Eating my way around an island

This post is my 1st attempt at a blog carnival. This means that a few of my friends and I got together and all wrote about the same thing (in this case "eating in Japan"). Here is what all the creative people came up with:
http://sopheliajapan.blogspot.com/2013/04/being-vegetarian-at-japanese-work.html">Being Vegetarian at Japanese Work Parties
by http://sopheliajapan.blogspot.jp/">Sophelia's Adventures in Japan. Sophelia regularly blogs about teaching, adoption, dogs, vegetarianism and general geekiness.

http://angrygaijin.wordpress.com/2013/04/27/history-of-yakiniku/">The History of Yakiniku
by http://angrygaijin.wordpress.com/">Angry Gaijin. Cameron Ohara is a Gaikokujin (foriegner) living in Japan. But get this - he was actually Japanese in a previous life! Now it's all he can do to get his Japanese comrades to look beyond his red hair and tall nose and see the Japanese human that exists within!

Samurai Sushi by http://gaijinexplorer.blogspot.jp/">Gaijin Explorer
. Zacky Chan studies aikido and kyudo, and informally practices whatever else is
relevant. He can usually be found on his days off exploring forests and
mountains on his mountain bike.
http://gaijinexplorer.blogspot.com/2013/04/japan-blog-carnival-samurai-sushi.html

I have a great giggle about it now, time slowly nibbles away at all the harsh edges of my experiences in Japan but if I am honest my first day in my new home town was one big crescendo of terror, culminating in a platter of raw line fish, abalone and sea snails. I have never been petrified of food before but here I was between a rock and offending my gracious hosts who I would be living with for the next two weeks. My South African stomach was telling me it was not dinner time yet, my Afrikaans ancestors were wondering why they could not smell at least two types of meat and somewhere over the ocean my mother was laughing at the little madam who used to fussily pick tomato out of her toasted sandwiches. Eventually my neurons worked up the nerve to force my fingers to pinch some chopsticks over one of the unappetizing sea snails. It was everything I had imagined and more, sandy and chewy, slimy and eyeball-ish and in the end, not that bad. I was ok, I was ok with eating sea snails and I was going to be ok with Japan.

Thankfully fear is not the only emotion intimately connected to the three years I have spent eating my way around this island. I have been exhausted as I sipped my 400 yen cup of tea at the top of Mount Fuji, I have been content as I watched my partner bake sourdough bread because the Japanese variety tastes too much like dessert, I have been annoyed at a spiteful crow who helped himself to a chunk of my chocolate cake while camping and I have been furious while eating at Burger king when my dad continued to comment about how un-exotic the meal was after I had spent the last two weeks having him try everything from Sukiyaki to the best parts of the Bluefin tuna.  

After a while Roland made bread baking his bitch.

I have also been blessed with an abundance of happy memories, one of which always springs to attention the moment I think back on my journey thus far. It was a glorious cliché of an autumn evening, it was warm but not oppressive, it was my birthday but I was turning 27 not 30. I was joined by my leading man and my favorite friend and together we all failed to read the Kanji on the billboard that clearly stated that you had to pay to have a barbeque on the beach. Not only did we accidentally break the law, we did it in style as we lit a roaring fire and set off an array of fireworks a few feet away from where the owner stood staring our way. However, the real joy of the evening was pulling off a good old South African braai (BBQ) in a decidedly different land. Yes we had to fashion our own spice mix from whatever we could find, yes I made potato salad with sushi mayonnaise, yes the bread was too thick and sweet to make an effective braai brootjie (think outdoor toasted sandwich) and yet we faced that foreign bay filled with jellyfish, and claimed that corner of the beach for Africa. Three years later I know where to buy good mayo, I have imported spices from back home and we bake the bread we need, we even pay our way when required and still that braai occupies the top spot in my mind, still that braai represents the day I made Japan my temporary home.

