Food cravings

Whilst revising for the coming exams and reading Oscar Wilde, I'm procrastinating by thinking of food... aaah these food cravings are driving me mad -

1. Nando's chicken, with fries, grilled halloumi cheese and mashed sweet potato.
   
2. (nearly) everything from the menu of Ed's Easy Diner in Soho, particularly the cheese burger, bacon & cheese fries, hotdog, and the brownie
3. tapas from La Tasca
4. giant shrimps deep-fried in preserved salty egg yolks - a Cantonese dish aka huang jin xia (黄金虾)
5. chicken korma
6. caesar salad
   
7. a simple margherita from Domino's
8. buffalo wings
9. a bowl of laksa
10. satay
11. Vietnamese spring rolls
12. Thai food in general
13. warm chewy chocolate chip cookies
14. Nachos, with melted cheese, guacamole, chilli and sour cream
15. my grandma's sweet and sour pork
16. Fisherman's pie
17. Clam chowder
18. Peking duck (the original dish) or crispy duck (the British Chinese version)
    

Recently I've been cooking very very simple dinners like natto on rice, or pan-fried salted salmon with rice, or just banana and cinnamon pancakes. All because I'm trying to save money for travelling in March.

In addition to the 10-day Honshu train-trekking, I'm also thinking about the possibility of spending a week island-hopping in Okinawa. I've always wanted to go there and it so happens that I have mileage about to expire in March, and there's just enough for a return ticket to Naha.

Aaah I can't wait to get all these exams and essays shizzle out of the way so I can go travelling and take as many photographs as I want :)

Les Contes d'Hoffmann

Offenbach's opera is filled with lovely melodic arias, although the story is a little bit too long. The episode with the courtesan Giuletta (Act III, or Act II in some versions) I thought was rather pointless, could have done without it.

The production overall was quite well thought - Kafka-esque and also drawing inspiration from Federico Fellini's auto-bigraphical film 8½ (which has been adapted into Nine the musical and now a film version of the musical).

The opera is divided into 5 sections: prologue, Acts I, II and III, and the epilogue. The prologue and epilogue introduces and concludes the acts; the acts depict the three women Hoffmann had fallen in love with individually.

Act I - Hoffmann was tricked into falling in love with a mechanical doll, Olympia, whom he thought was a human by wearing a pair of glasses that the villain Coppelius had sold him. Korean lyric coloratura soprano Kathleen Kim was a brilliant Olympia. Despite her tiny stature, her voice was crystal clear, sweet, soaring through the orchestra, and the coloratura was precise and impressive. Her performance of "Les oiseaux dans la charmille" was show-stopping, with her mechanical movements it was quite entertaining too. The top Es (E6) were absolutely pitch-perfect. (An audio recording of her performance at the MET has been recorded and uploaded to Youtube by a member of the live audience.)

Act II - the diva du jour Anna Netrebko sang the role of Antonia, whose love story with Hoffmann was a rather tragic and heart-breaking one. Netrebko is now one of the most recognised faces in classical music and opera, but personally I don't really like her. She's obviously a fine singer and actress on the stage, but I don't think she deserves all the hype and praise that she's been receiving. Vocally she lacks the artistry of Renee Fleming, Natalie Dessay and Angela Gheorghiu. Her voice, although obviously audible in the auditorium, seems to be stuck inside her oral cavity and not projecting as much as one would expect in an opera singer. Her acting was very good though, maybe that's what makes her special. Her portrayal of Antonia was moving; the fragility and agony was dramatic during the struggle between her own conscience and the voices of Dr. Miracle (played by the same baritone as Coppelius in the earlier act) and her dead mother.

Act III - as I have mentioned this act was rather pointless to my opinion. By this time I was yawning a little (the opera itself wasn't boring me, I was tired and losing concentration...) and have almost forgotten the brilliance of the previous two acts.

