Finale to a fabulous 5.

Kind of unintentionally - but this post will be the final entry of this blog. As I write this, I've completed an incredible, unforgettable 5 years working and living in Chiba Prefecture - and I've returned to my home country of the U.S.

I just wanted to share shots from my hectic last few weeks in Chiba (and Japan) - but the little joys within them that make me want to go visit again as soon as I can.

Boxes, boxes, and more boxes.

Yep. This is my car trunk (with the rear seats folded down) loaded up with stuff to ship back home. Thankfully, the people at the post office in Chibaminato were incredibly helpful - not to mention it's one of only three post offices in the prefecture were you can send out books, etc. for a slightly discounted rate! (The other two locations are in Narashino and Narita Airport.)

I wound up spending over $700 on shipping...yikes, moving really is no joke.

Love these handwritten messages at Starbucks! So sweet.

Towards the end of my time in Japan, busyness escalated so much that between moving, work, and catching up with friends - the only free "times" I had was early morning. This photo is from when I met up with a friend at 6:30am because that was the only time our schedules were open (she was moving back to the US too, and running a schedule probably even worse than mine).

More early morning pick-ups.

For the last 2 months, I was probably averaging 2-3 hours of sleep per night. Towards the end, I was terrified I might get into a car accident or something - like this morning, when I had to leave Kamogawa at 6am to get back to Chiba City for more appointments. This taco meat sandwich was absolutely epic...and the 10 minutes of shut-eye I got really helped!

Dinner in Kamogawa - one of my all-time favorites: kinmedai no nitsuke (golden eye snapper boiled in Japanese seasonings)

When will I see you again...? Kamogawa's lovely Maebara Beach.

In between all the running around too though, I got to spend some quality time with friends - and even managed to actually do a lot of those plans we'd talked about but never gotten around to doing.

Seriously one of the coolest hotels ever...and for such a steal!

One such instance was going to Tokyo Disney Sea with a bunch of friends from work...and then staying at the Brighton Hotel in Shinurayasu, just one station away from Maihama (where the Tokyo Disney Resort is located).

There were 5 of us - so we stayed in the loft room - gorgeous, with a fantastic view, right next to the station...and super spacious! Ugh I wish I could live there.

Best of all, it was only 5,000 yen per person for the night...including breakfast! This is unthinkable considering the class of the hotel. You'll pay a minimum 7,000 yen per night for a cramped room in a business hotel around this area - and perhaps more if you try to add breakfast. On a final note - their breakfast had a huge variety of food and drink to choose from - we definitely got a great deal on this one.

I will definitely want to stay at the Brighton again.

Happy 30th anniversary!

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Tokyo Disney Resort! So just two days after I went to Disney Sea, I also went to Disney Land...the day ended in crazy rain, but we had a fantastic time nonethelss :)

But perhaps no place is better than a place you can call "home."

But I must say...one of the most touching experiences was a friend allowing me to stay with her for my last week in Japan. Not only have I never done a proper homestay lasting for more than 1 night - it was so kind of her to let me into her home and stay with her family. Pictured above is from our temaki (hand-wrapped sushi) party on my last night...unbelievable to many, but my first time doing such a thing! (Just realized I took the photo before the main fillings and seaweed actually were added to the table though, whoops.) I'd love to try it over here in the States.

I know this is a super jumbled post - but my 5 years in Chiba were such a hodgepodge of experiences, I don't think I can possibly present it in an organized way while giving it due justice.

So to try to sum things up...

...thank you for an incredible five years!!

Best you ever ate.

This sign does not lie.

I write this from the land of hamburgers - yes, none other than the lovely U.S. of A.

And yet I still can't forget this place. Why?

Witness it in all its juicy, foodful glory.

I don't think I have to add much more to that.

This beauty here - is the Baked Apple Hamburger. This tag team is so divine, I can't even describe how epic it was. You'll just have to taste it yourself. They've got a fair selection of different burgers (weekly special!! I'm a sucker for limited time edition stuff) as well as a decent range of non-Japanese beers, for those interested.

