The only reason I got lunch today was because I ran downstairs and bought two rice balls while one of my students was working out how to change a passive sentence to an active one. I ate while I talked with her and then was quickly spirited off to interview returning study abroad students. I don't think I stopped moving for more than 2 minutes today. It was exhausting.

I also haven't had an evening without work to bring home. I think I complained about that earlier as well. It shows I'm getting soft. I used to do hours of take-home work every night when I worked in Oregon. Now I'm getting pretty used to having my evenings free.

Once the week is over, though, things are going to get real quiet. I will still be busy, but I will be able to focus on just textbooks. No more balancing final exams with paper checking, presentation checking, grammar help, interviews, test writing and voice acting. I look forward to the monotony.

Remind me of that in a few weeks.

Mission Complete!

This post is purely for my own preening. My goal for January was to post more often (especially since I had half of January off and a lot of back stories to write about).

Once I got to 23 posts in 22 days, I thought "hell, might as well have 31 posts in 31 days."

I hope it wasn't too obvious that I was stretching for stories there at the end, but I have managed to reach my new and improved goal. This here is post 31!

Don't get your hopes up, though... I will try not to be as lazy as I was towards the end of last year, but I have no intention of posting quite this much again in the near future. Phew...

Oh, and don't be shy out there. If you are reading the blog and want to leave a reply, feel free. I know my grandmother reads this blog, but its always nice to know that others drop in on occasion too. :)

(Michelle gets the prize for being the only person to post on this month! I was very happy. - Wait, I take that back. Someone posted a link to porn, too. So Michelle and Porn Guy posted. Porn Guy has been blocked.)

Here's to another year of adventures.

Piranha Cafe

Some times you accidentally find the most wonderful places.

Today is Sunday in Japan and our favorite cafe, Cafe Kei, is closed on Sunday. This has often resulted in caffeine withdrawal for us on this day of rest. I had, however, noticed a little cafe that wasn't ever too busy close to the local grocery store. A few Sundays ago, I specifically looked to see if it was open and was happy to see that it was. Perfect! We had a place to get coffee on Sunday.

This morning, Russell and I set off to try it out. Unfortunately, when we arrived it was closed. We looked at the times posted and all it said was that it opened at 11:30am and was closed on holidays and Mondays. That meant it should be open at 12:00 on a Sunday, right? No luck. They must have stayed home today.

In the meantime, Russell had assumed that I was talking about a different cafe that he had spotted some time back. We walked around another corner and found Piranha Cafe. it looked cute but small. I wasn't sure if there were any seats inside, but we went in anyway. It turned out there were seats in the back. The host was a bit taken aback to see two foreigners walk in, but he hid it quickly and burst into "gracious host" mode. He had a very cute apron and Pageboy cap on. We took a seat.

Once we sat down, we took in our surroundings a bit. The cafe was cute with lots of sketches of happy piranhas with big teeth, some photography hung on the walls and little knick knacks and funny things to look at. There was a book on people who look like their cats, a sign to the bathroom that read "Ou et le toilet?" followed by directions in Japanese. There was also a random cable poking through the wall about a half inch and a question mark and arrow pointing to it painted on the wall. The place had a lot of character.

So did the host. We ordered a coffee and a latte. We could hear him grinding the beans and, steaming the milk and all the things you would expect to hear from someone who was actually making your cup of coffee from scratch. He came back after a few minutes with little trays. Each tray had a two heart-shaped short break cookies, a smiley-faced spoon and a cup of coffee. My latte had a smiley face design on the top. (See photo). It was adorable. When we left, he was just pulling some fresh-baked cookies out of the oven.



The restaurant also offered a variety of food. There was curry and rice, chicken and cheese bagels, hamburg steak with tomato sauce. In short, we will have to go back to sample the lunch fare before too long. The coffee was excellent and definitely warrants further trips.

We now have a favorite Sunday cafe!

Oh, and the piranha cups are for sale. I really want one. I'm hoping Russell gets me one for my coming birthday, but we established during Christmas that if I ask directly, he won't get it for me. I'm not falling for that again! I will have to be more crafty...

Taxes

Oh Man.

Taxes are going to be extra crazy this year. I worked in the US for 3 months and now here in Japan for 9 months. Russell worked all in the US but was living in Japan... We get tax help for Russell's half from his company, but they won't do my taxes. How does that work for filing jointly?

