お久し振りですね!

And a little over a year later, a new post! Gasps can be heard around the world!

By now, most of you are already aware that we are still alive and mostly unaffected by the Tohoku earthquake and surrounding incidents. As such, this will probably be the only reference to it in this blog.

Last we left off, Will was on his way to Japan. He has since arrived and returned to the States and Natalie's second school year began. Our friends, Katie and Ben, also visited last year (and we went to their wedding in October). We did other things. Ate some things. Had a lot of snow over the winter (more than usual for the region - also, it is not unusual for thunder to accompany gently falling snow here). Spring arrived and a new school year began, which brings us to now. That's a heavily abridged version of events, so I will try to fill in a few details with photos (click on them for to make them larger and clearer!

Here's Will and Nat in Asakusa (in Tokyo). Most of the cherry blossoms in the picture are actually fake. Whether they were just decoration for the upcoming Cherry Blossom Festival or placed around for photographers not happy with the already extravagant number of natural cherry blossoms around, I don't recall. Our hotel was right beside the gate to this temple, so it was the first big sight we took Will to see.


Randomly, there was a wedding going on at the Shinto shrine next to Asakusa temple. The bride and groom were able to take advantage of the rickshaws at the temple (and a few other tourist attractions in the city, I imagine, but I've only ever seen them in Asakusa - at least in Tokyo).


Randomly, there's a small amusement park tucked into the city just near Asakusa.


This bird was just hanging out in a tree branch, staring at all the crazy humans only two feet away while we all clamored to take advantage of this perfect photo opportunity.

Leaving Asakusa, we noticed this udon restaurant sign. Nat took the video.

We visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which just so happened to be in the midst of its own Cherry Blossom festival. Delicious festival food was everywhere.


(this photo was taken by Will)

Then we saw another wedding procession when we visited the Meiji Shrine. It must be awkward having your wedding in a prominent tourist site, what with the random foreigners and strangers snapping photos of you all over the place.


Then, we went on to Kyoto! It promptly snowed the night we got in.


The following morning, we set out to visit the Kinkaku-ji (or the Golden Pavilion Temple). The pavilion is covered in gold leaf. We also visited Ryoan-ji, but we've got over a year to cover here and I've barely gotten through one week.

Besides, isn't this video of a fountain in one of the Kyoto Station shopping areas more interesting? Perhaps not, but it's still pretty darn interesting.


We then visited Nijo Castle (not pictured) and Fushimi-Inari Shrine (partially pictured). The Fushimi-Inari shrine complex is huge and connected by tunnels made of torii gates donated by businesses all over Japan. It covers an entire mountainside and I have yet to see it all. For a time, we wandered away from the torii tunnels and followed a path through a bamboo grove. It was pretty, but ultimately led us further away from civilization than we were willing to aimlessly wander (at least when we had a bus to catch).



After Kyoto, we brought Will to our home in Yosano. We visited some of the sights. This is the gate to one of the local Shinto shrines, reportedly one of the best cherry blossom-viewing locations in town and a view of the bay.

We also visited Nariai Temple (haha, try reading that Wikipedia page!), a nice spot with a scenic view of the Amanohashidate (and our town!), Ine whaling village and a local history museum (where we live used to be part of the Tango Kingdom!)

At the end of Will's stay, we took him back to the airport where a television interviewer asked him why he visited Japan and what he thought was "cool" about the country. A few weeks later, Natalie's students and coworkers mentioned seeing us on TV. National TV! Will is, apparently, good luck to have around.

I may share more photos from Will's trip in other posts, but not today.


On to August, when Katie and Ben visited and we hit a couple Morning Glory festivals (which are, generally, less exciting than Cherry Blossom festivals, but morning glories are my favorite flower, so I was pretty excited). This photo is from the Fushimi-Inari Shrine.

For the most part, when Katie and Ben visited, we went to a lot of the same places we went with Will. We traversed a bit more of the Fushimi-Inari Shrine until the summer heat and endless stairs broke down our will to live and we stumbled back to the bus.


