So you're moving to Aomori...

Nine years ago I was waiting for a message/call from my parents to tell me when my JET Programme placement letter arrived and where I was being sent while touring Europe with two friends. We were in London when I got the call from my dad.

- "You're going to Towada City in Aomori Prefecture. It's got a university so it can't be too small/rural."

- "What kind of university?" I asked.

- "An agricultural* university," I believe he replied.

- "It's definitely a rural placement!" I thought.

(*Actually, it's a veterinary university.)

So if you opened your placement letter and freaked out a bit when you saw the words "Aomori Prefecture," don't worry, you're not alone.

As you will soon be tired of hearing, "every situation is different" (ESID), but from my personal experience as a five-year JET ALT turned lifer (I got married so the move to Towada became permanent), I can say that Aomori is a great place to live.

To be honest, all of Aomori Prefecture is basically by definition rural, but there are definitely benefits to rural placements. The main thing is that you will get to experience a side of Japan that few outsiders get to see. If you need to, you can always visit a big(ger) city and get a decent sense of city life/the city experience, but you can't really get the full small town experience just by visiting. I've been able to plant and harvest rice, pound rice into mochi (rice cakes) using a giant wooden mallet and mortar, dance bon odori (a kind of folk dance) in a yukata (light cotton summer kimono) in an outdoor art park, and do so much more that I probably wouldn't have had a chance to experience in a bigger urban placement.

And the food here is so much fresher and cheaper than Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, etc. Sure, if you want a specific type of international cuisine or ingredients from back home, Aomori can't compete with bigger urban cities, but if you're buying seasonal, local produce, Aomori beats Tokyo for quality and cost any day hands down. Every time I travel to a big city in Japan, I come back to Towada and am amazed at the deliciousness of simply seasoned (if at all) fresh, local vegetables, fish, &etc..

Heard about the crazy expensive giant tuna from the Tsukiji market fish auctions? Chances are that came from Aomori (Oma Town) and you can eat it freshly carved right before your eyes for a reasonable price at the Oma Super Tuna Festival in October.

If you're not yet convinced that life in a rural prefecture will be your thing, well, just try to keep an open mind. Hopefully you'll see when you get here what a great place it is.

(The local JET community is great too. Although I didn't hang out with many people from outside of my city/local area even when I was still a JET, I still keep in contact with the current JET community through Facebook, etc. Even though I haven't personally met most of them, from my online interactions with them, they seem like a pretty good bunch.)

Speaking of which, my number one tip if you are coming to Aomori on the JET Programme this summer is to join the Aomori JET Facebook Group (assuming you use Facebook). You will be able to find your predecessor (or someone who knows them) and/or a re-contracting JET in your placement city/town/village or at the very least someone who lives nearby.

If you are planning on getting a car, you should also join the Jet Lemonade Stand (青森) as leavers will probably start listing their cars there within the next couple of months. TIP: Even if you don't need to drive for work, if you have a license and can afford to get/maintain a car I would highly recommend considering getting one. Aomori is big and spread out and the population isn't big enough to support a highly developed public transportation system. Lots of interesting places are not easily accessible by public transport. Having a car will give you freedom to explore all the various places and events** Aomori has to offer. Also, having a car will make life in the winter (which lasts almost five months) a lot more bearable

(**Shameless plug: if you're interested in getting an idea as to the types of events we have in Aomori, check out my other blog Towada & Beyond for a sampling. Although I haven't been able to post events from every single city/town/village in Aomori yet, I've got at least one event for most places. See the Aomori Events by Location page for a list of annual events in your specific placement location.)

And while I am dispensing unsolicited advice, I would also recommend relying on your predecessor or other ALTs living in your placement city/town/village for specific advice as much as possible.

