I love surprises!

When I got home this evening, Russell told me he had gotten me a surprise and that I would probably find it at some point. I asked him if I should hunt for it and he said no, not especially.

Mysterious.

So I went about my usual unwind-from-work routine. It was only later, when I was putting away dishes that I discovered:



The best mug EVER. It says Piranya Cafe (the cafe down the street). "Piranya" is a cutesy way of saying piranha in Japanese.
I love it.

Its what's for dinner

I was talking to my mother and grandmother today and my grandmother asked me what I had for dinner. It reminded me of a question Phil had asked us, something along the lines of "Are you guys cooking Japanese food now?"

The honest answer is, "no." I don't think any Japanese person would claim the food we make as part of their culture. Even so, our cooking has changed significantly since coming to Japan.

Change #1: Some things you just can't get.
Cheese for example. One of Russell's favorite meals/snacks in the US was a burrito with whole wheat tortilla, whatever leftovers we had in the fridge and cheese on top. With no tortillas (much less whole wheat ones), no cheese (plastic-y camembert doesn't count as cheese), and no microwave, this tradition bit the dust. As a side effect, with the lack of regular cheese and milk, Russell's body remembered that it was lactose intolerant, so dairy is pretty much out in all forms. Even pizza. I don't get pizza any more, even though I found a pizza place I like. Bummer. We also can't get decent peanut butter. Yes, there is Skippy at most supermarkets, but it costs $8 for a tiny little jar and, well, its Skippy. There is a rumor that a store in Osaka has fresh ground peanut butter, but we've been too lazy to seek it out, so unless a kind traveler brings us some (thanks Dad and Phil!), we are pretty much peanut butter free.

Change #2: Different ingredients at different prices
Of course, there is a wide variety of seafood to be experimented with. Its kind of fun and terrifying to grab a couple filets of some kind of fish you have never seen before and hope its tasty. It usually is. The vegetables are also awesome. You can get some of the same things - spinach, carrots, potatoes, green onions, green peppers, etc. But there are a lot of other vegetables that are either less favored in America or downright unavailable. There are several varieties of mushrooms that I had never seen in the States (but LOVE) and a different style of eggplant that has become a staple at our house. Then there's goya (bitter melon, which I mentioned in a previous post) and different varieties of sweet potato. In spring, there is a lot of bamboo shoot, too. Oh, and burdock root (gobo), okra and lotus root are also easy to come by. All of these are delicious and we cook with them often. We never use tomatoes. Aside from the fact that I don't like them anyway, they are crazy expensive all year round. Fruit is also expensive. We just have to bite it on that one, though. Neither of us are willing to live fruit free. We try to eat whatever is cheapest, though. Usually bananas and oranges. Right now, there are a variety of fruits in season so we have been feasting. Strawberries are under $4 a container, I got a half pineapple for $2 and a big bunch of tasty grapes was under $3. When we first arrived in Japan, these prices seemed expensive, but now that I know what fruit will cost in winter, I'm happy to pay the price I can get.

Change #3: Different seasonings
This is the biggest difference in our cooking. In the US we used a lot of olive oil, cayenne, basil, oregano and pepper. Here we tend to use soy sauce, mirin, sake, dashi, miso and oyster sauce to flavor our cooking. Oh, and I found shichimi (seven flavor seasoning) to replace cayenne. I pretty much use it in everything I cook to add some kick. Its great.

So what did we have for dinner last night?

The ingredients were Japanese, but the preparation was definitely of our own making. We got some mystery fish from the store and some sliced lotus root, shredded carrot and burdock root. We cooked the fish with a little oil, soy sauce, mirin and sake, got it slightly brown on each side and then pushed it to the side and cooked the vegetables in the remaining sauce. All of this was dumped unceremoniously on brown rice. It was delicious and very Japanese inspired, but I think my Japanese friends would probably be a little bit horrified at our version of their cuisine. Oh well.

Interestingly, while rice is a major, major staple in Japan (like, in movies, people who have been abroad cry when they taste real, Japanese white rice again) brown rice is difficult to find and rarely eaten. Most grocery stores stock a small bag of brown rice, but not the big bags like they do for white rice. I have one student who grew up eating brown rice, but the rest are aghast when I tell them that's what I choose to eat.

