Being all Japanese, sorta

Hey peoples! I'm at the Apple Store in Ginza (Tokyo) right now mooching off their free Internet. Nice. Today is my second day in Tokyo w/ Mona, Lisa and Larissa and we're taking Tokyo by storm! Haha, not really. But yeah, we've done some pretty cool stuff thus far. We've been to Shimokitazawa where we each made nice purchases, including some sexy socks (dunno if that's an oxymoron). Anyway, we had hoddeuk! That's right, those are the red bean-filled pancakey things I ate in Korea! Who would've thought?! It was amazing, of course. I love chillin' in Tokyo w/ these girls as our thought process every day just involves shopping, going to tourist sites (w/ the next meal/snack in mind at every location we're at), and eating and eating. I realize I just can't be with peeps that don't enjoy the wonder known as food! Haha. Anyway, even tho I've been in Japan for almost a year now, sitting at the busiest Starbucks in the world at the busiest intersection in the world (in Shibuya) w/ the girls last night still seems surreal. Yes, this is all fake. Japan is not a real place. It is a figment of our imagination, indeed. People cannot really be so "polite." Well, it's all "tatemai" (outward appearances?) as we all know, but I still love it. The times I've bumped into loud Americans in the past couple of days, I just wanted to be like, "Don't you know you're like the loudest person on the island of Japan?! SHUT UP NOW!" Haha. (This is coming from a loud (confirmed by many friends) Chinese American girl.) But yeah, they need to stop talking soo loudly, really.

One of the main highlights of the past two days was our trip to Tsukiji Fish Market this morning. This is the largest wholesale fish market in the world! Seriously, people, you need to go and experience this for yourself! We went to Daiwa Sushi....the best sushi bar in Tokyo according to the Zagat guide. Does this mean it's the best in the world as well?? If so, sweet! It was, as expected, AMAZING. More details later, but we made friends w/ some cute-as Japanese grannies who were the genkiest senior citizens I've ever met while waiting in line for sushi! I gots to practice my Nihongo, yos! Thank goodness they asked the easiest questions ever....as if I'm retarded...which I sorta am. I was told I look "borderline retarded" to Japanese people by someone once. I'm thinking that may be true now.

Ahh, I have soo many things to write about, but I'm not all here right now. I drank a Tazo Chai Tea from Starbucks last night and couldn't go to sleep till 4:30am....I had to wake up at 7:00am to go to Tsukiji. I don't know how I'm still functioning at this point. I've just made a reservation at Gonpachi, the restaurant that inspired a replica for the huge fight scene in Kill Bill. Too bad I didn't know earlier that we were gonna go there, or else I would've asked one of my students to borrow her school uniform. Missed opportunites.

Thoughts of the hour:

I discovered Red Bean Kit Kats at Family Mart a couple of nights ago. Lisa said that it was the best Kit Kat she's had in her life. OMG...it's soo good. I'm on a mission to try every Kit Kat this country has to offer. I just have to wait another 8 months gurai for the Maple Kit Kat to come out again. Dammit....should've searched for it when it was out! Anyone seen any Mango Kit Kats around?? I'm looking for that as well.......

It is creepy just how quiet the subway in Tokyo is...even when packed w/ people like sardines. Like, really creepy.

Why do Japanese people pretend they're not looking when they are obviously (or not so obviously) staring? Hmm.

Oh yeah, I AM really retarded as the housekeeping lady at our hotel thinks that I'm illiterate as I posted the door-knob-hanger-thingy (yes, I teach English but I really don't know it....SHHH!) on the "Please Make Up Room" side when I really wanted it on the "Do Not Disturb" side. Might I add this is IN English. Anyway, she started speaking Chinese to me and I was like, "Chuugokujin ja nai." So yeah, she thinks that I can't u/s instructions in English, Chinese nor Japanese as this happened AGAIN this morning when I was at Mona's room. Hmm...I realize this all doesn't make much sense now, but yeah, I should really brush up on Spanish, as I'd want her to think that I u/s SOME sorta language! K, none of this is funny now that I'm reading it. K, forget you read this.

