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

airplane marimokkori

Another day travelling Japan, another marimokkori to add to my collection.

 

 This one kinda feels like cheating, since it's not actually from any specific area. I'm trying to justify it by saying that it's from the airport, which is sort of like a different area that I've never travelled to before...

Oh, and in other marimokkori news, I found this website, which shows you all the marimokkori in the series - so you just click on an area of Japan, and it'll come up with all the marimokkori available in that area. Pretty cool, huh? Though, I'm trying not to look through all of it, since I'm afraid it'll ruin the fun of travelling into a new area and discovering which ones are available.

me returned australia tomorrow

So, you'd think that after spending a year and a bit in Japan, my Japanese would be good enough to tell people that I went to Australia to see my friends and family, right?

Well, this card begs to differ. after coming on to my local starbucks on my day off, the starbucks people asked me how come I was in so early, as opposed to my usual late afternoon night visit.

What I wanted to say : "well, funny you should ask actually. I'm not working today since ijust got back Australia last night, after. Going there over the weekend for my friend's wedding. So yeah, I thought I'd need a day off to recover today. "

What apparently came out of my mouth:
"Me returned Australia tomorrow."

So, the natural consequence of that random tidbit of information being mentioned to Starbucks people was to ask more questions about me going home. And being on a roll, the only answers I could come up with were "yes" and having a confused look on my face, since I had no idea what they were asking.

So, after our awesome conversation, one Starbucks lady, straight perm, (known for her super straight hair, in case you were wondering where we got that imaginative nickname for her) gave me that little card, thanking me for always getting vanilla lattes and stuff.

So, I'm guessing my Japanese still has a fair way to go....

oh ninjas, how you disappointed me.

Yay for another long weekend! This time, it we were celebrating Labour day, which meant another opportunity to leave our lovely quiet prefecture (read: boring) and go elsewhere. Though, as tradition would dictate, it meant that we only decided the previous week that we wanted to go somewhere new, by which time, everyone else in Japan - being the organised, overzealous type of country - had already decided months in advance they were going to take advantage of the weekend too, and book out all the accomodation for the places we wanted to go. But, rather than drowning my sorrows in numerous cups of vanilla lattes and frappucinos like I usually do, I thought it was a good idea to try driving to a new prefecture. So, we ended up deciding on going to Shiga, a prefecture just next door to Gifu.

But what to do in Shiga? Well, visiting Japan's largest lake seemed so cliché and well, not my cup of tea. I've found out I'm not really one for nature, surprisingly (as I write this on my blog while listening to my iPod). And, all that the city of Nagahama seemed to have on offer, other than the usual temples and castles, was just a really, really old train station. Meh. So, trying to forge new ground, we ended up settling on Koka, the city known for its ninja clan in its heyday. Granted, I wasn't expecting it to be littered with ninjas, (after all, they would be all stealthy anyways if they were good ninjas) but we were hoping to visit Ninja Village, which, as you'd expect, was meant to be a village full of ninja-related crap.

After our two hour drive to Koga, turns out, we arrived a little too late. Like, 10-15 years too late. My super high expectations of the ninja village were a little bit more than shattered when we got there and found that it wasn't really that well maintained. Like, dead crickets and other insects littering the cases of old ninja weapons in the museum. And a tea house that looked like it had collapsed, and was left as it was.  The only redeeming part of the museum turned out to be the ninja star throwing range. It's sad to say when I thought about ninja stars, I immediately thought of Three Ninjas Kick Back, where one of the three was learning to throw ninja stars accurately, was given the wise advice by his uncle to stare at the target until it became the size of a watermelon, and aim at it. So, I did try that technique, though turns out, I can't tell the difference between that technique and squinting, so I wasn't that good.

The one redeeming thing from our trip to Shiga? Marimokkori! Yep, an overpriced ¥420 phone strap made my weekend. I guess that may be a sign of a not-so-successful trip. But nonetheless, as we stopped at a rest stop on the highway between Kyoto and Tokyo, the huge rest stop was stocked with souvenirs from everywhere in between, for the Japanese people who had forgotten to get any presents on the way back from holidaying. Which meant that I was able to buy some Marimokkori from places I had been to before I started my collection! wooo!!

 

Shachihoko (Lion carp), Nagoya

  

Pagoda, Nara

  

 Tanuki (Racoon Dog), Shiga

not meant to be...

Oh unreliable Rusty, I hardly knew ye.

It seems like I've been fighting an uphill battle against the Powers That Be for the last year or so in Japan. As much as I try to go against their plans for me, they seem to try and give me a sign that I'm doing what they don't think I should be doing. The latest sign came today, as I was leaving my house and getting ready for my bike ride to school.

