Diana

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Last night we celebrated Diana's birthday in her favourite restaurant called 'Doma Doma' with roughly 15 other people. It's a very nice place and we did the well known 'nomihodai' (drinks as much as you can in two hours) plus some food. The food, although delicious, was sparse to say the least. Mainly a couple of appetizers but then again the booze and the company made up for it. Japanese restaurants are not really meant to move about so a 'changement des places' was not really possible during the meal.
Luckily I was with Miho, Rudy, Diana and another nice Japanese girl. Afterwards a bit of the old karaoke where we ordered cokes and added some smuggled in whiskey. Jenny, New Zealand girl, was so kind as to give us a ride home.
Plastered is the word.........

Diana is coming around this evening to cook for us...yeah.

P.S.

Some of the anonymous comments you get on your blog are quite hilarious such as the recent reactions on Clean Air Now. Some are basically stupid and some have an added appeal cause the writer apparently hasn't mastered the english language yet....
例えば (for example in Japanese)
Quote
"perhaps we should also forbiss alcohol, sex, movies, newspapers, fredom of spech, salat and toilet papar"
Unquote

Clean Air Now

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This small chapter is basically only interesting for Dutch folk.
In order to make bars, pubs and restaurants smoke free in the Netherlands a citizen's initiative has started to collect as many signatures as possible and to hand them over to Parliament in order to get it on the agenda and for the government to review the existing 'gentlemen's agreement' that the regulation would come from the sector itself.
Creating a smoke free corner isn't possible since smoke doesn't read signs and a strong lobby from the tobacco industry has installed fears that revenue will fall drastically if smoking is going to banned completely. Needless to say the figures from Ireland, Norway and Italy show a different outcome.
We need 40.000 signatures, so if you are in favour of a smoke free environment then please go to the following website and sign up !!!!!

http://www.cleanairnow.nl/asp/burgerinitiatief.asp

It's not what this country can do for you (to make it more enjoyable) but what you can do for your country... Hmmm, sounds sort of familiar.

Szechuan Tony

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One of the friends here is Yang Xiang from Shanghai a.k.a. Tony and tonight he prepared a typical hot and fiery Szechuan dish with all kinds of spices and lotsa chillies in it. The spices are from China and the rest of the ingredients are local. Smells a bit like Chinese medicin actually. After slicing and cooking away he went on to prepare a "Fondue Chinoise" as we would call it. A broth where you first put in the fish, then the meat, then the prawns and finally the noodles (made from green beans !) and the veggies. And my god, it's just very spicey.......especially the oil on top makes you spew fire like a Chinese dragon. Had coffee and chocolates for afters and in general a good and enjoyable evening once again.

Instead of studying (as I was supposed to do) I just sat in the sun reading the Japan times.... what a life.

Paul is leaving for KL (Kuala Lumpur) tomorrow where I will go and visit him in three weeks time. After staying with Tony and Isaac for the weekend we will go to Penang, a peninsula of the Malaysian coast. Booked a "Deluxe Suite" in the Eastern & Oriental Hotel in Georgetown for three nights to unwind and enjoy the "Butler service"... yes folks we have our own butler who takes care of your every whim and want.
Guess what....... I'm in dire need for an oversized bathroom once again.

Dutch Pea Soup

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Today is a busy day...having to meet Agnoek, a fellow student from Leiden, who is studying in Kyoto and is down here for a trip with the other foreign students in Kyoto on a scholarship from the Ministry of Education. Met at the Nagasaki Peace Park, a visitor's highlight but I'm sorry to say the first time I ever visited these premises. Since today saw a wonderful 18 degrees and lotsa sun we decided to have a coffee in the sun.
Good news...Rianne is going this september to Kyoto for a year.

Sometimes when you're in another country you have this incredible craving for your own food. So decided to make 'Dutch Pea Soup'. Had brought the dried peas and the smoked sausage from Holland but bought the pork meat, bacon, celery, carrots, oignons and potatoes here.
And it was just like momma used to make it..........delicious.

