Downtown Nagoya

Cat-bus 

“Gai-koku-jin wa doko desu ka?” my friend called out, stomping into an izakaya in central Nagoya. He wasn’t even intoxicated at the time. I knew it was going to be a good weekend. I was heading down to Nagoya mainly to check out a Studio Ghibli exhibition in Lagunasia, a small resort park, and catch up with some close friends. I didn’t do a huge amount of sightseeing, but it was a fantastic weekend all the same.

I took the local train down rather than the Shinkansen bullet train, so it took me nearly five hours to get there. It was bearable – I rather enjoy train rides when I have travel companions or a book to read, though I was admittedly very happy to finally reach my destination long after sunset. It was about 9.30pm by the time I finally pulled into Nagoya, and my friends took me straight for tebasaki at a famous izakaya chain, Yama-chan. Tebasaki is the Japanese take on that most quinssental of sports game snack foods – chicken wings. From what I can tell on the Japanese Wikipedia entry, the creation of tebasaki was a happy accident in the 1960s, when a chicken restauranteur, Otsubo Kenko was experimenting with new seasonings. While the shop usually served whole chickens, using chicken wings was obviously easier for testing new flavours. Fortunately, customers liked it, and it grew in popularity.

This may or may not be what I looked like eating tebasaki! That, or it's another display at the Ghibli exhibition.

There were little cartoons on the wall demonstrating the “correct” way of eating chicken wings – admittedly a lot tidier than the stuff-it-in-your-mouth-anything-goes way that I, and the rest of the world employ. All you have to do is pull the chicken wing apart at the joint. The thinner, bonier point is put aside to be gnawed on later. Next, look for where the two bones join where you have just separated the wing. Pull them slightly apart. Pincering the other end firmly with your fingers, pop the half wing into your mouth, bite down, and pull the bones out! They’ll slip right off. It took me a couple of tries to get it right; mostly because I couldn’t eat the entire thing in one go. I did, however, eventually get it right, and am now no longer a bone-fide chicken wing eater. If you have no idea what I meant by all that, here’s a handy chart I found that gives you not one but four ways to eat chicken wings! Your life will never be the same again. The method I’m talking about is “D”.

Since the boys had only drunk to sensible levels, we grabbed another few beers from the combini and headed back to my friend’s apartment to make the most of the night (and the morning, really). There’s not much more to it than that, although some people didn’t feel their best the next day.

A train station we weren't supposed to be at... Psyduck looking pensively into the distance

 We made our way back to Nagoya the next morning and got on the train to Lagunasia, which is a small children’s theme park near Toyohashi, on the Eastern side of the prefecture. However, we had got onto an express train rather than a normal one, and managed to shoot pass the station where we needed to change trains. Now, normally, that wouldn’t really be worth mentioning. However, we were clever enough not just to do that once, but coming back the other way…. You guessed it. We missed it. Well. Done. Team. So, an hour’s journey stretched out a little longer than it should have, and we ended up arriving around 12.30pm.

The twilight zone

Lagunasia is about a twenty minute walk from the nearest station, or a ten minute bus ride, but the next bus wasn’t for an hour, so we took to the streets. We felt as though we had been bizarrely transported into another country as we walked towards the park. There were numerous palm trees lining incredibly wide roads, and the water features and high-rise condos were nothing like the buildings one normally sees in Japan. After traversing through the windy twilight zone, we arrived in a rather befuddled state, bemused that we had finally, finally got to our destination.

Lagunasia is essentially a children’s theme park, with a few tame roller coasters, a log flume and some water features. It’s not huge, but it’s probably a wonderland for anyone under fifteen! They currently have a special Studio Ghibli exhibition on (¥1,600, tickets can be bought from the Lawson Loppi machines in advance if you’re interested), so the moment you enter, a large statue of Ponyo riding the wave-fish greets you.

The Borrowers Arietty

We had a few more mishaps within the park that are perhaps better left unwritten (suffice to say it involved a phone and breaking down a pirate ship, and very sheepish gaijin apologies), but we eventually found our way to the main exhibit, and bumped into some friends in the queue. 

