Three day trip away - Part 2

Next stop on our mystery tour was the The Kokonoe "Yume" Otsurihashi suspension footbridge. It is famous for being the longest and highest of its type in the world.... whatever that type is! For engineering geeks click here for the technical information!
The children had already been there before and weren't particularly keen to wander again, but the bribe of an ice cream got them to keep us company and feel seasick together.
As much as I don't usually like "tourist attractions" this bridge is actually a very good example of a small town that has managed to bring in a lot of money for themselves through their creation without ruining too much of the environment. A few years ago there was a big push from central government for towns to all merge together to make bigger cities and most towns chose to do so rather than risk big cuts in their income. Kokonoe Town however was one of the towns that resisted this move and decided to stick it out alone and from what I have heard have managed to not only survive, but with the help of the bridge have actually managed to make money, which they have put back into the community through projects such as making all health care free for students right up until they finish junior high school - rather than until they begin primary school, which is standard in most towns.
As for the bridge - I actually quite enjoyed wandering over it. It was definitely high and I can imagine that in autumn the views are even more beautiful - although from what I've been told you can't really enjoy them as it is completely packed with tourists!

Three day trip away - Part 1

Because it was the school holidays while Mum was here we felt the need to take the kids away for a few days on an "adventure". It wasn't a wilderness adventure, but more an adventure into the unknown and unplanned - which for two control freaks like myself and my mother is a real adventure! We had accomodation booked for two nights in different places, we had the car navigation system and we had my husband. What more could we need! It turned into a really great time away - probably because we didn't have anything planned and could therefore go whichever direction we felt like, not have to watch the clock and worry about not being somewhere "on time" and not feel pressured to do anything if we didn't feel like it.
The first stop was for the kids at a town called Kusu (I'll try to work out how to get a map up later...). There is a huge natural "slide" there called "Ryumon no Taki" or Dragon's gate waterfall. Once you got over the nervous twitching as you watched kids flying in all directions and adults flying in even more directions (usually after being bashed into by other adults flying down the slide) it was actually quite fun to watch. I didn't feel tempted to have a slide, but got my feet wet as I tried to waddle across to the only bit of shade in the whole area.
I am always torn at places like this. I love the fact that everyone is having a lot of fun in "real" nature. I love the fact that there are no boundaries, there are no people at the top controlling when each person should start off down their slippery slope and that there are not thousands of signs with things that are prohibited in the waterfall. I think that in so many countries now there are so many rules about keeping everyone safe that people no longer learn to think for themselves about what is safe and what is not, about what their own capabilities are and whether it is appropriate for them to do certain things. If there is an accident there is always a need to try and blame someone for not controlling the environment enough rather than taking responsibility for putting yourself in the situation where the accident occurred. I love the fact that Japan does not have the "suing" culture that America has.
But... having said that I am still not so perfect at letting my own kids learn through their mistakes and spend half the time biting my tongue or clasping my hands so tightly that I get fingernail prints in my palms! The truth is there are probably far less accidents at this waterfall than there are at the river bed my mother slipped in the previous post! All in all a nice adventurous start to our trip.

Bon Dancing 2011

Because Mum was here in August this year she was "lucky" enough to come to the Bon-Dancing events. For anyone new to Japanese traditions this is an event where everyone gets together to dance around and around and around and around to give the ancestors who have been back visiting over the past few days a safe passage home. This year we went to two quite different gatherings - the first our small local one where Mum outdid herself by not only learning how to dance around and around and around (while I chatted with friends on the sideline), but also picked up some of the top prizes in the lottery held at the end of the night. Our area always gives out washing sponges with numbers on them (no idea why, but actually quite useful) while you are dancing and then at the end of the night you watch with anticipation to see if your number wins a prize... something exciting like glad-wrap or washing powder! Mum came away with a bucket of car washing stuff and a can of mosquito coils... which we inherited - thanks!
The second bon-dancing we went to was in Bungo Takada and was on a bit bigger scale, but of course still consisted of people dancing around and around in circles. This time they were all in teams and the best dancers won prizes - the rest of us were just there to watch. Although it wasn't ultra-exciting, I do enjoy the atmosphere of lanterns, street stalls and Japanese drumming. The team in orange below are the firefighters. Somehow I just can't see many New Zealand firefighters willing to dance around and around in a circle slapping their fan for over an hour... perhaps I am wrong!
right - I think that is enough catching up for this morning.... the garden is now in some desperate need of help! I hope that satisfies you for a few hours Mike.....

