Reminiscing

Enough baking posts for a while... but still on the food theme... Friday was "setsubun" - the official day before spring begins (I don't think the weather gods have quite realised this) and the kids and I were talking about how much fun it was at kindergarten when the teachers used to frighten them to death (you can read more about what setsubun is and what they did here). I think the only thing they do at school related to setsubun is to eat the dried soybeans that come with the school lunch on that day - and my kids hate them so they don't even do that. At home we each had one of the huge sushi rolls - you are supposed to face the lucky direction for each particular year and eat the entire roll without speaking. My son and I didn't even try, but my daughter faced the "lucky direction" for the year (north north-west) and ate silently for the first 10 seconds or so before giving up. It seems to have worked a miracle on her though as today she was incredibly helpful, even going as far as doing not only ironing her own apron etc., but her brother's and mine too. Perhaps we should eat these huge sushi rolls every day!

Last day of baking before a morning of deep frying....

This morning I managed to produce the requested muffins and cupcakes, but gave up on the madeleines. I personally don't particularly like them and they are a pain in the bum to make so I opted to make vanilla cupcakes instead and promised to make madeleines tonight if they thought they were necessary. Fortunately the cupcakes were cute enough for them to agree that madeleines were unnecessary so I get a "night off" tonight. I ended up making 48 chocolate muffins, 36 pumpkin muffins and 36 vanilla cupcakes. That is plenty for a school with only 50 kids in it! Now I just have to be at school by 7am tomorrow for a morning at the deep fryer and it is all over for another year. The things we do for our kids!

Another few hundred cookies

By 7am I had finished another 100 cookies... by 9:30am I was at school with a total of 530 cookies ready to help make some jelly and get some help to get all the cookies into bags. I ended up making 5 different kinds in the end - chocolate chip, chocolate fudge, chocolate mint (can you see a trend...), anzac, and pinwheel.
Tomorrow I have to make about 80 cupcakes and 40 madeleines..... after making the kids Japanese lunch boxes and before I go to school to help make donuts, steamed bread, popcorn and set up all the things people have donated for the "bazaar". I'm off to bed very soon!

99 down....

Sunday is the yearly mochi making, musical presentation and most importantly the "bazaar" at school. You can read about my first experience of it here. I am guessing that it will all be exactly the same this year. The big cookie bake began for me tonight - I decided to bake one kind before the other two "helpers" arrive tomorrow morning. Japanese people seem to think that there is only one basic kind of cookie that you can make so each year I try to add another kind just to show them what else can be done. These ones are chocolate fudge, there are chocolate chip and pinwheel rolls ready to be cut in the fridge and I'll make our current family favorite, mini anzac biscuits first thing in the morning(Mike, I finally found a recipe that doesn't run all over the tray if you want it!). I think the aim is to make about 100 bags in total with 5 cookies in each... I made 99 tonight so if my addition is correct it means I have about 401 to go tomorrow morning ....
Then Saturday is cupcakes, muffins and madeleines which I am making by myself then taking to school to get everyone to help put them in bags.
Sunday is a 7am start at school - I am in charge of deep frying the chicken nuggets. I can't wait for Monday!

Here we go again....

My husband had the day off on Tuesday so the big plan was to get the chicken house all fixed up and ready for some new occupants once the weather warms up. (Un)fortunately the chance to collect some wood came up and whenever free wood is offered we tend to drop everything and go and get it so the chicken house hasn't progressed at all. We have quite a good system going for our firewood now - we try to get these two big parts of the shed full by the end of the spring so that we have enough wood for about 2 years... in theory! Each section fits 6 rows and we are onto the 4th row of the first one... I'm guessing we will dip into the second section this year, but we shouldn't run out unless the winter doesn't end until about May!
I (half) joked with a friend the other day that I would give up my children before I gave up my fire and more and more people are putting fireplaces in here in the countryside. Unfortunately most people don't think much past the installation. I was drooling as we drove past all the huge firewood supply places in New Zealand, but of course there are no such places in Japan so the chainsawing, splitting and stacking begins all over again..... any volunteers welcome!

Washing day

Today was one of those beautiful winter days when you feel like spring is just around the corner - at least until you see the forecast which is for snow for the next three days! To take advantage of the beautiful weather I washed a couple of loads of washing and all the blankets, duvets, pillows, cushions etc. were put out for a bit of sun bathing.

