Walking the Streets of Nagoya

Welcome back to my blog everyone! The last two days I have started to come out of my shell a little bit more to the point where I started walking around the city a bit to explore my new surroundings. It was a very enjoyable time and I'm looking forward to sharing it with you all today. So, let's dive in!

January 12, 2013
Today started off good and bad all at the same time. I was on Skype with Jamie all morning, which was absolutely awesome because I love my wife to death, but during the video call I had reached some really low points emotionally. All during the conversation my mood resembled several camel humps with all its peaks and valleys. I kept allowing myself to dwell on the fact that I was alone for 4 months and getting through that time seemed impossible. I felt like I wouldn't succeed, that I shouldn't be here, and that I just wanted to go home. It was at that moment, like those of a few days before, that I felt like being away from Jamie was much more than I could hope to overcome. But Jamie told me to pray to the Lord first and accept His peace, and then to go do something like take a walk so I would not continue to dwell on what I could not change about the situation. I took her advice and did both of those things. Don't worry everyone, things get better from here. :-)

I decided to walk to the local supermarket called "Valor" because I needed to pick up a few things, plus I already knew where that was. Walking around aimlessly without knowing where I was going would have increased my anxiety and stress. Japanese supermarkets are very much like those in the United States but there are a few differences. For example, for snack foods like potato chips and such, the portions are significantly smaller than in the US. If there is one thing that I can take away from Japanese grocery stores, it is that portion size is much smaller and more controlled. One other thing that is different is that while grocery bags in America are free, you have to buy bags along with your groceries if you want them. While it's a nominal for each bag, 5 yen, it is still different from what I am used to. Another thing that I have found interesting is that certain foods considered "common" to us are a little bit harder to find in Japan. For example, I have yet to see any cheese, people tell me it's there but hard to find, and peanut butter is rather uncommon as well. I would consider these staple foods, so this will continue to be a test of my ingenuity to come up with different things to eat. This is not a bad thing at all just different.

I was intending to stay in the rest of the day but my roommate J-kun came to my room and asked if I would like to walk around with him and find a place to have dinner. I agreed and off we went. He had already been walking around the city for about 5 hours that day so this second long trek was a test of stamina by my estimation. We walked up and down a few streets looking to see if we could find any place that we would like to have dinner, which we didn't find. J-kun then suggested that we go to this mega department store called Aeon. The place had myriad stores and a food court, so off we went.

 At the risk of redundancy, this department store was absolutely massive! There were stores for everything that you might need or have interest in plus a great selection of excellent eateries. I decided that I wanted to get a dish called karekatsu, fried pork curry, because I had eaten katsu dishes before and they were very good. This dish, I would argue, was even better. It was composed of non-spicy curry, rice, and a fried slice of breaded pork. It was more than I could eat but the flavors were simple yet very refined. It was very good to the palate, that's for sure. J-kun and I also split a dish called takoyaki, which is baked octopus. They were basically these little pancake balls with octopus in them. These were also very delicious, however, initially, the texture of the octopus was a little awkward to get past. After dinner, we walked around to explore some of the stores a little bit and then began the 20 minute or so trek back to the dorm. All in all, this was a very successful evening.

Now before I end this section of the blog, I would like to tell a little anecdote of mine since I have been here, so here goes. It didn't occur to me before I came that I should pack a towel; I had just assumed that they would have some here in the dorm for us. Suffice it to say, I was wrong in my assumption. The first day I took a shower I managed to get a hold of a towel but I knew that I needed to get one. My roommate Ryota took me to 3 different places to try and find one and, at last, we had struck gold at the last store we went to. The store was called hyaku en or 100 yen, which is the equivalent of an American dollar store. We found the bath towels but, the problem was that they were not even close to long enough and were very thin. If I dried my hair with one that was it, it would be too soaked to use for the rest of my body. So, I bought two of those towels. Needless to say, I was still not happy with the towels I had. Hoping to have better luck, one of the stores J-kun and I went to after dinner at Aeon was a home goods kind of store. We looked around a little and found some towels that were thicker than the previous ones I had purchased and a little longer. I picked up a couple of those towels and am happy to say that they work well. I wanted to tell this story because of all the things that one has to adjust to when living in another country for an extended period of time, the thing that has given me the most trouble so far is finding a towel of an adequate size and thickness. Guess I'm just spoiled from having my awesome bath sheets at home.

I will continue the next day of my journey around Nagoya in my next blog post that should be up tomorrow. Stay tuned and I hope you're enjoying sharing the journey with me!