Weekend hiking trip

We have just had a manic few hours getting ready for a weekend away. We are climbing Japan's 17th highest peak tomorrow - Kisokoma 2956m. We will be hiking for around 8 hours and camping at the top and then coming down on Sunday. It is lashing rain everywhere in Japan tonight... I hope it stops by tomorrow. I think the worst part is that Justin is picking us up at 4.20am to drive up to Nagano and start by 7am!

Here are some photos that some other hikers took:
alternative-tourism.com
gageland.com

It looks amazing and if (IF!) it is clear, we will be able to see Mount Fuji. Imagine that! Fuji was a horrible walk, but I always like seeing it in the distance.

I am enjoying a quiet glass of wine while listening to nuevo tango. Very mellow after an hour or so running round the apartment wrapping things in plastic bags and shoving them into the backpacks. We are ready to go. My pack weighs 12 kilos, David's 15 as he has the tent. The heaviest thing is the water as we don't know whether we will be able to find any at the top. We might be using snow-melt to cook our noodles.....

soba

One of my favourite Japanese dishes is soba. I didn't know what they were until I came to Japan. How did I manage? They are buckwheat noodles. I have had them in stews in winter in villages in Nagano who claim to make the best soba in the country. My favourite way to enjoy them though is cold with a cold sauce mixed with wasabi. Yum! Even the supermarket variety will do. I just had some for dinner and here are some photos in case you can't visualize soba.










This is how you buy it in the supermarket. Open the little packets of sauce, wasabi, shredded seaweed and spring onion.










Empty the packets onto the soba. Mix it up and eat.

View

I know I keep going on about the power cables in Japan, but they are ridiculous. I go for months without noticing them, and then some days they are all I can see. Today is the latter.










From the kitchen balcony










From the living room window







Our street








Close-up of the balcony below (we are the only ones with flowers instead of bags of rubbish - why is that?)







I challenge Alain de Botton to find beauty in that.

Today is a research day which means I work from home (can you tell?) What it really means is that I drink a lot of tea, work on a bit of research data and find excuses for not doing my Japanese homework.

Rain

Never go out without an umbrella in the rainy season. I know this so why do I often get caught? Last night we went for a walk to the video shop and got caught in an absolute downpour on the way home. After 5 minutes of running through it, I spotted an umbrella in a stand in an empty ATM lobby of a bank. Umbrellas are more or less public property here and if you find one, it’s fair game so I took it. I gave it to David and went into a corner shop and bought another one for me. The shop assistants seemed more amused than annoyed at my squelching sandals getting their floor wet. They were smirking at my running mascara too.

We have dozens of umbrellas at home and didn’t need the 2 new ones, so I vowed to pass them on to someone else who had been caught in the rain when we got to our apartment building. Nearer home, I spotted three drenched men and attracted their attention to do my good deed. I had underestimated how alarming a dripping wet foreigner with panda eyes must look in the dark – they started to run away from me! I suppose I did look a bit of a banshee. David tried and this time they understood that we weren’t trying to scare or mug them, but just give them our umbrellas. They beamed and accepted the gifts shouting their appreciation in English as they disappeared off into the rainy night “Sank you! Sank you! Sank YOOOOOOOOO!”

Toronto Mississippi

This weekend we went to see a play which was directed by our friend Alan Thompson. It was performed by 4 actors from the local English language theatrical company the Nagoya Players and was very, very good. Perhaps the best one yet. They performed a play by Joan MacLeod called Toronto Mississippi about a woman, her lodger, her estranged husband (a professional Elvis impersonator) and their 18 year old autistic daughter. We came out feeling stimulated and discussing nuances of the play. I had never heard of it before and a Google search found practically nothing about it. I am going to get hold of a copy of the original. It’s lovely to be able to go to the theatre. Pity they only have 2 performances a year. The next one is in December - A Christmas Carol. Japanzine article about Toronto Mississippi

Travel reading

I just read a guardian article where writers talk about their best travel reads and it got me thinking about my own choices (any excuse to re-tell some of my traveller’s tales…). OK, here they are:

I remember reading “Dracula” as I was landing in Tierra del Fuego (blog from 15 November 2004 ). The novel is pretty scary, but not half as frightening as flying into fierce Patagonian winds in a 19-seater plane.

