Okonomiyaki REDUX !

Awww yeaaah!

It's Okonomiyaki Kansai style.

You pick the ingredients and cook it yourself.

Birthday Bash for Kana and Me !

My birthday came up while we were in Japan.

In case you were wondering, I had actually planned to be born on that date just for this occasion. Foresight in all things.

Clara, Brooke, and Adam got me cards and gifts which was really sweet!

I know, this looks amazing and it was delish!
That night we all went out to Karaoke to celebrate Kana and my birthday.
Nothing says "happy birthday" like making me sing.From the looks of it, I am probably telling the same story I told Brooke and Clara at the hot foot bath from a couple of postings ago. Kana is either enjoying the story or she's thinking to herself, "I swear this guy looked clean-shaven this morning! That is one heckuva 5 o'clock shadow".

What she doesn't realize is that I shaved right before we came here.

We got her this adorable Gizmo plush toy and put Spider-man socks on it.

Revelation that made Ibad do his happy dance:

Kana is a Spider-man fan.

That gives her 10,000 cool points. This brings her up to a grand total of 10,001 points (You get a point for being a girl).

HADOUKEN ! ! !

This mild-mannered gentleman threw a fireball at me. Twice.

No, I have not been smoking "some of that good $h!t" (whatever that means).

If you had talked to me 3 months ago, I could have shown you my arm where the hair was still missing from getting singed.

All in all, this was a bizarre night and I couldn't really decide if this guy was a bartender or a magician. But whatever you do, DO NOT shake his hand.

P.S. Anyone who got the reference in the title of this post, give yourself 20,000 points. You can redeem them when you see me in person.

Squid Jerky should be considered Torture under the Geneva Convention

We ate things that walk, swim, crawl, fly, slither, glide, and shamble and they were all delicious.

This was the only thing that was not good.

Stop reading now and move onto the next posting if you have a weak stomach.

Ok, I am assuming the squemish ones have fled:

This thing felt like chewing on thick rubber cords with crunchy bits dispersed in greasy, waxy, stringy, semi-dried meat that tasted like very salty and smelly, rotten fish.

I burped fish oil all day.

Hiroshima International University at Kure

Giving us the grand tour is Texas transplant Tim Hawthorne, an English teacher and Junko, a pharmacist and one of the coolest peeps we met!
Junko's family totally hooked up Clara and Brooke with these exquisite kimonos. Indian restaurant visit 3 of 4!

The ladies have their hair still done from their Japanese makeover.

Fabulous!

Our home stay in Kure

We stayed with Hori-sensei and his family. He is a biochemistry professor at the Hiroshima International Univesrity and his wife is an administrative employee there.

The family's wonderful home. This home stay was definitely one of the most memorable parts of our trip and that's saying a lot.
The family! The kids were great fun and they kept us entertained with Nintendo Wii, origami, puzzle games, piano playing, and Japanese lessons! We miss the lavish and delicious meals that were prepared for us. I am waku waku for shabu shabu! I'll explain that later.

Cultural Faux Pas and a Contest ( For Real !)

The pharmacist on the far right was our guide at this hospital. Upon discovering that I am originally from Pakistan, he started referring to himself and me as Asian beauties and was a bit huggy. This troubled me at first but -- after seeing how he treated the nurses -- I got over it.
Speaking of behavior that is culturally inappropriate, let me introduce you to the Clutch.

What is it? Well, I am not going to tell you but the only clue you'll get is this picture and the promise that it WILL appear again.

The first 3 people to email me the correct number of times the Clutch occurs in the entirety of this blog will win a prize (I'll even ship it to you!).

Of course, the four of us are not eligible for the contest.

Kyoto with Matt, pt. 1

Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Temple.

A large part of the temple is covered in gold leaf.
And no, I really don't now why we're standing this close to each other.

At least I have an exit strategy.

Matt told me that people write prayers on these wooden boards and hang them here for the gods to grant.
So, we decided to contribute.

You should have prayed for God to wipe that stupid goatee off your face. Hopefully we won't have to look at that thing for too long.

-- Gabe

Kyoto with Matt, pt. 2

A traditional dance at a temple
The second dance -- which I preferred -- was decidedly more modernesque (is that a word, Brooke?)
As you can see, the ladies were really into it!

Kyoto with Matt, pt. 3

These school kids wanted to take a picture with us.

The two school girls look like their faces are about to explode ala Arnold in Total Recall!

The uniform that the boys are wearing looks exactly like the one Bruce Lee wore in Fist of Fury!

Suffice it to say, I am quite happy with this picture.

By the way -- if you haven't seen either of those movies -- stop now and go watch them. Everything else can wait.

There are a few interesting things highlighted in the picture above*:

1. As you can see, Brooke doesn't have any hands. Yes, it makes being a pharmacist very difficult but she's done remarkably well all things considered.

2. Trying to showboat and walk backwards here ended up with Brooke tripping and falling flat on her butt. Everyone laughed and a good time was had by all.

3. Brooke's purse is magical. It's bigger on the inside than the outside would suggest. This is the only conclusion that explains how she can pack in as much stuff as she can. The purse is hard as a rock and weighs approximately 50 lbs (give or take 5 lbs).

*Only one of the above statements is true. No, it's not the one you think.

If only Matt would have taken this picture 2 seconds earlier. You would've seen something entirely too embarrassing. Even for me.

You'll just have to use your imagination.

