The Isle of Islay

The Isle of Islay ( http://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/servicepoint/islay-customer-service-point ) is a small island, which population is approx. 3,500.  It is certain that the number of cattle and sheep is larger than people...  The total area is approx. 600km² which size is equiv. of Awaji Island (This island is known well by Kansai Japanese...sorry).  The view of mountain and sea is quite similar with Martinborough of NZ, but there are some differences, I can not say specifically though.  Then, I do not know why Japanese say AIRA Island???...Even if Islay calls by Gaelic, it's Ìle... Can someone please tell me!

By the way, 28th of August was my friend's birthday.  She is a intelligence and experienced woman.  We had a birthday dinner at the Harbour Inn restaurant ( http://www.harbour-inn.com/ ) in Bowmore.  This hotel has been listed on Michelin guide book for several years.  We enjoyed fresh oysters and lobsters with campaign and wine.  Oysters were milky and delicious.  After the main course, I requested a surprised cake for my friend in advance.  Their service was very friendly and kind.  After that, we went to The Port Charlotte Hotel ( http://www.portcharlottehotel.co.uk/ ) because the musical performance was held at night.  We enjoyed Scottish music and Gaelic song until late.  Of course, they played Happy birthday song for my friend.  Thank you very much for everyone!  However, I had too much alcohol on that day...   By the way, someone want to go to Islay, please avoid Sunday as much as possible, because all shop (not almost of) tend to close in the Sunday morning, even the police close...very peaceful town...

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Distilleries in Islay

The isle of Islay is famous for single malts, in particular single Islay malts have a peat flavour.  Currently, there are eight distilleries in the island.  I have not drunk malts so many times until then, since its alchol is too strong for me, but I have interested in it, so I visited there this time.  First, I visited Bowmore ( http://www.bowmore.com/age-verification ) which become a wholly owned subsidiary of Japanese spirit company, Suntory ( http://www.suntory.co.jp/index.html ), in 1994, since we had already booked, but they were closed because the date and time was Sunday morning....I did not know why they received our request...  so we went to Laphroaig ( http://www.laphroaig.com/home.aspx ), Lagavulin, and Ardbeg.  Then, we joined Laphroaig tour at 3 pounds.  We could see the process of making single malts from smoking malts to distillation, and taste single islay malt scoth whisky 10 years old,alc 55.7%.  We saw sprouted malts and fermentation and tried malt smoked by peat.  The most interesting process was distillation, because that was controlled human and we smelled sweet flavour like a caramel.  The whisky was also sweet, peat flavor and sharply.  Next, we went to Lagavulin ( http://www.discovering-distilleries.com/agecheck.php?redirect=/index.php ), but their tour was only weekday, so I tasted only 16 years old, which was stronger than Laphroaig, but it was thick and balanced.  Lastly, we visited Ardbeg ( http://www.ardbeg.com/ardbeg/ ).  Ardbeg was the most capital invested distillery where we visited.  They opened restaurant and had a large shop space for tourists.  I tried 10 years old and Uigeadail.  Both color and taste was far different for me.  10 years old was clear, fruity, and sharp, Uigeadail was amber, caramel, and refined.  I enjoyed it with mussels which were small, but tasty.  I really enjoyed malts, but this must be the awful entrance of malts... On the way back, we found stope of peat which is a type of soil consisting of decaying plants that can also be used as fuel by Macmillan.  (We are really good students...) We thought that mining is a really hard job...  Especially, the climate of Islay is rainy, windy and cold.  Therefore, I supposed that this strict climate is a reason of making good single malts.

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Mackintosh city

We had several hours in Glasgow, so we visited The Glasgow School of Art ( http://www.gsa.ac.uk/ ), The Willow Tea Rooms ( http://www.willowtearooms.co.uk/ ), and House of an art lover( http://www.houseforanartlover.co.uk/ ).  I was surprised that we could meet Mackintosh design in Glasgow, and the youth have a lot of energy there.  We could touch with arts designed by Mackintosh such as chairs, shelves and other furniture.  He and his associates felt the effects of Japanese architectures and arts.  Therefore, his arts and designed buildings are simple modern color, white and dark brown on basic, and open space.  Until then, British people used to decorate luxury with using gold.  Therefore, I could be familiar with his design concepts.  In particular, I preferred his expressed beautiful curve and line, and calculated contrasts.  Unfortunately, we did not have enough time at the tea room, and we could not have a delicious lunch since we had much breakfast on the ferry....so I want to come here again!

