Siphon coffee

Here's the Syphon coffee from 49th parallel, vancouver's famed coffee shop. At $5/cup, it is actually to be shared. This method of coffee brewing diesn't yield a stronger brew than your average drip machine, certainly is not as strong as the traditional Italian moka pot, but the novelty of the method must intrigue even the non-physicists... And for me it brought back pleasant memories of the tiny coffee shop in Mito, Japan, that I first saw this aparatus - this particular one at 49th wad also from Japan, but the water was heated with a much sophisticated halogen lamp...

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kanimiso

So I was at this super touristy fishing village near Tokai, called Oarai. I thought it was a cute little fishing village, but as I drove in, the number of ferrari's and jaguars coming out of town on this Sunday, sort of disappointed me actually. Anyway, I went to scout out this torii that I want to go to one early morning and make sunrise pictures of. I found the torii and then also went to the tourist information center that I stumbled upon which happened to have an English map. The map said fish market so off I went hoping to find a good sushi belt, kinda like the one we have near Tokai. I found both the market and the sushi belt restaurant, which was sort of at the pricey end. Otoro (fatty tuna belly, in the background of the scallop picture) and uni(sea-urchin) were both served at 840Yen ($10) per two piece, which I thought was expensive - but then I remembered this was actually the first time I am paying for otoro or uni that I am eating - yeah I know, it is nice to be a girl, most of the time. I also had this huge scallop, that was actually only 320Yen, surprisingly. But anyway, as I usually do, I was chatting with the sushi chef, despite not speaking a common language. He had fed me way too much - but as he hovered over my menu despite me saying I am way too full, he wrapped up another roll - I had to try it, and it's on him, he said. It was this kanimiso, that I had no idea what it was, so thinking it was yet another roll, I didn't take a picture of it. It was sitting on my plate for a while because I was so very full, and he smiled and said something to the effect of 'oh I think you are disgusted?' - this is all guess-work, but I think you would have guessed the same too - remember that Annie Griffiths Belt quote on how language is not that important in communication... Anyway, my pleasing personality gave in and I plopped it in my mouth - it was very sea-like or fishy - both tastes, I like, but also the tastes that makes people dislike fish. Both chefs watched me as my face didn't twist in disgust, and I said 'hmmm... oyeshu (good)' - at which they both jumped and said 'really?' in perfect English. I said really - my Japanese wasn't good enough to tell them that I am infact an island girl. 'What is it?', I asked. 'Crab' he said and pointed to his head. So it is crab-head and crab meat I figured; the head is also where crustaceans store their poop - but to island people this is no big deal. So thinking this must me something super disgusting, I took a picture of the menu so I can ask my Japanese friends. It was indeed crab head/guts and crab meat... big deal!!!

soba

Made soba, thinking of that very first soba soup I had that was sooooo tasty - I have been to the same restaurant again, but it is not quite as tasty - I was getting a cold that first time and it must have added to the heavenly-ness of that bowl of soba soup.

This turned out quite well, complete with this Japanese chilli-pepper seasoning which is apparently a mix of 8 different things and is super spicy (in Japanese standards). The first time I made soba, a few months ago it was disgusting - I had no idea you had to treat it like a baby. Cook and then wash them under cold running water until all starch is washed away and the water runs clear... It was well worth the effort though, for once in a while...

cars in Japan

For a month now, I drove the worst car ever. Today, driving the new car I was just given, I could not help but miss the clunky old car - the F1 noise it made at only 70km/h, the fact that I had to stomp on the brake to have it stop, the ease of navigating small Japanese alleys, rolling down windows and adjusting mirrors by hand... ah I miss the Scrum... This is me driving the good ol' Scrum as reflected off the truck ahead of me...

Self-service

So growing up poor, it is kind of hard for me to have servants; i.e., I feel like if I am capable of making a mess, I must also be capable of cleaning it; if I am capable of driving, I must be able to pump gas etc. North America's present unpretentious ways have only re-inforced this idea (I am not talking about North America's slavery days, which also can be traced back to, well, let's just say out of North America). So in North America, most gas stations will be self-service.

