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.

Japan, day one, and the pants-less parade

I wasn't sure what to do with TJOTJOC for two months--I'm in Japan and am not really able to TJOC (I recognize that isn't a verb but I'm going to make it one!). So do I abandon it for two months? That doesn't seem like a good idea. So I'm going to turn it into my Japan blog while I'm here! If you aren't interested, send me your email, and I'll let you know when I'm TJOC'ing again--or check back in August.

I will post pictures of my apartment tomorrow. Everyone kept telling me how tiny it was going to be but it's not so bad. Frankly, it's bigger than my dorm rooms were and I don't have to share this one. It costs 200,000 yen a month--that's a hellava lot of money. It is in Ginza, which is a pretty expensive part of town. I don't know how anyone affords to live in Tokyo!

Saturday night I decided to just go to the convenience store for food--there are three really close to my place. I bought the only thing I could figure out how to make through the pictures on the back of the bag...a bag of fried rice. It was okay but soggy. I also bought a carton of green tea for a dollar--tasty!

'


I think these are extremely funny. No idea what they are except little chocolate-y mushrooms.



Mango kitkats? I bought Josh green tea kitkats the last time I was here. I haven't tried these yet but they do look good.




These are enormous cans of coke. Like, forties of Coke. I feel like I should be drinking them out of brown paper bags.



First off, I love these tiny ice creams--perfect size. Second, cassis--or currant--is my favorite flavor of all flavors! Yum!





For my first meal out of the house, I ate Tonkatsu, which is pretty much fried pork. I stood confused in the resturant (more of a fast food place) before it was pantomimed to me that I needed to order by pushing buttons on something that looked like a vending machine. I figured out where to put the money and where to order but two buttons kept flashing at me--I still don't know what they meant (maybe take-out versus eat-in?). Some guy came and pushed one for me.

I really like all the tea though.






Today appears to be some sort of holiday. First off, there are a ton of mobile shrines out.




And as I was walking around, I passed a parade where a bunch of men appeared to not be wearing pants.



A guy then reached up to adjust the thing they were carrying--yep, no pants at all. Briefs, yes, pants, no.




Frankly, I think we could use more holidays that don't include pants.

Quick tuna casserole (p.96) and Stir-fried garlic chicken (p. 439)

This is going to be a picture-less blog until I get home in two months and post the pictures! Sorry! I wasn't sure what to do with TJOTJOC for two months--I'm in Japan and am not really able to TJOC (I recognize that isn't a verb but I'm going to make it one!). So do I abandon it for two months? That doens't seem like a good idea. So I'm going to turn it into my Japan blog while I'm here! If you aren't interested, send me your email, and I'll let you know when I'm TJOC'ing again--or check back in August.

For the last blog before that happens...

I'm going to be leaving for two months and I have a terrible feeling that Josh is going to eat Hot Pockets and popcorn every day. I tried to protect against that by doing what any good Italian would do--making a huge pot of sauce and freezing it for him (not a TJOC sauce though--an actual Italian sauce :) ). I also made two other recipes.

Josh loves tuna, while it absolutely makes my stomach turn. In fact, I can't even handle the smell of tuna from a distance. It always amazes me that people could place something that smells like that into their mouths (then again, I use fish sauce, so maybe that doesn't make sense). I knew that there was a tuna casserole recipe in TJOC and that it probably made quite a bit. So I made Quick Tuna Casserole (p.96). The recipe is easy--dump tuna into a bowl, dump other stuff including an enormous amount of peas in, some cream of mushroom soup, and some cooked macaroni. I have a hard time cooking with elbow macaroni--it always seems like I should be doing crafts with it.

I knew that Josh liked to crush potato chips and put them on top, so I was glad that the casserole had a crust (breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese).

Cooking this was the best I could do. There was no way that I was eating it. So I only have secondhand knowledge of the taste. He said it was good but there were way too many peas in it. I had a bad feeling about that--it did seem that a disproportionate amount of peas were being included.

I also made Stir-Fried Garlic Chicken (p.439). I like garlic chicken when I'm at the Chinese restaurants. The recipe was easy...

EXCEPT...

You know, you should always read through a recipe before you start it. And I DID read through it. But I apparently misunderstood a vital part. In this recipe, you make a marinade and dump the chicken into it (no problem). Then you make a hoisan sauce mixture (no problem). But you still have a bunch of other ingredients. I thought I was supposed to mix them together.

I wasn't. So I have this bowl with chicken broth, snow peas, onions, garlic, ginger, and scallions all mixed and they aren't supposed to be. It totally reminded me of the Simpson's episode where Marge is "untossing" the salad before putting it in the refrigerator. So I pick out the pea pods and onions and put them in separate small bowls. I strain out the broth. But there is no way I can separate the garlic and ginger...no problem, they are added together. The scallions are just going to have to be ignored.

It was good! Seemed to have too much liquid but maybe that's the way it's supposed to be. I used thighs because I like meat to have flavor--but you could use chicken breast if you like your meat bland.

Moroccan style vegetable stew (p.246)

So people told me that the Moroccan-style vegetable stew (p.246) was particularly good, so I was looking forward to trying it. This is a fairly complex recipe with a TON of ingredients. I think it would be best to make if you had a garden--which we don't. In fact, I have a black thumb--I kill plants that my mom says are impossible to kill, which is depressing.

