Pepper Jack (I call it "Fire Cheese")

A few months ago I was reading a novel in which the character ate a sandwich that contained Pepper Jack cheese. I remembered I saw it at the import shop in Dayztown, so the next time I was near there I dropped by and bought some. Since then I've become addicted to it!

It is a simple kind of cheese but it contains small pieces of hot peppers - maybe jalapeño peppers and it is SPICY! It is great melted on toast or melted over cooked sasami chicken.

I forget how much it costs, but it is expensive so not something I will buy often. Hmm, I wonder if I could buy chilli peppers and put them on top of Japanese cheese? If possible I try not to buy imported food, so in future I'll experiment and tell you how it goes. But I'll have to wait until summer when red and green chilli peppers are in season :)

Mini hanami

I couldn't enjoy a real hanami this year but this is my very mini blossom viewing. I took the picture on the 4th of April, in my garden.

Please guess what kind of blossoms they are and tell me next time we meet :)

Sample email - friends

Here is a sample email you could send to your friends:

Dear Jane,


Thanks so much for your email and for worrying about me. My family and I are all fine.


Yes, we did have a big aftershock yesterday evening and some this morning, too, but everything is okay. 
Last week the children started kindy and school. They were really looking forward to seeing their friends again. They were at home yesterday when the aftershock hit. They were a bit scared but I think I worry more than they do!


Please don't worry about the radiation. Tsukuba is about 170km from the nuclear reactor. The BBC reported that the level of seriousness of the accident increased, but the situation hasn't changed in the past few days. Our daily life is basically normal. Yesterday the phone lines were busy for a while, but our electricity and water were not cut. 


I'm sending some pictures of the cherry blossoms in the park near our house. Having a picnic under the cherry trees is called "hanami". This year it was very quiet but we could enjoy the nice weather.


love,
Hanako

Sample email - business

Here is a sample email you could use to send to a research friend abroad who is worried about you.

Dear Dr. Brown,

Thank you for your email regarding the situation in Tsukuba.

The first earthquake in March did damage some of our equipment but our building is structurally okay. No one was injured at all. Mostly we just had a lot of cleaning up to do.

The aftershocks yesterday didn’t cause any further damage, and we expect work will continue as normal.

Thank you for your concern and I’m looking forward to seeing you at the ABC Symposium in May.

Best regards,

Taro Tanaka

And here are some sample phrases you can use:

Thank you for your email.

Thank you for your kind email.

Thank you for your recent email and I apologize for my late reply.

Everyone is fine. I’ve heard that there no-one was injured in Tsukuba, which is great news.

My laboratory suffered some slight damage, but the building is fine.

Some equipment was broken but we think it can be repaired.

Unfortunately, some equipment was broken and it will take some time to repair or replace it.

It was such a large quake that the utilities were cut for many hours. Unfortunately, our backup generators failed because they had no water to cool the motors and our refrigerators were down. We lost all our samples. I guess it will take several months to recover them.

Our project is still on track and we’ll be able to meet the deadline.

Our project will be delayed by several months.

I’m sorry, but the symposium has been postponed until further notice.

I’m very sorry to have to tell you that our project has been put on hold until further notice.

We’ve decided to move the project to our lab in the west of Japan for the next several months.

Could I ask for an extension on the deadline? I’ll be able to complete the work by May 25th, 2011.

Wednesday and Lala classes okay :)

See everyone tomorrow as usual.

Lala is okay from 1:05pm.

Until then,
A.K.

Tuesday 4/12 lessons cancelled

Lessons cancelled today 4/12

I'm sorry, many members feel upset today and some people must go to work.

Today's lessons are cancelled all day and all evening.

The classroom is fine and I am fine.

If you have any work you need checked, or any questions you need me to answer, please email me and I can work from home.

Take care.
Andrea

Today's earthquakes - lessons cancelled Monday night

Hello,
We are okay.
I was in the classroom. It was okay, but very scary. The nets work really well :)

Many members cannot come tonight, and the aftershocks keep happening, so lessons are cancelled.

a.

Birdwatching

The cats' apartment is in the window so they can watch the birds, people walking dogs, and this season - the farmers going to work in the fields near our house.

