Big Bike Adventure

Ok so I was totally pumped to get my bike but was unable to ride it the day we got it! Sad, I know! So Luke and I decided that we would take them out on Sunday and ride to the mall because we needed a few things. So we hopped on our matching bikes of awesomeness and headed out of town.


Just out of town is a cool view of some rice fields between two forests. We stop to take pictures and it's the only time we stop on the way there. I look a little confused as Luke tries to figure out the camera on his new iPhone.

I made him get in one.

The ride there was long, well long for me but probably not long for some, about 9.5 miles one way, uphill in the rain and snow with no shoes!!! Ok, that's not true but the uphill part is true. The whole way uphill. It sure makes for a good time back home!

We get to the mall and went to the cinema to see what was playing. Unfortunately we didn't realize that they do dub some of their English films and the only subtitled ones were playing at night. We couldn't stay that long because I don't have a light on my bike just yet so we had to be home by dark. Dark comes really early here, like 6:45 and sunrise well before 5 AM.

We walked around for a bit, went into a CD/DVD store called Sludge (or something like that!) where I realized that we would never make enough money to buy a DVD here! Holy crap people! I guess they do have to import the English DVDs but even the Japanese ones are really expensive. About $32 for a new Japanese DVD so you can just imagine what an English one costs! So no shopping there.

We went downstairs to the cheaper part of the mall where we found everything we needed. Mainly a pair of track pants for me and some new shorts for us both. We found a few other things we couldn't live without and then decided we were famished and were ready to head back.

About half way home was a restaurant called Joyful which Luke had eaten at with some other people before I had arrived. He enjoyed it so we stopped there to eat.


We ordered all matter of food and while we waited for it to arrive we got some drinks. I started out with some strawberry tea over ice which tasted remarkably like strawberry Nesquik! And Luke had grape soda which he said was "a totally orgasmic drink!" (Grape soda in my hand something else green in Luke's)


We ordered these chicken popper things as a appetizer. I pick one up and put it into my mouth and eww, it's very fatty. I remember how all the chicken I have had so far has been real and I just think maybe that's all that's happened. Then Luke grabs one...same thing. Then he thinks to tell me "oh by the way you have to be careful what you order when it looks like that on the menu. Here you can order chicken cartilage instead of just chicken!" EWWWW. Yes, we indeed had ordered cartilage by mistake. We didn't eat anymore of that.

Here I am with my lunch sipping my wonderful strawberry milk...I mean tea. Whatever, it was good!

My lunch close up. It was great, all cartilage aside. Clockwise from top left: miso soup (a true staple of Japanese quisine), dipping sauce for my pork, rice, pickled pickles (I call them this because they don't taste like regular pickles) and my pork and salad on the big plate. Between the dipping sauce and the breading on the pork it had a delightfully sweet taste. Like brown sugar and coconut or something. It was great.

Perhaps one of my favorite foods of all time, in any country, is gyoza. Lightly fried and great in its oily sauce it is just so tasty. You can find this same dish in many asian countries by different names. In Chinese it has a thicker wrapper but just as amazing! We made it in our apartment in Iowa all the time but now I have a different way to prepare it!

Of course we have to have a picture of Luke eating! He had a beef rice thing and miso.


We coasted all most all the way home and made it in time to get a lovely view of the seven mountains of Taiwa, our neighboring town.

Here is a better view of the mountains! I think we will clime them soon. It is lovely country here. Come join us if you can!

It's like meeting the in-laws times ten!

So that night, tired from the full afternoon of paperwork and meeting tons of people, we went to a welcome party in our honor with all of Luke's co-workers from the Junior High School.

Of course it was over dinner....and with booze!

I have to say I really enjoy the Japanese way of life. Sure they work very hard, way harder than any culture I know, but they know how to relax as well. That's probably why there are a gazillion festivals throughout the year. They need to party hard to make up for working hard. I am down with that.

So, we go to dinner. Yet again at an amazing traditional Japanese restaurant. Still in my suit, feet killing me and cursing whoever invented pantyhose, I take my heels off at the door and put them in a locker. We are shown to our table with some of the other teachers who are arriving and I go through the formalities of meeting new people. There is a set way to do most everything in Japan right down to what to say to someone when meeting them for the first time. Very exhausting.

Luke and I sit down in the seats of honor. In Japan seating order is very important. I meet each teacher as they come in the door. Luckily one of the first I meet is one of the English teachers Luke will work with. She sits by me and is able to introduce the other teachers and tell me what they teach in English as well as translate most of the evening for me (once Luke had a few drinks it was hard to get him to talk in English! haha).

I think in all we ate about eight courses of food that night and lots of alcohol. I discovered that at this restaurant they had free drinks for two hours so everyone wanted to know if we would try something else. We tried everything on the drink menu! We ate family style (one plate of food for a group of people and you serve yourself) which you don't usually see in Japan but that is how I would rather eat with a group of people. The first course was a salad with a tangy Japanese sesame dressings and plate of sushi. We also had individual small bowls of tuna (raw) and potato cubes (raw).

Kirin Beer was ordered to drink, which tastes just like Bud Light! Another Japanese custom is toasting and the ritual of drinking. We all had small glasses, like a juice glass, for our beer which was filled up. After every sip it seemed, and especially after each toast, someone would fill up your glass. It never gets empty! Hard to know how much you are drinking but rather fun to watch.

After the salad and sushi was a fish course which was by far my favorite. Fried breaded fish, kind of like Long John Siver's but 1000 times better! The Vinegar-like dressing reminds me of Long John's. You must really be skilled with hashi (chop sticks) to eat like this. Everything is eaten with hashi, even big pieces of fish. Great fun!

Then there was a squid course (which was served in a pot over two small candles), a pork ribs and potatoes course (the potatoes were their version of french fries), and a desert course of orange gel (kind of like Jello). The pork ribs I have to say were very tasty but again hard to eat with hashi! My favorite drink was called a sour (flavored Japanese spirits) that tasted like oranges and Luke's favorite was the grapefruit sour.

By the end of the night everyone was pleasantly full and happy from drink. If I could eat like this every day I would!

My first real Japanese meal

This restaurant was everything you imagine when you think of such a place in Japan. You enter and have to take your shoes off at the door. We store them in a tiny locker. We are escorted down a hall where you can see many small sectioned off eating areas. Our table is in the far back. The table is nearly on what looks like the floor so I sit down and you put your legs under the table into a big hole where everyone's legs fit. There are four of us and we scour the menu front to back (or in Japan's case, back to front!).

Each of us pick something different. Luke went with the house special, a pork loin. I chose the Japanese noodle plate. when my tray arrives I am astounded. There is soo much food on this plate. It almost looks like too much. The noodles and their sauce in a separate bowl, a tiny salad in its own bowl, a plate of tempura (vegitables which are breaded and fried) and their separate sauce, sashimi (like sushi but just a bit of rice with the fish laying on top) and a plate to mix the soy and wasabi (Japanese horseradish)! Amazingly I was able to eat it all. Despite how much food appeared to be on the tray the food its self is so light that you don't feel stuffed by the time you are done eating. I think I will really enjoy that about Japanese food.

My favorite thing I ate at this meal is definitely the pumpkin tempura. There were five different kinds of tempura on my plate but the pumpkin was amazing! The skin was green, unlike the orange of American pumpkin, and the breading and sauce I dipped it into really enhanced the natural sweetness of the pumpkin flesh. I will be having that again for sure!