So, I had my first restaurant sushi experience in Japan last night. Up until then, the only sushi I've had has been supermarket or conbini bento-box sushi. Last night, my advisor took me to a kaiten-zushi place, which sort of means rotary sushi. Think Sushi Boat! The sushi comes around on little plates, rotating around as customers sit at the bar. Well, in Japan, kaitenzushi is very cheap, and the quality of the sushi definitely shows! I'm not sure that it was an improvement over conbini/supermarket sushi. Even the hamachi was kind of tough, and the maguro was only so-so. Disappointed...
I've discovered that the Japanese value maguro (tuna) much more than salmon, I think. Whereas most Americans I know would go for salmon, it's tougher to find salmon sashimi here. And the maguro is generally very tasty here, tastier than I've had in the US.
Today was gorgeous weather. Not a cloud in sight. Some of the internationals were surprised that despite it imminently about to become November, we could still wear t-shirts. It reminds me of home...in fact, Matsuyama is approximately the same latitude as Los Angeles. Amazing! I love this place.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Japanese dance!
Today was an awesome day :-) I found a Japanese dance teacher/studio! I found her on the web through the yahoo Japan yellow pages actually almost two weeks ago. I went to visit her studio one weekday afternoon, hoping to meet somebody, but nobody was there. I called the studio on the phone once, but got scared when nobody picked up and the answering machine went on, so I hung up before leaving a message. This morning, I finally had the guts to call again and have an actual conversation with the teacher (Hanayagi-sensei). She was surprisingly friendly and said that since class was happening that afternoon, I was welcome to go and visit. So I showed up on time at 1:30pm (actually, that was a half an hour early), chatted with the teacher as much as I could, and watched as some of the other students came in. The first student was a 6th grade girl who didn't say a word throughout the whole lesson! It was a little bit odd to me. The next was a very nice lady who is a Japanese teacher at a different university in Matsuyama. Though she didn't speak any language other than Japanese, because of being a language teacher, she was very good at interpreting and anticipating my broken Japanese. I was going to stay just for her lesson and then go, but then the teacher lent me a kimono, obi (sash), and all the undergarments. By then two or three more students, both middle-aged oldish ladies had arrived and dressed, and they all urged me to give it a go! So, one of the other ladies took me to the dressing area and helped me put on my undergarments and kimono, and two of them tied my obi for me! One of them even lent me an extra set of her tabi (those Japanese toe socks) and silk ties.
By now, somewhat past 3pm, I started having my own mini-lesson. The teacher picked a maiko-dance for me, asking me "how would you like to be a maiko?" After ascertaining that I actually knew what that was (maiko are basically cute little geisha-in-training), we started the lesson. It was so much fun! Certain movements were familiar in an a-ha! sort of way. It's amazing what an influence your childhood has on you. I'm remembering certain body positions, ways of holding the fan, opening the fan, etc. It was exhilarating. I think in December I will pay the fees and become a regular student, two weekends a month. For November, I think I will go be a student with a bunch of tiny little kids, partly because I don't have so many free weekends in November, and partly because the lessons for the tiny kids are free, and I'll have a bit more time to decide. But basically, since Hanayagi-sensei is lending me all the dance accessories, I won't have a huge outlay like I expected. Her lessons aren't terribly expensive--10,000 yen a month, which roughly comes out to less than $25 per lesson. Considering that the adult lessons are one-on-one, it's not a bad deal. The lessons are rather variable in length, however--mostly less than an hour. The students just show up whenever they want during the designated afternoons and wait their turn. It's an odd, time consuming system, but I suppose it facilitates socializing among the students.
Oh, and another random thing: my teacher way back when in the US was also Hanayagi-sensei. Apparently Hanayagi is the largest school of traditional Japanese dance in Japan, specializing in Kabuki-style dance.
Again, I am amazing by the warm welcoming attitude from everybody, even complete strangers with no vested interest in me, such as Hanayagi-sensei's other students. I can't get over the random gift of the tabi.
By now, somewhat past 3pm, I started having my own mini-lesson. The teacher picked a maiko-dance for me, asking me "how would you like to be a maiko?" After ascertaining that I actually knew what that was (maiko are basically cute little geisha-in-training), we started the lesson. It was so much fun! Certain movements were familiar in an a-ha! sort of way. It's amazing what an influence your childhood has on you. I'm remembering certain body positions, ways of holding the fan, opening the fan, etc. It was exhilarating. I think in December I will pay the fees and become a regular student, two weekends a month. For November, I think I will go be a student with a bunch of tiny little kids, partly because I don't have so many free weekends in November, and partly because the lessons for the tiny kids are free, and I'll have a bit more time to decide. But basically, since Hanayagi-sensei is lending me all the dance accessories, I won't have a huge outlay like I expected. Her lessons aren't terribly expensive--10,000 yen a month, which roughly comes out to less than $25 per lesson. Considering that the adult lessons are one-on-one, it's not a bad deal. The lessons are rather variable in length, however--mostly less than an hour. The students just show up whenever they want during the designated afternoons and wait their turn. It's an odd, time consuming system, but I suppose it facilitates socializing among the students.
Oh, and another random thing: my teacher way back when in the US was also Hanayagi-sensei. Apparently Hanayagi is the largest school of traditional Japanese dance in Japan, specializing in Kabuki-style dance.
Again, I am amazing by the warm welcoming attitude from everybody, even complete strangers with no vested interest in me, such as Hanayagi-sensei's other students. I can't get over the random gift of the tabi.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
international student orientation
Finally! I think my university must be one of the last ones to hold its orientation. It was mandatory for all international students new this semester. We spent one night at a nearby town (?) called Ozu, in the Ozu National Youth Center. I don't think it qualifies as a town, since the National Youth Center is one gigantic structure nestled in the mountains and by a river. Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Quite a lot of it was lecture, and because it is so late and so many of us have been here a month or so, we already had figured out most of the information, such as how to sort garbage (although some more helpful tips did come up) and bicycle rules. Hours and hours of orientation. Even the new stuff (like how to use the university health center) took forever and was boring. But, on the upside, we did get to spend the night away. Dinner = party. Then shower/bath, then after dinner = more party and some drinking. I did get to meet a couple of nice people, and I am relieved to realize that my aversion for Chinese students/people appears to be limited to a specific set of Chinese international students, because I met some other ones who were nice. We made plans to go to the hot springs together next Friday. I alsomet a few very nice Nepalese students, who were all in the engineering school and studying disaster prevention (architecture and such). The school of engineering apparently has a lot of connections and sister schools in Nepal. It was fairly irritating how country-clique-ish the group was--we were about 35ish people in all. Splitting up at dinner tables, rooming, on the bus, was mostly very country based. All the Chinese students stuck together, all the Nepalese students stuck together, all the Korean students stuck together. I suppose it's natural for people to want to stick to the language they are comfortable with, and I especially don't blame those people who are absolute beginners in Japanese, of whom there were a few. But some of the cliquey-est people were those who had very superior Japanese! And some of the most affable and friendly were those who were absolute beginners. And the Nepalese group was the friendliest of all, with random people coming up to talk to me several times. Go figure. So anyways, us orphans, the ones with no automatic language clique sort of ended up together a lot by default. Or maybe we count as the English speakers from assorted countries and of varying abilities. I ended up sitting next to and rooming with a girl from Vietnam. I am so impressed by the many students here who have to cope in entirely foreign languages. For example, all of our orientation is done in Japanese and English, so people like Ling, my roommate and bus companion, have to get by mostly with their squeaky English since their Japanese is still at the "Intensive Beginning Course" level. I mean, forget any comfort of hearing their native language! Ditto with the students from Laos, Thailand, and I suppose even China and Korea.
