teasmartgarden.com

Mountain-Fresh But Wrong

I’ve finally come to the full realization that I’ve been washing my clothes with fabric softener for over two months. I had heard stories, but I can’t believe this has happened to me.

I hope everyone can learn from this tale of tragedy. English is good! Cryptic Japanese labeling is bad!!!! Costco is LOVE!

*cry*

Mountainous Boobies…Get It?

Who said gravure models don’t have talent?

My brain kinda fell out of my head when I watched this.

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It’s for some kind of a low-level talent show program.  I think the hosts’ brains fell out, too.

It would have been wrong of me not to share this.  People need to know.

Package From Mommy!!

When I came home today for lunch, I saw a package in my mailbox and was all, “ooh! package from mom!!”. The customs sticker said that there was a book and a shirt inside, so I decided that whatever tacky shirt was in there, I would change into it and wear it back to school and just ask for someone to tell me to change into something more professional! And then I’d be all, “Noo!!! Mommy gave it to meeee!!! *crycrycry*”.

I was also hoping the shirt would be bright red. For effect.

But alas, the shirt was tasteful, a muted green with a Japanese chrysanthemum motif, and…sleeveless. One of those characteristics is keeping it snug at home until I return (at which point I will don it for the rest of the day). Yeah, that’s right. It’s the “sleeveless” bit. That’s apparently too ダメfor words at your place of work. Heck, the very idea of wearing only a sleeveless shirt here is whispered only in small circles. Most people, even in the death humid heat of August, are still wearing long sleeves! Crazy people, I say. They say it’s to protect against harmful rays, but what harmful effect are they trying to avoid? I’m sure it would be from the horror of tanning, not skin cancer. I can only assume, because otherwise with such an informed group, you’d also be seeing men carrying parasols and using the sun shields found on (only women’s) bikes to protect hands while they’re exposed. And how many times have I heard young women tell their friends while looking at me, “Her skin is so white! She’s so pretty!”?

Right, moving on.

The book turned out to be a cookbook! Wee~! And not just any cookbook, but one of those fund raiser cookbooks with those recipes. You know what I mean, yeah?

Missouri Soup, Rhonda’s Pasta Salad Addiction, Dad’s Sweet & Sour Meatballs, Shipwreck Casserole, Lemon Squares, No Bake Oatmeal/Fudge Cookies, Peanut Brittle.

You know what I mean?  Very “post-WWII nuclear family” type cookbook.

I will now take this to school and see if any of these recipes can fit into a cooking lesson here.

Speaking of Enka…

Perhaps that last post can’t be appreciated as much if there aren’t a few examples of some enka greats.

Let me first post my favorite song EVAR sung by the coolest chick out there. This is Ishikawa Sayuri, singing 「天城越え」”Amagi Goe” (Crossing the Heavenly Castle*?*). The kimono is still the most popular staple to an enka performance. That, and palpable emotion!

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And then, of course, Saburo Kitajima (aka “Sabu-chan”). I chose this video not because I like the song per say, but because he’s singing 『函館の女』”Hakodate no Onna” (Hakodate Woman), and shows the town off. If you didn’t know, Hakodate (in Hokkaido) is where I spent my first two months ever in Japan, nearly five years ago… or was it six? Now that I think about it…! Oh, how the years go by.

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But perhaps a more extravagant Sabu-chan is more to your liking? Here he is at the 2006 Kouhaku Uta Gassen, rocking out to 『まつり』”matsuri” (festival). He’s doing this in his 70′s, and that’s awesome. BTW, the SMAP guys can be seen to the side, all bad-boy’ed up from some performance they must have just had<3!

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And then there are the occasional newcomers to the scene, such as Kiyoshi, who really stirred up the enka scene a few years ago. His vocals are freaking amazing…though you kindof need to brace yourself for the video. It’s special. He is displaying the “retro” style some wear for performances.

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I love how Jero is getting more young kids interested in what is, by far, a genre for the older generation. Still though, after listening to these guys, I can’t help but notice that his voice is far from enka superstar. I’m looking forward to any subsequent song releases to see how he’s improved as a singer, however. Right now, people on TV still react to his live performances with joyful shock as soon as he utters his first word. It’s as if they’re thinking, “oh my gawd, Japanese is coming from a black man’s mouth! And I thought all they could do was rap and be obnoxious bouncers in Roppongi!!”.  I’m sure this kind of attention either has, or will soon, get very old to him.

Jero isn’t J-Lo

Though I was fooled at first.