I haven't ridden my bike to school in ages, partially because I've now got a car, and also partially because I'm lazy. But, after the sugarfest and food-gorging-fest known as a weekend in, I decided to try and ride my bike and do something remotely healthy.

Alas, it was not meant to be. Decked out in my coolest biking clothes ever (read: matching tracksuit, since a whole matching tracksuit isn't as lame as it may be back home) and grabbing a bag for my work clothes from my car, I was walking to the apartment's bike parking area, looking for my "Yes We Can!"-branded bike, with its bright blue bike rope wrapped around the back bike rack.

Huh. That's weird. I don't see the blue bike rope thingy. Maybe someone stole my bike rope thing. It's not that uncommon really, since it wasn't like it was locked to the bike. It's already been stolen a few times, but it didn't bother me too much, since it was just from the hundred yen store. Wait a minute. I don't feel as inspired looking through these bikes,  with the one bike sticking out with a name that also doubles as a good life motto...

Yes, my bike was gone. Despite being locked, it seems as if someone with their professional thievery skills has broken my inpenetrable bike lock. And, instead of getting mad or really annoyed, I just shrugged and went back inside my place to get changed into my less cooler, less coordinated work clothes.

I think I'm not as annoyed as I should be because I'm kinda second-doubting myself and my ability to pick out my bike from a lineup of 5 bikes. Plus, I'm also the person who freaked out thinking my car was stolen when my friend said my car wasn't parked outside my house (despite the fact I drove to my other friend's house the previous day and was staying at their place at the time), and I also tried to withdraw 300 bucks from an ATM, only to take my ATM card and my receipt and forget to take out the money sticking out of the machine.

But partially, I'm not annoyed because I know the powers that be have not been wanting me to ride my bike for a long, long time. 

Case in Point: Bike Number 1: aka Rusty red bike. It was free, a hand me down from the person who worked as the English teacher before me at school. Not the best bike, but did manage to get me from A to B. Even though it did get around two flat tires in less than 6 months. In both cases, the tire got punctured on the way to school, which meant I still had to ride my bike to get to school in time.  I also decked it out with a fancy gel-like seat cushion, which was subsequently stolen during a visit to my elementary school, and had multiple bike ropes taken from it as well. The final straw for Rusty was the day a spoke was sticking out as I was riding it. Not wanting to lose momentum, I tried to stick the spoke back in with my foot as I was riding.

After regaining consciousness, and cautiously trying to ride my now-broken bike home and simultaneously alleviating pressure from my foot, I found that it'd cost around 50 bucks to fix my free bike, and take up to a few weeks or so, which, wouldn't have worked with my now purple foot. So, I forked out an extra 25 bucks and got myself a new, shiny one, aka Yes We Can!

While Yes We Can! was shiny and new, it was still plagued with flat tires, flimsy basket, and a missing cap for where you inflate the tire. It had begun to rust after just a few months, leading me to believe that Rusty may have been a Yes We Can! in a previous life.  It's hard for me to compare though, since soon after Yes We Can! was purchased, Rusty mysteriously disappeared from the communal bike area as well.

So, after two bikes, 5-6 flat tires, a broken spokes, a purple foot, 3 stolen bike ropes and a stolen fancy seat cushion, I think the Powers that Be have won.

I just hope they don't have anything against me driving...

another long weekend!

Oh Japan. While there are some days I can't stand the sight of any more sushi, and get annoyed with the seemingly-hardworking ethic (emphasis on the seem part), one thing I will always appreciate about your culture is the amount of public holidays.

While I do come from a country where a horseracing and gambling warrant a long weekend in November, it can't really compete much with Japan, which has  Vernal Equinox, Greenery Day (May 4),  Marine Day (3rd Monday of July),  Respect-for-the-Aged Day (3rd Monday of September),  Autumnal Equinox,  Culture Day (November 3rd) and Sports Day (3rd Monday of October), to name just some of them.


So, not wanting to waste a long weekend at home, we ended up visiting a couple festivals before heading up to Northern Gifu and visiting a friend's part of town.  While I've been there a few times before, it's always good to see, especially since it's a village, and feels very villagey, as opposed to my city, which very much feels just like a shopping centre surrounded by rice paddies. While I do have shopping, and the pleasant smell of burning off rice paddies every now and then,  my friend's village seems to be more of a cohesive community, where everyone is related, friendly, and everybody knows your name. I guess it's the one of the perks of living in such a remote area of the sticks I guess.  I'm sure if I was placed there instead of my area, I'd be complaining about being isolated and wishing I had a coffee place within walking distance, so I should remain content just getting to visit that area every now and then.

