Departing from daily life events and my semi-regular bitching about the Japanese education system, here's a post you've all been waiting for, something to churn your stomach, curl your toes, and set your teeth to grinding. See, when one goes to a foreign country, especially a super-freaking-weirder-than-the-far-side-of-Jupiter country like Japan, one always has to wonder - what mysterious new "delicacies" will I encounter, and will they cause me severe gag reflex/intestinal difficulty? This post is dedicated to all of the culinary treasures the Japanese consume that Americans (and in fact much of the Western world) refer to in the vernacular as fucked the fuck up.
Caveat: I know the Japanese eat raw fish, and I fully support this. With a few exceptions, I consider myself pretty tolerant of foreign culinary delights. I have my quirks, but I'm not a picky eater.
Natto
This one's kind of a no-brainer, but for those of you who haven't had the distinct...pleasure...of experiencing this dish, I'll explain. Natto is a gooey, chunky paste made from the fermentation (read: decay) of soybeans. It is often served with (over) rice, or rolled up in a sushi roll. Somehow it manages to not only smell like sewage, but to also have a stringy, slimy, and gritty texture, all at the same time. I read not too long ago that it's actually quite healthy. If by this they mean that your gag reflex will get a Herculean workout, they surely weren't kidding.
Kawa
Kawa means a shell or a skin, and when consuming most birds the Japanese tend to leave the skin on and eat it with the meat. This may not strike one as abnormal at first; most of us have had KFC or a rotisseried bird that was cooked with the skin on. The Japanese seem to leave the skin on everything, though, so it'll be maliciously clinging to perfectly innocent chucks of chicken found in one's soup, or - this particularly revolted me - to a breaded, fried piece of meat like a chicken nugget. Imagine the shock and horror at biting into one of these tasty little morsels only to discover a layer of soft, blubbery insulation in between your mouth and meaty victory. *shudder*
Yakiniku
On that topic, the Japanese have what most Westerners would call a very confused approach to beef. Meat rich in fat is treasured above all others, and is priced notably higher at the supermarket. Yakiniku is simply the term for strips of meat cooked over an open grill.
Now mind you, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, so long as you buy/choose your own meat. Beef with a nearly fillet mignon-esque crimson color to it is often half the price (or less) of a plate of slices veined through and through with nasty white stuff.
Chawan mushi
When I first encountered this dish several years ago, I honestly thought it was a joke - I thought my host father had designed this recipe simply to laugh at the sight of me recoiling in horror. See, I don't care for certain nuts, I don't like large quantities of egg, and I couldn't be paid to consume mushrooms. Guess what it contains.
Chawan mushi is an egg custard (stress on the 'egg' part; it's not even remotely sweet) in which bits of mushroom and various nuts are suspended. I know my host family at the time was aware of the three foods I dislike, so we still laugh over it today when we talk - such was the coincidence that a dish containing all three of them existed.
Tentacles
These really don't disgust me so much as they make me laugh, but they do send some people running for the hills. If it belongs to the class of mollusca cephalopoda, the Japanese have probably tried to eat it. Every time I go to the supermarket, I can't hang around the seafood section for long without suppressing a giggle - it's a big freaking tentacle on a plate!
These also lurk in the most unsuspecting of places (such as spaghetti), bringing one to wonder exactly where the next of these Cthulhian beasts will spring from, eager to extract your soul through your nose...
Horumon
While not quite the most obscene culinary masterpiece I have encountered yet, horumon certainly ranks up there. It's pretty popular around this area of Akita, so I was inevitably offered some on one of a number of outings with the locals. I had never encountered it before and lacked a dictionary to reference the term, so one of the gents who had joined me for this meal tried to describe it to me, simply at first... He said it was pig meat, and it looked innocent enough. I bit into it, though, and my teeth sprung away from it's rubbery this-is-not-meat-as-we-know-it texture in a futile attempt at warning me what a foolish mistake I was making. No, I pressed on, determined to force down at least a single piece before inquiring for further details. Chewing it to the point where it was actually broken into swallowable bits was impossible, but I washed it down with a mighty swig of beer, and gave my dining companion a quizzical look. "What part of a pig is this, exactly?" I asked.
