Another Lovely Noto Weekend

After finishing my morning Ikebana class, I joined two other girls (who also work at a couple of my schools) and our Ikebana instructor at her house for lunch. We cooked and ate okonomiyaki, which is one of my very favorite foods in Japanese cuisine. Okonomiyaki consists of chopped cabbage, other vegetables, and mix ins like squid or shrimp, stirred together with batter and then pan fried with thin slices of ham on top. It is very healthy, filling, and delicious! We also had a side of mochi with black beans. Mochi is a rice product that you can toast in the oven until it becomes hot and soft, then we dipped it in a sauce of sugar and soy sauce. 

Mochi with black beans

Okonomiyaki on the grill!

Okonomiyaki

For dessert, we ate a batch of Kinako cookies that I baked the night before. Kinako is roasted soy bean flour, and has a rich nutty flavor! We ate the cookies while drinking green tea. As our teacher has explained to me before, since green tea is so bitter you are supposed to have it with some small little sweet item. This addition of something sweet with your tea keeps the bitterness of the green tea from overpowering your taste buds. 

Later that day I headed to the neighboring town called Suzu, where I joined several friends to participate in the town's pub crawl. The town sold tickets which provided four stubs for each person, each stub got us a food item and a drink at one of the many participating restaurants, or bars in town. Usually, the restaurant prepares a special set drink and food item, so you get to be surprised about what type of interesting food or drink they will serve you! 

Our first stop was a restaurant where our ticket stub served as a 750 yen coupon. So we could order whatever we wanted, and stub would pay for 750 yen (which covered the cost of most meals on the menu). I selected a Ginger Grilled Pork Stomach dinner set, and it was amazing!

Ginger Grilled pork, miso soup, rice, pickles, and fruit

We continued on with our crawl, stopping at a place that specializes in gyoza. There we consumed 70 gyoza! (Between 13 people) Our fourth stop was another good one! The older lady running it was lovely and she patiently served excellent drinks to our cumbersome party of 13 foreigners. Every place we walked in that night had a bit of a shock when they saw our large party of varied people walking in with various levels of Japanese ability. But she handled it expertly. To crown our pub crawl, she served us a surprisingly excellent dish! It was a stew in a dark but creamy savory broth, with sides of buttered toast and fresh fruit. We ended our night excited for more food which we would eat at the food festival the following day!

In the morning, our lovely host Kira whipped up some French toast for a quick breakfast. After that we quickly got ready to go over to the town hall where the Marukajiri food festival was held. Along a street next to the town hall booths were set up on each side purveying various delicious foods! We walked up and down the streets stopping at vendors representing various local businesses to try their goods. Here are some of the highlights:

Squid burger with a squid ink bun!

Ichigo Daifu- A sweet white mochi filled with red bean paste, topped with a ripe red strawberry, and dusted with powdered sugar. These were so good, that after eating one and walking through several other stalls we had to go back and eat one more!

Soy doughnut, hot from the fryer!

Excited to eat our huge skewers of beef!

All of the food was fantastic! I wish there were awesome food festivals like this in America!

To finish my delicious weekend, I made a pot of nabeyaki udon for Sunday night dinner. Nabeyaki udon is cooked by layering all the ingredients into a nabe pot and simmering them together until done. Nabeyaki usually includes pieces of chicken thigh meat, spinach, shimeji mushrooms, spring onions, and fish cakes (and udon on bottom of course!).

Delicious!

Snowboarding and a Buri Party!

Two weeks ago I learned how to snowboard! At the invitation of my landlord, I went with a group of four people. It was the first time for myself and Tricia to snowboard, so although we were very excited we had no idea what we were doing! My landlord and his friend were very good teachers though. They have been snowboarding for 10 and 6 years respectively so they are quite experienced and luckily for Tricia and I they were very patient teachers.

We spent a couple hours on the very short, easy practice slope. They taught us how to buckle ourselves into the board, and the basics of how to lean to propel yourself forward on the snow. After we could make it down the easy slope twice in a row without falling they decided we were ready to try a real slope.

We bought a four hour pass that allowed us to ride the lift as many times as we wanted and off we went to snowboard! Of course we started with the green slope, and unfortunately did not progress enough to go on a longer slope that day. However I did make lots of progress with my snowboard skills! I can board forward, backwards, and I can stop. The last skill I was working on was turning 180 degrees. I was able to turn forward from backwards successfully, but anytime I tried to turn from forward to backward I fell over. But it was lots of fun and I am excited to go more often next winter!

