What I'll Miss

What's that?  You're surprised that I'm actually going to miss something?  What with all the complaining I've done over the past (almost) four years?  Well, it's true....it's hard for me to think about now as I'm deep into anticipating American food preparing to go back to the US but I can come up with a few things....(sorry no pics, hope you can make it through!)

1. I know I'm going to be asked a lot over the coming year(s) what I miss most about Japan....my answer is probably going to be the people.  Being here has certainly made me see that people are basically the same the world over.  But I do think that Japanese people IN GENERAL are a little more quiet and thoughtful and less reactionary and proselytistic than Americans IN GENERAL.  The vast majority of the people I've interacted with have been lovely.  I have not had a single truly negative experience.  I've had a few shop clerks avoid my eyes (in hopes I didn't need help) and I usually get ignored by the people who hand out flyers by kiosks in the mall (I consider that a perk) but that is really the worst I can come up with.  I've been giggled at by a few teenage waiters.  I've been stared at creepily by a few old guys. (For the record, these last two would totally happen in the US too.)   But so many times I have asked for help or initiated a conversation (in my shamefully terrible Japanese) and have had the person try their hardest to figure out what I needed.  Other moms are so very welcoming in the playground and parks we go to. Everyone loves Cora....people around here are  used to adult foreigners but a foreign baby/toddler is still a pretty big draw.  I think when we move back home she's probably going to be offended that she isn't getting fawned over and "kawaii'ed" constantly.  So that makes me a little sad.....I may do a separate post about being an "outsider" in a homogeneous culture but even that hasn't been negative at all for me personally.  
2. I have pumped gas--no kidding--one (1) time in (almost) four years.  It was on a trip home to the US.  I have a lovely full-service place I go to maybe once every couple of months....because I rarely drive more than a few miles from my house.  At the full service place the nice workers will wipe my windshield/mirrors/windows down and give me a damp cloth to wipe my interior.  My dash and steering wheel have stayed astonishingly clean.  Back in America I DREADED pumping gas and my dash was filthy.  And there may be a full service place somewhere in Greenville, but I sure don't know where it is.  Or how much it will cost. And to all you reading from the states that don't allow you to pump your own gas ---- pphhht!!
3. Believe it or not, there are a few food items I'll miss.  Milk tea is probably #1.  I like a little gyudon (beef and rice dish) from Sukiya.  Tonkatsu (breaded sauced pork) from our local bento place is tasty.  You can get really good pre-made frozen dumplings to fry up.  I am going to miss making a lunch off of soft boiled eggs and tuna-mayo onigiri (rice balls) from 7-Eleven.  I realize that last one probably sounds gross but you'll just have to believe me that it's delicious.  However, any time I get a craving I feel sure that I can help it pass by getting a hotdog or a burrito.  Also, I'm looking forward to visiting the tiny Japanese grocery in Greenville.  Fingers crossed they carry milk tea!!
4. Speaking of food, what I"m really, really, really going to miss are Japanese vending machines.  I've blogged about them before but they need to be on this list.  Not only do they have cold and hot selections (cocoa, hot milk tea!) but there is always a wonderful, ever-changing selection of juice, tea and flavored water.  I don't drink a lot of soft drinks.  I never drink diet drinks and rarely drink caffeine (weird, I know).  I am not looking forward to returning to the land of Diet Coke and Mountain Dew. :(
5. I can't leave out Japanese-style service.  My particular favorite is how the grocery store cart and bagging process works.  When we first got here it bugged me but I've come to love it.  For starters, you don't leave items loose, you have to put them into shopping baskets inside your cart.  And then the cashier will move them into an empty basket as he/she scans them.   Whenever I've grocery shopped on trips home I always feel so rebellious and slovenly just chucking stuff down in the cart.  If you really want to be Japanese about it you'll carefully arrange all your food Tetris-style.  But you won't be as good at it as the checkout person, so don't even try. (I have absolutely stopped on my way to the checkout just to rearrange my items in a neater manner.)  Reusable bags are much more popular here and are easier to use, in a way, because you bag your own groceries.  And you should also do that in a careful and Tetris-style manner.  I really want to keep using my reusable bags.  In general, I expect to be kind of a weirdo in the US grocery store for a while.  If you see me out, watch carefully and enjoy whatever obsessive-compulsive-grocery-arranging-bag meltdown I'm having.   And also listen for me to say "excuse me" to everyone in Japanese. :)
6. I am going to miss my house!  Wait, what?  OK, so I'm not going to miss my Japanese house except for one small part---the entryway.  Because of the whole take-your-shoes-off thing, Japanese houses almost always have really nice big entryways that function as what we would call a mudroom in the US.  As I've started looking online at houses (as we will need to purchase one pretty quickly) I am really disappointed in the lack of a mudroom in most.  It's really nice to have a place for shoes, coats, hats, stroller etc.  Plus bags, keys, mail, a mirror....the US really needs to step it up in the entryway department.  However, if I don't end up with one and I get frustrated I'll just go lovingly stroke my thermostat or run something through my garbage disposal and hopefully the feeling will pass. 
7. Japanese clothes.....O, how I shall miss ye.  I have been running around the past few weeks frantically buying up pants and jackets.  Clothing here is more well-made and better quality than in the US. You're much more likely to find linings, pockets, etc.  And I'm talking about just your typical department store clothes.  Nothing designer or super expensive.  And it's all cut for short, narrow-ish people.  I bought a blazer the other day that fit perfectly off the rack.  I swear I heard a chorus of angels sing when I put it on.  Usually I have to have almost everything, but particularly "work clothing", tailored down so I don't look like I'm playing dress-up in my mother's clothes.   A special shout-out to Uniglo and Muji, both of which I am going to miss dreadfully.  I think both have stores in the US but none close to Greenville.  And I have a feeling the clothing is probably cut differently.  If anyone has ever been to an American one, please let me know!