I like to use what we have rather than buy new things all the time and our method of hanging washing is no exception. Most people in this area seem to hang their washing on coat hangers on big long poles - but the poles are quite expensive and so are the braces to put them on. So I use our guttering instead. It quite conveniently has a little hook kind of thing under it which fits a coat hanger perfectly. The additional height means the washing dries that little bit faster too.
When we have to hang washing inside we also take advantage of what we have and use the little hollow which is common in Japanese houses just above the doors to hang the clothes hangers from. The fire means they dry overnight. I know that in the past the hollow was used by samurai to hide their swords, but I think our use of it is far more practical!

Only if you have a few spare minutes....

Warning: do not click on this link unless you have a few spare minutes... or want to avoid doing something that really needs doing for half an hour or so!

I think I have posted about the great "Cool Math 4 Kids" site before, but if I haven't and you have children (or actually if there are any adults in the house that like logic kind of games) I really suggest you check out the games section - very addictive, but lots of fun. The latest one that we all love in our family is Snail Bob 2 - fun ideas and not too difficult that you can't get through all the 25 levels in half an hour or so..... Watch the snail's reactions as it gets eaten by eagles, squashed by heavy objects or boiled up in a caterpillar's cauldron.....

Driving to work

When we were in New Zealand I kept thinking how great it would be if Japan used round-abouts at some of their intersections. It would save so many traffic lights and improve a lot of the traffic flow (after the initial problems of people getting used to them.....). And then I got back to Japan and drove to work.... and remembered why there are no round-abouts here! The videos don't really show the narrowness of the streets very well, but a lot of the roads around here are like this - just wide enough for one car to drive through. They are TWO-way streets! There is generally no parking allowed on the side of the streets here - although not many people seem to know that and a trip down these "streets" often results in backing up at least once or tooting politely to whoever is gossiping with the locals and blocking the road. This particular road is being widened at the moment - which has meant pulling down many houses and rebuilding them further back. Apparently they had to do it as no ambulances or fire engines could make it down the streets! Progress in a way, but I guess there is still a way to go till round-abouts make their debut here....

Purple .... something.

I have a vague memory of buying a seedling of some kind of purple vegetable last year. Today I happened to glance under the butterfly net and discovered that it has grown perfectly! Not a caterpillar in sight, nice tight, big head and definitely purple! The only problem is that I can't actually remember what vegetable it is... I'm guessing it is cauliflower, but it could be broccoli. In the end it probably doesn't matter - any veges at this time of the year are appreciated as to buy them in the shops breaks the bank right now.

As predicted there were problems on the road today as people didn't prepare properly last night.... despite no actual snow it took my husband 1 hour and 10 minutes to get to work today when it usually only takes 30 minutes. He took the back roads so I'm guessing if he had taken the main road it would have taken him almost twice as long - traffic moving slower than a snail for at least 20km. Emily's teacher also arrived at school close to 2 hours late.... perhaps over-reacting is better than under-reacting!

Over reaction... again!

Last year I wrote about school being canceled due to a typhoon that never actually arrived. Today we almost had the same kind of situation due to a "heavy snow" warning. It seems like the whole of Japan is having a really cold snap and last night a message was sent around from school via the area phone tree (as opposed to the class phone tree or the PTA phone tree) that there may be another message sent around the area phone tree in the morning to say that school would be cancelled or delayed if the snow that was forecasted actually eventuated. The hamlet leader was out in the dark at 8pm spreading bags and bags of salt on the road to prevent them icing over so we could all get to work in the morning. I couldn't be bothered preparing for my 8am class because the heavy snow would surely prevent me getting to work - despite all the salt on the road.
And then we woke up to.... a tiny sprinkling of snow on the lawn.... no message via the phone tree, lots of salt left all over the road (great for rusting the bottom of cars....) and no classes prepared. Oops! There is another snowfall forecast for tonight so perhaps if we all presume it won't happen we may actually get a decent dump!

Presents

Before Christmas I gave you a sneak peak of one of my "projects". Now that Christmas is over I can show you the whole thing! This year we decided not to give Christmas presents, but when you have a 6 month old niece you really need to do something so I decided to make her a cloth book. There are some great ideas on the internet which I mixed in with some random ideas of my own and somehow managed to get something together in time. I would like to thank Jacqui, a fellow kiwi living in Japan, who made me the bag to put it in.... I just didn't have the time or the skills to do it! Thank you Jacqui - you can check out her website of great bags here!

The kids decided they really wanted to do something for Megan and Nathan's wedding so they spent a few hours putting little lollies into bags, sealing them and packing them away to use as "wedding favours".


Another project I worked on was to make a visitor's book for Megan and Nathan as a wedding present. It ended up being used as a wedding message book, which was great! Now I just need to make another visitor's book and as there is another niece/nephew on the way soon too I guess I should start thinking about another cloth book too......

