Lost in Translation

Airline Meals

2009-05-29T15:34:00.004-04:00

This will probably be one of my last posts about our vacation. If I find some more cute pictures, I might put them up here and there, but I wanted to close with a summary of all our airline meals! The picture quality is often quite poor, I'm sorry for that. It's tough to take pictures in that cramped seat. Any overall comments on the airlines? The food on the Asian airlines is much better than the food on American Airlines. US airlines in general just have horrible service.

1. American Airlines
JFK --> NRT (New York --> Tokyo)

Nasty beef dish with a gross salad and some pretend sushi

This was chicken, I believe. Slightly better than the beef. The oatmeal chewies were pretty tasty.

Later on, they served us another meal. This was chicken and rice, but with some fruit and Milanos!

2. Cathay Pacific
NRT --> HKG (Tokyo --> Hong Kong)

Not too shabby, I think this is fish with some string beans, carrots, and mushrooms. I like the added touch on the rice. ;) We also had some fruit and the roll was decent too. The mochi for dessert was an added bonus!

Dan's meal of egg and pork -- quite delicious!

3. China Airlines
HKG --> TPE (Hong Kong --> Taipei)

This flight was only 2 hrs long, so I consider this quite a good snack box! It's full of dim sum, dumplings, bao-zi's, and some bean curd thing. There's even a packet of good hot sauce on the side. :) The cake was very blah.

4. Japan Airlines
TPE --> NRT (Taipei --> Tokyo)

Hands down, my favorite meal of the bunch! Japan Airlines has really good service. This is their fish meal. Look at the attention to detail! For this super short flight, there are so many goodies. The meal meal was pretty good, comes with some vegetables and pickles as well. The pink noodles come with a soy dipping sauce and seaweed! There's also a delicious celery salad and some other interesting flowery vegetable. And free wine! OH -- there's even real metal cutlery!

5. American Airlines
NRT --> JFK (Tokyo --> New York)

Pork with some fake sushi again. The dessert looks gross, but I didn't try it.

I asked for a dairy-free meal, and they gave me this one. It's not bad, some Indian curry stuff with pretend naan.

We also had a snack box of bread plus turkey (very bland) and a "breakfast" meal later on, which consisted of a danish and a croissant. I think they gave us breakfast because it is much cheaper than a real meal. It certainly wasn't breakfast time, in NY or in Asia! Anyway, moral of the story is to fly non-American airlines!

All right, it's been really fun...thank you for reading! Maybe I'll post some more fun things when I get the time. :)

Favorite Taiwanese breakfast

2009-05-28T12:45:00.003-04:00

I adore the Taiwanese breakfast of shaobing youtiao. Shaobing is ... so hard to describe, but basically it's a rectangular Chinese bread (you can see it in my previous post on marketplaces) with sesame seeds and scallions, etc. The outside is slightly crispy, but the inside is warm and soft. You often eat it with youtiao, which are fried cruellers (but not sweet). You eat all this with some good homemade soybean milk. These breakfast places also often have danbing, or egg pancake (similar to a scallion pancake wrapped in egg), and other various pastries, both sweet and salty.

My aunt took us to a great place near her house. Pictured below are some pastries (a sweet shaobing, a fluffy scallion bread, and some delicious soymilk. :)

Northern style Chinese food

2009-05-27T07:39:00.004-04:00

One of my favorite types of Chinese cuisine is bei-fang cai, or Northern style. My grandparents are both from Northern China, so perhaps I am a tad biased, but I love it! Northern style food differs from Southern in that it is very wheat-heavy, instead of rice-heavy. (Their staple crop is wheat in the northern climate.) Thus, the dishes center on noodles, dumplings, pancakes, and steamed breads, etc. They also use more 'nourishing' types of meat, like lamb and beef and duck, because it's so cold.

We went to two different ones in Taiwan. Here's a sampling of some of the food.

Celery with lamb tripe: so light and delicious

Beancurd with pork and vegetables: a staple I order at every restaurant :)

This dish was very interesting. I wish I remembered what it was...it's stir-fried shrimp with some sort of flower petal. (Those aren't onions you see there.) (update: According to my cousin, those are lotus petals!)

Roughly translated as "many vegetables wearing a hat", the hat being made of egg. You wrap the vegetables and egg in a thin pancake and it's delicious!

Chive pancakes: one of my all-time favorites! These amazing 'pancakes' have chives and eggs and sometimes cellophane noodles inside. They are pan-fried and crispy on top. :)

Beef noodles: Dan had been craving good beef noodles for days. These were quite good -- the noodles were perfectly chewy!

See our amazing spread?

Next time you have the chance to try some Northern Chinese cuisine, go for it! Make sure you get some of the scallion pancakes, chive pancakes, and other starches like that. :)

Shaved ice

2009-05-27T07:34:00.001-04:00

I'm closing in on my final few posts! Sorry posts have been so erratic; lots of errands and goodbyes and stuff lately. Anyway, I wanted to tell you about shaved ice, a very unique Taiwanese dessert. As you know, Taiwan's weather is pretty brutal. (It got so bad that I wouldn't leave the house after 10am or so! Nothing like an afternoon siesta. :)) Shaved ice is a great way to combat the problem. At most of the places, you can choose a whole bunch of toppings. They sometimes put condensed milk on as well, but I get it without. My favorite toppings are taro, red bean, green bean, grass jelly, and the small tang yuan.

Other toppings include fruit, various types of tapioca balls, peanuts, and more!

Mr. Persimmon Head

2009-05-23T21:16:00.001-04:00

How fun! Mr. Persimmon Head! I love persimmons. :)

Marketplace

2009-05-23T07:04:00.000-04:00

I love the markets in Taipei. The amount of variety is staggering, and the amount of drool that comes out of my mouth is similarly staggering. Let me give you an idea of how awesome these places are.

This stand sold prepared foods. You can get a lunchbox (bian dang) for very cheap, and choose a whole variety of foods.

Steamed breads! Some with fillings and some plain. Also some fa-gao, or steamed rice cakes.

Eight Treasure Rice: yum, couldn't resist taking a picture of this. Eight Treasure Rice is sticky rice topped with various sweets, either dried fruits or red bean jam, etc. Very Chinese and very delicious.

Zhong zi: These are glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves. You steam them and they become a delectable meal. Some are salty (fillings of pork, mushroom, etc.) and others are sweet (red bean filling). Love it!

Various pastries at the bottom, most with red bean filling. At the top are shao bing, these thin sesame breads that I adore.

Man making handmade noodles! Many different flavors. Everything is so fresh!

Yang Ming Shan

2009-05-22T15:50:00.003-04:00

My aunt and uncle took us for a short hike in Yang Ming Shan. It was gorgeous! Thought I'd leave you with a few pictures.

This is called "Milk Lake" because the water looks like milk.

Sunset

After the hike, they brought us to a flower garden area near the mountain. The specialty is calla lilies, and everywhere there are fields of calla lilies. You can buy them for really cheap! There are also lots of restaurants there because it's so pretty.

Calla lilies

Steamed mantou's, many different flavors!

This was our restaurant. It was outdoors and very casual, but the food was great. We tried so many different types of vegetables -- stuff you can't normally get, like stir-fried betelnut leaves! We also had sweet potato fries and loofah tempura!

Shilin Night Market

2009-05-22T07:50:00.003-04:00

Shilin Night Market is Taipei's most famous night market. For those of you who don't know, night markets are very popular, packed full of great street eats and cheap goods. We went a bit early in the evening, but there were still lots of people getting dinner.

Lady making stinky tofu

More stinky tofu: a Taiwanese specialty!

Oyster egg pancake: Dan's favorite. It's like an omelet with oysters and topped with a sweet red sauce. I don't normally like it in the US (I especially hate the sauce), but it was pretty good here!

This is translated as "Large Intestine Wrapped Around a Small Intestine". It was a small hot dog wrapped inside a larger hot dog, with lots of toppings to choose from. We were a bit deterred by the name, so moved on. ;)

Spring rolls with your choice of fillings!

So cute! These are the cream or red bean filled cakes that you see everywhere, but these have adorable shapes!

Yummy bao-zi's

And of course, the fruit in Taiwan is legendary. I bought some of those pink-fleshed guavas.

Pandas!

2009-05-21T22:23:00.003-04:00

Dan had the chance to go to the Taipei Zoo to see Taiwan's new pandas, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan. These pandas arrived early this year and set Taiwan off into a panda frenzy! There were so many visitors back then that each visitor was allotted two minutes to watch. Luckily, by the time Dan went, the craze had died down and he could spend as long as he wanted with them. These pandas are very politically charged, and were given by China as somewhat of a political gift after the new president was elected. I won't go into the details here -- just wanted to show you how cute they are!

Here is the panda being lazy!

Time to wake up and stretch!

Playing with a towel!

Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan together. So cute! :)

Guess where?

2009-05-21T17:33:00.000-04:00

Sichuanese Food

2009-05-21T17:24:00.000-04:00

Our last meal in Hong Kong was a delicious Sichuanese one. I usually don't like Sichuanese food (too spicy!) but this one wasn't too bad. The menu was very extensive, and we were able to order non-spicy foods as well. :)

Chili shrimp! Delicious!

Water-cooked fish: see the amount of spice on that? I can't handle this one at all!

Spicy eel: also not a huge fan of this dish -- the eel had too many bones, and it was a bit too salty.

We also got some dan-dan noodles, which were very good, and some other small things. Say goodbye to Hong Kong and hello to Taiwan!

Day trip to Macau

2009-05-21T17:20:00.000-04:00

While in Hong Kong, we decided to take a day trip to Macau. The ferry is only about an hour long ride. However, if you happen to get seasick, I highly recommend taking another route. This ferry ride was choppy and I felt ill the entire time!

At Macau, we stayed at a lovely hotel called Pousada de Mong-Ha. A definite must-stay if you are in the area. It's run by tourism students, so it's extraordinarily cheap (our hotel room cost about $40), but the service is great because the students are so enthusiastic! Only caveat is that it is quite far from the 'downtown,' but cabs are so cheap that it's not a big deal.

Beautiful gardens!

Look at our lovely room! The decor was quite nice for $40! They even gave us complimentary cookies.

They also run a restaurant, which we decided to try. The prices are good, and why not support the students a bit? Look how gorgeous the restaurant is! The only odd thing was having 5 student waiters surrounding you at all times...and not always understanding your English. :)

Dan's appetizer of foie gras

Scallop salad with Portuguese sausage

Lobster cappuccino bisque

African chicken: a specialty in Macau. It's very tender chicken made with coconut and spice, over a bed of rice pilaf. A bit oily, as was everything at the restaurant, but not bad for the price.