Y'all can probably see this coming, considering how much I've talked it up at this point...this answer, of course, was large intestine. Mind you, I have no problem with eating tongue, liver, etc...but somehow consuming the last thing pig poo sees before it greets the world again struck me as very, very wrong.
Basashi
And finally we reach the title piece, the resplendent crown of this post. The word basashi is composed of two characters, 馬 and 刺. The first one means horse, and the world would truly be a better place if it simply ended there. Alas, the gods are cruel, capricious beings who delight in the wanton suffering of mankind, and they chose for that second character to add the meaning of uncooked. Yes, they not only consume the flesh of horses here, but they eat it raw. I've only had one opportunity to try to explain to a Japanese person why this is not OK, but it just didn't strike them as such.
To add a cherry to the top of this already blasphemous sundae, they even have basashi-flavored ice cream. I shit you not.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
My kids are hardcore?
Yesterday was the final day of the All-Akita Junior High Ski Meet, the penultimate competition for students at that level. I had planned to drive out to Hanawa where it was being held (maybe 20 minutes from Kosaka) and catch what events I could, but when I got there the schedule indicated that my school wasn't participating in the day's events. Dammit, dammit, dammit! But then, I ran into one of my coworkers from the School in the Sky who informed me that yes, Kosaka and SitS would surely be entering contestants into the competition. Whatever the issue with the schedule was, I apparently had about an hour to kill before the boys' 5km cross-country ski relay would begin. Fortunately I had brought my computer, so wasting time wasn't hard.
Hanging around the start/finish lines of the course, I found a few of my students who had raced in the previous day's events and came to cheer on their classmates today. I learned from them that we had a team of four guys who would each complete 1 lap of the 5km course. It went up and down, over the river and through the woods, and all over the place, but there were a number of "stations" one could run between to see the skiers as they passed. As the race lasted over half an hour, this was one hell of a workout...good fun, though. Coming into the final lap my students were excited enough to pop - our team had a commanding lead on the rest. We did indeed finish first, after which it was back to the tent to huddle around the space heater and dig into a big kettle of soup someone's mom had had the brilliant forethought to provide.
I wasted time with my students and a few other teachers, got some lunch, and putzed about more until the time came for the awards ceremony. Here was the part that bowled me over...the events of the ski competition weren't limited to cross-country, but this is the area Kosaka excels in. We didn't just claim first prize for the relay, no. In the guys' division we walked out with all of the first place trophies for cross-country events! Ladies and gentlemen, here are your champions.
Hanging around the start/finish lines of the course, I found a few of my students who had raced in the previous day's events and came to cheer on their classmates today. I learned from them that we had a team of four guys who would each complete 1 lap of the 5km course. It went up and down, over the river and through the woods, and all over the place, but there were a number of "stations" one could run between to see the skiers as they passed. As the race lasted over half an hour, this was one hell of a workout...good fun, though. Coming into the final lap my students were excited enough to pop - our team had a commanding lead on the rest. We did indeed finish first, after which it was back to the tent to huddle around the space heater and dig into a big kettle of soup someone's mom had had the brilliant forethought to provide.
I wasted time with my students and a few other teachers, got some lunch, and putzed about more until the time came for the awards ceremony. Here was the part that bowled me over...the events of the ski competition weren't limited to cross-country, but this is the area Kosaka excels in. We didn't just claim first prize for the relay, no. In the guys' division we walked out with all of the first place trophies for cross-country events! Ladies and gentlemen, here are your champions.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Ahh...those poor, broken kids
Today marks the beginning of the 3rd trimester at KJH. As is typical for all such things Japanese, there was an opening ceremony to kick off the occasion. Ok, so it wasn't particularly ceremonial; it really just involved gathering in the freezing cold gym to listen to some speeches from Elvis and Dracula, and then from the class president of each grade. Dracula rambled on for a while and I may have dozed off a bit, but I'm willing to attribute it to the subarctic temperature of the gymnasium. I think I could actually feel my nervous system going into hibernation, one part at a time.
Legs: Sorry, we're out. Frozen veins means no blood flow means screw you guys, we're going home.
