Hoshi o miru to Korean BBQ

Anyang haseyo (Hello in Korean).

Whew and so concludes another mega week. As I alluded to last time I got sucked into another series of experiments straight after my last one ended. Oh joys. I was basically shadowing my new lab group whilst they performed their own experiments meaning yet another streak of sleepless nights, not to mention many missed meals leading to much snackage, including my first Japanese pot noodle.

Some other snacks of note where the karindo,  basically deep fried pieces of dough coated in brown sugar somewhat like a solid doughnut. Also the mini anko doughnuts and the Kanro malt sweets were tasty to.

In fact I haven’t done much of the focus of my title (“Hoshi o miru” means look at stars) as I was getting back to my flat at like 5am whilst it was getting light again. I did however have a fantastic moment on ‘Suiyoubi’ (Wednesday) I saw a herd of deer, is that the right collective noun? Tabun ne.

Anyway it was a really special moment, I was knackered, slightly delirious and very sleep deprived and maybe 15 or 20 deer shot across the road through the mist just in front of me, “totemo kangeki shimashitta” (I was really moved). Didn’t manage to snap a shot unfortunately as I was too sleepy to think straight but it just really hit home how isolated and close to nature my new home is.

Now don’t get me wrong my new lab partners aren’t absolute facists. They at no point forced me to stay and do crazy hours but they are just all so into their work that it was hard not to get sucked in. What was a bit of a struggle is the fact they are all Korean. I can’t speak any of the language and it is in fact really difficult. Like seriously I don't know where to begin with it, the pronunciation is somewhere between Chinese and maybe Hindi? I’m not too sure but it meant I was left out of a lot of conversation.

So anyway I sat in and in fact even got to have a go at some data acquisition. The technique is like trying to hit a needle with a needle, point on, at about 200 metres. “Sugoku muzokashi yo” (hella difficult) and also very engaging, unlike my own experiments these are quite low on automation so the brain is always running. We were working in shifts though.

It was nice anyway I got to know everyone a bit better, in particular my new boss Dr. Song. This guy is really plugged in, laid back but focused. I think it will be a real pleasure to work with him.  I also spent a fair bit of time chatting to another Korean PhD student called Yoonhee. She, like myself, is in her first year and also studied biological sciences at undergrad, so is as bewildered as I am by a lot of the underlying physics in CDI. She is going to be working on a similar projectto me and will be visiting Spring8 a lot. I said I’d help her with learning English, she has to take tests as part of her fellowship, and she said she’d help me with Korean, a good deal I think.

But it’s not all work with these guys. As I now know they really know how to have a good time. We concluded the experiments on Thursday morning and packed everything away. Daewoong had taken it upon himself to organize a trip out for the whole lab to celebrate the fact we were finished. He’d suggested having a BBQ party at a local observatory in Nishi-Harima. Korean BBQ’s are pretty famous in Japan and in the name of integration I couldn’t really say no.

I’m not going to lie my anxieties were high about this. I know they shouldn’t be, I should be way over this but something about BBQ’s still make me apprehensive. The large amounts of generally ‘unhealthy’ food is probably the reason in my mind anyway. Still different place, different cultures, different foods right so I just went for it.

On Friday after our lab meeting, I gave a presentation about my work, we left to go stock up on food before leaving for the lodge. Daewoong had asked me if there was anything I would like. I told him get whatever so long as it isn’t shrimp or beef. I’m rubbish at deciding on things to eat so I was staying way out of it. This sadly was a bit of an error, but I’ll get to that later. Masses of meat and beer where purchased and we crammed it all into a tiny fridge in the lodge.

So why an observatory anyway? Well basically it was a really nice area way up on a nearby mountain. It also provided cheap accommodation in the form of a Japanese style lodge, straw mats and futons. It was a good place for a BBQ party. Plus later on in the night we could go to look at the stars through the massive telescope.

So first off I went for a wander around the local environs. It was really high up so the views were great. There was also a little adventure course for the kids and yes shamefully I had a go on the monkey bars, how could I not, what's this blogs title again. I also came across a little playing field. There seemed to be some kind of foreign exchange camp going on as there was a load of American and Japanese kids playing footie.

