Japanese Travel Journal: Utsunomiya (宇都宮)

I am struggling to get updated here. For this installment, I present you with my trip to Utsunomiya.

This is the first time I saw anyone from Isesaki after I had moved to Matsudo. This is not so impressive as it sounds, because we all met in Utsunomiya 12 days after I moved. The way Benni-先生 greeted us, you'd think it was closer to 12 years.

We went to Utsunomiya for gyoza. I'm pretty sure I've already posted about my love for gyoza, and the Isesaki ladies wanted to foster this as much as possible. In addition, they also love gyoza, so that helped. I cannot understand why anyone would not love gyoza, but that's beside the point. We wanted to eat as much gyoza as possible. This turned out to be quite a lot. Also, the girls helped me pick out a watch while we waited for Benni先生 to show up. Akikoさん and Yukariさん helped me program it, because the instructions were all in Japanese. This made all of us very happy (not that the instructions were Japanese but that the three of us were able to get it sorted out).

We ate at three different places, though the third place was a combination of 5 restaurants and we could order from any of the menus. At the first two restaurants, we ordered a plate or two of gyoza and shared it amongst ourselves before moving on. The first restaurant was a tiny place where you ordered the food at a ticket machine, after which you presented the ticket to the waitress. Because there were seven of us, we had to split up, so Akikoさん, Yukariさん, and myself shared an order each of boiled and fried gyoza (the fried was better). After that, we slipped out to the place next door and ordered GIANT gyoza. The rest of the girls showed up just as we were finishing, which is why we had time to wait to program my watch.

Together, we all headed out to the third location, which was an awesome conglomeration of gyoza restaurants (Utsunomiya is famous for gyoza - there are upwards of two dozen restaurants specializing in this most awesome of foods, probably more). I think we ordered about seven plates of gyoza at this place, from three different menus. There was chiso (a basil-type herb) gyoza, crunchy gyoza, not-so-crunchy gyoza, shrimpy gyoza, spicy gyoza, salty gyoza - holy cats, there was a LOT of gyoza. Boy, were we stuffed. And to everyone's astonishment, Benni先生 polished off a bowl and a half of rice along with it, the half being what I couldn't eat.

[This is nothing - I once witnessed her eat a huge bowl of ramen, an order of gyoza, and THREE bowls of rice in one sitting. Her stomach is bottomless.]

After gorging ourselves on gyoza, we went off in search of other exciting things to do. We began by buying gyoza omiyage. Half of the ladies bought frozen gyoza to take home - complete with styrofoam cooler to transport them in. Then they bought me a cellphone strap of a little plastic plate of gyoza, which I've become a collector of (the cellphone straps, not the little plastic plates of gyoza). These ladies are so totally the awesome.

While wandering around Utsunomiya, we discovered a shrine in the middle of the city and because I love shrines, we immediately explored it. I like going to shrines with the ladies because they will explain things to me the best they can. Benni先生 either has no answer to my questions or ignores me entirely (in her defense, she's just naturally oblivious sometimes). Even if the ladies don't know the answers to my questions, they will do their best to figure it out or explain it somehow, even if it means translating something.

The cherry blossoms were nearing the end of their blooming stage, but they were still very beautiful and stunning. The wind blew gently that day, but it still scattered blossoms all through the air. They kept falling and falling, a shower of pink and white petals. There seemed to be no end to them.

With the sun going down, we decided it was time to end our gyoza adventure. We set a date for our next gathering (Nagano - Matsumoto Castle in May), and then they dropped me off at the train station. And thus ended our trip to Utsunomiya. Quite satisfying, I must say.

picture break!

Just posting quickly to add a new pic to the top of the page. This is Benni-sensei and me in Takasaki. I have many, MANY new pictures to post, but they will have to wait. Until now, I'll post this as a reminder of my favorite, crazy co-worker.

days of wine and takoyaki

Last Saturday, Benni-sensei and I were invited to a takoyaki party at the Maebashi school (which is also closing in the coming months). This is one of the schools where Kozue-sensei works, and Hamish-sensei is also pretty cool, so it stood to reason that it would be an entertaining night. Add in the fact that we just happened to go to Beisia that afternoon and thus just happened to run into Naofumi-san who just happened to be free to accept our extended invitation to the party and it gets even better. I love to hang out with certain of my students, and Naofumi-san is definitely one of them. He can be highly amusing and a very good sport.

