End of week four and ENGAGEMENT! Part 2/2

First off, this may be a long blog--I have a LOT of pictures :) And I'm going to date a second one directly behind this blog, so be sure to look at them both! Plus, this is exciting blog, so stick with it!


Josh came up on Thursday and on Friday we went to Kyoto and Osaka, and then onto Himeji where there is a UNESCO World Heritage Site castle that is considered one of the best in Japan. We took the bullet train, using a JR JapanPass, which is really a good idea if you are ever going to Japan--it's only for foreigners and you have to buy it in your home country, but it's a pretty good deal for traveling.

First thing we decided to do was meander around Kyoto. This took us an exceptionally long time--although it was exciting to stumble upon a shrine in a residental area. I think these are fairly common in Japan.



On the front were swastikas. As most of you probably know, swastikas mean "to be good" and were usually used for luck. They are very common in the Buddhist religion. The symbol is about 3,000 years old. Here is some really interesting history on the symbol.




As we kept wandering we came to a river. It was really calm and pretty and there were ducks all over! I love ducks. Duck feet aren't really made for walking up slippery stones so they would fall back about one step for every step they made forward---slow going :) They all had pretty blue patches on their wings, which would probably tell me what kind of duck they were, if I knew anything about birds.



We also saw a crane. I think these are the same cranes we saw in the zoo, which means this crane was ENORMOUS.




Of to more wandering. This would have all been helped by having a map that was a even a little more precise then the map in the "So you want to go to Japan" type book I had with me. It really reminded me of that Simpson's episode where Homer is trying to navigate the Nile (I think it was the Nile) using the side of an animal crackers box.

At this point we came to another shrine. A big one. Like most of the shrines in Japan, it had calm, nice, cool places to sit, so Josh and I got a soda and sat there. It was also one of those times where you know that all the stuff around you has meaning--but you don't know what any of the meaning is. What do I mean? There were dried leaves all over. No idea why, but there was obviously a religious reason. I mean, other than being a very attractive backdrop to the picture.




So we kept walking. Walking, walking, walking, and finally stumbled upon another big temple. A temple that is the Chion-in temple (I think--if anyone knows better, please, please correct me!).



Josh and I started wandering around--the temple was almost entirely deserted. We took some pictures.





We were walking along this path (well, this picture is from the opposite direction, so use your imagination) when IT HAPPENED!



Josh dropped to his knee and asked me to marry him!!! With a beautiful (and distinctive) blue bag in hand--and in it? A Tiffany's ring :) Exactly my style-- not too flashy but beautiful diamonds and a platinum band. Of course, I said yes!!

The ring is even my size! I'm not sure how he managed that!

Here is the ring--



It's seven diamonds and beautiful.




Here is a picture of us in front of that fateful spot :) It was truly romantic! What a great location and time. Everyone keeps asking if I knew it was coming and I really didn't. Josh had considered asking me at Himeji or seeing if sensei would help him with the setup but he got stressed out carrying the ring around. The location was great :)





How exciting!! And it's a great thing Emily's coming in a week because I have so many ideas that I want to talk about! And, I'll see Rachel when I get home to talk her ear off too I'm sure :)

Obviously, we continued to explore the temple.

Josh and Buddha. It was mentioned to me at work that we pledged ourselves in front of their gods, so they will look out for us.



Me in a field of giant flowers, trusty guidebook in hand:



The graveyard:




So that was obviously super exciting!!! It's hard to know what to follow a proposal up with so we went to another temple. This temple was the only temple we went to where we had to pay money to get in. I liked several things about this shrine. One, the koi filled pond. I love koi and have been horrified to hear that the Japanese eat them. They are for decoration, not for eating! And they have lots and lots of bones! Second thing I loved--this bell. It had a sign saying not to try to ring the bell with the giant stick. Come on, who would think they were allowed to do that?? But, obviously someone did, because not only do they have a sign, but it's in English.





Thirdly, Josh and I are both very fond of foxes and Inari's foxes, so we were excited to see a set of them (even though they are very common in temples). This one had a ball in his mouth,



And this one had a scroll--here is Josh, doing his best Inari impersonation










After that, we were pretty tired and sweaty (well, Josh was sweaty, as a lady, I was glowing, but glowing rather profusely), so we got back on the bullet train and headed for Osaka. I was pumped about going to Osaka!

I had managed to find my high school Japanese teacher and we were planning on meeting him when we got to Osaka. I was slightly worried that we would have a hard time finding each other--it has been nine years (terrifying thought!) but no worries--we both looked identical to the way we looked back then :) Sensei was one of my favorite teachers of all time and it was absolutely great to catch up with him--plus Josh got to ask all of his kanji questions to someone who actually knew some answers :)

I think that sensei was also excited to be involved in our big day--so that was awesome. I will admit, some heavy drinking occurred, and we all left the bar p***-drunk. In fact, I was bemoaning the fact that I forgot to get a picture when I looked through the camera--and there was a picture! So Jennifer, Erin, Mom, and Dad, you should all be happy that I got a picture! The other lady in the picture is involved in the movie industry here--she was super nice.










