May 21 2014 - Today we left Japan

Today we left Japan. It was an absolutely unforgettable trip. I loved every minute of it. The people there taught me so much. They taught me not take food for granted. Eat whatever you are given without complaining and eat all of it. Even within our group, some people complained about the food, but if all the kids ate the food without complaining I believe all the adults should be able to do the same.

I also had a very uplifting experience at the base. My grandparents have served in the army and air force, but nobody that is close to me has in recent years. It made me see all the true sacrifices these families give all for other people’s freedom. These soldiers aren’t afraid of anything. It was very humbling to see what they as well as their families go through.

Another thing I was so grateful I was able to learn was how to cook some different Japanese foods. I can look at so many different Japanese recipes and find some good ones but I would be making them with my own technique and not the Japanese techniques. I also wouldn’t know if they are real Japanese recipes or not. I will never forget how giving and respectful everyone is in Japan. It is very admirable. To be able to not worry about being pick-pocketed was such a relief. I was also so grateful our group got along so well because I truly believe that would have made or ruined the trip.

May 20 2014 - U.S. Naval Base

Today was the earliest morning yet. We had to train to the U.S. Naval Base. This base is in its own suburb area, on the side of town. I had never been on a base before so it was a new experience. Everyone is so friendly with you. Even though we were in Japan everything was extremely Americanized. The first place we went to was a preschool. It was a pretty big room for the school but you could tell it was a tight fit.

The children were pretty happy there. I feel like it is a good place for them to be happy. As we got to the other elementary school I noticed the kids especially the older they got, the more aware of things they were. The U.S. and Japanese have very different education styles. The U.S. has more of a welcoming environment. They want the kids to discover themselves more than anything. However, the kids in Japan take school extremely serious. There is no messing around. I believe that both Japan and the U.S. can learn from each other.

The lunch in the U.S. was very different compared to the Japanese lunch. We ate with the preschool kids. Some kids at my table only ate spaghetti with water. Where others drank milk and ate vegetables as well as spaghetti. The American children could waste their food and not feel bad about it. Where the Japanese kids wouldn't even think about wasting their food. I think the U.S. should probably discipline the kids a little bit more because it is true, Americans waste so much and it isn't fair to the rest of the world.

The base itself was very plain and formal. I just hope the families there are happy because they deserve to be. They serve our country with their whole hearts and give their lives so I can have my freedom. It was an eye opening experience to me. I was talking to one lady who is from California and she said that she get to go home in a couple of weeks and see her family that she hasn’t seen in 2.5 years. My family means the world to me and I don’t think I could not see them for that long especially if I had a family of my own.

After the base we went to a big tourist town. We were able to see some temples and shrines here. Temples and shrines are very important to the people in japan. We went to this huge shrine. We knew it was a shrine because it has the big arch way that leads to it. They are also very well kept. We went to a shrine that people still go to for worship and it was interesting to see how they would pray. They would also leave prayers everywhere. They would tie them up on strings and throw coins into a bin a pray by bowing back and forth. At this shrine I was able to see the chairs that soldiers would carry their leader on over their shoulders. Each of the chairs was very intricately designed. They had tons of nitpicky details and a large variety of colors. There were tons of different place to go in this shrine as well. A lot of side buildings and grounds around the main shrine allowed for a lot of people to go at once. The main part of the shrine was on a hill. I believe they did this so that it was closer to the heavens. After the shrine we went to a temple. The temple was in a more reserved and quiet part of town. It was in the outskirts of the city. We knew this was a temple by looking at how it was built. It was more basic and bland. It had a bell tower on the ground and well-kept grounds.

Another place where there was a big shrine was right outside our hostel. This shrine was absolutely unbelievable. It took up so much space. The buildings were in so much color with a lot of detail. They really made it stand out. I feel like the people put tons of time and effort into these buildings. They really care for them and want their god to be proud or whoever they worship. Each of the different buildings contained a big worship room and pictures on the walls. The pictures made me think of the emperor’s palace in Mulan. Just a place for people to feel welcome and gather together. It makes me wonder how often these buildings are taken care of. I see how nice they still are and so many people still go there to worship.

May 19 2014 - Tokyo

Tokyo has a much disciplined education system. As we visited the kids at the elementary school I noticed so many things. First of all, the kids are very happy at school. I was so surprised at how well the kids even new English. The kids I visited were only 6 graders and though it was a little more difficult to carry on a conversation, we were still able to talk.

The school itself was beautiful. It was nice and open, with a lot of windows. I think the extra lighting and windows allow the students to focus better.  Each grade was on a different floor in the school. All the classrooms were somehow connected together.

We ate lunch with them. The children serve lunch to each other. They also all eat all the food no matter what it is and whether or not they like it. When I say they eat everything. I mean they eat everything. Including every single grain of Rice. This absolutely blows my mind. This school has almost a 0% waste production. They each drink all the milk and stack them inside each other to reduce the empty waste. After talking to some of the people we asked them what the kids do when they don’t like the food. I found out that no matter what, they eat all their food anyways. Starting when they are in kindergarten they are required to at least try and chew all the food that is on their plate. This way they will start acquiring the taste for it even if they don’t like the food. They do this until the child likes it. If they don’t like it they have to try it and then they can spit it out.

