Hyper Japan Spring 2012

Hyper Japan is an event that started in October 2010 , promising a mix of old, new , multimedia , food and many other things coming from Japan. It was an instant success ( 13000 visitors in 2010 ! ).

This year it was held at the Brompton Hall at Earls Court. Free parking ! (for motorbikes, heh!).
I'd arranged for the usual ferry from Calais to Dover , and sailed on the new large Ferry , the Pride of France. The car deck is huge , but there's less space for motorbikes. If there's too many , they get parked on the truckers deck. No problem for me , I was the only biker there, as well as on the return trip. Not unusual in winter.

On the trip back I took some more pictures.
The inside is really luxurious ( mirrors on the ceiling, marble coffee bar, tiled floors ) . The tax free shop wouldn't look out of place on an airport. This is just the perfume department.

The accessory department ( I didn't photograph the booze department , I had my hands full of bottles of single malt :) .

The coffee bar at the ship's stern is a huge sitting area.

Plenty of space to sit , with the picture on the wall and the beautiful interior I felt like I was sitting in a luxury hotel.

At the Hyper Japan , the man from third window films ( I have got most of their DVDs ) interviewed film director Satoshi Miki ( of "Turtles are surprisingly fast swimmers") and actress Fuse Eri. It was interesting to hear from people that direct and play in the comic movies I enjoy so much.

Fuse Eri.

Director Satoshi Miki (so that's what Japanese film directors wear these days  :).

Judo world and Olympic champion Tsukada Maki was very interesting to see and hear on stage : I found it really inspiring to hear her talk so enthusiastically about her love for her sport. I'd almost start taking lessons myself.
 

"Please will you all give a warm welcome to my sparring partner from a local club, who is kind enough to 'assist' me in this demonstration." ( read : "whom I will be TOTALLY flooring in the next few minutes")

And boy, flooring him she did : as solid as her partner looks ,Tsukada-san throws him with deceptive ease , that can only come from lots of training. Look how her foot is( or both feet are) always planted firmly on the tatami (mat).

One more .

And again.

And another one.

When asked if it hurt , he replied : " A lot less when you get thrown by somebody with such good technique ".Sure, but the bangs as he hit the tatami were impressive.

At the end of the demonstration , a few people were invited on stage to wear a keikogi ( martial arts garb). When asked how she felt wearing it, the girl's response was "Ok, never mind that the sleeves are too long,.."

"but it's like I'm wearing pyjama's. I really feel like I'm ready to go to bed and not to go do sports in this."

This was cute : a children's learning guide for the hiragana and katakana alphabet.

No koto playing on this Hyper Japan ( damn and I love hearing the Koto ) but the Shamisen player
Ichikawa Ibiko ( currently the only professional shamisen player in the UK ) was there and this time he'd brought a few students along.

There was also a traditional folk singer there : Alika Mochida , no pictures I was too busy clapping and  singing along with the Hanagasa Ondo ( really ! "Yasho Makasho" :) ).
and too far from stage to get good pictures, but you can hear and see  her here with some traditional songs on YT.
Honestly , British crowds are even worse at singalongs than Belgian ones , haha ! But the folk singer was lovely and I recognized some of the songs from a CD  I have :)

Hiroko Tanaka's Nihon Buyo group was performing . Alas I spent so much time at the sake tasting I missed most of the performance.

I still got pictures of the tail end of the performance.

A really long dance this was. And these people learn all this in their spare time. Colour me impressed.

Hiroko-san danced the last one, a modern dance she created herself.
Lovely kimono. If you look at the last Hyper Japan and the Matsuri, she wore a grey one :)

Doki is one of my favourite shops and they have finally started up again in a new location.

I never pass their shop without buying at least something. This time it was a small sake set and  3 donabe bowls.

No Japanese festival or fair is complete for me without learning more about Japanese food preparation.
No better person to do that than Atsuko-san , who was preparing these Japanese-French inspired tapa style snacks ( Japas ) for us in the Taste Discovery Zone.

A slice of smoked salmon, thin slice of courgette , filled with a paste of grated radish, and a wasabi flavoured sauce , which tasted like Japanese mayo ( sweet ) with wasabi added. Sprinkle a bit of olive oil over it . They taste good too !

I really liked the Taste Discovery Zone ( new this year ) a lot. It's free and you can learn a lot there.
To prepare for the Sake awards I took one of the Sake tasting "courses" led by Natsuki , who has two great posts about it here : Part 1  and Part 2.
 These were the sakes I tasted : sure enough the daiginjo has a wonderful nose and after-taste compared to the others, but each has its own unique qualities , which is why I found it a bit sad that the most expensive sake won most of the Sake Taste awards.

Too bad I couldn't buy any of the sakes at the show. Many are only available through restaurants and the ones I tried to get at the shops in London  the brewers told me , didn't have them. Tsk !

Of course , next to the cosplayers, there's always lolita street garb with a very high kawaii factor.

The winner of ( I forgot what category ).

Definitely the winner of the under-age category.

The contestants. Kawaii,desu ne ?