Fingers: Stop rubbing us together! We're trying to nap, dammit!
Heart: Duuuuuuh...hm? Was I supposed to be doing something?
Anyway, I stayed entirely conscious for my kids' speeches, but a bit of me wishes I hadn't. They generally talked about what they did over the winter break, which initially doesn't sound so bad, right? Sadly, though, they all more or less followed the pattern set by the first one:
"Well, my 2nd trimester tests scores could have been better, so I spend time every day studying Science and Social Studies. My final English test score also had fallen (compared to 1st trimester), so I studied English for at least an hour a day. I hope to improve and do my best this semester! I might have gone skiing once or twice, too, but I didn't let it get in the way of my studies."
WTF? Last time I checked, weren't you people in your early teenage years? Don't you do stuff like play video games and screw around with your friends (not in the literal sense, we're hoping)? Ok, I'm sure they have their lazy time, as well (you might remember My quasi-day off?), but the fact that this is the sort of attitude that Japanese society still demands from students is more than a touch depressing. These poor kids are waiting until college to start living their lives, all so they can pass an entrance exam or two that'll really have no connection to what they actually do later in life.
We (foreign) English teachers sometimes take note of how our kids seem to have no real world sense, no street smarts at all. I guess it's not too shocking, though, when you consider how infrequently most of them see an actual street.
It's kind of ironic that in recent Japanese pop culture the word 'KY' (used as an adjective, to refer to a person) has come into frequent use. It is an abbreviation for 'Kuuki ga Yomenai,' an expression that literally means 'cannot read the air' - a person who is ignorant of everyday life taking place around them, who cannot feel the pulse of the crowd and get a general understanding of the way things are.
But of course the idea of change in this society still brings about nervous twitching, fearful glances, high-level Cabinet resignations, and the occasional axe murder. Will the day ever come that they don't violently resist what they so desperately need?
Legs: Sorry, we're out. Frozen veins means no blood flow means screw you guys, we're going home.
Fingers: Stop rubbing us together! We're trying to nap, dammit!
Heart: Duuuuuuh...hm? Was I supposed to be doing something?
Anyway, I stayed entirely conscious for my kids' speeches, but a bit of me wishes I hadn't. They generally talked about what they did over the winter break, which initially doesn't sound so bad, right? Sadly, though, they all more or less followed the pattern set by the first one:
"Well, my 2nd trimester tests scores could have been better, so I spend time every day studying Science and Social Studies. My final English test score also had fallen (compared to 1st trimester), so I studied English for at least an hour a day. I hope to improve and do my best this semester! I might have gone skiing once or twice, too, but I didn't let it get in the way of my studies."
WTF? Last time I checked, weren't you people in your early teenage years? Don't you do stuff like play video games and screw around with your friends (not in the literal sense, we're hoping)? Ok, I'm sure they have their lazy time, as well (you might remember My quasi-day off?), but the fact that this is the sort of attitude that Japanese society still demands from students is more than a touch depressing. These poor kids are waiting until college to start living their lives, all so they can pass an entrance exam or two that'll really have no connection to what they actually do later in life.
We (foreign) English teachers sometimes take note of how our kids seem to have no real world sense, no street smarts at all. I guess it's not too shocking, though, when you consider how infrequently most of them see an actual street.
It's kind of ironic that in recent Japanese pop culture the word 'KY' (used as an adjective, to refer to a person) has come into frequent use. It is an abbreviation for 'Kuuki ga Yomenai,' an expression that literally means 'cannot read the air' - a person who is ignorant of everyday life taking place around them, who cannot feel the pulse of the crowd and get a general understanding of the way things are.
But of course the idea of change in this society still brings about nervous twitching, fearful glances, high-level Cabinet resignations, and the occasional axe murder. Will the day ever come that they don't violently resist what they so desperately need?
Saturday, January 12, 2008
I knew I was forgetting something...
This week at "work" has been quite a joke. Students don't come back from winter vacation until the 15th, but teachers who don't use PTO are still expected to show up and appear as though we are doing something productive. I...uh...well, I made a display of question words for the English classroom, and...yeah, that was my only work-related accomplishment for the week.
