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 :)

Jessica hearts comments!

Japan, end of week one--an all food blog! Part 2/3

First order of business--if you see something that you would like as a souviner or you would like me to look for something for you, let me know sooner rahter than later. Like, now.

Well, I've been remiss is some of my food picture taking. I've eaten a number of delicious meals that will remain anonymous because I forgot to record them. Which brings me to one of my favorite things about Japan--you can take a picture of ANYTHING and nobody thinks it's strange. Of course, when the Japanese travel they take thousands of pictures, so it would be pretty hypocritical for them to mock, but still...

This blog is second in a set of three BRAND NEW BLOGS! So make sure to read them all :) This is the "food blog" of the day.

So, one of my goals coming to Japan (well, eating goals at least) was to eat at a REAL teppenyaki resturant. You know--a "Japanese steakhouse"? Shogun? Ohana?

It wasn't easy to find one but I did--based on expert advice :) And it was fancy! Ladies in kimonos, the works!

First differance...you wear a giant bib. I felt like I was at a Gallagher show! But everyone else was doing it--it wasn't just a "pull one over on the foreigner" type thing. Not the most flattering picture of me but hey, what can you do?





I got Kobe beef. Wow! Look at that marbling. American Prime is just as tasty though.




The salad. It was interesting! Tofu, lettuce, see through noodles of some sort, tomatoes (safe ones!), all in a blueberry dressing. It was good! On the left you can see the appetizer type stuff--corn, squash, peppers....very tasty. Later he made some garlic--delicious! And you dip it all in sea salt. I love salt, so it was right up my alley.




The meat was great! Medium rare and delicious. The fat from the meat was then cooked up, with some garlic, and the rice--wow was that good. A delicious meal that I got absolutely stuffed by! The main difference? There was no show. No volcano out of onions. No eggs getting flipped into a hat. No fancy knifework. This lead me to wonder what Japanese people think when they come to the US and eat at Shogun...





The rest of food I have pictures of isn't near as exciting :)

I've gotten this a couple times...tonkatsu (fried pork) and a curry sauce. I like it. Strangely, the miso soup had okra in it--unexpected.




Sometimes I just read a menu until I can recognize a word that sounds good enough. In this case it was "avocado"--I like avocado's and figured that I would like whatever showed up. It was an avocado salad, corn chowder, and garlic bread. Delicious--they didn't skimp on the avocado!




One of my co-workers took me to a dessert shop when we were getting a new cord for Toby, my computer. I ordered milk snow. It was surprisingly good! I've eaten it since too...I think it has sweetened condensed milk poured on the top. Actually, this one had green tea on the bottom too.





I find this amazing. I almost have no words to describe it. If you want to know what this burger tastes like, you are going to have to wait for Josh to come...it appears to be 3 patties, cheese, bacon, an egg, and god knows what else. A heart attack laying in wait...



Also in the fast food sector...I ate at Burger King today. I know, I know, I should eat Japanese food. But I was hungry for a whopper! And I'm here for months, I don't think every meal needs to be sushi (not that I've eaten sushi yet). And what was on the menu? A BLACK PEPPER WHOPPER! I LOVE BLACK PEPPER!!! And it was every bit as good as it sounds. I should have taken the picture before removing the onions that were contaminating it.




I got a chocolate covered banana in Asakusa. It was tasty although the chocolate had a weird texture to it...it must have been cheap melting chocolate. It's a pretty shot though!





So I've been doing all of my grocery shopping at the convinence stores. This isn't really a problem because there are TONS of stores and I really like them. But I was hungry and just couldn't find anything I wanted to eat. There is a LOT of food in these stores--but something in me just won't let me get sushi in a gas station. It seems icky. Sushi with spam? Sure--but that's at the store next to work. Fish sushi? No. But then I saw it. A corn dog! But what about ketchup?

THERE WASN'T KETCHUP ON THE SHELF! I looked doubtfully at the corn dog. I'm not positive corn dogs are edible without ketchup. I took a chance on and ordered it. Out of nowhere the clerk pulled tiny ketchup packets! It was difficult to get the ketchup out without the disgusting taint of mustard, but I managed. It won't happen again because I hunted down some ketchup at another store.

So how was the corn dog? Pretty good. The "dog" was bland but the breading was thick--and that's the part I like the best anyway.

I also got some soy sauce. What are the Pringles you ask? Roast turkey Pringles. Fascinating. I haven't tried them yet though.



If those Pringles looked interesting...French Cesear Salad Pringles. I have no idea what those are going to taste like but they were interesting. Strawberry coated Cheeto's. Hmmm....fascinating. Tiny doughnuts--those I've tried tonight. Bland and they remind me of Wonder Bread...