Ah but every silver lining has its cloud and today has been pretty rainy. A few hours before attempting this story I had lunch with two teachers who I met on my very first day. These two ladies force fed me little fish and bitter goya, they filled me in on all the gossip as we huddled over the heater and made me laugh an immeasurable amount of times and yet today, due to the shuffle that sends teachers off to other schools, they left me behind. We all met up at the little temple grounds just around the corner from my school and packed out our picnic of onigiri, delicate sandwiches and salads under cherry trees in full bloom. It was beautiful, in that end of an era kind of way and I will forever associate those falling pink petals with those sweet old ladies who made my first three years at my school so much more special.

After all this time, flitting about this breathtaking country I am slowly starting to realize just how beautifully Japan blends its culture and cuisine. Beers start wearing cherry blossoms during spring and even get an extra alcoholic kick during autumn. Summer festivals feel somewhat lacking if I have not at least eaten one crepe and two cups of shaved ice and what would I do in the winter without warm ramen at the local restaurant that I was so reluctant to enter at first because I thought it looked too yakuza-ish. You come across the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to food on this island but I find it ultimately impossible to separate my extraordinary experiences from all the fascinating meals that find their way onto my table.  

Freda`s top 10 Japanese experiences

Here I sit at my gray army desk, decorated with kanji cards and daruma dolls, there are no classes today and I have already eaten all the cookies I was going to give the kids for next week’s lesson. I have nothing but time. This is a far cry from last week`s teaching my tail off and taking an interview that will decide my fourth year fate concerning the Jet program and so with all these extra minutes at my disposal I have taken the time to think about why I would want to stick around.

Japan and I have danced a fine tango and while we have most definitely stepped on each other’s toes from time to time I think we have had a frak load of fun. Sometimes, when I am able to overcome my lazy ways, I have highlighted some of the places and people who have made this time on foreign soil so special but for the most part I just put up a few Facebook photos and get back to gaming, or teaching or trying to coerce Roland into making me some tea because I am trapped in my fluffy blankets and cannot escape. I have however seen some pretty exciting places and chatted away to some pretty amazing people so here is `Freda`s top 10 Japanese experiences. I have tried to stick to things I have not discussed before but I make no guarantees.

Number 10: Kumamoto

Einstein was wrong, there are three big infinites; the universe, human stupidity and Kumamon the bear and while this representative of Kumamoto is truly terrifying, and everywhere you look, he does not dull any of the shine given off by this breathtaking prefecture. Not only did Roland and I get to share a few beers over some raw horse meat (yes I felt bad) with great South African / Portuguese company but what rivals climbing up an active volcano in the dead of winter or spending time with ninjas and samurai at a picture perfect castle. Number 10 on the list is walking the summer gardens with Roland and freezing my ass off in the company of my brother in law and a very angry Mount Aso.  

Number 9: Nara 

While standing near this sweet-potato seller, we heard a foreigner loudly say: there is always money in the sweet-potato stand!   

The old capital city of Japan has some hardcore deer! A few of them had tattoos and one was definitely smoking a cigarette while mugging me of every rice cracker I carried. If you are planning to brave this city stocked with giant bronze Buddhas and spectacular wooden temples make sure you keep your hands where the deer can see that they are cracker free. My dad getting damn near knocked down by deer and having my breath stolen by the immensity of Todaiji temple is why Nara is sitting pretty at number 9.

Number 8: Nagasaki lantern festival 

Allow me to lay a little math on you. Take 3 effervescent South African ladies and add one stoic Namibian, subtract a snowy mountain highway but allow for a toasty car filled with road trip snacks and supplies, multiply by an amazing Dutch infused town and finally set it all alight with millions of glowing lanterns. We stuffed ourselves full of Izakaya food (pub fare) and Kakuni Manju (buns filled with pork BBQ) and ran around the cold night air taking thousands of photos of the magnificent paper lanterns. That night still inspires a huge smile on my face and a great desire for fatty pork barbeque every time I think of it.      

