It's been a while since I've posted anything resembling a recipe, so I'm going to fit one more in before we finish out the year.
Before that, I would like to apologize for our lack of a Christmas post. I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas! Ours was really nice. Nat had to work during the day, but we hosted a potluck with our English conversation group for dinner. Nat made meatballs and her pizza bread. I made my tomato bisque, with some minor alterations (addition of some finely chopped mushrooms and substitution of one Japanese leafy vegetable for another). We still haven't sent out our Christmas gifts or cards yet, but know that they will be on their way...someday.
There was lots of good food at the potluck. As always, there were leftovers, which are just as delicious!
The next few days were mostly lazy, on our part. Yesterday, I walked to the local convenience store to pay the internet bill. You can pay your bills at the convenience store! Isn't that convenient? You can also pay for Amazon.com orders at certain convenience stores and have packages shipped there as well. Amazing! I ended up being lazy the rest of yesterday and buying dinner at the convenience store as well.
Today, though, I made soup. It's somewhat my generic soup, but we had some kumquats on hand and I decided to use a few to flavor the broth (mmmmm!). As long as you keep a regular stock of tomatoes, onions, garlic and keep your spice cabinet stocked like I do, all you should need to leave home for this are the kumquats and some sort of base. If you don't keep some sort of soup base on hand, that is. If you do, all you'll need are the kumquats.
The result is a delicious bowl of soup!
Just Soup (Today's variation includes kumquats!) (feeds 3 or 4)
Ingredients:
1 Tomato, peeled, diced and mashed
1/2 a medium onion, chopped fine
3 cloves of garlic, chopped up however you like to chop up garlic (I like the bell-shape you get from slicing it, but Nat likes to smash it for stronger flavor. I go back and forth between methods. If you like, you can too!)
5 Kumquats, washed (if you have extra, you can eat them whole - peel and all)
Soup base (I used 2 chicken "consomme" cubes which are quite a bit like bouillon cubes, but you could easily replace it with a can of broth or some sort of vegetable soup base.)
Olive oil
Water
Salt - to taste
Pepper - to taste
Ground sage - to taste, though I think I used about a teaspoon...I think
1/2 tsp. Turmeric
Oregano - a couple dashes
A good pasta for soup (smaller pastas like orzo or alphabet noodles are best, but spaghetti or angel hair can work if you break the noodles down into small pieces before adding them to the soup)
Directions:
Make sure you're thinking loving, happy thoughts. This soup needs to be made with love, even if it's not in the ingredients list.
Peel two of your kumquats, mash and remove the seeds. Add the kumquat juice and pulp to your mashed tomato and set aside.
Saute your onion and garlic in olive oil until they start turning brown (I usually do this in my soup pot to cut down on dirty dishes).
Add mashed tomato and kumquat to the pot, stir a few times and start adding water. I usually use the adding water step as an opportunity to clean out my ingredient bowls and not waste the last bits (get the last of that delicious mashed tomato off the sides and into the soup!). I just fill up my pot to a reasonable level, but since there are several types of cooking pots out there, I doubt that is going to help you much. This recipe should make three bowls of soup, so use as much water as would fill three and a half bowls (to allow for evaporation and pasta absorption). You can always add more if necessary. If you are using a liquid soup base, use that much less water.
Bring to a boil.
Slice two crosses into each of the three kumquats you have left. The cuts should be just deep enough to cut beyond the peel and each cross should be on opposite sides of the fruit. Add these to the soup.
Add salt, pepper, sage, turmeric and oregano and let cook for about five minutes and taste the broth to see if you need to add anything. (I keep a small sauce dish on hand for this purpose).
After you have the flavor right, add your noodles and continue cooking until the noodles are tender.
Remove the three whole kumquats.
Serve and eat.
Do NOT spill all over the counter!
Okay, so you may spill it all over the counter if you really have to, but just remember that you're going to have to clean that mess up.
I didn't spill this soup, but last week's chicken noodle was almost a waste.
I shall leave you with a picture of Toshiko and me from our Christmas party. Toshiko's the one in Christmas socks.
Not incredibly heavily, but there's big flakes blowing around and it's starting to stick. I'm really happy about this. I hate cold weather, but if it has to be cold, I'd rather it be cold and snowy than cold and just BROWN.
However, I also have Not-So-Angelic elementary school to go to today.
They insist I have lunch with the students (which is cool) but today the classes I'm teaching are both after lunch. Before, I thought this meant I could have lunch here and go to elementary afterwards.
Nope.
They're expecting me today at lunch, which is at 12:20. That's cool. The thing that gets me is that the students have like an hour of time between lunch and fifth period, which starts at around 2:20? So instead of leaving at 2, I'm leaving at 12, eating lunch with the kids, and sitting like a rock in the teachers' room for an hour. Awesome.
A little while ago, the administrator of the elementary school called. I perked up my ears, since, because of the snow, most people have been like, "You're riding your bike to Iwataki-sho today? That's kind of dangerous, isn't it?" and I'm like, "Well, it's quicker than walking.." so I thought it would be something along those lines. For a moment I was like, "Awh, they're worrying about me! That's so sweet."
Turns out it was just a reminder for me to bring money for all the school lunches they have me eat with the kids.
So our first snow of the season fell yesterday morning. Our first slush fell the day before, but that doesn't count. There's not much of it out there, but it's still pretty.
It's also still falling (though it wasn't when I took that picture), so who knows how it will look later. I don't even know how it looks now. The windows are all fogged up.
Yup, snow. We were told to expect the first snow sometime around mid-December to mid-January. We were also told that a high count of stinkbugs supposedly foretells a lot of snow for the following winter. We had a lot of stinkbugs. Do you remember those pictures of our pet spider? Well, all those lumps in her web were stinkbugs.
Speaking of our darling Nephila (yes, we named her), she's gone. She disappeared some time ago, leaving a lonely web behind. She may have been knocked down by the particularly strong winds we had the week she vanished and decided to rebuild where she landed...or she could have been eaten by a bird. Who knows. She's gone.
We sort-of miss her.
...
Sort-of.
Anyway, two days ago (the day of the first slush of the season), I woke up earlier than I normally do and headed to the grocery store without checking the clock. I knew when I had woken up, roughly, and realized partway there that the store was likely not open for another while. As I approached the store, I noticed that it was not blaring music and the lights didn't appear to be on, so I promptly took the next turn and began an adventure! Lucky for you, I took my camera along.
Okay, so it wasn't so much of an adventure as an "Alex walks up a hill along a road he's never been on before and back down it," but still, I have pictures.