More good news.... Paul will come and visit me here the first week of May. The ways of the Lord are wonderous and manyfold. I guess too many people have told him that you just cannot not visit the place your hubby is spending a whole damn year, especially when you're traveling all over the place the whole year round. But then again I maybe totally wrong and he decided it all by himself ........... Anyway I'm very much looking forward to it.
My small travel report (in Japanese and English) has passed the test and will be published in the Nagasaki University News at the end of February.
Hmmmm...how about becoming a reporter as a new occupational passtime...??

Kyushu Trip

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The friendship has been restored between Alex and me after a long chat and realizing how little fun it is without one another... so I decided to join the trip we had planned for this weekend.

On Sunday morning at 08.45 we left Nagasaki to go for a tour through Kyushu, the island we're on that is. Together with Rudy, Alexandra, Miho (also the driver), Diana and Izumi we first went to Hita 日田, a town in the east of Oita prefecture where a lot of authentic houses still aboundand and where , in order to conserve the traditional and original feel of the place, even the electicity cables and phone lines, normally hung on poles above ground, have been installed underground.

For liquid lunch we went to the Sapporo brewery, close to Hita, where we enjoyed a tour through the "beer forest Sapporo". The highlight being able to drink as many beers in 20 minutes as you can and yes I'm ashamed to say we did down about 4 pints in those 20 minutes. Diana felt just a little sick but apart from that all went well. Driver didn't drink..good thing too.
Bought a great yesteryear poster to commemorate this event.

Afterwards we left for Yufuin 湯布院 , a small town famous for the hotsprings and its folk crafts like glass, pottery and Japanese paper called 'Washi' and we weren't the only ones who knew about this place; there were busloads of tourists all over the place. Rickshas were everywhere too with very nice guys towing you around the town if you were looking to do that kind of thing. Ricksha or rickshaw is derived from the original Japanese word (jin) rikisha 人力車 , meaning a car with manpower.
Snacked on every corner on kara-age (fried chicken), Taco's, yes taco's and cakes and so on and so forth.
On our way to Beppu 別府 , a very well known 'onsen town' we passed through high mountain ranges with lava flows...quite a sight. The idea was to have dinner and a good old soak in Beppu. We stayed in a fab hotel with a room that accomodates guests both in a traditional Japanese as well as in a western style. i.e. you have regular beds but on top of that you also have a part of the room that is covered with tatami mats where futons can be placed. Yukatas and kimono style coats were provided too.
The most famous onsen is called the Hyotan onsen and the specialty is to take a sandbath, meaning you dig a hole in the hot earth, lie in it and then cover yourself up again with the hot sand. Well could only take this for about 20 minutes ........ blisters were coming up all over the place or so it felt anyway. Had a good scrub and then just soaking away in the open air hot tub, the rotenfuro 露天風呂.
Beppu is especially known for its boiling lakes with mud and water, also know as the 'hells' , jigoku 地獄 ,with temperatures as high as 98 degrees with various colours depending on the main minerals inside. Tight schedule so no time to visit these...maybe next time.
After a good nights rest we continued onto Mount Aso. Mt. Aso sits in the center of Japan's southern island of Kyushu and is the largest caldera on earth, about 25 by 18 km! People always think of Mount Fuji as being the volcano but this range of volcanos is quite a sight too ...... only not today. It's pouring down and so terribly foggy that you can't see a thing.

Continued on to a theme park called Farmland, where dairy produce and all kinds of other things are on display. Spend a lot of time here buying cheese, sausage and eating Kumamoto ramen, a special ramen dish. (Ramen is the noodle that is eaten in soups).

After a long drive finally back in Nagasaki and slept extremely well.

What a great trip this has been...!!

Weird.......

After having studied...well followed lectures and did homework etc. on a regular basis it's kinda weird not having to do anything anymore. Apart from a small article that I had to write for the University News about a trip to Unzen and Shimabara last november there is nothing to keep me occupied..workwise that is.
Had a bit of a falling out with Alex about a remark I made about her presentation during the last lecture which didn't go down lightly. We''ll see how the relationship will develop... Luckily her boyfriend Christoph is going to be here real soon. Planned to go to Seoul with her but not so sure now.
Had Yang Xiang (a.k.a. Tony) from Shanghai over for dinner (Thai green curry) and he had brought very strong (i.e. 52%) chinese wheat liquor and spicy pork sausages...mmm!
Billy (from Washington DC) and Cliff (from Bangkok) are in town and together with Saul we're having a grand old time. Dinner and Lunch, beer and good chatter...the good life in other words. Two collegues from Saul from the University joined us for lunch at a very nice place close to Hamanomachi. And they speak excellent english..not the jibberish kind where they think that they speak perfect english and you have just no idea what the hell is going on.