While in Kyoto, we took a day trip to Nara, where they have a giant Buddha in a temple and wild "tame" deer which roam the streets and eat anything they can yank out of your hands or purse. Collecting tolls for being the city's protectors, perhaps? Vendors sell crackers to feed the deer. As soon as you purchase a bundle, the deer crowd around you impatiently.

After two weeks, we took Katie and Ben back to the airport and saw them off.

(photo by Len)

Sometime last year (probably around this time, so I'm screwing up the timeline here) our Japanese professor from college visited with a class. We met up with them in Kyoto along with our college friend, Len, who also teaches in Japan (there was also another former student there, but I didn't know him and I forgot his name! I'm appalled with me!). We were all really excited.

Sometime last autumn, Nat had a conference in Kyoto. I tagged along and went to see a few things while she was busy. I walked to Sennyu-ji Temple (technically, "temple" is redundant there, but that's how it's written in the brochure) and Fushimi-Inari Shrine (again) and returned to Kyoto Station to do some shopping before meeting up with the others for dinner at Harvest, an all-you-can eat organic food buffet (for relatively cheap!)


The next day, I decided it would be wiser to take the bus. That and my feet ached from the non-stop walking the day before. I visited the Sanjuusangen-do, the Heian Shrine and the Kyoto zoo. I also wanted to visit the history and art museums but the history museum was inexplicably closed for the month and the art museum was having a special event that scared me away. Unfortunately, I don't have any exciting pictures of the Sanjuusangen-do, as it was forbidden inside the hall. But I have this nice picture from the garden!

I wandered a bit more after the Sanjuusangen-do, trying to find another sight, but almost walked onto the campus of a women's college. Note: bus and train maps are not good pedestrian maps. Note 2: if you notice that, suddenly, there are only women around, you may have stumbled onto a women-only region of the world.


There were a lot of interesting animals at the Kyoto zoo. It's a small zoo, so it had the basics (zebra, giraffe, elephant, flamingo...) and a few other interesting species (such as this vulturine guineafowl - the colors!). It was mid-afternoon and a fairly warm day (for autumn) when I got to the zoo, so most of the animals were asleep. The hippo was nothing more than a lump in the water with a nearby child yelling at it to wake up. There was also a young child there with her grandfather who would occasionally roll her face in the dirt, despite protests, until she got a very light spanking.


It was close to closing time for the Heian Shrine, so I didn't get to see the gardens (which are, supposedly, very beautiful). The buildings were really pretty, though.

That brings us to last autumn. After that, most of my photos are random textures I took for art purposes. Hopefully we'll be more diligent in keeping up with this blog in the future!

Thanksgiving in Japan

As American Thanksgiving comes to a close in America (it's already after noon on the day after here), I am finally getting around to typing a post. We've been busy with one thing or another, so I'll try to get you all updated.

Before that, here's our Thanksgiving dinner:

We don't get turkeys in Japan (unless we're looking to order one to be delivered) and even if we did, we don't really have the microwave space to cook it in. We did learn how to use our microwave as an oven, though. Apparently, you can put metal in the microwave when using the oven settings.

Our meal consisted of chicken, corn on the cob (from Hokkaido, Japan's northern-most island...where all the wheat, corn and cows grow), a butter croissant and mashed potatoes with creamy chicken-mushroom dressing.

It was just the two of us, so this was more than enough food. After dinner, Toshiko visited for tea and sweets.

Monday was Japanese Labor Thanksgiving. It's not a major holiday, but Nat had the day off. One of her coworkers (who also happens to be our neighbor) went fishing earlier in the day and offered some of his fish to us. The three near-identical looking fish are horse mackerel and the reddish one is sea bream. The sea bream's fins are spiny and it has sharp teeth.

This was my first time to clean or fillet a fish. I think I did pretty well, but I know I could have done a lot better. The first day, we ate two of the mackerel. I made a mixture of yellow miso paste, crushed garlic, grated ginger and sake. I spread the mixture over the fillets and pan fried them for a couple minutes, flipped 'em, fried them for a minute more and they were done! Mmmm!

