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Published: August 7th 2009
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Collon
one of my teachers gave me some collon to eat I've been taken out by various people while I've been here - the school when I arrived, the English teachers as a goodbye-hello lunch for Nina and me, my landlady for the same reason, the English teacher at my second school, and 2 nice ladies who like to do Eikaiwa. I've also gone to several restaurants with Nina, who's been showing me around the area.
The English teachers at my school There are 5 female teachers and 1 male. Everyone except the male teacher went to lunch, which I found out was because he's taking driving lessons. It's different over here - the courses are intense and only take a couple of weeks to complete before they take the test, which is done on a course instead of the actual streets. A lot of people don't pass first time (which I guess could be the same back home, but I don't really know coz I passed first time - I'm awesome like that), and luckily we Brits don't have to do the Japanese test to drive here, just get an International Driving Permit. Yanks, on the other hand, have to take the Japanese test because they're not very clever (
disclaimer Yakiniku
yummers! - for the PC brigade and those that can't tell, the last sentence was a joke. One that most non-yanks get. Altho they say there's always a little truth in every "joke"...)
So Nina and I went out for lunch one day with the female English teachers to an Italian(!) restaurant. Nina isn't a huge fan of Japanese food, so she goes to a lot of international restaurants here. Shame, as Japanese food is so good, and the Japanese version of Italian food is really tasty, but definitely not Italian! It's been Japanified so if you're looking for real Italian food, it's a big no no, but if you know what to expect, it's still nice. I had the basil risotto, while most of the teachers got the garlic and prawn spaghetti. The bread was yum.
The landlady Her name's Reiko, and she owns the cafe downstairs with her husband, and employs another Reiko. She seems nice, as does Reiko mark II. I went for dinner with the 2 ladies and Nina - they took us to a yakiniku place, which was soooo good! She made us all do a self introduction, and I tried a Calpis sour
Japanese sugar
it comes flatpacked! drink - tasted like watered down Calpis... She gave me towels as a welcome gift, with a really cute Rainbow Bear on them. I shall use the small one as my hand wiping towel at school (they don't provide any means of hand drying in the school toilets).
The English teacher at my second school So I have another school for 1 day of the week, which is based up in the hills. The view is beautiful! It's a bit like what I imagine some parts of Switzerland to look like with the hills on the side and water in the middle. The bus takes about 40 mins to get up the hill, and on the way is the Anpanman Museum, which I'm SO going to check out one day! The English teacher at this school is young and really sweet. They've got her building the school mascot out of cement!! Maybe I'll offer my help when I start in September...
I got a nasty migraine while I was up there though, and felt really sick. All I wanted to do was lie down and sleep, but I trudged on and said I'd go for lunch. I'm glad
Japanese grapes
how huge are they???! I did, because in the end the food really helped my nausea! Maybe it was a combination of hunger and heat. If I'd known that lunch would make me feel 100%!b(MISSING)etter, I would've opted for something other than the zaru-udon I had. I thought at the time that it would be the least likely thing on the menu to make me throw up. But the special of the day was a croquet set, which looked really nice. Dagnamit!
The Eikaiwa ladies I met up with the 2 ladies that Nina had been doing English conversation sessions with in exchange for dinner at Marisol cafe, which does a combination of Japanese and non-Japanese foods. They were really friendly, and I informed them that Alex might be taking over. I ended up going for the baked seafood curry, which had apparently been on telly before, due to what I'm assuming is its originality. I've never seen it anywhere else before. It's basically Japanese curry with seafood baked with cheese on top. It was so good - no wonder it's been on telly! I'm thinking when Alex arrives, we'll both do the session together for a while...
Nina's suggestions The
Chocolate waffle
with banana, kiwi, cream, and topped with a sprig of mint (do they come in sprigs?) first restaurant she took me to was Hey, Paula - the okonomiyaki restaurant. The next place was the udon restaurant opposite the school. We went there with a couple of students who wanted to have a farewell meal with Nina. I got tenzaru udon - yummers!!!!! So good =D It was cheap to - but I didn't have any small change and ended up paying with a JPY 10,000 note! Would never be able to get away with doing that in London without some tutting and/or disapproving looks. Obviously if I tried to pay with a Japanese note I'd be laughed at, but what I meant was the size of the note - not the dimensions, but the denomination...
We had lunch at a bento restaurant in Nankoku, which was good. I ended up getting zaru soba, which I thought would come as part of a bento, but it didn't =( Oh well, live n learn. That'll learn me for not being able to read the kanji!! I did however, get the chocolate waffle for dessert, which was basically a waffle cut up into triangle quarters and stood up to surround kiwi and chocolate in the centre, with kiwi pieces and cream dotted around and a half-banana on either side of the plate, which was drizzled with chocolate sauce - looked as good as it tasted!
We also went to Sala in Nankoku, which is a restaurant that looks like it's standing in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by bamboo plants. We got there at 11:30 for lunch! I'm getting used to eating earlier what with the whole inaka living. Brekkie at 07:00, lunch around 12:00 and dinner between 18:00 and 19:00. No more late nights for me...! The restaurant was playing some jazzy muzak, and the layout made me feel like I was waiting in some posh place. Plus the toilet there is REALLY nice!!!! They even have some ear buds on offer. The food itself was so good - the special was on for JPY 880, and was made up of miso soup, rice, potato salad, hijiki, agedashi tofu, chicken in tomato broth, purin, green tea, and any drink (I got apple juice) - bargain!
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