Christmas dinner

We spent a bit of Christmas day making a batch of fruitmince pies to give to collegues and friends, many of whom have never tried these before. Then we had Christmas dinner at Kim and Richie's (we are spending lots of time with them coz all the other JETs are overseas or have gone back to their home country for this vacation period). They made yummy roast chicken dinner (in their toaster oven and combi microwave oven - they had to halve the chicken to do that). I made a peach and mango trifle for dessert, which was also their first time trying it. The recipe is a bit different to the trifle I made last year, and will post the recipe for it later if I remember to.

Anyway, the photos.

Christmas tree in their house:


The food - yummy roast chicken with potato mash, corn, beans and salad:


Dessert:


Everything was yummy and it felt Christmassy (yes, including the overeating part).

Anyway, off to bed for an early start tomorrow for the ski trip. Yay!

Shijan Korean Restaurant (Kanazawa, Ishikawa)

For dinner after the visit to the Ninja Temple, we went to a Korean restaurant called Shijan located inside the new Kanazawa Forus shopping centre by the eki (train station) which opened only last month. This 7-storey shopping centre is such a young people's hangout. So many pretty young things falling victim to impractical fashion (I lost count of the number of girls with super short mini skirts and 'f***-me' boots. It was a freezing day too! - and this I mean literally because there was a thick layer of ice on our car's windscreen when we got home). Anyway, back to the food. It was so good! To my (pleasant) surprise, the food wasn't really Japanese-fied - strong, spicy flavours typical of Korean food. Kim is half-Korean (who loves her kimchee sooooo much!) and she gave thumbs-up to the food too.

Entree

Korean pancake/omelette (I know this as 'haemulpajun' but can't remember the name given at Shijan):


Korean rice cakes with spicy sauce (aka 'dukbokki', once again can't remember the exact title given at Shijan):


Sweet potato noodles (I don't know the Korean name for this dish):


Mains

Kim and Richie both ordered bulgogi (barbecued beef) on rice which looked and tasted yummy:


Rob ordered the bibimbap set with a mini version of some soup dish whose name I forget. This was really tasty:


I ordered some spicy soup set with a mini version of bibimbap - the soup looked spicy but it wasn't really that spicy. It had tofu, pork, cabbage and some glutinous rice cakes in the soup:


The wonderful company:


I don't remember the prices of each dish, but I know it wasn't an expensive dinner - I think everything came to under 6500 yen (about AU$70ish).

Ninja Temple

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas yesterday.

Haha, so much for having more time to blog. I took more photos since my last journal entry and I was hoping that I'd have time to write about them before I take more photos on the ski trip we're going on tomorrow, but we've managed to keep ourselves very busy these past couple of days.

On Sunday, we went out with fellow JET Kim and her husband Richie to Kanazawa. A long two-hour drive, but we had a good time. First, we checked out a temple that has the nickname Ninja-dera because of the many tricks and traps incorporated into its architecture. Trapstairs, hidden stairways and secret floors are just some of the features of this temple. The brochure says that although the temple has many tricks in it, it was not constructed for ninja - the "tricks and traps were devised for shogunate spies and enemies and to allow a sudden escape". Pretty cool. (Being a place of worship, no photography was allowed inside the temple so I don't have anything to show.)

Outside the Ninja Temple:

Bonenkai

This last week I've been pretty busy planning our ski trip to Nagano, and another trip the following week to Nara, Hiroshima and Osaka (yes, we are going back to Osaka for the 3rd time!). Yesterday was the last day of school and winter vacation starts today. Technically teachers don't get time off during vacation, but with five 'cultural furloughs' entitled to me for every vacation period (the city JETs don't get to enjoy this 'furlough') as well as the national New Year holiday, I have two weeks of holidays to spend! Woohoo! And I finally have time to blog again..

Last Friday, one of my schools had their bonenkai, which literally means 'forget the year party'. It's like the Christmas parties held by companies for their employees. It's a chance for collegues to hang loose, drink freely and forget the bad things of the year as they usher in the New Year. I really like working at this school (a branch off the main school) because it is so much more laid back than at the main school. It's a shame that it will close once the students graduate at the end of this school year this coming April (there are only 12 students at the moment, and about 12 teachers working part-time to teach classes for these students).



The food was so good! Oishiiiiiii! We had shabu-shabu (a type of nabemono), steak (which was really nicely done - and I'm not a red meat or steak person!) and of course, sashimi. The steak was really tender and tasty. To my delight, the ebi sashimi (prawn) was included in the sashimi course. Mmm yummy!

