Uhh

I just deleted a fairly sizable chunk of text because I realized that it's unfair to task my readers with long diatribes that I write with the subconscious intent of rationalizing my feelings. You want to hear about my crazy life in Japan.

It's not that crazy. When I have a full day to do stuff on the weekends, I often want to relax and play some games, watch some TV, or just be lazy in general. I am human. If Misae doesn't have to work, then we'll plan a day out and go somewhere that I found on the internet or that she recommends. We have gone to Okinawa and Fukuoka, along with Miyazaki, a closer prefecture. Fukuoka was kind of a random decision. I had a 9 day vacation, so I urged her to get 2 or 3 days off. Her work schedule gives her 8 days off a month, so consecutive days aren't too common. Fukuoka was mainly a chance for her to do some shopping in a big city, and I got to go to some historical sites and the like. Actually, since I had already gone with Eric, I ended up revisiting some more famous places that she had never seen. In Miyazaki, we traveled to a small village preserved to show how ancient Japanese people lived. There were a couple archaeological sites that showed how people dug pits in the ground for food storage and cooked meals on rocks. They also displayed the straw cottages used for shelter. The most interesting was a core sample of earth with labels on the different layers. There were several layers of stones and ash from Sakurajima eruptions. Kyushu is also home to a number of calderas, and one of them had a massive eruption a long time ago that was also noted on the core sample. If I didn't read incorrectly, the debris traveled somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 miles.

We have entered the rainy season in Japan. Last year, there was hardly a rainy season to speak of. And when I was studying abroad, it wasn't that bad. This year, it looks like I can appreciate what the term "rainy season" means. It has rained hard and almost constantly for the past several days. It's times like these that I don't regret the investment that was necessary in getting my license and car.

I don't get any visitors to my apartment anymore, at least of the Jehovah's Witness variety. NHK is the company that runs basic cable television here, and citizens are expected to pay for the service. However, this is an honor system payment and is not enforced by any law. So, I have adopted the strategy that, apparently, a lot of young Japanese use: ignore the NHK representative when they come to your house. I only answer the door when I am expecting a package. Anybody else gets ignored, even if my lights are on and I am clearly home. They will come several times in the course of a week and then typically give up until the next year. Too bad. I don't even watch NHK TV, so I'm not going to answer the door and let them try to guilt me into paying.

I also recently saw a commercial for a product called Placenta 100. It's picture is up there. It's basically a vitamin supplement from what I can gather, but it's also a little disconcerting. I know that placenta is rich in nutrients, and there are people who eat it, but to concentrate it into pill form or drink form sounds horrifying. I started thinking, "Oh, Japan" until I noticed that sheep placenta supplements sell on Amazon. Ok, whatever.

Well, that's just a short update on my end. I spent a lot of time typing only to delete a lot of it. I still need to dig more into the trips I've made, so I'll do that. Hopefully I do it before Christmas...

Later, America!

Continued

My brother and I left Hokkaido for Tokyo, where there was a lot to see. We never made it to Akihabara, the world capital of awkward and mildly unnerving shops, but we got to Odaiba, an artificial island that was home for the temporary exhibition of the life-size Gundam, an 18 meter tall statue with a movable head and light-up capabilities. There were a lot of grown men who came to the site and repeatedly remarked about how awesome it was. We also traveled very close to the location of the school I did study abroad at in order to go watch a baseball game. The game was enjoyable, though as it was about to end, I did something rather unsavory yet entertaining in the end. There was a group of businessmen sitting in front of us, and they were all very drunkenly cheering. I began to explain the dynamics of the group as I perceived it to my brother. I think he thought they were related in some way. I mentioned that they sat down according to hierarchy, with the highest guy at one end and the youngest, newest guy at the other. The two higher-ups conversed the whole time and paid for all the drinks, while the younger guys generally kept to themselves. As I explained, I (also a bit intoxicated) did not hesitate to speak in loud English and point directly to the men's faces. One eventually noticed and asked me a couple questions about my country of origin and so forth. I answered, and my brother mentioned something about it being embarrassing that I had just been caught pointing right at them. I laughed it off and mentioned that I could probably get them to buy me a drink quite easily. This was never my actual intent, just a cultural observation that I thought was fairly true. The men initiated conversation yet again, and I mentioned that I studied abroad in the area and considered myself a fan of the home team. They lauded me, shouted a few words at their superior, and within a couple minutes, a fresh drink was in my hands. After the game ended in a disappointing 9th inning come-from-behind (there is a single Japanese word to express this, which is convenient) loss, we wandered outside. We walked through the parking lot and passed the best exit. I spotted a path that would take us out and started heading in that direction, but my brother wasn't having it. There were other people going there, but it was in reality a dark path leading into a group of trees. In no way did it appear to lead somewhere good. I got annoyed because I claimed to know the area well (read: alcohol) and we eventually got back to where we should have gone. Sorry about that.

