If you don't care about the fact that I got a new telephoto zoom lens for my camera, at least I can say that this post features a giant spider. Aside from those, probably nothing that special in this entry. Anyway, there have been several instances where more lens would have been of benefit to us in chronicling out travels - sumo and yabusame come to mind as recent examples, and we've talked about getting a telephoto lens for a while. Ana went ahead and got a really fairly spiffy one for my birthday, which is enormous and features about six times as much magnification as the standard lens. I look forward to employing it under circumstances that actually demand its use, but some of the trial shots I took are a bit interesting and they're all in Kanazawa so I figured I'd just go ahead and post them.
The camera used to seem big. Now I laugh at that notion.
Minimum magnification (~2x)
Maximum magnification (~9x)
From the hill behind our apartment at minimum...
...and at maximum. That stadium is probably six or seven miles away
Crow on top of the telephone pole
I was apparently too close to this wildlife - I was noticed and natural behavior was disrupted.
Minimum zoom (remember, this looks twice as close as it actually is)
Zoomed in. I was standing at least 20 feet away.
This spider's web was between a power line and a phone pole. It shows up about life-size on my monitor. These things are everywhere.
While Ana was off watching Takarazuka there was some really amazingly nice weather and I got around to mapping a local road into the mountains. We do a lot of miles on it preparing for the very real possibility of attempting the Appalachian Trail next spring/summer, but we didn't really know what our pace was while on it because we had no distance information. I went up there with my bike (and distance-tracking bike computer) and made a lot of notes about mileage and landmarks. I had one of the older cameras because 1) Ana had the good compact camera with her in Osaka and 2) I had no intention of taking the big camera out of the bag, removing the lens cap, taking a picture, and reversing the process a couple of dozen times to map the route. Then, up beyond where we usually go, I found some nice overlooks and views and wished I had the big camera anyway. Perhaps we'll be up there this winter after a snow with the big camera and can get some better shots. In the meantime, here are some pictures from the mountains up behind the apartment:
I also found a sign for the "Kanazawa City Intellectual Center", located waaaay out in the boonies. I was unable to find an affiliated website.
This is the second half of the post from way back in November here, which you should probably review so that this one makes sense. I'll leave this post here for a bit, then put it back in chronological order.
We still had another day of fun on Sunday before taking the train back home. We wanted to go to the Lupicia tea
room for breakfast, but they weren't open yet, so got breakfast from
another small shop before shopping at Lupicia for delicious teas. I got a
giant M&M's covered cookie and a Chai, which I proceeded to
combine:
There were unforeseen difficulties
After
my somewhat decadent breakfast, we went to Minoh, a place famous for
its fall foliage and its consumption of said foliage, fried. Apparently
Americans were not the first to deep-fry everything, we just choose the
most fat-laden things to dunk. Here, they go with maple leaves:
To enjoy the foliage, you walk down a path from the station that is lined
with touristy shops and stalls selling anything from venison to those
deep fried leaves to candy and beer. We purchased most of the above and
enjoyed our day in the crisp fall air. I even got some nice pictures of
a sweater I'd recently finished knitting:
Another
draw for this area is the waterfall, the goal at the end of the
stall-lined walkway. The waterfall is pretty nice, but as you can see,
THE place to be in the fall, at least around here:
A picturesque place, for sure. We were a couple of weeks early for the real fall colors around the waterfall, but it was a nice side trip. There are also signs saying to watch out for the monkeys, who
apparently populate the area. Sadly, we didn't get to see any along the
path, but I got a lollipop with a monkey on
it anyway:
We finished up the day with a trip to a brewery near Minoh, very tasty beers:
There
was some Weitzner on tap, and it was delicious. This place is kind of
out in the middle of nowhere, but is a really cool little brewery that
seems to be family run and sells its product to local liquor stores. I
would enjoy going back there, if I were in Osaka with some free time
again.
This was followed by a dinner where no pictures
were allowed. Seriously. I'd've taken a picture of the sign, but, well,
obviously. Thus ends my excellent trip with my friends to see some
Japanese women in drag.
Last weekend I traveled to Osaka with some friends to watch the Takarazuka Revue put on an all-female musical version of Ocean's 11, in Japanese. Yes, you read that correctly. As you may have guessed, Lee decided to stay home rather than accompany the all-girl crowd to the all-girl show.
Friday
night we took the train to Osaka and watched the movie (it's based on the Clooney version, not Sinatra's) to prepare ourselves for the show and hopefully to
follow the plot a little bit better. This was especially a good idea for me because my
Japanese is the worst in the group (most of them were Japanese majors in college). We went out for scones the next
morning:
Then headed on over to the theater itself:
The
show had just opened the day before. Ocean's 11 in honor of 11/11/11 I
do believe, and we went to the 11 am showing of it. The theater itself
is pretty small, and our seats weren't particularly close. We rented
opera glasses in order to get a better look, and wow do they ever work!
