Tateishi Gaku

As this is the last year for my daughter at primary school each event is labelled "the last time".  She seems a little sad about this for many events, but very happy about this for others.  The traditional dancing that they have to do is one of the things that fits into the inbetween group.  For three years she has had to play the bamboo flute at festivals that she really has no idea about the meaning of. She has had to squash her feet into far too small sandals and has had to blow into the flute in the extreme heat of summer at the sports festival and the extreme cold of winter at the festival at the local shrine.  

But having said that she has actually enjoyed being part of something that has been an important part of the history of this area.  By the end she could basically get her kimono thingy on almost all by herself.  She became the leader of the flutes and in true Japanese tradition was responsible for teaching all the new flute players what to do (because the teachers change so often here it is important for the children to take the lead role in instructing as the teachers usually have no idea at all....).  She gained a lot of confidence and learnt a lot about how to teach and encourage others.  She finally began to understand a little more about the meaning behind the dance and its role in history. 

Her final performance was part of a festival at the local shrine here.  The atmosphere was far better than the bare school ground, but the 1km round trip walk that it involved in their outfits and her far too small shoes, while continually playing the flute, probably swayed the last time pendulum away from the "so sad it's over" side to the "not so sad to give it up" side. 
Now I just have two more years to complete with my son before I can start the "last time" counting!

Halloween 2012

As I think I have mentioned before, I am not a huge fan of Halloween.  It isn't really celebrated in New Zealand and here is seems to be a very commercialised event to sell more goods at the 100 yen shop.  I had hoped to pick up a simple costume for the English school party while I was in Tokyo, but I just couldn't see me in a skimpy maid's outfit or a big plastic poo, which seemed to be the two main options available.  So, I ended up making yet another last minute costume - the simple sheet ghost!  It was supposed to be a very friendly ghost, but for some reason the small kids were scared out of their skins - I wore it to a kindergarten the next day and it took 30 minutes for one of the boys to stop crying.... oops!  

It may have been my most successful costume yet as no one knew who I was, no one could see me having a nap or picking my nose and most of all it involved no face makeup that takes hours to get off! 

It's a small world

Although I love living in our very small community I sometimes question the effect it has on our kids.  The children's school currently has 47 pupils - which is considered big in this area.  Due to the small number of students it is pretty easy to be number one at things - especially sporting things.  My son is always number one in any running activities.  He often watches things like the Olympics on TV and tells us how he could beat most of the athletes.  He has no idea of what is involved in actually training and working hard to be number one at something.  He doesn't have to in our tiny school (where no one comes up any higher than his armpits...).  

In November he had the chance to race at a prefectural event.  He didn't train, but he managed to get 2nd in the 100m.  Of course he was in a bit of shock due to the fact that he thought he was the fastest person in Japan, but I was secretly very happy that he wasn't number one.  It showed him that in the real world you do actually have to work to do well.  Of course at the same time I was also very impressed.  Number two in all of Oita prefecture - to me that was quite an achievement.

What I found was most interesting was the reaction of the children at school the next day.  They all knew that he had participated and were excited to hear his results.  He told them quite proudly that he had got second and the look on their faces was priceless.  They were literally in shock and said they didn't think there was anyone who could possibly be faster than him.  They asked him if he had been injured.... The teachers were impressed, but all the kids saw it as a huge failure.  

I believe that succeeding at things is really important.  As we all know it gives you extra confidence and increases your self esteem.  But, I also believe that succeeding without having to actually work hard doesn't actually mean an awful lot.  I struggle a lot with this in our tiny town.  No one wants to push the kids to get out of their comfort zone and try something new.  No one wants to encourage kids to really push themselves, to let them fail and then get them to try again.  This is not just the case with sports, but with study too.  Everyone is given tests which they can usually get 100% in if they have studied even a little bit.  Everyone is very sheltered from real competition.  In many ways it is a great environment to grow up in.  Competition is often a very nasty thing.  But, what I worry about is what happens when this tiny world gets bigger and bigger as they grow up and join larger junior then senior high schools then move out into the "real" world.  My children have no concept of the real effort needed to be good at something as they have never been challenged to do so.  My daughter starts junior high school in April.  Everyone there seems to be ranked with regards to ability.  Here's hoping she copes okay with this new style of learning... otherwise the kind offers to look after her in New Zealand while she completes her education might be acted on sooner rather than later!

