I know I'm well overdue for an update, but ever since I bought myself a MacBook the inspiration just hasn't been forthcoming!
Just in case you're curious, this is a photo of my new toy.
You can see there some of my favourite things here in Hiroshima when trying to live on the cheap. Big Cup Noodle, I don't think that needs an explanation. A can of Asahi is hiding behind the noodles. To the right of that is a 1L carton of delicious iced coffee with cream. To the right again is a Carona (normally I wouldn't go near them but they were so cheap the other night at Lawson's that I couldn't pass) that comes with a little sachet of lemon in true ultra-convenient Japanese style.
I'm really not feeling the creative flow here so I've just uploaded a whole bunch of photos. I'll put a proper update here another time when the brain worms are functioning properly.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
This update brought to you by Kirin
Well after a night of eating and drinking at a tiny 'mom&pop' izakaya that some friends and I found on a random walk through Naka-ku (the name of the downtown suburb in which I live) tonight, I've found myself in front of an iBook with internet so what better time to put up an update. 'Random drunken thoughts' shall be our theme for today.
Japanese food. It's a strange beast. Just when you think you're a little bit sick of rice and edamame (google it, salty snow-pea like snack in short) and miso soup, you discover 879463 new dishes. I had zarusoba (so named because of the plate "zaru" on which the soba noodles are served) for the first time last weekend and on a hot day there is nothing better. So simple, essentially just chilled noodles with a bowl of soy, spring onion and wasabi to dip them in before noisily slurping them down. Of course with Japanese food nothing is EVER really that simple. I'm sure the arrangement and the garnish took more time to prepare than you'd assume. The rice ball-esque dish served alongside (sorry, forgot the Japanese name) which had hints of plum and fish, made for a deceptively good feed.
Pocari Sweat has been replaced by 126Yen 1L cartons of lemon iced tea as my new favourite drink, consuming an obscene number per week at the moment.
Soccer is going well despite me putting in a shocking performance last weekend (one of the Japanese guys even out headered me, which he thought was hilarious) and Ive uploaded a few photos of some team members and the penalty kicks that decided last week's match. (ugh, penalty kicks... if I never have to see another one of them in my life I'll be happy). No World Cup talk this week, I'm thoroghly sick of talking about it with students at work.
While drinking at a bar a few weeks ago (I'm sure that's how a lot of stories are going to start on this here blog) I met a young bloke from Kansas who just happened to be employed as the mascot for the Hiroshima Carp baseball team. Fascinating story behind getting that job, but I can't put it up here. Anyway, he's a really nice guy and he offered to get me some free tickets to the baseball! So last weekend Jay and I went along and got seriously sunburnt, learnt some chants (and some foul Japanese), ate the most overpriced craptastic "Fried French" (French Fries, as only the Japanese could write it) and had a great day. Through a complete fluke we bumped into a Japanese woman that Jay had once taught and she kept feeding us tasty Japanese snacks all afternoon while she tried to teach us the chants for the Carp. Holy moley the Japanese baseball fans know how to chant! They have an entire makeshift brass band up in the stands and they blast out a variety of tunes all game. The entire crowd seems to know all the words and the noise level only subsides for short moments (they even have a song for ALL IN or SIDE AWAY).
It turned out to be a real nail-biter of a game. The Carp took an early lead when one of their big hitters smashed a three run home run in the bottom of the 2nd. The Tokyo giants managed to claw back two runs in the top of the 6th but the real drama came when they tied the game at 3-3 in the top of the 9th. Fast forward and its bottom of the 9th, nobody on base, 2 outs, the Carp Pinch Hitter at bat. He pops one over the shortstop and manages to make it comfortably to first. The next guy at bat smashes about 5 foul balls into the crowd when the PH steals second. The tag at second was so close (the second base player was actually airborne above the sliding runner) that the umpires had a conference on the mound for a good 5 minutes (this is when I got my lesson on Japanese curse words from the surrounding fans). The final decision was SAFU much to our delight. Next pitch and the batter smacks it right in the gap between right and center field, the crowd leaps to its feet and our hero PH runs home at lightspeed. The throw from outfield was awesome, but not quick enough, "SAFU" is the call and the Carp dugout rush out onto the field in delight. The fans were singing and chanting their hardest and the atmosphere was just spectacular.
It's a pity in a way, but I'm really starting to get used to life here. I say a pity because it's making it much harder to think of all the odd things that you would probably like to read about. I don't want this to turn into just another boring diary, it's where I want to record all the zany things about Japan. Habitualisation puts pay to that eh. Let me try and rack my brain (and not repeat earlier updates).
The humidity here really is hell on earth. It's not even the height of summer yet and already I start sweating in my shirt after only 5 minutes outside. Japanese people seem to think 28 degrees is the best setting for indoor climate control systems so I get no real releif there either.
I AM DYING WITHOUT MY MELBOURNE COFFEE! Seriously, the coffee here is just shocking. Starbucks is about the best there is, oh woe betide. I paid over $5 aussie the other day for a "ko-hi ra-te" (cafe latte) that was so bad I just had to start laughing to myself. Oh well, at least I got my $5 worth of ultra polite service with extra "arigato gozaimasu" thrown in on top.
I don't want to go into too much detail over it (you never know who's reading this 'ere internet thing) but I've been exposed to the somewhat savage side of my employer recently. It hasn't soured me all that much but it's certainly made me realise that "job security" is a luxury not many people enjoy over here.
