Adventure Mulls

Hard Day's Work

2012-01-28T07:42:00.004Z

Today was a busy, busy day.
Russell was leaving on a business trip, so he was up extra early to pack. We got all the clothes and omiyage to fit in his suitcase and then had a late breakfast. Around noon he headed out and I beelined for the fancy grocery store with the good selection of wine and cheese.

Forbidden dinner in hand, it was time to go home and clean. The house hasn't been too bad, but we have really only been straightening up and keeping dishes washed since Lis was here. A great deal of cruft had built up in the corners. Since I'm proud of how much I got done before Russell had even left the country (he had to fly to Tokyo first and is only flying out now) I'm going to list it all:

Washed the bedding and my pajamas
Aired the futon and comforters
Mopped up the dew that had accumulated into puddles around the outside walls of our bedroom.
Swept up all the fuzz and dust that had accumulated around bedroom
Treated the floors and windows with a bleach rinse (mildew has been popping up where the dew forms in the morning)
Brought in the futon, etc. and reassembled the nest.
Straightened, dusted and washed Russell's desk (which was a disaster area)
Swept under the desk (where fuzz especially likes to accumulate)
Put away the clothes that Russell folded this morning
Cleaned the living room table (kotatsu)
Swept and mopped the floors in the kitchen and living room
Washed the remaining dishes

I am now sitting down to relax with a glass of Malbec.
The next couple weeks are off to a tidy start.

Brie, cheddar and pepper gouda for dinner...

New Year 2012 FOOD

2012-01-10T13:31:00.006Z

My apologies to anyone reading this who is actually Japanese and knows what SHOULD be eaten for New Year in Japan. I did the best I could with the limited knowledge I have. The following food may not be traditionally prepared, but hopefully I was going the right direction with it. Because there is was so much food involved it deserves its own post.

To start things off, we made sure almost every day of Lis's visit was filled with Mochi. Delicious mochi. As you may recall, mochi is a pounded rice cake. It can be eaten savory: grilled or added to soups or eaten sweet, with red bean paste in the middle or red bean AND a strawberry. There are other variations as well. All delicous.

New Year's Eve: Soba
I am not sure how soba is suppose to be prepared for the New Year, but I know you are suppose to eat it. My version was a soup using the stock that came with the noodles plus vegetables that didn't seem too out of place in a Japanese dish. Note that my presentation skills are still somewhat lacking.

Apple Bunnies
This has nothing to do with New Years, but they are a staple of Japanese lunch boxes and I was having no luck describing them verbally to Lis. My solution? Buy and apple and show her. I don't think she was quite seeing how this equalled a plate of bunnies. Can you see them?

A Little Bump for Grandpa Pieterick
While the coming hike kept us off alcohol the evening of New Year's Eve, Russell and I did toast Grandpa Pieterick with our shots of brandy.

New Year's Morning: Toasted Flax Seed Peanut Butter from Trader Joes
Thanks to Lis, we had gloriously delicious peanut butter on our toast, brewed some tea for the thermos and hit the trail. At the top? We had dried persimmons and various other snacks we had hauled up with us. That's a persimmon going down the hatch in the photo. You can tell by the grin. None of our hiking provisions count as traditional.

Plum Wine:
Russell and I finally broke out our plum wine that we set aside last spring. I'm pretty sure we posted about the process at the time. You are suppose to let the wine sit for 6 months to 2 years. 6 months was right at the New Year, and since we had a guest it seemed fitting. The verdict? Wow! Its so easy to make awesome plum wine! It was equal or better than anything we have had before, which gives us confidence to try making more - perhaps with variations.

Osechi: You saw the pictures from the previous post, but here are the boxes in close-up glory. I may not love everything in osechi, but it sure is fun to eat so many tiny and varied things. Maybe next year I'll make it myself? I wouldn't wish that on guests, though, so it will depend on whether anyone is visiting.

This friend is a salted and grilled breen fish - known as Tai in Japan. (I think). These are usually grilled in such a way that their one fin is sticking straight up and their tail is curled up. I'm not sure of the significance, but that is the way its done. Ours followed tradition, but its not easy to see.

This box has honey grilled pork, grilled chicken, boiled oysters, salmon roe, crunchy little fishies, and kurikinton - which is a yellow yam and chestnut paste - this one with three sweet chestnuts sitting on top.

This box had mushrooms, bamboo shoot, some sort of celery-like vegetable, carrots, burdock root, sweet black soybeans (both small and large), lotus root, pink and white fish cake, grated daikon salad and some sort of shoot that is suppose to help with new beginnings.

This final box included different forms of mochi, a form of candied walnut with bonito flakes cooked in, grilled tuna (buri), crunchy fish egg sacs (the long yellow things), a rose made of smoked salmon, several variations on sweet egg omelet and some sort of weird meat roll.

Our osechi was enjoyed with liberal amounts of green tea and plum wine. It was no wonder Russell and I couldn't move afterwards. After a long nap, I suggested going downtown to see Ikuta shrine again, this time in full New Year's swing. I knew there would be food stands, but we were still too full from the osechi. We bought mochi with bean paste and strawberries in the middle and headed home. We saved our treats for breakfast the next day. We also made ozoni on January 2nd. I believe I have pictures posted from last year, but I forgot to take any this year. The version of ozoni I make was learned from a friend last year. Ozoni comes in many forms. it is a soup that you eat around New Years and I'm pretty sure all variations contain savory mochi and red carrots. Probably also some sort of mushroom. From there, though, recipes vary. Ours had thinly sliced pork, white miso, leeks, mushrooms, red carrot and mochi. So delicious.

And that ends the auspicious (and less than auspicious) foods for the New Year. If I get around to it, I will have another food post with other treats we enjoyed during Lis' stay. Japan is all about the food. The ancient temples aren't so bad, either. Stay tuned.

P.S. Thanks to Lis for sharing her photos. She tended to have much nicer ones than I did!

Starting 2012 off right

2012-01-01T12:21:00.003Z

Our winter break started on December 28th, and that happened to be the day my dear friend Lis came to visit from Minnesota (where she is finishing her PhD).

We have mostly been working in the mornings (Lis had a dissertation deadline to meet) and exploring Kobe in the afternoon. For the last day of the year we got out of the house a little earlier than normal and did some last minute exploring before everything shut down for New Years.

Left on the to do list? A walk through Kitano (the European-style houses on the hill), a mattcha/redbean latte from Starbucks (only spotted the day before) and a swing through Harborland to see the water (and perhaps the pink pirate ship). We managed to hit the first two birds with one stone by drinking our latte at the Starbucks that's IN one of the old houses in Kitano. We not only had the mattcha/ redbean latte, but also the redbean "cube danish" with the mattcha frosting. After a lazy morning chatting, we wandered down the hill towards the water. We stopped in Chinatown for a steamed nikuman and then did a lap around Harborland.

Having done our tourist duty we headed home to prepare for the New Year. We made soba (buckwheat noodle) soup with the fancy red carrots that come out for the New Year and we settled in for an evening of nationally televised musical splendor. They did not disappoint this year. There were many instant costume changes, enka stars rising up on enormous chinese dragons, pop idols playing with interactive decorative screens and a Japanese version of "Mexican" dancing to an enka song called "Mariachi."

At 11:45 the show ended and scenes from famous temples and shrines around Japan started moving across the TV. The Buddhists started ringing the enormous temple bells (108 times?), people were waiting anxiously to pray for good fortune in the coming year, there were bonfires and people skiing with torches in Hokkaido. At midnight the throngs of visitors poured into the temples and shrines to pray, dispose of old luck charms and buy charms for the coming year.

One Japanese tradition is to go to a temple or shrine for midnight and join these throngs. I was up for it, but Russell and Lis couldn't be budged. For good reason, I suppose... we had decided to do hatsu-hinode or the first greeting of the sun. That meant waking up at 4am and hiking up a mountain to get the best view of the sun as it crested above the horizon at 7am. They were looking forward to their full four hours of sleep. It was probably for the best.

We did get up at 4am. We made a thermos of tea and packed snacks and dry underclothes to change into at the top. We managed to hit the street at 4:45 and hiked up behind our house to a trailhead that would take us to the top of Mt Maya. This is the same Mt Maya we swore we would never hike up again after getting the idea to go hiking our first summer in Japan. It was no easy hike, but we did better this time than the first time. Lis (mountain goat she is and dead set on seeing the sun no matter what) followed a more seasoned team of hikers and made it to the top of the mountain before us. Russell and I plodded our way up as well and also managed to arrive about 15-20 minutes before the sun rose. Perfect timing.

After the sunrise we changed into our dry clothes, ate snacks and reassessed. We could go down the way we came up (boring) or try a new route that would take us over to the neighboring mountain and down to the Kobe reservoir and Nunobiki waterfall. We opted for route #2. We were very footsore by the end of the trip, but rather proud of the accomplishment, too. We staggered home and broke out our osechi box. None of us had the energy to shower first, so we opted to just eat.

The osechi box this year was even more awesome than last year. It was three full boxes of bite sized treats with an extra box containing our New Year fish - a grilled fellow in action pose. Notice that, try as we might and appetites that we definitely had, we just couldn't quite polish off the feast. We did a pretty good job, though.

Tummies full, Russell and I proceded to pass out on the floor under the kotatsu. Lis was made of stouter stuff and worked on her dissertation- also under the kotatsu. Even after the nap, Russell was struggling with the crazy wake-up time and 6 hour hike. Around 6pm he went to bed and hasn't been seen since. Lis and I went to Sannomiya (downtown) to see the action at the local shrine. The roads leading the the shrine were cut off to traffic and lined with food stalls. Crowds of people were still streaming into the shrine to pray, get their first New Year fortune and buy lucky charms. The trees on the premises had been surrounded by netting to save them from visitors tying their fortunes off on the branches (which is tradition) and instead the netting was covered with a coat of white paper knots. Picture to come. We bought some ichigo daifuku (strawberries wrapped in sweet bean paste and rice dough) and headed home.

You will notice a bush in this picture. This was taken before New Year when the shrine was setting up for the festivities. People could leave their fortunes and their charms from the year before at this bush. Now check out the bush ON New Years. 12 hours of luck charms later...

I had rolled my ankle just before finishing the hike in the morning, so we stopped at a local store and bought an ankle brace. It helps a lot. Tomorrow we are off to either Kyoto or Nara - and there will be no shortage of walking there. Best to shore up now.

Baked Goods

2011-12-24T02:12:00.004Z

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

2011-12-23T10:20:00.004Z

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

2011-12-21T14:00:00.002Z

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

2011-11-28T13:03:00.002Z

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

2011-11-21T13:38:00.003Z

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

2011-11-06T12:22:00.002Z

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

2011-10-17T11:08:00.002Z

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

2011-10-10T12:37:00.003Z

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

2011-10-04T10:49:00.003Z

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

2011-09-23T15:35:00.003Z

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...

2011-09-20T09:49:00.002Z

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

2011-09-16T23:20:00.003Z

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?

2011-09-11T11:34:00.010Z

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

2011-07-19T09:45:00.004Z

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)

2011-07-05T13:16:00.004Z

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

2011-07-05T12:59:00.002Z

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

2011-06-30T13:30:00.002Z

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

2011-06-30T13:16:00.003Z

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

2011-06-26T06:40:00.002Z

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

2011-06-22T14:49:00.003Z

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

2011-06-22T14:44:00.002Z

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

2011-06-12T03:04:00.002Z

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?

2011-06-12T02:55:00.003Z

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

2011-06-12T02:45:00.003Z

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

2011-06-12T02:26:00.003Z

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

2011-06-05T00:02:00.002Z

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

2011-05-26T12:49:00.002Z

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?

2011-05-22T22:18:00.002Z

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

2011-05-22T06:13:00.007Z

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

2011-05-16T12:42:00.005Z

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

2011-05-06T13:19:00.003Z

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

2011-04-30T10:42:00.004Z

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

2011-04-28T23:52:00.002Z

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

2011-04-28T12:10:00.003Z

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

2011-04-24T08:32:00.003Z

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

2011-04-23T12:50:00.002Z

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.

Health Check 2011

2011-04-22T23:24:00.003Z

It was health check time again this Thursday. I have a love-hate relationship with this time of year. On one hand its a huge invasion of privacy, but on the other hand, its a very thorough physical all done in less than an hour. I don't have to go anywhere for it (its done at school) and it s free!

Not to mention that in a few weeks I will get my results mailed to me neatly lined up against my previous years' results so I can see if I have had any changes (good or bad) over time.

At the same time, it involves standing around chatting with co-workers while holding a cup of urine, stripping for an EKG, giving blood samples, and getting a chest X-ray (which may require more stripping if you accidentally wore an underwire bra.

At least the actual check is finished. Now I can just sit back and wait for my results.

Some photos:

2011-04-19T09:57:00.002Z

Justin had posted some of his pictures from he and Michelle's trip to Japan on his Flickr account. You can see them here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/incanus/sets/72157626127446470/

Michelle also brought along Flat Stanley. He's a paper doll that her nephew made as a school project. Students had to send their Flat Stanleys to a relative in another part of the country so they could learn about a different part of the US. SInce Justin and Michelle were coming to visit us in Japan, they brought Flat Stanley along. Not technically helping with the whole "discover other parts of the US" project, but wicked cool all the same.

To see Flat Stanley, check out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/incanus/sets/72157626203099908/

Justin's an awesome photographer. I'm looking forward to seeing more of his shots from Japan (and elsewhere).

Getting back on the wagon...

2011-04-17T04:28:00.002Z

Its been far too long since I last posted.

I need to post about our February guests, Justin and Michelle and all the cool places we went together (any chance you'll share some of your awesome photography, Justin?).

I also spent a week in Nevada with my grandmother.

Its spring now, so the cherry blossoms are out. We are actually just past the blossom peak in Kobe.

I had an amazing dinner out with my co-workers. We went to an Okinawan restaurant that was incredibly good.

I also had a friend over for the night and tried my hand at making burritos with pico de gallo and guacamole. Overall a success, and the first time I've tried such a dish in Japan. Thankfully, cilantro is easy to find here.

In Russell's absence (he's on another business trip) I've been reading a history book about Japan (fascinating!) and watching Dancing with the Stars. I had no intention of getting hooked on DWTS, but it just kind of happened. I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

I've met all my new students for the year and things are off to a good start. The new freshmen are very enthusiastic and sweet. I've been impressed with the lack of attitude so far. I hope it lasts!

If you have been watching the news about Japan, there are still regular earthquakes in the north and fear that the strongest aftershock is yet to come. We haven't felt anything in Kobe at all. Life has been totally normal, with the possible exception, that people were feeling a guilty about celebrating the cherry blossoms with hanami parties, knowing that others are still suffering in the north. Most government-sponsored celebrations were cancelled, but many individuals still had picnics. Apparently one sake brewery in the Tohoku region (the area hit by the tsunami) was trying to encourage people to celebrate the season and buy alcohol from Tohoku to help their economy. That seems like a good compromise to me.

The situation at the nuclear plants seems to be stabilizing, though it will be a concern for months, and maybe years to come. We are all still watching in closely, though we feel very safe in Kobe at this point. You can get daily peak background radiation levels online for most provinces in Japan (as measured by several universities or research labs). So far Kobe's radiation levels have stayed right around the same level they've always been. Even when there's activity around Fukushima (which itself is classified at the moment) we haven't even seen a tiny rise in background radiation here. That's been comforting. I keep an eye on it, though.

If anyone is interested in a good, brief, but interesting history of Japan, I recommend "A History of Japan: From stoneage to superpower" by Kenneth Henshall. It covers the history quickly to give an overview and to provide references for people who want to go back and learn more about one era or another in more depth. Its very approachable and interesting. I will definitely go back and read about certain times in more detail.

So that's a summary of what is going on in my world right now. I will try to get back on track for posting.

And yet more destinations

2011-03-21T06:59:00.002Z

Just a quick update:

Russell is back in Kobe. The nuclear power plants seem to be coming under control (though they still warrant very close observation). From the information we have, Kobe appears to be plenty safe enough.

I am now in Dayton Nevada visiting my grandmother, as was my original plan from before any of these disasters hit Japan. I was anxious about being separated from Russell, but he will be very busy with work this week and I have none. I also want to see my grandmother and family just as much as I did in January.

Russell will be travelling home on a business trip in April.

That's the basic summary - I'll post more later.

Being able to now eavesdrop on people again is infuriating. I look forward to being able to turn that off again.

Wait, where am I?

2011-03-18T13:20:00.002Z

The last week has been a long one, as I'm sure everyone is aware. Kobe is still totally safe and in all likelihood will remain that way. Of course, convincing family and friends on the other side of the Pacific of this is a tall order.

Our families are, naturally, very uncomfortable with the situation in Fukushima Daiichi plant. They would all feel better if we were closer to home. I have had a trip back to the US to visit my grandmother planned since January. We finished our textbook writing on Thursday, so now we are free to take vacation before the new term starts. Understandably, our families are both hoping Russell can just come with me for the visit.

The problem, is that flights out of Japan are pretty much booked solid now. You can occasionally get a seat for over 5K, but no guarantee. We did some searching and found a more reasonable flight, but we had to go to Okinawa.

Twist my arm.

Okinawa is kind of like the Hawaii of Japan. It is a smaller island far south of the main collection of islands we call home. We live on Honshu, there is another large island just south of Honshu (Kyushu) and if you fly for an hour south of the bottom tip of Kyushu, you get to Okinawa. The weather right now feels like summer, there is tropical fruit and flowering trees and apparently beautiful beaches if we can get out of Naha (the city with the airport). Add to that outstanding local cuisine, and I'm not so sure I really need to make a trip home anymore after all. ;)

We have been monitoring the situation back home. There have been no serious setbacks in a while, which is a promising sign and everyone is hoping power will get hooked up out there soon (which would allow for water to be pumped into the reactors normally again.) They are having trouble getting power hooked back up, and the rating for the nuclear disaster has been upgraded from a 4 to a 5. We clearly can't breathe a sigh of relief yet, but overall things are looking more positive than they were a few days ago. Russell still hasn't decided whether he will be coming with me to the US or not.

