Sushi pops!

I cheated tonight and Tetsu and I had temaki sushi for dinner from the supermarket.  The su, in the word sushi means vinegar thus sushi is slightly vinegared, somewhat sweet rice.  Temaki means hand-rolled thus temaki sushi can be held and one's fingers don't get sticky handling the rice.  I refer to them as sushi pops!  (Held in the hand like lollipops?)  Tonight's sushi pops were delicious though with 5 to a plate there were way too many for me to eat (all that rice).

I ate a raw tuna sushi pop. 

"Hmm.  Good!  The seaweed wrap is so fresh and crisp." 

I ate a tuna mayonnaise and sweet egg sushi pop. 

"Very nice.  Okay.  I think I have had my fill."

But as I was finishing up my second sushi pop I got to thinking that blog visitors may not be acquainted with sushi pops, especially the way they come from the supermarket.  SOOOO!  Just because I wanted to take pictures for my blog and write a post, I ate a third sushi pop!

This is a sushi pop.  Hmm.  This one is a salmon roe and cucumber roll. As you can see, it is still wrapped in cellophane.  How to get that cellophane wrapper off without getting your fingers messed up?

Well, that little pink tab of tape gets pulled loose and the encased rectangle of seaweed gets half unrolled from the rice part of the sushi pop.  The reason that cellophane package is there in the first place is to keep the seaweed crisp because when seaweed comes in contact with moisture in the air or from the rice it quickly turns limp.  Still good to eat but no crispness to it.  The cellophane is there to preserve crispness until seconds before the sushi pop is eaten.  Okay...  One end of the cellophone packaging is rolled back and those three arrows are instructions to pull back the cellophane unsealing the seaweed.

Good.  Now the crisp seaweed is ready to be wrapped around the rice part of the sushi pop.  The rice roll gets "rolled" to the open end of the cellophane and then...

The left side of the seaweed gets pulled away from the cellophane (just getting to that point in the above photo.)

There we go.  The cellophane is discarded and the sushi roll can roll back the way it came completely encasing itself in the crispy seaweed.

 Ta-da!  My hands are clean and my sushi pop is ready to eat, fresh, crispy and delicious! 

I contemplated handing this sushi pop over to Tetsu but as he'd eaten 5 pops from his own plate and was probably going to eat the two pops left on my plate (he did), I went ahead and ate my third sushi pop.  I am STUFFED!  But it was SO good!
 

It Starts With Food

Last month I was given an ultimatum by my doctor.  Get my cholesterol levels down to a certain number or go on medication.

My cholesterol has steadily climbed over the past eight years and my doctor told me again told me that it was time I throw in the towel and just take his ding-dang medications!  This argument has been going on for 5 or 6 years.  I know it is high.  I know there are limits.  But I don't like medicine.

Five years ago, after being recommended the It Starts With Food book, I challenged myself to do the Whole30, a diet by the book's authors which restricts bread, rice, pasta, anything with gluten, sugar, dairy products, legumes and practically anything one would want to eat!  It Starts With Food definitely lowered my cholesterol that first time around and I have challenged myself to do a modified version (I eat soy products now meaning I can use soy sauce, miso, tofu and soy milk) three more times.

But I do live in the real world and we do eat out a lot.  The Whole30 diet is so restrictive that I end up being anti-social when I'm on it because I decline lunch dates with friends, by-pass their desserts and even bring my own meal when invited over.  You have to have some pretty understanding friends and family to do the Whole30!  One month in maybe a year is my limit but the benefit is that I do pay more attention (at first) to what goes into my mouth.

At any rate I pleaded with my doctor to let me give it one more try and I PROMISED that if in one month I didn't get my levels down to his specific number then I would bow to his judgement.

I went yesterday for my test results and he and I were both surprised that I was well below the ultimatum number...  not within what is considered the normal bracket but obviously my Whole30 paid off.  AGAIN!

I just want to say that like the book's title says, IT STARTS WITH FOOD!  Dietary changes do cause a change!  Exercise of course is good but personally even with swimming and walking my numbers don't change.  It is the changes in what I eat that makes the difference.

I know that in some ways I'm just putting off the inevitable, that someday I'm going to have to start taking the little pills but I've been put on reprieve again for a few months.  I came home and told Tetsu my good news (who was SO happy that I was finally off that Whole30 diet after a month of watching me eat different meals than he was eating) and he wanted to celebrate.

"Let's go out to dinner!  Let's go eat some cake!"

This is the difference between Tetsu and me when it comes to medical results.  He immediately jumps back into the very food that causes him problems because he feels he has leeway again.  I am impressed with how effective things can be and vow to stay as close as possible to healthy eating.

Despite all that, we are headed for America and two weeks of restaurant eating may be my downfall.

"I'll see you again for another blood test AFTER you get back from America." my doctor says with a gleam in his eye.

Still, I'm happy.  I plan to remember, "it starts with food." 
 

Traveling in Japan

My friends told a story today of their travels to see cherry blossoms during Golden Week. 

K-san and H-san took a day trip north to a famous cherry blossom town.  They took the Bullet Train and then a local train and they had reserved seats.  Three tickets.  They also had their round trip train tickets...  Six tickets in all for each of them.