Oops a Daisy at Takkiri Keikoku

One thing I really like about the fact that my children are now "growing up" is that I don't need to take bags and bags of things with us whenever we go on outings. They often throw a change of clothes into the car "just in case", but they get them ready themselves and I don't have to do anything. Unfortunately as adults we don't often prepare ourselves in the same way though.... and perhaps we should! After our garden outing Mum and I headed to cool off (literally as it turned out) and wander about 2km up a river bed to the top of a waterfall. It is a pleasant walk and the entire river bed is one enormous rock - nice and flat, ideal for just walking slowly up. We wandered up then were almost back to the car when... oops a daisy! Mum managed to go on quite a controlled slip not just onto her bum, but also onto her back too. It was a very gentle slip and the water was very shallow but the result was the same.... wet, wet, wet! Of course I was more worried about her bottle of drink that started floating away and she was more worried about her camera than her wet body. A few minutes sitting on the hot bonnet of the car didn't dry her out much so we headed home for a change of clothes before heading out for lunch.
After we got home my husband reminded me that that was the same place that my step-mum had also fallen into when she came on her first visit to Japan. Perhaps I should have learned from that experience... I wonder if I will change my ways the next time we go?

Garden Revisited

While my father was here earlier this year we visited an incredible private garden. The children had a day off at a field trip so I took the opportunity to take my mother there and unlike last time I went and unlike at the temple in the last post this time the highlight was being able to talk to the couple who have actually made the garden. My children often complain that I talk with complete strangers too much, but I always think that finding out about the reasons behind different things and asking questions about things makes it a much more meaningful experience and of course helps out when guiding people the next time!
The couple behind this garden are a really nice couple - the husband designed the garden while he was still working as a teacher and worked with the professionals to get the garden underway. He did the basic plans but left all the minor details to the professionals (he commented that you would insult them if you directed them too specifically!). All the rocks are sourced from within about a 400m radius and the garden was started about 40 years ago. Now that he is retired he spends 365 days in the garden and works his way around it trimming one variety of plant at a time. I asked him if he found it stressful to HAVE to do it everyday in order to make it work, but he commented that he saw it as a form of exercise and that if he got to the stage where it was a chore then he would not keep going. I commented on the fact that I really enjoy the garden as it starts off very formal, but then just seems to meld into the natural environment. It looks so effortless, but as he pointed out that is actually something that they have worked really hard to create and seemed to be grateful that we had picked up on this feeling.
My favorite tidbit of information that I gained about the garden was regarding the largest rock in the garden (I can't remember how many tonnes he said it was...) that is actually in the original position. There is a small pine "tree" growing out of the top of it and when I asked about it the gardener pointed to the large cedar trees at the back and told me that he planted them about 40 years ago. They are huge! He then came back to talking about the pine tree and said that it is probably over 100 years old. He remembers it when he used to play games in the garden when he was a small boy. It is never trimmed, never fertilized and somehow it survives - literally growing out of a huge slab of rock.
Talking with the owner gave me even more appreciation for the effort which has gone into this garden and made me want to go back again for another chat! The wife was apologetic about not bringing us tea - considering we were invading their private space I hardly think it was necessary, but she was a typical Japanese lady who had just harvested zillions of chillies and felt bad that she couldn't spend more time with us. Perhaps next time it will be her turn for a chat.

Choanji

It is 8:15am. First load of washing on the line, second in the washing machine. First cup of tea drunk. And best of all... silence! For the first time in about a month and a half I have the house completely to myself until 3:30pm. Chances are I will waste away most of the day, but it is nice to be able to do that without anyone else watching me do it... of course I love my children, but....
As promised I'll try to do a bit of catching up this morning. It will be very random!
I have a great family in New Zealand who come to visit often. What I'm realizing now is that I should have made a record of all the different places I have taken each person on their different visits over the past 15 years. Every time we sit down to work out where to go each day we seem to spend so much time working out whether I have taken them there or not. Of course there are places we are happy to go every single time they come, but it is always nice to show people new places too.
Kunisaki peninsula is known as "Buddhist Paradise"and therefore there are zillions and zillions of temples all over the place. I enjoy wandering around the gardens of the temples, but sometimes they all become a bit too similar. There was one temple that I knew I hadn't taken Mum too before because I had never been there myself. It is called "Choanji" and I really had no idea what to expect, but as usual it didn't disappoint. I am not usually overly impressed with the temple buildings themselves, but the really peaceful environment in which they are set is what I enjoy - old bells, old statues, STEEP stairs in the middle of the woods. One thing I really enjoy about going to these countryside temples is that you can usually chat with the priest, get a bit of inside knowledge etc. Unfortunately the priest at this temple wasn't exactly a "friendly" type and therefore although we saw him, we didn't even get to greet him. I think it was probably more that he was really busy with the preparations for Obon (the festival of the dead) than that he was ignoring us, but a simple "konnichiwa" would have been nice. I convinced the kids that if they tagged along nicely I would take them to the pool afterwards so they even managed all the stairs without too much moaning. All in all a nice little outing, not too far from home.

