How far does your yen go?

To give you an idea of what I'm buying at grocery stores and the cost of food, here is the result of today's shopping trip:

7.5 grams cinnamon: ¥113








2 liters of mikan flavored drink: ¥168
Mikan refer to all native oranges, but mostly to mandarin oranges.








1 can ume flavored Chuhai: ¥108
Chuhai is an alchoholic beverage. Ume are often referred as plums, but are actually related to apricots.







15 ready-to-cook gyoza: ¥145








1 can loquats: ¥98








1 bottle (.5 liter) Aquarius: ¥ 98

Most sodas and such in .5 liter bottles are ¥98 in stores, and ¥120-150 from vending machines. They are about the size of a 16 ounce soda bottle.

Aquarius is like Pocari Sweat: not too sweet, no describable flavor. It's made by Coca-Cola.

3 cucumbers: ¥100
These are thinner than in the US.





1 Kiwi: ¥128







1 Onion: ¥39








1 piece of salmon: ¥250








Garbage bags for burnable trash (10): ¥130
You have to buy these to put out burnable trash.





4 pieces of fried fish from the deli: ¥ 218








1/4 Hokusai cabbage: ¥99











10 eggs, size M: ¥198








3 Myoga: ¥99
(similar to ginger-- I haven't tried them yet)






1 pack of fresh shiitake mushrooms: ¥158
This is probably the best deal, compared to the US.





Grand total: ¥2,149 = $20.01 US.

I'll put the salmon, myoga, some shiitake, some onion and some hokusai in the rice cooker with some rice to make dinner tonight. The rest of the hokusai will probably end up in a stir fry, or okonomiyaki. Yum!

This weekend's trip

This weekend's trip was to Shinjuku -- another section of Tokyo.

I had been to the Maruzen store by Tokyo station, which has a large foreign language (English and other languages) section. The Kinokuniya store in Shinjuku also has a large foreign language section. There is also a Tokyu Hands store -- it has all kinds of household things.

Unfortunately, it was very cloudy, so the pictures aren't the best. But it didn't rain, so that's OK.

The first place I went was the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. There is a tourist information office there. I found one sheet guides to the different sections of Tokyo. They appear to have better maps for free than the guidebooks that I spent good money for.

The main reason to go here, though, was the view. You can go to the 45th floor for a view of the city. It's a very fast elevator. I think it went up to the 45th floor faster than the elevator where I used to work went to the third! Had the weather been better, the view would be better as well. But the price is right, so I'll try to go there again before my year is up. Meanwhile, here are some pics for you!

Here are some pictures of the building from the ground. There are two towers, connected at the bottom.




























Here are people in the other tower looking out.







You can see I don't have a filter to eliminate window reflections, but here is the view.




Here is the other tower.

















Here's another view. You can see that there is some greenery here...















This was taken from the ground. I don't know what building this is, but I think it looks cool.














After that, I went to find Tokyu Hands and Kinokuniya. The first thing I found out about Shinjuku station is that you can't get from the east and west exits directly to the south exit. The west exit took me to the Tokyo Metropolitan building, but I wanted the new south exit to get to the Takashimaya Times Square, where the stores are.

At one point, I found a McDonald's and thought that would be a good place for lunch and trying to find out where I was in relationship to where I wanted to be. It was noon, so it was very crowded. But a bacon lettuce burger is very good! I figured I was on the north west side of the station -- and I wanted to be on the southeast station. I did finally find Takashimaya Times Square.

The Krispy Kreme in Appleton may have closed, but here's one in Shinjuku!





















Here is a promenade outside Takashimaya Times Square, where Tokyu Hands and Kinokuniya (and Takashimaya department store) are located.

There was a slight earthquake while I wrote this. A little rattling, but not much.

Holy Mackerel!

It's what's for dinner!

If you remember, I bought a book that tells how to clean fish that comes closer to a natural state than I'm used to. I had eaten mackerel (鯖 saba) in miso sauce at school and it was pretty good. So Sunday, I decided to try to make it myself.

