A Step Back in Time

Would you like to step back in time? It's really easy if you go to Sobaya in Yanagibashi, Tsukuba. It is a handmade soba restaurant inside a 150 year old farmhouse. Actually, the farmhouse was originally somewhere else in Ibaraki and it was moved to Tsukuba.

You can find Sobaya really easily because it is next to Mizuho vegetable and flower shop on Route 19. It's just south of Banpakukinen Koen. Please check the map and more info here -->

http://mizuhonomuraichiba.com/sobaya.htm

Sobaya is probably my favorite soba restaurant in this area, and the best choice on the menu is the hot kamo-jiru soba (wild duck soba). Unfortunately, it is also the most expensive!!! (And be forewarned, the amount of soba you get mightn't fill you up.) However, it is really delicious and the texture is great.

Here are some photos from a rainy day when I went to Sobaya recently. It is better to go on a weekday because weekends are so crowded and sometimes they finish up all the soba before closing time.

Stinky flowers

Lillies are lovely to look at but I am allergic to them! In fact, I think they stink and they make me sneeze.








These ones are right outside my front door. Hold your nose!

Beautiful bugs

It is amazing what you can find if you look carefully ...








And here is my new 'pet'. Thank you to Y and her daughter for giving it to me :) Can you guess what it is?

A spider?
A bee?



No.


Hint: It lives in water and it will fly when it turns into an adult.








Its the larva of a dragon fly!

By the way, today was the first time for me to hear a cicada in the daytime. The ones that go 'mi mi mi'. I heard the first evening cicadas a few weeks ago - the kind that go 'whee whee'!

Big is not always best!

I feel very depressed. I just learned that my favorite pharmacy will close down.

I really like the small pharmacy inside of Kasumi Supermarket in Takezono. The pharmacy is small and maybe a little more expensive than the big drug store chains, but the staff are wonderful. If I have any kind of medical problem I go ask them for advice and see what they recommend. For example, when I wanted some good pain relief medicine that was also safe for the stomach etc, I searched on the Internet. After that I went to that pharmacy and the one they suggested was exactly what I researched about. The staff take the time to chat and are so kind.

I'm so upset that the store is being forced to close because a big chain drug store opened up very close. I DON'T like that store for buying medicine! A few times I went there but the pharmacist was not at all helpful and couldn't give advice. He just showed me the medicine and said what it is. I can read that by myself! One time he told me the store didn't have what I was looking for, but a few seconds later I found it on the shelf. Grrrrrr!

Anyway, there is nothing I can do about the small store closing. I have always tried to shop there and support them but it seems many people are only interested in low price products. I asked the pharmacist where she will work next and I will try to go to her new workplace.

Please support small stores. Big stores might be convenient, have long hours and have cheap prices BUT they are often not very professional or friendly. I fear that someday there will be no staff in stores and that we will just see robots/machines. Don't laugh - now in Australia there are 'self serve' registers with no staff. You scan your own groceries and pay by credit card. And of course, everyone is familiar with self serve gasoline stands.

Ah, now I feel blue.

Another Indian Restaurant

A while ago a friend recommended a new Indian restaurant in Ninomiya so my husband and I tried it out. It's called Raja - India/Nepal Foods Raja.

There is a lunch menu with various options and prices. We chose the set with two curries, naan (or rice), salad and a drink. It was just over 1000yen. The four curries we had were mutton, Kashimir chicken, keema and vegetable. All were delicious but the mutton was the nicest. The naan was great - really big and not so oily. The waiter asked if we would like more naan {okawari} but I think one per person is enough! Oh, and we chose 'average spicyness' {futsu} for the curry. It was nice but maybe next time I'll try the medium level. I had iced chai to drink. That was okay but I prefer stronger tea. Lassi is not on the set drink menu but you can get it at an additional price.

The service was WONDERFUL! I was really impressed with the sincerity of the greetings, the service during the meal and when we left. I think we will go there quite often from now.

By the way, Raja is not so new because it opened in February. That shop used to be a coffee shop, so you might know the place - the Parkside Building in Ninomiya. On Nishi Odori, turn between Mercedes Benz and Otaru Zushi, go about 100m and you can see it on the right, parking is on the left.

I was pleased to find another Indian restaurant because my other two favorite places weren't so good last time I went. My husband also said the taste wasn't so good, and a friend said so too. I don't know if the menu changed, the cook changed or they were just having a bad day! But the disappointing thing was that TWO restaurants' quality fell. Hmmm.

