The Shironowaru

Ok, sorry this blogs been a bit slow coming but o well, its here now.

So last Thursday me and Ayae went to the infamous Komeda Coffee. This is a chain of coffee shops around Aichi prefecture, which pretty much everyone (or everyone in Aichi prefecture) knows about.

One of my adult students had been repeatedly telling me that I had to go there to try the mighty Shironowaru, which was a dessert which they invented that they are famous for.

Anyway we have a Komeda about 20 metres down the road from us so I decided it was about time we checked it out. We ordered some tea and coffee and of course the shironowaru, and after a few minutes it arrived. The shironowaru is basically a huge Danish pastry (like, bigger than my face) with a mountain of soft cream (Ice cream from the whippy machine) on top, which is covered in maple syrup. O yeh and a cherry on top.

This was well sweet, but obviously well lush, and well worth the visit. In the size ranks it didn’t really rate next to “Gigantor”, but still, it was proper tasty.

On the Saturday, Me, Ayae, Callie and Naho went to my friend Stevens wedding reception. Steven is an American who had married a Japanese woman called Noriko in his hometown of Norwich, New York the week before, and the reception was to be held in Nagoya.

It was going to be held at a posh venue called “The Eat” in Sakae. There was an entrance fee, but that did include all u can eat and drink. When we got in there it was already pretty busy, with some Gaijin but mainly Japanese. There was some food out, but no one was helping themselves so I figured I should wait.

It was an awesome spread I have to say and was one of the things I had been looking forward to all day. They had these little creamy mash potato things, a big mixed salad, a burdock salad, loads of sausages and loads of chips, and also some things which I didn’t know.

We got a seat next to where the food was situated, and I noticed that I was not the only one eyeballing the chow. Loads of the other guests obviously were thinking the same as me, but showed respectable restraint. Anyway I figured it was safe to leave my seat for a few minutes.

After saying hello to a few people I knew, everyone took their seat and the happy couple made their entrance to the sound of the Sex Pistols version of “I Did It My Way”. After that the MC, a Japanese woman, made a toast in Japanese and then translated it into English which was followed with a free glass of champagne for everyone.

Steve and Noriko then cut the cake and said a few things themselves. We were then informed we could start on the food which prompted a mad dash for the buffet. There was about 70 odd people there, and a good 40 of them rushed to the table at the same time. Within about 2 minutes it was all gone although the waiters continually replaced the plates.

After I was about half way through my first plate, they brought out some new dishes starting with some deep fried octopus with some tartare sauce. I immediately left my seat, as did many others to get a big plate for myself and the others at my table. This too went well fast as did all the replacements. Throughout the night there was lots of different dishes, including rice dorias, fried chicken, and some other deep fried fish thing, For dessert there was some huge fruit salads with whipped cream, and also of course some wedding cake.

Needless to say everything was well tasty, and that coupled with all the wine I drank meant I got my moneys worth. During the party there was a Japanese DJ who was playing reggae all night. At one point he dropped Damian Marleys “Welcome to Jamrock” and said “Waa, big choon!!!” which was quite funny as no one was really paying attention. Still, he seemed to be enjoying himself, and the music was all well good to be fair.

Along with the party poppers we were provided with when we entered, we were also given bingo cards (a staple of most English teachers kids lessons!) for a bingo game later on. I did pretty hopeless at this, although various other people won some good cash prizes. At the end there was a big Janken (rock, scissors, paper contest – also a staple of any good kids class) competition between all of the guests with one number left on their cards. Koji, who was sitting at our table, managed to defeat all of them and won 150 quids worth of Visa vouchers which was well impressive.

After eating, drinking and chatting loads it was time to go home, although I made sure I got a picture with Steve and Noriko beforehand. They had spent almost the whole party having people get pictures with them and so were well tired of it, but I made sure I got one anyway.

We were awarded with loads of lollipops and candy when we left as well which was awesome.

The next day we went to a nearby organic restaurant for lunch which was surprisingly cheap. We then went into the city for a walk around Meijo park, and also did a spot of shopping. When we were running low on energy we popped into the Mode Gakuen Spiral Towers (the crazy twisty building near Nagoya station), which despite being a design school also had a couple of basement floors of restaurants (well it is a Japanese skyscraper so I guess this is to be expected).

We found a Hawain café which specialized in pancakes. We ordered one called “Berry and Berry” and when it arrived it was proper immense. It was 2 Hawaian style pancakes topped with some whipped cream which was then topped with another pancake, and more whipped cream, plus loads of different berrys including Blackberrys, Blueberrys, and even 1 big Strawberry.

This was a pretty big job even for 2 people, but I was more than up for it. After that intense sugar rush we did a bit more shopping, before returning home.

The following Wednesday Ayae had a job interview for ECC, one of the biggest chains of English schools, which was offering home teacher jobs, where you can teach from your own home, and they provide support with training, students, advertising, equipment etc. Anyway, after she had been to that we returned to the Hawaiian café at Nagoya station to try some of their savory dishes which looked quite tempting from the menu.

