Daily Life - Cascadian Abroad

Odds and Ends

October 20, 2014 by Robert Haddan

School is back in session, so October has been about settling back into routine and planning the next round of adventures. But Japan is still throwing twists and turns our way. Here’s a few interesting tidbits from the last couple weeks:

Phun with phones

One of the reasons we decided not to get phones in Japan is, frankly, there’s not really anyone to call here. The international plans are expensive and the video chat technology is way better for keeping in touch with family and friends back home. But, there’s the occasional need to make a local call, so with a little finagling, I can now make local phone calls from my computer.

However, there’s still the problem of the language barrier. I’ve been running a lot over the last few months. It’s a great workout, but it’s also high impact and leads to a lot of aches and pains, so I decided to schedule a massage. I got a recommendation from one of the GTFs for a local masseuse and decided to try and schedule an appointment over the phone. As usual, I wrote out my script and dialed the number.

Gogo wa yoyaku dekimasu ka? Do you have an appointment for this afternoon?

The voice on the other end of the digital line indicated that she didn’t have any availability today. I asked about the following Monday and that I was available anytime. She seemed to say that anytime on Monday would be fine. Itsudemo daijōbu desu.

Monday morning, I headed over to the massage place. As I walked up the stairs, I saw someone leave the office. As I approached the door, the office was dark and locked up. I’d been bitten by the Japanese cultural characteristic of never saying no.

But, as usual, it turned into a positive. I wandered around the floor and found another massage studio right around the corner. A small, one-woman operation called Sun and Moon. We established that an appointment that day couldn’t happen since she had a dental appointment. We began to set a time for the next day, but both of us were a little unclear of the details.

She asked me to follow her across the hall to a shop owned by a couple from Nepal who both spoke English. After settling the details of the appointment, the man asked me to sit and have tea. We sipped Masala chai and talked about Nepal, Japan and America. I mentioned that we’d like to travel to India and Nepal. He offered his brother’s home if we needed a place to stay. We chatted in English for about 30 minutes before I headed out.

As usual, for every frustrating experience, several positive experiences follow that highlight the kindness of the people we encounter everyday. The following morning, I had an excellent massage. She served me a cup of green tea at the end of the appointment. I told her I was a runner, so zenbu ga itai ne! Everything hurts! She laughed, said she could never be a runner and asked if I was running the Kawagoe Marathon, which got a laugh out of me. When we hit a snag in our conversation, she grabbed her phone and translated from Japanese to English… Did it hurt?

In fact, nothing about this particular experience hurt at all.

Blue beer

Don’t adjust your sets. This is Abashiri Brewery’s Okhotsk Blue Draft, colored with blue seaweed. The accompanying meal is shiitake mushroom french dip sandwiches on homemade rolls.

The beer section of the local grocery store rarely surprises me anymore, but a shock of blue caught my eye the other day. Hokkaido’s Abashiri Brewery is playing with color as well as flavor with their Okhotsk Blue Draft. The beer pours a greenish-blue (I backlit the glass to see more of the blue color), but instead of using dyes or other horrible chemicals, they’ve achieved this naturally. The water comes from melted icebergs that have floated into the Sea of Okhotsk. The color comes from blue seaweed and gardenias. It’s categorized as a “vegetable beer” thanks to the use of Chinese yams (which have copious health benefits).

How’s it taste? Well, it’s light and bubbly with a subtle beer flavor. But it’s blue! Abashiri also makes green and red beers using plant pigments for the coloring.

Blood moon

I know I’m a couple weeks behind on this one, but the blood moon from the lunar eclipse visited us at a reasonable hour. While Cascadians had to get out of bed early to see the sight, we got to see it around 8:30 p.m. and managed some good pictures before going to bed.

Typhoon Vongfong

October 13, 2014 by Robert Haddan

Growing up near the Columbia River Gorge, strong winds and rain are a part of my DNA. As kids, we’d play catch in those winds and pretend we were fielding fly balls at Wrigley Field in one of those 23-22 final score games. Maybe that’s why the recent string of typhoons—starting with Phanfone last week and Typhoon Vongfong rolling through today—don’t get my heart racing much. I certainly won’t be venturing out this afternoon when winds will range between 25-50 MPH, but the forecast shows the storm weakening to tropical storm strength by the time it reaches us in Saitama. It’ll be no worse than a December day back home.

Typhoon Vongfong from ISS — Typhoon Vongfong as photographed by ISS astronaut Reid Wiseman

The images have been spectacular considering the danger that lurks within. Photos from the International Space Station show Typhoon Vongfong engulfing the entire planet. Vongfong reached Category 5 strength at one point last week and is the strongest typhoon of 2014… so far.

