Birthday Weekend

And I’ve already fallen way behind on blogging, so… time to play catch up.

My birthday was already almost two months ago, and the Boy came down to Kyoto the weekend before (22^nd-23^rd) to help me celebrate. He actually took a train in after work that Friday night, the 21^st, which happened to also be the release date for the new live-action Beauty and the Beast movie in Japan, so after he arrived we killed some time around the station before heading to the theatre to get our tickets, caramel corn, and drinks. (Pretty much the best thing about movie theatres here is the caramel corn they sell – so good!) 

The movie was enjoyable, but I think I had built up my expectations too much and the movie didn’t quite meet them lol. That’s not to say it wasn’t good – Emma Watson was the best Belle, and overall they stayed really true to the original animated film, but I still much prefer the animated version.

The next day we woke up late morning and decided to go spend the day in Nara. We took the train to Nara Station then looked around for someplace to have lunch. Afterwards we walked to Nara Park, which is famous for the semi-wild deer that live there. We bought some deer snacks and were immediately accosted for some yums. There was also an Earth Day even going on that we took a quick look through, which made me then regret eating lunch near the station because there were some really tasty-looking vegan options available… Will have to keep that in mind for next year!

We took a quick look at the famous Todaiji Temple with its giant Buddha statue inside. I think that was my third time to the temple, but it was Boy’s first. I tried to convince him to crawl through the hole-in-the-pillar, which is said to be the same size in diameter as the big Buddha’s nostril, and if you make it through without getting stuck it means you’ll live a long life. I did it once before, but since we were there on a weekend there was a line and Boy didn’t want to wait (nor did he want to try with a bunch of people watching lol) so on we went.

Before heading back to Kyoto we got some famous Daibutsu Pudding (Big Buddha Pudding), and took them to a café where we could sit down and eat them (after ordering drinks there too, of course). The pudding is seriously really, really good. The first time I tried it was around when S and I first came to Japan, I think we went to Nara during the Golden Week holiday, and each got a pudding. Just the plain custard flavor. I remember we both took a bite and at the same time we turned and looked at each other and were both like, “Oh my god… this is amazing!” We had no expectations so we were really surprised at how rich and creamy it was, haha. This time I tried the chocolate, which I think is even better than the custard. Will have to try the matcha flavor next time.

For dinner we went to Donguri, an okonomiyaki/teppanyaki chain that’s pretty famous here in Kyoto. We stuffed ourselves with more food than we should’ve, then headed home and zonked out.

Sunday we decided would be a lazy day. We slept in, and once we were up and ready we headed to the Teramachi shopping area and got a light lunch at Starbucks. I had one of their veggie wraps and the American cherry pie Frappuchino that was out at the time. 

After that we made a reservation at a cheap (but still pretty nice) massage place, and walked around killing time until our appointment. At one point, Boy had joked about getting us matching shirts (when couples wear matching outfits here it’s called “pair look”, and we usually make fun of couples we see dressed alike lol), but we ended up going to Uniqlo and getting matching shirts anyway! I don’t think he ever intended for us to wear them together at the same time, but I made him go and change in the bathroom and I changed into mine. I thought it was pretty funny but he kept saying, “Everyone is looking at us!” Later after our massage (which was so relaxing I fell asleep towards the end) and the sun started going down he used the cool weather as an excuse to put his long-sleeved shirt on over his matching shirt. XD

Before it got too late, we got dinner (I honestly can’t remember where though, at this point) and headed back to my place so boy could get his stuff and make his way back home, since it’s a little over 2 hours away on the local trains. All-in-all an eventful weekend and I was definitely spoiled. :3

Fancy and Exciting Dinners

Getting a little behind on updates again.  Here are some pictures from the end of June.  Roomie, S, and I were invited to a very fancy dinner by one of S's old students.  She's a very nice lady and she and her husband are pretty well off, so they like spoiling us. ;)

 

And then Ash just arrived at the end of June for her summer study abroad, so we met up the day after Super Fancy Din-din, for a Super Exciting Din-din at a cool jail/haunted house-themed restaurant called The Lock-Up.

They have crazy food like black spaghetti..

..and crazy drinks like this!

And here is a video I took.  You can't really see much but flashing lights and hear a bunch of screaming, but every hour in the restaurant all the lights go out and workers come out dressed as monsters and go around scaring everyone, then the waitress police women come out and "rescue" everyone and round up the monsters.  There are a few locations around Japan, and while it's not the cheapest place it's still a fun experience.

