Eat. Shop. Sing.

I became a shutterbug today. This post is full of pictures. You have now been warned. Begin. 

I slept in a bit until 8 am, but I needed to get some homework done before the fun could start! As soon as I rolled up my futon and opened my bedroom door, I was greeted by these two little munchkins! They were helping Papa with the laundry! So cute. 

Breakfast! Why does everything taste so much better here? The bread softer, the cucumbers fresher, the bacon ham-ier...

...and just look at the runny egg. Just look. 

It is actually that orange and shiny. 

Kaho was really liking the bacon. She kept on saying, "Ham-u! Ham-u!" She reminded me so much of Ponyo, the character from the movie Ponyo, a Studio Ghibli film. Ponyo loves ham. Kaho loves ham. Twinsies? I think so. 

After doing some homework, the family and I went shopping at the Meitetsu Miza Department Store, connected to the Omi-cho Fish Market!

Could it be the start of つゆ rainy season? Haruki's ready!

First, we took it to the top floor for some major food ogling and sampling! They were having a sorts of "Sweets Festival,"where there were tons of food stalls selling everything from olive oil udon to the excessively (out the door and up the stairs-line) popular Bruleed Baumkuchen!

It was crazy busy, but I liked that it had the atmosphere of a bustling street market, all conveniently located next to the Kimono in a department store! Sweeeet. Literally! 

Just look below at the Mochi Dango man mixing the chewy rice cakes with bright green bean paste! 

Flippin dem Takoyaki like a BOSS. 

Gotta get one of those molds for the home. 

Tsukemono. Taste the rainbow. 

Here are some cute little shrimp dumplings! I want to draw little faces on them they're so cute!

These were delicious little packages of happiness. Do you know how I know?

SAMPLES. What. up. Move over Costco. You need to take a lesson from the Japanese. 

I also got to sample this tea. With a beautiful ceramic tea cup and all. In hot and cold styles. 

Classy. and quite grassy. 

I also spent quite a bit of time looking at all the beautiful Kimono and yukata!

My mom said that when girls turn 20, they wear these beautiful, colorful, and long kimono as part of the coming of age celebration. Wait a minute...I'm 19, so...

Just amazing. If I had the money to buy one, I'd wear it everyday. 

You know, keep it casual....or maybe not. 

Ok...so I couldn't indulge in my kimono-wearing fantasy, but I could indulge in some of the freshest sushi you could find! 

The Omicho Market, connected underground to the department store, sells everything. In every type. In every size. My eyes just kept wandering everywhere! Every kind of "every" imaginable. 

There are also numerous food stalls and restaurants, scattered between the stalls of abalone, fruits, vegetables...it keeps going on, so I'll just stop. You just look. 

If "locavores" and foodies swear by the farmers' markets in America, then here, they would...(fill in the blank here" in their pants. That simple. 

After looking around at all the fresh seafood, how could you NOT eat it? Especially when it is served to you in a boat. On a rotating conveyor belt. From a table side touch screen. 

Cue the kaiten sushi slideshow! 

Hmm...Haruki dreams of....

SUSHI!!!

And soba...

Negitoro with ginger

Hello Mr. Fish Head! Nice to eat you! Muahahaha...

Action shot! What a sushi eating pro. Look at that form. 

Kani Mayo. I've never seen this in America, but Crab + Kewpie Mayo = better than any Krabby Patty Spongebob has ever eaten. 

I also had this Baigai ばいがい　shellfish, which according to my extensive search on google, is known a Japanese Toyama specialty Babylon shell fish, and is known as the King of Shellfish. I don't really know if all of that is true...but I approve! Nom nom. We shall meet again soon. 

After lunch, more market exploring! It was like watching the Oceans episode of Planet Earth, if all the fish were lined up in perfect rows and the shrimp were the size of small lobsters!

My mom buying some snapper for dinner this week! うれしい！

As our last stop, we went to a bakery, where they sell chocolate croissants my mom really likes! If you've been reading, you know how I feel about Japanese bakeries...

