Thrift Store Fun

Some lovely finds at the thrift store, or as they call it, the recycle shop.

This store is called Kimble and it's off the Sengen-cho stop off the Higashigama Line. I've been here three times in 5 days.

Here's a few gems from the Engrish, 80s American pop culture, clothing and cool vintage furniture racks:

2010 We got divorced!

That might be a KISS piggy bank. I might have bought Paul.

This message can never be put out.  Go, Smokey, Go!

Perhaps not the best idea while driving.

$17 for this gem! I wish I had space. And wasn't so tall...

Christmas Light Godzilla attacking wires.

You tell me what this is.

So Aloe Yogurt flavored, eh? Awesome.

$3 for this super awesome rocker I wish I had.

How is a rocking chair $3 and an Owl light $35

Skin Pictures indeed.  I want the jellyfish peenhead.

The technology here is insane.

Naming portable gas cans "My Bombe" is perhaps a fail.

I don't know what it is, or how it couples without tears.

Quite possibly the most terrifying snowman ever. Its like he has burn scars, if that's even possible. Such a good attitude though, you know?

$1! Score, I am so Mary Tyler Moore-ing it tonight!

Kid's community undies.  Better blow this up to read.

Highest indeed, my friends.

Angry Poo(h).

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Location:２丁目,Nagoya,Japan

I like to eat a lot.

One of the reasons I was excited to move to Japan was because of the food.  I love Japanese food to the max.  About 90% of the time I would go out to eat in Los Angeles, I would end up in a Japanese place.  Well, it's a lot different living in Japan.

To be honest, I'm not sure how the Japanese live so long on their diet.  Maybe because they eat a lot of naturally preserved foods, it helps preserve their bodies or something because literally there is so much frying, batter, soy, and grains being ingested I don't know how they are alive.  I also don't know how to read the menu so maybe I'm missing...everything.

Pizza bao isn't cheating right?

Unfortunately, I haven't eaten too much Japanese food since I got here.  I've had McDonald more than I would like to admit publicly, but its publicly obvious while I tuck my muffin top down into my pants. 

I resisted painting the shells pink.

I've also hosted a taco night, eaten an American style Christmas dinner, made regular sandwiches (which they can't seem to get right here) and eaten a lot of bao (Chinese style steamed buns) from the convienie stores.  My work makes it hard to eat well bc we get small breaks in between classes, and my lack of Japanese language ability makes it damn near impossible.  Here's a taste of what I've had so far:



1. Miso-Katsu

blarf.

Nagoya is actually famous for miso-katsu (mee-so cat-tsew). It's pork that is breaded and fried with a sweet miso-based sauce on top. 

I accidentally ate some one day between classes.  I went by a place next to school.  I walked by 5 times trying to figure out what the hell they served and what cost what on the menu.  Was that a special lunch only menu? Crap.

It's not on my list of favorites, its pretty fatty and I will say I barfed up 10 times later that night.




2. Okonomiyaki

nom nom nom

I love this crap.  I know I talked about it before, but I'm giving it double props.  Its shredded cabbage mixed in an egg and flour batter.  You can mix in any ingredients you want (all savory, please) and then you throw it on a griddle pancake style, cook it until it's nice and browned, and then paint it with some brown fish sauce, a bit of super thick Japanese mayonaise (what what heart attack!), and finish it with a few dancing bonito (fish) flakes.

A place by the school allows you to make your own, but after an ordering debacle (I thought it went well...) the chef made mine in the kitchen.  Lame.  I chose cheese, bacon and octopus.  Shrimp can suck it.  I also drank some supposedly green tea that smelled more like brown rice tea, and then proceeded to hallucinate for 45 mins.  Check please!



3. Green Tea Jelly

You can stuff it with red bean also.

I had this as a dessert dish at our Bonenkai last night.  It's like a lighter version of jell-o, and made from matcha (green tea).  It wasn't sweet and was topped with powdered soybeans, which were actually suprisely sweet.  I ate mine and then stole someone else's.  You snooze you lose. And I eat more. Surprise jelly feast!