In Japan though, most gas stations are full service. I drive in to this station on my way to work once a week (yes, I drive a gas-guzzler, unfortunately this is what's given to me y our institution: apparent;y it helps transport large numbers of people) and these two employees come out running, squat and pump gas, run around the vehicle and wash all the windows etc, all the while, as I am squirming in the car, bowing and arigato-ing every which way. Pumping gas by yourself in Japan is also a complicated business, so I am not feeling guilty enough to find a rare full service station, now I just have to say 'konbawa, regular man tan des, sumimasen' and I have a full tank of regular gas afterwards... Still I wish they didn't come out running, like every second of my time is so valuable, cos it obviously is not...

ol' acquaintances

It is nice to be here in Japan, I feel less suffocated than I am in Vancouver. Maybe it is the general composition of people, maybe, and I hate to get on the bash American band wagon, but all the Americans in Vancouver bother me in one way or the other, so maybe it is larger non-American presence, or maybe, it is because I have some familiar friends from my previous experiment.

Yes, I know, I am all kicking and screaming about being dragged out of Vancouver and having to live out of a suitcase, but now that I am here and loving it, I am wishing I could stay here longer.

But back to my old friends - it is always fun to see people I haven't seen for a while. And this is the first time that we are meeting outside of the scope of a collaboration meeting where we don't have to hang out with people from our own institutions. To celebrate, we went out and had shabu-shabu. The three of us are all about six to eight years older than when we first met, and four since we last met. We (well not really me, but…) are a good deal heavier than we were back then - a heaviness reflected in the soft pant that is almost unnoticeable, unless you are actually standing close to each other. We are all less shy and more at peace with each other and are able to have adult like conversations and tease each other without freaking out of the opposite sex.

We had such a great time, talking about physics, talking about our countries, talking about our old experiment and of course about the US, where we met (none of us are American), throwing rock-paper-scissors for shitake's, trying chopstick tricks. Finished the night off at an izakaya that left us running for the last train. Friendship, is indeed a good feeling to have…

Kangaroo steak

This kangaroo steak, complete with a pastry-cut, just in case you forgot what the cuteness of a kangaroo looked like, in Drunken Duck in Katsuta...

shishamo

yum yum shishamo - small fish with eggs. Apparently they catch whichever fish, male or female, and inject eggs into them - so when you buy shishamo they always have eggs - talk about equality in sexes!!! So here I just fried them - but the proper way to do them is to cook them under one of those awesome fish grills that every stove in Japan has and cook them like babies (not that you would cook babies, but...) so they don't burst out their eggs... But this was a quick fix I wanted, so... and it also reminded me of a dish we make in the coastal areas of Sri Lanka - devilled fish eggs... yumm yummmm....

gobō, burdock

It is very traditional Japanese to julienne gobō and stir fry it as an appetizer. But it kills to julienne gobō as it is hard and you have to work quickly as it stains fast when it is exposed to the air and oxidizes. So I just scrubbed it with a kitchen knife, sliced it and put them in cold water to prevent oxidation. And then I stir fried it with a bunch of other vegetables in the refrigerator and some chillie paste, garlic, ginger and onions. Gobō is this crisp (I guess it is easy not to overcook it when it sliced big like this) earthy tasting root with hints of sweet. Apparently it goes well with pork - should try it next time. I almost liked it better cooked this way than the julienned appetizer that can sometimes get a bit soggy-ish.

Kabocha Nimono - simmered squash

So, one of my Montréal friends sent me this link for Japanese recipes, a blog maintained by a Japanese expat in Montréal . It seems quite nice (but she said to use dashi powder... no no no... it has MSG and all that crap... making dashi stock is super simple, and, your kitchen will smell like a warm sunny beach in Sri Lanka - not like the cheap Febreze ocean mist or whatever it is they call it... so...). It came out quite well. But of course it was a bit affected by my inherent distaste to follow recipes to the letter. Usually, I just read up the ingredients and I know which order things go etc. But since I am new to Japanese cooking I decided to also read up on the method and follow it. This I did, but I didn't pay too much attention to the quantities... Now I think I should have used a bit less dashi stock, so the soy+mirin+sake tastes are more accentuated. It was still pretty good though.

The other is Japanses rice - you r regular sticky white sushi rice. But in Japan it is common (not all always), to add azuki beans and some grains to your rice. You can find little packets of these grain mixtures, right next to the rice in the grocery store. You just toss these with the washed rice and boil them all together. The azukian beans then impart this purplish color to the rice then.