On Sunday evening, I invited a couple friends to my house so we could have a buri shabu shabu party! One of the teachers that I work with recommended I make buri shabu shabu, since according to him it is the most delicious way to eat buri. Buri is yellowtail, which is a great tasting but expensive winter fish. It is in season now and luckily for us my town had a really great catch of buri this winter so it has been very cheap in our grocery store lately!  Shabu shabu is a hotpot dish where you throw your vegetables in the pot of broth to simmer and pull them out to eat as they are ready. With your chopsticks you swirl the pieces of fish (or meat) into the simmering broth for just a few seconds to sear the outside and then eat! It is a delicious dinner and also a fun activity since everyone cooks together at the table. 

New Year's in Osaka!

After a week in Thailand, tiring plane trips and a layover in the seedy Chinese airport two friends and myself finally arrived in Osaka, Japan on New Year's Eve. I was so glad to be back in Japan and so pumped to explore Osaka, the second largest city in Japan after Tokyo.

We found our little hotel which was in the Shinimamiya ward of Osaka. We found out later this is actually the slums of Osaka. However walking through the area, you would never know it was a slum. Only at night and at the convenience store did we see any homeless people. Apparently they live at the nearby park, and are apparently quite friendly and helpful to strangers. Two of our other JET friends told us how they were lost and a homeless man at the park kindly pointed them in the right direction. Japanese hospitality truly knows no boundaries. Anyway, even staying in the slummiest neighborhood of Osaka was completely safe and the neighborhood appeared just like the normal scenery of any big city in the U.S.

New Year's Night Countdown

After checking in at our hotel and cleaning up we met up with the other JETs who went to Osaka as well. We went to an izakaya to have a nabe dinner, after which we meandered around the popular, brightly lit Namba. Namba is said to be the prime nightlife area of Osaka, stocked full of restaurants, izakayas, and brightly lit streets with huge neon signs everywhere. It is so bright it is like daytime walking down the street at night. It was very crowded with people, and there were even lots of foreigners there. (But we noticed later, only a day after New Year's, all the foreigners seemed to have disappeared.)

Namba!

Once midnight was nearing, we set off for our countdown locations. Tricia, Charles, and I decided to go to a big party at one of the city observatory towers which attracts over 10,000 people each year. We arrived an hour early, and they were already full. So we decided to leave and race over to Sumiyoshi Taisha, a famous Shinto shrine where the rest of our group went.

We made it to the shrine before midnight, along with thousands of other people.  We were still waiting in line to enter the temple grounds when midnight was upon us. So Charles ran to a stand to buy three cups of sake and the three of us did a ten second countdown to midnight.

We got out our phones to watch the time, and started counting back (in English), "Ten, nine, eight..." As we continued to count, the crowds of Japanese people joined in and finished our countdown with us! Then they were fist pounding us and wishing us a happy new year. It was very exciting, and the three of us were quite proud of that bit of cultural exchange we brought to Sumiyoshi Taisha that night.

Long line of of people reaching up and past the bridge...

After midnight, the shrine had cleared out enough for the police to let in another wave of visitors. As we walked over the main bridge and through the main gate of the shrine we looked back to see hundreds of people packed into the street waiting to enter behind us. We walked through the crowded temple grounds and gave our offering at the main building. In preparation for the night, the caretakers actually had to hang heavy plastic to protect the shrine building from the coins that were being pelted towards it all night and day.

Although blurry, this shows the hundreds of people lined up after us waiting to enter the shrine

January First- Hatsumode

On the first day of the new year, we headed out to a shrine to participate in Hatsumode. Hatsumode is the tradition of the first shrine visit in the new year. Every year on January first most Japanese visit a Shinto shrine to give their offering, burn their old new year's fortune, and buy a new fortune for the year. It is tradition that if you receive a bad fortune you tie it to a stand or designated tree at the shrine in order for the gods to keep the bad luck away from you. However if you receive a good fortune you keep it and carry it with you all year!

We found a nice little shrine tucked in between several tall buildings. This shrine was much smaller than the one we visited the night before, yet still had lots of people lining up to do their hatsumode. I am glad we did hatsumode at this shrine, because it had a whole different and much more personal feel to it. There were open fire grills at which people burned their old omikuji (New Year Fortune), stalls to buy new omikuji, as well as Year of the Horse keepsakes, and other items for luck. There was even a stall selling hot, sweet amazake. Amazake is a wintertime version of sweet rice sake, you can usually buy a cup at festivals and shrine events.

