It's colder than it looks

First snow in Naruko this week. I had fun digging my car out every morning. I broke the car door handle trying to open the door because it was frozen. I don't trust my new tires and Japan doesn't clear their roads, so I will be taking the train to school now. I dressed up as Santa Claus for my classes all last week. I have only one more day of school left tomorrow. I am leaving for Tokyo tomorrow after work and I will be in America on Wednesday!





It's the day before my first departure from Japan. I explored the train system in my town and got some business done, snapping some pictures along the way. Thankfully, the snow has melted now.


This is one of my Elementary schools.

Christmas!

It's Christmastime all around the world. The sound of Christmas music playing and the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping have reached their peak. Japan is no different. There is one difference, however. The ryokan that I am living in has absolutely no insulation, no heat, and is located in the coldest place in the known world. While this may seem like a bit of an exaggeration, it has been an interesting experience trying to stay somewhat warm and comfortable, and it hasn't even started snowing...yet.
Just for fun, let's take a look at my attempts at keeping warm:

#1: I built a fort inside my room.

The fort consists of a heavy blanket, surrounded by towels and an overhead blanket to keep cold air out.
#2: I put an electric heater inside the fort.

Inside the fort, the heater was located next to my futon, which is laying on top of an electric carpet, which heats my futon.
#3: Comfort food

Lastly, I try and cook some warm comfort food to make myself feel like I am enjoying the cold winter weather. This was some Nikujaga, or beef stew, that I made.
Sadly, none of these attempts really came to any real consequence. I am still cold and my electric bill was out the roof.
But don't worry, I have found an apartment in town (with heat) and I am planning to move as soon as I get back from America. So if you're wondering what to get me for Christmas, money for my new apartment would be great!

In other news, I am coming home in just one more week. I went to Sendai today to get my re-entry permit, which gives me permission to re-enter Japan once I leave. In Sendai they have a "pageant of lights" where they light up all the trees on the main street.





Merry Christmas!

More Food and My Attempts at Cooking

I have recently discovered how to cook and have been spending far too much time in the kitchen. I purchased a rice cooker for only 980 yen (~$11) and it has come in extremely handy. I make rice in it every night and it is the bulk of my dinner, but I just add something else with some protein and then some veggies and throw in a banana and it's delicious!

This is my rice cooker! It was super cheap because I bought it at the recycle shop, where it only cost me 980 yen. These suckers run around 5000-7000 yen (~$60-82) if you buy one new!

This is my attempt at a broccoli and egg creation, with lots of rice of course! After this I realized that I should cook it with cheese, so now I call it broccoli, egg and cheese! It's not the best, but I get really excited about it, hence the exclamation marks in this paragraph!

This was a feast of rice, broccoli, and egg (pre-cheese revelation), chicket cutlet with tonkatsu sauce (yummy), almond cake and ganzuki bread.

Tonight's meal was rice, broccoli, egg, and cheese, and Burmese meat. The Burmese meat is from Burma, of course and not Japanese at all. I got it from my friend who is from Myanmar (previously Burma). The appearance and texture is that of the bark of a tree. You simply pour oil on it and mash it in with your fingers, let it soak for a couple minutes, and eat. It is actually pretty tasty and goes great with rice!


Sadly, I did not cook this last meal. But I did eat it! I found this restaurant at the Sendai station and the Japanese style food was actually really like (good) Americanized Japanese food. I had the garlic chicken and it was absolutely delicious.

I'll be back before you can say blueberry pie.

The holiday season is here in Japan. I heard my first Christmas song when I was at Starbucks in Sendai the other day. Christmas in Japan is little bit different than in America. I had to explain to my students that it wasn't the birthday of Santa Claus. Despite this small lack of knowledge, the celebration of Christmas is surprisingly similar in Japan. Except they treat it more like a birthday and they always buy a decorative Christmas cake. It's also not nearly as big a deal over here as it is in America. The kids did know a lot of Christmas songs, like Rudolph and Jingle Bells, but they were singing them in Japanese.


I asked one of the teachers at my school how she celebrated Christmas and she said that she does buy presents for her family, but she doesn't know if this is typical practice for Japanese families. From what I gather, they mostly just do the Christmas cake. I made my elementary school students write a list of things that they want in a letter to Santa and they had no clue what that was all about. I tried to explain that kids in America would have no problem listing three things that they wanted, but the Japanese students didn't really understand this concept. They call Santa Claus "Santa-san" and they call Jesus "Christo".


It won't be much longer until I am headed home for Christmas and I am really excited to see everyone. I am afraid I will suffer reverse culture shock by driving on the right side of the road in a car that is normal size and eating food that is average portioned, along with having access to cheese.

There was a hot air balloon festival near where I work recently and I drove down to check that out on the weekend. I was really hoping to get a free ride in one of them, but they weren't giving out rides for the public. It was really neat seeing the hot air balloons blown up and lifting off from the ground, though!


This last picture was on Monday morning when I was driving to work. It was the last day of the festival and there were balloons everywhere! It was kind of surreal.

食べ物ーFood

The majority of my time in Japan is consumed (pun intended) by eating food. In fact, I am not the only one who is obsessed with food. Japanese people seem to be infatuated with food, too. You can turn on the TV at any time and expect to see a variety show where they are talking about food, showcasing food, cooking food, asking famous people what their favorite food is, and of course, eating food and "reacting", usually by saying "おいしい", or "oishii", which means "delicious". While watching the news in the morning, the anchors started advertising the new sandwiches at McDonalds and when they switched back from a video the entire crew had a different McDonalds sandwich and they started eating it during the news! After watching the news for a while, I realized that this was standard practice. They have many shows dedicated to food where people go around and eat various things and have reactions to it, to the point of obsession.

