Fukuoka JET newsletter
Issue #10
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Editor’s note
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elcome to Issue 10 of The Refill! Okagesama that we have made it through two years together! Thank you to everyone who has contributed an article, photo, recipe or top 5 – like, seriously, thanks! I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to Hugh McCafferty, Eryk Salvaggio, Keliko Adams and Lauren EveryWortman for their hard work and dedication, without which this newsletter would have not been possible. All the best in your upcoming adventures!
And I am very happy to introduce our team for the 2012-2013 year: Jamina Ovbude, Lauren Sakakibara and Mary Boscarino. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu! To everyone just starting, continuing or leaving JET – ganbaremasho!
Rebekah Randle Editor-in-chief
the refill #10 ǀ Jul/Aug 2012
Editor-in-chief Rebekah Randle
Content Editors Keliko Adams Lauren Every-Wortman
Layout and Design Hugh McCafferty Jamina Ovbude
Copy Editor Eryk Salvaggio
Contributors Ashley Chin Rachel Dunn Eliza Han
Emma Ichikawa Cassie Lealamanua Natalie Ume Liverant Kay Makishi
Cover photo: Mike Seidman. Hand model: Julie Won.
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Inside 4 Things to do with oatmeal 5 Random encounters with old Japanese men 6 Neko-guzzu for the office
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7 Albus Dumbledore quotes 8 Japanese ads featuring foreign celebrities 10 Things to do in Okagaki 12 Household must-haves 14 Japanese karaoke songs to know
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16 Pizza restaurants in Fukuoka that remind me of international transport hubs 18 Things I want to do before I leave this summer
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with oatmeal
Photos: Ashley Chin
Ashley Chin shares some of her best suggestions to help you finish off that enormous 10lb bag of oatmeal from Costco. 1. Oatmeal There’s something to be said for old-fashioned rolled oats simmered simply in a saucepan for five minutes or so, with milk and the fruit of your chooce. Top it off with honey! 2. Overnight Oats Overnight oats are like a healthy dessert for breakfast. If you crave sweet things in the morning but don’t feel like packing on the pounds with heavy pancakes or waffles, a bowl of overnight oats is perfect! I like mine made with half a cup of rolled oats, half a cup of milk, sugar or stevia to taste, cinnamon, nutmeg, a bit of vanilla extract, and a bunch of raisins. Stir them in a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and leave them in the fridge overnight to enjoy without having to do any work in the morning!
3. Granola The best kind of granola suits your tastes and needs perfectly, so why not try your hand at homemade oatmeal? You can put what you like in it and make it as healthy and delicious as you want! I use four cups of rolled oats, one cup of desiccated coconut, a cup of chopped nuts, a cup of dried fruit like raisins, and a couple pinches of sea salt. Stir together and set aside. Melt a stick of butter, and mix in half a cup of honey and a splash of vanilla extract. Add this to the dry mixture and mix well. Bake at 150°C for about half an hour, stirring every five minutes or so, until the granola turns a golden brown. Let cool and enjoy!
4. Oatmeal Cookies Oatmeal cookies are fun, but I always end up eating a bunch of the batter before it even goes into the oven. Recipes with nutmeg and cinnamon are always the best, and these (pictured) have chocolate chunks and toasted pecans as well! 5. Skincare Masks Oatmeal face masks are all-natural and homemade! A recipe of equal parts oatmeal and milk creates a face mask that moisturizes and feels great. Leave it on for about fifteen minutes before washing it off gently with warm water. Ashley is a first-year ALT in Iizuka. She likes cooking, eating, and - in keeping with Japanese ‘tradition’ taking pictures of all of her food.
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1. On the train platform. After commiserating on our long wait before the next train, he suddenly recommended the Fukuoka Zoo to me. The tigers are his favorite.
2. In a convenience store in Ishigaki. He approached me to figure out my background, told me all about his family and then asked me to wait while he went to pick something up at his home to give me as omiyage, despite my protests that it was not necessary. I waited for ten minutes before leaving. He had been drinking. It was mid-afternoon. 3. At a festival. He was participating in the parade in the river, came up to me river-side, and asked if I remembered him. I did, as he had helped pull three male ALTs into the water the year before. After ascertaining that they were not here this year, he offered to pull me in instead, even though I’m a girl.
