鮹タコ(Tako taco), Colleen's B-day, Fair well to Ishizaki and Noshiro.

This weekend we went searching for the elusive McHotDog.  We arrived at McDonalds before 10:30, there were signs for the dog, and it was on the menu.  Unfortunately after placing my order for the McHotDog I was told they didn't have them.  I was given a really long explanation in Japanese, but all I got out of it was that I couldn't get one.  They did say that it would be available tomorrow, but I have to work so the search goes on...maybe next week.

The McHotDog was a bust but the Tako taco was a raging success.  In Japanese Octopus is called Tako, so if you make a Mexican taco with octopus it is a tako taco.  I found this out before coming to Japan and it was a running joke at the office for a little while.  Brian created a powerpoint with clip art of what a tako taco might look like with some kids at McDonalds. 

 I had been planning to make this for some time.  I picked up the octopus from the local market, Kate had re-fried beans from the US along with the other ingredients.  The family ate regular tacos while I tried the Tako taco...

Here is the real thing.

In the below picture I am pondering the flavor a little.  I have decided that there is a reason the Tako taco has not caught on......It is not really that good.  Octopus by itself or in yaki balls taste pretty good.  Tacos also by them selves are pretty good.  Together the flavors don't really work well together and the end result is just strange.  Now I have to come up with another plan to make extra money, I don't think the Tako Taco stand will work out...

This week also happened to be Colleen's 8th birthday.  We had a very good day.  Typically for the families birthdays, the birthday person chooses where we go out to eat.  Colleen wanted to stay at home and have tacos (thus the tako taco above).  Kate and Colleen made a cake for her birthday.  Frosting is not really used on cakes in Japan so Kate used whipped cream for the topping and put strawberries in the middle.  Very tasty...

The finished product..

Happy 8th birthday to Colleen.

The economy in Japan, like the US, is not great right now.  Many companies have had to let go of both direct hire associates and contractors as the economy has weakened.  Recently one of the suppliers I work with has had to follow that trend.  Ishizaki san and Noshiro san have been affected by the economic down, their contracts were not renewed so they will now move on to something new.  On Saturday there was a fair well party I was able to attend.  I wish them luck in their future.

A short time after we arrived the children had an activity at their school.  They all stood in a formation and held paper or umbrellas above their head on the school playground to make a pattern in celebration of the schools 15th year.  Then the activity was photographed from the air.  We got the pictures from the school.  The first is the formation and the second is an arial view of Takanezawa.

I added in a few things to show where we are in relation to a number of other locations around the town.

Today, while driving around, we pulled up to a stop light and saw a chopper motorcycle.  It looked a little strange because the proportions seamed off.  You can see in the picture the guy looks pretty big relative to the bike.  In person he was not a big guy.  Also you can see that there is only one very small exhaust pipe on it.

When the light changed the bike made all kinds of noise, but the acceleration was not so impressive.  Actually I could easily smoke him in the Odyssey.  I told Kate "I think that thing is only 50cc".   Kate was able to make out the name.  It is a Honda Jazz.

After we got home I looked up some information on the bike.  I got it from this website  www.50cc-motorcycles.com/cgi-bin/bikeDB.pl?bike_id=64

It is only 50cc, makes a whopping 4 horsepower @ 7500rpm and 0.43torque @ 6000rpm.  Of course this one looks pretty heavily modified so it may be around 6 horsepower..Kind of reminded me of a couple of lines from a movie...[after Lloyd trades the van in for a moped] : Lloyd: I get 70 miles to the gallon on this hog.... Harry:Just when I thought you couldn't get any dumber, you go and do something like this... and totally redeem yourself!

Actually in Japan these bikes are legitimate transportation.  Traffic is pretty heavy and there are not so many highways.  This makes for a slower traffic flow and motorcycles have the option at every light to move to the front of the line.  Depending on the situation they are faster than cars from point A to B.  I smoked past this guy only to be caught later as I sat at another red light.

Thats all for this week, next week will be cherry blossoms..I think.  Have a good week.

Search for McHotDog, Foot Onsen, Siphon Coffee.

This weekend we went searching for the elusive McHotDog.  Of course it made sense to search at a McDonalds so we headed to Utsunomiya.  As we walked toward the McDonalds we got excited because there was a McHotDog sign out front.  Flat Stanley was ready for his first McHotDog.  We were all pretty stoked as well...

Unfortunately in the bottom corner of the sign it says 10:30まで which means until 10:30.  If you double click the picture it gets larger and you can read it.  I confirmed inside that the sign in fact did say until 10:30.  Apparently the McHotDog is a breakfast sandwich, who knew....  The search will live on for another day.  I opted for the ebi burger (shrimp burger) instead.  The shrimp burger is a little like a Fillet-O-Fish.  It is battered and fried.  The difference is that it is packed full of shrimp in place of fish.  You can see on the wrapper it says "Fillet-O-EBI" and you can see the piece of shrimp sticking out of the bite.

My comment about the Ebi burger is the same as the one found on some cakes we bought at Nikko.

Colleen's birthday is next week, but she had some friends over this weekend for a little celebration.  They decided to make their own Sushi restaurant for fun.  Kate and I were invited to be their first customers.  What looks like popcorn in front of us is actually popped tako (octopus) so I was told.

Here is Liam pondering over the menu options.

Colleen showing displaying her offerings.  You can see the tako, and other Sushi options.  They had quite an offering, but they all tasted a little like plastic or paper, depending on your selection.

All this Sushi talk reminds me.  Last week we took Stanley to Genki sushi (the conveyor Sushi) for a bite.  This is Stanley snagging some very tasty Maguro (Tuna).  I know it was tasty because he doesn't have much of an appetite so we had to help him eat it.

On one of our driving trips in the mountains we stumbled across a foot Onsen.  Onsen are natural hot springs.  There are many varieties of them in Japan.  Men and Women separate, together, with/without swimsuit, manmade pools fed by the springs, all natural, etc.... This style you keep your clothing on, but remove your shoes, socks, and roll your pant legs up.  It was inexpensive, about 300 yen per adult to go in and sit.  The water was very warm and it was nice to relax in the steamy room.  We stayed until everyones feet were red from the heat.

In the US I have tried a number of ways to brew coffee but I had never seen a coffee siphon.  This method is an old way of brewing that fell out of favor in the US by the 60s (I found this out from http://coffeegeek.com/guides/siphoncoffee)  Japan is oned of the few countries that this method has retained some sort of following.  I have thought about buying one for a little while, but they are a little pricey so I had not.  This week while shopping at Hard Off (like a second hand store) I stumbled on a brand new siphon in the box, never used, for half price.  I figured this was the time to try it.  Below are all the parts...it kind of looks like a science experiment.

After assembly it looks like this.  Water is poured into the bottom container to be heated by the flame.  The coffee is in the upper container.  Connecting the two is a glass tube and between those two is a cloth filter to keep the grounds from getting into the stuff you drink.  When you first start it up the grounds are dry on the top and the liquid is only in the bottom.

Once the water boils pressure builds in the lower pot, that pressure forces the water up the tube and into the upper pot (the one with the coffee grounds).  This probably took about 8-10 minutes.  Once all the water is forced into the upper pot you start the timer.  Time depends on the amount of coffee you are making.  This pot was about 1 min 20 sec.

After the brewing time is up the heat source must be removed.  As the water vapor in the lower pot cools it takes up less volume.  As a result the liquid in the upper container is pulled back down through the tube.  The filter between the two keeps the coffee grounds in the upper pot and the drinkable coffee all ends up in the lower pot.  when it is finished the two containers are separated and the coffee is poured into mugs to drink.  I will have to experiment a little tweak the coffee to our liking, but I thought it was very tasty.

Oh.. remember the picture of Dundon with the transformer phone on his shoulder..

Apparently there is a cartoon featuring that phone same phone.....Awesome.

Have a good week.

Toy Helicopters and Various Foods..

We have been on the go for a number of weeks now so we decided not to plan anything for this week.  On Saturday we did go to one of the community centers to make helicopters. (The kind you spin with your hands.)  Some of the people helping out participated in the book shelf activity Kate and the children did previously so it was nice to see them again.  We each made 2 helicopters, one from a wooden spoon (similar to the kind that came with ice cream cups at camp only bigger), and the other from bamboo.

For making the wooden spoon helicopter the first step is to mark the center of gravity on the spoon.  To do that we balanced them on allen keys and marked them with a pen.

After marking an electric drill was used to make a hole for the shaft to fit into.  For the children it was their first time using a drill but they were able to do it.

Next a heat gun was used to make the spoons pliable.  Once heated we bent them to make them into a propellor shape.

After they were shaped we glued the bamboo shaft in place.

While we waited for the spoon helicopters to dry we moved on to making the bamboo ones.  For them we started with blocks of bamboo that had been ruff cut into a propellor shape. 

Everyone was then given a knife to shave off the edges of the rough cut.  This proved too much for the children and they finally ended up using a file for most of their shaping.  A bit scary for us to watch.  We made sure they were using the knives safely.

 

After the main shaping was finished sand paper was used to finish smoothing and shaping the blade.  The final step was to balance them and attach the shaft.

As we waited for them to dry we were given yakiimo to snack on.  Everyone ate them like ice cream cones.  They are still very tasty and way more healthy than ice cream for us.

And the finished product...

We had a great time getting out and creating fun toys.  It is nice to see the joy everyone gets in sharing their knowledge and helping to create things.  After we got home we continued playing with the helicopters in the house.

At the same time we were participating in this activity there was another festival going on in the same building.  We decided to walk around and ended up eating lunch there.  We had tempura udon and tempura soba.  Basically various fried and battered food on top of different noodles.  It was very good.

In the main gymnasium there were a number of displays.  Pottery, kado (flower arrangements) paintings, decorative gourds, etc.  Most were display only, but some was for sale.  At the gourd booth the gentlemen insisted the children pick 2 gourds each and gave them as gifts.  We stayed and talked for a while in both Japanese and English.  In the end we decided to buy a gourd for ourselves.

There were also children's activities.  Kate participated in the rice cracker bowl transfer with a straw race.

That was our main activity for the week.

Blog filler time...GO!!

Of course everyone knows Japan has Sushi, but actually there are a number of other foods besides Sushi that are quite common.  

A few examples:

One day when driving in the mountains (about 2 months ago) we came across a stand on the side of the road.  They were selling boiled Daikon (a type of radish) and Miso soup.  The Daikon had a paste on top and the Miso had a number of things in it for flavor like cabbage, onions, etc.  Both were very good.  We have found a number of good Japanese dishes by just stopping and trying things at different stands that we stumble onto.

In Utsunomiya Gyoza is very popular.  Gyoza is a dumpling with various fillings.  You can get them boiled, pan fried, or deep fried.  There are many places that serve Gyoza, but one that we like is by the train station.  I don't know the kanji yet so we just call it the happy gyoza guy place.  It has a statue out front with a smiling gyoza man.  The meal I got had gyoza, rice, and ramen in a set.

There are also many Ramen shops.  One place we like is Kazan.  The kanji for it are 火山 I knew these kanji so I thought I could say the name.  火 is ka and means fire.  山 is yama and means mountain or together fire mountain.  So I figured it was Kayama, but the two kanji together change form and it becomes Kazan, even though I knew the kanji I had the name wrong.  Kazan means volcano which would be a fire mountain.

The menu's can still challenge us.  I can read Katakana and Hirigana, but I have limited Kanji.  If we end up at a restaurant with a menu I can't understand and no pictures I just ask for their recommendation.  This is the menu from Kazan.  Some pictures, but mostly not.  It has a mix of kanji and hirigana.  They also serve gyoza, you can see it in the upper right corner of the menu.

Another interesting fact: brown nosing in Japan is called goma suri which is grinding the sesame seeds.  I have not figure out exactly were it comes from, but my thinking is that it takes a lot of work to grind the seeds, so if someone else did it for you it would be like kissing up.  Anyway, here are the children grinding sesame seeds for our ramen at Kazan. (brown nozers)

The finished product is very tasty and the one I like is actually pretty spicy.  The red in the picture is from pepper.  It comes in a large stone bowl that is too hot to touch when it comes out.  Kazan has other options that come out boiling.  They request that you hold the placemat in front of you to prevent the boiling ramen from splashing on you.  I want to learn how to make good ramen before we return because I don't know any good shops in Columbus for it.  If anyone does know of any let me know..and not the kind you eat in college that is a solid brick and cost $0.25.

I will have to get other pictures in the future when we try new foods, there are actually many other options other than what I have shown above.  I have tried raw horse meat, raw beef sashimi, and raw chopped beef with a raw egg on top among many other things.  My basic rule is "if other people are eating it, I will give it a try and then decide if I like it."  I should get some tips from Generosa on how to take pictures of food for better documentation.

Last week we received a flat Stanley from one of Colleen's friends Sydney.  He was smashed flat by a bulletin board.  Typically a bad thing, but Stanley takes advantage of it in the form of cheap travel.  He gets mailed from place to place.  Since he is flat he can travel that way.  We will have to get some pictures of him in various places before sending him back on his way..

Stanley can't read Japanese and we already had to explain to him that he shouldn't climb electric towers, it can be very dangerous...ABUNAI!!

Finally........HELLO KITTY POPCORN VENDING MACHINE..ahhhhyaaaah.

Pan de Park, Hiwatari-sai (fire walking festival), and Takaosanguchi Temple

First up, last week I complained about not being able to buy an entire loaf of bread.  山瀬さん Yamase san recommended we go to Pan de Park.  It is a bread/pastry shop in Utsunomiya that he explained had full loafs of bread.  We decided to go on Saturday around lunch time.  There was a very good variety of breads and pastries and you get free coffee while you look around and while you eat.  They also have a Totoro scene made entirely of bread, and yes it is true you can buy a whole loaf of bread there.  We ended up eating lunch there.  Kate and I had curry pastries, along with many others.  Liam had a hot dog pastry and Colleen had a strawberry pastry.  I am sure we will go back another time as it was very tasty.

The selection and line, it was very busy but efficient.

The scene from Totoro..

The shop was advertising for White day while we were there.  This is something I was not aware of.  In Japan men do not give gifts on Valentines day.  Valentines day is an opportunity for women to express love or interest in men.  I really like Valentines day here because there is no pressure on me.....  Now for the down side, White day is when women expect men to return the favor.  This is the day we have to be concerned with and get something for our wives or girlfriends.  A Japanese man told me the women expect to be paid back at a value of at least 3 times what they gave.

On Sunday we decided to go to a Fire Walking Festival.  It was in Tokyo in a town called Takaosanguchi.  We got a ticket from my Sensei that allowed us to travel to Tokyo and back for the price of a child to go.  Only down side is that the ticket does not work on the Shinkansen.  We don't usually take the Shinkansen anyway because it is about 2 times more money than the local train.  Of course it is faster, but with the family of 4 we typically avoid it.  We headed to Hoshakuji station and started the day at 8:08am.  Met up with Dan Croasmun at Utsunomiya station by 8:20am.  Another gentleman Greg was supposed to meet us there, but he missed the train.  He jumped on the Shinkansen and met us in Omiya to ride the rest of the way on the local train together.  When we arrived in Takaosanguchi we immediately saw a really interesting building.  Unfortunately I never found out what it is.

We then walked out of the train station and saw a group of Monks walking down the street chanting.  

We figured they knew were they were going so we followed them.  Interestingly enough they led us right to the ceremony.  We were hungry from the journey so we hit up the Tako Yaki and Yaki Soba stands that seem to be common at festivals.

We walked past a temple on the way to the stands.  This was the location for the start of the ceremony.

Next we determined where the line was for walking on the coals and got in it.  The festival grounds are roped off and in the center was a giant pile of evergreen branches.

It didn't take long for the chanting Monks to arrive at the festival.  They stopped at the temple first, chanted and played horns.  Then they entered the ceremony grounds.  The ceremony leader spoke as they Monks prepared for the ceremony.  Below you can see as that happens.

The Monks performed a number of ceremonies in preparation for the main event.

Once in position the Monks began to chant as they lit the pile of evergreen on fire.  Kate and I said they should make a CD of the chanting.  It was very rhythmic and enjoyable to listen to.

The chanting got more intense as the fire grew.  Even though we were standing away from the fire we could feel the warmth from it.  Once the evergreen burned more cut dry wood was thrown on to make a bed of good coals.

