Thursday, September 30, 2010
Lipton Milk Tea
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Food, Drink and Registration!
Yesterday, together with our Prof., our lab went out to an all-you-can-drink izakaya. It certainly was an interesting experience. I only had about 3 pints of the same beer so it wasn't all worth the 3000yen ($37) price tag but I had a good time so I can't complain. There were around 12 of us around this long table (almost at floor level but it did have a whole in the middle under the table so that you were seated normally). I definitely didn't take enough pictures because I wasn't really prepared for it (i.e., need to carry camera everywhere since the one on iphone isn't all that good). Plus it was raining heavily outside!
The first interesting thing was that in the lobby area (which looked like a Japanese rock garden) we had to take off our shoes and put them into these little wooden lockers (with wooden keys!). Walking in the restaurant was done with no shoes.
There was a 90min time limit on our all-you-can-drink. The drink menu did have an assortment of things but pretty much everybody wanted beer so I went with beer. Beer came in large pitchers (Asahi I think was the brand) but there seemed to be only 1 choice). The Japanese custom is (very much like in Canada) to pour others drinks (and others will pour yours too). The different custom is that you keep the beer glass with your two hands and hold it while the beer is being poured. I did the pouring once and the people were quite excited that I'm trying to follow the Japanese custom.
The really interesting thing was the food. This izakaya was all about chicken. So we basically ate chicken in at least 5 different ways. There were chicken shish-kabobs (some from chicken stomachs), some sausages, various kinds of chicken meat breaded and deep fried (one was cartilage which was quite crunchy).
At the end was some rice based dish that you were supposed to eat once and then add some sauce/broth boiling on special stands and eat again. So it was quite an interesting experience!
Today for lunch we went to a soba place which was quite nice and tasty. I would say this handmade soba in this grandpa&grandma restaurant was the best I've had. I had some with a fried shrimp, some daikon radish, green onions, and real wasabi!! There was also breaded & deep fried leaf of some kind! Was delicious!
This was the menu - as you can see I definitely wouldn't be able to order anything other than randomly at this place :P. Although randomly it would still be good :P In case you're not familiar with Chinese/Japanese numbers, those are prices at the bottom, followed by the yen symbol 円。I guess I could read "soba" (そば) since it was written in hiragana (one of the easy alphabets that I know mostly)!
In the afternoon, I biked to my ward office (the city office for the part of the city where I live) to pick up my alien registration card! It was a nice bike ride, around 5km from university and about 4km back home. But, I'm finally a fully registered alien! :P I no longer need to carry my passport with me which will make my pockets less full. This card is basically an ID that I can use anywhere it is necessary and states that I am actually residing in the city. There is a large "Japan Ministry of Justice" hologram on the card.
After resting a bit at home (well basically waiting for my phone to recharge since somehow the battery life is horrible on this thing and it lasts like a day) I went for dinner to the big AEON mall near me. I walked around to find a restaurant and decided to try this place that had basically hamburger patties. And that's what it turned out to be but it was basically a fancy hamburger restaurant. Pretty interesting. I also ordered some rice, salad and pumpkin soup package. The soup was so tasty!
The hamburger was quite nice too although it isn't something I would eat very often. But my beef craving is satisfied for the next while. Overall, the cost of the whole thing was around $17 so a bit on the high side - but had to be tried!
While on the topic of food, here is some mochi with red bean paste. It is supposed to bring luck and chase away evil and is often eaten during the autumn equinox.
Also, I didn't know that there are oranges grown in Japan, but I bought some from a fruit store in an underground mall around a subway station near downtown. They looked green but were quite tasty. No seeds and not overly sweet.
The first interesting thing was that in the lobby area (which looked like a Japanese rock garden) we had to take off our shoes and put them into these little wooden lockers (with wooden keys!). Walking in the restaurant was done with no shoes.
There was a 90min time limit on our all-you-can-drink. The drink menu did have an assortment of things but pretty much everybody wanted beer so I went with beer. Beer came in large pitchers (Asahi I think was the brand) but there seemed to be only 1 choice). The Japanese custom is (very much like in Canada) to pour others drinks (and others will pour yours too). The different custom is that you keep the beer glass with your two hands and hold it while the beer is being poured. I did the pouring once and the people were quite excited that I'm trying to follow the Japanese custom.