That's all for now, maybe once we get back I'll update this post with more things I miss!

Bento Bonanza

If you have a Pinterest account, you most likely know to what "bento" refers.  For anyone unfamiliar, they're the little Japanese lunch boxes with food arranged in an artistic or cute design.  They've gotten kind of popular in the US, mainly with the types of people who spend way too much time on Pinterest (myself included).  Way back in the day, I did a post about a nearby take-out bento place.  I can report that we ate there last night and it is much the same as it was then.  It's fun for me to read that post now.....oh, the days when everything was exciting and new....

Anyway, this post is going to be specifically about the basic bento-making supplies available here.  When I found myself with a toddler I became a little bit more interested in the idea of making bento-type lunch presentations.  In my opinion, bento-style lunches and toddlers go really well together.  I don't get too crazy with the artistic presentation but I did go on a search (at the local department/dollar stores) for tiny cookie cutters.

Imagine my fascination when I found the following....

a kit to turn your rice into penguins

a fancy gizmo to cut the bread off of  sandwiches

millions of cute skewers

elaborate kits to put faces on rice balls

picks, tweezers, punches, oh my....

more skewers

my personal favorite....turn your rice into
the Shinkansen

turn your wienies into sea creatures

tiny, oh so tiny, sauce bottles

Folks, this is just a small selection.  I like to imagine how excited American bento-Pinteresters would be if they could get their hands on this stuff.  And then I like to imagine what many American moms would do if they were expected to make penguin-train-octopus masterpieces every morning....yikes.

Anyone ever seen bento-making supplies anywhere in the US?  Other than cookie cutters?

Roll It Up, Pat It Out...

I see a lot of "different" things here in Japan.  But after two and a half (!) years here I don't notice many of them anymore.  But there is one thing that still - after all this time - puzzles, fascinates and occasionally repulses me.

Japanese bakeries.

First, let me make clear that I am talking about bakeries and not sweet shops*.  I know in my mind they can sort of blend together sometimes but here they are very distinct.  Bakeries here are much more focused on non-sweet items than those in America.  In the average Japanese bakery (this does not include Starbucks or it's imitators) you will be hard-pressed to find cinnamon rolls, danishes, cookies, muffins or any of those other wonderful items you would expect to see. (Although, you may occasionally run across them and most bakeries will have a few dessert items available.)

Here are some of the things you can expect to see.  I've broken them down into categories that I feel best expresses the general composition of a Japanese bakery.

• Fake Hotdog Travesties

that is a really long, bad-tasting fake hotdog
in an equally disgusting "bun-like contrivance".
seriously, the bread is hard and the hotdog
is more like a sausage.

