Discovering Home

Whew, the weather has been B A D.

That's right, BAD with all caps! It has been switching between heavy rains and moderate winds to summer humidity and heat here in Saitama.

The sun allows for me to take my bike out and around town though, and explore more of Misato and the neighboring towns of Yoshikawa and Koshigaya.

While I'm not a big fan of mosquitoes and other creepy crawlies that tend to come out near bodies of water, I can't deny that I'm very lucky to be surrounded by such beautiful rivers. Foster City had quite a few lagoons, but nothing half as wide as the Nakagawa.

I also found the cutest bridge to cross the Nakagawa, and it reminded me more of a shinto shrine tori than a bridge.

Right over this bridge is a mall called Lake Town. It's one of the rare places with an "outlet" although I have yet to check out how cheap their outlet items are. While before I used to take the train, if I want to visit Lake Town for a look around, I might simply go by bike from now on since the view is so fantastic.

A friend also treated me to some deliciously fantastic 和食 (washoku), traditional Japanese food. There were all sorts of items, including pickled squid, tororo (grated nagaimo yam), burdock stir fry, and more.

Having tororo was a first, and although I had seen it in other food-related shows before, it didn't look particularly appetizing. However, the one bowl of tororo completely changed my mind. It has an incredibly clean taste on the palate despite it being a bit slimy. Some research on the good ol' world wide web also seems to make it fairly easy to make, so I might try it out at some point.

Another surprising instant favorite was the pickled squid. While it did look suspicious with its limp strands of squid floating in some thin unidentified orange-red sauce, my first taste of it had me hooked. The pickling retained the texture of the squid, and the (still unidentified) red sauce gave it a salty bite, which went perfectly with the steaming hot rice.

All in all, a delicious meal with a lot of first-time dishes! I'm super happy I got the chance to try it out (*´ω｀*)

Before I met with my friend for dinner though, I managed to find the local library. I also picked up some awesome free books! While my Japanese reading comprehension is by no means up to par, I think the pretty pictures in the books will motivate me to actually pick up a dictionary.

This coming week is known as Golden Week in Japan. Yes, they call it Golden Week in Japan-ified English. It's various national holidays that fall within the same week, so this means I get a breather before I dive back into the world of elementary school education and overactive school kids.

Until then, see you next time!

Around 三郷市

These past two days have been nonstop traveling all around 三郷市, getting lost and relearning some of the most important parts of childhood.

Riding a bike.

Due to Misato's setup, there are some things within walking distance and other things within biking/busing distance. However, busing can get expensive, so for a year-long resident like me, the best option is the one-time cost bike that will (hopefully) take me wherever I need to go provided I know the way.

The yellow color makes me want to call it "Kinkin." Kin iro (金色) being Japanese for "yellow." Kinkin (キンキン) can also mean a variety of other things in Japanese, ranging from "brain freeze" to "soon, before long" to "quite cheerful." I could probably take the latter two and skip out on the brain freeze.

The bike riding itself was daunting at first. Most of the time, I had trouble starting/stopping, so I probably need to make some seat adjustments, but I managed to survive, which really says a lot considering my lack of athleticism.

T and I pretty much walked all over lower Misato in search of a recycle shop that would sell used bikes, but in the end we found a much closer option at a Japanese chain super store called Don Quixote.

Don Quixote probably has everything you could possibly need in life, including (my favorite!) a giant supermarket downstairs complete with fresh vegetables, fruits, meats and seafood for great quality.

I should also mention that Japanese mushrooms are MUCH cheaper here. It's a good thing I like them since I believe I will be eating much more of them over the next year.

The flurry of activity these past few days have included meeting Misato's Board of Education and the principals, vice principals and teachers of my four elementary schools. Some of this took place at Misato City Hall, which was also decorated with the city mascots, Kai-chan and Tsubu-chan.

T, KB and I also took care of some logistics at the Misato City Hall, and KB was kind and generous enough to treat us to a delicious bowl of karaage donburi which consists of Japanese-style fried chicken with mayo on rice. Mine also includes of heaps of benishoga (pickled ginger) because I absolutely love the stuff with rice.

And with that, I will leave you till next time!