The next day, we ate the other two fish. This time, I rubbed salt, pepper, paprika and thyme into the fillets and marinated them in olive oil and sake (white wine would work just as well, but all we had in the house was red wine and sake). They only need to marinade for half an hour to an hour. If you have other things to prepare for the meal, just let them marinate while you get everything else ready. Chop up half an onion and some garlic and start frying them in some alive oil. Place the fillets on top of the garlic and onions, skin-side down. Fry for two to three minutes and flip for one last minute. Delicious.

Sunday, we went hiking to see a waterfall near Miyazu with some of the English conversation group members. I'm sorry to say we forgot to bring our camera, so you won't be able to see how awesome it was (unless Nat gets the pictures off of her cell phone). Afterward, we went to lunch and did some shopping.

Saturday (yes, I'm taking you backward through time), Nat made spaghetti carbonara and we invited another one of Nat's coworkers (also our neighbor) over for dinner and movies. I made garlic bread and a salad. We watched Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and Moulin Rouge.

I think that's all of the things that we haven't had a chance to tell you about yet. They're not huge events, but they're what's been keeping us busy for the past week. Tomorrow, we're going to see an exhibit of wood block prints. I'm excited.

Obviously, since American Thanksgiving isn't celebrated in Japan, Black Friday doesn't exist here, either. It also helps that Christmas isn't nearly as big of a holiday as it is in the west (though they do celebrate it...with KFC and cake, from what I'm told; apparently, western holidays are supposed to be celebrated with western food). I went shopping today just because I could do it without fear of being trampled or mugged in the parking lot. Be safe, everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and we are both very thankful for all of you!

Mexican dahlias
(These are much taller than me.)

Pepsi Azuki

I have something today. I don't know if this is an amazing something or a something that is just amusing, but it is a something. This something is azuki (sometimes spelled adzuki) bean Pepsi. Azuki beans are sweet red beans the Japanese use in a lot of desserts and snacks. It is one of the primary Japanese flavors for sweet things. In addition to the plethora of traditional foods containing the bean, the Japanese have azuki flavored ice cream, azuki cakes and now azuki Pepsi.

We also went to a potluck tonight. I made my persimmon rice pudding for it. This was partially inspired by an incident where one of Nat's students stole the camera to look at the pictures and a teacher asked about the pudding and asked to try some. I also realize that my usual potluck fall-back of fried eggplant (with skordalia) doesn't travel well. Luckily, we're still in the height of persimmon season, so this is the perfect food for a Japanese get-together.

I expressed, when I posted the recipe for this, that it may be wise to use more than one persimmon for the recipe. More persimmons is definitely a good idea. Since I had one on hand, I went to the store to pick up more. The only ones that were ripe enough were smaller persimmons, so I ended up using my one normal-sized persimmon and three more smaller ones (this would probably even out to three normal-sized persimmons or five small persimmons). Since I was in a bit of a hurry, I used the blender to mash them into goo.

The food at the potluck was delicious. There were more Americans present than Japanese. I had no idea what to expect, so I was actually a little surprised. It was fun, though.

Kotatsu and Clear Soup with Japanese Clams

Today, I armed myself with new recipes and went to the grocery store. I was determined, today, to prepare some sort of seafood for dinner, be it octopus, clams, mackerel or ishitai (striped beakfish). Luckily, I had little choice in the matter, as most of the other aisles were still being stocked. There wasn't any ishitai (it's not one of the most common fishes we get here, but I see it in the grocery store once every few weeks). We can't get some of the ingredients for the octopus recipes I had on hand (dill or cloves) so I put that on hold until I can figure out some good substitutions. Mackerel was...well, I forgot my list of fish names written in kanji (the Chinese characters in the Japanese writing system), so I couldn't tell what fish was mackerel. We'll try this again some other time. Clams it was. I also managed to pick up a small bag of bay leaves. They were actually at the store this whole time, but I only just realized what they were. Part of the problem was that they were labeled in French, since the Japanese borrowed the French name of the herb (laurier). For those who don't know, a bay tree is also known as a laurel. I have been aware of the dual name of the bay/laurel for a long time, so I felt a little foolish that I hadn't realized what "laurier" was earlier. Especially since there was a picture of the leaves on the bag.

