Baked Goods

Unfortunately, we don't have an oven, so I am largely at the mercy of the local bakeries when it comes to getting a baked-good fix. That turns out to work fine for the most part since the local bakeries are far more skilled than I am anyway.

Note how much cuter their baked goods are. That's a Totoro クリームパン (Cream Bread). He's made of delicious sweet bread with cream filling. They also do turtle shaped Melon Bread (which is a kind of sweet bread with a cookie coating that is cut into a square pattern. No melon is involved.

We also recently started frequenting the bagel place just down the street from our apartment. Bagels are still hard to come by in Japan. You can find them occasionally at bakeries, but they don't seem to be as popular as other bread products here. Dense breads in general seem to lose out in Japan. In any case, the lady down the street is making a heroic effort to spread bagel goodness to all. The only problem is that they really require work to eat. Her recipe results in a light weight bagel with a armor of rubber. My jaw hurts after eating one. So why do I keep eating them? Because they're DELICIOUS. She rolls local flavors into the middle of the bagel roll that are inspired. Today I had sesame sweet potato. I also like the pumpkin gratin and curry bean bagel. She has a lot of sweet bagels, too. Chocolate, maple, yuzu. All of them are delicious - you just have to psych yourself up for the work involved in eating one. If she could combine the amazing flavors with a better texture, these would be unbeatable bagels.

She has also recently added homemade old fashioned walnut donuts. Those are just awesome.

FInally, every Wednesday before swing dance I stop for a quick dinner at Vie de France - a local bakery chain. Like most shops in Japan, Vie de France has their regular favorites alongside seasonal specials. Some time at the beginning of winter, the seasonal special was a yuzu cream pastry. Yuzu is a kind of citrus that is popular this time of year. Its not at all unlike a lemon, but it has its own unique flavor. The pastry was a light yuzu flavored cake with cream in the middle. I love yuzu, so I thought I would try it. While eating this creation it suddenly occurred to me that this was a Twinkie. That realization led to a second epiphany: Twinkies must be lemon flavored cake. This had never occurred to me before. They were just yellow and tasted like Twinkies.

Honestly, knowing that Twinkies are lemon cake doesn't make them more appetizing. Knowing that my yuzu cake tasted like a twinkie? Also not appetizing. This is one yuzu creation I'll be passing on from now on.

Yuzu Pringles, however, are awesome.

Getting ready for Christmas

In spite of at least one Christmas party offer, Russell and I decided to play it low-key for Christmas this year. We are hanging around the apartment with a pile of snacks browsing the Internet and attempting to play D&D with only two people. I'm a monk.

We have a neat little stack of Christmas presents - thank mostly to my mom. We are also taking breaks here and there to clean the apartment. By real Christmas we may even have the house sparkling.

As I'm sure I've posted before, Christmas is not really a holiday in Japan. The commercialized version of the holiday does make an appearance. There are Christmas trees decorating lobbys all over the city and shopping malls are decorated with poinsettias and snowflakes. "All I want for Christmas is You" is playing at most venues also.

But how do people in Japan celebrate Christmas?

I suspect I already shared the story, but I'm dusting it off because I like it so much. When asked the above question, my co-worker got a confused look on his face and said,

"What do you mean? We celebrate it like everyone else. We give presents and eat Christmas Cake."

The presents is usually only true if children are involved, but the traditional Christmas Cake does seem to be a central tradition of the holiday for most Japanese people. The traditional Christmas cake is a sponge cake with whipped cream frosting and strawberries on top. Not at all unlike Japanese birthday cakes. Apparently the tradition was first introduced by, as you might expect, a cake shop wishing to drum up business. The Christmas Cake took off and I haven't met anyone in Japan yet who realizes this is Japan's unique contribution to the holiday. For a month in advance you can pre-order your very own Christmas Cake from grocery stores, convenience stores and cake shops around the country. Its big business.

And as long as we're introducing our own traditions, we really must tip our hat to Kentucky Fried Chicken. KFC has capitalized on the vague notion of a Turkey at Christmas to offer special Christmas buckets which include roast chicken legs, a salad with marshmallows on top and, you guessed it, a Christmas cake. Theirs is chocolate this year, though. A bucket for two will run you about $50. If you want a whole roast chicken, you're looking at $75. They usually sell out, so people order in advance. Other department stores, grocery stores and convenience shops sell roast chicken at more reasonable prices, but KFC appears to be the gold standard.

We play with the idea of a KFC Christmas every year, but we just cant pay that kind of money for something we know is going to upset our stomaches.

Instead, this year we bought a fried chicken platter from the grocery store for $10 that did an equally good number on the tummies. Salad for the rest of the week for me!

Update: If you're interested in the contents of the tray pictured above, pop a couple of Tums and keep reading. There were: chicken nuggets, french fries, crab croquettes, fried shrimp in a chili sauce, tempura shrimp, garlic roast chicken, sausages, karaage chicken and an egg surrounded in some sort of fish cake, boiled and cut into quarters. I'll be honest. It was not a good idea.

The Trimming of the Ginkgo

It seemed to stay relatively warm (not warm, warm, but fall temperatures) late this year. The leaves didn't start turning until late november/ early december. The trees just really got down to losing their leaves in the last couple of weeks.

Though they were not remotely bald yet, it was ginkgo trimmin' time for the city. Many of the city roads are lined with ginkgo, which turn a bright yellow color in Fall. (they also drop rather stinky gingko nuts before the leaves go). Every winter, the city trims the limbs way back leaving a very sad looking row of nubbed off trees and a very stark feel for Winter. The ginkgo naturally recover in spring and shoot out a wide canopy of limbs once things start budding again.

Today, the city workers had the less than easy-looking job of trimming back the trees in spite of the full fluff of leaves covering them. There were mountains of limbs and yellow leaves in the street. You could see the branches of the untrimmed trees shaking around, but you couldn't see the worker up in the canopy cutting the branches. This is the first year I've seen them trim while the leaves were still relatively full.

Tomorrow is officially winter in my book.

Round 2 at the consulate

When I look back at the list of things I was worried might go wrong after our first trip to the consulate, I now realize how naive I was being.

We ended up getting snagged on a much smaller detail thank any of those.

Notary's contact information? Not really necessary. No worries.

Rider not attached? Phht. What's a stapler for?

Witnesses? Just ignore those lines. Totally not necessary. Only there for decoration.

What was a problem?

1. No middle initials (you know this one if you spotted my update)
2. Not signed in blue (they wouldn't have rejected the documents based on this, but they REALLY prefer blue.

Apparently we also managed to miss a couple of dates and or initial points in the 50+ page document. I guess I can understand that last one.

So we went back to the consulate today, left all our electronics at the door, went upstairs. Waved hello to the lady who helped us last time, had the new papers notarized, checked and rechecked that we had found all the signature, initial and date lines scattered throughout the document and made sure we signed in blue and included middle initials EVERYWHERE.

I pity whoever has to find Russell's middle initial in his signature. Its essentially illegible in the best of conditions and its no more obvious that there is a middle initial now than before. Though if you turn the signature sideways you have a 50% chance of spotting the P. It is most assuredly there.

A brush with the homeland

So we needed to get some official documents notarized. No big deal, but the only US Notary in the neighborhood is at the consulate in Osaka.

The US consulate today was quite an experience. We had to empty our pockets of anything that had any relationship to electronics. No cell phone, no pedometer, no electronic dictionary, no earphones... The Japanese security guards were 110% on the job.

