YONNER FOOD

I had only visited Okinawa once in my five years in Japan. I did not anticipate it to be a one hundred twenty minute ride from Centrair (Nagoya). I originally went to run a marathon with a few friends. But I always make it a point to do something foodie-like when in a new turf. So I booked a cooking class on the day after my six-hour footrace. 

I met up with Yonner Food's coordinator in front of a local shopping mall and she took me on a little  educational Okinawa Market tour. She explained the history of several items that were all very foreign to me. At one of the shops, I witnessed how smoked fish (bonito) transformed to fish flakes or katsuoboshi. It all went by so fast that I could not take a proper video to document the whole process. An important thing I learnt about Ryukyu cuisine was that royal dashi was made from a combination of both katsuo and pork broths, in a certain ratio. 

Pig face or chiraga is a popular ingredient to use in a few Okinawan dishes. I was instantly reminded of sisig, a beer match dish often seen at pubs in the Philippines, when I realized what it was. 

The market tour ended and she took me to her cooking studio. As I was the only student, I had a lot of hands-on-experience prepping the food. I was given a cookbook of everything we were to make that afternoon and it was all so presented in a very aesthetic way. 

We first prepared the dashi that we would use to cook the rice in, followed by slicing all the rest of the ingredients that would be used. While waiting for the pork to complete stewing, we assembled the goya juice, and with local, natural additives it was a delightful concoction.

Clockwise from black bowl: a) Rafute, ginger and soy-simmered pork; b) Goya Juice; c) Kufa Juicy, Okinawan fried rice; d) Asa Jiru, soup eaten when commemorating the death of a loved one; e) Goya Chanpuru, healthified stir-fried bitter gourd. 

To book and learn more information about the class I took, click here --> http://yonnerfood.jp/

Firsts in Ibaraki

It was a long ride from Chubu to Ibaraki. That includes getting lost at my least favorite station in Japan. (Shinjuku). I wore myself out at the gym and by virtually chatting with people before travelling so I could fall asleep in the bus, but that didn't work. Google doesn't give very routes getting to our first destination- Hitachi Seaside Park. If you intend to travel, you must be aware that the last stop on the JR line should be Katsuta. There is also a bus from downtown Tsukuba to Hitachi- much cheaper but leaves 6:58AM and 3 in the afternoon.

So here is the list of firsts:

1. STROLLING THROUGH RED BUSHES (コキア）I originally saw it off a spread on National Geographic magazine when I was little and it has been on my bucket list ever since. 

2. MANEUVERING A TWO-PERSON BIKE.It was hard to control at first, but with proper lower limb coordination it got us places in no time. Great team-building activity for couples. LOL.













3. EXPERIENCING AN EARTHQUAKE
But I had a feeling my trip to Ibaraki wouldn't be complete without it. This place is always on the news because it was nearest to the epicenter of an earthquake.

4. NOT GOING ON A NIHON-RYORI FOODTRIP.
We had a couple of flavored highballs for dinner at an izakaya, but completely forgot about eating NATTO. I was hoping for Natto-flavored ice-cream/ soft serve at some point of the trip, but it never came to pass.

5. BAMBOO-CHARCOAL INFUSIONSThe one thing I came to Japan for was to study food technology the fun way. Burger King Japan recently added these black babies to their menu, made possible by bamboo-charcoal. I am so stealing this idea when I put up a resto in PH. My friend went all '幸せ!' after she swallowed the last of her Kuro Diamond burger. It's not an Ibaraki culinary thing. We just happened to spot a branch and went straight for it. No American food back in the mountains of 長野 :(




6. ENTERING A BYOUIN. I'm the kind of person who avoids trips to the doctor coz I think I can take care of myself since I used to belong to the medical field. I was able to go, not because I was sick or anything, but for meeting a friend. Oh another first... meeting up at a hospital's cafe. That's never happened before. Haha.

Wher'm I at?

A few of you are wondering where I'm based these days. The hint lies in this landmark's photo.
I'm sure some of you will figure it out sooner.

So if you happened to be curious about my teaching schedule, I hope this entry serves as assurance that I'm fine even if we haven't been conversed in a long while :)

my experience with IELTS

I apologize for being on hiatus for over two months.
I'm just trying to belt out my frustration on the latest exam I took.

It's now thirteen days after I've taken the exam.
Naturally, the first thing I did as soon as I woke up was to check the results of my exam, online.
Total band score was 0.5 lower than what I aimed for.

My overall band score was mainly pulled down because of writing. I admit I'm not a very good writer but I was quite shocked with the grade I received. While preparing for the exam, I had been warned by my textbook that this section's band score would go down by 0.5 if we didn't write at least 150 words for task 1, which was to describe a diagram, graph or map in twenty minutes. I got a simple graph for the exam. Differences in two years, among six points along the X-axis had to be described- easy peasy. I strongly believe I pointed out all the good points and other noteworthy details, but my problem was getting enough words to avoid the deductions. Since the exam was hand-written, I had consumed time erasing, as well as editing and rewriting several lines. In addition, you wouldn't know if you had satisfied the limit because this isn't a computer-based exam.

I'm friggin' disappointed with this section. I mean, who writes essays by hand these days? I've never had to hold a pen or pencil in four years after graduation, except when I had to take down notes during my TOEFL in January and other instances which involved filling out forms. People who take this kind of exam go to graduate school, MBA and work- where they'll have to do all their research papers and what-nots on Microsoft Word or other similar programs. Therefore, it's preposterous to let test takers handwrite a certain amount of words under time pressure, without having a word counter.

