Friday, July 31, 2009

July 26, 2009, General and SQUID Cooking





































July 26, 2009

I write on the weekends now. In my free time at night; never during the day. Maybe it’s better that way because I feel like I am a different person at night. During the day I am stressed as millions of ideas interest and bump into each other in my head. Everything from what shall I talk about next with my host family, to what will I do once I graduate from college (the latter can give me such an intense fright, that most of the time I ignore the possibilities, but it always remains as a dull throbbing pain in the back of my head). At night, my mind winds down as I focus on one thing: the immediate future. A scary thought, but at the same time, plans are coming together and I am excited. I can’t wait to farm, and then see my grandmother’s family.

Right now I can hear the rain hitting the roof of this house, and it sounds wonderful. My roof must be thin and made of some type of metal, because each drop echoes its voice as it falls and strikes. The song of the rain: probably the most soothing sound in this country. Although I hate it when it rains, because shows get cancelled (the outdoor historical play at Goryokaku park got cancelled today), I love to hear it before I sleep.
Attached are pictures of my squid cooking class.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

July 25, 2009, FOOD
















So everyday I eat ice cream. I have to stop this habit though, but it’s so hard. I had goma (black sesame seed paste) and grape ice cream: one scoop of each. In America I don’t think we have goma at all. I have never had it there. They say it’s good for your health. Also, I hate grape in America, I think it tastes like medicine, but here it’s my absolute favorite.

Nato is fermented sticky beans. Coming to Japan I have found that Japanese people love it so much (some even declare it’s their favorite food). They put a bit of it in some sushi rice and seaweed and call it sushi. I think it’s the worst smelling food ever. In America, when my grandparents would eat it, I would profusely refuse because the stench was so awful I could not bring it to my lips. When I came to Japan, during the week where we were quarantined at a really nice hotel, we had buffet style breakfasts. On some mornings, they would have nato. I decided, might as well try it; When in Japan, do as the Japanese do, right? So, I put some soy sauce on top, mixed it in well, and took a bite. The first bite was more than what I asked for, and I had this string of slime connecting my lip to the tiny cup container of which the nato resided in. I was pretty grossed out by the texture, more so than the stench this time. It was slimy, gooey, and slippery in my mouth. My first impression: Ew, I wish I could rewind time. Texture, bad. Smell, bad. But, what about taste. I decided to try to ignore the rest and focus on taste. We were all trying the foods we were weirded out by together and so while eating nato someone mentioned cheese. I guess it was sort of cheesy tasting, but slightly salty too. Salty, probably thanks to the soy sauce, which probably was the reason why it was even remotely bearable. All in all, I was surprised it didn’t taste as bad as it smelled. The second time I ate nato, I had it at my host family’s house. Now, since I said I would eat anything given to me, and they really like this part about me, I decided just to eat it all, no matter the circumstance. I mixed some soy sauce, and ate it all. The second time around was definitely better and I actually was able to say I kind of enjoyed it. Third times a charm, right? Right! I tried it for the third time, and decided that I do, indeed, like it. The smell doesn’t even bother me anymore. Afterwards, I always feel a little self-conscious that my breath is kicking, and brush my teeth each time.

Dear fruit, I miss you. In Japan fruit and veggies are so expensive I barely get a chance to eat them. Although every packaged piece of fruit and veggie is perfect, they are so expensive. Fruit especially is pricy. I usually get to eat some of it because my host family gives it to me. Let’s start off small. The price for a bundle of grapes is $7.80. One kiwi, $1.40. For a small container of maybe 15 cherries, about $8.80. For small strawberries, $7.80. One peach, $4.85. But, this will surprise you the most of all: for one cantaloupe melon, as much as $150. Just for one! The cheapest cantaloupe melon you can get is about $3.90, but supposedly these suck and they are smaller. On average, they cost about $20-60. And they have them in every supermarket. They make a great gift, from what I hear! My host family occasionally feeds me strawberries, cantaloupe melon (OMG!), and watermelon. Of course, the price of food dips when you decide you’ll buy the bruised peaches, or overripe bananas. But, quality is what determines the price in this country. If something is imperfect (food wise), you will most likely see a 20% off from original price sticker on the item in the supermarket. And once it’s passed 5:00pm or 6:00pm, the price of food that will spoil if left for the next day (like bentos or rice balls) is discounted at times by as much as 50%. It’s still good, it’s still good.

Friday, July 24, 2009

July 24, 2009: Cooking School

I want to say I haven’t done much, but doing so would be a lie. I feel like I’m super busy everyday, yet the time when I will actually be busy is weeks from now (when my final exam and everything school-wise is due, and all things that relate to the rest of my Summer start to unfold and become a reality). Enough of the fluff talk, let’s get to interesting stuff.