I sat at the dinner table with some Chinese students that I decided were either very annoying or very boring. I discovered that my brain does not work simultaneously in Chinese and Japanese--so I'm blown away by those who can force their brains to work simultaneously in Japanese and English (and while thinking in some other native language like Vietnamese or Thai). While I could laugh at the Chinese students' jokes, I could not for the life of me speak more than a few words of Chinese at a time, even though my Chinese is a lot better than my Japanese. When I talked to them, Japanese came out first, and when that failed, English, and finally the Chinese occurred to me. The brain is a mysterious organ...
So the final part of our orientation was a small kayaking excursion on the river near Ozu. But in Japan, a kayak is called a canoe, so I was sort of confused at first. The teachers made it out to be kind of scary, telling us that in the past multiple people have fallen into the river and gotten soaking wet, etc. etc. etc. but it wasn't that bad at all. The river was very calm and not very deep, and we just paddled up and down a stretch of it. It was fun! Very peaceful and beautiful. I feel so lucky to be doing all of these things that I would probably never do in the US.
Something I've discovered about Japanese food: the temperature of food is not a high priority for Japanese people. Having been served food that was quite cold several times over the past few weeks, at dining halls and restaurants even, I've gotten used to cold fried chicken and cold fried fish and cold pasta...well. Let's not say "gotten used to", but rather "am no longer surprised by." Eh. Makes sense, considering that a large part of traditional Japanese food is served at room temperature, such as sushi and sashimi.
Quite a lot of it was lecture, and because it is so late and so many of us have been here a month or so, we already had figured out most of the information, such as how to sort garbage (although some more helpful tips did come up) and bicycle rules. Hours and hours of orientation. Even the new stuff (like how to use the university health center) took forever and was boring. But, on the upside, we did get to spend the night away. Dinner = party. Then shower/bath, then after dinner = more party and some drinking. I did get to meet a couple of nice people, and I am relieved to realize that my aversion for Chinese students/people appears to be limited to a specific set of Chinese international students, because I met some other ones who were nice. We made plans to go to the hot springs together next Friday. I alsomet a few very nice Nepalese students, who were all in the engineering school and studying disaster prevention (architecture and such). The school of engineering apparently has a lot of connections and sister schools in Nepal. It was fairly irritating how country-clique-ish the group was--we were about 35ish people in all. Splitting up at dinner tables, rooming, on the bus, was mostly very country based. All the Chinese students stuck together, all the Nepalese students stuck together, all the Korean students stuck together. I suppose it's natural for people to want to stick to the language they are comfortable with, and I especially don't blame those people who are absolute beginners in Japanese, of whom there were a few. But some of the cliquey-est people were those who had very superior Japanese! And some of the most affable and friendly were those who were absolute beginners. And the Nepalese group was the friendliest of all, with random people coming up to talk to me several times. Go figure. So anyways, us orphans, the ones with no automatic language clique sort of ended up together a lot by default. Or maybe we count as the English speakers from assorted countries and of varying abilities. I ended up sitting next to and rooming with a girl from Vietnam. I am so impressed by the many students here who have to cope in entirely foreign languages. For example, all of our orientation is done in Japanese and English, so people like Ling, my roommate and bus companion, have to get by mostly with their squeaky English since their Japanese is still at the "Intensive Beginning Course" level. I mean, forget any comfort of hearing their native language! Ditto with the students from Laos, Thailand, and I suppose even China and Korea.
I sat at the dinner table with some Chinese students that I decided were either very annoying or very boring. I discovered that my brain does not work simultaneously in Chinese and Japanese--so I'm blown away by those who can force their brains to work simultaneously in Japanese and English (and while thinking in some other native language like Vietnamese or Thai). While I could laugh at the Chinese students' jokes, I could not for the life of me speak more than a few words of Chinese at a time, even though my Chinese is a lot better than my Japanese. When I talked to them, Japanese came out first, and when that failed, English, and finally the Chinese occurred to me. The brain is a mysterious organ...
So the final part of our orientation was a small kayaking excursion on the river near Ozu. But in Japan, a kayak is called a canoe, so I was sort of confused at first. The teachers made it out to be kind of scary, telling us that in the past multiple people have fallen into the river and gotten soaking wet, etc. etc. etc. but it wasn't that bad at all. The river was very calm and not very deep, and we just paddled up and down a stretch of it. It was fun! Very peaceful and beautiful. I feel so lucky to be doing all of these things that I would probably never do in the US.
Something I've discovered about Japanese food: the temperature of food is not a high priority for Japanese people. Having been served food that was quite cold several times over the past few weeks, at dining halls and restaurants even, I've gotten used to cold fried chicken and cold fried fish and cold pasta...well. Let's not say "gotten used to", but rather "am no longer surprised by." Eh. Makes sense, considering that a large part of traditional Japanese food is served at room temperature, such as sushi and sashimi.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Matsuyama coolness
For the past couple of days, a fellow Fulbrighter from Osaka has been in town. The Japan Association of Public Health has been holding their conference in Matsuyama, which is why he has been here, crashing at my place for a couple of days. Not being terribly interested, I haven't been going, but that's alright. But, we have been somewhat exploring the city together. On Tuesday night, we decided to have dinner downtown and so we wandered around trying to find a restaurant. We saw a "Gaucho Grill" that looked really cute so we couldn't resist. It turned out to be an Argentinian restaurant!! They even had Argentinian wine, which I bet isn't easy to find in Japan. Nobody was there when we went in, so we sat at the counter and chatted with the cooks and with the owner/manager. Apparently, she was born in Argentina and lived there for 17 years. Now, of course, she looks like any Japanese lady. My dinner companion then spent some time chatting with her in Spanish, which impressed everybody immensely. Everybody was lovely and friendly, and it was quite a find. In the end, we even got a bit of a discount.
Afterwards, I went gave in to the temptation and went to the Haagen Daz ice cream place and discovered--hazelnut ice cream! My favorite flavor of all time. So now, I'm glad I can get my fix of hazelnut anytime by going downtown. It will make passing by Haagen Daz without going in that much more difficult. :-(
Yesterday, we also went to Matsuyama Castle. It was effectively the first time for me, since the last time I went was for the Noh performance at night. This time I got to go inside, and it was actually pretty cool. At the top of the hill and on the top floor of the castle, the views of Matsuyama city are quite spectacular. It's an extremely well preserved castle, despite having been hit by lightning or struck by arson in its past. It's also the last castle to have been "built" in Japan--which is to say, a great deal of it was restored in the 1960s using traditional castle-building techniques. The video they had of the workers laying the roof tiles was very illuminating.
