printmaking party

Today, the printmaking dapartment had its annual welcoming party. The lithography class hosted the party. They made a traditional Japanese stew and some kind of cabbage/meat thing. Alcohol was served. I've noticed that most events around here consist mainly of documenting them, so you might notice that everyone in the pictures has a camera. Also, people have camera phones in addition to very tiny digital cameras. It is common to have a case of memory cards to show your pictures during free time. I looked at Kumiko-Chan's pictures on the train to Kyoto on Thursday. During lunch today, I saw Ito-Chan's pictures from a trip to France and Swizerland this winter. The above picture is Ito-Chan. She is the TA in the woodblock department and one of the nicest people I've met. She is also very shy and nervous. So the stew they served contained many foods that have no english translation. Huge slices of a type of radish, called daikon, look a little like potatoes and aren't too strong in flavor. The tube-shaped food is some kind of fish product. It was sweet and had a texture like fried tofu. The grey triangular piece is rumored to be a potato product, but I think that may have been a translation error. It was like very thick jello and had a fishy taste to it. Not my favorite food. The stew also contained potatoes, fried tofu, and small hot-dog looking sausages. It was actually very good, but some of the ingredients were a little scary.

Here, the lithography sensei is cutting the cabbage/meat food. I'm not sure how the meat gets in there, but the sauce is a "very delicious" soupy tomato-based gravy. I gave the cabbage a bit of a taste, but the whole concept weirded me out. Luckily, this came late in the meal, so I could pass off being full. I have been very adventurous as of late and I wasn't really in the mood to taste meat cabbage.
This last picture is me and one of my favorite studio-mates. Look at her bowl cut! She's so cute! I think her name is Sutoko-Chan, but I can't remember. No one really calls eachother by name very often, so it's hard to remember. Also, almost everyone's name ends in "ko", which is short for kodomo or child.