Mind not working properly, gots to stop here. To be continued.......

A Sea of Red Devils (Part 2)

Day 3

I dozed in and out of consciousness during the Korea World Cup game. I was able to watch the 2 goals being scored, but the rest seemed like a blur to me. I didn't know if I dreamed some parts of the game or not.

Anyway, the morning of our final full day in Seoul, Jeff and I woke a bit before the others so we went to get our Starbucks fix. They have White Chocolate Mocha Frappuccinos in Seoul! This is the first I've seen of it, anyway. But OH MY GOD...Starbucks is INSANELY expensive in Korea! A Grande Frappuccino costs US$6.50!! A Tumbler costs $38!! WTF!! We still got our crack but we were shocked by the prices at the same time, considering dinner the previous night only cost us $2! Korea charges the highest prices for Starbucks I've ever seen, by far.

We also got these really yummy Korean pancake/donuty type pastries w/ anko (red bean paste) inside and they were hella good. Anyway.

We all cabbed it to Gyeongbokgung, one of the numerous palaces in the city. Apparently, this one has the largest wooden structure of any palace in Seoul. Nice. We saw something that resembled the changing of the guards when we got there. Cools. We walked around, took some pictures, and that was that. Seriously, if you put me in any palace/temple in Asia, I'd have a hard time distinguishing what country I was in. They really do all look the same to me, sadly. It was nice to see though, as Korean palaces seem to be more brightly colored? I dunno what I'm talking about. But yeah, check!

Guess where we went next? Just guess. Give up? We went to Chili's. Haha. We figured we were overloaded on Korean food the past couple of days and Chili's actually sounded really good. We cabbed it across the river near Lotte World and found our way to Chili's, a self-proclaimed "Tourist Restaurant." Sad, indeed. Anyway, remember the "big" comment? Well, the portions at Chili's were gargantuan, a lot more so than even at home!! It was like 4 meals in one! Weird, as our Japanese stomaches weren't used to this. Some of us took doggie-bags. They're so cool about that...they wrapped up everything separately, sealed our food as if it had never been eaten, and gave us extra guac! Nice.

After our enormous meal, we walked around the Lotte Department Store. It just reminded me of all the other department stores in Japan. Nothing too interesting. We then split up, and some of us went to Dongdaemun, another market that was near our hotel. There really wasn't much there; it reminded me of an enormous swap meet. We left shortly after we realized we wouldn't buy anything there. We all met up at the hotel again. Then Tim, Jeff, Sean and I went to Seoul Tower for a view of the city at dusk. We took the Nam San cable car up (the same one Sam Soon and Sam Shik rode in the drama!! Yeeeaaa!!) to the tower. The view was nice, but the smog sorta prevented a clear shot of the city. It's cool; it gave us a chance to think of dumb poses for pictures. The ride down the cable car was pretty b/c the sun had just set and buildings were sorta lit up. Sean and Tim were trying to get Jeff and I to pose like Sam Soon and Sam Shik in the drama, but we didn't end up doing it. Hehe.

The guys and I then cabbed it to Ewha Women's University area to meet up with Ann and Emily. Unfortunately, the mtg didn't work out. So instead, we went to Haagen Daaz for some YUMMY-AS chocolate fondue. OH MY GOD IT WAS AMAZING. (Pictures to come later!) After that, we ate waay too much for dinner at this one yummy place that served stuff which reminded me of dim sum! Anyway, dinner for the 4 of us cost only $6! Nice! After dinner, we walked around some more. That area was really cool to just walk around and had things to look at and hot people to drool over, so yeah. We also went for drinks even tho we shouldn't have put our stomaches thru more trauma, but oh well, that's what vacations are for. I think some of us paid the price for it tho...sad!

