that's what i call thanksgiving.

every year, mickie and i go to lunch with her family on thanksgiving, then go to my auntie’s house for dinner.  the dish that i look forward to in particular is my auntie’s cheese broccoli (broccoli, cheese, crumbled ritz crackers, and butter, lots of butter).  mickie knew that i missed it dearly so she decided to surprise me with a nice thanksgiving dinner, auntie lynn style.

i def got gravy stuck in the beard.

thanks for a wonderful chicken (because turkey is impossible to find in japan) thanksgiving dinner.

compliments to the chef-ette.

and thus concludes my short first post back.  i’ll try to stick to a more regular blogging schedule and document the last 6 months of my stay in japan.

no meat.

no milk.

no bread.

no toilet paper.

no lights. (closed during scheduled blackouts.)

it got so bad that they had to start posting notices around tokyo letting people know that by hoarding they were depriving everyone else of stuff.

i don't know if it's my own gastrointestinal problems talking, but there's no way in hell 12 rolls of toilet paper can last for 1,000 people.

the earthquake was the least of the problems facing japan.  of course it was one of the worst quakes in history but the following tsunami and the failure at the fukushima nuclear reactor it caused were the real problems.  aside from the obvious nuclear issue, the fact of the matter is that the electric company (TEPCO) lost about 25% of it’s electric output capacity, causing a great power shortage and need for rolling blackouts across the kanto plain.  again, japanese people pulled through and did the right thing, conserving enough energy that few, if any, scheduled blackouts actually occurred.  mickie and i are doing our parts by not using the heater/ac and not running the laundry machines during peak hours.  however, we were running our tv all day, which was an entirely different issue.

you thought this was bad...

a side effect of the tragedy was the 24/7 news cycle that showed tragic scene after tragic scene of houses being devastated by the tsunami, newly homeless people shivering in gathering centers, and smoke rising from the compromised nuclear power plant.  breaking up the news with commercials like these hardly seemed appropriate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u_Ed0Bh-s0

so instead, the wonderful AC (advertising council) decided to throw together some public service announcements about various social issues.  for example, greetings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bD66T-n_5c

breast cancer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yefR1UAuOkg

be kind to elders and pregnants.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkEdeBFMEHM

separate your plastics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzpJmypvDFk

every commercial break had about 5 ads.  seeing as how there’s only about 5 ads, you were lucky if you got 1 of each.  i, no lie, once saw the animal aisatsu (“konnichiwa, arigatou”) 5 times in a row.  5 TIMES IN A ROW.  and at the end of every commerical: AAAAA SHIIIIIIIIII!

AHHHHHHHHH

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI6-JzxV-_M

don’t get me wrong, i’m not trying to make light of what the people in northern japan had to go through.  i’m just trying to share a little bit about what the rest of us had to go through.  it was rough, i swear.

the worst of the damage in our teachers' room.

i was at school in the english teachers’ room at ichikashi when the earthquake hit.  at first, i thought, “whoa, a decent sized earthquake.  haven’t had one of these in a while.” but when the shaking continued and slowly became more powerful, and the teachers began praying, “kamisama, yamete kudasai” (god, please stop), i knew we had something different on our hands.

the quake was so strong, the emergency doors were shaken out on their own.

while trembling under the desk, a strange thing happened: i had a flash before my eyes.  no, not my life.  it was much scarier than having my life flash before my eyes.  i saw the future, well, an alternate future.  i saw the ceiling fall in.  i saw rubble trapping me under the desk.  i saw the building crumble around me.  i felt the pain of not ever being able to see my loved ones again.

why you gotta trap me, dude? (but thanks for breaking the serious mood.)

and then the shaking stopped.  we all got out from under the desks, surveyed the room, made jokes to ease the mood, and then started panicking again when the aftershocks started.

this was my safe place.

eventually, the aftershocks slowed enough that we were able to exit the building and gather on the soccer field.  good thing we had practice for this situation!  it’s a good thing that we had a half schedule that day, so only a fraction of the students were on campus at the time of the quake.  all the kids seemed to be in good spirits, save for a few that had nervous breakdowns.

most of the students left on campus were brass band club members.

once the big aftershocks stopped, we returned to the english teachers’ room for cleanup.  considering how big the quake was, our room was in relatively good condition.

not bad right?

i was allowed to return home early that day, which was good because mickie was scared.  she didn’t want to be in the house alone so she waited at the nearby park for me, which in hindsight wasn’t the best idea (i believe you’re supposed to stay indoors during earthquakes.).  after giving her a big hug, she told me about her experience: she saw our 37″ lcd tv swaying and about to fall off the shelf so in the midst of the shaking, she power-lifted the tv off the shelf, put it on the floor, and then wrapped blankets around it to prevent any residual damage.

that's my girl! she's got her priorities in the right place!

and with that, i’m done with our “day-of” story.  part two will include what happened in the days following, and possibly my thoughts on it all.  maybe that can be reserved for a third post.

a rather plain but lively sign that doesn't do the restaurant justice.

