Sake it to me!

Well we should get some sort of blogging award for posting TWICE in one week. ;) Nah, not really...this just means that it will have to keep you all happy for twice as long. Hahaha :)

Yesterday found us on a great adventure with some amazing people. We met our Japanese Culture Class at the Fussa train station at 8am for a trip to Sawanoi sake brewing factory! I was a little skeptical about drinking sake before 10am, but it was a well-timed event because they were also holding a sake festival and it was extremely crowded. When we paid our entrance fee we were given these adorable little souvenir tasting cups with the cute crab logo of the brewery. We really enjoyed our time touring the brewery and trying 13 different sakes...and I was especially thankful that each sample was only really a couple of sips because I'm not a big drinker. Some of them were extremely strong, but the first few really tasted like beer to me. When I told the Japanese group members this, they agreed with me and said that it was probably due to those sakes being almost 100% unpolished rice. The polished rice removes the outer parts which contain lots of protein and fat and refines the taste. And while we're on the subject of science-y type things, it is interesting to note that the process of making sake involves pasteurization, a method that Louis Pasteur "discovered" and patented some 300 years after the Japanese. Just a lil tidbit for your "useless facts" notebook. ;) I fell in love with the plum sake and we had to get a bottle! It was so crisp and so fruity, yet nice and sweet, which is right up my alley. Not a bad price for 1330 Yen (about $16.70).

After the factory tour we wound our way down through the beautiful garden area across from the brewery...you could have snacks, order sake, just chill by the river, etc. We made our way to a restaurant which Suzy (one of our Japanese members) told us was a place that Japanese royalty would visit. When we walked in there was a small step up that you were to leave your shoes at and the "shoe attendant" would put them in a cubby area for you. The meal was really good (see pics below) and we had fun discovering what was on our tray...it was handy having locals on either side of us to tell us what in the heck we were eating. We also talked about the beauty of Japanese food and that eating, for them, is not only an event for taste but for the eyes as well. How good something looks affects how you feel about it and they understand that fully. This was also the first time for both J and I to sit at a traditional Japanese-style table with tatami mats and little tiny pillows to sit on. It was cool but is kinda rough on the knees...we asked Suzy if this is how they eat at home and she said no, they have a regular table with chairs...I thought that was cute. It was also not a bad price, a huge tray of food for 1500 Yen. I really enjoy the feeling after eating even a relatively large amount of food here...unless you are going crazy at Coco's curry and eating fried stuff, you walk away feeling just perfectly satiated, not stuffed. I think it's genius. They balance the amount of fiber, carbs, and protein so that you are getting exactly what your body needs. What a novel approach. In America we seem to settle on a bucket full of one thing and we consider this a value rather than two or three bites of dozens of different kinds of food. In America you would feel "ripped off" because the volume isn't there, never considering the nutritional content of what you're eating (for the most part) or the monotony of eating a large amount of one thing versus a variety of flavors. *Reminder* we love America and most American food (and we do miss it sometimes), we are just trying to contrast our experience here with what we've always known and this is an interesting contrast. On our way out, the shoe attendant somehow figured out perfectly who's shoes belonged to who, which was really cool. We then wandered around the area, over a beautiful river where several people were kayaking and enjoying the day. We found a small temple up on the hillside and took some more great pictures of the mountains. It was absolutely perfect weather, even though a little overcast.

Our slow climb up the mountain took us to the next part of our day, which was a tour of the Japanese Hair Comb museum (included in the sake brewery tour price). Some of you might be snickering, but it was really interesting to see all the old combs and see how the hair was styled in the Edo period. They used gold inlay, ivory, mother of pearl, coral and other fine materials for these beautiful and elaborate hair pieces that finished the overall look of the kimono. Sadly they did not allow any pictures inside the museum, but we enjoyed our tour nonetheless. I noted how striking an all-white ivory comb must have looked on an elaborately designed and twisted mop of jet-black hair. Even the boys were impressed and I personally was impressed with their lack of looking bored (not just J because he is really good at faking being "into" girl stuff lol).

