NHK gear + (Shopping Day)

Today I went shopping because there were computer issues preventing me from accomplishing anything. It's OK! I will make up the time this weekend once it's fixed.

Things I bought while I was wandering around Shibuya:

- one (1) water bottle at Mono Comme Ca (because I forgot mind in San Francisco). I actually like this one even better, since it's orange, which is the color I wanted in the first place. It comes with a freezable insert, so you can keep your drink cold.

- one (1) repurposed-into-a-skirt Lucky Band jeans. It's the waist and butt of the jeans (fly etc.) but no legs, instead a fringe of (also repurposed) neckties. There are even giraffes! (FB pix soon...)

Things I bought once I found the NHK shop:

- はなかっぱ plushie. He's soooooo cute. Pix on FB.

- はなかっぱだいずかん It's like a picture encyclopedia about the show, Hannakappa.

- はなかっぱはなしシリーズ１ It's a picture book with stories from the show. I REALLY LIKE HANAKAPPA YOU GUYS.

- three 花根付 (Hannakappa strap figurines...like keitai straps, basically) I got one "secret" one, which is the main character, Hanakappa, with a weird big smelly flower on his head. Then also the dad, and one of the "villains." These come in a capsule toy machine, and I'm looking for people to trade with to collect them all.

- three はなかっぱカプセルシール They are packs of tiny little stickers you buy in a capsule toy machine.

- どーもくんコレクション１９９８−２００８ DVD It's the 37 Domo-kun spots from NHK through 2008. He is their mascot, and also really cute :)

-教えて！ニュースのことば Actually I'm super excited about this book. It is from the NHK Weekly Kids News people, just published this year, and basically...it's a book to help Japanese kids understand the news. I.e., the perfect glossary to current issues in an easy to understand format and no need to recognize all the kanji immediately, since there is ample furigana (hiragana written next to the kanji to show the pronunciation). I'm gonna learn a TON.

Anyhow, mostly, you can tell I am a big はなかっぱ fan. I wake up in the morning, watch his show, and then go to the pool and pretend I can swim as well as a kappa :P

The best thing about Roppongi is...

Azabujuuban. Ok, it's not Roppongi, but it is next door. When the Hills feel a little too much like a mall, a little too chic, Azabujuuban brings the cute and cozy. I really truly love it, hopefully not only because I'm a girl D: Maybe it's not as "Japanese" as some areas, but I'm fond of Euro-J fusion (esp France and Italy), so I don't really mind.

I was thinking about how to compare it to San Francisco, since it does feel a lot like home to me, and I think that I arrived at three neighborhoods:

Noe Valley - Family friendly, bakeries, toy shops, a videogame/card shop with kids sitting outside playing or trading. Lots people walking or riding bikes, and some strollers, too.

North Beach - Definitely has a Euro-vibe, and the way at least one of the streets kind of a widens to make an island in the middle (they were having some sort of unofficial-looking market there over the weekend) for some reason makes me think Washington Square Park even though it's nowhere near as big or even that similar..... Plus there the cafes everywhere give that vibe.

The Mission (well, Valencia) - It's just so hip :P Cute clothing shops, etc. It's a little more utilitarian, too, with groceries, convenience stores, 100 yen shop, pharmacy, etc, but there are enough restaurants and DUH, the amazing vegan place (more on that later) to make it feel very much like my hood in San Francisco. Actually, there is a Mexican restaurant, too, called Frijoles. I have yet to try it, but I'll be sure to report back or at least tweet when I do. Maybe...Friday? I gotta say, it looks legit (!)

The other funny thing about Azabujuuban is that I see WAY many more white people there than I do in Roppongi. I mean, it's not like there are not foreigners in Roppongi (otherwise it wouldn't be stereotyped as crawling with them) but I think people (like me?!?!) are attracted to Azabujuuban for obvious reasons. I feel like I actually saw MORE white people than Japanese people, I think, tonight, at least. That probably isn't really true, but it's the first time I have felt that way.

So let's see. I ended up exploring Azabujuuban more both on the suggestion of a friend (whose adorable craft blog is here) and because it happens to be on the way to Motoazabu Hills.

