Who Goo? FUGU!

For two years, we’ve been talking about it. When we came home last year, people asked us… so, did you do it? And we had to quietly say “no” to each of them. It’s not the fear of eating something that will kill you in a few minutes, but rather… the reviews of those who had made it out alive.

Okay. Okay. I’m being dramatic. Hardly anyone dies from eating fugu these days. The fatalities you hear about are generally in back-ally sorts of establishments or from fishermen who think they’ll probably be fine just hacking the little fishy to pieces right there on the boat.

It’s really hard to become a certified fugu chef. And when someone dies in your establishment, you lose your license forever. (Historically, a sushi chef was supposed to commit honorable suicide by his fish-knife, should his sushi kill anyone else.)

So what did it taste like? You’re dying to know. It sounds funny, perhaps a little lame, but… it tasted a little bit like chicken. Sometimes. See, we had it a few ways.

First out came our mandatory appetizer, which was thickly cut fish skin (very gelatinous. not very much flavour) and green onions. Meh.

Next up we ordered it breaded and fried, which tasted almost exactly like chicken wings. I was searching for the bleu cheese dressing. Fugu even has a really strong bone that was left in, which made the chicken wing comparison that much more appropriate.

Time for the main event: fugu sashimi. It was incredibly light, almost too delicate to taste. A squeeze of lime was really all the sauce you wanted, because it was so easily overpowered by the ponzu or scallions that they served it with.

And it’s not like it was cheap. I want to taste it, you know?

After this, we did yaki-fugu, and they brought out a set of hot coals to grill our fish on. The fish was so fresh it was twitching. Twitching. Please watch this:

The grilled fugu was our favourite by far. It started to take on the soft, melty attributes of halibut. Really nice!

Sake was copiously poured throughout the night, and I swear… one of these times I’ll learn my lesson not to drink so much on a school night. There was sake with fish-tale on the menu, which a couple people opted for. I’m so glad I stayed away from that. It was the foulest smelling thing evar. EVAR. yuck.

The last thing we got was fugu nabe, which is a stew of the fish in fugu-broth. There’s something really spectacular about julie schooling us all on the magic-that-is-induction and how we could stick this bamboo and paper basket onto the heating element but it didn’t catch fire. Which is kind of fantastic.

The nabe was kind of fantastic too. While fugu isn’t in your future, I think we should have a “japanese stew” night at our house sometime soon. They’re really easy and really tasty.

And that’s it! This is the core of our group, people you’ve seen around teamEggers for the past few months: Jon, Emi, Brian, Me, Julie, Will.

Have a great night. Thanks for tuning in.

Hanami: Naka-Meguro / YoYogi

“Spring” is the only season I’ve ever tagged in the blog, which… makes me wonder. Why? I don’t even particularly like spring. If I had to pick a favourite season, fall wins by a landslide. The colour palette is way better. But with spring… it’s easy to focus on how drastic it is.

April rains, and rains. And it’s hot and it’s cold. And then you blink, and in an instant if seems as if the whole world has exhaled. It’s quite breathtaking, when you come right down to it.

So it’s no wonder then, that I post about spring so often. And springtime, in japan, is quite the place to be.

We’ve talked about hanami, yes? It’s perhaps the very best piece of japan we can take home with us: the tradition of stopping what you’re doing to celebrate the fleeting beauty of things. Celebrate how good things are. Be outside with your friends. Drink, merriment, etc. Have a… corona?

When that’s what they’re selling out of trucks on the side of the road, that is. The evening in Naka-Meguro, I think we ate dinner a total of 7 times. Julie, jon and I literally stopped at every food vendor that looked tasty, split something and moved on. I was so full I could have been rolled into the river, and I might not have minded.

Japanese girls have this adorable way of standing next to the low-hanging blossom and flashin the peace sign for the camera. If jon were an adorable japanese girl, this is what he might look like:

**

Another day, another park. More springtime.

Japan is not a place for the claustrophobic.

But for those who stay, it’s totally worth braving the crowds. What a cool place to have been able to live in.

