Diet Coke, now with Fiber!

Yes, the title says it all. I was in the local Circle K when I came across this gem. It's a diet soda that makes you more regular. I have no idea how much fiber is actually in it, since I can't read the nutrition facts, but I didn't notice anything. Can't be too much, or else I would imagine the soda would be somewhat thicker. What will they think of next?

More Italianese Food

A friend of ours showed us to this cute little Italian place in the city. The only things on the menu were pasta and lasagna. I chose the latter. Much better than the mall's Italian food. So good, in fact, that I took a video of it before I ate it just so you could watch and your mouth could water. And if you really like the video, and can read Japanese, I'll include the picture they had on their staircase. It's the recipe. Yum!

We had Rand, they have ramen

On Mondays Lisa (my fellow teacher) and I eat lunch in the medical school cafeteria and hold a chat club. What that means in practice is eating lunch together and watching as our students look in our direction, then walk quickly away. They're a little shy about speaking outside of the classroom, which isn't really a surprise considering how reticent they are to speaking inside the classroom. Anyways, this week I snagged a picture of my lunch just to show the difference between what I ate at Vandy, and what these guys get every day. The main dish is a nice big bowl of ramen, the kitchen staff rotate what type of ramen it is every week, not that I ever really know the identities of any of the types, but at least it's something new. The top left dish is kimchi, yum. In the middle is a tempura style eggplant, also yum. The thing on the right is a breaded mashed potato, mystery meat mix, bathed in katsu sauce, which is similar to A1. To wash it all down, a nice cup of green tea. All in all, much better than Best Wok, and about a hundred times more healthy. The food is good enough that it almost makes up for the fact that our students avoid us like we have the plague. Oh well, maybe they'll be less shy next semester.

Gomenasai!

Yah, I realize it's been about a month since I posted last, I apologize. It's been cold here, I've been busy with applications, insert excuse here. In any case, I'll start posting again now that it's been warming up, and I've been venturing outside more. Most of the stuff is inane little tidbits I've come across over the past month or so, mostly having to do with what I eat or drink, but that isn't really different from what I've been posting about all along. So without further ado, here's something interesting: boob ice cream.

I know, it's not the real name of the dessert, but that's what it looks like. Here's how you eat it. First, remove the plastic packaging. Second, cut off the nipple. Third, put your mouth on it and suck as hard as you can, because the ice cream is as firm as a rock. Congratulations, after giving yourself permanent inner ear damage from the pressure change, you get vanilla ice cream. Without a doubt, one of the hardest methods to eat ice cream. I had two of these little delicacies, the first time I ate it, most of it melted, so when I got to the end, the liquid part squirted all over my shirt. The second time, I squeezed it too hard, causing a massive explosion, and showering my clothes, my couch, my walls, and just about every wall in my living room with ice cream. Clearly, I must be doing something wrong. Still, vanilla ice cream is good, so I might try this again.

Italianese Food

So I was going shopping at one of the bigger malls for some hot sauces when I stumbled across some of my friends from the main campus. We decided to get lunch at a little Italian place in the food court. "But you're in Japan!" you say. I know, I know, it's crazy, but we wanted a taste of Europe. In any case, here's a picture of what I ate. Basically spaghetti with katsup on it, what made me remember that I was still over in Asia was the fact that they crack a raw egg on top of it. I swear, Japan has never heard of salmonella. Still, it wasn't too bad, the egg turned the marinara into carbonara. I think I'll just stick from making my own pasta sauce from now on. Va bene!

A Little Night Dancing

I love walking through the indoor shopping arcades at night, you always see the most interesting people. Considering how cold it is here, you'd think he'd be practicing somewhere inside. Or at least with a mirror.

Sukiyaki

So another interesting variation on the nabe style of meal. This one is called sukiyaki. It's pretty easy, all you have to do is add meat and sesame oil to the large iron pot, cook the meat, and then add in cabbage, mushrooms, tofu, onions, and some other tasty stuff. Then add water, and sukiyaki sauce, which is basically sugar and shoyu. Let it boil for a while, then eat eat eat! Yum!

Sumo Vids

Sumo!

So a few weeks ago I headed to the small town of Nomura to check out their 158th annual sumo match. Nomura is a small country town located about two hours to the south of Matsuyama. We got there around 11pm, just in time to eat chanko nabe. I think that's how you spell it. For those that don't know, this is another boil-everything dish, but it's particular to the sport of sumo, mostly because this nabe has just about every type of meat and vegetable imaginable packed into it. I'll put up a picture of it. Probably the best part was the large, human-sized cauldrons that they were cooking it in. The whole event had that small town feel to it, it's not a well known match, but they've been having it for quite a while.