The weekend turned out to be awesome as well for another reason - actually, the reason that makes me so motivated to travel in the first place - marimokkori! Even more to add to my collection! I finally got the one for my area, Gifu city. Weirdly enough, it's not for sale in Gifu city itself, but in the northern area of Takayama, which is a couple hours away, which seems stupid, but nonetheless, Yay!

 

Comorant (Gifu) 

Sarubobo (Hida)

sleep and food

I always wondered what the preoccupation was with the preoccupation with sleep Japanese people I'd met seemed to have. Granted, I hadn't met many, but I always wondered how on earth everyone seemed to sleep on public transport, and how students slept in class. And how every single student I'd ask "How are you?" to would always reply with "I'm sleepy", "I'm tired" or a combination of the two.  Was it the lack of sleep the students had each night due to studying til the wee hours of the morning? Were the teachers equally buggered from the ridiculous workload they had here, normally working til 8:30 or later at night, that made them sleep deprived too?

And even though I'm getting enough sleep (with the occasional late night watching Heroes or The Amazing Race) I've succumbed to this sleeping thing to. Every day at around 2:30 pm, I feel my eyes get too heavy to keep open, my head slowly slumping down, before I quickly jolt back up once I become aware that I'm about to fall asleep, only to feel my eyes get heavier and my head sinking down. What the hell's happening to me!?!?

After much time pondering, I'm wondering if this sleep thing is like a part of the culture. I've seen heaps of teachers with their heads slumped at their desks, napping, or blatantly sleeping every now and then, especially after work. Which, you'd normally think would be a no go thing, you know, being slack at work to the point of napping and being completely unproductive. But apparently, as long as you're at the bottom or top of the work chain, it's actually deemed okay. Rather than seeming so lazy and unproductive that you're sleeping during work,  it's thought of a good thing, where you've worked hard that now, despite your best efforts, you can't help BUT fall asleep.

I also have a feeling my school lunch is contributing too. There's this thing called kyushoku here for lunch at schools, which means, rather than bringing your own lunch every day, a (Japanese) nutritionally balanced meal is served at school. Every lunch time, students from each class carry the huge containers of food to the classroom, where they dish out their lunch themselves. Lunch usually consists of rice (although, it's noodles on Tuesdays, and bread on Thursdays), soup, salad/vegetable thing, something fried, and milk.

Though, unfortunately, it's not just any milk. It's milk with 3.6% milk fat milk. Which may not seem like much, but seems way creamier and thicker than normally milk back home, and I swear, by some standards, it'd be considered to be a form of light cream or buttermilk or something.  But anyway, I swear this milk, especially when it's been sitting out for at least half an hour or so before eating, must be the culprit behind everyone being so sleepy. If it doesn't make you feel bloated and full by the end of lunch,  I'm sure the fact that it's probably been sitting out for longer than half an hour on most days mean it's filled with things that make you sleep.

Speaking of Kyushoku, just thought I'd share this video of Kyushoku time at one of my preschools. Apparently, everything that can be turned into a song, with this one combining the rules for eating Kyushoku, and saying "Itadakimasu", which is essentially the Japanese equivalent to saying grace before a meal.

my favourites

I know as a teacher, you shouldn't really favour some students of others, and you should treat them all equally and stuff. But have you seen some of these kids?

There's cute, and then there's "puppies and kittens and bunnies coated in sugar" cute. So, while I do my best to be nice to all the kids at my 3 preschools I visit, I can't help find my favourites. Sometimes it's easier to pick my favourite ones than other times, especially when they are the ones that won't stop kanchouing me, or the bossy ones who see me playing with one kid, then yell at the kid to make them run off crying, and then try to get me to play the same I thing I was playing before, but with them. But, after a few months of deliberation, and new students this year, I've finally decided on my top ones from each school. An unfortunate consequence of getting to play with so many kids at 3 preschools is that I never remember their names, so I only remember them by their faces or their nicknames. Granted, anyone who has heard my nicknames for all the people at my local Starbucks knows that I'm far from creative when it comes to naming them (The Starbucks people by the way, are Manager girl, Smirky, Smiley, Smiley girl, Asian lady, English lady, Pixie Chick, and Glen) but hey, they're apt, and it makes them easy to identify!

Kazuki Okay, a fairly unimaginative nickname, since it's just a Japanese boy's name, and not his name, but I think he looks like a Kazuki. He has a shaved head and has that cute thing that little kids have where they can't pronounce words properly, but it seems way cuter when he can't pronounce words in Japanese, so he calls me "Thenthei" instead of Sensei and likes to come up to me and sit on my knee and squish my face.

