Sept. 9th 2013

I had kind of a random day today. Took care of laundry, did some light house cleaning and finished reading a murder mystery that I picked up at the library last week.  Gary had his Japanese lesson this morning so I didn't bother with breakfast, just made myself some coffee and putzed around! I made some Mexican Spaghetti for dinner -basically spaghetti that is cooked and has ham, onion and salsa. (I also add cream cheese to it as it makes it smoother and tastier.)  Of course my Mexican spaghetti is never as good or as HOT as my daughter Katie's! It had been quite a while since we'd had any though so it was nice!

On to other things....
I was walking home from the store the other day and found this cicada shell. You can see where the back split open to let the cicada escape!

I love the sound of Cicadas, maybe it's a throw back to my childhood when we would catch them and watch them molt from their shells.  Whatever it is, I find the sound of them pleasant.
A couple of weeks ago I found some cute little bath toys, what made them interesting is that they are ceramic and they float! (And they are cute!) I bought a goldfish, a koi and a turtle!

On Saturday, we had to stay home until the inspectors came through our apartment to test all of the fire/carbon monoxide alarms. The notice had said any time between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. but they didn't arrive until 1:30p.m.! Afterwards, Gary and I went to Kichijoji to take care of some shopping. and for dinner. We had a nice dinner at Ootoya.  Ootoya is just a popular, mid range restaurant here but as you can see from their U.S. site it's a bit fancier in the States!
http://www.ootoya.us/

The other day I bought a packaged noodle dinner. 

 

There are SO MANY different types and flavors here that I thought I'd occasionally try one and see how it is.  It was alright for an emergency, but nothing I'd like to eat daily! (Yes, that's mayonnaise on top... mayo is very popular on noodles and stuff here!)
                                                         


I also picked up a packaged desert that made BIG promises!

 

While tasty, it didn't quite live up to it's advertised dream promises!

 

That's it for today!

September Already!

Hard to believe the summer is gone and fall is at our doorstep! The heat has been intense this past month and we hear that September continues hot but still...autumn is on the way! I'm generally a summer person myself, but even I admit to looking forward to a little cooler weather!

Had another dentist appointment today... this makes EIGHT so far! Good news is I'm finally seeing the end of the tunnel on this! Should only have about 4 appointments left and 3/4's of my mouth has all new dental in it and is looking great! On my way home I passed this cemetery.  Interesting thing is that it's in the middle of a very crowded shopping area as is the temple that is next to it. I guess the shopping area just got built up around them. Some of the graves I saw looked quite old.

Gary had his weekly Japanese class yesterday, later I hopped the Mu bus and went to Mitaka to meet him. This is the street where he has his class.

After we met up it was On to food!  We stopped for some lunch at a salaryman café, (that's what I call the cafes where you buy a ticket at the door to get your meal). I tried a new hamburger dish they had advertised.  The hamburger had a tomato/garlic sauce going on with a soft boiled egg on the side. It was alright but almost too garlicky for me which is hard to believe because I'm a very big fan of garlic!

Gary and I sat at a table together but many diners just gather around a large center table.

Earlier in the week I had decided to make a Korean dish. When we lived in Panama, my girls and I got interested in cooking Korean food. One of our favorite dishes was yachaejeon. It has julienned zucchini,green onions, and shrimp.( Sometimes I also add scallops if I have them on hand.) I sure miss cooking with my girls!

 It's really a very simple recipe and tastes great with rice and a dipping sauce! Here is the video so you can learn to make it too!

Maangchi, the lady who does these cooking videos has become moderately famous now but when we were watching her she was just starting out. Check out some of her other videos, the recipes are very tasty!

Yesterday, was Labor Day for you guys. I don't have a grill so I couldn't do the whole grill out thing, but I did do some good old fried chicken and my mother-in-laws delicious potato salad recipe!

Hope all my American readers had an enjoyable Labor Day...and the rest of you an enjoyable regular day!

August 29th Lisa Eats a Fizzy Pepsi Cheeto

Dear loyal follower...Melissa (because apparently I have only one actual Follower according to my blog statistics)!  Things are going well here in Tokyo, better than last week! (No deaths or near deaths like last week for which we are grateful!)  Our real estate agent is staying in touch with us regularly and trying hard to find us a building for the church. Nothing is done quickly in Japan but with much thought and deliberation before hand. There is actually a Japanese proverb that says that if you are in a hurry take the slow route because hurrying can cause mistakes to happen! (It's true! Anytime I've tried to get Gary to hurry faster for something he goes slower!!!!)

