Pizza-La Doritos

One of my favorite pizza places ion Japan often has a collaboration with Doritos. Coming up with delicious pizza flavoured nacho chips. Much like the one below, “Cooked & Course Grinded Pork Italiana”. Of course they mean “ground” pork, not “grinded”, but that’s marketing departments fault.

The second one is just called “Italiana”. It was a tomato and cheese flavor. I think I liked the pork one more, since it had some meaty goodness.

Doritos in Japan are a little bit different that North American ones. They’re a bit thicker and crunchier, and there is no traditional nacho cheese flavors here. The basic flavour is Taco flavor. Now I have a craving for nacho Doritos.

Cute Sign

I saw this sign in Kakuda. It’s actually a grain of rice saying that the local rice is so good, it’ll catch you heart. That’s quite a statement to make. I just like how he’s giving some thumbs up.

Delicious Instant Noodles

I got these two delicious instant cup noodles at a couple convenience stores. They’re part of the “Spice Kitchen” series by Nissen. Both of them you just add boiling water and wait. No extra sachets to open. Simple. The first one is a Thai Tom Yum soup.

It’s spicy and a little bit sour. It tasted really good. Pretty much as good as any Tom Yum that I ever had at a restaurant. The second is a Thai Red Curry.

I haven’t tried this one yet, but the wife did and she said it was good. I’m looking forward to it. You can even see pieces of eggplant in the picture. Nissen are truly the masters of the instant cup noodle. Of course they invented it, so they should be.

Forgotten Letters

Sometimes Japanese people forget letters when using the English alphabet. I see it all of the time when they write there names. Sometimes forgetting an “H” or a “Y”. This happens all of the time on signs as well. A good example is in the picture below.

This is also a good example of why a simple painted sign is better than a fancy one. At least you can correct that one.

Christmas Decorations

Western countries aren’t the only ones that put up their Christmas decorations too early. They do it here in Japan too. Also “Last Christmas” by Wham seems to be on an endless loop at every store.

These were up very quickly after Halloween. Every department store has them up too. The strange thing is Japanese people don’t really celebrate Christmas like we do. Christmas eve is a night for going out on romantic dates and eating Kentucky Fried Chicken strangely enough (no turkeys here or oven to roast them in). The one decoration I saw that was interesting was this.

Yes, it’s a giant Santa ballon, but it’s actually Sendai’s god of good luck and fortune, Sendai Shiro dressed as Santa. He was actually a real person that was a live in the early 1800’s, as you can see in the picture below.

He almost drowned when he was a child, but it gave him permanent brain damage. Shiro would wander around Sendai and go to different stores. It’s said that the stores he visited became popular and very prosperous. The ones he stayed away from would go out of business. Also the children he played with would become successful as well. After he passed away his legend became so famous in Sendai, he was promoted to god status. In fact the shrine I had previously wrote about is dedicated to him. Now he is a symbol of Sendai city itself.

Teriyaki Curry

I found this item at a local convenience store. Just the name Teriyaki Beef Curry intrigued me. I have no idea how they combined the flavors, and am unsure if they even go together at all. After I eat it later this week I’ll let you know. I wanted to try out the new poll feature so vote and try it out.

Sennan Beer Factory

Part of the past weekend’s festivities included a special event at the Sennan beer factory in Kakuda.

We had lunch there at the restaurant on Sunday. I tried to pick the most European sounding thing on the menu. For a restaurant that calls itself “Deutch Haus”, it was certainly low on the amount of German food it had. It was mostly typical Japanese family restaurant food. It was still very delicious though. The had a store there too and i bought some fresh brewed beer.

They also make their own meat products. I bought some chorizo sausage and some salami.

I tried a sip of the dark beer that Yurie ordered and it was super good. They brew five different types of beer, and I can’t wait to try them all. EDIT: I drank the bottle of beer I bought with dinner tonight. It was really delicious. It was the first beer that I’ve had in three weeks due to having brochitis, and taking tons of medication. I’m back baby!!

Giant Produce

For some reason the produce over here seems to be huge. We checked out the farmer’s market at the festival this weekend and say some huge stuff. Like these huge green onions.

They’re bigger than leeks! Also I saw some huge Japanese pears.

They were almost the size of melons. I wonder if they naturally grow this big or if there is some kind of genetic trickery.

The Cat Bus

At one of the festivals this weekend here in Kakuda they had the “Cat Bus” from the movie Totoro. Kids could get a ride around the festival in it.

The many legs actually moved when it was driving around. Here’s a view from the front.

It looked pretty close to the real thing. I had to chase after it for a little while to get photos of it. The Cat Bus not being content with the children already ride inside, is shown below stalking more children.

Here’s a clip of the Cat Bus in the movie, for all of you who haven’t seen it.

If you haven’t seen it, go and rent it. It’s one of the best animated movies ever!

Kids Art

Today we went to a little art show of paintings done by the kids from Kakuda elementary school right next to my house. I was really impressed by some of them and how cool and weird they were. My niece Tomoka, who is twelve, had a painting at the show as well. She said she even won a prize for it. It’s the one below.

This one was done by a four year old.

I’ve noticed that most Japanese people can draw fairly good. I think it has to do with their writing style, which is basically small pictures.

Some of these pictures are so weird, almost like modern art.

The one below was drawn by a seven year old.

The floor is so crazy on the next one. At least I think it’s a floor.

I just really loved some of them. Like the one below. They seemed to be self portraits.

Check out the one below. I like the kid in the river.

In the one below, that girl must be terrified of vegetables.

This dodge ball one is really cool too.

I hope you enjoyed this small look at Kakuda kids art. I did.