Nihon Adobenchya: SUUTATO! And Japanese Style BBQs!

H-h-howdy there! :D

Lucie here, and feeling much more refreshed now that I’ve finally started to settle in. The first few days have been a little difficult, but, as they say, as soon as school starts (which it does for me, next week) I’ll get into a routine and get myself busy and not "floating in limbo land", so to speak!

But for now, things are still sketchy, and every day is a surprise. Today, for example, I walked into the living room only to see two giggling, completely naked grown men wrapping eachother with clingwrap, followed by four dancing bears holding rolls of toilet paper walking on stilts singing to me in Japanese whilst a bunch of foreigners did the moonwalk. On TV, of course. But Japanese tv is still so surprising… programs usually involve people dressing up in strange costumes and scaring eachother, people in fluffy tv mascot suits dancing merrily around stern-faced newsreaders, men in dresses (in fact, over here on tv, I see a man in a dress about twice a day… that's an official statistic!) and lots and LOTS of bad karaoke. It’s a guilty pleasure. Although, I did spend the other day putting socks on chairs:

Lol, Japan。

However, there are the genuinely awesome days. On my second day with my host family, I had the opportunity to visit my host family’s grandparents house, a charming Japanese style home complete with sliding doors, tatami mats, small shrines and pictures of the ancestors displayed on the walls (there was even a small, modest shrine built for “Dai”, their golden retriever that passed away last year whilst Mina was on exchange in Australia… Mina’s grandma rang a pretty little bell for him as she told me about him :’D ).

The grandparents, Yukio (but ‘Yuki’ for short, as the family like to call him) and Yoshiko (a very pretty grandma), were extremely kind and were quite enthusiastic about showing me aspects of Japanese life (for example, as soon as we got to their home, Yukio-san pulled out a bag of brown rice and asked, “Do you want to see them become white?” and an interesting and quite enlightening visit to a rice-polishing machine soon followed suit).

Stepping onto their property (only five minutes from the Machida appartment), I was greeted with the nostalgic smell of burning wood (almost like an Australian campfire… I love that scent!) and fields of cultivated land with sakura trees sprouting out from the earth. It was quite beautiful, in that rural way (like a Japanese version of Robertson, Australia). Apparently, the sakura there will be more beautiful as the weather gets warmer, so I’m looking forward to going back and taking lots and lots of photos then (たのしみにしていますよ).

Anyway, the highlight of the day was definitely the food. It was definitely a “try new things” day. Although, when Mina first divulged the fact to me that we were about to eat 牛タン 'gyutan' or ‘Cow tongue’, I have to admit… I was a little apprehensive. I mean… a cow’s… tongue… Old Bessie’s flapper… eat it?! Me?! Could I?!

I could.

Surprisingly, cow tongue was the tastiest meat of the day (goes to show that you have to try new things, right?). I also tried れば 'reba' or 'cow liver' (which was quite nice, if not a little gooey, but you should eat it with a really salty sauce to get the best flavour), こぶくろ 'kobukuro' or 'pig uterus' (very 　コリコリ　‘korikori’, gummy… it was alright, but I only tried one piece… I couldn’t get past the fact that I was eating an organ, ack! Actually, you know, I thought it was just an intestine until I googled it just now… uterus, huh?... my gosh! xD), かるび 'Karubi' beef and さし 'sashi' raw fish. These were all cooked on a Japanese style BBQ, and my gosh, it was such a feast!

I also really like 'tako', octopus, now! :D

The vegetables we cooked were しいたけshiitake mushrooms (also very delicious),　えりんぎ Eringi mushrooms, そらまめ　‘soramame’ or ‘sky beans’ (broad beans), はぼちゃ'habochya', pumpkin, さつまいも 'satsumaimo', sweet potatoe and たまねぎ 'tamanegi', onion.

The remainder of the day was spent relaxing under the family’s kotatsu,

a kind of low wooden frame that is covered by a futon and a tabletop, with a hole in the ground where you put your legs to warm up… its like a heater in the ground. There, under the kotatsu, the family gathered around to eat some very professional looking AND tasting sushi, served direct to us fresh from Mina’s Iron Chef-like uncle, a real sushi chef. It was definitely some of the tastiest sushi I’d ever eaten. I called him a ‘sushi samurai’… I mean, the way he swiftly put those delicate little morsels together was so swift and cleanly done that it was quite amazing! Upon us, he with the hurricane fingers rained down a hundred sushi!

The sushi samurai himself:

Oishiisou desu ne? :D Yokudekimashita!

Sushi: Tai, Salmon, Tuna, Clam, among others I've forgotten. Basically everything in the 'Under the Sea' sequence in The Little Mermaid. Except Sebastian. I'll get him later.

That day was definitely the highlight of my Japan stay so far, but I have also been to Karaoke (350 yen for 3 hours, wow!) with Mina and her friend Chinatsu, walked around AEON supermarket, taken two lots of Purikura and made delicious Takoyaki with Mina, Yumi and Mina’s friend who stayed over, Natsumi.

It was really tasty.

I’m actually looking forward to school and the prospect of being really busy and joining a club excites me. Eating delicious snacks like Kinoko no Yama every day, I know I’m going to get fat! たいへんですよ! でも日本で、すべてはおいしそうだから。。。;o;

Me being an idiot with dango

Also, walking around the streets of Oyama, everyone stares at me like I’m some kind of celebrity. At first, it was slightly off-putting (seeing people literally double-take every time they walk past me, and gawk for a few minutes before hurrying off) but I’m getting used to it, slowly. On the street, a Japanese baby was waving to everyone behind it, and, being polite, I waved back, only to be met with its puzzled eyes and gaping mouth (“What the hell are you?!” it seemed to be saying xD). Yes, that’s right! I even scare babies now! 8D

Warning: Here, the peace sign is infectious.

All in all it’s pretty hard, but I’m getting used to things! This week is supposed to be the hardest so I’ll がんばります. Thank you to everyone reading this back at home! :’D I’ll try and make these entries a little more interesting in the future (it’s hard to edit, though, because time is scarce and I shouldn’t be on the computer forever, but I’ll do my best).

- Lucie