alizacory

Happy New Year it's year of the rabbit and year 23 in the Japanese calendar.
We had a snowy New Year and people all around us celebrated with snow rabbits instead of snowmen.



We toured white Kyoto especially at the local shrine Imamiya jinja





I had to head to the lab briefly on New Years day so, I grabbed the rare chance to photograph the Daimonji mtn in snow. We are used to seeing this chinese character lit on fire each year on my birthday but seeing it filled in by the snow is really special.



I attended a conference in Taos, New Mexico, USA called the Keystone symposia on transmembrane signaling by GPCRs and channels. I was generously awarded the travel stipend to attend this meeting. Although we were unable to visit elsewhere in the U.S. we were thrilled that the Gilberts and Popes could join us in Taos. Taos has a rich history in the arts and is home to the Pueblo de Taos an ancient village established by the still present Pueblo Indians.

While the first few days in Taos was much of a whirlwind with the time adjustment and the crazy meeting schedule from 8am until 10pm. Luckily the 4 hour mid-day break allowed me to join in lots of fun activities like...

snowshoeing (actually pretty hard to do, lesson learned - leave the purse at home)



We met Annabelle Riley Pope at last! Boy were we lucky too because she is such a cute entertaining little lady. She loved to pose for pictures.





We enjoyed a delicious Birthday meal at the Bavarian Lodge!





Here are some of the views we caught while in Taos
I was really struck at how the homes all across the state were designed to set into the beautiful background.








The Rio Grande Gorge



Taos Ski valley was a ton of fun. As it was my first time to ski, I found myself frustrated and irritated on the first day. While it might be obvious to the rest of you that your husband might not be the most appropriate ski instructor, we needed to learn that for ourselves. Actually, he did ok after he realized that I wasn't giving up and I wasn't interested in perpetually sliding backwards. Day one, I followed Cory and his father on the beginners hill and then onto strawberry hill (the next size up). After successfully falling down the fruitless hill, I was tricked into believing that I somehow was ready to head up the mountain to a real run. 'Well', I thought, 'I did already pay for this lift ticket might as well get some use out of it.' When we arrived at the top, I stumbled off the lift in such a graceful way that they slowed the speed of the lift to avoid injuring me. I looked around and the reality I was faced with was, the only way down is on my already sore tuchas. Panic stricken, I told Cory and his father to go ahead I would find my way down the lift. The truth being that I really had no interest in going down a lift that is made to only go up. Luck had it that a knight, in not so shiny ski-apparel decorated with badges safely declaring ski-patrol, was overhearing my dilemma and offered to take me down the mountain aboard his chariot...err I mean snowmobile. So, day 1 skiing consisted of my first time on skis, lifts and snowmobiles. The next time we went skiing I opted to leave lift ticket out completely and I stuck to strawberry hill forever.









Actually, by the 3rd day things were looking up...I probably would have opted for a lift ticket on the 4th day, but we ran out of time.

Look at me go!



At the end of our trip we headed to Albuquerque to meet up with my Aunt Janet and Uncle Nelson and my cousins Hal and Jonathan. Actually, this was the first time for me to meet my Uncle so I thought it was really special and had been looking forward to catching up with them. We went over their house and had a wonderful time visiting with everyone. We ate some good barbeque and homemade challah and brownies. We reminisced a little and caught up.



We had a great time with all of you in New Mexico. We really appreciate our parents help, without your support it would have been a bit less vacation and a lot more stressful. We hope to see everyone again soon and to all of our friends and family that we missed out on seeing we really hope to see you soon and keep in touch. We love you and wish you all a great 2011.

P.S.- lessons learned
-Don't bring your purse when you go snowshoeing
-Don't rent a car with Thrifty (it sounds like an appropriate car rental company but they tried to charge us for everything imaginable)
-Use a credit card not a debit card for all pre-authorization required purchases
-Exercising on your vacation is actually a lot more fun than it sounds!

