Katsu Burger

I mentioned in a previous post about the spectrum of fast food burger joints.  Let's change continents for a second, go to Japan and talk about MOS Burger.  When I lived in Japan, MOS Burger was my favorite fast food restaurant.  It was fast, fresh and always delicious.  Granted, the name MOS didn't lend itself well to selling an image of a tasty burger.  But when talking to a Japanese friend about my love for MOS Burger, she asked me if I knew what "MOS" stood for. I did not know and had no clue that there was meaning behind the name.  

Go to the MOS Burger website, it describes the origins of the MOS Burger name:  The "M" in MOS stands for Mountain, O stands for Ocean and S stands for Sun.  "MOS" - Mountain, Ocean and Sun.  However, my friend mentioned two other things about MOS Burger that left an impression on me and on why I like them so much:

1. MOS is a contraction for "Most Delicious Burger".  Delicious?  Oh hell yeah.  
2. MOS tastes so good is because of the sauce.  The sauce? you ask.  Let me explain.

In Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi describes the Force as an energy field that surrounds us and binds us together.  The Sauce in a MOS Burger, like the Force, surrounds the burger will flavor and binds all of the ingredients together into a well rounded and tasty package.  

Spicy MOS Cheeseburger (image courtesy of MOS Food Services, Inc.)

Look at the Spicy MOS Cheeseburger as an example:  bun, tomato, meat sauce, jalapenos, onions, cheese, meat, mayo, mustard and bun.  When you bite into a Spicy MOS Cheeseburger, the first taste that hits you is the meat sauce, followed by the rest of the burger. It doesn't overpower the burger but just makes it all the more flavorful. There's a huge dollop of it in the burger and adds so much.  It is an elegant burger, for a more civilized customer.  Yes, I'm using Star Wars to make a point about a burger. Deal with it.

"an eclectic combination of Japanese comfort food mixed in with some Hawaiian swagger and American burger goodness"

I mention this because my experience at Katsu Burger was very similar: of all of the ingredients that make up a Katsu Burger, it's really the sauce that left an impression on me that elevates the burger from fast food staple to fully realized gourmet burger.  Is it better than Lunchbox Laboratory?  Is it a MOS Burger replacement?  Let's find out:

Katsu Burger.  Hard to find, harder to forget.

Step up to the counter to order.  Simple, straightforward menu. And ... ohhh! Pocky!

Located in South Seattle, in the Georgetown District, Katsu Burger is located in a remote part of town that's somewhat difficult to find.  But once you find it, you'll pretty much know where to go and where to turn.  It's a small restaurant, with seating for about 20 people and when I arrived, it was about half full.  The menu is an eclectic combination of Japanese comfort food mixed in with some Hawaiian swagger and American burger goodness. While there was a good selection of burgers to choose from (from the Tokyo Classic (deep fried beef patty with Japanese mayo and tonkatsu sauce) to the Teriyaki Chicken (deep fried chicken with pineapple, Japanese mayo and teriyaki sauce), I decided to get the following:

• Samurai Select (beef patty breaded in panko (Japanese bread crumbs) deep fried, with bacon, pineapple, wasabi mayo and tonkatsu sauce)
• an order of nori french fries (fries seasoned with aonori(bits of green seaweed)) with wasabi dipping sauce
• cole slaw mixed with wasabi. 

Samurai Select with Nori French Fries w/ wasabi dipping sauce.  And wasabi cole slaw.

It took about 8 minutes for my order to arrive but when it did, I was overwhelmed.  First off, all of the burgers are huge.  My Samurai Select was stacked high with cabbage, onions, sauce, the aforementioned breaded and deep fried beef patty with pineapple and bacon; it had all of the makings of a gourmet burger that rivals the gourmet goodness found at Lunchbox Laboratory.