We waited about fifty minutes to get in, and then walked around inside to see all the displays. Apparently it’s been changed recently, so there are different statues and pictures to last year, but it was good all the same. They had some excellent scenarios on show, and we were able to take pictures with a lot of the exhibits.

After we wandered round the gift shop for ages and spent our money on useless but totally amazing things. Who needs a kodama with a vibrating head? We did. I don’t even know what to put it on (and as an aside, who thinks that kodama look like mushrooms? Well, the leap from kodama to kineko isn’t that far). We all got the same things, so we’re a trio of kineko carrying weirdos. We also ended up with a jingly Makkuro kurosuke (真っ黒黒助; "pitch-black assistant") phone charm each, as well as a badge.

Some of the people we’d met at the exhibition followed us back to Nagoya for dinner. We decided to go for more Aiichi specialties, this time miso-katsu, a breaded pork cutlet with a special miso sauce. The outlet we went to is particularly famous, knows as Yabaton. The have a number of shops around; we went to a multi-floor beauty in Yama-cho. It was pretty crowded – it took about half an hour to get us seated, with other hungry customers politely lining the stairs alongside us. The kitchen is tiny but ultra-efficient – one can peer in from the outside, and there were but four people working in there, one coating all the raw pork, another frying, one perhaps ferrying other things back and forth, and then the final chef plating the finished product.

The miso katsu was the best thing I ate in Nagoya, hands down. I have a terrible weakness for fried food, it’s too delicious to give up.

We then retired to a nomihoudai, the less said about that the better.

Allow me to distract you with some soot spirits

The next day, Psyduck and J took me to Osu. It’s a pretty modernized shopping district, but has a fascinating history. While it’s now home to a number of vintage stores and kebab shops (and an excellent karaage store - wander around, it will be the one with a queue miles long, near a bizarre Alice in Wonderland shop), it was already a flourishing district in the Edo period, so it’s continued its commercial ways for a while! I stopped briefly by Osu Kannon, a temple that’s stood there since 1612. It actually has an even longer history from 1324, but was moved to its current location in the early 17^th century. As with most temples and castles in Japan, it’s a reconstruction, but still impressive. There’s also a rabbit café in the area that we didn’t have time to visit, so… we dropped into a tiny little shop and shot cans with BBguns instead. It was a completely random find! Another must-see that I missed was the Nagoya planetarium. I didn’t have time to explore the area properly, but I know that I want to go back soon!

Bang!

In fact, I’ll be making an even longer trip next month down to explore Osaka and Kyoto! It’s well worth it, though; while I’ll be on the train for 7 hours or so, I’ll be using the seishun juu-hachi kippu, a ticket for the national train line that allows the ticket holder to travel as far as they like in a day. It can be used five times, and is valid from the first of March to the tenth of April this spring. It’s ¥11,500 for a ticket, so each trip costs you ¥2,300 – it’s a very decent deal! You can also use it in tandem with others, as long as you’re travelling together, so if you’re in Japan and wanting to travel, now is the time to do so!

Quizu out~

It takes the flu

Due to a bit of an illness scare, my weekend went very differently to how I had originally planned! Instead of showing up to a hip hop event at my local bar, I spent the evening in a hospital/clinic, hooked up to two IV drip bags. Luckily, things all got sorted out and it turned out I had (and still have slight traces of currently) influenza and a bladder infection. They packed me off with a set of anti-biotics, which I have been taking dutifully ever since.

My Friday Night Companion

Unfortunately, that also meant that I had to cancel the pot luck that I was supposed to be hosting, as well as bow out of a half-marathon that I’d signed up for! I’ve only ever run the Greenwich Nike Run to the Beat half-marathon before, and this was to be my dive into Japanese events. Alas, it was not to be. In fact, I couldn’t even run my school’s cross-country event, so I felt a little down at the outset. Instead of my beautifully imagined weekend of run-dance-eat-run, it looked like: fever, loneliness and the gradual onset of snow and grumpiness.

