Nostalgia

In Japan people use the word 'natsukashi' quite often. It is rather hard to translate it into English, but 'nostalgic' is the best I can do. However, like many one word phrases in Japanese that are used very often to describe feelings, 'natsukashi' (I feel nostalgic) is not something we would say in English!

But anyway, aside from language differences, my topic today is something that does make me feel a little nostalgic ...

I wrote that I went to Kairakuen Park in Mito and that it was my second time there. The first time I went was about 10 years ago, so only a year after I first came to Japan. At that time I was surprised to see black swans gliding about on the lake in the park.

Yesterday I found some again. I presume they are not the same ones but are the offspring of the birds I saw a decade ago. I have no idea why black swans are living in Mito because they are native birds of Australia! (If you don't believe me, do a search on the Internet. Start with a page from the Australian Museum - http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/black_swan.htm).

You can find them in many places in Australia, and as the above web page says, especially in the south. There are many on the Torrens River in Adelaide, South Australia. The Torrens flows through the center of the city, just near the Botanic Gardens and Adelaide University. Sometimes I took my books and studied in the parklands by the river and gave the swans bread from my sandwiches. But I think the Australian swans are larger than the ones in Mito, or maybe my memory just made them larger!

White swans are nice, but I really like black swans which look really elegant and never look dirty. If you have any idea how the black swans came to be in Mito, please write a comment and tell me.

A Day at the Park

Today I suddenly decided to go to Kairakuen Park in Mito. I had only been there once, many years ago, and had never seen the Plum Festival.

Kairakuen is one of the three famous parks in Japan. Sorry, but right now I forget the exact details of them, but I think the one in Kanazawa is called Kourakuen. I went there one winter about 5 years ago and it was beautiful. I have no idea of the name of the third or where it is located. Anyway, Kairakuen in Mito is famous for plum blossoms and there must be thousands of trees in various shades from white to the darkest pink. The air is filled with the delicate fragrance of the blooms.

If you remember a few months ago I said I never wanted to drive to Mito again. Well, today I took the train. Just a local so it took about one hour. I was really surprised because I thought we could get off at Kairakuen Station, one stop south of Mito, but the train passed right through. Why is the station on all maps if the train doesn't stop there? Weird.

We got off at Mito Station and after buying boxed lunches in the station department store, we took a bus to the park. It was so crowded as now is the peak season. Luckily the sky was perfect blue and it was reasonably warm aside from a cold wind in the open.

After walking around, we found a nice spot to have lunch, and these scenic pictures were the view from the bench we sat on. The boxed lunches were really good too!












Finally we decided to walk back to Mito Station. I didn't think it was so far, but it took about 30 minutes (walking kind of slowly!). On the way back we stopped in at a Starbucks and I had a Macha (powdered green tea) Latte. Yum!

Ah, it's now 8:30pm and I'm going to bed! The last two nights I went swimming, then walked for a few hours today - I'm exhausted and my legs are aching! But it was a nice day :)

Very short!

Lately I've been busy with work and organising for a few clubs I am in. This hasn't left much time for swimming or other 'me' things. But yesterday I changed that by going to the hair salon. I went in with 40cm long hair, and came out with less than 5cm!

Yay, my hair is back to the style it was before I married 7 years ago. I love it and feel much younger - like I've returned to my 20s. Not physically possible, I know, but in any case today I feel bright and happy like spring has come :)

Sniff, sneeze, cough

This season many people think they have a cold. Do you have any of these symptoms?
- runny nose
- blocked nose
- dry throat
- dry cough
- headache
- feel tired
- red eyes
- itchy eyes

You might guess from the last two items on the list that these AREN'T the symptoms of a cold but are actually the signs of hayfever, which is prevalent in the early spring.

Most hayfever is caused by an allergy to pollen from either Japanese cedar trees (sugi) or cypress trees (hinoki). Cedars were planted in huge numbers all over Japan after WWII for timber. Those trees are now mature and release vast clouds of pollen this season. 2006 is supposed to have less pollen than last year, which was a record year. Less pollen or not, I am suffering.

