Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Kyoto self reminders

Today has helped me get soooo much better at navigating busses trains and the subway. I'll remember to write about them when I get back.


Cats

Takoyaki whoops
Chatting with the locals

Cup o noodles

child catcher

Takarazuka

Octo stick

Jelly legs

Inari station

Market

Take a freaking ticket next time!

Grocery stores

Forced to speak. Lots.

Stay out later tomorrow


I can't blog til I get back. Its far too frustrating to type each freaking letter on a touchscreen. Plus come on. Photos. This will be so much cooler with photos.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Trip coming up!


Going to Kyoto tomorrow!!! Here are some places I'll be checking out.







I know I'll never be able to take better photos of the hotel I'll be staying at, so I'm posting one.



They look a lot bigger when you have a person inside to scale them properly.  Here's what I know about the hotel.  You have little lockers to store your luggage.  You have to check out every morning, whether or not you are staying for more than one night.  In which case you just check in again every night.  You can stay between 8pm-10am, and then everyone has to leave so they can clean.  There are blinds you can shut so you have privacy.  It is really easy to hear everything while you're in your pod.  Apparently the beds are super comfy though. Men and women sleep on different floors (yay!).  They have all the bathroom items you'll need, including a yukata (Japanese pajamas).  Here's a yukata.


From what I've read, they're the Japanese equivalent to a bathrobe and/or pajamas.  So I'll be wearing this when I go off to the showers too.  Don't get this mixed up with a kimono.
Longer sleeves, expensive material, lots of detail.....not for beds or bathrooms.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

I tried to keep a low profile, I really did.


This is the telling of a hilarious moment.  

It's been rainy for the past few days, so during recess the kids have been playing indoors.  Today was finally sunny, so we got to go to the park again.




I wasn't that energetic today, so when the kids were calling for me to be a monster, I told them I was going to play quietly today.  I went and helped some kids on the zip line for a bit, and then I went picking dandy-lions with one of my penguins.  The parks there have very little grass.  Grass is considered a weed and no one has sprinklers.  So anywho, we're picking dandy-lions when I happen to spy a teeny patch of that crab grass.  I grab a piece and say, "wanna see a trick?"

Ok now think back.  Everyone grew up with this.

Well.........that little trick had some unexpected reactions.

 

You remember how I said I was trying to keep a low profile today?
Well blowing that little piece of grass went from this....


...to this....
 

 .....and it wasn't til THIS point where I thought, "I've made a huge mistake."

Turns out not a single person at that park had seen someone make a grass whistle.  So even when I showed them how I was doing it, they thought it was a magic trick.


An even bigger shock to me was that I didn't just surprise the students.  The teachers had never heard of a grass whistle either.




Well....I found myself in the spotlight again.  Meh.  I've got plenty of opportunities ahead of me where I'll figure out this "low profile" thing.  As of right now...it's 5/5.  Sheesh. Come on Mr. John, surprise everyone with some Australian thing.  Don't leave it all to my silly antics!!


Monday, April 21, 2014

Damn, Damn, Damn, Damn!!

.....I've grown accustomed to seaweed.





No but seriously I was told that any of the packages getting sent to my old address would be forwarded to the school, and it turns out no one was checking the apartment.  So THREE missed delivery notices were there when I asked to go look tonight, and at least one of them has been returned from whence it came.

That is a complete bummer.  I have no idea what it was, so I don't know how I can go about trying to get it back here.  BLAST YOU JAPANESE MAIL SYSTEM!!!  Why can't you just leave something on the doorstep and be done with it.  Then again...if they'd left it on the doorstep, it would've been there almost 3 weeks.  BLAST IT this is my fault for not being more paranoid about it.


Friday, April 18, 2014

What have I learned in 4 weeks?

