Summer Reading

I have promised to take a break from the computer while we are on holiday, so I might not be blogging for a few weeks. Instead, I will be working my way through this pile of books:


















Have a good summer!

Recent Events

It's the last few days before we go away and there's lots going on.



On Thursday we went to see Joe and Megumi and their new baby Nicolas. They had warned us that he screamed a lot, but he was perfectly well behaved while we were there.






Last night we went out for a surprise dinner for our friend Gwen who is leaving. Even Sayuri came down from Yokohama for it!




Today we went to a classical concert. My colleague Takahashi-sensei plays French horn in the Nagoya citizens' orchestra and always gives us tickets to their performances. Todays' highlight was Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite 1. Absolutely lovely (I am listening to it again at home right now).

Summer Travel Plans

We have had a long-standing plan to meet our friends Kevin and Dawn in a luxurious resort one day. It is actually happening next month – we are meeting in Bali. They are coming from Abu Dhabi and we are coming from Nagoya. Flying from Japan can be really pricey, but we found relatively cheap flights with China Airlines going via Taipei. When I told this to my friend Nancy (who used to live in Taiwan), she looked at me in horror: “You do know that they are the ones that always crash, don’t you?” Yikes! No wonder the tickets were cheap. I did some checking. They don’t actually ALWAYS crash. The morbid website airdisaster.com only has 12 records, and nothing since 2002. They have also now been accredited by IATA so I am hoping that they are no longer dodgy. Anyway, we are about to find out. On Tuesday we fly to Taipei and spend a night there before going on to Bali on Wednesday. We are back a week later and are spending 9 more days in Taiwan and are hoping to do some hiking.

Ah yes. The hiking arrangements. I thought we could just turn up at a mountain with our gear and get walking. Wrong. We need permits. That’s fine, but we can’t work out how to get these permits. We get conflicting information depending on the source. The worst-case scenario is we have to print of the form and fill it out in triplicate identifying our precise itinerary and where we plan to sleep each night. We post this to some office in Taiwan along with a fee and copies of our passports at least a week before we want to hike. I have tried e-mailing them, so we’ll see what happens. There are some amazing-sounding mountain ranges and national parks there. I hadn’t realized that Taiwan was so mountainous. There are dozens of peaks over 3000m. I hope a typhoon doesn’t hit while we are up one of them…

Hello Kitty Sightings in Japan

Did you know that there is a blogger out there who writes about nothing but Hello Kitty sightings in Japan. It's brilliant! (Kozue - it isn't you is it????)

http://www.hello-kitty-sightings.com/

Another city, another Washinton Hotel

Why do we always stay at the Washington chain of hotels in Japan? Perhaps it's the charm of their tiny rooms and cheesy furniture? Or the nylon dressing gowns (yukatas) you get? Or the way you can't check in until 2pm? Or how check out time is strictly 10am? The optional bag of beans instead of a pillow? Perhaps it's the fishy breakfasts? Or the "vending machine corner" instead of a mini-bar? The tiny teacups with no handles you get in the rooms? The all plastic bathrooms that are the size of the ones you get on planes? They don't take credit cards either. No, the real reason we stay there is that the English signs make us laugh so much.




You read this as you sit on the loo (click to enlarge).














The view wasn't bad this time either















Book the Okayama Washington

Weekend in Okayama

We were invited to give a presentation in Okayama on Sunday, but we decided to go a day early and make a weekend of it. We packed in so much in that it feels like we were away for weeks!

On Saturday afternoon, we went to the nearby city of Kurashiki with our new friend Shirley who lives in Okayama. There is a lovely old town built around a canal with good restaurants (we really enjoyed the food and company at the Santa Cruz Kitchen) and a really good art museum featuring work by some really famous artists (Ohara Art Museum). Our visit also coincided with the annual summer festival so we kept running into people dressed as demons and the like, and also people dressed in summer kimonos (yukata). Click to enlarge the photos.













































On Saturday night Neil cooked us dinner at his place and we shared a nice evening with Neil, Shirley, Keiko and Aya.

On Sunday we wandered around the city of Okayam in the morning, visiting the famous gardens, the municipal museum and the castle.










We found a lovely Italian Italian restaurant for lunch. Jazz music was playing and people read books at the counter....were we in a Murakami novel?

We were so relaxed that almost forgot why we had come to Okayama. Our presentation was at 3pm and we arrived early to set up. I think it went OK. Everyone was very nice and asked lots of questions about our work so we were pleased. We stayed on to see another presentation about a student newspaper which was very good. The folks in Okayama do this kind of thing once a month and were surprised to learn that we never do this in Nagoya (we are always up mountains at weekends - you can't do everything). After the presentations, we had time for a beer in a German bar with everyone before heading off to the station to get the bullet train back to Nagoya.

