Delicious Desserts

A few stations away in Kokubunji (although most definitely not unique to this location), on the main floor of the shopping complex, is an area so lush with delicious-looking, beautiful food, it makes the eyes spin, and the mind reel. (I no longer correct my students when they use "gorgeous" as a food adjective.)

After snapping this pic, I was politely scolded by the counter woman. "No photos," she said. Thankfully, she didn't asked that I delete the photo, nor have my camera confiscated. Here is the evidence of the existence of these divine treats. I might have bought one had my hand not been slapped (metaphorically of course.)

This photo is actually from quite a few months ago, but it got lost in the digital piles of Kamakura and Ueno and Nikko pictures.

Be sure to visit my Flickr page and look at the highest resolution version of this photo. You could eat it!!

Oh Bento! Part 二

This was a good one. Scrambled egg and ground pork atop a bed of rice. On the right, you see konbu, plums, and leaks wrapped in pork with little plastic forks through them. We share these bento boxes as they are quite large and full.

Kids, Candy and Cake

Yesterday, we went over to a student's house to make cheesecake. The student is 4 years old, and you can see her in the photo (a few more photos at Flickr). Her brother is between 1 and 2 years old. They were eating a lot of candy and were very excited that Honoka's eigo no sensei was in their house.

Their mom and Yuu made a blueberry cheesecake and I played with the kids. Young Haru was playing with cookies: he would put one in his open mouth, take it out, and then give it to me. I pretended to eat it, and then put it back on the table. Finally, he figured out what I was doing, and I was forced to eat one. Yum!

There was a piano there and I tried playing it a bit, but I was very rusty. I need to get a piano here soon!

Things we did: "What's this?" in English while running around the main floor of the house; I lifted Haru in the air many, many times (Honoka a few); chased Honoka while she screamed; played a hiragana card game; took some video (coming soon on YouTube); drank coffee and ate cookies and cake; and much, much more.

Oh Bento!

I'm being treated to wonderful bento lunches almost every day. I'm going to blog about all of them, with probably not much more than a few exclamatory "oishikattas!"

This was a cute one with tiny wieners and teeny rice balls. In the distance, you can see some carefully protected pickled plums with some almost invisible brown stringy things (Yuu, please comment on what that is. Thanks!)

Yuu is quite creative with these lunches as you will see in successive posts. Colourful, exciting, and delicious!! I'm a lucky man!

Gochisousama deshita.

A Candy Lunch

In Tokyo last summer (right near Tokyo station) we passed a restaurant which seemed to be hosting an interesting event. A number of people were lined up, eagerly awaiting entry to whatever was going on inside. We soon discovered that in the rear of the restaurant, they were hosting a candy lunch. You can see one the "meals" above. There were 3 or 4 options to choose from with various entrees, mains, and desserts. Of course, it was all just candy, but the presentation was fun, and the place was really nice, as you can see below.

Whole Lotta Snow

A little bit out of focus, but you get the idea. Today, we had lots of snow. There were no cancellations, surprisingly, and the snow ended up disappearing in the late afternoon. It was nice while it lasted, and finally felt like winter!

From The Japan Times Online

From this article comes the following interesting quote:

Such delightful ditties may serve no other porpoise than to amuse, but as for names, one need only recall the mystery writer Taro Hirai (1894-1965), who adopted the nom de plume Edogawa Ranpo after his admired American senpai (one who came before) Edgar Allan Poe. And if that won't give you the willies, then contemplate the Japanese comedians who have offered homage, if not plumage, to illustrious predecessors by imitating their names: Tani Kei (Danny Kay), Masuda Kiiton (Buster Keaton), and, perhaps the cleverest punned name of all, Sato B-saku. Sato B-saku took his name, however, from a man who was hardly a comedian, at least not by design, namely Prime Minister Sato Eisaku.

Whales

I've been surprised at most of my students' comments on whaling. There seems to be a cultural pride at work, which causes a very high percentage of them to become a bit defensive and to show a bit of emotion. It's a very interesting phenomenon.

At first, I thought that whaling would be a fruitful discussion topic, but it soon became obvious that I was wrong. I wouldn't advise bringing up this topic with friends or students, unless you're prepared to ignore your feelings or lose your acquaintances.

Dolphins can make Circles

Dolphin Play Bubble Rings - The funniest movie is here. Find it

Karaoke Sundays

We've decided to make Sunday afternoon our karaoke practice day. It's cheap until 5pm, so we can sing to our heart's delight. And, if we practice weekly, we'll be much more prepared when a record label offers us a recording deal. Woo hoo!

Here we go!!

Indian Curry

To celebrate payday, we went to the new Indian curry restaurant between work and home for dinner (our second time there). I had some kind of spinach chicken curry and Yuu had Keema curry. Below is a cellphone photo of our meal.

Going home

Today, I taught a student who is 8 months pregnant. Next week will be her last lesson, as she is going back to her hometown until April. I don't know a lot of details, but it seems like it's a custom for Japanese women to return to their mothers' homes to be taken care of for the first few months. Is this common in Canada?

First snow in Tokyo

Isn't it beautiful? We finally get a nice white winter in the big metropolis.

...

Actually, this picture doesn't come close to reflecting the true nature of this evening's snowfall. To understand what we're experiencing here, imagine very slowly falling snow, very sparsely distributed in the air, looking very much like volcanic ash, drifting slowly to the ground, and vanishing. Canadians would laugh and say "That's not a snowfall!" but I'm happy with it.

Maybe school will be cancelled tomorrow!

Coming-of-Age Day

We were in Tokorozawa the other night, looking for ingredients for some Thai dishes that we love. It was a holiday Monday, to celebrate Coming-of-Age Day. I'm not exactly sure what happens, but I do know that twenty-year-olds gather at various places (maybe City Hall) for some kind of event. The young men wear suits and the young women often wear kimonos.

As we were walking up to Tokorozawa station to head home, we were aurally assaulted by a few of these of-age youths. Apparently, they had been taking part in some of-age behaviour (glug, glug, glug) and were being very rowdy. And, I mean, rowdy. The station entrance area was packed with milling people, but these 5 or 6 boys were yelling at the top of their lungs and running hither and thither. I wanted to smack them, and might have, had there been fewer people around, fewer of them, and had I been stronger.

The picture shows the entrance to Prope Road (right near the station) although it looks to be a few decades old.

Perogyoza

We finally made perogy! And it was so easy. Perogy-like things called gyoza are famous in Japan (although I think they're originally from China) and you can buy the circular dough enclosures in any grocery store. (Sorry Nanny. We aren't making the dough...)

At Christmas, me made our first batch. We bought some strong cheddar at a special grocery store in Kokubunji and mashed it up with some potatoes. We learned that boiling the gyoza dough was not a good idea, so we cooked them in a pan with a wee bit of water, then fried them. We didn't have sour cream, but they were still delicious.


We brought part of our first batch to a Christmas potluck at Nakamachi Community Centre and I think my students liked them.

We made our second batch two nights ago. It's too easy! (Kath, try it!) If perogy was only healthy!