Picking up from where I left off last week, I headed into Osaka again on Wednesday to meet up with a colleague and head to some international standardization committee meetings. It sounds fun, right?
Matcha tea latte in a Starbucks holiday cup. Sipping on this and looking out over Osaka while hearing Jingle Bell Rock over the Starbucks speakers made me very happy :) It almost felt like NYC with all the decorated storefronts and windows. More on this later. Can you tell that I'm addicted to these matcha lattes? I Googled them and found lots of really negative reviews from the US. Maybe Starbucks debuted these in the US stores and received some not so great reactions? I'll check the Starbucks in Atlanta when I get back home to see if they make them.
After a really nice day of protective apparel standard meetings and tours, the committee held a dinner for the members and guests. There were representatives from all over the world so I actually got to chat with people I'd met before in the American standardization organizations. I love asking foreigners about their impression of Japan and the experiences that they've had here. Everyone seems to have a different perception and it's really fun to hear lots of different perspectives. Most business travelers have very little time to do anything besides working and having dinner with colleagues and unfortunately this was also the case for most foreigners at this meeting. After staying in Japan for over a month (!), I just want everyone to be able to have the same experience and spend a little more time observing and absorbing the culture here.
Dinner was at an okonomiyaki restaurant in the Namba area of Osaka. We took a big charter bus to the restaurant and spent a few hours eating and drinking. Over the course of the night, we had teppanyaki (like what a chef makes at a Japanese steakhouse), sashimi, okonomiyaki, and citrus flavored ice cream. This was my first time trying okonomiyaki and I'm still not exactly sure what it is. It's similar to takoyaki which I tried from a street vendor in Osaka- but it's basically some combination of batter, vegetables and meat. It's shaped kind of like a pizza and is usually piled with dried fish shavings, dried seaweed (sprinkles?) and then covered in some kind of sauce or mayo. The above photo is seafood teppanyaki- scallops, shrimp and octopus.
Okonomiyaki. Really, really good. Oh and egg. There's also egg in there.
After dinner, a colleague and I took the train together since we were both headed in the same direction. She warned me about keeping my bag closed on the train and said I should take a taxi back to my apartment instead of the bus. Japan is really safe when it comes to crime and it's easy to let your guard down, but it's good to have a reminder to use common sense when it comes to stuff like that.
The next day I didn't have meetings in Osaka until the afternoon so I spent the morning catching up on emails and getting things done around my apartment. Somehow, I still ended up rushing out the door at the last minute. This is almost always how it goes with me for some reason. So if you're ever coming to my house to meet me to go somewhere, most likely five minutes before you arrive I'll still be in my pj's holding a curling iron in my hair. I like to get ready slowly over the course of a morning and like getting dressed to be the last thing that happens. I may or may not also have been Skyping with Hannah until the last possible moment. The last possible moment being exactly seven minutes before the bus is scheduled to come at the nearest bus stop. One day I actually made it in four minutes, but that was with some light jogging and perfect stoplight timing.
I did have the foresight to cook some lunch before I headed to Osaka. But with my impeccable planning, I didn't leave time to actually eat lunch. So within ten minutes of boarding a bus that would take me to the train station, I grabbed a used coffee cup out of my trash and heaped in a few spoonfuls of lunch. I also grabbed a pair of wooden chopsticks from my stash that I purchased for making caramel apples.
Homemade lunch, to-go, on the bus. Soba noodles, hijiki (brown seaweed), egg and some veggies in some kind of sauce. Obviously, I made the bus. I may have had to do a little light jogging in my dress.
As a way to practice reading Katakana, I'm constantly trying to read every sign that I pass. This one was posted outside of a coffee shop and was advertising beans from around the world. I was really excited to understand "American" and "Italian" at the top. Literally, a-me-ri-ka-n and i-ta-ri-ya-n.
This week and last I'd been traveling with colleagues from our different offices. One thing that has been really funny to me is how news seems to travel within and even between the offices. Whenever I'm traveling between cities or to see customers, my colleagues tend to ask me really frequently if I need to use the restroom. Now, I've never been one to turn down the opportunity to use a good bathroom so I never really gave this much thought. But after experiencing this week of travel, I have a new hypothesis on this constant offering of the restrooms.