Day 4

We had to check out and be ready to leave the hotel at 7:30am the next morning. Baah. We were like zombies, being dragged to our last stop before the airport. They took us to this kimchi place and I thought things were overpriced. I'd rather get ripped off at the duty-free shops in the airport! I got my teachers these kimchi chocolates from the Incheon Airport and it was a hit! They were actually spicy and muy delicioso! Anyway, I got home at 6pm that night and was bloody tired. Whew...and you thought I'd never finish talking!

P.S. Pictures to come later!

A Sea of Red Devils (Part 1)

I'm back! Well, actually I've been back from Korea for a few days now but I'm too exhausted to do anything. Jeff, Sean, Tim, Ann, Emily and I left early for Narita Airport on Saturday morning for our 2.5 hr flight to Seoul. Travel days suck. Anyway, here goes...

Day 1

Our flight was delayed for an hour, which is always nice, so we didn't reach Seoul till around 5ish? Anyway, we debated a bit on how much money to exchange at Incheon Airport (which is hella nice, btw) so when we came out of the arrival gate, we saw that our tour group had been waiting for us. Oops. We got on this cute mini-ghetto-ish bus that took us to our hotel. On the ride there, our tour guide said many things in Japanese, most of which I didn't understand. Anyway, it's strange b/c at the airport, Emily noticed an ad w/ "Sam Soon" on a luggage cart. And while we were on the bus, I saw an add w/ "Henry" on another bus that was passing by. (Sorry to those who haven't watched Sam Soon and have no idea what I'm talking about. GO AND WATCH IT NOW!) We ended up seeing like 10,000 ads w/ "Henry" throughout our trip. He is HOT.

Seoul sorta reminds me of a cross b/w Hong Kong, Bangkok and America. Well, and every other Asian country you can think of. Thing is, they have Papa John's, Burger King, Chili's, etc. so I really felt like I was back at home. Anyway, everything in Korea is big. I mean, big. Like, their cars seem bigger to me and the roads are much much wider. And, oh yeah, Koreans are ASIAN GIANTS! Seriously! Both the men and women are soo big and tall!! I've never been in an Asian country where I felt soo short! Korean men are HOT HOT, as they are tall, BUFF (yes, BUFF!) and have nice clean faces. Korean women are also tall and they have meat (in a good way), unlike most stick-thin Asian women. Go Koreans! We all think they're so big and tall b/c of all the meat they eat. Seriously, yakiniku (Korean BBQ) is like a staple in the country. I wonder how many pounds of red meat Koreans consume per day. Hmm. Oh yeah, and I wonder how many bottles of shochu they drink per day! Seriously, all we could see were loads and loads of green bottles at every restaurant we passed. I hope they recycle.

The pollution in Seoul doesn't seem as bad as it is in Tokyo, but feels like a big city, nonetheless. Anyhoo, our tour bus took us to a duty-free shop before taking us to the hotel. This is what Asian tour packages do to get commission from the places they take us to. We weren't interested in buying anything since we'd only been in Seoul for like 5 minutes. After our drop off at the hotel, we were free to do whatevas we wanted till the morning of our flight back.

Our hotel was a lot better than expected. Remember how I said things in Korea are big? Well, there's no exception to that when it comes to TVs. Even though our hotel wasn't the nicest, we had the biggest TVs in our rooms! It was strange, but cool. After we dropped off our stuff at the hotel, we headed out for dinner. The cool thing about Seoul is that they have tons of street stands and the food is cheap cheap. That's one thing that's missing in Japan. Sad. We opted for a busy-looking-outdoor/indoor yakiniku place. I swear we each had 10lbs of meat. It was yummy though. I especially love the fact that Korea offers free banchan (appetizers) for every meal and they keep replacing them for you! We felt bleh afterward b/c of all the meat, but some of us still had room to try some ice cream? Haha.

Oh yeah, Korean conbini review. Sadly, Korean conbinis suck. They cannot compete w/ the variety, orderliness?, and size of Japanese ones. It seems like their conbinis are more of a place to get your neccessities rather than being the dessert oases known as Japanese conbinis.

