Kyoto II

I will never get tired of Kyoto. EVER.

We stopped at a typical Japanese freeway food/rest stop.  Japan makes America's freeway rest stops look SUPER ghetto.  It was amazing.

I wasn't too hungry so I got a little rice ball and this strange shrimp veggie thing. Turns out, much to Ms Mihoko's entertainment, it was something you typically dip in a bowl of udon soup.  The broth from the soup softens the food, making it easier to separate into manageable bites.

....So since I was broth-less, it was a hoot to observers to see me trying to tear it into pieces with my unexperienced chopstick-holding hands.

When we got there, I stopped in a store and got 2 more postcards.  There were 2 people I regretted not sending postcards to. Then we went to Kinkakuji!  Each level of the pavilion uses architecture/designs from different historical periods. It was pretty crowded, I don't know how I got this photo.

On a different area of the grounds I found a door with flower paintings on it.  I'm still debating if I'd do this or not.

I love how they are sculpting the trees and the branch flows!

Ha, found a guy wearing a headband that ROCKED.  T-rex munching on someone's head. ha.

It wasn't just all the green that was amazing, it was the huge mix of textures.  Man just LOOK at the variety of plant life right there.

We took a small road off and started checking out the kyoto farmland.  It was GORGEOUS of course.

Ok so Kinkakuji was beautiful.  No doubt about it.  But too crowded for it to be one of my favorites.  Arashiyama however....

The minute we got to the entrance of that bamboo forest, I was a goner.  It's in my top 3 fav places in Kyoto.  I wish I could go back and spend a whole day there.  It was so peaceful.  And honestly no photo can do that place justice. One of the things that makes it so beautiful is the movement of the leaves.  I know it sounds cheesy but I started getting watery eyes, it was so beautiful. Wasn't expecting that ha ha!

Very surreal.

Sadly we had to leave the trail.  We went into some sort of candy speciality shop, to look around.  I spotted some mochi molds along the wall.  Aren't those COOL?

Japan honestly has wax versions of every restaurant food it sells.  I love it!

 

Tried some green tea warabimochi.  Liked it.

Here's the wax version of what I got. Yes, served in real bamboo cups.  I wanted to steal mine lol.  It had the red bean paste (which I love now), ice cream, mochi, chestnut, warabimochi, and a cherry on top.  It was SOOO GOOD! I'd suggest it to anyone.  

Ms. Minori got the green tea shaved ice. She thought it was a bit strong, but still good.

The main street in Arashiyama is very very low key compared to the eastern side of that valley.

 You almost don't notice the entrance to the bamboo trail!

 We walked into an Umi shop.  It sold all sorts of pickled plum stuff. They offered us so many samples!  Most were really good, surprisingly.

Black Skin is a skin care shop.  Ms Mihoko shops there.  They did demos for us.  The soap they have are made from charcoal.  They were as soft as a soft chocolate if that makes sense.  And they were amazing.

The arashiyama bamboo path goes back into those hills.

Saw these umbrellas.  When hit by water, patterns get activated.

 We all split up for a little bit, and I sprinted back to Tenryuuji Temple.  I barely had time to go through it, but I couldn't help myself.

 T'was gorgeous.

We drove past the imperial palace outer walls, so I got to see the wall....YAY!!!!

I got to come BACK!  I loved knowing exactly where I was.  I loved knowing something about where I was.  It'd only been a month, but things were greener, leafier, and there were different flowers out!  Hello again Higashiyama streeeeeet!

Hello again Kiyomizudera!!!!! It was 5:30, so it was only open for another half hour.  On the plus side, it was a lot less crowded than when I went in the morning last time.

 

Man....the scaffolding for this is....interesting.

This was the first sunset I'd seen since I'd been in Japan.  I've never had the time to figure out why there is no sunset over where I live.  So when I saw this I just sat and looked.  For a while.

 And when I turned my head to the right of that sunset, I got a view of Japan's largest lake. I've forgotten the name already dang it.

Ok you see those 3 different types of faces?  See the middle one with a big red circle nose?  That is pretty much the equivalent of Micky Mouse out here.  It's Umpanman".  I don't know what company he's the face of, but he is EVERYWHERE.  I've got students with his face plastered on their but like a butt flap. The placement is so weird.  Anyways, Yup. there you go.

