Abroad in Japan

First, I will start this post by quickly listing all of the things I will miss most about Japan:

• The food – Japanese food is awesome, no further explanation is needed
• The heated toilet seats and kotatsu tables (heated table with blankets) – they are awesome when it is cold
• The architecture - efficient houses, beautiful temples, sky-high pagodas, who wouldn’t miss it!?
• The Japanese gardens – they are so breathtaking, I cannot begin to explain how peaceful it is to relax inside of a Japanese garden
• The cleanliness – almost everywhere I go in Japan, the streets look very well kept and the streets are virtually trash free
• Japanese TV – I love anime, so that is obvious, but the game shows are so awesome! (even though it is still difficult for me to understand everything)
• The sense of safety – wherever I go in Japan, I always feel pretty safe, no matter what time of day or what area
• The public transportation – it is nice having practically ubiquitous trains, buses, subways that are almost always on time
• The people – everyone that I have met here has been so incredibly friendly and helpful; I can spout so many stories of how generous and helpful everyone here has been!
• The mindset – perhaps the thing I will miss most about Japan is the mindset of everyone. Being in Japan has exposed me to a new way of thinking that I really like. I think Japanese people have more of a general respect for everything including other people, the cities they live in, the environment, animals, etc

I am not sure if you are familiar with anime or manga, so I will take the liberty of briefly explaining it. Simply put, anime is Japanese animation and manga is Japanese comic books (it would do me well to note here that this is the American definition; in Japan, anime means any type of animation and manga means any type of comic). You probably know some of the most famous animes, like Pokemon, Dragon Ball, and Sailor Moon. However, these specific anime are more aimed at children, and are not really representative of the average Japanese anime. Other popular anime you may know include Bleach, Inuyasha, One Peice, or Naruto. However, I would not say these are especially representative of all anime either, as there is such a broad scope of topics that anime covers.

Anime and manga covers a wide array of topics and often times are very mentally stimulating. It is my personal opinion that the content of many anime and manga delves deeper into human psyche and world issues than do most American television shows. Though, I think that is something you should see for yourself.

Because of the wide array of topics that anime covers, anime and manga is read and watched by all age groups in Japan, including adults. Unlike in America, where cartoons are usually aimed at children, there are anime and manga in Japan for everyone. You can find ones aimed at toddlers, elementary schoolers, teenagers, young adults, and adults. Anime and manga cover almost any genre you can think of, including adventure, action, romance, drama, comedy, horror, mystery, fantasy, thriller, etc. But, they also have genres that are found almost exclusively in Japanese anime and manga. One such genre is bishounen (pretty boy) and bishoujou (pretty girl), which usually features sparkly (sometimes literally) and idealistic characters.

Anime and manga differ from Western cartoons and comics in the style of drawing. For example, anime and manga artists tend to pay more attention to proportionality than do American animators. It is not uncommon for American cartoons to feature characters with very strange proportions (think anything on Cartoon Network); however, that is uncommon in Japan. Nonetheless, Japanese styles of drawing do have overly large eyes. Another large part of anime and manga are facial expressions. Japanese animators make use of many more facial expressions than do their American counterparts, and they often have specific iconography to represent certain emotions.

Haruhi Suzumiya

Anime is omnipresent throughout Japan. You can see anime-related products ranging from action figures to everyday around-the-house products such as cooking ware. Anime and manga characters are even used in advertisements! Here are some pictures of anime-related things you will see in Japan. (By the way, One Piece is the top manga in Japan right now, so you will see a lot of pictures of it.)

One Piece manga

Pokemon sandwiches

One Piece, Pokemon and Hello Kitty bento boxes (lunch boxes)

Elementary schooler books

One Piece lunch recipesPokemon lunch recipes

Some anime videos

Manga section of a store

Closer picture of some manga

Okay, as random as this may be, green tea flavored foods are really popular in Japan. So, while I was walking around the store, I took pictures of some of the many green tea flavored foods for you to see!

A challenge for you! The kanji (Chinese character) for tea is 茶 (in Japanese hiragana, it is ちゃ, pronounced “cha”). See if you can find the character for tea in all of these pictures!

Green Tea Kit Kats

Green tea bread with green tea chocolate filling. I kid you not!

Green Tea Oreo Sticks

Green Tea Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Green tea flavored corn puffs (green tea cheetos!)

