Kyu-shoku (Japanese for "School Lunch")

This is what I had for lunch today. It's a "donburi" which is Japanese for "rice bowl." This kind of rice bowl is called a "Hanjuku-don" because it's been stolen from the Koreans and then modified and enhanced by the Japanese (like so many things here).

It's rice, then stir fried beef (spicy), and then a poached egg on top. When you get the bowl, you poke the egg with your chopstick, releasing all of the runny yolk onto your rice and beef, and then you stir vigorously with your chopsticks while smacking your lips loudly. That's pink pickled ginger there in the corner (gross, I know, I threw it out).

It's quite yummy. I am trying a new o-bento (lunch box) every day for the month of February. More to come.

Engrish III

Here's a "love letter" I got from one of the 8th graders today. Her Engrish is actually imroving from the last love letter!













Pet Shop in Osaka -for the relaxation of dogs gallery... What!?









"Man this chocolate tastes like...."

Gong Shi Gong Shi

... that means Happy New Year in Chinese! Chinese New Year is one of my favorite holidays. Everybody gets together and on the eve of New Year, the house is cleaned so that old spirits and the past year's energy is swept out of the house, and the family bids the past year adieu, and then the next day the family welcomes the New Year into the house. Huge meals are eaten, kowtows and greetings are exchanged, and my favorite part - the red envelopes are given out to kids and the juvenile minded (that's me). Whoo!! Bring on the cash-eesh!

The current Chinese New Year exchanged by my family goes like this:

Hsing Nian Kwai Loh (Happy New Year)
Gong Shi Fah Tzai (Happy New Year)
Wan Sui Ru Ii (Luck and blessings upon you)
Chian Bow Na Lai (Now Bring on the money!!)

HA! The past few years, my New Year tradition was to go to San Francisco's Chinatown the night before and have a big huge dinner with friends, and then the next day get stinking drunk at the Chinese New Year parade through downtown SF/Chinatown. This year... I ordered a "Chinese Rice Bowl" for my lunch and am ordering Chinese takeout since I'm working on lesson plans tonight. A little anticlimactic, but I plan on making it up next year by heading to The Mainland (China, that is), or going to Taiwan to hang out with some family.

Past years have been really fun growing up - one of my favorite memories was celebrating Chinese New Year with the Chinese community in Potsdam (upstate New York, where I grew up). All the Chinese in town would turn out of the woodwork (all 10 families) and we'd have a huge dinner together, followed by a talent show. One year, Scott Shen and I dressed up like twin Fu Man Chu's and went around bowing to people and reading New Year's proclimations from scrolls that we carried in our robes. Aw yeah, the good old days.


(One of my life's goals is to grow a Fu Man Chu that's this badass.)

Anyway, Happy New Year everybody, and yes, the blogging will resume. I got a little sidetracked with this new video game I got over winter break, Explosive Diarrhea from India, my superhot girlfriend moving to Japan, trips to Osaka and Kobe, and of course it's snowboard season (videos to be posted!!). Thanks for all the emails checking in and demanding more misadventures, I'm surprised that people are actually reading this drivel! Just goes to show, a little T&A and you can sell anything.