After that, we went to Kansai, a region that includes Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Kobe, and other important spots. We hit Kobe while on our way out of the region just to see a few things. For example, there is an area of the harbor left in the same state it was after the Kanto earthquake. We also had a small discussion about the potential differences between Kobe beef and Japanese beef. I still believe that the American concept of "Kobe beef" is really just Japanese beef that we decided to stamp a particular city name on. Kobe beef is indeed slightly famous, but not very. Similarly, there is a restaurant in my American hometown that advertises Kumamoto oysters. Kumamoto is just north of Kagoshima, and they are famous for horse meat, not oysters. Hiroshima is famous for oysters. Osaka was really nothing particularly notable when compared to Tokyo. I found it to be much like any other big city. Nara is a sort of miniature Kyoto. It is a short distance from Kyoto, the most famous city in Japan for viewing temples. But it also houses a lot of temples and shrines that make for a good day trip. It also has the deer park. In Nara and a few other places in Japan, there are wild, tame deer that roam free in the city but typically do not wander very far. They are encouraged to stay by the tourists that buy food for them on a daily basis. When they spot you, however, they get somewhat violent. They immediately recognize the food you are carrying to be rice crackers specially formulated for deer and helpful for urinary tract health. The last part may not be accurate. Either way, they come at you and bump you with their heads. The females come off as merely impatient and unfriendly, whereas the males with antlers are frightening. They can easily achieve the perfect swinging angle to ram you in the crotch, so the crackers quickly turn from food into bait. I had to throw well-timed crackers away from me in order to make them leave. Fortunately, after you run out, showing them your empty hands calms them down, and they go back to pooping everywhere. Kyoto is Kyoto. It has temples. I went to Kiyomizu-dera for the first time and wrote an ema, which is a wooden tablet that you write a wish on and has a picture of some animal on the back (originally a horse).

I'm doing all of this writing while at work, so I will do it in little installments over the next while. There's a lot to catch up on. As for current little news: I hit my first thing in my car! I was doing a three-point turn hurriedly to let a guy into a parking lot and misjudged the distance between my front tire and a wooden sign post. I pulled the thing down and had to straighten it, but it was easy and there was no damage to the car. The post had a little chunk missing. Oh well. I learned that I should take my time no matter what and also trust myself when I'm thinking, "Hey, I'm probably gonna hit that." Bye, America!

Hey, America. You Still There?

To be quite frank, it's hard for me to know where to begin. A full season has passed since I last wrote anything here, and while a lot has stayed the same, a lot has changed, too. In this post, I plan to cover the experiences I've had over the last several months, my progress in cultural and language learning, and any quirky tidbits I feel like sharing along the way. I can't be sure that my prose was ever eloquent, but if it was, it has certainly lost that touch. I have not been writing much at all in English, and my English speaking isn't particularly common either. I will do my best to keep this entertaining.