While we wait and watch, Russell is trying his best to get back on top of work and I am checking out local tourist attractions.

The two that are the most attractive are:

1. Shuri Castle - this is totally unlike other Japanese castles. The first castle was built some time before the 1500s by the kingdom of the island. It was rebuilt several times throughout history after burning down. The latest bult is, unfortunately not even remotely old (though based on old models). It was absolutely leveled in WWII because the Japanese military central command was housed underneath it. It was rebuilt in 1992. It does house a highly rated museum on Okinawan history (which is very separate from mainland Japan). And it is gorgeous in its new and shiny form.

2. The largest aquarium in Japan. If the aquarium were close to Naha, there would be no question. I have always wanted to go to this aquarium, its suppose to be awesome. However, it is a 3 hour bus ride (one way) away. I don't know that I want to spend six hours on a bus tomorrow. Especially before spending 18 hours on an airplane...

Difficult choice...

I'll let you know the result tomorrow.

So far, Okinawan food gets a solide 5/5 stars. Very different than Kansai, but equally delicious.

March 17 update

2011-03-17T12:48:00.002Z

Sorry for the long silence. I've been busy finishing up textbooks and writing email to worried family members, so I just haven't been up to posting. Things should be better now, though. Textbooks are done and I have some free time before I head to the States for my Spring vacation on Sunday.

So how are things in Japan?

Some people are starting to move south from Tokyo. Not in a "droves of panicking people" way, but in a slow spreading way. Kobe and Osaka are prime destinations because they are very unlikely to have any serious radiation issues but they are not so far away by bullet train. Osaka in particular is big enough to absorb an awful lot of people, so the increase in population apparently isn't standing out much yet. Several countries are arranging evacuation flights out of Tokyo for any national of that country who want to get out.

We went to the grocery store today and noticed lots of aisles clearly set up just for hoarders. There were several aisles lines with bottled water, another full aisle of chocolate bars. Bags of rice, person high stacks of canned tuna and other canned fish and fruit, giant canisters of instant coffee and creamer. People had clearly been buying things, but there was tons still available. I have a hard time imagining serious shortages in any part of Japan south of Tokyo. As long as transportation is fully functioning, Japan does a really efficient job of moving things around. I can imagine temporary shortages but I don't expect any big problems. Especially since people in Japan are so inclined to share with each other anyway - and somebody's going to have plenty of stuff.

We have seen several interesting things on TV. The news out of Tokyo has alerts whenever an earthquake is coming. Its a chiming noise that really catches your attention. After you hear it, you have a few seconds to grab hold of something or turn off the gas, or open your doors and windows, or whatever you need to do. Then the news station starts shaking while the reporters do their best to look composed and in control.

We also saw an awesome program on how to rig a decent cook stove with a few empty beer cans, some cooking oil, paper towels and tin foil. This is assuming you lose gas or electricity but are at home with normal kitchen stuff. We didn't think it could possibly boil a whole pot of water, but it totally did! If I were at home I would build one ASAP.

So general theme for the day? Japan 3 steps ahead of anyone who might want to panic. Result? No panic. More people are farther from Tokyo and more people have more food on hand, but there doesn't seem to be too much anxiety south of Tokyo. At least at this point.

I'm off to bed soon, but happy St. Patrick's Day! We couldn't find any Irish Stout, but we did get some Yebisu black beer to celebrate. I can't decide whether to feel sheepish that its not related in any way to Ireland, or happy that it tastes so much better than Guinness.

March 14 update

2011-03-14T13:01:00.002Z

Today I was back to work. Everything was pretty quiet again. One of my co-workers was extremely concerned about the nuclear reactors yesterday, so today another colleague with a personal contact inside the U.S. embassy called to see if there was any reason for us to be concerned as far as the US knew. The embassy friend said there was no cause for concern in Kobe right now, but she scolded us for not having registered with the embassy for emergency updates yet. We both did so right away. No updates so far, which is how I like it.

In Tokyo, the power company has started imposing rolling black outs to help conserve energy. I haven't heard of any plans like that down here, yet.

It sounds like rescuers are getting into the most isolated and devastated areas of the coast in the north. The next week will likely be a very sad one. I certainly don't want to downplay in any way the tragedy that took place along the coast in Miyagi, Iwate, Fukushima provinces.

I do have some good updates. My co-worker who hadn't contacted his family yet was finally able to do so yesterday. His brother is a firefighter and was one of the first responders that worked in (if I remember correctly) Fukushima over the weekend. He is back home with his family now, resting. Everyone else is okay, too. I didn't realize my co-worker had gone the weekend without hearing from his family. It must have been a very long weekend. I'm glad everyone is okay.

I also spoke with my Hokkaido host family. They moved down to Tokyo a year or two before Russell and I moved to Japan. We visited them once last year. They are fine. They said they have been experiencing regular earthquakes and there were plenty more today. They are proud of their rock-solid apartment, though. They chose it because it shares their family name.

Aside from these updates my life is mostly re-establishing its orbit around next semester's textbooks. This is our last week to get them finished, so the pressure is on. I was planning to work Saturday to try and get ahead, but friends and family discouraged me. Frankly, after being evacuated on Friday I wasn't in too much of a rush to go work alone in the office on a tiny island. Today was okay, though. We kept an eye on the news, but everyone was back in the office. After Friday I am looking forward to sleeping, our university's first graduation and then a vacation to Nevada to visit my grandmother. It can't come soon enough.

March 13 Update

2011-03-13T15:02:00.002Z

All still fine in Kobe.

Russell played a concert today, so we had a big outing to a place on the East side of Osaka. We had really good yakiniku for dinner.

We are still watching the nuclear situation unfold. I am less worried now that I have been learning more about what is going on. No thanks to the news, of course, but there are a lot of good resources on the Internet and I know much more about nuclear fusion than I did last week.

Here's an article Russell recommends:

http://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-i-am-not-worried-about-japans-nuclear-reactors/

Yes, its's a blog, but it was set up just to share this letter from an MIT guy.

If you (like me) feel nervous about any sort of nuclear abnormality, I recommend this article.

Going to bed now... its way too late.

Do keep the people in North Japan in your thoughts. The the news coming out of the region hit by the tsunami is devastating and truly worthy of the highest level of concern. One of my students from Toyo (several years ago) still hasn't been able to contact his family in one of the hardest hit prefectures. I don't know if they lived near the coast or not, but I'm very worried for him. Its so hard to reconcile my happy daily routine in Kobe with the destruction just 400 miles away.

March 12 update

2011-03-12T15:56:00.002Z

Everything is still fine in Kobe. We spent the day cleaning the house and doing laundry. We went out to Cafe Kei for lunch and I had one of my friends over for dinner. Russell went to band practice in Osaka and will have a concert near Kyoto tomorrow. Of course, we also had the TV going all day.

The big news today was the explosion at one of the power plants. The reactor was not damaged and the new plan is to cool the reactors by passing a bunch of sea water through them. The process is expected to take two days. The update on the explosion claimed the cause was unknown, though many people are suspicious that the cause must be known. The evacuation radius was increased to 12 miles from 6 miles around the power plant. Another uncomfortable sign.

All of this is concerning, and we are keeping a close eye on it. We are 400 miles away, so the chance of a serious threat to us is very slim. I will post more tomorrow if I hear anything.

I know our family in particular is very worried, but please don't worry about us. We are all worried about the north of Japan, but we have been totally unaffected down here.

Here is a post by another foreigner living in the same region as us.

http://bibliophilia.typepad.com/writing-like-a-shark/2011/03/japan-in-the-midst-of-crisis-a-foreigners-perspective.html

March 11 Earthquake

2011-03-11T11:10:00.002Z

Hi All,

Let me begin this post by assuring everyone that Russell and I are absolutely fine. Kobe barely felt anything and there was no damage that I know of in this region.

That story is quite different in Tokyo and farther north. There was a very strong earthquake (magnitude 8.7-8.9 depending on the source of info) a few hundred kilometers off the coast of Tokyo (at least I think that's what I understand...). Tokyo got an extremely strong and prolonged earthquake as a result and there have been many (more than 30?) aftershocks - a more than a few in the 6.0 - 7.1 range. The most frightening result of the earthquake was series of tsunami waves that caused extreme damage on the northern tip of Honshu Island (the biggest island) and along the coast line. As I'm writing this, most of the Eastern coast is still under high alert for tsunami waves. I'm sure you'll see some of the incredible tsunami footage on the news in the U.S. Its hard to believe. There was also a huge fire at an oil refinery in Chiba (close to Tokyo). Thankfully, there was no damage to nuclear reactors, even in the worst hit areas.

Here in Kobe I was at work, writing textbooks. A few hours after lunch, a student who was working on a college entrance essay in the English office looked up and said, "Jaci. I think its an earthquake." I thought she was kidding (I hadn't noticed anything) when I realized there was a very gentle shifting from side to side going on. It was like having a long bought of vertigo or stepping onto a gently rocking boat. Everything would lazily shift horizontally one way and then lazily shift back. There was no strong shaking or noise. It lasted forever, too. My student had time to get a text message from her mother, notify me, wait, my co-worker walked to the window and looked out pensively at the harbor, then looked back into the office, we waited, and then I sent a text message to Russell before it ended. It definitely lasted more than a minute and seems like it must have lasted several minutes - though I'm a bad judge of such things. I've never been in an earthquake that lasted more than 10 seconds, though, so this one seemed to go on forever. There were times I doubted it was still going and instead thought my mind was playing tricks on me. When it was over, we laughed about it and went back to work.

My student got a message from her brother (who is studying in Canada) asking if she was okay. She was confused about why he was asking and how he would know about the earthquake so shortly after it happened - especially when he is clear across the Pacific. I thought maybe he was talking about one of the earthquakes that hit Japan earlier this week, though those were only felt in the far north of Honshu. About an hour later someone informed us that there had been a giant earthquake farther north and a tsunami warning had been issued. My boss came in and asked us all to go home. The school had decided to evacuate everyone as a precaution. We are on a break for the end of the academic year right now, so there thankfully aren't that many people on campus.

It was also at that point that the tsunami damage on the very north coast of Honshu came up. One of my co-workers has in-laws in that area of Japan - and they live right on the coast. He raced home to get a hold of his wife. I just got the message that her family was okay, so that's a huge relief. I hope our students are all okay, too. Since its vacation time right now, they are spread far and wide across Japan. The ones I know of in Tokyo are fine, but the far majority could be anywhere.

After being evacuated I took the train back to downtown Kobe and even though the tsunami warning for Kobe was for less than a meter, Russell and I played it safe and headed home (which is far enough up the mountain that even a 10 meter tsunami wouldn't come close to us. I haven't seen an update on the tsunami peak heights in a while, but the last one I saw for Kobe was 30cm. I doubt that was enough to cause even slight flooding around Port Island (where my school is) or the docks around Kobe.

I haven't seen any footage on TV of heavy damage or injuries from the earthquake anywhere in Japan, with the exception of a few rural houses - which seems hard to believe. I don't think any other country in the world could have fared as well as Japan just has. That said, the footage of the tsunami in the north is pretty chilling. Apparently it crested over 7 meters in one city - so at least 21 feet high. I'm very worried about what the reports will be coming out of the north over the next few days.

My heart goes out to all the families that have been affected by this earthquake and tsunami.

I hadn't really thought of that...

2011-02-14T11:28:00.002Z

From one of my colleagues:

"If they can make chicken flavored toothpaste [for dogs] why can't they make teleporters?"

I really can't argue with that logic.

Kyoto Shim Sham: Part II

2011-02-12T08:31:00.005Z

Our intrepid dance group leader just posted the videos from our Kyoto Shim Sham event. We performed in four locations around Kyoto and they are all on YouTube if you care to see more. Here's my favorite of the four. We got a bit of a scolding at the end.

Quick Update

2011-02-12T01:31:00.002Z

No much is happening over here in Kobe right now. I do have a couple of fun things to post, but I'm too lazy to download pictures right now.

At work, the school year just ended, so now its textbook-writing season. That's keeping us pretty busy, and decreasing my motivation to write on the computer when I come home...

At home, Russell is away on a business trip, and I haven't been up to much. I spent the first few days of his absence cleaning the house and reading. Now, I've caught a cold, so I'm just hanging around the house napping and trying to talk myself into getting ahead on my textbook writing. Luckily it was a three day weekend this week, so I can just lay around the house and don't need to go anywhere.

I will try to post something more interesting soon.

Questionable Progress

2011-02-01T07:58:00.002Z

Yesterday (Monday) was the last day of final exams, so I asked to take today off to get some household business taken care of - especially while I have Russell available to help (he's got a business trip coming).

On the "to do" list was:

1. Sign up for a community Japanese tutor (can only be done on the first day of every month)
2. Try to figure out what taxes I need to pay
3. Renew our apartment contract (our two year lease is up in March)
4. Figure out how to dump our old moldy futon.
5. Finish grading writing exams

Russell's superior Japanese was needed for most of these projects, but he needed to put in some solid work time first, so I started with what I could manage.

First up, getting Japanese lessons. I already have an excellent tutor and friend who is helping me once a week, but I am beginning to be really frustrated that my Japanese isn't better than it is and I don't seem to be studying enough on my own. Having a set study time with a tutor really helps. Luckily, the line for tutors today was extremely short - and I was at the head of it. No problem. Task #1 taken care of.

Next, I decided to hang out in a coffee shop and grade writing exams. These take quite a bit of time, and several students haven't turned in the take-home part of their exams yet. I did grade all of the complete exams I have and I will finish what I can of the partial exams tonight. Task #5, mostly done.

At this point Russell was available to help. We went for some (awesome) vegetable curry and then headed to the city ward office to deal with taxes. Last year, I hadn't been in the country for a full year yet, and since Japan assigns taxes based on your prior year's income, I didn't need to pay anything (very nice). This year when I looked into taxes I got mixed messages. For the regular Japanese staff, I was told that taxes are withdrawn automatically every month and you only need to do tax forms if you want to claim a refund. When I looked up tax percents for Japan and compared to what had been withheld from my salary over the year, the numbers seemed way off. I spoke with a co-worker who has been in the country for at least a year more than I have and she told me the school doesn't withhold enough and that she had had to pay significantly more. She tole me to take my contract to the ward office and they would figure out what more I needed to pay. Russell and I set out to do that, but the ward office told us the university was taking care of it and not to worry. Just to be double sure, we went to the international community center to ask their opinion (they help foreigners with things like this) and they confirmed that the school would figure it out. They said if the school has not withheld enough, I will get a bill to pay more in the next month or so. Okay... I guess we'll wait and see...

We also asked about how to get rid of our futon. The community center lady helped us call the garbage center and confirm that we can get a special tag for our futon at a convenience store for $30. We then need to call the garbage center and arrange a pick up time and place so they can come take it away. Stupid moldy futon. Grrr. At least our new futon set up is working much better. The wood slats are working great an we are being extra good to dry the futon every day.

After a side excursion to get guitar strings we headed to the central office for our rental company. We hadn't ever been there before. After learning a great deal about the Japanese address system, we managed to find the building. We went in and asked what we should do to renew our lease. We were told it would be done automatically so long as we kept paying normally. Okay. Next we asked about the insurance renewal letter we had received. They confirmed that we should pay by bank transfer and not to them directly. Check. Finally, we admitted to them that we had managed to punch a hole in one of the closet doors, took full blame and asked how to go about getting it fixed. "Ah, are the doors not working properly?" they asked. No, no, the doors work fine, there's just a very large hole in one of them. (We look down sheepishly) "Oh, well, no problem, then. We'll just replace them when you move out. So long as their functional for you, we aren't worried at all." But... there's a hole - a big hole - in the door... "Not to worry!"

Add to the list: Find camouflage for the hole in the closet door.

I can't help feeling that while we technically covered everything on the list... we really didn't get anything done. I guess being better informed is a start...

First Earthquake!

2011-01-28T13:51:00.002Z

I have been wondering for some time when we were going to experience our first earthquake in Japan. The first (and really only) earthquake I ever felt was in Hokkaido on my first trip to Japan. At that time I was told that earthquakes happen so often no one really even notices. It seemed odd, then, that we've been here almost two years with not a single shake.

I asked some Kobe-ites about this and they said that Kobe isn't an especially active part of Japan. Of course, anyone who was living here in the 80's knows first hand that Kobe is capable of tremendous earthquakes, but apparently this part of Japan is not especially quake-prone.

The earthquake tonight was very quick and not very strong. The news (which started reporting within one minute of the event) said we were between a magnitude 2 and 3 quake. It was enough to give everything a rattle, but not enough to tip anything over or shake anything off the table. It was over before Russell and I could even react.

Like well-trained Oregonians, we went and stood in a doorway for a few minutes. But we gave up within a couple minutes. Russell turned on the news and I started writing this post.

I don't ever care to be in a serious earthquake, but as long as they're small like this one, I don't mind.

Kyoto Shim Sham: Part I

2011-01-23T13:07:00.003Z

Today was probably the most eventful and all together strange day yet of my stay in Japan. At 10:30am I met a group of fellow swing dancers (both Japanese and from other countries) in Kyoto and we proceeded to dress up in kimonos and do shim sham performances around various picturesque areas of Kyoto. We also had an amazing dinner to round out the day.

What is shim sham? For those who don't know, shim sham is a line dance most swing dancers learn. While swing is usually a partner dance, when the music for shim sham comes on everyone lines up and dances the same steps in unison. Its a real pain for beginners to learn, but its lots of fun once you do.

So why were we doing shim sham in Kyoto? One of the regulars at swing night - a lovely lady from Germany - will soon be leaving us for a new adventure in Hawaii. At some point she and some other regulars were talking about how it would be fun to do shim sham in kimonos. They did this once before in Nara, but this time more careful plans were put in place.

