Random Assortments of Fun Japan Things

Konbanwa!

It has been a while since my last post.  I guess that is because we really settling into life here, and as much as I would love to vacation and sight-see every day, the reality is we live here and we are just keeping busy doing non-blog worthy stuff - grocery shopping, date nights, BBQ's with friends, beach days, CME activities, work, learning Japanese, etc. 

I have been spending quite a bit of time using Rosetta Stone to learn Japanese and it has its ups and downs.  Japanese is a difficult language to use and I have been frustrated with Rosetta Stone.  We have heard good things about Pimsler, and are looking into investing into that program.  I have made progress however, and am able to ask for simple things and carry on brief, polite snipits of conversation with the locals. 

A couple weekends ago, there was a large festival at one of the Shinto Shrines in Kamukura, right near our house and the main event featured Yabusame, which is samurai style mounted archery.  Samurai ride horses down the shrines paths, shooting arrows at various targets.  Unfortunately, a typhoon ruined our fun and it was cancelled.   Turns out, the typhoon was basically a small tropical storm, nothing like the one currently carrying out some devastation in China and the Philippines.  Hopefully, we don't encounter any as large as that during our time here.  They are quite frequent, another one is supposed to affect us in the next 1-3 days.  

The day before the typhoon we went with a group of friends to Tokyo for the Belgian Beer Festival.  It was great beer and great people.  

In honor of Kenny, I will talk a little about beer/alcohol in Japan.  Beer is the most common alcoholic beverage served in Japan, even above sake.   Because of Japan's tax system, they distinguish the varieties of malt beverages into 2 groupings: beer (biru) and happoshu. Happoshu are low malt beverages (less than 67%), and have taken a large part of the beer market here since the tax is lower.  Up until 1994, the only big beer players here were Kirin, Asahi, Sapporo and Suntory, due to strict tax laws that negatively affected smaller breweries from gaining any momentum.  These laws denied a brewery a license to produce alcoholic beverages unless they were producing 2 million liters per year.  In 1994, these laws were relaxed and now Japan is home to over 200 microbreweries (much to Kenny's joy).  We have found a local watering hole just down the street from us who rotates microbrews it offers on tap and bottle, so needless to say, pretty much every date night we spend some time at this place. :)

Due to this new found treasure of Kenny's, it has also exposed to me some of the other popular types of alcohol in Japan.  Between the bartenders fairly good English, and my very limited Japanese, we discovered (and he was appalled), that I had not heard of, or tried Shochu before.   I had thought all along that Sake was the most popular liquor in Japan, but it turns out that Shochu is considered the national spirit of Japan and has outsold sake in the past decade.  They call it Japanese whisky.  Honestly, it really tastes quite a bit like sake.  However, while Shochu is a distilled spirit, sake is actually brewed (even though it is described as rice wine) and is more like rice beer than rice wine.  Shochu appears to be distilled in a similar fashion as vodka, and can utilize a variety of raw materials such as barley, rice or sweet potatoes.  Needless to say, despite the bartenders continued samples of each kind of Shochu - it must be an aquired taste that I don't have. :)

Moving on....  The day after the typhoon was a beautiful one, and I set out to attempt a hike up a nearby (small) mountain to a park with views of Mt. Fuji.  Up until this point, the weather has been slightly unbearable (humid, hot), and therefore hazy, so views of Mt. Fuji would have been impossible.  However, this day was amazing and the view was spectacular.  To get to this point however, I had to climb quite a hill through a very narrow, steep and overgrown path.  It was about 1/2 mile, I'm guessing, and I pretty much ran the entire way because I was deathly afraid of coming across a snake.  Luckily, I didn't.  :)  Here are some pictures of the hike, the beach, and the VIEW! :)

On extremely clear days, you can see Mt. Fuji from our beach :)

Some other random sites on my adventure:  The Koyoji Temple and Hototogisu Monument.  

 From what I have discovered (and the information is limited, so it might be wrong), the monument was placed in the 1930's, praising the novel "Hototogisu" written by auther Tokutomi in 1898.  Apparently, the novel depicts the victimization of women (especially young brides) during that time period.  Elderly Japanese women apparently can still recite the novel's heroine lament over the burdens of her gender: "Aa tsurai! tsurai! Mo - mo - mo onna nanzo ni - umarewashimasengo" ("It's more than I can bear, It's more than I can bear.  I'll never, never, never be born a woman again.")

Back to my favorite thing in Japan: FOOD!  Some dessert pictures/descriptions, first is MOCHI:

Mochi is... well... interesting, to say the least.  It reminds me of eating raw dough, but not necessarily in a good way.  These treats can be found year-round, but are mostly commonly served around the New Year.  It is a Japanese rice cake made of mochigome - which is a short-grain, glutinous rice. The rice is soaked overnight and then cooked.  Then, it is pounded repeatedly with wooden mallets.  I think there is more modern equipment that does this these days, but below is a video of the classic technique.  I don't think you necessary have to move this fast either - but these guys are good. :)

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Mochi can be used to make many different varieties of sweets.  In my picture, the brown one on the left is called a daifuku, which is a soft mochi filled with red or white bean paste.  The one on the right is mochi made from a flour of sweet rice - mixed with water to make a opaque mass that is cooked until elastic and slightly transparent.  There is also mochi ice cream, which I have not yet tried. 

