Well...after my last post, I felt absolutely awful yesterday and called my supervisor. She ordered me to stay home - there are a lot of swine flu scares around the area and the worst thing to do is to infect a bunch of students.
This morning I felt much better and got all dressed. I sat down to arrange some things in my bag before leaving, and then when I got up, I was intensely dizzy, and ran off to throw up.
I was worried, so I called the school again, and they told me that if I came in they'd send me home again. But I feel really awful. I mean, I don't feel good sick-wise, but I feel more sick about missing school.
I'd better get better by tomorrow or I'll be seriously panicking.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Yeth Now.
I'm making myself post 'cause I don't do it enough. So I'll give my impression of the weekend, too. :)
Yes, the dinner party went great! There were more people than we thought there were going to be. The night was a mixture of English conversation, more English conversation, explaining English conversations in Japanese, fixing the ceiling in our tatami room, and eating a lot, a lot, a LOT of food.
Most of the people at the dinner were our English conversation group friends. Those that were not attended the conversation classes in Kaya, and we knew everyone who came. Curiously, one of the women was Catholic! I talked with her excitedly. I'm not Catholic, but Christians are rare enough in Japan that it's best to stick together.
As Alex said, Brett and Shawn are from New Zealand. We had this big long conversation about Chinese miners dying in New Zealand, having their bodies shipped to China, the ship crashing, the coffins floating back to New Zealand and being found by some Maori, and everything that ensued. But after we had this conversation, we glanced around and noticed that the Japanese attendees all had that blank goldfish look in their eyes. So I went about the daunting task of translating the entire conversation into Japanese. It was fun, but it was a challenge...
We ate a ton of food, like Alex said. There was...let me see if I can remember it all...
-Of course, the fried eggplant and skordalia. This went over really well. Everyone thought the skordalia was delicious, and Alex was so cute in his little headkerchief cooking-man style. <3 I noticed people putting the skordalia on EVERYTHING. It was cute.
-The spanakorizo. Alex made tiny little flowers out of cut slices of carrots and dressed each little bowl with one. People loved this. I don't think there was a single scrap left. I overheard some people mention that it tasted familiar. Maybe it was the shiso leaves?
-Homemade Spring Rolls. They were full of carrot, lettuce, and ...something else I can't recall but was a green vegetable, I promise. They were very refreshing.
-Fried Spring Rolls. These had meat and bamboo shoots in them, and had the traditional Japanese Mirin-Shoyu-Sake flavor to them. They kind of reminded me of tiny, savory crepes.
-Sushi. <3 Someone brought some sushi. It was delicious. Just a big variety platter of various nigirizushi (the long ones with the fish on top, not the rolls).
-Kara-age? I think? Small fried chicken pieces. These are really good, but I didn't eat much of it 'cause there was so much other stuff.
-Dango. Japanese breaded meatballs on a stick.
-Tiny grilled chicken wings.
-Shrimp-on-a-stick.
-Raw squid. I didn't eat any of this because I don't really like it, but that was fine - I was totally full by this point anyway.
-An absolutely delicious chiffon cake. It was flavored with tea.
So I think that's everything but we ate a whole heck of a lot so I might have missed something.
About the ceiling...our ceiling is made of about four or five really long panels that lay parallel, flush with one another, lengthwise across the ceiling. The one farthest from the window was sagging in the middle. We'd tried to fix it when we first moved in (since the panels are all notched and not set up with nails) but gave up.
Brett noticed this, and decided it needed to be fixed. So everything was moved around, couches were relocated, and about six people stood up on the couches to shift the board back into place. It was hilarious.
We didn't get to bed that night until like 1:30. I didn't want to do anything on Sunday, but I'm trying not to be a stupid stick-in-the-mud so I reluctantly agreed to do something the next day when pressed.
After the time was straightened out, we were off to Miyazu! We went to Mipple! Finally! I didn't buy anything since everyone seemed eager to rush along, but at the same time people were suprised I didn't buy anything. I was like, "whateva". :) But I noticed they had toaster ovens there. Once we get a long table to act as a counter I am SO getting one of those.
We ate lunch at a restaurant in Mipple (which by the way is a huge shopping complex. Well, huge for Japan) and I felt a little shy since I wasn't wearing socks....so I was walking barefoot in this restaurant. I'm gonna have to start keeping socks in my purse.
After we left Mipple we went walking on the beach. Shawn and Brett went swimming. I wished I could swim, but I satisfied myself with wading. Unfortunately the water got...a little...affectionate, and I soon was sporting "I'm-not-potty-trained-yet" fashion. I was soooooo embarassed! But you know...one of the pieces of advice I've heard from JET that's struck me the hardest is "don't be afraid to embarass yourself." This is really hard for me. But if I think about it, it makes it easier. So off we went to the cafe.
We had that great conversation Alex mentioned. The lady at the cafe/station was super nice. She actually made all the cakes herself. And I had this peach drink that was absolutely great, but I drank it way too quickly. I always drink way too quickly.
Then we went home. It was late afternoon. We were utterly exhausted.
And then I went to school this morning YAAAAAY! But I've been having hot and cold flashes, and some of the teachers noticed I was looking kinda iffy. I don't really feel good. But I'm not really sure what to do about that, as far as taking nenkyuu (paid leave) or something. But then again, the culture festival is this weekend; significantly featuring the English recitation contest, which I have been asked to help the students with every day.
So I'll hang in there and wait for Sunday. (Saturday's the Culture Fest, so I'm workin'.)
Yes, the dinner party went great! There were more people than we thought there were going to be. The night was a mixture of English conversation, more English conversation, explaining English conversations in Japanese, fixing the ceiling in our tatami room, and eating a lot, a lot, a LOT of food.
Most of the people at the dinner were our English conversation group friends. Those that were not attended the conversation classes in Kaya, and we knew everyone who came. Curiously, one of the women was Catholic! I talked with her excitedly. I'm not Catholic, but Christians are rare enough in Japan that it's best to stick together.
As Alex said, Brett and Shawn are from New Zealand. We had this big long conversation about Chinese miners dying in New Zealand, having their bodies shipped to China, the ship crashing, the coffins floating back to New Zealand and being found by some Maori, and everything that ensued. But after we had this conversation, we glanced around and noticed that the Japanese attendees all had that blank goldfish look in their eyes. So I went about the daunting task of translating the entire conversation into Japanese. It was fun, but it was a challenge...
We ate a ton of food, like Alex said. There was...let me see if I can remember it all...
-Of course, the fried eggplant and skordalia. This went over really well. Everyone thought the skordalia was delicious, and Alex was so cute in his little headkerchief cooking-man style. <3 I noticed people putting the skordalia on EVERYTHING. It was cute.
-The spanakorizo. Alex made tiny little flowers out of cut slices of carrots and dressed each little bowl with one. People loved this. I don't think there was a single scrap left. I overheard some people mention that it tasted familiar. Maybe it was the shiso leaves?
-Homemade Spring Rolls. They were full of carrot, lettuce, and ...something else I can't recall but was a green vegetable, I promise. They were very refreshing.
-Fried Spring Rolls. These had meat and bamboo shoots in them, and had the traditional Japanese Mirin-Shoyu-Sake flavor to them. They kind of reminded me of tiny, savory crepes.
-Sushi. <3 Someone brought some sushi. It was delicious. Just a big variety platter of various nigirizushi (the long ones with the fish on top, not the rolls).
-Kara-age? I think? Small fried chicken pieces. These are really good, but I didn't eat much of it 'cause there was so much other stuff.
-Dango. Japanese breaded meatballs on a stick.
-Tiny grilled chicken wings.
-Shrimp-on-a-stick.
-Raw squid. I didn't eat any of this because I don't really like it, but that was fine - I was totally full by this point anyway.
-An absolutely delicious chiffon cake. It was flavored with tea.
So I think that's everything but we ate a whole heck of a lot so I might have missed something.
About the ceiling...our ceiling is made of about four or five really long panels that lay parallel, flush with one another, lengthwise across the ceiling. The one farthest from the window was sagging in the middle. We'd tried to fix it when we first moved in (since the panels are all notched and not set up with nails) but gave up.
Brett noticed this, and decided it needed to be fixed. So everything was moved around, couches were relocated, and about six people stood up on the couches to shift the board back into place. It was hilarious.
We didn't get to bed that night until like 1:30. I didn't want to do anything on Sunday, but I'm trying not to be a stupid stick-in-the-mud so I reluctantly agreed to do something the next day when pressed.
After the time was straightened out, we were off to Miyazu! We went to Mipple! Finally! I didn't buy anything since everyone seemed eager to rush along, but at the same time people were suprised I didn't buy anything. I was like, "whateva". :) But I noticed they had toaster ovens there. Once we get a long table to act as a counter I am SO getting one of those.
We ate lunch at a restaurant in Mipple (which by the way is a huge shopping complex. Well, huge for Japan) and I felt a little shy since I wasn't wearing socks....so I was walking barefoot in this restaurant. I'm gonna have to start keeping socks in my purse.
After we left Mipple we went walking on the beach. Shawn and Brett went swimming. I wished I could swim, but I satisfied myself with wading. Unfortunately the water got...a little...affectionate, and I soon was sporting "I'm-not-potty-trained-yet" fashion. I was soooooo embarassed! But you know...one of the pieces of advice I've heard from JET that's struck me the hardest is "don't be afraid to embarass yourself." This is really hard for me. But if I think about it, it makes it easier. So off we went to the cafe.
We had that great conversation Alex mentioned. The lady at the cafe/station was super nice. She actually made all the cakes herself. And I had this peach drink that was absolutely great, but I drank it way too quickly. I always drink way too quickly.
Then we went home. It was late afternoon. We were utterly exhausted.
And then I went to school this morning YAAAAAY! But I've been having hot and cold flashes, and some of the teachers noticed I was looking kinda iffy. I don't really feel good. But I'm not really sure what to do about that, as far as taking nenkyuu (paid leave) or something. But then again, the culture festival is this weekend; significantly featuring the English recitation contest, which I have been asked to help the students with every day.
So I'll hang in there and wait for Sunday. (Saturday's the Culture Fest, so I'm workin'.)
A Weekend with Kiwis
I'll start with the dinner party.
It was really fun! Brett and Shawn (I actually never saw the spelling of either of their names, so it might be wrong) were very nice and talking to them was insightful. I was still frying some of the eggplant when everybody got here, so most of the women came over to watch me cook or ask if I needed help. Brett was the only one who managed to ask in time for me to give a job to. All of the food everyone brought was very delicious. We got to keep half of the leftovers (maybe more, but I know we sent some home with somebody...there was a lot of food) and I just finished them off for lunch today. Everybody helped clean up, which I was really grateful for. I think it's common practice at a potluck, though, since everybody wants to clean their own platters before they take them home. The skordalia and eggplant was a success, as was the spanakorizo and the lemonade. Everyone wanted to know what was in everything. I don't know if it was because they liked it and want to make it themselves or because they just found it to be such curious food.
