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 ....

Seven Herbs and Rice Cakes

Today is Jan 7th - the traditional day to eat the seven herbs of spring. The 5 herbs plus two root vegetables (Japanese daikon radish and Japanese kabu turnip) are chopped in small pieces and added to rice gruel.


Gruel is rice that is cooked in over double the amount of water used for steamed rice. This dish is called 'nanagusa-gayu' -- seven herbs gruel, and is eaten to bring luck for a healthy year.



Before I showed you round rice cakes that my mother in law sent from Kagoshima, and today I got square cakes from Mr. T. Thank you! Some regions in Japan shape the freshly pounded rice into balls which flatten as they dry. Other areas spread the hot pounded rice into containers then cut it into rectangular cakes. My MIL makes mochi rice cakes with a machine, but these square ones were made the traditional way - pounding steamed rice in a huge wooden bowl with a giant wooden mallet. I think the handmade type is more delicious. If you check the picture carefully, you can still see grains. I grilled them and they're ready when they puff up. Mochi can be eaten with many different toppings, etc, but today we dipped them in soy sauce mixed with sugar.









Very healthy lunch, followed by green tea!

'Real' sushi?!

When I was talking to my sister on New Year's Day, she said she wanted to eat some sushi. It seems it is really popular in Australia nowadays. But actually when we talked more, she said she likes sushi that doesn't have raw fish!

Today's Japan Times newspaper has a really interesting article about the popularity of sushi in Australia. The story mostly focuses on Sydney, so I don't know if you can find 'new' sushi in other cities. --> http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20060107f4.htm

How about me? I LOVE sushi and have lots of favorite ones: scallops, salmon, salmon roe, horse mackerel ... in fact, most sushi! I eat it 2 or 3 times a month. Sometimes my husband makes it at home but he is a bit heavy handed with the wasabi!


A

scallop - ホタテガイ
salmon - サケ
salmon roe - イクラ
horse mackeral - アジ
heavy handed - (he uses too much wasabi) 苛酷な, {高圧的な, 無器用な}

Lucky Lion-dogs

Look at this cute pair! They are 'shisa' from the Okinawa Islands, the western-most prefecture in Japan.

I received them as a gift, along with some beautiful handmade glasses. Thank you so much N! :) Such a lovely surprise for the beginning of the year.

Shisa are lion dogs that probably originated in China. You can read all about them at this website --> http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/6330/Shisa.html

I put my new little pets in the genkan 'entrance room'. I hope they will protect my house and bring me good luck!

A

New Year's Prayer

Today my husband and I went for 'Hatsumode' the first prayer of the New Year.

Lot's of people go on Jan 1, or even just after midnight, but I think it's too crowded then. When we are in Kagoshima, we do go to the local temple just before midnight.

Anyway, this morning we were up bright and early to get to Mt Tsukuba before the crowds. Bit of a shock when I went outside and found the car covered with a layer of frozen rain! The whole car looked like a cake covered with white icing! Raindrops had flowed down the sides of the car and melted in place. This was the first time this winter it was so bad. Took a while to get all the ice off ...

We got to Mt Tsukuba about 9am. Thankfully the road wasn't busy at all so it was a smooth drive. We only had to wait 5 minutes or so to get a parking space. {As an aside, did you know that from Feb 1, the big free parking area on Mt Tsukuba that belongs to Tsukuba City is not going to be free any longer? There is a sign that says it will cost 500 yen from next month. Hmm.}

We went up to the shrine, put our old charms into a fire (this is what happens to old ones), put a 5 yen coin into the offering box in front of the main shrine and did a simple prayer, then went over to the shrine window to ask for a special prayer inside. This is the third year to go inside.

It is a bit hard to explain, but in the main building is a large room that is in front of the main alter where the god resides. You go in there and one priest beats a very large Japanese drum and then a head priest prays for various things. (Categories the visitors have asked for.) As he prays he waves about a wand-like stick that has shrine papers on the end. You get a small branch of 'sakaki' (sacred tree) which you present to the alter with a personal prayer. Finally the shrine maidens hand out tablets of decorated wood that have your name on them. These are charms that you display in your house for luck.

As well as these ones, we bought a few other small charms for different things. The arrow is for the house, and the little dog figure is for this year - the Chinese Year of the Dog. I was born under the dog sign so I wanted to get one. He's really cute and hopefully he brings luck! :)

I heard you are not supposed to take pictures inside of a shrine, nor take direct pictures of an open alter, so I was a bit surprised to see a cameraman with a video camera today. He said he was from the local cable TV station and that we'd be on TV next Monday. Famous in 2006! Actually the main alter was over to the side and covered with a curtain, so I guess it was okay. When we married, the alter at Kashima Shrine was open and we couldn't take pictures.

It was lucky we went so early today because as we left there was a huge line of cars to more than half way down the mountain!

So that is Japanese New Year all wrapped up! Just a few days left and it is back to work ...

A

Genius!

Hah hah, I'm a genius! :)

I have nothing to do and I don't want to work on New Year's Day, so this evening I've been playing with the computer.

For a long time I wanted to know why some websites have a little icon that pops up when you add that site to 'Favorites' in Internet Explorer. I wanted a cool little icon thing! So tonight I searched the Internet to find how to do it.

It took a while to work it out and then to make it but YAY - success! Go put 'Real English' in your favorites and see what happens. And if you drag the icon onto your desktop, you'll get a big RE icon. And it will appear next to the URL in the Explorer Bar. Hah!

A

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu!

I hope the start of 2006 has been wonderful where-ever you are :) It is a chilly 6 degrees right now, but my sister told me Sydney is sweltering at about 43 degrees. Ah, which is better: freezing or boiling?!

I woke up at about 8am this morning and started to make the broth for Ozoni soup. I boiled some chicken pieces, took the bones out, added in flower shaped slices of carrot, green beans, grilled pieces of rice cake, pink and white fish cake, Japanese leek, and finally seasoned the soup with a little soy sauce, mirin and sake. The final touch was mitsuba (trefoil) leaves.

Next came setting out the Osechi Ryori (New Year food box) - it has two layers and because all the food is cooked, it can be eaten over two days. And then we added some sashimi (sliced raw fish) and some tsukudani (small fish and shrimp simmered in sweet sauce that can be kept for a few weeks). Finally, small glasses of ume (Japanese plum) liqueur, and "ta da!" New Year's Brunch! Well, kind of breakfast because it was only 9:30am. Hmm, I wonder why Japanese have the tradition to eat such heavy foods so early? I guess long ago it was kind of a once a year feast.

So we ate a little and then put the food box away again. It will be lunch AND dinner as well!

Not much to do today as we aren't going to visit a shrine so early. The postman just came and brought nenjajou (New Year greeting cards). Sending cards is another tradition for New Year, kind of like Australians send Christmas cards. The big difference is that the post office saves up all the cards and delivers them ALL on Jan 1. I'm amazed that the post office can usually find the correct recipient, even if the address is really strange. Go Japan Post!!!

The top card you can see is the one I made to send out this year. Cards follow the Chinese Horoscope, so 2006 is the Year of the Dog.