Weekly Food Update

It is Sunday so here is the obligatory food update!

Today I had natto on rice for breakfast - a very typical Japanese breakfast.  The taste of natto cannot be easily described - the closest that I can come up to is the taste of raw yeast but who eats raw yeast :P.  It's basically and acquired taste.  I even asked some Japanese people in the lab and they don't like the taste.  You can buy natto in the grocery store in packages such as this:

 which is composed of three smaller individually packed packages:

 that look like this inside (on the left is some sauce and mustard; on the right is the natto):

 So you basically mix the natto slowly such that the sticky beans separate easily.

And here is a selection of the foods I had this week:

This is some dessert I bought at the campus convenience store.

A very spicy soup at a Chinese restaurant.

This week was a special on kare (basically curry) at the school cafeteria.  This one comes with two port cutlets and looks like a happy face!  This whole thing cost around $3.

Balanced lunch of some squid in tasty sauce and some friend chicken bits.

Kare udon!

Soup with tiny crunchy shrimp.

Pork on rice.

A cheese bun for dessert.

Supermarket bento.

Some dessert - not too tasty.

When I went to OSU to buy the keyboard and mouse, I was quite hungry.  I walked around for a while to find someplace to eat but most of the places there are eat out places.  So finally I saw a bunch of people around this one take out place and so I bought this.  I was happy since I could read both the hiragana and the katakana in the name of the dish so I could ask for it at the counter.  The person asked me if I wanted to eat it there - which I also understood.  So I ended up with this very tasty dish.  It was basically some baked bread like thing with squid and other things inside and on top is egg and mayo.  Probably not the most healthy dish but it was quite tasty!

More Computer Stuff

So, I finally got around to ordering my computer.  It was great fun since the website is all in Japanese and it took me a while to complete the ordering process.  The Chrome browser from Google offers really nice in place translation (basically for a page, a popup info box appears asking whether you want to translate this page) and it works for https sites too since it just translates the internals.  Google translate works with URLs but does not work with https sites.  However, Chrome also has bugs and it doesn't work very well with sites where you can't use the back button, etc.  So refreshing a page might just kill the whole thing you are working on (which happened to me a few times).

I finally managed to order my computer.  I'm not sure how fast it will get delivered and when but we'll see. I had a choice of a few payment methods so I selected back transfer.  Then I spent another hour or so on my online banking website setting up the payment.  But that went rather smoothly - basically identical procedure as for Canadian banks just all in Japanese :P.

With the monitor and speakers already in place and the box coming soon, I needed input devices.  So yesterday I went to the OSU market to the 5 or so computer stores that are basically on one street block over there and I looked around at what I can get.  Sadly, about 90% of the keyboards they had were wireless which I didn't want (basically due to the hassle of recharging batteries constantly).  So finally I bought a really cheap (around $17) keyboard from Logicool (Media Keyboard K200).  I also got a simple yet comfortable corded mouse (MX 518 for around $30).  It is rather similar to the gaming mouse I had in Canada.  I bought the two at different stores since the cheap store that had the mouse (where I also got my speakers from) didn't have a very good keyboard selection.

As you might be wondering - hey... I know this logo, it's Logitech!  Yes, yes it is.  It seems that in Japan, Logitech is called Logicool (strange!).

Looking at the keyboard layout, you might notice some differences.  Yes, I got a Japanese keyboard since it is quite difficult to get a US layout keyboard here and I need to learn to use the Japanese one.  The letter keys are in the same place (luckily!).  Some symbols are in a different location so that will take getting used to.  I use one at school so I'm starting to get a hang of it.  The largest difference that you might notice is the tiny space bar.  Well, Japanese writing doesn't have spaces so there is limited use for a spacebar!  However, this one is big enough that I can hit it with both of my thumbs (some of the ones I tried I could only use one thumb which was annoying).  You might also notice a few extra keys at the bottom - those switch between the input method (i.e., katakana, hiragana, romaji).  They are excellent since you don't have to take your hands off the keyboard to switch between typing Japanese and English.  Many of the keys also have Japanese syllables on them but I haven't used that yet as an input method - it is much easier/faster for me to actually type in the one, two or three letters of each syllable.