So how would a Japanese person prepare a dinner like the one I mentioned above? Good question. Having not had the benefit of a culinary-oriented home stay, I can't really say how all of the little side dishes are made. I do know that you usually have a small bowl of white rice with other small bowls - one with the fish, one with vegetables, one with something else, etc. I don't know how all of them are seasoned or how to make them myself. It also seems terribly time consuming (though I guess I wouldn't know). Maybe someday I will become good friends with someone who will show me how to do this all right. :)

Arima Hot springs

Sorry I haven't had pictures in a while. I will try to make up for it in coming posts.

I have managed to have some fun adventures.

Tuesday Russell and I bade Phil adieu and then headed into Osaka to spend a day together playing. We went to the Osaka State museum and saw a traveling exhibition of Renoir paintings. So far, we have been pretty lazy about museum crawling, so it was nice to do something different.

Wednesday, Russell got back to work and I went hiking with some friends. The plan was to go hiking and then go swing dancing in the evening. We weren't sure that was a good combination of activities, so we chose an easier hike - we rode the cable car to the top of Mount Rokko and then hiked down to the Hot Spring resort of Arima.

Arima is one of the three most famous Hot Spring Resorts in Japan (from what I hear.) There are well over 10 hot springs and many offer different natural minerals that are naturally occurring. There are two public hot springs and the rest are privately owned. The public hot springs cost about $6 and the private ones are around $15 and up. Considering the hype of this place, the prices seem incredibly cheap to me - but then, public baths and hot springs are plentiful and often only cost a few dollars per visit.

The hike down to the town was gorgeous. We didn't see any sign of civilization until we were practically on top of the town. There were a number of people out hiking, but the trail wasn't crowded. It was really steep, though. Two of my coworkers decided to hike out the way we came in, and my hat is off to them.

Arima itself is a small, outdated town - not the sort of place you go to be wowed by tradition or modernity - but it has a lot of tasty treats and everyone comes for the baths anyway. We went to the Gold Bath - one of the two public baths. It was clean and well appointed and held the large number of visitors easily. There were three baths - they started at 42 degrees Celsius (107.6F) and got hotter from there. Two of the pools were copper colored with natural minerals and the third was filtered to be clear water. It was a bit too toasty for me. I'm something of a heat wimp, it seems. I did manage to sit all the way in the hot spring after much wincing and preparation, but I couldn't stay in too long. Even so, after a thorough scrub and a hot (if fast) dip, I felt really good.

Ready for swing, I road the train back to town and grabbed Russell. He was a very good sport, especially considering he hurt his leg (again) trying to catch the train to Osaka. The lesson was easy for him and he danced with a number of people. He was cranky that he didn't know more steps, though, and very cranky that his leg hurt. I'm hoping we can research moves together during the week and he will keep going.

The day after he danced, though, he couldn't really walk. He was worried, so he went to the hospital. They took all sorts of X-rays and couldn't find any problems. (which is good, right?) so he has been resting and icing his leg. Hopefully he will be willing to try again next week. Finger are crossed.

Flying home

Dear gentle reader,

I have had the privilege of being a guest at the Mull's residence for the past two weeks. Here is what I have learned:

Japan is not America. The people here have been living on these islands for about 32,000 years. Their language is quite different; their customs are somewhat different, and the place they have created is not the same as my American home, to say the least.

What does that mean? Japan is another example of what people can do with their lives -- it shows there is an alternative to your home town, to your customs, and that alternative is rich, aware, steadfast and complex.

It's another confirmation that we can shape our home town, that we can create the world we want to live in and be a part of -- granted, it may take a few hundred years of refinement, but such is life.

With that, here's to our dreams: Here's to being outside, eating good food, raising a good family, making art -- writing, dancing, music making -- traveling, experiencing other things, relaxing, building and relating -- to our lives.

