Day Trip to Osaka

Last Friday we headed out to Osaka for the day so Chad could finally get a chance to see Hirakata and my old university, Kansai Gaidai.

Osaka feels quite different from Mie. Whereas Osaka is one of Japan's biggest, most well-known prefectures, even many Japanese aren't sure where Mie is! (Not to mention Osaka has a larger population and a louder personality and style.) Something we noticed quite quickly was how the Keihan trains looked in comparison to those of the Kintetsu line. Aren't the colors cool? Below are some other highlights from our day.

• An obentou (Japanese lunchbox) shop near my old dormitory
• Realistic plastic food models to help customers choose what to order.
• Chad's lunch: mayo noodle salad, Japanese pickled vegetables, tonkatsu (pork cutlets), and rice with sesame seeds
• Caitlyn's lunch: mayo noodle salad, Japanese pickled vegetables, steak and veggies, rice with sesame seeds

Time for a Picnic!

The above picture was taken in the park at which we had our picnic. It's actually right around the corner from the dorm I lived in for a semester. (How convenient! A liquor store and a park right near a college dorm!)

After our picnic, we headed to Namba to do some shopping. One famous landmark in Namba is the Glico man, a mascot of the confectionary company that makes famous products like Pocky.

One of the shopping streets:

• Osaka is famous for Takoyaki! Yum, octopus balls!
• Of course, when Chad sees dango it's a necessary stop. This shop also had Ichigo Daifuku, which is mochi with a cold strawberry inside. So delicious!
  

Nothing cooler than a bike with two kegs on it ;-)

Lastly, Chad posing as Mario:

Beer Gardens and Asahi Brewery

It was John and Joel's first night in our area of Japan, and we had to make it special. What could be better than hitting up Nagoya's Haunted House (way too short for the cost, but really creepy nonetheless), shopping in Sakae, and then heading to a beer garden?

Beer Garden Miami is a pretty famous beer garden in Nagoya in which you can eat over 100 different dishes. It's a tabehoudai and nomihoudai (all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink) for about 150 minutes, and it costs about 38.00 USD. Unlike many beer gardens around the world, beer gardens in Japan are usually found on rooftops of department store buildings. The gardens have a very open, relaxing atmosphere. Beer Garden Miami is on a rooftop of a building over 11 stories high, and is across from Nagoya Station (a very convenient location!).

We could understand why the place was so packed--it was really cool.

The Beer Stations

On the right side of the garden were the beer stations. It was a beautiful sight. Stick in your glass, press a button (even deciding whether or not you want head on the beer), and there you have it. A never-ending beer flow for your entire stay at Miami.

On the left side of the garden was the large selection of food. Some of it, pictured below, was precooked:


Korokke (a croquette), dango, pizza, fried
onigiri (rice ball), edamame and some other
fried foods.

As for the uncooked foods, you can choose what you want before bringing it back to your table to cook at a little grill.

Kanpai! Cheers!

After our night at the beer garden, our beer excursions were far from over. An Asahi Brewery tour was booked for 3:00 a couple days later.

We felt like this adventure could be an excellent adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...except with beer. Year after year of beautiful beer.

Asahi makes several products aside from the Asahi-brand beer -- including, but not limited to, soft drinks, whiskey and wines. Additionally, the company has business agreements with companies like Miller and Löwenbräu of Germany.

Malt and Barley
(It says ASAHI in the circles)

Asahi comes in all sizes, from bottles as big as an
arm, to little bitty cans the height of a pointer finger.

I was surprised to learn how much Asahi does with recycling. The uniform pictured above is made from recycled plastic bottles. There were posters lining the walls with pictures made by school children who went on the brewery tour and learned about Asahi's Eco-friendliness. It seems kind of weird that kids would go on a brewery tour, even if they are learning about helping the environment, but maybe it's because Asahi has plants that produce soft drinks, too (although this plant doesn't...).

Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of a lot of the cool stuff inside the brewery because it was prohibited. However, we let go of our disappointment pretty easily when we were brought the the final stage of the tour: the tasting room!

Joel, Chad, our tour guide and John

VIP status

Air-puffed cracker snacks

Cheese sticks and beef jerky!

A rare photo of Chad and Joel captured in their most natural state!

Quite possibly Chad's biggest smile since our wedding day ;-)

We were allowed 3 free beers, but were
supposed to drink them in 30 minutes!
And then, they offered us a 4th!

And we look forward to seeing you again, Asahi Brewery!

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Last Post Notes

1. Tanuki are kind of like red pandas, but their tales are quite a bit different. Maybe you can kind of see in the picture below:

2. The A-Bomb Dome used to be an Industrial Promotion Hall, and it was almost directly under the spot the first bomb hit in Hiroshima during World War II. After the bombing, the structure was still standing. Amazingly, it can be seen today just as it was after the bombings (although today there have been supports added to keep it standing).

3. The Pavilion of 1000 mats (Itsukushima Shrine) was built as a place to chant Buddhist sutras for fallen soldiers. "1000 mats" refers to the size of the hall. It was never fully completed, so for some it may seem a little sparse. We thought the simplicity ultimately added to a peaceful atmosphere.