Being the incredibly generous and thoughtful host mother that she is, she surprised me with a snack to take with me later! 

It's a horn-like croissant! (or is that a headband...Blair Waldorf, I'll need your expertise on this matter). 

Anyways, Kaho was exhausted at this point....

So they dropped me off at the Katamachi/ Kohrinbo Shopping District to meet up with some of my peeps!

photo creds to the one and only Marina Kaneko. 

An-Pan Man! The superhero of our generation. 

This was the first time I actually went clothes shopping in Japan, and I have to say...some of the clothes are nUtZ! I especially love the nonsensical t-shirts and store names. Engrish at its finest.

The following two photos were brought to you by Welch's. Just kidding! Emmy Williams caught this madness on camera. 

??? ok. Cushy. 

Rodeo Crowns. I'll take one of those, please!

We also walked a bit around the Daiwa department store, though the Gucci and Louis Vuitton were a bit out of our price range...next time perhaps? Japanese departos, compared to American department stores, are like comparing First class Singapore Airlines to Economy Southwest. Let's just say they don't really match up.

Below looks perhaps like the jewelry section? WRONG. It's the depachika! The food floor! Even Harrod's can't touch this. (Hammer time). 

After walking around all day and afternoon, we finally decided to refuel with some Okonomiyaki and Yakisoba!

Okonomiyaki Step 1:

Order the ingredients of choice. We got one with pork, and one with asparagus and shrimp. The ingredients were then presented to us in a bowl for us to mix. Then...

Step 2: Pour it on the grill yo! It's getting HOT.

Step 3: Dress it up like its ur birthday: Okonomiyaki (Tonkatsu) sauce, Japanese mayo, a little dried seaweed, and Kastuobushi.

 Emmy was hungry at this point. Clearly, she wasn't feeling the whole "wait to cook and make it look pretty thing"...

Tada! Done. I thought it looked aesthetically pleasing, if I do say so myself...

Tabemashou! Itadakimasu! 

Here is our squid Yakisoba doin it's thang...

before...

during....

Cliff hanger! Sorry! We ate it already.

 Next up! Karaoke!

hmmm. LIVEDAM. I'm still trying to figure that one out....

Um. Sorry. Can't read that. 

Not this either..

But we were inspired by such a touching image...

Dawww...ain't dat cyoot....

 

 And to complete a day full of food, shopping, friends, and singing....Mulan! Gotta end strong.

Now I gotta get down to business. To defeat. The Huns. Night!

First Week: Accomplished.

"7am, waking up in the morning
Gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs
Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal." 

-Rebecca Black. 

Truth. except the cereal part. If you've been following, you know I'm partial to my bowl of rice with natto. Oh Rebecca, so juvenile. jk. Except for today...headin' out towards the ways of the West for my breakfast! 

Homemade bread (with Mochi flour!), Japanese sausages, homemade tamago yaki, some shredded cabbage salad, and...

A little Mango flavored yogurt! Does the packaging look familiar?! It's the Japanese Activia! Ya know, the yogurt that Jamie Lee Curtis is all woop-dee-doo about! Except that these are actually good! Really good, in fact! And in cuter, smaller packing, in cool flavors. Haruki and I had the mango. Kaho had the white peach. The Japanese even take Activia to a whole new level. Whoa. 

Going to school, I was surprised by how warm, sunny, and comparatively dry it was today! It was somewhere in the mid-80s. I better appreciate it before the rainy season comes! 

Class again went by quickly, since we are constantly learning and reviewing new vocab, grammar, or Kanji. Today we started a new chapter about asking and giving directions. SO DIFFICULT. If someone asks me how to get somewhere, I'm just going to have to smile and wave. Struggley struggle fest. During those three hours of class, my mind is just going and going and going and...gone. Over. Done. Weekend. Woo. 

