Nabe Party!

The other night a few of us were invited to a 'Nabe party'!  Nabe is basically Japanese Stew. It's a big pot that you put just about everything you think you might want into and everyone shares. It's really fun! The pot is stuffed full of veggies and fish or meat, then once it gets cold or the food starts to run out, it gets filled up again and again until finally you put ramen noodles in the leftover soup. It's amazing how tiny Japanese people are considering how much food they can pack away.

This is the apartment of Shotaro (the one in the black shirt making a weird face) He lives in this massive (for Japan at least) apartment with his brother in Oimachi. They live on the top floor of a 14 story building, it was cloudy but they have an amazing view! 

Guess the veggies! I'm not really sure what they are exactly but since being here some of the things I'm starting to love are - ちくわ(chikuwa), こんやく(conyaku), もやし(bean sprouts), もめんとふ(momenn tofu), いなり(inari), and a bunch of other vegetables that I don't know the names of.

Since it's winter, nabe pots are everywhere! I'm on the search for a single sized one that I can take home with me... The whole point of nabe though is sharing with family so single sized pots are hard to come by.

Kit Kats!

My friend Emelie (apparently my only friend) is on a mission to find all the different flavors of Kit Kats that Japan has to offer. These are the flavors that have been found so far...

Chinese Dessert flavor (Almond Pudding/Jelly?)

Black Sugar Flavor

Strawberry Cheesecake, a special Yokohama sweet

Mont-Blanc flavor

Wasabi Flavor

Blueberry Cheesecake

The one on the left is Apple flavored and the one on the right is pepper flavor

Tiramisu flavor, Pudding Flavor, Oreo flavor, strawberry hazelnut flavor, dark chocolate flavor.

Big Day Out!

Today was the first big adventuring around a new part of Tokyo day I've had in a long while! The past few weeks have been eventful but since the weather is getting colder it just seems like we stay indoors and watch disney movies, and I've since learned how to knit.  Not very exciting blog posts. Today Emelie and I went to Koenji, which is another part of Tokyo, near Shinjuku. Koenji is similar to Shimokitazawa, just not as big.

We first read the sign as 'Party shop' so we were confused when we saw all this organic and healthy looking food. It actually says 'Herb Tea shop'.. 

They were a little small... 

Grocery store with the Engrish - 'It is a report to you. The fresh present from U-Takaraya'

These stairs felt like they were about to collapse...

Sneakers!

Hakone: round 2

I was invited to go on a leaf viewing and onsen (hot springs) trip with Suda Sensei (my first grade teacher!), her mother, her sister, and her sister's three year old boy. The last time I saw them was roughly 10 years ago when I stayed with them for a summer. They couldn't believe how 'grown up' I've become but at the same time I couldn't really grasp the idea that Aki (the sister) is now a mother and pregnant! I met with Suda Sensei at Shibuya station on Thursday afternoon around 3:30, I went directly after school. From Shibuya we went to Shinjuku station where we caught a Limited Express Romance Car. It's technically a normal train, but it's so fancy! All the seats are reserved and there is a woman who comes down the aisle and offers water and snacks for sale. We definitely didn't travel this nicely when I first went to Hakone on my school trip.  We arrived at the hotel around 6:00pm, got settled in and hung out until dinner at 7:30.  (I think I wrote the name of the hotel down somewhere so I will look it up later - it was one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed in)

This is the view from one of the balconies from our room. yep, we had two balconies.

This is an awkward solo shot of me and the pretty foliage. My hair is wet because we went to the onsen right before. Most westerners seem to be uncomfortable with the concept of the onsen, but I think I was more afraid of doing something wrong that I didn't have time to think about the fact that I was stark naked in front of strangers. There is certain process that you have to go through before you even enter the hot springs. First you have to rinse yourself, then wash with soap, then once you're clean you can enter the bath, then after the bath you have to rinse and wash again.  The  next day we took our time in the morning and went to a glass museum in Hakone before making our way to Suda sensei's parents house.

This is Suda sensei's sister Aki, nephew Keitaro, and mom.

A glass sculpture hidden in the trees!

