vote

I sent my ballot out on October 1st.

The other day I checked online to see if my ballot made it to Hawaii.

It did...whoo!

Hope you will exercise your right to vote too.

vote

Excited to receive my absentee ballot yesterday!

Will vote and try to send it out sometime this week because I am not sure if the postal service is still wonky or not.

I hope my ballot gets to Hawaii on time.

A friend on IG (Instagram) mentioned that many overseas ballots were being thrown away...hoping this isn't true.

Vote people...
 

it's that time again

This Sunday is the Tokyo governor's and city council races...thank goodness there weren't too many noisy speaker campaign roaming around our neighborhood.

Sunday is expected to rain so the turn out might not be too great.

Still, I hope since everyone has been paying more attention to politics during this pandemic, I hope more people will turn out to vote.

Japan is still very old school, they have to write the name of the candidate that they want to vote for and each ballot is counted by hand...

Have a nice (safe) weekend.

that time of year again...

Apparently it is election time for our ward.

There are 70 something candidates running for council and 6 candidates running for mayor.

Of course, most of them have campaign cars running around with loud speakers...

It was krazy seeing all these campaign cars pass each other on the street (of course they were all on their loud speakers too).

Very noisy especially during "my nap time"...ahem!

As for the photo, on the way back from the market, I found a man looking at all the candidates kind of in awe.

At least the election will end on Sunday (it will be Satoshi's first time voting since we moved)...if you can go and vote, do so.

Have a nice weekend.

permanent absentee ballots

A couple of years ago, I signed up for permanent absentee ballot voting.

It was excellent because they would send the ballots to my address in Japan. The downside was that I usually had to pay postage to send them back, but at least I got to vote.

Well, apparently for this election year the state laws have changed and now all permanent absentee ballots can only be sent to the address that your voter registration indicates, not the mailing one (overseas), unless you re-register for the absentee ballot and give them your overseas address.

The letter was dated June 9, and I just got in on the 30th.

I filled out the form and sent it in on July 1st with my mailing address as our Japan address, not realizing that in August there is the primary election for Hawaii.

So...I think my primary ballots may be sent to Japan (while I am still here in Hawaii).

I called the City Clerk's Office and was instructed to send in another application (to change the primary election mailing address to my Hawaii address) OR can "walk-in" to vote absentee at City Hall starting on August 1st...I'm thinking to do the walk-in.

Dunno what will happen with my general election ballot, where it will be sent, but this whole thing on the first couple of days back here has been stressful and confusing.

I feel like I am being penalized for living overseas and wanting to exercise my right to vote.

UPDATE: I received an absentee ballot at my address in Hawaii. Satoshi also informed me that one was sent to our address in Japan....I'll be voting in Hawaii before I return to Japan.

cafe de 10-ban

There is another election coming next week and it always happens on a Sunday.

Since this past Sunday was rainy, Satoshi went to vote absentee.

It's crazy, they don't need to show ID when they vote, just the card that comes in the mail and they have to go to the city office to vote absentee.

After voting we headed across the street to Cafe de 10-ban.

This cozy cafe serves mainly pasta dishes and yoshoku (western) type foods.

Satoshi had their "A" lunch, an array of different items...1180 yen (tax included)

I chose the "pasta of the day" which was a genovese topped with fresh tomato and proscuitto...930 yen (tax included).

Both lunches come with an onion consomme and my lunch also came with a salad.

I wish they would make this place non-smoking, but I'm glad we tried this place.

We may be back when no one else is around.

Cafe de 10-ban
5-4-15 Nishishoji
Minoo, Osaka
Phone: 072.722.0510
Closed on the 10th of each month
Hours: 9:00-21:00

election

I've ranted before about the election system here in Japan.

Well, they are at it again...

A couple of weeks ago was the election for Minoo city (where we live), their city council or something.

This week it is an election for Ikeda city, their city council or something.

We just happen to live on the border of both cities so it has been "noisy" with all the campaigning using their loud speakers.

Ikeda has 30-something candidates, so each one has a loud speaker car trolling for votes from 8:00 to 20:00 (even on weekends!)...thank goodness their election is this coming Sunday.

