Cooking

I've been cooking a little bit. A very little. I'm not much of a cook.

I made Nancy's delicious Banana and Coconut bread with Lime glaze and it was delicious! Please give it a try! It looks like I burned it in this picture but I didn't. Nancy suggested adding lime zest to the glaze but there is no way that I can find real limes in my town and I was only happy I found lime juice.

As the evenings get colder I'm sure housewives and mothers the world over make steaming soups and stews for their families and in Japan everyone makes nabe. Nabe actually means "pot" but in this case it means the meal that is inside the pot.

Nabe can be almost anything (that's why they are so popular) and various vegetables are cooked in a deep ceramic pot with soup stock and then placed on the table for everyone to dig in and eat together. It is quite a different way of eating from the normal numerous small dishes that Japanese meals usually consist of. (Well, we still have rice dishes and maybe pickle dishes...)

Nabe pots come in a variety of shapes and sizes but most are ceramic. Each area of Japan will have their specialty nabe using ingredients of the area, for example, on the coast the nabes will incorporate shellfish and seafood; some areas use a lot of chicken and green onions etc.

My nabe last night had chicken and chicken meatballs, Chinese cabbage, green onions, carrots, deep fried tofu, mushrooms, sliced icicle radish and tofu. The soup base was miso flavor. Yum! It always seems like though there are only two of us, we finish off the whole nabe but I guess there are a lot of vegetables so it is pretty healthy.

And this is a nabe that actually doesn't occur in my house but for awhile was quite popular. It seems that cats are drawn to the nabe pots and find them good napping places. A couple of years ago during the winter season, a news station asked viewers to send in neko-nabe pictures (Cat pots) and what a flood resulted. (Picture from the Internet)

My cats show no interest in my nabe pot though I have introduced it to them...

"What's the big deal about nabes? I'd much rather eat what's inside." --Chip

Influenza

Influenza has struck our city, and friends and neighbor children are toppling like dominoes. Four kids get influenza in one class and that grade is canceled for a week. And the next week some other class is infected and that class goes down. And parents have to stay home, partly to care for the ill, partly because if it is Swine flu the companies have a policy that workers must stay home a week if any family member is stricken. This makes for a lot of absences. I mean, SOMEONE in the family is sure to bring home some virus and then mom and day are banned from the workplace for a week, and then pretty soon some other member of the family gets it and everyone takes a week off again!

Usually there are about 20 kids from my neighborhood walking to school every morning but last week there were a whole 7. Some of the kids had influenza. Some of the kids' grades were cancelled. Some of the kids were just staying home for prevention purposes. And those that do go to school wear masks all day and gargle with green tea at breaks... (Not such a great picture but all the girls going to school in their group are wearing masks.)

All last week I was saying

"Let me get through the weekend Lord! I do not want to miss my guests!"

And I did make it. Yeah. I wonder how much longer I can hold out.

Connecting again

I had a nice weekend with my friends from the States. Yoko and her husband and daughter made it to Nikko on Saturday despite train schedule changes and missed connections. On my side, a few of the plans I'd made got mixed up but I guess the purpose was to catch up on each other and past friends so it was a good two days.

Yoko was my roommate in college and we lived together on the International floor of the dorm. I had gone to Japan on the overseas program and was studying Japanese when I moved onto the floor and Yoko helped me with my Japanese homework. I can still remember asking Yoko to check my writing assignment (in Japanese) and she not having the slightest idea of what I was trying to say. Sigh... I might have given up Japanese altogether back then if she hadn't helped me.

This weekend we laughed about dorm life memories; the girls' side of the floor buying men's trunks and dyeing them pink to give to the boys' side of the floor for Valentine's day. Drinking plum wine in the evenings (hoping to build up our alcohol tolerance) though neither of us were drinkers. We both remember those days as REALLY good ones!

Yoko married an American boy immediately after college (we were all in the same year in college) and I took off for Japan and later married Tetsu. So our lives have been somewhat mirrored. Yoko living in the States these 30 plus years. Me living in Japan for nearly as long. It was interesting to compare stories of child raising and nowadays parent care (or lack of it since we both don't get back to our parents' homes but once or twice a year). Since Yoko had gone college in the States I asked for any advice she might have for my kids who are trying to do the same thing now.

While chatting we did a lot of driving around which may have been uncomfortable. There was no way 5 of us were going to fit in one of our small cars and so we moved around in two cars; womenfolk in one car so that we could chat, menfolk in the other car with more leg room. Unfortunately, Tetsu and Yoko's husband didn't really have a common language so lots of shoulder shrugging and smiling.

I think it is true that the people that come into our lives shape us sometimes ever so slightly, sometimes hugely. Yoko is one of the people who influenced me greatly and helped bring me to where I am today. In the past, we have been Christmas card friends (but her daughter reads my blog! Hi Sarah!) but I hope we'll be better about keeping in touch now that we've touched bases again.

Utsunomiya by night

More night pictures. Tetsu took me out to dinner at a fancy restaurant a couple of nights ago just because... I guess there wasn't an occasion. He just thought I'd like to see the night sights of the city. I suggested we go look at the sights and then go eat our usual noodles but he insisted on a fancy dinner. Wow! And it's not even my birthday or an anniversary or anything!

And this was the fancy dinner, scrumptious morsels Japanese style. Mmm so good! And this is the scenery from the restaurant. The restaurant is at the top of the 15 floor prefecture building that was unveiled last year and though I drive by the new building fairly often I'd never been to the top. It was fun to walk around the whole floor and try to locate landmarks that we frequent.

