Last Festival in Japan

There are countless local festivals in Japan because almost every shrine celebrates one of its own. We really enjoyed going to these festivals. We'll miss everything about them... yukatas, lanterns, bananas on sticks, tacoyaki stands, carnival games, fireworks, but most importantly spending time with good friends and being fully immersed in the Japanese culture. Ok, let me rephrase that, we'll miss almost everything about the Japanese festivals - we will NOT miss the crowds, intense summer heat, or mosquitoes. I swear I'm allergic to the mosquitoes in Japan - I swell up and get big welts!

 

Our last festival, and Elodie's first kiss. She'll surely miss her Shaun-Shaun.

Tokoname

Tokoname is a small city south of Nagoya known for its pottery. It's actually one of the six historic pottery towns in Japan. Tokoname has a long history and tradition of pottery making, dating back 900 years!

There is a "pottery path" filled with traditional houses, workshops, galleries, and buildings with unique character and charm. The path has remained unchanged, keeping its pottery-town atmosphere unique to Tokoname. Visitors and locals come here to shop, and enjoy the sites and history of this small, charming town. 

I have been to some of the shops in Tokoname several of times; but I have never walked the historic pottery path. Knowing our time in Nagoya was coming to an end, this was a must-do on my list! Thankfully Yumi went with me, showed me around, and enjoyed shopping for pottery together.

Those of you who know me well know that I collect pitchers. This was the PERFECT addition to my collection. It has a unique design and is loaded with beautiful blue and turquoise colors; but most importantly, it was handmade by a local artist in Japan - and it will always remind me of our incredible journey living abroad.

Foreign Stores

Garrett Popcorn opened it's first Japan location in Harajuku (Tokyo) on February 1st! Joe's friend Eric was in the area for work, so Joe met him there for a weekend of Tokyo fun. Hubby was thoughtful and waited 30-minutes in line to bring me back some famous cheese popcorn... and it was even in a pretty pink tin... thanks Hubby! According to this article, the wait can be 2-hours sometimes! That doesn't surprise me in the least, this is Japan after all - waiting in line for new products is what some people live for.

But go figure that Garrett Popcorn arrived in Japan shortly before we leave... this is a triple whammy type of situation for us because Old Navy is also scheduled to open in Nagoya this spring, and Costco is coming to Nagoya this summer! Two familiar stores that I could have frequently used this past three years will be opening just in time for our departure. Very annoying!

But instead of thinking about proper clothing sizes for foreigners, cheaper prices, and American bulk food, I'll try to think of it in another way - I survived here without those luxuries. And for this fact, I'm proud.

Doughnuts, Cookies & Love

When we moved to Nagoya, the only Western fast-food chains here were McDonalds, Subway, Dominos, and KFC. In the three years that we've been here, 3 Krispy Kreme Doughnut shops have opened, as well as a Burger King. I've always refused to go to Krispy Kreme in Nagoya, for 3 main reasons:

1. I don't really like Krispy Kreme - I can have real, homemade, fresh donuts anytime I'm home at Sweetwater's. I'm sure most cities have better local bakeries and doughnuts than Krispy Kreme.

2. The lines in Nagoya have been ridiculously long. I'm not waiting 2 hours for a doughnut, period.

3. How much are these doughnuts in the U.S.? Because here they are 180yen, or about $2 EACH.

Picture is from Krispy Kreme Nagoya.

But it's Valentine's Day, my hubby likes these doughnuts, and I decided to give in and go there. I went early in the morning to the underground shop in Sakae to avoid the crowds, and luckily there was no line! If there would have been, I would have likely turned around.

After a successful morning, I decided to bake my favorite chocolate chips cookies. Sorry in-laws, I know you swear by Grandma Tichota's recipe, but I just can't get into putting Crisco into my cookies. After testing a variety of different recipes over the years, I've discovered that the Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe is my favorite

Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp. vanilla
2 large eggs
2 cups chocolate chips (I use more)

- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Stir flour with baking soda and salt; set aside.
- In large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy.
- Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, mix on low speed until incorporated.
- Gradually blend dry mixture into creamed mixture.
- Stir in chocolate chips.
- Drop tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown (I usually do 9 or slightly less, so they're nice and gooey).

