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Thursday, June 27, 2013

June 27th Sunshine Makes Me Smile

Rainy season is here which means after several days of cloudy, drizzle and rain I was tickled pink to wake up to a beautiful SUNNY day! I LOVE sunshine, always have. I am not a winter or a cloudy type personality, I like warmth and sunny days and green leaves and grass!

 Maybe it's a throwback to my birth, Mom says my first sight was the sky and sun shining in through the glass ceiling of the delivery room... whatever it is though today made me happy! I'm a country girl at heart but if this life has called me to live in big cities then I'll take the sunny days at least and enjoy them!
When I awoke Gary was already out and about Mitaka taking care of stuff so I dressed and headed to the library on Speedy. There is a young man that works there that speaks some English and I wanted to give him one of our invitation cards to the English conversation group we're starting. Unfortunately, it must of been his day off, so I borrowed some books, stopped at an apartment complex nearby and left invites for folks there and then headed home. One book I found is interesting. It's called 70 Japanese Gestures. I know that in Mexico there were hand signals that we learned that meant different things so I thought I had better check out the Japanese ones too since I'm always questing to look less stupid in whatever foreign country I'm in. (Not that it works because if there is a way to do a faux paux I'm almost guaranteed to do it!) Well good thing I got the book because according to it I better use the thumbs up sign when I'm trying to indicate something is okay and not the okay sign (like I've already done ...) because the okay sign is a sign for a certain male contraception! EEEEKKKK!!!! No one has looked too shocked at me though so I hope that means they know what it means in English!  As we say in my land....UFDA!!!!
Gary was home then and told me of a salary man cafĂ© that served a Japanese breakfast... which appears to be a regular Japanese meal (rice, fish, soup)with an egg and/or sausage added. It was only 400 yen though so that's a great deal! He said he spent a lot of time marveling at an old man that looked to be about 200 years old eating his breakfast! I have not met this old man but I have now named him Methuseleh in my head!
After I finished up at the library I came home and headed over to the dry cleaners to pick up the futons I had left there a couple weeks ago. They were both ready but it took me two trips to haul them both home.
I took a little break, then hung laundry...gotta take advantage of the sunny days and then decided to head out again to run some errands. I ended up back in our old neighborhood.. Fuchu. It takes two buses and a train to get there but it really is a nice little area of town with lots of little shops and stuff. There is also a second hand store there that I like and I found a cute little purse so that was nice. Gary had mentioned to me before I left that he wanted some hakusai no tsukemono. Tsukemono is any type of Japanese pickled stuff you can serve on the side with rice. There are many different types as you can see from this picture here.


Hakusai is the Japanese word for Napa cabbage and while we've tried some from the grocers they haven't been as good as my Mother-in-laws.(As if that would be possible!)  However, as I was wandering Fuchu I came across a little vegetable stand and there was a little old lady seated, cutting up some vegetables for something and right next to her was a large bucket of Hakusai no tsukemono! I pointed at it and said, "Hakusai?" She looked all surprised at me and laughed alot and said, "You Rike?!" Anyway, she sold me some and I brought it home on the train and the bus and the nice people probably never guessed it was the gaijin making them smell like Hakusai! It is much better than the grocery stores.. but of course, still not as good as my mother-in laws!
 

Monday, June 24, 2013

June 24th Of Cooking and Food

Gary spent about an hour the other night deciphering the manual for our rice cooker. We have a magical rice cooker that not only cooks rice in any way you can imagine, but it supposedly also bakes! Since I don't have an oven, we have been wanting to try out the baking feature on the rice cooker but as you can see there are many buttons!
 
After using a translating app on his phone where he scanned portions of the kanji in the manual and it translates it he figured out the process! So this morning using a recipe I got off of youtube, I mixed together the ingredients and Voila! we had a little chocolate cake! It's not going to win any cooking prizes but with a little powdered sugar sprinkled on top it was a tasty treat! I think it'll do something like banana bread even better.
 
Last week Gary figured out another VERY important thing...how to order Dominos pizza online! Japan has pizza places but it's not American pizza. the toppings are way different , i.e.(shrimp, wasabi, corn, mayo) and we really just wanted a nice American pizza. It's wonderful to have a little piece of home on occasion!
 
 
On a side note he was also able to order for me from Amazon, two cookbooks I've been trying out from the library. If you're interested in learning to cook Japanese I recommend these books. The recipes are tasty and easy to follow!

