In The Marketplace

This trip to Ireland has been full of surprises in many ways. I’m getting to see Ireland in a way that very few people have seen it before. They’re saying it’s getting close to -15 degrees Celsius, a temperature that hasn’t existed in Ireland for at least 40 years.

Incidentally, even though it’s been about 5 months since I was in Japan, I still think in Celsius. I’ve told a few people this story already, but it’s a good one that tells you just how obsolete farenheit is worldwide. I was talking to one of my Japanese professors and said “In America, we don’t use Celsius.” Her immediate reaction was “Oh, you use Kelvin?”

Anyway, Ireland, which is usually known for rain and green, is now snowy and white. Hopefully this is just an abnormal winter, because, as I said before, if this is the start of a larger trend then it could have disastrous consequences. One of the best examples of how this weather is affecting Ireland was what I saw at the farmer’s market yesterday.

I love going to markets when I’m in a foreign country, partly because I love eating, but also because I think food is a really good window into a culture. In the case of the Galway farmer’s market, it was a really good window into what’s happening in Ireland right now. Our professor took us there and told us that the farmer’s market is always busy and full of people. But when we went there, there were only a few stands, and hardly any people. Only a few truly dedicated farmers had brought their produce with them to the market. I asked our professor, and he said it was probably just because the farmers couldn’t drive out to the market on the icy roads, and it probably wasn’t because the weather was affecting the crops. But it shows how just this one bad winter is immediately affecting Ireland, and how reliant a farming economy is on consistent weather.

While the weather is obviously making this trip not go as planned, it’s still a great experience. I came here because I wanted to see what Ireland is like, and that’s not at all what’s happening. I’m not seeing what Ireland is like, because it’s never like this. But I am getting to see Ireland like no one has ever seen it before, and that’s a good experience in its own way.

Ireland – Day 2: Connemara

I thought I was over jetlag, but right now it’s 8 in the morning. Clearly I was wrong. I guess jetlag gives me a normal sleep schedule.

I thought I was recovered from jetlag yesterday evening. Our professor told us there was a TV show about farming that we should watch from 8:30 to 9. I don’t understand how I timed it, but somehow I fell asleep exactly at 8:30 and woke up exactly at 9. Although I had missed the show, I felt refreshed and stayed up until about midnight, thinking I had recovered from jetlag. But the sun still isn’t up yet.

Anyway, yesterday we took a trip to Connemara, an area in western Ireland where the primary language is Irish. Our main reason for going to Connemara was to visit a beach where the sand was made of bits of hardened seaweed. It was a beautiful beach, and apparently it’s only one of a few like it in the entire world.

There were two primary themes being discussed yesterday that I kept thinking about. One was climate change. Ireland is really, really cold right now, which isn’t normal. Roads are covered in frost, because that happens so rarely and people aren’t prepared to put salt on the roads. Lakes are frozen over, and the people who live near those lakes have probably never seen that happen before in there entire lives. Is this a fluke, a statistical anomaly, or is this the start of a new trend? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, but it’s pretty strange. On the one hand, it’s amazing to see Ireland during such an abnormal time, but hopefully this season will stay abnormal and there won’t be any more like it. If this is the start of climate change in Ireland, it could have disastrous consequences.

The other thing we’ve been talking about is sustainability. Is it advantageous, or even possible, for Ireland to be completely self-sustaining? Well, it obviously was for most of its history, but now much of the food in Ireland is being imported from other countries in the EU. This is good in some ways; if it’s a bad year for farming for some reason, it’s not as much of a problem. But there is a movement in Ireland to buy local products and be self-sustaining. When we went grocery shopping, on our receipt every local product had a clover next to it, and at the bottom, underneath our total, was another total of all the money we had spent on Irish products. It ended up being about half of what we payed, so about half of the food we bought was local. In addition, a lot of the local food was shelved together in the supermarket. People are definitely aware of where the food they buy comes from, which makes sense, since Ireland is largely a farming economy.

