So what is this fabulous adventure I mysteriously alluded to in my last post?
Well, it all started a few years ago, even before we left for Japan. Actually, I can even trace it back to an AIM conversation between me and Bob before we started dating. We were doing the all the "get-to-know-you" stuff, and Bob said that his passion in life was to travel. I agreed. At that time neither of us had been to more than a few foreign countries, and had barely seen any of our own country, but what traveling we had done, we liked. And we wanted to do more. So when we were moving to Japan, one of noted Japan's proximity to Russia. I don't remember who first suggested that perhaps we could ride the Trans-Siberian Railroad when we were done with Japan. The original plan was to stay one year, then go home via train all the way to Western Europe, maybe London, and then fly home. I even bought a Trans-Sib guidebook back in July 2007 with some Barnes and Noble gift cards I got for graduating college. Then we arrived in Japan. The plan soon snowballed. We liked living abroad so much that we wanted to do it in more places. So we got to thinking. The plan became to ride the Trans-Sib to Europe and then work there, probably teaching English, perhaps in Poland or Turkey. Or the Czech Republic...or Greece...or Spain... so many opportunities!
At some point we ended up staying three years in Japan, and while we still like living abroad, we want to do more traveling. We do travel every break we get, which has allowed us to see the Philippines, Vietnam, Korea (twice!), Hong Kong, and quite a bit of Japan. But on these travels, especially in Southeast Asia, one always meets long term and round-the-world travelers. I met quite a few of these people when I went to Malaysia and Singapore four years ago, and Bob met several when he went the year after. Meeting people in hostels and hearing their fabulous stories is so inspiring, and also quite jealousy-inducing. The icing on the cake was when I found this great blog of an American family of six who went the whole way around the world without losing a single kid. At first I thought, I'd love to do that with my kids one day. It didn't occur to me that I have a great opportunity to do it right now.
Luckily it did finally occur to me, or Bob, and we started making plans. They were small-scale at first. Well, we already have this plan to go to Russia and Europe. Why don't we add in Southeast Asia at the beginning? It's quite easy to get from Japan to Bangkok, Singapore, Manila, or Jakarta. Then we could just work our way up through China and hook up with the Trans-Sib. And Bob has always wanted to go to the Middle East, so... why not go through Eastern Europe to Turkey, then swing down and see Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt? Then from Egypt, Africa is right there....
Several good friends who we met here in Japan have returned or moved to the southern hemisphere, so we decided to add Australia and New Zealand as our first stop. And we had such a good time at home last summer, plus Bob's got a free plane ticket home, that we decided we should go back to America for a month or two. We've also got two weddings to attend. So the trip as it now stands:
Fly to Virginia- stay through at least October 2nd- drive cross-country to California- fly to New Zealand- Australia- Southeast Asia, most likely including Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao- China- Mongolia- Russia- Eastern Europe, most likely including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and others?- Turkey- Syria- Lebanon- Israel- Jordan- Egypt- down the coast to South Africa- fly to South America- meander about with a sort of northward direction, and eventually find our way back to VA.
Here's where you come in. If you are moving abroad, live abroad, or have a good friend who does, let me know! We want to visit as many people as possible. Heck, you don't even have to live abroad; we'd love to come visit you on our cross-country trip. We will definitely be seeing friends/family in South Carolina, Texas, Colorado, Christchurch, NZ; Canberra, Melbourne, and Perth, Australia; Damascus, Syria; and possibly Liverpool, England. Know anyone else we should visit? Let us know!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
New Year's Resolution
I'm going to be a better blogger.
It would be hard to be worse, considering my last post was over a year ago. There's nowhere to go but up! That is good news. I don't even know if anyone reads this... it's not like I've given you any good reason to, with my erratic/ nonexistent updates. But I've got only about 200 days left in the Land of the Rising Sun. Okay, maybe a little more, maybe as many as 220. Still, not many. I want to document this whole experience... well, I wanted to document this whole experience, but it seems that I will have documented just a little here and there and (hopefully!) a lot in my final months. Whatever. Point is, I don't want to forget everything that happened. My life in Japan is fantastic. Honestly, I don't want to go. But Bob is ready to leave, and we've had three great years here, so I guess it's time. Little known fact: we originally came planning to stay only one year,but ended up staying three. For that I am eternally grateful to my husband. And, even better, a new adventure is starting soon.
So. I need to get back into the habit of blogging (or into it for the first time) so that I won't forget the end of this adventure, or the beginning of the next one.