Of course, there was alcohol at the party, as is only right for a party with no kids around. Most of the students live within walking or biking distance of the school (or they crash on any of the numerous couches at the school - why don't we have any couches? it's so unfair), so safe driving practices are almost always in effect, from what I've seen. Fortunately, having no car, it's not something I need to worry about - it's just a matter of finding someone willing to drive me back to Isesaki. Which turned out to be another good reason to have Naofumi-san around, because at 5am, he was one of the few remaining drivers going that way anyway.

But I get ahead of myself. First came the food and the wine. One of the Maebashi students had taken a trip to Yamanashi, which is particularly famous for wine. And it was very good wine indeed. And there was takoyaki, which I enjoy reasonably well but especially when it's homemade. Take-out takoyaki is nothing compared to the homemade variety. Also, there was gyoza, but it took a backseat to the takoyaki festivities. Primarily because someone found an abandoned Kit-Kat in the office and decided to put it to use.

I don't know who started it, but Naofumi-san was involved. I cheerfully volunteered to try the cheese takoyaki (yummy) and the kimchi takoyaki (eh, but I'm not a great fan of kimchi), and I was the only one who also cheerfully volunteered to try the chocolate takoyaki (interesting but not as bad as it sounds). It was only a little bit of chocolate, hardly enough to have any effect on the taste, but the looks on everyone's faces was worth it. I did refuse to eat the strawberry takoyaki; that goes far beyond the realm of sensibility. Nobody was conned into eating that one, and eventually Kozue-sensei ate it by mistake and immediately ran off to spit it out.

This was followed by an amusing game thought up by a Malaysian student. He calls it "what goes around comes around," and it's certainly the most disgusting party game I've had the misfortune to play. The general idea is to play russian roulette with a fetid concoction of whatever liquids are available. For us, this included (but was not limited to) wine, beer, tomato juice, lemon juice, mayonnaise, takoyaki sauce, oolong tea, and Zima. Add various flavored chips, Kit-Kats, and bonito flakes to the mix, and you can imagine the wonderful liquid that resulted. Hamish-sensei even threw in some foul-smelling cheese that he found in the fridge. In order to determine the loser of this game, all involved draw cards, and the lowest card gets to take the shot.

We played three rounds of this, which is a testament to how much most of us had already had to drink. As fate would have it, the first and last rounds were both lost by the Malaysian student (after the last round, he quite comically threw up his hands and shouted, "I suck at my own game! How is this possible?") The middle round was lost by Naofumi-san, and he did us Isesaki folk proud by not just taking a tiny sip but a great big gulp of what was easily the foulest of the batches. That he did it reluctantly but jovially says a lot. Like I said, he's a good sport.

Two rounds of Uno were played, though it wasn't much of a competition because people were starting to succumb to the late hour and the alcohol. About seven of us decided to head out to a nearby bar, which I'm definitely glad we did because it was an AWESOME bar. It has a piratey theme to it, including fake palm trees in the corners, blunderbusses on the walls, and a rickety wooden dumb waiter to deliver drinks to the second floor. There is also a life-sized Yoda, which doesn't really fit with the pirate theme but nobody seems to mind. We stayed only long enough for one drink, but it was fun.

Upon returning to the school, I realized it was nearly 5am, and I had plans to go to Kumagaya the next day, so I decided it was time for me to head home. Naofumi-san was also ready to leave, so he offered me a lift so that nobody else had to worry about driving to and fro. I got home in time to get four hours of sleep before having to get up to head on my way to Kumagaya. Surprisingly, I made it through Sunday morning with only the slightest of hangovers, so I figure I must not have been too drunk. I've been worse off.

So, all in all, a most pleasant way to say goodbye to Maebashi. Our farewell party will not be as depraved because we're inviting all the kid students. I'm hoping I get a chance to chill with my stupendous adult students too, because I like them, and I'm going to miss them.

And yeah, I'm definitely moving on April 1st. It's not completely finalized, I'm waiting to hear back on the details. But if it goes through, I'll be much MUCH closer to Tokyo - as in, maybe a 20 minute train ride - but still not too far away from Isesaki if I want to hang out for a weekend. It's not been perfect here, but overall, I don't have a whole lot to complain about.

