March 1-7, 2010
This week got off to a good start! We woke up Monday morning and opened the curtains and tada. . . Winter hasn't left after all!!! It snowed last night, no more than about 2 inches, but after the fear that is was over, any snow is good news! I still have yet to make a proper snowman, that will be first on my list of activities now :) The Tsunami warnings are unfortunately not gone yet, but they are all down to the lowest warning level.
Eric and I watched a very interesting show on TV today about Plastic Menus and it was in English :) The majority (and by that I mean probably 99%) of Japanese restaurants have plastic menus like these in their store front windows:
It makes it pretty easy to decide what you want to eat because you can see exactly what the food looks like and what the portion size will be. I was so surprised by them when I first got to Japan, but now I'm pretty much un-phased. I am however quite impressed by how real the food usually looks. During the show on TV the host had a plate of sushi, some plastic menu form and some real and she had to guess which was real. It's pretty obvious when you pick it up with chopsticks I would imagine, and I'm sure she exaggerated but it actually does look just like real food! The special on TV showed how each dish is made just like the chef would make it, it's all hand painted and very carefully placed. It's really incredible and I think you it's one of those things that you have to see to believe!
This week was full of doctors!
Eric had Tuesday off this week, because he had to work on Sunday, and while it was an extremely productive day, it was definitely not the ideal way to spend a day off. We woke up early and were out the door my quarter to 7, we hit the road to Hirosaki and made it to the doctors office just as they opened. First we picked up a prescription, then Eric went to the dermatologist. We were a little concerned about a small growth on his ankle but there was nothing to be worried about at all, the doctor took one look and diagnosed it as a wart and froze it right off :) Phew, check that off the list. Then we had some time to kill because we went in early not knowing how long it would take a new doctor, but she was pretty speedy. We found a new recycle shop that is quite fabulous and has a decently priced used PS3 games, we are quite excited because the new games are ridiculously expensive! (The only gaming system I have ever owned was an N64, and I think when the games we brand new they were only $20, and now they are about $3. When I found out people, including my husband, spend $60 on a video game without the blink of an eye, I was pretty surprised.) We eventually made it to the dentist, I have become quite good at navigating our way around in Hirosaki, Eric was impressed that I found the dentist. Eric has been having severe and all-too-frequent headaches recently. He had an hunch that his extra tooth may be the source of it. Back in 2005 a dentist in AZ took an x-ray and found an extra tooth in his lower jaw but said he should leave it alone, unless it causes problems. The dentist here took another x-ray and said that he would have to see an oral surgeon because it is down too deep in the bone for her to do anything about it, but she did give him so pain relievers. We will follow up with surgeon next week hopefully.
One of the more popular meals to go out for in Japan is Yakinuki style grilling. The grill is built into the table, which makes it even more popular during the cold winter months. You order from a menu of raw beef and vegetables and various side dishes, and then you cook it to your liking at your own pace. Eric and I LOVE it; however, it's unfortunately quite expensive. When we do go out for it, it cost's about $45.00 to feed us both and we are never truly full. So, Eric had the brilliant idea just to buy a table top grill so we can make it at home. . . So we did!! Our set up at home cost about $45.00 but now every time we want to eat it we can make it ourselves and it only costs about $12.00 and we get A LOT more meat!
This is what the grills look like at restaurants:
And this is what they look like at home! (This isn't ours, I took this photo from google because I didn't remember to take a picture when ours was set up, I was too busy eating :D)
Another silly thing I want to educate you on. . . singing garbage trucks! Just when you thought your 3 year old boy couldn't love the garbage truck anymore than he already does, imagine if it played a fun little song while it strolls down the street! I'm not a 3 year old boy, and I even love it, not because it sounds cute (the song is actually annoying after a few months) but because it saves the day when you wake up a little bit late :) You may remember back to when I wrote about our garbage sagas and only being able to take trash out on certain days. . . the real smelly stuff goes out twice a week but some things are only collected once a month so if you miss the day it's a big bummer! Well this week I said thank goodness for that silly garbage truck tune because it saved the day this week :)
Saturday Eric went back to the dentist for a cleaning and got his referral information for the oral surgeon. The dentist thinks we should go asap, as in first thing Monday morning. Eric called his supervisor and got the OK to miss work Monday morning.
On Sunday Eric had a little quiet time to himself, which is pretty rare for him since he is in the office all day and then anytime he is home, so am I. Although I felt bad about ditching him for a little bit, I think he really enjoys some alone time when he actually gets it. I on the other hand met up with my friend Mika, who works in the town office, and we headed to Goshogowara to check out the new ice cream shop that opened in the mall. It actually opened in December but the lines have been so long since the day it opened, we are just now willing to brave it out. So we waited our turn in line, which turned out not to be too bad, and we enjoyed some scrumptious Ice Cream. The store reminded me a lot of Cold Stone but the flavors were pretty different. We got there just in time because right as we placed our orders the line was giant! It was rather scrumptious and I will be happy to take Eric sometime soon.
Another bizarre commodity that we have in Japan is KitKats, not just the chocolate ones we had in America, but every flavor you could possible imagine, and I'm not kidding. I know I have mentioned them before when we have stumbled across strange flavors such as;
Edamame- Soy Bean!!
"Flan"-esque
Lemon-Vinegar
These are only the beginning!! You should see the list on the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_Kat
If you look at the flavors and where they are sold you will quickly notice that the strangest flavors, and the biggest variety, are sold in Japan only. The flavors that I find most interesting are:
Pickled Plum, Rose, Lemon-Vinegar, Wasabi, Cucumber, Azuki (red bean), Beet, Soy Sauce, Jyagaimo (a Japanese Potato), Pepper, Edamame, and Veggie.
