Happy New Year!

Free sake (aka the best kind of sake)


Kanpai!

Manga

On Monday night I went to a year-end party at a bar a friend of mine owns. The bar has been closed for over a month as he was moving to a new location. It was a pretty fun night, but one guy who went is a manga artist (comic books) who was kind of shy. Periodically he would pick up the notebook I had and drew portraits of different people there. Here's some of them:





Here's a picture of me, apparently:



Having the notebook is really useful. It facilitates communication a lot better than not having one. For example, at the year-end party I went to I could draw pictures of what I was eating. Here's fugu:

Osaka (it's Japanese for "Big 'saka'")

I went to Osaka last Sunday to meet a friend and go to the aquarium. Typically the word for aquarium in Japanese is 'suizokukan', but for some reason the one in Osaka is called 'kaiyukan'. It took me a while to figure this out, to the puzzlement of many Japanese. Anyway, here's some pictures:


The Osaka aquarium has two whale sharks and a steadily declining population of smaller fish.


Unfortunately, I was unable to catch the diver's final moments in this picture.


Before.


After.


More illumination.


I don't know these people, but they did manage to ruin my shot.


Outside the aquarium there were several people doing different kinds of shows. Right before we left there was an American who I think looked a lot like John Ore. He's from San Francisco too.





Last, but not least, a giant Glico (the maker of Pokki sticks) advertisement in downtown Osaka. Apparently this sign comes from an old candy that claimed to have the same number of calories as you would burn running 300 meters.

Merry Christmas

Arashiyama "Illumination"

I went back to Arashiyama a little while ago (it's outside of Kyoto where I had some pictures of autumn leaves). During December a lot of places have Christmas lights up, which the Japanese refer to as "Illumination". That doesn't really capture how strange it sounds when most people say it; they tend to draw it out a lot more. Some pictures:



This is the bridge in Arashiyama. If anyone has seen the Korean movie "The Host" this area looks pretty similar to where the monster first started attacking people.



This giant lantern was one of several in the area. I think the local schools made these.



A bamboo forest near the bridge. Most people don't realize this, but bamboo naturally lets off a green light at night in a surprisingly common form of bioluminescence.

Rice cooker

On Saturday my middle school had a marathon competition (really a 10k for girls and 15k for boys). The weather was kind of raining, but it was warm enough that the kids didn't suffer too much. I went along the course to take pictures with the school's really high-tech camera. It was a pretty easy day and I was able to leave early in the afternoon.

All of that was just pretense for the really exciting thing I did this weekend, which was buy a rice cooker. The school had Monday off to make up for having the kids run on a Saturday so I took the opportunity to go to Kameoka, the medium-size city between Sonobe and Kyoto. It was nice to go on a Monday because the traffic wasn't bad and there were very few people in the stores. The main store I wanted to go to was a 'recycle shop'. As the name implies, it has a lot of used things, from silverware and furniture, to clothes and appliances. There are always good deals there and sometimes great ones if you get lucky.

Before I went to this recycle shop I stopped in an electronics store. The rice cookers there were state-of-the-art, with all kinds of features that I likely would not understand even if I knew more Japanese. They cost anywhere between 7000 and 60,000 yen, or about $70-$600 (of course, the more expensive models have more features). Even on sale the cheapest was 6000 yen and was clearly marketed to college students.

I resisted buying any of these until I got to the recycle shop and I do not regret this decision at all. The rice cooker I found was 3000 yen and, but for the fact that the plastic on the outside has colored with age, appears to be brand new (that is to say the metal parts are shiny and there is no visible damage outside or inside). I also found a toaster for pretty cheap. Both of these purchases combined effectively increase my kitchen by 50% (I would say doubled but it's hard to imagine a meal where I would eat both rice and toast).

Here's the first meal I made with my new (used) rice cooker:



For those of you who can't tell, it's curry rice with assorted vegetables and chicken. Incidentally, carrots also come in 'red' and sometimes have a vague onion-like taste, which is kind of moot because I also had onions and the curry flavor overpowered everything.

Titles

I sent this to Pop-pop earlier, but thought some other people might be interested:

'Sensei' can be roughly translated to 'teacher' or used as a title for certain professions. For example, when someone asks me what I do I say I am an English 'Sensei' or teacher. Alternatively, I am typically called 'Sam-sensei' which translates 'Mr. Sam' not 'Sam-teacher' (though some Japanese make this mistake). Ostrander would be "Oh-su-to-ran-da" in Japanese, is very awkward to pronounce and kids often mistake it for Australia - no joke - so I simplify it by using my first name.

In addition to teachers, 'sensei' is also used as a title for other respected professions such as doctors, lawyers, and elected officials. So 'Coury-sensei' could be translated as 'Dr. Coury' and 'Ostrander-sensei' (for Ben, a lawyer) would be 'Mr. Ostrander'.

Japanese names run opposite from English and typically have some kind of title at the end. 'Mr. Joe Coury' would be 'Coury Joe-san' in Japanese. '-sama' is used as a more polite title for strangers or customers, so if you went to a Japanese hotel you would be called 'Coury-sama'. These titles don't distinguish between gender, so Nana would also be 'Coury-san' or 'Coury-sama'. Japanese people often get confused between 'Mr.' and 'Ms.', and especially by 'Miss' and 'Mrs.'

(Peter, not having an honorable profession like myself or Ben would be relegated to the title 'Ostrander-san')

There are even some titles for less formal relationships. Girls and very young boys are called '-chan' as in 'Maggie-chan' or 'Teddy-chan'. The word for baby is actually 'aka-chan' which means 'little red child'. Similarly, girls I know outside of work who are roughly the same age as me or who are family members I would call '-chan', as in 'Sarah-chan'. It is also used for grandparents, so I would probably call you 'Ojii-chan' and Nana 'Obaa-chan'.

Similarly, '-kun' is used for boys, especially when they are deemed too old for '-chan'. So I would probably call Peter and Ben 'Peter-kun' and 'Ben-kun'. Girls I know outside of work typically call me 'Sam-kun'.