Sunday, March 29, 2009

SUMO Sunday Sunday Sunday!!

This morning we woke up at 4:45am to line up for general admission tickets for the final day of the Sumo tournament. We got to the line outside of the Osaka Gymnasium and we were 30th in line at 5:30am. It was freezing cold, it felt like it was  below 32F.  Elgin wore 2 pairs of pants, 1 long sleeve t-shirt, 2 sweaters, a jacket, a cap, and a scarf, and he was still cold. Good thing we brought our snowboarding instant heat packets.  They expired 2 years ago but still held enough heat to keep our toes semi-warm.  While waiting in line for 2+ hours, we saw several sumo wrestlers walk into the stadium with only their robe and fabric wrapped bag. I’m sure they’re cold right? At 7:30am, the line for the tickets went around 2 sides of the block and we got our number to buy tickets. At 8:00am, the ticket booth opened and we got our 2 tickets! It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and we got the tickets! Sumo tournaments only happen 6 times a year, and we just happen to be here J So exciting!

The tournament began at 10am, but the semi-pros started at 1:30pm and pros at 3:15pm. We were so tired from waking up early to stand in line and keep warm, that we went back to the hotel to nap for a few more hours before the semi-pros started.  After our nap, back off to the Gym and begins our Sumo Sunday! We were greeted with a red carpet and roped off lines of people staring at us going into the stadium. We found out that any minute the best sumo pros were going to enter the gym shortly and the red carpet was for him with his fan club waiting. Did you know they are Sumo wrestling trading cards?!

We actually had seats and they were not nose bleed. The gym was designed well so every seat could see the middle clearly. If you’re wondering what they sell at the arena for snacks – they had souvenir stands that sold already cooked boxes of takoyaki (octopus dough balls), dried squid, and varieties of rice crackers and shrimp chips. Then they had who we call candy stripers sell green tea and vanilla ice cream.  On the premium seats closer to the center, it was actually pillow seating, not chairs. 

People would take off their shoes and sit on the floor with the provided pillows. They had special servers that catered to them, mainly men that wore traditional Japanese get-up of some sort. They served hot tea, bento boxes, and several gift bags of goodies. I believe the goodie bags were boxes of mochi sweets and red bean cakes.

Watching the tournament was interesting, each match was very quick, about 2 minutes or less. Two sumo wrestlers would go up, do some stretching and stomping, ceremonial cleansing, throw rice, and game, it’s over. You lose once you get knocked out of the circle or have any body part fall on the floor. It was amazing to see how the smaller guy would usually beat the big guys. There were some big guys that seriously needed a man-bra.

After the tournament we went to walk about Namba Park and Mall. HUGE mall and really nice stores. We shared a pork katsu curry rice plate at a curry house.  It was very good – very peppery and dark.  There was a couple next to us that each had their own curry rice plates and they scarfed it down hella fast. The portions were reasonably large because of the large amounts of rice. Japanese men and women really do consume at lot of rice, it’s amazing how much they can eat.

Fashion note: I’ve noticed that all the men and women like to style themselves like Japanese stars and commercial ads. Guys have lengthy hair. Both girls and guys dye their hair (bleach blonde, light brown, red). You can tell that they spend a lot of time of their looks before they leave the house. In the past few days, I’ve seen probably a 100+ girls wear these outfit – A. frilly mini skirt, black panty hose, knee high  boots, and short jacket OR B. short blue jean skirt/shorts, either panty hose or knee-high socks, short jacket and boots. You’d think they were cold, because we were. 

Osaka Takoyaki

This morning we planned on going to the Osaka Prefecture Gymnasium to buy day of general admission Sumo Wrestling tickets.  We knew the ticket booth opened at 8am, and overslept because the alarm didn’t go off. We ended up waking up at 8am and got to the gymnasium gates at 9:30am and the tickets were all sold out for the day. One of the guards said that people start lining up at 6am. I guess we’ll try again tomorrow.