We shall start with this: the closest Buddhist temple to our apartment (at least I think it's the closest). The picture isn't actually the temple itself (at least, not the main building). The structure directly behind the tall stone with writing carved into it is just the entrance gate. The buildings to the right appear to be part of the temple compound, but the main building is that rooftop to the right. It doesn't really look as impressive as this picture, though, so don't worry that I never took a picture of it. Do you see the pond on the right? It has a tree hanging over it, held up with crutches. I'm assuming that it is a flowering tree because it fits with the Japanese sense of aesthetics...that and it doesn't look like a maple. I'll have to check back in the spring.
I continued on the road and it was abruptly rural. This is not to say that we don't live in a rural town, but we live in the town part of the rural town and most of where I need to walk is also in the town part. So, it was quite startling to suddenly find I had wandered into the rural part. It was the walking into it that made it startling, not that it was there. We'd ride past several rural locations while being driven from one event to another, so I knew the rural was there...it just took some more active presence to make me realize it.
Oh, right! Pictures!
So I did a terrible job of taking pictures of the actual farms, but I got some interesting pictures, nonetheless. Here's the edge of a bamboo grove near a farm and the farm's shed. Did you know that bamboo is actually a species of grass? Amazing! Just imagine mowing that every week! But, yes. Those trees which don't appear to be able to support their own weight are bamboo.
Next up, persimmons!
I apologize that the subject of the picture is so dark. I blame the lighting and the poor angle. But "up" was the only angle available to me (it was a tall tree on a hillside), so here it is. The persimmon tree is standing next to a palm tree. It's hard to tell, but they're waving hello. There are still a bunch of persimmons on the tree. They are much smaller than the persimmons we normally get in the grocery store, but you can sometimes buy small persimmons too.
Now, let's get a look at this hillside.
You can't really see it in the picture, but there's a dirt path (with the occasional bit of wooden stairway) zig-zagging its way up the hill. Most of the trees are cedars of one variety or another. There are some evergreens of other sorts mixed in as well. The hillside was rather pretty, though, so I just wanted to make sure that you had a chance to see it too.
I continued climbing until I came upon a road at the hill's crest. Across the road was one of the elementary schools Nat teaches at (she's teaching there today). I decided to turn around at this point and I saw the bay (if you look, you can see the Amanohashidate). Turns out it wasn't much of a walk, and the rural bit I had encountered was only a tiny bit of winding, hillside road that Nat bikes up every Friday, but I still enjoyed it. Seeing the bay, though, made me decide that I wanted to walk by the sea. So, I meandered back down the hill. By the time I was nearing the road to the sea, a fine mist of snow pieces (there was no way anyone could really call it "snow") began to fall. As I approached, I noticed that the road to the sea had a police barricade. I decided that it was a bad time to visit the sea when a fire truck joined the police. So, I wandered through some back streets for a while, noticed a few stores I had never seen before and eventually made my way to the clock-on-a-signpost to check the time. The grocery store had just opened! I bought my groceries and went home. Later that day, the mist of snow pieces turned into a downpour of slush...which Nat had to bike home in. Poor Nat!
This temporary filling is weirding me out. It's kind of made of foam or something and I keep messing with it. rawr. I'll be glad when the real one is in after the 25th.
We had a party on Sunday night. Alex played Santa; a bunch of ALTs and Japanese people came. Toshiko gave us a ride (thank you Toshiko!) and it was a ton of fun. Alex made deviled (angeled?) eggs and I made pizza bread, my new favorite pizza-type recipe since pizza dip.
...I should make pizza dip.
Drooling aside.
I got the cutest Snoopy mug!! It comes with a little matching teaspoon! I almost wanted to send it home to Mom but I LOVE IT SO MUCH. MINE. Maybe I'll give it to her when I come home. :)
Our Christmas presents are going to be kind of late. In all honesty, it's really hard to buy presents sometimes, simply because we don't have a car and have to rely on other people to get to places like Mipple (our local department store) in order to do our shopping. I've got a few things for a few people, but I really want to finish out before we do our sending.
If anyone's got anything specific they want, please comment and we'll see what we can do!
I really want to take another trip to Kyoto for shopping and stuff since I think I'm pretty used to the city now, and there's a whole lot of cool things I can pick up there. But every weekend has had something pop up to make it impossible for us to go. Grrrrr.
Though maybe I can find some good stickers in Kyoto, too. I brought some awesome stickers from the dollar store for my classes when I first came here and now I'm almost out of them. They're really weird things like sparkly, strangely colored vegetables. (green carrots, blue pumpkins, purple mushrooms and the like.) The kids just adore them, and the ones here in Japan are cutesy and all but they lack that ridiculous American flavor. Oh well.
We're going to be having another party on the night of the 25th for our English conversation members. The thing that stinks is...I HAVE TO WORK! T____T (that's a crying face). Because the school was closed for so long due to Swine Flu, it cuts into winter vacation. So...work for me. :(
My mom sent me a package with some tootsie rolls in it, and I was like "Eh I haven't had a tootsie roll in forever" and tossed it in my mouth.
Then I was like "*crunch crunch crunch* ...Huh...did I hit a sugar deposit or something? Oh well."
Next thing I know there's this big GAP out of the side of my tooth.
Now, granted, it was a tooth (the ONLY tooth) that I had a cavity in a long time ago. A part of the side broke off, absorbed by the horrible goo monster that was the tootsie roll, and you could see the filling right down the middle and everything. I was like "welp."
This happened last night. Today I went to the dentist. Because you can do that in Japan.
The dentist cheerfully informed me that the filling was made of (either silver or mercury -- I'm hoping he meant silver because if it were mercury I'd be seeing wallbunnies and they'd be telling me to kill people with a teapot launcher) and that this was not good for my body or my teeth and wondered if I would rather they just take the filling out and replace it with the white one. I was like "sure."
So they --
-replaced my filling. -fixed my tooth. -cleaned my teeth.
Now, the way Japanese health insurance is, you have a 30% copay. I was all like "doom, doom, doom" because American health care is ...so...bloody...expensive...
I paid about 30 bucks.
For all that! I couldn't believe it. It blew my mind more than when we discovered the microwave could have metal in it without exploding.
I go back on the 26th for a follow-up, but for now I'm just amazed at how quickly and cheaply this worked out.
As Alex said, I've been SUPER busy last week. I've got a student who enjoys inviting himself over to play video games now, and this Sunday he proclaimed that he (and his younger brother, who I teach at elementary school) would be coming over every Sunday from now on. I was like, "Erm. I...might be busy...some weeks." Oi.
Last Tuesday and Thursday I went to Kyoto for an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher - basically we crazy foreigners teaching in Japan) conference with Ms. Matsuda, one of the English teachers here. We had a ton of fun - the conference was illuminating (though some of the speakers spoke TOO FAST for the Japanese teachers!! Holy cow, slow down!) and we got to hang out and shop in Kyoto after it was over.