Watch this space... tomorrow

My brother just sent me the following message on skype:

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My "normal" world seems to have been completed flipped around during the school holidays, hence the lack of entries lately. But, guess what? Today is the last day of the holidays! Tomorrow I have no classes so I intend to make a big pot of coffee, dig out all my chocolate goodies I have been hiding and spend the morning catching up on life - well catching you up on my life anyway! That is the plan.... I guess you will just have to wait and see if it actually works out that way. From experience it will probably end up with me in bed with a migraine or the in-laws will desperately require my assistance in the pumpkin patch.... Thanks for the push Mike......here's hoping it actually results in a few entries!

Blueberry Picking

I am weeks behind on my posts... I think I'll try to get some more up in the next few days, but no promises! Mum arrived last week, the kids are on holidays and I am not really on holiday.... in other words the usual routines are all off kilter and although we have been doing lots of things I just don't seem to have the same time slots to write posts.
Anyway... one of our latest activities involved picking little blue round things - aka blueberries. Unfortunately they are not blueberries that we have grown, but amazingly big, delicious ones that someone else has planted and that we went and picked a couple of kilograms of. They weren't exactly cheap, but with the "jam" blueberries thrown in we came away with a few extra kgs. The kids seemed to have fun, but I have decided that if I could only take one child to a "pick your own" fruit place it would have to be my daughter. She has the ability to stuff a kg or so down her throat while picking whereas my son sampled a tiny bite out of one of them and said - that's yummy Mum, but where can I dispose of the rest of it? I sometimes wonder how they turned out so differently when I think I have raised them in basically the same way.....
Mum probably picked the most of all of us - but after looking at the photos and comments about how similar she looked to her father in her trendy green cap we went shopping for a new hat today... I must say it is a a big improvement!

Okinawa Adventure

Despite it being the school holidays my daughter is supposed to be at school this morning..... studying (don't get me started on this!). However fortunately for her she is not at school, but is on a very big boat for a 5 day trip to Okinawa. It takes about 24 hours to get there and although they sleep on the boat each night they will go for day trips to different places in Okinawa - swimming, peace memorials, shopping, exchange with local children etc. It is her first official trip away without any family members, but she is far from alone... in fact she is with over 400 other students as well as about 100 support staff. She only knows one other person on the entire boat, but is really looking forward to her time away - as are we! Oita prefecture provides this opportunity to about 400 5th and 6th graders each year and it is a bit of luck if you can actually get on as the numbers who apply for it are about 4 times the number that can actually go. Hopefully she will have a great time and come home really appreciating her family more and more! It was nice to have her snuggle into bed with me at midnight last night claiming that she couldn't sleep because she was worried about not having Mum and Dad around.... a nice change from the usual "I don't want to live with this family!" comments.
One of the staff members is making a blog of the trip with regular updates - it is all in Japanese, but has some photos for anyone who wants to see what they are doing. It was great to see a picture of Emily at the table (green top at the back) with a smile on her face.... Blog address: http://yaplog.jp/shosen/

Bottle Collectiing

One thing I am often surprised about is the lack of fundraising in Japan. In New Zealand if you are involved in sports you usually spend quite a lot of time raising money to help pay for trips away etc. I can remember doing raffles, making zillions of pizzas, baking cakes to sell to teachers , selling chocolate etc. etc. Schools had work days where you used to clean windows, mow lawns, wash cars etc. to help raise money for the school (they used to... I have no idea if they still do).
In Japan parents are just expected to fork out money for everything - especially sports related things. I have tried to explain to as many people as I can the importance of children actually helping to raise the money in order for them to really appreciate the trips etc. they are going on and the team spirit that it can help create, but have never actually seen it being done here. Our school has two "fundraising" events each year - a "bazaar" in February and this morning's activity... collecting beer bottles! The families from each area get together and go around collecting all the empty beer bottles and take them to the collection point at school. Despite the fact that we start at 8am it is actually quite fun. The kids have a great time riding around on the back of the truck (don't tell the safety police....) and the adults wander around chatting. An hour or so later and it is all over for another year. I have no idea how much money is raised, but I have a feeling that there may be a few other ways to reduce the amount of money we seem to be continually forking out each month to pay for things at school. Gotta love "free" education!

