Cooking in Anna's Japanese Kitchen

COOKING IN ANNA'S JAPANESE KITCHEN

Anna's kitchen is very small and most things in it are small.  Tiny fridge, two burners and a tiny grill space for a stove, and little dish drying rack. Lots of things at the grocery store come in small amounts--1 liter milk, butter in a 1/4 pound size box, salad dressing in little 1 cup size bottles.  There are some things that are bigger--like slices of bread.  You only buy half a loaf but then there are only 4 fat Texas Toast size slices!  And the naganegi onions are like HUGE green onions!

Apple-viegar juice is on the left in the back.  On the right is soy milk.

To make our normal breakfast (eggs, toast, and oatmeal) in Anna's little kitchen first I turn on the gas to the burners.  Then I turn on each burner and put the oatmeal and eggs on to cook.  The toast is made in the little grill under the burners. I have to remove the little grill cover between the burners so the grill gets ventilation.  I put water in the bottom of the grill pan and put the fat toast on the little rack in it.  As the oatmeal and brown eggs with orange yolks are cooking, the bread toasts on the top side.  Then I turn the toast over to brown on the other side. Then I turn off the burners and grill and turn off the gas.  I add some extra flavorful frozen blueberries to the oatmeal and soy milk (since I am in Japan).  I pour apple-vinegar juice in the little cups and we are ready to eat.  The eggs in Japan come in 10 to a case and are always just a day or two old when you buy them.  Each egg is stamped with an expiration date that is a week later.  I think the eggs and blueberries have more flavor here :)

The little drying rack has metal trays to catch water .  Also, Anna has a little automatic hotpot (white with pink on the ledge).  You put water in it, turn on a pink button and it automatically shuts off when it is boiling. The sink has two food catchers--one little one on the top and a deeper one that goes down about 5 inches.

WE SPEND A LOT OF TIME IN ANNA'S APARTMENT

Back os Anna's apartment building.  Her apartment is the last one on the left, second floor.

Outside Anna's kitchen window is a stop light and walk/don't walk light that flashes at night.

Trash has to be separated in Japan,  Anna has separate trash bins for plastics, burnables, paper, glass, and cans.  On different days of the week, a different kind of trash is picked up.

Anna's toilet and bath/shower are right beside each other--but with doors to close each one, of course. Because she just has a curtain between this part of her house and the living area--these areas get heat.

Anna's small entryway.  Japanese use clear umbrellas when it is snowing heavily :)  The area on the left in a Japanese home would have a place for their Buddist worship or a picture of an ancestor that they would offer incense for.

I brought along a Thomas Kinkade puzzle and keep it under our bed when I am not working on it.  I am standing on the tatami mats that make the floor in our room.  Jess lifted one up and they are about 2 inches thick.  

PRESENTING AT KOKSAI JOUHOU KOUKOU

Koksai Jouhou Koukou

  At Anna's school, Jess and I did 3 more class presentations and observed one class giving presentations.  We really enjoyed meeting the students and teachers.  I made a powerpoint with pictures from our home, high school activities in the U.S. (marching band, soccer team,  prom dress, graduation), an American bathroom and kitchen, our work as Christian pastors, and our family life.  After the slideshow, Jess, Anna, and I each got in a group of 13-15 students and had English conversations.   They asked what food we liked in Japan--"gyoza, soba noodles, ramen".  Jess asked them what they thought of a man with a beard--there are no beards in Japan!

Jess teased and told stories--of course :) Some of the groups gave great reactions to the stories and teasing.  We encouraged them to keep speaking English--even if they make mistakes.  After each class, we handed out American candy we had brought with us--cinnamon candy, root beer barrels, and Valentine's Day conversation hearts (because they have English words on them).  Each student said, "Thank you very much!" as they received their candy.

Teacher's room. Anna's desk is straight ahead.  This is where the teachers go when they are not teaching a class.  There are about 80 desks here. Some days Anna only has one class she helps with so she finds lots of things to do at her computer--study Japanese, study the student's names, write emails, etc.

RANDOM THINGS WE SEE IN SAPPORO

Crows are everywhere! CAW! CAW! CAW!

