Monday, July 20, 2009
Dot to the Head
To celebrate the end of the semester, one of my schools had a office get-together on Friday night at a restaurant. We do this kind of thing every few months and it's always been at a Japanese place or the occasional neighboring cuisine, like Chinese or Korean. This time, however, we went to an Indian restaurant and that apparently changed everything. I know this sounds like another food post, but really, it's about my coworkers' behavior more than anything else.
I knew things were a bit off when I arrived and saw that all the women were wearing little press-on sparkly things on their foreheads in some kind of attempt to look Indian. No one had attempted to dress up for our previous meals (I saw no one in a hanbok when we ate yakiniku) and I was at a loss to guess why. I started to piece it together when I looked at the expression on people's faces as they gazed at the menu (often with their mouths agape) and when I kept hearing the question "Have you eaten Indian food before?*" Eventually, I figured it out: despite its proliferation, Indian food is actually exotic to the average Japanese person.
*Not to digress, but I must point out the choice of words here. Japanese people love to ask foreigners if they can eat Japanese food, a question that makes no sense when that foreigner has been living in Japan and eating school lunches for nearly two years. I fielded a variant of that question that same day in fact. Yet with other cuisines, it's always "have you eaten this" or "do you like this" which is just small talk. What's with the double standard?
This is something I find very surprising. Curry is absolutely integrated into the Japanese diet at this point. It's so common that it shows up in our school lunches at least once a month. Whether it's due to Japanese short-sightedness or simple ignorance, it would seem that few Japanese people actually consider curry's foreign origin. They just know what "curry" is and rarely consider what's in it; the way these people looked at the list of available dishes, you'd think that they were looking at an advanced chemistry textbook.
As for me, I love Indian food and I have been to many different Indian restaurants in and around Osaka in the past few years. I had not been to this particular one, of course, but the menu was pretty standard so I was not surprised by anything I saw (I was disappointed they had no vindaloo though). As a result, I found myself in a rare leadership position where people were looking to me for advice. Even though the menu and the waiter explained everything in Japanese more clearly than I ever could, it was up to me to recommend dishes and drinks for all. For example, no one applied that green spicy sauce to their food until after I did it, and then suddenly it was all over everyone's plates. I only wish they had followed my lead on the silverware, but instead every single one of them used chopsticks whenever possible. Tell me that isn't strange.
I'm sure you're thinking, "But Dan, don't you work in the sticks? Of course they were intimidated by the exoticism of Indian food!" I may work in the rural fringe of Osaka but I don't live there and neither do a majority of the teachers in Hana Town. Lots of them have traveled abroad and one teacher in particular lived in Holland for four years, so these are not hill people who are easily frightened by modern conveniences or the outside world.
I hope this doesn't come off as me making fun of anyone or expressing my disappointment with how the evening turned out. The food was quite nice, the drinks were free (few things in life are as wonderful as a Kingfisher in one hand and a mango lassi in the other) and it was kind of fun to be in a position of power for once. I'm just surprised at how intimidated they all seemed in the face of a commonplace cuisine like Indian food. I hope they came away from it as satisfied as I did, because I'd love to have more variety in our gatherings. Not just for the sake of variety but for value. Our typical Japanese dining experience runs me over 5500 Yen and I'm usually a bit hungry at the end. On Friday I only spent 4500 and I was stuffed. And at the risk of being selfish, it felt good knowing exactly what I was eating for a change.
The only downside to all this was I was too full and it was too late to go into the city afterwards to try and attend a sayonara party for the departing JETs. I will try to make it to this Friday's pub quiz for one last chance to bid some folks farewell. I can't say I was completely satisfied with my social life this past year but I'm glad I made a greater effort to make myself visible. The baby is going to make it harder to go out this next year but I'm not going to make any excuses. We'll find out soon enough, as the new JETs arrive next week. Bring on the newbies!
つづく...(Click here to read more)
I knew things were a bit off when I arrived and saw that all the women were wearing little press-on sparkly things on their foreheads in some kind of attempt to look Indian. No one had attempted to dress up for our previous meals (I saw no one in a hanbok when we ate yakiniku) and I was at a loss to guess why. I started to piece it together when I looked at the expression on people's faces as they gazed at the menu (often with their mouths agape) and when I kept hearing the question "Have you eaten Indian food before?*" Eventually, I figured it out: despite its proliferation, Indian food is actually exotic to the average Japanese person.
*Not to digress, but I must point out the choice of words here. Japanese people love to ask foreigners if they can eat Japanese food, a question that makes no sense when that foreigner has been living in Japan and eating school lunches for nearly two years. I fielded a variant of that question that same day in fact. Yet with other cuisines, it's always "have you eaten this" or "do you like this" which is just small talk. What's with the double standard?
This is something I find very surprising. Curry is absolutely integrated into the Japanese diet at this point. It's so common that it shows up in our school lunches at least once a month. Whether it's due to Japanese short-sightedness or simple ignorance, it would seem that few Japanese people actually consider curry's foreign origin. They just know what "curry" is and rarely consider what's in it; the way these people looked at the list of available dishes, you'd think that they were looking at an advanced chemistry textbook.
As for me, I love Indian food and I have been to many different Indian restaurants in and around Osaka in the past few years. I had not been to this particular one, of course, but the menu was pretty standard so I was not surprised by anything I saw (I was disappointed they had no vindaloo though). As a result, I found myself in a rare leadership position where people were looking to me for advice. Even though the menu and the waiter explained everything in Japanese more clearly than I ever could, it was up to me to recommend dishes and drinks for all. For example, no one applied that green spicy sauce to their food until after I did it, and then suddenly it was all over everyone's plates. I only wish they had followed my lead on the silverware, but instead every single one of them used chopsticks whenever possible. Tell me that isn't strange.
I'm sure you're thinking, "But Dan, don't you work in the sticks? Of course they were intimidated by the exoticism of Indian food!" I may work in the rural fringe of Osaka but I don't live there and neither do a majority of the teachers in Hana Town. Lots of them have traveled abroad and one teacher in particular lived in Holland for four years, so these are not hill people who are easily frightened by modern conveniences or the outside world.
I hope this doesn't come off as me making fun of anyone or expressing my disappointment with how the evening turned out. The food was quite nice, the drinks were free (few things in life are as wonderful as a Kingfisher in one hand and a mango lassi in the other) and it was kind of fun to be in a position of power for once. I'm just surprised at how intimidated they all seemed in the face of a commonplace cuisine like Indian food. I hope they came away from it as satisfied as I did, because I'd love to have more variety in our gatherings. Not just for the sake of variety but for value. Our typical Japanese dining experience runs me over 5500 Yen and I'm usually a bit hungry at the end. On Friday I only spent 4500 and I was stuffed. And at the risk of being selfish, it felt good knowing exactly what I was eating for a change.
The only downside to all this was I was too full and it was too late to go into the city afterwards to try and attend a sayonara party for the departing JETs. I will try to make it to this Friday's pub quiz for one last chance to bid some folks farewell. I can't say I was completely satisfied with my social life this past year but I'm glad I made a greater effort to make myself visible. The baby is going to make it harder to go out this next year but I'm not going to make any excuses. We'll find out soon enough, as the new JETs arrive next week. Bring on the newbies!
Labels: but I love gatherings, food, Indian food, Japan, JET
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Too Rich for my Blood?
Another food post? It's true. If I'm not eating, I'm thinking about it.
This glorious meal/hideous monstrosity (depending on your world view) was our lunch today. Mako and I are at her parents' house again, partly because it's a long weekend but mostly because they want to see the baby and we want to have people watch the baby. Especially when they watch the baby while we take a walk, go shopping, or do anything that's just the two of us for a change. Go is adorable but we still like doing stuff as a couple, after all.
But this is not about Go, it's about the pizza, which in today's case was Domino's Pizza. Mako's mom had a coupon that was burning a hole in her purse and we used it. Mako's dad wanted seafood, Mako wanted the special "Mille-feuille" cheese-filled crust and Mako's mom had no opinion whatsoever so the rest was up to me. Domino's Japan does offer traditional fare like pepperoni (they even call the pie "American Special") but since Japanese pizza is going to be weird no matter what, I try to embrace the oddities and order different stuff for the sake of being different, which is how we arrived at the disparate pie seen above.
On the left is the "Prime Seafood" package with the usual suspects: shrimp, squid, scallops, and some broccoli. No straight-up fish, no mayo and no corn. On the right is the special limited-time "Sirloin Steak" arrangement. That's grilled zucchini under the steak, and they claim to have topped the whole thing with "truffle cheese." Instead of tomato sauce, they used some kind of "steak sauce" although I barely noticed it with all the cheese I had to contend with.
Now this pizza tasted good and I was happy to eat it, but two things about this meal bothered me. First, Mako's dad started eating his own lunch after we phoned in our order. He subsequently only ate one piece of the pie and I'm not even sure if he ate the half that he insisted upon. While this did mean more for me, that struck me as kind of a dick move even without considering that the steak half was way tastier than the seafood half. Why did he take such an interest in our lunch if he already had designs on his own separate food?
The other thing that bugged me about this pie was the cost: 4700 Yen ($50 give or take). Pizza in Japan is always pricey but this was ridiculous. It was a decent sized pie that satisfied four people, but that's totally out of line. Even factoring in the 1000 Yen coupon and the free delivery it cost more than any pizza pie ever should.
And yet...I would totally order it again, because I love pizza. But you knew that.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
This glorious meal/hideous monstrosity (depending on your world view) was our lunch today. Mako and I are at her parents' house again, partly because it's a long weekend but mostly because they want to see the baby and we want to have people watch the baby. Especially when they watch the baby while we take a walk, go shopping, or do anything that's just the two of us for a change. Go is adorable but we still like doing stuff as a couple, after all.
But this is not about Go, it's about the pizza, which in today's case was Domino's Pizza. Mako's mom had a coupon that was burning a hole in her purse and we used it. Mako's dad wanted seafood, Mako wanted the special "Mille-feuille" cheese-filled crust and Mako's mom had no opinion whatsoever so the rest was up to me. Domino's Japan does offer traditional fare like pepperoni (they even call the pie "American Special") but since Japanese pizza is going to be weird no matter what, I try to embrace the oddities and order different stuff for the sake of being different, which is how we arrived at the disparate pie seen above.
On the left is the "Prime Seafood" package with the usual suspects: shrimp, squid, scallops, and some broccoli. No straight-up fish, no mayo and no corn. On the right is the special limited-time "Sirloin Steak" arrangement. That's grilled zucchini under the steak, and they claim to have topped the whole thing with "truffle cheese." Instead of tomato sauce, they used some kind of "steak sauce" although I barely noticed it with all the cheese I had to contend with.
Now this pizza tasted good and I was happy to eat it, but two things about this meal bothered me. First, Mako's dad started eating his own lunch after we phoned in our order. He subsequently only ate one piece of the pie and I'm not even sure if he ate the half that he insisted upon. While this did mean more for me, that struck me as kind of a dick move even without considering that the steak half was way tastier than the seafood half. Why did he take such an interest in our lunch if he already had designs on his own separate food?
The other thing that bugged me about this pie was the cost: 4700 Yen ($50 give or take). Pizza in Japan is always pricey but this was ridiculous. It was a decent sized pie that satisfied four people, but that's totally out of line. Even factoring in the 1000 Yen coupon and the free delivery it cost more than any pizza pie ever should.
And yet...I would totally order it again, because I love pizza. But you knew that.
Labels: family, food, Japan, pizza
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Sunday, June 14, 2009
And Baby Makes...me wait
So yeah, what was that news everyone wanted to know about? Oh right, the baby...
Well, the bad news is there is no baby news, really. Mako visited the doctor on Friday and they said "wow, this baby will be here any day now." I spent the whole weekend with her at her parents' in the hopes of being there for the big moment, but the big moment never came. Now it's Sunday night and I'm back home, alone again, with no real understanding of when the baby is due. I'm just going to go to work each day and hope that "the call" doesn't come at an inopportune moment.
The good news is that Mako is in really good spirits about the whole thing. She had her ups and downs during this pregnancy, and I saw sides of her I never, ever want to see again. But right now she's dealing with the physical and emotional sides of this as best she can. We were able to kid around and laugh about the mystery of the birth all weekend.
Something else we did all weekend was eat. It's ironic that my mother warned me not to eat too much junk food while I'm living on my own, because I eat twice as much food when I'm with my in-laws. Not only are there three solid meals a day, but there's an array of cakes, sweets, donuts, and the like. When I'm at home, I may play a lot of games and stay up late watching TV, but I don't stuff my face because the fridge is almost empty. Meanwhile, Mako's mom bought some roll cake this afternoon and while we were eating it, Mako's sister showed up with her family and even more cake. What choice did I have but to keep eating?
So to my mom and dad and everyone else who's waiting to hear about the baby, I must ask you to keep waiting. Trust me, I will shout any developments from the top of my cyber-mountain. In the meantime, you may prepare my Father's Day presents now because my son should be here by Sunday and he's totally not going to give me anything, the little ingrate!
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Well, the bad news is there is no baby news, really. Mako visited the doctor on Friday and they said "wow, this baby will be here any day now." I spent the whole weekend with her at her parents' in the hopes of being there for the big moment, but the big moment never came. Now it's Sunday night and I'm back home, alone again, with no real understanding of when the baby is due. I'm just going to go to work each day and hope that "the call" doesn't come at an inopportune moment.
The good news is that Mako is in really good spirits about the whole thing. She had her ups and downs during this pregnancy, and I saw sides of her I never, ever want to see again. But right now she's dealing with the physical and emotional sides of this as best she can. We were able to kid around and laugh about the mystery of the birth all weekend.
