Fear Factor Sushi

This week we went out for a sushi dinner with one of Matt's coworkers. We strayed from our usual sushi joint  to try out a place that Americans refer to as "Fear Factor Sushi." Since many Americans living in Misawa, including us, don't know Kanji, Hiragana, or Katakana (the three different types of characters that make up Japanese text), they make up names for restaurants, roads, and stores. This particular restaurant seems to have been named for the availability of unusual menu items, including soup with LIVE minnows as well as a shrimp dish where the poor little crustaceans have had their tails removed but are still ALIVE. Raw fish is where we drew the line, and it was hands down the highest quality sushi we've ever had. The melt-in-your-mouth tuna and salmon sashimi stole the show, but we also enjoyed scallops, a mystery white fish, and eel sushi rolls.

This was the first time that we had ever been presented with an actual wasabi root.

Our room














The original humidifier


















Family photo

Appi Skiing

Over President's Day weekend, we took an overnight trip to Appi Ski Resort. We purchased a package that included our hotel room, dinner and breakfast in the buffet-style hotel restaurant, as well as tickets to the Onsen. This was our first experience at a Japanese hotel (other than the airport hotel in Tokyo), so we experienced a few "firsts." Our room had two pairs of sandal/slippers as well as robes to wear around the hotel and to the restaurant. Of course, we didn't know this until we got to dinner and realized that we were some of the only people wearing our street shoes. We decided to try out the sandals the next morning at breakfast. They were surprisingly comfortable, even if a few inches of Matt's feet hung off of the back.

Although the dinner buffet was predictable Japanese fare, we weren't really sure what to expect for breakfast, as the Japanese are typically content to start their day with rice and other foods that us westerners would consider dinner food. Our breakfast consisted of croissants and jelly, smoked salmon, yogurt, cereal, apple juice, milk, and fried noodles. We passed on the boiled tofu and rice. We also decided to do as the Japanese do and took turns visiting the Onsen, essentially a hot spring spa consisting of two indoor pools (one hot, one ice cold), a sauna, as well as a hot outdoor pool and very hot outdoor foot basin. As with many experiences in a foreign country, it was a little bit confusing the first time around, but now we know how it works and would be open to trying it again.

Appi is one of the most well-known resorts in our region of Japan. It is considerably larger than the other resorts we've visited this season, offering 21 runs of varying skill level, two gondolas, and many other chair lifts. Matt enjoyed honing his jumping skills on four different jumps in the ski park, and the highlight for me was skiing a nice and easy 5.5 km (3.4 mile) green run with our friend Jan. Here are some of the pictures Matt captured on the mountain.

Engrish at the Mall

Last weekend, we set out to visit Shimoda mall, located about 15 minutes from our house. We had some shopping to do, but also an ulterior motive to document some of the unusual use of English words, or Engrish, on storefronts and articles of clothing.

What is the opposite of outerwear? Inner wear, of course. But this sign for the Women's lingerie section of a department store seemed a bit odd.

The English writing on clothing is meant to be decorative rather than taken literally.

Play the Gentleman Upright, Mischievous Dear Studio 1919, Nature Forest

Apparently refinement poses help one to have honest and upright digestion.

Not sure who would go to a training camp to decline.

We get it, it's windy. But since when is that such a huge selling point for a beach?

Yikes.


















Ridiculous.

Other funny store names...

 

Funny, because it exclusively sells clothing for girls.

Happy Price = Sale; Family portrait = Creepy.

Not a bad idea, when you think about it.

Anime-like manikins modeling typical school uniforms and the yellow hats that children wear while walking home from school. Kind of dorky, but totally practical from a safety standpoint.

We ate at a food court restaurant named "Pepper Lunch," where customers are handed a sizzling hot cast iron dish filled with raw meat and a mound of rice and seasoning that cooks while they walk back to their table.Can you imagine something like this being done in the states, at a mall no less?! Matt liked it.

The Colonel.

Despite the funny store names and merchandise, it is your typical Western mall, minus all of the familiar stores. I'm sure we'll be back many times in the next two-and-a-half years!