Takayaki Balls!

When I was staying in Kawanoe with Lex we were invited to a dinner party at the home of a woman who was in Lex's adult English class. It was a huge evening with TONS of food. TONS. There were courses upon courses. Alexa, Dennis (a JET from Canada), and I were spoiled rotten and had to roll ourselves out of the house at the end of the night.

The highlight of the night was making takayaki balls. We made them on griddle things that had rounded cutouts. We filled the little bowl things with dough and then added whichever "insides" that we wanted (see bowl of possible fillings :o) ). We made them into balls by scooping and spinning the balls around so that all the sides were browned with the fillings warmed up in the middle. YUM YUM YUM :o)

Random Japan Pics

These are some random pics that I wanted to post, but they are in no particular order.

These first two are of cooking classes. A big group of us foreigners went to a junior high (i think, it may have been elementary though) and taught an "authentic" dish. Dennis is from Canada and he taught the kids to make pancakes from scratch and served them with Canadian maple syrup.





Alexa and I taught our group of kids how to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Acutally peanut sauce and jelly sandwiches :o) When we opened up the "peanut sauce" it was this creamy, jelly-like, sweet peanut substance that was definitely more like peanut jelly than peanut butter. The kids loved it though :o)



Scott eating Udon at a little restaurant/soup bar in Osaka. Note the cowboy hat :o)


More Scott :o) There is a matching picture to this. When you go to a Japanese temple there are typically two statues "guarding" the entrance to the area. There is one on either side of the pathway/entrance, I think they are generally lions and one has an open mouth and one has a closed mouth. The open mouthed statues are male and the closed mouth are female. Go figure...

Lex, Scott and I at the end of the Path of Philosphers

A Japanese liquor store! They were everywhere!

This next one is for my Dad :o) In Northern CA there are PLENTY of deer signs along the highway. Since I was young my Dad has pointed out that the deer antlers are backwards on the signs in the US. In the US the deer antlers are pointing towards the deer's back, meaning that whenever the deer leans down for food under a tree, its antlers would get stuck in the branches on the way up. Well, the Japanese proved their genius yet again :o) Note that the antlers in this sign are facing forwards, the correct way. No getting stuck in the bushes for this deer :o)

Starting from the beginning again :o) JAPAN

A very belated update! Let's see what all I remember, this will be a test :o)


This first pic is Me, Lex and Scott posing as a pagoda at the Golden Temple in Kyoto. After we had someone take this pictures we made tons of friends who wanted to have their pictures taken with us. I'm sure they were thinking that they wanted to get a pic with the crazy US tourists...regardless it's a fun picture for us to show our kids what NOT to do when you visit Japan :o) but really to show all the FUN things you can do when you visit Japan.

This next pic is a typical Japanese menu (this script is a bit nicer than the norm, but you get the idea). Solution: PLASTIC FOOD! At most restaurants there was a display of fake food in the front window and all of the dishes looked ridiculously realistic. The drill was to pick a dish and then drag the waitress out to the front and point at what we wanted. Did I mention yet that the Japanese are ingenious?! Well they are and SO people/visitor friendly!

Visiting Hiroshima, as I said before, was an incredibly powerful experience. I truly believe that the world is a better place for each person who visits the city and takes the time to walk through the museum, sit in the park and soak up and grasp the commitment to and message of aspiring towards world peace. The A-bomb dome is on a plot of land that has remained a tribute to the tragedy and is essentially left untouched except for measures done to secure and maintain the integrity of the structure. The area stands on one edge of the Peace Park. There are also displays and displays and more displays of peace cranes that people have sent to Hiroshima from all over the world.

While I was in Hiroshima I walked the Promenade of Peace, one of three different walking trails through the city.

This is me in Miajima and that orange thing in the background is their signature torrey that sits in the water a little way off the land. It's a beautiful orange color that puts my house to shame :o) I enjoyed the contrast. The sky was grey, the mountains were dark and then BAM there was this bright orange structure. It was certainly an eye-catcher. Miajima was one of the places on my trip that felt different than other places. When I took the ferry over I remember that it looked like the water was dancing beneath the boat. It was different than normal light reflection and obviously memorably so.