My favorite food

Do you remember in spring I asked you to guess what the pink flowers were? Well, here is the answer!

This year I was lucky to get two apricots on my tree. Yes, only TWO even though there were many blossoms in spring. But it's okay because last year I got zero ....

I adore (adore = LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!) apricots, so it is a pity I only had two - one for me and one for my husband.

I was talking to the farmer from the local farmers' shop and he said that apricots don't grow well in Tsukuba. Not only that, but the Japanese variety that is commonly grown in Nagano is much more sour than Western varieties.

Hot, hot, HOT

Wow, today was hot. Suddenly a very sultry 33 degrees. That was the official temperature, but I think it was about 35 near my office and near Lala Garden, because of the roads and concrete.

I don't have a room thermometer in my house and I'm glad I don't. It is now 9pm and I don't want to think about how hot it is inside my house :(

Wildlife!

Last night I came home from work about 11pm and I was amazed to see an itachi [weasel] in the long grass in front of Lala Garden! It was just going to step onto the road - I guess it wanted to cross over to the Sky Hotel side.

I was so surprised to see the shining eyes, but so unlike a dog! Luckily I could slow down and I "beeped" the car horn so it moved back into the grass.

I was thinking about it all the way home, and you won't believe this, but just near my house (on the bank of the Onogawa River, in the rice fields) a tanuki [raccoon dog] crossed the road and walked along the riverbank on the other side of the small bridge!!!

Maybe I was lucky to see two creatures in one night, or maybe I could find the tanuki because I was driving slowly and carefully, hoping to find another weasel.

I've seen the body of a tanuki not so far from my house after it had had a road accident, but I've never seen an itachi in Tsukuba.

You should go out tonight and see what you can find :)

PS. Of course I couldn't get photos last night because 1. it was dark!!! 2. I was driving, and 3. I didn't have a camera. So I checked the internet and tried to find photos as close in body shape as I could.

Talking about Israel

Today Meirav told us about Israel and Judaism. 

Judaism = cultural, religious, and social customs of the Jewish people.

Jew = person who belongs to the Jewish faith (noun)

Jewish = (adjective)

It was very interesting and I think the 90 minutes passed too quickly. I want to study more by myself about the customs of Israel - it is a very small land but has a very, very long history. 

One of the very surprising things was that people don't eat much fish. I expected that fish would be a main food group because of the long coast on the Mediterranean Sea. It was also amazing to hear that the Sea of Galilee is actually not a sea - it is a big lake of freshwater, not salt water. 

She also told us about the water problem because the Sea of Galilee is Israel's only source of freshwater. I can understand that because Australia also has a water problem. But it seems for Israel it is much more serious. The process to change seawater --> freshwater that she talked about is called DESALINATION. 

de = not

sal = salt, in latin

She also showed us some photos and a very, very beautiful shawl that is used for praying. The design was simple, but the subtle colors were lovely and it was very soft to touch. 

I've asked Meirav to give us a cooking lesson in the autumn, when it becomes cooler. I'm really looking forward to it.