You can even check out their Twitter account here: https://twitter.com/pantrycoyote

Pantry Coyote - I can't wait to see you again.

Lotus flowers in the park.

Which way to go?

At some point during the midst of rainy season in Japan, I ventured to the nearby park to finally catch the lotus flowers in bloom.

I had previously seen the flowers in season for two summers in a row - passing by them everyday during my commute on the Chiba Urban Monorail (a morning treat, as the flowers blossom in the morning!), and yet I failed to actually go see them up close. So I decided that before leaving Chiba, I absolutely needed to take a trip to the park.

Rise and shine crowd of photographers.

Finally, I managed to get up and out early enough to take a brief stroll through the park with friends before heading to work! I wish I did it earlier and more often - because of quirky weather during the days preceding my visit, the flowers were on their last leg :(

Bottom right photo records the number of flowers bloomed since the end of May.

As you can see, there was a dramatic drop in the number of flowers from the day before (200!!)...but by the looks of it, I'd missed peak by a good 10 days. Still, it was fantastic to see the flowers up close and personal.

And here's a random piece of trivia - these lotus flowers are the base for Chiba City's mascot character, Chihana-chan.

Guest appearance by the Chiba Urban Monorail's newest addition, the Urban Flyer, in the distance!

The Chiba Urban Monorail drops off right in front of the park at the station of the same name ("Chiba Koen" Station) - which is how I got there that day, since it was directly on my way to work. It's also a short 10-15 minute walk from Chiba Station.

Makuhari Dokidoki Flea Market

I can't remember how it started, but during this year's Golden Week, one of my best buddies and I decided that we wanted check out the annual Makuhari Dokidoki Flea Market.

We drove as we had our usual obligatory trip to Costco afterwards - so we gave ourselves an extra time to get there at opening time, in case we ran into the epic traffic jams that apparently form around around Makuhari Messe because of this event.

Tickets available at the door for 600 yen!

In fact, there was no traffic whatsoever. We arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule, so we stopped by one of the ticket booths located right at the escalators leading from the parking lot to the Messe and purchased tickets for ourselves and our lovely kohai who would be joining us later on.

...but then, we got absorbed into the human traffic jam waiting at the walkway leading into the Messe.

Sea of people waiting to get into the flea market.

They didn't let us in until exactly 10am...but then it was shopping showdown time!!

For the record, there were two more halls of the same size...so much flea market to be had! (taken around 10am)

I hadn't been to a flea market in ages, but I don't think any of us were prepared for how hard core this flea market was.

After a bit of scouting, we decided to fill our stomachs before really tackling the shopping:

International food corner! There were also rows of booths with foods from different areas of Japan.

Toppogi from the Korean place!

The flea market in full swing.

A couple hours later, the crowd had really gathered (no worries - we'd done a fair share of shopping too!). This photo is of the same area pictured 3 photos above...crazy!

The flea market was split up into different areas - for example, an area dedicated to luxury brands, and another dedicated to vendors selling out of the back of their car. My favorite area was by far the "artist's alley" of the flea market.

"This pug sticker is cute...but so is this one! う〜ん迷う"

Matcha green tea and rich chocolate gelatos!

Finally, we were shopped out - so we concluded on a sweet note with some delicious gelatos! Mmm.

And my personal haul from the flea market:

"What a haul, what a haul!" - does anyone know what anime that's from?

(front left) 3 postcards from an artist - 200 yen apiece (I think?)
(front right) 2 mini stickers from an artist - 150 yen apiece (and I got one for free!)
(bottom) Bright red kimono under robe - 1000 yen
(top) Sculptures (owl in a tree, and person? holding an onigiri) 800 yen apiece

ALICE.

By far my greatest discovery of the day - this gigantic stuff Alice doll! I'd seen a bunch of merchandise from this series a couple years ago - all sorts of Disney characters were considerably "simplified" (and I have a thing for characters with dot eyes).