They are purely indoor cats, so they never, ever go outside. Birdwatching is one opportunity for them to feel like wild cats :)  Kuro is more 'wild' than Dusty and he will spend hours watching. Dusty watches for a short time and then goes to play somewhere else.

Sometimes I put bird seed on a tray in the garden and recently wood pigeons (kiji-bato) come every day. They are actually quite greedy and will eat most of the seed, starting with their favorite type.

One thing that is important is to get a balance when feeding wild birds. It's important that they don't become dependent on the food - they should still find most food for themselves.

If you are wondering why the birds come despite the fact that two cats are watching, please look at the next photo. I took it from outside, looking in, and as you can see, the glass reflects the trees. The pole you can see is the reflection of the rail where I hang towels or other heavy items. 

But I'm sure the birds feel "eyes" watching them :)

Something sad this season is the the pheasant hasn't returned to my area. He has come every spring for the past 5 years but not yet this year. I hope he is okay.

The cats' apartment

I promised some of you that I would take pictures of the cats' apartment, and here it is!

Recently in the day time I put it by the patio window in the kitchen that looks out onto the small Japanese garden. (Unfortunately that view is also the veranda where we hang our laundry this season, so please forgive the towels and clothes that you can see hanging in some pictures later.)

Dusty inside on the second floor, Kuro on top, Dusty attacking Kuro, pushing each other on top, and ...

Sitting nicely together. (A rare thing.)

Side view, front view, and an inside view with Makurokurosuke peeping out!

By the way, the apartment is for both cats. Therefore, I have to write the cats' apartment. The apostrophe ' is after the S. 

The cats' apartment. = belongs to both cats

The cat's apartment. = belongs to only one cat

Of course in speaking, we don't know where the apostrophe is so you must explain. 

It's the cats' apartment for both cats.

These are my sisters' books, they belong to both sisters, not just one.

and/or/both??? や。。。と

Someone asked me a tough question about the translation of the Japanese 'ya' and 'to'  :(   I think many times it is difficult to translate them easily with simple grammar.

Here are some examples that I will write in English and then put the translations at the bottom.

1. I like Dusty and Kuro. = both

2. You can buy bagels and small cakes at Tsukuba Bagel. = both

3. I can play tennis and badminton. = both (but not at the same time!)

4. Let's eat spaghetti and salad for dinner. = both

5. I went to Ueno, Ginza and Shibuya. = all 3 places, only these places

6. Please catch Dusty and Kuro. = both

7. Please catch Dusty or Kuro. = 1 of them, either is ok

8. Please catch either Dusty or Kuro. = 1 of them, either is okay, nuance is there are also other cats here

9. I will buy bagels or sandwiches for lunch. = only 1, either is ok

10. Do you want spaghetti or pizza for dinner? = only 1, either is ok

11. I want spaghetti and pizza. = both

12. I want both spaghetti and pizza. = both (stronger feeling)

13. Sorry, you can have either spaghetti or pizza. = only 1, (stronger feeling)

14. I went to Ueno, Ginaza, Shibuya, etc. = 3 places plus other places

1. I like Dusty and Kuro. = both

ダスティとクロが好きです。

2. You can buy bagels and small cakes at Tsukuba Bagel. = both

つくばベーグルでは、ベーグルと小さなケーキが買えます。

3. I can play tennis and badminton. = both (but not at the same time!)

私はテニスとバトミントンができます。

私はテニスやバトミントンができます。

4. Let's eat spaghetti and salad for dinner. = both

夕食にはスパゲッティとサラダを食べましょう。

5. I went to Ueno, Ginza and Shibuya. = all 3 places, only these places

上野と銀座と渋谷に行きました。

6. Please catch Dusty and Kuro. = both

ダスティとクロを捕まえてください。

7. Please catch Dusty or Kuro. = 1 of them, either is ok

ダスティかクロを捕まえてください。

8. Please catch either Dusty or Kuro. = 1 of them, either is okay, nuance is there are also other cats here

ダスティかクロを捕まえてください。

9. I will buy bagels or sandwiches for lunch. = only 1, either is ok

昼食にはベーグルかサンドイッチを買います。

10. Do you want spaghetti or pizza for dinner? = only 1, either is ok

夕食はスパゲッティもしくはピザどちらにしますか。

11. I want spaghetti and pizza. = both

スパゲッティとピザが食べたい。

12. I want both spaghetti and pizza. = both (stronger feeling)

スパゲッティとピザの両方が食べたい。

13. Sorry, you can have either spaghetti or pizza. = only 1, (stronger feeling)

すみませんが、スパゲッティかピザどちらか食べれます。

14. I went to Ueno, Ginaza, Shibuya, etc. = 3 places plus other places

上野と銀座と渋谷に行きました。

15. Do you use refill packs for your household cleaners and toiletries?

家庭用洗剤と洗面用洗剤の詰め替えパックを使いますか?

