Food from Korea!

I got a present today ^^ Our Korean friend in our Kaikan got a package from his mother who had sent hundreds of packages of Korean Roasted Laver, the equivalent to Japanese Nori. (Well, maybe not hundreds...) Hmm, I wonder how it tastes like, it looks yummy. I also wonder if there is a difference in taste to the Japanese Nori...
Look at the package: Korean letters! The Koreans are so smart, they abolished Chinese characters and have an alphabet like we do. Unlike the Japanse, who have kept the complicated Chinese characters for who knows what crazy reason...

This is the Japanese version of Nori. Looks the same.

How to make Onigiri in 10 seconds

 Hungry? Craving for a healthy yet delicious snack? How about some easy-to-make nutritionally balanced rice balls?

This Japanese version of rice dish is called onigiri. It basically consists of cooked rice shaped into a triangle. They can be made of plain rice, or stuffed with tuna, mayonaise, shrimp, kelp, pickled cabbage, etc.

Today, in this version, we used some onigiri seasoning, which one can buy in hundreds of variations in any Japanese supermarket.

This seasoning has kelp and sesame seeds in it

But this post is not only about the onigiri itself. But, as my teaser title of my post already gives away - how to make onigiri in 2 seconds? So this is all about the incredible machine: the onigiri maker!

And here it is:

 

Tadaa

Looks innocent, doesn't it? But these boys rock!

So here is how to do it, it is super easy. If you had friends when you were a child and you played in the sandpit together, you already have it down.

First, have your ingredients ready: cooked rice mixed with seaonings you like. We had one batch with sesame and one with onigiri seasoning. Additionally: tuna and mayonaise, and for the vegetarians: konbu (kelp cooked in soy sauce, mirin, sake).

Choose the small or big onigiri maker according to your hunger or degree of starvation

 

  Fill it halfway with rice and press it down

 

 Put your filling in the middle - here I am using konbu (did not make it myself this time but have to shamefully admit I bought it ready made in the supermarket)

 

  

Put rice on top of the ingredients to cover

 

 Close the lid and press tightly

  

 Open and flip it over on a plate. If it does not come out easily you can press the plate in the middle

 

Perfection!

 

 You can finish by wrapping some nori around it. I personally like it better with nori, because otherwise it tastes a little bit too boring.

It is so easy and it always turns out beautiful. Idiot-proof as TÜV (Germans) would label it. ^^

If I had written a post about the Daiso (100 Yen Shop - a Japanese shop where you can buy EVERYTHING for 105 Yen) as I had planned, then I would say at this point: "And guess what, you can buy it in the Daiso", but I didn't, so I can't. To all of you who do not know the Daiso yet: it is one of the reasons to come to Japan! And I promise to make a post about it. Later.

Cold! Still!

Me again. I am sitting at my desk. Of course, my heater blower is running full throttle. My head is hot, my eyes are dry, but my fingers are icey cold. I cannot really concentrate and study in my room. The coldness creeps up my ankles and up into the leg! Even if I wear 2 pairs of socks I can still feel the coldness coming from my ice block feet when I touch the socks.

 My hands also get so cold that I bought an inexpensive pair of gloves and cut off the fingertips, so that I can wear it and still write or type on the computer.

 

Voilà.

(Did I mention that I cannot concentrate on my studies due to the simultaneous heat and the coldness. Thus tonight's blog posting... haha)

Ein Stückchen Heimat

I felt a little bit homesick today, so I decided to make a Vietnamese dessert, which my mother often cooks. It is kind of a sweet bean soup, which you can eat warm or cold. It is a very common dish in Vietnam. It is called che.
It is basically only beans cooked in water and (lots of) sugar. My mother makes it with red or black beans (dau den/dau do) or with green yellowish lentils (dau xanh=Mungobohnen). Sorry, I do not know the exact names for these ingredients. So I do not know at all, if the beans that I find here in the Japanese supermarket are the same. Today, I picked this out:

Red beans, but I cannot read the Kanji. There are several kinds of red beans in the supermarket here, some bigger, some smaller. This is a smaller kind. I think they are Azuki beans, but not sure at all.