All in all, he was pretty impressed by my city, which oddly inflames and nurtures the possessive and proud bit of me. I suppose Matsuyama has grown on me enough to make me proud that it impresses an Osaka person! But truly, it is a very livable city and he was impressed by my proximity to everything and how we could pretty much walk anywhere important.
I discovered that the ferry to Hiroshima only takes a 2 hours or so and is pretty cheap. I don't think there are any Fulbrighters in Hiroshima, but I think as soon as I can, I should take a day-trip out there as I hear that it's a beautiful city :-)
On a completely unrelated note, I've managed to get very little done today. I've slept all afternoon (Oops!!). And I'm being too lazy to cook, but also feel a bit like I shouldn't really eat since I've done nothing but sleep since my last meal! Hmph. I also haven't made it into work at all this week, mostly because I've finally started my Japanese classes. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays I have ~1.5 hr Japanese classes. They are at such an awkward time! Mostly right in the middle of the day. It makes going anywhere before or afterwards kind of a pain, especially anywhere kind of far, like my research office. And then, there is the lunch problem. Not just the bringing and packing of lunch, but also eating it. Two of my classes start at 12:50pm. I'd like to eat lunch with the people at the research office, but they eat at 12pm-ish or later. Considering that I need to get to class on time, this sort of poses the problem of commute time. The easiest thing to do is just to stay home in the morning and eat lunch at home, so I can eat at 12ish and it doesn't take me that long to go to class. But then, I should go to the office after class, at 2:20ish? It doesn't give me a whole lot of hours before sunset to work, and I'm not sure I can handle riding my bike after sunset just yet. Maybe that's the thing I'll have to get comfortable with next...
Afterwards, I went gave in to the temptation and went to the Haagen Daz ice cream place and discovered--hazelnut ice cream! My favorite flavor of all time. So now, I'm glad I can get my fix of hazelnut anytime by going downtown. It will make passing by Haagen Daz without going in that much more difficult. :-(
Yesterday, we also went to Matsuyama Castle. It was effectively the first time for me, since the last time I went was for the Noh performance at night. This time I got to go inside, and it was actually pretty cool. At the top of the hill and on the top floor of the castle, the views of Matsuyama city are quite spectacular. It's an extremely well preserved castle, despite having been hit by lightning or struck by arson in its past. It's also the last castle to have been "built" in Japan--which is to say, a great deal of it was restored in the 1960s using traditional castle-building techniques. The video they had of the workers laying the roof tiles was very illuminating.
All in all, he was pretty impressed by my city, which oddly inflames and nurtures the possessive and proud bit of me. I suppose Matsuyama has grown on me enough to make me proud that it impresses an Osaka person! But truly, it is a very livable city and he was impressed by my proximity to everything and how we could pretty much walk anywhere important.
I discovered that the ferry to Hiroshima only takes a 2 hours or so and is pretty cheap. I don't think there are any Fulbrighters in Hiroshima, but I think as soon as I can, I should take a day-trip out there as I hear that it's a beautiful city :-)
On a completely unrelated note, I've managed to get very little done today. I've slept all afternoon (Oops!!). And I'm being too lazy to cook, but also feel a bit like I shouldn't really eat since I've done nothing but sleep since my last meal! Hmph. I also haven't made it into work at all this week, mostly because I've finally started my Japanese classes. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays I have ~1.5 hr Japanese classes. They are at such an awkward time! Mostly right in the middle of the day. It makes going anywhere before or afterwards kind of a pain, especially anywhere kind of far, like my research office. And then, there is the lunch problem. Not just the bringing and packing of lunch, but also eating it. Two of my classes start at 12:50pm. I'd like to eat lunch with the people at the research office, but they eat at 12pm-ish or later. Considering that I need to get to class on time, this sort of poses the problem of commute time. The easiest thing to do is just to stay home in the morning and eat lunch at home, so I can eat at 12ish and it doesn't take me that long to go to class. But then, I should go to the office after class, at 2:20ish? It doesn't give me a whole lot of hours before sunset to work, and I'm not sure I can handle riding my bike after sunset just yet. Maybe that's the thing I'll have to get comfortable with next...
Friday, October 19, 2007
breakfast!
I have got to do something to solve the breakfast problem. Today I had to throw out a whole loaf of bread because it had green spots on it, as well as a cottony fuzz around the outsides. I didn't even get to eat it! So I went hungry. Breakfast food has been something of a problem. I need something that will fit all these criteria:
1) Minimum of prep time in the morning
2) Filling
3) Longer shelf life than bread--so I don't have to buy more every 3 days!
4) Not freakishly expensive, like fruit is
5) Won't significantly raise the risk of me getting cancer
So generally speaking, I'd go for a bowl of instant ramen. But they appear to be much more expensive here than in the US, and anyways they don't come in big boxes of 24 here either. And more importantly, I can't eat it every day or else criteria number 5 won't work. Bread is out, because good bread is expensive and spoils too quickly. I've been drinking juice, but that's hardly filling. If there were cereal, that would satisfy most of the requirements, but I haven't seen a box of cereal yet! Or oatmeal, either, and I don't eat oatmeal. I'm out of ideas for breakfast. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
1) Minimum of prep time in the morning
2) Filling
3) Longer shelf life than bread--so I don't have to buy more every 3 days!
4) Not freakishly expensive, like fruit is
5) Won't significantly raise the risk of me getting cancer
So generally speaking, I'd go for a bowl of instant ramen. But they appear to be much more expensive here than in the US, and anyways they don't come in big boxes of 24 here either. And more importantly, I can't eat it every day or else criteria number 5 won't work. Bread is out, because good bread is expensive and spoils too quickly. I've been drinking juice, but that's hardly filling. If there were cereal, that would satisfy most of the requirements, but I haven't seen a box of cereal yet! Or oatmeal, either, and I don't eat oatmeal. I'm out of ideas for breakfast. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Lady Drugstore
I decided to familiarize with my local drugstore, called Re-De-I (Lady). Seriously. As if men didn't need drugstores too. I've been dreading this moment. Precisely so I wouldn't have to wander down aisles of mysterious Japanese stuff, I brought with me a full bottle of shampoo and contact lens solution. I haven't yet run out of either. But, I forgot to bring soap/body wash, and the stuff I've been using here just sucks. So I gave in and went to Lady.
The moment I stepped through the doors, my eyes hurt. It seems that every package has to be in bright neon colors of pink, green, orange, and yellow. The whole jumbled effect is quite nauseating. But luckily, I found what I needed quite easily, since there were more than a few American brands. I found Dove products of all sorts, which I expected since I've been seeing the commercials. I also found Pantene hair products, but they were packaged completely differently than in the United States. I guess their Japan headquarters is independent or something. There was also tons of Nivea--they do a much better job of advertising in Japan than in the US. Here there is lots of "skin milk" and skin-whitening treatments under the Nivea brand, all advertised by a woman with gorgeous pale white skin. (I know "gorgeous" and "pale" don't often go together in Western vocabulary and image, but her skin really is gorgeous. Or else the advertisement wouldn't work.)
I was surprised to find that Shiseido is a drugstore cosmetic brand! Well, I didn't look closely so it may have been priced higher than the others--but it didn't look like it. Considering that Shiseido is an expensive department store brand in the US, I was surprised to see it ranking with the Japanese equivalents of Revlon and Maybelline.
