First of all, my apologies for the inexcusable lack of posts for the last couple of weeks or so. It's impossible to write anything worthwhile if the creative juices just aren't flowing, and often it takes the right combination of factors to loosen the tap. I could merely offer up a brief accounting of our adventures here, but that would be a bland exercise in banality, and you deserve more than that. You deserve careful, measured commentary, and I intend to provide it for you. So here goes:
By now, I'm sure you've realized that life in Japan isn't just Hokkaido cream and peach blossoms; it's full of cultural walls to scale and linguistic obstacles to overcome. No seemingly simple, daily task is without its own devilish twist; going to the doctor for a checkup might as well be going to the moon. Nevertheless, there are moments that are so "Japanese" that I can't help but love my new home.
Case in point: two local businesses, each about two doors down from our house. One is a public bathhouse, and the other is a hole-in-the-wall sushi bar. I'll describe each in some detail.
Way back when, it used to be the case in Japan that every community had its own sento, or public bathhouse (this was before the days of private homes having their own tubs). The way it worked was like this: typically before or after your evening meal, you'd throw some soap and a towel into a little basket and you'd trot on down to the bath, where you'd get naked, take a long shower - in full view of the other bathers - and then soak in the hot, communal bath. "Skinship", as it is often called in English, was and continues to be an important aspect of Japanese society. At the baths, one can find both CEOs and street sweepers enjoying a hot soak, having divested themselves of the trappings of their respective stations.
I had previously been to an onsen, so when we finally decided to start frequenting the local sento, I was prepared. An onsen is like a sento, except an onsen uses mineral water pumped in from hot springs located all over Japan. Japan is an island rife with geothermic activity, and volcanoes, earthquakes, and hot springs all seem to go hand in hand. You take the good with the bad, I suppose. Depending on where you are, the hot spring water is said to have various healthful and restorative properties. The water from one town might help relieve arthritis, whereas the water from the town over might help cure migraines. You can never tell. As you can imagine, onsen are fantastically popular both with the locals and the tourists, both coming from far and wide to experience a few minutes in the tub. The sento, on the other hand, just heats up regular old tap water for its baths. In any event, the older lady who runs the sento next to our house had treated us very kindly in the past and had repeatedly asked us to visit her establishment, so we were more than happy to do so. That, and the fact that it's been getting pretty cold around here at night made taking a hot bath seem like a very agreeable way to spend the evening.
The entrance to the building is open, as are many storefronts in Japan, with only a half curtain hanging in the doorway. The sign outside displays the large, red, hiragana character ゆ, "yu". Yuu is the word for hot water. It has a corresponding kanji (Chinese character), but I've read that the kanji is used to represent hot water used for tea, whereas the hiragana is used to represent hot water used for people. Upon entering, you see that there are rows of foot lockers on either side, and that each side is divided by sex. You take off your shoes and hold them in your hand as you step up onto the actual floor (many establishments, including our own house, have an area exclusively for taking off ones shoes). You place your shoes in an empty locker and carry the wooden key with you as you enter the bath area - men entering through the doorway marked 男, and women through the doorway marked 女. Upon entering, the first thing you see are naked people walking around. As veterans of the stage, Katie and I are no strangers to seeing people in various states of undress (quick costume changes backstage quickly rob you of any sense of modesty), so seeing all this wasn't such a big deal, but I can easily imagine how the more repressed among us might have reacted to such a sight. Although really, anyone who goes to the gym and uses the locker rooms there with any regularity should already be quite desensitized. You pay several hundred yen (a few bucks) to the person supervising the bathhouse, and she gives you a little bottle of shampoo, soap, and a small towel. Most people prefer to bring their own supplies, though. You undress and throw your clothes into a small locker, taking only the towel (which is for washing - hopefully you remembered to bring something to dry yourself off with), shampoo, and soap with you, and proceed to yet another room which contains the actual bath.
In spite of their reputation for being polite and demure, there are a few sure-fire ways to piss Japanese people off, and one of the surest is failing to wash yourself properly before entering the bath. All along the walls are shower heads expressly for this purpose. You simply pull up a little plastic stool, have a seat (the shower heads are at waist level so you actually have to shower sitting down), and get to work with the shampoo and soap. Once you've scrubbed yourself completely, you take a well-earned seat in the bath. For a modicum of modesty, you can use the washing towel to cover your nether regions on your way from the shower to the bath, but be advised that the towel is not to go into the bathwater. Instead, many people put the towel on their heads. I'm not sure why it's customary to do this, but I've heard that in cases where the bathwater is extremely hot - as it sometimes is - putting a wet towel on your head actually prevents you from passing out. The most important thing to remember is to relax; once you're in the bath you can sit back and enjoy the mural of cranes flying in front of Mount Fuji painted on the tile wall in front of you, hazily obscured by steam.
The best part about visiting the bathhouse is how spectacularly relaxed you feel afterwards. Leaving the sento with your hair still wet and your insides still warm, stepping out into the late autumn chill, is a delicious feeling. Even better is the fact that it takes literally 30 seconds to walk back to our house which, although just as cold inside as it is outside, has certain indispensable amenities like space heaters and hot water heaters and a few seasons of Arrested Development on the computer for our viewing pleasure. C'est la vie!
I have less to say about the sushi bar a few doors down in the opposite direction, but please don't mistake my lack of prose for an indictment. Like the sento, it exudes old-school flavor; there might have been many such places that dotted our fair city in the not-too-distant past. Indeed, our whole street, complete with its fruit vendors and specialty boutiques, is somewhat of an anomaly when compared to the sprawling industrial landscape of Amagasaki. There are several sushi places on our street, and to be honest, this is the only one that we've tried. The other places, though no doubt delicious, loom large and commercial over our local dive which can only be described as elegant in its practicality. It seats maybe 8 people around a bar where a very nice man and (I presume) his wife toil busily away. It was here where Katie met some of our other neighbors for the first time; everyone seemed to be delighted to talk to us, even if it was in a broken mish-mash of Japanese and English. The most recent time we dined there, it was a Sunday night, and there were only a few laborers occupying the opposite end of the bar. They looked close to finishing their meal. We took a seat and the proprietor immediately asked us what we wanted. We ordered maguro (tuna) first, then sake (salmon). We were close enough to watch him take a block of fish and, using what looked to be extraordinarily expensive knives - I had seen such knives at a specialty cutlery store in Kyoto where some items went for as much as the equivalent of $500 - went to work.
"Sushi" is a word that refers to rice, not fish. One might translate it as "vinegared rice", which is exactly what it is: one first steams the rice and then folds in a mixture of vinegar, salt, and sugar. This addition makes the rice sticky and easy to manipulate into various shapes. "Sashimi" is the word that refers to raw fish by itself. If you order sashimi at a restaurant, what you'll get is a plate full of decoratively arranged raw fish, no rice to be seen. There are a couple of ways of combining fish and rice, however. The first way is the most common, called "nigiri". Nigiri is simply a piece of fish that has been pressed onto a little ball of rice. The next way is called "makizushi", or rolls. To make makizushi, one takes a sheet of nori (dried seaweed), lays it down, spreads out sushi rice over the nori, then places strips of fish and vegetables in the middle of the spread. Then, you roll it up (so that it's one long roll), cut it into smaller pieces, and serve. The last way is called "temakizushi", which are conical rolls constructed individually by hand.
I also have to issue a public service announcement: soy sauce is for fish, not rice. One of those aforementioned "things that piss Japanese people off" includes drenching rice in soy sauce. Seriously, the rice is often prepared with great care, so much so that a sushi chef in training might spend years just learning how to make the rice. It is prepared to be just the right consistency and flavor to perfectly complement the fish. The Western equivalent would be to drown your expertly cooked and seasoned steak in sauce before even trying a bite. Sure, you can do it, but say goodbye to earning any brownie points with the kitchen staff. So when you pick up that nigiri (yes, you can use your hands), dip it in the sauce fish side down.