Shijo-dori and Kawaramachi-dori, two of the huge shopping streets, are definitely places I want to take anyone who decides to visit us. The bus system of Kyoto is intensive as well, but you can get an all-day pass for 500 yen - a little more than five dollars. Kyoto is also one of the most historically significant cities in Japan, as it was the old capital before it was moved to Tokyo. So it has a ton of beautiful gardens and castles and pagodas. HINT HINT. COME VISIT US. I WILL SHOW YOU A GOOD TIME.
Also I found a shop that sells import goods, like.. (gasp) CHERRY COKE and tortillas!! I know tortillas are easy to make, but I haven't done it yet and when I saw them I freaked out. They also had feta there. I bought some for Alex. It was epic.
So on the train home I had Subway (another find -- I had a roasted chicken and avocado sub) and Cherry Coke for dinner. Mmmmmmm....I needed that.
Then, Thursday and Friday I had elementary school to go to. I go to the Angelic School every other Thursday and the Demonic School every Friday.
This particular Thursday and Friday I was given a very clear-cut example of the differences between the two schools. I was teaching both sets of students about Christmas. I'm not allowed to talk too much about Christian stuff, since they ARE public schools, but I focused on the family aspect of it instead of being like, "You get lots of cool stuff and it's awesome!"
Angelic School: A tiny first-grade girl approached me after the lesson and asked me in a sweet voice, "Natalie-sensei, do you know about Jesus? <3" I almost cried. It was the most precious thing in the world.
Somewhat Less Angelic School: The kids got into two seperate fistfights while making Christmas cards. Before lunch, a tiny first-grade girl approached me and asked me in a sweet voice, "Natalie-sensei, why are you so fat?"
For starters, we both apologize for not posting last week. Nat was busy and I was lazy. We do have some photos of a couple odd things we found in the stores, so I shall share our experiences with you.
First up, chocolate-covered potato chips. I saw these while in the check-out lane at the grocery store. I was amused. The potato chips are Pringles-style and are coated on one side with chocolate. The same sort of chocolate you'd coat a pretzel with. In a way, they did taste like chocolate covered pretzels with a lingering hint of "WHAT ON EARTH DID YOU DO TO MY PRINGLES?"
Nevertheless, we found it difficult to stop eating them (until they were gone and by then we no longer had a choice). I believe Potattcho is the brand of chips (to rival Pringles). I'm not sure I would suggest these, but they were definitely different.
I Love Vegi is really most remarkable because of its name. At least it is to me. We have mixed fruit/vegetable juices in America, so this doesn't come as a huge surprise. Some Japanese brands even show up in the US sometimes. If you ever see Kagome vegetable juices in your grocery store, those are Japanese.
So far, we've only been able to get this brand from vending machines. It's fairly sweet but, from what we've been able to read, it is only sweetened by the fruit juices in it. What's in it, do you ask? Why, I shall tell you!
I numbered the ingredients on the can so that you can see the ingredient list yourself and follow along.
Orange
Apple
Grape
Banana
Peach
Lemon
Carrot
Tomato
Spinach
Moroheiya (also known as Jute...not well known in the USA either way)
Cabbage
Celery
Lettuce
Broccoli Sprouts
Next up is our blueberry-grape dessert vinegar...to drink.
When I first bought this, I thought, "Oh! How novel! Vinegar made from blueberries! Well, I've seen vinegar made from champagne, roses, violets, pomegranates, raspberries and, well, lots of things. This shouldn't be any different! I shall make a vinaigrette!"
I did, in fact, make a vinaigrette and a small salad for my lunch on the day I bought this. It was a mistake. It was far too sweet for a normal vinegar, so I realized that this had some sort of special purpose.
After some research, I found that blueberry-grape vinegar was one of several sweet, fruity vinegars that are a current beverage fad in Japan. The vinegar is mixed with water (our particular vinegar-water ratio is one part vinegar to four parts water) and imbibed. I tried it and it actually tasted pretty good. It tastes like juice with a pleasant tang. I'm not entirely certain it's healthy to be consuming too much of this too often, though. It is still vinegar, after all. So, one drink every few days...and not along with a salad dressed with a vinaigrette.
Last, we have a picture from our Thanksgiving meal.
This is Peter Corn. It is pre-cooked cob corn in a vacuum-sealed bag. It is named Peter. We ate him. He was delicious.
The majority of corn in Japan comes from the northern island, Hokkaido. Wheat, dairy and beef also tend to come from Hokkaido. That's because these things just grow better there. However, since Hokkaido tends to have weather patterns similar to Michigan, the growing season is really short, so corn is more and more difficult to come by in the winter and spring. There will always be some corn coming in from some mystery location that is always sunny (which is sometimes Australia), just not as much.
The growing season here...I'm not sure. Some of the crops look like they just planted new rice plants last month, but I'm not sure. The camellias (Camellia sasanqua) did just start blooming around the beginning of November and are still going, though. They're very pretty. I've been told that one house (or maybe it was a shrine) has a camellia festival in the spring, though those camellias are a different kind (Camellia japonica). The two types of camellias are considered completely different flowers by the Japanese. The autumn camellias are known as "sazanka" and the spring camellias are known as "tsubaki".
As American Thanksgiving comes to a close in America (it's already after noon on the day after here), I am finally getting around to typing a post. We've been busy with one thing or another, so I'll try to get you all updated.
Before that, here's our Thanksgiving dinner:
We don't get turkeys in Japan (unless we're looking to order one to be delivered) and even if we did, we don't really have the microwave space to cook it in. We did learn how to use our microwave as an oven, though. Apparently, you can put metal in the microwave when using the oven settings.
Our meal consisted of chicken, corn on the cob (from Hokkaido, Japan's northern-most island...where all the wheat, corn and cows grow), a butter croissant and mashed potatoes with creamy chicken-mushroom dressing.
It was just the two of us, so this was more than enough food. After dinner, Toshiko visited for tea and sweets.
Monday was Japanese Labor Thanksgiving. It's not a major holiday, but Nat had the day off. One of her coworkers (who also happens to be our neighbor) went fishing earlier in the day and offered some of his fish to us. The three near-identical looking fish are horse mackerel and the reddish one is sea bream. The sea bream's fins are spiny and it has sharp teeth.
This was my first time to clean or fillet a fish. I think I did pretty well, but I know I could have done a lot better. The first day, we ate two of the mackerel. I made a mixture of yellow miso paste, crushed garlic, grated ginger and sake. I spread the mixture over the fillets and pan fried them for a couple minutes, flipped 'em, fried them for a minute more and they were done! Mmmm!
The next day, we ate the other two fish. This time, I rubbed salt, pepper, paprika and thyme into the fillets and marinated them in olive oil and sake (white wine would work just as well, but all we had in the house was red wine and sake). They only need to marinade for half an hour to an hour. If you have other things to prepare for the meal, just let them marinate while you get everything else ready. Chop up half an onion and some garlic and start frying them in some alive oil. Place the fillets on top of the garlic and onions, skin-side down. Fry for two to three minutes and flip for one last minute. Delicious.
