The Big Three-O

Last week, I turned 30. The night before my birthday, we went to our favorite local yakiniku restaurant. On my birthday proper, Becky prepared a mini-birthday cake, along with a hand-made crocheted Link, which she will admit was at one point intended to be a Christmas present! For my birthday weekend, we went to the art island, Naoshima, an amazing place that I will post about soon.

Mushroom Hunt

July 15 was the long awaited summer mushroom hunt at Mikiyama Forest Park. I say long-awaited because we signed up for the same event last October, but it was cancelled due to rain. Seventy-three percent of Japan is covered by mountains, and the innumerable mountain forests make it an extremely fertile ground for mushrooms. The fall is the best season for mushrooms and extremely ideal locations offer mushroom hunting tourism then. But the humid, post-rainy season climate in July also offers great conditions and many different species of mushrooms from the fall.

We joined 40 or 50 people, along with three guides, and scoured the forest in search of mushrooms. We quickly realized they were everywhere, and every person brought pack at least a handful to the forest education center.

The choice, edible mushrooms were used in a wild mushroom miso soup. The children took charge of mushroom preparation.

Much of the flavor of the mushrooms was overpowered by the miso, but subtle differences were distinguishable. More important than flavor, it was the many different textures that made each mushroom unique.

The end of the event consisted of the experts explaining the many mushrooms we discovered, and making sure we learned which were deadly and which were delicious.

Deadly!

Our mushroom guide was very nice to us throughout the day, and he gave us some mushrooms to take home! We cooked them alongside carrots, asparagus, and onions, put them in a curry sauce, and ate them with a pork chop. Delicious!

Umeshu

This year, for the first time, I took part in the seasonal tradition of making umeshu. Umeshu is often translated as 'plum wine' in English, but it is actually plum liqueur. Wine would indicate fermentation, whereas umeshu is simply clear alcohol steeped with Japanese plums and sweetened with rock sugar.

Umeshu is available commercially all year, but you can only make it yourself in late-May/early-June when unripe Japanese plums are available for purchase. Making umeshu is extremely simple, and they make it even simpler by putting all required ingredients in the same section at the grocery store. They even go so far as to package the ingredients so that you don't even need to measure them out; just empty all three packs into a jar!

For our umeshu, we bought a 4-liter jar from Muji, a 1 kg pack of plums, a 1 kg pack of rock sugar, and a 1.8 liter bottle of white liquor. We literally bought a carton labeled "white liquor," but any shochu or vodka would work. Simply layer plums and rock sugar (recipes recommend anywhere from 500 grams to the whole 1 kg) and cover with the whole bottle of white liquor. The umeshu should be drinkable in three months and ideal in six. It's recommended to store it in a cool dark place while it steeps and to occasionally shake it to make sure the sugar is mixing well.

Umeshu can be drunk on the rocks or mixed with soda. It is extremely sweet and easy to drink, and I recommend that everyone give it a try. It's rich and fruity flavor is appreciated by connoisseurs as well as those who typically don't drink alcohol at all. We'll be sampling ours around Christmas time!

Vegetables: For your Health!

While Mom & Dad were here, Mom helped us finally get our garden planted. We decided to start small, only utilizing a small portion of our "back yard." In the bricked area, we have eggplants, cucumbers, various kinds of tomatoes, carrots, and lettuce. The grassy area is home to one watermelon plant.

We also watched the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" while my parents were here. It was about a guy who was unhealthy and who decided a 60-day juice fast might be his last ticket to turn his life around. I highly recommend it, and it prompted us to buy a new Breville juicer. The new juicer, new garden, and new Costco that opened a few months ago create the perfect storm for the Stock's to get super healthy in Japan!

Making the most of small spaces

Unlike in the States, toilets in Japan are often in their own room, separate from the shower, bathtub, etc. These small toilet rooms usually include their own sinks, crammed into a tight space. Sometimes the sink is even built into the toilet, so that you can wash your hands while the tank refills.

In the case of our toilet room, there was a tiny sink with a broken spigot when we moved in. A maintenance man promptly replaced the spigot but chose to use an industrial model designed to connect to an outdoor hose. For a long time the sink went unused until we finally thought of a better use: a Totoro garden to match our bathroom decor! Making the most of a small home in Japan means making the most of every small space.

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.

Intruderz!

Intruder Cat 1, tentatively being called 'Shina,' short for cinnamon

A few weeks ago, two black cats appeared on our porch. Apparently, the word had got out that there was cat food there. So we started giving the kittens only enough food to eat in one sitting, so there weren't any leftovers for strangers to eat. The black cats came less frequently, so we started getting lacks again. Yesterday, we heard strange meows outside, and throughout the evening we observed three new intruder cats trying to bully the kittens away and eat their food! We haven't seen Akamimi, their mother, in several days.

