tokyo again! i'm sensing a trend....

Aaah, Tokyo.  It's a place I'll always be amazed with every single time I go. Although I've done the touristy thing there quite a few times, the city feels so huge that I don't think I know it well enough to even recommend places for people to go. But just this past week, a couple friends from Australia visited and kinda expected me to have an idea for some places to go see. They were already planning to visit Kyoto, which is known for its traditional temples, so it seemed kinda pointless seeing any fancy temples or shrines in Tokyo if they were going to spend the next few days seeing them in a much better place. So here were the three places I came up with:

Miracle Fruits Cafe, Ikebukuro

Don't let any stories you may have heard as a kid fool you; there are magic beans. You're supposed to  swish the flavourless bean-shaped fruit around your mouth, like a lolly/candy for a few minutes, and eat it with stuff like this:

This here is lemon and other fruits in a lemon fondue sauce . Apparently the fruit has a special chemical in it that messes with your sweet/sour tastebuds. So while the above fondue tastes ridiculously sour, after having the bean, it makes regular lemon eaten by itself taste like lemonade.

Unfortunately, it's not completely miraculous. It wears out after a short while (I should've ordered two fruits) and while it makes cherry tomatoes super sweet, and regular tomatoes taste like cherry tomatoes, it still makes green juice taste like crap. Rather than getting the tester one, I should've gotten the lemon parfait.

Ninja, Akasaka

I'd been there before, so I already knew how awesome it was. Turns out, when you go again, it's still awesome! I ordered the same course I had last time, but food was still worth it. Which is saying a lot, since it's not the cheapest restaurant in the world. But hey, any restaurant that has food AND ninja magicians must be pretty good...

The Lockup, Shibuya

There weren't many places that could potentially top the ninja restaurant, but this one was pretty close! The theme is kinda confusing, since it's a jail-type themed japanese bar with monsters... I think. Anyways, it's main thing is that it's a restaurant that arrests someone in your group and takes your group to a cell, which happens to have menus and stuff.

Food is surprisingly good (winners: taco-style rice in a hot stone-bowl) and the cocktails are probably the main reason to go. My drug addict cocktail came with a pill you add to the drink, and the experiment cocktail  comes with 5 mixer flavours for a standard cocktail, which are then mixed with the standard beaker by using a dropper. Oh, and one drink has an eye in it.

Wow, who would've thought there'd be such good prison food?

So essentially, seeing Tokyo involved going to a miracle fruits restaurant, a ninja restaurant, and a prison restaurant. I'm just glad my friends are just as preoccupied with food as I am.

fully sick

I'm sick.

And no, I didn't contract SARS or the bird flu from Japan. And I'm not about to operate on anyone either.   I just have a bit of a sore throat, and a blocked nose. Enough though, to warrant me to wear a mask all day at preschool. Apparently the flu's been going around, and the head teacher at the preschool was paranoid that I was going to get it, since my immunity's lower because of my cold, so insisted I wear this all day.

And, it wasn't too weird of a request in Japan, seeing how some teachers wear it even when they're not sick to avoid getting a cold themselves (probably also has something to do with the fact that teachers are expected to use their annual leave if they have a mild cold or sickness, and only are allowed to take sick leave when they've got something major, like cancer or something). I also heard that some teachers at school wear one because they are allergic to chalk (still not many whiteboards used in school here). And pretty much everyone has a face mask, since they need it to dispense school lunch when it's their table group's turn.

It's the weirdest feeling having it on actually, since you can feel your breath and stuff every time you breathe. But it does have its benefits, like the ability to chew gum or eat stuff without anyone judging you, and it does keep your face warm. I was talking to one of my friends who visited Japan, who did bring up the interesting point - for a country that seems very occupied with fashion and stuff, why aren't there any cooler face masks around for adults? I'm sure more people would appreciate having the choice between regular white mask and a ninja-type one too.

i'm alive!

Although I did plan to go to Nagano last weekend to see monkeys taking baths in the snow, I wasn't expecting to be welcomed back home to Gifu with this:

Waking up this morning, I just assumed that the forecast of rain this whole week was right, and it would just be really wet this morning. Unfortunately. I got a phone call from a friend, wishing me luck after telling me to look out the window. 

I'm sure from the photos it looks cool, since snow means  snowball fights, making snowmen, and stuff right? Well, snow for me means a fear of slipping and falling on my arse, and driving in the snow for the very first time. I'd been told to drive slow and be careful, but how slow is snow slow? Like, 5 ks an hour, or is 40 okay?

I also realised that snow means you have no idea where the markings are on the road, and with snow a few inches deep I was really paranoid about driving onto the footpath on top of accidentally sliding my car into people. 

But after driving 30 ks an hour, and 20 minutes in the car, I made it to school in once piece! Lifting up my windscreen wipers, and psyching myself up for the walk from the snow-filled carpark to school, I see a couple students  (one guy wearing a baby pink playboy tracksuit, but that's another story) running into the snow barefoot with their pants rolled up to their knees. I guess people's rational fear of snow manifests itself in a number of ways...

mental note...

"Russian Takoyaki" is not referring to some cool new fusion food involving Japanese octopus balls cooked in a Russian style accompanied with caviar, vodka, borscht, or anything remotely foreign. And is more likely to be an abbreviation of "Russian Roulette Takoyaki", where one ball, instead of being filled with Octopus, is filled with ridiculously spicy mustard.