I think I'm going to cry ... beef patty, breaded in panko and deep fried. Topped with cabbage and tonkatsu sauce

I was trying to get my hands around the burger but gave up.  It was just too big so I used a knife and fork.  You can tell how juicy the burger was by just cutting into the deep fried beef patty. And then I took a bite. The beef patty was tender, juicy and flavorful.  The cabbage, pineapple and bacon added a nice spin to the typical burger taste.  But, similar to my experience in biting into a MOS Burger, it was the tonkatsu sauce that blended all of these uniquely different tastes together. It was like biting into everything that you love about Japanese food while biting into everything great about a local greasy spoon, all-American restaurant, all at the same time.  I unfortunately didn't taste much of the wasabi mayo, which was a bit of a disappointment but the combination of tonkatsu sauce with the burger and condiments made it a great burger tasting experience.  I wouldn't say it was better than Lunchbox Laboratory but good enough to stand on its own as something different but still delicious.  I can go to either restaurant and be happy.

Nori french fries with wasabi dipping sauce.  They also had other dipping sauces, including curry mayo, miso honey mustard and spicy mayo.  Need to come back and try the other flavors

The fries were served hot out of the fryer with little flecks of green seaweed that added a nice sea-salty taste to the crispy shoestring cut fries. The kicker here is the wasabi dipping sauce. Just like the tonkatsu sauce elevating the Samurai Select burger into new level of burger goodness, the dipping sauces add just enough jazz to the already jazzed french fries to add a new spin to a familiar taste:  mayonnaise mixed with the right amount of wasabi to give it the sweet, spicy taste you will definitely love.  

Wasabi Cole Slaw.  Mix well before eating.

Before digging into the cole slaw, our server told me to mix up the cole slaw since the wasabi mix tended to settle at the bottom of the cole slaw.  Glad she told me about it since there was a lot of wasabi kick to the creamy cole slaw taste.

Two great tastes that go great together. Note the pineapple and bacon in the burger.  Ok, I'm hungry.

Katsu Burger is simply great.  While the restaurant itself may lack the shine and polish of Lunchbox Laboratory (it looks more like a teriyaki place), don't make the mistake in thinking the restaurant setting reflects the quality of the food.  Hardly.  Using the sauce to bind all of the different flavors together, Katsu Burger is a fine dining experience and highly recommended. MOS Burger will still have a special place in my heart for Japanese fast comfort food but if I'm not in Japan, Katsu Burger is the next best thing.  Come for the burgers, stay for the sauce.

Katsu Burger

6538 4th Ave. S (at E. Marginal Way S)

Seattle, WA 98108

206-762-0752

http://katsuburger.com

Training

Context:  this is a continuation of the "Interview Experience" post, where I chronicled my initial interview with Northwest Airlines.  A week has passed since the follow up interview and I was offered a job as a flight attendant.  I accepted, thinking that I would enjoy the opportunity of flying around the world while helping customers and then quit within a year or two.  This post talks about training and classmates.

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SAN-MSP

Flying time from San Diego International Airport to Minneapolis-St. Paul is roughly 4 hours. This was my first time riding a plane as an employee of Northwest Airlines.  It was a free ride and although I didn't have to pay, I had to dress up in a suit and tie with dress shoes since as a representatives of the airline, we had to look first class, even if we end up seated in coach.  I was able to grab the last empty seat.

"Luckily, I didn't spill any hot coffee on my passengers."

Upon arriving at MSP, I quickly gather my suitcase and head towards the taxi bay.  The directions I got in my letter from Northwest direct me to go to the Oaktree Apartments in the city of Edina, about 20 minutes away from the airport.  As I'm standing in line for a taxi, a young woman behind me asks if I'm headed to the Oaktree Apartments.  She's about my age, maybe older, Asian and also wearing a smart looking business suit.  I say yes and ask if she's a new hire for Northwest.  She smiles and says yes and introduces herself. Her name is Olivia.  She says that she remembered seeing me get on the plane last and thought that I was a new hire.  We share a taxi to the Oaktree Apartments.

On our way to the apartment complex, Olivia tells me a little bit about herself.  She's originally from San Francisco but currently lives near San Diego with her husband John.  John is a famous hockey player and plays for a team that I've never heard of but I nod my head anyway. He travels a lot and so when Olivia heard about the flight attendant position, she thought it would be a good way for her to travel with him when he was working.