Sadly, not everyone went unaffected by Typhoon Vongfong. The typhoons have taken a predictable path through the Pacific Ocean. Okinawa takes the brunt of these storms for Japan and Japan’s national network NHK is reporting several serious injuries and damage in the area. Flooding and potential landslides have resulted in more than 90,000 households in Okinawa being evacuated. If there’s a bright spot, it’s that Vongfong weakened to a Category 1 status by the time it made landfall.

ThinkProgress has a story today about future storms and how the damage and resulting financial impact will continue to grow if we don’t decrease the carbon emissions that cause global warming. The report estimates Japan being impacted the worst, facing $4.4 trillion in losses by 2090, nearly four times that of second-place China.

Ironically, today is Columbus Day on our calendar. In 1962, the “Columbus Day Storm” hit the Pacific Northwest as Typhoon Freda made its way across the Pacific Ocean. When everything was said and done, the strongest storm in a century killed 46 people and can still be recalled vividly by those who experienced it (my family included).

The tower of Campbell Hall on the Western Oregon University campus crumbles in the Columbus Day Storm of 1962 (Wes Luchau)

One of the most indelible images for me is the destruction on the campus of the Oregon College of Education (now Western Oregon University) in Monmouth. WOU is my alma mater and photos of the damage were part of our heritage. Campbell Hall‘s bell tower collapsed during the storm. Student Wes Luchau captured the moment with a photograph that would be used by local newspapers and later appeared in LIFE magazine.

For now, we’ll sit and wait. It’s been raining for a couple hours, but the worst of the storm will roll through overnight. Hopefully the wind and rain will bring nothing more than a few childhood memories.

How Do You Say…

October 6, 2024October 7, 2014 by Robert Haddan

I recently started reading a book called The Japanese Have a Word for It. Among other things, it discusses the loaded words of the Japanese language. While there are plenty of one-to-one relationships between Japanese and English (i.e. inu = dog), there are plenty of words that don’t translate cleanly. These words represent complete ideas or cultural nuances that go beyond a simple translation.

For example, the word shoganai is an important descriptor for Japanese culture. In American English, it might translate to “there’s nothing we can do about it, so why worry about it?” but it’s a phrase that defines Japan and its people. The trait helped the country bounce back after World War II and, more recently, the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. It’s also perceived as a weakness by many foreigners as an excuse for people who let life steamroll them, although I know I use the phrase “it is what it is” pretty regularly when things are beyond my control.

The book leads off with a brief history of the Japanese language as a “secret code.” The book claims the complexities were intentional as a way to keep foreign influence at arm’s length. As a result, there’s a cultural belief that the language is so difficult to learn that foreigners would never be able to pick it up. It probably contributes to many of the stereotypes foreigners face here, even those who speak fluent Japanese (the following video is short and hilarious).

So, to veer completely off that topic, the book’s introduction made me think about how difficult it must have been to be a foreigner in Japan before translation dictionaries or the internet. I spend a couple hours most days following internet rabbit holes to figure out how to say things, identify odd-looking groceries or translate the important-looking document that arrived in the mail.

We’re also able to stay plugged in to interests and events from home in a way that we couldn’t have imagined 50 or 100 years ago. When our brains reach Japanese overload (which happens frequently), we can flip on the Apple TV and watch our favorite shows on Netflix or stream the latest episode of The Daily Show on our laptops. I was able to watch the Portland Trail Blazers 2014 playoff run as it happened and caught a bunch of Chicago Cubs games this year.

I even have the audacity to be upset when the 1080p video internet streaming of a real-time sporting event from the other side of the globe has the nerve to pause for 5 seconds to buffer. Oh well… shoganai!

Some of that complexity still gets me on a daily basis though. The difference between kirei and kirai is a subtle “key-ray” vs “key-rye,” but the former means “beautiful” while the latter means “to hate.” Kawaii and kowai are really close (“ka-why-e” vs “ko-why”, but the first means “cute” while the other means “scary.”

Anyway… excuse the rambling nature of this post. It all made sense in my head!

Kinmokusei

October 2, 2014 by Robert Haddan

For the last week, there’s been a sweet smell in the air reminiscent of apricots. Are there fruit trees in bloom? Is there some sort of autumn perfume that everyone is wearing?

Turns out, the smell comes from the blossoms of the kinmokusei, or the gold osmanthus. The bright orange flowers and their glorious scent mark the unofficial beginning of fall in Japan.

The flower is used in various fragrances, including deodorizers and perfumes. They’re so prevalent in our neighborhood that you rarely turn a corner without encountering the olfactory candy known as kinmokusei.

