Absolut Thessaloniki.

One of my daily reads, appropriately titled Daily Frappe posted an item about an article in the NY Times about how Thessaloniki (or "Salonica") has suddenly become more popular, one reason being that out of its population of 1 million, 95 thousand are students. That's like Kyoto - about 1/10th of the population (also a million) are students, so there is a youthful vibe here as well.

I have been to Thessaloniki twice - once when I was 10, and the other time 17. Obviously when I was older, so was my cousin and she took my sister and I to the cafes, the bouzoukia, etc. etc. Personally, I like Thessaloniki WAY better than Athens. First, because it is (or well, was) a place that not the usual tourist would go to - it is a bit of a trek out of the way to get there. Second, I even got the feeling that it was kicking back in 2002. Third, the view! My cousin lives in Panorama (the "Beverly Hills of Thess/niki) and she has a view of the bay which is mainly centered on Aristotelous Square. The square has a unique shape, as it is not a square, and was the focus of a particular ad from 2006: The awesome thing is that nothing was done to enhance the photo; Aristotelous Square is shaped exactly like that.

Hristos Anesti!

Kalo Pascha, Happy Easter!

Normally, I go with my family to the local Greek Orthodox church (we have our pick of um, 4 within a 10 block radius) for midnight mass. We stand outside, freeze our butts off when the weather decides to be evil (as it was the case this year for them) and then go over to one of our family friends houses to play the egg game and eat mayiritsa. This year, Greek Orthodox easter falls on the same day as the "Everyone Else Easter," so everyone in the NYC area that celebrates Easter froze their butts together.

When I was in London, I found a Greek Orthodox church - since I was on my own, I didn't go to midnight mass. Instead, I went to the Easter Sunday mass, lit a candle and sat down for a bit.

One would think that living in Japan - especially Kyoto which is not really considered a "major" city for international stuff - I wouldn't be able to celebrate Easter in one form or another. However, the people back in the 19th century had other things in mind - a Russian Orthodox church (pretty much the same thing except for the language and the architecture to a degree) was built in Kyoto and actually considered to be architecturally significant. I found it in a Japanese book about significant architectural sites in Kyoto.

Unfortunately, the church was locked and I couldn't go inside to light a candle. I saw a sign outside and turns out that they had mass the night before from 11:30pm to 3:30am and no mass the following day. Oh well. maybe I will go some other Sunday, if only to belatedly light a candle and check out the inside and see whether or not the service is done in Russian, Japanese or a mix of both. Back home, depending on the priest, everything is either in Greek, or a little English is included for the crucial parts. Kind of helps the Sunday school kids, especially when most of the stuff is in Byzantine Greek.

Afterwards, I was riding my bike along Marutamachi to head back towards the river, thinking that I was going to go chill out at Starbucks. To be quite honest, I am quite tired of Starbucks and there are so many cafes in Kyoto that I want to try, but never really have enough money for it since I can get a helluva lot more coffee (Tall regular in a Venti cup - I figured out how to say that in Japanese) for my money. I think when I want to do my schoolwork I will go there, but for "hanging out" I will go to the actual cafes.

Today was such a nice day, and there is a cafe that has outdoor seating right along the river and on Marutamachi. After perusing the menu, which was in Japanese for a bit, I decided to check it out and see how their coffee was. I ordered a Brunch Set which was a snadhwich and coffee, but I paid a little extra for the strong blend. The sandwhich was a tuna nicoise, and DELICIOUS. It was quite big, and well worth the money, even though I am flat broke. That with the ambiance of sitting outside (62 today, 64 on Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday and 68 on Thursday! Woot!) it was a very nice experience. I read my book, brushed off crumbs occasionally and enjoyed the quiet afternoon. Then I went to the Kamo River, read a bit more, then came back, did some grocery shopping and the $1 supermarket (aka "QQ") and then went to the gym, did laundry and cleaned my apartment. All in all, a rather mundane, yet gorgeous day.

Tomorrow is the first day of class. I am kinda excited in a way - tomorrow is also the Miyako Odori.

Zito H Ellada!

First off, I want to point out that my comments feature underneath the posts is gone? I checked my settings and I have enabled comments, but its not working for some reason.


In other news: Happy Greek Independence Day! (We got our independence from Turkey in 1821 after 400 years of rule by the Ottamans.) Some common slogans for those that don't know:

"Zito H Ellada!" ("Long Live Greece!)
"H Makedonia Einai Elliniki!" (Macedonia is Greek!)
"Ekso, H Tourki, Apo Tin Kypro" (Loose Translation: "Turks Out of Cyprus.")

A quick note on the pronounciation: the "H" that is pronounced as "ee" as in "see." Same thing with the "y" in "Kypro." Greek has about, oh, 5 different ways to spell the "ee" sounds.