This pretty much ended the day and we then crowded into an absolutely ridiculously packed bus to shuttle us back to the train station...see pic below. I used to be claustrophobic but I think I am cured because I didn't even flinch on this bus and I figure if I can make it through these tight spots then I'm  not really claustrophobic. Who knew such a thing could come and go? Anyway I digress. We had fun chatting with our group while waiting for the train, as we don't really get too much chance to "chat" in our classes. We are usually doing some fun activity that allows for just a little chit-chat, but nothing really personal. We talked about jobs and a couple of them have jobs in the medical field so we were discussing strange medical terms that regular people wouldn't know (even Japanese people). J got a phone call while we were chatting and he answered it "moshi moshi" which is the traditional Japanese greeting and the group all laughed heartily at him answering like a local. The train pulled into the station already packed from Mt. Mitake hikers returning from their day of hiking, so it was interesting to literally squish ourselves in with them. We definitely got "friendly" with everyone...but no one was rude and no shoving was involved. And we all just kept chatting like it was no big deal, which for them it wasn't since they are used to it. It's not normal for us to be nose-to-nose with our friends like this...it wasn't exactly "uncomfortable" just very different than American culture. The Japanese have to get over the lack of personal space very quickly...or drive everywhere I guess. We said goodbye to our friends along the way as they got off on their respective stops, then we shopped a bit at Seiyu and headed home ourselves. After finding pumpkin Kit Kats, of course. Score! Love you all, enjoy the pictures! :)

The whole crew

Sao and I with our sake cups

Jonas getting a pour...sake # who knows lol

Jonas & the fellas

This is my "wowwww that's got bite" face

Artsy bottle pic. Nice one, babe :)

Suzy, Takey and myself with Koji hiding behind Suzy

Epic pic of Jonas lifting the 160lb sake drum!

The group waiting for lunch



Doesn't it look delish? My fav was the miso soup I think....incredible!! And the desert tasted exactly like cheesecake...yummy

Discovering lunch...I love this pic, as they are all trying to check out what's for lunch.

Beautiful river near the brewery

The group climbing up to take a turn at hitting the giant bell near the shrine

Koji's turn

Me going for the rope :)

J's turn...the sound that came from this thing was incredible!!

Pretty area near the comb museum

The bus! Epic!!!! We were packed in like sardines!!

Liz Gets Super Spoiled.....and Kawagoe :)

Hello dear readers! I have been busy working full time (hooray!) and J is taking an online class for his Bachelor's so we haven't had much time for blogging as of late. Apologies! This post finds me one year older and truly feeling no different...and wondering if this is what it will be like to be 75? How crazy time truly is. Don't get me started because I tend to really trip on thinking about the passage of time...but honestly, it is a trip. Anyway, my birthday was truly awesome. We are so very blessed to have made so many great friends so quickly here...it made the emptiness I feel missing my family and friends back home a little easier to bear. The day before my bday we had our Japanese Culture Class (which we need to blog about but I think we'll wait until it's done and do one giant overview) and one of our group members (my good friend Jody) surprised me with a birthday cake! It was so touching. Then, my birthday morning, my wonderfully sweet hubs got us donuts to share...then it was off to work and I opened presents on my lunch break (and enjoyed some yummy pork katsudon takeout). For those of you who might not know, birthdays are huge to J and he really knows how to spoil people on their special day. He got me some beautiful Corelle dishes that I've been lusting after for years (cherry blossom pattern...never more appropriate than now), a new Sims game (yes, I am a nerd), Wii Zumba and an absolutely gorgeous Japanese fruit tart (see pics below). I told you...spoiled! Around mid-afternoon I get yet another surprise of my coworkers buying me an adorable lil birthday cake and about 15 of them singing Happy Birthday to me! I was SO surprised, everyone snuck around and even signed a card for me which was really sweet because I've only been there 3 weeks! They treated me like I'd been around for years and that is really awesome. Side note: I even got treated to a late birthday lunch the day afterward by one of the sweet Japanese ladies in our office. She explained to me that since she had invited me that she would pay for me, plus it was my special birthday lunch. Again, so generous of her, considering I have pretty much been there for 5 minutes.  Anyway, back to my actual birthday...after work, our good friends Rebekah & Russell stopped by with a sweet and awesome gift for me...my own sushi maker and a TON of awesome fixings to make sushi (see pics below yet again)! How lucky am I?! It was soooo funny, I saw Rebekah posting about going to the sushi class the day before my birthday and I made a wisecrack comment about how it was my birthday the next day and that I happened to love sushi...what have I learned? Never challenge a sweet person. She showed up at my door with a huge bag full of goodies AND my own lil sushi maker which works amazingly well and we just made our first round of it tonight (see pics below). So we feel very officially Japanese now that we're making our own sushi at home. :) THEN, since my bday was on Thursday and we always have our English class on Thursday nights, we welcomed our students into our home and I was blown away by gifts from each of them AND snacks AND an adorable lil chocolate cake, plus candles, plus them all singing to me again! I have Facebook to thank for all of that (and them, of course) because the awesome translator/teacher Tamae saw that it was my birthday and I'm guessing had to coordinate with all the other students and let them know it was my birthday. It was so, so sweet and after a full day of love I got all teary-eyed and almost lost it and it was so sweet to see the chain reaction occur with Tamae tearing up as well. It was such a cool moment. She is a mother and I think it was a Mom kinda moment, but the whole thing was really special. It truly was a completely wonderful day.

