The professor who was doing field work with us took his students and I on a outing while we were in Sanriku. He took us to a scenic lookout and showed us where all of the field sites were relative to one another. Above is a photo of one of the bays (Yamada Bay), the research site is on the right side of the mouth of this bay. There is a really cool Shinto shrine along the waterfront behind the research plots here. The floats that are in the bay are mostly oyster, kelp and some scallop culture bouys.
The next stop on our excursion was a sweet shop down some back alley in a small neighbouring town. It was a beautiful traditional spot that made traditional Japanese sweets and North American type treats as well (like cheese cake etc). Everything on offer was immaculately prepared and looked as if it was ready for a magazine shoot. We orderer our treats and sat in a beatifully crafted traditional style room and waited for service. Every detail in the room was intentional and perfect, from the minimal decor right down to the shadows cast by bamboo leaves outside the building on the rice paper covered window. The students seemed as impressed as me and took more photos than I did (that was nice because it made me feel like less of an outsider).
The food was perfectly prepared and more of a work of art than a snack. I had rice flour balls with three different dipping sauces, the dish is called omochi. The sauces (left to right in the photo) are sweet edamame sauce, walnut cream sauce (=tochi) and sesame paste (the black one, I liked this one best, called goma).
All treats were served with a cup of matcha tea in beautiful hand crafted mugs. There was a cast iron pot of water over charcoal in the middle of the room so we were able to make more tea if we wanted. We all took turns making a second cup of matcha - here is a photo of the professor who took us on the trip making matcha. The students were impressed that I was able to froth up a pretty cup of matcha and again, they all seemed relatively in the dark about the how to make a cup properly but gave it a good try when it was their turn.
It was great to throw a touch of Japanese culture into this field trip and I can't wait to find a place like this in Sapporo that I can take Shawn to. It felt very relaxing to sit in such a peaceful and well planned space, even if it was just for tea and sweets.
