Archive for June, 2006
June 30, 2006 at 9:22 pm · Filed under In the Kitchen and Foodstuff
I think I have been avoiding writing about “weird things in Japan”. Maybe because everyone else is doing it and I feel it would be redundant, maybe because I am boring, or maybe because daily life here is not always zany and weird. But…you don’t all keep tabs on those other sites of things in Japan, I am actually pretty sensational once you get to know me, and each day does, perhaps, bring something quirky and interesting along so I should share.
Today I introduce a product that I found at the grocery store, “Let’s Sand”. Its purpose - to make sandwiches. Very inviting name isn’t it? Though on first glance I thought of gritty hot dogs I ate at the cabin as a kid. Not being able to balance a roasting stick over a bonfire, my hotdogs often took quick dips into the beach sand below. Let’s Sand is not very gritty at all. I had the apple variety:
There is also chicken & mustard, fruit mix, egg, tuna, meat & cheese, and something & potato. I think I picked the best kind. You can’t really see from this picture (I will have to buy it again and take a larger picture…was lazy with the camera this time and to ruin the story I have already tried it and the package has been sent with the recycling) but Let’s Sand comes in a package about the size of those Knorr gravy mix or salad dressing seasoning packages. Inside is filling for your sandwich. Great for picnics and middle of the night snacks as Let’s Sand does not need to be refrigerated and will hold up well under your pillow. Though I would recommend keeping your bread in a bedside bread box for maximum freshness.
Final review: not too bad. The packaging, although champion in logo and name, is extremely unappetizing. Worse is having to squeeze the “sand”(?? I guess the bread makes the “-wich”) out of the package and onto your bread. Though once it is there, you realize that it is basically like apple pie filling. Thin package or can, it tastes the same to me! Pie filling and bread is not too bad but I would recommend toasting the bread first. Another campfire reference - has anyone here tried “bush pies”?
At 120円 (but I found it on sale for 80円), I might consider buying this product again.
June 30, 2006 at 1:04 pm · Filed under Dreams
Last night I dreamt that I was in a department store in Japan. It was quite the piece of architecture. Sometimes I amaze myself with the places I dream of and I think - why am I not designing indoor spaces? Though I will admit, since being in Japan the things my sleeping mind conjures up are not that impressive. The walkways and platforms and glass and colours and moving parts seemed all too normal when I thought of them again this morning.
I don’t know if I would design safe spaces though. One bridge inside this building I dreamt of had no railing and a four story drop below. I sat on it and thought about how many people considered jumping from it. Then I tried to find a place to eat breakfast at but it was “couples day” and restaurants were only allowing people in pairs. Gee…(insert picture of Bart selling soul episode dream clip here)…is my subconscious informing me of my lack of attachments to people?
June 28, 2006 at 5:12 pm · Filed under Experiences
I totally repressed this one somehow. Think it left my memory once I had realized I had taken the wrong train and, already extremely tired and hungry, would have a longer ride home.
A few weeks ago, maybe three(?), I was heading home on a Saturday around suppertime. At one station a group of maybe 8 American teenagers (maybe 15-17 years old) boarded. They were really loud and extremely aggravating. I felt like such an old fart for being frustrated with them but they were just nails on the chalkboard of a quiet Japanese train ride. There was a lot of swearing (I’m not opposed to cursing but please, keep it in quantities where the words can actually maintain their meaning!) and walking around, roughing each other up. At one point one guy pushed his friend who then fell into the lap of this very surprised woman. I really wanted to say something but didn’t.
Then I was completely shocked. One of the guys lost his balance a little and when he regained it, his shirt had lifted slightly revealing the grip of a gun he had tucked in his pants. A gun?!! Yes, it looked like a gun indeed but was it real? My first guess was that it was fake but…some kids think it is cool to carry guns don’t they? Then I became a little freaked out. Guns scare me, they totally freak me out. Not so much because they can kill but more because it scares me that people feel they need to carry them…and in Japan? It just seemed wrong and weird to me…am I totally naive and out of touch?
June 26, 2006 at 5:40 pm · Filed under Random Thoughts
I didn’ t have time to write today, even though it is a school day, because I am in the middle of writing the script to a movie called “Humidity Killed Meghan’s Hair” and it was a very bloody death indeed. But really my hair cut yesterday went well. I was a little scared beforehand but when you pay top dollars you get top service! It is too bad my post-haircut depression has to be enhanced even more by its inability to stay still in air with > 20% humidity. Post-haircut depression is (in case you are wondering) that sadness you get after the first wash and dry post-haircut. You realize that your hands can’t do what the stylist does and even if you say it looked great when you stepped out of the salon…people may or may not believe you. The salon I went to was great and the people there were way more interesting than me…or so they looked like it. My hair stylist asked me if I had a Japanese boyfriend (yet) and I told her no but tried to probe for advice on how to figure them out. She just told me that I should find a Japanese guy to marry so that I can stay in Japan. My probing was not to fruitful. Maybe I should have been straight forward and asked “are Japanese men attracted to giant, tall women with scalloped-by-humidity shaped hair??”. Maybe next haircut I will get into the details more. We were just getting past the where are you from, what are you doing here, and do you travel(s).