The really interesting thing was the food. This izakaya was all about chicken. So we basically ate chicken in at least 5 different ways. There were chicken shish-kabobs (some from chicken stomachs), some sausages, various kinds of chicken meat breaded and deep fried (one was cartilage which was quite crunchy).
At the end was some rice based dish that you were supposed to eat once and then add some sauce/broth boiling on special stands and eat again. So it was quite an interesting experience!
Today for lunch we went to a soba place which was quite nice and tasty. I would say this handmade soba in this grandpa&grandma restaurant was the best I've had. I had some with a fried shrimp, some daikon radish, green onions, and real wasabi!! There was also breaded & deep fried leaf of some kind! Was delicious!
In the afternoon, I biked to my ward office (the city office for the part of the city where I live) to pick up my alien registration card! It was a nice bike ride, around 5km from university and about 4km back home. But, I'm finally a fully registered alien! :P I no longer need to carry my passport with me which will make my pockets less full. This card is basically an ID that I can use anywhere it is necessary and states that I am actually residing in the city. There is a large "Japan Ministry of Justice" hologram on the card.
After resting a bit at home (well basically waiting for my phone to recharge since somehow the battery life is horrible on this thing and it lasts like a day) I went for dinner to the big AEON mall near me. I walked around to find a restaurant and decided to try this place that had basically hamburger patties. And that's what it turned out to be but it was basically a fancy hamburger restaurant. Pretty interesting. I also ordered some rice, salad and pumpkin soup package. The soup was so tasty!
While on the topic of food, here is some mochi with red bean paste. It is supposed to bring luck and chase away evil and is often eaten during the autumn equinox.
Also, I didn't know that there are oranges grown in Japan, but I bought some from a fruit store in an underground mall around a subway station near downtown. They looked green but were quite tasty. No seeds and not overly sweet.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Trip to Outskirts of Town
Today I decided to do a slightly longer bike tour. I basically headed north of where I live. Along the way are a stream and a river. The streets got a little bit confusing basically ending up on the main road along the stream which didn't have any room for bicycles so I crossed the road and biked on a very nice path along the stream - it would be nice to go on that farther (maybe next time).
The water was quite shallow. At some point it changed from one side of the river bed to the other which looked very interesting. It kinda reminded me of the Bow river in Calgary - it was like a fast shallow river.
In the large flood plain (I guess) for the river, there is a driving range!
The downtown Nagoya skyscrapers can be seen in the distance.
The river was quite a bit bigger and looked pretty. You could also see the mountains in the distance.
Hmmm beeeer...
The river is also the diving line between the Nagoya City district and the Nishikasugai District. There was a nice sign saying the district name by the road. Nishikasugai is also the location of the Nagoya Airport (the old airport before the new one opened up in recent years).
I rode a little bit into this district to get to the highway ring road that circles the main city of Nagoya. Along the way I found another stream/canal.
The highway is quite high up in the air.
There are a few levels of streets on this large intersection. I walked around the bicycle/walk overpass and took some pictures of the area.
The airport should be roughly in that direction not too far off.
I even found a dealer of old american cars!
Back at the river, there were some large birds in the water.
On one side it was a driving range, on the other were baseball fields.
I noticed a shopping mall on the map so I went to find it. It was just a 2 storey large supermarket but it had a few restaurants so I sat down for some tasty food.
Continuing on, I found some bamboo growing in a park or something. Did not find any pandas!
I went through a railroad crossing. Finally found one! And it looked pretty much identical to the ones you always see on anime :P.
After I crossed it, there was a train going by.
The majority of traffic signs seem to be written on the roads. This one reads 止まれ which means a stop sign.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Farmers market, bike exploration, funny fish, and lots of GETS
Today was a Saturday so I felt like some relaxing was needed. First, I wanted to go to this farmer's market that is happening every Saturday morning in the OASIS21 building in Sakae (i.e., downtown). I thought that I will buy some nice fruit or interesting veggies. In the subway I found an advertisement for a tube hotel (where you sleep in a small tube) for around $30-40 a night.
The farmer's market was quite a disappointment. There were maybe 20 different small tables set up with some random assortment of goods - none of which beeing fruit and didn't look all that interesting. The only thing I wouldn't mind getting is some rice somebody was selling, but I already have a bag at home.
The only exciting thing was the little stage play going on in the middle of the venue with a crowd of parents with young children in the audience. I immediately recognized this big fluffy dog which I see often in this kids TV program in the mornings where little kids jumps around it and fall down and such. They had signs up not to take pics so I didn't. I found a Tomica shop in the square:
After that I came out of the underground mall dungeon to go rent a few things from Tsutaya.
