King of Burger

A guilty pleasure of mine is that I love eating at American fast food chains in Japan. Not because it's some sort of homesickness of mine, well, maybe. But really, I love seeing how something that's so common to me in the US, gets translated for the Japanese market. I've had McDonald's, KFC, Subway, Baskin-Robbins, even Krispy Kreme all Japanified. And today, while killing a lazy Sunday afternoon in Akihabara, I came across the one chain that, because of it's rarity, I have never had in Japan.

Enter; The King.

Also, notice how McDonalds is right next to Burger King. This is something that, unlike America, never happens in Japan. Again, due to the rarity of BK in Japan. Also, never in America does a "Standing Sushi Bar" separate them.

Anyway, I'll be honest, I rarely eat BK in America. I never really liked it, truthfully. In my opinion, McDonald's is the best fast food in America, despite all the negative attention it gets. The Quarter Pounder With Cheese is the best fast food burger, hands down. At one time, I thought BK's fries were better, but nope. McD's trumps them. I know there's people who swear that BK is the best or whatever. But these people are wrong. I forgive them, though.

Looking at the menu, because I didn't have a favorite at American BK to compare it to, I went with a Japanese specific option.

"The Grill Teriyaki." Grammatical issues aside, it's basically a burger coated in teriyaki sauce with some lettuce and mayo. Actually, putting teriyaki sauce on things at American fast food restaurants is something Japan does all the time. McDonald's has their own Teriyaki Burger as well. Subway has a Teriyaki Chicken sandwich that's completely different from whatever weak crap Subway America pulls with Sweet Onion. I have no idea why McDonald's or BK in America doesn't do this. I'm sure most people would be interested in seeing something soaked in teriyaki sauce at their local McDonald's or BK.

Also, looking at the menu, I noticed something that is also absent from menus at American BKs.

Booze.

For around $4, you can wash down your Whopper with a Heineken, a Highball Coke or Ginger-Ale. What's more, is that it's only $1 to add either to a meal set.

Thanks to America's strictness when it comes to alcohol, it always blows my mind whenever I see alcohol at fast food places. I have never seen alcohol served at McDonald's, but I've seen Asahi Beer for sale at KFC. I know that it's only because I live in the US, and at high school's in France they serve cafeterias, and hell, I've even seen alcohol for sale at mall food courts in Canada. But coming from the nation of "Blue Laws" it still shocks me.

Japan is more open with alcohol then one would expect. Liqueur stores close early, sure. But unless you're looking for something incredibly specific, you'll probably be fine with the selection at any convenience store, which are usually always open 24/7. In addition to beer, most convenience stores sell whisky, wine, and Japanese specific alcohol such as sake, shochu and "chuhai." Less commonly, there are even beer vending machines. On these vending machines, there's no place for an ID to be checked, but IDs are rarely checked at convenience stores or bars anyway. When I go back to America, I can see it taking a while to get back to the rigid laws of the US.

Anyway, back on topic, after ordering the Grill Teriyaki and fries, BK is the first burger place to actually give me ketchup to begin with for my fries. Let me explain, in America, nearly everyone eats ketchup with their fries. If there's no place to get it for yourself, the cashier will ask if you want it. However, in Japan, that concept never really made it over here. And many-a-times, I'll have to ask for ketchup after I get my food because I can never remember that I need to ask for it. Once, while I was eating at McDonald's I wondered what Japanese people do if they don't eat fries with ketchup. Because even at McDonald's in America, I skip the ketchup and go with Hot Mustard instead. I took a look around and found out that the answer was...

Nothing.

Ew.

Not only was BK the only place to give me ketchup without asking, but they even had extra packets and those small ketchup holders by the napkins and stuff. Kudos Burger King. Though, looking around I still saw people eating fries with nothing, so maybe the cashier saw my white self and knew what was up. Who knows.

Burger King in Japan also uses the "Have It Your Way" slogan, just like in America (do they still even use it in America? I don't even know anymore). However, this comes at a price (apologies in advance for the messy picture):

Want cheese? Roughly 30 cents. Tomato? 50. Bacon? 60. Lettuce, onions or pickles for your Whopper or Whopper Jr.? Up to 50.

