This will be brief because I'm exhausted from teaching 4th graders. Very fun but they do drain the energy from you.
Today i took 4 trains. I had to travel to Hiroki (the new station they added between us and the main city station) to go to one of my schools this morning. I got on the train at 9:10 so it was probably the first train after rush hour. I believe it was four cars and almost everyone was able to get a seat. Coming home from Hiroki around noon again it was a four car train and this time most of the seats were empty. Granted Hiroki is only the second stop on the line but usually more people get on at Chuo (where the train was coming from) then anywhere else we've stopped on the line.
The third train I took was to go into the city for a meeting about another class I will be teaching and it left Matsumoto at 4:31. This train was only two cars and was already pretty full when I got on. The stop after Matsumoto is Kami Ijuin where there is a high school. Many of the students got on at that stop and there was barely standing room. It was impossible not to bump into someone standing near you at least once the rest of the trip. It got even worse at 7:27 when Eli and I took a train home after having dinner with a couple of friends. There were only two cars again and this time almost the entire platform was filled with people waiting to get on. I imagine the trains in Tokyo rush hour are worse, from the stories I've heard about them, but they can't be by much. We were brushing against our neighbors with every rock of the train. Eli tells me that the morning rush hour trains that he takes to get to school are almost always just as bad.
I guess my point with this story is that not every culture shares the same ideas that Americans have about personal space. I imagine the reason the Japanese lacking a clear sense of personal space has something to do with having a large population crowded onto several very mountainous islands. Perhaps you could call it a cultural evolution. I think I'm starting to get used to the idea that its not a scary or bad thing to be standing within a foot of a complete stranger for 15 minutes and occasionally brushing up against them without ever saying a word. In America you would probably make small talk if you ended up that close, or at least say "excuse me" or "I'm sorry" if you bumped them. So if you come to Japan, or visit any culture other then your own, you should expect things to be different. The best thing to do is see how the people around you react to the situations you are in and take your clues from them. "When in Rome...." and all that.
Not sure what the Japan Rails is thinking though, running 4 car trains when two would more then cover the need and 2 cars when there is a definite demand for more.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
April Happenings
Quite a lot has happened this month and will be happening soon.
On my birthday, April 9th, Sakurajima exploded. I was at the BoE when I looked out the window. The sky was dark and I thought it had started to rain. I was irritated because the weather hadn't said anything about rain and so I didn't have my umbrella. When I left to go home I realized that it wasn't raining at all. All of Kagoshima City had been enveloped in a giant dust cloud and the ash raining down was everywhere. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust and it was hard to breathe and even see. I went to a local restaurant/bar I like called Recife to set up a reservation for that night and the guy that runs the place said he'd never seen anything like it and he's been here for seven years. Apparently the last time Sakurajima threw that much ash into the air was ten years ago. I hopped on the train and the dust cloud followed me. It's impressive that it made it all the way out to Matsumoto, but what made it crazy is that it went out past Ijuin, the next town west, and kept going.
That night seven of us gathered at Recife for my birthday. It was nice. They have Guinness. I ate some Asian Spicy Beef with Rice and some Tacos.
Robin and I just bought a new computer and a camcorder. They are both awesome. We ordered them from a distributing company in New York and in order to get them to ship overseas I needed to call them. Skype lets you call 1-800 numbers for free so it was cool. Apparently it's a company run by observant Jews. They were closed for passover. I called them and the guy had the stereotypical New York Hassidic accent. I called them on a Tuesday and we had our new gear on Friday. UPS got our stuff to us in three days and kept us constantly updated on their progress via their website. UPS gets the "Fuck yeah!" award.
I've started learning Iaido, or traditional Japanese Swordsmanship. My friend Alex is a fourth-year ALT. He has a Japanese wife and a two year-old. He's been into Japanese swordsmanship for a long time. We were talking at one of our big office parties and he offered to get me some information on a couple of the big Iai schools here in Kagoshima.