Wastefulness!

A couple of months ago my beloved blue fridge died.  We had bought it just after we got married so it was over 10 years old, but it was perfect.  It was the perfect colour, perfect size and in perfect (well almost!) condition.  It was fine one day and then it just stopped.  I cleaned it out in preparation for the repairman to come and change a little switch and make it all better.. but... apparently Japan does not design things to last.  Fridge parts are only manufactured for 9 years after the last of a given model is produced, meaning that all the repairman did was walk into the kitchen, look inside the door and say - sorry, you need to hold a funeral for your wonderful fridge.  I asked if he was even going to bother fiddling in the back or anything to check if something would work, but went into great detail about the fact that Japan is not like Europe where things are made to last or at least be repaired.  He was actually very nice and apologised profusely and told me that he would "cancel" the callout so we didn't end up paying him a single yen for driving one and a half hours one way to pronounce our fridge dead.

It took me a couple of days to completely give up on it, but the novelty of living out of chillybins wore off quickly and I went to find a new fridge which was as close to our old fridge as possible.  We have a cabinet which it fits into so the same size as last time was an essential feature.  The only problem is that since we bought our old fridge the design of fridges has changed and all fridges are now taller and slimmer to fit into kitchens better.  Unless you have a built-in cabinet where you can't actually go any taller.  

So we ended up having to get the only fridge that would fit.  It is smaller than the old one.  It is not blue.  I am not happy.  I hate the fact that there is so much waste in this country.  There are piles and piles of "broken" fridges, tvs, washing machines being shipped to other countries to be used as scrap, which could easily be repaired if they simply manufactured the parts a little longer.  I realise that this might not make the economy revolve as well as the electronic companies might like, but when you find something that suits you perfectly it would be nice to be able to keep it for more than 10 years.

Tokyo 2012

I'm guessing that my big catch up is going to be in a very random order and will probably have some current activities thrown into the mix.

The first photos I discovered on my camera were from a trip I took to Tokyo in October.  To be brutally honest, I hate Tokyo.  I don't understand why people want to visit there, let alone live there - I am a country bumpkin who prefers to hang out with wild boars and chickens than with wall to wall people!  That being said, this trip to Tokyo was worth the crowds as I got to meet up with my father and stepmother and celebrate all our birthdays together. 
The plan was very simple - we were flying into different airports so I booked the hotel and gave easy directions to get there - "simply go out the WEST exit and turn right. Walk a little bit down the road and you should then see the hotel on the left."  You know, the kind of directions that would work perfectly here (with the exception that any building landmarks would be replaced by rice paddies).  Unfortunately the station we were arriving at was Shinjuku station, which happens to be about the most confusing station in the entire world.  Yes, you can find the WEST exit.. but there are a zillion different WEST exits.... Of course if I had read the wikipedia information about the station before giving my simple instructions I might have thought twice!  

Anyway, I managed to find my way to the hotel by eventually finding an information center and the other two followed later with the help of an old man whose hobby is helping lost waifs and strays to find their way around the most confusing station in the world.  We then had 3 days of eating, talking, walking, trying to find socks, trying to find things to do, getting lost and getting found, getting on and off subways, going up and down lifts, visiting big temples and museums, and most importantly drinking coffee and catching up on things on the other side of the world. 

The big tourist attraction in Tokyo at the moment is the Sky Tree, a big tower that if you are lucky enough (or patient enough to stand in the lines long enough) you can climb for a huge price and see a great view over Tokyo.  Me, being the huge tourist that I am, couldn't quite justify it though and we opted for the Tokyo Metropolitan building view instead.  I think we waited about 2 minutes in the line and got panoramic views of the city from the height of 202 metres for free.  Great views at a great price.  

As expected the 3 days raced by a bit too fast and all of a sudden I was standing on the platform waving goodbye yet again.  Would I go to Tokyo again?  On my own for a "break" - NO.  To meet family - in a heart beat!

Here is a strange slideshow of a few of the highlights... sorry, I can't get the photobucket slideshow function to work and it is my first play with smilebox....

Customize your own free slideshow

Happy New Year!

I have a good friend called Mutsumi.  Every now and then we get together and she produces continual streams of amazing food while the two of us talk.. and talk... and talk...  The majority of our talk focuses around the huge changes we are going to make in our lives.  We are both at very different stages of our lives - she is now caring for her mother and grandchildren, while I am watching my own children slowly move through the school system and gain some of their own independence.  But, despite all our differences we both have some deep down desire to do "something" different with our lives.  Every time I leave her house I feel invigorated and ready to race out and conquer the world.  And then time passes and nothing changes. 

