Tsukiji Fish Market

In Golden Week I went to Tsukiji Fish Market for the first time. Of course I have been to Tsukiji many times before, especially when I lived in Tokyo. But for some reason, I had never been to the market.

It was a rainy day so I didn't look around so much, but I did have the best sushi I have ever eaten! We chose a restaurant at random, and the one we entered, Sushizanmai, was more of a real restaurant rather than a place for a quick, cheap lunch.

Here is our lunch, plus I had miso soup. The cost was about 4, 500y for the two of us, which was reasonable considering the wonderful quality. The sea urchin that you can see in the bottom right corner just melted in the mouth :)

Be sure to go to Tsukiji next time you are in Tokyo!

Pheasants

Well the pheasant near my house finally has a girlfriend! He has been waking us up for the past few weeks and on fine sunny days likes to sit on a mound of soil near my house watching the world go by and calling 'ken ken' every few minutes.

Yesterday afternoon I looked outside of my bedroom window and found him with his new partner, eating grass seeds or something in the field. Sorry I couldn't get better pictures, but I couldn't open the window or the fly screen.

He is particularly nervous these days and yesterday though he couldn't see me, he was aware something was watching him because he kept looking around and fluffing up his feathers.

They are not there today because it is too windy.

Vista!

I've been gone for a while again because I've been spending a lot of time 'playing' with my new computer :)

Ninety-nine percent of the time I write this blog on my home computer rather than at work. But my poor old computer was becoming slower and not so user friendly. It is now 6 years old and the hardware is quite basic. That means the computer can't cope with multiple tasks and really got slow when website used Flash players etc. It became so frustrating to do the smallest of tasks.

So after more than 6 months of thinking about it, I bought a new computer. At first I really regretted that I didn't buy before the end of last year - my work computer runs on XP so I wanted to have two XP computers to make my life easier. But now it is impossible to buy a new computer with XP so I have to make do with Vista.

Believe me, starting out on Vista is not that smooth. It is similar enough to XP that you are fooled into thinking you can master it quickly. But tasks like 'Save As' took me 30 minutes because Vista hides the tool bars in new places :( Finally I went over to the Microsoft website and watched a few tutorials. I really wish I had of done that before I even began.

But it is not all bad, Vista (in Microsoft Office 2007) has some wonderful new functions that makes using Word a breeze! So many great quick shortcuts that I wish they had years ago. Now I feel my work computer is slow, so maybe I will get another Vista????? But I don't have enough money so I will have to check the price of a hard memory upgrade and keep the same machine.

So now that my computer using is becoming smoother, and I can access this blog software without wanting to scream, I hope I can update the blog more :)

Swimming update

I have a new record! I can now do my 1.5km in 40 minutes :)

I've been able to do this the last 3 times I've been swimming by cutting down on the rest time between laps.

Hmm, my new challenge is to build up the distance to 2km. Let's see how long it takes!

Golden Week!

Yay, it it Golden Week! Well, actually there are only 3 days left but I'm happy I'm on holidays :)

This April was one of the busiest times I've had in the past few years. Many things seemed to come up at once and I found myself spending over 12 hours working each day. That's okay for a while, but after a month I was mentally exhausted .... Teaching can be a tough job because you constantly have to be thinking, asking, guiding - there is no "down time". I love that part of my job but doing paperwork, reports, etc becomes a real chore!

Anyway, this week I've mostly had no work to do so I had a few special plans, like a BBQ with friends on Monday and a trip to Tokyo on Tuesday.

For some reason, GW always seems to have nice weather for most of the days. Tuesday was rainy but the other days have been glorious! I often find myself doing spring cleaning in GW and this year is the same. You can wash heavy winter blankets and they dry in half a day. (I love washing many things and even wash the kotatsu futon in the bath by hand!!!!) There is some kind of satisfaction to bring in all the laundry in the late afternoon with it smelling fresh and clean :)

This picture shows a typical Australian clothesline called a "Hills Hoist". Everyone has one in their backyard. One day I will buy one for my garden here in Japan. You can read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hills_Hoist

The picture comes from here and you can see lots of other models and designs.
http://www.onlinedirect.hills.com.au/cattleprod/products/A1000PRO
If I become rich, I'll import one and you can come look at it. Oh, and you need to buy a special basket and trolley like you can see in the picture. That way you don't have to bend down to get the wet clothes.