Ingredients laid out for shabu-shabu:


Steak and sashimi:

Snow!

It was a cold day today. No, it hasn't snowed in our town yet (we're too close to the coast I think), but I saw my first snow whilst on the 2-hr bus ride travelling to Kanazawa through the mountains. When the bus stopped for toilet break, I just had to check it out. It looked like... crushed ice. A fellow JET said that the snow here is quite wet and not soft and fluffy. I was on a 'business' trip so I didn't bring my camera (the thought of bringing it did cross my mind) and while I was lamenting the fact that I couldn't show Rob anything to make him green with envy that I've experienced snow before him, I remembered my phone camera. Not the best quality, but it was sufficient.

I tried to get a good shot from inside a moving bus and this was the best I could get:


This 'business' trip to the city was to help judge at a Science fair at a fellow ALT's school. This school is the best academic school in the whole of Ishikawa prefecture, and am I impressed. Students had to present their science projects in English! It was amazing - the projects were at a level far higher than high school (wastewater treatment? I didn't study that until I was in 3rd year uni!) and I can't even imagine how hard they would have had to work to present everything in English.

Other updates:
- yep I'm still riding my bicycle to work, although I have a feeling it'll start snowing this week and I'd have to stop unless we get snow tyres for our bikes.
- we joined a Judo class with Kim and Richie a few weeks ago and even have our own Judo gi (uniforms). It is difficult, and I am always sore the following day. I'm glad the instructor is an English teacher.
- whilst everyone is taking the opportunity to go home or travel overseas this winter vacation, we're taking the opportunity to go on a ski trip to Nagano, the town that hosted the '98 Winter Olympics. We'll get to see soft fluffy snow there.

With all this talk about snow, you'd think I have never seen snow before. Oh wait, I haven't!

Making Mizu Youkan

Mizu youkan is a traditional Japanese sweet jelly made from kanten (agar-agar) and adzuki beans. There are mizu youkan of other flavours available at the shops, like matcha (green tea) and ume (plum). It is quite yummy. I first tried making it a few months ago back in Perth with gelatin but it didn't really turn out well (it was too floopy, eventhough I used quite a lot less water). Well, back in Perth, I had never tasted mizu youkan before so I guess I was making it 'blindly'.

So I thought I'd try making it again. Even though agar-agar desserts are popular in Malaysian cooking, I have never used agar-agar before. I think they usually come in powder form. The kanten available in Japan comes in the form of block leaves (?).



I used this recipe which I thought was pretty easy to follow. Haha, especially since I could not understand most of the packet instructions in Japanese on how to prepare the kanten leaves. You can opt to buy ready-made anko (sweet bean paste), which would make life a lot easier - but typical me have to try everything from scratch. It was still pretty easy to make, but I think in future I will cook the adzuki beans a little longer (I was trying to avoid it turning into mush, but I think that's probably what I ought to be going for).

Ingredients

1 cup dried adzuki beans, soaked overnight in water
5 cups water
3/4 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt

1 leaf kanten (~7.5g), soaked in water for 1 hour
3 cups water

Method

First I made the anko by simmering the beans in the water until beans were soft-ish, drained the beans, returned it to the pot with the sugar and salt and stirred over medium heat until "you can see the bottom for 10 seconds as you stir". You then have a choice of making smooth koshi-an by chucking the anko in the blender, or just crush it with a wooden spoon to make tsubushi-an. I tried to make a smooth paste, but the beans were still quite firm. Never mind, it gave an interesting texture to the youkan.

Drain, squeeze and cut the kanten into smaller pieces. Add to the 2 cups of water, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes while stirring until dissolved. Gradually mix in 2 cups of anko and cook over low heat until well mixed (add more sugar or salt to taste if required). Remove from heat and add another cup of water to the mix. Then I basically poured the mix into an 8" by 8" pan and let it set (I wasn't patient enough to keep the stirring until it was lukewarm to ensure a more even consistency). And voila, my first semi-successful try at making mizu youkan (and first time using kanten/agar-agar).




Next, I'll try making some wagashi, especially the mochi ones (made from glutinous rice flour). The following is a photo of a mochi sweet with anko filling.

My next project: Making Mochi

Dessert potluck 'White Elephant' party

Last Saturday, our neighbour (fellow JET) Alex organised a White Elephant party. It's a popular American game played during the Christmas season where everyone brings a gift, and everyone will leave the game with a gift. During the game, a random drawing determines the order in which the participants get to unwrap gifts, or steal previously opened gifts.