Try not to be walking on the roadway when they pass or they will call out to you (over their loud speaker)...talk about embarrassing!

I still wish they would combine their elections...this staggered system is crazy and I am pretty sure a waste of tax payer monies.

The sun is back...Have a nice weekend everyone!

election

Japan is holding yet another election today...

It's 0C (32F) right now...I don't think the turnout is gonna be too high.

For one thing, lots of people are against this particular election, saying that it was a way for the PM (prime minister) to sweep all the "bad stuff" his cabinet did "under the rug".

Whatever the reason is, they're using tax dollars to hold this election (as they apparently always do...), whomever is chosen, make the money worth its while.

I still can't vote here, but I am dragging Satoshi out to the polls.

If you can vote, do so.

culture shock

It's an election year in Hawaii. This means that everyone running has their election signs just about everywhere.

I think the law in Hawaii is that the sign needs to be on private property...kind of an eye sore, right??

And then there are the sign wavers...people who stand out in the hot sun waving, trying to get your attention for their candidate, hopefully not causing you to get into an accident in the process as you drive past.

But, you know what? I would take this type of campaigning any day over the type that Japan has which I've written about here and here.

Like we say, "lucky you live Hawaii".

sleepy foodie friday

Friday, Satoshi had the day off and boy, was it a good thing because we woke up at 3:30 a.m. to watch Japan play against Denmark in the FIFA World Cup.

We aren't really soccer fans, (and don't really know the rules), but we were interested to see how they would do.

Luckily they won (3-1), but talk about sleep deprived. Usually on weeknights we go to bed at 1:00 a.m., so to wake up at 3:30 a.m. was definitely a crazy thing to do.

At about 5:00 a.m. when the game finished, we chatted until we fell back asleep.

Then at 8:30 a.m. we headed to our favorite cafe, Hiro for some breakfast.

(Next month there is an election (they sure have a lot here!), but because it is on a Sunday and Satoshi thinks he may have to work, he cast his absentee ballot.)

We spotted this Mini in a driveway on the way to our city hall.

After he voted, we headed out to Kyoto for lunch and then to visit MIL.

It is amazing the things you see while waiting for Satoshi run some errands, I spotted this Japanese figure atop a clock.

At the end of August, the Hankyu Department Kyoto store will close its doors, so I snapped a photo of their sign.

Another thing I noticed was that the kuchinashi (gardenia) are in full bloom, I love the fragrance of these flowers, reminds me of home (Hawaii).
For lunch, Satoshi and I went to Ichi no Funairi. I've been here with Tamakikat in the past and I've wanted Satoshi to experience this place.

We tried to go there during Golden Week, but they were only open to those who already had reservations. Today, they were also quite busy so we ended up waiting over 30 minutes for a table.

Satoshi ordered the shrimp with eringi mushroom set menu (prix fixe)...1500 yen (about US$15) and I ordered the fried chicken with yakumi (condiments) set menu (prix fixe)...1500 yen (about US$15)

This came with a hoshidofu (dried bean curd) salad. This tofu (bean curd) had a texture like noodles cooked a little softer than al dente but not mushy as sometimes tofu can be. It was flavored with a light sesame dressing.

This also came with some siu mai (steamed pork dumpling), har gau (shrimp dumpling) and tsa tsai (pickled mustard tuber).

Satoshi's main dish was garlicky and delicious with lots of mushroom and shrimp. My main dish had lots of chopped onions, cabbage, shiso (perilla) and lemon.

This was the yakumi (condiments) that topped the crispy fried chicken....sweet, salty, a little sour and light tasting with the lemon. There was also a citrus soy sauce under the chicken too....mmm!

The main dishes were very generous in portion.

Our meals also came with some egg drop soup, rice and dessert.
The dessert was a tapioca pudding topped with some honey. It was a nice finish to a great and very filling meal.

After lunch, we walked (rolled out) to catch the subway to visit MIL and on the way, we noticed this sign saying "Sight-seeing toilet"...wondering what the heck it was, we peeked in and realized it was just a public toilet...why they named it sight-seeing was a mystery to us.