I found an Outback Steakhouse - pretty funny!
The results of the renting: a Eurobeat CD from Ayumi Hamasaki and a Studio Gibli anime Ponyo. I was worried about the anime but I knew that I would be able to find english subtitles somewhere online. However, the DVD has an english subtitle track - yay!
It was after noon and I was hungry so I set out to find someplace to eat. I walked around the underground shopping area taking a few pictures.
As you can see, there are tons of pple around there during the weekend.
The whole place is pretty complicated and long - luckily there are maps all over. However, they often reverse or change the direction of North just for kicks, throwing you completely off ;P.
I settled for some sushi from a conveyer belt sushi place in OASIS21. It was pretty good. I had to wait about 10mins in line. There was something wrong with the guy next to me - he kept ordering calling out orders all the time and had like 10 plates next to him. I only amassed 5 plates :P. There seems to be an interesting tea dispensing system at these conveyer belt sushi places (at least the 2 I've been to). You grab a cup (from a conveyer under the sushi conveyer - you also get the soya sauce dish from there) and then you open a container of powdered tea (matcha) and add some to the cup. Then there is a pipe every few seats that dispenses hot water to complete making the tea. Before I could figure it out, I was just drinking the water - but observing others helps :P.
You can see the cup conveyer belt under the sushi belt in this picture. In the middle they had a large fish tank with some live fish swimming in there - I guess you can order them for some really fresh fish??
After eating, I went home to rest for a little bit. Then I headed out for a bike trip with no real goal. I went into the NW direction first. Found a nice temple with a cemetery in the back of it:
Behind the temple was a river or canal or something. While biking on the bridge, I took some pics of the area.
There was even a person fishing :).
You can see some mountains in the background. North of Nagoya start some mountains chains. A few hundred kilometers to the North are the Japanese Alps - including the town of Nagano where the winter olympics took place.
A Japanese military plane flew by. The red circle (rising sun) is clearly visible - kinda reminds you of the planes from WWII.
I made it to the other side of the bridge then I turned around.
While I was riding, I remembered this supermarket (daiei) I once visited near that area and they had nice coin wallets for decent prices. So I rode there. I managed to get a lot of stuff at that store. The prices seem cheaper than the supermarket closest to me (JUSCO). So I bought a leather coin wallet for around $18. It is quite nice since it has lots of coin room and a place for keys. Now I can keep my coins organized and not scratching my phone!
For luck, I first inserted a 5yen coin into it. From wikipedia: "The Japanese for "five yen," go en (五円) is a homophone with go-en (御縁), "en" being a word for fate or destiny, and "go" being a respectful prefix. As a result, five-yen coins are commonly given as donations at Shinto shrines, and is widely believed it is best to insert a single five-yen coin into a new wallet before inserting any other money."
I also bought a bunch of kitchen/cooking stuff that I found out I needed last time I cooked. First, was a nice frying pan cuz the one I have in the apartment has seen better days. Then a spatula and some cooking chopsticks to stir stuff while frying/cooking.
Also got some hooks to keep spoons and such hanging in the kitchen. There is so little room that it is necessary. And a strainer thingie for easily cleaning stuff.
I didn't feel like cooking but I stopped at the grocery part of the supermarket and got a few things for dinner. There is so much choice in terms of ready made stuff to eat!
And in a nicer presentation. The fish was some kinda fish (silver croaker after some long searching) seasoned with salt and fried. It had some bones but it was tasty! The black stuff is a hijiki salad a kind of seaweed/vegetable that is commonly eaten in Japan. And the green beans are edamame.
And some tasty gyoza!
And of course a meal like that would not be well without some
For dessert, I got some grapes that were a little bit cheaper than I've seen them at JUSCO. They are very tasty though!
But probably the highlight of the trip was the Mook I bought at the bookstore! Mook is a Japanese contraction of two english words: Magazine and bOOK. I'll give you a hint: starts with an A and ends with an 8 :P.
Overall, the bike trip was roughly 9.5km. I'm evaluating these two iPhone apps that keep track of trips (e.g., walking/biking/running) using the GPS: iMapMyRIDE and Walk Watch. Neither of them is very stable but when they work, they are pretty nice!
And, thanks Google for including an option to import images from web albums! No more copy & paste of image URLs.
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