Cooking Class

I met with my Tuesday class for the first time today. There were about 15 students, and all introduced themselves to me in English. I will write later about the students.
After I had my class I joined Emily and Lauren in cooking class. We prepared Miso soup, Ramen noodles, baked salmon, some type of boiled Japanese greens, which had some type of sweetener on them, and, naturally, white rice. We walked to the grocery store and picked out some of the ingredients and then cooked our lunch. The grocery store will be another post...... sufficit to say that prices were VERY EXPENSIVE! One small catalope was over $5. A gift-boxed melon was over $35. I bought a very small container of ice cream for $4. Needless to say I will be eating like I did in Iceland when I have to pay for it myself. It is equally as expensive.
We also had potato salad that someone else made for us, and oranges, grapes and watermelon for dessert. I was suffed!
we learned the proper order for eating, (sip soup first, then a bite of rice, then a bite of salmon, then the greens, and you only eat the salad when you are done with everything else. The Ramen noodles came first, as an appetizer, and it had mushrooms, ham and kelp in it.
More about the food later..... the jet lag is kicking in and I have to go to sleep!

British Hills/Regina's Forest

On Sunday we took a two hour mini-van ride up the "skyline" which means going up the mountain via switchbacks to Regina's Forest. We stopped for lunch at British Hills, (http://www.british-hills.co.jp/english/about/corporate.html)which is a resort/educational facility. I had Fish and Chips, naturally, and then we played darts. we were to go hiking, but the weather was typically British as it was raining. After lunch we went on to Regina's Forest which is a resort and spa (onsen). We were to hike there as well, but unfortunately the rain kept us from this. We did swim in an indoor pool and then got in various hot springs outside. These were surrounded by a garden with rocks, small trees, flowers, etc. One of the tubs was green and smelled like medicinal soap. Another was designed to lay down in with your head resting on a ledge and your whole body in the warm/hot water. It was wonderfully relaxing, like the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. There were the four of us and three from Fukushima College, including Mr. Kanno, the CEO of the college. Bathing suits were reguired for the swimming pool and outside hot springs, thankfully. The indoor onsen was of the traditional variety and was segregated. This indoor bathing area had three different springs to get into: a long pool surrounded by rocks, two porcelin tubs which looked like the tubs of the wild west, and a small square spring which had pink water and smelled like roses. Before getting into these springs we had to completely wash ourselves and our hair. We actually had to wash our feet twice.
Afterwards spending time in the onsen, we had a wonderful dinner of various steamed veggies, rice (of course), procutto, chicken, liver, beef, and lots of different kinds of fish including shrimp, and then had wesabu-sabu. Some of us had cold Sake, too. Following dinner was a lazer show over the lake, timed with Japanese music. The fountain also had coloured lights timed to music. It was spectacular. We ate dessert consisting of grapes and kiwi while watching this. Too bad Greg was not with me, as it was very romantic!
Unfortunately the weather kept us from canoeing or playing tennis or golf on Monday morning, but I did get in a short hike, however.
Breakfast was a buffet (or viking.... not sure of the spelling here...) of a mix of Japanese and Western foods. The fruits were delicious! Japanese kiwi is very sweet.
Then it was down the mountain we went and on to visit the local TV station, which has a very popular Karoke competition show which is seen over most of Japan.

dowel doll painting

Karoke

sushi go round at train station

Hot Springs

Today we drove up to see the Tsuchiyu Hot Springs. We went up and up a very curvy road that made us all car-sick. However, the view and the springs were worth it. We stuck our feet in two different hot springs, which had to be hotter than 104f. Of course, I have no pictures of this...... Emily and Lauren do, so I will get some from them. We then painted wooden dowel dolls and walked around a park and then had lunch. I think we were supposed to go hiking but there was some problem with this, so we came back around 4pm or so. Just as well, as we are all still dragging from the time difference, and tomorrow we go to Regina's Forest for the night. Unfortunately we have to pack up and check out of our rooms, only to come back the next night. Before we come back to the hotel, though, we will be visiting the TV station in Fukushima on Monday afternoon.

Karoke

We ate a fabulous restaruant last night, the four of us (Emily, Lauren, Masumi and me) plus with Professors Miura, Sato and Mizunoya. I teach with Mr. Mizunoya. It was a traditional restaurant where we took our shoes off and sat with our legs in a hole. We had radish salad and Caesar salad, some fried cheese sticks, various raw fish pieces (tuna, salmon, shrimp, mystery fish) and a Koren rice dish which we cooked at the table. I have to say, I am getting a little sick of rice..... *sigh*, and I did opt for a Japanese style breakfast this morning instead of the "American" one, so that means more rice. I had better get used to it. I did that because I am getting sick of eggs each morning, too.
After dinner we went to a Karoke place, which consists of a large space with many small rooms along the perimeter which has a horse-shoe table and a large karoke machine. We sang for about an hour or so, Lauren and Emily sang some Japanese songs, I helped sing "Summertime" and "Singing in the Rain", Masumi and Mr. Sato sang a beautiful duet, a romantic Japanese song. We ended with a rousing version of "My Way" which is very popular I gather. I was going to try "Orange Crush" by REM but we couldn't get it to work. Lauren did a rap song, which had only one bad word in it..... amazing. Mr. Sato told me that some people spend the night in the place and that many Japanese have their own machines at home. He was telling me how good it was for our health.