The ajisai (hydrangea) were in full bloom too, it was nice to see them mixed in with the gardenia along the sidewalks.

I threw in the last photo of a popsicle that Satoshi had before the World Cup started...This blue popsicle is a limited time item to root for Japan's team which they call "Samurai Blue".

Anyway, it was a long day, we got to visit with MIL, and had some great food.

Hope your week will be a nice one.

trying to save the planet

With the price of food items and gasoline at premium prices, we've been trying to cut corners here are there, while trying to do our part to save the planet.

Last Saturday, Satoshi went to sell some books for me at Book-Off. They used to take English books, but not anymore. (insert pouty face) I think Book-Off still has a location in Hawaii. The books I gave him to sell were Japanese books that were burdening my book shelf.

Selling 11 books, we got 650 yen (about US$6.50), not much, but at least the books will go to new homes and we have a little less clutter.

Another thing we have started doing is bringing our own water wherever we go. These bottles made by SIGG, a Swiss brand, are durable. Can you believe I saw someone actually throw one of these bottles out in their trash because the paint was a little nicked! How wasteful was that?

We've gotten our burnable garbage down to 20 liters per pick up day. Our burnable garbage gets picked up twice a week. Each person is allowed 10 liters per pick up.

I think they should do something about this dude though...he may be saving gasoline by not riding around in a car and shouting his issues, but he is noise pollution. I didn't think it was election time around here...

Anyway, we may not be totally "saving the planet", but doing a little is better than not at all.

Are you doing something to save the planet?

p.s. Remember I told you about making vanilla? Well, if you live in a place where the inside gets hotter or as hot as outside, like here, please put your vanilla into the refrig. I surfed the net and found out it should be kept in a dark, cool place. During the day, when we aren't at home, our apartment gets to about 36C (95F)!

p.p.s. Yesterday was Doyo no Ushi no Hi, the day when Japan eats unagi (eel) as a way to build stamina for the hot summer. This year, I put the kabayaki sauce on the rice, put the sliced unagi on top, some sliced tamagoyaki (rolled egg) & some sliced okra on top of that...it was good!

Hope you have a great weekend!

culture shock

Being away from Hawaii for about a year leaves me with some culture shock in general when I come back to Hawaii for a visit.

On this trip....Everywhere you look there is Whole wheat, Organic, Fat-Free, Low Carbs, Multi-Grain. In Japan, they are just barely touching upon these things.

On TV, there are Reality shows, and commercials talking about Quick Weight-Loss, Reverse Mortgage, Credit Card Debt.

At the stores, it is all about Gift cards. Japan has only started this recently.

The biggest shocker was that there are TONS of storage places. Around our neighborhood, some people have so much stuff piled in their garages that they can't park their cars in there. Which makes my walks in the morning kind of dangerous--I have to step off the sidewalk and onto the street many times to walk around their cars (which stick out onto the sidewalk because they can't park in the garage...sigh).

The price of gas is about $3.50/gallon or more in some places. And they predict it to go higher with summer approaching. Our excise tax rose to 4.712%, because they want to put in a rail system, which won't run past Waikiki or the airport, so I'm not too sure as to who this rail system will serve and how it will alleviate traffic. This excise tax is almost as high as Japan's 5% (which Japan wants to eventually raise to 15%...double sigh)

On the semi fun side, this guy was literally dancing for his wages. A tax preparing office hired him to attract customers. This reminded me of waving signs for candidates during election season. Sure beats those noisy speakers in Japan.

Other than that, once I got used to all the channels, I've been enjoying cable television, with the Food Network (loved watching "Barefoot Contessa" and "Ellie Krieger"), Travel Channel (loved catching up on "No Reservations"), and I'm hooked on a Korean soap opera on the Korean channel, which luckily had only 8 episodes, so I can see the end of it.

In a week or so, I'll have to get back into the swing of Japan's culture shocks that have taken place while I've been away.

what? another election?

Well, it turned out that it was too hot and humid to go galivanting yesterday, but since I still needed some things for dinner, I did go grocery shopping while Satoshi went to his German class. The supermarket was packed! I guess everyone knows that it is a great place to cool off.