家庭用洗剤や洗面用洗剤の詰め替えパックを使いますか?

In Japanese "to" is clearly a limit of ONLY those things. "ya" means those things plus other things. So "ya" is the same as "etcetera" in English :)  Sometimes we use etc or another word if we really want to show there are more choices, but most of the time it is not necessary.

3. I can play tennis and badminton. = 

私はテニスとバトミントンができます。

私はテニスやバトミントンができます。

Maybe I can play other sports, too, but I am focusing on tennis and badminton. If other sports are important, I can say:

I can play tennis, badminton, etc.

I can play tennis, badminton and some other sports.

Would you like tea and coffee? = both (this is strange English)

Would you like tea or coffee? = only 1

Would you like tea, coffee or something else to drink? = tea is ok, coffee is ok, a different thing is ok

"ya" is really difficult :(   I don't like it in Japanese so I never use it. I only use "to", "ka", "nado", "nanika"
You should read this Japanese page and study kokugo :)  Then you will agree with me that English is MUCH easier!

http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/thsrs/17181/m0u/%E3%82%84/

Introducing .... Baby Boar and Baby Black Pig

Let me introduce Inoshishi-chan and Kurobuta-chan, who are from Miyako Island and came to live at our house last autumn.

Inoshishi-chan is supposed to be for Dusty to play with, and Kurobuta-chan is for Kuro. But Dusty isn't interested in playing, so Kuro plays with both.

He carries them around in his mouth and puts them here and there. In this photo, they are together, where he left them after playing. If you look closely, you can see their noses have become really pointed. He likes to pull on their noses so now their original cute flat pig noses have changed to look like mice :)

Sometimes I will find one or the other on my bed where Kuro left it after playing.

Sakura season, again.

It is almost the start of the cherry blossom season in Tsukuba, but almost the END of the sakura flavored sweets season. (Soon it will change to Boys' Day sweets, such as Kashiwa-mochi).

Here are some sakura things that I enjoyed in early March:

Tea from Lupicia. Black/green/hoji tea with sakura, a sample pack of 2 of each kind. The hoji tea was not so nice, so I don't recommend it.

 'Roll your own' sakura mochi!!! Cherry leaves, red beans and regular rice :)  It might be really, really strange, but it tastes great! You should try it.

Hagendaaz vanilla ice-cream mixed with chopped cherry leaf. Why don't they make sakura ice-cream?

Lunch in Tokyo

Yesterday I had lunch in Tokyo. It was something that had been planned for many months and that I had been looking forward to.

I used to live in Tokyo and I'm familiar with the old downtown districts in Arakawa and Taito Wards. But in these past few years I only go to the metropolis a few times a year. Of course there are many things to do in Tokyo but sometimes too many things and I can never decide which one to choose :) Tsukuba is becoming more and more convenient for shopping so it has been a long time since I needed to go to Tokyo for something I couldn't get here or on the Internet.

I really like the Hibiya Line subway, followed by the Ginza Line. Especially the Hibiya Line stations are in parts of historical Tokyo where you can find things that haven't changed much in decades. Some shops date back to the Edo Period. Yesterday I could use both lines to get to Akasaka-mitsuke -- very modern Tokyo :) And so quiet on a weekend because it is almost all office buildings.

Except for many escalators that were cordoned off and not working (to save electricity) the city was exactly the same as always. For most Tokyoites, life is perfectly normal :)


date back to the Edo Period = are from the Edo Period = were built in the Edo Period


And so quiet = And therefore quiet


Tokyoites = people who live in Tokyo  {---ites, ---ers}

Tsukuba in the news, life WILL be okay

Today the Daily Yomiuri Newspaper has an article about Tsukuba. It explains how many research centers were damaged or had trouble because of the electricity cuts.