Sunday, we went hiking to see a waterfall near Miyazu with some of the English conversation group members. I'm sorry to say we forgot to bring our camera, so you won't be able to see how awesome it was (unless Nat gets the pictures off of her cell phone). Afterward, we went to lunch and did some shopping.
Saturday (yes, I'm taking you backward through time), Nat made spaghetti carbonara and we invited another one of Nat's coworkers (also our neighbor) over for dinner and movies. I made garlic bread and a salad. We watched Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and Moulin Rouge.
I think that's all of the things that we haven't had a chance to tell you about yet. They're not huge events, but they're what's been keeping us busy for the past week. Tomorrow, we're going to see an exhibit of wood block prints. I'm excited.
Obviously, since American Thanksgiving isn't celebrated in Japan, Black Friday doesn't exist here, either. It also helps that Christmas isn't nearly as big of a holiday as it is in the west (though they do celebrate it...with KFC and cake, from what I'm told; apparently, western holidays are supposed to be celebrated with western food). I went shopping today just because I could do it without fear of being trampled or mugged in the parking lot. Be safe, everyone!
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and we are both very thankful for all of you!
Brrrrrrrrrrr. It's cold. It's getting to the point where I'm not a fan.
Last night I went out to the Lawson (our convenience store -- about a 20 minute bike ride away) to pay the internet bill. I felt a little safer this time than I did last time, but it still freaks me out. I stopped at the Komeri (housewares and garden store) and grabbed a garden spade for the strawberry SEEDLINGS (thanks Alex XD). I chatted with the cashier a little and she smiled and told me that the middle school was full of kids with colds, and to be careful. It's kind of nice being well-known in a small town.
We got our Playstation 2 from Alex's mom and our movies and games from my mom so now we are SET FOR WINTER. :) However, this is also a good opportunity to sort of elucidate on my specific brand of OCD. I have this...I mean...sometimes my room/desk/whatever is a huge mess, but when I have a collection of things in a space, like, a collection of CDs in a CD case, I HAVE to sort them in a logically sound fashion. So I spent about an hour sorting our case into - TV series, movies, anime TV series, anime movies, PS1 games, PS2 games, Gamecube games, and Wii games. Within those categories I subsorted into alphabetical order. I felt better after it was done.
So, now, when I get home, I smooch Alex, cuddle under the kotatsu, and pop in a game.
However, my OCD gets me here too. The strange thing is, if I have a list of things, or a sequence of things, even if the list was placed in a non-relevant order, I have to do them in that order. I started playing Chocobo's Dungeon because it was alphabetically the first of the PS1 games. The disc crapped out (typical) so now I'm playing Chrono Cross, which I've been meaning to play for EVER but finally am getting a chance to. Twitch, twitch. Must play in order...
I've got a headache today, but I'm holding out for the weekend -- three day weekend! Plus, I don't have my naughty shogakko (elementary) tomorrow! I only have the sweet angelic shogakko today. <3
Lately I've been having a ton of trouble waking up. I've got this habit of smacking the snooze button about four times before actually waking up and then zooming around the house, grabbing a piece of toast, and absolutely trucking to school on my bike in the span of ten or twenty minutes.
Last night, I went to bed late; around 12. I was a little worried about what would happen in the morning. My snooze duration is about 5 minutes long, so I set it to be 10 minutes instead.
The difference was incredible. My alarm went off at 7:00 as it usually does, and I smacked the snooze button. The next ten minutes, I was actually able to relax and wake myself up. It seems like when there's only five minutes I spend the whole five minutes frantically trying to relax, all the while knowing it's going to go off again any minute, but with ten minutes it actually seems like a fair amount of time to snooze. When I got up, I wasn't tired and didn't have to rush too much. It was amazing.
Sunday we had the cooking party with four ladies from Eikaiwa - Toshiko, Sanae, Mieko, and Keiko. We had a ton of fun. Toshiko and Mieko both brought salads, and Mieko also brought us some strawberry saplings! We'll have strawberries next year if I don't murder them horribly! I made spaghetti carbonara according to my mom's recipe. I want to make another batch of it soon and bring it to school for bento for a little while, since, amazingly, the six of us ate the whole pan of it (and believe me it makes a crapload of spaghetti). Of course, we were full as all, but...
The new student is really cute and sweet. Luckily her assistant teacher DOES speak English, and actually owns the import store in Omiya! She's super nice, too. The students are being really nice to the new student as well, so I'm happy about that - Japanese schools are known to have bullying problems sometimes....
So, you remember how I posted about the abundance of persimmons in our house? Maybe the post from less than a day ago about how I was trying to use up some of our persimmons? Or maybe the several recipes I've fabricated so that I can use up some persimmons?
We just got six more.
Don't get me wrong. I've learned to love persimmons rather quickly and I tend to wonder why I hated them so much as a child.
Luckily, we have a plan to use them all up before the weekend is out. Tomorrow, I shall make the persimmony rice pudding (again) and package it up to hand out to our English conversation group tomorrow night. Sunday, Nat's having some of the ladies over for a pasta lunch. The last of our persimmons will become fritters for dessert.
I fully expect to receive more persimmons on Sunday. It's the seasonal gift and, being a more rural community, everyone is related to at least one person with a persimmon tree. I was saving some seeds to see if I could start a persimmon bonsai. Maybe I should rethink this...
So, I had some corn starch kicking around and wanting something to do, so I did a quick mental inventory and decided that our autumnal infestation of persimmons might help. I also wanted some lunch, so you will be horrified to know that this is what I made for lunch: Deep-fried persimmon slices. As delicious as these are, I assure you that I do not plan on making a regular habit of this.
So, here's the recipe:
Persimmon Fritters (Another failure to have measurements)
Ingredients:
1 ripe Persimmon, peeled and sliced into thin wedges.
Corn starch (I don't know how much. Enough to coat the persimmon wedges at least twice. Also, if I mention flour at all in this recipe, I actually mean corn starch. I apologize in advance as I expect to make this mistake often.)
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Paprika (You might actually be able to leave this out, if you want. I've never been able to taste paprika so I just use it to add color....not that it added much.)
1/4 - 1/3 cup Sugar (I didn't measure it, really. But roughly this amount.)
A mild oil for frying in. (You'll need roughly two inches or more. I did this in a sauce pan because I was only frying up one persimmon and I didn't need anything larger.)
Equipment:
Cooking Chopsticks (extra big ones for nabbing things out of hot oil....or some tongs are good too. Whatever you prefer for cooking operations of this nature. Just be aware that you'll need it.)
A sauce pan (or a pot, wok or deep-frier; whichever you feel safest deep-frying in)
Ventilation (Not that this is a particular smokey recipe, but it's always safe to have around when you're cooking...especially if you choose to fry with olive oil)
A bowl - for the corn starch and the mixing and the things
A plate with a paper towel on it (or a similar setup so the fritters can cool and dry).