What's your New Year's Resolution?
It would be hard to be worse, considering my last post was over a year ago. There's nowhere to go but up! That is good news. I don't even know if anyone reads this... it's not like I've given you any good reason to, with my erratic/ nonexistent updates. But I've got only about 200 days left in the Land of the Rising Sun. Okay, maybe a little more, maybe as many as 220. Still, not many. I want to document this whole experience... well, I wanted to document this whole experience, but it seems that I will have documented just a little here and there and (hopefully!) a lot in my final months. Whatever. Point is, I don't want to forget everything that happened. My life in Japan is fantastic. Honestly, I don't want to go. But Bob is ready to leave, and we've had three great years here, so I guess it's time. Little known fact: we originally came planning to stay only one year,but ended up staying three. For that I am eternally grateful to my husband. And, even better, a new adventure is starting soon.
So. I need to get back into the habit of blogging (or into it for the first time) so that I won't forget the end of this adventure, or the beginning of the next one.
What's your New Year's Resolution?
Saturday, December 6, 2008
That's Why I'm Not the Iron Chef
Bob and I have been watching a lot of "Ryoori no Tetsujin" lately. That's Iron Chef to you. It's not on the air anymore but many of the episodes are on Youtube, including some fantastic ones on milk, natto (fermented soybeans,) and umeboshi (pickled Japanese plums.) I started to play Iron Chef in my own kitchen, trying to come up with "original dishes that can truly be called works of art." I'm afraid, though, that my creativity is severely lacking compared to anything the Japanese pizza companies can dream up.
I like to read the ads that come through my mail slot purely for humor value. I've never ordered a pizza here, at least not for delivery. Dominos and Pizza Hut do exist here and I think they do a pretty brisk business (pizzas cost 18-30 bucks a pop, so I think they must be making money.) Papa John's is still limited to South Korea, sadly. If any Papa John's authorities are reading this now- GET OVER HERE!
But do not think that the pizzas here are the same as your precious American Dominos. No no no. It has all been reenvisioned, repackaged and renamed for the Japanese consumer. They have the fairly normal ones like Margherita, Pepperoni and Mozzarella, and the "American Special." None of these are on the top 3 "Most Popular" list or the 5 "Children's Favorites." No, to understand what makes a Japanese pizza, you need to go back to the very foundation of pizza. First, take the crust. Crust can be either regular, thin, mille-feuille (kinda like puff pastry, with many layers), or double mille-feuille (that means two thousand layers!) Camembert cheese often makes an appearance, layered between two crusts or sneaking in between the sauce and the mozzarella cheese. Moving on to the sauce- normal tomato sauce is used on about half of all pizzas, and pesto maybe once or twice. But the rest feature bolognese sauce, chili sauce, teriyaki sauce, curry sauce, SPICY FISH EGG SAUCE, and the vaguely named "white sauce."
I cannot even begin to describe toppings to you other than to say: Potatoes. Corn. Mayonnaise. Scallops. Anything goes. And this is at one of the more Americanized pizza chains. Expect seaweed, cauliflower, canned tuna and fried glutinous rice at the homegrown chains. Yes, you can order a la carte toppings, on a normal cheese pizza, but the instructions for doing so take up about a 1-inch width at the bottom of the 2-page menu spread. It seems that is not done here. The pizza topping that sticks up must be hammered down. I will give Japan points for one thing- pizza technology, it seems, has advanced further than in America, and pizzas can not only be divided into halves but QUARTERS. With radically different toppings. And no tipping your delivery guy!
So now with a bit of background, you understand how bizarre pizzas can get. But even knowing all this, and feeling quite original lately in the kitchen, I was gobsmacked when I got the Dominos ad today. Yes- they have figured out a way to combine STEW and PIZZA. Their new "Cheese Ristorante" line of pizzas has 2 options. You can get the Truffled Beef Stew: a pizza crust, smothered with the aforementioned beef stew, covered in mozzarella cheese, and for the finishing touch, dollops of whipped cream cheese adorn the edges like the numbers on a clock.