#1: I adapted to the food instantly. I love rice.  I was a fan of rice before I moved here, yes.  But now I LOVE it.  I could eat it breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack....all the time.  I love seaweed.  I love octopus. I even love the hamburgers, which is something I don't eat in the USA.  I've only had one dish that I wasn't a fan of.  It was pasta with Squid Ink sauce.  I can chew a raw octopus tentacle right off it's limb, but I cannot eat one more bite of pasta with Squid Ink.  I guess I have limits after all lol.




#2: I think I am one of those amazingly blessed people when it comes to the co-workers I've gotten over the years. Japan is no different. My co-workers made me feel at home the minute I got here. I need to start buying them stuff, cause they are always giving me things, for no reason, just out of the niceness of their own hearts.  Ms. Mihoko is incredibly nice and down to earth.  And Ms. Minori knows I am working on learning the language, so she brought tons of books to school to see if I wanted them for practice.  It's not a job I dread waking up for, I can tell you that.

#3: The kids are adorable.  Every single kid at that school is ADORABLE.  And they LISTEN TO ME NOW!!!! Cute. Kids.

 #4: The driving disorients me. STILL. I still am not used to looking right first and then left. I have this feeling in the back of my head that I'm looking the wrong way and that I'm going to get hit by a car.


#5: I eat healthier.  Well...mostly. My breakfast, lunch, and dinner are 100% amazingly healthy and delicious!!!  But there are snacks at school, and I need to stop randomly trying treats at the store.  And the Nutella Nobake Incident I had a few days ago....was pretty brutal.  Luckily, I'm not suffering American food withdrawals.  Trust me, I am treasuring every ounce of deliciousness that Sarah sent me in a package, but I shan't die from lack of tacos or pizza.

#6: I finally have time where I've been able to tell myself to slow down and read a book.  I'm reading Bill Bryson's "A Short History on Nearly Everything".  I'm 100 pages in, and I've never read a more mind-blowing book.  It's a very interesting read!






Wednesday, April 16, 2014

A day at the park

So in the typical daily schedule at school, everyone buddies up and we all walk to the park around 11.  When we go to the park, the teachers try to spread out so they can supervise everyone safely.  
I tend to be a little goofy and do more than just supervise.  Yesterday I was mostly taking photos for the school, but I decided to join in on a game of monster tag with 2 of the whales. After a few minutes our players increased to 2 whales, 2 kangaroos, and 3 penguins.  After 10 minutes I wandered off to check on the kids at the zip line area.




Today something awesome happened. It was minutes after we got there, just enough time for me to get to the zip line area.  2 of my penguins were already at the zip line, shouting for assistance in pulling the rope. I had just started pulling the rope over to them when I heard a large number of kids all shouting, "MEESA ALEESA!!".
 I turn around.
There on the big toy, looking in my direction, were 17 kids waiting to see if I would go play monster tag with them.

 But I couldn't abandon the 2 zip-liners, so I said, "Ok you each get one turn, and then I have to go be a monster for a little bit." One penguin took his turn, and then they both abandoned it and joined the rest of the kids on the big toy.  

And thus it began.

There were 4 other teachers there, and these kids were calling for me. Yup....kinda awesome. I start stomping towards them, roaring with a goofy yoda voice, and they all scream bloody murder and start running.


And then one of my little penguin girls decides to throw a wild card at me.  

She does this.
This hilarious behavior is something this penguin is known for, so I wasn't too shocked.  However, I was surprised when 3 other penguins decided to do it as well. Well I put this dramatic look of shock on my face...
 did a 180, and tried to look like I was running as fast as I could.
  
The kangaroos and whales noticed that the tables had turned, and joined in the newly titled "Chase Alyssa" game.



By the way...we weren't the only ones at the park.  There were at least 6-7 moms with their kids too. So....I was silently laughing my head off as I ran past these mothers, me with 19 kids right on my tail.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

A few observations

That strange music that comes on in the evening.  I found out it plays to announce 6:00.  I don't know why...maybe it has something to do with when most people get off work.  Maybe people don't have time to look at their watches.  But it announces the time of 6PM.  Mystery solved.