This is how high the snow is this week!

A Japanese barn :) right in the middle of Sapporo!

A beautiful view of the mountains and snow clouds!  This is what they do with their wind shield wipers so they don't get stuck to the windshield.

Grandma Wiebe visits Japan!

CELEBRATING GRANDMA WIEBE DAY--with a Japanese twist!

Chicken Pilough in rice cooker on right.
In the middle of the table is the fish-finger-jello-stuff.

Yesterday was Grandma Wiebe Day--a holiday invented by my siblings and I to commemorate our great grandmother.  Our mom talked about her so much that we finally decided she should have her own holiday.  On Grandma Wiebe Day (January 23), we always eat Chicken Pilough (More With Less Cookbook p. 184) and try to throw dishwater on someone coming up to the house.  My great grandmother always threw her dishwater out the door and one night hit an unsuspecting neighbor coming to visit!  The Chicken Pilough recipe is from the Great Trek, which Grandma Weibe was on.  That group of Mennonites lived in Prussia for a time and I think that is where they got the recipe.  To make Pilough in Japan meant searching for raisins in the grocery store and figuring out the correct rice to liquid ratio to make it with Japanese rice in the rice cooker.  Yeah!--it worked.  Anna added her own Japanese addition to the meal--a 3x5 inch grey speckled block the consistency of finger jello that had a savory, fish smell/taste.  You dipped it in soy sauce.  Blech!--I tried it. . .We decided to forgo the dishwater tradition since Anna lives in an apartment and we did not want to make ice in the stairwell.

Jess, Anna, and Annie

Another recipe Anna wanted us to make from home was ground beef stroganoff.  I could not find sour cream at the grocery store after looking long and hard.  Anna found it on her way home and got two little 1/2 cup containers for about $5.00!  When we used it in the stroganoff, it was super thick and creamy--almost the consistency of cream cheese.  That was some REALLY CREAMY stroganoff!  Anna invited her friend, Annie, over for that meal.  Annie is a quiet girl who is a JET from England. It was fun to get to know her a little bit.  She teaches at a middle school.  She was one of the girls that Anna helped renew her faith in Jesus.

KOKSAI JOUHOU KOUKOU (Anna's high school)
On Monday, Jess and I took the bus to Anna's high school. Anna showed us the teacher's room, where there are 80 desks for the teachers.  Anna spends her day there when she is not helping with a class.

Some of Anna's students

She had us introduce ourselves to one of her classes.  I tried the Japanese introduction I had been working on--"Hajime mashite Naome des. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu." (I said my name and the greeting you give when you meet someone the first time).  She had the students ask us questions.  One boy, an exchange student from Italy asked, "Why do Americans think owning a gun means freedom?" and a Japanese boy asked about how dangerous it was in America compared to Japan. Then he asked for advice for traveling in America.  Anna broke the students up into small groups and had Jess and I each in a small group.  This was my favorite part!  We worked with the students to come up with the top 10 world events for 2012. Then we had time for conversation in our group.  I asked them what they ate for breakfast.  Two girls in my group ate scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast, and the other two had a traditional Japanese breakfast (rice, fish, and maybe seaweed).  One of the girls in my group crochets--she was so cute!  On the way home a group of deaf students got on the bus.  There is a school for deaf children near Anna's apartment.

TAKING THE SUBWAY TO DOWNTOWN SAPPORO

Our lunch at the mall near Sapporo Station

Jess and I took the subway by ourselves to downtown Sapporo Wednesday.  It was a nice sunny day and the warmest we have seen. We got to the station just fine.  We set out to find the tourist information desk with the goal of finding out how to get a bus to a zoo 3 hours away.  After feeling like we went in many different directions, we found the bus tour desk and the bus terminal.  The lady at the desk did not speak English so we got stuck.  (Later that evening, Anna told us her supervisor had found a less expensive bus to the zoo and would order the tickets for us).  After that almost fruitless endeavor, we found a food court in the huge mall. There were lots of little food stands to get many different kinds of cold food.  We got chicken, pork, and chicken livers on a stick.  I did NOT intend to get chicken livers--I thought they were beef!  We also got some Japanese style pickled cucumbers.

