Night Stalls
I’m sorry that I haven’t updated this blog for a while. Along with my promise not to publish articles without carefully checking their legibility, there have been some unexpected development here in Japan. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I didn’t expect my study workload to be this heavy. In addition to attending school from 9am to 2.30pm, we are expected to learn many new vocabularies and finish our homework every day. It feels like high school all over again – only far more fun, I think.
On top of this, I also didn’t expect to make new friends while I’m here. But that’s exactly what happened. Back in my country, I barely had the time to socialize with other people since I work from 9 to 5. I do have some friends that I sometimes spend time with. But since all of us have a job, we don’t get together that often. This is why I had quite a lot of time to blog back then. When I first arrived here in Japan, I thought I’ll be using most of my time to study and the rest of the time to blog. However, it wasn’t long before I met some really nice people here.
Anyway, moving on to the actual story, Japanese night stall is something that I never experienced before I went to Japan. The stalls don’t open until around 6pm-ish, if I remember correctly. The products on offer usually are snack foods like Ikayaki (grilled squid on a stick), Takoyaki, Oden, Candied Apple/Strawberries on a stick, Churos, etc. Unfortunately, the price is rather expensive in comparison to almost similar items you can get at a nearby convenience store. Having said that, I think it’s good to buy them just to soak in the atmosphere. In addition to the food stalls, there are also various game stalls where you can pay 300 yen to try a fishing game, for example.
The night stalls that I went to just happened to be set up not far from the Okazaki Castle. And since I went to the Castle a bit late in the day (around 4pm-ish), by the time I finished taking all of the photographs, the stalls were already opened. I saw a lot of high school students visiting the stalls in pair. I supposed, it is a rather romantic place to spend the time together with your loved one. The place was also filled with working mother/father taking their young children so I got the impression that the place attracts different types of people despite the high number of students that filled the area.
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It’s strawberry season here in the States (areas with cold climates anyway). One of your pictures has inspired me to go make candied strawberries this weekend. I suppose this means I’m going to be making a purchase of wooden sticks and a candy thermometer.
Wow, that school girl’s skirt is rather short. I always thought that animators simply like to draw them short. I didn’t know that they really are that short in real life.
It’s awesome to know that you’re having such a great time in Japan! One of my worries about going for an exchange program was possibly being lonely, but it certainly seems that this isn’t the case in your situation :)
Just as a quick question, does it it really only take one-and-a-half hours to bike to the sea? I though Tokyo was firmly in non-coastal territory…
David, I’m sorry if I didn’t make it clear before but I actually already left Tokyo 2 weeks ago. I was only there for 4 days (although I’ll be going back to Tokyo at the end of my trip in Japan because I have to catch my plane from Narita Airport). I’m now staying at Okazaki. It’s a small city located 30 minutes from Nagoya.
Now, there is this coastal area called Gamagorri (I’m not sure if that’s the correct spelling). We basically just decided on a whim last weekend that we will go on a bike to the area. So yeah, it took 1.5 hours (one way) to get there from Okazaki, not Tokyo.
hehe im glad you made friends in japan :)
If you and your friends go out to karaoke, I think you need to post pics. ;) :P
I often regret not taking advantage of the opportunity to study abroad when I was in college. If I could go back and do it all again, I’d make it a top priority.
Hi, Just wanted to say love your site! Is it possible for me to add your site link to my blog page?
Ange, feel free to do so :)
Well, my candy syrup turned out too thick. It definitely made the strawberries glossy and appetizing; however, the glaze was so chewy you almost forgot you were eating a strawberry =) Like Jeff, I regret not having gone abroad when I had the chance. I would have given a new meaning to “cultural exchange,” if you know what I mean. Jokes aside, there’s nothing like total immersion when learning a new language/culture.
The night stalls are usually very busy and restless. My father and mother took me there only once when I was seven, and it was fascinating. However, we didn’t stay there long. The prices of goods were much more expensive than the prices in convenience stores, and there was just no sence of buying anything that was unnecessary. We had fun there looking at the different goods rather than buying them, and I thought that the little visit was worth it.