What does one do on their first night Seoul? Watch X-Men 3, of course. I'm not kidding. Because X-Men 3 has come out in EVERY country except for Japan, we decided to watch it in Korea. Buying the ticket was actually pretty hilarious. The guy behind the counter must've thought we were retarded. We seriously used every hand gesture imaginable and spoke like retards in English to purchase our tickets. We really did look like idiots. Nice. Btw, X-Men 3 SUCKS! Yes, don't bother wasting your money. I could've written a better dialogue and I swear the director has ADD. A big disappointment since X2 was soo good.

Day 2

Em, Sean, Tim and Ann had to wake up early the next morning to go on their tour of the DMZ...border b/w North and South Korea. Jeff and I decided we weren't too interested as we heard there's not much to look at, plus we didn't want to pay for it. Hehe. Anyway, instead of the DMZ, Jeff and I went shopping. Woot. We first hit Namdaemun Market, which reminds me of the markets in China, Thailand, etc. The difference is that in Korea, the vendors don't really care to bargain, so it's not as fun to do so. If they give you a price and you don't like it, you can make a lower offer, but if they don't accept, it's not like they're gonna try to persuade you to buy. They just don't care enough to. I guess that makes things simple. Anyway, we each bought a Korea World Cup jersey which were being sold in every city block of Seoul...really. They look cool.

Next we hit Myeong Dong. It's supposed to be the trendy shopping area of Seoul. I liked that area a lot. I think that Japanese fashion is more "out there" than Korean fashion tho, thus making Japanese fashion a bit more exciting. Don't get me wrong; the Koreans love their colors as well, but it's hard to beat the crazy fashion you see in Tokyo. Moving on. We had lunch in a small canteen-like place on a side street and ordered enough food for 4 people. We wanted to try everything. It was oishiiyo! We also made some cool purchases in that area. One of which is the Rain (Korean singer/actor...btw, I stole this link thru Jeff's blog...thanks...hehe) Live in Concert DVD!! Woot!! He looks sooo hot on the cover! We were gutted b/c we didn't have a DVD player in our room. Bahh. I need to watch it NOW!

Shopping and walking all day made us so tired; we went back to our hotel room to take a nap! Haha. We met up with the others back at the hotel and headed for dinner together. This time, we hit the street stands. It was oishiiyo and it only cost us $2 each...for an entire dinner! Woot. After dinner, we cabbed it to Itaewon, the gaijin (foreigner) area of Seoul. The ride was a lot farther than expected, but it didn't matter, as taxis in Korea are hella cheap! We ended up cabbing it wherever we went from that point on. Haha. Anyway, Itaewon is gross. Stupid foreigners. ;-)

We headed for this one bar we had a flyer for which was showing the World Cup Japan vs. Croatia game that night. When we got there, all we could see were tons of Nihonjin (Japanese peeps) in their blue jerseys. The place was packed packed. We went around searching for another venue and ended up at this yakiniku place. Yes, more meat. It was good tho but the game was lame!! Both teams played like crap and seemed to strive for mediocrity. The result: 0-0. Ugh. At least they didn't lose I guess. I guess. Next game they have to play Brazil. Good luck.

The Koreans were already up and sporting their red jerseys as the Korea vs. France game was gonna be played at 4am that morning! Yeah, I cannot express just how proud and supportive Korean fans are. Like, I swear no Korean slept that night to watch the match. Back at our hotel, every other channel was focused on the World Cup. Near 2am (right before I fell asleep), I saw on Korean TV that thousands upon thousands of fans in red gathered at the Seoul City Hall Plaza, cheering and preparing to watch the game at 4am. Clazy, indeed. I think the paper said that some students wore red jerseys over their school uniforms so that they could participate, watch the game, then go straight to school the next morning! Whoa, that's dedication right there, folks.