Sitting on the Sidelines

September 19, 2014 by Robert Haddan

Today I was out for a run in the middle of the day, one of the many perks of my current non-employed status. I ran past one of the nearby parks and saw some guys playing baseball. I decided to take a little break and sat down to watch them for awhile.

The “guys” were probably 65 years old on average. They were taking batting practice, rotating in and out like a well-oiled team. Long fly balls corralled with two hands. Line drives snagged with nifty backhand catches. Ground balls around the infield tossed with precision to first base. I didn’t see a single error.

I sat and watched with knowledge of the social role reversal taking place. Usually it’s the old guy reliving his youth from the sidelines, but not today. I wished I had a glove. I wished one of them would ask if I wanted to take a turn at the plate. But, I just watched for about 10 minutes before finishing up my run.

Getting in the game here can be hard. I’m still not super comfortable communicating and got out of practice a bit over the summer. But there are days where the spirit of taking advantage of the situation overcomes the hesitance.

I had a free day for lunch last week and decided to go out in the neighborhood. For some reason, the local ramen shop is intimidating. It’s just a hole in the wall with a counter and about a dozen seats.

I walked past the first time, but after a block I’d psyched myself up enough to go in. I sat down at the counter and asked if the miso ramen was vegetarian (it was-ish, but I’m pretty sure the broth had some pork fat in it…). The security guard on his lunch break sitting next to me gave me a hard-boiled egg from the bowl on the counter and told me it was abunai or dangerous. He motioned as if I should put it in my pocket and laughed hard.

Another man down the counter spoke a tiny bit of English and used it all. He overheard my order and asked “You are vegetarian?” Then, when I went to get water from the self-serve machine, he asked if I could read the sign (which, surprisingly, I could!). I read it in Japanese and he read it in English. As I was leaving, he patted me on the back and said “no problem,” which I’m pretty sure is the second phrase they teach in Japanese schools after “Hello.”

After a few minutes though, the novelty of the American wore off and we all ate our meals in peace.

It felt good to “get in the game” and be a part of the community.

If Only Somebody Had Told Me…

August 30, 2014 by Robert Haddan

Most of the posts on Cascadian Abroad are very positive and reflect our experiences honestly and accurately. Some of the more difficult experiences (that, again honestly, make up only a small part of our time here) are usually couched with humor and sarcasm. But it hasn’t all been easy.

A few weeks ago we had an e-mail dialog with a woman back in the U.S. who was deciding whether or not to come to Japan to teach next spring. It was an interesting thread as it really made us think about the experience so far and what we wish we would have known before we made the decision to come to Japan. Her and her fiancé are in a similar position as we were back in our decision-making process, so we were happy to provide some information.

Had we known these things in advance, it wouldn’t have changed our decision to come and actually might have expedited our decision while helping us better prepare for the move. I’d like to share some of those things today.

Finding a job in Japan will be difficult

Since her spouse was also leaving a career in the U.S., they had questions about finding work. My visa allows me to work up to 28 hours per week, but finding a part-time job isn’t an easy task. Most English-speaking jobs in our area still require at least business-level knowledge of Japanese. I’m still working up to toddler-level Japanese, so most of those opportunities are off the table. The couple of contacts I’ve made have projects that are “in the works,” but they are moving on Japan Time, which is akin to Island Time.

Not very many people speak English

Americans are pretty ethnocentric (although I think it’s not just Americans), so prior to coming to Japan, we got a lot of “Don’t worry, they’ll probably speak English.” That may be true in parts of Tokyo or other large cities, but where we live, it’s just not the case. Some people learned a little bit in school, much like we speak a little bit of Spanish or French or whatever language class we took for two years in high school. Those who know a little are more than happy to try and communicate with you, but (no duh!) I’ve found that I need to learn Japanese to communicate in Japan.

Our adventure started in a whirlwind fashion, but I think if we had more time it would have been helpful to take Japanese classes in the U.S. with English-speaking teachers. When you’re starting from scratch, or rebooting nearly 20 years removed from high school Japanese, learning in-context is tough, especially with a language not based in a Latin/Roman script.

People will stare at you

One thing that alternately annoys me and fascinates me is that we stick out like a sore thumb in our neighborhood. Some people are interested, some stare with suspicion, some children cry and scramble into their parents’ arms (all true stories). The suspicious stares are a little hurtful as is the feeling when a mother hastily grabs up her child when you walk by, purely because of the color of your skin (and, yes, it feels odd to write that as a Caucasian person).

