Frybread and sushi

Raclette

2011-07-23T17:36:00.000+09:00

This blog is turning into an unofficial food blog. This week, raclette.

Nid and I went to Joel's house, Ana's new boyfriend, for raclette. Raclette is a French dish where you melt cheese with a special grill and serve it with things like potatoes, bread and pickle. Racler means "to scrape".

To have raclette you need cheese. Raclette cheese is ideal but you can use other aged cheese if it's not available. We tried raclette and emmental.

Next you get a mini tray and load it up with stuff like bread, potatoes, gherkins and meat. Joel's raclette set had a grill on top so were used it to grill mushrooms and courgettes.

Wait long enough and the cheese will come out crispy and so delicious!

Then you scrape it onto your plate and eat.

Delicious cheesy goodness...

While I've had raclette at La Cigale before a few times, this was my first home raclette and it was awesoooome. Can't wait for the next one.

Tapas

2011-06-17T18:31:00.002+09:00

My life is so boring at the moment I was almost tempted to talk about how great moon cups are and why all women should get one. However, I decided that tapas may be more appropriate.

Going out to dinner are the only bloggable things I get up to on a regular basis. Last date night Nid and I went to tapas at Tasca in New Market, Auckland. Let me tell you about tapas.

Tapas is a style of Spanish cuisine where you eat a variety of dishes as opposed to one main meal. The legend of tapas originates from an old Spanish King who recovered from an illness by eating small meals in between his wines. He ordered that all bars were not allowed to serve wine unless they were served with tapas - small meals. In many parts of Spain today, you get a tapa for free when you order drinks.

Half a litre of sangria

Croquetas and pan con tomate

Pinto beans and Spanish meatballs

Patatas bravas (potato wedges)

The saddest looking churros I've ever seen but definitely the most delicious

We like tapas. If you haven't tried tapas before you really should - you get to try like over five or six different dishes where you'd usually only get two.

Ruakaka

2011-06-04T13:18:00.001+09:00

A few weeks ago Awh came over for a visit which meant the first time in two years that the whole family has been together. We rented out a bach in Ruakaka for some family bonding over the long weekend before she flew back to Australia.

Korowai

2011-06-02T19:30:00.005+09:00

A few months ago Ana graduated from her Speech and Language degree. Yay! Congratulations Ana. She was even in the paper making Massey University look very diverse.

Soz Ana, but this post isn't actually about you. I can't write about you because that was like two months ago, so what I'm actually posting about is korowai, a Maori cloak (Not to be confused with a Papua New Guinean tribe. Tribes aren't wearable.)

Ana actually had two family cloaks that day: one from Matauri from mum's side of the family that she wore for the parade, and one from Rotorua from Nuku's side of the family that she wore during the capping. Both of them are made of kiwi feathers. Aren't they gorgeous?

The reason I'm posting about this is because last weekend we went to Rotorua for a Maori meeting. The family was worried about the storage and protection of some of the family taonga (heirlooms) including that korowai. That korowai in particular is difficult to store and very valuable as it was made by Nuku's grandmother, or, my great grandmother. In the end, we came to a consensus to put them into a museum which I think is a very good idea.

While at Ana's grad ceremony I think we got a few sidelong glances and I got thinking about where kiwi feathers come from. For those of you not in the know, kiwis are an endangered species (No Kaori, you can't eat them). I asked nan and she said that nowadays DOC collects them and saves them for people who want to use them for things like cloak making. She also told me how back in the day she always used to hear kiwi chirping away at night, but the bush has been built over by houses and she never hears them anymore and can't remember what they sound like. It's quite sad.

Feijoas

2011-05-26T09:37:00.002+09:00

Hi guys. It's been a while and I kind of miss it. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with this blog and I felt sad thinking about it rotting away in digispace. But, I decided I'd keep blogging and I'll get back to posting something new every week. I don't know what about and most of it's going to be pretty boring now that I'm back in New Zealand and this is a forewarning. So, this is the first of my "come back".

FEIJOAS!

(It's all downhill from here.)

Okay, to all my students who don't know what feijoas are, feijoas are a small green fruit like a guava, but tarter. In New Zealand, feijoa season is around Easter time from March-May. I love feijoas. To eat them you can either bite off the end and suck out the fruit, or scoop it out with a spoon.

One of my new things is preserving. Along our driveway we have a lot of feijoa trees and my grandma bottles them. My grandma is a feijoa bottling pro. Here's how she's been making them for the past 50 years.

Step 1. Pick them.

Step 2. Clean and sterilize your lids and jars so they are ready when you need them.

Step 3. Prepare your sugar brine in a big pot. I like a 1 to 2 ratio of sugar to water. Bring it to the boil then turn the stove off.

Step 4. Spend a couple of hours scooping and peeling the feijoas.

