Totoro and other embarrassing stories

During my time in Japan, I made… more than a few social missteps. While embarrassing at the time, they do make for funny stories later. Here is a compilation of some of them.

Things we’ll miss/Things we look forward to (Part 1)

I can’t believe it has been 1 year since Chris and I arrived in Japan. The time has gone by so quickly, but it has been quite an adventure! Although I am only finally posting this now, this blog post was written in our final days in Japan. Here is a list of things we will miss (part 1) now that we have returned to the US, and I’ll soon post things we look forward to (part 2).

Stray Observations (Part 3): A Tribute to Ann Landers

I realize it’s been a while since I’ve written a “Stray observations” post, so today’s topic will primarily focus on etiquette and hygiene, hence, my tribute to Ann Landers. While most people are familiar with the traditions of bowing to each other or removing one’s shoes when entering a home, there are a few other practices and habits that might not be so well known. Here are a few…

Osaka Weekend 2 — Socializing, Ethnology, and Moss

Buddha in relief at Hozenji Yokocho in Osaka

To be perfectly honest, we haven’t developed super active social lives while living abroad. We’re getting better, but our default nights usually still involve movies on the couch or trying out a new nearby restaurant. That was the thinking when Katie signed us up for a few groups on the site Meetup. One of those included a group of vegans which meets on the last Friday of the month for a dinner at Cafe Atl, a small veg restaurant in the Shinsaibashi area of central Osaka. Avoiding animal products is tough work in Japan, so vegetarians/vegans need to stick together.

There seems to be a much bigger gaijin population in Kobe and Osaka, so we hopped on a train to Osaka to go mingle for the weekend. We figured as long as we’re down that way, we’d make a weekend out of it. Hit up a few of the sites we missed our last time around.

One of the best meals we’ve ever had

Manpukuji Temple in Uji, Japan

Last weekend was Chris and my most “foodie” weekend yet in Japan, and one for the books for sure. Friday was Valentine’s Day and Saturday was “I Love You” Day. As some of you may know, Chris and I usually do a little something on Valentine’s Day, with the rest of the world, but “I Love You” Day, marking the first time we said “I love you”, is much closer to our hearts.

The holidays in Japan- Part 2

Caveat- I started writing this post weeks ago and didn’t get around to finishing it until now. Sorry for the consistently late posts!

THE HOLIDAYS

Christmas

1. We already wrote a blog post about our Christmas celebration, but I want to mention two interesting Christmas food traditions in Japan.

The first is the tradition of eating fried chicken on Christmas. Supposedly, KFC began their Christmas marketing campaign back in 1974, when a gaijin noticed that fried chicken was the next-best-thing to a Christmas turkey. The marketing team even created the slogan “kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii!” (Kentucky for Christmas!).

Proof of KFC’s popularity, people will wait in long lines for their KFC, sometimes ordering it 1 month in advance! What’s more, you will see KFC stores around Japan with statues of Col. Sanders dressed as Santa. You can often see Japanese posing with the Col. as a great photo op!

Our Japanese Jewish American Christmas

This year marks the first time I’ve ever been away from my family in Virginia at Christmas time. Even when I was living on the west coast, I’d always catch a flight back for at least a few days, work permitting. It’s  a strange feeling, a bit lonely. Despite what you might think, I do still see a lot of seasonal reminders when wandering around Kyoto. There are lights hung on trees. Grocery stores play holiday music non-stop, mostly cover versions of “Last Christmas” and “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” If you head into a commercial district, you’ll see plush or robotic Santas, as in the video below.

Birthday trip to Arashiyama

For over three years now, I have lived in Oregon, positioning myself close to 3,000 miles away from my family and hometown of Northern Virginia. While living in Oregon, I often miss my family and friends back home, but I have also developed a “home-away-from-home” in Eugene, with new friends, new traditions, and most importantly, my husband, who has served as  rock and family when I am so far away from the other people I love.

The streets of Arashiyama

Celebrating my 28th birthday in Japan, in a completely different country, in a completely different continent, in a place so distant from my old life that I am separated by an international date line, was definitely going to be different. At the time, I was feeling a little homesick and beginning to feel particularly nostalgic as summer transitioned into autumn, my favorite time of year, rich with memories and traditions.

Stray observations of life in Japan (Part 2) Food edition!

It’s Friday night and Chris and I are about to go to an autumn potluck dinner with some lab friends. Chris told me that before we leave, he thinks that he might write a quick blog post. So, being the competitive/emulating person that I am, I decided to write one too!

Note: This post was originally going to list many types of observations, but gradually, it became a food-related post. As always, more to come!

1. People in Japan love curry!

Seriously. I would say about 80% of restaurants are either curry restaurants or serve curry on their menu. Also, if you go to any grocery store, they have a whole aisle dedicated to curry.

Japanese curry tastes different from Thai or Indian curry. The vegetarian stuff we made at home consisted of a sweet brown sauce made from apples and honey. Instead of the typical breaded chicken (?) found on top of some brown sauce at most restaurants, the curry we make at home includes lots of Japanese root veggies (very autumnal) including cabocha (Japanese squash), Japanese sweet potato, carrots, onions, and bunashimeji (Japanese mushrooms). Yum!

Typical Japanese curry

 Japanese vegetarian curry

A foreigner’s (painful) guide to finding housing in Japan

So we realize we haven’t written in a while. Things have been busy with the all-consuming task of finding housing in Japan as foreigners. This is our excuse, and we will begin to catch up on our many adventures soon. For now, here are some fun facts and whiney anecdotes…

In a nutshell, Japan is very bureaucratic and everything involves a lot of paperwork and a lot of steps. We first figured this out when we moved to Kyoto. We went ran around town to three different government agencies until we finally reached the Sakyo municipal ward office. There, we completed paperwork at three different locations in order to obtain resident cards, sign up for the national health insurance plan, and join the national pension system. Unfortunately, most places, including the immigration office, do not have English-speaking employees- so most conversations consist of a lot of dictionary-use and a lot of confusion.