Liebster award

Usually I stick to Japanese related posts but since a friend and fine writer asked me to be part of another project I could not say no. I should have a more `Roland and Freda run around Japan post up soon though`. In the mean time here is something just for fun.

How this works: I was given a Liebster award by a fellow ALT/Blogger whose posts you can peruse over here: http://sopheliajapan.blogspot.jp/

Here are the Liebster Rules:
1. List 11 facts about yourself.
2. Answer the 11 questions given to you.
3. Create 11 new questions for the bloggers you nominate for the award.
4. Choose 11 bloggers with 200 or less followers to nominate (I just chose people whose blogs I liked).
5. Go to each bloggers page and let them know about the award.
6. Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.

Who I nominate:

Let`s Enjoy together: http://kaikinapela.blogspot.jp/

It`s not what it seems: http://nihonnohana.tumblr.com/

(You are supposed to link 11 but I am sticking with 2)

Eleven Facts about me:

1.    While having no writing experience other than psychology papers, I once entered a competition to review an anime I had watched. My prize ended up being a job and while writing for that magazine I not only figured out that I rather like writing but that I was going to get my ass to Japan, one way or another.  

2.    I fell in love with Roland while we were debating aspects of the Second World War (romantic I know). It was the first time I had heard him passionately, eloquently and with a good deal of wit, counter argue every point I put on the table and I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of what I would discover over the years to be an unending amount of awesome.  

3.    I once punched a girl in the face. She was a senior at my kung fu school and I only got in one hit before she shut me down as part of our initiation-into-the-school-fight, but I am still going to bore the grandkids with this story.

4.    Now I am geeky in many ways but my first love is still playing PC games. Here in Japan I play mostly online but back in the day I would make 50 sausage rolls (I had to or the rest of my all boy clan would live off of only beer), pack my mattress (I was going to sleep in style for the few hours I was not staring at my screen) and join 750 other gamers for a LAN and a few hundred games of Dota.

5.    When it came to high school sports I was somewhat of a superstar what with my social tennis and D-team netball skills……..D-team.  

6.    I have pet a lion, a cheetah, a lynx and a fully grown tiger. The last one because the nice Thai man did not understand my frantic English of `No do not take me near the tiger` as he grabbed my hand and placed it on the tiger`s back.

7.    On my wall hangs a replica of Darth Vader`s lightsaber. One of the funniest things I have ever seen was Roland chasing a moth out of our apartment with it glowing red and making the movie sound effects.    

8.    The first time I saw snow was while living in Japan, I freaked out and ran around in it while my fellow teachers looked confused.

9.    The best snack in the world is Nik Naks, a type of corn chip, msg filled snack similar, but far superior to Cheetos. I cried when I realized I had finished the supply that Roland had brought back for me from South Africa. I am not even embarrassed.

10.  I read the word ` yacht` as `yak` (like the animal but with a T at the end) until I got to university and somebody corrected me. Every now and then I will think back to this fact and shiver with horror.

11.  I was sorted into Gryffindor by the sorting hat.  

Eleven Questions given to me:

1.   What is the most important thing you read online this week?

While I stay well clear of fan fiction most of the time, a friend of mine recommended this retelling of Harry Potter with a sciency twist; it is a pretty interesting read.  http://hpmor.com/ 

2.   Which country that you have never visited do you most want to go to?

New Zealand………what is that you are saying New Zealand……..you have Lord of the rings related scenery, lamb chops and is relatively close to Japan?........Why yes I will visit the crap out of you soon! 

3.   What is the worst movie you have ever seen?

Roland, after watching and subsequently loving Starship Troopers 1 (what can I say, he is a classy guy), thought that 2 and 3 would be a fun watch. He was wrong, so very, very wrong. Starship Troopers 2 and 3 is by far the worst movies I have ever seen. 

4.   What song do you listen to when you are most in need of a pick-me-up? 

Radioactive by Imagine Dragons

Dota by basshunter (Don`t judge me).

Big in Japan by Martin Solveig featuring Dragonette 

5.   What children’s book describes the meaning of life best in your eyes?

I really can`t answer this one, many books have many parts that I feel add to what I have chosen as the meaning of my life in particular but there is no one book I can single out as the most appropriate. I can say though that while reading Roald Dahl`s autobiography as a kid, I knew I wanted to read more good writing, travel to interesting places and try to make the best of bad situations. 

6. Can you name a movie adaptation that was better than the book?

Nope 

7. What obscure piece of trivia are you most impressed with yourself for knowing?

While quite a few people know that the 1^st line on Karl Marx`s grave says, `Workers of all lands unite`, not many people know the last inscription that reads, ` The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point however is to change it. ` 

8. What is your favourite vegetarian recipe? Again, links or post in full please ;)

I do not have a link but it is super easy and cheap to make.

Pumpkin Pie (not the sweet American kind): Put 2 peeled and cut potatoes, 1 chopped onion and about half a small pumpkin or butternut squash (peeled and chopped into Lego sized blocks) into a pot with a little bit of water and cook (covered) over a low heat until it is soft enough to mash. Mash it up roughly, add a little salt and put in an ovenproof dish. Now mix half a packet of mushroom soup powder and half white onion soup powder with a cup of milk and cook in the microwave for like 20 seconds, stir and repeat and then pour over the pumpkin mash. Sprinkle cheese over the top and melt in the oven or under the grill for about 10/15min. Eat it all!   

9. What was your very first pet's name?

Hasie Kalbassie (It is Afrikaans and translates to Bunny Wunny). I was not very original with pet names yet. 

10. What is your "guilty pleasure" TV show?

The Bachelor, it is terrible, sexist to men and woman, staged most of the time and yet I LOVE that ridiculous show.   

11. Tell me about a book that changed how you see the world.

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. My entire family read and enjoyed this book and we never like the same books! We all got something else out of it but it made me think about how safely I was living my life and I think it helped push me to eventually live abroad. 

Eleven new Questions you have to fill in.  

1.    What story do you plan to tell your kids (or friend’s children) over and over again one day?

2.    Who is your favourite artist (this can be taken as broadly as you like) and why?

3.    What have you made recently?

4.    If you could be any character in any book or movie who would you be?

5.    Tell me something that at the time was super embarrassing but now you think of as a funny story.

6.    What has been your favourite year so far and what made it special?

7.    What song do you listen to when nobody else is around?

8.    What do you wish you had worked harder at?

9.    What would you say is your favourite quote?

10.  Which country that you have never visited do you most want to go to?

11.  What historical figure would you remove from history and who would you clone?

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.