Perhaps the Tomato Cream and Crab sounds better. It's similar to the above but instead of stew the crust is topped with a tomato cream sauce, crab meat, and broccoli. That is then covered with mozzarella cheese and artistically arranged Camembert cheese. (I don't get it with the Camembert here.) I wish I had a scanner so I could show you the scientific-looking cross sections of pizza, on page 3 of the ad. Oh, and by the way, these cost 4500 yen each, which right now is about $40 or $42. Just can't decide which one to get? Simple! You can order the Half and Half, and try them both. Honestly, if I had my whole life to do it, I don't think I could have ever come up with such a pizza. Bob told me, "That's why you're not the Iron Chef." That's true. Once again, the Japanese Dominos has astounded me with their creativity. I'm not sure why they were never on Iron Chef- though I have a sneaking suspicion that they'd get all points for originality and none for taste. All I know is, I don't want to be eating that middle piece where the stew and crab cream blended together.
I like to read the ads that come through my mail slot purely for humor value. I've never ordered a pizza here, at least not for delivery. Dominos and Pizza Hut do exist here and I think they do a pretty brisk business (pizzas cost 18-30 bucks a pop, so I think they must be making money.) Papa John's is still limited to South Korea, sadly. If any Papa John's authorities are reading this now- GET OVER HERE!
But do not think that the pizzas here are the same as your precious American Dominos. No no no. It has all been reenvisioned, repackaged and renamed for the Japanese consumer. They have the fairly normal ones like Margherita, Pepperoni and Mozzarella, and the "American Special." None of these are on the top 3 "Most Popular" list or the 5 "Children's Favorites." No, to understand what makes a Japanese pizza, you need to go back to the very foundation of pizza. First, take the crust. Crust can be either regular, thin, mille-feuille (kinda like puff pastry, with many layers), or double mille-feuille (that means two thousand layers!) Camembert cheese often makes an appearance, layered between two crusts or sneaking in between the sauce and the mozzarella cheese. Moving on to the sauce- normal tomato sauce is used on about half of all pizzas, and pesto maybe once or twice. But the rest feature bolognese sauce, chili sauce, teriyaki sauce, curry sauce, SPICY FISH EGG SAUCE, and the vaguely named "white sauce."
I cannot even begin to describe toppings to you other than to say: Potatoes. Corn. Mayonnaise. Scallops. Anything goes. And this is at one of the more Americanized pizza chains. Expect seaweed, cauliflower, canned tuna and fried glutinous rice at the homegrown chains. Yes, you can order a la carte toppings, on a normal cheese pizza, but the instructions for doing so take up about a 1-inch width at the bottom of the 2-page menu spread. It seems that is not done here. The pizza topping that sticks up must be hammered down. I will give Japan points for one thing- pizza technology, it seems, has advanced further than in America, and pizzas can not only be divided into halves but QUARTERS. With radically different toppings. And no tipping your delivery guy!
So now with a bit of background, you understand how bizarre pizzas can get. But even knowing all this, and feeling quite original lately in the kitchen, I was gobsmacked when I got the Dominos ad today. Yes- they have figured out a way to combine STEW and PIZZA. Their new "Cheese Ristorante" line of pizzas has 2 options. You can get the Truffled Beef Stew: a pizza crust, smothered with the aforementioned beef stew, covered in mozzarella cheese, and for the finishing touch, dollops of whipped cream cheese adorn the edges like the numbers on a clock.
Perhaps the Tomato Cream and Crab sounds better. It's similar to the above but instead of stew the crust is topped with a tomato cream sauce, crab meat, and broccoli. That is then covered with mozzarella cheese and artistically arranged Camembert cheese. (I don't get it with the Camembert here.) I wish I had a scanner so I could show you the scientific-looking cross sections of pizza, on page 3 of the ad. Oh, and by the way, these cost 4500 yen each, which right now is about $40 or $42. Just can't decide which one to get? Simple! You can order the Half and Half, and try them both. Honestly, if I had my whole life to do it, I don't think I could have ever come up with such a pizza. Bob told me, "That's why you're not the Iron Chef." That's true. Once again, the Japanese Dominos has astounded me with their creativity. I'm not sure why they were never on Iron Chef- though I have a sneaking suspicion that they'd get all points for originality and none for taste. All I know is, I don't want to be eating that middle piece where the stew and crab cream blended together.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Book Report
Have you read Barbara Kingsolver's new book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle? If you haven't, go read it. NOW.
