Floor Horsemen - Aichi edition - Oct. 25, 2015

On October 25, 2015, an event called Floor Horsemen - Back to Van City, held in Kariya City, Aichi prefecture. This event originated in Vancouver, and it was created and organized by some friends. Since there are a lot of dancers that come from Japan to Vancouver, they decided to bring the event to Japan. One of the creators even came to Japan to help put it on. 

I have seen the pictures of the previous events in Vancouver, both of which occurred while I was in Japan, and I really wanted to go. When I found out that there would be an event in Japan, I knew I had to go. Unfortunately, the timing was not so convenient, but I made it work.

I took a night bus to Nagoya. It left Saitama shintoshin station at 11:45 pm on Saturday evening and arrived at 4:45 am Sunday morning. The night bus was loud and uncomfortable, so I didn't get much sleep. 

This is the bus I took. 

Upon arrival, it was dark, cold and windy and too early to do much. I found a combini (convenience store) and bought a coffee. Then I walked around debating whether to check into a hotel for a few hours. In the end, I found Denny's and ate a bit of breakfast and drank a lot of coffee. I left around 6 am. From there, I decided to explore the city. I walked to Nagoya Castle. 

One of the iconic buildings around Nagoya station.

On my way to the castle I found a shrine upon a roof. 

Then I found a larger shrine, the walls were original, but the main buildings had been rebuilt. It was closed.

This is a shrine at a historic bridge. 

I can't remember what the bridge was called. It led away from a covered market area.

My first glimpse of Nagoya Castle. It was about 3 or 4 km from the station, so it took a while to get there.

A closer shot, and the best shot. I couldn't get into the castle because... You guessed it, it was closed. 

A statue near the castle. Don't remember who he is.

Castle walls and a former moat?

Let's play a game, how many cats can you find? There were so many stray cats in Nagoya!

A part of the castle!

This is one of the original gates for the castle. I believe this is the east gate.

I found a little shrine to the fire goddess for protection against fires. 

The main shrine building and its requisite torii.

A little altar at the end of the Torii gates. 

This is Nagoya station. It has two towers. It's a nice place. At this time it was around 8 am. Still early. No shops open, just convenience stores.

After visiting the castle, I went to Starbucks for more coffee. 

After Starbucks, I wandered around the city centre a little more. I liked this building.

I went shopping, and found this motor bike. It was only ¥10,000,000.

Eventually I left Nagoya for Kariya, where the event was to be held. I arrived a bit early, so I walked around the city, but there isn't much around there. 

The event was held at a music lounge called Birdland. It was a very cool little place, filled with all sorts of interesting collectibles. The event had a very relaxed and fun vibe, and the dance floor was open for most of the event. There was a live DJ and several exhibitions. Rather than try and explain it, you can watch a recap of the event put together by the creator.

https://vimeo.com/145017201

After the event I had to get home and go to work the next day. I took the train back to Nagoya station and caught the Shinkansen back to Tokyo.

It was a wonderful one day trip on almost no sleep. I'm really glad I got to experience floor horsemen in Japan.

Welcome Party

On Friday October 23, we had a welcome party for the new ALT and a surprise birthday party for one of the English teachers. The party was held at a restaurant called Danpo (暖歩), which means warm walk. The food was really good, and it was Japanese style (washoku 和食). Naturally, it was all you can drink as well. I don't think I've been to a party (飲み会 or 宴会) in Japan that didn't have all you can drink. 

There were many courses of food, this is the salmon egg and marscapone canapé. Before this we had, baked tofu. Note that it is decorated with momiji, or Japanese maple. Since it is autumn, the maple leaves will change colour, so they are popular fall imagery and decorations.

 This is a Yuzu (a Japanese citrus fruit) and tofu soup. It was very yummy.

Before this dish, we had sashimi. This is an assortment of grilled things. On the left there is tsukune, or chicken balls, and the thing with the holes in it is lotus root (renkon, れんこん). In the middle is sawara, a Japanese white fish (it is apparently Spanish Mackerel). On the right is grilled kabocha, or Japanese pumpkin. I love Japanese pumpkin so much. It's so good. They are green on the outside and orange inside. The plate was decorated with more momiji leaves and sweet potato cut into maple leaf shapes. After this course, there was pickles, miso soup, and rice. There is always soooo much food at these events. 

There was dessert included with the meal, it was pumpkin pudding, persimmon slices, and carrot cake (not in the way we know it though). However since it was one teacher's birthday, I ordered a cake. This is it. We surprised him with it at the end. 

It says "emoringo kun".

The birthday boy.

That night was kind of freaky, because a man with a knife was seen around the city. At school, there were a lot of police. A warning was issued to watch out for a man in a black suit and helmet carrying a knife. Apparently there wasn't any danger though, he had tried to rob a convenience store but ran away when the staff called the police. When we first heard about it, we thought it might be a crazy guy stabbing random people... But I don't think anyone was hurt.

Updates

What have I been doing recently? Just the usual... Baking, playing futsal, teaching English and continuing my mastery of the Japanese medical system.

On thanksgiving weekend, I baked an apple tarte with the usual ladies. It was a perfect project for that weekend, as it was thanksgiving. Apples are now in season, but it doesn't make them any more affordable. I miss Canadian apples!