Let's start at the beginning, where I left off: July. At the end of July, my brother came to visit for three weeks and we spent a very interesting time together. The dynamic of the vacation was fundamentally different than any other I had been on in the past. There were moments of good fortune, getting lost, delicious food, and mild anger. First of all, spending three consecutive weeks with only one person would, I imagine, start to wear on one's patience. That said, I guess I'm not really cut out for marriage. Right now, that's definitely true. I can't fathom how I would react if my girlfriend moved in with me. Anyway, it was probably worse from my brother's perspective. I had the option of talking to random people if I really wanted to, whereas he had to typically depend on me for translation. So if I pissed him off enough, that would have gotten weird. Fortunately, those moments were limited. There was stubbornness at some point almost daily, but I chalk that up to our being siblings and possibly my being younger. The main issues came up when I was trying to get us to our next destination and didn't know exactly how to do so. I'm familiar with Japan as a whole, but I was also traveling to most locations for the first time. Kagoshima and Tokyo were more comfortable, as I trusted myself to not get lost. However, I felt responsible for the trip's success or failure, so when my interpretation of street signs or maps or what to anticipate around the next corner wasn't clear, it was time to resort to other people or a guide book. And I confess that it hurt me a little inside to concede to the advice of a guide book. After I recovered my pride, we had a good time everywhere. The worst moments were when we were lost and hungry. We did manage to walk around Osaka streets for over an hour while searching for a hotel extremely tired and hungry and carrying suitcases, only to finally hail a taxi. I also booked a hotel in East Hiroshima, thinking that it was a short train ride from central Hiroshima (most cities are laid out in this way, having cardinal direction + city name as an indicator for nearby areas). It was a very, very isolated area. In fact, there was a free shuttle service provided by the hotel because without a car, there was absolutely nothing to do. I asked the woman in the lobby (what do you call them?! I forget English!) about tourism, and she just kind of smirked and said, "Nah, not around here."

Oh, right, so the content of the trip? Unbelievably, it wasn't all getting lost and stubborn. We started out with a few days in Kagoshima, mainly because it's in the countryside and can demonstrate a lot of what Japan has to offer. There's a city of decent proportions, but not far away are rice fields extending to the horizon (which is separated into two words in Japanese: one meaning land horizon and one meaning land horizon. Learned that last night). I was able to bring us to some of the more interesting spots, like the sand baths in Ibusuki. These are a variation on the more traditional hot springs baths in Japan. Hot springs are often heated with a combination of modern technology and geothermal heat, but I believe that these use more of the former. A hole is dug for you in the sand of a beach, you climb in and are covered up to your neck in heavy sand. You can feel your pulse throb in your extremities, and it is a very unusual but therapeutic feeling.

After Kagoshima, we went to Miyazaki to the north to check out some ancient burial mounds. I was unaware that these were not used only in Mesopotamian civilizations. In the evening, we went to Kumamoto and tried to find some good dinner. Before doing that, we stopped at some famous sites, including some good temples and shrines. Our luck was good, as a seemingly popular summer festival was being held at one. It involved children carrying small portable shrines and being doused by the local equivalent of holy water. It was also raining very hard, so though it was redundant, it was interesting to see. The dinner in Kumamoto was a chance to showcase some famous food I knew a bit about: raw horse meat. It's like beef but a little chewier, and I was ready to share. Kumamoto is perhaps the most famous prefecture for the food, but the restaurant we went to served meat that came directly from my home prefecture, Kagoshima. Kind of a waste, but oh well. After Kumamoto, we headed up to Fukuoka and stopped at one of the country's best national history museums. The night was spent eating ramen, one of Fukuoka's specialties. All of Kyushu is known for its tonkotsu ramen, a ramen that uses a pork bone stock and turns out a very rich broth. It is easily my favorite style of ramen, though many others exist. If you've eaten Maruchan, a legitimate Japanese company, you need to forget about it and try real ramen. It's often a worthwhile meal and ideal as a soup substitute in winter.