 
Yay for Gary, translator extraordinaire!

Friday, June 21, 2013

June 22

Haven't posted on my blog this week... sorry. Mostly this week I've taken care of necessary stuff  and  spent the rest of the time listening to the Tuscon conference sermons online. What a blessing to be able to share in the conference all the way across the world!  For those of you who don't know, our church attends a conference in Tuscon every June, pastors from all over the U.S. and world come together for a week of fellowship and preaching. During that time church business is conducted as well with new churches and pastor changes being announced.
So anyway, apart from enjoying the conference away from the conference what else has happened?
I spent a few hours yesterday walking ALL over Kichijoji looking for a dental office.  I had called a number from the community center to help foreigners find English speaking medical doctors dentists etc.  They passed on to me the name and address of a dental office with an English speaking dentist but after walking around searching for a couple of hours I got tired out and just went to Mister Donut instead! (yeah, that's REAL good for my teeth!). I'll have to give it another try next Tuesday when the dentist is supposed to be in the office, but this time I'll Google the address first!
We've had mostly a very rainy week, looks like Tropical Storm 1304 decided to just brush past us though and dump rain so that's good. Today is finally sunny outside so of course I have clothes washed and hanging on the line to dry, I need to take advantage of these sunny days as rainy season is upon us!
Gary received his batch of outreach business cards this week, so we'll be hitting the streets and inviting people to our English Bible study!  Can't wait to get started! We're still looking for a building but will figure out a meeting place in the meantime.  There's a big outdoor area at a local Starbucks we may have coffee and study at to start with. Here's a picture of the front and back of the cards. Business cards are big deals here, if you give one to someone they take it with both hands and stare at it for about a minute (showing proper respect I guess) before putting it away.



 
That's it for here!

Friday, June 14, 2013

June 14th

After three days of rain and not feeling very well besides I was finally able to get out a little today! Like I said it's been a steady drizzly rain the last three days but the rain stopped and then it was just hot and muggy! Not as bad as when we lived in Panama though... nothing is as hot as Panama! Even so, ponytails are my friend because they keep my hair up off of my neck and also because without them my hair frizzes out. I would show you a picture but it is quite frightening!
Anyway, I hopped our little local bus and headed over to the shopping area of Kichijoji.  I stopped in a bookstore, those of you who know me know that I could live in bookstores and libraries! When I was a kid I once dreamt I died and went to heaven only to discover that heaven was a giant library!
Apparently, Japan shares my love of the printed word! If you are riding on a train here you will see one of three things. People sleeping, people on cellphones or tablets (not talking on the phones  though that would be rude) or just as often they will be reading a book or magazine. There are bookstores everywhere here! Young people and elderly alike all love to read!
After I dragged myself out of the bookstore I headed to a little import store. The import stores are scattered around the city and it's hit and miss as to whether you will find something you want on any given visit. Today, however, was a winner! I found three jars of Salsa Verde (the secret ingredient to a few of my Mexican dishes) and I found grape jam! I have only been able to find strawberry and blueberry and I missed grape, so yay! I also found sauerkraut and Swiss cheese which is what I was actually looking for since I had some bratwurst I wanted to make for dinner but needed sauerkraut and Swiss cheese to go with it. I also was looking for some American style potato chips to go with a packet of French onion dip mix I had found. I didn't find any there so I headed home and decided to try the grocer nearer my house.  And this is what happened:

 I had ridden my bike to the local grocery store and was on my way home when I had to stop for a light. A little truck pulls up right next to me, I look up and tied on to the back of the truck with a single thin rope was a porta potty! It was kind of leaning toward me and I had no where to move until the light changed. I had terrible visions of my ignominious death by porta potty! Fortunately that wasn't my fate today!
So that's the story of what's been going on here the last couple of days ... with me anyway, Gary has a whole different story involving flyers, taxes, and business cards! (so despite not feeling well and all... I still think I had it better off!)

Monday, June 10, 2013

June 10th "Are you a Christian?"

Gary and I had some errands to run and decided to head over to our old stomping grounds...Fuchu. Fuchu is a pretty area and has the Can Do and 100 Yen store we like. We shopped around picking up some household stuff and ran across a couple of funny things. We often see products with words in English , often times poorly translated words that make us laugh. This one caught my eye!
 Yes, it's a small can of butane gas for a little stove named.... "My Bombe" !!!!!