New Zealand Trip Part 4

I think I have mentioned before that I am not really a big fan of weddings. Tom and I had a party here for friends when we got married (which we made all the food for) and in New Zealand my family put together a last minute garden wedding which we turned up to and enjoyed without doing anything...
However... the main reason we were back in New Zealand this year was to attend my sister's wedding and I would have to say that it was really enjoyable. It started about 2:30pm (ish....) and we left at about 10:30pm. There were about 70 people there and it was held in a fantastic private garden. After the formal ceremony bit was done there were games for the kids (and big kids) to play - lawn bowls, croquet, swing ball etc., a jazz band to listen to, there was wine to sip, nibbles to nibble and great conversation to enjoy while the couple were off getting photos taken. Eventually "help yourself dinner" was served and the evening was finished off with a great quiz. My husband was more than a little impressed by the casualness of it after attending so many Japanese weddings... Unfortunately I can't access my husband's photos right now so here a just a few from my camera and from the professional camera person too (who I would highly recommend... Anna Cargin). Congratulations Meg and Nate-dog!

New Zealand Trip Part 3

One of the good things about the children growing up is that they remember things from previous trips to New Zealand. There were a few things that they really wanted to do again this time and I think we managed to fit most of them in. There is still a trip on my uncle's yacht that we missed, but I'm sure the weather will cooperate next time we are there!
A few random things we did in the new year were.....

New Zealand Trip Part 2

After a relaxing time with my mother's side of the family we headed to my father's in Christchurch and arrived just in time for a big earthquake - a great welcome! We had quite a few during our time there - but none as big as the first day. Christmas was great - very relaxed with people coming and going all day.
We then collected my husband from the airport on the 26th and spent 4 days on the road seeing parts of New Zealand that were new to him (and for the most part me too!). The first day was spent with family at the pools in Hanmer - absolutely perfect weather and great fun for the kids (and bigger kids....). We then headed off for a night each at Richmond (just out of Nelson), Blenheim then Kaikoura before heading back to Christchurch. We had no real "plans" so it was great to be able to just drive and stop whenever we felt like it - going for some nice bushwalks etc. Unfortunately the weather packed a sad in Nelson and we had continual rain for the last half of the road trip- meaning we had to cancel our highly anticipated whale watching.
I really should go through my husband's photos and get some of the better ones, but...he takes so many that I can never choose. Instead here are a few highlights from my camera.

New Zealand Trip Part 1

I can see that I am never going to have time to do a detailed entry about our trip away, so I'll just post a few photos of the main things we did - looking back it is amazing how much we did over the 3 weeks. The first "stage" of our trip was to my uncle and aunt's wonderful house in Takamatua (just out of Akaroa on Banks Peninsula, Christchurch). We were so lucky to have Mum, Big Kev, Nanna, Pop, Emma, Hannah and Mike and Bec join us for some or all of this part of our trip. We spent the days trying to keep warm (it was "summer"....) and generally having a great time doing things like...

Returned

My new "weather station" is informing me that it is 2 degrees outside (up from minus 2 when I woke up), but a cosy 20 degrees inside. I have to go to work in 20 minutes. I am not looking forward to it!
We had a great 3 and-a-bit weeks away in New Zealand - after a few wintry days we really hit the summer weather and it was fantastic! I think one of the big pluses for me was that my family was willing to travel to where we were, rather than us having to travel to them so it turned into a really relaxing holiday with people coming and going and a short road trip for us in between. I'll catch up on our holiday in the next few days (or weeks...) but for now just a big thanks to all those who traveled to see us and of course those who didn't travel, but did so much to make our trip a great one. It was our first trip back in 4 years and my first Christmas in NZ since I came here over 15 years ago. Very sad leaving, but hopefully it won't be so long until the next one!

Science Fair

I keep forgetting to write about this....
A few weeks ago I had to work all weekend so my husband took the children to a science fair that a group of teachers and high school students were running in our town. They spent a few hours there and the kids had a great time, coming home with bags and bags of experiments and free giveaways. It sounds like it was really well run with lots and lots to do. I wish our town did more things like this. The only complaint I have was regarding the "box" in which my son brought home one of the experiments in. It was a cigarette packet and it just happened to be from his own homeroom teacher..... who I know is a very heavy smoker. My husband said he did apologize when he handed the box over claiming that it was the only thing he could find to put the things in so they wouldn't get broken on the way home. The experiment does fit perfectly into the box, but.... a cigarette packet... to a 9 year old.... in 2011? I can remember my brother making a dog out of cigarette packets, but that was .... many years ago. I guess Japan still has quite a way to go when it comes to cigarettes and children!