I was telling J that one of the perks of having a birthday while overseas is that because of the time difference, your birthday stretches for literally days. The day before I was receiving Happy Birthday wishes on Facebook PLUS I got a huge birthday cake at our class...then my actual birthday was packed full of goodies and awesomeness...then the day after (the 18th in the States) I got a ton more sweet wishes on FB...then Saturday I got my Mom's bday package...so I got at least 4 days of love outta one day of birth. Can't beat that. Oh and I don't want anyone to think the peeps back home forgot about me...I got gift cards from my brother & family and also my sister and I got to talk to my BFF, Mom & sister on my actual birthday here, which was perfect.

Whew, I'm done talking about myself...but please enjoy the birthday pictures!!!

I also wanted to share our trip to Kawagoe this past weekend. First of all, it was beautiful weather so it was a wonderful day to go out and explore. One of the Japanese ladies I work with was telling me about Kawagoe and how close it was, so much historical stuff to see, etc so we decided to make it my birthday trip. It was only after we had already planned for the Saturday after my bday that we found out there was a huge festival going on that weekend. Perfect! So we hopped on the train and headed to Kawagoe, about 45 minutes away from base. It was VERY busy, but there were about a zillion street vendors and tons and tons of people watching, plus getting to watch the festival itself. There were 27 different "dashi" or portable shrines that were carried on the streets by people of different neighborhoods...each one has a different shrine, drummers and a dancer wearing a different type of mask. The shrines were huge wooden carts that were pulled down the street on large wooden wheels. There were dozens of people pulling these carts that nearly touched the streetlight they were so tall. They were beautifully carved and decorated, with 5 or 6 musicians and dancers on each one. We were lucky enough to run into one of the shrine carriers, he spoke amazing English and was kind enough to help us find the spot that was selling collectible festival pins that we were looking for. He said his name was "Kazu" but was quick to tell us that it was his nickname. He was so kind, going out of his way to help us find the pin vendor and even buying for us 2 commemorative scarves so that we could be part of the "in" crowd. It is a little hard to explain, but each of the 27 shrines also has a set of Kanji just for that shrine...so the shrine that he supported could only be pulled by people wearing that certain scarf, which were all people from the same neighborhood. So, he said now we were part of the crew and we had several other shriners (haha) bow to us once we had on the scarves. It was so cool!! All we really asked of him was to point us in the direction of the pins and we ended up being treated like family. Just another example of the kindness we have found in this amazing country. After wandering several very long, packed streets, we decided on some interesting looking snacks...and I searched high and low for a blue chocolate-dipped banana. You know how you fixate on random, weird things...I just had to have a blue one and finally found it. It isn't really interesting, but just a window into my weirdness. Anyway, it was a great time and I hope you enjoy those pics as well. Love to all!

My gorgeous Japanese fruit tart!

Sushi stuff from the Stormans!

My birthday cake from English students...that says "Liz" by the way!! :)

My class! Awww :) Love them, they are awesome!

Kawagoe, festival entrance

Adorable lil guys

One of the dashi

Street view



Kazu on the left, Jonas and other random dude lol

Finally found the blue banana!!

Scary but cool

Just one area filled with vendors

Nifty seasonings dude...he was talking nonstop while doing this

Some of the food available...cabbage thingy w/an egg on top

Lil baby octopus! Ummm no thanks lol

Our sushi maker in action!

Rolling the nori in

The finished roll! Sooo easy and really fun!

Nice roll :)

NOMNOMNOM

They look pretty on the new plates :)

Dinner!

The bonus pic for those who read the whole blog....this dude was drinking a Chu Hi (very popular Japanese alcoholic drink...like a wine cooler only better) and his tshirt is a baby drinking a Heineken. Only in Japan!! Oh and note that it is like 7pm and all 3 of these people were asleep on the train. Awesome!