You're back? Good. I would be a little ashamed to tell you just how much I learned from that book. I should have known, for instance, how potatoes grow, or how to store things like tomatoes and zucchini when the season is over. (Just freeze them whole, apparently.) Thanks to a summer working in a grocery store, I know when the different summer crops come into season, and how to pick the best fruits or vegetables off the store shelf. Even cantaloupes. And since starting our little garden out back, I've learned quite a lot more. I thought that if I had to start producing a majority of my own food, I could do it. That's what Kingsolver and her family did, for a whole year. The premise appealed to me (though I'm certainly not going to try it anytime soon, my backyard isn't that big) from a gardener's standpoint. Since moving to Japan, I've become interested in growing my own food, since I have the space to do it, it's cheaper, and it's healthier (I don't use pesticides.) I started off with some tomatoes, recalling summers at home spent eating delicious homegrown tomatoes. I added bell peppers, which tend to be expensive here. It snowballed from there. For the winter, we're planting onions, garlic, potatoes, and spinach. Now it's less about the money aspect- I can afford all the onions and potatoes I want. It's more about having that homegrown taste, and lessening my impact on the environment.
I've started reading labels in the grocery store on almost every item I buy. I bought lemons last week. There were two types; each cost about $1. One was imported from Chile, the other two prefectures away in Hiroshima. I don't have any statistics for you, but just think about it: how much fuel did it take to get that fresh lemon from Chile to Japan, keeping it cold the whole way? And how much fuel did it require to get from Hiroshima to my street (a distance of, I don't know, about 150 miles.) It's obvious which choice is better for the environment. I'm not sure why everyone isn't complaining about this, since we sure do enough complaining when it comes to filling up our gas tanks. And we're paying for it- if you're not paying for it at the cash register, you're paying when you pay your taxes, since farms (of any size, I believe) can deduct their transportation expenses. The average item on your grocery store shelf probably traveled farther than you did on your summer vacation this year, according to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
The other amazing thing to me is that these lemons cost EXACTLY the same amount, despite the wide difference in cost in getting to my local MaxValu. So which farmer will be getting more of my money? Guess. Which lemon did I buy? That's right.
Being in Japan has made me more aware of things like seasonality and local crops. While the Japanese, like Americans, enjoy the luxury of having everything, all the time, for the most part foods are enjoyed only when they're in season. I have recipe cards that tell me what season I should cook each dish in. At first I thought it was silly, I had a mentality of "I can eat onion soup whenever I want!" and so on. But it makes sense, considering our living situation. In February, no Japanese person would say "Oh, I just want something light tonight, like a salad" and then complain about being cold and turn up the heat to 80 degrees. Because you can't. It is 40 degrees indoors, there is no central heat, and if you don't plan on freezing while you sleep, you had better eat some stew for dinner. I'm not saying it's perfect. If I had the choice, I'd go for the central heat, without a doubt. But I'd make sure to eat lots of stew and take lots of baths in the winter, to save some money and help the environment too.
The Japanese also firmly believe in local specialties, another concept I thought was dumb at first. Just about every city has something they are famous for. A city near me, Akashi, is famous for its particular style of grilled octopus balls (they dip them in broth) and there are countless different types of noodles. Every bag of rice is clearly labeled with its area of origin. People travel to Hokkaido just to try the fresh crabs. To me, it seemed silly, because couldn't anyone make some broth for their octopus balls? Well, they could, but Akasahi is on the Japanese Inland Sea, and they probably use some sort of local seaweed that tastes different from the seaweed that grows near Okinawa or Tokyo. It's widely accepted that wines grown in different regions or even different counties will taste different. Why not food? When I ate crab in Hokkaido this summer, it tasted fresher than any other crab I've had here. There's no substitute for it. When I returned from Hokkaido, my coworker asked me these questions, in order:
Her: Welcome back! Did you have a good trip?
Me: Yes, it was very relaxing.
Her: Did you eat jingus kan? (grilled mutton on sticks, a famous Sapporo dish)
Me: No, but I ate a lot of ramen. (Sapporo is also famous for its style of ramen.)
Her: How about crab?
And so on. And don't forget the number one most important thing of Japanese vacations-- you must bring back o-miyage, or souvenirs. This is ALWAYS food. The idea is that you should bring back some local food for all your coworkers to sample. From various vacations, I have brought back chocolates, chips made out of bitter gourds, fruit-flavored cookies, tofu cookies, bean-filled dumplings, buckwheat pancakes, and so on.
I think that if Barbara Kingsolver were to come to Japan, she would be disappointed that Japanese mothers do not "take the time to roll out the sushi by hand," as she suggests in her book. The only people I know who make sushi are sushi chefs, and no, even in Japan, there is no such thing as a "sushi machine." But she would be pleased to find a- dare I say it?- UNIQUE food culture that is built entirely upon eating local food, in season.