5. Ramen:
I've also been eating a bunch of ramen, and unlike in the States, its perfectly acceptable here.  No judgment of your economical status.  I no longer have to eat ramen in shame!  So, a little history lesson: Instant Ramen like we have all had from the styrofoam cup that destroys the world, was made by a Japanese man attempting to allow busy workers to enjoy this national dish on the go.  Arigato gozaimasushita, Momofuku Ando-san!


Real ramen has totally different noodles and comes in almost as many varieties as Cup-o-Noodles (see here: So many flavors of ramen love.) and depending where you are in the country either the noodle quality or the soup quality is the main goal.  Oh, and you sllluuuurrrrppppp!!!!! up the noodles to show how much you are enjoying them.

Anyways, since I have so many different types of ramen and instant ramen at my fingertips, I may or may not scoff at my old pal Cup-o-Noodle in favor of ramen that is more like the original.

I bought this at my grocery store in the fridge section $3

 Just add hot water! and Voila real noodles, egg and pork!

Damn those are some awesome looking noodles and coasters.

For those of you that have been to Daikokuya with me in LA.  They have the same type of ramen at 7-11 on the shelf waiting to be loved long time.  I got the spicy kind and I think the little "3" on the package means for 3 people, but I'll just continue to pad my muffin top and eat it all myself.







I'll take the camera to the store soon.  For the record, it's not that expensive to live here as you might think.  I got a  6 piece sushi/4 piece sashimi combo with a tallboy and salad for about $6 tonight at the local store.  Awesome! And even though I'm in Japan, it doesn't get much better than Mitsuwa in Little Tokyo to be honest. But it is pretty nice to live within walking distance of 3 grocery stores, a Walmart type place, and about 700 convenience stores. 

Japanese shopping cart!

All Things Kawaii

Sometimes I think Japan is made up of ice cream and marshmellows that puppies dressed as kittens and kittens wearing puppy-dog ears have randomly tossed together with their paws while playing on clouds.  The clouds are smiling with big eyes and even bigger eye lashes. 

Acid trip or factual depiction of Japan? You decide. 

If you said acid trip, EHNT!  Japan actually has a word for things that are unbearably cute: Kawaii.  Its a combination of two kanji characters (the ones they borrowed from China) that mean "can love". 


It's hard to be mature when absolutely adorable things are surrounding you at every second.  And it's also true that everything is smaller over here, and we all know making something small automatically seems to make it cuter. If they can make something small and cute they will.  I'll be keeping a log of everything that has been Kawaii-ified, so you can just search under the "Into The Kawaii" label whenever you need a pick me up.  CAUTION to any diabetic friends, get your insulin ready.

So, I spent the past few days shopping for crap to jazz up my house.  I'm finally staying somewhere for a long time, and I am going to make it as homey and permanent as possible.  Oh, and apparently cute.

Warning: If you hate penguins, frogs, owls or cats DO NOT continue.

Fuck yeah penguin light! $7 at the recycle shop

My swiffer is a blue smiling cat now. Or is that a bear? Whatever it is, its fucking cute.

Just hanging out with my frog loofa!

Frog Magnet that doubles as a "Holy shit that plate is hot! I need something to pick it up with" thing.

There were many things (like a smiling snake dish sponge that wraps around the fauct neck) that I decided not to buy because it was almost ridiculous, but they might worm their way into my apartment sometime in the future. Cute little jerks.

Engrish: A Love Story.

Here's the first installment of all the beautiful Engrish I find throughout my time in Japan. 

Decorate the side? And it's nice to see giraffes and hedgehogs finally getting along.

I can't decide if this leans towards constipation or being sexual.

 

So Rhue.

Ok besides the fact this makes no sense...Heating??!  

Ok, so this one isn't Engrish, but I wanted some ideas on what flavor gummy this was exactly.

Water flavored?

Seriously? This is from an American restaraunt.

Nippon no katei seikatsu

So let me explain a little bit (what little bit I know so far anyways) about domestic life in Japan.

Tatami Mat Floor Apartment

Japan is known for its fantastic use of space.  Standard apartments are usually one room (some with a sliding partition) and a small kitchen and bath area.  Traditional style apartments have woven tatami mat floors and this is the unit of measurement instead of say, "square feet"- you would say "its a 6 tatami mat room" or something like that.  The average size is about 183sqft which makes my downtown Artshare living look luxurious.

