At the electronics store. Mission: Lighting.

While shopping this weekend, I also checked out the electronics store. The one closest to me is a chain store called Eiden. There is also one called Yamada Denki a little further off, which has better prices, I didn't want to drive out to it. To, to Eiden it was, and wading through the crowds and blaring theme song music, I finally got to the aisles of shiney goodies.

The mission: Get a lamp to replace he one that went out in the kitchen. Difficulty level: Relatively easy, since it was a matter of writing down the letters and numbers on the existing lamp and playing a matching game at the store. The trouble was, there were a few that matched! Did I want the green one, the red one, or the brown one? Natural light, blue light, or bright lighting? What company? Gaaaah!

In the end, I went with the one on sale. :) 2 for 880 yen, not bad! (The others were selling for 1400 yen for a set.)

Ta-daaaa!

It helps when buying electronic-ish items in Japan like lights, wires, etc. to have the previous one in hand so you can just hand it to a nice floor salesman and ask him (or her) for the same thing. If you're feeling really confident about your Japanese skills, you can ask them to explain the differences between the products and what their recommendation is. But only if you understand what they're saying or have enough time to sort it out with a mix of the two languages and gestures. Most of the electronic stuff has English terms, so if you have an ear for Katakana English, then you should be set!

Or you could sit down with a dictionary and try to guess what the pictures mean.

On the way out, they had a gachapon machine with one of my favorite series (Natsume Yuujinchou). I couldn't resist. Ended up getting a weird meld of the cat mascot character and a fish. Hmm.....

They're everywhere.

Nyan-ko Sensei!! <3

Elementary school and Dragonball

Today, I visited one of the elementary schools. Going to the elementary schools is a bit of a treat, because we go so infrequently (About twice a month) that the kids are so excited to see us. In this particular school, we only teach grades 5 and 6 normally. This is pretty normal from what I hear.We studied "what time is it in New York?" in sixth grade and reviewed question sentences in fifth.

In between classes, the kids practice singing for the graduation ceremony that is coming up. The kids here practice singing every day at this time of the year, so most people have really nice voices! The first and second graders' song was really adorable! They were saying that their "big brothers" and "big sisters" will be graduating and leaving the school, good job and good luck! And please still play with us! That's going to cause a few tears in the actual ceremony.

Every morning before classes and evening after school, the middle schoolers (that's not an English word? Oh well.) also stand up and practice singing for the upcoming ceremony.

 

Lalala-!!! Or as the Japanese say, "Rarara-!"

One of the teachers that I have taught with and has been in the elementary school these past 3 years surprised me with some Dragonball Kai postal stamps! Score! That just made my day. He knows how interested (read: obsessed) I am in the series, and keeps an eye out for me for little goodies. A few months before, a coffee brand (BOSS, maybe?) was running a promotion, and gave out a little pull-back zippy cars (is there an actual name for those?) on the top of each coffee can. He apparently likes coffee and gave me a nice set of cars after the promotion was over. Luckily, my favorite series is very mass-marketable. Though it's not nearly as popular as the tycoons known as One Piece, Hello Kitty or Naruto. Those guys are EVERYWHERE!!!

 

Vroom vroom!

Japanese grocery stores

One of the things in daily life here, that you don't necessarily think about at home, is going to the grocery store. Unless you eat convenience store (conbini) bento every day, that is. But since the nearest conbini is a 20 minute drive from my current location, as well as being expensive, that isn't really an option. Plus it's not nearly as fun as experimenting in the kitchen. >:-D

 Today's dinner: Japanese style curry, packed (a little too) full of deliciousness.

Yesterday, I went to the new grocery store in the nearby city. One of the things you notice immediately is the loudspeakers yelling at you from every direction. Welcome, the meat is on sale, today only! Fish is good for the health! When the Ponyo movie from Studio Ghibli came out a few years ago, the fish section looped the theme song over and over again every day for months. I don't know how the workers didn't go crazy. And then you have the (usually chain) stores with their own theme songs that loop endlessly throughout the store.

Once you learn to tune those out, shopping is a pretty fun experience, mostly because there are loads of things that you look at and have no idea what they're used for. Or the sections that are huge in comparison to the ones at home. Even in the prefecture that is the farthest away from the sea as you can get in Japan (yes, this is true), the seafood section is bigger than all of the meat combined. And that's not even including the sashimi and sushi. Most of the fish are whole. One of these days, I'll learn how to properly clean and cut a fish....until then, I get the fish precut, but still with the skin on.

