All the K’s – Korea, Kaze, Kobe and Klimbing?

Another very interesting week here for me. I think the very close similarity between the Japanese word for rubbish stormy weather (“Areru”) and the Japanese word for great weather (“Hareru”) is a good reflection of how changeable things are here. Seriously the rainy season, “tsuyu”, is pretty crazy. The day can start out bright and sunny and then out of nowhere, bam, absolute downpour. I now understand why all Japanese textbooks teach you the phrase “watashi no kasa” (my umbrella) very early on.

 

Anyway this week in work I’ve not been up to a whole lot. Mostly planning my new PhD project. Oh and “kaigi” (meetings), “amari ni mo oku no kaigi” (too many meetings). This especially frustrating when we have such amazing views outside of our office. Thankfully after a meeting about the density of meetings we have now limited their numbers.

I also managed to squeeze in a tour of the Cryo-electron Microscopy facility thanks to Yonekura-san. The what in the where I hear you cry. I realize there are quite a few words there that won’t make sense to all of you reading. Allow me to back track.

As you will have read the theme of enlightenment runs strong in my life. Not just in terms of the new insights into my own nature that I’ve encountered but also because my PhD thesis is strongly focused on optics and imaging. To that end I’m always keen to learn new techniques and on Monday I was able to act on that.

So what is Cryo-electron Microscopy (Cryo EM for short). It is basically yet another type of diffractive or reflective imaging similar to any other type of light microscopy, whether visible light, UV or X-ray. Now electrons are funny things. They have a property known as Wave-Particle duality. This is pretty much what it says on the tine. They can act like a particle, something with mass, or a wave, similar to a photon of light.

In Cryo-EM samples cooled by liquid nitrogen, that's the Cryo part, are bombarded with electrons from an electron gun. These electrons will either pass straight through the sample or be reflected back, giving a read out of light and dark patches. The frequency at which electrons pass through is dependent upon the density of that region of your sample. Basically by detecting the amount of electrons that pass through the sample, or transmit, you can build an image of the shape of your sample.

This is actually only one type of  EM, known as Transmission EM (TEM). The other popular technique is know as scanning EM (SEM). Here the electron beam is highly focused, unlike in TEM which has a much broader field. The sample area is split up into a grid and each section is scanned in sequence. What the SEM actually detects is the loss of energy as the electrons interact with the sample. The energy loss is dependent upon the density of sample, the atomic species it’s composed of and so on. By accumulating these changes in energy for the entire grid it is possible to produce  an image of much larger samples, this is where all those cool close up images of insects come from.

This process is actually very damaging to your sample however and this I the reason to cool the sample in liquid nitrogen first. The low temperatures slow the transfer of energy within your sample when the electrons hit it, and so you can take more images of your sample. It’s a pretty cool technique and there are lots of overlaps between what we are currently trying to do with CDI so hopefully I’ll be able to try it out soon.

Ok science bit over time for a weekly wagashi wrap up. So this week I picked up a sweet potato cake, really nice density and very moist without any dairy, a good find I feel. I also tried out a “purin” flavored mochi. Purin is one of those quirky mispronunciations all over the Japanese language. It’s basically derived from the word pudding and is a kind of caramel thing. The mochi had a custardy flavor with a caramel center it was pretty nice.

From the local I picked up some nice hard sweets, one was kind of like peanut brittle and the other was some kind of menthol sweet with Chinese pear and honey. I also tried out something a bit more savory, deep fried mochi studded with peanuts. So deep fried food is something I generally avoid for 2 reasons. 1) it makes me anxious and 2) generally they don’t sit right on my belly (maybe because they make me anxious). Anyway these were all right, they had a nice hint of soy, but I doubt I’ll get them again.

Right now onto more fun things. I’d planned to go Hiking on the weekend but it was unfortunately not to be. As I said the weather is very changeable at the minute and in the end the forecast for the weekend was heavy downpours. In fact a typhoon has swept its way throughout the whole of Kansai. So my plans had to rapidly change. I’d decided instead I’d head out to Osaka and catch up with Yuko again. She had a climbing gym she wanted to check out in Osaka and I wouldn’t mind another chance to explore the city.

Of course there is a theme running through this post and that is of best laid plans, and how they usually don’t come to fruition. I had to wait in for a delivery first thing on Saturday and my plan was to head into Aioi for a bit of shopping. There were still a few things I needed; in particular food my cupboards were absolutely bare.

