teamEggers

Sumo

Tomorrow’s big adventure is the sumo tournament.  While it was basically sold out, we heard that you can get general admission tickets if you get there by 8am.  So!  We’ll have our first adventure on the train system going into Tokyo.

I’m excited!  It’s going to be great and scary! Woo!

Some interesting facts: The sumo tournament is in the Ryogoju district of Tokyo, also called Sumo Town.  There are sumo stadiums, stables, temples and Chanko restaurants in the neighborhood. Chanko restaurants serve the traditional sumo meal of Chankonabe – it’s like a protein / veggie rich stew that is served in high quantities to bulk up the wrestlers.

The rituals behind Chankonabe sound really neat too.  On the day of the match, they only eat stew with a chicken base and with chicken meat – no beef or other four legged animals or fish, which have no legs.  The idea is that a good sumo wrestler (rikishi) should always be on two legs, like the chicken.

Hanging out in Yokohama

Some friends of ours are here in japan with us.  Steven works with jon and was also sent out for four months.  His wife, Jill, came along too and knows a bit of Japanese.  Jill’s friend, Sayo, and Sayo’s boyfriend, Toshi, have been helping us quite a bit with finding an apartment and adapting to japanese life. Okay. Introductions are done.

This is Jill.  Jill and I were getting some late night snacks from the 7-11 across the street.

Jon and I went exploring in the morning and found a mochi cream counter. The girl that worked there was SUPER nice and even posed for a picture! It was like, boutique mochi. SO good. I think it was possibly worth the $3 per mochi.

And then we met Sayo and Toshi for lunch and had a Japanese take on Chinese food. Very good. A lot of menus seem to do picture menus, which is exciting. After lunch, Sayo took us to the 100 Yen store (dollar store) to get some necessities for the house. It was furnished, but didn’t have things like a spatula or towels. The dollar store was crazysauce. Like JAPANESEOMGSTUFFISEVERYWHERE style.

You kids from Seattle – you know in the bottom floor of West Lake center there’s a crazy Japanese store where everything is about a dollar? I *think* it’s the same company. Next time you’re downtown, can you peek for me?

Woo! Yokohama!

Home, sweet 家.

Yesterday and today were eventful. Not in the super-exciting-doing-lots-of-things-to-tell-you-about-omg sort of way, but in a very productive finding-my-home sort of thing.

And well, we found it.  And it’s lovely.  And the city is huge and welcoming an exciting.  I may be projectin, but the people in yokohama seem to be friendlier than those in yokosuka. It could also help that we’ve had a guide and have been eating very well.

Check out our kitchen. It’s incredible and I can’t wait to learn how to cook some japanese food. We bought some nori and a rolling mat and some rice vinegar. I’m on my way. I will become makimaster.

The apartment is a great size – maybe just a bit smaller than our place in seattle, but WAY nicer. Modern and pristine. The apartment managers requested that we always take our shoes off in the doorway and use slippers inside. It’s very modern and has a flat panel tv, a rice cooker (joey – you were right!) and an electric tea kettle.

Most spectacularly, this is my office for the next four months. I’ll be able to watch the sun rise over the harbour.

I believe we’re right in the middle of the metropolitan part of the city – central district. It’s … well. huge.

Oh! and check it out – we live in one of those big, schmancy towers with 29 floors and elevators that don’t stall when you’re carrying groceries in them. Check out the lobby:

There’s a gym on the 2nd floor, so I’ll start running again. Maybe Japan will have the same effect on me as San Diego did. The elevators are incredible and very japanese (by which i mean high-tech) – when you swipe your keycard, it takes you to the correct floor (and only that floor). Super neat. The shower room turns into a clothes dryer (some hangers and a hot-air vent) and there’s a huge balcony.

So… that’s that. Home.