When you apply for an apartment in Japan you pay a large deposit AND something called key money.  Its very rare that you ever get any of that money back.  You also pay first and last months rent.  A cool thing is that you can pay all your bills at the 7-11!

One annoying thing about Japanese apartments is that they literally come with NOTHING in them.  You have to buy your fridge, stove, A/C, etc.  Any appliances you must buy and they aren't keen on 2nd hand items so sometimes this can be expensive. But sometimes as a foreigner you can find people leaving the country that just want to get rid of their stuff because it costs money to dispose of large things...which leads me to another thing that I'm trying to get used to: sorting trash.

You have to buy special color coded bags in Japan and sort the shit out of your trash.  Red bags are for burnable garbage like food scraps, non-recyclable papers, cardboard, etc.  Blue is for recyclable items- each type must go in its own bag: PET bottles, plastic, paper and glass.  Green is for something else. And, almost EVERYTHING in Japan is recyclable, which is awesome, but sorting the trash takes time- cutting the boxes up, rinsing things out, separating paper stickers from plastic food wrap, etc.  

typical trash bag

Even trash bags in Japan can be cute

Depending where you live you have to drop off the bags at different recycle centers on certain days by certain times, but not too far in advance.  Otherwise, you can drop off bags the day of, before 7am or 8am in this cage thing.  I guess there's a huge crow issue with the garbage.  If you have it sorted wrong or put the wrong color out on the wrong day, they leave it with a big message for you.  

I didn't know my days until yesterday, and had tons of garbage just hanging out having a rotting party in my kitchen.  Awesomepants!

And, they don't take electronics or anything besides what goes in the bags.  You have to arrange for a special pick-up that costs money.  

So my apartment is a modern Japanese apartment with a security entrance, front and back balcony (with built in clothes drying racks), hardwood floors and a little sleeping loft.  There's no storage, two shelves and I can't nail anything to the walls.  I have a one burner kitchen with no counter space, and a toilet separated from the washing area.  I'm saying washing area because my whole bathroom is plastic.  It has a sliding door, plastic walls, plastic floor and the sink is halfway in the shower.  The bathtub walls are about 2 or 3 times higher than in the States.  The shower head is connected to the sink, and you have to twist a knob (That's what she said) to change the flow of water from the sink faucet to the shower head.  

When I asked for a shower rod and curtain, I felt stupid.  I was informed that Japanese people a) don't put the mat in the bathroom, but outside and b) don't shower in the tub.  The bath is only used to relaxed not for cleaning, and so you step out of the bath area and shower standing up in the rest of the bathroom.  I mean, looking now, it makes sense- there's a drain in the floor by the sink.  There is also a very low seated soap dish under the sink that keeps me perplexed as to its purpose.  Sometimes I picture Cleo lathering up a bar of soap down there getting so fresh and so clean. 

Oh! That's another thing- in Japan I think you can't have animals unless you have a big enough place, or else its considered animal cruelty.  Kinda cool, kinda sucky.  There are two stray cats that hang out by the bike rack and I want to take them inside so bad.  The cats here are smaller, and have round faces.  I guess people do resemble their pets.  OH SNAP.  No, but really, the cats are ADORE. 

Japanese Business Cat

Back to the apartment.  So the toilets have little faucets on top of them (and what a bummer I don't have an electric toilet seat that warms my bum or makes fake flushing noises to hide farts or the sound of plopping turds).  Call me crazy, but I can't bring myself to wash my hands in the toilet faucet.  

So, a week in, and I'm waiting for my washer and a chance to get a table.  The cardboard box is working ok now, but I feel like moving on up soon. 

 Here's a video of my apartment. Come in, and take off your shoes.

But watch at your own risk, its more "Cloverfield" and less "Forrest Gump"

Gaijin in Disguise

My first week in Japan was off to a terrible start.  If I was the type of person who believed in signs, I would have thought I made a terrible mistake and was being punished by the universe. 

Sick masks with style

I got in Friday night, suited up early Saturday morning still feeling a bit like shit and walked a cold seven minutes to school.  I thought I was doing a pretty good job of blending in.