I'm dead tired after all the excitement, so I'll have to post more details later. The videos of our performances will be posted to youtube soon, and I'll make sure to link to them in my Shim Sham Part II post. I'll also walk you through the kimono process, some of the highlights of our trip and the amazing dinner we had in the next post.

Until then, here's a group shot of us just after we got dressed. This was SO much fun!

Really Big Mittens: Part END

2011-01-18T13:33:00.003Z

I can finally report success on the mitten-front. While they did take quite a bit longer than the mini-mock-up mittens, they weren't so hard to do after all.

Unfortunately, I can't report a total success. I was very worried when I made the first mitten that it would come out a hair to small and all my work would be for nothing - so I tended to round up whenever possible. This means the first mitten came out somewhat bitter than strictly needed. Its not so big as to be useless, but it does look a little ridiculous.

For the second mitten I was better informed and knew what to expect. As far as I know the second mitten was right on target.

Both mittens should keep Russell very warm. The knitted liner worked great. The resulting fabric is nice and thick and very tightly woven together.

Really big socks are the next request - though they have to wait for me to figure out a Christmas-gift hat pattern first.

Wish me luck!

Japan Hearts Capybara

2011-01-18T13:21:00.002Z

One of the harder cute things to explain in Japan is the capybara stuffed animal. A real capybara is an enormous semi-aquatic rodent that lives in South America. I'm not sure how it attained the level of popularity it enjoys in Japan, but somehow it did. You can find them at most large zoos and a number of aquariums. There's nothing wrong with a capybara - they are reasonably cute critters and I can see their place as a curiosity. After all, if you don't grow up with capybara wading through the river in your local jungle, you might not really know how to classify one.

Somehow, though, a clever marketer in Japan managed to make the capybara an instantly recognizable plush toy. While many fad toys pass on quickly, capybara have enjoyed a relatively long success - I can personally vouch for their prominent end-of-aisle position at several stores since we've been in Japan and I had seen them before that.

In the picture you can see the plush toys I'm referring to. Note they come in a variety of sizes and colors.

Of course, once you have an established character in Japan, you are free to dress it however you like. Now, for the year of the rabbit, you can get a capybara dressed as a bunny. I suppose that's not so very unlike you or me dressing as a monkey, so perhaps I shouldn't be so puzzled. They do make for cute pictures - also as would you or I dressed as a monkey.

Study Abroad Highlights

2011-01-18T13:01:00.003Z

The first round of study abroad students has returned to Japan. Today we got to listen to their speeches about the highlights of studying abroad and their favorite memories.

Here are a few highlights of the highlights:

New Mexico:
White Sands National Park
Playing midnight hide-and-seek in the city central park. (This was mentioned by several people).

Michigan:
An awesome roommate who introduced the student to a local comedy show.

New Jersey:
Jumping out of the second story window of the dorms into snow drifts.
Spending every weekend in New York City

New York:
Not skipping class too much
Being really cold

Oregon:
Going on vacation to Tiajuana, refusing to pay $50 for a taxi ride leading to being handcuffed by the police, leading to paying $50 for the taxi ride.
One of our boys dressed as the cutest Snow White ever for Halloween.
Host families that took our kids hiking, jack-o-lantern carving, christmas tree cutting, etc.
And my favorite story:
Best purchase: A North Face jacket - it kept her so dry she didn't even need an umbrella.

It was really fun to listen to the students. Its so strange to hear them speaking with totally different accents and using elaborate turns of phrase they've picked up. The speeches also get VERY LONG (but in a good way). I can't wait for the 7 month students to come back in March.

Popsiclothes

2011-01-16T00:23:00.002Z

Yesterday I put a load of clothes in the laundry. I had to go meet someone, so I asked Russell if he could hang the clothes for me when he came back from lunch (we were going together). He agreed.

After lunch, Russell decided he wanted to be out of the house (even though he's been coming down with a cold) so we walked downtown together. We both forgot the laundry.

On our way home that night, we remembered. At this point it was cold outside. Not snowing, but only for lack of precipitation. We got home, thought about it, and decided the clothes couldn't possibly mildew in this weather - we could leave them overnight.

This morning I got up to finally hang the laundry and when I started pulling clothes out to hang, I noticed something was a little off. It turns out they had frozen over night. They thankfully hadn't frozen together too much, but I had to pull them all into a flat position before hanging them and they didn't exactly "hang" on the hangers and drying bar.

Laundry Day

2011-01-10T02:13:00.003Z

I know I've posted about this before, but for the most part, no one uses dryers here. Most families have a small washing machine (half the size or smaller than typical American washing machines) the only water temperature is cold and all laundry is hung outside to dry. There are dryers at laundromats if you must get something dry quickly, but it usually isn't that big of an issue.

This was one part of living in Japan that I was suspicious of. Having a large washer and dryer seemed pretty necessary to me when I arrived here. I have to say, though, line drying, when you are set up for it, is no big deal. I actually prefer it.

Of course, being set up for it is a major factor. We have two sturdy aluminum rods within arms-reach of our patio door. The washing machine is right next to them (also arms-reach from the door) and there are all sorts of clever clamps and hangers designed to fit over said metal rods to keep your laundry from flying away. We even have a little overhang to give us a decent chance of rescuing our laundry if it starts to rain hard and seems to keep the birds from leaving presents on our laundry for us.

I was thinking about how nice our set up is today as I was hanging our laundry IN THE SNOW. It wasn't snowing hard, but I thought - you know, if I were in Oregon, I would probably see the snow and assume laundry was off. Here, so long as there isn't any worry of the flakes accumulating on my undies, laundry day is on.

Really big mittens: Part III

2011-01-10T01:49:00.003Z

I've been working on Russell's giant mittens for the last few days. Yesterday, I finished the first one. It actually turned out to be a bit too big. I was worried that it would be too small, so I tended to take every opportunity to round up when I was figuring out the number of stitches I would need.

Even so, the liner worked out well - this little paw bags is going to offer serious protection against wind and cold, so even if its a bit too spacious, it should still do the job. I'm going to start the second mitten today and scale it down a bit. I may remake the first mitten at some point so they both fit better, but I have a feeling I'll be finished with mittens for a while by the time the second one is made.

I put my first tiny mitten next to the Russell-sized mitten for scale.

New Bed!

2011-01-10T01:31:00.004Z

Woo hoo! We got a new bed!

We have been sleeping on the original double futon that we got on our first day in Japan. If you've been reading the blog for a while, you know that we have been battling mildew and mold for the full two years. We have had the futon directly on the floor - which is fine if you have a traditional room with tatami mat flooring, but not so fine if you have laminate - which is what we have. Every morning for 9 months out of the year, the bottom of our bed was soaked through with condensation.

We had several strategies for battling this. At first, we tried to prop the bed up every morning and let it dry out. That sort of worked, but didn't always get it fully dry. At some point we got lazy and just started flipping the bed over every day so the wet side could get some air. On sunny days, we tried to hang it outside (a highly recommended strategy for both drying the bed and zapping any mold spores with UV light.) Unfortunately, we rarely got around to hanging the bed out more than once a week, and often lapsed longer than that.

Around this time last year, our bed was showing definite mold spots and started to smell bad. I wanted to dump it and get a new bed, but Russell didn't want to figure out how to dispose of the first one and didn't want to spend the money on the new one. Instead, he decided to bleach the bed. One day while I was at work, he put the bed in the bathtub with hot water and bleach. He then hung it out on the back porch to dry. It took about a week to dry sufficiently because it was the middle of winter, but it did get relatively dry. To finish the job, we decided to buy a futon dryer. It consists of a nylon bag attached to a hot air blower. You put the bag in your bed, turn on the hot air and it pushes hot air through the bed until its dry. It worked very well.

SInce then, we have been trying to flip the bed every day and dry it out with the dryer. We occasionally missed a day, but we did pretty well. The problem was that one side of the bed was always face down and the room itself was often dark. Eventually, the mold came back. It had gotten so bad that our bedroom smelled strongly of mildew. It was grossing me out, so I decided to use my winter break to take care of the problem once and for all.

I pulled everything out of the bedroom, washed bedding, washed the walls and floors with a bleach solution, cleaned out all the window tracks and washed the windows, everything. Unfortunately, the bed was clearly moldy again. I banished it to the patio, set out our guest futons as temporary bedding, and went searching on Amazon.

After a little searching, I found some wooden slats that could be rolled out as a very slight lift to get a futon off the floor. They were, of course, designed for exactly our problem. In the cart they went. Then, I looked for a nice futon. There were several cheap ones, and there was also a nice big fat one. I showed everything to Russell, we agreed that the fat one would make sleeping on slats more comfortable, so I placed the order and we waited.

We got a message later that day that the color of futon I wanted was out of stock, which took us a while to decode. Finally, we figured out what the problem was and agreed to take another color (this is all in Japanese, of course, so we're a bit slow).

Last Friday, the futon arrived. The slats still hadn't come, so we just put the futon out as it was. The next morning, the bottom had standing droplets of water on it when I lifted it. I propped it up under our heater and made sure it dried out. The next day was the same. Finally, the slats arrived. I set everything up, we went to bed, and the next morning? No water! The bed wasn't even damp with the exception of a small strip at the very top that had sagged down off the slats and touched the floor.

Success!

Hopefully we will be able to enjoy THIS bed for a long time to come with no fear of mold.

Really big mittens: Part II

2011-01-03T12:54:00.004Z

I made a second mitten today. This time I tried a new knitting method to make the cuff a little less sloppy and I added a liner. The second mitten was much thicker, taller and narrower. I think all of those are the result of the liner. The thumb was so narrow, I couldn't turn it inside out to properly tuck in the yarn tails.

Tomorrow, the good yarn shop is suppose to be open again after vacation, so I should be able to get yarn and start working on Russell's real mittens. Unlike this time, I will have to be more careful to actually make the second mitten LEFT handed instead of making two right handed mittens like I did this time. Oops.

Knitting really big mittens

2011-01-03T02:01:00.003Z

Every year around this time it gets really cold in Japan. Well, not really cold. I'm sure most of you are in colder places, but you probably have central heating. It has only been dancing around freezing at night here, but we have no double paned windows, no notable insulation and our heat source is our electric air conditioner on the wall that doubles as a heater.

So far, I've been fine this winter, but I spend most of my days at the University and when I'm at home I spend all my time under our kotatsu (heated table). Russell, on the other hand, works at his desk, which excludes the kotatsu option. Once the cold hit, his hands and feet got really cold, and that makes work unpleasant and both typing and guitar playing a real challenge. For Christmas, I bought him some velcro wrist cuffs with heat pad inserts, but those haven't seemed to catch on. I managed to catch the Eddie Bauer end of year sales and stocked up on long underwear, but even X-large size gloves aren't big enough.

I've been happily knitting hats since the weather cooled down, and I had a bad feeling I knew what Russell was hoping for. I looked everywhere, but couldn't find gloves in his size. Finally, I offered to try knitting him some gloves. He was excited by the idea of custom gloves, but I wasn't sure it was going to happen. I know how to knit, purl and decrease. That's it. I can make nice hats with that information, but the glove patterns were far more complicated.

I hunted around online. Russell suggested I make mittens instead of gloves. That seemed more doable, so I started hunting in that direction. I finally found a post with a self-described "simple mitten" pattern. What caught my attention were the detailed instructions for customizing he patter to different hand sizes and instructions for knitting in a warmer lining. This all sounded really good. Even better, was the practice tiny mitten that could be made quickly to practice all the stitches.

I went out and got smaller knitting needles yesterday and spent the evening working my way through the tiny mitten pattern. I had to fall back on YouTube tutorials to figure out how to do a few of the directions, but nothing was too hard once I knew what to do. I learned how to increase, how to slip stitches and use slip stitches for an different kind of decrease, I learned how to pick up stitches and how to make an afterthought thumb. I am not too modest to crow a bit about the results. I'm quite proud of myself.

Today I plan to try making a left side mitten and practice knitting in a liner. It sounds easy enough but it adds one more thing to think about. Ugh.

Once I get the hang of the liner (or give up on it all together) I will figure out how to adapt the mitten pattern for Russell's giant paw. You can see from the picture that I have a ways to go.

Happy Bags

2011-01-03T01:37:00.002Z

Russell and I decided we had been housebound long enough yesterday, so we went out for a long walk. Since we were hungry, we followed our noses to Sannomiya (downtown) since all the local restaurants are still closed for the New Year break. Sannomiya was pretty hoppin'. Half of the stores were closed, but the ones that were open were doing decent business. We noticed that the Happy Bags were appearing once again. A Happy Bag is a New Year tradition where the stores clear out all of their old merchandise and make little mystery grab bags for set prices. You don't usually know what is inside - if its clothing they usually tell you the size and otherwise you cross your fingers and see what you got.

Once I had pointed the Happy Bags out to Russell (who hadn't noticed last year) we started seeing them everywhere. The draw of a mystery bag is pretty strong. Unfortunately (or probably fortunately) neither of us fit into Japanese clothing, shoes or slippers and we aren't interested in plastic jewelry or knick-knacks. We really did want to find a Happy Bag that would suit us, though, so we started browsing shops with items we might actually want. The one shoe store with my size had sails but not Happy Bags, the book store could be fun, but there was a little too much room for a miss there.

Finally we decided to check the video game store. Sure enough, they had Happy Bags with one known game and two used mystery games inside. It was a little pricey considering the high likelihood of unplayable video games (I was imagining princess fashion games, poorly designed car racing games, or the one game we already have) but we were excited to try our luck and we have found that games are good Japanese practice, so we went for it.

What did we get?

The known game was Trinity Zill O'll Zero. We hadn't heard of it, but Russell seems to like it. He says its a moderate action game. The two mystery games were The Godfather II and Dragon Ball: Raging Blast. We don't know anything about these two games either, but the ratings online were reasonably good for the Godfather II and a little better than mediocre for the Dragon Ball game. Not bad. They should keep Russell busy for quite a while. Definitely worth the price.

The known game was

Happy 2011!

2011-01-01T09:56:00.006Z

Unlike last year, this year Russell and I decided to stay put for New Years. Last year we discovered that Japan does not celebrate New Years like other countries we are familiar with. Traditionally, there is no count down party or New Year's date. No New Year's kiss or champagne. While these things can be found in Japan, it isn't what most people are doing.

So what are most people doing?

Most people stay at home and have quiet time with family, from what we can tell. There is an annual, star-studded music show on NHK (public television), some people choose to hike to a high point to watch the sun come up the morning of the First, and almost everyone makes their way to a shrine to pray for the coming year and to get fortunes and charms. Some people line up to be at the shrine right after midnight, others take their time and head over later in the day. Otherwise, though, I think it is fair to say that New Years in Japan is largely marked by food. There are soba noodles for dinner the night before and Osechi (auspicious foods in a box) on new year's day. There is Ozoni - a traditional soup and throughout all the end of one year and the beginning of the next, mochi (pounded rice cakes) are a must.

So what did we do?

We probably weren't spot on traditional, but we did our best this year, especially as far as the food went. As I posted before, we ordered our Osechi box several weeks ago. It was delivered promptly at 1:00 on the 31st, so we were ready to go. The box said to store it somewhere below 10 degrees C, and since our refrigerator was far too small to fit the box (even when empty) we decided to keep it on the back porch. We had been getting a sprinkling of snow on and off, so we figured it was plenty cold enough.

With our Osechi safely stowed, I started making preparations for our New Years evening. We were planning to have a quiet evening at home, but I was worried about having enough food because I was pretty sure the grocery store would be closed on the first - and maybe early on the 31st. I towed a couple bags of groceries home, including mikan (mandarin oranges) and fresh soba noodles. Actually, we had come home from a nabe party at a friend's home the night before. It was so good and I had learned so much about nabe-making that I decided to make soba nabe for dinner. (Soba, by the way, are buckwheat noodles - dark brow and delicious).

Once I got home, I cleaned the house and set up a futon to act as a couch (I mean, we were planning to spend 3-4 hours watching the music show on NHK, so a little preparation seemed appropriate.) There were mikan in a bowl on our kotatsu - something we had learned from our friend the night before. Apparently eating mikan and sitting under a kotatsu (heated Japanese table) in winter conveys a feeling of pure happiness for all Japanese people. Or so we were told. Its not hard to imagine. I would venture to guess this would extend to all humans if all humans knew what a kotatsu was.

For dinner I set out to make soba nabe. I got about an inch of water boiling in our little pot, threw in a local variety of fresh tuna fillets and scallops along with some chunks of potato and carrot. Once the potato was starting to soften, I put in some roughly chopped shiitake mushrooms and sugar snap peas. I also decided to pour in the broth stock that came with the soba noodles to season the nabe. Once everything was well cooked, I put in the soba noodles and let them boil a couple minutes. We each had a heaping bowl of the stew. It was really delicious. Mixing small quantities of more than one fish really makes a difference in the flavor. The soba stock gave a nice flavor, too. In the past our nabe was either really good, or really bland. We've been wrestling with overcoming blandness, but we have some good tips now.

Full of soba noodles (as we were supposed to be) we sat down to watch the music show. There were a variety of famous singers from many different genres. There were traditional singers, rock stars of years past, idol groups and current chart toppers. They rotated between individual performances and group medleys. Between each song the hosts would make comments while the crew manipulated the set into a new stage for the next act. It was very cleverly put together. While some elements would reappear in new sets, no two sets were the same. Its always interesting to hear the singers live, too. The idol groups are amazingly bad singers before the technicians get to the recordings. The more traditional singers and older stars usually know what they are doing, and occasionally one of the young talents will actually be able to sing. That's always nice.