Japanese groceries

So I am sharing the house, with a South Korean girl, also from BC, who incidentally is going to also sublet my Vancouver apartment for one month, while I am here in Japan. So, she can read Kanji, Chinese characters, - since they use some of those as well, in South Korean. And she is quite familiar with a lot of Japanese ingredients, I imagine, like I would be, if I went to India. So, I am taking the opportunity to learn what some Japanese ingredients are, so I can start cooking Japanese food, and perhaps some S. Korean as well.

Here is sesame paste

Mirin, a sweet sake used in cooking. This is all mirin

Tsu-u, soy sauce based sauce

Kombu - a thick seaweed like kelp, that gives the umami taste, which is actually identified as a new taste, in addition to sweet, sour, salty and bitter, since the 1980's. This is used to make dashi stock and when you bring the soaked kombu to near boiling point, in the process of making dashi, you get this amazing aroma of the ocean, like what you get when you are in a warm beach... Yep, you guessed it, I am going to be making a lot of this... just for the aroma...

Katsuobushi (bonito flakes) - these large flakes, 1cm*2cm, is what needs to be used for the dashi. The tiny ones that you spread over okonomiyaki won't work for the dashi - eventhough it is the same thing. I didn't realize making dashi stock was so easy, so now I don't have to worry about buying dashi powser laden with MSG.

These are sauces that you can use to marinate meat.

Okonomiyaki sauce - the stuff you slather over your okonomiyaki as you grill it.

And of course soy sauce, straight.

Homeless Japanese

Never seen a Japanese homeless person... and when I see the first (and still only) it would be in an ultra rich shopping complex in Mito that has Gucci and Salvatore Ferragamo stores...

Dreamers

Dreamers, like anywhere else... ah, the carefree youth when you don't give a damn for your financial status, so you don't give a damn if you get money for doing something, when you don't give a damn that it is cold outside... why would the Japanese be spared of such beauty? They talk about Japan being a super stressed country where from an early age people learn to earn a living, or make commitments to friends and family about being cool physicists, but still there are dreamers in this world... and, as it turns out in this case, people who are afraid of germs...

Starbucks

oh no, in Mito too...

As leaving the US was impending, my sister said to me, "you know what I would miss most about the US?", waiting for her to say something along the lines of boys, I was surprised to hear it was Starbucks... I said "Are you kidding me? Everywhere I go, I try to avoid Starbucks but it is freaking everywhere" and later thought maybe Ibaraki doesn't have any - man was I wrong...

Fish parts

So, my physicist, Japanese friend who works at JPARC, and I, like to meet at least once when I am in Tokai and go for a fancy dinner. He picks the restaurant and has not disappointed me, to this date, and we spend accordingly ~5000 Yen per person, for the meal only. The first time he took me to this super traditional sushi restaurant, the second, to a fun izakaya where we had nabe (Japanese hot pot) to stave off the onset of winter and commiserated about our love lives.

This time he took me to eat fish pod or nabe or fish soup or fish hot pot, made of ankar fish, a famous dish in Mito, the capital of Ibaraki at the most famous place for this in Mito, Sansui. So, it comes like this: with all the vegetables and mushrooms (Japan has the yummest assortment of mushrooms, as you might imagine) and fish, all on a separate large plate and then at the middle of the table there is this pot of boiling water - you make the broth yourself by adding a bit of the miso pod they give you. The nice waitress explained this all to us and then she proceeded to make it for us anyway. The idea is to not waste any fish - so she started naming the fish parts on the plate, and my friend started translating from Japanese to English. At one point, unable to find the English word, he goes "well, you have it": I would have guessed right away, but I was thrown off by the direct non-shy way he said this, because in my head I have it that Japanese people are pretty shy and while he is not super shy, he's not completely me either... but after some back and forth I said "ovaries?" and yeah it was the fish ovaries - not that yummy, specially when you know what they are... they do look different and almost just only skin and all... But, I ate it of course - lately I have decided I will try my very best to eat everything that is put in front of me... It was quite salty - he asked me if it was and I said 'no, it is great'. When the waitress asked later, he said it was probably too salty for me, because I am a city person - apparently there is this big thing between rural and urban Japan and the urbanites scoff at the bold tastes of the rurals... My friend himself is from Tokyo - and no, not a suburb, right from Shinjuku ward in Tokyo.