Something else we did all weekend was eat. It's ironic that my mother warned me not to eat too much junk food while I'm living on my own, because I eat twice as much food when I'm with my in-laws. Not only are there three solid meals a day, but there's an array of cakes, sweets, donuts, and the like. When I'm at home, I may play a lot of games and stay up late watching TV, but I don't stuff my face because the fridge is almost empty. Meanwhile, Mako's mom bought some roll cake this afternoon and while we were eating it, Mako's sister showed up with her family and even more cake. What choice did I have but to keep eating?
So to my mom and dad and everyone else who's waiting to hear about the baby, I must ask you to keep waiting. Trust me, I will shout any developments from the top of my cyber-mountain. In the meantime, you may prepare my Father's Day presents now because my son should be here by Sunday and he's totally not going to give me anything, the little ingrate!
Labels: family, food, pregnancy
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Monday, May 11, 2009
The Golden Week That Was
And just like that, another Golden Week has come and gone. I never thought it would end, honestly. We all say "time flies when you're having fun" but somehow last week was a roller-coaster of laughs and chills that seemed to take forever. I'm sitting in school right now for what feels like the first time in years.
Unfortunately, I'm at work while my close friend The Trout is still in Japan. He timed his vacation to overlap the string of holidays last week which I then extended by taking Thursday and Friday off, but that was the last of my annual leave so I had no choice but to report for work this morning. Thankfully, I went to the tiny mountain school today so it was a very low-impact day of teaching. No shouting, no frantic gestures, just me and a couple of kids in a classroom. Good news for me, because I am experiencing what can only be described as a Golden Week Hangover.
No, I'm not tipsy nor do I have a headache, but I spend the better part of last week (and the last three nights in a row) out with my buddy on the town and I imbibed a fair amount of alcohol, so I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in a while now. Earlier in the week I had nothing but free time but when we started going out every night, I just couldn't cut it. I started going home earlier and earlier each night in an attempt to get some sleep and keep myself for overindulging. But by the end of the week, we reached a balance of quiet time and drinking time which worked out quite well.
Life has a funny way of making things turn out completely different than you expect. I thought this week would be one of constant exploration and introducing my friend to Japan through a mix of sightseeing, a wild variety of cuisine and the occasional all-nighter. What happened was more of a week-long hangout session that just happened to be in Japan. No, we didn't spend all our time in bars or playing video games in my apartment, but we never really went out and saw the country like I thought we would.
This is not to say the vacation was a disappointment; far from it! While I cannot speak for my friend I can say that once we overcame the initial awkwardness where my imagined vacation failed to take shape, we ended up having a terrific time as we always have in the past. While we didn't necessarily see that many new places (we only spent one afternoon in Kyoto and Kobe respectively, and never made it to Nara or Himeji) I was able to show him around and let him explore Osaka in his own way. Likewise, we never managed to eat all of the food I thought we could/should, but I'm happy to say that everything I recommended, cuisine-wise, was warmly received. We even managed to make a few new discoveries along the way, as we sat down in a few restaurants I never tried myself. Alex recommended an all-you-can-eat & drink Brazilian barbecue spot which offered great food as well as a magnificent view of Kobe.
So what did I learn from this experience? I think first and foremost is that I need to remind myself that when I play host to visitors from home, I am not really "on vacation." This is where I live now. The guests must ultimately take the lead on choosing what to see or eat or do while they are here, because this is THEIR TRIP. However, this does not mean that I am a tour guide or a hanger-on. I thought I had to keep pace with the Trout earlier in the week and drink when he drank, eat when he ate, et cetera. My role is more that of a facilitator. I can recommend stuff that I know is cool and I can do my best to keep my guests from getting lost or into trouble, but I don't have to sit next to them and hold their hand 24 hours a day. When I figured that out, that's when the fun really began for me last week. Once that happened, the last three days flew by in an instant for I truly was having fun...incredibly so, if I may be honest about it.
What does this mean for the future? On the immediate horizon, I hope it makes me a better "facilitator" for the guests I am expecting later this month and perhaps later this summer. In the long term, I'd like to think that I was able to show my friend how fun Japan can be and possibly plant a seed that convinces him to come back again for another try.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Unfortunately, I'm at work while my close friend The Trout is still in Japan. He timed his vacation to overlap the string of holidays last week which I then extended by taking Thursday and Friday off, but that was the last of my annual leave so I had no choice but to report for work this morning. Thankfully, I went to the tiny mountain school today so it was a very low-impact day of teaching. No shouting, no frantic gestures, just me and a couple of kids in a classroom. Good news for me, because I am experiencing what can only be described as a Golden Week Hangover.
No, I'm not tipsy nor do I have a headache, but I spend the better part of last week (and the last three nights in a row) out with my buddy on the town and I imbibed a fair amount of alcohol, so I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in a while now. Earlier in the week I had nothing but free time but when we started going out every night, I just couldn't cut it. I started going home earlier and earlier each night in an attempt to get some sleep and keep myself for overindulging. But by the end of the week, we reached a balance of quiet time and drinking time which worked out quite well.
Life has a funny way of making things turn out completely different than you expect. I thought this week would be one of constant exploration and introducing my friend to Japan through a mix of sightseeing, a wild variety of cuisine and the occasional all-nighter. What happened was more of a week-long hangout session that just happened to be in Japan. No, we didn't spend all our time in bars or playing video games in my apartment, but we never really went out and saw the country like I thought we would.
This is not to say the vacation was a disappointment; far from it! While I cannot speak for my friend I can say that once we overcame the initial awkwardness where my imagined vacation failed to take shape, we ended up having a terrific time as we always have in the past. While we didn't necessarily see that many new places (we only spent one afternoon in Kyoto and Kobe respectively, and never made it to Nara or Himeji) I was able to show him around and let him explore Osaka in his own way. Likewise, we never managed to eat all of the food I thought we could/should, but I'm happy to say that everything I recommended, cuisine-wise, was warmly received. We even managed to make a few new discoveries along the way, as we sat down in a few restaurants I never tried myself. Alex recommended an all-you-can-eat & drink Brazilian barbecue spot which offered great food as well as a magnificent view of Kobe.
So what did I learn from this experience? I think first and foremost is that I need to remind myself that when I play host to visitors from home, I am not really "on vacation." This is where I live now. The guests must ultimately take the lead on choosing what to see or eat or do while they are here, because this is THEIR TRIP. However, this does not mean that I am a tour guide or a hanger-on. I thought I had to keep pace with the Trout earlier in the week and drink when he drank, eat when he ate, et cetera. My role is more that of a facilitator. I can recommend stuff that I know is cool and I can do my best to keep my guests from getting lost or into trouble, but I don't have to sit next to them and hold their hand 24 hours a day. When I figured that out, that's when the fun really began for me last week. Once that happened, the last three days flew by in an instant for I truly was having fun...incredibly so, if I may be honest about it.
What does this mean for the future? On the immediate horizon, I hope it makes me a better "facilitator" for the guests I am expecting later this month and perhaps later this summer. In the long term, I'd like to think that I was able to show my friend how fun Japan can be and possibly plant a seed that convinces him to come back again for another try.
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Labels: Alex, food, friends, Japan, tourism, Trout, Write or Die
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Challenge! - A story in three pictures
As recorded earlier this evening and posted to my Twitter, here is a look at one man trying to earn a free meal simply by eating way more food than any one man should in a half-hour sitting.
Wow, I am certainly excited at the prospect of eating all this food!
(Fifteen minutes to go) Hmm, I need a moment to reflect on what I have achieved and what tasks still lay ahead.
(Four minutes to go) WHAT HAVE I DONE?
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Wow, I am certainly excited at the prospect of eating all this food!
(Fifteen minutes to go) Hmm, I need a moment to reflect on what I have achieved and what tasks still lay ahead.
(Four minutes to go) WHAT HAVE I DONE?
Labels: food, friends, Japan, Trout
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Monday, April 13, 2009
So Long, Sakura
I've got bad news everybody: hanami season is over. Even here in Hana Town where the high elevation postpones all the major seasonal changes by a week or two, the pink cherry blossoms are falling from the trees like snow in the wind. In a matter of days, all the trees will look green again.
I took advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend to fit in a bit more sakura time with a long walk on Saturday to a nearby park. Mako and I are very fortunate that we live less than a mile from a major hanami destination in Osaka. Since she wasn't up to joining me last weekend, I felt pretty strongly about trying to spend some time as a couple in the presence of all this pink and white wonderfulness. Unfortunately, she's still super pregnant and cannot lounge on the ground for a picnic, but we settled for walking through the park and just looking around for about forty minutes.
For lunch, we had very un-Japanese pizza at an Italian-style pizzeria in Ikeda. We hadn't been there as a couple since summer (at least) and I last went there in November with Chad. It's a great little place and I hope someday to break my habit of always ordering the quattro fromage pizza that includes just enough gorgonzola to blow my mind without overpowering the other cheeses. Yet every time I go I see it on the menu and remember how awesome it is, so I fold and settle for an extraordinary pizza experience. I mean, I love variety but how I can refuse culinary greatness that I already know exists?
We hit the video store on the way home and then checked out the brand-new supermarket that opened on Friday in our (figurative) backyard. Our neighborhood is pretty small and relatively quiet despite the proximity of a train line, but we have been seeing a lot of growth in the past year. New houses are springing up all around us, usually three or four in every lot big enough to fit one normal American house. We already had a local supermarket but it's closed every Monday and the prices aren't so hot, so we usually do our shopping at the next-nearest market a mile away. It was convenient for Mako to stop there on her way home from the station, but since she doesn't commute anymore it's become considerably less so.
With a new supermarket and lots of new houses, I can't deny that this neighborhood is looking better and better the longer I live here. I'm still not convinced this is the right spot for me - it's nice to be near a train station but I want to be closer to Osaka - but I wonder if I'll ever become convinced that my placement was perfect. I can get to work in about an hour and the heart of Osaka in only thirty minutes. Supermarkets, restaurants, city hall, a 100 Yen shop and two video stores are within walking distance of our apartment. The only issue left is the apartment will soon become too small as our baby grows up and needs more space to himself, but why do I still feel like something's missing? If we moved into a house a few stops closer to the city, would things really be better than they are here?
After all that walking Mako needed to crash and take a nap, so I took the opportunity to finally sit down and watch Tropic Thunder. The movie was every bit as funny as my friends had told me it was. Indeed, I was laughing out loud before the studio logos even popped up because the movie was preceded by hilarious mock advertisements that both introduced the main players in the film and set the tone of the story. Making fun of Hollywood actors and politics is hardly a challenge but this movie still nails every target it sets its eyes on. The fake trailers for movies that do not exist are simultaneously absurd and completely plausible. I fully expect to see "The Fatties" turn into a real property by 2010.
I was also impressed at how un-controversially the allegedly controversial comedic material was handled. I remember being weirded out when I saw pre-release photos of Robert Downey Jr. in "blackface" and when I heard the film made liberal use of the word "retard." Yet when watching the actual movie and seeing/hearing this stuff in the context of the satirical story, it all made perfect sense. It was also hysterical. Tropic Thunder is one of the few movies I've rented that I immediately wanted to watch again. Sadly, being a new release I only paid for the one night rental, so I had to bring it back on Sunday...which is basically the only thing I did all day.
I did manage to connect, however briefly, with a few friends online this weekend though. The Trout's visit to Japan is less than three weeks away at this point and we had been meaning to have a conversation about potential activities and sights during his stay. However, when we actually got to talking things became preoccupied with the Xbox. As I feared, it was impossible to discuss his visit while navigating a zombie-filled hospital in Left4Dead. On the bright side, I got to play an Xbox game with my friends 7000 miles away. The experience was pretty seamless too; there was a hint of lag between when I pulled the trigger and when zombies fell over dead (um, again), but all this meant was I had to adjust my aim and fire a bit sooner. They seemed to run past my shots but then they would suddenly rupture and collapse. It was like I was killing them en passant.
I also got Mike on the horn via Skype yesterday morning. He is in Kuala Lumpur and doing fine, although he has yet to move into an apartment. It was great to check in with him, even if it was briefly and over a pretty poor connection. I hope we can see each other in real life before the end of the year, in any country.
In the meantime, I'm back at work and I'm now expected to teach again. Of course, they haven't finished created the lessons plans for this semester yet, but that's another story. An old and repetitive story which I am sick of dealing with every semester, but another story all the same. Good night.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
I took advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend to fit in a bit more sakura time with a long walk on Saturday to a nearby park. Mako and I are very fortunate that we live less than a mile from a major hanami destination in Osaka. Since she wasn't up to joining me last weekend, I felt pretty strongly about trying to spend some time as a couple in the presence of all this pink and white wonderfulness. Unfortunately, she's still super pregnant and cannot lounge on the ground for a picnic, but we settled for walking through the park and just looking around for about forty minutes.
For lunch, we had very un-Japanese pizza at an Italian-style pizzeria in Ikeda. We hadn't been there as a couple since summer (at least) and I last went there in November with Chad. It's a great little place and I hope someday to break my habit of always ordering the quattro fromage pizza that includes just enough gorgonzola to blow my mind without overpowering the other cheeses. Yet every time I go I see it on the menu and remember how awesome it is, so I fold and settle for an extraordinary pizza experience. I mean, I love variety but how I can refuse culinary greatness that I already know exists?
We hit the video store on the way home and then checked out the brand-new supermarket that opened on Friday in our (figurative) backyard. Our neighborhood is pretty small and relatively quiet despite the proximity of a train line, but we have been seeing a lot of growth in the past year. New houses are springing up all around us, usually three or four in every lot big enough to fit one normal American house. We already had a local supermarket but it's closed every Monday and the prices aren't so hot, so we usually do our shopping at the next-nearest market a mile away. It was convenient for Mako to stop there on her way home from the station, but since she doesn't commute anymore it's become considerably less so.