doctor's office

I am allergic to Japan. I woke up on Wed morning with my eyes swollen shut and crying.... had to go to the opening reception like that. Stupidly I put my contacts in as well, but ended up taking them out and wearing my glasses. Lovely. So the Fukushima people insisted I go to the eye doctor. He looked at my eyes and said they were inflammed and gave me drops, to the tune of 5,250 yen. I had to put slippers on and sit in the waiting room on benches, everything was very sterile and antiseptic looking, which is good for a doctor's office I guess. At least they saw me quickly. Naturally I forgot my insurance card, but Fukushima has a copy and they showed that to the receptionist. But I still had to pay. But the good news is that I have quit crying and looking like a very stoned Dracula. I am still sort of swollen and still wearing my glasses, which I hate. Oh well, could be worse. There seemed to be about 5 nurses there as well. Job creation.

welcome reception

Forgot to mention the welcome reception. It went well, I guess they liked our speeches. Lauren and Emily did well speaking Japanese. Fortunately, I did not have to do that..... Masumi translated for me. Mr. Kanno and Mr. Abe liked their Converse Parkas. Mr. Sato liked his coaster, or so it all seemed. Unfortunately I am suffering from an eye infection and cried during the entire thing.....
After that we met with the students and introduced Converse to them. Emily sang Jupiter and did a wonderful job of it. Then we ate various American and Japanese dishes and a few people sang to the Karoke machine. One professor sang My Way and some students sang some popular Japanese songs. It was fun. Just in case you were wondering, I did NOT sing "White Rabbit".

Getting acclimatized

I am still not over the jet lag. I woke up at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep for an hour or so. The middle of the afternoon finds me trying to keep my eyes open....... hard to do.
So far I have met with two classes, a child psych class and a business information class. There are more women than men and all of the students are shy. I was late to class this morning because I got lost (!) and arrived drenched in sweat and dying of thirst. But all went well after that. Basically so far the students introduce themselves in English and ask me questions. I introduced myself and asked them questions. I guess next week we will get to lessons and presentations and such.
So far I have had "American" breakfasts (eggs, ham, croissant, coffee, juice and salad (!)) I will try a Japanese breakfast next week. I did eat steak last night and a seaweed salad, which was excellent. Lunch today was soba noodles at a small noodle house. Some of the other Fukushima College professors commented that I used the chopsticks like a native. Go figure. I was also great at slurping my noodles. That is considered polite.
My pillows are like bean bags but comfortable. My room has great A/C and hot water and a giant tub. Plus, the internet access makes me very happy.
The restaurant last night was traditional in that we ate in a private room. When you wanted to order you pressed a button on the table that sounded like a door bell and then the waitstaff showed up. That was fun.
The weather today was really pleasant, at least walking back from the downtown campus to our hotel. Not like this morning, though. The downtown campus is only one building. The suburban campus has many buildings and is an 8 minute train ride from the hotel. The train station is across the street.
Today I learned about the culture, and about manga. If you do not know what that is, I suggest googleing it. Manga has to do with comic books. We also learned about fashion in Japan.
The city is ringed by mountains. I will try to get some pics posted.

Travelling

The flight over took 13 hours and was fairly uneventful except for the attendants wanting to know if there was a doctor or nurse or some type of trained medical person on the flight. I never did find out what happened.
There was the usual crying babies and unruly children who kept opening up the window shades blinding me. We were instructed to keep them closed during the flight, so we could watch our individual screens better. The plane was a Boeing 777 which had the coolest first class seating I have ever seen. The seats were at angles, so people could lay down. There were at least 10 on each side. They had all sorts of electronic gadgets, including remotes. The cattle class, where we were, had three sets of three seats, which did recline some, and each seat had it's own personal screen on the back of the seat in front. Those in the bulkhead had screens that came up from the side. We had dinner, a snack, and breakfast during the flight, and each meal was pretty good. The most interesting was a cucumber and hard boiled egg sandwich. The attendants gave us water all the time. Each announcement was in English, Japanese and Portugese. I now want to say "Obrigato" (thank you in Portugese) instead of the Japanese word for thank you.... Arigato (spelling?)

Getting Ready

I am almost ready for this trip. Cooking and packing will consume my weekend. Last minute running around and making sure I have done everything! Then, lay back and let it all happen!