And, then like we always do, we went to this bar to have calpis sour - such a yummy Japanese cocktail. Today we commiserated about careers in physics and how I am contemplating leaving physics. He said: "I can never leave physics.. when I was little I fought my parents to do physics... and now them, all my friends, they all think one day I will be a cool physicist. I can't not be a physicist". It is a very good reason to remain in the field - in fact I will miss the cool aspect when I leave. And I want him to do well and become that cool physicist everyone wants him to be. We ended up discussing another one of my Japanese friends from grad school who has now come back to KEK at the assistant professor level and we decided my friend should try and come to North America for a postdoc stint. As much as I see no future for me in physics, at least not the future I want, I want my friends, who are deserving, to remain in the field... Constants comforts in my otherwise rapidly varying life...

Washing and Drying Clothes in Japan

the monumental task of operating any sort of machine in Japan... as also evidenced by my brother's imported-from-Japan car that talks to him and what not but all in Japanese and how he doesn't even want to deal with the movie-watching function since it is also in Japanese.

Anyway, this is how the washer and dryer should look like, if you are like me, and want your clothes lightly washed; i.e., in North America I always use the cold and delicate settings and air-dry my clothes, so...

typhoon in Japan

stranded in Narita with the typhoon - the plane was so late that the last bus that goes to the tiny town of Mito in Ibaraki was gone. After like $50 worth of phone calls, I decided to stay in Narita. Tried to get in to a hotel, all of which were booked as a result of all the stranded passengers - even volunteered to share a hotel room with a stranger (yes, you got it, a good looking guy), but at the last moment, called it off... Tiny airport officials ever so guiltily distributed food water and sleeping bags. You could tell they thought the typhoon was their fault... So since I got a sleeping bag, I decided to stay in the airport... And now I don't mind sleeping in airports, but I hate to do so when I am travelling for work. Was I ever so glad I had a smartphone and that I could use Google Translate to communicate with a police officer - when I also learned, Japanese people, like Sri Lankans, don't like to say 'no, I don't know how to help you', so they will just 'ummmm' and 'hmmmm' until you go away by yourself. But since I wasn't leaving his side until I got answers, he ended up taking me to where the sleeping bags etc were distributed.

By the next morning, I was truly in tears. Maybe more also because I learned that the my colleagues who got stranded in the typhoon had their plane diverted to Osaka and they all decided to stay in a hotel there.

So this picture I took, of the view through blurry eyes, sitting near an airport coffee shop.

Japanese Toilets

I must say a word about Japanese toilets. So there are these 'local' stalls with squat toilets and 'western style toilets' side by side everywhere. But in reality, the western style toilets are not really western style, they are more like toilets out of Star Trek. This picture is actually from some years ago when I stopped at Narita on my way to China, but I wasn't blogging back then, so I give it to you here. I wrote then -

This from Narita airport in Japan - the music note sign reads "Press to play back flushing sound, to muffle toilet sound". Japanese people have to be the most polite people on earth...

Japan

Japan, the country of Totoro, the country of Princess Mononoke, the country that gave us The Departed and its soul haunting music, the country of Sakura flowers and many a romantic notions in my head - I think only the Native American/ First Nations people are held in more romance in my heart.

Taking the bus from the airport, to the tiny town of Tsukuba, the humidity, the paddy fields, reminded me very much of my grandparents' home in Negombo. It took us almost 2hrs by bus to go the 40km, and that is actually worse than Sri Lanka - so there goes my first stereotype of Japan - its lightning speed transportation.

Japanese food - what can I say - if I loved it before I adore it now. Udon, shabu-shabu, okonomiyaki, tankatsu (kaki fry), sashimi, miso-soup…. I had the good fortune of having two ceremonial Japanese meals - the best was with a friend, but of course my phone's battery had died on that day and I had told myself I am going out to eat with a friend, I am not being a Japanese tourist, so I am not taking my camera. "You have your eyes, you have your memory", my friend reminded me. And anyway I would not have been able to capture the extreme politeness blended into the ceremony. "In Japan", my friend said, "food is of two parts : the food itself and the presentation in the vessels".