This system must be working for them because all the kids eat everything on their plate by second grade. I imagine the kids feel pressured to eat everything. I know when I went I felt pressured to eat everything on my plate. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I didn’t like it because I would’ve felt so bad. If I didn’t eat all of the food. I even ate every grain of rice from my bowl.

The children are also very polite and obedient. They do what they are told. For lunch we ate rice with a whole fist stuffed with caviar and rolled in sesame seeds. Then on the side potatoes with a sauce on them and a milk. The whole meal was around 600 kcal. They had a good source of protein, carbohydrates and calcium. The calories in this lunch were more than the U.S. elementary school lunches, but the Japanese children do not snack on food like Americans do.

After eating lunch with the kids we left and went to Sumo wrestling. Apparently sumo is still dying out. It isn’t as popular, but it was very interesting to watch. Generally, when I think of sumo wrestling I think of huge fat guys. Don’t get me wrong these guys are huge, but they have tons of muscle on them. They definitely know how to use their weight to their advantage. I liked that they still did thing the traditional way. Each time the ref changed they would chant something and bow. Japanese people were very respective in that manner.

Later that night we all went to dinner. We had some kind of all you can eat style food. I believe it was called suaki. We all got vegetables and meat and sautéed them. Then you were supposed to dip it in raw egg. That part I definitely could not do. The whole raw egg thing got to me. We met a boy there named Soma. He was Japanese, but spoke very good English and did not look very Asian. He was really nice. He told us about his family and how he grew up learning English and Japanese. He is also planning to study abroad in Ohio for his NBA. He told us how many of the food in Japan he did not like which surprised me because in the schools we went to it seemed like the kids were forced to eat. Whatever they were given. Later we went to Karaoke I loved it! It was great just to sit, relax and just be Americans for a night. I learned that Brenden likes to dance and Chelsee knows every song! It was good to see other people characteristics and personalities come out.

 

May 18 2014 - Tokyo 1st Ward

Today I was given the opportunity to go to church in Tokyo 1^st ward. This was an English ward with a lot of Americans. I believe most of them had family working at the embassy in Tokyo. I definitely was not expecting this. During sacrament meeting one of the kids who spoke told about all the places he had lived. It amazed me that he was okay to live in Japan. I’m sure he has picked up on a little bit of the language, but the culture shock would be incredible.

Church was excellent. The spirit I felt was incredible. The people all just show how blessed they are and the gratitude they have for the church. To see them all living somewhere far from their families for such long periods of time would be so difficult. Also, to raise their children in Japan or even just abroad would be so very different. This church was a far ride away from where we are staying and I can’t imagine leaving an hour early to go to church each Sunday.  After church a Charlie, Markie, Lacie and I al went to get crepes. They were delicious! Again the proportions are smaller here than in the states, but the quality of the food is amazing!

So far my favorite part of this trip was tonight at the cooking class with Mari. Mari is the cute little Asian girl that was born and raised in Japan. She lived in California for 6 months. She is married and living in a very nice home. She taught us all about Japanese cooking. I don’t understand how they cook with very few seasonings. She said they only use about 5 different flavorings. One thing they don’t use as much here are herbs and salt like we do. I love using seasonings because they bring so much flavor and they can either make or break the dish. Japanese people cook with very mind flavors.

One of there favorite things to use as seasoning is seaweed. She taught us the different varieties of seaweed and told us that the bold variety of flavors come from different location along the shore. It also depends on how long they have been fermenting. The same with the Amasaki paste. Amasaki is a sweet flavoring that has also been fermented. It is where they get the majority of their flavoring. We made a few different things with her.

The first thing we made was Gyoza. This is just like a pot sticker. They were probably the best kind of pot sticker I have ever eaten. Each thing was very thinly chopped and hand mixed together. I learned how to fan the dumpling when sealing it and when cooking them cook the bottom with a very small amount of oil and spread then after browning it add a little bit of water and cover with a lid until it becomes a see through dough. She told us to absolutely not flip. Then we made Tempera. Tempura is just any vegetable or meat you want dipped in the chunky not mixed very well, batter. Then dipped in oil. To know if the oil is hot enough, but not too hot put a wooden utensil in. If bubbles rise it is 180 degrees Celsius and hot enough. Let it cook in the oil for a few minutes to cook it. The last thing we made was miso soup. I have only liked a couple of miso soup that I tried but this was actually pretty good. It was interesting to see how they made it. The broth is boiled seaweed. The seaweed is cut with slits to allow the flavoring to seep out. After boiling the seaweed for a few minutes you remove it and boil in fish flakes for about 1 minute and pull them out. Then you add vegetable to it. Depending on the vegetables you want cooked or crunchy depends on when you add them. Texture in foods is vital to the. I noticed they care very much about taste texture and presentation all the same. I love this because presentation of food is also very important to me. When I cook and it doesn't look pretty I won’t serve it. One reason is because it is extremely embarrassing.