The rest of the time I studied, read, chatted with other teachers, and generally just screwed around. Oh, I did practice swordplay with Elvis, too. Turns out he actually has a 2nd degree black belt in iaido, so we trained in the gym for a while on Monday and Thursday. On that note, holy shit Ms. Giggles wants to be a samurai! She's the girliest, bubbliest, most effervescent teacher there, and she suddenly has developed a serious interest in learning how to use a Japanese sword. I'm still stuck somewhere between happy, perplexed, and a little afraid.
Getting to the topic of this post, though, I have been meaning since I got back to put up pics of my trip to Tokyo/Yokohama/Toyohashi, and I am just now remembering to do so.
Ok, before that, this is a few from our ALT Christmas party before I left, just for gits and shiggles.
This picture of a public trash can is amazing simply because, as any of my fellow English teachers can attest, it's impossible to find the godddamn things in Japan! It's a sacred mystery to all of us how the citizens of this country manage to keep it so clean.
I had to laugh here once I figured out what this large and confusing structure in downtown Yokohama was. It's a public toilet.
Local Yokohaman wildlife.
Included simply because I'm immature and stuff like this still makes me laugh.
The best Ma-and-Pa noodle shop in the known universe.
More cabs in front of one train station here than in all of Northern Akita, I think.
This picture is probably insignificant to most of my foreign readers, but it makes some of us English teachers here laugh (even though we shouldn't). The unlit NOVA sign is of a former company, now bankrupt, that used to run English conversation classes in large cities. They were known for overworking their employees and paying utterly deplorable wages. Considering the options out there, I'm shocked that anyone ever came to Japan on a NOVA contract; the company was basically thought of as the red-headed stepchild of the business. When they went under they pretty well screwed all of their employees; many were left with bills to pay and suddenly no monthly income. So I guess the reality is that we all feel quite sorry for NOVA's former teachers, but the company itself deserved to die.
These four pictures show kind of a neat (did I say 'neat?' dear god...) view of Yokohama, as they were all taken from the exact same spot, looking north, south, east, and west.
Random shot of Tokyo, which is probably only special to me because I don't get to see populated city streets anymore :)
Yokohama has the biggest Chinatown in all of Japan. Here are shots of one of the main attractions, and then a view from a back alley. Yes, I know it's clean. As my my friend Andrew put it, it's Chinatown, not China. I've never been to China myself, but he says Shanghai is filthy...
And then New Year's Eve. Noriko and I went drinking at this bar a friend of hers owns, and it was a pretty sweet place. 'Course, it helped that we drank for half price, courtesy of the owner. He introduced himself to me in broken Eng(r/l)ish like this: "Hi Noriko American boyfriend! This my bar! I master, master-bator!" He even completed it with the classic fist-shaking gesture of pleasuring one's self, at which point I nearly fell out of my chair laughing.
So, I taught them some American cocktails, and then we later stopped by a shrine. That fire, on the shrine grounds, is not built of wood but actually gigantic, thick ropes that had been hanging over the main gate. Every New Year's, they burn the old ropes and put up new ones, continuing the circle (of life! and it moves us all...)
I also spent a day with one of my other former host families in Toyohashi. We got lunch at this awesome Italian restaurant, where I met my former host brother, Ken, again. He was 16 back when I first lived here, so I remembered him as a high school age video game junkie. Now he's in grad school studying to be a composer, and he looks like a hippie. He was always pretty chill, but when I met him at the restaurant he seemed just a bit too...out of it. I asked him if he was feeling ok, and he turned to me ever so slooooooowly and blinked before saying, "I have a bitch of a hangover."
Priceless, I tell you, absolutely priceless.
And here's a beach in Hamamatsu, where I went with that host family after we had lunch. Too cold for swimming, but still just lovely.
And finally the inevitable return to the frozen wastes. That'd be my car, which I was in the process of exhuming then.
The rest of the time I studied, read, chatted with other teachers, and generally just screwed around. Oh, I did practice swordplay with Elvis, too. Turns out he actually has a 2nd degree black belt in iaido, so we trained in the gym for a while on Monday and Thursday. On that note, holy shit Ms. Giggles wants to be a samurai! She's the girliest, bubbliest, most effervescent teacher there, and she suddenly has developed a serious interest in learning how to use a Japanese sword. I'm still stuck somewhere between happy, perplexed, and a little afraid.
