陶芸 — Playing with Clay

Yamasa offers regular culture classes, and today's class was ceramics.

A small group of us went to a ceramics studio and we each made our own coffee mugs.  It only cost ¥2,000, or less than $20.  I love art and craft projects so of course, I signed up!

Yamasa's teachers drive and act as guides and student herders for a variety of trips and activities, which really adds value to the programs here and makes these extra activities affordable.

We started with a lump of clay, which we rolled out and cut a shape based on a pattern.  Some newspaper was wrapped around a cup that acted as a mold, and we wrapped our clay around it.



We decorated the outside with textures and designs of our own. 

Here's mine.  This cat was cut out using a small cookie cutter!



I have created a mug in Blender, a 3D modeling program, and adding the handle was surprisingly a lot like adding a handle in Blender, especially blending the handle and the mug.



Another mug with a cat theme, this one has ears and a tail.  So cute!



Here is another person's mug.




We signed our work, and we were done. 

The mugs will be painted and fired for us, then returned to us in January.

Other people in the room were working on their own projects, including using a pottery wheel.  I could definitely get into this!  I can see how this would be good therapy -- pounding clay is like kneading dough and it can definitely work your frustrations out!

カレー Curry!

As I write this, there is a typhoon bearing down on Japan.  It's been raining all day, but it's not particularly windy yet.  Weather forecasts are mixed about what will happen, and when it will happen.  Here are the warnings and advisories from the Japan Meteorological Agency.

I live on the second floor of a building on a hill, so I'm not worried about flooding in my apartment.  I also stocked up on food.

It has rained most of yesterday and all of today.  It's the kind of weather that brings out facetious remarks about building large boats, collecting pairs of animals and finding out what exactly a cubit is.

But as you can see, it's just wet here. These trees aren't moving around much.

I'll write about the typhoon after I know what's happened.

Meanwhile, I'm having Japanese curry for dinner. You can get very spicy Japanese curry, but usually it's a sweet curry.  I like it. It's a popular lunch at schools, too.

I'm making it using a packaged roux.  There are several to choose from -- different brands and different spiciness levels.

This one is Vermont Curry.  I've seen curry roux in stores in the US -- it's not hard to find.　甘口 tells me it's sweet and not to spicy for my delicate tongue.

Basically, though, making it is the same regardless of brand.  Ingredients include a meat of your choice, potato, onion and carrot.  Cut all that up into bite-sized pieces.  Cook all of it in a bit of oil until the onions soften a bit.  Then add water, and boil for about 15 minutes.  Add the roux and let it cook for about 10 minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally to break up and melt all the roux!

Here's the whole package of roux.  You can make only half if you only want 6 servings.

Here's what the roux looks like.

It's usually served over rice.  Half the package of roux makes enough curry for 6 people, so I'm skipping the rice and having a larger portion of curry.  I have enough for lunch an at least dinner tomorrow, too!

I made mine with chicken, but stew meat of any kind will also work.  I don't know why something like shrimp wouldn't work, either, but I'd add that at the very end.  I also err on the side of excess with onion, but that's me.

Here's the final product.  This is great for chilly evenings, and I'll be making this often.  I just have to figure out how to reheat it without a microwave.  Or buy a microwave.

今台風が来るそうです。でも、今まで、雨だけです。まだ風が強くなりませんでした。私のアパートは坂の上あるビルの2階があるので、心配しません。でも、たくさん食べ物を買っておきました。

今晩、晩ご飯はカレーです。辛いカレーもありますけど、日本のカレーは辛くなくて、甘いです。おいしいです。学生にも人気のある昼ご飯です。

作り方は簡単です。材料は肉と人参とジャガイモと玉ねぎです。今晩、鶏肉を使いました。まず、材料をきって、15分で煮る。ルーを入れて、弱い火で10分煮にる。

涼しいゆべは、カレーはおいしいです！

明日の昼ご飯と晩ご飯のために、たくさん作っておきました。

台風 Typhoon!