This friend actually drove an hour to come and see me - and he is someone I met at a conference 2 years ago. I did not expect us to meet, but because he was on my Facebook and we communicate a bit through that, and eventually I would put stuff up there about Japan, I didn't want to have gone to Japan and not told him that I was there. So I wrote to him saying I am here for a very short time - he offered to take me out to dinner one of the days and of course I was more than happy - I was not feeling like I was in Japan too much what with all the non-Japanese of my experiment around me, so I thought this was a prefect opportunity. I am always surprised how I can sometimes talk so much with people that I seemingly don't know much - but it is not something that happens all the time -how does that saying go "you can not clap with one hand". At this point I must also say that this bad-American-tourist paranoia has been beaten into my head by my physicist friends who strive to be different, most of them can speak some Japanese and read a lot of katakana and hiragana and go into extreme lengths to not do offensive things. So I was carefully using my chopsticks and placing them properly on the chopstick rest, while my Japanese friend would just leave them in the bowl - the restaurant owners would later comment on this. I also learned how to say it is very good in Japanese and said this to the cooks. All this having impressed the cook, he stood at the door as we left, bowing to us, watching us as we drove away - how very sweet.

During dinner we talked about lots of things - physics obviously, the nuclear reactors in Japan, and also Japanese tradition, and women's role in their culture. When it was time to pay, we split the bill - it is what I expected, because it was expensive and we are both poor postdocs; but I didn't want to fight my way to it - it was my friend who suggested we split. But later my friend said, "this is a very traditional Japanese restaurant, they expected me to pay for you, because I am the man"… I would have gladly slipped my share under the table for him, and let him pretend that he was "the man"! I am not on a mission to bust Japanese traditions, and sometimes I actually can find them beautiful.

Also I met another friend from grad school who now works with KEK, who is also Japanese - this was quite accidental as I didn't know he was there now - but we just ran into each other at the canteen. He later sent me this lengthy e-mail about tourist spots in Japan and also said his wife would be happy to drive me around the next time I am there. Him and my other friend, make me think that Japanese people are very hospitable people, like Sri Lankan people.

On my way to Japan, I was told that Japanese people, just like to do what they are being told, without questioning: wearing face masks, unplugging every electric appliance, but the computer - "it is not important to ask why, it just is important to do it". Back in the dorm, I would notice this about the appliances and also about face masks.

Japan is also full of kitsch - cute cat/bear/any-other-animal cartoons adorn every single thing from restaurants to busses. Here I give you some baby kitsch. (And no, Totoro is so not kitsch!!!) But yes of course you can find non-kitsch - like the two classy restos we went to.

Our dorms were like any regular dorm, but even there, like many restos we went to, we had to take off our shoes, put them in a cubby and wear their inside slippers - again the ceremony.

I must mention something that happened at the airport on my way out. My Canadian/American colleagues were getting through the ticket counter at regular speed, but when it came to me, the ticketing agent took some time. She said she needed to check my reservation. "Do I not have a seat?" I asked knowing sometimes that airlines overbook, even though I had a seat assigned from the self check-in that I had done (I was just dropping off luggage here). "No no, you have a seat, everything is ok, I just need to check something" she said in a most polite way. "Is something wrong with my passport or visa?" I asked "no no everything is ok, I just need to check something", she said in the polite voice again, but this time it was annoying. She took a good 15 mins to call a whole bunch of people and then personally went and talked to someone else. I was reminded of what someone said during the week "Japanese people are very polite; they are not kind - there is a difference." I am always weary of those statements, but… Later as the 6 of us were walking towards security, two of us were stopped by bullet-proof vest wearing policemen and asked for papers - this time it wasn't me, but I instinctively stopped, only to be told by another in the group "nope don't stop, keep walking" - "don't make eye contact" he said jokingly (?). Later ha said "those two were stopped, just for not being Japanese". I had forgotten that I had heard stories of Japan being notoriously racist. It was by far the most hassle I had being through at an airport. People are all up in arms against racism in western countries, and they should be I say, it is not like they are perfect countries; but there are so many other countries, Sri Lanka being one, that shamelessly practice racism, and no one can even bat an eye about it.

Yet, it is not my strongest memory of Japan. Two crazy bureaucrats won't write my Japanese book - it would be unfair to the extremely hospitable Japanese friends of mine. The few only give me reason for caution when I am dealing with bureaucracy, but my friends define the place for me - just like the US, just like Québec.

As a photographer I have learned... that all people are not alike, but they do mostly have the same hopes and fears; that judging others does great harm but listening to them enriches; that it is impossible to hate a group of people once you get to know one of them as an individual.
- Annie Griffiths Belt

I vow to come back again...

PS. For the first time in my life, I had two almost-full same days - the wonders of a round earth and a dateline...