Getting to the topic of this post, though, I have been meaning since I got back to put up pics of my trip to Tokyo/Yokohama/Toyohashi, and I am just now remembering to do so.
Ok, before that, this is a few from our ALT Christmas party before I left, just for gits and shiggles.
Blogger is retarded. I used to be able to rotate my images just fine, but now apparently not. Oh well, just turn your head sideways and it will mostly look how it should. This is the world's skinniest mosque, found while Mike and I were wandering around looking for a public bathhouse.
Part of Kourakuen in Tokyo. It's basically an amusement park right in the middle of the city. Yes that really is a giant roller coaster and ferris wheel.
This picture of a public trash can is amazing simply because, as any of my fellow English teachers can attest, it's impossible to find the godddamn things in Japan! It's a sacred mystery to all of us how the citizens of this country manage to keep it so clean.
I had to laugh here once I figured out what this large and confusing structure in downtown Yokohama was. It's a public toilet.
Local Yokohaman wildlife.
Included simply because I'm immature and stuff like this still makes me laugh.
The best Ma-and-Pa noodle shop in the known universe.
More cabs in front of one train station here than in all of Northern Akita, I think.
This picture is probably insignificant to most of my foreign readers, but it makes some of us English teachers here laugh (even though we shouldn't). The unlit NOVA sign is of a former company, now bankrupt, that used to run English conversation classes in large cities. They were known for overworking their employees and paying utterly deplorable wages. Considering the options out there, I'm shocked that anyone ever came to Japan on a NOVA contract; the company was basically thought of as the red-headed stepchild of the business. When they went under they pretty well screwed all of their employees; many were left with bills to pay and suddenly no monthly income. So I guess the reality is that we all feel quite sorry for NOVA's former teachers, but the company itself deserved to die.
These four pictures show kind of a neat (did I say 'neat?' dear god...) view of Yokohama, as they were all taken from the exact same spot, looking north, south, east, and west.
Random shot of Tokyo, which is probably only special to me because I don't get to see populated city streets anymore :)
Yokohama has the biggest Chinatown in all of Japan. Here are shots of one of the main attractions, and then a view from a back alley. Yes, I know it's clean. As my my friend Andrew put it, it's Chinatown, not China. I've never been to China myself, but he says Shanghai is filthy...
And then New Year's Eve. Noriko and I went drinking at this bar a friend of hers owns, and it was a pretty sweet place. 'Course, it helped that we drank for half price, courtesy of the owner. He introduced himself to me in broken Eng(r/l)ish like this: "Hi Noriko American boyfriend! This my bar! I master, master-bator!" He even completed it with the classic fist-shaking gesture of pleasuring one's self, at which point I nearly fell out of my chair laughing.
So, I taught them some American cocktails, and then we later stopped by a shrine. That fire, on the shrine grounds, is not built of wood but actually gigantic, thick ropes that had been hanging over the main gate. Every New Year's, they burn the old ropes and put up new ones, continuing the circle (of life! and it moves us all...)
I also spent a day with one of my other former host families in Toyohashi. We got lunch at this awesome Italian restaurant, where I met my former host brother, Ken, again. He was 16 back when I first lived here, so I remembered him as a high school age video game junkie. Now he's in grad school studying to be a composer, and he looks like a hippie. He was always pretty chill, but when I met him at the restaurant he seemed just a bit too...out of it. I asked him if he was feeling ok, and he turned to me ever so slooooooowly and blinked before saying, "I have a bitch of a hangover."
Priceless, I tell you, absolutely priceless.
And here's a beach in Hamamatsu, where I went with that host family after we had lunch. Too cold for swimming, but still just lovely.
And finally the inevitable return to the frozen wastes. That'd be my car, which I was in the process of exhuming then.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
My boss's boss's boss's boss is awesome
I had been talking with the superintendent of the Kosaka Board of Education recently, and he was appalled to learn that I only knew of a couple hot springs around this immediate area, so he insisted that we go to check out his favorite one sometime soon. He's in charge of all of the public schools around this area (at least 5) so he's pretty far up the food chain, but we're good buddies.
