Wednesday 23 September 2015

Baking adventures

I know I've already posted my baking projects on Instagram, but I feel I should address how they came to be.

Once I got a microwave oven that was capable of baking things, I started to bake things like Christmas cookies or persimmon loaf, and I gave them away to my adult classes. One of them has a wife who was trained in baking, and she wanted to bake with me. So, we got a group of ladies together and rented out a community hall kitchen.  The idea was to bake together and chat in English, or Japanese. Some of the ladies want to learn or practice English and others don't, so we chat in two languages.

The group meets once a month (we didn't meet in August). The first thing we made was strawberry and cream sponge cake. I don't have pictures of that. Let's just say, I'm getting good at making Japanese style sponge cake now. Next up was cream puffs or  シュークリーム (shu cream, it comes from the French word for cream puffs). We made these on February 15, just after Valentines' Day, so I presented them to my break dancer buddies as tomochoco. They approved of them :)


The next time we met to bake was in March. We made gateau chocolat (ガトウショコラー). It was a chocolate sponge cake filled with chocolate ganache and covered in a fudgey icing. It was delicious. We made that on March 29.


Next, we took a break from cakes, and we made Linzer torte, which has a cake-ish bottom layer, but is filled with jam and then topped with a criss-cross of dough and almonds. I haven't made something like that before, and as you can guess, it was delicious. It was kind of Eastery and springey, so it was a good recipe for the day we met- April 19.


In June we made a tricky cake. The preparation time was very long, and there were many steps. This cake was called Jelly Cake. First we had to make a sponge cake, then we made the jelly with agar and gelatin, and then we had to decorate the cake with fruit, placed in the semi-solidified jelly and topped with more jelly. This cake took a while to solidify. It was another first for me, combining cake and jelly.


In July we made L'Acapulco Cointreau. This cake has chocolate sponge cake with chantilly chocolate filling. Then we topped with with mousse and finally orange jelly. This was another complicated recipe with many parts. This recipe is my favourite so far, it was so tasty! I shared the cake with a former exchange student who was visiting, as well as my break dancing buddies. It was quickly demolished.



The latest baking project was making Souffle Cheese Cake. It's essentially a baked cheese cake. Compared to recent projects, this one was quick and easy. I gave the cake to my land lady and her son. They enjoyed it. The cake was heavily lemon flavoured, but it was a good mix with the cheese.


I'm sorry the photography is bad, they might not look good, but everything tasted great!

So there you have it, an account of my baking activities with my group of ladies. It's a really good opportunity to branch out and meet new people, as well as practice Japanese, and brush up on (or acquire) cooking skills. I'm not sure what's next, but I can't wait!

Tuesday 22 September 2015

Silver Week

Japan has a golden week, as well as a silver week. Golden week is better, because within a week or so, there are 4 national holidays and weekends. Many Japanese travel at this time because they can actually get work off. If you recall, I went to Seoul and Taipei this year for golden week. Silver week happens in September and it is three national holidays in a row. This year they were Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Including. The weekend, that's 5 days off! Many people travelled for this silver week, too. I went to Onjuku for two nights, for a surfing holiday. I arrived on Monday afternoon and got in a quick afternoon surf before my friend arrived.

My first look at the beach in almost 2 months.

The beaches in Onjuku have changed completely due to all the typhoons that have been smashing the coast recently. So my first day back was a bit of a re-learning experience. After surfing I picked up my friend from the station and got some oden from seven-eleven. There's nothing better than oden after surfing. After dinner we went to Onsen. I wish I could say it was relaxing... But it wasn't. I was worried about catching something there. The Onsen was expensive, ¥1000, and pretty ill-equipped. The entry fee didn't even cover a towel.

On the second day, I tried to teach my friend how to surf. The waves were quite difficult, unfortunately, and there were tonnes of people in the water. We had a lot of paddling practice before I found a good place to teach. By the time we found it, my friend was pretty much done. She didn't get up surfing, but she did ride a wave on her knees, so that's something.

After I found the nice sand bar on which to catch waves, I had a blast, caught quite few waves.

Day 2 at the beach. 

On the route to the beach there is a stone path, and this time around I noticed a special rock.

Love at Onjuku.

After surfing, we went for a "one coin" lunch, which is a lunch set that costs one coin, or ¥500, at the new Korean BBQ restaurant in town. It was delicious and cheap. We added a vegetable set as well and had grilled vegetables. 

Yum!

The first night we stayed at a pension called Ivy. In the room, there was a very creepy picture of cats. 

You can't tell, but those cats are 3D. Creepy.