Anyway, hopefully things will warm up soon. See you later.

Ireland – Day 1

So, it’s almost the end of my first day in Ireland. Actually, it’s more like the end of a really long, 72 hour day that I spent in California, Massachusetts, and Ireland. Oh, and the sky. It’s Monday night, and I feel like I’ve been up since Saturday morning. That’s not entirely accurate though. I slept a little on the plane and after I got to Ireland, and I probably didn’t wake up on Saturday until around noon. Anyway, you get the idea.

I flew out of LA around 7 on Sunday morning, had a layover in Boston, and then arrived in Ireland at around 6 on Monday morning. The first thing that happened was that my luggage got lost. I had to fill out this lengthy form, and I was totally freaking out, since all my clothes were in my luggage. But at the last minute, someone showed up with my luggage, telling me that they had just saved it from going to Dublin.

I guess this is a good segue into the background of this trip. I’m in the city of Galway in western Ireland with one of my professors and a bunch of other students to study agriculture and environmental science in the west of Ireland. This means that we’re gonna be exploring bogs, which by itself makes the trip entirely worthwhile.

Anyway, when our professor met us at the airport, he took us on a two hour drive to our apartment in Galway, which is in a really nice area. We stopped at a medieval castle, too, which was a nice glimpse into the history of Ireland. The apartment we’re staying in is terrific. I took a nap after we got there, and some amount of hours later I was woken up by a phone call from our professor telling us that we were meeting for dinner. In a completely disoriented state, I met up with the group in our apartment and we drove to the center of Galway to hear some traditional Irish music in a pub before going for dinner. The music was wonderful, and the atmosphere was great. For dinner we had pizza with mushrooms and onions, which apparently is the standard for pizza in Ireland, the equivalent of cheese pizza in the states.

Now I’m back at the apartment, looking forward to this trip. Time to go to sleep.

Korea – First Impressions

I expected Korea to be different from Japan in some ways, and similar to Japan in other ways. It’s really way more different than I expected.

There is one obvious similarity in that Seoul is very similar to Tokyo. Both are 24 hour cities with flashing lights everywhere, where businessmen and students party all night. But in this regard Seoul even seems more exciting than Tokyo. This could just be the initial culture shock for me, but I do think there’s a bit more to it than that. Right now I’m staying near a college, so all the nightlife around the area involves students. But this area seems to keep going later than most of the areas in Tokyo, or than any of the college towns I’ve been to in America or Japan. We got to our hostel around 8 yesterday, and when we left to get dinner around 9:30 (I’ll tell you why in a little bit), the manager said all the restaurants would be closed. But he was wrong.

I read before coming here that a lot of restaurants in Seoul stay open 24 hours, and this really does seem to be the case. We got a dinner of galbi, bulgogi, and kimchi at a fantastic Korean barbecue place, and when we passed in on the way back to our hostel around midnight it was still open, as were all the other restaurants, and this wasn’t even in the hub of the area. Basically, from what I can tell so far, Seoul really is a 24 hour city. Tokyo is often described as one, but it really isn’t. It seems like a more accurate description of Seoul. (To be fair, I really haven’t been in Tokyo or Seoul long enough to see what each individual area in the cities are like in terms of this.)

The food in Seoul is incredible, as I expected it to be. So far I’ve had delicious Korean barbecue, an insanely huge and filling lunch of bibimbap, glass noodles, and vegetable pancake that my friend and I finished all of even though we were full about halfway through, and a greasy, hot vegetable pancake that I bought from an old woman in a market. I keep consoling myself by saying that I’ve already lost weight in Japan, that we’re walking a lot here, and that most of what I’m eating is vegetables.