When I first started working here, before classes had begun, I was reporting to the BoE everyday, where his office is. There is of course no school lunch there; most people bring their own or order from a nearby shop. Big boss guy introduced me to a handy service done by God knows who where they deliver a sort of boxed lunch to the office everyday for you, and you just settle your bill with them once a week. They're affordable, and apparently healthy enough to keep me slim and trim for years, he said, patting his round belly for emphasis. We had a good laugh over that, but in fact they really are quite nummy, and...I don't know...that had that certain feel of being good for you that I just can't describe. I miss my boxed lunches...
Anywho, we met up after work and he started driving toward Odate, where this place supposedly was. He asked along the way if I had eaten yet. I of course had not, having come directly from work, and he of course had a remedy for that problem. We went to this terrific noodle shop on the other side of Odate, which was really unlike any other I had been to. First off, the place looked like an old samurai house: built all of unfinished logs and with low tables on tatami mats. The feature that really set this place apart, though, was the fact that you cook your own food here, sort of. Yes, you read that correctly. It's a restaurant, but you cook your own food. WTF, right? Well, actually not; it works really well. The tables all have small gas stoves on them, and the...chefs? well, proprietors, anyway...prepare all of the ingredients and bring them out to you. They spark up the stove and add the broth to a large iron cook pot on it; you throw in the ingredients as you like and eat at your leisure. Superintendent guy knew the place (and the owners, I think) so he ordered for us - some sort of shellfish udon with a couple of big-ass scallops as the centerpiece. If you're not familiar with scallops in their natural form, they look like a big, heavy clam larger than the average human hand.
...Ack! Just as I was trying to write this, my breakfast attacked me. I tried to open a container of yogurt, but it was somehow pressurized, I think...it just spat all over my desk and face. Anyway, now that I'm all cleaned up...
The scallops needed to cook for a while, but the vegis, little clams, and noodles (a wide, flat udon-esque type I had never tried before) were ready after a few minutes so we dished up bowls and dug in. The restaurant-person stopped by with tools he used to crack open the scallops so the meaty inside could properly stew. If ever you have the chance to try one in this fashion, don't be put off by a scallop's appearance. Fresh out of the shell they look absolutely revolting, but they are freaking delicious.
So anyway, we chatted about this and that for a while and then got back in the car to head in the direction of Kosaka again. On the way out he told me that this place was his secret weapon to impress women when he was younger, because it has a classy, traditional air to it but is surprisingly affordable. So noted, sir, so noted...
I discovered that there's a hot spring right on the edge of Odate going toward Kosaka that I had been passing by several times a week and never noticed. It's a natural hot spring so the water is hot as hell, but soaking in those waters for a while was pretty much enough to make me forget everything that had annoyed me for the last month or so. Turns out the place isn't just that, though, but also a ryokan - a traditional style Japanese inn. It looked like a fine establishment so out of curiosity I inquired as to the price per night. Final answer? Surprisingly cheap, and dinner+breakfast are included. w00t. Plans for the future, methinks.
On the way back to Kosaka we talked for a while about religion in Japan and how the majority of families identify with a particular sect of Buddhism but individually it isn't a matter most people put a lot of thought into. He asked me if a similar concept of "membership without belief/action" seemed to exist in America, and I had to suppress a chuckle. Why yes, sir, perhaps you've heard of our president...
When I first started working here, before classes had begun, I was reporting to the BoE everyday, where his office is. There is of course no school lunch there; most people bring their own or order from a nearby shop. Big boss guy introduced me to a handy service done by God knows who where they deliver a sort of boxed lunch to the office everyday for you, and you just settle your bill with them once a week. They're affordable, and apparently healthy enough to keep me slim and trim for years, he said, patting his round belly for emphasis. We had a good laugh over that, but in fact they really are quite nummy, and...I don't know...that had that certain feel of being good for you that I just can't describe. I miss my boxed lunches...
