I tried to check my little red notebook to figure out when the next two photos were taken, but let's just say that it was sometime in the past week. My coworker and I went grocery shopping and then out to dinner where I tried soba noodles for the first time.
The soba noodles are cooked and cold in the basket. You take some with your chopsticks, dip them in the cold soup (with chives at the bottom of the photo) and then EAT THEM. So good. There was also a small bowl with rice and tempura veggies and shrimp- "temdom" I think. The rice bowl dish is called domburri in general, but when you put something on top the name changes to something specific. So a ricebowl with tempura is "temdom", with egg is "tamagodom" or beef is "gudom".
One happy customer.
Over dinner, my colleague asked if I had gotten everything I wanted at the grocery. There was actually another item on my list that I was a little afraid to ask about because I was sure it would be another "caffeine free coffee??!" or "egg whites only??!!" situation. But I'd really been wanting to make better coffee at home so this motivated me to ask.
"Make coffee with milk. Milk, use small machine (hand motions and whirring sound) to make milk fluffy." Fluffy? Frothy? Bubbly? Enter- electronic translators and a moment of understanding. What I wanted was a milk frother but it's a little difficult to describe when you have a limited English vocabulary to work with. But my colleague almost immediately knew what I was talking about and said that she had one in her closet that she had only used once. She said she would lend it to me during my stay in Japan. So nice. The next day she brought it to me in the office, and you can imagine what I made the next morning...
A beautiful, fluffy cappuccino. Since this day, I've switched from making coffee to matcha (green tea powder) lattes. I came across these in a coffee shop in a nearby train station. I can't remember why I ordered it... I must have had one before. But they are SO GOOD and the fluffy milk makes them unbelievably good. I'm still working on my technique but I'll have to take a photo because they look very strange. Bright green.
At work on Wednesday, my colleagues and I spent a few hours burning things in one of my favorite labs. I'm not sure that I should even post a photo so I'll just give you a confusing, vague description to go along with it.
Basically we burn things and then talk about how they burned, how they looked, what they smelled like (ha! okay not really but sometimes it stinks), all those fun things. I really enjoyed this experience and was so thankful for my colleagues' patience with answering my questions and indulging my many, many, many photos.
Thursday was a national holiday and I decided that I would try to relax as much as possible considering how busy everything had been. Of course, I did too much and was exhausted by the end of the day. But it started out well enough...
Skyping into small group! So SO fun and a big thank you to Alex for arranging the technical stuff. It was honestly so nice to see a bunch of familiar faces and hear everyone talking and laughing. I do miss my friends and my routine in Atlanta.
Look at those sweet smiling faces :)
Here's a cooking photo since it's been a while since I've posted one. I still cook a lot, it's just never anything very exciting or photo-worthy. Looks like I'm about to make a crab/spinach/onion/tomato omelette for breakfast!
On Friday, I headed into Osaka to meet with a few colleagues and visit customers. It was a really long day but I met a few colleagues for the first time and really enjoyed spending time with them. At the end of the day, they surprised me by planning dinner at Outback. So funny! I had no idea that Outback would be in Osaka.
Are you wondering if they still have blooming onions in Japan??
Because they do. My colleague ordered a bunch of different things and we just shared and grazed for a few hours (Japanese style). It was a nice ending for a really nice day. This was my first really Western chain restaurant experience while in Japan. I haven't even been to McDonald's yet!
On Saturday, I spent a few hours shopping and running errands around Ibaraki. Since I know this is what ya'll have been waiting for (probably not), here's a little taste of the beautiful Engrish that you can find all over Japanese clothing.
Most of the above photos are from baby clothing. So strange. So fantastic. I really wanted to buy a few of the tee shirts for Annabelle but I just couldn't see Rachel putting her in something that said "Skul bone, the presents to cool babies". I could be wrong, though.
Maybe I mentioned it last week but I'm trying to learn one of the Japanese alphabets, Katakana. A lot of imported words are written in Katakana and it's just an alphabet of sounds. So this character equals "fa" and another equals "ku" and so on. There's a bunch of Katakana used in advertising and on food packaging so I'm practicing reading it as much as I can. But it's slow going. I just need to get some flash cards and learn it Biology style.
Here's an example from the pet store in the Ibaraki mall.
This literally says "ro-n-go ko-to chi-wa-wa"
So you have to read the words, say it to yourself and then ask yourself what could this be translated to in English. Long-coat Chiwawa (or long-haired). It's actually pretty fun to figure things out. But I'm really slow right now and I still don't know the whole alphabet.
Guess who finally made it to Beard Papa's?? After church on Sunday in Osaka (which was really fun again, more new friends), I met my colleague for a movie at the Ibaraki mall. We went to see Sourcecode. However it took me until the opening credits to figure this out because the title had been translated to "Mission: Eight Minutes". Very tricky, Japan.