After dropping my groceries at home, I grabbed an umbrella (it's started to rain) and headed back out to go to our household goods store, Komeri. I picked up a cord for our kotatsu. A kotatsu is a low table with a heating element underneath. The top of the table is removable so that you can place a kotatsu blanket over the rest of the frame to keep the heat under the table. People then sit with their legs under the kotatsu to keep warm in the colder months. We have two of these. We didn't have any cords for either of them. So I picked one up and headed home. I would have bought two, but I wasn't sure if I had the right thing just yet.

On the way home, the sun was shining, and I tried a different route. Walking by the bay, I saw some flying fish jumping out of the water. It was pretty cool. I didn't have the camera with me (Nat had it for English recitation competition, which she may or may not write up a blog about later), but I have some pictures from the last time I was by the bay. Today was definitely more photogenic

When I got home, Nat was there! Yay! Apparently, today is some sort of holiday and her only duty at work was to attend the English recitation competition. So work was only a half-day!

Today's dinner was Japanese pumpkin cooked like acorn squash (that recipe with the brown sugar and butter and sometimes walnuts), clear soup with Japanese clams and sushi (if you get to the grocery store early, you can buy whole, uncut sushi rolls for much cheaper than the pre-cut ones).

For the soup, I basically used the recipe by Setsuko Yoshizuka at About.com, except I used green onion for the "garnish" and added some grated myoga. Mmmm! I spilled a little too much sake in it, but it was still pretty good.

For those wondering what myoga is, it's this stuff to the left, here. It's the sort of flower bud/sprout thing. Not the clams. It's sometimes called myoga ginger or Japanese wild ginger. I don't know if it's actually related to ginger or not. For the soup, I grated it really fine and let it simmer in the broth.

Supposedly, much of the myoga plant is toxic, but this part is considered safe. Still, I'm told that telling someone that they eat too much myoga in Japan is like asking someone if they ate paint chips as a child in the USA. We're going to play it safe and only eat a little bit...rarely.

We found a casserole dish. I don't really know why it's here. It doesn't fit in our microwave. We don't have an oven. I can't wait until I know how to get to the thrift store (or "recycle shop", as they call them here).

Spiders!

Nat pretty much said most of what I'd say about our day for the most recent kimono festival. It was all pretty fun. Nat didn't get a chance to record some of the more amazing fireworks, though if you watch her videos closely, you might catch a glimpse of one of the kitty-face fireworks or one that looks suspiciously like a pair of glasses. We also had smiley-face fireworks, bunny-face fireworks and a few that looked like sunflowers, the Yosano town flower. It was pretty amazing!

For the past few weeks, Nat's been trying to get a good picture of the spiders around here. We finally got a one. While I was hanging clothes out to dry, I snapped a couple photos of one that's been hanging around on our balcony. To best see the image, you should probably click on it for a better view. That way, you can see all of her stripes and colors! This spider has been back there for almost as long as we've been living here. Her web survived the typhoon we had (which is pretty amazing!). She's about as large, if not larger, than the size of the palm of my hand, if you count the legs. In this picture, she is busy trying to remove one of Nat or my stray hairs. It must have drifted over from the clothesline.

She is a jorō-gumo, also called a golden orb-web spider or nephila clavata (for those who like to know all those specifics). Like many of the prominent animals in Japan, there is folklore associated with them. Supposedly, these spiders can turn into beautiful women who attract and eat men. Those two bulbous bits in her web are her stinkbug victims. I imagine one of the two is the retarded stinkbug I rescued three times from unrelated fates. Also, in this and the next photo, you can see our neighbors' rooftops! They're made of stone or clay tiles. Some people even buy metal tiles, nowadays, but the traditional tiles are still used on the older houses.

You should probably click on this next picture for a better view as well. This picture gives you a slightly better idea of how big the spider and her web are (hint, her web extends past the sides and top of the picture). You can also see the remains of yet another stinkbug.

While I'm at it, here's a picture of the laundry. Amazingly, you can't even see the spider or her web from this distance (she's in that far corner there). I had often wondered how the bugs manage to fly into such obviously enormous webs. This somewhat convinces me that spiders aren't just preying on stupidity.

Now we just need to snap a photo of some suzumebachi (giant hornets), an oniyanma (giant dragonfly) and one of the various giant cicadas and we'll have a giant Japanese bug collection started! I guess there are also the stag beetles, dung beetles and such to take photos of, but we haven't seen them yet. Also, it's getting cold enough that we may not see more beetles for a while.