I guess I wrote!
June 23, 2006 at 8:03 pm · Filed under In the Kitchen and Foodstuff
I categorized this as “In the Kitchen” which is sort of “In the Kitchen with Meg” but it wasn’t in my kitchen and I wasn’t the mastermind behind this sweet project. Mayumi invited me to a baking class at the ABC cooking school last Monday. It was great - mostly in Japanese but she helped me so I learned a lot.
The class setup there is awesome. A big open space with many workstations. The workstations are for groups of no more than 5 I think, plus a teacher. You work together on a recipe and each person gets their share to eat afterwards, or take home. The great thing is that the classes are easy as ABC, but you still learn a lot. Or at least I did. I love baking and considering myself good at it but I sort of just throw things together. I think most of my recipes don’t involve too much science or technicalities.
We made chiffon cakes:
and they were quite yummy but there are a few key points to make them well. There is a certain timing you need when beating the egg whites, you should use vegetable oil and not butter, when you mix your beated egg whites into the batter you shouldn’t get all DJ on it but rather “cut” the whites into the batter, and so on.
In a few weekends we will go back for a special event class on making a Japanese confectionary. Sweet! Literally!
It is Friday evening and the 8pm music just started. Tomorrow is a me day. I have cleaning, Japanese, work, and a bit of relaxing to catch up on. On Sunday I am getting my hair cut…a little nervous!! Afterwards I will go to a concert put on by the NTT orchestra. A friend at work plays cello in it and she gave me a ticket. I can’t remember what they are playing offhand, but it is a Brahms symphony. After that, I think I will try to find a cozy spot somewhere in a cafe to sit down and write…something. I don’t know what yet. Probably many things cause lately I’ve had the attention span of a goldfish and I need like 50 windows open on my computer at a time to keep me productive. In fact I don’t even know what I am writing right now. Every three words I forget where I am so this is just an output of random strings of events being fired in my head. No…I dunno…should go home soon.
Have a good weekend : )
June 22, 2006 at 1:02 pm · Filed under Sweet Finds
I cannot believe that I didn’t hear about this 2 months ago! AGFRAG Entertainment Group (that name doesn’t sit well on my tongue) bought the rights to a Bob Ross video game which they will develop for the Nintendo Wii. Can’t express how joyful that makes me. Did anyone catch my stupid grin during lunch time.
I was going to include a picture with this post because posts need pictures especially when they are about Bob Ross. But, when I went to the Bob Ross website and did a right-click on his face, I received a pop-up:
Reminder! The contents of this website are Bob Ross Inc. copyrighted. Downloading or reproduction of any part is strictly prohibited by law.
…and to pay respect to Bob Ross, I passed on getting the picture…even though…is linking to a picture online violating copyright laws? Writing this though, it occured to me that Bob Ross would probably want people to copy those pictures. I mean…isn’t that what his whole career was about?
June 21, 2006 at 1:28 pm · Filed under Addictions
I have a mean craving to sit down with a huge bowl of miniwheats and play the Sims for several hours. Alas! I don’t think I will be able to do that for a while. There is something about video games and cereal. Especially the Sims. I would like to make a Sims house out of cereal.
June 21, 2006 at 12:51 pm · Filed under Experiences
Sunday of this past weekend, we went to Nakashige-san’s house for an udon party. I was told that Nakashige-san is an expert udon maker and although I am not an udon connaisseur, I can judge from his ease with the dough, and from the tastiness of the end product, that this is true.
We got to see most of the noodle making process - all but making the dough which is a tricky part. The noodles consist of a ratio of flour, water, and salt and the ratio needs to be adjusted slightly depending on the season of the year (and maybe location?)…I think it has to do with the humidity. Anyway, the dough was there when we arrived and it needed to be stepped on. I was unfortunately initially lazy with my camera so I don’t have a picture, but basically, you put the dough in a plastic bag, put it on the floor, and step on it. Feet kneading(?) When that is done, the dough is further manipulated by rolling it around a thin rolling pin and across a table repeatedly. Eventually you get a thinner sheet of dough that should have a certain type of elasticity. I am doing a horrible job of explaning this…really should have taken more pictures. Anyway, once the elasticity is right, you can cut the noodles. You can see the professional noodle cutter in the pictures I did take. It automatically shifts along its track as you cut up and down so you get very precise noodle sizes. Absolutely amazing.