From Osaka we went Himeji, where we went to the Himeji castle. Unlike most places in Japan, the Himeji castle is really really well signed and easy to spot--lot's of signs with pictures of castles and arrows, which was really nice. It was so majestic! I've never been to a castle before so I was really excited.



It was very beautiful--and behind THREE moats! We almost had to stand in line to get this picture taken--the background makes it a popular place to stand :)




The architecture was absolutely stunning and I think a fair amount of the castle is still original. I really recommend reading the wikipedia page--it's truly interesting.

End of week four and horse sushi! Part 1 of 2

This is one of two blogs series so be sure to check tomorrow for the other, more exciting (most of you know what I'm talking about, wink wink), blog! I updated this blog about twelve hours after I first posted it, so you might want to read it again :) These two blogs are a little random, so you should read them

When Josh got to the station we found a little restaurant and I ordered my new favorite drink--the grapefruit sour.



You combine it yourself, so you KNOW it's fresh! It's made out of shochu (a kind of Japanese alcohol that is made out of potatoes--kind of like a watery vodka), club soda, and a grapefruit that you squeeze yourself. Sometimes when you order a big one, they give you TWO grapefruits. Of course, it's healthy because of the fruit and the workout you get making it :)


The next day we got noodles. Menus can be really hard for me because of all the kanji, so Josh took to just going out to the front (if they had models, which seems to be about a quarter of the time, max) and pointing. He was shocked to find that these noodles were cold. Still pretty tasty though!



Josh drank the only Mountain Dew that I've seen in Japan--said it tasted exactly like it does in the US. I wanted to know what "chiffon" was. I should have read the label closer--milk tea. What is milk tea? Milk mixed with tea. Not tasty. Not tasty at all.




Josh snapped a picture of this sign--I love it! You need to watch for happy ninjas who want to steal your baggage. Look how happy he is!





This sign is great too. "I threw my cigarette butt into the drain. That is to say, I hid it in the drain". I don't totally get it--are you going back for it later? And why is the guy bigger than his car? And that rat is enormous!




In Himaji, where we went to the castle, we saw a little lizard. He had a BRIGHT blue tail. I didn't know they had lizards in Japan, so Josh and I were very excited. He was less excited about seeing us, however, and kept running away.



We also went to the zoo in Himeji. People kept telling us that the zoos here weren't like the zoos at home but I wasn't really paying attention--I didn't know what they meant. They meant that the zoos in Japan are depressing and where the US was in zoos about a hundred years ago. Tiny cages that people can walk right up to, animals that are completely stressed out and pacing, birds that have no feathers because they've plucked them all out. Horrifying. I'm not going to post the picture of the chimp because it was one of the saddest things I've ever seen.

Here's an example--this hippo doesn't have NEAR enough room.




Shockingly, they had baby animals. These cranes had eggs...




I did like this sign though--don't feed things to the monkey, it makes him sick.





The only pluses of this zoo?

They had a big barrel of guinea pigs and I (and with me, about ten Japanese teenage girls) got to pet!




And a HUGE pikachu! So cute!




Ha! Here's a picture of Josh in Ginza, standing next to a sign with his hometown on it. I feel I'm less likely to find "Des Moines" on a sign here, but I'm hoping!



We got really hot when we were wandering around Kyoto so we stopped for something to eat. I got a BLT and Josh got a sundae. The sundae had green tea ice cream (so far so good), and a cute little cracker that looks like bunny ears, a pocky, some other candy, and so on. But...what's that in the bottom of the cup? Corn flakes?? And what's dripping down the side of the sundae...oh no....the ubiquitous red beans. Red beans have NO place being on a sundae. Adding sugar does not make beans dessert! Josh ate the whole thing though.



Ah, mochi, mochi, mochi. I LOVE mochi in the US, where they are a kind of rice dough filled with ice cream. Little did I know that the word "mochi" only refers to the rice dough. Josh and I were PUMPED in Osaka because we thought we stumbled on a mochi ice cream spot. Nooo...it was mochicream--they are filled with a sort of (sadly untasty) cream :( Still on the hunt for the ice cream mochi!




Blue Hawaii Pepsi. I saw a blog about this--apparently they are being sold on ebay for $8 a bottle! It's a limited edition Pepsi that is only available in Japan. So Josh and I tried it. Blech--horrible! It managed to taste nothing like Pepsi and like a disgusting fruit punch with cheap alcohol in it--even though it's non-alcoholic. Don't waste your money on this, unless you are a huge Elvis fan and want it for your collection .




Ah, Beer Pretz, my nemisis. I love these so much that I have been known to eat four boxes in a single day. They are like pretzels without the salt and these are spicy chicken flavored. They aren't spicy and they don't taste like chicken--but they sure are terrific. I only saw one box at the store today, so I'm really nervous that they are a special edition and their time is over...I hope that's not the case!




Josh and I went out in Tskuji for sushi. Tskuji is the most famous area in Japan for sushi because of it's giant fish market--the largest in the world. This place had huge fish tanks of fish that they would fish out and butcher--super super fresh. I was a little nervous because I think sushi restaurants can be really intimidating (even in the US) but this one seemed fairly easy going.

This sushi was fairly good but the mayo type spread on the bottom--truly bizarre.