ART IN                         SCHOOL OUT

We joined the tour at the school at 7 pounds.  A beautiful female like a doll guided us inside the school.  Her presentation skills was quite high, because her speech was sophisticated and calculated time perfectly, of course, she had eye contacts, body languages and clear voice.  She have trained well though, it was a good opportunity for us to study presentation.  I am sure that their school management would be also successful, because we could not take pictures inside the school, instead of purchasing postcards.

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Scotland short trip ~Glasgow & Islay~

In the UK, we had a bank holiday on 29 Aug 2011, i.e. Summer bank holiday.  Why do they call bank holiday?  It means a public holiday including banks, shops, schools and so on.  Almost always, the bank holiday will be on Monday follows weekends, so these holidays are changeable dates and become a  bank holiday weekend.

I had planed to go to Scotland since before, especially Islay island, because there was famous for single malt and my friend recommended me to go to Islay since I wanted to enjoy beautiful views, malts and sea foods.  First, We went to Glasgow by Virgin train ( http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/ ) through Sheffield, Manchester, and Preston, after that we went for Kennagraig by City link coach (  http://www.citylink.co.uk/index.php ), and boarded on Ferry ( http://www.calmac.co.uk/ ).  In Islay island, we rent a car, Volkswagen wagon for two persons...because local company did not have so many automatic cars.  Total round transportation costs was 95 pounds, suitable for students, but it is quiet hard for my ages...  Of course, round train was first classes as well as Paris though.  However, our choices of coaches and ferries were good, because we could enjoy beautiful mountain and sea views, and then we were surprised the ferry since Kennagraig ferry terminal was shabby, but the ferry was luxury more than our expectation.  By the way, we wore winter clothes due to coldness though, some Scottish wore short sleeves....It's difficult for me to understand....It means that it is summer for Scottish, doesn't it?  Then, Scottish English is also interesting, because they have various intonation, so sometime, I felt the difficulty of listening, but their speaking way is so cute.

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Clementine

We can now see mandarin oranges here, 'mikan 蜜柑' in Japanese.  It called Clementine which named from Father Clement Rodier who discovered and grew it, referenced by WIKIPEDIA ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clementine ).  Even so, this name is too fashionable, isn't it..because in Japan, mikan is a folksy fruits.  I bought clementines which was made in South Africa.  Their peel is a little thinner than mikan, but taste is quite similar.  Every winter, we received many mandarin oranges from relations who lives in Hiroshima, I brought back memories.  The indication is written that people have aimed for at least 5 difficult portion of veg or fruit a day, including fresh, frozen, dried, canned and juice all count.  We, japanese are said to have more than 30 products including meat and fish......  I felt the differences of food cultures now.

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Argumentative

I am now taking action for Project2, i.e. dissertation.  At the beginning, it is difficult for me to understand Citation, Plagiarism, Paraphrase, or Quotation to write it, because I had recognized that the dissertation was written by my arguments for the topic or we claimed for the citation written by other people...  As a consequence, I knew that we had to find the articles which arguments were similar with my opinions.  That is daunting task for me.  Of course, it goes without saying that having fundamental knowledge is by necessity...Especially in the UK, the citation is 98% of the entire article.... It is certain that our argument without evidence is just a level of backstairs gossip or hoot.  This thinking way may be useful for me to negotiate or communicate with someone in the future.  I am not sure with whom though.  Actually, I am reminding and parallelling with my experience...By the way, I think sometime why I study hard here and pay tuition fee...