 

Next up: pictures and stuff from my Fuji weekend!

We'll Eat and Eat and Eat and Eat, and Then We'll Eat Some More!

I mentioned before that my student Ei-kun's mum had invited us teachers over for lunch last Wednesday.  I went in to work that morning for a couple hours before heading off to their Obaachan(grandmother)'s house for the day.  Coworker C and Coworker M were the only others that showed up, which was fine.  More food for us!

My little cutie!

Coworker C and Ei-kun's big brother, pulling faces.

Their grandma made aaaaaalll of this food!  Now that I think about it, having more people there to help devour this all probably would've been better.

I refilled my plate at least twice.

Mini apple pie pastries and tea for dessert!

We ate and talked with the boys and their mom and grandma while the food kept coming.  After lunch and dessert, we played Monopoly for a bit before Obaachan brought out some bowls of fruit and rice crackers to snack on.  After snacks their mom showed us the view of their neighbor's cherry blossom tree from the room upstairs, then we went back downstairs to play Uno and other card games.

Then Obaachan busted out her tea ceremony set and whisked us up some matcha, and not long afterward brought out a bunch of little toasted bread pieces so we could try her freshly-made strawberry jam.

And it didn't end there!  We were chatting away with Mum when Obaachan started asking us if we ate soba or udon noodles, then asked if we wanted some right then.  We all patted our stuffed bellies and politely refused, but lo and behold, not even 15 minutes later mid-conversation out she came with a *huge* plate of noodles and tsuyu dipping broth.

We didn't leave empty-handed either- each of us were sent home with a container of leftovers and a bag of dorayaki that they had just bought that day.  And I also a new umbrella, since I bent one of the ribs of mine on the way over.  I could've easily bent it back to normal when I got home, which was my plan, but Obaachan insisted.

Poor Ei-kun had so much fun, and he wanted to accompany us to the station with his mum but was told he couldn't, so we had to leave him with his grandma in tears.  ;_;

It was good to see him and his family outside of that school, and I definitely hope to keep in touch with them.  :)

November

Well, a month has passed in the blink of an eye and I haven't written anything about it!  Let's see what I can remember..

-November 4th:  Roomie and I took an excursion to 菓子屋横丁 (Kashiya Yokocho- Candy Alley) after watching a special about it on TV.  Took a bit of an unintentional detour on the way there and ended up walking a ways through some really peaceful countryside.

-November 11th:  Roomie and I met up with S and our other uni friend Ku in Tokyo for some amazingly delicious Chicago style pizza at a place called DevilCraft in Kanda.  It was drizzly that day and the shoes I wore had a hole in the sole of one of them so my foot got completely soaked, but I'd like to say that the pizza and good company made up for it.

-November 13th:  Had a date of sorts in Yokohama.  Had some breakfast (omelets and pancakes) for dinner, checked out the Chinatown and did some palm reading (of which I just observed), and took a ride on the Cosmo Clock 21.  Fun times!

-November 23rd-25th:  Three-day weekend!  The 23rd was a holiday- 勤労感謝の日 (Kinrou Kansha no Hi; aka Japanese Labor Day)- which just so happens to fall right after Thanksgiving in America, so Roomie and I decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner at our place.  We invited S, J, C-chan, and Sushi-kins.  Sadly J could not make it, though he did join us for a bit through Skype, and S brought her boy along.  Food and wine and shenanigans were had.

 

  

 

-December 1st:  I accompanied a coworker from my Other Job to watch the filming of an NHK program called Cool Japan, at Kanagawa University.  It was interesting, though quite a long time to be sitting in a hot auditorium with lights blaring in your eyes.  We ended up on the same train as a group of the people that appeared on the show and had a nice chat with them, during which I was asked again (3rd time in my life) if I'm British because of my "accent".  Irish, more specifically.  Which I am but I'm born and raised American and have sadly never even been to Ireland.  Someday, though.

-December 2nd:  The JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test), Level 2!  I feel very confident about the listening part- it was deceivingly easy.  The kanji/vocab/grammar/reading comprehension part though.. I'm pretty apprehensive about.  Have to wait for nearly 3 months to find out the results.  Thanks guys, for making the wait excruciatingly long!

