Some other photos

This seems unnecessarily aggressive.

Sale once a month. "Everything must go!"

Western cartoon characters Japanese people have deep and inexplicable love for: Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, Miffy, the Moomins. They were having a "premium Moomin exhibition" in a department store we were at recently, so we went to see what all the fuss was about. Turns out it's just a shop that sells a bunch of Moomin merchandise. People were real excited about it though. You could buy the Moomin DVD discography for $500 if you felt so inclined!

"An 18 meter tall statue of a manga robot that was built to help rebuild the Nagata ward of Kobe both financially and morally after the great earthquake."

i met the colonel!

Misc Japan photos: 30 April - 2 May 2012

I don't know what this is, but I think I want to be a part of it.

Sports!

Nagasaki has one of those fancy bridges! Pretty fancy!

While in Nagasaki we went to this cool island that used to have thousands of people living on it but has been uninhabited since the 70s. If you want more photos than this you will have to wait until Shara uploads them because she takes good photos and I do not.

Some of the fruits and vegetables in Japan are so tiny! I wonder if Japanese people come to Australia and freak the fuck out over how huge the watermelons are.

Kawaii!

This is me doing my best impression of Fuji-san.

The local baseball team in Hiroshima are called the Carp (they are apparently not very good). The upshot is that it is possible to buy shirts that just say "CARP" on the front. Unfortunately none of the available sizes would have fit on my fat western body :(((

would u like an egg

"I'm reading Underground again while we're here because I want to make myself really scared" - Shara

Kobe Beef Adventures

One of the things I really wanted to do this time in Japan was eat Kobe beef. Since it is impossible to get outside of Japan, and I friggin love steak, I felt like it was one of the things I had to spend a million dollars on at least once. We had read that Mouriya is one of the best known places in Kobe for Kobe beef, and it was my birthday, so we decided to go.

The restaurant was set up so that diners ate at a counter right next to the chefs. This dude grilled some garlic for us to have as seasoning.

The first chef was replaced by another guy when it came time to cook the steaks, for reasons unknown. I asked the first dude if it was okay to take photos, and he said yes but was really awkward about it. I figured out why when I asked the second chef the same thing and it became clear that he thought I was asking if he could take a photo of us, rather than me taking a photo of him with the meat. This is because I had forgotten that when Japanese people say "take a photo", what they mean is "take a photo of me with something in front or behind me". I have never really understood this phenomenon, because surely the thing I am trying to take a photo of is more interesting than my dumb face superimposed in front of or behind whatever I am trying to take a photo of? I don't know, enjoy this photo of my dumb face behind these steaks that we later ate.

First up was the steak Shara ordered. It was slightly less fancy (only marble factor 8 or something), and marginally cheaper (only $130 or so). 

The steaks came with "baked" (grilled) eggplant, baby corns, mushroom, and zucchini. 

The seasonings were grilled garlic flakes, salt, pepper, wasabe, soy sauce and miso sauce. This steak was off the chain. The best steak I have ever had in my life, not close. I found the garlic too overpowering, so I stuck to a combination of sauces and salt and pepper.

Cooking the second steak, which was a bit fancier (marble factor 10-12 I think?) and more expensive.

This was still insane, but Shara and I actually both found that the fattier cut of meat had slightly less flavour, and preferred the less marbled one. 

Shara also got dessert, which came with a weird square spoon. Side note: the butter knives in Japan are super weird. They have very short blades, which is fine for spreading butter, but I'm not sure how you are supposed to use them to cut things. 

All up this was a tremendous meal, and although it ended up costing about $330, add another n=2 to experiences over possessions.