A Fun Weekend in Kamogawa

The weekend time is the best time here in Kamogawa. Not because I'm off on weekends (work is amazing!), but because EVERYBODY else is off haha. It allows for lots of shenanigans and a little bit of alcohol~ This weekend in particular started off with some dinner and chats as Chris' girlfriend just returned from Korea. Went to this place next to Kappa Zushi... called Matsumoto? I think thats the name of the place. Large portions and a good price, how could I say no? I ended up ordering but a kimchi which is pork stir fried with kimchi. I love kimchi, but this dish almost had a mabo tofu type feel to it, not what I was used to, but still good nonetheless. Afterwards we got some brewskis and headed to the main hub in Kamo, aka Chris' launchpad haha and got down on some chats and drinks. The rest of the crew came over and the shenanigans began. Someone brought up Super Smash Bros and I said oh lets play a game and bet drinks! Now Chris being basically a pro-smasher gladly accepted the challenge. Then began the 3 on 1 match of Zach, Max, and I against Chris in a 3 stock no item match. Now I had been doing a lot of trash talking, which usually works in league of legends, however here it didn't help me at all as we got our butts served on top of a big bowl of rice. I thought for sure my suicide Kirby trick would've worked... but I couldn't even vacuum him >_< So the penalty portion began and the 4L bottle of vodka came out (I think it was vodka... or hair spray... I couldn't tell). After the shots everyone was aa little loosened up so the fun migrated over to a little bar called Oahu and then into karaoke~ There, we sang till our hearts were content and closed out the night on a high note (the punsss!).

The mabo tofu style buta kimchi.  

 Let the hunger games begin!!!

I've never seen a man more content with victory in my life HAHA

We didn't stand a chance... next time we will be victorious! 

 HAHA I wasn't originally going to include this picture, 

but Chris makes some damn funny expressions. 

So much fun tonight~ 10/10 would do it all over again!

A Week of Food

I've been super lagging and have a bunch of pics to dump LOL. The week was a good week of speech practice with the kids. Some cuts had to be made (like Master Chef style) and some kids were cut from the team :( It was a very hard thing to do and I hope the kids don't get too sad because they were all great and have tons of potential. There is a limit of 1 student per school for each grade so it can't be helped. Next time though... I hope they will try again next time. All things set aside, the week was fun and I saw much improvement in the speech deliveries and I was very happy to be a part of it. The school week is beginning next week and preparations for sports festival are underway. The kids compete fiercely in groups of 5 different colors. Who will be the final victor... but I'll get more into that as the even nears~

 Bakin, the best place in Kamogawa (so far!) to get your ultimate ramen fix. Now you may be thinking, "Hey, it's just normal chashu ramen!" right? But behold the chashu that was sliced and then grilled again for extra flavour! This is the minami-boso style ramen (the area kamogawa is in) and it also has seafood as well. A must try dish!

 Dinner was pretty plain today, however the height of excitement lies in the hamburg! It came pre-packaged and all you have to do is microwave it. This particular one was quite disappointing as it literally tasted like a mushy piece of cardboard :( but I promise they are usually good! Just don't be cheap and by the lowest price one haha. If I learned one thing in Japan so far, don't buy the cheapest anything and just grab the next one up, because it will probably taste 9000x better LOL.

 My fail attempt at a parfait in Japan :( my first one, but I had trouble finding basically everything LOL. I couldn't get sliced raw almonds and had to chop them myself (which gets quite annoying as they shoot off like rockets every time you cut them). I also had trouble finding berries and ended up with kiwi and orange, which was good, but just lacked the overpowering sweetness needed to fight the plain yogurt flavour. I prefer greek yogurt as well, but due to it being super expensive or hard to find, I just settled with normal plain yogurt. I'd give it a 5/10 LOL but I'll try again next time~

 Still hunting for that perfect cafe, however the cafe in the Aeon mall is pretty nice. Good ambiance and very nice lattes and delicious desserts. It just lacks the proper hours to support my nighttime active lifestyle. 

 An amazing person at my work (Thank you Katou-sensei!) gave me this gigantic shrimp! I had a small idea of what to make with it, but no clear plan. Then it came to me! BUDAE JJIGAE!! So, I gathered up the million ingredients to make a fine soup out of this exquisite shrimp and went to work. I put them all in a mixing bowl with some custom sauce and prepared the nabe pot for some strong simmering work.

