More Food

Today was supposed to be the sports festival at the school. But it rained, so it's rescheduled for tomorrow. So, I went to Bell Mall in Utsunomiya. I need to get new clothes. Between not eating as much as I used to, and walking more, I've lost inches and my clothes are looser. I don't know (or care) if I've lost weight since I don't have a scale.

There is a restaurant chain called Freshness Burger and there is one in the mall. There's also one by the Tobu station. Like many restaurants in Japan, this one helpfully had the menu posted outside. I saw something I just had to have -- a Spam burger! Yes! A slice of spam, lettuce, tomato and a fried egg on a bun. My arteries hardened in delight just looking at the thing. And it was as good as you'd think it would be! It reminded me of the Spam sandwiches my dad used to make for me.

A lime soda went with it nicely. It was sufficiently unsweetened that a little syrup pack was brought with it. It's a clear syrup, and is about the size of a creamer that would come with coffee. It seems to be the way that sweeteners are offered in restaurants here.

On the table was the best "No Smoking" sign I've seen in a while. I'm so used to the smoking bans in various Wisconsin cities that I'm taken aback when I go to a restaurant and am asked if I want smoking or non. Although not as smoke-free as the US, the trend here is toward more smoke-free areas, which for me is just fine.

Food

I've been eating a lot of stuff from the deli at the local grocery stores. Tonight, I decided it was time to start cooking again. I had found some okonomiyaki mix, so that's what I made.

Okonomiyaki is also called "Japanese Pizza". That's something of a misnomer. There is pizza in Japan, which is different from both okonomiyaki and American pizza. Japanese pizza topping options include seafood and corn, along with the sort of things American would expect to find on pizza.


Okonomiyaki (Okonomi means "as you like" and yaki means "grilled") is more like a savory pancake, with stuff in the batter. Usually the batter has dashi in it, which is a broth made from dried bonito. Since I used a mix for the batter, I just added an egg and water. Okonomiyaki also usually has cabbage, and whatever else you like. I make it with shrimp, bacon and onion if I have it. Then I put okonomiyaki sauce and furikake (small bits of nori and sesame seeds) on top. Mayonnaise is often used as a topping as well.

Tonight, I also had a very small beer -- 135 ml. It's not enough to get you in trouble in Wisconsin, but here the limit for driving is 0%, so even this tiny beer is off-limits if you intend to drive.

Daylight Saving Time

It finally occurred to me why I am waking up a 4:30 every morning -- that's when the sun comes up. And it starts getting dark rather early in the evening.

Today I figured out why. I read an article on www.japundit.com that Japan is considering using daylight saving time. Which means they aren't using it here now. I guess I knew that, since I went from being 15 hours ahead of home to 14.

I wish Japan would use DST. My curtains aren't completely opaque, and I could use an extra hour of sunlight for drying clothes when I do laundry after work, and for riding my bike when I go shopping.

Red Ink

Many of you will remember news stories from a while back, about teachers using colors other than red to correct papers because too much red was traumatic.

Well, here it's a good thing. That's because the teacher is supposed to mark everything that's right (with a circle) along with everything that's wrong (with an X).

It took me awhile to get used to that. I knew about the X (batsu) and circle (maru), but I'm used to teachers only marking the things that are wrong. So now I draw circles all over students' papers too!

Sanrio, the folks that brought us Hello Kitty, have a character called Badtz-Maru (XO). He's a penguin with an attitude. You can't get as many things with Badtz-Maru on them as you can with Hello Kitty, of course.

Two Months!

As of yesterday, I've been in Japan for 2 months! That's longest stay I've ever had. My previous combined total was about 3 months.

I've learned that AccuWeather.com isn't very accuarate. Right now, the site says it's partly sunny here. I hear thunder and rain, and no sun at all. My friend told me that there are a lot of strong thunderstorms here in the summer. They blow through in about half an hour though, and cool things down. I glad I got home before it really started raining, and now I see hail!

I felt another small and very short earthquake early this morning.

I've also discovered the "dry" feature on my heater/air-conditioner. It's just a dehumidifier, but it really makes the room feel cooler. Hopefully, it's doing that without using the same energy as air-conditioning. I'll use it a lot, as it is NOT a dry heat here. (Unlike Arid-zona!)

I have a fan...

No, not the kind that sends adoring letters and asks for autographs!

Summer is definitely here. Your Japanese word for the day is "mushiatsui", which means "hot and muggy".

The (apparently) unheated school is also un-air-conditioned. It was 26˚ when I left work today so when I got home today, I was slightly wilted. My apartment has a heater/fan/air-conditioner, but it just blows air straight across the room. So, I decided to buy a fan.

I had to go to the ward office to pay my medical insurance -- ¥3900 for 3 months, I think. It's far enough away that I rode my bike. When I was done, I didn't want to ride back to my apartment, then walk to Sun House (a housewares store, with a small grocery section), where I planned to buy the fan. So I rode there.