Half of these were fatty tuna, the other half spicy. The spicy were delicious but they weren't kidding--super spicy! Yum!






More tasty sushi. On the top left, sea urchin, which looks utterly disgusting, but Josh says wasn't too bad.




I told Josh that people would be impressed by him if he ate horse too--so he did. I present to you: horse sushi, lightly toasted:






Josh's beloved...ramen. I swear that is an entire pigs worth of pork around the outside.






There were a lot of food-related things that I was waiting to try until Josh got here and could try them too. Some of them were just things I wasn't excited at all about eating and wanted Josh here to enjoy (suffer) through too.




Food from old blogs that I have now eaten, but not blogged about, yet:



All of the kit-kats!

So Josh and I had a little tasting buffet of all of the KitKats I've collected:

Little ball KitKats--
Mango--not very good, but they did taste like mango on the outside. But cloyingly sweet.
Banana--like all other fake banana treats. They tasted a LOT like Laffy Taffy but crunchy.
Cherry--the most disgusting flavor you could ever imagine in a KitKat. It's like you took you took a ball of KitKat and soaked it in cough syrup for a while. They even SMELL like cough syrup.

Little bars--
Strawberry--not too bad although I wouldn't go out of my way for it. They taste like really cheap chocolate covered strawberries

Full size KitKats
Azuki (red bean)--not as disgusting as it could be. The thing that made it gross was the white chocolate, we couldn't even taste the red beans (a blessing, I'm sure)
Strawberry and blueberry--the fake strawberry totally overwhelmed the blueberry, which I didn't even taste. And the "strawberry" tasted EXACTLY like Nesquick. I wasn't a huge fan of that flavor when I was five, and I'm not now, either.

• Roast Turkey Pringles --These Pringles taste totally differant from the ones in the US--they DO have a roast turkey taste, believe it or not, but they aren't salty or crunchy enough.
• Strawberry Cheetos--Not as bad as I expected! They don't have any cheese flavor on them and the strawberry is pretty satisfying --and so is the crunch. Actually, they are fairly addictive--too bad they aren't on the shelves anymore!
• Ritz crackers, cheese, and salami--Horrible. I LOVE Ritz crackers but these were bland--they needed more salt. The salami and cheese were really weird too--and not in a good way.
• Chestnuts--Horrifying. I don't know if these WERE chestnuts or not but whatever they were--icky.

Food from old blogs that I haven't eaten yet:

• Green tea in giant carton--totally forgot about it again
• Caramel Corn stuff
• Mysterious product with child
• All Apple thingies
• Cake soda
• Coconut pudding
• Panda heads on pikes
• Apple jelly
• Blueberry pocky
• Cesear Salad Pringles

Middle of week four and raw horse meat

First off, Josh is coming today! Probably in about a half hour so I need to write quickly! And we are off to Kyoto and Osaka first thing tomorrow so I won't be around to read your horrified comments until Sunday :)

And I know why you clicked on the blog--you want to hear about the horse meat. But I'm going to make you wait for that information (no, no, don't scroll down the page! You'll get it in a minute!).

First off, another day, another typical Japanese food. I have this list of iconic Japanese foods that I need to make sure to eat--and udon was on that list. I was pretty tasty. No idea what that white product is but I usually choose against eating it.



I also got some form of soup. I wasn't real impressed with it, so I didn't bother finishing it.






One of the cooler things I did last week--I had to go (by myself, but I do most things in Japan by myself) somewhere for work. On the way back to the train station, I saw a mysterious set of stairs.



I don't know who could see such awesome looking stairs and not go up them! So I did.





I was greeted by statues. I was at an old shrine! And there were no tourists at it at all, just people enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.




So I decided to go up to the shrine, which was very beautiful.



There was a box that said 10 yen. Ten yen is about ten cents (slightly less)--but what costs ten yen?



I looked inside the box. Little pieces of paper! I figured each little piece of paper costs ten yen (slid into the slots).



The paper was a fortune (I think)! I couldn't read it but I assume it was telling me I had good fortune of some sort :)



I figured I was then supposed to tie on the line, so I did. I'm not very good at tying paper, so there was nothing pretty about mine, but I assume it doesn't matter.




There was also a big marble well.




I haven't the slightest clue what it was for. So I didn't touch it :) The dragon on the right side was pretty cool though!






I just find it amazing that something this old and peaceful is set smack-dab in the middle of such a huge bustling city. Really, that is the jutxaposition of Japan though.












So some of my coworkers took me out to eat. It started out innocently enough--grilled peppers were the first course, no problem. I'm not a huge pepper fan but these were pretty good.



Then came the bacon wrapped asparagus (and might I say, bacon wrapped asparagus is incredibly delicious). Some chicken yakitori--not real interesting or impressive, but also not strange. I have been saying that I will eat anything that they put in front of me because I want a full cultural experience, not one that has been sanitized for my foreign constitution.





So those were no problem. Then we moved on to squid legs--still no problem. Hey, I'm Italian, squid isn't always impossible to recognize and fried within an inch of recognizableness. In fact, the squid legs were really delicious--almost crispy. Still going good!




And the alcohol--grapefruit sours! Wow are these good--and you know they are healthy because they have grapefruit in them--and lots of pulp! The alcohol is sonchu...and it's strong.