Regards,
Phil

Osaka Swing

One of my new co-workers started taking swing lessons in Osaka a while back. A friend of hers introduced her to a club where you pay $15, get a token for a free drink, an hour-long beginners lesson and then swing dancing for three hours. Since Phil, Russell's swing-dancing co-worker was in town, I asked my co-worker if she would take him swing dancing with her.

The original plan was for Russell and I to go into Osaka, spend the evening wandering around and then meet up with Phil to go home. As it turned out, though, Russell had forgotten his Japanese conversation was set for Wednesday. Then I found out most of my other co-workers were going to try the place out too, so I decided to tag along.

I took one ballroom dancing class in college and a community salsa dance class with Russell a few years ago, but I've never really danced much.

Post swing reaction? It was a lot of fun! We got some basics from the beginners class, got to practice with a bunch of slow songs in the beginning, were regularly asked to dance by the locals (who were very good about asking everyone to dance) and got to watch some pretty good dancers do their thing.

The only downside was the $4 bottles of water.

I'm definitely hoping to go back. All of us had a good time and we are scheming a swing take over of our school Christmas party this year... gonna take some practicing.

Now I just need to get Russell in on the action. He's currently holding out.


New Dilemma: Swing dancing or Japanese? My Japanese lessons are at the same time as swing dancing. They were cancelled the last two weeks, so I didn't make the connection, but now that lessons have started again, I'm going to have to face reality... Japanese is way more important, but Swing is so much FUN. What to do...

Low Moments in Japanese Cuisine

I guess its not the cuisine that's to be blamed in this case...

We took Phil, Russell's co-worker to Kyoto yesterday. We actually got out of the house at 7am and therefore had enough time to hit up Sanjuusangendo (the long temple with all the Buddhas inside), Kiyomizudera (the shinto shrine in the hills with the huge wooden deck), and Nijojo (The castle with the nightingale floors). We tried to go to the National Museum, but the main display was closed and the traveling display had a 40 minute wait to get in.

Even so, it was a packed day and we were hoping for some good grub afterwards.

We went to Gion.

Gion is one of the old districts in the city. Very picaresque and full of shops and restaurants. It can be a tourist trap at times, but there is also a lot of quality things there to see. We have eaten fairly well there before - it can be expensive (being in the touristy part of town) but it isn't usually too bad.

Last night, we were wandering down the street with all the restaurants and having a hard time choosing. FInally we were hungry and decided that one particular izakaya looked fairly reasonable. We went in and the host explained that they were a little full and could we sit at the bar? We said we could and he took us upstairs. Unfortunately, the bar was full, but two tables were open. He put us at one of the tables. We started perusing the menu and realized that our first assessment of the prices had been wrong. Instead of $5 for three chicken skewers (for example), it was $5 for one. And that was the cheapest thing you could get. Instead of $3 for a pint of beer, it was $7. Things weren't looking good.

We each ordered a drink and a couple of cheap starters. When we finished the host came over and offered us our bill. We were taken aback. In Japan, restaurants never hurry their customers. You can sit and talk for hours and no one will even give you stink-eye. To be rushed after only two appetizers seemed really odd. Russell said we were hoping to order a few more things, and the host said okay. He took the bill back. We then ordered a much larger selection of foods (the portions were really small) and at that point the host came back, rather flustered and asked us to move to the bar. This was really odd, too. We took our drinks and moved. In retrospect, I think the table had been reserved and they had originally planned to move us to the bar, but we hadn't understood.

In any case, once settled at the bar, we waited for our food. Out came two tiny skewers with a pair of meatballs on them the size of quail eggs, two small chicken skewers and two chunks of eggplant. Not really enough for one person, let alone three. At this point the shine was off this restaurant. We nibbled our skewers, finished our drinks and left.

The bill was $70.

We returned to Kobe and paid another $10 to get three large beef and rice bowls. Not gorgeous, not in a beautiful wooden building, but awfully tasty and certainly filling. Good enough.

Health Check #2

It is once again Health Check season. We got to start the year off with a staff-wide physical. We did this last year as well, but I didn't make it through the full check. Last's year's program was scheduled for 9:00 - 12:30, but all the English teachers had to teach from 9:20 - 12:30, so we only got through the first half of the check.