Tomorrow we have a trip to Kumamoto planned but no idea what time or anything else for that matter. Confusion abounds.
I do miss Paul and Amsterdam....

Finished.....

Last friday I went for dinner with Diana and to show you how small the doors are here at times, there is a cutie picture of Diana in front of the door of the restaurant called gobansho 御番 所.


Well just downed the 1st G&T cause we finished our exams 試験 ...... after a truly grueling time for me anyway. And I think they went O.K. as far as I,m concerned. Had a truly horrible night..stressed out and for what... It appears the 1st exam counted for 20% and the 2nd for 10% of the total mark. Attendance, participation and handing in your homework counts for 90% and 80%. For some people that's going to be tough cause there is clause that you must have an attendance rate of at least 80% to qualify for a credit anyway... So much for this schooling system.
Going for dinner later and not just with one beer.........


Since Alex loves ninki bunka 人気文化, basically making photoshots in booths with lotsa people or just by yourself, here a little collage of the most interesting ones(cause I'm in them ofcourse).

Sun and Snow

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While the rest of Japan is covered in snow, apart from some snow flurries we here in Kyushu are exempt from those conditions.
But it is cold..... even Starbucks in Hamanomachi (Nagasaki area) gives out green coloured blankets to ward off the cold coming through the door. Closing the door and letting people use another entrance is apparently no option. My Caramel Macchiato tastes great though especially with a variation on the famous viennese Sachertorte .

Had our 2nd exam, conversation, kaiwa 会話 , yesterday, by listening to a tape with short conversational pieces and questions and then writing down...yes writing down... the answers. Was OK I guess.

Since our Arts Professor Matthi Forrer is her for a week supervising part of the Deshima 出島 project, we decided to meet up and we even got a peek in to the newly restored house of the captain of this Dutch Factory in the 17th century, called Jan Cock Blomhoff, with authentic (e.g. the original sofa on which his wife Laetitia was depicted) and replicated pieces of furniture.
Interesting to say the least.

One house in Deshima was used as the International Club from 1868 onwards and since Japan is known for its excessive exchange of business name cards, meishi 名刺 it comes as no surprise that they had a business name card showcase made over a fireplace no less, especially for this building where members could display them.　

P.S.
Vox populi, vox dei........
Reading the newspapers once in a while gives me the creeps..setting fire to embassies seems to be 'en vogue' these days. Whatever happened to simply boycotting Danish pastries to ventilate your orchestrated (in Syria and Lebanon at least) anger and losing that little extra so you can get ready for the beach.
On top of that the ultra conservative Opus Dei has started a campaign to better their image as portrayed in Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code', soon to be made into a feature movie. Trying to vilify the book wouldn't stand chance anyhow.....
My tip:..... get Saatchi & Saatchi in.. they do deliver!!

Mea culpa, mea culpa,mea maxima culpa !!

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Since guilt is a major human characteristic (nurture or nature?) it's no big news that I too suffer from this infliction. I do feel guilty about not updating my blog for almost a week with no other reason than A) laziness to start off with and B) having to study too damn hard to sit the exams tomorrow and the day after. I have spend the last days from morning till evening in the university library 図書館 together with tons of other people who study there, eat there (although prohibited) and sleep there (national passtime so it seems).
I processed more than 300 Kanji (chinese characters) and I'm curious how many will stick in my mind for the test tomorrow.....they usually don't, so we'll see.

Spend another nice evening with Ruud, Alex and Annette & Jesse (two americans who study here at the university) at the Chinese Lantern Festival last thursday with all the lanterns lit up and we dressed up in chinese garb for the occassion.
Pretty in Red and Blue.

P.S.
My Arts Professor, Matthi Forrer, from Leiden is in town and Alex and I will meet him next wednesday.
Will be fun.