[Retro Post] Stuff That Makes Americans Go “Bwuh?!”

On November 30, 2015November 24, 2015 By StevenIn Life In Germany2 Comments

Editor’s Note: What follows is a post which was completely written in April of 2014. For some reason, it languished in my drafts folder for the next twenty months until I just noticed it now. I probably didn’t feel like it was finished, and I assumed I’d come back to it later. It’s possible that some of these observations found their way into other posts, but I wanted to post this entirely in its original form anyway. This is a snapshot of my mindset roughly halfway through my time living in Germany. Here we go!

After more than two years in Germany, it’s easy for me to forget just how much I’ve adapted to life in Germany. These things are all normal facts of every day life for me, but I never experienced them in the United States.

Unexploded bombs are a regular occurrence. Several times a year, I see news articles about how U-Bahn service in this city or that city had to be suspended because a crew of workmen found another unexploded bomb left over from World War II. Typically, they either contain it or do a controlled detonation to dispose of the ordinance and then life goes on as normal. This happens so often in Germany that nobody thinks it’s unusual. I think it’s amazing though.

You don’t have to try the door handle of a toilet stall to know if it’s occupied. The stall doors here have color markers built into the latch similar to what you see on airplanes that go red when the stall is occupied and are either green or white when it’s free. It’s a tiny, simple thing, but it’s absolutely genius and I will desparately miss it when I get back to the States.

Almost everyone brings their own canvas bags to go grocery shopping. Canvas bags are a crunch-granola thing in the United States- most grocery shopping in the US involves leaving the store with a slew of plastic or paper bags. Here, the stores sell the canvas bags at the register and actively encourage you to bring your own. Additionally, there are no grocery baggers here- when you ring up your groceries at the cashier, you have to turn around and put it all in the bag yourself. I love the idea of canvas bags, but I’m really looking forward to having a bagger again- I always feel like I’m in a panicked rush to bag all of my food before the next person’s groceries are slid down the ramp by the psychotically fast cashier. Grocery shopping should not be that stressful!

Ice cream is perfectly normal almost every day, even in January. It’s slightly harder to find ice cream in the winter- many of the Eis stores close up shop for the winter or change to other products (like crepes!). There’s always a few places to get ice cream though, even in the dead of winter, and Germans love their ice cream so much that I’ve seen a man eating ice cream at -18C. That’s right around 0 degrees Fahrenheit.

Walking in the bicycle lane makes me uneasy. The sanctity of the bike lane is very important here, because bikes are used much more commonly than in most places I’ve been to in the United States. Most people will ring the bell on their bikes to alert you that you’re in the way, but not everyone is that nice. Some will just run you down. Incidentally, bicycle bells are standard equipment on most new bikes here, for exactly this reason. I’ve gotten so used to this aspect of life here that if I walk in the bicycle lane, I feel skittish.

Late night television commercials border on pornography. Short and annoyingly repetitive commercials appear on broadcast television for various phone sex lines. This doesn’t happen on every channel, but it’s always on at least one channel after 11PM. I would include a YouTube example, but the little jingles can be annoyingly catchy and I’m not cruel enough to earworm anybody with that today.

Is there anything about where you live that non-locals would find surprising?

Leaving Japan (via the Skyclub!)

On November 27, 2015November 27, 2015 By StevenIn International Travel - Japan3 Comments

I did a great many things during my five weeks in Japan. There are a few last things that I wanted to do, but I couldn’t schedule everything.

I wanted to go to the Ueno Park and Zoo. I was close to it many times, since the Ueno station was a major pivot point for my metro travels during the city. I also had dinner once at the Hard Rock there. I usually try not to eat food when I travel that I could easily get back home, but sometimes you have to make an exception for the local Hard Rock.

I wanted to stay one night in a capsule hotel. Capsule hotels are all over Japan, and they’re most commonly found close to train stations. When the trains stop running, someone who has been out to Nomikai and Sanjikai might want to stay out a bit longer. If you’ve missed the last train back home, a capsule hotel is an inexpensive way to get some sleep before the morning trains start up. Each capsule is a tiny space, and the hotel will have shared bathroom and shower facilities outside of the “room.” If you’ve ever seen the movie The Fifth Element, then you have an idea of what these are like- little horizontal places to sleep without many frills. Some capsule hotels have televisions inside the capsule, and they almost always have privacy screens on the door.

by Daa Nell

I wanted to attend a Sumo match. I was in Japan during Sumo wrestling season. I thought it would be fascinating to see a match. However, many of the matches were sold out before I found out about them, and those that were not sold out were prohibitively expensive. Luckily for me, the matches were often broadcast on television, and I was able to watch a series of matches on the television in my hotel room. Sumo is really neat to watch, as it turns out, even though I don’t know much about the rules.