This next picture (the one to the left) is one of our nearby rooftops. Most of them have some sort of decoration like this in the top corners. This is a more simple and common one. Some of the more ornate buildings and castles have statuettes of fish on the corners to ward away fires.

That's it for now. No new and exciting recipes to share. We shouldn't have any more festivals to worry about for at least another month or so.

The Silk Road Kimono Festival and Fireworks

Hi everybody!

Well, this has been a fun week. The beginning of the week was quiet, because the kids were all home with swine flu. Everyone but the third graders, anyway.

I put up a huge construction paper Jack and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas in the English room. I haven't taken a picture of it yet, but I will, and when I do I shall post it. Thursday I went to Ishikawa elementary, and Friday I went to Iwataki elementary. (And had school lunch again. Whee!)

Now, these two elementary schools are soooo different. Ishikawa is very small, and only has one class per grade. The children are polite and sweet, and always help me to understand them. They're very well-behaved, but still very vivacious kids. Iwataki elementary is very BIG, there are three classes per grade. The kids are rowdy and raucous. The three boys who always scream after me when I'm on my bike going home are in this school. The teachers are more strict with them, and every time I come out of class, the school secretary asks me very sternly if any of the students asked me any inappropriate questions. I have no idea, because I can hardly ever understand their Japanese. When I ask them to slow down or tell them I can't understand, they stare at me and then run away. But they're back two minutes later with another question. Both are adorable in their own way. XD

Friday night we went out for karaoke with some visitors from Yosano's sister city, Aberysthwyth, Wales. (I think. Welsh! OI.) The karaoke machine was old and kept screeching. I thought I sounded awful (I sang "Blackbird" by the Beatles and "LoveFool" by the Cardigans and I don't remember what else) but Alex said I sounded great...husband filter? :3

Saturday was a day to shop. Toshiko came by and took us to K-Stanky where we FINALLY got our new printer/scanner and I bought a new camera! It's so cute! I love it! And it was on super sale. So you'll be seeing a lot more pictures from here on out since this new one is a ton more portable (and comes with a rechargeable lithium battery pack instead of having to change out AA's all the time. <3). style="font-style: italic;">Chirimen Kaido Kimono Matsuri, or the Silk Road Kimono Festival. Yosano is famous for its special type of crepe silk, so this was all about that. Yay!

PICTURE TIME LULZ

First, we went to a rich silk merchant's house from the 1800s that had been kept in very good condition. Yay for really old-style Japanese houses!

This is one of the kimonos worn by one of the owners of the house. His surname was "Tsuru" which is Japanese for "Crane." The little white circles on the back and sleeves have cranes in them. Yay for cranes!

This room had a lot of really neat decorative screens and stuff. But I won't bore you with every single picture I took.

There's a bit of the deer-decorated shoji sliding door in this picture, and the entrance to the house. And some tatami mats. Yay tatami mats!


Here's the other side of the deer screen. Yay for deer? Again? There were also some beautifully decorated closet doors. Everything is painted very ornately in this house.


Here is the garden that is bordered by the guest rooms. This little garden is specifically for guests to use. There's a bigger one in the middle of the house (the house is shaped like a two-story square ring) but this one was so cool I just had to take a picture. I love Japanese lanterns and stuff.


This is all of us sitting in the room upstairs together! We are, in order from left, (I don't know), Myeko, Aberysthwyth person, Alex, me, Kimiko, and (I don't know). Ambiguity is fun!


Look! Look! The sliding doors had baby chick handles! HOW ADORABLE IS THAT!? I don't have much to say but I love it.

Okay. There were at least two bathrooms in this house. These two pictures are both of Japanese baths. The one on the left is embedded in the ground. It's kind of small around, but it's very deep. My dad, who's pretty tall, would probably be able to sit in it and have water coming up to his chin.








The second is another type (probably older) of bath style - an outer bath. Notice the little stool to help you get in it, and the cover that keeps the water warm so multiple people can use it in succession. Before you get grossed out, remember - the Japanese don't wash in the bath. They wash thoroughly BEFORE getting in the bath, because they keep in mind that other people will want to use it after them. The bath is just for relaxing.