Dinner, provided by the generous Ms Minori and Ms Mihoko.  I try  everytime to pitch in or even take the whole thing, but Ms Mihoko is the QUEEN of making sure she gets to. Its frustrating sometimes.  

I got to try dimsum.  They're the delicious yellow circles on the right. Then a beef thing at the top, great too. Two differently seasoned Takoyaki (yum), and 4 Octopus skewers.  Everything was GREAT!

Last but not least, a strange creepy story. At night there's a fluttering shadow outside of my window that flies in a pattern over the river and past my window.  Like a bat.  But in the morning, a big black crow has started to find a place to perch by the upper right corner of my window.  He flaps and squawks a ton.  It scares the crap out of me and makes me want to shut my window.  How strange is that?

Field Trip, ROAD TRIP, and Japanese Lessons

First off, a little note to Hillary.  Today I met a boy with the name of Cho Chang.  1st of all, CHO CHANG ha ha ha ha!!!!  I don't know anyone else who would get that reference.  And 2nd of all, that's not a Japanese name, so I was curious about that as well.

I've found that my house makes me feel bummed out, so I am doing everything I can to stay out of it til it's time to sleep.  I've asked for more hours, so Ms. Mihoko is letting me switch off with Ms. Julpha with the Saturday classes.  That'll be fun.

A few days ago we had a pajama day, and oh my goodness my students had the CUTEST PJ's.  Some of them were outfits you'd find in America, but there were just as many that were thoroughly Japanese.  SO CUTE on those little guys and girls!! I searched for a photo for an example but couldn't find one.

Today we had a field trip at the モリコロパーク Morikoro Park.  We met up with the students at the Park.  It was interesting to see the parents with their video cameras and such.  They were very nice and polite and...observant.   Morikoro Park is on the grounds of a HUGE area which held the world expo in 2005.  It's a HUGE area. We saw lots of bikers parking their cars so they could bike there.  Man, I'd love to do that.

There is a ton of forest on the south and east sides of this photo.

And I was told that if you felt like making the long walk, you would find the house from My Neighbor Totoro.  It's in the lower right corner.

I'll go back there if/when I see the movie.

Anyways, since it was a party of 25 preschoolers, we weren't going anywhere too far.  We went the building in the upper right hand corner.  Here's a close-up.

It was an amazingly fun, educational place for kids to play.  We made some clay towers, we ran around, and we went on a word treasure hunt.  The kids loved it.  The parents don't come in with us on the field trips.  But strangely enough, as we were walking back to the area where they'd meet to pick their kids up, I saw 4-5 of them faraway, filming us. Checking to see if we were being good teachers no doubt.  Still....kind of creepy.

When we got back to school, we worked til closing.  Then Ms. Jakka, Mr. John, and I had our first Japanese lesson.  Ms. Mihoko is helping us for free.  It's so nice of her!!! It's good to be in that position, because it helps me be more understanding when my own students hesitate while trying to create a sentence. It went well. It's nice to have some conversational practice with someone I can ask questions to. We 3 are at different learning levels, but we all have something to learn from what Ms. Mihoko is teaching. Ms. Jakka needs to work on her writing, I need to work on my speaking, and Mr. John has to work on both. 

Afterwards, I got an AMAZING surprise. Ms. Minori has friends from Korea visiting right now, and she's invited us to go to Kyoto with them on Sunday!!!!!  YAY YAY YAY!!!  When I asked where in Kyoto, they couldn't have said a better spot. Kinkakuji and Arashiyama.  On my loooong list of reasons to return to Kyoto, those were the top 2!!

BRRRRING IT

Bargain Hunting, Restless Pigeon Hoards, and of course....New Food Adventures.

I swear, I've been here for almost 3 months and I still have SO MUCH STUFF I haven't done. But luckily, I'm doing as much as I possibly can.

I got to chat with Mom and Pop this morning, that was nice.  Hadn't gotten to do that in a while.  I hear my mom is a skinny foxy lady now. GO MOM!  (Yet at the same time, her weight lose is motivating me to get my rear in gear as well. Blast Mom and Sarah.)

