Desserts in Japan

OK, I definitely need to add more pictures to this post later...

It's funny how desserts can be so different depending on the country.  I didn't notice it so much when I studied abroad in Australia (except that there they sometimes use a really delicious chocolate powder on top of ice cream instead of a syrup- grrr, I can't think of the name) but comparing Japanese desserts with American ones can be quite amusing.

For instance, many foods that are considered non-dessert items in the US are served as desserts in Japan.  These items include: pancakes, yogurt, and plain fruit.  I'm not really sure what the story is with pancakes (or "hotcakes" as they're called here) - maybe the fact that it has the word "cake" in its name had something to do with it.  I suppose that the toppings are usually pretty sweet too (like syrup, fruit/jam, or even chocolate).  That reminds me, in Japan "jelly" (think PBJ) is called "jam," and "jello" (think Bill Cosby) is called "jelly"... Anyway, I'm not sure why yogurt is a dessert either, I mean frozen yogurt is considered dessert in the US too but regular yogurt just seems like a breakfast food to me.  As for fruits, I consider them to be snack or possibly breakfast items most of the time.  I say that fruit crosses over into the dessert category only when chocolate is involved (chocolate-covered strawberries anyone?). 

About ice cream in Japan, it is extremely hard to find cartons of ice cream to keep at home (most "large" ones seem to be about two pints).  But ice cream bars and treats are very popular and the grocery store has several sections dedicated to them.  When you order an ice cream sundae at a restaurant, chances are that you'll get soft-serve ice cream (disappointing).  When you order a parfait at a restaurant, chances are that you'll get a combination of soft-serve ice cream as a top layer and yogurt as a bottom layer (with the various flavors/syrups/fruits/cones in between and sprinkled on top).  Where I'm from a sundae has real ice cream and a parfait is just yogurt. 

Here's a selection of ice cream bars from an Aeon supermarket.  In the picture on the left notice the Dole fruit bars, various ice cream cups and cones, and in the back some mini Haagen Dazs cups.  In the right-hand picture notice the Power Rangers bars in the front and the various boxes and bags of "ice cream candy" cakes, and more bars farther back.

I'll have to write another post later about purely Japanese desserts and treats like daifuku (mochi with red bean paste) or zunda (sweetened, mashed green soybeans)...

I feel hungry now.  I saw a large pizza when watching a US TV show the other day (Breaking Bad if you must know) and now I seriously have a craving for Regina Pizza... they have such good food there.

Anyway, I'm going into Sendai tomorrow for my first attempt at the driving test.  Once I fail that I plan to retake it next week before my brother gets here on the 2nd.

Apartment Party!

My apartment building is split into two sections of four apartments each and all of the tenants are employed at the various schools in the area.  In my section there is a married couple (the wife, Natsu, works at one of my elementary schools and the husband, Ryo, at one of Anne's), an elementary school principal (Mori-san, also from one of Anne's schools), and Tanaka-san (from one of my elementary schools).  I'm not exactly sure how it started but I think it was the principal who came up with the idea of having a small dinner party so that we could get to know each other better (and I think he also wanted to practice his English).  So it was decided that Natsu would do the cooking and the party itself would be held in Mori-san's apartment.

Maybe it's because we're girls, but Ryo-sensei asked Anne and me to help out his wife with the cooking too.  I've gotta say, Japanese women are pretty amazing when it comes to cooking.  Keep in mind that a typical Japanese kitchen contains neither an oven nor a dishwasher.  Natsu was able to cook chicken, quiche, and ratatouille (<- thank you Pixar for teaching me to spell this) using only a small toaster-oven, two gas burners, and a fish grill.  In fact, most women in Japan are expected to cook a fresh dinner every evening even if they work during the day as well (they're not big into leftovers like we are in America).  Natsu's family actually owns a restaurant in Kesennuma and she said that she really enjoys cooking (as you can imagine, her dishes were delicious).  Anne and I had a good time hanging out with Natsu before the dinner-party started.  We helped out by making some rice balls and sticking toothpicks into some side-dishes - nothing too complicated (luckily).