Instructions:
Mix all the dry ingredients (corn starch, sugar, salt, paprika) in a bowl.
Add the persimmon slices to the bowl and make sure they are thoroughly coated in the corn starch mixture and let sit for a couple minutes.
Start heating up the oil in a sauce pan.
The corn starch should have absorbed some juice from the persimmons, making them now look uncoated. Coat the persimmons a second time.
Once the oil is ready, start adding the persimmons one at a time. Make sure they still appear to be fully coated in the corn starch mixture before you add them to the oil
Let the persimmons cook until golden. This may be difficult to tell sometimes, as the outer crispy layer may sometimes look more pale than it actually is. Once a piece starts turning brown, it's just barely overdone (but still delicious, so not a problem). Judge each piece's done-ness individually.
As you remove the finished persimmons from the oil, place them on the paper-towel-covered plate or a cooling rack (over a paper towel) so that they can drain and cool (just a little...they're best when still warm, but not blisteringly hot).
Optional: If you like, you can roll these in a cinnamon-sugar mixture, sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top, or dust with powdered sugar. I haven't tried this yet, so I'm leaving the risk to you.
I'm ashamed to say that I ate them all. They were just so deliciously gooey on the inside and crispy on the outside. I need to make a new batch for Nat to try.
I was woken up this morning by the sound of elementary school students screaming my name in the street. It was kind of surreal. But, I did tell them where I lived, so I guess it's only natural. They've been getting a lot more genki lately, last week they kept poking me in the chest. o_O Weird.
This past week was kind of busy. Tuesday we had the English recitation. Neither of my students won, even though I think both of them should have at least placed - but my school brought home first place trophies in every category last year, so I think the judges might have wanted to spread it out a bit. Me and the other English teachers were cordial and mature about it in the contest, but as soon as we got back in the car all three of us got angry and were loudly proclaiming that it wasn't fair. :) The students weren't with us, obviously. Our third grade girl was heartbroken and sobbing, and our second grade girl was quietly disappointed. They both worked really, really hard.
But I had to wear a mask because it was the high school's turn to have Swine Flu, and that's where the recitation was held. XD So here's me in a mask. The Japanese really like wearing surgical masks for pretty much every reason conceivable, and Swine Flu is no exception. They also wear masks when they have colds, when other people have colds, when they travel, when they're around other people who traveled, if there's a sandstorm, if pretty much anything happens, if Godzilla is rampaging in the streets and kicking up dust, anything.
Additionally, one of the people we met at the Aberysthwyst (sp. whatevs) karaoke night....passed away. Her name was Kumiko Oda, and she was not much older than I am. She was a gamer, and we were really looking forward to getting together to play video games. It turns out she died of a heart attack in her sleep. Her mother didn't try to wake her up for a while, because she'd gone out the night previous and her mother thought she needed the sleep. It was really shocking.
Also, on that note, I just want to say something -- we had a friend back home pass away as well recently, Isaac Loughrige. He was a great kid and we would play together when we were young and living in Marshall. He was part of my brother's little cadre of neighborhood boys and is just unforgettable. He passed away of complications from Swine Flu a few weeks ago. So, if any of our friends from Crossroads read this, please pass on our condolences to the Loughrige family.
The teachers are all worrying because we're getting a new student at our school starting Monday. She's from the Philippines and doesn't speak any Japanese. She speaks some English and one of the Philippine indigenous languages, but no Japanese. They've hired an assistant for her who speaks Japanese (but notably not English or the Philippine language...brilliant) but mostly the other teachers are going to be relying on me and the other English teachers. This includes one of the English teachers who is really not confident in his own ability, and essentially begged me, if I don't have any other classes when she's in his class, to come and help him.
So I'm going to be a lot busier from here on out....
Jesus gave me buffalo wings while I was PMSing last week.
That was pretty much the best sentence I could ever have hoped to type in this blog.
I have something today. I don't know if this is an amazing something or a something that is just amusing, but it is a something. This something is azuki (sometimes spelled adzuki) bean Pepsi. Azuki beans are sweet red beans the Japanese use in a lot of desserts and snacks. It is one of the primary Japanese flavors for sweet things. In addition to the plethora of traditional foods containing the bean, the Japanese have azuki flavored ice cream, azuki cakes and now azuki Pepsi.
We also went to a potluck tonight. I made my persimmon rice pudding for it. This was partially inspired by an incident where one of Nat's students stole the camera to look at the pictures and a teacher asked about the pudding and asked to try some. I also realize that my usual potluck fall-back of fried eggplant (with skordalia) doesn't travel well. Luckily, we're still in the height of persimmon season, so this is the perfect food for a Japanese get-together.
I expressed, when I posted the recipe for this, that it may be wise to use more than one persimmon for the recipe. More persimmons is definitely a good idea. Since I had one on hand, I went to the store to pick up more. The only ones that were ripe enough were smaller persimmons, so I ended up using my one normal-sized persimmon and three more smaller ones (this would probably even out to three normal-sized persimmons or five small persimmons). Since I was in a bit of a hurry, I used the blender to mash them into goo.
The food at the potluck was delicious. There were more Americans present than Japanese. I had no idea what to expect, so I was actually a little surprised. It was fun, though.
When Nat and I started learning Japanese, we were jokingly warned to be careful if we were to ever order tacos in Japan. The reason for this is that "tako" is Japanese for octopus.
Today, I re-armed myself with octopus recipes and picked up a couple tentacles at our local grocery store. While you can buy octopus raw at some grocery stores in Japan, our store sells it pre-boiled, so you don't have to worry about pre-boiling it yourself (it can take a while). Also, it's much easier for the store to cut up an octopus that has already been cooked so that they can package it according to serving size (most people living by themselves will not be able to eat a whole octopus). The pre-cooked octopus at the store comes with one tentacle and a small piece of head per package.
The recipe I was following assumed that the cook would be using a raw octopus, so I still had to do some pre-boiling to get some of the juices of the octopus into the sauce and some of the seasonings into the meat, but that just made the octopus that much more tender. For those curious about the recipe, it's here.
It turned out really good! I accidentally misread the amount of cinnamon and doubled it, but that's what I get for reading the recipe from across the room. It was still good, though. This is definitely a recipe I'd be willing to repeat.
Tomorrow, we're probably going to eat mabo tofu from a boxed mix. Fridays are my easy meal days.