I ask her if she had to talk about her best customer story at the interview and she said yes.  Olivia's parents are both Chinese but she was born and raised in San Francisco and so she only remembers speaking Chinese when growing up.  When I ask her if she's able to speak fluent Mandarin, she says that she's able to get her point across but I think she was just being modest.  For her best customer story, she talked about how, as Ms. Chinatown, she had to work on various public activities, from senior citizen groups to schools and radio and television performances and had to treat each group with respect and understanding, just as if they were her best customers.  I pretty much lost all concentration when she mentioned, almost offhandedly, that she was Ms. Chinatown.  My initial thought was "Wow, I'm in the same taxi with Ms. Chinatown.  That's like being with Ms. Universe!".  But, I listened to the challenges she faced as an ambassador to the city of San Francisco with both admiration and respect.  In hindsight, she seemed almost too overqualified to be a flight attendant.

The taxi enters a nice suburban area of Minneapolis and to me, Edina looked like a nice place to live.  The Oaktree Apartments seemed like any other apartment complex; a well appointed office that looked more like a hotel lobby was in front of us when the taxi dropped us off.  Olivia and I both went in and was given keys to our respective apartments.  When I got to my apartment, two other guys were already there.  Richard Hashimoto, a Japanese American dude from LA, was watching TV when I entered and he greeted with a firm handshake.  Mike Lee, a Korean guy who was in the kitchen also shook my hand and greeted me as well.  The apartment had two bedrooms, with two beds in each. Since Northwest Airlines firmly believes in the seniority system, Richard was the oldest (he was 25) so got a room for himself while Mike (24) and myself (21) shared the second bedroom.  Richard used to work at a supermarket while Mike used to work at an insurance company.  Both seem very easy going and after a couple of hours of talking with them, I know right off the bat that we were going to be fast friends. Down the hall from our room was Harry, a funny Chinese guy who wore glasses and had a very wanting-to-please attitude towards everything.  And, there was Steve the Mormon who spoke fluent Korean because he had done two missions in Seoul.  He was very popular with all of the girls.

Training went something like this:

• 3 weeks of safety training, focusing on learning all of the safety features of each airplane Northwest has in service.
• 3 weeks of service training, focusing on proper serving techniques, from first class all the way down to coach.  You also get to learn how to make yourself presentable.
• Everyday, you take a quiz and at the end of each week, there is a final examination.  If you fail a final exam, you get kicked out.

Safety Training
During the first three weeks, we learned about safety techniques.  What to do on a wheels up landing (you do not deploy the overwing slides since it will deploy right into the adjacent slide), learn how to use all of the safety equipment (from fire extinguishes, CPR equipment, life vests to safety masks), and commands.  The commands I remember are "Come this way, move quickly, leave everything" and "Run, Jump, Help At The Bottom".  I'm sure that the commands have changed over the years but I still remember them.  At the end of each week, there was a final exam that everyone had to take.  For some folks, they were able to soak up every single safety detail and recall everything in an instant.  For others, like myself, I had to read, re-read and then try to remember everything.  I very much admired my roommate Mike who was able to learn everything once and felt that there was no need for study. Everyone was very smart and very motivated so almost everyone passed the test, including myself.  By the end of the third week, only a couple of trainees left the training program, either because they didn't pass the test or felt that being a flight attendant wasn't right for them. For me, I was having the time of my life.  

Like high school, cliques are created within our class and for me, I usually stayed with my small inner circle of friends.  With Richard, Mike, Olivia, and funny guy Harry, the time spent practicing our safety routines, learning the proper uses of the safety equipment and standard operation procedure on all airplane types made it worthwhile.  After training, we would get together and have dinners together, hang out, walk to the supermarket and just talk about all of the things that we left behind and all of things that were looking forward to doing.  I would often invite Steve the Mormon to join us but he would always politely refuse, often letting us know that he had other plans.  Harry would tell us that Steve was going out with a girl from another class.  I always found it interesting how Harry was able to get that kind of information, as if he was some kind of reporter, searching for juicy gossip.  Graduation was still three weeks away and none of us knew which base we would be assigned but we were all motivated to work hard, pass our exams but also have a good time.