You can see the heat in these two pictures.  It looks like I have done some photo effect, but the pictures are distorted from the heat.

Once the fire started to die down preparation for walking on the coals began.  There were more ceremonial activities as the Monks spread the coals.

A number of times during the festival the smoke became pretty intense.  It even affected the ceremonial leader a few times, that you can hear below.    The Monks crossed the coals first (while they were at there hottest) that is also taking place in the video below.

Finally everything was ready for people to cross the coals.  Once the line started moving it continued at a steady pace.  It didn't take long for us to get to the coals.  In order to participate you have to take your shoes and socks off.  This prevents them from catching on fire. (a bad thing).  Here are the children getting ready.

Once it was our turn we were moved swiftly into position.  A tap on the back along with a verbal cue and we were walking across the coals.  They were only warm to the touch, and actually felt good as our feet were cold from standing barefoot in the cold mud before crossing.  After crossing we threw an offering into a wooden box and exited to the right.  I brought a towel to wipe our feet before we put our shoes back on, the coals made them all black and gritty.  It was a very exciting event and both children participated in walking across the coals.  So far this was one of my favorite (although we have not been to many yet.)

But wait there's more..... In the town of Takaosanguchi there is a huge temple on one of the mountains.  We decided that we had trekked all the way to the town, we may as well see everything we could.  We passed a town area on the way to the temple.  In one of the shop windows there were two men making Soba noodles.  It was interesting to watch.

You have three options to get to the temple.  1- hike, 2- chair lift, 3- cable car.  We opted for 2 and 3.  #2 on the way up and #3 on the way down.

Once at the top there is still a lot of walking left, including about 300 steps.  I know this because the children did a guessing game and then counted them as we walked.  We passed a sign that showed monkeys are in the area.  I was afraid there may be some bad monkeys around.

Sure enough there were.  This one required a little spanking to straighten him up.

After walking a while we passed through a gate this let us know we were heading the right direction.

The next indicator that we were getting close was the wall of family names.  The picture below shows them going clear past the corner in the distance.

Finally we entered the Temple grounds.  This is probably the largest temple I have been to so far.  There were 4 different levels of the temple.  We had to walk up steps in the mountain to get to each level and each level had different buildings.  The pictures I have do not completely do it justice and I have way more than I can put on the site.

2nd level

This level had stone statues with knit hats and scarves on each one.

This one was on the 3rd level if I remember correctly.

After exploring for a while we decided it was time to head back.   Of course we had to backtrack to get to the cable car in order to get down the mountain side first.

The ride down didn't take long and we had the entertainment of a film crew shooting video of the cable car operator the whole way down.  At the bottom conductor hats were made available for photo opts.  The children complied and posed for a picture.  They are both wearing masks because they have colds.  In Japan people wear the masks for a number of reasons. 1. allergies, 2. to keep there face warm, 3. when sick to reduce the opportunity to spread the sickness.  So far I have been lucky and not had to wear one yet..

Finally back on the train we headed for Shinjuku.  We had to transfer there to get home so we decided to leave the station and eat.  Not far from the station we found a Mexican restaurant.  Since we arrived about 4 months ago I have not seen a Mexican restaurant (El Torito was the name), so we all decided it was the place.. I also found a place that serves FUGU (deadly blowfish) so I will go back later for that. 

The food was good and the price was so-so reasonable.  I had a Dos Equis with my meal and it was super tasty.  The portion sizes were a little smaller, but that is not really a bad thing.  Finally on the way back to the train we hit the Tokyo Krispy Kreme.  

This was the most money I have ever spent on a dozen doughnuts, about 1800 yen ($19.00).  Everyone waiting in line was given a fresh doughnut right off the press.  It was the tastiest doughnut ever.....and made us want to buy more.  I guess that is the plan.

The children were super excited and were given Krispy Kreme hats before we left.

On the train ride back we discovered that McDonald's has a new offering in preparation for baseball season.  The McHotDog.  I can't completely make out the ingredients in the picture, but I will have to give it a try next time we stop at one.  

That was about as much as we could pack into one weekend and we didn't get home until 12:00.  That is the reason for the delay in posting.

Have a good week...