The party itself was entertaining.  It started around 7:20 and didn't end until 11:30 even though it was a school night!  It turned out that Mori-san had quite the collection of bourbon which Anne was impressed to see since she used to live close to Bourbon county in the US.  There was plenty of beer, sake, and wine to go around (plus calpis soda for me).  We had several interesting conversations over the course of the evening and I was pleased to find that for most of the purely Japanese ones I was able to mostly follow what was being said (toward the end it got more difficult as I got more tired though).  Ryo speaks English well (and apparently can speak German really well) while Mori-san's English was so-so (he said he used to speak it better when he was younger but he's forgotten a lot of the vocabulary over the years).  For a while we spoke about the differences between different languages and how going from Japanese to English is very difficult because Japanese doesn't have some of the sounds that English does (like "l", "v", or even to an extent "w").  Ryo-sensei said that for him going from Japanese to German was easier since there weren't as many new sounds to learn.  He lived in Germany for a while but he noticed that many foreigners in Germany tended to speak English over German so he thought speaking English would be a good thing to learn too.

We talked for a while about how English is a global language but can be very different depending on the region.  I mentioned that my elementary students call the last letter of the alphabet "zed" (instead of "zee" like in the US) since a previous ALT had taught them that way.  Anne and I showed off our language skills a bit by saying the alphabets in French and Spanish, respectively.  We also mentioned that in the US the accents can be quite different depending on the region (we specifically talked about southern accents).  Ryo said that he had once tried to read Tom Sawyer but he found it too difficult to get past the dialogue between the characters.  When he first encountered the word "ain't" and tried to look it up in the dictionary he couldn't find it (of course).  So, even though he still has the book he has never been able to read the whole thing.  Anne and I said that if he had questions about it then we could try to help him out.

Anyway, when the teachers found out that my brother is coming to visit soon they said that we should have another dinner party with him, so that should be fun!

Summer Vacation is Soon!

OK, so apparently July is already halfway over, so I'm thinking it would be a good idea to change the format of my posts so that I feel more motivated to write in a timely manner.   I'm going to attempt to write shorter posts more often (ideally 2 - 3 times a week).  Let's see how it goes!

Anyway, I successfully gave all of my paperwork to the Driving Center and my practical test is scheduled for next Thursday (I figured I would schedule it during summer vacation).  School is still in session and will be until Friday the 20th, then all of my schools will be off until August 27th.  Of course, that doesn't mean that the middle school students won't be at school, classes won't be in session but many kids will be working on club activities.  Since I'm technically a city employee I will be expected to be preparing for my upcoming classes and also studying Japanese and whatnot.  This may be difficult as my brother will be visiting for a large chunk of the vacation (from August 2nd to 24th).

It's going to be awesome.  We'll probably end up hanging out around Minamisanriku for about a week, then traveling to Tokyo and beyond for a week before heading back up north.  Some of the things we may do include watching a Rakuten Eagles baseball game in Sendai, playing Japanese video games, karaoke and conveyor-belt sushi, climbing Mt. Tatsugane, going to a monkey park, going to a water park, visiting Tokyo Sky Tree, going to Disneyland, seeing the Avengers once it comes out, and going to some local summer festivals.  Like I said, awesome!

One more story for now:
On July 4th of course I mentioned to the students that it was American Independence Day and pointed out that I had attempted to wear red, white, and blue (like the flag!).  Meanwhile Anne was also telling her students a bit about the Fourth of July and once her English teacher had translated "independent," one of the students asked him (in Japanese) who the US became independent from.  The teacher pondered for a moment and then said, "France..."  Luckily Anne was able to follow the transaction and immediately stepped on the teacher's answer, explaining that of course it was Britain (and that's why we speak English in America).

More soon!