A good talk, wonderful project, and amazing music products

I have just found them yesterday as introduced in a TV program 'Super Presentations'  by NHK.

Making ISDCI 2012 logo mark.

It was amazing and wonderful experience to hold the 12th Congress of International Society of Developmental and Comparative Immunology in my city, Fukuoka.
A couple of years ago, I have asked to design a logo mark of this congress to a illustrator, Junjun.
The first and second drafts.

 

Then the third draft, which I loved best.

Based on this Japanese-flavored prototype, Ms. Junjun made a panel of variations:

The logo image originated from a paper craft made of Chiyogami, Japanese decorated paper for origami.

I'm grateful for Junjun's wonderful artworks.

Clear and hazy skies

The same landscape through a window of my office, showing Sangun and Homan mountains near Fukuoka city.
The hazy view may be due to the yellow sands?

Making Fílefìsh Sashimi!

The filefish, a relative of pufferfish, is very delicious as raw (sashimi) or cooked. We bought a few filefish from a local fish market and enjoyed in making their sashimi.

The thread-sail filefish (Stephanolepis cirrhifer), 3 for 300 yen ($3.5).

The lips and dorsal/pelvic fins are cut off (from a close relative species, Thamnaconus modestus). This single fish costed 250 yen ($3).

Peeling the skin (She said "It's fun!")

Separate the head part from the body, taking care not to damage the liver and testis (They are also important edible parts).

They are ready to be cut into thin slices of sashimi.

 See how thin are the slices! (The gold line of the plate is visible through the slices.)

Ready to eat, with soy sauce and Wasabi (Japanese green radish) or with soy sauce and citrus juice (Ponzu). 

Relaxed

All the clams were relaxed in a bowl filled with artificial sea water made by my wife. They don't know their fate coming next morning (should be cooked in our breakfast soup), but they look happy showing full extension of their feet and syphons.

Let us name them!

Naming is always fun. As a small step of internationalization of Kyushu University, I would like to suggest to name all the streets in the campuses. There are a few streets with their unique names in Maidashi medical campus, but none in Hakozaki campus.

Street names, in combination with building names, would be informative to specify places of various activities such as seminar, meeting, and lectures, if they are properly labeled.

So let us create English names for all the streets in Hakozaki campus as a first trial.

For example, a main street in Agr region can be named as Agri-street or Kaizuka street (since it goes to Kaizuka gate and Kaizuka subway station).

A farewell party

Dr. Tsujikura, technical staff of my laboratory, got a new job in a animal pharmaceutical company in Tokushima Prefecture, and left several weeks ago. He has contributed a lot in identification of carp complement regulatory proteins (RCAs) using bioinformatic and molecular biological techniques. I hope his next success in developing fish vaccines and immunological medicines for animals.

Lonely butterfly

A paper-fold air-craft has flown and landed on such a lonely place, in Ito Campus Center Zone. It keep staying as a lonely butterfly in winter.
Who can save it?

My favorite "Lonely Butterfly" is here.

Young Bloods

A recent Facebook communication with a classmate of high school days reminded me this song, which I did not like so much when I was student, but now I love. This may be what's called crying for the moon ?

Young Bloods by Motoharu Sano

Making Rice Cakes (Omochi) in a modern way

　　(Image from http://illpop.com/season_a1203.htm)

(It looks as if he is hitting the partners head.)

Unlike the Japanese traditional way of making raise cake (above), my parents have made rice cake, at least in part, using an electric rice cake-maker, considering that the traditional way needs much labor causing sever arm and back pain and it has some risk to smash the partners hands. Also in this winter, we used the machine, which is already over 40 years old but still working perfectly (proving how good job did a Japanese electric manufacturer in those years and how good was my father's maintenance). This was the best we, 79 and 50 years old guys, could do with a help of wives and a young but beginner.

1. Wash and immerse the rice of an amylopectin-rich strain (sticky rice or Mochigome in Japanese) in a water overnight to swell. (Thanks Mayumi san!)
2. Collect the rice on a colander to drain excess water for an hour or two.
3. Pour the drained rice in a pot of the machine, supplied with a half liter of water, and start to steam in the machine. It will automatically stop by timer setting (45-60 min).
   
   
4. Turn the machine switch to "pounding mode" and run the machine to make them into a dough for several minutes.
   
   
5. Collect the dough (very hot!) on a wooden plate covered by a dry rice powder, which prevents dough from sticking to the plate.
   
   
6. In this case, the dough is made into a sheet of 1.5-2 cm thickness using a rolling pin, and let it settled and harden for a few hours. (If you would like to make round race cakes or the one stuffed with black bean jam, you need take a bit of dough off by hands and shape it, while the dough is hot and soft. In my home town region, we prefer rectangular cakes.)
   
   
7. Cut the sheet into small blocks, and store in cold for several days, or frozen for longer term. They easily get moldy.
   

Would you like to know how the machine works? Mmm, I do not know exactly the mechanism. The chamber only has such a spinning blade (Teflon coated, ~6 cm diameter). You understand?

New Year!

In the new year holidays, I invited Dr. Chowdhury, with his family, and four freshmen students of our International Undergraduate Course to Tamaseseri festival of Hakozaki Shrine. They stopped at my home next to Hakozaki Shrine. It was nice to welcome them with some Japanese new year dishes.