Hamburger Shangri-La

This past weekend we went to a new (for us) restaurant that was recommended to us by some fellow American expats (thanks Mick & Linda!).   It was one of the most unusual restaurants I have ever eaten at.  The place was only about 10 minutes from our house but we would've never found it by ourselves.  It is a tiny shack, in the middle of a rice paddy, that is decorated like a fifties diner and serves the most incredibly authentic hamburgers and fries.  The food was amazing.  Seriously, it was like Fuddrucker's but better.

outside

The name of the place is 18Diners (this is just a blog, and it's all in Japanese).  My theory on the name is that the place can only hold about 18 diners.... as you can see, there are only four tables inside, and two outside.  They also do catering and take out though.  The Japanese guy who waited on us seemed to be a one-man operation---we were able to talk to him just a little bit (he spoke no English) but unfortunately my Japanese isn't strong enough to say "Where on earth did you learn to make burgers like this and how did you end up doing it in a shack in an Ashikaga rice paddy?"  So the place is kind of a mystery.....

inside

We fell on the burgers below like a pack of starving wolves.  Even the baby was excited---he/she bounced around while I ate. (Yes, I can feel the baby.  Yes, 17 weeks is a little early for that.  No, it's not gas.)  I didn't even feel that guilty about eating it (like I do when I have the occasional McDonald's burger) because everything was so fresh and obviously not over-processed.  The 100% beef patties, buns and fries are homemade.  The little bowl you see on my plate below is the "homemade pickles" side that I couldn't resist trying out.  They turned out to be sweet pickles, which aren't my favorite, but they were good sweet pickles, if you like that sort of thing.  Next time I'm going to try out the "homemade coleslaw salad".

drooooool

the parking lot---it really is in the middle of a rice paddy

Baby Plans

Since I know a few of you are wondering where I'm planning to have the baby and what I'm doing about doctors and such here goes.....I am planning to have him/her here in Japan, but in Tokyo rather than here in Ota.  This is mainly because the doctor's offices and birthing clinics here in Ota very rarely have any English-speaking staff.  It's not too uncommon for doctors to speak some English, but nurses, receptionists etc. will not.  There are many tasks that I don't mind performing in Japanese but giving birth for the first time is not one of them.

Also, the small-town traditional "Japanese" clinics do tend to have a few quirks that I don't want to deal with including but not limited to: not letting me have Western food, not letting Chad in the delivery room, possibly (God forbid) not being able to give me an epidural on demand and not letting the baby stay in my room with me.  For the record, I have no concerns about the overall quality of medical care, even here in Ota.  If you want to read more about birthing babies Japanese-style you can go here and start reading the stories of another American expat (the blogger of the site Surviving in Japan) who recently had her baby in a birthing clinic-type situation.  It very much informed my decision.

I am seeing the OBGYN at the Tokyo Medical and Surgical Clinic which I first mentioned here.  My doctor is Japanese but speaks English like an American.  We're pretty sure he delivers every foreign baby in the city---his waiting room is always a United Nations of pregnant ladies.   So far I'm pleased with how my checkups are going, it seems to be standard here to do an ultrasound every time which is nice.  It makes all the trips worthwhile because I always get to see the baby.  I do have to take the trains/subways to go to my appointments but it's been good practice---I'm pretty good and getting into, out of, and around the city now.  In August, we'll move to a company apartment in the city for my last month of weekly appointments and we'll stay there for about a month after the baby is born.  Chad will commute back here for work.  After that the plan is to come back here.

Later, I'll post about the hospital we've (probably) chosen and soon we'll know whether we're having a boy or a girl!  Stay tuned!

Primping

Two interesting things you can find in a Japanese drug store....
(click the photos to enlarge them)

neck & face rollers, used to reduce neck & face wrinkles
(apparently very popular in many Asian countries)

electric eyelash curlers--I think they heat up, but I'm not sure.  I'm not about
to poke one of these things in my eye....even to have "glamorous Barbie lashes"

Plus, a truly, truly astonishing array of false eyelashes.....I'm wondering what happens if you try to use an electric curler on false lashes?  Do they melt?  Curl glamorously?  Inquiring minds want to know.....

they go all the way down the aisle

Big Crazy America!

