Week 8-13

Hello again!

I hope everyone has had a lovely past few weeks. I've been busy doing Japan stuff and I'm going to talk about that now.

I'll be covering weeks 8-13 here. I'm a bit behind on these updates, week 13 was a few weeks ago, so apologies there. I have a lot of things to talk about though so I hope you enjoy!

Nara

Throughout the semester, I've been on several school organized excursions. Most of them were simple day trips somewhere, leaving in the morning and we were always back before sunset. However, there was one exception which was the big overnight trip to Nara & Osaka. Osaka is the 3rd largest city in Japan and Nara is smaller adjacent city with several famous temples. For many people here, this was the excursion we were most looking forward too.

The itinerary was to go to Nara, take the day to explore, stay the night at a hotel and then travel to and explore Osaka the next day before returning home. So when the time came, we all hopped on a few buses and drove to Nara. It was about a 3 hour drive, and the plan was to explore some landmarks before going to the hotel. However, the universe had other plans that day. Our trip was scheduled right when Typhoon Mawar was hitting Japan. While the storm was quite far from where we were and we were luckily in no danger, we did have some immense downpour and winds all day. At some point in the trip, we made a rest stop and we found out that some of the temples had closed due to the storms. So, we had to change our plan real quick. After some quick deliberation amongst the university staff, they declared "We are going to the Goldfish Museum!"

Goldfish Museum

Now, no one had any idea what the Goldfish Museum actually was. I immediately thought of the smiling snacks and got very excited before people reminded me we are in Japan. We pulled up into a mall parking lot and ascended to the forth floor where the museum awaited.

Now, believe me when I say this was one of the strangest "museums" I've ever seen. I think it's better described as a exhibit for goldfish related artwork, more specifically extraordinarily elaborate fish tanks. They had fancy lights, stained glass, mirrors, disco balls, plants, smoke machines, you name it. They did everything to make sure that the goldfish would have the best time swimming around in their luxurious enclosures. The deeper you went, the stranger and more elaborate it got. It was certainly an experience to say the least, not bad for a backup plan.

This snack does not smile back.

Tōdai-ji Temple

After we got our fill on goldfish, the storm had calmed down a bit. This allowed up to to go to one of our originally planned locations. We were lucky too because this is the main go-to spot in Nara.

Tōdai-ji Temple is one of the most famous temples in Japan. Not only is it huge, but it also houses a colossal bronze statue of Buddha.

Our rained filled journey down to the temple.

A distant view of the temple.

The walk up to the temple. The storm didn't stop hundreds of people from being there.

The famous Buddha statue. The scale does not show in the picture, this thing is huge. For reference the Lincoln Memorial is about 30 feet tall, the Buddha statue is nearly 50 feet.

One thing that I rarely see mentioned are the other statues in the temple. While they aren't as grand as the Buddha statue, they still make quite the impression.

In the temple, one of the support pillars has a hole at the bottom. It's said that if you are able to go through this hole, you will have good luck. Naturally some people tried it, and some almost got stuck...

Deer!

Right outside of Tōdai-ji-Temple is a park that is famously full of deer. These guys are fearless, you can go up to them, pet them and even feed them (where they will subsequently bow). They were everywhere, and as someone who is used to seeing deer run away by a mere glance, being able to be so close is quite the experience. The rain didn't seem to bother them either.

After our trip at Tōdai-ji Temple, we went back to our hotel. The room was quite unique as it was a traditional Japanese style room. Basically large room with tatami (straw) mats with futons for each us. The hotel also had a public onsen (bathhouse) that some people went to.

After a very intersting dinner (I'll talk about it during the food section near the end), we went to sleep ready to go to Osaka the next day.

Osaka

We left fairly early to head to Osaka. It's a pretty quick trip 30-45 minute trip from Nara. Once we arrived, we had some time to explore the city. Luckily, the storm had subsided and it ended up being a great day to explore. I've become used to the "typical" Japanese city but Osaka is a bit different. It's still very "modern" like Tokyo, but still has lots of traditional style architecture like Kyoto. It's feels a bit like a mix of the two.

