Onsen Dinner 2009 Pictures

The combined KIT/KTC year-end party for 2009 was last week and we have pictures of the dinner part of it.  We apparently went to one of the most upscale ryokan (hot spring hotels) in Japan this year, but I'm not sure I detected much difference, though the actual hot springs part of it was definitely bigger and fancier.  I've been in nicer hotels in the States as far as overall luxury goes.  Everyone kept talking about how the Emperor's family stayed there once, and there was a framed display in the lobby showing stuff the Imperial family used (teacups, etc) during their stay.

Dinner was in a smaller hall this year, putting the whole staff together in one block, with the bar and other high-traffic areas off to one side.  We sat on cushions on the floor again, with the low tables.  This is not very comfortable over the long term, and almost nobody can sit in the traditional Japanese fashion, including the Japanese, kneeling with the weight on their heels, as it causes significant pain unless you've been trained to it over time.  Thus, we put our legs to the side in an incorrect but more comfortable posture.

This is the decorative paper cover for your dinner tray, to keep you from starting until after the speeches are given and the toast officially begins things.  Sarah from KTC being the newest teacher, she gave the toast this year and used a heck of a lot more Japanese than we did on our turn, but then she'd already lived for Japan for two years before joining us.

This is what you find underneath the paper wrapper.  On the left are crab legs with lemon (delicious) and I think uzu sauce.  The small brown bowl in the center is raw fish with roe (not bad at all).  The blue checkerboard square dish is sea cucumber, which neither of us ate this year because it is disgusting.  On the red tray is a giant snail (actually tasty) some shrimp which always taste off to me, and I think in the yellow bowl was probably whale sperm (not kidding, they've served it to us before) which we did not partake of now that we know what it is.  The small glass with white liquid is plum wine, used for the inital toast.

Sashimi tray containing squid slivers (used to it but not amazing), shrimp (tasted off as usual), tuna (wonderful), and some oily fish I don't know the name of that was quite enjoyable.  You'll notice the sea urchin there too, I tried that for the first time at this party and have mixed feelings - the flavor was incredible but too powerful alone.  Would make a wonderful chowder or bisque base ingredient, tastes powerfully oceanic and creamy but overwhelmed me in spoonful format.

Next up, fish / clear broth soup, very mild and kind of boring.

Delicious beef and onions, cooked on your plate, unfortunately only about 2oz worth.  Would have liked another 6-10oz of additional beef.  Not likely to happen at a traditional style dinner.

This enormous mollusk started the dinner alive - we took our papers off and had a look under the covers of the yet-to-be-cooked parts of dinner and some people's clams tried to escape.  Definitely the biggest and meatiest single-shell mollusk I've ever had, and not bad at all once thoroughly killed and cooked.  Took me several minutes to cut free of the shell for further slicing.

Once dinner really got going people got up and migrated around the room pouring drinks for each other and we didn't take any more pictures, though there were a few more courses and a buffet board with additional morsels if people wanted a salad or something.  The selection of booze was a step down from last year - they ran out of wine and wine glasses before I made it to the bar and the whiskey was decidely low end, below last year's mark of decent.  The sake wasn't bad though, or else I'm getting more used to it.  The desserts were good but vanished instantly - I suspect some people who wanted some didn't get any but Ana and I had three each (that's how many fit on one dessert plate, you're supposed to take more than one) so it could have been worse.  Overall, not bad for a traditional Japanese dinner but the extras were deficient.

They had traditional Taiwainese singers / dancers for entertainment, and then, same as last year, a mariachi band of all things.  I could have done without the Taiwanese dancers, the sound was not pleasant to my ears I would rather not have had to conduct my conversations over them.

After the professional entertainers, they set up karaoke on the stage and let people go at it.  This part of the evening was dominated by foreigners singing in both Japanese and English, most of them quite well.  Ana and I did not feel the need to sing at that time.

Overall, having done this all before, it seemed a lot less intimidating and difficult, and was pleasant enough.  Given that this party probably cost us $1000+ in faculty fees, I would pass on it at that price in the future, but we don't get anything back if we don't go so you'll see onsen pics 2010 next year at this time.  Maybe next time we can take video of pulling the paper off the tray to capture the full drama of dinner trying to escape and the attendant having to put the cover back on to keep it contained. 

