The Winter post

 

After four months of blog idleness I decided to post some updates these days. After I dedicated November and December mostly to learning Japanese, searching for a new place and occasional visits to all-you-can eat restaurants, I started 2012 with a trip to Nagoya.

 

But first, let’s start with a brief dissection of the Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations in Japan. It is worth noting that as compared to Europe here these are celebrated in pretty much reverse ways, i.e. Christmas is celebrated with a loud party instead of a quiet family gathering and New Year’s is celebrated quietly in a family circle. So, on Christmas we had a nice international party in the dorm and on the New Year’s Eve we did what all Japanese people did – went to a temple, rang the bell and made a wish. No crowds, fireworks, frenetic countdowns, concerts, street dancing or hangover-inducing parties.

 

Christmas tip: Interestingly, Christmas decoration in Japan is in many aspects more impressive than the one in Europe and Christmas songs start accompanying your shopping experiences as early as November. Quite unexpected, considering it is not a native Japanese holiday. Here are some typical December sights – red Japanese maple tree leaves (momiji) and a Christmas tree:

 

   

 

New Year’s tip: Before ringing the bell at the temple you have to throw a coin into a designated place. Preferably, it should be a 5-yen coin because it is considered to be lucky in Japan. A reference to Wikipedia reveals why: “The Japanese for “five yen,” go en (五円) is a homophone with go-en (御縁), “en” being a word for causal connection or relationship, and “go” being a respectful prefix. As a result, five-yen coins are commonly given as donations at Shinto shrines with the intention of establishing a good connection with the deity of the shrine, and is widely believed it is best to insert a single five-yen coin into a new wallet before inserting any other money.”

Other winter break activities included ice skating. “My feet are sore but I want more” – my slogan after approximately 5 hours of continual ice skating. Pictures courtesy of Olya:

  

 

Of course, when speaking about Japan I primarily refer to Kansai/Osaka. In an attempt to discover more of Japan and avail of the winter break, I went on a day trip to Nagoya with Tiho. Nagoya is quite unlike Osaka – the city is situated in a flat plain, no hills, the streets are wide and straight, Western-style, and the cityscape as a whole reminds of Germany (Hannover was what first sprang to my mind):

 

  

  

  

 

The first highlight of the trip was our visit to the famous Atsuta Shrine, which is actually a huge 200,000 m² Shinto shrine complex. Being extremely popular, it attracts over 9 million visitors annually.

 

  

  

 

We then headed towards the Nagoya castle – a place I would most definitely recommend visiting. Many traditional objects are on display inside, and the view over the city from the top floor is worth seeing.

 

  

  

 

After seeing the sunset over the city from Nagoya castle, we went on to see the famous TV tower. Purposefully designed to look like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, it is quite imposing especially at night when it gets lit up.

 

  

 

After taking a stroll along the celebratorily lit up streets of nighttime Nagoya and having dinner at my so favorite Gyoza no Osho restaurant, we headed to the train station which, being the world’s largest train station by floor area, features two impressive 50-something-story twin towers which house the headquarters of the Central Japnese Railway Company among other things. Quite impressive.

 

  

 

Finally, we took the night bus back to Osaka.

Nara in November

Here are some pictures from our trip to Nara on November 3rd (yes it is indeed November although we can be seen wearing summer clothes in the pictures).
Facts and Highlights: Nara was the capital of Japan from 710 to 794 AD. There you can see deer roaming free and undisturbed along the streets and also in the parks. Since they are sacred animals they are not hunted and they are always given right-of-way on the road. They can be quite cheeky though, especially if they are hungry. Apart from petting and feeding the deer, we saw the oldest and largest bronze statue of Buddha in the world (the term for large Buddha statues is 大仏 ‘daibutsu’) . For that purpose we visited the Toudaiji temple which holds another record itself, being the largest wooden building in the world. Dating back to the 8th century the temple has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Indian summer

Here are some pictures from the Indian festival that took place in Kobe around October 9th.

       

…and some pictures from Kobe Chinatown:

  

…and some pictures of the Halloween sunrise from my window:

 

 

Eats shoots and leaves

After seven months in Japan, I thought it was high time I created a post dedicated to my culinary achievements. LOL. Here are some pictures of various dishes I have cooked since I came to Japan.

Starting with my masterpiece – Coca Cola chicken:

 

Next come some typically Japanese dishes, like okonomiyaki:

…sashimi from my favorite yellow tail fish (hamachi) only found in the Pacific. (For the record: cutting the fish is not all that easy…the unsightly appearance of my sashimi proves that…)

…deep fried renkon or lotus root (not an eye candy really but very tasty):

Next, some typically Bulgarian (or Balkan, to be politically correct) dishes, like eggs in garlic flavor salty yoghurt (you cannot see the eggs in fact):

To the unenlightened this might sound a bit off-pitting but it is actually insanely delicious!

…fried eggplant with garlic and vinegar sauce:

Next, tarator, the traditional Bulgarian cold summer yoghurt-and-cucumer soup:

…a hybrid Bulgarian-Japanese dish – mish mash with tofu (that’s because white feta cheese is extremely hard to find in Japan…and even if you find it, the price is likely to be exorbitant):

Tip of the day: Why is the cheese situation as it is in Japan? Because many Japanese people do not particularly enjoy the smell of cheese and butter. There is an expression in Japanese ‘bata kusai‘ meaning ‘smelling of butter’ and it is only used in the negative sense. Butter was brought to Japan by Europeans so it is not really widely used over here.

