July 30 2013 Post Office Charades (and ham..yay!)

Tonights dinner was a new recipe. Buta-baraniku to daikon no nimono (Simmered pork with daikon radish). It also had carrots and shitake mushrooms. Very simple ingredients but with the flavorful dashi stock  it had a rich meaty taste along side of the rice. 

Earlier in the day I had taken Speedy over to the post office.  We had a package to mail out and one to pick up that we had missed the day before while we were out. (At least that's what we thought the paper said ... hopefully). The post office is a long walk away but it's relatively close by bike so I don't mind the ride.  I did my usual game of charades with the post office lady and she was nice and tried to use her very limited English and between us we managed to get the package mailed. When I showed her the notice we had received she came out from behind her counter and walked me all the way around the post office to show me which window I needed to be at to retrieve my package. So Nice!

Yesterday, Gary and I went to Kichijoji , we still hadn't gotten him a dresser yet and it was time. We had one in mind from the same store we had purchased our couch from but had been looking around some more till we finally decided to come back to the original choice! Lol  We will be having a book shelf and patio table for our balcony delivered this weekend as well that Gary found on craigslist on somebodies Sayonara Sale. A Sayonara Sale is when a foreigner is returning to their home country and have to sell all of their things. They sell stuff super cheap because if they don't get rid of it, they have to PAY to have it hauled away and it isn't cheap!

 

On our way home I saw a little shop where I had found some really good sliced ham once (like home baked and sliced) and got all excited and ran inside.

When I came out Gary was gone! I walked a few blocks toward the house but then headed back figuring I just missed seeing him, turns out he was in a realtors office asking about buildings for the church.  I guess he told me he was going in there as I headed to the ham but I was too excited to hear!  When I asked him where he was he told me,                                    

                            "Didn't you know I have to be about my Father's business?"

 

Well, I guess we both had our priorities and later as he ate a tasty ham sandwich he was happy with mine too! (it was really good ham!)

 

 

 

August 26th #itsallaboutthefood

  I have a friend who likes to hashtag a lot of her instagram posts #itsallaboutthefood , so today I decided to really make it all about the food! We receive a lot of flyers in our mail because here the postal service doesn't own your mailbox so businesses can just put advertisements in there without paying extra for postage.  I don't read Japanese, but I like to look at the different adverts for fun as sometimes they will use English in their names. I received one the other day for a business called Lava, it advertised itself as teaching Hot Yoga. I'm not sure how that differs from regular yoga exactly but it did make me curious! Ha!
I also received this flyer:

 

Ramen shops here are serious business! There is one place we ate at in Tachikawa that was all Ramen shops and they had Iron Chef style competitions.  Anyway, I liked the different chef personalities on this flyer.

Chef #1

Before becoming Ramen Master he worked as Sub-Zero on Mortal Combat!

 

Chef #2

I would accept him as a traditionalist ...but WHAT is that eating his ramen in the picture?! Is it a person or a piggy with a mustache or a cat? His face says, "I'm no nonsense, take me seriously" but how can I ?!

 

Chef #3

 

 

Look! A Female Ramen Chef! Apparently, these are still rare in Japan. I think she's looking for a very ascetically pleasing plate.  Definitely, the fanciest look I've seen so far!

 

On to other food stuff! The other day, Gary brought home some somen noodles. With the hot weather he has been wanting to eat some cold noodles dipped in sauce as is common here in the very hot weather. He also found some tasty squid cooked with garlic and chili.. we think maybe it was cooked Korean style. Either way, it was a light tasty lunch!

 

 

I was in the grocery store and they had set up a small radio by the fish section. There was an old guy with a gravely voice talking. I didn't understand all that was being said of course but I kept picking up on the word Unagi. I guess unagi season is in, because when I looked there was unagi. I picked up a packet that I could heat in my little broiler that all Japanese stoves come with.

 

I heated them through, I also made some soup, rice and pork with nira (a Japanese garlic/onion type plant) and bean sprouts.

(this is nira)

 

Anyhow, it all looked like this.

 

I've never had Unagi before but it was light tasting and not fishy at all, which makes sense since it isn't actually a fish as it's eel.  Unagi is fresh water eel, though Gary says he prefers Anago which is sea water eel. I didn't even know fresh water eel existed!

 

A few days later, I passed my little corner fish market I saw they had pulled out the little grill and were grilling fresh unagi and something else that was much cheaper but looked tasty on a skewer. I decided to pick up a couple of the cheaper ones to take home to Gary. As usual, I had no idea what I was buying but it looked pretty good. I think we decided in the end that it was grilled fish entrails with a sauce on it. Gary said it was good, I didn't taste any, maybe next time. Sorry, I didn't have my camera but this is what the unagi grilling looked like.