Though deeply flattered, I politely declined.
4. Riverside in Miyazaki City. Unbidden, he performed some amateur magic for us and then asked if we’d seen any other potential audiences. I felt his fake thumb while assisting him in the disappearing handkerchief trick.
5. In my supermarket. He stood at the end of the checkout counter and gave me, the woman behind me, and the cashier a pair of socks each. They were junior boy’s size. He didn’t say a word. After sharing the story at work, I learned that I may have met ‘Santa’, known for giving out candy to students in the area. I haven’t seen him since. Emma Ichikawa is finishing her second year as an ALT and her time on the JET Program. She never made it to the Fukuoka Zoo.
Emma Ichikawa shares her favourite unexpected exchanges with strangers in Japan Photo: flickr.com/mrhayata
Random encounters with old Japanese men
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Neko-guzzu for the office
Cat-lover Eliza Han shares some of the best feline paraphernalia from her desk Photos: Eliza Han
1. Memo holder Cute and practical, what more can I say? The innocent kitty comes as a blank slate, so you are free to give it the face you want. 2. Pen holder & memo holder The silhouette of cat on tiptoes going for the memo definitely adds liveliness to your desk.
3. Neko ni koban Don’t know how to display cute little things people give you? Put two tiny cat ornaments on an ancient (fake) coin, and you’ve got yourself the Japanese proverb neko ni koban (“a waste of resources”) and a good conversation starter. 4. Cat in pot Hand cream in a little jar of kitty goodness! Good for your skin and mind.
5. Calendar Having this on your desk guarantees a smile every time you look at it – even if it is filled with endless tasks to be done by the end of the day!
Memo holder
Eliza Han is cat lover. Full stop. From her desk to wrist watch to wallet to keys, there is not a thing you can find that does not involve the face of a cat staring back at you.
Cat lover’s note I have the habit of decorating my surroundings with what I like – needless to say, my desk is now a kitty asylum. Not only do these cat-related items get me through the day, they also have the magic to prompt those around me into showering me with all the more nekoguzzu! (Proof: items 2-5 above are donated by lovely friends and colleagues.)
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Albus Dumbledore quotes Replace “Harry� with your own name for a manual to guide you through life as an ALT! Compiled by Rachel Dunn.
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It is our choices, Harry, that show us who we really are, far more than our abilities.
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And now Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure!
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Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light.
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It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.
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We must try not to sink beneath our anguish, Harry, but battle on.
Rachel Dunn is a second year ALT in Chojabaru. She would like to dedicate this Top 5 to Keliko Adams, a Harry Potter soul mate, who is almost as wise as Dumbledore himself and has in the space of two JET years perfected her British accent wonderfully.
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Japanese ads featuring foreign celebrities Original photo: Collection Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh
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Hugh McCafferty wades through a succession of increasingly strange and inpenetrable advertisements
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f all the snippets of Japanese culture that do the rounds on YouTube, television ads are perhaps the most universally gawped at. Afloat on a sea of incomprehensibility, context left far behind, they are the krill upon which the great Internet-meme monster feeds. As we chortle ironically to ourselves, though, it’s easy to forget that our own ads are often just as strange. For every wisdom-dispensing edamame, there’s a crazy eyed Scotsman feeding sweets to a sentient set of bagpipes.
That said, there is a unique subset of Japanese advertisement that has no direct counterpart in the West. It is a genre of commercial presentation that commands our attention, and clogs up our Facebook walls, more than any other. I am, of course, referring to the foreign celebrity promo spot. Accepting the inherent absurdity of most ads (an arbitrarily famous person is telling you to use a product they’ve definitely been paid to promote) allows us to enjoy them as the often ridiculous spectacles they are. Add a dash of culture clash, a sprinkle of slapstick and a smattering of terrible Japanese, though, and you’ve got yourself a bonafide oddity. Here are five of the best.
1. Sylvester Stallone for Itoham. The scene: Stallone attempts another tricky shot on the golf course. As the viewer anxiously wonders whether he nailed it or not, soothing images of wieners (often in motion) serve to relieve the tension. Finally, with a simple, nuanced pump of the fist, Stallone declares victory. Cut to more wieners. Why this is great: Extreme close-ups of wieners! Wieners soaring, dazzling, across the screen! Wieners happily squelching on to forks, ready to be eaten! By you!
