Surprise Birthday Party

My girlfriend and my friends organized a surprise birthday party for me the other day. Here's some of the awesome gifts I got, plus some nice cards (including an amazing handmade job by my buddy's girlfriend)
That big red one is handmade, and has stuff on front, inside, and on back.

From a couple of Japanese girls I know, a glass for drinking and a small mesh bowl for edamame.

From the master of my local hangout, DASH, and his wife: pineapple, talking card, tie, and polo shirt.

From my buddy Tim and his fiancee Kazuko, some tequila (everytime I drink with Kazuko, she orders tequila and I end up passing out on a counter)

Some sake from Meghan and Saku, another int'l couple. Can't wait to crack this, maybe back in the States.

From Tanya and Yoshi, int'l couple #3 on this list. Pandas doing naughty things on a mug.

Rubber chicken stuff from a couple of friends of mine.

First in a set from the folks at Jalan, Ryohei and Noriko. His 2nd ramen joint is rock-themed, and he loves Pulp Fiction, so he had these made up.

The entire Jalan gift set, Wanderlei Silva action figure, One Piece shirt and some funky shorts.

From Matt, some Hokkaido ramen.

Epic Sandwich

The other day I decided to make a huge sandwich, and as I went through my fridge, it just kept getting bigger and bigger. Eventually, it included:

2 small green peppers and half an onion, lightly tossed in olive oil and fried
1 egg white
Gouda cheese
3 chicken strps seasoned with salf and pepper
Half a tomato
1 pickle
2 slices of Akina's mom's homemade cheese bread
BBQ sauce
Sriracha

It was awesome.

Poor Kid

So lately this kid, K-kun, has been showing up at my house. On the regular. Like 4 days in a row. He's a 6th grader at one of my schools and I believe has a learning disability, but is generally fine. He's not a part of the separate classes often held for those with more challenging situations, and regularly takes part in English as well as other subjects without drawing too much attention to himself.

That said, he's also famous around our school for a number of things. He doesn't listen to instructions. He sneaks out of class and disappears somewhere into the school. He addresses teachers as "anta," a shortened form of "anata," which basically means "you" (like saying, hey you). Those in his group in class are regularly called upon to corral him into class. He also can be incredibly stubborn.

He has always taken a shine to me, perhaps because I am one of the few people in the school who answer him earnestly and truthfully. I like the kid, he's funny, energetic, and honest. Like a great number of my kids at this school, he knows where I live. I used to have a 4th grader in my apartment complex, and now I have a 3rd grader. I see her homeroom teacher every once in a while, and I often spy children going into the stationary shop across the street. I used to play catch in our parking lot with the 4th grader, actually. It's no secret, but until this year, no child has taken it upon themselves to come up to my apartment and ring my doorbell. Well, K-kun has adopted a rather disturbing habit. He camps out in front of my door on the 3rd floor, and calls my name out. He yells at neighbors returning home, asking if they've seen me. He bangs on my door and rings the doorbell. He attempts to peek into my window.

The other day, I came home from school sick as a dog and just wanting to sleep. I could hear K-kun yelling as soon as I got out of my car, and walked up the stairs to hear him saying things like "Andrew, get out here! (Andrew, dete koi!)." I asked him what he was doing and he responded by ringing the doorbell and saying he was looking for me. He proceeded to pepper me with about 4 or 5 different questions for the next 45 minutes, during which I made and consumed 2 cups of tea and made comments about being sick.

Another time I woke up (in the afternoon) to him calling my name softly through my window. In fact, the first time he came, he didn't know my apartment number, so he was just shouting my name in our apartment complex's parking lot. On Sunday, I had told him I was headed for a baseball game early in the morning so I wouldn't be there. He showed up at 8 am and waited for me to leave my apartment with Akina. He asked me a number of things, and proceeded to inform me that the bus I was taking didn't run on the weekend and I wouldn't be able to go to the game. I would have appreciated his advice if I didn't know for a fact it was wrong.