Here is a bridal palanquin. In olden times (the Edo period) Japanese brides were delivered to their husbands' family's estate in these thingies on the rejoicing shoulders of their servants and/or families. It kind of looks like a crunch to me.

It brings a whole 'nother meaning to 'mail order bride', doesn't it?






Here's one half of a traditional old Japanese kitchen! Note the sake bottle, baskets, etc. That's actually a really old sink in the picture.

What you can't see, is that hanging above was a kind of water spout, and there was a pump off to the side and on the floor. There was a pulley system that, when you pressed the pump, it would pump water up and through the spout, and water would fall from above into the sink for use.





And here's the stove!

As you can see, it kind of looks like a brick oven. But the doors underneath are for burning wood, and weren't used as ovens at all. They were more just for heating the 'stovetop' above.

The circular parts on top with the wooden lids are for rice. They're actually pretty deep, and the stick-spoon thing on top is an old fashioned rice paddle.

The wooden box thing is a steamer, for fish and vegetables.

And that's Kimiko over in the corner. Hiiiiii, Kimiko!!





Once we got out of the house we got to (had to) take a picture with the Kimono Queens, who just happened to be on their way in. They're all wearing the long sleeved furisode that practically scream "I'm brightly colored, female, and single!"

My shirt is pooched weird. Ugh.

But Alex sure is cute!!






Then, we went to this place; another traditional Japanese residence that was attached to a Buddhist temple, for an informal tea ceremony. We drank matcha, which is sweet, creamy green tea that is whisked until frothy. I really like matcha. It's goooood.

Also, curiously, there were CD's hanging on long strings from the roof of the shrine. Alex and I curiously looked at them for a while before asking Myeko what they were for. She answered "To scare off the birds." Genius!!! At very least, birds that are more interested in shiny things would smack into those instead of the windows.


There were a handful of street performers around, and I wanted to get a picture of them. So of course, when I say anything (or even make the motion of raising my camera to my face) the camera is immediately taken from me and I am shoved into the picture that I had really rather been candid, with hapless Alex dragged behind. This type of entertainment is called Chin-don-ya and consists of people dancing playing and chanting in the streets. Apparently it was an old form of advertisement, actually. This troupe came from Osaka, it seems, to perform at the Kimono Festival. See the look on my face? WE ARE NOT AMUSED.

One of the big events of the kimono matsuri was the kimono parade. It's where, aptly, all the people who wore kimono parade slowly down the silk road, with the Chin-don-ya people blaring and dancing in front. Everyone behind them got to shuffle behind slowly in their geta, or traditional Japanese sandals (the ones that KILL). The Aberysthwyth (sp!? Whatevs) people also were put into kimono and haplessly walked by.

HERE IS A VIDEO. HA HA HA HA HA.



This was the beginning of the parade. You can hear the Chin-don-ya people playing, and at the beginning was a troupe of people dressed as if for a traditional old Japanese wedding, with all sorts of old costumes. The two ladies at the end are Toshiko and Kimiko. The conversation was basically Kimiko protesting that I was taking video and me playfully responding that she wasn't allowed to protest since they made me take the picture with the Chin-don-ya. XD

Hey look! Lots of people in kimono!

There were a lot of gorgeous kimono today, but it was a lot colder. A lot more people are seen here in their fall and winter kimono; not as many bright colors as usual. In fact, I think the only people I saw wearing bright colors were the UK kids....hrm.










This is Yuuko, posing alongside a giant, anthropomorphic grain of rice.

Yes, the grain of rice is wearing a kimono.

Oh Japan.










Hey look! Some classic cars!

They had these on display too. I'm not really sure why. But hey guys, isn't this cool! Old cars! ...or something.





















These two are Toshiko and Junko, who were in the video. This is probably the best picture of Toshiko I could have asked for. She's definitely an Enneagram type 7. Anyway, Toshiko and Kimiko are both in our eikaiwa group, along with Junko from before. Toshiko is boisterous and fun. Her English is fantastic, and she loves to tease me about everything. Kimiko is much more gentle-natured and very sweet, but she's a little forgetful, frequently late, and has a 'second stomach' for sweets. :) They and the rest of the group take really good care of us.