You need at least 2-3 times this amount to make the ten medium sized bottles that I did.

Step 5. Add the feijoas to the brine and let them simmer for a bit until it starts to boil. While you're doing this, put your jars in the oven to heat them up and stick the lids in a bowl of hot water.

Scoop out the froth if there is a lot.

Step 6. Ladle the hot feijoas into the hot jars. Everything must be hot. The jars must be hot so that they can seal. Wipe the top of the bottle so there is no debris on it and quickly screw the lid on. Put it on the bench and wait for the "pop".

I bought the self-sealing jars and after fifteen or twenty minutes or so they all started popping because the heat of all the hot stuff sucks the lid down. When the lid gets sucked down you hear a popping sound and this lets you know that the bottle is properly sealed. If it doesn't pop then you'll need to do it again if you want it keep it in the cupboard for a few months.

It takes a long time to bottle feijoas and if you ever get one from a friend, GIVE THE BOTTLE BACK! Nan said that once upon a time she had over six dozen large bottles. Now she's got barely a quarter of that because bad whanau don't give the bottles back.

And there you have it: how to make bottled feijoas. Serve with cream, ice-cream, yoghurt, cereal or eat straight from the bottle. Yummeh.

Lang's Beach

2011-04-23T19:01:00.001+09:00

March 18

Mum has a friend who has a bach at Lang's beach which is about a 1 1/2 hour drive from Auckland in-between Kerkeri and Auckland. It is absolutely gorgeous. So mum decides we should have a family get-together so I could do some family bonding and for everyone else to meet Nid's brothers, Lek and Poon. We spent the weekend swimming, playing games and eating. Only Awh and Eri couldn't come: Awh, because she's in Australia of course, and Eri, because she was gigging somewhere around the country.

Apart from Lek's homework we had an epic weekend away. I was so happy to see a real beach that wasn't covered in rubbish and I think it had been over a year since I last went swimming in the ocean. Ana and I want to do a winter weekend sometime at Lang's beach minus the swimming. It's great to be back.

Slideshow:

Hello New Zealand

2011-04-22T04:40:00.002+09:00

Well I'm back in New Zealand now and it's great. I love my home. At the moment I have been shuttling back and forth between Nid's apartment and home which is about 3.5 hours drive away from each other. Nice having the option between the city (Nid's) and country (home). Haven't really been doing much except hanging out with the family and catching up with friends. Everyone seems to have grown upwards or outwards but everyone is still the same which is nice. I miss Japan a lot though especially watching it on the news after the earthquake. New Zealand also has it's own earthquake to worry about and Christchurch, like Japan, still hasn't stopped shaking.

I was so excited about eating NZ food again. Like steak and cheese pies, fish and chips and lamb roasts. Actually guess what was the first thing I ate when I got back to New Zealand... miso kastsu. Har :D I wasn't going for Japanese in particular, but after the fams picked me up from the airport they were hungry and wanted to get something to eat and they decided Japanese. So I ordered in true Nagoya fashion - miso katsu. I happen to love katsu - one of the best things about Japan.

I have to say though, Japanese food is not very good here. Look at that soggy looking katsu. And that tenpura looks like fish and chips. Here's some of the other stuff I've been doing at home.

Going to mum's scrapcamp

Eating lamb roasts

Eating scones with my nan

Hanging out with my sister in Aucks

Hanging out with the computer club at my house

Playing with our new puppy Kai (He's SO CUUUUTE!)

I don't know what's going to happen with this blog now. As I don't live alone anymore, I'm finding it hard to find time to update the blog. And because it's New Zealand, things aren't shiny and fascinating to me like they are in Japan. I don't really want to blog about New Zealand - it's boring. But I also feel sad stopping the blog.

Anyways, it's fantastic to be home but I miss you Japan.

Hello Australia

2011-04-07T11:35:00.001+09:00

3 March, 2011

Australia was the last leg of our holiday. I didn't have any particular desire to go to Australia but because Awh was there and we hadn't seen each other since I left New Zealand I thought I might as well visit.

Awh got chubbs! But a good chubbs and now she doesn't look like an anorexic.

She was very surprised when she realised mum and Nuku had also come. Actually, she didn't see them at first and walked straight past them.

The first thing we did was go grocery shopping. I realised that I hadn't cooked in over three weeks. Whilst shopping I was skipping abut and getting all excited about how wide the aisles were compared to Japan and marveling at huge, bulk-buy items - so much cereal in one box.

And I KNEW we sold yoghurt in 1kg containers but Akiko and Kaori didn't believe me. They made me doubt myself.

Awh lives in a pretty nice two-bedroom house that is huge. They even have a garage and a pool that they share with their neighbours. Awh had taken five days off to chill with us, and we saw Mahi at night when he came home from work.