So, last weekend, Saturday, I went to some Japanese Cooking School for a few hours and learned how to make some Japanese sweets. Wagashi is a traditional Japanese dessert, which is made with mochi, azuki (red) bean paste, and fruits. There were about 60 of us there. We made manju: the outside of this yummy dessert was made with flour, rice powder, and buckwheat and the inside is filled with red bean (boiled azuki bean and sugar). First we made the dough using flour (wheat flour and regular flour), water, isupata (some cornstarch thing, I think), and sugar. This created a very sticky dough, which looked and felt kind of like mochi, but it definitely was not. Then we separated this dough and the azuki bean paste into careful weighed amounts. Then we rolled the azuki into the sticky dough until the dough completely enveloped the azuki. Then we put these finished products on a wooden thing, sprayed some water on them and put them in a steamer oven-thing. The finished product was delicious. Too hot, yet we all excitedly shoved them in our mouths, and within a few bites, they were gone. They were yummy, although I prefer mochi. The outside of the manju has a bit of a bready texture. Below is a recipe if anyone wants to try. Super easy if you have the right stuff.

Ingredients for 10 Manjus
70g of sugar 100g of wheat flour
2 g of isupata 400g of red bean paste
40ml water 60g of flour

Then we made Nerikiri, which is one of the main desserts in Japanese tea ceremony (sadou). It’s very sweet and dissolves in your mouth quickly. There is an outer paste and an inner paste. The outer paste is usually very colorful and is made by mixing a soft type of mochi (Gyuhi) and bean paste made from grey/white and navy colored beans. We created a pink outside and the inside was red bean paste. Basically we just put the red bean inside the pink outside and created a round ball. Then we put a small piece of white paste on top of this pink ball, put it in a cloth, twisted the top, and took it out of the cloth. And by adding some green paste in the shape of a leaf on top, we called it a peach. Super simple!

I learned a little about the Japanese judicial system this week because we went to a court house. It seems that most people who are accused of a crime in Japan are usually found guilty, and once a decision is made, you cannot appeal your case. There are no second opinions. It’s because in Japan it would be disrespectful to ask for an appeal, and people also trust the decision that was made to be fair. Also, the jury (which has only just recently been instituted) makes the decision, not the judge. They have monitors all over the room and computer panels in front of each jury member and every one else involved in the case. The victim can have one person (supporter) sit in the chair next to them during the case. Also, to make the victim feel safer, and grant ease to the emotional confession, the victim can have this barricade (portable wall thing) placed behind them. Court rooms in Hakodate are very small, even so popular court cases are open to the public, but in the case they have a lot of people but not enough seats, seats are raffled out. If you have been working as a lawyer in America for at least 3 years, you can do some type of lawyer work in Japan. You can’t necessarily be a lawyer because you might not be familiar with the laws, but you can work.

Today my friends and I climbed Hakodate mountain but we have done this already, so for a change of scenery I decided we should all go to the plateau (I had no idea what this place was specifically called, but from far away, it was the edge of the mountain and looked like a nice little smooth, flat, surface where the sun hit perfectly from my far off point of view and so I called it a plateau). Once I got to this plateau, I found out it was just a parking lot, but on the other side of the parking lot, there was so much more. So I found out it was called Tachimachi. It was beautiful, I felt like I was in a paradise. For a moment, I forgot I was in Japan, and found myself lost in the rippling of the oceans waves. The waves growled and kicked the rocks close to the shore and the sea seemed endless. Even on a day lacking sun and full of heavy clouds, the lush greenery of the mountain was magnificent. We saw a cave in the distance and imagined what fun it would be to explore a cave! We found a small, arbitrary path, walked down, and found ourselves on the rocky shore, at the edge of the mountain. We climbed a few rocks, carved ourselves into them (I made an M), and enjoyed the scenery of the mountains to the right and Hakodate city to the far left.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

July 16, 2009: Weekend at Toya















































July 16, 2009

So the past weekend I had a 4 day weekend. 1 semester (4 weeks) came to an end, we took our final test and I was excited to have fun and forget about school.

We went to a place called Lake Toya (or Toyako) and it took like 4 hours to drive there from Hakodate. We went with an equal number of Hakodate University Japanese students. Toya is known for the beautiful nature scene (all year round, changing according to the season, yet beautiful in every season) and has a couple of volcanoes that have been pretty consistently active for the past 100 years. We saw some videos of how the volcanoes destroyed the town a few decades ago.