My Japanese lessons are progressing but I feel like I've taken a bit of a step backwards since my teacher is forcing me to get my reading and writing up to speed with my conversation skills. It's so incredibly frustrating,l I feel like a five year old trying to write his first sentences at primary school. A conversation that would take me 30 seconds to say outloud takes me a good 30 minutes to write down and even then it has quite a few spelling errors (the difference between some Japanese words is an incredibly subtle vowel change, although English probably has more so I cant complain too much). I've got a Kanji dictionary too and I'm memorising them at a rate of about 2 per day. It's so unbeleivably liberating to be able to understand the basics like "hot" and "cold" and "exit" and "entrance".
Japanese food. It's a strange beast. Just when you think you're a little bit sick of rice and edamame (google it, salty snow-pea like snack in short) and miso soup, you discover 879463 new dishes. I had zarusoba (so named because of the plate "zaru" on which the soba noodles are served) for the first time last weekend and on a hot day there is nothing better. So simple, essentially just chilled noodles with a bowl of soy, spring onion and wasabi to dip them in before noisily slurping them down. Of course with Japanese food nothing is EVER really that simple. I'm sure the arrangement and the garnish took more time to prepare than you'd assume. The rice ball-esque dish served alongside (sorry, forgot the Japanese name) which had hints of plum and fish, made for a deceptively good feed.
Pocari Sweat has been replaced by 126Yen 1L cartons of lemon iced tea as my new favourite drink, consuming an obscene number per week at the moment.
Soccer is going well despite me putting in a shocking performance last weekend (one of the Japanese guys even out headered me, which he thought was hilarious) and Ive uploaded a few photos of some team members and the penalty kicks that decided last week's match. (ugh, penalty kicks... if I never have to see another one of them in my life I'll be happy). No World Cup talk this week, I'm thoroghly sick of talking about it with students at work.
While drinking at a bar a few weeks ago (I'm sure that's how a lot of stories are going to start on this here blog) I met a young bloke from Kansas who just happened to be employed as the mascot for the Hiroshima Carp baseball team. Fascinating story behind getting that job, but I can't put it up here. Anyway, he's a really nice guy and he offered to get me some free tickets to the baseball! So last weekend Jay and I went along and got seriously sunburnt, learnt some chants (and some foul Japanese), ate the most overpriced craptastic "Fried French" (French Fries, as only the Japanese could write it) and had a great day. Through a complete fluke we bumped into a Japanese woman that Jay had once taught and she kept feeding us tasty Japanese snacks all afternoon while she tried to teach us the chants for the Carp. Holy moley the Japanese baseball fans know how to chant! They have an entire makeshift brass band up in the stands and they blast out a variety of tunes all game. The entire crowd seems to know all the words and the noise level only subsides for short moments (they even have a song for ALL IN or SIDE AWAY).
It turned out to be a real nail-biter of a game. The Carp took an early lead when one of their big hitters smashed a three run home run in the bottom of the 2nd. The Tokyo giants managed to claw back two runs in the top of the 6th but the real drama came when they tied the game at 3-3 in the top of the 9th. Fast forward and its bottom of the 9th, nobody on base, 2 outs, the Carp Pinch Hitter at bat. He pops one over the shortstop and manages to make it comfortably to first. The next guy at bat smashes about 5 foul balls into the crowd when the PH steals second. The tag at second was so close (the second base player was actually airborne above the sliding runner) that the umpires had a conference on the mound for a good 5 minutes (this is when I got my lesson on Japanese curse words from the surrounding fans). The final decision was SAFU much to our delight. Next pitch and the batter smacks it right in the gap between right and center field, the crowd leaps to its feet and our hero PH runs home at lightspeed. The throw from outfield was awesome, but not quick enough, "SAFU" is the call and the Carp dugout rush out onto the field in delight. The fans were singing and chanting their hardest and the atmosphere was just spectacular.
It's a pity in a way, but I'm really starting to get used to life here. I say a pity because it's making it much harder to think of all the odd things that you would probably like to read about. I don't want this to turn into just another boring diary, it's where I want to record all the zany things about Japan. Habitualisation puts pay to that eh. Let me try and rack my brain (and not repeat earlier updates).
The humidity here really is hell on earth. It's not even the height of summer yet and already I start sweating in my shirt after only 5 minutes outside. Japanese people seem to think 28 degrees is the best setting for indoor climate control systems so I get no real releif there either.
I AM DYING WITHOUT MY MELBOURNE COFFEE! Seriously, the coffee here is just shocking. Starbucks is about the best there is, oh woe betide. I paid over $5 aussie the other day for a "ko-hi ra-te" (cafe latte) that was so bad I just had to start laughing to myself. Oh well, at least I got my $5 worth of ultra polite service with extra "arigato gozaimasu" thrown in on top.
I don't want to go into too much detail over it (you never know who's reading this 'ere internet thing) but I've been exposed to the somewhat savage side of my employer recently. It hasn't soured me all that much but it's certainly made me realise that "job security" is a luxury not many people enjoy over here.
My Japanese lessons are progressing but I feel like I've taken a bit of a step backwards since my teacher is forcing me to get my reading and writing up to speed with my conversation skills. It's so incredibly frustrating,l I feel like a five year old trying to write his first sentences at primary school. A conversation that would take me 30 seconds to say outloud takes me a good 30 minutes to write down and even then it has quite a few spelling errors (the difference between some Japanese words is an incredibly subtle vowel change, although English probably has more so I cant complain too much). I've got a Kanji dictionary too and I'm memorising them at a rate of about 2 per day. It's so unbeleivably liberating to be able to understand the basics like "hot" and "cold" and "exit" and "entrance".
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