The long and winding road that leads past my most distant kindergarten and north into more mountains will also take you to two future destinations of mine. I'm guessing both are about twenty or thirty minutes past my school, but with so much uncharted territory (uncharted for me, that is), I can't be too sure. One of the destinations is a museum dedicated to the Mino-Owari Earthquake, the largest known inland earthquake in Japan. The other is an "onsen", or hot spring bath, though that three word description fails to convey how rich of an experience it is. I'm hoping there will still be some snow on the mountains when I go, though the simple fact that the onsen is in the mountains almost assures a great view. I'm hoping this next Saturday to head up there, but plans can always change. Either way, I'm hoping it'll make for a good day trip. There are Santa Cruz-like trees and mountains around there, so I may find a few reasons to hang around longer.
Interestingly enough, despite being about 45 minutes or an hour away, those places are still part of this city. I think that must be why a lot of emphasis is put on which ward or town you things are in.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Possible Earthquake
When one is half awake in bed, it is sometimes tough to tell if the room is shaking or if you're just imagining it. So far, that's the case for me this morning. While I'm pretty sure there was an earthquake about half an hour ago, it is yet to be reported. However, in addition to the seemingly subtle swing of my bedroom, I also have some circumstantial evidence in my living room. One of my Beatles records I recently bought is now lying face down, a good seven inches below where it had been standing proudly last night. I'll keep an eye on the news, but I just figured I'd make it clear that everything is strawberry fields and golden slumbers over here.
Edit: After half a day nothing has been reported, so I think it's safe to say there was no earthquake. Maybe I was only sleeping...On a possibly related note, I found out last week that the largest known earthquake on the Japanese mainland occurred in 1891, known as the Mino-Owari Earthquake. Its epicenter was not only in this prefecture, but specifically in this city! More on that later!
Edit: After half a day nothing has been reported, so I think it's safe to say there was no earthquake. Maybe I was only sleeping...On a possibly related note, I found out last week that the largest known earthquake on the Japanese mainland occurred in 1891, known as the Mino-Owari Earthquake. Its epicenter was not only in this prefecture, but specifically in this city! More on that later!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Big City, Big Buildings
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Ramen Talk
Sorry I've been slacking a little bit with the updates, but I'll try to post twice a week if possible, with either photos and/or blabber.
Here are some photos from a ramen restaurant I went to the other night. As you can see from the gigantic bright sign in front as well as the restaurant itself, it wasn't too hard to find this place. While such attention-drawers will often turn me off from a place, I usually try to give them a shot. Luckily for me, this one was a bull's eye.
The ramen pictured above was terrific. A classic case of something being better than expected (you know, with the glitzy sign and all). It was the spicy miso, and came with ground beef, onions, and bamboo shoots. The meal itself ended when I finished the noodles and toppings, and drank most of the soup. However, that bowl of ramen now remains with me as yet another inspiration to perfect my own bowl of ramen. I've been working at it, and though I've made a lot of progress, I still have a long road of many bowls ahead of me.
Here are some photos from a ramen restaurant I went to the other night. As you can see from the gigantic bright sign in front as well as the restaurant itself, it wasn't too hard to find this place. While such attention-drawers will often turn me off from a place, I usually try to give them a shot. Luckily for me, this one was a bull's eye.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Q-Shoku
So far, after a month or so of teaching, I can say I have really enjoyed this job. I am excited to go to school everyday and look forward to what the day has to offer: from the fun lessons to the peculiar questions (coming from kids, and occasionally other teachers). If there's one part of my average day I have fallen in love with the most, it's the lunch (surprise, surprise). Every lunch consists of rice/bread/noodles, meat/fish, soup, vegetables, a carton of milk, and a dessert (often fruit). Teachers also get a small cup of green tea. To attempt to balance this nutritional tray anymore would be to unbalance it. In addition, it is usually delicious, and at worst simply okay.
The school lunch is called 給食 (kyuu-shoku), which translates to "provided food". The name makes sense especially when you find out how it started. After the war, a lot of families couldn't afford lunches for their kids, so the government decided to provide everyone with a lunch at school. The purpose of this gradually changed from simply putting food in a belly to providing a nutritional meal.
Meals for all of the schools in the entire city are prepared in a nondescript building next to the mall, packed in travel containers, loaded onto delivery trucks, and delivered to schools in the late morning. The containers are then distributed onto carts, with each classroom getting a cart. Students take turns dishing out the food to their classmates everyday, and everyone eats lunch in the classroom together.
With everything being made in the same place, all of the schools in the city have the same thing for lunch. There's a calendar to help you keep track, so you know what you're going to get. The lack of choice would be a problem if it wasn't for incredible variety and previously mentioned high-quality of the food. How the quality remains so high on such a large scale is beyond me. Thinking about the amount of food needed to feed one school seems like a ton, I can't imagine a few dozen schools. With the great variety, I have been able to (and also somewhat forced) to try new things I otherwise would not have had. Mainly because I would never think of ordering them or because I have no idea where to actually get them. I've had fish a bunch of times already, but it's always a very different kind of fish. I don't know what restaurant or part of the grocery store I would go to to get whale, nor would I know how to prepare it. So in very many ways, the school lunch is forcing me out of my comfort zone, to the depths of the ocean, and beyond.. (contemporary Western notions of endangered species).
Healthy, delicious, cheap, filling, varied, and satisfying a cultural curiousity.
The school lunch is called 給食 (kyuu-shoku), which translates to "provided food". The name makes sense especially when you find out how it started. After the war, a lot of families couldn't afford lunches for their kids, so the government decided to provide everyone with a lunch at school. The purpose of this gradually changed from simply putting food in a belly to providing a nutritional meal.
Meals for all of the schools in the entire city are prepared in a nondescript building next to the mall, packed in travel containers, loaded onto delivery trucks, and delivered to schools in the late morning. The containers are then distributed onto carts, with each classroom getting a cart. Students take turns dishing out the food to their classmates everyday, and everyone eats lunch in the classroom together.
With everything being made in the same place, all of the schools in the city have the same thing for lunch. There's a calendar to help you keep track, so you know what you're going to get. The lack of choice would be a problem if it wasn't for incredible variety and previously mentioned high-quality of the food. How the quality remains so high on such a large scale is beyond me. Thinking about the amount of food needed to feed one school seems like a ton, I can't imagine a few dozen schools. With the great variety, I have been able to (and also somewhat forced) to try new things I otherwise would not have had. Mainly because I would never think of ordering them or because I have no idea where to actually get them. I've had fish a bunch of times already, but it's always a very different kind of fish. I don't know what restaurant or part of the grocery store I would go to to get whale, nor would I know how to prepare it. So in very many ways, the school lunch is forcing me out of my comfort zone, to the depths of the ocean, and beyond.. (contemporary Western notions of endangered species).
Healthy, delicious, cheap, filling, varied, and satisfying a cultural curiousity.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Weather Report
Until yesterday morning, we had gone two weeks without any snow. While it's been cold the whole time, you have to think that no snow is a harbinger of slightly warm weather in the coming weeks. Two years ago in Kyoto I arrived to a surprisingly cold city in late March, so I'm expecting a gradual improvement from this weather to that weather in the next month and a half. As tough as the cold can be at times, I'm getting more and more used to it, and was actually happy to see the snow again yesterday. It hasn't lost that appeal quite yet. It stopped snowing later in the day, but we'll see what this weekend brings. I teach at the school half an hour out into the mountains on Monday, and they usually have a white, fluffy parking lot.
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