After lunch, we went to a bookstore that foreign books and Jess found a gift for Wren--"Goodnight Moon" in Japanese Hirigana!

The pool where I swim twice a week

INTERESTING THINGS WE HAVE SEEN THIS WEEK
--school children skiing down slopes on their playground.
--heavy duty graters that grind up the piles of snow on and beside the roads at night.  The snow is loaded into trucks and hauled to snow dumps.
--cute little kids in colorful snowsuits playing in the snow at the deaf school
--men using ice picks to break up the thick layer of snow on sidewalks outside businesses (they do not use salt here)
--school children sitting on their heels in rows outside on the playground while their teaches give instructions

Anna apartment building.
Her apartment is on the second floor to the right of the front door

Swimming, Karaoke, and Japanese Church

Lotus root stuffed with pork-ginger mixture that I made.

GOING SWIMMING BY MYSELF
I walked to a hotel with a swimming pool ( about a 15 min. walk) and went up to the desk and said "puru" (pool).  The lady gave me some some complicated Japanese directions.  I understand that I was supposed to go left.  But when I went left, it looked like I was supposed to go outside, so I went back to the desk, "Puru".  She then took me left, and outside through the parking garage and into another entrance.  I went to the desk there, "Puru".  They pointed to the left but did not take my money  . . . so I walked to the left and almost got to the locker room (maybe they wanted me to pay later??).  Soon, one of the ladies from the desk was running after me and brought me back to the vending machine and pointed to the 580Y button.  I put in my money and got a ticket.  Once at the locker room, I removed my boots before I stepped up onto the floor and put them in a cubby.  The lockers required a 50Y, so I just put my stuff up on top of the lockers as others had done. Once in the pool, I observed where I might swim laps.  There were quite a few people there but I saw two women swimming about my speed in one of the lanes so I jumped in when there was a break and swam in line with them.  Underwater as I was swimming, I observed that women wore swimsuits that were like Olympic swimmers (close fitting tank on top down to bike-short length on the bottom).  I saw that a man was leading a swim lesson for middle age women.  I finished 8 laps, 4 crawl and 4 breast stroke.  I went back to the locker room and debated how I should shower.  The shower were sort of open to the pool.  I opted for the "junior high locker room" technique and washed with my swimsuit on.  The use of the blow dryer required a 10Y coin so I had to figure out how to get change.  This required asking a young woman who spoke a little English, using the change machine in the locker room, but then needing to go back out to the desk for smaller coins.

I'm puzzled about one thing. . .in the onsen, women are naked in the locker room and shower area scrubbing up to get in the bath--no big deal, right?  Well, in the pool locker room, old women down to girls have a cape-like towel that they very discreetly change under.  No nakedness in the pool locker room but lots of nakedness at the onsen--go figure!

The ramen guy who saved me!

ALMOST GETTING LOST IN SAPPORO
After my trip to the pool, I headed out the door in the direction I remembered for the subway station.  My intent was to buy fruit at the fruit store close to the station.  It was a bright sunny day and a great day for a walk.  I did not remember the street being so residential. . .and the snow seemed different on the path.  Oh well, it HAD snowed a lot the night before.  But then after many blocks of houses, I finally decided to ask for help.  I asked an older lady, "Subway eki desu ka?" (Where is the subway station?).  She set out to take me there (Japanese people usually will do this).  She took me 2 blocks to the left--I counted because I felt like that was the wrong direction.  We finally got to a different station!   I hid behind the door until the lady was out of sight, then I did some backtracking to the street I knew and started heading back to the hotel/pool building. As I was looking for the hotel/pool suddenly I came out on the street with the sign of a little man in a ramen bowl--a landmark I knew--But I came to the street a different way. Was this another ramen man??  I looked a block to the right and there was the KFC (another landmark Anna showed us)--Yup, I was back on track in a round about way--but somehow I had completely missed the hotel/pool.  I never made it to the fruit stand so I stopped at the Arcs grocery store on my way back and got a bag of oranges and our favorite ice cream bar in Japan (cone on the outside, vanilla ice cream  and a layer of chocolate bar on the inside).  The ice cream bar was a reward for almost getting lost and finding my way back. (Epilogue--I figured out later that the pool entrance is on a different side of the building.  I had headed in a different direction over a mile to the next subway station over)