So I'm learning a style called Muso Shinden Ryu from a teacher named Kamikokuryu, an eighth-rank master in Iai who is also a seventh-rank in Kendo. Alex was jealous because the teacher he had in his style of Eishin Ryu wasn't nearly as high a rank, nor was he the legend in Kagoshima that my teacher is. The ranking goes like this:
1st - 3rd rank are confirmed by your city
4th - 5th rank are confirmed by your prefecture
6th - 8th rank are confirmed by the Nation of Japan
9th and 10th rank are honorary ranks of which there are only a handful of holders in all of Japan.
The Assistant Master at this school, Nishida, is also a local hero. He has won the annual Kagoshima Iai tournament every year for the past six or seven years. So I'm in the right place to properly learn Japanese Swordsmanship which is something I've wanted for a long time. The sword I'm using is being lent to me for the durration of my stay in Japan by a 5th rank guy, a teacher in his own right, which is a very cool thing. Pictures of me in the kimono, hakama, and katana are forthcoming.
More exciting news, Robin and I are headed out of town for a week and a half to meet up with Lisa G in Shimane-ken, Izumo-shi. We're leaving on Saturday May 2nd. On Wednesday May 6th we're going to Osaka for a night before pressing on to Kyoto next door. If you know Rurouni Kenshin, we'll be arriving in Kyoto on May 7th, the day Kenshin and Saito had their reunion battle before Okubo Toshimichi came to enlist Kenshin's help. Epic. We'll spend four nights and five days in Kyoto and then go back to Osaka for two nights. Then we'll head home. I have a crap load of time off saved up. I'm taking seven days off, and including weekends and the holidays, I have a total break from school of like 16 days. I'm just not working for half of May. It's great.
Check out the new photos we've posted. There will be more once we get back from our trip
On my birthday, April 9th, Sakurajima exploded. I was at the BoE when I looked out the window. The sky was dark and I thought it had started to rain. I was irritated because the weather hadn't said anything about rain and so I didn't have my umbrella. When I left to go home I realized that it wasn't raining at all. All of Kagoshima City had been enveloped in a giant dust cloud and the ash raining down was everywhere. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust and it was hard to breathe and even see. I went to a local restaurant/bar I like called Recife to set up a reservation for that night and the guy that runs the place said he'd never seen anything like it and he's been here for seven years. Apparently the last time Sakurajima threw that much ash into the air was ten years ago. I hopped on the train and the dust cloud followed me. It's impressive that it made it all the way out to Matsumoto, but what made it crazy is that it went out past Ijuin, the next town west, and kept going.
That night seven of us gathered at Recife for my birthday. It was nice. They have Guinness. I ate some Asian Spicy Beef with Rice and some Tacos.
Robin and I just bought a new computer and a camcorder. They are both awesome. We ordered them from a distributing company in New York and in order to get them to ship overseas I needed to call them. Skype lets you call 1-800 numbers for free so it was cool. Apparently it's a company run by observant Jews. They were closed for passover. I called them and the guy had the stereotypical New York Hassidic accent. I called them on a Tuesday and we had our new gear on Friday. UPS got our stuff to us in three days and kept us constantly updated on their progress via their website. UPS gets the "Fuck yeah!" award.
I've started learning Iaido, or traditional Japanese Swordsmanship. My friend Alex is a fourth-year ALT. He has a Japanese wife and a two year-old. He's been into Japanese swordsmanship for a long time. We were talking at one of our big office parties and he offered to get me some information on a couple of the big Iai schools here in Kagoshima.
So I'm learning a style called Muso Shinden Ryu from a teacher named Kamikokuryu, an eighth-rank master in Iai who is also a seventh-rank in Kendo. Alex was jealous because the teacher he had in his style of Eishin Ryu wasn't nearly as high a rank, nor was he the legend in Kagoshima that my teacher is. The ranking goes like this:
1st - 3rd rank are confirmed by your city
4th - 5th rank are confirmed by your prefecture
6th - 8th rank are confirmed by the Nation of Japan
9th and 10th rank are honorary ranks of which there are only a handful of holders in all of Japan.
