I did another random candy pack today. This one tasted horrible. It was pretty much the acid+bicarbonate reaction with hard sherbet rock candies not unlike lifesavers. I didn't end up eating it haha. Still fun to make though!
Mt. Fuji Taiko Drum Festival
This weekend was the Mt. Fuji Taiko Drum Festival. Teams from all over Japan come to Mt. Fuji to play Taiko drums in a weekend long competition. No idea what they're judged on but there's a bit of money and some drums as prizes. The committee that organize it have created this massive Taiko drum which I think is one of the biggest ones you can find around the place. The sound of it is incredible.
Shaved ice or 'kakigohri' is especially famous in Japan's hot and humid summer and you can find any flavour at all the festivals.
Shaved ice or 'kakigohri' is especially famous in Japan's hot and humid summer and you can find any flavour at all the festivals.
My first Japanese Candy
Japanese candy is infamous for being weird crazy and mind bogglingly fun. An entire food science industry is devoted solely to making sweets more interesting to the senses.
Sometimes you can find your normal pop-candy which seems to be a supercharged version of what you get at home, but other times you can find full kits of 'mini - food' which you assemble yourself into mini burgers, mini yakisoba or pancakes.
Today I bought my first kit. Sushi. I had fun making it. The creation and the sheer satisfaction had by a mini chemistry set on your kitchen bench is enough to satisfy any inner child. What an amazing use of science!
I'll be trying more of these for sure!
Enjoy my video!
Sometimes you can find your normal pop-candy which seems to be a supercharged version of what you get at home, but other times you can find full kits of 'mini - food' which you assemble yourself into mini burgers, mini yakisoba or pancakes.
Today I bought my first kit. Sushi. I had fun making it. The creation and the sheer satisfaction had by a mini chemistry set on your kitchen bench is enough to satisfy any inner child. What an amazing use of science!
I'll be trying more of these for sure!
Enjoy my video!
My first time Disciplining
There aren't many opportunities for an ALT to get angry and discipline. Most of that job is handled more than well enough by the Japanese teachers. Sometimes who can seemingly go from being happy and all smiles to yelling scarily and threateningly at students who were talking to much or not doing something or forgetting a book.
Today the teachers all went to a meeting and the students run their sports activity clubs by themselves again. Now normally Japanese students love to rough-house around. Like play fight. Between classes it's uncommon to NOT see kids in headlocks and girls stealing eachothers things and play fighting. It takes a bit getting used to. So when you see fighting, you start to tune out a bit. But today at basketball there was a tousle that just looked a little too serious. The kids weren't smiling like they usually do. While the wrestles weren't any different to normal it just felt more serious.
Today the teachers all went to a meeting and the students run their sports activity clubs by themselves again. Now normally Japanese students love to rough-house around. Like play fight. Between classes it's uncommon to NOT see kids in headlocks and girls stealing eachothers things and play fighting. It takes a bit getting used to. So when you see fighting, you start to tune out a bit. But today at basketball there was a tousle that just looked a little too serious. The kids weren't smiling like they usually do. While the wrestles weren't any different to normal it just felt more serious.
I checked with one of the other students just watching to ask if I should break it up and with a nod I got to be superman and split them up and raise my voice like one of the Japanese teachers. It doesn't matter what you say, you just make your voice big, loud, deep and threatening. I can't even remember what I said. It might have been as simple as 'ENOUGH!'.
The kids instantly stopped what they were doing. Bowed in apology and went their separate directions and continued to play basketball. It was so surreal. It really is amazing how much respect for Authority these kids have. That kind of power should be used in moderation haha. With great power comes great responsibility or so they say!
The best part was, later one of the students came up and apologized again and said thanks for stopping him. Because the other guy was 'An angry spawn of the devil'. No idea where he learnt that English but it made me chuckle haha.
Robot Restaurant in Tokyo
One of my backpacker mates was flying back through Japan after a trip through Asia, so wanted to catch up again. Just so happened to be a long weekend. Since we'd both seen lots of Tokyo, we decided to sample the themed restaurants the city has to offer.
You could go to a ninja restaurant where they do lots of magic and appear out of trapdoors and swap your food without you noticing, or we could go to a pitchblack restaurant where you cant see what you're eating. We ultimately decided to go to the new Robot Restaurant which cost about 10 billion yen (lol) to build.
