Cheesery

Note* I've been trying to look up the correct way of describing the place where cheese is made, but so far I've had no luck, and I'll refer to it as the cheesery. 

On Thursday afternoon, Takano, Akamine, Kat and I, pilled into the car and headed off to Takano's friend's cheesery. I didn't really know why we were going, just for a site visit they explained and a meeting, turns out we were actually there to present the proposal to the staff of the cheesery, and try to convince them that the project is worth their while. That's where we, the interns come in, we were explained later that not only would this be a good educational opportunity for us, but showing clients that the firm has international student interns will make them seem more serious. The cheesery is not only a cheesery though, it is an educational facility for disabled people who come and par-take in cheese making programs. All the cows that produce the milk for the cheese are also kept by the cheesery owners and incorporated into the day programs, so that people can produce their cheese from start to finish. We had our meeting at the beautiful restaurant, converted from a high ceilinged barn and has now become a very cozy cheese and local produce shop with intricately made corn husk dolls adorning almost everything. Corn husk dolls ploughing, with their corn husk cows, corn husk dolls playing, even a corn husk doll in a corn husk air balloon suspended from the ceiling. 

We received the regular more than generous dose of coffee during the meeting, and since I can never understand much, I manage to drink my coffee faster than anyone else, leaving my cup susceptible to more refillage.  Hence, I often spend a lot of my time enjoying the wonderful heated toilet seats and bidays of the japanese washrooms. Success! They got the bid to design the master plan for the cheesery, farm and pastures, to include more programming, such as nature walks and soap making, facilities for a summer farm camp for children, an outdoor organic community garden and kitchen, and better accessibility for their visitors. Takano and Akamine-san were very happy they got the project, and they couldn't stop smiling and speaking very quickly. It was no surprise to me that we stopped at a cake shop on the way home to celebrate, I have probably eaten my year's ration of cake already and it's only February. 

*Quick note about Japanese Sweets

Traditional Japanese sweets are sweets beans and mochii(a kind of sticky rice paste). There is still a lot of mochii and sweet beans but it seems they have enthusiastically embraced the Western taste for sweets, and cake and pastries are very popular. The cake is different though from Canadian cake, much lighter and less sweet. They substitute slightly sweetened whipped cream for icing, and almost all cakes incorporate fruit in some way. The other day we had a broccoli chiffon cake for dessert, not very sweet and no icing, but very tasty!  Most people in Japan don't have their own ovens because they take up a lot of space, so most baked goods come from the many bakeries dotted around.