Over reaction?

It is 12:30pm on a Tuesday. The children have been home all day. The sun is almost shining outside and there is no wind. It is not a public holiday (that was yesterday). The reason they are home is that there is a typhoon hanging around somewhere over Shikoku and so last night we got a phone call at 9pm to say that school today was canceled -just in case the typhoon hits here. So far it looks like we might get the very edge of it in the evening, but not during school hours.

Usually I wouldn't mind too much, but yesterday was the end of a 3 day weekend where I had to run a camp for 60 kids. The LONG school holidays begin on Thursday so I was really looking forward to having a little bit of recovery time at home in between kindy teaching this morning and 3 classes this afternoon. Of course they are not canceled.....

Perhaps I will have more luck tomorrow... before the kids come home at 2:20pm.... it is Wednesday - the teachers have a meeting that day so the kids need to go home early......

Gone

I think I may have written about this somewhere before, but I can't find it so I'll just write it again.... When I first came to this town there were three junior high schools which I rotated around each week. 3 years ago these three schools merged and a brand new school was built on a completely new site. This is becoming a very common thing here in Japan and although I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the smaller schools I think in the end it is probably for the best - financially as well as in terms of social interaction with other students and sporting opportunities. Another school has since joined the main school - so it is now a merger of 4 different junior high schools. I can't work out exactly how many students there are at the new school, but it is still not more than 200.... I'll check later!
The biggest problem with this is that there are now 4 junior high schools which are no longer being used and which are deteriorating by the day. There are plans to use some parts of the old schools for accommodation or community center activities, but the majority of the schools no longer pass the earthquake regulations and therefore need to be demolished. This is a huge cost, but our town has just pulled down the first one - leaving the gym and science block for general public use. It was my favorite junior high school, the one that my husband attended (obviously well before I met him!) and the school that my children would have gone to. It is kind of sad driving past it every day and seeing the cleanup progressing. I'm guessing it will be replaced with a huge carpark...... not sure for who to use, but probably cheaper than trying to keep the grass down in the area every year.

Sleeping Beauty

I am a pretty stubborn person, but my husband is even worse sometimes. Every night we seem to have a battle about him falling asleep on the sofa rather than finding his way to bed to sleep properly. The major problem is that he snores - loudly! Tonight he made his way to beside the fire place and refused to move into a different room because he wants to watch the soccer at 3am. Great logic... don't quite get it myself, but I told him if he wasn't willing to move then I would take a video and put it on the blog. He said he didn't care because he doesn't snore..... unfortunately the batteries ran out on the camera just as the steam engine was starting, but here is a sample - I guess he is right... he doesn't snore and now you all know!

Frustration continued

And then to top it all off the "live" broadcast that I could actually see stopped in the last 10 minutes because the game had gone into exciting overtime and it obviously hadn't planned for that. So the final 10 minutes was spent yelling at the family to be quiet so I could try and work out what was actually going on while listening to the radio - it doesn't help that I haven't really kept up with the players names recently so I spent half the time trying to work out which team actually had the ball! An excellent game from what I could tell.... unfortunate loss, but has definitely motivated me to get sky sport for the rugby world cup! Either that or I'll take the hint from Andrea and get the family to aim the skype camera at their TV!

Frustration

I am having a very interesting experience right now.... I really wanted to watch the final of the netball world championships between New Zealand and Australia. Only I live in Japan and they have never even heard of the sport. I don't trust most of the streaming sites, but yesterday discovered that the semi-final was live on the radio (http://www.radiosport.co.nz/ListenLive/ ) I figured that listening to it was better than nothing. So I was sitting listening to it on the radio - but then I discovered that there is a facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/TV.Splash.Apps?sk=app_142452699165582)which is streaming it live - so I started watching it - only to discover that the commentary is in some language which is not English. No problem I thought - I'll listen to the radio and watch it on the facebook page. Only problem is that the facebook coverage is about a minute later than the actual live radio. So I have the choice - either listen to what is going to happen and then watch it happen, or just watch with no commentary.
It is half time - New Zealand is ahead by 6 goals and pictures with no commentary is winning over the radio at the moment..... Sometimes I miss NZ TV!