I did not see Neutrogena. Too bad! What with their emphasis on health and science, I think they could do very well here.
Also, I picked up a bag of potato chips--first junk food since arriving, more or less. It was labeled as nori (seaweed) and salt, and in the packaging the chips looked like sour cream and onion with the little flecks of nori all over it. So I was half expected sour cream and onion, but the first bite was completely different! It was kind of disconcerting. But, I'm hooked. Nori-salt potato chips are amazing. And...different. And...just plain good.
The moment I stepped through the doors, my eyes hurt. It seems that every package has to be in bright neon colors of pink, green, orange, and yellow. The whole jumbled effect is quite nauseating. But luckily, I found what I needed quite easily, since there were more than a few American brands. I found Dove products of all sorts, which I expected since I've been seeing the commercials. I also found Pantene hair products, but they were packaged completely differently than in the United States. I guess their Japan headquarters is independent or something. There was also tons of Nivea--they do a much better job of advertising in Japan than in the US. Here there is lots of "skin milk" and skin-whitening treatments under the Nivea brand, all advertised by a woman with gorgeous pale white skin. (I know "gorgeous" and "pale" don't often go together in Western vocabulary and image, but her skin really is gorgeous. Or else the advertisement wouldn't work.)
I was surprised to find that Shiseido is a drugstore cosmetic brand! Well, I didn't look closely so it may have been priced higher than the others--but it didn't look like it. Considering that Shiseido is an expensive department store brand in the US, I was surprised to see it ranking with the Japanese equivalents of Revlon and Maybelline.
I did not see Neutrogena. Too bad! What with their emphasis on health and science, I think they could do very well here.
Also, I picked up a bag of potato chips--first junk food since arriving, more or less. It was labeled as nori (seaweed) and salt, and in the packaging the chips looked like sour cream and onion with the little flecks of nori all over it. So I was half expected sour cream and onion, but the first bite was completely different! It was kind of disconcerting. But, I'm hooked. Nori-salt potato chips are amazing. And...different. And...just plain good.
what do you mean you don't use PubMed!!!??!?!?!?!
My advisor never uses PubMed. He was utterly confused when I asked about how I could get the University's subscription/fulltext access. *sigh*
Part of what I view as a University's job is supporting academic research. And a huge part of that is subscribing to lots and lots of online resources such as Ovid, JSTOR, and especially PubMed so that researchers, professors, students,etc. can use them. Or at least, having easily accessible paper versions of some journals! Apparently, that is not the case here or anywhere else in Japan that people here have been. Individual professors subscribe to journals of interest, off of their grant money, entirely for themselves. My professor subscribes, most notable, to NEJM and to various Japanese public health journals. He reads papers relevant to his field, and if there are papers in the references that he wants, but which are in journals he does not subscribe to, he asks his friend at a pharmaceutical company to get them for him! Apparently, his friend is pretty high up in a major pharma company, and ironically, THEY have access to all kinds of information--but the university doesn't. Go figure. It's just completely amazing to me, considering that PubMed is the beginning and ending of every research project for practically anybody in the health sciences in the United States. Apparently, not so here. And, it's not as though language is the only barrier. If there were some Japanese version of PubMed with Japanese journals that everybody subscribed to, then fine. But no, despite all the environmental awareness, people here still kill trees by subscribing to paper journals--and only a limited number at that. If I browse PubMed and see something I want that wasn't published in NEJM, I'm up a creek. I suppose I can ask my professor to fwd it to his friend...but seriously, I'm used to downloading anything and everything remotely of interest to look at. I'm going to have to be more selective now.
Times like these, I start to miss Harvard. Do I sound like a spoiled brat or what? I just take all of those academic privileges for granted, and now I feel seriously handicapped without them! Some other people I've talked to miss the social life, the people--I miss the infrastructure. I had a pretty horrific meal at the University dining hall today that really made me miss Harvard. All in all, even though we joke about Mather House being ugly, I'd take the Mather dining hall any day over the Ehime University one, which compares unfavorably even with hospital cafeterias.
In other news, I just reformatted my computer last night. I ended up with some vicious malware that I couldn't get rid of. It replaced my desktop with a horrible image which was a link to download more spyware. It popped up every 2 seconds prompting me to run some cleaner and download more spyware to supposedly "clean" my computer. It was sooo annoying and pretty scary, actually. Tech forums gave no answer besides reformat, so thanks to the Thinkvantage blue recovery button, I completely restored to factory settings. But since then I've been reinstalling software, and actually uninstalling software too. Unfortunately, laptops come with tons of crap pre-installed on them and about 10 million things set to startup with Windows, so I had to go through all of that and delete it, one by one. Not to mention locate anti-virus software and immediately scan! Between last night and today, I've already gotten several viruses. Man, the internet is a dangerous place.
So the only redeeming factor yesterday was my cooking success. I've decided that I don't need a Chinese cookbook after all--almost everything I need can be found online, often times in multiple versions so I can pick and choose. So last night I sallied forth into the world of "hong shao" cooking, or red-braised cooking. Before getting to hong shao yu (red braised fish) which is one of my favorite foods of all time, I decided to start with pork instead. Ahhhh!!! so good!! I had no idea before looking up recipes that hong shao basically means braised in soy sauce. Hong shao rou (red braised pork) is basically little cubes of that really fatty pork (you know, the kind that has layers of fat/skin sandwiched between the layers of meat) simmered for an hour or more with ginger and garlic and any optional vegetables (often carrots or potatoes). The simmering sauce is just rice wine, soy sauce, water, and sugar. The only mistake I made was that I forgot to make the beginning sauce more dilute than I wanted the final product to be. I forgot that in the process of simmering for an hour, you lose tons of water and concentrate the sauce. So I had to dilute with water a couple times in the middle, and I still ended up with pork that was slightly saltier than desirable. But it was sooo delicious and soft and yummy and...real! Just like made at home, minus the vegetables I don't eat anyways. *sigh* oh...comfort food...
Part of what I view as a University's job is supporting academic research. And a huge part of that is subscribing to lots and lots of online resources such as Ovid, JSTOR, and especially PubMed so that researchers, professors, students,etc. can use them. Or at least, having easily accessible paper versions of some journals! Apparently, that is not the case here or anywhere else in Japan that people here have been. Individual professors subscribe to journals of interest, off of their grant money, entirely for themselves. My professor subscribes, most notable, to NEJM and to various Japanese public health journals. He reads papers relevant to his field, and if there are papers in the references that he wants, but which are in journals he does not subscribe to, he asks his friend at a pharmaceutical company to get them for him! Apparently, his friend is pretty high up in a major pharma company, and ironically, THEY have access to all kinds of information--but the university doesn't. Go figure. It's just completely amazing to me, considering that PubMed is the beginning and ending of every research project for practically anybody in the health sciences in the United States. Apparently, not so here. And, it's not as though language is the only barrier. If there were some Japanese version of PubMed with Japanese journals that everybody subscribed to, then fine. But no, despite all the environmental awareness, people here still kill trees by subscribing to paper journals--and only a limited number at that. If I browse PubMed and see something I want that wasn't published in NEJM, I'm up a creek. I suppose I can ask my professor to fwd it to his friend...but seriously, I'm used to downloading anything and everything remotely of interest to look at. I'm going to have to be more selective now.