Actually you are supposed to soak these beans over night, but I tried it without and just cooked them like that for 45 minutes. The texture turned out a little bit too soft in the end, and they are definitely not the beans my mother uses. I will buy the bigger beans next time. And I did not have Vanillezucker (vanillin flavor).

But it tasted good anyways. There exist so many varieties of this kind of Vietnamese dessert, with different and many more ingredients. There are some with ice, coconut milk or banana for example. But I love this variation best. So simple and delicious ^^

Feel free to google it... ;)

Cold!

This is what I see every morning when I wake up

I think I already mentioned that it is very cold in our Kaikan. I am freezing all the time! The windows are only single glazed (einfach verglast), so the coldness from outside easily creeps into our rooms. And the winter months in Oita can get really cold.
Actually I noticed something funny the other day. I opened my window (completely) in order to let fresh air move quickly into my room for some minutes (Stoßlüften) and went back to studying at my desk. One hour later I suddenly realized that I had not closed the window. So for the room temperature, it had made no difference if the window had been opened or closed. It does not make any difference if I have windows or not! Haha. :(
There is a double phenomenon going on: single glazed buildings and excessive use of heater blowers (Heizlüfter).
On the one hand, the bad insulation makes it impossible to keep warmth in buildings. On the other hand, it makes much heating necessary. But the heating is mainly done by using heater blowers. And on top of that, when heater blowers are used, then they are used excessively!
Exampe: Our whole university is single glazed. The classrooms are extremely cold in the morning. The teacher immediately turns on the big heater blower, which is installed at the ceiling above our heads. The heater blower runs on full speed all the time. After class the heat does not stay in the room, so for the next class it is turned on again. Not only is this method a waste of enery, but also the air is very dry. The eyes dry out, it is hard to concentrate, and in the worst case you get a headache.
Nobody seems to know anything beside heater blowers. The same applies to public transportation and department stores: they are excessively heated with heater blowers. But not only until a moderately warm temperature is reached, but until you feel like taking all your clothes off the minute that you step into the room, bus or train. It is so hot! It is such a waste of energy. And it is unhealthy.
I do not want to close my post on such a negative note. But I do not know what to add to make it sound like fun.

Coming of Age Day

Everywhere you look: kimonos, kimonos, kimonos

 
Yesterday was Seijin Shiki. It was a special day for everybody who turns 20 this year - young people officially become adults. The city organizes a ceremony for them, where the girls dress up in kimonos and the guys in suits. Their seriousness of dressing up reminds me of high school prom. All the girls had spent lots of time and thought on choosing and renting the perfect kimono as wel as getting their hair and make-up done at the hair salon.
On that day the young people come back to their hometowns. After highschool many have moved out to go to university or pursue a job or apprenticeship. Many visit their grandparents' house before the day of the ceremony. So this event is important for them, also because they get a chance to see their old friends again, catch up, party, talk. 20 is the age when they can officially drink. I am sure, for most of them it will not be their first alcoholic beverage. Nevertheless, they all go out to have their drinking parties on this day.
We went to the Oita Castle because there had been a ceremony, which we missed, unfortunately. But as I heard, it is pretty boring, some people hold a speech and everybody listens, no big deal. But the fascinating part for us was to see so many young girls dressed up in kimonos! (They guys were pretty boring, all wearing black suits, but if you watch the video, look at their crazy hairstyles!) And it has seemingly become fashion to wear a white furry thing around the neck. Nobody could tell me for sure if this is traditional or only latest fashion. Everywhere you could hear excited chit chat, high pitched voices, girls screaming "おひさしぶり!" at the sight of their old high school friends... And there were no parents, no adults, no family! So this ceremony belonged only to them, they could catch up with their friends and plan their drinking parties or whatever.