How to celebrate? Go back to the market with all the sales to get my food! I wanted to go with a bento like yesterday, but I have to pace myself with the bentos! Spread the bento love over 9 weeks! So today, sushi was the name of the game.  I gotta admit that I like Ralphs sushi at home, but this just shut it DOWN. Look at it!

There was Maguro tuna, Ika, Salmon, fresh white shrimp, scallop, cooked shrimp, octopus, and tamago yaki. Look at the variety and colors! It's a double rainbow!!! 

Again, grubbed at the home of the trains...

I love the flowers inside! They are so bright. 

Attention: No color enhancements were used in the posting of these photos. 

 We are starting our own J-Pop Group.

 Call us "Boom. Boom. Pow."

 We were having great fun...until a bird decided to give Wolens-san a gift of nature. 

But don't worry. His shoes escaped unharmed. 

Alas, I think the bird was telling us to go back inside and do our homework. I didn't want to risk getting the same gift as Wolens-san, so back to Rifare we went! 

While engaging in the ever so popular procrastination technique know as Facebooking, I ended up video chatting with my real mom. While our conversation was cut short due to technical difficulties, I did come away with some important advice: "You HAVE to go to Takayama." 

And those were the last words she uttered before disappearing into the abyss. Just kidding. That was melodramatic. 

But she did say that I had to visit Takayama! I was looking for something to do this weekend, so instead of doing homework, I ended up doing a little research, and ended up buying train tickets at the Eki with Emmy and Marina to go to Takayama on Sunday! A bit rash in my decisions, but I gotta make this stuff happen, yo! 

Oh the Adventures that will come...I see an eventful update on the horizon. 

After using a bit of broken Japanese to figure out how to buy tickets, I knew no more homework was going to get done. So, home time!  

As I was walking, I passed by this Japanese shrine. It's so cool to just stumble upon something so beautiful on a tiny side street right near my school! 

 I got home around 6 o'clock, and soon it was dinner!

 Again. Impressed. So lucky. Wow. 

Below, Chawanmushi (steamed savory egg custard with shrimp, mushrooms, clam, and kamaboko inside!), shredded kani kama (Kanazawa-made awesome version of fake crab) stewed with special Kanazawa grown cucumber, and clam miso soup. 

And that wasn't even the main sha-bang!

Temaki Sushi! 

Te means hand, and maki means a roll, so it was make your own hand roll sushi tonight! I actually have this at home sometimes! It's like arts of crafts time: Japanese food edition. 

There were a variety of ingredients to put inside our rolls, including: red snapper, ika (squid), takuan pickles, cucumber, and natto! 

Haruki especially loved the squid. So much so, that he was just eating the squid without making a roll! That's my bro! 

 One of my rolls, pre-roll. 

 Great start to the weekend! I see a busy weekend of fun in store! 

Adjusting to School Life

This morning I was a little stressed when I woke up since we had our first quiz today, and I still hadn't fully memorized all the vocab! I'm pretty sure we have a quiz everyday, so I better get used to it! I got ready quickly today, so I could study a bit before and during breakfast. However, I am pretty used to studying and eating breakfast simultaneously! During the school year, I had Japanese at 9 am every morning with quizzes almost everyday, so multitasking in the morning is now the usual! There is one main difference though: the quality of my breakfast! My host mother is kind of a super mom. I don't think I could pull out the cooking skills that early in the morning, while juggling two energetic kids!

A generous piece of grilled salmon, rolled Kamaboko made in Kanazawa, daikon tsukemono, small smelt fish tsukudani, miso soup with nameko mushrooms, and of course, rice with natto! 

My friends at school = jealous. 

Time to go to school! I realized that I haven't actually commuted to school in about year! It's so strange to think that a year ago I was graduating from high school and living at home, and now I'm living in Japan! Crazy stuff! So many more great things have happened to me this past year than during my four years of high school. Life is pretty great right now! 

But I still had to study while I was walking and riding the bus to school. So. many. words. In niheigo, my portmanteau combining nihongo and eigo, I'd say, "Daijoubs." It's ok. And it was! The quiz wasn't too bad, and we all even got a present from the Ishikawa prefectural Government Officer of the International Exchange Division! 

