Some Japan Favorites

 So these dumplings are called "gyoza".  I LOVE these things.  Everywhere we go I order them for an appetizer for us.  My husband actually likes them too which is always a surprise because he isn't big on trying new things.  My 1 year old really loves them too but that isn't saying much as he'll eat just about anything.  They have a cabbage, onion, minced or ground pork filling and are just awesome dipped in a bit of soy sauce.  Many stores you can walk buy and actually see them hand making these dumplings inside.  Did I mention that I think soy sauce here in Japan is about 100 times better than the states, not sure why that is.  Maybe it is just my imagination. 

Another thing that you can get just about everywhere here is ramen.  There are so many different types I don't even know where to begin.  Especially since I'm a ramen beginner.  I've tried ramen quite a few times in the two months I've been here and find that almost all of it is really good.  My daughter who won't eat anything will even eat ramen now.  One of these days I'll learn the differences between all these ramen dishes but right now I'm just enjoying them.  The big green thing in it is a sheet of seaweed. 


This is chop suey.  I wasn't sure about it because it had a bunch of misc. seafood pieces in it that I still cannot tell you what it was I ate exactly and you can choose between crunchy or soft noodles and I got crunchy because this was my first time eating it and I didn't really know what I was ordering anyways.  I was really surprised at how good this was.  I won't say it was a favorite or anything but just something I tried, and enjoyed and remembered to take a picture of. 

The picture below is a picture of a Japanese oven.  They have basically two stovetop burners and a pull out thing to cook fish in.  They don't actually have an oven like we are use to.  I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I had to use one of these and couldn't really bake like I'm use to. 

I find that the more I get out into town and do things the more comfortable I am with it.  It is amazing at how many people speak English or at least can speak English so much better than I can Japanese.  We went to a store recently that is much like the Home Depot in the states except it is two stories high and has a furniture store on the top part.  It also had a McDonald's in the store.  So we figured we'd get the kids some lunch while we were there shopping.   It is McDonald's so how hard can it be to order, right?  Well everyone's order turned out fine except mine.  It seems anytime I attempt to communicate things myself things go wrong but I find it amusing and just figure I'll try again next time to get it right.  They have a Teriyaki Burger at the McDonald's here.  It looked really tasty.   So I attempted to order the Teriyaki Burger with no mayonnaise or lettuce and ended up with just a plain burger with absolutely no sauce whatsoever.  Oops, better luck next time! 

Japanese Food Mishaps!

This is my sweet little girl in her new Japanese dress, isn't she too cute?!

Anyways, so I'm pretty big on trying new things.  Sometimes whatever I pick randomly and eat is awesome, other times it is terrible, but that is part of the fun of being in a new place and trying new things.  We went to this town near where we are living called Kamakara.  I kept just randomly picking items I saw that were more roadside foods as I was walking buy shops and shopping.  Apparently this wasn't my day.

The first dish I tried I believe is called Nikuman.  It is a steamed bun with pork filling.  Granted Nikuman I believe has ground pork in it and the one I had wasn't ground pork but more of a pulled chunky style pork, but since I don't know an abundance of Japanese (yet) this is the best I can come up with for the dish I ate.  I didn't take a picture of the one I actually ate but got this picture along with a recipe from Japanese Cooking.

 Looks pretty tasty right?  Yeah, it was really good.  It was like onions and pork until I found a surprise in it.  I ate over half of it before I found what I am sure was some sort of organ, my only guess after we spent 10 minutes examining it was it must have been a pig testicle.  Let's just hope the other one was in someone else and I didn't eat it.  Though I won't lie, it was really good until I found that in it.  Of course, since there aren't any public trash cans anywhere I couldn't even throw it away I had to wrap it up and put it in my backpack until we got back to the hotel.  Apparently many years ago there was a terrorist issue with putting some sort of gas in public garbage cans so they were all removed so there are actually signs that say take your trash home.  Restaurants and stores have trash cans but there aren't any while you are just out walking really.

Next we find this donut place and I decide to pick a green donut, why not?!  I figure donuts are all sweet and though I don't know what this is, it has to be sweet and tasty, right?  Wrong.  This apparently is some sort of spinach donut and it was absolutely dreadful!    Not sure what the yellow part is, maybe it was ginger or something but I tossed the entire thing after one bite.



Need something to wash down that terrible spinach taste so hit up the vending machine.  It has an orange on it so probably orange juice or something, right?  Yeah, wrong again.  Not only is it not orange juice it is chunky.  It has a flat orange soda type taste with chunks of something in it.  This isn't the first drink we've bought that had something lurking in there, most of what we buy from the Japanese vending machines has bits of fruit or something floating around.  I'm just not into chunky stuff in my drink though, so another strike-out.

Ohhh yummy, look at these chocolaty looking things on a stick.  How can I go wrong here!  Ahh, yeah, apparently by not speaking Japanese or knowing anything about Japanese food I can definitely go wrong again.  This is totally not a sweet delicious chocolate type dessert treat on a stick!  Not even close!!  It is called a red bean dango.  Can you think of anything further from chocolate than a pureed red bean sauce?!  Yeah, took me totally by surprise.  Wasn't even a tiny bit good, I thought it was awful.  My 11 month old seemed to enjoy it though.  I got this photo from someone's flicker account (found here Flickr).  Though the other pictures is of me eating it, my husband wanted to capture the moment!  Ha!

Now this part is even more fun. Luckily I researched Japan before I ever came here so I wasn't taken my surprise.  We were told in a base orientation class that you "may" encounter a Japanese toilet at some point though it isn't likely.  Ha, boy was that a lie!  I think every single place we have gone so far has had Japanese toilets.  It is basically a porcelain hole in the floor you squat over.  My daughter was totally confused as to what it was and what she was suppose to do.  Of course, you just have to look for signs for handicap bathrooms and they have Western toilets like we know and are use to.  Most of the larger places like Aquariums and such have either both types of toilets or just Western but you will definitely encounter Japanese style toilets!

My next post will be highlighting the wonderful food we've found and tried and the things that we have really enjoyed.  This was just my surprise and shocking finds so far!

Konnichiwa from Japan

This is my daughter sitting on a bench near a bus stop in Yokosuka, Japan.  This was our first trip off of the Navy base.  Don't ask me what those signs say on each side of her because I have absolutely no idea in the world.   The first few days here were a bit overwhelming for me but we've now been here a week and I find that I am really enjoying it so far.  I find that I can actually carry on a standard "Hi, how are you, fine, thank you and you, goodbye" conversation all in Japanese quite well already.

Menu at one of the restaurants 

I don't care for the base really but we've left the base to explore the last two afternoons and evenings now and I find that I absolutely love it.  The people in this country are so unbelievably polite and friendly.  I find that I am really soaking up and enjoying the culture here so far.  Also, the food is amazing.  We've only eaten off base a few times but it is by far the best food I've had in a long long time.  Luckily the menus have pictures so I can just point to what I want and shake my head since I have no idea in the world what the menu is saying.  I'm hoping to not only take a class soon on learning Japanese but also Japanese cuisine.  I'm eager to get into the kitchen and try some new things and hopefully sooner rather than later!!