I know BK in America charges for cheese sometimes, but charging for lettuce onions and pickles? I thought all that came standard? That's like charging for a tape deck in a car. It's 2010 guys. Cut the cheapness.

Finally after getting my food, and getting to the second floor, I noticed a bunch of guys drinking BK Heineken and eating one of those new Pizza Burgers. I guess, they're in America too now. I saw the ad for it at this BK and thought about it, but then I saw that the price was almost $20. Yikes. That's besides the point though. They were drinking their Heineken out of plastic beer cups with the Burger King logo on it.

I've never wanted something so much before. Why? Because they're plastic beer cups with the Burger King logo on it. How cool is that?

Finally, getting to the actual food and instead of wishing for plastic cups. After much consideration, I came to the following conclusion.

Bland.

Again, I'm sorry for uploading kind of a gross picture. I wanted to take a picture of the burger uneaten, but truthfully, there wasn't much to look at. The bun covered the whole thing. Also, the fries were a bit soggy too. Sure, the teriyaki sauce made it taste different, but I felt like it was missing something. On my master ranking of fast food burger places in Japan, BK most likely ranks last (maybe I'll try and compile the whole list one day).

I should have sprung the buck-fifty for cheese and a Highball Coke.

Pepsi Mont Blanc

Those crazy guys at Pepsi Japan have done it again! For the past few years, Pepsi Japan has been releasing a special seasonal flavors for the past few years. Lots of people heard about the infamous, Cucumber Pepsi via the web when it was released. They followed it up with Pepsi Blue Hawaii, Pepsi Shiso and Pepsi Azuki. This winter, Pepsi Japan brings to the nation of Japan:

PEPSI MONT BLANC

Upon seeing the rack of these Pepsi bottles for 90 yen each at the supermarket, I knew that this had to be one of Pepsi's newest experiments. According to Pepsi Japan's website, it actually went on sale today (this might even be the first English article on Pepsi Mont Blanc, so hopefully that'll bring in the Google hits). Without hesitating I grabbed a bottle and went to the cashier. Despite the fact I had no idea what "Mont Blanc" actually is. So, before I drank it, I consulted our good friend Mr. Wikipedia:

A Mont Blanc, is a cake or tart made of puréed chestnuts and whipped cream, often on a meringue base. It is named so due to the way it is constructed to look like a mountain, and gets its name from the Mont Blanc mountains.

According to the article, it's fairly popular in Japan. Anyway, sounds fairly bizarre to make a drink after a dessert. But then again, this is the company that made drinks out of vegetables and beans. Clearly there's no limit for these guys.

After unscrewing the cap and hearing a loud pop, a smell, similar to cream soda, began to fill the air. If this tastes like cream soda, I'm all on board.

It doesn't taste like cream soda, though.

Actually, when you first drink it, it tastes a lot like just standard cola. But then there's an after-taste.

And that aftertaste is chestnuts.

Yes, Pepsi Japan have made a cola with a nutty aftertaste.

An incredibly strong nutty aftertaste at that.

I don't know what an actual Mont Blanc dessert tastes like, but I do know that this tastes like nuts.

Soda.

That.

Tastes.

Like.

NUTS.

To be honest. It doesn't taste that bad. Not something that I'd drink too often, but that's the deal with these seasonal Pepsi drinks. They make something ridiculous so everyone will have to try it once and talk about, and then it's gone forever. So, kudos to the Pepsi Japan people for um... doing their job again.

Video #1: Dorm

So yeah, I'm in Japan. Sorry for the long delay in between posts. I've been doing a lot and had too much to think about.

I took this video sometime last week. My camera was being a pain and not letting me transfer the video over USB, so when I went to the campus bookstore to buy a Mini SD card for my phone, they had a USB SD Card reader for cheap right next to it. I picked it up, and was finally able to put it on my computer... FINALLY.

My desk is a lot more cluttered now. I have the cellphone and bank account. There's more in my fridge than just a CARTON (I know that's a carton not a bottle) of apple juice. I still never cleaned those pans.

I was still jetlagged, which is why I had a hard time forming my thoughts. Other than that... enjoy, I guess.

Blast Off!

