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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Wednesday 30 August 2006

Japanese dining experiences

Update time! I have been flat out busy at school this week because Semester 2 of school starts this Friday and I have been trying to figure out possible lesson plans and what my predecessor has already taught (I've found journals kept by the JETs from 2002 right up to beginning of this year, but no luck finding anything for the current school year :P). Although it's currently school holidays at the moment, the students still come to school for club activities (club activities are valued with equal importance as studies). Anyway, I joined in on the Cooking Club yesterday as a break from work - they were baking biscuits for the upcoming gakosai (school festival). I was then invited to join them for lunch (cold somen noodles) and was given a packet of biscuits as a thank you for helping out.. Hehe.. I really am looking forward to the school festival as there will be lots of food!

I find that I am cooking a lot more now that I'm in Japan. The reason being that breakfast cereals are expensive and of the unhealthy kinds (think sugar-laden crispy cereals) and bread are quite expensive and only the unhealthy sweet white ones are available to buy. It works out to be a bit cheaper to eat rice and noodles (mainly soba and udon), so I have been cooking twice a day and having the previous night's leftovers for lunch. Tomorrow we'll have a breadmaker in our grasp (bought 2nd hand from an ex-JET), and we'll be ordering wholemeal bread flour from FBC (foreign buyers club) so hopefully we'll get healthy bread soon! We also miss eating brown rice (genmai) which is not available to us up in the Noto (although you would have thought otherwise since we are surrounded by rice paddy fields everywhere!) so we'll be ordering that from FBC too. Twice more expensive than white rice (which in turn is three times more expensive than rice in Perth) but it is healthier. We've been putting mugi (assortment of wheat, barley and rye) in with the white rice as was suggested to us by the Aussie guy who owns that bakery (more about him and his wife in a later post).

Anyhow, I thought that since I'd uploaded more photos I ought to blog about them... so here goes!


Tokyo dining

We wanted to try good dining places recommended by others. We only had the Tokyo Lonely Planet guide to help us so the two places we went to were recommendations given in the Lonely Planet guide.

Keika Kumamoto Ramen

Apparently this place is nationally famous, and since it was in Shinjuku (sorta near the Keio Plaza Hotel) we thought we'd give it a try. This place specialises in Kyushu-style pork noodles so naturally Rob went for the chashu-men noodles (I already had lunch provided at the hotel as part of the orientation) and it was okay. Ramen is of Chinese origin so it's not unlike the noodles that we've had before. The soup was quite rich and also pretty salty. The ramen was pretty pricey, at around 900yen for that bowl (about AU$11). I think that if this is the best that ramen can be (given that this place is a well-known ramen diner), then I probably will stick to having sushi for lunch..



Kanda Yabu Soba

Described as "Soba mecca for the buckwheat noodle aficianados of Tokyo" by the Tokyo Lonely Planet. It is in Kanda, near Akihabara (aka Electric Town). The restaurant itself was quite nice - traditional-looking, with a Japanese garden at the front. This soba-ya serves both hot and cold soba noodles, and we had a taste of both types.



Rob ordered the soba in hot broth with anago (conger eel, which we found out that day is not the same as unagi):


and I went for the one with duck breast meat:


They were both pretty good, and the broth had similar taste. We ordered plain cold soba (zarusoba) just to try it out:


Very simple, served with tsuyu (cold dipping sauce) with some grated daikon and wasabi on the side. The soba dishes came with the water in which the soba noodles were cooked in, and you're meant to mix this noodle water with the broth or tsuyu and drink it after eating the noodles. Supposedly very healthy. (I make it easy for myself when cooking soba noodles at home with hot broth - I cook the noodles with the broth :P).

To finish up, we had this mochi-like dessert made with buckwheat flour and had anko (sweet adzuki bean paste) filling. Quite yummy.


This experience was pretty expensive. I think it costed us around 4500 yen (equivalent to about AU$55?). Pretty pricey just for noodles methinks..


Anyway, that's all I have time to write now. I'll write more with more photos perhaps on the weekend if I have more time... I'm off now to memorise my speech in Japanese for my schools' opening ceremonies....

Thursday 24 August 2006

Photos of the aparto

That's the Japlish word for apartment. Or perhaps that's how they say apartment in Japanese. I don't really know. But anyway, we have a lovely 2 bedroom apartment, spacious kitchen and a toilet seat with an inbuilt heater (have not tried it out yet). These are photos I took on the day we arrived in Ukawa (it looks more 'lived in' now - i.e. messy). Almost half the apartment are tatami covered, the other half is hardwood. Our apartment is really spacious compared to what a lot of other JETs get, especially those poor souls in city placements.

