Gypsy Biker

Japanese Word of the Day:

English: Deer
Japanese: Kako (鹿子 or かこ)

Timeline: Just happened (9/29)

Yesterday I had a day off. So when you’re living and working as an English teacher in Japan what do you do when you have a free Monday? You go and poke deer.

Let’s talk about Nara!

Nara city is part of Nara prefecture, just south of where I live in Kyoto prefecture. When people think of the area I live in they think of the triangle formed by the 3 most famous towns here; Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara. So what makes Nara awesome enough to be in the same category as Osaka and Kyoto? I would say 3 words: history, temples, and deer.

Wait, deer?

"Yes, we'd like some food please. Oh and a deer plushie."

Yes, deer! See, Nara is a town filled with massive amazing temples and shrines so religion is pretty important there. Nara was also briefly the capital of Japan (between 710-784 AD) and legend states that a god called Takemikazuchi came down to bless and protect the new capital riding on a deer. Since then, deer in Nara have been honored and protected.

I've actually been meaning to go to Nara for years. When I studied abroad in Japan I was also near Nara and some of my friends went and brought back great pictures and stories but for some reason I just never went. I missed a group trip there this weekend because I had Elementary School Sports Day so I decided to just go by myself.

Which leads to a quick digression. I've had a few people talk to me lately about traveling and when I say I travel alone they ask if I get lonely. The answer to that is absolutely no. It may seem strange but hear me out. When I’m with other people I have to be consciously aware of their needs and wants. For example, if I stop to have a photoshoot with a kind deer they may be bored and want to move on to something interesting. If I am by myself I can spend as long as I want looking through the lens or deciding on a whim “hey, that place looks cool, I’ll go check it out”. That doesn't mean I dislike traveling with people entirely. If it was a good friend or someone I’m comfortable with I wouldn't mind as much but in general I find I like independent travelling and am not lonely.

But let’s get back to Nara. I planned my trip the day prior so I would arrive right at 11:00 so I could grab lunch before going on the temple tour. I poked around online beforehand and found a place that served Italian and Indian food and even had English menus. I can’t begin to tell you how exciting it was to not have to take 5 minutes to translate a menu page. I ended up getting a four cheese pizza and mango lassi; a pretty great way to start my adventure.

I swear to you that's a vial of honey and not a shot glass.

After lunch I headed in the direction of the Nara Park and it wasn't long before I started to see the deer. In Nara, not only do the deer run amok but vendors sell deer biscuits that you can feed to the deer. As a result of this the deer see humans as food vending machines. They regularly walked up to me, checked my hands, and disappointed left because I had no biscuits for them. Also, some of the deer have learned to bow back to someone who bows at them for biscuits. Again, since I had no biscuits I personally had no success with this but it’s a well-documented behavior.

Disclaimer, not my gif.

I personally found a lovely male deer who had had his antlers sanded down and seemed to have a monster itch around them. I gave him a good head scratch right behind the antler stubs and he decided he quite liked me and was kind enough to pose for me.

I shall call him "deer-bro".

Once I had enough of the deer I continued along down a few side roads in search of the Isuien Gardens. Isuien is a bit off the beaten path (though not that far) so I think a lot of tourists miss it which is a real shame. It’s an absolutely stunning garden, complete with a tea house and restaurant that is highly picturesque. It has a small admissions fee (650￥) while the garden next to it is free so it gets a bit less traffic which makes it even easier to get great shots. I especially lucked out since my timing coincided with the trees just beginning to turn, which I swear I didn't plan. I spent quite a while there taking pictures but I’ll just leave you my favorite.

In case you were wondering, I took 790 pictures on my trip. Yes, I know I have a problem.
Totally worth it for shots like this.

Once I finally drug myself away from the beauty of the gardens I headed into Nara Park and quickly found myself approaching a temple I didn't recognize. What the hell, let’s see what’s inside!

Actually in my notes I called this place the “angry statue shrine” because I didn't know the actual name and that’s what I was most struck by (it’s actually called Kaidan-do).  The temple was fairly small with the bulk of it being taken up by a miniature temple surrounded and protected by Four Devas (no, not divas). Said Devas are standing in the four corners of the raised area, each squishing a demon-type thing under their feet and each wielding a different item; I recall a sword, a spear, a small pagoda, and a paint brush. I would show you more pictures but I asked if pictures were ok and was told no (after I’d already taken the first one, oops).