One more section that is relatively huge is the seaweed. There are so many types here, Kombu, sheets for sushi rolls, shredded for garnish, powdery for going on top of rice, dried stuff for soups, etc. I remember in elementary school, the teacher said that in the rest of the world, seaweed was a very common food. I refused to eat the sample. Now I eat it almost every day! A favorite snack is dried and flavored strips while watching TV or such.

 Super healthy seaweed!

And then, there's miso. Miso is a paste made of fermented soybeans (but sooo much better than natto. Eugh.). It's used to marinate fish, spice up some vegetables, and used for the broth in the popular miso soup. It's one of those thing that's ALWAYS in the Japanese kitchen. There are so many to chose from, so for me it's like playing eenie meenie miney moe.

 Miso-ey goodness...

You can generally buy store made bento, sides, sushi, and chose from a wide variety of fried foods in all grocery stores. They tend to go on sale at about 5:00, if there's any left. There have been many a night that I get out of work late and buy half off sashimi for dinner. 

  Dinner sides, prepared in store!

One more thing that's pretty different here is the amount of senbei, or Japanese rice crackers. They're completely different from the airy, puffy zero calorie snack in the U.S., they're actually GOOD. And there is such a broad range of shapes and flavors, including sweet, savory and spicy. My current favorite is covered in kinako, a flour made using soy. Mmmmm. They're also individually wrapped for portion control.

On another note, it's aaaaalmost strawberry season. Which means that there are some in the stores, but they're still way overpriced. Maybe in another month or so....

Valentines in Japan part 2

So Valentine's Day is done and over with, all chocolate eaten and emotions rebounded from being single AGIAIN on that special day. Okay, so it wasn't too bad, especially considering the chocolate I got from students and coworkers. These included some too – beautiful – to – eat chocolate, green tea and strawberry flavored suckers from a female coworker. Apparently she used 100 yen store molds to make these cute confections which seemed like a pro's work. Except everyone thought that the ones with faces were skulls.

Also on the list of goodies were pieces of molded chocolate from a first year, and a mini chocolate cake from a third year. The instructions said to put it in the microwave for 20 seconds, after which it became the deliciously warm lava variety. <3 Sorry, but the other chocolates were devoured before I could take a picture. I saved the cute wrapper though!

 

In class, we made Valentine's Day cards. They kids didn't know at all what to write on them, since they had never seen any V-day cards before. So I brought in some Disney Princesses elementary school cards left over from last year when I handed them out to teachers and taught them the "Roses are red" poem. 

Oh, and it's flu season, so everyone has a permanent mask on their face.

We had many people write "Roses are red, violets are blue. Happy Valentine" and the like. One of the third graders wrote a beautiful poem with each sentence starting with the letters L.O.V.E. It was full of nice and mushy-feel good-ness. Then on the flipside was written "It's all a LIE!!" I laughed for about a minute straight. We threw the cards in a bag and picked one at random at the end of class – These are the ones I ended up with. Can you guess what the picture is on the one on the top?

Valentines in Japan

Tomorrow is February 14th, and you know what that means: Valentine’s Day!!! Valentine’s Day is a wonderful day of the year to spend a romantic day with that special someone. Or if you don’t have a significant other, to have a singles’ party, or mope in your home for yet another year.

Valentine’s Day is also celebrated in Japan, but not without its own quirks. Usually on the weekend or night before, girls spend a lot of time lovingly making homemade chocolates. It’s popular to put the chocolates in cute molds, throw some sprinkles on them, or sometimes color the chocolate itself. Then, they are put into cutely decorated (this IS Japan, after all) little baggies and given away. (Or for the busy woman, there are elegant displays of different types of chocolate in the grocery stores for at least a month leading up to the real day).

 My local grocery store display of chocolates

There are a bunch of different types of Valentine chocolates. They are:

  -Giri choko
      Chocolate given to male coworkers
  -Honmei choko
      Chocolate given to their boyfriend/husband/romantic interest
  -Tomo choko
      Chocolate given to friends

Working in a Japanese public school, I should give some to the principal, vice principal and maybe the Board of Education. But remembering how much fun the Valentines exchanging was back in elementary school when I was a kid, I try to give something to all of my coworkers. Last year, I had some individual packets of sweethearts shipped here. They were met with…less than ecstatic enthusiasm. But this year, embracing my newly found love of homemade food, I decided to experiment. And lo and behold:

Peanut butter cups! In Japan! If they don’t exist, make them!