Japanese taxes are apparently done early in the year (the deadline to get tax info in to the tax preparer was last weekend) so we are starting to sort this out. I was told that we would get a bill in the mail for the taxes we owe to Japan - but the US Embassy for Japan has information that suggests I need to fill out paperwork first to figure out what I owe (just like I would in the U.S.) Of course, I have to file in the U.S. too...

I don't think they make a Turbo Tax edition for stuff like this...

Is it time I break down and approach a tax preparer? Where do I find one that can help with Japan and the US?

Ugh.

At least having to gather information for Russell has put this all on our radar early. I wouldn't want to be figuring this out right before the deadline.

Dessert Soup

For our Christmas party back in December, I went looking for stocking stuffers at the local grocery store. The criteria was 1. cheap and 2. bulky. There was an end display with cute little packages decorated with a chestnut, so I assumed they were little chestnut cakes (which are fairly common around this time of year. They were less than a dollar each and fairly big, so I got one for everyone.

At the party, one of my conversation partners made a comment to the effect of, "huh, this is interesting" when she saw the cake. I thought, what's so interesting? These things are everywhere.

Then Russell and I decided to eat ours a few days later. When we opened the package there wasn't a cake inside, but what looked like a cake covered in waffle cone. I took a bite. Inside, I was surprised to find a fine (and messy) powder. Not what I was expecting. Russell had had enough with the surprises and decided to actually read the packaging while I continued to delicately eat powder out of the middle of the waffle cone coating.

It turns out these were in no way cakes. They were, in fact, a kind of dessert soup. The idea was to break up the waffle outside and drop the powder filling and waffle bits into a mug. Then fill with hot water and enjoy the sweet treat. We tried this next, and it was tasty. Different than anything I have had before, but tasty.

We bought another round recently and this time I documented it with pictures.

Party Games

Last week the International Student Club at our school hosted a New Year's party for all of the students. This was a big success from last year, so I was looking forward to it. It started a bit late, though, so I didn't stay for the whole thing.

What I did catch was pretty fun. At the beginning there was a long table covered in food and more food being prepared. There were some girls making wontons by hand, a Thai girl making spicy Thai soup, and another girl from China making a broth for the wontons.

While we were waiting for the soups to finish, the hostess (and president of the club) called on two teachers to help with a game of "name that Chinese character." Japanese kanji are based off of Chinese characters - so there are often similarities and some kanji are exactly the same as the original Chinese script. Japanese, however, developed a pair of syllable systems that allowed them to show tense and aspect and all those good things. With the two writing systems combined, one really only needs about 2,000 kanji to be literate in Japanese. Chinese is based solely on characters and requires more like 10,000 for proficiency (or so I'm told). Some characters have changed significantly since the original character system was introduced to Japan from China, so there are a great many basic characters that Japanese people don't know. Perfect for a trivia game!

We were all invited to participate.

The part I found especially amusing was that before every character was shown, the entire room would yell (in Japanese, of course) "Kanji Game, Go!" or something to that effect. The "Go" would be punctuated by a fist in the air and the kanji would be revealed. This took no explanation. Everyone knew exactly what to do. You don't generally see that kind of a) enthusiasm and b)coordination in university trivia games in the U.S. I tried to take pictures every time they did this, but my shutter was slow and I usually caught people looking less than enthusiastic. Please assume that they were very enthusiastic a half second before the shot you see now.

The food was delicious. I got to try both soups before I ducked out and they were wonderful. The Thai soup was my favorite, but it was a bit too spicy for most of the people present. I had a double helping and was wishing Russell was there to have some too.

Remembering our first hospital trip

It has been several weeks since we visited the hospital, but I have been meaning to write about it.

First off, had we not both been sick at the time, I think I can safely say we would have thoroughly enjoyed the visit. It was the picture of efficiency and quality care. I hope that some day the U.S. can upgrade to such a system.

Here's how it worked:

We walked in the door and were greeted by friendly volunteers who quickly busied themselves with other people. I suspect the thought of helping a pair of barely-standing foreigners who may or may not know any Japanese was a bit intimidating. Beyond the volunteers was a wide open room with lots of comfortable seating (like enough for at least 100, maybe 200 people) and some front desks. One desk said "First time patient" in English under the Japanese, so we went there. The lady directed us to the forms near the entrance that we needed to fill out since it was our first visit. We filled out the forms and returned them to her. She had us sit down and in about 10 minutes she had made Russell a card with his name and registration number and she directed him to take it to the internal medicine room.