Utsunomiya (the city next to our Nikko) is not very big but it looks pretty metropolitan by night.

My friend Mrs. Komatsu sent me a picture of the shawl that she made. And she made it from the directions on my blog!! Wow! Does that make me feel good! When I posted I thought

"What a lot of rigamarole to take all these pictures and draw out all the directions when no one will ever really make this."

(But I was also writing it all down so that someday I can come back and have the directions at hand... in case I misplace my paper copy... which I often do). And then I was in such a hurry that I didn't even have time to check and see if the instructions were correct. Mrs. Komatsu called to say that she'd seen my blog and all the pictures and then downloaded it all and enlarged the pictures and made it all by herself!! That really makes me feel good!

Beautiful shawl, Mrs. Komatsu and I love the fringe and the scallops you added!!!

This is going to be a quicky post because I'm having guests today!!! Special guests! Friends I haven't seen in nearly 25 years! My college roommate and her husband and daughter are coming up to Nikko today so we are getting together to have a chatathon. I need to get my sewing room cleaned up (they want to see some of my quilts!), clean out the car etc. etc. I'd better go check and make sure the camera battery is recharged too!

Fall? Winter?

Winter is approaching. Tetsu and I got out our down jackets this week and I am back to wearing layers upon layers. In the mornings we wake up to LEAVES! Living next to a forest has some disadvantages (but not many! I love my forest!)

Tetsu complains about all the leaf raking that he has to do but I point out that he doesn't really have to do it since I don't mind the leaves. And then in the next breath he is saying what a small fulfillment it is to clear an area of the leaves in a short period of time. Our yard is tiny so he goes on to clear the road too and does a very good job! Doesn't he look happy?

And here is the cleared driveway. In a few hours it is covered with leaves again.

The cats are keeping warm by making a cat ball. Four cats. Vel will get a heating pad pretty soon and I've already started giving Mi a hot water bottle. (I pamper my cats. It's not really that cold yet.)

Mi is very noisy and trills like a bird all the time and wants to be with the rest of the family. Since she has to be watched closely when with the other cats she lives basically alone. And my! What a racket she puts up on the other side of the door... I keep reminding myself that we are looking after her health, have resolved the unwanted kitten problem, give her food and warmth and love. Too bad if she thinks she deserves company all the time too...

IGADS! Is that paper piecing? (Did you know that IGADS stands for "I've Got All Day Syndrome"?) ...meaning I start something and the whole day is gone with not much to show for it. Yes, I wanted to make a certain wall hanging for my friend (Mrs. N. ...Shhh....) so I pulled out an old pattern and have been struggling away. I hope to get that done this week...

And I bought yarn! So Tetsu's vest will be next on the docket.

Mrs. Nakazawa

This weekend my friend Mrs. Nakazawa (she made Mi the bara-bara cat box) took some of her friends out to lunch. We met in the city and then Mrs. Nakazawa drove us out to a far off town and a farther off, very fancy French restaurant! So classy and so much fun to spend the day with friends.



Mrs. Nakazawa is amazing! She talks a mile a minute and smiles constantly. She seems to do everything and has more energy than anyone I know. She takes food to shut-ins (because she's used to cooking for her family anyway). She learned to use the computer so that she could be a sometimes secretary to a sight-challenged friend. She is active in her church. On Saturday she had boxes of ingredients lined up on her table to use in her baking marathon for the YMCA bazaar this week (she was planning on making nearly 30 loaves of banana, persimmon and fruit bread). And of course she takes care of cats and cat lovers like me.

I'm afraid the French restaurant was so elegant and the food was so posh that I didn't think it appropriate to bring out my camera and take pictures at every dish served but I did get a picture of the four of us as we were leaving.

The occasion was a farewell luncheon for Marlene who will be joining her husband in Hong Kong next year, and all four of us are connected through YMCA (where Tetsu used to work) but Marlene and I have a 20 year long friendship, Rumi-san and I meet a couple times a month for English, and Mrs. Nakazawa and I have our cat loving connections.

After a lovely lunch and much conversation, we all headed back to the city where Mrs. Nakazawa presented each of us with some wonderful tea cups made by an artist friend. Look carefully. Can you see the tiny kitties painted on the cups? Such a special, loving, generous friend I have.

Mrs. Nakazawa is taking care of her ailing 18 year old kitty this week. Thank you Mrs. Nakazawa, and much love to you and to Mick.

Nikko at night

Last night Tetsu and I went up to the Nikko shrines and temples for the city's light festival. Last year Tetsu had taken me to a small park to see the lights against the autumn leaves but this year he suggested we go up to the historical part of Nikko. It was certainly worth the trip!

"Wow, this is a lot more stupendous than last year's park."

"I should think so. Nikko's shrines and temples are registered as a World Heritage site."

There are so many temples and shrines up in Nikko that I can't keep the names straight and in some cases have trouble telling the difference between which is the shrine and which is the temple. No matter. They are all beautiful and the grounds are surrounded by towering ceder trees and cobbled roads. Last night it was slightly drizzling but not enough to use an umbrella and the mist made the area seem all the more ethereal. My small digital camera doesn't do any of the scenery justice but maybe you'll get an idea of the beauty of the place.

Some of the colors may look confusing but if you look carefully you can see the reflection of trees and stone pagodas in the temple pond.

Nikko is one of the more famous places in Japan and most children will have a school trip to Nikko once in their lifetime. Sometimes you can hardly see the grounds because of all of the kids and their chattering and excitement takes away a bit from the spiritual atmosphere. Last night was a quiet way to enjoy the natural and man-made beauty of Nikko.