Okonomiyaki, Geisha Photos, and Eco Center Fun.

This week we were able to go to dinner with Miyazaki san and his son.  He selected the restaurant in Utsunomiya for us to go to.  It was a Okonomiyaki restaurant.  Okonomiyaki is a mix of different ingredients, batter, egg, cabbage, etc...  You cook it at your table to your liking and then put the bulldog sauce and Japanese mayo on it for extra flavor.  There are two main places the Okonomiyaki comes from and both are slightly different.  One is the Osaka area and the other is Hiroshima.  We tried both types at the restaurant.  They were both very good.  Miyazaki also schooled me in the art of tako yaki making.  It was evident in the final result that he has more experience then I do.  Looks like I need extra training before opening up my tako yaki stand.

Below is Miyazaki san displaying his mad tako yaki skills.

Miyazaki sans son behind the Osaka style Okonomiyaki.

Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki.  I think one of the main differences is that the Osaka style comes in a bowl and you mix it up and put it on the grill, similar to a pancake.  The Hiroshima style comes in with pre-layers and it is cooked more like a patty.

For the weekend Kate headed to Tokyo for a farewell celebration for Amy Boeck.  She will be going back to the US next month.  As part of the trip they went to a photo studio that specializes in Geisha portraits.  She said it took about 1.5 hours of preparation before the photo shoot.  Below are a few of the better pictures from the event.  I have trouble recognizing her in these pictures.

From the behind the scene pictures it looks like a pretty big ordeal.

First is the application of the white pasty make up.

The the detail work.

And finally getting dressed.

This is both Kate and Amy (Kate on the right)

Reiko and Nadine went along for moral support.

After the pictures a number of other women went down to join in the evening festivities.  We got a chuckle out of the guy in the middle of the photo.  He wasn't with the group he just photo bombed the picture.

One of the evening events involved a drag show, not the car kind.  Below Kate is pictured with two of the dudes from the event.

While Kate was away the children and I went to the Takanezawa Eco center.  We met up with an old friend Yama chan.  He was at the kite building activity I posted a number of months ago.  This activity basically involved getting out into the woods and fields to explore the different animals and bugs that are around us.  First we explored a little in a wooded area and then we walked to a rice field and the children were then armed with nets.  They tried to catch as many different things as they could in about 30 minutes.

Liam was really excited to catch and hold a huge dragon fly.

Yama chan tried to eat the dragon fly, it was really disturbing...

After the time was up all the specimens were collected to be shared.   The gentleman in the picture was very knowledgeable about the different bugs and animals and shared interesting facts about each.  The children found various bugs, worms, frogs, salamanders, crayfish, etc.  Maybe 1/3 of them I had never seen before.

It was nice to see all the children listen intently as he talked.

Colleen was super excited to find and catch a lizard.  She wanted to keep it, but we don't know how to take care of them.  In the end we ended up letting it go.

Once all the exploration was finished we played a number of fun games to finish out the day.  One of those games was to see how many people you could stack on two legs.  In the end we resorted to using the children as they are much easier to hold than full grown adults.  I think the record was 8...

Almost since arriving in Japan I have been using my bicycle to get to and from work.  The increased activity has also promoted weight loss.   Below is a picture of me with one of our wicked rides. 

When I got here I was about 180 lbs.  This week I bought a scale and found out that I now weight 71.7 Kg.  That is 158 lbs with clothing on.  The reason the picture is 1 Kg higher is because I am holding the camera.  At this point I think I need to modify my eating a little to stop the loss.

The interesting product we found this week is yogurt with aloe.  I am used to putting aloe on sunburn not eating it.  The yogurt actually has chunks of the plant in it.  Kate likes it, but the after tasted reminded me of lotion.  Not one of my favorites.. 

Hope everyone has a good week..

Takanezawa Green park, Green Tea Coke, and more.

We decided this would be a good weekend to try out the Takanezawa Green Park.  The weather was good and we wanted to stay close to home.  The park is only a short distance away only about 5 min by car.  I had heard a little about the park but I had never been before.  After arriving we found out there was a celebration going on and all the activities were free.  The only exception was the bicycles and they were only about $5 for 30 min.  The park is pretty big, actually we didn't see all of it this trip.  We did go to the obstacle course.  It is like a small training camp for a Japanese game show.  There were a ton of obstacles to try and some of them were a little dangerous.  I can't see anything like this surviving in the states.  It would probably only last a few weeks before someone got hurt and sewed.  The first picture shows the map of the course behind the family.

There were a variety of different challenges from climbing to zip lines..

I think the park is geared towards children, but adults are allowed to participate.  Some of the obstacles are better suited for children as we found out.  The zip line is one of those.  With Kate's weight on the zip line she smashed into the wood platform on the other side.  She received her share of bruises while at the park.

Kate was a good sport and was willing to give almost all the obstacles a go.

Colleen on one of the rope climbing obstacles.

Liam sped ahead so this was one of the few pictures I was able to get of him.

I also jumped in to try the challenges.

Now if there is one thing I have learned by watching Japanese game shows over the years is that you have to move quickly on floating or moving obstacles.  If you go to slow or lose momentum you will fail.  Well there were floating barrels that you had to cross.  I told Kate that she had to move quickly or she wouldn't make it.  On tape you can hear me say you don't have to do it..If you listen in the middle you can also here Kate say "what do I do?"  and you will hear an Japanese girl say "Ganbatte"  that means "Do your best".