 The envelope says, "Ganbatte!" meaning something like, "Do your best! Good Luck!" 

Along with scholarship money the program received to go to our various after school cultural activities, we each got a little box with this little paper mache, roly poly okiagari doll which always returns back to its upright position when tilted over (due to the weighted bottom). According to Wikipedia, the best sources of all sources, oki means to get up, and agari means to arise. At the ceremony, the Chief Officer said that these dolls symbolize his hopes that we recover from whatever problems that life presents to us! So cute too! Symbolic and pretty? Yes please! What a great omiyage!

After class, some of us went across the street to take advantage of a grand opening sale at a new market! There were so many bento choices that we all took a while deciding what to get! Although everything was tempting, I thought this one was just so colorful! いろいろないろ！It was only about $5 too! 

Balanced meal time! Get it? Ice pop in one hand, chopsticks in the other...

After lunch, my friends and I continued to sit in the TV lounge and do homework/ study for the afternoon. Take a look at our textbook, written by Makino-sensei!

DON'T be fooled by the cute little pictures. I got slapped by them this morning in class. 

I had to have a conversation with another student, pretending to be the guy in the picture who wants to open a bank account. He needs a special stamp with his name on it in Kanji to open his account for some reason, so he has to go to the store, order the stamp, then go to the bank with his passport and gaikokujintouryokusyou (crazy word, desune...)...I was kind of a messy struggle fest. That was a no for me. Around 5 o'clock, I couldn't look at any more Kanji, so I decided to go home. Apparently, 5 pm is rush hour because the bus was crowded! 

While taking this picture, I almost fell over. Wolens-san, who was riding the bus with me, said that that was one of the most gaijin (foreigner, touristy) things I have ever done. I'd have to agree; almost falling over while taking a picture in the bus was not my best moments of blending in. oh wellzies. 

The home stretch! Almost there....

Tadaima! I'm back home! 

Great to see little Kaho again, even though she climbs on me nonstop like some kind of monkey!

Osaru-san mitai!

Soon enough, it was dinner time! 

The meal above is very similar to what I sometimes eat at home! Some miso soup, salad with vegetables, hot rice, Korean style marinated bean sprouts, and Tatsuta age (basically, chicken nuggets taken to the Japanese level of awesome). Dat ain't yo mama's chicken nuggets! 

(Well maybe my mom's...)

While fried chicken is pretty safe territory, we got a little freaky from there. Actually only I did. My mom and the kids wouldn't touch this. It's strips of squid in its ink! I ate it on top of my rice. It was good. and really really black. Cool. 

But that's not all, folks! We got a Russian crab on our hands! (now in my stomach!!)

My mom gave me a little lesson on how to eat the legs! Oh what messy fun. 

Now eating crab legs is pretty normal, but what about...the crab's innards?! Again, no one wanted it, but my mom offered, so I was like, "Why not?" YOLO. Haha. My mom was surprised. I actually love eating shrimp heads, so I didn't think it was too strange. At Chinese banquet dinners, my grandpa also likes the crab guts, so no bigs.  

Tada! I got the whole crab, in my hands! I got the whole crab, in my hands! 

Except for the legs. Who needs them anyways?! They're a pain to eat. Give me da bod-ehhh! 

That was a fun dinner. Back to studying now! Friday here I come!

Atarashii Bunpou and Go!

With my schedule pretty set, I woke up at 7:32 (I always like to set my alarm on random times for some reason), got ready, listened to Kaho call my name, then had breakfast! Back to Japanese style breakfast today!

 Miso soup made with Anko fish, fried runny egg, a couple Japanese sausages, daikon tsukemono, chirimen tsunomono, and rice with natto! It's so different from my usual yogurt and fruit that I have every morning at school, but I love it!

