Lower Brow Dining

Lest you think that we only frequent amazing Japanese restaurants, do not forget that we are parents of two little ones.

Jacob and Lauren's favorite restaurant in Japan is Saizeriya. There is one on Rokko Island, and we went there tonight. Saizeriya, whose logo shares the green/red/white Krispy Kreme color scheme, is a cheap Denny's-like chain restaurant serving very inexpensive pasta and pizza dishes. Oh, and they also have escargot. (Random!) And pictures of the Italian riviera on the walls. Anyway, the kids love it because of the free refills drink bar and the corn soup.

The best part of tonight's dinner was that Jacob ordered his and Lauren's meal in Japanese! We are extremely jealous of his accent and pronunciation.

An Interesting Shabu Shabu Dining Experience

On Saturday night, Mike and Ilena went out to dinner with a couple of friends. We headed into Sannomiya to a shabu-shabu restaurant called Tokeiya that had been recommended by a co-worker of our friend.

It never ceases to amaze us how many great great restaurants and bars are tucked in back-alleys or on the fifth floor or the basement of otherwise nondescript buildings in the Sannomiya area. Interesting and high quality places are just crammed in there. You really have to know what you are looking for to find it. Using our handy-dandy access map, we did eventually find the restaurant. (Finding things in Japan is always a challenge, even, we are reassured, for the locals.)

What a fabulous place. When you walk into the building, you change into slippers. Us large-footed gaijin men got large sized green slippers that screamed "Look at me. I have big feet." The ladies got more petite black slippers. We were then led downstairs, through a huge solid metal door, and into the main restaurant area. It was peaceful and spread out, with tile floors, tatami areas (luckily, the kind with the carve-out that you can drop your feet into) for seating, and lots of luxurious dark wood exposed beams. We were served by a group of very attentive kimono-clad women. What a relaxing environment.

The food was great too. We all got the shabu-shabu beef set, which came with a huge plate of varied vegetables, tofu, noodles, various dipping sauces, and we each got a plate of very thinly sliced beef. All of the food is cooked and fished out of the communal pot of water.

During the meal we had eyed the table across the way, a group of Japanese men, dressed in designer black clothing, one wearing sunglasses (in the basement, at night). In the middle of the meal, they were joined by two ladies who brought and were serving them drinks from a bottle of shochu. Apparently, they had been eyeing us too. After our meal, on our way out, one of the men called out to us and asked where we were from. Five minutes later we had accepted their gracious offer to join them for a round of drinks at their table. The conversation was lively and interesting, which is about all we can say here in this family forum. If you want to know more, you'll have to ask us directly. Suffice it to say, we had a terrific time.

Sports Day

This Monday was a national holiday in Japan called Health and Sports Day, aka taiko no hi. This is a brilliant holiday- basically a day off to promote athletic activities - and we think that this is a tradition that needs to brought back to the U.S. The focus of our Sports Day were the activities at the kid's school. Instead of having the day off, they have a half-day filled with color war-esque races and sports events. All the parents were there to cheer on the kids.

Ilena , who has been getting her PTA shwerve on, was co-coordinator of the indoor part of Sports Day, i.e., running the PTA fundraiser by bringing in fabulous venders to sell food to the parents and students during the event. Mike (was) volunteered to help out to, and spent some of the morning slinging curry and samosas at the extremely popular Indian Booth. (Other food booths included Thai, French Pastry, and the PTA Booth (AKA the Costco Booth - muffins, cookies, and drinks).

The real action was out on the fields and in the gym. In the morning, each elementary school kid got paired up with a high school buddy, for the outdoor events. In the second session, the younger kids did relay races in the gym, while the older kids continued with events outside.

As you can see, everyone had a blast!

Rokkomichi Bike and Bowl

It was a whilrwind weekend of children's birthday parties. But on Saturday, while Ilena and Lauren were at a girls-only Hannah Montana party (oh the humanity!), Mike and Jacob got to spend the day together. We decided to go on a bike ride off of Rokko Island to nearby Rokkomichi (also in Kobe).

Using our bikes to actually go places is actually a really nice thing. You can spend a nice slow-paced day of exploration just doing something like taking a bike trip to a nearby town. And Jacob loves bike trips, especially when we get to climb up and down the ramps and over the Rokko Island bridge. Rokkomichi is a small train station centered area (like many in Kobe), but it has lots of restaurants and a nice park. So, we biked around town, grabbed some snacks, played in the park, and had a great leisurely day. We even caught a tiny parade consisting of a single danjiri float being hauled through the little town, which we followed by bike.

One of our ulterior motives in choosing Rokkomichi as a destination is that we had noticed that they have a bowling alley there. We wanted to scout it out as a candidate for Jacob's 7th birthday party at the end of November. Jacob's last two birthday parties back home have been bowling parties; we were not banking on continuing the tradition...until now. Rokko Bowl has 50 lanes, automated scoring and bumpers. And, our personal favorite, a bowling shoe rental vending machine. (Very Japanese). You just pop in 300 yen, punch in your size, and a door opens with your bowling shoes.

Of course, we had to play a couple of games to check it out.

