Wonderfully relaxing .......

I went to a hair salon today. A bit unusual because I usually work weekdays so can only have appointments on weekends.

I LOVE going to a salon and if I were rich, I'd go every week! Now I only go once every 6 - 8 weeks (not rich yet!). Actually, I should say that I love JAPANESE hair salons. And yes, there is a difference!

So why do I like Japanese salons? Because of the wonderful service. The part I especially like is shampooing after a hair color. Today was a perfect 20 or more minutes of washing twice, conditioning, followed up by a head, neck and shoulder massage. The washing part is really nice and like a scalp massage. By the time all this finished, I was so wonderfully relaxed and sleepy that I didn't want to leave!

I don't know why other countries don't have this kind of treatment for customers. Maybe it is because the chairs aren't so comfortable so your neck would be stiff if you spent so long at the basin. But on that topic, why DON'T Australian salons have those nice lay-back chairs like dentist chairs? Most are just regular chairs so you have to squish down and crick your neck back. Not nice.

I think the perfect experience would be a hair salon attached to a private esthetic salon. Imagine having a body massage, followed by a wonderful hair treatment! I'd want a bed too, so I could take a nap afterwards. Hmmm, I'd better start saving money!

By the way, you can see my salon here in English or Japanese -->

http://www.j-cool-japan.com/

Warm Feet

Nowadays we have a lot of new technology but sometimes old fashioned ideas are best.

All Japanese people should know what the orange thing in the picture is, but if you are not Japanese, can you guess? This thing looks very different in Australia and I guess not so many people use it now...

Have you guessed? It's a hot water bottle! Australian ones are flat and made out of rubber and sadly they get cold pretty quickly. This Japanese one is made out of special heavy duty plastic and stays quite hot of most of the night. I put it down the bottom of my futon to keep my feet warm. Actually, the water is still warm enough the next morning and I can use it to melt the ice on my car windscreen. Saves water and gas!

You can still buy metal hot water bottles in Japan but most are now plastic. Mine is a basic one that I bought cheaply at a pharmacy but you can get cute animal shapes or doughnut shaped ones. The doughnut ones keep the water in the middle and the outside ring doesn't get hot. These can be used for babies or small children.

One thing you should keep in mind with a 'hot' hot water bottle is that you can get burns from a low heat applied for a long time. So make sure the water isn't super hot and that you wrap the bottle in a towel as well as a cover.

I use this orange one in my futon every night but when I worked alone from home, I used to use it in the day too! I would put it under my desk and put my feet on it. If I dressed warmly and used the bottle, then I didn't need to use an airconditioner or heater. Very frugal! However, now I have to use an airconditioner - I don't think students at my school would be very impressed if I said "No heating, just hot water bottles!"

frugal - 質素な

Blueberry Cake

Here is an easy recipe for a basic rich cake batter.

1. 100g of butter beaten until white.
2. Add 90g of sugar and beat until creamy.
3. Add in two eggs, one at a time. Beat.
4. Mix in 2T of milk.
5. Combine 120g of plain flour and 1/2t of baking powder. Stir into batter.
6. Bake in 180 degree oven for 40 minutes.

Blueberry Cake (pictured)
Soak dry blueberries in a little hot water until they get soft.

Add a little vanilla after Step 2.
Add the blueberries after Step 4.

(You can use any dry fruit instead of blueberries. Chopped dry apricot is great and I swapped brandy for the vanilla. )

Coffee Cake
Add 1 1/2T of instant coffee to the milk before mixing.

I found the basic recipe in an Orange Page cooking magazine (2003 Oct 17). Australian cakes usually only have one egg and are cooked for 30 minutes or so.

Exhausted

I pay to go swimming but cleaning up snow is by far better exercise! And it is free!!!

My husband and I spent a few hours this morning and this afternoon trying to clear the snow and ice from our driveway, in front of our house, and the road through the rice fields. The rice field road is the best route to take because most of the snow had melted. We just had to clear 50m or so.

I am guessing the other road I always use near my house is going to be frozen snow and ice for the next week or more. Ah, this house is so cool in the summer because we are between woods and fields, but no sun penetrates the woods. It is literally freezing in winter!!!

Scooping up snow and trying to scrape ice of the road was such hard work! Total body workout! I'm exhausted ...