At another store we were looking at some fans. Summer has definitely arrived here and we were in need of another fan for the apartment. I wanted to get this one but Gary vetoed that choice!
                         Who wouldn't want a little elephant fan that blows air out of it's trunk?!

We didn't get Mr. Elephant and headed over to Tenya for some tempura dinner. I had a new dish they offered with soba noodles and tempura on top and then you poor a little bottle of broth on top of  it and eat it. It was pretty good!
Then it was time to head home, but I needed to stop at a bakery and Gary wanted to go back and pick up a fan we had seen so I told him I'd wait for him by the bus bench when I finished at the bakery. Well, I bought some things and settled in with my shopping on a bench next to a guy (I thought he was a young man but he was in his early thirties (Japanese look So young, I can never tell ages here!).  I was enjoying watching all the people walk by and found myself praying internally for Japan and asking God for help in reaching this country. Out of the blue, the man I'm sitting next to looks at me and asks, in very shaky English, what country I'm from. I tell him America and he looks at me and says, "Are you a Christian?"  Can you get a better opening than that?! I looked at him and said, "I am, are you?"   He looks down at the can of hard lemonade he was drinking , and sheepishly said, "No". The next 20 minutes we held a very disjointed conversation with lots of hand signals and his little bit of English and my even less of Japanese. He has some understanding though of Christianity and Jesus. He understood when I explained that my husband is a pastor. He told me he was messed up and his heart is broken and I told him Jesus can fix his heart!  Gary arrived then and I introduced them, we talked some more but then it was time to catch the bus home. Gary got his email address and on the bus ride home they were able to talk more clearly through the emails translation program. Please be praying for him, his name is Hirotosi, he's sad and in need of Jesus and I hope we can stay in contact with him.

Friday, June 7, 2013

June 7th Futons and Back in the Kitchen

Before we received our bedroom furniture Gary and I had been sleeping on borrowed futons from our friend Atsuko. Now that we have a bed I am having the futons dry cleaned in preparation to return them to her.  The only problem is that the nearest dry cleaning place is a few blocks away and I have to individually carry the futons and the futon pads to this dry cleaner and I can only manage one at a time! Who knows what the dry clean people think because every day I show up with a new futon to be cleaned, (there are two futons and two futon pads in total). I've taken in both pads so far and hope to get the futons themselves there tomorrow and the next day. I know the neighbors must think I'm crazy walking down the street carrying a futon everyday! Here's my slimmer, dark haired stunt double showing what I look like!
 The lady and her son (I think) at the drycleaners seem to be having a good time trying to converse with me anyway. I was trying to let them know that I still have two more futons to bring and all I could manage was "1 futon,2 futon,3 futon,4 futon" I think the son understood me.....maybe. If not I just sounded like Dr. Seuss "1 fish,2 fish..."

So I've been back in the kitchen again trying out new Japanese recipes. I got a couple of good cookbooks from the library so I got inspired! Yesterday, I tried my hand at a pork/veggie stew with a dashi/miso stock. 

 

 
 
It was a delicious recipe that was fairly simple to make, and now that I have the basic dashi/miso stock figured out I can make different meat/veggie variations!

Today, I decided to try Oyakodon ( translated: parent and child ). Here is a link that explains it well and includes the recipe!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyakodon
While it isn't much to look at the flavor is quite tasty and it's very easy to make! I enjoyed it with a refreshing cup of iced golden oolong tea that Gary had made!



             Yesterday, Gary found a microwave/toaster oven/convection oven combo on sale on Craigslist. The price was right and he delivered so after getting him to agree to put English sticker translations on the buttons for me we agreed to buy it. In the evening Mohinder - a Punjabi name according to my local Indian expert- showed up and we now have ourselves a working microwave with labeled buttons. He labeled one of the buttons for frozen pilaf... I'm guessing he ate that a lot or something! ha!

That's it for now! Tomorrow, I hope to start my Japanese lessons at the local community center!