 The end product was quite delicious and bubbled puffs of mouth-watering scents into my apartment. I couldn't wait to taste this bad boy!

 Here it is ready to eat! It's a shame that I had to eat alone because this is definitely a dish to share. I will try to meet more people and hopefully we can turn cooking into a possible monthly/weekly event? Cooking is fun, but the best part is sharing with others. The taste and the look doesn't matter, only the hard work that goes into it~

 During the tail end of the week, Max drove us to work so I got to do a little sight seeing while on the ride in. The Doge right here is just chilling in front of the house... I want one >_<

 Another big news! Remember the little photo shoot Max and I had at the Mayor's office? Well here is the result! We made it into the September newspaper in Kamogawa whoop whoop!

 Without any reason I slept early the night before and woke up early with a huge appetite. I can't remember if I skipped dinner or not the night before, but I found myself wanting to eat everything the next morning. I was too lazy to make a bunch of nigiri, so I just made sushi rice and sliced the fish and dabbed a ball of wasabi onto each one. Together with some pour-over coffee and the ultimate breakfast was complete!

 It goes without saying that an ultimate breakfast would not be complete without an ultimate dinner right? I had been craving the spicy spinach soup that my mom often made at home. It used to sit around the house for days until I would eat it, but the craving for that soup tonight was strong. So I grabbed some spinach from the store along with many other ingredients and set out for another feast.

 Finished product again! Another delicious soup with tons of dark green veggies. I felt healthier just looking at it HAHA. The taste was amazing and gave me at least -100 points to my homesickness stat~ The kiwis here are quite large and I thought its be a nice accompaniment~ 

 No driving for meee~ So time for a quick mirror selfie HAHA

 I got to take many pics of the nice surrounding on the way in to work. The typhoon season is upon us and has been giving some muggy looking weather, however the cool air was much appreciated. 

Found an interesting new hobby by the end of this week as well. I tried to catch a little bit of water life by using the body board my predecessor left me, however the time after was even more relaxing. I sat on the beach and snacked out while reading Walden Two (a fictional novel about a man-made utopia written by B.F. Skinner). It was a most relaxing end to an easy-going week~

Festival in Kamogawa!

Today was the day! The Shikinen Torii Gihikisai festival was beginning and will last 3 days as they parade around the neighbouring Amatsu area with a tree from which the Torii (temple shrine gate) was made from. They will also of course have tons of delicious food stalls and entertainment. The best part is, ITS FREE! Or at least I think it was. I happened to enter from some sort of back entrance I think, but no one bothered to stop me... so it must've been okay! I finally got to wear the yukata I purchased last week in preparation for the festival. My first time wearing a yukata was in Odaiba in 2011 for the onset attraction they had there (which I must definitely visit this year), but this is the first time I have owned a yukata and put it on all by myself (I had to tie the obi myself which was difficult). Before the festival started, I took a quick (quick-ish) trip to Chiba city which is about 2 hours away to pick up my friend Yu-chan. Yu-chan was coming from Tokyo to see the festival as well~ 

 The signs of an incoming typhoon as the waves start kicking up fiercely...

not a good day for a surf, but amazing to watch!

 Quick mocha stop at Beck's inside Chiba city train station. This station is quite large as it connects not only Chiba to Tokyo, but also to places like Narita international airport. 

 All about that yukata life! It felt really cool to wear this although not many people were wearing yukata at the festival haha.

 I'm not sure where they giant tree they were supposed to be carrying around was, but when we arrived at the festival, there were taiko drummers inside this shrine and another large shrine was on its way in after it was paraded around the town. 

 This is the second shrine, the one they carried around town. I didn't see a large piece of tree anywhere, but there were young saplings, so maybe they are the new trees to be used? Not sure, but it looked heavy and peoples were carrying it around the city haha (good thing everyone in Kamogawa is super buff LOL)

The night was finished off (for me anyway) by this incredible singer. He had a TON of different wigs and outfits and would sing different styles of music (I am sure they were famous people, but I only recognised two of the songs)

Chiba Orientation

Being a newly hatched English teacher, some training was in order. Not purely about teaching, but living in Japan as well. Went to Chiba tonight to get a crash course in life in Japan. I learned a lot about silly laws (riding your bike after drinking any amount of alcohol is highly illegal and is likely to cost you about $10,000 and a swift kick in the groin). The orientation was a great learning experience and I got to meet many new peoples. Also there was a 9 course dinner and 飲み補題 (nomihodai, or all-you-can-drink) which are a must for any new visitor to Japan. At my table, I was the only one who ordered beer so I more or less got a whole pitcher to myself which was amazing. On top of that I filled up with ginger beers, which just snuck there way in between the glasses of beer.

