Off-trail hiking

Map of Ryugahana dam and Dam-apex

Dam-base and Jungle trail
I had been to a picnic in a group of four on last saturday to a mountainside near to my place. A little more than half-an hour ride by car led us to Ryugahana dam. We found the place had a 5km walking stretch (on road) around the river. We began to hike in the afternoon sun stopping in a small sidepath for having lunch. The scinitillating sceneries all around the walk-way was some good enjoying stuff in the wild. The midway of the stretch had a beautiful park (Jonkoro horiba) which added to our pleasure of off-trail hiking.

Weekend dinner

Dinner table and Rotating dish

Fruity dessert and Uiri (Special Nagoya sweet)

This weekend I and my friends were invited for a dinner at jap. family freind's house. The evening's special was a kind of dosa (they call 'crepe') made with rye flour. The unique rotating dish (traditionally used for 'sushi') was filled with various relishing side-servings. Trying out different blends of side-servings to the dosa gave a unique flavor each time. Apart from the fresh vegetables, the delcious ones were corned chicken curry, raw salmon and egg with mayonnaise. A unique two-flavored sweet from Nagoya's popular Tora ya (Tiger shop...doesn't mean actual tiger!!! just the name:)) called 'Uiri' was served for dessert along with fruit cuts..With some entertaining dinner chitchats it turned out to be a fabulous evening.

Talk in FM Fukui

Japanese version and English version
Last Friday was an eventful day. I was invited for a 10 min talk in FM Fukui radio. The topic was to introduce about the home country. It was organized by Fukui International Activites personnel named S.mada-san. This was in fact my second talk in Fukui radio. Two years back, there was an impromptu interview by another radio channel of Fukui called FBC. At that time there was no beforehand preparation except for a short practice just before going live on air. However, this time, I had to make a document regarding the contents of my talk "in japanese" and had to get verified by the DJs. Besides, unlike the last time, I had to go to the studio for broadcasting live on air.
There was also a comedy of errors before I went to FM radio station. I somehow by mistake always thought the program is in FBC station and told all my friends to tune to FBC. It was only just before I arrived to the FM station I realized my mistake. Just at that moment, even my mobile went off because of low battery and couldn't inform any of my friends...Poor friends...most of them waited for nearly an hour tuning in FBC. Unfortuntely, I was told that I can get a copy of my talk only after few days.
Aside that, the talk went well, better than my expectations as though it was a casual conversation. I was impressed by the DJs ability to render the conversation more naturalistic. But I still have to wait till I get a copy of my recording to get any second opinions.

Golf at Kenkou no Mori

Scenery at Kenkou no Mori and Our golf group

First golf trial and my team-mates

Last Sunday was fun as I had been to a superb nature-rich scenic spot in Fukui called 'Kenkou no Mori' (Forest of health) for playing a unique version of amateur golf. The locale was also rich with various sporting facilities (runner's track, tennis courts, soccer/baseball/golf ground, kids playground and many others...) besides having splendid sceneries.
Thanks to T.shima-san's invitation, I and my friends could join the golf activity. We were a group of 30 members divided into various teams. The golf course is famous for a unique kind of golf play called 'Mallet golf', where in the golf bat looks like a hammer. I heard that the place is famous for inventing it. But our golf was different from mallet golf or conventional golf, as we played using larger golf balls or bats.
All in all the day was good fun and my team scored well to win the competition!!

Mini-Flower garden

My mini-flower garden
This is my mini-flower garden at my dorm. This is my first experiment of cultivating plants, thanks to K.kawa san for her birthday gifts. There is always a joy to watch a new flower blossoming out of one's own efforts. The word "efforts" is a misnomer, as it barely requires any efforts, but for watering once in 2-3 days apart from the initial planting in a pot!! Not a big deal!

Golden week vacation

Nishiyama park and Azalea lawn

At the end of april and start of May a week of holidays appears in japanese calendar populary known as "Golden week". In this week, generally most japanese take their time off for an outdoor vacation. During this week, the hotel rates skyrockets in most of japan and most sightseeing places are crowded with people. Since this season also is spring, many visit popular flower gardens too. Fortunately I could find Azalea flower festival happening at Nishiyama park in Sabae, a town close to Fukui. I visited there with my dorm friends in one of the golden week holidays. Thanks to superb weather, we could thoroughly enjoy the flower fest and the trip. Have a look at the album for more photos.

Cherry blossoms

Rows of Sakura (Cherry) blossom trees and Bloomed flowers on sidewalk

Pink Sakura and Sakura flower at night

The month of april is the onset of spring and the nature becomes bright and colorful with flowers blossoming in all their splendor. Among the most celebrated flower blossoming in Japan is Cherry blossoming (Sakura). Viewing the cherry blossoming (popularly known as 'Hanami') is one of the most interesting aspects in japanese culture. Usually it starts in late march in southern parts and ends around early may in northern parts of japan. In fact the blossom forecasts will be announced each year on news media. It is carefully followed as the blossoms last only for a week and plans for the outdoor partying has to be done within that short period. It has a rich history in japan and often there are few popular sites in each japanese city where in people gather in large numbers. At Fukui, the best site is on the banks of river Asuwagawa in central Fukui. This is my third year of hanami and I have always enjoyed watching it. This year however, I had been to Asuwagawa site to watch at night (called 'yozakura') along with japanese family friends and my dormmates. It was splendid indeed!!

Kokoronet magazine 2007

I had an opportunity to write an article to the 'Kokoronet', a biyearly magazine published by University of Fukui depicting the life of foreign students. Incidentally, it is my first true publication in any college magazine. It was satisfying to know that the magazine is dispatched to all the secondary schools in Fukui prefecture and also to overseas alumni of the university. In fact my initial plans of writing it in japanese was later taken back as I found it too complicated to express well as in english. There were other nicely contributed articles from current and yester year students as well.

March B'days

At party and Birthday cake

Gifts and friend's b'day celebration

The last month also had few b'day celebrations. The events were fun as it could make few more gatherings and some interesting dinner chats.

Farewell to Bunkyo friends

Barbecue party and The Group

We, the dormmates of Matsuoka gave a party to departing Bunkyo friends S.ley, T.wan, S.nty, and H.se on 16th march. It was also joined by few jap friends too..It was great to have a long and funny chat with all of them. I had made yakisoba, which got an appreciation-thanks to some inputs from N.koji-san!

BIRC farewell party

Assemblage and Tempura

Sushi and Desserts

Our dept. also organized the farewell party to a professor and few master graudates on 15th March. As usual, the traditional japanese food like Sushi, Sashimi and tempura were the major part of the diet. An interesting chat game was conducted where in the audience can pose queer questions to someone on their personal matters. Well, this had a resemblance to many of the humorous japanese talk shows on TV. It was an entertaining stuff.

Visit to Osaka

Location of Youth Hostel and Dinner at Indian restaurant


Yodobashi Electronic store and My talk

I had an official visit to Osaka on march second week to attend a meeting on 6th. I reached Osaka on previous day evening, stayed at Osaka Youth hostel. Later had a delicious dinner at Pariwar, an Indian restaurant. Its been quite a while since eating nan and butter chicken. The taste was very much native unlike in Fukui restaurants. The final serving of ginger tea brought a sense of wholesome food. I then headed to Osaka station and roamed around 'Yodobashi Camera' electronic store. The next day, had to leave the hostel in early morning to reach Senri-chuo station where I met the boss. We both then headed to National Cardiovascular center and were the first of the visitors to reach the place. The presentaton session was only in the morning ending with a serving of lunch box in the noon. The way back to Fukui was interesting one as we both travelled in a long ride through rapid train instead of express one, which facilitated some very useful non-stop interactions with boss.

University Farewell party

Graduating foreign students and Arabian dance performance

"Chookar mere manko" hindi song by Tiwari and foreign students posing with Uni president

Its a long break since I penned my last post as it was too tough to squeeze time for it. This event was a month back organized at University of Fukui(Bunkyo) campus. Every year the University of Fukui organizes a farewell party specifically for foreign graudating students. Its a nice get-together in which they also invite students from medical campus. After the valedictory address by the University president and graduating students, the dinner party started accompanied with various cultural programmes delivered by students of different nations.

My Abode!

Found a koool map creating site recently, where in you can geographically depict your present residence. I say it koool since it also comes with options of zoom(in or out), map visitor locations and other statistical info. The zoom function is powered by google earth, so one can zoom in to get closest details of any site in the world!!!. I was awed when I could even spot my apartment by zooming in (using + mark on the right-lower side of the map).

February B'days

The end of February also had two birthday celebrations. One was our dept. staff - Kasamatsu-san (Feb 23rd) and the other of Miguel (Feb 28th). The former one was celebrated in the dept. by having a delicious cake made by Kurokawa-san (another dept. staff). Later we had freshly brewed filter coffee made by Kasamatsu-san.

The Miguel's b'day event was held at Bunkyo campus in the late evening of Feb 28th. It was a fundoo dance party with many foreign and japanese friends dropping in to wish and make it big and memorable for him.