Service Training

The last three weeks was focused on proper serving techniques.  I got to learn how to pour wine (the key is to twist the bottle when you're done pouring) as well learning how to pronounce Cabernet Sauvignon (red wine, often served with red meat) to chardonnay (white wine, often served with chicken and light meats).  I learned how to "drizzle" salad dressing instead of pour, the quickest way to serve three carbonated drinks at once (and it's true, Diet Coke is the slowest drink to serve since it takes for time for it to settle) and making sure that the food is served in a presentable fashion.  Speaking of presentable fashion, we were fitted for our uniform and taught grooming skills so that always looked first class (always clean shaven, hair properly combed and moussed, nails trimmed neatly).  We were also instructed on how not to step on people's hands when walking through the aisles.  It almost felt like being a fashion model.

After six weeks, everything that you learned from training culminates to a buddy ride, on-the-job training where you get to fly on a real airplane and serve real customers.  My training flight was LGA-DTW (LaGuardia International Airport, New York to Detroit, Michigan) with a flying time of 1 hour and 45 minutes, just enough time for a drink service.  Richard told me afterwards that on his training flight, he was pouring coffee over the passenger's lap (which is a no-no) and just when the airplane hit a pocket of turbulence, the coffee swirled in and out of his cup and into the passenger's lap.  The passenger didn't get angry and took it all in stride.  Richard, on the other hand, was freaked out and apologized a number of times to the passenger.  Luckily, I didn't spill any hot coffee on my passengers.  On the flight back, we had extra peanuts so I gave each of my passenger two bags of peanuts.  I don't think they even noticed.

Graduation

When we finally reached the end of our six week training session, we were all happy to be graduating.  While the six weeks seemed to have flown by so quickly, it felt almost like a lifetime of creating new friends, building rock solid friendships while studying together with the shared goal of being a good flight attendant.  At the graduation ceremony, I hugged Olivia and mentioned that it felt like a lifetime ago when we shared the same taxi to the Oaktree Apartments.  I shook hands with Richard and mentioned that it must be a thrilling feeling to know that he'll be working on a Boeing 747-400 as flight attendants instead of working behind a cash register at a nearby supermarket.  He was looking forward to taking his parents to Hawaii. Mike Lee, the Korean guy who used to work at an insurance company, looked somewhat glum. When I asked him if he was alright, he looked at me with a serious look on his face and said, "Yeah.  I just can't believe that we're done with training."  I wasn't sure if he was happy or sad about it.  

The next day, we are told which base we would be assigned to.

Richard, Mike, Harry and Olivia are assigned the Boston base.  I'm assigned to New York. Boston international flights go to Europe (London-Gatwick, Paris and Amsterdam).  New York international flights to go Japan.  I am disheartened to know that all of the people I had in my inner circle were not coming with me to my new home. Everyone was very much excited and looking forward to their new home in Boston and for me, for the briefest of moments, I feel a sense of abandonment.  After all we've been through, I realize that what comes next is what I will have to do on my own.

That's when I hear someone say "Hey Scott".  When I look up, I see Steve the Mormon.  He says, "I guess it's just you and me going to New York.  I guess you can teach me how to speak some Japanese."  He smiles and shakes my hand.  I smile back and realize that it's not really abandonment or a feeling of separation.  It's just that uneasy, uneven feeling of change and growth, not just for me but for all of us.  I was happy that Richard, Mike, Harry and Olivia were going to Boston since now I can visit them and hear all of the great stories about traveling to Europe.  As for Steve and myself, we set our sights on New York City and on what the future holds for us.

[To be continued]

Interview Experience

Context:  one of my co-workers at work mentioned that his wife was interested in becoming a flight attendant and was going through the process of interviewing with various airline companies.  This reminded me of my first, real-job interview at Northwest Airlines a few weeks after graduating from college.  Below is an account of that interview. Enjoy.

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Even before graduating from college, I had made plans to attend graduate school and get a Master's Degree in Linguistics.  That all changed when my parents suggested that I go to an interview near Los Angeles for a flight attendant position for Northwest Airlines (bought out by Delta Airlines in 2008).  The goal wasn't for me to become a flight attendant but rather to get "interview" experience so that, if grad school didn't pan out, I could always start looking for a job with my newly honed "interview" skills.