Times like these, I start to miss Harvard. Do I sound like a spoiled brat or what? I just take all of those academic privileges for granted, and now I feel seriously handicapped without them! Some other people I've talked to miss the social life, the people--I miss the infrastructure. I had a pretty horrific meal at the University dining hall today that really made me miss Harvard. All in all, even though we joke about Mather House being ugly, I'd take the Mather dining hall any day over the Ehime University one, which compares unfavorably even with hospital cafeterias.
In other news, I just reformatted my computer last night. I ended up with some vicious malware that I couldn't get rid of. It replaced my desktop with a horrible image which was a link to download more spyware. It popped up every 2 seconds prompting me to run some cleaner and download more spyware to supposedly "clean" my computer. It was sooo annoying and pretty scary, actually. Tech forums gave no answer besides reformat, so thanks to the Thinkvantage blue recovery button, I completely restored to factory settings. But since then I've been reinstalling software, and actually uninstalling software too. Unfortunately, laptops come with tons of crap pre-installed on them and about 10 million things set to startup with Windows, so I had to go through all of that and delete it, one by one. Not to mention locate anti-virus software and immediately scan! Between last night and today, I've already gotten several viruses. Man, the internet is a dangerous place.
So the only redeeming factor yesterday was my cooking success. I've decided that I don't need a Chinese cookbook after all--almost everything I need can be found online, often times in multiple versions so I can pick and choose. So last night I sallied forth into the world of "hong shao" cooking, or red-braised cooking. Before getting to hong shao yu (red braised fish) which is one of my favorite foods of all time, I decided to start with pork instead. Ahhhh!!! so good!! I had no idea before looking up recipes that hong shao basically means braised in soy sauce. Hong shao rou (red braised pork) is basically little cubes of that really fatty pork (you know, the kind that has layers of fat/skin sandwiched between the layers of meat) simmered for an hour or more with ginger and garlic and any optional vegetables (often carrots or potatoes). The simmering sauce is just rice wine, soy sauce, water, and sugar. The only mistake I made was that I forgot to make the beginning sauce more dilute than I wanted the final product to be. I forgot that in the process of simmering for an hour, you lose tons of water and concentrate the sauce. So I had to dilute with water a couple times in the middle, and I still ended up with pork that was slightly saltier than desirable. But it was sooo delicious and soft and yummy and...real! Just like made at home, minus the vegetables I don't eat anyways. *sigh* oh...comfort food...
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Noh, random thoughts, and party
This has been a fairly eventful week. I will try to recap :-)
1) Noh theater.
I've posted some pictures on Facebook from my night of Noh theater in the Matsuyama castle courtyard. It was totally fun! Even though I couldn't follow. For awhile there was some uncertainty where it was going to be held--either indoors if it rained, or in the castle courtyard as planned if it didn't rain. Luckily, it was clear the whole day and it didn't start to rain until the very end of the performance, so I got the full effect.
Matsuyama castle is on top of a hill, so to get there in time we took the ropeway up. It was way cool! Gorgeous view over the city as we were going up. Several women in the audience came in kimonos--not just kimonos, but the full deal. Kimonos, tabi and geta (traditional socks and fotwear), done-up hair, the works. They were quite lovely.
On the program were three short shows. The first and last were Japanese in origin, one from the Tale of Genji (the part where Lady Rokujo possesses Lady Aoi) and the other from the Tail of the Heike (samurai ghost reenacts his death). There was no way I could follow either of them, and I think it was tough for Japanese people too. It was very slow, dramatic, and...drawn out. I went with a friend who explained to me a bit of what was going on, but honestly, not much was going on. Most of both plays consisted mainly of one soloist.
The middle play was Chinese in origin, and it was a comedy. It was also performed in a more spoken, colloquial Japanese style, so I could actually follow a fair bit of what was going on. It was a hilarious story about a drunken tea maker? I think? He's very drunk on his way home, and he has a huge barrel of tea on his back. He collapses in the street, and another guy comes by and wants the barrel of tea. He can't pry it from the drunken person, so he shakes the drunken person violently awake, then pretends to be passed out drunk as well. The bad guy in turn gets "shaken awake" by the tea guy, and when they both come to, they start fighting over the tea barrel. The bad guy insists that it belongs to him! A judge comes along and the rest of the play is about trying to prove who really owns the barrel of tea. The bad guy simply imitates everything the tea guy says about the tea in order to try to prove it belongs to him. Okay, it doesn't sound that hilarious, but really, a lot of it was in the body language and the imitation. I can't tell an anecdote worth shit. Enough of plot summary.
2) Random thoughts
a) Eating alone. It strikes me that eating out alone here is very common, which then strikes me that it is very uncommon in the US. Even at fast food joints, it's mostly families, or couples, or whatnot. Very few people are eating out alone. I wonder why? I sort of feel like many people would rather skip meals than eat alone. I saw this in the Harvard dining halls too. Aside from breakfast, which is eaten alone with a newspaper because nearly nobody eats breakfast regularly, most people wait to find a lunch or dinner partner before eating, unless they are trying to write a paper at the same time or something. But whenever I've eaten out at fast food udon or donburi places, I've always been alone as have most people. On my way home from downtown, I passed by a pretty large donburi place and every single person inside was male, and eating alone. It was...strange! Again, perhaps it points to the odd work hours, social isolation, etc. etc. My advisor doesn't appear to spend much time with his family, either, despite having two kids. He basically took me out to dinner after the Noh theater (on a Wednesday night!) on a moment's notice. I sort of jokingly said--"But shouldn't you have to go home and eat with your family and spend time with them?" His answer was in Japanese and I couldn't understand all of it, but it was something to the effect of "give up." Who's given up on who, I'm not sure, but it's still somewhat disturbing.
b) Types of girls. Stereotypes of girls--many of whom I observed at the matsuri. They are pretty much the same as the stereotypes here. There are the ditzy popular blonds. Even in Japan, they are blond! They have super long blond curly hair, or its extremely "done." That is, it's teased up into artificial looking hairdos, and looks completely fried, even at 5:30am. They also wear short skirs, stilettos, and large shiny accessories. They travel in groups and twitter, and wear wayy too much makeup. There are also the "ugly athletic girls." Short, stocky, never wearing makeup, and with undyed short black hair. They are perpetually in sporty wear, like matching adidas tracksuits, tennis shoes, and carrying a duffel bag. That's all that really stands out to me right now in terms of extremes....I'll add to this list if I spot more later.
3) A party! I threw a small housewarming party on Friday night. I made it a potluck so I wouldn't have to work so hard. I invited my host family's students, the same girls that I traveled to Kochi with. My host family came for the first half hour or so, to toast and try some of the food and show the first batch of students where I lived. They left early to "leave us young people to ourselves." Even though I was comfortable with them, the students breathed a huge sigh of relief when they left! They were all quite nervous about my host dad tasting their food, since he is such the foodie. About 6 or 7 students came eventually, each bringing something with them. They are so incredibly nice! And they really thought of everything. There was some amazing homecooked food, some people brought dessert, fruits, bread, and of course, drinks. They even brought a bag of ice with them! I totally forgot about ice. They peeled and sliced fruit, fried fish to heat it up again, and even did some of my dishes afterwards.
