2015-12-21, Catching Up and Big News

I guess I'll get the big news out of the way first.  I have signed up for another year here in Hikone at ABC Kid's.  But I will be switching to the preschool so I will be working days instead of nights.  That  will be nice in some ways (a regular eating pattern for one) and not so nice at times (no time to do things like ride over to see the cherry blossoms everyday or go to the bank or doctor).  It will be nice to work with the same children each day and 'train' them so that 1/2 of each class isn't spent on discipline.  In addition the preschoolers really pick up English and I've seen the effect a good preschool/kindergarten has on students even when they are junior high schoolers.  So I'll feel like I'm making more of a difference.  I will be working with a team of teachers, Japanese and American, and that will be nice as well.   I will start training in March so unfortunately I won't get out of riding home in the freezing cold, dark nights through January and February.  I will sign a contract through March of 2017 and then I'll probably move on.

OK, now onto some recent photos, mostly food this time.  I was invited to join Cindy and her husband Shin, who were going to Shin's coworker's house for dinner.  The couple live in my neighborhood and were very welcoming.  I've never seen this before, and I think it's very unusual, but they had a irodori (see my last post at the restaurant) in their living room!  There's no fan so I don't know why it didn't get smokey and smelly although they use smokeless charcoal and they don't cook meat on it because the fat does cause smoke.  

These are gigantic - almost as big as my hand - shiitake mushrooms and fried tofu.  Sooo good.

That's the host and this is the idori table.

This was the last thing to be brought out.  It's vegetables and thin slices of pork sauteed in sauce.

This might have been my favorite although it was all really good.  It's the biggest (as in highest) fried tofu I've ever seen.  We grilled it then topped it with some soy sauce, grated radish, ginger and sliced scallions.

We also had a potato salad that had sliced apple and persimmon, and mackerel that we grilled. 

Shin and Cindy brought these delicious cakes for dessert.

 The wife likes dishes  - here are a few of the more unusual ones.

So that was a very nice evening.

Next I'll show you the Christmas decorations we've had up in the entrance of the school and a couple of party pictures.

This was the staff lunch on party day, good but unfortunately we had to eat quickly.

The entry way with Christmas music playing.

At the party the children sang songs, took a picture with Santa and then made a craft with the pic, played in 'snow' (packing peanuts), one of the teachers did some magic tricks and the owner dressed as a clown and made balloon creations.  The children also helped decorate (and ate) Christmas cake.

Santa's chair.  The children received a bag of gifts from Santa when they left.

And a reindeer donut - we had to make 100 of them!

There were about 30 children at each of the 3 parties.  We were all very tired after our 7 day workweek ending in those parties.  After the clean-up those of us who weren't leaving for home the following day went out to enjoy ourselves.  Lots of good food and good sake (and other drinks).

A beautiful presentation of some raw shellfish.

salmon sashimi

Scallops and big clams which will sit on those aluminum foil rings on the grill.

Delicious fried oysters which severely burned my tongue - I can still feel the burn almost 24 hours later.

Fried chicken.

Raw oysters from different locations.

After a few...

After a sleep-in from which I was woken by a call from Peter - a great way to be woken up - I packed one suitcase for my trip home.  Which is just 2 days away!!!!  Although I really wanted to get everything done today I couldn't pack the 2nd suitcase, which will be clothes, because today was the first day all week I've had time to do laundry, and since it's been raining all day the clothes haven't dried.  Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny though.

Tomorrow I will meet a coworker and her daughter and grand? for lunch and a little walk around the shopping mall.  I will also pick up a few more things to bring home, pack, and hopefully be able to fall asleep early since I have to catch an early train to the airport the next morning.  It will be a long flight with a stopover in Seoul where hopefully I'll be able to take a short tour.  Asiana is a good airline, very comfortable and with lots of amenities and entertainment so it will be a comfortable flight.  I'll also get to see a movie I've been wanting to see (Inside Out).  But since I will arrive in SF at 10am and I can't usually sleep on a plane I'm a little worried about how I will stay up all day.  Actually I don't care.  I just can't wait to see everyone!!!!

And to those of you I won't see - I wish you a very happy and healthy new year!

2015-12-06, A Very Special Dinner

I was invited to a special dinner with a couple of my adult students, a friend of theirs and Emily the preschool teacher.  Miho had been to this place before with some coworkers, and she thought we would enjoy it.  The 'restaurant' is actually 1 table in a small room with an old fashioned idori cooking area and a small kitchen behind the counter.  Let me show you.