This week the spa (ugh I hate that it's called that, let's just call it a "gym") THE GYM is closed for maintenance, I guess. This means no free breakfast and no swimming 5 minutes away from where I live. The breakfast thing is no big deal: I bought some chocolate protein mix, soy milk, and oatmeal and have been really enjoying eating that in the morning. Turns out the swimming 5 minutes from where I live thing is not a big deal either, since I have access to three other gyms through my membership, one of which is at Motoazabu (also the second closest).

It took me two tries to get there over the weekend (because it's hard to find my way around without an iPhone :P), but I ended up finding a really fun route that does, as I mentioned, go through Azabujuuban a little bit. The sp-GYM there is really nice. I like that you can tell it's part of the Hills Spa group, but it has it's own feel to it. For instance, in this one, the locker rooms are set up so that guys and girls take their shoes off together before going into separate changing rooms, whereas at Roppongi, even the shoe lockers are separate. The pool is a little bit bigger than the one at Roppongi Hills, although somehow the locker room is a ton smaller. I'm going to make sure I try out all the gyms I have access to. Maybe I'll eventually work up to being able to participate in the Master Swim class at Ark!

Incidentally, I set up a meeting with a swim coach on Thursday. That's in two days! I have no idea what kind of lesson it will be or whether I will be able to understand his Japanese. Hopefully it will work out. If it does, I will be happy to keep taking lessons there.

Food so far:

Koots - Yep, I realize this is a chain, but I really don't care when their tuna yamakake donburi is so good. Raw fish, runny egg, yamakake (I don't even know how to say this in English, potato slime? haha It is white with the a smooth snotty sort of sticky consistency, similar to...), okra (this is a very common veggie in Japan, as opposed to say, Wisconsin), and bell peppers over white rice. OH and nori. I did taste some wasabi in there, too. Some slightly sweet soy sauce. So so tasty. I was really happy and felt so healthy afterwards that I had to go ruin it with dessert ;)

Naniwaya Cafe - This place I found out about from this 8Tokyo post. I ate the same thing they did, and it was excellent. Like I commented on that blog post, whatever flavor the cake was made the whole thing seem extra special. I don't really eat a ton of roll cake, even though it's very popular here, but I will have to try hard not to stop by here every weekend now :P I do need to make sure try their taiyaki, though, since it's what they are famous for. If I go with a friend we can order those and a shaved ice and share hot vs. cold :)

Eat More Greens - This is where I went tonight for dinner. Had the tomato and raw yuba caprese salad with spicy miso. It was probably my favorite thing I've eaten since I've got here. Just last night I was daydreaming how great it would be if someone did a caprese with tofu instead of mozzarella—and then they stepped it up with yuba! I was very sincerely impressed. So impressed that I gave the vegan apple pie a shot even though I mayyyyy have had a cream bread (uhm, sorry, what else do you call that? It's not really a donut. Ok it was custard not really cream. I don't know) this morning... I'm hooked. I'm hooked I'm hooked. Can't wait to go back and try their pumpkin pie (it appears to be made with kabocha, i.e. Japanese pumpkin, so I'm guessing it will be a fair ways removed from Thanksgiving!!) and the delicious looking salads and pastas. Eek eek eek. And they do brunch on the weekends ;) AND they have the cutest rainy day promotion... I'm in heart

Anyways, there will be lots more hanging out in Azabujuuban, for sure. Aside from that let's see what is coming up soon:

CURRY BATTLE - My Japanese friends are coming over to have a cook-off. It's going to be GREAT! And we're going to go see a fountain show in Roppongi's "Midtown" (sorry, I kind of lol at the name, since it was just some area that they developed recently and decided to call that) district.

FIREWORKS - I'm not sure how this will work. Maybe we can see both? I wonder if I will be able to see them from my house. My Japanese tutor said I should really try to see them because "Japanese fireworks are maybe different from American fireworks" ;)

OBON - It's a Japanese holiday! I missed the dance practice, but I'm probably ok just watching ;)

MOUNTAIN CLIMBING - Ok, just hiking, but I'm excited. I'm gonna walk up a mountain 8/28!