Jam Recipe

For Heather and Connie... here is the marrow and ginger jam recipe. It comes from a great New Zealand book called "The Cooks Garden" by 3 New Zealand sisters: Mary Browne, Helen Leach and Nancy Tichborne. The book seems to be out of print, but there does seem to be a "More from the Cook's Garden" book that is more available that I don't have... hint, hint Mum!
Anyway, back to the recipe for yesterday's jam:

1 large marrow (about 1.5kg) - Connie, a marrow is a zucchini which has grown very, very large!
4 tablespoons water
50g bruised root ginger
1.5kg sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
120g chopped crystallised ginger
1 bottle liquid pectin (225ml) or equivalent made from pectin powder

Peel the marrow and remove the seeds. Chop the flesh finely (I used the grater on the food processor). Place the marrow and water in a pot and simmer, covered until the marrow is tender (about 20 minutes - I used the pressure cooker - 4 minutes). Tie the root ginger in a piece of muslin. Add to the marrow with the sugar, crystallised ginger and lemon juice. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Boil hard for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. Take out the muslin bag and stir in the pectin. Allow to cool before pouring into clean dry jars. Seal.

Note - this works really well sometimes and not so well other times! I tend to boil it too long and get a sticky mess..... You need to play around a bit with the pectin. I suggest you boil it and let it sit in the pot till it cools quite a lot to see if it is going to thicken. If not then just boil it a bit longer and try again. It doesn't need to be boiling hot when you put it in the jars. It is definitely worth trying a few times to get it right.

Marrow and Ginger Jam

Most of my days start with a stint at either a school or kindergarten doing some teaching then a few hours at home followed by another class or two in the afternoon or running the kids to piano, swimming etc. When I am really busy my time management skills are incredible, but when I have some "free" time I tend to waste a lot of time doing nothing in particular. There are always too many things that don't HAVE to be done, but SHOULD be done that I tend to give up and just read a book.... Today I broke that trend though and made the snap decision to make some jam after I discovered a zucchini that had hidden away and somehow managed to turn itself into a marrow overnight. I love ginger marmalade, but can never be bothered cutting all the fruit to make it (my food processor isn't quite up to it) so when I have marrows I like to turn them into marrow and ginger jam which is pretty close to ginger marmalade. Great taste, very little arm work (the food processor can handle marrows!) and only the cost of sugar. Now if I could only use my time wisely again tomorrow the tomatoes might get turned into some relish.........

Land of the setting sun

Japan is often called the "land of the rising sun" but, if there weren't so many bugs I think I would put a chair in our driveway and sit there every night with a glass of wine or a cup of coffee and watch the setting sun.......

It's offficial

Japanese style green peppers (piman) have now officially joined the tomatoes, cucumbers and beans on the list of "we must cook every day or the fridge will explode" list of vegetables...... Favorite recipes most welcomed...... Have I mentioned that I don't actually like green peppers on this blog before..... but that they grow like wildfire here so I always feel I should plant a couple, or four plants each year...

Companion Planting?

My style of gardening is definitely in line with the theories of natural selection. I figure if the vegetable seeds from the year before happen to come up somewhere in the garden this year they really want to grow there and therefore should be encouraged, not pulled out. Unfortunately this often leads to very jumbled patches of garden... this is my latest creation - my asparagus patch in the tunnel house... which I fed well with compost... which happened to have some butternut seeds in it... which happened to show their little heads and happened to grow rather big..... and are now taking over the tunnel house and growing out the door and windows. If you look carefully at the close up picture you will also see that amongst the pumpkins and asparagus are also some tomatoes. These are actually planted in a pot and are producing the best tomatoes I have ever grown (not saying a lot really!) so I'm figuring that they are enjoying the shade they are getting from the pumpkins. I'm not sure how long my mother-in-law will be able to cope with this hodgepodge, but for now it seems to be working.....

Renovating

One of the biggest problems with renovating is the huge mess that it involves. Painters or builders traipsing through the house, the need to be there continuously while they are there and then the dust/mess that it always creates. Sometimes it hardly seems worth the bother. Unless you live in Japan...... where renovating is easy! I didn't get around to taking any photos of the "before" doors through to our tatami room, but basically they had a few holes in them (thanks to our trying to move furniture around....) and the odd bit of graffiti from the kids when they were younger. I'd had enough so found a company that re-covers doors, contacted them by e-mail, they drove and hour to drop off a catalogue, I sent them another e-mail to tell them which paper I wanted, they came back 2 days later to pick up the doors - including the cupboard doors, took them away, recovered them and brought them back 2 days later. No mess, high speed! They also cost a lot less than I expected so I'm wondering why we didn't do it sooner.
Now I'm just waiting for them to find a way to repaper our living room without having to move any furniture.....
On a different note this week was one of those "if I can just get through this week, things will slow down" kind of weeks. It is Friday night. I made it through the week! I'm not confident that next week will be "slow", but it can't be as bad as this week!