Tetsujin 28

We finally stopped by the park in Kobe where there is an 18 meter-tall statue of the robot Tetsujin 28, or Gigantor, as was his American moniker. Kobe was the birthplace of Mitsuteru Yokoyama, the writer of the original 1956 manga.

Cowboy Curry

We stumbled upon Cowboy Curry the other day on Tabelog, the Japanese equivalent of Urbanspoon. We've tried to discover restaurants on Tabelog several times before but found that Japanese food critics are not extreme enough in their reviews. Most restaurants sit very close to three stars, right in the middle of the five-star rating system. Perhaps it's the Japanese desire to be humble or to avoid confrontation, but looking at a webpage of  almost nothing but three-star reviews doesn't help one decide at all which restaurant are worth going to! The two highest rated restaurants in Miki are only 3.44 stars. Three of our favorite restaurants in Miki include a ramen shop called Hoppoya, an Indian curry restaurant called Shankar, and a Japanese barbecue place called Kashima, and they are rated 3.0, 3.0, and 3.11 respectively.

Cowboy Curry is a 3.54. Technically it is just over the border from Miki into West Kobe, but it's only a few minutes drive from our house. We noticed it the other day, because its 3.5+ rating gave it orange stars on the map instead of the usual yellow stars like the other restaurants in Miki. When we clicked through, we were shocked by the pictures of the unique and delicious looking roast beef curry (which we didn't get to try because they were sold out for the day), and especially by the cowboy theme and decor. It triggered in us the 'This place looks way too cool to be in Miki!' response.

It turned out to be even cooler than we had hoped for. We were so unprepared that we didn't have our good camera, so the few photos I took are from the iPhone. We also failed to get a picture of the boss and his partner, who donned cowboy hats and leather vests. The boss also did card tricks at our table before we left! Both he and his partner (pun intended?) asked us how we heard about the restaurant. It only opened in November, so I guess the word is getting out slowly. The boss used to be a painter at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, so he designed the interior himself and sourced every piece of Americana in Japan, which probably cost a fortune! Becky said it felt like a BBQ restaurant from home, and we even spotted an Oklahoma Portland Cement sack with "Ada, OK" emblazoned on it!

The curry itself was wonderful. Becky tried the mushroom curry, and our friend Philip and I tried the curry with a piece of hamburger in it. In my humble opinion, it was probably the best Japanese curry I have ever had. This is largely because most Japanese curry I have had tastes very similar, and this curry totally diverged from the norm. The three of us thought there were hints of chocolate and wine in it, giving it quite a unique flavor. The boss happily told us we were right and that the curry also included bourbon and cola! He said it was inspired by how he thought an American (and presumably a cowboy) might re-imagine Japanese curry.

The cheesecake was so good that it was almost gone before I could get a picture!

Becky decided to try the cheesecake for dessert. Japanese cheesecake is typically more similar to American spongecake, often times lacking the satisfaction and gooey richness one hopes for when indulging in cheesecake. To our surprise, this cheesecake was legit and tasted like a homemade American cheesecake. When we asked the boss about it, he told us it was a Kraft recipe!

All in all, Cowboy Curry is a little bit of magic in Miki (officially Kobe), and we plan to be regular customers.

Two Meals in One Day

With the end of the year comes invites to parties. At many companies and schools it is common to regularly have dinner parties, called enkai, when nearly all of your co-workers go out officially for a meal. The regularity at which a company has enkais can vary widely, but most companies will at least have a bonenaki, the end of the year dinner party.

We were invited to a bonenkai at my company on December 10, and by a happy twist of fate, one of Becky’s co-workers invited us to lunch the same day as a Christmas present to us. So we had yummy Tibetan curry for lunch in Miki, and we went to Kobe in the evening to meet a few of my co-workers for dinner.

The enkai in Kobe wasn’t really a typical enkai. It was mostly to welcome me to the company but also to meet Becky. And it wasn’t a big company wide party at all but really just the core people I work with, plus the boss’s daughter, who attends an international school and is bilingual.

We went to one of the most popular Chinese restaurants in town, an old-school family owned place. We were served dish after dish, many of which were new to us, but all of which were delicious.

What evening to the downtown is complete without something weird? On this night it was a parade of trikes parked outside Sannomiya Station. The riders of the most outrageous trike, with Louis Vuitton design, were wearing Santa suits to top it all off.