We explored the city by doing some shopping and getting food. We didn't have too much time there, but we made the most of it.

City

Can you spot all the Spider-Mans?

This is a famous statue of Fudo Myo-o in the alleys of the city. It became a tradition to splash water on the statue for good luck. However, after years and years of constantly being wet, moss has completely overgrown the statue. From the right angle, you can barely tell a statue is even there!

You can see the famous Glico Running Man amongst the billboards.

Wood Block Paintings

The main attraction that the school organized for us was to do try our hand at traditional Japanese wood block painting. Going into this, I actually had no idea what that meant, but it's actually quite straightforward. You have a series of painted wooden blocks that have some design. By placing paper on top and applying pressure, you can "paint" the page with the design imprinted on the block. Do that several times in different colors and you end up with a neat painting. That's the best way I can explain it, hopefully the picture help you understand how the process works.

The ones we made were quite simple only using three colors, but they can get quite complex. In the past, this method of art was useful for getting reproducible and consistent paintings fairly easily. Pretty neat!

Pro tip, make sure you don't flip the paper upside-down half way through making you have to start over.

The finished product. It's supposed to be a mask.

We returned back to the dorms afterwards. Everyone was quite tired, so it was a quiet ride. It was a fun trip despite the typhoon messing up some of our plans.

Inuyama

Next up on the list of adventures was another university excursion. This time, we were going to Inuyama, which is a city famous for Japanese puppets and a historic castle. Most of the time, these excursions have upwards of 20 people who go if not more. We sometimes need 2 buses to carry everyone. However, for some reason, only a whopping 6 of us signed up for this one. It actually made the excursion a lot more fun as we were able to go as one group everywhere.

So, we hopped on our cute little bus and ventured into the city.

Puppet Museum

Let me mention something. During the orientation we attended back when we first arrived, they explained to us what each excursion was and what you would be doing. However, that was 3 months ago and I don't remember the details of each excursion. I could do some research ahead of time and find out, but it's honestly been fun to just figure it out once I get there.

All that being said, I had no idea what we were actually doing except that there was a castle and puppets. So I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived and they gave us a very interesting showcase on these impressive puppets.

Museum exterior for reference. The whole thing is quite small.

I did not record this, this is a clip from the musuem's YouTube channel. You can find the full video here.

The first thing they showed us was this really amazing tea doll. It's almost like a robot. The idea is someone places a cup of tea down and the doll will roll it over to someone on the other side of the room. Once they pick up the cup, the doll will stop moving. When the person is done drinking the tea, they put the empty cup back on the platter and the doll will turn around and go back where it came from.

It's an extremely impressive little machine. From my research, I think these were first invented sometime in the 1600s, pretty ahead of it's time. There is a picture a bit further down showing the inside machinery and it's really neat how it all comes together.

The tea dolls, you can see the inner workings. Lot of nifty gears.

All the individual parts of one of these puppets.

They next thing they explained to us were the flagship puppets, the float Karakuri Dolls. Inuyama City has a big parade every year and a inconic part of the parade are the puppet floats. They are basically a tower on wheels that have a full sized puppet at the top. These puppets are controlled by a intricate array of cords and levers in the area underneath. Thanks to some clever designs, puppeteers are able control the hands, feet and even facial expressions of the puppet. Some puppets also have the ability to actually move around within a small area depending on the design. Depending on how complex the puppet is, there can be up to seven people controller the puppet at once!

The float they would use in a parade. The top section is where a puppet would sit. For reference, these float are about 2 stories tall!

Some examples of the type of puppets you would see in a float. Notice the space below where people can puppeteer. Could you imagine 7 people in there?

A close look at under the puppet. You can see the set of strings that allow you to control it. This puppet could also move within this wooden frame by pivoting the support beams. Clever stuff!

Now, these float puppets are the heart and soul of Inuyama puppet craftsmanship. The amazing thing is that most of these puppets have sort of special "trick" to them. They may have some extra mechanical element that allows them to put on a mask, beat a drum, or really anything you can think of. The majority of the museum is dedicated to showcasing all of these special kind of puppets and what they can do.

So, for these next few pictures, you will be able to click/tap on them and you should be able to watch a video of what each puppet looks like in motion. They also should give you a better idea about how these are operated. These things are seriously impressive so I recommend checking at least one out. It's all in Japanese, but you don't really need to understand what they're saying, the video speak for itself.

Click on the below pictures of puppets to watch a video of them in action.

This puppet flips over a tree and plays the drum.

This one opens a box revealing another puppet inside.

These are some nimble ones.

You ever try climbing a tree one stake at a time?

This one shoots a bow and arrow and hits a target. Insane.

I think these are two dueling people or something, the video is a bit short.

All in all, this puppet museum was quite the surprise. I had no idea what to expect going in and I was not disappointed.

There is one last thing I should mention if you aren't already impressed. All of the things in this museum were made by one person, Shobei Tamaya. Shobei Tamaya is actually a title given to someone and not the real name of a person. We are currently on the ninth Shobei Tamaya. His role is to create all of the puppets for the yearly parade while keeping the tradition alive. He is one of the only people in the world who makes these puppets. His workshop is actually inside the museum, however he wasn't there that day so we didn't get to see him. Oh well.

The 70s Called

Complete sidenote, but we also went to this other musuem. It was all in Japanese and I couldn't take pictures so I don't have anything to show. I didn't understand what it was anyways so I wasn't even planning on talking about it. However, at the very end, we saw this machine that looked like it had been there for ages. It was this old CRT TV with a small keyboard attached to it.

Now, for someone a bit older, this may not look that unusual. But for a group of young adults, this was quite out of the ordinary. The only CRT I have ever used was the one in my grandparent's guest bedroom. We were fascinated by what this thing was and why it was randomly in the middle of this museum. Turns out, it's a coin engraver. Right next to the machine was another machine where you could purchase a commemorative coin. For ¥30, you could use this machine to engrave whatever text you wanted along the edge of the coin.

Once you paid, you could put your coin into the machine and slowly type a message. When you submit, the text will be literally hammered into the coin. It's quite loud but it gets the job done.

As cool as it was, the coin was a bit expensive so I wasn't going to get one. However, Peer Pressure Always Win.

Inuyama Castle

The other thing to do in Inuyama is to see the local castle. It's at the top of a hill in the corner of the city, it's a nice walk up. The area outside of the castle is like a small park, there are some shops and such too where you can buy some sweet treats (and we did).

You've probably seen this guy with the green flag in many of my pictures. He's the university travel expert. He organizes and helps guide us around Japan. Since I'm a fast walker, I'm generally at the front of the pack so this guy sneaks into a lot of my pictures.

The castle from down below.

You are allowed to go inside the castle which is always a treat. The castle itself is quite tall and is made up of several floors. They had the windows open and you could look outside as you got higher and higher. Also, due to the elevation there was a strong breeze coming through which helped on the hot day. Once you get to the top, you can go onto the balcony and overlook the city below. It's a really nice view, though the wind was very strong.

It's a neat little castle to check out. One thing I will mention is that the stairs you have to climb are some of the steepest stairs I have ever encountered. Each individual step was much taller than normal, easily a foot tall, and were quite small in width too which doesn't give you much room to actually place your foot. Additionally, the low ceiling meant you had to bend down quite a bit to get past without hitting your head (especially if you're a tall foreigner). If you're weak in the knees, maybe skip out on this one.

Nagoya Aquarium

A group of us don't have any classes on Wednesday, so we've been trying to do trips to nearby places. One of them was to go to the aquarium near the port of Nagoya. It's about an hour or so train ride from the university. I'm not really into aquariums and such, but it was still fun to go. They had all your usual suspects, sharks, orcas, turtles and all sorts of fish. They had different events happening like the dolphin show, or sardine feeding frenzy which were really cool to see as well. My favorite part was the "deep sea" section which had a lot of sea creatures you don't normally see. Giant crabs, creepy eels and such.

Otherwise, it's a pretty normal aquarium.

Sardine feeding frenzy. Quite the spectacle.

Hey look! It's me in the reflection! Hi me!

Nagoya Maritime & Fuji Antarctic Museum

Right next to the aquarium is the Nagoya Maritime Museum. It's all about the port of Nagoya, which is the largest cargo port in Japan. This is mostly due to the automotive industry since big names like Toyota are nearby. There's some interesting information about the history of the port, the logistics of moving so much stuff everyday and the importance of it. It's the kind of stuff you don't really think about, but I think it's really interesting. I don't really have any pictures from the museum itself since there wasn't too much to see, my apologies.

However, adjacent to the museum is the Fuji Antarctic Museum. The museum is about the ship named Fuji which was the first Japanese Antarctic survey ship. This museum is notable because it's actually on the ship. It's docked right on the port and you can walk in an experience what it was like to be surveying the arctic. They have a lot of mannequins placed around to give you a sense on how people lived their lives. It's a really neat little exhibit.

The ship museum parked on the port.

It doesn't show in the pictures, but the ceiling is a bit low. I could have very easily banged my head if I wasn't paying attention.

A crewmate sitting at his desk.

Japan is really good at making authentic looking fake food.

Nothing like some games with the boys.

The control room. I wonder if it was always this blue color of it's changed overtime.

There is a helicopter parked on the back of the ship. You can walk up to it, but you can't go inside.

Observation Tower

In the same building as the Maritime Museum, there is an elevator that takes you up to the observation tower. You can get an overhead view of the port and the city.

The building from the the outside.

A view from up top of the city.

Ferris Wheel!

Lastly, one of the people I was with was very adamant about riding a Ferris Wheel in Japan. Luckily, there was one nearby, so despite the windy weather we hopped on. Fun fact, I have never been on a Ferris Wheel before so this was an interesting experience. It took about 20 minutes to go the full circle and it was fun chatting, looking out the windows and feeling like we were going to be blown away.

Hokkaido

The last big trip I want to talk about here is my trip to Hokkaido. When I first arrived in Japan, I knew I wanted to try and see as much of the country as I could. I had already planned on going to a lot of places such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka etc. with the school or with my Mom when she was here. All those places are relatively close, as in I could get there by train, so I wanted to see if there was anywhere else farther I could fly too. In my research, many places caught my eye. Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Okinawa were all on my list, but in the end I decided on going to Hokkaido.

Hokkaido is Japan's northern island and largest prefecture. It's known for it's nature, there are a lot of national parks, hot springs, volcanoes and (in the winter) ski resorts. Since it's farther north, it gets colder in the winter and not as hot in the summer. I was planning on going to Sapporo, which is the largest city in Hokkaido. So I booked my tickets and when the time came hopped on a plane and went on a solo Japan adventure. So here are some of the highlights.

Sapporo Clock Tower

The first day I arrived in Sapporo, I did some exploring around the city. There are a few landmark locations to go to and one of them was the Sapporo Clock Tower. It's the oldest building still standing in Sapporo and the oldest clock tower in Japan. Quite honestly, I didn't expect to be here long. In my research, I didn't find much information about what you actually do here. So, I assumed all you did was walk up to it, take a few pictures and then move on. However, to my surprise, you are allowed to go inside. For fun, I paid the unbelievably egregious ¥200 entry fee and went in. Turns out it was a small museum of some sort, though it was all in Japanese so I had no idea what anything actually said. "Oh well" I thought, thinking I would just walk around a bit then leave. However, a Japanese man came up to me and offered to give me a tour, in English! He wasn't just some random guy, he worked as a tour guide there but he was willing to explain in English what this place was all about.

Turns out it's a museum both about the clock tower and Hokkaido University. The clock tower was originally built in 1878 for Hokkaido University (at the time it was Sapporo Agricultural College). It was built as a military drill hall, since at that time every Japanese university had military training as part of their curriculum. Imagine if that were still the case.

The titular clock wasn't installed until 1881. Sapporo was a small town at that point, so that one clock tower could be heard throughout the city making it a very useful addition for the locals.

The history of Hokkaido University is quite interesting as well. The university was actually partially built up by an American named William S. Clark who helped create the foundation for the university. In fact, many people from all over the world helped in growing the University by teaching or writing textbooks. There are many important Japanese figures who are alumni of the university, such as Akira Ifukube who created Godzilla's roar. How about that.

I expected nothing walking into the clock tower and I ended up having a great time talking to the tour guide and learning about this place. The tour guide was clearly extremely passionate about the history and I really appreciate him giving me the tour.

A picture taken upstairs in the military drill hall. The statue next to me is of William S. Clark. Thank you to the tour guide for taking this picture!

The clock tower from outside. It's not a great picture, I really didn't expect to write about it.

Sapporo TV Tower

Near the clock tower is the Sapporo TV Tower. It's a observation tower right in the middle of the city and it gives you a nice view of Sapporo from the top. It was a bit expensive to go in and the observation area itself is quite small, so not ideal but I stayed up there awhile to get my money's worth.

The tower from down below.

This Pikachu looking thing was walking around. I think it's the Sapporo TV mascot or something. It certainly is not Pikachu.

Odori Park

Right next to the TV Tower is Odori Park. I personally wouldn't call it a park, it's more like a plaza. There are neat flower arrangements, fountains and some ice cream stands for a few blocks down.

So, I messed up a little bit. There was a flower festival happening there the day after I took these pictures. I meant to go back and check it out but I completely forgot. So I was hoping to have some cool flower pictures, but oh well.

This is a Benson fountain. It's a Portland staple, but there is one in Sapporo for some reason.

Otaru

Moving on, one of my days there I hopped on a train and went down to adjacent city called Otaru. It's a port city that's northwest of Sapporo. It's small little town with a whole lot of charm. It's known for it's glasswork and, out of all things, music boxes.

Now, I love music boxes. So I was really looking forward to going to Otaru's Music Box Museum. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint. It's not really a museum though, it's just a music box store, but it is a fantastic one. It's three giant floors of all the music boxes you could ever want. There are just tables and tables of different designs, styles and tunes. The song selections are really varied, with classical tunes, Disney tunes, jazz standards, American classics and a lot of Japanese classics too. You are bound to find something you like. I had to restrain myself from buying every one I saw. This store has become one of my favorite places in Japan I have been to.

The process of finding a music box you want is fun too. They all have what song they play on a sticker, and even though I know some Japanese, I don't necessarily know the Japanese names of songs. So, I just went through listening to them one by one which was so much fun, especially when I came across a song I recognized.

The outside of the store. It almost has this church-like aesthetic.

A good view of the tables filled with different kinds of music boxes.

These are the cubbies filled with all the different tunes they had.

Otaru Canal

Another popular Otaru attraction is the Canal that runs through part of the city. You are able to get on a boat and lesiurly ride down the canal. I did not partake in the boat ride, I was content just watching.

I did a lot of shopping at some other stores too such as LeTao, a popular chocolate store and some of the glassware shops all around the city. I was there for about 5-6 hours before I headed back to Sapporo. Otaru was a lot of fun and gets the Andy stamp of approval.

Shiroi Koibito Park

One of the most intriguing attractions in Sapporo was Shiroi Koibito Park. Online, it's descrbied as a Willy Wonka-esque Choclate Factory. How could I not be intrigued? For context, Shiroi Koibito are Japanese cookies that are one of most popular sweets in country. For an American equivalent, there are similar to Pepperidge Farm's Milano cookies, though Shiroi Koibito cookies are generally made with white chocolate and are smaller.

The park is split up into two section, the plaza areas and the shops which are free to enter and the paid musuem/factory tour. The tour (which you do by yourself, there isn't a tour guide or anything) explains the history of chocolate and Shiroi Koibito. Later in the tour, you get a chance to look down into the factory and see them making the cookies. They also have some hands on cookie making classes for kids.

The enterance area.

Part of the history of chocolate section.

This is a wall of different chocolate brands from all over the world. Can you spot your favorite?

These are Baum Cake. They cut these large rolls into slices and resemble tree rings. This style of cake is quite common in Japan.

The factory at work!

This is the grand enterance to the shops. On the left is a bakery and on the right is the more convential gift shop.

The Piccadilly Gift Shop.

Outside, there are a several flower gardens accompanied by several tables and ice cream stands. I mostly stayed in the main area of the park, but they have a kids section with a Candyland-like aesthetic. As you may have guessed, there is a lot of things here made for kids.

This double decker bus is actually more seating. There are tables in chairs inside. Nice if you want to get out of the sun.

The aformentioned Candyland like asthetic.

Sapporo Beer Garden

Alright, the kids have had their chocolate fun. Time for the adults to get some beer!

You may have recognized the name Sapporo when I first mentioned it. Sapporo is both a city and a famous brand of beer. As you may have surmised, the beer originates from the city of Sapporo. Thus, there is an entire part of the city dubbed the Sapporo Beer Garden where you can go and experience everything Sapporo beer has to offer. There is a museum, several stores, restaurants and, of course, places where you can drink to your kidney's content.

As you may know, I'm not really an alcohol person. In fact, in America I would still be underage, but I could drink as much as I wanted here Japan. I actually only went to the Beer Garden to go to one of the restaurants (which I'll talk about more in the food section in a bit). However, I still took several pictures and I thought it was interesting enough to show off. The architecture here is a really neat, lot of bricks buildings.

This brass upside-down funnel thing is a beer brewing kettle. The sign next to it explains it's where all the beer ingredients are mixed together. Obviously, this one is decommissioned, but it was used for 40 years before moving here. The sign also wants to make clear that his is not a UFO.

This is the outside of the museum which I didn't go through even though it probably would have been interesting.

This is the outside of the restaurant I went to. It's quite pretty at night.

This is the inside of the restaurant I went to. It's a very rustic asthetic.

I would briefly like to talk about this star. This star is the "logo" for Sapporo Beer nowadays, but it was actually a commonly used symbol in all of Sapporo. You'll see it throughout the city, especially on older buildings, though I think they don't use it much now because of it's prominent association with the beer.

When I was at the Sapporo Clock Tower, the tour guide told me something interesting about this star. He said something along the lines of "many foreigners see this star and think it's associated with the Communist Party. Please know that the Sapporo star symbol predates the Communist Party's red star by many years." I only bring this up to help spread the word because he was very passionate about that particular point. I guess he didn't like the idea of being associated with communists.

Food

Those are the main adventures I've had this time around. Before I wrap up, let me briefly talk about the various foods I've had.

Going back to my trip to Nara. We had a traditional style Japanese dinner. It's quite the impressive spread, very beautifully laid out. It was a lot small dishes, mostly comprising of different varieties of fish. Now, I do not eat fish, so this was a peculiar predicament.

I really didn't want to leave food behind, because that's just wasteful. Luckily, we were at tables of four and the two people across from me loved fish so I was able to give them most of mine. They gave me some their beef and rice in return so it all worked out.

Okonomiyaki

As I've mentioned before, I am part of the Wind Orchestra Club and we had a club dinner! We ate okonomiyaki, which is a Japanese style pancake. Now, don't let that description fool you, this isn't a sweet fluffy breakfast item. Traditionally, the batter is made up mostly of flour, cabbage and onions. You top it with the special sauce, mayonnaise, and these dried flakes and then you dig in. In my opinion, that recipe doesn't really sound appetizing, but I guess it makes more sense once you try it. It's not my favorite, but I get the appeal. We got to cook on a grill at our table which is always fun.

