detour to japan

So, after three years in Japan, what skills do I have to show for it? 

... Yeah, I'm not quite too sure either. While some friends specialise in law, or accounting, all that I seem to have expertise in is teaching English to Japanese students, which isn't as useful or transferable as you'd think it would be.

It does, however, make me qualified and experienced enough to do what every other other Melbourne JET seems to do when they come back to Australia; write an article for the local Japanese language newspaper. Trying to avoid the typical narrative of a foreigner finding themselves in a strange and exciting new environment, I decided to go a different route. You know, write something a little more cultured and learned, much like many of the posts on this blog. 

I guess if my current career pursuits reach a dead end, I could always consider a career in writing in some way shape or form... Once my article about well-hung green characters sets the Melbourne-based, Japanese literary world on fire, that is. 

tastes winey to me.

"Well, you say 'Sauvignon Blanc', and everyone will just expect a wine that tastes like passionfruit juice."

...Well, everyone except for me, apparently. I've been wanting to do the winery thing for a while, just because it seems like what people my age do. And I do drink wine, so it didn't seem like a completely crazy idea. Plus, my aunt was visiting from the UK, so we figured it was the best option for showing her Australia. She's a stickler for all things traditional, and not a fan of modern art or architecture at all, so the idea of showing her Melbourne CBD was out of the window. Although, knowing that she sails around Europe regularly and goes to the South of France to stock up on wines, we probably should have thought about it a bit more.

So after drinking some fumés, sauvignon blancs, pinot noirs, and learning about the differences in altitudes where the grapes are grown, I learnt a lot. And then promptly forgot as soon as I drank the next wine. All the wines I thought were alright were the same ones that my aunt detested. I think drinking generic 'white wine' that was the only available wine in Japan has really screwed my taste buds up.

belated gastronomic adventures

Thai Basil Chicken "Ga Prow" inspired burger-
Chicken patty, lettuce, roasted capsicum with basil stir-fry sauce and egg in a Turkish bread roll.

I used to pride myself in liking food more than the average person. But now? I'm not so sure. Turns out, while I was away in Japan, someone took my two favourite pastimes - food and reality TV - combined them, and created one of the hugest trends in Australia in the last few years. I still can't believe that a cooking show forced the Australian federal election to be rescheduled to avoid competing for TV ratings.

I guess for everyone else in Australia, they may not have noticed this change, but after an extended absence, the change is so drastic it feels like it's just being dangled right in front of my face. I left Melbourne thinking I knew a bit about food since I knew how to bake chocolate chip cookies, but now I'm meeting people who know how to temper chocolate. And I had no idea scooping ice cream could actually become outdated. Scoops of ice cream with whipped cream, wafer, and cherry on top? Pfft, please. That is so 2000 and late. More like quenelles of vanilla-bean ice cream served with crème chantilly, cherry compôte, and almond tuile.

Gingerbread + Snickerdoodles = I'm a genius.
Or, so I thought until I googled "gingerdoodles" five minutes ago.

Don't get me wrong; vanilla bean ice cream and almond tuiles sound awesome, but I just can't believe this has happened in my absence. And now, thanks to my current employment status, I've got the time to make Heston Blumenthal's ridiculously simple chocolate mousse, and my own experiments with food (gingerdoodles anyone?), but no shows to watch to give me new (and probably more original) recipes to try out. Sure, due to their booming popularity, they'll probably be back in 2011, but will everyone be over the bandwagon just as I'm hopping on?

nectarine-shu

So, needless to say, judging by my regular involvement with Japanese conversation nights, deciding prospective employment based on whether it involves Japanese, and the fact I find myself watching Japanese cowboy movies, it's safe to say I'm still not over Japan.

I really did try to prepare for this. Knowing my life in Melbourne would be devoid of 100 yen goods, quality stationery, ubiquitous convenience stores filled with seasonal confectionery, and cheap karaoke, I stocked up on pens, consumed every type of Kit Kat imaginable, and sang my arse off. By the time I got to Tokyo, I was in full "don't know the next time I'll be here" mode, and making sure there was no butter-flavoured chip unbought, and no sushi uneaten. Sure, my last sushi meal in Tokyo was like $60, but when else would I be able to food this fresh, and eat uni straight from its shell?

And sure, to some extent it worked; I don't really have much of an urge to eat raw fish on rice, and I've definitely OD'ed on Kit Kats - I've still got a couple sakura green tea flavoured Kit Kats in my pantry that I have no urge to eat. But there's one thing I do miss probably more than the adequate amount.

Umeshu. With a lack of mixed spirits available, and not being the biggest fan of sake, it was my other option when I wasn't feeling like beer. It was the drink of chilled Friday nights at home with friends, and my drink of choice at karaoke. I sampled it all around Japan - the Shikwasa umeshu down south in Okinawa, the red-shiso type in Nagano, and sipped some locally-produced ones after a long day of snow festival-ing in Hokkaido. It's the drink I associate with Japan - nay, it's the drink I associate with the last few years.