I feel like I learned so much more about Japanese culture by cooking with Mari. She was an excellent teacher. We were also able to see how she and her husband interact. Even when they were just talking you could see the love they had for each other. I would love to come back to Japan just to cook with her and learn more about their cooking styles.

May 17 2014 - Very eventful day - Miki

Today was a very eventful day. We went to our home visit in the morning.  We were supposed to have a guy and a girl come and pick us up, but the guy ended up having to go into work. So instead just the girl Miki picked us up. She was waiting at the train station for us. She was very cute. We walked to her house which was about a 10 minute walk and just talked with her as we went. Her house was a two room house. It was extremely small. Miki and Mel (the other guy that was supposed to pick us up.) live together, but aren’t dating and aren’t married. This confuses me because I don’t understand why they don’t date or date other people. Miki had prepared a nice little meal for us. She made a salad with pork and a really delicious dressing. Then there was a seafood seaweed salad. Which I didn’t like, but still ate it and a rice ball. It was a pretty good meal. All of it was homemade too.

 

Miki was a little bit harder to talk to. Instead of eating with us she just drank a beer. Then every few minutes she would leave to take a smoke. This just made conversation hard because it would always be interrupted or it almost felt like we were prying all the questions out of her. She told us that she loved to cook, but wouldn’t give us any examples of what she liked to cook. She showed us an interesting book that gave examples of what a well-rounded Japanese meal consisted of.

 

She told us about her travels and where in the world she had traveled. She said her favorite place she had traveled to was the Netherland because of all the incredible views. We all tried to talk about where we all have traveled, but she wasn’t very interested.

 

Miki is an accountant and works Monday thru Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m... I think those hours are great! In her house there were a few things I noticed. The first thing I noticed was that she only had one stove top burner and a little microwave oven. I guess this is very common in Japan because there just isn’t room anywhere. I think if that was my house I would just feel extremely claustrophobic.

After the home visit we left to the soccer game. I absolutely love Soccer! The Japanese soccer teams won so all the fans were extremely happy. The team had so much support from their fans. I think they had the biggest diehard fan section I have ever seen. All the people were extremely supportive and respectful of each other at the game. Even inside the stadium there were no garbage cans but of course it was extremely clean. I believe that is just their way of life and how the people were raised.

 

We all went to dinner later that night. One thing I love about all the restaurants is they have plastic food to show what their food looks like. I find this to be really effective because if your food looks good, more people are likely to come to your restaurant. I also believe that an actual diagram is more effective than advertising with pictures.

 

May 16 2014 - Fuji Amusement Park

Fuji Amusement Park was today. This park is a world renowned park. It has broken a few different records. This park houses the tallest rollercoaster in the world! It also has the fastest rollercoaster in the world. One thing that amazed me about this park was how clean it was. There was no garbage anywhere but there were also no garbage cans. That just doesn’t make much since. Usually, especially in America, people get tired of holding trash so they just drop it everywhere which makes the place dirty. In Japan, I didn’t see one person liter which is absolutely incredible. A couple other things I noticed was the layout of the park were awful. Usually in parks they connect all over so that you can just go where ever you please. In this park though it was pretty much just one circle with dead ends everywhere, so some places weren’t very accessible. Secondly, there were no drinking fountains to be found. I think this is a good and a bad idea. No drinking fountains mean people get dehydrated a lot quicker because no one wants to buy water bottles, but if you have to buy a water bottle then that company makes a lot more money.  Another thing that was very different was how people order food. Many vendors in the park had automatic stations that you would order your food and then take the ticket to the counter. So the lines were much shorter and to me it seemed like the food came faster.

I feel like the Japanese people put a lot of trust in each other in order for their society to work out the way it does. They believe in each other and want to make their world a better place.

May 15 2014 - Kurashiki Gardens

Today was such an early morning. We woke up and went to Kurashiki Gardens. They were absolutely beautiful. Yes, it was raining which was not the best, but I was still able to take some amazing pictures. I loved how well kept the gardens were. They keep all the weeds away. Its cleanliness reminded me of Temple square. It was a really peaceful place to be. A nice place to just go and relax.

We then went to Fuji. Fuji is known for the huge volcanic mountain. When we got there that evening we all went to dinner at a very traditional restaurant. I feel like eating out is a lot more expensive here for small amounts of food compared to the states. This is a good example of why all the food is in small proportions, they really don’t eat very much. All the food is eaten very sparingly. I tried tempura here and it was very delicious. It is just a deep fried food with vegetables and meat. Usually I don’t like deep fried foods, but I didn't feel like this was to greasy and fatty like I usually do. After dinner we all went to the store and got Ice cream. I got a frozen ice cream in a waffle cone. It was so good, very different though.