TOKYO DISNEYLAND - I gotta see Captain Eo! It's probably dubbed right; Michael Jackson, Japanese? I must experience this. We're gonna do a whole weekend in early Sept. Can't wait to see what kind of fusion we'll find :)

MYSTERY GUEST - A friend is actually coming to visit (!) at the end of September. Hopefully I will be blog again before then, haha, but this is just looking ahead.

And that is just the BIG stuff. I'm sure there will be all kinds of small wonderful things in between. I know some peeps from work are on their way over here soon, as well, so many many fun times coming up. And always lots of studying :)

#happy #lucky #EXCITED

The skills I lack

I'm still trying to decide if it's really that important that I learn to cook. I found a couple good books at the store today, either of which would be fine. It's just that if I do it I'm not gonna half-ass it; I'm gonna try really hard and buy all the correct equipment and not, you know, crush garlic with a fork (not that I will probably be crushing much garlic for Japanese food?) Anyhow, I spent like almost an hour looking at cookbooks at Tsutaya after running around with friends today in Shimokitazawa, which is an area I will definitely return to.

Roppongi Hills is really fancy, but it lacks personality as far as a neighborhood. There is a ton in it, but it's sort of a maze, and it feels incredibly superficial. Shimokitazawa, on the other hand, has a ton ton ton of stuff crammed all over, some cute, some grungy, some chains, some adorable indie spots. It's also a maze, but at least it's more of a "city" feeling than "mall." We had houjicha shaved ice, which is not a flavor you can find everywhere. The store we went to was tucked away upstairs around a corner (like most things, it seems) but there was a line outside.

After that we popped into a bookstore overgrown with stuffed animals, shower curtains, backpacks, snackfood, etc. I forget the name of this chain, but uhm...yeah it's like being a book store just wasn't good enough. I realize that Borders and other places stock things that are not books, but you can still TELL it's a book store readily. This, though, was just a cacophony of goods sprouting from every shelf like a new strain of consumer-ready weed.

I bought a couple used jazz CDs at Disk Union. I kind of want to go back there, too. Somehow I'm not used to shopping for used CDs, but I buy used games often enough. I should check out Amoeba more often (or you know, when I'm in San Francisco).

Later on we got drinks at an adorable cafe which is most definitely a secret, but the kind that people know about so there, again, was a line. Ended up ordering "orange spice" Sangria. I'm not really a Sangria expert, but this was more like a very small cup of juice (the wine was super diluted) with ice. The flavor that was there was good, but it missed the depth of the red wine base, somehow.

Dinner was "soup curry" at a place called cocoro. All three of us ordered the 14 vegetable combo with brown rice, but at various spicinesses. I got 6, which did end up being rather spicy. Soup spiciness is harder to do that other types of food because since it's liquid it hits your throat faster. Somehow if you "taste" food "more" before you swallow, it's easier? Maybe your spit dampens the heat. Anyways, the veggies were great, but we all ate too much.......

Incidentally, since I'm just sitting here in my room listening to Chet Baker wondering whether I need to cook, I might as well discuss (briefly, emo-ly) my TWENTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY ANGST.

It doesn't really have anything to do with my birthday. It's just a convenient excuse to have it out.

Things flitting across my mind:

25 = one quarter of a century.

[excised because it's the perfect emo birthday tweet]

Not cute anymore. Not sure when that happened exactly, but I don't feel cute. I feel...like a disheveled adult.

I haven't cooked a meal in...ages. Absolutely ages. Does that matter?

I'm really bad at laundry.

I'm single.

Haven't really gained expertise.

I was far more disciplined during college than I am now. What happened? It's not like I'm genuinely more relaxed.

Etc.

This has been Birthday Angst With Tiger, only remember that the Birthday part is a clever ruse to make you think I am not always this emo when really I am.

#sigh

Random Things I Have Enjoyed of Late

the "short" Starbucks size

Yamanote line platform jingles

salad for breakfast (although I think I mentioned this already)

bossa nova in almost every cafe

Anyhow, as usual, there is so much I want to do that I end up aimless. Gonna just lie here and listen to more music. It's late, anyhow.