The rest of the time in Australia was spent on the couch. It was pretty boring. I think I watched five or six dvds but at least Awh was there watching them with me.

We did go shopping a few times which was exciting because I could fit things. I haven't bought bras and undies for two years so you can understand it was a very exciting time for me. Australia seems pretty similar to New Zealand but the landscape is very dry and brown. I also met up with some of the cousins and they reckon the food doesn't taste as good as New Zealand food and Australian's don't like New Zealanders. Can't say that I noticed any difference between the food or had first-hand experience of any unfriendliness but what I did notice was that I've never seen so many fat people in one place before. There are many fat people in Australia.

And finally, it was time for home. I miss Awh, but I had had enough sleeping on her couch. Blingin mum and Nuku stole my bed that I was supposed to sleep on had they not changed their flight plans. Hopefully Awh will come to New Zealand for Christmas this year which will hopefully mean that the whole family will be together for Christmas this year. Yay.

Hello Bali

2011-04-03T18:31:00.001+09:00

Singapore was all go for four days and we were tired. This was all to plan though because what I had on the itinerary for Bali was just six days of relaxing. We left Singapore in the evening just after dinner and arrived in Bali at midnight. My first impression of Bali wasn't such a good one. As soon as we passed through immigration there were porters waiting for us with all of our bags. They wanted to help us take our bags to our driver but I thought they seemed a bit scammy. Couldn't be a scam though because we hadn't even passed through customs yet, right? Well, I tried to get my bags back just to see what they'd do and they got so pushy about keeping them and "helping" us. We managed to get our bags off of them and lucky we did because when we got outside the airport we saw the big sign displaying porter fees. I know it was probably only chump change but it's not nice getting attacked for our money as soon as we get off the plane.

Our driver took us to our hotel in Sanur, Tropical Bali Hotel, which won the 2010 Traveladvisor Traveller's Choice award. It was so cheap ($40 USD per night) that I decided to book two rooms for me and my folks for three days. That included room service and a daily breakfast served at our rooms. It was no Ritz but for $40 bucks a night it was pretty damn good! The rooms were huge, the room service was good and it was a really quiet area that wasn't infested with too many other tourists. The only thing about it though was that it was not a good place to walk to town from.

Breakfast: Nasi goreng for me and Nuku and bread and toast for mum

The next day, I thought it would be a swell idea to try that walk into town and mum's face says it all.

Bali doesn't feel like the safest place. Mum and Nuku said they thought Bali was like the Islands: shabby tin housing, cows meandering along the road and rubbish everywhere. Mum wasn't particularly thrilled. My parents were already paranoid about organ harvesters and bombers and after getting bombarded by "helpful" porters before we'd even come out of customs at the airport, this wasn't turning out to be the greatest of first impressions. After my experience at the airport, I was absolutely terrified of my money getting stolen and paranoid of there being a scam around every corner. Understand that when I left Japan I was carrying my life over the past two years as well as my last monthly pay and bonus on me in cash. I slept with my two laptops, kindle, psp and two wallets under the blanket and pillow next to me.

During our walk, we stopped at a cafe for lunch where I tried Balinese duck.

After that we took a taxi to a department store which cheered mum up A LOT. We stayed there for a few hours shopping for clothes and even Nuku was on his clothes shopping buzz because everything was so ridiculously cheap. I was actually surprised that the shopping in Bali is actually really good and it reminded me a lot of Thailand.

The next day we decided to take a taxi to Kuta, the most touristy place in Bail. It was a relief that taxis were so cheap because we couldn't be bothered and were probably too scared to do anymore walking. Anyway, Kuta is the party place in Bali where all the youngins go. Very touristy and from what I saw of it the sleazy and seedy side of town. Nuku and I had grand plans of getting some surfing lessons but one look at the beach changed all that.

There was rubbish everywhere. Piles of it! And not only that, but the water was brown and dirty and you could see all the rubbish coming in with the waves. I had this idea that Bali had beautiful beaches but this was just gross and there was no way Nuku and I were getting in that water. That was the first and only beach we went to in Bali. I'm sure there are beautiful beaches somewhere in Bali but we just too grossed out to feel bothered. On top of the ugly beach, every couple of metres someone would come up to see if we wanted to buy something or get surfing lessons which got pretty tiresome.

After we changed our minds about the surfing lessons we went to another department store where mum and I tried Dr Fish. What you do is you put your feet in this bath of water filled with these "Doctor Fish" and sit there for twenty minutes. While you soak, the Garra rufa fish eats the dead skin from your body, leaving the healthy skin underneath to grow. The sucking left a tingling sensation like little electric shocks. It was pretty cool and my feet felt smooth and new afterwards.

After our stay in Sanur, we headed inland to our next hotel in Ubud. On the way we stopped at a temple, a wood workshop, a silver workshop, a gallery, and the Monkey Forest.