2. Michael J. Fox for Kirin. The scene: Fox, not previously known for his visionary garden landscaping (outside Japan, at least), goes to work with a pair of shears before being run off the lawn by a broom-wielding Brunhilda.
Why this is great: It’s like a contemporary take
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on the Fall of Man, with Michael J. Fox as Adam, a pair of hedge clippers as Eve and Benny Hill as God.
3. Madonna for Mitsubishi. The scene: Madonna (who’s name begins with ‘M’) is wearing a leather jacket with a giant ‘M’ on the back (because, remember, her name begins with ‘M’). It’s not long before she’s being pursued by an eerily glowing ‘M’ (which, if you recall, is the first letter in her name). What can it all mean..? Why, of course! ‘M’, in addition to being the first letter in Madonna’s name, is also the first letter in Mitsubishi – whose products I will definitely buy from now on as a direct result of seeing this great ad! Why this is great: This ad is terrible. So terrible, in fact, that it loses interest in itself, when it realises that slowly spelling Madonna’s name is actually rather boring and just speeds through the rest. For that real-time selfdiscovery alone, it deserves a place on this list. 4. Andy Warhol for TDK. The scene: Warhol behaves enigmatically whilst not even trying to speak Japanese.
Why this is great: Warhol knows something we don’t. Or does he? Should I be enjoying this or not? Has the advertiser become the advertised? Is this even an advertisement? Where can I download that backing track? This ad raises more questions than it answers. The only thing we can be sure of is that Warhol’s mangling of the Japanese language is so bad it’s great. 5. Nicholas Cage for Sankyo. The scene: Cage is flanked by fans on all sides as he arrives at, presumably, his fabulous mansion home. He affably agrees to sign an autograph, suffers a brief nervous breakdown and finally recovers with an insatiable urge to play pachinko. Why this is great: Cage made five such slots for Sankyo (which are all worth watching) but this is the best because of that close-up at 14 seconds, when, safe in the knowledge that he can do anything he wants in this ad, he proceeds to do just that.
Hugh McCafferty is a third-year ALT in Kitakyushu. He has never recovered from the disappointment of discovering that Japanese television is significantly more boring than the Internet suggests. You’ll find more of his writing at afewhundredwords.com. For more ads, see www.japander.com.
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from the station). Go for a quiet and relaxing hike up to the picnic bench at the top of the mountain and enjoy the crisp, clean air and panoramic view of the town.
1. Climbing Mt. Konpira Start by arriving at Ebitsu Station in the morning. Mt. Konpira is located right behind the station so grab some breakfast at the bakery or stop by the Maruwa supermarket (3 min. walk
3. Sushi Yatai (restaurant) After burning all those calories, it’s finally lunch time. Just take a 5 min. walk from your surf spot to this restaurant located
here is Okagaki, you ask? Why it’s a quaint little inaka (countryside) town nestled in between Kitakyushu and Fukuoka City. This may seem like just another name on the map in the boonies of Japan, but don’t let Google’s top image of Okagaki’s pink community bus for senior citizens fool you into thinking there is nothing to do! It has its share of sights for those who want a nice weekend getaway without putting a dent in your bank account. You can take the JR Kagoshima Line from Kokura (30 min. by express) or Hakata (40 min. by express) and get off at Ebitsu Station. Here’s a nice day plan:
2. Surfing at Hatsu Beach Next, time to hit the waves! Take the #6 bus from the train station to Hatsu Kaisuiyokujo-mae. The local surf shop Run A’ Wave is located near the beach and is operated by a middleaged, chill Japanese dude who has a story or two to tell from his around-the-world surfing adventures. Call 093-281-2088 or email info@runawave.com ahead of time for board rental fees and surf lesson info. Ask for Tahara.
Things to do
in Okagaki Kay Makishi suggests a break from the city with a weekend day-trip to the countryside
Photo: Dia KL
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along the beach. It’s housed in a train car and has great views of the ocean. Twelve pieces of sushi for ¥2500. 11:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. & 5:30 - 9 p.m. Closed Wednesdays unless it’s a national holiday. Call 093-282-1772 or visit www.budounoki.co.jp for more info.
