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!