Mmm, Jersey-fresh

Our local ice cream shop won the Grand Prix of Japanese ice cream! How cool is that?! It's a bit of a hike from our place, so we've only been a few times, but damn, that ice cream is good! The shop keeps Jersey cows in a field nearby, so their milk is extremely fresh. A few of the cool flavors we've tried or heard about:

Tomato

Sake

Camembert

Black Sesame

And of course they have the usual suspects. The chocolate might be the best chocolate I've ever tasted. Creamy fresh goodness!

The Notorious Love Hotel

Japanese houses are built without insulation. Besides making me miserable in the winter and the summer, this understandably dampens many amorous actions for the average Japanese person. Well, that and the fact that most Japanese live with their parents until they get married.

So the love hotel was invented. Much nicer than American flop houses, but essentially the same idea. You can rent by the hour, or stay the night. Many places restrict overnight check-ins til 10pm.

So Aaron and I found an area with several love hotels, picked one and walked in. There's a nifty spread with photos of the different rooms and their rates. If the room is available, it's lit up, and when you push the button, a receipt will pop out. Right as we walked in, a man was taking his receipt to a man at the "hidden" counter. Being novices, we thought this was the thing to do. As I handed in our receipt, I asked if there was a surcharge for holiday hours. Nope on the surcharge, but he told us that we shouldn't check in til 10, as it would be cheaper from that point.

Gah. Notice "shouldn't" above. We foolishly followed this advice. So we bummed around, killed some time. Around 9:40, the foot traffic increased drastically. We walked in to snag our room, but the rooms were going fast. We picked one, foolishly walked over to the counter, where the guy told us to wait til 10. He cancelled our room, which was immediately snapped up by a horny couple.

Now there are no rooms left. We run to a few hotels, but are greeted with the same sight. We decide to divide and conquer. I return to our first choice to camp out, while Aaron goes to another hotel to do the same. As I'm waiting, a Japanese couple come in. They go to talk to the counter guy about how long they'll have to wait. I hear that a room should be opening soonish. Then the guy comes out to ask what I'm doing. I say I'm waiting for a room, then I'll call my "friend" to come meet me. Oh, no. That doesn't fly at all. He has to be here. Meanwhile, the girl half of the couple is smirking at me. Extremely annoyed, feeling sabotaged [if only we hadn't listened to this guy's "helpful" advice!!], and really needing a shower, I leave.

Luckily, Aaron had just procured us a room! We go in, take a shower, and then explore the room. Sadly, this isn't one of the crazy love hotels with theme rooms. It's a decent size room, but it has:

*Karaoke
*Game Consul
*"toy" vending machine

Not sure how much love actually goes on, what with all the distractions....

When you want to leave, you have to pay a machine in your room. Your door will not open without payment! Reflecting, I'm sure that the counter man was only there to provide change or answer the rare question. Next time we're finding a weird themed room, and not talking to anyone!

Shopping Around

Hooray for long weekends! July 17th was National Marine Day, so everyone takes the day off to appreciate the ocean. Aaron and I decided to treat ourselves to a shopping trip to stock up on foreign foods. So up we were at freakin' 6 am to catch the 7:11 train. Ugh. Still, it was a good thing we caught the early train; far less crowding.

Where were we going? Why, the safe haven of Costco! We arrived at the perfect time-- around 11, so the food counters were open, but there still weren't too many shoppers. Costco dogs and churros were devoured. What?! Yes, of course Costco in Japan has Costco dogs! It's, like, their symbol or something [<- please say with mid-90s angst]. The counters also offer Bulgogi bakes, matcha ice cream, and pizza. While there is a seafood option for the whole pizza, the slices are only available in cheese and combo.

We made our purchases, arranged for shipping, then ran next door to Carre Four. Carre Four is a French supermarket chain, and they have a great selection of cheeses, breads, and teas. Then it was off to Kobe.

We met up with Haru, who showed us a new area near Harborland. Did some shopping, then went out for Korean for dinner. Now, despite Korea being very close, Japan is pretty selective about the Korean foods they'll eat. Namely, they tone down the spicy factor. Most Korean restaurants are limited to bi bim bop or yakiniku, but we found a place with a wider selection. Very tasty!

Then it was time to part ways. Haru went home and Aaron and I went on to our next adventure: the notorious Love Hotel.

Frogger

With its humid climate and countless rice paddies, Japan is a frog's heaven.

OR IS IT?

Frogs are despised by the Japanese. I first noticed this last year when most of my students listed "flog" [uh-oh] as their most hated thing. When Aaron and I asked our Kaiwa class about this, they all declared frogs to be "kimoi" [kimochi ga warui = gives a bad feeling; creepy]. Aaron's kids freaked when he told them he liked to watch and play with the frogs. And the thing the Japanese seem to dislike the most is the ribbet ["kero kero" in Japanese]. What with all the Nature Sounds Sleeping Aid thingies in the states, this frog/ribbet hate is a bit strange for us. Chalk it up to cultural differences.

Further evidence of frog hate: besides the countless flattened frogs [which are probably just accidents], Cory's neighbor boy shots frogs with air guns.

Yoka Matsuri

Matsuri season kicked off this weekend. We went to Yoka for dinner with Mari's family and the matsuri after. Despite really looking forward to festival food, especially takoyaki and kara-age, Mari's family stuffed us so full that the only thing we could fit was a snowcone.

