博多で博士と会った。

Another long gap in the blogging, I seem to be making a habit of it lately. This time it’s for a little less stressful reasons than beamtime however. I’m currently sat in the very swank Hilton SeaHawk hotel in Hakata Japan for a scientific conference.

I was really excited about this for a couple of reasons. Firstly it was in a Hilton hotel. My god everything in the place looks so expensive I don’t half feel like a bit of a bumpkin. Secondly this was my first real international conference and not only that my first conference within my new field. Many of the big names whose papers I’ve been rending over the past year are here.

At the start of the conference I was pretty daunted. As I said I’m pretty new to the field and most of the people here have made massive contributions. Also at least 90% of those in attendance are physicists. I’m still a little bit behind in that department and the conference has taught me I have a long way to go.

That being said I can still follow the talks and I’ve learnt more in the past couple of days than I'd managed in about a month. Admittedly I didn’t give a talk, just presenting a poster and I’m quite glad I’m not since I didn’t really have much to present. Anyway it’s been a great week, the vast majority of people at the event are European and I even got to meet a couple of PhD students from the UK working in a similar field.

 

The last day was a real highlight. I spent the farewell banquet sat next to Professor So Iwata, an absolute legend in my field. He’s pretty young but his contributions have been massive. To top it off he’s a cracking guy, really down to earth and just into the experiments that he does. I’m not sure if it’s the long time he’s spent working and living in Europe but he is a very untypical Japanese researcher.

We also went on a bit of an excursion. This was a real typical Japanese, in that it was exhausting we got bustled about and didn't see very much. It was interesting nonetheless. We set out early for a three-hour bus drive to Mt. Aso, the largest active caldera in the world. The central area actually consists of five peaks; Neko, Naka, Eboshi, Kishima and Taka, with Naka being the only one accessible by road.

This seemed like it would be really cool and the tour guide cheerfully told us all (in Japanese though it was kindly translated) the history of the mountain range. According to legend a giant once tried to break through the Aso range to distribute fresh water and fertile soil to the people below. He kicked it three times and whilst not successful in breaking down the range he did managed to create a road.

 

We moved to the top via a cable car that spewed out some of the most esoteric facts I’ve ever heard, even in Japan. I really won’t bore you but it was a detailed break down of the cable cars construction and history. Sadly the top was a let down. The crater was too active and spewing far too much sulphuric ash to safely stay near by. A little gutted we were all bundled back into the bus.

Next stop was a traditional Japanese bbq place. This really was BBQ indoors. We had grills set up with hot coals underneath and the it was just a case of get cooking really, I love how in Japan the more expensive a meal is the more likely you are to have to cook it yourself.

Following that it was back on the bus for another two hours to check out the Daizaifu Tenmangu shrine. This shrine is dedicated Sugwara Michizane, known as the god of learning so fairly appropriate I thought. I’ve been to a few shrines before now but this one still impressed. The three giant bridges leading to the entrance where quite a sight; a large arched one followed by a flat bridge and then another arch representing the past, present and future.

There also many cow statues around the temple, a rather unusual motif in Japan. The legend goes that Michizane died in disgrace and his body was pulled to his burial site by an ox driven cart. The ox however stopped at one point and refused to budge and so it was believed that this was Michizane’s spirit indicating where he wished to be buried. It is said if you have an ailing body part and you rub the corresponding body part on the cow it will become better.

Our final stop was out into the streets of Hakata for the famous Hakata Ramen. The noodles here are a lot thinner than normal ramen noodles, much more similar to Chinese egg noodles which is probably a reflection of Fukuoka’s close proximity to China. The soup is also pretty special. Like most ramen noodles it comes in Tonkotsu (pork bone) based broth. In Hakata however it’s really thick and almost looks white. Extra fat? Maybe. Extra delicious? Definitely.