I was in the car with a colleague and our customer, who was driving us to visit fire stations around Osaka. My colleague asked me what I wanted for lunch and then quickly said, "Don't worry, I already told him (the customer who was driving) that you don't like olives!" Now, while it is true that I don't really care for olives, I could only remember maybe one instance of sharing this little detail of information with someone in Japan. And I knew that it definitely wasn't the colleague that was with me on that day. So I just started laughing and asked him, "WHO told you that I don't like olives??" I never got a straight answer but suffice it to say, this proves my theory of the interoffice chatter that takes place in Japan.
Immediately, my colleagues' insistence on regular bathroom breaks made complete sense. During my first trip to Japan, I was basically traveling to a different location every day and spending a lot of time in train stations and generally in-transit from place to place. In Japan, most public bathrooms have Western style (regular toilet seat) stalls along with the common Japanese style (remember this from our park tour?) Well during my first trip, we were traveling through a lot of smaller towns and many of the bathrooms that I encountered only had the Japanese style toilets. I don't mind using them but on that trip I was wearing a suit the whole time and let's just say that it's a little more complicated for me to use this other style. So it would not be uncommon for me to duck into a restroom in one train station, only to come back out a minute later. Then after I spotted another restroom, maybe fifteen minutes later, I'd try that one. Since it was difficult to explain this whole situation to my colleague that I was traveling with, I just didn't say anything and I guess he came to understand that I just needed to use the restroom. A LOT. So combining this experience with my chatter theory, I can safely assume that all of my colleagues in all of our offices here think that I have some kind of unusual bathroom issue or maybe just an over the top fascination with Japanese restrooms.
There are quite a few examples of this whole telling one person something and then hearing it from someone in a totally different office or department. It's probably just a product of being the foreign guest but it's definitely funny. This phenomena is also currently playing a role in the spread of my Japanese coworker blog readership. I'll probably hear about this on Monday.
From someone in a completely different department.
On Friday I took the Shinkansen to Tokyo for a meeting. I ended up being in Tokyo for around two hours and on the Shinkansen for around five. But lucky for me, I love the solitary quiet that comes with riding long distance trains in Japan and really enjoyed this relaxing day. Breakfast may have been a matcha latte and some snacks from Starbucks.
The matcha latte love has made it into my apartment. So good. I probably make one of these everyday. Also pictured is a dish of soba noodle and vegetable (pumpkin! kabocha!) stir fry leftovers.
More Engrish nonsense. This time on clothing hangtags! Love it.
Over one month in Japan and I just finally got an Osaka train map in English.
Remember I told you about trying natto a few weeks ago? Well I bought a little tub of it at the grocery store but never really figured out how to eat it at home. When I tried it for the first time at a sushi restaurant, it was served with raw slices of tuna. My colleagues also told me that it's commonly eaten on rice for breakfast. Since I don't make rice at home and don't buy sashimi all that often, I went to the internet for help. Natto is fermented soybeans so it kind of has a similar smell to strong cheeses like bleu and a beany/nutty flavor. I decided to treat it kind of like a stinky cheese and eat it on apple slices. So this is one of my favorite snacks now. The natto has a strong flavor and I think goes really well with apple. Maybe pear would be even better? So if you can get over the weird texture, smell and taste, please give natto a try. Ha.
Look who came to visit my apartment! And no, this is not a Snuggie, I already asked. Apparently it's cold in Seattle?? Who knew.
Something I've been wanting to do since I got to Japan is to spend time sightseeing in my "hometown" of Ibaraki. I spend most of my time here but haven't really spent much time leisurely walking around and checking out the different markets and shops. I finally had a chance to do this last weekend and really enjoyed this relaxed Saturday morning.
Covered shopping market. This style is really common in Japan and I've seen it in a lot of different cities.
