Mom's Visit

Joe and I had such a great time with my mom visiting! It was so nice to have her here :) We spent the majority of our time wandering around Nagoya. It was nice to explore different areas of the city we live in, while also relaxing and spending time together.

While most days we ate out, we did spend one evening making dinner. To start with, I introduced my mom to edamame (soybeans). Very easy to make: just boil in salt water for about 5 minutes, then salt and serve. Then I made yakisoba, which is basically just Japanese fried noodles (similar to Chinese "chow mein"). Also very easy to make: stir-fry prepared noodles with cabbage and veggies and any meat of your choice, add the yakisoba sauce, worcestershire sauce, salt & pepper.

Edamame

Yakisoba

Love you, Mom! Thanks so much for visiting!!!

Here are a few more pictures from her visit. To see all the pictures, go to our picture site: http://emilyandjoepictures.shutterfly.com/

Spa & Moroccan Restaurant

Today was a wonderful, relaxing day. Mom and I got a Japanese massage in the morning, which was fantastic. They worked a lot of pressure points, and spent a good deal of time on the neck and shoulders. :) We will be making this a regular routine when she visits again!

We drank sangria in the afternoon and relaxed... while Joe took his GMAT exam. According to his unofficial score - he passed! Now he'll just have to wait and see if he gets into the grad school program (which should be late November or early December).

Then we all headed out to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner: Moroccan.

Inside the restaurant - very cute!

Eating Moroccan bean soup with the cool wooden spoons.
Reminded me of chili - very good!

We each got a set course: 2 appetizers per person, a main course of your choice, unlimited Moroccan bread, dessert, and mint tea. Unfortunately the main dish Joe picked took 20 minutes longer to get than ours... poor Joe had to wait. haha :)

Osu & Sushi

Yesterday, I think my mom was a little "Japanese'd" out! So we had an American day... bakery for lunch, shopping, and Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. Today, however, we had a complete Japanese day! We rode our bikes around town, went to Osu Kannon Temple, browsed the local shops, and then headed out for sushi.

outside of Osu Kannon Temple

inside of Osu Kannon Temple

cucumber and tuna rolls

Mom tried many different kinds of sushi: shrimp, tuna,
eel, raw tuna rolls, corn rolls, etc! AND... she liked it!!!
I'm very proud of her! :)

Inuyama Castle & Monkey Park

Today we took my mom to Inuyama Castle... my favorite castle in Japan! I posted a blog about it back in April when Jenny was here visiting. But here is a little reminder of what it is: Inuyama Castle is the oldest standing castle in Japan. It was built in 1537 by one of Japan's greatest samurai warriors. After construction, ownership changed hands frequently - but it's the only castle in Japan today that remains privately owned. It stands on top of a hill next to a river... which makes for a beautiful view at the top.

Inuyama Castle - very pretty with the leaves starting to change colors.

In front of a few of the windows (small ceilings!) No shoes allowed in this castle.

At the top! You can walk all the way around the top outside. It was such a beautiful day, perfect weather and scenery.

Next we went to Japan Monkey Park. It has about 600 different species of monkeys. There were areas of the park where the monkeys could come right up to you!

We were disappointed there was only 1 gorilla at the park, and no orangutans! But overall, it was a lot of fun and neat to see all the different species. The conditions were much better than the Nagoya zoo, but many of the monkeys were still in pretty small cages.

Hikone Castle

Today we ventured over to Hikone Castle, about 40 minutes by train from Nagoya. Hikone Castle is an original castle, meaning that it has survived over 400 years without undergoing destruction and reconstruction in war. Many of the castles throughout Japan were destroyed in war and then rebuilt, so this old structure was really awesome to see.

The castle is three stories high, and sits on top of a hill.

The castle is surrounded by a double moat.

Inside the castle... all wood floors (you have to remove your shoes to go inside), and ivory white walls.

The ceilings were very unique!

On the way home we stopped at a Japanese bakery. For some reason, bakeries here always have hotdogs on a stick, surrounded by a pastry.

To see more pictures, go to: http://emilyandjoepictures.shutterfly.com/

Mom's First Day!

Here are a few pictures of my mom's first day in Nagoya. It was a beautiful sunny day, so I took her for a bike ride around town...

First we rode to Nagoya Castle and a park nearby.

Next, I took her out for her first Japanese meal: tempura (rice, miso soup, deep-fried prawns, shrimp, fish, and veggies). It was her first time using chopsticks... which was pretty difficult for her because of all of the greasy food. After lunch, we stopped at the grocery store - so she got to see how expensive all the foods here are - especially foreign foods. She was shocked to find out that a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese costs $4 US dollars!

For dinner, we took her out for Indian. It was her first experience with Indian food... and she didn't like it very much.

Summer Ikebana

Here are some pictures of my recent ikebana pieces from summer. Now that I'm teaching part-time, I can no longer attend ikebana class. Even though I love it and it's become a hobby of mine, I will have to make the sacrifice and give it up for a little while in order to teach. So these will be the last pictures of ikebana for a while!

Special K Bars

I have been addicted to peanut butter as of lately. My whole life I have hated peanut butter, but I woke up one day recently and was craving it (and no, I'm not pregnant)! I've developed a bad habit of eating heaping spoonfuls throughout the day, topped with chocolate chips. YUM! Anyway, since I had a few of the ingredients already, I decided to make Special K bars.

Karo syrup = 893 yen = $10.70
Chocolate chips = 600 yen = $7.19
Peanut butter = 650 yen = $7.80
Sugar = 230 yen = $2.75
Small box of Special K = 400 yen = $4.80

Grand total to make Special K bars: $33.24. It's was expensive, but worth every bite! The pan was gone in 2 days.

I will never complain about food prices in the U.S. again! Many of you have been asking about prices and expenses in Japan... the next time I go grocery shopping, I will blog it....

S'MORES!

Well, summer is about over - and we were missing one key component this year: S'MORES! There hasn't been a single summer that's gone by that I haven't had a smore! So I went on a hunt around Nagoya to find all of the essential ingredients. :)

SUCCESS! I managed to find all 3 ingredients. The cost was pretty ridiculous, but I didn't care!

• Marshmallows = 390 yen = $4.62
• Hershey bar =300 yen = $3.55
• Graham crackers = 600 yen = $7.11

I love that the marshmallow bag says, "A True American Tradition."

And we even discovered a new use for chopsticks! Nothing like roasting marshmallows on the stove top with a chopstick!! mmmm I have a feeling this is going to become a regular dessert for us. :)

Registered to RUN!

We are officially registered to run the 35th annual Lake Kawaguchi Marathon on Sunday, November 28! We signed up for the "A-round-the-lake" run, which is 27km or 16.77 miles around Lake Kawaguchi! This lake is nestled next to Mt. Fuji, and from what we have read - the views are amazing. Sixteen and a half miles will be a long run for us, with only 2 months left to train - but I know we can do it! :)

Here is the website if you're interested in checking it out: http://www.sports-info.co.jp/kawaguchi2010/info.html

Map of the course: