Landed.

Hi guys. I’m home! Just landed in Portland and found some free wifi. I love that. In other news, I’m exhausted, dirty, and slightly nauseous.

time to catch another plane!

Sukiyaki

There’s a traditional dish in Japan called sukiyaki, which is a kind of one-pot stew with meat and vegetables.  Jill had first cooked us Sukiyaki, telling us that (like a lot of other things in japan) this is one of those dishes that varies by the region you have it in. For instance, near the coast they probably add seafood.  In Kyoto, where there are a lot of zen Buddhists, we had something similar with tofu.  The other day we passed a Yokohama-style Sukiyaki restaurant.  So we thought we’d check it out.

Yokohama style has less (different) things in it than the style that Jill made for us. This one had beef, mushrooms, tofu, leeks and a green leafy vegetable.

Generally sukiyaki is served on cold days. It’s one of those dishes that you can make even on a really tight budget because you can put whatever you can afford in it. Our restaurant must have missed that memo because it ended up being tremendously expensive. We were kind of afraid of that when we were ordering – I suppose it’s one of those things you just have to be okay with when the waitress can’t understand your price-clarifying questions!

It’s common to dip your cooked sukiyaki into raw, scrambled egg before eating it. Elizabeth and Nathan (below) weren’t into that part at all! Jon and I will either die early of food poisoning or live to 102 because our stomachs are made of steel.

I was reading in wikipedia about sukiyaki and found out that we may have just gone to the oldest Sukiyaki restaurant in all of Japan! The first sukiyaki restaurant, Isekuma, opened in Yokohama in 1862. Woah!

Minato Mirai 21

This is our city. Click the image to see a larger version.

View from our balcony:

And second, a view from near the train station.  Our apartment is the tower on the far left, with the blue light on top.

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.