Visiting Taiwan

While Erik was home between his summer and fall deployments, we visited Taiwan for 5 days in early September. Admittedly, our first choice was to visit Beijing and The Great Wall but we had some visa obstacles with that plan. So! How about Taiwan? It has Chinese culture and is a 3 hour flight from Tokyo - fits the bill!

It ended up being a lovely place and the people were very friendly. The country has a really interesting history - a neat blend of Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, aborginal, etc kind of thing going on. It became clear there are different opinions surrounding this (as with most pages of history) and has essentially left me with the question who does like China? Besides Mother Russia, of course. Moving on from awkward political thoughts...

Our journeys were mainly based around Taipei and a couple days in the central counties of the sub tropic country. The south of the island offers many beaches and resorts, however they are still dealing with the effects of the devastating Typhoon Morokat last month.

Here is a slideshow with some pictures set to music from our adventure!

If you'd like to view it in a larger format, click on the arrows on the lower right corner of the video. Once the screen expands, click on the upper right hand corner where it says "scaling is on" to change it to "scaling is off" to make it a reasonable, clearer size.

Food Fear Factor

I'm happy to say I've grown out of a "picky eater" phase which plagued more than a couple decades of my life; I think living in Japan has put a lid on that altogether.

Today, I ate jellyfish tentacles:


I've eaten plenty o' interesting things here, but this goes in the top 10. Along with octopus (straight up, with suction cups tentacles and all), asparagus mousse, and a variety of gelatinous deserts.

The jellyfish tasted kind of salty - and were slippery, crunchy and jelly all at the same time. Because food, after all, is not just about taste, but so much about texture.

I Peeled an Orange About an Hour Ago, Why?

Summers in Japan are... interesting. I can honestly say I'm appreciative of this time in my life where if I want to spend hours a day reading and watching DVDs, I can. Although I maintain a part time job, it becomes awfully difficult to work in solitude for more than a few hours each day.

When people think of not having to work, I think visions of childhood summer vacations dance through their heads and they draw up feelings of a permanent long lazy weekend. Hammock naps, hiking in the afternoon and barbecues at night. But I don't think many people in their adult life (without children to tend to) understand what it would be like to permanently have nothing but time on your hands.

What would you do with a permanent vacation where none of your family or friends from home were with you? This is not a "woe is me" blurb but rather one girl's perspective.

If I'm not careful, I stay in my house for days and go without hearing a real human voice (although I have dreamy characters like Mr. Darcy, Chuck, Titus Pollo, Jacob Black, etc to keep me in very good company). So I purposefully do things like only get one book from the library at a time or get groceries that will last only a day or two - reserved actions that essentially force me to get out of the house. The fact that I have to calculate such maneuvers is a testament to feeling caged at times, but my hermit-like tendencies are no one's burden but my own. There are plenty of lovely people and opportunities around here and I take advantage of such things regularly. Its the "in between time" that makes time pass so slowly and yet so quickly.

Its easier to question these feelings and actions in the hot muggy months of summer here - the kind where your movements are sluggish as your limbs try to slice through the heavy air. Enjoying the outdoors would ease the caginess, but its difficult when beads of sweat form upon opening my front door. It reminds me of a favorite line from comedian Kevin James:

You know, when you're a fat guy you don't need a reason to sweat. Guys come up to me and go "Jeez... what have you been doing - jumping rope in the attic or something?"..."Umm, no... I peeled an orange about an hour ago, why?"

Replace the fat guy stuff with "You know your living in Japan in the Summer when you don't need a reason to sweat..." Feelings are different in the Spring and the Fall when I can comfortably get back to long walks along the back roads and neighborhoods of Japan, exploring the differences... and appreciating the similarities.

Swing Batta Batta, Swiiiing!

When Erik was "visiting" our home this past weekend, we finally got to see a Japanese baseball game. This is likely our last spring here in Nippon, so definitely needed to cross this of our list! We hopped on the train to see the local Yohohama Baystars, up against the Chiba Mariners. The Baystars' mascot has a star for a head, which of course I found super endearing.

The rules are pretty much the same, although the playing field, strike zone, etc are scaled down just a little bit. The interesting thing is that the home team's crowd continually cheers while the home team is at bat. That's a little different since in the States, things are usually quiet so the 'roid runners can focus better.