Beef stew: not recommended at all, very salty

The next morning we ventured out to the casinos. Mornings aren't really the best time to gamble, but we were too tired the night before. We played a few games, broke even, and then left. Mostly, it was a bunch of Cantonese folks. Besides the casinos, there are the usual brand name luxury goods stores.

Ceiling of the Wynn: Chinese zodiac!

The rest of Macau is small and easily seen in a day. The contrast between the indigenous Macau and the 'European' part is quite stark. See here, it looks just like you are in Europe! Nice sidewalks, beautiful buildings, quaint stores, and huge churches. Just a few blocks away, things look vastly different.

Portuguese egg tart! Of course we had to try one. Dan thought it was pretty mediocre, though.

Dim Sum in Hong Kong

2009-05-14T22:49:00.004-04:00

That's right, that's Hong Kong! And in Hong Kong we had to have dim sum! Dan and I looked up a few places and ended up at Victoria's Seafood Restaurant. It seems like most HK natives don't have a particular dim sum restaurant that they frequent; they all seem to be pretty solid. Anyway, Dan and I ordered enough food for 4 people (!) -- it's not my fault, Dan wanted to try everything! We ordered a few more dishes that aren't pictured below because we forgot to take pictures before digging in. ;)

Goose something or the other

String beans

Fish maw (what is fish maw anyway?)

Tripe: didn't really like this dish, too much sauce

Dumplings: my own personal favorite :)

Guess where this is?

2009-05-14T22:48:00.000-04:00

Vegan Restaurants, Part 3

2009-05-13T08:49:00.004-04:00

9. Cafe Proverbs 15:17

We heard about this fantastic vegan restaurant in Kyoto called Cafe Proverbs 15:17. It was near our ryokan, so we decided to check it out. I am not the most Bible-literate person, but they translated Proverbs 15:17 into what you see below. I don't know if it's accurate or not, but the food was awesome. Dan doesn't normally like vegan food all that much, but this place was great!

Eggplant tempeh bowl: such a great dish! The flavoring was done perfectly, and the tempeh took the place of meat very nicely.

Soymilk ramen: ramen is really tough to find for vegetarians because even if there's no meat, the broth is meat-based. This one was amazing. You know how much I love soymilk broths by now. :)

Gyoza!

Double-cooked pork with asparagus: Not as good as the real thing, and the sauce was a bit too heavy, but it wasn't horrible.

Desserts here were my favorite part! They had the usual chocolate cakes, cookies, etc. but they also had very good Asian desserts. I tried their chocolate and carrot muffins; both were quite good, but these below were much better.

Some amazing dessert made out of soymilk. The top part is sweetened edamame, I believe. It was so good! It tasted like a silky milky pudding. :)

My favorite dessert! I have been lusting after these parfaits (they are everywhere in Kyoto -- mostly green tea ice cream, mochi, and green tea cake parfaits) and haven't been able to have one. :( Luckily, they serve an amazing one here! Ours was roasted green tea and kinako ice cream, along with mochi, cake, and jelly cubes. So good! The ice cream is made in house too. A must-try for any lactose-intolerant person. ;)

Baumkuchen

2009-05-13T01:58:00.001-04:00

The Japanese love new dessert fads, be it Mister Donut, Krispy Kreme, macarons, or Coldstone Creamery. One of the biggest fads is baumkuchen, these many-layered cakes. I've seen people wait in line forever in front of one of the giant department stores. That store sells really expensive baumkuchen -- a small slice of the cylindrical cake can run you $40! I guess it's so expensive because it takes a while to make layer after layer? You can get really cheap ones at the convenience stores as well, so the quality varies greatly.

Anyway, one particular baumkuchen brand was having a sample expo at the Kyoto train station. We saw people lining up, so we had to get in line as well. (The Japanese love to queue up!)

The cakes are made on these long metal rods. This is the end stage, where she puts on some green tea frosting.

Sampling time!

This particular cake is green tea flavored!

sukiyaki vs. shabu shabu

2009-05-13T01:45:00.001-04:00

I could never figure out the difference between sukyaki and shabu-shabu, but Dan wanted to try them both before we left Japan. We ended up going to a really nice restaurant in Kyoto that specializes in high quality beef. For some reason, shabu shabu is super expensive in Japan. I guess they always use high quality beef.

Turns out sukiyaki is beef that's cooked in a soy sauce, sugar, and mirin broth. It is pretty heavily flavored (slightly sweet), so it goes best with raw egg. (If you are like me and are slightly freaked out about eating raw eggs, apparently the Japanese have no qualms about it because the regulations on egg cleanliness is very strict! They don't have problems with salmonella from raw eggs.) I don't really like sukiyaki because the flavor is a bit too sweet for me.

Here is mine! I got soy milk broth shabu shabu. (Remember how I said I loved soy milk broths? :)) Shabu shabu is thusly named because that's the sound your chopsticks make when swishing around in the pot.

Here is our premium grade beef for shabu shabu!

Golden Pavilion

2009-05-11T11:21:00.002-04:00

Very gold, no?

I have to warn you, this was the nastiest Japanese sweet we got at any tea house. It's supposed to be a specialty of the Golden Pavilion, but it was just one big nasty hunk of sugar, with a bit of gold lettering.

See? It's pretty, but don't be tricked!

Traditional Japanese breakfast

2009-05-11T11:11:00.001-04:00

Ikumatsu served us breakfast the next morning. You had the choice of either 'traditional' (meaning Japanese) or Western. Of course we went with the Japanese breakfast. While I mostly prefer Western breakfasts (bread and coffee and jam, etc.), I couldn't pass up on this opportunity. We are glad we chose the Japanese breakfast, because the poor old couple next to us had so little food compared to us! They kept darting envious looks at our huge display. :)

Fresh pot of tofu, soy sauce, seaweed

Some broiled tofu, mushrooms, carrots

Tamago

Also, we had rice, miso soup, pickles, and broiled fish!

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-11T11:10:00.000-04:00

I love you! :)

Random images from Kyoto

2009-05-11T05:05:00.003-04:00

A couple random images from Kyoto...

Real mochi! The real stuff is made by pounding glutinous rice with this huge hammer. His partner turns and wets the mochi in between hammer strikes. The fake stuff is what we normally eat, mochi made from powder. I like them both. ;)

Hello Kitty stamps! I couldn't resist buying these; they are the cutest stamps I've ever seen!

Scallops from Nishiki market: What an amazing dish! They cooked the scallop just right, and we got to try all the parts of the scallop, not just the usual meat. The stem (?) of the scallop was very chewy and quite delicious.

Snail: not really my thing, but interesting to try.

short message

2009-05-10T09:16:00.002-04:00

We are here in Taiwan! Haven't had a chance to update the blog yet...have to figure out Internet here first. :) I still have a million pictures from Japan and Hong Kong to post. And yup, it's hot here.

Ikumatsu

2009-05-05T22:30:00.004-04:00

Thanks to Audrey's wonderful suggestion, Dan and I ended up spending a night at Ryokan Ikumatsu. It was an amazing ryokan, right on the riverfront, fantastic location and service. Included with the price of the room is a full-out kaiseki meal. Everyone says that the one experience in Kyoto you must have is a good kaiseki. A kaiseki is a traditional multi-course Japanese meal. It's supposed to have all these various elements. The idea is that each individual ingredient should be fresh and should be able to stand on its own. You want to enhance the flavor with good pairings, but not use too much sauce to drown it out. Also, the appearance of the dish is very important. Oh, and kaisekis are really expensive. A typical kaiseki can easily run over $100 per person.

While I am happy that I tried a kaiseki once, I can't say that I would pay that kind of money to eat one again. Quite an experience, though.

This is our room. It looks very simple, but the furnishings are very delicate. At night, they set up your bedding right on the tatami. The table is pushed to the side. This is the traditional way of sleeping because you could conserve a lot of space. We actually got to eat dinner in our room on that table. So fun! You are in the privacy of your own room, but the waiter still keeps coming with new dishes. :)

We had a little sitting 'room'! (More like corner.) But we had a gorgeous view of the river from here.

This is our menu! The chef prepares a special menu every night! I'm only going to show you a couple of the more photogenic dishes because there were way too many!

Hassun, from mountains and sea: one of my favorite dishes. Everything on the plate is executed with precision and you can really taste the flavors of every individual element. I liked the green wheat gluten simmered with mirin and sugar. :)

Sashimi: flatfish, tuna, amberjack. I loved the flatfish but have decided that tuna sashimi is not really my thing.

Yakimono, fried sea bass: This dish was a bit mediocre, fish a bit dry

Takiawase, simmered dishes: yum, probably my favorite of the bunch. I just love how everything fits together so well!

Sunomono, dishes with vinegar: see those firefly squid? Those were Dan's favorite. Good texture and bursting with flavor.

One more post about their traditional Japanese breakfast to come!

Taste of Kyoto

2009-05-05T22:26:00.001-04:00

Kyoto is gorgeous in that traditional sense of Japan. Temples, shrines, old wooden houses and storefronts...here is a small sampling of the beauty. We did so many temples (Golden Pavilion, Silver Pavilion, San-ju-san, Kiyomizu, etc.) that they all blended together a bit by the end. If I have the chance, I'll blog a bit about my favorites.

Silver Pavilion grounds: unfortunately, the Silver Pavilion itself was under construction, so we didn't get a good look. The grounds were gorgeous, though.

Shinkansen to Kyoto

2009-05-05T06:55:00.001-04:00

On the busiest travel day of the year, we took the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) with the rest of the Japanese. Wonderfully speedy train, but for some reason, it made my stomach lurch a bit. I ended up napping for the majority of the time. :) (Of course, I had to post our bentos!)

Isn't she pretty?

Me in a yukata (kind of like a Japanese bathrobe) in our ryokan

Vegan Restaurants, Part 2

2009-05-05T06:44:00.004-04:00

6. Non's Izakaya, Meguro: For Dan's goodbye dinner we went to a vegan izakaya so that everyone could enjoy the food! It's not easy to find a vegan place that also serves alcohol, let alone izakaya dishes but this was a good find. The restaurant is run by Non, just one woman who cooks and buses and cleans. Service ends up being pretty slow, but if you're with a group of people, time passes pretty quickly. We ordered so many dishes -- I felt bad the whole time because she was scampering around making our food and bussing our dishes.

Oh -- for the record, the dessert was not very good, so don't order it.

Vegan gyoza!

Squid 'sashimi' with natto: amazing! Really tasted like squid! And I have developed quite a liking for natto.

Chicken kara-age: deep-fried 'chicken', tastes like the real thing!

Korean pancake 'chigimi': I don't like the Japanese version as much. It's not as crisp, much more of a mochi consistency.

Soymilk broth noodles: yum! This was our favorite dish. It's so flavorful and full of goodies in that pot. My new favorite broth is the soymilk broth. :)

Tempura

Om-rice: fake 'omelet' over rice. Our friend was so excited to have fake egg!

