A bowl of noodles

Bamboo shoots
Shrimp
Sprouts
Onion
Soba
Sesame seed oil
Garlic
Soy sauce
いただきます！

It’s Been a While

So, it’s been a long time. But, don’t dwell on the time between post but rather the fruitiful time you spent wondering what I was up to. Japan is…more than I can summarize in a single word. There has been amazing food, strange social constructs, and a myriad of people with a similar variance of interesting encounters.

For those people who have traveled abroad you may have an idea of what I’m experiencing as far as new types of food and living in a new culture.

For example, I ordered pizza with tuna and shrimp. It had cheese. It was interesting. It seemed softer with a lighter creamier taste. Whatever that says about cheese. All in all, it was on the tastier side of average. I’d say it was comprapable with dominoes or Papa Johns. Pizza hut being my favorite.

Among the slightly more exotic dining experiences I’ve had. I guess would be the yaki (grilled) options. So far, I’ve had yakitori and yakniku lit: (grilled bird and grilled meat. The yakitori restraunts deliver food in kabob form. There are a lot different options from chicken tail and onion kabobs to chicken skin and shittake mushrooms, with different sauces thrown in to…spice things up.

The yakiniku is sort of cool too. Think of it as an indoor do-it-yourself BBQ. In this case most yakiniku’s i’ve been to include chicken but some don’t instead only offering red meat. In the yakiniku establishments it’s a neat, little, do-it-yourself, grill in the middle of your table. They deliver your meat orders in raw form and you get to grill it over the hot fire. I’ve only gone to one yakiniku that wasn’t delicious and I think it was because it was all you can eat. It was still really cool, and there was a ton of decent food there.

Food aside, The fury of the white sands has been waging war against the backs of the people, as everyone is out shoveling everyday to prevent the incessant snow-fall from burying their world. The snow is around 130cm and it really is incessant, it just keeps coming down. It’s nothing short of impressive.

Karaoke has been a lot of fun. In japan it’s a fairly common activity. It’s a little different than in the US though. Instead of being in front of a crowd you have a “karaoke box” a room for your party of people and you sing together in the karaoke room.

For Christmas I spent time with friends, Kyoko Kida, (You rock.) my friend, tour guide, caretaker and barber, along with her friends (now mine as well) and we ate dinner at this new Taiwanese restaurant. Twas great.

New years was great as well. I stayed with a friend of mine and his family (same family from the previous post. I can’t thank them enough for their generosity and hospitality) for 3 days including New years eve and New years. We had a load of good food and a lot of fun conversation. New Years was a good time.

And there are little Japanese people from elementary school that live on my street and they take pictures of me with their Nintendo 3DSes.  And, one of the guys  I’ve sung karaoke with once or twice said I should sing with his band. And my Japanese is…developing…and…and… And….Pictures!  (Click the images for a better view.)

Sushi Party! And Aiyuu and scallops and…and…

There were all sorts of fish and such nonsense on display. it looked better than it smelled. But it was really cool to see everything splayed out just so…

The Market had lots of delicious looking food to offer. Fresh food anyone?

The sidewalks are Elevated about a foot because of all the packed down snow…when there are sidewalks.

Mt. Iwaki, snow, pretty neat, eh?

This is my apartment building’s parking lot

This is about two and a half feet of snow…

Random house!

Did I mention there’s a lot of snow? There’s a lot of snow…

Dinner w/ Japanese Family

This was an amazing spread of food for dinner with a good friend and his family that I met here in Japan. There was baked mackerel, chicken onion kabobs, ikura (salmon eggs), salad, freshly grated daikon (a radish), freshly picked fungi, (some sort of mushroom they picked from the mountains nearby!) and of course shinmai (newly harvested rice from our prefecture) it was まいゆう！ ＜ー delicious. I think there may have been a few other things present but those were they main things!

The First Snow

Taken about two weeks ago…

Ashi Yuu

Hot springs foot bath! 10•c and the water was at about 40•c! Too hot to be cool.

Maple Mountain

Twas absolutely gorgeous.

Hai! Ganbatte!

So there have been a plethora of exciting experiences that can only really be summed up, as any sort of attempt at trying to give them each clerical justice would result in over-sized novellas at the least. But here goes a little update.

First off, my initial attempt at Curry was…underwhelming. The flavors were great but the texture was off due to the fact that it was mostly curry. I didn’t have enough veggies and since it was veggie curry this was a slight problem. That and I didn’t put enough water so it was a glumpy mess of curry sauce and drowning veggies. Tonight will be the night of My Curry’s Redemption.