I made an enormous plate of Chinese-ish stir fried rice noodles, with broccoli, chicken, onions, and egg. Only, my host dad immediately pointed out that it was Japanese style, which was true since as seasoning sauce and marinade I used the same sauce as for making oyako-don: mirin, soy sauce, water, and sugar. But, it turned out very yummy, and it was completely finished down to the last bite, even before the last person came. Heehee! I feel like a successful hostess. Surprisingly, it took 1.5 hrs to cook from beginning to end. (Very slow) slicing, then cooking the meat, eggs, veggies, and noodles all separately, then putting it together at the end.
I think my guests had some fun, and I could follow a lot of their conversation. I could even contribute sometimes. I think my Japanese is sort of improving. And we all ate and drank for like 5 hours straight, from 6-11pm. When all the food and drink is just sitting in front of you, its hard to restrain yourself. Hehehe. I was soo uncomfortably full afterwards, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one! It was fun, and even more fun than I expected. Again, it's nice socializing in Japanese, since I'm not expected to contribute a whole lot, or even to be understanding and paying attention all the time. I can tune out when I feel tired and chalk it down to bad Japanese rather than rudeness. And at the same time, it's still fun, and chill, with Madeleine Peyroux, Sophie Milman, and Vienna Teng as background music.
1) Noh theater.
I've posted some pictures on Facebook from my night of Noh theater in the Matsuyama castle courtyard. It was totally fun! Even though I couldn't follow. For awhile there was some uncertainty where it was going to be held--either indoors if it rained, or in the castle courtyard as planned if it didn't rain. Luckily, it was clear the whole day and it didn't start to rain until the very end of the performance, so I got the full effect.
Matsuyama castle is on top of a hill, so to get there in time we took the ropeway up. It was way cool! Gorgeous view over the city as we were going up. Several women in the audience came in kimonos--not just kimonos, but the full deal. Kimonos, tabi and geta (traditional socks and fotwear), done-up hair, the works. They were quite lovely.
On the program were three short shows. The first and last were Japanese in origin, one from the Tale of Genji (the part where Lady Rokujo possesses Lady Aoi) and the other from the Tail of the Heike (samurai ghost reenacts his death). There was no way I could follow either of them, and I think it was tough for Japanese people too. It was very slow, dramatic, and...drawn out. I went with a friend who explained to me a bit of what was going on, but honestly, not much was going on. Most of both plays consisted mainly of one soloist.
The middle play was Chinese in origin, and it was a comedy. It was also performed in a more spoken, colloquial Japanese style, so I could actually follow a fair bit of what was going on. It was a hilarious story about a drunken tea maker? I think? He's very drunk on his way home, and he has a huge barrel of tea on his back. He collapses in the street, and another guy comes by and wants the barrel of tea. He can't pry it from the drunken person, so he shakes the drunken person violently awake, then pretends to be passed out drunk as well. The bad guy in turn gets "shaken awake" by the tea guy, and when they both come to, they start fighting over the tea barrel. The bad guy insists that it belongs to him! A judge comes along and the rest of the play is about trying to prove who really owns the barrel of tea. The bad guy simply imitates everything the tea guy says about the tea in order to try to prove it belongs to him. Okay, it doesn't sound that hilarious, but really, a lot of it was in the body language and the imitation. I can't tell an anecdote worth shit. Enough of plot summary.
2) Random thoughts
a) Eating alone. It strikes me that eating out alone here is very common, which then strikes me that it is very uncommon in the US. Even at fast food joints, it's mostly families, or couples, or whatnot. Very few people are eating out alone. I wonder why? I sort of feel like many people would rather skip meals than eat alone. I saw this in the Harvard dining halls too. Aside from breakfast, which is eaten alone with a newspaper because nearly nobody eats breakfast regularly, most people wait to find a lunch or dinner partner before eating, unless they are trying to write a paper at the same time or something. But whenever I've eaten out at fast food udon or donburi places, I've always been alone as have most people. On my way home from downtown, I passed by a pretty large donburi place and every single person inside was male, and eating alone. It was...strange! Again, perhaps it points to the odd work hours, social isolation, etc. etc. My advisor doesn't appear to spend much time with his family, either, despite having two kids. He basically took me out to dinner after the Noh theater (on a Wednesday night!) on a moment's notice. I sort of jokingly said--"But shouldn't you have to go home and eat with your family and spend time with them?" His answer was in Japanese and I couldn't understand all of it, but it was something to the effect of "give up." Who's given up on who, I'm not sure, but it's still somewhat disturbing.
b) Types of girls. Stereotypes of girls--many of whom I observed at the matsuri. They are pretty much the same as the stereotypes here. There are the ditzy popular blonds. Even in Japan, they are blond! They have super long blond curly hair, or its extremely "done." That is, it's teased up into artificial looking hairdos, and looks completely fried, even at 5:30am. They also wear short skirs, stilettos, and large shiny accessories. They travel in groups and twitter, and wear wayy too much makeup. There are also the "ugly athletic girls." Short, stocky, never wearing makeup, and with undyed short black hair. They are perpetually in sporty wear, like matching adidas tracksuits, tennis shoes, and carrying a duffel bag. That's all that really stands out to me right now in terms of extremes....I'll add to this list if I spot more later.
3) A party! I threw a small housewarming party on Friday night. I made it a potluck so I wouldn't have to work so hard. I invited my host family's students, the same girls that I traveled to Kochi with. My host family came for the first half hour or so, to toast and try some of the food and show the first batch of students where I lived. They left early to "leave us young people to ourselves." Even though I was comfortable with them, the students breathed a huge sigh of relief when they left! They were all quite nervous about my host dad tasting their food, since he is such the foodie. About 6 or 7 students came eventually, each bringing something with them. They are so incredibly nice! And they really thought of everything. There was some amazing homecooked food, some people brought dessert, fruits, bread, and of course, drinks. They even brought a bag of ice with them! I totally forgot about ice. They peeled and sliced fruit, fried fish to heat it up again, and even did some of my dishes afterwards.
I made an enormous plate of Chinese-ish stir fried rice noodles, with broccoli, chicken, onions, and egg. Only, my host dad immediately pointed out that it was Japanese style, which was true since as seasoning sauce and marinade I used the same sauce as for making oyako-don: mirin, soy sauce, water, and sugar. But, it turned out very yummy, and it was completely finished down to the last bite, even before the last person came. Heehee! I feel like a successful hostess. Surprisingly, it took 1.5 hrs to cook from beginning to end. (Very slow) slicing, then cooking the meat, eggs, veggies, and noodles all separately, then putting it together at the end.