7. Vegan Healing Cafe, Shibuya: I didn't actually eat here because the menu looks very boring to me, but I did want to try their desserts. Below are their soy whip cake and their chocolate tart. Both are quite good.

8. Loving Hut, Yotsuya-sanchome stop: On my last day in Tokyo, I tried this place for lunch. Wish I had found out about it earlier! I had the most delicious set lunch for only $10! Everything was meticulously prepared, and the restaurant was clean and cute, if a bit sparse.

I had vegetable dumplings, great sweet and sour soup, a slice of quiche, summer rolls, vermicelli salad, some other side dish, and a slice of cake for dessert!

UFO catcher

2009-05-03T08:57:00.000-04:00

In Japan, they call the prize claw machines UFO catchers. I had never heard of this terminology, but that's what everyone says here. Dan and I wasted a bunch of money trying to win a large Rilakkuma before I convinced him that this was their ruse. We did see one guy who was very very skilled, though. He goes around from machine to machine and spots the likely candidates and then wins them!

There are all sorts of UFO catchers here: from the usual 'catch the object' one, to the ones where you 'push the object through some metal bars,' or 'loop the ring around the object.' Each machine gives you a hint on how to win the prize.

Anyway, we still couldn't win anything, but my friend showed me the real trick. You can ask the person who works there to move the prize for you! Yup, they will move it to a more 'favorable' location and then you can try and impress your girlfriend from there. How come everyone doesn't do this? Most people have more pride, apparently. Not us. ;)

Here is Rilakkuma, my prize from the UFO catcher. My friend won him for me after asking the employee to move him to a better location. :)

Ghibli Museum

2009-05-02T20:11:00.000-04:00

The Ghibli Museum is the museum for Miyazaki's films -- My Neighbor Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle, Castle in the Sky, etc. It was a must-do on our list, but boy, it is not easy to get there or even to get tickets. First off, you have to buy your tickets ahead of time. Secondly, you buy them at Lawson's at an automated machine. Well, if you can't read Japanese, it's a bit tricky to use one of those machines!

Luckily, Jason helped us out and we scored ourselves two coveted tickets to the museum. The tickets are also for a specific time, so you can't just go whenever you feel like it.

After a subway ride and much walking, we finally made it! The museum doesn't allow pictures inside, so here are some from the outside. The architecture was amazing; it all fit with the magic and mystique of the movies. Our favorite room (not pictured) is the Neko bus room! It had a giant stuffed Cat Bus that kids played on!! If only we were a bit younger...:)

There's this huge spiral staircase that leads up to their "castle in the sky."

A view from the top floor.

It's the robot from Castle in the Sky! (My own personal favorite Miyazaki film!)

The cube from the same movie: can't really remember what this was for anymore. Anyone?

After watching the short film, we had a snack at the cafe. It was Kiki (from Kiki's Messenger Service) themed! Look how awesome the layout of the museum is...

Chiffon cake and tea: there is Totoro on the teacup!

The interior of the cafe: really well done, transports you to a Miyazaki film, no? Surely you are no longer in Tokyo!

Farewell shot!

If you get the chance, you really should come to see this place. All the old animation cells, zoetropes, and other fun Studio Ghibli things make it well worth the effort to get here. Oh yes, and all the children's smiles and laughs...:)

Vegan Restaurants, Part 1

2009-05-01T20:08:00.004-04:00

I have been promising myself that I would post a little something on all the vegan restaurants I went to in Tokyo, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. This might have to take on several parts, I'm afraid. ;) (Especially now that I'm in Kyoto!) To clarify, no -- I'm not vegan, but I am lactose intolerant, and therefore, I love vegan restaurants! I am able to order anything off the menu without fears that it might contain milk.

A special thanks to Jason for lending us the Vegan Restaurants guide, it was invaluable! If you are vegan and staying in Japan for a while, it's highly worth it to purchase this guide. The reviews are pretty accurate, and the prices and maps are all spot-on. It is fairly hard to be vegan in Japan if you don't hunt down these restaurants, as almost everything has fish broth in it!

1. Der Akkord, Omotesando: macrobiotic, all-natural bakery. They use only the finest ingredients (sea salt from France, Japanese mineral water, etc.) and that is reflected in their delicious breads. They all use a sourdough starter, so if that's not your style, this bakery might not be for you. I liked the raisin walnut bread and the pies (apple, pumpkin, sweet potato, etc.) the most, as well as the salty 'pizzas'. Know that they only use natural sweeteners (not even honey, syrup, etc.) so the desserts are not super sweet. ;) Everyone in the small bakery is super friendly, and you can see the care they take with their work.

I should mention, that their stuff is extremely expensive. A loaf of bread might cost $9 or so.

Pumpkin bread

Asparagus pizza: so good! I love their savory foods even more than their sweets.

2. Brown Rice Cafe, Omotesando: A vegan restaurant with an extensive menu, more high-end than some of the others, located in a ritzy area of Ometesando. Prices can therefore be slightly high. I ate in the actual cafe only once, and then have gotten many things from their deli next door. Their vegan muffins are some of the best I've had here, with a delicious streusel top that I need to find in New York!

Vegan bento box, a dazzling array of yummies!

veggie burger platter

3. Saishokukenbi, Shinjuku: A Buddhist vegan buffet tucked away into a side street of Shinjuku, Saishokukenbi is a delight to your eyes and taste buds! It was quiet and homey, and the food is incredible. They have a whole variety of smoked meats, most of which tasted quite authentic. They also have noodles and tempura and salads galore. Even a good selection of dessert -- mochi, red bean jeam, etc. Highly worth looking for it.

4. Nagi Shokudo, Shibuya: Small restaurant located in a residential area of Shibuya, not easy to find! They have a delicious lunch special, you choose 3 items and included is a salad, soup, and rice, all for about $10. The food is high quality, but it only kept us full for a few hours. :P Also, the apple cinnamon cake they serve for dessert is no good.

Pumpkin salad, lotus root salad, and falafel (yay)

Deep-fried wheat gluten, miso greens, and seared tofu with mushrooms

5. Crayon House, Ometesando: This place is not vegan, they serve fish and even some meat occasionally, but I thought it was okay to put it in the same category. They do label everything. They use only organic ingredients, and everything is very fresh. At lunch they have a buffet for about $12, and they serve delicious homestyle Japanese foods. It's attached to a Crayon House bookstore, so be prepared to wait in line with the thousands of mothers and children. ;)

sample lunch tray: some fried 'fish of the day', lotus root, pesto salad

Road sign revision

2009-04-29T08:30:00.000-04:00

Remember this road sign I showed you earlier? I thought it was a girl and her mother? Well, my mom pointed out to me that the older person was probably the girl's brother, not her mother. I scoffed at her, but check this out.

This is the sign I showed you earlier.

You see? Here is an adult with a little girl! The adult is much taller, so clearly the person in the other one is also a child. ;)

Here is an adult man! You see the difference?

I apologize for the confusion and the incorrect earlier post. ;) And hello from Kyoto!

Farewell for a few days!

2009-04-28T11:24:00.002-04:00

Just a note to say that we are off to Kyoto for Golden Week! You may not hear from us if we don't have Internet!

Scrabble to a whole new level

2009-04-28T02:51:00.003-04:00

Those of you who know me, know that I enjoy Scrabble immensely. (Remember the picture from our wedding slideshow, the one of me beating Dan handily? ;)) Anyway, we had the opportunity to play with a world-class Scrabble player the other day! What an eye-opening experience.

Jason is a Tokyo Googler, and we played a quick game with him at the office. I mean the word 'play' in a loose sense; basically, Jason would lay down his tiles, and then glance over at ours and help us out if we were at too much of a loss. I have never seen Scrabble played in this manner before.

I normally try and get some high scoring words, use a couple strategic spots, but that's the end of my strategy. I never use all of my tiles, but apparently, that's very important to do, especially when the other player does it about twice during the game! Also, he does a lot of the parallel plays, which I suck at because I have a limited repertoire of 2 and 3 letter words. And it's better to exchange your tiles than play a crappy word. Always know which letters to keep!

Anyway, check out our final board:

Amazing, huh? I don't even know what half the words mean!

You can compare it to some of my old boards. You'll see the difference immediately. :P

Homestyle food, buffet style

2009-04-28T02:06:00.005-04:00

We discovered that one of the best way to try a variety of Japanese foods is the buffet! We loved buffets here, mainly because we didn't have to deal with the trouble of ordering and reading a menu. Most of these buffets have a good selection of fairly healthy, homestyle Japanese foods. Stuff your mom might cook, if you were Japanese. They weren't particularly cheap, though, so go hungry. :)

1. Keke, in Landmark Tower 5F, Yokohama

As you can see, great selection: fresh vegetables (loved the cherry tomatoes!), noodles, tempura, lots of fish. Also wide variety of drinks (tea, coffee, juices)

2. Saishokukenbi, Shinjuku:

This was probably my favorite of the buffets, but it is all-vegan, so if you're not into that, don't come here! Warning: they only serve dinner buffet on Friday and Saturday nights, so plan accordingly. I will write a more detailed review when I put up my vegan restaurants post. (Sorry, still getting to it!)

Very homey atmosphere

I loved the cute plates with 9 compartments! Lots of good fake meats, lots of vegetables!

3. No-no-budo, IMS Building, 13th floor, Tokyo

This was a fantastic buffet. Nonobudo concentrates on traditional Japanese dishes, prepared organically and locally. There are salads, organic vegetables, curries, noodles, tempura, and everything else your heart could want. We definitely overate at this buffet, there was such a great selection. The best part was that they kept bringing out new dishes all the time!

They even had this lovely negitoro over rice, with grated yam, seaweed, and salmon eggs.

They had great desserts, including some sponge cakes, soy milk with mochi, bread and jams, almond jelly, grass jelly, cheesecakes, etc.

So if you don't speak Japanese and need a good solid meal, try one of these buffets. Just don't end up with tummyaches like we did. ;)

Some more random thoughts

2009-04-28T01:45:00.002-04:00

1. There are no guns in this country!

We had dinner with some Japanese folks last night, and we were comparing the different types of crime here in Japan and in the US. In Washington Heights, theft and mugging seem to be fairly common crimes. In Japan, the most common crime is 'molestation' on the subway, or basically, men touching women's behinds. There are no problems with guns here because no one, except for possibly the Mafia, has guns! Not even the police carry guns! Our friends could not believe how commonplace guns are in our country, nor could they believe the amount of violence to which we are accustomed. I wish we had much tighter gun control laws. No matter what people say about 'the right to bear arms,' violence in our country is out of control, and I believe its roots lie in the ready availability of guns.