We flew out of Kyushu for Hokkaido, which is the northernmost and coldest part of Japan. It was still midsummer, but wearing shorts and a T-shirt wasn't as obvious a choice as in Kyushu. We went to a massive national park and spent a few hours there on two consecutive days. First was a hike through the rain on foot. Second, we bucked up and paid the cable car fee to get near the top of the mountain in the center of the park. We were rewarded with some pretty splendid sights, many of which my brother has on his webpage dedicated to the trip. If I get his permission, I'll post the link to it here. We also had a crab dinner, which was slightly expensive and took a little compromising to have. Hokkaido's seafood is one of its best features, and I was pretty dead-set on eating crab. I dropped around $60 for a meal that is still fresh in my memory. Shabu-shabu, for those unfamiliar, is a meal where you are given a pot of broth brought to a rolling boil and then a plate full of vegetables and meat. You cook the food at your leisure and also choose just how raw you wish to consume it. I have eaten Hokkaido crab meat that was frozen. It's good. But when you pull a large chunk of raw meat out of a leg and plunge it into boiling broth for 10 seconds and then consume it immediately, the taste and consistency is unreal. It was likely the best meal I've had in Japan. Second best in taste wins first place in giving me food poisoning, unfortunately.

Wow, I'm definitely going to have to split this up. I've got four months to catch up on, and I haven't finished the first three weeks. Here's a synopsis up until November though: I got a car; pictures to follow. Talk to you soon, America!

Well, another postless month has passed, and I feel fairly guilty about that. At the same time, nobody left a comment on the last post, so I felt fairly confident that after the last hiatus, a number of people gave up on checking for updates.

So, I'm just going to put this short post up as a bit of an appeal. Like I mentioned before, life has become life here. That is, I've essentially stopped viewing this as a job I have away from home, as it has become my job and my home for the time being. It's increasingly difficult to view this as something separate from my life. That said, I really don't know what I can post that will be interesting. So please, please ask questions. I can respond in-depth to questions, but if I just draw from current events, my descriptions may end up kind of shallow.

I'm quickly approaching the end of my first year here, and the wonderful events have mixed with frustrations. There's plenty of positives that make life here worthwhile and rewarding, and there's plenty of things I will never become accustomed to. This has led me to begin questioning why I am here, especially in terms of the job that I have. Now that I have friends and a life outside of my job, what truly is the most important aspect of my life here? I've concluded that while I came here for the teaching job, it was more likely than not an opportunity for a gateway. I wanted to come back to Japan, and this program is clearly one of the best options for a college graduate. I work hard at school and will still stay late for the sake of the kids and do exactly that quite often. But still, I know that teaching high school is not my dream and that I am potentially building for my future here. It would be nice to achieve fluency in the language and let that open doors down the line for government jobs or something like that, but my hobbies like stand-up and writing just have too much of a pull. I like to tell stories, and my command of English is absoutely invaluable to me. The ability to express my ideas with carefully selected words, intonations, and timing is something I cherish. And even if I can become fluent, I have no delusions about being able to do the same in Japanese.

In the present, I am happy. Every day here is good, and there are plenty of moments with friends or even strangers that are truly quite touching. The humanity of people here is something that is sometimes almost baffling. The job security is solid, and I am able to pay off student loans and save money quite comfortably. But there's a nagging sensation that these benefits may lead me to procrastinate. After the next year here, I think I may be ready to come home. Even if I can't find a job easily and live with the same comforts as right now, time passes, and I am confident that I can only pursue my passions when I am back home. I yearn to sit at a table and tell a story to a group of smiling friends or family or to put a mic in my hand.

So that's that. If I think about the present, it's wonderful. But if I think about the future, I know what I have to do, and I just don't think Japan is there. That's fine. In the meantime, ask me questions.

Oh! My main school had the "culture festival" recently. This is a day where the students who will graduate this year get to be themselves and put on small, student-written performances. Each class has a homeroom teacher who gradually becomes their mentor and builds a relationship with them, so these teachers generally participate, too. Other teachers who just have a good sense of humor get in on it as well. Now, the students love the opportunity to get on stage and open their mouths for once in their high school careers, but this seems to translate into a massive desire for cross-dressing. The girls typically had subdued, tame roles in all the performances, whereas the boys got wigs, tights, and dresses and had a ball. Considering this is deemed the festival of culture, it's a little comical. There's a good chance that through the festival and this blog, they have successfully conveyed to my readers a perverted sense of what Japanese culture is. It was very interesting to see the students who most represent to me a diversion from the typical Japanese student. The performances were absolutely packed with choreographed dances, but this usually translates to a dozen or so girls standing on stage and moving their limbs in a very lifeless fashion. They are carrying out all the pre-determined dance moves, but it's done with no emotion whatsoever. Suddenly, in one dance, a few girls started busting out really impressive dance moves. One girl had a smile on her face the whole time, clearly enjoyed it, and moved around in a really fluid way. I don't intend to stereotype, but when I see this, I instantly think of such a girl as likely to not be very "Japanese". To have fun is human, but to let your inhibitions go on stage is something that I think Japanese have particular trouble training themselves to do. It's interesting to see students who break that mold.

