Home and Back

Published on Tuesday, January 19, 2010.

I went home to America for the holidays and I have to admit that I had a lot of fun. I had missed spending time with my family and friends. In the 2 weeks I was there, I ate tons of food, watched a lot of late night reruns of shows, such as Bridezillas , & received and gave a lot of hugs. I also took pictures, so that I could show my students when I came back to Japan.

 The students loved seeing the pictures of Christmas decorations, my Christmas tree, snow (it doesn't really snow in this area) and a couple of pictures that I took in NYC when I went there with my mom to do some shopping. 

However, the picture that seemed the most popular was the one I took of our main dish on Christmas day. It was a picture of leitão (suckling pig), which is a popular dish in the region that my parents are from in Portugal,  which is known as Bairrada. Both teachers and students were amazed by this picture. There were all different reactions to it. Some were disgusted. Others were confused, amused and even interested in knowing more about it. I even heard some girls say "Kawaii" (cute). When I said that it was delicious, a lot of them looked at me incredulously and others giggled. lol. Yes, the picture was a hit among my students.



I've realized that a lot of people here take pictures of their food when the food looks really good, cute, or just different from the norm. I should have taken more pictures of the different foods I ate back home, both the American and Portuguese stuff. I think they would have liked that.

For more pictures, you can go to my Flickr Account

Song Listening to At the Moment: "Yours Only"by Nishino Kana

Fukuoka Sumo Weekend

First published on November 26, 2009.

This past weekend, I went to watch a sumo match in the biggest city in Kyushu, Fukuoka.

My adventure started Saturday morning. A group of ALTs, including Kim, Asha, Lauren and myself, took a 7:45 AM bus from Miyazaki to Fukuoka. It takes about 4 hours to get to Fukuoka, so we couldn't wait to get up, stretch our legs and explore the city once we got there.

We first went to look for our hostel. After putting our stuff down, we went searching for Hard Rock Cafe. OK, I know how strange that sounds. Just remember that we have been in Japan for a long time, so we were craving things like huge hamburgers, steaks & mashed potatoes. Asha also really loves the Hard Rock, so that's why we went there. It was actually next to the Yahoo Dome and a mall. After lunch, we went shopping. A big part of our trip, besides sumo, was to go shopping in the big city. Living in Miyazaki, we rarely have the opportunity to go all out in super shopping sprees. Maybe that's a good thing. lol.

Anyway, after the mall, we went to look around the Tenjin area. I ended up buying cute gloves and a couple of things from Muji. When things started closing, we began walking around. There were Christmas decorations everywhere already. While we were crossing a random street, we saw this cool looking place. It was like the 3rd floor of a building, but the windows had writing on them and it just looked interesting. We went to see what it was. We were happily surprised when we found out that it was a Sri Lankan restaurant. None of us had ever had food from Sri Lanka, but the restaurant smelled really good. Actually, because of the spices in the air, everyone was coughing and sneezing. A couple of people put a napkin to their nose and mouth, so that they wouldn't cough as much. After awhile, I got use to it though.

We ordered curry noodles and a spicy rice thing with chicken (not exactly sure what it was). The food was really spicy and DELICIOUS. We enjoyed every bite.

When we finished, we had a bunch of bags, a full tummy and a decision to make. How were we going to meet up with the ALTs at a club called "Happy Cock"? Yes, "Happy Cock". I'm not kidding. It's an international club in the city where many foreigners go to party. We decided to just take the bags and then figure out where to put them when we got there. We knew that the club at lockers, but we didn't know how big they were.

It took us a long time to find the club. We basically walked in circles. The funny thing is that the club was only a couple of minutes walk from the Sri Lankan restaurant. We had to wait in line to get on the elevator that would take us to the club. The girls in front of us were stupid drunk. I was not happy. I was tired and I was not enjoying the behavior of the people, who were also waiting to get to the club. Kim and I wanted to go back to the hostel, but we decided to just go with Lauren and Asha. When we got up there, I was even more hesitant. The club was packed.

Anyway, we ended up going in. We could barely move in there. At one time, I was stuck for like 10 minutes. I couldn't walk forward, backwards or to the side. The people in back of me were trying to get to the bathroom, while the people in front of me were trying to get to the bar. NO ONE COULD MOVE. It was impossible. I got really, really scared. I started panicking. I kept thinking "What if a fight breaks out?" or "What if there is a fire?". There was a big guy to the side of me. Once he was able to move, I just followed the path he was making.

When I made it to the other side, I stayed next to a table that they had there. It was the area that I had the most room. I basically stayed there all night with Kim and Asha. Once in awhile, someone I knew would come and I would talk to them. The night wasn't completely horrible because I was able to talk to my friends, but I HATED that club so much. I even got groped by this random guy. He touched my chest while he asked where I was from. I was not amused.