Suzurandai Hike

Miki sits just north of the western end of Mt. Rokko, which is actually a range of mountains on the north side of Kobe. I have gone hiking on various parts of the Rokko range, my most favorite being the trails near Ashiyagawa Station, close to the Frank Lloyd Wright house there.

The best way to start a hike: Mr. Donuts.

Suzurandai Station is a 25 minute train ride from Miki, and I found out about some trails that go from there all the way to downtown Kobe. The trail that we chose lasted four hours and brought us over two different Rokko peaks. The amount of steps we hiked up and down was incredible. Becky and I are both in much better shape than when we arrived in Japan almost three months ago, but we struggled to get up the longest stretch of steps. We were embarrassed to see all the old people making the same journey, some seemingly struggling less than us. Hiking is largely considered an old person’s past time in Japan, and I would say at least 70% of our fellow hikers were retirees.

Toward the end of the hike, we met a nice Japanese man who asked us if we wanted to see some old growth forests. We kindly went with him, which was enjoyable, but which took us off of our intended path down the mountain. We ended up going down a trail that was not well traveled or maintained. The spiderwebs everywhere were annoying, and the amount of dead leaves and branches covering the steep trail was a little dangerous, but we finally made it down.

The trail ended in a drab cement park in Kitano, a neighborhood north of Sannomiya, downtown Kobe. Kitano is where many westerners settled when Kobe was opened to the west in the 19th century, so there are a number of historical homes there. Most of them cost about $7 to enter, so I have not known many westerners who have paid admission to tour western mansions in Japan. The neighborhood itself is very nice and is one of Kobe’s most upscale. One of the many historical houses that was destroyed in the Great Hanshin earthquake in 1995 was later rebuilt and is now home to one of the coolest Starbuck’s we’ve ever been to.

Bad Hair Day

If you spoke with me prior to our moving overseas, you may know that my greatest fear about moving to Japan was finding someone to cut my hair.  

Hair Studio Billy in Kobe was recommended on a website with information for foreign teachers living in Hyogo. I found them on the web where they boasted having international experience and even spoke English.  I made a reservation for the very next day!  

I should have known something was up by the way
 that President Billy wouldn't look me in the eyes.

The interior was funky and western inspired.  The stylist was a young, hip girl with black rimmed glasses, and her English was perfect.  I was feeling confident I chose the right place.  However, halfway through the haircut, she asked if she could use thinning shears.  Um... ok?  10 minutes later she was still thinning and thinning.  She even thinned my bangs!  With no end in sight, my heart started beating fast.  I blurted out, “I think that’s enough of the thinning shears!” She seemed a bit surprised, like I had interrupted her masterpiece, but she finished up with the cut and dusted off my neck.  We paid and left.  I felt tricked.  

I went home that night and washed and dried my hair hoping for the best.  Then, I cried.  My hair is so wispy that it sticks out when I don’t use a straightener.  The humidity only makes it worse.  It is my greatest fear realized; the worst hair cut that I have ever had!

But here is what I have learned in just a week’s time.  People around me do not care if my hair isn’t perfect.  In fact, I am not sure that any of my Japanese coworkers even noticed that I cut my hair at all.  My husband still finds me attractive.  So, that leaves me.  I was very upset on the day of the bad hair cut.  No woman wants to feel like their hair isn’t pretty.  But, the truth is my hair is not what people love about me.  It isn’t what they judge me by and it isn’t what they will remember me for.  A bad hair cut is just that, bad, but there are worse things.  And it will grow.   

More IKEA/China Town

We went to IKEA for the second time and bought what we have long been lacking: a bed! I think the apartment is almost ready for a photo shoot. Expect some pictures in coming days... 

After IKEA, we spent a bit of time in Kobe. We had some fantastic croquettes at Kobe Croquette in China town. It was recently redesigned by one of the most famous Japanese architects, Tadao Ando.

China Town in Kobe is clean and tame, with lots of great places to get food from street vendors and of course, some great photo-opps. 

IKEA

An IKEA is located in Kobe, less than an hour-and-a-half from Miki. It’s a little bit expensive to get there by train, but it’s actually cheaper than the three-and-a-half hour drive from Oklahoma City to IKEA in Dallas. IKEA in Japan, and most Japanese companies, offer reasonable ground shipping fees, so you can buy large items and not need a car to ship them home. So our new furniture will come in a few days, and I’ll post pictures once we get the house partially furnished.

After IKEA, we did a little window shopping at some of my favorite stores in downtown Kobe. We both laughed when we saw this T-Shirt at Design Tshirts Store Graniph.