Aside from it being a 'bring-a-gift' thing, it was also a 'bring-a-dessert' thing. And there were many rich, high-calorie, artery-clogging, fattening desserts. Oh yes, it was an event that would be a nightmare for any diabetics. Dessert potlucks really ought to be banned. I brought my brownies and since I lived only next door, these brownies were presented warm and fresh out of the oven and were gone within minutes (yay! Whenever I bring something for potluck, I always dread that my dish would be the most unpopular one).

We all ate ourselves into a sugar-high, and this was a good chance for us to catch up with everyone before the Christmas/New Year break when most of everyone will be travelling overseas.



The game itself was pretty fun. Gifts ranged from the typical but popular kawaii (cute) objects (e.g. stuffed toys) to the practical ones (e.g. a neckwarmer - something I've seen only in Japan) to the insanely hilarious (a box full of sex-oriented lollies and toys). The gifts could only be stolen a maximum of 3 times.

Alex even dressed up as a Santa. Rob's first gift was a blue dolphin tissue holder, which someone stole from him (much to his relief because that meant he could steal the tube of Vegemite):


A steal in process - the gift was Stitch (from 'Lilo and Stitch') and Stitch's girlfriend:


Rob in da hood (I'm so gonna be in trouble for posting this photo):

Food + photos @ mid-year conference

A few weeks ago, the ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers - my job type as a JET participant) had our mid-year conference in Shikamachi. The workshops and conference-related stuff were quite boring, but the food was quite good (considering the venue had to cater to more than 120 people), and I had quite a lot of fun outside of the confines of the conference.

(This is ignoring the fact that I had only 4 hours sleep that night partly due to the fact that one of my room-mates came into the room drunk at 2:30am, whose leg I had to avoid at 4am which came flying towards my head shortly as she rolled off her futon in her drunken sleep and onto my futon. I could not wake her up nor move her so I had to content with trying to sleep the next two hours on half a futon which was already uncomfortable to begin with. By 6am when I finally gave up trying to have a good sleep, she was completely off her futon and was taking up majority of my futon. She missed breakfast and was still sleeping at 9am. And to add salt to the injury - she had TWO layers of futon compared to me having only one. Yes, other than being absolutely exhausted the following day due to lack of rest, I had fun).

The food

Yakiniku teishoku for lunch on the first day. Grilled beef with rice - the meat had lots of fat on it):


Enkai (party) dinner that night - the food was so yummy! Fish, sashimi, chawan mushi (steamed egg custard) etc...:


Japanese breakfast the following morning - tsukemono (pickled veges), salmon, miso soup, tofu, some salad etc... I must admit, although it was yummy, it was a bit on the heavy and salty side for breakfast:


Katsu-kare for lunch on the second day - Japanese and gaijin alike love tonkatsu (deep fried pork 'cutlets') and kare-raisu (Japanese curry on rice - not spicy, more like a sweet stew). So of course, combining the two into one (unhealthy) meal is bound to be popular. I'm not big on deep fried stuff, and I think that calling a stew a type of curry ought to be against the law. Nevertheless, it was surprisingly enjoyable:


Cultural experience with taiko drumming

I have a fascination with taiko drumming. It's popular with men, women and children alike. And that night, I had the chance to watch a performance and to also participate in an hour-long lesson on taiko drumming. It was awesome fun! And such a good workout too!



Playground!

The venue had beautiful grounds. The weather during the conference was likewise beautiful (it had been gloomy and rainy all week) - too good to be indoors all day long. There was a lake nearby, and since we had a couple of hours to kill before the first session began on the second morning, Kim and I decided to take a nice walk around. We even encountered a snake (more than 1.5m long) - as I whipped out my camera, Kim asked if I wanted her to pick up the snake (!!!). Crazy girl..



And then, much to my delight, we stumbled across a playground. It was huge and I had so much fun! We bumped into our two other room-mates (who said that the other room-mate (the one responsible for my lack of sleep) was still asleep) and Cyndi took the following set of photos. There was this huge pyramid where you can play various things like abseiling and go on the flying fox. No one wanted to do the flying fox so I jumped on. When they saw how much fun I had with it, they all had a try and did not regret it. What a sight we must have been - four adults in business clothing playing like kids in a playground. We had so much fun that we were very reluctant to go back indoors for more boring stuff..

