Sonoma and Napa - wine country

The poor Hula Guy felt a little out of his league today in the very upmarket towns we visited in Sonoma and Napa counties (Healdsburg, Calistoga, St.Helena). There are over 3000 wineries in California and in this part of the state, there are neat grape vines growing everywhere. It's really beautiful.

Near the spa town of Calistoga, we visited a petrified redwood forest. Over 3 million years ago, Mt. Helena erupted and coated the trees with ash. The trees eventually turned to stone. More about that HERE. We also visited a geyser which spouts boiling water out of the earth every 40 minutes. More about that HERE.

Photos of our day HERE.

Bodega Bay, Sonoma Coast

We are staying in the Sonoma wine region. It's a really beautiful part of the world. Today the Hula Guy, David and I explored the coast around Bodega Bay (did you ever see Hitchcock's "The Birds"?) Photos here.

Road trip with the Hula Guy

Oh yes, we really did drive around with The Hula Guy on the dashboard today. He's on a spring and dances and bobs away as you drive - it's pretty entertaining (see video below).

Muir Woods

We stayed a night near Mill Valley. We had been warned that motels were expensive near here and we paid a lot to stay in a basic Holiday Inn. Fortunately it was next to a really good Italian restaurant where we went for dinner.

When we got up the next morning, it was raining. The first rainy day of the holiday, so we can't really complain, but disappointing all the same as we had planned to do some walking. Instead we bought umbrellas and went to Muir Woods, the setting for one of the scenes from Vertigo. We saw trees of 112m tall - the tallest living things on earth.




Following a white pickup through the fog






A scene of Muir Woods from the movie Vertigo

The Hula Guy

We always play this silly game at Christmas with Amy and George. It's called the Yankee Swap and involves buying one good gift and one joke gift and wrapping them both up. At the end of the game you end up with two gifts. David bought this Hula Guy as his joke gift from a cheesy shop in San Luis Obispo. Lucky Amy ended up with it, so I am wondering HOW IT GOT INTO OUR SUITCASE.....












I sense that this isn't the end of the road for the Hula Guy.

Silicon Valley

You won't find Silicon Valley on a map, and I have often wondered where it was. It is basically the area not very far south of San Francisco incorporating Palo Alto, Santa Clara and San Jose and is the birthplace of the silicon chip. Last night we stayed in San Jose, the third largest city in California (after L.A. and San Diego). We stayed a little bit away from the city center and there wasn't too much going on, so we got an early night ready for the Tech Museum.

The Tech Museum is showing an AMAZING exhibition called Body Worlds 2. We missed the controversial Body Worlds in both London and Yokohama, so were very excited to be able to see it here and it was the reason we were in San Jose. The exhibition basically displays plastinated human bodies and was pretty shocking. Unlike the first exhibition which used the bodies of executed Chinese prisoners, these exhibits bequeathed their bodies willingly to the project before their deaths. It is probably the best exhibition I have ever visited. Read more here.

After the exhibition and a quick lunch, we motored on up the 101 through San Francisco, over the Golden Gate Bridge and into Marin county. We stopped for coffee in a very European-looking town called Sausalito, explored the quaint hamlet of Mill Valley and found a motel nearby to stay for the night. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Some photos here.

The way to San Jose

Today we said goodbye to Amy and George and got back on freeway 101 heading north. Our first stop was at another Spanish mission (San Miguel Arcangel).



















In our excitement of being on the road again, we forgot to fill up with petrol before we left SLO. This meant we were in the middle of nowhere when the red light started flashing. We are used to regular service stations in Japan and the UK, but there aren't any of these on the 101. We pulled off the freeway at a town called Bradley (population 120). It was not much more than a collection of tatty trailers and a church. A scary white pick-up truck overtook us then vanished. We saw no other people, and this is a photo of the gas station.










We got out quick.

The next town was called San Ardo (population 501). The first gas station looked like this.










Fortunately, the second one was open. Just as well as we have seen the movie with Kurt Russel where one of them goes off for gas in a pickup truck with a local.....and never comes back.

We drove past the town of Gilroy. We spent 24 hours there on the way down at the outlets. We stayed at the classy Motel Super 8.