Match Result: Korea 1 - France 1. The next day, every channel was replaying the goal that Korea made in the 81st minute. Dude.

*Sniff, sniff*

Thoughts of the school day:

I told my students I like the smell of the freezer. My student told me she likes the smell of a shoe box.

Someone stole speakers and a DVD recorder from the music room. The police are being contacted.

A few students asked me if I liked the American Team more or the Japanese Team in the World Cup. I told them I liked both but that the Japanese Team has better-looking guys.

My student asked me if I had ever watched "Full House." Weird, b/c I had recently finished a Korean drama called that. Anyway, of course she was referring to the '80s sitcom. I said yes and she got really excited and told me she likes Michelle. Hmm. I liked "Full House" back in the day, but if I watched it now, I'd just think it was full of cheeziness. No wonder my kid likes it. I'd totally watch "Saved by the Bell" again though. That show rocks!

UGHHHH!!!!!

OK, what the heck is wrong with the Japan Team?! HOW...HOW could they give up TWO GOALS with less than 5 minutes left?! It's like they just didn't care or ran outta gas for those last minutes!!! They were leading 1-0 with less than 25 minutes left!! Then, it was tied with like 15 minutes left. Then, then they let the Aussie team sneak in TWO, I repeat TWO more goals with 5 MINUTES left!!! BAAAAAHHHH!!! Japan, you have hotter guys....you should've done better!!! ARGGGHHHH. OK, I will not hate, b/c you are still hot, but I am disappointed!! Dude, I don't want to speak to any Aussies for the next few days. Don't want anyone to rub it in!!

Hmm....I seem to be more into this World Cup thing than I initially thought. Shit...I might die in Korea. Perhaps there is at least one hot Korean guy on the team...they should just steal one of the numerous hot guys from their dramas and place him on the team, ie)Hyun Bin or Rain. Mmm mmm. Uh, yeah...I'm sure that'd be a great idea.

World Cup Frenzy

So as you all know (well, everyone except for Americans), the World Cup has officially begun. I'm not a huge soccer fan myself, but I'm always up for hot, sweaty men. Haha. Anyway, Japan is to play Australia in an hour. I've decided...since I dunno anything about soccer, I will just root for the team with the hottest players. That seems pretty unbiased if I must say so myself. =) Anyway, I think Nakata Hidetoshi (who is currently my wallpaper) is hot in an ape-like sorta way. I know many people don't agree, but he is!! He is a bad-ass and I love it! Also, Ono Shinji is hot in the opposite way that Nakata is. Mmmm...Japan may get my vote tonight! Sorry, Australia, but unless I see Heath Ledger somewhere on the field, I'm afraid you've got one less supporter rooting for you while eating an Annin Tofu Kit Kat bar. Gimme a break! (You know you want to start singing at this exact moment...come on now, don't be shy!)

Also, being the avid soccer fan I am, I found out that we will be in Korea during the Korea vs. France match. I have a feeling that'll be one claazy game. You know how them Korean fans get! Go Reds! Hmm...though I think I saw photos of some of the players on the Korea Team and I wasn't very impressed. Hmm. Who to root for? This is tough, b/c I don't want to get stoned to death in Korea, but I also must stay true to myself. If you're not hot, then you're just not. Hmm...I wonder if anyone has ever coined that saying. Probably not. Eh, it doesn't matter, as the game begins at 4am, me thinks. Um, yeah, I root for sleep over hotness on a TV screen.

Yaay, World Cup!! (That sounded believable, right??) :->

A Business Trip......

Yes, I am an important professional...at least that's how it appeared when I left Ota for 3 days and stepped into the busy city known as Tokyo in my business attire (semi, that is) and headed for the Keio Plaza Hotel.

