If I was an alcoholic, I might consider becoming a translator

Today I was paid 2 bottles of De Bortoli Sacred Hill Shiraz Cabernet 2005 (Silver Medal Award Winning) for a translation I did a draft for an international Australian university (by Takashima-kaicho's request) on Sumi Ink Painting. Apparently they liked the draft. I'll save one for Mom and one for Enoch, unless something interferes, or they arrive at about the same time!

It is hard to believe I am still sweating in even the coolest rain I've encountered without any Sun for days. But in a couple months I will be able to relish in the compaints as I relax in late-fall temperatures! So it isn't so bad. It'll only get better from here on out...until Spring.

Pictured Below: Me, Lily Chong, and Takashima-kaicho

Until Next Time.

Okay, Mom wins: I'll tell you what I've eaten!

Since I arrived, I have actually had very little trouble finding food, even affordable food (except when I travel to Kobe and Sannomiya which are expensive). I have tried very little food on the higher-priced side, but, if the cheaper food is any indication, it must be very, very good. I have had a few treats from sample-booths in grocery stores, and I've been taken to dinner by my Japanese teachers, so I've had some slightly nicer food, which has been universally excellent (except for Japanese attempts at British food, such as tea-related stuff...well, okay, so it is just like the British tea-snacks, but that doesn't make it tasty).

Here's a list of the new things I've tried that I can remember. I know the japanese names of very, very few. If I can't tell you, it is because I don't remember, or it's in kanji (chinese characters). There will be some mispronunciations, I'm sure, but it is close enough that people understand me, so they are working pronunciations in parenthesis.

Food/Review/Japanese Name

Curry-bun!/Delicious!/Kaare pan (kah-ray-pahn)

Hot curry bun/Great!/Katsu Kaare pan (Kah-Tsu Kah-re)

Japanese curry/Must...eat...more!/Kaare(Kah-ray)

Curry-chicken/(seeing a pattern? It's because it's good!)

"Western Style" Curry Chips/AWFUL (okay, not always so good...)

cheese puff wedges/addictive, strange

"Mild Salt" Pringles/very salty Pringles/Mild Salt Puringarusu(Ma-i-ru-do saa-ru-to poo-reen-gah-roo-soo)

sweet, wrapped rice/Wonderful with Mitsuya Cider!/inari zushi (ee-nah-ri zoo-she)(sushi)

fried octopus balls/Bouncy, eat warm only!/takoyaki (taco-ya-key)

lemon-orange juice/Why don't we have this?!/remon with orenji (re-moan wis oh-rain-gee)

Japanese McDonalds/Bleh. Too expensive! And some burgers have shrimp??/makudonaladuzo (Ma-koo-do-nah-la-doo-zo/ Makudo)

custard bun/A new Japanese classic/kasutaado pan (Kah-sue-taah-doh pahn)

bacon-cheese roll, branches/Excellent, but sometimes too dry, the branches that look like they are from trees are cute/bekon chiizu pan (bay-cone chee-zoo pahn)

cream cheese in cheesebread/No, really, I'm not kidding!

"cheesecake"/not Cheesecake! Still heavenly./chiizukeeki (chee-zoo-kay-key)

egg-in-a-bun/Awesome.

konyaku bun/The stuff Tsune brought the family, inside bread.

Japanese miso soup/I don't like it, hmm./Miso (mi-so)

Strawberry, Cream Collon/Keep laughing, I know you're just jealous./ichigo, kureemu corron (ee-chi-go, koo-ree-ee-mu kohl-lone)

fried cheese chips/Wow...just...wow...(I'm still in a state of surprise)

mayonaise bun/Well, it's executed very well...but it's still just mayo and bread, basically/meyonesu pan (meh-yo-nay-su pahn)

sushi/various, from terrible to pretty good/sushi (sue-she)

Korean-food-from-my-roomate/great/Konriori kara Konjin (cone-ree-oh-ri kah-rah cone-jean)(meaning Korean food from a (real) Korean)

Rice grown in Japan/maybe a *little* better?/gohan (go-han (han like in Han Solo))

Oolong Noodles/Tasty noodles that people seemed surprised that "I can eat" as if I were a magical American to be able to tolerate simple and delicious noodles/oolon (oo-ron)

Hotdog-roll/a pretty pathetic attempt on a hot dog, but popular nonetheless/hooto doogu (hooh-toh dooh-goo)

horse meat/just kidding! But it's a delicacy here amongst older folks. Not for me, thanks!

beef and potatoes (fried into one breaded piece)/pretty tasty, convenient

fried pumpin/I got sick...never again.

raisin bread/I don't like raisins...but these were not too bad.

Japanese style pizza/thin, with a ball of creamed-corn-stuff on every slice...well, without the cream it is actually tasty, but it's way to expensive for me to buy for myself./piiza (pee-zah)

Sugar-bread/sugar and butter melted on french bread is okay, but not all that special

Crutonny-things/They take old bread of different kinds from previous days, safely dry it out into cruton-like pieces, and coat it in sugars and sweet things! Well, it's tasty recycling, I suppose. Every single bakery, regardless of variety or style, seems to do it with some of their leftovers.