I remember being in the Amazon rain forest in Peru hiding out with a pair of binoculars in a camouflaged shelter. I was waiting for the rain to stop so I could see macaws visit a clay-lick. I was reading the most unlikely novel to while away the hours: A pair of blue eyes by Thomas Hardy. (Blog from 17th December 2004)

As we are on the theme of incongruous reads, I may as well share with you that I read Haunted House by Charles Dickens on Ipanema Beach in Rio (January 2005). Nothing like a 19th century ghost story to accompany hot sun and caiparinhas on a Brazilian beach.

I read only Indian novels in India and I read a lot of Japanese fiction in Japan. This works well as I get parallel shots of culture on different levels as I try to make sense of it all.

In Kefalonia in August 1999 I read Captain Correlli’s Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres. It didn’t feel like the same place and it was such a sad book that it put a bit of a dampener on the trip.

In Bariloche, Argentina (Patagonia: foothills of the Andes) I read the Lord Of the Rings trilogy. We were staying in a little cottage just like a hobbit hole and hiking up snowy mountains so it felt very appropriate (Blog from October 2004)

In Chiloe in Chile, I read Charles Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle and saw the island’s giant birds in a whole new light (Blog from November 2004)

If I had to pick my favourite travel read however, it would be Alain de Botton’s The Art of Travel. I read it in 2003 while lounging on a beach in Koh Samet, Thailand for 5 blissful days. It was a good holiday book as I reflected on my idyllic environment according to the various chapters of the book. For example there was one chapter about Ruskin, so I had a Ruskinian day doing word paintings and so on. Another day was Hopperian, where I noticed beauty in unlikely places. I need to re-read the book while living in Japan. The knot of power cables outside my window might take on new beauty.

Is anyone reading this blog? Care to share your favourite travel reads?

Everything has a face (part 3)

Did you know that even grains of rice have faces in Japan? I was pleased to see that the grains belonging to the brand we buy even take showers and are blow-dried before being allowed to climb into the bag (click to enlarge).

How to make a grey cake

Tasty treat of the week: Blueberry cake.
Don't be put off by the colour.....yes, it comes out grey on the inside







Ingredients

150 g sugar (diabetics can use Candarel)
50 g butter
1 egg
120 ml milk
220 g flour (I used a mixture of wholemeal and white)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
340 g blueberries (I used frozen ones defrosted)
1/2 tsp cinnamon

I followed the recipe on this site, but didn't bother with the crumb topping as I wanted to minimise the amount of fat I used, but I did sprinkle it with a bit of brown sugar and cinnamon before baking.

It came out beautifully. Juicy, fruity and delicious. We had it cold, but next time I think I'll try it hot with custard!

Beer Garden Saga

If I asked you to imagine a beer garden, you would probably think of a garden with tables and buxom Fräuleins serving big, frosty glasses of beer with pretzels. I used to live in Munich, so that’s what came to my mind at least. In Nagoya “beer gardens” are a summer phenomenon that we have still yet to experience. The first important thing to note is that there are no gardens involved. Beer gardens Japan style are basically rooftop city bars serving burnt meats and plastic cups of beer from vending machines. On Saturday night, we were meeting our hiking friends for a farewell bash for June who is going back to Norway and Kazue who is moving to Tokyo. David and I went along to a beer garden opposite the station and put our name down for a table for 10 at 8pm. It was only 6.30, but there were dozens of people waiting in the sweaty room next to the lift. The harassed-looking girl at the door told us that even though our name was down, we would probably still have to wait once we got there. We went back a bit later (taking Maki with us to negotiate in Japanese if need be) and they told her the same thing. By now there were even more crowds waiting for a table – we would have to wait for at least an hour. Obviously everyone in Nagoya had had the same bright idea. We decided to cancel our request, go back and join the others at the Takashimaya clock and think of a plan B. After a bit of traipsing around the city, we finally found somewhere with a free table for 10 and had a fun night. It’s a good job we are all used to hiking. So, we have yet to discover the joys of beer gardens. We need to go early or on a weeknight. Watch this space for a full report – hopefully before the weather gets too humid and we don’t go anywhere that isn’t air conditioned.










