This is Joro-Gumo, scientific name Nephila Clavata. This is considered the queen of Japanese spiders, because it is found EEEEEEEeeeeeverywhere in the fall, from Hokkaido all the way to Okinawa. Even when I visited Tokyo, this spider was found in city far away from parks or nature of any kind.
With the onset of Winter, most of these spiders will die off, leaving their eggs to hatch late next summer.
The temperature here is dropping, so we’re not going out as much, but we’re still having a pretty good time.
Here’s a Sunday Summary of some of the little every day things we do.
Book on Japanese Culture I’m Reading:
Bushido
by Inazo Nitobe
In the late 19th and Early 20th Century, Japan was undergoing a huge cultural shift. Inazo Nitobe sought enshrine and explain the Samurai Martial Culture in this book.
Food I’m digging:
Donburi
My favorite japanese dish being KatsuDon, Donburi is a dish that puts an egg, onion, and broth mixture over rice, usually with a meat. I occasionally make a variation of it for breakfast.
Book I’m Using to Learn Japanese:
Read Japanese Today
by Len Walsh
Many Japanese learning channels will preach the “gospel” of Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji, which is a fine reference book, but is a terrible starting point for kanji beginners as the book has NO pronunciation, and is altogether as exciting as reading a dictionary.
I instead recommend Read Japanese Today which not only gives you the On’Yomi and Kun’Yomi pronuncations, but also the etymology (Word History) of 400 basic kanji and radicals.
I hope all of you are doing well out there in Internet Land (is that a thing?).
As most of the news we post on the blog has to do with major things we do in Japan with our free time, I’m sure some of you are curious as to what some of the day to day Japanese items we interact with are.
So I now present to you a Sunday Summary:
Book on Japanese Culture I Just Finished Reading:
Winning Pachinko -The Game of Japanese Pinball
Most Westerners are confused by Pachinko, because at first glance it looks to be a game similar to slot machines, but where you don’t actually win any money.
This book clears up some of the confusion of this “totally not gambling” game, and offers some history and strategy.
Food I’m Digging:
Yakisoba
Popular dish at cultural festivals and street carts, Andrea and I have been making our own versions at home, usually sticking to soba, chikuwa (fish cake), onions, mushrooms, and peppers. Pan fry and top with with yakisoba sauce for a delicious and filling meal.
Cultural Activity I’m Trying:
Shodo (Calligraphy)
“Ri”= Logic; “Naru”=Growth, “Do”=Fight
At one of the local community centers they offer bunka (Japanese culture) classes. As I’m not fluent in Japanese, or familiar with writing kanji, I’ll be sitting in the kid’s class for now.
You gotta start somewhere.
Japanese Band I’m Liking:
Frederic (フレデリック)
While J-Pop can be enjoyable, it often ends up being very repetitive and too bubbly for my taste. I love Frederic because they have a very unique sound among bands from around the world. The above song is one of my favorites.
Book I’m Using to Learn Japanese:
Japanese for Busy People – Vol 1 & 2
Let’s be honest, we’re all busy people.
At first glance, this book doesn’t seem very alluring with it’s somewhat dated cover, but this book really helped me in my studies by allowing me to get full lessons in nightly. The biggest hurdle when you’re first learning a language is sticking with daily learning until the seeds stay planted. The first volume’s chapters are short enough to get done in 1-2 hour sittings depending on your pace. After two weeks there was a noticeable difference in my Japanese comprehension.
I recommend trying any of these activities for yourselves, to get a taste of Japanese culture.
Over the weekend of November 5th, Andrea and I went to Hiroshima. The main thing I want to let you know before we go any further:
Hiroshima is not a desolate wasteland ruined by the nuclear bomb.
Although the city is known for being the first city to be attacked with an atom bomb, it has long since recovered.
There is a thriving city and tourist culture there as it is home to two World Heritage sites, Miyajima and the A-Bomb Dome .
They have a thriving nightlife and successful sports teams.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is home to the A-Bomb Dome and Peace Museum, which commemorate those who died, and also seeks to educate the public about the dangers of nuclear weapons, as well as the benefits of peaceful transactions between countries.
They are like the Boston of Japan, with the bay life, oysters, and city transportation.
Just take a look at this video of our trip:
As Hiroshima lays closer to home with Andrea, she’ll be posting Part 2 along with pictures.
As always, I highly recommend that when you come to Japan, you take a few days to explore the city and the surrounding area.