The recipe was for four people and called for one mackerel. The smallest portion I found at the store was a half of one. As you can see, that's ¥198 , or $1.83 US. I had to cut off some fin, but at least the head and innards were gone!

Here it is cooking. There is a paper lid in there to keep it from getting jostled around and breaking up while simmering. They are used a lot here, but you can also use parchment paper. For less delicate foods, they have drop lids made of wood that fit into the pan and sit on top of the food. This keeps the food under the liquid, and also keeps it from jostling around too much.

Here is the result. The recipe said that one-quarter fish should be one serving, so I planned to save half for the next day. But I really liked it, and had read that mackerel should be eaten on the same day you buy it. So I was a pigasaurus and ate the other two pieces, too!

That's convenient!

Earlier in my stay, I was trying to find boxes for sale to use to mail things home. In the US, they are easily found with all the other mailing supplies at Wal-Mart. But I couldn't find any here.

Finally, I figured out why: they are offered for free at grocery stores. If you look at the front of the store by the check-outs, there will be a good supply of boxes available. Just come in and take what you need!

Also, you'd think it would be hard to sell purse-sized packets of kleenex here, although I have seen them for sale. They are offered for free with advertising on them. I haven't seen anyone around here handing them out, but I've seen it in larger cities.

What I Was Doing During the Earthquake

I was having a lot better time than the folks in Iwate prefecture, that's for sure! I was on a train at the time of the earthquake, so I didn't even feel it. Had I been in my apartment, I would have felt it.

I went to Mt. Mitake (御岳山) in Chichibu Tama Kai national park. It's actually in the part of the park that is part of Tokyo, but you wouldn't know it to look at it!

Here is a map of Japan. The northeast marker is my apartment. The southwest marker is Mt. Mitake. If you enlarge the map, you will see Morioka further north. The epicenter of the earthquake was in the soutwest corner of Iwate prefecture, which is the prefecture that Morioka is in.

It took me over four hours to get there. I went by train from Karasuyama to Mitake town. Here is the train from Ome to Mitake. You can tell which side is the scenic one!

Then I took a bus to the cable car, a cable car to the lift, and more steps from the lift to the shrine.

Here are pictures of the cable car. It starts at 828 meters. Rob will remember cable cars.

Here is a picture of the lift seats. Nothing keeps you on except your own good sense.




The view from the mountain was great! On a clear day (not yesterday) you can see Tokyo tower and Mt. Fuji, if you know where to look.









Finally, here is the shrine. Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples coexist nicely in Japan. Often, they are right next to each other. Most people are both Shinto and Buddhist. Shinto ceremonies include weddings (although many people who are not Christian get married at churches or at chapels) and Buddhist ceremonies include funerals.


A nice man took my picture for me. I'm dressed for hiking!


After looking at the shrine I went hiking, looking for one of two waterfalls. I went to the less impressive one because it was closer. I was concerned about catching trains since I'd missed my connection at Shinjuku station. It's the busiest train station in the world in terms of passengers, so I don't feel too badly. Still, I didn't want to get stuck in Hoshakuji with no way to get to Karasuyama. So I went down this trail quickly. And down, and down some more.

I really paid for it when it came time to go back up! And I don't know if I didn't go far enough (the map said 15 minutes) or the water was low, but there wasn't much of a waterfall.


Still, it's a very nice park. If I went again, I'd arrange to stay overnight in Tokyo before and after, so I wouldn't have to rush.







I got back to Shinjuku earlier than I thought I would, so I tried to find Kinokuniya Bookstore. I couldn't find it quickly, and really just wanted to rest so I went back to Karasuyama. So, Shinjuku will be another trip!










Usually, I would have stopped for gyoza and a beer in Utsunomiya. The train from Shinjuku to Omiya was so crowded that they'd have to push another person in. When I could finally sit down on the train, I slept a bit.

Sorry about the sloppy formatting -- the pictures made it hard to get the paragraphs to fit in neatly.

Dealing with Rainy Season

Japan, or at least this part of it, is much more humid and rainy than Wisconsin. But rainy season has started, and it's even more humid and rainy now. Since I do my laundry at the laundromat and hang my clothes out on my veranda to dry, this is a problem. Of course, I could just spend the money and dry my clothes at the laundromat as well.