The strangest thing about hayfever is it suddenly appears. It doesn't matter how old you are, please don't think "Lucky, I don't suffer from hayfever." That is what I thought until 7 years ago! Then one season, my allergy appeared ...

Nowadays you can get all kinds of medicine to alleviate the symptoms of hayfever but unfortunately there is no cure as yet. The best you can do is try not to come into contact with pollen. If you want to look really funny and suspicious, wear a hat, wrap-around glasses, a gauze mask and an overcoat!

Other than that, you just have to put up with your allergy and hope that May comes really quickly!

symptoms 徴候,症状, 症候
prevalent 広く行き渡った,流行した
vast 非常に広い, 広大な, 途方もなく大きい, 巨大な / （数・量・額が）膨大な, 莫大（ばくだい）な
alleviate 軽減する, 緩和する, 楽にする, 和らげる
put up with -- …を我慢する

Not your average bathroom ...

I adore taking baths and that is certainly one of the attractions of living in Japan. Adult Australians don't use the bath so much - maybe once a week or less. Most people I know just shower every day. Maybe this is a lifestyle choice or maybe it is because water is a precious commodity in Australia. (Though to be honest, taking a long shower probably uses just as much water as having a bath!) Japanese find it disgusting, but Aussies (and other westerners) add soap or bubble bath into the water and don't rinse off afterwards. I was certainly a weird Australian because I liked to have a shower first then use the tub to relax. Mind you, this was not good for either the electricity (hot water) bill or the water bill!

Imagine my joy when I came to Japan and was told by my homestay sister that I had to take a shower first, then after I was clean I could get in the bath. Yay! I was surprised though, because the style of the bathroom was very different...

Take a look at these pictures. This is my parents-in-law's bathroom. Mine is very much the same but has tiled walls instead of molded walls. Tiles look nice but are hard to clean. I suppose the new molded unit style bathrooms are popular because there are no cracks for mold to grow in. (NOTE: 1. mold = shape e.g. jelly mold / 2. mold = fungus e.g. the green stuff that grows in your bathroom if you don't clean it!)

Anyway, the first difference is a Japanese bathroom is in two parts. The outer room is where the wash-stand is and where you change clothes. The washing machine is usually here, too. Then you go through a second door (glass or thick perspex) and into the wet area - perhaps about 2m x 2m in area. The bath is to one side and the remaining area is where you SIT and take a shower.

I don't know the real reason why this is so but my guess is that sitting came from the custom of dipping water out of a large bath to wash yourself. In the old days there were no showers so you had to use a dipper. I don't have one in my bathroom but you can see one in the photos. There is also a plastic seat and basins. If you have a very gorgeous bathroom they are made from wood but I think wood would get moldy.

You actually can stand up to take a shower in modern bathrooms because the shower head is on the end of a hose and it can be fitted into various brackets on the wall at different heights. The new molded type bathrooms have a ledge in front and the hose retracts inside so you can't see it.
But the best part of a Japanese bathroom (or many of them) is that the bathtub is really like a hot-tub. They have automatic temperature settings and will keep the bath water at a constant heat. Imagine being able to take a bath for hours and the water never getting cold!

My sister was surprised once when my bath began to 'talk'. Actually, it wasn't the bath but the control panel on the wall of my kitchen. There are two panels, one in the bathroom and yes, one in the kitchen. This means you can control the bath from the kitchen - very handy for mothers! After you clean the bath from the day before, just put in the plug again and leave it. The next evening you only have to press one button and the bath will automatically fill up to the correct level and temperature. How? Well there is a inlet/outlet in the side of the bath that pumps hot water in and circulates the water through the heater again when the bath cools. I guess the bath takes about 10 minutes to fill and the panel suddenly says "The bath is almost ready." A few minutes later it plays a chime and says "The bath is now ready."

Ah, the wonders of modern technology. If I ever had to go back to Australia, I am sure I would be taking a Japanese bathroom with me!

The Hina Matsuri

March 3rd is the 'Hina Matsuri' doll festival in Japan.