These type of interesting conversations happen daily with my friends... you know, about 11 fingered people paying more for manicures and such...

 I also found out about this new song from my good friend Michi and I have seriously had it on repeat all day long. Its not only catchy, but the lyrics flow so smoothly. Check out this song!!! Its the song called "Silhouette" by Kana-Boon.

 More Retrogaijin action and my first time of shoga-yaki (a pork dish flavoured with Japanese ginger). Had to have some yakisoba as well, because I'm a carb fiend haha. 

The other night at Chris' house with Ayaka and her friends I found out about this gem. I was so upset when I was leaving Vegas because my first chance to see Big Bang was on Aug. 24th but I had been contracted to go to Japan. Then all of a sudden I found one of Ayaka's friends also loves Big Bang!!! She told me about the next concert that is coming to Tokyo and you bet your left cheek (and I aint talking face) that I'll be going. Not that bad of a price either!

Interwebs is here!!!

So today I received my much longgg awaited visit from the very generous people from NTT to get my internet installed. No, this is not normal internet... because apparently everybody gets finer internet in Japan! Its called Flet's Hikari (hikari meaning light in Japanese of course) and is insanely fast. Now setting it up wasn't easy, but luckily the guy that came to do the installation was very nice and after he finished the installation he asked if I have a CD-ROM drive to set the net up. Naturally the new Mac attack doesn't have one -_- or even an ethernet port (thanks for leaving accessories as extras Apple), so I thought I was screwed >_< but then I suggested using the router and the NTT guy GAVE me an ethernet cable he had ( I couldn't find mine, I swear I brought it). After about 30 mins of waiting for my time capsule to update and finally figuring out the PPPoe stuff needed for net, I was online and ready to go. The speed, was, incredible!

Could it have gone faster? Probably as this was the Wifi speed. I swear the test download file finished before it could max... I feel like it goes faster. I was finally online and ready to enjoy some blazing fast net. Another English teacher here is a very popular streamer in Kamogawa and broadcasts a variety of games with amazing commentary. He is the "RetroGaijin" and you should definitely check it out when you have free time.

Also I had free time to study for work and I ended up studying Japanese... or rather doodling haha. Currently lacking the proper materials so I got bored pretty fast...

Meeting the Mayor

Today was quite the adventure in Kamogawa. It's the first time I saw an actual heavy rain storm! It was pouring for long periods and then everything would be calm for a moment... which was then followed with torrential flows from the heavens once again.  It was quite the amazing site and perfect for the first visit to the Mayor of Kamogawa. I arrived to city hall with Max (another new English teacher) and ventured to the top floor where the two of us waited for the master of ceremonies. Everyone seemed quite busy in the office, however as soon as the mayor arrived, everyone's speed intensified O_O everyone began moving quickly and the tension grew thick. As we waited outside the mayor's door, the nervous feeling inside me grew, but I paused and thought to myself, "we are all just humans right?" and I began to feel relaxed. Upon our summoning, Max and I entered the mayor's office which was very tidy and organised. The mayor greeted us and we began with our normal introductions. The introductions then turned into wonderful small talk. The mayor was an extremely nice guy with a charismatic personality and a great sense of Kamogawa pride. He is a man to look up to and a proper leader for this beautiful city. The mayor bestowed the two of us with Taiyou-kun pins, which we pinned to our suits right away. Then the mini photoshoot began as we prepared a special pic for next month's city newspaper. This was an incredible experience. After returning home from this special day, I decided to cook some food and head over to Chris' house to relax and chat. Chris' girlfriend happened to be up with some friends and we all chatted throughout the night and I couldn't think of a better way to end this night.

 The weather was quite dreary today, but the cool air was so nice and the smell of fresh rain...

ahhh~ who doesn't enjoy that~

 Still on the search for a nice cafe, have yet to find a great one, however I have found a nice one and it is a nice place to have a dessert. I suppose I am searching for someplace similar to the Korean cafe I frequented a lot in Las Vegas. It was open until 2am and had Korean cafe music... I miss it :(

Pre-dinner before drinking dinner :D

And of course pre-dessert as well.