Once we were stripped off all the electronic devices we didn't know we were carrying, we went up to get our documents signed. We had scheduled an appointment the previous week and we had some time, so we got our documents in order to make things as fast and easy as possible. We only needed two documents notarized. We took them out and got in line.

There was a couple that had arrived ahead of us and were engaged in a very long and earnest conversation with the consulate receptionist about how they just wanted to get married and they had been sent here by someone else and they lived hours away and they didn't know what to do next, etc.

As we waited we kept reaching for our cell phones before remembering they had been taken away. Left with no alternative, we had nothing to do but eavesdrop.

According to Russell, part of the problem was that the information the girl was giving in English did not match the information the guy was giving in Japanese. The receptionist finally kindly asked them to talk to each other first and then come back with their plan. In the meantime another receptionist came and talked with us.

We gave our paperwork. It mostly went fine. The woman notarizing our documents was very nice and clad in a bright red trench coat not at all unlike Carmen SanDiego. The experience, was, however, not without a few snags.

Problem #1: We were suppose to fill out a form that asked for the notary's contact information, the signer's names and the ID they had shown to confirm themselves to the notary.

Apparently the US consulate doesn't DO that.

Not signed.

Problem #2: We had been instructed to attach a rider to the document being notarized, but the rider counted as an additional document in the consulate's eyes and gave no indication that it required notarizing.

Not attachable. No sir.

Problem #3: I had double checked whether they would need witnesses before the documents were sent, because we would have to bring our own. (Clearly stated all over the consulate's website). Since we were told on Friday afternoon that we needed to get said documents notarized by Tuesday, we knew that we would need to book some friends fast if we needed witnesses. The woman preparing the documents assured me that the notary counted as the witness and we didn't need anyone else.

But of course, two witnesses were needed.

Cue the young couple who haven't agreed on the country in which they plan to get married.

Will you solemnly swear that the documents before you are, to the best of your knowledge truthful and untampered with? Even though we haven't told you what the documents are for, who we are or what we're doing? You will?

Its good to be in love.

Russell and I high-tailed it back to our smart phones and out into the suddenly nippy end-of-autumn air.

Update:

The documents reached their destination. The result? We didn't sign with our middle initial - so the whole packet has to be redone.

*%*$*#@#&

Back we go on Monday.

The Oblivious Foodie

Can you make beer bread in your rice cooker?

Of COURSE you can!

Next time I'll buy better beer, though... It was perfectly good with a nice rosemary and garlic taste (seeing as I had added those ingredients) but then I'd think, "What is that bitter alcohol free, calorie free finish?"

Oh All Free. Perfectly respectable in your own way, but just can't stand up to real ingredients.

The texture of the bread was a bit too moist and spongy. I put it in the toaster oven for six minutes and got a passable crust to form - not like fresh from the oven, but not bad. I'll have to try it with "black beer" next time.

I also made a lovely vegan (but not on purpose) bean stew.

Both recipes came from a blog called Farm Girl Fare. I'll have to explore the blog more. So far so good.

A repeatable experiment

I've been very hungry lately. Perhaps its because the weather has been darker and colder, perhaps its from all the activity I got at the Lindy Exhange - I don't know. But hungry.

Over the weekend I made chili and Russell and I figured we could stretch it farther if we ate it with rice. Pair that with our general tendency to throw miscellanea in with the rice (lentils, mung beans, chestnuts, beef, garbanzos) and we had quite a hearty meal worked out for tonight. The rice of the day was brown rice with garbanzos - the garbanzos were thrown in dry, not from a can. The resulting rice was a tad dry and the garbanzos were not yet soft, but cooked all the way through.

Long story short, dinner was good, but I was still hungry. What I really wanted was something sweet, but all we had was a half cooker of brown rice and 3/4 cooked garbanzos. I took a helping of rice and garbanzos, added soy milk and sugar in a pan and some cinnamon. I cooked it until the milk started to thicken a bit.

Turns out the garbanzos totally played along. It was kind of delicious. The milk, sugar and rice made a nice rice pudding studded with chewy little garbanzo nuggets. Not bad at all.

If I had a food processor I would attempt to make a full on pudding by blending it all together and cooling it... but that seems a lot of effort to put in - especially if you are a fan of texture anyway.

A weekend of swing

This weekend was the Osaka Lindy Exchange. Russell and I are dead tired today (a national holiday, at least, so we don't have to rush right back to work) but it was worth it.

Here was the general schedule:

Friday:
1 hour Balboa Lesson + 4 hours of social dance.
I was late for the lesson because I had to run there from work. It was my first introduction to Balboa, though and definitely sparked my interest. Balboa (at least when you are starting) is not a flashy dance, but the movements are so tiny and fast that you really have to stay focused. Not so much fun to watch, but really interesting to dance.

There was a late night dance, but Russell and I opted to head home after the main dance and gear up for the rest of the weekend instead.

Saturday:
4 hours of workshops (intermediate lindy motion, beginner balboa and integrating balboa and lindy hop).
1 hour lesson (oops! too slow! missed this)
4 hour main dance
5 hour late night dance (midnight - 5am) Russell and I couldn't make it. We cut out at 3.

Saturday was awesome. All three lessons we took were very digestible and appropriate for our level. We weren't overwhelmed or bored in any of the classes - which has probably never happened before. Naru and Nao from Yokohama taught all three lessons and did a fabulous job of pacing the lesson with just enough practice and challenge. The Main Dance was packed. It was often difficult to dance, especially if the lead wanted to do real swing outs. There was lots of bumping into people and stepping on feet. Even so, I didn't hit the dance floor as much. Its my fault for being shy about asking people to dance, but there was definitely tons of excellent dancing going on. The late night dance was amazing. The venue was 100 times better than last year and really fun. There was space, there were huge windows looking down to the street below - it was really fun.

Sunday:
4 hours dancing in the Osaka Castle park
1 hour lesson (skipped again! voted for dinner with a new friend instead)
4 hour main dance - with a Jack and Jill contest
5 hour late night dance (made it to 4:00am this time, but still couldn't keep up with the die-hards.

Sunday was also a blast. Russell and I had gotten a hotel for Saturday and Sunday night so we could stay out as late as we wanted, but not have to stay out until the trains started again in the morning - a good balance. Unfortunately, we booked late and since it was a holiday weekend, we couldn't find both nights in the same hotel. We had to check out Sunday morning and then back in at another place. That got us out of the hotel earlier than we would have really chosen if left to our own devices. We went foraging for baked goods and coffee and then headed to Osaka Castle to catch up with the dancing crowd. Everyone was looking a little droopy, but once the live music started around 2:00 everyone was up and dancing. The dancing and musical performance gathered a fair sized crowd, which was nice. It would be great to generate some interest and grow the swing scene in Osaka.

During the dance in the park, we met a woman who was visiting from Florida. She had come to see a friend in Kyoto and was looking to see if she could find any swing in the area when she stumbled on the exchange. We ended up going out to dinner together and chatting for a while. Unfortunately, that meant we missed another lesson, but sitting down for a meal was awfully nice, too. One thing I have to say about swing, you meet the greatest people.