I think my guests had some fun, and I could follow a lot of their conversation. I could even contribute sometimes. I think my Japanese is sort of improving. And we all ate and drank for like 5 hours straight, from 6-11pm. When all the food and drink is just sitting in front of you, its hard to restrain yourself. Hehehe. I was soo uncomfortably full afterwards, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one! It was fun, and even more fun than I expected. Again, it's nice socializing in Japanese, since I'm not expected to contribute a whole lot, or even to be understanding and paying attention all the time. I can tune out when I feel tired and chalk it down to bad Japanese rather than rudeness. And at the same time, it's still fun, and chill, with Madeleine Peyroux, Sophie Milman, and Vienna Teng as background music.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Indian food
Oh, and I forgot to mention, I found a decent Indian food place today! I'm ridiculously excited. There won't be any deprivation on that front, at least. On my way walking downtown, I passed by the place. It was advertised as "Indian food that an actual Indian person cooks!" or something to that effect. And it looked true--I saw aforementioned Indian person through the window. I figured I'd eat there on my way back. So I did. For 680yen, I got a lunch set with my choice of curry (chicken masala), and naan, rice, small salad, and chicken wing. Pretty good! Definitely affordable, and definitely stuffed me more than the local donburi fast food chain would have. It was even good, by which I mean it resembles what I would eat at an American place. The last time I had Indian food, you might recall, the chef used Japanese curry. Well, not this time. Unfortunately, the rice was still Japanese sticky rice--you can't have everything. I'll just avoid the rice in the future. But anyways--I'm happy :-) Maybe I'll become a regular. Now, if only I could find an affordable Mexican place....I was joking with another Fulbrighter about the possibility of making our own burritos for Thanksgiving. Japanese sticky rice, adzuki beans instead of pinto beans, spring roll wraps instead of tortillas, homemade salsa, cheese from Hokkaido, mmmmm. Well, at least meat is meat everywhere.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
national holiday
I love national holidays. There have been three Mondays off since I've arrived in Japan. It's ridiculous! I've heard it's a way that the government ensures that people take time off. But from shopping today, it's only time off for students and perhaps corporate types. Most of the shops were open. I also hear that there are more national holidays in the fall, because it's good weather and a good time for tourism.
Went downtown and got a new phone today. Its functional highlight? It has a built-in dictionary. And, its camera can read and translate English and Japanese. Woohoo!
Also, I was walking down the street when an old man (seriously, grandpa-aged) zoomed by me on a bicycle and called me pretty. More specifically, he called me a 美人、which translates to "beautiful person." Hah! I can't decide whether to be flattered by the niceness of ojisans, or whether to be slightly weirded out.
Went downtown and got a new phone today. Its functional highlight? It has a built-in dictionary. And, its camera can read and translate English and Japanese. Woohoo!
Also, I was walking down the street when an old man (seriously, grandpa-aged) zoomed by me on a bicycle and called me pretty. More specifically, he called me a 美人、which translates to "beautiful person." Hah! I can't decide whether to be flattered by the niceness of ojisans, or whether to be slightly weirded out.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Aki Matsuri!
In other words, fall festival.
I'm too tired to say very much right now. I got up at 4:30am in order to get ready and walk over to where the matsuri was happening at 6am. You'd think that 6 was too early for some people...suffice it to say, if I didn't have my 7x zoom camera held over my head, I wouldn't have been able to see a thing.
I would post video, but after arduously uploading...I get an error at the end :-(
Instead, here are some pictures, mostly shot from the main shopping arcade. The mikoshi you see in the first picture is on its way out (opening ceremonies over).
Also seen are: the flags for each mikoshi, another picture of people carrying mikoshi in procession, an open container of sake for everyone to enjoy, a cute mini mikoshi for kids to enjoy, and dressed up audience members climbing over each other to get a better view of the mikoshi-fighting.
I'm too tired to say very much right now. I got up at 4:30am in order to get ready and walk over to where the matsuri was happening at 6am. You'd think that 6 was too early for some people...suffice it to say, if I didn't have my 7x zoom camera held over my head, I wouldn't have been able to see a thing.
I would post video, but after arduously uploading...I get an error at the end :-(
Instead, here are some pictures, mostly shot from the main shopping arcade. The mikoshi you see in the first picture is on its way out (opening ceremonies over).
Also seen are: the flags for each mikoshi, another picture of people carrying mikoshi in procession, an open container of sake for everyone to enjoy, a cute mini mikoshi for kids to enjoy, and dressed up audience members climbing over each other to get a better view of the mikoshi-fighting.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
research
So out of boredom and a sense that I need to restrain myself from spending money, I asked my advisor to show me his database last Monday. Then, I reasoned, I would have something exciting and new to play with and occupy me. It definitely worked. So my advisor has access to a database of 15 years of health checkup records for the people in this area. It has all sorts of info about them, though he and I are mainly interested in things pertaining to eating, metabolism, etc. So...it's a wealth of data. The kind that the Japanese government collects, just for fun, and lets the researchers loose on. So now I'm playing with a gigantic Microsoft Access database with millions of people in it. It's interesting. This whole week has basically been dedicated to overcoming the research language barrier. I've been trying to understand and translate for myself every field name in the database. I've also miraculously made it possible to switch the user interface for Office programs from Japanese to English on my lab computer. I have no idea how that happened, but it took a morning of fiddling and I officially love Office now. Meanwhile, I've downloaded a very helpful ebook on data analysis in Access 2007, and I've been learning the program by reconstructing and Englishifying the database. That has been my week in a boring nutshell.
I've come to the conclusion that the research put out by this group is unfortunately not very good. Perhaps I've been around Harvard for so long that I've gotten used to a certain standard? Maybe I'm being snobby, and maybe I'm only flattering myself in thinking that I can be a judge of good and bad research--supposedly the whole point of my science education. But I like to think that while maybe I can't produce stellar research (yet! I can still hold out hope), I can at least recognize its presence or absence.
I was helping my advisor do an English proofread for a manuscript he is helping a student put out. My God, it was horrible. Well, the English was good, but I was really surprised the study was being published! It was a case report on delayed language skills or something like that. I guess the main problem was that it really tried to generalize too much based on one isolated case, and it couldn't even persuasively suggest cause and effect in that one isolated case! Let alone trying to generalize to the population. It was horrific.
Then, on Monday as my advisor showed me the database, he gave me two files. One was a Methods type of file, outlining where the data came from and how metabolic syndrome criteria were calculated. That was extremely helpful. The other file was labeled Discussion part 1 !! How, pray tell, does one discuss data that has not yet been analyzed? He told me he just predicted the outcome and wrote a discussion. Hmm...right...that so sounds suspect. He told me he does things backwards--start with some discussion, do some results, write the rest of the discussion, and then come up with the objectives of the study. Shouldn't some sense of what one is analyzing for guide the analysis? Gee...now I'm confused.
Random tidbit for the day: The cute little kids in the school are now singing the Beatles' "Hey Jude" in Japanese. I have no idea what they are saying, but they are so convincing that "Hey Jude" sounds like a traditional Japanese song.
I've come to the conclusion that the research put out by this group is unfortunately not very good. Perhaps I've been around Harvard for so long that I've gotten used to a certain standard? Maybe I'm being snobby, and maybe I'm only flattering myself in thinking that I can be a judge of good and bad research--supposedly the whole point of my science education. But I like to think that while maybe I can't produce stellar research (yet! I can still hold out hope), I can at least recognize its presence or absence.