Benni-sensei's reverse birthday

Benni-sensei's birthday is this week, and Sunday, she had a little taco party to celebrate. She invited three of us over to her apartment for the afternoon (another GEOS teacher, her best friend, and me). As always with Benni-sensei, I had only a vague notion of what was planned, but that's okay. All I had to do was show up, and that was simple enough.

Kozue-sensei (from the Maebashi school) picked me up at the train station in Maebashi and told me that we needed to stop by the nearby mall to get some chicken from KFC. Apparently, Benni-sensei was afraid the tacos wouldn't be enough. So, off we went to Keyaki Walk, where we ordered a box of chicken and wandered around the mall for a while. There's a really nice bookstore in the mall, and it even has a small English section, so we browsed there for a bit. I finally bought a book to help me practice reading and writing both kana and kanji. I'm pretty solid on the hiragana, and the workbook I use in my lessons with Benni-sensei is helpful with conversation, but I want to work on my kanji recognition. Doubt I'll ever really be able to write kanji correctly, but I'd at least like to recognize some of it.

After picking up our chicken (note: Japanese KFC is merely "okay" in terms of fried chicken; I was not overly impressed), we drove over to Benni-sensei's apartment and immediately dug into the food. There were only four of us, so we had more food than we knew what to do with. We decided to wait on the tacos, instead focusing on the KFC and a couple bags of Doritos for lunch. We also decided that we needed a diversion between lunch and dinner, and because it was Benni-sensei's birthday after all, we asked what she wanted to do. She suggested karaoke, and off we went.

It was an amusing birthday party - Benni-sensei had asked us not to bring gifts (we did anyway), and she gave gifts to us. Granted, they were souveniers from her trip to Thailand, but it was still kinda funny. She also treated us for the karaoke, which we protested vehemently, to no avail. She insisted. I've never attended a reverse birthday party, and it was interesting switch. Reverse birthdays and un-birthdays deserve more attention.

Continuing with the party . . . Japanese karaoke is highly amusing, even without alcohol. We stayed for three hours, singing both Japanese and English songs (they tried to teach me one Japanese song - something about a bear, pretty simple, like a kids' song - but it didn't go all that great). Benni-sensei studied music in college in Los Angeles, and she has a beautiful, trained voice, so it's nice to listen to her sing, even if I don't understand exactly what's being said. Also, it was incredible fun singing "Bohemian Rhapsody" with her. Benni-sensei has seen "Wayne's World" and agrees that head-banging is necessary when singing this song. We startled Kozue-sensei and Shinobu-san with our exuberant head-banging.

We'd worked up an appetite with the karaoke, so we went back to the apartment and absolutely gorged ourselves on tacos. Benni-sensei had asked me to make guacamole, and we also had refried beans, Pace Picante salsa, and jalapenos to top off our tacos. The taco shells were small, and I have no idea how many I ate. They were absolutely delicious and messy and fun. We enjoyed ourselves immensely.

The awesomest thing about Benni-sensei's apartment? It's right next to a train bridge, so you can watch the trains go by. Every time one passed by, we all stopped what we were doing and waved at it. Benni-sensei says she does it all the time.

Definitely a very fantastic birthday party. Benni-sensei's presents from Thailand were matching purse bags for us - orange for Kozue-sensei, purple for Shinobu-san, and chocolate-brown for me. I'll have to take a picture of it, it's really pretty. It has flowers and an elephant stitched on it. I like it.

I've been having very entertaining weekends this month, and next weekend should also be entertaining: we're finally having our New Year's party at the school. Going to an izakaya with my students should be incredibly entertaining. Add in that I don't have any kids' classes this week (hurray for William's perfect attendance! there's no need for me to do any make-up classes), and January looks to be ending on a high note.

Thus far, 2009 hasn't given me too much to complain about.

Non-Japanese Food Journal: guacamole

Yeah, this year's Thanksgiving went mostly unmarked by me, other than exchanging greetings and well-wishes with a lot of people. The one special thing I did was make guacamole.