Jeff and I trained from Ota to Shinjuku and were amidst a plethora of gaijin which we were not the least bit excited about. Because everyone around us spoke English (which makes sense since they were all JETs), it made it more difficult to talk smack about them in front of them. We need to develop our own trash-talking language at some point. ;-)

Sadly, there was a lack of hot guys at this conference. To think that over 1000 JETs from all over Japan were there...and not one hot guy for me to drool over...sad, indeed. We endured the opening ceremony and a couple of workshops before we were let free to explore. Instead of being social, we made our way out to Fonda de la Madrugada in Harajuku. Expensive Mexican food but well worth the money, if not for the awesome awesome mariachi band alone. And no, they were not Japanese. They performed from table to table and when they reached our table, we both thought, "Hmm...this is awkward." They asked us if we wanted a romantic song and we quickly said "No, no" and laughed. Then they suggested a "tanoshii" (fun) song and we nodded in agreement. Then, one of the guys said, "OK, today tanoshii, but tomorrow, romantic!" We chuckled politely and listened to our "tanoshii" song. Although I don't understand much Spanish, I didn't hear the word "corazon" in our song so it's safe to say that it wasn't a romantic song. Hehe. I wonder if I can hire them for my birthday party...hmm. I'm sure they'd be excited to come the Ota, the exciting city that it is. Anyway, we each got the course set on the menu and ended up being stuffed beyond belief. There was soo much food and we ate all of it. I forgot how good Mexican food is! We ended up walking 1 1/2 hrs just to digest a bit of the calories we consumed.

The next day, we woke up to sub-par breakfast and attended a couple of pretty good workshops. In the first workshop, we were given free cookbooks! Woot! Now only if I had a roommate to try these recipes with. It sucks to cook for one person! Before we were hungry again, we had lunch. Thank goodness we weren't hungry as it was the worst lunch EVER. After lunch, we attended yet another workshop, took a nap, then went to the final workshop in the afternoon. That night, we ventured out to find a pho restaurant we found online. It ended up being this hole-in-the-wall type of place with one worker doing everything. Those are the best kind! The spring rolls were amazing and the pho was good, although I must admit the broth tasted a bit different from ones at home...still good tho. Mmm...pho...I miss all that MSG! After we returned back to the hotel, we met up with some other Gunmanians and went out for a drink. When I say a drink, I mean a drink. We all ordered a grapefruit sour...being the party animals we are.

The next morning we were expected to check-out and get breakfast by 8:30am. Yeah, right. Anyway, I got my Starbucks fix and attended the first part of the closing ceremony. I mean, uh, I stayed for the whole thing, of course I did. =) We wandered around Shibuya for a bit after everything ended, then headed back to Ota.

So yeah, ya like my business trip (more like food) review? Yes, we JETs are important people. We have business trips! Haha. I bet my JTEs are wondering what the heck I did in Tokyo for 3 days. Hahaha.

The beginning of a busy month!

Tomorrow I am heading out to Tokyo for 3 days for the JET re-contracting conference. We get to stay in a really nice hotel and have everything paid for!! Well, almost. We've already decided that we will be having Mexican and pho for the two nights that we are there. Haha...leave it up to us to plan our eating schedules ahead of time! I doubt that the Ota Board of Education will sponsor our food adventures. However, I did hear that they might reimburse us for our meals during those days. Hmm...need to look into that! Anyway, it will be a nice break from school. =) June seems to be the month for conferences as we have another one scheduled for the 16th in Maebashi. It's only 1.5 hours long but I get to miss school the whole day! Woot!

The day after the Maebashi conference, Jeff, Sean, Tim, Ann, Emily and I will be heading to Korea for 4 days. Woohoo!! I am soo in need of a vacation!! I'm really excited as this will be a laid back trip mainly composed of our eating and shopping adventures!! I'm sure we'll visit a palace or two as well. ;-) Yaay, vacation!!

After I come back from Korea, Mona, Lisa and Larissa will be coming to Japan for a visit for 10 days!! Woot! I'll be staying out in Tokyo with them for 4 days and harassing Japanese people every moment we're there. =) Yaay, visitors!! Let's being tourists!!