You can read the article here: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110401005103.htm

Many, many people have told me their stories about their offices and laboratories. I was also at a research center when the earthquake struck, so I understand.

It IS tough, and there are no easy answers. Equipment is broken, months or years of work was lost, buildings are dangerous. But please, please don't give up!

I didn't talk about it to anyone, not even to my husband, but I had so much stress after the earthquake. The aftershocks continued many times a day. We are very, very lucky that personally nothing was broken, but when I looked at the destruction here and there, I thought "How can Japan recover?" Then the stupid foreign media got into a panicked frenzy and I was so angry. I just wanted to cry but many other people needed my help, and thousands more people have lost everything. I had no time to cry and in fact, no good reason. Then I thought, "One tiny thing at a time."

That is what we can do. Pick up one book and put it back on the shelf, then another book, then another. Help one friend, then go together and help another friend. Go and buy vegetables from your local farm-shop, that helps the shop, the farmers and their families. Go to the bigger shops you usually go to - as I wrote a few weeks ago, Starbucks doesn't need my money for 2 cups of coffee, but those young women who made my coffee that day DO need a job. When they get a salary, they will go shopping somewhere else.

I'm trying hard to be optimistic and think, "If it is broken or lost, how can I fix it or start again in a better way? Is this a chance for me to find new ideas?"

Coincidentally, I saw something on the Internet this morning about Briton in the war years. Their motto was "Make do and mend." This is exactly the Japanese "mottainai" - waste not, want not.

I don't mean to be flippant, or to hurt anyone's feelings, but all our ancestors (in all countries in the world) faced really hard lives. Modern people have really good lives and we CAN start again. Even from the very beginning.

Just one tiny thing at a time ....

Rice cooker cake

Lemon Cake

Do you want to make a cake but you don't have an oven? Here is a recipe for a super-easy cake that you can make in the rice cooker!

Ingredients:
1 small packet of hotcake mix
1 egg, at room temperature is best
100ml of milk, at room temperature is best
1 teaspoon of sugar
1cm of butter
Plus - flavor of the kind of cake you want.

Lemon and Honey Cake
Slices of lemon on the bottom
of the bowl before the mixture.

Method
1. Heat a 1cm slice of butter in the microwave oven until it is completely melted.
2. Beat the egg and milk together. Add the sugar. Add the hotcake mix. Finally add the melted butter and beat well.
3. Rub some butter around the inside of the rice cooker bowl, up to about 4cm deep.
4. Add the mixture into the bowl.
5. Press "On" on the rice cooker. Just the regular course is ok

Flavors

Ginger Honey Cake

   - Ginger Cake (my favorite).
   Mix 2 teaspoons of ginger  
   powder with the dry
   hotcake mix. Exchange
   2 teaspoons of honey for
   the sugar.

   - Lemon Cake
   Add the finely grated rind of
   1 organic lemon. For Orange Cake, use the rind of 1 orange. Yuzu is okay too! Add to the dry hotcake mix. You can put slices of lemon in the bottom of the rice cooker bowl before you add in the mixture.

- Chocolate Cake
Add about 1 to 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to the dry hotcake mix.

- Banana Chocolate Chip Cake
Mash 1 or 1 1/2 soft bananas and mix them with the egg and milk mix. Put the finished mixture in the rice cooker bowl, and put some big chocolate chips ON TOP of the mixture. They will sink. DO NOT put them on the bottom because they will touch the metal of the bowl and burn.

- Herb "Cake"
Don't put any sugar, but add a pinch of salt. Add dry herbs or fresh herbs as you like.

Other ideas: vanilla, blueberries, dried fruit of any kind, canned peaches that you drained carefully, peanut butter instead of butter, grated apple and cinnamon, apple slices in the bottom of the bowl + cinnamon, etc.

Points:
- Please use the butter because it makes the cake rich and moist.
- For the flavor, dry things should be mixed with the dry hotcake mix first.
- Don't use things that are too wet, or reduce the milk to 80ml.
- If you want a lighter cake, add 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- You can make 2 cakes and after they are cool, you can join them together with cream to make a shortcake :)

Banana with big chocolate chips.
This is a heavy-type cake.