Pix or it didn't...

Well, I can't figure out how to get pix off my iPhone, and I figured blogging without them was a mite pointless, but now that I've been here for about a month, I figure I should relate what I have been up to.

Kamakura:

Went to Kamakura and Yokohama with one of the owner's of my favorite [Mission, San Francisco] local izakaya, Nombe. Ate shirasu both fresh and boiled, which was a new thing for me. Also tried a chocolate croquette. Who knew those even existed? Got to sample some really tasty pickles as we meandered around a shopping district. Saw the daibutsu and walked over to the bridge to Enoshima. Dinner in Yokohama included, I recall, some really tasty wontons.

Takoyaki Party:

Got together with some peeps from work and made takoyaki. Yup, grilled'em right at our table; you have to pour the batter into little cups, add ingredients, and then kind of spin them around as they cook to make them into ball shape. Here is a pic I took of the finished product, complete with mayo and tonkatsu sauce smiley face.

HBJB Concert:

A friend I met on Twitter took me out on a Friday night so see her friend's band. They play some pretty funky music, just cosplaying as Native Americans for some reason. The opening group was this a capella trio, DSC. By the end, they invited a lot of guests (including DSC again) up on stage, so the last couple songs were pretty epic. Overall, it was really a lot of fun, despite the bizarreness, and I'm glad I have the chance to hang out with Japanese people while I'm here! When I lived in France, I had next to no French friends. Still looking for more ways to meet people, but Twitter and other websites have been an ok start.

Asakusa:

One of my co-workers and his wife took me to Asakusa, where there is lots of shopping and a famous shrine. Actually, I went to the shop mentioned in this blog post. We also had excellent sushi for lunch. I've discovered that I do actually like ikura. Maybe my taste buds have changed yet again..

Mt. Fuji (you know what Fuji-san looks like):

I hopped in the car with a (different) co-worker and his family (wife and two young girls). We had a ton of fun, but really spent most of the time in the car aside from lunch and a brief outing at the 5th step up Fuji. The youngest was only five, so we didn't hike. Ate a variety of strawberry desserts with lunch. Escaped a traffic jam to hit the dreaded McDonald's for dinner (I had some kind of lemon and salt chicken sandwich with wayyyyyy too much vinaigrette on it, but it was not something I had ever tried before. Also, you can get a salad instead of fries, and the dressing--used sparingly--was delicious). We played probably HOURS of the Japanese word game, shiritori. I'm surprised there was not more janken. Anyhow, the kids were adorable. The oldest sewed me a super cute tiger doll! I wish I could post a picture :P

WOWOW Music Unlimited:

I got tickets to go see the Okamoto's, a rock band I found out about when they came to San Francisco as part of the Japan Nite Tour, with Chatmonchy. There were four other bands, and I enjoyed Lego Big Morl and Avengers in Sci-Fi enough to buy CDs. Shibuya AX is a pretty great venue. I hope to return sometime, maybe get tix earlier so I can be on the floor where it's crazy. The balcony was rather chill.

Japanese lessons:

Started private lessons at Berlitz. I'm learning all stuff for work. It is pretty challenging, but I'm trying to put in study time each evening!

Random food:

Been eating lots of curry, of course, of many varieties, though, not just Japanese. I also LOVE omuraisu; there is a place right by the Roppongi metro stop that does take out. Have taken a shine to Lauderdale, after having a leisurely and relaxing basil omelet experience last weekend. Tried Toraya Café today for lunch. Did Junkadelic's chicken burrito, which was tasty, if a bit soupy and nowhere near spicy enough even with the salsa. The best so far, though, was probably eating hiroshima-style (layered, not mixed) okonomiyaki straight off the griddle with fresh tomato, spicy pickled cucumbers, and sesame tofu and cabbage salad on the side.

Apartment:

It's still ridiculously fancy. All my friends think I am rich and/or a CEO. (I'm not the CEO, guys!) I love going to the pool in the morning during the week, and almost love it even more on the weekends. There is almost never anyone there. The most crowded I have seen it was four people, which, four people is fine since there are two big lanes. More than that and we'd be circle-swimming, which is less than ideal (but when you start complaining about that, you really know you've gone off the deep end...not that the water is very deep; in fact it's rather a bit shallow, BUT once again...one really cannot complain about such things).