4. Cycling Path Before slipping into that food coma, rent some bicycles and cruise along on the recently renovated bike path. For those that are up for it, you can bike all the way to Ashiya, the neighboring town - a manageable 7.5km stretch. Rentals are 300 yen for up to 3 hours between 9:00 – 17:00. The shop closes at the end of June and starts up again in September. Call 093-1672-7073 or 093-283-1961 for more info. 5. Yahata Ya Mankai no Yu (onsen and restaurant)
What better way to end the day than with a little onsen (hot springs) action and an organic restaurant serving locally grown food. A 5 min. walk from the bicycle rental shop. The restaurant is open from 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and 6 to 10 p.m., with an all-you-can-eat buffet for ¥1600. Relax and watch the sea in either the 1st or 4th floor rotemburo (open air bath). One visit is ¥800. 10:30 a.m. -10 p.m. on weekends and holidays. Call 093-282-0031 for more info.
Kay Makishi is a first-year CIR in Okagaki-machi. She is a thrill and adventure seeker who likes nothing more than hitting up the waves at Hatsu Beach on the weekends, and backpacking anywhere and everywhere. She is known to go through sudden and unexpected food cravings. Currently, it’s Trandor’s beni imo (purple potato) balls.
This may seem like just another name on the map in the boonies of Japan, but don’t let Google’s top image of Okagaki’s pink comunity bus for senior citizens fool you!
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Photo: flickr.com/nagarazoku
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Household must-haves Natalie Ume Liverant ranks the top five most indispensable items in her apartment
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he hardest thing about living in Fukuoka has to be the lack of deep dish pizza, more specifically, the lack of Lou Malnati’s deep dish pizza on Chicago’s north side. Heck, I would be happy just to have the pizza sauce shipped to me. Pizza aside, this foreign land - with all its wonders, peculiars and throwing-babies-into-the-mouth-of-a-dragon festivals didn’t feel like home until I had these five essentials.
1. Baking Soda, aka Sodium Bicarbonate (NAHCO3). This powdery substance is a multi-purpose tool. From cooking, to brushing your teeth, to thoroughly scrubbing your kitchen or porous surfaces such as grout, tile and porcelain, it can be used as a mild antiseptic, or the occasional body scrub. You can find it at most drug stores near boric acid, peroxide, medical grade olive oil and a few other foreign “medical supplies,” or Costco and Amazon. 2. Peroxide aka Oxydol (H2O2). Another multi-use tool (albeit one that should not be used in cooking), Peroxide is an excellent antiseptic and stain lifter. Use it as mouth rinse, to clean a wound, or to remove blood or wine stains from your clothes. Put it in a spray bottle and use it like Kabi Kira to kill mold in your bathroom without inhaling the overpowering smell of chlorine.
3. Shiso, garlic or ginger. These make a great boost of flavor to any dish! However, I also choose these for their role in a number of Grandma’s home remedies. Shiso and garlic hold some agreed-upon scientific and Grandma-approved consensus as being bactericidal, meaning they like to kill off bacteria. Cutting into a clove of garlic and rubbing the fresh side on a small open wound can stave off a small infection. Garlic rub is not a replacement to medical care, however, so when in doubt seek proper medical attention. Shiso is used in preserving foods such as plums. Many Japanese grandmas will tell you, if you have a stomachache, eat an umeboshi. Depending on your grandma’s faith in the power of this little plum, she may have you eat it any time she fears a cold is nearing.
The last spice, ginger, is rumored to have slight medicinal
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qualities that give it the power to tame an upset stomach, though science has not proven it to be any better than a placebo. I personally find a little ginger tea to be quite soothing and relaxing over any OTC drug. Maybe you’re not one who likes to cook or clean, fair enough. Are you a fixer upper kind of person? The next two might just be for you!
4. Aquarium epoxy glue. Generally speaking, it is nontoxic, odorless, long-lasting, strong and nonporous. It can be used on anything from your fish aquarium to your bathroom, to a favorite coffee mug you are unwilling to let go after a crash.
While I don’t recommend eating or cooking from dishes mended with epoxy (bacteria is already festering on broken edges, and no one knows the exact level of “nontoxicity”). You can at least enjoy your once-broken mug as a transformed pencil holder, or in the case of a cracked/ cleanly broken glass, use it to create a waterproof seal until you can get the item replaced. In the past, I have used it to mend a toilet tank cover, a window pane, as filler for an overused nail hole and in adhering thin plexiglass to a pair of handmade steampunk goggles.
