Apt Tour and Cow Guts

Kari Writes:

Hola friends!  As promised here is a little tour of our apartment:

Cool things to notice about the kitchen:  By the sink you can see a square outline on the floor.  This is actually a sweet trap-door for storing rice!  It's super airtight.  Also there is a step down to the front door. The floor is concrete and this is where shoes live.  Yes, even we Americans follow the Japanese shoe rules in our house!  So we get home, slip off our shoes and then step up into our house.

Our kitchen which is approximately the same size as our American apartment :p
On the right is our front door.

Our living room doubles as our bedroom (or vise-versa).  In Japan most people don't have actual bed frames or mattresses.  We have a closet full of "futon" mats and pads that we can set-up or hide away as we need.  We currently have it stacked three high for extra comfort.

From the front door looking in: This is our living room/bedroom.
When the sliding doors are open it connects to the kitchen for a nice open layout

 I call this room "the desk room" so I guess it's our office.  It hasn't really found its purpose other than being a  place to put our clothes and stuff!

The office. aka: where we put a bunch of junk for the time being.

 In America the bathroom is home to (generally) both the toilet and the shower.  Not so here in Japan!  If you think about it going to the bathroom and taking a shower are pretty opposite things - so why would you do them in the same room?  So we have an itty bitty toilet closet.  And the top of the toilet has a spout.  When you flush the (clean) water comes out the spout and then is used to refill the toilet bowl. Eco friendly!

The toilet room. Notice the spout on top of the toilet. 

So if you're looking at the toilet and take a left this is what you'll see:

The shower room

The sink/laundry area

We have a cute lil "egg style" washing machine over in the corner.  It does the job pretty well.  Though we have to hang-dry everything which can be a pain!

Then next door to the toilet room is the shower room.  You can see there is a tub but that is strictly for baths.  The floor of this room has a drain so you just shower away while standing next to a bath tub.  

Soooo that is our little house!  We're not especially looking forward to winter as we hear things such as "insulation" and "furnaces" don't exist here!

Yesterday we went with some of Ian's co-workers out to an apparently "world famous" Yakiniku restaurant.  Yakiniku is "Japanese Barbecue "  Basically you sit around a table that has a gas grill in the middle and they bring out all sorts of raw meats and veggies.  So you pop 'em on the grill till they are charbroiled, dip them in some yummy sauce, and enjoy.  You don't even need a plate - just your dipping sauce and chopsticks.

Yamane-sensei flipping the meat

There were some very interesting meats that came to our table.  Such as cow tongue and various intestines.

mmmm raw cow tongue!

intestines roasting on an open fire

 Ian and I both tried the tongue. The flavor was fine - but the texture was a bit difficult especially since we knew it was tongue. I would have much rather been oblivious about that one!  We both tactfully avoided the intestines.  That's still a bit hard to stomach (hahah get it?? stomach?? Oh I am funny).


Well that's all for now!  Feel free to comment on here or facebook if you have any questions that you're DYING to ask about life in Japan :)

-Kari

Sushi, phones, and Japanese Pizza?!?

Kari Writes:

Why hello there! You're probably thinking "what have Kari and Ian been up to lately??"  Well you're in luck!  Here's what we've been doing:

Every so often the Kotoura International Committee holds events and invites us foreigners.  Last weekend was just such an event.  It was held at the local Okonomiyaki restaurant.  Okonomiyaki was initially described to me as Japanese Pizza . ..

This is apparently "Japanese Pizza" don't be fooled -
there aren't any pepperonis hiding in there!

It's actually shredded cabbage, ginger, various veggies, and maybe meat.  Then you mash that all up with an egg - stick it on the SUPER hot cook surface in the middle of your table and let it cook.  Once it's all cooked you put on a bunch of different sauces and cut it up (kinda like a pizza).  It's a fun and interactive food process!  And super Japanese.  And of course after we ate our fill there we went to Karaoke!