 Number 7: Fukuoka Beer Fest and Costco 

Being crushed under Costco goods

October-fest, Japanese style

In a land of plastic cheese and pizza topped with mayonnaise and corn only one hero has the stones to step up and with a booming gaijin voice proclaim, enough of these flavorless potato chips and inability to find feta for your salad or muffins the size of your head, I will save you puny teachers of English for I am Costco! It might take two and a half hours of driving but if you take some good company along (I am looking at you Ducky and Katie J) the time flies.

Fist you load up on your yearly calories with a pizza slice, American hotdog and bottomless coke from the food court, then you wash handfuls of orange pizza grease from your face before grabbing a ginormahuge (thanks for the word Alisha) trolley that you proceed to fill with tubs of peanut butter, German sausages and of course mountains of cheese. If you are still good and hyperglycemic from all the sugar feel free to visit a fun German beer festival held every now and then and get your imported brew and pretzels on. It is impossible to have anything other than an epic time.

Number 6: Camping in Okinawa 

View from the tent

Camping in the rain is not great, camping in the rain while dying of the flu is really not great. Camping in the rain while sick and discovering that the showers are cold and the toilet is of the squat variety is misery incarnate. And yet, despite all of this Roland and I crawled out of our tiny tent, feasted our eyes on the most incredible view and had a memory making time on the island of Okinawa. The aquarium is pretty spectacular and the main tank that holds a few whale sharks is impressive to say the least. The flower park / greenhouse right next door is also well worth a visit and driving little pineapple shaped cars while eating pineapple slices as you look at pineapple plantations is pretty damn fun. It was refreshing to dine on some foreign food like spareribs and American ice-cream but Roland and I will forever kick ourselves for assuming that the taco rice that we saw advertised everywhere was not as we assumed octopus rice (the Japanese for `octopus` is `tako`) but a delicious Mexican inspired deconstructed taco on rice. Oh well, at least we learned how to make it at home. 

 Number 5: Hakone  

This little town just outside of Tokyo is ridiculous! It throws you over cliffs in cable cars, it lets you ride pirate ships over mountain lakes, it shows you actual Picassos and lets you lie down next to authentic Henry Moors, few places packs so much sightseeing into such a small package and it is well worth a visit. The open air art museum had me gasping at every second name I read and seeing a snow covered Fuji san from the deck of a pirate ship is as amazing as it sounds. Now add koi ponds and cherry blossoms in full bloom and you end up with a kickass mini adventure by anyone’s standards.

 Number 4: Eating okonomiyaki in Osaka 

I have always appreciated a good contrast and so when my early evening was filled with staring out over the entire Osaka from the Ueda sky building`s roof, nothing made me happier than getting down to the old-Japanese-street-style restaurants kept in the basement of this iconic building, sitting down in a tiny Okonomiyaki eatery and telling the sweet old Japanese chef to osusume (recommend) us up something to eat. The restaurant is pretty famous and has at most five tables so the in-laws and I had to wait a little while but holly molly was it worth it. 

While I like Hiroshima style Okomimiyaks, as Roland calls it, I love the Osaka style even more. There is not all that much of a difference, one is more mixed and one has more cabbage to batter ratio but at the end of the day a meat, cheese, egg, sauce, mayo grilled pancake hits the spot. You can even add some noodles if you so choose. The atmosphere at that restaurant was friendly and warm and the izakaya style place around the corner was equally nice. The kind owner even gave us free desert because he said foreigners should enjoy their time in Japan.

Number 3: Disney…freaking…sea!!! 

Yeah....I have very little shame...

