glassblowing

I've experienced glassblowing this weekend with my friends. It's quite hard to make it by myself, so that the staff helped us while making. Anybody could guess what I was making?

Philippe Alliet

We've had dinner with Philippe Alliet and his wines. We've tasted 3 red wines, Shinon 1998, L'Huisserie 2005, and Coteau de Noire 2005. Personally, I especially liked L'Huisserie. I wanna try it again. He and his wife were kind persons. he wasn't talkative and his wife talked lots instead of him. Of course, He answered our question kindly. I had a wonderful dinner. By the way, The person who played the fool was my favorite wine shop owner. He got the left broken kneecap in the end of 2008 by an accident. but He seemed fine. He told me many nice wines. He has passion to introduce nice wines.

an unique cork

It's the first time to see the cork like this. Recently, I often see silicon corks, but I hadn't seen the cork like this.

smoking food

We had a home party this weekend. We emptied many bottles and foods. It's easy to make smoking foods in cardboard boxes.

Kyoto part5

I've experienced "Ocha-kai"(tea ceremony) in the afternoon. The cousins of my friend have joined one of the schools of Japanese tea ceremony for years, and The father of one of them is a Hyougushi(frame-maker or paper mounter?). Hyougushi is an traditional artisan and they compose Furosaki, Byoubu(folding panel screens), Kakeziku(hanging scroll), Fusuma(sliding doors). Those things are used in the tea ceremony too. So They show us how to do that tea ceremony. She even told me how to brew the green tea(matcha). We ate Japanese sweets and sip the tea. I had a wonderful time, but I couldn't feel one's legs at the end because I sit by Seiza style(fold your legs under yourself) for minutes!

Kyoto part4

I've visited the Shimogamo shrine near the hotel. There were many people visiting. I don't know about Buddhist religion even though I'm a Japanese though, The atmosphere was nice. There were vivid colored Komainu(a pair of stone-carved guardian dogs), and the river for washing the hands before go into the shrine to purify.

Kyoto part3

You would think these photos are paintings. But They were fabrics called "Nishijin-Ori"(Nishijin textile). A relative of my friend have many those fabrics by some reasons. He is a Hyogu-shi. I've heard that there are less artisan who make this textile these days. The relative has exhibited them in a room in a small building, but he wanna use the room for other things. So He said he wanna sell them to someone who likes those kind of craft products. It's been several decades, so that they are kinda secondhand articles. He insisted they weren't art objects nor antique, little old craft products. but They may come to be a valuable craft after several decades, because there is the artisan decreasing.






















The right photo were reverse side. All products were made like this by hands. I think It would take really long time to complete.

Kyoto part2

This is a traditional meal in the begging of the year. We call it "Osechi". I don't there is that kinda of traditional meal in the world though, It's kinda Turkey day? There are little different type of meal from prefecture to prefecture. In my family, We cook Ozoni(a soup with mochi) with katsuo bushi base(bonito). It a clear plain soup. In Kyoto, People cook the soup with shiro-miso. shiro-miso is white color and have little sweetness. They add satoimo, zouni-daikon(Japanese small thin radish) and round shaped mochi. Our family use chicken and rectangle shaped(cut) mochi. It was the first time to eat Kyoto version. and I loved it. some people never used to eat it if they don't live in Kyoto and Kansai area.

Kyoto part1

I've visited Kyoto from the 2nd day of 2009 for 3days. It took about 2hours from Shin-Yokohama st to Kyoto st. You can see Mt Fuji by Shinkansen(like TGV).

pino in France

We've tasted pino this weekend. Loire, Alsace, and Bourgogne. We decanted some of them by ovarius.

The first of all, We celebrated the end of 2008 with a rose of champagne, De Sousa. This is my favorite champagne. the afterglow was longer. I like it.



So, We started to taste pino noir below. The left wine was Thierry Puzelat. It smelt nicely as soon as opened. The middle of wine was Sebastien Riffault. Firstly, It's closed, but after minutes, It got better and better. the right wine was Gerard Schueller. This pino was quite nice. It's little similar to a Bourgogne. I love this.






and We kept tasting another pino noir, 2 bottles of wine by Philippe Pacalet. Nuits Saint George and Bel Air. the both were nice, but I prefer Bel Air somehow. The tasteing was over, but there were less bottles, so we opened another bourgogne at the end, Lou Dumont 1987, It's aged nicely.






the end of the tasting, We've sipped a sweet wine, 30 lunes, Maisons Brulees. and I brought this Japanese sweet, Ama-nattou. This is a famous ama-nattou shop in Yokohama, "Omoya". You should try this sweet. You would feel their character, not only sweetness. It's different from common Ama-nattou.

weekend rum

These rum were that I've enjoyed this weekend at a bar and home. The both were made by Samaroli. Especially, The rum on the right photo was difficult to find. The after flavor was long and nicer.

weekend wines

I've tasted these wines this weekend. The Alsace was made by Marc tempe, Alliance. There are some varieties in this wine. I like the wine like this. La Passion was juicy and a thick wine, but It's not tired to drain a bottle of wine. Alcor and Mizar was more thicker, but smells nicer too. but I wanna drink this after years.

legend of cuban rum

I've sipped a special rum made by Valdespino, which was a Sherry brewery. I love this rum. It's completely different from the others. There are less bottle released by some reason. You should sip this wonderful rum if you get a chance.