I wasn't sure if I could walk into this area so instead I just kept my distance and took creepy telephoto pictures of the cute little kids. But I later asked my coworker and he said that this is a public shrine (not sure if this is the right term) so next time I'm in the area, I'll go in and have a look around.
I came across this flea market setup on a public sports field and may have found a super cute dress for AB. Sadly, I still haven't found a stash of amazing used Engrish tee shirts that I'm hoping exist for despite checking multiple "recycle" shops. They have to be hiding somewhere.
This... makes me want to mail a letter??
I would have posed with these but didn't have anyone to take my photo. Next time I'll just ask a stranger. Right.
After my sightseeing tour of Ibaraki, I headed to Osaka to run a few errands and meet up with friends for dinner.
Looks like Osaka is in the mood for Christmas!
We passed this shop on the way to finding dinner. I love these old buildings and this one was especially magical at night.
Curry and naan. Possibly my favorite food combination of LIFE. This was my second time at this Nepalese restaurant in Osaka. I'm forever indebted to my Osakan/German friend for introducing me to it.
On Sunday morning, I met my colleagues at the office and we piled into one car to go see our company softball team play! I took so many photos (imagine that) but here are a few of my favorites:
Okay this guy was obviously on the other team but he gets the award for best hair. I was making mean faces at him with my lady coworkers because he was yelling things like "slow pitch!" and making ugly noises at our team. Funny how you can tell that someone is being ugly even when you can't understand a word they say.
A dispute.
After the softball game, we piled back into the car and headed to lunch at a rice bowl fast food restaurant called Yoshinoya. And I just learned that there are apparently restaurants in the US??! Why is there one in Dallas and not in Atlanta? Who eats Japanese food in Texas??
At Yoshinoya, you can get delicious rice bowls with thin sliced beef plus miso soup and some veggies for under 500 yen. So cheap. So good. I may have already been to a second location in the past week. After Yoshinoya, we got back in the car for a long drive to Nara for sightseeing. I may have fallen asleep. But not long enough to miss a sighting out the window of Universal Studios Japan!
Nara is famous for its shrines, temples and deer. There are deer everywhere and they're really domesticated from being fed by all the tourists over the years. There are lots just laying around or walking through the crowds of people. A very strange sight.
Also note the great Engrish on the girl's sweatshirt in this photo.
In the middle of our trip, I was getting hungry. Being the perpetual snacker that I am and generally disliking the feeling of being hungry, I usually have some kind of snack food with me. On this day, it happened to be an apple. Well I'm not sure if it's a universal fact, but apparently the deer in Nara really like apples. About two seconds after I took the first bite, I felt a soft nose nudging me in the back of my leg. The same nose then started pushing into my bag and trying to find the source of what I guessed to be a sweet smell coming from the apple. After I turned my back to the deer and blocked the apple in my hand with my body, I felt a short but firm bite on the back of my leg. I'm sure my little scream surprised all of my coworkers as I quickly jumped away and hid behind one of the guys. On the way out of the park, a sign reminded me that "The deer of Nara Park are wild animals. They can occasionally attack people so please be careful." Truth.
Todaiji, largest wooden structure in the world apparently.
Incense lighting.
I should have asked this guy where to shop for good used clothing.
There's a really big Buddha behind me. Sorry that you can't see him. At least you can see me, right?
Some of my crew. A few of the softball players even came. So nice.
Being a good tourist with my colleague. I love her.
We shared some local handmade sweets and sat around for a while enjoying the evening in the park. After driving back to Ibaraki (where again, I may have fallen asleep in the car), we met up at a steakhouse where I had my first Japanese "steak" at a buffet type place. I won't directly compare it to Golden Corral because it wasn't that big. But you ordered a main dish (the most popular choices were steak or hamburger) and then could also help yourself to a buffet of salad, rice, curry, bread, soup, drinks, dessert and fruit. This dinner was different than anything I'd had in Japan so it was fun to try a new restaurant. My colleagues are all so nice and I really enjoyed our (long!) day together. I hope the softball team likes their glamour shots.
I didn't take too many notes in my little red notebook this week and sadly I don't remember too many awkward moments or exciting learnings since over a week has passed. Next week!
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