We haven't shopped like that since we were last there almost 2 years ago.

California

No time for blogging, but here are some photos:

1. Visit to Alcatraz, San Francisco

2. South on the 101 to San Juan (mission)

3. Christmas with Amy and George

Bonenkai (“forget the year” parties)

I could never complain of not having a social life here in Nagoya; in eight days I’ve had six parties. It sounds like a recipe for excess and weight gain, but strangely I always lose weight at this time. I’ll explain why. Restaurants do “bon-enkai” specials for large groups which are shared set dishes. This means I don’t get much to eat. The portions are pretty small and I have to flight over morsels with my (still) substandard chopstick skills. Plus there are always a few dishes I pass on. I’ll probably make up for it in California. I leave on Wednesday.

Christmas in Tokyo

Today we went to Tokyo just for the day. Have a look at my photos taken in Shinjuku and Glitzy Ginza. The highlight was seeing Ebi-chan (Japanese supermodel) coming out of Samantha Tiara (diamond shop) in Ginza.

We'll live and die in these towns

Are there really still people out there that haven't heard of The Enemy? They are like The Jam reincarnated. They are the only band I know of to come out of Coventry. The lead singer looks about 12, but he's great! We went to see them tonight in Club Quattro. The Enemy have lots of fans in Japan - the place was packed and hopping.

Carmen (Georges Bizet)

On Tuesday I went to the opera with my colleagues and over 200 students. It was a compulsory school trip which worried me a bit. Forcing 19 year olds to go to the opera could have devastating effects on future art appreciation, couldn't it? I needn't have worried. The girls loved it, and they understood more than I did (it was sung in French) as there were Japanese subtitles in LED lighting at the side of the stage. I've never seen that before!

Yorosan

I have been so distracted with Facebook (plus other things going on in my life) that I have neglected my blog!

On Sunday we led a hike to a waterfall and three peaks in Gifu. We last did this walk in February in the snow, so it was quite a different experience to see the beautiful autumn leaves in all their glory.

Autumn

I had a bit of a wander around campus today because the autumn colours are so beautiful.
Here are the pictures I took.

Tokyo

Just recovering from a hectic weekend in Tokyo for the JALT conference. We caught up with a few old friends and even managed to squeeze in some sightseeing.

Pictures on Facebook

Fujiwaradake (1120), Mie

We lead a hike up our favourite mountain, Fujiwaradake in Mie, today. There were 20 of us in all and we had a great day. It's a challenging hike and we had some showers going up and sleet and hail at the top, but we all enjoyed ourselves.

Brit Abroad

I'd like to pretend that I live entirely on things like raw octopus in wasabi and daikon and natto, but I will confess that I thoroughly enjoyed a plate of good old beans on toast today. It was particularly exciting because we have never seen baked beans in the shops here. I actually haven't had this meal in a YEAR AND A HALF! We have recently found a way to get hold of these luxury items for 420 yen a tin (about 1.80 in UK pounds) from a guy who calls himself "The Meat Guy" and delivers throughout Japan. We also ordered a turkey and a leg of lamb from him. Everything arrived frozen - including the tins of beans, but they tasted great.




Taking photos of food is a particularly Japanese thing. I guess I am assimilating despite the beans on toast...

Guess what David is making for dinner

Yuzu

My lovely colleague, Suzuki-san, gave me a present today. It's a yuzu. Here's how the conversation went:

Suzuki-san (beaming and reaching into her bag): A present for you!
Me (beaming back - I love presents): Thank you! thank you!.... what is it?
Suzuki-san: Yuzu des. From my garden.
Me: Oh! A yuzu! Lovely! Do I peel it like an orange?
Suzuki-san (horrified): No no! Don't eat it!
Me: So what do I do with it?
Suzuki-san: Use the peel in your bath. But not the juice - it will give you a rash.
Me: Oh! OK. What should I do with the juice?
Suzuki-san: Put it in your dashi!

[I know dashi is a kind of Japanese soup stock, but I have never made it. It takes hours and most people buy ready-made dashi in the supermarket.]

