visitors!!

Michael and Sara (Jeff's brother and sister) are in Japan!!!


They arrived this evening and managed to hang out for a few hours before jetlag overtook them.  

They did, however, bring us the best cupcakes in the world.  

All the way from Brooklyn: The Little Cupcake Bakeshop

More to report soon. 


Mata ne, 
Melissa

hora

While sorting through wedding photos looking for a specific picture (see below) I came across a few gems I just had to share:

I think our faces here say it all.

Oh my.

What can I say?  I didn't marry him for his dancing skills.

Mata ne,

Melissa

two months!

Yesterday marked two months since we moved to Tokyo.  I can hardly believe it.  It feels like we've been here for way longer.  We've already moved once, traveled to a few different places, and enjoyed the company of friends from America.  We're not coming home anytime soon, but we are looking forward to our first official houseguests!

Michael and Sara, Jeff's brother and sister, will be spending two weeks exploring Tokyo and celebrating the new year with us.  We're so excited!  Safe travels, and we'll see you at Narita soon!

Mata ne,
Melissa

Kentucky Christmas

Every family has their own Christmas traditions.  Mine usually includes a trip to Watertown to celebrate with Grandma and my dad's side of the family.  Jeff's family always hung out with the same group of families for a "white elephant" Christmas exchange.  From what I understand, this is generally in line with what most of the rest of the world does, spending time with family and close friends, contemplating a birth that took place approximately 2010 years ago.  Of course, several friends also celebrated the "chosen people" way with Chinese food and movies.  (The NYTimes and SNL are blowing their cover though!)



Here in Japan, Christmas, as with many "western" traditions, is interpreted very differently.  It's common to find people getting together and eating KFC fried chicken.  No joke.  I have not been able to determine where this practice originated, though I am suspicious of KFC's role.  There are actually commercials advertising fried chicken from KFC, supermarkets, and konbini, commonly referred to as convenience stores in America.

Historically, the new year is a much bigger celebration than the birth of Jesus in this predominantly non-Christian country.  People get together for bonenkai, a traditional end of the year get-together that translates literally as "forget the year party." I'd prefer not to forget this year, thankyouverymuch!

This year, Jeff and I aren't celebrating Christmas.  Fitting I suppose, neither of us being Chrsitian and all.  Rather, we bought peanut butter (a celebration within itself), ate burritos with our good friend Chris, and are now watching Love Actually while enjoying a glass of wine. And Jeff is doing the laundry.  That is the only Christmas miracle I need.

Hope you're all enjoying your time off from work/school and your Christmas/Channuka/Kwanzaa/Festivus celebrations!  What are you all doing this year, anyways?

Mata ne,
Melissa

un-surprise

Jeff and I spend just about every moment of the day together.  Which is awesome.  But it doesn't give him much chance to sneak away and covertly obtain a Channuka present (which is why Channuka is over and we're just getting around to gifts).  So tonight, after a long few days of moving in and getting acclimated to our new home he told me he was going to surprise me.  Which, of course, ruined the surprise.  But the gift more than made up for the lack of suspense.

(Umm.  Yikes.  It's late here and I was wearing a hat all day, ok?  And from the looks of it I haven't seen the sun in five years.)

It is a cute little silver bowl.  It was labeled "drop tray" as in a drop into water, but I think it looks more like a crown.  Befitting the princess that I am. 

Now I have to un-surprise him, though.  Suggestions?  All he ever asks for is more workout clothing.

Mata ne,
Melissa

small move. part two.

First things first.  

The very first thing Jeff did when getting to the new apartment was set up the TV and internet.  He has priorities.

Actually, that TV there came with the place, making the larger, more cumbersome TV that we paid 3000 yen to transport when we got it (for free) a very awkward coffee table in our tiny new place.  It's going on Craigslist ASAP.  

The bed, which came without a mattress, has been dissembled (by me) and is now being stored out of the way in our loft.  The coffee table pictured also came with the apartment and thankfully has collapsible legs and slides very nicely under the couch when not in use. 

We've picked up several storage units (some free, some very cheap) and are perfecting the skill of careful arrangement for maximization of usable space.

The main level is not yet ready for public display, but here is a peak at the loft.

We actually just bought our futon (the kind the just goes on the floor - think of it as a futon mattress you'd find in America) yesterday so we just slept up there for the first time last night.  As you can see, our clothing storage is right up against the bed.  Behind that we have stored our luggage, Jeff's bike case (which he bought right after buying his bike so he could transport it home - in eight months) and the bed frame that came with the apartment.  It doesn't look all that pretty, but it gets everything that we don't need regular access to out of the way.