And then it happened...."So. Do you want to try raw horse meat?"

Uh oh. If I stick to my plan, I absolutely have to eat this. It's one of those dishes that the Japanese eat (and love) but Americans are horrified by. That being said, I don't have a huge moral problem with horse meat like I did with shark's fin soup, and I ate that in China. So, I had no choice.

It was recommended that I load some garlic onto the meat, some green onion, dip it in the soy sauce, and eat it before it has a chance to unfreeze.






So how was it? Not bad! Granted, I was expecting to feel the need to vomit, so it isn't real difficult to be deemed better than that. My mom asked if it tasted like chicken--no, definately not. I would say it tastes kind of like beef, but sweeter. Not sweet like candy, but almost sweet like milk or corn--which would explain why the Japanese like it, because both milk and corn are absurdly popular over here. Would I ever order it? No, but if it was on the table, I might try it again. And next time I'm in Europe, maybe I'll try someone's horse dish if they order it--last time I was in Rome I refused (and horse was on about every menu).




The rest of the meal was also interesting. I ate fish whole--head on, entrails intact, bones and all--and these fish were considerably bigger than sardines. I ate fried rice triangles, fried noodles, daikon salad, various types of fish. And I ate small intestines. Now I fully intended to hate small intestines but they were a heckava lot better than tripe (although that isn't saying much).





So that's all! Mmmm...small intestines!

Beginning of week four and zombies!

One thing point that almost every Japanese person I've met who has also lived in America always brings up is how nobody in the US uses umbrellas. Now, this is something I have really never considered before. That being said, they're right. Here (because of the "lovely" weather) people carry umbrellas with them everywhere--and when they don't have umbrellas, the ladies have parasols to protect their complexions (I've never seen ANYBODY with a parasol in the US). What I always answer to them is that in the US, people tend not to be outside for as long when it's raining--they drive everywhere. But when you are walking to a subway stop, you are outside for longer. They always agree, but point out that American's are content to put on a baseball cap or flip up a hood and be soaking wet. I can't argue that--I never carry an umbrella in America. Does anyone else? It's really something I've never thought about!


The number one photo I get asked for: the vending machine in the restaurants. So here you go:



You pay, press your button, and get a ticket. The waitstaff takes that ticket and you wait until they bring your food. If you are lucky, the buttons have pictures on them, but sometimes they don't.


I decided on Friday that I was hungry for another Black Pepper Whopper so I decided to go to Akihabara and back to the Burger King. Apparently, BK's closed down for years in Japan and only reappeared last year--plus, there only six of them, so it's a real oddity that I managed to stumble upon one. That being said, I couldn't find it when I was looking for it. I wandered and wandered--no BK. So finally I gave up and went in the McDonald's. The McDonald's here have a Teriyaki porkburger and a Salsa burger of some sort--I went for the pork. It was pretty good but a little too sweet for my liking. And INCREDIBLY messy.



Of course, as I was leaving I found the BK, but by this time I was full. So I journeyed back on Sunday before meeting my tutor to get that delicous Whopper....mmmm....so good.



But then I bit into my Whopper Jr (that's what I order at BK here--don't want to waste stomach room with fries, only Whoppers)--it was a Teriyaki Whopper Jr! Not what I ordered. And it was gross. WAY too sweet. I wrapped it up again and tossed it--life's too short to eat icky burgers.

Wait, you say, what was that about a tutor? I've decided this is the perfect time to increase my Japanese knowledge so I'm meeting with a tutor once a week. It's not perfect--I know I won't learn much in three hours a week--but it's better than nothing :)

I swear, I saw a zombie in Akihabara and it was shambling after me. Fortunately, a shamble isn't very fast, so I was able to get away at a brisk walk. He also wasn't saying anything about "brains" that I could hear, so that was a good sign. Other than the possible zombie, I saw a number of other interesting things.

The first--why does this hello kitty have a goatee and moustache? Does anyone else think that's strange? If you enlarge the picture you'll see--definitely a beard and mustache. Hmm....



I thought this was kind of cool--it reminded me of something my brother Sam would have liked. I'm not exactly sure how the game works but it has to do with trading cards, you slide the cards around on the board.




When I was in Hong Kong I saw a game called "the typing of the dead" and Josh told me that to play that game you ACTUALLY typed into a keyboard to defeat zombies--it was supposed to teach typing skills. While, last week I saw this: the English of the Dead. I don't imagine the dead speak very good English. They certainly never have in any movie I've watched! So I don't know what good a zombie tutor would really be.



Lots and lots of things amuse me in Japan. For example, I walked into the 7-11 on Sunday and heard the iconic beginning of "Freebird" start to play--now that's just funny! And today, I ate at TGI Fridays. Other than the fact that the waitresses still wore "flair", it could have been the Friday's in Des Moines, which was disconcerting. That being said, I was really happy to get my chicken fingers with honey mustard AND a bottomless iced tea (drinks here are EXPENSIVE! Usually 400-500 yen and that's with NO refills).

This weekend's excursion was all over Japan. I met up with someone from Craigslist who said he would show me around. We walked for four hours! I thought I was going to die.