I thought I'd get a bag with the fan, but I didn't. I was wondering how I was going to take the box home on my bike when a man came up to me and, from what I understood, told me I needed some rope to tie the box to the rack on my bike.

I agreed and left the box on my bike and went back into the store with him. I wouldn't leave anything unattended like that back home.

He seemed to think there would be some extra laying around the store, from their unpacking. We checked, but couldn't see any. So I went over by the bikes, and found a 2 meter long bungee cord. He made sure I didn't buy the expensive one -- ¥268 instead of ¥120. Then he helped me strap the box to my bike.

I successfully assembled my fan, and now I'm cool!

Earthquake

There was another little earthquake off the coast of Ibaraki prefecture this evening, and I felt it. One or two small shakes, that's it.

Little House on the.....

Sunday, my friend came to take me around to do some sight-seeing.

Along the way, we stopped at several farmers markets. There were always lots of strawberries, a local specialty. There were no nice looking tomatoes yet. But there were some veggies that I had never seen before! Too bad I'd just bought a cucumber, as the prices were better at the farmers markets.

We went to look at some old farm houses. One had been moved, so there were two of them right next to each other. They have high thatched roofs. They look like they would be comfortable in summer--they were shady and you could open them up to let a good breeze in. But it looks like you wouldn't be able to heat them very well. Of course, you probably had animals inside as well.


Now, came the surprise! My friend had seen a newspaper article about a man who loved the "Little House on the Prairie" books so much that he'd built a log cabin. When we got there, my friend introduced me as from Wisconsin, and his face just lit up! He'd been to Wisconsin to study dairy farming, and was actually a dairy farmer! We went up to see the log cabin, and here it is:


After we saw the cabin, we saw his ponies -- before they ran back to the pasture. We went back to the place by the road (I'm not sure if that's their house or not.) and had some fresh milk! His wife also knits!!

I'm going back there on Saturday. Too bad I don't have my own car, as it's out in the country.

A Hiking Trail

My friend told me about a nearby hiking trail, so I went there yesterday. Like much of Japan, steps were involved.














Lots of them.




I finally got to a spot with a bit of a view:














Then I went up some more steps, to the top and went up a metal tower.



















Here is the view from there:
The big, flat, white building toward the left is Beisie.

A Kindly and Friendly Food Store

Here is a picture of the nearest grocery store.

Oya Kannon

Friday was Sports Day at my school. Since most of the activities would be at other locations, I was offered a day off. 　I'll work on materials for my classes this weekend -- I have to do 3 communication lessons for one of the 2nd year classes. One lesson will on body parts.

So, Friday the weather was nice so I went to Utsunomiya to find the Oya Kannon. It's a 30 minute bus ride from the JR Utsunomiya station. (There is a Tobu Utsunomiya station as well as a Japan Rail Utsunomiya station -- two different rail companies).

When I got close, I just followed the sound of lots of kids -- there was a group of elementary school kids on a trip there.

Basically, it's what you'd expect -- a large Kannon statue carved from oya stone. Kannon is the Japanese version of the Chinese goddess Kwan Yin, who is the Chinese version of the Boddhisatva Avalokiteshvara. Oya stone is the material that Frank Lloyd Wright made the original Imperial Hotel from.

You can see the stairs that take you up behind her head in the picture.

There is also a temple, and some very old reliefs carved in the stone. You're not allowed to photograph them, though. They are enclosed in the part of the building to the left in the picture. Stone carving are pretty unusual in Japan. Usually statues are made of wood or metal.

You meet the nicest people

The nicest thing happened last evening.

I was working on putting the pictures from my Osaka trip on CD's. I need to rename each, because when they are saved, the date they were taken is lost. So I include it in the new name. And I took a lot of pictures.

At one point, my stomach growled, and I thought, "I'll finish these next few, then fix dinner."

Before I could do that, my doorbell rang. It was a woman that I had met with hot soup and a rice dish for me to eat!! She couldn't stick around, but had come over to give me some food! And it was really good, too. There were fresh bamboo sprouts in the rice dish. The canned variety that we get is an entirely different thing.

I spent last Sunday afternoonwith her, and the picture is from a temple we visited.

Teaching English

I have to admit my biggest problem teaching English is keeping the level low enough. For the first year students, I am teaching phonics listening each time, in addition to the monthly theme. I teach a communication class for each class in each week.

There are 3 years, corresponding to our 7th - 9th grades. Each year has 4 classes, except the first year which has 5. Or is it the 3rd year? At any rate, there are roughly 30 students in each class, which precludes a lot of one-on-one work.