When you go into a temple in Bali you have to wear a sarong.

Mum thought we were in an Indiana Jones movie.

Mum didn't like the monkeys.

Our new hotel, Junjungan, was super nice and surrounded by rice fields. The parents were tickled pink. We spent a lot of time here because it was so relaxing and the food wasn't too bad either. Breakfast was usually awesome and always included a fruit platter afterwards. They even had all the staff memorise our names: Miss Danielle, Miss Rowena, and Mr Nuku.

Nuku having trouble trying to get under the Balinese tables

Afternoon tea

Our bedroom

Mum's got the stink spare bed

Rice field view from our balcony

Inland Bali is so much more beautiful than what we saw of the coastal area. Ubud is a huge arts and cultural centre and everywhere we went there always seemed to be some kind of workshop or gallery on the side of the road. And there are rice fields everywhere!

While we were in Ubud we went to some of the markets - they are terrible, with dirty stalls and pushy stall people. We only got a slight taste of them while in Kuta but because we kept shopping in department stores we avoided most of the market touts. In Ubud everywhere we turned there was someone trying to do their best to get our money give us a "good price". It's interesting for the first ten minutes but after a while it drove me nuts. You keep having to haggle prices down, and you can't look at things in stalls because as soon as you show an interest stall owners will get all pushy and and show you other things and offer a good price. You've gotta get used to using your peripherals to look at things and pretend you're not interested. On top of that, you then have the destitute children tugging at your clothes and scrawny mothers holding babies and begging for change. Like Thailand but not as bad. Stall touts drove me mad. Got a few good bargains though but didn't stay for long because it was just frustrating being attacked at every turn.

Although I didn't take any pictures, mum and I also watched this fantastic gamelan performance. Nuku didn't come because he wanted to stay at the hotel and watch the rice grow. Mum and I were lucky enough to watch a concert of the best gamelan group in Bali. Gamelan is a set of strings and percussion instruments that are built, tuned and meant to be played together. Gamelan is amazing to watch. We also got to watch a Balinese dance called legong which was also amazing. I haven't seen mum that impressed since her subway buzz in Singapore.

Other fun things we did in Singapore included a drive around some of Ubud's main attractions. We visited an awesome temple carved out of rock and surrounded by rice paddys, had an interesting experience at a roadside fruit-stall and visited a coffee plantation that sold Luwak coffee - the most expensive coffee in the world.

If you've watched The Bucket List with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson then you will know what the most expensive coffee in the world is. Kopi Luwak is made from the coffee beans that are eaten, digested, and shat out by an animal the Balinese call a luwak. The luwak looks kind of like a cat and at night, they forage around looking for the best beans to eat. After their stomach has digested the skin around the coffee bean, they poop it out. Kopi luwak farmers collect these droppings and wash them before roasting. Luwak coffee is not as bitter as regular coffee and it is also said to contain hints of chocolate. I tried it, but to tell you the truth I couldn't really taste the difference.

LEFT: Regular roasted coffee beans TOP RIGHT: Washed, unroasted Luwak coffee beans BOTTOM RIGHT: Regular unroasted coffee beans

LEFT: post-shit/pre-wash coffee beans RIGH: post-shit/post-wash coffee beans

We also saw some absolutely beautiful rice terraces which was spoiled because of all the street sellers trying to sell us junk.

Mum and I also got two cheap as massages. A half hour leg and foot massage for about four bucks, and a more expensive full-body massage at the hotel. It was mum's first massage and boy did she love it. Look at that post-massage smile.

Mum after the best massage she's ever had

Also, during breakfast on what I thought was our second to last day in Bali I checked our flight itinerary to double check our departure times on the 3rd of March. Lo and behold, I had made a huge mistake and although we were leaving on the 3rd, the ticket meant on the 3rd at midnight which meant today, on the 2nd March/3rd March overlap, not the 3rd March/4th March overlap. Pity really because I had mentally prepared for all the fun things we were going to do in Bali and felt gipped out a whole day. If I hadn't checked it when I did, we could have missed our flight. Woops.

I had another surprise later on in the afternoon while we were eating afternoon tea. As we were waiting for our tea and cake, Nuku pulled out his itinerary and asked me to check it. From Bali, I was travelling to Australia to see Awh, and Nuku and mum were supposed to be going straight back to Auckland. But when I checked Nuku's tickets, it said that they were going to Brisbane which was a huge mistake because they were supposed to be going straight back to Auckland. I was sitting there stressing out and trying to figure out whose booking mistake this was, mine or Nuku's, and trying to think of the most strategic way to tell Nuku that one of us had wasted a lot of money. This problem completely spoiled my delicious apple tart because stress and cake should never be mixed together. It took me about ten minutes to get it that Nuku had changed the tickets as mum's Valentine's present so they could join me and Awh in Australia. Duh. It turned out that everyone knew except me and Awh.