On the second to last day we finished the morning talks a bit early so I went for a little wander. My initial plan was to try and check out the Fukuoka tower but to be honest the sea breeze was so gorgeous I got lost in my wandering. I think being on the coast again is making me homesick. Anyway after about ten minutes I came across a sign for a place called "Robosquare". I've been here over a year and yet I've encountered so very few robots. This place was like a mini car emporium displaying some of the funky robots being developed in Fukuoka, including robo pets, cleaners and a crazy dancing Ipod stand. Definitely worth the short walk.

Coming out of this I’ve learned a few things about conferences that I’ll share with you here:

 

1.  The old guys speak the loudest – I guess it’s a given, they’ve been in the field longest so they have the most to say. They also love to argue.

2.  The phrase ‘we can discuss it after the talk’ actually means ‘you clearly didn’t understand my question and your rubbish answer is taking too much time.’

3.  People like to talk about their own fields, regardless of how relevant it is to the talk that's just been given.

4.  Generally there is no bad blood though.

5.  The secretaries are always super stressed don’t bother them. This is a golden rule.

Sadly the last one I failed on pretty bad. Having a few allergies is always a problem and stupidly I didn’t notify anyone in advance as nobody asked me (what happened to that being an adult thing?). It wasn’t a issue till the last day and I think in the UK it wouldn’t be a big deal. In Japan though culture around food is very different and I think returning or refusing stuff is a major no no. Live and learn I guess, just wish I’d stop sticking my foot in it.

 

Anyway going forward it’s been a great week on the whole. I’m coming out of it with a bit of a fresher mind and also a more concrete idea of where my research can fit in to this field, which is no bad thing.

Mata neee.

Being an Adult

Ah 久しぶりです。This past month has been somewhat mental. Between all the work (oh so much work) and the other writing I’ve been doing I’ve had very little time to blog. Nothing serious mind just some short fiction but I did manage to get my first story published (a whole $5 is mine to do with as I wish.)

Now to the meat of this post. As I said lots and lots of work so no real adventures, and to be honest not much sleep either. Still when you aren’t sleeping it does give you plenty of time to think and I’ve been doing a lot of that lately.

The thing is it was my Birthday recently; I’m nearly a quarter of a century old now. I’ve never liked the run up to my birthday and I think these days I just assume the worst and get into a bad frame of mind. Quite a few mishaps have occurred between my last post and now and I put it down to bad birthday luck.

But that's crap. 90% was my own carelessness and the other ten, well it just couldn’t be helped I think. The thing it got me thinking about is what really makes you “an adult”? When do you cross that line? I always thought it was something to do with making it out on your own, being accepted by others and respected and so on, and yet sometimes I still feel like a kid.

The thing is due to my own carelessness I’ve lost or damaged some things at work recently. Now these things happen I know but I truly am week to things, facts figures, faces, quotes, no problem. Things, forget about it (and I do). Either way that's not the problem. It was how I handled it.

Now obviously I was upset and what made it worse was a dressing down from the administrative staff. I’m sure I’d of had it worse if I was Japanese but they were still pretty stern. Suddenly I felt about ten again. The trust was gone, I’d let them down and I felt incapable.

I’ve got a real thing about letting others down, it really triggers my mood and I need to get a handle on it. Thinking on it though it is childish. Sure you can let people down but I think the ‘grown up’ thing to do is accept it, apologize sincerely and then get on with it.

Most people are pretty tied up in their own lives you see. These little mishaps impact them so little in the long run. I do want to keep a low profile though and I’ve not helped that this month, sticking out is not a good thing around here. Maybe I’m just trying too hard these days, definitely I’m working too hard. I can’t please everyone and I should just accept that.

Do we ever really grow up though and in the end what does that mean? I haven’t the foggiest. Independence? Nah everyone needs help sometimes? Not screwing up? Haha with my scatterbrain that’ll never happen. Screwing up and setting it right? Yeah that’s probably more like it. Maybe being n adult isn’t about controlling your life but taking ownership of it.