While eating heaping spoonfuls of cookie dough, I started to think about the raw egg and how the U.S. tells me that I shouldn't eat it. It got me thinking - people in Japan eat raw egg every day. It's a common ingredient in many dishes here - they mix it with rice, include it with noodles, plop it on top of pasta dishes, etc. Even their scrambled eggs are super runny... and a hard-boiled egg is a joke. So why is it that Americans can't eat raw egg, but Japanese can? No one gets sick or dies here from eating raw egg. This thought eased my egg anxiety and justified my cookie-dough eating frenzy. But, do you want to know something interesting? The Japanese wouldn't eat raw cookie dough because of the egg - that's no problem - they wouldn't eat it because they believe eating raw flour will make you sick. hmmm it certainly makes me wonder why the differences...?

We had a nice Valentine's Day, filled with doughnuts, cookies, chocolate, and most importantly... love. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dessert Buffet

The elegant Sir Winston Hotel in Yagoto has an all-you-can-eat dessert buffet in their cafe. Apparently the menu changes each month and centers around a theme. This month was 'green tea.'

You start with a set plate of 5 themed desserts. As you can see, each was made with green-tea as a main ingredient. Unfortunately green-tea is NOT my favorite taste in Japan. Even walking past the green-tea shop underground in Nagoya Station makes me nauseous (and no, that's not a pregnancy related thing - I just really don't like green tea). So go figure the one time that I go here, is the month they have green-tea themed desserts! Actually though, these 5 desserts had a very subtle green-tea taste. Although not my favorite, it was certainly tolerable.

After the initial set, you can help yourself to the dessert buffet, filled with a variety of cakes, pastries, puddings/cremes, and even cake pops to dip in chocolate fondue. None of which had green-tea in them, whew! It was soooo good. I liked every single dessert that I tried, and you better believe I had about 10 different ones!

You have 90-minutes to eat as much as you'd like. M, how did we not know about this when you lived here? This is a place I could have seen us going all the time. :)

 

 

It was a nice girls afternoon, and we left with very full tummies. But it would have been that much better without the kiddos. Even though they were all well-behaved and enjoyed playing together, it would have been a bit more relaxing for the mommies if they wouldn't have been there. So we're planning to go again - but this time on the weekend, and leaving the babies at home!

Aichi Snow Festival

2,000 tons of snow was brought in from Nagano and Gifu prefectures for a family snow festival at Moricoro Park in Nagoya. The festival includes a snow play area, sledding, and stage performances and shows. Admission is free, but as with all popular events in Japan - watch out for the crowds!

The festival is held every weekend for 1 month - a total of 15 days. We thought we were going early enough in the day to beat some of the crowd, but sadly we were mistaken.

I'm standing at the very back edge of the snow pile. You can see the narrow strip of snow goes until about where the tiny slides are for sledding. Better claim your square foot of snow early, before there is no room left! This picture was taken at 10:30AM, and we left at noon. I can only imagine how many more people showed up on this beautiful sunny afternoon.

OH, and I should also note that the line for sledding was ridiculously long. We didn't even bother waiting.

Nagoya rarely gets snow, so it was fun to get outdoors and experience the snow before our upcoming Hokkaido trip in the beginning of February. It allowed us to test out all of E's snow gear before we face negative temperatures and numerous feet of snow in northern Japan. We quickly realized she needed a heavier snowsuit and waterproof boots! Good thing we have a week left to find these items before our big trip.

So overall, yes - it was nice to get outdoors with friends, but really I don't see what all the fuss is about. With that said, I don't think I'd go back again. Maybe this is just because I grew up in Michigan, where snow is a regular winter occurrence.

Nabana No Sato - Winter Illumination

Every year the Nabana no Sato park is decorated with millions of LED lights during the winter season (from November all the way through March). I read that this year there was over 7 million lights. Each year there is a theme, this year the theme was "nature." You can see pretty spectacular photos of the lights here.

There were 3 main attractions this year: 1) tunnel of white lights, 2) tunnel of pink flower-shaped lights, and 3) Mt. Fuji.