With a new supermarket and lots of new houses, I can't deny that this neighborhood is looking better and better the longer I live here. I'm still not convinced this is the right spot for me - it's nice to be near a train station but I want to be closer to Osaka - but I wonder if I'll ever become convinced that my placement was perfect. I can get to work in about an hour and the heart of Osaka in only thirty minutes. Supermarkets, restaurants, city hall, a 100 Yen shop and two video stores are within walking distance of our apartment. The only issue left is the apartment will soon become too small as our baby grows up and needs more space to himself, but why do I still feel like something's missing? If we moved into a house a few stops closer to the city, would things really be better than they are here?
After all that walking Mako needed to crash and take a nap, so I took the opportunity to finally sit down and watch Tropic Thunder. The movie was every bit as funny as my friends had told me it was. Indeed, I was laughing out loud before the studio logos even popped up because the movie was preceded by hilarious mock advertisements that both introduced the main players in the film and set the tone of the story. Making fun of Hollywood actors and politics is hardly a challenge but this movie still nails every target it sets its eyes on. The fake trailers for movies that do not exist are simultaneously absurd and completely plausible. I fully expect to see "The Fatties" turn into a real property by 2010.
I was also impressed at how un-controversially the allegedly controversial comedic material was handled. I remember being weirded out when I saw pre-release photos of Robert Downey Jr. in "blackface" and when I heard the film made liberal use of the word "retard." Yet when watching the actual movie and seeing/hearing this stuff in the context of the satirical story, it all made perfect sense. It was also hysterical. Tropic Thunder is one of the few movies I've rented that I immediately wanted to watch again. Sadly, being a new release I only paid for the one night rental, so I had to bring it back on Sunday...which is basically the only thing I did all day.
I did manage to connect, however briefly, with a few friends online this weekend though. The Trout's visit to Japan is less than three weeks away at this point and we had been meaning to have a conversation about potential activities and sights during his stay. However, when we actually got to talking things became preoccupied with the Xbox. As I feared, it was impossible to discuss his visit while navigating a zombie-filled hospital in Left4Dead. On the bright side, I got to play an Xbox game with my friends 7000 miles away. The experience was pretty seamless too; there was a hint of lag between when I pulled the trigger and when zombies fell over dead (um, again), but all this meant was I had to adjust my aim and fire a bit sooner. They seemed to run past my shots but then they would suddenly rupture and collapse. It was like I was killing them en passant.
I also got Mike on the horn via Skype yesterday morning. He is in Kuala Lumpur and doing fine, although he has yet to move into an apartment. It was great to check in with him, even if it was briefly and over a pretty poor connection. I hope we can see each other in real life before the end of the year, in any country.
In the meantime, I'm back at work and I'm now expected to teach again. Of course, they haven't finished created the lessons plans for this semester yet, but that's another story. An old and repetitive story which I am sick of dealing with every semester, but another story all the same. Good night.
Labels: food, friends, Japan, Left4Dead, movies, predicting the future, Xbox, zombies
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Monday, April 06, 2009
Re-Pinkening
Yes sir, I am feeling good. Saturday may have been a rainy, crappy day (save for an Xbox purchase) but Sunday was a reasonably sunny and warm one. Perfect timing to head out for some cherry blossom scenery and a bit of picnicking!
I'll be straight with you: If you've never met me, you should know that I'm really an indoors kind of guy. I participated in organized sports when I was a kid, but whenever possible I spent most of my free time inside with toys, comic books, and electronic entertainment. Even though I lived in the suburbs and I could have been one of those "explore the woods" or "swim in the river" kids, I was absolutely not interested. I dislike being wet or dirty (or both) and I always have. My father loved to sail and I did not; in fact, I do not even know how to swim. We went camping a few times but I was not a fan. Even now, I routinely turn down my friends who invite me on their annual camping excursions simply because I hate camping. It's strange to me that my love of my friends and the hilarious stories they share of being out there cannot convince me to get past the simple matter of spending a few days and nights outdoors. Maybe this is me being stubborn or maybe this is just me recognizing my limits. I need a bed. I need a toilet. I need four walls and a roof.
Having said all that, I am not a troll who prefers darkness to sunlight. I am a fan of going outside for excursions or special occasions. I am definitely more of a walker than a driver (when realistic) and while I still struggle with certain natural "hazards" like insects, I do appreciate getting out of the apartment when the weather permits. After weeks of bundling up (even indoors - Japan is annoying like that) Sunday was the first chance in a long while to leave my coat on the hangar and spend the day eating and drinking outside with people. Sadly, Mako was not one of those people because she wasn't up for it, but she spent the day with her parents (and their automobile) instead. Don't worry about her, she's fine. Just very, very pregnant.
Yesterday wasn't just the first nice day we've had in months, it was also the first nice day we've had this year with the cherry blossoms in (nearly) full bloom. One of the nicer traditions in Japan is something they call hanami (literally "flower viewing"). Families and friends gather together and have a picnic in parks, on riverbanks, near gardens, basically anywhere where they can enjoy the wonderful yet short-lived pink and white cherry blossoms. Of course, it's not really about the flowers, it's more about the food and the drink and the spending time with people, but the trees offer some really beautiful scenery for all the fun.
Having been here for a couple Springs now, I've enjoyed both the flowers and the food before but that was three years ago. In 2007 I went to Brooklyn with Ben for a glimpse of the flowers but the environment wasn't quite right. Some people were sitting down but mostly people just seemed to be in a rush. It didn't help that the garden felt crowded and cramped. As for last year, it was a very quiet affair where Mako and I just took a walk around our (still somewhat) new surroundings. We snapped a few pictures and stopped for a snack, but there was no picnic, no drinking, and no other relatives or friends involved at all.
I wanted yesterday to be more like the hanami I remember from 2006, so I figured the best strategy was to return to Osaka Castle Park. Greg and Robin were still in town and they agreed to meet me in the city, each of us carrying a bag of store-bought food and drink. Without a tarp to sit on or a particular location scoped out, the three of us just walked into the park and sat down on the side of a bridge. After a short stay, we got up and walked around some more, entering the castle grounds and taking a few pictures before stopping again. We made our way around the entire park this way, walking and taking in the sights (and sounds and smells!) with occasional stops to rest and have more snacks. For me it was a chance to remind myself how much fun Japan can be when enjoyed with friends, since I've been feeling a bit fed up with work lately. For Greg and Robin I think it was more bittersweet because this is their farewell trip. They may very well come back to Japan someday but after several years of enjoying this annual tradition, this was their last ride on the hanami merry-go-round. But that's just a guess - it's not like we were crying and saying goodbye for four hours.
No, hanami is all about fun. The park was crowded, of course, but it never felt suffocating like a busy train station or city street can feel. The mood was so festive that I found myself enjoying the crowds as a sight unto itself. There were certainly lots of people doing amusing things. There were clowns, a woman with a trained monkey, scores of adorable dogs (some with dyed fur!) and lots of music which meant a fair amount of singing and dancing. The most entertaining moment of the day had to be discovering a group of at least fifteen otaku who were putting all their energy into a group performance of...stuff. I didn't know most of the songs they were dancing to, save for an inspired performance of the Haruhi routine that I've seen on the web before but never in person. They were so energetic that they drew a large crowd of spectators which made the whole thing feel more exciting. I bet they weren't even drinking - they probably take their fun too seriously to risk any lapse of concentration!
Our walk led us to exit the park on the opposite side of where we had entered hours earlier. It was still too early to think about dinner, so we started walking south towards Tsuruhashi and Korea Town. I don't know why we picked it, it was just someplace I knew was within walking distance even though I had never actually been there. Along the way we passed through a long and rather depressing shopping arcade that was mostly shuttered. It may be more lively on weekdays but yesterday it felt awful. I remember seeing a 50 Yen video game arcade in there with only one customer. His cigarette smoke seemed to fill the entire room. There was also a storefront with an aquarium with two medium-sized turtles swimming inside. Robin looked heartbroken when I told her it was a restaurant specializing in turtle soup.
Speaking of food, we stumbled across a great find a few blocks north of Tsuruhashi Station called Tsuruhashi Burger. While Korea Town was nowhere in sight, this seatless eatery offered Korean-style burgers from its open grill underneath the Osaka Loop Line tracks. Greg and Robin tried the Bulkogi Burger while I chose the Karubi Burger. All of them included lots of sauce and some kimchi tucked under the meat. It could have been spicier but it was really, really tasty.
At that point, we said our goodbyes. Greg and Robin are going back to America on Wednesday morning and since I'm still expected to show up at work, I don't think we'll have another chance to meet before then. They thanked me for showing them around but I felt like I owed them more thanks for spending some of their last remaining time in Japan with me. Days like yesterday mean a lot to me because they give me an chance to have fun and not have to worry about the language/cultural barriers I keep running into around here. I wish them the best of luck in the States and I hope they find what they're looking for.
As for me, I went home last night and watched Japanese television personalities endure various physical challenges for almost four hours. I can't figure out if that's something to be proud of or not.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
I'll be straight with you: If you've never met me, you should know that I'm really an indoors kind of guy. I participated in organized sports when I was a kid, but whenever possible I spent most of my free time inside with toys, comic books, and electronic entertainment. Even though I lived in the suburbs and I could have been one of those "explore the woods" or "swim in the river" kids, I was absolutely not interested. I dislike being wet or dirty (or both) and I always have. My father loved to sail and I did not; in fact, I do not even know how to swim. We went camping a few times but I was not a fan. Even now, I routinely turn down my friends who invite me on their annual camping excursions simply because I hate camping. It's strange to me that my love of my friends and the hilarious stories they share of being out there cannot convince me to get past the simple matter of spending a few days and nights outdoors. Maybe this is me being stubborn or maybe this is just me recognizing my limits. I need a bed. I need a toilet. I need four walls and a roof.
Having said all that, I am not a troll who prefers darkness to sunlight. I am a fan of going outside for excursions or special occasions. I am definitely more of a walker than a driver (when realistic) and while I still struggle with certain natural "hazards" like insects, I do appreciate getting out of the apartment when the weather permits. After weeks of bundling up (even indoors - Japan is annoying like that) Sunday was the first chance in a long while to leave my coat on the hangar and spend the day eating and drinking outside with people. Sadly, Mako was not one of those people because she wasn't up for it, but she spent the day with her parents (and their automobile) instead. Don't worry about her, she's fine. Just very, very pregnant.
Yesterday wasn't just the first nice day we've had in months, it was also the first nice day we've had this year with the cherry blossoms in (nearly) full bloom. One of the nicer traditions in Japan is something they call hanami (literally "flower viewing"). Families and friends gather together and have a picnic in parks, on riverbanks, near gardens, basically anywhere where they can enjoy the wonderful yet short-lived pink and white cherry blossoms. Of course, it's not really about the flowers, it's more about the food and the drink and the spending time with people, but the trees offer some really beautiful scenery for all the fun.
Having been here for a couple Springs now, I've enjoyed both the flowers and the food before but that was three years ago. In 2007 I went to Brooklyn with Ben for a glimpse of the flowers but the environment wasn't quite right. Some people were sitting down but mostly people just seemed to be in a rush. It didn't help that the garden felt crowded and cramped. As for last year, it was a very quiet affair where Mako and I just took a walk around our (still somewhat) new surroundings. We snapped a few pictures and stopped for a snack, but there was no picnic, no drinking, and no other relatives or friends involved at all.
I wanted yesterday to be more like the hanami I remember from 2006, so I figured the best strategy was to return to Osaka Castle Park. Greg and Robin were still in town and they agreed to meet me in the city, each of us carrying a bag of store-bought food and drink. Without a tarp to sit on or a particular location scoped out, the three of us just walked into the park and sat down on the side of a bridge. After a short stay, we got up and walked around some more, entering the castle grounds and taking a few pictures before stopping again. We made our way around the entire park this way, walking and taking in the sights (and sounds and smells!) with occasional stops to rest and have more snacks. For me it was a chance to remind myself how much fun Japan can be when enjoyed with friends, since I've been feeling a bit fed up with work lately. For Greg and Robin I think it was more bittersweet because this is their farewell trip. They may very well come back to Japan someday but after several years of enjoying this annual tradition, this was their last ride on the hanami merry-go-round. But that's just a guess - it's not like we were crying and saying goodbye for four hours.
No, hanami is all about fun. The park was crowded, of course, but it never felt suffocating like a busy train station or city street can feel. The mood was so festive that I found myself enjoying the crowds as a sight unto itself. There were certainly lots of people doing amusing things. There were clowns, a woman with a trained monkey, scores of adorable dogs (some with dyed fur!) and lots of music which meant a fair amount of singing and dancing. The most entertaining moment of the day had to be discovering a group of at least fifteen otaku who were putting all their energy into a group performance of...stuff. I didn't know most of the songs they were dancing to, save for an inspired performance of the Haruhi routine that I've seen on the web before but never in person. They were so energetic that they drew a large crowd of spectators which made the whole thing feel more exciting. I bet they weren't even drinking - they probably take their fun too seriously to risk any lapse of concentration!
Our walk led us to exit the park on the opposite side of where we had entered hours earlier. It was still too early to think about dinner, so we started walking south towards Tsuruhashi and Korea Town. I don't know why we picked it, it was just someplace I knew was within walking distance even though I had never actually been there. Along the way we passed through a long and rather depressing shopping arcade that was mostly shuttered. It may be more lively on weekdays but yesterday it felt awful. I remember seeing a 50 Yen video game arcade in there with only one customer. His cigarette smoke seemed to fill the entire room. There was also a storefront with an aquarium with two medium-sized turtles swimming inside. Robin looked heartbroken when I told her it was a restaurant specializing in turtle soup.