As for our hostel, well, the experience hasn’t been so great. We got picked up at the station by a really grumpy guy from New Jersey yesterday who wouldn’t make conversation. He showed us the “private twin bed room” that I had reserved, which was essentially just a bunk bed in a closet. We got him to put us in the dorms, since they were more spacious and cheaper, while the whole time the manager, who I’ve never seen doing anything, kept calling me Harry Potter (which I’ve gotten a lot in Japan). It took about an hour for our receipts to be made when we paid.

Later that evening, we ran into another guy from LA who was staying at our hostel. He said he had found out about a better, cheaper one that he was planning on switching to, and that he had gotten a refund. We looked it up and made reservations there, asking the manager to give us a refund after we had asked the grumpy guy first. Then the grumpy guy got angry at us because he had switched us into the dorms and now by leaving the hostel we were apparently insulting him. Basically, I’m glad that we’re moving hostels.

That really hasn’t soured my experience in Korea though. I don’t think anything possibly could. People are really nice here in a very different way from how people are nice in Japan, the food is tasty and cheap, and the city is full of energy. The fact that we don’t like the hostel has just made us stay out more, which I’m completely fine with.

Hong Kong – Day 1

It’s been about half a day in Hong Kong, and already it’s getting off to a great start. I arrived at around 1:00 and went to the Peninsula Hotel, one of the fanciest ones I’ve ever seen, to wait for my friend and his family. Immediately after they came we went straight to the art museum to see some traditional Chinese art. After studying Japanese art, I was able to really see the influence that Chinese art had. It seemed like a lot of the art I’ve seen in Japan, but was still a bit different and uniquely Chinese.

Afterwards, we went to another fancy hotel to have tea and homemade mango ice cream. The ice cream was full of flavor and incredibly refreshing on a hot, humid summer day in Hong Kong, and from the hotel we had a lovely view of the city. Hong Kong is structured unlike any other city I’ve ever seen. It’s built around a harbor and surrounded by mountains, and is comprised almost entirely of skyscrapers. It’s an urban metropolis surrounded by beautiful nature.

Then we headed off to the science and technology university, where we’re staying in an apartment, to drop off our stuff. After relaxing and watching the Simpsons for a little bit, we headed to the fishing village for an incredible meal. Outside every restaurant were tanks of incredibly diverse fish and shellfish. There were lobsters, clams, and fish bigger than I had ever imagined. Then we went inside and upstairs for a more than 10 course meal of fresh shrimp, crab, lobster, scallops, fish, and various other sea creatures stir-fried in garlic sauce and served with rice, noodles, and vegetables. As I’m writing this I’m still full and incredibly satisfied.

It was a great first day in Hong Kong, and I can’t wait to see what else happens.

Kyoto

If you were to compare the three major cities of Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto), a good way to do so would be in this way: Tokyo is the future (high-tech, hyper-globalized), Osaka is the present (more laid back, a real living-in-the-moment vibe), and Kyoto is the past. You’ve probably heard about Kyoto before; it’s where people go to see the old Japan: shrines, temples, tea houses, geishas, etc. Kyoto has the most world heritage cites out of anywhere in Japan, and probably has more than in the entire United States. You might think that because of this Kyoto is just a tourist-trap, but there’s way more to it than that.

For one thing, Kyoto is not just a city of old buildings. It is a real, functioning city, so of course the vast majority of its buildings are not that impressive. I’ve heard that because of this many people are disappointed when they first come to Kyoto; for some reason they expect it to be this magical place where Japan hasn’t advanced technologically or architecturally since the 1800s. There are tons of beautiful pieces of old architecture, but they’re hidden among lots of really boring architecture. That said, even the standard architecture of Kyoto is more reminiscent of old Japan than the architecture of Tokyo or Osaka. It still has to do with the comparison I made earlier. Tokyo’s futuristic buildings are covered in flashing lights; Osaka’s modern buildings are strictly practical and not at all aesthetically pleasing; Kyoto’s traditional buildings generally have features reminiscent of older architecture.