I was helping my advisor do an English proofread for a manuscript he is helping a student put out. My God, it was horrible. Well, the English was good, but I was really surprised the study was being published! It was a case report on delayed language skills or something like that. I guess the main problem was that it really tried to generalize too much based on one isolated case, and it couldn't even persuasively suggest cause and effect in that one isolated case! Let alone trying to generalize to the population. It was horrific.
Then, on Monday as my advisor showed me the database, he gave me two files. One was a Methods type of file, outlining where the data came from and how metabolic syndrome criteria were calculated. That was extremely helpful. The other file was labeled Discussion part 1 !! How, pray tell, does one discuss data that has not yet been analyzed? He told me he just predicted the outcome and wrote a discussion. Hmm...right...that so sounds suspect. He told me he does things backwards--start with some discussion, do some results, write the rest of the discussion, and then come up with the objectives of the study. Shouldn't some sense of what one is analyzing for guide the analysis? Gee...now I'm confused.
Random tidbit for the day: The cute little kids in the school are now singing the Beatles' "Hey Jude" in Japanese. I have no idea what they are saying, but they are so convincing that "Hey Jude" sounds like a traditional Japanese song.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
celebration!
Two things to celebrate:
1) I now have internet at home. Woohoo! Gone will be my nights of boredom, as they will be replaced by nights attached to my computer, surfing the web. This means, for those you on the West coast, if you ever wake up in the middle of the night and have an urge to call somebody, I will probably be signed on. Just call my Skype number. And the East coast is only 3 hours off from that, so it probably is the same.
2) Cooking! From scratch!! Today, I tried out cookbook cooking for the first time (ever). My host mom was kind enough to send me off with "Recipes of Japanese Cooking," a bilingual book with lovely color photos not only of the end product, but of all the major cooking steps. Today, having finally rounded out my pantry, I tried out my first recipe: oyako-don. Oyako-don is a type of rice-bowl dish (donburi). Donburi are usually various ingredients like beef, tempura, tonkatsu, etc. cooked and poured over rice. Oyako-don translates as "parent-child donburi" because its main ingredients are chicken and egg. It was actually ridiculously easy, taking at most half an hour (because I'm slow...cookbook estimated time is 12 minutes). I made two modifications: I skipped the sake because I didn't have any, and I skipped the stock because what kind of lazy, time-pressed student makes her own stock!? This being Japan, I can't find any ready-made stock in the supermarket either. But a bit of water worked fine.
Annnd....it was good! Very good! Actually filling, appetizing, tasty! I have been cooking some before today, mostly stir-fry, mostly cabbage and egg. I even made some yaki-soba (aka chow mein) the other day. But, the yaki-soba came with its own seasoning pack, kind of like instant ramen, so it wasn't hard. And, the veggie stir-fry was mediocre at best. All homemade meat has been limited to the meat in the packages of frozen gyoza that I've bought--and those are so easy they don't even require oil for the frying pan. So, I feel like a relative success with my oyako-don. Heehee!
Japanese cooking also seems relatively simple compared to some other kinds of cooking. There are so few ingredients involved, and most of them overlap. For example, nearly every recipe calls for soy sauce, sake, mirin (a sweet kind of cooking sake), and perhaps some other regular sort of condiments. No large and mysterious stock of herbs that I can't tell apart. (Of course, my herb ignorance may simply be attributed to growing up in a household without them.) But anyways, the point remains--nearly everything in this book has an estimated time of less than 30 minutes, and a majority even less than 15 minutes. And the list of ingredients is very small.
I miss Chinese food, though. The stir fry is supposed to be my attempt at Chinese food, but it's not measuring up to home-style comfort food. Also, it's more difficult than I thought it would be to find certain Chinese foods here. For example, sausages of any sort are really gross and overpriced here, let alone Chinese-style sausages. It's also difficult to find certain kinds of vegetables and frozen 生煎饱. Hmm, I wonder if I got the Chinese right. I think I need to get a Chinese cookbook so I can start being successful at Chinese cooking.
1) I now have internet at home. Woohoo! Gone will be my nights of boredom, as they will be replaced by nights attached to my computer, surfing the web. This means, for those you on the West coast, if you ever wake up in the middle of the night and have an urge to call somebody, I will probably be signed on. Just call my Skype number. And the East coast is only 3 hours off from that, so it probably is the same.
2) Cooking! From scratch!! Today, I tried out cookbook cooking for the first time (ever). My host mom was kind enough to send me off with "Recipes of Japanese Cooking," a bilingual book with lovely color photos not only of the end product, but of all the major cooking steps. Today, having finally rounded out my pantry, I tried out my first recipe: oyako-don. Oyako-don is a type of rice-bowl dish (donburi). Donburi are usually various ingredients like beef, tempura, tonkatsu, etc. cooked and poured over rice. Oyako-don translates as "parent-child donburi" because its main ingredients are chicken and egg. It was actually ridiculously easy, taking at most half an hour (because I'm slow...cookbook estimated time is 12 minutes). I made two modifications: I skipped the sake because I didn't have any, and I skipped the stock because what kind of lazy, time-pressed student makes her own stock!? This being Japan, I can't find any ready-made stock in the supermarket either. But a bit of water worked fine.
Annnd....it was good! Very good! Actually filling, appetizing, tasty! I have been cooking some before today, mostly stir-fry, mostly cabbage and egg. I even made some yaki-soba (aka chow mein) the other day. But, the yaki-soba came with its own seasoning pack, kind of like instant ramen, so it wasn't hard. And, the veggie stir-fry was mediocre at best. All homemade meat has been limited to the meat in the packages of frozen gyoza that I've bought--and those are so easy they don't even require oil for the frying pan. So, I feel like a relative success with my oyako-don. Heehee!
Japanese cooking also seems relatively simple compared to some other kinds of cooking. There are so few ingredients involved, and most of them overlap. For example, nearly every recipe calls for soy sauce, sake, mirin (a sweet kind of cooking sake), and perhaps some other regular sort of condiments. No large and mysterious stock of herbs that I can't tell apart. (Of course, my herb ignorance may simply be attributed to growing up in a household without them.) But anyways, the point remains--nearly everything in this book has an estimated time of less than 30 minutes, and a majority even less than 15 minutes. And the list of ingredients is very small.
I miss Chinese food, though. The stir fry is supposed to be my attempt at Chinese food, but it's not measuring up to home-style comfort food. Also, it's more difficult than I thought it would be to find certain Chinese foods here. For example, sausages of any sort are really gross and overpriced here, let alone Chinese-style sausages. It's also difficult to find certain kinds of vegetables and frozen 生煎饱. Hmm, I wonder if I got the Chinese right. I think I need to get a Chinese cookbook so I can start being successful at Chinese cooking.
Monday, October 1, 2007
vienna teng in the most unlikely place
I was shopping the other day, and I stopped by a fast-food udon place called Hanamaru for some dinner. Basically, you walk in, go down the self-serve line, order the udon at the counter, pay, and then go sit down with your udon. All very efficient. Pretty good udon. I was relaxing and then Vienna Teng starts playing as the background music! (She's one of my favorite artists ever.) Up until then, they were playing Japanese pop music I didn't recognize. It was really, really weird. The song was even from her newest cd. It was a nice bit of serendipity :)
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