Soba, Sushi, and Sightseeing

Sorry about the large-ish delay between posts. Hopefully the sheer density of images in this post will make up for it.

Three days ago, on Thursday, after classes the school had a soba making party. If you haven’t heard of it, soba is a type of Japanese noodle made from buckwheat (according to Wikipedia). Some people that I was assuming were from a local soba shop came and showed us the process. We got to try making it first-hand, which was pretty cool. I’ll entail the steps here for your reading enjoyment. First, you sift the flour into a bowl. Then, while slowly adding water, mix the flour vigorously with your hand until it starts clumping together. Once the clumps are big enough, you can mash the whole thing together into one big ball of dough. Then you sort of like…knead it, folding it over onto itself. We had to do it 30 times. After that, you do a whole lot of flattening with a rolling pin. Once you have a nice, big square of dough, you fold it over onto itself to make a smaller square 1/4 the size and chop it into noodles. I didn’t see what they did with it after that, since they took it elsewhere (probably to a sink near the bathroom; I think you just soak them or something). Then, we got to eat the noodles we made. It was pretty good, I suppose. Tasted like noodles. They had soy sauce to add some flavor.

Also of note that day was the game center I visited. It made me happy to see that arcades are still alive in Japan, at least. I’ve been to a few game centers so far and it seems like a common theme is to have a million crane games on the first floor. I knew Japan was crazy about them, but I don’t think I’ve seen so many in my life. Second floor is “medal games”, which as far as I can tell is just gambling-type games. Slot machines, simulated horse racing, and some sort of game involving balls and some intricate machine that I haven’t inspected enough to understand the gist of. In hindsight, I should’ve taken a picture. I saw a bunch of arcade games that aren’t in the US, though, which was pretty cool.

Every Friday our school has a party, and this week’s happened to be a sushi-making party. It was pretty fun, but mostly delicious. You took a sheet of seaweed, put whatever you wanted on it, rolled it up, and ate it. Possible ingredients included rice, eel, shrimp, beef, avocado, egg, and some sort of cheese. Japanese rice is really good, by the way. Not sure what’s different about it.

Saturday I decided to head to a big mall in Fukuoka named Canal City. Nothing terribly out of the ordinary. A lot, a lot, a lot of clothing stores. I’d wager that at least 90% of the stuff there was clothes, and this was an 8 or so story tall mall. It was kinda disappointing. From what I could tell on the map, there wasn’t a single game store there. In fact, the only thing of note I saw there was the Jump Store, which sold all sorts of Shonen Jump related merchandise (Shonen Jump is a comic magazine in Japan). I suppose something else to note is that it was right next to the Ultraman store, which I don’t know much about. Oh right. There was a Pokemon store, too. Afterwards, I walked around that part of town and visited a nearby temple. There was some sort of stone basin with running water and some sort of ladles for some sort of tradition that I’m not aware of in front of the main building, so I just let that be. I walked around the graveyard for a bit, which was pretty interesting. Kinda labyrinthine, though. For those interested, a sign entailing the history of the temple. Also, I noticed on my map that there was a high school relatively close to where I was (note: it was farther than I thought), so I decided to drop by there as well. Japanese high schools are pretty different from western ones as I’ve noticed from anime and such, so I had to see one for myself. It was pretty much everything I expected. The exterior was probably the only thing that defied expectations. The hallways, the classrooms, and stairs were all as expected. I was kinda surprised to see as many students hanging around in classrooms as I did, though, since it was Saturday and all. I think some Japanese high schools have a half-day on Saturdays, though.

Today I went back to that park that I mentioned in a previous post where I forgot my camera and couldn’t take pictures. The park is centered around a lake that has a bridge that spans the entire length and goes across some of the islands in the middle. Walking along the lakeside I saw koi, turtles, and some rare Japanese birds. There were also these short post-type things that had what I assume to be children’s games/rhymes on them. For you birdwatchers, I also saw some, uh, herons. Or egrets. Or something. There were rowboats and paddleboats that you can rent, and it seems they’re pretty popular as there were a reasonable number of them when I was there. Also, a pagoda. There was also this river-like thing going along part of the park, which was pretty cool.

And now, more random pictures:
The view from Susenji station
Train platform
This is what a Japanese keyboard looks like
Suburban streets don’t really have sidewalks
A typical address placard. The top line indicates that it’s in the first block of the Susenji neighborhood
On the way to the subway
Susenji Station, where I go pretty much every day
A sign on an overpass going over the train tracks telling kids not to play there
Bridge/river/skyline
Poster in the high school talking about how bullying is a crime
Speed limit sign. Interestingly enough, the sign doesn’t say anything about speed. The text just reads “from here on”.
Sign on the sidewalk telling people not to walk and smoke
Sign in the subway warning potential molesters that they’re unwanted
I thought this was kinda funny, but what’s shown in vending machines aren’t the actual products. They’re just fakes that look like the real thing. Not sure if you can tell that from this image.
I somehow missed this before, but this danger sign might be more interesting than the one I posted before with the kappa
Some sort of notice about birds or something at the park
Different dishes at a restaurant in the park
A pretty slick car I saw in the parking lot. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this make or model before, though.

Even in Japan:
7-11
Coca Cola
The Sports Authority

Only in Japan:
am pm, a chain of convenience stores. (I only assume that this is Japan-exclusive because I haven’t heard of it before. As a side-note, the signs below the name of the store advertise sake, beer, and cigarettes)
Kimonos at a clothing store

And now, time for some Engrish:
Mr. Good Smoking
I like woman
Yes! Bilding
Keep you best