Families with girls display beautiful dolls dressed as emperor, empress, court ladies and musicians from the Heian Era (around 1000 years ago). I don't have any dolls because I wasn't born here to receive them from my parents or grandparents, and I don't have any children. Someday I want to have a daughter so I can display dolls. This year I did have some paper dolls to display thanks to Mr and Mrs K. Mrs K kindly made these lovely origami dolls. The flowers are spring camellias I received yesterday. (Thank you!)

The Hina Matsuri is my favorite festival in Japan because of the dolls and because of cherry tree LEAVES!You might think it is weird, but I LOVE eating cherry leaves! The leaves of one kind of sakura tree are preserved in salt and are used to wrap Japanese sweets made from pounded sticky rice. Inside of the ball is sweet adzuki bean paste. The leaves have a flavor and fragrance that is absolutely wonderful! You can also buy cherry blossom tea, which is full blooms preserved in salt (only blooms and no tea). You add one flower to each cup and it opens when you add hot water. Again the fragrance is heavenly! Cherry blossom tea is served for happy occassions like engagement or wedding ceremonies.

March 3rd is also a day to eat chirashizushi, a kind of mixed rice sushi in a big bamboo dish. I was too busy (and lazy!) to make it, so I bought pre-made boxes. These boxes had half regular sushi and half mixed sushi. The yellow you can see is thinly sliced omlette.

By the way, hina dolls are usually displayed for about a month from early February to March 3rd. However, it is said that the dolls must be quickly put away after the third. Tardy mothers who leave out the dolls mean daughters who can't marry!

tardy - 遅ればせの;〈進歩・成長などが〉遅い,遅々とした

Not so delicious + yummy!

Today we went to an Italian restaurant in Takezono that had been recommended by a few of my friends. We had the set pasta lunch, and I'm sorry to say, that it wasn't really very good.

The pasta was a little overcooked and the sauce was something you could probably do at home by yourself. (Shrimp and chopped shiso leaves, in a salty broth base.)

The bread was interesting. The menu said handmade foccacia. It was light and fluffy, but had quite a strong yeast taste.

I guess we won't go there again, though the service was nice. Finally the waitress who I paid at the register said 'Thank you and we're waiting to see you again'. Sorry!

On the other hand, check out my late afternoon snack. Yum! It is sliced processed cheese sandwiched between a sheet of nori (dried laver sheet). Nori is the dried seaweed that is wrapped around sushi.

You might think it is weird to combine cheese and nori, but try it - it is actually very good! The tastes blend well and the soft texture of the cheese and crisp nori harmonize perfectly. You should eat it quickly and don't let the nori become soggy.

I don't know if anyone else eats this. I thought it up by myself :)

Tired, tired, TIRED!

Japanese people seem to say 'tsukareta' a lot! This can be translated to:

"I'm tired." "I'm worn out." "I'm exhausted!"

I don't think we say these things in English quite so much but today I really am tired!

This past week has just been a blur. Last Thursday morning I worked, right after I went to Tokyo and took a plane to Kagoshima, my husband's hometown. Three days there and back to Tokyo then Tsukuba. Work on Monday ....

Sometimes I think we need a second holiday to get over the exhaustion from the first one!!! Hmm, I'd like to go to a nearby hotspring and laze about all day :)

in a blur - あっという間に,目にも止まらない速さで
laze about/around - のらくらする,怠ける

All the way to China

How far can you swim? If you'd like to make a new world record, you could try swimming from my husband's hometown to Shanghai. All you need to do is go directly west for ummm, I actually have no idea! Look on a world map and find Kaseda in Kagoshima on the island of Kyushu in Japan then trace your finger to the left and you will hit Shanghai, China. If you need to visualise it, picture yourself on this beach and imagine swimming for a few days!

My husband's hometown is not Kaseda City, but Kinpo Town. I should say 'was' because in fact several municipalities merged and now it is all called 'Minami Satsuma City'. This beach is called 'Fukiage' (吹上浜) and is 47km long! That makes it the second longest stretch of sand in Japan. Fukiage Town doesn't exist any longer either; now it is part of Hioki City. But despite the name changes, the beach remains the same. (This is the view to the south toward Makurazaki and the next picture is to the north, toward Kushikino.)


