Mito 水戸市 City of Flowers and Beans

Above is the beloved mascot of Mito, Mito-chan. She is the cuter of the two mascots because the other (natto the fermented bean) looks more like an elastic hot dog. 

Right now I am still exploring the city and find it great fun to stop into random shops that I pass, if they look interesting. Unfortunately, I still don't read as much Kanji as I'd like... so some of the stores are more of an adventure (what's this and what is it supposed to do?!?!?)

Mito is a city  of just over a quarter million people and  so has all sorts of things to do. There is shopping in the train station and little shops and restaurants littered throughout the busy streets. Like most of Japan, the city is not like any city in America that I am used to. The city has many more tall buildings with ample parks and green (or in the winter, brown) spaces in between. 

I have not really enjoyed any of the cities that I have stayed in within the United States, but there is a certain charm to Mito. Maybe I am just blinded by the fact that I will be living here for a year and either have to learn to love it or deal with myself...

part of Mito's charm is it's focus on nature and plants.

 There is moss everywhere.

Gardens are more than a mere afterthought.

People value flowers and natural beauty, even the manhole covers attest to that!

Also, the more I explore the more I discover "hidden" nature spots. 

I say hidden like that because many people use them, and yet they somehow retain the privacy of a forgotten nook in the woods. 

I love them!!

And I am learning to love my city. ^.^

Omnon Food 食べ物

For some reason, food is always an interesting topic between cultures. 

     Maybe its because it is something with which we can easily make a clear distinction. Maybe because it appeals to more than one sense (taste, smell, sight). In Japan, it particularly appeals to multiple senses as food is supposed to "feed the eyes as well as the stomach". If you have any doubt about this, look up "bento boxes" or lunch boxes "松花堂弁当".

 (fried squid) 

In any case, tasting the food here in Japan is one of the things that I was very excited about as I prepared to travel overseas.  One of the unfortunate things that I've discovered is that it is possible to retain a western diet here. It takes some time and more money, but there are enough McDonald's and Denny's and western imports to create approximately the same. 

(Of course, even western restaurants make adaptations for their Japanese audience, but it seems to be close enough. McDonald's sells chocolate french fries!)

For my first week I had very little time and no kitchen, so I ate at convenience stores most of the days and occasionally restaurants at night. In Japan, convenience stores コンビニ　have a decent array of goods at not-too-expensive prices.  My most frequented are Seven-Eleven, Lawson's, and Mini-Mart.

My favorite is Onigiri or rice balls. These are packaged individually for a dollar apiece (roughly) and are basically a full meal on the go. On the loft is a sausage onigiri (which is actually a mixture between ham and spam... not sausage at all. Below is a meat onigiri of some sort which was made like a sandwich: rice, meat, rice and seaweed to hold it all together

There are also these great French bakeries in all of the train stations which are a self-serve buffet of pastries. YUM. Below is a bad photo of a strawberry something. (French food labeled in Japanese katakana... so IDK...)

I have also tried some prepackaged foods, like rice porridge.

And going out to eat. The black seaweed stuff on the top right is an acquired taste. Eggs are EVERYWHERE in Japanese food. The brown thing in the bowl is kitsune (fox) tofu which is fried in soy sauce and sugar. The tempura on the plate is some kind of ocean meat... tasted like the imitation crab meat. 

Speaking of eggs being everywhere, here is my new notebook. This strange egg man is named Gudetama, the lazy egg. I have not decided yet whether he is cute or disconcerting.

More eggs! Below is a BLT, which comes with egg.

When I asked one of my Japanese friends why eggs are so popular, they said it is because they taste good and go with everything... Eggs certainly are inexpensive, and taste good (in my opinion) and prevent me from handling odd, unidentified food stuffs. I know what eggs are. 

Now that I am in my city and have gone shopping (and bought real food) I will have to do a post about that, but that will be another post for another day...

When in Rome, Watch T.V. テレビ

So, customs in Japan are very different from America.

     The fortunate thing about this problem is that no one can accidentally confuse me with a native Japanese person, which means that they give me extra grace and have low expectations for my adherence to cultural norms. 