Since we arrived we have been continually entertained by this series of hamburgers at McDonald's called "Big America".  The entertaining part is that most actual Americans wouldn't touch them.  Each burger has a bunch of wacky toppings and is named after a famous area in the US.  Don't try to correlate the toppings to the name or you'll just end up confused....

When I started doing my research for this post I found that there are already many mentions of Big America on the Internet.  Apparently this is the third year Japanese McDonald's has done this, each time with different burgers.  I was able to find the 2011 ones here---seems the new ones always run from January to April.  For the record, I don't remember any of these from last year---I feel like I remember a Hollywood burger for some reason though.  Maybe that was from 2010. 

The Huffington Post has topping descriptions of the 2012 burgers, although I disagree with the description of the current Beverly Hills burger.  After careful scrutiny I have determined that it has lettuce, fried onions, Caesar sauce, a fried egg, cheese and avocado sauce.

We do not and will not know what any of these messes taste like.  You'll have to find a more adventurous blogger for that.....we can tell you that the Quarter Pounder and Chicken McNuggets are normal, and taste like they do in America. ;)


And finally, an unrelated note about some blog housekeeping---on the sidebar I moved the links to their own page and added an archive so that new readers can easily flip back through old posts.  Hope you enjoy!

Mad for Muji

I've posted before about a lot of the stores in the mall, but for whatever reason, I've never mentioned the one that might be my very most favorite.  Part of the reason I never mentioned it is that I had no idea what the name of the place was.  Here is the entrance :

that could have said "child sweatshop manufactured goods" for all I knew

I finally got around to asking someone for a translation and it turns out that it translates to Mujirushi Ryōhin or rather "no-brand quality goods".  But it's commonly known as just Muji.  It's a pretty popular Japanese chain that began as a supermarket store brand and eventually turned into it's own "no-brand brand" and company.  Full history here.  There is a wide variety of goods, but all have simple designs and plain packaging.  To me, it has a little whiff of Ikea about it.

furniture and bed linens

accessories

office/art supplies

cosmetics

cookware and utensils

I've purchased everything from shoes to makeup remover to silicone pastry molds here.  The prices are good and everything does seem to be high quality.  They have stores all over the world, but it appears there is only a New York flagship one in the US.  They do ship to the US though.  I can't say that they have anything that you can't easily get in the US (some of the Asian snack food maybe) but here in Ota it's not got much competition.

Hoarders

A little known side effect of becoming an expatriate is that you will also become a hoarder.  Our problem is isolated to candy and toiletries.....

Fortunately we don't eat the candy too fast---we're very good at rationing it out.  That is why some of it is in plastic tubs.  Except for the Skittles....Chad and I can really put away some Skittles.  Most of what you see can't be purchased here.  A few things (Hershey's Miniatures, Snickers, Twix, plain M&Ms) are available but just kinda expensive.

This is the closet in our office.  We call it "Walgreens".  Japanese toiletries are fine, and there are a million different kinds, but well....we just like what we like.

My Japanese Kitchen

For the past two weeks my nose and taste buds have been gradually returning to a somewhat normal pre-pregnancy state. I think whatever issues I have now are mostly PTSD-style flashbacks. I am even starting to want a Japanese dish again, not just any Japanese dish, (I'm still not gonna go gnawing on an octopus anytime soon) but my beloved tonkatsu.

I really want it from the bento shop around the corner (first mentioned in detail here) but this post is about the time I attempted to make it myself, full-on Japanese-style. This was right after the first of the year, but I wasn't able to post about it until now because shortly thereafter I was unable to do it justice (and by that I mean I couldn't so much as look at the photo without gagging).