The way my area looked before setting off for Hokkaido

The weather’s been a little crazy everywhere lately – although the celebration for setsubun, the first day of spring has been and gone, we’ve had snow twice since then! Once just before I set off for Hokkaido (ironic, since I was headed there for the yuki matsuri, or snow festival), and then again this weekend. Apparently, Shizuoka has seen the heaviest snow in forty-five years! It’s crazy. Further up north, in places like Gotemba, the snowfall reached 85cm. It’s not called Hokkaido in Shizuoka for nothing! Fortunately, around my area, the snow quickly melted away, but it was pretty miserably cold for a few days. Combined with my illness, I got into bed wearing two pairs of trousers, two hoodies on two shirts, and tucked myself under five blankets. I woke up in the night, sweating out the fever, and fought my way to the surface, only to recoil at the frigid temperatures outside. Japanese houses aren’t very well insulated, so my blanket-igloo has been a lifesaver this winter.

Not to mention something that brightened up my entire week:

A surprise Valentine's gift! How insanely cute is this giraffe?

The snows began to melt on Saturday, and even bought visitors, one bearing chocolate, and the other a ring! We ate nabe, Japanese hot pot, and chatted the day away. On Sunday, the sun shone bright and I dragged myself outside for a walk. If I couldn’t run 21km, then I was going to do the next best thing; walk around and explore.

I’m glad I did, because I climbed a mountain nearby, and it was beautiful. We have the best views of Mt Fuji one could ask for, and it just felt so good to get up and moving again. I’m not a big fan of cold weather, but it was just perfect; cool enough to walk around without working up a sweat, but warm enough to sit on the riverbank and read a book thinking, damn, this is the life.

Walking up the mountain

Endless stairs

... But the view was so worth it

Just... beautiful

So it was a pretty worth-it weekend, even if it didn't go as planned! 

Big improvement from Friday!

Outside a shrine I found

By the river (yes, it took many, many tries with my self-timer here)

Peace out guys

Quizu

Parfait Challenge, Cats Cafe. No real cats.

The UNBEREBUBLE (unbelievable) parfait

We are extremely lucky to have two national holidays in a row in September. An extra day over the weekend is always welcome, and anyway, as one of my fellow ALTs have suggested – “every weekend feels like a holiday here.” Being new to an area and exploring is incredibly exciting, and there’s a festival or event almost every week, as long as you keep your ear to the ground and eyes sharp for information. I keep gathering up leaflets from various train stations and asking my poor JTEs (coworkers and Japanese Teachers of English) to help me translate. They must be fed up of me asking by now, but I find out about too many good events to stop!

I keep returning to Numazu since it’s the biggest city in the area, so it has all the shops and restaurants, as well as the largest contingent of fellow ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers). This time, I had set up a parfait challenge after finding out a particular café called “Cats Café”. In the past, they ran a challenge where up to ten people would have ten minutes to devour a bucketful of ice cream. If they managed it, it was free. I was shown pictures, gaped at the monstrously delicious sight. I knew I had to try it for myself. So many other people were interested that we ended up with two teams (and another team who were too excited and went the week before). They should really pay me a commission, that café. Unfortunately, we found out when we got there that the challenge doesn’t occur anymore, so there was no free ice cream for us, but we could still get the UNBELIEVABLE (yes, that’s what it was called) ice cream if we were willing to pay. It cost ¥5,500, but split between 10 people, it’s not bad.

A big melting pot of sugar-over load

So, we went, we ate, we drank, we conquered. I say drank, as it eventually turned into a sloppy mess. Some were brave enough to knock back the strange chocolate slushie that it turned into; others gave up. I shamefully stopped about two plates in; the combination of cornflakes and sugar was starting to give me a stomachache. Still we conquered the mighty beast, and roared in triumph. Many victory photos were taken. Many poses were, uh, posed.

-

Cusine: Italian, desserts

Hours: no idea. Sorry.

Price: ¥5,500, or ¥550 per person. Normal parfaits are around ¥400

Directions: Numazu North Side, Bivi building

Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bivi-Cats-Cafe/319519311441700?rf=388851691140854

QuIzu score: 3/5, but 5/5 fun factor. Great if you like sweet desserts, perhaps to the point of being sickening, but hey, totally worth it.

Keepin movin', always groovin'

Decked out like a hipster, taking snazzy photos

So, my weekend was pretty dope. Hangin’ with an LA homie means that everything I write today’s gotta be read with a Valley Girl accent. I joke; my accent is as British as it ever was, or, as the Americans say “limey”. I honestly didn’t think people said things like that anymore.