Green tea carmels

Green tea pastry

Green tea soymilk

Green tea candy perhaps?

Green tea donuts

Green tea mochi with chocolate filling

Green tea tart cookie

Green tea roll cake

Green tea chiffon cake with green tea filling

Green tea ice cream

Tea (instead of water) dispenser

Green tea bread

Green tea warabi mochi with green tea powder for dipping

For anyone who does not know, I will preface this by saying that I am a vegan. Vegans do not eat any animal products including meat, fish, eggs, milk, butter, cheese, etc. Before I left to Japan, I was told by many people that it would be difficult to be a vegan here.  That is because in Japan, fish is put into numerous foods. However, from my experience, with a basic knowledge of Japanese language and characters, it is not very difficult at all. In fact, I find more places in Japan to be vegan friendly than in America. Here are just a few pictures of some of the things I found in restaurants and grocery stores that are vegan. Everything is labeled from left to right:

Veggie tempura and cold soba (buckwheat) noodles, hot soba with konbu dashi (seaweed instead of fish soup stock), fried rice, and green tea

Inari zushi (fried tofu stuffed with rice), eggplant and onion tempura, kitsune udon (fried tofu with udon noodles in konbu dashi), and of course green tea

Strawberry soymilk

Banana soymilk

Green tea warabi mochi

Green pea puffs

Freshly made fried tofu and raw tofu from a vendor on the side of a street

Black okara (similar to tofu) donuts filled with sweet bean paste (no eggs or milk used!)

Soymilk wafers (these were right next to the non-vegan cow's milk ones)

Soymilk ice cream! This was at a sushi place, which I find crazy since it is practically impossible to find vegan ice cream at ANY restaurant in America)

And of course, if you make homemade Japanese food, there is not reason at all for it to be difficult. Check out some of these homemade meals:

Okonomiyaki made without eggs

Japanese hot Pot (I forgot to take a picture before I ate it!)

Seaweed, ume (plum), blanched spiced spinach, miso soup, veggie tempura, kinpira (sauteed carrots and gobo root), and bamboo

Battered and fried tofu topped with green onions

Peas and rice, kitsune (fried tofu), seaweed, and soba (buckwheat) noodles

Goma (sesame) tofu, fried mochi, tempura with green tea dipping powder, rice balls, inari zushi (fried tofu stuffed with rice)

Rice, miso soup, miso glazed sauteed egglant, sauteed mushrooms, pineapple. miso tofu, blanched spiced spinach

Edamame (boiled soybeans) and yakisoba (stir fried soba noodles with veggies)

Sometimes, I am truly surprised at the vegan products I find in Japan. It was a complete accident that I found most of the products like the vegan soymilk ice cream and okara donuts. I think there might be a wider vegan selection here because tofu and soymilk are much more popular, therefore it is not as strange to make soy treats.

Overall, I do not find it at all difficult to be vegan in Japan.  I would not say it is easier or more difficult than being a vegan in the United States. There are more vegan specialty foods for sale in America, but there are more vegan restaurant options in Japan, so I think it is about the same.

So, Garrett and I went on a trip to Nara. It is a beautiful city with many traditional looking buildings and many sights to see.

Entrance to Todaiji Temple

Statue in Todaiji Entrance

Todaiji Temple

Daibutsu (big buddha)

View of Nara

In Nara, there is Nara Park, which is famous for it’s amazingly docile (and cute!) deer. These deer are just as tame as everyone says. You can buy crackers to feed them, but I would not recommend it because when you do they get crazy. If you have food, it is likely you will be surrounded, and they will probably bite at your clothes. Even if you do not have a treat, you can still walk right up to them and pet them. Sometimes they even follow you around!

