Japanese, Queues, Food Fashion and Limited Editions

I have noticed something very odd about Japanese people. They love to queue. If there is a line, other Japanese people will seem to join, not really knowing what is at the front, but just assuming “Well these people are queuing so there must be something good at the front!” I would look at a long queue and rate it against my desire for what is at the end, but Japanese people seem to think the longer the queue, the better the thing at the end must be. I noticed this on a previous trip to Tokyo back in 2009. I saw a queue snaking it's way back and forth with people lining up for Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Apparently Krispy Kreme had just come to Japan and it was the in thing to be eating, even though the signs were indicating the wait at roughly an hour.

Which brings me to my second point; 'Food Fashion'. Japanese people seem to consider food to be fashionable and trendy in the same way as style, clothes, cars or other things of a more non-edible nature. I haven't worked out if it's 'cool' to be seen eating it, eating it with your friends, telling your friends you've eaten it or buying it to give to someone; or even all the above, but food can definitely be cool here.

Which brings me to 'Limited Editions', this can be food or something in general, but Japanese people love anything of a 'Limited Edition'. I know from living with Maki for so many years she is a sucker a 'Limited Edition'. If there is a TV advert for a new type of chocolate bar with a limited flavour, she has to have it, even though she's not a fan of chocolate. Japan has some clearly defined seasons and this bring with it seasonal items too. I once tried an Autumn Limited Edition Asahi Beer, which in my view tasted like normal beer; but this is the kind of thing Japanese people like, “It's autumn so I must drink autumnal beer.” Granted it makes sense for some food, unlike us westerners who want everything all-year-round, but when you stick a cherry blossom on something and call it a 'Limited Spring Edition' then Japanese people will line up to by it, literally.

The picture below shows people queuing out of a store just to buy a small, round, cake.  

My Christmas Day

We awoke in our 19^th floor executive hotel room in Sapporo, Hokkaido; with a breath-taking view of the city, coated in white. A lazy start, listening to Christmas tunes on my iPad to get in the spirit while we open presents and drink tea.

Once showered and dressed we went down to the best breakfast buffet I have ever seen and ate in front of a large window with a view of a snow covered garden; gorging ourselves on bread, waffles, fruits, eggs, bacon, french toast and yoghurt.

But no time to rest as we head to the station, not before Maki takes a complementary sauna while I pack up our wonderful gifts. We meet Maki's friend at the station to send us off and board our train to Niseko. On the train we eat an assorted sashimi-don bento while watching the Narnia like scenery whizz by and taking time out to start watching 'The Great Escape' on my iPad (It is Christmas after-all and never seen it all the way through).

We dropped our stuff at our hotel, grabbed our rented skies and headed to the slopes for our lesson.  The ski lesson was good with a slow start as dusk set in and the flood lights came on, lighting the slopes with a beautiful glow; soon after which a bit of a blizzard set in, giving us a little challenge for our first lessons. But we did well and learnt a lot.

We returned to our new hotel and a buffet lunch including roast beef, more sashimi, tempura and loads more food than we could realistically eat. Once our stomachs had been sufficient filled with all the great food, we retreated to warm our aching muscles in the hotels outdoor, mixed onsen; a hot bath surrounded by a winter wonderland, cover in a thick blanket of snow.

Splendid.

Merry Christmas from Your Man In Japan

Random English of the Month – Homemade Pie

This small snack says it is a “Homemade Pie”. However, it doesn't look or taste anything like a pie, more like a biscuit. And I think I can safely assume it is not homemade either.

Me Man, Me Bake!

At my schools there is a Japanese etiquette that if you go somewhere you should buy small sweets, or omiyage, for your colleagues to give them on your return. This is sometimes somewhat of an issue for me as I'm going somewhere most weekends and I also work at three schools, with in total about 85-90 teachers. A small trip would cost me a small fortune in sweets alone. so I don't always buy something.

However, for Christmas, I wanted to do something nice for my teachers and rather than buying a sweet, I thought why not make them something! Small cakes would be ideal, but I don't have an oven. I do, however, know how to make Welsh Cakes which are cooked in a pan, thanks to an old Welsh flatmate of mine. So I set about a mass batch production of mini Welsh Cakes (Modifying the recipe to have chocolate instead of raisons). They came out well and over two evenings I churned out over 150 mini cakes, making enough for my evening class as well and extra for hungry teachers. There reception was great, however, something of a patterned response emerged. Every time offered someone a cake, I was met with the question “Did your wife make these?” When I told them I made them, there was surprised, followed with something along the lines of “Really. Well done! They taste good”. However, after a while it became a little patronising. Just because I'm a man, why shouldn't I be able to cook?!?