Well, I hope that you are reading this with the windows and doors open, welcoming in the early hints of fall. A drop in the temperature here, came just this past Wed. It went from 35 C to 25 C (95 F to 76 F) and not a moment to soon. I was really fed up with the hot humid Kyoto summer.



Last month we celebrated my birthday, once again viewing the Daimonji, fire-pit lit chinese characters on mountain tops surrounding Kyoto. We enjoyed the view along with some friends. Cory had set up a viewing spot ahead of time and even picked up some strawberry shortcake with candles.



Just in time for my birthday, I received the news that I would be given the masters degree and officially accepted to start the PhD from this Fall!!! All that hard work, compiling a 35 paged thesis paid off. Unbelievable. Hard to believe just two years earlier, I thought gels were primarily used to make your hair stay in place. A couple of years of dedication and you do learn a thing or two.







Thanks for all the birthday wishes and gifts and the beautiful flowers from my parents.


With all of the Jewish holidays to celebrate in September/October and the complete lack of Jewish holiday staples, like challah (egg bread), I resolved to bake my own. After a little research and a special delivery of Fleischmanns, I made some oven-less challot. Not too bad. I created the dutch oven effect by baking stove-top in a pan, that could fit a small baking dish hovering over an empty tuna can, to simulate the surrounding heat effect of a standard oven.



I quickly and dangerously moved on to cookies the next week, utilizing our toaster oven.



Why all the baking? Besides the festive mood, I think I was after some positive results, after relentlessly obtaining negative results in the lab recently.

On August 21, we attended our friends wedding in Osaka. Julien and Ran met each other about the same time we arrived in Japan, 2 and a half years ago. He is from France and studying at Kyoto Uni and she is Japanese working in Osaka. They are warm and fun people, who we wish many years of happiness to. It was a very special ceremony representing their different backgrounds. We were so happy to have taken part. Below is a video of them breaking open a sake barrel during the ceremony.






Just last week following the abstaining from food and drink for 25 hours we set up a BBQ at lake Biwa. We premade hamburgers, potato salad, sliced up veggies for the grill and some homemade double chocolate brownies. After a short train detour (I don`t know why they call it the Biwa-ko line if it doesn`t go to the Biwa-ko beach), we arrived at omimaiko beach. We rented a BBQ and after some people had arrived we started BBQing. We had really nice time. The water was warm and the weather was nice, not too hot. We met a few new people form Kyoto. It was a great way to end summer as you can see below.





Aliza, Somaie, Yuko,



Aliza, Somaie, Yuko, Min



Aliza, Somaie, Yuko, Min, Fabien

A very special September happening, was the birth of our nephew Ezra Jakob Parker on September 3rd, 8 pds 6oz. He is very quickly adjusting to his two big sisters :) and doting dog.

A happy half-birthday to our niece Annabelle. Thanks to her mother's knack for blogging we have really felt apart of the last 6 months. We really can`t wait to hold you!

Now for the obligatory kitty kuteness of Torako







That`s all for now.

hugs and kisses to all of you and a reminder to plan your Japan trip!!!!! PhD program is only for 3 years :)

We had some hanami and visitors who opened our eyes to some beautiful places like Nara and Kobe.

We enjoyed a short Sakura season from April.





In May, Cory and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary on the 10th anniversary of our first date. We enjoyed a delicious kaiseki ryori dinner at kakinuka- http://r.tabelog.com/kyoto/A2603/A260302/26001237/



Then we let our visitors guide us. We went to Nara the ancient capital with Lisa and Christian










and to Kobe the famous port with the Ehrlich parents.



The highlight of the trip was taking a cable car up the side of a mountain at shin-kobe ropeway.
The weather was beautiful, not too hot but warm with a nice breeze. We began at the top of the mountain and walked through a maze of elaborate gardens. We ate bento and matcha (green tea) ice cream. Then we took the cable car back down.