In the right bottom corner are new year's fortunes that people have tied up

A pit to burn your old fortune in

People lined up to pray at the shrine

I am very excited since this year is the year of the Horse, and that is my birth year. So this year is supposed to be very lucky for me. Also, my omikuji (New Year fortune) turned out to be one of the really lucky ones! So, I should be doubly lucky this year!

Here is my rough translation of my fortune:

Your wish will come true.

The person you are waiting for is coming.

Your lost item is nearby.

You will have nice travels.

For business, you should wait until profits are large.

You can have peace and ease of mind about your studies.

It is a good time to sell stocks.

In disputes, you should suppress yourself.

Love is important for you to consider this year.

You should not be in a hurry to move.

You can have an easy delivery (baby).

You will not need medical treatment, or it will be easy.

Marriage proposal: others may try to hinder, but you should believe in your hearts desire and it will come true.

Sights in Osaka

After the holiday was over, we still had two days to explore Osaka so we made the most of it and saw lots of the famous spots in the city!

Aquarium

We went to the aquarium which was particularly impressive due to its expert design. The path guides you by various tanks depicting different areas of sealife, like a normal aquarium (or at least like all the aquariums in Japan). But the spectacular part was the main large tank in the center that contained the sharks, whales, stingrays and various other ocean creatures. The aquarium course was built in a spiral around the main tank, so as you progressed through the course, the path would open up to new views that provided a completely different perspective of the main tank.

The most smug expression

Lucky Bags

After spending a few hours at the aquarium we were quite hungry and went in search of a restaurant. We found an Arabic buffet in the mall next door so we decided to try that. While waiting for two more friends to come eat with our group, we strolled around the mall exploring the different shops. Tired and hungry, myself and two of the girls found a place where we could sit and wait.

Two of the guys with us went off for a walk around the mall, and came back toting a "lucky bag" from a hat shop. Lucky bags are a new year shopping custom in Japan where stores prepare bags with a selection of goods inside, then you pay a low price for the whole bag- but the catch is you have no idea what products will be inside! 

George bought one of these lucky bags at the hat shop, but had not opened it yet, so we excitedly urged him too. We waited in suspense and giggles to see each hat he pulled out and tried on for us. After showing off his five new surprise hats, we were so excited about it that the rest of us decided to each buy a bag as well! So five more of us jumped up and rushed to the shop to pick out a lucky bag. I'm sure the staff of the shop got a kick out of all these foreigners going crazy over the hat-filled lucky bags. 

We camped out on some benches outside of the store to open our bags and tried on each hat one by one. We each had 4-5 hats in our bags, so we had over 25 hats between the six of us! Everyone received a couple hats which really called for a question of style, but also we all got some really cute ones too! With so many hats we were able to trade for the ones we liked, as well as attempt to pawn off the ugliest ones onto other people. 

The contents of my lucky bag!

Osaka Castle Illumination

Later that night, our group went to see a big illumination at the Osaka Castle. Illuminations, a very popular winter event in Japan, are huge Christmas light shows. But they aren't just for Christmas- they are for the whole winter and often depict an entire landscape lighted up. Usually they are set up so you have a path to walk through the wonderland of tiny lights. It really feels magical to walk through these beautiful illuminations. 

Walking through a tunnel of lights

A view of the illumination scenery with Osaka Castle in the background

Floating Garden Observatory

Tricia and I went to see the Floating Garden Observatory which is on top of the Osaka Sky Building. The view of the city was gorgeous. Also the architecture of this building was quite unusual. Visiting tall towers and city observatories is my favorite sightseeing activity, every time it just amazed me to look out over the expanse of the beautiful cities below. So while I was at the Sky Building, I picked up a "Japan tower passport," so now I have another goal- visit all the famous towers across Japan!  5 down, 15 to go...

Looking out over Osaka

Osaka Castle

We returned to Osaka Castle, so we could see it in the daytime as well as take the actual tour. It was really neat to see it because you can actually enter the Castle and go all the way to the top.  The castle had eight floors and each floor was decked out with displays of memorabilia and history about the castle.

Best takoyaki I have ever had!

Finally at eleven p.m. on our fourth day in Osaka, Charles, Tricia and I boarded our night bus and were officially on our way home. After a seven hour bus ride, two and a half hour train ride, and then an hour car drive home- I finally walked into my house at 8:00 a.m. after two weeks of vacation. I took a shower and collapsed on my bed, and didn't wake up until 6:30 that evening.

The Osaka skyline