It was an all you can eat place, so we got quite a lot. I tried several variations of okonomiyaki, generally with different toppings or sauces. One is even made with ramen noodles! They can get pretty abstract, but I tried as much as I could though I got filled up pretty quick. It was a really fun night with all the club members and I'm happy I was able to go!

Some other variations. There's one topped with steak in the middle which was probably my favorite.

The most basic okonomiyaki.

The ramen one on the left. Behind it, one with egg, and then some mixture on the bottom right with corn. Certainly unique.

Genghis Kahn

During my Hokkaido trip, I mentioned I went to Sapporo Beer Garden to go to one of their restaurants, and this is it. All the restaurants there have similar menus but have varying different atmospheres. Some are outdoors, some are more fancy, while others are really down to earth. I specifically ate at the Kessel Hall, which is the largest and most casual space.

The whole reason I went there was to eat Genghis Kahn, a Sapporo specialty. Now, don't get this confused with the Mongolian warlord, though it is named after him (for seemingly no reason). Genghis Kahn is special kind of Japanese BBQ (yakiniku). What makes it unique is how it's cooked. You cook the meat on a dome shaped grill and you surround the meat with vegetables, typically onions and cabbage. The idea is the aroma of the vegetable gets absorbed by the meat, enhancing the flavor. The juices from the meat also run down to the vegetables, so it's a win-win for both parties. There are many places to eat Genghis Kahn in Sapporo, but the Beer Garden is special because they have an all you can eat menu.

One thing I'll mention is how smoky it gets in the building. Everyone has their own grill and there really isn't any individual ventilation. They actually give you a plastic bag for you to put your jacket in so it doesn't get all smokey.

This is by far the most expensive meal I've had in Japan. I also had to wait about 2 hours before I could sit down, but it was well worth it. I tried all sorts of Genghis Kahn. Traditionally, you eat it with lamb, but they also had beef, chicken and pork varieties. Couple that with rice and coke, and I was living the dream.

Lamb Genghis Kahn on the grill. You cook it yourself.

This is the pork Genghis Kahn. This was my favorite out of all of them, even if it isn't the "traditional" way of eating it.

Me enjoying my unlimited fountain drinks, a rarity in Japan.

The iPad with the menu. You order here and they bring you the meat shortly after. Simple and efficient.

My jacket bag. Very important for me.

Some other eats

These we some Wagyu skewers I got in Osaka. They were a bit overcooked for my taste, but still pretty good.

This was rotisserie chicken from a famous restaurant in Otaru called Naruto. Good luck eating this with chopsticks.

Hokkaido is famous for their dairy products, including ice cream. This was so thick and creamy, it was great.

These we some jumbo gyoza I got in Sapporo. Their massive size meant it took quite awhile before they reached an edible temperature.

One of Nagoya's food specialities is this Pork Miso Cutlet. It's basically fried pork with miso sauce on top. I don't particularly like miso sauce, it's oddly sweet, so I just prefer the cutlet by itself which is just called Tonkatsu.

I haven't really mentioned it, but I cook the majority of my meals I eat here. I generally stick with some variety of chicken and rice, it's simple and cheap. However, I have experimented with some other dishes, including this pasta with cream, soy sauce and chicken. It's my modified version of my father's recipe, though this particular variety wasn't amazing mostly due to lack of ingredients. It's hard to find certain things here, like cream. I even had to buy this pasta on Amazon.

This is the end

And just like that, you made it to the end. Congratulations!

I mentioned this before, but it took me far longer to finish this than I expected. I was hoping to have this done a few weeks ago, but I've been busier with classes and I haven't had as much time to work on this. At the time of writing, I only have about two weeks left in Japan which is crazy! That also means there will be one last update with all my final Japanese adventures. I've already started working on that so hopefully it won't be delayed as much as this one. So look forward to it in a just a few weeks!

Until then, thank you all again for the support and kind comments about these posts. I'm glad you all enjoy them.

Bye bye!

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