The beach itself is very beautiful and unspoiled. I can't exactly explain why, but the sea itself is different to the Pacific side where I have spent all my time in Japan. I guess one reason is that this beach is facing the South China Sea rather than the great expanse of the Pacific Ocean. I haven't seen huge waves at Fukiage. Another major difference is that there are NO people! And no surfers. To take these pictures I hiked 5 minutes through pine tree scrub-land then up sand dunes. Getting down the other side of the dune was not very ladylike; I slid about 10m down on my backside! Oh, and to get to the point were we left the car was a bit of a drive. If you ever decide to go to Fukiage Beach, try going from Fukiage Town camping ground - it is quite a civilized walk from there!

I love this beach but the first time I went with my husband, he said we had to go home soon. He said that someone had been abducted from Fukiage Beach by North Korean agents a few decades ago. I just laughed and said what a tall story! I wasn't laughing about 4 years ago when Nth Korea admitted one of the Japanese they abducted was taken from here. (When I first married the abduction issue was very quiet and I didn't even know about it.) Anyway, I can guess that no-one is going to abduct you these days, but it is a very lonely spot, especially in the winter. You can see why in this last picture - in the foreground is grass on the sand dunes, then the pine scrub. In the distance you can see the peak of Mount Kinpo and its surrounding mountains.

If you have time, do a search on Kaseda City and Fukiage Beach. It is not well known, but in WWII, Fukiage had its own air base. (Chiran, about an hour's drive away is much more famous.) Anyway, no matter where the pilots flew from, it is horribly depressing. I went to Chiran about 7 years ago and couldn't go inside the main building of the Chiran War Memorial Park. But a few years ago I went to a small Fukiage museum by chance. (The Bansei Tokkou Heiwa Kinenkan) I had tears running down my face as I looked at the photos of pilots as young as 15 and 16 years old who flew out to their deaths. I wonder what they thought as they looked at Fukiage from the air for the last time? Boys recruited from all over Japan who should have never even left their homes let alone fly for thousands of miles across the Pacific. I left that museum sobbing and refuse to go to another one ever again. I know the young must remember the war so it never happens again, but I can't bear to even think that some of those handsome young faces look so much like my husband's.

Just as an aside, I cannot understand how Mr. Koizumi can support America in Iraq. Somewhere in America there will be (or maybe there already is) a museum with faces of fresh young Americans who left home to go to a place they would never come home from. Why are people so stupid?

Just some trivia, but Mr. Koizumi's father, Junya, was born in Kaseda.


If you'd like to know more about Minami Satsuma City, please check -->
http://www.city.minamisatsuma.lg.jp/kanko/area1.htm

Twenty-one Days

Well, my Snow Bear lasted 21 days. This is what remained of it last Saturday morning, the 21st day after the heavy snowfall.

Um, yes, this post is now over a week late but I've been doing lots. Please read the next entries .....

P.S. If you have no idea what my Snow Bear even was, please check the archives on this page for the snow entry on Jan 21.

'Revolving' Sushi ...

What do you imagine from the name 'revolving' sushi? (kaiten-zushi in Japanese). If you're thinking about a piece of sushi spinning around like a top, guess again!

Kaiten-zushi can't easily be translated into English but how about: plates of sushi on a conveyor belt that customers can select by themselves. Hmm. Just look at the picture!


More upmarket restaurants have conveyor belt moving in a large square. Customers sit at booths or a counter on the outside and choose any dish they like. Sushi chefs are in the middle and prepare new dishes. You can also check the daily menu or regular menu and order sushi directly from the chef closest to you. You might shout something like 'fatty tuna' or 'sweet shrimp'. I prefer ordering directy because it means your sushi is really fresh and hasn't dried out at all. Plus I like the combination of cold fish and warm rice!

All of the dishes are color coded, so choosing sushi on a white plate means it costs 120yen, ranging up in price to black dishes at about 500yen or gold dishes at about 700yen. You stack up the dishes and at the end a waitress counts how many of each color you have and tallies up the bill. My favorite of this kind of kaiten zushi is Yamato.

The pictures in this post come from a different kind of restaurant. ALL dishes cost 105yen so you don't have to worry about which ones you choose. The only difference is some sushi has wasabi (Japanese horseradish) and some doesn't. That's why the stack of dishes has two different colors. In cheap restaurants, the chefs stay in a kitchen out the back and the belt has booths or counters on both sides. I guess some staff are trained chefs, but believe it or not, nowadays there are machines that squeeze out sushi rice balls. That is why the price is lower, and of course the fish is mostly smaller and not of the best quality. If you want to order something you use an intercom that is fitted to your booth.

But a new restaurant in Tsukuba, Hamazushi, has gone one step further. Each booth has a touch pad screen like you can find on an ATM at the bank. You simply press the picture of which sushi you want. When it comes the screen beeps to let you know you have to get it. Specially ordered sushi have numbers and are raised up on dishes so that no-one else grabs them!

And most restaurants have other dishes as well as sushi. Hamazushi has really good mango pudding.Finally, if you check the top picture again you can see a metal thing in the middle of the picture. This is an outlet for hot water to make green tea. You put powdered tea into a cup and press it against the black button and hot water comes out.

revolve - 回転する
top - こま
conveyor belt - 流れ作業用運搬ベルト
upmarket - 高級品市場向けの,高所得層向けの
color code - 色で塗り分ける
tally up - …を勘定［計算，総計］する

Chai

I'm a bit of a tea fanatic! I've always liked traditional 'English' tea - black tea served with milk and sugar, and drink one to three cups a day. And I'm kind of fussy about tea, so if I come to your house, be sure to make good quality strong tea then add full cream milk :)

Actually, I'm probably addicted to tea because if I can't drink it for a few days, I begin to really crave it. Of course I always have tea (several kinds!) at my house, but my parents in law only have green tea. After a few days I go to a convenience store to buy tea bags .... I don't care if I don't have coffee for a few weeks, but I MUST have tea!

Australians think it is weird but I also like cold tea. I often used to let a cup of tea go cold so I could drink it later and my family members would almost always try to tip it down the sink. I was so surprised when I came to Japan and found that cold tea with milk is sold in bottles! Wow! I like the Kirin brand but it is a little too sweet. Another nice tea is by Lipton and is carbonated.

Another thing I discovered in Japan is 'royal milk tea' or 'tea au lait'. It is made by simmering tea leaves or bags in some hot water, then adding milk and bringing the mix to the boil again. I'm sure most people know about coffee milk but I had never heard of 'royal milk tea'. Now I love it and make it quite often.

My latest discovery is Chai I can make at home. I always choose chai when I go to Indian restaurants but could never make the same taste at home. But a few weeks ago I found 'tea marsala' spice powder at New Mira. It has spices like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, black pepper, cardamom and bay. You can add it to regular tea or for a richer taste, to 'royal milk tea'.

Wonders of Nature

My favorite book is 'The Pillow Book' (Makura no Shoshi) by Sei Shonagon. Someday I'll write about it in more detail, but basically it was the journal of a court lady in the Japanese Imperial Household more than 1000 years ago. She had a wonderful dry wit and quite a sharp tongue!

One story I remember well is the tale of a 'Snow Mountain'. After an unusually heavy snowfall in old Kyo (now Kyoto), the ladies and children made a snow mountain. The women then bet how long it would take for the mountain to melt. Shonagon decided a date quite far into the future and the other ladies laughed saying it would surely be gone by then. It seems the ladies checked the slowing dwindling mountain every day, and day by day the other ladies lost the bet. Finally the day that Shonagan guessed drew near and she was excited to win the game. The night before there was still quite a lot of snow left, however on the date she guessed, she went outside to find the mountain gone. The other ladies laughed and said she lost the game, too.

In the end Shonagon found the truth that the other ladies decided to play a trick on her and asked some men to trample on the mountain and remove it! Whether out of spite or just in fun, it seemed the other ladies couldn't stand that Shonagon would win the game.