Here is the crowd doing a cheer while Yoshimura (popular player) is at bat. Coincidentally, we just happened to catch his home run on film while we were actually just trying to film the crowd.

Overall the experience was a lot of fun - we got to drink beer and eat hot dogs and cheer with the local crowd. We even caught on enough to join in the cheers in Japanese, although this skill diminished over time with beer consumption (meanwhile, rate of enthusiasm increased exponentially!).



Another Japanese item checked off our list!

McDonarudo's

I'd like to take the high road and claim I eat only local foods while living in Japan, alas I cannot avoid the temptation of McDonald's. Of course the fast food giant uses enough artificial seasonings to make a beef patty to taste the same in Toledo as it does in Tokyo. Sure, there are regional variations such as shrimp burgers and copious amounts of mayonnaise, but I appreciate the consistency of the basic menu items - when I want a McD's cheeseburger, I want a McD's cheeseburger.

"This one is the cheeseburger."

The main difference lies in the service, I think. The other day, they actually bowed after handing over my bag o' deliciousness. How courteous! And I don't think I've ever waited more than a minute for food. In the States, I once waited 3 minutes for a soda. However, I can't say its a fair comparison because the amount of staff in a Japanese McDs versus an American one supports my theory that everyone in Japan has a job.


This is the amount of staff on a weekday at my local suburban Zama McDonald's. And yes, all the women are wearing skirts. But if you work the fryer, make sure you wear some knee highs!

The Girls Festival

Japan has plenty of seasonal festivals, in fact way too many to keep up with. But good for them - it means they get a lot of holidays. This should balance out their 15 hour workdays nicely.

This past week, we celebrated Girls' Day or Dolls' Day here in Japan. If you want to take a stab at saying it in Japanese, its Hinamatsuri (hee-na-maht-serri). Its basically a day for girls and women to celebrate/pray for health and happiness. Mind you this particular holiday does NOT get you off work. But Boys' Day probably does. Anyhoo...

Originally gals would make paper dolls and float them down the river to symbolize ill-fortunes flowing away. I don't think they do that much anymore, though. I'm sure the turtles and other amphibians are pleased with the recent turn of events since surely they've been plagued with generations of bad mojo thrown into their waters.

Most families display special dolls - called Hinaningyou - for the month. I saw a few elaborate set ups and then ones that were feeble attempts to keep the tradition alive. The immediate comparison in my head was a Nativity Scene. Not because the dolls are religious in nature, but I feel like a lot of our families had large beautiful creches at one point, but recent generations feel they do not have the time nor storage to display them fully anymore. Maybe you get a Baby Jesus and Mary out there these days, kind of like how Japanese get the Emporer and Empress dolls out, but not the other 30 some figurines.

It was fortunate that our Japanese American Friendship Group landed on Girls' Day this month - I was in good company to learn about the holiday. The cutie patootie Japanese women sang a special Hinamatsuri song for us. We also ate peach, white, and green foods since they are the colors of the holiday. Side note: I'm still having a really hard time enjoying mochi. Its sweet and and its rice which are two things I love, but in combination something has gone horribly wrong.

Japanese friends singing Hinamatsuri song:

More of the song (baby Paxton is not sure what is going on):

And lastly, not a video, but a picure of my obsession for the day. I got to meet Kayoko-san's dog, a dachshund named Lucky. Which is an unfortunate name for a Japanese dog since it is difficult for many Japanese to form the "L" sound. So incidentally, he also goes by Rucky.


I think all us ladies tuckered him out.

Doggy Do Don't

One of the things I love best about Japan is the rampant use of characters and cartoons to sell messages and products. So you can be sure I caught on quite early to repetitive themes. For example, dog poop. The whole doggy doo doo thing is a don't don't here in Japan. Below are just a few of the example signs I have come across during my stay...






I assure you I'm not obsessed with poop (albeit this is the second posting where "toire" ideas are shared), but let me share one more observation: the disposal process. I see grown men and women catching their dogs duds in a bag. And these are small dogs by majority, too, so the space between a crouching butt and pavement is limited. Fascinating. This does save humans the scraping/pick-up step, so I will give them points for efficiency.