5. A tool kit. Preferably containing a hammer, adjustable wrench, flathead and Philips-head screwdriver and flat-nose pliers. Be it a simple task of hanging pictures on a wall to having to temporarily fix a leaky pipe, these 5 tools are essential when you have no other option but to DIY before you call the professionals in the morning. So there you go. The top 5 things this servantless expat requires of any place she calls home. With these items at hand, the world is her oyster. Or… at least, the toilet works, gas isn’t leaking from the stove pipes and she can breathe in her bathroom after a thorough hunt for mold, all the while digesting grandma’s best umeboshi.
Natalie Ume Liverant is a thinker of practical tangible means, if you ask her a math question the answer is always 7, if you ask her a love question she will give you a piece of chocolate (because its always sweet), if you come to her needing help mending or temporarily fixing something, you’ll be sure an answer will be found, even if it requires scaling a small building.
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karaoke songs to know
Cassie Lealamanua offers some expert advice on what to sing to impress friends and co-workers Photo: flickr.com/derekgavey
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1. Shimanchu nu Takara (島人ぬ宝) by BEGIN. Sing this one at an enkai with your teachers and it’s sure to be a hit. It’s an Okinawan song about all the reasons it’s great to be from or live on an island. Since Kyushu is also lumped into the “island life” group, it is quite popular among the people here. 2. Chiisana Koi no Uta (小さな恋の歌) by MONGOL 800. An upbeat song with relatively easy lyrics and relatively easy-to-read kanji characters. Short and sweet, this song is a great song to start or end with, or to rejuvenate a room in the middle of a karaoke session.
3. Heavy Rotation (ヘビー・ロ ーテーション) or Aitakatta ( 会いたかった) by AKB48. The popular all-girl group AKB48 holds a Japanese music record as being the only group in history to produce all five of the Top 5 Songs in a single year (2011). Their debut “Aitakatta” and the (borderline inappropriate) music video for “Heavy Rotation” are their two most popular.
4. Linda Linda (レンダ リンダ) by The Blue Hearts. This one is a crowd pleaser and easy to sing since 80% of the lyrics are the phrase “Linda Linda!” repeated over and over again.
5. Kiseki (キセキ) by GreeeeN. This one is a bit harder to sing, but everyone loves it, and it’s used in Japanese TV shows, commercials, sports recap moments, and just about anything else.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: Sakura Sake (桜咲け), Love So Sweet, One Love, or HAPPINESS by Arashi (嵐) Arashi is currently the number one boy band in Japan. The best thing about their songs is that they’re usually easy to sing and understand. “Love So Sweet” is probably one of the best known songs because it was used as the theme song for a popular Japanese TV series called “Hana Yori Dango.”
READY STEADY GO by L’arc en Ciel (ラルク・エン・ シーエル). This song is a bit faster and harder to sing, but it’s an upbeat number that everyone knows and loves. It’s often used during School Sports Festivals because it’s guaranteed to get people up and jumping. The group L’arc-enCiel just celebrated their 20th Anniversary, and they were most popular when people in their 30s or 40s were in high school and college. It’s sure to be a popular number among some of your co-workers. Sora Fune (空船) by TOKIO. The only difficult part of this song is toward the end when the singer decides to sing/speak really quickly. Other than that, though, this song is pretty easy to sing. The melody is nice and catchy and the message is an interesting one: “You are more than you think you are. Row your boat with your own two hands. Don’t entrust your oars to the people who would be happy to see you disappear.”
Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana (世界に１つだけの花) by SMAP. This was the number one Karaoke Song for a long time. As such, a few people are tired of hearing it unless they’ve had a few drinks. It’s very simple to sing and it has a good message. Everyone knows this and will sing along with you if you put it on. Izayuke Waka Taka Gundan (いざゆけ若鷹軍団). This is the SoftBank Hawks Anthem. Always a popular song -- especially among the sports teachers -- and quite handy during the annual AJET Baseball Outing. It’s slow and easy to sing, and you’ll impress a few people with your Fukuoka Hawks Pride. Cassie Lealamanua is a third-year ALT in Kokura who spends most of her Summer Free Time spiderproofing her apartment.