 

So where do I go from here. Well just keep doing what I’m doing I think. I guess I’m still busy and I’m still a scatterbrain so I’m sure accidents will happen again. The key is to accept it, be mindful of ones self and hope for the best ey?　There are still plenty of things I can do and am capable of. Maybe I should write them down one day. When the brown stuff hits the fan I've always been someone that gets stuff done at least. Anyway I’ll be back with something more interesting next time I’m sure.

Ja mata neee.

Ample sample but...no results.

Imagine for a moment the worst all-nighter you’ve ever pulled. Now times it by nine. Factor into that the fact that during this all-nighter you have to focus at 100% (or as close to it as is possible), you have to operate and move complex equipment, performing basic algebra and figuring out geometrical problems in reflective space. Congratulations you’ve just completed your first slot of CDI beamtime.

So science is tough. I knew this to begin with, however I didn’t realize just how tough. This week has nearly finished me off with a massive build up of stress, fatigue and disappointment. It’s a good job I’ve hardened myself to the rollercoaster of emotions through years of Ultimate tournaments.

Sadly things did not go our way this time, try as we might. It’s hard to stumble through those last few nights fuelled only by caffeine and pot noodles knowing you are unlikely to get results. We thought we’d prepared well but life always likes to throw us a curve ball from time to time.

 

I was actually really excited about this beamtime. Not only was I getting to play around with the equipment a lot more but we would be analyzing my sample this time. Or so I thought. Due to some unexpected equipment errors we spent about five days aligning, re-aligning, and then aligning some more. A bit rubbish really. Looks like my date with data was cancelled.

That means it’s back to the drawing board, and I do so love drawing. Or at least I love the scientific process, I’ve usually got a million and one ideas running through my mind and what is great about working here is no one tells you no. The research we are doing is very much frontier work so how can it go wrong when no one knows what is right.

Still planning doesn’t make for exciting blogging unfortunately so instead I’ve decided to dish up two exciting pieces of research from the world of Malaria. One of these has featured in the news quite prominently, and the other is pretty groundbreaking as well.

The first paper relates to the interactions between proteins at the surface of both Plasmodium falciparum merozoite, the parasite responsible for malaria, and red blood cells. These proteins are involved in the invasion of  blood cells by this parasite, the subsequent destruction of red blood cells by P. falciparum is what leads to the symptoms of malaria. As this disease kills millions worldwide year on year it is no surprise that falciparum is so intensively studied.

People have been trying for years to create a new vaccine for malaria however it has been a struggle. One of the big problems is that these proteins at the cell surface show a high degree of redundancy. A protein that is essential for one strain of the parasite to enter a cell will not be for another. This makes it difficult to make one vaccine that is effective for all P. falciparum strains and block malarial infection.

Enter the cell surface signaling lab at the Wellcome trust Sanger institute. This group have developed a very robust and effective technology for screening extracellular interactions. Here they express simply the external ‘stump’ of these proteins, the bit that sticks outside the parasite cell, as part of a more stable fusion protein. They then probe these with similar constructs of blood cell proteins. By linking this to a protein that can cause a colour change they could discern what binds to what.

What they found was a novel reaction between two proteins, PtRH5 on the parasite, and Basigin on the erythrocyte. This interaction proved critical in invasion, deleting PtRH5 from the parasites genome or blocking Basigin with an antibody almost completely stopped blood cell invasion.

 

So what’s the most exciting part? Well they tested this on not just one but all the strains of P. falciparum they had available and found the same result. This means produce a vaccine to provide resistance blocking this interaction could provide a reliable preventative treatment for malaria. It’s still early days yet but it is a truly fantastic result.

I am a bit biased of course. I actually worked with the group whom did the main body of the work during my year in industry. I actually remember the main author setting up the screens just before I finished. Interestingly they only worked 9-5 generally as they have a family, proof that it is definitely quality of work not quantity that pays of.