Mitsuya Cider/not cider. Basically a slightly sour/weird soda. Mitsuya saida (mi-tsu-yah sah-ee-dah)

Kirin Lemon/A decent lemon soda/Kirin Remon (Key-reen ray-moan)

C.C. Lemon/A sugary, "high-C" version of Kirin's product/Shi Shi ray-moan)

"Top Value" Soda/a weak, affordable, Safeway-Select equivalent lemon-lime soda, mix 1 part with 2 parts Lemon with Orange for an awesome drink!/Top Value Cider (Toohp-poo vah-ryu sah-ee-dah)

Japanese green tea/too much caffiene and a too-bitter flavour

Japanese angelfood cake-loaf/a masterpiece of angelfood, in the shape of a long loaf


That's probably about half of what I've tried. Some I had no idea what it was besides what it was not, and a number I have forgotten due to the number. It's about one new item per day, for now, but that will round off.

There are other things here too which I have eaten in America plenty of times. A few:
fried chicken
American-style pizza
french fries
any western-european-style bread

And some types I have't tried at all:
Korean food
Chinese food

I can't afford Outback Steakhouse, but there is at least one in either or both Kobe and Osaka for visitors. Plus, if I can eat here...I'm sure almost any of your could eat here just fine.

Adam out.

Rain

The September typhoon broke this morning, at about the time most people would still be sleeping and I was still up. In 30 minutes time, Taikyoken classes were going to be in a park very near my house. I got shod and headed out there. When I got there, people were scattered everywhere, talking, stretching, the usual stuff. I assumed at this point that the class was like my first one I had went to in the Aoyama Community center, so I decided to stretch and meditate. After a short time, there was some laughing, and I opened my eyes to find that the Sifu (instructor) was heading my way. She gestured for me to move off to one side.

When I got there, I realized everyone was in a rough semblance of a circle. We did choreographed tape-lead stretches and calisthenics that were actually really nice. Almost like yoga, but entirely on your feet. I was a little uncomfortable on the sand with my shoes on (Japanese people always wear shoes of some kind while outside if they can at all help it) so I was stuck in them. Her Sempai (her assistant teacher in training, essentially) showed up at the end of these activities, which was a surprise to us all: The higher your status in a group the more assuredly you need to be on time, both for the students guidance and for general weight of responsibilities. As he tied up his dog, I heard the Sifu say the first Japanese phrase in my two classes that I had understood with the utmost of clarity (although I could only make out one Meiji-era Kansai-ben word in the entire sentence): "You all know that I am not responsible for my Sempai's (poor choice of) actions?*

*note that this is not really a question.


When we got to doing real form, I realized that of all the people in the group, including her Sempai were using a form less like hers than mine. This surprised me. Last time I was a couple rows back from the teacher when I went. This time, I was front and center, as the students had insisted I be.

At this point I realized that our forms were much more similar than I had thought. It was all the other students that were giving me the most Japanese of impressions last time! Sure enough, when I was turned away from her and towards the bulk of the students, I could see that they had a lot of variety within their Japanese-stylized forms.

Sifu/Sensei still thinks that she is using Ki, and her stance is about the size it should be for someone of the size of a average-built Chinese man (which I'm guessing means that how she got to be a master was through observation and practice in some place like Hong Kong) She speaks almost no Chinese or English, but between them she probably was able to get by in her younger years when she was learning, and I'm guessing that she has forgotten most of what she knows of both. Like many smaller people who learn T'ai Chi Ch'uan, she likely made her stance too big in her formative stages of the art, and she probably had studied in detail what the "proper width of stance" was from the standpoint of Karate when she was even younger. Her use of the word "Ki" when she was talking through a translator-friend with me last time is probably also linked to this. However, her form is good, very good, and quite similar to my style in it's essential parts! However, she just does it as if she was about 5'6," not 3'-something. At least she has long legs and broad shoulders, so it isn't as extreme...but it unfortunately gets passed down to all her students, all 50 of them per class. Except me that is. I hope. Today was really a learning experience in how much a teacher's behaviour ultimately changes the learning of his/her students.


But the best part of the day for me, by far, was when we finished our final go at the form: We all faced Southwest (representing our "North") and simultaneously saluted just like Mike with a bow from the waist during the salute! The one thing that everyone did at the same time, with the same form, for the entire day, was the Japanese-rendered ancient salute, humourously enough, and every last person did it exactly as Mike does! Interesting how our previous martial arts get into every last part of every martial art we learn afterwards! (Maybe everything else in our lives too?)

On the way home, it started raining again.


I have a few other posts that I have been building on my picture-supply for. If there is anything you'd like me to look into, or anything you'd like me to mention that I have likely forgotten but is of interest to you, feel free to place your opinions in "comments" just bellow these last lines. Please chime in with your opinions or ideas. Right now the one's I am working on ideas for:

Japanese Homes
Japanese Gardens
On The Japanese Feeling of "Smallness"
Wildlife
Differences in Technology
Efficiency Emphasis in Japan
Biggest Differences Summarized
Biggest Surprises Summarized
Other Unnecessarily Capitalized Titles You Suggest in the Comments Section...