Pet Shop of Surprises

I can't resist a good pet shop.

In general pet shops in Japan and America are the same. They have you usual puppies and kitties and insanely high prices. I have not actually found a breeder here yet or anyone selling animals in general. It seems like once you buy it, you are stuck with it...even if you don't want it. I think that might be one of the more interesting things to me. When I first got here I searched up and down for a bird or dog that someone was selling (getting rid of) and needed a new home. However they were not to be found. Japanese people either really love their pets or they just don't give up. It is a touch inspiring.
But back to the pet stores! You can find pretty much the same things as an American store with a few exepctions. Those exceptions being meerkats, owls, and monkeys. But yup! Pretty similar.
I must admit, when I first saw the meerkat I thought to myself what an oddly restless and unbeautiful dog. It was no dog. It was right next to the dogs. And in a dogs kennel. And evidently people buy them and want to have them, as in three weeks time it was sold. The monkeys are small I-fit-inside-your-hat type of monkeys. And are adorable and a bit reserved. For whatever reason I did not find it incredibly odd they were there. Well, I mean they were no longer odd after I found the meerkat. Lastly, when visiting and playing with the birds as I always do, I came upon a very large barn owl cooped up in a darkened cage that really seemed way too small for it. Now this was surprising. I thought you had to have licenses or something to own one? Perhaps you still do and need to present it upon purchase. The owl was beautiful and it seemed to have been there a while as it was immune to all the noise and hubbub that filtered in from the busy street. It could be that pet owls became a popular item after the Harry Potter movies. I can't say.
In addition to the few featured unusual pets, the pet stores differ in that they are exceedingly expensive. A Shiba Inu dog can set you back nearly 200000yen. The older they get the cheaper they are as people prefer them to be very young at the time of purchase. And thus you can buy one for 98000 or so yen. Other dogs are less in demand or perhaps they are just in surplus and are typically cheaper, but not by much. I actually did not look at how much it would be to own an owl or a meerkat. But I promise to do so upon my next visit.

Say Cheese!

There is a remarkably popular invention called the "purikura". Otherwise known as the Print Club (puri meaning print and kura meaning club, thus print club).

In America, I always saw these as a charming little addition to any T.V. drama special. Don't know what I mean? Just look at a good lot of the girly dramas, particularly the older ones when the fad was more popular, but even new one such as Pretty Little Liars (no, I don't watch this) feature the overused cliches of photo booths. This fascination with photo booths is primarily focused in bigger cities such as New York and Los Angeles, as they are bigger cultural melting pots with a much more hip type of crowd. They are also of course found in Asia. All over it in fact. But mostly in the idol and photography obsessed areas of Korea and Japan.
Now being an actual living being that is not on a T.V. set, I never actually saw one of these things in America. I am going out on a limb assuming they can be found in popular city centers.
I was first introduced to it in Korea. Where they have little shops devoted to it. And I do mean little, I think my neighbor has a bigger walk-in closet than these shops. In it I found the stickers of happy smiling patrons all around, counters, ceilings, windows, booths. That's right. These pics are more than meets the eye, they can be stickers too. Being new to this whole experience, I don't actually recall much of my first experience. Just that I have the itty bitty smiling faces on photo film as proof of it. It was rather overwhelming. Smile! Pose! Snap! Next! Snap! Snap! Snap!
The boom of these purikura photos hit its peak about 10 years back. Wherein you would have to stand in line to take your pictures. For this reason the machine developers instated time limits when selecting features in order to meet their supply and demand and of course make money. In some areas you can still find a line outside these booths on a tipsy summer night with some girl friends in the city.  But for the most part the fad has faded a bit. This does not prevent my students from having their textbooks covered in the little stickers.

The booth exterior, the booth interior, and the outcome ( after fun-time in the editing room of course).

ラーメン: Not your usual Cup of Noodles

One of the things I think is most interesting between America and Japan is the concept of ramen.

First let me give you a bit of history. Ramen was originally a Chinese dish. That is why when you see the word ramen in Japan it is almost always in katakana characters; katakana are used expressly when a thing or name is borrowed from a different culture (hence foreigner names are almost always in katakana). Long ago, Japanese people discovered this dish and loved so much they adopted it into their culture and then proceeded to modify it to make their own original style.

Today there are a great many ramen shops. Where I live there are 3 within walking distance, and I live in no popular area. In Kyoto there is a complete ramen district where many people flock to try many different original flavorings of the local ramen shops. All in competition with one another, they strive hard to make their own dish unique and original in order to gain a following. This is also a popular place to study the art or ramen culture and production.

From the Kyoto ramen shops. Pork fat ramen. It comes in different sizes.

But these are places where the majority of customers are men. It is a cultural thing where women just aren't seen too often here, especially if they have any social standing. For whatever the reason women do not frequent this place, especially not alone; it seems to be more acceptable if they enter in a pack or when accompanied by a man. Speaking of this, there are several 'men's places' that I have come to discover, including: pachinko slots, ramen shops, and arcades. It is also my own personal theory that men frequent karaoke joints more than women too.

There are many different types of ramen. It seems to me that every prefecture has their own special recipe for it. The differences mostly consist of the broth, whether it is soy, miso, pork bone or salt, but there are also a lot of different 'dressings' if you will; there are different vegetables, as well as meats that adorn the ramen. Personally I a fan of both pork bone and miso ramen.
The birth of miso ramen is an interesting one. I read recently that miso ramen was created up near Sapporo Hokkaido and was discovered when some Japanese business men from down south were in a restaurant and the owner saw them dipping their noodles into the miso soup before they ate them. Upon seeing this the restaurant owner decided to experiment with miso soup as a broth for ramen.

A more affluent ramen shop located in Esaka and their delicious pork bone ramen

Wakayama soy based ramen from a wonderful hole in the wall ramen shop.

In addition to the difference of ramen culture, there is also a difference in instant ramen culture as well. The ever familiar and popular cuisine of many college students, might not quite be the same as your favorite brand from across the pond. During my time here, I have not seen a single familiar brand of instant ramen  that I favorited back in America (though I am pretty sure Cup Noodle is here, I just haven't seen it yet since others are more popular).

In addition to the pop culture dish, there is also a dedicated museum