Speaking of food, we stumbled across a great find a few blocks north of Tsuruhashi Station called Tsuruhashi Burger. While Korea Town was nowhere in sight, this seatless eatery offered Korean-style burgers from its open grill underneath the Osaka Loop Line tracks. Greg and Robin tried the Bulkogi Burger while I chose the Karubi Burger. All of them included lots of sauce and some kimchi tucked under the meat. It could have been spicier but it was really, really tasty.
At that point, we said our goodbyes. Greg and Robin are going back to America on Wednesday morning and since I'm still expected to show up at work, I don't think we'll have another chance to meet before then. They thanked me for showing them around but I felt like I owed them more thanks for spending some of their last remaining time in Japan with me. Days like yesterday mean a lot to me because they give me an chance to have fun and not have to worry about the language/cultural barriers I keep running into around here. I wish them the best of luck in the States and I hope they find what they're looking for.
As for me, I went home last night and watched Japanese television personalities endure various physical challenges for almost four hours. I can't figure out if that's something to be proud of or not.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Monday, March 30, 2009
More Entertainment Than I Require
I'm sitting at work right now in a nearly empty staff room, wearing my coat and waiting for Spring. Looking out the window, I can see the pink and white flowers just beginning to poke their way into the world. I welcome their arrival.
I had a very pleasant weekend and I feel good about nearly everything that happened. If anything, there were times where I could have had less fun and I would have had just as good a time in hindsight. So you could say that my only regrets are enjoying myself too much, as if there is some finite supply of happiness in my life and I squandered it.
Saturday was my day to go out and spend time with friends while Mako relaxed at home. It was also, not coincidentally, the opening day of Watchmen here in Japan. I mentioned just last week my enthusiasm for this film and of Mako's evident indifference to it. Picking up on her coolness and anticipating another drawn out experience where she doesn't just tell me she's uninterested in seeing it in theaters, I made it simple for her. I told her I wanted to see the movie on opening day and asked if she wanted to go. She didn't, and I did.
But not alone! I met up with Alex to eat lunch and then watch the film. Over some spicy Thai-style pizza in Namba, we talked about games, his upcoming podcast, and the new T-shirt line at Uniqlo. He also revealed that he has not yet read the original Watchmen story but is, in fact, in the midst of reading it now. I don't think I've ever seen a movie based on a book I was actively reading at the time, but I suppose it can't be much different than going into the movie blind.
The movie was preceded by two trailers for American films which I am still thinking about two days later. The first was the new Terminator movie which I cannot begin to understand. The original film and its stunning sequel were fantastic and continue to linger in my mind as two of my favorite science-fiction stories. The third, for all its flaws, was an enjoyable romp that ended very well. Considering its very existence nullified the solid ending of T2, T3 spun a remarkably appropriate conclusion for itself that improved my view of the entire film.
While I am a sucker for good time travel stories, the real appeal of the first three Terminator films was rooted in a gritty contemporary setting. All three showed visions of humanity's nightmarish future and the war with the machines, but the story was firmly modern-day and a good deal of the tension revolved around that restriction. The heroes often lament that the technology available to them in the 80s and 90s is insufficient to take down a superior foe. Likewise, the Terminator itself experiences routine setbacks when forced to constrain itself to the society it seeks to destroy. The Terminator films have always been fish out of water stories where the two fish are trying to kill each other.
So what does the T4 trailer offer viewers? Explosions and giant robots with Christian Bale shouting at people. This is (apparently) an entire movie dedicated to those short segments in the earlier films where everyone has laser blasters and is covered in grime. Maybe someone out there saw those scenes and said "Man, when are they gonna tell me the rest of that story?" Whoever that guy might be, he's not me or any of my immediate friends. Hell, most of them thought T3 went off the rails into Silly Town. While I managed to enjoy it, I can't say the new movie appeals to me at all. I may rent it if only to bring some context to the awkward audio clip of Christian Bale chewing out a guy on the set. I just need to know what he was doing at the time.
The second trailer was also full of explosions and giant robots because it was for the new Transformers movie. This falls squarely into the category of "fool me once, shame on you/fool me twice, shame on me." I knew the first film would be awful and despite all my efforts to lower my expectations and open my mind to the possibility of it being dumb fun ("my efforts" largely consisting of drinking heavily before going to the theater that day), it was even worse than I could have imagined. The new film seems to have learned nothing from the first, as everything I saw was nigh-incomprehensible. Even by movie trailer standards the action was splintered and disjointed, which is exactly what ruined the first movie for me. Well, that and draping a dull-as-fuck high school romance over the entire story. But what do I know? The movie was a huge hit and plenty of people I know and respect managed to enjoy it. Go on without me fellas.
After all that noise and dubiousness, the movie I actually paid to see began. Watchmen surprised me right away with two curious choices. The murder of The Comedian became a spirited fight scene and there was actually an opening credits sequence (a rare sight in action movies). The fight scene represents my biggest problem with the adaptation while the credits got me excited to see the rest of the story unfold. Those initial few minutes turned out to be a microcosm of everything I liked and didn't like about the movie.
As the fight scene demonstrated, everyone's a bad-ass in the Watchmen movie. The Comedian is supposed to be a tough guy who's way past his prime, yet he's punching through walls and getting up after having his head smashed into tables. His mystery assailant is likewise incredibly strong and fast and the two of them duel with rapid-fire punches and kicks rather than brawling. Later in the film, all of the heroes demonstrate that they are incredibly gifted martial artists and gymnasts rather than just being motivated to fight crime while wearing costumes. This transformation of the "costumed vigilantes" to legitimate superheroes is Watchmen's greatest translation error. The original story was dedicated to deflating the comic book hero by showing his (and her) flaws. These characters still have their problems but completely devastating regular people isn't one of them.
On the other hand, the opening credits demonstrated a real affection for the original comic by delivering a slick, streamlined history lesson of the major events that precede the "present day," which in Watchmen is 1985. This is what the movie unquestionably gets right; it preserves the overall story of the original and presents it in a modern comic book movie aesthetic. Even if the action seems out of place from a logical perspective, I could not deny that I still got caught up in the excitement. Director Zach Snyder has given us hyper-real action setpieces before, but only in Watchmen is there a story worth telling alongside all the slow-motion combat. And while his bright ideas for "improving" 300 were laughably bad, Watchmen survives the inevitable hurdles of adaptation and actually thrives.
Rather than detail things I noticed about the movie being different than the original, I will simply point you to this article in The A.V. Club that goes through both works in their entirety. It's been a few years since I read the comic and I hadn't recalled exactly who did what to whom. Watching Watchmen has reminded me of why I was excited about the movie at all and I feel compelled to revisit the comic to make my own comparisons now. That may be the best thing anyone can say about an adaptation: it doesn't require you to know the entire backstory and watching the movie should encourage you to read the original afterward.
After the movie Alex and I swung by Uniqlo to check out some of the new video game themed T-shirts they're offering now. All of the shirts are cool but the only one I wanted (among those that are on sale now) is their Resident Evil T-shirt that is nothing but a list of enemy names. Unfortunately, they had no XL-size shirts and only one L-size which Alex claimed. I am torn between going to their website to buy one or just waiting for more shirts to come out so I can buy all of them at once, which will likely lower the per-shirt price. My only worry is that hesitation will result in the shirts disappearing, as Japan has a tendency to offer new and incredibly cool things for a limited time. I'm still waiting for the White Chocolate Maple Kit-Kats I ate in 2005 to make a return to the shelves.
With our (ok, HIS) shopping done, Alex ran off to handle his own affairs while I wondered what to do next. I sat down for some dinner and called Kazu out of the blue. I had debated for a while whether or not it would be "right" to just call him and see what he was doing. I don't know why I treated the whole situation like some kind of first date. Kazu is someone I've known for years; there's no reason to be anxious about calling him on the phone. As it turned out he was shopping in Umeda and he was eager to meet. We had a few drinks at the same bar we hit last week before parting ways around 10.
(This post has turned out longer than I expected but I'm just going to continue rather than cut the story in half)
Spending all day (and night) out on Saturday made me more eager to spend Sunday relaxing at home with Mako. We had lunch at a little place called "Kitchen Pot" that we had been meaning to try for a long time and it turned out to be really good. The portions were large and the prices were more than reasonable. There was a friendly vibe to the place that I dare say had something to do with their choice of oldies music. I got burned out on those tunes due to continuous over-exposure during my time in the post office, but something about hearing Elvis' "Return to Sender" again made me smile.
After our meal and some shopping, we settled in for the last day of the sumo tournament. It didn't end so well as many of the wrestlers I like ended up losing or just finishing with poor records. I was especially down about the final yokozuna match. Even though Hakuho had already secured the championship, I still wanted to see Asashoryu beat him to spoil his unblemished record and save some face. It didn't happen. Drat.
For dinner we tried making nachos again. We are slowly but surely getting the hang of the taste but we need to work on our form. As seen here last week, our nachos take the shape of a burial mound with the chips smothered in a heap of toppings. Last night's version turned out the same way, except we added guacamole and sour cream to the mix. The results were delicious but we still needed to dig our way through to the chips beneath. Mako said she was full halfway through and I pretended to be disappointed in her. Meanwhile, I could barely fit another bite into my mouth but I soldiered on to avoid the nasty leftovers we would end up with. I think "burial mound nachos" is a good name for our dish because if we keep eating like this we'll both be dead in six months.
With both of us beyond satiated we collapsed onto the couch with nothing to do. I received the green light to play video games and decided to finally try the last level of Resistance 2. While playing too much of the enormously entertaining co-op mode got me into trouble in January, I have been quietly making my way through the single player mode over the past few months. I can't say I was into the story or the characters, but I did find the game provided me with enough thrills and big "moments" to keep me coming back for more.
The basic premise (bald space marine fights aliens) is beyond cliche at this point, but Resistance 2 has its share of action setpieces that made the experience worth it. I remember coming out of an underground bunker and seeing San Francisco burn while a massive enemy fleet hung in the sky above. I remember going through abandoned homes and dark warehouses that were full of nasty zombie-like creatures gestating in pods. I remember fighting a skyscraper-sized foe in Chicago who found my rocket launcher more of an annoyance than anything else, but shooting him in the face with it was enough to convince him to throw me through an glass-enclosed catwalk and onto another building five blocks away.
Unfortunately, the ending of the game didn't offer much in the way of memories. In fact, my memory was a hindrance because playing the final level made me think back to earlier stages and older, better games I had once played. Sure, it was really cool to look out the window of that Louisiana estate and see what looked like a fire-breathing dinosaur stalking me. I also got a kick out of fighting my way onto a large steamboat and going cabin to cabin looking for monsters. But the entire finale of storming the mothership with a nuclear bomb in tow felt exactly the same as the mission where I flew an enemy craft into another vessel and set off charges on the bridge. Both had me explore metallic alien corridors and then make a "daring" escape while a clock ticked down in the corner of my screen before flying away with just seconds to spare.
The final showdown with a flying psychic cephalopod was uninteresting at best and lacked all the polish of previous boss fights, even the really hard ones. Fighting a giant alien swarm halfway through the game had been so frustrating I actually got angry, but at least it was something new. The last boss encounter didn't offer a challenge so much as it did closure. You see him escape capture in the first level and then you get to put him down in the last one. Justice/vengeance is served, ho-hum.
The actual ending cinema of the game was abrupt, extremely anti-climactic and could have been handled much better. I thought I had reached the "bad ending" because I played the game too slowly. The main character is trying to finish his mission before the alien virus in his body destroys his humanity, so I thought I missed the deadline. According to the Internet, that's the only ending there is.
Having said all that, I will not dismiss Resistance 2 for its lackluster conclusion. The single player game was more than adequate and the co-op mode was genuinely exciting in ways I would never have expected. Hell, it still is genuinely exciting, I just don't have much time to play online anymore. I feel like taking a break from shooting aliens for a while...right after I finish Half-Life.
To get back to my point (huh? oh, right..."too much fun"), this weekend I ate more food than I needed to, stayed out drinking when I could have gone home, and kept plugging away at a video game to reach the end rather than put down the controller and finish it the next day. I say this not because I think I made the wrong choices, but rather to remind myself of how fortunate I am. There's nothing wrong with a little excess after a long week of not working.
Hey, speaking of work, it's almost time to get going. I wouldn't want to miss that one o'clock bus home.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
I had a very pleasant weekend and I feel good about nearly everything that happened. If anything, there were times where I could have had less fun and I would have had just as good a time in hindsight. So you could say that my only regrets are enjoying myself too much, as if there is some finite supply of happiness in my life and I squandered it.
Saturday was my day to go out and spend time with friends while Mako relaxed at home. It was also, not coincidentally, the opening day of Watchmen here in Japan. I mentioned just last week my enthusiasm for this film and of Mako's evident indifference to it. Picking up on her coolness and anticipating another drawn out experience where she doesn't just tell me she's uninterested in seeing it in theaters, I made it simple for her. I told her I wanted to see the movie on opening day and asked if she wanted to go. She didn't, and I did.
But not alone! I met up with Alex to eat lunch and then watch the film. Over some spicy Thai-style pizza in Namba, we talked about games, his upcoming podcast, and the new T-shirt line at Uniqlo. He also revealed that he has not yet read the original Watchmen story but is, in fact, in the midst of reading it now. I don't think I've ever seen a movie based on a book I was actively reading at the time, but I suppose it can't be much different than going into the movie blind.
The movie was preceded by two trailers for American films which I am still thinking about two days later. The first was the new Terminator movie which I cannot begin to understand. The original film and its stunning sequel were fantastic and continue to linger in my mind as two of my favorite science-fiction stories. The third, for all its flaws, was an enjoyable romp that ended very well. Considering its very existence nullified the solid ending of T2, T3 spun a remarkably appropriate conclusion for itself that improved my view of the entire film.