I wanted to attend a formal tea ceremony. There were a few places I found in Japan where I could do this, but most of them were in hotels on work-days. As it turns out, most of the people who want to attend formal tea ceremonies are tourists, which is why they were all in hotels.

That about wraps it up for my time in Japan, though. All that’s left is the flight home. I’m not one to resist a good instructional sign.

One of my colleagues in the Otemachi office gave me a day-pass to Delta’s Skyclub for me to use on my way out of town. (Thanks, Chiba-san!) Since it’s a 24 hour pass, I was able to use it to get away from the airport noise both in Tokyo and also on my layover back in the US. Tokyo’s Skyclub was better.

This is a peaceful oasis compared to the noise of the International terminal. Lots of places to sit, eat, read, or just stop for a bit.

Of course there was food and drink available.

If you have a flight longer than about twelve hours, I heartily recommend buying a Skyclub daypass- the food alone makes up for the cost of it. There were little salads, crescent rolls, fruit, and other edibles. In Japan, there was sushi. On my US layover, there was soup and meatballs.

In Tokyo, there were also little meat skewers and bananas. I enjoyed the banana… Bananas are good!

Isn’t this tiny bottle of soy sauce just the most adorable thing? It’s a tiny salty capsule of squee!

The beverage selection was fantastic.

There were even little automatic beer pouring machines that tilt the glass to get the correct amount of foam in the finished pour. Food automation is always fascinating to watch.

Have you ever seen such an adorable tiny container of soy sauce?

Nomikai!

On November 25, 2015November 25, 2015 By StevenIn International Travel - Japan3 Comments

For an officeworker in Japan, the nomikai is a regular part of life. A nomikai is a food and drink party held immediately after the work day ends. They are most often held in restaurants or izakaya, usually with everyone seated at one large table.

The traditional nomikai lasts roughly two hours, and it’s not uncommon for people to move on from there to a nijikai, or second party, to continue drinking. Some of the participants will then go on to a sanjikai, or third party. Those who go to sanjikai frequently miss the last train, and some of them will keep drinking almost until morning. There were several instances during my visit in which I learned that my colleagues were quite hung over from sanjikai.

There was a nomikai held at the end of my first week in Japan, partly to welcome a batch of new employees in the group and partly to welcome me to the Tokyo office. Every picture that follows is the food from the nomikai I attended. I figured that a post comprised entirely of food would be very appropriate as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US.

The first photo is a small appetizer of a sort of fish flake custard dish.

Tamago, or egg. I do love eggs.

Edamame is delicious.

Cabbage leaves in a sesame dressing. So, so tasty.

The thing about asking Japanese colleagues to identify a dish is that they will often just answer that it’s meat. If you’re really lucky, they might specify which animal the meat came from. I was not so lucky.

These noodles were incredibly delicious.

Oh look, a sumimasen button!

This is fried fish bones. I did not think I was going to dig this, but it was crunchy, salty, and surprisingly delicious.

Leafy stuff in a sesame dressing is one of the most delicious foods on the planet.

I’m pretty sure this is two types of fish. Someone told me that the pale one was blowfish, but I’m not certain I believe them.

Various fried and breaded seafood things. The round balls that look like they have cornflakes on the outside were especially delicious.

Remember a while back when I mentioned the Okonomiyake? This was kind of like that, except huge and portioned out like a big deep dish pizza.

Eggs and vegetables and shrimp! Super yum.

Slices of cooked meat. Again, super yum.

What traditional Nomikai would be complete without french fries?

By the time we finished the Nomikai, I was super full of all manner of delicious food.

Of all the food you’ve eaten on trips, which item was the most unusual to you?

The South Florida Railway Museum

On November 24, 2015November 24, 2015 By StevenIn Life At Home1 Comment

Much of the time that I spend with Amelie involves trains. Specifically, we use them to see one another instead of taking the drive. When Amelie comes up to visit me, I usually pick her up here, at the Deerfield Beach Tri-Rail station.