The feeling of Kyoto being reminiscent of the past extends to the overall vibe as well. You generally expect nightlife districts to be crazier than the rest of the city. So in Tokyo, the nightlife districts are absolutely insane and the rest of the city is crazy; in Osaka the nightlife districts are crazy and the rest of the city is chill; but in Kyoto the nightlife districts are chill and the rest of the city is sleepy. Even though the nightlife area we went to was full of people and had a great vibe, it was in no way like Tokyo or Osaka. There were no people yelling at us in random English sentences to come to their clubs. In fact, we didn’t even see any clubs. People were just hanging out in bars, or were just chilling by the river, which was what we ended up doing.

But anyway, the whole point of going to Kyoto was to see the historical landmarks. And they were incredible. The first one we went to had a sweeping view of a beautiful forest, and held a waterfall that people could drink from and make a wish. The second one housed 1001 gold statues of Buddha, as well as one giant Buddha statue, and 28 statues representing other deities. The last one we went to was the famous golden temple, which was as impressive as you would imagine a solid gold building surrounded by water would be. Everything was awe inspiring. It must have had a far greater effect during feudal Japan.

As for the food in Kyoto, it was much lighter than Osaka or Nagoya cooking. Kyoto cuisine uses a lot of tofu (seriously, I’ve never had tofu prepared in so many different ways), and is also famous for matcha, a thick tea that they put in almost every dessert. Kyoto summers are notoriously hot, so green tea ice cream and shave ice were incredible in Kyoto.

So there you go. I’m going to Hong Kong in a couple days, and will probably post every day, or at least a couple times, while I’m there.

Tokyo – Day 1

I woke up in my Tokyo hotel this morning around 11:00 and had a lunch of shrimp curry in the restaurant before deciding to head to Akihabara, the otaku paradise.

Remember how earlier I said that Japan isn’t weird? Well, I stand by that statement. Japan is not a weird country. But weird places definitely exist in Japan, and Akihabara is one of them. Every image of Japan that Americans have in their heads when they say that Japan is weird can be seen in Akihabara, which is the area of Tokyo where nerds go to spend all their money. In Akihabara, money can be spent on games, electronics, or talking to women dressed in maid outfits.

Yes, you read that last part right.

Akihabara is the only area in Tokyo I’ve seen where there are no clothing stores, and that’s because no one here cares about their fashion except for the women who are paid to wear weird costumes. Today I saw women dressed in maid outfits, schoolgirl outfits (both real and fake), Loli fashions, and even bunny ears. All of them were there to advertise something, and most of them were speaking in the most sickeningly sweet voices possible. I tried to take pictures of some, but they all hid from my camera, and I don’t blame them. I wouldn’t want a picture of me in an embarrassing costume taken by some random foreigner either. It must have been especially uncomfortable for them, since a lot of the guys who come here are really into these girls in kind of a creepy way. Many otaku who come to Akihabara do so to go to the maid cafes, places where men can pay to talk to women dressed in maid costumes. The whole thing just gives me an uneasy feeling. It’s a really weird subculture that I don’t want any part of. I dunno, maybe I just don’t understand it.

Anyway, after being sufficiently weirded out in Akihabara, I headed back to Ginza to walk around for a little bit before going back to the hotel. First I went to the Sony showroom, where I got to try on a pair of the most incredible noise-canceling headphones and see a dancing robot that rolled around on the floor. I decided to talk to one of the people who worked there in the strongest Nagoya accent possible to see how she would react. She looked surprised to see a 19-year-old white guy talking like an old man from Nagoya. Then I headed out into Ginza, which was filled with fancy department stores, a huge contrast from the crammed-together electronics stores of Akihabara. It reminded me a lot of Beverly Hills, although it was much more intense. I actually got to see it again tonight on my way back to the hotel to go to sleep as well. Seeing Ginza in the daytime and the nighttime showed me that Tokyo is a city which literally shines at night. Ginza was impressive during the day, but at nighttime it was a sea of color. Nighttime Tokyo is spectacularly beautiful, in kind of a Blade Runner-ish way.