At the main dance there was a Jack and Jill competition. Russell and I had signed up earlier, so we went to get our numbers and start dancing with as many people as possible before the competition began. If you were reading the blog last year, I described Jack and Jill competitions then. The basic idea is that women and men both sign up and are paired randomly with several different partners. All partners are rated by judges as they dance with different partners and the top overall men and women are selected, randomly paired again and then dance for the audience. The interesting thing about the competition is that no one knows who they will be dancing with so there's no choreography. As we fully expected, neither Russell nor I made it to the finals, but it was a ton of fun. A great excuse to give it your all and dance with exceptional dancers.

By the late night dance we were really worn out and foot sore, but it was so much fun we just didn't want to stop. I don't know how the organizers (Mariko, Etsuko, Ishii and others) managed to keep up with everything - they were the first there and the last out as far as I could tell, in addition to the stress of planning and running an event like this. I imagine they will be recovering for quite some time, but they did a fabulous job. It was tons of fun and we're already looking forward to next year.

I do have to apologize for not taking more pictures - I guess I was distracted...

Did you spot Russell?

Just a quick update

I have several posts brewing, but this is just a mini-post.
The weather has significantly cooled down in the last few days. Suddenly it is regrettable to be caught outside after dark without a sweater.

Along with the lovely weather came the lovely persimmons. Right now is sweet persimmon season. I haven't seen the bitter ones yet. The dried bitter persimmons will be in the stores closer to winter. I love both and am enjoying as many as possible while the season is on. They have only been out a week or two and Russell and I have already mowed through two rather large bags. They aren't fully ripe yet, but we aren't waiting.

This weekend is the Osaka Lindy Exchange. Three full days of swing! I even lucked out this time and my school's festival is Sunday and Monday (national holiday) so I can catch the festivities AFTER the exchange instead of trying to run back to Kobe, make an appearance and race back to the dancing. It was quite a chore last year and I'm looking forward to just enjoying each event as it comes this year. I'll have a post in a few weeks.

I am thrilled with the new chilly weather. I love Autumn and am perfectly happy bundled up in winter, so its a win all around. Plus, we get our first New Year's guest this year! My good friend and previous co-worker, Lis, is coming to visit. I have visions of a midnight hike to see the sun rise, praying at the local temple, making nabe while huddling under the kotatsu, eating bags of mandarin oranges while watching the New Years variety show and exploring a box of New Year's auspicious treats together. So much fun. I love New Years in Japan more and more as I learn the ropes.

So two seasons of awesome just getting under way. SO glad summer's time is up.

Letting others do my work

I just stumbled across someone else's blog about Japan (This Japanese Life by someone named Eryk) and the first two articles I read were so good I feel the need to direct you to them.

The first one is about attempting to be vegetarian in Japan. This post is spot on. Click here.


The other is about convenience stores in Japan. The only bit that doesn't ring true in Kobe is the "Get Chodo'd" game. If you give a clerk exact change in Kobe at any store, restaurant, etc. you will 100% get a "Chodo itadakimasu" - which for lack of a better translation I will say means "I accept your exact change." Its not the sort of thing that would inspire a game. Everything else is absolutely true, though. Click here.

According to the information about him on his blog, Eryk is a former newspaper editor - so perhaps I shouldn't be too sad that his posts are so much better than mine. I'm certainly going to enjoy reading more of them.

One soggy, soggy day...

So another typhoon is rolling in and this one dropped an impressive ammount of rain. Most of the typhoons that have come through this year dropped the most water at night (at least in Kobe) so seeing it all in broad daylight was new. On my walk to work today there was a good inch of water on all surfaces, including down the rather steep hill to the train station. The gutters were doing their thing, though.

I've seen rain like this before, but never for more than an hour. The rain today kept it up until around noon, then there was a few hours with nothing, and then it picked up again for a few more hours of massive water dumpage. Luckily it was taking a break again when I left work, so I got home dry.

We haven't had any real wind to speak of, so far. There is more to come, though, so we'll see what happens. This one does not appear to be much of a guster - just lots and lots of rain. There may be landslides in rural areas, thought, so it could turn into a nasty hurricane in other areas. Don't worry about Kobe, though. We're just catching the edge of it.

Now for some pumpkin-sweet potato soup. Its not cold outside - but nor is it hot, which is good enough for me.

Let Fall begin!

USPS Woes

We got a call a few days ago from a distraught mother. She had sent a rather large package full of winter clothing to her daughter in Syracuse, NY but it had never arrived. After a few weeks and no sign of the package she got worried and checked the tracking number.

The records for the package showed it delivered to Batavia, NY (nowhere near Syracuse - different postal code). The person who signed for the package did have a Japanese last name, but not the same last name.

So the USPS managed to take a rather large package and find someone in the same state who might have heritage for the same country and that was good enough for delivery???

I spent yesterday and today on the phone with the USPS. First they had me call a number in Albany, NY which is on perpetual answering machine, then, when I called back, they sent me to their international division, which said we had to submit a claim from Japan - which we tried to do and they said it had nothing to do with them, since they had delivered the package correctly to the USPS.

I tried to look up the last name in Batavia that had received the package and found no listings. I tried to look up my student's last name in Batavia, but again found no listings. I tried to look up my student's street name in Batavia, and it doesn't exist.

How did this even happen????

Update:
After submitting inquiries/complaints in about 5 different places and at different levels of the system, I got an email from the distribution center lady in Albany, NY who asked for the tracking information and promised to get on it. After as week I contacted her again and she told me the package had been found and had just arrived in Syracuse. Hooray for the USPS! It is nice to have a mail service that will (eventually) set things right. I'll take it.

Where's Jaci?

Sorry for the long absence... I totally missed half of July and all of August... ugh.

The short reason is that August I was travelling around the US getting study abroad students settled, and July I was working like mad to tie up loose ends (4 textbooks, 2 journal articles, end of semester tests and grades and a partridge in a pear tree) before heading to the US to get study abroad students settled.

I have several posts I never got around to before I left. Those should be up shortly. In the meantime: A quick update of the past month. I have been traipsing around the US for a month, and I have evidence!

Stop #1: Portland, Oregon

Spent the first few days with the students getting settled at Portland State University. They jumped right in and were off having fun before I was even settled. I therefore felt justified in slipping away one afternoon to have cupcakes with Michelle.

Evidence #1:


I also had some free time in the morning before I met the second group of study abroad students, so I went to breakfast with Michelle at Bertie Lou's. The Chevy was a surprise. Spoiler alert: this was not a low-calorie trip.

Evidence #2:


Stop #2: Corvallis

After meeting the next group of study abroad students (only one lost bag!) we headed South to Corvallis. I stayed with Steve and Anna (current guardians of Mavis and Manu). I have no evidence, but many a fine night was had enjoying the summer evenings on their back porch. I got to visit with some of my awesome teacher friends from the ELI, one morning. The bulk of my days were spent helping students sort out a few interesting quirks in housing, set up cell phones and Internet and helping to shepherd students (not all mine) through registration. We bid farewell over pizza at American Dream.

Evidence #3:


After the students were settled I went down to Eugene, had coffee with my brother and then met up with the UofO crew to make sure things were set for the third Oregon study abroad group which will arrive in September. After business was out of the way, I got to take vacation and spent a couple days with my mom, a day with Russell's parents and a day at the coast with my dad. It all went way too quick, as evidenced by a total lack of evidence.

Stop #3: Back to Portland

After some family time, I headed back to Portland to play with Justin and Michelle. Great food was eaten, great beer drunk and fabulous games were played. Macey and Ronnie were very welcoming as well. No evidence, though. Ooh... I do have some important evidence from the county fair, though. Rhubarb and raspberry... so good...

