Denpa clocks

Here is my school clock which seems ordinary; until you see that red light at the bottom of the face, above the 6. It is receiving denpa, electromagnetic waves to make sure it stays to the correct time. This happens every day. So cool! Another interesting fact about Japan.

Trying Apple Fanta today.

Not bad. Tastes like fake apple lollies though. Dunno why, apple juice is very cheap. All they needed to do was use real apple juice, colour it red and carbonate it. Good work doing things the hard way unnecessarily, Fanta. At least their Grape Fanta is nice. I first tasted it 15 or so years ago, last time I was in Japan, actually. Ha! Good ol' Fanta.

My new favourite rice crackers aren't made of rice flour...

I like Nanbu senbei 南部せんべい.

It's made of wheat flour and pressed in a kind of mini grill thing like a waffle maker. Then you hold that over a charcoal fire to bake. It doesn't take long to bake. The most common types are peanut or black sesame. I like both. I made some on Children's Day at the Muroran Folk Museum. They taste great! And theyare also for sale at my local supermarket, to my joy. They're just made from flour, salt and water. Anyway there's so many more kinds of rice crackers out there. I like the chewy ones too. Here's a blog where they talk about diff types. http://washokufood.blogspot.jp/2008/04/senbei.html?m=1

School activities

I am often surprised and pleased at the extracurricular things my schools organise for the students to do. For example they meet with the elderly and talk, they plant rice, they make mochi (rice paste dumplings) from scratch, even pounding the rice themselves. They even replanted the flowerbeds at my school. I thought a gardener did it, but nope! The flowers look prettier now that I know the students planted them.

Me in Autumn. I like this photo for some reason.

Pokemon that don't look good in Pokemon Amie

Espeon and Umbreon aren't well done at all. Neither is Frogadier. Frogadier's eyes are creepy. They don't look like it's character sprite's eyes. And Umbreon's voice is awful. So is it's face. Ditto for Espeon. So disappointed. It's a shame but then when you think about the more than 700 Pokemon which were redesigned for Pokemon Amie I guess it's ok. Sorry to complain but I love those three on my team and I hate using Pokemon Amie with them, it's like, Ugh... Eat the cake hurry up. Ugh stop talking, your voice is terrible. Yuck don't make that face urghhh... Anyway yeah turning the sound off helps but still! Ok rant over.

Japanese abbreviations of English words

Interesting. Although maybe that's only because as an ALT (Assistant language teacher), sometimes I end up sitting in the teacher's room with nothing to do but look around... Anyway despite the firey and passionate debate the sentence above could stir, I shall sidestep the issue of how much initiative can be taken by native-speaking English teachers working in Japan and say : Abbreviations. They are great little puzzles. For example it took me a sec to figure this one. バレ-

But it's short for volleyball. バレーボール。After that, all the other katakana on the board was immediately simple to understand. バスケ was basketball, and so on. It just got me thinking of how different the English abbreviations would be. For basketball, I would probably write BBall or B ball. For volleyball, I would write VBall. And so on. Anyway I'm just waiting for my next class. I don't make lesson plans because I get told what to do at all my schools (during class, sometimes with like 1 minute to go before starting or even during class). And frankly, if I did have to do my own lessons, I would use the books and workbooks and just play a couple of games to warm up. Bingo, pictionary, a spelling game, charades or an interview game using pairs of students. Similar to what my teachers already do. Ok better go, gotta look busy. Ttyl have a good day.

Watermelon icebar in Summer

I finally tried one of these. It tastes more like rockmelon but it's nice, the seeds are chocolate and the rind tastes slightly citrusy.

Bamboo leaf tea

My first years went out to a camping ground, to have a bbq. I saw them out there and one thing they gave me was kumazasacha. Bamboo leaf tea. It looked like a variety of green tea. And it tasted like hot water after green vegetables have been cooked in it. A vegetable-like, faintly grassy taste. It was ok. But it wasn't amazing. What made it good was the knowledge that my kids had picked the bamboo themselves and brewed it into tea. Here's a pic. There's so many kinds of tea in Japan, I'm always being surprised. :)

Yes, tea! By all means, tea!

Haha, the title is something my friend just said to me. Btw she doesn't drink much tea. Anyway, I (besides my other numerous discoveries over the past week) have learned of Sobacha, tea made from buckwheat. Not from the noodles. From the buckwheat itself, at least I think that's what my student was trying to explain. So it's available at Maxvalue supermarket too I think and I will go look for it. Apparently 'soba' is written in hiragana, そば like this, so should be easy for me to find it. Btw I love the app for this blog. And my Japanese keyboard too. It's so much easier to do random stuff now!