I met Jakka at Kamimaezu station around 11.  Kamimaezu has lots of little stores all lined up and oh my GOSH it was hard not to buy everything.  We even found a store I have personally labeled as the Morbid Disney Store.  There was a shirt of the snow white queen doing crack ha ha ha ha!!! They had some awesome stuff though.  The sunglasses were awesome.  I keep finding things that would be hilarious white elephant gifts.  If anyone needs a white elephant gift, give my parents money and I'll send you one.

We tried lots of snacks I'd never had before, like Bacon wrapped around rice on a stick.  Here's a picture of what it looks like.

 Ms Jakka let me try a bite of hers.  I'm not a big fan of bacon, but it was good.

 She pointed out a little food place that she said was good, so we said what the heck and got a snack there too. I call them mega gyoza potstickers. The closed one below covers my entire palm.  Their big.  And you have to be careful while you eat them, because they have broth inside as well.  Delicious!

While Jakka was eating her bacon rice stick, I got some 玉せん, Which is a huge shrimp wafer with sauce, some strange herbs, and egg.  It was soooo good.

We then went shopping. I may have found a way to "have a phone".  That's the only way I know how to put it.  I'll have multiple ways of contacting and being contacted, as well as the internet, all without having a regular phone line or phone contract. We'll see if it works out.

We saw all sorts of shops.  I tell you, if I had the money for it, I would go broke there.  We went into one of those.......well dang I don't know what kind of shop they call it.  I was planning on putting up a photo of the store, but I've changed my mind.  I'm going to buy something from the shop and surprise people with it.  Well, that is, next time I see them in person. I'll give you a one word hint: Lolita.  Anywho. other stores....we went into the pinkest of pink stores, with barbie everything, hello kitty, barbie chandeliers, it was INSANE.  I found a place with these huge mario hats, hilarious. Jakka has a picture of me wearing one.   I'd buy one and send it back if it wasn't so big lol.

The entryway  reminded me of the shopping street in Kyoto.

Anywho, we found another place that Jakka said was delicious, so we tried it.  The food's called "KappuOmuRaisu"  It's multiple layers of rice and omelette.  You could pick various sauces to put on top.  I had curry.  good stuff.

After that we found ourselves out of Kamimaezu and on the Osu Kannon grounds. This is the largest most well known temple in Nagoya.

 Here's a different view we noticed.  There were tons of pigeons. They were walking all over my shoes, it was crazy. 

 After Osu Kannon, we went to Sakae and went shopping there. We found the holy grail of media stores, where I bought a Japanese copy of the Taming of the Shrew.  It's good practice.  Every floor of the store sold something different.  I found some shirts with funny phrases on them

 And man...the prices.  Shirts for $4, pants for $10....it was heaven. I didn't go crazy buying stuff though.  I have to save my money for the next 2 months.

After shopping we went and ate at an Udon restaurant.   Here's the view from our table.  We were a block away from the first night we all went out and karaoke'd.  Fun stuff.  That building right there is a freakin Tiffany & Co.  There's a ton more expensive stuff here than cheap stuff, sadly.

I had a yummy summer Udon Salad.

I forgot the name of what Jakka had.  It begins with a K....but she also had rice, curry, and pickles

After Jakka and I parted ways, I took the train home to Akaike, where Ms. Mihoko was just arriving to pick me up.  Yesterday she told me she was going to a good priced grocery store that's far away, and she invited me to come.  So she, Ms. Julpha, and I went to the store.  There's so much fun stuff, I wish I could mail it back to you guys, but most of it would melt or spoil I'm sure.  It's all super fresh and super cheap.  I got a new source of protein too. Ms. Mihoko pointed it out to me.  I'd seen it at other stores and thought it was shredded fish.

 Nope.  They were TEENY little fish.  Well...I bought them.  I'll see how that goes soon enough.

 On our way home we were chatting it up when suddenly Ms. Mihoko said, "Look! Shiwarabimochi!  Have you ever had that?"

Nope.  I'd seen things like it in stores, but I'd never tried it. Ms. Mihoko says it's a summer treat that travels around neighborhoods like ice cream trucks do in America. The guy serving it was slightly...dull witted in the head, he played silly little jokes that were driving Ms. Mihoko and I crazy, but in the end we got our Shiwarabimochi. It was good!  It's mochi coated in soy bean sugar. 

Just when I think I've tried the majority of food in Japan, I get this huge "Nope...you haven't."  Luckily it's all been delicious!