Joseph Calleja (he's only 32!) was a wonderful Hoffmann, despite the role being one of the most challenging in the tenor repertoire. I really love his voice, it's probably one of the best among his contemporaries.

Another singer/character worth mentioning was mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey, who played both the Muse (as a woman) and Hoffmann's friend Nicklausse (a trouser role). This is one thing I like being a mezzo - you can play both woman and man on stage! She was in almost every scene and dazzled with that lovely warm singing of a mezzo-soprano.

Cast list and synopsis is available as a PDF file here.

**********

I'm looking forward to next week's showing of Richard Strauss' 4-hours-and-20-minutes long Der Rosenkavalier, starring my most beloved Renee Fleming (plus Susan Graham sings the role of Octavian). I'm planning to go on Thursday or Friday evening, after completing 3 out of the 5 exams I have.

Here's my current to-do list:
1. Revision for exams - kanji, conversation, reading, grammar
2. Report on sake distillery visit
3. Essay on comparative literature (泉鏡花『高野聖』and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray - both are classic examples of aestheticism in literature)
4. Presentation on 24th February - will talk for 5-10 minutes on my photography
5. Essays to Manchester (both are overdue - but I really couldn't care less).

H&M Opening in Osaka

It's official - 6th March at midday, the 2000th H&M store worldwide, and 1st store outside the Kanto region in Japan will open at ラズ心斎橋 (Luz Shinsaibashi) in the Ebisubashi area of Nanba, Osaka.

According to the H&M Japan website, the first 2,000 customers are going to receive a canvas bag and a t-shirt as presents. In addition there'll be 2,000yen jeans on sale that weekend.

Hmm...is it worth queuing up (from early that morning, or possibly overnight?) to quench this thirst for H&M? I've been planning to go off on the 10-day Honshu exploration on the Thursday or Friday that same week. Should I put that off for H&M? or should I just forget it and stick to my original travel plans?

Puccini's "Turandot"

Turandot is a self-centred bitch. Even though she's a beautiful princess, she is one obnoxious, selfish woman.

There I meant the character of Turandot. Not the opera itself. Puccini's opera is quite wonderful actually. The orchestration is rather adventurous (and sounds a little bit more Wagner than Puccini), compared to other Puccini classics such as La Boheme and Madama Butterfly, but still very grand and magnificent.

(Source: The Metropolitan Opera, New York)

Franco Zeffirelli's production never disappoints. The set is eye-poppingly amazing, with the lavish gold oriental designs.

The story itself is quite dramatic and moving (I especially like the scene where Calaf solves the riddles), although I must say I don't like the character of Turandot. She chops peoples' heads for fun, and refuses to admit her defeat after Calaf solved all of her three riddles. And speaking of Calaf, he is one love-struck schmuck who is stupid enough to love Turandot, even after poor Liu stabs herself because she's been hiding her love and wanted to save his life. Liu the slave-girl reminds me of Les Miserables' Eponine, who is also secretly in love (with Marius - on that note I must mention that tenor Marcello Giordani does bear a resemblance to Michael Ball) and dies in the arms of the guy.

Russian soprano Marina Poplavskaya sings the role of this poor girl. I've seen her performing live once at the Royal Opera House, playing Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. Maybe because she's Russian, I think she's more competent at singing the role of Tatyana than of Liu (even though in the interview during intermission she states that she prefers Italian opera over Russian simply because of the pronunciation of the vowels is much harder in her mother tongue). Or maybe it's simply because I prefer the character of Tatyana...Poplavskaya did do a great job in Eugene Onegin's "Letter scene", vocally and dramatically. Whereas in Turandot, her pianissimo and higher notes were not so impressive.

Tenor Marcello Giordani was the love-struck Calaf. His "Nessum Dorma" was pretty good, and received some pre-matured "Bravo!"s and applause (even before the orchestra finished their part), but his lower notes weren't as mind-blowing as his higher notes (the finish was quite amazing though). About his character, I still don't understand how he can "love" someone like Turandot. She's one evil woman!