Mr Cat

I saw Mr Cat yesterday at a convenience store. He was so underweight, you could see his hip bones. Supermodellll! Just kidding. Anyway I gave him the only food I had, which was a potato wedge. He ate it, so I gave him two more. Then I felt guilty for feeding potatoes to a carnivore so I rushed inside, scanned the shelves and bought a salad with ham in it. I gave him the ham and kept the salad. I'm a vegetarian. I had to go to a meeting. Later on the way home, my bus passed the store. I didn't see Mr Cat. I hope he found another person to feed him. Most people up here in my town don't care for cats very well. Many cats look sick, malnourished or dirty. It's upsetting for me because I'm not allowed pets so I can't adopt any strays. Take care, Mr Cat!!! :(

Apologies for posting random photos of food and drink in the future

What I said. Sorry to all my - wait! Nobody actually reads this blog, I think. Sweet. Ok I can do and say what I want.

Yay!

Pepsi Refresh Shot! Whatever that means.

Is it an energy drink or is it like pepsi and lemon? I dunno and I may try it but not today. It's like 7am and I am so not a fizzy drink person anyway.

New Fanta : Apple

Sokenbicha

Today I'm going to talk about Sokenbicha. The name has the words beauty and tea in it. 

They are blended tea and herb cold tisanes made by Coca Cola of all ppl. Coca Cola make a lot of low calorie tea drinks here in Japan.

I'm going to try them. I wanted to try all of the different ones but I have only seen three kinds. Well I will try 'em anyway.

Anyway there are apparently five blends in the US which are sold, check wikipedia for more information. Here is a bit of the wiki article: 

In the US, Sokenbicha is sold in the following five varieties:

• Revive – Crisp Oolong Tea blend with natural botanicals. Ingredients include: Oolong Tea Leaves, Black Tea Leaves, Rose Petals, Rose Hips, Ginseng.
• Defend – Mild Oolong Tea blend with natural botanicals. Ingredients include: Oolong Tea Leaves, Black Tea Leaves, Guava Leaves, Ginseng.
• Purify – Aromatic Green Tea blend with natural botanicals. Ingredients include: Green Tea Leaves, Oolong Tea Leaves, Black Tea Leaves, Chamomile, Aloe.
• Shape – Bold Barley Tea blend with natural botanicals. Ingredients include: Roasted Pearl Barley, Roasted Rice, Pu’er Tea Leaves, Green Tea Leaves, Roasted Brown Rice, Young Barley Leaves.
• Skin – Full-bodied Barley Tea blend with natural botanicals. Ingredients include: Roasted Pearl Barley, Roasted Rice, Pu’er Tea Leaves, Green Tea Leaves, Roasted Brown Rice, Young Barley Leaves, Cinnamon, Ginger.

Darjeeling

So I may have mentioned this already but I wanted to post this, almost as a note to myself. Darjeeling is a region where tea is grown, I think... Yeah, could check for sure but whatever. Anyway, Darjeeling tea is widely varied in terms of how oxidised it can be and how it is drunk and how it tastes. I believe Darjeeling is the one  nicknamed the 'champagne of teas'. It has a clear bodied, raisinish or pruneish taste when I drink it black. But I was not aware until last year that you can drink it green or at least more like oolong, half oxidised instead of fully black. In terms of blackness and oxidization, the tea spectrum goes ; puerh (aged black), black, oolong, green, yellow and white. White being the least 'baked' I guess you could say. This again, is just how I think it is. I am not an expert although if I ever stop being lazy and cheap, maybe I will spend my life becoming a tea sommelier... Maybe. So expensive...  But I digress. As usual. So as I was describing, I tried a blend of Darjeeling, Ceylon (aka Sri Lankan) and Assam tea from the Isetan Dept. store in Tokyo's Shinjuku District. I am not boasting. It was a nice store. But a fancy dept. store, let's just say every country has one and they are all the same. Anyway it had a nice tea selection but T2, the Aussie tea chain, has better imho. Anyway this blend surprised me. The leaves were fairly large and some were greener and others were darker. I tasted it and to my surprise there was a peach-like flavour. I added milk because it was also a wee bit astringent. I like my flavours softer, less edgy. So then I remembered, my coworker from India (actually Nepal, long story that I don't really know) gave me a small amount of her precious Darjeeling from home. It was markedly different to the stuff I can buy in regular New Zealand shops. It was greener and it tasted milder. Frankly, I prefer it. Go, India! You keep at it. And I will be prowling the Indian shops in my city when I return to NZ. Vastly different green to Japanese green. Japanese green is more fullbodied and grassy, prone to bitterness. Darjeeling green is smoother and lighter in taste, and more fruity. But I still like both. I never have a real fave except for Assam of course.