Linda, Linda is a crowd pleaser and easy to sing since 80% of the lyrics are the phrase “Linda Linda!” repeated over and over again the refill | July/August 2012
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World traveler Eryk Salvaggio muses on past trips while munching on Japanese pizza Pizza photo: flickr.com/hirsch
Pizza Restaurants in Fukuoka That Remind Me of Transportation Hubs in Foreign Cities
1. Gaetano’s / Vinohradska Trznice Tram Stop, Prague Gaetanos has a guy who brings around imported cheeses you can try, and I’m pretty sure the waiter stood there while I tasted the wine. I might have filled the glass and started drinking it without wearing the glass as a diving mask, but I was too drunk on my potato croquettes to remember what I did with the wine. My bungling of katakana Italian ensured that I had no idea what was on anything I’d ordered. I asked for recommendations and they suggested the Gaetano Special (its name, itself, a recommendation) so I went with that. So good. Oh my god, guys.
The best pizza I’d had was across the street from a tram station in Prague. The pizza crust was a fluffy pillow for enormous chunks of mozzarella and ricotta cheese, with leaves of basil and chunks of tomato. It looked like it was made by the world’s laziest chef. It was the only vegetarian food I could find in Prague that wasn’t grapes or fried cheese. Gaetano’s tops it.
My bungling of katakana Italian ensured that I had absolutely no idea what was on anything I’d ordered 2. Little Napoli Pizza / Berlin Hauptbahnhof A hole-in-the-wall in Kashii with a literal hole-inthe-wall brick oven, this place is one of the best in the city thanks to a secret weapon: legitimate ricotta. It’s reasonably priced and you can get mozzarella and salad as a side, not to mention weird European sodas (sorry, Europeans) in bottles wrapped in paintings of 1940s pin-up girls.
I bought a soda in Germany once because it was red, like a hummingbird’s belly, but its taste was bitter, like a hummingbird’s soul. I remembered being pestered by a Roma woman there, and in lieu of giving her money I handed her an orange. She rolled her eyes and spit on the ground, and I will forever connect the taste of hummingbird-soul soda with the annoyed spittle of a Romany woman. At Little Napoli, I was told this soda was “kind of like Dr. Pepper.”
3. Christie’s / Milano Malpensa Airport Christie’s was a long-reigning champion of the Fukuoka Pizza circuit, and deservedly so. It has a bunch of accoutrements that pass as authentically
Italian, though the only experience I’ve had in Italy was a layover in Milan. I had to walk across the tarmac to get on a plane. I watched two drivers leisurely moving baggage from the runway after the luggage cart took a too-sharp turn, scattering its contents directly into the path of oncoming 747s. That counts as “visiting Italy,” right? So I take it back: I have totally been to Italy. Christie’s serves pizza with honey, for example. That seems pretty legitimately Italian to me, because I haven’t seen other places do it, and it’s awesome.
4. Shakey’s / Amsterdam Centraal Train Station Is Shakey’s, perhaps, the Most Authentically Italian Pizza™? No it is not. I don’t really know what Shakey’s is. It claims to be American, but I’ve never seen one, and I think few of us would expect to find a squid-and-nori pizza in Muncie, Indiana.
Once, waiting for a train in Amsterdam, I sighted an “American” treat, “Pate Americaine,” a joke the French were playing on the Dutch at my expense. It was mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise blended into brown goop with stringy chunks of horse thrown in, and I still think it only existed as a French joke about Big Macs. Luckily for Shakey’s, while it serves a total corruption of American pizza, it’s still a delightfully Japanese alternative. The all-you-can-eat aspect of it is extremely American, after all, even if the idea of a banana-chocolate pizza is distinctively Japanese. The food may not be particularly amazing, but there’s so much of it that you won’t really care.
5. Costco / Seoul Station Costco’s pizza has no business being amazing, but there it is. A thick crust with cheese and tomato, baked in a conveyor-belt oven, sounds like nothing special. The everything pizza, or whatever it’s called, is just the pepperoni pizza with olives and green peppers thrown on top. This is assembly-line pizza, which I can only appreciate now that I’m so far away from America’s proud tradition of pizza mass-produced in metal assembly lines.