The kitchen


The living room


The tatami bedroom - those are the edges of the futons we sleep on..


The view on the way home from my school

Some photos taken in Tokyo

The weather seemed to have changed overnight. Literally. Last Monday was a hot and humid ~35degC, but from Tuesday onwards, we have been enjoying a nice warm-ish weather of around 27degC. I guess this is what they mean when they say Japan experiences distinct seasons.

It's strange but Rob and I agree that it doesn't really feel like we're living in a totally foreign country/culture. I guess I might have expected more and perhaps the worst after hearing stories from others about living abroad in Japan. We've been here for only a few weeks, so perhaps our opinions will change later on. Perhaps culture shock may hit us later.

Anyway, as promised, here are some random photos I have taken while in Tokyo. Will post more later.

1. Japan is the land of vending machines, offering mainly beverages (both non-alcoholic and alcoholic) and cigarettes. They are everywhere, even in a rural town like mine (there's a couple on my street, and more in the town centre). This photo of 12 vending machines was taken somewhere in Shinjuku (Tokyo). It seemed like there were vending machines on every street we turned into.



2. This is the toilet at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku. Uh, yes, the buttons and dials instructs the toilet bowl to squirt water. This is common even in public toilets of fancy department stores. Many female toilets also have buttons or sensors on the wall for sound effect of water stream if you're shy about others hearing you do your business.



3. A shot of Shinjuku train station (one of them) which is apparently the busiest and most commuted train station in the whole of Japan. This photo was taken at 10pm at night on a Monday (yes, it was still very busy). Buying tickets and catching the train was quite a harrowing experience for us gaijins. I think it took Rob and myself about 1 hour to buy tickets. And then we had to figure where to catch the train. Shinjuku station is huge and I think all the train lines converge here.



4. We took the train to visit Tsukiji Markets really early in the morning, and my goodness it was really busy. The wet markets are huge! Bigger than even Victoria markets. And so much seafood! All the weird and wonderful things like sea urchin, huge fishes, and lots that I have never ever seen before. In the first shot, you can see 3 traffic regulators, and this is in the market area itself. So much traffic just for transporting the goods to the market. The second shot is of a section in the vendor area of the market itself.





5. As mentioned before, fruits are super expensive. This is proof - a 10,000 yen melon and this converts to approximately AU$120. Of course, this will most likely be bought as a gift.



6. Akihabara (Electric Town) - full of girls in maids' costumes.

Monday 21 August 2006

It has been awhile..

Huge update! Unfortunately haven't had time to edit the photos yet so that will come later.. I promise!

I think the last time I was on the internet was two Fridays ago at school, and since I was away on what is classed as 'business trips' for most of last week (doing prefectural orientations and attending this teachers' course to help improve the teaching techniques of the Japanese teachers of English (JTEs)), I could not update my blog or check my emails. Apologies to all who emailed me and didn't get a response. We will hopefully have internet set up at home this week!! (Most of last week was Obon (if I understand correctly, it's a time where people pay respect to their dead ancestors) and a lot of businesses were shut)

Scenery, apartment and school

There is so much green here in the Noto. And the terrain is so mountainous! Certainly a change of scenery for us. Our apartment is very nice. Rob was so excited to see the shoji (paper thingos for windows and doors). He was even excited about the bathroom which has a stool to sit on and shower like you do at onsens (hot springs). The toilet seat has a built-in heater which would be so handy come winter time. Our location is great - we're right across the road from the centre of our small town. Our town (called Ukawa is pretty small, but we can get relatively fresh fruits and veges in the small shops (only on Saturdays because I think they receive new stock of fruits and veges only once a week on Saturdays). And the fish! They're so fresh! We walked around town the other day and found a few fish mongers with super fresh fish for really cheap too! I was so excited about my purchases :) The fish was delicious!

My school (in Ushitsu) is a 15 minute drive away from our apartment along the coast, and the view is amazing. There's a shopping centre nearby my school so I can do groceries shopping after work during the week. The school itself is right on the coast, and it is the only school in the prefecture of Ishikawa to specialise in marine courses, which is something I think I can use to my advantage in my lesson planning.

Mahtsuri

Anyway, I have been absolutely flat out with all these work commitments as well as attending mahtsuris, or festivals, happening around the Noto. It's amazing - summer is known as the festival season in Japan, and we came at the time when all these mahtsuris are springing up all over the place. Individual towns hold their festivals for up to three days and apparently we missed a pretty big and awesome festival called Fire and Violence in Ushitsu which was held in late July. It is a festival well known all over the country for its craziness. We'll have the chance to witness it next July :) A few families in the towns hold huge feasts and boy the food is fantastic!