Also, it might be recommended to never put a whole takoyaki in your mouth at once, just in off chance you are unknowingly involved in a cruel Japanese pastime that involves scarring people for life after eating said mustard-filled takoyaki, and may not ever look at takoyaki the same way ever again. Even right after you hosted your very first takoyaki party, using the takoyaki cooking set you got for your birthday.

eep! monkeys!

Phew.  After just arriving in Japan on Wedesday night, I figured come the weekend, I'd need a break. Having already done most of the big touristy places that are nearby (Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe) it's now time for us to try and visit either the remaining big touristy places that are further away (Okinawa, Nagasaki & Hokkaido) or some more obscure places. Our failed trip to the Ninja village wasn't the best start, but this weekend, we decided to try another semi-obscure place again.

So the whole point of the trip to Nagano, which included about 3 hours travel each way and an overnight stay? 

Monkeys. 

Well, not just monkeys. Monkeys taking baths. In the snow. That's pretty much it. But totally worth it.

rocky

Alas, my trip back home to Australia is already at an end. Despite being able to check a number of things off my list of things to do, namely eat food and meet up with friends, it feels like this trip was still a little too short. I did end my trip on a high note though, catching up with friends for lunch, before having a final family dinner at my all-time favourite restaurant in Melbourne.

Unfortunately, my favourite restaurant just also happens to be a sushi restaurant. Even the sushi chef there was asking me why the hell I'd be eating Japanese food when I could do so for in a couple of days. Part of the reason I did go though was mainly to reminisce as it was always the restaurant I'd make my family go to for special occasions, like my birthday, or something like that.  And for the awesome sushi of course. Plus, in Japan, I so don't make enough money to be able to go to a fancy sushi restaurant, so I did also justify it by thinking of it as awesome-grade sushi that I myself would never be able to eat in Japan anyway.

But after tonight, I'm totally glad I went. After gorging myself with awesome fancypants sushi (highlights: yakiniku-style grilled beef sushi, and marinated kingfish belly sushi) and while driving home, we encountered one of the less-often visited mascots of my city: Rocky.

For those who aren't completely familiar with the story of Rocky, he's developed a loyal group of fans - namely me, and any of my friends that I can convince to also be supportive of an unconventional city mascot.

As you can see, Rocky's kinda.... special. He originally started off as humble roadkill, unfortunately situated on a stretch of street that many people pass over. What resulted is Rocky being pancaked and presumably difficult to uh.... remove from the road.

The city's solution? Cover the corpse of Rocky the Roadkill Possum with a pile of gravel. That way, no one would know that anything was wrong. Except for the unusual pile or rocks in the middle of a frequently used road. What seemed to eventually happened though, is the rocks directly on top of Rocky adhered to the outline of Rocky's body, while all other rocks  that weren't directly on top of him seemed to disappear after countless drive-overs, leaving a perfectly preserved outline of Rocky's almost-forgotten self.

While I was lying in bed, trying unsuccessfully to get a nap before my flight back, I thought of how each city in Japan was famous for something. Granted, my city in Japan seems to be famous for one of my least favourite fruits, at least it's famous for something. What can my city back home in Melbourne boast about? Well, I guess other than fantastic sushi, it also has a pretty large roadkill animal as well... and that's pretty much it. I wonder if they ever made a marimokkori for my city, what would it be...?

foods to eat over Christmas

Yep, after 18 months living in Japan, I finally visited home in Melbourne... twice in a span of less than two weeks. As much as I wish it was because I'm ridiculously loaded and could afford to do it for the hell of it, it was mainly due to the fact that I had a friend's wedding for a weekend, and then coming back for Christmas holidays, as well as not wanting to make it one long trip from wedding to new year's, which would have used all of my annual leave for the rest of my contract year. And, after spending one Christmas in Japan, I can safely say that Christmas in Japan certainly isn't the same as Christmas back home. Especially when it's not a public holiday, and everywhere you go has already taken Christmas decorations down before Christmas in preparation for New Year's decorations. I think the memory I will always have of Christmas in Japan is sitting in a ramen restaurant eating tonkotsu ramen while listening to The Beatles. Granted, I'm a huge fan of tonkotsu ramen, and the restaurant we were at, but still, not quite the same as gorging yourself in the presence of your family.

So this year, I decided to make sure I was back for a traditional Christmas, to hopefully OD on all things I missed in Australia so I could get through the last six months in Japan. And sure, while Guitar Hero, friends and family were all on my list of things to be excited about, being me, I also had to make a list of foods I had to eat while in Australia. I figured that two weeks back home required careful deliberation and planning of my meals to ensure I got my fill of everything I wanted to eat that I couldn't in Japan.

Foods to check off my list:

• Mexican

cinnamon & orange duck tacos

 

• Lamb

 

•  Thai food

 

Basil chicken & rice

•   Cheap, non ¥3000 pizza

• Yum Cha

• Quality Burger

 

 Mushroom melt burger

 

• Christmas Pig

 

• Cheese

Things yet to be eaten this trip:

• Souvlaki

• Jaffles

• Falafel

• Bailey's Cheesecake

• Lemon Meringue Pie

Food related milestones achieved:

• Taking a bite out of a giant chunk of ham