It ain't Christmas without eggnog

I decided to stay in Tokyo for the Holiday's this year in order to save up some vacation time, having used a bunch for my Sister's wedding last August, and in anticipation of Several more weddings I hope to attend in the coming year. Christmas isn't a traditional holiday in Japan. It is celebrated to a degree, but more in the manner of a kind of made up holidays like Halloween or Valentines days.

My friends Mika and Nick had a Christmas party on Christmas eve. This would actually be my second party I had been to at their place. The party was a blast, and we had some really great food.

I wanted to bring something traditionally Christmasy to the party, and I thought eggnog would be perfect.

Except, apparently you cannot buy eggnog anywhere in Japan.

I tried about 7 different, expat focused supermarkets and no luck.

Fortunately, it turns out eggnog is fairly easy to make.

But first I needed a measuring cup, for some reason the only one I could find at the local 100円 shop resembled an oversized urin sample cup...

Step 1. Scald 2 cups milk, with a little vanilla and cloves

Step 2. Whisk together 12 egg yokes with 1 cup of sugar 

Step 3. Add scalded milk to egg yokes and then cook in a saucepan over medium heat for three minutes. Don't let it boil! Really this is the only place where you can really screw up. If the mixture boils your egg yokes turn into scrambled egg yokes and your eggnog becomes a lumpy mess.

Step 4. Add two cups of cream, two cups of cups of booze, as well as nutmeg and cinnamon.

Most recipes call for rum in the eggnog. Personally I think Rum is for some straw hat, flowered shirt wearing floozies on a beach somewhere.

iIn the winter, real men (and women) drink single malt scotch. 

In all seriousness, the scotch does add a cool smokey flavor to the drink. Using a blended malt won't have a sharp enough flavor to cut through the rest of the stuff in the drink. Rum is the choice for those who don't want to be reminded they are drinking something alcoholic. 

As I said the food was delicious .

Personally my favorite dish was the quiche. 

Desert strawberry cake and Eggnog fuck yea!

Our Santa and her little helper

We each brought a gift to do a secret santa style exchange

My loot

Cheddar pretzels and fabric softener. Oh Japanese Santa you are so wise...

First Ski Trip in Japan

I had a chance to go skiing for the first time in Japan last weekend. Some coworkers invited me on a day trip out to Kagura Ski resort in Niigata prefecture.

It was actually a fairly warm sunny day in Tokyo when we boarded the Shinkansen at 8:04. It would take us about an hour and a half to reach our stop. About an hour into the trip we had yet to see any snow on the ground, then we went into a tunnel. Five minutes or so later we emerged and the ground was covered as far as we could see with at least a foot of snow. 

By the time we reached our station we were in the middle of a snow storm. The snow would stop around 2pm and Kagura would end up getting about a foot and a half to two feet of snow.

Here's the shot from the base of the tram, in the morning.

Actually getting up to the main ski area required taking this tram, a chair lift, then a long Gondola. Kagura actually features over 4000 vertical feet of descent. Although much of this is fairly  easy terrain. Here's the shot looking down back towards the base of the gondola.

Unfortunately the peak of the mountain seemed to be closed that day and apparently there is some really great off piste terrain here as well. While I didn't get a chance to check that out this time, it wasn't hard to find fresh tracks on the trails. The more difficult runs had barely been skied at all.

Overall I can't complain that my first day out was a powder day.

Also here's a vending machine for beer

And the tram illuminated at the end of the day

I apologize for more iphone shots, I forgot my real camera.

Matt Cooks Tempura

I decided to try cooking tempura for the first time. Overall I think it was a good experience, but I definitely I have a few things I need to figure out. I also tried out the portraiture lens on my camera. If anyone out there has advice about either of these endeavors don't be shy.

 I was gonna be making mini-pepper and Japanese eggplant tempura. 

The recipe I was using called for marinating the ingredients in rice wine.