They are not only good for hanging clothes on, but you can also buy specially made covers so they can be used like a giant beach umbrella in your backyard. And when I was a child, my sister and I held onto the crossbars and spun ourselves round and round like a ride at an amusement park! My mother or grandmother were NOT amused if they caught us though :)

Champion

I've been very lazy about writing in the blog recently. Please forgive me, there is a reason!

In January I promised myself to try as hard as I could to become healthier. In the last two months I've been going to the pool at least 2 times a week, mostly 3 times a week. And in those last two months I've increased from swimming 800 meters to 1.5km!

I'm so happy that in the past two weeks I can do 1.5km in less than 50 minutes. (I think my record last week was 48 minutes.) Now my new goal is to do 2km in 60 minutes. Actually, I can already do 1km in 30mins, but I get more and more tired as the laps increase .....

If you're wondering, I do 60 laps of a 25m pool to make up the distance. One goal is to reduce the time I rest between laps, though some of that time is stretching my legs. Oh, and just to make it more interesting, I don't really swim - I only use my legs! (I stretch my arms out above my head.) I swim 4 laps face-down, then 4 laps face up.

The reason I can swim so fast with no arms is that I use swim fins. Please don't think I am cheating because these specially designed fins are ONLY for swimming (not diving), are short and make your leg muscles work harder. By the end of 50 minutes my legs are like jelly!

The best fun is when no-one else is in the pool. It is very rare, but there were no other swimmers for about 30 minutes last Wednesday. I could be really selfish and swim dolphin kick (the kick for swimming butterfly) on my back. It makes tidal waves in the pool so not a good idea when there are other customers! I only did 125m before I was tired and then a man came and I really had to stop.

I am certainly getting healthier but often I am so tired I go to bed at 9pm!!! No time for using the computer outside of work.

A broken microphone

I'm really sorry there has been no podcast for a while. My computer microphone was broken - well, not really broken but not working!

I found out the problem was my digital camera software. Be careful when you install viewing software for a camera etc. Sometimes the software over-rides your normal computer settings and strange things start happening. The video section of my camera software 'broke' the sound and microphone settings that I had taken years to set up perfectly! :(

All fixed now, so as I get time I will start recording the old posts and put them in the podcast.

How is your 'new year'?

It is the new school and business year in Japan. How are you doing?

Actually I still like to think in terms of a calendar year, so my year begins in January. But it means the first business quarter just finished for me. April is the the start of my SECOND season!

All in all, January through to May is the busiest time of the year for most people. Thankfully this year I didn't have any moving to do. Sadly one of my good friends moved away, but luckily another is coming back this week! I can't wait to catch up with her and her family.

Whatever you are doing in this season, be sure to take care of yourself. Influenza still seems to be striking people - don't believe that the flu only appears in winter!

Rainy days, sunny days

The weather is so changeable lately. Some days feel like early summer but other days like the end of winter.

But truly it is spring so the trees are blooming. Please enjoy the sights from my garden. The big tree with white blooms is a magnolia and the pink blosooms are apricot.

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A new restaurant

A new Italian restaurant opened two weeks ago in Tsukuba. New restaurants open (and close!) all of the time, but this one is really worth visiting.

Trattoria e Pizzeria Amici (トラットリア・ピッシェリア・アミーチ）can be found at 286-1 Teshirogi, Tsukuba. Phone 029-852-5885. It is between Umi-to-shima Okinawan restaurant and Hotel Suwa, on the west part of Doho Park Street. If you want to go please make a reservation because every time I drive past the carpark is 'choc-a-block'!

It opened on March 12th and I've been twice. Once for "White Day" dinner, and once again for lunch two days ago. Um, yes that means I've been twice in two weeks. My husband and I decided we REALLY like the food!

Dinner was a little expensive but the taste was great - it seems they use the best authentic Italian products. For dinner we had a simple pizza with rocket (herb) and prosciutto raw ham. The proscuitto was of the best quality and so delicious - no wonder the prices are a little expensive. At lunch we each tried a different pizza: mine was with tomato sauce and oregano, and my husband's was four kinds of cheese. They were both wonderful, too.

The pictures are of the first course at lunch and the lunch pizza. The dessert is one you can only get at night. It is called a 'baba' and is kind of like a cake that is soaked in liqueur. It was the first time for me to find it in Japan.

By the way, the coffee is nice too. Oh, and the whole restaurant is non-smoking. All in all, it's a great place for eating out.

Makabe Town

Here are some pictures from Makabe. I really liked walking around the old town and looking at the period architecture. It was like being in a time slip!