By the time we got back to the hostel, it was almost 3 AM. We had decided on checking out at 8:30 AM, which didn't give us much time to sleep.

On Sunday morning, we checked out of the hostel, put our stuff in lockers at Hakata Station and waited for some of our ALT friends at Starbucks. We then went all together to the sumo match. We were there really early, so we got to see most of the matches, even the ones that were not considered that important. At 4 PM, the place suddenly filled up. All of the big matches occurred after 4 PM. It was really interesting to watch the matches. There are a lot of rituals involved. The matches themselves are really quick, but there are different rituals done in the beginning, such as throwing salt to purify the area in which they fight. It was definitely interesting. I'm really happy that I got to go.

At almost 6 PM, we went back to the station. Kim and I ate some udon. It was so different from the udon we were used to because instead of thick noodles, the noodles that they used were thin. We were really surprised. By 7 PM, we were on a bus back to Miyazaki.

All in all, Sumo Weekend in Fukuoka was a good experience.

To see pictures, you can go to my Flickr account.

Song I'm Listening to At the Moment: "Hearbreaker" by G-Dragon

Donuts Time: Chocolate, Glazed, or Green Tea?

I'm starting to believe that Japanese people can take any food or drink and create a green tea version of that product. Since I've been here, I've had many different green tea flavored products, such as coke, ice cream and now donuts.

Mister Donut , which is similar to Dunkin Donuts back home, is now selling matcha (green tea) flavored donuts. They have a variety of green tea donuts, which are just a spin off of their staple donuts. I have to admit that I was curious, so one day I walked in and ordered one.





The donut was ok. If you like green tea ice cream, than I think that you would definitely like these donuts. Although I do like green tea, I never really love green tea flavored products. I have to admit, I like my donuts much more sugary, glazed or filled with creamy goodness. Yes, I go for the donuts that are definitely high on the "Super Unhealthy: Get Away" meter. If I go back to Mister Donut, I'll most likely go for a regular glazed donut instead of a green tea donut.



Music Listening to At the Moment: "Irvine" by Kelly Clarkson

Why Is My Floor Shaking?

On Sunday, I had lunch with Eric and Monica at Starbucks. After that, we went across the street to this cute stationary store that I never even realized was there. I bought a notebook because I couldn't help myself. I'm a notebook buying addict. I also bought a Rilakkuma mechanical pencil because he is so cute. By the way, right before going into the store, I had gone into Lawsons (convenience store) and purchased candy in order to get free Rilakkuma folders. Who doesn't like really cute teddy bears?

After that, I caught the bus to go to church. The Catholic church downtown has an English mass once a month and this mass actually fell on Plam Sunday. It was a bit weird because it was only the priest, me, a British guy and his daughter. Basically, the priest said Stephanie you will do the first reading and Peter you will do the second reading. lol. Yeah we had to do the readings because we were the only 2 there besides the child. lol. I guess it can be considered one of the strangest masses I went to. It was cool though.

At the end, the British guy asked the priest if the English mass is usually so small. The priest said that it usually had like 7 or 8 people. The British guy just came from Fukouka (the main city on this island [Kyushu] ) and he said that the masses there had like 200 people. Whoah!!! By the way, there is a church in my area, but I haven't found it yet. This place is like a maze. I need to go looking for it. :)

After that, I went shopping. I went to the Starbucks downtown to buy a cute mug that I had seen before in my neighborhood Starbucks, but it was now sold out. I was really happy to see the mug in the downtown one, so I bought it. I think that I am making like a collection of Starbucks mugs. I have collected 4 since I have been here. Anyway, then I went to Miyako City (a small mall/bus station near my part of town). There I bought a new handbag, since I needed one for the spring/summer and I bought my mom a birthday present.

I need to send my mom the present along with some t-shirts I ordered from the Victorias Secret website that don't fit me. They're cute and basic, which will be great for her. I also need to send Marcos a magazine from here as his birthday present. lol. I'm on a budget. lol. It's cool though because it has Zac Efron on the cover and inside it has pictures of the new Harry Potter movie. I also need to send out some cards for Easter.

Anyway, let my backtrack back to Sunday. I went a little bit off topic. lol.

When I got back home, I started ironing and watching Slumdog Millionaire, which is a great movie. Suddenly, everything started shaking, so I unplugged the iron and got in between the door. As I was doing this, the shaking stopped. Yes, I experienced my first earthquake. It was like a magnitude 4 earthquake. However, it was only like 30 seconds (it stopped as soon as it started) and Kim and Tatum didn't even know it had happened. Kim was surprised when Asha and I told her about it. Tatum said that she was outside and saw a house shaking but it stopped really fast, so she had thought it was strange at the time but had forgotten all about it.