At the end of our trip we went out to a buddhist temple called Daitokuji and ate a traditional buddhist feast at a nearby restaurant. It was so delicious. We sat in a private room with a view of the garden.





We went to Gion Matsuri

Aliza and Dorys dressed in Yukata! It may look pretty and comfortable but, there was a lot more to it than just tying a knot. Yukata are the summer festival garb and the obi is the belt. Traditionally women are to wear the obi in such a way that they appear like a box without shape. The trick, to achieve that appearance, is to place many towels to pad the curvy areas. My friend and I found out quickly, by the grunting of our Japanese yukata dressers that us foreigners had too many curves! So we had quite a lot of layers underneath. Once in though, we managed alright most of the night.

Somehow though, just my luck, my obi came undone after we had gotten some tasty fair food! We asked a nearby obachan (grandmother) to save the day, and save she did. It was amazing to watch. We didn't have to ask twice and it was as though she had already saved the day for several girls that night. When she had finished retying the obi, everyone around was oohing and ahhing. I was so lucky she had been close by :)





Aliza attended a very special Keystone meeting on Bio-active lipids (the things your body produces from eating essential fatty acids like peanuts and fish) at the Westin Miyako. The closing dinner included a show by maiko and geiko. Geisha's as most of you know are the trained and beautifully adorned female hosts of Japan. In the picture of the three there are two maiko (geisha in training) and one geisha. Can you guess which are which?



The distinction can be visually made by noticing the length of the kimono sleeve. The geisha's sleeves are short (all the way to the left). Also in performance the geisha performs alone but maiko can only perform in a group and they do not show there talent (ie., shamisen playing).





Below are some random photo's from around town, a platter of meat from a dinner of shabu shabu and Torako, our cat, playing around the house.

















The sounds of summer in Kyoto. These episodic cicadas or semi are all over the place this time of year. The collective sound of them is almost defeaning. In a couple of weeks, they will be falling from trees and surprising you by their akwardly pudgy body type and long colorful wings . They are really odd looking and they apparently flow blue in the early morning hours.

Happy New Year! It`s the year of the Tiger or TORA

To catch up our New Year was packed with sight seeing while our friends Clint and Julie from portland visited us. They are both UCF alums. Clint actually one tickets to Tokyo in a contest to create an ad for the Portland airport

http://www.clintbeastwood.com/2009/06/i-want-to-go-to-tokyo.html

We visited Kinkakuji a temple painted in gold...walking distance from our house



We ate a lot





We hiked daimonji mountain. The mountain has a charachter which is set a blaze in August every summer as part of the Obon festival







And we ate some more

Tamogo(egg) sushi



We had been discussing the cat adoption prospect for sometime now. We felt that the sign of the year of the tiger kinda called out "ADOPT!" So meet Torako.













You can read about where he came from here

http://japancatnet.com/rescue/skippy.html

This is the group that we adopted him from. The Japan cat network shelters cats that were found stray, in places where they are actively capturing to spay/neuter the strays. Most cats are spayed and released but special cases and kittens too young for the surgery are taken in by shelters like this one.
We traveled way out to Hikone, about an hour train ride on the east side of Biwa lake. We could see the ski-able snow capped mountains which we are longing to get to. We met lots and lots of cats. Torako was one of the first ones to come up and introduce himself. The shelter owners David and Susan told us about the various personalities of different kittens. David especially thought Torako was friendly and affectionate. I think it took an hour or so to decide for sure, but maybe we knew it when he first nudged his head into our hands. We wrapped up some food and even a toy for the ride home and headed back to Kyoto. Now 3 weeks later, and 9month old Torako has gotten used to the house and our schedules. He loves to play and run. Much like our nieces figured out when they visited us, if you open all the screen doors in the house you can run in circles from room to room. Torako loves to burn energy that way.