I highly recommend Makabe if you have a little free time, and certainly it is a good place to take foreign visitors. Old cities like Kamakura do have historic temples and shrines to look at but the regular shops and houses are modern. On the other hand, Makabe is living history.

The Hina Doll Festival

Oops, I am two weeks late but here are some pictures I took on March third, the day of the Hina Masturi. It is also a day that celebrates girls, so families with daughters have a special dinner as well as displaying dolls. Sorry, I don't have any children so I can't show you any dinner pictures ...

Makabe Town in Sakuragawa City near Tsukuba has a nice Doll Festival where over 100 shops and houses display Hina dolls in their windows. You can even go inside some houses to take a look.

Honestly speaking, some of the very old dolls are a little scary to look at!

Cherry sweets

If you have been reading my blog for a year, you will know that I ADORE cherry (sakura) flavored foods. It is a little misleading to say 'cherry' because people think of the small red fruits, so let me use the Japanese word 'sakura'.

Sakura blossom sweets and tea are nice but sweets wrapped in salt pickled sakura leaves are my favorite. I can happily just eat the leaves! I found packets of pickled leaves on a 20% off sale at Seibu's Jiyugaoka Garden supermarket so I bought 3 packets. Sakura sweets are only supposed to be eaten in early spring but I don't care. I am greedily saving up the leaves to enjoy for the next half year - the expiry date on the packs say November 2007.

Today I used the leaves for the first time. I made muffins flavored with 3 chopped sakura leaves and one small can of sweet red beans. I chose a brand of beans that didn't contain much sugar or syrup, so the muffins are more savory than sweet. (No added sugar.) The sakura fragrance when I took them out of the oven was so wonderful! Next I will try kanten jelly and maybe a pound cake (not so healthy ....)

By the way, the sweets shop Ginza Bunmeido makes really nice sakura manju. (Sorry, there is no English word for manju and 'steamed buns' doesn't explain them well.) I found the manju on the first floor of Seibu, Tsukuba. Please hurry to buy some before the season is over.

On the other hand, I was bitterly disappointed with an expensive jelly type sweet I bought from another shop. The main store is in Nara and the sample sweets looked lovely so I got one. When I came home and opened it, it didn't look like the picture at all. A sakura blossom was supposed to be in the middle on the top, but mine had a small squashed mass of petals in the top corner. Worse still, it didn't taste like sakura anything and was horrible :(

Not making excuses

This year one of my resolutions is not to make excuses to myself. After all, if we cannot be honest with ourselves, who can we be honest with?!

I began swimming again last year after a break of 7 years. At first I tried hard but I was really shocked that my level of fitness was so low and that I couldn't swim much at all. Eight years ago I went swimming almost every day and did laps of all strokes -- freestyle, breast-stroke, backstroke and butterfly. Backstroke and butterfly were my favorites, as well as swimming 'dolphin kick' under the water for as long as I could.

Anyway, last year I tried for a while but stopped going to the pool. I made excuses to myself like:
I'm too busy today.
I'm too tired.
The pool will be too busy.
It is too cold.
It is too hot.
My body is too weak.

too, too, too!!!!

This year I decided I have to try harder. After all, what is the worst thing that can happen to me?

This afternoon I was debating about going to the pool. "Hmm, I have to work again from 7pm. I will have to eat dinner really quickly. Oh no, I have a headache from hayfever. Blah, blah, blah!"
But I'm proud to say that I stopped my 'bad voice' and just went to the pool! I had a great time and even tried so hard that now my leg muscles are aching a bit.

It was a strange coincidence but tonight A-san told me a poem that she read on the weekend. I'm really sorry that I forget her translation from Japanese, but it was something like this:

Was it that I couldn't do it?
Or was it that I didn't do it?
I wonder which one is true?

I know for me that almost always the answer is "I didn't do it."

How about you?

Easy snack

I really like toasted sandwiches for an easy snack, or for a quick breakfast.

They are not so healthy if you spread the bread with lots of butter or margarine, so I usually don't use either. Sometimes I use olive oil - you can spread it thinly with a butter knife or use a spray type oil. But mostly I don't use any kind of fat or oil at all. Very healthy!

The sandwich in the picture probably doesn't look so delicious because it has no oil or butter. That means the bread is like toast rather than golden brown like a regular 'hot sando'.

I don't like the translation 'hot sandwich' because to me it seems that you have a usual sandwich that is hot. For example, like a sandwich you buy at Seven Eleven and they put it in the microwave oven for you.

