April 13: Money in Japan

This post is important for anyone who decides to come visit. Purchases in Japan are cash based. You can probably use a credit card some places (hotels, maybe convenience stores [i struggled not to write conbini there. where is my english going]), but i never have, nor have i seen others do so.

When you go to a restaurant, you always pay cash and usually pay for the whole group as one. you have to ask them to split the bill up betsu-betsu if you want to pay individually, and depending on the group size and if the restaurant is busy, it can be a bit mendokusai (pain in the ass).

This cash-base comes with some inconveniences, and some things becoming more convenient. One big inconvenience is that ATMs have business hours - and if you're outside them, there's no way to get cash out. My bank closes at 7pm (and they charge a fee after 6pm). Also, unlike in Canada, there are many small banks. Mine is based in Kitami (the nearest small city), and only has branches in my area of Hokkaido. Luckily, you can (for a small fee, 108 yen) withdraw money from the ATMs in the many 7/11s found around hokkaido.

Most people have large wallets, full-bill-sized, and carry crazy amounts of cash around. I often get dirty looks from cashiers for my tiny wallet with bills folded into quarters (but don't particularly care). I think the double folding makes it hard for their machines to accept it (most cash registers have automatic feeds for bills, and little conveyor belt things for coins. no chance of a human miscounting). Many places (onsens, ramen shops) use a system where you put money in a machine near the door, it spits out change and a ticket, you give the ticket to a person at the counter and they bring out your food/give you your onsen towel/etc. humans never touch the money there.

There are lots of conveniences of the cash system. Paying with a 10,000yen bill ($100) is quite common, though i try not to do it at family restaurants as it's kind of mendokusai for the staff. I usually do it, again, at convenience stores. such as by buying something that costs 200 yen.

Another huge perk is buying stuff online. I don't have a Japanese credit card, and don't like to use my Canadian one as I don't have easy access to Canadian money to pay for it. But if I buy something on Amazon, I can (and do) choose to either pay for it in cash at the convenience store, or Cash-On-Delivery. Also, you can choose scheduled delivery (as late as 8pm, 6 days a week), so it doesn't get a failed delivery while I'm at work. All in all, very civilized.

Here's a couple school lunches. New school year just started April 1, so these are all the lunches I've had so far. At the BOE today so no Wednesday lunch.

Friday April 8, 2016: 200ml hokkaido milk; fancy congratulatory strawberry jelly with whipped cream; cabbage/cucumber/carrot/ham stuff; white rice with ground (pork?) in a garlic savory sauce. 

Monday April 11, 2016: white rice; 200ml hokkaido milk;"okhotsk fry" - hardboiled quail egg wrapped in cabbage/ground fish and deep fried; cooked spinach and cabbage; miso soup with fried tofu, wakame, japanese leek.

Tuesday April 12, 2016: Miso soup with tofu, carrot, fish meatballs; 200ml hokkaido milk; fried whitefish; cooked spinach, ham, corn; white rice.

Feb 8-17, 2016

Got a little backlogged and didn't post any lunch pictures last week or so. Sorry bout that. I've put it all in one here, but I'll start off with a bit of blogging:

This weekend was the Monbetsu Drift Ice Festival ( 流氷祭り - ryuhyou matsuri). It was pretty cool, my friend who works for the tourist company has been working 8-11 every day for a month, carving ice into intricate statues and carvings etc. They had a bunch of food stalls with typical festival food, they had a main stage with a gigantic carved ice mansion as the backdrop, they had these inflatable "banana boats" that they towed over a mogul course with snowmobiles.

live entertainment, japan style

My favourite part of the festival was the giant snow maze - they had a huge pile of snow, about 6 meters tall. into this pile they have cut a maze - all the way to the ground. So you walk into this thing, and it goes from being sunny and warm (the weather was very unseasonable for exactly one day), to being dimly lit and cold. There were some parts where the paths went up and over other paths. There were two exits, one was quite easy to find, the other was quite difficult.

giant snow maze.

The other part of the festival, and part of why so many ALTs came to town, was for a competition called human horse race (ningen bamba). In teams of five, you had to drag a big chunk of ice (~480kg for men) down a track about 60m. Had to stop there, each person had to throw a bean bag into a net on top of a pole (called 玉入れ tamaire, ball enter). Then had to pick of the halter and drag the ice down around a cone and back to the start. Each team did it twice, and the team that got the best time (for their fastest attempt) won. I only managed to do it one time - I got super nauseous after that (something about too much beer and not enough sleep the night before, and not enough food the morning of). The other four on my team went fast enough the second time (47 seconds) that they won second place, and a prize of 50,000 yen. I've got some pictures on my instagram/twitter/facebook, can't post em all here.

The women's foreigner team at the drift ice pulling competition

random oni costumed person

Anyway, here are some pics of the missed lunches:

2016-02-09 (Tuesday): 200ml Hokkaido milk; wakame rice with salmon flakes; cooked spinach/cabbage with sesame oil; japanese-style sweet omelette; soup with daikon, pork, carrot, and "shirataki" - some kinda starchy, chewy texture.

2016-02-10 (Wednesday): Some kinda meat curry with potato; peanutsu kurimu to go on the hotdog bun; mikan jelly; cabbage/corn/cucumber in a tangy sauce; 200ml Hokkaido milk.