SETSUBUN

To mark the ending of winter and beginning of spring we celebrated Setsubun by visiting Yoshida shrine next door to Kyoto University. They celebrate with yummy food and a huge bonfire. We ate makizushi facing south southeast for good luck or (fuku). And you throw beans out of the home so that bad spirits go outside and only good remains. Cory says we should follow this practice especially because regardless of whether you believe it to be true, You wouldn`t want to be the one house with the door open when all those swept outside spirits are roaming the streets:)

(FOR a BETTER DEFINITION http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setsubun)



I promise we were at a safe distance and there were loads of firemen controlling the blaze. The temp at the 11pm start was 0 C, So the fire felt great!





This is from a recent experiment called Western Blotting to give you an idea of what workin in the lab means. The paper is made of nitrocellulose and I have loaded samples of proteins centrifuged from lysed cells. The lines or bands represent proteins of different sizes or weights.
Thrilling isn`t it!



Now to get ready for a certain someone`s feb 10th birthday we`ll be dining at Hotal (dragonfly) a restaurant that (hopefully understood my terrible Japanese reservation) will host us and friends this wed night.

Stay warm and eat your vitamin C, spring is coming

love,

Aliza and Cory

Hi all, here is a gps track of a short hike from Ginkaku-ji temple to Nanzen-ji in Kyoto on the 2nd of January.
We climbed to the daimonji character on the mountainside and continued to the peak along the ridge and down into the small shrine behind Nanzen-ji. It was fun. You can also see some other hikes we:ve taken at this site.
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=456739

It's new years eve or oomisoka, we have been preparing for it all week long, with osouji or cleaning our home.





also did a little home improvement. nothing big just little odds and ends to make the house nicer, like traditional cloth hung in front of home's entrance (Noren) very cute indeed

(Yes its sideways...sorry)



We are searching for a good deal on the kotatsu. It's a table that has a heater in the middle and you fit it with a blanket above and the whole family can sit around it and eat and be warm.
See here: http://www.storm-from-the-east.com/2006/12/kotatsu_time.html Apparently, alot of people end up sleeping under like a cat. And they even make a separate one for cats! http://www.gizmodiva.com/other_stuff/cat_kotatsu_from_dogimanhayashi_japan_for_a_purring_warmth.php

Until we settle on one we have many other warming elements such as Cory's yutanpo a gift from his student. it's a hot water bottle with a soft cover shaped like a cat. http://www.jlist.com/SEARCH/Mini_Yutanpo_eco_Panda


We recently visited a friends home for dinner. Aliza's senpai Kitaoka-san, invited us to Obaku (a south east suburb of Kyoto) to her family's house. We met her parents her brother and his wife and their three children (aged 8, 6 and 2). We ate oden
(http://japanesefood.about.com/library/pictures/blodenphoto.htm)

and temakisushi which literally translates to hand make sushi
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lh_UWF9ZP4).
It was delicious and we had fun playing Wii and trying out our Japanese. The Kitaoka's were very kind and even bought us hashi or chopsticks with the animal of our birth year on the ends. A very thoughtful gift. And if your curious about the Japanese family home it's pretty much like a US one but a little smaller. It was cozy and warm especially with the heated floors! I hope we can go there again sometime.




At our house we also had a dinner party, one to share the holiday season amongst friends from different countries. We asked everyone who would join to bring something they would usually enjoy this time of year at home. We had 12 people altogether. Italy, Germany, France, Holland, Mexico, Japanese and of course US. It was so delicious and fun. We will definitely do it again.


So, we are ending a year, that has been hard for us really really hard. I would say that individually the two of us have grown tremendously. Thankfully that has translated well to us as a couple too. We feel hopeful that all of the challenges we faced last year will continue to remind us of how far we have come in the future. More and more when faced with something difficult we say, but one year ago how was I at this? and then we realize the progress is slow but its there. In truth, our biggest lesson this year was how little learning we had been doing for some time. It's always good to be actively learning something new, no matter what it is. Those neurons need to be exercising no matter what age you are. Alright enough of this reflection,

to all our family and friends we love and miss you. We may be far away, but our hearts and minds are with you.
Keep in touch and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2010 is the year of the Tiger or 'TORA' it's 22nd year of heisei in the Japanese calendar.

