Just a short post today to share with you something my wife "discovered" last night. After our trip to the in-laws where I voiced my love for "mochi" made from brown rice,"genmai" in Japanese, she decided to try put the rice in a food processer and see if a glutinous mass resembling "mochi" would result. To my surprise it did. She shaped them into small, sausage sized, patties and let them set overnight. This morning she browned them, a toaster oven is fine, and added them to miso soup. I am no fan of white rice mochi. To me it is bland and dangerous-at least 9 people died last week when it stuck in their throats. "Genmai mochi" is much more palatable and not as dangerous as the white globs of commercial...stuff.
I don't expect to convert you to a "mochi" eater, but if you need to carbo load for running or cycling, it is a great source of energy that won't constipate or kill you like white rice "mochi".
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Temple at Dawn
On my early morning "power walk" I passed Yasuoka temple near the Sea of Japan coast in Shimonoseki. The ferocious winds of the last few days finally abated and the early morning calm was striking. The local dog walkers were stunned by the encounter with a "foreign devil" who greeted them loudly in Japanese. I'm sure I was mentioned over "mochi" & green tea in several households!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
New Year's feast!
New Year's day in Japan means we feast on food prepared the day before and watch zany TV programs. This year we are visiting my in-laws and enjoying a little different taste. There are many other pictures of "osechi" on twitter. Check them out!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Final Dawn of 2010! It was a very good year!
As I sit on the upstairs tatami floor of my in-laws ice box house, the sun is rising over western Japan and the rest of Asia for the final time in 2010. It has been a fine year for us. Of course there has been the downside as well, most notably the passing of my sister-in-law at much too young an age, also my “big brother” cousin passed without being able to say good bye.
In reflection, I realized that of the 44 New Years that have transpired in my adult life I have spent 21 of them abroad. Of these, 2010 was a year of major change for us as I left my job before it completely dried up due to a lack of students. Now I find myself a masterless samurai, “ronin”, in quest of new teaching adventures.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, in which I said farewell to my political activism stage and quit my old Twitter account, we all experience stages in our lives. In my case, I realized that it was well past time to put aside some vices that were no longer appropriate for a man of my years. I see far too many folks my age and even younger that have allowed habit to make them unhealthy and unhappy. Mind you, I am not going to become an evangelist for sobriety, fitness and nutrition, and I fully realize were I 30 years younger I would still be asleep and would be hungover when I did get up; after all, it is the New Year holiday weekend.
This was a very rare year in which I was successful in my resolution to lose weight down to 75 kilos. I need to be more disciplined in 2011 and explore the physical limits of a body that wants to surrender to the law of inertia. Never give up, never surrender. Bushido!
This won’t be my final post of the year, but is the final major post. Later I will post pictures from our final 16+ hours of 2010. I wish you all a healthy and prosperous New Year.
In reflection, I realized that of the 44 New Years that have transpired in my adult life I have spent 21 of them abroad. Of these, 2010 was a year of major change for us as I left my job before it completely dried up due to a lack of students. Now I find myself a masterless samurai, “ronin”, in quest of new teaching adventures.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, in which I said farewell to my political activism stage and quit my old Twitter account, we all experience stages in our lives. In my case, I realized that it was well past time to put aside some vices that were no longer appropriate for a man of my years. I see far too many folks my age and even younger that have allowed habit to make them unhealthy and unhappy. Mind you, I am not going to become an evangelist for sobriety, fitness and nutrition, and I fully realize were I 30 years younger I would still be asleep and would be hungover when I did get up; after all, it is the New Year holiday weekend.
This was a very rare year in which I was successful in my resolution to lose weight down to 75 kilos. I need to be more disciplined in 2011 and explore the physical limits of a body that wants to surrender to the law of inertia. Never give up, never surrender. Bushido!
This won’t be my final post of the year, but is the final major post. Later I will post pictures from our final 16+ hours of 2010. I wish you all a healthy and prosperous New Year.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Kanmon Bridge
This Kanmon Staits Bridge that connects Honshu with Kyushu at Shimonoseki and Kitakyushu City. Cold and grey, but still very picturesque. Eating at a cafe with this view.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Bullet train interior
For my followers who live abroad, this is the interior of a Nozomi Shinkansen (Bullet train). We just passed Mt. Fuji on the West side, Tokyo Bay on the East. Very smooth ride.
Monday, December 27, 2010
"Over the River and Though The Woods"
Today, Monday before the New Year’s holidays is trip prep day for us. From tomorrow I will be doing some mobile blogging and Tweeting from the in-laws I southern Honshu. They will see their grandson for the first time in 14 years. I know, my wife and I should be flogged for not visiting them since we came back from “that country”. The cost has been almost prohibitive as it costs more to go there than to go to Los Angeles. It appears that granddad is “sweating” his return; we got a very rare telephone call from them last night checking on our plans.
I would normally look forward to a bullet train trip, but not with luggage and definitely not over the crazed “Shogatsu” holidays when the trains run at 120% capacity. Cold prevention gauze masks are de rigeur . I am looking forward to getting some good photo ops and some “different” victuals from my mother-in-law’s kitchen.
So if you are so inclined, make sure you click on my links on Twitter that mention a blog post. Don’t you know that 140 characters just don’t get it on special occasions and in my book, everyday is special.
I would normally look forward to a bullet train trip, but not with luggage and definitely not over the crazed “Shogatsu” holidays when the trains run at 120% capacity. Cold prevention gauze masks are de rigeur . I am looking forward to getting some good photo ops and some “different” victuals from my mother-in-law’s kitchen.
So if you are so inclined, make sure you click on my links on Twitter that mention a blog post. Don’t you know that 140 characters just don’t get it on special occasions and in my book, everyday is special.
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