I think I got off to a horrible start. We took a lunch break at some arbitrary place (near Onuma I think) and there was this huge indoor child park thing. Something of the sort with miniature tricycles, ping pong table, badminton, tunnels, and a ball pit. The ball pit was my favorite and I became a kid again, kicking and screaming and drowning in colorful balls. After lunch, we got back on the bus for the reminder 2 hours or so ride to our destination. It was only 10 minutes through, when I realized I lost my wallet in my back at the indoor child park place. I flipped and almost cried because my whole life and $150 was in that wallet. Okada sensei called the place and told them I lost it. They were searching. 30 minutes later I realized I might have lost it in the ball pit. She called again, and an hour or so later she told me they found it. Thank fuckin’ god (OMG in Japanese is Yabai)! But, I endured the whole trip without any money to my name, borrowing only the smallest bits from my friends, and using the change I found in my bag. I guess that’s a good thing.

After going to the museum where we learned a little history about this volcanic place, we walked around to the monuments of the houses and buildings that were destroyed by the volcanic activity. Uninhabited, yet still some of us dared to go in and climb the slipperiest, dirtiest staircase to the fifth floor. We probably weren’t supposed to do this, but only in Japan do they trust people not to walk into monuments, and I took advantage of this authentic opportunity and jumped in through a window.

That night we saw a fireworks show, which shows every night in the Summer. That’s overdoing it, don’t you think? Are fireworks bad for the environment? Since they do it above the water, don’t you think it goes into the sea and destroys the marine life? And it’s in the air, so when we breathe small particles of it, shouldn’t it also be bad for our health? Someone please do some research and get back to me! Anyway, I have never seen fireworks so close in my entire life, and I don’t think I’ll get such an opportunity ever again. I would never be able to pull that off in NY. 30 minutes of pure joy, it was. I felt so close that when the fireworks first started going off, I actually jumped back a few times in shock because I thought I would make contact. I took pictures of the boat that people get on (but you pay like $15) to get an amazing view of the fireworks. I got some cool videos and pics of the fireworks.

The next day we went river trekking. Most fun thing ever! I want to do it in NY! I have never done it before, but was so pumped! We wore some cool water shoes and life-jacket vest and jumped into the water that was definitely to my knees. At some points you’d be in waist high and at others times, the bottom felt like an endless pit. There were tons of rocks and some were really sharp. The water was freezing, but you got used to it. The current from the river pushes you and sometimes you have to walk against it but most of the time we walked with it, so there were so many points where I almost fell on my face, and would have if it weren’t for my hands. I bumped into so many rocks, but the cold numbed me so much that I didn’t feel anything. It was not till later when I looked at my legs that I realized it looked like I was beat with a metal baseball bat. I used small rocks to write on big rocks, and used the colorful orangish muck that was excreted to give myself one stealthy mark under each eye. I felt like a warrior! I lay in the water and allowed the current to carry me over small distances. We all climbed up to a small ledge and jumped into deep water and because of our life jackets we all popped right back up. Even Okada sensei did this. It was nice to see people who work in our program, who we see everyday in the office, participating in these fun activities. Then we drank some hot, sweet, berry tea. My hands were so cold, I couldn’t even feel the hot cup so I took a sip and nearly burned myself.

So some people told me I should take off my watch before I jump in the river. My Ironman Traithlon watch is waterproof, so I thought it’d be fine. When I got out of the water and looked at my wrist, I realized the rocks banged against my watch, and water got in: there was condensation and the screen that once read black blocky numbers were no more. I was so sad. I searched for a garbage can, but since Japan basically has none (everyone usually takes their garbage home with them), I shoved my watch in my book bag and forgot about it. Sunday night, I took my watch out to throw it away, and to my surprise, I was reading the time. My watch just took a nap! Although it was off by a day and 6 hours, I was so happy! It worked! My watch is still alive and ticking!

After this we went to a really nice, well-known Onsen (paid $10), although I think I have been to better ones, and my body temperature went from cold to hot. Because Toya is by volcanoes, the spring water used in the onsen we went to is taken from the volcano natural hot spring water basin. Like the volcano, the onsen smelled a little like sulfur. But, it felt so good for my skin. My skin felt like it was getting softer, and maybe that was the reason why my bruises seemed to heal so fast and not hurt as much. They had 3 different indoor onsens (different color and different functions) and an outdoor onsen. My favorite was the bubbly onsen. I almost fell asleep in that one.

That night as well as the following night we drank with the Japanese students and laughed and talked. I was tipsy, but not drunk, yet got the worst Asian glow out of everyone. Damn, I suck. We played a drinking game that doesn’t involve speaking, just hand gestures, so everyone could play. Even the two teachers (Okada, from our school, and Tanaka, from Hakodate University) played with us and drank. I felt slightly drunk and wandered off because I lost so soon.