"I had no interest at all.  And besides, I was there for the 'interview' experience"

Northwest Airlines at the time was hiring people interested in becoming flight attendants who also had Asian language skills.  You didn't have to be fluent in an Asian language;  you just had to have a basic understanding and the ability to get your point across.  They scheduled a group interview session in Long Beach, California, about an hour and a half north of San Diego and 30 minutes southeast of Los Angeles proper.  It was a warm day in June, just a couple of weeks after my graduation and the room we were to be interviewed was jam-packed with Asian faces.  The room had a number of chairs lined up with a side table set up for the interviewers and a podium on top of a small stage in the front of the room of the interviewee.  There were about thirty of us and each candidate went up to the podium and had to mention three things:

1. Your name
2. What second language you spoke
3. Your best customer story

I was the last one to go up and so I had the luxury of listening to everyone else's interview. The first person, a young Asian woman about the same age as me, went up on the podium and looking straight down at her hands on the podium, started speaking in a hushed voice about providing the best service to a regular customer who would often leave them with a huge tip. The next person, a short Asian guy with glasses, blankly stared out straight into the distance, not making eye contact with anyone in the room, as if he was hyponotized by the wall that he was facing. He mentioned something about getting great service about some restaurant that he liked to frequent.  After a while, all of the stories started sounding the same and strangely enough, there were a lot of folks who brought up restaurants as being the place where they gave great service or went to get great service, as if restaurants were the hotspot for best customer stories.  The restaurant name or the name of the person who attended to their needs may have changed but it was pretty much the same super-generic best customer story.  What was interesting was that, since the podium was facing the center of the room where all of the interviewees were sitting, the candidate doing the talking was often facing their fellow interviewees and not the interviewers, who were off to the side.  It was, as if, the interviewees were pleading their case to their fellow candidates and not the interviewers.  And the interviewers?  Well, you could tell right away that they were bored out of their minds.  Blank stares with that glazed look on their faces as if they were in some kind of trance.  I would imagine that they have interviewed a countless number of people the days previous to my interview and were not looking forward to interviewing more hopefuls in the coming days.  Either that, they were drunk.

I had no intentions of becoming a flight attendant.  I had no interest at all.  And besides, I was there for the "interview" experience; learn as much as I can about what types of questions are asked, how people responded to those questions, how to present oneself to others while sounding confident and not cocky.  And so, having watched all of the other candidates repeating the same best customer story with hardly any variation, I decided that my story wasn't going to be about restaurants or favorite servers giving me extra napkins.  Behind the podium, facing the interviewers (who still looked hung over), I said to them and to everyone, with as much enthusiasm I could muster:

"Hi everyone.  My name is Scott Kuramura and the second language I speak is Japanese."

At this point, I say in Japanese that I've studied fours years of Japanese in college, one of those years being spent in Osaka as an exchange student.  I also mention, with as much modesty as possible, that my Japanese is pretty awful.  I then say, in English:

"My best customer story?  I unfortunately don't have a best customer story because it tells me that there is only one customer out there that I need to treat well or that there is only one hairstylist or waiter out there who gave me their best service.  I don't think we should think like that.  We should treat all of our customers the best that we can, putting ourselves into their shoes and providing consistently great service.  And we should be mindful of how that one hairstylist or waiter who gave me their best service treats others, asking ourselves, did they provide the same consistently great service to others as they did to me?  So, best customer story?  I don't have one.  Thank you."

And I sit down.  The interviewers, suddenly of their stupor and highly animated, start smiling and saying thanks as they wrapped up the interview.  They were definitely happy to be done with this torture session.  I quickly duck out of the interview room, head back home and report to my parents that I'm now "interview" savvy

The next day, I get a call from one of the recruiters who was at the group intereview.  Out of the thirty folks that they interviewed, only 5 were selected to go to the follow up interview and I was one of them.  My first thought was, "This is great.  More interviewing experience!".  But as I drove back to Long Beach the next day for the follow up interview, I realized that I was interested less in getting good at answering interview questions.  I realized that I was more interested in providing great customer service as a flight attendant.

