Carly's Year in China and Japan

MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 7:49 PM

Well, I’ve come to the end of another weekend, and it’s been a great start to this October.

Garrett was in town last weekend, and we had a great time in Yokohama.  He got in on Friday night and met me at an isakaya where I was hanging out with some friends.  We went to the ampm and got some treats and drinks and hung out on an overpass for a while.  It’s interesting: here in Japan, isakaya bars often charge sitting fees and/or expect you to order food; karaoke is a good way to spend an evening, but it’s expensive.  It’s pretty challenging to find the equivalent of an average bar where you can hang out with your buds.  I’m definitely missing Cambridge Common...  On the other hand, there is no “open container” law in Japan, so while the weather is good, we’re generally just finding a nice place to have a seat with our drinks while we create our own little outdoor bar atmosphere.

On Saturday, we spent the day in Kawasaki, exploring by the river.  That evening, we went down to floors to Kendra’s apartment, where Kendra, her husband Greg, and their adorable daughter Emma Ruth hosted us (and fellow IUC Toriumi Haimu-er Daniel) to a temaki sushi dinner.  It was great, and Emma Ruth is PRECIOUS.

On Sunday, Garrett and I went a few stops on the Tokyuu to the International Students’ Dormitory, where we helped out my friend Alex with his Fall Festival. 

Wheelchair dog outside the festival cracked me up^

We wore little outfits and taught children about Halloween while handing out candy and ginger ale.  The plate out on the table had Snickers, Crunch bars, Peanut bars, M&Ms, and bright green or red Japanese lollipops. I was chagrinned to observe that the nasty-looking lollipops were by far the #1 choice.  They were flying off the table while Snickers bars got mere sneers and M&Ms got the occasional curious pluck with a question of: “Is this... chocolate?”

We had a great time, though, and it was fun to teach the kids how to say “trick or treat.”  Garrett was also a good sport about being there all day, just nodding and smiling in a silly hat and humoring a couple of old men who wanted to use their English.

Garrett and Hei-chan at the festival.  Belles, Hei-chan (Haitham) was a DUKESMAN when we sang with them on Fall Roll '06!

During the week I made some AWESOME pumpkin.

They sell this cooked pumpkin dish in little chunkles here at the store, but it’s prohibitively expensive: around 3 dollars for about 8 bites of pumpkin.  I had been buying it occasionally as a special treat, but then I found a recipe for it in my Japanese cookbook.  I will share the recipe here, because it’s also very easy.

1/4 of a kabocha (Japanese pumpkin)

2 c water

2 packets dashi powder (or chicken or veggie broth powder)

1 T soy sauce

1 T sake

just shy of 1 T white sugar

Heat the water in the microwave enough to make the dashi powder dissolve into it well.  Put it into a pot on the stove (no flame yet) and add the water: the dashi powder, the soy sauce, the sake, and the sugar.  Stir until it looks pretty well dissolved.

Remove pumpkin seeds and cut off the pumpkin rind (or if you want, you can just leave it, because it gets tender).  Cut the pumpkin into approximately 1 inch by 1 inch chunks.  Put into the pot and cover pot with a little aluminum foil hat.

Bring to a boil and then reduce flame to low.  Leave on low for 10 minutes.  Turn off flame.  Let it sit for 5 minutes before straining it.  

Delish cold or warm.  Healthy, too!!

As for this past weekend, we had the day off from school on Friday for “Yokohama Day,” where we had the option of 4 field trips: hiking, history museums, maritime museums, or visit to homeless shelter.  I opted for the hiking... ps: the homeless shelter visit was held a couple of blocks away from my apartment.  Two teachers led us on a hike through the forest not far from Yokohama, and it was great.  For some reason, the classmates who chose the hiking group were all a bunch of jokesters, and they were cracking me up all day with witticisms and the occasional Kermit the Frog impression.

This picture was DEFINITELY a close-up of a scary spider in his web, but upon "development," he has disappeared, leaving me to believe that he was a magical spider.

From the highest point in Yokohama with Ender and Carrie ^

We happened upon several gardens and small farms, featuring a few critically awesome scarecrows ^

This backyard garden apparatus made me miss my dad and brother big-time.  Y'all would have been so jealous of the netting they had all around it (including across the top).  They had peppers, bitter cukes, salad, and some adorable little eggplants. ^

After the hike, I hopped on the Shinkansen to Kyoto and spent the weekend with Garrett.  Highlights were a rainy day walk and adorable shop viewing on Saturday--I couldn’t resist and even started my Christmas shopping; and, on Sunday we rode bikes by the river and spent the evening baking a cake in a rice cooker.

I wish I could claim that this was the cake we made.  It wasn't.  We got this one (green tea-cocoa layer cake) on Saturday at the department store where we got sketching supplies (and we spent the rest of the afternoon sketching)

I came back on the Shinkansen today... no, I’m not okane-mochi (big-bucks); there is a special going on now where if you order Shinkansen tickets ahead of time through JR Tokai tours, the price for Kodama is just 9600 yen each way (which is just 1500 more than the decent bus).  

It’s been a great start to the fall here, and I’m excited for the weeks ahead.  

Tomorrow, I start calligraphy classes.

Happy (late) birthday, Uncle Lee!!!