There are random big and little restaurants in the middle of a bunch of houses.  I used to wonder how people would know where they were.  I discovered that they have teeny little signs near the main streets, and then when they are open, they have those red flashing lights like the ones on cop cars.  I walk past one every day.  It's got a cute garden and everything.  It's called Godan.  There's also a tiny Takoyaki place a few blocks up.  I'd love to try that sometime, but I'll have to wait for a Saturday.

It gets light here at an absurd hour.  I got up at 5:40 today just to see if it would be light out.  Surprisingly light actually.  Tomorrow I'll get up at 5, just to see if the sun is still down.  It's hard to stay asleep when the sun is already up. All I know is that it has to be between 3 & 5:40.  I woke up at 3 one night and it was still pitch black.

I've learned that some of those time-saving measures aren't worth it in the end.  For example, if you are planning on wrapping up some onigiri for lunch tomorrow, don't make rice the night before.  Make it in the morning, so it keeps it's stick and doesn't get that slightly hard feel once rice has been in the fridge for a night.


Sheesh.

Monday, April 14, 2014

A rare meal of intimidating proportions

So by now you know that now and then I like to buy foods that are a complete mystery to me.  Well, tonight I'm trying one that is really freaking me out.

Remember this??

Well I decided to make it last night.  I should have just cooked it and tried it.  But nooooo.  I decided to ask people at school if they knew what it was first.  I should not have done that. this was the first dish here that I was nervous to try.




I made a stir-fry of Pumpkin, Brocolli, Tofu and Egg as well. On the side.  Definitely not mixed in.


 Thar she blows...


It smelled sweet.  But also...fishy. 

Ladies and gentlemen, would anyone like some squid ink sauce on their pasta?








.....I could only eat one bite.  I tried for another, so I could remember it a little better....but the smell was enough.  Sweet, fishy, and...not to my liking.  But hey...at least I know now, right?  This will definitely stay high on my list of strange things tasted.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

New foods and little observations

Whenever I go to the store I buy a treat.  I have rules though.  It has to look completely bizarre, or the wrapper concealing it gives me no idea of what's inside.  I'm always happy when one turns out to be some form of chocolate. So here we go.


The top little one was a green tea flavored chocolate piece.  Pretty good.
The middle one I got because hey!  I didn't know they had Bubblicious out here, and it surprised me.
The bottom one turned out to be hilarious.  I had no idea what it was.  Turned out to be heavily italian seasoned crutons.  I'm not over dramatizing it at all.

Ok these are both about the length of my hand, palm to finger-tip.
The green one turned out to be a looooong cheeto puff.
I thought the red one was perhaps a roll-up strip.  Or at worst a sea-weed strip.  Nope. 
 Twas a squid-strip.


Anywho.  I got a pizza advertizement in my mail today. Here are some translations (more of something for me to practice translating Katakana)

 Side Menu, to name a few:
Chicken Nuggets
Poppin' Chicken
Rice Croquettes with Cheese
Chicken Potato Gratin
Seafood Doria?


Chicken Teriyaki Pizza
Mochi Combo???? (....ack.  Mochi on pizza...there's one thing I will not try)
Egg Carbonara Pizza
(This menu was overwhelming.)

California Combo Pizza (left): bacon, tuna, garlic, mayonnaise, corn, onion, green pepper, Parmesan
Mixed Flavor Pizza: tomato, pepperoni, corn, onion, green pepper, Parmesan

This one looked most tempting to me.  
The Margarita: Mozzarella, Tomato, Fresh Basil, Virgin Olive Oil, Parmesan
(phew.  YOU try to translate バージンオリーブオイル = Ba-jinori-buoiru =Virgin Olive Oil) 


 Anyways.  As I was biking home from the store, I spotted this cute teeny little truck. heh.

I decided to finally get a drink from one of these vending machines.  So I looked for the one that was most out of place.  This guy is in between a vineyard and a garden. What...the crap.