Cake soda. Another future delicacy.


I bought these little fruits because I thought they were tiny apples. They weren't. They are really really sour plums. Tiny--but they pack a real punch. The bottom right was a strange mango custard with chocolate at the bottom--almost cloyingly sweet. I've found a lot of the sweets her are WAY too sweet for me. And the coconut pudding--I haven't tried it yet, but I have a terrible feeling it's going to taste like sunscreen.




Now here was an odd combo. Brazilian pudding pocky. Very tasty! Kind of coconut-y but really good--if you like Pocky. The bottom is a kind of cracker/cookie with chocolate on one side. They are for little kids but they are really good. On the left. I have no idea what those are supposed to taste like. They are green with green filling. I was not impressed--maybe green tea? I don't know, they didn't taste like anything really.





Panda heads on pikes!




I love Ritz crackers. I LOVE Ritz crackers. We will see about the cheese and meat...a winning breakfast!




I decided I needed something healthy in the house. So I got some sort of apple food--haven't tried it yet but it looks good. I know "ringo" means apple, so I'm good to go. The mango and apple juice was super tasty!







Little Naruto thingies were hanging on the Cokes, so I got a couple for Josh. I figure he can give the extras to his brother.




I've gotten emails about what some of the food I've shown pictures of tasted like. Well, I still haven't eaten some of it. So I've decided to add a new section to my blogs:

Food from past blogs that I've eaten but haven't blogged about:
-Giant Cokes. Delicious, but exactly like the Cokes at home. The must use tasty HFCS too.
-Chocolate mushrooms. Tasty but the chocolate is a little bitter for me. The trunk is particularly good--some sort of cracker.

Food from past blogs that I haven't eaten yet:
-Cassis and orange Haagan Daz
-Mango KitKats
-Green tea in the carton--I forgot I had it

Japan, end of week one--pics of my apartment and more!

I'm going to break this blog into two, because adding pictures is a real PITA and I don't want to slog through them all.

I added Skype -- so if you have it, add me. My name is just firstname.lastname --well, you have to replace firstname with my first name and so on, it's fairly simple. I just don't want to be giving out all of that sensitive info on the web :)

One thing I've learned is that you don't need to know much about a language before you go to a country. Assuming that people say the correct thing at the socially acceptable time and gesture, you can pretty much figure out what they are saying. This has greatly helped me. It also helps that I understand a lot more Japanese than I can speak and it appears that most Japanese understand more English than they can speak--so we all meet happily in the middle. Even so, I get confused a lot. So much, in fact, that I think it's my new stasis point.


Some of you were asking about apartment pictures. The apartment is tiny. That being said, it's bigger than my dorm rooms at Iowa State and I don't have to share :) So, thanks ISU, for lowering my standards in square footage!

The view from my doorway. Yep, not very big. It does have a washer/dryer though, which is at the edge of the picture.




My "kitchen". Personally, I don't call one burner and a sink a kitchen. There is a rice cooker, but, believe it or not, rice is really expensive here, so I'd rather just go out to eat.



The toilet room. It's like peeing in a closet. I'm not sure what you are supposed to do with the toilet sink--I'm not touching toilet water. On the bright side, like all Japanese toilets, the seat is heated. And there are lots of buttons!





At least it isn't my old enemy, the toilet in the floor. When I go into a place that has one of these, I usually just leave. Frankly, I'm not sure I could use it without peeing on my shoes and I've never been that desperate. This picture was snapped today!




A close-up of the toilet handle. Those of you with a little Japanese instruction will appreciate that you can either have a "chisai"or an "okii" flush--that's small or big for us gaijin.



My shower-room. Because of the lack of door or curtin, the whole room gets soaked during a shower. And the tub...well, I hope you don't like to take lengthy baths, because this ain't the tub to do it in. Unless you are a hobbit. Then it would be fine.




A little desk area. It's nice they gave me a PS 2, but I don't have any games. And yes, I did haul all of those books here. I know, I know, but it's my hobby! And books in Eigo (English) are expensive.



The bed. Closet on the left, which has some shelves, 2 chairs (for company?), a scale (seems like a strange thing to have), an iron, and a blow dryer. The mirror is actually shelving for clothing (thank god). In the upper left corner, the evil AC that refuses to work. I'm sure I've just shut it off accidentally but I can't figure out how to get it back on. The bed sits on the floor, but I kinda like that.




And, finally, my balcony. No screen, but there don't seem to be a ton of bugs, so I just leave the door open and it cools down the apartment. See those windows across the street? Full of office people during the week. I stare at them and they stare at me.