Daewoong asked me how I knew they were American, I’d told him I’d picked up American, Australian, and English accents within the group and he seemed impressed I could distinguish between them. I told him how, because they were load and obnoxious, I hate to stereotype but it was most definitely true in this case. Myself Daewoong and Dr. Song’s son watched for a few minutes and then headed back to the lodge for some food.

So a Korean bbq, not a burger or sausage in sight. Essentially you just dump a load of very thinly sliced meat on the grill and pick out what you want, maybe wrap it in some lettuce and dip in some sauce. Sadly Daewoong had bought stacks of beef…and nothing else. Gutted. Thankfully for me Shimada-san, another member of the group was really nice and went off to buy some things I could eat, “Honto ni arigato” (truly thank you). In the meantime I picked at some onions, grilled onions are deffo the bomb, and tried some Japanese beer, which for the record is rubbish.

About an hour later Shimada-san returned. He had loads of delicious things, there were some thin strips of pork belly, a load of salmon and a kind of flatfish similar to monkfish, all of which were proclaimed “ooishii” (deleciouos). Shimada-san had also picked up this kind of lemony soy sauce for the fish, which was amazing. My anxieties lessened a bit and I just enjoyed the company and sharing the food, oh and maybe I lied about the sausages. We also cooked up some sweet corn and some sweet potatoes and generally had a good laugh. I also tried out a Korean dish called Kimichee. This is pickled vegetables mixed with anchovies and a bucket load of chilli sauce. Soo nice, I love spicy food something which doesn’t seem so popular in Japan.

Well fed we trekked up to the observatory. Dr. Kim had mentioned he was really excited about this, he’d always wanted to see the stars through a telescope. He said looking at distant objects fascinated him, whether they be very far of galaxies or very tiny atoms. I guess that's what happens when you go anywhere with an optics lab. The observatory was sadly packed full of those same loud Americans meaning our opportunities to have a peak were limited.

 A brief glance at m3 was all we managed. Sadly I can’t tell you what that was , m1 is the crab nebular but that is as far as my knowledge of astronomy extends. We turned around and went back to the lodge.

I decided that it was pudding time. My plan was to introduce the lab to something from my childhood, barbequed bananas. Amidst many a funny look I wrapped a few nana’s in tinfoil and put them on the grill. There’s something about the sweet mushy texture of a cooked banana that I really like and I think it got a thumbs up from a few of the others.

So food all finished Dr. Song went off to put his son to bed and I had a good chat with Dr. Kim and Dr. Park. Dr. Kim had mentioned being a fan of the Beatles earlier, which got a massive eye roll from me. However it turned out I’d offended him a little, which I was truly sorry for. Apparently they had been a massive influence on his musical taste and he really was a true fan. It actually moved us on to taling about albums and how a well organized album is the merit of a true artist. So although our musical tastes differ widely our opinions on what makes a good artist are actually very similar.

Dr. Park it turned out was actually quite keen on Liverpool to, though for other reasons. He is very into his classical music and in fact owns a CD produced by the Liverpool philharmonic orchestra, whom he’d really like to hear play live. I told him I’d look out for any relevant conferences happening in Liverpool to give him an excuse to go over.

He’s also been to see many places in Japan over the past few years. He gave me a few pointers on great places to visit and when to visit them. Obviously he highly recommended Kyoto, the old capital where there is so much to visit. But he also knew a bit more about some of the smaller towns in and around the area and in neighboring Shikoku island, a place I really want to visit. He mentioned that one of the towns was very famous for it’s onions and apparently makes some of the best ramen in Japan, definitely worthy of my time.

Once Dr. Songs son had settled down we began to clear up a bit and then moved back inside. Daewoong had brought the labs projector with him and we settled down for a film. I think we started with battle for Los Angelas, a pretty gung ho humans kill aliens film. I was too tired to really pay attention and it was soon switched for What I can only describe as being a feudal period, Chinese Poroit. I couldn’t understand anything, it was all in Korean, so I said my good nights and went to bed. All in all it was a great night and a nice way to bond with my new lab group.