2016-02-12 (Friday): Two white rolls; two fried spring rolls, cooked ramen noddles in a sealed plastic bag (ew); ramen broth with bamboo shoots etc; 200ml Hokkaido milk.

2016-02-15 (Monday): White rice; cooked spinach/cabbage with sesame oil; "hamburg" in some kinda sweet teriyaki-like sauce; soup with potato, onion, carrot, daikon, sliced weiners; 200ml Hokkaido milk.

2016-02-16 (Tuesday): White rice; two giant pork gyoza; cooked pork/carrot/daikon; "spicy" soup with onion and tofu; 200ml Hokkaido milk.

2016-02-17 (wednesday): White rice with nori paste; cooked pork/onion/spinach/carrot with sesame flavour of some kind; fried whitefish filet; egg drop soup with onion and mushroom; 200ml Hokkaido milk.

February 5, 2016

White rice. Tsukemono (Japanese pickles). Cooked cabbage/cucumber/shrimp/yellow bell pepper. Japanese curry. 200ml Hokkaido milk.

Off to Sapporo this weekend for Yuki Matsuri (snow festival), their ridiculously large winter festival. I'll send some pictures around the ol social media during/after!

Also, saw a true murder of crows yesterday on my walk home. (by the time i clean off snow/wait for the car to warm, it is about the same length of time for me to walk - so i walk to three of my six schools now.) Crows are always around monbetsu, because of the fish factories - but those aren't running in the winter, so the crows seem to be around the populated parts of town more frequently now. They're super loud. Also, the Japanese crows (species: Jungle Crows) have a big mean-looking beak, I thought they were ravens at first. Check it out.

February 4, 2016

White rice. Nori furikake. Potato/carrot/ground meat. Sanma. Onion/wakame soup. 200ml Hokkaido milk.

Standard. very good.

February 3, 2016

tofu/green onion miso soup. Seaweed nori snack pack. Piece of sanma. Shepherd's pie kinda thing, but tastes like brown sugar. white rice. 200ml Hokkaido milk

wednesday school, no bread this week!!

February 2, 2016

White rice. Roasted soybeans. Some kinda fish. Bean sprout/spinach. Soup with pork, tofu, daikon, japanese onion, carrot, yamaimo. 200ml Hokkaido milk.

This lunch was quite tasty. We got little packets of roasted soybeans - You're supposed to throw them at oni (devils) to keep them away. They're part of the celebration of Setsubun, sorta the start of spring by some lunar calendar, i dunno read the wikipedia article i haven't had the chance yet. :) and my junior high students weren't able to explain much other than you throw them at oni and eat one for each year of your age.

Also the soup had "yama imo" (mountain potato) in it, which I assumed was some kinda potato - i was close, its a japanese yam. The texture was cool, the inside of each chunk was like creamed potato, the outside was a bit tough. tasted similar to potato. it was quite nice.

February 1, 2016

White rice. 200ml Hokkaido milk. Pork croquette. Bean sprout/spinach/corn/some-kinda-starchy-vegetable. Soup with daikon, pork, carrot. Furikake for the rice.

The furikake was a very tasty flavour this time ...not sure quite what it was.

January 29, 2016

Chicken curry with veggies. Bean sprout/spinach salad with sesame. Mountain of white rice. 200ml Hokkaido milk.

struggle to eat this much food.

January 28, 2016

wakame rice. meat veggie something. fried white fish with 1 bone. bizarre mushroom veggie gelatinous goop. egg drop soup with tofu and green onion. 200ml Hokkaido milk.

this lunch, not the best. rice was good and fish wasnt bad.

check out this thing, at the local grocery store. realized others would find it interesting. A bunch of whole, frozen fish just piled up in a cooler. you grab as many as you want with tongs and put them into a plastic bag.

frozen salmon fillets, frozen whole fish with pointy mouths. price looks to be $1-$2 per 100g.

January 27, 2016

Hot dog bun. Beansprout/ham/sesame seeds. Yakisoba with cabbage, carrot, onion, pork. 200ml Hokkaido milk.

Wednesday school. I meant to make a yakisoba sandwich, but I ate all the noodles before I remembered.

January 26, 2016

White rice. Nori sauce. meat "kurokke" aka croquet. Cooked gobo, carrot and something else. Miso soup with fried tofu. 200ml Hokkaido milk. 

Tasty. Got much more of the veggie side later, and another bowl of soup. no extra rice though :(

I just discovered that the side dish I've been getting with my lunch (always some kinda cooked veggie, usually with a vinegar or other sauce on it) may actually be called kinpira! will investigate further.

January 25, 2016

White rice. 200ml Hokkaido milk. Hirekatsu (fried pork cutlet). Cooked veggies/pork with a sesame oil sauce. Sanpeijiru.

Teaching at my 3 student elementary school this day, I was asked to stay for lunch. It included a traditional hokkaido food, "san pei jiru" - directly, "three peaceful soup". It had carrot, potato, green onion, udon noodles, and salmon including skin. Broth was simple salty broth. Pretty decent.

January 22, 2016

Chicken curry with potato onion etc; cooked c-veggies (carrot/cucumber/corn/cabbage); bizarro fried tuna patty; sweet pickles that go with curry; white rice; 200ml Hokkaido milk.

First time back to school lunch in ages! had chicken curry. quite nice, very filling. students found it very spicy, i detected no spice.