I particularly liked this guy's face

When I planned to come to Nara I knew the place I absolutely had to go was Toudaiji Temple and as I left Kaidan-do I realized I would have no trouble finding it. Toudaiji towered in the distance, well above everything else, and I used it like a beacon to lead me to the gates.

Toudaji was the world’s largest wooden building up until 1998, to give some perspective. It is massive. It also contains the world’s largest bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana. So yeah, it’s a big deal. A big, BIG deal.

Please note the people for scale.

My timing also seemed to luck out again as I arrived to see a ceremony underway in Toudaiji. For lack of a better, more educated assessment I will conclude that it looked akin to a graduation ceremony except with monks. I actually recorded a very short video of them chanting!

Warning, video has sound, don't watch at work.

Please disregard the wobbly-ness, I am not used to taking video.

Toudaji was really spectacular in ways that are hard to describe. Obviously the entirely massive Buddha was really cool but there were also little details like the lotus flower sculptures around the statue and the beautiful way the wooden beams looked that are hard to describe. So have some pictures!

Again, people for scale.

Monks doin' monk stuff.

As I was heading to the exit I noticed a souvenir shop was set up inside the temple. It seemed strangely sacrilegious to sell merchandise in the same space as people praying but I kind of liked the lack of pretense. I ended up getting a canvas bag and an adorable deer mascot as well as 2 charms, one each for myself and a friend.

The black thing is the bag. Also, cutest mascot ever.

By now it was around 2 in the afternoon and I’d been walking around a while so I opted for a water break. I followed a path towards more souvenir shops where I located a vending machine and sat among the deer to rest. While there I got to witness a rowdy group of deer mug an old woman for her biscuits and chase a teen girl into a shop. The shop keepers were understandably prepared for deer management and came out in force with a spray bottle of water that sent the deer away. I can’t help but think that the deer are just big puppies that run the town.

The lady on the left is holding deer biscuits. She got mugged immediately after.

I poked around a few more buildings in the area before stumbling on a hillside temple that looked like it would have a great view (toudaji nigatsu-do for the curious). I climbed up and lamented that I wasn't there a few hours later because I was sure the sunset there would be spectacular as it gazed out on the sprawling Nara cityscape. From the peaceful vantage point of a temple ground the cities of Japan seem so alien. Temples are laid out in very precise ways, with plenty of breathing space; very different from the wabi-sabi approach of a crowded Japanese city.

I like silhouettes.

Next to the temple viewing deck I found a building beckoning me inside with a sign offering it as a free resting house. Inside I found various seats in both western (table and chairs) and eastern (tatami mat and low table) styles as well as free water and tea provided that you were willing to clean your cup after use. After walking and climbing up hills all day I gladly took the respite offered.

While sitting I decided I had enjoyed a full day of exploration and that I should begin my walk back to the station before the aching in my feet began so I wouldn’t be sore in class the next day. But I still had one more stop in mind before catching my train.

Just north of the train station I had looked up a café that served fantastic looking fruit parfaits and popped in for an early ‘dinner’. I found the café was a beautiful little shop with an incredibly kind hostess who chatted with me in English while making me the best parfait I've ever eaten. Also my first parfait, but it was really good so I feel comfortable calling it a best.

Parfaits are a surprisingly big deal in Japan.

On my train and later bus ride home I reflected on what it was about the trip that left me feeling so recharged. What I concluded was that going to Nara was like a mini vacation from living in Japan. Allow me to explain.

When I am riding the bus from my town there are several hilariously strange things along the route, such as a large pirate statue atop a building and various creative uses of English such as “Day Salon Santa” written in Disney style font. Every time I see them I think how much I’d like to snap a picture to show and every time I don’t because I don’t want to draw attention to the fact that I am an outsider. Inside my town I am literally the only white girl so anything I do I feel becomes reflective on white girls everywhere. As a result, I feel a constant pressure to be in performance mode and be constantly hyper aware.

In Nara, I was one of many. Nara is a world heritage site; it was flooded with tourists from all over the world. If I made an ass of myself in Nara I could feel like people would just think “wow that dumb tourist” rather than “wow, white girls are dumb” in Ujitawara. Don’t think I mean the people of Ujitawara are in any way judgmental. They've been insanely patient with me and are incredibly kind but when you only have one example of something it becomes the default. You should all go watch Chimamanda Adichie’s amazing Ted Talk about the “danger of the single story”, by the way.