You could buy various types of cold coffee, tea, and Coke-a-Cola. No water though, hmmmm. Again, I got something that I had no knowledge about. This is kah-ru-pee-su-uwah-tah = Calpis Water.  Tasha calls it cow piss water.  It didn't taste bad.  It tastes like really watered down, uncarbonated sprite. I decided to look up the ingredients.  3.  Water, dry milk, and fermented lactic acid.  Why is everything here fermented ha ha ha.  I decided to investigate a little further, and poured some into a clear glass.  It looked like very watered down milk.  Interesting, right?  Go water down some sprite, wait for the carbonation to leave, and you'll have basically tried Calpis water.  It's pretty popular here it seems.
 

Here are those Apple Mangos.  Ok.  I know that it SAYS Apple Mango right there under the Japanese.  But 90% of the time the labels don't have English.  And every time I go to the store, it's like a sensory overload explosion, so it is verrrrrry hard to focus on the details.  I honestly try to tell myself to slow down and look carefully, but there's so much going on in your head when you're at the store.  No familiar packaging, everything in Japanese, trying not to block an isle, trying not to get in anyone's way, reading what the food actually is, trying to figure out why one milk is 2 bucks and the one next to it is 5 bucks, the loud music and announcements playing.  Lots of stimulation. Lots of distraction.  The atmosphere gets more familiar every time though, so maybe someday I'll be able to shop...normally. ha ha ha ha! Oh, and the apple mango pieces were AMAZING. I will keep buying them.  Better than any dessert I've ever tasted.

Oh.  Tasha gave me this idea.  I saw her photo of her money and figured I'd do the same thing. $1 = 101¥ or 101円 Yen.
The 1¥ feels like a plastic piece, although I can't bend it for the life of me.
The smallest paper bill they have is 1000¥ ($10), so I pickup a bit of change. Not as much as Tasha though lol.  



Yesterday (today, for you Utah folk) Tasha and I were talking about food and movies.  She talked about how there's tons bread sold everywhere, and how she loves to eat pretzels and nobakes.  I talked about how although there's bread here, but it's not a common grocery I guess you could say?  So I haven't bought any.  Apart from the random treat things I get, my daily food intake is lots of rice, tofu, vegetables, yogurt, coffee and eggs. Pretty darn healthy if you ask me, which is nice.  But man, I  would love to just let go and buy a giant bar of chocolate and appease my junk food cravings. And I can't find oats for sale, so I haven't made nobakes. Sarah mailed me ingredients for nobakes though :-)))))) but I'm trying to hold out as long as I can. I won't be able to eat one nobake a day if you know what I mean ha ha ha.

One of the pre-school parents deals with cattle, and one day they brought to school a giant pack of hamburgers ("han-bah-gah steak" over here) for the teachers.  I don't eat beef but didn't want to offend, so I left school one day with 10-ish patties. One night I decided I may as well try one.  OH MY GOSH YUUUUUMMMMYYYYY.  I've never loved hamburger til now.  I am going to be sad when I run out of those patties.  So good. Maybe I'm just fond of Asian cows ha ha ha!

Tasha and I found out that I hated her favorite musical, and she hated my favorite musical.  And that our favorite musicals both had directions in their titles.  West Side Story & South Pacific.  What a laugh!!!! 

Monday, April 7, 2014

That Octopus was delicious.

I ate most of that octopus raw while skyping with family...purely to freak them out.  It was delicious.  I chopped the rest up and put it in some ramen tonight.  It was great.  I think I like raw octopus more though.  It got more chewy when I cooked it.  Anywho, try it!  It's good stuff.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

I smell....I smell....Squad.

Here are some images of the cute little octopus tentacles I bought at the grocery store today.  I decided to gross various family members out by eating it while skyping.  The best reaction was Tasha shouting, "I love the sea!  I love sea creatures!  And now you're eating one in front of me?  You MONSTER!!!!!  I'm going to go grab a Reeses and eat it in your FACE."