Language Corner on Fridays

Good morning,

It is Saturday morning here.  Yesterday I went to the language corner at the International Student Center here at Hokkaido University.  They have a language practice session most Fridays from 2 to 3:30pm.  I got to practice my Japanese, which consists of Hello, my name is Kyle.  Or Hajememashte, wastashi wa Kyle desu.  And I got to meet with some of the university students while they practiced their English (which is much better than my Japanese.)  Everyone was very friendly and outgoing.  I forgot most of the names after I introduced myself (sorry to you guys if you ever read this blog).  I met Mitsu who is studying Accounting and enjoys rowing.  We talked about rowing.  He rows with the University of Hokkaido.  He showed me a video of his technique rowing on the Erg machine and a video of one of his friends rowing a scull on the river.  I rowed for several months in Seattle at Lake Union Crew and had a great time.  Mistu had the clever idea of bringing a notebook to write down what he learned.  Next time I will bring a notebook.  I also met Rena from Oregon State University who is studying Japanese (her Japanese is clearly much better than mine.)  Some of the other guys I talked to(whose names I have forgotten) said that they enjoy skiing, that they went to watch the salmon run in the streams in the fall, and another guy had plans to go to Denmark to study Environmental Engineering.

I hope to go back to the language corner next week.  Perhaps I will pick up a few more phrases of Japanese by then.

Below is a photo of Adit.  He is a co-worker/office-mate sharing Bre's office.  Adit is Indonesian and has a post-doc through Hokkaido University.  He is a nice guy who has not complained about me hanging around all the time.  He also (like Bre) studies earthquakes and tsunamis and does tsunami modeling.  One of the projects he is working on right now is a tsunami model of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.  The link is to wikipedia, not Adit's tsunami model.

Friday night Bre and I went out to sushi dinner with Olga and friends.  Tanya, Anton, Aiumi (sp?), and Valdez.  The Sushi place was in the JR station on the 10th floor.  It had a great view and the sushi was tasty.  I mostly stuck to the safe (recognizable) foods.  I did branch out and try a Nattō roll.  Nattō is an fermented soybean product that is unique to Japan.  I am told that you know you are Japanese if you like Nattō.  I thought it was a little bit slimy and not that exciting in taste, but not bad.  The texture and flavor of the fish was different than in America.  It seemed more firm and flavorful.  In America the sushi is all frozen and thawed before being served.  In Japan there are no regulations requiring that it be frozen first.   It was amazing how cheap it was.  We had 12 plates (each plate has two items on in) and 3 beers for 1600 yen.  When got home I double checked how it could be so cheap I saw that the beers (beru) were left off the bill.  We'll have to go back to make up for it.  :)

Below are some photos of what we got at our shopping trip to the Aeon store this morning.  The first photo is of the three fresh baked items from the bakery in the store.  One was a bread stuffed with meat and cheese, the one in the middle we have not tried, and the one on the right was a buttery and creamy breakfast pastry.

 There are Hombow and Gyoza on the left, Udon and Soba noodles, 3 Persimmons and an apple.

That's all for now,

Kyle (and Bre)