Oh, and one more thing I wanted to clear up. For whatever reason, a lot of people in America think that Japanese people frown on mixing your wasabi into your soy sauce. Let it be hereafter known that I, Robert Hollands, have witnessed Japanese people doing this very thing - it's OK.
The chef went a little heavy on the wasabi this time - he takes his finger and spreads a little wet wasabi between the fish and the rice as a kind of cement to hold the two pieces together. We readily forgave him, though, because the fish was cool, fresh, and buttery in its texture. As we ate and drank, the little colored discs that indicated how much each item cost accumulated in front of us. Halfway through the meal, he thrust a bowl full of what looked like fish salad in front of us. "Fugu no kawa...karai," he told us. Pufferfish skin...spicy. As you might have heard, fugu is one of the deadliest fish known to man. Some of its internal organs contain a compound called tetrodotoxin; a powerful poison of which a minuscule amount can kill several people. Always ready to flirt with danger, the Japanese will pay top dollar for the thrill of eating this fish. It's a popular wintertime food, so here and there in our neighborhood one can see signs beginning to pop up, advertising fugu courses for somewhere in the range of $40 to $50. The danger is negligible however, because chefs who prepare this fish are well-trained and have to undergo a rigorous examination, which includes eating the fish themselves. Nevertheless, for a hypochondriac such as myself, eating any part of this animal might prove disastrous, poison or no. After returning home, so much as a sneeze might have sent me running for the nearest emergency room. As it turned out, though, I didn't sneeze or cough or anything which could otherwise be mistaken for impending death, so Katie was saved the hassle of filling out forms in triplicate at the local hospital while trying to remember the kanji for "overactive imagination".
So there you have it: an exclusive sneak peek into a couple of the quaint, local businesses that grace our neighborhood. If I had more energy, I'd tell you about the guy down the street who fixes bikes. He speaks decent English and has some friends from Vegas. He charged me 4000 yen for a new front tire, which was more than my bike cost (it's a crappy bike), but I'm not going to hold it against him.
Until next time,
-Bob
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
On Foliage, Costco, and Christmas
Wow, it's been a while since we've posted! Our apologies.
Some notable events from the last week and a half:
- The Thanksgiving Thankstacular was a grand success (as I'm sure you read), and we received many positive responses from our friends and my fellow teachers afterward. The next day at school, in fact, everyone whom I invited came up to my desk and thanked me personally for inviting them. Apparently this is a very Japanese thing to do, but I think it should more appropriately fall under the category heading of "common courtesy" -- a concept which I fear is altogether lost on the more lamentable members of my generation.
- Last week wasn't particularly memorable; there were classes and more classes, both for myself and Katie. We were really just waiting out the week for Friday, which was a national holiday (Labor Thanksgiving Day). Many of my students conflated their Labor Thanksgiving Day with America's Thanksgiving, and I had to repeatedly remind them that their holiday might more appropriately be compared to our Labor Day, which is in September. Nevertheless, we had Friday off, and to celebrate, Katie and I joined some other JETs living in our prefecture in hiking up Mount Hiei - the highest mountain in Kyoto. It was quite a steep climb up to the top and it took several hours, but the views along the way were well worth the effort. And unlike a lot of other mountains, Hieizan holds a reward at its summit for the more determined hikers among us (and for those of us who have cars and can drive there): Enryaku-ji Temple. It was a beautiful temple, made all the more spectacular by the changing autumn leaves.
- On Sunday, Katie and I went back to Kyoto to see some more kouyou (fall colors). We did a little shopping and went to Kiyomizu-dera, which is one of the more famous temples in Kyoto and, therefore, in all of Japan. Unlike Enryaku-ji, it was difficult to enjoy walking around the complex because it was so crowded. Kyoto in general was crowded: it was impossible to walk at your own pace on the sidewalks as you were being jostled and prodded by throngs of people walking to this temple or that shrine, stopping to examine the plastic food displays prominently featured outside many restaurants in Japan, or doing any one of the myriad of activities one does in a cultural capital. If you ever search the internet for pictures of Kyoto, you'll invariably find scores of photographs of cultural landmarks with nary a soul to be seen. It all looks so calm, so tranquil. This is, as Mom is so fond of saying, "A lie from the Devil." Now, don't let that discourage you from visiting what is the undisputed cultural hotspot for all things Japanese. The sights there are breathtaking and the shopping is unparalleled. Ironically, we ate dinner at a fabulous restaurant called "Falafel Garden", which I think is owned by an Israeli. Sometimes there's only so much Japan you can take in one day.
- Monday featured a trip to Costco with some of our good friends. We were running seriously low on bulk, wholesale items, and we needed to stock up. I can tell you that there is nothing more hilarious in this world than trying to fit boxes of stuff - some of which are nearly as big as your own torso - into whatever backpack, purse, or sack you can find, and then attempting to get it all home using only public transportation.
- Yesterday Katie visited the hyaku en shoppu (100 yen shop) to pick up some Holiday Cheer. Now that Thanksgiving is officially over, we can now usher in the Christmas Season, even though Santa and his reindeer have been prominently displayed in certain places around these parts since Halloween. You see, it's for this reason why I absolutely refuse to get into the Holiday Spirit until after my birthday. There's only so much Burl Ives a person can stand in a year. Even though Japan is, by and large, an irreligious country*, the Japanese passion for gift giving combined with the marketing potential of cute, furry creatures makes Christmas in Japan quite a popular holiday. On my street alone, almost every shop has some sort of display. The foreign food store down the street, Mon Marche, is absolutely decked out in its holiday best - colored lights and the flashing silhouettes of reindeer festoon the windows. On my daily ride home, I pass a barber shop that features an outdoor arrangement of dancing figurines singing Christmas songs; among them is a polar bear dressed like Santa Claus. All in all, it captures the commercial aspect of Christmas as it's celebrated in the States quite nicely. Katie was not immune to the swiftly approaching "most wonderful time of the year", and so she couldn't resist picking up a few things for the house. She bought the tiniest Christmas tree you ever did see, complete with lights, tinsel, and ornaments. Yes, Christmas has come to the Bob and Katie household.
*That is not to say that they don't believe in a higher power or powers, but it's my estimation that the majority of Japanese are more superstitious than religious, at least in the traditional sense of the word.
- The rest of this week is still up in the air. I'm taking paid leave on Friday because my one class was cancelled because, instead of conversation, the students will study grammar so that they don't fail as spectacularly for their upcoming exams as they did the last go around. Instead, I'll be headed to Arashiyama, which is another spot near Kyoto where the fall foliage is said to be particularly beautiful. On Saturday, we're having some friends over and on Sunday, Katie is taking me somewhere for a "birthday surprise". I guess and guess at what it could possibly be, but she assures me that I'm quite far from discovering whatever diabolical scheme she has concocted. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to it.
-Bob
Some notable events from the last week and a half:
- The Thanksgiving Thankstacular was a grand success (as I'm sure you read), and we received many positive responses from our friends and my fellow teachers afterward. The next day at school, in fact, everyone whom I invited came up to my desk and thanked me personally for inviting them. Apparently this is a very Japanese thing to do, but I think it should more appropriately fall under the category heading of "common courtesy" -- a concept which I fear is altogether lost on the more lamentable members of my generation.
- Last week wasn't particularly memorable; there were classes and more classes, both for myself and Katie. We were really just waiting out the week for Friday, which was a national holiday (Labor Thanksgiving Day). Many of my students conflated their Labor Thanksgiving Day with America's Thanksgiving, and I had to repeatedly remind them that their holiday might more appropriately be compared to our Labor Day, which is in September. Nevertheless, we had Friday off, and to celebrate, Katie and I joined some other JETs living in our prefecture in hiking up Mount Hiei - the highest mountain in Kyoto. It was quite a steep climb up to the top and it took several hours, but the views along the way were well worth the effort. And unlike a lot of other mountains, Hieizan holds a reward at its summit for the more determined hikers among us (and for those of us who have cars and can drive there): Enryaku-ji Temple. It was a beautiful temple, made all the more spectacular by the changing autumn leaves.