Me: Dashi! OK! What else can I use it in?
Suzuki-san (thinks hard): Do you like shabu-shabu?
Me: Yes!
Suzuki-san (looking relieved): it's good for shabu-shabu.
Me: Great! I will try it.
Suzuki-san: But don't put too much in as it's very bitter

I looked up yuzu. Perhaps I should try and make this ponzu sauce.

Why I hate shopping for clothes in Japan

1. Clothes are so expensive here
2. The largest size in women's clothing stores is usually a size 6 (UK 10 / EUR 40)
3. The largest size is often not on display, but hidden in the stock room
4. To get a "large" size, you have to ask for help from a tiny sales assistant
5. She usually approaches you first and asks you if she can get an "EXTRA LARGE" for you
6. Everyone in the shop looks round to see who the "fatty" is (or is it my paranoia?)
7. Even if this giant garment fits you, the arms will be too short and it will gape around the bosom
8. You leave the shop feeling like an enormous foreign monster
9. If you didn't have body insecurities before you go to Japan, you sure will have them when you get there

David (who is 6ft 5 inches tall) tells me that I should be pleased that I can actually buy things here at all.

I can't wait to go shopping in California this Christmas.

Fun autumn food shopping

We still don't know what most of the stuff is in our local supermarket, but we are expanding our culinary repertoire slowly. Here are some things we bought today:

(clockwise from left to right)
a round zucchini
ready-roasted chestnuts
burdock
miso paste
a square persimmon

Lunch Party

What a lovely afternoon of fine food, drinks and conversation. Some of which we were even able to follow! Mamoru and Naoe were such kind hosts and I hope we can reciprocate one day.

(clockwise) Hisako, Kithota, me, David, Takahashi-sensei, Naoe, Katsusada, Toshie, Yoshiko and Mamoru.

Sports Day 2007

It's Sports Festa time. Again. (cue "I got you babe"). I just checked my blog from the 2005 and 2006 events to see if I can spot any differences.... um....not many actually. Still, it's all good clean fun and a nice opportunity to see students outside of class. Tatyana's seminar group were the winners this year, but even we losers got a nice hand drawn certificate (embellished with cartoon smiley faces) congratulating our efforts and telling us not to give up.

This year's photos
2005 Sports Day
2006 Sports Day

Hiking friends

One of the reasons I like hiking in Japan so much is that you meet the nicest people up mountains. People are often surprised to find us foreigners climbing mountains off the beaten track and they ask us lots of questions, share their food with us and give us hiking tips. Hiking is something that few young Japanese people seem to be into, in fact, it's mainly people over 60 that we meet on mountains. Many have been hiking their whole lives and are very fit. Just last Sunday a woman who looked like she was in her 80s overtook us halfway up Nagisodake. I hope I will be like that when I am an old timer.

A few months ago we met a group of people near the top of Mt. Miroku. We got chatting and it turned out that many of them had been in Dublin and loved Ireland. They were part of a neighbourhood retired person's climbing club called "Hiyokko" which means "Chicks". They even had matching key rings with chick motifs on them. We found this really funny as our hiking club is also called CHIC (Chubu Hiking International Club). We were also shocked to find that they know my colleague Takahashi-sensei - he's one of their neighbours. What a small world! We stayed in touch with the Chicks and we have been invited this Saturday to a lunch party at Mr & Mrs Yamashta's house. I am really looking forward to it. It is actually our first invitation to a Japanese home.

Is anyone going to come and visit us?

We have lived in Japan for 2 years and 7 months now and I love it more each day. I know I had a few issues with the cold in our first year, not helped by living in a (typical) badly designed apartment. These issues were probably exaggerated by soft, easy living in a huge, modern (free!) apartment in Abu Dhabi for 6 years. I occasionally have a bit of a moan about our living space, but to be honest it's no longer a big deal when there are so many wonderful things about living in Japan. We don't plan to leave anytime soon. Is anyone going to come and visit us? I just read two good articles in the Guardian that might help to persuade you:

About food
Off the beaten track with Hari Kunzru

Nagiso dake, Nagano (1677m)

Last time we did this hike was in the snow earlier this year. We were much quicker this time and got back down well before dark and then had a trip to our favourite onsen before driving home again.