[To be continued]

Tokyo DisneySea (November 2012)

There are a lot of great things to see and do in Japan and one of the biggest things the girls were looking forward to was going to Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea.  For someone who was born and raised in Southern California, going to Disneyland was like a yearly tradition for me, which I always looked forward to.  So I certainly shared my daughter's anxiousness and anticipation in going to the Tokyo Disney Parks.

"entering DisneySea instantly transports you to a place that mixes the feeling of being in some exotic locale with the wonder of imagination"

As mentioned in my review of the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel, we bought the two day passport tickets, which allowed us to enter one park one day and the other park the following day.  We went to Tokyo Disneyland first and it was a grand experience.  In this post, however, I want to talk about our time at Tokyo DisneySea.

Bottom line:  entering DisneySea instantly transports you to a place that mixes the feeling of being in some exotic locale with the wonder of imagination. It's an exhilarating combination of immersion and interaction, creating a unique and utterly unforgettable experience.

• We hopped on the Monorail from the Bayshore Station, right in front of our hotel.  It only took us about 4 minutes to get to the Tokyo DisneySea Station.  Upon arriving into the station, looking outside the monorail window, we saw that there were already massive lines of folks waiting patiently to get into the park. It seemed that everyone bought their tickets beforehand so I'm glad that we did the same.  We got there at around 8:30am and stood in line, waiting for the gates to open at 9am.

• Once we got in, we made a beeline to Toy Story Mania, which had recently opened. Unfortunately, everyone else was thinking the same thing. Once we got close to the attraction, we were surprised to find a sea of black haired heads, waiting in line for both the ride AND the Fastpass tickets.  We decided to walk up to Port Discovery and try out Storm Riders.  Luckily, with everyone stuck at Toy Story Mania, the wait time for Storm Riders was 5 minutes.  The ride was great:  it's like the Weather Channel version of Star Tours.  We got a little wet but overall, a fun-filled adventure.

• Next stop:  Mysterious Island.  The look and feel of this land was volcanic/terraforming tech meets steampunk.  Very cool and besides, you're IN THE MIDDLE of a volcano. How cool is that?

• We wanted to ride Journey to the Center of the Earth but there was a line so we got a fast pass which told us to come back in 20 minutes.  While waiting, we were able to walk right into 10000 Leagues Under the Sea.  It's kind of like the Finding Nemo Submarine Ride at Disneyland.  You have a controller to move around a spotlight, which was pretty cool.

• Came back to Journey and with our Fastpass, we were able to walk right in.  The ride itself was ok ... you ride through these dark tunnels, exploring underground cystalline formations.  Then, you see a bunch of weird insect aliens taking over the earth's core. The ride culminates with the ride going into roller coaster mode, pushing you up a steep grade and then dropping down a nice drop, giving you a sense of freefall.

• Walked over to Mermaid Lagoon and met Ariel.  She spoke English and so did we.  I'm wonder how she feels about living in a place where the majority of the population eat fish.

• Entered Mermaid Lagoon.  Very nicely laid out kiddie land.  Made you feel that you were actually "Under the Sea", being an integral part of Ariel's world.  Rode most of the rides in there, including the Tea Cup-like ride called (appropriately enough, Whirlpool).  We even went to the Mermaid Lagoon Theater to watch Ariel and friends battle the evil Ursula in a puppets meet Cirque Du Soleil-esque presentation.

• Outside of Mermaid Lagoon, we rode Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster twice in a row.

• Now, we were in search of popcorn.  But, instead of finding popcorn, we ended up at the Magic Lamp Theater.  This presentation was in 3D, which featured Genie and Aladdin.  It was short but a sweet presentation.

• Met Genie, Aladdin and Jasmine.  Genie didn't say anything but Aladdin and Jasmine spoke to us in English.  They asked us where we were from.  My daughters answered "Seattle".  Aladdin and Jasmine responded by saying that it was very far from Agrabah but their magic carpet could make the trip.  Very cute how they stayed in character the whole time.

