Vikingess Voyages: Nabe

Showing posts with label Nabe. Show all posts

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Field Trip to Kameoka

Anette 9:41:00 PM

Hi everyone! Here in Kyoto life at Ritsumeikan is going on as usual. I must admit that I did intend to write about my class-trip to Kameoka earlier, but these days I'm just too busy to write anything unrelated to school-work.. Unfortunately.. Anyhow, better late then never, right?..

My Regional Sustainable Development class

I guess I'll start off with a little bit of background information. One of the classes I take this semester is about Regional Sustainable Development. Quite luckily our teacher decided to take us on a class trip to Kameoka in the end of October. Here he wanted to let us take a look at how they try to develop the community in order for them to be able to withstand a depopulation of the area through various measures. As you might already know, Japan is facing a problem when it comes to the aging society combined with a declining birthrate, which makes it even more important for small towns and cities to keep the area attractive if they want to make sure that it will remain sustainable also in the future.

At a local farmers market our teacher told us about strategies for growing better crops in Kameoka

And, as you might have guessed, Kameoka (亀岡市) is also such a city. It is situated just outside Kyoto City, and it has a population at around 93,000 people. The area has actually been used for farming for centuries, and is known for good quality. However, even though Kameoka seems to have a good reputation when it comes to their agricultural products there are still reasons to worry about the sustainability of the city in the future.

Our sensei has been cooperating with the local farmers on different project in this area for more than 20 years, and is really engaged in the project of developing different ways to keep the city alive.

In the future they are planning to develop the area even more, and with the combination of eco-friendly activities they are going to make it into a tourist attraction.

In Kameoka they do not want to rely on chemicals to make their vegetables grow

This has resulted in their so-called COOL vegetables-project, where they aim at growing vegetables in an environmental friendly way-

As we got to see, the projects here focuses a lot on the concept of eco-friendlyness, and this is combined with original ideas to make the project economically sustainable as well. For instance I can mention their use of Bio Char, which both is easy and cheap, and at the same time can be used to facilitate a reduction of green house gases.

Our teacher in front of a poster with information about one of their projects

A windmill and a small shrine

The timing of our field trip couldn’t have been better, because on the 23-25^th of October they were having a local festival here as well. Lanterns nicely decorated the streets, and there were also a lot of stands where they sold food like takoyaki and other typical festival food. Not to mention the huge mikoshi (portable shrines)!

A lantern in Kameoka City

The street was so cozy!

There were also some samurai armors for display in some of the small houses

Samurai armor closeup!

One of the huge Mikoshi

The front of the mikoshi

The main street of the festival, where they were selling many types of typical Japanese food.

After a trip through the festival area all of the class ended up in a nice Japanese restaurant where our teacher had done a reservation for us. We had a great dinner (or perhaps we could call it a nabe (鍋) / hot-pot party) before heading back to Ritsumeikan University in the evening.

We ended the day with a great dinner!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Wagashi

Wagashi-class in 弘道館: Tea Ceremony, Kimono & 鍋-Party!

Anonymous 11:17:00 PM

Like I have mentioned in a previous blogpost I'm taking Wagashi (Japanese Confectionery)-classes at Ristumeikan this semester. I have to say though, that we have been doing quite a lot beside making sweets in these classes (we have a lot of theory classes about Japanese culture etc as well), and the class this week was in particularly special. Our wagashi-teacher invited us to the former house of a Confucian scholar called Kien Minagawa (皆川淇園), which is a house build back in 1806 (in the Edo-period 江戸時代). Here we got to take part in a tea-ceremony, dress up in Kimono and not to mention having a Nabe (hot pot) party together at the end of the day.

The entrance to 弘道館

A picture of the garden

Arriving early we helped chopping the vegetables we were going to eat later that evening

The Tokonoma (床の間)

After helping with the preparations those of us who arrived early got the chance to wear Japanese Kimono (着物). Though I have been here for nearly a year now this was actually my first time to try one on, so it was quite exiting..

Getting dressed is a lot of work! Luckily we did get help..

Those of us who got the chance to wear Kimono (+ Alex in Samurai outfit..)!

Alex got to dress up like a Samurai.

Me in Kimono

Before entering the room of the tea ceremony we had to wash our hands outside in the garden fountain (つくばい -> 蹲)

Our teacher seems to collect things that has a special background and history. This tea cup was actually used by David Beckham under the World Cup in Berlin 2009.!!!)

Our teacher (to the right) talking about the different tools being used during a tea ceremony

After the tea ceremony was over the room was made into a much less formal party-room instead. The Nabe some of us had helped preparing earlier the day was brought in, and we had a huge nabe-party!
This is probably one of my best school days ever, haha..

Getting ready for a nabe party!

A picture from our table.

At 弘道館 they do have some monthly arrangements where you among others can experience a Japanese tea ceremony yourself. The place is close to the Imperial Palace so it is quite easy to find, and the address is

京都市右京区長者町通新町東入元土御門町524-1

Also, feel free to check out their web site (not translated into English yet)

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Nabe

Christmas Calendar: December 21th

Anette 9:39:00 AM

On the 21st it was time for another nabe-party, this time to celebrate Mika´s birthday!

Pay attention to the table; it is a so called kotatsu (炬燵) which is special for Japan. There is a small electric oven built into the table itself, and with a blanket covering the sides of the table you can warm your feet under the table.