I had to keep reminding myself that I might not be anywhere else like this again. We met Emi and Reece at a party on a sunday afternoon, in yoyogi park. It was exactly how you might imagine a party in a tokyo park look like: loud music (until the cops come and tell them to turn it down), booze, & dancing. And a lot of people.

In my natural state, I’m kind of a downer and have to be coerced into have a good time. Thanks, jon. (On the flip side, look at my fantastic glasses. Ashley said I was “so fitted” or something with this coat.  I think she meant I matched.  Am I an old lady because I think teenagers speak a different language?)

Also… Emi and Reece are so totally perfect for each other… they even match today:

Gyoza Stadium

Boy, we’re winding down here. Only a few more adventures left to tell you about, and even fewer left to be had.

Somewhere or other, I heard about the Gyoza Stadium: a dumpling-theme park in Ikebukuro (northern Tokyo).

The Stadium brings together what they consider to be the 11 best gyoza shops in the country, and each has about 5 different offering at their mini-restaurant.

The sum of all things combined is: 1. a very full belly, 2. some over stimulation, 3. a really chaotic environment. The walls were dark, the lights neon, and in true Japanese fashion, there were people everywhere.

I hadn’t ever considered “pot stickers” as more than the ubiquitous appetizer in asian restaurants, and I was surprised by their variety! Here’s one covered in leek and raw tuna:

At the same stand we found one of my favourites of the day: a very simple black pepper filling, topped only with fresh lemon juice.

Most Gyoza-ya have the standard 3 bottles on the counter, and you mix your sauce as you like it. For me: mostly soy, a whallop of rice vinegar, and about three drops of chili oil. Okay, so I’ve lived here for 8 months and can’t speak a lick of the language, but at least we learned how we like our food.

We asked Julie to come along for a couple of reasons. First, Julie’s always up for anything and she’s quite possibly the best lunch companion a girl could ask for. Second, a food theme park? right up her ally. Third (and most selfishly), we could try WAY more gyoza with a third person helping us!

While most gyoza are filled with pork, we found one that was filled with Japanese beef. They shop suggested that we skip the sauce as it was so flavourful inside – boy, were they right! It’s a good thing jon’s used to me spilling all over myself. Those things were juicy!

As an aside, it’s got to be next to impossible to live in Japan as either a vegetarian or someone who doesn’t eat pork. The little piggy juice is *everywhere*. Which leads me to our next stop…. ramen-ya! Come on, we couldn’t not get ramen. Even if we were so full I wanted to explode.

So this place is called Ganko and it’s a famous line of restaurants around the city. I’ve come to really love a good soft-boiled egg. It makes life… smoother.

What looks like an elaborate March Madness bracket, is really the Ganko family tree. Each family member has their own location!

I had heard from the blogosphere that this place was really spectacular – though I can’t remember exactly what it was that was worth mentioning. It was good, don’t get me wrong, just perhaps not worth an hour-long train ride on its own. But, if you’re in ikebukuro and are hungry, look for the awning with the bones.

See you next time!

SRF / Singin the Blues

A lot of people ask us what jon does, why we’re out here. Most of you know he’s an engineer for the navy, but that doesn’t really explain much. For most of our trip, jon has been the guy with the clipboard and the clicky pen, helping to train his Japanese counterparts on how to work with nuclear vessels. “um. I help SRF oversee their program for different types of stuff that…” Okay you guessed right, there actually a lot of jon’s job that he’s not allowed to tell you. Sounds awesome, right?

Which brings us to an evening with the folks from SRF (Ship Repair Facility), Jon’s japanese coworkers. Why they decided to do a “team building” night at the end of the trip is beyond me, but it was fun to meet some of the people that come up in work stories every so often.

The Japanese drinking culture is a little different here. It’s copious, often done in groups, and most often involves food. Not meals, mind you, but small bites. “Izakaya” is quite a bit like tapas: small plates.

They don’t seem to have the same shared-food/shared-check phobias that we do. Drinks are usually ordered in rounds, food is put on the table, and everyone tosses money on the table at the end.