After we finished at the matsuri, we went home for a little while and then went back out to watch the fireworks over the bay. We saw a lot of my students there and met a couple of the students from Wales, as well. I took two videos of the fireworks, but I'll only subject you to one of them; the first one is easy to find on Youtube (same title, just part 1 instead of 2. :3)

KappaSushi!

Last night, Toshiko offered to take us to the import store. We went and found things...like peanut butter, salsa and pesto! Most of the store was normal Japanese groceries with a few imported or hard-to-find items sprinkled about the store. After we were done there, we went to a roller sushi restaurant.

A roller sushi (also called conveyor belt sushi) restaurants have all of their tables arranged around a conveyor belt which carries plates of sushi and other food items past each table. If you wish to eat something going by, you just grab it. The plates are color coded and an employee counts them all up at the end and puts them on your bill. You can also order sushi to be sent to your table. At the particular restaurant we went to (Kappa-sushi), a little train delivers the food you ordered from the kitchen. There is also a hot water dispenser, stacks of cups and containers of tea and condiments at every table, so you never need waiting staff until it's time to leave! It wasn't my first time to a roller sushi restaurant, but it was still fun and amazing. Also delicious. The three of us ate ¥2257 (roughly equivalent to $22.57) worth of sushi. In America, that same sushi would likely have totaled at least $80. Delicious!

Culture Festival and a Salad

So, this past Saturday was the middle school's culture festival. Nat will probably have her own things to say about it which will be more insightful than my own, but here's my experience.

First of all, it went really well. It was completely different from what I expected, but a lot like an elementary/middle school talent show in the US. Though it was all day long. I got there in the middle of the jazz band's thing, but they were one of the first groups to go, so I didn't feel too late. Besides, parents were coming and going the entire time. There were student arts and crafts on display all around the gymnasium (which is in a separate building from the rest of the school). The students did really well. The first half of the day was performances by the various performance clubs (the jazz band, a choral group, etc). There was an all-girls musical/operetta version of Snow White (the kids need to learn to project their voices, but they still sounded good) and the students who did best with the English recitations got to (had to) recite on stage. Out of all of this, there were only two boys on stage. Both of them were from the first year English recitation. I was a bit surprised at how few parents came to support their children.

Lunchtime came and I walked home, ate some food and wandered along the seaside until it was time for the second half to begin. When I walked in, I was almost floored at the amount of parents that arrived for the second half. The seats were mostly full with several parents opting to stand in hopes they may better see their child/children perform. My faith in Japanese parenting was restored. The first performance was the PTA chorus (which Nat is in). They did really well, even if the men drowned out the women when the women were supposed to be singing an important line and the men were just singing "lalala" ("rarara"). The students demanded an encore. The PTA chorus obliged. Then, each class was called up to sing a song. Their performance would be judged and winners determined later. The first-year students were noncommittal, especially the boys. Second year were better and third year really put their hearts into it. I was somewhat surprised. Some speeches were made and the judgment of the class songs was announced. The third-year student announcing the program was in tears because her class lost. The student giving a speech immediately following the announcement was also in tears, as she was also a third-year and her class also lost. There was also a song by the entire student body, but they didn't fit on stage. They ended up having to make a half-circle that spanned half of the gym.

The day ended with a speech from one of the music teachers and I went grocery shopping before walking home.

The next two days were uneventful and relaxing.

Today, I went grocery shopping again. Usually, when I'm at the grocery store, I buy a lunch so I don't have to worry about cooking for myself and only have to cook dinner. I saw some salads and I thought they looked good, so I bought one. I'm eating it now and have discovered that it is a spaghetti salad. I know that when most Americans hear "spaghetti salad", they think of some sort of pasta salad, like one might make for a picnic or a potluck. No. Don't think that. That is not what this is. This spaghetti salad is spaghetti noodles with a regular chef salad on top. Lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, sliced eggs...that sort of salad. It came with a soy-based dressing and is actually very good. But it offends my salad and spaghetti sensibilities.

I'll probably buy another one sometime.