I really wanted to wear my yukata, but a week of lounging meant that it smelled kinda bad. When Mari saw that I hadn't brought mine, she finagled one out of storage for me. So nice! Her mom did a lot of pulling and tucking, but managed to bundle me into one. Wow. Pretty confining. I got a kick out of taking tiny steps for quite awhile, but the hard-to-breathe factor was a bit rough. Aaron and I both saw tons of our students, and I saw two herds of teachers out on patrol; men in one group, women in another, of course.

As we were walking back, a rainstorm came out of nowhere to soak everything in sight. Absolute mayhem! People running for cover, stall workers trying to secure their booths... It pretty much ended the matsuri, but it was kinda late, so it wasn't too bad.

Sorry, no pics yet. Hopefully we'll exchange with Mari to find the best one for your viewing pleasure!

Slow means easy to forage!

At our friend Mari's house we were served snails. Snails Japanese-style are kinda hard to eat. They're steamed in their shells with flavorful sauce. But you have to lever the trapdoor open to pull out the meat. As we were both completely unsuccessful, Mari took pity on us and did the navigating.

So, the taste.... Well, it was chewy. I made the mistake of eating the rear, blue-colored tip. Not tasty. I noticed no one else ate that, but of course only after I swallowed mine. Mari's dad warned Aaron in time [lucky guy]. Besides the nasty blue part, snails are ok. Not great, and I wouldn't pay for them, but not horrible.

Bring back the dewy look

Summer is hitting its stride. The cicadas are out, the heat and humidity is rising, showers are getting colder and more frequent. And of course, everyone's sweaty. I try to think that I look glowing, or dew-faced, but I feel sticky and nasty. The kids are melted puddles lounging on their desks. I'd heard Japan was pretty humid, but Aaron says it's worse than Austin, and it's worse than Orlando in June. If only Japan was down with being nearly nekkid, but nope. You can flash a lot of leg, but wearing a tank top is sorta scandalous.

Glorified Bathrobe

I bought my first yukata this weekend. A yukata is a summer style cotton kimono. Much cheaper than the traditional silk kimonos. While I find kimonos to be exceptionally beautiful, most are several hundred dollars, with some into the tens of thousands. Also, wearing a kimono properly requires training and help [just to get the dang thing on]. I also feel that it is a very Japanese thing, and as a foreigner it wouldn't be "proper/right" for me to wear one unless I really trained to do so.

But I have no such compunctions about the yukatas! I am currently just wearing it around the house as a glorified bathrobe. The summer heat makes actually wearing clothes nigh-unbearable. So instead I traipse about in my yukata. Once the fall hits, I plan to load up on these suckers [sales!]. 'Til then, just the one.

Jumpin' Giant Salamander!!

Yep, not only did we see one of these things in the wild, but I actually grabbed its tail and dragged it out for viewing. Ok, it took a few tries, as it would move a bit and I would freak out, but I touched it!!

We were at a BBQ by a waterfall for a JET thingy. Tempted by the water, I walked in. Tania's kids were telling me there was a weird water monster by the rock-- looking down, I could see a bizarre-looking rock. Oh, not a rock. The tail of a Giant Salamander. Being the animal freak that I am, I couldn't just leave it... Yes, I have a problem. We all know that. Anyways, the sucker was over 3 feet long!! When they say "Giant" they're not fooling. For all of you who image Japan as a delicate country filled with smallish people and smallish creatures, well... the creatures are huge! I am willing to bet that Mothra was no special effect. Seriously, the fauna in this country are out of control.

I was so thrilled to see this, as we'd heard about the salamanders. As we don't drive, I figured we wouldn't get a chance to see one. Love being wrong!

In other creature news, I got 7 mosquito bites in one evening. I itch. It stinks.

Tampopo

Inter-personal relations seem to be going pretty well here in Wadayama. My Kyoto-sensei has made a point to tell me nearly every day how happy he is we're staying another year. Students are being much friendlier and actually seek me out to chat. The bad boys are teaching me lazy-teenager-speak. Our Kaiwa class gets easier and more interesting every week. In general, things are going really well.

And today I finally tried jellyfish. I loved it!

Matsuris are coming up the next few weeks, jogging is getting easier... things are good.

Left to my own devices...

As hinted at before, my teachers don't give me a lot of help for our classes. This varies in degree by teacher, but the end result is that I am responsible for class material. What does this lead to?
Let's see, in my English Life class we focus on slang and Survival Kit. Lessons have included "hog" as in "Who hogged the cookies?" "kosher," and next up is "freak out." My Cross Cultural Studies class featured subculture profiles. I am proud to say that my kids can now recognize punks, goths, jocks, geeks, and preps. This should enhance their American movie comprehension, so clearly it's truly valuable.

Fireflies!!

A few weeks back we saw our first firefly! We were walking back from the onsen and police station with Noel and Katrina [that was one busy day!], when we saw a floating neon green light. It flickered on and off as it lazily flew around. So cool!

I had always imagined fireflies to be cute lil bugs with orangy lamps on their rears. The greenness was pretty surprising, as was the actual bug. Pretty ugly, huh?

Sadly, there aren't many fireflies in the Tajima area this year. There was a really destructive typhoon about 2 years ago that mucked around with the streams and rivers. A lot of firefly areas were effected, so the numbers will be low for a few years.

Seeing the fireflies is definately one of my favorite experiences here in Japan. I'm hoping for a dramatic comeback next year so I can make a jar lamp.