Golden Week begins Off to explore Narita temples, eels, and mom!

SO, during my only other time off here in Japan, I had the chicken pox and couldn't really leave my house until the end of the week. THIS time, I went full steam ahead into the fray!! I got off work at 7pm Saturday and by 11pm was already an hour outside of Tokyo in Goi eating out with one of my best friends here in Japan. I wasted NO time getting out of dodge! haha.

Sunday, we went to Narita. I have only ever thought of this place as "where the airport is." Oh how wrong I was. I was led unknowingly to a temple/shrine and it was important to get there before 11am, but I was not let in on WHY. Once the ceremony started I didn't even care. There were monks, bells, chanting, drums (oh the drums), fire, incense, and praying. I was enraptured. When it was finished I went outside, bought a charm of protection, and lit a candle for my cousin who recently passed away. Overall, I could have happily done nothing else that whole day, but it wasn't over. (Cool thing about the charm: there is wood inside, and it says it will protect you from accidents/troubles because if something happens that the wood will break so that you won't - I love that.)

Because we were on a mission to get to the ceremony at the shrine, I didn't have a chance to take pictures on the way up, so all of my pictures on the way down from the shrine instead of the way in like one might normally expect. :)

This is one of the buildings around the shrine (of which I actually didn't get a picture - weird).

I LOVE the details on the buildings... even the ends of the wood are carved and gilded.

Beautiful (and right in front of the main building!)

They have some amazing stone gardens and statues as you walk around the grounds. Stephen loved this one - so I got a picture of him taking pictures of it. :) The actual temple is in the background of this one too.
<------
Also, I loved the view of all the traditional buildings that line the road on the way up from the station.  I felt like I had been transported back in time at a couple spots. Until of course a car would zoom on the down the street next to you. haha.

The stairs were SOO steep it was amazing. There were lots of turtles that I was TOLD it was good luck to knock off the rocks with money, but I'm pretty sure that was a lie. The Buddhas were all dressed to impress and there were old style slippers that I found fascinating. I loved it.

After that adventure, we went to lunch at a little hole in the wall for eel. It was amazing, they had a bucket of live eels that this guy would just reach in, grab, and prep for cooking! Talk about melt-in-your-mouth fire-roasted eel and rice. After eating, I HAD to get a video of the process - and a couple of pictures.  (below)

Again - a day with just that would have been fantastic, but it wasn't over!! Next we made our way to the airport for Starbucks and people watching, and PICKING UP MY MOM! I Love my mom - So amazing to see her after 6 months apart, by far the longest we have ever gone. After a start like that, there's no way this week won't be great. :) Looking forward to it!

dinner at Raku Show always get the usual because it's awesome!

So, I was looking through pictures for my second "food installment" and I found a series of pics from a fairly normal dinner that I have with my co-worker Richard. 

About once a week (or so) one or the other of us will say - "so what are your plans tonight?" Meaning, I feel like having some beers and going to Raku Show (kind of sounds like 'rack shaw'). So more often then not we go! 

Japan has this thing called Nomihodai (all-you-can) which is where you pay a set amount $10-12 and you can drink as much of whatever you want off of a particular menu for 1 or 2 hours depending on the place. RS has a 1200 yen (about $12) - 2 hour Nomihodai...awesome! 

Since Richard has been a regular there for so long, we always get a little room, and they pop their head in and say hello and usually "nomihodai? two? beer? ok!"  In Japanese of course - haha. Then we look at the menu just in case there is something new and exciting and then order what we always order, with sometimes a little something extra - but the basics are below. I will not butcher the beautiful language and try to write it out in Japanese, but here's is what they are in English. :)

In no particular order...

Black vinegar (balsamic) fried chicken. MY FAVORITE THING. Also because I can eat the "salad" it comes on. :)

Gobo chips - I honestly don't know another word for these - they are a root vegetable of some sort and pretty darn good.

Ever thought about frying a piece of cheese wrapped in bacon on a stick?? YOU SHOULD!!!

Black sesame chicken wings - so delicious. They have spicy ones and "salt" ones too, but these are the best.

SO that's any given work night! Add some beer or sake (sometimes grapefruit sours) and you've got a good meal! Maybe sometime I'll do a drink post! haha... If you are hungry and/or jealous after all of that - you should be!! These are the treats I get in exchange for trying things like Kangaroo jerky and horse! :) 

More food to come....

wonderful dinner Japanese harp performance fun times with new friends

Monday I was invited over to a student's (N) house for dinner. She told me it was her Okoto (Japanese harp) teacher's birthday. They usually just celebrate birthdays together, but she wanted to invite me this time. Did I mention she is 72? And it was her teacher's 70th B-day? And that the Okoto teacher's husband is 73? Ah yes, they are in their 70's and SO fun!

