Today at my Tuesday shougakkou we had a 避難訓練 (disaster drill), after a speah from the visiting fire fighters. The ‘Kobe City Fire Band’ put on a brass band concert for the students, mid way through the set the conductor asked the kids if they like Kyary Pamyu Pamyu before suddenly started busting out Ninjari Bang Bang めっちゃびっくりした！
Check it out below for all the crazy goodness!
Time??? Try Fuck!?
So this isn’t actually from one of my students but a good friend of mine sent me this the other day, completely baffled as to what one of her students had written.
Any ideas deciphering this little gem…….. No well here’s a great example why you shouldn’t blindly use google translate without double checking!
In this case the student had google translated “タイムトライヤル” (time trial) … However google split the ‘trial’ into ‘try yaru’.
Now yaru 殺る in Japanese literally means ‘to do’ however can also be read using 犯る…… Which is ‘to have sex with’
And so of corse google translated yaru into “fuck” hence “time try fuck”.
All the LULZ!!! (^_^;)
Bringing you yet another yatsuhashi instalment of The Mochi Diaries, this is Chapter 14: Haru Yatsuhashi 春八つ橋.
The Mochi Diaries are now a monthly feature in the ‘Hyogo Times’, you can find this article published on their website HERE! 
Although the sakura have come and gone, spring is certainly in the air and all over Japan at the moment (my hayfever can attest to that) and so during a recent trip to Osaka I decided to pick up a box of the spring themed variety of yatsuhashi (speciality mochi of Kyoto, see chapter 2). The box contained two separate and unique sakura flavoured variations alongside the more traditional cinnamon and matcha flavours.
Sakura Mochi Fuumi Yatsuhashi – 桜餅風味八つ橋 (cherry blossom yatsuhashi)
Now these guys are basically a yatsuhashi themed take on ‘sakura mochi’, a popular spring time sweet. Pink in colour and containing a sweet red bean filling, sakura mochi come wrapped in an edible salted sakura leaf. Being quite a fan of said seasonal mochi offerings (they come with my highest recommendation) how were the yatsuhashi going to stack up in comparison?? Unfortunately I’m going to have to admit not particularly well. Aesthetically they are quite attractive, the usual yatsuhashi fair, less than opaque mochi with a pale pink sakura flavoured centre peeking through. The taste, however, was less than amazing. Although remaining faithful to the delicate texture that makes yatsuhashi what it is, I really found the ‘sakura’ aspect to be much too subtle and entirely underwhelming. If anything the entire time I was eating them I felt like I was chewing a slightly sweetened pillow that by all rights should have been amazing! A nice yet insufficient addition was the inclusion of a couple of sakuradzuke 桜漬け (pickled cherry blossoms) which added a nice, salty contrast. Regardless, next spring I’ll pass.
Sakura Koshian 桜こしあん(cherry blossom with sweet red bean paste)
As opposed to the sakura centre of the version above, these ones instead had a sakura inspired mochi coating around a more or less kosher red bean filling. Once again though, I found the sakura to be too underwhelming, leaving them more or less indistinguishable from their cinnamon counterparts. They were rather pretty (again) from a purely aesthetic viewpoint, sporting an appealing pale pink colouring which was rather fitting for the season. At the end of the day however, I was far from impressed. I had thought it was pretty hard to screw up the winning formula that makes yatsuhashi what it is, apparently I was mistaken. That aside, they are still perfectly edible, I just personally wouldn’t be giving these ones in particular as an omiyage to anyone I really liked!All said and done, I still ate them all hungrily, but in the future I’ll stick with the ever-reliable cinnamon variety.
Iga Ueno Ninja Festival 伊賀上野 NINJA フェスタ is a 5 week event that is run by the city of Iga 伊賀市 in Mie prefecture 三重県 from April 1 to May 6 each year. When the suggestion came about to hire a car with a couple friends and drive down for the weekend I was more than keen to get my ninja on!
Departing in the wee hours of the morning we made the trip from Kobe to Iga (around 130km) in about 3 hours taking the extremely expensive toll roads and at times thinking we were going to die due to the ‘skilful’ driving of ‘Lady Wei’. Generally its crazy to drive in Japan due to the cost, however with 4 people in the car the split cost was comparable to what the train fare would have been and far easier since Iga is fairly inaka. 
Post arrival we were met up with another 20 or so JETs from across Kansai who had also been invited to participate in the days festivities, before being greeted by the Iga city JET who took us to the city hall where we would receive our ninja costumes for the day! 
Now I assure you although the ninja garb appears to be quite simple, each outfit was made up of 9 separate parts that needed to me meticulously put on in just the right way, lets just say thank god they had helper ninjas to dress the clueless gaijin XD 
After suiting up the city had organized a walking ninja tour for us, which included a stop at the Iga Ninja Museum 伊賀流忍者博物館. Dedicated to the history of the ninja and ninjutsu, it showcases a wide array of genuine ninja tools and weaponry, in addition it contains a model ninja village where we were lead around by female ninja who demonstrated all the secrets of the house that could be used in case of intruders, such as hidden weapons, secret doors and deadly traps! 
After the tour of the village concluded, our next stop was a live ninja show! Hilariously cheesy it featured shuriken throwing demonstrations and a number of mock ninja battles demonstrating the various ninja fighting techniques and weaponry. The best part being that with each fictional kick, punch or sword slash there was an accompanying ninja battle sound effect and often smoke bombs! ALL THE WINNING!
The afternoon we occupied with heading up to Iga Ueno Castle 伊賀上野城, a cute little castle perched upon a hill, its elegent design resulted in it often being refered to as White Phoenix Castle however it is a reconstruction of the original that was destroyed by a storm in the 16th century. 