- On Sunday, Katie and I went back to Kyoto to see some more kouyou (fall colors). We did a little shopping and went to Kiyomizu-dera, which is one of the more famous temples in Kyoto and, therefore, in all of Japan. Unlike Enryaku-ji, it was difficult to enjoy walking around the complex because it was so crowded. Kyoto in general was crowded: it was impossible to walk at your own pace on the sidewalks as you were being jostled and prodded by throngs of people walking to this temple or that shrine, stopping to examine the plastic food displays prominently featured outside many restaurants in Japan, or doing any one of the myriad of activities one does in a cultural capital. If you ever search the internet for pictures of Kyoto, you'll invariably find scores of photographs of cultural landmarks with nary a soul to be seen. It all looks so calm, so tranquil. This is, as Mom is so fond of saying, "A lie from the Devil." Now, don't let that discourage you from visiting what is the undisputed cultural hotspot for all things Japanese. The sights there are breathtaking and the shopping is unparalleled. Ironically, we ate dinner at a fabulous restaurant called "Falafel Garden", which I think is owned by an Israeli. Sometimes there's only so much Japan you can take in one day.
- Monday featured a trip to Costco with some of our good friends. We were running seriously low on bulk, wholesale items, and we needed to stock up. I can tell you that there is nothing more hilarious in this world than trying to fit boxes of stuff - some of which are nearly as big as your own torso - into whatever backpack, purse, or sack you can find, and then attempting to get it all home using only public transportation.
- Yesterday Katie visited the hyaku en shoppu (100 yen shop) to pick up some Holiday Cheer. Now that Thanksgiving is officially over, we can now usher in the Christmas Season, even though Santa and his reindeer have been prominently displayed in certain places around these parts since Halloween. You see, it's for this reason why I absolutely refuse to get into the Holiday Spirit until after my birthday. There's only so much Burl Ives a person can stand in a year. Even though Japan is, by and large, an irreligious country*, the Japanese passion for gift giving combined with the marketing potential of cute, furry creatures makes Christmas in Japan quite a popular holiday. On my street alone, almost every shop has some sort of display. The foreign food store down the street, Mon Marche, is absolutely decked out in its holiday best - colored lights and the flashing silhouettes of reindeer festoon the windows. On my daily ride home, I pass a barber shop that features an outdoor arrangement of dancing figurines singing Christmas songs; among them is a polar bear dressed like Santa Claus. All in all, it captures the commercial aspect of Christmas as it's celebrated in the States quite nicely. Katie was not immune to the swiftly approaching "most wonderful time of the year", and so she couldn't resist picking up a few things for the house. She bought the tiniest Christmas tree you ever did see, complete with lights, tinsel, and ornaments. Yes, Christmas has come to the Bob and Katie household.
*That is not to say that they don't believe in a higher power or powers, but it's my estimation that the majority of Japanese are more superstitious than religious, at least in the traditional sense of the word.
- The rest of this week is still up in the air. I'm taking paid leave on Friday because my one class was cancelled because, instead of conversation, the students will study grammar so that they don't fail as spectacularly for their upcoming exams as they did the last go around. Instead, I'll be headed to Arashiyama, which is another spot near Kyoto where the fall foliage is said to be particularly beautiful. On Saturday, we're having some friends over and on Sunday, Katie is taking me somewhere for a "birthday surprise". I guess and guess at what it could possibly be, but she assures me that I'm quite far from discovering whatever diabolical scheme she has concocted. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to it.
-Bob
Monday, November 19, 2007
Thanksgiving Thankstacular 2007
Last night Bob and I did something we thought near impossible. We cooked Thanksgiving dinner for 18 people. Here is the story:THE LEAD-UP:
For a long time now, I've been suggesting to Bob that we should have his coworkers over. We have the space for it, and it's the polite thing to do, anyway. So we decided to do it at Thanksgiving. We invited the principal and his wife, the vice-principal, and all the English teachers (I think there are 6 or 7, besides Bob.) However, only 4 told us they could come. Luckily none of them showed up in costume. The principal's wife, who speaks excellent English and has a very good understanding of American culture, said "We have to wear costumes, don't we?" And the vice-principal RSVPed by saying "Yes, I will come to your Halloween party." I was inclined to just let them dress up and see what happens, but Bob informed them that no costumes were required.
One guy told Bob he was really excited to eat turkey. We had been going back and forth over whether to have turkey, or maybe just chicken or ham, which are much easier to find and also smaller. We don't have an oven, so our friend offered to lend us her electric oven. No one bakes in Japan-- it's a big waste of energy to heat such a large space when you're only baking one dish. And the ovens they do sell are much smaller, not exactly turkey-size. So we thought maybe we just won't have one. The side dishes are the best part of Thanksgiving anyway. But when that teacher kept talking about the turkey, we couldn't disappoint him, right? We took a trip to Costco, where we found the smallest turkey was 16.8 lbs/ 7.6 kg. And it was $40, having been imported from America. We got it anyway.
Now, with this turkey on our hands (which barely fit in our fridge and ended up breaking the glass shelf it was laid on) we knew had to invite more people. We sent out an email to a few foreign friends in the area, all other English teachers. A few people replied, so we now had a guest list of about 8. I was still worried, though, so I told some people at my office about it. I thought maybe 1 or 2 people would come. But many of the Japanese staff got really excited. "My first Thanksgiving dinner!" they said. We ended up having 3 people from my work. Then some more of our foreign friends replied to our email. Uh-oh. We now had a guest list of 15 people. As it turned out, another of Bob's coworkers showed up anyway, making a grand total of 16 guests.
COOKING:
With all these people on our hands, we doubled and tripled recipes in order to feed everyone. Never mind that we had never cooked an entire Thanksgiving dinner for even a few people. In addition to the prize turkey, we made stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, garlic green beans, and ginger carrots. We bought corncobs, rolls, 2 pies, ice cream and most importantly, black olives. We asked people to bring drinks or desserts, or a side dish. So in addition to the main meal, there were chips, guacamole, salad, raisins, and enough beer and cheap wine so that it flowed all night.
The hardest part was cooking the turkey. I don't really know anything about cooking meat. Since Bob used to work as a prep cook, he got the job of cooking the turkey. At first he saved the giblets, thinking that we could use them in gravy, but then decided that it might be a bad idea to eat the parts of a turkey that are used as a filtration system. At least it wasn't a Chinese lead-infested turkey. I put some spices together and he rubbed them on the bird, and it went in the oven at noon.
The rest of the cooking was pretty standard Thanksgiving stuff, but with a few complications: 1. Our stove only has 2 burners. 2. We have few cooking tools. 3. With the turkey in the oven (or in the fridge, or in the freezer, or anywhere else we kept it) nothing else would fit. Now, I'm used to putting everything in the oven and letting it all cook, and then going and watching the parade. Not here. From 12-6, the turkey took up every available centimeter of space. So anything else that needed to be cooked had to go in the microwave on "grill" setting, or on the stove-- if there was room on the stove. It was a process. And then the was the most frustrating thing of all: 4. Measurement conversions are a bitch.
You would think that it would be a simple matter of converting US measurements to metric ones. And you would be wrong. You see, there are also Japanese measurements in addition to metric ones. A Japanese cup is equal to 200 milliliters. A US cup is 237 milliliters. All of our measuring tools mark the Japanese cup, not the American one. It was only a month or so ago that I finally figured this out. "Hey, does this look like a cup of water to you?" "Um... I don't know-- wait! I think it's missing 37 milliliters!" Well, it wasn't exactly like that... but I did think that Japanese cups look smaller. Now I know why.
And then there was the not-so-simple matter that the oven had temperatures labeled only in Fahrenheit (not sure why) but our meat thermometer was only labeled in Celsius. This is usually okay, since I've gotten used to describing the outside temperature in Celsius, but I'm not so good with higher temps. And when cooking turkey so that it's still juicy but no one gets salmonella- you kind of have to be precise. We left a Fahrenheit-Celsius converter webpage open on the computer, so we could keep running back and forth to check if it was bacteria-free yet.
