April 1st Of Easter, Food and Stuff

They say a picture is worth a thousand words...of course if you don't have your camera with you that means you have to write a thousand words! Fortunately there is Google and I was able to search other peoples pictures to find some of the stuff I want to show you!
Easter morning we woke up and prepared to go to church with Atsuko. She told us there would be Easter service and a party afterwards...boy was there! There was food, singing, games and lots of fellowship! We were served something new that I hadn't tried yet called Chirashizushi. Basically it's sushi fixings in a bowl and it was delicious!

 

We had a nice time visiting with some of the folks who were willing to practice their English on us. One little old lady declared that Gary looks kind of like Colonel Sanders after finding out he is from Kentucky! lol

After church we headed to Tachikawa to a mall there. Atsuko needed a new pair of shoes for her nursing job and we needed to send a Thankyou gift to our lawyer's office.

There is a whole section of stores that specialize in food gift boxes, for a small fee they will deliver them to their recipients as well.

We picked out a box with a tasty looking selection of tea cakes to be delivered to our lawyer Mr. Honda and his secretary Ms. Watanabe as they were both very helpful to us in procuring our Visa.

After that we made it to a cellphone shop and found a nice young man who explained our cellphone options to us. Looks like we have found a workable plan and will be heading back there on Tuesday to get hooked up! (I confess I found the cellphone store a bit boring so I just dozed off in a chair while Gary talked technology...I guess that means I'll deserve whatever phone I end up with!)

After that, we were all hungry again so we headed to a really neat ramen food court.

There are about seven Ramen shops and apparently they have Iron Chef style Ramen competitions.

 

 

After looking at all the offerings we decided on The Samurai shop as they offered Kyushu style ramen and since Gary's mom is from there we wanted to try it.

We had the roast pork #1 favorite ramen and it was SO good! The pork had a nice roasted flavor and the noodles were the smaller somen noodles just like Gary said his Mom always prefers.

I will definitely have to return there again sometime with my camera. It was a small restaurant inside, not fancy at all and I could see right into the little kitchen with the cooks with bandanas tied around their heads yelling to the waiters and flames from the pans and large billows of steam rising from the cooking. Yes, I'm a nosey people watcher and I enjoyed watching all that going on as much as the food!

After the ramen we finished up with a very simple Chinese tofu desert. It tasted like a smooth almond flavored custard. Light and refreshing!

So that was my Japanese Easter! The only boiled egg I had was in my Ramen!

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 30th Nabe

Late getting to this today, woke up with things to do and errands to run. However, now that I've showered, ridden to the grocery store and back, washed and hung up laundry, made dinner and eaten lunch I can stop and take care of this business!
It's cloudy and chillier  again today, still it's in the 50's so I won't complain. It hasn't rained either so hopefully my clothes will dry!
We've heard back from a couple of people regarding possible apartments so hopefully will be able to look into those on Monday.
Today I decided to make  Nabe for dinner. Nabe is a word for this pot:

You can buy different Nabe starter broths like this one:

 

There are actually many different starter broths , some are spicy, some are for chicken and others for pork, beef or seafood. They show you with pictures on the back what to do:(well it says a bunch of stuff too so who knows what I'm missing!)

 

(I'm guessing shake the bag and pour into Nabe  and add ingredients) So I looked at the picture on the front of the package and tried to find the ingredients I saw in the picture.

Some mushrooms..

                                            I bought three type because I really like mushrooms...
                                            Some cabbage and a close cousin to our leek.

And finally some tofu (I like firm tofu but honestly I have no idea what type I bought) and some thinly sliced pork.

So I added the broth to the Nabe:

Added all the ingredients and simmered:

 

 Presto!!! Dinner is ready!

I still don't know what kind of Nabe this is but it tastes pretty good!

 

I was feeling peckish while waiting for this to cook so I ate this tasty sushi and fancy sandwich. The stores here have the tastiest little sandwiches premade!

That's it for today!

 

 

 

 

March 29th

So yesterday was a much nicer warmer day... but since it wasn't cold or rainy, we stayed indoors! Really, we did. We finally got a nice day but we spent the day looking for an apartment online! We did get a couple of emails off to see places but haven't heard back yet so it looks like today we will have to head to the realtors home office and see about getting things rolling. We did go out in the evening in search of food, which we found in Musashi Koganei at a restaurant with a bread buffet...all the bread of different types that you want to eat. You order your main dish (a hamburger patty with a type of daikon radish sauce, potatoes, eggplant and seared cucumber spears for me) and then you eat all the breads you want. I thought the cucumbers on my plate were zucchini at first, but surprise...they were cucumbers. Cooked cucumbers , a little different, but not bad tasting.
The other day Gary bought me a cherry blossom present at 7-11. This isn't your 7-11 folks.. they have nice food and pretty presents! I'm not sure what's in my bag, shall we open it?

