So we’ve been in Gifu for 2 weeks now and are just getting in to the groove of things!

In Japan’s ridiculously humid summer we have discovered the importance of an uchiwa (hand held fan), a sweat towel, and Uniqlo ‘magic shirts’ which are a godsend for avoiding sweat patches! Every day my phone tells me the temperature is somewhere in the 30’s and that ‘DisComfort is Very High’, which I’ve now learnt means the humidity is greater than 80%. We haven’t been fortunate enough to see what is says when it gets below 80% yet!

We’re now the proud owners of 2 fixies that we hoon around the streets on, recklessly not wearing helmets, but making sure we’re safe by abiding by the Japanese law of ‘not holding an umbrella while you ride’! For some reason that it considered unsafe, but wearing a helmet isn’t? Helmets are only enforced for children under 12y.o, but instead of a helmet, they wear what looks like a plastic construction hat! See the picture below:

Riding to work on my red fixie, basket on the front and all!

We’ve learnt just how good Japanese food from the supermarket, and even the local convenience store can be. It was our staple dinner for the first few days until we could be bothered walking more than 10 minutes in the gross heat to a restaurant! I still get my breakfast there every day on my way to the bus, because who get beat a fresh sushi roll for just $1? Here’s a picture of the high quality 7-11 meal we had for our first dinner in our apartment:

By finally venturing out in to this new culinary world we have already found many delicious restaurant contenders that may take the honour of becoming our ‘local’. Ramen is a likely winner, we just can’t get enough of that hot, fatty pork broth! We found one ramen place where you order by circling the variations you want from the basic bowl of ramen (ordering card pictured below). As you can see, due to our complete lack of Japanese, ordering ends up as a game of ramen lottery! It’s really fun, unless you like to thoroughly understand the choices on the menu and ensure you order the absolute best meal possible, but I don’t know anyone like that…

Here’s a few pictures from a few local places we’ve tried:

Ahhhh we love ramen!!! 

Tempura and soba noodles from a Japanese 'fast food restaurant'. The line was out the door so as we crept around the restaurant I saw ladies making the soba dough from scratch, putting it through their version of a pasta maker, cooking it and then immediately placing the noodles in people's bowls. Definitely not your typical 'fast food restaurant'!

Hitsumabushi, grilled eel on rice 3 ways. 

First you have it plain (how it looks in the photo).

Second, add the spring onions.

Third, add the raw egg! 

Going out for a multi-course lunch with my English teachers #nothingelsetodoinschoolholidays

Okonomiyaki is a Japanese style, savoury cabbage pancake where you add whatever ingredients you like to it and grill it yourself. Don't forget to smother it in the smoky sauce, sweet Japanese mayo and dried seaweed!

The kawaii (cute) cow is saying "I'm delicious" out the front of a beef noodle restaurant. The Japanese have cute characters for everything, even for promoting restaurants that serve the same animal up on a plate!

In our next post we’ll tell you about what happens at a crazy fire festival and a local fireworks show!

Sarah (and Tom)

Konnichiwa! We arrived safely in Japan early last Sunday morning with the rest of the Aussie JETs (Japanese Exchange Teachers) giving us the whole day to explore Tokyo! This was Tom's first time in Japan so with no itinerary we hit the streets doing whatever took our fancy.

First stop was a coffee shop to get some iced coffee after the long overnight flight. The interaction (or lack there of) we had with the waitress was evidence that we need to learn some Japanese quick smart! Second stop was a sushi restaurant so we could try some real Japanese sushi. Did you know that sushi in Japan isn't like the handrolls we have in Australia? Instead, Japanese nigiri sushi are bite sized, cylindrical shaped balls of rice with an individual piece of sashimi layered on top. To eat it, you should use your fingers or chopsticks to turn the piece of sushi upside down so that the soy sauce only touches the fish and not the rice before putting the whole thing in your mouth! So far this is proving difficult, but we're pushing through these hard times making sure we give ourselves plenty of opportunities to learn this integral new skill, as inelegant as we appear to everyone around us!