Nabana no Sato is considered one of the best light shows in all of Japan. So needless to say because this is Japan... this place was crowded! Had we known that we'd have to park miles away, wait in traffic for hours, and fight the crowds just to take a picture... we'd probably have thought twice about going. Plus, it was $25 a person!

It was pretty and I'm glad we experienced it, but I suppose I just expected more. This place is a park, and yet there weren't any lights on any of the trees. Besides the 3 main attractions, there really wasn't a whole lot to see or do there. Nonetheless, it was something unique to do to get us out of the house during the cold winter months.

Turkey!!!

I got a tip from a friend that there may be turkeys at the supermarket. So the next day, I was cruising through the meat isle and you'll never guess what I saw... a TURKEY!!! Turkey in Japan!?... you've got to be kidding me. I don't even need to tell you how quickly I snatched one of those birds up and put it in my cart, without even considering whether or not it would fit in my oven or how in the world I was going to cook it (I have never cooked a turkey before).

This 3.5lb bird cost me a whooping $20, but I didn't care. And yes, I said 3.5lbs not 35lbs! Can you even picture what a turkey that small looks like? I had no problem fitting it in my oven.

I guess you really need to see the size of my small oven to understand how tiny this bird actually was. I'm not even sure it was bigger than a whole chicken.

But I'm glad to report that my tiny, non-even cooking oven (you should see how lopsided a cake turns out in this oven!) did a fantastic job. And considering that this was my first time cooking a turkey, I think it turned out pretty dang good. This website and this website helped me immensely.

I was wondering and a bit worried about what I was going to make for Christmas Eve dinner. So this was the perfect find.

When I move back to the U.S., I am making a commitment to cook a turkey more than once a year. Why do most people only cook this fabulous bird once a year anyway? It's not that much work, and you have a ton of leftovers... which makes it worth it, in my opinion.

Tis the Season

Although Christmas is celebrated in Japan, it is purely a commercial affair. It's estimated that less than 1% of the Japanese population is Christian, so every year I'm always surprised by the amount of Christmas decorations throughout the city. I guess this comes down to the fact the Japanese love festivals and celebrations... and Christmas just gives them the excuse to drink, buy presents, and spend time with loved ones.

Train display at the Hilton

December 25 is not a national holiday in Japan, so everyone still has work - but the holiday is still celebrated in a very commercial way. Christmas presents are usually exchanged between people in relationships, as well as close friends. Typical gifts are always "cute" (cute is important in Japan!) and include items such as teddy bears, flowers, candies, scarves, and jewelry. Below is a picture of a package of candy I bought (for myself!) - the wrapping was beautiful, but of course I opened it to show you how cute the candy was.

Christmas music plays in almost all stores, and you can even hear the popular tunes playing over the loudspeaker when you're walking down the street downtown. Christmas lights and elaborate displays are set up throughout the city, especially at major hotels and departments stores. The city is actually quite festive, and all of the displays and beautiful lights give me the comforting feeling of home. So even though we're half way across the world, the Christmas season here really reminds me of home.

The depressing part is that the city tears everything down on Christmas night. They must have employees working around the clock, because when you wake up on the 26th - everything is gone. It makes it feel like the holidays didn't even exist. It's a sad and empty feeling. And the feeling of home... gone.

Santa Claus Visits Nagoya

There is a monthly women's gathering at an American restaurant where ladies come together to talk, eat, exchange news, and share helpful information about life in Japan. Unfortuantely this event is always held on a Tuesday, and since Elodie and I have swim class every Tuesday we always miss the 'Meet and Greet' luncheon.

The monthly gathering in December was having a special Christmas lunch, and a surprise visit by Santa for the kiddos. So I decided to skip swimming - as this would probably be the only opportunity for Elodie to see Santa in Nagoya.

Turns out, Elodie doesn't like Santa so much....

Many people have asked me if Japanese children believe in Santa. The best answer that I can give is that it depends on the family. In general, many kids believe that Santa will bring them presents if they are good and asleep when he arrives. When they wake on Christmas day, they find presents by their pillows instead of under Christmas trees. But again, it really depends on the family.

Autumn Leaves

Fall in Nagoya is stunning - beautiful weather with colorful autumn leaves. Fall foliage is one of the most popular outdoor-friendly activities in Japan. There are several festivals and areas around Nagoya where you can enjoy the fall scenery. The most popular places to visit are the ones that light-up the leaves at night.