At midnight we had our shot of brandy for my Grandpa Pieterick and watched the news report from all the shrines around the country. It had snowed all day in many parts of Japan, so there were a lot of beautiful scenes and very cold people standing in line. After watching the news for thirty minutes or so, Russell and I decided against going out to our local shrine just then, and instead opted to go get into our warm bed.

The next morning Russell's friend Yuma came over to make Ozoni for us. Ozoni is another favorite New Year's food. Its a soup but different regions of Japan make it differently. The only constant ingredient that we know of is mochi (pounded rice cake). In our neck of the woods, Ozoni is often made with a white miso soup base, from there, though, any particular family's recipe is up in the air. I can't remember if I posted about our first try at making Ozoni. It involved red carrots, salmon, chestnuts, white miso and, of course, mochi. The Ozoni Yuma made for us had browned leeks, regular carrots, mountain yams (whole, not grated), and thinly sliced pork (paper thin - nothing pork-choppy about it). Once all of this had simmered together for a while, he stirred in the white miso and then dropped in chunks of mochi. His girlfriend's family had made the mochi at home in their mochi-maker. Yuma referred to it as "illegal mochi" because it wasn't made in the traditional way (pounded with mallets). It was still pretty darn tasty, though, much better than what we get at the grocery store. The mochi gets all gooey and sticky when it gets hot. It has a very strange texture and is very filling. Some people don't like it, but Russell and I both love it. This particular Ozoni was rich and amazing. We had two servings and then a third serving later that night for dinner after our guests had gone home.

I mentioned that the Kansai area (our area) generally uses white miso as the soup base. We also learned that the Kantou area (Tokyo area) use a salt stock base - no miso. We asked Yuma's girlfriend what her family does, and she said they only put in cabbage and soy sauce. "What!? No mochi?" "Oh, well, of course mochi too." We asked Yuma what people usually do after eating Ozoni on New Year's day. "Drink!" We had another round of the golden sake he had so kindly brought us. It had actual gold flakes floating in it. Very, very fancy.

After the feast, we set out some of my mother's Christmas cookies (which had arrived just that morning thanks to an incredibly kind-hearted mail man) and then played Angry Birds and Euchre. Both were a big hit. There may be more Euchre in our future. Russell was very pleased that he and Megumi annihilated Yuma and I. Yuma and I were less pleased. Nicole and Gwen may just as well have been here, they were spoken of and thought of so frequently during the afternoon.

After Yuma and Megumi left, we were starting to get hungry again so we brought in our Osechi box. We had been looking forward to this for weeks. As I promised, I took many pictures. Osechi is an impressive undertaking. The foods themselves don't seem too difficult to make, but there is a huge number of very small quantities of treats. Our Osechi box had two levels.

The top level had: some sort of sliced ham, sweet omelet rolls, mochi balls (that look like striped hard candy), cooked fish, salmon roe, oysters, sweet chestnuts in yam paste, mochi dumplings wrapped in leaves, fried chicken chunks, grilled crunchy fishies (eat 'em whole!), some sort of candied fish chunks and cooked shrimp in the middle.

The second box had:cooked celery, cooked chestnut sprouts, cooked mushrooms and spiraled konyaku (its made from yam, its 0 calorie because it can't be digested and its the consistency of hard set Jello - no strong flavor). There was also burdock root rolled in bacon and cooked, pickled daikon, walnuts in fish and chili paste, black (sweet) soy beans, a bunch more cooked vegetables ( carrot, bamboo shoot, lotus root, seaweed ties and burdock root), some fish cake, two massive black soybeans tucked in a corner and two crunchy yellow spears of fish eggs.

So anyway, lots and lots of stuff. Many, if not most of those things have superstitious meanings. I only know a handful of them, though. I know the black soy beans are for good health in the coming year, the sprouted chestnuts are for new beginnings, the yellow, long, fish egg spears are for fertility in the coming year, the chestnuts in yam paste are for money in the coming year and the shrimp are for long life ('cause they're all curled over like very old people - seriously). The other items - I have no idea.

I had heard mixed reviews on Osechi. Some people look forward to it above all other things, others think the traditional foods are less than appetizing. We found everything to be delicious. I personally don't care so much for the salmon roe (the texture just weirds me out, though the taste is good) or the crunchy fishies. A bit too fishy for me. Everything else was delicious, though. It was all even better than I expected. I definitely want to learn how to make my own Osechi next year so I can continue the tradition for years to come.

We spent the late afternoon pigging out again and then fell over where we were and napped until dinner time. We polished off the last of the ozoni and golden sake and that's where you find me now. Fat and happy and trying to be a responsible blogger. Russell is practicing guitar.

And a very Happy New Year to all! May you have good fortune in 2011!

Merry Christmas from Kobe

2010-12-25T14:28:00.007Z

First, a Christmas warm up. A few weeks ago, we had our last Sunday Swing lesson of the year (more next year!). We had an especially large group for the lessons and afterwards, we went do lunch together. On our way back to the train, we remembered that the German Christmas Festival was going on at the Sky Tower. (That's the place with the circular observation deck and terrifying escalators that I went to with my dad last spring.)

The festival is at the ground level. There were tons of treats from Germany. Some, like mulled wine and gingerbread, were holiday favorites of mine - others (several German-style doughnuts, for example) were new to me. We basically ate everything we could get our hands on - or rather, I did and shared around so as to save room for more. We all had a lot of fun. You will note my co-worker Janet (who introduced us to the Osaka swing group) wearing a seasonal Santa cotton candy (aka fairy floss) beard. Most of the group also enjoyed the rickety Carousel.

On Tuesday before Christmas, we had our school Christmas Party. There were a number of really good performances put on by students and some awesome hand made treats. These pictures are of the food (homemade chinese potstickers and madeleine cakes) and some of my students singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." They did a great job. One felt a little more fearless when well concealed by a Santa beard. She was quick to point out that she was a VERY cute Santa.

On Wednesday, we head a Christmas Swing party. Everyone wore Santa costumes. Unfortunately, my phone can't take pictures in the dim lighting, so I have nothing to show. If I can get a copy from someone else. I'll post it later. It was a lot of fun.

Thursday was a national holiday here - I think it was the emperor's birthday? In any case, we had no school. Russell and I had planned to have a Christmas party, but in the end all but one friend cancelled or couldn't make it, so we changed to a low-key nabe-party. We spent most of the day Christmas shopping and cleaning after a nice sleep-in. Unfortunately, our last friend also had to cancel due to a dental emergency - so there was no nabe after all.

Christmas eve I had to work. We had another Christmas party planned for some other friends, so I raced home from work to help Russell with cooking and cleaning. He had almost everything covered, though, so I had time to put up this highly questionable Christmas tree and wrap gift exchange gifts.

Almost everyone cancelled or decided against this party also (there seriously must be something wrong with Russell and I). The one couple that didn't cancel were late due to work delays, but they did come and we had a lovely dinner. I bought a roast chicken on my way home from work and russell made dressing, mashed yams and Waldorf salad. He also made the annual favorite: eggnog. We have our technique down this year - no floating cream blobs. This nog was smooth and delicious - especially when one chooses to ignore what goes into it.

The gift exchange, unfortunately, was a little lame - four people isn't quite enough to make that work, but the gifts THEY brought were great! Russell and I made out like bandits. :D
Russell got a stack of twelved boxes of a candy that is apparently a fairly nostalgic chocolate. It comes in a box with a cartoon bird on the front. The trick, which our friend let us in on, is that one of the lid flaps sometimes has a symbol stamped on it. If you get a stamped flap, you should save it. Once you have 12 stamps you get something good. Along with the twelve boxes of chocolates he included a stack of 8 stamped flaps. Four more and we get a prize! He informed us that this was every Japanese child's dream. We have eaten about half of the boxes so far and found no further stamped flaps... this may take some effort.

My gift was a zhuzhu pet - for those not aware of this new-ish toy trend, zhuzhu pets were the big Christmas gift to get last year (according to CNN, so who knows...). The toys are battery powered hamsters and roll around your house, switching directions and designed to get themselves out of trouble when they run into a wall or another obstacle. They also make all sorts of little sounds. While the noises do make it impossible to keep the hamster on for more than 5 minutes, they are pretty cute. I never would have bought one for myself, but I'm looking forward to letting him run around the office on Monday.

While our party may not have been the boisterous event we had hoped for, it was fun. We wished our guests a Merry Christmas and sat down to watch pirated Christmas specials. I had horrible memories of that Rudolf stop action special, but watching it now as an adult was totally different. I had forgotten the story completely and it had Russell and I laughing almost the whole way through. I didn't expect to say this, but I am now a fan. We also gave up waiting for Christmas and opened our gifts early. Russell got an ipod to replace the one he washed and I got a video camera. Students be warned.

The next morning we slept in and then made pancakes. The pancakes were especially important because I had managed to find strawberry rhubarb jam at a local shop. Rhubarb is nearly impossible to come by here, and I had long given up on strawberry rhubarb anything. I was so excited I bought a jar for all my co-workers too. The jam lady was a bit taken aback. I saved my jam for Christmas morning to have on pancakes with yogurt. It was delicious. We spent the morning videotaping ourselves swing dancing in our pajamas. Those videos may not get posted.

Why NORAD tracks Santa

2010-12-25T13:49:00.002Z

I found this link through BoingBoing. Many of you may already have seen it. I hadn't every thought to deeply about NORAD's participation in Christmas, but the story is awesome.

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/whytrack.html

Pocky Day

2010-12-19T11:09:00.004Z

Just a quick post before I forget. I need to make sure we all have this on our calendar for next year. I was informed by my students at school that November 11th is Pocky Day.

Pocky, for those who don't know, is a kind of Japanese sweet you can get just about anywhere. It is basically a cookie-stick dipped in chocolate. The chocolate can be any flavor you want, though the traditional Pocky are chocolate and strawberry flavored. Pocky is a cult classic with teenagers in the US who have fallen in love with Japanese animation and comics. It travels easily, its fun to eat, and its pretty tasty.

Since the shape is a long cylinder, Pocky has apparently been adopted as the mascot for November 11th (11/11). As you have probably guessed, next year, (11/11/11) is MEGA Pocky Day. You won't see this again in your lifetime, so make sure your 2011 calendars are well marked and you know where to get Pocky in your neighborhood.

You're welcome.

Goodbye 2010

2010-12-19T10:44:00.003Z

One of the more charming end of year traditions in Japan is the bonenkai (忘年会) or "forget the year gathering". This is a chance for any group of people who can claim a reason to know each other to go out and drink together in December. Of course, work groups do this, so do clubs and social groups. Groups of friends, neighbors, anyone takes advantage of the opportunity to go out and party.

Last night, Russell and I were invited to the swing bonenkai. One of the head people for the swing group found a restaurant in her neighborhood and invited us all to come out on Saturday night. Only a small group could make it (many were already booked for other bonenkai) but it was a lot of fun. The restaurant she chose was a Korean restaurant and it turned out to be a real find.

When we walked in, there were already two other large bonenkai groups going. The tables had been lined up into three long rows with a party at each row of tables. We wound our way around our own table and ordered drinks. Our fearless leader offered to do the ordering for us, which suited us all fine. In short order, two portable grills were being set up at our table. The owner came over, slapped a couple thick slabs of pork and a pile of kimchee and garlic on each grill and let things cook for a while. He came back later to flip the meat, and once everything was starting to brown, he snipped the meat and kimchi into bite-sized pieces.

At this point the responsibility for the meal shifted to us. We had a basket full of lettuce leaves and sesame plant leaves. We had to take a leaf, put a bed of bean sprout salad on it (to insulate our fingers from the meat), then add a piece of meat, some kimchi, spicy sauce and bird chilies if we wanted and then we rolled our creation up and chowed down. It was absolutely delicious. I would say this ranked among the top meals I've ever eaten in my life. Everything was so good.

Once the grills had been picked clean, the owner came back with white rice, some green onions and more spicy sauce. He mixed everything together on the grills to pick up the drippings and bits of over-grilled meat that were stuck to the grill pan. The let the rice cook until it was crispy and golden brown. Another delicious course. After that we got to try pajeon- or korean pancake. This is a vegetable pancake not unlike okonomiyaki, but it is much thinner with more chewy dough to it than vegetables. If you know what mochi is, it has a similar consistency. Of course, also delicous. Along side the pajeon came some plates of liver sashimi. I hadn't ever had raw liver before, but that was good too. It came withe a sesame dipping sauce and was really quite good. Finally, we got some sort of vegetable stir fry. At this point we had been at the "bonenkai" part of the bonenkai for quite some time and weren't really able to focus enough to know what was in the stir fry. It was vegetables and meat - and had it come before everything else, I would have been in love with it. After all its friends, though, this was the least stand out of the group. Poor little stir fry. It deserved more attention.

Another nice thing about group parties like this in Japan is that everyone just splits the bill evenly. No one worries about figuring out exactly what they owe. Our total for the feast and all we could drink came out to about $30. Seriously. While that's more than I would pay on my own for dinner, for something like this that seemed like nothing.

Around this point in the evening, we discovered that Korean food was only round one. We did lose two members of the party but gained two or three more at the bar next door. We continued drinking and ordered some appetizers to share.

The specifics get a little hazy at this point, but a good time was had by all. We were serenaded by one of our Japanese members with "Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy" ala Ren and Stimpy. We also discussed Christmas classic specials from America (all of which Russell and I have managed to gather together for our coming Christmas parties. We had a good night. We managed to catch one of the last trains home and were in bed by 1am.

Today I was feeling the results of the night before, but I had to go to work, even thought it was Sunday, to get some textbook writing done. Thankfully, it only took a few hours, so I spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for Christmas parties. I now have a rather large number of ginger cookies, an adorable Christmas outfit for the Christmas swing party on Wednesday and several Christmas accessories for the students to wear at the Tuesday Christmas party at school.

Should be fun!

(Oh, Russell has all the photos from this event on his phone, so I will update the post with visuals at a later date).

And then, there's always more food...

2010-12-17T12:01:00.006Z

I decided to combine two of my November stories together, since, oddly enough, they are related. The first one is okonimiyaki with the band, and the second is Nabe - our new favorite dinner.

At some point, Russell and his Kobe band members (the group he was playing with in the earlier post) decided they wanted to have an okonomiyaki party. The drum player lives in Osaka and the bass player lives in Himeji, so we are in the middle in Kobe. Plus, it made sense to have dinner close to the rehearsal venue. Of course, we are always happy to have guests over.

There was one problem, though. Our previous attempts at okonomiyaki - those recorded last year at this time when Russell's sister was visiting - hadn't gone so well. The food was delicious, but its hard to make okonomiyaki in a small, rounded fry pan. Its really much nicer if you have a flat surface that you can get around easily for flipping. The drummer said she would bring her okonomiyaki hotplate, but in the end it was deemed too heavy. Russell and I decided it was time we had a hotplate - especially since it seemed likely to increase our house party potential.

Russell went off to band practice, and I headed to the big electronics store downtown. There were quite a few options. There was the basic, cheap, plain hotplate. Unfortunately, its only settings were on and off, and I had specific instructions to get something that could be adjusted. It was also possible to get hotplates that had interchangeable plates. There was a flat plate for things like okonomiyaki or hot cakes, there were plates with grill ridges for yakiniku (grilled meat), there were plates with half circle indentions for making takoyaki (octopus balls), there were bowls that could be used for nabe, and there was every combination of those plates in between. I needed the flat plate and I really wanted a nabe bowl, too. I searched around and the only combination I could find with both of those options was the full four plate option that was on special. It was a bit extravagant, but it wasn't too expensive and it did expand our range of dinner party options significantly. Plus, the temperature was totally adjustable.

I went ahead and bought it - though getting it home was another task entirely. With three heavy metal plates and a big stoneware bowl, the resulting box was HEAVY. The person helping me at the shop put double plastic handles on it and wrapped it in bubble wrap. She also triple checked that I could make it home and did not look convinced. In the end, I did make it home, but I had sore muscles and bruises for the next week. My choice did prove to be a good one, though, and has been used regularly ever since.

Its maiden voyage, of course, was as an okonomiyaki pan. It had come up at some point that Russell's bass player was a rock-solid okonomiyaki chef. He had apparently developed his talents as an underclassman in charge of feeding the upper classmen in his high school karate club. We have it on good authority that one does not want to disappoint one's upper classmen in a karate club. After band practice, the band went to the grocery store and got everything they would need. When they got to our place, the bass player got right to work. He was a clearly good at what he was doing. He was working fast, cleaning up after himself (shock!) and even providing regular appetizers for us while we waited like a bunch of impatient baby birds.

The result was delicious. He grated a bunch of mountain yam and threw that in to make the okonomiyaki more fluffy. Mountain yam is this funny vegetable that we get here. Every time I have seen it, it has been grated up. The grating turns the tuber into a kind of white, mucousy slime. Its totally unappetizing. It doesn't have a strong taste - I think the main draw is the texture. There are a number of slimy foods in Japan - things like okra, natto (fermented soybeans) and mountain yam are a solid corner of traditional japanese cooking. Of course, all of them are extremely healthy, and they do grow on you after a while. The mountain yam slime also has the benefit of trapping a lot of air during the grating process, so the resulting goo made the okonomiyaki super light and moist. Typical okonomiyaki around here tends to be much heavier.

Once it got down to eating the bass player and drum player took turns flipping the resulting vegetable pancakes. In the end, however there was a little more batter left than expected. The resulting okonomiyaki stretched out to cover the entire hot plate thoroughly. Its made flipping a real challenge. The final flipping responsibility was given to the drummer, who decided it might be wise to cut the okonomiyaki in half and only flip half at a time. That's what she's up to in the picture. It worked pretty well, and in the end all the feast was eaten.

We are lucky to have such skilled friends.