Chu-hi is a common drink that can be bought either in the can (from 7-11) or in restaurants, where you’ll always get it fresh. Making it is simple: mix fruit juice, soda water and shochu (the local spirit), throw in some ice and you’ve got yourself a party. What I love is when you get your chu-hi so fresh that they want you to work for it. Interactive drinking. I love it.

Another thing that’s incredibly japanese is Karaoke. Sigh.

It’s not that I’m intentionally trying to be a buzzkill, it’s just that I know I’m terrible at singing. Why does everyone insist this isn’t a prerequisite to singing in front of groups?! I had just about made it through two years, but I think jon had had enough of my bailing early and excuse making. Tonight’s the night.

Karaoke bars in the states usually have large stages where you sing in front of the entire bar. Perhaps this eggs on my distaste of them? Here it’s a little different because you have a private room for your group. It was odd at first, but thanks to our j-friends, we quickly got the hang of it.

Not to mention, there was an extra dose of “oddly translated english” to have fun with!

Sakai-san unabashedly sang and danced, and entertained us all with his mad-karaoke-confidence. He looks like such a quiet, older, man – you’d never expect him to be so funny!

Jon did spectacularly, though I think that was in part due to a good selection of songs.

Below, jon singing a love song to Rich. Okay, it’s not a love song… more like a… well. it was a song that probably shouldn’t have been sung between two [straight] guys.

Rich, singing and sakai-san and meeha? Mija? Mi-ha? (Jon, how do you spell her name!?) being so moved they had to dance.

At the end of the night, after being assured that we “probably had enough time”, we headed home. As luck would have it, we got to the station just as the the lights were flashing – our signal that we had just missed the last train (and only by two minutes!!). Had it not been utterly cold, rainy and miserable out that night, we may have considered hitting another bar and sleeping it off in the (outdoor) train station till morning.

Luckily for us, a new friend offered up his guest room. I can’t tell you how appreciative I am of dan – a distant coworker of jon’s, who seemed to be one of the most genuine and kind people I’ve met in a while. (And I’m not just saying that because he roofed us!)

All and all, a good night. Good adventures, at least.

Ebisu / Yebisu & Odaiba Island

Ebisu: ‘hood in Tokyo. Stop on the yamanote line. One of the 7 lucky gods (he’s the god of good fortune, fishing & merchants)

Yebisu: Beer. Specifically, one of Tokyo’s oldest breweries. It started in 1890 and is now owned by Sapporo. It tastes… much like all japanese beers. You’ve had kirin/sapporo/asahi right? Like that.

After ramen, Will, Dave, Jon & I took to exploring the city. I’m not sure if we had a plan or if we just happened to be in Ebisu, but somehow we find ourselves at the Yebisu brewery/tasting room/museum.

Hey, have you met Dave? Dave works with jon/will. He’s a nice chap. Very pleasant, easy to hang out with. Generally goes along with everything. Has a white DSLR. yeah. it’s weird. So is ordering everything from vending machines. Even my beer? Come on.

Anyhow, after hanging out for a bit in Ebisu, we mill.

Dave had recently discovered the island of Odaiba. Discovered. Planted a flag on that shit. Please excuse my poor word choices – Dave knew about this place, it was a beautiful day, and our band of four was looking for adventure…

Who knew there were beaches, boardwalks, and palm trees in the center of Tokyo? This city’s got it all!

What the heck is that? Will decides that we have to go into the ball. I’m skeptical. Why am I always skeptical? Can someone teach me how to be less uptight? I’m serious.

Walking down the boardwalk, we’re chilled by the wind but determined to find the ball.

Getting closer, but what is it? Can we go in!?

Hoo wee, what a view. Tokyo Tower (on the right) looks like a rocketship.

We make it up and find a viewing deck inside. If you don’t want to pay and go into the main viewing area, there’s still a killer view. We didn’t know it then, but the building we were in was the Fuji TV headquarters – known for its unusual architecture:

photo c/o Wikipedia

We stayed up until the sun set over the city, and then headed back into the technicolor wind.