Turns out we had skipped the EKG and chest X-ray. I knew they were coming, but somehow I hadn't really processed what that meant.

All I can say is that everyone who came out of the EKG room looked a little traumatized. Mostly because nobody had told us what would happen. All they had to do was hook up sensors and check your heart beat, but that required full frontal nudity. Not a problem if you know its coming. When an old woman suddenly and swiftly yanks your shirt up, though, its a bit of a surprise.

After that we headed to the X-ray van in the parking lot and hugged a giant metal box for our chest X-rays. Creepy, but not so bad.

At least is over with.

Eat Your Greens

I have to take a quick hiatus from sharing dad's visit to tell about something interesting that happened today. Our home has pretty much been a revolving door of guests over the last month. Dad left and within a week we had new guests. They stayed about a week and then we got another week off before one of Russell's coworkers and friends arrived. Phil - said friend - has only been here a couple of days. SInce its Friday night, we decided to take him down and introduce him to everyone at the local izakaya (bar).

We had a couple rounds of food and drinks and then the owner came over to pick up some dishes. She cleared away the glasses and some of the dishes, but a number of dishes still had garnish lettuce left on them. She chided us for not eating our vegetables and left with a "go on - its healthy."

We quickly did as we were told.

Dad's Visit Continued

After a couple rainy days, things seemed to be clearing up - at least enough. So dad and I headed to Kyoto again to catch some more sights. Kyoto, of course, is on of those tourist Meccas that can keep you amazed for weeks on end. There is so much to see. Russell and I really need to go explore it more because we have really only hit the core attractions. There's tons more to do and see.

While dad was here we decided to first hit Kinkakuji (the golden pagoda) and then head accross town to Ginkakuji (the silver pagoda). I had been to the first, but never to the second. When we arrived at Kinkakuji it was pretty over cast and just starting to rain. By the time we got in the gate it was officially miserable outside. We tried to take some half-hearted pictures of the pagoda but right about then a digestive emergency caught up to us and we had to make a hasty run for the exit. Emergency averted, we used our tickets to go back inside the temple. This time we had perfect luck. Just as we were entering, the sun burst out and we got a gorgeous view. Those are the pictures you are seeing now. We meandered through the grounds again at a much more relaxed pace and then headed to Ginkakuji.

Russell took some friends to Ginkakuji early in our stay, but I was working and hadn't ever made it. I have to say, compared to Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji is way more awesome. The pagoda itself isn't as impressive (no gold - no silver either) but the gardens around the pagoda are far superior and the homeliness of the pagoda is much more endearing than Kinkakuji - which comes across a bit as opulent for opulent's sake.

This picture is also from Ginkakuji. Next to the pagoda, you can see a white rock garden. This was different than any other rock garden I have seen in Japan. The rocks are deep and dug out into perfect shapes. There is a mount that is carefully sculpted in one corner and the rocks are dug into deep trenches along the majority of the garden. This doesn't look anything like gardens that have been carefully raked - it looks hand sculpted. As you walk around it, you keep getting new and scenic views of the surrounding trees and rocks. Its really impressive. After the rock garden is a hike up a hillside with Japanese gardens on either side mixed in amongst the trees. I will definitely be coming back.

Unfortunately, Dad and I chose a major travel day to visit Kyoto, so the buses were packed and the streets were super jammed. It took two hours to get from Kinkakuji to Ginkakuji by bus. We easily could have walked it just as fast. We didn't know that when we got on, though. By the time we finished it was just about closing time across Kyoto, so we headed home.

The next day. we were treated to a rare sunny day and decided to go the other direction on the train to Himeji. I didn't realize what we were getting into at the time, but I'm sure glad we went. Himeji castle, as you may remember from before, is one of three major castles in Japan. It is one of the few remaining castles which has the distinction of not having been bombed or burned down in the last few hundred years. It was restored in the 1950s (when they found all sorts of items that had belonged to the previous builders hidden in the walls and rafters). I really like this castle. There are many castles to be seen in Japan, but this one does have a special air to it.