THE PARTY ITSELF:With all the turkey fuss, it wasn't done until 1 hour after the party technically started. People began to arrive at 5, and at first, the Japanese people all remained in the back room while the foreigners stayed in the kitchen. Bob and I were still cooking, and were trying to be good hosts while quickly finishing up dinner. Once the beers and boxed wine started flowing, however, the problem began to sort itself out as people loosened up. We did introductions right before carving the turkey. The best part was making everyone say what they were thankful for. Most foreigners expressed thanks for the Amagasaki Costco, or Bob's stepdad's awesome macaroni and cheese recipe. But some people mentioned that this was their first proper Thanksgiving in years. Some people have been here for 3 or 4 years, and missed having home cooking on Thanksgiving. One girl noted that this was the time of year that many foreigners start to get really lonely-- the excitement of being in Japan has worn off, the weather is starting to get pretty chilly, and many people miss being at home during the holiday season. To her, the party was the perfect antidote to that. I didn't realize how much our crazy Thanksgiving scheme meant to some people. For me, it was the most fun Thanksgiving I've ever had. At home, it can feel routine-- we eat the same things every year, my family always argues, and the Cowboys win the football game (boo.) But when we pulled the turkey out of the oven yesterday, everyone cheered. The foreigners were so happy to have a taste of home here in Japan. The Japanese people all gathered round to see exactly how we planned to serve this thing. Everyone was excited.
Our Japanese friends all said the opposite thing: they were thankful to be invited to a Thanksgiving dinner, since none of them had experienced one before. Some had never tried turkey before, and I don't think anyone had ever had mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, or Southern-style mac and cheese. Again, I didn't realize how much it meant to them to be invited into our home to celebrate with us. But here in Japan, where it's less common to have people over (since people have much smaller houses, so there's no room), and certainly less common to have people over for Thanksgiving, it was a pretty big
deal. They were even impressed with the cranberry sauce from a can. One of my friends explained to a roomful of bewildered Japanese people that "it's very hard to make." He then gestured towards me chopping the jelly into slices.THE END:
So all in all, it was a grand success. Maybe we'll do it again, but I think next year might be a potluck instead.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Hikone, earthquake, and other assorted things
Just a few things to report (I'll make this quick):
Last weekend Katie and I went to Hikone, which is the city where Katie spent her semester abroad during college studying Japanese. Hikone is located in Shiga Prefecture and is situated on the eastern shore of Lake Biwa - the largest lake in Japan. Hikone's population is around 100,000 or so, making it a relatively small city and therefore very convenient to traverse by foot - indeed, you're often required to do so, since there are only two train stations: JR Hikone and JR Minami-Hikone. The city's main attraction is Hikone Castle, which is one of precious few original castles in existence, meaning that it was not completely destroyed over the years by various fires, earthquakes, WWII, etc. It occupies the highest point in Hikone, and a short hike from the inner moat to the main tower provides a sweeping view of the city below, the mountains to the north, and of course, Lake Biwa itself to the west. It was truly one of the most spectacular views I've seen since I came to Japan three months ago.
This week has been unremarkable, with a few minor exceptions. First, there was an earthquake on Tuesday. It was barely a tremor, but it occurred during my only class of the day. The students felt it before I did: I just saw them looking at each other with wide eyes and wondered why they looked surprised, when all of the sudden I felt a little shake underneath my feet, like a giant truck had just passed by. It was small enough to be exciting without being legitimately scary, but big enough so that I really don't care to experience anything more powerful!
Also this week, Katie and I tried out some new recipes. The first was a standard Chinese stir-fry. We make a lot of stir-fry around Chez Robert and Katie, but we usually add sauce from a packet instead of making it ourselves. So we gave the latter a go this time around. The second, which I tried out last night, was a really simple chicken curry recipe I found on the internet. I've shared it below if anyone's interested (you do need a s*** ton of garam masala though, so don't forget to hit up your grocer's spice aisle before you attempt to make it!)
This weekend, Katie and I are headed back to Nara (the place with all the deer running around) to check out the famous Shoso-in Treasures. My principal walks up to me one day and hands me two tickets to this exhibition and says, "Here." Apparently the tickets were for him and his wife, but because they are busy this weekend, Katie and I get to enjoy them! It will be nice: I really enjoy getting out and doing cultural and, dare I say, "Japanish" things on the weekends, because I find it compensates rather nicely for all the time I spend at school doing a whole lot of nothing when not in class. :) Tonight, though, we're "fonduing" with some fellow gaijin down in Kobe; sometimes you just need to hang out with other ex-pats, eat some melty cheese and bread squares, and complain about how there seems to be some gene in the Japanese DNA that makes them walk right in front of your bicycle. Seriously. Even if they've been standing in the same exact position at the bus stop for five minutes straight, as soon as they see you heading towards them on your bike, no matter how fast you're going, they will suddenly be overcome with the urge to take a step either forward or backward - whatever will put them directly in your path. We've all been there. Although I suppose it would be healthy to also get some Japanese friends, so we could hang out with them, eat some melty oyakodon, and complain about how the gaijin are ruining this country. I mean come on. And have you seen what big noses they have?
Katie and I are putting together a little Thanksgiving dinner on the 18th, and we've invited all the Japanese English teachers at my school to our house for the festivities. Anyone care to help me think of some side dishes to serve? Please bear in mind that we don't really have an oven big enough to accommodate anything bigger than your average dinner plate.
Well, that's all for now! Oh, the chicken curry recipe is below.
-Bob
Chicken Curry
Last weekend Katie and I went to Hikone, which is the city where Katie spent her semester abroad during college studying Japanese. Hikone is located in Shiga Prefecture and is situated on the eastern shore of Lake Biwa - the largest lake in Japan. Hikone's population is around 100,000 or so, making it a relatively small city and therefore very convenient to traverse by foot - indeed, you're often required to do so, since there are only two train stations: JR Hikone and JR Minami-Hikone. The city's main attraction is Hikone Castle, which is one of precious few original castles in existence, meaning that it was not completely destroyed over the years by various fires, earthquakes, WWII, etc. It occupies the highest point in Hikone, and a short hike from the inner moat to the main tower provides a sweeping view of the city below, the mountains to the north, and of course, Lake Biwa itself to the west. It was truly one of the most spectacular views I've seen since I came to Japan three months ago.
This week has been unremarkable, with a few minor exceptions. First, there was an earthquake on Tuesday. It was barely a tremor, but it occurred during my only class of the day. The students felt it before I did: I just saw them looking at each other with wide eyes and wondered why they looked surprised, when all of the sudden I felt a little shake underneath my feet, like a giant truck had just passed by. It was small enough to be exciting without being legitimately scary, but big enough so that I really don't care to experience anything more powerful!
Also this week, Katie and I tried out some new recipes. The first was a standard Chinese stir-fry. We make a lot of stir-fry around Chez Robert and Katie, but we usually add sauce from a packet instead of making it ourselves. So we gave the latter a go this time around. The second, which I tried out last night, was a really simple chicken curry recipe I found on the internet. I've shared it below if anyone's interested (you do need a s*** ton of garam masala though, so don't forget to hit up your grocer's spice aisle before you attempt to make it!)
This weekend, Katie and I are headed back to Nara (the place with all the deer running around) to check out the famous Shoso-in Treasures. My principal walks up to me one day and hands me two tickets to this exhibition and says, "Here." Apparently the tickets were for him and his wife, but because they are busy this weekend, Katie and I get to enjoy them! It will be nice: I really enjoy getting out and doing cultural and, dare I say, "Japanish" things on the weekends, because I find it compensates rather nicely for all the time I spend at school doing a whole lot of nothing when not in class. :) Tonight, though, we're "fonduing" with some fellow gaijin down in Kobe; sometimes you just need to hang out with other ex-pats, eat some melty cheese and bread squares, and complain about how there seems to be some gene in the Japanese DNA that makes them walk right in front of your bicycle. Seriously. Even if they've been standing in the same exact position at the bus stop for five minutes straight, as soon as they see you heading towards them on your bike, no matter how fast you're going, they will suddenly be overcome with the urge to take a step either forward or backward - whatever will put them directly in your path. We've all been there. Although I suppose it would be healthy to also get some Japanese friends, so we could hang out with them, eat some melty oyakodon, and complain about how the gaijin are ruining this country. I mean come on. And have you seen what big noses they have?
