Now playing…
August 16, 2009
Filed under Sounds
Tags: Boredom, karaoke, Love Like Fire, San Francisco Indie Rock
Love Like Fire is a band started by our (yes, that is the royal “we”) buddies Dave and Ann. This is the latest off of their soon-to-be released (right Dave?) album.
If you haven’t already, push the play button.
Okay, now that you too are in love with it, tell everyone you know. A tune this catchy and gorgeous should be shared.
Alright. I’m off to find a way to install it into every karaoke machine across Japan.
Hot fun in the summertime
August 6, 2009
Filed under Only in Japan, Outings, Sights
Tags: Asano River Lanterns, Asanogawa Lanterns, Fukui Lotus Festival, Japanese lizards, Jonkara festival, Jonkara matsuri, Nara Park, Natsu Matsuri, Summer Festivals in Japan, Summer in Japan
And the living is easy. But let me tell you, the heat. Oh, the heat! I can’t even muster the energy to describe to you just how sticky-icky-icky it is right now.
Yeah. So in the interest of not drowning in a pool of my own sweat from the strain of typing, please enjoy some summer in Japan snapshots:
Lanterns on the Asano River
Each one is unique
Feeding the deer at Nara Park
Denying the deer at Nara Park
A photographer at the Lotus Festival in Fukui
Lotus Soft Serve (He liked it. Really.)
A visitor
Masks at the local summer festival
And dancing!
Ai have a surprise for you!
April 22, 2009
Filed under Adorable!, Only in Japan
Tags: Haruna Ai, Newhalf, KAT-TUN
This is Haruna Ai. She’s a TV personality and singer and the cutest thing to come out of Japan since Hello Kitty. Here, she’s pretending to be Jin Akanishi’s ex-girlfriend (he’s a member of the hugely popular boy band Kattun). Watch the clip and you’ll see why I am totally in love with her.
Alright. Now get this: Miss Haruna was actually born a boy. She’s a post-op transexual. Yeah, I know.
Around here, lads turned into ladies are called “newhalfs.” Quite a few of them are featured on Japanese variety shows and let me tell you, these gals bring the pretty like you wouldn’t believe.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I feel the sudden urge to go put on lots of lip gloss.
Mean clean sushi machine
April 20, 2009
Filed under Eats, Only in Japan
Tags: Anthony Bourdain, cheap sushi, kaiten zushi, machine sushi, sushi in Japan, Sushiro
(Before I begin, let me just say that dang, it has been a long ass time since my last update. That straight perm seeped into my brain and made me so melancholy that all I could think to write were lyrics to Smiths songs and quotes from Wuthering Heights.)
I’m sorry Anthony Bourdain. I know you’re one of my biggest fans and never miss a post. But this one? You ain’t gonna like it. Brace yourself.
I love sushi made by machines.
That’s right. Not painstakingly crafted right in front of me by expert hands, but put together by a cold, hard lump of steel placed on top of a counter somewhere in the restaurant kitchen.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I truly do appreciate the art of sushi and admire the mad skilled sushi masters whose work I have had the honor of witnessing and tasting.
But.
Machine sushi is where it’s at man.
My reasons for making such a bold statement?
It’s entertaining. Look at all those pretty plates floating by. It’s a sushi merry-go-round! Wheee! What fun!!
Don’t like what you see? Simply press a button and order what you want, silly! Mr. Machine will manufacture it for you and send it out on the conveyor atop a plate with your table’s designated color. Exciting!!
Hello operator!
Then, when you are completely sated with fishy goodness, push the handy-dandy bell button for an actual person to come count up your plates and hand you the check. Oh the suspense!!
Stack o' plates (white means no wasabi)
Okay sure, I’ll admit it. Sushi produced by chrome claws may lack the delicacy of nigiri made by super adept sushi chefs. But to me, it’s still pretty damn good. And when the bill for 2 people comes out to less than $30? You better believe I’ve found my new favorite food factory, er, restaurant.
Mr. Bourdain, I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.
The goods
Straight Up
For your viewing pleasure (I hope that’s all), here are some pics from my latest visit to the salon (“Nambu”) for a touch-up and a trim.
The "Before" shot or "Me being oblivious to my bad hair"
After: the ingenious Junya shows off his handiwork (Hi Junya! Thanks again!!)
Sunday evening entertainment
March 17, 2009
Filed under Only in Japan
Tags: hummingbird kiss, Imoto, Itte Q, Jamaica, Jamaican onsen
Her name is Imoto. She travels around the world for a show called “Itte Q” wearing a school girl’s uniform and Groucho eyebrows. When the weekend goes by too fast (as it always does), I know I can count on her to ease my Sunday blues.
In this particular episode, Imoto is in Jamaica. It’s magical in so many ways. Watch it. Her lust for life is the cure for what ails you.