As everyone was leaving, someone said "See you tomorrow!" I replied in kind, then turned to Nat and asked what was happening "tomorrow"? I had heard mention of going fishing and Nat had heard mention of going to Mipple (a sort-of shopping mall in the next town over), but we never really heard anything conclusive. It was late, so we went to bed. The next day, we woke up and saw that we were being picked up at 1:30. The doorbell rang at 11:30. We then realized that we misread the cellphone email. What we thought was a 1 was actually an 11. Whoops! At least we were awake and dressed (the dressed part was particularly important), but we had just eaten breakfast since we weren't expecting anyone for another two hours. So, off we went, not entirely sure what we were going to be doing or for how long. Most of the group from the dinner party was there, along with Shawn and Brett. We went out for lunch at Mipple, looked around an amateur art gallery, perused a few stores then went to the beach. We didn't expect to be going to the beach, so we didn't bring our swimsuits, but it seems the only people who were planning on it were Shawn and Brett, so we waded and wandered with Ken and Yuuko while the guys swam and the older ladies looked for a cafe. After the swimming was done, we went to the cafe which doubled as a tiny, local-access train station. There was a cat sitting in the middle of the last real parking space, so we got a little creative with our parking. All around the area were persimmon and pomegranate trees. Most of the persimmons were ripe, but the pomegranates were still ripening. There were some grapefruit and kiwi trees here and there, too, but most of those were down the street a ways. When we went in the cafe, there was a table of little old ladies drinking coffee that were moved to an outside table in order to make room for us (I am assuming the ladies volunteered, but it's more amusing to think that the cafe owner commandeered their table). Most everyone ordered cake and some beverage. I didn't order any cake, because I was still full from lunch, but everything was reported to be very delicious. Then, the cafe owner placed a whole cake on our table and told us it was on the house. So, over more cake, we discussed the differences between New Zealand and American English, New Zealand and Australian English, and that all the wildlife in Australia wants to kill people. (I should have mentioned earlier that both Shawn and Brett are from New Zealand. Shawn had Nat's job three or four people ago and Brett is currently an English tutor somewhere between Osaka and Kobe). After that, we dropped Shawn and Brett off at a larger train station and headed home. We flopped for the rest of the day. It's been a full weekend. I don't want to do anything today.
It was really fun! Brett and Shawn (I actually never saw the spelling of either of their names, so it might be wrong) were very nice and talking to them was insightful. I was still frying some of the eggplant when everybody got here, so most of the women came over to watch me cook or ask if I needed help. Brett was the only one who managed to ask in time for me to give a job to. All of the food everyone brought was very delicious. We got to keep half of the leftovers (maybe more, but I know we sent some home with somebody...there was a lot of food) and I just finished them off for lunch today. Everybody helped clean up, which I was really grateful for. I think it's common practice at a potluck, though, since everybody wants to clean their own platters before they take them home. The skordalia and eggplant was a success, as was the spanakorizo and the lemonade. Everyone wanted to know what was in everything. I don't know if it was because they liked it and want to make it themselves or because they just found it to be such curious food.
As everyone was leaving, someone said "See you tomorrow!" I replied in kind, then turned to Nat and asked what was happening "tomorrow"? I had heard mention of going fishing and Nat had heard mention of going to Mipple (a sort-of shopping mall in the next town over), but we never really heard anything conclusive. It was late, so we went to bed. The next day, we woke up and saw that we were being picked up at 1:30. The doorbell rang at 11:30. We then realized that we misread the cellphone email. What we thought was a 1 was actually an 11. Whoops! At least we were awake and dressed (the dressed part was particularly important), but we had just eaten breakfast since we weren't expecting anyone for another two hours. So, off we went, not entirely sure what we were going to be doing or for how long. Most of the group from the dinner party was there, along with Shawn and Brett. We went out for lunch at Mipple, looked around an amateur art gallery, perused a few stores then went to the beach. We didn't expect to be going to the beach, so we didn't bring our swimsuits, but it seems the only people who were planning on it were Shawn and Brett, so we waded and wandered with Ken and Yuuko while the guys swam and the older ladies looked for a cafe. After the swimming was done, we went to the cafe which doubled as a tiny, local-access train station. There was a cat sitting in the middle of the last real parking space, so we got a little creative with our parking. All around the area were persimmon and pomegranate trees. Most of the persimmons were ripe, but the pomegranates were still ripening. There were some grapefruit and kiwi trees here and there, too, but most of those were down the street a ways. When we went in the cafe, there was a table of little old ladies drinking coffee that were moved to an outside table in order to make room for us (I am assuming the ladies volunteered, but it's more amusing to think that the cafe owner commandeered their table). Most everyone ordered cake and some beverage. I didn't order any cake, because I was still full from lunch, but everything was reported to be very delicious. Then, the cafe owner placed a whole cake on our table and told us it was on the house. So, over more cake, we discussed the differences between New Zealand and American English, New Zealand and Australian English, and that all the wildlife in Australia wants to kill people. (I should have mentioned earlier that both Shawn and Brett are from New Zealand. Shawn had Nat's job three or four people ago and Brett is currently an English tutor somewhere between Osaka and Kobe). After that, we dropped Shawn and Brett off at a larger train station and headed home. We flopped for the rest of the day. It's been a full weekend. I don't want to do anything today.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Dinner party minutes (supersummary)
The dinner party went really well. It was really fun. One (or both) of us will talk about it more when it's not 1:30 AM and we aren't brain-oozingly tired.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Delaaaays
So, yeah. As Nat mentioned, we're having the party tonight instead of last night. Miscommunication is fun. I'm still not sure how many people we have, so I hope we have enough dishes. Maybe I'll go check to see if the grocery store still has their sale on cheap dishes. It's in their section of rotating goods that are around for maybe a week before the store decides that something else would be fun to sell.
Also, as Nat mentioned, I made lemonade. I got done with most of the prep work a little (actually, a lot) early, so I ran to the store to buy some lemons (which were, oddly, not next to all the other fruits, but amongst the leafy vegetables). I made the lemonade in a 2-liter water bottle, since we don't have any pitchers (I doubt any would fit in our tiny refrigerators). I tasted some and put it away. A couple hours later, I tasted it again and realized that I had made it for me and not for someone with reasonable taste buds (aka "it was too sour"), so I added more sugar until it was a proper lemonade.
Yup.
Also, as Nat mentioned, I made lemonade. I got done with most of the prep work a little (actually, a lot) early, so I ran to the store to buy some lemons (which were, oddly, not next to all the other fruits, but amongst the leafy vegetables). I made the lemonade in a 2-liter water bottle, since we don't have any pitchers (I doubt any would fit in our tiny refrigerators). I tasted some and put it away. A couple hours later, I tasted it again and realized that I had made it for me and not for someone with reasonable taste buds (aka "it was too sour"), so I added more sugar until it was a proper lemonade.
Yup.
Whoops!
It's been a while since I posted. I had a nice five day vacation, in which I accomplished my goal of doing absolutely nothing. Thursday and Friday were back to school.
Thursday I went to elementary school and introduced myself to the teeny tiny first and second graders. They were absolutely adorable. I wanna teach Elementary School! They're so much more fun than these middle schoolers who are too cool to speak up in class. I'd much rather have the kids fighting over themselves to scream a response at the top of their lungs.
Friday.......
Okay so, the dinner party below? Both Alex and I heard Friday but it was actually Saturday. WHOOPS. @_@ Alex really worked hard to get the house sparkling clean and prepare everything. He even made homemade lemonade. (I had some, it was delicious!) And then at around 4:00 PM (about two hours before we expected people, give or take an hour) we get an email...
"[Name] is coming tomorrow. So we'll have the party on Saturday, also we're bringing some more people"
It had some more important stuff in it, but the point was...
Saturday?
Two hours before we were expecting the party?
It was one of those "Oh man" moments.
Anyone who knows me when it comes to things like plans, is that I absolutely lose it when plans get dropped or pop up really suddenly. I can be spontaneous sometimes, but other times (like after a long day) it's like "WHAT."
So I called the person about it just to clarify, just in case. See, what had happened in the first place, was that the AET (my position) from...like...three AETs ago was coming back to town. His religion stated that he couldn't drink, so we couldn't have a meeting for him at an izakaya, and the house he was staying at couldn't accommodate people on the night he was coming. So we agreed to have it at our apartment.
Now, both Alex and I could swear that it was Friday night. Both of us. But she was like, "Huh? ...No, it's Saturday....it was Saturday from the beginning!"
So of course (and this is Nat holding back full "I'm a moron" mode) I grit my teeth and was like, "Oh, okay! That's fine! Um, Alex prepared a lot of stuff but he didn't cook it yet, so we'll just cook it tomorrow..."
But OH MAN was I embarassed. Probably more than I should have been, but, hee.
That night I had PTA chorus practice anyway. So I walked there at night, sang, and then came home.
Now, I don't know if Alex has said anything about this, but we have loudspeakers all over our town that play little tunes at 7 AM, 5 PM, 7 PM, and 9 PM, and a siren at noon. It's because we're out in the country. I think they're signals for people working out in the rice fields.
But anyway, I was walking home from chorus when the 9 o'clock song went off. Now the song it plays...I think it's 'Moon River' from Breakfast at Tiffany's at 9. I'm not really sure what the rest of them are. But walking through a dark alley, and all of a sudden absolutely surrounded by this music...I was suddenly just overwhelmed with the feeling that...I'm here, in Japan, half a world away from almost everything I know. I'm in a tiny town full of friendly people who want to take every opportunity to spend time with me, and I'm not being an idiot and pushing them away for once, because it's part of my job. I've got a really fulfilling job with great perks, and I'm with my husband, the person I love most in the world.
So standing there in the alley, surrounded by corny music, I just started to cry.
I only cry for really stupid things! Seriously! Moon River played over an intercom system!?
Thursday I went to elementary school and introduced myself to the teeny tiny first and second graders. They were absolutely adorable. I wanna teach Elementary School! They're so much more fun than these middle schoolers who are too cool to speak up in class. I'd much rather have the kids fighting over themselves to scream a response at the top of their lungs.
Friday.......
Okay so, the dinner party below? Both Alex and I heard Friday but it was actually Saturday. WHOOPS. @_@ Alex really worked hard to get the house sparkling clean and prepare everything. He even made homemade lemonade. (I had some, it was delicious!) And then at around 4:00 PM (about two hours before we expected people, give or take an hour) we get an email...
"[Name] is coming tomorrow. So we'll have the party on Saturday, also we're bringing some more people"
It had some more important stuff in it, but the point was...
Saturday?
Two hours before we were expecting the party?
It was one of those "Oh man" moments.
Anyone who knows me when it comes to things like plans, is that I absolutely lose it when plans get dropped or pop up really suddenly. I can be spontaneous sometimes, but other times (like after a long day) it's like "WHAT."
So I called the person about it just to clarify, just in case. See, what had happened in the first place, was that the AET (my position) from...like...three AETs ago was coming back to town. His religion stated that he couldn't drink, so we couldn't have a meeting for him at an izakaya, and the house he was staying at couldn't accommodate people on the night he was coming. So we agreed to have it at our apartment.
Now, both Alex and I could swear that it was Friday night. Both of us. But she was like, "Huh? ...No, it's Saturday....it was Saturday from the beginning!"
So of course (and this is Nat holding back full "I'm a moron" mode) I grit my teeth and was like, "Oh, okay! That's fine! Um, Alex prepared a lot of stuff but he didn't cook it yet, so we'll just cook it tomorrow..."
But OH MAN was I embarassed. Probably more than I should have been, but, hee.
That night I had PTA chorus practice anyway. So I walked there at night, sang, and then came home.
Now, I don't know if Alex has said anything about this, but we have loudspeakers all over our town that play little tunes at 7 AM, 5 PM, 7 PM, and 9 PM, and a siren at noon. It's because we're out in the country. I think they're signals for people working out in the rice fields.
But anyway, I was walking home from chorus when the 9 o'clock song went off. Now the song it plays...I think it's 'Moon River' from Breakfast at Tiffany's at 9. I'm not really sure what the rest of them are. But walking through a dark alley, and all of a sudden absolutely surrounded by this music...I was suddenly just overwhelmed with the feeling that...I'm here, in Japan, half a world away from almost everything I know. I'm in a tiny town full of friendly people who want to take every opportunity to spend time with me, and I'm not being an idiot and pushing them away for once, because it's part of my job. I've got a really fulfilling job with great perks, and I'm with my husband, the person I love most in the world.
