Sand Bath: Ibusuki, Japan

Popular sand bath at Ibusuki, Japan.

Ibusuki City is located almost an hour train ride from Kagoshima, Kyushu. It’s been on my bucket list for the longest time as this past weekend I finally had the chance to get around to visiting a Sunaburo (aka. sand bath). It’s been a traditional cleansing treatment for the past 300 years, and recently has been working it’s way on promoting itself as one of the most unique experiences on Kyushu.

The weight and natural thermal heated sand is very effective to cleanse the body through perspiration, and improving circulation. The suggested time for a good sweat is at least 10 minutes, however, if it gets too hot they don’t recommend guests push themselves to continue.

Sunamushi Kaikan Saraku

A popular sand bath house in Ibusuki. From Ibusuki Station it’s either a 5 min taxi ride, or a nice scenic 15-20 minute walk along the beach. Walking along the beach can be interesting to see the steam rising from the sand…just by looking at it made my summer day feel hotter.

When entering the sand bath everyone strips down and heads out only wearing the robe provided by the bath house, carrying with them their towel and maybe any toiletries to wash off afterward ~ Camera included! On the beach, the attendant will have prepared a little body dip in the sand with a well defined derriere-grove! Now that’s detail!

At first the feeling of being “buried” made me a bit uneasy, because it’s not a common situation I come across on an occasional basis…not to mention that the feeling of “rising up from the ground” was pretty memorable. It’s probably the closest zombie experience I’ll ever have with my conscious still intact.

Sunamoshi Kaikan. The famous sand bath house in Ibusuki. Admission: ¥900

Making Cute Bentos

Recently I have been fascinated with Japanese bentos (meal boxes), and I always wished that I could make my food look fun for me to eat. Maybe then I’d be inclined to bring lunches to work, rather than buy, and that I would feel so “ugh” when I would look at my boring lunch…now the question is where to start. My Japanese literacy level isn’t that good, so me finding a class wasn’t so successful thanks to my understanding. Maybe it’s all for the better, because I’m sure the only members in those classes would be moms…

My goal in life…because who wouldn’t want a lunch box full of Totoro?

I started getting a couple bento magazines here and there for ideas, and I would often go to the mall and check out their kitchenware for bentos. Because I know I can’t go fancy just yet, so for starters I went and bought these little holders.

Bento food and sauce holders/containers. To add cuteness and colors to every bento box.

The animals are containers that can hold sauce, or small veggies/fruit. The colorful cupcake-cup-lookalikes are rubber holders help separate veggies, salad or fruit. I already had a few bento boxes, so I thought I was fine…and then I realized the importance of size ~ including my favorite yellow bento!

Starting off my bento stride, nice and easy. Rice with stir fry.

For more mature looking lunches, I’m sure my yellow bento box would have been sufficient. It was pretty straightforward, rice, veggies & meat. Now, trying to use my new containers was where the problem came in :S

Trying to use my new bento animal containers.
Mushroom cream pasta & salad. Inside piggy is Rosemary Reduction Balsamic Vinegar (from Whistler, BC 🙂 )

My favorite sauce in the world! While I loved the look, & I was excited about finally being able to use my animals ~ my excitement came a bit prematurely. Actually, I found out that all my animals are too tall for my current bento boxes… *sigh*, time to go out and get a new one.

…Poor lil’ piggy is too tall for my bento!!! >.<…

Kokura Castle & Hanami

This week is filled with Hanami (flower watching) gatherings. Families, couples, or groups of friends head to the park where they eat, drink and get merry under the sakura blossoms. Hanami season (or sakura season) usually happens around the week of late March, into early April. Depending on the weather as well.

Hanami (Sakura season) Late March – Early April.

I managed to drag my friend into taking an early JR train to reserve space (thank you fellow Canadian!), as usually the park fills pretty quickly. Considering it was a breezy, cold day, it took a while for the park to fill. In efforts to spot ourselves easily in the predicting crowds, I had brought along my Canadian flag and we hooked it up to a branch.

Canada marks our spot!

Kokura Castle is located in Kitakyushu. It’s a pretty popular location for hanami…actually, all castle locations are pretty popular as the backdrop is beautiful.

Kokura Castle

Kokura Castle & Hanami

The park was the busiest around noon as people came to enjoy lunch. It was a lot of fun that we ended up staying longer in the park than intended. Then, in our “enlightened” state, we headed off to karaoke and spent the next few hours singing away.

White Day Gifts

Though it was yesterday, I must admit that life hasn’t been the greatest lately. Life has been a pile up of bad luck lately, and for some reason it all decided to accumulate around the same time. It’s a mystery as to how it even got to the point that it did. In short, it’s been a while since I could genuinely smile at work…

Japanese Gift Giving
Though people aim to give gifts on the day of, some may find it convenient to give it a day either before or after. Yesterday, I was more than happy to receive the sweet gifts of kindness from my staff members. Everyone was really nice, but today was the ultimate – blown out of the water, I know how to make you smile, gift. Walking into work, I could only imagine how it’s another day that will take forever to passover. Headed over to my desk and was totally taken by surprise. One of my teachers, (whose crazy about Gundam) assembled a model, and gifted it to me with chocolates!