Katie and I are putting together a little Thanksgiving dinner on the 18th, and we've invited all the Japanese English teachers at my school to our house for the festivities. Anyone care to help me think of some side dishes to serve? Please bear in mind that we don't really have an oven big enough to accommodate anything bigger than your average dinner plate.
Well, that's all for now! Oh, the chicken curry recipe is below.
-Bob
Chicken Curry
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 10g Butter
- 3 Cloves Garlic, crushed
- 1 Medium Onion, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp Garam Masala
- 1 tsp Ground Coriander
- ½ tsp dried mint (for lack of mint, I used dried basil instead)
- 570g Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast, diced
- 200 ml water
Method
- Heat the oil and butter in a wok or large, heavy frying pan. Add the garlic and onion and stir fry for about 5 minutes until onion is golden.
- Stir in the garam masala, coriander and mint. Add the chicken and cook over a moderate heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the water, stir, and simmer without a lid for 10-15 minutes until the chicken is cooked and sauce has thickened. (I also added a little flour to the sauce. You could also try adding less water)
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Happy Halloween!
Many things happened since my last post:
Katie went to the Jidai Matsuri (pictures up on Flickr) and had a lot of fun while I did a whole lot of nothing at school. At least I had a class on Friday!
I went to Katie's school on Saturday and had a Halloween party with the childrens, and my definition of "cute" has been forever changed by what I witnessed there.
On Sunday we went to Kobe and did a bit of shopping.
This week, Katie didn't have to work on Monday, Tuesday, or today, so she was able to go and get some administrative things done related to her work visa. Every gaijin (foreigner) in Japan has to get an Alien Registration Card. Sometimes cops will stop you randomly, and you have to be able to produce either a passport or an ARC (aka "Gaijin Card") on the spot, or you get in big trouble. I feel like being a foreigner in Japan is probably a lot like being black in most places: a lot of people are afraid of you and police stop you for no reason. I do get a little paranoid around cops, I've found, even if I haven't done anything wrong and I have all the appropriate documentation on me. My friend Adam, who's teaching in Busan, South Korea, said he felt pretty much the same way.
This weekend Katie and I will be headed to Hikone, in nearby Shiga Prefecture, which is the city where Katie did her semester abroad a year and a half ago. She's going to show me literally EVERYTHING there is to see and do there ("It'll take a whole day," Katie said). So that should give you some idea of how big the place is.
Oh, one more thing of note: today I taught my kids how to play King's Cup, which, if you've never heard of it before, is a drinking game you can play with a deck of cards. Here's how it works:
Players sit in a circle. In the middle of the circle is an empty cup. Around the empty cup is spread a deck of cards - all cards face down. Each player, in turn, picks a card up from the pile and displays it to the group. Depending on the value of the card, you or the other players have to perform a certain activity.
If you draw a...
2 - You. The person who drew the card selects a player to take a drink.
3 - Me. The person who drew the card takes a drink.
4 - Floor. Last player to touch the floor when this card is drawn takes a drink.
5 - Guys. All the male players drink.
6 - Chicks. All the female players drink.
7 - Heaven. Last player to point to the ceiling when this card is drawn takes a drink.
8 - Pick a mate. The person who drew the card picks another player. Both drink.
9 - Bust a rhyme. Going around in the direction of play, the person who draws a card says a sentence. The next player has to come up with a sentence that rhymes with the first one (it doesn't have to logically follow the first sentence in terms of content). The players continue this until one of the players is unable to come up with a rhyme. That person drinks.
10 - Categories. The person who drew a card announces a category of items, for example, "car manufacturers". Going around in the direction of play, the players have to name items in that category. So the next player in turn might say, "Toyota", and the player after that might say "Honda", for example. The first person to repeat an item or fail to come up with one has to take a drink.
J - "Never Have I Ever". The player who drew the card says a sentence with the following format: "Never have I ever _________". Any activity can fill the blank, such as "Never have I ever stayed awake for 24 hours straight." Anyone in the group who HAS done that activity (in this example, anyone who HAS remained awake for 24 hours) takes a drink. In the direction of play, the players each take turns thinking of a new "Never Have I Ever" until all the players have had a turn.
Q - Questions. The player who drew the card asks another player a question. The person to whom the question was asked may not answer the question, but must instead ask a DIFFERENT question to a DIFFERENT player. The game keeps going like this until someone makes a mistake. The first person to mess up takes a drink.
K - King's Cup. The player who drew the King must pour some of whatever they're drinking into the cup in the middle of the circle. The player who draws the 4th and final king must drink the contents of the cup (which now contains a mixture of potentially 3 different kinds of drinks). The drawing of the fourth king also ends the game.
A - Make a rule. The player who drew the Ace must create a rule that will apply for the duration of the entire game. The player may choose to cancel a rule previously created by another player. Some commonly used rules are "Little Green Man" (before taking a drink, every player must make the gesture of taking a little man off the lid of your can/bottle, placing him gently on the table, and then gently placing him back on the can/bottle after you've finished. Any player who fails to do this must drink again) or "Chin on the Table" - if you say a word (determined by the creator of the rule), you have to put your chin on the table and keep it there until another player says the word.
There are other variants of this game, of course. Because it's a school environment, though, I couldn't very well give each of the students a beer, so wherever it says "take a drink", I would give them a point instead. The object of the game, then, is to finish the game with the least number of points. It's actually good practice, since it's all in English. Certain activities, like questions, are good practice for forming questions in English, and Categories is excellent for practicing vocabulary. And "Never Have I Ever" is ALWAYS a good way to get to know your other players.
-Bob
Katie went to the Jidai Matsuri (pictures up on Flickr) and had a lot of fun while I did a whole lot of nothing at school. At least I had a class on Friday!
I went to Katie's school on Saturday and had a Halloween party with the childrens, and my definition of "cute" has been forever changed by what I witnessed there.
On Sunday we went to Kobe and did a bit of shopping.
This week, Katie didn't have to work on Monday, Tuesday, or today, so she was able to go and get some administrative things done related to her work visa. Every gaijin (foreigner) in Japan has to get an Alien Registration Card. Sometimes cops will stop you randomly, and you have to be able to produce either a passport or an ARC (aka "Gaijin Card") on the spot, or you get in big trouble. I feel like being a foreigner in Japan is probably a lot like being black in most places: a lot of people are afraid of you and police stop you for no reason. I do get a little paranoid around cops, I've found, even if I haven't done anything wrong and I have all the appropriate documentation on me. My friend Adam, who's teaching in Busan, South Korea, said he felt pretty much the same way.
This weekend Katie and I will be headed to Hikone, in nearby Shiga Prefecture, which is the city where Katie did her semester abroad a year and a half ago. She's going to show me literally EVERYTHING there is to see and do there ("It'll take a whole day," Katie said). So that should give you some idea of how big the place is.
Oh, one more thing of note: today I taught my kids how to play King's Cup, which, if you've never heard of it before, is a drinking game you can play with a deck of cards. Here's how it works:
Players sit in a circle. In the middle of the circle is an empty cup. Around the empty cup is spread a deck of cards - all cards face down. Each player, in turn, picks a card up from the pile and displays it to the group. Depending on the value of the card, you or the other players have to perform a certain activity.
If you draw a...
2 - You. The person who drew the card selects a player to take a drink.
3 - Me. The person who drew the card takes a drink.
4 - Floor. Last player to touch the floor when this card is drawn takes a drink.
5 - Guys. All the male players drink.
6 - Chicks. All the female players drink.
7 - Heaven. Last player to point to the ceiling when this card is drawn takes a drink.
8 - Pick a mate. The person who drew the card picks another player. Both drink.
9 - Bust a rhyme. Going around in the direction of play, the person who draws a card says a sentence. The next player has to come up with a sentence that rhymes with the first one (it doesn't have to logically follow the first sentence in terms of content). The players continue this until one of the players is unable to come up with a rhyme. That person drinks.