Spoiled afternoon tea

And that was basically Bali. All we did was relax and eat. SO much eating. I had wanted to do a lot of other things like surfing lessons, white water rafting, elephant riding, see Tanah Lot and such but we wasted so much time on relaxing that we didn't have the time to do much else. All good though. Mum and Nuku really enjoyed it. And now we had a visit to see Awh to look forward. What a great holiday.

Hello Singapore

2011-02-24T09:22:00.007+09:00

I hadn't seen my parents in two years so I was so excited that I would be able to meet them in Singapore! Since their flight came in a few hours earlier than my flight, we agreed that they'd hang around the airport and meet me at the arrival gates. It was a happy but tired reunion. Mum and Nuku were tired as from a whole day of transiting and flying, and I had a cold and was fighting off the last few days of sleep deprivation. We took a taxi (which are very reasonable in Singapore), to the hostel we were staying at near Little India. The best hostel I've ever stayed in, in fact.

One of the first things we noticed about Singapore is that it is very hot and very humid. As I watched the city go by in the taxi, I couldn't believe how clean Singapore was considering it's still part of Asia.

Nuku was surprised that I hadn't made to-the-hour itineraries for every day of our trip. This was because I was worried about how much action Nuku and mum could take and if they could keep up. Mum and Nuku had been working out and getting fit for the past couple of months in preparation for this.

So on the first day we went on an open-top bus tour around the city. Even though it was quite touristy, it was a fantastic way to see the city and get a feel for the city's layout. Mum and Nuku were thrilled because they got to sit down during it.

All of the different cultures in Singapore kind of gives you cultural whiplash. In Singapore you get the huge, modern skyscrapers and wicked architecture and a bus ride away you can visit Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam. We went on these really great tours from Original Singapore Walks that I recommend going on if you are ever in Singapore and have a few days. We bought a three day ticket and went on a a Kampong Glam walk where we walked around the Malay/Arab area and heard the sad story of Singapore's royal family; a war trail which followed the horrific Japanese occupation in Singapore; and a boat quay walk which was a tour and a pub crawl melded together - we got to drink beer!

Sultan's palace

Sultan's mosque

Marina Bay Sands Sky Park

Merlion at Sentosa

Other than Singapore's many stories, Singapore is also famous for food. It has a huge variety of food especially Chinese, Indian, and Malaysian food. Every day mum would grow increasingly fretful about our next meal. I like to pick the things on the menu that I've never tried before, and I make mum and Nuku feel bad if they don't do the same. Nuku is pretty good and tries a lot of new things. Mum is the opposite: everything that is new and different is a food to avoid. Anyway, there were really only three things I wanted to eat in Singapore and they weren't even that adventurous. Also, I managed to eat all of them!

Chili crab

Ice cream sandwich (yes, that is bread)

Singaporean breakfast: kopi and kaya toast

I asked mum about her favourite things about Singapore and she said everything except for the food. I had to remind her that she LOVED the Singaporean coffee and kaya toast. Nuku on the other hand was amazed at how clean and safe Singapore was. Before coming, Mum and Nuku had been stressing out on travel horror stories: bombs and terrorists in bali, liver getting stolen in your sleep, tourists getting killed by toxic seaweed. As for me, I think the best thing about Singapore is how we could find a little bit of everything there. Lots of different cultures, lots to see and do AND eat. And it is so easy to get around to it all because their public transport is amazing.

After four days of full-on action I made mum and Nuku pretty tired. At one point Nuku was falling asleep at the dinner table and mum couldn't fit her new crocs cos all the walking had made her feet swollen :) Lol. Poor folks. I'm glad they came though because Mum and Nuku haven't been on a holiday in ages. Ana pointed out that it was weird seeing the photos and the folks in tourist mode because they never go on holiday! Not over yet though. Next was Bali for some well-deserved downtime.

Goodbye Japan

2011-02-21T00:10:00.000+09:00

I have the most awesome students in the world. This student and her husband, voluntarily woke up at 5am to drive to my hotel and take me to the airport. They called work and said they'd be in the office late that day. Isn't that NICE?! It's overwhelmingly kind, I just can't get over it. Thank you so, SO much.

I didn't cry today. I got misty eyed when I went through the departure gate and started thinking, "well, this is it". But I think I was too tired to cry. I only slept for two hours. I will miss you Japan. I will be back because I love you.

Last dinner

2011-02-20T23:53:00.000+09:00

I woke up with a banging headache and a cold, feel absolutely wretched. Can't wait for Bali. We decided that our (my co-workers and I) last meal together would be yaki-niku, in Hoshigaoka on the second floor in the same building work is in. Another all you can eat. I wasn't the only one feeling zoned - all of us were, well those who went to the party and did karaoke last night. Boooo. Good thing dinner was delicious and we left feeling bloated, as we usually do after tabehoudai yaki-niku.