Meanwhile in unrelated news, thousands of Japanese dogs have a complex associated with pooping while humans standy near by - researchers are still investigating.

Happy Merry Christmas

Although we will be in the States for the Christmas holiday, we have been getting some questions about Christmas in Japan. Although Japan is a Buddhist country by majority, you can't stop our Far East friends from celebrating the bright lights of the holidays. I mean, it just gives them more opportunity to put up tacky electric things, so the holiday is right up their alley!

As well, I learned that Christmas Eve is pretty much like our equivalent of Valentine's Day; it is a big day for dating and smoochie smoochies. So I suppose that means - equally - there are plenty of single gals sitting at home with their parents, eating the Japanese equivalent of Chunky Monkey while watching Bridget Jones with subtitles in kanji. Except their butts don't get bigger, unlike the rest of the female human race who indulges in pints of ice cream.

Oh yeah, and you can't get escape the George Michael holiday tune "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart..." during this season in Japan. Yep. Pretty much every store has the song on some sort of loop. Yeah. Why? I don't know, but I do know when you aren't listening to it in a store, you are humming it or replaying it in your end the other 22 hours of your day.

Well we are off to trek to the States to meet Saint Nick on the other side of the Pacific Pond. Hope everyone has a "Happy Merry Christmas!"

In the City... City of Guampton

Although Erik has been there plenty of times, I finally got around to visiting Guam this past weekend. Or as we like to call it: Guambodia. The boat pulled into port for a few days and its a pretty easy hop to the island from Tokyo, so I packed up and headed there to meet him.

Guam is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and is technically a US territory. It is an interesting island that primarily caters to Japanese tourism -- its about a 3.5 hour flight, so I guess its kind of like their Miami (except instead of driving the I-95 corridor, you fly the typhoon alley of the Pacific). The main hotel areas are littered with stores like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Kmart, etc so the Japanese can spend their paper. This is how the local economy thrives for the most part (that and lots and lots of booby bars).


So I didn't really escape the Japanese life during my visit, but that doesn't really matter -- there was sun, sand, clear blue seas, pina coladas, and time with the hubby. The beauty of Guam is that it is a "forced vacation". There is nothing really to do except lounge by the water -- no check list of tourist spots to visit across the island from what I can see. In that way, I almost preferred it over my Hawaii trip earlier in the summer (that hurts to say since the price difference is quite considerable). Plus a 3 hour flight is better than an 8 hour flight any day.

There was beauty in watching our Japanese friends on vacation, actually. This is going to sound super super cheesy, but I will finish my thought: This additional lesson in overseas living re-emphasizes what I am learning, which is that we all have the same hearts and morals at our core, regardless of race and culture. Watching mom and dads play with their cutie toddlers in the sand, slathering SPF 100 on their little cheeks. Watching couples walk along the beach, hand in hand. And watching families sit at the pool and drink cold crisp Asahi beers starting at 10am, also recognizing there is nothing to do but lounge. Kompai!

My Quick Getaway is Enabled

Everyone here is posed for their getaway, Italian Job style. Pulling out of a parking spot is fast and easy, despite the narrow footprints and turning radii. This is because the Japanese incessantly reverse cars into spots, so the nose is always pointed out and ready to run. Much like Japanese shoes when you enter a home (remember to turn them so the toes are turned away from the wall - otherwise, a little old Japanese fairy comes along and mysteriously does this for you, perfectly aligning them amongst other pairs).

I have read a little about this - I ain't got nothin' but time on most days - and apparently there are plenty of studies on the subject. It turns out that us Americans will all die in a sad unchoreographed dance of reversing cars if an emergency should ever arise. Safety and traffic flow studies continuously prove that if all cars exited by pulling forward (i.e. park backwards), the world would be a better place. A utopia, if you will. Visibility and clearance are paramount in the Japanese way of parking.

And everyday people seem to agree that they have more time at the end of the day to spend the extra 15 seconds parking in reverse and appreciate a quick start in the morning by just pulling forward. There is also a vanity argument that cars just plain look better from the front (although Japan indeed is not a rear-obsessed culture by any means... because they don't have any... zing!).

Alas, I have taken to reversing my car into spots, not only to respect the uniformity that the Japanese find important, but because I have to admit it is just plain easier. Meep meep.