The Assistant Master at this school, Nishida, is also a local hero. He has won the annual Kagoshima Iai tournament every year for the past six or seven years. So I'm in the right place to properly learn Japanese Swordsmanship which is something I've wanted for a long time. The sword I'm using is being lent to me for the durration of my stay in Japan by a 5th rank guy, a teacher in his own right, which is a very cool thing. Pictures of me in the kimono, hakama, and katana are forthcoming.
More exciting news, Robin and I are headed out of town for a week and a half to meet up with Lisa G in Shimane-ken, Izumo-shi. We're leaving on Saturday May 2nd. On Wednesday May 6th we're going to Osaka for a night before pressing on to Kyoto next door. If you know Rurouni Kenshin, we'll be arriving in Kyoto on May 7th, the day Kenshin and Saito had their reunion battle before Okubo Toshimichi came to enlist Kenshin's help. Epic. We'll spend four nights and five days in Kyoto and then go back to Osaka for two nights. Then we'll head home. I have a crap load of time off saved up. I'm taking seven days off, and including weekends and the holidays, I have a total break from school of like 16 days. I'm just not working for half of May. It's great.
Check out the new photos we've posted. There will be more once we get back from our trip
Monday, March 23, 2009
The Dan Brown Code
I finished reading the Da Vinci Code today. As several people had warned me, I was disappointed by the ending. But before I say anything else about the ending, let me pick at the rest of the book.
I've found that the most important thing a writer can do is to make the characters real enough that the reader can identify with them. It doesn't matter if your character is a Hobbit in Middle Earth, a Klingon on a Vor'Cha Attack Cruiser, or a Harvard University professor visiting Paris as long as the character acts in a believable way. I expect Hobbits to be country bumpkins. I expect Klingon warriors to be aggressive. And I expect university professors to have the mental prowess of a human being. The character Robert Langdon possesses a library's wealth of information all stored inside his tiny mammalian brain. Breaking codes, identifying obscure links between unrelated things, art history, he knows it all inside and out. And if he doesn't know the answer then he can consult two other people who do. Sophie Neveau and Sir Teabing are also entirely super-intelligent. I'm not saying that I have a problem with smart characters, but when three people can unravel all the mysteries of the world's most secret organization in one day with only the knowledge they have when you meet them, then something is wrong. The only time they pause to actually research something they begin sweating because their library computer search takes more than five minutes. I can't suspend disbelief with these three, especially when you find out who the real "bad guy" is.
My other problem with the characters is that they're flat. Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveau don't have a personality. They are computers that store information and are able to retrieve it on demand. The only one with any personality is Teabing. he is unique and eccentric and I enjoyed it when he was involved in a scene. But I didn't feel anything for the other two. I couldn't get behind them. I couldn't relate to them. They were a function to tell the story, but they didn't bring me into it.
I had a hard time with the plot line. The story itself of these two people trying to evade the police as they went about their wild goose chase didn't interest me. The part of it that kept me reading was the back story. The book is littered with conspiracy theories, history, and accusations against the Church. I thought Dan Brown had some balls to put a lot of these things in his book and I was behind him 100%. Whether the story of the Knights Templar, the Holy Grail, and the Queen in Exile is true or not doesn't matter. It was interesting, it was speculative, and it kept me reading. It was great.
The entire story as you're reading seems to be showing you a secret war between the Church, with the group Opus Dei as its arm, and a secret organization known as the Priory of Sion, which is dedicated to preserving Truths that the Church is trying to cover up or destroy. I loved this. This is what I meant when I said I thought Dan Brown had balls. But here's the disappointment. At the end you find out that the Church had almost nothing to do with any of the events happening in the book in the present. Sure, there was a desperate bishop and a crazy monk, but the Church as an organization was NOT involved. It was all the scheming of ONE GUY. An independent who was affiliated with no one but himself. He wasn't with the Priory of Sion. He wasn't with the Church. He was a guy who wanted to find the Grail. Just a guy.