My co-workers and I had done most of our crying the night before so when it came to say goodbye after dinner it went really smoothly. That might have been because we were all too knackered to cry. We got on the subway, and I said my last goodbyes and gave my last hugs to them when we got to their stops. There were sweaty eyes, but I was really happy how smoothly it all went. I will miss them SO, so much :( They are the reason why I extended my contract twice. I miss them already T_T

There was one other person that I was thrilled was able to come to dinner - Blair. Blair was the first person I met in Japan (other than the Japanese head office person that picked me up at the airport). I met Blair at the airport on the first day that I arrived in Japan. He had been waiting for me for forty minutes while I was going through immigration. It was kind of fitting then, how he was also one of the last persons I saw in Japan. After all my co-workers got off at their stops, we got off the subway together and I was able to walk him to his next train.

Party

2011-02-19T23:34:00.000+09:00

Busy day. A rare Saturday off. I thought I'd be relishing all the free time but I spent the day throwing out clothes, packing, and saying goodbyes before the goodbye/welcome party.

The party was quite big for AEON standards. Usually we book for about thirty people but we booked for forty this time. Can't believe so many people wanted to come! I'd like to put up all the photos but I feel bad cos most of them are of me and students. Would prefer to have permission first... but anyways we had a great night. Nomi and tabehoudai (all you can eat and drink). Am going to miss that when I get back to New Zealand. I mean, it was only about $35 NZD each and the food and drinks are good!

Me and my homies (Kaori, Sarah, Akiko, Shiho)

Speech

I was really, really super nervous about my speech much to the surprise of my students. They all think AEON teachers are born to be public speakers. Anybody who knew me through high school knows how much I hated speech day. But anyway, I think the speech was a success because everybody didn't seem too offended and they all laughed in the right places.

After last order we went to karaoke at around midnight. I'm leaving Japan in true Japanese fashion. We were only supposed to stay until 3am but we decided to pull an all-nighter because it was too much of a hassle trying to organise transport with the subway closed until 6am.

I got home at 7am. Very tired.

Presents

2011-02-18T22:53:00.000+09:00

It makes me so sad that I am leaving Japan. And I think my students are devastated too seeing the ridiculous amount of presents they have left me over the past couple of days.

This is about seventy percent of all the gifts I got! I am tickled pink to think that people are actually going to miss me. In fact I got too many presents. I was throwing out clothes at the hotel everyday to try and make room for it all. By day three the hotel stopped taking my rubbish bags of clothes, so I had to start carting my clothes to work to get rid of them :(

My favourite gift of all is this mameshiba from Akiko. I have wanted one of these ever since I saw them in a magazine in New Zealand. They're so stupid and awesome. Thanks Akiko!

(nice nails Akiks)

Watch the mameshiba:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjmQw3JaTsE

Mistakes

2011-02-18T21:56:00.001+09:00

Today was my last day at work. Even though we complain all the time while on the job, even after work some of the biggest laughs we have is about work. Teaching has some great work stories.

Kids are the best.

The Japanese have a little trouble with the "F" and "W" sounds

Dan: Where do mushrooms grow?

Kids: Mushrooms grow in the hoods!

English phonics is always a difficulty

Dan: How do you spell "THING"?

Kid: F-A-G!

One student's answers whilst playing scattegories as a game during Halloween Week. The letter was "R".

Colour: Red

Animal: Rabbit

Verb: Run

Costume: Racket costume

Wrong animal

Sarah: What's that? (points at a slug)

Kid: It's a slut!

And it's not just our kids that make awesome mistakes.

Idioms are stupid

Dan: So "to kick the bucket" means "to die".

Student: Do I need a bucket?

Why you can't learn English from reading a dictionary

Confusing "ing" and "ed" is one of my favourite mistakes

Student: I was boring.

Dan: ...you mean, bored.

And a lot of things come out wrong

Student: How do you say "you are fat" politely in English?

Sarah: Ah, there's not really any other way to say it nicely.

Student: Ok. How come you don't have a boyfriend? Is it because you are fat?

(Btw, Sarah is far from fat.)

Students ask us all kinds of interesting questions

Student: Do you have a lover?

Not limited to the classroom, the back room also gets its fair share of daily laughs.

On a Thursday, the middle day of the work week, or, hump day.

Dan: Yay! It's Thursday!

Kaori: Yay! I love humping day.

Canada to the Japanese and the difficult "v" sound

Sarah: What's the first thing you think of when you think of Canada?

Akiko: Niagara Falls

Shiho: Maple syrup

Kaori: That animal, Bieber.

Sarah getting shown up

Sarah: Akiko's favourite word is CRUNK! That is C-R-U-N-K.

Akiko: Actually it's K-r-u-n-k.