When we arrived, there was a line forming outside of the gates to the castle. The line wasn't too long, and it was early in the morning, so we assumed we had arrived just before opening. We waited about 2 minutes and were then let in. It turns out, though, that we were not the first group to enter the premises. In fact, we were experiencing only a taste of the lines that would start piling up over the next couple of weeks. As it turns out, the castle is due for another refurbishing. After cherry blossom season had ended it was slated to be closed to the public for 6 YEARS. People from all over Japan were making the pilgrimage to see the castle before it was covered up. Once we were inside the gate, we spent 20 minutes waiting to go through the women's dormitory (shown in the pictures with a view of Himeji in the background and a hillside where enemies would try to spy on the castle) and then another good hour waiting to just get into the castle. It easily took another 40 minutes to make our way up all the stories to the top. It was incredibly crowded. I assumed at the time that it was just normal cherry blossom traffic (Himeji castle is a famous place to go enjoy the cherry blossoms) but it seemed a little extreme since the blossoms were only barely starting to peek out. Now I know better.

We had originally planned to meet up with one of my friends for a cherry blossom party on the way back to Kobe, but she ended up getting sick, so we opted to head back to the city and take a gondola up to the top of one of the mountains framing the city. This particular mountain was new to me. It has a botanic garden at the top, so we took the ride up, shot some video of the city and then enjoyed the garden. It turns out the botanic garden is more like a botanic zoo - with a variety of species of plants from other countries (as opposed to local varieties of plans). It includes tropical fruits, spice plants and plants used for various perfumes. It was interesting, if a little stinky. Russell had recommended walking down from the botanic garden (as opposed to returning on the gondola) but it was getting dark when we finished, so we played it lazy and let the gondola do the work.

Barely Treading Water

Sorry its been so long since my last post... Things have been really busy. We have our new term up and running, now, though. The first two weeks are over and we have been absolutely swamped with students in the English office . This is great, but its almost impossible for teachers to get any prep done during the day. Many of us have resorted to staying late at night and working on the weekends just to get our classes ready.

I was home early last night (7pm) but by 8pm I couldn't keep my eyes open. Russell found me curled up on the floor when he came home at 9pm. The plan is to sleep in tomorrow (Saturday).

In the meantime, I have more pictures to share from Dad's visit:

Unfortunately, Dad's visit was plagued with bad weather. On the first rainy day, we decided to go check out the Kobe Maritime Museum, but unfortunately, it was closed on the day we happened to choose. This was especially disappointing because it was kind of away from anything else we might want to do. Before we started back to town, though, we decided to stop in at Fish cafe. I had walked by Fish cafe early in our stay and noted that it looked just like a Geary sculpture. Turns out, it was! At first I thought the cafe was inside the fish, but it isn't. The fish is attached to the outside. The cafe was okay, but I could take it or leave it. It was a welcome break from the rain, though, I must say. They also did latte art, which was fun.
The next day, we went into Osaka. Dad had spotted the Sky Building from the train and was quite taken with it. I did some research and found out that tourists can walk around the top of the building. We decided to try it out. Sky Building is one of the more recognizable sky scrapers of the Osaka skyline. It consists of two towers with a circular opening at the top and a pair of diagonal escalators towards the top to get into the circular "garden." I took a picture of dad on the escalator. The view was great from Sky Building (though the weather was cloudy and awfully gray. We did see a stand on one floor of the garden that was selling personally engraved, heart-shaped lockets. Then, when we went outside on the deck above, we discovered a corner where couples could lock their locket. There were thousands of little engraved hearts hanging from the railing. Aha.

To round out our drizzly day, we went to the Osaka Aquarium. It is one of the biggest in Japan (though there are maybe two that are bigger). Its pretty darn awesome. I love it. Dad was a little tentative about going (having never seen an aquarium on this scale). He soon realized his error. IN the first mini-exhibit (a walk through tunnel right in the beginning) he took a ton of pictures. It just got better from there. We had a really good time.

After the aquarium we went to my friend's cafe and had decadent coffees and cake. It was a nice finish to the day. On the way home, though, we had one more spectacle to take in. A huge crowd had gathered around an enormous TV screen in the Hankyu Train station. What was playing? The national Sumo championships. They were taking place across town. The crowd was rapt.

