Week 4

2011 is turning out to be a busy year so far. My social calendar has filled up more-or-less through mid-February. This past week I had two dates, two factory tours, a nomikai (work party), and a concert. All that plus work and studying for the JLPT N3 (Japanese Language Proficiency Test, Level New 3) makes Dockett a busy guy!

Much to the disappointment of a few of you (I'm sure), we're going to skip over the juicy part of that last paragraph and move on to the two factory tours. Six co-workers and I started at the instant Ramen Museum in Ikeda, North Osaka Wednesday morning. As the name suggests this wan't actually a factory, but a museum built near the site where the founder, Momofuku Ando, invented instant ramen. No reservations were needed for the exhibit hall which explains (in Japanese) about the history of the food. Also open to the public is a station where you can design your own Cup Noodle package and choose what "soup" flavor gets put inside. If a proper reservation is made (which somehow I missed) there's a second floor kitchen area where you can make your own noodles from scratch as well. All in all it was pretty fun for being free (+300yen to make the ramen package.)

After a lunch of cheap Chinese food (not ramen) three of our party left to go to work and we picked up one more. Our second destination of the day was the Suntory Yamazaki Distillery for a whisky tour. This time it was a tour through an operational distillery. The tour guide gave the tour in Japanese but between my listening skills, some signs written in English, and my years of working at a liquor store, I was able to translate the gist of what was going on to those in our party wo didn't understand. As might be expected at the end of a factory tour we got free samples of the 10 and 12 year old whiskeys as well as a type of Japanese liquor made in the same distillery. After sampling time was over we were shown to the gift shop which in turn exited into the "Whisky Library" were you could sample various whiskeys (and scotches) from all over the world (15ml-30ml (~1/3 - 1/2 shot)) (priced from 100yen to 2,500yen).

Friday night I went out after work with the staff of the high school I work at. It was my first time attending this kind of afterwork staff party and I've gotta say it was pretty fun seeing everyone relaxing and having a good time (though these teachers are pretty laid-back and fun to begin with.)

Last night I went to a concert at a venue just down the street. It was a "cosy" place that might only hold 100 people at full capacity but really let you get up close to the bands. It was a variety night so I got to see five new bands I haven't seen before. And this time I remembered to bring ear plugs so me ears aren't ringing this morning.

Looking forward, this week actually isn't too busy, with the highlight shaping up to be a tour of the Asahi-beer brewery in North Osaka on Wednesday.