I came to Japan 16 years ago and am still asked by a lot of Japanese people "why did you come to Japan?"  I think they expect some deep philosophical answer about my love for Japanese culture, my desire to inspire Japanese children to be perfect English speakers, my secret love of Japanese animation and all things weird.  But the answer I always give them is "for the money".  And it is true.  I came here after graduating university for a break away from my life in New Zealand and to pay off my student loans.  I did that within two years, but by that stage I had already fallen in love with this country and didn't feel the need to move back to New Zealand.  Of course meeting my husband probably had a little to do with it too... but the area I was randomly placed in definitely helped a lot too.

We had a few "international" families here for Christmas and we were talking about what we would do if we won the lottery.  One of my friends commented that he wouldn't want to shift from where he is living now - just maybe get a holiday house somewhere warm.  I feel exactly the same way.  I love the place I live.  I love the people around me.  Deep down I love the frustrations of dealing with cultural clashes.  If I won the lottery I really don't think I would want to move at all.  But, I would want to change my lifestyle. 

I graduated university with a degree in physical education. Rather than the physical side of the study I loved the sports psychology, sociology and history side of it.  I liked trying to look into people's minds.  When I came to Japan I taught English at junior high schools and elementary schools.  The work was mind boggling boring, but I actually enjoyed it because the whole "Japan experience" was so new that any small thing made me excited to be here and I could ignore the boring lessons I was asked to participate in and the hours and hours and hours of getting paid to sit at my desk and read a book or study some Japanese.

After I got married I worked at several different places teaching English.  After our children were born I increased the number of kindergartens that I taught English at.  I made a few mistakes along the line regarding the volume I was teaching as well as the late hours I was teaching. The family and work balance was thrown out of kilter many times.  English teaching is pretty good money and relatively easy work when you get used to it.  There are times when I actually enjoy it.  But it is not what I want to do for the rest of my life.  Lately my heart has definitely not been in it...

The New Year cards have just arrived and again they are filled with messages of "I wish we could have met more in 2012, I hope we can meet more in 2013".  The cards I sent were full of exactly the same messages.  As I went to sleep last night I kept thinking about the fact that I am determined to make this a "doing year".  I have already made some positive steps towards this - I have given up some of my English teaching and will reduce the load even more from April.  I won't give it all up as I will need some extra money to help with my next venture - which WILL slowly start to take shape in 2013.  I keep telling my husband that free time is something that doesn't actually just appear all of a sudden - it is something that we have to actually make.  Until now I have had this feeling that something will happen which will indicate to me that it is time to make big changes, but I've realised (as I should have many, many years ago!) that is only me who can make those changes.  I can't wait till my sister comes to visit so she can help me, I can't wait for my husband to go and check all the legalities of what I want to do, I can't wait for me to win the lottery.  I just need to do it.  And this year I am going to.  Well I'm going to start anyway.  Of course I'll need to start with a visit to Mutsumi to give me another push, but I am going to!

In terms of this blog, I haven't touched it for 3 months.  It was a conscious decision and not just that I didn't make the time to do it.  But, I've missed it and I am now back!  Although there are some conditions.  As part of me being proactive I'm determined to catch up on the 3 months that I've missed, but how fast I do that is up to you.  I often chat with people and realise that they read this blog.  My family often makes a comment in passing, but there are many, many times when I write and write and write and get no feedback at all.  I'm not complaining - as I have written before I do not write this blog for you, I write it for me as a record of what is happening in our lives here and if you are interested enough to stop by then that is fantastic.  I read a lot of blogs and very rarely comment, so I am not exactly one to speak!  Anyway, my wonderful family, if you miss this blog as much as some of you say you do then... I will post as often as I can in January, February, March and for as long as I can providing I get 3 comments on each post.  They don't have to be deep comments.... just "hi Jo, love the handbag!" is fine.  I'm going to try and do the same with the blogs I read, without spending hours and hours on the computer - because my new life is based in the kitchen.  Which is where I am off to now for a cup of coffee!  

I hope to see you back here very soon.... in the meantime Happy New Year!

Sorry....