Great Jazz

Do you like jazz? You can find a great jazz show on internet radio at the BBC website.

Actually, the BBC has a lot of radio stations and many jazz programs, so many I can't tell you about them all. One of my favorites is called the "Best of Jazz" on BBC Radio 2.

Here is an easy way to find it:

1. Go to the BBC Radio page at -->
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/

2. In the toolbar in the top right corner, click on OPEN BBC RADIO PLAYER.

3. A new window will open. Now in the top right corner, find the SELECT TYPE OF SHOW menu box, and choose JAZZ. Click GO.

4. The window will change again. Choose BEST OF JAZZ.

5. Listen!

Spicy Cod Roe

A few weeks ago N gave me some spicy cod roe. She ordered it from Fukuya in Fukuoka city, where she lives. Fukuya was the first store that started making spicy cod roe. This season the store brought back it's original recipe for one season.

I received 3 different packs - mild, regular and original. The original was the spiciest but the most delicious! I really recommend it. I don't think you will be able to buy it in department stores, so you might have to call the Fukuoka store direct.

I made lots of different dishes with the roe ...

Simply on rice!

Fettucine with cream sauce.









As a snack with Italian crackers, cheese and blueberries.










Mixing the left over sauce in the container with yogurt to make dip.







And these are scallops in miso sauce also from Fukuya!

Summer Tiredness?

Japanese has a word 'natsubate' which hasn't an equivalent in English. My translation is something like 'summer tiredness'.

At first I thought this word was silly! My hometown is MUCH MUCH hotter than Japan but no-one says they are tired because of the heat. Nowadays I truly believe in 'natsubate'. In fact, this week I have been suffering from it!

It is quite hard to explain to those who don't live in Japan. The best way I can describe it is feeling lethargic, often having a headache, no appetite and generally not feeling well.

How to get better? I don't know! Right now it is over 30 degrees and the humidity is high. Some days in the rainy season the humidity is almost 100% and it is really hard not to feel awful :( My solution is to set the airconditioner to 28 degrees and 'dry', try not to go from inside to outside very often, drink lots of water (over 1 liter a day) and eat light but nutritious food. For example, last night's dinner was a green leaf salad with olive oil and lemon juice dressing, green beans, creamy tofu and a half serving of pasta with homemade basil sauce.

Yesterday I skipped breakfast and lunch because I didn't feel well, but I don't think that is a good idea. Even less energy! So this morning I ate a piece of baked sweet potato :)

Maybe we should eat more food like the traditional Okinawan people or people in South East Asia. If you have any good recipes for 'energy food' please tell me.

The Star Festival

July seventh is the 'Tanabata' star festival in Japan. (In some places it is August 7th.)

I don't have children so I didn't do anything special for Tanabata like writing wish papers to hang on bamboo. But on Friday afternoon Mrs N gave me a lovely paper decoration and showed me how to make another one. This picture is her decoration and it is on the artificial bamboo (shhhh - don't tell everyone it is not real!) in my classroom. I made another decoration for my house at night.

According to the tale of Tanabata, the Weaver Star and the Hunter Star can only meet each other by crossing the Milky Way. If the night is cloudy they must wait another year. Um, I think this year it was cloudy but I forgot to look! But I did get this very beautiful picture of a pink Tanabata sunset.

Look at Mr Spider weaving his web right outside my bedroom window. He looks kind of small but is really very large :( Spiders are EVERYWHERE outside my house this season. Hah, hah, no burglars will come because the spiders will catch them!

Look carefully at the picture!

Take a careful look at these pictures before you read on ...










Last Sunday morning I saw a mini nature show in my front garden. When I looked over the rail of the veranda while putting my futon out to air, I thought "Oh, what a big black worm." But it wasn't a worm! And then I saw what the 'not worm' was doing!

This is a baby snake, and maybe it is called 'hibakari' in Japanese. -->
http://homepage3.nifty.com/japrep/snake/namihebi/hiba/text/hibakari.htm

Anyway, baby snake (which was about the thickness 0f your little finger and about 20cm long) was holding onto a baby frog (which was a little bigger than your thumbnail). Baby frog was desperately trying to escape and was actually pulling baby snake along!