I was so excited when I found Alice that I immediately ran over to the sellers and asked them how much - they looked at me like I was crazy (I guess they weren't expecting to sell it?) and said "er...100 yen?"

SCORE. :)

Romantic pigs and other fun with food (and drink).

Today I'd like to present a jumble of photos representing my food adventures in Chiba. Without further ado:

Entry #1: "Romantic pig lab" roast ham. Okay, so I made up a translation for the "koisuru" part on my own. This brand name floored me when I first saw it. A colleague in a different department gave this to me as thanks for helping out with some translation work. The meat was incredibly high quality, and apparently really expensive too (somewhere around $1.50-2.00 per slice of ham?). Apparently it's still an up-and-coming brand, but there may come a day when you spot it in the store!

Entry #2: Onion ice cream. I kid you not. Shirako, a little town on the eastern coast of Chiba, is a huge producer of onions...so in typical Japanese branding fashion, I suppose they decided to make this outrageously flavored ice cream. It did not betray...it tasted like sour cream and onion flavoring mixed with vanilla ice cream. Not for the weak of heart.

Entry #3: Soy sauce-flavored cider. The "BO-SO TV" logo signifies that it was created for the local variety show of the same name. A friend gave me a heads-up about it, and then I found it being sold at the convenience store at my work. Not too bad, not that great either - I suppose it tasted like a weak caramel-flavored soda?

Entry #4: Hijiki ice cream. Previously shown in the post here, this is hijiki (brownish-blackish colored seaweed) flavored ice cream. I love hijiki and I love ice cream, but we just weren't meant to be...

Perhaps the oddest combination I've encountered aside from onion...and natto (although that was of course in the neighboring prefecture of Ibaraki).

Entry #5: Sweet potato ice cream. Certainly not as strange as the previous entries, I thought sweet potato was a unique flavor for ice cream nonetheless. Good stuff. Apparently Chiba is the largest national producer of sweet potato in Japan - it produces even more thank Kagoshima, the present-day Satsuma region (and sweet potato in Japanese is satsumaimo)!

Entry #6: Bamboo shoot wine. Although it sounds crazy, it tastes just as it appears - like good ol' white wine! Or perhaps I am not enough of a wine connoisseur to tell the difference? This was again in exchange for some translation work - brought back from the Chiba's little mountain town of Otaki.

Entry #7: I hail from the world's capital of hamburgers...but that did not prepare me for this monster - a 6 full-size burger menace. You can experience "leaning tower of burgers" (my personal pet name for this) at Village Vanguard in Chiba City, previously reviewed here.

Entry #8: Sky Anpan. Anpan is Japanese sweet bread, most commonly filled with red bean paste. This product was developed by Narita (home to the international airport of the same name) - I believe it's mainly sold at stores within the city itself. I have yet to actually find it at the airport, but I bought this particular one at the Lawson convenience store near my work. This anpan is filled with sweet potato paste (again with Chiba sweet potatoes!)...and was quite tasty.

Entry #9: Tasty local products. Last but not least...these examples are tamest of the entire post, but I just wanted to remind myself of all the yummy snacks I got at work - usually complements of visitors, or colleagues who brought something back from business trips around the prefecture. Inside the white paper bag is biwa - or a fruit named loquat that I didn't even know existed until I moved to Japan. It tastes like nothing else I've had - but generally it has very low-key sweetness with perhaps a texture a bit firmer than a peach? And pictured in the cup to the upper left is none other than Chiba-grown peanuts! They were covered with some sort of sweet coating - can't remember anything but that they were delicious, because they were gone in no time.

What do you think? Have you run into any interesting foods in Chiba before?

One week in Chiba (revisited).

The final installment of my adventures with my dear mum (one month later! sorry) in a photo summary. (Almost all of the photos I've used were her photos, so that's why they've got time stamps on them...and the camera was set to San Francisco time.) But hopefully this offers a little more insight into all the different stuff we got to do.

Part 1: Dinner at Syu's Garden Deli (Chiba City)

The appetizer plate...for one person. At least 4 other full plates of food (again per person!)