Machine Shop Blessing Pictures

We mentioned the Shinto blessing of the machine shop after last year's annual ceremony, but we didn't have any pictures. This year the exact same thing went down but we have something to show for it so we don't have to link to Charlie the Unicorn again. Link to last year's post. There was dinner again afterwards except this time we knew at least half the people there and weren't seated at the high table since we were no longer new. I think I am much better able to handle traditional Japanese food as well, though I now know what to skip and can do so without feeling guilty because I know I don't like it from prior experience. Pictures of the Shinto shine set up for the ceremony to call down the protection of the spirits for our fine machine shop follow. We don't have any from the ceremony itself as we had to be bowing and looking solemn, not snapping pictures.

Shrine in the center, offerings around it. You can see some machine tools on the left. I believe those machine tools were blessed especially, or at least the old dude in the funny hat waved his tree branch at them a lot. After the ceremony, the perishable offerings were largely claimed by students, several dozen of which were standing in the back of the room as there were only chairs for faculty and staff. The students who attend are mostly the student staff and representatives from the projects that use the machine shop.

Calligraphy written out for the ceremony. It has the numbers 1-10 written across the top and I'm pretty sure the year in long form across the right edge, but the rest would take more time than I'm going to take right now to work out.

For those who are interested, you can see what the priest's hat looked like here.

Thanksgiving Party

Last year we had a bit of a Thanksgiving by ourselves, but this year, with more time, more equipment, more available energy, and more people we know, we had much more of a full-fledged Thanksgiving.  We set it up along with the Carranos, a professor from RIT on sabbatical at KIT and his family. They hosted and we both cooked and between us and the contributions of some of the other guests we had a pretty full spread, including turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, creamed onions, cornbread stuffing, and chicken cordon bleu (provided by a teacher from France who assured us this was her first Thanksgiving).

The turkey is a challenge in Japan for a few reasons.  The first is that they are not commonly sold, which can be fixed by making an order to themeatguy.jp (our internet butcher) as he probably supplies all of Japan with turkey and cranberry sauce in the pre-Thanksgiving time of year.  The second problem is fitting the turkey in the oven.  Japanese ovens are almost entirely countertop models, more like toaster ovens than American ovens.  I had several conversations with the Carranos over the phone discussing the predicted and actual size of the turkey and with both of us measuring our ovens.  We got a really good deal on a used oven and thus have one of the biggest models available in Japan, and it did not fit in theirs, so we had to cook the turkey here and then transport it across town when it was cooked.  The 14lb bird barely, barely fit - we had to put the roasting tray on the actual bottom of the oven itself.  It worked fine though, and we managed not to get any of it on their car when they drove us over, either.  I also made creamed onions and Ana made a chocolate pie and a lemon merengue pie and the lemon meregue was impressively good.  I can't speak for the chocolate because I didn't have any but none of it survived the evening so it can't have been fatal.

We had sumo on TV instead of football.  We don't watch much sumo because we don't have a TV but the Carranos watch enough of it to know what's going on and who to root for.  We were told by several people that it is quite exciting live but we've not had a chance to attend a competition yet.  Anyhow, their man beat the bad guy and there was much rejoicing, fellowship, and food.  Pictures provided by Hayato's trendy iPhone.

September Tokyo Trip

We're making significant progress in getting our behind-the-times posts out.  This one is last really egregious one, but we have Christmas break coming up and plenty of plans for that so maybe we can be behind again soon.

Jason McSheene, a friend and fellow fraternity member of mine from RIT spent two weeks in Tokyo this September, on vacation from doing unspeakably scientific things at Princeton for his PhD program.  Given that I sort of don't actually have to go to work during September because classes aren't in session (though the whole department and I do go to work that month anyway because this is Japan) I split for a couple of days to go say hi and see some of Tokyo With Mr. McSheene.  I took the night train on a Sunday night, hung out Monday, stayed at KIT's condo overnight, hung out Tuesday morning and then took the train back Tuesday afternoon to work Wednesday-Friday.

After hitting Tokyo Station at around 6:30AM, I took the subway to Akasaka and grabbed a shower and claimed a room in KIT's condo.  Nobody else there, as usual.  Feeling a lot more awake and alive, I went to meet Jason at his hostel in Asakusa, which required spending some time figuring out the subway map as it was not immediately clear to me how to get to the station he recommended.  Here's a subway map of Tokyo for your reference.

His directions from the station were perfect so I found the place without any trouble.  Based on what I heard in the lobby the primary occupation of at least some of the foreign youth staying there was staying up all night every night partying as hard as possible, leaving me to wonder why this would not be possible slightly closer to home.