I followed the instructions in Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking (first mentioned here, where I now realize I also mentioned our TV set up at a time when I wasn't short on post topics) to the letter:

complete with my $10 fake-lacquered serving tray and disposable chopsticks that we hoard
from the bento shop. plus the tiny bowls that I love to buy at the 100 yen ($1) store

Harumi says you have to have shredded cabbage, lemon, soy sauce and salt to eat with it. I added miso soup to the meal but I'm afraid my miso soup is terrible. I've got to find someone who can teach me how to make it---seriously, it's horrible. The tonkatsu itself was OK, but nowhere near as good as the bento shop's. I honestly don't know that I'll try to make it again. Maybe. Or maybe I'll just keep going around the corner.

March 11th, 2011 in Ota

I had another post all prepared but when I saw the date it would have I thought better of it.  Instead I'll tell you some interesting tidbits I learned recently about what it was like here in Ota one year ago today.  (I had a somewhat in-depth conversation about it with a Japanese friend for the first time.)

1. Japanese TV wasn't offering much coverage of what was going on, so other countries (i.e. the US) actually knew more about what was happening than the Japanese public.

2. However, NHK (the public/government TV station) did have helicopters with video cameras posted along the coast for just such an emergency.  They were able to video the tsunami as it happened.  Apparently, before the earthquake there were a lot of complaints from the public about how much money it cost the government to keep these choppers at the ready.

3. Here in Ota, the Aeon supermarket store shelves were bare for 2-3 weeks.  Everyone wanted bread and Cup O' Noodles.

4. Most foreigners around here dropped everything and ran to the airports.  Mainly out of the country, but some to Osaka in the far south.

I also learned that I could go over to city hall and borrow a radiation detector to run over my food any time I want.  And I learned that the maps that sometimes appear on food packages to indicate where the food is from (mainly dairy--butter, milk etc.) have always been there, not just since the earthquake as I had theorized.

Lost & Found Redux

Lately, Chad and I seem determined to scatter our valuables willy-nilly all over Japan.  And the Japanese people, bless them, are just as determined to find our stuff and keep it safe until we come looking for it.

This time, I dropped my small coin purse somewhere in the mall.  This tiny bag had almost the equivalent of $150 in it (cash is king here, and I carry much more than I ever did in the US).  Once I realized I'd lost it, I thanked heaven that it wasn't my actual wallet with my licenses and credit cards and proceeded to pay for my groceries via AMEX and go home.  I did do a quick floor check and I asked the clerk at the imported food store (where I last had the bag) if she had it.  She did not.  I gave it up for lost.

So I get home and tell Chad and he convinces me that I have to go back and find the mall's lost and found office because he is convinced that some honest Japanese soul immediately picked it up and turned it in.  (He also wanted his lunch, which I did not get while I was there because that would've required cash.)

So I schlep back to the mall and go to the information counter nearest to where I lost the bag.   I had to look up the Japanese for "lost and found office" and then show it to the clerk on my phone because it reads as "ishitsubutsutoriatsukaijo" and that is more Japanese than I can handle on the spur of the moment.  She informed me that she was the lost and found office and proceeded to ask me to describe the bag and it's contents.  In retrospect, this was excellent real-world Japanese practice as we talked size and colors and patterns and monetary amounts (and I only had to look up the word for "tan", yay me!).  She even drew a little picture as I talked so we could make sure she understood me.

Anyway, she didn't have it there, but she asked me to wait and got on the phone.  Lo and behold, she immediately announced that the information desk on the second floor had it!  And every last yen in it.  They did not ask me to review the contents or sign anything though, just gave it to me and let me go on my way.

I'd like to say we won't test out the honesty and efficiency of the Japanese culture any more after this, but that's probably not the case.  I just hope that next time it won't be our poor kid propped up behind the ishitsubutsutoriatsukaijo. ;)

Update: Since I posted this I have told the story to a couple of Japanese people.  According to them "ishitsubutsutoriatsukaijo" is perfectly understandable, but not the natural way to refer to a lost and found office.  The common word is "otoshimono" which comes from the verb for "to drop" which is"otoshimasu".  So basically you ask for the "dropped things place".  This sort of discrepancy happens a lot when we have to use the Japanese translation apps. on our phones.