Got One!

Can you see it?

How 'bout now?

We finally (1) saw a kamoshika and (2) had our camera with us to document it. Unfortunately, not the big camera because it's still a bit icy and dark out and the idea of possibly smashing it into little pieces while slipping on black ice doesn't appeal. One of the things that's been on our list for nearly the entire time we've been here has been to see some of these guys, the local deer/goat/dog/thing creatures, in the wild. We finally did that a month or so ago, but did not have any of our cameras with us. We've been hoping to get some photographic evidence before leaving Japan, and while we'd like some better pictures, this guy was a pretty patient model this morning:

I know, I know, an entire entry full of semi-blurry low light pictures of this creepy little creature? Yes, it's our blog and we do what we want:

Proof: They do exist!  Now we'll see if we can get a picture in decent light with the better camera.  No promises, we've only run into these things twice before now.

Winter in the Bamboo Forest

We've been getting up early to put on our backpacks and walk up into the mountains on a road through the bamboo forest behind our apartment.  We're trying to ramp up the mileage and weight to gain some sensible level of preparedness for the distinctly non-zero chance that we're going to have a go at the Appalachian Trail when we head back to the US at the beginning of April.  Recently, it has been cold enough to snow instead of rain (always welcome, much drier to walk through and we don't have to shovel anything ourselves) and our route was transformed into a real winter experience.  We try to always carry a camera now in case we encounter some of Ishikawa's goat-deer-pig creatures (kamoshika) which we haven't seen since we started carrying the camera, so I took some pictures of the bamboo forest with snow on it.  The full (though small) set is on Flickr.

It has been a little dark at the beginning of these walks - had to use the headlamps a couple of times.

Turns out that bamboo is quite flexible, and snow brings the tops right down to head level.

Around this curve they all bent down together in a half-circle.

 Some days we are definitely the first humans to traverse the road, though we've seen the tracks of a number of different creatures.

Quite a thing to see before breakfast.

Blogging may be a bit thin on the ground from here to the end - planning one last Japan adventure but those posts won't be up for at least six weeks.   We'll post if anything cool comes up.

Anamizu Oyster Festival 2012

We visited the Anamizu Oyster Festival last year and had a lot of fun, so when this year's event rolled around we headed back up to do it again. The Anamizu Oyster Festival is way up on the Noto Peninsula, and as one might expect oysters are prominently featured in the cuisine available from vendors. The primary form of consumption, however, is buying bags of raw oysters and grilling them yourself on one of the hundreds of wood-fired grills set up in the festival area for just that purpose.  The full picture set is on Flickr.

One of the teachers with a driver's license borrowed a school van and drove a bunch of us up to the festival, again leaving quite early in order to get the good seats.  The festival was the same place but it seemed to have a few more vendors than the previous year, because oyster pizza and fried custard doughnuts were newly available.

Our early schedule paid off and we got prime seats, under cover and near the stage.  We set to work grilling oysters like seasoned veterans.

I recommend only putting 2-3 per person on at the same time, or some of them will be overcooked by the time you've eaten the other ones.  The festival provides the gloves for grabbing oysters with, along with implements. Different people in the group brought different condiments like lemon and ponzu, but my favorite was probably just a little extra salt.

The local schoolchildren did taiko, but the stage was pretty bare for most of the day, which was better than the bad karaoke we'd been subjected to last time.  We did miss the "Mountain Song" guy (see previous blog entry) - we asked and he didn't take the stage until the second day of the festival. 

 We discovered a new and excellent form of rice ball - wrapped in pork strips and fried in sauce and juices.  The rice soaks up juices and the crispy pork holds it together somewhat during consumption.

 Some visitors to the school from New Zealand came along, and one of them took good care of his fish while it was grilling. I particularly enjoy the skepticism on the face of the Japanese guy watching.

 Ana got mango cotton candy.  We also ate about four of the fried custard-filled doughnut-like pastries, which were about as delicious and addictive as food gets.

After we'd eaten all we cared to, the driver of the minivan wanted to hit a coffee roasting place that also happened to be on the Noto peninsula, so we headed up there.  The best part for us, being non-coffee drinkers, was the scenery.  The Noto was covered in snow and looked very different than during our bike trips around it.

The roasting place was tiny, but cheerful.  Some of their blends exceeded $50/lb, though most were in the $15-20 range.  It sounds like they sell to restaurants and cafes across the prefecture and beyond, which must be the only way to stay in business when you're a tiny roaster located hours from civilization.

After the roasting place, we drove across the Noto again to a cafe that serves coffee made with the roasting place's beans. We crossed over some hills and mountains that seemed a lot tougher on a bike than they did in a car.  They had pretty good bagels and cakes, so we got a bit more dessert on top of the oyster breakfast / lunch.

This Oyster Festival is probably the penultimate travel experience for us in Japan; we leave at the very end of March.  We're planning to do one last time out into Japan in March, and there may be a few entries relating to moving and emptying out the apartment, but no promises. There is a lot to take care of before we head home!

Edible Fractal

I don't know if these things have started showing up in the US while we've been away, but I hadn't seen one until quite recently here in Japan.

 Wikipedia says it is called Romanesco Broccoli but we found it here labeled cauliflower and called it simply 'fractal' because it so clearly is a fractal and is not cauliflower.  We had to try one and found it very nice - they seem to be about halfway between cauliflower and broccoli, with a firm but very biteable texture and flavor that is mild but more pronounced than cauliflower.

If these are everywhere at home I apologize for the old news, but we thought these were pretty nifty and some people might be interested to see them.  Who knows, we may even blog something about Japan again before we leave the country.

Kanazawa With My Sisters

 Welcome to Kanazawa, in Japanese

I spent the last days of winter vacation sightseeing in Kanazawa with my sisters, while Lee got things straightened up at home. We saw all the typical sights, like Kenroku-en, Omicho market, and the gold leaf place, but we also did a couple of things that are not typically seen as major Kanazawa tourist attractions, such as going to Mister Donut for a New Year's Special Snoopy set, which was a very good value - 16 donuts plus a whole lot of Snoopy merchandise for the low low price of 2000 yen, or roughly US$26.

Certain Snoopy-centric sisters were very excited about this.

Of course, we visited a rotating sushi bar and had other Japanese foods, but since my sisters were almost more interested in visiting us than the rest of Japan, we also spent a lot of time at home making desserts and foods, including a kabocha squash stew I created, toffee, and pudding.  I also served them homemade matcha (traditional green tea) with some sweets picked up from downtown :

Yum, matcha!

We also got our pictures taken at a Purikura machine, a very Japanese thing to do. These machines are fun - you jump in, pay up, and take a few pictures that are automatically kind of glamour-shot photoshopped, smoothing your hair and skin and widening your eyes, then spend some time adding stamps, makeup, backgrounds, and other features to the finished photos, which print out as stickers which you can share with others. Ours turned out very cute:

After I had to go back to work, the girls took two day trips, the first to Hiroshima and Miyajima (mom's trip) to see Hiroshima's bomb museum (past trip):

And Miyajima's famous red torii (past trip):

As well as their demon deer*:

*substantially less demonic in daylight

They managed to navigate the train systems and made it home late but not too late that night. The next day they went to Osaka to visit the aquarium (past trip), a fairly large and famous place that has some animals that are not likely to be seen in aquariums in the US.

They didn't have to deal with a 90-minute line to get in.

As usual, you can check out Flickr for the full set of pictures. I was very happy to be able to spend some time with my sisters here in Japan, and hope they enjoyed it too!  This wraps up their visit, and we have a few minor posts that have been waiting their turn queued up next.