Today at school (everyday from 9 am to 12 pm), we officially started learning new material! The speed of the PII program is pretty intimidating, since we are learning a year's worth of material in 8 weeks! Even at the normal pace this past school year, the speed of learning was very quick, so now we are going Shinkansen-fast! We cover a chapter in our textbook in two days, which includes a long list of vocabulary, numerous grammar structures, and more than 20 new Kanji! It's pretty intensive, but so far it doesn't seem too bad! During the school year, I had to balance Japanese with all my other classes, dancing, and the generally chaotic lifestyle of a student. Now I just get to focus on Japanese! Phew!

After three hours of class, I was done for the day, since there were no afternoon activities scheduled today. To get ourselves in a different environment, Emmy, Wolens-san (I just can't seem to call him Zach), and I walked over to the Kanazawa Station for lunch!

While I love the conbini, we really wanted to go to the boulangerie inside the station that we have been eyeing since day 1. Every time we passed by, we could smell the heavenly clouds of fresh bread tempting us to go inside! So, we finally did! I love how the name is DONQ, pronounced "donk." What. were. they. thinking? 

In Japanese bakeries, along with other Asian bakeries, you grab a tray and use tongs to load it up with whatever you like! It was hard to decide since everything looked like perfect pillows of bready happiness (there was everything from curry filled naan bread to raisin studded panettone). Japanese bread is also super white and soft, without any tough crust to deal with! In the end, we got a couple baskets to share, including a soft braid with bacon and cheese, an pan, and a panko crusted roll with a soft boiled egg and curry inside. Variety. The spice of life. 

 Since we sat inside the cafe, they made it look all nice and put it in baskets. We also had to order some drinks in order to sit down, so we got Strawberry Ice Milk and apple juice. 

It was all so GOOD. Look at the hot dog roll below. Even the hot dog looks cute and gourmet! DONQ  did not dissappoint. Well...except for the name. Can't quite get over that one. 

After lunch, I video chatted in Japan for the first time, via Facebook! While it was about 2 pm in Japan, it was midnight in Chicago, so my friend was about to go to sleep! Time is so weird. Video chatting is also really weird. I can't believe I can see someone so far away through my computer! I thought such nonsense only existed in the world of Zenon (holla at me if ya know what I'm talkin bout! Disney Channel Original Movies FTW!). My mind can't comprehend. My mind is blown.

But, I soon had to collect my mind again, for I had some homework to do!
 Today, one of my favorite things that we learned was the meaning of the Kanji for "homework". The first character,　宿 おor "shyuku" means lodge or inn. The second character,　題 or "dai," means problem, title, or topic. They way I interpret this is that homework is a problem that lodges itself into your life and follows you everywhere! But anyways...

 A picture of some of my Kanji 宿題。

I was able to focus for a little bit, but then we all started going a little nUtZo, slap-happy, you name it! I started crying and snorting from laughing a couple times, so I knew it was my time to go. I guess I can only handle work for so long...

 On the bus, I was kind of a creeper and took a picture of these school boys. I thought their uniforms were so cool, so I had to take a picture! Just look at the hats! かっこいいね？！ They were also doing some Kanji homework! I felt for them. I really did. Though it made me feel better that even Japanese people have to study Kanji a lot! It is not easy stuff...

Today I returned home pretty early (4:15 ish), since there was no afternoon activity. Here is the park that is being built right across the street from my home! Great location for the kids!

 After studying some more and playing around with the kids, it was dinner time! My mom bought these really fresh Asari clams. They were still moving while she was cleaning them!

Before....

After! Asari Clam pasta with some mushrooms, tomato, onions, and a whole lotta おいしい　あじ！

We had some visitors too! With four kids in the house, there was a lot of loud energy! It's so fun to be with such vibrant spirits! If only I could turn back time...

I decided to tap into my younger self and draw a bit, since the kids were scribbling away! With all these Anpan Man toys everywhere, I was inspired to do this lil' doodle! 

When in Japan...draw Japanese things?! Sure. why not. 

Another great day! Studying, relaxing, laughing, eating. Good stuff. See you tomorrow!