I also knew that I just had to make myself happy with this one--my favorite tester hates cardamom and chickpeas, so he was extremely unlikely to like this dish.

The first step of the recipe is to make your spice mix--cumin, chili, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Frankly, this mixture was scaring me a little--it smelled a lot more like I was making a pie than a stew. And I don't like cinnamon. I know--everybody likes cinnamon. But I never have...




The mixture was then mixed over a butternut squash and one potato. It didn't seem like it was going to be enough spice, but they are pretty potent spices.






Carrots, onions, raisins, and garlic were then mixed in. The mix is getting stranger and stranger...plus chicken broth (veg broth would make it vegetarian)...but it doesn't seem like there will be enough broth to cook all of these veggies!





You then have to place foil over the surface and cover it with a lid. I thought this was a bizarre step. And surprisingly difficult. The pot kept wanting to burn me.




You then mix in zucchini, chickpeas, olives, salt, and pepper. I love zucchini and olives...but with cinnamon?? And nutmeg??




I made some couscous. It was surprisingly good! Strange...extremely strange...but good! Is this what northern African cuisine is like? Anyone know? This recipe kept really well--in fact, it was even better the next day.

Beef satay with peanut sauce (p. 81), Potato leek soup (p. 130), and Vichyssoise (p.130)

Every day I look at the wooden skewers that sit on my counter. I never knew what to do with them. So I decided to make Beef satay with peanut sauce (p. 81)--conveniently using wooden skewers!

You have to soak the skewers for at least an hour before using them. I soaked them in the sink because I didn't have a bowl big enough to lay them in.

I decided to combine the coconut milk, shallots, brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic, cumin, and coriander in the food processor...the smallest food processor in the world.

The before shot:



And after:




I have to say that coconut milk is one of those ingredients that I just don't like working with. It creeps me out. I mean, come on, it's half liquid and half solid. I'm not sure how to use it--do you mix it up first? Try to use an equal amount of both? Just use the solid or the liquid? I have no idea! (**update**I actually like working with coconut milk now--it really has a tasty flavor and adds a lot to recipes)



You take the mix from the food processor and dump the strips of beef into it...there is a ton more marinade than beef. It's easier to slice the beef thin if you put in the freezer for fifteen minutes or so. Otherwise, it's a fight to get the beef sliced. You need to leave this out for at least an hour--I left it out for a few.



While this is marinating, you can make the sauce. This recipe uses a lot of ingredients that you will have if you make a lot of Asian food, but might not be a staple of your pantry if you don't, such as curry paste and my personal enemy, fish sauce. Fish sauce is horrifying. We keep it in the very back of our pantry but I would keep it in a locked box if I could. While getting it for this recipe I spilled some on my hand and almost threw up. I washed and washed my hands but the smell wouldn't even fade! Imagine rotting fish--and double it--and you have fish sauce.

Here is the sauce cooking--apparently the coconut milk doesn't play well with others.




And after cooking--nice and smooth...but still to watery--or at least, too watery for me. So I cooked it down further...



At this point, the beef is tossed in the marinade and threaded through the skewers. It took me a while to do this and apparently it was a problem...Josh later told me that if you don't want the skewers to burn you have to have them really wet. I also read in Ready_made magazine that they won't burn if you put aluminum foil on the revealed ends.






We've never grilled skewers before, so we didn't know how to place them. The solution was to randomly place them. One of them got the penthouse shelf.




Josh did the grilling...TJOC says they only need 2-3 minutes to cook, which made me nervous. We didn't brush them with vegetable oil because I couldn't figure out how to do it without taking off the marinade!




Yum! The finished product. Cooked perfectly but with burned skewers :(





After this picture was taken, I dropped the twin to this plate and it shattered like nothing I've ever seen before! Shrapnel EVERYWHERE--in the food, in the stove, all over the floor, cutting my hands. It was terrible. After cleaning the mess, we threw out the companion plate--I never wanted to go through that again!


Since the kitchen was already dirty and I had to wait for the meat to marinate I made Potato Leek Soup (p. 130) which I transitioned into Vichyssoise (p.130). I LOVE vichyssoise (which I have no idea how to pronounce)--but I don't like it cold. Cold soup is gross to me. But vichy tastes delicious hot. My uncle Denny and aunt Ginny make a great version of this soup--but I've never attempted it before.


Leeks can be intimidating. I mean, heck, there is a pokemon who has a leek as a weapon.


Pretty much, you just have to soak them (cut up) in some water. It gets the silt out. Leeks are like tastier, lighter onions--or like enormous scallions. The thing that makes me angry about leeks is that you end up throwing out about half of what you paid for--only part of them are edible!



Here are a few pictures of the leek-y potato-y mixture. It smelled so delicious!





So, after you blend it, you get potato leek soup. If you add cream, you get vichy! And who doesn't want to add cream? Cream is so yummy! Look how smooth it is...





Another new item in my kitchen...the immersion blender! I love it! So much less dangerous than pouring soup from a stainless steel pot into a blender--and then blending--so scary. The blender solves the problem--plus it makes excellent whipped cream!