I am a graduate student at UC Berkeley studying the diversity and evolution of whelks. This summer I was sponsored by the NSF (USA) and JSPS (Japan) to work with Dr. Seiji Hayashi at Nagoya University in Japan to collect buccinid gastropod (whelk) tissue samples and examine whelk shell collections at musems throughout Japan. Sugoi! Some of the snails that I study are pictured to the right.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Nagashi Somen

Right now the Geology Department of Nagoya University is housed in Building C while the permanent home builing is being renovated.On Friday, to celebrate the move out of the old building there was a nagashi somen party. This is a "flow of noodles" party that I was told is pretty common in Japan. Wheee! Somen is a kind of Japanese noodle thinner than udon. It is like vermicelli and is eaten cold flowing through a halved bamboo chute with flowing water (=nagashi). The architecture and operation of the nagashi somen contraption look something like this:Here are the noodles being loaded into the bamboo halfed-tube.Here you can see the sink and the noodles being picked up toward the end of the chute.Here I am loading the noodles. This was an important job so I am very focused.Here is my Japanese host, Seiji, doing the same.Here I am about to enjoy the somen that I "caught"! Seiji and his family are behind me.

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