Dad's Visit

After 10 days of non-stop action, my dad returned home on Monday. I was really sad to see him go. We had a great time together. Many of the places we went have been discussed in earlier posts, so I won't go into too much detail. A few of the places were new, though, so I'll stop and write about those as I get to them.

To begin with, dad arrived on Thursday night two weeks ago. I had to spend all Friday finishing textbooks, but my intention was to stay as late as it took to finish and then be done. That didn't pan out. By 7pm we still had a lot to do, and after 12 hours of non-stop work we were all clearly out of energy. I decided it would be more effective to come back on Saturday - even though it meant one less day with dad. I was pretty bummed. I met dad and Russell at the neighborhood Izakaya and moped.

They were both good sports, though. I got to work early the next morning and by noon Russell and dad showed up with lunch. They stayed the rest of the day and helped with formatting and page number checks. We worked until 5pm, but we got the textbooks finished. We celebrated with yakiniku and two pitchers of beer. The waitstaff seemed slightly taken aback when we ordered the second pitcher.

Now that I was free, we planned our remaining weekend day. Since it was the one of the only days Russell would be able to join us we chose something we could all enjoy - a trip to the whiskey distillery!


After the distillery we headed into Osaka. It was evening, so Russell looked up a highly rated okonomiyaki restaurant and we stopped in for dinner. There was a long, cold wait outside, but we figured that was a good sign. It turned out we were right. The food was awesome. Okonomiyaki is always generally good, but rarely as good as this. I would definitely go back to this particular restaurant. The food wasn't too rich. It was really good.

After dinner we walked around Namba - one of the main shopping centers. It is also the famous home of the Glico man. Dad was an instant fan and seemed a bit disappointed later in the trip that we hadn't been back to visit. Dad got much better pictures of the Glico man all lit up. I was less careful, so my picture is a little less impressive, but it gives the idea.

Starting Monday, Dad and I were on our own. Russell had some serious work to do, so he was glued to the house. Dad and I decided to head into Kyoto. We went to Kiyomizudera first - I've posted about this place a lot. The one new thing we did was go on the pitch-black below-temple-tour. It turns out that if you pay an extra hundred yen (about a dollar) you can go under one of the temples into pitch blackness. You follow the wooden bead railing around through twists and turns until you come to a lit stone. You are suppose to make a wish at this point and then keep following the beads until you come out again. It is really eerie because you have no idea where you are going or what is ahead of you. The first time I was sure there would be stairs or an incline or something, so I kept feeling gingerly out in front of myself before taking a step. Turns out there is no need to fear, though. The walk is all flat and smooth. Sadly, it was a bit overcast, so my pictures are not as good as they sometimes are. That ended up being a theme through all of this trip.

Before we headed out, we stopped at Sanjuusangendo - the really long building with the 1,001 buddha statues in it. This was one of the first places in Kyoto that Russell and I visited, and we haven't been back in a long time. It was a nice stop. The buddhas themselves are all almost, but not quite the same, having been hand-carved individually by several artists over the years. You have to look pretty closely to see the differences, though. In front of the Buddhas are the guardian spirits. These guys are the really fun statues to look at. They are all quite different and detailed. Unfortunately. not pictures are allowed. I only have a shot of the outside. It really is a long building - supposedly the longest wooden building in Japan.


That's going to have to do for now. I'll post more soon. We have 7 more days to go!

SO Tired

Dad made it safe and sound to Kobe. He is sleeping on our floor as I write this. He seems perfectly cozy to me, for those who are wondering.

Unfortunately, I have barely gotten to see him yet. The last two days have been virtually solid textbook work. I was at work by 7am on Friday in hopes of finishing early, but by 7pm I was pretty dead and there was still a lot to do. We all decided to call it a night and come back fresh the next morning.

I met dad and Russell at the neighborhood izakaya (family bar) and had dinner there. Then we came home and I pretty much went straight to bed. Today (Saturday) I worked from 8am to 5:30pm but can now officially say I am done writing textbooks! Its such a relief. I love materials writing, but after a month and the stress of a deadline, I am really ready for a vacation.