• Things With Corn

on the left is bread with a pile of creamed corn.
on the right is another hotdog monstrosity helpfully labeled "pastry frank".

• Bread With Vegetables (and Mayo)

on the left - broccoli, mushrooms and probably mayo
on the right - tomato and definitely mayo

• Things With an Egg

Japanese people will put a poached egg on anything.

• Green Bread

it's filled with a mashed soybean paste.  Yum!

Two more things of note:  One, it is virtually impossible to find empty hoagie/sub rolls in this country.  They are always filled with something.  Egg, cream, bean pastes, chocolate, peanut butter, cheese, you name it and I've probably seen it sold in a sub roll.  But if you want to buy a plain roll to take home and fill with steak or roast beef or meatballs as God intended then you're out of luck.  Two, if you see bread filled with what looks like chocolate, IT MAY NOT BE CHOCOLATE.  It may be red bean paste masquerading as chocolate.    Trust me, you do not want to bite into that thinking it's chocolate.  If you learn nothing else from this blog, learn that.


*Japanese sweet shops, on the other hand, are usually marvelous and full of wonderful shortcakes, creme brulees, tiramisus, fruit tarts, chocolate cakes, pies etc.  If not exactly what you would find in an American sweet shop (to me they have a bit of what I imagine is a French influence) they are close enough.

Baby Food Exposé

 

Back when I was pregnant, I did some recon on the jarred baby food sold here.  At the time I was flabbergasted (and a little sickened) to discover some of the flavors that are sold:

 

 

Rice Porridge with Flatfish & Vegetables

Codfish, Tuna & Vegetable Risotto

Tuna & Vegetable Curry

But, I guess if fish is going to be a integral part of a baby's diet, best to get them started early.  These photos were at a Baby's R Us a couple of towns over.  They also had applesauce, peas, carrots and some other more "normal" stuff. 

Now that I'm close to the point where I'll have to actually use baby food I went back to my local Baby's R Us for a second round of recon.  And not only did I not find any normal stuff this time, I found the pièce de résistance of Japanese baby food:

Vegetables & Horse Meat in Cream Sauce

I nearly fell over.  Fortunately I have the time and inclination to make most of Cora's baby food and was just going to use the jars as backups.  But now that I know they'll put horse meat in it I'm not giving her any of it and will just order backup jars off the Internet.  I mean....horse meat.  Horse meat.

Gag. 

Hope it's not mealtime for you.
 

Happy Christmas, Japan-Style!

Some of you know that as you read this, we are back in the US celebrating Christmas with family.  I scheduled this post to go out back in early November because that's when the Christmas catalogs started appearing.  No, I don't mean toy catalogs.  I'm referring to the catalogs that supermarkets and convenience stores put out with all the food you can order for the holidays.  I didn't do this post last year because I wanted to wait until we actually had some experience with ordering the holiday food, but at the rate we're going we'll never actually be here at Christmas.  So here it is.

You may have heard about how Japanese people go to Kentucky Fried Chicken for their Christmas dinner.  It's true, many years ago KFC was the closest you could get to an American holiday-type meal here and the KFC advertisers took diabolical advantage of it by convincing the Japanese that everyone in the US eats restaurant fried chicken at Christmas.  And since Christmas is only celebrated as a fun, secular, western holiday here, they believed it.   So as it nears Christmas you'll see a sign-up sheet outside KFC where people sign up for their holiday meal.  When you try to explain to a Japanese person the reality of turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce they just get kinda confused.  As far as I can tell turkey isn't a very popular meat here although you can find a few Butterballs at Costco and you can order them online through the Foreign Buyer's Club.

last year's KFC sign-up sheet and advertising

The other food you have to have at Christmas is cake.  Most supermarkets and bakeries do a booming business selling elaborate cakes that you pre-order and then pick up at Christmas.  They have catalogs that you can get in November with all the cake options listed. 

By far the most fun is the 7-Eleven catalog.  Now, this seems like a pretty ghetto place to get your Christmas food, but I'm not sure if that holds true for the Japanese people.  It does seem like more people go to the supermarket and do their ordering, based on the crowds.  Anyway, we always pick up a 7-11 catalog for sheer entertainment value.

I particularly like this year's catalog cover because it depicts a little scene of Christmas houses.  Notice that the houses are western (including a church), the little people are Japanese, there are dudes running across the roofs and a half-dressed lady is hanging out an upper window.    And, of course, a 7-11 is prominently featured.