The weather has finally let up some, cooler evenings and less humidity so it all helps. There's even been a couple times when we didn't need to run the air conditioner which will be even nicer with the electric bill!

On to food!!!


Gary and I made it by one of our preferred bakeries in Fuchu this week. It's a bit far from home so we don't get there too often. We did pick up a couple of our favorite breads and enjoyed them the next morning with coffee for breakfast.  I like a big eggy French toast like bread. 

 

 

And Gary likes what I call Crown Bread...I have no idea what it really is called!

 

The other day I decided to make a new Kakuni recipe.

 

 I've made it before but I had a new low-fat one that has three times as many steps to it but looked good. I got the recipe from one of my favorite you tube  Japanese recipe cooks.  Here is the video I used.

 

It's funny because the site is called Cooking with Dog... which is either a very clever play on a stereotype...or just an unfortunate choice of names! Lol  It features a lady who cooks while her dog watches!

 

To top off the food section we have the new cheeto flavor, Fizzy Pepsi!

 

Let's see what I think about this new flavor...

 

 

 

August 23rd

So a couple of days ago I spent an hour writing up a blog post and then I accidently deleted it! Argghhh!!! Don't ask me how, when it comes to technology I'm capable of messing up even the simplest device!
Anyway, I was disgusted with myself and decided not to come back here and try again until now!

It's been an interesting last few days. More dentist for me as usual and I went to the library - I LOVE my library, apart from the books they have a nice selection of English newspapers and magazines.
Gary went and looked at a couple of buildings for the church, unfortunately they didn't work out, but he has another few to look at in the next day or two. At least THIS realtor is actually looking for us for buildings. 

We received some sad news the other day that a friend from our home church passed away unexpectedly. She loved Jesus more than anything though so I know she is alright and we will meet again someday. However, I will miss her smile and friendship when we go back to our home church.

My father in law is still not doing well. He's had to make a couple of more trips back to the emergency room from the rehab/nursing center. He is losing weight at an alarming rate so more tests are being run. It's very hard of course for Gary's sister dealing with all of that on her own and it's very hard for us to be so far away and not being able to help. Please keep them all in your prayers.

Taiwan has been being hit by a typhoon and Japan seems to be getting some peripheral thunder storms as a result. The other day we had a pretty good gully washer and this happened:

They did get some technicians in that very evening and had the elevator back up and running by morning...though it did smell like wet carpet inside!


                                          On to food!  

I mentioned earlier that Gary learned how to order Dominos pizza online and how wonderful that has been! Dominos pizza has a few different items on their menu apart from pizza that we don't see in the States.   One thing they offer is roast chicken!

 

They also have some surprisingly delicious ribs! The bbq sauce comes separately for you to add on your own. The ribs are very tender and juicy and since I have yet to find ribs in a grocery store this is a really nice treat! 

 

 

For desert there are these tasty little baked custard like tartlets. They aren't much to look at but they are very good!

 

               That's it for now, I'll try not to delete this post!

 

 

 

August 16th! Mu Bus and stuff!

The other  day Gary and I were waiting on the Mu bus, (that is our handy little local bus that will transport us between our home and Mitaka or Kichijoji train Station),

 Anyway, I looked out the door of the bus and couldn't help admiring these beautiful orchids!

 

I know the picture could be clearer but I was taking it on zoom from a bus! Flowers are a big thing here, you see them everywhere. Some are for the ancestor altar in homes but otherwise I think folks just really like flowers because I see more florist stalls here it seems.  Anyway, these orchids were particularly nice! So perfectly symmetrical.

 

Tuesday, Gary and I braved the heat and headed to Maedame Station. We've been doing a little exploring and looking around . We had passed by this station before but never gotten off to check out the neighborhood. Due to the heat we didn't make it real far before we were looking for anyplace air conditioned! We ended up having some lunch at Gustos. I had some French fries and a salad and Gary had the fish lunch plate. Our waitress was a lady around our age and she spoke some English. We gave her a card and invited her to join the English class we are planning to start.  Afterwards we headed back to the station!