I am not sure what happened in the end because they went under the veranda. I suppose baby frog became breakfast. Maybe a little sad but baby snake also has to live! Most of us happily eat meat and fish, etc every day without any thought. Baby snake might have to get his own food, but what an effort it must be!

Now I wonder where daddy snake, mummy snake and sibling snakes are???!!!

For the first time ...

Last Saturday evening a friend suddenly called and asked if I'd like to go find fireflies with her family. Of course I said "Yes" as I had never seen a firefly before.

We went to an area near the foot of Mt Tsukuba and after an hour or so, found a spot with a few fireflies. I was quite surprised because they were really small! My friend's husband caught one and I held it - it was less than 1cm long. I thought they would be 2 or 3cm :)

The fireflies were on some plants growing in the middle of a small river. I heard they only live in clean water where a certain kind of freshwater shellfish live. Firefly larvae eat the shellfish. Nowadays it is really hard to find such clean water as farmers use pesticides and herbicides. It is such a pity that we are destroying our own environment.

This final picture is one I found on the Internet and it shows you what a firefly looks like in the light. I tried to get a picture of the one we caught, but he moved too quickly!

firefly - 蛍
foot of a hill/mountain - ふもと
shellfish - 貝
larvae - (larva is singular) 〔昆〕幼虫;〔動〕幼生(オタマジャクシなど
pesticide - 殺虫剤
herbicide - 除草剤

Coffee plus ...

I don't drink (alcohol) so much but I do like Bailey's Liqueur. It's nice by itself, on the rocks, with milk, mixed in a cocktail or in coffee!

Try adding about a tablespoon of Bailey's to either hot or cold coffee. Yum! And if you'd like an extra 'kick', add a teaspoon of brandy too!

Did you know that such liqueur coffees are very popular? Almost all restaurants in Australia serve them.

Oh, and Bailey's over vanilla ice-cream is a heavenly treat for 'grown-ups' :)


grown-up = adult

Dai koubutsu!

I like the word 'daikoubutsu'. The Japanese kanji are 大好物。If you can't read kanji on your computer, they are 'big' 'like' and 'thing'. Actually, it means a 'favorite food'.

I learned this word long, long ago on a nature show. I know lots of vocabulary from nature shows :)

This picture is of my 'daikoubutsu'. Apricots are truly my favorite food and I could happily eat them every day. It is a big pity that you can't buy nice apricots in fruit stores here.

The secret of good apricots is to leave them ripen on the tree. If you pick them green and ripen them later, they won't taste nice at all.

Last autumn Mrs K was very kind to give me two apricot saplings. I am growing them in pots. This year they had blossoms but it was windy so most of the blooms fell off and I could get only one fruit. But that is okay because I thought I must wait a few years for the trees to mature.

And I was a wonderful wife and shared my single apricot with my husband :)

ripen - 熟する, 実る
sapling - 若木

A Week of Pets

This week was a week of pets ....

* First of all, I was driving south along Nishi Odori between Otaru Zushi and Anderson when I saw something strange. The traffic was slowing because of a red light so I had time to look around and I saw an old man taking his 'pet' for a walk. He was holding a leash and the pet was behind some azalea bushes - I could just see its back over the top of the bushes. I thought "Wow! That's the biggest Golden Retriever I have ever seen!" for I could see a golden-beige back. Another part of my brain realized it couldn't be so large because the biggest dogs I know are either pure white or pure black (Pyraneese or Newfoundland {sorry if the spelling is wrong!}). Suddenly the pet walked out from behind the bushes and I did a double take - it was a HORSE!!! A miniature horse!

-- Actually, I have seen some other strange pets like this being taken for a walk on a leash. When I lived in Tokyo a man was walking a ferret, and I've seen a cat and a rabbit on leashes in Banpakukinen Koen! --

* The next pets were at Joyful Honda Arakawaoki. The small animal section allows some pets to walk about in the shop. You can find a giant tortoise and recently a lovely white hen (chicken) that allows you to pat her. I really like this chicken and go looking for her. She is usually walking about so please go try to find her.

At J.H. Arakawaoki I also found a new friend. As I was paying at the cash register, I heard flapping wings and suddenly felt a weight on my shoulder. A little yellow parrot landed on me! I was quite surprised but it was really cute.