Sorry Mike and Bec... blogging is just not going to happen tonight.... hopefully tomorrow.....

Higanbana - red spider lily

I always know that autumn is really here when I see the rice fields become slowly surrounded by these incredibly bright red flowers.  I say slowly, but actually they seem to appear over night.  Apparently they were introduced because moles don't like them.  Moles make tunnels in the banks of rice fields.  This leads to all the water in the rice fields draining out. so anything that will help to keep the moles away has to be a good thing.  Unfortunately they are extremely hardy though and manage to spread themselves everywhere - and are quite hard to get rid of once you have them.  I'm guessing that in a few more years the desire to deter moles may have been overtaken by the desire to get rid of a few of these pretty flowers.  Until then... I'm going to enjoy them!  There is some more information about these flowers here if you are interested.

In other news - our sports day tomorrow has been postponed till next week due to the typhoon that was going to hit here, but now looks like it will head off to the east and we may miss it completely.  Gotta love making decisions concerning the weather early!

Airing futons

We have guests coming to stay at the start of next week and although I tend to put off the cleaning and organising until the very last minute I have learned that airing the futons is a job that should be done in advance if possible - especially if the weather is about to turn bad.  If you have futons you will know that they are not exactly the lightest things in the world so bringing them all down from upstairs in the cottage is often quite a task.  Fortunately the top windows in the bedrooms are the exact same width as a standard futon and therefore perfect for hanging them out of.  Unfortunately that only covers two of the futons, but better than nothing I guess..

At the moment we are watching the weather news constantly.  Sports day on Sunday looks like it may be interrupted by a typhoon.!  At least I will have fluffy futons if we are stuck inside all day!

Row by Row

I have one of those stupid work schedules which means I often go to two or three places each day to teach and then have an hour or two in between each place.  Sometimes I can't get motivated to get changed and really work hard in the garden when I know I only have about an hour of free time, so I have started doing a few jobs around the place that I can do without needing to get changed.  The latest one is to harvest the peanuts.  I can usually manage to get a row or two out in between classes and don't end up so covered in mud that I have to have a shower before heading out again.  This year's peanuts are not perfect, but I'm hoping I'll end up with enough to make a few batches of peanut butter.

Another job I decided I could do in patches in between classes was to water blast the deck again. Unfortunately I discovered pretty quickly that it isn't a job that should be done in your work clothes!  Nothing like a full layer of dirt splattered all over you.... I'm thinking that when the peanuts are finished I may just revert back to reading a book and drinking coffee to fill in the time!

Companion Pile

To the untrained eye this probably looks like a big pile of weeds.  Originally that's what it was - my dumping place for weeds from the garden.  They slowly composted down and now it has turned into the most productive part of the garden!  The whole "garden" is a tribute to companion planting, only nothing has actually been planted... it has all just sprung up from the big pile of weeds.  If you look closely you can see not only millions of mini tomatoes, but bitter gourds, pumpkin plants and even some morning glory flowers.  It may not be the most beautiful garden in the world, but until the first frost hits it will be staying exactly as it is - minus a few kgs of vegetables!!

Dancing practice

The children's sports day is on Sunday (I can hardly wait....) and today was the dress rehearsal for the traditional dance that the senior school does.  I have had to help Emily into her kimono-thingy for the last 3 years so I have almost got that mastered, but today was the first time to try and get Masaki into his complicated straw skirt thing with a huge banner stuffed down his back.  Any parents who were free were asked to come and help get the children into the outfits - starting at 1:35pm.  I arrived at 1:30pm to find that Masaki was fully outfitted already .... apparently the teachers decided to start putting them into the costumes from before 1pm.  So, now I am expected to have him all fitted out on the actual sports day within about 10 minutes - only I have no idea at all how to do it.  There were a number of mothers who actually took the afternoon off work so they could learn how to do it, but found themselves in the same situation as me.  Basically it turned out to be a waste of our time - although we did get a sneak preview and a photo opportunity.

Of course me being me, I had a little chat with the principal and ended up getting a phone call from Masaki's teacher tonight apologising for the fact that we didn't get a chance to put them into the costumes.  Mind you it all looks so complicated that at least I can now plead innocent and get someone else to do it for me!

By the way... the other children playing the flute with Emily - most of them are her classmates...yes, she is tall!