-

So to recap my weekend: on Friday, I left school a mere half hour after my official work hours, which is nothing short of a small miracle. There’s always plenty of work waiting for me, I learned this the fun way… after marking 300 essays, I politely asked around the staffroom to see if I could help any Well, it turns out I certainly could, and had to make a worksheet to prove it. Serves me right. Not that I mind doing it, but my free time in school goes towards Japanese language study and the past two weeks have been totally neglected because of the essay marking.

A shrine I'll never find again, off a road I can't remember

Zen

Anyhow, I set off to Numazu, the biggest city in the area, on the Eastern part of the Shizuokan prefecture. It’s about half an hour by train if you manage to get all the connections right, with one stop in the middle. It takes a little longer by bus, but the route is terrifically scenic, so it’s worth taking once or twice, or of course if you want to get somewhere in between. It follows the coastal line, so it’s always lovely.

I met with Bong at the station, stomach ready for the challenge. Peruvian food at Mi Peru, a lovely little place just a ten minute walk from the station. I’ve never eaten Peruvian food before, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure whether it’d be any good. I’m still at the stage where I’m perfectly happy to eat Japanese food day in, day out, and from previous experiences in SEAsia, I find that cheap Western food tends to be pretty bland and uninteresting. You have to pay through the nose for the good stuff, and I’m so smitten with Japanese cuisine that I simply just don’t think about other foods very often. However, the food here was the bomb. Bong ordered a whole bunch of stuff – I just ate whatever was put in front of me with impunity.

The beef hearts were delicious. Bong wasn’t going to tell me what they were until after I’d tasted them as he didn’t know what an offal person (or should that be awful?) I am, but I picked out that distinctly organ taste straight away. It was marinated in a really delicious sauce that had penetrated all the way through the meat, and cooked perfectly – no bouncy rubbery heart for me!

So nice, I had it twice

That wasn’t all we ate that evening. We also headed over to a Chinese place; Xiong Xiong (which aptly translates into panda), had peking duck, some gyoza and veg. It was pretty standard; the Mi Peru was awesome, though. The local flavor of people was more interesting – there were a few heavily tattooed guys sitting next to us, who, as it turned out, were Bong’s friends. I was trying to catch local dialects and casual talk, as well as pick up on the waitress’ Mandarin!

We also walked through a local festival, meeting We headed over towards the river, and bumped into some sort of casual festival just in front of the bridge. There were a few ALTs around that Bong knew, so I met more fellow foreigners and chatted a little. The pool of English speakers in this area is pretty active, so everyone knows everyone, and I haven’t met anyone who I don’t like yet, believe it or not!

The night ended with a Game of Thrones/Firefly marathon, and good conversation until about three am. This sounds fun until you hear about the plans we’d made for Saturday. A morning run. Setting off about 6 am if we could. Well – as you can imagine, that didn’t happen, oh no. We went at seven, instead. I’m not even joking. We went for a 10k walk/run in the morning before the sun came out too strong. Bong has this Zombie run app on his phone, which is ridiculously fun. It talks you, a runner for your commune, through zombie infested areas, so you speed up and slow down as it narrates an excellent storyline.

One of my JTEs (my coworkers – Japanese Teachers of English) had told me about a local arts and crafts fair in Gotemba, about half an hour from Numazu, so after the run, we refreshed outselves and headed out that way. We met up with Shihyeng, a local Singaporean ALT who I’ve been in contact with for a while, but hadn’t yet had the chance to meet. She’s lovely, though. Unfortunately she had to head off pretty quickly,

The live music was amazing – I really liked this guitar-playing duo because they had wonderful harmonics. I purchased their CD even though I don’t have a CD player; but I’ll find a way to listen to it somehow. Later on there was a really hippie group who were playing washboards and a double bass, with a toddler on a tiny taiko drum. Their music was bizarre, but Bong loved it so we’re going to have to burn and exchange the music.