Now, less than 2 weeks until I'm on a plane back to the States for my winter vacation.  It's crazy to think about, I've been gone for so long!  Granted I did go back for a few days in February, but that was a rather miserable time and it all happened so quickly it felt like I wasn't even there.  I'll get to see my older sister and nephew for the first time in almost 2 years as well, very excited about that!  It's nice to think about going back to enjoy some time with my family and friends this time.  And of course all the food I've been missing too.

Rice Omelet

First things first- i now have a room-mate!  She is also my coworker now too.  We met at UW and she just graduated in March, and my boss was looking for another English speaker for the daycare so it all worked out.

Anyway, my new roomie had asked me if i knew how to cook omu-raisu, a rice omelet, since she was craving it.  It got me craving it too, and while i can cook it and it is pretty easy to do so (just cook some veggies and meat if you desire with rice and ketchup, then roll up inside an omelet with cheese if you like as well) i didn't really feel like cooking after work last night so i suggested we go to this nice little omu-rice restaurant a friend of mine had brought me to before, called Rakeru.  Apparently it's pretty famous.  I do recall seeing it elsewhere before too.

It's a really cute place.  I wish i had thought to take a picture of the door, because it's adorable. (A-door-able!  Aah, knee-slapper right there.  I honestly didn't plan that, i just realized it as i read it in my head while typing).

Cute little table settings

Delicious foooood!

I got the mushroom dry curry with demi-glace and cheese omelet.  It's a mouthfull to say in English, and even more so in Japanese.  But a very delicious mouthful.  And oh my goodness their rolls.  It's a little funny-looking with the four little points on top (i thought it rather resembled a cow's udder..), but they taste aMAZing.  (Uh-MAZ-ING ROOOOOOOOOLL).  Soft and warm and slathered with butter and a bit of cheese.  I kind of want to go their and just order a plate of the rolls.

But yes, the omelet was very delicious as well!

Old Friends and Food

I was going to make mention of my 100th post on this blog, but it ended up being about Diesel.  Which is fine, he deserves mention on my 100th post.  But now, on to the 101st.

Last Sunday i got to meet up with an old friend of mine from high school.  She was here just traveling, so we met up in Shibuya to spend the day together.  We first stopped in to a Doutor Coffee shop because they were advertising their sakura latte.  Ash got the sakura one but i just went with my usual matcha latte.  Did have a taste of it though and it really just tasted like cherries.  Granted, i've never eaten an actual cherry blossom so they really could just taste like cherries..  I think once they start blooming this spring i'll go and eat a blossom and probably get weird looks from people.

After chatting over our lattes we then went to Loft.  I love that store and seriously i go to the one by my place nearly every single weekend.  We spent a good long while in there where she showed me their selection of toothpastes, since she wanted to get some to take back as souvenirs.  There were sooooo many flavours it was crazy.  Everything from regular mint, to things like rose and apple and even curry (here's a list of them all!).  I'm not daring enough to try something like curry-flavoured toothpaste but i did want to try one.  I settled on pumpkin pudding because i like everything pumpkin.

The verdict?  It's not bad.  I was put off a little at first because of the color (same color as our dogs' toothpaste), but it wasn't bad.  I hadn't used anything but mint toothpaste since i was a kid, so it was a bit different.  I still prefer mint.  Or rather, the 100-yen salty baking soda mint flavoured stuff i've been using since i ran out of the stuff i brought here with me.

After that we popped into the Muji store, since i love that place too and being in there makes me wish i had my own house to furnish.  Kinda like how Ikea does as well.  By then we were pretty hungry so we went to one of those 270-yen izakaya, where almost all the food and drinks are 270 yen.  We stuffed ourselves and after we left we walked past the jail-themed restaurant The Lock-Up and i kicked myself for not thinking of going there instead.  Went there once on my trip here in 2007 and it was lots of fun.

The night was still fun though regardless.  We walked around some more looking in different shops before going our separate ways.

Now, i thought i'd post some pictures of some of the snacks i've eaten recently.  Nothing weird or too exotic really, but maybe someone will find it interesting.  I dunno.

Gouda cheese rice crackers i bought at the Muji store.  They were good, tasted similar to white cheddar Cheez-Its

Peach yogurt cereal.  A seasonal flavour of the brand of cereal i always buy.  In the summer they had melon-flavour, which i wrote about, and strawberry not that long ago.