After heading back to the hotel for a little bit, I went to Roppongi for one of the best meals of my life. I was with my parents, who have been visiting, and they decided to do an all-out Kobe beef meal. There must have been 10 courses in the meal we had, all of which were incredible. First a cucumber salad with scallops, salmon, and a chili sauce; then fresh tuna and shrimp sashimi; then a giant plate of swordfish, eel, eggplant, crabcakes, and fresh crab legs that could have been a meal in itself, and we hadn’t even gotten to the beef yet. When it came, we had it shabu-shabu style; a boiling pot of water was put on our table, along with three plates of raw beef and three different sauces: a sesame garlic sauce, a citrus soy sauce, and a chili sauce. The beef was like bacon; it was full of fat, but sliced so thinly that it wasn’t overwhelming, just incredibly delicious. Then we had three courses of different vegetables, followed by tofu, rice cakes, and glass noodles, all cooked in the same pot of water. Our second to last course consisted of udon noodles served in the broth that had been created from our meal. The water we had cooked everything in had absorbed all the flavors of the meat and vegetables, and tasted simply incredible. The last course was a custard served in a refreshing sugar syrup, along with a cup of green tea. By that time, I was so full I could barely move.

But I managed to get up and explore Roppongi a little bit. Roppongi is even more international than Shibuya; every restaurant I saw featured the cuisine of a different country, and I saw more diverse people than anywhere else in Japan and heard languages spoken that I didn’t even recognize. We ended our night by going to the Tokyo TV tower and seeing the view of Tokyo from up high. If I were to go to the highest point in Nagoya, I’d be able to see mountains and countryside in the distance. Even if I did that in New York I would be able to see the water where the city ended. Not the case in Tokyo. Tokyo is simply a never ending city. No matter which direction I looked, it was city as far as I could see. It makes Nagoya look like a small town.

That’s why I’m not quite ready to head back to Nagoya tomorrow. I feel like I just got a taste of Tokyo, like I just barely scratched the surface. But I do feel better knowing that no matter how long I spend in Tokyo, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully understand it. It’s just too big and too complex. I feel like no matter how much I do in Tokyo, there will always be more that I’ve missed.

Country House

So it’s been a while, and I’m sorry about that. It’s not because I’ve been slacking off though. I’ve actually been really busy. Plus, I gave you three posts two weeks ago, and since my goal was one post a week, if I do one this week I’m still ahead of the game.

Also, I apologize that this post is about something that happened a few days ago. As you can probably tell, when I want to put a story on this blog I try to do it the day that it happens so it’s still fresh in my mind. But, as I’ve said, I’ve been really busy.

Anyway, over the weekend I went on my second trip within Japan, to Nagano prefecture with most of the other students in my program, as well as a bunch of Chinese students. My university here is INSANELY rich (a nice contrast from my school in the states) and they own what they call a “seminar house” which is really just a cross between a mansion and a luxury hotel in the middle of nowhere in Nagano. And when I say the middle of nowhere, I mean the middle of nowhere. Isolated places are really, really hard to find in Japan, since the country is so densely populated. To give you an example, I commute to Toyota twice a week, which reminds me of American suburbs, but which everyone here calls the countryside. And one time I went on a field trip to Inuyama city, which also looks like a suburb, but which our teacher called the countryside. Basically, the equivalent of an American suburb is about as isolated as you can get in Japan, and there are hardly any truly isolated places.

Except for in Nagano prefecture, apparently. Nagano is the most mountainous region of Japan, and because of that it was absolutely gorgeous. The seminar house was in the middle of the woods, and the scenery was beautiful. But I’ll get to that later. First I want to talk about the trip there.