We went inside the arena, which was about half the size of my high school's gymnasium, and sat down to watch the matches. There were no yokozuna's at this match (for those who don't know, yokozuna is the highest league of sumo wrestler), but there were still a fair number of professionals competing. I'd like to go on record and say that sumo wrestling is one of the politer sports I've ever watched. If one of the wrestlers attacks before the other is ready, they stop, apologize, and being again. A little different than boxing back in the states. (Side note: I still don't understand the big deal about the whole Mike Tyson biting the ear thing. I mean, the object of the sport is to knock your opponent into unconsciousness by beating them with your fists. Who cares if the guy takes a little nibble? But I digress...) Considering the massive size of some of the competitors, I was expecting a few more KO's, but the matches were fairly tame. Sometimes it seemed a little unevenly matched, with a 80kg guy taking on someone who must have been 150kgs, but for the most part, the matches were pretty straight forward. I made sure to take some videos, so I'll put them in the next section.

Ahh, one other thing, at the end of the match the two highest ranked wrestlers performed a special honor for some of the families who attended. This involved taking their babies and walking them around the ring. I could describe it more, but I think the video says it all, so check it out. All in all, a really interesting day.

Back on Monday

Ok, I'm going skiing starting tomorrow up in Niseko, should be a ton of fun! I'll try and take as many pictures as possible, and start posting again when I get back on Monday night! Time to hit the slopes!

Genbaku Dome

I didn't take many pictures on the trip I took to Hiroshima with my parents, but I did manage to get my camera out to take some shots of the Genbaku, or A-bomb, Dome. To say it's a sobering sight is to greatly understate the area. I'm not very interested in the debate over whether or not the US should have used this weapon during the war, the salient points have been discussed for over 60 years by smarter minds than my own. Indeed, the morality of what happened didn't really enter into my mind as I walked around the site. Instead, I was struck by the dichotomous nature of scientific progress. The ability to harness the power contained at the atomic level can at once save humanity, or be instrumental in its efforts to destroy itself. Then again, on reflection, I don't think that the dichotomy of good and evil is contained in science, but within ourselves. Science qua science is by nature amoral. Discovering and analyzing the properties and relationships inherent to our physical universe is a project that transcends ethics. It is in the application of such knowledge that we err. The entire Hiroshima area is a testament to what humans can do when we give in to our more destructive urges, which, history being the primary witness, are legion. When I look at these pictures, it reminds me that we must tread carefully, and to always understand to the fullest the ramifications of our actions. Humanity, not science, is the entity that so precariously stands at the edge of the abyss. I believe in scientific progress, but knowledge without reflection is, at best, dangerous, and we should never forget the lessons taught by monuments such as these. If not out of respect for the past, then for the protection of our future.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Umm, this gives a new meaning to "You better watch out." Good to see the local merchants are getting into the spirit of things. Good luck, Rudolph, your red nose might prove to be a bit disadvantageous with this jolly animal.

Nabe!

Another good meal! One of Lisa's students took us out to dinner in the city for a nabe party. For those who don't know, which I assume is most of you, nabe is like imotaki in that its modus operandi is "take-everything-you-want-to-eat-and-boil-the-hell-out-of-it." Except instead of a metal pot, you use a ceramic pot. We started off with a nice boiled squid and sashimi, and then moved on to boiled fish, cabbage, mushrooms, lime, lettuce, seaweed, and giant green onions. I've included before and after pictures so you can get an idea of how this works. The best part is that you use a portable stove on your table, so this is a great method of cooking for my apartment, which is starting to get ridiculously cold now that winter has arrived. Luckily for me, some of the old occupants of my place already bought a nabe pot and a portable stove, so I've been making stuff like this for the past two weeks. Great party food. Itadakimasu!

Cognitive Dissonance, anyone?

Sometimes I just don't understand the Japanese. Why even bother shaping it like that, if you're going to put a warning sticker on the bottom? I love the fashion over here, people will wear just about anything with American connotations, even if they have no idea what the cultural significance is. Then again, I shouldn't be critical, considering the amount of people in the States who get tattoos in Asian languages without bothering to check if what they're getting inked on their body actually means what they were told it meant. I've heard horror stories before. Anyways, I thought this was pretty funny, so I took a picture of it. Enough said!