By the way I watched the broadcast at Namba Parks Cinema. The opera was obviously sung in Italian, and it was broadcast with Japanese subtitles. I stupidly forgot to print out the synopsis/cast sheet before I left, and ended up having to resolve to Wikipedia during intermission.

The synopsis to Puccini's Turandot is available as a PDF document here.


P.S. It's 0148 in the middle of the night and I'm still up...which is quite unusual of me since coming to Japan. Ugh really can't be bothered to do anything right now, not even to leave my chair for one second to put my chorus hoodie on. I am feeling quite tired though, 'cause didn't sleep well last night after being woken up at 0418 by a minor earthquake (3.6 on the Richter scale), but still, I'm not that inclined to climb into bed yet.

I.B., therefore I.B.S.

After spending two years as a student of the International Baccalaureate Diploma, I still can't forget the days (or nights) I spent agonising over Literature commentaries (notably the use of literary terms), maths coursework, art stuff, chemistry practicals reports, past papers, filling out CAS hours, turning my brain cells upside down with Theory of Knowledge...etc etc.

And IB students all over the globe understand this agony, and while we procrastinated some of us came up with lists of IB jokes, one of which I blogged about in my good ol' xanga.

Recently I stumbled across this group on Facebook, which made me laugh quite hysterically upon reading its description - enjoy!

This is a group for IB students everywhere who know that they are the elite in all fields, be it the classroom or the bedroom.

1) We can fit two years worth into a month.
2) Re-take? What’s a re-take? We get it right first time.
3) We have incredible endurance.
4) No matter how much work we have, we can still make free time for ourselves.
5) We can serenade our partners in at least 2 different languages.
6) Our Physicists are experts at handling the forces between two objects.
7) Our Biologists know their way around the human body better than any other 6th form student.
8) The chemistry in a relationship is mere child’s play to our higher Chemists.
9) Our Physicists’ knowledge of projectile motion means that things will never get messy – unless you want them to.
10) We are experts at getting the maximum amount of work done with the least amount of effort.
11) Because we do it with creativity, action and (give you a) service.
12) We have experience in extended activity.
13) We can take it to a Higher Level.
14) "A-level students are like tired old bangers; they'll do the job, but it'll be a bit boring. IB students go like Ferraris."
15) Our English syllabus puts a lot of emphasis on oral assessment.
16) No need for modules here; we do it all in one go.
17) It's widely recognised that IB is longer and harder.
18) Haven't you seen the IB people wandering around saying how fucked they are?
19) We're used to going all night long.
20) Our Computer Scientists can push all the right buttons.
21) Our Economists know just how to supply what you demand.
22) A session with one of our Pyschologists will relieve stress and help you sleep at night; and I'm not talking about Insomnia Therapy.
23) We IBers fall asleep in class so that we can get more done at night.
24) Experiments conducted around the world have at last confirmed what we have long suspected: sleeping with an IB student can in some cases double the IQ of a student doing a less rigorous qualification.
25) Our Group 4 students are fearless when it comes to experimentation.
26) We treat you like we treat our homework - we slam you on the table and do you all night long.
27) Thanks to TOK, we have several different methods for getting to 'know' you.
28) We go beyond doing just what we have to do, to make things more interesting.
29) Our Geographers know what to push and how to pull.
30) If you want, we work well in larger groups.
31) We can think creatively and come from all sorts of new angles.
32) Essays aren't the only long thing we can pull out of our pockets at a moment's notice.
33) Our musicians will bring things to a slow swell followed by a climax.
34) Our Design & Technology students know just what materials and methods are right for you.
35) We can assess you both externally and internally.
36) Hey, we do need some reason to sleep.
37) We're willing to try new methods to get better results.
38) We've never been known to finish early.
39) It's not just our essays that are extended.
40) Like variety? We're international!
41) Our Historians will make it a night to remember.
42) Our Business students know all the right places to do their business.
43) Give the Kama Sutra to an IB student, and they won't just read and remember, but analyse and improve.
44) Our Visual Arts students aren't just aesthetically pleasing.
45) IB students aren't just better prepared for college academically.
46) Our Design & Technology students can handle a short nail or a long screw.
47) We penetrate topics from every direction.
48) Our Music students will get you into the rhythm.
49) Our Environmentalists know all about getting dirty.
50) We're all-rounders, by which we mean we're all around 'er.
51) Our Theatre students can play any part you want them to.
52) Our Mathematicians are always looking to have sec^2 x once they've differentiated tan x.
53) It's long, hard and rough to begin with, but worth it at the end.
54) High stress levels reduce the chance of pregnancy.
55) Our Musicians are great with their fingers.
56) Our schedules aren't the only things that are inflexible.
57) Our Economics, Computer Science and Mathematics students do it with models.