I saw the National Diet, which I was told was similar to the White House. Although not shown in this picture, there are cops EVERYWHERE in Tokyo right now--the G8 summit is right around the corner and they are afriad of attacks (validly, wasn't the G8 around when the London subways got bombed?)--so send nice, safe thoughts to Japan :)





Tokyo Tower. As to why it looks like the Eiffel Tower, well, that's anyone's guess. You can go up to the top but it's about $20 so I didn't do it.



Near the tower, there were lots of people painting. I thought that was awesome!



At the bottom of the tower is a set of statues of dogs. When I asked what these dogs represent I was told it had something to do with an Arctic expedition (South Pole maybe) and all the dogs but two died. Apparently, a Disney story was made about this--but it doesn't ring a bell for me--anyone else know it? Personally, I found that to be a really depressing story. Couldn't they just have put a more uplifting monument to the two that made it?



You almost didn't get to see this picture because it isn't particularly flattering!! But remember--by this point I've walked for about 3.5 hours. This is Hibiya park by the Imperial Palace (which actually has a MOAT!! I HAVE to take pictures before coming home).




The flowers in Tokyo are really pretty. There are lots and lots of peonies--gorgeous blue peonies. And I like these flowers (whatever they are)-they have a really strong scent:




In food news:
Here is one of the most amusing items I've bought in Japan--Sparkling Oxygenwater. It has 35 TIMES THE NORMAL OXYGEN IN WATER! So it's like H2OOOOOOOOOO (35 of them)! And it was about 4 bucks for a tiny bottle, so it must be good. Right? Right?

I was expecting to be so oxygenated I could hardly stand it, but no luck. Frankly, it tasted just like seltzer water. And when I spilled half of it on the floor, it did not do a superior cleaning job.

*disclaimer: bottle filled with normal, boring H2O for the picture*






Monday's haul from the produce market included potatoes, zucchini, asparagus, and more mikans. I'm convinced that citrus so expensive must be good, so maybe I just had a bad set. I go to three produce markets--all on my way home from the subway station--but my favorite is the one with the teenage boys who try to flirt with me in English and give me discounted produce (a free zucchini!).




I'be been asked how I know what I'm getting at the resturants. Short answer--most of the time I don't. I know quite a bit of kanji (Chinese characters) but not enough to easily read a menu, so my method is to read what I can until I see something I recognize, and order that. It's a good theory, but it doesn't always work.

For example, I read down a menu until I saw "tomato". I like tomatoes, so I'll get that, I thought. I thought I saw the work hamburger too, so maybe a hamburger with tomatoes?




Nope. A hamburger covered in tomato sauce. It was good though! The vegetable in the little bowl is daikon--if you come to Japan and don't like daikon, you are going to be in trouble because it's included (in some form) in almost every meal.

Sushi rice wrapped in seaweed is a really really common lunch or snack in Japan. I decided that I should try something so popular--it's waiting for me in the fridge.




I'm constantly hearing about how expensive Japan is. Well, that's probably true if you want to stay in a high-end hotel, eat in hotel restaurants, take taxis everywhere, and go to Disney. If you are willing to stay in a more business hotel, eat in smaller venues where they might not speak English but the food is authentic, takte the subway, and go to cheaper places--it wouldn't be very expensive. For example, I ate soba on Sunday. The whole meal cost 255 yen--less than $2.50 for a full meal. How is that expensive? And it was a LOT of food.




So what did I think about soba? I'm glad my boss told me how to eat it. One thing that always confuses me is if something is a dip or a soup--which could be a very embarrassing error. With soba, it's a dip. You dump all side items that you want into the sauce and then dip the cold noodles in. They are made out of buckwheat and are pretty good, although I think they have a strange aftertaste.


I ate at a bakery last week too. After watching people for a while, I figured out (too late) that you can take all the bread you want--I saw some people with about fifteen pieces. I got the beef stew and it was tasty. This kind of meal is more expensive--probably around $15.



In snack food news:

I've actually tried most of the things I've bought so I'll have to do a round-up later. But new items include:



I LOVE tiny ice creams! My mom says these are being sold in the US (probably not the same flavors though). They are just the right size. I haven't tried Azuki Milk (which I don't have high hopes for, I don't like azuki, which are sweet red beans--beans are never dessert in my opinion). The Macadamia Nut was DELICIOUS!!! Wow was it good. If it's sold in the US, go and buy it. The vanilla ice creams is smooth and sweet and contrasts really well with the almost salty flavor of the nuts.

The cassis and orange ice cream--not as tasty. The cassis part was almost a sorbet and I just plain didn't like the flavor or texture.





More mango treats! These are a sort of jelly. They are pretty mangoy but I wasn't a big fan. They are pretty much wiggly little squares coated it cornstarch or something.




I have no idea what these apple snacks are--I haven't tried them yet. But another flavor of kitkat--strawberry! I think I have five or six flavors to try when Josh comes, so look for that blog this weekend :)




Let me know what you think! As stated before, feel free to forward this blog to anyone you think may enjoy it :) Comments are always welcome (unless you're a jerk!).

End of week three and my excursion to Denny's!