once inside the restaurant, you’ll feel a bit strange because you’re surrounded by water tanks.

they're generously spread around the restaurant, each tank with a mix of specific fish to make fishing random but weighted toward specific catches.

questions begin to pop into your head.  are people really fishing in those tanks?

yes, people were. in fact, this is lisa catching a delicious hirame (halibut/sole/some kind of flatfish).

how in the hell did a boat ground itself in the middle of this restaurant?

there's actually a couple tables on the boat. you have to reserve them cuz they're the most popular.

and are people even fishing FROM the boat?

yes, indeed.

all kinds of different fish ranging from tai (red snapper/sea bream), hirame, and aji (horse mackeral) were available to catch.

unfortunately, the water pump caused a lot of water rippling, making for a blurry picture.

these guys don't even get to swim around, and you don't catch them by a hook in the mouth. you catch them with a hook in the side. sad.

they also had other, more expensive, seafood like sazae (japanese sea snail), awabi (abalone), and ise-ebi (LOBSTER).

this was the bigger guy that i WANTED to catch. too bad he was $300.

lastly, they even had more exotic animals that there was only one of, like anago (saltwater eel) and same ([pronounced sah-meh] shark) that nobody in their right mind would catch cuz they were so prohibitively expensive.

there was only one, so i didn't even bother asking how much he cost.

same with this guy, except i'm actually morally against eating shark so it was no big loss.

to catch the fish, you first had to bait your own line with small bait shrimp.

i wonder if these are the same as those small, dried shrimp they put in/on okonomiyaki.

and then just wait for the poor, hungry, exhausted fish to grab your line, looking for either the little sustenance the shrimp provided or the sweet and (not) quick death by sashimi.  [i say not quick because there was definitely a case where the body of a fileted fish was still moving and the eyes were still twitching.  it haunted my dre-NOM NOM NOM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYwd9H-NW7I

as an animal lover, i initially thought that the whole process was a little cruel but when I thought about it, the ONLY thing that changes in how these fish are treated at this restaurant versus others is that the customer, not the chef, pulls them out of the water to be prepared.  maybe this is just a defense mechanism justifying me having fun fishing.

it's so fun, and you get picture gold like this one. if you look closely, mickie's fish is in fact not on the hook and falling to the ground.

once you catch your fish/seafood, they ask you how you want it prepared.  there’s tons of different ways to have them cooked, like shioyaki (salt-baked), sashimi (sliced raw), nabe (cooked in a hotpot with broth), karaage (deep fried), ochaazuke (served with rice in tea and other seasonings), and others, but certain fish are recommended to be cooked a specific way.

tai shioyaki.

aji sashimi.

aji bones karaage.

ochazuke. (way better than the packaged stuff)

ise-ebi shioyaki.

tai in a shoyu/ponzu-ish sauce. he doesn't look happy about his situation.

while the fish isn’t top quality as you’d find in a place like tsukiji, the fact that you derived enjoyment from the whole process makes up for the difference.  and by no means am i saying the quality isn’t good, it’s just that tsukiji is home to some of the freshest, most delicious fish you’ll find on the planet.  it’s hard to live up to that reputation anywhere else.

freshly decapited tuna at tsukiji. can't get any fresher than that!

at the end of the day, if you want a dining experience that you can ONLY get in japan, i’d recommend going to zauo.

Ramen Burger (Sandwich)

Usually enjoyed in a big bowl while sitting at a table or counter, ramen is not known as a food for people on the go.  The ramen burger looks to change all that, combining all the ingredients that make ramen so tasty into handheld form.  I found this specimen of gourmet goodness at a summer matsuri (festival) right outside Ikebukuro, Tokyo.

The name ‘ramen burger’ is a bit misleading because there is no actual hamburger patty, only a slice of chashu pork.  Many sandwiches are mislabeled as burgers in Japan but in actuality, it should be called a ramen sandwich.

To start off, this sandwich doesn’t have a traditional bun, instead using ramen noodle discs fried into the shape of a bun.  The noodles aren’t fried until they’re crunchy but rather just long enough so they could keep their shape.

In between the noodle buns were all the usual ingredients you might find in a bowl of ramen: chashu (roast pork), naruto (fish cake), negi (scallions), and menma (marinated bamboo shoots).

After it’s assembled, you have a choice of which type of ramen soup flavor you’d like in your sandwich: shoyu (soy sauce), shio (salt), miso (soybean paste), and tonkotsu (pork bone).  Don’t worry about it being super messy, the soup base was thickened significantly to make for a nice condiment.  Finally, if it was to your liking, you could add some togarashi (Japanese assorted chili pepper powder) to spice up your sandwich.