So glad dad is here to share it! We will be off on mad-cap adventures tomorrow, far, far away from my office.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

It turns out I do have one more post for tonight. Its Saint Patrick's Day! This is one holiday that does not seem to have been adopted by the Japanese. I guess I'm not surprised. Chances are good that foreigners all over Japan are hitting the local pubs to celebrate, but we weren't able to go out tonight. Instead, Russell brought home some bottles of Guiness and a bottle of Bushmills Irish Whisky to help us get int the spirit of the day.

In the picture you can see my evening textbook-writing set up. A Guiness on the left (served in a small plastic tumbler) and a glass of whiskey on the right. Russell felt it was important that I start both the beer and whiskey before we passed midnight and were no longer technically connected to the holiday we were celebrating. Since I am still writing textbooks, I will probably be nursing these two beverages for quite some time. I am not, as it turns out, quite the lush I paint myself to be on my blog. Thank goodness.

Apartment Love

One thing I love about our apartment is that I can panic about how dirty it is at 7pm and have it deep cleaned by 10pm. Russell was out with a conversation partner, too, so I did most of it by myself. Russell did two wicked tiring parts thought... the shower and hand washing most of the floors.

We are all sparkly clean, now, and ready for my dad to visit!

No guarantees on how much I will post in the next week, but I should have lots to post in the not too distant future.

White Day

And yet another holiday!

I mentioned that this one was coming in the Valentine's Day post. Today is White Day, the day when men get a chance to reciprocate the gifts they were given by women a month earlier. This one is just as fabricated as Valentine's Day, but I suspect it is one of the main reasons women suffer though Valentine's Day. At least its not completely one sided - and the men are suppose to one up the ladies - in price if not in personal attention.

The stores have all had White Day displays up. Chocolate is one option to give to the ladies, but from what I hear, marshmallow treats are also considered highly appropriate. I gave Russell very specific instructions that anything with marshmallow would not be accepted as a replacement for chocolate.

I should back up, though. Such comments make it seem that Russell was being guided through White Day, and that actually wasn't the case. I had long forgotten that I had potential chocolate on the horizon, but Russell was on keeping track. I only caught wind of the holiday again when Russell mentioned it to a conversation partner. Of course, then I started weighing in.

In the end, in spite of having worked at least 18 hours a day for the last week and only having slept about five hours the night before, Russell dragged himself out of the cave and went in search of some sinfully delightful chocolates. I was at work (on a Sunday, grr) but when I got home, Russell had a bag with a highly packaged box of Belgian chocolates inside. A double-decker even!

Very well done, Mr. Mull.

Hopefully his work crunch is over now and his work schedule will return to normal. I've got until Friday before I can relax, but my dad comes Thursday evening, so I will get a nice vacation with family to help me unwind from all the crazy. I am VERY much looking forward to that.

Crazy Weather!

We had a lovely and short false Spring a few weeks ago. It had been very cold before that and then all of the sudden it was all sunshine and flowers. After about a week of that, though, it started raining. This isn't normally a rainy time in Japan. It hasn't been down-pouring, but it has been pretty consistently showering over the last two weeks and lately it has been getting COLD again. Not freezing, but awfully chilly. Today it hailed off and on all day.

I keep thinking about the muggy summer, though, and can't bring myself to wish the current weather away. I'll take grey and miserable over oppressive sun and moisture any day.

The Beef is Back!

I can't remember if I shared the sad news a few months ago, but the beef-bowl place across from the station that I raved about not too long after Gwen and Nicole visited - that place was torn down a few weeks ago. Russell went to enjoy a bowl of beefy goodness and when he got there, the sign on the door said it was closed. This was right before New Years, so we thought maybe the owner was taking a vacation. Alas, no. In spite of periodic checking, the shop never reopened and a few weeks ago a demolition crew came in and razed the building. It was very sad. Russell and I spent the last few months glanced optimistically at the empty building while waiting at the tracks, hoping for some sign that the restaurant would come back, that maybe it was just being remodeled. No such luck. It wasn't every going to come back.