First off, a big thanks goes to my mother, my father, and my boyfriend for tirelessly promoting my blog :) Apparently I have a lot of new people reading. I would love to know who you are! So if you are reading these, either leave a comment or email me at thejoyofthejoyofcooking@hotmail.com and tell me what you think! Also, I love getting comments and accept anonymous comments...so you don't have to join to leave your thoughts!



Why didn't I post last week? Because I have a terrible confession to make. It rained ALL weekend so I spent most of weekend hibernating. I know, I know, I'm in Japan. But it's hard to go out in a two-day long downpour! As I keep saying, no one would move to Japan for the beautiful weather. The few times I did leave the apartment, I forgot my camera, so I had almost nothing to report. It's so dreary and all the rain at night makes the alleys that I walk through kind of creepy.




So I decided (on Sunday) to punish myself for barely leaving the apartment--I was going to eat the convenience store sushi that I see every day. I have a problem with the idea of sushi from a 7-11, it just seems kind of gross. I don't know if they have raw fish in them or not (the word sushi refers to vinagered rice, not raw fish), but it still seems risky. On the other hand, millions of Japanese people eat these every day, so it can't be that bad. Right?? Right?? The sushi I find the most interesting has Spam on the top but that isn't sold by my house (but it is sold by my work!). I bought a 3-pack.



It was okay. Not terrific, not bad. Had some sort of tasty sauce in the middle, almost a mayonnaise, that was pretty good. I also bought a hard-boiled egg. I like hard-boiled eggs, but only the yolk. I don't know what they do to the eggs here but they taste different--and not good different. One bite and in the trash.




I also went on a search for butter. You know, sometimes things that are so easy to find in the US are surprisingly diffiicult to find when you have trouble with the labels. I found what I thought was butter in the convenience store by the cheeses. I stood there for a while--butter or cheese? Could be either...finally, I spotted the word "butter" (well, in katakana, but butaa is pretty close). It was expensive but should last the two months, easily.




Another thing I find really interesting in Japan...gum syrup. If you get a cold drink they hand you gum syrup to sweeten it. I've never received gum syrup in the US--has anyone else? It mixes really well but I think it has a slightly strange aftertaste.






I find Japanese fruit to be--actually, fruit outside of the US--to be interesting. There is a lot of fruit that grows in the Philippines or Thailand that isn't hardy enough for the trip to the US. And there are fruit stands around my subway stop.

I bought a yellow fruit, not knowing what it was. It was a mango! Apparently there are a lot of types of mango, one of them being this yellow variety. It was the most ripe and tasty mango I've ever had.



I also like the oranges here. The sad thing is that they are Florida oranges, yet more ripe and juicy than I've ever had--even in season (winter) in Florida! Oddly, they tend to be striped inside.




Last weekend I bought what I thought were oranges--and they weren't. The fruit pictured in the back were very sour, almost like a grapefruit, but the inside was orange. Any ideas? The package says "sunfruit" --assuming I translated it correctly--but that doesn't really help me.

The fruit on the right are oranges and on the left...well, I'm not sure. They are extremely expensive (Almost 1000 yen for 6! That's $10 for 6 tiny fruit!), which interested me. I'm thinking they are Mikan but I could be wrong.




My weekly American food excursion was to Denny's! Every week I pop out of the subway station in front of the Denny's and it's so interesting (and busy). But I've been told that it is NOTHING like the American version. I really wanted to find out for myself but it's not really the type of place I could bring anyone else--I (rightly) assumed they wouldn't be interested.

The menu was full of Japanese food. Not a single Big Slam breakfast OR Moons Over My Hammy to be found!




And "Denny's restaurant sauce"--no idea what that is. It smelled like A1 sauce.



The French fries were very tasty even though they came with a strange pink sauce. No idea what the sauce was--it was almost sweet and had little granules in it. I ate it anyway.




The mysterious fish balls were less impressive.





American black cherries are popular here and Denny's was no exception--they had a whole "black cherry" part of the menu. So I ordered what I thought might be a crepe. The picture in the menu sure looked like a crepe. It was creme brulee. Pretty tasty, although heavy on the "brulee" and light on the "creme", which is opposite of the way I like it. That being said, I don't think I've ever seen a creme brulee on a Denny's menu.






I have a few new snacks to add to the growing list of interesting Japanese snack food (and I've eaten some of the featured items from previous weeks, I'll try to do a roundup this weekend).

Sometimes you come upon foods and have NO idea what they are. This was one of those foods. It had a picture of a processed meat product on the left hand side, so maybe it was supposed to taste like that? It tasted like an overinflated cheeto--really light and airy, and surprisingly good. Still don't know what it was supposed to taste like, but at least it was good!




This on the other hand...one bite and in the garbage.



First off, the package is creepy. Why is that guy so excited to eat the talking corn? If I saw talking corn, I'd run away from it--probably straight to the psychiatrist. But this guy, he's excited. It tasted EXACTLY like corn on the cob, if the cob was a Cheeto, which really grossed me out.

On one of the junk food blogs that I read, the reviewed Tubuto caramel corn and I though...I could try that! Apparently, my package is enjoying a nice ice cream float, which looks much tastier than the caramel corn, which I haven't tried yet. On the right side is a mysterious product that I'm thinking will taste like steak, considering the kid is carrying a piece of meat that is about the same size as his head.