Ok next paper. This is one is also intriguing although I’d say it doesn’t yet have quite the human impact that the previous study does, probably why that one was published in Nature and this was not. This one concerned two topics particularly close to my heart. The cytoskeleton, something I’ve always been interested in, and Sickle cell anemia, because of my African heritage.

Sickle cell anemia is so named because of the odd elongated shape that red blood cells take when they become de-oxygenated. It  is a particularly nasty inherited disorder and leads to anemia as well as acute pain due to the bursting of blood capillaries that become blocked by these oddly shaped blood cells.

The cause of this is a mutation in the protein heamogloblin, the red molecule responsible for binding oxygen in blood cells. The single change in its sequence causes the hemoglobin proteins to clump together making the blood cell much more rigid. Whilst this is a debilitating disease it is recessive, meaning you need a copy of the faulty gene from both your mother and father, to express the symptoms.

So how does malaria tie into this? Well if in fact you only have one copy of the gene you do in fact show partial symptoms, not as severe but still somewhat uncomfortable. The upshot however is the added rigidity seems to convey some protection to malarial infection.

 

Up until now although there are plenty of theories dancing about no one was really sure exactly what the cause of this protection was. That is until a German group looked at the effects of this mutation on the actin cytoskeleton. Actin is one of the proteins that make up a network of fibrous molecules that contribute to the internal structure of cells.

When a red blood cell is invaded by the malaria parasite it’s actin cytoskeleton is reorganized to aid the delivery of a pathogen protein called adhesin to the cells surface. These proteins are, unsurprisingly given their name, responsible for sticking cells to surfaces. The over expression of this protein helps to prevent the destruction of the infected cells by preventing their entry into the spleen.

Through a powerful microscopy technique known as Electron microscopy these researchers discovered that the critical reorganization of actin in cells expressing the Sickle cell heamoglobin was blocked. This lead to a depletion of adhesion at the red blood cells surface and so they could enter the spleen to be cleared.

Whilst this does not have as obvious practical application as the first paper it is an excellent insight into the complex interplay of various cellular components, It’s quite amazing really that even 50 years after the protective phenotype of sickle cell anemia was discovered, only now are we gaining insight into how it works.

Makes me feel better about my lack of results anyway.

Ja, mata ne.

Giant Robots, Big Smiles.

After the difficulties of the previous day I’d endeavored to make today run as smoothly as possible. A while back my dad had created a song with an oriental theme and had asked me for the name of a park. At the time I’d been looking into a statue of “鉄人二十八号”(Iron man number 28), and had traced it to a place just outside of Kobe called Wakamatsu park, and so the tune was named.

Due to this one of my Dad’s main goals in Japan had been to visit said park and listen to said tune there within. I was more than happy to facilitate this. I’d passed by the statue many times and I’d really wanted to get a closer look for a while, and now I had the perfect excuse.

 

Research done I attempted to phone my parents to confirm our meeting. Of course this is where things started to go wrong. My phone battery died and I’d left my charger in the hotel at Tennoji, fail. I sent a quick message to me Ma and Da through Facebook and set off to Umeda with great haste.

Admittedly on the way I stopped by at a barbers since I needed a trim. They charged 1000yen for 10 minutes and you actually pay at a vending machine, the ticket is then inserted into a slot at the barbers chair and a timer starts, madness. I didn't quite get the cut I’d hoped for, “hanbun gurai zettai ni.” (half off all over), but at least my hair grows quick. Having my head essentially hoovered afterwards was also quite the experience.

So I arrived at Umeda with me mop chopped about fifteen minutes late. I had actually just missed my parents who had headed to J-hoppers to check if I was still there. Mega cock-ups. It basically resulted in us leaving for Kobe 40 minutes late and being in a bit of a mood.