On our Own: Nagoya, pt. 1

The four of us arrived in Nagoya for our experience at Fujita Health University Hosptial.

We didn't realize that Nagoya is the 4th largest city in Japan with a population of over 2 million people. Also, the university hospital has 1500 beds! Take that Grady!

This structure is glass, steel, and gallons of water. It's located near the TV tower and has timed fountains.

Brooke and Clara are wearing shoes they just bought earlier in the morning. Rad!
Dinner with the pharmacists at a traditional-leave-your-shoes-at-the-door-restaurant. The famous Nagoya-style chicken wings were great.

Pizza party at the university hospital

On our Own: Nagoya, pt. 2

Adam didn't sleep for two nights after I took this picture. Fact.
Welcome to Atlanta, jack and hammer and vogues

Back to the mackin' and jackin' the clothes, adolescent packin' a fo'

A knock on the do', who is it?

I would happen to know, the one with the flow

Who did it? It was me I suppose

If you click on the pic, you'll see she has a little Cookie Monster bling on her pen. I have the same thing on my camera and I thought it was a neat coincidence.

By the way, this is a good time to clear up a misconception. The above scenario is NOT considered ironic. A friend of mine -- whose name I won't mention but we'll appropriately codename her Alanis (you know who you are) -- often confuses coincidence and irony.

For instance (keeping with the Alanis analogy), Rain on your wedding day is not ironic. It's just unfortunate.

Unless ... you're from a rainforest and decided to get married in a desert to avoid the rain on your wedding day, only to have your wedding rained on.

Now, that's irony.

Goodbye, Nagoya. Thanks for the memories.

Temple Trips (We had few)

Yes, the look on my face is stranger than usual but I can't decide if it's because I am:

A. blushing (being nervous around girls is my real full-time job)

B. feeling some GI distress (which may as well be my part time job)

C. having a hard time keeping my pants up (get your mind out of the gutter, Gabe, I am not wearing a belt is what I mean).

The few remaining shreds of decency that I've left will not allow me to comment on the picture above. I am sure Adam would be more than happy to deliver the despicable details.

This art piece is titled Bodhidharma after the Buddhist monk of same name. As the tradition goes, Bodhidharma cut off his eyelids so as to not fall asleep while meditating.

FYI, the word bodhidharma is Hindi and means the nature of Buddha. The concept of dharma (or nature) is central to Buddhism and it is understood that all beings have a true nature that is unique to them. People suffer when they are not true to their nature. As you may know, Buddhism also bases its foundation on the idea that suffering is caused by desire and attachment. According to Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path is the way to the cessation of suffering. Siddharta Gautama (aka Buddha) is the Indian prince who's considered the father of Buddhism and he said, if one does not follow the Eightfold Path, one lives one's life like a preoccupied child playing with toys in a house that is burning to the ground.

On Our Own: Kofu, pt. 1

Kofu is one of the smaller towns we visited when we were on our own. The population is only about 200,000 people, if I recall correctly. The town is known for its natural splendor and scenic mountains.

Here's the statue of Shingen Takeda, famous warlord.

We visited the Shingen Takeda museum where one can have the opportunity to dress up in the warlord's garb.
I am the only one even attempting to exude any warlord-iness.
Grampa Genghis didn't raise no wusses!

On Our Own: Kofu, pt. 2

Takehisa-sensei and the rest of the University of Yamanashi group took us to a winery.

By the time we left, I was to' up from the flo' up! Waaaay too much sugar in their grape juice.

Ariail, Julian, Jody, and Taylor: Yes, Half-Life 2 arcade machines!
The graphics were just as amazing as the PC version and the game played almost exactly like the story mode. There was even plenty of vehicle action! This is one of my favorite pics in the entire blog! My absolute favorite one is coming up soon.

We say goodbye to Kofu and our new friends as we leave for Tokyo.

On Our Own: Tokyo, pt. 1: Asakusa

Tokyo served as our last stop before we returned to Hiroshima.

Adam and I had already spent a few days in Tokyo before our rotation had started but it was the first time for Brooke and Clara and we wanted them to make the most of it.

Asakusa -- the old town shopping district for traditional Japanese goods
Brooke and me at the legendary Dragon Garden of Asakusa.

Well, I am not really sure if it's the legendary Dragon Garden of Asakusa but you can see a dragon behind us in what looks like a garden in Asakusa and I am sure that some legendary $h!t went down here at some point in the past.

On Our Own: Tokyo, pt. 2: Harajuku and Spider-Man

I took Clara and Brooke to Harajuku to show them the interesting, sights, sounds, and tastes of the alternative part of Tokyo when . . .

Spider sense tingling . . . there's something awesome going on at the KDDI building. KDDI is a popular cellular service company. Let's take a closer look . . .
By the power of Grayskull! Is that what I think it is?

Yup, it's Spider-man!
Ok, I have to go in and see what this is all about!

On Our Own: Tokyo, pt. 3: Harajuku and Spider-Man (contd.)

Inside the KDDI building, we got to make these cool cards and put them up with everyone else's. Best. Picture. Ever.

I wanted to buy this so bad but it wasn't for sale :(

If you click on it, you can see the insane level of detail.

This statuette is awesome and by awesome I mean totally sweet!

On Our Own: Tokyo, pt. 4: Shibuya

As you may recall, when Adam and I first saw the famous "Times Square" intesection of Shibuya it was at night.

As you can see, it's absolutely ridiculous no matter what time of day it is!

Above is a video of the craziness that is Shibuya intersection!