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Tasting macaroon

One of my purposes for this trip was tasting macaroon, because I have not ever eaten macaroon so many times in Japan.  However, macaroon looks cutes, so I wanted to try tasting macaroons in Paris.  I chose three shops and flavors, Chocolate & mint,  Framboise at Pain de Sucre, Rose, Citron, Pistachio each at LADUREE ( http://www.laduree.fr/ ),  and Rose, Jasmin tea each at PIERRE HERME ( http://www.pierreherme.com/ ).   I was so surprised that there are many Laduree shops in Pritemps and some customer always buy something.  Although there are Russian Cafe Pouchkine in Pritemps ( http://www.cafe-pushkin.ru/ ) which appearance was decorated black and gold, I want to try it at the next time.

In my opinion, my favorites were chocolate and mint of Pain de Sucre, and rose of HERME.  Chocolate and mint has a light menthol and chocolate accent.  Rose flavor was gentle and light sweet tastes.

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Paris short trip ~Sight seeing~

We always used rental bicycles to move everywhere in Paris, in name of Velib ( http://www.velib.paris.fr/ ).  There are many stations in the city.  It is convenient to look around Paris and cheaper than Metro, but we have to know French traffic regulation, i.e. the right-of-way.  In addition, I had a muscle ache two more days... 

 

One day, I went to two department stores, Pritemps and Lafayette which has deluxe interior decorating, and run around 8er, such as Madeleine, Tuileries, Opera Garnier and Concorde.  I could see the Tour Eiffel and Place Charles from some places. 

One of my purposes is to visit my favorite musee, Orangerie ( http://www.musee-orangerie.fr/rie.fr/ ). That museum lies at the corner of Tuileries and very small museum.   However, their collections are quite famous for Japanese as impressionist collections such as Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne, Marie Laurencin, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and so on.  Especially, large mural decoration by Monet, Water Lilies let me relax and comfortable.  As an additional information, I could enter free of the entrance fee by showing a student card...

On the last day, we visited Saint Chapelle ( http://sainte-chapelle.monuments-nationaux.fr/en/ ) and La Conciergerie.  We could see the deluxe and beautiful stained glass in the chapelle.  This chapelle was built for the Royal family who became scarce in the middle of 18 s.c.  I did not know well the difference between Protestant and Catholic until now, but I might understand about it and historical background a little. 

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Paris short trip ~Bistro~

We went to two French Bistro in Paris.  One is THOUMIEUX ( http://www.thoumieux.fr/ ) for dinner, the other one is le comptior du Relais ( http://www.hotel-paris-relais-saint-germain.com/ ) for lunch.

THOUMIEUX has a moody atmosphere and feels good combination chefs and garcons.  We ordered calamari de carbonara, low steak tartare, chicken saute ( I apologize that I could not write in English or French...still too difficult for me..) with red wine; MARANGES 2008 1er cru.  Fortunately, I could compare the various colours of tomatoes made by Thiebault, red, yellow, black.. with fresh almonds in one dish!  That was quite interesting and we could enjoy differences of each tomatoes.  As a desser, we ordered baba and churro.   On the way to home, I felt so comfortable by wind and saw the beautiful night view from the bicycle.

 

le comptior du Relais is famous for the main chef and the vinegary face madam...(Actually, interesting madam!)  Many people especially Japanese.. waited in a queue before opening the restaurant, because we could not reserve seats.  We ordered patty from foie gras, escargot, main dishes and dessert...Next seated foreigners looks four British women watched our escargot curiously!  At last, one woman ordered it.  That's so funny!

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Paris short trip ~Marché~

At this trip, I requested my friend to guide me to the unfamiliar place in Paris, and she is a cognisant about French cuisine culture.  I visited three food markets and shops related food, 1st word, 16th word, 5th word and other places.  I felt this tour like a man to man cooking training.

On the 1st day, we looked around cooking tools shops for professionals, a cheese shop, a cake shop in name of Pain de Sucre ( http://www.patisseriepaindesucre.com/ ), a bakery shop (I forgot the shop name..), a pistachio specialist shop, Pistacherie ( http://www.lapistacherie.ca/ ), a cupcake shop, Berko ( http://www.cupcakesberko.com/ ), and other shops.  In particular Pain de Sucre, their cakes was a high quality because I enjoyed their speciality, baba, tart and macaroon.  After that, we went to the traditional department store, Le Bon Marche ( http://www.lebonmarche.com/ ) where is in 7th word.  I was so surprised their lineup of foods, for instance many kinds of yogurt including made from sheep milk were lined.  After shopping, I had a glass of wine and appetizer at Da Rosa ( http://www.restaurant-da-rosa.com/ ), and enjoyed gelato at Grom ( http://www.grom.it/ita/ ).