2. Cigarettes are so cheap!

As in $3/pack! One thing we do right in the US is levy high taxes on cigarettes. At $3/pack, people smoke like chimneys. A couple of packs a day? Sure, no problem. But try that in NYC, where a pack can run you almost $10. Go New York!

3. Suicide by subway is quite common.

A 'popular' way to commit suicide is to jump in front of the oncoming subway car. Our friend estimates that there is one of these suicides every two weeks or so. You can see it on the subway status board, indicating why the train is late. The government has tried to combat this by instituting a huge penalty on the family. A family may have to pay more than $1 million! The amount you pay varies by how much disruption in the subway line you have caused. If you commit suicide during rush hour, you cause the Metro a lot of money, and your family will have to pay even more.

4. The trains here are almost always on time because if they aren't, customers complain and complain.

Our friend who works in the Metro department explained why trains here are so punctual. If they aren't, they never hear the end of it from the customers! I guess in NYC, we are so used to trains running late, that we never complain. It's such a commonplace occurrence that when the train breaks down, we all just continue to read our magazines calmly -- and I've been stuck on the train for over 30 minutes before!

5. Each train line has its own jingle.

The jingles are played when the doors are closing. I'm not entirely sure if it's each station or each line that has its own jingle? Does anyone know? In any case, the jingles are remarkably catchy and I bet they would be great cell phone ringtones. Today I was on the Fukutoshin line, and they had really melodic (think polyphonic) jingles. Very impressive.

All right, I think that's it for now. :)

Japanese-style pasta

2009-04-26T21:29:00.001-04:00

Ponto Iru in the basement of Tokyu Plaza serves up some pretty good Japanese-style pasta. Italian food here is extremely popular, with pasta restaurants almost as frequent as Japanese noodle shops! Anyway, we didn't really want to try Italian pasta here in Japan (so much other good Japanese food to try!), but when my friend suggested Japanese-style pasta, who were we to refuse?

Japanese-style pasta has a good fusion of both East and West. They use many Japanese ingredients, like vegetables and even fish eggs, but they also use Western cream sauces and cheese, etc. The combination turns out very well!

Here is a sampling of our pastas:

Lotus root, tomato, eggplant, soy-sauce beef: so good, they used a ton of olive oil so it was nice and creamy.

Karasumi pasta: Karasumi is salted and dried mullet roe. Apparently it's a great delicacy of Japan and is quite pricey. That's why there is only a sprinkling on this pasta. :P

Pasta in minestrone soup!

Mushroom, meatball, etc. in a soymilk broth

More medical stuff...

2009-04-26T21:12:00.000-04:00

I have seen a few colonoscopies and EGD's here at Keio, and one thing in particular struck me. The patients never emitted any sounds! No complaints, no gagging, no moaning, nothing. As a matter of fact, the procedures look fairly, dare I say, comfortable! They are lightning fast here; right after an EGD, the patient walks right off the table and goes to sit in the recovery room. I guess they use less anesthesia too?

I had trouble asking about this in English, but I finally found one attending who remarked that it might be a combination of technique (he said they do more EGD's here) plus stoicism. The Japanese patients are less likely to complain, he said. Just not in their culture.

Wow, it was pretty cool to see such efficiency.

Midori Sushi

2009-04-25T22:18:00.000-04:00

You knew I couldn't stay away from food posts for too long. There are so many more things I want to tell you about!

Our favorite sushi place is called Midori Sushi in Mark City. We walk by this place every day, and the line is always absurdly long. After watching people queue up for 3 weeks, we decided to give it a whirl as well.

This line is no joke!

My chirashi-zushi: for Steve, this was better than Ajihei's! :) They give you a HUGE amount of fish for a very reasonable price. I gave all the things I dislike to Dan, including the pickled vegetables and the ikura (salmon eggs).

Dan's prix fixe sushi platter: for $21, this can't be beat! The sushi is fresh and plentiful, and it also comes with a crab salad, an egg custard, and miso soup.

We also ordered a few items a la carte.

We went back again for a second visit because Dan is obsessed with this place. This time, there was a new 'early summer' prix fixe special. We got all this for $30! It includes otoro, chutoro (fatty tuna), conger eel, sea bream, clam, salmon eggs, ankimo (fish liver -- and Dan's favorite), and some other stuff. The hand roll was all pickled vegetables, though, and got a thumbs down in my book. Oh, at the bottom left are two pieces of mediocre sponge cake for dessert.

Close-up of the ankimo

It came with a crab soup! We weren't sure if we were supposed to eat the crab or not, but turns out you aren't. ;) It was a bit disturbing drinking soup out of a bowl with a crab staring straight at you.

We tried their California roll, because it seemed different from the American California rolls. It was all right, and used real crab, but there was way too much mayo.

And then our favorites are these pieces of broiled tuna. The restaurant will blowtorch the tuna so that it's lightly broiled on top. Delicious!

That's it, I am a bit tired of sushi, so hopefully this is my last sushi post. ;)

cute characters

2009-04-25T21:50:00.000-04:00

Sanrio and San-X do some amazing marketing here in Japan. I was familiar with characters like Hello Kitty, but there are so many more of them now! Have you ever heard of kogepan? He is a burnt red bean bun who tries to find acceptance in the bakery filled with normal red bean buns. He drinks milk as beer and gets drunk often!

Another funny bunch of popular characters now are beans: red beans, green beans, black beans. (Sorry, I can't find their names anywhere online.) Beans! Whoever thought to popularize beans into stuffed animals has a pretty good imagination.

My own person favorite is Rilakkuma! I didn't know this, but Rilakkuma means "relax" + "bear" in Japanese...so he is a very lazy bear. He's always depicted as sleeping or laying down. If not relaxing, he is eating his favorite foods: mochi, doughnuts, and pancakes! He is truly a bear after my heart!

Apparently, San-X comes out with a new character every month. Do all these characters come with a book or TV show or something? Or are they just characters?

Also, can someone explain Sanrio vs. San-X? Are they different brands? I can't seem to locate anything definitive online.

Kamakura

2009-04-24T10:20:00.000-04:00

Well, I have gotten some complaints (ahem, William) that Dan and I eat too much...so here is a bona fide non-food post!

We went to Kamakura this past weekend, and it was glorious. The weather really cooperated, and we had a great day of temples and hiking. Kamakura is famous for its many temples and big Buddha. It's also great because it's so close to Tokyo.

The first temple we went to was called Engaku-ji. The Rough Guide considers it the "second most important but most satisfying of the Kamakura Zen temples." Knowing our tolerance for temples, we decided to try this one out. This is no small temple; the grounds extend on and on! Very beautiful gardens and buildings. Must be tough to keep it so clean.

I like how they shade their flowers with umbrellas!

This is a famous bell, called Ogane. It was forged in 1301! We had to climb a lot of stairs to get here, so we paused for some tea and sweets (you saw the pictures in a prior 'dessert' posting.) The view was amazing from up here!

Then we took the Great Buddha Hiking Trail and wandered into this place. Everyone here washed their money in the small stream. Apparently, whatever you wash in the stream will double! Dan wanted to try a $10,000 yen, but I chickened out and made him do a $1000 yen instead. I mean, what good is it if you rip your $10,000 yen note! I noticed a lot of people were washing coins, anyway.

Walking up the steps to the shrine of Sasuke Inari

His messenger is the fox. As you can see, there were fox statues everywhere! I think you could buy one and leave it there, maybe for good luck?

Finally, after much walking, we made it to the Great Buddha (Daibatsu)! It was amazing! I'm so glad we made it before closing. Look how peaceful and elegant Buddha looks. He was built in 1252, isn't that amazing? It has withstood all sorts of natural disasters -- fires, earthquakes, typhoons, and tidal waves!

Here is Buddha eating some green tea ice cream. :)

This was the coolest part -- you can actually go INSIDE Buddha! For only 20 yen, you can walk around the inside of its body. This picture is a bit disorienting, but the empty cavern up there is where his head is.

Goya champuruu!

2009-04-24T10:11:00.000-04:00

We randomly stumbled into an Okinawan restaurant the other night and happened to sit next to a party of Taiwanese people! They were so excited that we speak Mandarin, so they gave us all sorts of advice on what to order. Turns out they live right near by my aunt too! Anyway, they recommended this goya champuruu, which is the most famous Okinawan dish. It is bitter gourd, tofu, egg, and pork (they used spam, I believe). According to Maki of justhungry.com, "it's supposed to give you lots of energy yet cool your body at the same time, making it perfect for the tropical climate of Okinawa." I loved everything we ordered here! I guess I'll have to try more Okinawan food. :)

Ouch!

2009-04-24T10:08:00.000-04:00

Spiky durian! Can you believe it costs $38?!

A long search for takoyaki

2009-04-23T10:11:00.000-04:00

This takoyaki had a lot to live up to...

Gindaco Takoyaki was recommended to us by a friend, so we decided to venture out and find it one night. Unfortunately, Dan only remembered that it was located in Shinjuku. Do you realize how much we depend on our cell phones nowadays? That's right, in the era when there were no phones (no texting Google to ask for the address, no calling your friend to have her look it up on the Internet), there was asking random street people.

Well, friends, this doesn't work so well when you don't speak Japanese! Nonetheless, we would not be deterred, so we went around from person to person, asking "Gindaco Takoyaki, doko desuka?" (Where is Gindaco?) Half the people had never heard of it! One person sent us on a wild goose chase to the basement of a huge department store.

About an hour later, we finally located it! For those interested, it's in the basement of Alta! It was a very delicious takoyaki, no doubt about it. The crisp outer shell was just right, and there wasn't too much of the sauce on top. I think I'd prefer a little more octopus in my balls, but they were still delicious piping hot. :)

Earth Day

2009-04-23T10:02:00.000-04:00

Earth Day Tokyo was a crazy affair! It was like all the Japanese hippies converged in Yoyogi Park. So crowded! The weather was perfect, though, and we enjoyed seeing the many booths. Mostly, they sold organic foods and clothing, etc. It was definitely a vegan lover's delight too; I bought so many vegan pastries that day. (Though to be honest, more than half of them were nasty.) You couldn't just buy the food either; you first had to line up to get a set of reusable dishware (chopsticks, bowl, plate, and cup), and only then could you go from food stand to food stand. I found this out the hard way when I tried to buy a cup of carrot juice but did not have a cup.

Random handmade dolls

Kids were making the most gorgeous candles!

I thought this was funny because Dan got the biggest bowl of random meats -- sausage and fatty pork. It was a sharp contradiction to all the other food being served at Earth Day, but I guess maybe it was hormone-free, grass-fed pork or something. Trust Dan to find the big bowl of meat. :P

soymilk love!