More about tea in Japan

I must say, Genmaicha is particularly good with rice crackers. But not sweet ones. Frankly, sweet rice crackers are an abomination, to my mind. I like the rice crackers which are shoyu (soy sauce) flavour. Or the ones baked in part with wheat flour which contain black sesame seeds in abundance. I do like a lot of the food here in Hokkaido despite the marked weather difference and much less lush greenery. Tokyo in Spring is very different to my little town in the south of Hokkaido. I still prefer it here. But back to tea. I really do think Genmaicha (green tea with toasted brown rice) is my favourite tea, more so than any other tea most of the time. I love black tea with milk but it has one disadvantage, for me. When it goes cold, it isn't as nice. I drink it and it's ok. But Genmaicha and most green or black teas without milk or sugar, are equally good despite temperature. Hot or warm or cool or cold, doesn't matter. Always delicious.

Guilty indulgences in Japan

Besides drinking so much Japanese tea that it stained my teeth and I had to go to the dentist to get them cleaned, I have other confessions to make. Black tea is also to blame, or rather, I am because I love it too, usually with milk. Earl Grey, Assam, and I found Lupicia's 'Thé au Chocolat'. So yum, chocolate-flavoured black tea. I also found Mariage Marco Polo tea which is a firm favourite too. The flavour is like ; good black tea with medium body, no smokiness or maltiness, and floral and vanilla flavours. Perhaps citrus and spice too, I need to drink some again soon so I can confirm it. But for me it's the floral and vanilla top notes that really make it so wonderful. My one redeeming feature as a tea lover is that although I add milk to my black tea and red tea (which some say you shouldn't), I don't add sugar or honey or maple syrup etc. No sweeteners. But back to Japanese tea. Here you can buy bottled tea which is similar to iced tea (and you can buy some iced teas here too), but Japanese ones usually have no sugar and are low in additives. They sell bottled rooibos too. I love genmaicha but houjicha is nice. I am slowly growing to like matcha and I like weak sencha and bancha. They all taste different even though they are all just called 'tea' here. So if someone asks if I want tea, I ask them, "Is it genmaicha?" And so on. You can get genmaicha (green tea with roasted brown rice) with matcha powder in it. Oolong tea is popular here too, they call it ooloncha. It's often served cold in restaurants. I could talk more but that's enough for now I think. Anyway this is part one... Part two is about sweet treats here.

Oresama Teacher manga

Just such a great manga, read it read it. I actually like most of the characters which is rare for me. But my faves are Mafuyu the main character, head delinquent Okegawa and the student council member Ayabe. Also Yui the ninja otaku and Hayasaka the misunderstood yankee. Most of the characters are boys but not all. Anyway it's a fun manga, hardly ever serious. I love it.

My absolute favourite Pokemon.

This Pokemon I have likely talked about before. He is an Eevee named Jack. He sucks! There's really no other way of saying it honestly. I had him from an egg, I think. I named him Jack because having an Eevee named Jack seemed good to me at the time. Jack soon proved to be weaker than his egg siblings. Much more useless. He is slow and his attacks are average. His defence is average. His speed being so low makes him faint a lot more in battles purely because of the turn based mechanics of battling in Pokemon.  At level 60, he was fainted by a level 40ish Pokemon. I can't remember the type but it wasn't Fighting. That's when I began to appreciate Jack. If I had to choose one of my Pokemon from the countless games I have played, only Jack is in my memories. Jack, a Groudon I had called Megatron, and an Audino named Joy. Those three are the only Pokemon I have had out of hundreds that I have caught and maybe used, that I remember except my shinies of course. If I could bring one Pokemon with me it would be Jack. His constant failure is endearing. End of essay. Oh, I brought him into my Y game, from White (from Soul Silver!) and I decided to evolve him into a Sylveon. He deserves it. Problem is, he doesn't know any Fairy moves and so I need the move reminder... So it will have to wait because I restarted my game... Hang in there, Jack!

Manga review: "Boku dake ga inai machi"

"Boku dake ga inai machi" also known as "Erase"? Anyway it's a really good thriller which I couldn't stop reading all day. Even at work... It's short so it's easy to read. I read it on Mangasee but I would actually like to buy it. It's hard to find good manga that isn't explicitly violent or sexual. But this one is great! I loved the character development too, it's very good! It shows how much simple choices or chances taken can change your life & your personality can blossom. This isn't the main focus really though. It's a series of disappearing children in a boy's neighbourhood although it doesn't start like that. They use a lot of time flashbacks so be prepared, but it's easy to keep up. Apparently this is on Crunchyroll as an anime but I kinda feel weird because the director said some stuff I disagree with. Anyway I might watch it but here in Japan, Crunchyroll is heavily blocked. I will probably have to wait til I go back to NZ in a year or two.