After the movie, we picked up supplies for dinner (and a pair of fresh'n natural cream puffs from Beard Papa's...) and headed to her house to cook. She cooked a really nice spread of Japanese dishes and we had a good time hanging out.
The night before, I had made plans with my German friend to meet up for Nepalese food in Osaka. My colleague also came along for this. She was really nervous about her English speaking abilities but luckily my German friend has been in Osaka for seven months so we were all able to talk pretty easily. And the Nepalese food was AMAZING. But this is coming from someone who's favorite food is probably Indian and the two cuisines seem very similar.
This week, I'm heading into Osaka almost every day to meet with colleagues and then either attend customer meetings or something similar. On Monday, I traveled around Osaka with colleagues that I had just met the previous Friday. We had lunch at a really nice Japanese restaurant up on the top floor of a hotel in south Osaka.
Looks like Japan is ready for Christmas!
This was a diagram identifying the sights from our view at the restaurant.
Sushi for everybody. So good.
Dessert was a bowl of bitter matcha (green) tea and two little squares of sweets made from sweet potato. You were supposed to sip the tea and then take a bite of the sweets to even out the bitterness. Really nice.
Here's an example of when blister prevention outweighs any kind of desire for my wardrobe to match or look good. I knew that we'd be doing a lot of walking and these shoes feel like they'd hurt my feet after a long day. So the easiest solution was for me just to wear socks with my flats.
Yes, you are seeing black pants, black and gray argyle socks and navy shoes. I love Japan because no one cares and there will always be another person on the train wearing something more strange.
During another shopping experience, I got a better tutorial on how to handle the face bag. Helpful.
AND here's my first contribution to the Japanese Engrish industry. It says "Sweet smile, happy stroll road". I didn't want to get too crazy too soon so I think this is a good safe tee shirt to start with. Hopefully I'll be adding more to my collection over the next few weeks.
Today's lunch was another first. Handmade (right in front of us!) udon noodles in a curry sauce. With a side of tempura pumpkin (love). So good. Soooo good.
During another trip today with coworkers, we stopped at a convenience store where I quickly zeroed in on this awesome hot drink vending machine. It made me a perfect little matcha latte on the spot. Another reason that I love Japan.
I thought I'd end with a little view of my apartment for the past week. When I'm busy and stressed, it is immediately reflected in my living space. So tonight after I got home from work, I spent a few minutes cleaning up while dinner cooked on my baby stove in my little frying pan. Things are much more organized now and not quite so hectic. The next two weeks are going to be really busy as I'm going back and forth to Osaka every day this week (which means early mornings and late nights), sightseeing with colleagues both days of the weekend and all the while preparing for my boss' visit on Monday and Tuesday of next week. Ridiculous. But I'm still enjoying the adventure even in all of the rush :)
Awkward moments: Standing outside of my apartment before work, I was about to ride my bike for the first time in a week or so. I absolutely could not get the kickstand to go up. I think I convinced myself that because it had rained and I hadn't used my bike in a few days, the kickstand must have been rusted stuck. I was pushing on it and kicking it and was about to give up when I looked up and made eye contact with a man across the street. I guess my helplessness was evident because he walked over, said some words in Japanese, and easily moved this little lever that I'd never noticed before that moment and then pushed my kickstand back. Apparently my bike has a kickstand lock that would prevent your bike from falling over if the kickstand came loose or something. Thank you, kind stranger.
Exciting things: You guys know that I've been playing outside at "recess" (after lunch) and have been the only girl. Well on Friday I invited some of my lady coworkers to join. They came and I think they really liked it! Some were playing catch and some were batting. I also found out that our office is having an organized "ground golf" tournament this week and next, kind of like mini golf. Apparently I've been drafted as the pinch hitter. So fun.
I found a gift for one of my coworkers that I'm really excited about. I'm not going to tell you what it is because I know some colleagues read this blog but it involved me talking to sales staff at a shop and going back to pick it up a week later. So a win for the whole living in Japan personal challenge issue.
Skyping with small group and some other friends. Calling Mom and Dad over the weekend even just to talk for a few minutes. So nice. OH and I found out the old adventure van has finally found it's resting place in a junkyard. So sad but so happy that it's over and done. For those of you that have no idea what the adventure van is, it was my first vehicle and the one that I drove in highschool. So many good memories.
Words: At a restaurant, you yell to get the wait staff's attention. Instead of the waiter just coming to you. You say "sumimasen" which means something like "excuse me" but when in a restaurant you leave off the "m" so it just sounds like "suimasen". I haven't done this yet but maybe one day. "Mizu" is water. "To" like toh is and. "Nande?" or "doshite?" is why. "Koko doko?" is where am I or what is this place. "Nanji?" is what time is it. "Kakoe" is the way to describe good looking guy. This may or may not have come up during a discussion with a coworker about Robert Pattinson.
Mom, please tell me if there are typos because I put this together pretty fast :) Love you!
I just love reading these.
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