Nara In Reflection

Nara is something I think everyone needs to see when they come to Japan.

And I don't say this purely on the basis of Nara's fame: it's huge sprawling historical landmarks. Though I think anyone studying Japanese deserves to see the history of this fascinating culture, most of which seems buried beneath the modern thriving technological mass world. Tokyo towers over the feeble, old, shrines and temples of the historical world.

To be fair, Kyoto is surely visited just as much if not more than Tokyo by tourists, and it has more temples than one can count, but many of these temples are still inlaid in city, concrete piling up over them. It makes the experience impersonal, distant, and to me at least, some of the cohesiveness is greatly reduced. When you're in a beautiful temple and you see a office building pop up over the gate, it makes things odd.

No, I say people need to see Nara because the town just feels... personal.

I think with any trend of a city growing, the people become distant, seperate, individual. Tokyo is a great example of this because of so many people coming from other places to work. Groups disolve into individuals living life.

Nara is as much a place of tourism for Japanese culture as it is a real town, with real communities of individuals living life. And this sense of people actually living life is easily accessible, because the so called touristy areas are just... in housing and life. Across the street from Houryuuji temple, ie. the oldest temple in Japan, built in the 600s, are people's houses! Can you imagine living next to something that's 1300-1400 years old? And actually living there? Like... living!

I suppose my fascination with Japan lies mostly in how I am always distant from the real lives of individuals due to my foreigner status. But when I take a walk down the streets of Nara, I feel that sense of realism, like I have fallen into a very real world filled with interacting groups of people. It's not just a city with people coming in to work, and then leaving. It's not just a place were people go to see stuff. These roles exist too, yes, but in truth Nara is a town where people just do what we're supposed to, they live.

This combination of living among something extremely important is fascinating to me, and personal, and moving.

And even a point of tourism, this place has really cool stuff! Nara is legitimately beautiful. Parks, trees, nature is everywhere, the temples are magnificent, and the architecture of even peoples houses is reminiscent of something old and sacred.

I can't help but be amazing by the intense beauty of this town.

And the food! The food was amazing! Little mom and pop shops that have been open for 40 years. The town just feels PERSONAL.

Two examples of amazing food come to mind. All in one day mind you.

Roost Cafe, about 20 minutes from Houryuuji.

Roost is an amazing cafe that takes old world Japanese cuisine and applies new world twists to it. The interior is ironically decorated with African items (I still don't get this part), but the food is very Japanese. For 10 dollars you get this:

Beautiful

Extremely well presented, 6 little tiny dishes of Okazu (お菜), or side dishes on the left, tofu, potatoes, wakame, stewed onions, among others, and to the right, a salad of tomatoes, garlic, and lettuce, with lightly breaded and fried salmon, with roasted tomato mayonnaise. And rice. And miso soup. And amazing coffee.

For 10 dollars. Just... insane.

Along with that.

THE BEST produce I HAVE EVER TASTED IN MY LIFE. I had the pleasure of walking by a local farm and purchased some strawberries. They were all about the size of your thumb, and they MELT in your mouth, fragrant and ungodly sweet, hints of rose and mint behind the EXPLOSION of strawberry. Just insane! INSANE! And across the street, a temple from the 700s. Like... wtf?

Tokyo, Sapporo, Osaka, how come Nara just owned you on the trip in terms of food?

It's just an incredible place.

I'm sure I am not fully getting my emotions across through this blog, so I'll just say this. Nara was amazing. It has been hands down one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

Osaka in Reflection

Y'know, I came into Osaka expecting one or two things.

A. It would be a crazy, completely different world, a heaven on earth divided from the usual stereotypical Japan, where originality and creativity blossom and thrive.

OR

B. Another big 'ol city with dudes who really really hate foreigners.

And it turned out that it was... erm... neither really. And kind of both at the same time.

Certainly one aspect is true: Osaka is not foreigner friendly. Very rarely are signs in English, nor menus, or staff. (this isn't really a problem to me, but I can imagine for non Japanese speakers this is easily the biggest turnoff of them all). They try... but... y'know... it's not really Tokyo in terms of foreign tourism. Though it's the second largest city in Japan, when more statistically comparing it to Tokyo there is no question in terms of size, Tokyo has around 17 million people, Osaka only 2.1 (3 if you count commuters). This discrepancy is obvious from the get go, as naturally then, for many foreign tourists, Osaka seems to be tossed aside.

This is a shame though, because Osaka was actually very fascinating in its own regard. And I hate to continuously compare it to Tokyo (since I'm sure I will), but both are expansive cities on the coast of Japan that have created an epicenter of culture, food, business and trade, and even personal dialects. I remember reading about the "centers" theory of Japanese culture: how Japan comprised of two center cities that created everything media and socially, spreading it to the rest, and Osaka and Tokyo are those two cities.

To me, the similarity yet clear distinction is rather remarkable.

One of the first I noticed, and I'm sure I'm not the first to point this out, but people in Osaka, when standing in an escalator, stand on the OPPOSITE side of that of Tokyoites or Sapporians. (lulz sapporians thatisntawordmike shutup!). In other words, while letting the people in a rush pass, people in Osaka stand on a different side than people in Tokyo.

Well... that's just... weird really...

Stuff is just tweaked a little bit to be different. And lovely. And interesting.