Me and my Latkes (thanks for the streitz's mom and dad) and homemade apple sauce.


Dorys and Rafael



Clockwise, Cory, Kengo, Aliza, Ran



Gen, Dorys, Rafael, Simonetta, Julien



Happy Hanuka!



Clockwise: Aliza, Julien, kengo, Dorys, Rafael, Arend, Simonetta, Gen, Ran

It`s amazing how those mental blogs I`ve been doing haven`t been publishing ;)

Well Fall came and pretty much went...



It was beautiful! We went on a few hikes to view the changing leaves on Japanese maple trees or Momiji.

We made a few new friends in doing so. The villages we visited were in the northern mountains of Kyoto, the towns, Ohara, Kibune and Kurama. Really really pretty. The pictures won`t do them justice. While we visited we ate some delicious food. My favorite was miso dango which is miso flavored mochi. The mochi is shaped in ball form an placed on skewers and then cooked over a grill and thick miso sauce is placed over top...mmmmm yum!

I attended the theater and saw Noh and Kyougen put on by Kyoto University. Noh is a traditional and serious play. It`s almost always shown with Kyougen a short comedic play. It was fantstic! I especially enjoyed the costumes and interesting soundtrack. Check out our videos on you tube for more Noh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3E_bRiL6po

Work has been full for both of us. We were also recently introduced to Hayao Miyazaki films which please please please watch highly recommended!!!!! You should see Tenku no shiro rapyuta!!!!

Well we want to wish you all a happy holiday season. We both felt the individual family nostalgia these past few weeks. In the future we really hope to visit family during this time of year! Or have you visit us! We love and miss everyone and wish you all good health in 2010!!!





























karaoke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!







cherry blossom in fall







new friends!

October came and is almost gone. Elana, Eric, Sophia and Riley came for a visit. We had a ball showing them around Japan. We finally got to travel to Tokyo for reasons other than catching a connecting flight! We stayed at nice hotel with delicious breakfasts for about 3 days. We then took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto, for the remainder of their stay. While the first few days the girls missed out on quite a few things because they were sleeping, having to adjust to a new time zone and all. They seemed to get adjusted about halfway through their stay.
We visited many places in Tokyo. The Tsukiji fish market, the imperial palace, Asakusa where we attempted to eat as a family at a rotating sushi restaurant but found that the girls had their own idea of what we should be doing then, sleeping!of course. We also visited the hustle and bustle of the famous fashion district Harajuku st. And traveling around Japan with two toddlers means a very thorough tour of the elevators of Japan especially on the train lines. I think they were pretty well prepared.
In Kyoto, we visited Kinka kuji the picturesque golden temple, the Iwatayama koen monkey park, and Mt. Hiei. The tallest mountain bordering Kyoto, has many shrines that you can access by a cable car and ropeway. We visited many parks because we found the slide to be a very good way to expend some of that abounding toddler energy.

When it came time for them to leave, we were sad to see them go but so happy that they were able to come. We home this is the first trip of many to come!

pick up

walk around hotel kazusaya

tsukiji fish market

tsukiji play time


imp palace


ingenious isnt it?


kinka

kinka


cory and sophia

monkeys

The girls were like celebrities!

cable car

I attended the Japan Neuroscience conference in Nagoya last week.
I took one morning off to see the famous Nagoya Castle. Originally built in 1525, air raids in WWII destroyed it. Rebuilt in 1960, the restoration is very accurate and includes many of the original artworks which were not destroyed. Trademarks of the castle include 2 "golden dolphins" called Kinshachi They sat at the top of the main building. The castle has many floors with displays of what the original castle held as well as what the original inhabitants wore. The top floor has a wonderful observatory, you can see the whole city of Nagoya. When I was exiting the castle, crossing over the moat a surprise visit by a family of deer or "shika".







by the way with Fall starting we have been getting some delicious fruit like this Japanese pear, mmm


























Nagoya is also famous for the city center`s TV Tower (built in 1954), similar to the Eiffel tower, there is even a champs elysees reference and dedication from Jacques Chirac.