The last two are highly politically motivated. The first one deals with soveriegnty of some sort - my dad is from the Macedonian region of Greece (Alexander the Great and all that jazz, I mentioned this before) and there is a country called Macedonia, complete with the Hellenistic sun (Alexander's emblem) in their flag. The Greeks got pissed. So pissed that when I was about 9 or 10, my family with a neighbor drove down to D.C. to attend a rally about this whole question. Even though today is a Sunday when the Greek parade is traditionally held, because it's Lent the parade will be held after Easter, which is the same day as regular Easter this year. Yeah to getting Easter candy with everyone else! On the negative side, Easter candy won't be on sale for us this year.

So in the Greek parade, you get the high school bands, the high school and local college Greek clubs, little kids dressed in traditional Greek costume (I had one myself), maybe the "Miss Greece" winner and the highlight of it all, the tsoliades - the royal palace guards, which like the ones in London stand outside the old palace, Syntagma which is now Parliament all day and don't talk to anyone. My aunt was able to get one to talk to her back in the 80's. My grandfather was one.

That's one of the traditional outfits; the tsoliades (which are SO good looking) who come to NYC usually wear the white pleated skirt with 400 pleats, one for every year. They all march in step and are all the exact same height - my dad was considered too short, and he is 6'1.

As for the third slogan, to make a long story short, Cyprus is divided into two, the Greek and the Turkish part, and in 1971 Greece and Turkey almost went to war over it.

The parade is good fun - I usually go every year. However, I am here, and there is no real Greek community (or at least enough Greek expats of one stripe or another) to even have a Greek restaurant in Kyoto. So, I went to Shijo with Alisa and had some free coffee at Ogawa while she got her beans ground (when my Starbucks stuff is finished I am getting my next round of coffee from there) and then after she left for a party, walked around a bit, and I got a new wallet for only 945yen, in the style that I want - checkbook. I think it's handmade, and it's great - a vintage, 70s vibe to it and it holds all my cards and all my change and still closes! I thought it would be too flimsy since it is made of cloth, but it does have some stiffness to it, and with the cards inside, it gained more structure. It may seem like I am high maintenance sometimes (see my previous Kate Spade wallet wish) but even the little things make me happy. Just hard to find sometimes, especially in Japan where it is major label overload.

My Dad's Potatoes

It was a while since I had really good Greek food. When Deena told me that there was a Greek restaurant aptly named Santorini in Itaewon, I was totally game and ready to pig out ever since I landed. But we waited till after the DMZ.

Itaewon is the forienger's district in Seoul, kind of like Roppongi in Tokyo. But Itaewon as mega dirty and I told Deena that compared to Roppongi (I have seen pictures and heard stories, but of course this is a empty opinion since I won't be there till June) this place was worse in terms of the "creepy gaijin/ickiness" factor, and she said that some of her coworkers that just went to Tokyo said the same thing. Guess my opinion wasn't that off. Again, will confirm in June.

Deena has been to Santorini before, and I was eagerly awaiting the yumminess that was Greek food. Oh, taramasalata. After many hills and stairs (Itaewon is actually above Seoul, yikes) we finally reached our destination. When I walked in, I felt like I was in Taverna Kyklades, one of the best Greek restaurants in Astoria. Of all the Greek restaurants in New York City, 80-90% of them are in Astoria. Oh, HEAVEN!

The decor was perfect. Deena said that unlike some other foriegn restuarants that take the foriegn food and "Korean-ize" it and then make it worse, this place was practically untouched. I totally agreed. The menu was not only in Korean and English, but also in Greek. I think the owner must be Greek - how else would it be as good as a place in Astoria? Never asked though.

Have to say it was a wee bit expensive - then again, even when I go to the restaurants back home, I never order the feta cheese or spreads appetizers because it's such a rip off even there. Since we arrived during lunch time, we got the lunch specials - SOUVLAKI! And even better, the potatoes that they had were like the ones that my dad makes. You heat up a pot of olive oil, put the potatoes cut into french-fry size and make them like french fries; when done sprinkle parmesan and basil on top. Yum, yum. I love my dad's potatoes, though these weren't cut french-fry style but rather in small round slices. Still delicious and you can tell that they used olive oil - french fries cooked in olive oil tend to be a wee bit soggier than those in regular cooking oil, but the flavor is great. You just have to be a bit more careful and not keep the french fries in the pot too long.

Since the lunch was pretty cheap, Deena and I split a platter of spreads with warm pieces of bread, from left to right: Tzatziki (cucumber/yogurt), Taramasalata (caviar), Eggplant Spread and Skordalia (garlic):

And to top it off, I had a FRAPPE as a dessert. It was about 6 bucks, but it was big, light and sweet just how I like it and best of all, the straw was sticking straight up in the center of the foamy part of the frappe. That's how you know whether or not a frappe is well made. Totally worth it, as I forgot to bring Nescafe and a frappe shaker back to Japan with me.