I come across a lot of odd signs in Japan. Some are just down right funny, some just don’t make sense and I guess some are just a bit creepy.

Found at Koganei Koen, Tokyo

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Maybe I’m just used to the more familiar signs you see in parks like, “Beware of Pickpockets” or “Pick up your dog’s poop” that I find the  sign above a bit creepy. The sign above says, “Beware of Perverts”.

Something I will definitely take in mind.

Today marks my 2nd year of living in Japan. And to commemorate, I have decided to write some of my own odd experiences of living in this rather crazy country.

While living in Japan may not always be pleasant, I assure you that  it is always interesting.

Case in point 1: The Square Watermelon

The picture above was taken in Koriyama-shi, Fukushima, Japan

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I actually thought that square watermelons were just an urban legend until I stumbled upon one in a rather popular supermarket in Koriyama-shi. They do exist.

So okay, square watermelons, great – but I mean, WHY?  Seriously. With Japan’s food self-sufficiency problems and all the extra effort needed to create, must I dare say, a freak of nature, why square watermelons?

Doing a bit of research, I found out that square watermelons do have a purpose and are not just for eye candy.

Given Japan’s limited space (for everything), a farmer in Zentsuji came up with the idea of a cube-shaped watermelon for easier packing and storage. Ingenious!

That makes sense but is all  the trouble worth it when you  can just cut it all up and put it in a container or the easier way, just eat it all up in one sitting?

Is the square watermelon also worth dumb-founding a well known fact, taught as a kindergarten that a watermelon is supposed to be round?

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Square watermelons, so are they worth it? At around 10,000 yen (approx $100) a piece, I’d still like mine round.

This beautiful piece of work may have been already taken down and there may already be about a billion pictures of this amazing robot in the net but I’m still uploading mine

To all those who have seen it, this moving, life-sized Gundam replica was truly an amazing sight!

(And from the looks of it, it seems like the world-wide recession means nothing to the Japanese. The RX-78 Gundam spits on recession’s face!)

Went to catch the Terminator Exhibit being held at the  National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation/ Miraikan in Odaiba, Tokyo last Saturday. In conjunction with the Terminator Salvation release and I suppose as a celebration to the fragile bond between Man and Machine, an exhibition of the robots, artworks and actual costumes used in the Terminator movies and series are being displayed until June 28.

I was expecting more props and robots to be showcased but nonetheless, the exhibit was still interesting and the robots and production tidbits were enlightening. It was a cool experience to see the actual robots and artworks used in some of the most unforgettable movies of all time. I’ll be back.

Terminator Exhibition – Battle or Coexistence?

Appearance: The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Terminator Salvation

“Death rendered in steel” as James Cameron would put it. The T-800 is designed to look and act like human. Made of a yet undiscovered, ultrastrong alloy, the T-800 likes to wear dark glasses and has a knack for spilling unforgettable, comical one-liners.

Appearance: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

The T-X appeared in the what I think is the worst Terminator movie in the pack. A combination of the skeletal T-800 and the mighty morphing T-1000, this Terminator is the first to bring future weapons back to the present. T-X portrayed by Kristanna Loken is also the hottest Terminator to date.

Appearance: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Named after  Terminator’s creator, James Cameron, Cameron Phillips/TOK715 is the Terminator sent to protect John and Sarah around 1999. The TO715 is disguised as a beautiful, petite, teenage infiltrator.

Appearance: Terminator3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Salvation

The T-1 is an autonomous military robot with a rather anthropomorphic head, sensor eyes, gatling guns for arms, a torso that swivels like a human and caterpillar tracks for legs.

Appearance: Terminator Salvation

Hydrobots are serpentine aquatic units that move in swarms and patrol the waters.

Appearance: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Terminator Salvation

The sinister-looking T-600 units are covered in a sheet of rubber skin meant for espionage and infiltration purposes. The T-600′s are superseded by the newer and more advanced T-800s.

Appearance: Terminator Salvation

Moto-Terminators  are high-speed pursuit units using motorcycle chassis. In the Terminator Salvation scene where John Conner reprograms a Moto-Terminator for use, I just can’t help but think of Batman’s Batpod and wait for Christian Bale to spill his line: “I’m Batman.”

By the way, In the movie John Conner also uses a Vaio UX Micro PC.

Other highlights of the exhibit were the Actroid DER3 and a creepy, almost real-looking moving arm. The Actroid DER3 is a humanoid robot with strong visual human-likeness developed by Osaka University and manufactured by Kokoro Company, Ltd. The Actroid DER3 can move and talk – like, whoa!

Isn’t this robotic arm just amazingly creepy!

More pictures can be seen here.

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I took this picture early April when the wind was still chilly and spring was just about on its way to start. I was taking the daily route from my apartment to my office when I found these beauties growing between the cracks of a concrete wall. It was a cold, cold morning. I had woken up on the wrong side of the bed… or should I say futon and I was practically grumbling about everything there is to life. I was taken aback when I saw these flowers. It must have been hard for these flowers to survive given their harsh environment but they are alive and they are beautiful nonetheless. Their grey, solid and rough background makes them stand out more. How is that for beauty amidst adversity!  I went to my office with a lighter heart and a spring to my step. Didn’t know flowers could have that effect on me but I’m glad I was inspired

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Just when I thought I’ve heard it all, I read this:

OMG, this is way too far out!  This beats any Filipino telenovela I know

Fact is indeed stranger than fiction.

