Some Japan Favorites

 So these dumplings are called "gyoza".  I LOVE these things.  Everywhere we go I order them for an appetizer for us.  My husband actually likes them too which is always a surprise because he isn't big on trying new things.  My 1 year old really loves them too but that isn't saying much as he'll eat just about anything.  They have a cabbage, onion, minced or ground pork filling and are just awesome dipped in a bit of soy sauce.  Many stores you can walk buy and actually see them hand making these dumplings inside.  Did I mention that I think soy sauce here in Japan is about 100 times better than the states, not sure why that is.  Maybe it is just my imagination. 

Another thing that you can get just about everywhere here is ramen.  There are so many different types I don't even know where to begin.  Especially since I'm a ramen beginner.  I've tried ramen quite a few times in the two months I've been here and find that almost all of it is really good.  My daughter who won't eat anything will even eat ramen now.  One of these days I'll learn the differences between all these ramen dishes but right now I'm just enjoying them.  The big green thing in it is a sheet of seaweed. 


This is chop suey.  I wasn't sure about it because it had a bunch of misc. seafood pieces in it that I still cannot tell you what it was I ate exactly and you can choose between crunchy or soft noodles and I got crunchy because this was my first time eating it and I didn't really know what I was ordering anyways.  I was really surprised at how good this was.  I won't say it was a favorite or anything but just something I tried, and enjoyed and remembered to take a picture of. 

The picture below is a picture of a Japanese oven.  They have basically two stovetop burners and a pull out thing to cook fish in.  They don't actually have an oven like we are use to.  I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I had to use one of these and couldn't really bake like I'm use to. 

I find that the more I get out into town and do things the more comfortable I am with it.  It is amazing at how many people speak English or at least can speak English so much better than I can Japanese.  We went to a store recently that is much like the Home Depot in the states except it is two stories high and has a furniture store on the top part.  It also had a McDonald's in the store.  So we figured we'd get the kids some lunch while we were there shopping.   It is McDonald's so how hard can it be to order, right?  Well everyone's order turned out fine except mine.  It seems anytime I attempt to communicate things myself things go wrong but I find it amusing and just figure I'll try again next time to get it right.  They have a Teriyaki Burger at the McDonald's here.  It looked really tasty.   So I attempted to order the Teriyaki Burger with no mayonnaise or lettuce and ended up with just a plain burger with absolutely no sauce whatsoever.  Oops, better luck next time!