Miscellaneous observations

In the meantime, it is absolutely hot AND humid. It gets up to 35degC in the arvo and the mugginess is enough to drive you nuts!

A few more interesting observations I've made during our time in Japan:

- there are not enough rubbish bins around! Seriously, you could walk for ages without encountering one (in the meantime you're itching to rid yourself of the rubbish you're holding)

- chicken is so cheap here! It's about AU$5.00/kg chicken breast (I think in Perth it's around AU$11/kg).

- On the other hand, most fresh vegetables and fruits are pricey. Carrots are around AU$2.50/kg. All fruits are quite dear (except for bananas which are around $2.50/kg) - it really is more of a treat than necessity to eat fruits in Japan. There are two grades of fruits sold here - the ones you buy to eat, and the ones you buy to give. The latter is obviously very expensive. I have personally encountered a medium sized melon on sale for the equivalent of AU$120!!! A fellow JET from the US said that the fruits here taste a lot better here so the price is justified. Perhaps the people in US get it bad, but I think that fruits are nicer back home in Perth (for much cheaper too!). Sigh... I can see us burning a huge hole in our wallets just to eat as healthily here as we did back in Perth.

- pan (bread) is so sweet and pricey too. I think fellow JET and neighbour from US said that it tastes like Hawaiian bread. I'm not used to it. And you can't find wholemeal bread anywhere in the Noto. Not even at the nice bakery owned by an Australian guy about 5mins drive from our apartment. Rice is expensive (about AU$5/kg compared to AU$2/kg back in Perth), but it works out slightly cheaper to eat rice and noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner rather than rely on bread.

- the language barrier experience has been interesting - sometimes frustrating, but damn it feels good when we manage to walk away with what we need.

- the low regard for women here is subtle but definitely present. We had an amusing encounter with patriarchal dominance at the town hall when we were applying for our alien registration cards. My supervisor and the office man helped us to fill out the form, and the form had a question about who the head of the household is. It honestly does not matter either to Rob or myself whose name is used, but I asserted that since he is here on a Dependent Visa that perhaps it was technically correct for us to put my name down. And oh.my.gosh - the two men had a lengthy discussion lasting almost 5 minutes with the two ladies assisting us over that issue. The men reluctantly agreed with my suggestion and my supervisor even asked Rob for his passport so that he can closely examine the visa where it says "Dependent". At the feasts held at the locals' houses during mahtsuris, the women are always running back and forth serving food, drinks etc whilst the men sit back with their bottomless glasses of biiru or sake, laughing and eating and drinking. The only females seated at the tables are guests.

- It's unfortunate, but it does not look like it is practical for me to ride my bike to and from work. And there are no decent gyms around. I feel so unfit! We'd definitely be joining sports clubs or take up martial arts classes. I think it will take us awhile to find our little routine..

Tuesday 8 August 2006

Nihon e yokoso!

Yep we're in Japan finally! Got on the midnight flight on Saturday night with a 4hr stopover in Melbourne (I'd love to know why we had to go via Melbourne) and then a 10hr flight to Tokyo Narita airport. Then it was a 1.5hrs drive on the limo bus to the hotel in Shinjuku. Didn't get to the hotel room until 10pm last night. Had a total of approximately 3hrs of sleep during that period. Add that to the lack of sleep and stress since my last day at work a couple of weeks ago - packing, boxing and cleaning the apartment. So yep I am pretty exhausted. Nevertheless, we are in Tokyo, and we ain't gonna waste time catching up on sleep. Spent a few hours today exploring Shinjuku (yes, I chose to not attend some workshops) and my legs are tired! Had a bit of time to relax before dinner so I thought I'd give a quick journal update.

A few things I noted during our exploration:

- in the morning before between 8am and 9am, streets are busy with people walking around in a rushed sort of manner, then at 9am sharp I noticed there were hardly anyone around!
- none of the Japanese females aged between teenage years and early thirties have their hair in their natural colour
- the streets are noisy from shops playing promotional material - ranging from tacky jingles to people yelling in loudspeakers.

Of course I took lots of photos and will post them up later when I have more time :) Okies, I'm off to shower then join the rest of the 1300 JETs for the reception dinner (there are a total of about 4400 JET participants and the orientations are held in groups held at different times). Sayonara!