For example, when it comes to choosing a cell phone provider, even within the prefecture there is a lot of variation in terms of which companies get good reception in specific areas. For example, when my husband lived in Hirosaki City, he used AU and it was cheap and had good reception. But in Towada AU reception is not very good so he switched to Docomo after we got married. (After the big 2011 East Japan Earthquake & Tsunami, Docomo phones could still receive and make calls, but AU lost reception almost immediately and nothing came through until a couple of days later.) Softbank has better reception than AU (although still not as good as Docomo), but the Softbank store in Towada has rather poor customer service. So even though it is a little bit more expensive, we generally recommend that Towada ALTs stick with Docomo for its reliability (we have lots of schools far from the city center) and good service.

Other places are probably different, so it's best to get advice directly from the people who know your specific placement the best--current JETs and/or other people living there.

Oh, and for those anxious to hear from your contracting organization (CO), in Aomori, COs are officially allowed to contact new ALTs from Thursday May 26, 2016, so you might want to start checking your inbox (and junk mail folders, too!) to see if you have any messages. (Note: Some COs might not email you first, but mail you information directly instead.)

Anyway, I've rambled on quite a bit, so I'll end here. Feel free to get in touch via the comments section if you have any questions about my experience (past as a JET and/or ongoing as a permanent foreign resident).

(Note: All comments must be approved by me first, so don't worry if your comment doesn't show up immediately--I will see it! Also, if you don't want the comment to be published but instead would like me to email you a reply directly, just mention that and include your email address in the comment and I'll email you and delete the comment without posting it.)

B-1 Grand Prix in Towada: Day 1

The B-1 Grand Prix in Towada is a massive 2-day event featuring the local "soul food" of sixty-two different towns/cities across Japan from Hokkaido to Kyushu.(More information about the event at my Towada & Beyond blog.)

Wanting to avoid the predicted crazy hordes of people, my friends and I crafted out a "divide and conquer" strategy that had us split up to cover three different venues to get a total of about 10 different dishes. We started walking to the venue almost an hour before the event was due to start. Even stopping occasionally to take photos and to chat with (former) students, acquaintances, etc. we managed to get in line a good 15-20min before the start of food sales.

It was raining pretty heavily while we were in line, but thankfully it let up by the time things got started at 9:30am. Based on my experience during the 2013 Hokkaido/Tohoku B-1 Grand Prix in Towada where I waited about 2 hours for Kofu Tori Motsuni, I was expecting ridiculously long line-ups. Whether it was due to the rain, or the early hour, or just that I happened to have picked the less popular booths, I don't know what it was, but I was very pleasantly surprised by how short the waits were.

My longest wait (pictured below) was for Komagane Sauce Katsudon. I was waiting in line for about 15-20 minutes until 9:30am, but I only waited about 3-5 minutes from when they started distributing the food.

After the katsudon, I headed to the Tottori Tofu Chikuwa booth. There were maybe 3 or 4 people ahead of me in line, and I probably waited for 1-2 minutes or less. The wait time was just long enough for me to notice the little work of sand art (Tottori is known for having vast sand dunes) seated off to the side.

On my way to the next booth on my list, I stopped to get my picture taken with the Ohotsk Kitami Shio Yakisoba mascot. I had tried the Shio Yakisoba during the previous B-1 event in Towada, so I didn't feel bad about taking a picture with the mascot or even for getting a "Ohotsk Kitami Shio Yakisoba Supporter" sticker stuck onto my t-shirt despite not actually getting any food from them this time around. I liked the mascot and the "personality" of the group so much, I even ended up voting for them (again, this despite not actually getting any shio yakisoba this time round)!

Next on my list was Joushuu Ota Yakisoba. The wait was so short I didn't even think to take out my camera for a photo of the booth!

Less than ten minutes after the start of the event and I was heading for my fourth booth, Minamiuonuma Kirizaidon. They had people dressed up as samurai, so of course I couldn't resist getting my photo taken with them.

My last stop was for Kuji Mamebu Jiru. Since I had tried a mouthful of someone else's bowl last time, plus I had purchased a package of instant (just heat the pack over the stove in a pot of water) mamebu jiru at the grocery store, I hadn't been planning on getting any, but since I had tickets leftover and plenty of time before the others were due to arrive to meet and divy up the food, I went for it. And it was a good thing I did because it ended up being both my favourite food and group! They had a mini sumo dohyo (just big enough for one person) and a guy dressed as a sumo offering "ohimesama dakko" (お姫様抱っこ "princess carry") which was pretty funny and cute! Plus, they had little stations set up within their line where you could try things like sifting through a sandbox for "treasure", etc. to keep you entertained while you waited. Unfortunately I didn't think to take a picture of the little activity booths because there was no line-up and I just went straight for the food. (Of course I voted for them as well!)