Here's a couple of pictures from Maedame area.

                                                                              
                                                                            On to food!

I felt like eating Mexican or Southwest food the other day so I opened one of my precious green chili cans and a can of beans I had found. Ended up with some green chili and beans and Mexican rice. I added a sliced banana on my rice which is a Mexico City thing. At the Comida Corridas in Mexico City they would offer us a sliced banana or a fried egg on our rice... both were good!

 

That's it for now, off to finish hanging laundry!

August 12th

So how is everyone? We're doing good here apart from the heat wave. Yes, Japan is in the middle of a heat wave! We hit 100 degrees plus high humidity so that was even hotter than anything we had in Panama! Hard to believe!  Apparently, this heat wave is breaking records for Japan so maybe it's just an anomaly. 

My birthday came and went on the 8th, this is my last year in my 40's and then I enter a new decade! Gary and I had an enjoyable day. He took me to the Kururu mall in Fuchu and then we went out to eat. I had Tonkatsu noodle soup and gyoza, afterwards we stopped at Douters and had coffee and desert! My dentist laughed when I told her we went to Fuchu for my birthday, she said most people would go to Shinjuku , or someplace fancier. Fuchu is rather low key and suburban which is exactly why I like it!

The day after my birthday I went to the dentist again and had to have a root canal...that was fun...

On to nicer topics....

Gary had his first meeting with a Japanese tutor today. The local community center pairs up volunteers with folks wanting Japanese lessons. I'll wait and see how it goes for him, and if it works out I may try it as well.


On to food!

Last night, I made Japanese style burgers. I used a ready made sauce packet, because I was lazy and I like this one!

 It's very easy, just fry up some little slider size burgers and add the sauce and heat through! Served with rice on the side it's fast and filling. It's almost like little meat loafs rather than burgers .  Sometimes I feel like going all out and cooking from scratch and sometimes I want easy and tasty!

The other day I was feeling like Sukiyaki, I hadn't made that in a while so I pulled out my electric Nabe pot and made us some. The first and last time I had used the electric Nabe pot I had filled it too full and didn't keep a close eye on it and it bubbled over onto the table and the floor so I got mad at it (not at myself!) and put it away for a long time! I decided to give it another try, but this time I kept a close eye on things and it worked out very well!

                                                      
                                             Here it is served up with rice and tea!

 

That's about it for here right now. Hopefully this heat wave will let up and I'll get out and about more soon! 

 

Oh yeah, my Asus Memo tablet arrived ... I love it!

August 6th 2013

A couple of weeks ago my 7" tablet crashed and refused to be revived despite Gary's best efforts. We had gotten a good deal on it a year ago, it was used and I put it to hard work myself so we couldn't complain too much. I really did miss my tablet though! today Gary surprised me by ordering me the just out Asus Memo 7 HD for my birthday! It looks like a really good tablet and at $149 retail it's a good price as well! I can't wait for mine to arrive!

Gary's dad has been in the hospital since last week. He wasn't eating and became dehydrated so my sister-in-law took him to the emergency room and he was admitted.  He's doing better but is going to need some time to recuperate. Please keep him in your prayers.

 

 

The hardest part of being a missionary or pastoring far from home is when there is a family crisis and you can't be there to help.

The other day my mother said to me, "If you come home after I die..." and while I told her I fully expected her to remain alive until I can see her again we both do realize that part of the cost of ministry life may be that I won't ever see her again on this earth. And she is so cute I REALLY do want to see her again!

 

 

 

On to the food portion of my blog!

I sometimes feel like I'm a multiple personality as far as cooking goes! I have Mexican me who loves to cook all things Mexican, there is American me and there is Asian me. Today I will share some of my Mexican favorites, starting with my darling Mexicana, Hopie aka Esperanza! Here we are making our annual Christmas time tamales! She likes tamales dulce and I like tamales de carne de puerco con salsa verde!

 

I also enjoy a tasty milanesa de pollo con arroz y frijolitos!

 

Of course we can't forget Mole!

 

Left over mole? No problem enchiladas de mole are delish!

 

Or my simple fried quesadillas de queso!

 

 

                            Low on $? Nothing cheaper or tastier than some enfrijoladas!

 

 

And to top it all off, a nice cup of Abuelita chocolate!

 

                                                                         Provecho!