It’s the same pleasure I’ve had at Seoul Station just after getting off of the KTX. I had never been happier to see a Dunkin Donuts, the coffee of choice for all proper Bostonians, one of the many casualties to Japan’s resistance to foreign brands. The coffee isn’t good, the bagels are too chewy, and the donuts we dunk are inferior to the bear-headshaped cream-puffs at Mr. Donut, but come on, Dunkin Donuts! Like Costco, it’s a reminder of home in every mediocre bite. Eryk Salvaggio is a second-year ALT in Fukuoka. He just told every travel story he has.
Things I want to do
before Ithisleave summer Saying goodbye is just one thing on Keliko Adams’ list.
Photo: flickr.com/chrissam42
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ike many of us who are leaving, I’m feeling the crunch of time to do all the things I’ve been wanting to do before leaving Japan - a date that is creeping closer and closer. Aside from the usual “hang out with my
friends” and “say goodbye to people I’ll miss,” I have a list of excursions and events I want to partake in that has been building over the past three years, some of which have yet to be crossed off. Here are a few of the things I’m hoping to cram into these last few months:
3. Bike and hike around the Kunisaki Peninsula Living in a small town and working in two smaller towns outside of that small town requires a lot of biking around. After seeing how beautiful the countryside of Japan can be, I decided I wanted to do a bike trip. The Kunisaki Peninsula conveniently lays a mere 50km south of my town, and with beaches around the edges and Futago-san in the middle, it looks like the perfect destination to hike and bike. In addition, Futago-san is a former location for ‘mountain
the refill | July/August 2012
4. See wild horses on Cape Toi in Miyazaki I know it’s cliche to be a girl and love horses...but I do (though not in the creepy Christine-Taylor-in-Dodgeballloves-unicorns way.) Cape Toi, at the southern tip of Miyazaki prefecture, is the home of many wild (actually feral) horses and my goal is to go there, peek out through the brush, and with my breath held tight and camera in hand, silently observe these beautiful creatures in their natural setting. Of course, this won’t happen. These horses, though they live wild, are used to having lots of people around (I think this is a natural effect of living in madly populous Japan) and may as well be considered domesticated. Nonetheless, I want to be near them. t
5. Go to a Japanese wedding I don’t know why I want to go to a Japanese wedding ceremony so much, as I’m sure /m they’re just like weddings in m .co r k America...but I want to SEE one! I’ve flic to: o h had friends get married since I’ve been P here, but had yet to receive an invitation to attend the ceremony. I’ve seen pictures of giant colorful frilly dresses - multiple frocks within one wedding - but have yet to be a part of a celebration that creates such a spectacle. So imagine my excitement when two of my coworkers announced they’re getting married in August - the day before I leave Japan, no less - and invited me to come to the ceremony! It looked like this “\(OoO)/”<YES!) r-n erd bo
2. See the tambo art in Inakadate Such a simple idea with such incredible results, the small town of Inakadate in Aomori has made a name for itself by using different strains of rice to create giant versions of famous pictures in the rice field behind Inakadate’s town hall. When I read about this and saw pictures online, I couldn’t help but think of how beautiful this combination is: using organic supplies found in Japan’s natural environment (rice) to create a largescale work of art in a small inaka town.
worship’ as the peninsula hosts 33 Buddhist temples, along with giant Buddha statues carved into a rock face.
ou se
1. Collect some star sand from Okinawa I don’t remember how I first heard about this, probably read about it somewhere on the Internet before my first trip to Okinawa. However, that trip was for visiting family only, and I never left Okinawa island. I vowed that I would return to Okinawa before I left Japan, not only to visit family again, but to collect some of this fantastic star-shaped sand that makes me feel like a little girl in a tropical fairy tale land (the ‘sand’ is actually tiny fossils of sea creatures that just happen to have five points, but that won’t ruin a little girl’s dream).
Keliko Adams is a third-year ALT in Yukuhashi, a town full of people she will miss immensely.
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the refill?
Based on Fukuoka’s tradition of kaedama, in which a refill of ramen noodles is served for leftover broth, The Refill serves up additional information about life in Japan for Fukuoka’s JET community.
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the.refill.fukuoka@gmail.com The contents of this newsletter are strictly for entertainment purposes. The magazine cannot be held responsible for actions taken as a result of its content. The viewpoints published herein are those of the authors and do not reflect the philosophy or viewpoints of the Fukuoka Board of Education, the JET Programme or CLAIR.
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July/August 2012 │
the refill