Trip to the dentist

Exactly a year ago I was making daily treks across town to have treatment for an infected root canal (ouch - really!). Guess what. It's back. Same problem, same pain, so back to see the same dentist, Masataka (David calls him MassiveAttacker). At first Masataka didn't believe me when I told him I was in pain. He showed me the x-rays showing nothing out of the ordinary and sent me home. I suffered over the holiday weekend and went in again on Tuesday. The clinic was so busy that they had almost run out of slippers (you have to take your shoes off before entering). I was left with a choice of a pair of extra large ones or a pair of Miffy ones (especially for college-aged girls?). I went for extra large and they kept falling off. It's hard to be dignified with a swollen mouth, a pair of giant slippers and crap Japanese. I came prepared with a book and whiled away 45 minutes listening to cheesy muzac versions of Disney songs (as if they weren't bad enough to start with). Is that meant to relax you? Anyway, daily treatment and antibiotics have once again commenced. I know the drill, it's the same as last year. I had to BEG for painkillers. I swear I had to produce real tears in order to break MassiveAttacker. Pretty humiliating in an open plan dental clinic. Just like last year, I will probably have to administer some sketchy DIY treatment over the summer while I am travelling. This is a major nuisance, especially when camping. I managed to do it last summer in basic conditions in Indonesia, so I'm sure I'll manage again (blog from last summer)

well wrapped-up

What is it with Japanese women and cardigans in summer?? Summer in Nagoya means 30 degrees + and humid. It means wear light cotton clothes. It means leave your cardies in the drawer until October. In Abu Dhabi I wore sweaters all year round because a girl could freeze to death in those icy malls and offices, but in Japan the air-con is hardly what you would call robust. It's begrudgingly switched on to the least effective setting leaving the public in no danger of catching a chill, believe me. So.... my question to you again - what is it with the woolens in July and August?? I'm not suggesting you go around flashing your armpits (god forbid), but why do Japanese girls wear such warm clothes in the middle of summer?

I am anxiously waiting for your replies girls!

Hello Jo Kitty

You are never far from Hello Kitty in Japan, but one has never turned up on an exam paper (next to "teacher:") before...

Eventful week

No sooner does a typhoon pass us by than we we get an earthquake! This was a big one in Nigata. Friends in Nagoya even felt it this morning, but we didn't.
Map courtesy of the Japan Meteorological Association http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/indexe.html

It missed us!

The cyclone missed us. What an anti-climax.

A storm a-coming

It will be right over us later today..... better get some powdered milk in and batten down the hatches.

Fruit

Awwwww. So cute. Look at these perfect apples wrapped in little blankets and individually priced! The peaches at the supermarket looked good, but at 650 yen (3 pounds 50) each, I almost need to wait for a special occasion.














It's still raining by the way. I don't think it's stopped for a week.

Big scary cyclone coming our way

I can't imagine the storm getting worse than it currently is... It's lunchtime but very dark outside. When the rain starts it's like being in a car wash.

Black food

Doesn't this look disgusting? It's lovely though! I am a huge fan of anything made with sesame. Does anyone want me to send them some over to try?

Everything has a face (part 4)

Even cars and ambulances in Japan have faces. Here is a poster in the lobby of our apartment building. I wonder what it means.... something about driving carefully in the rainy season maybe? Can anyone tell me?

チューハイ (Chu-hai) of the week

Our local supermarket has expanded its range of shochu cocktails (chu-hai) for summer and I am very happy. Fewer people are drinking sake these days and lots of people prefer cans of fruity, carbonated chu-hai instead. I think I'll try a new one each week. Tonight it's the turn of Hi-Boy white peach flavoured cocktail and it is lovely!

Tasty treat of the week: banana bran muffins

I had a squishy banana in the fruit bowl so I thought I would put it to good use. I adapted this recipe from “Periplus Mini cookbooks: Muffins, scones and teacakes”.

Ingredients

240ml boiling water
120g All Bran
1 mashed ripe banana
1 beaten egg
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
60g firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
120g plain flour
40g skimmed milk powder
2 teaspoons baking powder


First, pour boiling water on the All Bran, stir and leave to stand for 1 hour. After an hour, pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C and grease 12 muffin pans. Next, add banana, egg, oil, sugar and vanilla to the All Bran. After that, sift flour, milk powder and baking powder into the bran mixture and stir gently until everything is mixed in. Finally, spoon batter into the muffin tins (2/3 full) and bake for 17 minutes. These are a great treat at breakfast!

Recipe Website

My first year writing class produced this online cookbook. We have done a bit of editing, but there are still mistakes in their English. I think they did a pretty good job though!
Koryo College Cookbook

Central Japan Alps

NEW! Photos here

Just got home after a lovely weekend of hiking. Quick summary (too tired to type much): 2 full days of walking; dry weather but a little too cloudy for the views we had hoped for; met a creature which looked like a cross between a deer, goat and a pig (turned out to be a kamoshika, a Japanese serow); came across a troop of about 40 monkeys at the top of one peak; spent the night in a hut; we changed our route a bit the next day and came down through the forest; lots of interesting flora and fauna; went to the hot springs before coming back to Nagoya. My legs are killing me!















The first part lots of fog!















The route after the fog lifted.














Justin and David climbing.















The team: Alan, me, Sergio, Justin and David.

CHIC Hiking Club Blog