Lost In Translation

2019 Summer: Spokane

Brandywine Bar & Bottle Shop just opened near my parents house at the bottom of Nettleton. Five beers on tap and a ton of wine selections.

Waterworks at Audubon Park.

Downriver golf course.

The mighty Spokane River.

For the Love of God Brewing slated to open later this month on Northwest Blvd.

A “proper” sub sandwich from Sub-Division.

Midnight movie madness at The Garland Theater/Monty Python and the Holy Grail was being screened.

Dutch Brother’s Coffee-local coffee shop chain where my niece works.

Drumheller Springs Park.

The main purpose was to celebrate my father's 80th birthday-80 beers from my brother.

From left to right Jimmy (my brother-in-law), Kraig (brother), the birthday boy, and yours truly.

My brother's twins getting into the action.

2019 Burlington, Vermont

This will be my last official visit to Burlington, Vermont to observe the study abroad program between TWCU and St. Michael's College, since this is the final year of my limited term contract with TWCU. It's a lovely campus and a charming little city. I'll miss my annual visit.

Casavant Nature Area trail.

Dinner at a new place in nearby Winooski, El Cortijo, above a small pollo burrito.

A coffee cup outside the popular Penny Clyde Cafe downtown.

Vegan chili and a turkey bacon sandwich at Zabby & Elf's Stone Soup, after seeing Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Little Wolf Pale Ale, Zero Gravity at American Flatbread Burlington Hearth.

Lunch at Sneakers, a BLT Fried Egg and Cheese with fries. I missed eating here in the past since it is only open from 7-3.

Hagi, Yamaguchi

It was about four hours by train from Izumo, Shimane to Hagi, Yamaguchi, which is considered part of the Chugoku area. Hagi is an old castle town with lots of old historical buildings and houses.  I had planned to take a bus across the mountains to get to Yamaguchi city-but all transport services were closed on Thursday, so I 'll go on Friday.

Higashi Hagi train station.

Crossing the river.

I had lunch in a lovely old house in the historic district, Hotorite.

Dry curry with an onsen egg, salad and corn soup.

The approach to Hagi castle ruins.

The Hagi Museum.

The Hagi Meirin Gakusha.

My shelter from the storm, Hagi Grand Hotel Tenku. An approaching tropical storm has closed down all transportation so I had to spend an extra day in Hagi rather than move onto Yamaguchi city. This design is very 60s, and reminds me of the Hotel New Otani in Tokyo that was featured in You Only Live Twice.

Hokoji temple.

Shoin shrine

Tempura udon.

I tried to eat at Maru my first night in Hagi, but it was fully booked. I managed to get a seat my second night though. My kind of place-lots of local nihonshu and food. Pictured here a six brewery nihonshu taster, homemade pickles, and home cooked mutsu pork produced in Hagi and aged two weeks.

Deep fried Choshu chicken karage.

Toyo Bijin three sample taster set.

Deep fried "Kintaro" fish also known as "Himeji."

Izumo, Shimane

At the Izumo airport about an hour bus ride from Izumo Taisha, the first stop on this tour.

A traditionally designed Starbucks in front of the shrine.

Soba is one of the specialties of the region.

The main gate to the shrine.

Shimane Museum of Ancient Izumo

It turns out a friend from Tokyo, Ken, and his wife were in Izumo visiting his parents for the Obon holiday and offered to guide me around. First stop a beach side shrine.

Coins put in the holes as offerings.

A small shrine over looking Izumo.

The views.

Next stop Shimane Winery.

Tasting bowls.

Sparkling wine tasting as advised by the local-pretty, pretty good.

Cool sculpture near Izumo city station across from my hotel.

I think Club Lady Ship has seen better days.

I ended up at a place next to my hotel called Bamboo that looked cheap and cheerful, my favorite kind of place when traveling alone, with lots of local food and drink. I started off with an assorted plate of seasonal sashimi.

Kimchi gyoza with Korean chili paste.

A taster of three local nihonshus.

