On Sunday before Christmas the family went on a Christmas lunch cruise around Tokyo Bay. Lunch was spectacular and I'm going to put the details of that on my food blog. Anyway, the host fam, along with all Japanese, love Christmas. In November the Christmas onslaught began, everywhere had the music playing, the sales going, the stores were all packed. There were christmas trees in most public places, and I already posted the pic of Santa outside the butcher. Speaking of stores, I don't know what the atmosphere [View Full Entry]

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In my mad rush to the beginning of winter break, I didn't put any posts up. The photos and stories just built up. Then in my mad rush to party when winter break began, I didn't publish anything. So this is the start of a long string of posts...Boroichi is one of the signature events in Setagaya. It is a two day long flea-market that happens december and january 15-16. If you can imagine it, its at Boroichi. Every type of used and new goods, plants, animals, food. It was incredible and only a 5 minute walk from our house. I [View Full Entry]

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I had a full week of presentations, speeches, papers, in more than one language. Looking forward to an awesome winter break of all kinds of surprises with the host family. They never stop amazing me. This weekend on Friday went to a nomikai with some new people from a student band that played at the school. Saturday I went to a neighborhood christmas party (first of many to come) and played a little trombone. I had some christmas music shipped here just for that. On halloween made a promise to play at a christmas party. Everyone loved it. It was great [View Full Entry]

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New rule in Tokyo...if someone invites you to do something, go do it. This is true for the family, friends, or whoever. I hear some crazy stories about amazing moments that people stumbled into while studying abroad in Tokyo. I think I had my first one this past weekend. I was invited by a friends to go to a christmas party for a Japan finance organization. We went and had a great time, did some networking, etc. We were the youngest there but no one seemed to care. After the christmas party ended at the restaurant we went out for a [View Full Entry]

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Happy (late) Thanksgiving to everyone! They have Christmas in Japan but thanksgiving doesn't happen. I miss it. I hope everyone back home ate a ton of turkey and mashed potatoes then passed out on the couch. It wasn't the American thanksgiving, but just by coincidence, on Thurdsay we had a massive meal with quite a few guests over. No turkey, but it felt good to be around a table with a bunch of people eating a ton. I'm going to put the details of the meal on my food blog so take a look here. I did get a [View Full Entry]

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Long weekend (AGAIN!) Family decided to make the mad rush for Kyoto on the peak weekend for fall leaf viewing. These fall colors (kouyou) are known all over Japan and the world, especially the Japanese maples (momiji). For about 2 weeks Japanese news has been showing these leaves. Family guy fans...picture the episode of the new yorkers who rush Quahog, RI. This place was packed in a way I've never seen before. Family loves intense vacations. We got up at 5:30 on Saturday morning to hop on the Shinkansen, bullet train, to Kyoto that turned an 8 hour car ride into [View Full Entry]

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We know nothing is more American than apple pie. Apple pie is the symbol of the the warm, good, comfortable things that I love that I left behind in America and can't get in Japan. However there is more to America than apple pie and some of it isn't warm, good, and comfortable. Just think to yourselves, have you ever run into a Japanese tourist and thought ill of them or their behavior? Have you run into any tourist or international and thought ill of them? I know I haven't. Recently I've had a few run-ins with American exports that were [View Full Entry]

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So I looked at all the pictures I had taken over the past week and sure enough...all pictures of food. I'll save that for last. It was a busy week. I had 3 presentations to give in my classes, all Japanese classes so I was working pretty hard. We also had a grammar test and the usual Kanji quizzes. On the language, I'm feeling better about it. I spend a lot of time with the host family this past weekend and we were just kind of talking about things. Nothing complex or unusual, just things. They had a few people over [View Full Entry]

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Japanese love festivals and days off. This past weekend plus Monday was "Culture Day" which means its time for Wasedasai - a tremendous gathering of students from all over Tokyo and the Waseda-Keio baseball game. But first, the weekend before, was another festival. The obi-sai festival. It's essentially homecoming minus the game. The campus was packed with Alumni, the Waseda alma mater was sung probably about 50 times throughout the day. There were performances by the brass band, cheer leaders, tap dancers...just endless. I took part in the cooking with the Waseda International Club. [View Full Entry]

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It has been played out millions of times before: Natto vs. Gaijin... Some love it, some hate it, there is no in-between. One rule...the Natto always wins. Natto is fermented (rotting) soybeans. They are sticky, stringy, pungent, everything you could imagine in rotting vegetable matter. Natto causes a 50/50 split with all people, Japanese and Gaijin (foreigner). You either love it or hate it. First time I had it, the flavor was so different I couldn't make a call. The second time was my day of reckoning, the moment of truth, whose cuisine reigns supreme? I've taken a liking [View Full Entry]

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