The travel bug

It's January and I have exams coming next month. Ugh.

My exams look like they're going to be in the first week of February. And towards the end of the month I have to do a presentation.

Anyway, right now I'm thinking about the spring holiday. Here's my plan:

19-22/02: possibly spend a long weekend in Nara (Rachel is coming the weekend before that, and I'll take her to Nara), to do more research on the area and take photographs for the competition I'm planning to enter

25-28/02:

01-02/03: 2-day trip to Hiroshima and Miyajima with the University

05-14/03: I'm currently planning a 10-day trip that'll take me to 高山、白川郷、新潟、仙台、日光, and I'm planning to end the trip at Rachel's in Yokohama (with possible day trips to 鎌倉 and 箱根?), before taking an overnight highway bus from Yokohama back to Osaka. The budget is 70,000yen (using the 青春18きっぷ and staying at cheap hotels).

15/03: 大相撲春場所 at the Osaka prefectural stadium

17-24/03:

25/03~ : family is coming over to visit and going to hanami, haven't decided where yet but maybe Shikoku?

I'm trying very hard here to save money for the travelling (I'm minimising eating out and karaoke - haven't been for a month!). I also want to plan a trip to 高野山 and 伊勢半島 (either end of February or in March, after the sumo), although I'm still figuring out the train/bus routes since I can't drive, and after that I can start budgeting.

Other future travel plans:

Golden Week: road trip! with Seb, Daan, Andrew and Morgan. Have no idea where we're going, 'cause it's just an idea (which I came up with, thank you very much). I thought since we're always going off to Shidax for karaoke, why don't we just go on a road trip, play CDs and music in the car and sing along! that way the car is our karaoke room :D

August: Summer holiday. Nadisha and Megan are coming to visit. They want to go to Tokyo and Kyoto. Obviously I'll join them for Kyoto, but I haven't decided on Tokyo yet.

P.S. I definitely need to do a round-Kyushu trip, plus island hopping in Okinawa.

Butter

Tonight I made eggs benedict (or florentine, to be more precise), and asparagus for dinner.

The eggs florentine consists of poached eggs, spinach and camembert on toasts, dressed with hollandaise sauce.

And the asparagus were braised in butter for about 8 minutes, then dressed with shaved parmesan, lemon juice and hollandaise sauce.

In making the hollandaise sauce and the butter braised asparagus I used over 100g of unsalted butter...making this meal well over 1000kcals. Oops...I can feel the fat and cholesterol levels shooting off the ceiling, but YUM.

Maybe I should return to the natto and tofu with rice diet soon. (I spent over 5000yen in today's indulging grocery shopping at Carrefour, so after using up all the ingredients I bought today - maybe in a fortnight? - I shall return to a simple Japanese diet.)

Now, back to history revision. I have an oral exam on Japanese history (conducted in Japanese, of course) next Monday. The content isn't that hard but, to be honest, even though I've attended all the classes I haven't spent one minute listening to the sensei...

テレビドラマ

Recently I've started watching The Big Bang Theory, which may I say is HILARIOUS, and now it's on my list of TV dramas to be watched religiously.

Season 1 highlights -


The list is now composed of:
1. Grey's Anatomy (always at the top)
2. The Big Bang Theory (jumps right into second place!)
3. Ugly Betty (still not as good as the first season, but I watch it 'cause I like Marc and Amanda)
4. House (watch it only because of Hugh Laurie)
5. Glee (just started - it may move up in the league later)

The list used to be composed of just Desperate Housewives, but since Year 13 I haven't watched any of it. I'm also tempted to start watching Mad Men and 30 Rock, but I don't have enough time to watch all these things!

Opera in cinema

Ever since I discovered that Cineworld held screenings of live broadcasts from New York's Metropolitan Opera, I went to the cinema in East Didsbury whenever I could.

This season I have yet to do so, but I've already found a cinema in Osaka's Namba that put on operas from the Met (not live broadcast though).

While I'm missing the concerts and theatres in London terribly, I just found out that Cineworld has, instead of the Metropolitan Opera, changed to show operas from Covent Garden and the Glyndebourne Festival (http://www.cineworld.co.uk/films/event/opera). I appreciate the endeavour to support the national arts scene, but I'd like to have the Met opera back please. It's just that the Met seems to be always getting all the high-profile divas (e.g. Renee Fleming and Angela Gheorghiu) to sing lead roles, and some of the productions in Manhattan have amazing stage settings.

New Year's Resolutions...?

I don't make New Year's Resolutions, but I do have things on my mind that need attention to be paid. There isn't a timeline, however, I do know these matters can't be left on the side forever.

• save money for the following trips:
  - 紀伊半島、白川郷・高山、仙台・松島、日光、九州、沖縄 (will be going to Shikoku with parents in late-March so I won't need to worry about the expenses); plus that Golden Week road trip talked among our group
  
• save money for new Nikkor lenses
  
• to save money for the above two points I probably will have to starve for the rest of my time in Japan; I might seek some kind of sponsorship from my parents and brother.
• I've decided to do no more clothes shopping for the rest of the months in Japan.
• I'm also pondering on the possibility of doing the same for karaoke - although I might face serious objections from Seb, Andrew, Daan, Reinout and Morgan.
  
• DISSERTATION. I'm seriously screwed. Just realised I have about 5 months at university in my final year (excluding the holidays and exam periods). From now on I have to come up with an original topic that will give me scope to write 12,000 words in an intellectually interesting way, and actually write the bloody essay.
• JLPT 1級, either in July or in December.
• besides all the things above, I also have my mind set on a Nikon D700, but I know I probably can't get my hands on one until after graduation
• not having a DSLR also means I have to save money to buy film cartridges.
  
• on the subject of photography, I also need to do some weekend trips to Nara and the Yamatoji area. My advisor, Yamamoto-sensei, suggested that I enter this photography competition, so I'll need to do a lot of research on the area. Obviously I'm not hoping to win, I'm only a beginner and an amateur, but I want to be really involved with the project and do as much as I can.
• also I have to start thinking about graduate job applications, and/or postgraduate study applications. If I decide to do a Master degree I'll also need to think about the money issue.
• oh yeah, and to make some progress on my Japanese proficiency; to be as fluent as I can. Almost forgot about that...

So the main problem is - how can I do all these things? As I said there isn't a specific deadline to complete all these tasks, but I know there isn't much time... I think I should stop wasting time. I've been doing that for the majority of the past 21 years.

明けましておめでとう

The coughing etc. turned out to be bronchitis. On boxing day I decided to take a day off from Yishi's travels and went to the local clinic. The doctor prescribed me with a 10-day course of medicine, including antibiotics. I'm glad to say that I'm now recovering and have my voice back. All the pills etc. didn't cost as much as I thought; with the national health insurance I only had to pay around 2,200 yen for the medicine and consultation (compare to last year when I had to pay a tenner for a freakin' inhaler). Here's the list of medication I've been prescribed with:

- Clarithromycin 200mg (antibiotic)
- Ambroxol hydrochloride 15mg
- Dextromethorphan 15mg
- Tulobuterol 2mg (a patch that I stick to my chest, back or upper arm)

**********

Yishi's flight was delayed by a day because of the snow back home. And Mark's flight was cancelled so he didn't arrive till Christmas Eve.

This was our itinerary:
23/12 Shopping and eating in Namba and Shinsaibashi
24/12 Nara
25/12 Arashiyama and Kyoto
26/12 Kyoto
27/12 Himeji, Okayama (Kurashiki)
28/12 Okayama, Hiroshima
29/12 Miyajima (Itsukushima shrine)
30/12 Hiroshima, Iwakuni
31/12 Return to Osaka
01/01 Osaka

We used the 青春１８きっぷ to travel between Osaka, Himeji, Okayama and Hiroshima. The ticket costs 11,500 yen for 5 one-day travelcards which allowed us to travel on all JR local and rapid trains. Obviously it's not the most time-efficient way to travel but it's cheap. I'll definitely buy the ticket again in the coming spring holiday.

We went to Himeji solely for the castle (seems to be the only thing there). It was my second time (first time was summer '08 with John, Christie and Piotr) and still it was worth going. I overheard this 20-something tourist from HK who moaned "there was a lift in Osaka Castle", which amused me greatly.

There wasn't much to see or do in Okayama. It's a very provincial town and we stayed there mainly to take a break from travelling between Kansai and Hiroshima. Koraku-en is supposed to be one of the three best gardens in Japan but because it's winter, all the trees were barren and the grass was yellow. The historical quarters of Kurashiki weren't very impressive either, maybe 'cause we went in the evening and it was all dark and quiet.

The best day was definitely the day we went to Miyajima. It was a 30-min train ride from Hiroshima to Miyajima-guchi, then a ferry from there to the island itself. Obviously it's a very touristy place as Itsukushima jinja is a UNESCO World Heritage site plus it's one of the 日本三景 (the other two being Matsushima in Miyagi prefecture and Amanohashidate in Kyoto prefecture). The shrine wasn't the only interesting thing. The view from the top of Misen (at 535m) was very pretty, and you could see Shikoku in the distance), plus there are many lovely deers around, and for fellow foodies - oysters and conger eel. Hmmm...yum.

The atomic bomb site was an obvious choice for sightseeing in Hiroshima. The site itself is quite mindblowing, considering it's the only building in the 30km radius that survived the atomic bomb. The museum is supposedly give us more details on the bombing but it was closed for the New Year... ah well, I'm going back to Hiroshima (and Miyajima) in March so I still have a chance to go inside the museum. Because the museum was closed, we spontaneously decided to go to Iwakuni in the neighbouring Yamaguchi prefecture and see the Kintai-kyo. The wooden bridge looks quite impressive but they charge 300yen to cross, so we took another bridge to cross the river and took photos of Kintai-kyo from other angles. The weather was rather miserable that day and I had to keep wiping the camera lens because it kept getting wet from the drizzling rain.

On our way back to Osaka we stopped by Sannomiya for lunch, 'cause Yishi and Mark wanted to try Kobe beef. So I took them to Misono, a teppanyaki restaurant my mother and I went several weeks ago. It was rather satisfying, although now my purse is lighter than ever...and I have four more weeks 'till my next scholarship payment. Oops.


More photos from the past week:

(from top to bottom)
1. Okonomiyaki on Dotombori
2. the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen (taken from Todaiji in Nara)
3. Okayama at night
4. Koraku-en, Okayama
5. the red-light district of Hiroshima at night
6. Itsukushima shrine
7. View from Misen, Miyajima
8. Lunch on the island
9. Oysters (and oyster cards)
10. Sunset over Miyajima, as seen from the ferry
11. Kintai-kyo, Iwakuni
12. Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki
13. Kobe beef teppanyaki at Misono, Sannomiya