Anywho, we met up after work and he started driving toward Odate, where this place supposedly was. He asked along the way if I had eaten yet. I of course had not, having come directly from work, and he of course had a remedy for that problem. We went to this terrific noodle shop on the other side of Odate, which was really unlike any other I had been to. First off, the place looked like an old samurai house: built all of unfinished logs and with low tables on tatami mats. The feature that really set this place apart, though, was the fact that you cook your own food here, sort of. Yes, you read that correctly. It's a restaurant, but you cook your own food. WTF, right? Well, actually not; it works really well. The tables all have small gas stoves on them, and the...chefs? well, proprietors, anyway...prepare all of the ingredients and bring them out to you. They spark up the stove and add the broth to a large iron cook pot on it; you throw in the ingredients as you like and eat at your leisure. Superintendent guy knew the place (and the owners, I think) so he ordered for us - some sort of shellfish udon with a couple of big-ass scallops as the centerpiece. If you're not familiar with scallops in their natural form, they look like a big, heavy clam larger than the average human hand.
...Ack! Just as I was trying to write this, my breakfast attacked me. I tried to open a container of yogurt, but it was somehow pressurized, I think...it just spat all over my desk and face. Anyway, now that I'm all cleaned up...
The scallops needed to cook for a while, but the vegis, little clams, and noodles (a wide, flat udon-esque type I had never tried before) were ready after a few minutes so we dished up bowls and dug in. The restaurant-person stopped by with tools he used to crack open the scallops so the meaty inside could properly stew. If ever you have the chance to try one in this fashion, don't be put off by a scallop's appearance. Fresh out of the shell they look absolutely revolting, but they are freaking delicious.
So anyway, we chatted about this and that for a while and then got back in the car to head in the direction of Kosaka again. On the way out he told me that this place was his secret weapon to impress women when he was younger, because it has a classy, traditional air to it but is surprisingly affordable. So noted, sir, so noted...
I discovered that there's a hot spring right on the edge of Odate going toward Kosaka that I had been passing by several times a week and never noticed. It's a natural hot spring so the water is hot as hell, but soaking in those waters for a while was pretty much enough to make me forget everything that had annoyed me for the last month or so. Turns out the place isn't just that, though, but also a ryokan - a traditional style Japanese inn. It looked like a fine establishment so out of curiosity I inquired as to the price per night. Final answer? Surprisingly cheap, and dinner+breakfast are included. w00t. Plans for the future, methinks.
On the way back to Kosaka we talked for a while about religion in Japan and how the majority of families identify with a particular sect of Buddhism but individually it isn't a matter most people put a lot of thought into. He asked me if a similar concept of "membership without belief/action" seemed to exist in America, and I had to suppress a chuckle. Why yes, sir, perhaps you've heard of our president...
At one point I tried to contribute to the tab for the evening; somehow I had forgotten that I was dealing with an older Japanese male and that this would be pointless. He picked up the bill for everything, not giving me a chance to so much as gesture in the general direction of my wallet after that. He even gave me some free admission coupons he had for the hot spring we went to. Based on the number of colleagues he seemed to run into that evening, I'd guess he's a regular at both places.
All in all, I give the evening a ★★★★ stamp of approval.
To wrap this up, I have another nickname for everyone's amusement. While I had mentioned KJH's vice principal before, the principal had never really come into the picture. I don't have much interaction with him, as he seems to be more in charge of matters external to the students (some sort of administration, I imagine), so I just don't know him too well. We talked recently, though, and holy shit does that man have enormous canines. I could see them gleaming in the light, their fine points nearly a centimeter below the rest of his teeth. And then he smiled...sir, what is that dark reddish stain on your lower lip?
He shall henceforth be known as Dracula.
All in all, I give the evening a ★★★★ stamp of approval.
To wrap this up, I have another nickname for everyone's amusement. While I had mentioned KJH's vice principal before, the principal had never really come into the picture. I don't have much interaction with him, as he seems to be more in charge of matters external to the students (some sort of administration, I imagine), so I just don't know him too well. We talked recently, though, and holy shit does that man have enormous canines. I could see them gleaming in the light, their fine points nearly a centimeter below the rest of his teeth. And then he smiled...sir, what is that dark reddish stain on your lower lip?
He shall henceforth be known as Dracula.
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