We all got to take some uncooked noodles home with us. I had udon again for supper, and then for breakfast the next day, AND I have more noodles in my freezer for another time. Entertainment during noodle eating was provided by Nakashige-san’s four-year-old daughter who is the cutest thing. She’s quite the energetic one! I could not understand most of the things she said, but after some repetition I could catch on. I think she knew I was a foreigner as occasionally she would break out into the ABC song. Already taking English lessons! Ahh it was a lot of fun : )
June 20, 2006 at 12:54 pm · Filed under On the Train / Bus
Three guys, maybe between 17 and 19 years old, wife-beaters (is it still okay for me to call them that?), chains, and baseball caps. Being all cool. Looking a little like they want to be tough, or appear tough. It is late at night and a long ride home from Tokyo. People sleep where they can. These guys are getting tired. Two squat on the floor of the train. One uses a box he has with him as a seat.
The ride goes on. More people get off. They can use the adjustable seats by the doors. Two sit on them. The other guy, the smallest of the three and the one who looks the most tired, still sits on his box. I fall asleep for a bit. I wake up and look over at them again. The smaller one is slumped over with his head resting in his friend’s lap. It is the most adorable thing and I wanted to take a picture but didn’t.
Would you ever see this in Canada? Would a guy dare to take advantage of close comfort from a friend? The complexity of Japanese personal space completely amazes me. In some ways I feel gaping voids of uncertainty but then in many other ways I feel welcoming and warmness. I can only interpret through experience so I am constantly left very curious as to what people are thinking and feeling.
June 20, 2006 at 10:35 am · Filed under Mostly Hilarious
…I read about the handful of mochi related deaths every year in Japan and this fact itself seemed quite funny to me. Oh I felt horrible chuckling about it but death by choking on any sorts of food seems a bit funny to me and that it is a common, annual thing makes it funnier.
On Friday night we had a work party. I brought mochi deaths up and I was informed that the emergency procedure in the case of choking on mochi is to use a vacuum cleaner to suck it out. Heimlich doesn’t cut it. This had me in tears laughing.
Now I am on a quest to find a mochi choking emergency procedure card (must have illustrations).
June 19, 2006 at 10:40 am · Filed under Site Specific
Ah so yes, last week I was feeling really self absorbed. I was wondering how much thoughts about my own life and worries were inhibiting me from creativity and progress. I was also wondering if writing here a) encouraged me to think about myself a lot thus further distract me from work or b) helped get the ideas out so that I could continue on with work thoughts. So I decided to avoid posting for a bit. Now, I am thinking that this site promotes case b) so I feel better about spending time writing : )
Still…I feel pretty busy and have things I want to get to. Tonight I will go to a cooking class with Mayumi so I don’t have so much time at work today. More later.
June 13, 2006 at 6:57 pm · Filed under Site Specific
Not that you were sitting on the edges of your seats or anything, but just in case you were wondering…won’t be posting much this week. Think I am on strike from myself. Will be back next week. Same cat time, same cat channel.
June 9, 2006 at 6:28 pm · Filed under Mundane, Work
I read this very enjoyable short paper today, Uncovering traces of mobile practices: “the Bag Study” (Robertson, Kan, Sadler, Hagen, 2005). Abstract:
This study addresses everyday human practices in order to inform our thinking around the design of technology to support human mobility and mobile device use. Building on traditional ethnographic techniques, we investigated the contents of people’s bags, seeking traces of planning, decision making and other social practices that people rely on to construct and maintain relations between particular mobile objects and their particular mobile lives. The research contributes to the development of novel methods for researching mobile practices and its initial findings question assumptions about information use and storage, and about the personalisation of mobile device and services.
It interested me particularly because I think I’ve had a bag obsession since childhood. I take pleasure in unpacking my bags and purses and then repacking them again. I feel good when someone needs something and I can say “oh wait, here…here you go!” I like things like lip gloss and new pens and notebooks and handy small sample sized products not for their actual use but because I can put them in my purse or bag. Though I am not a bag in bag person. My pencil case is on my desk. It doesn’t come with me, and I only carry a makeup bag when I take items that I fear might explode and make a huge shimmery mess. Instead, I usually try to find bags with many compartments and pockets. Pen holders are the cat’s pjs. I remember the first bag that I felt really obsessed about, this blue backpack of my sisters from Jump-Rope-for-Heart. It had a large main section and then a smaller front section that opened all the way to reveal many convenient bag-pocket/accessories.