The plan that Jason was using was to basically hit every major neighborhood of Tokyo one at a time over his two week stay, and on the Monday that I was in town the neighborhood that was up for review was Odaiba, so we headed down there to look around.  Note that most of the pictures were shot by Jason as his are better.  A few items of high priority were immediately dealt with.

    100 foot tall robot "statue": Check.  That's a crane right next to it.

Odaiba is an island right off Tokyo, accessible by train, boat, and if you don't mind walking a looong time, bridge.  We took the train and grabbed brochures of the attractions of the area.  It's kind of a touristy area, highly developed, with many museums and parks and the like.  To our amusement it is also, apparently, a major date spot as pretty much every other group we saw was a couple or couples. Here are a few things in Odaiba.

 This is unfortunately a TV studio and not a Bond-villain hideout.

 This one is a maritime museum, built to look like a boat.

We wandered around some enormous malls, five stories tall and stretching for blocks at a time.  Since we weren't looking for shopping, these weren't so exciting.  Some of them had things like entire small theme parks inside them, but we didn't feel like spending the money to go in.  We had ice cream for lunch, and then hit a science museum.  Yes, we're nerds, we know, moving on.

The science museum interior, with giant suspended LED globe

Their space section had a test capsule signed by Buzz Aldrin, which was awesome.

The ASIMO demonstration was kind of creepy.

We found the science museum to be a little dry, more so than the American science museums I've been to.  Some of the science they were trying to teach was really high-level stuff, beyond what could reasonably be picked up by the public I think.  There was a twenty page picture book explaining photosynthesis that documented and created cute characters for each molecule or particle involved, kind of like if Sesame Street tried to teach quantum physics.  They had a few cool things though, including the test version of the Japanese ISS capsule (signed by Buzz Aldrin) and a demonstration of the ASIMO robot, which rode the line between looking comical and looking two versions away from trying to enslave mankind.  Fortunately, admission to the museum was cheap so we didn't spend much to see the cool parts.

 

Inexplicable miniature Statue of Liberty, Tokyo waterfront in the background

Sculpture, I guess.

After the museum and some more wandering around Odaiba, we got a late lunch / early dinner at an all-you-can-eat place serving mostly Western food.  We strove manfully to get our $20 worth and I delighted in the greasy, cheesy, heavy, non-Japanese-ness of the food.

                                                                                                                                                                                

After dinner, I wanted to see Akihabara, the legendary Tokyo computer/anime/video games/nerd district, and Jason wanted to play some Street Fighter 4, so we went and wandered around.  I found out that, yes, indeed, you can get a deal on nearly anything electronic in Akihabara, from obscure games published back in the day, to obscure lightbulb forms (whole shops selling strange lightbulbs), to custom cut-to-length computer cords, and all of the latest components.  You can also find towering, cacophonous arcades.  We went in so Jason could play Street Fighter and he got his ass handed to him by some Japanese player.  These arcades had some games from decades ago that apparently are still hubs of competition and prestige, at least in Akihabara if nowhere else.  They also have women in maid costumes every ten feet trying to convince the otaku (explanation of otaku) and the regular passers-by to patronize their very expensive maid cafes where you basically pay through the nose to have a cute girl (frequently in costume) talk to you.  Since I wasn't actually shopping for components or cute women in maid costumes, and Jason was done with games, we went to find a good bar.

We opened up Jason's travel guides and picked out a British pub, run by a British expat, that was recommended by the guide as a fairly calm place with good non-Japanese bar food.  One interesting thing about Japan is that the streets don't have names, so it can be quite difficult to find a given place, especially since a restaurant or shop is more likely to be several stories up than at ground level.  We went to the correct subway station for the pub, and then wandered the neighborhood in a search pattern for maybe half an hour before we found a map with a breakdown of the local block numbering system.  With that we managed to find the right building, but the pub was closed despite the hours in the travel guide saying they were open.  We were proud of ourselves for finding the place, but it would have been better had it been open for our trouble.  We found another pub about two blocks over, though this one was only inspired, rather than run by the Brits.  Had some serviceable fish-and-chips and good whiskey, and talked for a couple hours and caught up.  

