The Final First Snow

This chicken has found a new home in Nagaoka.

As predicted, it started to snow last night in Nagaoka, around six in the evening.

During my first time witnessing snow, I joined the rest of my batch mates to go crazy on the first morning we saw snow. That was two years back, in late November 2007. Last year, the excitement I felt was much toned down but still, the first snow is always something interesting to anticipate it. Even though this is the third time I looked out the window and saw the white fine snow flakes started to fall from the sky, the excitement is still there.

Taken with flash to show the snow flakes more clearly.

That is the dormitory cafeteria at ten at night.

Same angle taken ten hours later.

Tennis courts on the right.

Tennis courts turned white the next morning.

I was in the kitchen cooking Japanese curry for my dinner and Aki opened the window and soon realised that it had started to snow. That was my first time seeing the snow flakes this year.

The next morning, as expected, almost everything was white. I sent this picture below, taken from my room to several friends just for fun. Unexpectedly, Kok Hong, who is in Miyazaki, Kyushu replied me with a picture of his place in return haha. It was a sunny morning in Miyazaki. I got a reply from Cliff in Tokyo as well.

My message was, "ohayou"

Nagaoka, December 15, 2009 at 08:23 a.m.

Kok Hong's reply was this - "おはよう"

Miyazaki, December 15, 2009 at 08:29 a.m. December 11, 2009 at 14:08 p.m.

This is the reply from Cliff - "こんにちは！10度くらいだ"

Tokyo, December 15, 2009 at 14:16 p.m.

It is already mid-December and this year, I would say it started to snow much later than two previous years. The simplest cause that we can infer would be global warming, I suppose? Furthermore, the amount of snow on the first night was relatively lesser than one year ago. Again, global warming is the most likely cause of this phenomenon.

One this I love about this kind of weather is that when it snow heavily at night, it would be a sunny day the next morning. The sky would turn blue, sun will be shining brightly and unless the wind blows, the temperature would be just perfect; not too cold or too hot. I took a stroll around my school compound the next morning since I have no classes before lunch.

That is the indoor gymnasium on the left.

Freezing pool and the field.

No more activities on the artificial-grass field from now onwards, I guess.

Rice fields covered with snow as well.

A random signboard just in case you are lost in the school compound haha.

This would be my final winter in Nagaoka, and I suppose I shall treasure the snow as much as I could. Saying this, wait till I start to complain about how troublesome it can get when the real heavy snow is here haha.

Dinner With Professor Kondo

I received an unexpected phone call from Professor Kondo, who is my class teacher-cum-lab lecturer yesterday afternoon. He invited Yan Kuang and me, the two international students in our class for a dinner together. He had wanted to take us out many times prior to this since two years ago when we were in our third grade; in fact, there was one time he told us that he was gonna invite the two of us to his house. However, he was too busy with his school work, while we usually returned to Malaysia during our long holidays.

So, it was kinda hard to find a suitable time that suits both parties.

The interior of the small restaurant. I love how they put a lot of effort in decorating the place.

Part of the menu.

When Prof. Kondo finally found the time, out of so many days, it fell on the same day that the Malaysian students of Nagaoka Kosen were suppose to have dinner with Kimura Sensei, our ex-lecturer in PPKTJ. So, we had no choice but to skip the dinner with her. By the way, Kimura Sensei came to Nagaoka to visit the college as part of her research project for her post-graduate course.

Back to the dinner with Prof. Kondo, he decided to do it in a small restaurant - 在郷 (Zaigou) which was about a ten-minute walk from the college.

The various kinds of sake kept inside the refrigerator.

Starter for the night - カボチャ甘み (kabocha-amami); boiled pumpkins with red bean paste called 餡子 (angko).

Although I have been passing the road where this restaurant is located, I never knew that it was quite a spacious restaurant; a totally unexpected thing considering the tiny signboard outside the restaurant. It could easily accommodate about thirty people at one time.

There isn't much pictures of food in this entry because well, it is not a thing for the Japanese to take pictures of food when they are dining. Anyway, among the stuff we ate were vegetable soup with pork, grilled buri (Japanese amberjack) which was superb but kinda expensive, sashimi consisting of several kinds of fresh raw fish, fried potatoes with butter (ジャガイモ揚げバーター) which was too good that I felt like ordering a second plate, and お茶漬け (ochazuke), a simple Japanese dish made by pouring green tea, dashi, or hot water over cooked rice with savoury toppings. I chose salmon for my bowl of ochazuke.

The bill for the night came up to five figures, but we were glad that it was Prof. Kondo's treat :)

お茶漬け (ochazuke); simple yet delicious dish.

No guys, this is not fresh milk or Calpis but it is nigorizake, a variety of unfiltered sake, which explains its cloudy appearance.

In between the food, we drank. Errr, quite a lot actually haha.

One huge mug of beer, several little cups of sake, and a glass of nigorizake. In fact, the alcohol-by-volume (ABV) of that nigorizake was 20% which is one of the highest level of alcoholic beverages that I have ever tried, besides soju that I tried when I was in Seoul early this year. I was kinda surprised with my own tolerance level as well, to be honest haha.

The table after the dinner.

I am not a person who love drinking; once in a while is okay as long as I do not get drunk because I personally dislike drunk people. Besides, the feeling of being drunk is too horrible. However, I guess last night I almost went overboard. I wasn't really drunk, but just a little bit I think. I don't know if I should skip the part about what happened after the dinner by writing it here, because it is quite embarrassing haha.

My juniors and a few batch mates came to my room to check out on me, to see whether I am alright or not. But I think they were more interested to see how is a condition of a half-drunk person haha. I assured them that I am perfectly fine but guess what was their response.

They gave me a sheepish smile lol!

A group picture before we leave. See, I look fine, right?

You know, like they said, "A crazy person will never admit he is crazy", right?