Back to the point…not to forget the mousaka we cooked at my host family’s place:

…and kyopoolu (a paste made from roasted egg plants, peppers, garlic, tomatoes and spices):

Call it Thracian Roasted Eggplant Salad, Eggplant relish, or whatever else, it’s simply finger lickingly tasty. One has to acknowledge that Bulgarian cuisine, taking the best from the Mediterranean and European cuisine and adding to it yoghurt, is definitely one of the healthiest and tastiest. It’s a pity it’s not that famous…should we blame it on the Iron Curtain?!…

Anyways, here comes the last part….crepes:

…boiled and roasted corn with peanut butter on top:

…tuna-olive-iceberg salad with a cheese sandwich (featuring Bulgarian kashkaval and savory):

…pizza:

Next, here are some dishes I didn’t cook myself but I liked especially much – miso flavor ramen at my favorite restaurant chain:

…pork curry with miso soup and caramelized potatoes at the student canteen:

…as well as one of the thousands types of bento sold in any shop:

And this is not all. Hani (a friend from Yemen) and me cooked hummus on several occasions. Here are some of the results:

 

  

Considering my quasi-addiction to hummus, I am seriously considering changing my nickname from Ketchup-Yani to Ketchup-Hummus-Yani. LOL

As a dessert, I can offer something traditional (yoghurt with strawberry jam on the left) and a personal innovation (banana and mango slices in coconut milk, with sesame sprinkled on top):

   

Bon appetit! ….And don’t forget to eat before you pray or love

Noh news is good news

On October 1st we went to see an outdoors Noh performance in the mountainous region of north Osaka. Noh is probably the most famous type of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. It is one of the pillars of Japanese performing arts. All the actors are men and they make use of wooden masks expressing various emotions. Many of the noh plays (including the one we saw) feature monsters and deities (in our case it was a giant spider).

Noh is performed on a special stage whose only ornamentation is a painting of a pine-tree at the back of the stage. The prototype of this pine tree is located at the Kasuga Shrine in Nara (one of Japan’s former capitals located an hour away from where I live). I had a chance to see that legendary tree last week.

Just before the performance, we had the unique chance to try some noh costumes on:

  

The performance itself was set up in a very atmospheric place which only added to its authenticity. The stage was situated in the foot of the mountain and it was lit by fire stands at its sides. The performance started at dusk and at some point the rataplan of the traditional drums, the actors’ chanting in old Japanese and the glimmering fires all merged in a surreal sensory experience. The culmination came when a giant spider appeared on the stage and started casting its webs in an attempt to fight its enemies. Since taking pictures was prohibited, I am posting here some depicting similar noh performances:

 

After the end of the performance we were interviewed for a local TV channel. I’ll post the interview as soon as it gets broadcast.

September

Apart from dolce far niente, my September featured a nice cultural experience trip to Kyoto prefecture. Some of the places we visited were:

• Byodo-in, the temple depicted on the obverse side of the 10 yen coin:

 

  

• Japan’s first whiskey distillery (Yamazaki Distillery), where you can see not only how whiskey is made, but you can also admire the over seven thousand bottles of unblended malt whiskey that are on display in the “Whiskey Library”, and enjoy a nice whiskey tasting session at the end of the guided tour:

• The Golden temple (Kinkaku-ji), a very impressive Zen Buddhist temple and garden complex. Due to the unfortunate fact that it started pouring with rain the moment we arrived there, I was unable to take any pictures. Therefore, I googled some for my blog only to find out that the temple is featured in a photograph in the desktop picture art of Apple’s OS X computer operating system:

We also had the opportunity to gain some first-hand experience of making the sweets used in the tea ceremony:

Finally, we were taken to Mt Arashiyama (which would translate as the Storm Mountain), home to many temples, bamboo woods, monkey parks and shrines, where just as it was getting dark we were unexpectedly invited to join a short boat tour in the Oi river which makes up a scenic backdrop to the district.  Seated in the boat floating through the darkness, with traditional white Japanese lanterns suspended from its roof whose reflection in the water created an almost unearthly feeling of lightness of soul, we listened to the melody of a traditional flute as the oarsman rowed slowly and rhythmically though the black waters, all this accompanied by a gentle drizzle reminding of the passing summer…

  

Japan Tent

No sooner had I returned from my trip to Malaysia and Singapore than I departed for the Kanazawa prefecture where I was to take part in the largest summer camp for international students in Japan. (At the welcome ceremony there was even a video address by the Prime Minister of Japan!)

Let’s just summarize it by saying it was an amazing one-week experience featuring a stay at two different Japanese host families in the city of Kahoku. Some of the most interesting activities included:

• a visit to the Fujitsu factory where the world’s fastest computer was (and as a matter of fact is still being) made
• a visit to the Nishida Kitaro Museum of Philosophy
• a visit to a prehistoric home
• a trip to Wajima where we saw how the traditional and extremely expensive Wajima ware is made, where (much to my surprise) we saw Bulgarian clams being sold at the famous local market, and where we had the best sushi ever
• a trip to Senmaida (‘the thousand rice fields’) – UNESCO heritage site
• a visit to the emperor’s house in Kanazawa
• a visit to a traditional salt production site using methods preserved from the past
• a visit to the Maritime Museum of Kahoku
• a barbecue in a park next to the seaside
• a workshop where we were taught how to make mizuhiki (traditional decoration)
• an opportunity to eat fugu (the famous poisonous blow fish), cook our own okomiyaki, eat a traditional Japanese dessert sprinkled with chips of pure gold
• sleeping on a futon
• visiting several Shinto and Buddhist temples
• attending sadou (tea ceremony) twice (we actually learned how to prepare the tea, how to serve it, how to have it and what to say before and after having it)
• tasting food from all over the world at the farewell party
• of course, meeting students from all over the world

Here is a slide show:

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