Happy Anniversary

Can you believe it, we have been married for a year?!?! I can't because some days it feels like we have been married for like 20 years. Not sure if that is a good thing or bad thing!

Anywho, it's been a pretty crazy year: marriage, finishing graduate school, the big move to Japan, settling in, learning not to kill each other again, traveling, and just finally being with each other.

I'm lucky to have found such a great guy and one who still wants to be around even after putting up with me!

We're keeping it low key and making dinner together and sharing a nice bottle of wine. Then tomorrow we are going out to dinner to officially celebrate.
Mike wanted to be traditional and the first year of marriage gift is paper...
Mike received 2 framed pictures, 1 of me and then 1 of the 2 of us.
I received tickets to the Orchestra.

Happy Anniversary....love you

Azabu-juban

We were busy bees on Saturday. After friendship day, we took a break from the heat and cooled off inside before heading out again. This time we headed over to the annual Azabu-juban festival. This the epitome of Japanese festivals = extremely crowded with people. This particular festival is all about the street booths that sell various things, including a nice array of international dishes.

We made it through one of the streets, and after about 30 minutes were finally able to get a drink at one of the stalls. Then we stopped to hear the drums. It was SOOOOO crowded that I couldn't take it anymore. We stayed for a total of an hour and called it quits, which was the smart thing. Here are few pictures for you too see how crowded it was. The pictures aren't great because short people don't have long arms to get over all the tall people.




Another cultural experienced checked off the list!

Friendship Day

Yesterday was Friendship day at the Embassy compound grounds. There was no real advertisement for it except in the Embassy newsletter. Mike had told me about this event, specifically because it was the only place he was able to find budlight. We got some people together to go with us, but didn't have tickets. Mike and I left and arrived at the compound 20 minutes before they were going to sell tickets. Here were the lines Now its hard to see, but there were 2 lines, one just to buy tickets and then one just to get into the compound. We were in line for at least an hour before we were able to buy tickets and then waited in the other line for about 20-30 more minutes just to get in. The sad part was about 10 minutes after we bought our tickets, there was an announcement saying they had sold out of tickets. We lucked out. So we inside and its American!! You can see why:

We ate American food and drank beer, but it was soooo HOT that all I wanted was water. It was an interesting event complete with a parade and a show for the kids. Right before we left Mike decided to check out the show and thought it was hilarious. here is the video of seasme street singing in Japanese (please forgive the man who got in the way)



And finally a picture of us, to document we were out in the heat and made inside to walk on Main Street USA

Hibiya Bon-dori festival

On Friday, my friend Jenn, invited us to join her at the Hibiya festival, as she said it is one of her favorite things to do here in Japan. We went and it was fun and definitely different from other things. In true Japanese fashion, there were stalls of food and drinks to be had, but the main attraction was all the people dancing around this fountain. And it wasn't just any dance, but choregraphed dances that people knew or didn't know. The women closest to the fountain were the experts and dressed in yukata.

The less experienced people (i.e., myself and my friend Casey) were at the way back!


After some food and drinks, I decided to try again with Jenn. This time we did much better.


Here is video of the dancing, so you get an idea of what was going on.


It was a fun event and I'm glad that Jenn told us about it.

Furniture

As some of you know, we had new furniture being delivered. Our lease on the current furniture was up and we had some money left over to purchase some new things. We got some things that we needed and then some things that I just wanted, specifically to add color or because it was old.

First off, a wine fridge, to house all the wine that we love to drink. It has dual temperature settings and is quite nice.


My prize piece, which I had been searching for was an antique Japanese piece called a tansu. I went shopping everywhere to find something I liked and I did, except they were all very expensive. I finally found a smaller piece that was in the rental budget price and couldn't resist. It's small but fits nicely in its space. It is from the Meiji period, making it about 110-120 years old. The store owner wasn't sure the exact number, but says its a good approximation. I think Mike likes, though I am not really sure. I figure if we are here, we might as well take back something that is authentic from Japan and not a remake. You can definitely tell its old because the drawers have that old wood smell and there are a lot of kinks, but I love it.



In true Mike fashion, he was only concerned with the electronics and a new entertainment system. Here is the one we had before, which was not big enough to house all the DVDs, not to mention the games.



Here is the new entertainment system. It is definitely larger and very black. hence why I also leased various colored vases to add some color.


Here are the last 2 big pieces that we got, a cabinet (similar to a china cabinet) and a dresser for the bedroom.


Now that all the furniture is here, I will start to arrange the vases and pieces in the proper place.
The new appliance that I don't like is our blender, which sucks. I thought it would be a great blender, but no, its not. The blade just isn't good enough, so its a good thing I also got a food processor!

Canal Cafe

On Sunday, we joined our friends Dave and Kanako, who had been staying with us, and went to Canal cafe. It's this hidden area in the middle of Tokyo and I couldn't believe it was there.

Here is the Cafe at the start of the late afternoon from both angles.



After a couple of hours and lots of drinks, not to mention the heat!


Here are some of our friends. Dave and Kanako, and 3 of Kanako's friends, who we met that night.


It was actually a really fun afternoon/evening. According to Kanako, this is what the Japanese like to do, hang out, drink and have a good time, all afternoon. I would have appreciated cooler weather, but what can you do. This is definitely a place we will be going back to once the weather cools off a bit!

