Lab parties

The last two weeks, the lab here has been really social having two parties and an outing. I'm not sure why they decided to have these parties (at least one was because two of the professors decided to fund one I guess) but they were really fun.

Last Monday, we had a takoyaki party. Takoyaki are these little dumplings that usually have small chunks of octopus in the middle. You cook them in little friers (see second picture below) and throw a bunch of other stuff in them (ginger which is the dark red stuff, green onions, and a few other things) and on them (takoyaki sauce, some green spice that is very common here, and dried fish flake kinda things). Some people also put mayo on their Takoyaki, but I do not hold with that (in a word, yuck!). I wasn't sure about the dumplings because I don't generally like squid and octopus (too chewy for me) and I was worried that the ginger would be too strong for me, but they were wonderful. The octopus was great (not chewy at all) and the mix of seasonings were amazing (I couldn't even distinguish the ginger, everything melded together so nicely). This is apparently a specialty of Osaka, which I also visited last weekend. I had takoyaki in the city and realized that I vastly prefer homemade (or at least Keita made) takoyaki. Watching them make takoyaki was cool too. It's actually super easy, except for when you need to turn the dumplings. That seems to require some skill to do it neatly. Keita was very good at it, Yuko was okay, and everyone else was bad. But they still taste good even if they don't look nice. Everyone ate and drank so much at the party, it was amazing. Some one kept bringing out more and more food. The takoyaki is gone, now we will make somen. That's gone, now we will bring out a huge selection of cookies and stuff. Now mangos. Now a watermelon. Now ice cream. STOP! I can't keep up with it all.
Poor Keita had to do most of the cooking (which he admits is always the case). He also did the primary cooking at the barbecue that we had this past monday. It started to really storm right about when it was time to start, so I thought we would postpone the party. Oh me of little faith! They shoved the grill under one of the overhangs of the building right outside the door and grilled there (see picture). It was an awkward place to have a party and it was very hot (due to the humidity being so high) but the food was good and it was fun. They grilled some veggies and meat which was dipped in a soy and sesame based sauce after grilling. Tasty. This party wasn't as big or as long as the takoyaki party (there wasn't an endless amount of food at this one), but it was really nice.
Finally, yesterday, a bunch of us went to see Ponyo on a cliff by the sea (I think that is the english translation). It's the new Hayao Miyazaki film (the guy who did Spirited Away) that just opened last week. This one has a lot of marine animals and themes in it, so of course the lab was interested in going (though they might have gone anyway). I just wanted to see it. So we went to the film, then had ramen (and did a little shopping) afterwards. The movie was awesome. Because it's geared towards younger children, it was very easy for me to understand the big picture. Some of the details escaped me, but I got the idea. Also, a couple of points I was able to pick up and understand some Japanese (it was pretty simple Japanese and not integral to the plot, but it still made me happy that I understood it). A very happy cute movie that is not saccharine sweet, I really recommend it. I'm already looking forward to seeing it in English with my mom, who will love it. And hanging out with the group was fun too.
Tonight is a big fireworks festival (Hanabi!) so I think there is going to be a small party on the terrace of the aquarium. I hope it doesn't storm for it (it has the last 2 nights). I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but starting in mid July, we have fireworks every night. But these are message fireworks (people pay for the fireworks and I think get a message projected while they go off). These are small shows, but tonight should be a big one! I'm looking forward to it. There is another big fireworks show on Aug. 10 (I don't know why they put them so close together) and a dance festival of some sort on Aug. 1. So I'm not going to travel much this weekend, just going to enjoy the local parties.