Evidence #4:


Stop #4: Seattle

Wednesday I caught a train to Seattle where I spent a lovely evening out swing dancing with my sister-in-law. It made it hard to to sleep on the airplane to New Jersey the next day, though. I was flying with my third, and last group to Felician College.

Stop #5: New Jersey

We were a few days ahead of hurricane Irene, so we headed into New York City for some sightseeing.

Evidence #5:


We spent the day exploring Time Square and Soho. My students scattered as soon as we hit Soho, so I was on my own. I wandered about window-shopping, bought a flashlight, poncho and first aid kit for the hurricane, and then found dinner. I had pizza and a beer by myself. I did crosswords at the table and generally relaxed. It was awesome.

Evidence #6:


We spent Saturday at the grocery store buying food and water just to be on the safe side. Between us we probably could have survived a month in a cave. No such ruggedness was required, however. Thankfully, the storm passed Felician with little event. The thick brick walls blocked all noise, so we all slept peacefully through the night and woke up the next morning to only a few soggy spots here and there on the carpet. Unlike many areas, we still had electricity and water. The students did complain that they were bored. Such a pity. Sunday, late afternoon, my dear friend Nicole came to pick me up.

And let me tell you about Nicole.

Nicole had been scheduled to fly into New York from Ecuador on Sunday morning. She got as far as Nashville and her final leg to New York was cancelled due to the hurricane. She was told she could be placed on a flight to New York on Monday. Instead, she rented a car and drove all night from Nashville, Tennessee into a hurricane, to Rutherford, New Jersey. She then picked me up and we made our way to our friend, Gwen's place. It was not a straight shot. While the storm had mostly passed, there were tree branches down and flooded roads blocking our way in the least convenient of places. After circling around a bit, we found a way through. I was really glad the students were bored in the Felician dorms.

Stop #6 New York:

The electricity was out at Gwen's house, but Nicole was able to make a delicious dinner (yay for a gas stove!) and we played games and drank wine by candle light for the rest of the evening.

Being surrounded by people who have and use cameras got me back on track. We spent the next day in New York City (things had dried out considerably). We started the day off with Dunkin' Donuts and a stroll in one of Gwen's favorite parks (picturesque view of the Hudson (?) and a castle that used to be home to nuns...) no evidence. We then went to see the Little Red Lighthouse.

Evidence #7


After all the strolling we headed to Katz's Deli for the biggest corned beef sandwich I've ever seen in my life. And a load of pickles.

Evidence #8


Fortified by meat, we headed to the Staten Island Ferry and a view of the Statue of Liberty (which I had previously never seen). I swear we were closer than the pictures let on... The lovely ladies in the foreground are more interesting, anyway.

Evidence #9:


At the end of the day, we had dinner together and then bid adieu to Nicole, who did the responsible thing and drove home to New Hampshire to start teaching, in spite of protests. More cards, wine and candlelight for Gwen and I. The next day, 1. I slammed my finger in a door, 2. we we visited a lovely property-turned-park near Gwen (I've totally forgotten the name, but it was beautiful and extensive and 3. went with Gwen's friend on her boat to a restaurant on Long Island. It was gorgeous evening to be on the water.

Evidence #10 & #11:












My last day in New York, we met up with my co-worker (who had chaperoned a group to Syracuse before heading to the city for a holiday) and hit the Museum of Natural History. We learned ALL about Sauropods (think brontosaurus - though there never WERE brontosaurus).

Evidence #12 & #13:











We finished the evening over beers (Pumpkin beer for me! Yay Fall!) with Johnny (Russell's roommate of yore). Johnny had also slammed his finger in a door and done a far better job of it than I had. Ouch. I have no evidence.

Gwen drove me to the airport the next morning (4am-ish? Sorry Gwen!) and I made my way home to Kobe. As luck would have it we arrived just ahead of a typhoon, which, just like hurricane Irene, was low grade but really took its time and dumped a crazy amount of rain. We hid out indoors for two full days before it stopped raining. I don't remember much of the first day, having sprawled out in the middle of the living room floor and dozed off for most of the day. I was afraid it would harm my chance of sleeping through the night (and worsening my jet lag) but I needn't have feared.

Apparently I needed the rest.

Typhoon Ma-on

The bad news is there's a large typhoon coming - the most likely trajectory will have the storm glance off the edge of shikoku (the best protective island ever) and wakayama before heading back out to the pacific. The 50 knot wind circumference will likely hit Kobe, though and there's the outside possibility that the storm will head inland farther and hit Kobe dead on. We find out some time around 3am tonight.

The good news is that:

A: School was cancelled for the afternoon (work at home time)
B: School was cancelled for tomorrow (work at home time)
C: I get to focus all my energy and time on the nagging projects that have been building up with no distraction from teaching classes, students being chatty, students wanting to make up missed classes, co-workers (who I love, but who can be a bit chatty as well)
D: I get to eat all sorts of great snacks I stockpiled for the typhoon
E: I get to listen to lots of rain and wind while tucked in nice and snug indoors
F: The weather has cooled down! Its perfect Jaci-temperature! Hooray!

All together, I'm pretty happy with typhoon Ma-on. Of course, I hope nothing happens to make me eat my words, but based on past typhoon experiences, I'm pretty confident. Japan seems to have exceptional typhoon infrastructure - especially in the cities. We weathered a larger typhoon than Ma-on our first year and other than some downed tree branches, there was no damage.

I'l post again if anything exciting happens, but I'm looking forward to 24 hours of cozy, snack-filled, "get-stuff-done" time.

If you want to track Ma-on, I recommend the Japanese Meteorological Agency

Update: Ma-on seems to have bounced off of the tip of Shikoku and is heading back out to sea. Shikoku had massive flooding and Wakayama is still getting pounded, but far less of Japan was hit than expected. Here in Kobe we had heavy rain yesterday with strong gusts of wind every now and again, but nothing more than a regular storm. There was none of the window rattling that kept us awake and nervous during the other big typhoon two years ago. Now the grey storm clouds are heading away from us and the sun is coming out.

Time to get to work!

Earthquake! (Not the scary kind)

Russell and I went out to dinner tonight at a British pub downtown. I think I've mentioned it before - its called Hobgoblin and is, in fact, a chain of the same pub that was down the street from our apartment in Reading, UK a few years ago. The pub is up on the 7th floor and offers a lovely range of british beer at british temperatures and cider. It also offers a delightful range of distinctly British pub fare. We got to choose between bangers and mash, fish and chips, daily pie (as in meat pie in gravy), shepherd's pie and a number of other international pub/bar favorites like burgers, nachos, kebab, steak-filled pita pockets, etc. Its no wonder the place is crawling with foreigners. The waitresses refused to speak to Russell in Japanese.

Right around the last french fry the whole place started swaying. Everyone was a little wide-eyed and the waitresses quickly turned on the TV. Over the top of a TV variety show displaying one restaurants secret yakitori techniques, the TV reported a level 5 earthquake centered in Wakayama (South of Osaka). The tremor in Osaka was reported at a level 3 and I can only guess that Kobe was below that.

Experiencing an earthquake a little higher off the ground made it more notable, though, and added some excitement to our evening. The folks on the train platform across from the pub didn't even seem to register the earthquake, though, so it must have been pretty light close to the ground.

Update: The official earthquake website says it was a 4 at the epicenter and a 1 or lower in Kobe. Nothing to get too excited about.

