House of Samurai

Nijo Castle

Warning! You will not see any samurai pictures in this post so leave if this is not what you're looking for....Nijo Castle is home of many great samurais during the Tokugawa shogunate, an era ruled by Shoguns of the Tokugawa family from 1603-1868. During this period, the Japanese Emperor has no power and everything is ruled by Shoguns--the highest-ranked samurai. Now this castle is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its "building designs, lavish paintings, and carvings" from the Momoyama culture and early Edo period--the Tokugawa shogunate. In 1867, the fifteenth Tokugawa Shogun, Yoshinobu, returned ruling power to the Emperor and in this castle was where the decision was made! So if anyone is interested in seeing this majestic piece of culture, admission only cost 600 yen (^o^)/
Information resources: my speaking partner and the Nijo Castle brochure :3


This castle was built around a river as protection because invaders can't climb the castle walls to get inside. The water was not shallow like it is now.






My speaking partner and I went inside to view the castle. Unfortunately, photographing is not allowed so I am not able to show you how beautiful the designs are...but I took a picture of a picture from the brochure :)

Ohiroma Yon-no-ma Painting on the wall. Eagle on Pine tree.

Ohiroma Ichi-no-ma
"In October 1867, the fifteenth Tokugawa Shogun, Yoshinobu, summoned the country's feudal lords to his room and declared that sovereignty would be restored to the Emperor. In effect, this is the room where nearly 270 years of Tokugawa military rule came to end" (quoted from the Nijo Castle brochure)

This is the garden

This part of the river is definitely not shallow like it appears to be.







These steps...ugh kills me...one step is like 1ft or sometime.


Going down everyone has to hold on to the railing unless they want to die of a concussion. The stairs is steep and each step drops deep...try running up these stairs in wooden sandals with two 1inch heels (one for front and one for back), like the samurais back then used to wear, without falling.
This is NOT cherry blossoms. It is actually plum blossom, which starts to bloom around march, while cherry blossoms bloom in April and it's petals have a sharp 'V' shape edge. Plum blossoms has a small round 'v' shape...basically the petals are round.
After the castle my speaking partner, Haruka, and I went to eat parfaits at a cafe in the station



My camera tries its best to capture the image of a night city along the river bank that runs all the way back to Hirakata city. According to Haruka, this river bank is famous for couples because the water is shallow and during spring and summer, it is a really nice and clean spot for a date. Couples come here day (or night) for what you already know.
And dad, if you're reading...I wouldn't have this motion blur problem (like for all of my night and indoor pictures) if you had let me take your camera instead =(

Udon to Takoyaki!

I found a rare specie to study: my roommate Stacy! Look at that hairdo (O.O)
Too bad Stacy doesn't wear it outside cuz if style it up a little bit, she would totally blend in with other Japanese don't you think?
(picture on right is from Cute Easy Hairstyles)
Anyways, I haven't been able to post any new blogs lately cuz I'm busy with school and blogging takes a lot of time. Thus, I'll try my best to update it whenever I have time.




For the first few weekends when school starts, Stacy and I got involved in making Udon and Takoyaki. I can't guarantee that I will be able to make the same dish when I return home.
All you need is love!...but here in Japan all you need is peace ;) The two girls on the right are the ones teaching us how to make udon.
There's Stacy strangling that dough!
And there's me trying to save it :p

















We have to let the dough ferment for 30 minutes (I think...it was a long time and everyone was starving cuz no one ate before they came here) and then roll it out into a thin layer.

Then we fold 'em together in layers so we can cut it into long strands of noodles! Our group's dough was soggy and sticky due to too much water...everyone in the group knew it was too much water except the person who measured the water and instruct us to put it in sooo.......

Our udon looks like this! It looks good in the photo right?! Wait til you see it in the water (ha!).
That's us cooking! The udon looks yummy right? Unfortunately that pot on the right isn't ours....it's somebody's else perfect noodles (>.<) Ready to see my group's noodles?Ta-da!!! I think my group broke the world's record for most hideous udon! Now...everyone knows that you should never judge a book by its cover and this is one of those cases. This noodle is yummylicious! especially to a pack of hungry hippos (^0^)/
I would show you the pictures of what it looks like in a bowl but was too hungry to take a picture of it lol...Stacy did but she's out partying... Ahem! Correction. I meant she's out enjoying the time of her life!

Next is Takoyaki!!So making takoyaki isn't as hard as I thought...I might say it is easier than making udon and taste so much better! If you have never eat takoyaki before, you must try it because only then will you know you like it or not. If you do, then you'll get addicted to it. But if you don't, then you got nothing to worry about right?


That's the batter being mixed at super speed!
There were only four international students and five Japanese students (^0^)



















There's Stacy help diluting the batter. We learned that the batter should be quite watery...These are fillings for the takoyaki: ham, chese, tako (octopus), corn, red ginger, scallion, tuna, and kim chi.








There's Stacy trying hard to pour the batter correctly into the takoyaki slots without making a mess...but the truth is, we're supposed to make a mess (-_-)Doesn't that looks yummy?!! This is the first batch with octopus fillings cuz everybody loves octopus (despite the fact that they can hard to digest if not chewed completely).

After outer layer of the batter is cooked, we use a long skewer to turn the top part toward the bottom so the batter gets cooked all around and also the takoyaki turns into a round ball.
This is part of the group taking a break while waiting for the takoyaki to be cooked...everyone was starving because no one eat breakfast again! (x_x)














This time Stacy and I attempted to make it extra messy like how the pros do it (^_~)/
It turns out...the batter was really hard to separate into individual balls. The pros make it looks so easy on youtube (T_T)
This is the 2nd batch and we put in tuna, corn, kim chi, ham, and cheese as the main fillings.














You can tell that Stacy is frustrated with the stubborn takoyaki refusing to turn upside down.
We (the whole big group) end up making about 6 batches total!

Hmmm...this picture should belong in a food magazine!

So does this one! I'm such an elite photographer )^0^(

This is a nice picture of Stacy finally gotten her food.



















As you noticed, there aren't a lot of photos of me because obviously who else can take beautiful pictures this but me? (just kiddin...sort of)
I just prefer to be the photographer and when participating, other people are too. Also I can't be natural if I know other people are taking pictures of me.
Anyways, after eating those lovely takoyaki, we attempt to make pancake using the same takoyaki mold....it didn't turn out so well....
This is our new creation! Kuroi pancake! (literally means "black pancake") Be forewarned, it has a burnt bitter taste but the chocolate syrup helps somewhat.

Here is the takoyaki gang! No need to look far, peace is all around us!

Stacy eventually emerges into the Japanese culture don'cha think?


Oh yes, if you want to learn how to make takoyaki, here's a video explanation on youtube from Cooking with dog: