The All Seeing Light in my Kitchen

Good Evening everyone!

Hope that life is peachy king, wherever you are and whatever you are doing. As long as its not something bad. For then I must shuuuunnnnnn you! >.> *a crazy reference to a crazy youtube video made popular by Hot Topic, Millions of teens, and Poprocks---ok, ok, I just threw in pop rocks to mess with you head.....OR DID I????*

Anyhow, silly greetings aside, lets get this party started.

I am writing the next part of my ten favorite things of all time to Eat, Drink and Make Merry, from Hakodate’s one and only Starbucks.

Remember my disaster of the last tumbler? Well I am now on the hunt for a new one. Wading into the torturous waters of Japan’s yahoo auction is akin to swimming in shark infested waters. I kid you not, in a world without paypal, Japan makes internet auction purchases difficult. And then there is you know, the language thing. *must work harder to learn Japanese*

Oh and another thing I am hunting for is a new Nacho Libre pen as my old one bit the dust. My students love to look at Nacho in his mid-air leap of awesome. They totally get a kick when I make kissy faces at it—I make it my life’s work to baffle them.
Although tonight is a school night, I needed to pick up some things at animate. I am trying to get the love of Hetalia (Hetalia is a web comic sensation about WWII where the characters are the countries themselves. Its really quite hilarious!) out into the world, one figurine at a time. This is my set.

Anyway, lets resume the rambling, shall we?

6. Japanese McDonalds. Some things taste better with age. Some things taste better in the morning. Some things just plain taste better in Japan, and McDonalds is one of them. Oh luscious SanKaKu Choco Pie, savory Shaka-Shaka Chicken, or just a plain cheeseburger a divine slice of home, cooked better, healthier and wrapped in a smile—by someone who actually means it. Like this hearty little worker.

When I lived in Japan the last time I went to McDonalds all the time with my friends—our favorite haunt, our half-way home landmark, across the street from Yoshinoya, to the left of the bowling alley and neighbor to Momotaro Park. It was our happy place we went to flirt with the staff and make them laugh and even though that location was torn down (much to our sadness) the feelings of joy found only in Japanese McDonalds has remained every time I saunter in.

These are some of my favorite eats from Japan’s McAwesome. Sankaku Choco Pie, which literally means Triangle Chocolate Pie makes geometry delicious and full of chocolaty goodness, wrapped in a flakey crust that faintly crunches when you take a bite.

This is the almighty Shaka-Shaka Chicken. It is a bag containing one huge, thick, crispy chicken nugget. Which, come on, you have to be dead not to like Chicken nuggets (and I have a suspicion that if zombies would THINK to nom on some, it would totally turn them off humans) so its already a win. What makes it Shaka-Shaka (shake shake) is that you pour in a pouch of one of three flavors you feel like eating that day. Lemon, Pepper, or Cheese. Personally Lemon-Pepper does it for me, and why tamper with perfection? Once you pour it in, shake it up and the bag neatly opens to procure a succulent treat that even Zombies would envy.

Next is the most amazing, most life-changing dish you will ever sink your teeth into. It will alter the way you eat pancakes forever. Petite Pancakes are straight from the kid’s menu, but don’t let that deter you at all. Remember what I said about eating stuff for kids? Oh boy, this is the foundations of that ideology. Six piping hot pancakes roughly the size of a silver dollar are yummy enough, but Japanese McAwesome gives you this:

After some initial issues in how to use the little packet-→which you have to squeeze it together, folded in half with the point facing the food product—this is important, otherwise it will squirt at you) It's a combination of apple flavored syrup and icing.

O. M. G. I think it is what heaven tastes like.

Oh dear, I think I will have to now stop off on McDonalds on my way back to Mori. The battery is dying so I better be off. That and my coffee is all gone and I made myself hungry.

*drives to McDonalds gets food and returns home*

Tragedy has struck, my sweet friends, for they have stopped selling SANKAKU CHOCO PIE. *weeps inconsolably*
Who knew it was to be a limited edition item!!! IT DID NOT TELL ME!!!!! T.T I am angry at you Japan McDonald. You give us release dates on these:
These are the heart clogging "American" hamburger limited editions out now. Pfft. I would rather have my pie. M.Y.P.I.E

Speaking of pies though, I am trying to workout (see new year's resolution) and was crunching my abs away, jamming out to ICONIQ, Change Myself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfnyUmTWhws <---- A youtube link for you! and all of a sudden I notice that the light above me has a CREEPY eye in the middle of it. I don't know about you, but this freaked me out.


Memo to self: no more Ghost Hunters. But if that isn't weird enough, my computer puts itself on pause, TWICE, then...then THE SCARY part happens! Out of no where, I am mean no where, cause it looks like THIS outside:


(AKA WINTER---isnt my mountain the bomb though?!) A BEE starts BUZZING around my kitchen! Its big and slow moving, but I am at a utter loss at where it came from!!! I mean, REALLY?? A BEE?? This actually has me worried, besides the whole scared of bugs thing, as it very well most likely means that I have a nest somewhere in my house, probably in the roof or under the floors. Perhaps even under my kitchen cabinet. The chances that this bee is alone is rather unlikely. I ran to my entrence hall to grab my insecticide to do battle with my mighty foe. In one hand, a sauce pan and in the other hand, my rain-of-death-icide and I went forth to do combat. So in other words, I sprayed the S*%$ out of my kitchen.
And just like that, it disappeared, like magic. I'm slightly afraid that it didn't happen and I have lost my mind a bit.
I then retreated to my bed, all thoughts of exercise forgotten. In fact, I think this is the universe telling me not to exercise. What do you think?