Goodbye June, Hello July

Apparently this June was the hottest on record since the 60s. The months to come are getting similarly hot predictions. I'll be out of the country for most of August, but even September is shaping up to be torture. Ugh.

Along with the heat comes all the fabulous odor, constant damp state, extra strength viruses, mold, cockroaches and skin disease. Don't bother to try and console me with comments on how wonderful it must be for my skin. I learned better long ago.

The other seasons in Japan are so incredible, though, that I really shouldn't complain. To be honest, I have nothing to really complain about yet this season. I know full well that things will get much worse. We're just getting started. I am still able to wear my work clothes to work (they are 90% dry when I get there and 100% dry before class starts) and the air conditioning still has some effect in the classrooms and in our office. Muggy, hot days are mixed with less humid, breezy days and overcast muggy days with sporadic monsoon-esque water dumps.

Our first summer got to be incredibly miserable, with clothing completely soaked through within a few minutes of stepping outside and classrooms that were hotter than outdoors. All that year, people kept telling us that things had been much worse a few years before and we shouldn't complain.

I guess we're going to get a feel for what that's like after all.

If you don't approve of negative attitude, you may want to skip over my next few months of entries. Feel free to duck back in for August in the USA, though. Things will get back to normal (likely even extra positive) in October when things start to cool down again, too.

Spousal Observations

A few weeks ago I caught an online sale for Eddie Bauer and bought Russell a variety of new T-shirts, etc. to replace the ones that are falling apart. The box came in the mail a few days ago. The first day, Russell opened the box, scattered everything around the living room, and picked out a T-shirt and collared shirt that matched to wear together. He proudly displayed them for me when I got home.

He liked them so much, he wore them again the next day.

Its been four days and I just realized he's still wearing the same blue t-shirt. I also just noticed that there is a perfectly good red t-shirt sitting in plain sight, but still in the packaging.

I guess some people just know what they like.

Pajama Night

The Wednesday swing group had a Pajama Night last night. I've been looking forward to it for two months. I don't really wear official pajamas - just t-shirts and the same flannel pants I've had since college - but since said flannel pants were pretty threadbare - and the seams were 70% ripped out, I decided Pajama Night was a good excuse to acquire some PJs. I looked around but couldn't find anything in the local stores that would fit me. FInally I browsed around online and found a cute pair of pajamas with owls. They even came with the guarantee that they would stare at your husband round the clock.

Unfortunately, they didn't ship to Japan, so I had to send them to my mom who forwarded them on. When they arrived I started wearing them right away. They were quite comfortable and thankfully light weight (since the temperatures they are a-risin'). Last weekend I got them all washed and pressed and ready to unveil at the dance. I also went out and found a pair of shiny gold pajamas for Russell at the local variety store. We were all set.

Along with the pajama theme, we were invited to take part in a Jack and Jill contest (our first). Jack and Jill contests are where you are randomly matched with another dancer and then compete. This one was casual - we just had one partner and there were no elimination rounds. We did a group warm-up, we each got as set amount of time within a song to perform for the audience, and then we all danced together again. The audience voted and the lucky couple won.

As in Russell and Miki (his partner for the evening. )

In fact, Russell not only won the Jack and Jill competition, he also won the best PJs award! He kindly informed everyone that I had picked them out for him and shared his prize - a free drink ticket.

I was not clever enough to take pictures myself, but several other people did. A few less than flattering ones were posted on Facebook, but I'm going to wait until I have some better ones to post on the blog.

Oh yeah - its summer

Summer has always been my least favorite season, but I never felt strongly about it in Oregon. I Japan I definitely hate it. Just to put icing on the cake, it looks like this year is going to be record breaker for heat and humidity.

Right now the temperature is 30C (86F) - which would be a lovely day in Oregon. However, with the thick humidity added to it, things are pretty miserable. Luckily the last few days have been mostly overcast, so we don't have the scorching sun to contend with, but outdoors is just not where you want to be right now.

It is definitely rainy season as well. We have had rain showers on and off for weeks. The rain I like, but the humidity is coming from somewhere and I'm afraid I have to blame the rain. Apparently there was a typhoon headed towards us this weekend, but it diverted to South Korea instead, so the rain and wind are lighter than they might otherwise have been.

Russell was telling me that due to the continued electricity shortage in the north and a push for the government to decommission nuclear plants, the Tokyo subways are going to only run air conditioning during rush hours

I don't recommend visiting Japan again until September.

Summer's Favorite

This is just... well... incredible on so many levels.

How could this NOT be a summer favorite? Mos Burger has rolled out Naan Tacos.

Update: We finally got around to trying the Naan Taco. Result? It was pretty good. Not unlike a gordita from TacoBell. Russell had the Black Curry Naan, which had a hotdog and black curry on top instead of taco salad.

So much writing

Just a quick update - I know I haven't been that good about posting, but I'm probably going to get a lot worse in the next month or two. It seems like all I am doing these days is writing as fast as I can. We have our own textbooks to write, the textbooks for a school in Tokyo to write, we have been tasked with writing some research articles and there is apparently a book project on the horizon.

The combination of no time to do anything fun and total disinterest in doing any extra writing has pretty much killed my blog motivation. I'll try to post here and there, though.

Umeshu

Around this season the grocery stores start stocking fresh plums. These are not plums like we get in the US. They are hard, very sour and generally inedible. They can be made into a variety of delicous things, though, given time and creativity. This year, we decided to experiment by making our own homemade umeshu. Umeshu is plum wine. In fact, you can probably find the same kind of plum wine we are making in your grocery store. Well, maybe. Its the one that comes in a large cylindrical bottle with the plums floating in the bottom. I believe the brand in the US is called Choyu. Something like that. It turns out plum wine is not at all hard to make, you just have to let it sit for a long time.

So how do you make it? First, you let the plums soak in water for an hour or two. This apparently mellows them a bit and takes away any bitterness. Once they are soaked, you pop out the little stems with a fork, dry the plums thoroughly, put them in a sterilized glass jar with rock sugar and white alcohol (all of which can be found on an endcap of an aisle in the supermarket) and you leave it to brew in a cool, dark place. We read that it is important to leave space at the top since a lot of liquid will come out of the plums. We did leave some room, but hopefully it will be enough... I would have liked to have left a bit more room if possible. Keep your fingers crossed!

So how long before we can try our creation? At least 6 months before its ready and it is apparently best to wait one or two years. Since the process was so easy, I want to make two more jars so we can try one at each time marker. We are also considering adding a bunch of fresh ginger to one round as an experiment. Seems like a good idea to me. If anyone comes to visit after New Years we'll have to dip into our little experiment and see how its doing.

The green stuff must be good for you, right?

I spent all of last week sick. Not sick enough to stay home from work, but feeling pretty crummy. That seemed to be echoed by most of my students and a few co-workers, too. Today is Sunday and I still don't feel great after a full weekend laying low. Last night Russell and I went to the grocery store to get things for dinner. Along with dinner we also spotted two other items of interest. One was materials to make your own umeshu (plum wine) and the other was a bag of single serving green powder to be added to liquid. The front of the package showed two pairs of aged but spry farmers in their green fields. This was clearly a health drink. I figured my health could only improve, so we threw a package in the cart.

I'll post about the uemshu next, but as for the green drink, we took it home and read the directions. It said it could be mixed with water or milk and should be stirred thoroughly until it fully disolved. We decided to experiment and try putting the powder in soy milk. A fairly safe bed. It worked out well and looked lovely in the glass I acquired at the belgian beer festival last weekend.