The hugely famous pop group AKB48 is prominently featured in the 7-11 catalogs. 

I particularly like their exclamations over the chocolate fountain. (BTW, wouldn't a chocolate fountain be awesome at Christmas dinner?  Who needs pie?)

Here's your roast chicken, sandwich tray and wine options....

 And your cake, which can run anywhere from $20 - $70.  I'm not sure how much the cakes are at supermarkets and bakeries but I'm betting they're more.

So if you're sitting around with your family over the holidays, trying to figure out what to eat, pretend you're in Japan and get some KFC and cake! :)  Happy Holidays!!

(Not So) Freshness

Here's another post in my completely unintentional ongoing series about Japanese hamburgers.  Not far from our apartment is a Freshness Burger outpost.  Freshness Burger (known sometimes as just "Freshness") is a chain (I don't think there are any near us in Ota) that claims to serve hamburgers using only fresh and organic ingredients.  They are well known for having veggie burgers but I believe you can also get burgers made of fish, chicken and.....Spam.  Also on the menu are hotdogs, fries, a few desserts options etc.  They don't serve the typical fountain drinks but instead have a selection of smoothies, juices and natural sodas.

Of course, we tried it out.  The first time I had a hotdog, which was disappointingly--but not surprisingly--a typical sausage-y Japanese hotdog.  Edible, but sad and not right.

And then I went back alone the other day and tried a classic burger.  At the risk of having the company come after me for slander, I am skeptical about their use of "real Australian beef".  It tasted like tofu or soy-ick or cardboard or anything but real beef.  And to make it worse, whatever it was had possibly been mixed with ground onion.  I hate onions. 

Now, this is just my opinion---Chad had a burger and just said it "wasn't that good".  Which is a far cry from my "absolutely disgusting".  And usually he is much more discerning about fast food than I am.  So by all means go and try a Freshness Burger if you're ever in Asia.  And let me know how that works out for ya.  I do recommend that you check out the smoothies and juices as they are pretty good.

just keep walking to Wendy's

inside

you can get a fruit burger which is a burger
with a slice of mango on it....you know, if
you're crazy like that

Vending Machine Crawl

As most of you know, I did (finally) have the baby on September 7th.  It's going to take me a little while to find time to blog about the experience (and it was an experience) so the next couple of posts are non-baby related ones that I had prepared ahead of time.  I hope to be back for real soon! 



Lately I've found myself really craving canned and bottled drinks, often ones that are carbonated.  This is pretty unusual for me because normally I drink water, fruit juice and milk.  Anyway, one evening I really wanted something carbonated but couldn't bring myself to walk to the nearest supermarket, which while convenient, has a poor selection of drinks.

And then it dawned on me (it took way too long for this realization to hit) that I'm smack in the middle of Tokyo which means there are forty-five vending machines within half a block of where I'm standing at any given moment.  Alright, maybe not forty-five, but a lot.

You may have heard about the popularity of vending machines here and how you can find some weird stuff in them.  I haven't really seen anything strange (although we both keep our eye out), just a lot of drinks, cigarettes and the occasional ice cream.  The only unusual part is how darn many there are.  All of the ones below are within half a block of our apartment.  And it's not a big block.  I hit all of these at 39 1/2 weeks pregnant with no problems---and there wasn't much I was doing at that point with no problem.  Half a block farther and I would've had this many more to choose from.

this one has Orangina, a popular French
carbonated orange drink recently imported
into Japan.  kinda like an orange Nehi, I think?

this one has "iced cocoa" which is
basically chocolate milk in a can

one of these has Sprite

don't get anything here, but it does
have Welch's grape juice

this one is the closest but doesn't have
anything I want.  lots of coffee drinks

All of the ones below are the farthest, but I go because I can get my beloved milk tea.  This is also where the beer (yes, beer) and cig machines are, which I now realize is why there is often a large group of businessmen hanging around on this corner.

note the narrow beer machine second from the left

smokes

and this fantastic picture is of my last machine
which has an interesting variety of milk tea
called "french" milk tea.  ooh la la.

my spoils (the green cans are Sprite)

Basement Bites

Last week I took a walk to a very large department store that's maybe four blocks from our apartment.  If you're wondering why I'm always referencing exactly how many blocks away places are, it's because I spend a lot of my time studying area maps and calculating exactly how far I can get from this apartment without collapsing and/or giving birth on the street.  Any trip I make also has to be worth enduring everyone else on the street giving me the side-eye like I'm a bomb.