Monitor and Speakers

I'm slowly working towards getting myself a computer.  So far, I got two things: monitor and speakers.  It is ok since they nicely connect to my laptop :P.

Monitor: Mitsubishi Diamondcrysta RDT232WX-S

This screen is amazing!  It is an IPS screen (for those of you that don't know, it's a better screen than the normal TN screen that is found in most LCD monitors).  The viewing angle is amazing (basically, the image looks roughly the same looking from above, below and to the sides).  The colours are also much better since the IPS screens support many more colours than the TN screens.  Normally, IPS screens are bought by professional design artists that need to reproduce colours perfectly on their screens.  In Canada, the choice of those screens is rather slim and they are quite expensive.  I found this screen at a very reasonable price and I just couldn't resist!  It is also the glossy variety so it looks amazing!  The resolution is 1920x1080 (i.e. full HD) and a response time of 3.8ms.  The box weighed a bit over 7kg so I just carried it home by subway.  I bought it at a large store (Japanese chain but only one store in Nagoya) called Tsukumo.

 (holy cables on that pic!)

Speakers:  ONKYO GX-70HD(B)

So I finally did get the speakers!  They were for a good price at this smaller computer shop.  The box weighted about 5kg but the shop keeper spent a lot of effort in order to add a handle to the box so that I can carry it easily.  He did an amazing job:

The speakers are a bit on the large size but they are made out of wood and sound very nice!  I was surprised to find that the connection between the right speaker (which has the amplifier and the input/controls) and the left speaker is through a normal 2 channel cable like for home speakers!

I organized my desk a bit and this is how it looks like for the monitor and speaker setup:

For those interested, the image on the screen is a paused music video called "Go Away" by a Korean group called "2NE1" in full 1080. :)  It looks and sounds great!

While I was at OSU (the place with most of the computer stores in town) some of them were selling ONKYO sound cards with actual large tube capacitors on them.  In one they also had a demo of stuff playing off one of those cards onto an ONKYO speaker system.  There were also several stores that sold sound equipment also stuff using vacuum tubes and old style but unbeatable technologies.  I went into one of them and some of the stuff was really expensive!

Okonomiyaki

I promised the okonomiyaki post so here it is.  One day a few people from the lab went to a nearby place for okonomiyaki.  The normal place they go to was closed to we went to another one (next door basically).  Okonomiyaki is prepared on a flat grilling surface.  First, some batter is placed in a circle (kinda like crepe making) and then ingredients are added.

I think the one I had had lots of cabbage and some meat.

At some point the thing is flipped on the other side.

Here are some of my lab members eager for their food.

Finally, it is served by adding some dark thick sauce on top of it and cut into pieces.  You basically eat it off the grill.  It was ok although had a hint of some strange taste to it... maybe because of the old grill?

This place had a large St. Bernard dog that was making lots of whimpering noises.

Here is a nearby shrine prepared for a festival the following weekend - you can see the lanterns lit up.

Nagoya Festival (名古屋まつり) Part 2

... continuing on ...

Then came some floats with various acrobatic and musica performances.

The famous statue that normally stands near the Nagoya Train Station and is often dressed up also showed up in special clothing.  Just the torso and head though.

Pretty kimonos.

The last part of the parade was a procession of the famous Nagoya heroes.  Each included a performance of some kind of a battle.

 Ninjas!

 These dudes were freaky!

Many old ladies doing very very slow dance.

 This guy couldn't be killed but finally was defeated by a group of ladies with sharp spears.

 The final battle was quite intense.

After the festival, I made my way to see what else is happening and there were tons of special huts selling things.  This is a goldfish shop where you catch your own fish and take it home.

I was really hungry so I was looking for something to eat.  I found this shop with a huge lineup so I stopped in.  I waited about 30 minutes at least!

The food was a kind of okonomiyaki made with noodles.  I forgot to make a post about my okonomiyaki experience with my lab members - will do that soon.  It is basically a batter and a mixture of ingredients that is slowly cooked on a metal slab.  This one included an egg as well.

I took it and ate it at home - it was tasty!