I recently misplaced (I won’t say lost, because I still hope it’s going to turn up again) a necklace very dear to me; and it was the only piece of neckwear I bought with me. There were a number of gorgeous necklaces at the arts and crafts fair, but one suited me in particular – a pendant shaped like a stack of books; wood wrapped in leather. It doesn’t replace my other necklace, but it suits me well.

After that, we headed to a nomihoudai and beer festival about half an hour away. Again, more ALTs (where there is beer, there are Caucasians) and friends made. Stomachs filled. Oh, boy, was my stomach ever filled. For ¥3,500, which is about 25 quid, it had better be filling, to be honest. It was much better than standard buffet fair, though of course you’d get better quality food in specialized restaurants where you order to your liking.

Round One

Round Two

After eating, drinking and travelling well, my Sunday was rather chilled. Although I had originally planned to go to Shimada to visit the festival, both the weather and my wallet conspired against me. There’s a typhoon somewhere, which means intermittent but heavy rains. Even the Shinkansen, the bullet train, was delayed because of landslides; that’s how bad the weather was. So, I stayed home, took two naps, read a bit, and cleaned the house, mostly by imagining that it was clean, to be honest.

Ashley, my sempai down in Shuzenji, did something similar, and contacted me last minute to go for some food in Mishima. I jumped in, and we headed up towards the city. Unfortunately, the place she had planned to take me to was closed! I suggested Mi Peru instead, because she wanted something along that type of cuisine, and I didn’t mind eating there again. Because, you know, I’m a glutton for punishment. I had the beef heart. Again. It was just as good. We met up with sempais Bong and Tiffany afterwards for a drink at a local bar, which also happens to be a hairdresser. The bartender cuts hair during the day, and pours drinks by night. Only in Japan.

Come Monday, the national holiday, I slept uneasily, the typhoon winds whistling around my house. It seemed like we were going to be in for a rough day. Even so, I didn’t want to spend my national holiday sitting in the house, so I donned a pair of wellies that my predecessor had left behind (and ft me perfectly), and headed towards Mishima to find Kawashima coffee, a shop that had been recommended by previous ALTs in the area. It was worth it. I got there about half an hour before the shop opened, but it was magic when we got inside. The gentleman running the shop was lovely, and I got myself some great coffee swag. He gave us free marshmallows! I’ll be back biweekly, I think, just to pick up some new coffees and sip on some new brews. My addiction has been rekindled.

I don’t like cooking by myself, but I love cooking with friends and family. So, Bong and I dropped off at my local supa, picked up some groceries and cooked up a storm. It was amazing.

Observe.

A foot long fish, merely 990 yen!

Sashimi

Asparagus, mushrooms, shiritaki noodles

Garlic butter prawns

Kawashima coffee and petit fours

I rounded off the evening by trying darts for the first time up in Mishima Tamachi, at an awesome bar/club called Hustler 9. I met the proprietor, Kosaka-san, and the food there was amazing too. Have you ever tried kimchee squid? No? You’re missing out.

-

On Bong’s recommendation, by which I mean, my blatant rifle through and robbery of his personal library, I’ve just read Yakuza Moon, by Shoko Tendo. It’s a rather straightforward autobiography of her rather troubled lifestyle, beginning with her birth into a yakuza household. It was an interesting read – nothing out of the ordinary, but a good hour to while away and learn about the consequences of a rebellious childhood, drug addiction and abusive relationships. Still, she’s obviously out of that vicious cycle now, happily, and makes a living as a writer. I wonder what it read like in the original Japanese.

That said, I’m going to get on with reading 1Q84. Murakami awaits me.

Japan-I-can

I can’t believe it’s been a month since I touched down in Japan. I’ve been incredibly busy settling in and meeting new people: what a chore, eh?

Near my house

view of the river, also outside my house

  

At the risk of sounding like a complete fangirl, I love it here. Sure, some things take a while: every piece of paper is done in triplicate, but it’s amazing. I live in a beautiful area, surrounded by rice padi fields. One teacher handed round a piece of paper – his family owns one of the farms and was ready for orders. Unfortunately, whilst my appetite is limitless, ordering 5kg of rice for a single girl is a little too much, especially since my predecessor left so much behind!

