Oh, my stars and garters!

Tiny gifts

This weekend Dan helped me make these buttons to take on our trip.

When Eric and I were in Japan last time, we noticed that almost every time we had a friendly conversation with someone they would give us a tiny gift before we said goodbye.

photo by krotpong!

This woman, who said she hung out in the Osaka train station hoping to practice her English on tourists, folded us little origami cranes. An elderly man in Ohara gave us coupons for free coffee at McDonald's; a man at a bar in Kyoto bought us drinks and gave us hard candies.

Nothing extravagant, just thoughtful little items passed around as social lubricant. I thought it would be nice if we had something to offer in return this time. Hopefully some superhappy buttons will do the trick.

I also got a bunch of these lip balms because I like Sierra Nevada's beers and also they cracked me up. Beer-and-mint flavored lip balm, made with real Cascade hop oil! They actually have a light, pleasant scent and seem pretty moisturizing. I was relieved to see they came with a safety seal because I wouldn't want anyone to think I was fobbing my used Chapstick off on them. 

So now all our planning and most of our shopping for the trip is done. We just have a hundred tiny tasks to do in the next few days, plus I want to spend lots of quality time with Willa and Stinky before we go. I love to go places, but man, I hate leaving those guys behind.

In case you ever need to express the concept of "cat money" in Japanese...

I have created this handy guide for you.

I'm not sure how much practical help this Japanese class is going to be, but it's amusing me, for sure.

Japan-Os

So! We are going back to Japan in a little less than two weeks.*

I feel lucky and happy that we get to visit again, this time during cherry blossom season in Tokyo and Kyoto and also our nephews' spring break in Okinawa.

Last time was a blast, but we were--or at least I was--so overwhelmed that it felt like a practice round. There is just so much stuff there, and it is all equally interesting, from the ancient shrines to the way they package baked goods, and you will never see it all, never ever. It's a lot like New York that way, except even more vast and also confusing, and the whole thing kind of broke me. In a good way, but still, I felt kind of short-circuited the whole time time. Then as soon as we got home, I couldn't wait to go back.

Plus, and this is kind of embarrassing to admit, last time I was really, really anxious ahead of time about not being able to read the language, and therefore navigate, so I spent far too much of my planning time alternating between worrying about contracting H1N1 and obsessively trying to figure out how to get around--studying train-station exits and walking routes to the hotel in Google Street View. This is not a very good travel strategy, as it turns out!

So anyway, this time I am far more relaxed and since I now know all the signs are in English and that I can figure almost anything out if I just give myself a minute, I've been able to spend lots of time ferreting out interesting sights, shops, and food. Oh, and beer. As in many places, there is a craft beer revolution going on in Japan right now.

Holy Christ, I am so excited. But I'm sure you can't tell.

Here's our preliminary map for our time on the mainland. If anyone knows of anything cool you think we should try, please send it along.

View Japan trip 2012 in a larger map

This time we're also going to fewer places (Tokyo, Okinawa, Kyoto, and a one-night stay in a traditional inn in Nara) so we can spend more time in each and less time traveling around. It's a lot cheaper that way, too, with fewer tickets to buy and discounts for longer hotel stays.

You can rent little wifi gadgets there, so I'll be a walking hotspot--many hotels in Japan don't have wifi because, as I understand it, wifi is for chumps because they have a much more efficient, comprehensive way of delivering access to everyone there. Anyway, I plan on blogging and posting pictures as we go this time, so I hope you will stop by a few times while we're there, just to make sure we haven't gotten lost in the bowels of a train station somewhere.

*I always feel I should add when I write about going out of town on the internet: Friends always stay at our house when we're away. We also have a barky dog now. And a cat who is pretty hard to resist petting but then will use his exquisitely sharpened claws to make painful biscuits on your legs. Ok.

I do a little dance, 'cause we're done with refinance:

 

Weird Food Thursday--Casserolin' edition

Really this started with Weird Smoker Sunday, when Eric lit up the smoker and we threw in eggs (smoky tasting but a little overlooked and rubbery), salmon (unevenly cooked but so good where it was right), almonds (not smoky enough and also got dripped on by the salmon, which added a good flavor but wasn't what I had in mind), and Cornish game hens (really, really excellent; also they sound fancy but they are 2 for $6 and have the cutest little drumsticks).

We had a whole lot of everything, especially, chicken, left over and have dutifully been eating chicken salad sandwiches all week. We put some garam masala in just for kicks, and later mixed in some cranberries, and that was pretty good.

But we still had a lot of chicken salad left over, way too much to toss, and I was starting to dread even looking at the stuff. So I adapted my tuna casserole recipe to accommodate chicken salad by subbing bread crumbs and Parmesan for shredded cheese and potato chips and tossing in more Indian spices. We will see how this turns out. It smells...weird.

Update: It all turned out fine. The cranberries were a little unwelcome but didn't ruin it or anything. As a bonus, in the harsh light of the morning after, I see that this is a strong candidate for the most boring post I've ever written. Hi! I made a casserole!