But I decided to buy a rack to use indoors for when it's either raining, or I run out of hanging space on the veranda. I have both a rope and a pole, but if I want to air out a blanket or wash a sheet, I run out of room quickly. So, here is a picture of my clothes drying rack. For anyone new to the blog, I did not pick out the tarp blue curtains! If you look closely, you can see how narrow the veranda is.

Japan has a lot of handy gizmos for hanging out laundry. This is because most people don't have dryers, due to lack of space and high energy costs.

I also got a handy gadget that hangs from a doorway. You can either hang a pole between two of them, or hang something from one of them. The blue thing is for hanging several small items, like socks or underwear.

Yesterday was a rare sunny day, so I got a lot of laundry done. Today was cool and humid all day. As I walked home, I heard a few thunder-boomers. This grew into a loud thunderstorm, with lots of rain. I guess I timed my walk home just right!!

I thought it was just me, thinking that it was cloudy an awful lot here. But in my book about Japanese food, I read that milk is not fortified with vitamin D. The lack of it in the diet and lack of sunshine in some areas can cause a deficiency, especially in children. Lucky for me, my hubby sent me a giant bottle of multiple vitamins!

Another Adventure

This weekend, I went on an overnight trip to Tokyo. I had no classes on Friday, so the school let me have a vacation day.

Friday morning I got on the first train (5:38) from Karasuyama station. I took the local train all the way to Tokyo. Due to the timing of transfers, it wasn't much slower than the Shinkansen, and cost only ¥2520, compared to around ¥5000 for taking the Shinkansen from Utsunomiya to Tokyo. There was a quick layover in Utsunomiya, so I bought my ticket the day before. It was an early morning on a workday, so it got kind of crowded. Luckily, I'd gotten a seat when I got on at Utsunomiya. The route was: Karasuyama to Hoshakuji to Utsunomiya to Ueno, then to Tokyo.


The Marunouchi side of Tokyo station has a brick facade from the original, built in 1914. It was rebuilt after WWII to two stories instead of the original three, and without the original glass domes. It's currently being restored, so up close it looks like a construction site. Here is what it looks like further away. The other side (Yaesu side) looks like a modern building. I hope to get to see it after it's been restored -- I kind of like Meiji era buildings although technically, this is not since the Meiji era ended in 1912. It's supposed to be done in 2013.

At Tokyo station, I bought a Suica card. This is an IC card that you can store money on. Then, instead of buying train tickets, you just touch it to the sensor at the gate. You can also use it to shop at kiosks and stores at the station. It won't work the subways or on the Karasuyama line, but I can use it from Utsunomiya to Tokyo. And I can use it in Nagoya later as well.

My first stop at Tokyo, was Maruzen bookstore. It's a quick walk from the station, and has what has been called "one of the largest foreign language selections in Tokyo". My intent was to buy a guidebook for Tokyo. BUT, I found several other books including one called A Guide to Food Buying in Japan, which should help me figure out what's what at the supermarket. I also found some small cookbooks, one with instructions on how to deal with whole fish. I haven't cleaned a fish since I went fishing as a child. I also found a book on Tadao Ando, and architect from Osaka. About $150 later, I left the store. And rather than schlep a bag of books around, I found a coin locker to keep them in. Train and subway stations of any size (not Karasuyama) have them. It cost ¥300, but my back arms and hands were happy to pay. I did that anytime I left a station for sightseeing during my trip. As long as I can remember where the locker was, I'm fine!

My next stop was the Imperial Palace, which is also near the station. You can't actually get anywhere near the palace, but there is a nice park there. While walking around, it hit me -- OMG, I'm in Tokyo!

There is a statue of Kusunoki Masashige. He tried to regain power for the emperor from the shogunate in the 14th century. The emperor insisted on a pitched battle, over Kusunoki's better plans. Being a samurai, he obeyed. The results were predictable, and the shogunate was in power until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. There were schoolgirls there, taking turns taking pictures of friends by the statue. I asked if I could take a picture of all of them using their cameras, and they were very happy! I don't know about anyone else but I'd never let someone do that with my camera outside Japan, because "Can I take your picture?" could translate to "Can I take your camera?". But here, it's an easy way to make a group of people happy.