First impression? Tasted a bit like a seaweed milkshake, but was generally pleasant. Do I feel healthier? Not yet. Still working on that.

The Doppelgangers

We started swing dancing about a year ago. Around that same time, one of the faithful Osaka dancers who had returned home to Australia previously, returned to Japan. From the first day he met us he was convinced that we were the twins of a couple that had left Japan only about a year earlier. He brought this up often and referred to us as the Shelbyville version of his friends. He kept pointing out the similarities to other people who had known the previous couple and he generally got nods of agreement. It was driving him crazy that we couldn't meet each other.

Finally, his friends (Canadians) decided to come back to Osaka for a visit and to see a favorite band perform. The stage was set to get us together. Our friend was pretty sure something cosmic would happen if both of us were together in the same place. We arranged to meet at Captain Kangaroo (a foreigner bar in Osaka that boasts excellent chicken burgers, fries and even better selection of international beer).

The result? Nothing cosmic, but there were clearly some similarities in appearance and as our friend pointed out, both couples had come to Japan as a couple, which is something of a rarity. Our doppelgangers were certainly lovely people and we had a good night out.

Letterboxing in Nara - Almost

About a month back I ventured into Osaka to hear Russell's second band give their frist concert. The concert wasn't until later in the evening, but since I was already in Osaka, I decided to make sure I knew where I was going before heading off to entertain myself for the day. After some wandering, I discovered that the live house was actually right next to the station and I had walked right past it when I first arrived. That figured out, I sat down to figure out what I was going to do for the day. I had about four hours to kill. It occurred to me that there might be a letterbox in Osaka. I mean, it is a rather big city and there are tons of foreigners around. It seemed likely that one would pop up from time to time.

For those who haven't tried letterboxing or heard me emote about it in the past, letterboxing is a game where you get clues on the internet for a hidden box. You follow the clues, find the box (usually well hidden in a public area or hiking trail). Inside the box, there is a stamp (often home made) and a small book. You bring along your own personal stamp, book and ink pad and you stamp the box's book while using their stamp in your own book. Its a way to keep a record of the boxes you've found. Some of the stamp art is really cool, too and there is a huge sense of satisfaction when you can follow the clues all the way to your target.

Unfortunately, unlike geocaching, this has not caught on in Japan. I suspect it is because the boxes are quickly found and discarded by the overactive cleanup crews and conscientious citizens.

In any case, I did a search just in case something had popped up. Nothing in Osaka, but a new box had been planted in Nara. Nara is on the other side of Osaka from Kobe. Its a bit of a trek to get there, but I figured I would just have time. I managed to jump on an express train and was getting excited. I didn't have my own stamp or book, unfortunately, so I spent the train ride trying to figure out how I would remedy that. When the train pulled in, I realized that I was at the JR Nara station, which is a considerable hike away from the temple where the box was hidden. I debated taking a taxi, but that seemed a little extreme and I still needed to track down a stamp.

After a dozen blocks it was pretty clear I wasn't going to find a stamp. That left me with the option of making one on the fly. I jumped into a convenience store, bought an eraser, a small exacto knife, a notebook and an automatically inking brush (which I hoped would work for inking the stamp. I was running low on time, so I shot off for the temple. I was still only about half way there and time was running out. I figured out what my "point of no return" would be for time to make the concert. Unfortunately, the temple was farther than I had counted on and I didn't make it to my goal. I had to choose between a letterbox that may or may not have still been there or seeing Russell's first concert. I decided the box could wait if it had lasted this long. I headed back. I did make it to the concert on time.

I took a picture of my materials to commemorate the trip, but still no letterbox. I hope to head back to Nara in the near future. This weekend would have been perfect, but I have been sick and decided it would be better to stay close to home.

This has also made me want to start a letterboxing community in Kobe. Its an excuse to go hiking, be artistic and be sneaky. What's not to love?

What a way to spend a Saurday

Had a fun-filled Saturday yesterday. I started off the morning at the Big River Jazz festival. Several groups were playing Dixieland, swing and gospels down on the river in Osaka. It went from 11am to after 4:00 and it was tons of fun. I heard about it through the Wednesday night dance groups, so by 2:00 there was a group gathered to dance. It was perfect weather and perfect scenery. Several people had brought purple/lime green/gold umbrellas ala Mardis Gras and there were more than a few beads in the crowd. I arrived shortly after the music started and was the only foreigner. Since the rest of the dancers didn't arrive until around 2:00, I was of great interest to several people in the crowd wondering what had brought me to the concert. Finally one man came over and asked me if I was staying at the nearby hotel. I told him, no, I lived in Japan. He asked if I lived in Tokyo and I said, no, I lived in Kobe. Next he wanted to know why I was in Osaka. I told him I had come to see the festival. He seemed honestly taken aback. I think it made more sense once the dancing started...

After that, the remaining dancers headed to the Belgian Beer festival going on at the Sky Building. You bought a glass and 10 tokens to get started and hit the booths. Two tokens for a full glass of beer... not much opportunity for just tasting. My first beer looked dark, but tasted like someone had poured a cabernet in a Heineken. Not what I was expecting. The brown that followed was much better. As were the french fries. The festival was packed. There was music on a stage and at least 30 different beers to choose from. It seemed very well organized - much better executed than the German Christmas Festival in the same venue the last two years.

We stopped for bowls of ramen after the beer festival and then headed our separate ways. I had been invited many time to try Swingweek - a different swing dance group that meets on Saturdays. Usually, Russell and I already have plans for the weekend, so we rarely make it into Osaka. That paired with a vague sense of bad blood between the two swing groups and the worry that going to both might make us traitors, and we simply hadn't tried Swingweek after a year of invitations. I was invited again on Saturday and I figured I couldn't really plead previous plans to be elsewhere. I knew many of the dancers go to both, so I figured I would try it out. It was fun, but unless I'm in Osaka on a Saturday I probably won't be going as often as I go to the Wednesday dance. There's just something about celebrating being half way through the week with a good swing dance that attracts me.

And where was Russell? He planned to come, but decided to be grumpy and skipped out at the last minute. His loss.

Today we are going back to that spa with our friends. It will be nice after a full day on my feet.

A couple updates

I heard today at work that there was a storm moving in. It was starting to sprinkle as I was heading home and one of my co-workers said he had heard it was suppose to be stormy all weekend.

Then I got a weather advisory from the US Embassy.

It appears there is a rather big typhoon on its way to Japan. The advisory was for Okinawa (significantly south of Honshu, where we live. It looks like Okinawa is in for a very big blow, though. We will catch whatever is left of the storm, but all signs point to it slowing down significantly before it reaches us. Considering we did have an exceptionally large typhoon the first year Russell and I were in Kobe and it had very little effect on the city, I'm not at all worried. I suspect Okinawa is similarly fortified against typhoons. Hopefully there will be nothing to report but a soggy weekend.

Which is good for research, I might add...

So what was my other update? I was walking home from the grocery store today (heavily laden with both groceries and various other bags from work) heading uphill, when an older couple stopped me. They had a bag of takenoko (bamboo shoots) which they offered to give to me. They explained that they were really quite tasty and they were a gift.

Keeping in mind the last time I was offered a "gift" on the street, my friend had $300 lifted out of her wallet (no not in Japan), my first inclination was to at least hesitate. I told them in my broken Japanese that I really couldn't and I pointed out that I didn't have any hands to spare. They assured me I would love them and hung them on one of the other bags I was carrying. I tried to thank them as earnestly as I could and they continued on their way as if they make a habit of gifting strangers every day. Perhaps they do.