Super intense BBQ plate of meat, fish, and fresh veggies!

Oh man. This place is just...epic. I have so much praise for this place I donno where to start. We had the "Garden BBQ" course menu - initially, I thought it was a bit pricey at (I think?) 3000 yen/person, but I knew my mom would appreciate the healthy-ish (ish beacause of the sheer amount of food), veggie-centered menu.

Considering that it was all-you-can-drink (including alcoholic drinks) and an eye-popping amount of amazing food, the price was totally worth it! The restaurant staff was also incredibly nice (very accommodating to our rowdy (but in a friendly way?!) group. I'd love to go back again if I get the chance. It's about a 5 minute walk from Parco in Chiba.

Syu's Garden Deli website: http://www.syuplanning.com/

Part 2: Mitsui Outlet Park (MOP) Kisarazu 

Being silly with the random statue/objects placed around the outlet.

My previous post about MOP Kisarazu: http://ikosa.blogspot.jp/2012/04/grand-opening-of-mop-kisarazu.html.

We went on a weekday afternoon after I got off from work - if you're not a big fan of crowds, this is definitely the perfect time to hit up these outlets. There aren't many other shoppers so you can look around as you please.

Part 3: Sea Festa 2013 in Kamogawa

Rain cleared up just as we arrived in Kamogawa...absolutely gorgeous!

The last day of my mom's visit was the only day we didn't have any reservations or appointments...so I gave my mom the choice between Tokyo and Kamogawa (the two places we hadn't been able to fit into the trip). To my surprise and pleasure, she chose Kamogawa of her own free will, because it was noce and relaxing, and she wanted to see people she'd met during her previous visit.

To male things even better, my mom was visiting just in time for Sea Festa, one of my annual traditions! It's a huge, city-wide event, so I knew we had an incredibly high chance of running into everyone we wanted to.

...and we pretty much did exactly that.

This lovely lady took good care of me when I was in Kamogawa!
She's a part of the women's group within the local Chamber of Commerce...they were selling all sorts of fun Kamogawa t-shirts (and of course, I am a proud owner of a number of them!)

Kamogawa Coffee! This coffee here is seriously epic. I don't actually know where they normally do business...their truck just appears at various local events!

Kamogawa grins all over!

We ran into a ton of people and got tons of delicious food and drink!!! My only regret was that I was duped by the cool weather (and morning clouds!) - found myself pretty well roasted and burnt the next day. I suppose it is a smaller price to pay for a rejuvenating day with friends on the beach though!

Also, found these lovelies at Ichihara Service Area on our way back to Chiba City:

Chiba pride!

To the left - peanut flavored cafe au lait. The peanut flavor was really light - rather, it was the intense smell of...peanut shells? That really caught me off guard. Other than that, I suppose the drink was pretty normal. The packaging was really cute!

To the right - the service area carried a huge variety of I love...Chiba-related place names, so I picked up one for Kamogawa and another for Chiba in general, in honor of my two employers. These'll go on that new suitcase I am overdue to purchase for my trip home. Anyway, the stick come in rectangular and circular shapes, there's one for pretty much every city/town in Chiba...in addition to general "Chiba" ones in hiragana, katakana, romaji...and perhaps others?!

Enjoying the small things in life.

Quick update today - not just to (hopefully) get back into the swing of consistent updates, but also an official announcement that as of yesterday, June 8, I only 2 months until I leave Japan.

It has been an incredible, epic 5 years on the JET Programme, but it's time for me to head back stateside! I've got dreams and goals I am gonna make happen, and I think I'd be in better position to do so in the U.S. I'm not feeling particularly sad about my upcoming departure, because I feel quite satisfied with how much I've been able to accomplish - both professionally and individually - and also because I'm pretty sure I'll be back soon, for some reason or another!

But my departure does mean putting closure on this chapter of my life - so before that, I am trying to get as much of my bucket list done as possible, but also simply enjoy spending time with the many fantastic people I've met! So hopefully I can manage to record as much of that as possible in between all the running around :)

So today, I'd like to share just a few shots of fun with friends. I chose this post's title because I think it's all the little moments and random conversations that have really made my time here incredible:

One of my most favorite couples EVER.