Another moment I occasionally have here is when I suddenly enter a somewhat surreal state of mind and begin to see those around me simply as people. It sounds troubling to state that I might look at a Japanese person and first see them as Japanese and then second as a human, but that's something we can't readily control. We see someone and we instantly and unconsciously register things in our mind based on sight. But when I can dig through that and consider that no matter what food we eat or language we speak, we are all human and share certain common traits and desires, it's an interesting and profound feeling. It happened recently at karaoke, of all places:

I was at karaoke with a friend, my girlfriend, and her friend. Her friend was singing a song and my girlfriend was paying no attention to the screen. She was searching for a new song in the song book. But she was singing along to the song from memory. I suddenly began to think about how for me to know that song is a huge endeavor: I'd have to memorize it and hear it dozens of times to be able to recite it from memory. And even then it's just memory. I realized that she not only knows the song in a language I merely have a basic command of, but there also history, her childhood and upbringing, and cultural elements embedded in it that I will never know. The opposite is true as well: even if she became fluent in English, she wouldn't feel the same way as I do when singing "The Star Spangled Banner" from memory. And all of these differences between what I know and what she knows all arose simply because we were born in two different spots on the globe. It's a strange thing to consider. Similarly, there's something about the birds here. Many are species that exist in North America, too. I smile to myself when I think that these birds don't know that they are in Japan. They just eat, fly away, and go to bed. For some reason, that intrigues me. Well, that's all for now. I started this out feeling very homesick, but writing more reminded me of why I'm glad to be here. Cool.

Later, America!

It has been an insane amount of time since I last posted, and I apologize for that. I probably lost a good number of my consistent visitors (if I had any to begin with). Anyway, I have clearly been quite busy, but I will try to relate some of the recent events here in the time I have. My schedule has been packed with classes recently, and the blogging opportunities have been scarce compared to last year.

This is a major difference. Back in March, the third year students graduated, the staff changed around, and everything went bonkers. First of all, the way that being employed in Japan is very different than many of us might imagine. Were I not a foreigner working here and instead subject to the same rules as everybody else, I would undoubtedly leave the country quickly. Why? A very large contingent of Japan's full-time workers, especially teachers, are on a rotation schedule. That is, they stay employed at one location for a certain period of time, often not longer than three years, and then they are moved to a new location. Note the passive construction; this is not a choice for workers. The new location, depending on the job, will either be a couple hours or the length of the country away from one's current home. This inevitably means that one's social groups and, moreover, home, must be left behind on a frequent basis. It is simply part of the system, and one that I could never live with.