Service

The number of blog entries in the near future will be determined by how many photos of one of my nieces I receive.  I've made a deal -  a blog entry for each photo I receive -  a pretty good deal I think - especially if the photos are as cute as the one I got today!!  It may motivate me to catch up on a few entries that I have meant to post and never got around to.....

One of the questions I am often asked is what I really like about Japan and my usual answer is "the service".  You pull into a petrol station (aka gasoline stand) and there are usually a couple of people who rush out to help you, wash your windows while the fuel is going in, give you a cloth to wipe the inside of your car, remove all your rubbish, pump up your tyres, stop the traffic so you can get back onto the road safely etc. etc. 

Shops are also wonderful for service (of course there will be exceptions, but...).  They seem to go out of their way to ensure that you get what you need and of course it is always beautifully wrapped (even if they take half an hour to make sure it is that way...).  And one of my favorites... plastic bags over paper bags to ensure that your purchases get home safely on a rainy day.  Not exactly environmentally friendly, but very thoughtful.  Mind you I got this particularly bag when I was shopping with my mother and as she noted, it did seem to depend on the price of your purchase as to how much service you received - hers had no plastic in sight!

More boxes

I've finally had a chance to get into the garden over the last couple of days and my body is not thanking me for it!  I finally got around to making a few more boxes to try and keep things under control a bit more.  Flat land is great in that you can decide what size garden you want for each thing and change the different plots sizes very easily, but... it is a bit hard to keep under control and too easy to plant far more plants than you actually need.  Anyway, I spent the last couple of days hauling railway sleepers (with the aid of a wheelbarrow) and making 5 new boxes.  4 have already been filled, but I ran out of steam by the last one and only got as far as making the walls.  Hopefully tomorrow I will get some more energy and fill it with some compost, chicken poos and a bit more top soil and it will become my "salad" garden... hopefully!  If anyone if living overseas and wants to order seeds from a great company I highly recommend Kings Seeds in New Zealand.  Of course they will post to a NZ address, but they will also post overseas and you receive a 15% discount as you don't need to pay the GST.  Very fast service.

While I've been building my boxes I've been really happy that the butterfly flowers that I planted a few years ago have self seeded and have made a bit of a hedge in front of my boxes.  (The photo isn't great as the light was fading when I finally got around to taking the picture.)  I love that my neighbours love to chat, but when you have limited time available to spend in the garden it is sometimes a little bit hard to put on a smiley face when they wander past and make themselves at home and settle in for a long chat.  From experience they also like to give their opinion pretty loudly if I am trying something a bit different.  The butterfly flowers mean that I can crouch down as they pass by and am usually not noticed.  Hopefully tomorrow I will get around to  planting a big row of sweetpeas in this area to continue my screening strategy!

Different levels of acceptance

I'm blaming my latest absence from the keyboard on my beautiful second niece.... well at least she was beautiful when she was born... I haven't received many photos lately and unfortunately she lives a little too far away to actually pop in to give her a cuddle, but... I'm still blaming her for my absence! 

I had a conversation the other day with a lady which highlighted how different people's levels of acceptance are.  She is the mother of 3 or 4 children and her husband is a police officer.  Her eldest daughter is the same school year as my daughter and will start junior high school in April.  Her youngest son will also start primary school in April.  There seem to be so many things that need to be done to start school here and each school has very different requirements for what is needed.  For a blast from the past you can see what Emily needed here.  

Anyway, back to my story.... I asked the lady if there was any possibility that her husband would be transferred in April (very common for anyone in any kind of public servant kind of work here) and she said that it was very likely.  I asked her when she would find out.  The answer... about 2 weeks before the transfer would occur - which would be about the time the kids were all due to start their new schools..  I questioned whether it was possible to ask them to let them know a little earlier - the fact that school uniforms will need to be purchased in advance would be sufficient reason in my mind.  But, apparently this is not possible, so they just need to go with the flow and deal with it when it happens.  I'm pretty good at going with the flow most of the time - I am famous for my smiling and bowing even at the worst of times, but for me this kind of uncertainty would be just a little over the top.  I really don't understand the transfer system here and why the notification of transfers has to be so last minute.  Even a months notice would be better than two weeks.... Unfortunately no one else seems to think that it is strange and therefore the system is not likely to change in the foreseeable future.  I guess I should just be grateful that my husband is only transferred around divisions and not around towns!