Tokyo Bay Fireworks

Yesterday night we went over to Mike's boss' house to watch the annual fireworks over Tokyo Bay. He lives on the 48th floor and had a great view. The whole project was invited and I got to meet everyone Mike works with. Every summer, Japan does a series of festivals that includes spectacular firework displays. I mean they go all out and its amazing. I didn't believe anyone when they said the fireworks last about 1.5 hours, but sure enough, they did last that long and they were FANTASTIC! In true Japanese tradition, you wear your summer clothes to these types of festivals, so both us did. The fireworks started at 7 and finished with an incredible finale around 8:20. Here are some pictures from the start of the show. So I really wanted a picture of us with the fireworks in the background, but that was kind of tricky. So here are fireworks, with us barely visible and then us visible, with no fireworks. I didn't get a video of the finale, but I did get one while all these colorful fireworks were going off. After the fireworks, we weren't sure what to do and then Dave suggested screen golf, which of course, Mike got excited about. We golfed in our costumes and did quite well. Amanda in yukata & flip flops Yoko in yukata & Japaense shoes Kanako in a dress and heels Mike in his Jimbe It was a fun evening and golf was great! Thanks to Dave, Kanako, Yoko, & Rob for all the fun and the late night gyoza

Omikoshi

So I have been lazy and haven't posted some of the cool cultural things we have done. A couple of weeks ago, we went to an Omikoshi party that the contracting office Mike works in was having. So "Omikoshi" is a festival that prays/celebrates something for the coming year. A portable shrine is assembled and people are suppose to carry it around a specified path. The portable shrine is actually kind of big and heavy, from what Mike said. This omikoshi was praying for a good crop season. Here they are bringing the shrine to get it ready to bless and then start the parade! Praying/blessing of the shrine So here we are prior to starting the festival. Everyone was in t-shirts, made especially for this occasion. Prior to starting, the president of Chiyoda said some words, then everyone prayed, and then we all drank sake to start. I didn't believe Mike when he said that the chanting and bobbing of the shrine lasts until the next station, but it. After arriving at the first station, we were greeted with beverages! Next, all the ladies were able to take a turn and carry the shrine. I did not partake, but I am ok with that. This crazy girl was about to fall out of these shoes. The women got about half way to the 2nd station, before they switched out. Next it was Mike's turn and he got right in front, so of course I took pictures. You will see some random guy in front of him and he was always looking at the camera thinking I was taking pictures of him, when I wasn't.

Here are a few videos of the processional. Here is where you can see Mike rolling his eyes and me laughing.


The chanting keeps going!


This was actually really fun and I had a good time. After arriving at the 3rd and final station, everyone went into the cafeteria to have a party, which was great. There was food and drinks galore. Here I am with the beer girls. I realize that Mike should have posed with them, but I did instead!

Definitely glad I went down to meet Mike and partake in this experience. Let's hope they have a good crop and a good year, this year!

Cooking school

I know, its been a while since my last cooking lesson, but finally a Japanese meal that I wanted to cook. As usual there were 4-5 dishes. The main dish was a rice bowl that was topped with chicken, onions, and greens things mixed with egg in a dashi/sake sauce.

So first we started off by prepping everything and making a homemade mayo, yes, homemade. They love mayo on everything, so we made some using an egg white, vinegar, salt and vegetable oil. We put it on our veggies and then they were baked to a golden crisp.



With the rest of the mayo, we mixed it with some fresh daikon and canned scallops. It was actually pretty good and not that mayo-ie. Next we worked on a gelatinous dish that was made from egg whites, soy milk, mirin, and salt. It was put in the fridge to harden and then topped with a yuzu and dashi powder mix. not my favorite dish of the afternoon as I tasted it and didn't eat much.

We also made homemade ice cream, which we did not need an ice cream maker for. Once it was ready, we topped it with some green tea powder for presentation.

We were just about to finish our main dish and it called for 1 egg + the egg white of another egg to be mixed with chicken and onions. Little did I know, we were going to need the egg yolk and mine accidently broke. I was like "oops, oh well" My teacher was like "its ok, I'll egg you another one." I was confused and then looked at my menu with pictures to see that the egg yolk was suppose to go in the middle of the mixture once we put it on the rice. I told her it was ok, but in true Japanese fashion, presentation is key, so she brought me a whole other egg and said, "it has to look right for the picture. Oh. So here is our finished course and the upclose of my rice bowl with a raw egg yolk.




Everything was decent and yes, I did break the yolk and ate it with the rest of the dish. It wasn't bad and definitely a first, but I don't plan on doing that again. My Japanese language teacher told me you can actually cook the yolk and then place it on the bowl. Oh well, until my next class, eat good food!

Ethiopia visits Amanda

Well, at least their food did. I went to our farmer's market and bought a whole bunch of vegetables this morning. I got this huge cabbage for 200 yen = $2. I didn't take a picture of the whole thing, but double this half and that was the size of it.



I figured I needed to make something with cabbage in it, so I looked for some recipes and via All Recipes, I found one. It was an Ethiopian dish, but just want I needed. I am trying to be more health conscious since we have slacked it the last couple of weeks and all veggie meals are definitely a way to do it. This recipe was great and called for 1/2 of a cabbage, onion, sliced carrots, sea salt, pepper, cumin, and tumeric. I didn't have tumeric, but a substitute is dry/ground mustard, which I had. Here is my dinner in the making.
The onions and carrots were sauted and I just added the cabbaged

Adding the potatoes...

The flavors all went well together and the aroma was amazing. I decided I needed some wine with dinner, but we only had red, so I went out to get some. Just my luck, I found a South African Chenin Blanc, so of course I bought it. (I realize wine isn't that healthy, but hey, it's Saturday night)


Here's my dinner for 1 because Mike is/was at a golf tournament. Bon Appetit....


It was African inspired night in Amanda's kitchen and it was good seeing as how my plate was clean.