I'm sad. But happy. It's been a long time away from home. I told my student that I hadn't seen my parents for nearly two years and she screamed at me "You are a BAD DAUGHTER!". Lols. I never thought of it like that. It's not like I intended to be here for so long, it just happened. Tomorrow is my leaving party. Dreading speech time.

Ramen

2011-02-17T23:31:00.003+09:00

I love ramen. Ramen is noodles. I wasn't so keen on it while I was in New Zealand but I discovered that that was only because New Zealanders can't make ramen. When New Zealanders think of noodles, we think of the instant packet stuff that students survive on. In Japan, ramen is delicious and awesome. I love the fact that practically every city that you go to in Japan will probably have their own style of ramen (Tokyo style ramen, Hakata ramen...).

Yuto took us to one of his favourite ramen places. Even though it's a pain, you know it's a good restaurant when you have to stand in line. This particular restaurant only served one type of ramen that you can customise. While you wait in line, you check your preferences and additional bits and pieces on a piece of paper.

This place has a big difference from other ramen restaurants. It only has one line of tables for customers and each customer gets their own little 'cubby'. Other than being great for people who eat out alone, according to Yuto the restaurant's reasoning is that their ramen is really good and by boxing you in, you won't be distracted from the taste.

So you sit in your little cubby and they have a little blind where you can see the kitchen floor and the staff scuttling around. When they bring you your ramen, they put it through the hole and they bow really low so you can see the tops of their heads. Then they close the blind and from that point, all your concentration should be funneled into eating ramen.

I love this idea. I mean, when I am eating good food it's such a hassle having to talk. And this ramen was really good. But then, I'm not a connoisseur and I find ramen delicious most of the time. Ramen is definitely one of the foods I will miss the most when I leave.

Back

2011-02-16T00:30:00.000+09:00

So last night and this morning was hectic with packing and cleaning my apartment. Last night was my last night in my apartment. Was so sad to leave it. Now, I'm back where I started off this adventure: in Daiichi hotel, Nagoya.

It feels like I've come full circle. Sounds cliche but I remember my first days in Japan clearly. H1N1 was just just getting chronic and our training group had to wear masks for a week and a half.

I was blogging from internet cafes and buzzing out on Hot French Fry vending machines and all-you-can-drink melon soda. Now, back in the hotel, the rooms are the same, the staff are the same and the English manuals have been through a spell check.

My hair was a lot shorter one year and nine months ago.

And I didn't cut it for a whole year because I thought I was coming back. Now I can ponytail it, plait it and beyond. I've only gotten haircuts twice in Japan and they are terrible. Can't wait to get a proper haircut.

Can't believe I've been here for almost two years. All that is left really is the unsavory task of saying goodbye. Boo. I have five nights left.

Tea ceremony

2011-02-14T23:33:00.001+09:00

One of the things you have to do if you come to Japan is to try tea ceremony. I don't really know why, but it's very important. Today our students took Sarah and I to a fancy and expensive tea ceremony experience.

Flash tea ceremony place

The room they served us in was beautiful. It had a huge table with tatami flooring and a great view of the garden. The silence and tranquility of it all really affected the eating experience.

Anyways, I was actually expecting more tea making during the experience but all we did was get served dishes upon dishes of food from a little old woman in a kimono. We started at 11.30am and didn't finish eating until a little before 3pm. Tea ceremony takes a long time and over those three hours we had ten different courses and so many different things. Each course is served one at a time, so there is a lot of waiting time in between dishes. A lot of the dishes we had to do a fair bit of speculating as to what it actually was and it was a great, Japanese experience. We were so bloated afterwards.

Slideshow

Snowboarding

2011-02-13T22:55:00.000+09:00

Today I crossed out the last thing on my list: go snowboarding in Japan. A whole group of us woke up around 5am to catch a 7am bus to Gifu which is about three to four hours drive away from Nags.

Most of us minus three

Kaori rocking heels on a ski trip

I don't know why 'Go snowboarding in Japan' is on my bucket list, because I royally suck at it. Actually, I don't really suck that much at snowboarding. Not as much as Sarah, but at least she can get on and off the lift. After round four on the ski lift, every time the dude saw me trying to get on the lift he'd slow the lift down for me. And every single time I got off the lift, I bailed every time. Every. Single. Time.

The cool group

Ramen, rice and chicken karaage lunch set.

Yup, that's all of us bailing.

Miffy chan

This week snowboarding, and next week beaching.

Sukiyaki

2011-02-12T23:02:00.000+09:00

One of my favourite foods in Japan is sukiyaki. It's kind of like nabe except the sauce base is made of sugar, soy sauce and mirin which makes it quite sweet. The food is also dipped in a bowl of raw, beaten egg before eating.