2009-04-22T05:30:00.000-04:00

Another one of my favorite finds in Japan is the many flavors of soymilk! This is by far our favorite brand. (I wish I could tell you what the brand is called.) We have tried almost every flavor, and our favorites are the red tea and the kinako ones. Below is just a small sampling.

Top to bottom, left to right: green tea, chocolate, banana, coffee, red tea, mixed fruit

They also have regular, enriched, black sesame, strawberry (? -- this one is gross), and maybe some others. Not all soymilk here is great, though; Kevin and I each bought (independently) a carton of nasty nasty soymilk. Stick to the good stuff, this company's milk does not disappoint.

Keio University dinner

2009-04-21T22:00:00.000-04:00

I love my med student group at Keio University! They are all so fun, and they helped me out so much during the first week. They all speak English remarkably well, so that helped a great deal when I would otherwise be dozing through rounds. Our attending took us all out to an izakaya one night for dinner and drinks. I was impressed with how 'casual' the dinner was, even though our attending and the chair of GI were both there. I guess it's very normal to go out to these dinners hosted by your superiors, and it's also very normal to get drunk in front of them!

Here they are!

They ordered me and Dan a huge thing of bamboo sake!

Blowtorch mackerel: yum! You eat this with a dab of spicy mustard.

Buta-no-kakuni: succulent pork belly with pancakes to wrap it up (like the Peking duck pancakes, you know?)

Some sort of fried chicken

A fancy version of chicken meatballs or tsukune, with avocado and tomato

Sea bream and smoked salmon sashimi: I really liked the sea bream!

Dragonball sushi roll: the ikura (fish eggs) are supposed to be 'dragonballs.' Here, all the boys broke into the Dragonball theme song. It was quite funny, I didn't realize how popular Dragonball is here in Japan.

Mentaiko fries: so delicious! What a unique flavoring to French fries!

Korean pancake: crispier than the ones in the States

Japanese pasta

Natto ice cream: one of many desserts! You can see him mixing it. The natto is all sticky and goes well with the ice cream.

And that concludes our dinner! There were actually many more dishes, but I chose the more photogenic ones. :) It was full of beer, sake, good food, and friends. We had our own little tatami room, and there I learned all sorts of Japanese drinking games. Everyone was incredibly hospitable, and I thank them all profusely! Especially Manabu, who found the restaurant for us. :)

Help!

2009-04-21T05:30:00.000-04:00

Can anyone help me out? This was from a temple at Kamakura; they sold these 'amulets' and 'charms' to protect you from certain things. I really want one to protect me from the dangers of residency, but my Kanji isn't good enough to read. Can you find one for me?

I can't kick the Starbucks habit!

2009-04-21T05:20:00.000-04:00

It's not my fault! They had a new macaron: raspberry! Of course I had to try it! The outer casing is huge compared to the fillng, but it wasn't bad for being so cheap. :)

Desserts in Japan

2009-04-21T05:04:00.000-04:00

If you know me, you know that my favorite part of any meal is dessert. Well, I love the desserts in Japan! Many of them don't involve dairy, and there are so many different ones to try. The Japanese have quite a sweet-tooth, as evidenced by the incredibly long lines in front of Krispy Kreme, Cold Stone, and all French patisseries. They especially love baumkuchen, the many layered crepe cakes.

This is just a sampling of the things I've eaten here. Most of them time, I forget to take a picture before wolfing it down. :)

Sakura mochi: this is a seasonal specialty, coinciding with sakura season. See how it's pink? It has red bean on the inside and is wrapped around a plum leaf, giving it a slightly salty taste. Yum!

Sweet rice wine (my favorite) paired with kinako (toasted soy flour) mochi. Kinako is definitely one of my favorite finds here.

Anmitsu: so delicious and refreshing! It's got cubes of gelatin, with mochi, red bean paste, and some canned fruit.

I bought these in Kamakura (more on Kamakura in a separate post). They aren't quite dessert but are a lovely snack. Some sort of sugary ball around a peanut. Sorry, I don't do it justice but isn't it pretty?

Of course there are a million macarons here. Here is the official Pierre Herme one, but Dan didn't like it as much as the ones from La Maison du Chocolat.

Dorayaki: this is like a cake sandwich with red bean paste inside. This one tasted a little eggy, so I wasn't the biggest fan, but I am a sucker for all things red bean paste-related.

Traditional Japanese sweet + matcha: this was an incredible mochi!

These purple sweet potatoes make their appearance everywhere. I love them! This is a cake with sweet potato paste on the inside. They also make these into chips (with a sweet glaze on top) and ice cream and even doughnut filling!

Chocolate crepe: crepes here are kind of different, they are used more like ice cream cones! They are so popular at Harajuku; almost everyone is carrying one. Strangely enough, no one seems to have invited the Nutella crepe here yet.

Green bean cake from Yokohama Chinatown: quite good, never had this before, but the beans were ground very finely, so you could taste them individually.

Cloud is everywhere!

2009-04-20T07:34:00.000-04:00

Ramen Ichiran

2009-04-19T19:34:00.000-04:00

Dan had become obsessed with finding the perfect bowl of ramen here in Tokyo. We thought about going to Ippudo in Ebisu, but now that there is one in NYC, we thought we should try something new. We have had a LOT of ramen in New York, but nothing prepared us for Ramen Ichiran!

Kevin, Dan, and I ventured out originally for a different ramen place, but it turned out to be closed. (Restaurants in Tokyo seem to close on random days.) Not to be thwarted, we decided to go to Ichiran. Ichiran is supposed to be Tokyo's #1 ramen, but the atmosphere is a little odd. You can't really sit with your friends; each customer has his own little 'booth.'

This is how their website describes the booth system:

With a 'curtain' and a 'dividing board', each east is divided into a semi-private room, where you can focus on the flavors of your ramen without having to worry about anything that's happening around you.
(A World First) This is especially popular with our female customers.

Isn't that so funny? Female customers can slurp and have disgusting ramen manners without anyone seeing them! Also, when you need more noodles, you push the button and someone comes to refill your bowl. Apparently, this anonymity is good for the female customers -- you can order without raising your voice and you can eat as many noodles as you want without people judging!

You also get to customize your noodles here -- everything from the chewiness of the noodles, to the amount of fat in the soup, to the amount of spice. If you want additional toppings, you can get an egg, or mushrooms, or extra pork.

Anyway, we went and it was fantastic. Luckily, the three of us all had booths next to one another, so we were able to chat. We screwed up the special systems once or twice, especially during the noodle reordering, but all's good. Definitely a must-try for ramen!

A traditional Japanese tea ceremony

2009-04-19T13:04:00.000-04:00

Traditional Japanese tea ceremonies are apparently hard to come by nowadays. Luckily for us, my mom's old coworker invited us to one. Though it was considered 'traditional,' it was also very modern at the same time. That is, this was a special tea ceremony for children and adults alike! It was lots of young mothers and their babies -- and us. ;) But it was super fun and interesting to experience.

First we all sit on the tatami mats. I attempted to sit on my knees for a while, but I got tired pretty quickly and resorted to Indian style. Here you can see the young ladies serving us tea. They were part of a tea-ceremony class, and apparently they have to do this in order to pass their class. They wore gorgeous kimonos, but if you look carefully, each one has a Disney hankerchief tucked in her robe!

The matcha was made in these special bowls! They are Mickey bowls, especially designed for this tea party! Do you see the Magic Kingdom logo? We each received a cup of matcha and a small manju with strawberry (?) bean paste inside.

Here are Oto and Shiho! :) Shiho was great; she knew that we would be unprepared for this ceremony (meaning we are supposed to wear white socks!) -- so she packed us socks. She also packed us napkins and small bamboo skewers for the Japanese sweets. If you don't bring your own napkin, you're in a bit of a pickle, since they don't provide plates for you.

Then we went to the adjoining tatami room, where a lady played the zither (?) for us. She first played some traditional songs, and then she played fun ones for the kids -- "It's a Small World" and the Mickey Mouse March and the Disney theme song! She was great.

A really interesting experience -- we are so happy we had a chance to attend one of these!

Street signs

2009-04-18T22:26:00.000-04:00

I love street signs in foreign countries. In Costa Rica, they had sloths and monkeys and parrots on their street signs. Here in Japan, there are these cute ones. I love how the little schoolgirl has a ribbon in her hair, and her mom is wearing a hat to shield herself from the sun. It's quintessentially Japanese! In comparison, our street signs are so boring. Just a circle for the head. :(

Tale of Two Katsu

2009-04-18T21:47:00.000-04:00

We had heard a lot of great things about Tonki, a restaurant in Meguro that specializes in tonkatsu, a breaded and fried pork cutlet that is very popular in Japan. They don't use normal batter for the breading, but instead use something called panko, or Japanese bread crumbs. Tonki specializes in tonkatsu; they have been doing this for many many years, and the menu is streamlined into 'fatty' and 'lean' tonkatsu.

Dan and Kevin both decided that they wanted 'fatty' pork. I decided to go with the 'lean' pork. Well, here is where language problems come in. Dan ordered for us, and 20 minutes later, we are all sitting with our plates, eating our meat. Halfway through dinner, the boys started complaining that their meat wasn't fatty enough. Mine was okay, I said. Dan took a glance at mine and was extremely jealous about my meat's fine marbling. I gave him and Kevin a few pieces of mine, and they were so upset. Turns out that Dan had ordered backwards! Isn't that funny, I ended up with the fatty meat and they got the lean meat! How ironic. :)

Dan was very sad about it, but we all agreed that the katsu was still pretty good. My favorite was the pork miso soup. The cabbage was also perfectly shredded and dry, providing a good accompaniment to the pork. Oh, and the mustard is my favorite -- so spicy!

Here is the assembly line. We all sit around this 'kitchen' and watch them make and fry the pork.

This man has probably been doing this for 40+ years!

Here is our katsu! The cabbage is perfect!

A special dinner at Gonpachi

2009-04-18T21:31:00.000-04:00

And here is the entry where Yoko makes a special guest appearance! We had been looking forward to meeting with Yoko for a long time, but she is so busy with work lately, so we are so happy that she was able to meet up with us! It's so nice to talk to someone who understands both cultures so well (and can order for us in Japanese -- haha). We kept peppering her with questions about dating culture, fashion (apparently, layering and accessorizing is very important to Japanese women), and other random things that had been bothering us.

She took us to a lovely restaurant called Gonpachi, located right by us in Shibuya. It's located on the 14th floor and the ride up is in a glass elevator that had Dan's stomach lurching. I thought it was a gorgeous view. :) The restaurant serves traditional Japanese food, but a bit more modern? They specialize in soba and kushi (skewers).

We had our own tatami room and ate and talked to our heart's content.

Really fresh tofu, I love this stuff. It's so creamy and melts in your mouth.