• We had lunch at Sebatian's Calypso Kitchen, which specialized in pizza and sandwiches. 

• After lunch, the girls played in Ariel's Playground.  Lots of caves to explore and places to climb.

• After leaving Mermaid Lagoon, we eventually found Strawberry Popcorn in Port Discovery.  The popcorn was great:  there was a nice, lightly sweet strawberry taste that wasn't overpowering.  Mixed in well with the saltiness of the popcorn.

• Next we checked out Fortress Exploration.

• We made it back to Mermaid Lagoon and rode Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster twice (again)

• Had dinner at Vulcania Restaurant.  It was Chinese food, Buffeteria Style, where you select your entries, sides, desserts and drinks from the servers.  They ring you up after making all of our selections.  It was very tasty, especially after a long day of walking around.

• We went back to Toy Story Mania.  Yup, it was still crowded.  So we walked around the park.  So many beautiful things to see, like the entry into DisneySea and Mermaid Lagoon lit up at night.

Mermaid Lagoon lit up at night.  In the foreground right, we got some popcorn with sea-salt, which was very flavorful.

• Watched Fantasmic! a water show with fireworks and water.  Impressive.

• Rode Sinbad Storybook Voyage.  It's just like It's A Small World, only set in the world of Sinbad

• Also rode Jasmine's Flying Carpet.  It's just like the Dumbo ride.

• And lastly, before calling it a day and leaving DisneySea, we met up with Minnie and Goofy at the Greeting Trails in Lost River Delta

So, here are some unique aspects about our time at Disneysea that I found intriguing:

• DisneySea, like California Adventure, is unique to the world.  However, while there are a good number of unique rides, there were some (like the Sinbad and Flying Carpet rides) which had the same, familiar feeling of having ridden a similar version of this ride before. 

• The layout is different.  Instead of the hub and spoke design of the Disneyland, Disneysea has an inner loop (between Mediterranean Harbor and Mysterious Island) and outer loop that encompasses most of the other lands.  Not sure if this is better than the hub/spoke design but interesting nonetheless.

• Obvious here, but the whole theme park centers around water (water taxis, boats, rides with water) with the Mediterranean Harbor as the center of the park, which does the Fantasmic Water Show

• Outside of Mermaid Lagoon, there is a more adult feel with more atmosphere.  Each themed area meticulously recreates places far and away that transports guests to a specific locale, whether it's the tall Mayan ruins found in the jungles of the Lost River Delta or the Spanish influenced architecture of the Fortress Exploration in Mediterranean Harbor.  Tokyo DisneySea definitely does a great job of bringing you there.

• Food was great.  Good variety of popcorn (Black Pepper, Caramel, Apple Cinnamon, Curry, Strawberry, Sea Salt).  Had the Strawberry and Sea Salt.. both good.  A good variety of restaurants from simple snack shops to sit down restaurants.

• Souvenir Guide map had tons of information.  Better than the California ones

• Lots of characters walking around (Elastigirl, Ariel, Genie, Jasmine and Aladdin, Three Amigos, Chip (of Chip and Dale fame), Minnie and Goofy) ... all walking around or a character stations where the wait wasn't long at all

                Left:  Fantasmic!                                                    Right:  Toyville with Toy Story Mania!

We had a great time and look forward to going again.  If you get the chance, it's definitely worth the time to transport yourself to a magical place full of mystery and excitement, tempered with Disney's unique sense of magic.

Would You Like Cake?

Context:  I mentioned this in a previous post but I thought I'd mention it again.  It's true: before getting into computers and software, before working at some big multinational software company, before becoming wired, I used to teach English conversation in Japan. I lived in a small city called Yonago, in Tottori Prefecture, which is about 3 hours northwest of Osaka by bus, situated along the Sea of Japan. I worked at a small English Conversation school called "Nicenglish" ... that's not a spelling mistake. Nicenglish. The following is a slice of life recollection of my teaching at the local high school.  This was written several years after working in Japan so I had hindsight to help flesh out the details of my time there. Take it for what it's worth (which, as always, isn't that much).