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

June 5th Back to Nature

So I needed a break from the city for a little while - I am a country girl at heart so sometimes it gets to be a bit much.  (a Wisconsin license plate for sale in this retro Tokyo book store we visited)
Yesterday morning I got up and headed to nearby Inokashira park. It's very large and has trails for walking, biking, a zoo, a couple of lakes with paddle and row boats, some shrines and the occasional stopping place for a coffee or meal. (did I mention it's quite large?)
As I wandered the paths I enjoyed people watching, there were artists painting pictures, and folks practicing their guitars and LOTS of folks walking dogs. Dogs are something different here in Japan, you will see lots of dogs here but they will be pure breds being spoiled by their owners. Many times I'll see a person coming towards me with a baby carriage but instead of a baby inside, there will be a DOG! I've seen owners carrying their dogs over their shoulders like a baby (guess the little boxer got too tired from his walk?!). I don't know if Mutts don't exist here or what the deal is, but I sure haven't seen any. I never see any loose dogs running around either. Here's a group of dog walkers visiting with each other. Another thing is I think they all go to the same dog obedience school... the dogs I've seen are very well socialized and well behaved.
 
I saw this little boy zoom by me on his little bike. He was pretty small to be bike riding when I noticed the ingenious pre-bike he was riding. It has no peddles, he just scoots along Flintstones style! Seems a much easier step to regular bike riding!
 
Walking past a lake I came across a couple of turtles sunning themselves! You can just see the baby turtle on the right
 
Then I watched the Koi , they were very large!
 
This one looked right at me!
 
I continued on my walk and saw this Shrine across the lake.

                                                      This is it up close, the couple in front of it had just rung the bell to alert the "god" of their presence or to wake him up. (depends on who you ask as to why the bell is rung, these were two possibilities given in an anthropological study on Japan I've been reading) I'm just glad my God always knows where I am and is always awake!

 
Around the temple there was a kind of moat and it had these bamboo rafts floating in it...don't know why.
 
The park was also full of groups of schoolchildren on outings for the day! They are so cute with their matching uniforms and hats!
 
I was feeling a bit peckish so I stopped at this cute little cafe in the park! Of course if this was a Fairy Tale there would be a witch inside that eats children.
 
Whew! It was safe..no witches just Cappuccino and crepes!

 
 
Then it was time to head back to the city!

Monday, June 3, 2013

June 3rd Tokyo Station and Japanese Irish?

While out and about today we were at one point at Tokyo Station.  It's truly an impressive building, that originally opened in 1914. It has undergone a few reconstructions due to fire and also it was bombed during WW2. Inside the station there are many shops with good food. I especially noticed many bento box food shops, probably because this is also the main hub for the Shinkansen Bullet train so folks are buying traveling food. Here's a picture and video I took!



 
I thought it funny that Tokyo is apparently VERY excited that they are a 2020 Olympic game nominee... isn't that a bit far from now and it is only a nominee...
 
 
Across the street was a mall, it had a roof top "park" where we were able to take some more pictures of the station.

                                                     Yes, that's grass on the rooftop!
 
Nice view though.

 
Here's a pic of the trains ... you can see the Bullet train as well.
 
 
Inside the mall area we stopped at a coffee shop/bookstore. It was really cool and had a lot of old timey retro things. Like key chains from the '60's and '70's for old gas stations. Old license plates and stuff. I also ran into this old friend!   


                                                                               
 
Afterwards we headed home to Kichioji. I had a couple of things to pick up for dinner and I ran across this band putting on a nice show on my way to the store. They call themselves the New Irish Project or that was the name of their CD. Anyway, they were pretty good and were enjoying themselves!
 

Saturday, June 1, 2013

June 1st Up off the floor!

We have a bedroom! Our bedroom furniture arrived today! After so many months of sleeping on futons we have a bed! Not that the futons weren't comfortable, they were, but getting up off the floor isn't as easy as it once was! As promised, here are a photo and a small video so you can see!

 
We still need to get Gary a chest of drawers and another nightstand for me but it's SO much better even with these few pieces of furniture!
 
By the time I finished unboxing the nightstand and chest and then sorting the closet out, putting up the futons, arranging my clothes, washing blankets etc. I was tired out. I took a little nap on the bed and I think the mattress will be comfy. This is the first brand new bed and mattress we have ever owned in almost 30 years of marriage...crazy!
 
After the nap, I took Speedy to the grocery store. Gary made some salsa, and I made burrito fixings and a macaroni salad for dinner! Yummy!
 
Now it's bath time. Did I mention that on my electronic water heater there is a button I can push and it fills the tub up for me and tells me when it's ready? Also, I set the water temperature at whatever I want so I never have to fuss with the hot and cold to get the right temperature! The Japanese really know how to set up a nice bathroom!  Oops! Looks like my bath is ready! Bye!