Food also comes to mind as rather different, in a delightful way of course. Okonomiyaki has a different texture and method (for more info check out my friend's blog here). Street foods are idealized and heightened to gourmet status in restaurants. (Like imagine a hotdog being sold at a 4 star). And it's clearly 100% delicious.

The city is busy, but not... as... busy.

And, well, culture seems far more deep rooted. Osaka has 1300 year old temples after all. Amongst the concrete jungle inlaid are small temples, awkward in their composition as they are dwarfed by the surrounding buildings. but remarkably gem like. Tokyo, unfortunately due to WW2, doesn't have this feel. It's all just... new.

And yet... much like Tokyo, it seems so, impersonal. I just feel like everyone is coming to Osaka city for a "little bit". Then they leave. (Which is true, the population multiplies by 50% during the day). It distances it, makes it seem mirage like, the realism of such a place is distant.

But it's just... different. It's still Japan, still familiar in its own right, but it's just not quite the Japan that people stereotype. And I enjoy that.

I always like knowing that culture is more complex than we've made it out to be.

Nara next!

I FOUND NOT AWFUL PIZZA IN JAPAN!!

As most of the three people reading this may know, I loves me some food. Specifically, I am a kid born in the Chicagoland are. By land I mean as close as physically possible without actually living there, but you Chicagoans get moody when I describe myself as "from Chicago", so "land" it is.

Chicago has one food I'm sure we all know of. Deep. Dish. Pizza.

And I luvvvvv deep dish pizza. If you scroll back the clock on this blog you'll see my last meal in the states was deep dish. Um. Delicious.

But in Japan, deep dish pretty much doesn't exist. So I have to settle for regular, which is fine really, since delicious pizza is still good pizza.

That is, if I could find a good pizza place. It seems like American style pizza is just completely missing from the tastes of Japanese.

The reason, however, is actually fairly straight forward. Although Chicagoans and New Yorkers sure disagree on which of their pizzas is better, you can bet that they agree on one thing: the crust is the most important part. Any American pizza lover will agree to this. Without a delicious, flavorful crust, pizza falls flat. Be it crispy, buttery, soft, thin, thick, whatever your prefference, pizza crust is the maker and breaker in a good pie

And this is the mega issue here in Japan, because the idea of praising the crust, making it just as imporant as the toppings, is nonexistant. Mind you, Japanese attention to quality within ingredients is the best in the world, but here it seems, the majority of pizza crust is more like a textured delivery device for the wonderful (and sometimes odd) toppings.

So my quest to find American style pizza has existed since arriving here.

And I do believe I found something close today in Tokyo.

SHAKEY'S is an American chainthat recently opened up shop in Tokyo. They have stores scattered over the city, and for ¥850 at lunch, or ¥1100 at dinner, you can enjoy an entire pizza buffet. All you can eat.

I entered the hall, payed my 850, picked up a few small slices. As I was lifting them to my plate, I noticed the granules of corn meal on the bottom of the crust.

"Oh shit... This might be legit"

My first slice, double cheese. As I tasted it, my eyes lit up. "This tastes like... Decent American pizza!!"

Indeed Shakey's has managed to make pizza in a way that doesn't totally ruin the crust, it's crispy and flavorful. Though this is by no suggestion the most amazing pizza I've tasted, I have to applaud the effort of this chain.

New Vlog: Windows 7 Whopper, 7 patties of win

If the embed isn't working, click the link below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6phhhzQKz8

New Vlog: My Hotel Room in Tokyo

If the embed isn't working, click the link below to go to the video directly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WwnwERU1dM

Goodbye Nagano, Hello Tokyo!

I just want to write this to thank the Ikegaki family for hosting me as they have in the past. This is without a doubt an amazing family, and I am constantly inspired and impressed by their kindness. In the four years that I've known them they have been everything I could want in a host family, and I cannot express my gratitude enough to them

Plus I mean, I think this photo is a pretty good summary of my time here


Oh yes, the dog eats with us. It is awesome.

And he actually might like me now? Dangggg Mike that is bawlerrrrrr!

So I've had some amazing times here in Nagano much thanks to this wonderful family. vlog coming soon I hope. We attempted to see Mt. fuji, it was an awesome time.

In the meantime! I'm off to the real adventure, as I trek Japan ALONE.

Schedule has been changed greatly since I posted it, next up is Tokyo (which I leave for in like 5 hours) and then Osaka!

In fact the majority of my trip will be in the Kansai area. Schwing!

PUMPED!

Doll Festival Shtuff

So I like cliche Japanese stuff, sue me.

Today my host mom took me to see some Hinamatsuri dolls that had been assembled nearby.

Apparently I under estimated the sheer number of dolls they would have. Something like thousands.

Yes it is that massive, this is just one room!

Crazy level of detail in these figures. But they're strangely similar

They're set up in a very specific order, and families used to pass them down to married couples. My host mom would have hers if there was still room in the house (oh goodness). People who no longer want theirs apparently give then away, and usually this means giving it to one of these places?

I'm not sure, she said this all in Japanese and I don't feel like wikipedia-ing it.

This place was kind of like a "doll" museum though, they even had some old ones from America!

Chip and Dale??

Anyways, that is all. Doll festival begins on March 3rd, but this place will be around showing off stuff till around April. Wowzerz dolls.