The third-years were writing self-introductions in an elective class last week, using a set of questions on the board that I had come up with all spur of the moment (as in, teacher’s writing on the board and is all, “what should I write?”). One of the questions I thought up was simple enough. “What is your favorite foreign actor/singer/whatever?”.

And so, as I’m walking around the room, I see that someone has written　ジェロ, and put “Jelo” as their translation. And I’m all “hahhah, that looks like you are saying that jello is your favorite singer!”, and of course, no understanding. And then I’m all, “I think you mean J.Lo”. And so I’m walking around, and several people (six in total) are putting down this ジェロ, and its various romaji spellings. And I’m thinking to myself as I’m correcting the spelling, “that’s funny, I don’t remember her coming out with a new song!”.

So the next day, the teacher asked me to add a comment to each of their pages. I told him about the whole “jello” thing, and the secretary looking at the pages was all, “Oh yeah! He’s an enka singer!” And I was all, “riiight, no”. Those kids wouldn’t be writing down that their favorite foreign singer, let alone singer at all, was an enka singer!

And then she was all, “he’s black and is very popular right now”.

…I had to google this.

And…whoa! Everyone WAS writing down an enka singer! He’s an American, raised in Philadelphia, and now living in Japan.

Nice sentence. Makes me want to write one about myself.

“Charity, who came to Japan to be an “ENGLISH” teacher.”

Click here for a little background on him. The whole striving for Kouhaku Uta Gassen because of his grama is sweet.

Look! He sings enka while keepin’ it real.

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So anyways, now I know better.

My Site is Now a ３年生!

To celebrate my site’s two-year anniversary　(or its current third year, thusly the title), I decided to move the links over to their own tab.  Yeah, I know how to party.

Honestly, though, I just got really tired of seeing the same ones every time I scrolled around my site.  And so, yeah.  They’re gone-ish.  Out of sight-ish.  I’m happy.

But yes, two years!  Good times.  It’s interesting being able to look back and see how, throughout the many months, my posts have become more and more inane.  Awesome.

I have a few big posts in the works for this month, including one on my intended plans after Japan.

Later!

Diet Shakes and Sushi

Wow.  I now know the the effectiveness of the diet shake method!  They’re so horrible, you would rather NOT eat than subject yourself to another one!

Perhaps I judge too soon, though.  The only one I’ve had so far (they’re the type that need to be mixed with water) was “cocoa” flavor.  Now, I personally believe that the worst tastes in diet history involve people trying to replicate the taste of chocolate.  It usually comes out tasting like bitter, chalky, enriched horror.  But dieters miss their chocolate, so…yeah.  Demand and all.

I’ll have the blueberry horror for lunch.

So, yeah.  Last night, I had the very feeling I just expressed above.  “I’d rather just not eat than have a shake tonight”.  I was at the YouMe Town in Kurume (bought tickets for my Golden Week holiday!), and was coerced into eating in moderation at my favorite 回転寿司 (kaitenzushi -> conveyor-belt sushi) place.  It was awesome.

I normally get about 7-8 plates of random sushi.  Each plate has either 2 pieces of nigirizushi, 2 pieces of large makizushi, or 6 pieces of thin makizushi (such as cucumber rolls) on them.  Keep in mind that I usually only frequent １０５円 (’bout a dollar) establishments, so that’s a heck of a way to fill up!

My usual visit (each bullet is what comes on a plate):

• 2 salmon nigirizushi
• 2 maguro nigirizushi
• 2 inari
• 2 tuna mayo zushi (don’t judge.)
• 2 hire katsu maki
• 6 kappa maki (cucumber roll)
• 1 flan　(on the different colored, ２１０円 plate)

This time, I only got the equivalent of…less than two plates (one maguro, one salmon, one katsu maki, and two out of the usual 6 kappa maki).  It’s good to have someone along to eat half of your food so you can feel like you’re eating more (different flavors and all).  Of course, it’s also good to make sure that said someone won’t wolf down 10 plates in front of you at the same time (it didn’t happen, and thusly he’s still alive).  I found out that I was actually appreciating their flavors more since I was thinking, “mmm!  isn’t this ONE piece os sushi good??”!  Wow.  Didn’t realize I wasn’t doing that before.  We topped it off with a bowl of strawberries with whipped cream (yeah, more than just sushi goes around).

So awesome!

More calories than drinking a shake, but far more enjoyable than forcing one of those punishments down!

And thusly I survived day one of new diet hell.

…but it never ends, does it?