Meeting at Takashimaya clock (Nagoya's equivalent of "front gate of Trinity")










We finally find a restaurant.

Recipe writing fun

Students in my first year writing class are writing recipes as part of a course assignment. We are making it into an online cookery book which I will share with you as soon as we have done some editing.... here are some choice quotes from today's first drafts:

"Next, put the rice into the flying pan"

"Finally, put it into the oven and burn it for 20 minutes"

"Chocolate pie.
Materials
Milk chocolate：One piece
freezing pie cloth： About 250g
beaten eggs： Appropriate amount
nursery powder flour for bread： An appropriate amount"


"For this recipe you will need 6 chicken tights"

"How to make HotchPotch"

Everything has a face (part 2)

Come to Nagoya Science Museum!

Park Life

It's getting a bit warm (and wet) for hiking on Sundays, so during the summer months we hang up our boots and take in some culture instead. Yesterday we met our friends for a spot of art and went to see the Dali exhibition at Nagoya City Art Museum.














It was such a good idea evidently, that just about everyone else in Nagoya was there too.... The Japanese are real art lovers and exhibitions are usually busy, but this one was ridiculous. I wish I could have taken pictures inside of the 8-deep crowd around some of the paintings. With a bit of patience, and queuing, you could get to the front of most of the pieces. Here is the queue outside anyway:















Outside, pet owners paraded dogs of all shapes and sizes. Those without dogs (including us) fussed over other people's pooches. I don't think I've ever seen a Mastiff before. Or twin Chihuahuas being carried around in bags (by a guy wearing combats complete with dangling grenades).








More pictures here

Cake of the week

Cake of the week is... fat free apple cake. It's healthy, easy to make, tastes really good and came out looking just like the picture on Rosa's website:

http://rosas-yummy-yums.blogspot.com/2006/02/quick-no-fat-apple-cake.html

In Japan everything has a face (part 1)

Here is the first part in the new "everything has a face" series. Why does everything have a face in Japan? Not sure.

Theory 1: it makes things cute and you want to buy them
Theory 2: remains of animism religion - everything has a spirit (watch Miyazaki's animation movie "Sprited Away" to see what I mean)

Feel free to post other crackpot theories.

Anyway, here is the first in the series. Who could resist cute tomatoes....with faces?

Cereal

What is cereal? Something healthy you have for breakfast with milk on, right? Not in Japan it isn't. It's either covered in sugar and aimed at kids, or designed to be a savory dish. I have seen the picture on packets of Quaker oats featuring porridge with mushrooms and sausages in it. We bought some of these wheat (?) flakes today and here's the serving suggestion:















3 step recipe for salad cereal.... I think I'll pass and stick to the milk.

A taste of Argentina

Look what I found in my local supermarket (Daei). We used to drink this when we lived in Buenos Aires so it brings back loads of memories.














The funny thing about wine in Japan is that price is absolutely no indication of quality. For example, if it's French it's unlikely to be under 1000 yen even if it's just a table plonk. These fine wines from Mendoza are only 888 yen! An absolute bargain. I looked them up to see what they were selling for in the UK and it's 7.99 a bottle - almost double what I just paid.

New Home for my Blog

Welcome to my new blog! Thank you for visiting. I promise to post more juicy snippets of life in Japan now that I have a better interface.