Who cut your balls off at the 90% complete mark, Dan Brown?
This book had the potential to be epic. A battle of ideologies in the present time in which the most powerful religion in the world could have been turned upside down. But, no. Instead we got a watered down resolution in which nothing changed. And that includes the characters. They are the same at the end of the book as they are at the beginning. Sure, they have a little more knowledge and one of them was reunited with her family, but they didn't grow as people. I cannot see any difference between the Robert Langdon I met on page one and the one I know at the end. It's like a Tom Clancy book. Sure, it's cool that there's a lot of interesting information in there, but the character is only an excuse to give you that information. The character himself is unoriginal, uninspired, and boring. So you just uncovered one of the great mysteries of the past two thousand years? That's great! Where will your NEXT adventure take you, Dr. Langdon?
Maybe it's me and I just don't understand the Mystery and/or Suspense genre. As I said, I really enjoyed the back story of this book and the character of Leigh Teabing as you first meet him, but I have a hard time thinking of anything else that stood out to me.
I've found that the most important thing a writer can do is to make the characters real enough that the reader can identify with them. It doesn't matter if your character is a Hobbit in Middle Earth, a Klingon on a Vor'Cha Attack Cruiser, or a Harvard University professor visiting Paris as long as the character acts in a believable way. I expect Hobbits to be country bumpkins. I expect Klingon warriors to be aggressive. And I expect university professors to have the mental prowess of a human being. The character Robert Langdon possesses a library's wealth of information all stored inside his tiny mammalian brain. Breaking codes, identifying obscure links between unrelated things, art history, he knows it all inside and out. And if he doesn't know the answer then he can consult two other people who do. Sophie Neveau and Sir Teabing are also entirely super-intelligent. I'm not saying that I have a problem with smart characters, but when three people can unravel all the mysteries of the world's most secret organization in one day with only the knowledge they have when you meet them, then something is wrong. The only time they pause to actually research something they begin sweating because their library computer search takes more than five minutes. I can't suspend disbelief with these three, especially when you find out who the real "bad guy" is.
My other problem with the characters is that they're flat. Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveau don't have a personality. They are computers that store information and are able to retrieve it on demand. The only one with any personality is Teabing. he is unique and eccentric and I enjoyed it when he was involved in a scene. But I didn't feel anything for the other two. I couldn't get behind them. I couldn't relate to them. They were a function to tell the story, but they didn't bring me into it.
I had a hard time with the plot line. The story itself of these two people trying to evade the police as they went about their wild goose chase didn't interest me. The part of it that kept me reading was the back story. The book is littered with conspiracy theories, history, and accusations against the Church. I thought Dan Brown had some balls to put a lot of these things in his book and I was behind him 100%. Whether the story of the Knights Templar, the Holy Grail, and the Queen in Exile is true or not doesn't matter. It was interesting, it was speculative, and it kept me reading. It was great.
The entire story as you're reading seems to be showing you a secret war between the Church, with the group Opus Dei as its arm, and a secret organization known as the Priory of Sion, which is dedicated to preserving Truths that the Church is trying to cover up or destroy. I loved this. This is what I meant when I said I thought Dan Brown had balls. But here's the disappointment. At the end you find out that the Church had almost nothing to do with any of the events happening in the book in the present. Sure, there was a desperate bishop and a crazy monk, but the Church as an organization was NOT involved. It was all the scheming of ONE GUY. An independent who was affiliated with no one but himself. He wasn't with the Priory of Sion. He wasn't with the Church. He was a guy who wanted to find the Grail. Just a guy.
Who cut your balls off at the 90% complete mark, Dan Brown?