Some boxes of eggs have an expiry date on each egg

It is so delicious. You can use most of the ingredients that you use in nabe. We had pork, beef, cabbage, various mushrooms, tofu, mochi, konyaku noodles, leek, onions and fish-cakes. Unlike nabe where you can cook the food and eat immediately after it cooks, with the sukiyaki you add the ingredients all at once and leave it to simmer for a while.

Tiny beer

Zero calories and zero alcohol beer. That's right - a beer with no alcohol content.

Nails

2011-02-11T01:21:00.000+09:00

Today it was a public holiday. As I am leaving soon the girls and I wanted to have a fun girls day so we thought, how about getting our nails done. None of us have ever gotten our nails done at a salon before except for Sarah (surprisingly). The last time I even painted my nails was more than two years ago. So this whole week we've been really excited and been thinking about colours and designs.

Today was so much fun.

Before the actual nail painting we had our nails filed, cuticles sanded, clipped and oiled. And about an hour later...

Akiko

Kaori

Shiho

Mine

Kumi

Sarah's (just so she doesn't feel left out)

FRENCH TOAST!

Chicken bits

2011-02-10T00:58:00.000+09:00

Another thing I'm going to miss are the Japanese izakayas. Sarah and I went to one of the locals near her house and tried a few of their items. Restaurants in Japan never cease to have an abundance of food I've never tried before and I'm going to miss the random and crazy food orders.

Chicken neck

Heart

Chicken butt/tail

Fried oysters

Tofu salad

Having a foreign face in an izakaya is usually a hit with the drunks and I think I'll miss the celebrity treatment and photo requests just a little bit. Drunks in Japan are so friendly.

The ears were a present from the dude behind us

Egg

2011-02-09T22:56:00.009+09:00

A student gave me a really interesting present the other day: an egg.

The Kyoto company that makes these patented the process. I'm not entirely sure how they do it, but according to my student they somehow pierce through the eggshell and inject the egg with custard. So it's actually a custard egg. That little yellow sachet is caramel sauce.

It took me a long time to peel without breaking the whole thing and in retrospect I should have just cut the thing in half. Inside there is no yolk or whites, it's all pure custard so I'm not sure if they drain the egg first to inject the custard, or they add something to the egg inside to make the custard??? It wasn't as delicious as I was hoping, but it was still pretty cool.

It's surprises like these that I'm going to miss when I leave Japan. Thanks S for the omiyage!

Shodo

2011-02-08T08:30:00.005+09:00

The other day one of my friends got me to try shodo, or Japanese calligraphy. It was a lot harder than I thought.

The bottle is the baby ink that I used and the sticks are for pros

For my first couple of attempts I practised by tracing a copy of the character that we put under my piece of paper

The first thing you have to be aware of is posture and sitting up straight. Shodo is traditionally done on the floor on your knees but I wouldn't be able to last long so I got to do it on the table. Japanese calligraphy is not like painting and you can't just flick your brush any which way. You have to think about breathing, speed, start and finish of brush strokes, to flick or "stop" and pressure. To write real Zen calligraphy you've got to clear your mind, because with each piece of paper you've only got one chance. I had no idea you had to think about all of this to write a single character that is balanced and beautiful. It's so hard. Mine are awful and I couldn't get the hang of it. If I had the opportunity I think it would be fun to get good at.

Friend, peace and love

Valentine's

2011-02-07T21:29:00.004+09:00

Valentine's Day is coming up so today Akiko and I did a little chocolate shopping. As is the case with most events in Japan, if it can be commercialised it will be, and some.

Valentine's is different in Japan. Instead of it being a day where the man spoils the woman, a mutual date day where couples give each other chocolates or gifts, or secret admirers give their love interests anonymous bouquets, Valentine's in Japan is geared for women to give chocolate to men. Gifts, flowers and romantic dinners are not the primary marketing push during February. It's all about the chocolate.

Romantic spark is not a requirement for giving chocolates on Valentine's in Japan. In Japan, if you are a woman you should buy chocolate for your husband/boyfriend and male co-workers. Males are not under pressure to give women chocolate. These chocolates given to male co-workers are called giri-choco, or "obligation chocolate".

Women everywhere

Even though getting chocolate is supposed to be a good thing, a lot of my male students complain about Valentine's. If they are the receivers of obligation chocolate, they should return the favour on March 14th: White Day. Although not as turbo-charged as Valentine's, White Day is an opportunity for men to repay the woman and it is essential that the chocolate they buy for White Day is more expensive than the chocolate they received. Some of my housewives have said they hate White Day because they are the ones that have to go chocolate shopping for their busy husbands and blow that month's budget on expensive chocolate. One of my students said that in his company, giving giri-choco was banned. Lol.

My student gave me chocolates!

If you're wondering when couples celebrate a traditional Valentine's day, Christmas Eve seems to be recognised as national date day.