Unfortunately, we tried to go to one of the famous light-up spots - but were unsuccessful. We should have known that EVERY single person in the area was also trying to go see the leaves, so the traffic backup was just awful. After sitting in a line up of cars for just under an hour and not moving but a few feet, we decided that it just wasn't worth it - so we turned around and went home.

It's really too bad we couldn't see the famous red maple leaves lit-up at night at korankei gorge. This was on the top of my list of sites to see in Japan before we leave the country. But it is what it is, and we should have known better anyway. ANY site-seeing activity in this country is bound to come with thousands of people, traffic jams, no where to park, long lines, and the list goes on and on.

Nagashima Spa Land

Nagashima Spa Land is a major amusement park, just a short 30-minute drive from Nagoya. I've been here 2 and a half years, why am I just now finding out about this!?

It's the second largest amusement park in Japan and also includes a water park, onsen, Anpanman museum, & HUGE outlet shopping mall.

We spent the entire day in the water park, and had SO much fun! There was an indoor kid/baby area with pools, tiny water slides, swings, play areas, and even a baby wave pool! It's by far the best baby water park I've ever seen! Elodie was not a huge fan of the slide, as it was super slippery and she wiped out. But she loved the swings and wave pool!

We spent the later part of the afternoon lounging in the lazy river and the adults taking turns going down the big water slides. Luckily, all 3 babies napped at the same time - so the Dads watched them while the Moms had some fun! We had such a great time, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time! :)

The mamas and their babies :)

My sweet little peanut had such a fun day!

There was so much to do in just the water park area - and even though we spent the entire day in this part, we didn't even get to go on all of the slides. So you definitely need a couple of days to explore the whole park - the amusement park side with all of the roller coasters & rides as well as the Anpanman museum, and then a whole other day for just shopping at the outlet mall!

Luckily we'll be here for one more summer, so I'm looking forward to going back to the water park next year. In the meantime, we're planning our next trip there hopefully this fall - to take Elodie to the Anpanman Museum, and then do some shopping at the outlet mall.

Kakuozan Nittai-ji Temple

Kakuozan Nittai-ji Temple is only a few subway stops away from downtown. Nittai-ji means "Japan Thailand Temple," which stands for 'auspicious king' in honor of Buddha and Japan-Thai for the friendly relations between the two nations.

It was constructed in 1904, and then Nagoya was chosen as the location to bestow a Buddha relic and 1000 year old Buddha statue. I read that the temple was built as a repository for the true thumb bone of Buddha Sakyamuni, which was a gift from King Chulalongkorn, who was then a King of Siam (present Thailand). It was rebuilt in 1984. Thai royalty continue to visit here on trips to Japan.

5-storey pagoda next to the temple.

The entrance gate to the temple.

The main temple.

Inside the temple. Daily Buddhist worship is held at 12:30.

Priests chant sutras every day during the daily worship time.

Pretty neat that we live downtown, but yet can experience something like this only 15 minutes away.

Good Friends ~ Tea Shop

Some of the nicest people I've ever met!! We meet for lunch a couple of times a month at a little local tea shop which serves some of the best Japanese food I've ever had. Who would have thought that I'd move to Japan and become good friends with people almost twice my age that don't exactly speak fluent English!? I feel so fortunate to have met these wonderful women. Not only do they invite Elodie and me out for lunch, but they also help me with all of the little details that constantly make life living abroad difficult, such as: translating whenever I need help with both people and documents, teaching me how to cook Japanese food, showing me what things are at the grocery store (and buying me the correct products!), making phone calls/appointments/reservations for us, inviting our visitors over for a Japanese meal, karaoke, and tea ceremonies.... the list goes on and on.

I don't know how I'd get through the day to day complications of being a foreigner if it wasn't for their help. :)

Vietnamese - Annam Blue

Two words to describe Vietnamese cuisine: fresh and healthy. Every time I visit the Annam Blue Vietnamese Restaurant in Nagoya, I love it more and more.