KARAOKE

Karaoke Place

"My Heart Will Go On"
Aileen, Anna, and Tess

Anna's friend Eileen celebrated a birthday Saturday and invited us to go do karaoke with her and her friend, Tess (a JET teacher from New Zealand).  We went to a big karaoke place in Anna's neighborhood.  The cost in the afternoon was 80Y per person per hour (about $1.00) As a group, you get a room with a screen, big speakers, two microphones, and seating and a table.  You order songs (we ordered Japanese, Korean, English) on a little screen.  Anna and I enjoyed singing together.  The other girls tried out their Japanese with some popular songs they knew.  J-Pop (Japanese) and K-Pop (Korean) are the names for the popular music here.  Anna is great fun at karaoke.  She is very dramatic and that makes it a blast!

CHURCH IN JAPAN

Kobe Union Church

Mark and Stephanie's church, Kobe Union Church is a non-denominational church with people from many countries (Japan, China, Malaysia, New Zealand, US, and others).  The church was up a very steep hill so we took a taxi after we got off the train.  The sanctuary was very beautiful with a large organ, dark wood walls, and stained glass windows.  The service was in English and during the sermon, we heard a woman's voice interpreting into Japanese for people with headphones.  They sang praise choruses and hymns with a band up front.  After the service, there was a fellowship time in the basement with snacks you could buy.  Mark teaches a new Christian SS class and Stephanie helps with a Japanese Bible study class.  There were about 150 people there.  The building is also used by a small German church of some sort.  There was a woman in that group who dressed like the mix between a nun and a conservative Mennonite woman and the "priest" wore a long black robe and white bow at his neck.

Sapporo Fukuinkan Church

Sunday, we went to Anna's neighborhood church, where she has just started attending.  Anna was not feeling well so we went with Jael, Shawn, and their baby, Wren, (who is Naisa's age).  Shawn teaches with Anna and they live downstairs in the same apartment building. Sapporo Fukuinkan Church is only three short blocks from their apartment building.   When you come in, you remove your shoes and wear slippers provoided for you.  These slippers are tricky and slippery to walk in but we managed okay.   The service was in Japanese with no English interpretation.  Shawn and Jael helped us figure out the scripture--it was the story of the prodigal son. The pastor is a good preacher--using good expression, stories that were funny, and he moved away from the pulpit a bit :)  I could understand about three words in the sermon:  okaasan (father), comi sama (God) and watashi (I).  They served communion, which was very meaningful to Jess and I because we didn't have to know Japanese for that.  I noticed one woman who had a black lace prayer shawl that she wore just for communion.  This congregation has two services, with about 100 at the 11:00 a.m. service (a large congregation for Japan).  There were about 20 children and a good mix of all other ages.  An old woman beside us sat in a wheel chair that had little skis on the front wheels. There was a handful of people who spoke English there.  After the service, they had a simple meal of salad, rice and a curry topping.  We were given free tickets as first time visitors otherwise the meal was 200Y (a bit over $2.00)

Sapporo Fukuinkan Church

our church slippers

SHAWN, JAEL, AND WREN

Jael and Shawn join us for supper.

Last night, we had Shawn, Jael, and Wren over for supper.  Anna made soup with gyouza dumplings, and I made sliced lotus root sandwiched around a pork, chopped ginger and naganegi onion mixture, then deep fried. I used Anna's Japanese/English cookbook.  We sat around Anna's low coffee table and enjoyed the meal and got to know Shawn and Jael and chubby little Wren.  Shawn in from Wisconsin and Jael is from Minnesota.  They met at YWAM and got married.  They plan to be in Japan long term as missionaries.  Jess and I both enjoyed holding Wren, who is two-weeks older than Naisa.  What a blessing for Anna to have such good friends as neighbors and little Wren to hold since she has not met Naisa yet.