A teacher at my school told me about a cooking class. It was held by the Kannami Sistercity Friendship Association. I’m not sure what the name is supposed to mean, but they were absolutely lovely. It was a class held especially for foreigners, and better still, completely free of charge! The ladies even offered to pick us up from the train station and drive us to the cooking school.

Bento cooking!

I spread the word that this class was up for registration, and six other lovely ALTs expressed an interest, so come Sunday, seven of us headed out to see what it was all about. There must have been about thirty participants altogether, but we were the only “Western” foreigners; the others there included a huge party of Indonesians, a Bangladeshi gent, a Chinese lady, and a Filipino too.

Peace

It was quite bizarre chatting to the Indonesians. Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia are very similar, so I mentioned the only phrase I know: minta maaf, tak faham, sila cekap bahasa inggeris, which basically means, I’m sorry, I don’t understand, please speak in English! Of course, we started chatting about foods we share and miss – nasi, rendang and the rest of it. However, they didn’t speak much English; our levels of Malay and English matched one another, so we eventually settled on conversing in Japanese! It felt really strange to talk to South East Asians in Japanese. In fact, many of them had much better nihongo (Japanese) than I, so I felt rather stupid. Still, it was lovely to meet them and brush up on my extremely rusty Malay. It was also nice to meet Indonesians in a rather different context – in Malaysia, they’re usually the people to avoid as they are generally shipped over as cheap labour, often working illegally, and in rather bad situations. They’re all studying at Mishima university as architechture students or some such, so obviously it was rather different.

Participants and teachers

We cooked three dishes – a huge piece of sushi each; bento sized, some tempura, and a jelly dessert. We had a whale of a time; the teachers were incredibly fun and friendly, and got to gobble up our work at the end. It was a little sweet for my tastes – I’d probably halve the sugar in everything, but it was still incredibly yum, even if I do say so myself.

Just about enough rice for me!

I’ve already regained my reputation for eating copious amounts: it was something I thought I could hide, but the way my food disappears down my gullet is too distinctive to ignore. I’m met some awesome sempais (seniors) that have been incredible about showing us around: two Californians especially, both of whom are within about half an hour’s train ride. I’m pretty close to two girls nearby, Francesca and Yuxi, as well as Kat, who lives a little further away in Fujieda. Ashley, the sempai in  I’m hoping to visit the J-team soon, too, Jeff, my friend in Fukuoka, and Joe, down in Aiichi. My budget’s stretched a little tight until pay day, but I’d like to explore Japan as much as I can.

All the ladies

I was hosting Kat for the weekend – there was a great welcome party of about 20-30 JETs on Friday which she came up for, so I offered my place up. I have 4 spare futons in addition to a bed I don’t use, so I could host loads of people! I love having people around, so I’m more than happy to entertain. I need some private time too, but weekends, my place is open to all. Kat, Ashley and I tried out an onsen in Ohito after the cooking class – hyakuwarai, which means 100 smiles. Kat’s verdict? “I’m definitely smiling 100 times in here!”. I’m going to turn into an onsen addict, for sure.

"So, we're using milk cartons? Ok..."

I’ve got an excellent weekend planned ahead. On Friday, which it probably will be by the time this gets posted, a sempai, Bong, is taking me on a food tour. He was pretty impressed by my eating skills last week, so I think I’m being challenged – we’re going to a Peruvian restaurant and then a yakiniku nomihoudai – all you can eat seafood and meat, and there may be more after. Then, we’re headed to the park so that he can teach me caporeira. The next day, a good 10k run in the morning, an arts and crafts fair in Gotemba, and  then I return to check out a free language class in Numazu. In the evening, Shourinji Kempo; I’ve just started the martial art at a dojo nearby. Then come Sunday, there’s a festival over in Shimada (easily confused with Shimoda, which is just down the bottom of the Izu Peninsula, where I live), about 2 hours away. Near on a hundred traditionally dressed ladies will have their hair done in a style specific to Shimada, the “mage” style. I’mma check it out, come back, relax, and then the next day, one of my new friends, Yuuki, will be playing guitar at a local bar. I’m gonna go support him, and round off my national holiday on Monday with onsen, because Yuuki works at one.

This was inserted especially to make you jealous

And this pretty much rounds it off. Peace out, yo!