Sidenote:  What you see there is basically all the clothing storage we have, which means that it contains all of our clothing for the year in Japan.  Can you guess which one is mine and which one is Jeff's.  Yea, it's that easy.  He was definitely the kid who went home from camp with a trunk full of clean clothes and one filthy shirt.  And it's not because he did laundry before he got on the bus. 

I mentioned we were celebrating with a friend the other night - for two reasons. One, our tough move, two, Jeff's friend Ryo just got engaged!  He works right near the Tsukiji Fish market, so we met him out there for some just-off-the-boat fishy goodness.

Maguro = tuna.  Y.U.M.

I even ate a raw giant oyster.  I won't say it was good, but... I ate it. 

And because we were in celebration mode we of course indulged in some really really good sake.  At this restaurant, you pour your own sake and they provide small bowls for under your cup in case (when) you overpour. 

Disclaimer:  I do not recommend mixing large amounts of raw fish and large amounts of sake.  And then riding the train.

As soon as we get the first floor looking presentable, we'll post some pictures.  Until then... Anyone else lived in a smaller apartment? Anyone?

Mata ne,
Melissa

small move. part one.

OK, so forgive me, people, we've been a bit busy.  We officially moved everything out of one place on Wednesday and are still trying to get it all to fit in our new place.  Here's the update.  Well, as the title indicates, some of it.

The best part of the move (the only good part?) was getting to drive in Tokyo.  That's right, little old me in a big white truck driving on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road.

First disclaimer:  While Tokyo may be a bigger city than New York, it is much much easier to drive in Tokyo.  It feels more like driving in the city of Syracuse.  That is, if cyclists and motorcycles were found weaving through traffic and trying generally to cause chaos in the streets of Syracuse.  Surprisingly, Tokyo drivers are ok with forty-year-old women on their bikes, talking on cell phones, flinging themselves and their two (helmetless) children in front of moving vehicles any moment. This would not stand in Upstate New York.

We picked the truck up early near the new place, drove back to the old place to load as much stuff as we could, drove back to the new place, unloaded everything with no particular attention paid to what was going where, went back to the old place, ate unappetizing bento lunch, loaded the rest, and went back to the new place.  Interestingly, while we had less than half the amount to load the second time around it took twice as long.

This is our apartment empty (it came with a bed and coffee table and Jeff).

The mess we are now trying to deal with.

After we had moved all of our earthly possessions to the other side of town, we really didn't feel like unpacking anything so we decided to instead head out and take advantage of the day long truck rental by picking up big items we still needed for our new place. 

Second disclaimer:  Most of our earthly possessions are, in fact, not in Japan, but rather stored away in America.  In spite of this, we have a ridiculously huge volume of things that we are now trying to arrange in a 13 square meter room. 

At this point, needing to obtain a variety of household items of superior design and quality at a low price, we did what anyone would do - we headed to IKEA.  Yes, Virginia, there is an IKEA in Japan.

And it was glorious.  I felt like I was back in America Sweden.  Interestingly, IKEAs everywhere are exactly the same.  Same shape on the outside, same layout on the inside, and conveniently located just off the highway exit.

After dropping off our new goodies and returning the truck, we were starving and headed out in the new neighborhood for some stewed tofu and a beer.  When we got back to our new home, it was all we could do to pull out the couch and fall asleep.  There was much to be done the next day, and we'd need all our energy.

For the record, we shared this big beer.

Tomorrow: unpacking, arranging, and celebrating with a friend and several pounds of raw fish.

Mata ne,
Melissa

the next move

Tomorrow is moving day.  We're moving from our big, old, cold house to a very, very, very small apartment.  I don't think I can express in words just how small this place is.  tiny.  teeny-tiny.  Let's just say that every dorm room I lived in during college was bigger than this. 

Right after we got the key the other day we stopped by the place.  I realized I had forgotten how small it was when we were planning our decorating attack.  I was very excited to open the door with my new pink key, though.  Somehow being pink makes keys more exciting.  You can thank Jeff for the fuzzy focus on this one.  I left his thumb in for effect.

More to come on the new place after I terrorize Tokyo with my wrong side of the street driving tomorrow. 

Mata ne,
Melissa

eight crazy nights

Happy Channuka!!