So onto the bus I went and to my surprise I bumped into Yoonhee and some of her other group members. I’d totally forgotten that they had some more beamtime next week. It turned out they were off to visit Soonam, who had recently been back to Korea. At dinner the other day all the guys in my group had been talking about things they missed from back home and it turned out Soonam had brought some Korean food back with him. He had invited everyone over to chill at his house and eat some Korean stuff.

Yoonhee and the gang me up with Soonam at the bus stop and he kindly invited me to come along as well. I wasn’t going to refuse, for one it would be rude and for another I quite like these guys. So I had to text my apologies to Yuko as I wouldn’t be making it to Osaka. I told everyone I would meet them later as I wanted to try and sort out Internet access at the local KDDI (one of the IP’s in Japan) shop.

Now this was an interesting experience. My current location is essentially very rural. I’m in the sticks, the backwaters, and any other slang term for countryside you care to add, of Japan. As such English is not as widely spoken as in the cities. To that end I was cautious upon entering the shop and set the precedent with the phrase “Sumimasen. Eigo wa daijoubu desu ka?” (Excuse me is English ok?). To which I got a resounding “Hai.”

It totally wasn’t. None of the staff spoke a word of English. It essentially took me an hour and a half to explain what I wanted in very poor Japanese, with pointing aplenty. Now I realize I’m the guilty party here, I’m in their country I should really be able to speak their language. Still the Japanese service industry is so eager to please that they’ll happily lie. Seriously if they’d have said no that would have been cool and saved me an hour. Never mind it's sorted now and I can pick up my ‘dongle’ next week.

After that debacle I needed a sack to calm my nerves. I picked up some Shiruko, or redbean porridge. This is anko pure with little mochi floating in it, very tasty. Now it was time to hit the main shops, namely the “hyaku en” shop and the local fashion outlet. So as I’ve said, many times, it’s the rainy season right now. For this reason I needed some new threads, namely a quality raincoat. Thankfully I got a pretty sweet one at the outlet store for 660yen (about a fiver). Next I got myself a bamboo steamer for 100yen, I have been craving siumai and gyoza lately, dunno why, so I needed something to cook them in.

I moved on to the large household appliance outlet, Daiko, next. I was investigating the prices of rice cookers. Unfortunately they were mega expensive even at the outlet. On the plus side I did manage to get hold of a much needed yoga mat. I finished up my shopping spree by picking up a load of foodstuffs for my fridge and cupboards. I think I’m getting the hang of what things are now.

Right then purchases made it was time to head to Soonam’s place. His house was actually pretty big, though right next to the train tracks which was pretty noisy whenever the Shinkansen buzzed past. The Korean food turned out to be Ramen and more Kimichee. It was actually really nice, I finally understand why my group have been complaining about Japanese ramen, it’s just not as good and they don’t know anything about spice.

All the food was cooked in a couple of pans and then you just dipped your chopsticks in and took what you wanted. It was a fun night, I was a bit left out of the conversation most of the time, not speaking a word of Korean, but company is still company. We were watching Korean drama’s on the TV, I was trying to follow along through the Japanese subtitles with little success. Still soap opera’s are the same world over so I think I got what was going on.

Food finished the booze and snacks were whipped out. My own contribution were sugar rice balls (I think though I can’t read the kanji). Japanese ‘Lager beer’ always makes me laugh. I tried to explain that lager and beer were to different things in the U.K. to some of the younger guys in Yoonhee’s group though I’m not sure I explained it to well. I passed that up in favor of some apple juice. Soonam had also brought back some Soju, a kind of Korean spirit made from sweet potatoes. I gave it a little taste, it wasn’t too bad actually a bit like white rum.

Sadly the night had to come to a close at 8 o’clock due to the last bus leaving Aioi being stupidly early. It was fun all the same and it’s always good to get to know your co-workers a bit better. They are really friendly and are always very accommodating, they all speak great English and someone usually fills me in on what conversations are about which is really nice. All the nostalgia kind of made me feel a bit homesick actually.

Yuko gave me a text later on asking if I fancied going climbing in Kobe instead. I was sold quite easily and so decided to get an early night so I could make the most of my time in Kobe. I had bought some homemade cookies from one of the local markets in Aioi and they seemed like a good idea for a late night snack. I had checked the label, no milk yay. Sadly not well enough. They smelled a bit odd and I noticed a strange taste after the first one. I looked back at the label. I’d not read the katakana well enough. One of the ingredients was, “pamazan chizu”. Yup cheese and chocolate cookies, go figure. Needless to say my sleep was fairly disturbed that night.

