A Snow Bear

Well, it's been a long day. It stopped snowing about 5:30pm. We went outside about 4:30 and by that time there was 17cm of snow on top of the car.









It was nice to go outside, though at that time it was still snowing. You can see pictures of our creations. Umm, this was the first time I tried to make a snowman and it was more difficult than I thought - the body was kind of a triangle shape so it turned into a snow bear rather than a snowman. After that we shovelled most of the snow off the driveway. I hope the remainder doesn't freeze solid tonight. Crunchy powder snow is okay but solid white ice WON'T be nice to drive on!

A White World

This morning I woke up to find a white world. Snow was forecast to start later in the morning, but at 7:30am it was so silent and bright that I knew must have started snowing much earlier. Sure enough, when I looked outside there was about 4cm of snow covering everything.

Snow is rare in Tsukuba - just 2 or 3 times a year. I'm still debating whether or not I should buy snow tires for my car. Today I don't need to worry as I don't have to work so can stay at home all snug and warm! Well, actually I am waiting for it to stop snowing so I can go outside to make a snowman. The field by my house should be a great place to find lots of good snow!

You can see the field in the pictures, as well as the "God's Tree". I don't know what kind of god, but you can see a small hut at the base of the tree with a rock in it. The rock is the physical sign of the god. If you look really carefully, you can see that the rock has been decorated with a straw rope and lightning shaped paper. This paper is a mark of a Shinto god. My guess is this god is for good fortune for agriculture but I don't really know. The tree stands in a field and behind that are many rice fields. I guess the owner of the field and/or other farmers must have put the paper decoration on the rock as it appeared just before New Year.

Such kinds of sacred rocks are often found under big trees here and there in Japan. These are not to be confused with small stone Buddhist statues called Jizo. Next time I see a Jizo I'll take a picture and tell you all about them.

Splash!

This evening I went swimming for the first time in a month.

Just before Xmas I was busy, then after that I got sick. Then the New Year was busy again.

Anyway, tonight I went and was so disappointed. After 75m of backstroke I was ready to collapse so I spent the rest of the time walking up and down the pool doing different strokes with my arms, then went up and down using a kickboard - both facedown and on my back.

Actually I rarely, if ever, saw people walking up and down in Australian pools. Everyone goes to the pool to swim. I think there are some special rehabilitation pools for walking but I have never been to one. I wonder why Japanese people like walking in the pool?

Now I go to the Hotel Okura pool. It is really nice and a bonus is that they give you towels and there are showers where you can wash your hair, etc. There are even hairdryers to use. Public pools have communal showers that you use with everyone else before and after swimming so you wear your swimsuit and of course there is no soap or shampoo. This was also strange for me because ALL Australian pools have individual showers where you can shampoo your hair.

Another really good point about the hotel's pool is that there is a 60cm deep small semi-circular pool on the side. This can be used by children, but there are never children there at the time I go. (I heard they only go there on weekends and only if a parent is a member of the pool.) No-one else uses that pool in the evenings so I go in there at the end of swimming simply to relax. I float on my back with my eyes closed for 5 - 10 minutes. I probably look like a dead body, so once a minute or so I splash my hands back and forth to show I'm still alive!!! Other swimmers probably think I'm crazy, but it is wonderful to just lie in the water!

Curry + curry

I LOVE curry! Any kind is okay: Indian, Thai, Japanese ... Truly I like it so much that I could eat curry every day!

Today I had Indian keema curry (chicken mince) for lunch at New Mira and Thai yellow curry base mutton curry (homemade one) for dinner.


Japanese curry is a bit different. You can buy a wide variety of flavors, but most Japanese curry bases come as blocks of 'ru'. This Japanese word comes from the French 'roux'. Roux is some kind of sauce base that uses butter and flour as thickening agents. The roux can be kept to use later. I guess the closest thing like this in Australia is soup stock cubes. But Japanese curry 'ru' looks like big blocks of chocolate!

To make Japanese curry, you stir fry some pieces of meat and onions and then add chopped potatoes and carrots plus any other vegetables you like. Then you add water and simmer for a while. Finally you add the curry roux which thickens the mix and simmer for a little longer. Pretty easy! Actually, you can buy various stew type mixes that are used in the same way, including one for 'white stew' which is chicken stew made with a milk base.

If you've never tried it, add some plain unsweetened yogurt to hot curry. It not only makes it milder, but also deepens the flavors!