Today's sandwich filling is cheese and roast pork! It is REALLY delicious - you should try it. Much better than cheese and ham.

Other fillings can be:

* left-over stew type fillings -- curry, gratin, stew

* potato salad -- the mashed type, and take out the cucumber!

* chopped apple and a sprinkle of cinnamon

* banana and nutmeg

* sweet red bean paste

Use your imagination :)

Tsukuba number plate

This week the big news in Tsukuba was the つくば　ナンバー (Tsukuba Number).

From February 13th, residents of Tsukuba can change their car number plates from 'Tsuchiura' area to 'Tsukuba'. I'm not sure why but many people think 土浦 is a bit country bumpkin-ish and rather uncool. As for me, I'm happy that Tsukuba is written in hiragana characters that are really easy to write!

The timing was good for me because this week my car had its 5th year registration. I asked Mazda to change over the number plate at the same time. So now I can boast that my car is one of the first to become 'cool' :)

My children

Maybe you thought that I didn't have any children. Well, let me tell you my secret .... I have had babies since last summer. Do you want to see them?

Photo and video editing at onetruemedia.com

Actually I am a grandmother. The big fat pink fish is a baby from last year. The other pink fish are her brothers. She's pregnant but she's been like that for a while --- hmmm, I wonder when I will have more pink babies?

The blue one and black one are male guppies. Sadly the female died earlier this week. I think she was a bit tired out because of all the babies she gave me. You can see five 'children' and nine 'babies' who are younger brothers and sisters. The babies seem to be mostly black, but the some of the children are starting to get beautiful blue and yellow tails. Mummy fish was blue/black/silver and I'm not sure which male is the daddy. Maybe both???

If you look closely you can also find two catfish on the bottom of the tank. And of course you can see one of the two shrimp 'flying' around. It took me ages of waiting to take that video! The shrimp do all kinds of interesting things. It is a bit disgusting but they also shed their shells every few weeks. The first time I thought it was a dead shrimp body but it was just the shell. Nowadays I find it difficult to eat shrimps ...

All finished

Well, the move to the new server is finished! The new company was really good about changing over my domain and email server super quickly. Good service and I'm amazed how much faster it is to download/upload.

And the best news is that I can add lots more files!!! That means you can read lots more blog posts and listen to more podcasts.

Happy reading ....

2007!

Hi,

Welcome to the first Real English blog post of 2007.


First of all, please accept my apologies for not writing for so long. I know many readers are wondering why I stopped writing. Don't worry, I'm perfectly well! :)
まず、長い間何も書かなかくて、ごめんなさい！

Let me explain:
説明します。。。

The main reason for the break was computer related. My website has been hosted by one company since I started out 3 years ago. The company was good but I didn't have enough web space on my plan. If I uploaded many photos or mp3 (listening) files, my website became heavy and the capacity was almost full. To solve the problem I searched for other ideas, other blog hosting services, etc.
サーバーの容量が足りなくてファイルをアップロードできませんでした。

Finally I decided to change hosting services. That will happen soon, so please be patient if the Real English webpage is 'frozen' for a few days or if you can't send me email.
今月または来月にサーバーが変わる予定ですので一日ぐらいwebsiteが動くないかもしれないです。

So please forgive my long silence and I hope you'll enjoy reading (and listening to) the Real English blog this year!
是非、今年も　Real English blog　を楽しく読んで、聞いて下さい。

Best regards,
A.

The bread city

Tsukuba seems to be a city full of bakeries! The local government is promoting the 'bread city' and most bakeries now follow a monthly flavor theme. Not sure what this month is, but recently it was 'bread with chestnuts'.

The large number of bakeries mean that competition is fierce, but that doesn't necessarily mean that every bakery is good! For example, one of the most popular places in town is not really that special - it has a few really nice items and the rest are just so-so. The drawcard is that it has free tea/coffee/soft drink and has some tables and chairs on a patio. But the cashier staff are far too busy and are not polite, and whats more, they often squash your bread in their hurry to serve you and move on to the next customer. I HATE it when my bread is all squishy and looks horrible. And because the shop is so small, it is always crowded with people pushing here and there. If they make so much money, why don't they open a larger shop??? And the worst thing, once I bought sliced bread which became moldy the very next day. Chemical free is good for your health, but mold after just one day? Hmmm. I don't go to that bakery any more ...

One of the best places in town is a really small shop in Sakura called 'Gris Gris'. That is French and I think the pronunciation is something like 'Guri Guri' :) I started to go there when it first opened 3 or 4 years ago. Nowadays I live on the other side of town so don't make the trip so often. You should try it though - the bread and pastries are French style and not like other shops. I asked the owner about it and he said he and his wife studied in France.