While I am a sucker for good time travel stories, the real appeal of the first three Terminator films was rooted in a gritty contemporary setting. All three showed visions of humanity's nightmarish future and the war with the machines, but the story was firmly modern-day and a good deal of the tension revolved around that restriction. The heroes often lament that the technology available to them in the 80s and 90s is insufficient to take down a superior foe. Likewise, the Terminator itself experiences routine setbacks when forced to constrain itself to the society it seeks to destroy. The Terminator films have always been fish out of water stories where the two fish are trying to kill each other.
So what does the T4 trailer offer viewers? Explosions and giant robots with Christian Bale shouting at people. This is (apparently) an entire movie dedicated to those short segments in the earlier films where everyone has laser blasters and is covered in grime. Maybe someone out there saw those scenes and said "Man, when are they gonna tell me the rest of that story?" Whoever that guy might be, he's not me or any of my immediate friends. Hell, most of them thought T3 went off the rails into Silly Town. While I managed to enjoy it, I can't say the new movie appeals to me at all. I may rent it if only to bring some context to the awkward audio clip of Christian Bale chewing out a guy on the set. I just need to know what he was doing at the time.
The second trailer was also full of explosions and giant robots because it was for the new Transformers movie. This falls squarely into the category of "fool me once, shame on you/fool me twice, shame on me." I knew the first film would be awful and despite all my efforts to lower my expectations and open my mind to the possibility of it being dumb fun ("my efforts" largely consisting of drinking heavily before going to the theater that day), it was even worse than I could have imagined. The new film seems to have learned nothing from the first, as everything I saw was nigh-incomprehensible. Even by movie trailer standards the action was splintered and disjointed, which is exactly what ruined the first movie for me. Well, that and draping a dull-as-fuck high school romance over the entire story. But what do I know? The movie was a huge hit and plenty of people I know and respect managed to enjoy it. Go on without me fellas.
After all that noise and dubiousness, the movie I actually paid to see began. Watchmen surprised me right away with two curious choices. The murder of The Comedian became a spirited fight scene and there was actually an opening credits sequence (a rare sight in action movies). The fight scene represents my biggest problem with the adaptation while the credits got me excited to see the rest of the story unfold. Those initial few minutes turned out to be a microcosm of everything I liked and didn't like about the movie.
As the fight scene demonstrated, everyone's a bad-ass in the Watchmen movie. The Comedian is supposed to be a tough guy who's way past his prime, yet he's punching through walls and getting up after having his head smashed into tables. His mystery assailant is likewise incredibly strong and fast and the two of them duel with rapid-fire punches and kicks rather than brawling. Later in the film, all of the heroes demonstrate that they are incredibly gifted martial artists and gymnasts rather than just being motivated to fight crime while wearing costumes. This transformation of the "costumed vigilantes" to legitimate superheroes is Watchmen's greatest translation error. The original story was dedicated to deflating the comic book hero by showing his (and her) flaws. These characters still have their problems but completely devastating regular people isn't one of them.
On the other hand, the opening credits demonstrated a real affection for the original comic by delivering a slick, streamlined history lesson of the major events that precede the "present day," which in Watchmen is 1985. This is what the movie unquestionably gets right; it preserves the overall story of the original and presents it in a modern comic book movie aesthetic. Even if the action seems out of place from a logical perspective, I could not deny that I still got caught up in the excitement. Director Zach Snyder has given us hyper-real action setpieces before, but only in Watchmen is there a story worth telling alongside all the slow-motion combat. And while his bright ideas for "improving" 300 were laughably bad, Watchmen survives the inevitable hurdles of adaptation and actually thrives.
Rather than detail things I noticed about the movie being different than the original, I will simply point you to this article in The A.V. Club that goes through both works in their entirety. It's been a few years since I read the comic and I hadn't recalled exactly who did what to whom. Watching Watchmen has reminded me of why I was excited about the movie at all and I feel compelled to revisit the comic to make my own comparisons now. That may be the best thing anyone can say about an adaptation: it doesn't require you to know the entire backstory and watching the movie should encourage you to read the original afterward.
After the movie Alex and I swung by Uniqlo to check out some of the new video game themed T-shirts they're offering now. All of the shirts are cool but the only one I wanted (among those that are on sale now) is their Resident Evil T-shirt that is nothing but a list of enemy names. Unfortunately, they had no XL-size shirts and only one L-size which Alex claimed. I am torn between going to their website to buy one or just waiting for more shirts to come out so I can buy all of them at once, which will likely lower the per-shirt price. My only worry is that hesitation will result in the shirts disappearing, as Japan has a tendency to offer new and incredibly cool things for a limited time. I'm still waiting for the White Chocolate Maple Kit-Kats I ate in 2005 to make a return to the shelves.
With our (ok, HIS) shopping done, Alex ran off to handle his own affairs while I wondered what to do next. I sat down for some dinner and called Kazu out of the blue. I had debated for a while whether or not it would be "right" to just call him and see what he was doing. I don't know why I treated the whole situation like some kind of first date. Kazu is someone I've known for years; there's no reason to be anxious about calling him on the phone. As it turned out he was shopping in Umeda and he was eager to meet. We had a few drinks at the same bar we hit last week before parting ways around 10.
(This post has turned out longer than I expected but I'm just going to continue rather than cut the story in half)
Spending all day (and night) out on Saturday made me more eager to spend Sunday relaxing at home with Mako. We had lunch at a little place called "Kitchen Pot" that we had been meaning to try for a long time and it turned out to be really good. The portions were large and the prices were more than reasonable. There was a friendly vibe to the place that I dare say had something to do with their choice of oldies music. I got burned out on those tunes due to continuous over-exposure during my time in the post office, but something about hearing Elvis' "Return to Sender" again made me smile.
After our meal and some shopping, we settled in for the last day of the sumo tournament. It didn't end so well as many of the wrestlers I like ended up losing or just finishing with poor records. I was especially down about the final yokozuna match. Even though Hakuho had already secured the championship, I still wanted to see Asashoryu beat him to spoil his unblemished record and save some face. It didn't happen. Drat.
For dinner we tried making nachos again. We are slowly but surely getting the hang of the taste but we need to work on our form. As seen here last week, our nachos take the shape of a burial mound with the chips smothered in a heap of toppings. Last night's version turned out the same way, except we added guacamole and sour cream to the mix. The results were delicious but we still needed to dig our way through to the chips beneath. Mako said she was full halfway through and I pretended to be disappointed in her. Meanwhile, I could barely fit another bite into my mouth but I soldiered on to avoid the nasty leftovers we would end up with. I think "burial mound nachos" is a good name for our dish because if we keep eating like this we'll both be dead in six months.
With both of us beyond satiated we collapsed onto the couch with nothing to do. I received the green light to play video games and decided to finally try the last level of Resistance 2. While playing too much of the enormously entertaining co-op mode got me into trouble in January, I have been quietly making my way through the single player mode over the past few months. I can't say I was into the story or the characters, but I did find the game provided me with enough thrills and big "moments" to keep me coming back for more.
The basic premise (bald space marine fights aliens) is beyond cliche at this point, but Resistance 2 has its share of action setpieces that made the experience worth it. I remember coming out of an underground bunker and seeing San Francisco burn while a massive enemy fleet hung in the sky above. I remember going through abandoned homes and dark warehouses that were full of nasty zombie-like creatures gestating in pods. I remember fighting a skyscraper-sized foe in Chicago who found my rocket launcher more of an annoyance than anything else, but shooting him in the face with it was enough to convince him to throw me through an glass-enclosed catwalk and onto another building five blocks away.
Unfortunately, the ending of the game didn't offer much in the way of memories. In fact, my memory was a hindrance because playing the final level made me think back to earlier stages and older, better games I had once played. Sure, it was really cool to look out the window of that Louisiana estate and see what looked like a fire-breathing dinosaur stalking me. I also got a kick out of fighting my way onto a large steamboat and going cabin to cabin looking for monsters. But the entire finale of storming the mothership with a nuclear bomb in tow felt exactly the same as the mission where I flew an enemy craft into another vessel and set off charges on the bridge. Both had me explore metallic alien corridors and then make a "daring" escape while a clock ticked down in the corner of my screen before flying away with just seconds to spare.
The final showdown with a flying psychic cephalopod was uninteresting at best and lacked all the polish of previous boss fights, even the really hard ones. Fighting a giant alien swarm halfway through the game had been so frustrating I actually got angry, but at least it was something new. The last boss encounter didn't offer a challenge so much as it did closure. You see him escape capture in the first level and then you get to put him down in the last one. Justice/vengeance is served, ho-hum.
The actual ending cinema of the game was abrupt, extremely anti-climactic and could have been handled much better. I thought I had reached the "bad ending" because I played the game too slowly. The main character is trying to finish his mission before the alien virus in his body destroys his humanity, so I thought I missed the deadline. According to the Internet, that's the only ending there is.
Having said all that, I will not dismiss Resistance 2 for its lackluster conclusion. The single player game was more than adequate and the co-op mode was genuinely exciting in ways I would never have expected. Hell, it still is genuinely exciting, I just don't have much time to play online anymore. I feel like taking a break from shooting aliens for a while...right after I finish Half-Life.
To get back to my point (huh? oh, right..."too much fun"), this weekend I ate more food than I needed to, stayed out drinking when I could have gone home, and kept plugging away at a video game to reach the end rather than put down the controller and finish it the next day. I say this not because I think I made the wrong choices, but rather to remind myself of how fortunate I am. There's nothing wrong with a little excess after a long week of not working.
Hey, speaking of work, it's almost time to get going. I wouldn't want to miss that one o'clock bus home.
Labels: Alex, comic books, food, friends, Kazu, movies, Osaka, PS3, Resistance 2, sports, sumo, video games
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Stone Cold Satiated
I scream, you scream, we all scream...stop screaming, please.
We went out to visit the in-laws today, but before settling in for a long day of doing nothing in their living room, we went to the mall first. Not just any mall, mind you, but the bright, shiny Nishinomiya Gardens which opened just last November. Our primary goal was to have lunch there, with window shopping being a close second. Both proved difficult due to the still-massive crowds that seem to be lined up and waiting in front of every eatery and cash register. It's funny how we all love to go to new places but because everyone loves that, new places are invariably jam packed and miserable.
A microcosm of the problem is Cold Stone Creamery, the first one in the Kansai area. When it opened, people routinely waited for two hours for a cup of ice cream. When we first passed by in December, the wait was somewhere between 90-120 minutes. Even in late January, when ice cream should be the last thing on anyone's mind, there were still folks who had an hour to kill in order to get some. I love ice cream as much as the next dangerously overweight American, but surely there are other options that don't require that kind of time commitment?
When our attempts to eat lunch at the Hawaiian restaurant today were thwarted by a ridiculous queue, we took notice of the much shorter-than-usual line at Cold Stone. Perhaps because it was lunch time and everyone was more excited about noodles or curry, there were barely a dozen or so people standing in line. We recognized the opportunity as a rare one and therefore opted to eat dessert first simply because we could.
So far as I can tell, there are two primary differences between the American and Japanese Cold Stone Creameries. First, the portions have been readjusted to human sizes. I remember once ordering their medium cup (a.k.a. "love it") and being handed what looked like a full pint shoved into a coffee cup. This time I ordered a small ("like it") and actually received a small serving of ice cream. It does make the experience feel a bit more overpriced, but today wasn't one of those days when I felt I needed to smother myself in milk and sugar.
The other major difference is the demeanor of the staff. If you've ever been to a US Cold Stone, you probably remember the staff singing public-domain tunes with novelty ice cream lyrics whenever a customer put something in the tip jar. Japan does have a tip jar, much to my utter surprise, but I don't think they need any excuse to start singing. I would liken the staff to that of a theme park instead of an ice cream parlor - with their gigantic grins and eternally-peppy attitudes, they seemed eager to sing and even dance at a moment's notice. As I tweeted earlier, one server brought out fresh supplies and showcased the serving tin for all to see before putting it into the case. Her cry of "Let's cheesecake ice cream!" made perfect sense somehow, even if "ice cream" isn't a verb.
While I know how this must sound, I really must ask the question: if they put as much energy into actually scooping ice cream instead of flailing their arms as they sing "Yo-ho-ho," maybe there wouldn't be a half-hour wait? Shouldn't our fifteen minute experience be the norm in mid-March? Is there such a thing as too much service?
Oh, my white chocolate/peanut butter fusion ice cream was delicious, thanks for asking.
When we got to her parents' house we basically sat there for the rest of the day. We gave her mother a White Day present, both because she gave me a Valentine's Day present and because they are constantly giving us everyday stuff. We haven't bought rice since 2007! With that in mind, we gave her an iPod Nano which she had been talking about for quite some time. I had to set it up, of course, but I think she understands the gist of how to operate it. Here's hoping they don't designate me as Mr. Tech Support.
That was about all we did today. Oh right, sumo is back in Osaka! I've got tickets for Friday and I am psyched. In the meantime I've got a few more classes to teach - four to be exact. Not tomorrow, all week! Good night!
つづく...(Click here to read more)
We went out to visit the in-laws today, but before settling in for a long day of doing nothing in their living room, we went to the mall first. Not just any mall, mind you, but the bright, shiny Nishinomiya Gardens which opened just last November. Our primary goal was to have lunch there, with window shopping being a close second. Both proved difficult due to the still-massive crowds that seem to be lined up and waiting in front of every eatery and cash register. It's funny how we all love to go to new places but because everyone loves that, new places are invariably jam packed and miserable.
