I ate raw shrimp

Last night was the End-of-Year Party for my department at a traditional Japanese restaurant.  It was also a welcome party for those of us who were new to the department in the last few months.  It was my first traditional Japanese meal, complete with many interesting dishes.

Here is a picture of Maiko, Tanya and I happily full at the end of the meal.

This is what my place looked like when I arrived.  The small little salad thing was made of seaweed, squid, fish eggs and okra.  It was very slimy, but also a little spicy.  Actually, now that I think about it, this dish has been the only spicy Japanese food I've had since I got here.

 The next dish was an assortment of sashimi, including salmon, tuna, scallops, shrimp, and a white fish (halibut?).  This was my first time ever eating raw shrimp.  At sushi restaurants in the U.S., shrimp is always served cooked.  I'm not sure why, because it was pretty tasty raw.  Sort of creamy and sweet.

I didn't eat the head or tail.

After sashimi, we had a soup that included crab legs, clams, fish of some kind, meatballs, tofu, leeks, mushrooms and bok choi.  It was delicious.  We heated it ourselves at the table using a portable gas stove.

Maiko served everybody using a small ladle into tiny little bowls.  Most of us had seconds.

Here is my bowl with only the crab leg and tofu piece left.  Don't worry- I ate them next!

I missed photographing a little fish dish with a mayonnaise sauce, but don't worry, it was my least favorite anyway.
Next came a very strange decorative dish of cooked salmon with some sort of sauce, covered by an oyster mushroom, served on a big leaf.  The yellow thing is a seed from a ginko tree (it had no flavor, but was pretty to look at). The pink and white thing was a pickle young ginger shoot.  It was extremely tasty.  But mushrooms and ginger are two of my favorite foods...

The second to last dish I ate was the most familiar tasting of all the dishes to my American pallet.  Think of something like potato gratin, but with crab meat instead of potato pieces.  This was put inside a crab shell, then deep fried.  It was great, although admittedly greasy.

 There was one more dish I didn't photograph.  It was basically like sushi (individual servings of fish on rice) but the fish was cooked.  I was too full at that point to partake, so I don't know what it tasted like.

Finally, we ended with dessert.  This is a sponge cake with some sort of yellow cream on the inside.  The sponge cake was matcha (green tea) flavored.  It was excellent.  I'm never too full for dessert!

And that, plus two beers, was my first traditional Japanese meal.

Very tasty.

That's all for now

-Bre 

Kokusai Ski Adventure

Bre and I went on a ski adventure with Adit and Tanya.  Tanya and I worked together to teach Bre and Adit how to ski.  I made a video of the adventure.  In the video Adit crashes.  I feel bad about laughing at Adit when he crashes, especially once I realized that I cut him off, causing the crash.  Sorry about that Adit!

Here is Bre in the blowing snow.

 And here is Adit pretending to make a phone call.

 And these are other random photos of the Kokusai ski area.

Kokusai ski area is a great bargain.  The bus ticket, ski rental, and lift ticket comes to an amazing 5800 Yen = $74.50 package when purchased in advance.  I look forward to skiing again once my legs have recovered.

That's all for now.

Kyle (and Bre)

Random Thoughts

Another shopping adventure.  Bre and I went to a new grocery store with a sweet tooth.  We decided to get some cookies from the store and bought the package below.  Once we opened them up Bre said "these taste weird."  I tried one and thought these taste like booze!  I can't read the label so I can't tell you what kind of cookie this is, but I am 100% certain there is alcohol in these.  It has been cooked down, so you don't actually get drunk. 

 We went on a walk yesterday to JR station to buy tickets for skiing on Saturday.  The ground was very slippery.  I kidded Tanya, Adit, and Bre that they look like 3 ducklings waddling along in a line.  The ground here can be very slippery in the middle of the day.  I call it the Sapporo Ice Rink.  All the snow compacts and starts to melt in the  middle of the day.  Then in the evening it cools down and freezes all over again.

After going to JR station Bre and I went to the Hello Work office, the Japanese version of employment security office where they help job seekers find work.  It was in a part of town that we had not been to before, but armed with our directions we caught the streetcar and found the office on time.  When we arrived I learned that with my visa status as a dependent I can't seek work and was directed back to the immigration control office to work on changing my visa status.  We also got directions for where to go for free Japanese classes.  There are several places in Sapporo where volunteers teach Japanese.  Bre and I plan to try out these classes to start learning Japanese.