We got a whole bunch of different grilled items, this one being my favorite. They were 'eringi' mushrooms, perfectly grilled with a nice chewy texture and adorned with a bit of salt. Yum!

Black miso cod: of course I had to get this! Very good, no further comments needed.

Gonpachi is very famous for its soba, so we finished off our meal with some soba. Dan and Yoko both got cold sobas, with plum (ume) seasoning on top.

Aw, and here we are after a wonderful dinner. Thanks for taking us out, Yoko!

Flowers at Yokohama

2009-04-17T22:51:00.000-04:00

While we were in Yokohama, we ran into the most gorgeous flower show. It's hard to explain the beauty of it, so I've left you a few pictures. There were rainbows made out of flowers, as well as entire sea landscapes, complete with dolphins! Those pillars are all made with lovely flowers too.

Flower rainbow!

Do you see the giant flower balls they made?

Yokohama Chinatown

2009-04-17T05:17:00.000-04:00

Yokohama is located only 25 minutes away from us by train, and it houses Japan's largest Chinatown (as well as our dear friend Yoko). Dan and I had to go see it for ourselves. It was, without doubt, the cleanest Chinatown that we've ever come across! It resembled Chinatown in most manners -- street vendors hawking food, lots of gaudy red decorations, people milling about -- but the streets were impeccably clean!

They also sold these HUGE bao-zi everywhere! I don't know if you can get a sense for just how large they are here, but I have never seen these enormous bao-zi's at any Chinatown before. Everyone was eating one! I guess for 500 yen, it makes a perfect meal. The Japanese even have plastic food models of the different bao-zi's. ;) I wanted that black one myself.

For some reason, the Japanese also associate the Chinese with pandas, so the entire Chinatown was filled with panda stores. Panda this, panda that, even panda bao-zi's!

We didn't end up eating in Chinatown, just buying a few various snacks. I've heard the Chinese food there is a bit mediocre, so we are holding out for Hong Kong and Taiwan. Still, it was a very worthwhile visit, and we picked up some panda paraphenelia on the way!

Operating Room differences

2009-04-17T01:39:00.000-04:00

This morning I watched a procedure in the operating room (OR). First, I had to change into scrubs. I was a bit indignant, because get this, women wear pink scrubs. That is right, men wear blue/green scrubs, and we get pink ones! Nurses also get pink bouffants, but as students, we wear white bouffants. I thought this scrubs discrimination was a tad unfair. ALSO, we had to change into white socks and pink sandals. Isn't that wild? They change into open-toed shoes here! In the US, we specifically wear close-toed shoes in the OR to avoid blood/needles/blades/etc. from falling on our toes.

I looked pretty silly; my pants were too short, and I had on white socks and pink open-toed sandals. I wish I had taken a picture of myself...

Anyway, Japan definitely has no qualms about pointing out gender differences. My friend says we get different scrubs because of our different body figures, and while this may be true, I'm not sure we need to be decked out in a full bodysuit of pink!

Apostrophes are no where to be found!

2009-04-16T20:03:00.000-04:00

I am sitting in the computer cluster at school right now, and I have noticed that I cannot type apostrophes! The keyboard layout is very funky. Thus, I have stopped the use of contractions. It occurred to me that the Japanese language does not really use apostrophes, so why waste valuable keyboard real estate with it? Instead of the apostrophe, they have : instead. Aha, I found it! It's shift+7, not very intuitive. ;)

I will update later tonight when I return home. Last night was very busy -- my attending and the chair took us all out for a very nice dinner and drinks. It was interesting how casual the atmosphere was, even though we were out with all the bigwigs. So much fun, I will give you a proper recap soon.

End of sakura season + 1 last hanami

2009-04-15T20:21:00.000-04:00

To balance out the number of food posts, I thought I'd leave you with some images from the last sakura blossoms of the year. Cherry blossom season ends very quickly here in Japan! Here we are at Meguro -- pretty much all the petals have fallen already, but we decided to enjoy one last hanami!

Sitting by the benches. Notice all the petals are gone. :(

Our hanami: we bought a whole bunch of food from the supermarket. You can see sashimi, tempura, various salads, soymilk, and my favorite -- pumpkin!

These are all sakura petals in the river! Isn't it crazy?

Yakitori

2009-04-15T20:12:00.000-04:00

I have decided to try the 'large' picture format, instead of 'medium.' What do you think?

Lately, I've been super busy with residency forms and whatnot, so not as much time for updates. I'm so behind on fun things!

We got yakitori a little while back, and it was delectable! Yakitori is basically random parts of chicken on skewers, then grilled. You can find almost every part of the chicken used for yakitori. It's especially popular amongst the Japanese 'salaryman' -- they go here after work, have some skewers, have a smoke and some beer. Needless to say, our restaurant was very smoky. ;)

Chicken thigh with scallion -- an ever-popular choice, also chicken neck, chicken butt

Takoyaki: the BEST takoyaki I've had! It was perfectly crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside, with just enough octopus filling.

Sorry, we forgot to snap pictures. :) But this was chicken heart and chicken stomach. We couldn't tell which was which, since the language barrier prevented us from reading the menu. :P I didn't like either, so I let Kevin and Dan tackle them. One of them had a very crunchy texture which I disliked.

We finished off our meal with some small grilled fish. You eat the whole thing, bones and skin and all. Not bad.

So that's a primer on yakitori! All you need to do is be a little daring. We couldn't read the menu at all. Luckily, our waitress could translate a bit, and we were shameless about pointing at our neighbors' dishes.

Iron Chef Chinese

2009-04-14T05:03:00.000-04:00

Did you ever watch the real Iron Chef? If you did, you would remember Iron Chef Chinese, Chen Kenichi, my own personal favorite. Turns out that he was born in Japan, to ethnically Chinese parents. He also runs a bunch of Sichuan restaurants in Tokyo. Dan is lucky enough to work in the building that houses one of his restaurants. Of course, we couldn't pass up this opportunity!

We had a lot of trouble deciphering all the different set menus, but the lunches definitely range in price.

Dan's appetizer: some sort of 'sashimi of the day' salad

My appetizer: 3 types of steamed dim sum, a spinach dumpling (yum), a meatball with sticky rice (so-so), and I forget what the purplish bao-zi is, but it was good!

This was my main course: a seafood noodle soup. Terrific! Full of lobster and scallops and real chunks of seafood. The flavor was also very strong without being overpowering.

Dan's set menu came with my favorite, fried mantou.

Wonton soup

First of Dan's main dishes: chili shrimp. Quite good, with very succulent and large shrimp, but it tasted much like my mom's version of the dish. More expensive, though. ;) Well, to be fair, this was a bit better than my mom's version, but I bet my mom could make this too.

Dish #2: Ma-po tofu. I tried to talk Dan out of getting this, as I tend to think that mapo tofu is kind of boring. However, this one was very good, and very very spicy. Chef Chen Kenichi knows how to use his spices! I also liked the fact that it was presented on this black tray, so that the inevitable splattering of the red oil doesn't get all over the white tablecloth.

Dessert: sakura ice cream with tapioca and coconut milk

Naked Hello Kitty

2009-04-13T10:37:00.000-04:00

Too many posts today, but so much more that I would like to share. But first, have you ever seen anything so sad in your life? A naked Hello Kitty?!

Proof that Japan has awesome vegan desserts

2009-04-13T10:20:00.000-04:00

From Pure Cafe in Omotesando...

Caramel bread pudding

Fruit tart

Ah, I love this city. :)

Food at Disney Sea!

2009-04-13T05:20:00.000-04:00

The food here is not bad! No complaints from me or Dan. Well, I did yearn for cotton candy at some point, but their food was quite adequate indeed. The prices were also very reasonable. The fun part about their food is that every 'port' serves its own food. You spend the day looking at different snack carts because they all serve something different! Totally ingenious idea, as Dan and I love being on the prowl. ;)

Here's a smoked chicken leg. This was Dan's favorite snack of the day, and he ended up getting two of them. ;) This is definitely an Asian-style snack, with just enough zest and spice. Yum. This was part of the Mysterious Island theme -- you know, the whole wilderness/outdoorsy thing.

Then we had a sesame churro at Arabian Coast. Yes, a sesame churro! Dan said it wasn't as good as the regular cinnamon ones from Costco, but I enjoyed it immensely. They also have a maple churro elsewhere in the park.

Our lunch at Sakura Restaurant in the American Waterfront. Loved it! We had udon noodles that came with the sushi and lotus root and pickled vegetables. We also ordered fresh yuba (very tasty!) and scallops of some sort. Not too expensive for this lovely meal either.

And my favorite part, the popcorn! Everyone here carries around a huge souvenir popcorn bucket with some Disney character on it. They get cheap refills with the bucket. I couldn't afford the bucket, but I did get myself a thing of caramel popcorn. Each popcorn cart serves a different flavor of popcorn! They have caramel, sea salt, curry, black pepper, strawberry, and chocolate! Apparently, they used to have cappuccino and coconut as well. I passed up the caramel stand the first time and then spent a good hour looking for another one. :P

This, by the way...

2009-04-11T22:12:00.000-04:00

...is what every girl in Disney looks like.

That, and everyone has a "Duffy the Bear." Have you ever heard of Duffy the Bear? I hadn't either. Duffy is apparently Mickey's bear. Minnie gives it to him when he goes off to sea. Basically, everyone has a Duffy 'purse' hanging off their waist. I was almost tempted to buy one myself.

Everyone here has a Duffy!

This is how girls at Disney dress. If you zoom in, you will see 5 girls in the picture, all with Minnie hairpieces.

Disney Sea

2009-04-11T09:17:00.000-04:00

When our friends suggested taking a trip to Disney Sea, we scoffted at the idea. Disney, that's for kids! But boy, were we wrong! Disney is the happiest place on Earth -- and for good reason too! Disney Sea is especially nice; it's the newest Disney theme park here (opened in 2001) and is a little more geared towards adults. They even sell liquor! According to Wikipedia, it's also the most expensive theme park ever built (estimated to cost the US over $4 billion)! Also, Disney Sea is run by Oriental Land Co., not Disney itself. We figured it'd be fun to check out an old friend in a new country anyway.

DisneySea is arranged into seven "ports of call." Each one has its own theme and its own rides. You'll see in my pictures how remarkably clean DisneySea is.

For those of you who have never played hooky, I highly recommend it. We came on a Thursday, and Japanese students have just started their semesters, so most of them were reluctant to play hooky so soon. Really, the park belonged to us. We walked into every ride we wanted to ride, and did several of them multiple times. The lines were non-existent, even for bathrooms and food. The weather was gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky -- and a full moon by night. It truly is a happy place; you watch everyone walk by decked out in their Disney gear and you can't help but smile. :)

This is me in front of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A fun ride, but more for its concept than for the thrill. We did it twice anyway.