For more recipes, please go to the cooking blog with this link: http://eating-easy.blogspot.com/

A silver ball

For some very strange reason, Dusty loves aluminium foil. If I unroll some foil to use for cooking, he immediately comes running, no matter where he is or what he was doing. He also comes if we open a bar of chocolate wrapped in foil :)

I don't want him to have a sheet of foil but sometimes as a treat I carefully fold in the edges and create a ball. He'll play with it for hours until he loses it under something, or until Kuro steals it. Sometimes he runs around with it in his mouth, growling at Kuro.

 Above I wrote 'aluminium' which is British English. Americans use 'aluminum' which is simpler.

Gasoline, at last!

Since last Thursday, many gasoline stands are open and don't have any long lines. I could get gas this morning at about 8:15am and I was the only person at the pumps. After the disaster, people were waiting up to 3 hours to get even 20 liters. (Most stands had restrictions and 20L was the maximum.)

Of course, gas has become more expensive, now 148yen per liter. A few weeks ago it was in the 130 to 135yen range. I heard that in Tokyo, it is about 160yen. I was a bit surprised when I checked the internet and found out that the average price of gas in Sydney (Australia) is $1.48. That's about 123yen, so not so much different to around January this year in Japan.

By the way, in British English gasoline is called petroleum, or petrol for short. That is why BP is b + p = British Petroleum :)  In Australia, if you ask for gas for your car, people will think you mean LPG!

The kinds of petrol in Australia are:
regular unleaded petrol = regular = regular in Japan
premium unleaded petrol = premium = hi-oc in Japan (from high octane)
diesel = diesel in Japan :)

There are other types of ethanol or other biofuels, too. You can find a link here.

Luckily, I had filled my tank just 3 days before the earthquake hit so I didn't need to worry about gas. But it was a good lesson to me that I should always keep a full tank, not let the gas run down to the last marker on the digital fuel indicator.

Oh, and if you go to Australia and if you find a true service station (not self-serve) you can say to the attendant "Fill 'er up".  (er = her = the car!)  But if you want to use proper English instead of slang, just say "A full tank of regular, please."


Finally, you might be surprised as some petrol stations in Australia. Many are like convenience stores - they sell EVERYTHING and are open 24 hours a day.

Group nouns

Very often I hear something like:

"I couldn't find what I was looking for so a staff helped me."

'a staff' is incorrect because "staff" is a group noun. It means ALL the people who work somewhere.

"Staff at the Imperial Hotel are very professional."

If you want to count them one by one, please use a counting word. Almost always we use 'member'.

"I couldn't find what I was looking for so a staff member helped me."

Or you can use other nouns that are the names of the things in a group:

staff = president, vice president, department manager, section manager, secretary, office workers, cleaners -- 10 staff members

furniture = shelf/shelves, desks, chairs -- 10 pieces of furniture

money = notes, coins

work = jobs, projects, tasks

homework = projects, essays, reports


It is okay to use plural for the things in the group, so "S" is okay. But please don't use plural for the group nouns: furnitures

Earthquake map

Dots representing the quakes

Tonight I received this link to an earthquake map. It shows all the earthquakes from 12:00am of March 11, up to when you open the link. Up to 10pm tonight (March 27) there have been 798 quakes. Each one is represented by a circle showing the magnitude and different colors for depth.

I will warn you before you open the link, it is horrible to watch the animation of the first quakes and the aftershocks. It made me feel sick again. Watching it is like watching fireworks and the only good thing is the number of aftershocks is decreasing - the ones we feel in Ibaraki are becoming less.

LINK -->
http://www.japanquakemap.com/

If you want to watch individual quakes, put your mouse over the list on the right-hand side of the page.

Map showing Tsukuba
Mito is the capital city of this prefecture

Area map

Hay fever

A few days ago I wrote about the yellow pollen that is everywhere. And of course, pollen means ....

HAY FEVER!

Itchy and red eyes
Itchy nose
Stuffy nose
Runny nose
Headache
Feeling lethargic

Luckily I have no true 'fever' which means we have a high body temperature. In "hay fever" the word is kind of like 病 in Japanese.

I wish Golden Week would hurry up and arrive because that is just about when hay fever is gone :)