$200 Chunk-O-Fish

While shopping for seafood for Marlow's birthday dinner at one of my 'secret spots' I stumbled upon this $200 piece of fish nestled among run-of-the mill cuts of sushi fish. I can't say I was really shocked by it, because we've all see the discovery channel, but I was still giddy enough to snap this picture. A couple friends have since informed me that this hunk a fish is actually from the belly of the Pacific bluefin tuna---aka, some of the very best tuna you can buy (think gold with gills). For the sake of the person who actually forks over the dough, I hope it's tasty.

Ant Masks

For one of my lessons at school we acted out the part of ants looking for food (for part of a book we were reading at the time). Though flimsy and cheap, these masks actually looked really cute, and seeing as all of the kids in this particular class actually wore the masks, tantrum-free, we took a pic. cute stuff.

How I Look to 6 Year Old Japanese Boys

This week's lesson was the body: head, shoulders, knees, toes, eyes, ears, and you know the rest. So to wrap up the last few minutes of my class we played pictionary--and i'm not exactly what it is about whiteboard markers, but my kids usually get really excited to use them. So after we finished the game, I asked my student to clean up and get ready to leave. He then, lightning fast (because he knew class was over) erases the board and draws this little number and points to me--so it's a portrait of me. Yikes.

Minivan Shminivan

Walking around the city, I spotted this mom with 2 kids on a bike. Living in Japan is very different from living in the US in more ways than I can explain, and when I do try to explain, I find that it is often just too hard to really get my point across. But for this, I was able to snap a picture. In America, this woman would undoubtably have at least a car, if not a minivan with which to schlep these two kids around while she goes about her daily errands. To see this in America would make onlookers think this mom is:
a)very (or too) eco-friendly
b) too poor to afford a car
c)crazy

Now, maybe she really doesn't have the money for a car, but in Japan, that isn't a big deal at all. Plenty of people don't have cars and get by just fine. How do they do it? They just make it work. And as you can see, it is possible. Maybe it's not as convenient as having a car, but it can be done. I had a Nissan Maxima in the states, and I loved that old car, and it was my first and only. And I hope it stays that way. Public transit is the way to go in my book. It's cheap, eco-friendly, and if the train breaks down, I don't have to pay for it...well directly anyway (taxes, I know, I know). Props to this mom for doin' her thing, and doin' it well.

My First Salon Experience

Up until about a month ago, I had never paid for a haircut in my life. My aunt is a hairdresser and, for most of my life, had been the only one to ever cut my hair. After I moved away to go to college, I didn't have as many opportunities to drive back home for a haircut. My aunt gave me some tips, and just after watching her over the years I was able to cut my own hair, and have been doing so since college. But I was recently compelled to experience a salon as a paying customer. Cutting the back of your own hair is not always easy, so I thought it would be nice to rest assured that it was really straight this time. It's unfortunate that I can't compare my experience in a Japanese salon with that of an American salon. I didn't really have much done, just a trim and a moisturizing treatment, so the overall change to my look wasn't really drastic, but afterwards my hair was shiny and super soft. For the cut, treatment, a bottle of leave-in conditioner, and free shampoo and conditioner samples (yay!) ran me about 12,000 yen or $120, which was a bit steep for me-- remember I'm someone who had never paid for a haircut before. While shampooing, one of my stylists massaged my scalp, neck and shoulders for over 10 minutes (which was totally awesome) and during the moisturizing treatment, these cute small plastic ear-caps were put on my ears to prevent them from getting gunked up. Hiro, who I presume is the head stylist and maybe even the owner of the salon, Cockney, speaks great English and was salon-trained in London. He took the time to sit down with me and talk about what I wanted done. I had a good experience, and when I decide to do something more drastic with my hair, will definitely visit Cockney again. Cockney is located behind Nagoya Station, about a block or two away from Yamachan. Once you go, you can get a point card that will earn you free services like moisturizing treatments. Call 052-451-1584 and ask for Hiro if your Japanese isn't so hot.

Useful Advertising

In the wintertime in Nagoya, it isn't uncommon to see some poor guy out on the street in the cold, freezing his unmentionables off as he braves the frigid temperature to hand out packs of pocket tissues with his employer's advertisement attached to or imprinted on the packaging. More than once, I've had to tear through pictures of scantily clad women posing for anything from hostess bars to massage parlors to get to the pillowy soft, milky white, deliciously free tissues inside. Our own English school hands out tissues as well. And in the summer, it's plastic fans with advertisements. Whatever is most useful at the time, hence increasing the likelyhood a passerby will take the camouflaged ad. I've handed out tissues myself, and not everyone takes them. Though old ladies are usually a sure bet, there is nothing worse than seeing someone handing out only an advertisement, with no tissues or fans or anything really useful. Poor guy can't seem to lighten his load. Anyway, tissues, fans and the occasional candy or free dry food sample are the most common (in that order) but I recently got an individually packaged mask with an advertisement in the mail. Though it was a first, I cannot say I'm surprised. So simple and practical--I can't get enough.

Japanese Christmas Lights

I spotted these while browsing in Tokyu Hands, a popular department store in Nagoya Station. LED Christmas lights that run about $70. For this much dough, I'd hope you got the well-deserved bang for your buck: that is, no sporadically lit, or completely dark strands after only a year's use. Let's hope whoever forks over the money for these doesn't have to deal with the same problems those of us who refuse to spend more than the cost of a couple of candy bars on a strand of Christmas lights.

Moving Day

We've completed our third move since coming to Japan last September. From our overpriced, yet undoubtably convenient apartment in downtown Nagoya, to our 6 month stay in Freebell, the apartment building more commonly known as gajin central, to our newest place in Yagoto. The move from Freebell was fairly easy, as we hired a moving company to do the dirty work. Though Marlow and I have prided ourselves our 'ghetto solutions' (we're the crazy foreigners you might spot dragging 3 futons or a small refrigerator on the subway) we opted for the moving company because our new apartment building doesn't have an elevator. As it turns out, there is a price you can put on not hauling large pieces of furniture up 4 flights of stairs, and it's about $370. Our apartment agency scored us about a $100 discount, which sweetened the deal. We basically sat back and let these two guys do all the work. With 30 minute travel time included, these fellas were done in less than 3 hours. Thanks guys!

Caramel Pudding Kit Kat

During our Halloween lesson at school, I managed to get my students to taste test Caramel Pudding Kit Kat. Now, this particular flavor is one of my personal favorites. As a matter of fact, I came across it last winter in a 7-11. The thing about this Kit Kit, like many of the flavors I've tried so far, is that it is seasonal--you can only find them in the fall. So by the winter time, all that was left were a few scragglers. I remember Marlow and I tried it, and really liked it, but when I went back to get more, there were none left. Since then, I've searched for them, until I found them about a month ago--yep, they were released again for the fall. Seeing as the packaging had Halloween decor, I thought it would be fitting to use this flavor for a Halloween taste test, and here you have it:

Halloween

Halloween in Japan isn't quite the extravaganza it is in the US, but it's slowly gaining popularity. I would think it impossible that kids, no matter where they're from, could resist dressing up in costumes and getting candy. At school we teachers are required to wear Halloween costumes, and most, if not all of the kids, usually dress up and have a great time. But outside of school(and the club district) you will be hard-pressed to find anyone else wearing Halloween costumes as it just isn't really that popular here...yet. Though the Halloween sections of those select stores with Halloween sections are typically small, they have grown a bit since last year. As for the future of Halloween's popularity in Japan, we'll just have to see. But this year I had a great time with my kids.