In addition, in Nara I was given menus in English and could communicate in basic English with waiters. That might not seem like much but trying to translate an entire page of a menu just to figure out what to eat can get very frustrating. It can be even more so when it’s an Italian named dish written in Japanese Italian (ie, “quattro formaggi” written as “kuatoro forumajji”/クアトロ・フォルマッジ). Needless to say, this was a much needed quick vacation to remind me what an absolutely amazing place I live in and remember I’m allowed to be a tourist sometimes.

Also deer.

Wake Me Up When September Ends

Japanese Word of the Day:
English: Please wait a moment
Japanese:  Chotto matte kudasai  (ちょっとまってください)

Earlier in my time in Ujitawara I was invited to my second festival which was held by one of my elementary schools. The principal himself came by the BoE to deliver tickets to Allen, Inaho-sensei, and myself. The way these events seem to work is the students sell tickets in advance that you use to get food and play games at the actual event. My ticket informed me through pictures and the few words I could discern that the event would have cotton candy, popcorn, hot dogs, yakisoba, and yakionigiri as well as a few games. I was quite excited since I had enjoyed the previous festival with Becky and Andrew. Sadly, Allen would not be able to go so it would be just me and Inaho-sensei.

The event was Saturday afternoon so I met Inaho-sensei at the BoE office where we drove over to the neighborhood community center holding the event. After arriving we hovered by some important looking dudes in suits one of whom was the principal who had invited us. After a few minutes of awkward hovering the principal retrieved a microphone to give an introductory speech and it occurred to me that I might be asked to say something. Instantly I started trying to form a coherent introduction in my head as right on cue Inaho-sensei leaned over and asked me to give a short speech. At least I had a few moments of preparation based on my developing time-to-give-a-speech senses.

The principal's speech went on quite a while despite no one seeming to listen so I actually had plenty of time to cobble an introduction. When I spoke everyone seemed to stop and listen, either from the novelty of me or just my poor Japanese. Once I finished I hastily retreated behind Inaho-sensei and was spared any further public speaking. After the festivities had kicked off proper I was hovering near a few of the games and was invited to give them a try by the kind ladies manning them. There were two games which seem to be festival standards so lend me your imagination a moment. Both involved plastic kiddie pools filled with water but one has an assortment of small, brightly colored plastic bouncy balls while the other had small inflated balloons. The plastic balls game was simple; you were given a round spatula type device with a layer of paper in the middle. Using this you tried to scoop as many of the plastic balls as possible before the weight and water caused the paper to tear. The lady who handed me the scoop had said something about “three” so I opted to scoop 3 little balls and surrender my scoop back after that. Of my haul I had 2 bright normal balls and one yellow plastic piece in the shape of a poop. If you think I am exaggerating, no I am not, it was literally a poop.

Yup, that's a poop.

The other game was more interesting in my opinion. The balloons were small rounded types that had been painted with streaks of color. They were partially inflated by air with just a little water in the bottom to give them weight. The ends were tied and a rubber band had been tied to the ends in a loop. A child was given a paper “string” with a paperclip on the end and the object was to use the paperclip (dangled from the paper thread) to scoop the balloon’s band and then pull it out of the water before the paper broke from being wet. I never actually saw a child succeed at this but once they failed they were given the balloon of choice anyways. The balloons could then be used as colorful yoyos as they bounced on the rubber band from the weight of the water in them.

Not my picture, I take no credit. Just wanted to show what they look like!

I opted not to play the yoyo game as I didn’t want to take a yoyo that a child could enjoy (though I secretly craved one dearly). Instead I let Inaho-sensi lead me to a new area where a massive pipe of bamboo had been set up. When I say “massive pipe” I mean that a hollow piece  of bamboo with maybe a 6” diameter had been cut in half and laid in a gentle slope that was probably 50’ long. At the top end of the tube a hose had been set up to run water down the bamboo to where it ended at a storm drain. I was deeply curious what purpose this fixture served when Inaho-sensei asked me if I liked soba noodles. I told him I knew of them but had never had them and he told me to “please try some”. Well ok, sure, but first can we figure out what this slide is for?

…

You say it’s for the noodles?

…

You say they take noodles, stick them in at the top of the slide and people standing along the slide reach in with chopsticks, grab out the noodles, but them in a cup of broth and then eat them?

