Okinawa Soba

While all Japanese are pretty healthy, the Okinawans hold the record for longevity. They are considered ultra healthy within Japan.  Not only is their food slightly different, they have a rule: only eat until you are 80% full.

I am trying to obey but it is hard with such good food around. We drove out in to the countryside. This farm has a restaurant attached and it features Okinawa Soba.

Four more years!

I'm thrilled to find that President Obama won the election. I found out when we stopped at Docomo to get my mother-in-law's phone fixed.  My husband said "Go inside and you'll see who won the election."

Fly the freindly skies of Pokemon

Haneda airport has really spiffed itself up.  Look what airline we flew,

That's right, we flew Pikachew!

A vacation from my vacation!

In just a few minutes, I will hop on a plane and take a mini vaca to Okinawa. The islands in the Okinawa area are tropical and they are the number 1 site for diving.  I don't know how to dive but I can snorkel.

We had to get up early to go and I was surprised by the doorbell.  It was my mother-in-law with soup! I had mentioned a great soup she made of winter melon on my last visit so she delivered some to my door at 6am!  God bless her, that was yummy!

Licensed Illiterate!

That:s right, I got my international driver's license but I can't read the signs!

Yup, that's me behind the wheel, driving on the other side of the road. What a friendly and trusting nation!

Japanese haunted house

This house is a few blocks away from my apartment and I pass it every time I go to my mother-in-laws house: 

Look at this huge gourd they are growing:

They should leave that hanging and carve it and put lights in it....spooky!

Japanese candy

Gawd, I love candy! It's gotten me into a lot trouble.  I divide candy into chocolate and non-chocolate or the good stuff and the bad stuff.  Japanese chocolate is fabulous and hilarious! They choose the weirdest names; weird enough you can make up stories. See what I mean, you could make a story out of this:

I present a story in candy:

"Dutt dutta doo...why do I feel a breeze?"

 "Eeeaak! Cover your butt, dude!"

"Pbbbbbst"

"Yay naked guys!"

"Doggone it!"

"What's the big deal, I'm a little bear all the time."

"Dammit, that's freaking me out. Lets go have a drink."

Matsudo, Sky Tree and the return of the butt model

Today was a free day, meaning for most of the day, I was on my own. I decided to take the local train to Matsudo where they have more shopping than my neighborhood. I wore myself out shopping at the Boxhill shopping mall but I didn't buy anything because it was all tooooo expensive.

I wandered over to Daiei (pronounced die-yay) which is a lot cheaper but has a good selection and, as an added bonus, has park next door. This is one of the things I love about Japan: cheap and healthy fast food! For about $3.50 I bought a really good salad, spaghetti salad and a cold coffee.  What makes this salad really pop is that it has slivers of daikon radish with the matchstick carrots.

 It is not considered nice to eat in public on the street.  In the past when I've gone to this little park the men, who look a little like bums but probably are just bored retirees, look at me like I'm a bum because I'm eating in public in the open air!  Today, no one looked at me for that reason, just for the regular reasons (I'm a gaijin) because there was a celebration in the park so everyone was eating.

At 4:00, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law took me to the Tokyo Sky Tree and the Sky Tree Town Tokyo Sky Tree. This is the newest and tallest structure in Japan. The shopping is crazy! it is all branded with the tower on it.

   
Of course in all the wonderful and ritzy shopping, I had to find the wierd. Its the return of the butt model (see Butt Models for the first time)!  This time, sheer panty hose, oh my!

And last, Japan's spooky take on Halloween:

Sayorara, baby!

Japan Redux

I am back in Japan for 15 days.  My husband and I have not visited his home for 4 years. This time, I get to experience apartment life because my sister-in-law has decided that we should stay at her apartment and she will bunk back with Mom and the brothers.  Thanks sis!

We woke up and went to Mom's for breakfast.  She cooked like an invading army was arriving! Look at this spread:

She had grilled salmon, fried boneless chicken (karage), ham, boiled egss on sald, chicken meatballs, grilled mushrooms, inagri (fried tofu pockets filled with rice), onion and shrimp tempura, a spicy chicken stir-fry, oden, and of course rice. We also had green tea and coffee. If she keeps trying to feed me like that I won't be able to loose the 10 pounds a always loose in Japan!

Japanese food is good but often unexpected and sometimes gross. I of course must try the gross stuff first: is this brains or tasty inari?

 Fortunately, its two kinds of inari, one with the right side out and one turned inside out just for novelty. I ate the one that looked like brains!

T and his mom also visited one of his dad's old school friends.  He lives in a prefecture that grows many types of fruits. They brought this mystery fruit home.  It kind of looks like a purplish potatoe:

Inside:

You eat the inside that looks like a large white larvae. My brave husband scooped some out and tried it first:

 Verdict: yummy, so I tried some. I wonder what it is? Anyone know?