Anyways, I think that's all I got for now. I want to try to see the new Ghibli movie, maybe, and possibly hit up a jazz bar tonight. First San Francisco is already this Tuesday! Time flew, naturally.

A little less lag, please! A little less lag!

Ugh I accidentally fell asleep even earlier than the last time. So it's still sort of rough. Yesterday was good. In the morning I checked out the pool. It's two big lanes, but there were barely any people so I don't feel like I will ever have much trouble. The locker room is ultra clean and they make you take off your shoes before you even go in (there are two sets of lockers, one for your shoes, and then inside, one for your clothes). I really want to find a swim cap and new goggles, but I'm not sure where I will be able to find them...

Before work I went to Arc Acadmey to up a pre-test so I can get some lessons at an appropriate level. It was sort of an unplanned visit, but they were really friendly even though the teacher didn't have time to talk to me. Complementary iced tea!

Then...hmm, got together with a Twitter friend and planned an epic shopping trip followed by dinner with her boss and a study abroad student from Singapore, so I'm really looking forward to that this afternoon. Other than that, just work. I did have lunch with Yukari and Reina—ultra Japanese style with grilled fish, salad, miso, and rice. On my way home I grabbed a slice of very bacony quiche at the Keiyakizaka Bakery, where they have "Moose" on the dessert menu, heh.

So yeah I mean to stay up, but I put on the TV and conked out almost immediately. So bad. I've been waking up pretty reliably at 4:20 am, but I managed to lie around until about 5:30. I figured I maybe the Starbucks on the corner would be open, but they aren't until 7!!!!! That's crazy. Shout-outs to Mission and 4th, man. They wake up early and we love them for it. Anyhow, luckily (?) there was this 24hr/365day Chinese cafe nearby. I had kimchi veggies and xiao long bao. They were not as tasty as the ones I ate in San Francisco, but I can't say I was expecting a ton from this place. No matter. It was ok.

Interesting people watching, too. It was pretty hopping for 6 am. Lots of (also jet-lagged? or maybe just party-people) foreigners, some of them discussing how their friends wrecked their attempts at picking up girls. One British guy was talking about how nonchalant the "Chinese style" of ordering food is, and how he tried to emulate it for this meal. It seems like he ordered a ton of stuff. The food started coming and hadn't stopped even when I left (and it took a while to order because I didn't realize I had to go back up to the counter).

Going to try to pop into the Twitter company meeting shortly, and then probably study for a while. I haven't been so I feel all rusty and horrible. And you can tell! My Japanese is awful :X

Disjointed first JP-side post

Oh noooo, I failed in my mission to be jet lag free. I'm not sure if that's even entirely possible, but I definitely went to bed way too early last night. It was either that or caffeinated. Energy had plummeted straight to zero.

Let's see, though. As for the flight, pretty standard, low-drama. I sat next to a family of four, but the kids were more or less behaved. Didn't watch any movies, but played a lot of video games. Slept extremely minimally. It was annoying that they had the lights off for most of the flight even though it was light out outside. It was daytime in Japan! They were setting us up for jet lag fail from the beginning ;p

The bus ride from Narita is really the most dangerous, though. It is soooo easy to conk out on that ride. I stayed mostly awake and got off at the Grand Hyatt (where I'm not staying) to meet my supervisor, a couple co-workers, and the guy who helped set up my apartment. From there we walked a short way to Roppongi HIlls Residence D where I AM staying.

It's really too fancy. Although the kitchen is small, I'll be able to cook most things that I would want to, and it comes with dishes and stuff. The TV has cable. The balcony has a view of Tokyo Tower (and a Blue Man Group billboard, heh). Breakfast is include and served at the spa (which has a pool and gym, so I won't have to worry about finding a club to join).

The area is basically like an outdoor mall with lots of shops and restaurants and things. There are four residence buildings. Maybe I'll meet some people at the cocktail party they're having in a couple weeks?