It was all pretty overpriced, but I ordered a Taco variation of a Loco Moco which was a traditional rice dish of Hawaii . This was a heated metal bowl, with a load of Taco meat, cheese, lettuce and of course rice. This was pretty tasty although it was well small considering the price. After the meal we decided that despite having awesome pancakes, they were not to be trusted with a good all round savory dish (this particular restaurant, not the Hawaiians in general).

The next few days were spent planning my Golden week trip. Golden week is a week in the Japanese calendar which features like 5 national holidays. My school had decided that this was reason enough to take the whole week off, which meant I was going to have 8 consecutive days off.

Because nearly all Japanese have these days off, the touristy locations are ridiculously busy during this period, and also have intense price hikes. Despite this, I decided I wanted to get away during this time as my timetable these days means I don’t really get the chance to go away anywhere for more than 2 days these days. There are still a few places I have never been to in Japan so I figured I`d tick a few of these off the list.

I wanted to go to Kyushu which is Japans 3rd largest island, and is south of Honshu (the island where Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and I live). While Im here I want to visit all of Japans 4 main islands, which left Shikoku, Kyushu and Hokkaido. Theres not much to see in Shikoku, and Hokkaido is in the North and ridiculously cold, so I want to go there in July.

So I settled on Kyushu, although I also wanted to tick off Hiroshima as well, as everybody recommends it. After 2 full days of checking websites for travel agents, bus companies, airlines, train companies, hostels, hotels, as well as the numerous guidebooks and guide websites I finally came up with a plan.

Because trains and planes are ludicrously expensive (not just during golden week, but generally), I decided I`d do the whole thing by bus. By the way Im using the subject “I” because Ayae cannot join me. As previously mentioned Golden week is ludicrously busy for touristy areas, which means she has to go home and help out at her parents minshuku while Im gallivanting round Japan on my own.

Anyway after checking, booking, cancelling, booking again, changing my booking and doing this with various different companies and spending a ridiculous amount of money Im now just about planned up for my trip. My money situation has been looking pretty dire recently although rereading this blog leaves no mystery as to why. For some reason I have been eating out a ridiculous amount the last couple of weeks. I guess because its cheaper in Japan, but still, Im guessing averaging 4 restaurants a week is not very good for my bank account no matter what the country. Anyway this did put me off going on this Kyushu trip, especially with my Thailand holiday in a couple of months coming up, but hey I need something to blog about so Kyushu it is!

But enough for now, more on that next week.

The rest of the week passed pretty much without incident, although I did go for a drink with my friend Kawai-san at a gaijin bar in Imaike after work on Monday. I was celebrating my last day of work before Golden week as it was to start the next day. The bar was called Misfits and was on the 3rd floor of a building, and a little out of the way to say the least.

The bar was owned by a sleazy but friendly American named Dave who was like a shorter, rounder version of Bill Bailey. Anyway as soon as I entered he introduced himself and gave me some tips for “Tapping that ass”, which whilst not shocking me, did leave me with some unneeded images in my mind. Despite this he was quite funny, and it was pretty interesting talking to someone who did something other than teach English (although that was his day job as well!).

He had no staff on Mondays which meant that he served all the drinks and cooked all the food people ordered himself. The bar was in the Japanese style of being one very small room, but still there was a good like, 10 people there. Anyway I met some pretty interesting people in the bar including people from Holland, Bangladesh, and even Okinawa (seriously everyone who`s from Okinawa seems to stay there forever, so its well rare to actually meet someone in Nagoya who`s from there, although it is well lush so I don’t blame them).

Mondays meant half price cocktails at Misfits which was a welcome change to the usual financial rinse out of other Japanese bars. Anyway after a few cocktails and a BLT courtesy of Dave, I made my way home in time for the last bus.

On Wednesday I went to Hekinan for my friend Pascale`s going away party. Shes returning to Canada on Friday and so decided to have a barbeque party to celebrate. This was to be in Suigen Park Hekinan, which is about an hour and 20 minutes from Nagoya (so it took me about 2 hours to get there!).

Most of the teachers from ACC turned up so it was really cool to see them. Being as I live well far from the schools outside Nagoya I don’t get to see those guys much, so it was a great opportunity to see everyone.

The barbeque was pretty awesome with pork, beef, sausage things, pumpkin, asparagus, shrimps and loads of other snacky food as well. After eating and drinking loads we went to a Hekinan bar called Five to eat and drink more. This was a pretty cool establishment, and was a nice place to hang out for a few hours.

Unfortunately, because I live so far away I had to leave at like 10 to be in Nagoya in time for the last train. Still, by that stage I had already drunk too much, so it was probably a blessing in disguise.

Ok that’s about it for this week, next week there`ll be a Golden Week/ Kyushu special which I cant wait for! See u then!!

Peace

Jack