Just testing out the photo option. :P
Monday, December 11, 2006
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Namba is on crack.
This is going to be a little long. Fair warning.
We've been spending a fair amount of time in Namba on our off days, in the middle of Osaka, and it is insane. In a cool way. I can't really describe it adequately, as the bright lights, neverending shopping alleys, and ridiculous numbers of pachinko parlors, arcades, and internet cafes have to be seen to be believed, but it's fun roaming around in it. There are random street promoters all over the place with bullhorns, as well as cell phone places on every block.
And, in the midst of it, joy of joys, I found a MUJI store, which makes me all kinds of design-happy. It's like an upscale Japanese IKEA, and who doesn't love that? If you want to take a look, MoMA's website sells stuff from it. Besides, I think that's the only place thus far where I've seen bras that don't have two inches of padding on the inside. To quote Aaron: "Well, it's extremely unlikely I'll cheat on you here!" Apparently, his only criteria for cheating on me are huge breasts, which don't appear to exist in Japan so much :P. However, I do find there to be an unexpected abundance of skanky boots.
On the topic of foodery: Aaron and I bought some kind of delicious potato/taro fried thing as a snack during our first week here, and it's become a slight addiction, as have takoyaki (fried octopus balls). They're pretty cheap, but while the basic premise remains the same (octopus piece, in a perfect circle of batter), the toppings change, which can drastically alter your enjoyment. The first ones we had were only all right by my standards – I would have preferred them without the dusting of dried ginger and bonito flakes on top, but Aaron was pretty happy with them. Conversely, I was really happy with the ones we bought near the house, which had aioli on top. The other famous street food here is okonomiyaki, of which we've had a few. Basically, it's a very eggy crepe, filled with cooked cabbage, occasionally meat, onion, and even more egg, and then flipped in half and served with teriyaki sauce (I think) drizzled over it. Aaron and I are both amazed that the Japanese have such long life spans, considering the sheer amount of deep frying and abundant mayonnaise we're seeing here (and actually attempting to avoid). And good god, I'm really hankering for something spicy - Japanese food as a whole is extraordinarily bland. We have eaten a fair amount of ramen though, and that's good in general, and excellent once you add a few heaping spoons of garlic paste and chili oil.
Mainly though, we've been cooking dinner at home, for both flavor and cost considerations. For Thanksgiving, I pan-roasted some chicken and made mashed potatoes and salad, but it was definitely nowhere close to being home. I've also made a lot of good ol'-fashioned spaghetti bolognese, as the Japanese conception of Italian food includes a lot more sugar than I was really expecting. And! I got lucky, and found a place that sold nuoc mam (mmm, fish sauce) and managed to produce a pretty good bun thit nuong one night.
I'm going to try and do some more research so that I can find the ingredients I need to produce a more varied menu, as I think both Aaron and I miss the ease of eating different cuisines. Reasonably authentic European/American/other Asian cuisine of any kind is hard to come by here, although I have high hopes for a place in Shinsaibashi called Mekong, which is supposedly Vietnamese-owned Vietnamese.
We've also eaten a fair amount of sushi, from a kaitenzushi – conveyor belt sushi! For the two of us, it was 1820-yen, which is like, 16.50 US. Ridiculously cheap, comparatively speaking. And obviously, the fish quality was excellent. Also went shopping at the Tokyu Hands department store in Shinsaibashi, which was comprehensive but expensive. We're still looking for recycle shops to buy things from, but we've found an excellent 100-yen shop in Namba, called Daiso. It's a five-floor dollar store, with ACTUALLY COOL THINGS.
You're not going to guess how much a rice cooker costs. Seriously. I can't imagine what kind of bells and whistles can propel the price of a rice cooker to 68600-yen – about $600 USD. Crazy! If I'd known that the cheapest model would be approximately $70 bucks, I'd have bought one at Costco and shipped it over. Luckily, we did find one at the Costco here that was reasonable, and very large, for all my rice cookin' needs. I do believe that one's coming home with us, though. Namba is a 200-yen, 10 minute train ride away from Tezukayama. It's amazing how punctual the trains here are.
Aaron and I have also "previewed" Nara with Norm and Valerie, who are another couple in our training group, and just as much geeky fun. Nara was the capital of Japan during the Heian period. It's pretty cool - there 's a five-story pagoda there, and maaaaany temples. Unfortunately, it was monstrously rainy and dark the day we were there, so we didn't really explore to the fullest extent - hence the "previewing".
Other than that, we've finally finished basic training and will start teaching on Tuesday! Training was hardcore - it basically amounted to being in class for six hours a day, and then having like, an hour of homework/demo preparation at home afterwards. It wasn't entirely horrific, although one trainer did inform us that he thought we were the worst group they've had "since April." I think he was mainly using scare tactics, since we were subsequently all signed to contracts. To celebrate the end of training, we all went out last night (after training, obviously), and had drinks and "faux-Cajun" food at a jazz bar in "American Village" (Ame-mura!). It was pretty fun for the most part, and America-mura is really funny - very trendy and "American", in that there's a replica of the Statue of Liberty standing atop one of the tallest buildings in that section of Osaka.
All in all, I think we're adjusting for the most part, although there are some titchy lifestyle things that are mind-boggling (like washers, but no dryers?). I miss you guys aplenty. Give a call if you feel like talking - now that our internet is up and running, Skype is pretty much on all the time.