So standing there in the alley, surrounded by corny music, I just started to cry.
I only cry for really stupid things! Seriously! Moon River played over an intercom system!?
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Town Life-Long Study Center Intellectual Playing Mansion
Today, I woke up, did some laundry and left. Last week, one of the local English speakers invited me to visit his workplace to look at some oil paintings in the gallery and I said I'd come. I figured I'd also stop by the grocery store on the way home so that I could pick up some necessities for tomorrow night's dinner.
I pass by the building every time I go to the ATM or the middle school (not as often for the middle school...Nat does that a lot, though), so I knew where it was. As I approached, however, I realized that the door I often pass looked slightly more like an employee entrance. I got cold feet and walked right by, deciding to see if I could take a walk to the shore. The route I took dead-ended into a field mere yards away from the seaside walkway. I didn't know if I was allowed to walk through the field, so I ended up turning around and going back to my original destination. The town life-long study center intellectual playing mansion (or "Town Culture Center", if you choose to be wise and not use Babelfish translations) loomed into view and there in the window was Johnny (he actually has a Japanese name, but he refuses to let me use it and so I completely forgot what it was). Johnny promptly encouraged me to enter the door which I had thought was an employee entrance. I was relieved. After I entered, he then informed me that it actually was an employee entrance and that the public entrance was on the other side of the building. I was embarrassed. We then proceeded to have an awkward introduction with the other three staff members in the office. Then, he and one of the staff members took me to see the aforementioned gallery (the other staff member apologetically informing me that she "English little".
The gallery was really nice. The current exhibition is oil paintings by a (former?) art teacher at Nat's school. There was a painting of Mikonos, a painting of the Mona Lisa with popped bubble-gum on her face and Amanohashidate in the background, a brushed ink sketch of an old man picking his nose, a series of flamenco dancer paintings and a surreal painting titled "Firefly" ("ほたる") without actually containing any fireflies (there were some seagulls and a girl, though). Partway through my tour of the gallery, Johnny excused himself to sneak off to the grocery store and buy some snacks for Nat and I, leaving his coworker and I to peruse the the works.
After he returned, I was served tea with my snack while they asked me what I planned to do with the rest of my day. I replied that I had to go grocery shopping and cook. They immediately tried to tell me what was on sale, but stopped short, because they didn't know what the words were in English. One of the coworkers tried, "Marron? Furansu-go ka?" (Marron? Is that French?). To which I timidly replied "H-hai, furansu-go desu," (Yes, that's French). I then explained that we called it a chestnut. Johnny confirmed this with his hand-held Japanese-English translator. The only reason I knew this was because of my current amusement with the French Republican Calendar. Then, they asked me if I knew Pacific saury (now that they had Johnny's translator on-hand, they could get specific with their fish), to which I replied that I knew what it was, but I didn't think we had it in America. They were then quite shocked and asked me if I ate fish. I assured them that I did. They later tried to name different kinds of fish I might, perhaps, have eaten ("Tuna? Do you know tuna? Do you eat...uhhh...horse makureru?" Horse makureru is horse mackerel in Engrish). After they were thoroughly impressed with my ability to eat raw fish, Johnny rushed me away to the public library section of the culture center (which was closed for the day...it's a holiday week here). I put down my half-eaten snack as he introduced me to the two librarians who were busy cleaning all the nooks and crannies of the library they don't have time to touch during open hours and then showed me the scant English-language section. I wasn't really expecting much. In fact, I had overheard someone say that all they had was Harry Potter, so I actually underestimated it...by about ten books. There was, indeed, the entire Harry Potter series in English. This made up the total of English language novels available in the library. They also have The Giving Tree and The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. They also had a bilingual Japanese cookbook and some books about Japan. Eventually, I was permitted to finish my snack and leave.
On the way to the grocery store, I realized that I was carrying the snack I was given for Nat. Carrying it into the store would be awkward and I didn't have any pockets to put it in (I have mentioned that I walk everywhere, right?). I decided my best choice would be to hide it on top of one of the outdoor vending machines and retrieve it when I'm done with my shopping. After entering the store, I notice that it is quite a bit less busy than it usually is around noon on a weekday. In fact, it looked a little darker. Still, there were employees and a couple customers, so it was definitely still open. The darker lighting, was probably because of all the new signs hanging from the ceiling that boldly claimed something I couldn't read. We're hosting a potluck dinner tomorrow night and the locals seem to think it would be a brilliant idea if I made fried eggplant and skordalia. I'm not entirely certain skordalia will appeal to Japanese tastes, but at least I can tempura-fry the eggplant to make it something they're more familiar with (or I could, y'know, do it my normal way since the only difference is how you add the flour). But this is what they wanted, so this is what I was at the store to get things for. I also decided to grab some ingredients for spanakorizo, just in case I'm feeling extra ambitious tomorrow. At least I can make that early in the morning and refrigerate it until dinner and reheat it.
I went home, and made the skordalia. We don't have instant mashed potatoes here, so I used the soggy bread method. The texture is slightly different and I don't dare make it as strong as I normally do, but it is good. Then, I remembered that I was going to buy shiso for everyone to eat after the dinner. Not only that, but I'd need some shiso for the spanakorizo. So, I ran off and bought a couple packets and ran back.
I put off vacuuming today because I want to do it tomorrow. I'll likely have to do it again on Saturday, too. Tomorrow's a busy day! I have no idea how many people we're hosting.
I pass by the building every time I go to the ATM or the middle school (not as often for the middle school...Nat does that a lot, though), so I knew where it was. As I approached, however, I realized that the door I often pass looked slightly more like an employee entrance. I got cold feet and walked right by, deciding to see if I could take a walk to the shore. The route I took dead-ended into a field mere yards away from the seaside walkway. I didn't know if I was allowed to walk through the field, so I ended up turning around and going back to my original destination. The town life-long study center intellectual playing mansion (or "Town Culture Center", if you choose to be wise and not use Babelfish translations) loomed into view and there in the window was Johnny (he actually has a Japanese name, but he refuses to let me use it and so I completely forgot what it was). Johnny promptly encouraged me to enter the door which I had thought was an employee entrance. I was relieved. After I entered, he then informed me that it actually was an employee entrance and that the public entrance was on the other side of the building. I was embarrassed. We then proceeded to have an awkward introduction with the other three staff members in the office. Then, he and one of the staff members took me to see the aforementioned gallery (the other staff member apologetically informing me that she "English little".
The gallery was really nice. The current exhibition is oil paintings by a (former?) art teacher at Nat's school. There was a painting of Mikonos, a painting of the Mona Lisa with popped bubble-gum on her face and Amanohashidate in the background, a brushed ink sketch of an old man picking his nose, a series of flamenco dancer paintings and a surreal painting titled "Firefly" ("ほたる") without actually containing any fireflies (there were some seagulls and a girl, though). Partway through my tour of the gallery, Johnny excused himself to sneak off to the grocery store and buy some snacks for Nat and I, leaving his coworker and I to peruse the the works.
After he returned, I was served tea with my snack while they asked me what I planned to do with the rest of my day. I replied that I had to go grocery shopping and cook. They immediately tried to tell me what was on sale, but stopped short, because they didn't know what the words were in English. One of the coworkers tried, "Marron? Furansu-go ka?" (Marron? Is that French?). To which I timidly replied "H-hai, furansu-go desu," (Yes, that's French). I then explained that we called it a chestnut. Johnny confirmed this with his hand-held Japanese-English translator. The only reason I knew this was because of my current amusement with the French Republican Calendar. Then, they asked me if I knew Pacific saury (now that they had Johnny's translator on-hand, they could get specific with their fish), to which I replied that I knew what it was, but I didn't think we had it in America. They were then quite shocked and asked me if I ate fish. I assured them that I did. They later tried to name different kinds of fish I might, perhaps, have eaten ("Tuna? Do you know tuna? Do you eat...uhhh...horse makureru?" Horse makureru is horse mackerel in Engrish). After they were thoroughly impressed with my ability to eat raw fish, Johnny rushed me away to the public library section of the culture center (which was closed for the day...it's a holiday week here). I put down my half-eaten snack as he introduced me to the two librarians who were busy cleaning all the nooks and crannies of the library they don't have time to touch during open hours and then showed me the scant English-language section. I wasn't really expecting much. In fact, I had overheard someone say that all they had was Harry Potter, so I actually underestimated it...by about ten books. There was, indeed, the entire Harry Potter series in English. This made up the total of English language novels available in the library. They also have The Giving Tree and The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. They also had a bilingual Japanese cookbook and some books about Japan. Eventually, I was permitted to finish my snack and leave.
On the way to the grocery store, I realized that I was carrying the snack I was given for Nat. Carrying it into the store would be awkward and I didn't have any pockets to put it in (I have mentioned that I walk everywhere, right?). I decided my best choice would be to hide it on top of one of the outdoor vending machines and retrieve it when I'm done with my shopping. After entering the store, I notice that it is quite a bit less busy than it usually is around noon on a weekday. In fact, it looked a little darker. Still, there were employees and a couple customers, so it was definitely still open. The darker lighting, was probably because of all the new signs hanging from the ceiling that boldly claimed something I couldn't read. We're hosting a potluck dinner tomorrow night and the locals seem to think it would be a brilliant idea if I made fried eggplant and skordalia. I'm not entirely certain skordalia will appeal to Japanese tastes, but at least I can tempura-fry the eggplant to make it something they're more familiar with (or I could, y'know, do it my normal way since the only difference is how you add the flour). But this is what they wanted, so this is what I was at the store to get things for. I also decided to grab some ingredients for spanakorizo, just in case I'm feeling extra ambitious tomorrow. At least I can make that early in the morning and refrigerate it until dinner and reheat it.
I went home, and made the skordalia. We don't have instant mashed potatoes here, so I used the soggy bread method. The texture is slightly different and I don't dare make it as strong as I normally do, but it is good. Then, I remembered that I was going to buy shiso for everyone to eat after the dinner. Not only that, but I'd need some shiso for the spanakorizo. So, I ran off and bought a couple packets and ran back.
I put off vacuuming today because I want to do it tomorrow. I'll likely have to do it again on Saturday, too. Tomorrow's a busy day! I have no idea how many people we're hosting.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Goya: Round II
So, Nat got a goya (bitter melon) from one of her co-workers on Friday. This meant I had to, once again, face off with the bitter menace. However, this time I was armed with the knowledge of true Japanese preparation methods. I had the upper hand! Last time, goya simply caught me off-guard. This time, I was ready.
The battle was epic. No one was spared. Not even the children. In the end, I stood victorious over a delicious (and only slightly bitter) bowl of goya champuru. I was pleased. Goya is reported to be highly nutritious, so being able to incorporate it into our diet and still enjoy it was a great success.
I'm sure you're now wondering what to do if you ever come across a goya. If you do happen to stumble upon a bitter melon (which would be quite impressive, for some areas of the United States) I advise that you never cook this for a guest on your first try. Since goya is so bitter, you may need practice with it before unleashing it on your friends in order to more fully understand the needs of the vegetable. Got that? Good. With that said, here's a recipe for two (adapted from an out-of-print, English-language magazine published in Kyoto):
The battle was epic. No one was spared. Not even the children. In the end, I stood victorious over a delicious (and only slightly bitter) bowl of goya champuru. I was pleased. Goya is reported to be highly nutritious, so being able to incorporate it into our diet and still enjoy it was a great success.
I'm sure you're now wondering what to do if you ever come across a goya. If you do happen to stumble upon a bitter melon (which would be quite impressive, for some areas of the United States) I advise that you never cook this for a guest on your first try. Since goya is so bitter, you may need practice with it before unleashing it on your friends in order to more fully understand the needs of the vegetable. Got that? Good. With that said, here's a recipe for two (adapted from an out-of-print, English-language magazine published in Kyoto):
Goya Champuru
(Note: This goes very well over Japanese steamed rice.)