My friends boarded their Bullet Train enjoyed the speeding scenery and switched trains at a northern hub station.  They got off the train at their destination and as it was Golden Week and the crowds were horrendous, they pushed through the ticket gate like cattle and handed their tickets to the station master instead of feeding the tickets into the automatic ticket taker.  And then off they went to explore the city.

The town was beautiful with all the weeping cherry blossoms and K-san and H-san enjoyed their day taking pictures and eating a lunch delicacy of the area and relaxing over coffee before going to the station to catch their return train six hours later.

GASP!!!  At the ticket gate H-san realized that she had three wrong train tickets!!!  It seems that when they arrived in the cherry blossom city in her haste to get through the masses of people and out of the station, H-san had handed the wrong three tickets to the station master!  If she had used the automatic ticket taker then her mistake would have been recognized immediately by the machine but amidst the scores of tourists she had stuffed her tickets into the station master's basket along with everyone else who was hurrying out of the station.  What to do now with only 15 minutes until the return train left?!

K-san and H-san immediately went to the ticket counter and explained H-san's error.  And do you know what?  The station master, after asking where she had boarded and which train she had taken, immediately handed H-san the tickets she had mistakenly dropped in his basket!  Somehow, with all the thousands of tickets being passed through his hands in a day's work, the incorrect tickets had been detected, set aside for the holder who might come looking for them and thus the three tickets were returned to H-san within minutes of her discovering her error!  I'd say BRAVO to the Japanese Railway system to be able to assist one of their passengers so quickly!

K-san and H-san had a wonderful trip and a good story to tell afterwards!

John's life with the Watanabes

John continues to keep us on our toes but despite his quirks we find him quite adorable.  He still has most of his bad habits but he tends to growl and snap at us less.  Tetsu absolutely thinks John is the greatest which must be a wonderful boost for John's ego.  I tend to temper my physical contacts with John (no petting unless he jumps for joy and wants attention) but he and I understand each other in relation to walks outside and behavior around cars and bicycles and pedestrians (sit immediately when told and wait until the interruption passes.)  My pockets are always filled with dog treats and I am assuming that John loves me for the abundance of goodies he receives, not because of any great fondness for me as his owner.

The rice fields are about planted but a few are still mirror-like.

The two guys in my life.

Not only are the flowers blooming in the spring now but the catapillers are out too.  Actually we think it quite funny that this type of catapillar and John look similar.  Low to the ground, long, and black with brown shadings on the belly.

One of our favorite activities is to walk to a farm road (no traffic except for the one farmer who uses it) and have John run from one of us to the other.  John is always very excited to run to Tetsu.  Not so much to me.

But he'll come!  Do you know how hard it is to get a low position picture of John?  I was practically lying on the ground!

We are a little concerned with what is going to happen to our relationship with John after we come back from two weeks in Detroit.  He will be staying with our vet while we are gone and that was where he lived for a year before he came to us.  He has almost no behavior problems when he is at the clinic but he rebelled when he came to us at first.  It has taken us 6 months to come to an agreement with John about what pleases us and what displeases us (and vice versa) so I hope he doesn't end up taking a giant step backwards while we are gone.  I hope he remembers us with happiness but if not I guess we'll just begin again.

Intensive sewing!

Yesterday, for no real reason, I just had to do some machine sewing!  I went upstairs around 10:00 and except for a walk with John and lunch, I stayed in the sewing room until 5:00.  Intensive sewing!

The evening before, I had visited Mrs. Goodneedle at From the Strawberry Patch and noticed the quilt pattern that she was getting ready to make.  Dogs in Sweaters!

Ah!  A couple of years ago I had also noticed Mrs. Goodneedle's project and immediately decided to order the pattern and make a quilt for my cat sitters.  They have four dachshunds and the quilt was a great gift to make for them and I have seen my quilt up on their wall. 

Now we have our OWN dachshund and I thought it would be cute to make a John quilt. I didn't want to make the whole quilt but I did think a pillow might be possible.  Once I closed the door to my sewing room I got pulled into the cutting and piecing of making the quilt and eventually even had time to do the machine quilting.  I decided I probably wouldn't be able to find a pillow insert for the exact size of the quilt block and so I went ahead and just put binding on the quilt.  Another decoration for my wall!

Tetsu was very tickled to see my Dog in Sweater quilt and he suggested I put a J on the dog's sweater... just so we all know that this is a quilt depiction of John.

I'd say a wall quilt fully made and bound in 6 hours is pretty good.  I'm amazed myself at how focused I can get when it comes to sewing!

Older Adult English class!

Once every two months I "help" at a local adult English class.  The teacher is a man whom Tetsu has known through work and Tetsu introduced him to me at the pool (we are all three members).  When the man explained that he was teaching English to a few people and that they would welcome the chance to practice their English I wasn't too interested.  The class is at night from 7:00 to 9:00 and I don't like to drive at night...  and I was really trying to get away from any more English teaching.  But Tetsu encouraged me to help out as the teacher had been active in the workings of the convalescent home and Tetsu felt indebted.  For the past year every two months Tetsu drops me off at the community center and then picks me up two hours later.