You're back? Good. I would be a little ashamed to tell you just how much I learned from that book. I should have known, for instance, how potatoes grow, or how to store things like tomatoes and zucchini when the season is over. (Just freeze them whole, apparently.) Thanks to a summer working in a grocery store, I know when the different summer crops come into season, and how to pick the best fruits or vegetables off the store shelf. Even cantaloupes. And since starting our little garden out back, I've learned quite a lot more. I thought that if I had to start producing a majority of my own food, I could do it. That's what Kingsolver and her family did, for a whole year. The premise appealed to me (though I'm certainly not going to try it anytime soon, my backyard isn't that big) from a gardener's standpoint. Since moving to Japan, I've become interested in growing my own food, since I have the space to do it, it's cheaper, and it's healthier (I don't use pesticides.) I started off with some tomatoes, recalling summers at home spent eating delicious homegrown tomatoes. I added bell peppers, which tend to be expensive here. It snowballed from there. For the winter, we're planting onions, garlic, potatoes, and spinach. Now it's less about the money aspect- I can afford all the onions and potatoes I want. It's more about having that homegrown taste, and lessening my impact on the environment.
I've started reading labels in the grocery store on almost every item I buy. I bought lemons last week. There were two types; each cost about $1. One was imported from Chile, the other two prefectures away in Hiroshima. I don't have any statistics for you, but just think about it: how much fuel did it take to get that fresh lemon from Chile to Japan, keeping it cold the whole way? And how much fuel did it require to get from Hiroshima to my street (a distance of, I don't know, about 150 miles.) It's obvious which choice is better for the environment. I'm not sure why everyone isn't complaining about this, since we sure do enough complaining when it comes to filling up our gas tanks. And we're paying for it- if you're not paying for it at the cash register, you're paying when you pay your taxes, since farms (of any size, I believe) can deduct their transportation expenses. The average item on your grocery store shelf probably traveled farther than you did on your summer vacation this year, according to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
The other amazing thing to me is that these lemons cost EXACTLY the same amount, despite the wide difference in cost in getting to my local MaxValu. So which farmer will be getting more of my money? Guess. Which lemon did I buy? That's right.
Being in Japan has made me more aware of things like seasonality and local crops. While the Japanese, like Americans, enjoy the luxury of having everything, all the time, for the most part foods are enjoyed only when they're in season. I have recipe cards that tell me what season I should cook each dish in. At first I thought it was silly, I had a mentality of "I can eat onion soup whenever I want!" and so on. But it makes sense, considering our living situation. In February, no Japanese person would say "Oh, I just want something light tonight, like a salad" and then complain about being cold and turn up the heat to 80 degrees. Because you can't. It is 40 degrees indoors, there is no central heat, and if you don't plan on freezing while you sleep, you had better eat some stew for dinner. I'm not saying it's perfect. If I had the choice, I'd go for the central heat, without a doubt. But I'd make sure to eat lots of stew and take lots of baths in the winter, to save some money and help the environment too.
The Japanese also firmly believe in local specialties, another concept I thought was dumb at first. Just about every city has something they are famous for. A city near me, Akashi, is famous for its particular style of grilled octopus balls (they dip them in broth) and there are countless different types of noodles. Every bag of rice is clearly labeled with its area of origin. People travel to Hokkaido just to try the fresh crabs. To me, it seemed silly, because couldn't anyone make some broth for their octopus balls? Well, they could, but Akasahi is on the Japanese Inland Sea, and they probably use some sort of local seaweed that tastes different from the seaweed that grows near Okinawa or Tokyo. It's widely accepted that wines grown in different regions or even different counties will taste different. Why not food? When I ate crab in Hokkaido this summer, it tasted fresher than any other crab I've had here. There's no substitute for it. When I returned from Hokkaido, my coworker asked me these questions, in order:
Her: Welcome back! Did you have a good trip?
Me: Yes, it was very relaxing.
Her: Did you eat jingus kan? (grilled mutton on sticks, a famous Sapporo dish)
Me: No, but I ate a lot of ramen. (Sapporo is also famous for its style of ramen.)
Her: How about crab?