Rhubarb & Beetroot link

Sorry - I forgot to put the link for the place that sells beetroot and rhubarb (and other things...) in my last post.  For those living in Japan who want a taste of "home" the link is: Kobayashi

Unfortunately they only have a Japanese website, but there are pictures!

Rearranging... again!

Do you ever have days where you have a clear idea about what you want to achieve, but in an attempt to achieve it you have to do a zillion other things first?  A couple of weeks ago I had a day (and late night... ) like that. 

 It all started when a friend posted that she had ordered some rhubarb (something I tried to grow here for many years, but eventually gave up on), so I decided I really better have some too and discovered that not only did they sell rhubarb, but they also sold beetroot - another thing I haven't been overly successful in growing in our climate.  So I ordered far more than I should have in a weak moment of longing for New Zealand staples.  Which meant I had to do something with them... Rhubarb was frozen as well as being made into rhubarb and yoghurt pudding, rhubarb and ginger jam, rhubarb and strawberry jam and rhubarb and orange jam.  Beetroot was pickled and made into relish.  Success!  I managed to empty the whole box of produce without leaving it too long so it rotted all over the kitchen floor.  In fact I managed to do it all in one day.  Which led to the next problem......

We live in a Japanese house and although our kitchen is not too small by Japanese standards it lacks anything even vaguely resembling a pantry, which meant there was no room to put away all these wonderful goodies.  So, I had to convert my wrapping paper cupboard into a preserves cupboard, which meant spending a whole night sorting all the wrapping paper out into piles of things I would never use and things I might use and putting them all in a big storage box.  I was in one of those "organising moods" (you have seen them on occasion Mum...) and so I went as far as wrapping all the old ribbon around strips of cardboard so that it wasn't just thrown into the big jar in a huge tangle.  Very neat and orderly!  

The result... I now have a temporary preserves cupboard that will even fit some of our flour.  It definitely motivates me to make more things - the latest is some delicious blueberry vinegar.  But if I am not careful I will need to build another shelf in there... which may lead to more changes being needed.... and more rearranging needing to be done.   Perhaps I'd better hold off on the preserving until some of the stuff we have is used! 

Finally... flour!

You may remember a number of posts over the last few years regarding wheat.  The latest one was about the harvesting of this year's wheat (you can check it out here if you are interested).  It has been three years now since our first wheat was harvested and each year I have written about the harvest etc.  But, has anyone noticed that I have never mentioned the way the wheat has been used after it has been harvested?  There is a simple explanation for that - we have never got it past the harvested stage before!  The first year I started out with two very small packets of wheat.  All the wheat that was produced was then kept for replanting the following year, when I managed to grow quite a lot more, but ended up leaving it outside too long after it had been removed from the husks and the mice had a nice feast.  Fortunately that was after I had already planted this year's crop.  

This year a friend "donated" their wheat husker thingy machine which meant separating the wheat from the stalks was a breeze!  We managed to get about 19kg of wheat and actually got around to drying it and finding a place which would mill it for us (not so easy these days as most of the mills around here are run by elderly people who have all recently given up).  In the end I brought home a big bag of about 11kg of flour, which obviously won't last for very long, but it is still pretty exciting to finally be able to make things and say that "this was made with our own flour!"  Hopefully I will be able to plant even more this year and slowly increase to at least 20kg of flour each year... hopefully!

I always thought that the difference between regular flour and bread flour was to do with the milling process, but apparently not!  From what I can tell it is to do with the variety of wheat planted.  The only wheat that we can grow in this area is not suitable for bread making - or so they told me... of course I've never been one to listen very much to what people say, so after proving that our flour would work with cupcakes and chocolate slice I tried to make our regular bread with it and.... it worked!  I did add a couple of tablespoons of gluten to the mix, which probably made all the difference, but still - it worked!  I have a feeling that planting this year's seeds won't be such a chore this year - I will just keep dipping into my homemade baking for energy!

Camping 2012 (better late than never!)

Just in case you think we didn't actually make it camping... here is a short slide show of a few of the things we did - which were very few really.  That to me is the perfect camp.  Lots of time to do very little at all.  I managed to organise the food in such a way that we didn't have to go shopping for three days and still were able to have cold milk and yoghurt with our homemade bread on the final morning.  Pretty amazing considering there was no electricity and therefore no fridge!  I worked out the most important thing is to just make sure you separate the food into chilly-bins for each day and DON'T open them until you absolutely have to.  Block ice stays solid for a very long time that way!  

