100th post special: 2011 year in review

Josh and I sat down at a little pub in Osaka, Japan on a cold evening in late December, a few tasty draft Asahi’s were promptly delivered to our cozy booth and we set out to recap on the past year. In doing so we came to a lot of similar conclusions and compiled them into a few lists.

So for our 100th post special here’s our “top 5’s!” ranked in no particular order.

Top 5 cities:

Tokyo, Japan

Da Lat, Vietnam

Busan, South Korea

         Seoul, South Korea

Saigon, Vietnam

Top 5 Songs:

“Midnight City” by M83

“Baby Missles” by War on Drugs

“Nightcall” by Kavinsky & Lovefoxx

“Mouthfull of Diamonds” by Phantogram

“Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (okay, this is not from 2011, but we both discovered this song this year and it’s been a large part of our memories, so it had to make the list anyway)

Top 5 influential ingredients:

beets

cabbage

roasted bell peppers

vinegar

cheese-its (yes, cheese-its)

Top 5 leisure activities:

Frisbee

Chess

Rook

Walking/hiking

Travel

Top 5 places in Seoul:

Family Mart patios

Namsan

Han river

HBC/Gyungridan

Hongdae

Top 5 restaurants in Seoul:

Chili King

Zelen

Bao

Chuncheon Dakglabi

Gyungridan gogi jib

Top 5 movies:

Midnight in Paris

Meloncholia

Hanna

Drive

Limitless

Top 5 things to cook at home:

French style omelettes

Dakgalbi

Borscht (or any Russian soup)

Burrittos

Marinara sauce

Top 5 events:

Nate and Irina’s wedding at Ruf’s

Chuncheon vacation with Ryan and Ida

Soju and Seafood tent in Busan

Thanksgiving dinner party at Dan’s

Duy Viet’s house in Da Lat, Vietnam

Top 5 guilty pleasures:

Imported mac n cheese

Not tipping

Pop music (josh)

Facebook (Nicole)

Taxis… lots of taxis

2011 was a year of great change and adventure for us, setting the stage for another exciting year of being alive. With that being said here’s another list:

Things we’re looking forward to in 2012:

Future travels in SE Asia and Europe

Quitting smoking

Developing our hobbies (end of 2011 bonus sub list! Cooking, gardening, language learning, sustainable living, photography, etc)

Seeing family and friends, from Sarah’s wedding in the NE to reconnecting with loved ones in the NW.

Making our home

Happy new year and much love to all, from Josh and Nicole

Please share your top 5 list(s) with us….

Kyoto: temples and knives

Kyoto is a beautiful city, rich with history, and that is quite visible. We took the thirty minute train from Osaka main station to Kyoto. The sky was gray, a contrast to the warm colored trees that covered the mountians in the distance. Fall came late for this region, I guess! 

We walked through a humble neighborhood south of the busy train station to the area of the Toji temple, a famous Japanese landmark. The grounds surrounding the temple were still vibrant with fall colors and the sun broke through the gray clouds dramatically illuminating the buildings.

We wandered around and finally made our way north a ways to a central area busy with rush-hour pedestrian traffic. We found an area of town called Nishiki, with a food market and lots of restaurants. What a sight! It was busy and vendors were yelling out to lure customers in. 

Eventually we found what we were looking for. Aritsugu, the famous knife shop that Josh found after doing weeks of research. When we first decided to move to Korea we were, of course, filled with so much excitement, and often talked about some of the things we looked forward to most. A trip to Japan was high on that list, and most of all we wanted to buy a culinary knife in Kyoto, where they are famous for making quality, handmade kitchen tools. We found this busy store, famous for making their knives by hand there at the little shop. It was not easy at first to get help, for they were busy, and we clearly don't look Japanese. The language barrier was tough at first, but Josh had done his research and knew enough to get us to the the kind of knifes that we were seeking. A sweet young lady finally helped us out, and with her sweet english skills we were able to narrow our selection down, finally deciding on a carbon steel knife with beautiful engravings and a beautiful handle. They offered free engraving on the opposite side with whatever we chose... the knife is now named Ryuk.

Japanese food

Eating is Japan was an adventure in and of itself. Each time we opened the door to a restaurant it was like opening a portal into a an unknown world! We never knew what they served or if they would allow us to stay or how much it would be. But we conquered each level and stayed well fed with sushi, ramen, gyoza, tempura, fish, udon, stir fries, and even some garlic toast for one breakfast. We've had hot sake and cold beer, sweet rice wine and tasty matcha tea. We share all our meals and eat light so that we can eat often, being as food is such a central part of our desire to travel, and a great way to try to understand a culture. 

One of our sushi experiences was at this big open restaurants with small plates of fresh fish circling on a conveyer belt. When we walked in the restaurant everyone yelled and cheered, which caught us off guard, but we learned is somewhat common in restaurants. They shout their hello's and welcoming hoots and hollers for all to hear! 

In Kyoto we found a quant little spot serving up chinese/japanese fusion food, so we had some yummy chinese noodles with and tempura on the side, with several Kirin beers to wash it down.

Udon. Yum yum yum. Osaka had the best udon by far. We were looking for it for the whole trip, and finally found a serious hole-in-the wall spot, late in the evening, with bad lighting and a sweet old woman serving up the local construction workers. Score. 

In Tokyo we descended a long flight of stairs into a cozy spot that served up soups and stir fry, we got some pork belly/tofu soup with lots of veggies and hot mustard, as well as a stir fry with egg and some mystery vegetable that we could not figure out, but it was bitter and the taste grew on us.

 When we saw the kebab stand it was a no-brainer. This kebab was good, like all the other kebabs in the world! We chatted it up with this guy from Bangladesh as he prepared our spicy doner kebab, and after we had finished Josh and commented on how we see these kebab slingers as syndicate of brothers doing their good food business across the globe all the while talking to each other on their blue tooth headsets. They are in every city, haven't you noticed? And I love it....

pretty coffee:

After our long walk from Shinjuku to Shibuyu we were tired and hungry and myriad of options almost made it more difficult to decide where to eat. Finally we decided on a spot with lots of photos on the menu outside, making it easy to order. What a good choice it was! After shedding our shoes at the front door we were seated at a big booth in a dark corner of the restaurant, where we posted up for hours eating small courses of sushi, dumplings, soup, and tempura.

Our hotel in Tokyo was in Asakusa, and next door was this restaurant that we eyed each day, guided by our noses, for the smell was overwhelming! We finally braved up and entered the curtained door on our final day in Tokyo, to find a lovely staff serving up small fish, called doezu nabe, cooked in a thin iron pan over coals and topped with green onions. It was a strange small fish served in all it's entirety, body, tail, bones, and head. We ate it all!

We found this cafe/restaurant in the Shibuyu area on our last day in Tokyo. It had so much charm and was a beacon of light for us! We were cold and our feet were tired, we needed a place to chill for a while and relax, and this spot was perfect! It was empty, they were playing old jazz and blues, it was warm, the beer was cold, and the seats were comfy!

These are just a few of the great meals we had. Japanese cuisine is certainly to our liking!