In about ten hours, I'll be traveling to Japan. Honestly, I still can't believe it. I bought these tickets back in May. September 20th seemed like ages away. It's been kind of a bumpy road to this day, but I survived, and everything ended up okay in the end, anyway.

My last full day in my hometown started with me with Novocaine numbing my mouth as part of a routine procedure to take care of something insignificant. Not how I'd expect my last full day to go. After that, I pretty much spent most of the day packing and finding out that my parents are going to have to mail me quite a bit of clothes. I also emptied my wallet of things like Borders and Best Buy and Boloco Burrito rewards cards, as well as a metric ton of receipts and coupons ranging over the past year. Luckily, my old Suica card can remain standing.

After watching the Jets beat the Patriots, I had the last meal with my family at a Mexican restaurant. In the past, the night before I left the country, I'd often eat with my family at an American restaurant to eat a giant cheeseburger or something. But this year, I decided, "Hey, Japan at least has restaurants serving American food, but one thing they don't have AT ALL are Mexican restaurants." The two times I've gone to Japan before, I can't recall seeing any places that serve burritos. Which is a damn shame because I LOVE BURRITOS. If anyone reading out there knows of any place in Japan that serves burritos, please let me know in the comments below.

Anyway, I'm ready for this trip tomorrow, I've loaded my Philips GoGear Spark with Weezer, Pavement and Local H. I've packed John Steinbeck's "Travels With Charley" for reading material. I even brought a few DVDs along for my laptop. All that's left to do is... Blast Off!

ブログの友達

Last night, I included links to the blogs of good friends of mine from my Japanese class. They're studying abroad in the Kansai region at the other school in Japan my school offers. I mostly added them so I can remember to easily check them.

Rob (Let's Rock This) I've actually known since my Japanese 101 class from two years ago. We ended up in the same 201 class and made a really kick ass video together with some other people (one of which will be joining me in Tokyo soon).

Elyse (Plus-Size Kimono) was in the rival video group in our 201 class, but I've been in every class with this one teacher with her. She also likes Batman a lot. And we used to make witty remarks about the examples in our Japanese textbook together. So, she's pretty awesome.

If you're reading this, there's a good chance you already knew them. If not, check them out anyway. When we finally all meet up, our blogosphere will explode.

Also, while I don't personally know these people, I've added links to Gaijin Chronicles (formerly "I Am A Japanese School Teacher" and Gaijin Smash) and TokyoCooney's YouTube channel. Mostly because I've been reading/watching these guys forever, and I trust/enjoy their opinion when it comes to things about Japan. So check them out if you didn't know about them already. Especially check out the "I Am A Japanese School Teacher" archives. That stuff is GOLD.

Fears

"I've got a number of irrational fears / That I'd like to share with you."
from the song "Falling For You" by Weezer

The weather is getting cooler and the leaves are beginning to change signaling that fall is coming. Meaning that in most places, school has started. I, on the other hand, am still waiting for school to start, but fall did cue one thing; it's getting closer to my departure to Japan. One week from Monday, I'll be spending the day in airports and in planes, and one week from Tuesday... I'll be in Japan.

As it does get closer, I've been busy with getting everything set. I got a bunch of yen last week. I'll be spending the weekend cleaning my room. Probably going to get a bigger carry-on bag this weekend. etc. etc. Of course, as it does get closer, there is one question that is asked by people more than anything else. Nearly everyone asks this question, from the teller at the bank, to the people I work with.... everyone. What is that question?

"Are you nervous?"

Honestly, at the risk of sounding too arrogant, I always answer this with a "No." I mean, I've been to Japan twice before, most of my friends are Japanese, I know a fair bit about Japanese culture. While, I'm sure, no doubt I will experience culture shock, I'm not nervous in the traditional sense of being nervous for a study abroad.

But... as the quote from the awesome Weezer song at the start of this entry suggests, I have a couple of irrational fears that go beyond the duty of simple "study abroad nervousness." Both of them related to my overall goals in Japan.

The first is related to the second most asked question by people:

"So, you probably know a bit of Japanese, huh?"

The answer to this is: "I guess." I'm nowhere near fluent, but I've had conversations in only Japanese with people. And I can probably read enough kanji to get by on the streets. Also, I've known enough Japanese people/watched enough Japanese dramas when I was younger to get the correct accent and such. So, even if I don't know what I'm talking about, I can usually fake Japanese pretty well.