A mere 15-20 minutes after the official start of the event, the two of us who were in charge of getting food at the Track & Field Venue had everything and were sitting in the bleachers waiting for the others to arrive.

Out of all the food that we got, only half of it (Kirizaidon, Tofu Chikuwa, Mamebu Jiru) was for me; the rest was for the others in the group. (Clockwise from top left: Minamiuonuma Kirizaidon, Komagane Sauce Katsudon, Joushuu Ota Yakisoba, Tottori Tofu Chikuwa, Kuji Mamebu Jiru, Imabari Yakibuta Tamago-meshi.)

Apart from the three dishes I had picked up for myself, I also had Tsu Gyoza that one of the others had picked up for me from the Baseball Diamond Venue.

I only actually ate the gyoza and mamebu there, though. The rest I transferred into Ziploc containers I had brought with me to take home. The others also packed up at least one or two dishes each to take home. Between four of us we had managed to get about 10 different dishes and finish eating all in about an hour!

After eating we voted for our favourite groups and then wandered around a bit before heading home. So we managed to eat a lot and enjoy the B-1 Grand Prix and still be home by around lunch time. It was great!

Originally I had only planned to go the one day (today), but the experience was so fun and painless (much less crowded and far less waiting than I had expected) that I might actually go back again tomorrow just to people watch and to find out who was voted this year's Gold Grand Prix winner.

Nameko's Gudetama x Dohtonbori Cooking Adventures

On Tuesday, April 28, 2015 Nameko went to Dohtonbori, an okonomiyaki* chain restaurant because he heard that it currently has a special Gudetama collaboration campaign going on that allows you to make a dish with a "real" Gudetama. (As mentioned in an earlier post, Gudetama is one of Sanrio's newer characters, a lazy egg!)

 

But before diving into Nameko's adventures, some information about the Gudetama x Dohtonbori Collaboration Campaign!

There are 4 different sets to choose from:

A) Gudetama Tororo Pack Okonomiyaki
    ぐでたまのとろろパックお好み焼き, Gudetama grated nagaimo pack okonomiyaki

B)Gudetama no Scramble Egg Ofuton-nose Monjayaki
     ぐでたまのスクランブルエッグお布団のせもんじゃ焼き, Gudetama scrambled egg monjayaki with a blanket (bacon!) on top

C) Gudetama no Shigarami ga Ooi Kamatama-fuu Yaki-Udon
    ぐでたまのしがらみが多い釜玉風焼きうどん, Gudetama All-Tangled Up Kamatama**-Style Grilled Udon

D) Gudetama no Gyuu-Suji Gohan
    ぐでたまの牛スジごはん, Gudetama Beef Tendon Rice

(Food Terminology
*okonomiyaki = a kind of Japanese pancake/pizza made with a special batter, cabbage, egg, and a variety of different toppings; you often grill it yourself on a hot plate, although some places may make it for you; the name literally means "grilled as you like"
 **kamatama = kamatama udon is a type of udon where a raw egg is added to the hot, cooked udon)
 
Each set is 1200yen (1296yen with tax) and comes with a free Gudetama mini towel (3 different designs; selection is blind and random) and choice of one of: soft drink drink bar; medium-sized stein of beer; or vanilla ice cream. Purchase 2 sets to get a free original Dohtonbori x Gudetama tote bag!

The campaign is on from April 14-June 14, 2015. More details can be found at the Dohtonbori campaign website (Japanese only) here: http://www.dohtonbori.co.jp/gudetama/

And now onto Nameko's adventures!

Since Nameko had to get the tote bag (he's a sucker for advertising and campaigns like this), he ordered two sets, Set A (okonomiyaki) and C (Udon).