Why have I been in the pet shop a lot recently? I will tell you later! :)

leash - （動物をつなぐ）革ひも, 綱 -- 《英》 lead
azalea - つつじ
realize - …を悟る, はっきり理解する, 実感する
do a double take - はっと見直す;振り返って見る
miniature - 縮小模型
tortoise - （陸上または淡水の）カメ
pat - 〈人・動物（の体の一部）を〉軽くたたく, なでる
flap - 〈翼が〉羽ばたく;〈鳥が〉羽ばたいて飛び回る

Kita-kamakura

Before moving to Tsukuba 4 years ago, I lived in North Kamakura. Since my first visit to Kamakura in 1995, I had dreamed of living there and in 2001 it became a reality. I was terribly upset when my husband said we had to move to Ibaraki again :(

The rainy season always brings back memories of Kamakura because of the hydrangeas. The blooms are best in North Kamakura - the soil seems to be perfect for them and they are a gorgeous rich violet color. Meigetsuin Temple has so many hydrangeas that it is called 'Ajisai-dera' (Hydrangea Temple). I often took a walk to Ajisaidera and could see countless other beautiful gardens on the way. My own house had hydrangeas too.

Last weekend a TV Tokyo show (Tokyo Admatic Tengoku???) featured Kita-kamakura. It was bittersweet seeing my old neigborhood and the shops I passed every day. I said to my husband that I want to retire in Kita-K.

Tsukuba has its good points and of course Kamakura has its bad points, but I think Kamakura will always be my favorite Japanese town. If only it could have a natural hot spring, then it would truly be perfect!

Coffee at home

If you've been reading this blog for a while you'll know that I am a tea drinker rather than a coffee person. BUT I do like delicious coffee sometimes.

The problem is that I am not very good at making coffee, so recently I tried to change that. An acquaintance of mine gave me a coffee-maker that she bought but didn't fit her kitchen. It is a nice one made by Thermos (brand) and the brewed coffee goes into a Thermos flask. The flask keeps the coffee hot so there is no hot plate. In fact, professionals say that you SHOULD NOT keep coffee on a hotplate for more than 20 minutes because it will 'burn' and the coffee will taste bitter. Anyway, I really like the coffee-maker. You can see it here -->

www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000BHRQPE/
qid=1150533754/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_10_5/249-0193723-2741951

To test the new machine I went to Starbucks and bought some beans. At first I thought that I would get some decaffinated beans because some of my friends don't want to have caffinated drinks. I talked to a staff member in the Lala Garden Starbucks and she said the decaf beans were a little weak, so after thinking about it for a while, I decided to buy the same beans that Starbucks use for the regular coffee they make. (Espresso Roast - Bold flavor) I also got a brochure on how to make good coffee.

The homemade coffee was great, but WOW was it strong! I ended up mixing half coffee and half milk to make a latte. Now I use 200mls of water, not 180mls per two scoops of coffee.

The funny thing is that recently I go to Tullys more than Starbucks because Starbucks at Lala Garden is too small and noisy so I can't relax. {I go twice a month because I have to have a quick lunch at Lala Garden before I teach at 'Lala Club'. At either coffee shop a sandwich and a coffee costs almost 1000yen - expensive lunch but fast!}

acquaintance - 知人,

My Baby!

Look! I have a baby!

This is 'Baby Frog' who started out as a tadpole in the rice field 3 weeks ago. At that time, my friend came over and said she wanted some tadpoles for her daughter. So she, my husband and I went looking in the rice fields for some.

It was probably a funny sight - 3 adults with a net and plastic 'bug' box, searching around in the rice fields and irrigation channels by my house. Finally we got one tadpole, 2 very tiny baby loaches and two water snails. My friend took them home for her children.

But this week my friend went to America so I got the box and brought it home again. That was on Sunday and 'Baby Frog' was still a tadpole. In fact, he looked more like a baby blowfish than a frog - he had a big round head with a cute little mouth. On Monday his legs got a little bigger, that's all. On Tuesday night he was STILL a brown tadpole swimming in the water.

Wednesday morning I got up and went to look at him but he was gone! Then I found him on the side of the plastic case - he was a FROG! It was amazing that he changed from a tadpole to a frog in just 8 HOURS!!! He changed into a tiny bright green frog.

I kept him for just a day and yesterday evening my husband and I took him back to the rice field and released him. It is raining today so I hope he is happy and could find some bugs to eat.