…

What?

It’s funny, my immediate first thought was “that would so not slide in America what with sticking chopsticks in your mouth then in the same water and noodles as other people”. The idea behind this was that the water cools the noodles (which are served cold) and dilutes the broth a bit. Also it’s fun for the kids! It’s also incredibly wasteful as noodles sometimes get dropped or flopped over the side and any that reach the end of the line were tossed as well. Despite how it may sound it was actually rather challenging to scoop noodles out of moving water with chopsticks. Inaho-sensei showed me the trick was to the plant your chopsticks so you could catch a lump and pull it out all at once. He ate a fair few chunks but I rationed myself noting all the other food present. In particular I was eyeing the yakisoba and yakionigiri though the line for that seemed to be quite long. I decided I would wait a while before trying it.

A while passed and I awkwardly stood around as Inaho-sensei asked me what I’d like to try. Eventually I confessed a desire to try to yakisoba and yakionigiri and he encouraged me to get in line. By this point the line was even longer but I figured it couldn’t be that bad. How wrong I was.

I was in that line two hours. I am not kidding. It seems that at festival events kids will give their tickets to their mothers who patiently wait in line and then bring the children back the food. This meant for each person in front of me there were roughly 4-5 orders to fill., and there were still a lot of people in front of me. After about an hour I realized what a mess I’d gotten myself into and considered ducking out. I spotted Inaho-sensei in the distance keeping a watchful eye on me and decided I didn’t know how to explain to him that I changed my mind. I especially didn’t want him to feel disappointed or sad on my behalf so I decided to stick it out. Over the next hour of waiting I noticed how while he moved around he was never out of eyesight and frequently checked on my position. I swear that man is like the Japanese grandfather I never had but lied about having as a child*.

The view from the back of the line, 30 minutes into waiting, That's the soba slide!
Also I really hate blurring my pictures but it's that or no pictures. :(

From my mostly stationary position I had an excellent chance to people watch. One of my favorite parts of summer festivals is the clothes people wear, especially the kids. Since this was a festival for the children they were the ones dressed up in tiny yukata with bright oversized bows. With their festival food and balloon yoyos they were the perfect picture of children at a Japanese festival, which of course I cannot show you pictures of. If you’re new to the party or just forgot I cannot show any pictures of my students for privacy reasons. Yeah, that rule kind of sucks but it’s for a good reason and I’m not bending on it.

As darkness fell I crept closer in the line and eventually was close enough to see inside the tent where the food was being made. Two exhausted looking cooks were preparing massive batches of yakisoba as they sweat slaving over a hot grill while another few cooked the onigiri on smaller grills to the side. Even more cooks were around helping divvy the food into containers and supply them to the waiting masses. It was a reasonably warm day and having to work at a hot grill for hours while preparing enormous amounts of food must have been seriously exhausting. I have tons of respect for those people.

The real MVPs of the night. That's yakionigiri on the left!

As I got a few people in line from the front Inaho-sensei appeared at my side as if summoned. I hastily apologized to him for how long the line had been as I wondered if I had kept him here when he wanted to leave. Oh God, what if he has a wife at home sitting wondering where her husband is? What if I’m keeping him from his family?! I am the worst import American ever!

Despite the conflict of what degree of terrible I might be I at long last collected my food and followed Inaho-sensei away from the line that had consumed my afternoon. He told me to wait while he moved his car and so I did while snacking on an onigiri. When he returned I had only munched on a few onigiri (they gave each person several which is another reason it took a while) thinking that he wanted to leave and I could eat my food at home. Instead he stood by me and encouraged me to eat and told me the raffle was starting. Well ok, maybe I overreacted and I didn’t deprive him of family time. I hungrily ate my food while mentally reciting the Japanese words for my raffle number as the raffle occurred. It started with basic items like paper towel rolls, tissues, and… mayonnaise? Well I guess that is a staple in Japan. After a while it got to the more serious items; large bags of rice, a coffee maker, and some kind of automatic trashcan. For the last item, the number was called but no one came up to claim it leading to another number being called and then a third. Apparently the 2^nd person called was indeed there but did not reach the front until the 3^rd person had been called and so two people appeared to collect one prize. So the problem was settled in the Japanese way; they played janken for it! Janken is the Japanese name for rock paper scissors and it decides everything in Japan. Everything.