This book had the potential to be epic. A battle of ideologies in the present time in which the most powerful religion in the world could have been turned upside down. But, no. Instead we got a watered down resolution in which nothing changed. And that includes the characters. They are the same at the end of the book as they are at the beginning. Sure, they have a little more knowledge and one of them was reunited with her family, but they didn't grow as people. I cannot see any difference between the Robert Langdon I met on page one and the one I know at the end. It's like a Tom Clancy book. Sure, it's cool that there's a lot of interesting information in there, but the character is only an excuse to give you that information. The character himself is unoriginal, uninspired, and boring. So you just uncovered one of the great mysteries of the past two thousand years? That's great! Where will your NEXT adventure take you, Dr. Langdon?
Maybe it's me and I just don't understand the Mystery and/or Suspense genre. As I said, I really enjoyed the back story of this book and the character of Leigh Teabing as you first meet him, but I have a hard time thinking of anything else that stood out to me.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Spring Cleaning
Well its once again that most lovely time of the year which we call Spring. So what does this mean? Spring cleaning of course! We're cleaning out the apartment today, partially important because Lisa G. is supposed to arrive sometime tomorrow for a week long visit! Also its finally warm enough (inside as well as out) that we can put away our heated rug and kotatsu blanket. Without those I'm not sure we would have made it through the winter. Ahh Kotatsu how I love you!
The Japanese school year is also almost over. The last day is Wednesday. The students get about two weeks off before they start the next grade in April. Very different from US schools. Also they run on a trimester schedule instead of semesters.
The trees around Kagoshima are beginning to blossom. Not sure if they are sakura (cherry) or ume (plum) trees though. The sakura are the ones that Japan is really famous for. We're thinking of hosting a picnic party at a park in Matsumoto to "view" the blossoms sometime in the next couple weeks when they are at their peak bloom. Sakura viewing parties are supposedly very popular here. We'll probably post pictures of some of the trees soon so make sure to check our photos.
Back to the cleaning.
The Japanese school year is also almost over. The last day is Wednesday. The students get about two weeks off before they start the next grade in April. Very different from US schools. Also they run on a trimester schedule instead of semesters.
The trees around Kagoshima are beginning to blossom. Not sure if they are sakura (cherry) or ume (plum) trees though. The sakura are the ones that Japan is really famous for. We're thinking of hosting a picnic party at a park in Matsumoto to "view" the blossoms sometime in the next couple weeks when they are at their peak bloom. Sakura viewing parties are supposedly very popular here. We'll probably post pictures of some of the trees soon so make sure to check our photos.
Back to the cleaning.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
The House of God
Everyone knows what a religious person I am so it will come as no surprise when I tell you that today I went to the House of God. Actually, it's more like a hut these days. It was a beautiful day today, which lifted our spirits as we made our pilgrimage. The sun was shining, and the only cloud in the sky was over Mount Doom (Sakurajima). It was also around 65 degrees, which was nice. Once I got to the Hut of the Holy, it took a few minutes for me to get the priest to understand that I wanted to take communion because he didn't speak any English. Eventually my needs were understood and I handed him about 2,000 yen. I took my seat at the pew, and waited. Twenty minutes later he kindly brought my pizza.
You see, this was a religious experience. I hadn't eaten a pepperoni pizza in seven months. When I took a bite of that American style pizza and drank my coca-cola, my eyes were opened and the secrets of the universe were laid bare before me. With this new wisdom I came upon the single universal Truth that unites all of humankind and is the foundation stone of reality as we know it. The potential of this knowledge is staggering, and I share it with you now. Brace yourself for the ultimate Truth.
I like pizza.
Ponder that for a few minutes. I know you're as shocked and surprised as I was that our universe operates on so complex an idea, but once you consider it you'll see that everything makes sense now. I hope you appreciate your new found knowledge into the workings of the cosmos.