(Note: This goes very well over Japanese steamed rice.)
Ingredients:
Goya (bitter melon) 1 - Cut the goya in half, lengthwise, and remove the inner pith and seeds with a spoon (or your fingers, like I do). Then, slice the halves into very, very thin half-moons. Rinse the slices in a bowl of salty water. Gently scrunch the goya to release some of the oils. Drain and repeat. You might even want to steam/boil the goya before adding it to this recipe.
Tofu 1 block - Place a paper towel on a flat dish or cutting board and place the tofu on top. Place another dish or cutting board on top of the tofu as a weight and set aside for 10 minutes. This will allow the tofu to drain. Once done, use your hands to crumble the tofu (do not cut it, since the texture is intended to be crumbly).
Onion 1/2 - Chop the onion up. The size of the pieces can be however you like, really. Just as long as you want to eat it in the end.
King Trumpet Mushrooms 3 or 4 - These might also be called Eryngii, Eringi or King Oyster Mushrooms. Slice these into sticks. If you wish to substitute other edible mushrooms, that should be fine.
Soy Sauce to taste
Mirin to taste - This is a sweet rice wine used solely for cooking. If you've managed to get your hands on a goya, you should be able to find this. Just talk to your grocer.
Katsuo flakes - This is another thing that may be difficult to come by in some parts of the world. It's a mix of things, not the least of which are dried fish flakes. Very delicious, very important to this dish. If you've already got the goya and the mirin, you'll likely be able to get this too.
Eggs 2, scrambled
Cooking oil 1 Tbsp
Directions:
On that note, it appears that my entries are going to be primarily food-based. Hopefully, most people will be able to try these recipes at home (though the ingredients for this recipe might prove to be a scavenger hunt for some). If I feel ambitious enough, I might start taking pictures of food and ingredients as I prepare (also, we need new batteries for the camera...). I'm going to need a small clipboard next to the counter so I can take measurement notes while I'm cooking.
Also, use for mochi rice #56: Soup thickener - Since mochi rice has such a high starch content, it releases its starches into any soup you might be cooking and acts as a thickener. You only need a little bit of mochi rice for this to work. If you have a soup recipe that includes rice, I suggest using a 3/4 the amount of normal rice and use mochi rice for the remaining 1/4. Adding a tablespoon or two of mochi rice to a vegetable soup recipe can work too!
Goya (bitter melon) 1 - Cut the goya in half, lengthwise, and remove the inner pith and seeds with a spoon (or your fingers, like I do). Then, slice the halves into very, very thin half-moons. Rinse the slices in a bowl of salty water. Gently scrunch the goya to release some of the oils. Drain and repeat. You might even want to steam/boil the goya before adding it to this recipe.
Tofu 1 block - Place a paper towel on a flat dish or cutting board and place the tofu on top. Place another dish or cutting board on top of the tofu as a weight and set aside for 10 minutes. This will allow the tofu to drain. Once done, use your hands to crumble the tofu (do not cut it, since the texture is intended to be crumbly).
Onion 1/2 - Chop the onion up. The size of the pieces can be however you like, really. Just as long as you want to eat it in the end.
King Trumpet Mushrooms 3 or 4 - These might also be called Eryngii, Eringi or King Oyster Mushrooms. Slice these into sticks. If you wish to substitute other edible mushrooms, that should be fine.
Soy Sauce to taste
Mirin to taste - This is a sweet rice wine used solely for cooking. If you've managed to get your hands on a goya, you should be able to find this. Just talk to your grocer.
Katsuo flakes - This is another thing that may be difficult to come by in some parts of the world. It's a mix of things, not the least of which are dried fish flakes. Very delicious, very important to this dish. If you've already got the goya and the mirin, you'll likely be able to get this too.
Eggs 2, scrambled
Cooking oil 1 Tbsp
Directions:
- Place a frying pan over high heat, add the cooking oil. Then add the crumbled tofu and onion. Fry the tofu. Fry the tofu until it starts turning brown. (This is what my recipe says. However this has never happened for me. Either my pan doesn't know how to brown tofu or I'm just impatient. At least fry the tofu until any leftover moisture is gone.) Turn the heat down to medium and continue frying the tofu until it is evenly brown.
- Add the goya and the mushrooms. Fry these FOREVER! The goya, in time, should turn translucent. The recipe I have warns that stirring the goya too aggressively may make the entire dish bitter. I never had a problem with this, but you may want to keep it in mind.
- After the goya has cooked for a little while, go ahead and season with soy sauce and mirin. you may be more liberal with the soy sauce, but be a bit conservative with the mirin as you want it to flavor the dish and not sweeten it. Also give a generous sprinkle of katsuo flakes.
- Once the goya appears to be cooked to a limp death, pour the egg over the mixture in the pan and stir quickly to get the egg cooked evenly. Immediately remove from heat and serve over freshly-steamed Japanese white rice. Mmmmmmm!
On that note, it appears that my entries are going to be primarily food-based. Hopefully, most people will be able to try these recipes at home (though the ingredients for this recipe might prove to be a scavenger hunt for some). If I feel ambitious enough, I might start taking pictures of food and ingredients as I prepare (also, we need new batteries for the camera...). I'm going to need a small clipboard next to the counter so I can take measurement notes while I'm cooking.
Also, use for mochi rice #56: Soup thickener - Since mochi rice has such a high starch content, it releases its starches into any soup you might be cooking and acts as a thickener. You only need a little bit of mochi rice for this to work. If you have a soup recipe that includes rice, I suggest using a 3/4 the amount of normal rice and use mochi rice for the remaining 1/4. Adding a tablespoon or two of mochi rice to a vegetable soup recipe can work too!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Yes. Yes, I did make hamburgers.
As Nat has just mentioned, I indeed made hamburgers with spinach and rice last night. The hamburger was mostly Australian beef (most beef is imported in Japan, save for a few heads of cattle who are treated like kings...until they are slaughtered) and American pork (I 'anno...). It was seasoned with fresh crushed garlic, salt, black pepper, oregano and a dash of soy sauce. I mashed the avocado up with some lemon juice in my handy-dandy mortar and pestle and used it as a spread. There was also sliced tomato and mayonnaise involved. While the concept of hamburgers is not unknown to the Japanese, I've only seen instances of a open-faced hamburgers when cooked at home (McDonald's and MossBurger still serve the traditional style: both top and bottom of the bun).
The spinach and rice was a little trickier. Earlier, I had accidentally bought mochi rice instead of normal Japanese rice. Mochi rice (sometimes known as "sweet rice") is slightly sweeter, a little lighter and a whole lot stickier than the rice normally used for a Japanese mealtime....and regular Japanese rice is already a lot stickier than rice normally found in Western cuisines. Normally, mochi rice is pounded into a sticky "mochi" (a rice dough or cake) which can be used for a variety of things. Typically, mochi is used for holiday cakes or traditional tea sweets called "manju". Very delicious. Very...not what you should be eating for your everyday meal.
Anyway, I'm stuck with this rice for now. I might attempt to make my own manju, but that's getting into realms beyond ambitious, since most recipes I can find don't take you from whole rice like the traditional method does (since that method is almost entirely ceremonial now, save a few small shops and country bumpkins). Instead, they tell you how to start with mochi rice flour. Obviously, since I have the whole rice and not the flour, this is not going to happen the easy way.
So, spinach and rice. For those unfamiliar, spinach and rice is a Greek recipe (also called "spanakorizo") using spinach, rice, a few other vegetables along with lemon juice and other seasonings. The largest hurdles for this recipe are that it calls for spinach, rice and mint. Well, the rice part wouldn't have been so hard had it not been for the mochi rice. I went ahead and used the mochi rice anyway. The extra gluten in the rice made the resulting dish a little gooey, but still delicious. I know they have spinach in Japan, but knowing which of the leafy vegetables is the spinach can be a bit difficult sometimes. I picked up a vegetable, hoped it was spinach and went on my way. It still may not have been spinach, but it worked well enough. The mint was going to be tougher. While some stores in Japan may have fresh mint or even dried mint, our local grocer is not one of them. I decided to experiment (as if the mochi rice and maybe-spinach wasn't experiment enough). A common leaf used in Japanese cuisine is shiso. Shiso comes in two colors. Red (actually a dark purple) and green. The red shiso is usually used for dying Japanese pickles and other foods while the green shiso is often eaten raw and whole as an accompaniment with rice, tempura fried, or shredded as a seasoning. Both red and green shiso are related to mint and have a mild minty flavor. I figured green shiso might work. It did! I'm so happy that it worked! So, basically, here are the steps (and ingredients) for Greek spinach and rice (I apologize for the lack of measurements, but I have no clue how much of what I use):
Spinach - (A lot...really. I don't think I've ever properly used enough spinach for this recipe, but I'm getting closer. I'd suggest at least two packages, if you're using pre-packaged spinach.) Chop this up, but not very small. 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" squares are probably best for the smallest pieces. Use the stems, too!
Uncooked white rice - (Any white rice will probably do, but I'd suggest not using mochi rice, since it makes the recipe more gooey.About 1/2 cup or 3/4 About 1/4 - 1/3 cup is good for two people.)
1 Tomato - Peeled, diced and mashed into a sauce. I use a mortar and pestil. You might find this easier with a blender. An even easier solution would be to buy a canned version at the store.
Onion - One half of the onion is enough. Chop it up. I like chopping it up really fine, but as long as you think the pieces are small enough, they probably are.
Garlic - One or two cloves, minced. Mince! Mince! Mince!
Olive oil - I prefer to not use extra virgin olive oil because I find it bitter. You may use whichever kind you like. Some other oils with mild flavors are okay, too.
Lemon juice - To flavor. The dish should be just slightly sour, but not overbearing.
Mint - Maybe 1 1/2 tsp, dry mint leaves? The flavor from the mint should never be too obvious. If you're in Japan, mince green shiso leaves are a good subtitute.
Oregano
Salt
Black Pepper (optional)
Basil (optional)
Directions:
The spinach and rice was a little trickier. Earlier, I had accidentally bought mochi rice instead of normal Japanese rice. Mochi rice (sometimes known as "sweet rice") is slightly sweeter, a little lighter and a whole lot stickier than the rice normally used for a Japanese mealtime....and regular Japanese rice is already a lot stickier than rice normally found in Western cuisines. Normally, mochi rice is pounded into a sticky "mochi" (a rice dough or cake) which can be used for a variety of things. Typically, mochi is used for holiday cakes or traditional tea sweets called "manju". Very delicious. Very...not what you should be eating for your everyday meal.
Anyway, I'm stuck with this rice for now. I might attempt to make my own manju, but that's getting into realms beyond ambitious, since most recipes I can find don't take you from whole rice like the traditional method does (since that method is almost entirely ceremonial now, save a few small shops and country bumpkins). Instead, they tell you how to start with mochi rice flour. Obviously, since I have the whole rice and not the flour, this is not going to happen the easy way.
