Food Glorious Food

Apart from all the wonderful Japanese food here, I've actually had a chance to sample some delicious 'imported' recipes too. The chocalate cake with cream and rasberry jam was made by Chihiro, the strawberry and cream birthday cake was made by her mother, the seafood pasta was a combined effort, and the Japanese-style hamburgers were made by me following an "Iron Chef" recipe!

Ze Kitchen

This the place where food fantasies are born. Due to popular request (well, one person) here is a closeup of my galley-style kitchen. I've customised it with hooks holding up pans, spice-racks, and ladles, because there really is nowhere else to put the stuff. It works pretty well though. In the sink is something most Japanese homes have - a plastic seive with a net-bag inside it to collect food scraps as I cook. When it's full I simply take the bag out, give it a squeeze, and throw it in with the burnable rubbish.

Jitenshya (Bicycles)

I've been using my bike alot, and I think I've finally come to terms with cycling in Japan. First, you should know that bicycles are EVERYWHERE. There are rows of them parked outside stores, masses of them in bike-parking-lots, and several outside every house. Now, this implies a substantial number of bikes on the move. There are always several people riding down the street, either on the footpath, on the road, or weaving between the two to avoid pedestrians, parked cars, or other bikes. There don't seem to be any rules. You can ride in any direction on either side of the road or footpath. Bicycles can also pick and choose whether they want to obey traffic lights as pedestrians or vehicles. And alot of the time, they just go through as long as there's no traffic. In the centre of the city shopping district, there are no traffic lights. Cars and bikes just slow down enough at intersections to avoid each other. I'm stunned that I haven't seen an accident yet. Oh, nobody wears helmets either (illegal in Australia)! But I'm comfortable with it all now. Drivers are used to bikes, and must constantly monitor all the bikes around them on the road and footpath, driving very carefully if there's a possibility that a bike might duck onto the road to try to cross in front of them. And cyclists are very careful to avoid each other when approaching from opposite directions on the same side of the road, or when on a narrow footpath. The closest I've come to falling off my bike was when I was fooling around trying to do jumps in a carpark!

Home Sweet Home

This is the front and back of my apartment block out in the suburbs of Shizuoka. It's quite nice having the mountains so close. It's a quiet neighbourhood, although there is a yappy dog across the street and a wailing dog out the back. They don't have a yard to run around in, so I don't blame them really, though if it gets bad I may have to hire a ninja to sedate them.

The apartments are only a few months old, and as you can see, they are shoebox shaped with a door at one end and a window at the other. Outside the window are brackets for poles that are used to hang washing on. Shirts and pants are put on hangers along the pole which makes efficient use of the space. Underwear and socks are put on peg-chandeliers that hang off the pole too. It's so different to the massive hill-hoist clotheslines back in oz. My apartment also has a drying fan built into the bathroom ceiling though, so I can dry my clothes there in just 3 hours!

From my front door, you can see all the way past my garage and kitchen into my living/dining/bed-room. Chihiro's aunt has lent me this great mountain bike, though it's a bit small and I really need a basket for going shopping, so I might get my own japanese-style bike. There's a little closet on the left for putting shoes in, though I'm storing food in there at the moment, because of a lack of cupboard space.

I'm really happy with the apartment. It's nice to live in and comes fully furnished with washer, fridge, microwave, chairs, and even a futon matress with a duvet. It's also kept nice and warm with a heater/air-con unit. The rent isn't as bad as I thought it would be either. It's about AU$210 per week, including electricity, water, and the internet. It's small, but theres enough room for me living by myself. The lack of space is only really apparent in the kitchen, where there's no benches for preparing food or drying dishes. I've got a chopping board that fits nicely over the sink, and I've bought some hooks to hang up pans, utensils, and a spice rack, but I still have to juggle things around when cooking or washing up. I probably won't be hosting many dinner-parties at my place.

Knock Knock

In the past I've only ever experienced a few visits from strangers to my home, however I've had three already after being here only a week. Chihiro was with me when the first one came knocking, and he explained to her that he was going to test the water. He appeared semi-official, brandishing an ID card, so she let him in. Of course I couldn't read the ID card or understand what he was saying, so I played along, although I am naturally suspicious of door-knockers. He proceeded to fill a glass of water from our tap, then whipped out an unlabelled phial of clear liquid and put a few drops of it into the glass. The water in the glass turned yellow, which of course he knew would happen. This meant, he excitedly explained to us, that the water contained chlorine which was very dangerous to our health. He continued his spiel at a furious rate while I told Chihiro to ask him if he was trying to sell water filters to us (it was pretty obvious that he didn't work for the city water company). She didn't want to be so rude, so she politely told him we had to get ready to go out soon. It's probably good that I don't know the Japanese for "Not interested. Get Lost!"

The second person to visit was my next door neighbour. He was a bit surprised to meet a westerner but was very friendly, and we spoke about as much as my Japanese permitted. It's a strange feeling to only understand half of what's being said to you. He said something about "3 weeks" although I have no idea if he meant that's how long he's been there, or going to be there, or will be away on holidays for.