Sorry for the haitus .

Sorry, it's been a while. I had quite a long rut. But I climbed out of it yesterday and I feel LOADS better.

Lets see.  LOTS of fun stuff has happened since the last blog, but because of my blasted rut, I didn't take many photos, or write most of it down. Hmmm we went into Sakae to celebrate Ms. Mihoko's Birthday, which was a complete blast.  I've tried even MORE new foods, and it's all been delicious. Hmm I can remember a few of the foods.

Ok I tried this today.  It's called dango. Basically it's a mochi dumpling with a sweetish soysauce glaze.  (Mochi is rice squished into paste, usually mildly sweetened)  I see it sold everywhere, and I had no idea what it was.  for a little while I thought maybe some skinned fruit or something?  But yesterday Ms. Mihoko brought some into school for the teachers.  Did I mention my boss is a wonderful woman?  One of the reasons I like her so much is her sense of humor.  It's very much like mine. She makes me laugh my head off.

Now that I've tried the soy dango, I'd like to go out on a limb and try these versions of dango.  I'm taking a WILD guess and saying that the green one is probably green tea flavored lol.  I'll probably love it.

Last weekend, Ms Mihoko and Ms Minori were going to Mie prefecture to get their hair cut, and they invited me to come check out the area.  I of course said yes. Ms Minori's sister lives over there so that's how they know of a good hair stylist in that area.  We picked up Minori's mother and drove over.  Minori stopped by a treat shop and bought everyone some treats, which was really sweet.

I can't remember the name of this one, but it's basically soft rolls filled with red bean paste.  Ok I tried bean paste about a year ago, when I went to Hawaii, and I tried it when my amazing tutor Yuko made some for me, and both times I found it interesting, but strange.  It was a very new taste and idea for me, eating beans as a dessert.  I've been munching on various red bean treats for a few weeks now, and I think it's finally grown on me!!!! They were delicious.  It definitely took some time to get used to the flavor, but I like it now!

 The other treat was delicious as well.  In Japan they are really big on "Jelly" (jello).  They have all sorts of flavors.  Even my little students have small jelly "shots" packed in their bentos for lunch. The 'shots' come in the same kind of container as those small jelly or honey containers you find at denny's or something.  ANYWHO.  The jelly she bought was coffee jelly.  It came with a little thing of cream to douse on top.  It was SO GOOD. Loved it. There's another thing I notice I've gotten used to.  Cold coffee and cold tea don't weird me out anymore. 

We stopped by Minori's sister's house and said hi, ate our snacks, and met her nephew.  They were all sooooo nice. Minori has a great family, and I see a lot of her in her mom. When they all were speaking Japanese, I'd understand bits, and when we were all speaking English, Mihoko would say to her, "wakarimashitaka?" and she'd reply, "hai, chotto." which is "do you understand?" and "a little bit".  So Minori's mother and I were in the same boat you could say ha ha. I liked her. While Minori and Ms Mihoko were at their appointment I went to a mall. I had two hours to wander around, and I only got through 4 isles.  HA HA HA HA that's how it is for me here. Every thing in every isle is so interesting that I take forever to look at it all. I found a few small things, including my own Bento Box!!! Lunch at school had gotten to the point where I felt weird with my Tupperware, surrounded by bentos, so I'd been keeping an eye out for one I liked.  And I found one.  It's SO CUTE I LOVE IT. 

 After Minori and Ms Mihoko finished, Ms Mihoko wanted to treat us all to dinner.  Minori's sister couldn't come because of her cute little boy Kiyoshiro (too young), so it was just Ms Mihoko, Minori, Minori's mother, and me. We went to an awesome Japanese restaurant, sat on mats (I never get tired of that), and ate.  I asked them to choose for me since I didn't care what I got, it's always good. There was so much food, and we all tried each other's dishes. I got multi-grain rice of some sort, which surprised me when it came out because...

It was purple. It tasted great of course. And, being the curious person that I am, we spent a little bit talking about which grain it was that turned the whole thing purple. We don't know ha ha ha.   Hmm some of the other food included miso soup, cow INTESTINE (tasted great), Pork pieces, a big pile of sliced cabbage with some sort of light sauce mixed in it, and a potato dish I can't remember the name of.  It begins with T....dang it I'll remember.  I looked at the cabbage and my first thought was "man that's a lot of garnish", but turns out you eat the darn stuff. And I ate.  And enjoyed.

