summer break #1

so at my school we get quite a few breaks throughout the year, for a total of about 6 weeks over the year. one of our breaks was in july from the 13th to the 21st. I decided to take a bike trip to Shizuoka prefecture and I stayed in a town called Omaezaki.

here is the map of where Omaezaki is. the route I took on the way back went through Hamamatsu, Shinjiro, Toyota, Miyoshi, and Nisshin. (going there I went through Okazaki, Toyokawa, Toyohashi, and Hamamatsu)

I spent July 16th riding, and I stayed in a hotel that night. 

the next day I headed over to the youth hostel.

 On the 17th I did a bit of exploring around Omaezaki, went swimming at the beach...

The beach has a giant slide near it, so I went on that. super funn!!

Omaezaki is right on the pacific ocean, with no islands obstructing the view. I've rarely seen views like this--living in places like Wakayama, Vancouver, and Nagoya the ocean always has a coast on the other side or some islands obstructing the view. That night I stayed in the hostel in Omaezaki. It was really peaceful and the owners were really kind.

So on my second day, I did something I've wanted to do for a long time. I went surfing! I just found a little shop called Morey Surf where I could rent a surfboard and wetsuit... and the owner taught me a surfing lesson too! it was really fun! I didn't get to stand up on the board but am hoping to go back soon and try it out again :) I have found a couple places along the Chita peninsula (south of nagoya)

after my surf lesson I was all salty and sandy so I really wanted to go to an Onsen. but the only onsen was about 19 km away. although that was nothing to what I had ridden two days before, so why not go to it? the Onsen was called Ko-umare and it was one of the nicest I've been to. they even have a scented oil bath which changes every month. I was really surprised to find the price was cheap--only 500 yen for 3 hours.

these pictures were taken on the way to the onsen!

the very next day, I left the hostel before 7 am and had breakfast of a rice ball, block of tofu, and oolong tea in front of a convenience store. then I headed about 40 km to Hamamatsu city. There is nothing to see there but I wanted to send my heavy backpack back home by express delivery. Which only cost about 1000 yen.

Inland sea in Hamamatsu

then I headed up into the mountains which I would cross over into Aichi prefecture and back home. the mountain going up was really high, and I finished off my bottle of tea just going up! thankfully at the top there were a couple of vending machines waiting for me. After the top I thought I would have a really long downhill ride. but it was more like a plateau, going straight across and through most of Toyota city (yes, the car company started from there). then, I had a really fantastic ride down into Toyota's city centre. after that it was a hour or two on the highway back home to Nagoya city.

This was the longest trip I've done so far; I probably rode over 350 km in 4 days.

the plateau part of Toyota

now here are all the prefectures I've been to... not counting the ones I've only passed through: 

Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Tochigi, Hyogo, Osaka, Nara, Wakayama, Gifu, Nagano, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Niigata, Aichi, Mie, Fukui, Shizuoka, and Shiga 

(just went to Shiga on August 13th, but that's a story for another post) 

That makes 19 in total! there are 47 in all, so I only have 28 left to visit.

curry potato salad

so yesterday I wanted to make some curry, but since it's summer, I wanted something more refreshing than a big plate of hot steaming curry and rice. so I thought i'd make a "cold curry"... if you will. it has all the basic ingredients of a japanese curry but in potato salad form!
how do you make a fantastic vegan potato salad that is also extremely healthy? one could go the easy route by adding a ton of vegan mayonnaise but an even better way is to use lemon juice. it goes extremely well with the potatoes and I have to say it gives the salad a light, tangy taste--way better for the hot summer months than heavy, oily mayo dressing. this is something non-vegans will love too, maybe more than traditional potato salad.

curry potato salad
3 potatoes, cubed
1 carrot, cut into the same size as potato
1/4 white onion... diced
(you could also add some green peas!)

boil these in water with 2 pinches of sea salt. when the potatoes are cooked through, drain the water and transfer to a bowl to cool.


add:
a splash or two of vegetable oil
about a teaspoon of curry powder
2-3 pinches of black salt
2-3 tablespoons of lemon juice

mix until incorporated, but not so far as to make mashed potatoes. (we'll save curried mashed potatoes for this winter.)
cool well, and enjoy!
I had this in my bento on monday, along with a rice ball and homemade agar jelly (not pictured)!

the other compartments contain a block of deep-fried tofu, and:

mizuna no o-hitashi (blanched Japanese arugula)
boil a large pot of water, and blanch the greens (almost anything can be used, such as spinach).
try not to mix it around, but keep the stems and leaves straight.
then take it out and wring out the water.
cut into sections of 4-5 cm, arrange nicely in individual dishes (so that the stems and leaves are straight) and top with about 1~1.5 tsp of Japanese soy sauce (such as Kikkoman) and ground sesame.
one serving is about the same size as what I have shown in my bento box.

hey... better late than never, guys.

a trip to nagasaki.

(for fulle photo albume clicke here)

Nagasaki city is located in nagasaki prefecture on the westernmost point of kyushu island. and i think it's the closest point to south korea, too. but don't quote me on that.

