White Child - 白子

Tonight we ate dinner at a local fish restaurant. We played the usual game of Russian roulette with the menu, choosing things at semi-random relying on educated guessing. One of our choices was "shirako" tempura, the kanji for which (白子) represented "white child" - which seemed to us likely to be a small white fish. Fair enough. It arrived, and instead it looked more like this:It was sort of squishy and wet inside. We persevered, getting through most of it, wondering where we'd gone wrong. Brains? Intestines? After the meal, we came home and looked it up in our trusty Japanese food glossary (which of course we didn't have on us in the restaurant). It says: "The sperm-filled reproductive gland of male fish". That's right. Eww.

ImageKind

So now those of you who don't live in Australia also have the chance to buy prints. (Thanks Travis)
Go here to find out how.

Archery Festival

Thanks to the blandishments of the magnificent Kikuko, we watched a Shinto spring arrow ceremony in Nagoya. Priests from a small neighbourhood launched arrows at a gilt target; the better their aim, the better the year will be. The priests' faces were a picture of intense concentration as the whole community chanted for their aim to be true. They only scored 2 out of 12 hits on the gold centre, but nobody seemed too crestfallen. Afterwards, grannies crawled over each other (and us) to receive fresh mochi handed out by the archer priests. That night at home, we grilled the mochi and tasted the supposedly approaching spring while shivering under the kotatsu.

Velvet

A small group of teachers from Sam's school teamed up under the mysterious name of The Velvet to give a performance in a cafe in Yokkaichi. They performed opera, jazz, and popular music. As you can see, the night was a glittering success, with the cafe entirely sold out. (Ahem. It only seats 22 people.)