Shabu Shabu and Doctors Visit

Shabu Shabu Broth

I have died and gone to food heaven!
Last night Ben and I were invited to join the saito family for shabu shabu, it was utterly amazing! The restaurant had a system where you are given 90 minutes to order and eat as much as you want, during which you could order sushi, things to put in your shabu shabu, sides, and dessert. Every single aspect of the meal was amazing. The whole experience was amazing. When you walked into the restaurant there were lockers along the walls for you to put your shoes in. The ritual really set the mood. (There were slippers in the bathroom for cleanliness and comfort). The family had reserved its own room, the tables were low to the ground with cushions surrounding it. The floor was lower under the table, so you didn't need to sit on your knees or cross legged, but it mostly seemed to be a matter of preference how you should sit. There were burners situated on each of the tables for the Shabu Shabu broth. When we ordered they poured broth into a bowl on the burners, vegetables and noodles were then added. The whole mixture became the hot pot in which you dipped different meats, and mushrooms. The soup got better the longer it was enjoyed. It was really an amazing experience. I absolutely loved the shabu shabu. The sushi we had was also quite fantastic. I tried many of kinds of roe, I had a ton of types of tuna, and the eel was excellent. I really wish my stomach had been bigger so I could have eaten more. I also enjoyed many of the side treats which consisted of tempura, oolong tea, and green tea mochi. 

Ben still had room for dessert

We were invited to the shabu shabu dinner as a celebration of two of of the kids entering into elementary school, as well as a celebration of sena and her mothers birthdays. It was very fun, and I am so grateful that we were invited.

The kids thought it was really exciting to go under the tables

Ben and I tried almost all the sushi you see here ( I skipped squid)

Ben and I went to the doctors yesterday. It was thorough, and awkward... We had to go to get our foreigner entrance examinations which are necessary before working in Japan. For the examination we had to have blood tests, an eye test, a BMI examination, drug tests, STD tests, an x-ray of our lungs, and a cardiogram. Only the head doctor spoke English, but he did not participate in most of the examination, so I had to rely on miming and my minimal Japanese. For the most part it worked out really well, there were just two major times where the language barrier became awkward. I was absolutely terrified of the cardiogram. They attached clamps to my wrists and ankles, and then stuck suction cups to my ribs, I thought for sure it was going to zap me so I was terrified! The cardiogram showed it. The more awkward part of the examination was during the X-Ray. I thought for sure they had told me to take my top off... so I did... I was wrong.
 The doctors at the clinic did not wear gloves, even when drawing blood. I'm not sure whether it is a Japanese thing or just something specific to that office, but to me it was really off-putting. For a place that seems to be fairly germaphobic, I would think doctors would be extremely careful.
 In the end everything worked out, but it could have gone a lot more smoothly. The grand total for the bill came out to $150 per person, without insurance.

Welcome Dinner and Transportation

Delicious Hot Pot

Last night the Saito's had a welcome dinner for us. The food was amazing it was nabe, a sort of hot pot, with tofu, pork, a Korean broth, with assorted vegetables and bean sprouts. It was so tasty. It was fun just hanging out with the people in the house, drinking beer, and watching TV.  I tried natto last night... YUCK! It was really gross, it was slimy, and sticky and just generally terrible, it looks like pinto beans, but they are fermented soy beans. Yuck, Yuck, Yuck. Apparently most foreigners hate it, they really wanted to see how I would react. They all laughed at the memory of Ben trying it for the first time. Ben apparently had a much more dramatic reaction then I did.

Senna played piano for us.

Family time!

Ben and I are getting the hang of transportation here. Trains are a very central part of culture and city here. When people tell you where they live they generally tell you that they live a certain distance by walking from a station.  Right now Ben and I are a 10 minute walk from Musahi-Urawa Station. Signs tell you how far it is to walk to what ever you might be interested in. Train stations here are a central hub for commerce, generally some sort of shopping area is connected to a station. There is always cheap food and bakeries around the stations too, so the stations constantly smell fantastic.

Pricing map for the trains

Trains here are very easy to use. I am able to get any where I am interested despite my general illiteracy in Japanese. There are people stationed at every stop with the soul purpose of assisting you in your journey. Even getting out to really small towns is very easy by train. Ben and I had and interview in a town of 2,000 people, and we had no trouble getting there. The train stations advertise that nowhere in the city will you ever be more the a 20 minute walk from a train station, and so far that has been the case for us. The train system is extremely convenient, but it is not cheap. It seems on average that for every 5 minutes you are on the train it costs about 100 yen. For Ben and I to get to Shinjuku it cost us each about 300 yen, for us to get to Tokigawa, and hour and a half long commute, it cost about 2000 yen per person. I think in the long run it will be much cheaper then owning a car.

Bike Parking area.

Biking is also really big here. Mothers here must be powerfully strong because Ben and I have seen more then a few times a mother with one child in a basket at the front of her bike, and another child behind the seat. People here don't really seem to lock their bikes. A few bikes have internal locks, but often people just bring their bikes to a bike parking area, and leave them. I take it as a very good sign that people don't see the need to lock their bikes.

Sidewalks here in Saitama, The yellow in the middle is impossible to walk on in high heals

Cars are often hoisted up off the ground for parking.

I read a statistic once that the number one cause of death for tourists was due to traffic accidents. This place makes me believe it. It isn't so much that drivers are bad here; I just completely and utterly do not understand how traffic flow works! Not only do they drive on the other side of the streets here, but all the signs look completely different, the lines on the road make no sense to me, and traffic lights often seem to be more of a suggestion then a requirement. I am completely baffled by the entire system so far, and the difficulty of the writing system here does not help at all. The system seems to work for them though, I have not seen any traffic congestion, nor any accidents. Luckily for me, cars in the city seem to be extremely unnecessary.

Cute pigs near the doctors office

Ben and I are going to get our foreigner health examinations today. We will be completely lost, as neither of us has any vocabulary to describe doctory stuff (in either language really ;)). So it should be an interesting experience.

Ben and I have also been invited to a party tonight to celebrate some of the host family's kids going to kindergarten. I know it's going to be cute.

Random Sidewalk Tile

Japanese Oranges

Lazy Day and Orange Yolks

Cute little Sena, She is a high spirited little girl

Ben and I gave ourselves a nice, easy day, today.
We spent the morning with the Saito family. Ben played video games with Aren, and Sena entertained me most of the morning.

Aren and his cousins trying to figure out the video games.

The room has a really high ceiling, and a cool loft.

Ben and my room at the Saito's house

Pachinko is a type of gambling

For your little kobitos.

Ben and I went on a short walk and found a pachinko place. We thought it was really funny that there was an attached children's center.

Billboard with dirrerent types of ramen. Notice the red egg yolks.

 Eggs here have very orange yolks. At first I thought it was an aesthetic thing done for pictures, but when we cooked eggs the raw yolk started out almost red, and once cooked all the way it looked very orange. According to the Japanese, chickens fed too many antibiotics produce yellow yolks.

Apple tea is weird

These Fancy Pants apples were very well protected.

Ben and I had fast food for lunch. It was cheap, but not particularly tasty.