Mostly though, people are really kind to us. We were coming home from a walk today when a man came up to us and, in his best English, invited us to “this town’s festival.” Our neighborhood had a little carnival in the park. A few people smiled wide at us and greeted us. A man gave us a ticket for a kakigōri (Japanese shaved ice). A couple days ago, the druggist who helped me find cough medicine last week remembered me on our next visit and asked if the medicine helped. Many people are interested in where we’re from and I wish that I knew more Japanese to be able to answer all of their questions.

Ship a BUNCH of your favorite things

We had the opportunity to ship two large boxes about six weeks before we left the U.S. Add in a couple checked bags and our carry-ons, that’s all we would be bringing on our adventure. Trying to figure out what you’d want or need in a place you’ve never been is tough. I have way too many pairs of socks and nice pants and we’re all out of Kirkland Signature Natural Creamy Peanut Butter already. Japan’s customs restrictions mean we can’t ship a lot of our favorites products from the States, which isn’t that big a deal because it’s pretty spendy to do so anyway. But, being forced to adapt, I’ve perfected a shiitake mushroom “beef” jerky and veggie bratwurst!

Let go and enjoy the adventure!

I’ll admit, I was way too uptight about some of the little things. Leaving behind everything you know isn’t easy, but the things we’ve seen over the last five months have made it all worthwhile. I know my poor wife gets a lot of “How’s Robert doing?” questions, expecting to find me huddled in a corner crying. My answer? I snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef two weeks ago, saw the Sydney Opera House last week and climbed to the summit of Mount Fuji four days ago.

I’m fine, thanks.

Readers Abroad

August 29, 2014 by Robert Haddan

Cascadian Abroad began as a way to keep friends and family updated on our adventures abroad. Over the last several months, we’ve made new friends as folks have stumbled across the blog in different ways.

I recently found out that one of those readers is my niece, Cascadian Sara! I’m so excited that she’s following along and I hope she enjoys this post!

How Far Is It? Adding Perspective in a Larger World

August 23, 2014 by Robert Haddan

During our Australia trip, a conversation about perspective came up. Think about looking at a downtown cityscape. If you’re in the middle of the city, you see the individual streets and buildings. But if you’re 20 miles outside of town, the city becomes two-dimensional. The dozen blocks worth of buildings are now a single row of buildings.

Japan is about 142,000 square miles, similar in geographic size to Montana. From north to south, it’s roughly the northern border of Oregon to the southern border of California. But news from Japan in the U.S. flattens like the cityscape from a distance. We often get questions from friends and family as to how far away we are from natural disasters and crazy weather.

To help put our location in perspective, I prepared the following handy dandy chart showing our distance (as the crow flies) from major Japanese cities as well as a comparative distance from Portland to another U.S. city. I also added places like Sendai, which suffered major damage in the 2011 earthquake, and Ōkuma, home to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

City	Distance from Kawagoe	U.S. City	Distance from Portland
Tokyo	20 miles	Newberg, OR	21 miles
Yokohama	35 miles	McMinnville, OR	34 miles
Mt. Hakone	52 miles	Monmouth, OR	54 miles
Mt. Ontake, Nagano	112 miles	Redmond, OR	113 miles
Ōkuma (Fukushima)	132 miles	Kent, WA	130 miles
Nagoya	154 miles	Redmond, WA	151 miles
Sendai	179 miles	Kennewick, WA	177 miles
Kyoto	219 miles	Medford, OR	221 miles
Osaka	240 miles	White Rock, BC	241 miles
Kōbe	257 miles	Vancouver, BC	259 miles
Iwate	276 miles	Spokane, WA	289 miles
Hiroshima	412 miles	Chico, CA	403 miles
Sapporo	503 miles	Butte, MT	490 miles
Mt. Aso, Kyushu	523 miles	San Francisco	536 miles
Fukuoka	541 miles	Pocatello, ID	539 miles
Okinawa	968 miles	Mexicali, Baja MX	972 miles

Tongue Tied: Adventures in Japanese

July 8, 2014 by Robert Haddan

I went to the grocery store today. This isn’t unusual. I shop for groceries every couple of days. We eat a lot of veggies and have limited storage.

The script is usually the same. The cashier greets you, asks if you have a store card and rings up the order. There’s a handy bag-tag if you have your own reusable bag, so usually that’s not even part of the conversation.

Something funny happened today though. I walk up to the register and the clerk, probably in her mid-20s, says the Japanese equivalent of “You don’t have a card.” I laughed out loud… one look at the American and she knew my story. She kept talking to me, which was both great and frustrating.

I’m reaching the point in my Japanese language adventure of understanding in context. I’m pretty good at the grocery stores or restaurants now as long as the speaker doesn’t deviate from the standard spiel too much. But I’m also still a little behind in comprehension and response. That two-second delay is just enough for the speaker to move on or just give up altogether.