Today, I armed myself with new recipes and went to the grocery store. I was determined, today, to prepare some sort of seafood for dinner, be it octopus, clams, mackerel or ishitai (striped beakfish). Luckily, I had little choice in the matter, as most of the other aisles were still being stocked. There wasn't any ishitai (it's not one of the most common fishes we get here, but I see it in the grocery store once every few weeks). We can't get some of the ingredients for the octopus recipes I had on hand (dill or cloves) so I put that on hold until I can figure out some good substitutions. Mackerel was...well, I forgot my list of fish names written in kanji (the Chinese characters in the Japanese writing system), so I couldn't tell what fish was mackerel. We'll try this again some other time. Clams it was. I also managed to pick up a small bag of bay leaves. They were actually at the store this whole time, but I only just realized what they were. Part of the problem was that they were labeled in French, since the Japanese borrowed the French name of the herb (laurier). For those who don't know, a bay tree is also known as a laurel. I have been aware of the dual name of the bay/laurel for a long time, so I felt a little foolish that I hadn't realized what "laurier" was earlier. Especially since there was a picture of the leaves on the bag.
After dropping my groceries at home, I grabbed an umbrella (it's started to rain) and headed back out to go to our household goods store, Komeri. I picked up a cord for our kotatsu. A kotatsu is a low table with a heating element underneath. The top of the table is removable so that you can place a kotatsu blanket over the rest of the frame to keep the heat under the table. People then sit with their legs under the kotatsu to keep warm in the colder months. We have two of these. We didn't have any cords for either of them. So I picked one up and headed home. I would have bought two, but I wasn't sure if I had the right thing just yet.
On the way home, the sun was shining, and I tried a different route. Walking by the bay, I saw some flying fish jumping out of the water. It was pretty cool. I didn't have the camera with me (Nat had it for English recitation competition, which she may or may not write up a blog about later), but I have some pictures from the last time I was by the bay. Today was definitely more photogenic
When I got home, Nat was there! Yay! Apparently, today is some sort of holiday and her only duty at work was to attend the English recitation competition. So work was only a half-day!
Today's dinner was Japanese pumpkin cooked like acorn squash (that recipe with the brown sugar and butter and sometimes walnuts), clear soup with Japanese clams and sushi (if you get to the grocery store early, you can buy whole, uncut sushi rolls for much cheaper than the pre-cut ones).
For the soup, I basically used the recipe by Setsuko Yoshizuka at About.com, except I used green onion for the "garnish" and added some grated myoga. Mmmm! I spilled a little too much sake in it, but it was still pretty good.
For those wondering what myoga is, it's this stuff to the left, here. It's the sort of flower bud/sprout thing. Not the clams. It's sometimes called myoga ginger or Japanese wild ginger. I don't know if it's actually related to ginger or not. For the soup, I grated it really fine and let it simmer in the broth.
Supposedly, much of the myoga plant is toxic, but this part is considered safe. Still, I'm told that telling someone that they eat too much myoga in Japan is like asking someone if they ate paint chips as a child in the USA. We're going to play it safe and only eat a little bit...rarely.
We found a casserole dish. I don't really know why it's here. It doesn't fit in our microwave. We don't have an oven. I can't wait until I know how to get to the thrift store (or "recycle shop", as they call them here).
It worked! I made some persimmon and rice pudding, adapted from some stove-top rice pudding recipe I discovered somewhere on the vast internet sea. This means it's time for another recipe post!
Persimmony Rice Pudding (Adapted from some recipe somewhere else that had no persimmons in it at all)
Ingredients:
3/4 cup White Rice, uncooked (If you can get your hands on it, I highly suggest mochi rice, as it's texture lends itself best to rice pudding)
1 1/2 cup Water
2-3 ripe Persimmons (Note that if the persimmon is somewhat dark inside and has a lot of grainy-looking dark spots, this is actually a good thing. This is actually an indicator that it is ripe.) *Edit: After a second go at this, I would say that three normal-sized persimmons or four small-sized persimmons are good, plus an extra persimmon for garnish.
2 cups of milk (You will use 1 1/2 cup and 1/2 cup separately)
1/3 cup Granulated sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
1 Egg, beaten
1 Tbsp Butter (I'm tempted to say that butter is optional, but I haven't tried it without, so I can't say for certain)
Optional Ingredients (I do not recommending using these all together, they are each their own variation):
1/2 tsp Vanilla (optional)
1/2 tsp Ginger root (optional)
Nutmeg
1/4-1/3 cup Raisins
Directions:
Peel, deseed and cut one or two persimmons into small cubes. Whether you use one or two depends on how strong you want the flavor to be. Either way should taste good.
Mash the persimmon. You may use whichever method to do this you prefer. I use a mortar and pestil, but I realize that this is a long and tedious process that many people do not have the time or patience for. That, and many people don't own a mortar and pestil. You can also use a food processor or a blender. Whatever makes it look like orange slime works. *Optional step: If you are adding ginger to this recipe and you are using fresh ginger root, add it here and get it all properly mashed up along with the persimmon.
In a pot or saucepan that you think can handle 4 or more cups of this stuff, bring the water to a boil. Add the rice and mashed persimmon. Reduce the heat and allow it all to simmer for 20 minutes.
Stir up the rice mixture. Add 1 1/2 cups of milk, salt and sugar. Stir and cook over medium heat until it is thick and creamy. This may take another 20 minutes, it may not. It all depends on how cooperative your mixture feels. *Optional step: If using raisins, add them here. I abhor cooked raisins, so I will never be using this step. But some people like them, so this step is for those people. If you are using powdered ginger, add that here as well.
Slowly stir in the leftover 1/2 cup of milk and the beaten egg. This is more important for the egg than for the milk, as the egg will start cooking immediately and you want to get it as evenly mixed into the pudding as possible. Also, you may wish to turn down the heat a little at this point, so as to keep the pudding from popping out at you.
Continue cooking for another two minutes while you STIR CONTINUOUSLY. Don't stop. Really.
Remove from heat and stir in the butter. *Optional step: If you are using vanilla, now is the time to add it.
Dish the pudding up. Peel, seed and cut up your second (or third) persimmon into small pieces (strips, cubes, little hearts...you choose!) and place them on top as garnish or put them in a bowl for people to add as much or as little as they want to their own pudding. Heck, do both! *Optional step: If you are using nutmeg, sprinkle it sparingly over the top of each serving before adding the persimmon garnish.
That's it! This recipe should feed at least five people. Unless you eat a whole, freaking lot. In which case, shame on you! You should have saved some for the others!
Dinner itself was a mishap (a delicious mishap, but a mishap nonetheless), but that was due to my being distracted by the pudding when I should have taken some noodles off the burner, resulting in some very mushy yakisoba. Mmmm...mushy yakisoba.....
We've been eating a lot of new things, here and there, in addition to the plethora of things we've eaten in past trips to Japan and foods available in the US. Today, I'm going to tell you about some of the fruits we have here.
To the right are two fruits we have in the house right now. The one on the left should be easy to recognize. It's an apple. For the most part, apples are the same in Japan as they are in much of the rest of the world. This particular type of apple is usually used by the Japanese around festival time to make candied apples. The fruit on the right is a persimmon. There are several different kinds of persimmon, some of which need to be overripe before they are edible. Luckily for us, the Japanese tend to put things in stores when they are exactly ripe (except for tomatoes, which are usually sold frustratingly under-ripe).