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Much to the everyone’s horror, a lot of gasps and oh so many oh-my-god-what- the-f–k-really?!-reactions – yes, I have eaten dog meat. PETA would now surely condemn me to hell. The dog above was not the one I ate though. I met that Siberian Husky at the Inokashira Park on my way to a Russian restaurant. You can now all heave your sighs of relief and continue reading if you have the guts.

I grew up in city where dog meat is a delicacy. Drinking sprees with dog dishes on the side was the norm. You can sometimes even find people roasting dogs on street corners.  I tell you, it is a very unnerving sight and surely not for the faint-hearted.

I am now currently living in Japan, a country where it is not so uncommon to find people who would rather have dogs than have children. Whenever local delicacies are being discussed and whenever I’m asked what’s the most exotic food I’ve ever tasted, I tell tell them I’ve eaten dog meat. I often illicit a couple of barfing sounds and whoever I’m talking to turns green. It blows their mind away. To them, it’s just like eating one of their own children.

To those who would like to know how it tasted like – no, it didn’t taste like chicken. It’s closer to goat meat with ten times the stench. To those who haven’t tried goat meat yet, rancid beef is the closest thing you get. Also, after eating dog meat, dogs would either become so terrified of you or so insanely mad that they could very well chase you to your death. Why people still eat it is beyond me.

But the truth is I actually love dogs. Love as in real love and not love as in love-to eat-them. During highschool, I didn’t have much friends and my best friend was my pet dog. I was just tricked by my sisters into eating dog meat, saying it was just goat The memory still haunts me and brings me to tears. Again it becomes one of things you charge to experience and say you’ve been there and done that. However, this is one of those experiences I’m never, ever, EVER going to repeat.

I already told my Japanese boyfriend that I have tasted dog meat and it’s always amusing to see his horrified face whenever we see a cute dog and I say 美味しそう (that looks delicious) I may let him try the meat when he gets to visit my home town. I hope he doesn’t cry

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Went to meet with my Jap class friends to check out a new Russian restaturant Mayuko-san,our Jap class teacher, found in Kichijouji. Since we all loved Russian food the first time we tasted it in Smetana in Kunitachi, we headed to Kichijouji to sample more of this exciting cuisine. The theme from 007 From Russia with Love can’t stop playing inside my head

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The restaurant’s name was Cafe Russia. The name screams of its ethnicity so you won’t be able to miss it’s Russian The restaurant is actually Russian-Georgian but being the uncultured me, I wouldn’t have known the difference The restaurant is just a 5-minute walk from the Kichijouji station so catching the last train going home would not be a problem.

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The restaurant has a relaxing cozy pink interior. Marina-san (the owner, I think) came all the way from Moscow and it was very amusing to listen to our friend Nas-chan speak her native tongue to place our orders It pays to  have a Russian friend who can choose everything to be ordered since we have absolutely  no idea what should taste good Love you, Nas-chan

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Nas-chan ordered the Russian soup borsch/борщ which is a red vegetable soup made from beets, cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots and onions topped with smetana/сметана or sour cream cheese. This soup, served hot is sweet, sour and salty (♪ nanonano… ♪). The sour cream cheese makes it perfect. It is by far one of the best soups I’ve tasted in my life. I loved it

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Our appetizers were mushroom pickles whose name I forgot and can’t somehow search in the internet and Ajapsandali, Georgia’s version of the Ratatouille . This is by far the best ratatouille I’ve ever tasted. The combination of eggplants, bell peppers, tomatoes and seasoning was perfect. We ate these with Georgian rye bread and Pirozhki/пирожки, baked buns filled with meat or vegetables.  Pirozhki is not far from the Empanada

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Other stuff we ordered were beef stroganoff (about the “safest” one we ordered ),  Suluguni (I’m not sure about this name though ) – baked tomato topped with a thick layer of cheese and Russian Kebab which according to Nas-chan is called Comlula. All of these we downed with Georgian sparkling wine and that despite of already having poor results in my liver exam I can’t help but get more refills because they were just so damn sublime

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We ended our meal with Russian apple cake and Russian tea with rose  jam. The jam was to be put into the tea to act as its sweetener. It was my first time to taste rose jam or any jam from a flower for that matter. I didn’t know flower jams actually existed. I never thought rose petals could taste that delicious either. I’ve tasted my mother’s roses when I was a kid and don’t remember them as pleasant I liked the rose jam so much that I bought a whole jar for myself to enjoy during my tea time

It was a great night spent with great friends. I would definitely go back to try more of their dishes. Perhaps I’ll muster enough guts next time to sample their scorpion vodka which has a real scorpion being fermented in it’s bottle. The scorpion could be eaten if requested. Now, that would be a some experience

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Cafe Russia details:

Location: B1 Building Nine 1-4-10 Kichijouji Honmachi, Musashino City, Tokyo

〒180-0004 東京都武蔵野市吉祥寺本町1-4-10 ナインビルB1

Tel No: 0422-23-3200

Business Hours: 11:30 am – 12 mn

Average Budget: 3000円

Reservation: Recommended (it was crowded when we got there)

Map and access can be viewed here.

Happy eating

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