Teachers' sports day (and eating raw liver)

Rob and I were invited by my collegues to join in the Noto Teachers' Sports Day on Saturday. Three categories: volleyball, table tennis and badminton. The teams that receive first and second place for each sport will have the opportunity to participate in the prefectural-wide Teachers' Sports Day in Kanazawa and my school's teams were pretty determined to win at least one sport. (My JTE said that the teachers want to win mainly so that they can party and drink lots in the city.) There were perhaps eight or nine schools participating in this event. It was fun, but so cold in the gym. We were in the badminton team (there were two teams from my school for badminton - a serious one for winning, and another one for fun - we were in the for-fun team). Not having played badminton since high school (10 years ago?), I sucked (and not in any small way either). But the other teachers from my school did really well - the serious badminton team and the volleyball team came first place, so my school's teachers will be going to Kanazawa to party - I mean, to play.

The teachers then had a nomikai at a yakiniku restaurant after the sports event. It was more of a chance to drink and socialise rather than celebrate because we were still going to have a nomikai regardless of whether we'd won or not. The sports' day and the nomikai gave us an opportunity to mingle with my collegues on a social basis. It also gave Rob a chance to interact with Japanese people and practise his Japanese, since him working from home means that he does not get much opportunities to talk with Japanese people.

Our private room at the yakiniku restaurant - we sat with the girls


We also tried liver sashimi-style for the first time. Rob hates cooked liver, but he gave this one a try and said that he actually liked it raw. The texture and taste is nothing like its cooked version - smoother and milder when it's raw. We also tried yuke, which is Korean-seasoned raw beef, which wasn't bad. I know my sister Faye likes this dish.

Yep, it's here..

The very thing I've been dreading since coming to Japan has arrived. It's officially winter here in the Noto, and it is pretty darn cold. Today's temperature did not go above 5 degC, and it even snowed early yesterday morning. I was quite puzzled because I thought I saw tiny snow falling when I woke up yesterday, but there was no white on the ground. However, many people have verified that it did snow, so I definitely wasn't imagining it. The rainwater on the ground must've melted the snow the moment it touched the ground. It won't start snowing heavily for another week or so, and I'm hoping that this inevitable event will be delayed as long as possible. A few hours ago, Rob got some kerosene for the heater, and he got the kero heater working. So yep, we've finally dragged out the heater and it is pretty stinky - apparently kero heaters smell on its first use when you haven't used it for a long time. And guess what? We found an electric heater too!

This will be our second winter this year, and the amazing thing is that I have yet to fall sick (thank God!). Usually I would fall ill two or three times every winter, but I have managed to avoid falling sick during Perth's winter this year, and I'm hoping I will not get sick at all over the next few months. I think that our cycling habits have somehow helped build my immune system. And, of course, a good healthy diet with lots of fruits and veges. Yay!

I'm pretty busy writing and marking exams at the moment, but at least the teachers' room is warm (sometimes stuffy). Needless to say, I dread the cold walk to the bathroom and the numbingly cold water. Christmas and winter vacation is coming up soon and it will be our first white Christmas - that is my only consolation for this winter..

Sigh...

Is it December already? The air is getting more and more chilly, but I'm still riding to work when it's not raining - I'm certain that my collegues and students think I'm nuts. It's a great way to keep warm though, and I love the feel of the crisp cold air. Snow is forecasted to fall this week and we have just put the snow tyres (called 'studless' tyres) on the car. I'm proud to say we still have not used a heater yet (this time I'm very certain that people think we're nuts - they've said so), although I think we will have to bring it out when it starts snowing. Rob's looking forward to experiencing the snow, but truth be told, I'd be very happy if it doesn't snow at all this winter. I'm not looking forward to having to drive to work in the snow. Our first experience with snow, and we have to live in it. I'm such a pessimistic person, aren't I?

Anyway, the other day I picked up this Matcha (green tea) bread at a bakery that is not so nearby (2 hours' drive away). It was yummy, and it looked so pretty that I just had to take a photo of it. These breads also came in chocolate, custard and cream flavours.. Bakeries are very popular amongst the Japanese, mostly because it's a foreign experience for them. The Japanese have a love affair with the French, so there are many French bakeries around in the bigger cities. You can get many fancy breads like the one featured in this post, but I wished they sold real bread like wholegrain bread or sourdough that doesn't cost an arm and leg to buy. Oh, how I miss Brumby's and Baker's Delight. I have to settle for baking my own whole wheat bread, which is substandard at best.