 Next up making the batter. First was mixing an egg in cold water.

 Next up mixing the dry ingredients, flour, baking soda, and a touch of white sugar. 

 Mix it all together. Here is the first part I wasn't sure I got right, the consistency of the batter. Part of the issue is I don't have any measuring cups, or spoons, or really any kitchen measuring devices of any kind. So I was winging it a bit, which is usually fine when I know what I'm looking for. In this case I had no idea what the batter should be like.

 Heating up the oil. Recipe calls for a wok or deep frier, I have neither.

 The recipe says to coat the veggies one at a time

 And cook them in the oil

 I am far to lazy to do this one at a time

 All it takes is a couple minutes to cook.

crispy fried deliciousness

 I believe this is called 天丼(tendon) or tempura on a bed of rice.

You could really taste the rice wine. The batter wasn't quite the really delicate flaky stuff I've gotten at restaurants, and the taste was a bit oily, but other then that it was pretty good. 

The Ancient Tradition of Dressing Monkeys up like Samurai Warriors

 Hiroshi Watanabe released a book of photographs on the practice. Modern met features more photos along with this explanation.

The exceptionally trained macaque monkeys used to don outfits and perform religious ritual dances to keep the country's warrior horses safe. Over the thousand-year history of the ancient art, the performance has evolved into a traveling act for entertainment purposes, escaping extinction. The practice, known as Sarumawashi, is literally translated as "monkey dancing" and is one of the most popular traditional Asian performing arts these days, along with Kabuki and Noh.

Six Months In

The six month anniversary of my arrival in Japan past last week. As I believe is customary with blogs of this nature I guess I should share with you some half backed thoughts and reflections about my time here.

But first a quick programming note for the growing number of non-native english speaking friends I see visiting this space. If you're reading along and notice some odd word out of place or some creative spelling, you're natural inclination is probably to assume it's some overly clever Americanism used in precisely the correct way for full effect. However, I feel compelled to tell you that statistically it's much more likely a typo or grammatical error. I'm far to lazy to proof read and edit this thing properly. In fact if you read closely there are probably several in this very paragraph. I apologize in advance for any confusion.

But enough about you, back to me

Here are my thoughts

1) I am incredibly fortunate to have been given this opportunity. The longer that I'm here, the more people that I meet the greater appreciation I have for the opportunity that I've been given. I had always been attracted to the idea of living and working abroad in abstract, but until about this time last year I had never really considered moving to Japan. At the time my knowledge of Japan and Japanese culture didn't extend very far past Karate Kid. I sort of stumbled on this opportunity, I happened to know the right person at the right time. I came here having no idea what I was getting myself into, but despite a few small hiccups I pretty much had things made for me. I was able to come here to a great extent on my own terms, in a way that continued my career, and make enough money to survive in this incredibly expensive city. 

2) Knowing what I know now, I am very glad that I ended up in Tokyo, and can't imagine that another location I would rather have ended up in. Tokyo is an incredibly stimulating, and fun city. And Japan has an incredible amount to offer, from mountains, to culture, and history. I've met quite a few expats who love this city and this country, and are desperately trying to find a way to live here. There aren't that many job opportunities outside of teaching English for foreigners, particularly those who don't speak Japanese. Those opportunities that do exist are usually for experienced professionals. To have the opportunity to come here at my age, in my chosen profession is quite rare. I don't mean to boast, I just want to state how grateful I am that I ended up here. 

3) I owe 95% reasons for my being here to luck and chance, but the 5% I keep for me is the final decision to pull the trigger. I was comfortable back in Boston, actually more then comfortable I really enjoyed my life there. My contract arrived in the mail on 3/10, I had it on my desk while I watched news of the earthquake and tsunami come in. I'm proud of myself for not passing up this opportunity out of fear.

