Rice and Ramen

Well, I must say it has been a hectic few days since I've arrived. After twenty more or less grueling hours of travel (though a surprise business class upgrade on my flight mitigated the aches of sitting on a plane for an extended period of time somewhat) I finally arrived in Kanazawa. As I'm sure some of you have seen on facebook already, my host mom is a prolific facebook poster, and several photos of me (often accompanied by food) are already online. This weekend several events collided. It was the annual Hyakumangoku Festival in Kanazawa--bringing with it several events I've been to in past years--and my host mom's friend, Ma-kun, was visiting from Osaka. Since it was his first time in Kanazawa, we went to most of the parade events, like the lantern event on Friday (where they're floated down the river) and the main parade on Saturday afternoon. On Saturday evening I returned to curio (where I spent many an afternoon last summer) for their open mic eve...

For those readers who aren't already aware, tomorrow I'm flying back to Japan. This past spring I applied for and was awarded the Robert C Bates Fellowship for Summer Research from Yale, and I'll be using the next six weeks to conduct anthropological research for my senior thesis in East Asian Studies. Explaining that I'm conducting research is the simple part. The more difficult part is my attempt to explain exactly what I'm researching. The short answer is that I'm going to be studying independent coffee shops and the role they play as a "third space" in the lives of their customers. Do people use them as social escapes? Or social spaces? Do people prefer to come in groups, or by themselves?How are coffee shops different than other "third spaces"? More specifically, I want to see if men view and use coffee shops differently than women do. (And given the rather distinct divides in social expectations for men and women contrasted with the c...

Dear Readers: For any of you that still get notifications or such when this blog updates, I'm sorry this wrap-up post is essentially a month late. I, of course, meant to write it earlier, but packing to return home, unpacking at home, and packing AGAIN to head off to my Junior year of college quite stole my time and attention away. The last week at the newspaper passed quite quickly. I had many long pieces that were simply waiting for enough space to print, so in the last week I had a piece published every day. It's hard to not feel like quite the celebrity! And even though I had a "welcome party" the previous week, at 11pm on a Thursday the society section threw me a "goodbye party" where everyone I worked with, including camera men, came to eat and drink. One of the members used to compete in university-level sumo wrestling, and at the urging of our society chief he, ah, took off his pants to demonstrate... Then I took another night bus from Kanazawa ...

Saturday was probably my longest work day: 12 hours (though since it was a lunch-time event and an evening event I did have like three hours in the afternoon where I just sort of sat around and finished a book on my phone, but since I was AT the office I maintain that it counts as work). For lunch, Kitamura took me to a ryokan (Japanese-style inn) called Kojohrou for a traditional kaiseki meal. Kaiseki is a multi (5-9ish?) course meal of traditional Japanese food. Like multi-course meals in the States none of the portions are huge, and there's lots of emphasis on plating and service. I confess that I usually don't end up liking kaiseki meals--traditional Japanese food often equals "difficult" textures--like slippery--and fish with the heads still on. But nevertheless I gamely soldiered through the meal. First course: beans and corn in some sort of mayo sauce, very fishy-smelling fish in a jar, green peppers, fruit (?), and two chunks of what tasted like pate.....

Here's the next round, of sorts, of articles that I've written: one was the interview of the minor-league pitcher, the next is an article on the Gion Matsuri I went to, and the last on is on the kagayuzen kimono dyer I went to visit. I've also been requested to provide a translation of one of the articles, so I'm going to translate this last one for you here, albeit very roughly: [The one thing I like most about Japan is its "harmonious contradictions." Traditional and modern things are often mixed together in interesting ways. In Kanazawa's 3-choume, I went to visit Mr. Masanobu Ota's studio, Bunan, where he spoke to me about his work combining the traditional "kagayuzen" dying technique with his own modern twist. Kagayuzen is very difficult and requires a lot of time. First, a base design is drawn in a blue, washable ink made naturally from flowers. Then, on top of that design, a paste made from rice is squeezed out from a tiny...

So. 6.5 weeks into my internship, there's finally enough time for the society section to throw a small "kangeikai" or "welcome party" for me. So in the early evening, the society section chief, who we refer to as "buchou," and the reporters I spend most of my time with all went out for yakitori. The man making the weird face is Buchou, next to him is Kitamura, who I often go out with, then me (obviously) and finally Morita, who is in charge of my schedule (and therefore my life). It was really nice to feel like a true part of the company and the society section. They made me go around and say what animal each person reminded me of (which put me on the spot to make sure nothing I said was bad) and just generally had a good time. They said that next week (probably Thursday) they'll have my "Going Away Party," so I apparently get two parties in short-succession. In other news (and I'll have another post tonight or tomorrow fi...

Yes, readers, this post is titled "Beer Train". What is a Beer Train, you might ask? It is a delightfully Japanese summer train event, apparently. Every Saturday, a two-car train is commandeered for the express purpose of all-you-can-drink fun. Tables are set up between the banks of seats and staff members supply the lucky riders with as much beer and/or rice wine as they can drink in 80 minutes. That's the beer-station where there were coolers of canned drinks and whole jugs of beer that were poured via tube "taps". And they weren't insubstantial mugs: And just to clarify: only ONE of those mugs is mine. Not both. One. The ride also came with dinner: skewers of yakitori and a variety lunchbox. Not bad. Here's my host family and I on the train. You can't see in this photo (and I have no digital copies of photos that do show it), but both my host mom and I are wearing yukata (summer kimono) because women that do get their tickets for a...