He was a little disappointed that both towels turned out to have the same design, but he was consoled by the fact that he got two of his favourite of the three designs. (Always looking on the bright side, is Nameko!)

The okonomiyaki came soon after the towels and tote bag. 

First he greased up the cooking surface and started cooking the mochi.

With the mochi cooking on the grill, he mixed up all of the ingredients in the big white bowl well and then poured it on top of the mochi, making it into a roughly plate-sized circle.

 

He then let it cook for five minutes before flipping (the store conveniently even provides a timer).

After another five minutes, he flipped it again and let it cook for a final five minutes (15min total cooking time). Once it was done cooking, he transferred it to a plate and applied a generous amount of sauce to one side. (If left on the grill, the okonomiyaki would be too hot and the egg might cook, or the sticker used for Gudetama's face might melt.)

 

After the sauce, he poured the tororo (nagaimo yam paste) onto the okonomiyaki, leaving/making a space for the egg to be added on.

He sprinkled on some nori seaweed flakes.

Using the provided spoon, he scooped just the egg yolk from the bowl and gently placed it in the center of the tororo.

Finally, he placed the Gudetama face edible sticker onto the egg yolk to complete the dish!

(Word of caution! Make sure to keep the sticker well away from the grill as it is very delicate and weak against heat. There is a white tab that you are supposed to use to remove the sticker from the backing, but it tore off (probably because the sticker was left a bit too close to the grill) and it was quite difficult to peel the sticker off of the backing without it!)

While the okonomiyaki was cooking, the udon also came, so instead of eating the okonomiyaki right away, Nameko decided to wait and cook the udon first.

The udon was simpler and quicker to cook than the okonomiyaki. First he cooked the mentaiko (spicy cod roe) on the grill, using the spatulas to cut/break it up into small pieces.

 

Once the mentaiko was heated through, he dumped the remaining contents of the big black bowl on top, add the water (in the silver kettle) and mentsuyu noodle sauce (in the little black pitcher), mixed it all up and let cook, stirring occasionally. (Nameko decided to add the water little by little, and added the mentsuyu last.)

 

 

 

 

(Here Nameko was wondering how long it would be until he could eat...)

Once the udon was cooked, he transferred it all back into the big black bowl.

 

Before adding the egg, he had to wait for the noodles to cool (so the egg wouldn't get cooked by the hot noodles), so he decided to dig into the okonomiyaki--and it was farewell Gudetama!

 

 

It looked kind of messy, but was really delicious!

After eating the okonomiyaki, the noodles had cooled to add the yolk to the noodles. And of course Gudetama's face was added at the end.

 

 

 

Sadly this Gudetama, unlike the okonomiyaki, lived a very short life and was mixed into the noodles pretty much right after the above photo was taken.

Since it seemed like a waste to just throw the egg whites out, Nameko threw the egg whites onto the grill to make a fried egg white to add to the udon. Delicious!

And that was the end of Gudetama...

But not the end of Nameko's cooking adventures! Amazingly enough, he was still hungry after the okonomiyaki and udon, so he decided to order another seasonal okonomiyaki: Midori no Gyuu-Suji Kabuki Dama (緑の牛スジ歌舞伎玉, literally, green beef tendon kabuki egg?!). (Cost: 950yen, 1026yen with tax.)

It wasn't just the basil sauce that was green, either; the batter itself was green! The staff member who
brought the okonomiyaki kindly explained that the batter was green because it had matcha in it. Anyway, Nameko had it all mixed up and cooking on the grill in no time.

 

As with the Gudetama okonomiyaki, he let it cook for 5 minutes before flipping it.

 

Let it cook for 5 minutes and then flipped it again.

 Then let it cook for a final five minutes before he added the sauce.

 

 

It was a bit overly salty, but otherwise delicious--both with and without mayonnaise (as recommended by a staff member).

But that wasn't the end of Nameko's gluttony! Since Nameko's owner had celebrated her birthday less than a week before, upon showing proof of her birth date, she was able to receive a free birthday dessert!

All in all a great cooking adventure for Nameko!