So, spinach and rice. For those unfamiliar, spinach and rice is a Greek recipe (also called "spanakorizo") using spinach, rice, a few other vegetables along with lemon juice and other seasonings. The largest hurdles for this recipe are that it calls for spinach, rice and mint. Well, the rice part wouldn't have been so hard had it not been for the mochi rice. I went ahead and used the mochi rice anyway. The extra gluten in the rice made the resulting dish a little gooey, but still delicious. I know they have spinach in Japan, but knowing which of the leafy vegetables is the spinach can be a bit difficult sometimes. I picked up a vegetable, hoped it was spinach and went on my way. It still may not have been spinach, but it worked well enough. The mint was going to be tougher. While some stores in Japan may have fresh mint or even dried mint, our local grocer is not one of them. I decided to experiment (as if the mochi rice and maybe-spinach wasn't experiment enough). A common leaf used in Japanese cuisine is shiso. Shiso comes in two colors. Red (actually a dark purple) and green. The red shiso is usually used for dying Japanese pickles and other foods while the green shiso is often eaten raw and whole as an accompaniment with rice, tempura fried, or shredded as a seasoning. Both red and green shiso are related to mint and have a mild minty flavor. I figured green shiso might work. It did! I'm so happy that it worked! So, basically, here are the steps (and ingredients) for Greek spinach and rice (I apologize for the lack of measurements, but I have no clue how much of what I use):
Spinach - (A lot...really. I don't think I've ever properly used enough spinach for this recipe, but I'm getting closer. I'd suggest at least two packages, if you're using pre-packaged spinach.) Chop this up, but not very small. 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" squares are probably best for the smallest pieces. Use the stems, too!
Uncooked white rice - (Any white rice will probably do, but I'd suggest not using mochi rice, since it makes the recipe more gooey.
1 Tomato - Peeled, diced and mashed into a sauce. I use a mortar and pestil. You might find this easier with a blender. An even easier solution would be to buy a canned version at the store.
Onion - One half of the onion is enough. Chop it up. I like chopping it up really fine, but as long as you think the pieces are small enough, they probably are.
Garlic - One or two cloves, minced. Mince! Mince! Mince!
Olive oil - I prefer to not use extra virgin olive oil because I find it bitter. You may use whichever kind you like. Some other oils with mild flavors are okay, too.
Lemon juice - To flavor. The dish should be just slightly sour, but not overbearing.
Mint - Maybe 1 1/2 tsp, dry mint leaves? The flavor from the mint should never be too obvious. If you're in Japan, mince green shiso leaves are a good subtitute.
Oregano
Salt
Black Pepper (optional)
Basil (optional)
Directions:
- Put a little olive oil in a soup pot (or whatever pot you're cooking this in) and saute the onions and garlic until they start turning brown.
- Add the mashed tomato, stir a little bit and add water (I used about three-four bowls full of water, but I was using a small bowl. You're cooking rice, so you'll want a fair amount, but not too much).
- Also add the rice.
- Bring the water to a boil, then add the spinach, mint, lemon juice, oregano, salt and optional seasonings. Stir in the spinach. It may take a while to wilt down enough to fit, but don't worry too much about that. If it doesn't all fit at once, just add portions at a time. The rice takes a while to cook, so you don't have to worry too much about some of the spinach being undercooked.
- Turn down the heat slightly, cover and stir occasionally. Add water if it seems the liquid is getting too low. Once the spinach is properly wilted and has turned a more faded green, taste (try for at least some rice, a piece of spinach and some of the "broth") to see if you need to add any more of any seasoning. Never forget to stir occasionally and add more water when necessary. (I repeat this, because I forget it and am sometimes I'm very sorry for doing so)
- Did you forget to stir and check the water levels?
- Once the rice is soft (Soft, soft, soft! Maybe a little mushy, even!). Let most of the water evaporate out (aka "Remove the lid"). A little liquid is good. I even suggest leaving a little liquid.
- Serve and eat!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Mai Hasubando
Alex made me a hamburger for dinner with avocado on it, and his spinach and rice on the side.
After how insanely busy I've been all week, I was like "AI LOVE YU"
I love him. ;_;
Kawaii Girl met up with What's Up girl and the two of them and I hung out before class today. (What's Up girl is a very enthusiastic third grader who likes going "what's up!" and knocking knucks. She's hilarious.) Apparently I'm cute because I'm short and look like Harry Potter (to the Japanese student mind). Also, it has been noticed that I smell good (!?!?). I was like, "Kay...I ..need a shower...?" Weirdness.
I don't have much substance for a post right now, I just wanted to hop on and tell everyone how awesome Alex is. ^_^
After how insanely busy I've been all week, I was like "AI LOVE YU"
I love him. ;_;
Kawaii Girl met up with What's Up girl and the two of them and I hung out before class today. (What's Up girl is a very enthusiastic third grader who likes going "what's up!" and knocking knucks. She's hilarious.) Apparently I'm cute because I'm short and look like Harry Potter (to the Japanese student mind). Also, it has been noticed that I smell good (!?!?). I was like, "Kay...I ..need a shower...?" Weirdness.
I don't have much substance for a post right now, I just wanted to hop on and tell everyone how awesome Alex is. ^_^
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Sports Day Debauchery
Whew....Oooookay. I've been putting this off for way too long. Post, Natalie! Post!
So originally we were supposed to have Sports Day - tai'ikusai or 体育祭 - on Saturday the 12th. This would be a day of work for me, and then we would have the following Monday off as a vacation to make up for it.
It rained on Saturday. So it was canceled, and we instead had Sports Day on Sunday.
It rained a little bit in the morning, but not enough to justify canceling it again. The kids were adorable. They all ran around in teams of about 100 kids....well, here, let me explain how the blocks work. Each grade is separated into three classes. There's First Year - Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3, Second Year the same, and Third Year the same. The first year classes are each about 31 students, the second year classes about 32, and the third year classes are each around 35 students.
The teams, red block, blue block, and yellow block, were made up of every grade's class one, class 2, and class 3. So for example, Blue Block was made up of classes 1-1, 2-1, and 3-1. And so on.
Sports Day started with a massive relay race. Every single kid in every single block ran the relay around the track, passing the baton from kid to kid to kid to kid. There were some insanely fast kids! My little special ed boy especially tore up the track.
Then, there were other sports, like tug of war, group jump rope (like fifteen kids at a time jumping rope! The same rope, yes.), caterpillar racing (About twenty kids standing in a line, with ALL of their feet tied together, their hands on the person in front's shoulders -- hilarious!), a sort of pole race where five kids ran carrying a pole, and had to spin around cones like clock hands, a sort of six legged race where one person was wearing a basket and the other two had to dump fuzzy balls into the basket (of course, when they bent over to pick things up, everything would fall out...), and a lot of other fun stuff. The kids were a lot of fun to watch - they were all wearing little headbands of their block colors - these are known as hachimaki. They were all very competitive, but at the same time they all encouraged the team that was running behind. If Red Block was falling behind in the race, everyone would start yelling "Aka ganbatte!" (Red, do your best!) and "Aka faitoh!" (fight-oh -- heehee) and it was all very adorable.
Okay, I interrupt the post here to say that Alex is an AWESOME COOK. He just brought me a beef and vegetable stir-fry he made with very authentic looking rice and pickles. OM NOM. I love it. Okay. Back to your regularly scheduled post.
Also during the Sports Fest, there were PTA events. There was PTA tug of war, which was hilarious, and PTA tamaire (玉入れ - Literally translated as "Put the ball in the thingie"). I was on the PTA tamaire team. Now, this SOUNDS like basketball, but actually it's very, very different. There were five teams. Each team stood in a circle, a student standing in the middle. The student was holding a fifteen-twenty foot pole with a very long and skinny basket at the top. I know you're thinking "Okay, how is this not basketball?" Well see this basket is about two and a half feet deep, and the rim of it is about...nnh....the circumference of a large grapefruit. Or a small cantaloupe. Whichever you prefer. There were beanbags scattered all over the ground, and, in a set amount of time, you're supposed to get as many beanbags into the basket as possible. The basket has a bottom so they don't come out. Now, the way the Japanese PTA people did it was grab big handfuls of beanbags and chuck them all into the air at once.
I'm a wimpy little weakling though so I couldn't chuck the beanbags nearly high enough that way. So I grabbed an armload and started winging them into the air as fast, hard, and accurately as I could.
Against all logic our team (consisting of misc. parents, me, the art teacher, and the music teacher) completely creamed the other teams. I'd like to think that I made some kind of contribution with my "You're doing it wrong" tactics, but I think I only got like one or two in.
Plus, it was fun, because everybody chucking these things in the air, they would just land on everyone, so I'd be lining up a shot and BAM beanbag to the face.
The students got a HUGE kick out of me playing tamaire though. I could hear them absolutely screaming from their little tarps where each block was sitting - "Natari-sensei FAITOH!"
Then we all got a little brand-new roll of Saran Wrap for our exertions and were sent back to our seats.
After Sports Day, the teachers had a party at an izakaya in nearby Nodagawa. We all took a bus to get there. That threw up a flag to me. A flag that said "Oh hey, people aren't going to be driving home from this."
Now, I have to get one thing straight right now because my family read this thing. I am really not a drinker. I can't really drink too much, and when I do I just fall asleep before anything exciting or amazing happens. However this also means I fall asleep before I can drink enough to get myself in trouble, so that's good.
That having been said.
Drinking is an intensely important part of Japanese business culture. Japanese workplaces are all incredibly formal. It's the after-work parties, the izakaya or enkai, where people really loosen up, get to know each other, and talk frankly.
So I was very culturally acceptably tipsy.
I didn't expect Japanese beer to actually taste good, and not awful like American beer! After a couple of those, an umeshu (plum liquor - very sweet! ...very strong...), and a shot of this weird white sweet rice sake that apparently is famous in the reason, I was having a little trouble walking...but apparently no trouble speaking Japanese.
By the way, I have very intelligent friends when it comes to drinking, so, Mother, I was very careful to drink lots and lots of water, at least one glass of water per drink. This way I didn't really get overly in trouble when people kept ordering alcohol for me. Of course, this made the Japanese teachers laugh at me. "Mada omizu!?" (You're ordering more water!?) they'd say, and I'd answer by holding up my drink in one hand and my water in the other hand and saying, very seriously, "Baransu wa TAISETSU." (Balance is precious) which of course made them erupt in peals of laughter at how SERIOUS BUSINESS I was.
Also, miraculously, while ...indisposed, I had to go to the bathroom several times, which is what happens when you drink a substantial amount of alcohol and five glasses of water over the span of two and a half hours...and when going to the restaurant's bathroom, I found, to my horror, it was a JAPANESE SQUAT TOILET.
For those of you who are unaware of the full horror of this revelation, here is a picture for your reference.
That's right folks. It's a porcelain hole in the ground.
You're supposed to pull your pants down (Girls too!) and squat over the thing, do your thing, and finish up. I'm always too scared to try them because I have this phobia of, you know, messing up and all the consequences that entails.
But you know, this isn't the sort of thing to worry about when your impulse control is already suffering.
Apparently I can use them just fine, even when I'm having trouble walking. I was pretty elated. I don't think I could do it sober.
But I mean the izakaya wasn't all JUST drinking. We ate a ton of food too. The way it works, is that you get a bunch of family style dishes and pass them around. We got a couple small pizzas, had some spicy marinated shrimp stuff, a bunch of stuff I didn't recognize but ate anyway (because that's how I roll!), tempura, chicken, french fries (!?), and....
wani.
Wani is Japanese for crocodile.
I dunno where they got it or if the teachers were just playing an elaborate trick on me, but it was actually really good. It tasted uncannily like chicken though. When I got home I asked Alex about that and he said that he'd heard the same thing. Surreal.
We got dessert at the end; I got a cute little piece of chocolate cake. One of the other girls got apple sherbet. It came in a frosty little frozen apple that had been hollowed out and filled with the sherbet. I immediately regretted my decision.
Other highlights of the night were me teaching everyone how to tell someone they're good looking in four languages, a double-jointed contest, and trying on each others' glasses.
We took the bus home in high spirits and boy oh boy did I crash.
The next day was a vacation. I was happy about that. But I wasn't hung over at all, thanks to all the water I drank.