(Thank you, Joy of Baking, for the recipe!)

But of course I had to put some aside for the JTEs, my English teaching buddies:

Aaaaw, how cute.

But then, I also have to give some to the Eikaiwa, the adult English class. And then...well, let’s just say that there will be NO leftovers.   >:D

In past years, I have received chocolate goodie bags from some of my female students. I already got one today, a day early! I wonder what tomorrow will bring....

Another thing of note: chocolate and gifts are only given from women to men. For the reverse, the Japanese invented another holiday called White Day, a month later. Also, people don’t send Valentine’s Cards. Or flowers, really. It seems as though Valentine’s Day was imported by the Japanese sweets industry to sell more chocolate – so what do they need flowers or cards for?

update

So quick little status update.
The weather here is definitely getting cooler, I've already set up the kotastu. Not quite cold enough to turn on the heat, but we'll see how it goes. I've had a cold for the past week which has really cut into the after school sports and such I usually do. Prob. start again Wed. with volleyball, can't really go to kendo for 2 hours coughing up a storm :P

In other news, I bought a ticket home! Yippeeeeeee!!!! I'm leaving the 16th or December and returning Jan. 12th. So it's almost a full month. Grandpa was nice enough to help me with the ticket cost - thanks a bunch! <3 Mom was ecstatic when she heard that I changed my plans. Now just gotta make a list of what to bring back :-P

Halloween is coming up pretty soon, how are your plans going people? I have a fall-back costume from Prince of Tennis that I bought at a convention a while ago. Last Saturday I went to a friend's house and taught 4 kids and 3 adults how to carve a pumpkin. Interesting how something we grew up doing is completely new for them. It turned out quite well! We went upstairs for homemade cheesecake and tea afterwards, mmmmm.

I joined a site called couchsurfing. It connects people from around the world to meet, greet, chat and provide a free place to crash while traveling. There is some risk letting a stranger stay at your place, but there are a lot of built-in safety measures also. Looks like someone's interested in staying at my place sometime this fall to do some hiking.

And I leave you last with a cute wallpaper I found a while ago. A bit busy, but still cute <3 Japan is full of little notepads and stationary with these little characters on them.

Dangerous

Discount CD/DVD stores are dangerous... spent $130 on CDs and DVDs last night ^^; On the track list:
The Alfee
Metallica
Ayumi Hamasaki
T.M. Revolution
Arashi
High and Mighty Color
Gackt
X Japan
Janne De Arc

No more driving without music!!!

Summer Break!!!!!!

So the summer break in Japan just ended, and boy I need a break from this vacationing :P
Before break started however, there was a little issue with my visa expiring. Apparently everyone including myself forgot that it was a 1 year visa and it needed to get re-issued. but wait! It needed to be done RIGHT then or I wouldn't be able to enter the country again when I came back from Thailand. So we made many frantic phone calls, told a slight lie, and drove way too much to get everything straightened out.

While this was going on, I also had to take my road test. The international driving license expires in one year, so if I wanted to continue driving after that, I needed a real Japanese license. There was a LOT of paperwork involved. But after that, Katsuno from the Board of Education and I drove up to Shiojiri, the nearest testing center. Almost 2 hours away. We did paperwork there, and were told to come back next week to do the actual test. What?! So I did just that, and surprise surprise, failed. There were little circles in the road and I wasn't sure whether to go around them or in front of them Apparently it was in front because I failed. Re-scheduled for the end of break. Also, I've never heard of anyone I know passing the first time.
The day after I got back from Thailand, I went back to the center for a 3rd time. I was so nervous I forgot to put my seat belt on. Thankfully the tester is really nice and reminded me of it ^^; That, and at the end I pocketed the keys and walked away. A minute later the next person and the tester yelled out from the car "Can we have the keys back?!". I turned many shades of red. But I passed!!!! ^_^

Amy and I went to Tokyo in the beginning of vacation. It was her first time, so I was kinda showing her around. It was also the weekend of the biggest fireworks festival of the year. We met Amy's friend in the city and went to the festival - it was SO crowded. You literally couldn't move. We kinda camped out on a ledge and people-watched. During the trip, we also went to an awesome museum, went to the top of Tokyo Tower (NOT worth it), shopped, had hostel booking issues, shared a room with a bunch of guys, and went to 2 themed cafes: the new Gundam one and the Vampire one. The vampire cafe was AMAZING and we were waited on by a very good looking guy in full costume with a flirty attitude. Definitely going back.