Remember more than two weeks ago I wrote about my snow bear and my husband's snow man? If you go back in this blog you can see pictures. Well, like Shongon's mountain, my creation has refused to disappear! We have had warm days and even two days of rain, but a small mound remains. It is a pity, but there is nothing left of the snowman. I am betting that some of my bear will still be there on Saturday (the day after tomorrow) which will make it 3 weeks since the snow fall. In the picture you can see what remained this morning. It was really windy today so now about half has melted. And tomorrow will be warmer. Hmmm.

Lastly, look at this wonderful ice crystal I found in the ground. I never saw these in Australia. They can grow to a few centimeters around here and it is fun to stamp on them and listen to them crunch! I am not sure, but maybe they are called 'koori bashira' in Japanese. (ice pillars)

'Most Confusing' Award

The winner of the 'Most Confusing City' award has to go to Mito in Ibaraki!

Yesterday I had to attend a meeting in Mito and unfortunately public transport wasn't an option because neither the bus nor train timetables matched my meeting time. After thinking about it for a week or so, I decided to drive and carefully checked maps for the best route. I found that I only had to take one main road after exiting the highway, then turn right into the street where the meeting was being held.

Everything went okay until that final right turn. NO TURNING RIGHT! Oooh. Okay so go another block. OH NO!!! It was a trunk road with no exits and it lead in a big loop around to Kairakuen Park. It took almost 30 minutes to get back again!

Why? Well, Mito is an old city so the planning was good a few centuries ago. Now it is a maze of one way streets, narrow streets, bad drivers, weird directions and to make matters worse, construction! It only took 40 minutes on the highway from Tsukuba to Mito, but 30 minutes to find my way to the Mito International Association building! :(

Thank you so much to the nice hair stylist who came running outside when I parked in front of his salon. Actually, I must admit he probably ran outside because I just turned the wrong way down a one way street. But I only went 3 meters to park in front of the salon. Luckily he was kind and sent me in the right direction.

Am I going to drive to Mito ever again? NO I DON'T THINK SO!!!!!

Lunch was really yummy though! Despite it being very old, the sushi restaurant on the top floor of the old Keisei Department building had great rice topped with raw salmon.

Bean's Throwing Day

Today is 'Setsubun' the dividing day between seasons in the ancient calendar. You can read all about it at a different blog:
http://worldkigodatabase.blogspot.com/2006/07/setsubun-festival-february-3.html

Basically, you throw roasted soy beans and shout 'Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi'. (Out with the devil/demon and in with good fortune.) Then you get to eat as many beans as you are years old. I got a mask from the supermarket, but it looks more like a cat than a demon!

Another tradition that seems to be more modern is eating really big sushi rolls. Check them out in the picture!

Spring is here? (Oops, it's gone again)

I've been really busy the past few days, so I felt really happy when the weather started to get warmer. In fact, this morning was so warm, the air was so fresh and clear, and the view of Mt. Tsukuba was so nice, that I was in a great mood by the time I got to work :)

And yesterday had another hint of spring - in the morning I heard "Ken, ken, ken", the harsh cries of a male pheasant. (The other sound they make is kind of like "took took took"!) I don't know why, but the male near my house always cries in a group of 3 notes! And I don't know if it is the male or female or both that go "took" but they do it for quite a long time. Pheasant conversation perhaps???

They are quite shy birds and while I hear them, I rarely glimpse them. But yesterday I saw one right across from my house - it seemed to be looking for worms or something near a bamboo grove, and quickly darted into the undergrowth when I approached. I am not sure what it was because it wasn't an adult male, nor an adult female. My guess is it was one of the 3 babies that were around last year and that it is a juvenile male.

The father bird is really beautiful (I saw him once last spring) but the mother is a boring brown color. Sorry, I'm not good at birdwatching (I don't like waiting around, nor lurking in bushes waiting for birds to appear) so I couldn't get my own picture. This picture is one I found from the Internet. And the link will let you listen to the cries of a male bird. http://www.ne.jp/asahi/qpon/b/tori/kiji/kiji_wav.htm

Anyway, after this nice burst of spring, it has suddenly become colder and now this evening is back to winter. Ah, I guess I'll have to wait another month or two for really nice days.