     The unfortunate thing is that I have no clue what to do in different situations, and I don't even know which situations should be different from America. I know that I have already made several faux pas, and every time I do there is an awkward pause (because the poor Japanese person was not expecting that) before they politely move on as if nothing happened.  

      Although there are some great resources online in vlogs and websites about what to do/not do in Japan, they can't possibly cover all of the little things, so I am left to asking my awesome new friends (who both speak English and are willing to help me) or just watching other people to see what they do. Another great way to learn is to watch children's television. It sounds silly, but several of the things that I noticed people doing on the streets are also shown (and even explained, albeit in Japanese) on the children's t.v. because the kids don't know what to do either! So that's great when I can find it (between all of the other odd programming on my t.v.)

     In addition to habits and actions, there are several other things that have struck me as uniquely Japanese (or at least not American). Here is a short list of some of the things.

1.   Everything is smaller: rooms, kitchen tools, dishes, notebooks, gifts, food, furniture... and smaller usually means more adorable. かわいいですね！

2. Nothing wasted: there is no wasted space or wasted goods. Below is a shower/laundry room combo so that every inch of the little spaces will be well used.

3. Trash and Recycling: they are very particular about what goes where. Take for example, a water bottle. The bottle goes in plastic recycling while the cap and label go into burnables. Coffee cans into non-burnable. Here is a public receptacle in a mall to illustrate my point.

4. Katakana: there is a shocking amount of katakana EVERYWHERE. Katakana is the special alphabet that Japanese uses for borrowed foreign words. It is on the billboards of foreign restaurants like Denny's and McDonald's, but also on almost all packaging. Apparently foreign things and English are very cool. 

5. Miss-spelling: in their attempt to inundate signage and clothing (and everything else) with foreign words, they don't always get it right...

6. Fashion: stateside, you can always tell if someone has a Japanese heritage or is actually Japanese by there fashion. And the two distinct things that I have noticed about Japanese fashion is that it is always impeccable - the people here look neat and ironed no matter where they are. I also noticed that they mix a bolder color palate. Below are example wedding dresses on display in a wedding shop window. 

7. The lack of distinction between green and blue. Below is a sign giving directions to some shop that was three stoplights ahead. Notice that the "green light" is blue. The green lights on the street are all legitimately green, but signs and billboards that illustrate green lights indiscriminately switch between a green and blue hue. In Japan, they use the same word to describe both colors. It is not that they are color blind, it is just that they don't make the distinction as a culture. Interesting cultural-linguistic phenomenon. Linguistics-nerd problem.

Little House in the City

             

a sign in the elevator to my apartment

and it's no joke, the doors on the elevators 

stay open for only 2 seconds or so and then

are not afraid to close on you.

        There were several non-American things that I expected from moving into my apartment in Japan. For example, I knew that dishwashers, dryers, and beds wouldn't come standard. I expected a clothesline on my balcony. I should do a separate blog on balconies and how much I love them! I expected everything to be smaller, and I expected to take my shoes off at the entrance which has been an unexpectedly easy habit to get into. So in some ways I was mentally prepared for the changes. Even so, here are some of the things which are most notable or shocking for me. Even though I may have been told about them in advanced, 'tis still surprising. 

       Everything is so small! I know I anticipated this in my previous post, but Wow. Seriously. My whole apartment is barely over 200 square feet including kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, living room, bedroom. Im in shock. I like the smaller overall size of the apartment because it means that there is less to clean. It also means that there is less space for me to store things so I can't be a pack rat and collect things... Which is a shame because Japan sells so many cute things! Below you can see my living room with a table and "couch" and TV. Then you see me in the room and (to me) it looks like I photo-shopped a too-big me into the room.
         Also, everything is closer to the ground which I actually kind of like. I always have preferred sitting on the floor and now I can use the floor without seeming weird. 

