[Throwback Thrusday] Japan Part II: Family (May 2014)

Depressing story aside family still remains family. In many ways, the disaster made our family closer and I’m grateful for my uncle and his family to welcome my dad and brother to stay at his place. Our homecoming always turns into a sort of mini-reunion so that’s exactly what we did.

My aunts speak a very distinct Northern accent. Though I do speak it, their speed and amount their talk is no match.

Tea time in Tohoku is savory and sweet. Lots of pickles and Western/Japanese sweets

Ancestral mural :)

Room of typical Japanese boys

The soba shop that I used to frequent as a kid has reopened!! Probably the best soba/tempura set in the entire world

The owner passed away but the son took over. The broth for the soba still needs some work but the tempura is heavenly

father/son savoring the meal

Auntie/nephew time :)

With our auntie who raised my mom so essentially my grandmother. She still lives in the barracks

Children's day karp decorations

Family dinner time

Cat is family too

Brothers :)

3 generation, multi family, family reunion. The scary part is that this is not even a third of our clan.

[Throwback Thrusday] Japan Part I: Tohoku (May 2014)

It’s been over 3 years since the Tohoku Tsunami and Earthquake in Japan in 2011. The even has been life changing for me on many different levels and March 11 remains an exceptional day. It’s a painful memory, yet life goes on. And while the memories of the tragedy should not fade away, people must also recover and move on.

The town that spent my childhood is just about going through this change. There’s construction galore and new projects popping up. On the other hand, few of the old buildings and destruction remains and often contested whether they should be left as memorials or destroyed as it brings back sad memories. As for the people, many are conflicted. Many are happy that the reconstruction has been going way but have not yet sorted out their minds on what happened on March 11^th. Many suffer from PTSD and Depression but few hardly try to show it on the outside. There’s still the scare in Fukushima as well as other unclear points in the reconstruction projects that are proposed.

Nevertheless, to me it’s my second home. It’s where I went to school, spent time playing in the fields with friends, fought with my cousins over buying ice cream, and went on long drives out to the mountains with my relatives. Of course I see how much the city has changed but to me, the images of the pre-disaster flash back at me. It’s a shame that the future generation will be unable to see the same images that I see.

I used to climb this hill and oversea my neighborhood. Now it's all barren

Barracks and barracks of temporary housing. 300,000 people nationwide still live in these conditions

Daily life in the barracks

Auntie's 10 sq meter tiny housing

Construction everywhere (btw this used to be downtown)

See the blue area on top of this building? The water came up to here. My cousin's body was found nearby as well

This area used to be downtown

Auntie's house

Memorial building

Card reads: "Dear Takata high school swimming tea and coach, How are you? It's been 3 years 2 months since you've all been gone. And today's Mother's Day, if you were alive would you have bought carnations? Well... of course not. I don't need any carnations, but could you just come home to me?  Not as a 20 year old you but the 17 year old you that you were that day"

Built a multi-million pump to layer the ground several meters higher. The plan is to rebuild the city on higher ground.

Different auntie's 1 bedroom apartment (since she's living with my uncle)

Thankfully all the furniture and appliances were donated. Grateful for everyone's help.

Summer Days

I was expecting Geneva to be autumn by the time I arrived knowing that its winters could be quite long. But I was pleasantly surprised that the city is enjoying its last few days of summer. Having been in a coat and boots all summer long in San Francisco, this was somewhat of an unexpected gift. I'm enjoying strolling around the city and soaking in the sun! 

Surviving in an Expensive Country

This post is dedicated to my dear mom who is sick worried I am starving due to the high cost of living here. Clearly she underestimated me. Having lived and worked in Tokyo for 6.5 years (also tied with Geneva as #6 city for most expensive in the world) in the most posh districts, the one thing I learned is to live very frugally. My dinner tonight cost me about $1.50, plus $1 if you add in the beer. Because processed food is expensive here I'm pretty much living off of fresh veggies, fruits, and dairy which is an added bonus. So not to worry mama! 