Best White Day Gift
The chocolates didn’t even matter, though I love Godiva, nothing compares to Gundam! Feeling so happy, I made my way to his desk to thank him – and then I did the unimaginable that is second nature to Westerners. I hugged him. Boom! My teacher blushed and hugged back!
A head teachers saw, smiled and laughed. It’s definitely something the Japanese DON’T do, especially at work. But I’m Canadian – and that’s how we roll!

Thank you for making my day^^ sensei.

Who cares about Godiva, when there’s Gundam!

White Day

While Valentine’s Day was the gift receiving day for males, White Day (March 14) is the female-receiving counterpart. All guys who received a gift, should return the gesture on this special day.

Gifts usually come as chocolates, or sweets. Either way, it’s part of Japanese culture that guys spend more money on the gifts to girls. My coworker joked with me, that girls can go cheap on the guy’s gift – but not vice versa. “It’s for their sense of pride if they know what’s good for them”, my coworker smiled.

Happy White Day!

Japanese Expressions Through Tea

One of my senior teachers has taken on the happy duty of teaching me a new “cool” expression at least each day.I look forward to our daily chats, as I have found myself to remember these newly learned words and expressions better than what my textbook offers. The past couple of expressions have resonated in my brain with an affiliation of tea. My way of attempting to remember words, by linking them to something I hopefully know or recognize. Or maybe I’m just really craving tea.

 

Japanese Expressions with “Tea”

Me-cha Me-cha: As if you were saying “Matcha Tea”

Extremely, or totally. This can be used as a replacement instead of saying Totemo, for kids to young adults. Only used among peers or younger, and most definitely not to be used with seniors or higher ranks.

Example: Me-cha Me-cha kakkoii (Totally cool!)

I said this in conversation with a fellow junior teacher who exclaimed it was a “dirty word”, as in, this isn’t something an academic lady would say. Instead, (to him at least) it gives off the impression as we would usually perceive a Western stereotype of being “blonde”. This teacher usually likes to keep me in line by having me learn “clean” Japanese, to which I usually continue using the phrase anyway because I know it bugs him. Watching him get all worked up is quite entertaining.

~Chai mashita: Like “Chai Tea”

Giving an expression that you accidently did something by mistake. With a smile, this is considered a cute expression to saying “Oppsies, silly me!”.

I was told that in response, any anger or ill feelings the other party might of had will become ‘light-hearted and humored’. Haven’t had a chance to try it yet, and not sure if I want to. Probably the last thing I want is make a Japanese person angry, here.

Example: “LL room wa ichai mashita” (I went to the LL room by mistake)

                    “~ichai mashita” (I went to…by mistake)

                    “~michai mashita” (I saw…by mistake)

                    “~tabechai mashita” (I ate… by mistake)

Valentine’s Day in Japan

Valentine’s Day is soon around the corner. While in other places of the world, people are preparing their gifts & cards for lovers and friends. Here in Japan, Valentine’s Day is the gift giving day from women to men only, or between female friends. And so, there are gorgeously decorated chocolates everywhere!

Chocolate balls with awesome designs

Valentine’s Day

It’s most common to gift chocolates on Valentine’s Day. Many Japanese men look forward to Valentine’s Day, to see how much they will get. In school, is almost a popularity contest. So both students and teachers look forward to numbers. Funny enough, a co-teacher is not fond of eating sweets, but he told me that he hopes to get a lot of chocolate from students and staff members. So what will he do with it, if he doesn’t like eating sweets? I offered to eat it for him :).

Decorative chocolate fans.

When everything Japanese food related looks delicious! I really wish I could eat everything I see. Let’s also not forget about presentation, both in the look of the sweets themselves, but also the packaging. Japan gets an A++ for most creative and innovative presentation and packaging!

 

Mmm…boxed chocolates…

My friend and I stumbled upon this one counter. After picking your chocolates there are three types of casings to choose from: Quilted Pink, Slick Black, or Swarovski White – that actually has a Swarovski crystal on the box.

Quilted Pink & Black Slick chocolate cases

It can be said that in Japan, not just women like pretty stuff.

*Note: That while it may seem unfair to the girls, females will get their day in March (‘White Day’). The perk about being a girl is, we don’t have to spend a lot on the guy’s gift, but men are more inclined to spend more on their gifts for us ladies.

 

 

Early Valentine’s Gift
Thank you to my friend for the early Valentine’s Day gift ^^. I’ll cherish this box forever 😉

Swarovski crystal boxed chocolates

Setsubun (bean throwing)

Happy 2011 Chinese New Year, and Happy Setsubun!

While the Chinese New Year date changes yearly according to the lunar calendar, in Japan, every February 3rd is Setsubun (bean throwing).