It appears the divide between men and women in Japan is still stronger than I thought and that men of my age don't cook, clean or any kind of housework for that matter. Obviously this comes from a time when women didn't go to work, but women are working now and yet they still have the responsibility of cooking, cleaning and childcare. This coming from school teachers that only last week cancelled my afternoon lesson to educate their students on equal rights, this just smacks with a sense of irony. Japanese men, cook for your women folk!

Kyuushoku Dairies

Kyuushoku (給食) means school lunch and I have decided to try and remember to take photos of my lunch to share them with you all as school lunches in Japan are the best I've ever seen. There might also be hidden within the secret to why I've lost so much weight since I got to Japan, dropping from 82kg to 70kg (10kg of which was in the first 6 weeks). The Japanese diet seems to be working well and its not for the sake of the quality I am eating, as I am devouring anything edible that comes within arms reach. And it's all so tasty. If I leave Japan, the food will be the number one thing I miss.

Chocolate Crisps!

Thats right, crisps drizzled with chocolate. I'm getting the impression Japanese people don't know what to do with chocolate.

The Lows of Being an ALT

Maybe I shouldn't moan, but being a ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) leaves you with a lot of free time. Currently I have nothing to do for 3 whole day before I can go away on holiday. Normally this would be good thing, but when I still have to go into work and sit there, looking like I'm busy and not have the freedom to simply surf the net or read a book, it becomes a real chore. The days with not much to do go painfully slow and I would prefer to be busy. It's something about being an ALT I don't quite get. And it's not for the sake of not doing any work. I've planned my lessons ahead until mid-late January and have done a host of extra things, like created an English corner where every month I create a new poster about something linguistically or culturally English. Sometimes, being an ALT just doesn't feel that important of a job and it doesn't feel like a real job. Even at our training, we are told that being an ALT is not a career! It's something people do for a few years.

It's not an easy job though. Balancing students moods, abilities and desires with the teachers requirements and demands while communicating in one of the worlds most difficult languages and tightrope walking Japanese etiquette is no small feet. Everyday is a new challenge, you must work on your feet if something goes wrong and the adults can be just as bad as the kids.

The perks are plain to see. Good money, holidays by the bucket load, on the good days the kids are amazing to work with and the chance to work in one of the most interesting cultures I have ever come across. It's just a shame there isn't anything culturally interesting about having to sit at my desk for three days to show I'm here and part of the 'team' (I sigh as I look at the clock again for the 10^th time this hour).  

A Surprise Lunch

I was summoned outside to the garden at my JHS, not sure why I was going or what I was doing. But it was a pleasant surprise as there was a Nabe (Japanese Hot Pot) party underway. A pot was bubbling away on an open fire with all kinds of wonderful fresh ingredients inside; shrimp, shiitake, potatoes, chinese cabbage and fish to name but some.

OCD and Magnets

I think a lot of my kids have OCD. I have various magnetics I use to stick my flash cards to the blackboard. When the children help me to take my stuff down and collect the magnets, a surprising amount of them feel the need to organise the magnetics in to groups, all the blue magnets together, all the white magnets together and all the black magnetics together. Is that strange?

Winter in Japan – Annoyances Part 4

As the winter creeps in and the snow and frost settles over the landscape, Japans beauty yet again takes on another amazing seasonal form.  Winter.  Japan is a great place to live, however, Japanese people don't seem to have heard of a few western convenience:  Central heating, insulation and double glazing.  It's madness.  How can such a civilized country, especially one so prone to extreme seasonal temperatures, not have heard of these basic of amenities.  I open our wardrobe and it is like opening the door to a very large freezer as the cold air smacks you in the face.

They have heaters, but it doesn't seem to really replace the need for some kind of general central heating system.  You see, Japanese people only heat one room at a time.  The heaters they do use are either heating air-conditioners, fan heaters or oil burning heaters.  The oil burning heaters just seem rather crazy as well, requiring stacks of oil cans for refilling, not good when you're on the 2nd floor (3rd floor if you're from Japan, they don't have a ground floor).  Plus they have a flame and give of fumes!  Of course you can also use some of the various heating accessaries such as a kotatsu, a low table with something similar to a bar heater lashed to the underside and a shirt like quilt around the edges to contain the heat.  For me, these just seem to leave my legs burning and my upper torso frozen stiff. It's a little like a grill for your legs.  There are also heated carpets, similar to some electric blankets back home.  These are actually quite nice, but does require me to sit on the floor, which is slowly taking toll on my back and knees.   