After the raffle was finished things were moved out of the way and Inaho-sensei told me it was time for the fireworks. I quickly realized that they had to move the raffle tables immediately because the fireworks were being launched from the top of the stairs where the raffle had just been taking place. This put Inaho-sensei and myself maybe 40’ from where the fireworks were shooting off. That may seem like a lot but…it’s not. Bits of dust and smoke kept invading my eyes and some mysterious falling object smacked my ear on its decent to earth (though I can confirm it was not fire).

The fireworks were pretty though!

The show also differed from traditional American fanfare in that it was relatively short, maybe a minute or two tops. According to Inaho-sensei fireworks are much more common in Japan than our couple of times a year in America so I can understand the shorter show.

After the show I heard a bit of yelling and quickly moved as a man rushed by with a tank on his back of water that he was using to extinguish any sparks left over. Running by he looks a bit like a Ghostbuster which caused me a bit of a chuckle.

With the fireworks done the festival was officially. By now it was about 8:00 so I returned with Inaho-sensei to his car where I made the mistake of teaching him an idiom in the form of “speak of the devil”. Inaho-sensei had remarked it was good the rain had stayed away during the festival and immediately after his proclamation fat raindrops began falling on the car, prompting me to say “speak of the devil”. I explained the idea behind the idiom and he chuckled and drove me home. He’s such a good surrogate Japanese grandfather.

                                                                                                                                       

As you may have noticed entries are probably going to come out a bit less often now. School is in full swing and when I get home I have a tendency to want to do anything but spend several hours typing, editing, and going through pictures. On Thursdays in particular I have nonstop action from elementary kids from 8:50-4:00 and then I have to bicycle home so I’m usually pretty wiped. But in case you’re worried I’m thoroughly enjoying my kids and classes (especially the Thursday Elementary school despite how exhausting it is) and there will be entries devoted to them soon. For now, time to go to bed at 10PM on a Friday night because I am an old person now.

*True story: As a child I tried to convince a teacher I had that I had a Chinese grandfather and 2 twin Chinese sisters. Apparently I was a pretty good liar back then.

Danger Zone

Japanese Word of the Day:
English: Bothersome
Japanese: Mendokusai (めんどくさい or 面倒臭い) 

Fun Fact: This is the only Japanese phrase I've successfully taught my mother. I guess I say it a lot. :D

Ok guys, something happened that I was trying to avoid. I have several entries queued up to write that are weeks, even a month old. I've been jotting down notes as I go since I have the memory of a distracted goldfish but I’ll still be missing a lot of details. I got behind on writing for a few reasons but mostly because school takes a lot of my allotted higher functioning for the day and also because I have been enjoying some amazing skype calls with friends that sometimes last for 4+ hours.  But enough excuses! You’re here for stuff about Japan so let’s talk about Japan!

More specifically, let’s talk about the stuff I've done in the last month and a half because holy shit I've been here a month and a half already!

Week 1 (2-9th)

• Learned how to sort trash
• Went to my first festival (with Becky and Andrew!)
• Met everyone in town; had everyone chuckle at my unfortunate love of katsu and hatred of cabbage
• Memorized a basic self introduction in Japanese for meeting everyone in town
• Began “work” at BoE (Board of Education)
• Road a bicycle for the first time in 10+ years
• Made my first speech at my Welcome Ceremony (in English)

Week 2 (10-16^th)

• Got a phone
• Offered to be a meeting point for an event in another city that was sadly rained out

Week 3 (17-23^rd)

• Went to Kyoto Seminar and was truly alone in a city other than my home
• Begin working with students
• Got internet in my apartment
• Realized BoE “work” is very different from what I’ll actually be doing

Week 4 (24-30^th)

• Went to Uji alone, navigating all sorts of buses
• Welcomed 2 new plants to my home; their names are Hanabi and Aurora
• Paid my first bill (at a conbini!)
• Started work at my schools
• Attended my first Enkai (social drinking party)

Week 5 (31-6^th)

• Learned how to actually sort trash properly (Turns out plastic is not burnable, opps!)
• Learned the importance of Janken (rock, paper, scissors; it rules all decisions here)
• Made my first speech entirely in Japanese

Week 6 (7-13^th)

• Took a trip to Osaka, a 4 hour round trip. It’s kind of awesome how little has changed in 3 years
• Learn how to get packages rescheduled*
• Was visited by Jehova’s Witnesses (I wasn’t home but they left me literature)

*In Japan if you are not home when a package comes they leave you a note and you have to reschedule delivery. They will not just leave your package unattended at your door.