Vietnamese spring rolls - a much healthier version than the traditional fried spring rolls. All ingredients are fresh and healthy. The typical ingredients usually include shrimp, fresh herbs, lettuce, cucumbers, and rice vermicelli, which are then all wrapped in moistened rice paper. The spring rolls are served at room temperature with a variety of dipping sauces (my favorite of which is a mix of peanut butter, miso, and sugar). I read that you can find similar spring rolls in the U.S. at Trader Joe's... has anyone ever seen them there? I'll have to check it out the next time I'm in Seattle.

Pho, a Vietnamese noodle soup, essentially the Vietnamese version of ramen. Some of the ingredients include a variety of vegetables, noodles made from rice, and shrimp. Each time I've had this dish, the broth has been different. I've had it spicy, coconut flavored, and one time it even had a citrus taste... and all are good!

I'm sure this soup varies from region to region and restaurant to restaurant. I love this dish and get it every single time I go to the Annam Blue Vietnamese restaurant in Nagoya.

The best thing on the menu: Vietnamese coffee!! It's served with sweetened condensed milk - so you can add as much as you want to your drink. WOW is it good... and super sweet! My kind of coffee drink. I love the Phin filters, too. Vietnamese coffee is brewed and served using single-cup filters. It's served while it's still brewing, so it's very fresh. It's a simple and fantastic way to brew coffee... I am going to be on the lookout for one of these little devices! It only takes about 4-6 minutes from start to finish and serves very fresh, strong, and delicious coffee.

My two loves hanging out while I enjoy every sip of my coffee. To bad Joe doesn't drink coffee, he really missed out on this one! ;)

Okonomiyaki

I'm sure I've already posted about okonomiyaki, because it's one of our favorite things to eat here. Okonomiyaki is a popular pan fried food that consists of batter and cabbage. Ingredients and toppings are added and vary greatly depending on your preferences. Joe prefers the mixed seafood variety with shrimp, squid, and octopus; while I prefer the pork and cheese kind. I read that "okonomi" literally means "to one's liking," so you can pretty much order it however you want it. It's usually topped with okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise, green onion, dried seaweed powder, tempura crumbs and occasionally ginger. It's widely available at all festivals throughout Japan, too.

Okonomiyaki is known as a Japanese pancake. But even though it's cooked on a griddle and consists of batter, it is nothing like the fluffy sweet pancakes that we know so well in the U.S. Okonomiyaki is available all throughout Japan, but each region has their own specialty version. We've even had it cooked with noodles, which is more of a Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki dish.

The restaurant in the picture above is right across the street from our apartment. Very convenient! My friends Miyoko and Akemi have also taught me how to make this dish at home. With all the right ingredients, it's actually pretty simple. I've made it several times, but am still working on perfecting and making it the right consistency throughout.

Hanami ~ Cherry Blossoms

Hanami means 'cherry blossom viewing.' It's one of the most popular events of Spring, and the most beautiful time to be in Japan! Crowds of people gather together and sit under the fully open cherry blossoms, usually on blue plastic tarps and have a picnic celebration. There is usually competition for the prime picnic spots, and people claim their spots by arriving early in the morning and sitting all day long until the celebrations begin.

Hanami celebrations always remind me of the 4th of July in the U.S. Families and friends get together to eat, drink, and just hang out during the day and then go to the best spots to see the fireworks at night. Hanami celebrations in Japan are similar to that and involve eating, drinking, hanging out, and getting the best spot possible to see the blooms, especially when they are lit up in the evening.

We went down to the Yamazaki-gawa River to see the blossoms lit up in the evening, and it was spectacular! Truly an amazing sight. There are approximately 720 cherry trees here!

When the cherry blossoms are fully bloomed it almost looks like snow. The walk down the river here was absolute gorgeous - both during the day and at night. The weather forecast was predicting the cherry trees to bloom late this year because it's been a fairly cold winter here... but lucky for us it warmed up quite a bit recently and the trees were in full bloom this past weekend. I would have been really disappointed if we would have missed them (because we are going to the U.S. this next weekend!).

Beautiful day, beautiful blooms, beautiful Japan! This is one of those moments where I look around and feel extremely fortunate to be living abroad and experiencing another culture. :) I ♥ Hanami!! I posted an album of Hanami cherry blossoms on our shutterfly site, enjoy!