But for the first year students, I do a drill each time which involves listening to pairs of words that are different by only one sound. For example, "rate" and "late". I purposely choose sounds that are not significantly different in Japanese, but make a difference in English. Here is where my studying Japanese comes in handy. Besides r/l, there is s/th, d/th, f/h, v/b, n/ng and g/ng. Of course, the r/l pair is the most difficult. But if I can help them hear the difference, they will have a big head start in communicating in English, I think. Indirectly, I'm finally putting my Spanish phonetics course to good use!!

BTW, phonetics is one reason I've given up on learning Mandarin for now. There are varieties of "s" and "sh" that are significantly different, and I don't hear the difference. And then there is the whole tone thing. If you are inclined to study Chinese, however, Mandarin is supposed to be easier than Cantonese, which has 9 tones to Mandarin's 4 (5 if you include the neutral tone).

I still need to find a way to teach them important things such as how the Packers are a much better team than either the Vikings, the Bears or the Cowboys. Give me time....

Fish in Japan

There is a lot of fish eaten in Japan, and a visit to any grocery store will show you more varieties of fish and seafood than any store in the Fox Valley. My problem is knowing what the heck is that and what do I do with it?

I am limited to stovetop cooking at present. I have two gas burners. I thought I could fix my tilapia with lemon sauce fairly easily.

Then I started looking for tilapia. Or any white fish packaged the way I'm used to. Which is cleaned, filleted and not looking much like fish. No such luck.

It turns out that while Americans, in general, like drier white fish, the Japanese apparently like oily fish. Salmon, mackeral, etc. Which brings me to how I decided to blog on this subject: my lunch today. I had a bit of mackeral (saba 鯖）with a sweet miso sauce. Yes, it's hard to get the skin off with chopsticks, but it was a pretty good tasting piece of fish. It's scary when you want the recipe for a school lunch!

It's good for you too -- the oily fishes are the ones with the good fatty acids. So now I must find a recipe for saba, and a cleaned piece of it. I can try to remember how to fillet fish from when I used to fish as a kid, but I'd rather not. That plus I'm only cooking for one.

Earthquake

If you saw this article on Yahoo! news, I knew about it before you!

Strong quake jolts east Japan, no damage reported

Wed May 7, 2:07 PM ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.7 jolted a wide area of eastern Japan early on Thursday, including Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

There were no immediate reports of damage, although television pictures showed computer screens rocking and hanging objects swinging in a newsroom at public broadcaster NHK.

The quake, at 1:45 a.m. (12:45 p.m. EDT Wednesday), was centered around 160 km (100 miles) east of Tokyo, around 40 km (25 miles) below sea level in the Pacific Ocean, the agency and its U.S. equivalent, the U.S. Geological Survey, said.

The one around 1 am definitely woke me up. Dishes rattled here but I wasn't getting out of bed unless the shaking got worse. I have most of my things on the floor in neat stacks, so I don't have to worry about anything falling on me.

Here is a website for those of you who would like to check out seismic activity in Japan:

http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/quake_local_index.html

Children's Day

It's Children's Day here in Japan. So Happy Children's Day to all the children out there, and everyone who has managed to stay young at heart!

Fun in Osaka

I made it to Osaka!! Luckily for me, the train from Tokyo to Osaka originates in Tokyo. So it was empty when my line of people started boarding, and I got a seat.

Of course, everything is crowded because it's Golden Week. Saturday, the weather was great and we went to the Aquarium. It is a must-see!


There is a lot to see on the inside. The crab on the left reminded m of the show "Deadliest Catch", which always made me hungry for crab. Of course, after going through the aquarium, I was hungry for seafood. I haven't had any since, although I think I've been fed well enough to put on any weight I may have lost since I got here.

The aquarium is right by the harbor, and there is a reproduction of Columbus' Santa Maria. It's twice the size of the original, and they don't even hoist the sails. But we went on a nice cruise of the harbor on it. I can see how it would be very popular in the summer, as the temperature on the water was a lot cooler than on land.

Today, it's rainy, so we went to a movie. We saw Next, subtitled in Japanese. I had never heard of it before -- I think it was chosen based on language, for my benefit. I actually liked it -- the original story ("The Golden Man" by Philip K. Dick) was written by the same author who wrote the story that Bladerunner was based on. It stars Nicholas Cage. The soundtrack is by Mark Isham. There are plenty of guns, explosions and Matrix-like effects with a bit of a love story tossed in for those who need such things in movies. The only odd things I noticed is that seats are assigned when you buy a ticket; and with one or two exceptions, everyone stayed through the credits. Which were in English, so it must have been just out of politeness, not out of actually wanting the information provided. Yes, I do know that the movie was released in 2007, but I don't see a lot of movies and it's new to me.

Golden Week Part 1

I am going to Osaka tomrrow for four days. It's Golden Week, which is a string of Japanese holidays in one week. Everyone travels. I don't have a reserved seat on the Shinkansen, so this will be a challenge! I'll tell you all about it when I get back!