Favourite activities this year were damper on bamboo sticks, books in the hammock, fishing, and games of Scotland Yard.  Roll on next summer!

Silence

Since 7:40am the house has been silent... it may even get tidy before lunch time and stay that way until at least the evening.... school holidays are over.  I love teachers!
It should mean that my blog gets a bit more attention, but for now - a cup of coffee and a book - my reward for surviving (and almost enjoying) the 40+ days of "holidays".

Almost away....

There are piles appearing on the floor, lists are being made, menus planned, slabs of ice being made, and if all goes well we should be off for our summer camping expedition tomorrow afternoon.  We even managed to put the tent up on the back lawn a couple of days ago to give it a good airing before we have to sleep in it.  I'm sure if we went more often it wouldn't be quite so stressful getting out the door, but there always seem to be so many things that no one thinks of till the last minute.  The biggest problem we have is that we are planning to go back to a great spot that we found a couple of years ago that is so nice and quiet and isolated that there are NO shops anywhere nearby.  Which means menu planning becomes quite important....as ice doesn't stay solid forever!  Fortunately Japan has pretty good curry-in-a-bag which works well on the last night.  There is a roast chicken cooling on the bench to take for tomorrow night (which will then be thrown into bread rolls the next day for lunch) and I think we are heading towards spaghetti, salad and soup for the second night.  Unless of course anyone out there has a great, easy suggestion for a delicious camping meal.

So, there won't be any posts for the next few days.  Hopefully we will be back Monday night with both children.... they have been fighting a bit too much lately and I'm a bit worried that we might opt to leave one (or two) of them behind!  Hope all of you here in Japan are getting to have a slight break in the holidays...

Frog obsession?

I'm starting to think that I should perhaps rename this blog "frog fanatic".  I am honestly not obsessed with frogs, but living in the middle of rice fields means that you literally do find them all over the place.  Usually they are the cute little green frogs, but tonight I spotted this beautiful (?), BIG bull frog on the grass just outside the front door.  It was just sitting there in the dark taking a break and didn't seem at all put out that it was having its photo taken - perhaps the flash blinded it into a frozen state.  My son decided it was practicing to be a model.... I'm just hoping it wasn't trying to devise a scheme to get inside and take a ride in the washing machine - I'm not sure I would be so calm if this one hopped out at the end of the cycle!

Rice planting excitement

 

These photos are from quite a long time ago and are courtesy of Mum's camera...

This year rice planting was basically the same as every other year..  (Un)fortunately I had to go and get Mum from Fukuoka on the first day so I missed out on helping in the heavy rain.... so disappointing!  To be completely honest I used to think rice planting was something quite special - the interesting machines, the feel of mud under your feet, the occasional snake slipping in and out of the fields to keep you company and the satisfaction of knowing that you have been part of the whole process - even if the parts you have planted aren't exactly straight!  However, as each year passes it is not quite as interesting... much more of a chore than an adventure.  That being said, there is always one part of rice planting that is interesting for me every year.  That is watching 3 men trying to stop the rice planter from tipping over sideways as they try to get it up the steep ramp between two of our rice fields.  It takes one person to drive it, one to stand on the front trying to add extra weight so it won't tip and another to give directions and pretend to push, while yelling abuse at either the driver or the balancer, who happens to be pushing his weight in the wrong direction.  Of course you also need a funny-hat lady at the back to laugh and squeal a little as the planter slowly tips to a 45 degree angle.  And then of course applaud when they make it safely to the top field!  Perhaps next year they will make it to a 60 degree angle to make the day even more exciting.....

Back in business

I know you are all just hanging out to hear how the chickens are going.... for your information they are going very well - even the poor chicken who I thought would never make it is strutting around thinking she is pretty special.  They have all moved naturally from sleeping in the nesting boxes when they were smaller to perching on their roosts each night (sorry Heather, I really do think you were taken in!) and seem to be surviving this hot, humid summer..  

I think chickens are really similar to humans in many ways -  mainly when it comes to puberty.  I love listening to boys as their voices change, and chickens are even better as you know when they go from the cheep cheepy cheeps to the deeper, louder cluck cluck cluckety cluck that you have got eggs on the way.  Today we got the biggest haul of eggs yet - 12 in total.  The fridge is starting to fill up so I guess we may need to start selling them again soon.  I love having fresh eggs every day!