Also, if anyone's interested, Aaron got a new haircut and looks...well, not very Japanese as that's nigh-unto impossible, but certainly very anime character-ish. I'm loving the faux-hawk that the stylist gave him :P
I'll have pictures up later. Right now, I'm just trying to figure out how to get LJ's hosting service and Blogger to talk happily to each other :P
We've been spending a fair amount of time in Namba on our off days, in the middle of Osaka, and it is insane. In a cool way. I can't really describe it adequately, as the bright lights, neverending shopping alleys, and ridiculous numbers of pachinko parlors, arcades, and internet cafes have to be seen to be believed, but it's fun roaming around in it. There are random street promoters all over the place with bullhorns, as well as cell phone places on every block.
And, in the midst of it, joy of joys, I found a MUJI store, which makes me all kinds of design-happy. It's like an upscale Japanese IKEA, and who doesn't love that? If you want to take a look, MoMA's website sells stuff from it. Besides, I think that's the only place thus far where I've seen bras that don't have two inches of padding on the inside. To quote Aaron: "Well, it's extremely unlikely I'll cheat on you here!" Apparently, his only criteria for cheating on me are huge breasts, which don't appear to exist in Japan so much :P. However, I do find there to be an unexpected abundance of skanky boots.
On the topic of foodery: Aaron and I bought some kind of delicious potato/taro fried thing as a snack during our first week here, and it's become a slight addiction, as have takoyaki (fried octopus balls). They're pretty cheap, but while the basic premise remains the same (octopus piece, in a perfect circle of batter), the toppings change, which can drastically alter your enjoyment. The first ones we had were only all right by my standards – I would have preferred them without the dusting of dried ginger and bonito flakes on top, but Aaron was pretty happy with them. Conversely, I was really happy with the ones we bought near the house, which had aioli on top. The other famous street food here is okonomiyaki, of which we've had a few. Basically, it's a very eggy crepe, filled with cooked cabbage, occasionally meat, onion, and even more egg, and then flipped in half and served with teriyaki sauce (I think) drizzled over it. Aaron and I are both amazed that the Japanese have such long life spans, considering the sheer amount of deep frying and abundant mayonnaise we're seeing here (and actually attempting to avoid). And good god, I'm really hankering for something spicy - Japanese food as a whole is extraordinarily bland. We have eaten a fair amount of ramen though, and that's good in general, and excellent once you add a few heaping spoons of garlic paste and chili oil.
Mainly though, we've been cooking dinner at home, for both flavor and cost considerations. For Thanksgiving, I pan-roasted some chicken and made mashed potatoes and salad, but it was definitely nowhere close to being home. I've also made a lot of good ol'-fashioned spaghetti bolognese, as the Japanese conception of Italian food includes a lot more sugar than I was really expecting. And! I got lucky, and found a place that sold nuoc mam (mmm, fish sauce) and managed to produce a pretty good bun thit nuong one night.
I'm going to try and do some more research so that I can find the ingredients I need to produce a more varied menu, as I think both Aaron and I miss the ease of eating different cuisines. Reasonably authentic European/American/other Asian cuisine of any kind is hard to come by here, although I have high hopes for a place in Shinsaibashi called Mekong, which is supposedly Vietnamese-owned Vietnamese.
We've also eaten a fair amount of sushi, from a kaitenzushi – conveyor belt sushi! For the two of us, it was 1820-yen, which is like, 16.50 US. Ridiculously cheap, comparatively speaking. And obviously, the fish quality was excellent. Also went shopping at the Tokyu Hands department store in Shinsaibashi, which was comprehensive but expensive. We're still looking for recycle shops to buy things from, but we've found an excellent 100-yen shop in Namba, called Daiso. It's a five-floor dollar store, with ACTUALLY COOL THINGS.
You're not going to guess how much a rice cooker costs. Seriously. I can't imagine what kind of bells and whistles can propel the price of a rice cooker to 68600-yen – about $600 USD. Crazy! If I'd known that the cheapest model would be approximately $70 bucks, I'd have bought one at Costco and shipped it over. Luckily, we did find one at the Costco here that was reasonable, and very large, for all my rice cookin' needs. I do believe that one's coming home with us, though. Namba is a 200-yen, 10 minute train ride away from Tezukayama. It's amazing how punctual the trains here are.
Aaron and I have also "previewed" Nara with Norm and Valerie, who are another couple in our training group, and just as much geeky fun. Nara was the capital of Japan during the Heian period. It's pretty cool - there 's a five-story pagoda there, and maaaaany temples. Unfortunately, it was monstrously rainy and dark the day we were there, so we didn't really explore to the fullest extent - hence the "previewing".
Other than that, we've finally finished basic training and will start teaching on Tuesday! Training was hardcore - it basically amounted to being in class for six hours a day, and then having like, an hour of homework/demo preparation at home afterwards. It wasn't entirely horrific, although one trainer did inform us that he thought we were the worst group they've had "since April." I think he was mainly using scare tactics, since we were subsequently all signed to contracts. To celebrate the end of training, we all went out last night (after training, obviously), and had drinks and "faux-Cajun" food at a jazz bar in "American Village" (Ame-mura!). It was pretty fun for the most part, and America-mura is really funny - very trendy and "American", in that there's a replica of the Statue of Liberty standing atop one of the tallest buildings in that section of Osaka.
All in all, I think we're adjusting for the most part, although there are some titchy lifestyle things that are mind-boggling (like washers, but no dryers?). I miss you guys aplenty. Give a call if you feel like talking - now that our internet is up and running, Skype is pretty much on all the time.
Also, if anyone's interested, Aaron got a new haircut and looks...well, not very Japanese as that's nigh-unto impossible, but certainly very anime character-ish. I'm loving the faux-hawk that the stylist gave him :P
I'll have pictures up later. Right now, I'm just trying to figure out how to get LJ's hosting service and Blogger to talk happily to each other :P
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