Christmas Cake 

Sponge cakes with strawberries, whipped cream, and placards
Cheesecakes with gold dust for holiday snackers
Chocolate yule logs with Santas and sleighs
These are a few of the cakey displays . . .


Here in Japan, no Christmas is complete without a Christmas cake. Christmas cake is traditionally sponge cake with whipped cream and strawberries. It has morphed into far more extravagant things, like cheesecakes or chocolate cakes covered in ganache (melted chocolate mixed with cream, and sometimes liqueur). You can also get them decorated with white chocolate Mickey-head plaques or holiday wishes from Kitty-chan.

Grocery stores, conbini, and patisseries have had these glossy brochures out for about three weeks now, advertising their scrumptious holiday wares.


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Music to Shop By 

"Okame, kame, kame, uma nat-TOU!"

The music in Japanese grocery stores is insidious. It's not like the Muzak/adult contemporary/soft rock stuff that plays in American grocery stores. It's more like 1970s game show music interspersed with 1950s product jingles, on constant loop. And each store has its own unique selections, further lending to the ambiance of the store (e.g., the JOIS has the checkers wearing mint-green flight attendant uniforms AND sounds like the set of "The Price is Right").

Additionally, there often will be tape recorders scattered throughout the store, eternally playing advertisements for whatever product they're nearest to. The nattou ad at the nearby grocery store is especially fiendish. You say, "I have the nattou song from the Big House stuck in my head," and everyone knows what you mean. And then they sing along.

"Okame, kame, kame, uma nat-TOU!"
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Music of the Night 

I'm afraid of the dark. It doesn't take much to freak me out at night, especially here, where the streetlights are few and far between. On my way to meet Matthew for dinner after work one night, I had a frightening experience that I recall even now, whenever I hear a specific sound.

I was crossing the large street near our house when I first saw the unmarked white truck. It had a red lantern hanging off the back, and played an eerie bamboo flute melody over and over. Low, then high, then low to high again, trilling. It passed me, and I crossed the street, thinking what a curious thing it was. As I walked alone through the darkened streets toward Matthew's office, I heard the melody again. And again. Over and over, low to high, haunting. One street over, the unmarked white truck with the red lantern moved in parallel.

After a few more repetitions of the melody, I started to get nervous. The streets were empty, save for me and the lantern truck. For a city, Kitakami is remarkably quiet, which made the mysterious flute even more unnerving. And it was dark, and the streets were unfamiliar, so I couldn't escape it by choosing an alternate route. I kept moving.

Walking. Red lantern glowing, one street over. Flute playing, haunting, low to high. What was this thing, and why was it stalking me?

By the time I reached the school, my nerves had mostly receded, along with the music. As I told Matthew and his co-worker my scary tale, the music began again, drawing closer. The truck crawled into sight, red lantern glowing, slowing to a stop below the window. It had come:

The mobile ramen shop.
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Manhole Covers 

In America, manhole covers are a largely ignored part of the urban landscape. They are quite plain, bearing little more than a note of what utility it serves and a tread pattern so that pedestrians won't slip.

In Japan, though, each municipality has manhole cover designs that reflect local specialties, historical sites, or festivals. Whatever a town is famous for may end up on the manhole covers.

Here's one of Kitakami's designs:



And one from Hottoyuda, famous for its hot springs:



And one from Yokote, depicting Yokote Castle, a kamakura (snow hut), and cherry blossoms:


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National Pastime 

Matthew and I finally got around to doing some karaoke together this weekend at a pub/snack downtown. As I understand it, most karaoke in Japan these days occurs in small private rooms (or "boxes") within clubs, rather than out in the open like in America. This pub/snack owner loves music, however, so she has an extensive karaoke setup in the main part of her small establishment ¡½ big screen TV, remote controls with touchpads for researching the listings and reserving songs, and portable mics. Matthew had been here before, during his solo stint in Kitakami, and wanted to return. The owner was friendly, quick with the imo shochu (sweet potato liquor), and insistent upon the karaoke.

With her encouragement, we blew through a diverse selection of songs, including a touching duet on Bon Jovi's "Livin' On a Prayer." There was some Carpenters, there was some Ramones; there was ABBA, there was Heart. If I recall correctly, we did the Doors and the Pet Shop Boys back-to-back. I got up enough courage to do some songs in Spanish. The owner was impressed enough with my "Cielito Lindo" to strongarm me into doing a song with her ¡½ in Portuguese. That did not go so well.

We closed out our set with The Clash, "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" But we had made our decision ¡½ it was time to go.


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Best Seat in the House 

Behold, the kotatsu:



A kotatsu is a low table frame covered by a blanket, which the tabletop sits on. A heat source is located somewhere under the table; ours is electric, and is bolted to the frame. You sit with your legs (or more, if you like) under the blanket, which traps the heat. Like many houses in Japan, ours lacks central heat and much in the way of insulation, so we've stocked up on things like heaters in preparation for the winter. Frankly, even if we had heat, I'd want a kotatsu ¡½ it's all fuzzy and cozy and warm.

I hesitate to put this in the "Strange Japan" category, because what it really deserves is an "Awesome Japan" category. I love the kotatsu!
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Bowing Flagmen 

There seems to be a lot of road construction in and around Kitakami. Most times that I've been out driving around within the last few weeks, I've encountered lane shifts, diversions, or some other indicia of road work. Unlike Albuquerque, orange barrels don't appear to have much of a presence here.

My favorite construction phenomena, though, are the bowing flagmen. When a two-lane road is narrowed to one for a relatively short distance, a guy with one red and one green flag is stationed at either end of the site. Sometimes, there's even an advance team about 200 yards beforehand holding a sign asking you to slow down (at least, that's what I think it says). If you are the first car in the line that needs to stop, the flagman will wave his red flag at you, then bow when you have stopped. He will bow again before waving his green flag to let you pass through the construction zone. The courtesy makes it hard to be annoyed about any inconvenience. It's so civilized.
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Have We Been Here Too Long? 

We've been told that you've been in Japan too long when things don't seem strange to you anymore. By that criterion, no, we have not been in Japan too long. The latest oddity? The donut and coffee shop next to the expressway on-ramp that opens at 9 am. What kind of donut store isn't open in the wee hours, when you really need a donut and coffee to get going for a road trip?
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American World 



Tired of the izakaya scene in Kitakami? Maybe it's time to come to American World! Its combination of shopping, restaurants, and amusements seems to be very attractive to young people in Kitakami. I can't say it's all that American — the bookstore has hardly any books in English — but it does offer fast-food burgers, Baskin Robbins ice cream, and a Ferris wheel (invented by an American engineer in 1893).

(It's also home to the only hobby shop in Kitakami, but alas, they have no trains.)
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The Joy of Convenience 

Like in America, the end of the month means bill-paying time. So today, I took the bills and some cash over to the convenience store, grabbed a snack, and paid for it and the bills at the same time. That's right. We pay our bills at the convenience store, which is very common in Japan. For many things, you can pay electronically through your bank, postal account, or credit card. Paying at the conbini is more fun, though.

Also, by allowing me to pay my bills and buy a tasty J-treat at the same time, the convenience store provides me with much better customer service than our bank in America. Ahem. I don't usually go around giving unsolicited advice, but I will say this to anyone thinking about expatriating: before you go, investigate how your bank and/or host country handles transactions where the account holder lives abroad, but all accounts involved are in the U.S. We didn't so much, and we've had to learn things the hard way. Nothing to be worried about, just some frustrations. To learn things is why we did this though, ne? And I've learned to love the convenience store.
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