So yeah, I've been pretty busy. But I feel comfortable in my schools, I like my kiddos, and my apartment is beginning to really feel like home. I've been decorating!

Can you find the googly eyes?

Next time! A proper entry, promise.

Also, my song title for the entry is “Danger Zone” because I watched Top Gun for the first time this weekend and have had that song stuck in my head since then.

Cheeseburger in Paradise (Food Blog #1)

Japanese Word of the Day:

English: To eat
Japanese:  Taberu (たべる or 食べる)

It’s time! Let’s talk about food!

For the most part I've been doing a lot of cooking over the last month (wow, I've already been here a month!). Initially I started cooking because I wanted to learn some basic recipes before school started so I wouldn't be trying to learn to cook while busy and stressed. Over time I realized I’m a bit terrified of going to restaurants alone for fear of being asked or told things I wouldn't understand. That’ll probably change soon as I get lazier and learn more about restaurants in the area.

To begin with, I’m going to show you all some of the meals I've been cooking, starting with Japanese dishes and moving to a few Western ones. When applicable I’ll try to link you to the recipe or write one up so you can try Japanese food too! Or just cook a pizza without using an oven. Let’s start!

Gyudon

Om nom nom. I love this stuff.

Gyudon is one of my favorite Japanese foods. It’s also considered a fairly ‘manly’ food. Oh well. The basic idea of it is rice topped with very thin slices of beef and onion that have been cooked in a sauce of dashi, soy sauce, and mirin. It often has other toppings, such as egg, pickled ginger, or green onion. Because the beef is so thin it really absorbs the flavors of the sauce, especially the mirin. Mirin is one of my favorite Japanese ingredients because it sweetens things a bit and (I think) brings out the flavor in meats. Mirin is also slightly alcoholic and can be used as a substitute for sake/sugar in recipes; in the recipe I linked I use 6 tbsp of mirin instead of sugar or sake. I know it seems weird but I also highly recommend the pickled ginger (which is usually dyed pink) as a topping.

Recipe: https://en.cookpad.com/recipe/811331

Gyoza, Miso, and Rice

This meal always makes me feel fancy.

I like this meal because it 1) looks like a fancy spread of delicious food and 2) is super easy to make. For those curious, gyoza is known in the west as “potstickers”, though if they stick to your pot you may be doing something wrong. I buy my gyoza premade because I am lazy. So basically this meal just requires me to throw rice in my rice cooker, cook the gyoza on the stove, and make the miso. Miso soup is made by boiling water and adding dashi to make a dashi stock base. Dashi usually comes in granule form and can be found in America if you look around. If you skip the dashi stock and use water your miso just won’t taste quite right. After the stock is made, turn the heat down and add your miso paste. You never want to boil miso paste because it hurts the soup though google is giving me about 10 completely different reasons how it hurts the soup. Regardless, never boil once you added your miso paste. Before serving, add some thin green onion slices on top. Tada! A basic miso recipe. Most miso includes seaweed (called nori) and tofu but I like mine simple. If you ever add those things be sure to cook them before adding the miso paste!

Sometimes I also like to add another smaller side to this meal, like pepper strips cooked in a little katsu sauce.

Katsu Don

The sauce is katsu sauce, by the way.

First off, I did not make this. The fact that my favorite Japanese food is katsu is a curse for 2 reasons; 1) katsu is usually served with cabbage which I detest, and 2) I cannot cook katsu to save my life.

Truly, I lead a cursed life.

Fortunately, my local grocery store carries some premade meals, yaaay! And this lovely katsudon dish is one of them, double yaaay!

You may notice that katsudon has a similar name to gyudon. That’s because the gyu- in gyudon is telling you its beef on rice with a dashi sauce whereas katsudon is katsu on rice with dashi sauce. For those who don’t know, katsu is a breaded and fried cutlet of pork or chicken and is delicious. My katsudon was also served with pickled ginger and egg, which is common with all -don type dishes.

Curry Rice

There's a layer of rice under there, I promise.