Tiramisu from the Sunkus down the street from me.

Probably one of the best tiramisu i've ever eaten.  It was amazing, with no overpowering coffee flavour.

Looks better than it tastes.  Coulda gone without getting this one during my sweet binge at Sunkus.

What was this called?  Something like Sweet Strawberry Sand(wich).  This one was pretty good.  Reminiscent of a powdered jelly-filled donut.

Now, those last four things were consumed over the span of 2 days, which totally goes against my New Year's Resolution of cutting back on sugar.  It's been a rough month or so though and i needed my sweets.  But aside from this binge i've been doing really good actually about not eating sugary things.  Really the only added sugar i've been eating since i made my resolution has been a tablespoon or two of honey in my morning oatmeal, and a bowl of cereal at night for my dessert.  Not bad for a sugar fiend like me.

Now last thing- Doritos.  They do carry regular Nacho Cheese but i haven't found Cool Ranch.  These however i got today at the 100-yen Lawson.  It's butter soy sauce flavour.  Not bad, but i still prefer my regular Amurrican ones!

Christmasifying

Went to the 100-yen store yesterday while i was out shopping to get some decoraaaaations.  The only wreaths they had were really plain so i had to buy some other things to spruce it up.

Bought some tinsel to put up around the window with the left over Christmas ornaments, to go with my construction paper tree.

Festive window!

Stopped by the McDonald's next door beforehand to try their new "グラコロ" (Gracoro; Gratin-coroquette) burger.  I got the regular cheese one the day S and i went to Fuji-Q, but last night i wanted to try the tomato cream one.  It was pretty good. 

*End pointless post!*

Build Me Up Buttercup

That song's been in my head for a bit this evening.  A nice change from the usual mix of Anpanman songs that get stuck in my head.  I guess it's only natural that happens though since i hear the songs multiple times on an almost daily basis.  

Been working a lot more hours than when i first started as an 'official' employee, which is fine.  Mama Ann (my Filipino coworker) needed shorter shifts because of her hip/back problems, so we traded hours.   More hours equals more money!  Initially my days off were Friday and Sunday, but the past couple of weeks there've been no Saturday students, so i've had three-day weekends.  Despite that, i'm still working about 40 hours a week anyway, about 10 hours a day.  The work isn't stressful, but it is physically quite exhausting.  Imagine lifting 10-12kg weights all day.  Weights that wiggle and squirm in your arms, scream and cry in your ear, leave rancid poos in their diapers for you, run (or crawl, really) amok when you put them down and throw toys and books around and blow raspberries when you feed them, spattering drool and food bits all over.  I can't lie, they are still adorable and i enjoy being with them and watching them grow and learn and acquire new skills.

Wednesday i went with my boss and a couple coworkers for a little nomikai (drinking party) after work.  We went to a neat little local place not far from the daycare, run by a couple of old biddies who were losing their memory and hearing, it seemed!  We all had the all-you-can-drink meal.  A bunch of small dishes were brought out in succession- first some sort of fish liver with wakame seaweed and some sort of dressing.  I passed on that one.  Then was a really amazingly delicious tempura fig.  It was a rather large fig, at least compared to the ones i remember seeing on my aunt's tree growing up.  Still, really really good!  Then we had a type of "mountain potato", cooked with butter, which was also really good.  Finally, the huge nabe hot pot was brought out and i had my first experience with nabe, as well as fugu!

You can see some pieces of the fugu on the left, between 9 and 10 o'clock, if this were a clock face

Veggies, mushrooms, tofu, and fugu were thrown into the hot pot of water in the middle of the table, and once it was all cooked we each helped ourselves straight from the pot with our chopsticks, dipping the stuff into some ponzu sauce.  When all of it was eaten, one of the old ladies brought out rice and a couple of eggs to add to the remaining water in the pot.  Super yums!  And at the end of it all, my boss insisted on paying for me.  He keeps telling me he wants to be my Japanese dad, so that's really nice, and while of course i still offered up some money he refused, and who am i to refuse a free meal?  ;)

Rained all day today but tomorrow is supposed to be mostly sunny, so i think i'm going to go out to the local Aeon Mall or Ito Yokado in search of a little toaster oven.  We'll see how that goes, and i'll write about the rest of my uneventful weekend later.