Here's a sample from my friend Tomo's family 's brewery, Gassan.

Rounding out the meal with seaweed rice and small clam miso soup.

Shimane and Yamaguchi

Last year I made my first trip to the San'in area area when I visited Tottori and Shimane for a conference last year. Now I have only one prefecture left to visit (of 47) and that is Yamaguchi prefecture. Originally I was thinking of taking the Sunrise Izumo, one of the last overnight train left, Monday night from Tokyo station. The main attraction of Izumo is the Izumo Taisha shrine-one of the oldest and most important shrines in Japan. But when I tried to get a ticket later in the afternoon of first day the tickets were available-they were already sold out for my date. So I changed my plan to fly to Izumo and stay the night and then go onto historical Hagi, which is four by train from Izumo and then onto Yamaguchi city where I can catch a shinkansen back to Tokyo. However, there is a typhoon approaching this week which may mess with my travel plans Friday.

2019 Okinawa JALT Summer Language Teaching Symposium

In Okinaawa you will see many of these guard lion dogs-shisa-these were in my hotel in Naha.

Koukusaidori in Naha.

I got inspiration to visit the Dojo Bar from the late Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown episode in Okinawa.

Local libations-Orion Beer and awamori-the local "moonshine-which I quite like.

My former student Anthony has moved from Hong Kong to Naha. We caught up I saw him about two years ago in Hong Kong last.

Here's a "shimabuta" (locally sourced pork)sausage with garlic, special sauce, shichimei (spicy powder), and sea weed sprinkles.

I was persuaded by the shop name, Doraemon, to eat at this kinawa soba shop-he's a famous cat robot with no ears.

Miyako meat Okinawa soba.

The location for the conference: Okinawa Gender Equality Centre (Tiruru).

One of my old students from Meiji recommended his great aunt's recent restaurant in Naha not far from my hotel, Kappaou Ren.

Cold corn soup and a cold egg plant dish with bonito flakes as apetizer.

Mixed sashimi plate.

Tempura shrimp.

Awamori-local liquor.

Anago (salt water eel) tempura.

The proprietor and an unusual statue.

.

A friendly izakaya on Kokusaidori.

At the airport earlier than usual since it was raining.

Kobe 2019

My first stop was at In Tha Door Brewery, which I somehow missed on recent trips to Kobe. I found out about it in a New York Times article. I'm here for the annual JALT Pan SIG Conference at Konan University.

Session IPA.

My hotel this time around is near Kobe's Chinatown.

I was going to try a new gyoza (pot stickers) restaurant, but it was getting late so I went to a local classic, Hyotan, which was just up the street.

Nightlife.

Australian Green Ant Gin from Adelaide tasted at Bar Puzzle, a gin joint I discovered on my last trip.

Inside the Motomachi train station near Chinatown.

0 for 2 in visiting the Tadanori Yokoo Museum of Contemporary Art, two years ago it was closed due to typhoon damage. This time they were preparing the next exhibition.

It looks interesting though.

There was another museum I wanted to visit nearby, about a 15 minute walk toward the harbor, the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art.

There was an exhibition by Kyosai, one of my favorite Japanese artists.

Perhaps the ugliest public art I have ever seen.

The conference is in Nishinomiya, a wealthy suburb between Kobe and Osaka. It is sister cities with my hometown of Spokane, Washington.

Konan University Cube Campus is the conference location.

Back to school, this shop is called Gyoza Daigaku,("Gyoza University").

A couple of servings of garlic infused goodness.

More Chinatown in Motomachi.

Minokichi

On my way to visiting my friend Ted, I stopped at Minokichi, a Kyoto kaiseki style restaurant for lunch.

Assorted sashimi.

Assorted cold appetizers.

Tofu & mushroom soup with Kyoto white miso.

Boiled eggplant with carrot and green pea.

Rice, pickles, and red miso soup.

Dessert.