I can't help but wonder what this kid needs right now. Does he just need a friend? I know he isn't the most popular kid in 6th grade, and he has confided in me that he likes a girl in his class. He's also said he likes me, in a way that one might misunderstand quite easily. On Saturday, when I had work all day, he apparently went to my apartment 5 or 6 times over the course of the day, waiting for me to get back.

I'm not sure what to think. If he just needs a friend, that's fine, I'll play catch with him. But it certainly doesn't seem to be normal in Japan for kids to do this to their own teachers. When I informed my school rather casually that he had shown up at my house, there were shocked gasps and I heard a TEACHER say "stalker!" Now that's weird.

Ramen in Umeda

My cousin and her husband were passing through Osaka last weekend and I am always looking for a reason to make the 2-plus hour trip down from the land of cows and onsen to the hustle and bustle of the nation’s third largest city. We headed down the night before and hit a few bars to relax from the week. Anytime I’m out drinking until 3 in a city, I ALWAYS have a craving for ramen afterwards. That doesn’t mean I want a full serving with gyoza on the side to add food coma to my alcohol-induced collapse, but the steamy, salty stuff always seems to help blunt the impact of the inevitable hangover.

After the bar, we hit Yousukou (揚子江), an extremely popular place in Umeda. They’ve got a couple branches in the area, and this one was packed to the gills. It’s a tiny place, just an round-ish counter that seats maybe 15 if you pack in. On this night, it was full of red-faced salarymen, young construction workers, and feathery-haired hostess types. After a 7 or 8 minute weight, we plopped into newly opened seats and ordered the basic ramen.

Known for its assari taste, the shio broth is perfect after drinking. The chashu was nothing to write home about, and the noodles were fairly average, but that soup will clear your head and open your eyes. I’m not typically a fan of lighter soups, but it was perfect for the situation. If you ever have the chance, give it a shot. The fried rice also looked delicious, and the serving was gigantic.

The next morning around 10, we ventured into Nishimatsuya（西松家）. It’s a 24 hour joint that serves tsukemen as well as ramen, and does each in 4 flavors (shio, shoyu, miso, tonkotsu). It also allows you to choose the spice level of your miso soup, how many pieces of pork you want, and a number of other options. My companion chose the tonkotsu ramen and I got the miso tsukemen at the recommendation of the chef. Mine came first, a pile of 200 grams of cooler-than-room-temperature noodles topped generously with negi, menma, and my 2 slices of chashu. The soup was burning hot, a layer of oil preventing the steam and heat from escaping until I dipped my spoon in to taste. My first mouthful of noodles was fantastic, the springy, starchy noodles holding the flavor of the broth well from bowl to mouth. The pork was fatty, but firm, yet I was left unhappy with the flavor combination as the miso overpowered a somewhat subtle pork.

The tonkotsu ramen was just ok. A layer of tiny chunks of fat used to be a far more welcome sight, but as my tastes move in the direction of better strained bases, I don’t look forward to slurping it down as much as I used to. Nothing about it jumped out at me, a very average entry.

Spring Cleaning

Just did some big spring cleaning that included moving my bed, TV, clothes, kotatsu, and chair to different spots. Also got rid of a huge rug, and tons of old stuff that had been piling up. Here's pics of Akina beating the heck out of the kotatsu quilt with a hangar, and what the room looked like as we went over every inch of wood floor with a broom, vaccuum, then wash rag.

Sansan Ramen - Sannomiya, Kobe

Anyway, thanks to the Ramen Walker, I dropped by two places recently, Hakata Ramen Makoto （博多ラーメン真実）in Himeji and Ramen Dokoro Nidaime Sansan（ラーメン処二代目さんさん）near Nishinomiya Station. Seeing as I liked Sansan waaay better, I’ll talk about that one.