Setsubun Tradition

Children wear “devil” looking masks as they throw beans outside. The beans are to chase the evils away and make way for the good luck.

After cleaning the school, a couple of first year classes got to go out, wear masks and they hurled beans into the distance. Usually this is done at home, or at a festival gathering, so this was the first time students got to do it in the school. While throwing beans, they would call out: oni wa soto (evil go out), fuku wa uchi (luck into the house/life).

Japanese Devil Masks

Setsubun Traditional Food

A teacher told me that Japanese people like to eat long Maki rolls while praying for good fortune. He also told me that the Maki rolls are to be eaten facing a certain direction, which varies depending on the year and season.

I didn’t think much of it, actually forgot about it, until I had decided to visit the grocery store that evening. There were TONS of Maki rolls in the cooked foods section. So much variety, it was hard to pick…darn, wish I hadn’t already made my lunch for the next day.

Long Maki roll for Setsubun

I assume because I’m not Japanese the eating direction won’t pertain to me…but just in case, I’ll rotate in my seat every so often making sure to hit the direction at one point.

Christmas Cake

For the Christmas season, it’s very popular for families to do two things:

1) Order in, most likely KFC. Fried chicken is said to be big out here for the holidays.

2) Ordering a Christmas Cake.

 

It’s a bit commercialized. There really is no historical, or cultural tradition. It just became integrated to be part of the family moment.

There are tons of designs, flavors and sizes. Depending on how early you order them from your grocery store, or bakery you can sometimes get deals, discounts or extra points on your point card. They are delicious though.

Vanilla Christmas Cake

Christmas Cake saying: There’s a saying, and hopefully it’s a dying joke…that when girls hit the age 25 they are considered Christmas cakes. In reference to Dec 25, the cake is fresh and ready to eat ~ in metaphorical terms, the girl is ready to be married, and at the age of 25 it is considered the best time to have a child. It’s a terrible reference, but once girls turn 26 (in reference to Dec 26), they are considered old Christmas cakes…as in a cake that’s passed its date.

…although I’m sure no one can resist still eating a cake that’s a day old!

Chocolate Christmas Cake

 

Octoberfest In Fukuoka

On Friday after work a few teachers and I went over to Bayern Fukuoka. A German sports bar downtown, and the only international German bar recognized by Germany itself. Well, the owner is German and married to a Japanese woman. Neither the teachers nor I have been, so we were all pretty excited. There are tons of stuff happening all around Fukuoka for Octoberfest though, this is just one of them.

Tabe-hodai & Nomi-hodai
Here in Japan they have this awesome thing called “Tabe-hodai” (all you can eat) and “Nomi-hodai” (all you can drink). Drinks include both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks 🙂
Prices are different wherever you go, but it’s probably the most interesting-est and coolest culture point about Japan.

Bayern & Octoberfest!

During the day, Bayern is a cafe style restaurant. There’s a menu, as well as bakery that takes up the left-side of the place, while the standing sports bar is in the back.

For Octoberfest, Bayern was offering Nomi-houdai & tabe-houdai for this event! Men were $40, and women were $30; plus, a $10 refundable deposit for a HUGE 1L drinking mug they give you. It felt like it was triple the size of those A&W mugs…Don’t lose it as that is your ticket to Nomi-hodai…but I was contemplating of just keeping the mug and not getting back my deposit. I didn’t know I could have done this until AFTER ><.

Armed with a colorful plastic wristband for the Tabe-hodai we headed in. It was slightly dim and a touch crowded by certain areas of the bar. Everyone was watching the soccer game Japan VS Argentina. The food was buffet style, and served in small portions.

Everything was delicious. The food was mainly German, with a few bits of Japanese options for the locals. It was delicious, and kept eating well into the night while my teachers had stopped after the first hour. I think my body missed Western food quite a bit.There was a huge drink menu for the Nomi-hodai, which included 6 German beers, a few Japanese alcoholic beverages, Western cocktails and highballs, non-alcoholic stuff, and more.

Bayern Fukuoka, International German Bar

Nijiikai – Shidax Karaoke

Usually with parties, there’s always an after party (or nijiikai). People head over to another place to drink, eat…and in many popular cases, Karaoke!

Shidax karaoke chain

After Bayern’s we went for a karaoke nijiikai! Shidax is one of the bigger karaoke chains, and really good in terms of song selection, cleanliness and services. Karaoke is quite cheap here, we got a deal of $10 for two hours. Sometimes you can get sets, like lunch & karaoke package.
The Shidax that I went to had an all you can drink (non-alcohol) station that hugged the side of the grand staircase, all guests were free to use this bar.

We sang for two hours, killed our throats and didn’t get home till 2:30am. The DD and I were both pretty awake considering we both had 2 cups of coffee at the bar. It was hard not to avoid going out for some late night ramen ~ sanjiikai!! (after-after party, or 3rd party).

Shidax’s main foyer & drink bar on the side

In case all the rooms are booked, guests can wait it out, and Karaoke in the waiting area until a room is available.