I went there from august 7th-8th. so why am i posting this so late, you ask? i was editing this video... it's of hashima, the abandoned island. i'll get to that later...

so on the 7th i left hiroshima in the morning and went to kyushu by shinkansen! it's the new line that goes through a tunnel (chunnel?) under the seabed. and i got to my hostel in downtown nagasaki right around 1 pm. 

then i went to Dejima!! I had learned a lot about dejima in japanese history class... in early modern times, when japan had its "closed borders" policy dejima was, legally speaking, the only place where foreigners could trade. the dutch traded there, mostly sugar, apparently. but it was also the hub of western learning (science, engineering, language, etc.) in japan.

from history class, i was under the assumption that dejima was off the coast with not much trade going on, and the dutch people there were super isolated and poor. in reality, it wasn't that bad! in japanese dejima means "removed island" but it is no longer an island, with roads surrounding it on 3 sides. in early modern times it was more like an outpost (like Fort Langley) with a moat, except the moat was the sea. in fact, the dutch lived quite a nice life, with servants and good food... and it was very close to Nagasaki Station. I walked to dejima from my hostel in less than 30 minutes.

poorly edited attempted panorama of Dejima i took with my SLR. 

a model of the Dutch people of dejima eating dinner. notice that the room is all tatami mats and yet they are using western chairs and wearing shoes. to me that is unfathomable. after 9 months in japan, wearing shoes/sandals inside (let alone on a tatami mat) feels about as normal as walking barefoot in the middle of a highway!

all the kinds of sugar that were traded at dejima.

a model of dejima.

nagasaki has a lot of churches--this is a catholic church, the first church i've seen in japan

nagasaki is also famous for its city lights... i took this with my SLR with no tripod and no editing, by the way. aren't I fabulous?

many parts of town reminded me of europe, such as italy. it was as hot as italy too... even though i brought my 1-litre nalgene everywhere i still had to buy bottled tea :/

on the other hand, Nagasaki is not all european influence! I also came across a Confucian museum. and figured, why not check that out?

(Nagasaki is also famous for "champon"which is a chinese-influenced ramen dish. the other famous food there is Castella, a type of plain cake, which is from portuguese influence)

so finally, the piece of resistance! hashima... the abandoned "battleship" island

it was inhabited by coal miners, many of them foreigners, and their families until 1974. it's a tiny island but was home to over 5,000 people at its peak in the 1950s. it's quite isolated from nagasaki city--about a 1.5 hour boat ride. 

it had a elementary school, middle school, pool, market, and pachinko parlour. the sea surrounding hashima is very choppy with huge waves crashing against the sides of the island. notice the spray of water from a wave in the last picture and compare its height with one of the buildings. it must have been at least four storeys in height. the boat lurched heavily throughout the entire tour. luckily i have a stomach of steel or else i would have lost my lunch. 

here's the video i took with my gopro, although it's not very good.

after gunkanjima i went to the memorial peace park. it's quite moving! here is a picture of a plaque that made me quite sad :(

'"I was so very thirsty

upon the water floated something that looked like oil

I wanted water more than anything

so I drank it just like that"

- from the diary of a young girl on that day'

I think sometimes, the most valuable way to learn from war is to read about a single person's experience of it.

it's too hot and this is how I deal with it

yes... too hot. too, too hot.

but this is normal for japan in july! I sometimes ask my students if it's humid today... they always say "no, it's pretty dry today. just really hot." well dang, it feels humid to me. still nothing compared to june/july humidity, I suppose...
whatever.

I don't care because I found a fun and economical way to cool off (fun and economical ways are the best ways). there is a river in Kanaya (still in Aridagawa town but 30 minutes by bike inland) which is fun to go swimming in.

and I recently got a GoPro (an underwater sports camera), so I made the following video for you.

just so you can see exactly how awesome this river is!

enjoy.

osaka again 笑

hello all.. I'm doing quite well here in aridagawa. it's been getting quite hot recently. today it's 27℃ although it will be getting a lot hotter in the weeks to come. in osaka and tenri it's 30℃ today =＿= ｼﾝﾄﾞｲﾖ
 I am still having fun teaching the kids in aridagawa and my class in wakayama 3 thursdays a month. I may start another job a couple times a month. it would be tutoring high school kids at Machiko's friend's juku. ganbare! p(~ o~)q

last weekend i went to osaka again. there was an event at Konohana grand church so I went from the 22nd to the 24th to help and prepare for it. me, Machiko, and Robert (from the JEC in vancouver) stayed there 3 days and 2 nights. even though i'm not tenrikyo, tenrikyo people have always gone out of their way to help me, so i'm always happy to help them back :)

on the evening of the 22nd i went out to check out osaka station but all the shops were closed so i just strolled around for a bit. osaka station is on the opposite end of the city and it took me 30 minutes to get there from teradacho station near the church, where we were staying.

on the 23rd i actually had some free time in the afternoon so i walked from the church to tennoji station. it only takes about half an hour to walk there, but it was SO hot that i bought two whole bottles of tea (so over a litre i think) and downed them both... I could have gone for another, actually haha.
it reminds me of when we were in europe in 2001 and each of us bought a 2 litre bottle of water to drink every day! I like japan's tea better though. it's just plain green tea, no sweeteners or flavour. none of that "green tea with pear, peach and acai" or whatever they sell in canada!

here is a shop, a women's clothing store i found in a mall near tennoji... oh dear. note to all namers-of-shops: urbandictionary is your best friend.

sooo sunday the 24th was the actual event itself. the event was the retirement party for the current head of the women's association, Konohana branch (tenrikyo fujinkai konohana shibu). the new head of the women's association for Konohana will be the current reverend's wife. 13 songs of the tenrikyo service were performed and then a bunch of women made speeches. after that there was lunch, tea, and door prizes.

all in all there were nearly 900 prizes... including a tv, and a bluray player!

this is the Yuho church minister.

this is me and a girl called Yachiyo who was the MC.