One neat experience I had the pleasure of taking part in was Wanko Soba. It’s a neat sort of eating challenge they have here in Japan involving lots and lots of Soba. A wanko , as far as I understand it, is like a bite or a bite size portion and how Wanko Soba works is as a challenge.

You’re given a small bowl and there are various toppings and additives you can put in it. There is a a lady who drops a relatively large bite of noodles into your bowl, from one of several small bowls she has on a large try, and you eat it. As soon as you finish she drops in another bite. as you finish each bowl she puts it to the side and they begin to stack up around you.

mmmm

The point of all of this is to see who can eat the most bowls of Wanko Soba. I decided to stay on the safe side and not go for the hundred bowls which is the challenge, to eat a hundred bowls of Wanko Soba. However, I didn’t want to feel terrible the rest of the day from over-eating. However I did manage to…safely, eat 60 bowls which was about mid range for our group. Two achieved the hundred bowl challenge and received a little wooden plaque. It was loads of soba and loads of fun.

I don’t know if you could hear it but the Wanko Soba lady is saying, “Hai don don yo! Hai Ganbatte!” Which I guess means “Yes! More More [Here's some more] Yes! Fight! [give it your best]“. I think i want to go again with nothing else planned in the day and do the challenge and go all the way! Also, next time I won’t eat breakfast. Welp! I’m tired of writing about experiences I’m gonna go make some curry!

A door to one of my schools.

English, English everywhere and not a drop to drink.

Inadequate Update!

One: I am currently in the process of making Curry!

Two: I have at least 10 post worth of updates that I hoping to get to early next week.

Three: I am ridiculously busy in a good way. I had my welcome party which I enjoyed immensely and consider it a great success.

Four: My office bought me this sweet blanket! They said they bought it to help me thwart the cold weather. If not in those words…

It's a warm soft blanket! For realz.

I’ve taken to practicing saxophone at one of my junior high schools after school boy am I rusty. But I may yet play with the brass band in their next concert! Also I went to a festival or two… updates coming soon! Well my curry smells absolutely delicious…Until next time!

It's views like these that make me consider getting a real camera.

The Stars are Different Here

As different as the east is from the west…

I suppose that may be because that the geographic stratification might be an actuality and not simply a poetic paradigm but I think the literal is indicative also of a metaphorical meaning. The social dynamic here is so odd. I love the people but they are all so…I don’t know how to describe them other than that they are of a different social dynamic. A different…cut from a different cloth. It’s been interesting meeting new people. It’s so strange being so far away from America. As many of you may know, Ohio has no mountains to speak of. However Japan, has just heaps and heaps. However, it’s hard to get a good picture of them though, as oflate they’ve been hiding in the mist and fog like lurking giants.

Mt. Iwaki in the mist of morning.

And beyond the soccer slept a giant...

The weather here is similar to the weather in Ohio, as far as temperature is concerened, but with maybe 5% to 15% more humidity on any given day.

There’s a phrase I like a lot here in Japan, it’s not really used a lot anymore but in past years they used to say Kukiwoyomu (pronounced: koo kee oh yo moo) which literally means “read the air”. This translates to understanding what’s going on around you. To sense the atmosphere, if you will. The cultural differences defintely make this a little more difficult and the passive manner in which the Japanese handle social infractions makes it all the more important. For example, if maybe you are wearing a a shirt with short sleeves you may get two or three comments about how cold you look. Once may be fine but more than that and just maybe you have a neckline that is too low or sleeves of an inappropriate length. Either way remember kukiwoyomu it may save your life.

The students at my latest school have been…interesting. This is really where the different social dynamic comes into play. First off, students don’t move from classroom to classroom, teachers do. So in a sense it is the students classroom and the teacher is a visitor. One interesting difference. Another thing is, is that students cannot be held back. They are passed on through each grade wether or not they know anything or even attended school. This is interesting because there is an entrance exam to get into highschool at least the nice ones. Otherwise you’re put through a remidal/vocational highschool. So it’s an interesting dynamic.

I feel my language skills slowly taking form beyond textbook and written paper. Staying pretty busy exploring and the like. I hope to avoid the winter culture shock by keeping busy and making good connections. If you have any suggestions of what you think I should do while in Japan please elaborate in a comment below! Thank you if you read this whole thing. Brian Sensei signing out.

I have postcards email me your address, if you want one!

Random pictures here…

Cub Foods? What are you doing here?

Parfait almighty