Anyways, the store I went to is Matuzakaya.  I knew that once I got there I would only be able to do so much (it's HUGE) so I decided to investigate the basement.  I have read a lot about the basements in these huge department stores and how they are a good place to shop for food.  Yep, food.  Most department store basements here in Tokyo are full of an amazing variety of food vendors.  In fact, if you are on the hunt for exotic and imported foodstuffs you'll often be told to check out the basements of different department stores.

Sure enough, the basement was packed full of  box lunches, gift baskets, pastries, ice cream, weird seafood and more.  There was a small section that was supermarket-like and had some harder-to-find spices and baking supplies but it wasn't anything I haven't seen elsewhere.   I would've considered lunch there but I couldn't find anywhere to sit---seemed like it was all takeout.  I'm not sure if that's always the case in these basements.   So I didn't get anything but I did take some very poor iPhone photos.

these are pastries made to look like
pandas, turtles, etc.  very kawaii (cute), very japanese.

a vendor displaying jellies.  jellies are big here.
there are literally too many variations for me
to even begin to describe.  just....jellies.

the entire floor is food vendors

the most perfect apple pies I've ever seen

a sushi/veggie box?  heaven only knows what half that
mess is.  I do know it would most likely give me heartburn.

exactly how many different varieties of pickled
plums are there?  this many.

onigiri (stuffed rice balls), which aren't bad,
but you have to be careful about
what they're stuffed with

This is just a small selection of what they had, I will say that it was mostly Japanese food.  So I'm not sure if, based on this experience, I personally would recommend a department store basement to a foreigner looking for foods from home.  There are enough "international" supermarkets (check this one out, but be warned it's pricey) that I don't think this would be my first suggestion.  But if you just want to marvel at some Japanese food, it's a pretty good place to do it.

City Slicker

This weekend we moved to our apartment in the city. As I mentioned awhile back, we'll be here for two months so I'm close to the hospital and my doctor. Chad is driving back and forth from Gunma which, so far, is going pretty well.

We didn't get a ton of information about our apartment (it was arranged for us by the company) until just before we came because, well, that's just how they roll.  But I'm pleased to report that they came through for us again....the apartment is in a great location (just south of Ueno Park which I first mentioned here) and is very nice. 

apartment building

apartment

our view

As you can see it's small (one bedroom) but suits us just fine.  The bathroom and bathtub are surprisingly large and Western-style, most of my appliances are in English, it's easy to cool and it comes with two nice Japanese ladies to clean it twice a week.  So far the only con is that it's on a hill.  And as great as the location is, I'm not going to be able to take as much advantage of it as I would under normal circumstances.  Normally I would be down in Ueno Park every day but since I currently have the mobility of a large arthritic duck, I'm not sure I can make it that far (probably less than two miles but the park is huge).

street right in front of apartment

down a very steep hill

nearby elementary school (surrounded by trees)

another neighborhood street

down the other side of the hill to the local grocery

The only other thing of note is that it's been a little hard to figure out where to get food, considering we limit ourselves by eating very little Asian food.  So far we've mastered pizza and burger delivery and we have our eye on a couple of local restaurants where hopefully we won't wind up with a plate full of sea urchin.  And then there's groceries.  Tiny little local city supermarkets/bakeries/butchers are a little hard for a country girl to wrap her mind around.   Although again, I wouldn't be nearly as concerned about figuring it out if I were able to explore more.  On Monday I had a disastrous experience trying to find what I thought was a large international supermarket on the other side of the city.  Long story short, it was tiny and didn't deliver.  But with Chad's help I finally located a small but adequate supermarket about two blocks from us and I'm currently waiting to see if a delivery boy actually brings the groceries I bought this morning to my door this afternoon.  Fingers crossed.  And then I get to try to make dinner in my tiny little city-folk-don't-cook kitchen.

the grocery store....it ain't Wal-mart

And one last thing....we didn't bring our full computer setup with us so blogging is a little more difficult.  So if things get a little rough around the edges for the next coupla months, that's why. ;)