Anyway, I will cower under my covers and pray nothing else comes out.
See you on the flip side.

Shocker: Part Two Cometh! And Spin It Right Round!

Today is not for children, so if any of my family reads this to K1 and K2 then gloss over the not kid friendly parts.

Oh look at me. I am actually updating! I promised I would and now I am. It was one of my many New Year resolutions, along with ‘get in shape’ ‘try snowboarding’ ‘finish your fanfiction story’ ‘take more pictures’ ‘collect as many starbucks mugs/tumblers as possible’ ‘travel, travel, travel’ ‘find a Nacho Libre pen’ ‘study more Japanese’ and ‘figure out how to do stuff’. Stuff can mean many things, like figuring out how to order swag online, using Japan’s yahoo auctions, setting up my wire transfers, or creating new lessons plans. I figure I would just use the umbrella term of ‘stuff’ and that should cover it.

Anyway. On to part 2! Things I adore to in order to Eat and Drink and Make Merry in Japan.

8. Rice. Oh sweet, sticky, warm rice. Many of the dishes I adore (on this list and other wise) have you as an essential ingredient. Many a night I trudge home and toss some rice in my rice cooker and just have rice and seasonings for dinner. The seasonings here are called furatake—and have a wide range of flavors, prices, textures and colors. I get most of mine at the dollar store. Cause I am boss like that.
This is my rice cooker. A bag like this will last about a month or so for me. I only get the rice bags with cute characters on them. That is generally a good rule of thumb for me; cute characters (or just pictures of babies) usually means its OK for kids and those with weak tummys. Here are some of the things I found with cute things on it. Like these dancing critters. These cute mascots to help you be ECO friendly. Cause I think disco bears when I think ECO.


Things made for kids means there is a good chance I will like it. Yeah, it sounds silly, but it means it will be mild and not insane like some things I have tried. Although this system works fairly well in the realm of the supermarket, this method is NOT foolproof and does not work well outside of a contained environment. (Not Kid Friendly) Japan is notorious for using cute mascots for everything. Including condoms. Would you think these as boxes of candy?


That is what two of my dear friends (J and Ally back in my Okayama days) convinced me of for a practical joke. I did eventually notice it was not candy. My friends were very very amused. But really, in my defense I had underestimated/not fully known the power of the cute mascot! I mean, the koalas??? The seal?? Thank goodness I figured it out before I tried tasting one. I got some smarts in there. Or at least smarts enough to know it wasn’t food. And then there are some mascots like the Tokyo
Tower twins who, well, just look and see- being mascot-ifed is not such a good thing. And sometimes goes terribly, terribly wrong.


I mean, come on, is anyone else seeing what I see? Or am I crazy? Wow. WAY off topic. But that is how this blog seems to go. ONWARD!!!!!!

7. 105 yen Kaiten Sushi. Oh delicious, sweet, cheap, sushi. I adore thee. Especially here in Hokkaido, when even cheap sushi is amazing. ‘Kaiten Sushi’ refers to the awesome sushi restaurants where the sushi is set on a rotating belt that is then paraded before the customer. I sometimes break out singing ‘you spin me right round, baby, right round, like a sushi bar, right round baby right rrrroooouuunnddd’ But singing is optional. Look how YUMMY it is!!!! *drool*


I love me some salmon- fry it, burn it, slap some mayo on it, whatever, its amazing. Each Kaiten sushi joint is a little different from the next; a special sauce at one, a special roll at another, slight changes makes it fun to try out new places. There is one place in Okayama which I ADORE. ADORE. Ebikatsumaki (fried shrimp roll) I miss you!!!! I love to go cause they got variety and price, as most dishes are only a buck and its fun to see all the bizarre stuff that floats around. It’s not odd to see French fries, fried chicken, cake, horse, roast beef and fruit make a round or two. And then the odd fish dishes, like this one.


(Not Kid Friendly) Its called Shiroko and its fish…erm..well, ‘shiro’ means white and ‘ko’ means child so what could that (white child)possibly mean? Oh you got it! Fish Jizz! *shudders* It happens to be a delicacy here. It was served at my bonenkai (year end party, the only one I went to this year, and cost me a whooping 100 bucks to attend) and I had to give it away. I mean, really. I am open to food but I draw a line at fish jizz. Urgh. Just look at the fancy version. It looks worse than the cheap one.
Really Japan. Sometimes I wonder. Jeez, my blog today was a little racy.

So besides Shirako, which is really really rare (like getting whale, blowfish and horse) and usually a requested item at kaiten sushi places, kaiten sushi is where its at. Riiiight roooouundd Baaaabbbbyyy!!!!

Ok and there she goes for today. Tomorrow I have my Mori Middle School and whooping 6 classes back to back all day. So early to bed tonight! I will update soon!