I heard a rumor that IELTS will be conducted via computer in the future. If I had a reason to retake the exam, I'd wait for that. Fortunately, my current score's enough to study anywhere but not to work. EL-OH-EL! Guess I won't be seeing any hobbits and 'roos soon :(

Coursera

This is not an advertising feature, but I highly recommend bored office workers, bums and semi-bums (like myself) to keep your brain cells active by going over to the site linked at the bottom of this page. At Coursera, I feel like a student again; most especially with the business course I took recently from Darden's (UVA) online school. I will admit that it's tough if you're juggling an unfamiliar course with a full-time job. In my case I had a flexible 9-hour online job, but had another part-time in addition to that, and was taking courses in between. As a result my concentration was divided and I spent my weekends studying instead of relaxing...nevertheless I always believe the benefits outweigh the costs.

WHY ENROLL?? 

1. Less burden on your wallet (or card). College may be affordable, depending on where you live in the world. But not everyone has access to it. And since education is a human right, Coursera staff unsolicitedly demonstrates their unwavering support through this site. That's right folks! It's totally fuh-REE! 

2. Reputable Institutions. Apart from the Ivy League institutions in the States, I'm not familiar with other high ranking state universities. I'm not even familiar with the cream of crop in the Asian region. Their school directory includes Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Tokyo University as well as other more acclaimed schools like UC Berkley, Standford University, MIT and the like.

3. Portable classroom. Like any other open university, the lectures are downloadable; therefore you can watch it anywhere, at your convenient time. So if you're in the middle of a long vacation, or are on a long-haul flight, you can watch the videos on your smartphone, tablet or notebook and answer the quizzes right after. Like interaction? No problemo! Virtual interaction is made possible through the forums section of each course. In fact, if there's a large number of people taking the same course in a certain city, some students are serious enough to meet up and have a real face-to-face discussion about the course/ homework.

4. Personal calendar-friendly. Since most of the schools I've been enrolling in are located in America, I have more than half a day to submit requirements (papers/quizzes) before the deadlines. Thankfully, America's time is well-behind most countries, which entails convenience for us non-Americans to meet the usual midnight cut-off of the schools- because that would mean 8AM or later on a Monday (in my area, at least). The best thing is that I don't have to follow a strict regimen when i should start/finish a certain video. IF it's a familiar topic, I can watch all videos, answer the quiz and complete everything else in just 2 hours for an entire week. If not, it'll take at most 3 hours a day.

5. Up-to-date, competitive and relevant information. I regret to say that my undergrad was old-fashioned and conservative to some extent. Some of the tables we had to memorize for BMI (body-mass index) interpretation were no longer used in the West. Global trends on nutrition labeling, thought-provoking discoveries on diabetes, business strategies of incumbent valuable companies were yet another indispensible bit of information I learnt from this platform. Might be even more practical (let alone reasonable) than taking a full second degree, like I had originally planned after my undergrad.

6. Rehearsals for studying abroad. So you've gotten admission to your dream school, and you're just passing the time doing nothing but waiting for reality to sink in. Well, this is nothing short of the perfect way for to practice while on an English speaking/listening hiatus after the nerve-wracking TOEFL/IELTS and/or GMAT exams. Most lectures are administered in English, and is therefore fitting for you MBA/Graduate School hopefuls to brush up before the actual thing.  

If these six reasons aren't persuasive enough, check out https://www.coursera.org/

YOU CAN'T MUTE A MUTE

It's fourty-five after four in the afternoon and I am sitting next to a
clique of mutes here at a coffee shop in my town.
As you would imagine, they try to explain themselves through multiple gestures until
their peers understand their point.
But you (nor they) have any idea how incredibly loud they are.

The first five minutes they were here, I was too engrossed in my work to notice what their deal was.
I had assumed they were playing CHARADES or something.

Ten minutes later they were still quiet. I only heard them giggle every other half minute.

At first I thought that being next to them, I was in luck because I could get some
peace and quiet here while finishing my case study.
But now I'm involuntarily learning their single-syllabled vocabulary while wasting my time blogging about them instead of doing my work.

I hope I get done with my paper before my laptop's battery runs out...

2NE-4

For some reason, I can't fall asleep tonight...
I've been lying restless in bed for the past 3 hours....
I'd usually read some medical/science journal coz that would put me to sleep in no time.... but that didn't work out..
Oh well, I might as well as blog...I hope i feel drowsy enough at the end of this...

This day last year....
I was relaxing from a tiresome business trip in Cebu.
I had a late dinner with my boss and a guy who everyone was trying to set me up with;
got surprised by the live band at the bar when they sang Happy Birthday to me at midnight;
retired from drinking by hanging out at the bar at our hotel;
got saved by the same guy from drinking a shot of tequila, which was a treat by another guy we were drinking with;
sanely danced Teach Me How to Dougie with baristas, coz the guy was too shy (?)

This day two years ago....
I was too stingy to celebrate with others..
I bought myself my first iPod touch....

This day three years ago.... 
I ruined a huge surprise party my friends were supposed to throw me.
I rented a pool and bought pizza for a group of friends and myself and
witnessed my guy friends dance and sing for me at midnight after swimming.
later that day I was watching the Pyrolympics Competition (fireworks synced with music) on Manila Bay with my close friends and cousins.

This day four years ago.... 
I was still in college, and was returning home from on the job training, which was interviewing mothers around the community about their eating habits.
I suddenly felt like celebrating at 10PM with the crowd I used to hang out with.
Back then, it was still safe to be walking around at night and we played a lot of computer games back then till the wee hours of the morning....

This day five years ago....I was rushing a paper for my diet therapy class but because we had just gotten our internet cable hooked up, I got sidetracked with answering the greetings on my Facebook page with a :).Thankfully I don't have to waste time doing that this year. LOL.

It's on birthdays you know who your friends are... they don't need a social networking site to remind them someone's waiting to be greeted.