After lunch, we went for a walk. There is a big hill that overlooks the beach in Onjuki. So we climbed the hill and enjoyed the views of Onjuku. On the hill is also a monument to commemorate the landing and rescue of a Spanish ship that got lost on the way to Mexico. Since then, there has been a friendship between Spain, Mexico, and Onjuku.

Onjuku from above.

Fishing boats having a meeting.

Keeping an eye out over Onjuku. The monument is behind me.

I love this place.

On the way down the hill, we found a (not so) secret detour.


At the bottom of the hill, the side was covered with morning glory.


While we were in Onjuku, it was ebi fest. They catch and sell fresh shrimp that are huge! This year I didn't have any. They set up a BBQ and they sell it with beer. The shrimp are giant! The size of lobster!

That may be why Onjuku's mascot is ebi amigo...

Meet ebi amigo.

The second night my friend and I watched movies - Dogma, The Departed,  and Shutter Island. It was really good to just chill out. The next morning I got up early and went for a last surf before heading out. The beach was empty and I found myself a good spot and caught lots of waves. It was awesome.



Monday 7 September 2015

Bunkasai time!

This past weekend was my school's bunkasai. Bunkasai roughly translates to "culture festival" or "school festival." However, it is much more involved than any school festival I have ever attended in Canada. The bunkasai is a very important event for schools, mainly because it attracts new students, money, and popularity. If a school has a bad bunkasai, their enrollment for the next year may be in jeopardy and their ranking will no doubt go down. 

My school has a fun bunkasai, but it is not as good as other schools. I suppose this is mainly due to money; My school has the reputation of being the cheapest and stingiest school, so any effort the students put in is supported financially by their parents (students generally have no money, and they aren't allowed to have jobs at this school). The schools with very impressive bunkasai(s) usually have a lot of time, money, and supplies to work with. That being said, I'm always so impressed by the creativity of the students, because they can make something amazing from almost nothing (the main supplies are garbage bags, cardboard boxes, and paints). The most impressive thing is that it is organized entirely by the students. They decide what their class theme will be, they acquire supplies, they plan, they work tirelessly to decorate, and then on the day, they run their attractions. There is not much teacher involvement or direction. I can't imagine pulling off something like that when I was in high school...

The way the bunkasai works at my school is each classroom is responsible for creating an attraction. This attraction may be a haunted house, a food/drink shop, some other type of shop (one year a class sold fair trade goods), a game attraction (where you go through various challenges and can win prizes) or demonstrations and displays. In addition, many clubs put on events, too. For example, the tea ceremony club (茶道) allows visitors to participate in a tea ceremony, the flower arranging club (華道) displays their creations for visitors to see, the kendo club makes and sells udon, and the music and dance clubs have performances. During the bunkasai, there is always something to see: the choir, the brass band, student bands, debate, student dance groups, etc. 

After the bunkasai, awards are given out to classes who had the most visitors or made the most money, so there is a competitive aspect to it as well. 

This year, I couldn't take part in many parts of the bunkasai, but I served as judge for the debate club, I bought things from the students, and I walked around observing and chatting. When the festival was opened to the public, I got to see a lot of familiar faces from previous years. It's really fun to see old students, and especially to catch up with them :) My impression of the bunkasai this year is that there were too many haunted houses! Out of the 26 classrooms, there 8 haunted houses. Haha. Too many! But they seemed really popular, as there were always lineups to get in.

I didn't take photos this year. Even if I had, they can't be posted online, for safety reasons, of course.

This is the front of the program. It was designed by a student.

1st floor events and introduction. On the right are mini versions of posters for each classroom. The posters are voted on and the best posters win prizes as well. 

2nd floor guide.

3rd floor guide.

4th floor guide.

Club event advertisements. 

More clubs (lower) and then a performance schedule for various groups (upper).

Saturday's performance lineup.

The bunkasai lasted two days, but it was only open to the general public on the Saturday. On Friday, it was limited to PTA, teachers, alumni, students, and parents. Also on Friday, my favourite event of the bunkasai was held... It is something that is unique to my school... The Couple Contest. Each classroom selects two students to represent them in the couple contest. In other words, it's the fantasies of high school girls played out in front of the entire school by two girls pretending to be a couple (heterosexual couples only). Each couple performs a little scenario and dresses up for the part and the students vote on the best ones for each grade, and overall. The scenarios are the fantasies (usually, in some cases they're funny) of typical high school girls and the reactions from the audience are amazing. If the couple hugs or pretends to kiss, the students go wild and scream. It's a sight to behold. It's very strange to watch, but it is like a car wreck, you want to look away, but you can't. So odd.