Tuesday, December 05, 2006
November
Mel came up to visit and we went to a 2 day music festival in Tokyo. Her friend recommended a really nice soba restaurant. I was on a mission to find nice fall scenes to photograph and found a nice area close to the music festival venue. 
Surprise Visit in Gifu!
My friend Shiho and I went to Gifu (Shiho's hometown) for the long weekend. Gifu is also where our friend Nanako lives. Nanako knew Shiho was coming but I decided to go at the last minute and to make it a surprise visit for Nanako. Shiho told Nanako that her American friend was coming to visit and brought her along to the bus stop to pick up 'the friend'. It was quite a surprise to Nanako when I got off the bus! It was a beautiful weekend and I had fun hanging out with Nanako, Shiho and her family and going to Showa Mura - an outdoor museum/attraction which shows life in Japan during the Showa period (1926-1989). A new surprise for me on this trip was that there are actually bus stops on expressways! I took the bus from Tokyo to Gifu and most of the trip was on the expressway and as we got closer to Gifu I noticed a bus stop on the expressway and I couldn't figure out how the people got there. When I got to my stop, I realized that there is a door in the barrier that leads you to a road on the other side of the highway!
September
I arrived back in Kawasaki on Sept.20 to a different Leopalace but the same school and students. On her way back from her trip to the States, Melanie stayed in Tokyo for a bit and we hung out with her friends and saw their live performance.
A Week of Lunches
Everyday at work I buy my lunch in the cafeteria and last term I came up with a challenge for myself to see what things and different combinations of things I could get for less than 400yen (about $4). I’ve posted some examples above.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Back in Ehime!
Well I finished my contract in Kawasaki last week and I'm now back in Ehime (the area of Japan I lived in before)! After a crazy stressful time trying to get here I managed to make it in one piece.
It started with me, after much effort, managing to order the overnight bus ticket from a website which was all in Japanese. The bus was from Shinjuku to Takamatsu, Kagawa(the prefecture next to Ehime). I checked the map on the website of where around Shinjuku Station the bus stop I wanted was. Since I couldn't print out the map due to lack of a printer, I jotted down the names of some buildings which it was close to. I wrote down the name of the building that the bus stop appeared to be in front of. The map was in Japanese and the building name was written in katakana (the Japanese phonetic characters commonly used for writing foreign (mostly English) words). Since katakana words usually come from English, I tried to sound out the building name slowly to try to figure out what it would be in English. In katakana it was the 'rosubaru' building. Hmm, rosu, rosu, . . . ah, rose! baru, baru, . . . ball? The roseball building? What's that?
So, anyway, when I got to Shinjuku station, I exited and went up to someone and asked "Do you know where the 'rosubaru' building is?" and he said, "You mean the 'subauru' building?" and I said, "No, the 'rosubaru' building." To which he directed my attention to the huge Subaru logo on the building across the street! I had mistakenly added an extra katakana character to what I'd jotted down>.<
The next problem was that I wasn't sure if the bus stop was directly in front of the subaru building or just in that vicinity and there were several bus stops in and around that vicinity. To make a long story short, after wandering around in circles, some, make that much panic that I wouldn't find it, and a mishap of almost leaving some of my luggage with my laptop and return ticket to Canada in it, I found the bus shortly before it was scheduled to depart. After the 12 hour overnight busride and another 5 hours on a local train, I finally made it to Ehime for a 1/4 of the cost it would've been for a plane ride.
For the most part, I stayed with Melanie in Matsuyama but also stayed with friends in other parts of Ehime. Did lots of natsukashii (nostalgic) stuff like dress up in yukata and go to a summer festival, go to the the Kamioka's up in the mountains of Hirota village for nagashi somen (flowing noodles), and go to karaoke.
It started with me, after much effort, managing to order the overnight bus ticket from a website which was all in Japanese. The bus was from Shinjuku to Takamatsu, Kagawa(the prefecture next to Ehime). I checked the map on the website of where around Shinjuku Station the bus stop I wanted was. Since I couldn't print out the map due to lack of a printer, I jotted down the names of some buildings which it was close to. I wrote down the name of the building that the bus stop appeared to be in front of. The map was in Japanese and the building name was written in katakana (the Japanese phonetic characters commonly used for writing foreign (mostly English) words). Since katakana words usually come from English, I tried to sound out the building name slowly to try to figure out what it would be in English. In katakana it was the 'rosubaru' building. Hmm, rosu, rosu, . . . ah, rose! baru, baru, . . . ball? The roseball building? What's that?
