Home Party (Toru & Junko)

Americans love Home Parties. Toru's English teacher, who is Canadian-grown-up-Indian and very good at speaking Japanese because of living in Japan many years, held a party for her Japanese friends. Left photo shows the wonderful Indian foods served at that time. The left dish is Biriyani, steamed rice with chicken and vegetable, and right dish is Kabab, like hamburg, with Nan. Toru couldn't eat much, because he drank too much before eating, but such Indian foods match Japanese taste buds.
Junko was invited to the Thanksgiving party held at her American friend's house too. Right photo shows the grilled turkey served at the party. This turkey was wonderful too. Takeshi was also invited to the party held at his Iranian friend's house on the Thanksgiving day. Toru and Haruka had Hayashi rice at home on the day.

Berkeley (Toru & Junko)

Toru loves the film "The Graduate" in which Dustin Hoffman and Catherine Ross were the main characters, and so he bought the DVD. He wanted to go to Berkeley because UC Berkeley was supposed to be the place the hero waited for the heroine sitting at the edge of the fountain. So Toru visited UC Berkely with Junko and asked a student where the fountain was. She said there are two fountains in the campus, so they walked to those fountains but both were different from the one Toru remembers in the film. Toru then realized the film had been shot at a different place. It was a fake! Being dispointed a little, he asked Junko to take a photo of him sitting on the edge of fountain pretending to be the hero. The left photo is that one. (This page says that the fountain in the film exists in University of Southern California.)
Anyway, UC Berkeley, comparing with Stanford University, is a beautiful place with a small redwood forest, a creek in it and a hill in the back. The right photo shows its symbol Sather Tower.

UC Berkeley has an art museum. Toru was interested in the architecture itself rather than the contents. As seen in the left photo, each floor is connected by slopes not stairway for wheelchairs and the total design is kind of artistic.
In Berkeley, there is a famous restaurant "Chez Panisse" which was the first restaurant introduced California Cuisine. The taste was splendid and the freshness could be tasted. Toru understood California Cuisine is as wonderful and unique food in America as Cleole Food was in New Orleans.

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