A microcosm of the problem is Cold Stone Creamery, the first one in the Kansai area. When it opened, people routinely waited for two hours for a cup of ice cream. When we first passed by in December, the wait was somewhere between 90-120 minutes. Even in late January, when ice cream should be the last thing on anyone's mind, there were still folks who had an hour to kill in order to get some. I love ice cream as much as the next dangerously overweight American, but surely there are other options that don't require that kind of time commitment?
When our attempts to eat lunch at the Hawaiian restaurant today were thwarted by a ridiculous queue, we took notice of the much shorter-than-usual line at Cold Stone. Perhaps because it was lunch time and everyone was more excited about noodles or curry, there were barely a dozen or so people standing in line. We recognized the opportunity as a rare one and therefore opted to eat dessert first simply because we could.
So far as I can tell, there are two primary differences between the American and Japanese Cold Stone Creameries. First, the portions have been readjusted to human sizes. I remember once ordering their medium cup (a.k.a. "love it") and being handed what looked like a full pint shoved into a coffee cup. This time I ordered a small ("like it") and actually received a small serving of ice cream. It does make the experience feel a bit more overpriced, but today wasn't one of those days when I felt I needed to smother myself in milk and sugar.
The other major difference is the demeanor of the staff. If you've ever been to a US Cold Stone, you probably remember the staff singing public-domain tunes with novelty ice cream lyrics whenever a customer put something in the tip jar. Japan does have a tip jar, much to my utter surprise, but I don't think they need any excuse to start singing. I would liken the staff to that of a theme park instead of an ice cream parlor - with their gigantic grins and eternally-peppy attitudes, they seemed eager to sing and even dance at a moment's notice. As I tweeted earlier, one server brought out fresh supplies and showcased the serving tin for all to see before putting it into the case. Her cry of "Let's cheesecake ice cream!" made perfect sense somehow, even if "ice cream" isn't a verb.
While I know how this must sound, I really must ask the question: if they put as much energy into actually scooping ice cream instead of flailing their arms as they sing "Yo-ho-ho," maybe there wouldn't be a half-hour wait? Shouldn't our fifteen minute experience be the norm in mid-March? Is there such a thing as too much service?
Oh, my white chocolate/peanut butter fusion ice cream was delicious, thanks for asking.
When we got to her parents' house we basically sat there for the rest of the day. We gave her mother a White Day present, both because she gave me a Valentine's Day present and because they are constantly giving us everyday stuff. We haven't bought rice since 2007! With that in mind, we gave her an iPod Nano which she had been talking about for quite some time. I had to set it up, of course, but I think she understands the gist of how to operate it. Here's hoping they don't designate me as Mr. Tech Support.
That was about all we did today. Oh right, sumo is back in Osaka! I've got tickets for Friday and I am psyched. In the meantime I've got a few more classes to teach - four to be exact. Not tomorrow, all week! Good night!
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Now THAT'S Not Italian!
I could be wrong, but it feels like it has rained every Friday for the past month. Yesterday's rain continued through the night, often pouring so hard it woke me up, and it continued raining throughout this morning. Our plans to go out were scrapped because we didn't feel like getting soaked, so we spent most of the day inside, safe and dry.
As we had nothing to eat, we ordered a pizza for lunch. As there was a kick-ass sale and Mako foolishly let ME do the ordering, we ended up with two pizzas for lunch. Behold, our glorious repast!
(click to view full-size)
The pie on the left is probably the crazier one. It's topped with mentaiko (a spicy fish roe that is really popular in Japan), mayonnaise, potato, chicken, and cheese. The one on the right, despite the WTF? soft-boiled eggs, is otherwise a pretty standard bacon, cheese, and tomato sauce pie. My delicious Frank's Red Hot sauce, which I find makes pizza just taste better, suited the one on the right more than the left. Since the mentaiko flavor is already so strong, I couldn't really taste the Frank's at all.
I can assure you that both pizzas were really, really tasty and while I will always love American pizza, the Japanese variety is consistently satisfying whenever we order it. I wonder when some enterprising foodie will attempt to re-import Japanese piza to America? I've seen some truly disgusting pies at Pizza Hut during their lunch buffet, surely "fish roe and mayo" wouldn't rock the boat much?
つづく...(Click here to read more)
As we had nothing to eat, we ordered a pizza for lunch. As there was a kick-ass sale and Mako foolishly let ME do the ordering, we ended up with two pizzas for lunch. Behold, our glorious repast!
(click to view full-size)
The pie on the left is probably the crazier one. It's topped with mentaiko (a spicy fish roe that is really popular in Japan), mayonnaise, potato, chicken, and cheese. The one on the right, despite the WTF? soft-boiled eggs, is otherwise a pretty standard bacon, cheese, and tomato sauce pie. My delicious Frank's Red Hot sauce, which I find makes pizza just taste better, suited the one on the right more than the left. Since the mentaiko flavor is already so strong, I couldn't really taste the Frank's at all.
I can assure you that both pizzas were really, really tasty and while I will always love American pizza, the Japanese variety is consistently satisfying whenever we order it. I wonder when some enterprising foodie will attempt to re-import Japanese piza to America? I've seen some truly disgusting pies at Pizza Hut during their lunch buffet, surely "fish roe and mayo" wouldn't rock the boat much?
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Monday, February 16, 2009
So Fracking Disappointed
Remember what I said about expectations and how they ruin everything? This Saturday was a textbook example of what can happen when you think something is going to be awesome and it is merely very good.
Let me stop right there and make sure no one is jumping to any serious conclusions: today's material is purely superficial stuff (with some spoilers).
I had a lovely weekend and Valentine's Day with Mako. She gave me my present, crunchy chocolate-covered castella sticks, on Friday night, all the while apologizing for buying them in a store rather than making me something at home. I insisted (as I did days beforehand) that she doesn't need to make me anything and I would be thrilled to receive any chocolate from her. "By Any Means Necessary" isn't just a cry for revolution - it also perfectly sums up my attitude towards the distribution of gifts. As much fun as her handmade gifts can be, I would never criticize Mako for failing to spend hours making me something when a commercially-available option exists.
We spent our Saturday afternoon in Umeda where we took advantage of the discount Toho Cinemas promotion to see Street Kings, a Keanu Reeves police drama retitled "Fake City" (フェイクシティ) in Japanese. Neither title means much and the movie was unremarkable, cliche-driven and entirely forgettable, exactly as I thought it would be. Unstable cop who ignores procedure because it only gets in the way? Check. Angry superiors who berate him for his methods while simultaneously praising his results? Check. Impressionable and doomed rookie cop (complete with fiancee - how tragic!) who is manipulated by the hero into breaking the rules? Check. Stock female characters (mute victims, worried girlfriend, grieving widow, dead wife) who only exist to soften the male leads? Check. And most troubling of all, litany of minority stereotypes who are beaten, tortured and killed by the hero cops along the way? Check and Mate.
I guess I should have seen those last two coming but I thought maybe, just maybe, that we had moved beyond that bullshit by now. The only concession made to the real world is that a few of the cops are not white guys (Forest Whitaker is one of the perpetually outraged captains) but they are still all guys. Seriously, not even the "here are the bullets I found" medical examiner is a woman. You get the feeling that Hollywood producers want to go back to the Shakespearean custom of having all the roles played by men, but as a compromise they merely play every character with any impact on the plot while the attractive Hispanic actress is limited to wearing a bikini and kissing Keanu after a hard day's work murdering "suspects."
The ironic result of having zero interest in the film (particularly when I guessed the ending about halfway through) was that I did not come out of the theater feeling cheated or offended. I knew the movie would be shallow and empty and it was. All I did was enjoy my popcorn and the knowledge that Mako got to see one of her favorite actors on the big screen. If anything, I left the theater happy because we enjoy being out together as a couple.
On the contrary, when I came home and I watched the season one finale of Battlestar Galactica I had high hopes for the outcome. Not only was I still riding high from the Prison Break finale we watched a few days earlier, but the overall quality of the series led me to believe I was in for something special. Instead, the two-parter left me asking question after question about what direction this show was headed.
For starters, the last few episodes have been increasingly toying with supernatural and religious elements. While I have been impressed with the show's inclusion of faith, an element curiously absent from most scienece fiction, BSG is increasingly implying that these "lords of Kobol" are real. It's one thing to have Dr. Baltar panic and pray to God before being cleared in that treason frame-up, but it's quite another to have the President seeing prognostic hallucinations that coincide with scripture and turn out to be accurate. The finale has her ordering a ship to go on a incredibly risky solo mission just to retrieve a spiritual artifact that she believes will help them find Earth. She knows the Cylons are swarming around both the planet they think is their mythical homeworld and the planet where the artifact is being kept, meaning that everything about this could be a trap or downright staged (especially since one of the Cylons told her they were going to find this planet), but they go through with it anyway.
On the more tactical side of things, I don't understand the nature of this "plan" the Cylons boast of in every episode. How many more facilities and ships are they going to sacrifice towards this plan? I know they claim not to give a crap about "death," but do they simply have infinite resources? They allowed one of their own sleeper agents to nuke a gigantic Cylon vessel, even though they had more than enough opportunities to stop her (or at least reduce their losses). Then she goes back and promptly blows her cover by shooting the Commander in the gut - twice. What's the point? Even if he does die (which I very much doubt - this actor has top billing on the show), what good does that really do the Cylons? They had an agent on board in the military. She already blew up the ship's water supply a few episodes earlier. She could have potentially destroyed the entire ship or killed everyone on the bridge. Instead, she gave herself up in exchange for shooting one guy.
I know this is all pretty geeky and I know I'm still eager to see more of BSG. In fact, I've already rented the first two discs of season two as there were plenty of other major plot elements in that last episode that I want to see resolved. But at the end of the day, the very good television episode left me feeling disappointed while the absolutely pointless cop movie met my meager expectations. How does that make any sense at all?
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Let me stop right there and make sure no one is jumping to any serious conclusions: today's material is purely superficial stuff (with some spoilers).
I had a lovely weekend and Valentine's Day with Mako. She gave me my present, crunchy chocolate-covered castella sticks, on Friday night, all the while apologizing for buying them in a store rather than making me something at home. I insisted (as I did days beforehand) that she doesn't need to make me anything and I would be thrilled to receive any chocolate from her. "By Any Means Necessary" isn't just a cry for revolution - it also perfectly sums up my attitude towards the distribution of gifts. As much fun as her handmade gifts can be, I would never criticize Mako for failing to spend hours making me something when a commercially-available option exists.
We spent our Saturday afternoon in Umeda where we took advantage of the discount Toho Cinemas promotion to see Street Kings, a Keanu Reeves police drama retitled "Fake City" (フェイクシティ) in Japanese. Neither title means much and the movie was unremarkable, cliche-driven and entirely forgettable, exactly as I thought it would be. Unstable cop who ignores procedure because it only gets in the way? Check. Angry superiors who berate him for his methods while simultaneously praising his results? Check. Impressionable and doomed rookie cop (complete with fiancee - how tragic!) who is manipulated by the hero into breaking the rules? Check. Stock female characters (mute victims, worried girlfriend, grieving widow, dead wife) who only exist to soften the male leads? Check. And most troubling of all, litany of minority stereotypes who are beaten, tortured and killed by the hero cops along the way? Check and Mate.
I guess I should have seen those last two coming but I thought maybe, just maybe, that we had moved beyond that bullshit by now. The only concession made to the real world is that a few of the cops are not white guys (Forest Whitaker is one of the perpetually outraged captains) but they are still all guys. Seriously, not even the "here are the bullets I found" medical examiner is a woman. You get the feeling that Hollywood producers want to go back to the Shakespearean custom of having all the roles played by men, but as a compromise they merely play every character with any impact on the plot while the attractive Hispanic actress is limited to wearing a bikini and kissing Keanu after a hard day's work murdering "suspects."
The ironic result of having zero interest in the film (particularly when I guessed the ending about halfway through) was that I did not come out of the theater feeling cheated or offended. I knew the movie would be shallow and empty and it was. All I did was enjoy my popcorn and the knowledge that Mako got to see one of her favorite actors on the big screen. If anything, I left the theater happy because we enjoy being out together as a couple.
On the contrary, when I came home and I watched the season one finale of Battlestar Galactica I had high hopes for the outcome. Not only was I still riding high from the Prison Break finale we watched a few days earlier, but the overall quality of the series led me to believe I was in for something special. Instead, the two-parter left me asking question after question about what direction this show was headed.
For starters, the last few episodes have been increasingly toying with supernatural and religious elements. While I have been impressed with the show's inclusion of faith, an element curiously absent from most scienece fiction, BSG is increasingly implying that these "lords of Kobol" are real. It's one thing to have Dr. Baltar panic and pray to God before being cleared in that treason frame-up, but it's quite another to have the President seeing prognostic hallucinations that coincide with scripture and turn out to be accurate. The finale has her ordering a ship to go on a incredibly risky solo mission just to retrieve a spiritual artifact that she believes will help them find Earth. She knows the Cylons are swarming around both the planet they think is their mythical homeworld and the planet where the artifact is being kept, meaning that everything about this could be a trap or downright staged (especially since one of the Cylons told her they were going to find this planet), but they go through with it anyway.
On the more tactical side of things, I don't understand the nature of this "plan" the Cylons boast of in every episode. How many more facilities and ships are they going to sacrifice towards this plan? I know they claim not to give a crap about "death," but do they simply have infinite resources? They allowed one of their own sleeper agents to nuke a gigantic Cylon vessel, even though they had more than enough opportunities to stop her (or at least reduce their losses). Then she goes back and promptly blows her cover by shooting the Commander in the gut - twice. What's the point? Even if he does die (which I very much doubt - this actor has top billing on the show), what good does that really do the Cylons? They had an agent on board in the military. She already blew up the ship's water supply a few episodes earlier. She could have potentially destroyed the entire ship or killed everyone on the bridge. Instead, she gave herself up in exchange for shooting one guy.