Emily, Hiroko, Yuri, Miho

 Cooking over charcoal like this is called idori ryouri.

The man back there is preparing the food and the woman on the left (I assumed his wife but I'm not sure about that) serves.

A party of 5 -10 people reserves the restaurant for the night and the chef uses fresh local ingredients which vary by season.  I would say this falls into the category of 'slow food' for sure.  There is also a good selection of Japanese liquors.  We started off with the best sake I've ever had, served cold in this cute glass pitcher with these beautiful little glasses.

The sake was in the green part and there was ice water in the larger clear part.

.

The proper way to poor drinks - liquor, tea or anything - for others.

Here are the starters. 

A very typical dish of hijiki seaweed with some fried tofu and
konyaku (devil's tongue is the English translation for konyaku - doesn't help much).

This is funazushi - old style fermented crucian carp.  It's a specialty of the area.  It often smells, a lot,  this didn't but still...
neither my nor Emily's favorite.  It's VERY salty.  Miho thought it tasted a little like cheese.  I didn't.  It's interesting that they served so much of it because really just a few slices is enough even if you like it.  Maybe they serve a whole fish to each party.  They did pack up the leftovers for those who wanted them.  It was a beautifully presented dish for sure and the sake went with it perfectly.

Next.  This fish was grilled on the charcoal in front of us.  The skin was so crispy and delicious.

We couldn't figure out what this fish is called in English.  The translation said it was some
kind of mackerel but it was from the lake not the ocean.

The plates were beautiful too.

Leeks, taro and asparagus (which we ate before I took the picture).

We had finished the sake and I had some plum wine (no pic).

The taro root.

The highlight - I've never seen this before.  It's uchiwaebi - fan lobster.  Yum!

And this is cooked rice wrapped around bamboo poles which will be put into our soup.

Hiroko doesn't like beef (except for hamburger and sausage) so she was served
this special variety of chicken.

The rest of us shared this piece of beef.

The beef was coated in pepper and was accompanied by a little soy sauce and this wasabi topping.
We each had 2 small pieces.

The last course was soup with the rice from the bamboo poles, lots of leek
and a little chicken in a nice light broth.

We ended the meal with some nice tea.

I have always wanted to go to the countryside and stay in an old house and have a meal like this.  So I'm halfway there now!  It really was a very nice evening.

2015-12-05, Koyo at the Castle and Garden

The plan was to go shopping and maybe stop at the castle garden to check out the leaves and then return for my Japanese lesson.  But then I slept late, chatted with my mom for a while, and by the time I got out I didn't have time to do everything.  And since I hate shopping...  I decided to just go to the garden, get a little something for lunch and then go to class.  But the leaves were at their peak in the garden and it looked like there were plenty up the hill at the castle as well so...  the garden, the castle, skip lunch and pedal quickly to get to class on time.  Well worth it.  Are you ready to be bombarded with pictures?  We'll start with the garden which is called Genkyu Rakurakuen.

Actually we'll start with this 1 picture of the Seri River, my favorite place.  It's really looking like fall.

Okay, now onto the garden.

These are from a little hill on the side of the garden looking into the 

other part of the moat where lots of ducks live.

That's a rectangular boat.  Interesting.

The garden was so beautiful I decided to go up to the castle.

Inside one of the out buildings.

These are stairs!

No nails anywhere.

See the 'v' near the bottom?  When that rots it's removed and replaced without having to replace the whole post.

One of the paths up to the castle.  When I went down some poor guy was
lugging a very big, very heavy looking box up that path.  

This is a view of the garden from the castle grounds.

The ceiling.

Used to pour hot oil, fire arrows, etc. if someone was trying to invade the castle.

II Naosuke

The stairs. 

As I said, I didn't have time for lunch, I just rushed over to my lesson which was enjoyable as usual.  It was getting colder as I rode home.  I sauteed a little squid Italian style and mixed it with some cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil for a snack while I cooked some spaghetti sauce.

 I've been in the mood for 'American' Italian spaghetti (as opposed to Japanese Italian spaghetti) for a few days now.  I threw in some mushrooms, green peppers and eggplant.  It was good! 

 I'm starting to get really cold so I'm going to turn on the heat and make a cup of tea.

I wonder if I'll be able to talk myself into going shopping tomorrow...