I read something recently about learning a language. I’m still in the “translate this to English in my head” phase of learning Japanese. When you actually learn the language, you understand the Japanese itself and are no longer translating to the English equivalent.

Today I understood everything the clerk said, which was exciting. I asked her to leave my rice ball out so I could eat it now and she responded oishii desu ne! or “It’s good, isn’t it?! She asked if it was hot out since I was wearing short sleeves and said it was too cold in the store.

The frustrating part is, in that two second delay, all I can muster is Hai or “Yes.” I know the response is Atsui desu ne! or “It IS hot!” but the words don’t come to mind until the conversation has moved on.

I’ve written before about my frustration in not being able to communicate. But I run across enough people like the clerk that are patient and, frankly, don’t seem to care that I can’t keep up my end of the conversation.

I was riding the train the other day after a four-mile run that ended up at Starbucks, ultimately resulting in a Dark Mocha Chip Frappuccino. The guys across from me on the train were snickering a bit. I heard “Starbucks” at one point and their dodging eyes told me I was probably the butt of a harmless joke, but they seemed nice about it, so I engaged them.

Oishii desu. I said, letting them know this Frappuccino was a tasty, tasty treat. He asked me if I spoke Japanese and I replied with my new standby: Nihongo ga chotto wakarimasu… demo ganbarimasu! or “I only understand a little Japanese, but I try my best.”

For some reason, this is killing people! Both men laughed big, belly laughs. I’ve asked a couple people who actually DO speak the language and they think it’s just a level of appreciation that I’m trying, but I’m seriously considering taking this act on the road!

Things We Eat: Dining Out Edition

July 1, 2014 by Robert Haddan

We had a couple breakthroughs in our eating out adventures in the last couple weeks. I’ve mentioned before that it’s tough to find a vegetarian meal in Japan without going to a speciality shop, which are also few and far between. The awesome website vegi-navi.jp is starting to change that. Sites like Happy Cow are great, but they tend to focus on vegetarian/vegan-only places. Vegi-Navi adds in the local places that might have only a single veg meal on the menu, which is all you need sometimes.

Kick-Ass Thai — The sign under this Thai boxer says they have “World-Famous Thai Food.” I’m not gonna argue…

We were in Tokyo last week and ended up getting a couple good meals out. First stop was Tinun, a Thai place in Omotesando across from the Toyko Metro station. The lunch menu was NOT vegetarian-friendly, but the waiter was very helpful. We explained our eating preference and together we came up with a couple dishes that could be modified. We ended up with Pad Thai with tofu and a Thai Fried Rice. Both were really good.

Taiwanese Food — This Taiwanese place was a hole-in-the-wall down a side street. Always the best!

We were back in Ikebukuro around dinner time, so we headed toward one of the places we’d pre-mapped. We came out the wrong station exit, but fortunately I recognized the landmarks for another place we’d pre-mapped! According to vegi-navi, it’s called SENJOUTEUCHIGYOUZATEN. The poster inside the three-table restaurant said “Sen Jou Dumplings,” which is both accurate and easier to say.

The owner, I’m quite certain, sold us the veggie gyoza at the Taiwan Festival we attended in our first week in Japan. Her first question was “Are you vegetarian?” which was a good sign. She had a nice mix of veggie and meat options, but two complete vegetarian set options. We ordered one of each and got a table-load of food. Multi-colored gyoza, rice, veggies, soup and a mock-meat stir fry.

As we left, she introduced us to the cook—who also happened to be her mother. I told her we were already contemplating what we’d order next time.

The best find, purely for convenience purposes, might have been Tempura Tendon Tenya. Located in Crea Mall, the open-air shopping hub in the heart of central Kawagoe, they have a full English menu (!!) and several set options. The rice set comes with all-you-can-eat rice and noodle sets are also available with soba or udon. The only “oops” in the meal was some dried fish shavings (katsuobushi) on the spinach, but it was easily brushed aside.

Last weekend, we headed west (without our camera) on the JR Kawagoe train for the first time, pointed toward Alishan Organic Cafe in Hidaka City. Only three stops and a bus ride from our station, this will be a return destination. The cafe menu is 100% vegetarian and mixes a standard menu with seasonal specialties. We ordered a donburi bowl (rice bowl) with mock-meat and veggies and a teriyaki veggie burger. Both came with a salad and fried panko-crusted potato ball. Excellent, clean-tasting food. They also have a small store with hard-to-find organic and vegetarian products.

I really enjoy cooking at home, but it’s also nice to find some places for those days where cooking just isn’t in the cards.