As a person that has never experienced an earthquake (that wasn’t above a ground tremor) it was a shortly terrifying experience, because once you’re in your safe position, you’re just waiting with the concious thought that the earth is literally moving under your feet.
Interesting day that I will add to the list of my life experiences.
PS: I lived in Utah during 5th grade, and earthquake drills were a common occurence.
Thanks to Andrea’s great fortune she landed some tickets to go see Tottori’s local J3 Soccer Team, Gainare Tottori, ガイナーレ鳥取.
Japan’s soccer system follows that of the Premiere league in England, which means as teams move up and down in rankings, they can be moved to higher/lower leagues accordingly. Gainare Tottori started as a J2 team, but as their wins declined they eventually fell into the J3 league.
GainaMan with his specialty T-shirt cannon, the GAINABUSTER!!!
The Team is actually based out of Yonago City, but Tottori Torigin (Bird Bank) Stadium is the only J.League capable stadium in the region, and actually hosted a match back in the 2002 World Cup.
The enjoyable part of going anywhere in Japan, is seeing what food they have, and that still extends to lower level soccer games. I had what I think is a spaghetti burger. Andrea had some delicious たこ焼き(Takoyaki- Octopus Dumplings) .
Spaghetti (?) Burger
Takoyaki
Waffle Bites
While the J3 level may be a lower caliber than the MLS (Go Orlando City), the game is still fun. And so is the Supporters section.
If you’ve ever been to a soccer game, you’ll know that the supporters club chants are part of the game day experience, and Japan is no exception to the rule.
Check out this short video to see what I mean:
In case you feel like brushing up on your Japanese, here is Gainare’s website:
If you’re ever in Japan during soccer season, try to pony up to see a soccer game. If you don’t feel like paying J1 tier price, J2 and J3 games are still enjoyable.
McDonalds recruitment poster in the style of a Ghibli movie poster
Greetings again from Tottori!
So today we went to a McDonalds in Japan. This may seem like a mundane experience if it weren’t for two things:
I’ve been boycotting McDonalds in the US for over 2 years (read more at the bottom).
The difference in menu choices and food presentation.
But when lured with prospect of chocolate covered fries, and the fact that I haven’t had a burger in over a month, how could we say no.
I had a Big Mac, but it actually lookedcloser to the picture than the mess I usually get in the US. Andrea ordered the Ebi-Burger, which is a patty made of breaded shrimp (it’s really good).
Ebi-Burger
Big Mac
You can see the shrimp!
Halloween Choco Fries
Medium drink… note how they don’t tower over the meal.
The other benefit of McDonalds in Japan is portion size. The medium soft drink is somewhere between a small and kid’s size in the US.
I know people like to complain about the size of drinks getting smaller and being ripped off, but we shouldn’t be drinking that much soda anyway.
I apologize for the fast food rant, but if you ever come to McDonald’s in Japan, try an ebi burger and maybe even a bacon and potato pie (Looks like an apple pie).
Until next time, stay awesome!
Boycott:
The reason behind my boycott is multifold. It really all started back in 2009 when one day, I was craving a double cheeseburger. I mean, REALLY craving one. So after my work day, I went over to McDonalds to get a double cheeseburger and lo and behold… it was the most mediocre thing ever. It even tasted like I was expecting, but the satisfaction wasn’t anywhere near what I wanted. From there I started eating there lesss.
A couple of years later, I ran across the book Chew On This, from the same people who wrote Fast Food Nation, the inspiration for the documentary “Super Size Me”. This book changed the way I viewed eating fast food. Though it didn’t completely change my diet, I decided to stick to only Big Macs and fries, and only on certain occasions.
Not long after that, there was discussion of the minimum wage, and long story short, I disagree with the fact that McDonald’s contracts constrict local franchises from being able to raise their minimum wages without truly hurting their own bottom line. They also made some comments in their employee handbook telling employees to “eat smaller portions” and also released an unrealistic budget ( http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354633)
These things, along with the food additives left a bad taste in my mouth so I swore off the golden arches.
Japan McDonaldsdoesn’t pay their employees more than in the U.S., but with nationalized healthcare, and better job training, they’re not left in a dead end job as much as U.S. citizens.
The road to this presidential election has not been a fun one. I personally don’t have faith in either main party candidates. Not only that, but the spectacle on the presidential race has distracted from Senate , local races, and local bills that will affect people more than the presidential race will.
On top of that, people are actually destroying friendships over many of the issues that have arisen. It’s sad really.
Tottori Awesome 