I went over to N's house early to help her make dinner. Then she asked for my help getting dressed in her kimono. I didn't KNOW they were both going to be in their kimonos, and I felt distinctively under-dressed! haha. If you have never seen the process of getting into a kimono, it is QUITE the process - I was so impressed. She had asked for my help, but didn't really need me at all - she has it down to a science!

Before dinner, her Okoto teacher and her husband asked to perform for me. She plays the Okoto, and he plays a traditional type of flute. The piece was about Spring time and the tides coming in and out. I felt completely honored - next time N said she will play too. I guess they go around the world playing Okoto concerts (Italy, Sydney Opera House, San Fransisco, etc). They are completely amazing ladies.

Here is a terribly shot (and too short), but beautiful sounding clip of the Okoto teacher and her husband playing for N and I. :)

Dinner was wonderful, lots of different things to pick at, lots of wine and sake. N is a private lesson student of mine, and we just have free conversation to talk about anything we want. She knows I love cooking and has been teaching me about traditional Japanese foods. I love it.

Being the non-toaster-oven-user I am, I didn't even think about there being a "burner" on the top of the over and ended up burning the garlic bread - it was still tasty, but sigh, what a dumb impression to make. 

I also tried to channel my "Japanese spirit" and bought a little cake to take as a gift and birthday contribution. They seemed to like it. :) Turns out it was blueberry, but I had no idea. I just thought it looked nice.

All in all, I ended up being over there for about 6 or 7 hours, but it felt like no time at all. I taught them the term "kindred spirits" and they looked it up and thought I meant family. I had to explain that wasn't exactly what I was going for - but that I just loved being around them. :)

went out to dinner said I'd try anything once was that a mistake?

I have recently learned the term "food tourist" and realized with no shame that it describes me perfectly! I LOVE cooking and trying new foods, I am fearless (in theory) about trying new things, and recently have come head to head with a few things that have always stumped me in the past. Regardless, I will try anything, and I love taking pictures of it all. Food Tourist.

Some of these foods are things that I would not normally eat on principle, or squeamishness, but being in Japan, I have put all of that on the back burner and am trying everything. A couple of examples that I do NOT have pictures of include shark fin soup, and steak tartar (raw beef with raw egg yoke). Despite myself in most (if not all) of these cases, I have like and sometimes loved what I have tried. Who knew that roasted/grilled bones and cartilage would be tasty? Well, obviously someone or it wouldn't be on the menu right? haha... alright - here we go. This is my first installment of food related posts. :)

Some good, some weird, some just random things I seemed to think warranted a picture. :)

In America, that little ball of something would be butter - In Japan, panCAKES come with ice cream!

Diaphragm. I'm thinking we might call this skirt steak so as to not be so literal, but it is amazing whatever it's called!

My favorite way to eat gyutan! Traditionally served with ox tail soup and barley rice - I just like it grilled.

Basashi - raw horse meat. I wanted this one to be gross, but it was actually quite good.

I don't remember what these little guys are called, but they are tasty - AND this is one of my favorite pictures.

Sashimi - ALL kinds. We had already hit the tuna in the middle as you can see.  :)

This one made me nervous, but despite being a little chewy, it was pretty good. (Stingray)

Frog legs! A perfect mix (texture and taste) of chicken and fish. They were ok, but not my favorite.

went to "Sega Club" found the gamer-nerds Mecca only in Japan

This will be a short one, as it was really the end of the ramen shop post and I decided to just move it to it's own little space.

After going to ramen, we (my fellow trainees and I) went to Club Sega - which there are a lot of it turns out! It is four/five floors of video games, and game machines. Andy insisted on the basement which was called “The Battle Arena” and was filled completely with men and boys playing type of Street Fighter/fighting game Sega has ever put out I’m sure. I made a lap just to check, and it is official - I was THE only female there. Upstairs there were some girls playing on the grabber machines, but not ONE was downstairs. I can understand why!



By the way - in case you were worried, Sega is against both climbing on the games AND stealing children. Please note the warning poster --->.

One of the most random signs I’ve seen so far. And that is really saying something.