Somewhat taken aback by the whole exchange, I continued home.

I'm going to have to try my hand at cooking bamboo shoots. Russell and I bought a shoot when they first came out in spring because they seemed to be a hot commodity and everyone was eagerly grabbing them up. We figured this was an experience we needed to have. After a great deal of research on the Internet for how to cook the shoots we kind of gave up. Its a process that takes both patient and diligence from what we can tell. Not our strong suits.

Guess its time to learn. And hey, where are we going this weekend in a storm anyway? Seems like a good time to gather around the stove.

Rainy season?

I haven't ever figured out when, exactly, rainy season is suppose to be in Japan. My understanding is June or July - getting things nice and wet before the heat picks up and everything gets muggy.

The last two years I remember very little rain until August or September - and usually associated with typhoons. This year, however, we seem to be rotating between extended rainy patches and perfect summer days - and its only May. Is this a traditional (if early) Japanese rainy season? Or is it yet another anomaly?

I just hope it doesn't lead to higher or longer humidity this summer. I'm definitely nervous.

Random Photos

It seems that often I get too busy and forget to post. I was going back though my photos recently and found several that I had intended to post but never got around to. With that in mind, I thought I would use my post today to share.

The first picture is of a dish Russell and I often get at Japanese pubs. They are little fried fish, and as you can see, they are fried whole. You get to eat the tail, fins, bones, head and what's left of their eyes. Succeeding at eating something like this, if you're coming from an American perspective, lies in just not thinking about it. Everything is perfectly tasty - in fact, the head doesn't have as much meat in it, so its delightfully crisp and flavorful. The bones are so fine you don't notice them at all. You just munch away. Every time we order them, though, I think, "huh, I wonder what everyone back home would think..."

If you get the chance to try some, I recommend them.

The next picture is of my "No Russell Pizza Party." Russell has parlayed his newly developed intolerance of dairy here in Japan to an anti-pizza stance. Even though he has medication to help him eat dairy, he has decided that pizza is just one of those things that should be avoided anyway. The minute he steps onto an airplane for a business trip, though, I race home, call my friends and have a pizza party. The local "Chicago Pizza" (not to be confused with chicago-STYLE pizza, which it definitely is not) has a three cheese pizza that's to die for. Mozarella, parmesan and camembert for the win. Since my friends are health conscious, we made huge salads and piles of edamame to fill ourselves up before the pizza arrived, but none of the pizza survived the encounter in spite of our efforts.

Finally, proof that it does snow in Kobe. Our first year, snow occasionally fell, and it would collect on the trees in the hills, but none every accumulated in the city. This winter, we actually had a handful of nights when snow accumulated. I made sure to take pictures. I was very excited. You can see the white fringe on the rooftop - its snow!

Okay, it wasn't always that lame. Never a real pile up, but we did occasionally get more than that.

A little R&R

If you have been reading my blog for awhile you may recall an early post about Ganbanyoku. This is the spa treatment where you lay a towel over hot stone tiles and sweat away. I went twice with an early co-worker and while I quite enjoyed the experience I never really established a routine for going. Once my co-worker had moved away from Japan I just stopped going.

One of the reasons it was less appealing was because it was for women only. I couldn't take Russell and I felt bad leaving him out. Especially when the only time I could go was weekends.

Recently, I had been talking with a different co-worker about going, but we never seemed to get around to it. Finally, her husband looked around online and discovered that there is a rather enormous spa in Kobe that not only has Ganbanyoku, but is open to men and women alike. The two of them had tried it out during Golden week and came back raving about it. They both wanted Russell and I to join them the next time they went.

This weekend turned out to be the weekend.

The spa was amazing. It cost approximately $24 each, we were given cotton pajamas, a robe, towels, etc and then had access to an impressive array of hotspring baths and saunas, several different ganbanyoku rooms, relaxation rooms, an internet room, comics room and movie theatre. There was also free tea.

We started in the hotsprings (these were sex segregated), scrubbed down and soaked for a while. We tried some different saunas and then my co-worker and I changed into the cotton pajamas and met the boys in the ganbanyoku area. There were several different temperature/ atmosphere rooms with a large resting area in the middle. The resting area had a variety of mats, cushions and chairs, all overlooking the Kobe view from the 13th story. It was night time when we went, so the lights were beautiful.

Technically we could have stayed until 3am, but after three hours (we arrived around 7pm) we decided to head out in search of food.

Maybe if I need to work late one night I will just go spend the night at the spa? Could be worse...

A Golden Week of Swing

Golden Week is officially coming to an end, but looking back, it was pretty awesome.

My Golden week was split into three sections. I got last friday off but had to work Monday (so I had a three day weekend) followed by three days off in the middle of the week, then Friday back at work and now the weekend. Not as good as Golden Week gets, but none too shabby.

To be honest, I've already forgotten the first three day weekend, although I remember enjoying it so much that it felt like four days off. I'm pretty sure there was some Dead Guy Ale in there somewhere. Maybe a guacamole burger.

For the three days in the middle of the week it was time to strap on the dance shoes. Tuesday we went to Takatsuki Jazz Street and listened to live performances all around central Takatsuki. We met up with the swing dance group and had fun dancing to a number of performances. A day outside with friends, good music and dancing is always awesome.

The next day was the Golden Swing Dance, but before that one of the local top notch dancers was giving a rare lesson, so we jumped in on that. He taught us how to adjust for fast dancing and slow dancing - something which has always been tricky at best and often impossible for Russell and I. The lessons was very well timed for us and we got a lot of use out of what we learned in the coming days. Level up!

Wednesday is our regular swing night, but the Golden Swing Dance was much more crowded than normal. All the regulars descended plus several people from out of town who dropped in for the lesson earlier in the day and two live bands. It was difficult to dance at times, there were so many people on the dance floor. I had some fun with with a new dress, makeup, contacts and curlers - none of which are part of my normal lifestyle. It was a fun night. Russell and I left Osaka around 11:30 - later than normal but still in plenty of time before the trains stopped. Unfortunately, we managed to dazedly stumble onto the wrong train enroute and ended up in Itami - not the direction we intended to go. With a bit of luck we made it back to Osaka in time to catch one of the last trains and we did get home in the end.

We got home around 1:00am and fell into bed. We both turned off all alarms and vowed to get some rest. We woke up around 9am and realized that we had another swing lesson in Osaka at 10:30. We have never gotten ready so fast in our lives. It usually takes about an hour to get to the studio in Osaka from our house, but we hit the trains perfectly and were granted a bit of slack since the lesson wasn't officially starting until 10:45. We make it just in time. Good thing, too. It was not a lesson to miss. We learned a move I had learned to mimic from watching people but never learned to do properly. By the end of the lesson the step seemed easy and way cooler than I had realized. Of course, the "seemed easy" part was all due to our awesome instructor.

We all had lunch together and several people from the class made their way to Kobe to do some sight seeing before the big band dance in Kobe that night. Russell and I split off from the group for a while but I went down to meet them towards the end of their tour at Meriken Park (near Harborland). The plan was to stage another Shim Sham video in Kobe. We stood around a boulder, ate some souvenir treats and enjoyed the sunny day. Once everyone was gathered we filmed a Kobe Shim Sham interrupted only by large stones in the grass in inconvenient places and a couple children dashing in front of the camera at regular intervals. A good time was had by all.