Now, moving on from Truth with a capital T we move to the other great news of the day: Robin and I got haircuts. Don't scoff. There's nothing scarier than being in a foreign country where they don't speak the language and needing a haircut. Fortunately, it worked out great and Robin and I are "teh hottness" as the kids say.
Interesting information time. Last month I found out that every year, at least here in Kyushu, something very strange happens. One day in Winter, the wind blows stronger than it has all year, and the temperature goes from the 40's to the 60's. It signals for the Japanese that "Spring has come." Sure enough, since then my heater has been on only minimally each day and we're seeing regular temperatures in the high 50's and mid 60's.
That's all for today. Be sure to check out the new photos by clicking the link in the sidebar on the right.
And until next time, eat a pizza for me
You see, this was a religious experience. I hadn't eaten a pepperoni pizza in seven months. When I took a bite of that American style pizza and drank my coca-cola, my eyes were opened and the secrets of the universe were laid bare before me. With this new wisdom I came upon the single universal Truth that unites all of humankind and is the foundation stone of reality as we know it. The potential of this knowledge is staggering, and I share it with you now. Brace yourself for the ultimate Truth.
I like pizza.
Ponder that for a few minutes. I know you're as shocked and surprised as I was that our universe operates on so complex an idea, but once you consider it you'll see that everything makes sense now. I hope you appreciate your new found knowledge into the workings of the cosmos.
Now, moving on from Truth with a capital T we move to the other great news of the day: Robin and I got haircuts. Don't scoff. There's nothing scarier than being in a foreign country where they don't speak the language and needing a haircut. Fortunately, it worked out great and Robin and I are "teh hottness" as the kids say.
Interesting information time. Last month I found out that every year, at least here in Kyushu, something very strange happens. One day in Winter, the wind blows stronger than it has all year, and the temperature goes from the 40's to the 60's. It signals for the Japanese that "Spring has come." Sure enough, since then my heater has been on only minimally each day and we're seeing regular temperatures in the high 50's and mid 60's.
That's all for today. Be sure to check out the new photos by clicking the link in the sidebar on the right.
And until next time, eat a pizza for me
Monday, February 9, 2009
The Joy of (rice) Cooking
So this weekend Eli and I finally got a Rice Cooker. You see the one that our predecessor left was so dirty that it was beyond help. I couldn't figure out how to take it apart enough to get all the nasty stuff out of it. So, thanks in great part to help from Marissa (the other spouse in Eli's office), we finally can make rice. Of course when Eli told our boss, Taniguchi Sense, about Marissa helping us get a new "rice maker" he was confused. The Japanese never call a rice cooker a "rice maker" and Taniguchi seemed to think Marissa was going to be cooking rice for us until Eli clarified.
Of course the rice cooker is Japanese. This means that all the buttons on it are marked in Kanji. We have a Kanji guide that someone left in our apartment that had translations of some of the rice cooker's buttons but we couldn't figure out how to do the "fast cook" option.... Thanks to the wonders of cell phone cameras and our friend Patricia's amazing Japanese (and Chinese) skills we are now able to make "fast rice."
Now this purchase may not seem that interesting or cool to some people. You may be asking yourself "now why can't they just make rice in a pot?" Let me tell you just how wonderful this machine is. The rice comes out just right - the perfect stickiness and none of it is over or under done. Also the pot that the rice cooks in is one of the easiest things to clean. Anything left in it after serving the rice pretty much falls out once it dries out. If that doesn't work and it won't wash out in the sink supposedly all you have to do is add some more water to the pot and run it though another cook cycle to loosen it up. Totally amazing.
Also I learned how to make Tempura a couple of weekends ago from our friend Machiyo. We went over to her house and ate a feast, only a part of which was the Tempura that she and I made. I was really surprised by how easy it was to make, so I figured I'd share the recipe.