Jess coaxing Wren to sleep at the church lunch

IT SNOWS EVERY DAY HERE
Fun things we have seen in the now--baseball practice at the school outside, women hauling their little child on a sled to the grocery store, young women walking in high heel fashion boots in 4 inches of snow. . .

This is kind of like living in the snow belt on steroids.  It snows and snows and snows.  Sometimes it even rains or sleets a bit.  So glad we brought good high boots!

A quiet day with less walking :)

Gnome/dwarf on Anna's balcony

NOTE--I added pictures to my previous blogs if you want to go back and see them :)

ANNA IS BACK TO WORK
Jess and I hugged Anna good bye in the morning and enjoyed a restful day mostly in her apartment.  We played two games of Scrabble (Jess won both :(  and I did a little cleaning for Anna.  We walked to the close-by grocery store (7 minute walk) and found the post office.  While at the grocery store, we were amazed at the sale items--strawberries for only 100Y (a bit over $1.00) for a pint, and fish for 80Y (about $1.00).  When we got to the clerk and she was ringing them up, we realized that the sales sticker was the amount off--not the price!  Lesson learned!  Anna told us later that the other grocery store has the real price on the sales sticker--oh well!  We bought three different kinds of fish, veggies, strawberries for 300Y/pint, and cheese curls. On the way home, we saw kids sledding in the beautiful sunshine.  Kids go back to school tomorrow from their winter break.

I made supper for Anna in her little kitchen.  I used the little grill under the burners to make the fish.  At first, I forgot to add water to the tray in it and take off the cover between the burners.  Oops!  Okay, I remembered before anything burned.  We had rice in her rice cooker and I grilled some of the fish and the eggplant.  I fried the other fish--it still had all its bones :)--just like making bullheads when I was a kid in South Dakota--except that I cooked it just a bit too long.  Everything was still yummy :)

Trees roped and propped to keep from breaking under the weight of the snow.

Snowy Sapporo

LOTS OF SNOW!!
We arrived in Sapporo, Hokkaido on Monday morning for our three week visit with Anna.  Hokkaido is the large northern island of Japan.  The temperature is similar to Ohio but there is MUCH more snow!  Anna met us at Chitose Airport where we ate Korean food for lunch.  We took an hour-long bus ride to her neighborhood and a taxi to her apartment.  There are mountains in the distance on both sides and we drove in a wide flat valley.  We walked to Anna's apartment on snow-packed sidewalks.  The snow is piled up elbow high on the sides along the way.  Much of the snow is hauled to snow dumps.  The average snowfall in Sapporo is 248 inches. Cars with snow tires drive on two-lane snow-packed streets. This city is more modern the Ashyia, thus the two-lane streets and sidewalks.

 sidewalk in Sapporo

ANNA'S APARTMENT
Anna's apartment is about half the size of Mark and Stephanie's condo.  You enter a small entryway, which opens to a small living area--about 10X12.  There is a small walk-in kitchen off the living area and a sink/laundry area with doors to each a bath and toilet. She has three small bedrooms.  Anna sleeps on a futon with a heated sleeping bag in one of the rooms.  We are sleeping on a western bed heaped with blankets in a tatami room.  She uses the third room, which she calls "the cold room" to hang laundry and for storage.

Jess in "our" bedroom

COMING OF AGE DAY
Monday was a national holiday in Japan called "Coming of Age Day".  All young people who turned 20 in the last year dress up in kimonos and suits and go to the city hall.  There the mayor gives a speech and they all drink their first beer.  We saw several young women in beautiful kimonos with little white fur capes and traditional sandals with covered toes.  Some of them had their hair done--just like girls do in the U.S. for prom.