Lil' Gangster I feel sorry for this 3-year old and his 5-year old brother, who have tryhard parents who have died their hair brown and given them "hardcore" mullet/rat-tail type hairdos. But this runty guy, who's smaller than the others in his class, has the biggest black eyes I've ever seen. And he's mastered the cute semi-dazed stare. I usually find him come into other classrooms at random times, and just stare at me, or at the other kids, without saying anything, before the teachers politely tell him that the others are busy and can't play with him now, so he leaves for 5 minutes and comes back. He's only started talking to me lately, and just asks for me to pick him up all the time.

Special Dude He's a 3-year old with fairly severe autism, so at first, when I didn't know he had autism, just thought he hated me. But apparently, he's been telling his parents that he likes it when I come, which did get me warming to him a little more. He's also been asking his helper teacher if I can have lunch with him, and says he won't eat if I'm not there. At first, when I did sit next to him, he usually got too scared to eat or ran away. But after a fairly deep conversation with him "Do you like ice cream? It's good huh?" He's now talking. "Mmm... It's good!" is about as far as the conversation goes, but I'm happy.

Half 'n Half A girl at one preschool who's half Japanese, and TOTALLY adorable. She knows a fair bit of English words, but doesn't really talk much in English, but does come up to me with random objects from outside to show me that she knows them in English, like "wock", "twig", "twee" and "weaf".

Non-3-year-old I told you my nicknames were pretty unoriginal. But anyways, Non 3-year-old is a 5-year-old, but looks like a 3-year-old in one of my classes, so looks way younger than everyone else in the class. He's the one who cried and refused to play Fruits Basket (the game where you all sit in a circle, and have to switch seats depending on what someone says) after he didn't understand what to do in our practice round. He didn't know how to open or eat those tiny jelly cups, so I had to open it for him and feed it to him.

Tea Boy - He was on my list of potentials for my favourites list for a month, since he was always finding me on the playground in the morning and wanting to play something with me. There was also a time when I was helping his class make origami frogs, and so he got me some light green paper for himself and me. Thinking I should make a different looking frog, I went to get some dark green paper, and he oh-so-cutely stomped his feet had a mini hissy fit before changing his paper to dark green too, so it was exactly the same as mine. He then tried to copy the same face I drew on my frog on his.

But what made him land a spot in my top was during story time day. He got me to sit next to him during story time, but midway through the book, he quietly got up, went to his bag in the back of the room, changed his pants, and sat a little bit away from me. After story time, the teacher noticed a puddle around where he was sitting. "Oh, What's this? Did you have a little accident?" she asked.

"Oh, no, it wasn't me," replied Tea Boy. "I think someone spilled some tea there at lunchtime." The teacher promptly got up, to grab some disinfectant and clean the puddle up. But in the meantime, the surrounding kids decided inspect the puddle and see if it was tea, by shoving their faces in it.

Aah, any 5-year-old kid who calmly changes their pants without other kids noticing, potentially knows the consequences of his actions and knows he can avoid it by lying, and then make other kids in the room put their face in an unknown liquid is definitely a favourite in my book.

tokyo marimokkori

Yep, I've now got two Tokyo marimokkori, thanks to my brother, though I can justify it seeing how my first one, Hachiko is supposed to represent Shibuya, not Tokyo, so my new Tokyo Tower one, technically, counts as a different area.

 

Oh, and I'm also wondering if it's considered cheating if I get my friends to get me the ones from Kyoto and Nara.... Because, I have been to those places before, but I just didn't get them last time since marimokkori wasn't as huge then, and I hadn't started collecting them...

summer soumen & suika school day

Oh Japan. If there's one thing I like more than collecting regionally exclusive, well-endowed phone straps, it's the seemingly random days and events that happen. I guess everything seems random mainly due to the fact I can't understand everything that's said around me, but nonetheless, it makes the days way more interesting.

So today, something was happening with the special ed. class at my school. What exactly, I'm not too sure, but it did involve the kids doing suika wari, which is essentially watermelon piñata-ing,  where a person is blindfolded, spun around a few times, and then with a stick (or in my students' cases, a wooden kendo sword) and are directed to smash a watermelon. Now, one of the pros of being the token foreigner at school, is that I also get asked to be involved with all the activities the special ed. kids do, so I got my fair share of watermelon wacking done as well,  but unlike them, almost everything I do, without fail is followed by surprised exclaimations of "jouzu! (you're really good!)" since they don't expect me to be good at anything Japanese-related. So apparently, I'm also really awesome at breaking melons with wooden sticks.