Anyway she tried it but just a little too slowly and the result..........FAIL.

This is my version putting in to play my years of Japanese game show watching experience.  I actually did it twice, once before Kate and once after for the camera.  Just want to make sure everyone knows I didn't make her try it first.

And a picture of the aftermath.  Kate was a good sport about it.

The park also has a paved course for bicycles to ride on.  There is a variety of bikes to rent.  We picked the one below because we could all fit on it at the same time.  There was actually room for 2 more children on the center seats.

Liam and Colleen saw some of there friends from school at the park.  They rode around the course with us.  We battled them with the bicycle Nascar style.  I bumped them in the dirt and they spun out and crashed.  The next time around they threw there helmets at us as we past the wreckage.  (OK, I made all of it up except for us riding around the course with them.)

There is also a pond at the park with paddle boats and row boats you can rent.  This time because of the celebration it was free.  Liam and I paired up.

Kate and Colleen went together.

A while ago I was able to find the 1:64 scale cars of our exact cars in Japan.  Same type color, everything.  I finally obtained pictures of them to post on the blog.  The first one is the Diva.  Sorry Troy, the photo's are not up to your level of photography.

Our real car.

And the Odyssey.  This one came with two sets of wheels.  Our real one also came with two sets.  Winter and summer.  With the exception of the wheel color they are also the same as our real car.

The real one.

These will be great mementos to take back to the states when we return.

I will end this post with two new products we came across this week.  The first is green tea Coke.  Unfortunately it is diet.  The two flavors together are not overpowering.  It has a very light green tea taste.  Since it is diet it has artificial sweetener.  Whatever they used overpowers the flavor of the drink and that is the main flavor you taste.  I don't plan to get it again.

Finally we walked past a Starbucks and saw jelly coffee so I had to get one.  It has been long enough since we have been in the US so I am not sure if this has also infiltrated the Starbucks at home or not.  I will assume it has not.  Actually it is not jelly that is in it, but jello.  I would drink this one again.  The jello coffee mixed in with the slushy stuff and cream was very tasty.  If they do come to a Starbucks near you I would recommend at least giving it a try.

Thats all for this week, have a good one.

Last strawberry picking for the season.

We stayed busy this week, but not a lot of super exciting blog content.  The children had field trips.  Liam went to Nasu for a sleep over and Colleen went on a walk around Takanezawa.  I caught Liam on the  way out.  He walked with a different group than his usual walking group and was running behind a little, so they came to the door to get him.

This is a picture of Colleen with her group getting back from her walk around Takanezawa.

The yellow hats are standard for safety.  It improves visibility while the children walk.  I have been driving the car before when children were walking to school and it really is effective.  Both children had fun on there outings.

The weather is getting warmer all the time and we have also had a number of days with rain.  The end of this month will be rainy season.  I have not been through that yet so it should be interesting to experience.  As the weather has changed the frogs have overrun the rice fields and they are now starting to show up at our house.  This one was on our screen.

And another on the side of the house.

I can say they are not doing a great job keeping the bug population down.  Last week while riding my bicycle home from work (at night) I was getting pelted by bugs.  I am still itching from it.  Anyway, back to the story.  I was going about 21.5 mph on one of the roads between the rice fields.  Going that speed takes some effort so my mouth was open and I was breathing through it.  A giant bug went right in and got stuck.  I hacked for about 15 minutes and almost threw up a couple of times.  I am sure some of the farmers were wondering what was going on.  It stayed stuck there until I got home and drank water.  From now on I plan to wear one of those white masks for riding home.

On Sunday we went to the last day of strawberry picking at a local farm.  This time we were able to pick as many as we wanted and take them home.  The family cost was about $12.oo.  The strawberry farms all seem to be inside green houses and they are very well taken care of.

Here is me and the children getting ready to pick.  I wore my Santa Claus Nicholas shirt.  I picked it up at one of the local grocery stores along with a shirt that says a bunch of English that I can't understand.  The shirt coupled with my manpris pants makes for a very manly ensemble. 

This is Kate with some of her harvest.  We were able to get quite a few for freezing.  Kate will use them to make smoothies later.  She was jealous of my wicked cool pants so she played along too.

The children didn't last that long picking and ended up playing in the neighboring rice field.  They were mostly catching.....you guessed it, frogs, pollywogs, and tadpoles.  It seams every stage of the frog is now present in the rice fields.

After we got home the children went to the park to play for a bit.  Liam came home with the larvae of a beetle.  They found it around some trees.  We won't know exactly which kind of beetle it is until it grows and morfs into its final form.  That is of course if it lives that long.  He is really excited to see what it turns in to.  I am just glad I didn't swallow one of these beetles. 

Finally while on a bike ride I rode past a farmer harvesting wheat.  Two reasons that is interesting.  1. It shows how far ahead the season is in Japan, I think Ohio is months away from this.  2. The combine is tiny.  It was about the size of our Diva (the yellow car).  Of course the fields are smaller here so that is not a big surprise.  Sorry for the bad picture quality.  I took it with my cell phone.

Here is a better image.  I got this from the internet (Wikimedia).  It shows a little better the basic size and layout.

Here is the American version for direct comparison.

That is all for this post.  Have a good week.