Tri-Rail is short for tri-county rail, and it’s a north-south rail corridor in South Florida that connects Miami, Ft. lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and parts in between.

The Deerfield Beach Station is also one of several throughout the state that serves as an Amtrak station. Amtrak is America’s answer to the Deutsche Bahn, except it’s not as convenient, not as cheap, and not as useful. It’s also not as punctual, because Amtrak leases the rail lines from the freight companies, but that’s a different post.

One day in late April, I noticed this sign on the street near the entrance.

Following the sign, I found another one pointing to a nondescript door. As it turns out, they were doing some work on the external face of the building. Now, seven months later, there’s a clear sign to indicate that this is an actual museum. At the time, it looked pretty sketchy.

Inside, however, it was kind of amazing. This, it turns out, is the home of the South Florida Railway Museum and Model Railroad Club. Housed in the old rail terminal building, it’s only natural that the museum contained model trains.

This part of the museum reminded me of Miniatur Wunderland.

There was a lot of detail here, including a tiny herd of tiny cows.

The rail model was a giant construct in the center of a large open room, but the walls were filled with other things.

This vintage Coca-Cola machine was actually being used by the museum staffers as a refridgerator- the place on the left where you’d normally see Coke bottles is being used to keep the coffee creamer cold.

There were dozens of model engines on the walls representing different time periods and train styles.

Some of them have specific historic importance, like this one from an old hobby store in Miami. The store is long gone.

Even train cars need sweaters when it gets chilly out.

To a model train enthusiast, this museum is a goldmine.

This license plate had an inside joke for train engineers, but I can’t remember what the word on the bottom was.

Cheap plastic sunglasses from the launch of Tri-Rail serve as memorabilia here.

The museum has a fantastic collection of items from the golden age of rail travel, including an ash tray, a drinking glass, and “pasteurized drinking water” as it was distributed on passenger trains in the past.

There are lots of ash trays in the museum. People smoked a lot back then.

One huge corner of the museum is dedicated to old Amtrak swag.

I think I had a set of those Amtrak playing cards when I was a kid.

This old control board is stuffed to the gills with ancient communications gear, and a now-rare example of an analog word processor. Er. Typewriter. I mean Typewriter.

This old Amtrak sign is about six feet tall, up near the ceiling in the front.

Here’s more examples of older rail signs. These haven’t changed all that much in the intervening years.

Yokohama Ramen Museum

On November 24, 2015November 24, 2015 By StevenIn International Travel - Japan1 Comment

On my way back from Kamakura, I stopped in Yokohama to have a quick lunch at the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum!

The Ramen Museum is dedicated to the history of Ramen, the well known chinese noodle dish, and the ways that Ramen has changed in Japan. The main difference, according to the museum, is in the soup stock used for the noodles. In Japan, a Ramen noodle soup can contain up to forty different ingredients, a “treasure trove of umami.”

The highlight of the Ramen Museum for me was the basement level, where the creators have envisioned a “food-themed amusement park.” In reality, what they have created is a replica of a Tokyo street from around 1958. Within that street-scape are nine individual Ramen restaurants emulating popular Ramen shops from across Japan.

The attention to detail in the museum’s indoor street is incredible, and the smells of the various ramen shops are amazing. Each visitor to the museum is expected to order at least one bowl of ramen, although they make smaller bowls for those who want to sample more than one type instead of having a single meal.

The ceiling of this space is painted to give the illusion of it being dusk, which lends it self to dinnertime.

As for the shops, it’s very much the same thing as Matsuya. You start at a little ticket machine, choosing your dish and inserting coins for a food ticket.

Once you have your ticket, you can go inside. Seating is limited, and the shops don’t accept reservations. A pitcher of ice water and a cup of chopsticks are placed near every seat.

This was on the wall in front of me. I thought it was fascinating.

This was my lunch. The dish I chose was vegetarian, although that was not an intentional choice. I simply chose something that looked delicious. The ball in the center may look like a meat-ball, but it’s actually a clump of Miso.

yokohama-ramen-museum-8

Do you like Ramen noodles? Have you ever tried a Japanese variety?

Whimsy. Tacos. The DMV.

Author: Steven