So far, the ramen burger hasn’t really caught on besides being sold by street vendors at local festivals.  However, with the worldwide explosion in popularity of ramen, I’m hoping that you’ll soon see the ramen burger at a restaurant near you.

so why the post?  the ramen burger was so tasty that i just had to try and make one at home.  first, i bought an already prepared bowl of and separated it into parts:

moyashi (bean sprouts), chashu (pork), green onions, and menma (marinated bamboo).

prepared ramen usually has semi-solid sauce that becomes the soup when heated up. it actually worked perfectly for flavoring a ramen burger.

then i took the noodles and fried them in pancake shapers, using a metal ladle to flatten them out into nice “buns.”

the bowl of ramen had enough noodles to make 2 burgers worth of buns.

you can stop cooking them when the noodles are chewy/slightly crispy.

once the buns are finished, all you have to do is put the ingredients inside and scarf.

as with any burger/sandwich/relationship, put the good stuff in between the buns. =)

just make sure you eat it before the soup base heats up, liquefies, and squirts all over your face. =)

innuendo aside, the ramen burger is very good.  the only thing i would suggest is that you make them in bulk to make the effort worth it.  bon apetit or whatever.

july 8: no shaving for 2 weeks.

july 28: some definite itching and scraggly looks.

august 1: starting to look pretty cool with sunglasses.

august 21: looking REALLY sexy with sunglasses.

august 23: getting even scragglier but lovin' it.

september 8: the peak of overall shagginess.

at this point, i got tired of blowing my nose and having snot and kleenex bits getting stuck in the moustache so i went with the goatee only look.

september 18: pirate ship means pirate beard.

september 22: by this time, pieces of food were regularly sticking in the beard.

september 24: i really did have to resort to making a conscious effort NOT to get food in the beard. the teriyaki sauce on this dango woulda been bad news.

october 3: classy event, even CLASSIER beard. actually, i almost shaved it for this event but i couldn't do it.

october 11: it's really getting uneven and lopsided by now but on i truck(er).

october 23: i began contemplating the beard as a warming device because disney was pretty cold that night.

october 31: i ALMOST got it all in the rubber hair tie.so close to beard nirvana.

at this point, mickie made an ultimatum: trim the beard or no kissing.  i did what any self-respecting guy would do: trimmed it JUST to the point where she backed off the ultimatum but still kept some of it to make me feel like i was still in control.  i wasn’t.

november 5: still eating in a way to keep food from getting in the beard, even though i didn't need to anymore.

november 13: at this point, the beard is just a shell of its former, glorious self.

december 10: i'm starting to get tired of the small goatee. give me a full beard or give me death!

december 23: instead of either, i adopt the landing strip beard. good look, yes?

december 23: in actuality, the landing strip was just something i wanted to try in the process of shaving the whole thing off.

you see, mickie had offered me $100 a year to shave off the beard and NEVER GROW IT BACK!  it was too good a deal to pass up so here we are at the end of this 6-month love story.  R.I.P. geoffrobeard: june 24~december 23

the windows,

the standing passenger handles,

and even the people look like mickey mouse barfed all over them.

we rode indiana jones and the crystal skull, which is almost exactly the same as the anaheim disneyland ride except just more immersive in atmosphere.  i’d recommend riding it because it’s better in almost every respect but don’t expect anything new.

i drove.

alongside the usual disney atmosphere, halloween pervaded the air.  decorations, parades, characters, special foods, limited popcorn buckets, everything.

that jack-o-lantern looks like he his intentions toward that girl aren't pure.

chip n' dale star in the mexican day of the dead parade.

kinako flavored pudding in a limited edition mickey jack-o-lantern cup. mickie now drinks tea from that cup and looks completely ridiculous.

yes, we spent like $50 on popcorn and buckets. at least they'll be good trick-or-treat buckets in the future. mickie's hair is so sloppy.

yeah, this is part of the "everything" that i mentioned.

it was a great time.  and i hand-fed a duck.  =)

he wanted some of my niku-man so i obliged.

the only downside to the day was that my uglydoll died.  he had no chance/  :’(

so much expression in those eye.

eventually, i’ll get to our tokyo disneyland trip for the christmas celebration.  until then, this will have to suffice.  WOOHOO DISNEY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmlkmVoPuQA

it's not blurry, there's just that much snow.

the baseball field looks like the tundra.

same goes for the soccer field.

being a boy from socal, i’m not used to this kind of weather.  it makes me sad that it’s so cold, but it’s also kinda cool to be living in a place where it snows.  the other good thing is that while it snows, it never snows in kashiwa like it does in hokkaido (centimeters of snow, not meters).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dX8TT7v72k

this wass another current blog post.  i’ll get back to catching up on older events soon.

an lcd screen on a jidohanbaiki (vending machine).

i would have to guess that it takes a year of selling drinks from this thing to make it worth the cost of having one.  of course, it was located at tokyo station where even the guide maps are lcd walls.  apparently, these types of lcd vending machines and information maps are the newest thing in tokyo, and maybe branching out soon.  let’s hope so, cuz looking at my computer screen for 18 hours a day isn’t enough.  i need lcd EVERYTHING!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG_yBXkuFmY

kinda reminds me of the coca-cola freestyle soda fountain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V-yphI7JPk

(dude in this video totally creamed his pants getting a fanta.)