 

In the bag is a neatly wrapped box...

and in the box a Precious Message...

 

and finally!

 

Pink Truffles! Lucky Me!!!!

 

7-11 in the States needs to step things up...just saying!!!

(I love that Minnie Mouse is photo bombing me!)

 

 

P.S. It really is Friday, March 29th here in Japan but my blog dates itself a day earlier...lol. My computer still has jet lag!

 

 

 

 

 

March 28th So Many Umbrellas!

Good Morning world! Just so you know, I am generally not a morning person so a cheery greeting like that isn't something you'll see often!  I'm more like this guy:

 Today, however, the SUN is shining and I gotta be happy about that because I've pretty much come to the conclusion that Tokyo is a cold cloudy place! It could be because I've only visited here since October but so far I haven't seen many sunny days, so today is a happy day with sun! Speaking of cold and cloudy, yesterday threw rain in there as well! It was very cold as we made our way around town. First we went to Fuchu City Hall to have our residency cards stamped with our address. The streets were full of people with umbrellas:
                                                     

Like bicycle riders though, everyone seems to navigate the sidewalks without crashing together their umbrellas. I'm taller than many here so I would just lift my umbrella and stay out of the lower bobbing umbrellas.

When we arrived at Fuchu City Hall there was an umbrella holder for people to leave their wet umbrellas outside of the office. Apparently it is safe to do this as umbrella theft is virtually unheard of!

 

The first lady we wrangled with at City Hall didn't speak any English and while we were able to pick out a few words in Japanese we really weren't getting anything accomplished. Finally (after about 30 minutes with the first lady),another lady with some English skills took over and we were able to finish our business there in under 15 minutes. Stamped residency cards in hand we headed to the bank! We were able to work with the same nice lady at the bank as we had the day before so were able to pick up where we had left off. She inputted Gary's information into the computer because as I mentioned before they don't do joint married accounts here and we really don't have enough money to split into two accounts anyway! When she asked his occupation he told her he was a Pastor. Turns out that in this country of less than 1% Christian ,this lady is a Christian! We had a very nice conversation with her and exchanged emails and hope to stay in contact. She was very excited when we left and I said, "God Bless You" and she said it back and said, " I can't believe I got to say, God Bless You, in the bank!" A simple phrase that we say so lightly after a person sneezes means much more in a country where there are so few brothers and sisters in Christ!

When we finished our business for the day, we headed back home, anxious to get out of the wet and cold weather! We stopped at a grocery store on the way and picked up some prepared food to go for dinner. So many people work long hours here and the grocery stores have extensive prepared foods ready to go. I got some delicious fried rice and yakitori. Gary was feeling more like fish and fried octopus. We also shared some fried potato ball things and thinly sliced roast beef with a dipping sauce.  I made Gary a nice bowl of Oden soup, it's comes pre-packaged with the broth and all the goodies (including a boiled egg) ! All I did was throw it in a pan and heat it up!

 

Now that we have our Residency cards stamped and our bank account I believe we can start the search for our apartment! Yay!

 

 

 

March 27th

I am so glad that every country we've lived in has their own version of Choco Krispis!!!(Can't remember the name in English but that's it's Spanish cousin!) In Japan they are called...???? But they taste the same and some mornings (or evenings) a nice bowl of Choco Krispis really hits the spot!

 

Anyway, on to more important things! Yesterday we went to the bank to open an account, everything was looking good until we showed them our residency card and the bank employee informed us that our address wasn't listed on the card.  Before we can open an account we need to go to the city hall/municipal building to have them put our address on the back of our cards. Sigh..so that's what we'll do today hopefully and then head back to the bank to get our account. We have to have a Japanese bank account to rent our apartment, but once we have the address on our residency card it should be easy to get an account. Interesting thing though, they don't do joint accounts here for married couples, I guess everyone just has their own accounts.

We also took a super long train trip yesterday, we thought it might be a faster route than the way we were going to take...WRONG!!! Oh well, live and learn!

In case you haven't noticed, now that we're living in Japan my blog will be less touristy-though I still have so much to see and experience here in Tokyo and will include that as well.  It will be more of a journal of my day to day activities.. which might just bore some of you silly! Sorry about that, but, hey I'm a girl, we love to talk, even to ourselves on blogs!

That's it for today, it looks rainy outside so we'll be taking umbrellas on our search for city hall and bank accounts!