On this night we lit three Channuka candles.  We have had to improvise our menorah as a menorah did not make the cut when we were packing our lives away to travel around the world.  My cowboy boots are another story (there are some things a girl just can't live without).

Fortunately for us we found these cute double-duty candle holders that on one side hold a tea light and the other hold a tall candle and were around 50 yen each (about 50 cents).

And they are cute so we can use them even if it's not Channuka.  Bonus.  And they remind us of a beautiful glass menorah we got from a friend for the wedding.  Double bonus.

This is how we configured them for the holiday:

Notice our lovely kitchen towel tablecloth?  We're working with what we've got here folks. 

Here is us lighting our first Channuka candles together as married people!

We've gotten pretty good at the self-portrait thing, but not as good at the self-portrait-with-object-in-background thing.  I swear there is a lit candle back there.  Right behind Jeff's big head. 

What did we get ourselves as our first married Channuka family gift?  Any guesses?  Looks like you'll have to wait to find out...

Mata ne,

Melissa

slow down, you're moving too fast

Every once in a while, if I time it right, and I'm really lucky, and I actually go out for a run, when I'm going along the river path by my house, I pass a turtle.  A big one. That's probably older than my mom.

This is not the kind of animal one is accustomed to seeing while running.  Especially not in a major city. At least he's wearing booties (which is more than we can say for Barefoot Jeff some days)!

He ambles along very very slowly behind his friend, an old man who I think secretly likes the attention.  They do make a cute old pair, though.  I imagine a Simon and Garfunkel song playing in the background whenever I see them.

I have about ten thousand questions for this man about how this human-turtle friendship came to be, but the language barrier limited me to "sumimasen" while pointing at my camera in a "can I take pictures of your funny pet?" questioning tone.  As you can see in typical man fashion, they don't stand too close to each other so as not to appear as if they actually came together.  I bet they leave a seat open between them at the movies too. 

Also, is this even a turtle?  Has anyone ever seen a crazier pet in a big city?

talkin' trash

Let us discuss the ridiculousness that is the Tokyo garbage collection system, shall we?

Garbage is collected every day of the week except Sunday.  That's right.  Everyday.  All over Tokyo.  Maybe they want to ensure that they have a lot of city jobs available?  (Also, it's not like people are in church so I don't know why Sunday was decided as the day of rest, but it is so.  This is for another time, however.)

It's not so much that it is collected everyday that makes the system ridiculous, but rather way items need to be sorted and set out on specific days.  AND no one puts it out the night before.  So you have to get up and put it out before 8 a.m.  Now if you have a job and need to leave the house in the morning, this may seem totally reasonable to you.  But hello, people!  We have no jobs!  We like to sleep in! 

This is the chart provided for us to make sense of the program:

Burnable garbage is the most basic and makes up the majority of our trash.  Maybe this is why it gets picked up  twice a week.  Jeff and I look at it as the first try and our second chance.  And if we miss it again- hey, it'll get picked up in another few days!  Unbelievably, things like plastic and styrofoam packaging are supposed to be put in this trash.



There is recycling, which is exactly what you'd think.  Glass bottles, cans, plastic bottles, etc. each have a color coded box at the garbage collection site for sorting. 

One annoying thing is that you are supposed to bundle your paper and cardboard by type and tie it up neatly before putting it out.  Needless to say, Jeff and I have four weeks of paper recycling in a bag in our house.



Then there is "non-burnable" garbage.  This is basically everything else.  Metal packaging, and um... other stuff.  We're busy acquiring things right now, not getting rid of them, so we haven't dealt with much of the extensive list of "non-burnables" provided to us.  Not surprisingly, we haven't taken this garbage out yet either.  And even if we had enough to bother, it only goes out the second and fourth Tuesday of each month.  We have enough trouble with the stuff you can put out almost any day.  There is a fourth Tuesday next week though.  I think.

Ok, and the last part of this ridiculous garbage collection situation is mostly due to the location of our house.  We are right on the line between two districts of the city: Toshima-ku and Bungyo-ku.  These wards have different garbage collection schedules and drop-off locations (fortunately, however, not different rules - then we'd be in trouble).

As you can see the drop-off locations are directly across the street from each other. Basically, if we forget to put the trash out on one side of the street, we can get up the next morning and put it on the other side of the street.  Unless it's cold and we want to stay in bed.

