Friday Morning of a Three Day Weekend

While I feel very settled now in Shikaoi, at moments I have even found myself with spare time to drink tea and read. Another sure sign of my comfort here is it that I no longer get lost walking from here to there. That was becoming quite distressing for a while.

I apologize for my merger posting the last couple of days. I have not been near a computer attached to the internet since Tuesday. I have been away from the office at school during the day and then in the evenings, out and about, making new friends and spreading good cheer (or relative chaos?). I arrived at home a little after nine last night after an extremely fun (and delicious) dinner of tempera with six people from my section at the office (minus Kevin, who has caught a cold). I also had the pleasure of trying for the first time Matsutaki soup/tea. Its soup, with shrimp and onions, but served our of an individual teapot. Matsutaki mushrooms are the worlds most expensive; the sky really being the limit on how much you can spend on this dish. It's a very delicate and rich flavor that is worth the money and impossible to desirabe. I also had the anxiety to try for the first time Albolony, also very expensive, and, in my humble opinion, slightly overrated. Even deepfrying something like squid or octopus can not, for me, save the dish. I will often at least try it, I know its not going to kill me; it is food after all and I see my other diners without pause devour it. But being an Albertan, the allure and enjoyment of chewing something for five minutes completely goes over my head. Luckily for me the meal started with sashimi and ended with some excellent tempera. A cultural point I have always found enjoyable is that the meal is always ended exactly at 9:00 PM. The meal may start promptly at 6:00 PM and than at nine, everyone gets up to leave. It's not like Canada, where, if your out, say, with the Scalzo's, you had better have your whole night cleared. If I had to make a stab as to why this is so in Japan, I would guess it is because they consider 9:00 PM relatively late. If I had to guess why this is so with the Scalzo's, I believe its in their blood because they are Italian.

At the beginning of the post and at the end are pictures from our soba harvest at Tsumei Sho Gakko. At the top you'll see an image of the schools chickens- free- walking around near the back of the school. Below, a shot of the kids.. harvesting... It's all rather self-explanatory. The school is very rural and naturally has a very agriculturally focused theme. I was very honored to be asked to help harvest the small school plot. I have been invited back to eat the soba we harvested at New Years in the form of soba noodles.