They had a special ramen running, meaty spicy miso tonkotsu ramen (肉みそピリ辛とんこつラーメン…couldn’t think of a better way to translate that) for 800 yen and that’s what I was there for. I ordered my ramen and a small chashu pork bowl and started salivating straight away. It was only AFTER I ordered that I noticed the free super size (大盛無料-oomori muryou) signs all over the place. Too bad, so sad.

The food came out and looked exactly like the picture in the magazine. A full half-boiled egg, chopped in half with it’s slightly runny yolk just barely staying within the wobbly confines of it’s hardened white. Rich ground beef and its accompanying oil spreading slowly throughout the broth. Large chunks of fatty white chashu

The ramen was as good as it looked, packing a bit of tantanmen like flavor into a tonkotsu miso broth that had depth and a rather pungent flavor without being overpowering. I’d definitely come back and this time bring a bigger appetite and opt for those extra noodles.

Pottery

Lately I've been learning pottery from Akina's mom. Here's some progress shots, but I don't have many yet. This is going to take a while, so hopefully there'll be some more soon.

Valentine's Day chocolates

These are the chocolates I got from Akina yesterday. For those unfamliar with the way things work in Japan, on Valentine's Day, women give either obligation (giri) chocolate or true (honmei) chocolate to the men in their life that they have some connection to, whether co-workers, friends, relatives, or (possible) lovers. Giri chocolate is simply meant to keep relationships smooth (though it's also a sign of how male-oriented/dominated Japan has traditionally been). Honmei chocolate is for those towards whom the woman has romantic feelings. On March 14th, "White Day," men return chocolate to the woman they want to return romantic feelings to.

New Year's Cards

I know it's late, but I wanted to show off the new year's cards I made. They're called "nengajyo" and this year being the year of the tiger, I made them tiger-themed. These are all hand-done (I had time at school :D). Some teachers saw them and said "wow, they're cute...it's kind of surprising considering it's Andrew." Wasn't sure how to take that, so I just assumed it was because I was so cool and laid back, and not because I'm creepy or something.

Eating Shit

Excuse the language, but there's really no other way to describe what happened Saturday night during night boarding. We went to a place called Mikata Snow Park that has a fairly decent night run with rails, jumps, and even a large quarter pipe (the crummy half pipe was tried, but it was falling apart).

The night started out ok, but the first few jumps I tried were just not happening. Couldn't stick a landing without almost stopping, and I was digging a few holes with my butt out there. The big screw up on my part, though, was my attempt to go over a barrel jump. Basically it's just a barrel that sunk into the snow with a small kicker going up to it. You're either supposed to go up and over the barrel slowly, or use the barrel's side as an extra ramp and jump even higher. I'd seen a few folks go over it and thought I could do it. It looked like this:

I rolled towards it with some decent speed, and hit the barrel going decently fast. Being an inexperienced jumper, I wasn't ready for the way the shape of the barrel was going to affect me and I apparently ended up like this:

I laneded on my left shoulder and head, though to a lesser extent, before the rest of my body hit the ground. I sort of crawled over to the side a couple of feet before collapsing. It definitely hurt, but not as much as one might think when 170 odd lbs and a snowboard plus gear falls from about 6 or 7 feet in the air onto a single shoulder. My friend found me and made sure I was ok, then I got down the mountain with my goggles and beanie in my hand and took a break before continuing til they closed, though I only managed one more jump and it was a small one. On my next trip up, I checked out the landing, and found the main indention of my body was about 9 or 10 feet beyond the barrel, meaning I was in the air the entire time. My buddy Gabe said he could see my head above the barrel and that thing was at least 3 or 4 feet high.

Suffice to say it was very scary.

Presenting Akina

I finally got her permission to introduce her on the internet, so here she is, the Japanese girlfriend, Akina. Tried to pick pictures that represent her personality :)

It spreads...