The next day we went to Ainu village. Ainu are native people of Hokkaido. They were the first peoples to live on the land. If you look at their clothes and ways of living, I think the best way to describe the way they look is as Asian Indians. Their population is very small now. At the village we were able to see traditional Ainu dances, songs, and musical instruments. I also got to see 3 Hokkaido bears and 3 Hokkaido dogs. I felt so sorry for the bears because they were so massive, but just sat in the smallest, least stimulating environments. I wish I could have freed them. They seemed so anxious, pacing in what little room they had, when a big group of people came by to see them. In the past, they used to make the dogs and bears fight each other. How cruel?

They sold mugwort (grass) ice cream at the Ainu village, but I didn’t stick around long enough for them to take the time to make it so I am still curious about that. I have to say though, Hokkaido has some of the best ice cream I have ever had. I want to milk a cow!

Paid $120 (12000 yen) for this all inclusive trip, and it was definitely worth it.

Now second semester has started. I found out my teacher gave me an A last semester. Totally didn’t deserve it, so I am very confused, but will not question her generosity. But this semester is going to be harder. Can’t wait to finish this program and be free. At the same time, I don’t want it to end. After I have decided to farm for 2 weeks in Hokkaido and then travel to the main land and see the sights. I’m scared to be all alone for a month in a country totally foreign to me.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Thursday, July 9, 2009

July 3, 2009, Kyudo
















July 3, 2009

Kyudo
Today I went to Iai High/Middle School. Iai a very prestigious, expensive, all girls school that actually looks like a college campus. At the entrance there are red bricks, black gates, and an old security guard that stands in front of the school all day long. It’s like huge campus, lush with greenery and cobble stones.

In the afternoon the students participate in different activities. I have never seen soft Tennis before. Do we even have that in America? The girls play on a dirt field with really soft balls and racquets that look smaller than tennis racquets. It actually looks harder to play than regular tennis because the balls don’t really bounce. Why do they play such a sport?

Today I did some Kyudo for the first time in my life. It was a trial class. I have never done archery ever. Kyudo was fun! I think I like it better than Judo or Kendo. Although I wish I had the time to do them all. We use a bow, called “Yumi,” and the arrow is called “Ya.” The target is called “mato.” You shoot your arrow through a window indoors. From this window, the arrow flies outdoors, above the grass to the mato. There’s this whole routine you must follow, slight bowing and specific footing, before you even raise the bow and arrow to shoot. The sensei teaches you how to hold the arrow and the different short poses you must follow through before you extend all the way and shoot. There are names for each of these poses, of which I have forgotten.

So, everyone got one shot, but in the end, I sneaked in one more. For my first shot, my arrow skipped along the dirt right in front of the target, then shot up and hit the target. Then the target fell over. But, hey! I actually hit the target. It surprised me! I felt slightly accomplished. For my second shot I was way over the target, and hit the wooden roof, but I was still happy nonetheless. When the trial time was over, the sensei told me good job. My friend, who was waiting for some praise after me, thinking the sensei was going to praise everyone one by one, was surprised to not receive any. Was it because he is a guy, and this is traditionally a women’s sport? Or did the sensei just like me? Did the sensei notice my sexy, toned arms and said it to make me come back? (j/k) Who knows?!

The sport seems very serene and peaceful to me. The weather was beautiful today and I guess that had made me feel amazing already. But after Kyudo, as I walked away towards home, I felt satisfied and at peace for a moment. For a few minutes, I felt like I actually belonged, like this place was somewhere I can possibly call home. When I first came to Hakodate, I was excited to be in a new place, but never actually felt comfortable. And so today is the first time I actually felt at peace here. Although, now the feeling is difficult to recall, and I cannot bring myself to fully feel what I did only a few hours ago, I am happy that I was able to experience that one rare moment. Although it might have lasted but a few minutes, possibly a few seconds, I look forward to feeling it again. Euphoria would be too strong a word for the sensation I experienced, yet maybe it was mere solace.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

My Japanese Room.
















Mai requested to see my room:

Here are some pictures of my room in my host family's house in Japan. They have an old style, traditional house (more pics of the house itself later). My floor is made of tatami mat. I kind of like just laying down on the tatami mat. It feels nice.

The window shades are made with rice paper over a wooden frame. They really don't prevent any light from coming in, and I swear the sun rises at 3am every morning. I once woke up at 4am and could have sworn it was 9am and was so scared because I thought I was late to school. It was hard getting used to bright sunshine for the first few weeks, and even now I still have some problems sleeping through it.

I have a scroll hanging with something to the effect of "the beautiful feeling of Spring" (of course not literally) written on it in Japanese calligraphy. In front of the scroll is a jade object. And some pink flowers. The flowers smell nice and they last for a month or so without even watering them.

I sleep on a futon. Actually 2 futons. I stacked them on top of eachother, and even though its the Summer, I sleep with 3 covers because it's pretty cold at night in Hakodate, Hokkaido.

Well, I hope you enjoy the pics.