Friday, 16 July

Today is Sunday, and we left Fukushima on Friday morning. We just got into Tokyo this afternoon and were without the internet Friday, Sat and most of today.
I will recap Friday but that is all I can manage now. The pictures here are from our trip to the Aizu area, first a Soldiers house from the Edo Era about 200 years ago, then from Aizu Tsuruga Castle (which was under restoration) and then the Ouchijuku tour, a re-creation of stores and houses from the Edo era.

Here are the websites related to our Friday travels. http://www.city.aizuwakamatsu.fukushima.jp
http://www.tsurugajo.com
http://www.town.shimogo.fukushima.jp

We stayed Friday night at a traditional Japanese onsen (hot springs mineral bath). Emily, Lauren and I all shared a big room, slept side by side on futons on the woven mats on the floor. There was a small, person onsen (hot tub) in our room, an inside private one in another part of the inn, and a public, mixed bathing on (traditional style..... no suits!) that was partly blocked off for male and female. Fortunately there were not too many people staying there, so Lauren did not see any men when she checked out the public bathing area on Sat morning. I only checked out the private one in the room and then the inside women's only one. Very nice, but hotter than I keep our hot tub at home!
The meal that night was all local food, different types of veggies, including Yuma, and a fresh water fish served on a stick..... fish on a stick. Beats lip on a stick any day! It was very good, but I did not eat the head!

Thursday, 15 July

Thursday night we had a farewell dinner at a Chinese restaurant near the downtown Fukushima campus, and the chef came out to greet us at the end. Emily, Lauren, Ms. Sato, Mr. Mura, Mr. Kanno, Mark, a trustee I had not met before named Mr. Hirata and I had a wonderful dinner with many, many courses, topped off by a strawberry birthday cake for me! It was delicious. I know we had duck, tempura asparagus, tofu, a sweet doughy thing with bean paste in the middle of it, shaped like a peach, lots of different kinds of veggies, a hot curry, a milder curry, lots of white rice, soup, and fruit. I know there were at least 10 courses, but Thursday seems like a month ago given our travels this past weekend, and I simply do not remember all that there was. However, I do remember it was very good, and my sake glass was never empty, and they sent us off in style with individualized scrapbooks of pictures and some nice gifts.
After I got back I packed and then went out for a night-cap at the blues bar "Catfish" where I was with Damien and Brent on Tuesday night. Brent and I were the only ones in there, and the owner was playing some old Memphis style blues.... I realized he had about 3000 records in there. Too bad I will miss a brazilian blues bad that is playing this weekend.
No pants were hanging on the railing outside of the bar this night, though.....
hahaha.
So, 5.5 hours later I was up and out of Fukushima...... on the road to Tokyo.

Fukushima Miyashiro Campus Pictures

Monday's Dinner

Ugh, I wrote this all last night and then lost it by an accidentally push of the wrong key! Frustration and fatigue drove me to quit and try again today.
Monday night Mark and his lovely wife Ilene took me to a wonderful restaurant. I would have never found it by myself, as is the case with many cool places around here. It was near the downtown campus and we walked up some stairs and knocked on a wooden door and went into a dark small space with a bar and a few Japanese-style seating/tables near the window in the front. I think the place was called "Regallato", and it had an Italian feel to it. In fact, the poster on the wall above the outside door was that of the "Mouth of God" relief that I saw in Rome in 2001. It is the big sun-like God relief with an open mouth. It is said if you put your hand in the mouth and you tell a lie it will close on your hand. Ouch!
Anyway, the man behind the bar created many small beautiful dishes for us all prepared on uniquely beautiful pieces of pottery. I cannot remember them all, and I had no camera as it was being charged, so I can only describe a few of them. We had a salad with baby corn, tomatoes, cucumbers with a ginger sauce, I think. We had penne pasta with avocado and prosciutto ham with an egg mixed in, we had grilled pork, I think some sushi, green tea cake that was very light and some wonderful fresh fruit with fresh fig in it. Each dish was a work of art, almost too pretty to eat. We also drank a fizzy spritzer with black currant flavoring, and later had espresso with our dessert.
Afterwards we went to their favorite "night-club" which was down a flight of stairs, through a florescent-lit hall to a door that had a neon orange sign that said "snaks". Mark and Ilene had me walk in alone and say "good evening" in Japanese to their friend behind the bar, and he was shocked to see a Western woman come in there alone! Then Mark and Ilene popped in and we all had a good laugh. Mark keeps a bottle of Chevas Regal there, along with other people's bottles of various liquor, and so he and I had a drink. Ilene was the DD, so she did not drink the Chevas. The bartender has never missed a day there in 25 years, including Sundays! He fixed me a snack of rice, ginger, and vinegar. I liked it, but not too much of it. We also had a corn snack, tofu with ginger, and soy beans. Mark and Ilene sang along with the Karaoke machine, I tried a few songs but couldn't get the key right and gave up. Good thing, as I was horrible! I guess I will keep my day job, as they say.
Ilene made me some absolutely beautiful Japanese paper sleeves for chop-sticks. They are very intricately done and have fine workmanship. Mark gave me a CD of himself (he has a wonderful voice) and a CD of their daughter, who sings professionally in Tokyo. She has a great voice, too, nice and low like I wish my singing voice was.
Here are two pics of us at the nightclub.

Blues Bar

Went out last night to a blues bar near the hotel with two local English teachers, Brent from St. Louis and Damien from Sidney, Australia. The bar was small and dark, with the appropriate kitchy stuff all around it. There was a drum set and some bongo drums, an old stand up bass and I think a guitar. No one was playing, unfortunately, but there must have been at least 300 albums behind the bar near the DJ station. The DJ didn't play the old Chicago blues I like, but did put on some good mixes of more contemporary jazzy/blues stuff. I felt at home with the posters of James Brown, Clarence "Gatesmouth" Brown and others. I liked the black and white Barbie Dolls placed around, and all of the old Aunt Jamima memorabilia on the bar. There was a mirror ball and bench seats. It reminded me of the old coffee place in Sparkle City's new "grain district", Java Jive. Unfortunately, I came out of there smelling like I had been in Delany's! Yuck. I guess all bars are the same in that regard.
As we were leaving we spotted these pants on the rail. I really wonder what the story is here!

More on food

Today's Japanese breakfast was much more appetizing than Monday's! There was cooked salmon, Japanese style eggs (square and sort of scrambled with a sweet sauce), white rice and miso (of course, goes with out writing), another soup with a gray potato, something like a rutabaga, and a sea creature with tentacles and small suction cups which I didn't get near, sweet pickles and sea-urchin, and nutto! Nutto is a dish of fermented beans and leeks which is slimy and has strings of silk coming off of it. It is actually ok when mixed with rice and soy sauce. I think I am the only Westerner other than Brent (English teacher who teaches part time at Fukushima College) who will eat it. The students all laugh when I mention it.

Today's lunch was a gamble. I put my money in the machine and picked a number indicating to the lunch ladies in the cafeteria what I wanted. I had NO IDEA what I was getting, as the main dish was sold out and I only knew what button to push for the main dish and for the curry. I didn't want the curry, so picked number 11. It turned out to be a macaroni salad (which was excellent), some miso soup which I like, and a fried rice, egg and ginger tofu dish which was tasty.

Dinner was chicken-on-a-stick (yakitory) and a sea-weed Tofu salad with sesame dressiong. I love this salad! I am going to miss this salad..... guess I will have to find seaweed in Sparkle City.

Fukushima Campus and more Statues

Here is a collection of the Fukushima Campus statues.