Soy sauce on ice-cream?

At the start of today we packed our things and checked out of our hotel. Then we hopped in the bus and headed to Waseda University. At the University we attended a conference/panel called “Enhancing U.S-Japanese relations and educational exchanges in a globalized society: Doubling the number of U.S and Japanese students studying in each other’s country.”

Conference at Waseda University

There were some very important people here from both the U.S and Japan. Some of the U.S speakers were the Ambassador of the United States of America to Japan John Victor Roos, The 14^th United States Secretary of Transportation Norman Yoshio Mineta, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S Department of State Susan Stevenson. As for Japan, they had people like the Vice Minister of Ministry of Education and the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs.

During the conference they spoke about the importance of studying abroad and how alarming it was that the number of students going abroad has gone down at such a large rate. Since 2004 there has been a 57% drop in Japan students coming to the U.S. Also it was said that less than 5% of U.S undergraduate students study abroad. I was surprised at these numbers because I know a lot of people that have studied abroad. I thought the number would be going up and not down.

A cool thing about the conference was that we wore earpieces that translated anyone that spoke Japanese. It must’ve been hard for the person to translate while people were talking. The conference was long but cool. It makes me consider going to graduate school. Maybe someday I could be a foreign Ambassador and fight for better relationships between countries.

Kikkoman, creators of Soy Sauce

The Kikkoman Factory

All kinds of Soy Sauce

After this we went to the Kikkoman Soy Sauce factory. We learned all about how soy sauce was made. The three main ingredients in soy sauce are wheat, soybeans, and salt. First they mix together roasted wheat, steamed soybeans, and a bacteria called Kikkoman’s aspergillus. They let the bacteria mixture grow for three days, the end product is called Koji. Next they mix the koji with a salt and water solution to create a mash called moromi. They ferment this in tanks for a few months. Then they take the product out of the tanks and wrap it in cloth. They press down on the cloth and out runs soy sauce. After all the sauce is squeezed out they refine and pasteurize it.

One of the cool things we learned was that the owners of Kikkoman built the first Japanese factory in the United States. It was a Kikkoman factory in Walworth, Wisconsin. Also, we got to see a separate part of the building where soy sauce is specifically made for the emperor. They take more time and care to make sure this soy sauce is perfect. After the tour we got ice cream with soy sauce in it. If you only add a few drops of the sauce it tastes like caramel.

To end our day we took the bus to our new hotel in Chiba. It is called Candeo and it is even nicer than the last hotel! On the sixth floor is a public bath. I did not try it tonight, but I am thinking about going tomorrow.

My name in Japanese!

P.S the free website to learn Japanese language/culture I was talking about in the last post is: http://erin.ne.jp/ try it out!