4) I've experienced 4 great transitions in my life. First, entering public middle school/parents divorce, going to college, graduating from university moving back to Boston, and moving to Japan. Of those really only the move to Japan was totally and unequivocally my choice. I would be lying if I said there wasn't some degree of guilt associated with that choice. From the mundane, missing playing tennis often, and eating burritos. To those more poignent, not being around to see my young nephew grow up, and knowing many friendships with good people back in Boston will probably never reach their full potential. On balance I'm glad that I've come, but an honest accounting is necessary.

5) Japan is a fascinating and intellectually stimulating country for a westerner to live in. The longer that I'm here, the more that I learn, the more I realize I don't know. I know you were probably expecting from a post titled "Six Months In" a whole but of wisdom learned about Japan and Japanese culture, but I think I've lived here just long enough to begin to question my first impressions, and it's hard for me to think of any generalizations I would want to share without an accompanying post of qualifications or at least a whole lot of math ;)

6) Post on the language is coming soon.

7) Work life balance is hard here. Kind of like walking a tightrope in a hurricane. And my hours aren't even that bad by typical Japanese standards.

Allright enough for now.

For all those back home, and my new friends here Happy Holidays, 

WSJ Article on Rikuzentakata, Tsunami Recovery

Today's Wall Street Journal had an article about the town of Rikuzentakata, which was entirely destroyed by the 3/11 Tsunami. It's a great article, along with the accompanying photographs, and it had particular resonance for me because I've actually been there. The town lies just south of Ofunato, where I volunteered with All Hands.

I actually put up pictures from the town on this blog on my last entry about my trips up north. From my perspective the place just looked abandoned, so it was interesting to read about the people who still live there and are struggling to put their lives back together.

がんばて日本

Selected Pictures from Tokyo Disney

The Tokyo exclusive Disney Sea to be more specific

Goofy dancing on a boat, dressed like a roman general

First up the American shore

 You can take the girl out of New York...

...or did we?

Also featuring Cape Cod village!!!!

 Brings me back to my childhood...

 Next up South America

 Roller coaster action shot

 Wish I had opened my eyes for the one version of this picture that came out

Alladin land 

 Mysterious island ooooo

 Little Mermaid undersea kingdom

 The Oceania at night (Back at the American shore, damn right we get the big boat) featuring the Teddy Roosevelt lounge

 And fireworks in the Mediterranean, most magical day ever!

......except for the cold

...but on the bright side there were no lines

Thanksgiving Dinner in Tokyo

Last Sunday I hosted a small Thanksgiving style dinner party for a few of my friends here. My old college friend Christina came up from Thailand to spend a few days visiting me in Tokyo. Back in college making dinner and brunch with our friends was a regular occurrence and we always enjoyed cooking together, so it was great to have her around to help make the food. Although to be honest once she got here she immediately took over the rains planning out this thing, so it was more like I was helping her.

Unfortunately because my kitchen only has a small broiler, I had to order the Turkey from a local expat deli. But because we didn't have to worry about cooking the turkey that left us more time to focus on the other dishes.

The course list was
-Mashed potatoes
-Mushroom gravy
-Stuffing, cooked in small individual portions one at a time in the broiler
-Garlic almond string beans
-Honey maple glazed carrots
-Cubed squash
-Sweet potato, apple, chili soup
-Asian pear tart
-Sweet potato pie, with coffee marshmallows

I know I'm undermining my real american credentials here, but I had never actually carved a turkey before. I had to give myself a quick ten minute youtube lesson. Fortunately it's surprisingly easy. It also helped that the Turkey we ordered was perfectly cooked.

My friend Saori brought the most American thing she could think of, yagerbombs, which we had to drink out of bowls because we didn't have enough glasses.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays back home. It was really nice to recreate it a little bit here. Just eating Turkey/Stuffing/Mashed Potatos/Gravy was enough to remind me of home. One of the things I miss most about America is the general culture of entertaining people in your home. There is something about preparing food with and for others that seems to bring people together. 

Happy belated Thanksgiving!