I really recommend the French bread sandwich rolls with either cheese or fresh ham. Sorry I don't have a picture because I forgot and ate my lunch today before I thought of the camera :) But here is a picture of an apple pie. And if you can find it on the day you go, the onion quiche is wonderful.

But by far the VERY BEST thing was apricot and black sesame tarts that they made a few years ago. Let's start a campaign - everyone please go and ask the owner about the apricot tarts! Maybe he will make them again. And please tell me if you find them! They are the most delicious tarts I've ever had in my life.

You can find Gris Gris behind Fujiya cake shop in Sakura. Turn left at the traffic light with Fujiya and Lawson, and the bakery is on the left.

A new supermarket

I found this new supermarket in Matsushiro. It is kind of strange because a few years ago there was a regular supermarket just across the road. That store closed and the building was rennovated and is now a wedding reception center. The new supermarket is in a building that used to be a toy store, which closed too! And next door is an empty shop that was a used book store.

Anyway, the new place is a 'professionals supermarket' and it has a lot of bulk items for restaurants, etc. I was happy because I could find a 2 liter bottle of vinegar there. (I use vinegar for cleaning.) The prices are reasonable for most things, even for brand name products. For example, the vinegar is a popular Japanese brand.

But please be careful because other things are not such good value. My husband bought some frozen gyouza dumplings and they tasted awful! I hope I never go to a restaurant that serves them ...

Chrysanthemum

What a difficult word! I wonder who gave the flower that name in English?









In Australia, the chrysanthemum season is in May (Aussie autumn) so they are popular Mother's Day flowers! Yes, that's right - chrysanthemums! But I don't remember seeing so many of the unusual shapes. The most spectacular chrysanthemum festival I've seen was at Katori Jinju in Sawara, Ibaraki. You should go there one day in the autumn - it is really lovely.

The chrysanthemum is the symbol of the Japanese imperial family, so why do they also have the image of 'grave flowers'? I really don't understand that. If you know why, please tell me.

Autumn in Tsukuba

A few weeks ago I went for a walk in Chuo Park. It was a lovely day and the colors of autumn were all around.

Autumn is my favorite season in Japan - so much more beautiful than the Australian autumn which is shorter. Most Australian trees are evergreen so they don't lose their leaves. Tsukuba is so beautiful with all the Japanese and European trees that range from bright yellow to gold to orange/pink to red to the deepest russet. And I love walking along with the sound of leaves crunching underfoot!

By the way, even though I use a lot of American English now for my job, I cannot imagine calling autumn 'fall' :)

Tsukuba Marathon

Last Sunday my Australian friend from Tokyo ran in the Tsukuba Marathon. In fact, she ran the whole 42kms! Wow!

It was her first marathon so my husband and I decided to go and cheer her on. At first we went to the half way point - I was SO surprised that there were thousands of runners. I thought it would be really easy to find my friend, but my eyes began to hurt from scanning all the faces of the runners as they went past. Chris found me rather than me finding her!

Next we moved to a bridge overlooking Nishi Odori about 5km from the end. I was really moved to watch the runners who'd been going for the last 5 hours or so. There were all ages and all kinds of body shapes - some people looked okay and some people could barely walk. Anyway, it was truly amazing. Next year please go watch and cheer the athletes on - it is okay if you don't know them!

This year the weather wasn't very good, but thankfully the rain held off. You can't see it in the photos but the trees along the main roads are really beautiful right now. A scenic marathon!

Here are some pictures of Chris, and a link to her blog, too. I feel really ashamed - not only does she put a lot of effort into running, but she writes Japanese. And yes, it is the same friend who wrote the 'My English Organizer' schedule book. Hmmm, I REALLY need to make my own effort ...

http://blog.livedoor.jp/newleaves2/

Xmas flowers

It is a little early for Christmas, but today Megumi gave me this lovely table arrangement. If you come to the Takezono classroom, you can see it for real.

Actually, this arrangement is a sample. On Tuesday December 19th, we are going to have a flower arranging class in English and we'll make an arrangement similar to this one. The market will give us the flowers in season, so it might not be exactly the same. If you'd like join, the class will be from 10:15am. Drop me an email if you're interested :)

I really can't believe that Xmas is 'just around the corner'. Each year the time seems to pass faster and faster. I really have to hurry up and make my traditional Xmas fruit cake!