On the way back Bre and I found this guy doing magic tricks and juggling in the underground walkway connecting Odori Park to JR station.  In this photo he is magically pressing a bottle cap up from below the soda bottle into the bottle.  Just take my word for it that it was magical.  I was fascinated by how he was not collecting money and seemed to be doing the whole show by himself.  He would take breaks from his magic routine to reprogram his ipod music.

 This is the Xmas chance station inside JR station.  It is like a lottery that you enter, the requirements to enter are having 5 Xmas tickets.  The Xmas tickets can be picked up when you make a purchase at any of the stores in JR station.  There is a list of prizes on the right side of the photo including getaway vacations and cash prizes.  I am saving up my Xmas tickets to enter. 

 I have been wanting to get photos of these warning signs on the escalators for a long time now.  If you have been wondering what the dangers are on an escalator look no further.

 This photo is also from JR station.  I like the name Twinkle Plaza Travel Service.  It just seems so Japanese.

That's all for now.

-Kyle (and Bre)

Frog Education

I had a chance to talk with my Japanese friend, Maiko, today.   She explained some of the questions I have been asking in my blog about Japan.  One of the questions was why all the construction barrier animals.  According to Maiko, only a few years ago there were no construction barrier animals.  Then there started to be frogs.  The word for frog in Japanese (according to my Tuttle Pocket Japanese Dictionary) is Kaeru.  However Kaeru also has other meanings.  It also means "goes home, goes back, returns, leaves."  In other words the frog is a pun to say go back, stay away from the construction area.  After the frogs the other construction barrier animals quickly followed along.  Unfortunately there is no clever pun in the word monkey or elephant.

Kaeru - the frog pun

Maiko also explained some of her staple foods and they include miso soup, rice, and Nattō.  She would not go so far as to say these are staple foods for all Japanese, but I found it interesting.  I have tried Nattō, and I have to say it is a very different from American food.  It has a flavor and texture that is very unique.  I do not personally like it.  However I have heard a saying about nattō, that you know you are truly Japanese when you enjoy Nattō.  Thanks for helping me out Maiko!

-Kyle (and Bre)

Taxi mistakes

On Friday night Bre and I had a taxi adventure.  I should backup and explain that we went over to Tanya's (a visiting professor from Russia) for dinner.  Olga and her son Valdez also came to the dinner party.  When we were getting ready to leave Olga told us that she was getting a cab for the ride home and offered to give us a ride in her cab.  Our apartment is on the way to her apartment so we agreed. 

This photo of a cab is for illustration purposes only, it was not the cab we used.

Olga called the cab company with (what seemed to me) an impressive command of Japanese to request a cab to pick us up.  We waited a few minutes and got a call that the cab was waiting outside.  We went down and looked for the cab.   It was not outside the building.  We tried walking around the block to find it to no avail.  Eventually after standing around outside for 10 minutes Olga called the cab and asked him to meet us a the McDonald's down the street.  We saw a passing cab and waved it down.  All 4 of us piled in and gave him directions using Olga's Japanese and some hand signs to explain where we wanted to go.  As we went down the street what did we see but a cab on the street next to McDonald's blocking traffic.  This was the point where I realized that the cab we had jumped into was not the cab that we ordered. 

I am not sure what the moral of the story is, but I though you would enjoy hearing about it.

We went for a walk in the snow today (12-11-2011).  There was fresh snow this morning.

 We saw this on our walk.  I thought it was funny to see a man pulling a sled with a snow tire.   Though when I think about a sled seems like the most sensible way to carry a tire around in the snow.  Rolling a tire in the snow sounds like a way to build a snowman.

 Here is the answer to the age old question of where does all the snow go?  Apparently away a truck.

 I have received requests for stories about the troubles of getting coffee in Japan and the price of coffee.  As Bre and I don't drink coffee we don't have any good stories about getting it.  Just ask my old co-workers, they can tell you I am no expert on coffee.

For comparisons sake I photographed the Starbucks coffee at the grocery store.  It costs 890 yen for the regular house blend.  At today's exchange rate 890 Yen (JPY) = 11.45 Dollars (USD).  If you want to see a larger version of any photo just click on the photo.

That's all for now,

-Kyle (and Bre)

Bre’s Shopping Mistakes- Part 2

I’ve had many requests to continue my “shopping mistakes” series since the last posting I made, but until now I had no new material.  Apparently, both Kyle and I have been pretty good about buying what we expect… or maybe we’re just not being adventurous enough.

My latest shopping mistake actually occurred when I was in San Francisco.  I had a list of things to buy that we either had not found here in Japan, or things we wanted to have English labels.  One of the items on my list was a cheap electronic alarm clock… the kind with glowing red numbers so we could see what time it was in the middle of the night.  We think they should exist here in Japan, but we just haven’t seen any in a store.