I decided to make a variation of the reisei pasta that I made the other day. Instead of tuna, I added tako(octopus), some lemon juice and lettuce. Very refreshing!




And for dessert, I made mini blueberry clafoutis. I used the same recipe I posted before, put some lemon zest into the batter and topped the clafoutis with lavender sugar. Heavenly!

Since there was nothing but election results on tv tonight (what? another election?)we were watching some DVDs--(can you believe Japan is having another election? At least the loud speakers during Kat's nap time were non-existent this time around.) Awhile back I told you about Li Hing popcorn which I picked up while I was home? Well, we finally got around to eating the next flavor that I picked up....Korean BBQ.

I was quite disappointed with this one. Somehow the flavor packet was weak and tasted mostly of furikake and arare. And why is it that the arare (rice crackers) that come with the furikake are always stale? I wonder if they get stale when you mix it with the butter? Maybe the packaging isn't very airtight. Either that or I'm spoiled with the fresh arare that I eat here. I have a feeling it might be the latter.

So back to the election, Satoshi says it is because the rest of the government do not like the current prime minister, so they are having an election to change the prime minister. Apparently whichever party wins, that political party gets to choose who will be the new prime minister. Satoshi says most times the very second the political party wins and chooses someone, the rest of the government wants to change the guy in charge. So someone chosen for 4 years could get kicked out half-way or several months into his term. Definitely not very good for world relations.

If you ask me, I think they have too many political parties in Japan, which causes a lot problems, kind of like when there are too many chefs in the kitchen? But since I can't vote here, I guess I can't grumble too much about it other than I wish they would do all of their elections in one swoop and stop using their loud speakers to campaign (especially during my nap time!)

Have a great week.

sa-shi-su-se-so

Well, the rain has stopped and the sun is shining. Can you believe there is another election going on? My rant about this topic, which I posted about previously is here. Now, I'm not too familiar with their election system here, but it is driving me a bit batty. At least the election is tomorrow, so hopefully all this noise will stop for another 3 or 4 months...sigh...

Changing the subject...Do you want to learn how to cook Japanese food well? If so, you might want to try to remember this acronym of sorts : sa-shi-su-se-so.

1. Sa = sato (sugar)

2. Shi = shio (salt)

3. Su = su (vinegar)

4. Se = shoyu (soy sauce)

5. So = miso (soy bean paste)

The order in which these seasonings are added to dishes is crucial in Japanese cooking. They are listed in order of light to strong flavors. For example, if you put shoyu or miso in the pot first, it will be harder to bring out other flavors because the shoyu and miso have quite a strong flavoring. Shoyu and miso are most often used to finish off the dish, which is why they are added at the end of cooking or towards the end. Most Japanese recipes are written in this order, so you can't mess it up (well, most of the time anyway).

The Japanese are always coming up with innovative ways of shortening things in order to remember them so I think this is why they came up with this.

For dinner tonight, I made Tori no sappari ni (lightly simmered chicken), I've made this in the past and it is a fast, easy dinner.

I've been using an usukuchi-shoyu (light soy sauce) and it is really light, so my chicken came out kind of pale in color, not like this photo.

sa-shi-su-se-so..Happy Cooking!

urusai!

Morinaga's Renaissance is an amaretti cookie with a creamy milk chocolate covering, followed by cashew nuts and a semi-dark chocolate coating. They are individually wrapped so they are perfect for sharing :)

Remember the Kit Kat I posted about? I was surprised that they wrap them so that you can eat only half at a time...although I didn't...

It is election season here in Japan (didn't they just have one??) Anyway, this guy in the Minshutou (social liberal party) decided to roam around and speak through the speaker atop his car, using the surrounding building to bounce his speech off of, at the peak of Kat's nap time! (He was lucky he was INSIDE the car!)

The definition of urusai given by Sanseido's online dictionary is annoying, troublesome, tiresome. And if you use it in a sentence as in, Urusai! it means "shut up", "leave me alone" and "what a nuisance"! That would sum up my feelings....