The word for 'typhoon' in Japanese is 台風, pronounced taifū.  Both the Japanese and English words come from the Chinese, 'táifēng' (simplified Chinese: 台风; traditional Chinese: 颱風).  The word "typhoon' is used for storms in the northwest Pacific Ocean, while 'hurricane' is used for the same sort of storm in the northeast Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

Typhoon Lan is predicted to hit Japan on Sunday or Monday as either a typhoon or a post-tropical depression.  I've never experienced a typhoon (or hurricane as tropical storms in the Atlantic are called).

Here is Lan's predicted path.  I'm in the red area now.

 This map shows where there are currently advisories.  I've circled Aichi prefecture, where I am, in red.

 Classes may be canceled on Monday, depending on the weather.  Of course, that's when 2 of our mid-terms are scheduled!

In this age of social media, the school will post on Facebook if classes are canceled.

My apartment is on a hill, and on the second floor (first floor, for any Brits), so I'm not worried about flooding at all.

I've prepared by making sure that I have food for 3 days, as well as plenty of bottled beverages including water.  I also have some food that will require no preparation.

Hopefully, Lan will dissipate before reaching Japan.

Weather or not to buy a poncho

That's a pun, not a grammatical error or typo!

I love my bike -- it gets me places faster, with less wear and tear on my shoulders or feet.  However, it doesn't always get along with the weather.  It rains a lot in Japan, and recent weather has been no exception.  It just started raining as I type this.

Since bikes share the sidewalk or road with pedestrians and cars (or both at the same time), it's important to follow the safety rules. It will also keep you out of trouble with the police. Here are some things that cyclists are not allowed to do in Japan -- all common sense, really.

• Have blood alcohol over 0%
• Have a passenger, unless you are carrying a child in a baby/child seat.
• Use your cell phone.
• Not have your light on when it's dark.
• Take right turns like a car -- bikes should do a two-step turn, like a pedestrian would.
• Carry an umbrella.

The last one is what has me walking on days when rain is possible. So today, I got a poncho. Since I have a cover for my back pack and one for my basket, I'm all set!  

I found one on sale, but the best part is the pattern:

Tōjinbō (東尋坊)

According to legend, a Buddhist priest named Tojimbo was pushed off a cliff into the sea in Fukui prefecture.  Either he was corrupt, and the locals pushed him; or he had fallen in love with a local princess and a rival for her affections pushed him.  Either way, his ghost haunted the area, causing violent storms until another priest performed a memorial ceremony for him.  The storms abated, and the area is now a tourist destination.

Yesterday, I joined a school-sponsored trip to Tojimbo on the Sea of Japan side of the largest Japanese island, Honshu. Several students, 2 staff and a driver made the trip by car.  Here is our route.

Along the way, we stopped at a rest stop where there was a great view of the Sea of Japan. 

Here are views at Tojimbo.

The weather was nice -- it's finally starting to cool down from the 80° F weather we've had here.

A teacher and I took a sightseeing boat ride.  Everyone else wanted to climb down the cliff instead.  Here's the boat.  We took stairs down to it, so we actually climbed down, too.

 Here's the island we'll see from the boat.

 Here are the cliffs with people for scale.

Here's the inside of the boat.  It was not crowded, and we could easily switch sides to get the best view.

Here's a video from the boat ride.

And here are some more pictures.

There is a nearby island, and you can see the unusual geology on the side of the island.

 The island has a shrine on it -- the tallest structure here is a torii gate.

 We ate at a nearby restaurant.  Like many Japanese restaurants, this one had replicas of the dishes on the menu, so we all picked what we wanted and ordered before we even sat down.

For reference, I ordered the dish in the front left corner -- crab and salmon roe on rice.

The area is famous for crab, so as you can see, lots of dishes featured crab.

Someone else got a side dish that included crab roe and was served in a shell.

Here's the rest of that meal.

Here is mine.  What do you think?  Does it match the replica in the window?

It certainly was delicious!

久能山東照宮 - Kunozan Toshogu Shrine

On Sunday, I took a short trip to Shizuoka City (静岡市).  Here is Shizuoka in relation to Okazaki.  Mt. Fuji is circled in red.

I went to visit Kunozan Toshogu Shrine (久能山東照宮).  First, here's some terminology.  Japan has two religions that coexist rather well, and many people belong to both.  They are Shinto, Japan's native religion, and Buddhism.  Shinto has shrines, Buddhism has temples. 