But my fear is that I'll never become fluent in Japanese. My skill will just plateau off, and I'll never improve. Partially, this is because in my Japanese class last year, I was in an unusual position of understanding everything we were going over, studying hard and getting abysmal grades on my tests. Now, as the people in my Japanese class know this is partially due to how the tests were graded and such, which I won't really get into and only say that it didn't fit my learning style or whatever at all. But still, this leaves a lingering fear in the back of my head that it's because I just can't learn Japanese. Of course, when I went to talk to my teacher about my grade, she gave me the (not very helpful) advice of "you need to go to Japan to improve." So that's promising, I think... but regardless it's something I'm afraid of.

The second of my fears is that I won't be able to get a job teaching English. When I tell people my plans here, lots of people have told me "that'll be hard" or "you can't do that so you should do _____ instead, then you'll get there one day." This fear comes from the fact that I've known people who are much much smarter than me who couldn't find a job in Japan. Much to my father's dismay, I've made it my goal that I won't return to America to visit until I find a job. But still, there's the possibility that I won't find a job teaching high school, and instead will pick up some job working at something like Nova and I'll never be able to move out of it before becoming so frustrated that I'll move back to America and go back to school or something.

But with both of these fears, the only way to quell them is to think the opposite. Like, learning Japanese will be much easier in Japan because Japanese is all around me. And I've known people who are much dumber than me and had worse personalities (in my opinion anyway) and they've gotten jobs teaching English in high schools in Japan, so why can't I? I have to keep thinking these positive thoughts to get the negative ones out.

One thing is for sure... I'm never giving up these dreams and I'm never giving in to my fears.

Tumblr

So, in order to feel like a cool kid on the internet, I've started a Tumblr. It'll probably be mostly focused on music, but some random stuff will probably make it's way in, anyway.

If that interests you, here's the link: Life In Plaid.

Visa

So, at around 7:30 PM today, the UPS guy returned an envelope I sent to the Japanese Consulate in Boston last week. Inside this envelope was my passport along with a freshly applied allowing me to stay in Japan without the Japanese government throwing me out in 90 days.

It's always a bit of a nerve-racking experience for me dealing with customs or border control or visas and such. Not that I have any reason to be, I'm just terrified of answering a question the wrong way and getting moved to another room where they... do whatever it is to people who actually try to cheat that sort of stuff.

Also, my passport photo was taken when I was 16. I'm 22 now. I don't know about you, but I definitely don't look the same as I did six years ago. So, I'm always afraid that I'm going to go to some country, and they're going to be like "THIS ISN'T YOU AT ALL! OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!" I was especially afraid of this when I was leaving Israel, when I had really long hair and hadn't shaved in a while and they don't mess around when it comes to that type of stuff.

Anyway, while this process wasn't as HARDCORE as that, but I was still afraid because I had to send my passport by mail and GOD KNOWS what could happen. But basically, I filled out the visa application ("Oh god, I hope I'm answering this correctly"), affixed the passport photo I had to go to my local Rite-Aid to get taken ("oh god, I hope this is the right size"), and included the return envelope ("oh god, I hope this is what they want") and waited. A few days later, I got a call from the Japanese Consulate in Boston, which at first FREAKED ME THE FUCK OUT, because no news is good news, right? But they only wanted some other information from me. In addition to confirming my birth date and my name and such, they also wanted my address I'd be staying at in Japan. Since my school wouldn't tell me the exact information until I got there, I had just put down the address of the campus. Apparently, this wasn't sufficient enough for the Japanese Consulate. I told them I'd ask the school and email the information to them.

I sent an email to the school asking what the specific address was for the dorms, hoping that they would email it to me overnight (due to the time difference). When I woke up, I found out they hadn't (later I found out that the Japanese holiday Obon/お盆 was taking place and didn't get a email until Monday from them), I got on the FaceBook and asked my friend who went to this school last year. He gave me the address and the only difference between the one I wrote and the one he gave me was that he had "International Residence Hall" at the top or something. Anyway, I emailed them the address and called them up and let them know I did, the nice Japanese woman on the phone checked the email and said it was all good.

...great.