It was bloody fantastic. It was so random. One minute you'd have an army of girls in bikinis all dancing, the next minute the stage was flooded with robots all fighting and then the next second there was a dinosoar, and then a tank, then an airplane, then some motorbikes, lazers, explosions. It was absolute chaos for the senses and you wouldn't want it any other way. The epitome of Japanese entertainment in a nutshell.
I got some photos with my shitty mobile phone camera, but unfortunately pictures and words will never come close to experiencing this in person haha. What a trip!
The waiting room
The seats for the show
You could go to a ninja restaurant where they do lots of magic and appear out of trapdoors and swap your food without you noticing, or we could go to a pitchblack restaurant where you cant see what you're eating. We ultimately decided to go to the new Robot Restaurant which cost about 10 billion yen (lol) to build.
It was bloody fantastic. It was so random. One minute you'd have an army of girls in bikinis all dancing, the next minute the stage was flooded with robots all fighting and then the next second there was a dinosoar, and then a tank, then an airplane, then some motorbikes, lazers, explosions. It was absolute chaos for the senses and you wouldn't want it any other way. The epitome of Japanese entertainment in a nutshell.
I got some photos with my shitty mobile phone camera, but unfortunately pictures and words will never come close to experiencing this in person haha. What a trip!
The waiting room
The seats for the show
Fireworks Festivals
Summer in Japan brings along a tide of various festivals. Celebrating seemingly anything from the greatness of fire, to the prosperity of the ocean. Some of these (most of these) festivals come along with fantastic fireworks displays.
I went to the coast near Hamamatsu with my friend and we watched on of these celebrations. Even the locals can no longer remember why they have this festival, but hey. Good fireworks!
It was really interesting to see how different firework displays are held in Japan. Instead of having an 'orchestration' of which fireworks explode, to ultimately end up with a big ass finale. They let off most of the big ones one at a time, so that everyone can fully appreciate the whole firework on it's own.
During the one-by-one-big-ones, they break into smaller 'orchestrated' displays which are often sponsored by a company or individual.
Sometimes you can have a ramen shop sponsoring a display, or even a rich guy wanting to buy a firework for his anniversary. They announce it on the speaker and let the crowd enjoy it haha. Good idea to offset the cost.
While the firework display overall was beautiful, we were a bit unlucky with low cloud cover. So nearly all the 'big ones' exploded behind clouds lol! The crowds cry of comedic dismay in unison was very funny! But I guess in Japan changing schedule isn't so easy due to bad weather so it went on ahead anyways.
Still a fun festival though and look forward to seeing if I can go to more of them.
I went to the coast near Hamamatsu with my friend and we watched on of these celebrations. Even the locals can no longer remember why they have this festival, but hey. Good fireworks!
It was really interesting to see how different firework displays are held in Japan. Instead of having an 'orchestration' of which fireworks explode, to ultimately end up with a big ass finale. They let off most of the big ones one at a time, so that everyone can fully appreciate the whole firework on it's own.
During the one-by-one-big-ones, they break into smaller 'orchestrated' displays which are often sponsored by a company or individual.
Sometimes you can have a ramen shop sponsoring a display, or even a rich guy wanting to buy a firework for his anniversary. They announce it on the speaker and let the crowd enjoy it haha. Good idea to offset the cost.
While the firework display overall was beautiful, we were a bit unlucky with low cloud cover. So nearly all the 'big ones' exploded behind clouds lol! The crowds cry of comedic dismay in unison was very funny! But I guess in Japan changing schedule isn't so easy due to bad weather so it went on ahead anyways.
Still a fun festival though and look forward to seeing if I can go to more of them.
Visit to Hakone!
Mum came to visit this week. Was still working but we managed to get away for the weekend. Went to Hakone up the mountains and saw a very good outdoor art & sculpture museum, some lake, sulfurous & volcanic landscape, ate black eggs, and of course with any trip involving mum, plenty of food! Also went to Tokyo for a quick sight seeing tour and to see my sister too! よかったです！
Sulfur interacts with the calcium carbonate in the shell and turns it black. The egg inside is great though.
Yellow sulfur leaking from the ground.
Sulfur interacts with the calcium carbonate in the shell and turns it black. The egg inside is great though.
Yellow sulfur leaking from the ground.
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