In a row along one end of the hospital were a variety of different kinds of doctors. Internal medicine, ear nose and throat, heart, etc. We went to internal medicine, gave them Russell's card , filled out a form about the reason for the visit, and sat down again. After about another 10-15 minutes they called him back and he was shown to a doctor behind a curtain (there was a row of curtains in the back room.) The doctor looked over his symptoms, did doctory things, chatted with Russell a bit about why he was living in Kobe, how he liked it, etc, and then told him he probably had a stomach virus but they would run some blood tests to be sure. Russell was sent down the hall to have his blood drawn.

In the blood drawing room he walked right up, stuck out his arm, got his blood drawn and was told to check back in with internal medicine in about 40 minutes and the tests would be in. After about 30 minutes, the nurse from internal medicine came looking for Russell (since he had been easy to spot). Russell went back to talk to the doctor again and was told what the blood tests had shown (pretty much what was expected) and Russell was prescribed medication.

Through all these steps, Russell had a blue folder that he took to each station. Each station would add information and paperwork and send it to the next destination. At the end, we took the folder to the processing window and put it in the appropriately marked box. After about 10 minutes Russell's name was called (with about 10 others) to pay the cashier (his bill had been prepared). "Paying the cashier" meant getting in line for one of four ATM-like machines, entering his registration number and paying the balance for his visit. The balance included the cost of the doctor, blood work and prescription.

Since Russell has to claim all doctors expenses with his insurance in the US, his total was the same as an uninsured Japanese person - and still only came to $160. After we had paid, we sat down again to wait for his prescription, but then realized that the number that had printed on the receipt - the number we were to use to claim his prescription - had already been posted on the electronic pharmacy board. We claimed the prescription and went home. All together, it took about two hours. A lot of that was because it was Russell's first visit and he had to wait for blood work.

Considering we had to do all of this in a foreign language, and while both of us were sick, we expected the worst. We were very thankful to find that things were made as simple as possible for us. I liked that the doctor stays in one place and the patients go to them. I also liked that the front desk finds out what your problem is and sends you to someone who specializes in that general area (though the doctors aren't specialists in the same way doctors specialize in the US, from what I hear). I liked that the lines were short and the doctor unhurried. And I LOVED that the full cost was so low. I am definitely won over to socialized medicine.

Garbage Police

If you have been reading this blog from the beginning, you know something about the garbage system in Japan. At least, you know about Kobe (which is way tamer than some parts of Japan).

As a refresher, we take "burnable" garbage (eg anything food based, paper based, or plastic that has been in contact with food) out on Monday and Thursday. We take non-burnable (clothing, broken household items and non-food related plastic) out on every other Tuesday, and we take bottles and cans out on every other Wednesday. It took some getting used to.

We did, however, make a concerted effort to get used to the garbage sorting routine. We also have tried to be perfect neighbors by never putting garbage out the night before. (Even though it has to be out by 8am on the designated morning). If you put your garbage out the night before it is unsightly and may get scavenged by passing crows, cats, etc.

We had heard rumor that there are police who's job it is to enforce the garbage rules, but we have never seen any.

On the other side of town, my co-worker has been trying to be good, but occasionally breaking the rules. She occasionally puts her garbage out the night before (hopefully when no one is looking) and was pretty much going by the rule of thumb that everything is burnable if you get it hot enough. She was worried that she might get caught, and I don't think she broke the rules TOO often, but I was a little worried that she might piss off her neighbors.

Then it happened.

Last week, she was visited by the garbage police. She got a knock on her door and found an officer on the other side. He told her that she had put her garbage in the wrong pile (each residence has a designated area to take their trash. These areas are spaced about a block away from each other, but even if it is more convenient to use a different pile, you have to use your designated pile.

My co-worker's father had just been visiting, so she explained that he had probably been the one to mistake the piles. Her Japanese is not exactly fluent, so she also explained that she was a foreigner and didn't know any better.

This is the best part.

The office informed her that he knew she was a foreigner because he had seen a post-card from her home country in the garbage she had thrown out. My co-worker was horrified. Not only had the police tracked her down, he had gone through her garbage. Of course, that is how he had tracked down the culprit, but the thought of having her trash rifled has set her on the straight and narrow. No more bending the rules for her... even if technically, this one wasn't her fault.

Russell and I are also being extra careful.

I wish they would introduce plastic recycling to this part of Kobe. I never know for sure whether to put it in burnables or not... I hate to think of inhaling the results of a big plastic bonfire... I hope its okay to wash it and put it in non-burnables...

I guess the trash police will let us know if it isn't.