Naturally because this is Japan, there are many Skylines driving around

#DailyDriver

Food Heaven

I have to admit that maintaining a blog can sometimes be difficult. Not that there is a lack of time, but  admittedly I'm just a lazy person haha. However, I will try to back track things when I can. The magic of the iPhone is that not only does it tell you when every picture was taken, but also the date it was taken. My memory cannot handle things like dates and time... or even what I've done. Curse you goldfish memory!!! Today, I the cooking adventure continues. I made some yakisoba using these fairly awful sausages. I went shopping not too long and and I bought some sausages that were roughly the same price as the ones I normally buy, however the bag was twice the size! Also, Twice the disappointment... Luckily for me, the flavours inherently in yakisoba overpowered the "cheap meat" taste and allowed a pretty decent meal. That paired with some Korean radish soup (무국) and a nice meal was set.

After this meal it was straight into round two of the at home foodie fest! The great thing about Japan (or maybe its a Kamogawa thing?) is that you can easily acquire cheap and delicious fish that is perfect for sushi! The slice of salmon I bought cost about 300円 (roughly $2.50) and was transformed into 16 pieces of salmon nigiri. This could've easily cost about $32 back home. Some cuts come out imperfect, but thats what salmon ochazuke (rice with green tea and salmon) is for. I had went shopping that day and bought so many different foods, but the problem was that I also wanted to eat them all as well. So I ended up cooking everything and eating it all >_< #fattylife. The lemon parsley sausages on a bed of onions were so good and assisted with the ingestion of an entire onion...lol. Pizza toast wasn't necessary, but how could I say know to pizza that is already made and literally takes 3 minutes in the toaster oven!? The pizza toast was so cheap too at a rate of 200円 for 4 pieces (although I'd have to admit that the 1 slice of ham and 1 slice of pepperoni-shaped ham was not too exciting).

Although I was supposed to sleep early because I am to meet the mayor of Kamogawa tomorrow (which is a huge deal!), I couldn't help but stay awake and gain 3kg...

My First Yukata

Next week Kamogawa is having a huge Matsuri (festival) in central Amatsu and I was told that this festival comes only once every 20 years!!! The festival is called the "Shikinen Torii Gihikisai" and is part of the rebuilding schedule of a major shrine. Instead of building shrines out of eternally lasting materials such as stone or metal, It is common to use natural wood in Japan. This is is an incredible sight as it allows the passage of traditional Japanese crafts down to future generations. The rebuilding of the shrine is never skipped and it gives people a great reason to celebrate! The meaning of this particular part of the festival involves rebuilding the "Torii" or shrine gate and for 3 days, the community in Kamogawa will carry around the tree that this Torii was made from all over town. I feel so lucky to be in Kamogawa at this time and I am going to take this festival as an opportunity to take a big step forward in Japanese culture immersion. Its coming up this weekend! Are you ready!?

The festival that comes once every 20 years is here! 

Come to Kamogawa and experience the fun and excitement!

Still in Tokyo, I decided to visit Ameyokocho before I return home and scope out the yukata market (Traditional Japanese matsuri outfit). I visited many small shops before deciding on this amazing purple yukata. The older lady at the shop was very helpful and showed me many yukatas and even helped me try them on! I asked this sweet old lady for her opinion and she gave me very honest answers and told me that some didn't look that good on me. We then found "the one" and she said it looked sutekiiii (wonderful!) and matched it with the perfect obi (belt)! I couldn't wait to put everything on, but I had planned one last dinner before coming home so I had to make haste. I went to grab a final meal with Yu-chan at this small pizza joint in Akasaka. On the way there, I saw stairs.... with a screen embedded inside of it O_O and I also saw a huge outdoor concert that appeared to be by the TV company TBS. They even had an idol group performing, just out in the open in front of Asakasa station... on a normal day - amazing! The pizza place had many traditional Italian flavoured pizzas and we ended up settling for the Genovese pizza (a pesto flavour) and a Gorgonzola pizza (this is a unique cheese and is very delicious). They gave us a small side of honey for the Gorgonzola pizza, which I found quite strange until i tried it on top of the pizza and my mind was instantly blown. It was so delicious and I couldn't believe that it was only like 700Y (about $6 USD). This trip was eventful and I returned home with a full belly and a new yukata. I was so excited so I tried it on as soon as I arrived home~ (Took a while to figure the obi out... but as long as there is youtube, there is a way!)