The next morning we went out to Roppongi, which is pretty much the foreigner's district.  Walked around, enjoyed the correctly-spelled English signage, and went shopping at the National Abazu supermarket, which is a real house of wonders for foreigners from outside the city.  Got 128 ounces of peanut butter, 8 ounces of authentic Old El Paso salsa and some tea that Ana wanted.  Didn't get so very many things - its easier to forget about things that can't be had regularly than to miss them.  Finshed up with lunch at the same Mexican place Ana and I went to last time and headed home. 

Kenroku-en: Fall Light-Up

We previously showed you some pictures of a light-up of Kenroku-en, the local major garden. Apparently, they do one of these in each season, and the past two weekends were the fall light-up. We were able to go one evening to see the garden in all its autumn glory, lit up at night. This is a very nice event because it's free, it's beautiful, and it's rather romantic to walk through a softly-lit garden at night, even if your significant other isn't interested in holding hands in public.  (Ed. Note: It was pretty freaking romantical to begin with, no need to get crazy with it, especially in Japan)

We managed to go on a not-so-perfect evening; it was a bit chilly and there was a constant rainy mist. Not bad enough to use umbrellas while in the park itself, just constant moisture.  Some of the views are quite dramatic lit up, and the whole place feels smaller and more private at night, even with all the people around.

We ran into another teacher we work with who had come to see the park, and we stuck together for the walk.

A classical string band was playing on the porch of one of the shops at the edge of the pond, so most of the park could hear them play, which further contributed to the pleasant ambiance.

After satisfying our need to witness the spectacle of illuminated vegetation, hamburgers were in order, so we took the bus down to Freshness Burger and got our American food fix.


Full, mostly not great pictures available on Flikr.

Campus Pictures

Yet another post from the deep archives, we bring you Kanazawa Institute of Technology in spring.  All winter last year was wet and dark and dreary, so we held off wandering around campus taking pictures until spring.  After that, we held off blogging the pictures until now. 

We had been planning to document our place of work for those who might be interested on the first really nice day of spring, and a nice day it was indeed.  Just about everything green was blooming.  We took a nice long walk around campus around lunchtime and took pictures of the concrete and flowers.  At the beginning of this trek, Ana mentioned that she had seen some particularly attractive white bamboo trees near a cherry, but as she had been following co-workers to a meeting in an unfamiliar part of campus she did not know where, precisely, they were.  Finding and photographing these mythical white bamboo became the epic quest of this adventure.

We started out on the road outside of the cafeteria.

Then went past building 24, where I work. (2nd floor, room 215 to be exact)

Through the main quad of campus.

Up to the base of the library center.

We checked around the back of it too.

Then to the top of the library center.

We caught a glimpse of our prey from the top of the LC.

Where we saw the trees she was looking for, reinvigorating our quest for them.

It still took us a while to find as the tiny quad they were in was an interior courtyard and we had walked entirely around the outer building looking for it with no success.

They were, in fact, good to look at.

You can see the full set of pictures on Flikr.

Daijoji Temple Visit

The first weekend of November was supposed to be the last nice weekend before the cold, wet winter. Taking advantage of the lovely weather, we decided to take an afternoon stroll to a temple and park located just down the street. We took a few pictures of the scenery along the way. The fall scenery isn't quite as good as what you see back home, but it is nice.


We walked along a fairly major road, past some neighborhoods and farms, up to a heavily wooded area. Most of the foliage directly behind our apartment is bamboo, but down the road you can find some deciduous trees with some nice colors. Midway up a hill is a fairly large temple and graveyard, Daijoji, or Big Something-or-other (Power according to Yahoo) Temple. The entryway is guarded by what seem to be similar to saints, each one for a specific purpose or type of person, or such was our deduction based on the kanji accompanying each statue.


Inside the graveyard area, there are separate plots for each family. Some look really fancy and expensive, with lots of marble and a finished floor...


...whereas others are just a few stones in a dirt plot.


Once past the family plots, you encounter the temple itself. If you go on certain days, you can catch ceremonies or meditation. There is also a big gong that you are allowed to ring with a donation box you are requested to use if you strike the gong. There are areas to burn incense, like at the guardians at the front and in front of a golden statue within the temple, where you are also asked to donate in return for burning a stick of incense to pray. It's a pretty good system, I think.

Main entry gate for the temple area. Wheelchair accessible!

After passing through the temple area, we continued on to the park next door to the temple. This park has the most grass we've seen in one place in Japan, and has a pretty amazing view of the city of Kanazawa. You can see out to the ocean:


Check the Flickr set for more photos of Daijoji and the park.