When I was growing up in good old SA, telling my folks that I wanted to go to Disney land was usually met with `well I want a red Ferrari and we can’t always get what we want`. Don`t get me wrong, my childhood was far from Annie or Oliver Twist-ish but living so far away from the US-of-A meant my chances of meeting Mickey were slim indeed. Well you can suck it improbable childhood dreams because I randomly organized my ass all the way to Japan and in so doing put myself in the direct path of Tokyo Disney. I have seen both parks (Disney Land and Disney Sea), the latter park twice because why the hell not and I have some really fun memories to look back on. There is the time that we made my slightly claustrophobic mom-in-law go down an Indiana Jones cave ride just after she had told us that her biggest fear was getting buried alive, I fondly look back at Roland`s face radiating `what-the-hell-is-this`, during what he felt was a very boring ride down `it`s a small world after all`, seeing the fear in Ducky and the German`s eyes after doing the Tower of Terror and how much fun Cornelia and I had trying to do every bloody ride in the park while looking super stylish in our matching Mickey and Stitch hats. Yeah, I totally got to high five the hell out of five year old Freda.

Number 2: Osaka`s King Tut exhibit.   

Not only did I get to hang with king Tut`s stuff, I got to see a whale shark.

Every now and then when I glimpse a famous artifact on an Egyptian documentary or in a random magazine, I still go `I saw that` to nobody in particular. As a little girl I was obsessed with Egyptology, thanks largely to my dad telling me the life story of Cleopatra while I sat, wide eyed in the back of our old Volkswagen bus. I knew the names of Egyptian gods like kids today know their Pokemon and on my wall hung a replica of the Rosetta stone (a gift from Ducky), kindly framed for me by my loving mom. I even took ancient cultures as a minor during my university days. So imagine if you will how shaky my knees were while I walked into an exhibit housing 122 objects excavated from Egyptian tombs, 50 belonging to Tutankhamen himself. I was beside myself with joy and I barely had the ability to occasionally whisper in Roland’s ear, `Can you believe this` or `I saw pictures of this sculpture in probably 20 textbooks`. I am trying to do it all justice but honestly that day was beyond what I can manage with words. 

Number 1: It was always going to be Odaiba Island. 

Most people know this manmade island as a slightly cheesy district of Tokyo city but I know it

as the freaking future! Odaiba adds a generous helping of sci-fi to your soul with its futuristic artworks, ultramodern architecture and of course the huge Gundam fighter looming over all of us mere mortals. What other place on earth comes equipped with an onsen village (an entire town built to look like Edo period Japan, where everybody wears yukata (summer kimono) before or after spending some time in all the different types of warm water baths), a Toyota test track where you can race (ok....go like 40 kph) any of their models for like R30, huge shopping centers where the ceiling of the building matches the sky outside, a Ferris wheel, a games arcade and my favorite part, the Miraikan science museum, where you can see the little robot named Asimo, kick a ball, shake his groove thing and chat away to his handlers. Few things are as fun as watching that little robot run around. 

When all of this has tuckered you out I recommend getting yourself a huge Hawaiian burger from Kua'aina while you look out over the bay, sporting a fine view of Tokyo Tower and a fake statue of liberty.

 This is also the home of the most famous Anime expo in the world. Comiket takes place twice a year and sees more that 500 000 people, many dressed up as their favorite characters, come to shop, chat to other fans and show off their costumes. The crowds are amazingly managed and you see huge Tetris squares of people marching army style into slots, eventually leading to the main event. It is something to behold but be warned the trains are a tad full on those days. 

So while I am not so big into warm woolen mittens or brown paper packages tied up with string, these are a few of my favorite things. There is still so much left for me to see, I have yet to visit the Hokkaido snow festival or naked man battle and I hear rumors of Harry Potter world opening next year. So if all goes well with my interview results I will have a few more pages for you after another year in Japan, if not I am getting my South African adventure on and you guys better all be ready with the braai invites.

So, winter in Japan ...

Snow blasted trees in Kumamoto

Due to abandoning my old, frosty ice fortress of an apartment last year, just after the worst of the winter had, had its way with me, I have been bubble-wrap free since April 03. You see winter in Japan is a war waged with warm little bags of magic metal, kerosene heaters and if you do not enjoy Jack Frost nipping at your nuggets, bubble wrapped windows.