10 - Categories. The person who drew a card announces a category of items, for example, "car manufacturers". Going around in the direction of play, the players have to name items in that category. So the next player in turn might say, "Toyota", and the player after that might say "Honda", for example. The first person to repeat an item or fail to come up with one has to take a drink.
J - "Never Have I Ever". The player who drew the card says a sentence with the following format: "Never have I ever _________". Any activity can fill the blank, such as "Never have I ever stayed awake for 24 hours straight." Anyone in the group who HAS done that activity (in this example, anyone who HAS remained awake for 24 hours) takes a drink. In the direction of play, the players each take turns thinking of a new "Never Have I Ever" until all the players have had a turn.
Q - Questions. The player who drew the card asks another player a question. The person to whom the question was asked may not answer the question, but must instead ask a DIFFERENT question to a DIFFERENT player. The game keeps going like this until someone makes a mistake. The first person to mess up takes a drink.
K - King's Cup. The player who drew the King must pour some of whatever they're drinking into the cup in the middle of the circle. The player who draws the 4th and final king must drink the contents of the cup (which now contains a mixture of potentially 3 different kinds of drinks). The drawing of the fourth king also ends the game.
A - Make a rule. The player who drew the Ace must create a rule that will apply for the duration of the entire game. The player may choose to cancel a rule previously created by another player. Some commonly used rules are "Little Green Man" (before taking a drink, every player must make the gesture of taking a little man off the lid of your can/bottle, placing him gently on the table, and then gently placing him back on the can/bottle after you've finished. Any player who fails to do this must drink again) or "Chin on the Table" - if you say a word (determined by the creator of the rule), you have to put your chin on the table and keep it there until another player says the word.
There are other variants of this game, of course. Because it's a school environment, though, I couldn't very well give each of the students a beer, so wherever it says "take a drink", I would give them a point instead. The object of the game, then, is to finish the game with the least number of points. It's actually good practice, since it's all in English. Certain activities, like questions, are good practice for forming questions in English, and Categories is excellent for practicing vocabulary. And "Never Have I Ever" is ALWAYS a good way to get to know your other players.
-Bob
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
I don't have a real job
This week, the students are taking their midterm examinations, so I don't have any classes at all. I have essentially nothing to do this week. I have to be physically present at school, but being mentally present is totally optional. This leaves me with a lot of free time to bring my daydreaming and time-wasting techniques back up to their pre-college-graduation levels.
Katie has Mondays off, so she had planned on going to Kyoto to see some sort of festival of some sort. Kyoto's the "cultural capital of Japan", and as such it has more than its fair share of festivals. I've never actually attended a festival before, but I've had them described to me and I've seen pictures, and it seems (to the uninitiated observer, at least) to be a lot of guys yelling and parading through the streets in an effort to appease _____________ (insert minor deity here) or to celebrate _____________ (insert seemingly insignificant event or random season here). My tone may strike you as somewhat dismissive, but rest assured that until I attend a festival and see for myself what it's all about, I can only do the responsible thing and resort to sweeping generalizations and offensive stereotypes.
Anyway, since I have no classes today, it hardly seems fair that I'm expected to be at school while Katie gets to galavant around Kyoto. It would seem unfair, at least, had I not learned early on in my professional career that where you are is frequently as important as what you do when you're there. Someone once said, "90% of life is just showing up". I don't remember who said it, but boy were they smart. So it follows that even though I have nothing to do, my mere presence at the school helps to establish my identity as one of the team.
This weekend went by really quickly. Katie's friend Hiroko visited from Shiga for Katie's birthday celebration on Saturday at our local bar, Half Moon. We met up with some of our fellow ex-pats from around the area: Anna and Erin from Seattle, Dave from Wisconsin, and Jeff from London. We bought a chocolate butter cake from a local bakery and brought it to the bar for mass consumption (they let you bring in outside food, which is awesome). On top of the cake were these little animals fashioned out of gumdrops and icing: there was a chicken, a dog, and a raccoon. We decided to make up a story about these animals, and Jeff took some pictures to accompany the story. I'll be posting those to my Flickr account later on (www.flickr.com/photos/wahoobob312
for those of you who haven't been there yet). Needless to say, it was very dramatic and we all had a good laugh about the pictures.
Sunday Katie and I went to the Kyocera Dome in Osaka to check out the Ryukyu Festival. It was a really interesting event: you could walk around on the lower level and buy snacks from the various vendors that had set up inside the arena while watching the live performances broadcast on the giant monitors that hung from the top of the stage. At one point Katie and I ventured up to our actual seats in the nosebleed section, but we found that it was a lot more fun to go down to the lower level and lounge around on the big tarp with everyone else (many of whom, by the end of the evening, were drunk and dancing around). We were able to taste several Okinawan dishes: Okinawan curry, Okinawa style soba and yakisoba (noodles and fried noodles), goya champloo (goya is bitter melon, and champloo is the Ryukyu term for stir-fry). We also got a curly fry and root beer set (random). Oh, and everything contained Spam. It may strike you as odd, but I think Spam is really big in the islands. For example, it's really popular in Hawaii. And since Okinawa is to Japan as Hawaii is to the US, it's only natural that they would share a mutual love of Spam, I suppose.
Katie has Mondays off, so she had planned on going to Kyoto to see some sort of festival of some sort. Kyoto's the "cultural capital of Japan", and as such it has more than its fair share of festivals. I've never actually attended a festival before, but I've had them described to me and I've seen pictures, and it seems (to the uninitiated observer, at least) to be a lot of guys yelling and parading through the streets in an effort to appease _____________ (insert minor deity here) or to celebrate _____________ (insert seemingly insignificant event or random season here). My tone may strike you as somewhat dismissive, but rest assured that until I attend a festival and see for myself what it's all about, I can only do the responsible thing and resort to sweeping generalizations and offensive stereotypes.
Anyway, since I have no classes today, it hardly seems fair that I'm expected to be at school while Katie gets to galavant around Kyoto. It would seem unfair, at least, had I not learned early on in my professional career that where you are is frequently as important as what you do when you're there. Someone once said, "90% of life is just showing up". I don't remember who said it, but boy were they smart. So it follows that even though I have nothing to do, my mere presence at the school helps to establish my identity as one of the team.
This weekend went by really quickly. Katie's friend Hiroko visited from Shiga for Katie's birthday celebration on Saturday at our local bar, Half Moon. We met up with some of our fellow ex-pats from around the area: Anna and Erin from Seattle, Dave from Wisconsin, and Jeff from London. We bought a chocolate butter cake from a local bakery and brought it to the bar for mass consumption (they let you bring in outside food, which is awesome). On top of the cake were these little animals fashioned out of gumdrops and icing: there was a chicken, a dog, and a raccoon. We decided to make up a story about these animals, and Jeff took some pictures to accompany the story. I'll be posting those to my Flickr account later on (www.flickr.com/photos/wahoobob312
for those of you who haven't been there yet). Needless to say, it was very dramatic and we all had a good laugh about the pictures.Sunday Katie and I went to the Kyocera Dome in Osaka to check out the Ryukyu Festival. It was a really interesting event: you could walk around on the lower level and buy snacks from the various vendors that had set up inside the arena while watching the live performances broadcast on the giant monitors that hung from the top of the stage. At one point Katie and I ventured up to our actual seats in the nosebleed section, but we found that it was a lot more fun to go down to the lower level and lounge around on the big tarp with everyone else (many of whom, by the end of the evening, were drunk and dancing around). We were able to taste several Okinawan dishes: Okinawan curry, Okinawa style soba and yakisoba (noodles and fried noodles), goya champloo (goya is bitter melon, and champloo is the Ryukyu term for stir-fry). We also got a curly fry and root beer set (random). Oh, and everything contained Spam. It may strike you as odd, but I think Spam is really big in the islands. For example, it's really popular in Hawaii. And since Okinawa is to Japan as Hawaii is to the US, it's only natural that they would share a mutual love of Spam, I suppose.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Happy Birthday to Katie!