I'm wearing a frog hat here. I don't know what it's from.

This sums up the day pretty well. Japanese people are obsessed with Disney. I mean, obsessed. Everyone wears Disney clothing when they come out here. Almost 80% of the women had on Minnie ears, or a Minnie bow, or often Marie ears (from the Aristocats). Heck, I've never even heard of Marie of the Aristocats! Also, everyone has a souvenir popcorn bucket that they hang around their necks, along with the Disney bottle holder.

Tower of Terror -- the freefall ride. The one ride I declined. I hate freefalls.

Port Discovery -- they had StormRider here.

American Waterfront -- that's the SS Columbia you see there.

Venetian gondolas at Mediterranean Harbor

BraviSEAmo -- their nighttime show. Truly spectacular, a combination of fire and water. It's hard to explain the magnitude of this show unless you see it, but they basically set the whole lake on fire.

I'll take this time to advertise the Disney shows. I like the way Disney doesn't just focus on rides. Their rides aren't really thrill-seeking, the way Six Flags rides are. Their rides are themed and very detail-oriented. They also have fantastic shows here. We went to every show that we wanted to see, because the lines were so short! Our favorite was definitely "Big Band Beat," which was a jazzy number (in English). They had a real band and great jazz singers and dancers. It almost felt like being on Broadway.

All this, for $58! You get rides and shows and fun galore. You can't really complain!

I'm going to have another post just on Disney food, which was pretty fantastic as well. ;)

Don't Push the Red Button!

2009-04-10T22:24:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I was visiting Kevin at his dormitory. I was apparently his first visitor, because I pushed the buzzer...instead of letting me in, Kevin somehow pushed the red emergency button. Suddenly the alarm started ringing, and we ran around frantically trying to stop it. There was a button that said something to the effect of "stop the alarm" but we pushed it to no avail. We banged on the telephone, we pried up buttons, nothing worked.

Then right as Kevin called the school for help, he spotted a policeman sprinting towards his dorm. Haha, from there, it was all downhill. The policeman didn't speak English and we fumbled through many apologies, trying to explain how we accidentally pushed the button and were fine. Then, two people from the Student Affairs office showed up, asking, "Are you okay?" The policeman and them talked a bit in Japanese, and we heard bits and pieces of "gaijin" (or foreigner). Sigh, they were probably talking about how stupid we are.

Anyway, Kevin had to give him his passport number and everything. Eventually everyone left and we had a good laugh. Three people showed up for our alarm call -- I guess that's good service. ;)

Moral of the story: don't push the red button!

Korean BBQ, Japanese style

2009-04-10T20:24:00.000-04:00

Back home we have Korean BBQ all the time, but I've had it quite like this. We went to a chain that specialized in pork (pork is the main meat here in Japan), and we were led to a smoky room. (My one huge complaint about restaurants here is that they are all smoky! My goodness, I'll probably have lung cancer by the time I leave this place.)

Here are huge slabs of bacon, being put on a flat griddle. We were given bibs to wear to protect ourselves from the hot oil.

Here they are finished and ready to eat!

This is the Korean pancake that we got. I tried to get something like the pajeon, which is what I always want. This one was different, more eggy and less chewy. We still enjoyed it.

My bi bim bop. I always get this at Korean restaurants. This one wasn't as good. They mixed it up for me and made it too spicy. :( The other dish that everyone got was a stir-fried rice dish. They just dumped all this rice on the griddle after the pork was eaten, and you could add extras on it, like rice and egg.

At dinner, though, we met some interesting people. There was a well-dressed couple sitting next to us. The man, of course, was puffing away. Anyway, they found out we were American and were super excited! They kept asking us (in very non-understandable English) if we knew about pretzels. "Sure, we like pretzels," we replied. Well, after a lot of beating around the bush, it turns out the man is very wealthy and about to open a branch of Wetzel's Pretzels in Tokyo! It was pretty hilarious. Dan had never even heard of Wetzel's Pretzels, but Kevin and I confirmed to him that they sold good pretzels. :P (I prefer Auntie Anne's though, sorry!) The best part was that he was super drunk, so he kept buying us beer and tea as well.

Interesting dinner experience! :) Watch out for Wetzel's Pretzel's in Japan!

Menthol eye drops

2009-04-09T21:41:00.000-04:00

The worst part about not speaking the language here is that I can never read ingredients. I always try and see if there are dairy products in the foods I eat, but it's so hard to do it here! In languages like Spanish and French, even German, you can make out the words with some form of 'milk' in it. Here, it's nigh impossible! I'm leaning some of the katakana for 'milk' and 'butter' but it is still tough.

The other day, I tried to buy contact rewetting drops. Now that was even harder. I picked up a small bottle that resembled drops and brought it to the counter. The pharmacist of course did not speak English. I gestured with the drops into my eyes, and she quickly shook her head and took the bottle away from me, indicating that these are NOT for the eyes. Whew, relief.

Then she introduced me to a pharmacist who spoke a few words. I gesticulated wildly and got across my point. He said, "soft or hard?" I replied, "soft." He brought me over to some drops, and I chose a blue one with the words "Cool" on the label. OK, so far, so good.

When I stepped outside, I immediately put the drops in my eyes. This, my dear reader, is where you should learn from me. When you have no idea what you are putting into your eye, only do ONE EYE AT A TIME. That way, you don't blind BOTH eyes! As for me, suddenly both of my eyes were stinging and I could not keep them open. I hoped this was not bad for my vision.

Later, Jeannie and Cat informed me that these are 'menthol' eye drops. Illegal in the US. They give your eyeballs a "refreshing blast of minty goodness." Here's an interesting review. I also read that they have great whitening (redness relieving) abilities, especially good for people who are stoned.

Anyone else try and use these before? Now I'm scared. Ophthalmologists out there? Help me out! Are these detrimental to my eyes? I wish I could read the packaging inserts!

Friends in Tokyo

2009-04-08T04:35:00.000-04:00

The bad part about living in a foreign country is that you miss your friends and family. (To my friends and family who are reading this, I miss you! :)) In a fortuitous collision of events, a whole bunch of us from Columbia ended up in Tokyo at the same time! And here we are, all having dinner at Tsunahachi, a tempura place in Shinjuku.

Here we all are! It's such a nice feeling to see friends in a foreign country.

We even scored ourselves a private tatami room! Our legs all got tired, though. We don't seem to have the stamina of the Japanese for sitting cross-legged. My legs start turning numb pretty quickly. Then a lot of discussion on the Asian squat ensued. :P

Shrimp and red pepper and mackerel (?) tempura

This was some weird dish that no one seemed to like. Sarah likened it to 'snot consistency.' Still, it was a fun night!

For Susan...

2009-04-06T20:16:00.000-04:00

a Hello Kitty doctor's kit!

Including a stethoscope and other random medical tools!

I couldn't quite justify buying it. :P

Cat bus!

2009-04-06T19:44:00.000-04:00

Someone mentioned that the panda bus might be like the cat bus from Totoro! Well, guess what I saw at Kiddyland (the craziest toy store known to man)?

It's Cat Bus!

Lots of Totoro figurines!

Hakone

2009-04-06T04:50:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend, we took a day trip to Hakone, a lovely region with hot springs (onsen) and views of Mt. Fuji and a lot of different transportation options. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate fully with us, so we didn't have a great view of Mt. Fuji, but it was still gorgeous.

Transport #1 is the usual subway all the way to Hakone.

Transport #2: Hakone train

Transport #3: Funicular (sorry, didn't get a good picture of it)

Transport #4: cable car! This was awesome, it went over a really crazy valley where they were mining sulfur. Kind of looked like a Mayan civilization or something.

Here I am at the sulfur hot springs. They are famous for their 'black eggs' here. They are hard-boiled in the sulfur springs, so they all turn black. Apparently, every egg you eat extends your life by 7 years. Unfortunately, Dan and I were too full by then so we didn't eat any. :( Oh well, at least -not- eating them doesn't detract from your lifespan.

Transport #5: pirate ship!! This was my favorite! They are actually based on pirate ships. Dan and I 'upgraded' to first class for $4. :)

Transport #6: bus -- really really cramped bus for really really tiny Japanese people. Not pictured.

Transport #7: On the way home, we took the RomanceCar, a super lovely train! :)

Here is our train bento box. I love eating bentos on the train. It's so romantic, somehow.

And that's our trip to Hakone! There are lots of cute shops and mochis and mochis everywhere. Definitely recommend a day trip there if you are in Tokyo.

Stopped by the police!

2009-04-05T10:05:00.000-04:00

Daniel here.

After work on Friday, I was striding purposefully through the windy streets of Dougenzaka on my way home when I saw two police officers coming my way. I moved to the left to allow them to pass. They moved to the left. I moved further to the left. They moved further to the left. Then, I realized they were stopping me.

One officer let loose a swift stream of incomprehensible Japanese. I stared blankly, worried that I had committed some obscure misdemeanor. Finally, I managed to utter one word --- wakarimasen --- I don't understand. The officer switched to English, asking to see my ID and backpack. I asked why. He said there have been a lot of drugs and knives in this area. In the US, I would have refused, but here I reluctantly acceded. They examined my backpack, digging through all my stuff. Then they perfunctorily patted me down, really only checking my pockets. He felt something hard in my pocket and asked what it was --- turned out to be my phone, big surprise there.

Then, they let me go, and I walked home, feeling confused and violated.

Apparently, I was lucky --- other gaijin stopped without their passports were interrogated for hours at the police station and summoned for a hearing. Read this poor guy's story.

Kaiten-zushi

2009-04-05T09:57:00.000-04:00

Kaiten-zushi is 'conveyor-belt' sushi. The sushi chefs stand in the middle and make plates of sushi, and they rotate around. It's so fun, you are constantly on the lookout for something you want, and you snatch it off the belt when it comes around. Each plate is color-coded with a price, and at the end of the meal, the plates are tallied up. It's best to go to a kaiten-zushi place that is very busy; that way, you know the sushi is fresh.

Dan and I tried two kaiten-zushi places in one night. It's easy to go in and order a few pieces (or in our case, overeat at both. :P) Very fun and quite cheap. Unfortunately, a lot of the menu is a la carte as well, but since our command of the language is non-existent, we couldn't read the menu, nor ask for much.

You get to mix your own green tea. There are hot water spigots at every table, and you use a spoonful of green tea powder.

Here come the plates!

Picture of the day!

2009-04-04T09:36:00.000-04:00

Me and a life-sized Colonel Sanders!

I found fruit...

...but so expensive! Look at this $37 watermelon!

Doughnut Plant in Tokyo!