The third guy to come knocking actually made a shocked face, exclaiming "wahhh!?" as my face appeared in the doorway. Admittedly I don't look my best on saturday mornings. He must have been caught off-guard, because the next thing he said was something like "you're not Japanese are you?" "No", I replied with a smile, "I'm Australian." He then shook his head and greeted me formally and told me he was from a nearby shop, and said something about futons while pointing to my mailbox. I told him I already had a futon, but that didn't seem to put him off. He tried to explain again, but I obviously wasn't getting it, so he gave up and left. I heard him go on to my neighbour next, so I don't think I missed a unique opportunity.

I really should learn the phrase "I'm not interested in buying anything", however I'm sure it's very rude to say something so direct. Maybe I'd be better off feigning ignorance even when my Japanese is good enough to understand exactly what these salesmen are saying.

Japanese Lessons

I've been settling into Shizuoka pretty well, and have met lots of friendly people. I went to my first proper Japanese lesson yesterday. I went in full of enthusiasm, though I became a little concerned when I saw that the textbook was entirely written in Japanese. Nevermind, it was only level 1 beginners Japanese, and I'd been learning some basic Japanese characters and words over the last few months. However I became alarmed when the teacher started giving the lesson entirely in Japanese! I managed to understand about half of what the teacher was saying and my mind raced to keep up with the class. The lesson turned out pretty well though, because the teacher was very patient and used lots of pictures as examples. Hopefully I'll learn faster because of the total immersion, and given that the students were from all over the world it's impractical to teach Japanese in English. They were all very friendly, and the fact that some don't speak English means I get to practice Japanese even more.

My New Apartment!

This view is from the front door of my new apartment. Nice and cosy eh? Actually this is a photo of one of the infamous capsule hotels in Tokyo. My apartment isn't that bad., though It's definitely smaller than anything I've lived in before (apart from maybe Hagar, my family's old 40 foot yacht). I'll put some real photos of my place up soon...

Asakusa

Today we went on a daytrip to Asakusa, the biggest shrine in Tokyo. The place was absolutely packed with people coming to celebrate the new year. To get to the shrine, we walked up a 340M avenue lined with shops selling souvenirs, snacks, toys and clothes. Several thousand other people were trying to get there too, so had to shuffle along like penguins for about half an hour before getting to the temple steps, where police acted like traffic lights to limit the number of people entering.

Inside, the crowd was throwing an offering of money into the shrine and praying. There was so much money being thrown that several monks were kept busy sweeping up coins and notes into collection bins. We had a delicious lunch at a restaurant famous for its tempura, and although we had to wait half an hour to get in, there was a line 4 times as long outside an older restraunt famous for the same recipe.

I blessed myself with lucky incense at the temple, however it didn't banish the flu I was coming down with. It must be a long-term thing. I also saw the first whale restraunt I've ever seen in Japan (this trip or the last). I didn't want to support it, though I was curious about the taste. From what Chihiro was telling me, the laws against whaling are seen as overprotective and causing minke whale populations to increase dramatically, which has lead to a lack of food for the endangered blue whale. I'm not so sure about it, but I found this page with a similar theory.

The Day After

Thankfully I was only slightly hungover in the morning, although I still felt over-full from last night and didn't know how to politely refuse breakfast. To work off some of the food we went for a walk around Chihiro's uni, and at this time of year the gardens are just beautiful.

I don't think it's possible to take too many photos of Mount Fuji. I've taken at least 20 since arriving in Japan, and I still can't get enough of it. From the top of the hill behind Chihiro's uni there was a good view of Fuji, and also the mountains around Shizuoka city. Every inch of flat land is taken up by houses, shops, or miniature farms, and then suddenly the mountains rise up and there's nothing but trees (and the occasional electricity tower).

Happy New Year

New year's eve in Japan isn't a huge affair - it's usually spent with family watching the national celebrities perform in a concert competition. Although I had a few drinks, I was saving myself for the next night... The Japanese celebrate the start of the new year for several days, and don't usually go back to work until the 5th or 6th. During that time there are various parties and nights out at Izakaya pubs, and everyone you meet will say "Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu".

On new year's day we went to pay our respects to the new year at Shizuoka's Sengen Shrine, along with the rest of the city's populace. It was bitterly cold and windy, but there was a variety of food and sake on sale. I also bought a fortune paper, selected by birthdate, which told me I would do well at work, fail half my exams, get sick then get better, and have a baby girl. Hmmm. I also got a chance to use my new pocket-knife (thanks dad!) on a bbq chicken steak we were supposed to eat with chopsticks.

In the evening the whole family (including the pet rabbit) went over to the head of the family's house (Chihiro's grandma's, who has her eldest son and wife living with her) for a celebration. There was an enormous amount of delicious food, and the beer and sake flowed freely. Chihiro's uncle was very friendly, showing me how to do sumo wrestling, and challenging me to an arm-wrestle. The whole family was very interested in where I was from and where I'd travelled and what I was doing here. They also told me a lot about Japanese culture, themselves, and gave me a some presents like a very old 100-yen bill, and some towels advertising the uncle's used car yard. Everybody stayed the night (they had a lot of futons) and in the morning the children were given the traditional gifts of money (gift-wrapped of course).