Yesterday was Katie's birthday. She's 22. We celebrated by going to a nice Italian restaurant called "Da Vinci's" that's somewhere between our house and the closest train station (about a 5 minute bike ride or so). I had veal marsala and Katie had lasagna; it was pretty good! Not the best meal I've ever eaten, but for being in Japan where a lot of ethnic food is watered down for Japanese tastes, it was damn impressive. This weekend we'll celebrate some more by attending the Ryukyu Festival in Osaka. Katie is really into Okinawa (the clothes, the music, the culture, etc.) and the Ryukyu Festival is all about the various aspects of life in the Ryukyu Islands (of which Okinawa is a part). The focus is mainly on the music, though. It's basically a big concert with various acts performing throughout the day.
The Ryukyu Islands, a long time ago, comprised a kingdom entirely separate from Japan. Over the years, Japan came to dominate these islands, and in the process suppressed their language and regional customs in an effort to "Japanisize" them. Flash forward to World War II, when the battle of Okinawa proved to be one of the bloodiest in the Pacific Theater: almost 2/3 of those Japanese killed during that battle were civilians (a little fewer than 150,000 people). After World War II, Okinawa became the location of the United States Forces Japan (USFJ) and was fully under American control for the first 27 years, at which point it was ceded to the Japanese government. The US still maintains bases on the island; many US troops are stationed there.
In spite of such hardship, the Ryukyu Islands never fully lost their identity. In fact, Ryukyu culture and music is currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity among the mainland Japanese; walk around any large Japanese town and you're likely to find Okinawan cuisine right alongside more "traditional" fare. Okinawan born artists are among the most popular musicians out there today; hopefully Katie and I will get to see some of the more famous ones at the Festival (I haven't yet seen a lineup).
-Bob
The Ryukyu Islands, a long time ago, comprised a kingdom entirely separate from Japan. Over the years, Japan came to dominate these islands, and in the process suppressed their language and regional customs in an effort to "Japanisize" them. Flash forward to World War II, when the battle of Okinawa proved to be one of the bloodiest in the Pacific Theater: almost 2/3 of those Japanese killed during that battle were civilians (a little fewer than 150,000 people). After World War II, Okinawa became the location of the United States Forces Japan (USFJ) and was fully under American control for the first 27 years, at which point it was ceded to the Japanese government. The US still maintains bases on the island; many US troops are stationed there.
In spite of such hardship, the Ryukyu Islands never fully lost their identity. In fact, Ryukyu culture and music is currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity among the mainland Japanese; walk around any large Japanese town and you're likely to find Okinawan cuisine right alongside more "traditional" fare. Okinawan born artists are among the most popular musicians out there today; hopefully Katie and I will get to see some of the more famous ones at the Festival (I haven't yet seen a lineup).
-Bob
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
I'm lazy
So I have a nasty habit of letting things go...
Recently I bought a plane ticket to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, because that's where I'll be spending the winter holidays. Well, there and Singapore to be specific. Anyway, I'm expecting my plane tickets to arrive by post, forgetting that, of course, the post will come when I'm still at work and no one will be home to sign for any packages. So to my surprise, one day I come home from work and there's a little slip of paper in the mailbox (in Japanese) telling me that the postal service attempted to deliver a package from ANA (All Nippon Airways), the company from which I had bought my ticket. It then has instructions detailing how I can go about contacting them - they even have an English help line - to arrange a more convenient delivery time. Being the responsible adult that I am, I contacted them immediately to arrange delivery for that evening, and now I have my tickets in hand, ready to go.
I'm lying, of course. What actually happened is that I promptly misplaced the notice and forgot all about it for about a week, at which point I saw it lying on the table and thought to myself, "Self, I really should get that taken care of." So I called the post office's English help line, and they informed me that, naturally, it's one day past the last day that the post office can hold it before sending it back to ANA, so I have to call the airline and have them re-send the tickets. I don't know if I'm going to get charged for this, but it's the least I deserve.
-Bob
Recently I bought a plane ticket to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, because that's where I'll be spending the winter holidays. Well, there and Singapore to be specific. Anyway, I'm expecting my plane tickets to arrive by post, forgetting that, of course, the post will come when I'm still at work and no one will be home to sign for any packages. So to my surprise, one day I come home from work and there's a little slip of paper in the mailbox (in Japanese) telling me that the postal service attempted to deliver a package from ANA (All Nippon Airways), the company from which I had bought my ticket. It then has instructions detailing how I can go about contacting them - they even have an English help line - to arrange a more convenient delivery time. Being the responsible adult that I am, I contacted them immediately to arrange delivery for that evening, and now I have my tickets in hand, ready to go.
I'm lying, of course. What actually happened is that I promptly misplaced the notice and forgot all about it for about a week, at which point I saw it lying on the table and thought to myself, "Self, I really should get that taken care of." So I called the post office's English help line, and they informed me that, naturally, it's one day past the last day that the post office can hold it before sending it back to ANA, so I have to call the airline and have them re-send the tickets. I don't know if I'm going to get charged for this, but it's the least I deserve.
-Bob
Monday, October 15, 2007
Visit to Nagoya
Last weekend, Bob and I went to Nagoya to see my old roommate, Kayoko. Kayoko and I were roommates back from January to March 2006 at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities. She lives in Saitama-ken, in the suburbs of Tokyo, but happened to be in Nagoya on business.
By express train (not bullet train) Nagoya is only 2.5 or 3 hours away from Amagasaki, so we went to visit for a day and a half. We had lunch at her cousin's okonomiyaki restaurant. Her aunt is a waitress there, so we got to meet her as well. They were very sweet to us, and gave us free ice cream. Okonomiyaki is cooked like a pancake, on a griddle, except the batter is filled with cabbage, onion, meat, seafood, etc. It's topped with a sweet sauce, mayonnaise, and dried fish flakes. Bob's okonomiyaki was shaped like a heart. 
As we were leaving, her cousin recommended we go see the Nagoya Daibutsu (statue of Great Buddha) at a temple nearby. The temple itself looked like it had come from South Asia, not Japan-- there were statues of elephants all around, and the altar was gilded and very ornate. Japanese temples tend to go more for the simplicity-is-beauty aesthetic. We walked around the inside of the temple, where there were many framed documents on the wall proving the temple's connection to Sri Lanka. I'm not sure why there was a Sri Lankan-style temple in the middle of Nagoya, but it was really neat to see. It was so different from the other temples I've seen. And the Great Buddha himself was quite impressive.
Then we went to a park in the city center, with a large viewing platform, several stories high, from which we watched the sunset. We had dinner reservations for 7:30, so we had some time to kill. First we found a hotel for the night, and then Kayoko took us to a huge 100-yen store, where we happily wandered around for quite some time. For dinner, we went to a Moroccan restaurant called Casablanca. It's been such a long time since I had Middle Eastern or Mediterranean food! I read in my Japan guidebook that there was a Moroccan restaurant in Nagoya with belly-dancing shows on the weekends, and I immediately asked Kayoko if she wanted to go. I don't think she had eaten that type of food before, but I think she liked it. We all ordered a set meal, so we were in there for at least 2 hours, watching the show and finishing all the food they brought us.
The next day, Bob and I headed out to the Tokugawa Art Museum. The Tokugawa clan was from Nagoya, and the museum is a display of Edo-period life. The best part was that most of the items were displayed in context-- for instance, there was a reconstructed teahouse inside the museum, in which the tea wares were all set up. The next room had a real Noh stage,
around which were displayed costumes, props, and masks. It made it easy to see how everything was used. They also had an impressive collection of swords, samurai armor, scrolls, and books. Some of the scrolls dated from the Heian period (794- 1185 AD) but most objects were a bit newer, usually from the 17th century. Afterwards, we met up with Kayoko and her uncle for lunch. One of the local specialties of Nagoya is kishimen-somen, a type of wide, flat noodle. You can't really go anywhere in Japan without hearing about all the local specialties, and Kayoko insisted we had to try kishimen-somen. It was quite tasty-- apparently you can't get these noodles anywhere else in Japan. Although Kansai is definitely my favorite region in Japan, the Nagoya/ central Japan region also has a lot to offer. I hope I get to go back sometime- I really want to visit Nagano and the Japanese Alps.