The first night we went to one of the restaurants owned by Akira Kurosawa's family for oden and udon. I was pretty tired, but managed to stay up after that till after 11. Contrast this with yesterday when I conked out before 9:30. Ugh! So this morning I am up so early…

Yesterday was my first full day. In the morning I had salad, juice, bread, yogurt (apple kiwi!) and coffee for breakfast, explored the neighborhood a bit (there's so much stuff everywhere!) then met Yukari to head to the Digital Garage offices. It's a really quick trip on the Hibiya line, just two stops to Ebisu.

I met too many people to remember all their names, but hopefully I'll get the nearby ones down soon. There are a handful of people I know from the phone whose faces I just need to get to stick. Everyone was really friendly. I got to meet the CEO, too! His office has some fish in it :)

Steven took us to this awesome korean restaurant for lunch. Had kimchee, tofu, raw egg, and rice. I love when rice is served in a hot dish so the grains on the bottom crisp up.

Work was mostly uneventful, but I'm a little behind and there are some issues lingering from before I left that I need to take care of. Looking forward to being caught up! Hopefully I'll be less tired today, even though I didn't sleep perfectly and woke up really early…

Last night I went for some food in my neighborhood at a place called Arata. I have no idea if it's supposed to be good or not, but I liked it well enough. Had cabbage salad, tsukune (which is like a meatball), and mushrooms wrapped in pork. The staff there had some of the most energetic "irasshai" I've ever heard. There are plenty of places where you'll get greeted by the whole place as you enter (or leave), but they really nail it here, to the point where it can be startling when a customer walks in, haha.

Ha, I'm distracted from writing this because I found a channel on TV with nothing but Japanese movies. Really I'm just waiting for the pool to open. I have about another half hour.

The rest of today will be checking out Japanese schools and hopefully getting some work done. It's gonna be kind of hard to figure out where I'm going. But I guess if I get lost I will have to learn fast ;) I think there are enough places in Shibuya that once I get there I should be ok. And supposedly I can walk back to Daikanyama (where the office is) from there. Anyways, I'm not sure. It'll be an adventure I guess.

Mostly I'm just really happy to be in Tokyo. And I hope I can learn a lot of Japanese while I'm here in addition to getting a lot done for Twitter. I'm hanging out with a Japanese friend on Saturday, so hopefully that will be good practice? I know she speaks English, though, so I'll have to be diligent.

This blog is gonna be really tedious without pictures. I might try taking some with my iPhone and seeing if I can get them on this computer without accidentally deleting all my iTunes ;)

Last Night in the Mission

Bid an extremely fond farewell to Heirloom Cafe over espresso and cookies with Nila. Caused no small amount of chaos (my pet exaggeration of the evening—they handled us like heroes, really) at Nombe with the biggest Twitter posse to date. Rocked Beretta with the Foursquare mayor and special guests. These are exactly the places I wanted to be on my last night in San Francisco before this trip, and exactly the places I will miss the most in the Mission.

It also just felt really good to have the support of so many friends as I'm taking off. Nombe was full to bursting in the front window with peeps (mostly tweeps) there to say hey. Lots of them had plenty of reasons to be too busy—including one co-worker who had two of them sitting in her lap :)—but they came anyways, which I appreciated so much.

Sappy sappy sappy, but when I have love I gotta show it <3

Before I leave:
-packing
-breakfast
-coffee
-Walgreens
-bank

There are some things I meant to do and then somehow did not do them. That sort of figures. Thankfully, none of them seem terribly major. The one that seems more major, may in fact be minor, where the one I thought was maybe more minor could be major if other things are also true. You know. Life.

It's not yet five am.

TOKYO: so soon

It is once again that time of time when I cross a large body of water which this blog affectionately if diminuitively refers to as a "puddle." The body in question is Pacific in nature, which could indicate a trip to Japan (if you know me) and if you DO know me, you may already know that it's true, and I'll be living in Tokyo for the next six months (minus a San Francisco check-in and a birthday stint in Vegas, of all places; Justin Bieber, the things we do for you).

No further news at this time :O Although I must say I am violently tempted to move this shebang to Tumblr, if for no other reason that to extricate it from The Past.