2009-04-04T08:27:00.000-04:00

Now this is exciting stuff! There is a Doughnut Plant in the Ebisu train station! Doughnut Plant is one of NYC's most popular doughnut stores, but I've never been able to have their doughnuts because they all contain dairy. However, in Tokyo, I guess a lot of people are lactose-intolerant, so they have SOY MILK doughnuts!! I was so excited!

Here I am with my sesame doughnut!

So tasty! You can even see the sesame seeds! It was kind of a cross between a yeast and cake doughnut. I don't know if that's from the soy milk or what.

We liked our doughnut so much that we came back 20 minutes later and bought a maple soymilk doughnut. ;) I really wanted to try the sakura red bean one, but alas, it has milk in it.

More sakura!

2009-04-04T07:55:00.000-04:00

Yup, even more sakura! I went to Shinjuku Park with some people, and it was the perfect day. Thought I'd leave you with some images. :)

Three colors of blossoms on this one tree!

Apparently, everyone has to do this peace sign when they take pictures. :)

Eating Whale

2009-04-02T19:27:00.000-04:00

Dan and I have worked out a system where he chooses the restaurant for one night, and I choose it for the next night. He loves to eat the strange and I am willing to try new things. Japanese restaurants often specialize in one thing -- ramen, tonkatsu (pork cutlet), pigs' feet, yakitori, oden, unagi (eel), etc. Near our apartment, there is a restaurant that specializes in whale meat. Whale meat used to be very popular in Japanese culture, but now it is quite rare. Everything from the whale was used; according to Wikipedia, an old Japanese proverb goes something like "There's nothing to throw away from a whale except its voice."

The International Whaling Committee (IWC) issued a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1982, and the Japanese were strong-armed into cutting back on whaling. Apparently, the Japanese public still overwhelmingly favors whaling.

I have to admit, I felt a bit queasy eating whale. It's one thing eating fish, but whale? I don't know why I draw that distinction, but I don't want us killing whales!

This is the first course: whale sashimi. Really really not my thing. It tasted a little bloody, as I guess mammal sashimi would taste. Dan enjoyed it; he thought it was the most 'different' tasting dish. Many of the others he felt tasted like ordinary meat.

Deep-fried whale (karaage) -- this was all right, but the meat was a bit tough.

Whale BBQ -- we grilled this meat on our own little grill. It was flavored with soy sauce and sesame and was very thin. This was my favorite, partially because it didn't taste like whale and partially because it was thin enough to be tender.

Whale tongue stew -- this (yes, that's the whole dish) cost like $10. The whale tongue was incredibly fatty, so much so that I could not tolerate it. The stew had a nice flavor, though. (I didn't know tongue was so fatty?)

Whale cutlet and leek skewers -- This is like whale katsu. The flavoring, especially with the dollop of mustard, was very good; however, the meat was so tough, I could barely bite into it.

I think that the conclusion is that whale meat is very expensive and also very tough to eat. I would much rather eat more tender meat. ;) I also had some conscience problems while eating it, but Dan did not have such qualms. Anyway, it was interesting (and expensive) to try once.

Here the gasoline comes from the sky...

2009-04-02T19:21:00.000-04:00

Isn't this crazy! The gasoline pumps come from the sky! Dan and I are still trying to figure out how it lowers. We haven't seen it in true action yet. Saves a lot of space, though, no?

When in Rome, do as the Romans do...

2009-04-02T03:55:00.001-04:00

I am trying my hardest not to jaywalk but it is so hard to fight that innate New Yorker tendency! But no one else does it here, so I am trying to be good. :)

Street food galore!

2009-04-01T20:05:00.000-04:00

Okay, finally here's some of the food out here. I love street food! Japan has its own unique street food delicacies, especially okonomiyake (like a Japanese style pancake made with cabbage) and octopus balls. I'm not the biggest fan of the fishier tasting street food, but we had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the wide variety at the street market in Ueno Park.

Deep-fried spaghetti, then seasoned with sugar and soy sauce. Eh, interesting, but not my thing.

Oden -- various fish cakes and stuff in this soup. We have yet to try real oden, but they have it everywhere, even in the local convenience stores.

This is a potato carved out into a crispy long strip. They season them with a variety of different toppings. Like French fries, I suppose.

Grilled fish. Didn't try this but it looked interesting!

My okonomiyake -- not really my thing, much too fishy!

Deep-fried green tea mochi -- now this is good!

Skewers, skewers, skewers!

Deep-fried sweet potato fries -- so delicious! Why don't we have these in America? The Japanese are obsessed with potatoes. They love boiled potatoes with mayonnaise. I don't get it.

Stay tuned for our adventures with whale meat! (I hope to gross Jason out, so keep reading. :))

Hanami

2009-04-01T19:53:00.000-04:00

Hanami are the cherry blossom viewing parties. Cherry blossom season is the end of March-beginning of April. We were lucky enough to make it in time to see them! We went to Ueno Park to watch the parties. They're pretty crazy! People bring tarps and boxes and set up their own little elaborate picnic areas. Everyone takes their shoes off and sits on these tarps, eating street food (there are a million vendors selling all sorts of street food), and drinking sake and beer. The country is in a sakura (cherry blossom) craze right now; there is cherry blossom merchandise everywhere!

These picnic areas are elaborate! People use the boxes to set up mini-tables.

PANDA BUS!!

2009-04-01T01:35:00.000-04:00

Starbucks

2009-04-01T00:02:00.000-04:00

I don't frequent Starbucks that much in the US, way too overpriced. However, I've been to Starbucks twice in the last two days here. Not because it's cheaper -- still way overpriced here (probably even more so than in the US) -- no, but they have these great drinks! The first one I had was a green tea latte. Today I had a soy latte and get this, a sakura macaron! Starbucks is having a cherry blossom promotion with all sorts of drinks and snacks. Check it out!

Here is someone's flickr picture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pigletmikan/453177784/in/set-72157600051019426/

My favorite part about the Japanese Starbucks is that when you order a soy drink, they give you a card that says "soymilk." When you receive your drink, you give the card back to the barista. This ensures that you get a drink with soy, and not regular milk, thus cutting down on allergy accidents. Wish we had that in America!

Tsukiji Fish Market

2009-03-31T18:46:00.000-04:00

The first morning we were here, we woke up at 4:30am to go see the tuna auction at the Tsukiji Fish Market. The sounds, sights, and even smells of this market are mind-boggling. We had to keep dodging men driving carts! The tuna can go for as much as $200,000!

Of course, while we are here, we have to eat the famous sushi as well!

This is the line at Daiwa Sushi at 6am!! Can you imagine how long it gets at lunch time?

Tuna auction : men are inspecting the fish with those hooks

Random seafood in the fish market

That's right, we waited over 45 minutes to eat here. This was our first piece, fatty tuna. It's so fresh and delicious. :)

This is really good tamago (my personal favorite) . They have tamago stands everywhere! To the right of that is uni (sea urchin egg), it was so fresh and had a mildly sweet flavor. The maki roll included tuna and salmon roe.

We also had fresh shrimp (ebi), freshwater eel (anago) -- not my favorite, kampuchi, scallop, and miso soup with clams. All in all, a fantastic meal! Have you ever had a full sushi meal at 6:30 am? :)

Random observations

2009-03-31T02:37:00.001-04:00

I know I have posted a surplus of posts today, but I wanted to jot down some random observations before I forget! (Still to come, your favorite part, the fine cuisine we've been eating!)

1. No one eats on the street or subways! We Americans must seem incredibly gauche to the Japanese. I mean, -everyone- is eating on the A train. And when you buy some bread from a bakery, how often do you just rip off a piece and nibble on it as you walk home? No way, the Japanese wrap everything up (Dan thinks it is for precisely that reason -- they want to discourage such uncouth behavior) and no one eats in public!

2. The Japanese drive on the left! No one ever told me this -- I thought it was just the Brits and Australians!

3. Do the Japanese eat fruit? I am having the hardest time finding fruit, except the really expensive single-wrapped ones that appear to be for gifting purposes.

4. No one talks on their cell phones in the trains! Everyone is texting, but no one is on their phone. I chuckle because I am certain if cell phones worked in NYC subways, everyone would be jabbering away.

5. The women here dress really well. They are all in heels and skirts, and I wish I had brought more dressy shoes. :)

6. The Japanese love to package things. Everything is packaged beautifully, even the smallest trinket that you buy. I love it!

7. You order ramen from these vending machines! How cool is this. No one takes your order -- you just put some change in, and choose what you want, then bring your ticket up to the counter. You can even do 'add-ons' for some extra yen, like an egg or extra meat.

Our Apartment, Part 2

2009-03-31T02:34:00.000-04:00

This is our mini stove. Note that though it only has two burners, it has a small grill for grilling fish!

Underneath our sink: a treasure trove! Including a rice cooker and a whole drying rack with utensils.

This is located outside our shower. Good question, we have no idea how to use it either, but I'm sure once we figure it out, we'll have extra magical shower air.

And that's all the fun for now. Our apartment is one surprise after another. Wait until you see the toilet!

Our Apartment

2009-03-31T02:19:00.000-04:00

Our apartment is by no means large. Quite small, actually. But the Japanese have a talent for space conservation. There are gadgets and gizmos packed into every square inch of this apartment. I thought I'd walk you through some of the more interesting aspects.

This is just to show you how unbelievably obsessed with details the Japanese are. These are knobs on our closet doors. They push in when you are not using them! To use the knobs, you push them in again, and they pop back out. I guess having protruding knobs is unsightly. :)

We have a shoe closet! And you can't see it well, but the hooks in the closet also fold in when they are not in use.

One of the closets held a surprise for us: a washing/drying machine! Now we'll just have to figure out how to use it. We realized that one of our big problems is that we can't read the text on any of these fancy gizmos.

This is interesting. We could not figure out for the lives of us what this did. It's located in our 'kitchen.' I thought it was the heat, but alas, couldn't get the room to heat up. (Anyway, can you imagine having the heat set at 43 degrees Celsius?!) Finally after fiddling with enough buttons, we heard the water filling up in the bathtub! That's right! You can cook dinner and push a button to fill up your bathtub, so your water will be ready when you want to bathe. How fun. :)

An Introduction

2009-03-31T02:02:00.000-04:00

A lot of people have been starting blogs recently. I debated it for a while; I prefer personalized e-mails, but this is probably the most efficient way to do things. Not only that, but this can also serve as my personal diary during my month here.

Daniel and I are spending a solid month here in Tokyo. Neither of us speak Japanese. He speaks a little bit more than I do, but that's not saying much. As soon as I got here, I realized that this would be a difficult month. No one speaks English! So this blog will not only follow our adventures in Tokyo, but it will also serve to highlight cultural differences and difficulties as a foreigner. It is not easy to live in a country where you don't speak their language, and they yours. But that's what is going to make this so fun...:)

So buckle up! You are about to explore Tokyo with us!