So how does a chilly G.I Joe or Jane protect him or herself against the onslaught of Japanese winter, I hear you ask. I realize that you folks back in Sunny South Africa are reading this post with frowns on your foreheads while you wonder why I am not just putting on a warm jacket and maybe if things are really bad, switching on the little heater covered in dust due to lack of use. This is not sunny South Africa; this is snowy, ice-rainy, below zero, poorly insulated Japan. Some of our doors are made of paper for crying in a frozen bucket. 

But, while nobody really wins this war, most of us escape with our lives and this is how we fight the good fight.

Get your onsen on!

While I have thawed many a toe in the warm onsen waters all over Oita, this last weekend I was lucky enough to try something new. Most of my onsen experiences have been at the cheaper public baths where you either wear a swimming costume and share the mineral rich waters with both boys and girls or you birthday suit up with members of the same sex. My last encounter of the warm water kind saw me relaxing all by myself in one of the `family` baths where you can either have the place to yourself or invite your nearest and dearest, well the ones you care to see naked anyway. Not only did my beautiful rocky pool come with an outside shower, sauna and kickass kabosu (type of lime) body wash but a steaming hot waterfall filled my natural stone bath. Yeah, as far as scrubbing up is concerned, it does not get any better than a Japanese onsen.   

Not so private bath

Private bath

Surrender to the nerdy side.

Now I realize that not all of you out there are as, shall we say, enthusiastic about nerdy or geeky things as my partner in crime and I are, but hear me out. While some of you know your way around a ski slope or snowboard, I was not blessed with the ability to do anything other than hit the ice, face first whenever I even look at skate or sled, so my options tend to turn more towards indoor activities. My advice to anyone thinking of braving the Japanese winter on a long term basis is to don your fluffy Jedi robe, crank up the kerosene heater or crawl under the kotatsu with a few good friends and start playing some board games. There is nothing quite like getting your ass owned at some cards against humanity or Geek-challenge or even some weird zombie game that I still need to get the hang of. Roland and I even managed to win a bottle of champagne for riding a particularly knowledgeable friend`s coattails all the way to geek trivia victory at our local bar. If you prefer to Han Solo it up, the Japanese speed demon internet can also provide you with many hours of mining metals in a good MMO, fighting some foes on X-box live or even just watching some quality shows on Japanese Hulu. All in all I give gaming with some good friends a solid 10 out of 10.       

Buy anything that emits heat.

As I am typing this I am wearing heattech clothing (a type of undershirt or leggings that were designed to keep you toasty), I have two kairo on my person (a little bag of….um…magic, that starts warming up the minute you take it out of its plastic wrapper and last for about 20 hours) and I am breathing in the fine fumes given off by my kerosene heater because it is cheaper than using electricity. I eat hot pots called nabe and while I do not have a kotatsu (table with a heating element and duvet) to snuggle under, I spend many an hour under my electric blanket.

Kairo

While I am by no means a veteran of Japanese winter I feel it my duty to warn any new teachers thinking of heading to the land of the not so warm sun, that while you are going to cry at least once over having to face your freezing shower room or find your teeth chattering as you try to teach in a classroom devoid of any heat, there will also be crisp white Christmases, warm ramen with friends and if you are lucky, soaking in an open air onsen as steam rises from your fingers and snow collects in your hair.

A watched tent never blows over.

The many lessons I have learned while camping in Japan:

1.    Cats are heartless creatures who will steal your last chicken drumstick while giving you a look of pure disdain, or even cat-burgle your potato salad purely because it can.   

2.    Just as a watched kettle never boils so an almost blown over tent will not tumble into the sea no matter how hard my friend Josie stares at it.

3.    No matter how idiot proof Roland makes the instructions, I will still put a tent together to look like an abandoned witch hovel that bergies would be too ashamed to sleep in until he comes to fix it.  