Latin Folk Music

Last night there was a Latin folk music performance at G-Clef cafe near my house. The music was from various Latin countries and the musicians had several different instruments. In the pictures you can see:

Kena flutes
Panpipe
Charango (5 stringed lute)
Classic guitar
Latin drum, with fur instead of skin

On Feb 19th there is going to be another Latin folk concert by a different group. I saw them last time they were at G-clef and thought it was one of the best musical performances I have ever seen. The music was so passionate and vibrant that I have been waiting for a chance to re-experience it. Unfortunately, I am going to be away that weekend, but I REALLY recommend that you go. There are only 5 tickets left (900 for admission and one drink) so hurry!

Wonderfully relaxing .......

I went to a hair salon today. A bit unusual because I usually work weekdays so can only have appointments on weekends.

I LOVE going to a salon and if I were rich, I'd go every week! Now I only go once every 6 - 8 weeks (not rich yet!). Actually, I should say that I love JAPANESE hair salons. And yes, there is a difference!

So why do I like Japanese salons? Because of the wonderful service. The part I especially like is shampooing after a hair color. Today was a perfect 20 or more minutes of washing twice, conditioning, followed up by a head, neck and shoulder massage. The washing part is really nice and like a scalp massage. By the time all this finished, I was so wonderfully relaxed and sleepy that I didn't want to leave!

I don't know why other countries don't have this kind of treatment for customers. Maybe it is because the chairs aren't so comfortable so your neck would be stiff if you spent so long at the basin. But on that topic, why DON'T Australian salons have those nice lay-back chairs like dentist chairs? Most are just regular chairs so you have to squish down and crick your neck back. Not nice.

I think the perfect experience would be a hair salon attached to a private esthetic salon. Imagine having a body massage, followed by a wonderful hair treatment! I'd want a bed too, so I could take a nap afterwards. Hmmm, I'd better start saving money!

By the way, you can see my salon here in English or Japanese -->

http://www.j-cool-japan.com/

Warm Feet

Nowadays we have a lot of new technology but sometimes old fashioned ideas are best.

All Japanese people should know what the orange thing in the picture is, but if you are not Japanese, can you guess? This thing looks very different in Australia and I guess not so many people use it now...

Have you guessed? It's a hot water bottle! Australian ones are flat and made out of rubber and sadly they get cold pretty quickly. This Japanese one is made out of special heavy duty plastic and stays quite hot of most of the night. I put it down the bottom of my futon to keep my feet warm. Actually, the water is still warm enough the next morning and I can use it to melt the ice on my car windscreen. Saves water and gas!

You can still buy metal hot water bottles in Japan but most are now plastic. Mine is a basic one that I bought cheaply at a pharmacy but you can get cute animal shapes or doughnut shaped ones. The doughnut ones keep the water in the middle and the outside ring doesn't get hot. These can be used for babies or small children.

One thing you should keep in mind with a 'hot' hot water bottle is that you can get burns from a low heat applied for a long time. So make sure the water isn't super hot and that you wrap the bottle in a towel as well as a cover.

I use this orange one in my futon every night but when I worked alone from home, I used to use it in the day too! I would put it under my desk and put my feet on it. If I dressed warmly and used the bottle, then I didn't need to use an airconditioner or heater. Very frugal! However, now I have to use an airconditioner - I don't think students at my school would be very impressed if I said "No heating, just hot water bottles!"

frugal - 質素な

Blueberry Cake

Here is an easy recipe for a basic rich cake batter.

1. 100g of butter beaten until white.
2. Add 90g of sugar and beat until creamy.
3. Add in two eggs, one at a time. Beat.
4. Mix in 2T of milk.
5. Combine 120g of plain flour and 1/2t of baking powder. Stir into batter.
6. Bake in 180 degree oven for 40 minutes.

Blueberry Cake (pictured)
Soak dry blueberries in a little hot water until they get soft.

Add a little vanilla after Step 2.
Add the blueberries after Step 4.

(You can use any dry fruit instead of blueberries. Chopped dry apricot is great and I swapped brandy for the vanilla. )

Coffee Cake
Add 1 1/2T of instant coffee to the milk before mixing.