Thankfully the journey to Shin-Negata, station closest to Wakamatsu park, was uneventful. Upon arrival there were signs everywhere pointing to Tetsujin so we had no trouble finding him. The park itself was a bit anti-climatic. It was essentially a small dirt plot with a few trees and a few kid things, climbing frame slide and so on.

Still the main event was the statue and wow it at least was very impressive. Standing at just shy of 60ft this thing is rather gargantuan. It was actually constructed to bring renewed prosperity to one of the worst hit areas of Kobe during the great Hanshin earthquake. It was possibly the happiest I’d seen my dad the whole holiday as he plugged his headphones in and listened to his tune underneath Tetsujin.

The rest of the area was pretty rubbish really. Nearby the statue was a small shopping precinct that in some ways resembled St Johns shopping precinct back home. We wandered a short while before heading back into Kobe proper.

I had decided to take my parents to Mosaic for some Dinner. Unfortunately due to a still being a bit knackered from yesterday and my head being a bit fuzzy from the heat I got disorientated again. The large buildings really don’t help. I managed to find my way to the main shopping mall and we happily relished the break from the intense heat.

Mosaic, a kind of entertainment district, wasn’t far from there. We looked around a few restaurants serving the world famous beef and happily passed it over as some dishes were costing over 100 pound. I found a place that was serving a Zaru soba (cold buckwheat noodles) at a reasonable seeming price. It was pretty good though the raw egg you dip the noodles into was a little much for my mum.

Stuffed (the set was actually bigger than I’d thought) we took a look around Harborland. It was actually pretty naff, it looks like something straight out of a seaside fair from 1970’s Britain, with rickety Ferris wheel and merry-go-round in place.

By the time we got back to Sannomiya, the centre of Kobe, it was already nearing 4 o’clock. After a bit of messing around we found the tourist information office and stopped for a coffee. Once again we’d lost a lot of time just wandering. Fine for me as I’m young and can just bomb from place to place, but for my parents it was no good. We settled on a plan to walk down to the Kobe city hall to get a good overall look of the City and then head back.

I’d been up to the top before but the views were still impressive. Whilst I do like Kobe I guess I don’t actually know it that well. To be honest I don’t really know anywhere that well it’s all still a bit alien to me. I felt I’d let my parents down abit, I know I hadn’t but it seemed that way at the time. Either way we resolved to have a better plan laid out for Hiroshima tomorrow as it would involve a lot more travelling.

After leaving Umeda we went our separate ways for the night. Yesterday had been extremely tiring and we were now feeling the effects. I realized how acclimatized I must be to the weather, it was damned hot but I wasn’t feeling the effects too badly. It seemed to be really sapping Mum and Dad and as something I need to account for better if anyone visits me in summer again.

I got hold of plenty of information about Hiroshima at the hostel and got some useful pointers from the staff. Feeling a lot more confident about tomorrow I turned in for an early night. Tomorrow was going to be long, although I didn’t realize at the time just how long.

Mata ne 

(Once again most of the credit for photographs goes to my Dad, I hardly took any).

Yama no mae de, Michi ni mayoimashita

Day three and the plan was to return back to Kyoto to check out, surprise surprise some more shrines. Being in the same place definitely speeded up things and after breakfast at what I think is possibly the most British café in Osaka, though there toast is still rubbish, we were on our way.

We started the day by visiting the Fushimi inari shrine, or rather complex of shrines, just south of Kyoto. This place was truly incredible and also features in memoirs of a Geisha so I’m told. After entering at the foot of the mountain your eyes are assailed by many of those giant red gates so characteristic of Shinto shrines. The Fushimi Inari is actually a series of shrines interconnected by pathways lined with such gates.

I think I recall someone saying that there were over a thousand and I can definitely believe it, everywhere you looked there were strings of such gates winding their way up for miles and miles. As we entered from the bottom a pair of American girls proclaimed that, to paraphrase, it was a pretty long hike. Of course me being me that was a challenge so I set out briskly for the top.