The other dessert is Taiyaki (which means baked sea bream), and is a fish shaped cake:

It is made using pancake or waffle batter, and I have seen them sold crispy like a cookie, or soft like a cake (which I prefer).  You can put anything inside - bean paste, custard, chocolate, sweet potato, sausage or gyoza filling.  The most common is red bean paste.  This paste finds its way into everything.  I'm developing a taste for it, but it is definitely different. It is basically Azuki beans (red beans), that are boiled and mashed, adding sugar or honey for sweetness.  



It comes in a variety of consistencies - I find the smoother, the better.  Mmmmm, red bean paste.  Haha :)

To close, I had a great day today as I got to go stand up paddleboarding!  So much fun.  A friend of mine and I went (although it turns out they wouldn't rent to her since she is pregnant, bummer), but she lounged on the beach and took pictures while I SUP'ed around the area and even rode a few waves in on the board (on my knees!).  If I wasn't hooked before on this sport, I really am now and since we live so close to the beach, we are going to look into getting one. ;)

Until next time - sayounara! 

Cribs - Japan Style

Yeaaaaaa, we have internet!  Yeaaaaaa, we moved into our house!  Booooooo, we are still using government issued furniture and our stuff won't be here until for another few weeks.  LOL.

Now that we are moved off base and into our new house, the anticipation is killing me as to when our own stuff will arrive.  I'm already bored of the plain white walls and boring government furniture and can't wait to decorate up the house with all our belongings. :)

But, the great news is, we love the house!  As I mentioned, we are living in Zushi, a quiet little beach resort town about 20-25 minutes from base.  We have been having fun exploring the neighborhood and going shopping for some essentials to hold us until our stuff gets here, as well as some new things that were needed in the house.  Now that we have been cooking more, I have been able to shop at the local markets - and the produce and fish/meat is exceptional, and at fairly reasonable prices too.  It has been fun to try new things out - and try to order how many kilos of meat/fish you want! 

Without further ado - here is the official house tour (B.S. - before stuff!)  :)

It was built in 2006, which is very new for Japan, and you can definitely tell when you walk up and down the streets of our neighborhood.  As you will notice from the pictures, the houses are crammed into each other, so it is rare to find a new build.   Only 25% of Japan is livable land, so with a population of 127 million living in an area equivalent of 1/4 the size of California - you know you are going to be close the people around you.   And thus, because of this, most of the land is already used up for housing, so it is very rare to see a new house being built; or new communities popping up around town.  

Alright - moving on: 

Our lovely entrance way.  HUGE closets that I am using for my very expansive shoe collection.  Most Japanese houses have large closets like this in the entrance way, because they do take their shoes off and leave them there, putting on slippers or going barefoot/socks in the house.  It is actually written into the lease that we are not allowed to wear shoes in the house.  

The living/dining room area.  Which is currently also our bedroom.  The Navy would not move a queen size bed up the staircase, so until our own bed gets here and they hoist it up over the balcony, we are basically living in a studio apartment.  :)  And yes, the car parking is so close to the house if you forgot something in the car, you can open the sliding door and reach it without even going outside. ;)  The entire house is hardwood flooring, expect the kitchen and baths which are tile.   The hardwood they use here however, is incredibly soft and even if you drop the littlest thing, it will often make a dent or a mark.  We have to have coasters put under all the furniture so it doesn't make dents. 

The kitchen!  I love how bright it is - I feel like most of the apartments I have lived in, the kitchen is always the darkest room.  Not much counter or cabinet space though - so we bought the shelving unit on the wall by the fridge.  We are going to try out the open cabinet style and see how we like it - maybe it will make an appearance in our future dream kitchen (yes, I watch too much HGTV).  

Now, I have to say - it is a luxury to have this next item in a kitchen in Japan.  I am extremely lucky to have found it.

A DISHWASHER!!  Hard to find in Japan.  And I hate doing dishes.  Thanks for volunteering, Kenny! :)

Japan takes recycling to a whole new level.  Maybe it's just because I didn't recycle at all in the States (except in Michigan, where you could get your 10 cent deposit back), but we need to have FIVE garbage cans to separate everything.  There is trash pick-up every single day of the week.  And, if you don't separate things correctly, your trash gets put back on your doorstep.  We have survived a full week, and no bags returned yet - phew! :)  Here is part of the recycling instruction sheet:

Another thing that is different is that you turn off/on the hot water when you need it.  There is a controller in the kitchen that controls the kitchen and bathroom sink and one in the shower room that controls the shower and bath.  You can adjust how hot you want the water, you can put it on a timer, or just about anything else.  I'm not sure why they have this - my thought is that with so many earthquakes, the less active gas fuses the better.? 

Onto the bathroom - one of the main difference between American and Japanese houses.  The 3 main parts of the bathroom (shower/tub, sink, toilet), are in 3 separate rooms.

