heavenly daifuku

Oh god....bugger the diet, this stuff is wickedly good

Purin daifuku (custard pudding mochi cake)

Outside, soft mochi (pounded rice)

inside custard and kuromitsu (black treacle)

Happiness.

They sell out before lunch in the canteen.......

its sooooooo goood.

yum yum

Ginkyo madness

On the university campus is famous avenue of ginkyo trees which in Autumn becomes a mecca for the citizens of the Japan (or at least Sapporo). There are probably 2 reasons for this; firstly is the beautiful colours of the leaves. This brings masses of the amateur photographers of Japan to this spot during the peak of the colour...

The leaves are pretty spectacular and in the last weeks I've also been out with the camera

Spontaneous leaf throwing is a common side effect of ginkyo madness

The other reason is nuts...

I don't know who first discovered that you could eat the orange seeds that smell like vomit and give you rashes, but its become a firm favorite among the Japanese during the autumn season.

Ginkyo nuts look much nicer than they smell.

Apparently they're very delicious in the savory egg custard dish Chawan mushi. The nuts themselves contain a chemical that often causes contact dermatitis (itchy rashes) so you can see the people picking up nuts with chopsticks or wearing gloves. It seems particularly popular with the old folks of Japan- maybe because they know what to do with them, or they have destroyed their sense of smell of the vomity nuts over the years.

Some are seriously hard core....
Extreme nut collecting- throw the sticks up into the tree wait for the smelly nut rain to fall

Quick! look like we're just doing some normal shopping.....

selecting their next prey.....

Who owns these nuts? I'm pretty sure the university does, but within full sight of the security guards, hordes of nut theives with bulging sacks go about their not- so - sneaky business.

The "grey brigade" carefully co-ordinate their routine, with the getaway bike close at hand.

I did a quick search (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginkgo_biloba) to find about the ginkyo trees and found that the nuts themselves contain chemicals which are potentially beneficial for Alzheimers disease and memory enhancement. Perhaps these nuts are the key to a healthy old age. Personally, I wish someone would engineer a tree that does not have such an awful smelling fruit with such beautiful autumn colour.