I think we can all agree that these are strange flavors to combine with chocolate and wafers!
Eric and I watched a very interesting show on TV today about Plastic Menus and it was in English :) The majority (and by that I mean probably 99%) of Japanese restaurants have plastic menus like these in their store front windows:
It makes it pretty easy to decide what you want to eat because you can see exactly what the food looks like and what the portion size will be. I was so surprised by them when I first got to Japan, but now I'm pretty much un-phased. I am however quite impressed by how real the food usually looks. During the show on TV the host had a plate of sushi, some plastic menu form and some real and she had to guess which was real. It's pretty obvious when you pick it up with chopsticks I would imagine, and I'm sure she exaggerated but it actually does look just like real food! The special on TV showed how each dish is made just like the chef would make it, it's all hand painted and very carefully placed. It's really incredible and I think you it's one of those things that you have to see to believe!
This week was full of doctors!
Eric had Tuesday off this week, because he had to work on Sunday, and while it was an extremely productive day, it was definitely not the ideal way to spend a day off. We woke up early and were out the door my quarter to 7, we hit the road to Hirosaki and made it to the doctors office just as they opened. First we picked up a prescription, then Eric went to the dermatologist. We were a little concerned about a small growth on his ankle but there was nothing to be worried about at all, the doctor took one look and diagnosed it as a wart and froze it right off :) Phew, check that off the list. Then we had some time to kill because we went in early not knowing how long it would take a new doctor, but she was pretty speedy. We found a new recycle shop that is quite fabulous and has a decently priced used PS3 games, we are quite excited because the new games are ridiculously expensive! (The only gaming system I have ever owned was an N64, and I think when the games we brand new they were only $20, and now they are about $3. When I found out people, including my husband, spend $60 on a video game without the blink of an eye, I was pretty surprised.) We eventually made it to the dentist, I have become quite good at navigating our way around in Hirosaki, Eric was impressed that I found the dentist. Eric has been having severe and all-too-frequent headaches recently. He had an hunch that his extra tooth may be the source of it. Back in 2005 a dentist in AZ took an x-ray and found an extra tooth in his lower jaw but said he should leave it alone, unless it causes problems. The dentist here took another x-ray and said that he would have to see an oral surgeon because it is down too deep in the bone for her to do anything about it, but she did give him so pain relievers. We will follow up with surgeon next week hopefully.
One of the more popular meals to go out for in Japan is Yakinuki style grilling. The grill is built into the table, which makes it even more popular during the cold winter months. You order from a menu of raw beef and vegetables and various side dishes, and then you cook it to your liking at your own pace. Eric and I LOVE it; however, it's unfortunately quite expensive. When we do go out for it, it cost's about $45.00 to feed us both and we are never truly full. So, Eric had the brilliant idea just to buy a table top grill so we can make it at home. . . So we did!! Our set up at home cost about $45.00 but now every time we want to eat it we can make it ourselves and it only costs about $12.00 and we get A LOT more meat!
This is what the grills look like at restaurants:
And this is what they look like at home! (This isn't ours, I took this photo from google because I didn't remember to take a picture when ours was set up, I was too busy eating :D)
Another silly thing I want to educate you on. . . singing garbage trucks! Just when you thought your 3 year old boy couldn't love the garbage truck anymore than he already does, imagine if it played a fun little song while it strolls down the street! I'm not a 3 year old boy, and I even love it, not because it sounds cute (the song is actually annoying after a few months) but because it saves the day when you wake up a little bit late :) You may remember back to when I wrote about our garbage sagas and only being able to take trash out on certain days. . . the real smelly stuff goes out twice a week but some things are only collected once a month so if you miss the day it's a big bummer! Well this week I said thank goodness for that silly garbage truck tune because it saved the day this week :)
Saturday Eric went back to the dentist for a cleaning and got his referral information for the oral surgeon. The dentist thinks we should go asap, as in first thing Monday morning. Eric called his supervisor and got the OK to miss work Monday morning.
On Sunday Eric had a little quiet time to himself, which is pretty rare for him since he is in the office all day and then anytime he is home, so am I. Although I felt bad about ditching him for a little bit, I think he really enjoys some alone time when he actually gets it. I on the other hand met up with my friend Mika, who works in the town office, and we headed to Goshogowara to check out the new ice cream shop that opened in the mall. It actually opened in December but the lines have been so long since the day it opened, we are just now willing to brave it out. So we waited our turn in line, which turned out not to be too bad, and we enjoyed some scrumptious Ice Cream. The store reminded me a lot of Cold Stone but the flavors were pretty different. We got there just in time because right as we placed our orders the line was giant! It was rather scrumptious and I will be happy to take Eric sometime soon.
Another bizarre commodity that we have in Japan is KitKats, not just the chocolate ones we had in America, but every flavor you could possible imagine, and I'm not kidding. I know I have mentioned them before when we have stumbled across strange flavors such as;
Edamame- Soy Bean!!
"Flan"-esque
Lemon-Vinegar
These are only the beginning!! You should see the list on the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_KatIf you look at the flavors and where they are sold you will quickly notice that the strangest flavors, and the biggest variety, are sold in Japan only. The flavors that I find most interesting are:
Pickled Plum, Rose, Lemon-Vinegar, Wasabi, Cucumber, Azuki (red bean), Beet, Soy Sauce, Jyagaimo (a Japanese Potato), Pepper, Edamame, and Veggie.
I think we can all agree that these are strange flavors to combine with chocolate and wafers!
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