Deer and some Japanese schoolgirls

Super friendly deer

They get aggressive when fed

A deer warning sign

Sento-kun, Nara's creepy mascot

By the way, this is just a side story, but while Garrett and I were in Nara, some strange thing happened to us (actually mostly to Garrett). Anyway, we were just walking around minding our own business when this cute little Japanese elementary school boy and his friends stopped and said to Garrett, “Excuse me.” So Garrett said, “Yes?” and the boy asked “Where do you come from?” Garrett said “America.” and boy asked in return, “Do you like Japan?” Garrett answered, “Yes. 　はい。”  (はい means yes in Japanese). And the kids looked a bit surprised that he answered in Japanese, so Garrett said “少し日本語がわかります。(I understand a little bit of Japanese)”. Then, the kids all smiled and said “ありがとうございます。ありがとうござくぃます。(Thank you, thank you.)” and walked off. Then, a little bit later, another group of elementary schoolers stopped Garrett again and asked pretty much the same questions and asked if they could take a picture with us. I think it is because Garrett has pretty light hair compared to most Japanese people. But the whole incident was very funny. I wish I had a picture to show you, but I did not think to take one until after!
So anyway, that was our trip to Nara!

As a follow up to my Japanese house post, I am now going to post about Japanese grocery stores. You will notice some things are similar, and some are very different. Take a look:

Giant tofu section

Pre-made onigiri (rice balls) section

Cute pokemon and other anime characters on sandwichesBottled soft drinks section

"Daily foods" section

Iced desserts

Eggs (not just chicken eggs)

Huge noodle section

Cheeses

Soymilk section (with awesome flavors, like strawberry, banana, green tea)

Decadent desserts

Juice section

Soybean section

Natto (fermented soybean) section

Meat section

Fish and sea food section (it is actually bigger than it looks in this picture)

Ume (plums) I believe these are pickled

Seaweed section

Miso section

Tea section (I could not capture it all because it was too big!)

Ramen and cup of noodles (it is a huge section)

Candy section (all the processed foods sections are pretty much the same as in the U.S., so I only this picture)

Fruit section (pretty much the same)

Vegetable section (also pretty much the same)

Konyaku (yam noodles) section

Other pre-made foods

Pre-made sushi section

Pre-made tempura

Bakery (normal except they have strange things like pre-made hotdogs and green tea bread)

Pre-made pizzas with strange toppings

I left out pictures of the packaged food aisles, because they were very similar. The only difference is they offer some strange products like freeze-dried fish chips and other Japanese “goodies”. So, that pretty much concludes a Japanese grocery store! In some ways they are the same, but in many ways, Japanese grocery stores are very different.

I thought I should give you a tour of a modern Japanese house. They are quite nice! And they are roomy since they make very efficient use of space.

Some houses have a gated entrance

Some also have Japanese style gardens

The outside of a Japanese house

In Japanese houses, you must take off your shoes before entering and you leave them in this area by the door

The downstairs hallway

A traditional looking room of a Japanese house (notice the tatami mats)

The computer room of a Japanese house

A Japanese living room (notice the kotatsu table to the right which is a heated table for the winter)

A Japanese kitchen

Upstairs hallway

Upstairs room in Japanese house

A Japanese bedroom

Japanese bathroom (you shower on the left side THEN enter the bath)

I did not post a picture of the toilets, as they look pretty much the same. However, there are some key (high-tech) differences. For example, the toilet seats are heated, some in residential houses flush automatically, they often make sounds (to cover the sound of you using the restroom), you can select a big or small flush, and they have a spray feature.

So, I suppose that is pretty much a standard Japanese house.

Sorry I have not posted in a while. The internet was down where I was staying, and today was my first opportunity to go out and find a place that I could use the internet.

But, the first thing I noticed when I got to Japan was this:

A perfect example of Japanese courtesy. When I saw this, there was actually a few people smoking in it, but I felt a little weird taking pictures of them.  It is part of the Japanese mindset to not bother others, and even though smoking is very popular in Japan, it appears they want to be considerate to those who do not smoke.

The next morning, Garrett and I went to Naritasan Shinshoji Temple. I had seen the pictures online, but I must say the pictures (even mine), cannot compare to actually being there. It was much bigger than I anticipated, and much more beautiful!

The walk down Ometesando St. on the way to the temple

A panoramic picture of a part of the temple grounds

Pagoda at Naritasan Shinshoji Temple

Me at a garden area at Naritsan Shinshoji Temple

The forested area around the temple

Then, when we headed off to Tokyo. When Garrett and I were wandering around Shinjuku, we discovered this (randomly placed) park. We went inside and it was gorgeous! Truly just as you would expect a Japanese garden to look! Be warned, however, the pictures do not even come close to actually sitting inside the park!

Truly awesome Japanese garden!

So, that was my first few days in Japan. I will post more soon!