What is this sorcery...or why is it even there LOL

TBS girls performing right in front of the station!

Pizza time!!! Genovese and Gorgonzola with honey OMG 

Can't wait until the festival comes!!!

Comiket!!!

I came in to Tokyo this weekend for the sole purpose of attending Comiket (my friend was working there and invited me :) yay!). So yesterday, Kenji and I decided (after many beers) that we should go to Comiket together! Comiket is a manga convention in Tokyo where they sell many different fan fictions of popular anime/manga. Although I have been out of the anime and manga seen for a while, it sounded like lots of fun and I was excited to see the cosplayers (there must be some right!?). Kenji and I decided on going at 12 noon (which we both knew would be around 1ish) so in the morning I went to grab lunch with Yu-chan. We traveled to Shiodome in hopes of eating dim sum at Din Tai Fung (this place has the number one reviews in the Los Angeles Yelp, but I've never tried it >_<), but the line was out the door and... well... we were both hungry of course! Walking around in the building full of restauraunts, Yu-chan and I decided on this very Japaneezy looking restaurant (Yu actually found it haha) and we stepped inside. As always, we were greeted with the greatest politeness and sat down by this a-mazinggg bar (not alcohol bar :o). From there I ordered this incredible dish called Shoga-yaki (shoga is ginger and yak is something grilled, in this case pork) and after the first bite I thought I had died and gone to heaven. The perfectly cooked meat and the delicate taste of ginger set of fireworks in my head... I must cook you (one day :o).

Sights and sounds for lunch~

Shoga-yaki... just OMG

After a super satisfying meal, it was time for the Comiket, which was hosted at Tokyo Big Site (most adequately named). Upon arrival, the sea of people engulfed us as there were thousands of people swarming the area. True to Japanese nature, everything was neatly ordered and the traffic was smooth. I saw only  few cosplayers on the way in, which was disappointing, but soon after Kenji and I met up with Michi, we found our way behind the manga section and stepped into cosplayer paradise! There we saw a group go girls that cosplayed a full guy group (a spectacular sight) and immediately after seeing son-goku, I recognised that it was Saiyuki (a blast from the past). I watched that anime when I was a young lad still haha. They were very generous and took a pic together with Kenji and I! 

 Tokyo Big Site

 The all-female cast of Saiyuki!!! Well-done!

The cosplayers all worked very hard (super hot day)

The yoyo man was putting on one heck of a show. We got sucked in for at least 20 minutes watching the plethora of antics this clever man had to show. Even with the little Japanese I know, I was able to understand some of his jokes and I was just cracking' up the whole time!

Afterwards we took the train to find something to do afterwards and I looked down and did one of those double-takes (look... and then look again O_O). This is what I saw...

The toe placement is something incredible Kenji...

I've always said that Kenji is neither Japanese or American, he is just Kenji haha and it's moments like these that confirm my hypothesis. It was a great laugh for the train ride haha. To be fair, he did mention that always wearing them hurts his toes, so he just switches it sometimes... but still haha. Not sure what to do, we made way for Shibuya (my favourite place in Japan!!) and took a rest in a karaoke-kan. They have a pretty good deal before 7 and it ends up being like 160Y per person? something like that... but anyways it was worth every yen! The karaoke in Japan is something incredible and the rooms come fully decked out with ample seating, pleasant lighting, and a magic phone that you just say "beer" into and a few mins later beer comes to your room!

Getting beer with your karaoke pretty much happens like this... It was like a magic O_O

Not wanting the night to end after karaoke, we decided to get some good eats at an izakaya nearby the karaoke-kan. The food was delicious as always and we even tried a mentai-jyagaimo pizza (Mentaiko is a marinated cod fish egg paste stuff and jyagaimo is potato). Let me tell you, if you've never had either of those on a pizza... your whole life has been a lie haha just kidding, but in all seriousness, I could easily put down 2-3 of those pizzas alone...

 Kenji always gets quite excited at the site of beer, as do I ^^

The "Rock-n-Shibuya" crew!

All and all a great night which ended with a short detour to the arcade in Akihabara on the way home. The arcades in Japan are insane! They have like 5-7 stories on average and its just packed with all of the newest high-tech games that sadly never make it stateside (I have no idea why because they are amazing!). Time now to rest up and prepare for tomorrow's return journey to my wonderful seaside town of Kamogawa~