February 5, 2013
---Country Manor Jiroemu---
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| Our little private room (This was the only table in the room!) |
A few weeks ago I visited a restaurant
in Miyoshi Village called Country Manor Jiroemu. The restaurant
itself is part of an old farm which was built in 1884. The owners
pride themselves in their home style farm cooking, and everything on
the menu is grown on the property. Meals are by reservation only, and
people often come from Tokyo to eat a real country meal at Jiroemu.
Most of the food consisted of cooked vegetables, but there was also
an omelet on the side. As the meals are by reservation, they can be
made to order, and as the meal is primarily vegetables anyway, I
recommend this place to vegetarians looking for a place to eat in the
area.
数週間前、三芳村の百姓屋敷レストランじろえむに尋ねた。レストランのビルは１８８４年に建ていた古い牧畜。お主たちはホームスタイル牧畜の料理が自慢でメニューに書いてあるすべてのものはそこで植えている。食事は約束のみでお客さんはよくホームスタイル田舎料理を食べるために東京から来ている。殆どの食べ物は煮た野菜だったので、（オムレツも横にあったが）このレストランをベジタリアンの人たちにお勧めする。
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| Yummy food! |
The owners raise about 1,000 chickens
by themselves, and they not only sell the eggs, but use them in their
cooking as well. I was told that it takes about an hour and a half to
feed all of the chickens every morning (not counting the time it
takes to harvest the vegetables that they feed to the chickens), and
then several hours after that to clean the coops.
Their website can be found here:
---Watanabe Hair Dressing---
The following Friday, I headed off to
Tokyo for the first time in a long time. I had several orders of
business—the first of which was to get my hair cut. I went to my
usual place, Watanabe Hair Dressing, in Harajuku. I'm going to be entirely
honest--when I first came to Japan, I literally found this hair dresser via
google search for, “foreign hair cuts in Tokyo.” And upon pulling
up a random blog post I figured I would give it a shot. Ironically, I
have since then found out that there are numerous other JET program
participants in Chiba Prefecture who go to Watanabe hair, and who
also found out about it through that blog! I suppose when there are
so few foreigners living in Japan, there are even less of us that
write about it, so any useful detail that is posted is being read by
the majority of the foreigners in the area.
その次の金曜日、久しぶりに上京した。色々な用事があったけどまずは髪の毛を切ってもらった。いつもと同じ原宿にあるわたなべヘアードレシングに行った。正直、始めて日本に来たとき、「foreign
hair cuts in
Tokyo」をグーグルして、この美容室を見つけた。適当なブログを開いたら、そこに行ってみようと思っていた。皮肉なことで、そのときから他の千葉県の多数なジェットプログラム参加者もわたなべヘアーに行っていることが気づいてきて、その人たちも同じブログで知ったらしい！
In any case, I might as well give these
guys some shouties as well, because they are awesome. The hair
stylist that I use is Chie, and my hair always looks exactly how I
want it to when I leave. She apparently spent several years as a hair
stylist in London and she is fairly fluent in English. So, not only
do I recommend this place for a good hair cut, but if you're worried
about conveying your hairstyle ideas in Japanese, then this is the
place to go. Their prices are a little up there (you'll see if you
check out the website), but every haircut comes with a head and
shoulder massage so it's entirely worth it.