This sore throat has turned into a full fledged cold, complete with slight headaches, stuffy nose, sneezing/coughing, weariness, and one of my all time favorite words to write, phlegm. It's managed to get worse with increased rest (went from working out and sleeping maybe 6 hours the first couple nights to doing nothing and sleeping 13 hours yesterday) and today I barely got through 3 classes. Tomorrow is 6!

On the plus side, I have a chance to experiment with Japanese medication/remedies. I'm taking things that look like this , suppliments of about 400 mgs of Vitamin C. Also drank one of these Oronamin C drinks today, an energy drink that has another couple hundred of mgs. Add to that a ton of orange juice, mikan, and veggie soup cooked up by Akina and hopefully this thing will be gone by the time Yukigassen rolls around this weekend.

Where the hell I've been

Aside from the obvious like a girlfriend and work, I've been finding my time consumed with a ton of new or renewed pursuits lately. For example:

In the 4 weeks or so that the mountains have had snow, I've been snowboarding 6 times. I've managed a couple rails, am getting better at jumping, and went through thigh-deep powder. I've even gone on a couple of back country style runs, albeit short ones, something I never would have dreamed of with my board control last year

One Piece, a manga about pirates, is my new obsession. I'm working through the manga and following it up with the anime. My girlfriend, her best friend, a buddy of mine in taiko, and a whole slew of Japanese and foriegn people LOVE this series, and it's not hard to understand why. Great stuff, but the sheer volume of it (50 books and 430+ episodes) is a bit daunting. I'm aiming to get through it in a year :)

Weight is once again an issue for me, though certainly not the extent that it used to be. By summer, I had gotten down to about 167 or so (76 kg), but am now back up at 176 lbs (80kg). This may not seem like a big deal to many, but it's a step in the wrong direction and a sign of overall laziness and lack of control of my diet. My last physical indicated my metabolism is slowing and I eat too much salt (mostly from tapatio and sriracha, I'm guessing), so I've been taking steps to correct it. It's tough in the winter because I don't want to move around as much, but taiko and basketball have both started again after a winter break, I'm boarding every weekend, and the local guys have really been pushing it at the gym lately (probably because they also gained a bit of weight this winter). My goal is the same as it was last year: 15% body fat. After getting to about 18% last summer, I'm back up over 20% apparently.

Movies. I've never been a big movie guy, but since it's cold, I've been watching more movies lately. Akina and I rent from Tsutaya or borrow from friends, so I'm finally catching up on a lot of the stuff that came out lately. Just watched the Watchmen, saw a bunch of Japanese movies, and have Sweeney Todd at home now.

I'm going to make it another New Year's resolution to try to get 5 posts up a month at least, which shouldn't be too tough considering a few of them are bound to be food posts.

What was I thinking?

So I've made a horrible mistake and started playing video games again. My free time is now consumed by Mega Man 2, Tecmo Super Bowl, Super Metroid, Zelda:Ocarina of Time and the like. This re-discovered addiction has already caused me to be late to one English class, one frisbee practice, and one dinner. Throw in Bejeweled Blitz and I'm spending more time in front of my computer doing nothing than ever.

Sleeeeeeeep

...is something I need to do more of. The last few weeks have been crazy busy, with stuff on the weekends requiring me to get up before noon (I know! Insanity!). Now that college football is here, I can more or less say goodbye to sleeping in on Sundays, and lately even Saturdays have seen me getting up before lunch time due to poor sleeping conditions (I pass out at a friend's house and wake up with my wallet poking me in the butt and sore eyes from sleeping with my contacts in) or activities that require my attention (shopping before doing things in the afternoon).

It used to be so easy to sleep til noon on a Saturday and still catch most of the college football I wanted to see, but now that USC games show up at 7-9 am, that's out the window. I've tried recording the games and watching them later, but I always end up getting a text or seeing a status on Facebook or something that spoils it for me.

With my now twice a week English classes, the gym, basketball, and taiko (plus normal things like laundry, cleaning, prep work blah blah blah), there's not a single weeknight I'm not busy. Time to get re-organized and re-oriented I think.