Nagano is about four hours from Nagoya, and our first stop on the way was to have one of the most intimidating meals of my life. Now, I love Japanese food. It’s one of my favorite cuisines, and I haven’t had trouble eating anything here so far. Except for this first meal. There were tons of plates with lots of different stuff on them, and I couldn’t tell what a lot of it was. There were various pickled vegetables, some of which I tried, and none of which really appealed to me. Other students said that one of the pickled vegetables was an unripened olive, so I stayed away from that one. There was this weird flavorless jelly that was supposedly made from seaweed was so slippery that I could barely eat it with chopsticks. There were whole tiny fish, deep fried with the heads still on. These actually didn’t taste that bad. I covered them in soy sauce, and the deep frying covered up the taste hid the head from obvious view. The main dish was a rice bowl with meat, various vegetables, and soy sauce. It looked good, but it didn’t taste quite the same way. For one thing, it was one of the saltiest things I’ve ever eaten. But I think mainly, the meal was pretty fancy, and my western palate just wasn’t used to these sophisticated Japanese tastes. Anyway, I’m glad that I tried everything.

Next, we stopped at the wasabi museum (yes, there is one). They had wasabi ice cream, wasabi juice, wasabi beer, wasabi everything. But none of it actually tasted like wasabi. The ice cream and the juice had the faintest taste. The beer was just green beer.

When we finally got to the seminar house, I had one of the best meals of my life. It consisted of sashimi, various pieces of grilled fish, grilled steak with miso sauce, and grilled vegetables, as well as a few tiny bites of other things. It was absolutely incredible. The ingredients were fresh, and prepared simply but wonderfully. It was the best of Japanese cooking, simple, but exquisite, and beautifully presented.

That night, the staff provided us with lots of drinks, and I had my first Japanese bath, which was incredible. It was one of the most relaxing things I’ve ever done, although 20 minutes was enough.

Anyway, that’s pretty much it. On the way back we stopped at a pottery place to make pottery, and at one of the oldest Japanese castles, but by then I was really tired from the night before. Overall, though, the trip was a lot of fun, and the area was really beautiful.

Japan Food Stories

I’m not gonna lie: one of the reasons I decided to come to Japan was the food. And so far, it’s been… interesting. Well, actually it’s been almost entirely good. For example, across the street from my apartment is a ramen place that makes the most incredible ramen I’ve ever had. I’m definitely going to get spoiled there and have a hard time enjoying the ramen in the states as much as I used to. Everything about it is incredible, including how efficiently the kitchen at the restaurant is run. In fact, calling it a restaurant would be a bit of an overstatement. It’s really just a counter that people sit at while looking at the completely open kitchen. You don’t even tell the people who work there your order; you take a ticket from a machine at the entrance to the restaurant and give it to one of the three people who work there. Yes, there are only three people who work in the kitchen, and they manage to serve ramen to probably about fifteen people at a time. It’s incredible.

But other than that, I’ve had some slightly stranger food experiences in Japan. One of them was when I went to a Japanese Denny’s, which was absolutely nothing like it is in the states. Most of the menu consists of pasta dishes, but they also have ramen at Denny’s. And they do have hamburgers, but they come in different sauces rather than on a bun. What amazed me even more than how different the restaurant was was that not only were the Japanese students I went with completely surprised that Denny’s exists in the states, but they were even more surprised that you can get hamburgers on a bun rather than pasta and ramen there. It was one time where something completely normal to me was a shock to Japanese people, and vice versa.

The other interesting experience I’ve had here involving food taught me that cake is nearly impossible to find in Japan. One of the other international students had her birthday on Monday, and I went with a few other students to go get a birthday cake for her. We seriously spent two hours looking for a cake. In that time, we only found four bakeries, none of which had any large cakes. We finally settled for getting her one tiny slice of cake from the fourth bakery we found, which was about an hour walk away from our apartment building, and learned that next time someone has a birthday they will have to settle for some other kind of food.

Overall, however, the food has been great, as has everything else so far.