Koyasan, Wakayama

One of the last prefectures for me to visit was Wakayama, which like, Mie, was one that I had passed many times since it is west of Tokyo but requires one to go south away from other Kansai meccas such as Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. Koyasan has long been on my radar as one of the three major sacred sites in Japan (the otehr two are Hiesan (Enrakuji) in Kyoto and Ozoresan in Aomori that I visited last year). It is the center of Shingon Buddhism as established by Kobo Diashi and several people I know had done temple stays there and enjoyed it. After I have planned to stop by Kyoto and hang out with my friend Ted following my stay.

It's a bit tricky to get to Koyasan, after arriving in Osaka (three hours by bullet train), it involves taking a subway 15 minutes to Namba station then getting an express train to get to the base of the mountain (one hour and a half or more depending on the type of express). Then one must take this cable car to the top and then a bus up a windy mountain road to get to the scared site.

I decided to start with one of the major attractions, Okunoin since it was on the bus route to my host temple.

Kongobuji temple, head monastery of the Shingon sect, is one of the major attractions on Koysan.

Banryutei Rock Garden.

On the road to my temple stay.

The entrance to Hoonin temple.

Shojin ryori (traditional Buddhist vegetarian).

The gate to Garan Temple Complex.

Konpon Daito Pagoda.

The Bell Tower.

Daimon Gate.

The back side of Daimon.

Hanoi (2019): Part Two

On Tuesday morning I decided to visit Thang Long Citadel before my scheduled food tour.

There is a re-created Vietnamese village in the entrance hall.

Vietnamese wood block prints not unlike ukiyo-e.

Meeting room bunker.

Beer Street-north of the lake.

My dinner for the night banh xeo, a kind of savory, crispy omelet.

Then onto The Alchemist Cocktail Bar for properly mixed cocktails (a Manhattan above) and sultry jazz in a speakeasy setting. One of the best bars in town that I've visited so far.

Breakfast pho (beef noodle soup).

And the first stop of the morning was the Vietnam Military History Museum, which is located next to the citadel, but I didn't have time to visit it yesterday since I had a food tour at noon. This time I was trying to make my visit to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum close to the noon closing time in hopes of spending less time waiting.

Next up queuing up to see the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. It turns out that it didn't matter, there were massive lines with tour buses full of tourists, school children, and every other Tom, Dick, and Harry were waiting to see Uncle Ho. The guards were very strict about the line-up: separating us into two distinct lines, no chewing gum, no bags, no photos, they made women cover up bare shoulders and when we got in the mausoleum they told me to take my hands out of my pockets.

The Ho Chi Minh Museum-which I didn't enter because I was too tired from waiting in line to explore.

Next I was planning on visiting an art museum, but then I spotted this structure that turned out to be the impressive Temple Of Literature while stopping for a coffee in the area. So I decided to skip the museum as I was running out of steam at this point. These days I can't do more than three attractions a day usually.

I stumbled across this cool little cafe, Salt-n- Pepper, with outdoor seating on my way back to the hotel and decided to stop in for a snack.

Since I had pho for breakfast I couldn't resit a brunch option, a scrambled egg croissant with bacon and cheese.

Followed by a beer stop at iBiero, of which the tasting set of beers were pretty mediocre.

Hanoi train station.

After a bit of a rest I was off for a pre-dinner cocktail, a gin tonic, at The Metropole's Bamboo Bar in homage to Graham Greene and Somerset Maugham.

For my final dinner I decided to try a French-Vietnamese fusion restaurant called Porte D'Annam.

The appetizers were a mix of fusion fresh spring rolls and a selection of fusion fried spring rolls.

This was one of the signature dishes. The vegetables in the front were meant to be eaten with rice in the little pot. There is a soup and fish sausage that was cooked in the beer can, which the waiter poured out the soup into a bowl and cut opened the can and cut up the fish sausage for serving. I put the lime, chili peppers, noodles, and herbs in the soup much like I would for pho.

Middle-aged women doing aerobics in the park in the early evening.

Finally, after-dinner cocktails and more live jazz at Binh Minh Jazz Club.