Oh! I should put something in there so you can tell the sizes of these fruits. How's that? I bought a persimmon a few weeks back, just as they were getting in season. I ended up mashing it to a pulp and throwing it into a beef roast. It was pretty good! We got two more persimmons from one of Nat's coworkers (and our neighbor), so we just ate those plain. Then she gave us three more, along with some mandarin oranges. We ate all of the mandarins and I have plans for our current persimmons. Secret plans! If they work, I shall reveal all at a later date.
For those curious about the flavor of a persimmon, it's very sweet. When properly over-ripe, it's almost too sweet and can be used as a substitute for sugar in many recipes. When not eating the raw fruit, the Japanese sometimes dry it and eat it as a candy or as a sugar substitute. When under-ripe, it can be rather sour, due to its high tannin content. While some foods are lauded for the health benefits of their tannin content, persimmons have a bit too much and are best avoided until they ripen up quite a bit. After all, tannic acid is named because it was used in leather tanning. I think you might imagine what an immoderate amount might do to your stomach. If you've ever considered eating acorns, be aware that these are also reported to have a high tannin content and must go through a process to leech the tannins before they are good to eat. One or two probably won't hurt you, though (I used to eat an occasional acorn on the school playground as a child).
Back to the subject of Nat's coworkers giving us fruit, another coworker gave us some Japanese pears around the beginning of the month. Apparently, he had a surplus of FREAKING HUGE and insanely delicious Japanese pears. If we get more, I will smear a slice all over my computer screen in hopes that you guys will get a chance to taste them. Just thinking of people half a world away licking their computer screens wants me to try it right now.
Yes, I know it doesn't work that way, but a wild imagination has to get some use every now and again.
I guess that last picture might not really help you understand the actual size of the persimmon. The spoons in our house don't really come in sizes most of us from the States are used to.
Perhaps, I meant that you might want a better understanding of the size of the apple. That's right. We have miniature apples. Japan has normal-sized apples, too. These were just in the store for the festival season. As I mentioned above, these apples are typically candied (like American candied apples, only smaller...and sometimes different colored candy, like blue). I originally thought they were plums when I saw them at the grocery store. The price looked good, so I picked them up and noticed that they were, in fact, not plums. The novelty was too exciting to pass up, so we've been eating miniature apples for the past week. After some research, I discovered that Japan was not the only country with miniature apples. France also has a cultivar or two. So do some other countries, but I never got around to finishing my research. They taste like your average apple (as in, not any of those specific apples, like Red Delicious, Granny Smith or Gala; they just taste like "apple"). They're not incredibly filling, but a good snack for tiding one over until mealtime. Likely, they're going to be out of stores soon, if they aren't already. The demand for them in Japan appears to be extremely seasonal.
Nat pretty much said most of what I'd say about our day for the most recent kimono festival. It was all pretty fun. Nat didn't get a chance to record some of the more amazing fireworks, though if you watch her videos closely, you might catch a glimpse of one of the kitty-face fireworks or one that looks suspiciously like a pair of glasses. We also had smiley-face fireworks, bunny-face fireworks and a few that looked like sunflowers, the Yosano town flower. It was pretty amazing!
For the past few weeks, Nat's been trying to get a good picture of the spiders around here. We finally got a one. While I was hanging clothes out to dry, I snapped a couple photos of one that's been hanging around on our balcony. To best see the image, you should probably click on it for a better view. That way, you can see all of her stripes and colors! This spider has been back there for almost as long as we've been living here. Her web survived the typhoon we had (which is pretty amazing!). She's about as large, if not larger, than the size of the palm of my hand, if you count the legs. In this picture, she is busy trying to remove one of Nat or my stray hairs. It must have drifted over from the clothesline.
She is a jorō-gumo, also called a golden orb-web spider or nephila clavata (for those who like to know all those specifics). Like many of the prominent animals in Japan, there is folklore associated with them. Supposedly, these spiders can turn into beautiful women who attract and eat men. Those two bulbous bits in her web are her stinkbug victims. I imagine one of the two is the retarded stinkbug I rescued three times from unrelated fates. Also, in this and the next photo, you can see our neighbors' rooftops! They're made of stone or clay tiles. Some people even buy metal tiles, nowadays, but the traditional tiles are still used on the older houses.
You should probably click on this next picture for a better view as well. This picture gives you a slightly better idea of how big the spider and her web are (hint, her web extends past the sides and top of the picture). You can also see the remains of yet another stinkbug.
While I'm at it, here's a picture of the laundry. Amazingly, you can't even see the spider or her web from this distance (she's in that far corner there). I had often wondered how the bugs manage to fly into such obviously enormous webs. This somewhat convinces me that spiders aren't just preying on stupidity.
Now we just need to snap a photo of some suzumebachi (giant hornets),an oniyanma (giant dragonfly) and one of the various giant cicadas and we'll have a giant Japanese bug collection started! I guess there are also the stag beetles, dung beetles and such to take photos of, but we haven't seen them yet. Also, it's getting cold enough that we may not see more beetles for a while.
This next picture (the one to the left) is one of our nearby rooftops. Most of them have some sort of decoration like this in the top corners. This is a more simple and common one. Some of the more ornate buildings and castles have statuettes of fish on the corners to ward away fires.
That's it for now. No new and exciting recipes to share. We shouldn't have any more festivals to worry about for at least another month or so.
Well, this has been a fun week. The beginning of the week was quiet, because the kids were all home with swine flu. Everyone but the third graders, anyway.
I put up a huge construction paper Jack and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas in the English room. I haven't taken a picture of it yet, but I will, and when I do I shall post it. Thursday I went to Ishikawa elementary, and Friday I went to Iwataki elementary. (And had school lunch again. Whee!)
Now, these two elementary schools are soooo different. Ishikawa is very small, and only has one class per grade. The children are polite and sweet, and always help me to understand them. They're very well-behaved, but still very vivacious kids. Iwataki elementary is very BIG, there are three classes per grade. The kids are rowdy and raucous. The three boys who always scream after me when I'm on my bike going home are in this school. The teachers are more strict with them, and every time I come out of class, the school secretary asks me very sternly if any of the students asked me any inappropriate questions. I have no idea, because I can hardly ever understand their Japanese. When I ask them to slow down or tell them I can't understand, they stare at me and then run away. But they're back two minutes later with another question. Both are adorable in their own way. XD
Friday night we went out for karaoke with some visitors from Yosano's sister city, Aberysthwyth, Wales. (I think. Welsh! OI.) The karaoke machine was old and kept screeching. I thought I sounded awful (I sang "Blackbird" by the Beatles and "LoveFool" by the Cardigans and I don't remember what else) but Alex said I sounded great...husband filter? :3
Saturday was a day to shop. Toshiko came by and took us to K-Stanky where we FINALLY got our new printer/scanner and I bought a new camera! It's so cute! I love it! And it was on super sale. So you'll be seeing a lot more pictures from here on out since this new one is a ton more portable (and comes with a rechargeable lithium battery pack instead of having to change out AA's all the time. <3). style="font-style: italic;">Chirimen Kaido Kimono Matsuri, or the Silk Road Kimono Festival. Yosano is famous for its special type of crepe silk, so this was all about that. Yay!