If you've been reading this blog, you know that I think Japanese fashion is very interesting. One of the things that makes it interesting to me is the fact that American fashion standards have almost nothing to do with Japanese fashion choices. For example (and I apologize for the picture quality), this guy:



He obviously thought he was quite fashionable, he had the spring in his step of somebody who thought he looked HOT. And he had a mullet. Totally had a mullet. And I've seen so many mullets in Japan, you'd think I was at a giant Journey concert (sorry Ben)!



In non-food news, one of things that confused me the most when I moved into my apartment was how to turn on the main lights. Nothing seemed to do it. I spent a while without them before figuring it out. It wasn't that big of a hardship--the lamps worked and so did the bathroom lights, but it was still annoying. Eventually, I noticed a button that looked like an emergency button. I was getting desperate at this point, so I pushed it. It wasn't a button at all, but a hole. So I took the stick on my keychain and shoved it in--and the lights came on! It's apparently a way to make sure you turn off the lights (and the AC) when you leave the apartment.

I'm not the only one confused about it--in the middle of last week I saw a very confused Indian lady. She stopped me and asked me how to turn on the lights--and I was able to help! So at least my idiocy helped someone. And it's an easy way to remember your keys when you leave the house.

I was fooling around with the buttons in my apartment trying to make the AC work. I finally got sick of not having an AC (it is super humid here) so I decided to push buttons all over in an attempt to make it work--and I finally did! But, unrelatedly (to me at the time), I couldn't get any hot water. And when I say there was no hot water, I mean there was NO hot water. It felt like ice was pouring from the spout. I suffered through a few ice showers, but it was terrible. The problem? While in my button pushing frenzy, I had hit a button (outside of the bathroom, by the fax machine) that controls the hot water. Silly me--I thought all buttons dealing with the bathroom would be IN or NEAR the bathroom itself! At least this problem got fixed fairly quickly.

My last thought of the blog...I love love love these lucky money cats. You see them in almost every shop in Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. A raised right paw brings you money while a raised left paw brings you customers. The colors even have meaning, with white cats usually meaning purity and tricolor/calico being especially lucky.

Japan, end of week two, and MORE FOOD!

First things first, I've been asked if it's okay to forward my blog on to others--of course! Frankly, I'm excited that anyone wants to :) Another common question is about new posts--I'm guessing 3 or so a week--one during the week, two on the weekends. Pretty much on the weekday's I go to work and then come home, which isn't that exciting.

This is going to be a mostly food blog again becuase that's what I do during the week--eat! That being said--I think I'm losing weight. I walk and walk and walk and walk and am constantly climbing stairs. I have this terrible vision of stepping on the hem of my pants (because they are loose because I'm losing weight) and have my pants fall off! And then, because every single person in Japan has high-tech cell phones, it will be videoed and on Youtube within minutes as "Gaijin loses pants"...terrifying!

Another story that, unfortunately, is pictureless is an adventure to Bob's International Lounge for lunch. You know, a place in Japan that has cartoons of a cowboy...not usually a great sign in my opinion. The place...well, that's a story for the ages. There were two waitresses. One was about 150, and had one tooth and one eye. The other had a baby on her back. One of my coworkers said that he thought that's what family dining in the United States was like. I replied...only in the deepest of the deep rural areas, where you hear men squealing like pigs and banjo's dueling. That being said, it was bizarre enough that the women in the office want to see it, so I'll probably go back--and this time, I'll get pictures. My favorite part was the dartboard on the balcony, so that if you missed, your dart would go flying over the side from 8 stories up.

But I will start off with a non-food picture. It was requested that I take a picture of the hated Japanese keyboard. It turns out that keyboards are surprisingly difficult to photograph. The problems are not immediately noticeable--until you notice that punctuation signs are ALL over the place, especially items like apostrophe's, which are not used by the Japanese. Another huge problem? The space bar is half the size that it is on the English model, and the button to the right changes the language. So I was CONSTANTLY changing the language accidentally. I haven't typed so slow since I was 13!





So, whenever I said I was going to Japan, people in America tended to bring up mochi. "Oh, I love mochi" they'd say "I'd eat so much mochi if I was in Japan". I had a bad feeling that the Japanese called something different mochi than the American's do...and I was right. In America, mochi tends to refer a tasty dessert of ice cream wrapped in a dough made of rice. In Japan, it appears that the word "mochi" only is referring to the rice dough itself...at that's it. So what does that mean in practice?

It means instead of cupcakes, people bring mochi balls to work for treats.



Hmmm...the green, sticky part is the mochi. The purple part is...I actually have no idea at all what the purple part is. Really, could be anything. It was sweet, that's all that I know. And this thing was HUGE. There was no way I could eat it all. It wasn't bad but I won't be trading in cupcakes for them. And it would be better filled with ice cream.

Because I'm foreign and willing to try any food they hand me (once or twice) I got multiple treats. This was the other one. I have no idea at all what it is but it appeared to be filled with the same purple stuff. They told me I was suppsoed to eat the leaf so I did. It was a strangely salty food. Again, not bad...but I wouldn't cross the street to get one.