Sick mask on, check. 

Dark hair, check. 

Yellowish skin, check. 

Business attire, check. 
So why was everyone politely staring at me with disgust? Then, I heard it. 

CLOMP! CLACK! CLOMP! CLACK!

View of my street from my balcony

Bummerpants.  I sounded like an elephant in clogs running down the street.  Japan is super quiet, no one ever wants to disturb anyone, and my heeled-boots were quite plainly the most raucous thing on the street.  Whoops.  Strike 1. 


I would encounter many more strikes this week, so many that I should probably have been kicked off the baseball team of Life. Like that morning in preparation for suiting up when I forgot every science lesson I ever had on the required temperature of water to turn to steam. In lieu of having any hangers yet, I cleverly slipped on my jacket and began to steam iron it.  That lasted a whole second before the 212ºF burn registered in my brain and about an hour for it to fully register on my arm. 



I've also learned that when you look somewhat Japanese, you can't get away with the wide-eyed blank stare to say you don't understand Japanese.  They just think you are mentally retarded.  This thought is only confirmed for them when the look is combined with the fact you are trying to buy a Tester bottle of lotion.  She may have been trying to tell me it was a tester, and I may just have kept smiling and nodding.  Thank god my friend heard her say something about a sticker, and then alerted me with a thunderous laugh so loud that it alerted everyone else.  Shit like this keeps happening.  Sometimes I confidently slap down my money only to find its not enough as I am walking away, or I walk away without my change.  Or most embarrassing is when I decided to suck it up and use some of the Japanese I did know and to use it confidently.  Result: I said "Please." to a woman instead of "Thank you."  It doesn't seem like a big deal, but in true Japanese fashion: I was embarrassed by my muddle.


Note to self: Learn how to say you don't speak Japanese in Japanese.


So, my first week was filled with these sort things, whenever I was out- which wasn't often.  I was sick for almost all of it, either coughing, snotting or throwing up.  So that's nice.  But, there were a few wins here and there to keep me on my feet. 

White packet of warmth

My second night here, Kali, her boyfriend, Shigae, and I went to an Izakaya.  It's like a Japanese-style pub or tapas bar.  When we left, the hostess handed us these little white packets.  I was excited to receive whatever gift it was, but even more excited when Kali and Shigae showed me what it was.  This packet is full of magic, and when you shake it, it starts to heat up.  So on cold Nagoya nights, you can hold them in your pockets to keep warm on your walk home.  Score!


The next day, my first day off, I took a walk to McDonalds for breakfast (Fail.  The second time eating American style fast food in Japan and its only my 3rd meal).  On the back, I stopped into K's, an electronics department store.  Holy shit, things are expensive.  Some shitty hair dryer for $40, a water kettle for $70, yet flatscreens are like $80.  I perused and took a mental inventory for future needs and in the last isle on the last floor, I found my friend, The Heater.  I victoriously took him up to the register and pretended to know what she was saying for a whole 5 seconds before giving up and meekly muttering "English" followed by an embarrassed laugh.  She asked me to fill out some paper with my name, phone and address.  I told her I didn't know them and she said "Our secret, ok." and soon I paid and was out the door with my new best friend. 


I spent the rest of the day walking around trying to find a towel.  It would take almost a week to accomplish this task, much to my and my sweatshirt's dismay.  I finally located a "dollar store" in a mall and bought the shittiest towel I have ever seen, actually I bought two.  I filled my basket with domestic needs- cups, plates, cutlery, pans, sucker hooks, dish towels, knives, plants, etc.  In total I spent about $70 which is way better than what happens to me at Ikea.


Another epic win, especially in times of feeling sick, was the discovery that one of our other schools in Motoyama is directly behind this store that sells imported foods!  Sure a box of Kraft mac n cheese is like $4, but at least its there, and so are pretzels, Appletizers, cereals, CHEESE, ground coffee and fresh baked French pastries!  And if I get sick of all that, there's two Japanese grocery stores (Mitsuwa is better) and a takoyaki food truck just blocks from my place!


Now, if I can only find a cool bar.

okonomiyaki set w/ miso, veggies, potato salad, fish, rice