Food Update

Here is a long awaited (or not) food update over the last close to a month.  As you can see there might not be all that many pictures... maybe i am just slowing down with photographing food or possibly due to the fact that I often end up eating the same stuff.

Lets start with one of my favourite pictures... this was a soba dish at our school cafeteria:

This is a (quite fuzzy) picture of a nice pork katsu dish at the local katsu place near my apartment:

   I walked around on the weekend and noticed they had a sign outside with a lunch menu - so I got one of the sets (B i think):

 One weekend morning, I made some crepes at home since I didn't have anything to eat for breakfast...

 Crepe frying...

 Already fried crepes:

 Breakfast:

  A Starbucks moment - the green stuff is green tea latte:

 Some curry at school cafeteria:

 Came with some naan:

 And a little salad:

 Tasty spicy Chinese food at a Chinese restaurant near my apartment:

 And of course, some nice Chinese beer:

 This was a super spicy dish at that Chinese restaurant... a little bit too spicy for me:

 A set at a tiny local restaurant a few streets away from my apartment - this was a fried shrimp meal with a small udon:

 School cafeteria set - some fried chicken with fries:

 Sauce katsu at school cafeteria:

 Some vegeterian curry:

 A strangely shaped chicken katsu set at school:

 A yakisoba set at school for dinner:

 Another curry set with naan:

 A (not spicy) red ramen at school:

 Some chicken katsu set at school:

 A tasty black bean sauce dish at Chinese restaurant near campus:

 This time with Japanese beer:

 With some intestines and stuff:

 And some famous Chinese dessert (zong zi) which is eaten around the period of the 5th day of the 5th month of the Chinese calendar to celebrate a famous Chinese poet of long ago.  They were very tasty... sticky rice with a date filling:

 Some chicken dish at school:

 A donut from Mr. Donut.  When buying the donut, the girl asked me if I wanted a plastic bag since it is raining.... which I didn't fully understand.. so eventually she said bag in English.  So I said yes to that and then said "It's raining" in English.. to which she smiled and said "wooah... arigatou gozaimasu"... which is a very strange reply to that so I am assuming that she misunderstood that I said something in Japanese (probably told her she looks pretty or something along those lines judging from the reaction - oh languages!).  But, nevertheless, it is now a donut picture with a story :).

 A fish and some random stuff at school (I am a bit bored of the food at this one place we always go to):

 I was at one school cafeteria and asked the nice girl who works there (who likes to speak English with me) what she would recommend and she made this cold noodle and pork dish which was really tasty!  After eating, I even took a picture of her... to capture her totally smiling eyes :).

One day, I went with some friends to a maid cafe which in case you don't know is a Japanese themed restaurant where the waitresses wear special clothing (usually some kind of old European maid outfit) and are really nice to their customers.  I wanted to try it since I often seen it mentioned in various blogs of people visiting Japan as a thing to try.  The experience was interesting but at the same time... with a strong fake feeling.  You could just sense the kind of uneasy forced behaviour of the staff.  The highlight was when we ordered these omelets on rice..   that the waitress would use a ketchup bottle and draw something on the omelet (based on your request).  So I requested a bear and got this.  It was pretty cute... at the bottom it says くま (kuma = bear) and a heart:

Finally, here is a picture I took near a Starbucks by Hisaya-odori.  Not all that related to this food post (I didn't even order anything at this Starbucks just was in the building).  

"wanna meet for coffee..."

Nagoya University Festival 2011

The last 4 days (Thursday - Sunday) was the Annual Nagoya University Festival 名大祭 (mei dai sai).  The first 2 kanji 名大 stand for Nagoya University (basically a short form of Nagoya Daigaku - 名古屋大学).  The 名 kanji can be read as 'na' or 'mei'. 祭 stands for festival.  On the weekend, the weather was pretty good so I had a good chance to take a lot of pictures at the festival.

On Thursday I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary on campus apart from the fact that there were less people at the cafeterias since the undergrads did not have classes during the festival.  Friday afternoon, there were some things already going on.  At a large outdoor theater area in front of the library, students were gathered and something was going on but I am not sure exactly what it was (oh language...):

 Some of the students working at the festival had interesting self painted clothes:

 This was some kind of a contest and you could win some prizes:

  There was a flea market of various things:

Over by the Toyoda Auditorium, there was a stage set up for live concerts.  Lots of signs:

 This is the stage:

 A rock group was performing - starting with the singer getting a guy to come on the stage on a tricycle by offering him chips - yeah... I don't know :P

 She was pretty much screaming into the mic - which was ok for Rock.  She was also singing in English but I could only understand a few words from time to time.  The stage background also featured a giraffe and a white bunny - very fitting a Rock performance :).