After some quality squatting around in a circle and eating watermelon time, I headed back  to the staffroom, trying to enjoy one of my last days sitting at my desk during summer holidays. That was, until one of the support teachers for the special ed. class calls my name and motions me to come outside.

 The class had decided on serving nagashi somen, which is normally eaten around summer, so the kids had fashioned a huge bamboo pipe-type thing, supported b some sticks, and connected it to the drink taps on one end, so water flowed down the bamboo, and the other hand finished at the drain. As water flowed through the bamboo, one person placed bundles of somen noodles on the top, and the flowing water carried it through the pipes.

 

Meanwhile, other students and teachers, armed with bowls of spring onions and tsuyu (a soy sauce and stock-based dipping sauce) huddled around the pipes, waiting with chopsticks to catch the noodles going by, dipping them in the tsuyu and eating it fresh. I couldn't help thinking how this couldn't be done back at home in Australia, because of the water restrictions, but at the same time, I was totally blown away by how cool it was. It's made me really keen on finding a real nagashi somen restaurant, with some apparently utilising natural water streams to carry the noodles to customers. 

Oh summer vacation in Japan. Why can't you have more days like this, and less days involving sitting at your desk and doing absolutely nothing?

ninja food

I like food. Which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's known me for longer than five minutes. I also like ninjas, which shouldn't come as a surprise either, since... c'mon, who doesn't like ninjas? So, after hearing about the ninja-themed restaurant in Tokyo, I had to go.

Turns out, a  ninja-themed restaurant is probably one of the few themes that actually translates well into a food thing. I mean, I like pirates, but a pirate restaurant definitely doesn't have the same ring to it.

After going there, I can say that I definitely was disappointed... except maybe for the start, when the ninja maître d' (yes, not all ninjas are stealthy and deadly, you know) was telling us that our ninja waiter was hidden somewhere in the room,a dn would reveal themselves. So, after that I was kinda hoping for our ninja to appear in a puff of smoke, or jump down from the ceiling. Unfortunately, after being summoned by a ninja call, our ninja just came through a small door in the wall, which would've been cooler I guess, but we kinda got our hopes up for a more ninja-like entrance.

anyway, I don't want to give the whole ninja experience away and ruin all the surprises, so instead, I'll just post some pictures of food...

 

Ninja Star Grissini

  

Turban Shell à la escargot... 

  

... lit by a fuse!

  

Ninja soup, heated with a 400˚ rock

  

Veal and foie gras à la creme brulée

  

 Frog Cheesecake

marimokkori, the algae ball man

Okay, I'll admit it; I have a phone strap hanging off my phone.... but Japan made me do it! Everyone in Japan has one, from the Harajuku girls to the middle-aged salarymen - it's not just for little girls and those guys with anime hair. I just wanted to fit in, and do what everyone else was doing, be cool... And before you even ask, yes, if Japan walked off a cliff, I would too, okay?

Besides, I was looking for something cool to collect from all the places I visited in Japan. And while all touristy places here seem to sell random cookies and stuff, I decided I wanted something that would last a while.

Unfortunately, unlike my Hello Kitty-obsessed friends, I had less choices in terms of what phone straps I wanted to collect. For a while I was trying to go for a superhero strap theme, but soon enough, I found my Hiroshima Power Ranger (armed with Rice scooper spoons, which Hiroshima is famous for) and my Kobe  Beef Ranger losing their limbs and in a couple of days... For superheroes, not as sturdy or resiliant as you'd expect them to be, which was kinda disappointing. Plus, the superhero straps weren't as easy to find in some of the less touristy places.

Then, I stumbled upon marimokkori, or algae ball man. it's supposed to be a pun on marimo, which are these green round algae ball clusters, found in Sapporo, and mokkori, which essentially means crotch. While only Sapporo is known for marimo, it seems like the rest of Japan is getting on the bandwagon.

 

Hachiko (Tokyo)

  

Takoyaki, Octopus Balls (Osaka)

  

Chinatown (Yokohama)

  

Giant Buddha (Kamakura)

  

Maple leaf-holding Deer (Hiroshima)

  

Lobster (Kanazawa) 

It is kinda weird how each region has released their own region-specific marimokkori, even if they don't have marimo in their area.

But meh, who am I to complain? I've found something to waste my money on when I travel! Yay!

*Update* I've had a few people checking out this page to see my marimokkori collection, so, I figured I might as well add a new "marimokkori" label to my blog, to make it easier to keep track of my (hopefully) ever-growing collection of giant crotch phone straps!