PICTURE TIME LULZ
First, we went to a rich silk merchant's house from the 1800s that had been kept in very good condition. Yay for really old-style Japanese houses!
This is one of the kimonos worn by one of the owners of the house. His surname was "Tsuru" which is Japanese for "Crane." The little white circles on the back and sleeves have cranes in them. Yay for cranes!
This room had a lot of really neat decorative screens and stuff. But I won't bore you with every single picture I took.
There's a bit of the deer-decorated shoji sliding door in this picture, and the entrance to the house. And some tatami mats. Yay tatami mats!
Here's the other side of the deer screen. Yay for deer? Again? There were also some beautifully decorated closet doors. Everything is painted very ornately in this house.
Here is the garden that is bordered by the guest rooms. This little garden is specifically for guests to use. There's a bigger one in the middle of the house (the house is shaped like a two-story square ring) but this one was so cool I just had to take a picture. I love Japanese lanterns and stuff.
This is all of us sitting in the room upstairs together! We are, in order from left, (I don't know), Myeko, Aberysthwyth person, Alex, me, Kimiko, and (I don't know). Ambiguity is fun!
Look! Look! The sliding doors had baby chick handles! HOW ADORABLE IS THAT!? I don't have much to say but I love it.
Okay. There were at least two bathrooms in this house. These two pictures are both of Japanese baths. The one on the left is embedded in the ground. It's kind of small around, but it's very deep. My dad, who's pretty tall, would probably be able to sit in it and have water coming up to his chin.
The second is another type (probably older) of bath style - an outer bath. Notice the little stool to help you get in it, and the cover that keeps the water warm so multiple people can use it in succession. Before you get grossed out, remember - the Japanese don't wash in the bath. They wash thoroughly BEFORE getting in the bath, because they keep in mind that other people will want to use it after them. The bath is just for relaxing.
Here is a bridal palanquin. In olden times (the Edo period) Japanese brides were delivered to their husbands' family's estate in these thingies on the rejoicing shoulders of their servants and/or families. It kind of looks like a crunch to me.
It brings a whole 'nother meaning to 'mail order bride', doesn't it?
Here's one half of a traditional old Japanese kitchen! Note the sake bottle, baskets, etc. That's actually a really old sink in the picture.
What you can't see, is that hanging above was a kind of water spout, and there was a pump off to the side and on the floor. There was a pulley system that, when you pressed the pump, it would pump water up and through the spout, and water would fall from above into the sink for use.
And here's the stove!
As you can see, it kind of looks like a brick oven. But the doors underneath are for burning wood, and weren't used as ovens at all. They were more just for heating the 'stovetop' above.
The circular parts on top with the wooden lids are for rice. They're actually pretty deep, and the stick-spoon thing on top is an old fashioned rice paddle.
The wooden box thing is a steamer, for fish and vegetables.
And that's Kimiko over in the corner. Hiiiiii, Kimiko!!
Once we got out of the house we got to (had to) take a picture with the Kimono Queens, who just happened to be on their way in. They're all wearing the long sleeved furisode that practically scream "I'm brightly colored, female, and single!"
My shirt is pooched weird. Ugh.
But Alex sure is cute!!
Then, we went to this place; another traditional Japanese residence that was attached to a Buddhist temple, for an informal tea ceremony. We drank matcha, which is sweet, creamy green tea that is whisked until frothy. I really like matcha. It's goooood.
Also, curiously, there were CD's hanging on long strings from the roof of the shrine. Alex and I curiously looked at them for a while before asking Myeko what they were for. She answered "To scare off the birds." Genius!!! At very least, birds that are more interested in shiny things would smack into those instead of the windows.
There were a handful of street performers around, and I wanted to get a picture of them. So of course, when I say anything (or even make the motion of raising my camera to my face) the camera is immediately taken from me and I am shoved into the picture that I had really rather been candid, with hapless Alex dragged behind. This type of entertainment is called Chin-don-ya and consists of people dancing playing and chanting in the streets. Apparently it was an old form of advertisement, actually. This troupe came from Osaka, it seems, to perform at the Kimono Festival. See the look on my face? WE ARE NOT AMUSED.
One of the big events of the kimono matsuri was the kimono parade. It's where, aptly, all the people who wore kimono parade slowly down the silk road, with the Chin-don-ya people blaring and dancing in front. Everyone behind them got to shuffle behind slowly in their geta, or traditional Japanese sandals (the ones that KILL). The Aberysthwyth (sp!? Whatevs) people also were put into kimono and haplessly walked by.
HERE IS A VIDEO. HA HA HA HA HA.
This was the beginning of the parade. You can hear the Chin-don-ya people playing, and at the beginning was a troupe of people dressed as if for a traditional old Japanese wedding, with all sorts of old costumes. The two ladies at the end are Toshiko and Kimiko. The conversation was basically Kimiko protesting that I was taking video and me playfully responding that she wasn't allowed to protest since they made me take the picture with the Chin-don-ya. XD
Hey look! Lots of people in kimono!
There were a lot of gorgeous kimono today, but it was a lot colder. A lot more people are seen here in their fall and winter kimono; not as many bright colors as usual. In fact, I think the only people I saw wearing bright colors were the UK kids....hrm.
This is Yuuko, posing alongside a giant, anthropomorphic grain of rice.
Yes, the grain of rice is wearing a kimono.
Oh Japan.
Hey look! Some classic cars!
They had these on display too. I'm not really sure why. But hey guys, isn't this cool! Old cars! ...or something.
These two are Toshiko and Junko, who were in the video. This is probably the best picture of Toshiko I could have asked for. She's definitely an Enneagram type 7. Anyway, Toshiko and Kimiko are both in our eikaiwa group, along with Junko from before. Toshiko is boisterous and fun. Her English is fantastic, and she loves to tease me about everything. Kimiko is much more gentle-natured and very sweet, but she's a little forgetful, frequently late, and has a 'second stomach' for sweets. :) They and the rest of the group take really good care of us. After we finished at the matsuri, we went home for a little while and then went back out to watch the fireworks over the bay. We saw a lot of my students there and met a couple of the students from Wales, as well. I took two videos of the fireworks, but I'll only subject you to one of them; the first one is easy to find on Youtube (same title, just part 1 instead of 2. :3)