 Stairs up to the stage area:

 Entrance to the main area of the festival:

 I saw these girls walk with these beautiful yukatas (kind of summer kimono):

 So... I just had to ask for a picture (in Japanese of course :P):

 Then I went to this (usually sports practice) field where there was some Japanese dancing going on:

 These little (mostly) girls were doing a really good job with the drums (taiko) keeping the rhythm:

 Some older women wearing yukatas were dancing around a circle:

 They looked like teachers of the dance:

 The dance did not seem very complicated just foot and hand movement:

 These ladies were really good:

 This lady was also doing a great job:

 From time to time the little girls would change from side to side or get replacements from ones waiting:

 It looked like it was more of the right mood than technique - this older man was enjoying himself:

 The drummers:

 This girl looked really good:

 ... but looked like she knew martial arts so I did not talk to her :P

 At some point, the instructors were at a raised platform in the middle showing how it should be done:

 The visitors were also asked to participate (I was asked a few times!).  Funny, I didn't notice that while filming but the girl with the red belt is one of the girls in that previous picture with me :)

 Drumming:

 This guy (wearing some antennas on his head) was walking around hitting this bell to keep the rhythm:

 Fun:

 I went out to eat.  When I came back, they were just finishing the dancing since it was already getting dark:

 These two girls in yukata were guys :P

 Everybody was participating:

So that way Friday... On Saturday, my lab was having an open lab where people could come in and see the research the students are working on so I came to see them and take some pictures as well.  The Japanese archery club members (outside my window) were cleaning their archery grounds:

 After seeing my lab members, I went to explore the festival:

 A group on a small stage was singing:

 A performer was doing some magic tricks (and making balloon animals):

 There were lots of people gathered around him:

 magic...

 One of the two main roads for the festival:

 This road featured people selling things:

 The tea ceremony club was dressed nicely:

 The other street featured tents with various kinds of foods (and different colours).  Each tent was run by members of a club (and there are many clubs at Japanese universities):

 May we help you?

  Found a really cute girl wearing some yellow animal? full body suit, walking around advertising her club's food tent:

 I was taking a picture of this tent and the girl saw me do it and posed (Japanese style):

 I lined up at a yakisoba tent - here are the students making it:

 The result - quite tasty:

 After that, lined up for some good dessert:

 The girls taking orders:

 The result - matcha shaved ice (with extra bean paste):

 One of the girls outside of the tent advertising:

 Staff in their staff tent? :)

 Campus radio station I think?

 Some student made car on exhibit and a girl with one of those balloon animals the performer (from previous pics) made:

 The mascot of the festival:

 At the music performance stage, there was a brass band performing:

 I noticed many people going inside the Toyoda Auditorium and you could see some performers lining up on the stairs, so I went in:

 It basically ended up being a dancing performance from various groups of students.  Some were really good. The pictures didn't turn all that good so only one pic:

 Just outside the auditorium inside the building was a student painting exhibit... here is an owl:

 Some Japanese poems maybe? I can't really read them :P

 Large window in the main hall:

I took this awesome pic inside the auditorium (the previous day when there were no people around) - I really like it:

Outside, the brass band performance finished:

 A nicely shaped tree just outside:

Found this little creature on the sidewalk when walking.  Took a picture then used a branch to move it onto the grass... no need to get walked on - will grow up to be a beautiful butterfly (or moth or something) one day!

Alright, onto Sunday.  On Sunday, I got there a bit late and didn't eat breakfast so I had to have something to eat quickly.  There were tons of people walking around:

 At the performance place, found a guy balancing himself on some wheel and juggling swords... the audience was huge...

 At the center stage, there were a bunch of people doing some kind of a performance....

 ... not really sure what exactly it was :P

 I then waited at one of the booths (with the longest line hehehe) to get some octopus balls.  The girls that were inviting people / advertising were standing there so I started talking to them in English...

 Then.. one of the girls called another girl to replace her to speak better English or something... so they were standing and talking with me all the time moving with me in the line until I got my food :)  Nice girls - pretty smiles!  They were part of the Tennis club.

 And this was the end product - tasty bread-like balls with pieces of octopus inside:

 I walked a bit to take some more pictures of the tents:

 Found some girls in pretty yukatas:

 Even saw the girl from the previous day's picture (wearing the yellow outfit) although she wasn't wearing it that day.  Finally, I stopped at the dessert place (the one where the girl posed for the picture the previous day) - seen here at the back with black background:

 And got this... it looked so good that right after I got it and started walking around, some girls (didn't look Japanese) came to me and asked in English where I got it from:

 A picture of the audience at the central stage:

 Then I went to the tea ceremony place since I have never done the Japanese tea ceremony.  This pretty girl was preparing it:

 Very elaborate process:

 Final product:

 And voila:

 One of my classmates is in the tea ceremony club so he was there, looking very sharp:

 At the small performance stage, some students were singing:

 At a music stage, these girls were performing... together with the power rangers.... !!!?

 They were pretty good:

 Then I went to this bluegrass cafe since one of my lab members plays the banjo there (on the right):

 The music was actually pretty good!

 The room was full with people enjoying it:

 Bluegrass!

 My lab member posing as a rocker on a banjo :)

 Back outside where the girls were playing - I began to take pics from the side:

 ... until the girls noticed me and.... nothing like a foreigner (gaijin) to disrupt a performance by taking pictures :P

 When they finally got back to singing....

 Another performance at the small singing stage:

 A kid trying to play a Japanese version of whack-a-mole... not sure what those worm things are (worms?) but the kid had no idea how to play... the finger is the father I think showing what to hit...

 At the main stage, there was some kind of a costume dance party...

 ... pretty interesting looking...

 Finally, a picture of the grass field outside of the Toyoda Auditorium where lots of students were sitting on the grass - which I haven't seen before on regular school days.