By express train (not bullet train) Nagoya is only 2.5 or 3 hours away from Amagasaki, so we went to visit for a day and a half. We had lunch at her cousin's okonomiyaki restaurant. Her aunt is a waitress there, so we got to meet her as well. They were very sweet to us, and gave us free ice cream. Okonomiyaki is cooked like a pancake, on a griddle, except the batter is filled with cabbage, onion, meat, seafood, etc. It's topped with a sweet sauce, mayonnaise, and dried fish flakes. Bob's okonomiyaki was shaped like a heart. 
As we were leaving, her cousin recommended we go see the Nagoya Daibutsu (statue of Great Buddha) at a temple nearby. The temple itself looked like it had come from South Asia, not Japan-- there were statues of elephants all around, and the altar was gilded and very ornate. Japanese temples tend to go more for the simplicity-is-beauty aesthetic. We walked around the inside of the temple, where there were many framed documents on the wall proving the temple's connection to Sri Lanka. I'm not sure why there was a Sri Lankan-style temple in the middle of Nagoya, but it was really neat to see. It was so different from the other temples I've seen. And the Great Buddha himself was quite impressive.
Then we went to a park in the city center, with a large viewing platform, several stories high, from which we watched the sunset. We had dinner reservations for 7:30, so we had some time to kill. First we found a hotel for the night, and then Kayoko took us to a huge 100-yen store, where we happily wandered around for quite some time. For dinner, we went to a Moroccan restaurant called Casablanca. It's been such a long time since I had Middle Eastern or Mediterranean food! I read in my Japan guidebook that there was a Moroccan restaurant in Nagoya with belly-dancing shows on the weekends, and I immediately asked Kayoko if she wanted to go. I don't think she had eaten that type of food before, but I think she liked it. We all ordered a set meal, so we were in there for at least 2 hours, watching the show and finishing all the food they brought us.The next day, Bob and I headed out to the Tokugawa Art Museum. The Tokugawa clan was from Nagoya, and the museum is a display of Edo-period life. The best part was that most of the items were displayed in context-- for instance, there was a reconstructed teahouse inside the museum, in which the tea wares were all set up. The next room had a real Noh stage,
around which were displayed costumes, props, and masks. It made it easy to see how everything was used. They also had an impressive collection of swords, samurai armor, scrolls, and books. Some of the scrolls dated from the Heian period (794- 1185 AD) but most objects were a bit newer, usually from the 17th century. Afterwards, we met up with Kayoko and her uncle for lunch. One of the local specialties of Nagoya is kishimen-somen, a type of wide, flat noodle. You can't really go anywhere in Japan without hearing about all the local specialties, and Kayoko insisted we had to try kishimen-somen. It was quite tasty-- apparently you can't get these noodles anywhere else in Japan. Although Kansai is definitely my favorite region in Japan, the Nagoya/ central Japan region also has a lot to offer. I hope I get to go back sometime- I really want to visit Nagano and the Japanese Alps.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
I got a memo today
Today, my supervisor left a memo on my desk. Here it is, in its entirety:
"To all participants of the JET Programme,
Every year during a weekend at the end of October, a large number of costume-wearing foreigners take over several cars on the Osaka Loop Line and hold a Halloween party. The party attendees engage in a number of activities that disturb other passengers, including drinking alcohol inside the train cars, attacking others, damaging the cars, and leaving a large amount of garbage throughout the train. In addition, every time the train stops at a station the attendees all yell and run out onto the platform, then run into a different car to ride again, causing delays not only on the loop line, but also on other lines that are connected to the loop line. As a result of this party, a large number of complaints are filed with JR West and the police every year. Unfortunately, we have also been informed that some JET Programme participants attend this party.
This year, the Osaka Prefectural Police Department is planning to place a number of police officers at the stations and inside the cars of the Osaka Loop Line and arrest people on the spot if they observe any illegal activity. We strongly request that none of the members of the JET Programme participate in this party, as it causes a great amount of trouble for others.
In addition, participants caught engaging in any of the following conduct will be arrested on the spot by the Osaka Prefectural Police.
Causing the train to be delayed (Forcible Obstruction of Business)
Ripping the advertisements in the train (Destruction of Property)
Spitting in the train (Destruction of Property)
Vomiting in the train (Destruction of Property)
Standing on the seats without removing ones shoes (Destruction of Property)
Attacking others (Assault and Battery)"
I added the bold for emphasis. The implication here is that it's perfectly acceptable to stand on train seats, just so long as you remember to remove your shoes beforehand!
The memo also conveniently omits mention of the fact that many Japanese people participate in this activity as well - not just foreigners. I guess perhaps the innocent Japanese were manipulated into fiendish behavior by the wide-eyed gaijin devils and are therefore absolved of their responsibility. *Sigh* When you're a minority, you stick out, and so people are a lot more likely to notice when you slip up and do something stupid and will naturally apply it to the entire group of which you are just a representative sample. Every time I fumble with my chopsticks, or fail to produce adequate Japanese, or fall off my bike (don't ask), I inwardly cringe, because I know that every Japanese person watching is thinking to themselves "I knew it! Typical foreigner!" It goes way beyond the typical embarrassment of being caught in an awkward situation - now your entire race/gender/nationality/etc is on the line! You have to maintain dignity for the sake of foreigners everywhere! It's a lot of pressure to deal with, let me tell you.
"To all participants of the JET Programme,
Every year during a weekend at the end of October, a large number of costume-wearing foreigners take over several cars on the Osaka Loop Line and hold a Halloween party. The party attendees engage in a number of activities that disturb other passengers, including drinking alcohol inside the train cars, attacking others, damaging the cars, and leaving a large amount of garbage throughout the train. In addition, every time the train stops at a station the attendees all yell and run out onto the platform, then run into a different car to ride again, causing delays not only on the loop line, but also on other lines that are connected to the loop line. As a result of this party, a large number of complaints are filed with JR West and the police every year. Unfortunately, we have also been informed that some JET Programme participants attend this party.
This year, the Osaka Prefectural Police Department is planning to place a number of police officers at the stations and inside the cars of the Osaka Loop Line and arrest people on the spot if they observe any illegal activity. We strongly request that none of the members of the JET Programme participate in this party, as it causes a great amount of trouble for others.
In addition, participants caught engaging in any of the following conduct will be arrested on the spot by the Osaka Prefectural Police.
Causing the train to be delayed (Forcible Obstruction of Business)
Ripping the advertisements in the train (Destruction of Property)
Spitting in the train (Destruction of Property)
Vomiting in the train (Destruction of Property)
Standing on the seats without removing ones shoes (Destruction of Property)
Attacking others (Assault and Battery)"
I added the bold for emphasis. The implication here is that it's perfectly acceptable to stand on train seats, just so long as you remember to remove your shoes beforehand!
The memo also conveniently omits mention of the fact that many Japanese people participate in this activity as well - not just foreigners. I guess perhaps the innocent Japanese were manipulated into fiendish behavior by the wide-eyed gaijin devils and are therefore absolved of their responsibility. *Sigh* When you're a minority, you stick out, and so people are a lot more likely to notice when you slip up and do something stupid and will naturally apply it to the entire group of which you are just a representative sample. Every time I fumble with my chopsticks, or fail to produce adequate Japanese, or fall off my bike (don't ask), I inwardly cringe, because I know that every Japanese person watching is thinking to themselves "I knew it! Typical foreigner!" It goes way beyond the typical embarrassment of being caught in an awkward situation - now your entire race/gender/nationality/etc is on the line! You have to maintain dignity for the sake of foreigners everywhere! It's a lot of pressure to deal with, let me tell you.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
New Joint Blog
This will primarily be a place to keep our friends and families up-to-date on our goings on in Japan and elsewhere. Please check back regularly for updates; both Katie and I will be posting here periodically and independently of each other.
-Robert
-Robert
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