Silver Week Travels

So this week Akina and I took off for Kyushu. Japan just finished a 3 day holiday M-W stretch referred to as Silver Week (Golden Week happens in May every year...Silver Week had never happened before). Amongst the highlights:

• Leaving Wadayama at 11 pm, sleeping at a rest stop somewhere in Yamaguchi at around 4 am, getting up at 8 to drive down to Kumamoto and not getting to the castle until 1 pm. Traffic was a beast in Kyushu.


• Kumamoto Castle was average at best, but the ramen down there was amazing. Also had horse sashimi and a horse burger before going into a volcano-powered hot spring up in the mountains.


• Fukuoka was drizzly, but we made it to the Ramen Stadium at Canal City and had a couple different kinds of ramen...super packed


• Also went to Mariona City for outlet shopping and I came back with 2 pairs of shoes, a jacket, a shirt and some undies for about $100...not too shabby. Also, AKB48 was doing a concert there for some reason.


• Ate hormone nabe, which was actually delicious, in Fukuoka, followed by 2 bowls of ramen...all after 10 pm.


• Hit up a foreigner bar called FuBar and saw my buddy Joel for the first time in 7 years.


• Ordered the Ramen Walker - Kyushu Edition


• Swung by Hiroshima for some okonomiyaki on the way back, got back to Asago at about 11 pm.

Names of ramen places eaten at:

• Daikoku Ramen (no relation to Daikokuya in LA)


• Daimaru Ramen


• Murasaki Ramen (Ramen Stadium)


• Ichi Ryu Ramen (yatai)


• Taiho Ramen


• Gensuke Ramen (Ramen Stadium)


• some random rest stop in Kita Kyushu

What on earth?

I was making flash cards for class and using some clip art CDs that one of my schools keeps on hand for such situations. I came across some rather questionable content, particularly since most of these pictures seem to be very childish and mainly intended for use in elementary school. As you can see, there's a couple of images of condoms included, as well as one of two people about to kiss. Just thought it was unusual for there to be sex education material.

Apparently I STILL don't know what I'm doing

A couple of weeks ago I got a facebook message from my Jeremy, my USC freshman year roommate, saying that he was going to be in Japan for a bit and that we should meet up. Since I hadn't talked to or seen the kid in at least a year or two, I decided I'd do whatever was in my power to get down to where he was on any particular weeknight.

Turns out he was in Kyoto on a Tuesday, so I made plans to leave right after school. Including the drive, it's a good 2 hour trip down to Kyoto, and the special express trains that run from out here don't show up very often. If I get the 5:25, I can get to Kyoto around 7 and catch last express back at 9:30, perfect for dinner, a beer or two, and some conversation. I had about an hour to get from my apartment to Fukuchiyama after work, a drive that takes about 35-40 minutes when I'm driving at my normal rate (80 kmh, usually in a 50kmh zone). The road has a few signals, but is mostly just open road...the problem lies in the fact that it is almost entirely one lane, with no passing areas.

I got out on the road by 4:35 to make my 5:25 train, thinking 50 minutes would be plenty. Wouldn't you know it, I got stuck behind a kei-truck going about 3 km under the speed limit the WHOLE WAY. This is a kei truck

They satisfy the kei class of cars in Japan, which means they have an engine no larger than 660 CCs. They're also often loaded with fertilizer/cement/plants/animals and driven by men over the age of 70. As one can safely assume, being stuck behind one of these on a one lane, no-passing road can lead to extreme ageism and road rage.

Anyway, I'm stuck behind this guy and contemplating passing him across a double yellow, on roads that curve with the mountain we're driving next to. I could do what I've seen young folks do here, and go into the right turn lane (remember, the lanes are opposite here, so this is like a left turn lane back in the States) and just gun it when the light turns green again, but I'm thinking maybe I can still make it. So I follow grandpa all the way into Fukuchiyama and get to the city abuot 8 minutes before my train actually leaves.

