Hi everyone!

 

Still going well up here in the Land of the Rising Sun. Work is great, all of our students are very friendly, and I am learning more and more about Japan and its culture.

 

Had a very interesting experience on Saturday night, Jennifer, Me, and a Japanese friend, Nao, went to a local Izakaya. An Izakaya is a small Japanese bar where you can also get traditional Japanese food. The atmosphere is really welcoming and friendly - probably helped by the fact that everyone is getting into the sake, beer etc! As with everywhere in Japan you are met by shouts of welcome from all the staff as you enter the place, quite cool! This Izakaya is a family-run affair (most probably are) and the Dad is the chef. He stands behind a food bar, and cooks and prepares food in front of you. This is where it got interesting! I can't remember the names of most of the things I ate, but I can describe them. First of all we had a kind of fish luncheon sausage that had been crumbed and deep-fried. It was suprisingly good! Next, if I remember correctly, we had a seaweed salad, which wasn't as good as it sounds. It was extremely salty and very strong tasting - not my favourite. It felt like I was eating a piece of rubber. I tried a couple of bites, but decided that would be enough for me. My favourite dishes came next. We had tempura fish bites, which were like NZ battered fish, but much nicer, and an asparagus dish which seemed to have been lightly fried, then covered with some sort of fish flakes - tasty! Then we got into some random stuff - frog legs!! They were really delicious actually, and (wouldn't you know it) tasted a bit like chicken! There was one other dish that I think you'll find interesting - octopus sashimi. That's right, raw octopus! This was as fresh as you could get, too, because the octopus was sitting in a tank, just in front of me, shortly before his demise. So, I was just sitting there, minding my own business, drinking my beer, when all of a sudden the chef grabs the octopus out of the tank, places him on the chopping board and proceeds to chop off all his legs!! Then, after removing the apendages, puts him back in the water, still alive! I felt quite sorry for him. He didn't seem to mind that much though, which was suprising. Possibly he was in shock, I don't know. The worst part was, when the octopus sashimi was served up to us, the legs still moved around when you touched them with your chopsticks! So it looked as though they were still alive! Jen is a lot braver than me, and she got stuck in first, with a delicious piece of leg. She didn't seem to mind it, and I didn't want to look like I was soft, so I selected a (slightly smaller) piece and drowned it in soy sauce and ate it! I chewed it hard as soon as it got in my mouth, and quickly swallowed it. It wasn't too bad actually, but I felt sorry for the octopus, especially as he was watching me eat his leg. I'm not kidding! He was watching me!!

Check out the photos!

 

So, as you can see, I had a great weekend. This week on Wednesday the mall where I work is closed, so the NOVA staff - me, Jen, Nina, Ayumi and Junko are going sight-seeing together, should be fun! We're going up north, as far as I can tell, and we're going to see a few temples, historical sights etc. We are also going to an onsen - a Japanese hotspring which I think is similar to Hanmer - except you can't wear togs! Unfortunately I have to go to a separate hotspring to the girls, which is a shame! Fair enough though, I suppose.

 

Oh well, better keep moving. I'll update after the trip up north on Wednesday!