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.
Thursday, 26 May 2011
Sunday, 22 May 2011
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.
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.
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.
Monday, 16 May 2011
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...
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...
Friday, 6 May 2011
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!
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!
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