About a week after the okonomiyaki party, I was talking with some co-workers, and they were telling me how easy it was to make nabe. I now had a nabe bowl that went with my hot plate, so I decided to give it a try. My co-workers told me that all I would need was some fish and vegetables. I put it all in the bowl. add about a half inch of water and let the whole thing simmer down into a kind if stew. I bought salmon, two kinds of mushrooms, carrot, greens, sweet potato and some fish-based meatballs. I threw everything in the pot ( took less than 10 minutes) waited 15-20 minutes, and we were feasting on steamy fish and veggie goodness. It was delicious, healthy and fast. All things we like in a new recipe.

We had so much fun that we tried again the next day. This time we tried different mushrooms, potatoes, different greens, a white fish, and kimchi. The kimchi really made the nabe. It was lightly spicy and the salt (something we never add on our own) really made the soup nice.

It now became hard not to have nabe every night. We were worried we would get tired of it, though, so now we save it for one or two nights a week. Sitting around our heated table with the blanket over our laps and a a hot pot of vegetables in the middle of the table is pretty awesome. Especially now that the temperatures are dropping. This was definitely one of our better purchases.

Osechi order is in

2010-12-13T11:45:00.002Z

Last year, Russell and I didn't really know what to expect for New Years. We knew everyone had time off and was going to be with their family. That was about it. Since we had had vacation time to burn, we decided at the last minute to head into Tokyo. It was our first trip north and neither of us had been there. I can't remember our reasoning, but we decided to start trekking home on New Year's Eve. We ended up spending the evening in a hotel in Nagoya. As you may remember from the post last year, New Years is not a party holiday in Japan. It is a quiet day spent with the family visiting the local shrine, praying and eating auspicious treats.

This year, Russell and I are better prepared for New Years.

We learned at some point that families eat "osechi" at New Years. What is osechi? I still can't give a thorough explanation (more will come, I'm sure) but from what I can tell, osechi are a variety of traditional foods that bring different kinds of luck to the eater. For example: Hoping for money in the coming year? Eat a special chestnut yam mash (it has 金 in its name, which alone means "gold"). Hoping to have children? Eat a certain kind of fish egg. General health? Sweetened black soy beans. You get the idea.

While the classic housewife would carefully slave away creating lavish renditions of these annual treats, many modern families now opt to buy a box of the treats. Orders are taken as early as November and prices are - ahem - a little steep. The cheapest box I've seen was about $60 for one person. It seems that about $100 - $150 was the rate for a good osechi box for two. We did see 4 person boxes reach as high as $1,000 (we saw two of those...).

We talked to some friends to see if this was the sort of thing we should make for ourselves or just buy. Since we didn't really know what we were doing, everyone agreed that buying was the best option - at least for the first year. The local high end department store was recommended as a good place to procure osechi.

We found the seasonal osechi corner and started browsing our options. Keep in mind, this is not something you eat until new years. Unlike Christmas pastries, you don't start eating boxes of osechi for weeks before the big day. Instead of displaying actual osechi boxes, the department store had highly elaborate plastic models on display. They really were beautiful. At first we didn't know where to start. Then, we noticed that each box was labeled for the number of people it served and the regional specialties it represented. And of course, we were keeping en eye on price.

We finally settled on a two person box in the Osaka tradition. It had all the osechi musts that my Japanese teacher had taught me about. We took a ticket from the display with the name and number of our choice. We then payed for the box at the osechi table and arranged for it to be delivered (between 4 and 6) on New Year's Eve.

I'm really excited. I promise there will be proud pictures to come.

Out of Order

2010-12-12T12:12:00.003Z

This one is a REALLY old story now... If I hadn't run across the picture of the sink, I probably would have forgotten all about it.

You may remember that during the Osaka Lindy Exchange I had to run home on Sunday morning to attend our school festival and eat lots of food in support of our school clubs. (It was a good think I was spending every other moment of the weekend dancing).

After the festival, the students and staff helped tear down all the tents and put the cafeteria and other areas back in order for school. The Monday after the Exchange, I walked to work as usual. When I got to work, I went to the bathroom to change into my work clothes. I didn't get more than two steps in and abandoned that venue for changing clothes. It was absolutely disgusting.

There was mud (maybe not just mud?) smeared all over the floors and sinks, there were muddy, waterlogged toilet paper rolls stacked in a pyramid on the sink counter and there was an "out of order" sign on one of the sinks. I changed in another bathroom and assumed the janitors would get to our bathroom that morning.

Just before classes started, one of my coworkers came into the office with a shocked look on her face. The conversation went something like this:

"Did you SEE the bathroom?"
"Yeah, pretty gross, huh?"
"How did they manage to break a hole in the sink?"
"Wait, what?"

I went and took a closer look. Sure enough, there was a large hole in one of the sinks.

The rumor I heard later was that a lot of high schoolers from the marching bands were all muddy after performing in the rain. Apparently they decided to wash off, but couldn't figure out how to get the mud off their feet. They ended up trying to stand in the sink to get the mud off, and, well, you can guess how well that went.

Of course, I also heard that they never found the person who broke the sink - so I don't know how the person got pegged as a high schooler. I also don't know where the pyramid of toilet paper rolls came from.

Very mysterious.

I do know our bathroom became a code red, and within an hour everything but the broken sink was cleaned and sweet smelling again. The sink was repaired a week or two later.

Beer Belly

2010-12-05T01:50:00.003Z

For once, Russell and found ourselves with an open weekend. Saturday we cleaned up the house and then started looking for something interesting to do. Russell remembered that he had seen a blog about a microbrew place in Osaka. He suggested we go check it out.

This was actually a pretty significant find. We've been here for almost two years now, and while there are three major brands of pale ale on the market, we haven't really been able to find anything else. There are pubs with import beer (starting at $7 a pint and going up from there). There are also a few major brands that make a "dark beer," but if we really want good beer, we have to go home to Oregon.

The promise of an actual microbrewery was hard to pass up. We set out to find it. According to the blog, the actual brewery is in Minoh - kind of a suburb of Osaka. It is run by three sisters who were given the brewery by their father. They make very small batches but they really experiment with flavors, too (not just reproducing international favorites - though they do some of that, too.) The only problem is that this place is Very small batch, so you have to grab it while you can.

We were advised by the blog to skip the brewery and go to one of the pubs Minoh beer runs if we actually want to sample their beer. We looked online and found their two pubs - both called Beer Belly - right in downtown Osaka. In fact, we walked right by them when we went to the art museum a year ago. Russell and I headed back, now better informed.

The bar was small but cozy. The menu had a variety of beers from Minot and other local Japanese microbreweries. There were at least 14 beers on tap and at least 4 of them were stouts. There was a WIPA, a dark porter, a cabernet ale, a yuzu pale ale, and a number of others. Everything we tried was excellent - and not just because we were desperate. The food was good too. At some point I realized that there was malt vinegar on the bar, so of course we had to order french fries. We also got to watch the bartender grilling oysters for one customer and making fresh beer (stout) batter for fish and chips.

I'm kind of bummed that we don't live across the street from this place.

For more about the brewery, there is a really nice write up on this blog

The Great Pumpkin Pie Hunt

2010-11-29T12:05:00.006Z

This summer, when I was back in the states, it became very obvious that one thing I miss from home is pie. Now, I can make my own pie from scratch, but I am somewhat limited by the lack of an oven. There is an oven setting on our microwave (which is generally how one goes about baking in this country) but our oven setting doesn't seem to work - so no oven.

As I'm sure you are all aware, last week was Thanksgiving. Of course, Thanksgiving isn't even on the radar over here. Even my native English speaking colleagues are generally disinterested in Thanksgiving. There are two other American's, though, and one is new to Japan this year and the lack of Thanksgiving was really getting to him. All the native English speakers at work decided to band together - even if it was their first Thanksgiving ever - and pull it off.

Of course, I volunteered to figure out the pies. I had a few options in mind.

1. Cafe Piranha recently started advertising pies, so that seemed best. The owner loves to bake and makes really tasty pastries. We figured anything he came up with would be great. He even already had a pumpkin pie on the menu! (Of course, pumpkin was our top choice for the dinner).

2. We found a company that buys things (like pumpkin pies) from Costco and mails them to people without Costco cards.

3. We do know of one bakery that does make awfully tasty apple and sweet potato pies. Its not like sweet potato pie in the U.S., but it does have a real crust and the filling is delicious.

Something had to work!

Unfortunately, last week was a monster and we didn't start investigating these options more closely until, well, Friday. That's not as bad as it sounds, because dinner had been moved back to Sunday to accommodate schedules and allow for some real slow cooking. Still, Friday didn't leave much time for error.

Plan #1 was an error.

We went to Cafe Piranha on Friday evening and ordered a slice of pumpkin (actually sweet potato) pie and a slice of apple pie. What came to the table was not actually slices of anything recognizable as pie. In fact, they looked like perfectly baked cream puffs. We tried to dig in with our forks, but the puffs were wrapped in paper, so it was a little challenging. We hadn't even managed to wrangle one bite out of the pies when the owner hurried over to top off our water and delicately suggest that THESE pies could be eaten just like hamburgers. なるほど! How silly of us! We grabbed onto our cream puffs with both hands and chowed down. While the "pies" were absolutely decadent, there was little about them I would normally associate with pie. I thoroughly enjoyed the treat (the monster puffs were only $2.50 each!) but I was starting to worry about how successful our pumpkin pie hunt was going to be.

Plan #2: Costco
Russell jumped online as soon as we got back and went about ordering the pies online. We got all the way to the end when we had to select a delivery date - starting after Tuesday. Damn! Foiled again.

Plan #3 was tried and true, so I knew there would be pie... but not pumpkin pie!

Saturday was my rest day. I haven't had one in several weeks - even our surprise national holiday was spent cleaning the house all day. Saturday was much anticipated and greatly appreciated. I slept in, didn't do any work, wandered around Kobe with Russell and spent a great deal of time chatting in a cafe over enormous coffees. Not bad.

By the end of my relaxing day, I was getting over mourning for our lack of pumpkin pie and trying to figure out how to still make it happen.

Then it hit me - if you can cook cake in a rice cooker, you should CERTAINLY be able to cook custard, right?

I looked up a recipe for home-made pumpkin. There was even a reported success story with kabocha (local Japanese pumpkin and the highlight of my Fall). I ran down to the grocery store, bought eggs, whipping cream, kabocha and some spices and ran home again. I steamed the kabocha and scraped the meat away from the skin and mashed the kabocha up. Kabocha, unlike real pumpkin, is perfect for pumpkin pie. Its mostly meat with a very thin skin and small cavity with seeds, its perfectly sweet and it mashes up smooth with a fork - no need to food process. Its also relatively dry. Even after sitting all night no extra liquid pressed out. Perfect. Unfortuantely, 3/4 of a kabocha added up to too much pumpkin for my rice cooker (it only makes 3 cups of rice). I decided to split the pumpkin into two portions, halve the recipe and save the rest in case this all worked out.

So 3/8 of a kabocha, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of sugar, a small carton of whipping cream (4-6 oz?) and spices to taste. I dumped the resulting mixture in the rice cooker, hit the cake setting and waited 45 minutes to see what would come out. When I opened the lid, the center still hadn't puffed up, so I decided to run the cake cycle one more time (a tip I had seen online). After another 45 minutes, the center had fully risen, so I turned it off and once it was a bit cooler, Russell and I dug in. (You'll note the large dent we made before I realized I should really take a picture).

Success! There was a nice flavorful skin over a light and fluffy pumpkin pie custard. We deemed it a bit too fluffy and not spicy enough, but we still managed to eat the whole darn thing between us in one sitting. Tummy aches aside, we were back in business for Thanksgiving. Russell suggested I make pie crust and bake it tortilla chip style so we could do pumpkin pie nachos. It was tempting, but the oven was pretty well spoken for at my friend's house. After starting up the rice cooker with a significantly spicier custard mix and on the hot rice setting instead of a cake setting, I went out and bought a bunch of small butter cookies to act as make-shift crust. We also make homemade, unsweetened whipped cream, assembled into pumpkin pie towers and enjoyed. It definitely hit the spot. I also brought along a couple of the apple-sweet potato pies I had tried before - no sense on skimping on dessert, right?

I was also very pleased by the positive reviews from my Japanese colleagues and students the next day at work. We were all so stuffed from dinner that there was at least half a rice cooker's worth of pumpkin pie left the next day, so I spread the goodness around. Now, in the U.S. Japanese students never seem to like pumpkin pie, so I wasn't expecting much success. Everyone seemed to sincerely enjoy the little pie towers, though. Maybe because I didn't use as much sugar, maybe because I still wasn't to American standards of spiciness, maybe because pairing anything with fresh-baked butter cookies and fresh whipped cream is bound to be a winner. In any case, it was a total success.

Rice cookers are clearly way under-rated.

And now you know.

Russell finally gets to rock!

2010-11-27T23:30:00.004Z

Ms. Denniston has requested more information on Russell's big concert, so here we go!

The 23rd was a national holiday here in Japan, so even though it was a Tuesday, it was a good pick for the Kobe band to have their first live. Russell is in two bands, but the Kobe band is the first off the blocks in terms of concerts. Their name is Off Limits and they are mostly a cover band. They have several Green Day songs, Pretty Woman a la Van Halen, so generally loud and fast. They are fun to listen to.

Japan is full of garage bands and groups hoping to become the next big thing. Ever wondered where they practice? I mean, the apartments are tiny and everyone lives very close together - at least in the cities. So where are people nurturing these heavy metal start ups? As it turns out, there is a rather large network of rehearsal studios that bands can rent for a few hours. They prices are very reasonable and the practice rooms provide Marshall stacks (or similar) with microphones and a full drum set. Its fairly common to see people on the trains and on the street toting an electric guitar with them, and the music stores have row after row of guitars to choose from. Its clearly a popular pass time. The practice studio that Russell goes to also has a venue for live performances.

Bands are obligated to sell 30 tickets and then get a cut of anything beyond 30 that they sell. Off Limits definitely passed the 30 ticket mark, so there was a nice crowd ready to rock out on Tuesday night. The concert was awesome and the band and crowd had a lot of energy. It was super fun. Russell, of course, sees lots of room for improvement, and is embarrassed to have the concert online, but I insisted, so without further adieu, Off Limits' first gig:

Off Limits 2010-11-23 from Jaci Mull on Vimeo.

After the big event, there was a professional band from Tokyo playing, but all the Off Limits fans left to have dinner with the band, so... well, it got pretty quiet in the venue. Oops!

Among those attending dinner were the bass player (and band leader's) friends, the drummer's family, some friends from dancing in Osaka and all my co-workers. We were a pretty rowdy group. At one point we were asked by one friend to take a group picture holding up a sign for someone who was just getting married (I think that was the story. In any case, its a cute picture of most of us together. From here we went and had a 2 hour all-you-can-drink with dinner party at a local Japanese style bar. It was really fun.

Lame November

2010-11-27T14:39:00.011Z

I can't believe its already the end of November - and I definitely can't believe this is my first post this month! Ugh! I sincerely apologize. It has been a crazy month full of midterms, textbook writing, illness and exciting adventures, too. (Don't worry about the "illness" bit, we're both perfectly healthy again, now).

Since I was rotten about posting, I have gathered a great number of tales to tell. However, I'm both lazy and busy and don't have time to tell them all right now. I thought it would be more fun to let you vote for the stories that sound most interesting. I have posted a picture of each potential story below with a title. If you want to hear more, publish a post or send me an email. I will try to write about them in order of popularity. If I ever get some free time, I will try to cover them all in more detail - but more things keep happening!

Here's the current selection:

← 1. Out of Order

2. A little off-school drilling →

← 3. Bowling with the neighbors

4. Okonomiyaki party with the band→

← 5. Halloween Swing Party

6. Halloween at school→

← 7. Halloween booth for our sister school

8. Nabe - our new favorite dinner →

← 9. Live band swing dance in Kobe

10. Mystery hike to a...? →

← 11. English Teacher's conference in Nagoya

12. Russell finally gets to rock! DONE!→

←13. Pumpkin Pie at our local cafe? Alas, no. DONE!

14. Pumpkin Pie in a rice cooker? Yes! DONE!→

Not pictured:

15. Expat Thanksgiving

16. Pocky Day

So there you have it. What do you want to know more about first? Leave a comment! I'll do my best to accommodate.

Osaka Lindy Exchange 2010

2010-10-31T12:56:00.004Z

I've finally gotten around to writing about the Lindy Exchange in Osaka. This was back in early October and was greatly anticipated by both Russell and myself. We have been learning swing dancing since May, but this was our first exchange. Apparently there are Lindy Exchanges all over the world. From what we can tell common elements are weekends devoted entirely to swing dancing (especially Lindy Hop). The dancing goes all afternoon and late into the night. People come from far and wide to attend.

This exchange was in Osaka and was set for three days. It started on Friday at a club called the Cell Block. There was a better than average one hour lesson to start things off around 6pm and then dancing until late. The lesson was packed with beginning women (follows), but very few men (leads). Several women agreed to learn the lead part and I decided to try my hand at it too. It was my first time leading, but the lesson was great so I learned a lot of practical stuff. Things were off to a great start. I was recovering from a cold, though, so I decided not to push things too far. I only stayed out until about 9:30 or 10pm on the first night and then decided to turn in for a decent night's sleep before Saturday. Russell came home about an hour later. As far as I know, everyone else danced until 11:00pm and then switched to a late night venue where they danced until they couldn't anymore.

Saturday started at 1:00pm with dance workshops. There were two workshops running at once. Russell and I both did 1920's Charlston for the first workshop, but then Russell and I split for the next two workshops. Russell went to beginner Balboa 1 and 2 while I opted for flare outs (a bit too complicated for me) and Tranky-doo (an fairly complicated line-dance based on a dance choreographed for a movie by one of the masters of swing). Russell and I both finished our workshops around 5:00pm soaked in sweat and ready to collapse. Not to mention hungry. Everyone broke for dinner before the main dance started at 6:00.