After that we walked back to the apartment. Oranges and other citrus friut ripen in the fall-wniter. Look at how many organges are on this tree:

 Sayonora for now.

 

Smilebox slide show of greece

Its long. http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d6a59324e5463334e6a513d0d0a&blogview=true

The Town

We saw more "angels" on roofs. These angles looked a little different than the angels in Aegina. Later, when we went to the New Acropolis Museum, we saw ancient "angels" that Greeks used to decorate their houses before Christ. These have been around a long time.



A statue by the harbor that honors sailors. The column has a trident with the fish that represents Poseidon entwined on the handle. Greece has influenced the entire world. This same type of fish is entwined up the light poles on the Victoria Embankment on the river Thames in London.


From the top of Poros looking down at the harbor


Looking up from the harbor


The clock tower. I used this to orient myself as I hiked all over the island.

Food!

Greek food is so pretty and tasty. I tried to take pictures before I ate it but this is usually how it turned out: shrimp shells and fish bones!



Once in a while I actually managed to take a picture but usually because the food was so amusing-



Yes, that's an olive in his eye socket! And, green pepper for gills and red onion for ribs. Here's a close up of that eye.



The spaghetti was fab-



I think I pretty much captured the same taste with this recipe-

1.5 lbs. ground beef
5 tomatoes
1 sweet onion
3 or more cloves of garlic
Romano cheese
Dried oregano
Red wine
Salt

Use two pans. Chop the onions small. Chop the garlic small. Chop the tomatoes big. With a little oil, saute the onion and garlic for 5 minutes. Stir it a bit. Add the big chopped tomatoes. Sprinkle on some salt and oregano and let it cook a bit as you look the ground beef in the other pan.

Cook the ground beef with a little salt and oregano. Drain when done. Once the ground beef is done and drained add the onion mixture and reduce the heat a bit. Add some red wine, salt and some oregano. Sprinkle in a small handful of romano cheese. Cook for about 10 minutes and add more red wine. Cook for about 10 more minutes. The tomatoes will melt.

If the meat is too chunky, take a pie crust mixer to it (You know, one of those wire/cutter dealies with a handle).

All the alcohol will be cooked off but the wonderful smell and taste will remain. It will look like that picture!

Streets of Poros

Poros is a cool island. It has two roads: one going around it and one going up almost to the middle. Otherwise, all the roads are walkways and stairs. If fact, its faster to walk over Poros than around it.

Since we were on the edge of the season, the people of Poros started painting, fixing and getting ready for next year. Almost everything is painted white with a colored trim. Even the stair and walkway edges are painted white.

You cannot get lost on Poros because there is a clock tower at the top that you can see from nearly everywhere. I hiked all over and took many pictures of streets.

I'm usually not so easy, but I went home with a man!

We set sail for Poros and we got "picked up!" Travel aficionado, Rick Steves, says that in Greece you should go home with strangers. Many Greek families rent out rooms in their homes or own pensions or have motel-like rooms to tourists to make money. They advertise locally and you can pre-arrange in the tourist season but you can also just show up at the dock and go home with someone.

We did! It was exciting! We arrived at Poros and started walking. Greeks are not loud and a man started trailing us and whispering. My husband was dutifully trudging along, avoiding him like it was bum asking for money. I finally caught on and said to my husband that I think this man wants to talk to us. We slowed down and looked at him.

"Lady, you looking for a room?"
"yes"
"How many nights?"
"Two" He grabs my hand and starts shaking it.
"I have rooms! Come see my rooms!"
"Are they far?" He grabs my hand and shakes it some more.
"No, not too far but just right!" He grabs my husband's hand shakes it as well for good measure.

Now about the hands. This man wasn't over-weight, or very tall, but he was rugged. He must have worked hard physically all his life because his hands were like small shovels! I could not even wrap my fingers around this hand to shake it properly. Neither could my husband.

Also, he must have had palsy or a stroke that caused one eye to droop. But he fixed it! He took a long piece of of cellophane tape and just taped that sucker up! So we're going home with a stranger who has one eye tapped open and could kill us with his bare hands. My husband looked at me like I'd lost my mind.

However, this landlord really wanted you to receive value so he took us on a walking tour as well. he pointed out the best fish tavernas, where we could get our laundry done, and where we could get breakfast. We took the room.

Poros is the smallest island we went to. It is built into the hill and all the roads are stairs between the houses.

Poros-


Looking across the harbor towards the mainland-

The little water taxis-

Cute!

A cafe in the harbor. All the buildings look freshly painted.

Our room is just up these stairs-

Pictures around the town of Aegina

Pictures of the streets-









Lovely painted doors-







Restaurants in streets-





Tomorrow we go to the island of Poros.