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Summer.  I was 23 years old and just started working as an English conversation instructor at a private high school in Japan.  Yonago, the city that I worked in, was no larger than any other small town you would find in any country:  only one train line to the nearest big city (which was three hours away) and only one major department store catering to the needs of an unimpressive-sized population of rice farmers and laborers at a nearby fish-packing facility.  Strangely, there were three overpopulated high schools.  Of the three, I worked at the largest school in the area.

Since the school was rather large by Japanese standards, the teacher's room itself was quite expansive, brimmed wall to wall with grey, metallic desks, uncountable amounts of paper holders and plastic cup holders for pencils, pens, the occasional ruler and paper clips.  Opening the front drawer of my desk exposed a fairly used plastic container with five new, out-of-the-box sticks of chalk.  Two white, two yellow and one red.  Next to my desk sat Ms. Saeka.

Ms. Saeka, who wore wire-rimmed glasses and always wore a skirt to work, taught Japanese to the first year students and did not understand much English.  She would occasionally attempt to greet me with a simple "good morning" or "hello" but most of the time, she kept to herself and answered student's questions and graded her papers in earnest.  She must have been twenty-eight or nine.  As time passed, I got to know her more and more as my Japanese speaking skills improved.  By the end of summer, we were having decent conversations about school, the students, teaching and most importantly, our lunches.

"I never woke up early enough to make myself lunch"

Lunch was a big production for the teachers at school, with everyone looking at everyone else's lunch to see who brought what.  Ms. Saeka, who endeavored to create a fanciful but delicious lunch box, would always bring something that would catch my attention and draw out the same question from me:

"What did you bring today?" I would simply ask, always curious to see what was in Ms. Saeka's lunchbox.

And everyday, I would see a bed of steamed rice with a picked plum in the center,  a grilled slice of smoked salmon, several slices of tangy daikon root and fish cake with accompanying seaweed and cucumber salad, mixed in with a dash of rice vinegar.  If not salmon, then mackerel.  If not mackerel then fried chicken.  For dessert, she would peel open an orange or bake herself small sweet biscuits wrapped in a paper napkin.

Since I never woke up early enough to make myself lunch, I would always venture outside of school on my bike and stop by the nearby McDonalds (and try out their delicious Japan-only Teriyaki Burger) or buy a prepared lunch-box at the nearby 7-11.  I would take it back to the teacher's room, unwrap my lunch, pop open a can of wheat tea and eat my lunch.

At the end of lunch, I would sift those some of the papers I had to grade and look over the lesson plans for the next English class.  For some reason, on one particular day in September, Ms. Saeka scooted her chair next to mine and asked me if I wanted a sweet biscuit-cake.  Since I was thinking about English conversation and with my blood circulating around my stomach, without much thought, I blurted out "I wonder how you would say that in English...." in Japanese, as if asking my students for the correct answer.  With that, Ms. Saeka responded to my question with a puzzled look, then smiled and grabbed a Japanese-English dictionary from my desk.  She vowed to learn how to offer an item to someone in English by the end of autumn.

By the end of October, after spending a good five weeks of studying and practicing her English skills without my help, she returned my dictionary and with a triumphant smile on her face and with her biscuit-cake in hand, she scooted her chair next to mine and simply asked:

"Would you like cake?"

To which with a smile, I gently responded, "No thank you".  There was a flash of anger, bemusement, exhaustion and laughter running through her eyes as she ran her gaze over my face.  But before she could say anything or have the chance to throw the biscuit at me, I quickly held her hands and said, "Yes I would.  Thank you".  With an almost childish giggle, she handed me a sweet biscuit-cake which, as expected, was quite delicious.

. . .

Several months after leaving Japan, I received a package from Ms. Saeka.  Enclosed in the package was a letter, telling me how exciting it was for her to gain that joy of learning and involving herself in English study, something she never did when she was in high school.  Also in the package, wrapped in a paper napkin were two of her baked sweet biscuit-cakes.  Tucked in the paper napkin was a small note that read "Would you like cake?"  Before I could whisper "Yes I would, Thank You" to myself, I saw written on the back of the note, "I insist!"