I've started practicing with the girls 7th/8th grade volleyball team after school.  And man oh man was I sore after I joined their first practice!  If you want to feel old . .. do sports with middleschoolers!  And for some unexplained reason the way I do their blocking drill is particularly hilarious to them.  Apparently I'm very "cute-o! cute-o!"  But aside from them laughing at how old and American I am it's super tanoshii (fun).  And of course they think it's way cool to hang out Ian-sensei's cute-o wife!

Ian has been busy busy busy every day after school working with the Speech team.  They have a big English speech competition coming up and he is helping get them into top shape!  But this means he hasn't been home before 7pm for the last week!   Ian-sensei is very dedicated to his work!


I got the craziest, pinkest, most Japanese-y phone ever this week!

Ya!  The front has a sweet LED display that you can make do all sorts of patterns.  It's pretty hilarious.  And actually PINKER in person.  I figure if I'm going to get a phone in Japan I better go all out and make it the coolest memento of all time!!!  Also the best/funniest thing about Japanese phones is how incredibly tall they are!  The phone in its closed state is actually a bit bigger than Ian's American smartphone.  Sooo take two smart phones and stack 'em up to get an idea of the tallness.  I can't imagine that Japanese people have longer faces than Americans . . . . why such tall phones??!?

Seriously!  So much bigger than my face.

Today we went to a Kaiten Zushi - aka conveyor belt sushi.  The seating is "diner style" and there is literally a conveyor belt that runs in front of you and it's full of different types of sushi. .  You just grab whatever looks good to you when it passes.  In the middle are the sushi chefs makin' everything fresh right there.  The color of the plate indicates the price of the sushi.  At the end they tally up your plates and that's your bill!

One of my sashimi choices.

It's a fun experience - but I think i prefer the Mos Burger next door :)


So there you have it!  Consider yourself updated!

-Kari (and Ian)

See? Happy and healthy!

What a week!

Kari Writes:

*phew* my first (almost) week of living in Japan has been omoshiroi (interesting)!

Thursday we met up with Ellen and Mark (two other ALT's in the area) and enjoyed a wonderful meal at "Joyful".  Joyful is a great restaurant for many reasons - the one I am most grateful for is their menu - every single item has a big ol' picture!  So even if you don't speak a lick of Japanese you can't go tooo wrong when ordering.  They also have amazing shaved ice for dessert:

On Friday we had our first welcome party.  This was hosted by the Board of Education and included notable guests such as the Mayor of Kotoura and the Cattle Baron!  The food started out a bit sketchy aka: mostly raw choices.  But oh my goodness the beef was delicious (and cooked)!  Ian and I both gave little speeches and received a HUGE bouquet of flowers and some handmade ceramic cups.

 The best part of the evening was that we were home by 8:30pm!  Even though it was Friday everyone actually had "school" on Saturday.  Ian's Junior High was celebrating "Diversity Day" even I got to join in on the festivities and watch the students put on a play!  The gist was: boy and girl are in love and want to get married, boy is from a lower class than girl, girl's father objects, her grandfather convinces the father to change his mind, boy and girl get married.

So Saturday night was our SECOND welcome party.  This one was hosted by Akasaki Jr High and the attendants were Ian's fellow teachers at the school.  We went to an Italian restaurant.  Italian?!? Yup, you heard right!  It was a super small place (our group of  2 dozen filled it to capacity) but the decor was decidedly Italian.  Japanese Italian food was quite interesting. The salad came out first . . . and it had little octopus tentacles and other various fish bits on it! The next dish was squids covered in some sort of tomato type sauce. Definitely a twist on traditional Italian there!  We also gave speeches and then did some Q&A which was quite amusing at times.  After dinner we went to KARAOKE!  In Japan you don't do Karaoke in front of a bunch of strangers - you and your friends rent a room and get your own private karaoke machine (you can even bring your own snacks!)

Typical woman - always fall in love

So all in all Saturday was a great time!

Sunday we took a road trip to Yonago (~1 hr away) to check out Aeon (the big mall).

All in all it wasn't terribly different from an American mall. The food court even had McDonalds and Baskin Robbins!  Sunday was mostly a "running errands and shopping" kind of day.