After reading the above paper and thinking about the contents of my bag, I felt compelled to share. Actually, I am considering making a bag log or a “bl…”, hmm…no that won’t work. (My word mashes never work out.) I think that a bag log would be a really good way of keeping track of the more mundane things in my life. Those things that I will forget about in two years, but are important nonetheless because they will trigger other memories. No promises on the log, but for your pleasure, the contents of My Backpack:
1 GB USB Memory Key
Ipod Nano USB Cable
MUJI notebook, 100 pages, soft covered (for writing down spontaneous things in Japanese or tearing pages out to give people notes)
Hanko (personal seal)
Brush
Tin of Cinnamon Altoids
Ninento DS Lite with Japanese English Dictionary and Tetris cartridges
Sunglasses
Gatsby oil clear paper
Blistex Silk & Shine Lip Gloss
Card holder containing some important cards and 2 of my HCT business cards
2 safety pins
Omiyage from china, received yesterday – cookie and tea
Japanese Living Language textbook
Japanese lessons notebook, spiral bound
Moleskine Agenda/Calendar
Keys
Word cards on plastic ring (You can get these sets of Japanese-English flash cards on key rings here. They are very small and handy. I found blank ones to make your own word lists at Loft last weekend)
Bus card, train card, Brastel international phone card, membership card to iCafe in akihabara (I went there once for observation work but just in case I go back…)
Ipod Nano (syrup)
Mobile (orange juice)
MUJI double tipped black felt marker
PILOT Hi-Tecpoint V5 Extra Fine black pen
Pink Sharpie Accent highlighter
Breakfast bar
Wrapper for soy bar snack (snack eaten an hour and a half ago)
Finally, before I leave I will add a binder with notes from work, a map to a place I will check out this weekend, the score for a song to practice and some extra staffed paper for music notes.
Stepping away from myself, I am thinking about the above study again. When you are trying to study what people do in very general everyday settings, personal information like this is very very valuable, but can be quite unattainable. Or can it? I am thinking about - what are those small common things that we personalize? That we take with us everywhere? What do they say about our desires and our behaviours? Hmm…some thinking for the bus ride home. If you have any interesting views on me based on the above list, please let me know : ) I hope you all have a good weekend!
June 8, 2006 at 2:27 pm · Filed under Random Thoughts
I am trying to think through some ideas today. Rethink old ideas. Theorize a little. It hurts. The hard part is knowing that for any good idea I’ve had, there has been that point where I see it as a bad idea. Seriously…any idea. So if I pursue an idea, usually it is because I can deal with it quickly enough, deal with it before I think it is a bad idea. This is why shopping ideas never seem bad.
I am at that point where I feel like this idea I had…is not so great…and I don’t know what I should do. Should I give it a rest? Will it be better later? Is my mind too clouded at the moment to admend the idea and make it something good again?
At times like these, I like to imagine what it would be like to have an absolutely, purely, without a doubt, universally good idea. Like, a thought that is sooo RIGHT and without bias and applicable anywhere…a TRUTH of an idea. Imagining this makes my head hurt a little…but it brings up some great imagery of my ears giving birth to my brain.
June 8, 2006 at 9:40 am · Filed under Addictions
Look folks, new category and what a great time to start it. I am in the land of things I could easily get addicted to. This first post will be based on sugar-stuff.
Addiction 1: Altoids Cinnamon Mints (Can you even call them mints though?)
Previously I had purchased a Japanese specialty, Lotte Black Black mints. They are quite potent but I still enjoyed them. Then I was in an international food store and found these. Can’t say they make me homesick but they are perfect for that needed 10 calorie boost when I am starving on my way home from work.
Addiction 2: Mt. Rainier Caffè Latte
I usually get the kind shown on the right. Normally I don’t go for the coffee in a cup or can. In fact before coming to Japan I could be quite the coffee snob but within 20 hours of my arrival I realized that to stay caffeinated in the next year, I would have to change my ways. Luckily, some of these pre-brewed products are not too bad. The Mt. Rainier Caffè Latte is my favorite because it is a little smooth, but not in that hydrogenated oil kind of way, and it is not too sweet…you can actually taste the coffee!
Addiction 3: カルシウム パーラー (Calcium Parlor)
My favorite fruit juice. Well, some of you might have heard me say at one point or another that I don’t really drink juice. This worked back home where fruit was cheap, but here…well you can get some types of fruit for cheap, but…I should rephrase that…I miss apples. The apples here are very good, but at 100円 each…yikes. That and apples are not mini calcium parlors AND they are not mixed with grape and lemon-y goodness. Seriously though, this is some good juice. It is hardly watered down so it almost seems thicker(?) than other juices, but not like a smoothie or yogurt-based drink.
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