So, anyway, when I got to Shinjuku station, I exited and went up to someone and asked "Do you know where the 'rosubaru' building is?" and he said, "You mean the 'subauru' building?" and I said, "No, the 'rosubaru' building." To which he directed my attention to the huge Subaru logo on the building across the street! I had mistakenly added an extra katakana character to what I'd jotted down>.<
The next problem was that I wasn't sure if the bus stop was directly in front of the subaru building or just in that vicinity and there were several bus stops in and around that vicinity. To make a long story short, after wandering around in circles, some, make that much panic that I wouldn't find it, and a mishap of almost leaving some of my luggage with my laptop and return ticket to Canada in it, I found the bus shortly before it was scheduled to depart. After the 12 hour overnight busride and another 5 hours on a local train, I finally made it to Ehime for a 1/4 of the cost it would've been for a plane ride.
For the most part, I stayed with Melanie in Matsuyama but also stayed with friends in other parts of Ehime. Did lots of natsukashii (nostalgic) stuff like dress up in yukata and go to a summer festival, go to the the Kamioka's up in the mountains of Hirota village for nagashi somen (flowing noodles), and go to karaoke.
Nanako's visit (June 24,25)
A Japanese friend who I met in Toronto last year who was also a student at the school I was working at in Toronto came all the way from Gifu to visit me. I met Nanako and her friends on Saturday for lunch in China Town in Yokohama and after that we looked around Minato-Mirai area of Yokohama and of course did puri-kura (photo booth stickers). The next day we met up in Harajuku and went to Meji Shrine and walked around Omotesando Hills (the Rodeo Drive/Champs Elysees of Tokyo). I wanted to go to the Prada building not because I was interested in that brand but because I heard that the building itself was interesting.
Kyoto (June 9-11)
My friend Melanie, who is also really into taiko drumming, ordered tickets for a performance in Kyoto which was a collaboration of Kodo (a famous taiko group) and Tamasaburo (a famous kabuki actor). Having already seen a Kodo performance a couple of times, it was interesting to see them in a different setting. The next day Yu and Taichiro took me around an area of Kyoto called Uji. We saw an old temple - Byoudouin, which appears on the back of 10yen coins and a shrine that is famous for having tons of hydrangea flowers.
Harajuku
These pics are from the first time I went to Harajuku with my friends Clare and Michelle. Michelle had been before so she was our tour guide. On Sundays you can see teenagers dressed in elaborate costumes/fashions. Although a little embarrassed, after some coaxing from Michelle, I asked some if it was ok to take a picture together and they were happy to humour me.
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Bizarre Japanese Fashion
So today I'm wandering around Shinjuku looking in various stores and I go into this clothing store that has some cool hats and accessories on the first floor and since I was looking specifically for a new pair of shoes, I looked at the store directory and got on the elevator and pressed the button for the floor that I thought had some shoes. Little did I know, that I'd be stepping into some bizarro world when the elevator doors opened. When I stepped out of the elevator, I realized that I was on the floor for "gothic lolita" and "sweet lolita" type clothes and as I continued further I was encompassed in some freakish realm surrounded by people dressed in Alice-in-Wonderland-meets-Little-Bo-Peep outfits. Now, I've seen some versions of this fashion on the odd person (no pun intended) here and there on the streets of Tokyo but it was a whole other thing to be surrounded by it in a relatively small space and these were more extreme versions than I had seen. I was literally getting a little freaked out to the point that I felt like I had to get out of there, fast. After I made my escape, I was dying to go back in and take some pictures because words can't do it justice but I settled on photographing some posters and I managed to snap a photo of someone on the street. But these photos are kind of toned down versions of what people were actually wearing in the store. Tomorrow me and a friend are going to Harajuku so we're sure to see more "gosu-rori" as well as heaps* of other unique fashions.
*Example of British/Aussi/Kiwi English rubbing off onto me
Monday, May 29, 2006
Rice Cooker!
I'm trying to cook rice on the stove in a lidless pot no longer! I finally got a rice cooker yesterday to facilitate my efforts to try making lots of Japanese food this time. My first meal making use of the rice cooker however was a Korean dish - Bibimbap. Very yummy!
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Tradition and Convenience
This morning I finally made my way over to the pagoda that you can see in the distance from my apartment. Not as far away as it looked, it was only about a 10min walk. It's a nice little sanctuary among the otherwise semi-urban area and not another person was around - a stark contrast to the more touristy shrines and temples in Japan like the one I went to last weekend in Asakusa (blog and photos about that to come later). The pagoda is on a hill and after looking around, I came down the hill where there's a Lawson convenience store to buy lunch - onigiri (rice balls wrapped in dried seawead). Japan is a land of tradition and convenience.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Birthday Karaoke
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Back in Japan
So I'm back in Japan and this time I've decided to try and keep some documentation of my experiences and observations. I had planned on setting up a blog before I arrived but it's now been almost 3 weeks since I got here so I'll have to back track a little.
I'm back in Japan on a 3 month contract teaching English at a university in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture. It's fairly close to Tokyo. It's a lot different from my previou
s little town in Ehime on Shikoku. When I first arrived I was really missing the sights (mikan-orange covered mountains), sounds(cicadas and rice paddy-dwelling-frogs), smells (mikan blossoms, tatami) and of course friends of Ehime but I'm getting used to my new surroundings and although it may be lacking in the beautiful nature of Ehime, my students more than make up for it with their eagerness and enthusiasm. Another redeeming quality of my new residence is the fact that I get to live in an apartment building called Leopalace Twinkle:) I think it must be called Twinkle because it's practically touching the stars - you have to trek up a hill of unending stairs to get to it.
Some observations in Japan:
Although at rush hour Japanese people push and shove to fit into the trains, I noticed the other day as the train was arriving at the station and I began to step over the yellow line that not one other person stepped over the line until the train came to a complete stop.
The other day I bought one item from the 99 yen shop (99 cent shop) and payed with a 10,000 yen bill ($100 bill) without problem.
When I walked into the local Family Mart convenience store for the first time I was instantly transported back in time to my former apartment in Ehime as the chime that sounds when you enter and exit the store is the same my old doorbell.
At an Italian restaurant with some colleagues we had to go through 2 translations to interpret the menu - sounding out the names of the dishes in Japanese katakana to the actual Italian pronuciation to the English explanation.
Always read food labels closely. I bought a bag of popcorn thinking it said "bataa shio"(butter and salt) and after opening it, tasting some, and realizing the butter taste was a little off, I checked the label again and noticed it was "bataa shoyu"(butter and soy sauce)!
I'm back in Japan on a 3 month contract teaching English at a university in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture. It's fairly close to Tokyo. It's a lot different from my previou
s little town in Ehime on Shikoku. When I first arrived I was really missing the sights (mikan-orange covered mountains), sounds(cicadas and rice paddy-dwelling-frogs), smells (mikan blossoms, tatami) and of course friends of Ehime but I'm getting used to my new surroundings and although it may be lacking in the beautiful nature of Ehime, my students more than make up for it with their eagerness and enthusiasm. Another redeeming quality of my new residence is the fact that I get to live in an apartment building called Leopalace Twinkle:) I think it must be called Twinkle because it's practically touching the stars - you have to trek up a hill of unending stairs to get to it.Some observations in Japan:
Although at rush hour Japanese people push and shove to fit into the trains, I noticed the other day as the train was arriving at the station and I began to step over the yellow line that not one other person stepped over the line until the train came to a complete stop.
The other day I bought one item from the 99 yen shop (99 cent shop) and payed with a 10,000 yen bill ($100 bill) without problem.
When I walked into the local Family Mart convenience store for the first time I was instantly transported back in time to my former apartment in Ehime as the chime that sounds when you enter and exit the store is the same my old doorbell.
At an Italian restaurant with some colleagues we had to go through 2 translations to interpret the menu - sounding out the names of the dishes in Japanese katakana to the actual Italian pronuciation to the English explanation.
Always read food labels closely. I bought a bag of popcorn thinking it said "bataa shio"(butter and salt) and after opening it, tasting some, and realizing the butter taste was a little off, I checked the label again and noticed it was "bataa shoyu"(butter and soy sauce)!
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