Bottom left is the barbecue space at Inage Seaside Park (稲毛海浜公園), located just about 15-20 minutes from where I live! The wondrous lady pictured at the bottom right is a dear friend of mine - we worked together for a bit over a year, but I think she will be a close friend for the rest of my life. She and her husband invited me and a friend to join them for a summer-kickoff barbecue. Supposedly it was their first time holding a barbecue, but I wouldn't have known if they didn't tell me - they were totally prepared, with all the tools, meats, veggies, appetizers, snacks...even dessert! All while my friend's fantastic hubby grilled the barbecue foods for us (she is so lucky! haha).

And everything was incredibly delicious, as usual :) I've gone over to their place for dinner a few times too, and whole courses of various masterpieces like the pear-shaped croquettes (top left) are served. I always feel so spoiled with them!

おしゃれ aka cool chopstick rests!

Also, one time I went over to their place, I received these fancy chopstick rests they had made out of wine bottle corks (both of them absolutely love wine - they had a huge bag filled with corks from all the wine bottles they'd finished)!

Chicago deep dish pizza at good ol' Costco in Makuhari, Chiba City.

Last but not least, a quick snap from a trip to Costco with a fellow expat friend! I'm not from Chicago area, and I have never understood deep dish pizza. But my friend was unbelievably excited when he found these - well, I supposed I'd feel the same if I found Maryland crab cakes out here. In just a couple of months though, I can enjoy all the home goodies I want (although not necessarily crab cakes) - so I need to stuff my face with lots of yummy Japanese food while I still can!

Under the stars.

My time left here ticks away, but there are still so many places I haven't gone - or don't even know to visit! One good example is today's subject, the Chiba City Museum of Science (千葉市科学館).
 

Special elevator for the Museum of Science.

This adventure began with a random conversation at lunch. A couple of my former coworkers wanted to plan more time to hang out - but for once, something other than just grabbing a bite to eat together. After some thought, one of them thought - how about a trip to the planetarium? It was perfect because the other two of us had never gone before, and I'd been wanted to go to a planetarium for aaaages. So off we went!

Strange cardboard creatures...perhaps the museum mascots?

After a quick dinner (and actually, I skipped dinner because I had come straight from FOODEX/World Sushi Cup), we timed it so that we could watch the final planetarium show of the day. If you take a look at the schedule, they've got a pretty diverse program, and showings are almost once every hour from 10am to 7pm! Cool stuff.

We happened to go to the showing for 星空散歩 (I suppose I could translate that to something like "starry night stroll"), which was just awesome. I'll describe it in more detail below.

More random contraptions in the lobby area.

Like going to see a movie in Japan, you buy your tickets, then hang out in the lobby until you hear the announcement to enter the theater. The museum exhibits close down at 7pm, but the planetarium is open until 8pm.

Planetarium ticket! You can tell how long I've been uh, saving this post...

Of course, photography/video isn't allowed inside the planetarium - but I wish I could show you! It was incredible. My favorite part of the show was when they "dim" the sky down so that you can see the nightscape of the area immediately around Qiball (for instance, the guide/narrator pointed out the Chiba Prefectural Offices where I work, Tokyo far in the distance, and other landmarks). Then, streetlights are magically "blown out" and until you are surrounded by countless stars, and learn about a number of constellations.

I don't wanna spoil it for you (if that's possible) so I'll stop here...but if you like stars, you will definitely want to check this out! I could watch this show again and again.

 Qiball during the day!

My excuse for taking forever to post this is that I was waiting for a chance to walk by during the day, so I could get a picture of Qiball. The round thing you can kinda see inside the building is the planetarium.

To be honest, I don't think I've been to a planetarium since...elementary school! You know, those days when you learned about the solar system and memorized the planets with "My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas"? (Ah...the days when Pluto was still a planet.)

P.S.: The post title comes from a very fantastic song of the same name by Morning Parade!