Another awkward solo shot of me and the changing leaves. and the glass sculpture in the background.

It was really fun to be able to visit Suda sensei and her family again. I admit going to her house was a little bit weird since the last time I was there was in 2001 (I was only 10..) The Japanese word 夏貸し　（なつかし) it's hard to translate, it basically means nostalgic but the way it is used in Japanese is not exactly the same. It can mean to miss something, to yearn for, etc. When we went to Suda Sensei's parents house I received help with my Japanese homework, which definitely took me back, with me and my teacher sitting down at the kitchen table going over my kanji and grammar. After dinner her brother Daisuke and her grandmother stopped by to say hello so it was nice to be able to see them as well. It was a full family reunion! 

文化イベント！ Culture Event!

We had a culture day yesterday! It was just like every other culture event we've been to before, you have a tea ceremony, put on a kimono, saunter around a garden, make some origami and do some calligraphy. It was still really neat though. It was at a garden/cultural center in Mejiro, which is a station on the Yamanote Line.

Traditional Tea Ceremony lady. Sitting in that position for longer than 2 minutes really kills your legs. We had to sit properly for almost the entire ceremony and afterwards everyone struggled to stand up.

Traditional Japanese Okashi (Snacks) The change depending on the season, for example in Summer the okashi might be blue or aqua (represents the sea). This one had fall colors on it. It's made of Anco (red bean paste) and Mochi (rice cake) everyone in  Japan loves anco. It's definitely an acquired taste, that I have yet to acquire..

This lady had beautiful calligraphy. The kanji that is pictured was drawn by the students though, so it's not as pretty. She made it look so easy!

We all had a go at making traditional Matcha (green tea). It's all in the wrist.

The biggest patch of grass in all of Tokyo!

２１歳の誕生日！ 21st Birthday!

 I'm officially 21! They grow up so fast.. crazy, isn't it? My birthday was a little weird this year since 21 seems like such a big deal in the United States (The drinking age in Japan is 20..) so for my birthday I decided to go to Japan's oldest theme park! Hanayashiki is in Asakusa, Tokyo. It originally opened in 1853 as a 'flower park' when Perry arrived at the end of the Edo era. and it's still in operation today! Here's a link to the website (in English!) if you care to read more about it. http://www.hanayashiki.net/e/index.html

There weren't too many rides or people, overall the parks atmosphere was very weird. We did go in the middle of the day on a Tuesday though. The rides were mostly rusty, unsafe looking, and very short. The whole place kind of felt like a ghost town but it was so much fun!

When we got back to the dorm I was presented with a birthday mikan (orange/clementine) and sung to. I also received a bundle of goodies! It had turned out to be such a great Birthday! Thank you everyone for the cards and goodies I received in the mail as well!!

Hakone Trip!

We had a school field trip to Hakone! It was amazing, except we had to wake up at the crack of dawn to meet our teachers at the station. My class went with another class so there were a total of about 9 of us plus two teachers. We met at Ookayama Station at 7am, because it takes a while to get to Hakone. We also had to keep switching trains, the longest we were on one train was for maybe 45 minutes or so, and everyone just fell right asleep. This field trip was very fun and it was a school field trip, so we get reimbursed for some of the travel expenses. It seemed more like gaijins day out though since the teachers were constantly rounding us up and counting us off, to make sure they hadn't lost anyone.

This is Owakudani, a volcanic valley and the steam is from sulfur vents. This spot was very touristy, they also have these eggs (normal chicken eggs) that they boil in the onsen(hot springs) for one hour and they are something special. Not really sure what they do exactly but eating them is supposed to add years to your life or something. I tried one and they really just taste like any old hard boiled egg. This place was overwhelming with the smell of eggs. 

Kuro Tamago (Black egg) a local specialty!

This is most of the students plus one teacher on our trip. We went to Hakone Park, it was a little too early for the fall leaves but there were some pretty colors starting to show!

We rode a cable car up the mountain to the volcanic area, you can see the steam from the onsen

This is a Sakura Tree! People were in awe standing around it since it shouldn't be starting to bloom yet..






just a typical day in Hakone

It was very cloudy that day but we got to see Fuji-san!