I am told “But it is hot during summer, so we need to let the air flow through to cool our homes.”  But surely if you had insulation, once you use the air-conditioner that you are going to use anyway, the cold air will be insulated in!  It's no where near as cold as it was when I lived in Finland, hitting -30 degrees C, but at least there you always had the positive prospect of once entering your home your frozen limbs could be thawed out in the general room ambience rather than feeling like you're stepping out the fridge into the freezer when you walk through the entrance door.  

Mum, please send firewood!  I'm going to have to start a small bomb-fire in the living-room to make to make it through Christmas!

Onsen in the Snow

I took a drive up to Yubara to join some friends for a dip in a local outdoor hot spring (Onsen). This particular onsen is free, welcome to all (Even those with tattoos, normally a no-no for onsens) and unlike some onsens is outside. Normally onsens are split by gender, with a side for women and one for men, as, for those of you who don't know, you onsen only in your birthday suit (Nude). This onsen is mixed, but the ladies do tend to use towel like robes to hide their modesty, and frantically I don't blame them due to the blatantly, leering, old, Japanese, men.

I had want to try this onsen for a while as it's quite famous and because it's outside, by the side of a river.  I had also heard it forecast for snow and thought it would be quite an experience to be outside in a hot bath in the snow. There wasn't much snow when we got there, but as soon as we got a mini snow blizzard hit whiting out the view. It was quite incredible and an onsen is a great place to be on such a cold day.  If only I had one in Shoo.

The 30th Birthday

I was a little bit down about welcoming in such a milestone of a birthday so far from my good friends and family back home; the people that know me so well and would celebrate with me as only they know how. On a day-to-day basis, I enjoy the unfamiliar world of living in another country with surprises around every corner, but sometimes the familiarity of home is what is required. Not to mention feeling down about rolling from the free and youthful feeling of being a twenty-something into the responsible, adult like requirements of a thirty-something and all it entails.

However, I need-not-have-worried, from my wife and all her little helpers rallied to my aid, to put on a party to remember, worthy of such a landmark age. And while I got some wonderful gifts, the best of all was the messages from my friends and family, near and far, which was then collected, edited and presented together in a beautiful video message. I must confess, I cried a little. It was so moving to feel loved by so many people.

The party itself was amazing. Balloons and banners, a steak as big as my head and drinks on tap; friends, toasts, karaoke and a hangover to match.

Thank you to all for the party and your messages, and thank you to my wife for putting it all together.

Thank You Mum

A big thank you to my mum, to who it seems apparent that she will always see me as her 'little boy', for sending me a homemade advent calendar with small goodies to put in it. Thank you.

The Harvest

My Kocho-sensei (Principle) at my Junior High School has taken me under his horticultural wing after I mentioned I missed picking blackberries in London. Behind the pool (Don't get excited, all schools have them. They are outside and cold) at my school there is garden of various Japanese delights. Today we took a large harvest of shiitake mushrooms, daikon (A large white radish) and chinese lettuces. On the photo it doesn't look too much, but those baskets are are about 50cm in diameter and some teacher took a load already. Took a bag full of goodies home to cook with. Can't get much fresher than this.  

Best Tempura EVER

Made some tempura the other night and for a while I had be coming out with a thick dough like crust rather than the thin crispy fried coating that really makes the tempura. I found a new recipe online and it stated what not to do, rather than what to do and it turned out perfect. The shiitake mushrooms were so fresh too. I've put the link below:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Tempura-Shrimp-and-Vegetables-352102

Basketball Tournament

I've been playing with a local basketball club in my town for a while now. I didn't want to tell anyone as I thought it was just a matter of time before I dislocated my shoulder again. However, (Touch wood) its holding out. And its been really fun to play with them. They have such good sportsmanship and its a fun level of basketball too. Starting to make a few friends there too.

Last week, we had a tournament, hosted by my club. Some games were very easy, others not so much. We came out 3^rd overall, but I think we all felt we could have done and played better. Frustration of starting to feel my age with various aches and pains (30 next week), as well as simply just not being as fit as I used to be does get to me. I know I used to be better. But still, playing with this team is always the highlight of my week.