Nagoya dining is famous for entrees featuring a distinct miso sauce. Very delicious! like the rest of Japan you can often SEE the menu before ordering







Since it was my first time to ride the bullet train or Shinkansen I took some video, see below. The train looks like it drove right outta Star Wars!












Now we are prepping our house for a visit from Elana and Eric and their beautiful girls!!!! We can`t wait the 2 weeks till they arrive!!!

Wishing everyone a Happy and healthy New Year Shana Tova!

The biggest festival in Japan happens in Kyoto in July, Gion (the area of town) matsuri (festival) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gion_Matsuri. We missed it last year, I think that amazes everyone considering how large it is.

The festival is actually over one month long. Neighbor hoods of the downtown area are divided into sections that construct floats to represent their sector. In the last week leading up to the parade finale, vendors line the streets offering delicious treats, pretty much anything that can keep it`s composure on a stick. from chocolate covered banana`s, grilled chicken (yaki-tori), cucumbers (yes icey cool cucumbers for $2 to octopus balls(tako-yaki) and foreign inspired shwarma, kebobs.

The float makers and their families sit inside them playing the gion matsuri song. Visitors can briefly tour the floats but no photos allowed. And you can buy yukata (the festival kimono`s) There are also games for the children.

oh we have more video`s on our youtube site

http://www.youtube.com/user/aehrlic


floats

This kanji character means month or moon and is pronounced tsuki




shijo



tofu salad



Tako-Yaki







Dango(japanese dumpling made from riceflour)



Mitsumori-san and Sakata-san



Kitaoka-san and I







Samples of the Gion Matsuri song





Cute kids dressed in yukata playing around



Wedding

I attended the wedding of Ryota Shinohara, he is a doctorate student in my lab working in the neuroscience group with me. He was married at the http://travel.wwte1.com/pub/agent.dll?qscr=dspv&itty=new&from=m&shtl=1&htid=1607898&crti=0&cadu1=1&crom=1&eapid=26529-30001. His wedding was western style with a church (which was located in the hotel courtyard, as if some dropped a midwest corner of Iowa down from the air). The ceremony was nice and followed by showering the newlyweds with flowers in the main courtyard. Then the bouquet was tossed. The reception soon followed with video presentation of the couple growing up and falling in love. There were toasts the main one given by Professor Narumiya, the head of my dept. and the first Kompai toast was done by my advisor, Professor Furuyashiki. The food was french style, little courses (ten of them ending with the most amazing dessert). The parent`s individually thanked each guest by coming to them and toasting them with beer.

There was a candle lighting ceremony, where the bride and groom selected one person at each able to thank and pass their lit candle to the guests. I was chosen at our table, nervous not to say or do the wrong thing I picked up Kitaoka-san`s candle, so when I turned back to light her`s she had no candle!ha ha...
The wedding wrapped up with a video of the... well the Wedding!! edited and set to music we reviewed what a wonderful day it had been! On the way out we said our thanks to the newly-weds who stood between their parents. The bride handed guests a sensu (or traditional folding fan).

It was so beautiful. I wish Cory would have been able to join. In Japan invitations are not extended to the family if it is an association through work.



Traditional wedding kimono was represented with these cute bears at the entrance



Sakamoto-san, Mitsumori-san, and me









mmm Dessert!!!



hikidemono- gifts from the bride and groom are given to each guest

Specialty spices for rice



Delicious chocolate cake!!! (I know because it vanished from our house in a matter of days)


and a Tea set!