Today I went back to school. One of the English teachers' children came down with the swine flu (!! seriously!) so he wasn't in today. Everyone was really busy. It was fun. I often prefer busy days to the not-busy ones, because I have a lot to do and a lot of classes to attend, and I'm not left sitting in the teacher's lounge like a lump.
After classes I went to visit the band again. Since the Sports Day is over, I have time to go see them again. The girl who asked me to come was there again, and we talked excitedly about classical composers for about fifteen minutes. She likes Chopin and Mendelssohn. My heart practically flew away.
So originally we were supposed to have Sports Day - tai'ikusai or 体育祭 - on Saturday the 12th. This would be a day of work for me, and then we would have the following Monday off as a vacation to make up for it.
It rained on Saturday. So it was canceled, and we instead had Sports Day on Sunday.
It rained a little bit in the morning, but not enough to justify canceling it again. The kids were adorable. They all ran around in teams of about 100 kids....well, here, let me explain how the blocks work. Each grade is separated into three classes. There's First Year - Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3, Second Year the same, and Third Year the same. The first year classes are each about 31 students, the second year classes about 32, and the third year classes are each around 35 students.
The teams, red block, blue block, and yellow block, were made up of every grade's class one, class 2, and class 3. So for example, Blue Block was made up of classes 1-1, 2-1, and 3-1. And so on.
Sports Day started with a massive relay race. Every single kid in every single block ran the relay around the track, passing the baton from kid to kid to kid to kid. There were some insanely fast kids! My little special ed boy especially tore up the track.
Then, there were other sports, like tug of war, group jump rope (like fifteen kids at a time jumping rope! The same rope, yes.), caterpillar racing (About twenty kids standing in a line, with ALL of their feet tied together, their hands on the person in front's shoulders -- hilarious!), a sort of pole race where five kids ran carrying a pole, and had to spin around cones like clock hands, a sort of six legged race where one person was wearing a basket and the other two had to dump fuzzy balls into the basket (of course, when they bent over to pick things up, everything would fall out...), and a lot of other fun stuff. The kids were a lot of fun to watch - they were all wearing little headbands of their block colors - these are known as hachimaki. They were all very competitive, but at the same time they all encouraged the team that was running behind. If Red Block was falling behind in the race, everyone would start yelling "Aka ganbatte!" (Red, do your best!) and "Aka faitoh!" (fight-oh -- heehee) and it was all very adorable.
Okay, I interrupt the post here to say that Alex is an AWESOME COOK. He just brought me a beef and vegetable stir-fry he made with very authentic looking rice and pickles. OM NOM. I love it. Okay. Back to your regularly scheduled post.
Also during the Sports Fest, there were PTA events. There was PTA tug of war, which was hilarious, and PTA tamaire (玉入れ - Literally translated as "Put the ball in the thingie"). I was on the PTA tamaire team. Now, this SOUNDS like basketball, but actually it's very, very different. There were five teams. Each team stood in a circle, a student standing in the middle. The student was holding a fifteen-twenty foot pole with a very long and skinny basket at the top. I know you're thinking "Okay, how is this not basketball?" Well see this basket is about two and a half feet deep, and the rim of it is about...nnh....the circumference of a large grapefruit. Or a small cantaloupe. Whichever you prefer. There were beanbags scattered all over the ground, and, in a set amount of time, you're supposed to get as many beanbags into the basket as possible. The basket has a bottom so they don't come out. Now, the way the Japanese PTA people did it was grab big handfuls of beanbags and chuck them all into the air at once.
I'm a wimpy little weakling though so I couldn't chuck the beanbags nearly high enough that way. So I grabbed an armload and started winging them into the air as fast, hard, and accurately as I could.
Against all logic our team (consisting of misc. parents, me, the art teacher, and the music teacher) completely creamed the other teams. I'd like to think that I made some kind of contribution with my "You're doing it wrong" tactics, but I think I only got like one or two in.
Plus, it was fun, because everybody chucking these things in the air, they would just land on everyone, so I'd be lining up a shot and BAM beanbag to the face.
The students got a HUGE kick out of me playing tamaire though. I could hear them absolutely screaming from their little tarps where each block was sitting - "Natari-sensei FAITOH!"
Then we all got a little brand-new roll of Saran Wrap for our exertions and were sent back to our seats.
After Sports Day, the teachers had a party at an izakaya in nearby Nodagawa. We all took a bus to get there. That threw up a flag to me. A flag that said "Oh hey, people aren't going to be driving home from this."
Now, I have to get one thing straight right now because my family read this thing. I am really not a drinker. I can't really drink too much, and when I do I just fall asleep before anything exciting or amazing happens. However this also means I fall asleep before I can drink enough to get myself in trouble, so that's good.
That having been said.
Drinking is an intensely important part of Japanese business culture. Japanese workplaces are all incredibly formal. It's the after-work parties, the izakaya or enkai, where people really loosen up, get to know each other, and talk frankly.
So I was very culturally acceptably tipsy.
I didn't expect Japanese beer to actually taste good, and not awful like American beer! After a couple of those, an umeshu (plum liquor - very sweet! ...very strong...), and a shot of this weird white sweet rice sake that apparently is famous in the reason, I was having a little trouble walking...but apparently no trouble speaking Japanese.
By the way, I have very intelligent friends when it comes to drinking, so, Mother, I was very careful to drink lots and lots of water, at least one glass of water per drink. This way I didn't really get overly in trouble when people kept ordering alcohol for me. Of course, this made the Japanese teachers laugh at me. "Mada omizu!?" (You're ordering more water!?) they'd say, and I'd answer by holding up my drink in one hand and my water in the other hand and saying, very seriously, "Baransu wa TAISETSU." (Balance is precious) which of course made them erupt in peals of laughter at how SERIOUS BUSINESS I was.
Also, miraculously, while ...indisposed, I had to go to the bathroom several times, which is what happens when you drink a substantial amount of alcohol and five glasses of water over the span of two and a half hours...and when going to the restaurant's bathroom, I found, to my horror, it was a JAPANESE SQUAT TOILET.
For those of you who are unaware of the full horror of this revelation, here is a picture for your reference.
That's right folks. It's a porcelain hole in the ground.
You're supposed to pull your pants down (Girls too!) and squat over the thing, do your thing, and finish up. I'm always too scared to try them because I have this phobia of, you know, messing up and all the consequences that entails.
But you know, this isn't the sort of thing to worry about when your impulse control is already suffering.
Apparently I can use them just fine, even when I'm having trouble walking. I was pretty elated. I don't think I could do it sober.
But I mean the izakaya wasn't all JUST drinking. We ate a ton of food too. The way it works, is that you get a bunch of family style dishes and pass them around. We got a couple small pizzas, had some spicy marinated shrimp stuff, a bunch of stuff I didn't recognize but ate anyway (because that's how I roll!), tempura, chicken, french fries (!?), and....
wani.
Wani is Japanese for crocodile.
I dunno where they got it or if the teachers were just playing an elaborate trick on me, but it was actually really good. It tasted uncannily like chicken though. When I got home I asked Alex about that and he said that he'd heard the same thing. Surreal.
We got dessert at the end; I got a cute little piece of chocolate cake. One of the other girls got apple sherbet. It came in a frosty little frozen apple that had been hollowed out and filled with the sherbet. I immediately regretted my decision.
Other highlights of the night were me teaching everyone how to tell someone they're good looking in four languages, a double-jointed contest, and trying on each others' glasses.
We took the bus home in high spirits and boy oh boy did I crash.
The next day was a vacation. I was happy about that. But I wasn't hung over at all, thanks to all the water I drank.
Today I went back to school. One of the English teachers' children came down with the swine flu (!! seriously!) so he wasn't in today. Everyone was really busy. It was fun. I often prefer busy days to the not-busy ones, because I have a lot to do and a lot of classes to attend, and I'm not left sitting in the teacher's lounge like a lump.
After classes I went to visit the band again. Since the Sports Day is over, I have time to go see them again. The girl who asked me to come was there again, and we talked excitedly about classical composers for about fifteen minutes. She likes Chopin and Mendelssohn. My heart practically flew away.
Friday, September 11, 2009
As Promised
Okay, I finally uploaded/fixed up the pictures I took!! Yay! So if you want to take a look, here they are.
If you want to see the whole image, you have to right click and choose 'View Picture' since this is only showing half and I DON'T KNOW WHYYYYYYY
This was my lunch that I took a picture of that one day. The main-looking thingie is a croquette, which had potato, ground meat of some sort, and cabbage inside it.
This is the view from the music room. You can see Amanohashidate on the horizon, the line of pine trees. It's actually just a very thin strip of land, but we're directly facing the bay that it crosses, so...
Some of my students! They're so cute.
The kids are practicing dances that they made up for the Sports Festival. Each class practices together in the hallway. Now they practice outside so they can spread out.
Here's the school band. I love them. <3 They're playing the theme from Ponyo (In Japanese, not the stupid (so I hear) English version), the theme from Lupin III, some Star Wars, and a bunch of other stuff that I think might be too tough for them....but good on them for trying!
Also, yesterday was my first day teaching at Ishikawa elementary school. It was so freakin' adorable. One kid kept asking questions about American food. "How big are American hamburgers?" "Are American hamburgers better than Japanese hamburgers?" "How big is American pizza?" "What do you like on pizza?"
The teachers tearfully shook both of my hands in theirs and thanked me fervently after the classes. One of them said, in Japanese, "I think the students are going to get very close to you very quickly." And the other said, "You're a fun and interesting teacher. I'm very happy to work with you." I was a little taken aback but blushed a lot and thanked them. They seemed to stare at me in absolute awe when I was speaking Japanese with them...I guess the elementary school program doesn't really require its teachers to speak English well, since it's not technically an English class, but English practice... so they were all immensely relieved that I could speak Japanese.
On the way downstairs after class, I saw two little first graders, who couldn't have been older than seven, dressed all in white with little chef hats, working together to lug a huge pot of food up the stairs together. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen.
Then when I got back, I was watching the kids practice for their sports festival. One of them was sitting aside, and I asked her, "How are you?" to which she promptly gave me a pathetic look and said "NO."
I couldn't keep myself from giggling.
"How Are You" is translated to them as "Ogenki desu ka?" which is literally asking "Are you healthy?", to which the logical answer would have indeed been "No." I sat with her and talked a little bit - I couldn't figure out what was wrong with her, but she said something-byo (-byo means 'sickness' so I could really only figure out that she was sick) so I left it at that.
If you want to see the whole image, you have to right click and choose 'View Picture' since this is only showing half and I DON'T KNOW WHYYYYYYY
This was my lunch that I took a picture of that one day. The main-looking thingie is a croquette, which had potato, ground meat of some sort, and cabbage inside it.
This is the view from the music room. You can see Amanohashidate on the horizon, the line of pine trees. It's actually just a very thin strip of land, but we're directly facing the bay that it crosses, so...
Some of my students! They're so cute.
The kids are practicing dances that they made up for the Sports Festival. Each class practices together in the hallway. Now they practice outside so they can spread out.
Here's the school band. I love them. <3 They're playing the theme from Ponyo (In Japanese, not the stupid (so I hear) English version), the theme from Lupin III, some Star Wars, and a bunch of other stuff that I think might be too tough for them....but good on them for trying!
Also, yesterday was my first day teaching at Ishikawa elementary school. It was so freakin' adorable. One kid kept asking questions about American food. "How big are American hamburgers?" "Are American hamburgers better than Japanese hamburgers?" "How big is American pizza?" "What do you like on pizza?"
The teachers tearfully shook both of my hands in theirs and thanked me fervently after the classes. One of them said, in Japanese, "I think the students are going to get very close to you very quickly." And the other said, "You're a fun and interesting teacher. I'm very happy to work with you." I was a little taken aback but blushed a lot and thanked them. They seemed to stare at me in absolute awe when I was speaking Japanese with them...I guess the elementary school program doesn't really require its teachers to speak English well, since it's not technically an English class, but English practice... so they were all immensely relieved that I could speak Japanese.