I still managed to get up early somehow, or maybe I didn’t sleep. My stomach was a still a little upset but luckily I’d grabbed some instant “kayu”. This is a type of Japanese rice porridge and it paired very well with a banana and some honey. I’d agreed to meet Yuko at 11am to go climbing but it looked like I was going to be early so I’d have time to wander Kobe a bit more.

In fact by the time I arrived in Kobe the typhoon predicted earlier was in full force, mental. I was very glad for my free brolly and new raincoat I can tell you. Yuko was in fact being held up by said storm and so would be even later. No worries Kobe is a pretty city, I really do love the place, so I though it would be nice to take in some of the architecture. The rain was intense but it made the scenery a bit more interesting, all the different colors of umbrellas bobbing up and down the streets was quite a sight. 

Also since there has been comment on how much I talk about food I thought I'd photograph some of the qurkier things I saw. I think someone should be shot or at least fired for the sweet brand "collon cream". I also took the opportunity to nip back to the import shop, my peanut butter supplies were low. They also had some gluten free cocoa. Not that I’m a celiac but it made me think of the guys back at Liverpool Uni so it was purchased on the spot, plus hot chocolate is awesome and it was proper cocoa powder.

Ok so at about 11:40 Yuko finally arrived but I was on the wrong side of Kobe. I figured I’d just hop a train since it wasn’t too far. In my haste I got off at the wrong stop. It was only one stop too early though so I figured not too far to walk right? Wrong it was over a mile away. On the plus side I could follow directly beneath the tracks n what was a cool little shopping street. Loads of independent businesses, vintage record shops, second hand stores and so on. In fact I managed to get the rice cooker I’d been after at about a third of the in store price, bargain.

 I got to Kobe station just after 12 and Yuko decided it was time for lunch. She said she knew a good place nearby and so off we went. It was just a food court in one of the nearby malls, I told her that I hoped she wasn’t taking me to KFC jokingly. Luckily even the fast food in Japan is pretty awesome, you can eat cheap and well most places. Yuko got herself some ramen and I picked up some gyoza and rice from a place called Kite Kite. They were lovely and just what I’d been craving.

Well fed and after a few reorientations, turns out Yuko’s sense of direction is as awful as mine, we made it to Kobe Rokku Garden again. This place is an awesome little bouldering centre. It is very small but well laid out, the number of hold makes good use of the space. I managed to clear all of the blue problems this time around and got about half way through the reds. A good achievement I feel and after 2 and 1/2 hours of that I was knackered.

The place filled up pretty quickly, I guess with people trying to get out of the rain. There were also a few beginner classes on which added to the number of people in the center. It was a nice ay to do a bit of people watching though, it always amazes me the variety of people that you see climbing. There was a cool old guy showing a bunch of young guns how it’s done, a few gaijins like myself. There was also this one guy who was just an incredible climber. He moved on the wall so well, every move was fluid and precise. Some people just stick to the walls I hope to get that good one day. Me and Yuko labeled it “Zaro style” (monkey style).

We both agreed we’d had enough, “otsukaresama deshita”, literally “you must be tired” but generally just used after a period of hard work. We headed into the nearby mall for a little while before I had to go. Yuko wanted to check out one of the big sports shops to see if they had any climbing shoes. On the way we got some Taiwanese pearl tea. This is a kind of soft drink with little beads of tapioca in it, really nice, refreshing and filling at the same time. It doesn’t necessarily have to be tea, it can also be more like a milk shake or, in the case of the lychee one I bought, a smoothie.

The sports shop didn’t yield anything climbing related sadly. As I’d already gotten myself a yoga mat there was nothing I particularly needed but I was content to wander. We moved upstairs next to have a look around Sofbank. This place is dangerous as I’ve mentioned before, so much technology so little time to window shop. I confessed that I was a fan of Anime and Yuko told me about a few of the weirder animations she new of.

We also checked out the games section and I finally got my hands on a 3DS. These things are actually pretty impressive. The 3D doesn’t really jump out but it adds a considerable field of depth that I wasn't expecting. The only problem is you do have to keep pretty steady or it starts to wreck your eyes. I was done after about 10 minutes.

Time flew by in Sofmap and it was actually getting on for time. I made it back to the station just in time and for once got back to Aioi in time for the bus. Yet another fun weekend, though Saturday night and the climbing really made me homesick. I don't half miss you guys. I was pleasantly surprised to get a phone call from my Dad and the gang at about 10 o’clock. That really made my night guys.

Dewa mata kondo mina-san.