So now a trip to work with me...I take the subway every day. It's clean and safe, but really crowded, so I go to work early (to avoid the crowds). On the bright side, going to work early here means before nine.


My stop is at the local Denny's




Yeah, you heard me right. The Denny's. Anyone up for "Moon over my hammy"?



So many stairs! And I was already up two flights when I took this picture. Stairs everywhere--no wonder Japanese people are thin. I've walked more in the last week than I have in the last five years.



These bumps exist on all sidewalks, subway and train station, pretty much everywhere the public walks. Apparently, the blind can follow them--they change from lines to bumps when there is an intersection. And they hurt like a b**ch to walk on in heels. I think their real job is to break ankles.





I ride on the women-only car in the mornings. It's not as crowded. Hoo-ray for women!







In other news, I went to Harajuku yesterday. Strange and pretty damn cool. I bought Duchess a toy that looks like a sushi-roll. While I was there I spotted some Lolita's--both the gothic and sweet variety. I couldn't bring myself to take their picture like they were zoo animals but maybe I'll force myself in the future.

Strange clothes. I'm sure you all have seen this blog before:

Strange Japanese Fashion


There are some strange Japanese fashions. I personally find the Ganguro style to be truly disturbing. The most bizarre thing I saw was a woman wearing a pink, lacy eye-patch as a fashion accessory. That's just weird.



I think I'm going to post again later today so check back! And email me! I like to read emails during the day. Send me your favorite blogs :)

Japan, day three, and the Craigslist crazies

I was randomly on the Tokyo craigslist today. I kind of like it because I can read it--I'm learning that is something to savor. That being said, I think westerners are even more obnoxious in Japan than they are in America/Canada/Europe. I mean, come on. First off, there is a plethera of ads that say, more or less, give me money. Here are a couple examples:

1. I'm an idiot who is coming to a foreign country without any plans: http://tokyo.craigslist.jp/com/706112999.html

2. If you say you are beautiful in the title, you damn well better be spectacular. And I sure hope this guy is kidding. If not, as my mom would say, I would love to have his mirror. http://tokyo.craigslist.jp/stp/706432324.html

3. First off, if you are half one race and half a different race, how are you more ethnically anything? I would say you are equal parts of both those ethnicities. Secondly, maybe this guy should go to one of those mail-order bride web sites. http://tokyo.craigslist.jp/stp/688881887.html

4. This person is honestly saying that they think you should give them $5000 so they can travel Europe. I feel that takes brass ovaries--and not in a good way. http://tokyo.craigslist.jp/trv/698764510.html

So if you are still with me, I had my first day of work today--hooray! It went well. My boss met me in the morning and lead me to work. I took notes but still entered the subways armed with maps and a look of utter confusion. The bright side of this is that a Japanese girl took pity on me, helped me work my maps, and then gave me her card (and I gave her mine) for if I wanted to hang out (she very possibly just wants to practice her English, but that's fine!).

For those of you who loved the parade, I later saw it from my house! See it in the middle?




Nobody loves vending machines like the Japanese. There must be ten for every person. Beer (up to pony kegs!), soda, coffee, everything is sold out of these.




Sunday's delicious meal...beef curry. Almost zero beef, but still really good.




It is incredibly humid in Japan. Thankfully, I'm used to this, having grown up in Iowa. But man, if you weren't, you would be melting. And they tell me it rains all the time. It certainly did yesterday. Look how dreary it is. There is a subway stop in the picture, but not the one I use to get to work.




I decided to go find something to eat. I had wandered around, lost, for a while, and was wet.

I passed an expensive car store on my street. I don't even know what these cars are!




I then found an Indian restaurant. I didn't know it was Indian until I walked in, but i thought what the heck, I like Indian food! I ordered my favorite, aloo gobi with naan. When I ordered the naan, the guy looked at me funny, but didn't say anything. And I noticed he was making it from scratch. First, I got a tiny, vinegar-y salad. It was really good.



It was about a thousand degrees in the resturant so I got a Mango Lassi. I love Lassi's and this one tasted extremely fresh. I wish I had one right now.




So the Aloo Gobi comes. Looks great! I taste it. Strong spices, delicious.




And then the naan.....



Yes, the naan was the size of...of...of something huge! It was enormous! That is an American sized dinner plate sized basket it's hanging off of! But it was fresh...and good...but huge! No wonder he looked at me strange! I did eat most of it though.


I might not blog for a few days, I don't want to post from work and my computer is giving me trouble, of course. It should be a real blast dealing with this issue in another language. At least my computer is Japanese! Wish me luck.