The recipe was a little strange in that it called for panko, which means bread crumbs, and it was topped with apricot jelly. Japanese recipes do weird things. For the tarte, we made a crust, and then layered it with fresh bread crumbs, then we layered apples on top of that. The apples were mixed with sugar and cinnamon, which gave the tarte a nice flavour. The finishing touch was raisins, and then it was baked. After baking, the apples were brushed with apricot jelly. It was delicious.

In Japan we also have the Monday off, just like in Canada, except that holiday is called 体育の日, or physical education day. So on thanksgiving Monday I tried to bake a flour-less pumpkin loaf, but it was more pumpkin mush than anything. It was perfectly tasty, but it just didn't look good. Good thing I don't care about how food looks!

The next weekend, I had my third league game with my futsal team. I was unsure whether I'd be able to play, but I could! However, I played goal for half the game. It was a throwback to my youth! I like playing, but it sure is stressful! Luckily, I had a shut out. I played the second half on the field, and I didn't manage to score, but I did set up goals. We won that game 9-1.

Guess which one is me... I didn't realize how much of a giant I am! Ugh!

This is our team meeting before the game. I don't think our uniforms could be any uglier...

Of course, I'm still doing my usual thing, teaching. This month was a little fun in that I got to meet future students and give them a sample class. Every year, junior high students interested in the foreign language department at school come and learn about it. They listen to speeches by students in the program, as well as our exchange students and then they get to try two sample classes. One of those is with me. The other class is an online listening and learning program. In my class, we made hand turkeys, since it was thanksgiving, and the students made up an introduction for their hand turkey. Then they wrote what they were grateful  for, again, in honour of thanksgiving. The students seemed to enjoy it, which is good, because pressure is high for that day. The teachers and principals are always anxious, because if the day doesn't go well, then not many students will apply for the program and the school will be ranked lower.

Also, last week a former exchange student visited from Sweden. She came to see her class, but it was a surprise, so I had to help organize it. The students were all really surprised, and it was a wonderful reunion for them :)

And of course, I continue to see the doctor every two weeks regarding my herniated disc. Both the doctor and the physio say my pain is not a result of the hernia. Whatever. The pain has significantly improved and I can play sports without too much discomfort, so I'm happy. I'm perfectly happy to stop this nonsense and get over this part of the year... All bad things seem to happen from August to December... Every year. It's quite an incredible coincidence, or not.

Nagano Soccer Tournament - October 3-4, 2015

October has arrived, and with it, the East Japan ALT Soccer Tournament in Sugadaira, in Nagano prefecture. This year, Saitama did not have the enthusiasm of previous years, so we didn't send a team, just two players: me and another girl.

We went because there was a girls' team that needed more players. I didn't really want to go with my injuries, but I sucked it up, swallowed some painkillers and was off. Our team consisted of two from Saitama, two from Yamanashi, two from Tokyo, and lastly, two from Gifu. I didn't know anyone, not even the other girl from Saitama. 

In past tournaments, I have always gone up on Friday night, but this year, I headed up Saturday morning. I hopped on the Shinkansen to Ueda station and got off with plenty of time to catch my bus. First I went to the wrong exit, then after figuring out the problem I went to the other exit just in time to miss the bus. The bus schedule posted online was wrong and the bus departed earlier than expected. I missed it. Luckily I was able to get a ride with two of my team mates. They picked me up and it was nice to chat with them a bit. While I was waiting, an old man came up to me and started talking to me... I understood most of what he said, which I consider an achievement, since  old man Japanese is notoriously hard to understand, even for native speakers.

There were only three teams in the girls' tournament, so our matches didn't start until 2 pm. We lost our first match against Niigata 2-1. We were still getting used to each other. We had another match right after, against Gunma. They were quite good, but we managed to tie them 2-2. Unfortunately two girls were injured in the process. Our team was half experienced and half beginners. The injured players were experienced :( 

After our matches, it was time to go to the hotel, shower, go into the hot spring, and eat. After dinner and hot springs there was a dance party. I did my best to represent Saitama at the event. In any case, everyone remembered me the next day. Whether that's good or bad, I don't know.

On Sunday, we had to play the first match, it was cold and every one was tired. We managed to win 3-0 against Niigata. I even got a goal! 

In our second match, we lost 2-0 against Gunma. It was a little frustrating... At that point, we were second place, so we had to play one more game to decide the champion. Our competitor was Gunma and they beat us again, 2-0. In the last game people weren't running and we lost  another experienced player. I scored a goal though... On my own goal. Whoops!

So we ended up second place... Again. Not too bad. As usual, no one knew the rules and the reffing was ridiculous. 

The results. We were GifuTamaNashi. A delightful play on words. 

The points before the final game.

The park! Sania park is gorgeous and it has real grass. This is a full field, but the girls only played on half-size fields.

GifuTamaNashi - 2nd place :)

Our prize. 24 cans of grapefruit chu-hi, which is kind of like a cooler. The alcohol content is 6%.

Sunset from a car.

On the way back, I caught a ride with a Tokyo team. I made some good connections there, so I know we'll  be able to join forces next year. For the record, driving is much cheaper than Shinkansen, but much slower... However, it was a great chance to make some friends and get some good Japanese conversation practice :)

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!

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.