Today however, we got a surprise. Two blocks down the road from the first restaurant, a new beef bowl restaurant opened. The sign was new, but looked very similar to the old restaurant. We peeked inside this morning and saw that the restaurant was situated the same and the chef, though we couldn't see him clearly, could definitely be the same guy. We were in a rush, so we didn't have time to stop and test out our theory.

On the way home tonight, the draw was too great. We had already eaten dinner, but Russell was pretty sure he could fit in some beef. I continued home and he went over to try the new place out. Before I even got home, I found a very satisfied text message on my phone. It was the same place. Well, apparently not quite the same. It is the same chef and the same basic style, but it is under new management and so there have been a few changes to the menu. The basics are all still there, though.

Russell is very happy, as am I.

Now that the beef bowl place is back, tasty as ever and all bright and shiny new, we are pretty sure it means Gwen and Nicole have to come back and try it.

It will definitely be on the tour for anyone who comes to visit.

Web Comic

Oh, there's one other thing I've been up to this last week. Russell reminded me about a web comic I had intended to read but never quite got to. For those of you who aren't familiar with web comics, imagine pages/ strips of comics posted online a certain number of days a week. Some post every day, others post every other day, or whatever they choose.

I follow a number of comics online, Sluggy Freelance, Questionable Content, Starslip Crisis and Penny Arcade, among others, but the latest one I've been reading is Girl Genius. It isn't new to the Internet. Phil Foglio and his team have been posting this comic three days a week for 4-5 years. I'm a bit late. Its really good though. It took me three days to get caught up (keep in mind I have to go to work, too). Now I'm caught up and only three comics a week is killing me.

I'm going to have to re-read the story a few times before I come to accept the three comic a week routine. I'm half way through reading it a second time now. Its just as good this time. The entire 4-5 years of comic have been establishing and moving along one enormous storyline, which is impressive. Most web comics seem to go through story arches as the writers develop bigger and grander story lines for their characters. This just feels like one enormous story that will someday come to natural end. Well done Mr. Foglio and Friends.

The comic blends steam-punk, romance, adventure comedy and awesome characters. It kind of scratches the same itch for me as Princess Bride, though the premises are totally different. Another difference is that the characters are evenly balanced between men and women if not weighted in favor of the women - before this comic I hadn't really realized how male dominated online comics are.

So if online comics are your thing, or you are willing to try one, I recommend Girl Genius.

Sick

Sorry for the lack of posts. My life this last week has been 100% taken up by writing textbooks and sleeping off a pretty bad cold. The last week has been sad as coworkers from this last year have started to leave. Only one of the native English speakers is staying on - the one that has been here two years already. On the up-side, though, new co-workers are starting to trickle in, and they seem to be a good crowd with good experience. We are also making progress on the textbooks, so hopefully it will be a more pleasant place to work for the new hires.

Looks like the final count will be two from Canada, two from America, one from Guam and one from Russia.

Starting to Accumulate...

We finally got one particular item that we both know we don't NEED but which I kind of wanted anyway - a microwave. Russell and I have been doing just fine without a microwave - or oven for that matter. I missed it when we first arrived, but I'm totally used to doing without one now.

Even so, one of my colleagues was leaving Japan and had a microwave that he was willing to give away. We decided to go for it. Microwaves in Japan generally have a microwave and an oven setting, so if you want to do any baking (that isn't in a rice cooker) this is the way you go.

Russell wasn't too happy with the plan at first. He was pretty sure it was at odds with my plans to lose the winter weight I have put on. He was pretty sure I only wanted the microwave so I could make cookies. I will admit, at Christmas time I did really want to make cookies, but that's in the past. Now I just want to be able to re-heat left overs once in a while. So far we've only used the microwave twice - once to make croutons (Russell's idea) and once to reheat a couple bentos.

I suspect it won't actually get that much use, but its still nice to have around.

I have to say, after a year, smaller living is really appealing to us. Our house back home seems pretty cavernous now. Its hard to imagine moving back to it. Maybe it should stay a rental and we can find something smaller. Just a thought. We will be putting that decision off for at least another year. Kobe is pretty awesome.