We stumbled across a J-Town anime/manga exhibition with one of our Canberra JET friends. There were heaps of displays, games and fun photo opportunities from animes such as Dragon Ball Z, One Piece and Naruto. A few of the photos have been posted below.

Can anybody work out what Tom's doing wrong in the photo above?

Monday and Tuesday were spent in JET conferences all day where we learnt how to be good Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs)! We had networking events on both nights where dinner and alcohol were provided. Unsurprisingly, this degenerated into a group of Aussies, Americans and Jamaicans going out and doing karaoke on both occassions! On the first night we got to meet and hang out with our fellow Gifu JETs (collectively we're known as Geefs). They all seem really cool and we can't wait to spend the next year or 2 going to matsuri (Japanese festivals), exploring our region and hanging out with these guys! We're also all a really good bunch of singers (well, we think we are and that's all that matters) so bring on more karaoke!!

The second night we were invited to the Australian Embassy which had a beautiful garden where we were served drinks and we were lucky enough to meet the Australian Ambassador for Japan, whose name happens to be His Excellency, Bruce! Bruce told us all about how the Embassy will look after us if something goes wrong in Japan (please contact them if you haven't heard from us for a few months), how to be ambassadors for Australia in Japan, and even offered to supply us with Australian paraphernalia kits including Kanga-cup kits!

We've now arrived in Gifu, met our supervisors and principals (all in very limited English and Japanese), moved into our apartment, and are just starting to fend for ourselves (still in a very supported way though). 

Stay tuned because next post we'll put some photos up of our apartment and introduce you to our new home town, Gifu city!  

Sarah and Tom

After 8 months since we first applied to the JET (Japan Exchange Teaching) Program, we found out that not only have we both been accepted, but we’ve also been placed together! In just 2 weeks we will be moving to Gifu City, famous for cormorant fishing, Ayu sweetfish and being the crossroads between East and West Japan. 

Gifu city sounds pretty similar to Canberra. It’s home to 400,000 people, but it’s a quarter of the area size of Canberra. Gifu has 4 distinct seasons like here, but instead of frosty winters we will be having snowy winters! Lastly, and most importantly,  there are plenty of bars and restaurants in Gifu city, including an Aussie bar where I can get my fix of AFL games! 

Gifu is located in the centre of the main island, Honshu. It’s an easy 2-3 hour train ride to Tokyo and Osaka and 1.5 hour drive to the Japanese Alps ski fields. I guess we better learn how to ski...

We will both be working in Senior High Schools (years 10-12). Tom's school is a Technical High School, which sounds relaxed and fun to work at. It's in Ogaki (the city next door) so he'll have to drive to and from work in whatever tiny Japanese car we manage to buy! Luckily in Japan you drive on the left side of the road so Tom can focus on trying to learn how to read the Japanese street signs instead!

I've been placed at a high achieving academic school in Gifu city which looks really new and has beautiful gardens and grounds. I have been told that my English department teachers are obsessed with food and regularly have their lunches delivered from local restaurants. I don’t foresee having any difficulties fitting in! The exact apartment where we’ll be living is still being finalised. The apartment we’re hoping to get has 2 bedrooms, 1 lounge room, a bath room (literally just a bath and a shower hose), a toilet and a laundry. The rooms will have tatami mat flooring and paper thin walls; great for summer, but we may be colder than the contents of our fridge in winter! Once we arrive we’ll make a video of the apartment for you to check out. Tom’s now finished work and I only have 1 week left! Our departure date is looming ever closer and we couldn't be more excited! 12 days to go! Sarah (and Tom)

Tom and Sarah were living in Canberra, Australia before they decided they wanted to live and explore somewhere completely different! They chose Japan, despite the fact that neither of them could speak Japanese or had any idea about the Japanese way of life, customs or etiquette! All they really knew was the limited insight they had gained from playing Nintendo games, watching anime and Hollywood versions of samurai and geisha.

They planned to learn about Japan by living, working and travelling throughout Japan, and they wanted to share their insights and adventures with you along the way!