Whilst up on the hill we decided to take some fun ninja battle photos XD 
To conclude the days festivities, we headed to the ninja café to sample some ‘ninja deserts’ with our fellow ALTs come ninja. The four of us decided upon the shinobi parfait 忍びパフェ, the café’s speciality which came with an edible shuriken 手裏剣 (throwing star). 
We were also meccha lucky to run into the actors into the actors from the ninja show outside of the café who posed to take some photos with us *^^* 
During the festival the entire city of Iga is filled with these ninja mannequins that are hidden everywhere you look. 
Finally although it was very convenient for us to drive since we saved a huge amount of time and headaches with transfers, I would have liked to had had the chance to ride the ‘ninja train’ LOOK HOW KAWAII IT IS!!! (and free for ninja to ride during the festival. If your ever in Kansai around April head down to Iga, its certainly worth the trip to the countryside to get to be ninja for a day!
For the spring season of 2013 Mintia released two Italian inspired flavors. Being quite the advocate of anything Mintia I purchased both the moment I saw them.
In terms of packaging both feature their respective fruit flavors depicted in the style of stained glass, which I presume is a play on the windows which commonly ordain gothic cathedrals.
Mintia – Italian Lemon
ミンティア – イタリアンレモン
This flavor I find reminiscent of the lemon Ice Breaker equivalent, however where their competitors punch a tasty sour kick these seem to fizzle in comparison. That said, although I find the taste to be a little underwhelming for my liking, they are still not bad at all.
I also am quite fond of the packaging as well as the lemon yellow color of the candy themselves.
Perhaps I just purchased then for the novelty of a new mintia flavor as I typically do but I think they are worth a couple repeat purchases before they are phased out.
A subtle lemony offering from mintia this spring. 3.5/5
If you were interested in what the writing on the packaging says it as follows:
100%レモン果汁入りアロマビーズ + レモンフレーバーチップ配合
Includes a combination of aroma beads containing 100% lemon juice + lemon flavored chips.
The little red box says
シチリア産レモン果汁配合
Blended with Sicilian lemon juice
Mintia – Italian Grape
ミンティア – イタリアングレープ
Grape flavor is not something particularly groundbreaking for mintia and I have already sampled 2 other grape offerings from them. The packaging on these guys however seemed to be a little preachy as to how authentic and fruit filled these are. Honestly I think they might be compensating a little, that said they are not at all bad. The white colored candy are filled with tiny little specks that aparwntly are a mix of grape ‘chips’ and ‘grape juice aroma beads’. Much like the lemon ones I was left wishing for a slightly more pronounced upfront flavor, however in comparison to the regular grape mintia I think these come out on top. For a tasty ‘allegedly’ Cabernet Italian grape experience they get my recommendation! 4/5
Again the translation for the grape flavors packaging:
100%カベルネ果汁入りアロマビーズ + グレプフレーバーチップ配合
Includes a combination of aroma beads containing 100% cabernet grape juice + grape flavored chips.
The little red box on this one says
イタリア産カベルネ果汁配合
Blended with Italian cabernet grape juice
Nawwwww after writing my principal a thank-you letter for supporting me last week during my self introduction in front of all the principals in Kobe.
I came to school this morning to find he had written an article expressing how impressed he was with me in the weekly staff newsletter.
All day the other teachers have been telling me how surprised they are I learned to read and write (to be honest I’m still terrible). Feeling fair good about life today (*^^*)
I typed up copy below and provided liberal translations.
◇ 先日ALT紹介と，勤務説明会がありました。
ダニエル先生もしっかりと日本語で自己紹介していましたよ。
At a briefing for work the other day, the ALT’s introduced themselves.
Daniel spoke his self introduction firmly in Japanese.
「私は〜〜台中学校のダニエルといいます。好きな食べ物は餅です。八ツ橋は最高に美味しいで〜〜〜す。」
(Quoting some of my speech)
「I am Daniel from (my schools name) JHS, the food I love is mochi. Yatsuhashi (a specialty from Kyoto) is the most delicious’」
他校の校長先生からも大ウケでした。
It was well received by the other Principals there.
そして翌日，校長先生の机の上に，ダニエル先生からの手紙とチョコレートがおかれていました。とても優しい内容に嬉しくなりました。
Also the next day, on my table in the principals office, Daniel placed a letter and some chocolate (Terry’s chocolate orange in fact *^^*). His kind actions made me very happy.
仲間って良いですね！
He is a very good friend of mine!
Here is a copy of the letter I have him.
So this morning I was awoken at around 5:30am by a queer shaking and an emergency beeping sound coming from my phone. Disorientated from sleep the first thoughts that came to my mind to comprehend what was happening was either I was dreaming, seizuring or this is an earthquake!
Later this morning I discovered that it was in fact quite large at 6.0 magnitude striking at 5:33am near Awaji island in the Seto Inland Sea southwest Kobe, from where I live the quake was felt at around 3.5 magnitude.
The most amusing part of the ordeal was within 2 minutes of waking up, my phone began to echo said earthquake in an hour long constant stream of updates on facebook and texts threads, if there is anything that can wake up the entire Kobe JET community and get them on facebook at 5:30am on a Saturday morning, its a couple seconds of relatively gentle vibrating.
On a more serious note however, Kobe is pretty much renowned for two things when mentioned to those who don’t live in Japan, Kobe beef and Great Hanshin earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1995, and levelled the city of Kobe where I live. Echoing this mornings tremors, its focus was was located 16 km beneath its epicentre on the northern end of Awaji Island, 20 km away from Kobe. All Kobe JETs are required to visit The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Museum as part of our orientation shortly after beginning our contracts so we all have an understanding of the seriousness of earthquakes in Japan and the steps taken to reduce their devastation the following are a couple photos of just how much damage was done to Kobe almost 20 years ago.