You could see every expression, which was great when one character was
being highlighted but not so good when you were trying to follow two
characters at opposite ends of the stage.
The show had singing, dancing,
sequins, and some very odd plotlines, so much so that watching the
movie wasn't really a great help! Of course, it was still about a Las
Vegas casino heist, but the similarities ended soon after. No pictures during the show, though there were one or two things I wish I'd taken a picture of anyway to show off. During one of the Vegas numbers, the supporting showgirls were all in costumes that looked suspiciously like these guys, but with capes, for no discernible reason. We certainly weren't expecting the Spanish Inquisition during a Japanese version of Ocean's 11!
After the show, we still had most of Saturday left. We went out for frozen yogurt (Lee's note - she created this dish, not the staff, it was a create-your-own-and-they-weigh-it place):
And Mexican food with Yuzu (Japanese citrus) margaritas:
Yes,
in that order. We ended the night with two hours of karaoke and a
Mister Donut (chain doughnut store like Dunkin' Donuts) run. An
excellent time was had by all!
Japan has four seasons, as any long-term resident here will invariably be reminded. It is also common to be asked whether your country also has four seasons. Respond in the affirmative, and you may be met with shock. The fact that most non-desert places between the tropics and the Arctic /
Antarctic circles have four reasonably distinct seasons can come as a surprise to many Japanese.
In Japan, the four seasons are not only a thing of nature, but a cultural phenomenon. The emphasis on what is in-season or not-in-season can be extreme. The cherry blossoms, symbol of spring, mean that it is time for Hanami, or cherry blossom viewing picnics, where the grass next to cherry-blossom-lined rivers will be covered with tarps full of of-age people who will be full of beer. Summer is the time to wear "cool biz" to work (short sleeves and no ties), summer festivals of all kinds, and beer gardens. In winter, there are hot foods that you can't get any other time of year and snow festivals. In Kanazawa specifically, winter is also the time to tie up your topiary so that the heavy wet snow doesn't snap branches off your great-great-grandfather's tree. New Year's calls for a large number of all-you-can-drink end-of-the-year parties.
Now, being fall, people will making trips to see the leaves change color, and "cool biz" is no longer allowed at work, which is OK because the AC and heat get turned off and on according to the calendar instead of the temperature and it can get a bit chilly inside.
Also, in a display of seasonality hitherto unknown to us, you can apparently get special "Fall" milk from Hokkaido. We had to get some and put it to the test. Our verdict: tastes like regular Japanese milk. The color caused us to confuse the container with orange juice, so we recommend sticking with the regular non-seasonal milk of your choice, as we'll be doing.
Readers of the previous entry may recall that this particular okonomiyaki dinner was enjoyed after completing a trip to a famous Japanese mountain, Tateyama. The only really meaningful connection that has to this post is that it explains why Ana and I are wearing our outdoor adventuring shirts in the pictures. Speaking of pictures, they're all on Flickr. Moving on! OK, okonomiyaki is a form of Japanese cuisine that is sort of like giant cabbage-egg fritters, usually with some meat or seafood added in. They're sizzled on a grill, often by the customer at their own table. The characters read to me as something like "grilled things that like each other" or "favorite grilled thing", and I'm not sure if I like that or am creeped out by it. The restaurant we like going to was back open after completing the renovations that had previously thwarted us, so obviously we went there.
Celebrating a good visit to Japan and some old friends, as well as a distinct lack of death or dismemberment during the recent alpine activities.
We all ordered extra larges, and what they bring to the table for each person looks like this. In this bowl, cabbage, green onion, ginger, eggs, and beef. I personally like the shrimp variety.
Everybody needs to stir it up into an evenly distributed mixture.
Sometimes people need help with this process.
Sometimes people don't actually need or want help with this process, thank you very much.
After greasing the griddle, the mixture is spread out onto it like so. Four extra-large okonomiyaki are a tight fit. We'd have liked to make them a bit thinner, but then they'd have merged and been impossible to flip. There is an hourglass-type timer on the side of the table that runs out when it is time to flip the okonomiyaki. This is always the most exciting part.
Flipping can be a little tricky, especially with extra large okonomiyaki.
I demonstrate the exact technique I intended to...
After they're safely flipped it is time to do toppings. The Japanese tend to put everything on the top, which is sauce (sweet or hot), seaweed flakes, dried shaved bonito, pickled ginger, and lots of mayonnaise. I prefer just hot sauce and shaved bonito myself.
After flipping, the real challenge is not to burn your mouth when it is actually time to eat.
And apparently to not make funny faces while dining in front of a man with a camera.
So I guess that just about covers the essential facts of okonomiyaki, and wraps up the series of entries related to our friends from college visiting us (and Japan). The next morning they were out on an early flight and to my knowledge made it back to Arizona. Fear not, though, our long-running streak of actually having content on the blog will extend at least one entry further, as next up Ana will comment on an odd and not-particularly-delicious seasonal offering from the Japanese supermarkets.