Okay, before everyone starts thinking that this is a little weird, I'll admit that it is. Most people don't think guacamole is a Thanksgiving food, and I doubt it'll ever be considered such, it's not like I'm trying to start a trend here. But it amused me to make it, and it was something I wanted to do. It just so happened that I decided to do it on Thanksgiving.

For the record, I don't like Thanksgiving. Oh, the sentiment's alright, but it's totally at the wrong time of the year. In the northern hemisphere, who is doing their harvesting at the end of November? Here in my little region of Japan, it seems that the only things that are really in season right now are persimmons and apples. Of course, turkey is pretty rare, and most people wouldn't eat mashed potatoes, but that's not my point. All I'm saying is that it's a ridiculous time of year to have a harvest festival. The Canadians are way more logical about it - their Thanksgiving is in the beginning of October and thus makes sense.

And I'm not going to get into the whole "Indians and pilgrims" thing, because, man, what a line all that is. I'll believe that happened when I believe that Benni-sensei will actually clean her room (seriously, she's going to get trapped in there one day if that stack of books and papers on her desk keeps multiplying). But, yeah, color me cynical on that one.

A couple of weeks ago, Benni-sensei and I went to the grocery store for something, and we were hanging around in the produce section when she grabbed me and yanked me toward a pile of avocadoes. Benni lived in California for a long time, and she loves Mexican food, and she stared at those avocadoes like they were ambrosia. Then she asked me if I liked guacamole, to which I of course replied that I love guacamole and also enjoyed making it. She laughed and said, "Hey, maybe you can make some for me some time!"

I said maybe I would, and we went on our merry way. Later that same day, we were talking to Naofumi, and he mentioned that he'd spent some of his childhood in California, and Benni immediately asked him if he liked guacamole, and he said he thought he remembered liking it. This led to a mostly-Japanese conversation about living in California, which Naofumi looked kind of embarrassed about because he insisted he was too young to remember most of it. I snuck away and went home because it was late.

When it comes to saying that I'll make food, I usually end up making it. Maybe it takes me a little while to get around to it, but I do get around to it. I love to cook; I think it's relaxing. And I miss it terribly. I'm almost convinced that I miss my oven more than I miss my family! (sorry, family!) And this week, I got it into my head that I should make guacamole.

Let me say that avocadoes in Japan are really small and really expensive. Indeed, this is probably the most expensive guacamole I've ever made, but that's probably because I had to buy some ingredients that I would normally have stocked - like cayenne pepper, jalapeno tabasco sauce, and cream cheese. Dairy products are kind of frightening when it comes to price, but I expected that. It took me FOREVER to find Tostito chips and they were insanely expensive, but totally worth it. I think most people were more impressed that I'd even found a bag of them than they were with the guacamole.

But, it was all worth it. I ended up using sour cream as a base (I found the tiniest container of it, a major victory as far as I'm concerned because Naofumi seemed pretty convinced that I would be unable to find it) because it was more like cream cheese than the cream cheese was. It had the right consistency and a better flavor. But it turned very nicely, and everyone who tried it exclaimed, "Oishii!" which seems roughly equivalent to "holy crap, this is really good!"

Benni-sensei was especially pleased because she was having a bit of a crappy day due to scheduling problems with her vacation. She was going to Thailand, but there are some major protesting issues going on right now and the airports are closed to traffic. So, she's currently on her way to Taipei, which she was not all that thrilled about but she felt obliged to go because her travelling companions wanted to go. Also, on the plus side, Naofumi had showed up to (finally) renew his contract, so it was nice to offer him some guacamole as a thank you, even though he'd been debating about this for three weeks now.

Ultimately, I enjoyed my Thanksgiving, even though it was a pretty typical day for me. The only thing I really miss about Thanksgiving is the cooking and especially the baking. I don't think I'm going to survive the Christmas holiday without doing some kind of baking, so this weekend, I'll probably end up heading over to Cainz Home and buying a new toaster oven. I already have one in the apartment, but I hate it, and I couldn't bake with it anyway because I can't regulate the temperature. It'll probably be an expensive purchase, but I have the money to spare, and it will definitely be worth it. I'll just have to figure out where to put it . . .

Anyway, Turkey Day is come and gone, and I hope it was a pleasant day for all!