2 more sleeps

My children are counting down to our departure for New Zealand by the number of sleeps.... 2 more including tonight. I am counting down by the number of classes I still have to teach - 5 down today, 2 left for tomorrow. In other words we are almost off! As usual I have been leaving a few things to the last minute and as usual Japan is living up to its wonderful service in an attempt to keep me happy enough that I will want to return after our great holiday in the land of the long white cloud. On Friday I decided that after 9 years of the same glasses I "needed" some new ones before we left. I wandered into the local shop and asked if it was possible to get some new glasses within 5 days (remembering that there was a weekend included in there). No problem. Sit down, get my eyes tested, get given a cup of tea, have my old glasses cleaned and the nose piece changed while I wasn't watching and was told that they would be ready on Sunday! The whole process took less than half an hour and that included a chat about the fact that in Japan you don't have to be a "real" optometrist to make glasses and another chat about how New Zealand won the world cup rugby. As well as taking very limited time it also only cost me about a third of what it would have in New Zealand. I will still have my eyes tested properly in New Zealand every now and then, but the technology they used here was definitely very good and I have no complaints. Thumbs up for Japanese service - again!

They seemed to know....

Today we said goodbye to all our chickens. I literally shed a few tears doing it - and all I had to do was help get them into the crates. As soon as we walked into their yard they went crazy - even before we tried to catch them. They also only laid 5 eggs today - as opposed the 9 or 10 they usually lay. I guess they just sensed something was amiss.
We made the decision to let them go for two reasons - firstly because we are heading back to New Zealand later this week for over 3 weeks and getting my mother-in-law to look after them would be a bit too much for her, and secondly - because they were starting to lay less and less (still not bad, but they had seen better laying days!). After we get back we will clean out the chicken house, do a few repairs and then start the process over all again. I don't think I could live without my chickens anymore!
We thought about killing them all ourselves..... for a few minutes, but quickly changed our minds when we found a place in our town that would do it for free. And then we discovered that for a relatively low price they would also pluck them, gut them and cut them all up for us too... so now we have a freezer full of chicken! I thought the meat was going to be really tough, but the man who prepared them for us said that it looks pretty good - I guess we may have to test it out tomorrow.....

For anyone new to this blog our chicken adventure started after we went back to New Zealand 4 years ago and my son (and I) fell in love with all our relatives' chickens and pushed hard to get a chicken house built.
Our first 5 chickens were purchased from a local high school and had been raised by hand. The next 5 were from a big "chicken factory" and took a little longer to get used to people. The next 12 I picked up as tiny little chicks on the day they hatched. The children helped with delivering the eggs to the neighbours and cleaning them out, feeding them etc. and as a reward they continued collecting egg money and we have had a few nice holidays with the proceeds.
As the chickens grew we lost a few to sickness, a couple to predators and completely lost track of which were the old ladies and which were the teenagers. All in all we have been lucky and ended up with 15 chickens to say goodbye to today. It is definitely going to be strange tomorrow not hearing any clucking and not having to go and collect any eggs. Who am I going to tell all my problems to now? They were wonderful listeners!

End of an era

I am not one of those wonderful mothers who can keep track of every little milestone that my children passes, so I am grateful to my children for keeping track of their own milestones! Yesterday my daughter lost her last baby tooth... according to her anyway! I really had no idea how many teeth have fallen out - I just knew it had been a lot. Apparently it was her 22nd tooth to fall out and meant that it was the final visit from the tooth fairy last night...... My children really love the tooth fairy and ask so many questions every time they write her a letter that the tooth fairy really has a lot of trouble remembering what she has told them.
Some facts about the tooth fairy (for those who don't know) quoted from my daughter's final letter.....

"I have a special magic drink which gives me lots of power. When I need to get under your pillow I take a small drink and then I have the strength to lift up your pillow and put the letter underneath. Sometimes you move a little which makes me scared that you will roll over and squash me!"

"Fairy land is probably about the same size as Kyushu. There are many different areas that I haven’t been to yet, but hopefully if the Fairy Queen gives me some holidays soon I will be able to go and see many new places. I really want to go to a town called “Sweet Town” - they have buildings made out of lollies!"

"I can’t speak any Japanese. I think you are so lucky that you can speak both Japanese and English. I would like to learn how to speak French because I want to go to Paris and see all the wonderful buildings there."

Now I am wondering if I need to let her in on the extra special secret of the tooth fairy so she can pass the wonder on to her own children (if she chooses to have any).... I guess that can wait till my son loses all his teeth!

PS: I've just rediscovered the first ever posts about my daughter's teeth and the tooth fairy dilemma. 4 and a half years of fairy visits..... gotta loves blogs for record keeping!

Japanese vs Western way

First Tooth out