Halloween tea party

The barm brack was a hit. I even showed Yoshihara-sensei how to stick your pinky out when you drink tea.

More Fun Halloween Cooking

I am trying to write out my brack recipe in Japanese so I looked online for some recipes so that I could copy the format. You have to check out this site where (I'm guessing) Japanese child-bakers send in their creations. Pumpkin face seaweed bento anyone? Will someone tell me how Hello Kitty fits in with the Halloween theme??

Halloween Cooking

Last week in our Japanese class our teacher, Yoshihara-sensei, brought in some sweets from Kyoto and green tea. This week, as it's Halloween, I thought I'd bring in a barm brack. I've just taken it out of the oven and it smells yummy. I had never had this before I went to Dublin, but it's the thing to have at Halloween in Ireland. It's basically a fruit tea cake not unlike the one I usually make. It's a bit bigger and you bake it for longer. It's nice with a strong pot of tea. One thing mine is missing is a hidden ring and other charms. Traditionally in Ireland at Halloween or Samhain (pronounced sow-an David tells me - Irish for November) a ring is hidden in the cake and the person who gets the ring in their slice will get married that year. The word brack comes from an old Irish word, 'breac', and means speckled (i.e. with fruit) and barm probably comes from 'aran', which means bread. Here is an easy to follow recipe fairly similar to mine http://www.dochara.com/eat/traditional/barm-brack.php












I'm going to have to work out how to say all this in Japanese before tomorrow so I can tell Yoshihara-sensei.

Flower shots

I have been bitching about this camera for almost 2 years as I have been unable to get it to take proper close-ups of flowers without blurring. I think I sussed it out today (click to enlarge). I was so happy. I wish I had a smell camera as they smelled to sweet, I want to remember the scent.

Club BBQ

Today was the hiking club's autumn BBQ at Shonai Ryokuchi Koen and we had perfect weather for it. When I think of BBQs, I think of rain, burnt burgers and wilted salad. I had no idea that the Japanese version would be so sophisticated! Ito-san cooked kajiki maguro (marinated tuna) and other fish on the hot plate, Takashi brought sushi, Masa made a Thai curry and there was also chicken, squid pasta and yaki soba (meat and noodles). Yum! I made some new friends including a lady who has tea parties, a girl who lives on my street and another lovely woman who spoke wonderfully slow, clear, simple Japanese so that I could understand everything :-)

BBQ photos here

After the BBQ a few of us went to see the roses in full bloom in the rose garden. It was also a good chance to see dogs decked out in their finest.

Want to see my etchings?

We just saw a lovely exhibition of over 100 of Rembrandt's etchings at the Nagoya-Boston Museum of Fine Art. My favourites were the biblical ones as they were so detailed. I also liked the way he portrayed street people, often sneaking in a self-portrait of himself as a beggar or something (see pic). I think that if Rembrandt were around today, he'd have great fun making etchings of people in Japan as there are some great costumes and hairstyles.

See more etchings on this website.

Again and again

We loved The Bird and the Bee! After the show we bought their EP and even got it signed by Inara and Greg. We were the only non-Japanese in the audience and I think we took them by surprise. Check them out on MySpace

Za ba-do ando za bee

Tonight we are going to a gig at Club Quattro. I had to ask for the tickets in my best "katakana" English (za ba-do ando za bee) because the girl didn't understand "The Bird and the Bee". I wonder what kind of crowd we will get...

Our local

We have a local pub. A real local pub like one you'd find in Ireland that does draft Guinness and has big wooden tables. You have to edit out the apartment block above it. The place is always, dark, empty and plays jazz. We went there last night for the second time with Michael, Dan and Wilailuck. It was nippy outside so felt nice and snug inside. The barman is frosty but pulls a good pint and knows his whiskeys. We think he's modeled himself on a character in a Haruki Murakami novel. We think the bar should be called Murphy's or Finnegan's, but we asked the barman again about its name: it's Frando (フランド) "because it is like a French bar". No, we couldn't work that one out either. There's nothing French inside, just lots of things with Guinness on. Strange place, but we will be back.

Another year, another school festival

Check out more pics here

Spooky forest

Cool truck

Isn't this truck amazing? We followed it a for a while on the Chuo Expressway