 

March 26th

 

So yesterday we met with a realtor and looked at a "large" apartment. It's generously called a 3dlk which means that apart from the dining/kitchen/living area (which is perhaps a dining/kitchen area ..no room for a couch, it has 3 other small rooms. One of those rooms is Japanese style tatami mat and the size of my last bathroom. I could use it with a small Japanese eating table and a couple of pillows on the floor though that's about it. That would leave me a bedroom and living/office space all for the low low price of , $1,450/month! (sarcasm)The realtor was very nice though and was able to give us an idea of what we need to do before we can rent a place here -so our next steps are to get a Japanese bank account and cellphone and then we can look at more places.
   On another note,I had ordered a couple of shirts for my daughter before we left Japan and they arrived the other day, the shirts were too big though so we were going to return them to be exchanged. This morning a man arrived for the package and we got to play 20 questions in Charades before I understood what he wanted! (He was doing fine, the problem was definitely me!)
Before heading out today to see about the cell phones and Bank thing I decided to make something for dinner later, I hate cooking after I've been walking all over the city.. too tired! I found this package of Chicken Cacciatora Mix and decided to give it a try.

 

It comes with self explanatory pictures on the back:

 

Anyway, it smells good and I think it'll be tasty!

So we're headed out the door to try to solve some of these boring things so we can get an apartment! Pray for us!

 

The All American Hot Dog, Cherry Blossoms and Baby Bottoms

We arrived back in Japan! Friday afternoon around 3 p.m. our plane landed. We made it through immigration smoothly and were even issued our 3 year residency card! yay!!!
We then proceeded to collect our luggage and haul it to the baggage delivery counter. Baggage delivery is big here and it is SO nice! You take your luggage and for a reasonable fee your luggage will be delivered to your home the next day! Since we both had two large suitcases, and a carryon it was nice to get rid of the large suitcases and just take the carryon's with us for the rest of the ride home by train.  After turning in our luggage, we ran into another American at the airport. Our very good friend the All American Hotdog!


We then continued on to the train station and spent the next couple of hours riding the train and switching train lines until we finally made it our last train station Musashi Koganei.  We stopped there to enjoy a bowl of Udon and tempura for my husband, and I had a bowl of tonkatsu soup (rich pork broth and noodles etc). Having recovered some strength we managed to take the bus and then walk the last bit to Atsuko's house! I put down the Futons and we collapsed into bed after a short visit with Atsuko.

We were out yesterday, checking some of the rental agencies and enjoying the Cherry Blossoms that are in full bloom! (Good thing I've been taking my allergy pills!)

                                    We also ran across this cute little baby butt statues!

 

All in all it was a good day but we both really got slammed with jetlag in the afternoon, hopefully my internal clock will reset itself soon!

Today we are meeting with a real estate agent and looking at an apartment.. yay! I can't wait to get our own place again, we've been living out of suitcases since October!  In the meantime, I have laundry to hang on the line.. though it is rainy today so who knows when it will dry! No matter where I go laundry always follows!

Hawaii!!!!

We headed out from Denver finally on Wed. March 20th to Japan! To top it off we had a 19 hour layover in Hawaii! We decided to rent a room overnight and have a little celebration for our 29th wedding anniversary that was this month. We got a room at the illustrious Hotel Stay.

                                               Here's a view from our little hotel.

 

We were only a block from the beautiful beach!

 

 

Evening came and torches were lit lining the beach!

 

So much of Waikiki reminded me of Panama, the house architecture, the weather and plants, it's a beautiful city!

 

And of course we saw the Hula Dancers!

 

 

 

 

 

Though it was a short layover, we managed to see quite a lot and were able to sleep comfortably in a bed ,breaking up our LONG trip to Japan!   The next morning it was back to the airport where even the view from the plane was stellar!    

 

                                                        
                                                 

                                                           
                                                
                                                                    BEST LAYOVER EVER!!!!

Woohoo! Japan here we come!

 

We should be on our way back to Japan in the next week or two! The lawyer is mailing us our Cof E's, we buy our tickets and then take everything plus our passports to the local Japanese Consulate here in Denver and then we're off!

 

Patiently Waiting...not really patiently...

For those of you still periodically checking this blog for an update, here you go:
We are still in Denver, Colorado waiting for our paperwork. We did hear from the lawyer and he thinks we should receive said paperwork in a week or two and we should be back in Japan in time for the cherry blossoms(they usually occur in March/April)!
We had one little snafu with the paperwork which has delayed our departure a few weeks, turns out Japan needed proof that Gary and my marriage of over 25 years wasn't just a grand plot on my part to get into Japan today! So we had to mail them pictures of our married life through the years including pics of our children and names and addresses of all my siblings! (have fun Japan there were EIGHT of us kids!) The good news is they are treating Gary as a Japanese national so it indicates that once they confirm me we should be allowed into the country on long term visas at which point I look forward to having interesting things to blog about again!
See you then!