I also met some members of the  Kimono de Jump  UK at the HJ,

 From left to right, Mike, Isla , Natalie , Hong and April. I would have been in this picture in a kimono too, if a certain member of KDJ UK hadn't forgotten to bring it along. ( a fact I shall be mercilessly reminding her of for the remainder of her natural life , haha.  )
After the traditional picture the KDJ were going to jump up in front of the modern photo.

First shot : no good. Only Isla in the air.

 Second one : lift-off !

 Third one : another lift-off !

I kept the best bit for last :)
Before the group jump  Hong did a try out jump , to see if my flash worked al right.
( in dark conditions, the autofocus fires off a number of low power flashes to set the focus , after which it flashes for real. By that time of course the jump is over, so I had to set it to manual focus ).

And there she goes ! Thank God there was a roof or we might have lost her :).

Gulyas : the original

Looking at my book shelves I see too many cookbooks with recipes from all over the world gathering dust. This year I've decided to take a trip around the world of my cookbooks and start cooking at least 2 recipes from each one. This will definitely take a while :) but what better way to spend time in the kitchen?
I'm not saying sayonara to the Japanese kitchen, just taking a break now and then.

The first country I 'visit' is Hungary , where they really love their paprika's. The most traditional dish is gulyas , a soup of beef, onions, carrot, potatoes, tomatoes , bell pepper and large amounts of powdered paprika.
It's been cooked since the Middle Ages in an open pot over a fire , by Hungarian 'cowboys' that drove their herds of cattle from Hungary to other countries. From that humble origin, it evolved to become the national dish of Hungary.

For 8 to 10 portions , you need the following :

- 1200 grams of beef for stew (beef for stew may be cut from chuck, brisket, rib, or plate )

- a little less than one kilo of firm cooking potatoes ( these come from my own garden)

- two large red bell peppers
- one or two large carrots
- a handful of parsley ( the original recipe calls for a parsley root which is a bit more
aromatic than parsley, but I can't find it in my country, I'll have to grow my own )
- a can of tomatoes , about 400 grams with the juice ( you can use fresh, but most fresh tomatoes are picked too green these days and then artificially ripened , because they bruise too much when picked ripe, whereas these Italian tomatoes are ripe when canned)

- 400 grams to half a kilo of onions ( these are red , because I like them, you can also use yellow )
- 1 or 2  cloves of garlic

- some green celery leaves

and a teaspoon of caraway seed or two teaspoons of cumin seed ( this is cumin )

Chop the onions finely.

Cut the beef into thumb sized cubes.

Chop the garlic finely.

In a large pot (this one is 26 cm ) , heat two tablespoons of olive oil or fat

and stew the onions on a low heat , stirring frequently for a few minutes.

 

Add the caraway ( or cumin) and the garlic.
After a minute more , add the beef cubes.
Take the pan of the fire. Add a tablespoon of water.

 

Cover the meat with 8 or more  heaped spoons of sweet paprika powder ( Hungarian paprika if you can get it :))

 

You need  a thick layer of paprika powder ( I weighed it and it was about 120 grams of paprika ).

 

The paprika will bind the soup, you don't use flour to bind it.
Close the lid and simmer on a low heat (electrical setting 3 out of 12 ) till the beef is half done, for about half an hour.

While the onions and the beef is simmering , cut your bell pepper along the lines and cut a circle around the green stem. That way you can easily remove the stem along with the seeds and the white membranes.

Cut the parts again if you have more than 2 membranes.
To get rid of loose seeds sticking to the inside of your parts , hold them with the outside up and tap firmly with the flat of your knife to make the seeds fall out.

Skin the carrots ( I do it by pulling the back of the knife or the sharp edge of a smaller knife along the skin , which works much faster than peeling them with a peeler ).

Chop your carrots and bell peppers in half centimeter chunks, finely chop the parsley, roughly chop the celery and divide the tomatoes in four.

The beef is half done by now and the paprika is absorbing the juices from the meat nicely.

  

Put the vegetables on top of the meat  and add about  1,5 liters of cold water .

 

Cover again with the lid and let it simmer for half an hour.
In the meantime peel and dice your potatoes to cubes about a thumb thick ( 1,5 - 2 cm )

 

Add the potatoes to the soup, stir and keep it on a low heat till the potatoes  are done (cooked but not falling apart. Check your potatoes regularly , so they don't overcook.

 

The amounts above  give you 10 - 12  cups of a very hearty soup ( I had about 2400 grams of soup). Serve as hot as possible with a loaf of brown bread.

A few cups of this and you too will have the energy to drive the herds over the steppe on horseback :)

If you'd like even more paprika ,the Hungarians usually served some roasted paprika with their bread and soup!

Summer princess in the snow

My cat Natsuki ( = Summer princess in Japanese ) , is going through her first winter together with me.
While she loves going outside in summer ,

I wasn't sure how she would react to sub-zero temperatures, but I shouldn't have worried.
She often goes outside during the night ( with temperatures below -5°C ) to hunt,

even though in this picture she seems to have found the perfect spot away from the cold,
on top of the central heating.

It's hard getting good pictures at night, because she runs around a lot and I can't see her in the dark ^^.

So I have taken a few last Sunday when the sun was shining ( even though it was still below 0°C ! )
( just click on any picture to open a large size slideshow)

 Stalking though the snow ( my very own snow leopard ).

 and hunting for things under the snow.

 

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Till soon !