On the way downstairs after class, I saw two little first graders, who couldn't have been older than seven, dressed all in white with little chef hats, working together to lug a huge pot of food up the stairs together. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen.
Then when I got back, I was watching the kids practice for their sports festival. One of them was sitting aside, and I asked her, "How are you?" to which she promptly gave me a pathetic look and said "NO."
I couldn't keep myself from giggling.
"How Are You" is translated to them as "Ogenki desu ka?" which is literally asking "Are you healthy?", to which the logical answer would have indeed been "No." I sat with her and talked a little bit - I couldn't figure out what was wrong with her, but she said something-byo (-byo means 'sickness' so I could really only figure out that she was sick) so I left it at that.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Cartilage
So, last night we went out to dinner with Lok-Yin (the English speaker who works for the town office...she's from the UK), her husband, another JET teacher and a bunch of Japanese people who wanted to practice their English (we had met some of them before). It was a nice dinner. I would prefer chairs over the traditional tables, but it was fine. Basically, we just ordered a lot of small things off the menu and shared them at the table. One of the things was a dish of deep-fried chicken cartilages. They tasted good, but took a little getting used to. It was a bit like learning to eat shrimp tails. Different.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
"How are you?" "I'm tired."
Mnnnarrrr. Another day of five classes. It started out as my lucky day today though - I got up a little late and didn't have time to grab breakfast, but I ran out to buy my drinks for the day. I remembered that I left my change purse at school, but in the bottom of my purse I found a random 150 yen! Enough to buy one drink.
The vending machine outside our apartment was, so I thought, kind of broken. You'd put in your money, it'd freak out and flash all these numbers at you, and then give you your drink. So I put in my money, it freaked out and gave me my drink, but didn't give me my 10 yen change, just beeped at me a lot. I glared at it, 'cause I was running late, and was like "Hey vending machine, what's the deal?"
Then I looked and all the little lights under the types of drinks were blinking, and the number in the place where the prices usually show (this is where the numbers usually freak out, too) said "7777." Apparently that's a random number generator, and I won. So I got a free drink.
I need new shoes. I've been running around school in these awesome slippers that Yiayia got for me a couple years ago, but they just aren't made for 7 hours running around on hard school floor. My feet are killing me.
Hmm, what else has happened lately...I went to PTA chorus class with Alex last night and met a lot of the parents of my students. They were kind of shy and I got stared at a lot 'cause I'm foreign but it was okay. The principal wanted me to introduce him to Alex, so I did. He's a fun guy. I have no idea what I'm going to do for these songs though - it's hard to both try to read the music and read Japanese without falling behind in the rhythm on either of them. Oh well, I'll try my best. :P
Today I got to read some of the comments children wrote in their English journals. A lot of them are writing things like, "Natalie-sensei is lots of fun" and "Natalie-sensei gave me a sticker! I was happy." It made me feel all squishy.
Incidentally, dinner was fantastic. <3
The vending machine outside our apartment was, so I thought, kind of broken. You'd put in your money, it'd freak out and flash all these numbers at you, and then give you your drink. So I put in my money, it freaked out and gave me my drink, but didn't give me my 10 yen change, just beeped at me a lot. I glared at it, 'cause I was running late, and was like "Hey vending machine, what's the deal?"
Then I looked and all the little lights under the types of drinks were blinking, and the number in the place where the prices usually show (this is where the numbers usually freak out, too) said "7777." Apparently that's a random number generator, and I won. So I got a free drink.
I need new shoes. I've been running around school in these awesome slippers that Yiayia got for me a couple years ago, but they just aren't made for 7 hours running around on hard school floor. My feet are killing me.
Hmm, what else has happened lately...I went to PTA chorus class with Alex last night and met a lot of the parents of my students. They were kind of shy and I got stared at a lot 'cause I'm foreign but it was okay. The principal wanted me to introduce him to Alex, so I did. He's a fun guy. I have no idea what I'm going to do for these songs though - it's hard to both try to read the music and read Japanese without falling behind in the rhythm on either of them. Oh well, I'll try my best. :P
Today I got to read some of the comments children wrote in their English journals. A lot of them are writing things like, "Natalie-sensei is lots of fun" and "Natalie-sensei gave me a sticker! I was happy." It made me feel all squishy.
Incidentally, dinner was fantastic. <3
Garbage
So, for those of you who we haven't told about our list of garbage separation rules, here's how it goes:
-All burnable garbage that is a non-recyclable goes into a yellow bag and is picked up on Wednesdays. It is placed in the yellow grated box. Everything else is picked up on Tuesday and Thursday and is placed in a different grated box.
-Non-burnable, non-recyclable garbage is placed in a clear bag with red writing. You have to write your district name and family name on the bag (I'm assuming we either get billed for this or there's some religious thing involved in disposing of non-burnables...I have no clue). We finally got that much figured out and we're disposing an umbrella that looks like it was used in a fight with a brick wall.
-Glass bottles and recyclable metals are placed in separate blue bags with the appropriate box checked off to identify the contents (though the bags are transparent enough that one shouldn't need to look for the tiny identifying mark).
-PET plastics (the standard plastic for making bottles) must be separated from their lids and wrappers (which are made in a manner that removing them is convenient) and placed into a purple bag, with the appropriate mark.
-The wrappers and lids are then put into a different purple bag, along with most other recyclable plastics and plastic bags. Again, adding the appropriate mark.
-Thin cardboards (cereal boxes, etc.) and paper bags are placed in another purple bag along with the appropriate mark.
-Styrofoams that do not belong in the miscellaneous recyclable plastics bag go into a fourth purple bag.
-Corrugated cardboard, newspaper and magazines must be bound into separate stacks with recyclable plastic cord. Apparently, people get paid for these, but our apartment situation makes it difficult to know whose papers are whose, so Nat's coworkers/boss (I dunno which) want(s) us to take all of these things to be picked up at the school instead. I don't know how easy they think it is to bike four stacks of outdated magazines plus a stack of cardboard to the school is, but I think I might just put it out with the other recyclables.
-Hazardous materials (gasoline, kerosene, motorbikes, electronics and the like) are handled in a completely different manner. I don't know what that manner is, but it's completely different. The same goes for large amounts of brick, tile, stone or dirt.
Usually, we don't have enough of any one of the recyclables to take out every time (we can only buy big purple bags, while the blue and yellow come in both big and small sizes). The burnable garbage, since it is only picked up once a week, unlike the others, has been forgotten twice. Hopefully, we'll find our rhythm real soon.
Moving on to the subject of food, I managed to get some whitefish at the grocery store and made a fish soup. I also found some okra and slow cooked it with some chicken and vegetables. For both, I've been perfecting my homemade tomato sauce techniques. Having a mortar and pestil is helpful when canned tomato sauces and pastes are nowhere to be found. I may also get around to making a salsa sometime, if I can manage to find any sort of hot peppers....and tortilla chips. Well, maybe not.
Tonight's dinner includes a lotus root salad...unless I ruin it. I sure hope not! I like lotus root salad. My Japanese cookbooks are here, though (thanks, Mom!), so I shouldn't be ruining too many more meals. *shakes fist at the bitter melon*
-All burnable garbage that is a non-recyclable goes into a yellow bag and is picked up on Wednesdays. It is placed in the yellow grated box. Everything else is picked up on Tuesday and Thursday and is placed in a different grated box.
-Non-burnable, non-recyclable garbage is placed in a clear bag with red writing. You have to write your district name and family name on the bag (I'm assuming we either get billed for this or there's some religious thing involved in disposing of non-burnables...I have no clue). We finally got that much figured out and we're disposing an umbrella that looks like it was used in a fight with a brick wall.
-Glass bottles and recyclable metals are placed in separate blue bags with the appropriate box checked off to identify the contents (though the bags are transparent enough that one shouldn't need to look for the tiny identifying mark).
-PET plastics (the standard plastic for making bottles) must be separated from their lids and wrappers (which are made in a manner that removing them is convenient) and placed into a purple bag, with the appropriate mark.
-The wrappers and lids are then put into a different purple bag, along with most other recyclable plastics and plastic bags. Again, adding the appropriate mark.
-Thin cardboards (cereal boxes, etc.) and paper bags are placed in another purple bag along with the appropriate mark.
-Styrofoams that do not belong in the miscellaneous recyclable plastics bag go into a fourth purple bag.
-Corrugated cardboard, newspaper and magazines must be bound into separate stacks with recyclable plastic cord. Apparently, people get paid for these, but our apartment situation makes it difficult to know whose papers are whose, so Nat's coworkers/boss (I dunno which) want(s) us to take all of these things to be picked up at the school instead. I don't know how easy they think it is to bike four stacks of outdated magazines plus a stack of cardboard to the school is, but I think I might just put it out with the other recyclables.
-Hazardous materials (gasoline, kerosene, motorbikes, electronics and the like) are handled in a completely different manner. I don't know what that manner is, but it's completely different. The same goes for large amounts of brick, tile, stone or dirt.
Usually, we don't have enough of any one of the recyclables to take out every time (we can only buy big purple bags, while the blue and yellow come in both big and small sizes). The burnable garbage, since it is only picked up once a week, unlike the others, has been forgotten twice. Hopefully, we'll find our rhythm real soon.
Moving on to the subject of food, I managed to get some whitefish at the grocery store and made a fish soup. I also found some okra and slow cooked it with some chicken and vegetables. For both, I've been perfecting my homemade tomato sauce techniques. Having a mortar and pestil is helpful when canned tomato sauces and pastes are nowhere to be found. I may also get around to making a salsa sometime, if I can manage to find any sort of hot peppers....and tortilla chips. Well, maybe not.
Tonight's dinner includes a lotus root salad...unless I ruin it. I sure hope not! I like lotus root salad. My Japanese cookbooks are here, though (thanks, Mom!), so I shouldn't be ruining too many more meals. *shakes fist at the bitter melon*
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Nonstop.
Today I had five classes, right after one another. It was fun and exhilarating, but holy crap am I tired. One of the teachers said, "It's a rule that JET teachers can't teach more than three classes every day, I think..." and I was like, "PFFFFFF WHATEVER" and he seemed pretty elated about that.
The kids seem endlessly fascinated with the slippers I wear in school. They're like crocheted ballet slippers with rubbered bottoms for safety. They also seem to be warming up to me and talking to me a lot in the halls. I taught two girls how to say "What's up?" and the proper responses. I'm getting "kawaii sensei" from more than crazy Kawaii Girl now, so that's kind of fun. They also seem really amused when I say I like takoyaki.
The last class I had today was the handicapped class. There were only two students in it, but they were adorable and it was fun. There was lots of praise, encouragement, shouting, clapping, and stickers. As it should be.
I had quail eggs in my bento today. Surreal.
And I'll close from an excerpt from the summer English diaries I'm grading...
"It was too cold to swim. So I went to the hoehouse."
The kids seem endlessly fascinated with the slippers I wear in school. They're like crocheted ballet slippers with rubbered bottoms for safety. They also seem to be warming up to me and talking to me a lot in the halls. I taught two girls how to say "What's up?" and the proper responses. I'm getting "kawaii sensei" from more than crazy Kawaii Girl now, so that's kind of fun. They also seem really amused when I say I like takoyaki.
The last class I had today was the handicapped class. There were only two students in it, but they were adorable and it was fun. There was lots of praise, encouragement, shouting, clapping, and stickers. As it should be.
I had quail eggs in my bento today. Surreal.
And I'll close from an excerpt from the summer English diaries I'm grading...