行く前は物価の高いスイスをかなり気にしていた母。でも元目黒区在住、六本木勤務としてはスイスの値段はあまり驚かないというか、物によっては東京よりも安いものはたくさんあるので全体的には暮らしやすいかも。

特に加工食品はかなーり高いので野菜、果物、乳製品中心の生活なのでかなり健康的な生活を送っています　笑。

本日の夕食は：イチジクのサラダ、赤ピーマン炒めのバジルソース和え、チーズとクラッカー（全粒粉）の盛り合わせ、ぶどう、オーストリア産ビール。　占めて150円ほどなり（ビールはプラス100円。ってか本格的ビールが500mlで100円って安い！さすが本場のビールメッカ）

Obsessed with this bread

I'm obsessed with this German bread: Volkornbrot

It's a  brown, rye, cereal bread which is very dense and has a sour taste, similar to sourdough. My German ex-coworker introduced it to me and my health conscious Canadian coworker kept on raving about it so eventually I got into it as well. I usually eat it as a sandwich with slices of cheese or peanut butter in the middle. I must also add it superbly goes well with sausage and mustard (and this comes from a person that doesn't like sausage that much) as well as a canape base with beer or wine.

I read somewhere that Dr.Oz mentioned it was the best bread out there as it doesn't raise blood sugar levels and if you replaced this instead of sandwich bread, you will "lose 5 pounds in one year". It's quite believable as it's very rich in whole grains and it's very dense so thought the slices are thin, it makes you very full. 

They do have the bread in the US but I found it a bit more expensive and mostly in health food stores. Here's it's in every supermarket for about $1.50-3.00 for a 10 slice loaf. One of the many things I'm appreciative of being in Europe :) 

Trip to the Supermarket

One of the most fun things about moving or traveling to another country (at least for me) is to look through supermarkets and drugstores. Yesterday I had a little time before an appointment so I hopped into to snap a few pictures of a typical supermarket. FYI - this is the Coop City supermarket in Plainpalis.

海外に行ってまず気になるのがスーパー。昨日少し空き時間があったので一般的なスーパーを探索してみました♪

Standard frozen and ready-made food section

Hailing as the country of  source of Evian water, there's a lot of different kinds of water. Still and sparkling btw

Mayonnaise, lard, mustard, and many other condiments are in tubes in Europe. I never knew until my German ex-coworker brought some over when I was in Cambodia. ヨーロッパでは調味料はチューブに入っているのが普通。最初は微妙と思ったけど使ってみるとスプーンとか瓶を開ける手間とかかからなくて樂！

本場のドイツビールはかなりお得

A section full of chocolate, yes welcome to Switzerland.　さすがチョコの国・・一体全部チョコレートです。

All vegetables must be scaled and priced before going to the cashier. As I'm still a callow shopper in this country,  I've yet to use it! 野菜は全て事前に自分で計って自分で値段をつけてからレジに持っていくシステム。なんだか複雑そうな機械でまだ使ってません！

4 eggs for $3.50. Yes, eggs are a luxury ::wistful thoughts of the days I used to make omelets with 3 eggs ::

On the other hand, wines are pretty reasonably priced

Today's Dinner

Since eating out or even the simplest processed food is exorbitantly expensive (do note: a Subway sandwich is  $15  for a one foot, no drink no chips. A double Mac is about $9..quite disquieting huh? ) eating-in and cooking is the way to go. Thankfully, this works out for me since I don't like fast food or eating out in the first place.

Today's dinner is: tomato and mushroom risotto, salad, and Greek yogurt.

Might I add that as of yesterday, I succeeded in making homemade yogurt with the yogurt bacteria my mom tucked away in my suitcase. You just add milk to the bacteria and let the batter sit around for a few hours and voila, it makes great thick greek-like yogurt. Yum!

外食はバカ高いスイス。なので 毎日もっぱら自炊の日々。幸い外食とかファーストフードはあまり好きでないので自分には好都合です。本日の夕食はトマトときのこのリゾット（前回からの反省でやはりリゾット米はリゾットがおいしい！←当たり前か　笑）、サラダ、ヨーグルト。母からカスピ海ヨーグルトの種をおすそ分けしてもらったのでヨーグルトも手作りです♪　自炊万歳