Girl celebrating Coming Of Age Day

FOOD WITH ANNA
Anna served us amazing salmon, brown rice cakes, and salad with bean sprouts for our first meal with her.  For desert, we had rice balls on a stick with coatings of black sesame seed paste, carmelized soy sauce, and sweet bean paste--very good!  Good quality fish is very inexpensive here.  Anna also has a lot of fruit in her apartment.  Fruit is VERY expensive in the Osaka area where Mark and Steph live, but much more reasonably priced here in the north.  For breakfast, Anna eats natto, fermented soybeans, which we tried--it has a strong taste which one can aquire.  For lunch, she served squid innards over rice! This is another taste Anna is working to aquire. . . it is a slimy, fishy, worm-like sauce.  It was not something we would need to eat everyday. . . but we gave it a good try. We went to a bakery and each picked out a bread we wanted for the day.  Anna does not have an oven--just two burners with a little tray that you put water in to grill or toast with.

pickled eggplant sushi

ADVENTURES OUT AND ABOUT ON A SNOWY DAY
Our second morning in Sapporo, it was snowing (pretty much an everyday thing here).  Hokkaido is famous for skiing because the snow is dry and powdery. We hung out in the morning and I started a puzzle I brought along.  After lunch, Jess and I practiced going to Sapporo station with Anna along and we caught a shuttle to the onsen.  We enjoyed sitting in the hot baths outside--an earthen tub we both fit in and a salt/brine "fountain" tub--meaning the hot water was coming up through vents on the bottom.  The snow was coming down as we sat in the baths and it felt tingly on our arms and stayed in our hair.  The little girls were playing in the snow around the tubs and making miniature two-ball snowmen.  This onsen had an indoor walking pool, where you walk through a hot bath on pebbles and then up and down steps and through a cold bath pebbles.

On our way home from the onsen, we met Anna's friend, Aileen (whom we had met at the Japanese Embassy in Washington D.C. when we saw Anna off 1 1/2 years ago).  Eileen became a Christian last year when Anna invited her to church.  We went to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant together--walking in thick snow coming down.  When we entered the restaurant, I saw Elvis finishing his 20 plates of sushi--at least a man who looked JUST like Elvis!  We sat by a table with a conveyor belt going by.  We could take the sushi off the conveyor belt or order our own.  Each plate had two sushi on it and was 100Y or a bit over $1.00.  We tried pickled eggplant, shrimp tempura (deep-fried with a coating), sea eel, salmon roe (eggs), raw scallops, and many other kinds of sushi.  

OUR FIRST DAY "AT HOME"
Last night, I slept through the whole night for the first time here.  Because of jet lag, I had been waking up at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. each night and then napping midday.  Anna went back to work today after almost a month off with the holidays and vacation.  The sun is shining brightly!  Jess and I are enjoying a day of less walking (most days you walk 20 minutes to the station and back plus lots of other walking to get to the places you want to go).  We played our first game of Scrabble (Jess won 398-283).  We will plan to walk to a nearby grocery store to get fish for the supper we will make for Anna tonight when she gets home from work.

Sunny scene from Anna's balcony

Our first few days in Japan

laundry and bath area

A JAPANESE HOME

The room Jess and I slept in at the Bartstch's

Mark and Stephanie live in a fourth story condo that is about 1000 square feet.  Their building is called a mansion.  You enter and take off your shoes before you step up into the house.  It is considered very rude to wear or even set shoes down on the floor in the main part of the house. The entryway has a hall with a door to the bath and a door to the toilet.  The bath and toilet are always in separate rooms.  The bath has a room with a sink and mirror, their washing machine and a door to the bath area. (Most Japanese people do not own dryers.  They hang all their clothes outside to dry on their balconies.)   The bath area has a tile floor and a shower head and bucket, where you wash off BEFORE you climb in the deep and short-in-length tub. The tub is only for soaking.   Off of the main living area there are three rooms used for bedrooms.  Two of these rooms, including ours, have tatami mats.  Tatami (tah-tah-me) mats are closely woven bamboo mats that are uniform in size. You tell the size of the room by how many tatami mats it has.  These two rooms also have the traditional sliding doors with wood "lattice" frames and paper "window panes".  These doors are very beautiful--letting light in but offering privacy.   These doors face the balconies in our room.  Most homes in this southern central area of Japan do not have central heating.  The temperature here is about 30 degrees during the day.  They have gas heaters and a low heated "coffee table" with a blanket that comes down all around it.  You sit with your legs under the table and it is very cozy.  During the night, the heaters are turned off and we have an electric blanket.  The bath, toilet, and entryway are not heated--but they do have a heated toilet seat--which is very helpful!  There are windows on three sides of the condo.  The living area has huge windows with a beautiful view of the cities surrounding us.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Stephanie and I at the tea shop in her neighborhood