But the adventure wasn't over. Next we headed to Gessekai - the glamorous cabaret in Kobe I mentioned a while back in another post. Kansas City Band, a 10 piece big band from Tokyo, was playing and the location really can't be beat. The dance floor was crowded once again. It was so much fun. I even got a chance to try the new move from class that morning - and completely botched it. Son of a... Of course, messing up one move does not ruin a dance. Far from it. But this cannot stand. I will be practicing.

The funny thing was, I couldn't figure out what I had messed up - which worried me even more. Its kind of hard to fix something if you don't know the problem. Sometime around 3am I woke up and remembered, though. I was suppose to kick, not step. That solved, I slept peacefully the rest of night.

My mind was not on work today.

But now its the weekend AGAIN! Yay!

An unexpected pleasure

Russell and I had a bunch of errands today, including updating our phones/ re-upping our contracts and buying me contact lenses, among other things. By the end of the day, we were pretty beat. I was craving pub food, or at least a good hamburger. At first we thought about going to Hobgoblin - a British chain pub (we actually lived across the street from a Hobgoblin when we lived in Reading, UK, also. Turns out it IS the same chain!)

With the royal wedding still on the radar, though, we thought Hobgoblin might still be a bit busy. Instead, Russell decided to use his new, much faster phone to search out a new burger joint to try. We found one a bit of a hike up the hill from our place. We had passed this place once before back when we were running, but we hadn't ventured that far away from home any other time. The place was called Shin's Burger and it certainly had the correct trappings. Route 66 memorabilia, red and white checked table cloths on picnic tables, an add outside announcing a guacamole burger. This was looking good.

And the menu? Guacamole burger, bacon burger, avocado chicken burger... all very nice. To drink? Dad's root beer, cream soda, Dr. Pepper... oh. And Rogue Brewery's Dead Guy Ale. Seriously. It was 700 yen (almost $8) but how could we pass that kind of opportunity?!

Russell ordered the Dead Guy and the restaurant proudly presented it to us explaining that it was from Oregon. We happily informed him that we, too, were from Oregon.

We was very apologetic about the price. We assured him that just having it available, and walking distance from our house made it invaluable.

Hearts warmed, we headed home to watch a historical drama about the Meiji restoration.

Golden Week begins

I'm sure I've posted about this before, but every year there are four national holidays that happen all around the same time. Generally, businesses just give their employees the whole week off, making "golden week" one of the hottest travel times in the country.

This year we have the emperor's birthday today (Friday) and three more holidays next week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. But what to do with Monday and Friday? Most companies just gave everyone the full week off - so a nice 10 day vacation for the country. Schools, on the other hand, are teaching Monday and Friday.

Right! Like any of our students will be there!

Oh well.

Russell, unfortunately, does not get these days off, so we won't be able to go anywhere. There is going to be a bunch of swing events in the area, though, so we'll make up for it dancing away the week. I have a feeling I'm going to be hobbling to my Friday class.

But then it will be the weekend again!

No thanks - just water for me

Japan is the land of vending machines, and our school has no shortage. We have four machines fully stocked with soda, juice, tea, coffee, cocoa, water and whatever variations the soft drink companies can dream up. Hot and cold. Generally, I try to stay frugal and just stick to instant coffee, tea and water which can be had much cheaper in our office.

While today was quite chilly again, the last couple of weeks were starting to get pretty warm. I was keeping up with my morning cup of instant Nescafe but by the end of class its been too warm to justify coffee for an afternoon pick-me-up. I decided to try Pepsi Nex. Is that what its called in the US? Somehow I doubt it. Its basically a variation on Diet Pepsi. Perhaps not even a variation. We have no theory on what image "Nex" is suppose to inspire. I think of Nexxus shampoo, myself.

In any case, the first can was quite refreshing and packed a reasonable dose of caffeine. The next day after class I found myself heading down to get another.

Along came Friday. We have been giving our students homework where they have to come ask the English teachers questions and record the answers they hear. It gives them an added opportunity to practice English outside of class and draws them into the English office so they are more likely to come on their own down the road. This week was favorites/likes/dislikes. One of my conversations went something like this:

Student: "Questions... Okay?"
Me: "Yes, go ahead."
Student: "Do you like Japan?"
Me: "Yes, I do like Japan."
Student: "What is your favorite sports?"
Me: "My favorite sporT is swimming.
Student: "Do you like sushi?"
Me: "Yes, I do like sushi."
Student: "Really?"
Me: "Yeah, really."
Student: "What is your favorite drink?"
Me: "My favorite drink is coffee."
Student: "Not Pepsi Nex?"

I'm switching back to water.

One Year of Swing

I just realized that this coming Wednesday will mark my first year of swing dancing. Russell and I have really learned a lot in one year and made a lot of good friends. We owe a great debt of gratitude to the swing group in Osaka that taught us, dragged us through our first attempts and continued asking us to dance in spite of the job we were doing. We were lucky to mixed up with such a friendly and upbeat group.

We are also lucky to be going into the Spring blitz of swing events. All around Golden Week the swing scene in Osaka comes alive. There will be the normal weekly dances - but with some added flare, workshops, dance events centered around live performances and jazz festivals that will likely be taken over by dancers. Its a good time to be looking to dance.

During English class at the university the other day, we were doing a speaking activity designed to get students to socialize with each other and use English. They had to ask each other if they liked doing certain activities, like playing video games, skiing, etc. Of course, I was wandering around the group answering and asking questions, too. One student asked me if I liked dancing. I told him I did and as a follow up (bright kid, gold star for him) he asked what kind of dancing I liked. I told him swing dancing and he immediately looked it up on YouTube. He verified with me that he had found the correct style (he had - it was a fairly representative social dance - thankfully not a competition with aerials) and then he showed it to the other boys that were hanging around. "Hey, this is what the teachers does!" They all started laughing hysterically.

I choose to assume they were laughing with sheer respect and awe.

Adventures in Light Fixtures

After more than two years, Russell and I decided it was time to spring for one - maybe even two light fixtures. On our first every shopping trip we managed to procure one large light fixture for our kitchen area, so its not like we've been living completely without light - the apartment even came with light fixtures in the toilet and shower areas. We've managed just fine with those three sources of light.

Sure, its a little dark in the winter, but not so bad...

Today we had some time to kill downtown, so we decided to peruse the fixtures at the local electronics mega-store. The key reason we never settle on a fixture for the living room is that the fixture has to hang from an already low-hanging beam- dangerous for Russells. The fixture in our bedroom is right next to the beam, so all the wide fixtures available won't fit. We either needed a hanging one (which would be too low) or a super skinny fixture. We gave up after a while.

Today we finally found a fixture that was both relatively low profile, skinny, and as a bonus, light. Even if he does hit the light, we figured Russell would have a sporting chance. Unfortunately, there was only one fixture in the store, but we figured one was better than none. We bought it and headed home.

We hung it in the living room and it worked perfectly. That is, until we tried to turn it off for the evening. Where was the light switch? We have now determined that we need to buy one of the "comes with a remote" lights for the living room. Thankfully the fixture was skinny enough that it will fit in the bedroom.

Getting a hot lightbulb out of a skinny fixture while turned on proved to be a scalding experience, but necessary in order to get the fixture down. Eventually we unscrewed the light bulb with a towel. Things were easier from there.

So the living room is now dark again, but we can see every nook and cranny in the bedroom.