The first room is the shower room.  You don't shower in the tub.  You stand next to the tub and shower.  I don't know why, but the first time I used this, I was cracking up laughing the entire time because it was just so funny to me that I was standing in a room that could easily hold 5 people, showering - with a bathtub next to me.  The tub is actually a circulation bathtub - it fills up with water at a certain temperature, and will keep it at that temperature all day if you want it to.  Standard practice here is that the whole family will all share one bathtub of water.   You place a cover over the bathtub, and then shower and cleanse yourself.   Then you get the tub and enjoy a soak.  Then, the next person goes.  For everyone coming to visit us - the visitor does get first crack at the tub ;)  

The toilet room is not even connected to the other parts of the bathroom.  Notice the spout on the top of the toilet?  After you flush, the water that is going to refill the tank comes out of the spout and that is how you wash your hands.  Talk about water conservation.   The Japanese toilet has to be why some people call the toilet a throne.  This is the controller box for the toilet:

You can wash yourself anyplace you like, adjusting the temperature of the water that is washing you and the pressure of the water.  You can control how warm the seat is, and you can make the toilet make flushing noises if you want to cover up other noises that might be going on in the bathroom.  ;)  Fancy. 

Speaking of fancy, everything electronic in the house is powered by a talking remote control, such as the ones below for the main level A/C unit and the hot water.  Our real estate agent had to draw us lots of maps so we know how to control everything.

Okay, going upstairs - the winding staircase:

3 Bedrooms:

1st bedroom - The guest bedroom

2nd Bedroom - Workout/Office Room

3rd bedroom:  Master Bedroom

And - possibly my favorite feature of the house:

The walk-in closet!  :)

Probably my other favorite feature:

Typical yard in Japan:

Probably a good thing our backyard is rocks.  I hate yardwork almost as much as washing dishes and I don't think Kenny is fond of it either.  

So, that's our house!  I will post some A.S. pictures when we get our stuff (After Stuff).  A few more pictures to close this blog post.  

First, this is our street.  It is 2 way traffic.  It's fun.  There are also lots of telephone poles on corners that make turning very entertaining.  Kenny already scratched my car.  Good thing he has his own now which already has a lot of scratches so we won't notice any new ones. :)

Everyone loves McDonald's.  This is a line out the door on a Friday night.  Apparently, they do have some interesting options such as a teriyaki shrimp burger which I might have to try.  

And my latest vending machine find:

Beer anyone?  Why not, it is so convenient.

There are some fun festivals going on this weekend around town that we are planning on going to - more posts later! 

Tokyo Part 2

2nd day in Tokyo!  

We got up early to visit the Tsukiji Fish Market (Tokyo Central Wholesale Market), which is the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world.  Open 6 days a week from 5a-10a, 15,000 restaurateurs and food sellers buy 450 types of sea produce from 1,700 different stalls.  We were tired from the day before, so we didn't get there at 4:30am to be able to watch the tuna auctions, which apparently are the best attraction.  Our experience of Japan so far is that people are very courteous - except at the fish market.  There are carts and trucks and wheelbarrows who don't stop for pedestrians cruising through the entire place and you are also likely to get fish guts splattered on you as you are walking through.  Understandably of course, as everyone there is working on a deadline for their livelihood.  We are lucky that they allow visitors in at all.   

Sea Urchin - pretty sure

Fish Roe (eggs)

Despite the fact that we missed the tuna auction, we ran into quite a few very large tuna and tuna remains throughout the market. 

If all those dead fish turned off - or on - your appetite, the market area is probably the best place to get some of the freshest sushi around (go figure).  We waited in a very long line to eat at what is considered to be the best in the area.  I had the yellowtail and fatty tuna, and Kenny surprised me again by getting the special (red tuna, prawn, crab and roe).  Although neither he nor I ate much of the roe.  Best sushi yet. 

Waiting for sushi

Around the market are hundreds and hundreds of vendors selling everything from cured fish, vegetables, drinks, tea, Japanese pottery, really expensive sushi knives and everything in-between.  Fun to walk around and look at everything for sale.

After we had our fill of fish, we made our way to the last stop on our Tokyo tour.  The Imperial Palace - home of the Emperor and his family.  Unfortunately, the main grounds are closed on Mondays, but you can still get good views of the palace and some gardens.  The grounds were initially developed as early as 1590, however much was bombed in WWII, so the Imperial Palace as it stands now was re-built following the war.  The emperor opens the doors of his house to the public on New Years Day and his birthday (December 23rd).  The double-arched stone bridge seen in the foreground of the palace is called the Nijubashi, constructed in 1888.

The grounds and gardens are also quite impressive from what I could see from the gates.  I am excited to get back and walk the grounds further.  Although tranquil and beautiful now, the areas around the palace have been the place of shelter for victims of the 1923 earthquake, ritual suicide of many Japanese war officers in 1945, and of violent protests in the 1950's and '60's.  

That's all for now!  We move into our house at the end of this week, which I am very excited about, however it means no internet for 1-2 weeks.  Boooooo to that.  Look for pictures of the house soon!