As I was wandering the block I found a shop that sells nothing but apple products. Very strange. And a HUGE range of apple products--dried apples, apple jelly, apple alcohol. I bought some dried apples. They were cut really thick and they were as dry as I've ever seen dehydrated fruit...that being said, they were really quite good and I think I'll go back.




I haven't tried the mango kit-kats yet but I have invested in two new types. One is banana flavored and the other (which seems to be very patriotic and in tune with the upcoming 4th of July) is berry flavored.




I have stumbled upon a snack I really like. The skeleton chips are EXTREMELY spicy little rings...and they are compounding spicy. So the first one, not so bad. The second one, wow, that's some heat. Eventually, you are tearing up and sweating. But in a good way! And the little bag next to it--I don't know why I took a picture of the back of the bag rather than the front. But they are really tasty soft little cider flavored candies. Yum!




I'm sure the red vs. green bags means something and it's probably that one is more spicy than the other, but I don't know which is which. The spicy rings have a competitor though made my frito-lay. They taste like rings of Cheeto's that are incredibly hot. Like I couldn't eat more than three hot.




Things that remind me of Cheetos are plentiful in Japan. I also ate what tasted like a chocolate cheeto dipped in chocolate--it was surprisingly good.





The award for the cutest candy has to go to Hello Kitty in Panda suit candy. I think it's supposed to be some sort of Coke float hard candy. Frankly, it doesn't taste very good and has a strange aftertaste. But it's so cute, who cares! I eat a lot of these little cider candies and the one on the right is a kind of almond caramel that is really good. They are individually packaged, which makes me happy--I only like to eat a little bit of candy at a time (which is why there is so much untouched candy in my apartment!).






On Wednesday I ate at a ramen shop. It's been asked how I pick which resturants to go to. Well, I look for a push-button ordering system (it's easy and I don't clog up the line), a menu with pictures, or plastic models of the food. If it has one of those things, I'm set. Otherwise, menu's tend to have WAY too much kanji for me to be able to read them. The ramen was good, espacially the broth. I'm not sure about the slice of pork floating in there but it was fairly tasty too.




Every morning I go to get a Coke to drink during the day and some sort of healthy drink for breakfast. This is the one I've been getting lately. It has a LOT of fruits and vegetables in it including carrots, pumpkin, corn, eggplant, daikon, several differant types of lettuce or cabbage, mango, tomato, banana, and the kitchen sink. It MUST be healthy :)






Sometimes after work I go to a coffee shop named Tully's. Tully's is obviously a non-Japanese chain (I mean, come on, Tully's?) but it's close and I like to sit there, drink honey lattes and eat some cheesecake. The Japanese are always SHOCKED when I can count money out correctly. It has the same numbers on it that we use--it doesn't exactly take a brain trust to figure out.





Embarassing American Food I've Eaten This Week Award goes to: SUBWAY! It looks exactly like it does in the US doesn't it? It was okay but the mayo was strange and they put exactly 4 pickles on a foot long sub. And she placed those FOUR pickles very carefully. So there wasn't exactly pickle in every bite, which means it wasn't all that it could be.





To be added into the "bought but I haven't tried yet" column:



Blueberry Pocky and what appears to be chestnuts. At least, I think they're chestnuts--any other guesses?




I started getting homesick not so much for American food but for cooking--I miss cooking. My one burner and zero counterspace doesn't so much lend itself to cooking though. I decided that my favorite dish, potatoes and garlic sauteed in copious amounts of olive oil and then salted, was doable even in the tiny kitchen. All the ingredients were easily obtained between the produce shop and the 7-11. Ah, delicious. Not healthy at all but delicious.





In other news, I've been trying to use a translation website, and I've decided that it makes all websites better. For example:

UNIQLO The Ome 今寺店 4-4-2, Imadera, Ome-shi, Tokyo Ome 今寺店 is allowed to consider it as closing with 6/26 (Thurs.), though very selfish, and it transfer-opening-does as an Ome store at 6/27 (Fri.).


Uniqlo is a Gap style store that is common in Japan. And you know what? It is selfish for wanting to close :)

Japan, end of week one--BBQ people? Part 3/3

There are three blogs today--go check out the other two! There is a LOT to look at :) This is the shortest of the three!

In Harajuku, I went into a costume shop...I think. I hope! What the heck is on the ladies head--on the left? Someone would wear that out in public?







Sometimes I see signs in English and I don't think they are conveying the message they mean to. Like this one. It's a tanning salon...I don't think BBQ is sending the right message through.





Or "Pee" anywhere in your name. I don't want to buy Bruce's Pee.





Sometimes I see stuff that reminds me of my friends. I picked up some fabric for myself and some for Jennifer. I hope you like money cats and koi! I'm going to send her the paper too, assuming she wants it.



This guitar shop also reminded me of Jennifer's family. In Shibuya there was a whole music area that was really interesting.





I found these little knit people in Asakusa. I LOVE them. I don't think they were for sale though. If anyone could make these, I would pay! The woman has rice and the man has yakitori--and a beer :) How cute!!




So until next week. Apparently four times a week isn't enough--I don't want to break it into three blogs again :)

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