More Temple Pictures

Ishite Temple

Still catching up on posts from a few weeks ago. Another trip that Gentry and I took was to visit the Ishite temple with Azami and Lisa. I'm no expert on Buddhism, so I couldn't tell you what sect was being practiced here, but I will say that the temples in Japan differ greatly from the temples in Nepal, which was to be expected, I guess. In any case, we took a full tour of the place. In addition to the giant bell that comes standard with all Buddhist temples, there were about ten different buildings scattered over the compound where you could pay your respects, as well as pay a few coins out of your pocket to support the local monks. One of the cooler things was getting to go inside one of the buildings and joining in a mantra with one of their head monks. A bit of culture shock though, in the outer room was a man chanting into a microphone, which was being broadcast over the entire area. That in itself wasn't odd, but the fact that he had his cell phone out next to all of the holy documents he was singing from was a little off. Kinda made it less impressive. Maybe it's because the Nepalese lamas don't have cell phones, but I just can't see that sort of think happening near the feet of the Himalayas. Oh well, different cultures, different customs.

Another interesting point was walking through a crevice in the hillside and seeing the back area behind the temples. Talk about your grab bag of statues! I posted some pictures, see if you can spot the deity that looks suspiciously like Vigo Mortensen! All in all, a really interesting place. Gotta love the smell of hundreds of sticks of incense!

A Fish, A Fish, A Fishy-ooooo

Per usual, another food entry. On the Thursday night when Gentry visited, our friends Azami and Tetsu took us out to yet another amazing place, the name, as usual, I forget. Really tiny, the entire restaurant consists of a bar and a table for about six people. The bar is definitely the place to sit, as you can see by the first picture. All of the fish was laid out for our choosing, cooked, or not cooked, to order. Loved the place, we ended up going back when my parents visited last week.

After Gentry and I filled ourselves to the brim with fish (I'm assuming Gentry was filled, he got there with Tetsu and Azami a hour and a half before I could make it), we headed to another cool find of Tetsu's. From the outside, it looks like a storage area, something you would pass by without a second glance. On the inside, however, is a quaint little wine bar. I'm not much of a wine person, but luckily the master had a bottle of some really tasty Grappa. We spent a few hours there, and retired for the night. The last picture should explain it all!

Mmm, fish eggs....

Stopped by Takashimaya before we headed back home after seeing Dogo. As luck would have it, a regional market was open on on of the higher floors. Apparently it was supposed to be like the fish markets in Hokaido. Let me tell you, the smells coming from some of these booths were absolutely incredible, both in their savoriness and in their ability to completely overpower the nose. I could have spent a lot of money their, but a lot of what was being sold involved bento boxes, and we had our meals planned out for the rest of the week. Oh well. One thing in particular caught my eye. One of the booths was dealing in fish eggs, and they had one of the biggest piles of salmon roe I have ever seen, so I managed to get a picture. Doesn't it just make you want to grab a handful and pop them in your mouth? And I mean pop them, since that's what they do when you eat them. Mmm, makes me hungry just looking at the picture again.

Some Dogo Fun

The next day, Lisa and I took Patrick to visit Dogo Onsen. Rumor had it that there was beer to be had that was brewed from the same hot spring water they use to fill the baths. Forget the history about the place, we were just interested in a good micro brew! After walking through the shopping street, and seeing that ridiculously scary mannequin I posted about earlier, we refreshed ourselves with some Japanese gelato. I guess it's really Italian, but there was a green tea flavor, so I'm calling it Japanese. Then we tried to wander over to the brewery. Problem was the brewery was closed, but being the resourceful people that we are, we found a bar right next to the onsen that specialized in tasting the Dogo beer. There are three types, one pale ale, one red ale, and one stout. I was more concerned about trying the different varieties, so I forgot to take a picture. I did, however, manage to snap a shot of the lovely little appetizer we had, a deep fried clove of elephant garlic, called, "Fried a garlic." I'm not kidding, see the picture. Very tasty. Another good trip to Dogo. I like the onsen, but I'll admit that the surrounding area is way too touristy for my taste. Maybe I just don't like that mannequin.

Dear Jesus!

Random post, but this is quite possibly one of the scariest things I've ever seen. It's a mannequin in the Dogo shopping street. It reminds me of some horror movie, can't remember which one, but I'm fairly certain someone gets eaten in it. I love Japan, but sometimes the stuff they make worries me a little bit. It looks like it's either really really happy, or about to eat brains. One or the other.