I also have to mention that the first
time I went here I had a major hair catastrophe a few weeks before. I
had realized my bangs were too long and since I hadn't searched for a
stylist in Japan yet, and because I trust few people with cutting my
hair (literally went to the same stylist in the U.S. since I was in
8th grade), I decided to cut them myself. But I soon
realized that my glasses were in the way. So I took them off and cut
my bangs, only to put my glasses back on and realize I had done a
complete hack job! Not only were they too short, but they were crazy
uneven. I waited several weeks for them to grow out, which they did,
but they grew out as uneven as I had cut them, so I gave up and went
to Chie. She was able to fix my bangs and make them look normal
again! I seriously thought they were unfixable. And this is why I
continue going all the way to Harajuku for a haircut. (You can check
it out in my profile photo) Here's the link to Watanabe's website:
http://www.watanabe-hair.com/home.html
---Japanese Farm Cooking---
That evening, after my haircut, I
headed over to Omotesando for an event with this group of translators/wordsmiths that I joined a little over a year ago. The
event that evening was for the release of the new cookbook (that I
heard is completely sold out in the U.S.), Japanese Farm Cooking,by Nancy Singleton Hachisu. Mrs. Hachisu is the wife of the eldest
son of a Japanese farm family and has spent the last several decades
running a school and making Japanese dishes. You can see her blog
here: blog
At the event, she explained the process
she went through in getting her book published and even prepared a
sample meal for us using some of the recipes in her book. The food
was delicious, and I'm really excited to try some of the recipes out.
I don't usually cook, but since I live in Japan, I might as well
learn how to make Japanese food right? I've thought this for a while
now, and this is the perfect opportunity to spur myself into action.
---Horse Show Weekend II---
The following day, I woke up for riding
school at 4:30 and then had the circuit at 6 that night where I rode
Clonodia in the 90 cm division. I had only ridden this horse a couple
of times and she was always super lazy in our lessons. Turns out
she's the exact opposite at shows! But it was a time class so that
was a good thing. However, when we came in to the last fence of the
triple combination I thought we were coming in too extended so I took
a hold of her a little over the second fence. Turns out she's super
sensitive about her mouth so she galloped out of the line super fast.
We got to the next fence fine, but we came in too quick for the turn
into the last line and ended up having a refusal. It was fun riding a
hotter horse again though. I've been riding some really dead-sided
horses lately since most of them
are lesson horses.
---Horse Show Weekend III---
One of my friends came to watch the
show the following weekend, which was really nerve wracking because
that was the first time I've had a non-horse person come watch a show
(not counting my grandparents coming to watch in middle school), but
she's really cool so it was fine. I wasn't sure how my trainers would
react to me inviting a friend over but they were actually really
excited that I did. I'm glad she was able to come!
It turns out that Fururu has an injured
front leg, so I didn't have to worry about juggling two horses this
time around. So I ended up riding just Macaron in the 80 cm division.
I came in too slow to the fourth fence and he stopped and then
jumped it from a standstill :o We totally didn't have any knockdowns
though! He totally saved my ass! Anyway, because of that our time was
really slow :/
One of my trainers really wants me to
show in the 90cm A class again, so I'm going to work really hard for
the next month so I can ride Macaron in that class. When I asked if I
could ride him in it I was told that it depends on how hard I work,
so for now we've entered in the 80 cm division again, and if we do
well then he'll let me do the 90cm class apparently. Unfortunately
there's like a billion work events on the weekend over the next
month, so me going to lessons is going to be super random. In any
case I'm going to be working my ass off when I'm there to get to the
level I need to be for the next show.
---Valentine's---
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| Home made chocolates! |
That following Saturday I held a
Valentine's party at my house. Well it was more of a Valentine's
chocolate making party for the lady ALTs. In Japan, women are
expected to give chocolates to people who they have become indebted
to in the past year (giri choco or
“duty chocolate”), and maybe to that special someone as well (honmei choco or
“heart's desire chocolate”) ;P Then on White Day (March 14th) men have to return the favor!
As homemade chocolates are
really popular here, we set out for a long evening (and the following
day) of chocolate making rather than just purchasing stuff from a
store like you would in the U.S. My senpai made these
delicious truffles last year with oreo cookie and cream cheese
filling, so we decided to make those again this year. In all, I think
we made about 200 chocolates between the four of us.
Also, this year was the best v-day ever
because even though girls don't usually receive stuff on Valentine's,
I ended up getting a lot of chocolate. Chocolate makes me happier
than most things ever.