So with the new influx of teachers and the changing of what classes certain teachers will teach, I was in the situation of suddenly teaching with 4 teachers who I had never taught with before. The adjustment period was fairly long, and I'm not 100% pleased with the way it turned out. That's partly my fault, I'm sure, for lacking flexibility. Either that, or I perceive inflexibility in me because my mindset is gradually converging with a more Japanese one. And that's not necessarily a good thing. Being here for over a year (10 months + 4 months homestay) allows you a fairly deep perspective. Though I've only seen the tip of the iceberg and may never actually see the rest, I still feel qualified to make certain claims. One is that anime nerds back home are idiots. Blind infatuation with a country, any country, is foolish. Just like wielding a gun and screaming "God loves the USA" seems a little outlandish, so does becoming enamored with a nation one knows nothing about. There is still a great deal I love about this country: the general sense of social harmony, people who look out for one another with what seems to be pure selflessness and no ulterior motives, and the food, for example. But recently I have been consistently reminded of the ignorance that is rampant in Japanese culture. That word carries some heavy connotations, but be glad that I'm not labeling the country racist, as many before me have. The problem (which is not a problem at all, depending on perspective) is that Japan is still, to a large extent, a fairly closed country. Foreign travel is popular, but in towns like mine, lots of people have never been abroad. And like many of us, even if they do go abroad, such an opportunity doesn't make them understand the country. For my fellow recent graduates, try to recall if you ever saw an exchange student drinking with others. Chances are that the kid got pelted with stereotypical questions the entire night by rowdy, drunken students. The whole situation is comical for everyone involved. But after that student hears the same questions 1000 times, especially ones that implicitly demean his home country, he's going to become a little frustrated. I have heard countless times from Japanese how they fear the dangers of the US. Part of this has some solid logical foundation: the crime rate is flat out worse. But still, if you're not involved with drugs or gangs, you typically don't worry about getting shot or stabbed on a daily basis. Half of me can't blame people because they simply don't know a lot about foreign countries, but sometimes it's hard to stifle a gut reaction to things that seem to border on hostility or racism. I make it sound like a crisis, but this is merely an observation that I have had a chance to learn more about.

That's enough of that. My life has been fairly dominated by recent events, including school. Yet the primary factor is undoubtedly the fact that I now have a girlfriend. This began about a week after my last post, so it's clear to me that the lack of posts is directly related. My Japanese vocabulary has increased at a steady pace, but my confidence and ability to engage in smooth, unhindered conversation has made leaps and bounds. Two of yesterdays conversations included laser eye surgery and the benefits of unsaturated fats. Granted, there are hiccups in communication when I don't know specific words (surgery was a problem), but it generally goes quite well. I recently realized that one's vocabulary increases via study for a certain amount of time, and then it increases based on necessity. For recent conversations, I have ended up learning the words for polyunsaturated fat and urethra. The two were not related, and I won't summarize why they needed to be used. Anyway, things are going well. I bought a massive TV for no good reason, but I am still paying more than the minimum on my student loans, so finances must be decent. In July, a three week excursion around the country with my brother, Eric, is coming, so there should plenty of pictures from that. I'll try to update again soon with some more specific stories or interesting tidbits from recently, but it's mostly been a steady progression. I'm just living life; but I'm in Japan. All in all, everything is good, the weather is becoming great, and I am quite pleased. Time to go to class. Recently, I'm constantly in class, it seems. Oh well. Talk to you later, America!

You Asked For It (Seventy Three Times)

Hello all,

This post mainly serves the purpose of appeasing my parents' weekly requests to see my apartment.  I have spoken to them just about every weekend since I got here almost eight months ago, and I don't think they failed to ask about those gosh darn pictures.  Unfortunately, my place hits its peak of disrepair on the weekends; I then talk to my parents, clean the place the next day, and forget to photo it.  This cycle repeated dozens of times, and I recently told them that if I put photos up, it would mean that I had a girlfriend.  This is indeed not the case at the moment, but the more tangible prospect for that of late is undoubtedly a factor in my desire to not live like I typically would.  So, there's some good stories that have surfaced recently, but not all of them should be posted on here.  Feel free to inquire.  In the meantime, take a look at my place and ask questions about any peculiar items you may notice in the place.  I'm not going to make a running inventory of the apartment just yet.  Finally, the last picture is a bonus to illustrate some of my frustrations while driving.  Since when is it OK to blatantly cut across three lanes of a shopping center entrance BEHIND A CAR that is waiting to leave and IN FRONT OF A CAR (moped) that is pulling up behind it?