On the 2nd day, we went to Marche in Iena.  We could see the various shops there, especially Thiebault shop ( http://www.joelthiebault.fr/ ).  There were a long line in front of the shop because his vegetable was used at famous restaurants, and they had many kinds colors of vegetables such as tomatoes, cauliflowers, Rhubarbs and others.  Of course, we could see the uncommon foods at other shops such as frogs, quail and so on. 

On the 3rd day, we went to Rue Mouffetard in Quartier Latin.  There were cheese shops, meat shops, fish shops, green groceries, bakery shops and other cafe.  I surprised that vegetable and fruits were so clean and fresh.  Then, I visited two bakery shops.  One is Moisan ( http://www.painmoisan.fr/ ) which croissant was so good, the other on was le Boulanger de Monge ( http://www.leboulangerdemonge.com/ ) .  After the shopping, we went to The Mosque ( http://www.la-mosquee.com/ ) to have a cup of mint tea by 2 Euros.  There was quite special place, and felt comfortable and relax.  There were some sparrows to gain bait from the guests.

As a consequence, French cuisine culture was so huge and deep.  I could feel French people had insatiability for food.  It was a good time for me to see their nationalities a little.

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Bonjour!

When I visited in Paris was 16 years ago.  After that, I did not have an opportunity to visit there, because I used to go to Australia, Singapore, New Zealand and other non-Europe area, which main purposes were to meet with my friends.  Now, I can have lots of opportunities to visit Europe countries where located near from the UK, you know.  At this time, I visited my cooking teacher and friend who has been to Paris to brush up her skills further.  She is younger than me, but I respect her well because her personality character, emotion and knowledge always make me inspire.

At the beginning of travel, I got on the euro star for the first time ( http://www.eurostar.com/dynamic/_SvBoExpressBookingTerm?_TMS=1314394868646&_DLG=SvBoExpressBookingTerm&_AGENCY=ESTAR&lang=UK&country=UK&VT=EB&MT=BL&_LANG=UK&rfrr=UK%3AUK%3ABookOnline_erreur_timeout_body_Eurostar ).  We can go from Leicester to Paris by one time connection at St. Pancras.  It takes about 2 hours from Landon to Paris.  I could enjoy scenery seen of countryside both England and France from a train window.  I thought that train announces were interesting because they spoke English first while the train was traveling in England, after going though a tunnel under Dover, they changed the first language into French.  Another interesting thing, when we book the tickets as round trip in advance, sometimes first class ticket is cheaper than economy class.  I do not know why the train company have a strategy, but I could have a good time to ride it in a return trip.  The crew served us a meal and drink, and their services are polite and high quality with beautiful smile, in particular she looks French, she served tea after eating, and set for dessert.  I became to ride a first class the next opportunity, but that may be their strategy and a promotion.  To my regret, the bottle of wine was plastic....

The first impression of Paris, the city looks brightly because the French building walls are white that I compared it with English building one in bricks, and I saw many black people, and  I thought that the UK might be too cold for them.  As the matter of facts, I do not know it because I do not confirm the regulation for the immigration law both of England and French yet.  Currently, some students may have difficulties to go to third countries from the UK, if you have an opportunity to go in the future, I recommend to visit there. 

Unfortunately, French people have a vacance appx. one month in August, so many shops and restaurants have closed.  That is a reason that I came back Paris again!  However, I have a problem that it is difficult for me to understand French, even greeting...I used the words was only Bonjour, Merci and Pardon..and I have forgotten English language since coming the UK..