Intruder Cat 2: 'Stumpyriltskin'

We're a little concerned the cat fighting might start bugging the neighbors and threaten the fragile kitty habitat we have created. But at least it makes for entertaining evenings in Miki!

"Saves uz from teh intruderz!"

New Wheels!

First things first. Our car is not pretty. I think the Honda Fit itself is a cute little hatchback. Unfortunately, the paint on ours has faded into what we have started calling "Old Lipstick Red." The rear passenger side door, quarter panel, and rear bumper are a much brighter red, so it was clearly in a little accident at some point.

Other than that, it drives great, and it's quite roomy inside. It has a 1.3 liter engine, too small to be available in the US. It is a 2001 model, and it has 55,000 miles on it, quite low for 11 years by American standards, but I'm told quite high by Japanese standards!

The car is a long-term rental, which we got quite affordably. It is my first time having a car in Japan and my first time driving outside the United States. Over the years, not needing a car was something I often sided as a plus about living in Japan. But that experience was based on where I had lived, and it is true for the majority of the population that lives in urban areas with accessible and affordable public transport.

After moving to Miki, we learned that it does not fall into this category. It is a sprawling town with mediocre bus routes and the most expensive train line in Japan. My current job requires me to travel to three different branches of my school, which means I need to spend a lot of time walking and waiting for trains when driving would be much more convenient. There are also many places around town that are quite exhausting to get to by bicycle, and having a car will really change our lives.

Lastly, while Japanese tollways can be extremely expensive, local trips to Kobe will be so affordable now. For example, IKEA Kobe is about an hour and a half away by car or by train. The round trip cost of gasoline is $6 or $7, but for both of us to go by train is almost $50!

We spent our first night with a car getting our favorite ramen across town. Definitely expect some Japanese road trips in the future!

Christmas in Japan

Christmas in Japan is a little confusing. This is largely to blame by the fact that a Christian holiday is being celebrated in a country which is more than 99% non-Christian. They have adopted some secular traditions, like Santa and Rudolph, but if you look around it quickly becomes clear that Christmas revolves almost entirely around consumerism. It is said to be a night for couples to go out for an expensive meal, for children to get an expensive gift on Christmas morning, for specialty Christmas foods at restaurants, and special sales at stores. I am not saying that it isn’t as bad or worse in America, but there is a Jesus sized hole in Japan’s festivities. There are no songs being sung about Jesus, no special church services, no family gatherings, no Christian organizations gathering food and toys for the poor, no baby Jesus, no Christmas story, nothing.

Real Christmas trees at IKEA

Growing up I always enjoyed the secular celebration of Christmas. Every year we read the story of St. Nicholas, watched Charlie Brown, Frosty, and Rudolph, left cookies for Santa, and eagerly awaited his arrival on Christmas Eve night. I have always enjoyed making Christmas cookies and treats with my aunt and buying gifts for needy children with my mom. I will never forget the year that my family chose the poorest tree on the lot because it needed a little love. Christmas isn’t Christmas without Dirty Santa (white elephant gift exchange), eggnog, and “White Christmas.” This year I was very nostalgic for the Christmas that I have always known.

So, how does Japan celebrate? Could it really be so different? For starters, they dress up Kentucky Grandpa like Santa and eat fried chicken and Christmas cake. Oh? You thought his name was Colonel Sanders. Not in Japan!

Every store has something special for Christmas which is really fun. It is hard to resist all of the Christmas treats.

We shopped for a Christmas card for the groundskeeper at my school who fixed my bicycle when I got a flat tire. One series of cards featured multiple tiny Santas touring Japan. It was sad to me that baby Jesus wasn’t the star of the Christmas card show. This card almost got it right.

There are plenty of traditional Christmas decorations. I saw poinsettias and holly branches at the grocery store. There are many places in Japan that you can see what they call illuminations and we call Christmas lights. Snowmen, Rudolph, and Mickey Mouse light up figures are available at the hardware store. They sell trees, both real and fake, at IKEA, hot wine, and gingerbread houses.  Ben and I bought our tree at IKEA and sprayed fake snow on our windows.

This Christmas wasn’t the same without our family. Christmas in Japan can be a sad time for foreigners, but we enjoyed a Christmas party with friends. And the amazing part about Christmas without reminders of what Christmas is all about, is that you think about it all the more. We hope everyone had a merry Christmas wherever in the world you were!