We decided to have breakfast in this cafĂ© that sold pretty good croissants and a deal that included coffee. Then we went to the Swiss’otel to ask for directions and a bathroom break.  Their toilets had the works, not only the bidet, but seat warmers, a button to make fake flushing noises to distract others, and a strong refreshing smell to block odor.  I could do a whole segment on restrooms I’ve encountered here, but I’m sure

 most of you aren’t interested in what I’ve seen.  On a restroom note, at the hotel, I bathed for the first time in a traditional Japanese bathroom – locker room style with shower heads and a hot water tub, the only thing different is everyone sits on upside-down short buckets and  sits down to bathe.

We decided to go the Osaka Castle. When we got off the JR train, we noticed several women walking down the stairs into the train gates. It seemed a little weird with the amount of women but I didn’t think it was that big a deal. As we exited the train station the line of women grew and then it was like women everywhere. Women that were about 30-50 years in age, some dressed in kimonos and others dressed in nice dresses. I thought it was the Japanese league of women Bay to Breakers and Elgin thought it was some religious cult day for women in exile of men. Who knows what it was, but it was seriously thousands of women.

Any day now the plum and cherry blossoms will be in bloom. I know that I would have appreciated the Osaka Castle Park more if the blossoms were in bloom.  It was still a very lovely park with several people picnicking and tour groups roaming the area.

Osaka is known for their takoyaki (grilled batter dough balls with octopus).  We saw many takoyaki stands today and tried one stand at the park. So far, we like the Asakusa takoyaki stand more because they topped it better. After the park, we went to Dontomburi, known for its entertainment, lights, and food. There were lots of people shopping and just hanging out. I had my first encounter of harajuku girls today. A couple of girls dressed like lil’ bo peep – girls in big pink ruffled dresses with white stockings and heels with very cute doll face makeup.  They seriously looked like they lost their sheep. Then I saw other girls just wearing really loud colored clothing that didn’t seem to match anything. Not sure if that is categorized as harajuku.  Then we went into the Osaka Old Town Museum that had several food vendors like the Yokohama Ramen Museum.  There were several takoyaki stands, talk about competition.  We shared an Osakoyaki pancake that had chicken , egg, and vegetables topped with mayonnaise and the secret ingredient of most of their sauces – Worcestershire sauce J It was yummy. Then we went to another stand that made fluffy egg like takoyaki cakes. He made them in cast iron pans like takoyaki balls, but they were very fluffy and you dip them in a dashi broth. Yum!

In walking the streets of Dontomburi more, we found out that it was the entertainment district because there were several Pachinko (some type of pong ball gambling) buildings and strip bars and clubs. I couldn’t tell they were strip clubs because the open room you see is just a room with tables and chairs with a guy standing there. Elgin pointed out the pin up posters of the girls on the wall and the names outside of the buildings that said Girls only clubs. Who knew?

On our way back to train station, we stopped at a supermarket to grab a snack. We scored on 50% off discounted sashimi! A reasonably large portion for 490 yen ~ $5.00. What a deal!

Shinkansen to Osaka

**Our apologies to our loyal followers --We won’t be posting as many pictures for awhile because of the internet connection.  It takes too long to upload pictures because we have to use shared internet stations in the lobby**

This morning Mama made us a pizza toast. It was on texas toast and toasted to perfection with ham, potatoes, cheese, and veggies. We packed and then went on our way. We took the Hirake Shinkansen to Osaka for 3 hours.

Our hotel is nearby the JR Shin-Imamiya station.  Immediately we felt a different vibe from Kashiwa. It reminded me of the New York subways. Dirty, smelly, and you can feel the poverty around you. We checked into our hotel – our room is the size of 8 tatami mats that fits 2 futons. It’s small, but it’ll do for the deal we got it for.  Elgin feels like it is a little like jail since we have a small room, small tv, and have separate male and female bath times.  There are shared co-ed bathrooms on each floor and the traditional Japanese showers on the 1st floor. It’s like dorms again, but with toilets on the floor. Eww, I try to use the western toilet located only on the 1st floor.  Don’t fret though, Elgin and I will survive this experience!