Break an egg into a bowl and add about a cup of water. Then stir the mixture, we used long cooking chopsticks, using an up and down circle so that a bit of air gets into it. You want the top of the mixture to have some bubbles on it. After that add a bit of flower and stir twice, just enough so that the flour breaks up - the mixture should be very lumpy. Then you dip whatever you want to cook into the mixture and fry it in cooking oil. You know the oil is hot enough when a drop of batter added to it jumps right up to the surface. Turn whatever you are cooking over halfway through so both sides get evenly cooked. Also if the cooking oil ends up with lots of bits of batter floating in it you need to pull it out with a mesh spoon, or slotted spoon or anything that will not also remove the oil.
Tempura is totally delicious. Especially with sticky rice. A nice tempura sauce can be made by using a little bit of dashi (a fish based soup stock) and water and adding a little soy sauce and mirin (sweet rice wine used for cooking).
Ok now I'm totally hungry again (I just ate dinner!) Time to go over my lesson plan for tomorrow. Give the tempura a try. Also make sure you check out our photo site if you haven't been there recently, the link is to the right. We've been putting up some more.
Of course the rice cooker is Japanese. This means that all the buttons on it are marked in Kanji. We have a Kanji guide that someone left in our apartment that had translations of some of the rice cooker's buttons but we couldn't figure out how to do the "fast cook" option.... Thanks to the wonders of cell phone cameras and our friend Patricia's amazing Japanese (and Chinese) skills we are now able to make "fast rice."
Now this purchase may not seem that interesting or cool to some people. You may be asking yourself "now why can't they just make rice in a pot?" Let me tell you just how wonderful this machine is. The rice comes out just right - the perfect stickiness and none of it is over or under done. Also the pot that the rice cooks in is one of the easiest things to clean. Anything left in it after serving the rice pretty much falls out once it dries out. If that doesn't work and it won't wash out in the sink supposedly all you have to do is add some more water to the pot and run it though another cook cycle to loosen it up. Totally amazing.
Also I learned how to make Tempura a couple of weekends ago from our friend Machiyo. We went over to her house and ate a feast, only a part of which was the Tempura that she and I made. I was really surprised by how easy it was to make, so I figured I'd share the recipe.
Break an egg into a bowl and add about a cup of water. Then stir the mixture, we used long cooking chopsticks, using an up and down circle so that a bit of air gets into it. You want the top of the mixture to have some bubbles on it. After that add a bit of flower and stir twice, just enough so that the flour breaks up - the mixture should be very lumpy. Then you dip whatever you want to cook into the mixture and fry it in cooking oil. You know the oil is hot enough when a drop of batter added to it jumps right up to the surface. Turn whatever you are cooking over halfway through so both sides get evenly cooked. Also if the cooking oil ends up with lots of bits of batter floating in it you need to pull it out with a mesh spoon, or slotted spoon or anything that will not also remove the oil.
Tempura is totally delicious. Especially with sticky rice. A nice tempura sauce can be made by using a little bit of dashi (a fish based soup stock) and water and adding a little soy sauce and mirin (sweet rice wine used for cooking).
Ok now I'm totally hungry again (I just ate dinner!) Time to go over my lesson plan for tomorrow. Give the tempura a try. Also make sure you check out our photo site if you haven't been there recently, the link is to the right. We've been putting up some more.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Parent's Day!
Today was parent's day for the third grade at one of my schools. This meant that I went in with my fellow AEA Rumi to each teach one of the two third grade classes. It was a normal lesson except that there were about 20 or so parents, some with younger siblings of the students in tow, watching from the back of the classroom and through the open windows to the hallway. (Japanese schools are set up so that the wall of the classroom that faces the hallway is made with an entire row of windows along the top half.) I was more then a little self-conscious. However, I've taught that class once before and the teacher is very nice and speaks very good English (at least compared to most of my other teachers) so I think I did very well. I think that maybe the students were a little nervous too, they behaved very well and it seemed like everyone was paying attention and trying to participate. When I left it felt kinda like I was running the gauntlet, having to walk past all those parents in the hallway, not just the ones for my class but also the ones who had been watching Rumi's class too.
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