He turns off the road, and I gun it. Wouldn't you know it, someone with no business entering the road comes in out of a convenience store parking lot. There's no one behind me for at least 200 meters, but this jackass decides he HAS to go now. Again, very common in Japan. I brake fairly hard and basically sidle up right behind this veeeerrrrryyyy sloooooowwwwwllllllyyy accelerating hatchback. He's only on the road for a block or two (which agains forces me to ask why he felt he had to cut me off) and then I'm approaching the station. I search for a parking lot and find one, throw my jacket and camera bag over my shoulder, and sprint into the station. The clock reads 5:26, and I gasp at the gate attendant "did the 5:25 leave already?" He looks very slightly sympathetic and says "yes, just now." By missing the train, I now have the choice of waiting for the next one, which comes in an hour (putting me in Kyoto at 8 with a 9:30 return) or driving further towards Kyoto in the hopes of finding a station that has more regular trains, and hopefully a later last train.

I take a glance at the map, and notice that a Sonobe station is where the local express into Kyoto starts. I punch that into my phone's navigation system and I'm off. It's a good 40 kms to Sonobe, and it takes me about 45 minutes with traffic. I get there, park, and wander into the station. I call my friend and let him know it's going to be an hour later, but this way I can stay out til after 10. I'm looking at the platforms and train schedule trying to figure out what to do, then get on, throw my headphones on and go to sleep.

About 20 minutes later I'm woken up by a conductor telling me I have to get off. It's the last stop, he says, and I glance outside to see a tiny station with no people in it. This is clearly not Kyoto, and when I ask how to get to Kyoto from there, I'm informed that I went the wrong way on the line. I've now got to wait 20 minutes for the next train, go back the way I came PLUS the 35 minutes to Kyoto. Dinner is now moved back from 8 to 9-ish.

Eventually I get into Kyoto and everything's fine and dandy. We have some good food, a beer, and talk about old times and new. I get on the 11:30 local back to Sonobe, get in my car and drive the 90 minutes back to Asago, getting home at about 2. I suppose it's all a lesson in not rushing when you don't have to (like I did at Sonobe) and leaving earlier than you think you should, especially when you have to deal with septugenarian farmers driving oversized power wheels on one lane roads.

Move-in On Up!

For the 3rd time since I've been here, I'll be getting a new car. Since my last lease was brand new, I have to return it to the manufacturer, apparently so they can insert it back into their fleet of rentals/leases, and get a new one. I could have opted for the same exact car and paid the same, but being the foolish spender (at least with my JET money) that I am, I thought I'd upgrade. I was driving the Daihatsu Mira Custom before, a nice small kei car (kei being any car with an engine 660 CCs or smaller...no that isn't a typo) but small for lots of luggage or my main concern, snowboarding. I've put almost 16,000 kilometers on that car (a nice even 10,000 miles for those unaware of the conversion rate) in about a year, and am ready to change.

My new car will be the Daihatsu Move X Vs, the next level up in the model line. It's got more leg room, an adjustable (forwards and backwards) rear seat to accomodate luggage and best of all, a split folding rear seat back (the Mira comes down in one piece). This will be much easier to fit snowboards and gear in, as well as a possible 3rd person, for both boarding and other road trips. It also has an audio jack for an mp3 player, keyless ignition, and a bunch of other fancy features I can't wait to try out.

Just got word today that the car is ready and while I'm going to miss my Mira, I can't to make the move to the Move.

Summer's Almost Over?!?!

So my summer has officially flown by. The first 3 weeks (July 19-August 9) were spent in Sapporo attending SIL Sapporo Nihongo Gakko, a Japanese study school that attracts mainly JETs and folks from Taiwan. Pretty expensive, but I did 2 great homestays, met some cool kids and ate a ton. Here's the first and most important part of the trip: the food!