 

Oita Castle

  

Friends seeing each other again

 

Taking pictures, creating memories

Working my way through the kimono-suits-forest looked like this:

How to prevent your umbrella from being stolen

When you go to the library or the doctor and you leave your umbrella in the umbrella holder at the entrance, have you ever worried that it might get stolen? Have you ever wondered if it would still be there when you leave and want to pick it up again? Apparently, Japanese have.

 

You can find these in front of libraries, museums, ...  

  

 You can lock up your umbrella and be worry-free ^^

Scrunchies

Something I noticed about Japanese fashion. Girls like to wear scrunchies. Scrunchies? Yes! Something a German girl would have worn in premodern times :D They come in a huge variety - made of satin, cotton, wool, fur... You can choose from any colour you can imagine. They are sold everywhere! I wonder how this cultural difference could evolve.

How to make Okonomiyaki Hiroshima style

 

Hiroshima is famous for its okonomiyaki. So we went into an okonomiyaki restaurant. Unfortunately I could not make a video or take better pictures because we were sitting further away and not directly at the counter.
Okonomiyaki is a Japanese dish. You could call it a Japanese pizza, but it is far away from pizza, which we know from Germany or America. There are different ways of making okonomiyaki. It is hard to describe what is in it and how it is made, because there are so many different styles. Usually it is made of a batter consisting of flour, water, and egg (Tokyo style is without egg). You could compare it to a pancake batter. Further ingredients are vegetables (especially shredded cabbage) and meat (for example bacon, pork). You can add sweet okonomiyaki sauce, bonito fish flakes, mayonaise.
I saw an okonomiyaki restaurant in Hiroshima, which showed these pictures of how Hiroshima style okonomiyaki is made:

 

The foundation: a thin crêpe-like pancake topped with spices

  

A whole bunch of shredded cabbage and soy sprouts is added

  

+ Bacon

  

Then is it flipped over and put on top of fried soba noodles

  

An omelett is made and the whole soba-vegetables-pancake mixture is put on top of the egg and then again flipped over

  

+ okonomiyaki sauce

  

 Done!

The end of the journey

The exciting journey has come to an end. It was a great vacation. One of the best I have ever had.

In Hiroshima I really wanted to go back home to Oita, because I had become sick of travelling so much. So after visiting the shrine on Miyajima Island we immediately headed back to Oita and came back late in the evening.

I had been longing to back to my room and enjoy the peace and quiet. I had been looking forward to finally having time to contemplate all the experiences that I had made on that journey. But the minute I stepped into my room, I wanted to leave again. I have been back in Kaikan for 6 days now and all the time I feel uncomfortable and somehow sad to be here. Weird. Now it feels like the first weeks in Oita, when everything seemed so confined, small, sad, dark, and depressing. Had I only been happy in Oita before because I had gotten used to all its negative sides? Do I really like Oita? Is Oita a good place to live?

We have been celebrating New Year's Eve in the Kaikan with all the people who have stayed here. It was comfortable and consoling to have so many people around. It was not the most exciting New Year's Eve I have ever had, but it was nice that all the Kaikan people spent it together.

So how do Japanese celebrate New Year's Eve? In Germany, the New Year is celebrated with friends at parties. In Japan, it is like Christmas in Germany - New Year's Eve is a family day. In Germany, at midnight it becomes extremely loud. There is a countdown, and at 00:00 everybody loudly wishes (screams) a happy new year and the fireworks are set of. The new year starts with a bang. In Japan it is not quite so. When we went outside shortly before midnight, the streets were deserted. It was totally quiet. You could hear a pin drop. We went to a shrine near the Kaikan. There already a line of people had formed. At midnight all the families leave home and go to a shrine in order to pray. There was also a huge fire going on. At the shrine people buy arrows to which a small wooden signboard is attached. They throw it into the fire, so that the burned wishes can ascend to the gods.

The transition from old to new year had been so oddly quiet that I had even missed the moment. Some people in white gowns had rang a bell. I only realized that it was past midnight, when Andora said to me "Happy new year". ^^ In Germany that would never happen. Haha. But see for yourselves:




Here you see the people lining up to pray and the fire:

Happy New Year!

明けましておめでとうございます!