Voyage Junkie

I had a love-and-friend-filled birthday this year!  I got flowers from a student whose father runs a flower shop, four of us with the same birthday exchanged gifts, and I went out to sing karaoke and eat delicious rice flour crepes!  I ate a green tea cheesecake crepe (amazing).  Below, the karaoke group picture.      L-R: of course us, Sachiko and Io-chan, Shio, Atsushi, and Kiri. My birthday present to myself?  A rice cooker cake!  Skeptics: yes, that's it, in the rice cooker just post.  Recipe: 200 grams gluten-free hotcake mix, 1 egg, 1/2 cup maple syrup, 1/2 cup canola oil, 1/2-1 cup plain yogurt.  I added 3 mashed bananas, 1 small package dark chocolate chips, and unsweetened dried coconut (topping).  You simply mix it all together, drop it in a slightly oiled rice cooker, and start the cycle!  My cooker has a cake setting on it, which runs for 45 minutes (in the winter it takes 2 cycles).  If you don't ha...

I participated in another dance concert on December 18th, which also happened to be the Artistic Director's 68th birthday!  She's such a spunky woman who still dances like crazy and does handstands.  She looks at least 10 years younger than she is, and acts about 20 years younger.  I hope I am half as ambulatory and energetic as she is if I reach her age. We held her party at Godmother's, which is turning into one of our party mainstays.  We were served wonderful pizza and pasta, and apparently bought tons of sparkling wine near the end of the evening (Japanese people like to get their drink on, especially for birthdays and special events like dance concerts). Let's go around the room.  First we have two little girls (of four).  These two were the older two, and also the more obnoxious two.  The one in stripes was completely insufferable during dinner.  She refused to eat any vegetables or healthy food, demanded several slices of pizza befor...

L-R: Katsu, Saya, Mari, Chelsea  On June 25th, we gathered a surprising amount of people together for dinner and karaoke, under the guise of June birthday celebrations.  Birthdays are a great excuse to plan a large party in Japan, not that one needs a great excuse to have a party here.  Especially an all-you-can-eat-and-drink party, otherwise known as tabenomihodai .  We invited a wide range of people, and then some of them invited other people, and we ended up with a group of about 20 for dinner and 14 for karaoke! L-R: Chiko,   , Laura, Dan, Bill, Stephan, Rachael We started the evening at Godmother's Restaurant in Gifu.  Rachael and I found the place a few months back after a fortuitous trip to a mall near her home, where we met Mugi and Sato (featured later in karaoke pictures).  They both speak amazing English, having lived in the States before.  Currently they work for a company called Kobayashi Noodle Co , that develops gluten-f...

Lovely French-inspired desserts, from L-R: egg pudding, strawberry-pistachio meringues, maple bar, hazelnut meringues.  All GF but the maple bar.    I'll definitely post more on French things soon... I'm amassing quite a collection of French signage that needs to be documented.  For now, have fun with this lovely spread of treats we purchased from a French-themed pâtisserie and chocolatier that is down the street from our house.  Everything is incredibly delicious and artfully made.  At the shop you can watch the bakers while you eat fresh croissants and drink coffee, if you like.  It's pretty intense. If you can't read the wrappers, here's what they say. Le Cerisier d'amour, depuis 1976, La pâtisserie que profite de la matiere delicieuse. The Cherry tree of love, since 1976, The pastry that takes advantage of the delicious matter. They probably mean to say, "The pastry that benefits from delicious ingredients."  As for "cherry tree of ...

My friends, L-R around the circle: Rachael, me, Matt, Sayaka, Laura, Mari, Asami, Kacey, and Saya. On January 29th I celebrated my first Japanese birthday!  It was a great time.  I went out with a bunch of friends to our favorite Izakaya (Japanese-style bar).  We ordered delicious food, including pizza chicken skewers and ice cream with warm sweet potato and caramel sauce.  I tried some strawberry plum wine and light plum wine, the latter of which I enjoyed a bit more.  After dinner we went and sang a ton of bad karaoke, including American, Japanese, and Korean pop songs.  What can I say?  We're a multi-cultural crowd, which apparently means we're equal-opportunity for awful music. Here's Matt with Sayaka, an English teacher at his main school (Nagamori Minami).  It was her birthday on January 21st, so the party was 1/4 for her! To the right, Rachael and I begin to look like sisters!  Her birthday was January 10th, so 1/4 of the par...