 

One of Gary's favorites for lunch is sushi rice. I can pick it up ready made in the bento box section of our grocer. It's like sushi in a bowl!

 

 

In case you think all we eat is Japanese food we don't.

 Nothing beats a good old American breakfast!

 

 

There you have it! My #itsallaboutthefood post!

Provecho!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 22nd Hon-Atsugi!

Several years ago a foreign exchange student lived in Globe, Arizona with her host family and was invited to Pastor John Goodings church. She got saved and moved back to Japan. When we were announced into Tokyo her name was passed on to us and we began emailing and getting to know Ai. She very kindly answered our many questions and we were happy  yesterday to finally get to meet her in person! We took the train and rode a couple of hours to her home city of Hon Atsugi and visited her church. The people in her church were very friendly and invited us to stay for lunch afterwards. We met some of Ai's friends who also spoke English and we all had a very nice visit!

We had a nice meal with fancy rice and beans, edamame beans, eggplant and peppers in miso, and pickled daikon radish! (Ai is the girl across from Gary)  Later, as we were walking back to the train station I asked Ai how her parents took her becoming a Christian and she said they weren't happy at first but they are fine with it now. Her mother got saved two years ago so now we will pray for her father as well! Another nice thing about yesterday was the weather, the heat wave finally broke and traveling was much more comfortable!

 

The other day, we needed a day out (all work and no play makes Lisa a dull girl!) but we didn't want to do a lot of walking out doors as it was still quite hot and humid ,so we headed to Tachikawa. Tachikawa has a couple of nice malls with air conditioning and it's a good place to get some walking and window shopping in without melting! Plus, it has Krispi Kreme donuts so that makes the whole trip worth it!  We had a nice time and enjoyed our donuts and iced latte, then we did a little window shopping. We didn't buy much, just a really cute bunny bookmark that I gave to Ai as a greeting gift and this:    
                                           
                                                 
                                                   Oh Yeah! The worlds coolest soy sauce decanter!

July 16th

Wow! This last week flew by! I didn't realize I hadn't posted in several days until Gary mentioned it to me yesterday.  Nothing amazingly exciting has happened, I just got caught up in stuff! Three of my 4 children were moving to different apartments last week, I know the two in Colorado managed to get moved alright, I'm still waiting to hear if the one in Panama has moved yet.  Synchronized moving...wonder if that's anything like synchronized swimming!
****** Random fact about Lisa****** I actually participated in synchronized swimming while in high school.. did a fancy swim routine to the theme song from the tv series M*A*S*H !
Yes, that was 31 years ago!  

                               Now back to your regularly scheduled programing blog!

I've been making friends here. Okay, one of them is actually my dentist, but since I am seeing her every week for the foreseeable future we have been getting to know each other. She's very nice and it's surprising how much we manage to visit in between the drilling and other awful dental stuff going on! Today we talked about learning to ride bikes, childbirth, kids and driving cars in Japan among other things. Also, my neighbor and I have been visiting quite a lot lately. She lived in Michigan for many years and since I'm from Wisconsin that makes us neighbors! She's a very nice lady and I'm hoping she and my dentist may be interested in visiting our church once we get a building.

I've been trying out some more recipes lately, here's a few pictures for you foodies. This one is braised beef with potatoes, not much to look at but was quite tasty and filling.

The second picture is thin cut pork chops on bean sprouts. The pork chops were cooked in a special glaze that I can't remember off hand and since I returned the cookbook to the library I will have to re-check it out and copy the recipe so I can cook it again, but it was very good!

  This third picture actually has two new recipes. A cold spinach salad with a homemade sesame dressing (when I say homemade, I mean, I took sesame seeds and ground them in a mortar and pestle) and I also cubed some ham and fried it because I thought it would be good that way, not sure how Japanese-y that idea was but I liked the salad with it. Also, I did Chicken teriyaki which I have made before ,but this time I added sliced Japanese leeks and cooked that with it. When you buy it like kababs you can get the chicken with the Japanese leeks together so I thought I could cook it that way on stove top too...it worked out well. 

So there you have it! Those are some of the things I've been up to! We survived the latest heat wave and it's finally down into the '80's again though my dentist lady promises me that August will be back into the '90's as that is the hottest month traditionally.
                                                                          Hasta Luego!