Hot stuff
Mid-March in my neck of the woods means the sun is showing up, but there’s still some wind hanging around to bite you in the face for fun because it has nothing better to do. It’s always such a relief to walk into the teacher’s office first thing in the morning and be greeted by a blast of hot air. The classrooms are heated as well, so there’s not a whole lot of suffering happening now amongst the kids besides the usual teen angst. However, there is a rather large room that does not have heat available: the school gym. And normally, this is fine. Students work up a sweat playing basketball and twirling batons. They don’t need no stinking heat. But hey, guess where the graduation ceremony is going to be held on Friday? Yep. As the dress code is very formal, I’m thinking it would be frowned upon if I show up wearing a ski suit, so I’ve had to come up with a new strategy.
Meet my cute new friend that I picked up at the local 100 yen store (that’s the dollar store to you and me). She’s a cat. She’s pink. She has velcro behind her head where you can insert one of those hand warmer thingies (called “Kairo” in Japan). She’s going to be my date for graduation. We’re going to have a real good time together. I’ll hold her in my hand, place her on the back of my neck, put her in my shirt, and maybe, just maybe, she’ll get lucky and find herself in my pants.
Empty nest
March 9, 2009
Filed under Only in Japan
Tags: entrance exams, graduation, junior high school in Japan
Today the san-nenseis (third year students) went home early to prepare for the public high school entrance exams which they’ll be taking over the next few days (the private exams were last month). After they left, I wandered out into the hallway and came upon a curious sight:
The making of chair sculptures occurs annually around this time in junior high schools across Japan as all the floors get a fresh waxing and the classrooms are cleaned out for the new school year in April. The picture above is just two classes worth of chairs and desks. Down the hall, there are three additional homerooms with their guts piled outside all nice and neat.
The students who sat at these desks have had quite a journey together. They started out at the same elementary school and then on to the same junior high school where most of them had the same classmates and homeroom teacher for all three years. Each year there were Sports Days, Chorus Contests, School Festivals, and School Trips all participated in as a class. Every subject they’ve studied, they’ve studied together. They’ve eaten together and cleaned together. Pretty much everything that happened at school happened as a class. These kids have confided in each other, bullied each other, flirted with each other, made fun of each other (and their teachers), cheered for each other, and cried for each other.
Now, they have to go their separate ways. Some kids will be attending one of many private high schools while others will pass the entrance exam for one of many public high schools. Sure, all the best buddies will still see each other in their spare time, but man. This whole passing of time thing is a real bitch and it’s kind of breaking my heart right now.
And I don’t even want to talk about how incredible the san-nenseis were this year. Just. Plain. Awesome. I’m really gonna miss them.
Graduation is in three days. My eyes are already swollen.
We want the funk
March 5, 2009
Filed under Sounds
Tags: Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now, funk, iTunes, McFadden & Whitehead, music, Soul Train
One of my favorite things to do these days (besides blogging of course!) is coming home from work, turning on my computer, opening iTunes, clicking on “Radio,” “RnB/Soul,” and unleashing the magic that is “Traxx Funk.” Then, I do all the shit that needs to get done while getting down.
If you don’t have iTunes (because maybe you think Steve Jobs is a wanker?), the station also has a website where you can get your funky fix. Go there now and thank me later when you’re movin’ like this:
What’s for lunch today?
March 3, 2009
Filed under Eats, Only in Japan
Tags: chirashizushi, Doll Festival, Girls' Day, Hinamatsuri, kyushoku, school lunch
Besides the adorable and (mostly) hilarious kids, what’s so great about teaching at a junior high school in Japan you ask? Three words: school lunch baby.
In Japanese, it’s called “kyushoku” and let me tell you something- I love it. It’s always delicious (okay, there was that one time when they served whole squid and I was all, um, no), balanced (we have our own nutritionist who makes the menus), and everyday is something different! It’s like your birthday! Everyday!!
Okay, so let me explain how kyushoku works. At 12:35, the bell ending 4th period rings and designated students go pick up the lunch carts (there’s a special room where the town’s kyushoku center delivers the meals) and wheel them back to their homerooms. Then, those students do the dishing for their classmates. In the staffroom (at one of my schools), our lunch is plated by whatever teachers and aides happen to be around. The trays are lined up and when you are ready to eat, you just go get your tray and bring it back to your desk. Then, you catch up on the daily gossip with the teacher sitting next to you while you chow down on some tasty grub such as this:
Here we have today’s school lunch (clockwise from bottom right corner): 1. Some soup with spinach, egg, tofu, and unidentified pink objects, 2. Chirashizushi which is basically some stuff piled on top of vinegared sushi rice, 3. Daikon with pork, 4. A cute package of arare (crackers) and 5. Milk! (Happy cows don’t come from California, they come from Japan. Really, the milk here is delicious.)
Lunch fare around here isn’t always so Japanese, but today was “Girls’ Day” and those are some of the foods that are traditionally eaten on the third day of the third month which, by the way, is not a holiday although you and I and Margaret Cho know that it damn well should be.