Mata ne,
Melissa

mythbuster

One yen is about equivalent in value to one penny, and just as much of a nuisance.  I, frankly, would be just as happy living without them filling up my wallet, but considering that the monetary system in Japan is based on this unit of currency, I don't see them going the way of the Australian penny anytime soon.  

Shortly after arriving in Japan I heard an interesting "fact" about this coin.  I was told that it was the only coin currently in use that would float in water.  Now if you've ever held a one yen coin, you know this is easy to believe.  It is so light I actually asked if it was plastic when I was first given one.

Being the "I've got to see this for myself" type, I had to test this assertion.  I got out one of the two drinking glasses we currently own and sacrificed one of the growing collection of yen that I have been accumulating in my oh-so-very scientific experiment in our living room.  Well you heard it here folks, it didn't float.

I was so disappointed it's still sitting in four inches of water in a glass on the coffee table.  What is it worth if it's not even good for party tricks?


Mata ne,
Melissa

Happy Birthday Cara!!

Happy birthday to the beautiful, talented, intelligent, and wonderful Cara (my maid of honor).

Here she is following her amazing speech that had everyone in the tent in stitches and in tears.

And dancing with her handsome father - nice looking family, huh?

Who's buying the first birthday drink?

Mata ne,
Melissa

not your typical burger.

Busy day yesterday. So action-packed, in fact, that it went until 3 am and I am just getting around to writing about it this afternoon. 

Jeff and I rode our bikes around for most of the day (since my toe is preventing me from walking for any extended period of time) and stopped for lunch in Harajuku.  I got what was apparently the popular "ladies choice" with avocado and onion as the topping rather than meat.  I'm sorry, but who needs additional meat as a topping on their meat patty?

Oh, and if chopsticks scare you: look! a knife and fork!

Notice the lack of bun and heaping plate of white rice that is served with the burger.  It was really really good and topped with a soy/wasabi sauce.

After that we stopped at one of the ubiquitous creperies in Harajuku.  This one is so cute in a little trolly car-like thing.

Taking the obligatory while-we-wait self portrait (please excuse the camera shadow under jeff's nose - he is not a dirty chimney sweep) 

After that, we had a few friends over to hang out.  Since the trains stop running at 1 a.m. if you're out after that, you have to wait until they start running again at 5 a.m. to go home.  We stayed up with them until about 3 a.m. before I crashed.   When those guys get chatting...

Mata ne,

Melissa

Melissa Homemaker

Today I made a casserole. Yes, that's right.  See?

We had some leftover breadcrumbs from the stuffing I made for Thanksgiving and darn it I was going to use them.  In case you're interested here's what I did:

1.  thank your lucky stars you were able to find celery in japan.
2.  preheat the oven to 350 f (or guess where 350 might be on your inaccurate metric oven dial).
3.  in a pan stir fry two chicken breasts, a diced onion, and a full celery stalk (diced) until the chicken is cooked through.
4.  mix over low heat one can of condensed cream of asparagus soup (its what we had), plus one can water, and a can (not condensed) of cream of chicken soup (i actually used a bag of what i think was cream of chicken soup with veggies in it.  the package was in Japanese so i grabbed it and prayed i was right).
5.  the recipe i found called for a half cup of butter so i used about an eighth of a cup and that was probably not even necessary, but i mixed it in the soups and then added the veggies and chicken to the pot and stirred it all up really well. (its not necessary to actually cook this stuff, cause you're baking it - its a casserole, remember?)
6.  pour all that stuff into a 2 quart baking dish and dump the breadcrumbs in (maybe like 4 cups worth? or whatever you have leftover from thanksgiving) and stir that stuff up too.  i guess you can do this in the pot you were using before, huh?  well i didn't.
7.  bake for 30 minutes or until it looks done.  i usually take things out right before i think they'll burn on top, and that usually works.  tonight the cassarole was more goopy on the inside than normal, but you should see the oven i am working with here. 

It turned out really well actually.  Jeff and I ate the whole thing.  I'm turning into a regular not-so-desperate housewife. 

Aside from going out to buy ibuprofin (nonsensically spelled with an eve at the begining) for my toe and scouting out some English lesson locations that's all I did today.

Hopefully I'll be more interesting tomorrow.

Mata ne,
Melissa

No blue. Just black.

Today we laid low.

Got up at a reasonable hour.  Did some productive work.  Got ready to go out for a run.  I slipped and broke my big toe (OUCH. Not pleasant. Do not recommend it.).