Curry rice is exactly what it sounds like; curry served with or over rice. What you may not know is that Japanese curry is quite different from Indian curry. Just in case someone doesn't know, curry is a thick stew type food that uses curry powder as a base spice and usually has potatoes, onions, and other such vegetables cooked in it. Indian curry comes in many different flavors and styles that range quite wildly whereas Japanese curry seems to have one main style. It can be described as much more ‘bland’ than Indian curry and more like a hearty stew with a curry flavor base. Sorry if that’s not a very clear description but… it’s a little hard to describe! Honestly, I think you should just try it, whoever you are!

Japanese curry is quite easy to make. You need to get a box of curry flavoring (which are easily found in American grocery stores!) and your vegetables and meat. The curry flavoring comes in the form of a small brick that you add to your cooked vegetables and water and then you have curry! I’m not going to offer any recipes for this since I tend to use the one on the back of the box as a base. Just add vegetables you like and none you don’t like. Easy right? For anyone curious, my curry used potato, carrot, onion, and bean sprouts. I might suggest skipping the bean sprouts though.

Indian Curry and Naan

Just looking at this picture is making me hungry.

Confession time: I like Indian curry way more than Japanese curry.  Indian curry uses a lot more spices and herbs and tends to be a lot spicier. I got a craving for some good curry and naan recently and decided to take matters into my own hands. I combined a recipe for tandoori chicken with a base curry and made naan on the side. Since it was my first time trying this recipe I haven’t had a chance to perfect the recipe yet. I’ll still link it below but here are my suggestions; add more spices, double the yogurt, lessen the amount of chicken. For my first batch of leftovers I did all but lessening the chicken and it made it a lot better. The naan recipe I’m not going to link because unless I badly misread something the recipe is incorrect. I ended up with a very wet dough that I had to double the flour in before it became a proper dough and doing so messed up the proportions. So sorry, you’ll have to find your own naan! I have been told you can use the pizza dough recipe I’ll link later to make naan though.

Tandoori Chicken Recipe: https://en.cookpad.com/recipe/1217608Base Curry Recipe: https://en.cookpad.com/recipe/596418

Speaking of Pizza…

Best comfort food ever.

Time to move on to western foods! As some of you may have noticed, my kitchen does not contain an oven. As an enormous lover of pizza this presented me with quite a conundrum. So I asked the almighty Google to help and my pizza prayers were answered! Stove top pizza recipes, woo!

The basic idea of this recipe is to make the dough and let it rise while you prepare any toppings you want. When the dough has risen, spread it into a crust and cook it juuuust long enough to lightly brown the bottom. Then flip it over (with the stove turned off) and throw your toppings on. Turn the stove back on, let the bottom cook and cheese melt and you have a delicious pizza! I make these almost one a week because they’re so delicious and remind me of home, so don’t think it’s a huge hassle. I also like to have some tomatoes in balsamic vinegar on the side because I’m a southerner.

Stove Top Pizza Recipe: http://kurryleaves.blogspot.jp/2013/11/stove-top-pizza-no-oven-pizza.html

Veggie Pasta

Italian food makes me so happy.

Do you know what the worst thing about cooking in Japan is? There are no garlic presses and I haven’t found any white wine for cooking. In America I loved to cook pasta dishes but it’s a fair bit harder here in Japan without my favorite wines and stocks. I still manage but I’m lazy and just mix premade sauce with some veggies. I will never take a garlic press for granted again. If you’re wondering, the bread is my attempt at garlic toast with cheese. Sadly, the cheese here is expensive and not very good so I have to use what I can. It wasn't bad though.

Burger and Mashed Potatoes

Now that's an American meal.

Now this is what I call American food. The nearest fast food is a town over so I have to make due when I get cravings for something more red, white, and blue. Like with everything else, I cook my burgers on the stove after marinating them in mirin and garlic. I also haven’t found hamburger buns so I toast sliced bread and make it like a melt. 

Overall, with my western food dishes I have to do a lot of substituting to get the effect I want but it’s really nice to be able to cook Eastern food without trouble getting the ingredients. I’m really enjoying the chance to try out new recipes and methods of cooking.

I’ll do some food blogs from time to time each with a different topic. The next one will probably be snack type foods and drinks and later I want to do restaurant food (which will require me to actually go to restaurants). But that won’t be for a bit. Next time will be Elementary school summer matsuri (or festival)!

Post Note: I actually made myself so hungry writing this I had to stop and cook an early dinner. I suffer for you people!