For Saturday, Russell and I had been clever and got a cheap hotel room in Osaka so we could stay out as late as we wanted. We retreated to our room to change into dry clothing. It had started raining outside, so I decided to wear my rain boots and carry my dancing shoes with me. The resulting ensemble made quite the fashion statement. I made Russell take a picture. After we were all ready to keep dancing, we met some friends at a bar near the dance for hamburgers and beers. Incidentally, I highly recommend Lion Stout to anyone willing to try dark beer. I had heard of it before, but its now one of my favorites. I believe it hails from Sri Lanka.

We made it to the dance around 7:00. The dance was already well under way. This time we were at a local dive club famous as a pick-up spot with foreigners. This particular night the crowd was all about swing, though. The live band and enthusiastic dancers in full period costume did not match the half-naked pop music videos playing silently on the flat screens around the club. Some time around 10pm the live band played their last set and everyone stopped for an entertainment break. We saw a Charlston performance by two of the regular teachers and a traditional, Edo-period performance involving inter-woven sticks that was incredibly entertaining and pretty much impossible for me to describe in writing. It was great. More dancing to DJ swing music followed the performances and some time around midnight the swing dancers made room for the regular clubbers milling around outside ( looking very confused). We all headed to the late-night venue and kept dancing. Russell and I decided to bow out around 3am, but some of our friends stayed until the last - some time around 6am.

Sunday I had to run back to Kobe for our school festival. The festival (for me) consisted of lots of eating. The food was not exactly healthy, but I couldn't say no to all of my students begging me (in very decent English, I might add) to try their booth's specialty. I had paella, handmade gyoza (chinese potstickers), a crepe. yakitori (chicken skewers), a hotdog, lots of tea and some mochi sweets. I pretty much rolled back to Osaka. I figured I was burning it off, though.

Back at the exchange everyone had met at Osaka castle park to start the dancing back up. There was a live band playing while the dancers at picnic lunches and danced in the park. Russell attended the first couple hours but then had to go play with one of his bands. I made it back in time for the last hour, but wasn't as assertive as I needed to be (not realizing there were only four songs left) and never actually got to dance. I waited for Russell to finish band practiced, then met up with him, had dinner and headed to the main dance of the evening.

We arrived just in time for another beginner lesson. There were fewer follows, but still a shortage of leads, so I continued to practice the lead part. Turns out, lead is pretty fun. Its hard to get started, but fun. This time we worked on some Charlston - not the 1920's kind, but the more modern, basic kind they teach beginners nowadays. This dance was the climax of the weekend. It had the highest attendance, the best period costumes and the Jack and Jill contest. Russell and I didn't know what a Jack and Jill performance was before that weekend, but assuming Osaka is following standard procedure, the rules seem to be that all the leads who sign up get numbers and all the follows that sign up get numbers. At our exchange there were about 12 of each - or 24 participants. The competition we saw split everyone into two groups of 6 pairs. The first 6 lined up according to numbers, then a dice was thrown and based on the numbers, the follows rotated down the line to be with a new partner. At that point the music started and the contestants danced. The first song was a slow dance, then the dice was thrown, everyone changed partners again and danced a medium speed dance, then rotated again and danced a slow dance. All the while there was group of six judges walking around the edge assessing the partners and how they all danced with different partners and at different speeds. After the first 6 partners finished, the second 6 partners took to the floor and did the same thing. From what I have read, lifts are generally not allowed during Jack and Jill performances. What makes this competition interesting, though is that you aren't (usually) dancing with an established partner. You have to do a good job no matter who you are paired with. It was fun to watch.

While the scores were being tallied the social dance resumed. We danced for about another hour and then we started to hear an odd thumping noise. The live band finished their song and the thumping got louder. We thought maybe there was a problem with the amplifiers or something. By that time the sound started to sound distinctly like a helicopter. Everyone was starting to notice and look around when the lights went out. The door opened and four men dressed in swat uniforms with replica guns came storming into the dance. We were all really confused at this point, but then a man walked in and started walking towards the stage. Everyone started screaming. It turned out it was one of Osaka's more famous comedians (Osaka is famous for comedians). We didn't catch his name, but the cameras were flashing and our Japanese dancers clearly had stars in their eyes. The comedian told a few jokes (I was able to understand one! Hooray!) and then sang some swing standards with gusto. Apparently singing is not part of his normal repertoire on TV, so everyone started screaming again. Everyone was very excited. After about 30 minutes, he wished us well and he and the Swat team ran out again.

The dance continued and around 10pm the finalists for the Jack and Jill competition were announced - three leads and three follows. They were then randomly paired together and had to dance once more time through three songs, taking turns this time so only one couple was dancing at any given time. They were really good, as you might expect.They all had very different styles, too, which was interesting. I believe there was another round of social dancing while the judges debated. Finally, at the end of the evening, the winners were announced. They then lead off a round of Snowball - a dance in which two people start and then the announcer yells "Snowball!" periodically and the dancing couples split up and grab one of the spectators. This continues until everyone is dancing and then everyone just switches around until the music ends.

Finally, the main dance came to an end, and Russell and I decided to head home. We were seriously footsore and worn out from three days of dancing, but we both had a great time. The exchange wasn't over yet and many people continued on to the late night dance - which lasted once again until the early morning. We both had to work the next day, though, so we headed home. Needless to say, we slept very well.

If you don't know much about Swing, click here to see a Jack and Jill competition I found on YouTube. Of course, these guys are REALLY good.

Play Ball!

2010-10-31T12:29:00.002Z

Not long after I got back from my trip to Oregon, one of my co-workers sent out an email asking if the men in our office would be willing to come play on the KSGU pick-up baseball team and if the women in the office would be willing to come cheer. (This is Japan, after all). The guys were happy to join the team and we women-folk swallowed our pride and agreed to think about coming to cheer. I'm not sure that any of us were too enthusiastic as cheerleaders, but in the end talk of wearing the school colors and cheering together won out. Three of us decided to attend as spectators. Keep in mind that I was the only one that new the rules for baseball. My Canadian and Australian co-workers either aren't interested in sports or simply hadn't ever seen a baseball game. It made for some interesting cheering. Their habit of suddenly screaming out just as our pitcher was letting go of the ball or our batter was swinging may not have helped so much, but the general enthusiasm was greatly appreciated and led to a great deal of blushing.

The game was between our school and the neighboring school. Only staff and teachers were playing (no students). It was suppose to be a friendly pick-up game, but it was clearly more than that to most of the players. Keep in mind that KSGU (my school) has never won one of these games. Things didn't look too good from the start. The first pitcher for our team was a older, highly respected man who could barely get the ball over the plate. He would lob it up high and hope for the best. I can't remember if he pitched one or two innings, but he was eventually replaced. We were happy to see that the starting pitcher was not the star pitcher.

The other team took a very different strategy. They had a guy pitching who was probably capable of pitching a no-hitter if he really tried. He pitched for 8 innings uninterrupted and our team got very few hits off of him. We did manage to score a couple runs in the first 8 innings, but that really didn't compare to their 6 runs. Things weren't looking good. Around the 4th inning someone on the other team decided to let his 8 year old son bat. It didn't quite seem fair to be playing super competitive with the pitching but then let the 8 year old bat. I was annoyed. Every one else thought it was cute.

Our English office staff started in the outfield (being largely untested) but soon took over the infield and did a fine job. After a bumpy start our team started to work together well and the game became a fun one to watch.

We started the 9th inning down by 4 runs. We, the cheerleaders, encouraged our team, saying they could still make a comeback, but maybe not really believing it. Then something interesting happened. The other team switched pitchers. All of the sudden our team started getting hit after hit. Their fielding was not as strong as their first pitcher - possibly because they hadn't really needed to do much for the previous 8 innings. KSGU managed to get 4 runs to tie the game. We then got three more runs for good measure. We were up by 3 at the top of the 9th. The other team managed to score once, but didn't catch us. KSGU won! We were very excited.

The next day we were challenged to a rematch.

Hunkerin' Down

2010-10-26T10:38:00.002Z

Wicked wind storm going on tonight. This morning it was a bit too warm for a coat (hence regretting mine) but the temperature dropped significantly over the day and was pretty darn chilly by evening. I was glad I had my coat in the end. There were a couple times I was simply unable to take a step due to the strong winds coming off the mountains. Getting home was quite the chore.

To celebrate the new low on the thermometer I decided to try making nabe. Nabe, as you may remember from last year, is like a vegetable hotpot. I recently acquired a multi-use hotplate (I'll explain in a post to come) and I wanted to try the giant nabe bowl.

The nice thing about the hotplate is we can put it in the middle of our living room table and cook from there. We turned on the TV (a rarity), huddled up around the table and nabe-fied our ingredients. I don't know that what we cooked would be recognizable to others as nabe, but the result was quite edible and certainly healthy. We put mackerel, fish meatballs, carrot, shitake, bell pepper, udon noodles and a variety of other greens in the pot. Once it was all hot, we dug in. The only seasoning was from the fish and veggies and a bit of mirin (sweet vinegar) added at the end. It was a nice dinner on such a blustery night.

Tastes of Fall

2010-10-24T04:43:00.002Z

Fall is definitely my favorite season in Japan for food. The persimmons are perfect right now, we are starting to see baked Japanese yams, everything is pumpkin flavored (the local pumpkin is called "kabocha" and tastes like pumpkin pie with no sugar needed). There's also a lot of toasted sesame seed (kinako) treats and chestnuts. Mandarin Oranges (mikan) are just coming out again and there are many apples and pears to be had. I fully support Fall.

On the way home today, there was a guy selling piles of persimmons out of the back of his truck. One pile was about $5. I jumped on them and he threw in a persimmon from his misshapen pile and tiny pile as a bonus. Thanks, dude.

One of my co-workers recently took me to an out-of-the-way international grocer. There were all sorts of imported goods at fairly reasonable prices. Its easy to find import stores in the center of town, but everything is too expensive. This place had better selection, too. They even had real, hearty, chunky peanut butter - the kind with oil on top when you buy it.They also had homemade marzipan, all kinds of cheese, and a whole 10 pound turkey. I was hoping to find canned rhubarb, but no luck. We asked the owners and they had never heard of it. Alas. However, I went back again this weekend and, lo and behold, there was a jar of rhubarb pulp available. They had stocked it for me! Of course, I had to buy a jar. Later, I found a jar of rhubarb ginger jam also. I bought it to share with my students. I'm excited for Monday.

All week is going to be a mix of crazy fun and extra work. Of course, its the week before Halloween, and we can't just let that slide by unnoticed! On Wednesday, our swing dance is costume themed, then on Friday we are having an impromptu Halloween party at school. Later, on the 30th, we are volunteering at a school festival for our sister college so, of course, that will be Halloween themed too. I need to go out today and see if I can track down some face paint. Wish me luck!

The work part is going to be the extra work for all these parties all while being down two hands. Our study abroad coordinator is taking a much deserved vacation for the week and my boss is out for medical reasons - oh, and another co-worker is taking most of the week off to prepare for her wedding this coming weekend. Ugh. Hopefully things will stay relatively quiet this week. Let there be no drama!

I'm off to shop for face paint. I will try to post again soon. I have several big events still in the hold list, waiting for a nice quiet afternoon or evening so I can do them justice. More coming...

Fall Cleaning

2010-10-16T07:50:00.003Z

The weather in Kobe has finally cooled down to "fall" temperature. It feels like an average summer day in Oregon. Not humid, not too hot, but you still don't need a coat. Even at night. This, and the appearance of all the things I love to eat most, makes Fall my favorite season in Japan. Hands down.

Fall is sandwiched between two fairly inconvenient seasons, though. Late summer and winter. Summer is horribly hot and humid. It is hard to keep your clothes from mildewing and bugs find there way in from all angles. With the cooler weather, I have started wearing some outfits that haven't been out of the closet in a while and they didn't smell so good. Unfortunately, there is really only a short window of time when I can do anything about that. After fall is winter - which I also like, but it takes forever to dry wet clothes outside and you never get enough sun to really feel like you are frying the little friends that multiply in your futon.

With all of this in mind, I decided to use my lovely, sunny Fall Saturday to clean out the closet. First, I hung our spare futons outside in the morning sun to make sure they were baked through and hopefully friend-free. While they were out of the closet, I dusted everything down. Once the futons felt warmed through and smelled better I put them back in their dust bag and hung all of our clothes - especially winter clothes that haven't been out of the closet in more than 6 months - out in the sun. I let them air out and dusted off the rest of the shelves in our closet. I also organized a bit and finished all the hand washing I've been putting off.

Incidentally, all this dusting kept me sneezing and blowing my nose for the rest of the afternoon.

After a good airing-out, everything went back in the closet and the great laundry undertaking began. I did three loads (the absolute maximum I could fit on our back porch to dry) and our laundry basket is still piled high.

At least the laundry is no longer carpeting the kitchen as it has been. Hopefully I can take care of the rest of it tomorrow.

Between all of these activities, I also got the bathroom, bedroom and entrance cleaned. Its a huge relief to have all the nooks and crannies finally cleaned out, especially before we have to close up the house for winter. The only other seasonal cleaning I need to get done is to have the kotatsu [heated table] blanket dry cleaned before we actually want to use it. It tends to collect crumbs and drips during winter when we practically live under it. We really should have just cleaned it before storing it away in the spring. Oh well.

The trouble with spending the day working on closets and bathrooms, etc. is that our main living space is still pretty gruesome. I'll be tackling that next.

Not done yet.

Boo.

Curious...

2010-10-11T06:38:00.004Z

One thing I forgot to mention... when I got back from Oregon, a tiny place setting had appeared on the meeting table at work. No one I talked to knew where it had come from. And what's for dinner? In French, the menu explains the main course is melon with ham.

Very curious...

Trip to Nagoya

2010-10-11T05:22:00.006Z

Right after we got back from Oregon, I jumped into textbook writing. I arrived just in time for the last gasp before the books went to the publisher, so I was not a key writer this year. There was a lot to be done, though, and we were down to the wire. We worked through the weekend and technically missed the deadline by a few days, but it all worked out in the end and so far it seems the books turned out quite well. Hopefully well enough that we can reuse almost all the material next year and don't need to start over from scratch AGAIN. That would be the ultimate goal, of course, and we all dream of the day...

Just after textbooks were due, there was a public holiday in Japan so we had a long weekend to play with. Russell and I decided to jump on it and we set off for Nagoya.

We had a great time in Nagoya over New Years last year and we have always wanted to go back and explore it when the city was open. This is something that our Japanese friends don't seem to understand. Nagoya is something like the 4th largest city in Japan, but it is not seen as a place worth visiting for fun. It has traditionally been the industrial heart of Japan - and as such it was bombed very heavily during World War II. In rebuilding the city, though, Nagoya really pushed to be cutting edge. They have really interesting architecture and art all over the city. The city also feels very organized and easy to navigate.

This time around, Russell and I weren't sure what we wanted to do, but we were pretty sure we would find something. We booked a hotel and headed over on the bullet train. We arrived late in the afternoon, stopped in at the tourist center to get maps and advice for local attractions, and then set off to explore the area around our hotel. The first night, we went to the orchid garden. It was a little disappointing - we weren't big orchid fans going in, and there wasn't much there to convert the unaware. I'm sure its awesome if you know and love orchids. After the garden we checked into our hotel and then headed out for dinner.

As I mentioned before, our Japanese friends tend to respond to our interest in Nagoya with, "why??" They also always seem to come to the conclusion that while the city may not be interesting, they have to admit that Nagoya does have some awesome food. They are known for a variety of grilled eel dishes, miso sauce on pork cutlets and spicy chicken wings. Our first dinner we were looking for a cutlet restaurant, but after failing to locate it, we stumbled on an izakaya that, judging from the caricature of the dude out front wearing chicken wings, could help us out with Nagoya special #3. As it turned out, this was a rather large chain of izakaya that are well known in Nagoya. The place was huge (unusual for restaurants in Kobe). The individual booths were in a fairly traditional-made-modern style that gave the sense of privacy. On the more modern end, though, they also had touch screens in each enclosure where you could browse their menu and place your orders. It also automatically split the bill for you at the end in however many parts you wanted. Very cool.

We, of course, ordered the wings. They were super good and we ate far too many of them. Most foods in Japan are not even remotely spicy, but these were nice. Russell lamented that they were not quite as good as buffalo wings, but good enough to really make him wish he had some buffalo wings. Poor Russell. We make due with what we have. In all honesty, we thoroughly enjoyed the restaurant and had a hard time not just going there for every meal.

The next day was the public holiday, so all the museums were open for visitors. After agonizing over which places to go to, we narrowed our list down to two must-sees. One was the Toyota factory museum and the other was the Tokugawa museum.

The Toyota museum was way more than we expected. Half of the museum had nothing to do with cars, but rather with textiles. The Toyota family made its name by inventing automatic looms and continuing to invent better and better technology for making fabric. The museum started out by showing how fabric had traditionally been made, early looms and then the increasingly complex automatic looms that Toyota invented. We tagged along with a tour and were really impressed. Some of the more modern technologies include a machine that passes the thread from one shuttle to another to allow for wider fabrics, a loom that mades synthetic fabric by shooting the light nylon fibers through the loom on a jet of water, and a multi-color loom that can weave photograph images into cloth. Two hours of looms later, we still hadn't seen anything about cars, and we didn't care at all. It was great.

After the looms, the cars did take over, though. After Toyota senior passed the loom business onto his son (also an accomplished engineer) the son started to explore the possibility of using the Toyota company's industrial abilities to introduce the first domestically made car in Japan. Several other companies had tried this, but there had been very little success and there was a lot of skepticism that it was possible. Toyota Jr. set out to make it work, though. Eventually, he managed to start making domestic cars and the Japanese automotive industry has, of course, surged forward from there. The museum included history about how this was possible and the different hurdles Toyota had to overcome (they had to do extensive studies into metallurgy to make sure the vehicles' parts would be sound, etc). Then the museum moved onto a history of Japanese cars and how they are made. We got to watch a guy stamping engine parts to show the process and we got to play with all the different parts of the car to see what they did and how they worked. It was really interesting and nicely interactive. We spent another couple of hours in the automotive part of the museum, though we did have to step out for lunch before we both fell over. A+ for the Toyota Museum. I highly recommend it.