Yes, I know this makes me sound like a raging alcoholic, but my point is, I like this drink, and am still trying to fathom how I can still enjoy it in Melbourne for $35 when it used to cost me less than $5. I did try to bring some back, but because of duty free alcohol limits, it was less than I wanted. It doesn't help as well I have this issue with trying to ration things, in which I essentially don't use or eat things for fear of using them up, but end up never using them at all, or find the food's expired before I've even sampled it. It's for this same reason I blu-tack stickers on things rather than, well, stick them - I'm paranoid I'll have a sticker emergency and will actually need to use that sticker properly later.

Anyway, back to the point: What's a guy to do when a future without his favourite drink awaits? Why, try to make it himself of course! Fortunately for me, it's much easier than brewing beer or making wine - essentially just steeping sugar and ume in some alcohol for a few months to a year, and drinking the result. It's just so simple! Which is why it seemed like such a good idea to bring back a large 4-litre glass bottle made specifically for umeshu-ing. As long as I had this bottle, I could make it whenever I wanted, right?

Um... yeah. Turns out there's a couple more obstacles in my way making it a little bit more difficult.

Shochu's kinda expensive in Australia, as expected, but I have heard of other umeshus being made with other alcohol, like brandy. I didn't really do much of a search, but I couldn't find the rock sugar that's normally used either, but my favourite umeshu has honey in it, so I could probably use that when I make it...

Oh yeah, and one other minor problem. Ume (Japanese plums) doesn't look like its available in Australia at all. Yeah, just a minor hiccup in my quest to make Japanese plum wine.

While shopping though, I stumbled across some unripened nectarines. They kinda looked like Japanese plums, though bigger and not as green. Plus, I looked up 'nectarine' in Japanese, and one translation came up as 'sour peach' and ume are quite tart.... So with my in-depth research and analysis complete, I bought a kilo and started hunting down the rest of the ingredients.

And here's the finished product. Although it won't be ready to drink for another few months, let's hope it tastes just like how I remembered. Or, well, drinkable. Or safe for human consumption. I really shouldn't set my standards too high, considering I have, you know, zero of the three original ingredients.

i think i'm going japanese...

I guess it was bound to happen. After two and a half years in Japan, the mystique that surrounding all things Japan has kinda worn off. While at first I was blogging about new flavours of Fanta, now everytime a new flavour comes out it really surprise or entertain me enough to warrant blogging about it (Though, it may also be because the current Apple flavour doesn't sound as exciting as Cassis or mystery-flavoured Fanta).

But my trip back to Melbourne was exactly what I needed, I think. Time to catch up with friends, and finally notice all the cool things in Melbourne that I took for granted when I was living there. Everyone talks about the interesting alleyway culture in Melbourne, with the hidden bars and cool graffiti, but only now have I ever thought about checking it out a bit more.

What was a little disconcerting though was the realisation I couldn't shake all these habits I formed while in Japan, which, while seem normal in Japan, are probably just plain weird back home. I kept making agreement noises as I nodded and listened to other people talk, which would've pissed me off even more if I was the one listening to it. Even on the train to the city, I immediately went to my phone to switch it to silent, and couldn't believe that people were actually answering their phones and having full-blown, long-winded conversations in the presence of other people. Not that I did anything about it though. I just did the Japanese thing and gave them glancing negatively-approving looks hoping that my passive-agressive irritation was enough to make them stop and feel ashamed at what they had done.

And the worst part? I think Japan has made me all self-conscious going to the toilet. After heading straight to the bathroom after my flight into Sydney, I opened the door to a urinal that I realised I hadn't seen for over two years. It was a group urinal - one that spans the length of a wall, the ones that any number of people can use at the same time as long as they can fit. In Japan I had only seen the urinals which have a set number of urinals to accomodate a certain number of people, which, while not the most private thing in the world, kinda gave the person using it the feeling of privacy. But here, it felt more out in the open, like being on display. Granted, standard peeing etiquette still applies (i.e. choose the urinal/place to go furthest away from those using it, and no talking while peeing), but it just felt strange.

Also, I don't remember the last time I saw toilet cubicles in Japan that had doors that didn't go right to the ground. It must be weird for Japanese people coming to Australia knowing people can see them (or at least, their feet) while they go, especially when they come from a country that has a niche for products like this.

I'm worried what it's going to be like after I come back after three years in Japan if I'm so used to only going to the toilet when no one else can see or hear me go. It must be karma. I really should've showed more empathy to my friends who got stage fright, rather than knocking loudly on the toilet door and commentating on whether they had gone or not.

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

new photo albums! which i'll update later...

Just a quick post to say I've now got photo albums up on my blog - I'm looking to add more photos, but have to find a way to work around the 250mb limit at the moment...

I've got to do this quickly because once I've done that, I can go back to preparing for my JET interview next week - I'm kinda freaked, because I heard that a majority of it will be in Japanese... hopefully, they won't be expecting too much (they are looking for someone to speak Japanese who hasn't lived in Japan for longer than a couple years) so all I'm doing (in theory) is translating my statement of purpose to Japanese, and trying to work out possible questions they'll ask me and answers. Problem for me is just a minor problem - my endless need to procrastinate has prevented me from actually getting around to actually doing much study - I was going to write a blog about my superhuman procrastination ability actually, but