"It was too cold to swim. So I went to the hoehouse."
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Addendum:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX! <3
I was correcting papers just now. Here are the highlights.
"I goes to remove natural water."
"I had Chicken Lunch at tweleven."
"I had cornfreek for breakfast."
CORNFREEK
I was correcting papers just now. Here are the highlights.
"I goes to remove natural water."
"I had Chicken Lunch at tweleven."
"I had cornfreek for breakfast."
CORNFREEK
Classes and Papers
Yesterday I had my first day of actual classes.
The school day started with a big opening ceremony to open up the semester. As part of this, I had to do a speech, in front of the entire school. It was supposed to be in English and in Japanese, but what ended up happening is I stood up there and stammered in both languages for like thirty seconds to 300 blank stares. The teachers told me my speech was great, but I was like, "Ahaha...kay."
I'm getting really close to the brass band club. One of the girls came up to me shyly in class and said, "We're playing a song that's from a really famous Japanese movie. Will you come and listen?" And I was like, "Of course!"
I have a VIDEO of it. >:D I've been toting my camera around. Hahahaha! I'll have pictures soon!
Afterwards she quietly snuck up to me again and said "I'm really happy that you came." It was adorable.
My second grade class was NOISY. During my self-introduction lesson, they were all loudly talking to each other and not paying attention...still in summer vacation mode. I tried to get them to pay attention for a while and then just quietly trailed off, watching them. They sensed something was amiss, since I was just watching them with a little smile on my face, and quieted down. So I was like, "Okay, are we ready for class now? Great!" and went on with my lesson. They weren't entirely inclined to pay attention until I handed out some puzzles and told them the first person to finish both of them would get a quarter. HAHA BRIBERY.
Third grade was exactly the opposite. They were DEAD. This class was after lunch, so I got all sorts of dull stares. One kid, front and center, was literally conked out on his desk, fast asleep. Front and center!! In the back, I don't care, but....when you're sitting up front? That's gutsy. At least they seemed to generally get things, and did a good job, though they weren't very responsive. But that's about par for the course for third years.
Oh, by the way, when I reference first grade/year, second grade/year, and third grade/year, I really mean seventh, eighth, and ninth. These kids are in the 12-16 range - middle school.
I was correcting papers today and got to see some really adorable English. Some of my favorites...
"I like animals. But I hate the zoo." (PETA, here we come!)
"I play my sister every day." (Dude, she got PLAYED!)
"I walked euphonium." (...wha?)
And my favorite was a conversation I had yesterday in the hallway with a handful of girls...
Them: "HALLO!"
Me: "Hello!"
Them: "How are you?"
Me: "I'm pretty good! And you?"
Them: "YESTERDAY!"
The school day started with a big opening ceremony to open up the semester. As part of this, I had to do a speech, in front of the entire school. It was supposed to be in English and in Japanese, but what ended up happening is I stood up there and stammered in both languages for like thirty seconds to 300 blank stares. The teachers told me my speech was great, but I was like, "Ahaha...kay."
I'm getting really close to the brass band club. One of the girls came up to me shyly in class and said, "We're playing a song that's from a really famous Japanese movie. Will you come and listen?" And I was like, "Of course!"
I have a VIDEO of it. >:D I've been toting my camera around. Hahahaha! I'll have pictures soon!
Afterwards she quietly snuck up to me again and said "I'm really happy that you came." It was adorable.
My second grade class was NOISY. During my self-introduction lesson, they were all loudly talking to each other and not paying attention...still in summer vacation mode. I tried to get them to pay attention for a while and then just quietly trailed off, watching them. They sensed something was amiss, since I was just watching them with a little smile on my face, and quieted down. So I was like, "Okay, are we ready for class now? Great!" and went on with my lesson. They weren't entirely inclined to pay attention until I handed out some puzzles and told them the first person to finish both of them would get a quarter. HAHA BRIBERY.
Third grade was exactly the opposite. They were DEAD. This class was after lunch, so I got all sorts of dull stares. One kid, front and center, was literally conked out on his desk, fast asleep. Front and center!! In the back, I don't care, but....when you're sitting up front? That's gutsy. At least they seemed to generally get things, and did a good job, though they weren't very responsive. But that's about par for the course for third years.
Oh, by the way, when I reference first grade/year, second grade/year, and third grade/year, I really mean seventh, eighth, and ninth. These kids are in the 12-16 range - middle school.
I was correcting papers today and got to see some really adorable English. Some of my favorites...
"I like animals. But I hate the zoo." (PETA, here we come!)
"I play my sister every day." (Dude, she got PLAYED!)
"I walked euphonium." (...wha?)
And my favorite was a conversation I had yesterday in the hallway with a handful of girls...
Them: "HALLO!"
Me: "Hello!"
Them: "How are you?"
Me: "I'm pretty good! And you?"
Them: "YESTERDAY!"
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Dogs - They are here and they wear shoes.
So, while I watch obnoxious Japanese children's shows, I shall make my first post to our blog. I'm still learning about how to live in Japan and I probably won't know everything even after our first year is out, but it's been a month and we haven't starved, so I'd say we're doing good.
While I knew that Japan has a lot of exciting new vegetables and even meat options in their grocery stores, I completely forgot that several of our common vegetables might be more difficult to find. At least on a daily basis. Our closest grocery store is only a short walk away, which is nice. Sometimes they don't have potatoes, red onions or some other bit of produce, but the store stocks fresh food, daily and discounts most meats and vegetables after dinner time. Some foods last a bit longer, so they only buy a stock of them once or twice a week. It's a small grocery store, though. We live in a rural area, so it's understandable. Just inconvenient, sometimes.
All this to say that I've been trying to learn how to cook some of the local vegetables so that I can still cook dinner if I go to the grocery store and can't find what I'm looking for. So far, I've attempted gobō (Japanese burdock) and goya (bitter melon) with varying results. This is primarily due to my recipes telling me very little in the matter of preparing the vegetables.
Gobō looks like a two to four foot long, extra-skinny, white carrot. It is typically sold and stored caked in mud (to help preserve it). To prepare, one washes away the mud and scrapes the skin away with a knife. It is important to scrape, not peel, the skin, as the nutritional value of the gobō is very close to the underside of the skin. That and gobō is very skinny. Peeling the vegetable could very well leave you with nothing. The gobō must then be placed in lemon water, salt water or some other solution to keep it from oxidizing. Next, it is the parboiling. This is important, since gobō is a bit woody. After that, you can do whatever you want with the gobō, so long as it tastes right. The recipe we used involved balsamic vinegar (a harder to find vinegar around here, but not as impossible as red wine vinegar). It was a bit vague in telling me how much of the vinegar went in and whether it was supposed to be a side dish or the main course (not as much as I put in, and not the main course). It was good, but next time I'll use it as a side dish and be slightly more conservative with the vinegar.
Goya looks, upon first glance, like a warty cucumber. It is regaled by the Japanese as being extremely healthy...and extremely bitter. It is sold when it is fully grown, but has yet to change color to be a ripe, bright orange. If you tried to eat it when it turned orange, no amount of cooking would remove the bitterness. We were given one of these by a woman whose husband grows them in his garden. We hadn't figured out what to do with it and it ended up rotting just as I found a recipe...so I went out to buy a new one so that we could at least say we tried a goya, even if it wasn't her goya. So, what our recipe never told us was that when you prepare a goya for cooking, you cut it open and remove all the seeds and pith and then slice the remaining shell into very thin, half-moon slices. Then, you soak the slices in salt water and "scrunch" them slightly. This helps remove some of the bitter oils. Most of the recipes involving goya will have you pan fry it in some way. When doing this, you must make sure that the goya is thoroughly cooked. I wasn't quite sure what "thoroughly cooked" meant, with goya, so it ended up being undercooked and a horribly bitter dish. Next time, I will keep what I have learned in mind.
I found some broccoli the other day and was extremely satisfied to make a boring chicken and broccoli stir-fry.
Today, while going to the grocery store (they had white peach juice and melon bread today!), I passed a tiny, long-haired dachshund, slowly tottering after its master. On the way back, I passed a rather large weimaraner that appeared to be walking in a rather odd manner. When I got closer, I realized that the dog was wearing shoes. I wondered whether this dog's owner felt that the traditions requiring people to wear shoes outdoors and keep them off while inside should apply to their pet as well. After all, the same dirt that would be an a human's feet would be on a dog's feet as well.
With all that rambling done, I must now go make dinner.
While I knew that Japan has a lot of exciting new vegetables and even meat options in their grocery stores, I completely forgot that several of our common vegetables might be more difficult to find. At least on a daily basis. Our closest grocery store is only a short walk away, which is nice. Sometimes they don't have potatoes, red onions or some other bit of produce, but the store stocks fresh food, daily and discounts most meats and vegetables after dinner time. Some foods last a bit longer, so they only buy a stock of them once or twice a week. It's a small grocery store, though. We live in a rural area, so it's understandable. Just inconvenient, sometimes.
All this to say that I've been trying to learn how to cook some of the local vegetables so that I can still cook dinner if I go to the grocery store and can't find what I'm looking for. So far, I've attempted gobō (Japanese burdock) and goya (bitter melon) with varying results. This is primarily due to my recipes telling me very little in the matter of preparing the vegetables.
Gobō looks like a two to four foot long, extra-skinny, white carrot. It is typically sold and stored caked in mud (to help preserve it). To prepare, one washes away the mud and scrapes the skin away with a knife. It is important to scrape, not peel, the skin, as the nutritional value of the gobō is very close to the underside of the skin. That and gobō is very skinny. Peeling the vegetable could very well leave you with nothing. The gobō must then be placed in lemon water, salt water or some other solution to keep it from oxidizing. Next, it is the parboiling. This is important, since gobō is a bit woody. After that, you can do whatever you want with the gobō, so long as it tastes right. The recipe we used involved balsamic vinegar (a harder to find vinegar around here, but not as impossible as red wine vinegar). It was a bit vague in telling me how much of the vinegar went in and whether it was supposed to be a side dish or the main course (not as much as I put in, and not the main course). It was good, but next time I'll use it as a side dish and be slightly more conservative with the vinegar.
Goya looks, upon first glance, like a warty cucumber. It is regaled by the Japanese as being extremely healthy...and extremely bitter. It is sold when it is fully grown, but has yet to change color to be a ripe, bright orange. If you tried to eat it when it turned orange, no amount of cooking would remove the bitterness. We were given one of these by a woman whose husband grows them in his garden. We hadn't figured out what to do with it and it ended up rotting just as I found a recipe...so I went out to buy a new one so that we could at least say we tried a goya, even if it wasn't her goya. So, what our recipe never told us was that when you prepare a goya for cooking, you cut it open and remove all the seeds and pith and then slice the remaining shell into very thin, half-moon slices. Then, you soak the slices in salt water and "scrunch" them slightly. This helps remove some of the bitter oils. Most of the recipes involving goya will have you pan fry it in some way. When doing this, you must make sure that the goya is thoroughly cooked. I wasn't quite sure what "thoroughly cooked" meant, with goya, so it ended up being undercooked and a horribly bitter dish. Next time, I will keep what I have learned in mind.
I found some broccoli the other day and was extremely satisfied to make a boring chicken and broccoli stir-fry.
Today, while going to the grocery store (they had white peach juice and melon bread today!), I passed a tiny, long-haired dachshund, slowly tottering after its master. On the way back, I passed a rather large weimaraner that appeared to be walking in a rather odd manner. When I got closer, I realized that the dog was wearing shoes. I wondered whether this dog's owner felt that the traditions requiring people to wear shoes outdoors and keep them off while inside should apply to their pet as well. After all, the same dirt that would be an a human's feet would be on a dog's feet as well.
With all that rambling done, I must now go make dinner.
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