Almost a week later, and I have my visa! YAAAAAAY!

On a more serious note, this really puts everything in perspective. It doesn't seem long ago that I was applying to this program and doing lots and lots of forms. Now, other than a few little things like grab some Yen, clean up my room and pack, there's nothing else in the way from now and me leaving.... that is unless I forgot something.

Really, this blog will get more interesting. I've somehow got to think of other things to fill it with until September 20th.

Prologue

In 49 days from today, I will be sitting in Detroit Wayne County Airport, most likely eating my last American meal, waiting to board a flight headed to Tokyo, where I will spend a minimum of one year; hopefully becoming slightly more fluent in Japanese and hopefully be able to secure a job teaching English.

Originally, I wasn't going to start this blog so early, but in the midst of visa crap and a whole lot of other shit I need to take my mind off of, I thought it'd be a good idea. Plus, under 50 days seems like a nice number to start from, doesn't it?

As a Japanese major, the number one question I get asked is "Why Japan, man?" in order to find the answer to that question, we have to go back to 1989. The Sesame Street special Big Bird in Japan is released on video cassette. A one-year-old me watches this and thinks "OH MAN THIS JAPAN PLACE LOOKS AWESOME I WANT TO LIVE THERE ONE DAY" putting the thought in my subconscious that remains there to this day.

Okay. So, I don't actually have any proof this ever happened. But it's like, if you look at the list of Japanese Emperors, the first 14, are all "presumed legendary" as in, they most likely did not exist, but, you know, it makes a good story. Or something. And the fact that I absolutely loved Sesame Street when I was a kid, the show seriously taught me how to read. I must have seen this special at sometime in my life. So basically, Big Bird is my Emperor Jimmu. Deal with it.

Japanese culture also came into my life via my parents. Who unknowingly bought dubbed Japanese cartoons for me as a child. The most prominent of these is the Studio Ghibli classic, My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ）and Bumpety Boo (へーい！ブンブー). Of course, at the time, I had no idea that these were Japanese in the slightest. I didn't even know Totoro took place in the late 50s (this is what I get for living in Vermont) it wasn't until later that I discovered that the Cat-Bus and talking car that I've watched 500 times each were Japanese.

Fast forward to middle school, and I discover that this small company called Nintendo that I've been spending my parents money on for at least a decade, yeah, they're Japanese. As was this little known game/TV series/card game they released called Pokemon. Maybe you've heard of it? Also, around this time, I discover sushi is pretty damn delicious, and my friend introduces me to this rock group named B'z.

All this basically led to me enrolling in Japanese my freshman year of high school. I didn't really learn a lot, just the basics really. And over time, I kind of lost interest in Japanese culture. I ended up taking all three years of it, but it was more out of the fact that everyone in my class were friends, and it was more fun to hang out with them than do nothing.

Despite my lack of interest in Japan, I still wanted to go there. I finally got my chance, the day after I graduated high school, I went on an exchange to Hokkaido for around three weeks. The entire time, I had an absolute blast. My first words upon seeing my parents in the airport were "I want to go back." As I had just graduated high school a day prior to leaving Japan, without any idea on what I wanted to do. Being the lazy student that I was, I was planning to go to community college for two years, before eventually transferring to a four year university. But my actual plans for the future, were pretty vague. Before I had gone to Japan, I think my plan was to become a radio host or something. But upon returning from Japan, I had decided that my plan was to eventually study abroad in Japan, become fluent in Japanese, and move to Japan to teach English.

After spending two years at community college under a communications degree (though, I ended up just taking a bunch of English classes) and then transferring to a four year university under a Japanese degree, in my fifth year of college, I'm making part of my goal come true.

I know there are lots of blogs of people living in Japan around. In fact, I can recommend some to you. However, I'm hoping to add another opinion on the matter. Seeking out maybe things commonly passed over by the typical people who write about Japan, especially as I've been there (twice) before. Sure, everyone has the "HOLY SHIT THESE TOILETS ARE CRAZY" moment, and those aren't necessarily a bad thing. They're necessary even. But I'm looking to try and describe the things that aren't covered by everyone. And I hope it's as interesting to read, as it is for me to experience.

I promise it will be more interesting once I'm, you know, in Japan.