Finnish Food

Hiroshi invited me to go eat Finnish food with a few of his friends. I had never had Finnish food and had not seen Hiroshi since October, I gladly tagged along. =D

The contestants!

Finnish Sausages.

They were quite tasty. It was probably my favorite dish.

Smoked Salmon. I tried it...it is not my thing.

The salad. It was good ^_^

This is reindeer.

This is me eating reindeer.

I did not know it was reindeer, until I had swallowed. It had a funny after taste but was still edible. But I could not help think "What would Santa think? What reindeer is it?"

Santa still came, though. He brought me cake!

Finnish bread. It had milk in the middle. It was quite good =D.

Mashed potatoes with lamb. It was very good.

And for desert:

In conclusion, I prefer Japanese food. However, it was a good experience, so I am glad I went.

Thanks for inviting me, Hiroshi!

Christmas Illuminations

So, Japan loves it some pretty lights. These are what I have pictures of. I could have sworn I had more...I'll probably find them in July or something.

Anyway, here are some of the illuminations.

Connected

Ok, so I got the internet in my apartment! So let's catch up on what I have been doing!

November was pretty awesome. I climbed Mt Takao! It is a mountain about 30 minutes away with a shrine and monkey park on it. We went on a day where it rained most of the morning, so not very many people were there. Usually the place is packed since it is the closest nature spot to the city of Tokyo.

This is Satoon, our brave Japanese guide. No, no one really wanted to come since they all thought it would rain, but he came. Yay for Satoon!

At the top! Silly foreigners!

I love Japanenglish! We saw it on the way down.

I also visited Yokohama and made a triumphant return to Kamakura =D.

Nissan has a headquarters in Yokohama, so I tried out a few of their cars. I likey this one. =)

Christmas decorations and illuminations started on November 1st. This was on the way to the Queen's building in Yokohama.

Back in Kamakura ^.^

This is the main shrine in Kamakura, the Hachiman-gu shrine. It is dedicated to the first shogunate (or bakufu) family. Anyone know who the first shogun family of Japan was?

Did I hear Minamoto?

You're right!

On my birthday I went into Tokyo with Abbie and Kasper later joined us in Harajuku.

When I got home, I found cake on my door step! It was from the Yoshida's.

嫌だこと

An unpleasant experience:

So, Japan is a relatively peaceful country, but every country has its weirdos. And I had the 'pleasure' of meeting one.

I was riding the train on my way to Yokohama, when at one of the stops on the way, a young man entered the train backwards. A bit strange, right? Well, it gets weirder.

He started talking to me. That normally does not happen. When people see a foreigner, they usually move away, give you more room, and never approach you.

Anyway, it was a normal conversation (in Japanese of course). "Where are you from? Where are you going? What are you studying?" he asked me.

But...

Then he asked me why my boobs were so small. He said foreigners have large boobs and demanded to know why mine were so tiny. (I am using boobs cause he used a term that is only used for women's breasts).

Pretty funny, huh? A little rude, but funny, right? Well it doesn't end there...

While he was complaining he tried to reach for my chest, so I smacked him, but he tried to reach again. So I used the knowledge that Dave and Stef bestowed upon me, and grabbed the pressure point in between the thumb and the pointer finger, dug my nail in at the same time and watched him take a knee.

I then answered his question. "I am skinny. If I had big boobs, my balance would be off."

It is amusing now because 1) it is over, and 2) he did not touch me.

Anyway, he is still whole only because I thought he was mentally ill.

日光

This week I went to Nikko. It was a shrine founded around 1200, but is more famous for being the Tokogawa Shogunate's family shrine. It is most famous, however, for the monkeys seen above. 聞かざる、言わざる、見ざる (hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil). But the reason I went was for 紅葉(kouyou) or for the colorful leaves.

The Dane ate all the food before I could take a picture! No, actually I forgot to take a picture until it was already gone.

This is what is left. Yep, nothing.

Teacher's Pet

As many of you know, I am an English teacher over here for an English Speaking Society (ESS). I have taught two lessons so far, and the students are great. They really want to learn, so it makes teaching easy.

Anyway, when I arrived for my second week of teaching I found 3 of these waiting for me. She picked them at her parents' house and thought I might like to try them.

It is a persimmon. I had no idea how to eat it, so we had a discussion on the proper way to eat it in one of my classes. Apparently, you are supposed to peel it and eat it like an apple. I just cut them open though and eat them like slices.

They aren't bad. Here in Japan a lot of people have persimmon trees. While walking to school I often see crows swoop down and pick them off trees. I was not sure if humans were supposed to eat them. But, we can and they are pretty tasty.

Meeting Hiroshi

So, for almost a year now, I have had a pen pal named Hiroshi (above) here in Tokyo. Hiroshi is studying to be a Japanese teacher to non-native speakers. We have been exchanging emails and correcting each other's grammar. He has been a big help. I like to try out new grammar I learn on him to make sure I am using it properly.

Anyway, when he found out I was coming to Tokyo, he asked if he and his friend could show me around. So we met at Shinjuku Station, and from there, decided to go to Odaiba!

Odaiba is near the bay, so there are a lot of bridges. It also is home to Palette Town and Venus Port. Those are amusement parks, where you pay for each ride rather than admission itself (which is awesome).

Huh!? How did I end up in New York? There was a miniature version of the stature near the board walk. Hide (hee-day), Hiroshi's friend, gave Hiroshi a history lesson about the statue. Apparently, he did not know it was a gift from France.

On the board walk we saw this

Such a sad wittle bear, so I givesed him a hug.

The bears are called solar bears. They are sad about global warming. Is it wrong to give them a hug, then? Too warm perhaps?

After the boardwalk we went here:

Fuji Television's headquarters. It is home to Quiz Hexagon II (and many other tv shows like Tokyo Dogs, a cop drama, and One Piece, an anime). Inside the dome they had a tribute to Quiz Hexagon II, so we went up to see it. From the dome you can get a pretty good view of Tokyo on a clear day, but unfortunately, I cannot control the weather (yet).

This is Yaguchi. She is a former member of Morning Musume (you know, when I went to LA). She is on the show. She does pretty good, especially since she has had only a high school education. Other members on the show have college degrees and still don't get that many of the answers.
Here is me with some of the dresses PABO wears. PABO is part of the Hexagon family. Before Tsuji joined, Satoda (part of the group) was pronounced "BAKA" of the show.
Here is the dome head on. I wonder if it is safe up here during an earthquake?...

The Hexagon Family in cartoon form! (thank you Kevin A. for introducing me to the show. I got you a gift).

After visiting the tv headquarters, we went to Venus port and ate yakiniku. It was so good. Thin slices of meat, marinated, and then cooked right at the table. Oh it is making me hungry now.

After lunch, we took a boat ride to Asakusa (say it 10 times really fast. It is fun).

Asakusa has a pretty famous shrine (Shinto) . It is often crowded on the weekends, but thanks to the rain, it was not too bad. However because of the rain, we were not able to go to Ueno Park. Well we could have, but the rain was getting stronger. So after a quick stop in Akiba, Hide and Hiroshi made sure I got safely back to Shinjuku station.

I had a lot of fun. Thank you Hiroshi and Hide! I hope you had fun too!