Then I went back to Tokyo station and took the Yamanote subway line to Akihabara. I found Yodobashi Camera and spent three hours in Gadget Girl heaven! Sadly, I found that it would be cheaper for Rob to buy the camera I wanted and mail it to me. (Ditto an updated iPod.) Plus, the Japanese version doesn't have English menus. Oh, sure, they have that in the international duty-free section. But they have only the more expensive models and they are more expensive than the ordinary price there too. Plus, I think you have to be on a tourist visa to get them duty free anyway! I ended up buying phone decorations (I found just the right ones for Karen!) and finding booklets on laptops to drool over later. Of course, if we should win the lottery in the near future, I'm back here so fast ears will spin!

Then, it's off to find my capsule hotel. It's ¥4000 a night. I found a bed that is less padded than my setup, and the capsule doesn't have a door!! I knew they had a rolldown screen for privacy, but I thought that was inside a door!! This is a capsule hotel that has floors for women -- not all of them allow women. Yes, Mom, you'd be claustrophobic; and no, Dad, I don't think you'd be comfortable at all. You get a small locker to keep your stuff. And not much more room for you! Next time I stay overnight in Tokyo, I will spend a little more and stay at a cheap hotel. But, it was interesting anyway-- I can check "stay at a capsule hotel" off my list of things to do. And the staff were nice. And if you're traveling alone on a shoestring, a capsule hotel will give you a bit more privacy than a youth hostel. Like much of life, you get what you pay for.

I found a place called the "Tokyo Anime Center", but it was really just a small gift shop. In the same building though, I found d a place that had a burger with a nice, thick onion slice on it. That and a beer hit the spot after all the walking I'd done.

The next morning, I checked out and went to Ueno to take the subway to Asakusa. As I went to the Ginza line in Ueno, I saw they had a Yodobashi Camera there as well! At Asakusa, I visited Sensoji temple. In front of the temple is Nakamise street. Here there are all sorts of shops selling stuff to tourists. After wandering around here, I went back to Ueno station. At the Yodobashi camera there, I found a 4GB card for my camera.

Then it was back to Nasukarasuyama. I managed to get on an express train on the way back -- better seats and faster, since it doesn't stop at every station. At Utsunomiya, I made a late lunch of gyoza, miso soup and beer. I got the gaijin treatment from the waitress: Do you know how to use chopsticks? Here is a menu, just point to the pictures, Your Japanese is very good, etc. The gyoza were very good. I'll definitely take more trips to Tokyo. I've only scratched the surface!

BTW, as I'm writing this, I have my windows open and hear someone playing koto or shamisen. I think the lady that runs the laundromat nearest my apartment also teaches music.


And it's actually sunny! Yay!

Sports Day

The Sports Day at the school was Sunday. At least when I went to school, there was nothing like this in American schools.

First of all, all the students participate. Also, the parents come to watch. Lastly, there are no individual events.

Events include relay races, tug-of-war, and several events I'd never seen.

This is like a gunny sack race, except the students have their legs attached by rope. They have to move in step, or they move very slowly or fall over!














Here all the students on the team link arms and race.














In this event, several large bambboo poles are placed in the center of the field, with competing teams on each side. Each team tries to get as many poles dragged or carried over to their side. If you grab a pole that nobody else has, you just take it to your side. If someone from the other side grabs it too, it becomes a tug-of-war.














Here, a team's flag is stuck on the end of a heavy pole. Part of the team stays to hold the pole upright, while part of the team goes to the other team's pole and tries to get their flag.

Reminds me of Eddie Izzard's "Do you have a flag?" routine!

It also seems like something that would make an American school's lawyer cringe at the thought of possible liability...














Here's another one that had liability written all over it. Four boys hold up a fifth boy, and they grapple.














The teachers that I talked to seemed surprised when I told them that we didn't have anything like this in American Schools.