Tooodaay aka Monday was probably the most interesting day of all so far!

We started the day by taking a walking tour of the neighborhood. We walked down to the Sea of Japan (a mere 10 minutes from our home).

These are the Wave Breaks all along the shore

Next we hit up Ian's favorite restaurant in town: Mos Burger. 

Generic MOS Burger storefront

Our specific delicious MOS burgers (and fries!)

While we were inhaling our wonderful burgers (Lettuce, Tomato, Mayo, and Teriyaki sauce) it started to rain. But we didn't let that dampen our spirits.  We were on a mission to drive around the area and find one of Ian's more remote Elementary schools he will be visiting once a week.  So we took a rainy drive through the Tottori country side

Mt. Senjosan!

We came across a pretty sweet looking Shrine right off the side of the road and stopped to check it out:

ooohh cooool

Unfortunately this pit stop ended up causing this:

Apparently the keepers of the Shrine (aka super angry hornets) were not too happy to see us and took it out on poor Ian!  He got stung three times - once in the ear and twice on his shoulder blade.  It clearly wasn't an enjoyable experience!  By the time we got home his whole armpit area was red and swollen PLUS he had welts on his wrists and other various spots that had not been stung.  This was a bit worrying to us so we decided to walk to our local clinic and check out the Japanese health system first-hand.  $15 got Ian a shot to help the swelling plus some sweet bandage action!

He is currently sitting next to me playing Madden 13 and feeling genki (happy/healthy). So not to worry!

See, I told you this week was omoshiroi!

Together At Last!

Kari Writes:

Greetings from Akasaki!!  After 40 hours of travel I am finally in our new home.

 If you're ever considering coming to Japan I would recommend a non-stop flight!  I ended up taking four separate flights to get here!  The LAX to Tokyo flight was just under 12 hours but it was definitely my favorite one - movies and TV on demand is a wonderful thing to have!  Especially since I decided I needed to stay awake for the last 9 hours of the flight to combat the 14 hour time difference!

After landing in Tokyo I took the free shuttle bus from the airport to my hotel.  The accommodations were nothing to write home about - but the toilet DID have a bidet and heated seat!  My "Japanese breakfast" was mostly potatoes and pastry- I wimped out on trying some of the more fishy options.

Hotel Room

Toilet controls!

Quick aside: Japanese commercials are all just a ridiculous as you would imagine - I have the TV on in the background as I write.  Just now I saw a commercial featuring a talking dog and Tommy Lee Jones with a uni-brow .

Getting from my hotel to the other Tokyo airport was surprisingly easy.

The view from the shuttle bus on the Tokyo highway














I had very good timing and short lines so I ended up at my gate a good 5 hours before takeoff.  I suppose I could have tried to explore Tokyo a bit before going to the airport but all my travel efforts would have been in vain if I missed this last flight!  It took me to Yonago - a large city about an hour away from Akasaki - where my wonderful husband was waiting for me!


Ian's supervisor, Tanioka-san, was kind enough to be our chauffeur so we could catch up with each other instead of worrying about directions!  We live in Tottori Prefecture which is the least populated prefecture in Japan!  This means that there is actually a good amount of green space wherever you go.  It really doesn't feel all that different from Wisconsin - except of course for the Mountains to our east and the Japan Sea to our immediate west!

Once we got to Akasaki I had to go fill out some paperwork at the office - well Ian filled a lot of it out for me.  Ian is quite good at Japanese - don't let him tell you otherwise!  After that we stopped at Akasaki JHS where Ian spends most of his time.  I met a TON of people whose names I definitely don't remember.  When meeting someone in Japan the most important phrase to say is: Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.  It basically means "very nice to meet you."  So far anyone I have spoken to has been impressed that I can say even one word of Japanese - hooray for low standards!

This weekend we have not one but two welcome parties!  It will be very interesting to be at a Japanese party - my plan is to smile, nod and pretend I know what in the world is going on!

Stay tuned for a tour of our apartment (once I clean up and take some decent pics!)

-Kari