Did I mention that the teacher is in his 80's...  And he speaks excellent if somewhat archaic English.  When I talk to him I feel like I am talking to someone from a Jane Austen novel...  The five students in the class are all in their late 70's and early 80's themselves and they diligently spend most of their weeks translating an English book sentence by sentence.  On the evenings when I attend, the students are expected to give a "speech".

"Good evening, class."

"Good evening, Sir."

"Could you please tell me what is today's date?"

"Today is the third of May, Sir."

"Very good.  And what was today's weather?"

"It was a cool and cloudy day."

"Very good class."

Occasionally I can't bear the slow exactness of the class and start rambling something like, wasn't it a nice day, or weren't the cherry blossoms pretty or something, but the teacher will look over at me indulgently and then go back to his prepared dialog for the day.  I sort of feel like I've stepped back a few generations and if I speak out of turn again I might get my knuckles rapped with a ruler.

When I say that the students prepare a speech, what actually happens is that they all work very hard to write something of interest and then they read off their page without ever looking up.  I have suggested that maybe "conversation" might be a better use of our time (instead of me listening to them read aloud) but they are set into their custom of doing their homework and reading their efforts.  Not much is required on my part...

Last month when I was finally asked to add some native English to the evening I started talking about "Show and Tell" and how this was a common activity in kindergarten and elementary school classrooms.

"Let's have Show and Tell time next class.  Everybody has to bring something in and tell us about it."

Thus this week was a Show and Tell class.  It was a lot of fun!

The first man who is in his 80's stepped forward with three oil paintings that he had done.  He explained how he took up oil painting as a hobby after taking a community center class.  One painting was of the English countryside he had visited, one was of a Japanese temple and one was of the city's Central Park pond.

The next person to Show and Tell was actually the first student's wife and she too brought in her painting using Japanese natural paints on hand made paper.  I think this was a scene of swans in a lake...  She also learned to paint at a community class (different from her husband's).

A student brought his travel journal and pictures of a motorcycle trip he took when he was in his 20's (he is in his late 70's now).  He had meticulously written down his the cost of food he bought on his trip and the names of people he met and the wishing that he had someone special to share his travels with.  (A romantic!)

Another man brought in pictures he had taken when he'd gone hiking as a young man.  His story was interesting because he explained that he had used an accordion box camera!  Maybe you've seen how the lens part pulls out accordion style and how the box sits up on legs.  He explained about the great weight and the problem of lugging the camera up mountains and setting it up to take pictures.  I thought it amazing that such a camera could take such clear pictures.

The teacher's wife claimed that she didn't have anything interesting to show us but actually she brought out bean bags that she had made and demonstrated how she can juggle.  She said she learned to juggle as a grade school girl and that bean bags were one of the few toys that she and her sisters and friends played with.  She explained how bean bags can be played alone (juggling) and also with friends, and nowadays she has joined a older citizens' social circle where many of the women are enjoying the juggling they learned as school girls.  For this evening's Show and Tell we all tossed bean bags back and forth to each other, under-hand, over-hand, flip from hand palm to the top of the hand, toss two bean bags at a time, keep a rhythm going etc.  It was really hard!!!  Here this lady in her 80's could demonstrate juggling three bean bags at a time!

The juggling student even gave me the three purple flowered bean bags as a present and now every so often I pick one up from our living room table where they sit and toss it back and forth from hand to hand even enticing Tetsu to join in and see if we can keep the back from falling on the floor for more than 10 tosses.  We end up laughing a lot because we are so uncoordinated.  Who would have thought bean bags could be such fun!

So...  I am very happy to report that Show and Tell was a big success for all involved!

Aren't these older people inspiring!

A local park

The weather turned nice today for a change and we had hoped to go up the mountainside for a few hours but got stuck in traffic even at 7:00AM.  I don't know why we thought we might NOT get stuck in traffic as this is Golden Week and EVERYONE in Japan is moving here and there trying to make the most of the holidays.  After 10 minutes stuck in a line of cars we gave up quickly and visited a local park.  And at 7:00AM hardly anyone was there!  That's my kind of get away!  Pooh-pooh to all the traffic and crowds!

The park runs along a stretch near the main river going through town.  That's Mt. Nantai in the distance... which we had plan to drive up to the famous lake at the top.

The little playground toys were cute.

There was a lovely little reflection pond.

The pond looks so peaceful but there was a real ruckus going on.  When I walked to the edge all became quiet but after a minute or so the frogs in the pond started their chorus and all amphibians joined anew in all different pitches and timber!  Such a performance!

For all the noise I found very little visible evidence of the singers.  I finally spotted one little brown fellow...  Can you see him.  He is holding on to some lily pad with only his head out of the water, but he was belting out his notes!

 The newly green leaves made such a variation of color in the park.

 Still a few cherry trees with a bit of pink left in their boughs.

Tetsu had brought his morning newspaper.  I had brought my Kindle.  We had bought rice balls at a convenience store.  Great way to spend an early hour!