There were many quite interesting little shrines dotted about the complex. I actually stopped at one to fill out a “Kanae Bina” which you bind to the shrines gate in the hopes it will grant your wish, I’m not telling what I wished for. There were also some lovely Tengu statues (wind guardians) and Kitsune (fox) shrines lining the way.

After stopping at a koi pond for a little rest with Mum and Dad I forged on ahead. I asked a lady at a café how far till the top and she told me it was about an hour. “Pah I can do it in 40 minutes.” I thought. I told the rents I was off to the top and I would see them at the bottom. We had hoped to be done by about 1pm so we could head to Ayashijima to see the lakes and cormorant fishing displays.

I reached the top which disappointingly was just a shrine with a small sign indicating it was the top of the mountain. This is of course where things started to go wrong. As any seasoned hiker will tell you, never go of the path. Sadly my old dual Achilles heels of boredom and curiosity got the better of me.

Descending from the mountain I found a small path leading away from the Tori gates. Figuring it would give me a better view off the side of the mountain, and also noting it was fairly well trodden, it seemed like a good idea. The other thing going through my head was that at the end of the day there were these great big red gates everywhere so I couldn’t get too lost.

How wrong I was. After wandering aimlessly for about an hour I realized I couldn’t remember where I’d come from. At that point the only real way to go was down. In the distance I saw something red and though that would be my ticket out of the undergrowth. Alas it was just a large drum of water for putting out fires.

It wasn’t long till I found myself in the middle of a bamboo forest and that's when I started to get scared. The bamboo shoots were very densely connected and I found it difficult to distinguish which way was which. Now I was getting really worried, I didn’t want to phone the rents jut yet though. I figured if I called them they would panic which would panic me more.

As luck would have it I managed to pick up on the sound of traffic. With no real Idea where I was and the fact that it was coming from a direction that led don, I figured it was my best bet to get down. After a few “Giri Giri” (close call) moments I emerged sweaty, mucky and covered in spider webs, on some form of road.

I gave my Dad a bell and explained what had happened and told him I’d phone again when I reached civilization. He chuckled at my idiocy, though I think it would have been different had I phoned earlier. I then set off towards the centre of the town I was in and asked for directions.

It turned out I’d actually emerged on the opposite side of the mountain from where I’d started, whoops. Still I think getting lost really does help you learn another language. Being in the backwaters no one really spoke English but I managed to cobble together enough information to get back to Kyoto.

I arrived at the station just next to the international manga museum, somewhere I had really wanted to visit, and so I phoned up my parents to tell them where I was headed. At this point they where fed up of waiting for me, something they had to do a lot (sorry again guys I’m definitely going to buy a watch), and so headed back to Tennoji.

After swinging buy Yoshinoya for a quick, and cheap, yaki-toridon I ventured into the museum. I say museum but to be honest it was more a glorified library. That's not to say it wasn’t interesting. There were some great exhibits on the history of manga, how manga works in modern japan. Not only that but as the building was a converted primary school there were many interesting displays about primary education in Japan and the buildings former life.

The main event was the manga though. Over 200000 volumes are collected here so far and their aim is to have a copy of every manga ever published. The corridors were lined with people of all ages reading away. In fact there was very little free space everywhere it was truly incredible. A personal highlight was the manga history hall where the shelves were arranged in chronological order. It was quite nice to  see the way the art style has developed through out the years.

I hunted out an issue of Lupin the III, a personal favorite, and tried to give it a read. The Kanji was completely beyond me sadly so I gave up and instead read the English version. I love the Lupin stories, they definitely reflect the global trend for crime capers in the late 70’s and they are always good fun. Before I knew it, it was after 6pm and time to head back to Osaka.

I put the books back said a farewell I kinda wish I lived in Kyoto just so I would have regular access to this place. Ah well I’ll just have to make th odd otaku pilgrimage every now and then.