And so on. And don't forget the number one most important thing of Japanese vacations-- you must bring back o-miyage, or souvenirs. This is ALWAYS food. The idea is that you should bring back some local food for all your coworkers to sample. From various vacations, I have brought back chocolates, chips made out of bitter gourds, fruit-flavored cookies, tofu cookies, bean-filled dumplings, buckwheat pancakes, and so on.
I think that if Barbara Kingsolver were to come to Japan, she would be disappointed that Japanese mothers do not "take the time to roll out the sushi by hand," as she suggests in her book. The only people I know who make sushi are sushi chefs, and no, even in Japan, there is no such thing as a "sushi machine." But she would be pleased to find a- dare I say it?- UNIQUE food culture that is built entirely upon eating local food, in season.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Japan: Year One
On Tuesday of next week, it will have been one year since I first set foot in the Land of the Rising Sun. I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect a little bit on the experience and how it's changed me and the way I see the world, in part to convince myself that I'm not wasting my time here.
The most obvious thing that comes to mind is that I'm better on a bike now than at any other point in my life. Even when I was really young, like 10 years old, and the bike was my primary means of transportation, I couldn't do all the cool things my friends could do, like ride with no hands. Now, I'm proud to say that not only can I ride a bike with no hands, but also while holding an umbrella, texting on a cell phone, and avoiding old ladies who don't bother to look when they step out onto the sidewalk directly into my path.
The second is that while I'm by no means proud of my Japanese, I speak considerably more than I did when I came. And I can understand far more than I can speak, as I'm sure is often the case. My main regret is that I didn't start seriously studying the language sooner, so I wasted a lot of time trying to absorb Japanese through osmosis when I could have been going to my Kumon/conversation lessons every week from Day 1. Unfortunately, Japanese isn't quite like Spanish or Italian, which people living in those countries tend to "pick up" after spending a certain amount of time there, and it takes considerably more time to become proficient if you don't start hitting the books right away. Indeed, the only foreigners I know who have excellent Japanese either 1.) studied it previously in college, or 2.) have simply lived here for a long, long time. Since neither is true in my case, I should have been more serious about learning the language from the beginning. But hindsight is always 20/20, as they say, and I'll just have to work doubly hard from now on to catch up.
The third thing is that I'm much more aware of the seasons. This mostly has to do with the fact that you're exposed to the weather to a greater extent than back home. The lack of insulation or central air and heating means that you're hotter in the summer and colder in the winter, which of course is the natural order of things. This stands in direct contrast to America, where we frequently turn up the a/c so much during the summer that we have to put on jackets while indoors. Also, certain fruits and vegetables, as well as certain items on restaurant menus, are only available during specific times of the year. Now I know, for example, when eggplants are cheapest, when not to buy grapes, and when nabe will be widely available at restaurants.
Fourth is that Katie and I have made quite a few friends in a year, both foreign and Japanese. We didn't really start hanging out with the local kids in earnest until this spring, so we missed out on a lot of good times. Now she and I are more socially involved and we frequently find ourselves booked solid the entire weekend (and often during the week when we have no previous plans). This has been the most welcome change from how we spent the majority of our time at the beginning of the year.
Fifth is that I've managed to do quite a bit of traveling in the last year. Domestically, I visited many places and got to see quite a bit of the western part of Japan. I was also able to visit Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore: three places I never thought I'd ever be able to visit, but which living in Japan has made accessible and convenient. This summer Katie and I are going to Hokkaido with her family as well as to Vietnam, so opportunities to get out and see the world continue to appear, though with gas prices being what they are, such opportunities are getting pricier. Hopefully it won't prove too detrimental to our insatiable wanderlust and we'll be just as active in the coming year as we were in the past one.
Sixth is that I've been able to save a substantial amount of money. With little in the way of expenses, and with no debt between us, both she and I are making the most of our situation. I need to become more financially savvy, as right now most of my money's sitting in a Japanese bank accruing very little in the way of interest. That will be one of my goals for the coming year.
Seventh is how I've changed physically. I'm now a morning person, and I can't seem to sleep past 8 AM anymore even if I try. Katie and I often cook for ourselves using fresh ingredients, so we tend to eat well. We also go for a morning run three times a week, which combined with my twice-daily 40 minute commute by bike, has served to whip me into half-decent shape (though the daily biking has given me quite the embarrassing farmer's tan). The other weekend I found myself spending Saturday climbing up approximately 1400 steps - the equivalent of a 70 storey building - to visit a shrine, only to spend the next two days cycling 75 kilometers across an island chain in the Inland Sea. A year ago, if you told me I'd do something like that, I'd ask you what you were smoking, and if you could bear to part with any. There's so much to do in Japan in the way of outdoor activities - hiking, skiing, etc. - that you're really doing yourself a disservice if you stay cooped up all the time.
There are plenty more to mention, but since seven's a nice number, I'll stop there. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what this next year in Japan has in store. Whatever happens, it certainly won't be boring.
-Bob
The most obvious thing that comes to mind is that I'm better on a bike now than at any other point in my life. Even when I was really young, like 10 years old, and the bike was my primary means of transportation, I couldn't do all the cool things my friends could do, like ride with no hands. Now, I'm proud to say that not only can I ride a bike with no hands, but also while holding an umbrella, texting on a cell phone, and avoiding old ladies who don't bother to look when they step out onto the sidewalk directly into my path.
The second is that while I'm by no means proud of my Japanese, I speak considerably more than I did when I came. And I can understand far more than I can speak, as I'm sure is often the case. My main regret is that I didn't start seriously studying the language sooner, so I wasted a lot of time trying to absorb Japanese through osmosis when I could have been going to my Kumon/conversation lessons every week from Day 1. Unfortunately, Japanese isn't quite like Spanish or Italian, which people living in those countries tend to "pick up" after spending a certain amount of time there, and it takes considerably more time to become proficient if you don't start hitting the books right away. Indeed, the only foreigners I know who have excellent Japanese either 1.) studied it previously in college, or 2.) have simply lived here for a long, long time. Since neither is true in my case, I should have been more serious about learning the language from the beginning. But hindsight is always 20/20, as they say, and I'll just have to work doubly hard from now on to catch up.
The third thing is that I'm much more aware of the seasons. This mostly has to do with the fact that you're exposed to the weather to a greater extent than back home. The lack of insulation or central air and heating means that you're hotter in the summer and colder in the winter, which of course is the natural order of things. This stands in direct contrast to America, where we frequently turn up the a/c so much during the summer that we have to put on jackets while indoors. Also, certain fruits and vegetables, as well as certain items on restaurant menus, are only available during specific times of the year. Now I know, for example, when eggplants are cheapest, when not to buy grapes, and when nabe will be widely available at restaurants.
Fourth is that Katie and I have made quite a few friends in a year, both foreign and Japanese. We didn't really start hanging out with the local kids in earnest until this spring, so we missed out on a lot of good times. Now she and I are more socially involved and we frequently find ourselves booked solid the entire weekend (and often during the week when we have no previous plans). This has been the most welcome change from how we spent the majority of our time at the beginning of the year.
Fifth is that I've managed to do quite a bit of traveling in the last year. Domestically, I visited many places and got to see quite a bit of the western part of Japan. I was also able to visit Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore: three places I never thought I'd ever be able to visit, but which living in Japan has made accessible and convenient. This summer Katie and I are going to Hokkaido with her family as well as to Vietnam, so opportunities to get out and see the world continue to appear, though with gas prices being what they are, such opportunities are getting pricier. Hopefully it won't prove too detrimental to our insatiable wanderlust and we'll be just as active in the coming year as we were in the past one.
Sixth is that I've been able to save a substantial amount of money. With little in the way of expenses, and with no debt between us, both she and I are making the most of our situation. I need to become more financially savvy, as right now most of my money's sitting in a Japanese bank accruing very little in the way of interest. That will be one of my goals for the coming year.
Seventh is how I've changed physically. I'm now a morning person, and I can't seem to sleep past 8 AM anymore even if I try. Katie and I often cook for ourselves using fresh ingredients, so we tend to eat well. We also go for a morning run three times a week, which combined with my twice-daily 40 minute commute by bike, has served to whip me into half-decent shape (though the daily biking has given me quite the embarrassing farmer's tan). The other weekend I found myself spending Saturday climbing up approximately 1400 steps - the equivalent of a 70 storey building - to visit a shrine, only to spend the next two days cycling 75 kilometers across an island chain in the Inland Sea. A year ago, if you told me I'd do something like that, I'd ask you what you were smoking, and if you could bear to part with any. There's so much to do in Japan in the way of outdoor activities - hiking, skiing, etc. - that you're really doing yourself a disservice if you stay cooped up all the time.
There are plenty more to mention, but since seven's a nice number, I'll stop there. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what this next year in Japan has in store. Whatever happens, it certainly won't be boring.
-Bob
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