Edit: I should note that I am not an ideal driver, either.  Jonathan left a comment a few posts back, so here's a chance to reply to it.  He saw the picture of all the students with the identical helmets.  The helmets are in fact made by a variety of companies, but the students are required to get full-face white helmets to which they then apply colored stickers that indicate their grade.  They are easily identifiable when out in public.  My helmet is also white, but I don't need any fancy racing-stripe-like decoration.  This is my second helmet; my first one was cool and black.  Bike helmets are designed to take some hits, but once they do, the integrity is compromised and a new one is advisable.  So, yes, I have had one accident.  I was getting into the swing of driving and was mildly lost looking for a convenience store.  I pulled into a wide, empty intersection and decided to take the chance to look around for signs of a store.  I took my eyes off the road for a full two or three seconds.  When you drive something that turns based on how you distribute your weight, turning your head and shoulders leads your body in the opposite direction.  I looked back to the road, and realized I was a half second from hitting the curved part where a curb begins.  I may have been able to swerve out of the way.  Instead, I literally thought to myself, "it's like a video game; ramp it".  I indeed ramped it.  I then crashed to the ground and collapsed.  I was scratched a little and my headlight was busted, and that was all.  The noise was formidable and I decided to take the opportunity to make some locals feel a little off-put.  Some gas station attendants witnessed the whole thing, and it turned out I needed some gas.  So I walked my unskilled self over, and they stared at me.  I said "fill it up, please!", to which they could only say, "OK...uh...but...are you OK?"  So that's that.

Bye, America!

This One's About Food Again

  So there is a local chain restaurant, Hotto Motto (more hot), that provides some decent ready-made lunches.  The name is kind of a silly story.  There was an original food chain, Hokka Hokka Tei (I believe hokka is a way of saying "hot" and I don't know how to translate tei).  So this restaurant had a distribution company in its franchise that recently declared independence.  The company broke off and supplied the new restaurant, Hotto Motto, claiming in its humorous name that it is hotter than its competitor.  Notably, the menus are almost identical, and while Hotto Motto introduces new items more frequently, Hokka Hokka Tei is generally better.  My main school has a Hotto Motto near it, so I only eat Hokka Hokka Tei once a week.  Also, since the latter is older, its name found its way into lunch parlance.  Hokkaben (an amalgamation of hokka and bentou) is a way of explaining that your lunch is not homemade but take-out.

Most of you have probably heard the term bentou before, given that the popularity of Japanese food is on the rise.  A bentou is your quintessential lunch box.  Homemade bentou will usually consist of several layered dishes: one with veggies and meat, one with rice, and possibly a bowl for soup.  When you buy one out, you get a big styrofoam box, basically, with everything inside.  For people with large appetites, you can buy a manpuku bentou, which essentially means "full stomach lunch".  I think of it as Japan's Hungry Man, especially since it's a MANpuku bentou (though still pronounced mAWn-poo-koo).  That is a common item that I tried once.  

Recently, they introduced the sports bentou, which allegedly packs in the protein and calories that are needed by athletes.  Mind you, a lot of protein here is 30g or so, about the same you would get from a single quarter pounder.  At first glance, it looks like a smorgasbord of foods that are basically not good for you, but each is presented in moderation.  So, I bought it, and I need to hit the gym later.  My American appetite put down the meal quite handily, but I looked online and discovered the specific breakdown of nutrition.  I basically did eat a quarter pounder; the fat and protein I took in were comparable, but the weight of the meal was far greater and consisted of twice the calories and way more sugars (rice and pasta aplenty).  I was pleased with the variety of tastes, and it overall had a very Western, fried goodness to it.  The components of the meal are not unusual at all for Japan.

I have been frequenting the gym and trying to adjust my diet accordingly.  This does mean a greater intake of calories, protein, and vitamins.  So my meat and veggies are a staple.  This meal lived up to its name for the most part, but I would have definitely sacrificed some of the flavor for lower fat content if it were up to me.  I will enumerate its contents, starting in the upper left hand corner and moving clockwise.  First up is an oily mix of pasta, pork, and veggies.  The next corner is a piece of sausage, a small croquette of potato and veggies, some cabbage (termed salad), a bit of scrambled egg, and a piece of fried chicken, the first three hidden from view by my environmentally friendly two-tone chopsticks.  Next is the world's smallest hamburger, and, finally, you guessed it, a heap of rice coated with some nice, salty furikake for flavor.  Let's not forget the decorative fake seaweed that is used in America, as well, and equally useless.  Finally, a picture of me sitting in the office yesterday, sporting some argyle and wondering if I should play golf.  Bye, America!