      I don't have a kotatsu yet. That's the heated table with blankets that the Japanese use in lieu of central heating. My lack is due in part to the fact that I am not sure where to by one and also because I don't know how to get it home once I buy it. Instead this table is my usual work space for my computer. I have a desk in the other room for my paperwork stuff, but I have to sit on a chair for the other desk (eww) so it turned into a storage space instead of a workplace. The TV is more of a decoration than a tool right now because I am not a big fan of the programs that I have on the 6 channels: Japan ninja-warrior competitions, soap operas, food notwork, travel channel, kids show, and news.
       In the top left of the picture you can see the space heaters. There is one for each of my two 15x8 foot rooms. Since they are not part of a central heating system and Japanese houses generally have poor insulation the heaters have to be turned on and off when I enter and leave my apartment. Remembering to do that is a new experience for me. So the first 20 minutes after I come home, it's rather chilly (4C or 39F). Something else I have to turn on and off is the water heater. All of this preheating is making me a pretty good planner. The consequences for not planning is taking an unheated shower, which is a mistake that I will not make again...

     Speaking of showers, bath rooms in Japan are a "shower space" basically a tiled space with a drain on the floor where you shower before getting into the tub. Suds and dirt do not belong in the bathtub. Both the shower space and the tub are small, again. the tub is much taller than western tubs (2 feet high) but only half as long. As you can see, there is not a toilet in the same room as the shower. The toilet and shower are completely separate rooms, although both open into the same hallway.
       The toilet, as seen below, has its own, special pair of slippers. It also has a sink built into the back. As the toilet refills, the water first flows through the faucet on the back of the toilet for you to rinse your hands. I have never seen soap near the toilet sinks... so I question their sanitation and wash my hands again outside the bathroom. Plus, the water refilling the toilet is SO COLD.

   Japan also has magical appliances. The stove will not turn on unless there is a pot on it. The microwave has a setting where it "senses" what's in it and heats it accordingly. The washing machine can tell how much clothing is in it and only uses enough water to wash that amount. Talk about energy saving.

         And finally, because everyone who has Skyped me and seen them have been very excited by them... I have sliding doors between my rooms. 

     Now to unpack my bags and settle in and figure out this Japan thing...

 


   
   

Bullet Train 新幹線

Traveling from Okayama to Mito (my new home) was a 6 hour trip by bullet train (shin-kan-sen) which reaches speeds of 200 miles per hour. The train is so fast that you have to look at objects in the distance in order to not get a headache.  The total distance was approximately 500 miles. 

In the spirit of flying past objects, this post will be snapshots and short captions of my trip. 

Japan's landscape is mountainous, but very different from the mountains of the United States. To steal an image, it is like someone cut the tops off of mountains and placed them on flat ground. Instead of continual slopes, there are mountains with perfectly flat spaces in between. 

Because there were so many mountains, there were also a lot of tunnels for the train to travel through. Effectively that meant that every time there was a picture-worthy scene, I had just enough time to take out my camera - but not enough time to take the photo - before we entered another tunnel and it was gone.

As we traveled further north, we saw more snow on the peaks.

What surprised my most about the overall layout of Japan was the close proximity of rural and urban structures. Fields next to multi-story buildings was not an odd sight.

It looks like clouds, but this is actually Mt. Fuji.

It's top pops out above the cloud cover.

And then I arrived. 

And I will have go on another adventure so that I can tell you about it!

Older Sisters 姉

After spending four days with my sister in her new desert home before flying to Japan,

here are some of the thoughts that struck me. I started writing this article in the airport after she dropped me off at in the A.M... and it has just taken me a while to finish it. 

  

1. I miss my sister so much! What I think I missed the most is how different we are  - how well we contrast and compliment one another.

2. A goobery dog and a fluffy, moose-feather cat makes her home a wonderful, happening place.

3. I am so delighted that my flight plans were delayed because it let me spend more time with my strong, funny, beautiful sister. God always knows what He is doing.

4. Despite the tiny size of her town, there is a surprising quantity and variety of good food.

5. Most shocking of all, I discovered that hiking can be fun with beautiful scenery and cool weather and an companion along for the adventure... so long as we go at a walking pace without a backpack. The above picture is my sister, Bonnie, pointing to the Chynna rock - so called by a friend who wanted a rock to call her own. 

On one of our hikes we discovered an cactus. Actually, we found a lot of cacti.This particular purple prickly pear cactus seemed not to have thorns... but it lied to us. Now we call it the  嘘つき (uu-so-tski) cactus (liar) because it is full of lies. One is pictured below.