Having chewed through most of the day, we were a little rushed at the second stop, the Tokugawa Museum. The Tokugawa Shogunate was the feudal regime that ruled Japan during the Edo period, from 1603 until 1868. Many of their personal belongings and a history of the Edo period are on display there. We saw some of the Tokugawa armor and swords, costumes for Noh plays, including some of the most outstanding Noh masks I have yet come across, and personal effects. Things like fancy lacquer picnic boxes, vases and art from China and the biggest treasure - an illustrated Tale of Genji book. The Tale of Genji is sometimes called the world's oldest novel. It was written by a nobel woman in Japan in the early eleventh century. Early copies of the book are extremely rare and illustrated copies are even more rare. The actual text is only on display one day out of the year to help preserve it, but images of it and analysis of the story and illustrations are a core part of the museum.

We were more than a little footsore after a very full day wandering through museums, but both museums were outstanding. There are still a lot of places we would like to go in Nagoya. It looks like we will need to make a third trip one of these days. Our friends are never going to understand...

Catching Up Part 3: Portland

2010-10-11T04:21:00.005Z

Russell's sister also came down from Seattle on Friday, and his mother came up as well, so we all got to spend time together. With Gwen, Carolyn and Alice joining the group, we spent Friday morning at the Rhododendron Garden in Portland and then hanging out around the Hawthorne district. We stopped in at the Waffle Window and had amazing waffles - this visit we all just got the sugared kind, which let you really appreciate the delicious waffle base. After that, we poked around in several vintage clothing and furniture shops. Gwen found a pretty awesome vintage hair-dressing chair - complete with ash tray in the arm rest. It was a really fun day. When Justin and Michelle were done with work, we all met up and had dinner together. After dinner, we had to say goodbye to Carolyn and Alice and then we started plotting for our Saturday adventure.

After getting students settled and spending time with family in Corvallis, Russell and I decided to head up to Portland and spend a few days hanging out with friends in Portland before we headed home to Japan. As luck would have it, there was also a guest star appearance by one of our good friends from New York. Hooray!

Our hosts, Justin and Michelle, had spotted a wide variety of activities in the Portland area. We started out the day with a "Where's Waldo" search of downtown Portland. It was a fundraiser where teams paid an entry fee, were given a map of the area in downtown where Waldo could potentially be hiding, and a list of Waldo's belongings that would be scattered around downtown, drawn in chalk. To win the game, we only had to find Waldo and take a picture with him, but of course we wanted to find the long list of objects as well. Every 15-20 minutes, Waldo would send a text message with a clue to his whereabouts. He was moving, so he was hard to find. If you somehow missed the Where's Waldo (aka Where's Wally) books of the late 1980's and early '90s, they are worth checking out. It will also make this post easier to understand.

After tracking down all but two of his objects, we finally spotted Waldo outside of Pioneer Place Mall. We had been told that the Mall was off limits and not to look for Waldo there, but we saw him walk inside. What?? We were afraid that it wouldn't count if we caught up with him in the mall, but we didn't want to lose him again. Instead, we stalked him. It turned out it was time for a change of actors and the old Waldo met up with the new Waldo to pass on the hat, glasses and cane. The new Waldo headed back to the same entrance the old one had used (we could have waited outside - alas). The new Waldo did notice me following him in the mall. He asked if I was following him, and I said "no". (Sarcastically, I thought). He asked if we were playing the game and I said we were. He also asked if we had found Waldo yet, and I said we hadn't. He then sped off and gave us quite a chase. We almost lost him, but we did catch up with him shortly after he exited the mall.

His response?

"Wait, you ARE following me?"

Brilliant. We explained that we thought the mall was off limits. He let us take a picture with him and then we headed off to find the last two objects on the list. We were, unfortunately, not the first group to find Waldo. I think we weren't even the first group to find Waldo AND all the objects - though that part I can't remember. It was a really fun way to spend the morning thought. We won two-for-one ice creams at Haagen Daaz and we each got a gift from the grab-bag.

After the Waldo search, we headed across the street to the Italian festival that was going on. We listened to music and shared a bottle of wine in the wine garden. It was fun, but we had bigger plans to come. Around 3:00 we headed to the Oregon Zoo. What was at the zoo? A live performance of Prairie Home Companion! We got to watch Garrison Keillor live. Justin, Michelle and Gwen had seen him before, but this was the first time for Russell and I. We had a great time. If you don't know the Prairie Home Companion radio show, you should definitely check it out. You wouldn't think that watching a radio show would be all that exciting, but of course, this is no regular radio show. We packed more food that we could possibly eat, sad on the blankets in the grass and had a great night.

I was feeling a little sick after the show, so we didn't stay out late afterwards. It had still been a long and exciting day, though.

Sunday, and our last day with Gwen, we dropped in at an Apple computer festival to try our luck at their raffle. No luck - but we did get free hot dogs and burgers. After that, we met up with some of Justin and Michelles friends in Portland and spent the afternoon letterboxing. I'm sure I've described this before - the game with the online clues and the hidden boxes with stamps in them? We found quite a few stamps, though at least one that we searched for was missing.

Of course, we also stopped off at my personal favorite food cart in Portland - Wiffies Fried Pies. I have eaten far too few of Wiffies tasty pie pockets, but I dream about them all year long and make sure a quick pilgrimage is part of my yearly trip to Oregon. Yum.

I'm kind of racing through the last of my Oregon trip because I have bigger posts to come - we had a great time, though. Russell and finished off our time in Portland with some shopping (we found dance shoes in Russell's size!) and I met the last group of exchange students from KSGU that were coming to Oregon. They settled in nicely and I was back on an airplane to Japan a couple days later.

End of our Oregon trip!
Back to Japan!

Catching Up Part 2: Corvallis

2010-09-28T10:51:00.003Z

So I met up with the OSU students in Portland and rode down to Corvallis with them. Once they were settled in, I headed off to my dad's place. The next few days were mostly student devoted, although I did break away to meet up with some awesome friends. I had lunch with a few at OSU and the old ELI gang - of which sadly many have moved on - was able to get together to have a big bash as well. It was great to see everyone - Even Lis Skyped in from Africa. Sweet! The food was awesome too. The ELI was always blessed with outstanding cooks.

After the students at OSU were all set up, I headed down to UofO to meet with my contacts there. I hadn't been to the campus in ages. It was gorgeous with all the summer flowers and greenery. I had a good visit and got some business done. I think all three Oregon groups will be well taken care of this year. I look forward to following their adventures.

With all the study abroad business finished for a while, I was able to take some real time off. Russell had come in a few days earlier, but he was planning to work for the whole week, so I headed to mom's house and spent a nice long weekend with her. We spent lots of time chatting and even got around to cleaning out her garage to make room for her new car.

But let me back up and talk about THAT. When I first arrived, mom was telling me about how she was looking for a new car and she had found one that she liked, but she couldn't find the model she wanted as a 5-speed in the color she wanted. She had given up on that particular car and was looking at other options. Between every mediocre assessment of other cars, though, she would light up and tell me how cool the Honda Fit was. I heard over and over how the back seat can fold up to fit a bike in the back and how comfortable the seats were. Finally, I suggested we just find a Fit. We were pretty sure we could get one in Seattle (based on info mom had received from a salesperson) so we started hunting up there and looking for a train ticket. Things were going to be tight, but we figured if we could home in on a dealership that definitely had the right car, it would be no problem.

Luckily, in the eleventh hour - just after we had contacted Russell's sister in Seattle to pick us up from the train station, we got a tip from a dealer mom had been working with that a dealer in McMinnville might have the car we were looking for. We called, got the confirmation, and were over there within an hour. Mom gave it a test drive and jumped right into the purchasing negotiations.

At this point we were back in the office and we met the dealer's "closer", a new kitten named Pilot. We were warned that Pilot could be feisty and to be careful. Duly warned, we didn't try to pick Pilot up. He was having none of that, though, and launched himself at Jose right away. Jose passed him to mom, who then snuggled him for about 30 minutes until it was simply not practical to have a cat in her arms. At that point Pilot was passed to me. He continued to snooze in my arms for another hour or so. He seemed totally sweet to us.

Apparently the "feisty" comment had been based on a stunt Pilot had pulled a few days earlier. He was hiding under one of the show cars in the dealership when a family walked by. They had a two year old toddling behind them, and when Pilot spotted her, he decided she was just his size. He jumped out from under the car and grabbed onto the little girl's back. Having had no idea there was anything under the car to begin with, the little girl was understandably terrified and it took everyone a minute to figure out what all the shrieking was about.

Pilot now comes with a warning.

In the end we weren't able to get the car that day - but we were able to drive it home the next. Mission accomplished! And the garage was ready. We were both quite pleased with ourselves, I think. I'm super happy to think of my mom commuting in a car with modern safety standards for once.

After the long weekend with mom, I headed back to Russell's parents' place. They have been slowly but surely turning the outdated, jerry-rigged country home they bought into a country palace. When we last saw them, they were just getting ready to tear the monolith fireplace out of the center of their house. Apparently the fireplace came out and the kitchen as well and they had been living out of a temporary kitchen set up on their back porch for most of the year. They went to great efforts, though, to have the house back together before Russell and I arrived. They pulled it off too. We heard stories of the remodel, but we got to enjoy all the fruits of their labor. The result was really impressive. There's something to be said for being out of the country for a year. I can't wait to see what they tackle after another year.

More to come as we head back to Portland.

Catching Up Part 1: Back in America

2010-09-27T12:27:00.005Z

As I am trying to get across in my title, I am acutely aware that I am way behind in posts and I am equally aware that it will take me more than one go-'round to catch up.

The good news is that I definitely have good stories to tell.

Since I do seem to have a stubborn linear streak in me, I'm going to start more or less where I left off - just before I traveled to Oregon. That would be around August 15th. I had to work like crazy to get all of my loose ends tied up after the end of the term. I had to leave some colleagues in charge of proctoring my last, last chance tests but for the most part I had all my stuff taken care of.

After a few minor bumps at the airport (so THATS where those sewing scissors had gotten to... I THOUGHT I had brought them to Japan!) and a few bumps in immigration (oh, THAT form... I'm sure the students won't mind waiting) we were on the plane. I was really excited to be heading home to Oregon. I was definitely ready for a visit. Of course, the people I know in the US are way nicer than the flight attendants that were on my flight.

Culture shock #1:
Drinks round #1: Kind-looking Japanese grandfather next to me orders hot tea. After the flight attendant makes a big show of not understanding that "ocha" means "tea" he gets his hot tea.

Drinks round #2: Very concerned with ordering correctly in English this time, the grandfather asks his granddaughter how to say "ocha" in English. She tells him "hot tea." He practices.

Stewardess: "Can I get you a cold drink, sir?"
Grandpa' "Hot tea"
Stewardess: "Is that COLD?"
Grandpa: "Hot tea"
Stewardess: "Is that COLD sir?"
Helpful Japanese business man: "No, ma'am, I think he wants hot tea."
Stewardess: Just hands him water and huffs off.

Now, there was no hot drinks at the time because of turbulence, which was the reason she wasn't giving him hot tea - but let's get real. The poor guy obviously doesn't speak English. He is obviously trying to accommodate this woman by using as good an English as he can. He doesn't know we are heading into turbulence (announcements are only made in English) but he does know she gave him green tea last time. I DO understand why he can't have green tea. I don't understand the need for sarcasm or huffing.

I start to brace myself.

Culture shock #2

Lucky thing, because San Francisco immigration is 100 times worse. The actual immigration agent was just scary, but the helpers in charge of helping jet-lagged foreigners (and non-foreigners) get from immigration to customs were practically frothing at the mouth they were on such a power-trip. Some of my students were trying really hard not to cry by the time we got to immigration. At some point one of my students misplaced his customs card - the one the security lady had practically screamed at everyone to show her before she would let them through her gate - and I thought he was going to have a melt down. He was terrified that he would be deported. The customs folks were much more laid back. A couple students got searched, but not in too scary of a way.

We thankfully did all make it into the country.

We almost missed our second flight though... not because we were short on time, not because the students didn't make their way back to the terminal on time, but because we were all chatting away so happily it almost came and went without us noticing. I don't think the students noticed how close we cut it, but I just about gave myself a heart attack. We made it onto the airplane fine and it closed up right behind us.

The students I was with (heading to PSU) were greeted by friendly staff and unnervingly hot sunny weather. We headed into Portland, they headed off with their host families and I made my way to my friends' new house. It took me a while to figure out that the page about building your own backyard pizza oven was not an advertisement stuffed in their mailbox, but rather a note for me guiding me to the restaurant where they were having dinner, but I did find them eventually.

Spent the evening snuggling with their cat and the next day with the students. They seemed to be taking everything in stride and having a good time. Good thing, because the next day it was back to the airport to greet the OSU-bound students and head down to Corvallis. Of course, there was some letterboxing that was fit in in-between (note pictures of friends poking around potential hidey-holes in trees).

Japan Rocks Video Games

2010-09-11T12:44:00.002Z

I can't believe its been over a month since I posted. I've been on vacation in the States and just got back a week ago. Now we are in a mad dash at work to get our textbooks finished (Friday was the soft deadline and we didn't come close) so a group of us are working through the weekend. Blog posts may need to wait a few more days... rest assured I have stories to tell.

In the meantime, I felt the following needed to be posted as it took place:

Russell is playing his new video game. Hi character? Chopin (as in the composer). What is Chopin doing? What else? Flighting a winged, two-horned unicorn (bicorn?) with flaming hooves with a sword.... in a top hat.

Hanabi

2010-08-09T12:30:00.003Z

As I posted before, I had a late night on Friday. As one of my co-workers was leaving, she mentioned that there would be a number of fireworks events that coming weekend. Fireworks had been totally off my radar, and with everything else on my plate, knowing that they were about to get under way still didn't motivate me much.

Russell had band practice Sunday night, so I was doubly prepared to just chill at home and maybe get some cleaning done before I travel home. Russell was opposed to that idea, though. He felt it was unacceptable that I spend the evening alone when there were fun things happening in the city. He suggested I call some friends.

I have friends from work, but I was all jumped up over work that day and kind of wanted to get away as much as possible - even though I love my co-workers. Outside of them, the pickins are pretty slim in the friends category. As in, two. And neither of them ever do anything spur of the moment. One must book ahead. I thought it over, though and decided to email Keiko. I figured she was already probably planning to go to the fireworks and maybe I could tag along.

As luck would have it, that was just how it worked out. I felt bad horning in on her night out with friends, but her friends had both studied with her in Canada, so they were sympathetic to a lonely foreigner. I met them at the train station, had dinner, and we headed to the water front.

Last year, we thought we would be clever and picked a spot out by my school on Port Island. It wasn't in the middle of the action, but it seemed like it would have a good view and might be far enough away that others wouldn't venture there. No such luck. It was very crowded and getting home was difficult.

This time, we decided to throw caution to the wind and go where EVERYONE goes - to Harborland! Harborland is the waterfront park area with all the tourist attractions and landmarks that make up Kobe's skyline. I was expecting a serious scene, but we headed off to a less well marked corner where the crowd was still thin. Of course, we went a couple hours early to stake out a spot, but when we got there we had our pick of sidewalk to sit on and there was a beautiful view of the harbor. The crowd filled in around us, but it never got tight. No one was stepping on us or walking through our group. The crowd was pretty loose and there was room to spread your legs. It was nice.

We had a nice conversation (the whole evening was in Japanese with occasional words translated to English to help me understand or say something. I didn't understand a lot, but I did understand some. It was good practice and everyone was friendly.

I also learned something new! It turns out that the cue that the fireworks are about to begin in Kobe is when they turn off the multi-colored lights on the Ferris Wheel. Once the lights went out, anticipation started to build and pretty soon the show began. It lasted 20-30 minutes with a few pauses in the middle. At one point, after a less than climactic burst everything stopped. We waited, assuming it was another pause. The pause got longer and longer. After about 5 minutes, a number of people decided that we had, in fact, reached the end. They packed up and started to head out. Most of the crowd was die-hard, though. They were sure there would be more. Another minute or two passed. We looked around at each other, agreed that that must have really been the end, and started to shuffle into a standing position as well.

Of course, just then the show started back up again. We hastily sat back down and continued to enjoy the fireworks. The thing that always amazes me about fireworks in Japan is everyone seems to know the grand finale. When it came, everyone cheered and as one hit their feet and headed to the train. Within 30 second of the finale the lights on the Ferris Wheel came up again, so in case there was any doubt, we were all assured that we had, in fact, see the end.

We started heading toward the train with the crowd, but it was pretty clear that we would be waiting for hours to go anywhere. Instead, we made a quick decision to duck into a relatively empty Starbucks. We staked a claim to some comfy chairs (in Japan it is totally normal to just ditch your purse where you plan to sit and wander off to order - it will totally still be there when you get back). We got into line, ordered and were back in our over-stuffed arm chairs before the crowd started to realize that Starbucks was an option. A few minutes later, it was packed, but we were all set. We sat and chatted for another hour or two and then decided to try the trains. The crowd had thinned down to "busy, but not rush-hour busy" levels and we made our way home.

Its nice to have friends!

Buddha Cleaning

2010-08-07T23:00:00.002Z

I just saw this video on the BBC. Russell and I often take visitors to see the giant Buddha in Todaiji Temple in Nara. Its one of my favorite places in the Kansai area.

I'm glad to know he gets dusted periodically.

End of the Semester (Mostly)

2010-08-07T00:56:00.002Z

Thursday was the last day of regular tests at our school, so Spring semester (the first half of the school year in Japan) is now officially over. We still have a few make-up tests that need to be given and grading to do, but life is looking much rosier now.