4.    Metal pegs and a plastic hammer do not work as well as one might think.

5.    Whenever we are in a crowd or an onsen I will embarrassingly speak Japanese to my Korean friend, every friggin time.

6.    When David says he will get some fire wood he means he is about to deforest half of Japan.

7.    Camping in Japan is ridiculously fun.

I think it was when we felt the second vibrating tremor under our feet as we hammered in our first peg, that Roland, Lauren and I realized that we had chosen to erect our tent on an old meteor crash site. However, Roland was not going to let a little granite and diamond stop him and his plastic hammer and so after a few muscle spasms and manly grunts he Germaned his way into the ground.

The Nagasaki based campsite was beautiful, with a grassy Frisbee field and an ocean filled with sharp rocks, jellyfish, sea urchins and some weird muscles that one of our party members thought we would eat if he cooked it. He was wrong. David and Minyoung were the second couple to arrive along with their adorable baby who gave me nothing but suspicious looks the entire weekend. Well that is not strictly true as he did flash me a big smile when he saw that I was heading home. Damn kids and their ability to tell who is scheming to kidnap them.

The second couple thought they would take the scenic route past our campsite to the other side of Nagasaki prefecture, because who doesn’t like an extra hour of driving before putting your tent up in the dark. Luckily Josie and Mark made it in time for our first meal of eat whatever comes off the grill, immediately. I think we ended up having chicken for starters and garlic bread for dessert.      

The next day dawned with a cup of stolen coffee and a trip to the nearby onsen to wash some of the smoke out of our hair and some of the bacon and egg grease from our hands. I know I say this all the time but man I love to onsen! There is just something weirdly fun about being naked outside, in a gorgeous stone hot-spring while talking to your girlfriends about how boys can`t close a cupboard or find an object just slightly left of their field of vision.

As the other campers went back to chill, Roland, Lauren and I headed to the nearby Huis-ten-bosch theme park. Not only does this perfect replica of a city found in the Netherlands appeal to my Dutch sensibilities of eating chocolate and cheese, at this time of year it plays host to the gardening world cup and a Van Gogh exhibit showing off fifty of his works. 

While I enjoyed looking at the amazing little blocks of art that was the sculpted gardens, getting to see the actual paint strokes of the artist I admire most in the world was one of those moments that just gives my soul a good shake. I was biting back the tears as I stared into that man`s eyes as he saw them and felt him wring every drop of emotion out of me with a few well placed patches of colour. I bought a little overpriced fridge magnet at the gift shop depicting one of his self-portraits so that every now and then when I grab a block of cheese or put back the milk I get to have that little chill of Goosebumps up my arms as I remember how it felt to see so much genius a few inches from my face.   

   

My intellectual introspection was very short lived however as not five minutes after viewing this amazing exhibition I found myself barefoot in an exact replica of the Royal palace of Amsterdam. You see, Lauren had worn some pretty high heels to the park, not knowing that the place is huge and so after many a kilometer her feet finally said no! She was also wearing tights and so would have looked like even more of a crazy person if she had no shoes on so after much protesting on her part I handed her my slip on shoes and walked the fancy pants palace grounds, street urchin style.       

Our last night once again saw the grills lit and the meat marinating as all of us attempted a game called Geek challenge, sponsored by the lovely Ducky that is currently living it up back in SA. Now I don`t want to say that Josie and Mark cheated to beat team Froland but they did, a lot! Our imminent defeat even made Roland brave enough to cry, `Noooooo woman` when I hastily shouted out the wrong answer relating to the X-men.      

Other than losing our ETC ticket for 10 minutes as we hit the toll booth while searching up a storm, the trip back was all Belgian ice-cream and magic dumplings filled with curry and a soft boiled egg. It really was a fantastic weekend and I am already looking for the next campsite to be lucky enough to get a little visit from a few foreigners and one suspicious little kid.