Now its looking like we will be having the old bowling birthday party for the third straight year . . .

A Little Off Topic - Omiyage

Some of Mike's colleagues at work have been taking business trips to Europe lately. As is traditional in Japan, when they return they bring a small treat from that place for all of the co-workers (AKA omiyage).

And so, we present to you, from Germany, The Kinder Happy Hippo. Greatest. Omiyage. Ever.
You can't get them in Japan, but apparently they are available in the U.S. Highly recommended!

Seasonal Foods

One thing that we have noticed more in Japan is the seasonality of food. (Maybe its because we go to the grocery store every day!).

Unlike in the U.S. where you can get pretty much any type of fruit year round, the fruit available here is more naturally tied to the season. Right now, the available fruits include green mikan (which look like limes, but taste like slightly tarter and less sweet mandarin oranges), persimmons (which Jacob and Lauren insist should be called per-cinnamons), and Asian pears (a more apple-y pear). We have an Asian pear in our kitchen right now that is the size of a large grapefruit. We pay serious money for fruit here, but you can't argue with the quality.

A Day Of Shopping Firsts

Today, a rainy Sunday, we did some shopping.

First stop was UNIQLO (Get it? Unique Clothing. It's one of those Japanesey abbreviations.), which is the closest thing we can get to an Old Navy out here. Although the main goal was to get some casual kids for our (growing) kids, today marked a momentous day for Mike. He purchased his first article of clothing in Japan! Thats right, Mike actually found a pair of pants that fit him here. It was probably some fatty size, but hey - he'll take it. But there was a bit of disappointment too. Mike discovered they had XL sizes and saw a whole bunch of cool Japanese anime and character t-shirts. Alas, after trying on, it turns out that UNIQLO XL is quite a bit smaller that a U.S. size Large. The, ahem, form-fitting t-shirts were left behind.

Today was also Ilena's first outside-of-the-US visit to Costco. There is one in Amagasaki, and it is quite popular. The main purpose of the trip was to purchase food and drinks for an upcoming school event that Ilena is coordinating, and so she was able to get a ride out there with a friend.

Surprisingly, after months of purchasing day-by-day in our local supermarket, Ilena was overwhelmed by the Costco experience. This after being a twice-a-week Costco shopper back in NJ. The massiveness and bulk-size of it all was quite a contrast to what we have gotten used to. We hear that Japanese people form sharing co-ops to split up the bulk items they purchase at Costco. With its variety and prices, it is insanely popular here. Seeing kimono-clad women pushing around those ginormous shopping carts loaded down with groceries was pretty funny. Shopping there on a rainy Sunday afternoon (the places was packed to the gills) was rough, but we did score some familiar (and formerly staple) items for ourselves like gummy bears, the large bag of frozen strawberries, and chocolate covered raisins. Most importantly, from Jacob's perspective, Ilena came home with a monster fresh baked Costco Pizza. Tasted just like home.

While it was nice to get a little taste of home, we will probably stick to the day-to-day bike trips to our local supermarket.

Celebrating The New Year Out Here

Being abroad and not in a large Jewish community (read: we know exactly one other Jewish family here!), we have taken an alternative angle in our celebrations of the holidays. In similar style to our Passover Seder (picnic), we got together with said other Jewish family for a (slightly late, but we wanted to wait for a weekend) Rosh Hashanah picnic.

We all went on a bike ride together and then met at a nearby park/playground with the soccer ball, baseball equipment, football, and frisbee.

We had baked an Apple Honey Cake, they had baked a round Challah. We sang some songs, dipped some Fuji apples in the honey, and shared a nice meal together. A bit unorthodox (pun intended), but it was a really special celebration and one we will all remember.

Hello! Panasonic

On October 1st, Mike's employer, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., officially changed its name to Panasonic Corporation. This is part of an effort to consolidate its National, Technics, and Panasonic brand, and to cast off the lesser known Matsushita name, into one global identity. So now instead of explaining that "Mike works for Matsushita - you know, they are Panasonic," we can just say "Mike works for Panasonic." Much simpler. (Of course, this is bad news for founder and Japanese business legend Konosuke Matsushita, but apparently even the Matsushita name had to yield for the sake of a unified global brand.)

While the Panasonic brand has been used abroad for most Matsushita products for a long time, the changeover from the National brand in the Japanese market is a big one. National is a huge brand here in Japan, particularly for home appliances, but because of trademark issues, when Matushita expanded abroad, they were unable to use National and instead began using Panasonic.

So, there was a big announcement at work, they rolled-out a new corporate song that everyone had to learn, and we all got brand new "Panasonic" pins. And of course, this all comes with a spiffy new ad campaign called Hello! Panasonic.

Ashiya Beach - Day Trip

On Thursday, the kids were off from school for teacher conferences. Unfortunately, Mike had to work. But Ilena and the kids, along with some friends, took a great day trip to Ashiya Beach, a lovely man-made beach and adjoining park down by the water in Ashiya. (This was the same place that Mike had biked to over the summer and enjoyed the Ashiya Summer Carnival. It's a really nice little spot.)

As you can see, there was a good amount of frolicking on the beach. And everyone came back sun-burnt and (good) tired!