I know this is all pretty geeky and I know I'm still eager to see more of BSG. In fact, I've already rented the first two discs of season two as there were plenty of other major plot elements in that last episode that I want to see resolved. But at the end of the day, the very good television episode left me feeling disappointed while the absolutely pointless cop movie met my meager expectations. How does that make any sense at all?
Labels: BSG, chocolate, family, food, movies, television
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Friday, February 13, 2009
Call it etalocohC
Wow. You know how on Wednesday night I wondered if I would make it through the next two days with my voice intact? By 10 o'clock on Thursday I was hacking and coughing like the Marlboro Man. Maybe it was a mistake to admit to having a cold before class. I think the kids see that as a window to misbehave.
Last night we watched the Prison Break Season One finale and I still can't believe how good it was. After watching the next-to-last episode and seeing (most of) the gang make it over the wall, I naively assumed the finale would be a simple culling of characters as they made their way to the airstrip and onto the plane. I went through the cast in my head and just started guessing who was going to make it and who wasn't. Despite the fact that "the plan" had to be revised and modified so many times just to escape, I honestly believed that the last phase would somehow work out just like they expected. Instead, the show kept throwing curveballs and I kept swinging with wild abandon trying to keep up. Did they make it to the plane? Nope. Did anybody get killed or recaptured? No. Does the season end with any element of the story successfully wrapped? Not really, no. I can't wait to start renting Season Two but I think Mako needs a break. Watching the show is so physically involving that we both get worked up just sitting on the couch. For DJ's sake, Mako wants to stay calm and settled as best she can over the next few months.
Speaking of concessions made for Mako, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. It also happens to be "Toho Cinemas Day" which means cheap movie tickets at any Toho Cinemas. I had hoped to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button but that was before Mako found out about a "new" Keanu Reeves movie opening on Saturday. I say "new" because it came out in the States last April and everything about the movie looks cliched and behind the times (Seriously, Keanu, you're a cop who doesn't play by the rules? What a fascinatingly fresh way to portray a police officer), but Mako loves him and I must abide. I'm sure it won't be the most banal film we've seen together; at the very least, Hugh Laurie is in it.
What's really confusing me is the sudden push for me to give Mako chocolate on Valentine's Day in spite of the glorious Japanese tradition of doing things the other way around. As previously noted in years past, this is a day where Japanese women give chocolate to men, be it husbands, boyfriends, family, or even just friendly coworkers. Men who have wives or girlfriends are expected to return the favor next month on White Day. Now it seems that someone (I suspect the chocolate people) has been promoting the idea of gyaku-choco (逆チョコ, literally "reverse chocolate") so that men give chocolates to women. The promotion is so strong that lots of popular everyday chocolates have special backwards packaging on the shelves, no doubt intended to remind male customers of their brand-new obligation. I view it more straight forwardly as an admission that this entire idea goes against common sense.
Japan had got it right for once in the world of gender relations. There was a balance to it all. Tomorrow was supposed to be my day for sugary satisfaction and Mako would get her generous gift next month. Quid pro quo, tit for tat, ebony meets ivory, perfect harmony. Now I'm expected to give her TWO gifts in exchange for only ONE? That's the worst kind of discrimination; the kind that discriminates against me.
...OK, you know (I hope!) I'm not really angry about this. Buying gifts for Mako is one of my favorite things to do and any occasion where she and I get to eat chocolate is a wonderful day in my book. Indeed, we both shared one of the chocolate fondants I received from her mother this week and it was outstanding. I just hope there's a future movement to realign the order of things with gyaku gifts on White Day for men. Hey, I just realized! The Xbox 360 is white, isn't it?
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Last night we watched the Prison Break Season One finale and I still can't believe how good it was. After watching the next-to-last episode and seeing (most of) the gang make it over the wall, I naively assumed the finale would be a simple culling of characters as they made their way to the airstrip and onto the plane. I went through the cast in my head and just started guessing who was going to make it and who wasn't. Despite the fact that "the plan" had to be revised and modified so many times just to escape, I honestly believed that the last phase would somehow work out just like they expected. Instead, the show kept throwing curveballs and I kept swinging with wild abandon trying to keep up. Did they make it to the plane? Nope. Did anybody get killed or recaptured? No. Does the season end with any element of the story successfully wrapped? Not really, no. I can't wait to start renting Season Two but I think Mako needs a break. Watching the show is so physically involving that we both get worked up just sitting on the couch. For DJ's sake, Mako wants to stay calm and settled as best she can over the next few months.
Speaking of concessions made for Mako, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. It also happens to be "Toho Cinemas Day" which means cheap movie tickets at any Toho Cinemas. I had hoped to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button but that was before Mako found out about a "new" Keanu Reeves movie opening on Saturday. I say "new" because it came out in the States last April and everything about the movie looks cliched and behind the times (Seriously, Keanu, you're a cop who doesn't play by the rules? What a fascinatingly fresh way to portray a police officer), but Mako loves him and I must abide. I'm sure it won't be the most banal film we've seen together; at the very least, Hugh Laurie is in it.
What's really confusing me is the sudden push for me to give Mako chocolate on Valentine's Day in spite of the glorious Japanese tradition of doing things the other way around. As previously noted in years past, this is a day where Japanese women give chocolate to men, be it husbands, boyfriends, family, or even just friendly coworkers. Men who have wives or girlfriends are expected to return the favor next month on White Day. Now it seems that someone (I suspect the chocolate people) has been promoting the idea of gyaku-choco (逆チョコ, literally "reverse chocolate") so that men give chocolates to women. The promotion is so strong that lots of popular everyday chocolates have special backwards packaging on the shelves, no doubt intended to remind male customers of their brand-new obligation. I view it more straight forwardly as an admission that this entire idea goes against common sense.
Japan had got it right for once in the world of gender relations. There was a balance to it all. Tomorrow was supposed to be my day for sugary satisfaction and Mako would get her generous gift next month. Quid pro quo, tit for tat, ebony meets ivory, perfect harmony. Now I'm expected to give her TWO gifts in exchange for only ONE? That's the worst kind of discrimination; the kind that discriminates against me.
...OK, you know (I hope!) I'm not really angry about this. Buying gifts for Mako is one of my favorite things to do and any occasion where she and I get to eat chocolate is a wonderful day in my book. Indeed, we both shared one of the chocolate fondants I received from her mother this week and it was outstanding. I just hope there's a future movement to realign the order of things with gyaku gifts on White Day for men. Hey, I just realized! The Xbox 360 is white, isn't it?
Labels: chocolate, family, food, Japan, movies, Prison Break, television
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Thanks, Japan. I Needed That.
One of the best things about having a holiday in the middle of the week is it changes the dynamic of the other days around it. With Wednesday being off, Tuesday became Friday, and Monday kinda felt like Thursday. Of course, tomorrow is Thursday, but since I spent today resting, doesn't that make it into Monday?
Don't be silly. Thursday is always Thursday.
The worst thing about today was the fact that I'm sick. It started as a simple cough over the weekend, but by Monday evening I was sniffling and my voice was struggling. Yesterday was a challenge, to be sure, especially because I had another after-school class that made it a very long day of teaching. I must have sucked down at least three Vitamin C candies during the last hour of work. I feel better now, thanks to a full day of very little talking (and absolutely no shouting). Maybe the worst of it is behind me now...or maybe another day of shouting will bring it all back tomorrow.
Mako and I spent the morning on the sofa watching Prison Break and we are oh-so-close to the end of Season One. Indeed, we'd be watching the end right now if it weren't for her sudden desire to step on the brakes and slow down. Sure, there are other shows we can watch but after so many hours, how can she stand to wait any longer to find out who makes it and who doesn't? Now I'm going to spend all day tomorrow wondering about it. She told me to pop in Battlestar Galactica instead, but seeing as how I'm almost at the end of their Season One as well, I just want to wrap up one show at a time.
We had a terrific, curry-soaked lunch where I experienced something pretty crazy. As usual, I ordered a bit too much food and I had to help Mako finish hers at the same time, so towards the end of the meal I was really, really full. But the more I ate of my bacon & eggplant curry (with cheese) omurice, the hungrier I felt. If you've ever read The Phantom Tollbooth you might remember "subtraction stew." For the first time I can recall, I actually understood what that might feel like.
With Mako and I both filled to capacity we took it real easy when we got back home. Mako needed a straight-up nap, leaving me a few hours alone with a television and my PS3. I muscled my way through two more stages in Resistance 2 alone and then played a bit of LittleBigPlanet with Richard. I enjoyed the freedom of the afternoon immensely even if both games did their best to drive me a little nuts.
In Resistance 2 I found myself straining my voice just so I could complain aloud about the circumstances I found myself in: two boss battles where the game just wasn't throwing me any bones. The first was me versus a giant something-or-other, a moment that was initially really cool. I was on top of a tower littered with guns but there were no soldiers to be seen. It wasn't until I looked up that I saw...it, and that began the fight. Unfortunately, the designers made a baffling decision to not give me any visual hint that my bullets were, in fact, hurting this massive, crawling monster - the usual red reticule was not present - so it took several failures before I just looked to the Internet for answers. It turns out the answer is just shoot the damn thing until it falls down. I did that.
The second boss was even more bizarre in form and even more irritating due to its ability to kill me instantly if it touched me. It wasn't an "it" so much as it was a "they," a "swarm" of beasties massed together, super-charged with bolts of energy. The first time you see it the game tells you to run away, but doing that means it catches you and kills you. No, you have to walk backwards and shoot at it, somehow slowing it down even though a gun versus a swarm of smaller-than-a-bullet monsters doesn't sound like a winnable fight. Eventually you face off against the swarm in a giant cavern where you must use generators to trap them and kill them with a special weapon. Of course, all the generators look the same and are connected by identical looking corridors, so I kept dying while some voice shouted at me "Get to the first generator!" I asked, alone in my room, "Which one is the 'first' one, you dick?"
LittleBigPlanet is a great game that looks adorable even when it's smashing your little character between heavy objects and driving you nuts. Richard and I actually "finished" the last level today, although the magic of LBP is that the game has an ever-increasing number of user-created levels to play. Indeed, having run through the normal levels, the idea is that I should try and make one myself. I do have an idea or two, but I have the nagging feeling that it will take me as long as it did to complete the other levels just to finish one of my own. I'll let you know if I make any headway in that department though.
My Wednesday/Sunday holiday evening is drawing to a close. I'm keeping my fingers crossed over the next two days to make it through with my vocal cords intact. Candies, you're with me!
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Don't be silly. Thursday is always Thursday.
The worst thing about today was the fact that I'm sick. It started as a simple cough over the weekend, but by Monday evening I was sniffling and my voice was struggling. Yesterday was a challenge, to be sure, especially because I had another after-school class that made it a very long day of teaching. I must have sucked down at least three Vitamin C candies during the last hour of work. I feel better now, thanks to a full day of very little talking (and absolutely no shouting). Maybe the worst of it is behind me now...or maybe another day of shouting will bring it all back tomorrow.
Mako and I spent the morning on the sofa watching Prison Break and we are oh-so-close to the end of Season One. Indeed, we'd be watching the end right now if it weren't for her sudden desire to step on the brakes and slow down. Sure, there are other shows we can watch but after so many hours, how can she stand to wait any longer to find out who makes it and who doesn't? Now I'm going to spend all day tomorrow wondering about it. She told me to pop in Battlestar Galactica instead, but seeing as how I'm almost at the end of their Season One as well, I just want to wrap up one show at a time.
We had a terrific, curry-soaked lunch where I experienced something pretty crazy. As usual, I ordered a bit too much food and I had to help Mako finish hers at the same time, so towards the end of the meal I was really, really full. But the more I ate of my bacon & eggplant curry (with cheese) omurice, the hungrier I felt. If you've ever read The Phantom Tollbooth you might remember "subtraction stew." For the first time I can recall, I actually understood what that might feel like.
With Mako and I both filled to capacity we took it real easy when we got back home. Mako needed a straight-up nap, leaving me a few hours alone with a television and my PS3. I muscled my way through two more stages in Resistance 2 alone and then played a bit of LittleBigPlanet with Richard. I enjoyed the freedom of the afternoon immensely even if both games did their best to drive me a little nuts.
In Resistance 2 I found myself straining my voice just so I could complain aloud about the circumstances I found myself in: two boss battles where the game just wasn't throwing me any bones. The first was me versus a giant something-or-other, a moment that was initially really cool. I was on top of a tower littered with guns but there were no soldiers to be seen. It wasn't until I looked up that I saw...it, and that began the fight. Unfortunately, the designers made a baffling decision to not give me any visual hint that my bullets were, in fact, hurting this massive, crawling monster - the usual red reticule was not present - so it took several failures before I just looked to the Internet for answers. It turns out the answer is just shoot the damn thing until it falls down. I did that.
The second boss was even more bizarre in form and even more irritating due to its ability to kill me instantly if it touched me. It wasn't an "it" so much as it was a "they," a "swarm" of beasties massed together, super-charged with bolts of energy. The first time you see it the game tells you to run away, but doing that means it catches you and kills you. No, you have to walk backwards and shoot at it, somehow slowing it down even though a gun versus a swarm of smaller-than-a-bullet monsters doesn't sound like a winnable fight. Eventually you face off against the swarm in a giant cavern where you must use generators to trap them and kill them with a special weapon. Of course, all the generators look the same and are connected by identical looking corridors, so I kept dying while some voice shouted at me "Get to the first generator!" I asked, alone in my room, "Which one is the 'first' one, you dick?"
LittleBigPlanet is a great game that looks adorable even when it's smashing your little character between heavy objects and driving you nuts. Richard and I actually "finished" the last level today, although the magic of LBP is that the game has an ever-increasing number of user-created levels to play. Indeed, having run through the normal levels, the idea is that I should try and make one myself. I do have an idea or two, but I have the nagging feeling that it will take me as long as it did to complete the other levels just to finish one of my own. I'll let you know if I make any headway in that department though.