I found the basic recipe in an Orange Page cooking magazine (2003 Oct 17). Australian cakes usually only have one egg and are cooked for 30 minutes or so.

Exhausted

I pay to go swimming but cleaning up snow is by far better exercise! And it is free!!!

My husband and I spent a few hours this morning and this afternoon trying to clear the snow and ice from our driveway, in front of our house, and the road through the rice fields. The rice field road is the best route to take because most of the snow had melted. We just had to clear 50m or so.

I am guessing the other road I always use near my house is going to be frozen snow and ice for the next week or more. Ah, this house is so cool in the summer because we are between woods and fields, but no sun penetrates the woods. It is literally freezing in winter!!!

Scooping up snow and trying to scrape ice of the road was such hard work! Total body workout! I'm exhausted ...

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!

A Smile

Yesterday traditional poems created by Imperial family members were read out at a special ceremony in Tokyo. Each year the theme changes and this year it was 'smile/laugh'.

I read the English translations in the newspaper today and Princess Masako's poem was lovely. She wrote about her daughter playing with other children:

When one in the circle laughs,
So does another,
And the children's laughter
Spreads more and more


I think the princess has captured the innocent beauty of children all around the world. Someday her daughter might become the Empress of Japan, but in fact, Princess Aiko's spirit is the same as the poorest child.

It is such a pity that we lose such joy and innocence as we grow older...

Minus Four Degrees!

I'm glad I'm not a plant! Nights are so cold lately that most of the pot plants in my garden are frozen! Did you know that pansies can freeze every night, thaw in the day, and still be alive? I wonder if people can ever be frozen and brought back to life?

Yesterday was the first snow of the season in Tsukuba. My garden looked lovely covered in snow but I had to go to work before 7am so I didn't have time to take any pictures. (The pictures here are frost, not snow.) Actually, I was really worried because there was quite a lot of snow near my house and my car doesn't have snow tires. I drove at about 20km an hour for the first 300m, but when I got out of the woods surrounding my house, I found that the roads had no snow. Closer to the city center there was very little snow anywhere and light rain later in the morning meant it all melted. What a pity - I didn't get a chance to make a snowman! Next time I hope it snows on a weekend not a working day.


Actually, one reason I like living in the Kanto area (Tokyo and the prefectures surrounding it) is that the weather in winter is usually fine. Very cold, but sunny! Winter back in my hometown in Australia was depressing. Cold (not as cold as here though) and mostly rainy or cloudy. I really like the cold, crisp and very clear air here in winter. Mt Tsukuba looks lovely this season - a single blue mountain with twin peaks.

The only problem with the lovely clear air is that the humidity level is so low that my skin dries out too quickly. Ironic that in June/July I have to use a de-humidifier to keep mold at bay, but this season I use a humidifier so my skin doesn't look like a raisin ...

Andrea

at bay - (keep mold away) {The dictionary didn't have a good translation for this.}

Manners

Do you have good manners? I hope so. I really hate people with bad manners!

For example, right now I am so angry about the lazy people who park on the road near my office. Not just on one side, but on BOTH sides so it is almost impossible to drive down that road. Why do they do it? Because they are too lazy to use the carpark of the liquor shop they want to go to. Hey, just drive 5 meters around the corner, won't you!!!!! Not only is it bad manners, it is outright dangerous - I've seen so many near-accidents that I have lost count how many. I wish the police would come and give all the bad mannered parkers traffic tickets ....

Another thing I HATE is when I see sportsmen spitting. (I rarely see women athletes spit - maybe just marathon runners sometimes.) I think it is really disgusting so I was happy to see an article about this subject on the BBC website today. It seems some people are campaigning to make footballers stop spitting. Yay! --> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/4594052.stm

Sadly there was another article about manners in the BBC today, too. -->
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4245754.stm

Are our manners so bad these days? According to the article modern Brits have bad manners but Americans are better behaved. True??? I wonder about Australians? The article says that Japanese people have very good manners. Hah hah! Not any more!

Is complaining bad mannered? Maybe I am bad too ....