I found a great, very cheap one at the Walgreen’s next to my hotel.  I even tested the alarm feature before I left San Francisco and it worked fine.

Kyle set it up when I came home yesterday afternoon.  At dinnertime, I teased Kyle for not setting it for the right time and I fixed it.  But then when I went to bed, I discovered that the time was wrong again… and realization dawned on me.

Cheap alarm clocks use the electrical current to keep track of time.  In the US, the electrical current in the power lines is transmitted as 120 volts at a 60-hertz frequency.  The mathematics of time keeping is pretty simple— for the US, 1 second equals 60 oscillations of the electrical current. BUT… where we live in Japan is different.  In Sapporo, the electrical current in the power lines is transmitted as 100 volts at a 50-hertz frequency.  This means that only 50 oscillations of the electrical current occur every second here.  Since my clock is looking for 60 oscillations before it ticks the second hand, my new clock is too slow.  It loses 10 minutes every hour.  In other words, it’s pretty much useless.  If all this is interesting to you, check out this cool article on electrical systems around the world. 

And in case you’re wondering about other aspects of electricity here:

   1) We use the same plugs as in the US.  Although, you generally don’t find 3-prong plugs; 2-prong or 2-prong with a grounding wire are much more common.

   2) The difference between 120 volts in the US and 100 volts in Sapporo is not that big of a deal.  Electronic devices take longer to charge, but they still work fine.

   3) The southwest half of Japan has a different electrical system.  They use 100 volts at a 60-hertz frequency, still with the same plug as the US… so if we lived in the southern part of Japan, I wouldn’t be writing this blog.

Until next time,

-Bre (and Kyle)

Snow and ice

Congratulations to Daniel for winning the caption contest from the last posting!

Daniel asked for a story about the transportation here in Sapporo.  I have limited experience with the transportation having only used the subway for 2 trips and not taken a bus.  I will have to work on getting some material to talk about in the next blog.  Speaking of transportation I did notice something funny the other day with the mailman.  He drives a small motorcycle that has a chain on the back tire.  It had covers for the handlebars that completely envelop the hands.  There is a box over the back tire that I assume holds the letters.  I was impressed that in a city known for its snow the postman uses a motorcycle.

I have not tried biking in the snow.  It is very slippery.  The bikers that I have seen have explained something that I have wondered for a long time.  Why are all the bicycle seats too low?  Everyone both short and tall has their bike seats adjusted to a height that is low which makes their peddling less efficient.  When the peddle is down all the way their knees are still bent at a 30 degree angle.  Bre was the one who solved the mystery.  They do it so that they can put their feet down on the ground easily when they loose their balance.  If you watch them bike on ice going around corners you can see in in practice.  It reminds me of dirt bike riders in the US.

I also have a congratulations to the blog, we passed the 2K mark.  As of this posting we have had 2143 page views.  Go Kyle and Bre in Japan!

It has been cold and icy here.  I went for a couple walks around the city.  The first photos are of the walls of the creek north of our apartment. 

 Cracks in the facade, sorry frogs, piles of ice, and restaurants serving rice.  

 I like the look of this Jack in the box.  It is not the same as the ol' Jack in the Box I grew up with.  This place has soup curry, coffee, and live music.  What more could you want?

 Here you can see the mad cyclists of Sapporo.  Neither snow, nor ice, nor fear of being hit by a car deters them from their mode of transport.

Speaking of bikers I actually saw one today who looked Japanese and was wearing a helmet.  His helmet looked more like a climbing helmet, and he had enough carabeaners on him to scale a glacier, so I am not sure if he counts.

 Here is Bre taking out the trash.  This morning they collect cans and bottles.  The trash system here is very complex.  We found directions in English about what to put out.  Basically you have to keep track of what they are collecting each day.  Then you take the items out and put them at the collection point under the blue mesh netting.  They pick it up around 8:30am.  There are special yellow bags that you must use for your burnable trash.  It costs extra to buy these bags, but they fund the trash pickup.  If you have something large to throw away you have to call in advance to set up a pickup time and pay extra to have it hauled away.

 I like the design on the fence by the farm fields.  I cropped this photo down to focus on the fence.  If you want a better look at this photo, or any of the photos I learned that you can click on the photo to see it at a much larger size. 

 This is the path into Hokudai.  Note the foot path and the bike path.

 I know it is cheesy, but I love the Boss coffee ads.  The Boss smokes a pipe, the Boss wants you to drink his coffee.  I don't actually drink coffee, so I am not planning to try it.

That's all for now.

-Kyle (and Bre)