At the end of vacation, I went to Thailand. Luckily, My uncle Brian and Aunt Kim have lived there for 11 years and knew the place really well. We met in Bangkok and spent a few days touring the city. We saw a bunch of temples (called Wats) and the imperial palace. The palace was really nice. We also took a bus tour and a boat tour along the canals! We went to the market on the last day and I got to see some real haggling.
Then we went to their house a few hours away. There, we relaxed and I pet my first cat in months. That was a big thing for me. >^_^< We also went to the beach town and picked up some foreign foods (taco mix!!!!!!), and ate at some nice restaurants.

Brian and Kim introduced me to a friend of theirs, Sandy, who was interested in a little vacation as well. So Their driver Yindi (I think) drove me to the airport and we met up. Then we hopped on a plane for Chiang Mai! A nice taxi driver took us to our hotel, whose nickname was "Joe."

Chiang Mai is in northern Thailand. We walked around the famous night market the first night and then crashed at the wonderful hotel. The next day, we got up at about 6 to catch a tour van. It had a good mix of people: Dutch, Spanish, South African and Indian, with the Thai driver and tour guide. Of course everything was in English. :P
We saw a lot of cool temples and such, and went to the are where Burma, Thailand and Laos meet. There, we boarded a boat which took us to Burma, no passports needed. I got sooooo soaked. We sampled some great whiskey with different animals and animal parts flavoring it - pretty good actually! Apparently this area was famous for the drug trade a while ago.
That afternoon, we visited the "long neck tribes," the tribes where the girls put rings along their necks to stretch them out. Apparently, it actually shoves their shoulders down, giving them the appearance of having longer necks. Then it was a loooong drive back >.< We had some noodles on the street for about $1 per person for dinner. They were pretty good!

The next day, Our favorite taxi driver Joe picked us up and brought us to see a few sights. We saw a famous temple on the top of the nearby mountain, with was kinda blah. Then we went to a tiger park!! There, I got to pet 3 tigers for about 5 minutes each. They were pretty sleepy, though the employees kept saying that they weren't drugged. Riiiight. Since Sandy didn't want to go in, I paid for a photographer to take pictures as I pet them. After the tiger park, Joe took us to many temples around the city. He pretty much acted like our personal chauffeur for the day, which was a bit awkward for me, but kinda fun.
That day, we returned to Bangkok and said our goodbyes, then I caught an overnight flight back to Japan.
Aaand started the long journey home - plane - train - bus - train - bus - walk. I slept for 14 hours that night.

So sorry for the delay in posting it, but that was (the abbreviated version of) my Thailand vacation! It was certainly a unique experience and something I will remember and cherish the rest of my life. Many thanks to Brian and Kim who helped me plan most of it, showed me around, provided shelter, and put up with me. :P Also thanks to a great travel partner, Sandy.
Sawatdee ka!

New season

As I sit in the teachers' room, I am currently sweating and dabbing my face with a wet cloth periodically. One thing about Japanese summers is HUMIDITY SUCKS. This is my first time in the rainy season, which means that the weather is crazy bipolar. One minute you'll be taking a walk on a sunny afternoon, and the next minute you'll be running for shelter because the heavens decided to open up and dump holy buckets of water on your head. Then once you finally get home, everything clears up. One good thing though, is there are some wonderful thunderstorms. ^_^

Yesterday when I got to school, I was asked if I was going to play volleyball. "Why would I?" There was a parents' day scheduled for after lunch (which I had learned about the previous day). Afterwords, some of the parents and teachers would play a volleyball tournament and have a party. Thank-you vice principal for telling me, otherwise I wouldn't have known (-.-;)

The observational class went well, the kids and parents looked like they had fun. In volleyball, the vice principal named himself my manager and kept telling everyone in a loud voice that I was the best player there because of my height. Aaand then we started playing. I was far from the team ace, but did decently.
Then we all sat down for a toast and "nomikai," a drinking party, with the parents. These occasions can be pretty awkward considering my lack of conversational skills in Japanese, but it turned out alright. I even learned some sign language from a parent!