The majority of meals that I eat outside of school are bentos, or lunchbox style meals that I buy from the convenience stores nearby. The food is surprisingly fresh and delicious, even though it is necessary to microwave it. This type of meal almost always includes a large portion of rice along with some type of meat. In the picture above there is rice with an umeboshi (very sour) on top and chicken and a hamburger steak on the side.

In Japan rice is the staple food and in place of sandwiches, they eat rice balls. They are called onigiri. There are many different types of onigiri and some of them have meat on the inside. I like the tuna onigiri and chicken onigiri. The meat is often combined with some mayonnaise. They are usually wrapped in dried seaweed, which I do not care for, but if you buy the ones that have plastic between the rice and seawed, you can peel it back and eat the rice ball without the seaweed. They are delicious sometimes, but not extremely filling.

Curry rice is one of my favorite foods in Japan. Chicken curry rice is even better. The picture above is an instant mix that was not so good, but if you go to the right place, the curry here is amazing.

This is a dinner that I made for myself one night when I got tired of buying bentos at the convenience store. The rice is referred to as chowhan and the little dumpling like things are called gyouza. Both have a Chinese origin, but are very popular in Japan.

These balls are called Takoyaki. One day at school I asked my class what their favorite food was and one student said his favorite was Takoyaki. Takoyaki is fried octopus. My student said he could eat 20 of them! After work I saw some of these at the grocery store and thought I would try them. They are actually not too bad, but not my favorite.

I feel like I have been brave with trying new foods in Japan, but there are certain things that I just can't bring myself to try. These fish on a stick items are one of them. They sell them at festivals and they are very popular. They have a fish tank next to this where you can see the fish swimming around. They skewer the live fish with the stick through it's mouth and then stand them up like this above the fire. At least you know they are fresh, right?

This is another bento from the convenience store. It's called gyudon and it is thinly sliced pieces of meat and onion slices over rice. This is another one of my favorite foods in Japan, and it is cheap to get delicious fast food gyudon at popular restaurants like Sukiya and the international chain Yoshinoya. It looks like a lot of meat, but really it's mostly rice.


These big noodles are called udon. Udon is traditional Japanese food and they are hard to eat with chopsticks (for me). Japanese people just slurp them on down. They are sometimes mixed with curry and different things and they can be pretty delicious and filling.


Tempura is another one of my favorite foods that I have had while in Japan. I first tried it at a tempura place in Mito when I first came here in March (8 months ago!) and to this day the tempura in Mito is the best I have had. It is pretty much just anything deep fried, but usually it is shrimp and pumpkin, and my favorite, eggplant.


These small noodles are called soba noodles. Soba is interesting and usually comes with the dipping sauce (pictured here) that you dip the noodles in. They are often served with tempura or something. I kind of prefer udon, but soba is easier to eat.


When you hear ramen you probably think of the ramen found in cups that college students eat when they are broke. However, in Japan ramen is a delicious bowl of noodles with fish paste, bamboo shoots, and anything else you can think of mixed in. It has a delicious taste and is often not too cheap. It's great to eat when it's cold because it is always served steaming hot. After you finish your noodles, drink the rest and it is extremely yummy. Salty ramen is my favorite.

These little puffy white things are called mochi. It is a type of sweet or candy. They are made from rice and they are delicious! They can be a bit sticky and stretchy at times, but I enjoy them way too much. In fact, they are so cheap and readily available that I buy them, eat one or two and then try to give them away so that I do not eat all of them because they would have to be one of the many reasons that Japanese people's teeth rot out so quickly.

I guess I should also mention sushi. Although it's not nearly as popular in Japan as most Americans may think, I have been to a couple of sushi restaurants. Three local ones and one in Tokyo. The sushi here is really different than what you might find in America. I have tried a couple things and it has all been pretty delicious, but the shrimp and salmon are probably my favorites. Good luck finding a California roll!

Hachiko

Interesting Story...

In 1924, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo took in Hachikō as a pet. During his owner's life Hachikō greeted him at the end of the day at the nearby Shibuya Station. The pair continued their daily routine until May 1925, when Professor Ueno did not return. The professor had suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage and died, never returning to the train station where his friend was waiting. Every day for the next nine years Hachikō waited at Shibuya station.

Hachikō was given away after his master's death, but he routinely escaped, returning again and again to his old home. Eventually, Hachikō apparently realized that Professor Ueno no longer lived at the house. So he went to look for his master at the train station where he had accompanied him so many times before. Each day, Hachikō waited for the return of his owner.

The permanent fixture at the train station that was Hachikō attracted the attention of other commuters. Many of the people who frequented the Shibuya train station had seen Hachikō and Professor Ueno together each day. They brought Hachikō treats and food to nourish him during his wait.

This continued for nine years with Hachikō appearing precisely when the train was due at the station.

Hachi: A Dog's Story, released in August 2009, is an American movie starring actor Richard Gere, directed by Lasse Hallström, about Hachikō and his relationship with the professor. The movie was filmed in Rhode Island, and also featured Joan Allen and Jason Alexander.

たのしかった

At the scramble crossing in Shibuya.

Ever wonder how Darth Vader is paying his bills these days? Well, he's in Japan selling phones through Docomo(Japan's Verizon) alongside Ken Watanabe.

Pictures from the festival in Shinjuku near the cinema.

This foreigner is trying to earn money by standing in this position until someone gives him money to have their picture taken with him. I prefer teaching English.

The poster for Somewhere...!!

The Picadilly Cinema in Shinjuku.