Man being Autistic is a trip sometimes!

I tell you, if I had 10 cents for every time I weirded out about something I saw or heard or smelled or felt or tasted - I can't even calculate how much money I would have. I just ... I can't even explain what happens, I'm just overcome by sensation. Usually feelings, thoughts and images rush thick and fast in my head. It's a trip. I have to explain it somehow - it's like a form of strong emotion I guess. How you feel when you get a great idea, or when you have achieved something; except you haven't achieved it yet, you just want to. I guess it's like a vivid dream but you're awake. It's usually positive but it can be negative as if you're in a nightmare. Anyway I just got that from looking at a line on the wall. It's nuts, I tell you. I wanted to dance, laugh and make a painting all at once. I'm lucky it's mild for me and that I recognise it most of the time. I can pass for "normal" more easily these days. But I tell ya. Look out for other folks on the Autism Spectrum. They need gentle people around them who are really patient & gracious.

Valleys of dark introspection

I have over the years of my stormy youth (stormy emotionally, anyway), been through many dark valleys of introspection. Fortunately for me, I do have a core of common sense. That core of sensibility is why I am still alive now. The times I sat with a sharp knife in my hand, willing myself to cut away and die, were always ended by bitter laughter because I knew I had not got the courage. A person who is afraid to both live and die is miserably trapped, and that is how a large swathe of my life has been. I have always passed from sensation to sensation; joy, sorrow, despair, numbness. I could not feel truly connected to anyone around me because my emotions disrupted everything. I still have the same troubles but after a stint on antidepressants, I seem to be cured. I know the darkness and numbness and hollowness in the very centre of my being are still waiting in the wings, but so far I have been managing well. Depression and mood disorders are like volcanoes, they can be dormant forever or burst into life and erupt suddenly again anytime. After you have recovered, you must be careful forever after. It is like any chronic heath issue. You must take steps to protect yourself and recognise warning signs. But enough about that. The point is, I learned that nobody was going to be able to reach me, there was no moment like in movies where something wonderful happened. Nobody rescued me. I had to crawl to safety by myself. So I learned then a truth that hurts: in this world, sometimes you must do things on your own. God was with me but I was so troubled and self absorbed that I didn't feel His presence. I still find that hard. It is a weakness of mine. If you are so lonely and miserable that you want to die - you are at a crisis point. Recognise it for what it is and decide to do something. If you think only death is a good option for you, why not help someone in any way you can? It's not like you have anything to lose. We humans are made to need each other and God, I believe that. If you are so sad you want to die, it means others have hurt you or that you have no purpose. We need a purpose to give us something to live for. Find a purpose. Make it good. Help others. Give your love out. If you are going to kill yourself anyway, why not do something good first? Then the next day, do another good thing. Keep crawling along. Help someone carry something, help someone cross the road. Pick up litter and put it inthe  bin. Improve the world somehow! Keep crawling, dying ones. Crawl back to life. Day by day.

The Force Awakens

And does it ever. 

Loved it. 

Can't decide who I fell in love with the most, Finn, Poe or Kylo Ren. 

Anyway Rey was pretty cool but the truth is I felt she was the Luke stand in. 

Speaking of Luke, I love you Mark H. 

Carrie Fisher. 

Amazing. 

Harrison Ford - average. 

Never liked Han Solo much. Esp when he's - well no spoilers huh, even though everybody ever has seen it by now. 

In closing, Kylo Ren, please marry me. The end.

Debate on religion

Just a note for haters and ppl trying to pick a fight or "prove me wrong" - you can't prove me wrong because religion is almost entirely subjective which means it's about individual belief. So you believe I am wrong but I believe God is alive. Both beliefs are personal, and therefore neither is wrong in our own heads. 

So you can't prove me wrong because my life is full of experiences that cry out to me that you are wrong. And possibly you would say the same. 

It's all down to what you choose to believe. 

As for logical debate:  Religion. Is not. Based on. Ordinary logic. 

Nor is it always based on empirical proof. So therefore trying to debate starting with two different worldviews (or cultures or premises) is pointless. 

As for me, to quote someone I rather like, "It's over- I have the high ground." I am willing to believe in a creator God who gives us choice and freedom, and if you try to debate with me not believing in the same God then it's pointless. 

This is why I can't be bothered talking to people who act like a-holes. 

The end. 

Happy New Year btw! 

In Japan they say "Yoi yoi o toshi wo" which means the same.

I"m enjoying my time in Japan so far.

I hope it all goes well for the rest of my time here.