By the time I got back to J-hoppers I was knackered and so, rather selfishly, asked my parents if they would mind meeting me there in Fukishima (no not the site of the nuclear plant it’s actually quite a common district name). They didn’t mind though so I asked around to see if I could find somewhere good to eat.

Ranna at the J-hoppers main desk recommended a place very nearby that apparently did excellent Japanese food. Sadly when we got there they had actually run out of food, guess it was really good if it was that popular. We wandered the streets for a few more minutes till I spied somewhere that looked good.

I felt it was time to introduce the parents to “Shabu Shabu”. This involves having a big pot of dashi set in the middle of the table on a small gas heater. Into it you chuck all manner of vegetables and thinly sliced meat, where they quickly cook, then dip them in a “tare” (sauce) before consuming.

It was a fun little place and the waitress was very boistress and typically Osakan, giving a heart “Okiini” (Thanks) to customers as they left. If I had one fault about the place it was that the only music playing the whole time was  the Beatles. Doesn’t matter how many miles you travel you just can’t get away from them ey.

Mata ne.

Kindness and Cockups. Kobe and candy.

Phew what a week. Shigoto, shigoto, shigoto (work, work, work). Sadly our beam time has not thrown up any concrete information so it seems I spent almost 60 hours awake for nothing. Ah well it was our first time so I wasn’t particularly hopeful. I have to say I’m so glad I was into Lego and Mechano as a child as I seem to have spent a good portion of the last week with an Alan key in hand. As Liam pointed out to me experimental hutches are like giant Mechano sets.

Anyway other than that this week hasn't been massively interesting. Besides work I got my alien residency card, which has opened the door to some cool things, namely I could now get a keitei (mobile phone). I have also got my hand on a nice road bike for…FREE. Unbelievable right.

So that brings me on to the title of the blog. Kindness. The level of generosity and patience I’ve experienced from people here has been unbelievable. After mentioning I needed a bike Ignace, the French guy I mentioned earlier, sent me a template message to send out to inquire about a second hand bike. I got a response nearly straight away, and all though I insisted on paying, the kind person offering the bike to me would have none of it. Sugoi (amazing).

This also brings me back onto my first cock-up, so it turns out that mailing list I used to send out the message shouldn’t be used in this way. I got a short sharp telling off. Still we don’t learn unless we make mistakes and I always resolve to only make them once.

So the next kindness, you can see a theme emerging here ey. The money I had brought with me finally ran out on Tuesday and due to an error processing my bank account I had no bankcard with which to process my wages. Bit of an issue since I’d hoped to go away on Friday with the free day holiday. Fortunately for me the secretarial staff where amazing and managed to get me my flight reimbursement money in cash. I do believe I owe them some cake.

Speaking of cake I thought I’d take a brief moment to talk about sweets. Someone the other day asked me what the sweets were like in Japan and I sadly couldn’t tell them. As I may have mentioned before I’m a bit funny with food and I have a horrible feeling I’ve lost some weight since I’ve been here. So I decided to investigate Japanese sweets further. Traditional Japanese sweets are called Wagashi and here are a few I’ve come across so far.

Mochi: Essentially a ball of glutinous rice flour covered in sugar and usually stuffed with something sweet. Most of the time this is Anko, or sweet red bean paste. Whilst not overly sweet these things have an amazing gooey texture and I can’t get enough of em.

Dango: Similar to mochi but stickier and on, well, a stick. Kind of like a sweet kebab.

Yokan: These are blocks of agar mixed with Anko and sugar. It’s similar to jelly but not quite so rubbery. Very tasty.

Taiyaki: This is again filled with anko. It’s essentially fried pancake like batter pressed around anko in the shape of a fish. I think they do other filling as well. You seem to be able to get them in many street markets.

There are also many cookies, including these nice black sesame seed ones I picked up yesterday. Fruit jellies and hard sweets to, I’m a big fan of the raw cane sugar things. And of course many odd flavors of chupa chup, including matcha (green tea) flavor.