Minori's mom surprised us all and paid for dinner.  She is such a sweet woman, she was so kind. She said she felt that she knew what I was currently going through, being in Japan alone, because Minori had gone through the same thing when she moved to Australia.  Minori's Mom was always hoping that Minori was doing ok when she first moved to Australia, and she figured my mom might be feeling the same way.  So she was incredibly sweet, looking out for me like that. 

 Twas a good night. Afterwards, stopped at a grocery store, got some stares (never gets old), and got dropped off. 

Anywho, this is a close idea to what I cook up for my bento every morning.  Although I usually don't put meat in my bento.  Just rice with furikake on top, grape tomatos, apple slices, and some other veggies.  Everyone eats very healthy.  During my Tupperware days I would also bring a yogurt.  Cause I thought they were healthy, right?  Well here they are considered desserts, so I was basically teasing the kids with my yogurt every day. I stopped that once I found that out.

Here are two VERY accurate images of what my student lunches look like.  I've seen all this stuff at one point or another.  Every last bit is eaten.  If they get a school lunch, it's very healthy as well. Rice with furikake, with veggies and meat changed up everyday.  Things like tofu, spinach, onions, peppers, LOADS of different veggies.  And they eat them all.  I'm so proud of these healthy little guys.  Once they all eat their healthy food they can have their treat food.  Grapes, oranges, jelly shots, apples, maybe a small thumb-size chunk of Camembert, or the rare delicious jelly filled pancake!

  I have a love/hate relationship with lunchtime. I eat my food within 2 minutes, because I have ten 3-4 year olds that have to have their bowls empty, teeth brushed, and table cleaned in 40 minutes. I have the kids strategically placed around the table so that I can sit nearest the kids who get distracted, or take an hour to chew one bite. But at the same time I've also placed the kids so that the older, faster ones are spread out, setting a good example for the smaller ones. Once we sing our lunch song, it's like a gunshot and a horse race has begun in my head.  Which student will finish first??? I can usually predict who the top 3 will be, but honestly it's random most of the time.  Sometimes the fastest eaters have off-days and take the longest.  Sometimes my youngest student will suddenly get starvingly hungry and finish in 5th or something. I've got one student who is a very fast eater, but he always finishes last. It's because he has to eat a school lunch and a second lunch from home.  Always eats everything, but it's a lot, hence why he's last.  It's surprising how much food they can shovel in their mouths.  They have amazing manners.  One thing that still takes me off guard is their gag reflex.  Sometimes students put too much food in their mouths and start gagging.  But you see this look of determination in their faces and they hold their hands up to their mouths to stop anything from coming out, and they continue on. I could go on for hours about just LUNCH ha ha ha.  It's a fun time.

 Anywho.  I'm back off hiatus.  I'm feeling a lot better at the moment, one reason perhaps is because I am trying to eat healthier and I got to exercise today!  It's been three months since I worked out. I can't do aerobics in my apartment, I'd get heard by my neighbors. And I've wanted to jog, but I get stared at.  Pale skin. Living in Japanese small area.  Perfect atmosphere for stares. It freaks me out. So all the exercise I've been getting is my biking to school (not far) and my biking to the store (further, but not much). 

Ms Minori and I had been talking last weekend about exercise and all that, and we decided to try running today.  We hopped in her car and drove to Miyoshi Pond. On the way we talked about what music we listen to when jogging.  When I said that my workout playlist is mostly Takarazuka songs (I'd found some that keep me jogging at a fast pace), she insisted that I let her hear some. Tis a mystery to me on why those songs get me sprinting faster than I can with other songs.

It's a large pond.  5k to go around the whole thing. Lots of trees, forest, even some shrines and wild cats. It smelled fresh and amazing.  It was GREAT!  I'd been dying to work out for a while.  I feel great now, and I'm experienced enough to know that I shall be in great pain tomorrow.  No big dance moves in class for the next week, I expect ha ha ha.

Ok. I hath rambled enough for now.


Oh.  Forgot.  I found Cantaloupe bread in my grocery store today.  Couldn't resist.  Twas good.