about things learned, sweets made and fun had.

Yesterday, as usual, the last class was on Japanese culture, and this time we studied about the history of Doshisha (that's the name of our university). I've been slightly confused every time I tell people I'm studying at Doshisha and they go all "Oh wow, you must be so clever!", but now I know why. So obviously this is a famous and acknowledged university, that much I knew; but it's actually so famous that there's even an effing manga made about the life and times of the founder, Joseph Hardy Neesima, and yesterday's lecture slides were basically just pages and pages of that manga, which, by the way, was pretty cringeworthy, especially with the English translations that were displayed beside the Japanese pages... I mean, just imagine a serious manga about, say, Obama. Just... no.

So the guy was apparently the first Japanese person to study in America - he went there to study Christianity and after returning to Japan, he decided to build a Christian university in Kyoto, a town that is famous for its Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. But that turned out a lot better than expected, and now people just assume that if you're studying at Doshisha, you must be clever and/or rich. As for me, I just said I want to go and my uni sent me... so yeah, doesn't really apply here!

At the end of the class, we had a campus tour with a volunteer to show us around and explain about the history of the buildings. We even got inside the pretty little church that's right in the middle of Imadegawa campus, and it was beautiful, with the stained glass windows and all.

Last weekend was also pretty great: I learned to make wagashi, which translates into Japanese sweets. Wagashi are the traditional type of sweets that are a crucial part of tea ceremonies, where they are enjoyed with matcha. There are different types of wagashi, but most of them are made with either mochi, which is the rice cake dough, or anko, which is the red bean paste that's so delicious that I devoted an entire post to it some time ago.

So, as someone who loves cooking and baking and eating wagashi, of course I signed up for that! And it was so worth it, too. We went to Kanshundo (甘春堂), which is a sweets shop that specializes in kyogashi - Kyoto-style wagashi - and were taught by one of the staff there. It was an old, quintessentially Japanese building, with the shop and a tea room down at the ground floor, and a classroom type of setting at the first floor. They had the pastes and doughs made ready for us, so our job was just to follow the instructions and mold them into the almost-too-pretty-to-eat sweets that their shop is famous for. Below are a couple of the ones that I made - one we ate at the end of the session with some deliciously bitter matcha. One of the most Japanese experiences that I've had so far, loved it.

Also, such a beautiful night when I left the place! So glad I went by bike instead of the subway.

Later that night, to balance it all out, we made some yogashi (that's the Japanese word for Western-style sweets): Oreo cookie balls! The original recipe was just a video I saw on my Facebook wall and I can't find it anymore, but I think by googling that you'll find loads of similar recipes. Had those, and some wine and cheese, and compared to the zen-like atmosphere we had at the wagashi shop, this process resembled My Drunk Kitchen, a YouTube channel that I strongly recommend for everybody to watch! So entertaining. Well, our balls may not have been the prettiest out there; however, the end result was delicious.

From there onwards, went to an izakaya and KARAOKE for the first time! Expensive but so much fun, since here you get a private room with your friends and get to sing as much as your heart desires until your time's up - and even then you can just request more time, which you'll probably end up doing since you're getting a bit drunk and there are a kazillion of songs that you just need to sing right there and then.

In these rooms they've also got a selection of instruments and shit, so while your friends are singing a song you don't know, you can for example accompany them on a tambourine! Noisy but fun. Plus, if you get the nomihodai deal, which I think is the usual deal, you also get to play with the drink order tablet as much as you want, and the drinks keep coming on the set price that you agreed to pay at the entrance. The Japanese people sure know how to party.

That's all for today, folks - I'll update later when I've tried out a couple of Japanese craft beers that I found at a store that I also think I'll be talking about later. Until then!