The loaches and snails are still in the case and I'm going to keep them! I can't wait until they get bigger. Yesterday I went to the pet shop in Lala Garden and bought some food and moss to make a proper home.

Next year you should get some tadpoles and watch them change. It truly is a miracle of nature!

tadpole - オタマジャクシ
come over - (other people visit your house)
rice field / paddy field - 水田
irrigation channel - 水路
loach - ドジョウ
water snail / pond snail / mud snail - タニシ
blowfish / pufferfish - フグ, 体をふくらませる魚(フグなど)
bug / insect - 昆虫, 虫
moss - コケ: スギゴケ類，セン（蘚）類

Win, draw, lose

Did you watch the soccer last night?

I'm not really a soccer fan (I prefer rugby) so I didn't watch all of the game last night.

Yesterday everyone asked me "Who will win, Japan or Australia?" I really have no idea about the skills of the players on either team, but I do know that many Australian players are in the professional leagues in Europe and England. And I also know that Aussies don't give up very easily! So yesterday I said the game would be a draw at 1-1 or the Australians would win.

Maybe I am mean, but I don't understand why most of the Japanese players cannot shoot goals under pressure. I just watch soccer highlights on the TV news, but I often see wild shots at goal. It was a problem 4 years ago and it is a problem now. Even as an outsider, I can see this is a weak point that the players really need to work on.

Anyway, last night I thought that Japan would win and was disappointed that the Australians didn't try harder. BUT then in the final 10 minutes everything changed! Maybe the Aussies are tougher in hot conditions? :)

Best of luck to Japan in their next game!

Miso-ume Dressing

Last year M-san gave me some delicious miso-ume dressing. It was good with salad, or as a sauce for chicken or pork. I really wanted to make some more but I had to wait until this season when green ume are in season.

Japanese ume are usually called 'plums' but in fact I think they are closer to apricots, though much more sour.

To make the dressing you need equal weights of green plums, rock sugar and miso e.g. 500g of each. First of all you wash the plums (and you can dip them in white liquor to kill any germs) then dry them and put them into a jar. After that you add the sugar, and finally the miso. Leave the jar in a cool dark place for 3 months.

After the dressing has matured, put it in a pot and simmer it to reduce the amount of water. Finally, put it into clean bottles.

I really hope that my dressing is successful!

germs - 微生物, 細菌
mature - 熟成した
simmer - ぐつぐつ煮える

Back to health

Sorry, I disappeared from my blog for another two weeks! But I am back again, mostly because I am back to health. ("back to health" = return to a healthy body/mind condition).

I wasn't really 'sick' but I had a headache for 10 days straight. Reading made my head ache more and using the computer was horrible. It was all my own fault because the headache was caused by stiff shoulder and back muscles. Sometimes this happens - my shoulders get stiff, my neck gets stiff and then my head begins to ache.

One reason is that I need to exercise more! The other is that I use a computer quite a lot, both at home and at work. Finally, I think I need to check if my pillow is the best shape and height.

I got better after going to a massage clinic in Takezono. It is just down the street from Kasumi and is across from Seven Eleven. After a 20 minute neck massage on Wednesday afternoon I could feel my headache going, then yesterday I had another 30 minute body massage and a 30 minute foot massage. Today all the stiffness AND the headache are completely healed! Yay!!!!

As well as the stiff shoulders, another reason for my ill health was that I wasn't sleeping enough. These days, it gets light about 3:45am and the sun rises just after 4am. My bedroom is really bright so I was waking up after just a few hours of sleep. I know that waking up is really healthy but that means you have to go to bed about 8pm!!! Not possible or practical with a modern lifestyle.

I solved that problem by putting up a navy blue covering over the window. These days I sleep like a log until 6 or 7am.

Many other people told me that they are not feeling so well this season. I think our body takes a while to get used to the changes in weather.

Anyway, take care of yourself!

PS. You can see a BBC story about sleep here -->
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5063670.stm


disappear - 見えなくなる, 消える, 姿を消す
headache - 頭痛 {one word, noun}
head ache - 頭を痛む {two words, noun + verb}
Reading made my head ache more. - 読書は私の頭をさらに痛くする。
stiff shoulders - 肩がこり
heal - 治す
practical - 実践［実用］に関する,実践上の［に基づいた］,実際［実地］の,実際的な
solve a problem - 問題を解く
sleep like a log - ぐっすり眠る