For dinner, we went to Shin-sekai where the Tsutenkaku tower is. Kinda boring, not too much to see, a little sketchy, and not many people around here. We located the East Oakland sketchy alleyway and now we know where to keep away. Still though, I’m sure that I’m safer here that most places. For dinner, we had udon. If we can’t find a menu with pictures, then we don’t usually go.  So far we can only order by pointing at pictures. We’ve been pretty unlucky ordering from menus without pictures otherwise.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Asakusa


We went to Asakusa today. We visited the Sensuji temple and saw all the billions of street vendors with knick knacks and snacks. We ate pork tongue on a stick, octupus on a stick, fish cakes on sticks, and takoyaki balls.

Then we found a 100 yen store -- so much to see and so many cute things to buy :)

The best part of the day was coming back to the house for dinner. Shu made us something very special this evening. His famous secret recipe of udon and cold dashi broth, which we now call Shu-don, and make your own sushi.  Best sushi party ever!



Wednesday, March 25, 2009

"Solitaire, I own you!"

How to play Solitare - Your objective is to jump balls to make balls disappear and end up with one ball left in the middle of the board.

This is what we do for entertainment while on vacation on late evenings. Not sure how to enjoy Japanese television yet, but our homestay family owns this cool game called Solitaire. Elgin figured it out the first day we arrived, yet we couldn't win it consistently. Well, tonight, June was able to win it several times in a row and then we started timing it and challenging ourselves. June's fastest time using her left hand and not turning the board around was 1 min and 10 seconds. Let's see how Elgin did in the following video: "

--> we're whispering because it's past midnight and everyone is asleep :P

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Ueno Zoo

Breakfast: Mama made Shanghai scallion crepe with egg with leftover sides from dinner.


Today, Ueno Zoo showcased the largest bird collection we've ever seen. So many beautiful types of birds from all over the world. From love birds to condors to vultures. To lions, bears and hippos, oh my! Rhinoceros and polar bears, too! Little to say, June and I were in awe; sad, though, to see some of the creatures in small cages, but hopeful they had reason to be there.

- tons of trash and recycling bins at the Ueno Park


- the cherry blossoms are starting to bloom


- the happy couple :)


- funny bird names


- a monkey entertaining himself


- prettiest Mandarin duck i've ever seen other than the wood ducks


** for more animal pictures -be sure to check my Picasa link from an earlier posting

- my first encounter 0f green tea gelato


- my first encounter of green tea soft serve (yes, one after another)


- my dream come true!


Afterwards, we rushed back to Kashiwa station to go to the supermarket in the basement floor. As we shopped, the produce employees were yelling all sorts of things...we finally figured out that they were marking down prices on produce and announcing it loudly. This one guy had a shrieking voice that freaked us out, we wondered how he made that sound. We bought ground pork, which I counted on my fingers in Japanese to tell the counter person 'ichi, ni, san, 300g' and then counting again on my fingers to say 'ichi, ni, san, yon, 400g.' She laughed. We bought veggies, chicken, and pasta. We looked up the word for butter and asked a person where we could find the 'butta.' He pointed across the store, where we asked another lady, 'butta?' I picked up this package that looked like butter and the lady said something that sounded pretty close to margarine and pointed us to butter spread that was oishi. We found the block butter somewhere else, but our language barrier always leaves us laughing out loud.

After buying the groceries, we went up one floor to the desserts and pastry floor. We found a cake that was pink and celebrated the sakura, cherry blossom season. We told the cashier that we wanted one of those cakes by merely pointing with a smile and nodding. She brought out the cake and put it in a box. And then asked us something in Japanese, '...1 hour?' We didn't want it in an hour, so we told her in English, "no, now please." She asked again, and we replied the same way. We were thinking that maybe it took an hour to wrap it? or maybe there's a waiting time and they don't let us carry it out right away? We had no idea what the 1 hour was for! For about 5 minutes, we had the same back and forth of question and answer. Finally the lady next to us, who was just standing there the whole time, spoke to us in English, "she's asking you how long until you get home?' We said, "Oh! 15 minutes." The counter person wanted to know so she could put enough ice packs on the box to keep the cake fresh. Apparently all workers are strictly trained to recite the same questions and sentences whether or not the customer understands English. We stumped her so she was on "repeat". Thanks alot to the lady that was just standing next to us and probably laughing in her head. Too funny!