This part of Japan has continuous cities, one blending into the next, for miles along the coast.  The Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto metropolitan area has 18 millions people.  Ashiya, where we are staying is part of that area.  We can see Osaka, Kobe, Ashiya, and a couple other cities from the window.  We see many apartment buildings and "mansions" in this view from the window.  Most of these are several stories high.  The neighborhood Mark and Stephanie live in is more traditional--meaning is has some of the traditional style wooden homes.  The streets are very narrow and can fit only one car at a time.  Some of the streets are so narrow, they look like they are just for walking--but then a car squeezes by.  I love walking in their neighborhood.  Most people do not own a car--everyone walks and uses public transportation.  On a walk in the neighborhood, you will see old people walking, groups of school children in uniforms coming home from the train, and once in a while, foreigners.  There are lots of little shops, like the tea shop Stephanie and I went to.  There were just three tables to sit at and drink tea.  Mark, Jess, and I also hiked up the mountain from their condo.  We walked to a hiking path and then we were immediately "out" of the city in a semi-tropical forest.  The strenuous hike offered awesome views of the city.

FOOD ADVENTURES

Nabe mono soup

The first night we got here, Mark and Steph had nabe mono soup when we arrived.  There is an almost boiling pot at the table on a burner.  It has seaweed flavored "broth" with cooked cabbage and carrots in it.  Throughout the meal, we added fish, mushrooms, tofu and thinly sliced beef into the soup to cook.    Then you take out what you want to eat and dip it in sesame or soy/citron sauce.  YUMMY!

Noodle soup with sliced pork
at Chinese Restaurant

One evening we went to the Garden mall on the train.  This four story mall has a covered walkway directly from the train station.  There we ate at a Chinese restaurant.  We had dumplings, tofu salad, and Jess and I had noodle soup with sliced pork in it.  This was all very different that the Chinese buffets we have in the US.  At the mall, Stephanie and I enjoyed looking at a kimono store, shopping at a paper store, which had lots of pretty stationary, and looking at the fancy little Japanese dolls for sale for Girls Day, March 3.

English tea and scones.
(Note the golden syrup on the right--
if you ever get a chance--eat some!)

At the little tea shop, Stephanie and I had scones and English tea.  The scones came with clotted cream, jam, and golden syrup (which looks like honey but tastes closer to maple syrup).

Last night we had pounded rice that Stephanie's neighbor had made.  This is a traditional New Year's food.  We used a piece of seaweed (that is flat like paper) to grab the chewy pounded rice ball with soy sauce.  We also had rice balls with sweet bean paste in the center and a fresh strawberry--this is a sweet treat.  Oh, and Mark also made pizza in their little convection/microwave oven.  Japanese do not have traditional ovens.   We enjoyed all of these different tastes.

THE ONSEN

Yesterday we went on the train to the onsen by the bay.  A Japanese onsen is a public bath.  It cost about $10.00 (800 yen) and there is a separate bath for men and for women.  When you enter the bath, you put your clothes in a locker and sit at a little stool with a small bucket and movable shower head.  You complete clean yourself.  Then you are ready to enjoy the relaxing bath area, which includes many different types of soaking tubs and saunas.  Everyone is naked and you used a long narrow hand towel to discreetly cover yourself in between baths.  In the women's bath, there were women with toddlers, old women, middle aged women--everyone enjoying the soothing baths.  I tried  everything--the hot baths, a cold bath that I got in between hot baths, even this spot in one tub where they send a mild electric current through you!  That was the only thing I did not like--that felt freaky!  The Roman sauna was very steamy and my favorite.  There was also a salt sauna where you rubbed salt on the areas of rough skin.

Wedding kimonos at the mall.