After that I had to turn down requests to go to the after-party since there was the adult English class in 15 minutes. Ah well.
Japan was defeated by Paraguay I think last night in the soccer world cup. They were pretty excited about it here and a lot of people stayed up 'till 11:00 to watch the start. It was the headline in today's paper.

BIG NEWS!!
Tomorrow some people from the board of education and I will go to pick up Amy at Nagoya airport. She is the new ALT in town, and my new American buddy. Everyone's pretty excited.

Also, I mentioned in previous posts about a wonderful neighbor that likes to ruin my day. Well, I talked with Katsuno-san this morning, and it seems like he might be leaving. Yesterday the cleaning crews came to take care of Amy's new apartment (which is on the other side of the neighbor's wall), and he basically told them that they were being annoying and to shut up. I guess that was the last straw for the town, because on Saturday, he and the mayor will meet, and the mayor will ask him to move somewhere else. I'm a little relieved that he's leaving (I can watch TV anytime I want! Yay!) but looks like we probably won't be becoming friends anytime soon. Ah well ^^; Katsuno-san told me to tell Amy to watch out for him while he's still here. Kowai~

And now, in the spirit of soccer season, I give you: Kitty watching soccer!
Click here!

Golden Week!

It's the holiday Golden Week in Japan, which means it's time for people to take trips, visit people, or...just relax. This time around, it's also time for Nick to leave for the states.
Letsee, today's Wednesday, which means...Monday Nick and I went up to Iida for ramen. We picked up Cris on the way and hung out for a while, then came back to the apartments with Cris to chill while Nick packed. However, while Nick was walking over to my apartment at some point, our wonderful neighbor stopped him in the corridor. Dun-dun-duuuuuun. Our Mr. neighbor isn't Mr. Rogers by any means. He works a late schedule, then comes home and coughs his lungs out while getting wasted practically every day. He also has the good fortune to live between 2 foreigners, who cause so much racket with their talking, watching tv, and cleaning their apartments. What's wrong with those darn foreigners?! He obviously has the right to pond on the walls and walk over to yell at them any time they make a sound. Right?

Anyways, Neighbor-san was telling Nick that his food waste he keeps out on his balcony stinks. Alright fair enough, Nick will empty it out that day.
No. Do it now.
I'll do it later today.
I want to watch you do it, let me in.
After which the neighbor tried to physically force his way into Nick's apartment. Nick apparently shoved him out, causing him to fall down. Neighbor-san wedged himself into the doorframe to make it impossible to close it, while Nick told him repeatedly to leave.

I learned all of this through the phone from Nick who called the board of education, who talked him out of calling the police. They came over and listened to the story, then decided to come back the next day when (hopefully) neighbor-san wouldn't be drunk.

Before all this, the plan was to make dinner for the 3 of us, so Nick brought all the stuff over to my apartment, and we locked the door to get cooking. Neighbor-san was quiet the rest of the night, despite the talking and cooking that was going on next door. He probably realized that Nick's patience had worn out and we'd called his indirect employers (he's employed by the town in some way). We had a great dinner.

That night, I also inherited a couch and 2 goldfish which are currently swimming happily in their brandy-new tank.

The next morning, Nick left early for the states, and Cris and I headed into Iida. We has b-fast at a sushi place, then went shooopping! I stumbled across a few great things that day.
1. fresh basil plants. The ones I planted earlier aren't doing so well.....
2. A great shirt and a summer scarf with sailboats on it, cool~
3. Randomly in a cute gift shop, I found....STROOPWAFELS!!!!! I was sooooo excited and immediately bought 3 packs (2 wafers per pack).

Also, I couldn't believe how many of my students I met out and about in the city. We sat next to 4 girls that recently graduated, ran across some of my elem. school kids in a clothing store, and a PTA member, the parent of one of my kids in the electronics store. -Twas fun.

Today is another gorgeous day. On the agenda: walk, plant the basil, watch the fishes, make a nice dinner, and watch a movie or two. Thus ends the last day of vacation. Work starts again tomorrow. Goodie.