I will spare you the nasty picture of my swollen black toe.

Jeff went for a run while I rode my bike.  Hung out at home some more and iced my foot.  Hobbled out for Turkish food. That wasn't enough for Jeff so we went for gyoza and edamame too.

Now home drowning my misery in my new favorite drink, Chu-Hi (thanks, Leigh!) and Meiji chocolate covered in peanut butter. 

It's amazing, though, you'd think this day would suck, but I spent every single moment with my husband, and I couldn't be happier.  Going to bed with a smile on my face.

Mata ne,
Melissa

Back on the wagon

It's not like I don't have the time.  In fact, I have literally nothing on my schedule.  At all.  But for some reason not having a schedule makes it that much harder to get on a schedule for working out.

But that's all changing now.  Maybe I'm inspired by Jeff's marathon training plan.  Or it could be the fact that all the clothing in Japan is too small for me. Whatever.  I'm going to do it and I'm starting today.

See?  Try and catch me.

Time to break out the themed sweaters.

Good morning, December.  I wasn't expecting you so soon, and yet, here you are.

I should have seen you coming, I suppose, as I can't escape the drone of Christmas music, elaborately decorated store windows, and present pushing commercials even in a country where the overwhelming majority of the population does not celebrate Christmas.

Good bye, autumn.  You will be missed.

I just love this picture.  I can't get enough of it.  This is the last time, I promise.

Being December 1, it is our favorite toy good friend Bridgette's son Connor's first birthday!!

What a cutie!  Happy Birthday Connor!!

We look forward to playing with you when we get home!

Mata ne,

Melissa

Flattely will get you nowhere

Today, for the first time in quite a while, I was a productive member of society.

I took part in a survey about my smartphone usage.  And I am eagerly awaiting financial compensation for my time!  Who knew my blackberry thumbs would come in handy some day?

That might not have even been the most imporant thing accomplished today.  This morning I took Jeff to get his haircut.  In the train station. First the guy cut/used the clippers on Jeff's hair.

Then he vacuumed Jeff's head.  Like with a vacuum.

Jeff said it actually felt really nice.

Since we'd traveled all the way to Yokohama for the survey, we decided to walk around a bit there and  went to the requisite mall-attached-to-the-station.  While buying Jeff the espresso maker he's decided he can't spend the next nine months without (he's such a coffee snob), I spied this little gem:

Now I know flattery will get you nowhere, but I am not sure the same can be said for flattely.

This is just the tip of the bad English iceberg.

Mata ne,
Melissa

take it easy

Ahhh.  Quiet Sunday.

Today we relaxed and did some work (yes, I studied Japanese) at a coffee shop. I spend an increasingly large amount of time looking at the side of my husband's face.

Still thinking about the wonderful Thanksgiving celebration even though I couldn't be with family.   So thankful to have friends to share it with!

Big day tomorrow.  Heading to Yokohama in the morning - details to come.

Mata ne,
Melissa

Turkey (free) Day

Well our first married Thanksgiving was a rousing success, if I do say so myself.  We were lucky enough to have TWO friends join us, Leigh and Dave, who were great sports about the “challenges” we face with our kitchen, cookware, and access to ingredients.

We started with the soup course: Carrot Ginger Soup, lovingly prepared by Jeff – yum! With grit and ingenuity, he converted a tiny smoothie blender into a full-fledged food processor.





Then we moved to the main course: chicken breast (our turkey man didn’t come through), sauteed spinach, and stuffing.

We finished up with my traditional Pecan Pie – this year with a few alterations.

While nothing compares to my Bubbe’s amazing pie crust recipe, I am not a pro at it yet and my mom wasn’t nearby to assist.  So I consulted Martha and we decided on a shortbread crust instead.  Turns out it was awesome (Martha has yet to disappoint)!  Not a great fit for an apple pie, but with the pecan it really worked!  Also, I normally make a Joy of Cooking traditional pecan pie which is anything but traditional.  Karo syrup is not natural and not necessary in any dish.  Instead I found a Karo-free recipe which was just as easy and delicious!  And I was able to pronounce every single ingredient I used which just makes me feel better.   As long as I don’t think about the fact that those ingredients are primarily butter and egg.

Leigh stayed over the night on our comfy couch (currently vacant and looking for another occupant) 



and in the morning I made Danish bread french toast.  It was so good last week we couldn’t resist.

We're super excited to do it again next year.  In America.  With Turkey.

Mata ne,
Melissa