Anyway, do you guys remember that commercial that I posted the other day about the filled donut holes. It's the commercial where the girl is singing "Angel, Angel" . Well I had to buy it so that Monica, Eric and I could try it. I actually ate one on Friday, but decided to get a box of them, so that they could try it as well.

The donuts come in Strawberry, Custard and Chocolate filling. They are DELICIOUS. I'll post the pictures later on.

Plenty of Sunshine Headed My Way...

I have to admit, my weekend was pretty darn good. Don't be jealous (Diva Snap!).

On Friday night, I finally ate some Korean food. YUMMMMM Korean food. First, Kim, Asha and I went to the new Korean restaurant in the city called Hot Pepper. However, when we opened the door, we realized that it was completely full. We ended up going to the other Korean restaurant close by. The food was delicious, especially the Kimchi Pancake we had. Yummmm, I am drooling just thinking about it. Then, we ended our night at the coffee shop chain, Tullys.

I wanted to go to bed early because I had a Japanese lesson in the morning, but I ended up being on the phone (Skype) with Kim and Asha until 2 AM. There was a reason for this. When Asha arrived home, another ALT called her saying that he was drunk and if he could go over and talk (something like that). I'm not exactly sure what happened, but all I know was that Asha called us because she was a bit afraid. Apparently, this other ALT went to her door in boxers and a t-shirt (he lives in the same apartment building) ringing her door bell non-stop and banging on her door. Asha told him to leave because it was late and he was drunk. He insisted on going in and talking to her,so banged on the door for a bit until he decided to go back home. Asha was both embarrassed because of her neighbors and because the entire episode kind of shook her a bit.

I think that the other ALT didn't understand why Asha and Kim were pissed at him the next day. In his mind, he was just trying to talk to his friend. However, in a girl's POV, it's strange when you tell a guy to leave and he continues to pound on your door and ring your bell. It wasn't cool, but maybe after talking to them, he understands that what he did wasn't right. At least I hope he understands. I think that it was bad judgment on his part, but he should mature and learn from it.

The strange part was that Kim today had a dream that he was doing the same thing to her. lol.

Anyway, on Saturday morning, I had my Japanese lesson (I switched it from Tuesday to Saturday last week). Since it was Saturday morning, I was a little out of it. Then, I got a call from Paul asking if I wanted to do a cosplay thing in the city. I haven't done cosplay in a long time and I kind of don't feel like starting it here. lol. He also asked if I was going to the Pillow Fight. Yes, there was a pillow fight going on in the park that was being done by a group of ALTs, but I was way too lazy to get up and do that. I also wasn't really into it. Could you imagine if my students saw me and took pictures of me? "Mom, look she teaches me English". Yeah, I skipped on that.
I ended up talking to Kim and Asha on Skype for like 3 hours.

Anyway, I ended up going to their side of town in a taxi, which was like 24 bucks and I still got a bit lost. lol. Then we went to dinner at PoPos, where we had awesome taco rice, cesar salad and seafood pasta. After that, we went to karaoke. We did karoke for over 4 hours. lol. At first we ordered a karaoke room for 2 hours, but we ended up extending it because we were having so much fun. We got there at 9:30 PM and ended up only leaving at 2 AM.

Here are some good Artists to Karaoke to:
Ace of Base
Britney Spears
Kelly Clarkson
Destinys Child
Utada
Heart
Bon Jovi
Andrew W K "Kiseki"
Aha "Take On Me"
Barry Manilow and Phil Collins of course
Aqua
Paul Abdul "Straight Up"
Spice Girls
Pat Benatar
Natalie Imbrugalia "Torn"
Disney Songs
Akon
and many, many, many more

Karaoke is hours of fun. :)
Monica would not approve that list. lol.

We then ended up taking taxis home. My taxi driver was kind of confused about where I lived, but he was extrememly genki (hyper), so it was all cool.

My Sunday post will come later with pictures.

Music Listening to AT the Moment: "Say My Name"- Destiny's Child

Okonomiyaki Time

I think that every time I post, it opens the flood gates to another post. I think that I post in clumps, leave for a month, and then do another clump. I should be more consistent.

Anyway, let me talk about one type of Japanese food that I never had until I got here. Well to be truthful, I never really ate Japanese food until I came to Japan.

Anyway, today I will be talking about Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き ). It's a Japanese pancake with basically anything. More specifically, it's a mixture of vegetables, beef, pork, or seafood.
According to Wikipedia, and we all know that they are never wrong "The name is derived from the word okonomi, meaning "what you like" or "what you want", and yaki meaning "grilled" or "cooked' ".

Usually, but not always, you ask for what you want. Then, they will bring you a bowl with the raw ingredients. There is a grill in front of you, so you mix the ingredients and make the pancake yourself. Then you savor its deliciousness.

This is a video of Monica, Eric and I eating at an Okonomiyaki place close to our house. We are being silly while cooking the food.