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Mrs Bridges

This tearoom located in city center, in name of Mrs Bridges ( http://www.mrsbridges.co.uk/ ), where is one of my favorite tearooms.  The appearance is built in brick and so lovely!  Of course, we can spent a time because the room is very comfortable and quiet.  In addition, the food which they serve is homemade.  Next time, I would like to try having a Focaccia!

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UK riots

Riots happened on Saturday night of 6th Aug in London.  However, when I knew this news was Monday morning since I watched Japanese TSUBUYAKI (=mumble) on a Japanese SNS, mixi.  I checked BBC news and newspaper immediately.  At that time, this riots had already expanded around the UK, namely Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and other cities.  It seems that many causes are responsible for this riots.  Then, there were small riots in the city center of Leicester where I live on Tuesday night.  I have ever seen these riots only TV and newspaper of foreign countries.  Whereas, there is no riots in Japan since I was born.  The reason why Japanese does not provoke a riot may be caused by Japanese national character.  Despite they have experienced a long term recession more than 15 years and  bared the brunt of the earthquake....Japanese tend to be modesty or feel a waster of breaking something?   What should we do such riots?  It is thought that the most important thing is only collecting correct information as much as possible, because those information lead us to the avoiding way from the disaster.  If we have information, we may reduce dangerous risks, for example, staying home during nights, not walking alone, cancel the travel and other ways.  Just for reference, I am writing the public site in a time of emergency as below.  (In some case, we have a caution because the government and public may not be always correct...)  I wonder how much economic losses and human damages caused by this riots??

For Japanese;
Ministry of Foreign Affairs: http://www.anzen.mofa.go.jp/
Embassy of Japan in the UK: http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/jp/index.html

For UK residents;
UK Government: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/
UK Metropolitan Police:  http://content.met.police.uk/Home
UK National Statistics: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/

Lastly, based on the database from Guardian as of 11 Aug 2011,

Arrests
Arrests so far by police force (since Saturday night):
Metropolitan: 922
West Midlands: 330
Greater Manchester: 145
Nottinghamshire: 105
Merseyside: 74
Avon & Somerset: 24
Leicester: 14
Cambridge: 5
Gloucester: 3
TOTAL: 1,622
London arrests on Monday night: 310
People charged in London so far: 371

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The Leicester Racecourse

On the way to a cafe in the Oadby, I found that the horse race was held.  The Leicester Racecourse located near the Knighton park, and takes about 20 min on foot from my residence ( http://www.leicester-racecourse.co.uk/ ).   Although I had only one time to go to a race course and betting tickets in Japan, it looks interesting, so I strayed from the route.  The entrance fee for students was 14 pounds.  (The student discount may be a little funny..)   Evidently, I had gotten into the membership pavilion without knowing...so I could see the horse well.   Though I tried to reenter the seat without a membership badge,  I was stopped entering by right, and found it.  Of course, I apologized it, and understood why gallery including juniors and kids was likely to behave with a good manner.   I could also watch the paddock, and the racehorses were so beautiful, in particular the hinder legs and  crests were well looked after.

There was the Phoenix Children Foundation, which was established as registered UK charity in 2006 to raise money to provide disabled and several ill children, and the foundation had several ponies.  They say that the ponies are a fantastic asset and greatly enhance any venue they attend. Disabled and able bodied people alike seem to relate to the magical atmosphere they create ( http://www.kaptureit.co.uk/phoenix/ ) .

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The Leicester Caribbean Carnival

Everyday, I walk though the Victoria Park to go to the univ.  The park is a public park of 69 acres (279,000 m²), and have various sports facilities, including tennis, basketball, ultimate Frisbee, bowls, croquet, football, cricket and skate park.  ( http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/lc/parks-green-spaces/main-parks/victoria-park/victoriapark/ )We can enjoy taking a walk and watching birds and squirrels on the wide lawn and besides trees.  On the 6th of August, the landscape was changed further because the Caribbean Carnival was held by the city council ( http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/lc/events/major-events/leicester-caribbean-carnival/ ).  It had the majority of traveling carnival, and Caribbean food stalls, and we can had a good time to see the parade and music of the Caribbean.  Today, I could understand a little about Leicester as a multicultural city where people from many different backgrounds live here and, for the most part, they get along with each other well.

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