My Wednesday/Sunday holiday evening is drawing to a close. I'm keeping my fingers crossed over the next two days to make it through with my vocal cords intact. Candies, you're with me!
Labels: food, frustration, Little Big Planet, Prison Break, PS3, Resistance 2, teaching, television, video games
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Monday, January 19, 2009
Hunka Hunka Burning Tongue
No, I'm afraid I didn't go out and see the new James Bond movie yesterday. The weather was lousy, Mako wasn't feeling well and we had a couple of DVDs to watch before they were due back at the store, so we spent the day indoors watching TV. Other than Mako's intestinal distress, it was a relaxing time. She's feeling much better today though, thanks for asking.
I've been thinking a lot about food lately and it's not just because I'm an obese monster with an undying hunger. The issue that's been on my mind is food temperature which is handled very differently here in Japan than it is in the States. How much of this has to do with the famously non-confrontational Japanese attitude and actual tastes, I couldn't say, but I find the issue of interest and it's all I've got to write about today. Well, that or I could tell you how I felt about those three year old Prison Break episodes we watched yesterday.
Last week, I burned my mouth pretty fiercely while having lunch. We went out shopping in Osaka and I ordered a curious combination of spaghetti topped with a raw egg and "crab cream croquettes." I took one look at the plastic model outside the restaurant and I knew that was what I wanted. It looked too outrageous to pass up and everything about it seemed delicious. It certainly was good, except when I bit into the croquette and my mouth was filled with the liquid hot creamy mix that was inside. From that point forward, I didn't so much "taste" my food as I did "feel" it in my mouth. Unfortunately, the sensory damage lasted a full day and even a week later, my tongue doesn't quite feel right.
Japanese cuisine has a lot of really, really hot stuff to offer and I continue to be amazed at just how quickly people here can eat it. Oden, ramen, sukiyaki, takoyaki, even green tea is served piping hot and most Japanese folks will scarf it down with barely any hesitation. In fact, the reason Japanese people are so famously noisy when they eat noodles is because of the heat - they like to eat it right away and by "slurping" they can blow on the food while they suck it into their mouths.
I, on the other hand, take things very slowly and let things sit because I find that the serving temperature for all of these delicious dishes is far beyond my tolerance for pain. It just so happens that the Japanese have an expression for someone like me, "cat's tongue" (nekojita). Apparently cats don't like hot food so whenever a person can't eat molten 200-degree soup broth, they say he or she has a "cat's tongue." It seems Garfield has been lying to me for thirty years about his fondness for fresh lasagna.
A recent TV special shed some light on the nekojita phenomenon. They demonstrated that the difference between people who have a "cat's tongue" and everyone else is how they eat their food. Those who complain about the heat of their food are sticking their tongue out as they eat, plunging the heat-sensitive tip of their tongue into the food and then recoiling in anguish. Other people hide the tip of their tongue so the food touches further back where it doesn't hurt so much. They made this even clearer when they took a "cat's tongue" guy and experimented with drops of very hot soup placed onto different parts of his tongue. Drops that landed on the tip of his tongue caused him great pain, while the same liquid on the middle or rear of his tongue were pain-free and tasty.
In case you haven't figured it out, I saw this special just one day before shoving the crab cream croquette into my mouth and scorching myself. I thought by consciously concealing the tip of my tongue and trying to eat like the "normal" guy on the show, I too could eat meals with my wife without having to sit around and blow on everything like it's my birthday and my entire meal is topped with trick candles. As a result, I learned that my "cat's tongue" is, in fact, a powerful defense mechanism that prevents me from putting things into my mouth that don't belong there because they are too fucking hot.
There is a flip side to all this: there are a surprising number of occasions where Japanese people happily enjoy food that has gone cold hours, sometimes days earlier. One of them just recently passed: New Year's Day. Here in Japan, they celebrate the start of a calendar year by going home and spending a few days with their family, watching TV, and eating traditional dishes. One of these is known as osechi and I had some for the first time at the start of 2008. It all looked good but when I put it in my mouth it was ice-cold, so cold I really couldn't discern any tastes other than the extremely chilling effect it had on my mouth. That's because the meal is prepared before New Year's Day and put aside to be eaten later. As I've mentioned before, Japanese houses are extremely cold in winter so the osechi ends up tasting like ice cubes flavored with fish. I was the only person who found this arrangement odd.
There's also the matter of bento, carefully arranged and prepared meals that are nicely laid out in a small box so that they can be taken on the go. These are especially popular in major trains stations and airports where passengers can buy a bento (often featuring a local delicacy) and then eat it during their trip. While I am a big fan of these tasty and very nice-looking meals, I don't understand why they are never served hot nor do they offer to reheat them. They are served as-is and they are expected to be eaten as such.
My favorite example goes back to my experience as a film extra during my study abroad term. On each of the days I was on set, all of the cast and crew received a bento and a can of tea. I'm sure Bruno Ganz got a proper meal, but that's not important now. I could never understand why our food was served so cold while the cans of tea were kept hot - so hot I couldn't hold it in my bare hands. Both items were brought to the set in separate boxes, and one was hot and the other was not. Why not do to the food whatever you did to the cans? Or simpler yet, just pack the can in with the food? Trust me, those cans would have easily reheated the entire meal.
As I write this, I am at work and not-quite looking forward to lunchtime. At this school, and this is the only one where there is a problem, my lunch is always cold. Part of this is my obligation to eat lunch with the students so I must walk to their classroom with my lunch in hand and wait for them to prepare before we all eat together. But the crux of the problem is that the lunch in the staff room is prepared and served at least fifteen minutes before anyone has a chance to eat it, so everyone who eats in there has a cool if not totally cold lunch. Out of all those people, I am the only one who has asked what alternatives there are to eating soup that is the same temperature as my milk. Oh well, at least in summer my lunch doesn't make me sweat, right?
Night Note: I came home and we had a boiling pot of broth, veggies and gyoza for dinner. Me and my cat's tongue made it through the meal unscathed.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
I've been thinking a lot about food lately and it's not just because I'm an obese monster with an undying hunger. The issue that's been on my mind is food temperature which is handled very differently here in Japan than it is in the States. How much of this has to do with the famously non-confrontational Japanese attitude and actual tastes, I couldn't say, but I find the issue of interest and it's all I've got to write about today. Well, that or I could tell you how I felt about those three year old Prison Break episodes we watched yesterday.
Last week, I burned my mouth pretty fiercely while having lunch. We went out shopping in Osaka and I ordered a curious combination of spaghetti topped with a raw egg and "crab cream croquettes." I took one look at the plastic model outside the restaurant and I knew that was what I wanted. It looked too outrageous to pass up and everything about it seemed delicious. It certainly was good, except when I bit into the croquette and my mouth was filled with the liquid hot creamy mix that was inside. From that point forward, I didn't so much "taste" my food as I did "feel" it in my mouth. Unfortunately, the sensory damage lasted a full day and even a week later, my tongue doesn't quite feel right.
Japanese cuisine has a lot of really, really hot stuff to offer and I continue to be amazed at just how quickly people here can eat it. Oden, ramen, sukiyaki, takoyaki, even green tea is served piping hot and most Japanese folks will scarf it down with barely any hesitation. In fact, the reason Japanese people are so famously noisy when they eat noodles is because of the heat - they like to eat it right away and by "slurping" they can blow on the food while they suck it into their mouths.
I, on the other hand, take things very slowly and let things sit because I find that the serving temperature for all of these delicious dishes is far beyond my tolerance for pain. It just so happens that the Japanese have an expression for someone like me, "cat's tongue" (nekojita). Apparently cats don't like hot food so whenever a person can't eat molten 200-degree soup broth, they say he or she has a "cat's tongue." It seems Garfield has been lying to me for thirty years about his fondness for fresh lasagna.
A recent TV special shed some light on the nekojita phenomenon. They demonstrated that the difference between people who have a "cat's tongue" and everyone else is how they eat their food. Those who complain about the heat of their food are sticking their tongue out as they eat, plunging the heat-sensitive tip of their tongue into the food and then recoiling in anguish. Other people hide the tip of their tongue so the food touches further back where it doesn't hurt so much. They made this even clearer when they took a "cat's tongue" guy and experimented with drops of very hot soup placed onto different parts of his tongue. Drops that landed on the tip of his tongue caused him great pain, while the same liquid on the middle or rear of his tongue were pain-free and tasty.
In case you haven't figured it out, I saw this special just one day before shoving the crab cream croquette into my mouth and scorching myself. I thought by consciously concealing the tip of my tongue and trying to eat like the "normal" guy on the show, I too could eat meals with my wife without having to sit around and blow on everything like it's my birthday and my entire meal is topped with trick candles. As a result, I learned that my "cat's tongue" is, in fact, a powerful defense mechanism that prevents me from putting things into my mouth that don't belong there because they are too fucking hot.
There is a flip side to all this: there are a surprising number of occasions where Japanese people happily enjoy food that has gone cold hours, sometimes days earlier. One of them just recently passed: New Year's Day. Here in Japan, they celebrate the start of a calendar year by going home and spending a few days with their family, watching TV, and eating traditional dishes. One of these is known as osechi and I had some for the first time at the start of 2008. It all looked good but when I put it in my mouth it was ice-cold, so cold I really couldn't discern any tastes other than the extremely chilling effect it had on my mouth. That's because the meal is prepared before New Year's Day and put aside to be eaten later. As I've mentioned before, Japanese houses are extremely cold in winter so the osechi ends up tasting like ice cubes flavored with fish. I was the only person who found this arrangement odd.
There's also the matter of bento, carefully arranged and prepared meals that are nicely laid out in a small box so that they can be taken on the go. These are especially popular in major trains stations and airports where passengers can buy a bento (often featuring a local delicacy) and then eat it during their trip. While I am a big fan of these tasty and very nice-looking meals, I don't understand why they are never served hot nor do they offer to reheat them. They are served as-is and they are expected to be eaten as such.
My favorite example goes back to my experience as a film extra during my study abroad term. On each of the days I was on set, all of the cast and crew received a bento and a can of tea. I'm sure Bruno Ganz got a proper meal, but that's not important now. I could never understand why our food was served so cold while the cans of tea were kept hot - so hot I couldn't hold it in my bare hands. Both items were brought to the set in separate boxes, and one was hot and the other was not. Why not do to the food whatever you did to the cans? Or simpler yet, just pack the can in with the food? Trust me, those cans would have easily reheated the entire meal.
As I write this, I am at work and not-quite looking forward to lunchtime. At this school, and this is the only one where there is a problem, my lunch is always cold. Part of this is my obligation to eat lunch with the students so I must walk to their classroom with my lunch in hand and wait for them to prepare before we all eat together. But the crux of the problem is that the lunch in the staff room is prepared and served at least fifteen minutes before anyone has a chance to eat it, so everyone who eats in there has a cool if not totally cold lunch. Out of all those people, I am the only one who has asked what alternatives there are to eating soup that is the same temperature as my milk. Oh well, at least in summer my lunch doesn't make me sweat, right?
Night Note: I came home and we had a boiling pot of broth, veggies and gyoza for dinner. Me and my cat's tongue made it through the meal unscathed.
Labels: extra extra, food, Japan, JET, movies
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Monday, June 21, 2004
"I know the pieces fit..."
What a day! I spent the entire day planning my future and I feel a lot better about myself now. The whole academic picture has a shape now; a definite direction, not just random ideas anymore. I had to wake up around 5 (been there, done that) so we could leave by 6 and get there by 8:30. I invited Dad to come along (with his fabulous Audi) as I knew he has as many questions about school as I did. I'm glad he came too because we ended up attended separate meetings and learning different things. However, we both agree that the breakfast they offered this morning featured the worst bagels ever made. They were about the size of a Gamecube disc and I suspect they were thawed a few days ago and left out. I would compare them in both taste and texture to, well, stale bread. Sorry, there is no better description.
Irregardless of the shitty breakfast, I knew I would meet with an advisor today. A buddy of mine who has been around a lot of different colleges prepared me for the worst, warning me that the orientation advisor typically offers little advice beyond the elementary. But chance favors the prepared mind, as she was actually the Chair(person) of the Department! Also, thanks to the semi-exclusive nature of the East Asian Studies major, I was the only student she had to see that day. Screw all those generic English majors! She answered all of my questions and helped me understand what I can get out of college and how to get it. Here's an overview:
2004-2005 Attend school, spit hot fire.
2005-2006 Study abroad in Japan.
2006-2007 Senior, bitch!
With any luck I'll graduate within a stone's throw of 30. Up until now, when people asked if I was "excited" about going back to school, I didn't know what to say. From today I can unequivocally say Yes.
Everything is turning up Feit!
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Irregardless of the shitty breakfast, I knew I would meet with an advisor today. A buddy of mine who has been around a lot of different colleges prepared me for the worst, warning me that the orientation advisor typically offers little advice beyond the elementary. But chance favors the prepared mind, as she was actually the Chair(person) of the Department! Also, thanks to the semi-exclusive nature of the East Asian Studies major, I was the only student she had to see that day. Screw all those generic English majors! She answered all of my questions and helped me understand what I can get out of college and how to get it. Here's an overview:
2004-2005 Attend school, spit hot fire.
2005-2006 Study abroad in Japan.
2006-2007 Senior, bitch!
With any luck I'll graduate within a stone's throw of 30. Up until now, when people asked if I was "excited" about going back to school, I didn't know what to say. From today I can unequivocally say Yes.
Everything is turning up Feit!
Labels: food, predicting the future, UAlbany
つづく...(Click here to read more)
