Military base

Military bases in Japan. A delicate topic. The Japanese post-war constitution does not foresee Japan to have a military force. So we went on a field trip to a so-called "self-defense post" in Beppu. We could not take pictures there, except in some certain areas.
The soldiers and officers were really friendly. Somehow the whole field trip was a lot of fun. We could visit their training fields, have lunch with them, take group pictures and wear funny hats. 
Everything was perfectly organized. All the proceedings were exactly timed, everything went smoothly. From preparing chairs for the group pictures to getting everybody lunch quickly (with previous stop at a sink to wash your hands!) to organizing racks and tables where to put your jackets and bags...

 

Training field. The mountains are beautiful.

  

Having lunch with the soldiers.

  

Q&A

  

 A last group picture. When we came out of the building the chairs were already standing there in the middle of the place. The important people always sit in the front. The most important in the middle.

Omiyage

I have already mentioned the deathly sin of not bringing a souvenir to your family or friends (and everyone else you are obligated to) after having travelled somewhere. It is a HUGE industry! Japanese feel an inherent urge to buy something to bring home. So each and every small town has come up with its own specialty. This leads to really artificial niches sometimes.

This is an omiyage (souvenir) special for Miyajima Island (Hiroshima) that is still understandable. Although I wondered, why its specialty is maple leaves, when everywhere else in Japan you can also find maple trees:

 

This is a funny omiyage. I went to a sumo match, and then I could buy sumo cookies:

  

This is an omiyage, which I do not really find original. It is from the Miyajima Island, where some deer run around and where the famous shrine is - so ok, there are cookies with deer and shrine motives:

  

 And one day we went on a field trip to a nearby military base. Guess what kind of omiyage one can buy there:

  

 BOMB cookies!

I cannot find words for this...

I did not take a picture of this, but when we went to a Shrine on Enoshima Island we discovered cookies with a Buddha motive on it...

Can you see how desperate Japanese must be for omiyage?

Fabians birthday

 We celebrated Fabian's birthday in Kami Fusen.

  

 Kami Fusen interior

 

  

 At one point a (drunk) Japanese from the room next to us suddenly sat down with us, chatted, laughed, and drank with the guys. It was so fascinating to see an adult Japanese coming to us.  It is obviously only the effect from too much liquor, usually no Japanese wants to talk to us foreigners.

  

This is warm sake!

  

 Fabian ordered a bottle like above, and wanted 5 of these small cups to go with it, so that he could share with the guys. But somehow there was a misunderstanding, and instead of bringing 5 cups we were served 5 bottles!

Would you take your children with you when you went drinking in a bar? In Japan people do. When we were celebrating we suddenly saw kids running around. They played, laughed, and even came into our room and played tricks on our American fellow. They were pretty cheeky, like hitting him on the head and playing with his hair. And then they even sang with us Happy Birthday. I asked our Japanese friends, if it is normal that kids play in the izakaya and they said that when they were kids they have also been with their parents in izakayas. The playing kids contributed to a relaxed atmosphere. It was very relaxing and comfortable in our izakaya room. It felt more like a living room. 

  

 Kids were drawn to us - strange people from foreign countries

 Relaxed izakaya

Kami Fusen

My favorite izakaya in Oita: Kami Fusen. The first time I went there was with the German Club. It is a very cozy izakaya. The big tables are very convenient, when there is a large group because everybody can sit together in one room, rather than be split up at several small tables.
We were given goodbye presents from the others. We would not have expected this. Then we got a bad conscience that we had not brought any goodbye presents.
It is a delicate thing, the gift giving in Japan. There are sitations when you are obligated to bring gifts, like when you have travelled somewhere. Not bringing a  souvenir to family and friends is a no-go.

Kami Fusen

 

The typical izakaya evening. A whole lot is ordered and everybody shares the food and bill later.

 

 Tamago

 

Yakitori

Charlotte's Birthday

When our Korean friend Charlotte celebrated her birthday in Park Place, almost the whole Kaikan joined. When we rode the bus there it felt like being on a field trip. It was much fun scaring the other Japanese people on the bus by looking different and speaking in English to each other.
We went to a buffet, where Western and Japanese food was offered. And they played Disney songs in the restaurant. The interior was very charming, colorful, and cute. Japanese restaurants are very strong on the design part. And often they are affordable, too. Especially buffets, where you can eat and drink as much as you want, for about 11 Euros. I have seen many restaurants in Japan offering buffets and eat-drink-flatrates - like in the USA this form of flatrates are really common here. I do not always like it though. They usually encourage you to drink and eat too much and in the end you have trouble walking straight. And in Germany drinking flatrates are a delicate topic because of alcohol abuse. Change of subject: from alcohol abuse to us: we girls were especially attracted by a SOFT ICE MACHINE included in the buffet! So we could as much ice cream as we wanted! No need to mention that I felt kind of nauseous afterwards...

 

The bus is too low for Gerard (our representative from the Netherlands)

  

 Everybody came to celebrate Charlotte's birthday!

  

 A friend who is fond of Pachinko.

  

 A nice and relaxing walk after the birthday buffet. We went to explore the huge shopping complex and ended up here. We will make good wives. It was very nice though ^^

Cooking with Marion

In December Marion saw that she had bought a "wrong" type of rice. Eriko, our Japanese friend, said that it was not meant for making some kind of rice cake. So when I discovered a recipe in a Japanese cookbook for making sweet rice balls with red bean paste, which Marion and I love, we had to get togehter and try it!

  

 We bought red azuki beans, cooked them for an hour, mashed them with a cup of sugar and then formed them into balls. We also formed the cooked rice into balls.

  

 Flatten the red bean paste, place a rice ball in the middle, and cover it with the paste.

  

 And then it should look like this. Not the prettiest dessert in the world, but it tasted good. Next time we would double the amount of sugar though.

The end is coming!

Oh my, I have only 3 days left! I'm starting to panick!

I have been abandoning my blog for a while, because there were so many things going on. But now I want to update at least the most memorable things that I do not want to forget. I want to write them down now so that they are still from a relatively fresh memory before actually being back in Germany.

I do not want to go back... It makes me sad...