- it was actually a cheesecake


We got home and cooked for our homestay family. Pasta with bolognese sauce, cauliflower soup, chicken, garlic bread, and ratatouille (Yuki watches this movie every day). We just wanted to show them how thankful we were for their hospitality and generosity.

- 3 different types and colors of citrus with all different ranges of sweetness


- Yuki watching Ratatouille

Exploring Yokohama

I skipped this day in blogging, so the short story is -- We went to the Yokohama Ramen museum, ate a 4 different ramen stands, and tasted some very yummy broths and noodles.

Then we went to Chinatown -- all the steamed buns were very very expensive, like $5.00 a bun. There were actually panda looking buns.

Yokohama - lovely skyline and romantic ocean view

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Supamakedo = Supermarket

Our host family has been overwhelmingly generous to us. We wanted to show our appreciation but cooking for them today. We decided to cook breakfast. Elgin made a gigantic omelet with broccoli, onions, ham, cheese, and tomatoes. I chopped everything up and made a pretty fruit plate :)

After breakfast, Shu and Keisei took us to the supermarket! Elgin and I love the grocery stores, especially in different countries :) There were full sections of yakitori, tempura, ready meals to go (about $4.50 - $5.00 a box), really affordable sashimi ($4.00 for a over a dozen slices), and so much more! We have never seen such affordable seafood prices. The produce was the most expensive.

Then we went to Kashiwa Mall to pick up a birthday cake for Keisei's cousin for dinner. And in the mall, we passed by this adorable pet store. The lil puppies were too cute!

On the basement level of the mall, we walked in the doors and I swear I heard angels sing "ahhh". Cookies, pastries, cakes, and so many pretty things.. oh my!

- expensive rice crackers
- sakura cakes in celebration of the cherry blossom season

- fancy tea NOT perfume
- cute cakes in the shape of animals
- a gourmet apple the size of Elgin's hand - $16.00 for 1 apple!

We all cooked dinner together to celebrate Keisei's cousin's birthday.

Elgin made potatoe gnocchi, homemade pork sausage with mushrooms, turnips and carrots, and a salad with lettuce, japanese cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, shiso leaves, and, celery leaves.

Shu made pork chili, potatoe salad with egg, japanese cucumber, ham, and carrots, shiso wrapped onigiri with miso, and orange marmalade pork that was deeelicious!


Keisei made pork wrapped asparagus. It's a classic Shanghai dish. A couple of the asparagus spears are from their garden too.
And then we had a contest to see how much of these HUGE grapes you can fit in your mouth. Really no more than 2.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

ahh..the simple pleasures

Today, Elgin and I woke up with the sun shining in our eyes..a little bit later than usual, about 10am. For breakfast we had a traditional Japanese snack of rice balls on a stick and cream of corn soup. We were still very full from yesterday that we didn't have much of an appetite. Since we ate breakfast late, we skipped lunch.


It was a beautiful warm day. We went with the family to Kashiwa Park. There were several young families with their children playing and picnic-ing on the grass. We played frisbee, jumped rope, and badminton. There was also another huge jungle gym for all the children to play on. The park is a great place to people watch. The sights of the park were very peaceful.

there were duck paddle boats at the park!
a really unusual tree -->
plum trees

all the dogs are so cute here -- so many cute outfits and very well groomed
We saw a make-your-own-cotton candy machine. Elgin was eager to make it, yet, as a chef he didn't know how to swirl the cotton candy around the stick?? As you can see, Yuki appreciated it :)


For dinner, Shu cooked for us, it was oishi! --
- tofu soup with onions, burdock, daikon, and an interesting fish cake (translucent with black dots).
- burdock and carrots

- sticky pork
-japanese sweet potatoes
- salad with tomatoes, avocado, and pomelo


After dinner, we played games and just enjoyed everyone's company.
From a previous posting, I know what Yuki calls us now, it's "oni-jan" and "one-jan". "Oni" - older brother, and "One" - older sister, and the "jan" part at the end of the name is a cute way to address us. You can greet someone younger than you or someone cute to you with "jan". Or you can greet someone older than you with more respect with "san". Now I get it! :)