In daily life, they each perform certain functions.  For instance, there are ceremonies to pray for children's health at certain ages that take place at shrines.  Weddings are often at public halls, with a Christian style ceremony even though nobody involved is Christian.  The other popular option for weddings is at a shrine.  Funerals are usually Buddhist, although the only Japanese funeral that I've attended was a Shinto ceremony.

Shinto and Buddhism coexist so well that there is often a shrine and a temple on the same grounds.  This coexistence was not always the case.

Shinto is a polytheistic religion, in which many things can have a kami (神 = spirit or deity), like mountains, really old trees, rivers, etc. Of course, people have spirits, too.  Toshogu shrines are shrines where the enshrined deity is the spirit of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who unified Japan in 1600 and founded the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan until 1868. 

The most important Toshogu shrine is at Nikko, in Tochigi Prefecture, which I visited and blogged about when I lived in Nasukarasuyama.  Kunozan is another important Toshogu shrine.

It's possible to take the Shinkansen from either Shin-Anjo or Toyohashi to Shizuoka, but I elected to take regular trains, transferring at Toyohashi and Hamamatsu.

There are two ways to get to Kunozan.  The first is to take a ropeway from Nihondaira, and the other is to climb over 1,000 steps. I chose the latter!  A bus brought me close to the foot of the staircase, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean.  The weather was mostly clear, but it's still hot and a bit muggy. 

The entrance to a shrine is a torii gate, which may be close or far from the actual shrine building.  Here it is at the bottom of the steps.  Torii gates are most often red, they don't have to be red.

Here's the view partway up the stairs:

There are a lot of greenhouses down there -- my guess is that they are there because there is no risk of anyone building anything to block the sun!  One thing that Shizuoka Prefecture is famous for is tea.

There is a larger gate at the actual site. And more steps.   

You might notice that the buildings are very ornate, compared to Zen architecture or modern Japanese minimalist architecture.  This is not a site for Buddhist contemplation.  One of its purposes is to reflect the power and grandeur of the Tokugawas as rulers of Japan at the time this was built.  

Shinto deities find saké to be a perfectly acceptable offering.  Saké is also part of a Shinto wedding ceremony.

You can buy omamori (お守り), or charms, for most aspects of life:  success at studying, safe driving, career success, health for yourself and your family, finding love, general happiness, etc.

I have a book for collecting stamps from shrines -- that I actually remembered to bring with me -- so I got a stamp and calligraphy instead of a charm.

There are a lot of carvings here, similar to those at Nikko.  At Nikko, you'll find the 3 "see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil" monkeys, as well as a famous sculpture of a sleeping cat.  The carvings at Kunozan are not as famous, but the style is the same.  These are behind glass to protect them.

I noticed the colors, because they are the traditional colors I learned about in the Japanese embroidery classes I used to take.  Sailor also makes some urushi (lacquer) fountain pens in these colors.

After enjoying the shrine, I took a ropeway up to Nihondaira.  The main attraction here is the view.  

Yep, that's Mt. Fuji!  That's definitely a good reason to choose a clear day to visit.

At this point, I was tired and hungry, and still had to get back to Okazaki.  I took the bus back to Shizuoka Station.  

Many restaurants will have either pictures or replicas of their menu items outside so you can decide if there is anything you want to eat.  I found one in the station that had something called "Fish & Chips & Onion Ring". That looked and sounded good!  But when I ordered, I found out that it's not available at lunch.  So, I tried a seafood and mizuna (a leafy vegetable) pasta thing.  I don't dislike many Japanese dishes, but I didn't care for this. Anyone who likes pasta more than I do (most people) might like it.  I had a local beer that was pretty good, though.

I took the ordinary train back to Okazaki.  On the way to Shizuoka, the trains had been the sort with seats that face front (although you can move the back to face either way).  The last two were quite plush, actually, with seats that reclined a bit and footrests.  Not so the trains on the way back -- these were commuter trains with seats along the inside wall, facing inward. On the way out, I had caught a "Home Liner" which was an express train that costs only a few hundred yen extra, but is much faster than the ordinary trains.  That wasn't an option on the way home.  These trains stopped at every single station. Luckily they weren't crowded.