4. Tina and Marco thought this particular izakaya was an old man bar because most of the patrons consisted of old men, the food was a bit cheaper than other izakayas (mostly due to the clientelle), and it closed early. Also, the atmosphere was a bit more casual than some of the styles izakayas geared toward younger crowds tend to have.

5. Tina and Marco maintained as much of their vegan diet as possible while they stayed in Japan. There were some exceptions, as it is nearly impossible to be vegan in Japan, but they returned to their normal diet as soon as they hit the flight home.

Rainy Season--and so on

Rainy season has started in Japan, and despite the rumors it's been fairly tame. Also called tsuyu, or plum rain (because rainy season usually happens around the same time the plums ripen), rainy season in Japan generally lasts for about a month and a half. In the past, it's rained so hard during this time of year that - umbrella or not - you would be soaked if you went anywhere and the rain would go on for days straight. Though we've had a couple days in Yokkaichi in which our bike rides home from work were a little on the scary-I-can't-see-where-I'm-going-and-I-just-got-splashed-by-the-biggest-roadside wave-of-my-life side, for the most part we've had sunny, humid, hot and sticky summer days. Apparently, the worst of the humidity is yet to come.

In any event, the rice fields near our apartment are looking quite lovely these days:

We've been keeping extremely busy, which is kind of crazy considering how much busier we're going to be from August to the end of September. We're probably the busiest with work, which has had some additional -though minor- stressful points lately (the past couple of weeks, students in our adult classes have been asked to fill out surveys, and in our kids classes we've had openhouses in which parents join the class for one day). We've both gotten pretty great feedback, so that's encouraging at least. We work five days a week, and on our days off we seem to be in a neverending cycle of catch-up-and-clean-up. Luckily we've still had time for some fun amidst all the other activity.

One day, after an interview with a sub-company of ECC, we decided to hang out in the Nagoya area for the day. First, we went to an English pub and had REAL, DELICIOUS beer!

Above, we're happily enjoying a bass pale ale.

After our beer, it was off to dinner at a Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki restaurant. Okonomiyaki translates to mean "as-you-like-it-pancake" or "whatever you like, grilled," and it was first eaten in Japan during World War II when families had to ration their food and eat what was available. These days, the two most popular styles are Hiroshima okonomiyaki and Osaka okonomiyaki. The main difference is that the former has soba or udon noodles, whereas the latter does not. After cooking okonomiyaki for Chad at our apartment, he was pretty excited to try it at a restaurant--he was not disappointed.

The batter is spread like a pancake, and is ready for toppings.

Chad ordered bacon okonomiyaki, and I ordered taco, or octopus (my favorite!). There is a science to this art that I can only hope to master. So delicious!



Our friendly and talented cook.



Almost ready...better have a beer while we wait...

Mmm! Owarimasu (finished!).

We were happy campers after such a delicious and filling meal. We decided to walk off our bellies a bit in Nagoya before heading home.

Left: Near Kanayama Station

Above: Chad in front of Nagoya International Center after returning library books

At the end of the day we were home-sweet-home in Yokkaichi. Below is the lovely sewer cover design for our city:

There aren't really koalas or pandas here, but what the heck! At least the boat and factory parts are accurate.

On another day, we decided to have a picnic in a nearby park. We stopped at a Brazilian shop for some sausage and freshly made bread, and sat by a little pond. The park is so HUGE and amazing. It is seriously a little kid's dream park.

Check out Chad's sweet new ride!

The hydrangeas are just gorgeous right now. Reminds us of our wedding!

On the way home, we stopped for a dango treat at Chad's favorite shop.

We've been trying to stay pretty active these days, despite the humidity obstacle. I've joined a gym (strangely enough, it's called FEELZ...) in which I do hot yoga, hot boxing and boxersize (kind of like a mix between boxing and aerobics), and I've also been trying to keep up with running. Chad's been running and biking a ton (on top of what we already bike to work and so on).

Running outside in Yokkaichi has brought some surprising adventures. Recently, I had been hearing something about large hornets in Japan. Chad and I were running up a hill near a shrine in the woods, when suddenly I saw just the hornets I had been hearing about.

Fricking. Huge.

The following warning signs are not uncommon in Japan:




I'm not joking about how freaky these things are. And hornets aren't the only bugs in Japan that make you feel like you're suddenly in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." Centipedes and spiders are also huge. Hornets spray you in the face and then sting you repeatedly until you die, and centipedes are poisonous. Also, cockroaches are apparently inevitable, no matter how clean you keep your apartment. I haven't seen one in ours yet, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Click hornets for a wiki link on the scary sight we encountered on our most recent run.

One of my students informed me that in Nagano prefecture they capture the hornets and boil them in soy sauce and salt before wrapping them up and selling them as a delicacy. 1000 yen or about $10 for your own little bunch-o-bees. Finding out about this strange food has led me to ask about other strange foods as a warm-up lesson, and I've now heard about everything from grilled swallow, to turtle eggs, to snake, to horse meat, to vanilla ice cream with Matsusaka beef. That's not even the tip of the iceberg. Of course, one must keep in mind that these are strange foods to most Japanese, too. (But still.)

We learn a lot of interesting things from our students, and I feel like that is one of the coolest parts of our job. They learn English, and we learn about Japan and about our students' lives. Some interesting stories soon, but for now it's off to bed.

Love you and miss you!