Ok so yesterday. Now this was a fun day. I’d been emailing back and forth with a member of Osaka’s Frisbee team called Yuko for a while and had found out she was also into climbing. Yuko is a lot of fun. She’s very lively, I think that may be down to her job as a personal trainer, and is also very curious about England. She had told me she new of a nice place to climb in Kobe so we agreed to meet up on Friday as it was a national holiday.




On my way to the bus stop I noticed there was a festival going on just own the road from my flat. Had to go have a look around really. I’m not sure exactly what the occasion was, possibly just because it was Showa day, but it was pretty fun. There were loads of food stores, people selling locally grown goods and also some displays from the local school kids. The music and dancing was a lot of fun to watch.

I stayed for a bit but I was getting on for time and didn’t want to keep Yuko waiting. I set off on the now familiar trip to the station and took the train to Kobe. Unlike Osaka, Kobe station was a lot smaller and I easily found Yuko. We wandered for about ten minutes to the rock gym, introducing ourselves a bit more along the way.

The gym, called Kobe rock garden, was pretty small but lots of fun. It was all bouldering but that's not a problem, it was a god way to get back into climbing. I was a little confused at first. The grading system and how the routes were planned where very different to hat I’m used to. Also the starting footholds weren’t so great, but I eventually got the hang of the place (no pun intended).

Ah it was fun to be climbing again and it was nice to do it with many other enthusiasts. Although they didn’t speak much English the staff were very helpful and I think explaining climbing moves transcends language. Yuko got chatting to a couple there that were about our level and we all tried problems together. It was fun and there was much cheering whenever one of us reached the top hold.

After a good two and a half ours of bouldering I was getting pretty hungry. We got changed and Yuko led me down to the main shopping area of Kobe on the port. It seems really nice don there, much less busy than Osaka and actually reminded me of home a bit. I think I’ll have to look around Kobe again when I’m not so rushed, there seems to be quite a bit to do.
So onto the food. Yuko picked out a hamburger restaurant with a great view of the river. Hamburgers aren’t normally my thing, I’m not so good with beef, but it seemed impolite to disagree with my host so I just went with it. Now in Japan hamburgers are done a bit differently. As you can see from the picture they’re generally served like a stew with a thick onion gravy. It was good but a bit heavy and I think it sat on my stomach a little ☹.

Right so well fed we had a good chat about loads of things, mainly travelling and Frisbee though. Lots of talk about Frisbee in fact. Yuko told me all about a tournament coming up in July which should be cool. Apparently in Japan, and contrary to what I’d been told, things are the same as Britain. There is a real struggle to get women playing the sport. Yuko it seems really wants to expand the team in Osaka so they can enter more tournaments around Japan. I’ll have to help with that I think .

We left the restaurant and had a quick wander around the nearby shopping mall. I had asked her earlier about getting hold of a phone and noticed some signs up in one of the shops we passed. In we went and after a few initial exchanges we realized the salesperson spoke perfect English. I managed to get myself a good deal on a 2-year contract, half price with the 2-year contract, so I’m sorted phone-wise. Or rather I would be but my train was actually due to leave before the phone would be registered eep.

I had planned o meet up with Yuko again on Sunday anyway so she offered to pick up my phone whilst I legged it to the train station. Now I realize that this was a bit of a silly thing to do given I’d only met this person once, but my experiences so far have only been positive, plus as I’ve sad before Frisbee players are generally all right. So off I dashed.

Alas it was for nothing I missed the last bus home and had to get a taxi, which was outrageously expensive. Cock-up. It probably would have just been cheaper to stay in Kobe. Ah well never mind. Anyway I’ll finish there. Currently there is an open day going on at work but that's for another post. I’ll leave you all with a few pictures of my home cooking, including something I have dubbed okonomibreakfast, okonomiyaki batter mixed with fruit.

Dewa matta mina-san.