Thursday 31 January 2013

Goal Curry




As my time in Okayama is slowly going to end, I start to realise how little I have reported about something I do quite often every week.  
だんだん僕が岡山に住んでいる時間は終わっている間に、ほとんど毎週間している事についてまだ書いてないのを気ついた。

Eating!  
それは食べることです。

Well, I not exclusively eat only out but also “cook” by myself from time to time. 
もっぱらいつもレストランで食事することないが、よく自分で料理してみる。

However, during the time three restaurants around University became especiall quite familiar to me. 但し、岡山大学にいるときに、別な三つのレストランは僕にとって人気になられていた。

The most remarkably among it, is probably “Goal Curry”. 
一番一際的なレストランはゴール・カレーっていうカレー屋さんだよ。

A small little restaurant, that is running for 40 years now by a 86 years old, pretty fit, soccer-fan grandma and her husband.  
ずっと40年間に開いている、86歳の、とても元気で、サッカーが大好きなお婆さんが旦那さんと一緒に料理してるレストランだ。

The restaurant is located right north of Tsushima-Campus.
 岡山大学から北の方にある。

The couple makes the curry sauce by themselves and don’t use any instant curry powder. 
夫婦は、インストソースを使わすに、カレーソースを自分でやる。
  


I especially like their “special curry” for 550 Yen, with a lot of vegetables. 
特別に、550円の、たくさん野菜が入ったスペシャルカレーが大好きだよ。

Today I got a special pot of house made salad, because “she made to much this morning”.  
『今朝には作りすぎたから、』、今日のスペシャルカレーと共に、ただの美味しい萌やしサラダをもらった。

Surrounded by Fagiano (the local soccer team) flags and pictures you can enjoy your meal on small little tables. 
いっぱいFagianoって言うの岡山サッカーチームのポスターある所でカレーが楽しめる!

Little grandma likes especially to talk, in her quite unique Japanese, about things that has changed in the past 40 years, since she serves curry to students from Okadai.
 婆的な日本語で、もう40年間岡大の学生たちにカレー作っている間にどんなことが変わったのを話すことが大好きなチビなお婆さんだ。

How guys apparently have become weaker.  
40年間に、男の子たちのこころはそろそろ弱くなっていたって!

If you would like to feel sufficiently full, than I can recommend Okayamas Goal Curry to you! 
自分のお腹に満足の感をあげたいなら、僕のおすすめは岡山のゴール・カレーだ。

Sunday 20 January 2013

Post in an other Blog

Machis Dad published a small article about me, as I stayed quite a lot in his house in the last time. He came to an archery event last week and was quite impressed by an spontaneous joggle attack of mine in his garden :P

http://isuzugawa.blogspot.jp/2013/01/blog-post_20.html

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Germany from a different angle?



From time to time every one of us, who stays just long enough away from home, wants to return to his family and friends. Especially to occasions, such as Christmas when the whole family gathers, the desire to see your love ones grows.

Hence I packed my things and returned for a holiday trip back to Germany, Dresden. It was great to see most of my dear friends and my whole family for almost three weeks. I spent Christmas in my hometown Dresden and new- year in Berlin with friends. In between, I visited Köln, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Krefeld and Soest to give a visit to friends in other parts of Germany. To have a bit of snow before every little rest of it melted away right before Christmas was nostalgic as well. Especially as I spent the time outside with my friends in the valley and rock tops of the Elbsandstein Gebirge during a hot wine (Glühwein) hiking tour.



In many parts of Germany live is indeed wonderful: (cultivated) nature, parks, cheap food in a huge variety, a lot of space for relatively cheap rents, very good health care, and an almost free education system. Germans should be a happy folk, but when you wander through the streets of cities in Germany you immediately notice the absence of smiling people or anyone with a happy face expression. I don’t want to generalise, but as I spent most of my free time outside of the house I couldn’t avoid noticing this. And it is not the first time. Whenever I came back in the last three years, from Japan or Australia, I realised how unhappy people seem to be, or at least how unable to express their happy emotion, if there is one. It made me sad to see, that so many people in the country where I grew up, were apparently not happy. Instead of compliments I heard complaining! 

I can only hope that people start to value what they have and will be happy and thankful for whatever they got! Life is too short to be grumpy and unhappy. Death can be always around the next corner!