July 9th End of Rainy Season

Sunday, the weather people here officially declared rainy season over. Monday, we had a nice thunderstorm and rain! Well, to be honest, we have been enveloped in a heat wave since Saturday ...upper 90's and HIGH humidity, but late yesterday afternoon for a short spell there was a little relief by way of a nice downpour. I think the temperature dropped to the upper '80's!  I haven't been this hot since we lived in Panama. This isn't quite as bad as Panama heat...I feel like the sun was hotter there for some reason, but it is plenty hot none the less! The streets are emptied of all but a few people, mostly teenage boys- (who we all know are crazy and will go out in anything!) or housewives at the grocery store ( Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these women from the swift completion of their appointed rounds)!  Today, it seemed a little cooler than the last couple of days though, or maybe I'm just getting used to it. Either way, after my dentist appointment this morning I walked all the way back to the train station instead of waiting for the bus. I saw a lot of hats, parasols and long, up past the elbow gloves. I'm not sure if the gloves are a fashion statement or protection from the sun or both, but they are quite popular here and I have seen women wear them in the winter too.

The full on face shield for bike riders is also popular, it makes sense but is rather startling when you first encounter them riding toward you on a sidewalk!

I am tempted to buy one of these face masks but then I'd feel compelled to put google eyes on the front for fun!!!  (hmmm, there's a plan!)

The weather forecast says we will remain in the 90's until Saturday at least , I better stock up on cold drinks!

July 5th Celebrating Holidays as an Ex-pat!

Living in foreign countries is interesting when it comes to celebrating or not celebrating holidays. Some holidays are universal and if celebrated on the same day like Christmas you get all of the same hype around the season like you do in your home country. Other holidays though are unique to your own country and nobody else but yourself knows that it's there. You have two choices then, you can celebrate the holiday anyway or you can ignore it. We have usually chosen to celebrate them ... any excuse for a fiesta! When we had children at home it became a time to have some fun and eat some food. I remember one Christmas in Panama we made hot chocolate one evening, turned the air conditioner on full blast in our bedroom , we all put on warm pj's (that we NEVER wore in Panama )and pretended it was snowy and cold out and drank our cocoa in our air conditioned bedroom!   Christmas in Panama looked like this...shorts and barefeet!

 

Panama was interesting as it celebrated Mother's Day in December. Manuel Noriega had changed the date to coincide with his mother's birthday and the change stayed even after he was gone!  Of course since I'm American and celebrate MY holidays as well as the countries I'm in, I got TWO Mother's Day while we were in Panama! Buya!

My favorite Holiday though is Thanksgiving. I remember before NAFTA, living in Mexico and trying to find a turkey. There were some of the scariest scrawniest looking turkeys at the Mercado(meant for boiling and making Mole, not roasting) and there were a couple of years I gave up and we had chicken or roast beef instead of turkey.  Eventually, however,  the turkeys started arriving and Thanksgiving was on full swing! We'd invite fellow Pastors and folks from church and introduce them to the Thanksgiving holiday. I have no oven here in Japan so I'm not sure yet how we'll figure out to do a turkey here this year.

All that to say, that yesterday was the 4th of July so in celebration I walked to Village Vanguard and bought us hamburgers and fries since we have no grill to bbq on.

 

Afterwards, we had homemade Peanut Buster parfaits!

 

We didn't have fireworks but I promised Gary I'd walk up behind him at some point and yell "BOOM!!!" so he could at least have the fireworks sound effects...

 

Hope all you Americans had a wonderful 4th of July!

 

 

 

 

July 3rd Toothache and Dentist

Yesterday, I spent 2 1/2 hours at the dentist! I've been needing to go and it had finally gotten past the point of optional. Fortunately, Dr. Minami lived and studied in the U.S. so she speaks very good English and she will be helping me get my dental situation fixed. It was worse than I thought but after 6 or 7 more visits, 3 crowns, a bridge and all my fillings replaced I should be good to go. I know....EEEEKKKK!!!! This is going to be a long painful summer but I like keeping my teeth. She was fascinated that I had dental work from three different countries in my mouth, by the time she finishes though it'll all be Japanese! I thank God that my kids and husband all have better teeth than I do!

I've been experimenting with the cake setting on the rice cooker. I made a very nice banana cake yesterday!I think we have the hang of it now for baking cakes anyway. So far I've done a chocolate and a banana cake.
Today Gary took me to the salaryman breakfast place. For only 390 yean, I had a very nice Japanese breakfast. I had rice, tsukemono, gyudon beef, miso soup, salad, a hotdog sausage and a fried egg! It was very filling and delicious.  After having the Japanese breakfast I decided to go American for dinner and made us porkchops, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy! 
All of this talk about food is making me hungry, think I'll have some tea and banana cake! Later!