To add a little gold touch to the rosiness, I also get a weekend this week! Last weekend I spent Saturday at school doing study abroad orientations with students and parents (I had to give two speeches in Japanese - yikes!) and Sunday we had Open Campus, so I spent the day talking to prospective students from local high schools.

Yesterday, (Friday) we didn't have tests, but we did have to compile a list of students that need to retake their finals (which meant some crazy fast grading for some of us). We also had a big party for the study abroad students who will be heading out over the next two weeks. They all gave speeches and then all the teachers gave speeches and we ate lots of snacks. It was fun. Knowing all the students this year made the experience really fun. I'm going to miss them!

The test retake list took longer to put together than expected. Russell had come in to work at the school, so he and I stayed late to help get the list to the front office. We got out about 7:30pm and headed straight to our neighborhood izakaya (bar/restaurant) for dinner and drinks. I was so tired that after dinner and a beer I was pretty much ready to fall asleep at the bar. Russell was pretty sure I needed a second drink though, so we had one more round and headed home. I don't remember much after that, but at some point Russell decided I should be sleeping in bed instead of on the floor.

This morning I woke up very happy. I am feeling more relaxed and well rested than I have in a long time. My plan for today is to do some cleaning, spend a few hours grading papers and drinking lots of coffee at a cafe and thinking about a certain flight on Thursday. Hooray!

A General Lack of Sleep

2010-08-03T11:16:00.002Z

July was not good for restin' in this household. There were a variety of contributing factors to the general lack of sleep.

First, its hot out. This is not a huge problem, because we have an air conditioner and do generally keep it on at night. We don't put it on full blast, but we try to keep the place de-humidified at least. Covers, however, do not appeal. Somehow, sleeping in hot weather just isn't restful.

Next, it gets unpleasantly hot outside as soon as the sun is up. Since the sun starts comes up around 5am, the 5-6 slot is the most appealing for walking to work. Something I am still doing daily. Getting up that early is also not restful (but at least its my own damn fault).

The other night, we had our first summer guest. I woke up to the feel of a critter on my leg. When I jumped up, the black beast scuttled quickly to the wall and then circumvented the room looking for a hidey-hole. I woke Russell up but was still too asleep to explain what had happened. I started to think I had imagined the whole thing. Russell investigated, though, and verified the guest. We were no longer sleepy. Russell had a can of spray poison in hand faster than I would have thought possible. I was none too thrilled will spraying deadly chemicals all over our bed and pillows, so I tried to hold things out of the way while Russell sprayed as much of the toxins on the beast as he could. I still got the dubious honor of dealing the death blow and flushing our ex-friend.

So much for a roach free summer.

FInally, my own husband has begun working against my sleep schedule. He has always stayed awake later than me - I've come to accept that. Its not ideal for sleeping when the lights are on and someone is practicing guitar just on the other side of the bedroom door, but he tries to be quiet and I can tune most things out. Whats really getting me, though, is that Russell has become so accustomed to me being out of bed before the sun comes up, that if he wakes up and can actually see me still in bed, he's pretty sure I'm late for work. Even if its Saturday or Sunday. On Sunday this week, I did have to go to work for Open Campus, but I didn't have to be there until 10am. I had re-set my alarm so I could catch a few extra hours of sleep. I tried to explain this to a half-asleep Russell as he insisted I would be late, but he wasn't grasping the concept. After he had woken me up 3 times at 10 minute intervals, I finally just got out of bed to pacify him. So much for sleeping in.

Hopefully my fortunes are changing, though. Finals week is almost over and things should quiet down considerably once the students are gone. I should be able to relax and focus my attention on preparations for the Oregon trip. Ah, to have a light at the end of such a long, dark tunnel.

Finishing off July

2010-07-31T14:48:00.003Z

If I type fast, this will still be a July post... 12 minutes to go until August!

I apologize for not writing on the blog more this last month. Things have been hectic to say the least. It is the end of the term here, and since I was teaching mostly first year students this time around I got sucked into the abyss of attendance modification. You see, students must have a minimum number of class hours to pass, but if they are short, the teacher can make extra assignments or teach extra lessons to drag the students to the finish line. This becomes especially important for first year students because if they fail first semester, they have to wait a full year before they can start the English track again. Since English is at least half of the first year curriculum, most students that fail the first term of English don't bother to continue - and that reflects poorly on our school. So there's at least a little pressure to help students that are close to the mark.

Our method of choice this year? 8;00 special classes to make up credits. Great in theory, but someone has to teach them. I already come in before 8:00 on most days, so I volunteered to cover the classes. A few kind souls did volunteer to take some of those from me so I didn't need to teach all 5 classes, but it was still a lot of extra work. That coupled with panicked students packing the office and all the test writing and paper grading has kept me pretty busy.

Other than school I have done very, very little of late. The one thing Russell and I have kept up is running, and Swing to a lesser extent (though we skipped this last week for band practice and paper grading). I am proud to say we just ran our first 5k tonight. Hooray! Now to do it faster and with less dehydration at the end!

I am so glad its almost August... August means a trip home and I am seriously ready for that.

Peanut Butter Love

2010-07-23T12:41:00.002Z

One of my co-workers went home to Guam for a wedding last weekend and brought us all back our most yearned-for American/Western products. Most requested was deodorant (the stuff here is somewhat less that adequate for big sweaty westerners - especially in the deep humidity of summer). I also requested some peanut butter. The last few guests we've had have brought us peanut butter and we always polish it off quickly. We can get crappy peanut butter (like Skippy) here, but its super expensive, comes in small jars and is full of preservatives.

What I really miss is fresh-ground peanut butter. We saw an add in a magazine for a place on the other side of Osaka that appears to grind its own peanut butter, but we didn't write the address down and now we don't know where it is. In the meantime we have made due with the generosity of our friends.

Interestingly, all of our friends are of the opinion that chunky peanut butter couldn't possibly be what we want. We always get creamy. That's not bad - we'll take anything and enjoy it thoroughly - but there's nothing like crunching on real peanuts. Creamy just doesn't seem like it ever came from a nut.

Oh well. Its certainly still delicious.

I'm starting to make a list of the things I want to eat when I am back in the US. Whiffies fried pies is at the top of the list, followed shortly by a wide variety of stouts, American Dream pizza, Dutch Bros. coffee and Panda black licorice.

If only I could have a buffet of said treats in the middle of Powell's Books.

A Very Rainy End

2010-07-18T02:17:00.002Z

Supposedly rainy season has now ended. We had one week of drizzling with a few decent showers - but nothing compared to the downpour we had a few weeks back. On predicted last day of rainy season I got sick of wearing my rain boots to school (walking 3 miles in rain boots is kind of a chore) and decided to leave them home. I hadn't really needed them on any other day.

Of course, you can imagine what I will say next.

About 3:30 it suddenly decided to rain. There was thunder and lightning. There were evil black walls of clouds. This was no regular rain storm. The rains got heavier and heavier. At one point the water was coming down so hard and there was so much wind that streams of water were being pushed UP the windows. It looked like someone had turned a garden hose on the 2nd story windows from the ground floor.

This carried on for about an hour/hour and a half. By the the time we were ready to head home the rain had mostly passed on and we were able to make it to the bus without getting too wet. The regular path to the bus was deeply under water, though - easily a quarter to half foot of standing water. We followed the office workers and went overland through the bushes to get to the bus. Squishy, but not too bad.

It was hard to believe that a storm like that would be the last of the rain. It may be too early to tell, but the last two days have been dry and sunny. Yesterday was perfect, with a nice breeze. Today is getting pretty hot. Russell and I are hiding in our air conditioning.

This may be the beginning of some serious weather complaining. Prepare yourselves.

Arashiyama Adventure

2010-07-11T11:39:00.003Z

A few weeks ago, over a lovely French dinner, our two fellow diners decided that it would be fun to go to Arashiyama. I didn't really know what Arashiyama was, but I knew it was close-ish to Kyoto and I am always up for an adventure.

Russell was invited as well, but he had band practice on the appointed day, so he opted out of the trip. It was just me, my former Japanese teacher and her friend.

We took the train to Kyoto and stopped there for lunch. We went up to the restaurant floor in the station and poked around for a good Japanese restaurant. We finally chose one that had a tasty looking bento lunch option. It turned out to be all vegetarian with soy milk and edamame croquettes, rice with beans mixed in, miso soup, a kind of side salad made from the soy bi-product that develops when you make soy milk (its delicious), a bit of fancy tofu, and some yube (made by taking the skin that develops on the top of the hot water where tofu is being made and piling the skins up until you get a kind of layered tofu-skin cake. It is also delicious.

It was one of the best lunches I've ever had in Japan. We were all pretty happy with ourselves after that.

Then, as we were on our way to Arashiyama, my friend spotted a poster advertising a special scenic train ride. She and her friend decided that the scenic train was not to be missed. We actually had to go to Arashiyama to get ON the scenic train, and we decided that instead of taking a full loop on the train, we would go half way and then take a boat back. This was turning into more of an adventure than I had imagined.

The train was fun. From what I could tell, the path the train was taking (along a river) was a main trade route over 400 years ago during the Edo period. At that time, the main mode of transportation was by boat. The boat drivers (using a rudder, a paddle and a pole) would take people down the river to Arashiyama and then some other poor souls had to pull the boats back up river. During the Meiji restoration, when foreigners were allowed into the country, one of the projects that were started was a set of tracks and at least carts, if not a train to expedite trade along this route. The carts (train?) were called "torokko" which was a foreign word presumably taken from "truck." Now, the train is called "torokko". It may have been a steam powered train, though if it was, it was very small scale.

The train ride was fun. The scenery was beautiful and only hinted at how beautiful it must be in autumn when the leaves turn colors. I took tons of pictures, but they really don't do it justice.

Once we got to the other end of the tracks, we took a taxi to the boat landing and headed back! The train ride had only been about 20 minutes, but the boat ride ended up being much longer and more exciting. The river was high that day, so we got some decent rapids. The drivers were very good, though, and there were plastic covers to keep us from getting wet. We were still dry on the other side (though had we been among the rafting groups heading down the river, I doubt the outcome would have been the same. Those groups looked pretty wet, and pretty happy about it.

The rudder guy was in the back, so we quickly forgot about him. The oarsman and the pole guy were in front. The guy using the pole would push off of big rocks and occasionally ground the pole and run along the front half of the boat to push us along and take some strain off of the oarsman. There were several more shallow areas with pretty weak current, so this was clearly a good strategy. Otherwise, the guy on the giant wooden oar was our main form of propulsion. He was also easily 60 and probably older. He joked with us the whole way and generally made the trip awesome. He had a quip for everything and shared a lot of history of the river. I was sad I didn't understand more, but what I did understand was really cool.

For example, he pointed out a number of rocks along the way that were famous for looking like various animals. He also pointed out some defined holes in the rocks, which were apparently from 400 years of pole men ramming their poles in the exact same spot. Now, it appears to be a kind of sport for the pole men to try and hit the little holes as they go by. There were also some rocks we passed that had gouges in them from the ropes that used to be used for hauling boats back upstream.

And of course, it was also absolutely beautiful scenery.

Once we got back to Arashiyama (at least an hour and easily more than that later) it was about 4:30. We took pictures of Togetsukyo bridge (famous, though I never heard why). After that, we decided to stop at a cafe and have some traditional desserts. I had the zenzai with yam ice cream in it. zenzai is the sweat bean soup with little mochi dumplings in it. The ice cream was not a traditional addition, but it was tasty nonetheless. This was accompanied by some chilled matcha green tea.

After the break, we headed to our destination, Tenryuji Temple. Unfortunately, it was closed, so we kept going and took an evening stroll down a famous bamboo grove path. Apparently it is the most famous bamboo grove in Japan. It was really cool. I will have to go back earlier in the day to see the grove with sun poking through. Tenryuji Temple is also a World Heritage Site, so I want to make sure to get back and see it during open hours.

While we didn't get the full effect of Arashiyama, we had a great day out. I also have lots of new ideas for future adventures.

Anniversary!

2010-07-11T11:18:00.002Z

July 9th has once again come and gone. 4 years prior, Russell and I got married and we have had no end of adventures since. Here's hoping the adventure keeps coming - in the best possible sense.

For a brief time, we thought we might be sharing our anniversary with another friend - Nicole (who came to visit us just about this time last year). She just tied the knot in Ecuador. It turned out she was actually married on July 8th, though, so no sharing after all. Both Russell and I are super happy for Nicole and wish she and Oscar all the best. Wish we could make it to New Hampshire to celebrate the second time around! We'll be there in spirit.

Our last anniversary left something to be desired. We remembered around 11pm and had to scramble to celebrate our anniversary because we had both forgotten about it on the actual day. I believe we ended up buying a rather large family box of chocolate covered ice cream bonbons and devouring them all in the park.

This year we were a bit more organized. While we were both working all day, we did meet up after work to go to a lovely Italian dinner at the fancy Italian place near our house. We hadn't been there since the first visit over a year ago, but it was just as good and at an amazing price for the amount and quality. Its too bad our waist-lines can't take more of that.

We both ordered the set menu - Russell ordered the meat and I ordered the fish version. The meal started with a tuna tartar pate as an appetizer. I wanted to take a picture, but the chef was humming around (probably concerned to make sure we were the kind of foreigners who wouldn't shy away from raw fish). They had carefully checked with us before the meal that we liked everything they were offering, but I think they were still worried until we started effusing with delight.

After the pate we got a spicy italian sausage appetizer, then a dish of seafood pasta followed by a dish of gnocchi and then the meat/fish. After the main dish we got a dessert plate loaded with a sampler of tasty desserts (including grapefruit sorbet, tiramisu and some kind of custard) and we rounded it all out with some delicious coffee.

If I haven't said so before, I really love this place.

So we are off on the right foot as we start towards year 5.

Speech!

2010-07-02T12:46:00.003Z

When invited to a dinner party in Japan - especially a business related dinner party - it is all too common to be asked to give an introduction and say a few words.

This has got to be the most terrifying experience I have ever had to deal with in Japan. I had the honor of introducing myself - in Japanese - to a bunch of people I vaguely recognized but didn't know so well today. I did, however, know that they were way higher up in the food chain than me. They were all very kind, but pretty darn intimidating.

My boss helped me prep a few sentences and then assured me it would be okay to finish in English. I almost forgot to think of something nice to say in English I was so busy repeating the Japanese lines over and over again.

Here's what I said. The part that was in Japanese is in brackets.

[My name is Jacqueline]
[I started working at this school last year in April.]
[I worked in Oregon in America before that]
I think teaching is one of the most wonderful things we can do.
I feel honored to work for this group.
[Its very nice to meet you]

I'm sure I was beet red the whole time and I shudder to think of the errors I undoubtedly made. Even so, it went far smoother than my self introduction to the study abroad parents last year. That was a royal disaster. It still gives me nightmares.

Parents are easily as terrifying as powerful businessmen. Probably more so.

I was rewarded with a delicious buffet dinner, cake and coffee.

French cuisine

2010-06-26T05:54:00.003Z

Today is an uninspiring, very wet day. While I don't have any new stories, I did think of some old ones! About two weeks ago, my previous Japanese teacher invited Russell and I to go to a French restaurant. We had been talking about it for some time, but had never gotten around to it. Keiko also invited another friend who she had met while they were studying abroad in the same program in Canada.

The four of us together headed to the restaurant. When we walked in, Russell and I instinctively feared for our pocketbooks. There were cherrywood cabinets lined with fancy china and heavy silver. The place was small and sophisticated. We had been assured it wasn't that expensive so we hesitantly continued. As it turned out, the restaurant was awesome. It was fussy, with the aforementioned place settings and tiny, tiny portions, but the set menu was only $40 which was much less than we were worried it would be, and actually included so many tiny, tiny dishes that it was very filling.

We had a small appetizer, two courses we had selected from a menu, a tiny ball of sorbet, a meat (or fish) course, two rounds of fresh baked bread, dessert and finally a cup of coffee. All of this was spread out over about three hours - so we took our time, got to know each other REAL well, and felt like we had had quite a feast on the way out.

Russell and I don't make a habit of going to fancy restaurants, but we will definitely go back to this one some day.

A Taste of Home

2010-06-21T13:38:00.002Z

Just as I finished my last post and published it, I remembered something interesting that we did on Saturday.

On my walk to work in the morning, I go past at least 3 interesting looking cafes. They are often full of people and not too full of smoke - a good sign. They also have reasonably priced breakfast menus. I thought it would be fun on Saturday for Russell and I to go out to breakfast at one of these establishments.

Russell had been down this road early on in our Japanese adventure and the cafes had not jumped out as being especially tasty. After some prodding, though, he agreed to go take a look. I blew right past one place because I was doing too much talking and not enough observing of my surroundings. The second place was closed for the weekend, but the third place was open and doing a brisk business. A couple left just as we were walking up, so we grabbed the open table.

Inside, the cafe was a cheerful American/country style with wood chairs and chalkboard menus hanging on the walls. The menu was also surprisingly American. Keeping in mind that traditional Japanese breakfasts consist of rice, fish and vegetables and common "wester" breakfasts consist of coffee with two tiny slices of toast or (for those with an appetite) and egg salad sandwich, I was more than a little surprised to see "bacon and eggs," "pancakes" etc. Of course, there were more traditional Japanese choices and several hybrid options, but all the breakfasts seemed to be filling portions (though not gut-busters). I had the bacon and eggs and was quite pleased with the result. It tasted quite authentic but had the added perk of not being too huge and including a lovely side salad. Russell got the lunch special which was more leaning toward the Japanese side of things. There was some delicious chicken with onions, a small bowl of rice, miso soup and bacon.

We will definitely have to go back. The only drawback for Russell was that there wasn't internet available. Which means he can't camp out there and work during the day. It says a lot that he was disappointed by this realization. It did seem like a good place to park for a while.