ice maker

It's still blazing over here, so let's talk about ice.

Last month when I was in Hawaii, Aunty M's ice maker went kaput.

She mentioned that someone would need to come and fix it.

Also awhile back, BFF, W mentioned if she wanted her refridge to make ice, she would need to install a waterline...

Apparently most U.S. refrigerators with ice makers need to be near a waterline, like near the sink.

In Japan though, our ice making refrigerators can be placed anywhere there is a plug, because we have a cartridge that we fill with water.

We put this cartridge directly into our refridge.

The water is sucked out and brought down to the ice making area of the freezer.

"Cool", yeah?!

koshien

The summer series for highschool baseball is going on right now. Usually a whole town stops to watch their school play. The television coverage of high school baseball is, in my opinion, better than when they show professional baseball...why? they show the whole game.

Whenever you watch professional baseball (Japan's major league), chances are that if the game runs past 9-ish at night you will not see the end of the game, sponsors and advertising seem to control what can be shown and for how long.

Satoshi always says, "this would never fly in America". My MIL (another baseball fan) says, "they should show the last couple innings of the game rather than the beginning.

Oh and if the pro baseball game is tied, they will only play up to 12 innings, if after 12 innings it is still tied, the stats end as a tie. Not like the fight to the death style of the MLB where a tied game can go many, many innings until a winner is declared.

Anyway, getting back to high school baseball, they have a spring tournament and summer tournament to determine who is the best in Japan. Apparently for the spring tournament the amount of participating teams is less than the summer. Summer has 49 teams vying for the title.

Though the Spring tournament is not as pronounced, it is still an honor just the same to play.

So, we went to Koshien (the stadium that holds the tournament, which is also the stadium for the Hanshin Tigers), this past Saturday.

This year was the 91st tournament (I think the only time they did not have this was during WWII).

Everyday, for 14 days, there are about 4 games played...that is a LOT of baseball.

When we arrived, there was an announcement that all seats at the stadium were filled, still it didn't stop people from sitting on the stairs (talk about fire hazard!) in the outfield.

The outfield seats were free, which is probably why there were tons of people...

Since I didn't want to bake in the sun, I told Satoshi to go ahead and watch the games...and headed across the street to Lalaport Koshien (a mall).

From the entrance it looked like a small place, but inside, the mall turned out to be really long. It only had 2 floors but walking the mall for two hours took its toll on my feet!

At about noon, Satoshi came out for lunch. We bought some items from Itoyokado (a supermarket), then sat outside the stadium and ate.

While eating, we ran into an older alumni of Satoshi's university baseball team, who kindly gave us tickets to sit near 3rd base. (Thank you!)

Satoshi was very happy, I wasn't because we still had to sit in the sun. The seats were REALLY close together too. You can see a photo of my legs near the back of the people in front of us.

Many people were burnt, fire engine red! (see the man in the red shorts??)

There is a special item only sold during the summers at Koshien called kachiwari, this is a bag of ice, 200 yen (about US$2), open the bag, stick in the straw you are given and suck up the cool water. While you are waiting for the ice to melt, the bag will keep you cool too.

This turned out to be a great buy, it took over an hour for the ice to melt.

And if you thought that the cheering for pro baseball was wild, the highschool baseball cheering is just as loud and crazy.

The area we were sitting in, was a cheering section for a team, who, unfortunately lost their game.

After a game is played, both teams bow to each other to thank each other for the game, then the school song of the winning team is played.

Then both teams go to an area on the field to scoop up dirt from the field as a souvenir of the game. Usually the losing team cries as they scoop up their dirt.

Some say that the dirt is sprinkled on their home field to wish them luck for next year's tournaments. Others say that the dirt is kept in bottles as reminders of their experiences. Whatever they do with them I think the overall experience is a good way to bring the community and team members closer.

Saturday's breakfast was a salad marinade muffin at McDonald's...bacon, a slice of cheese and veggies marinated in Italian dressing on an english muffin...not too heavy like some of their other breakfast items...230 yen (about US$2.30)

Dinner was a shared Anchor Porter...a dark beer from San Francisco, 355 ml, 5.6% alcohol...385 yen (about US$3.85). This wasn't smoky but it was good.

and Greek Nachos...recipe to be posted soon.

Fireworks...we could see the Inagawa Fireworks show from our apartment (between two light poles).

How was your weekend?

suzuki shoten

We got these ice candies (popsicles) from Satoshi's staff the other week. (Thank you!)

It was made by Suzuki Shoten (shoten means shop or store). The packaging is very retro looking. They have 4 flavors--banana, calpis, milk and milk kintoki (milk with azuki). Calpis is an interesting drink that kind of looks like watered down milk with a little citrus flavoring but is really sweet.

I did a little surfing and found out that they have been in business for about 60 years and only sell 1100 of these a day. They start selling them at 5:30am and usually sell out within 2 hours! Wow!

The one that is pictured is the calpis, I also read that the banana one has actual slivers of banana in it. I can't wait to try the other flavors!

Suzuki Shoten
3-1-1 Tanaka-cho
Higashinada, Kobe
Phone: 078.431.5744
Closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays
Open from 10:00-16:00 or until everything sells out!

p.s. I forgot to mention that most bars are 60 yen (about US $.60)!

trying to beat the heat (part 4)

Something usually seen during the summer are these clouds called nyudogumo (cumulo-nimbus), they are usually seen in the afternoon and bring thunder and rain. Unfortunately, even though it rains, the humidity still lingers.

Changing the subject, have you ever wondered what I do about grocery shopping during the summer here?

Since many people here have to travel a bit to get to the supermarkets, many stores have ice chests where you can help yourself to some free ice, put them into plastic bags and lay them near your fresh foods like fish, meats, dairy products. You can't eat the ice because it is treated with something that keeps the ice from melting quickly. I usually don't like this type, because if you can't eat the ice and it gets on your food, is it safe?

There was a story on Slashfood recently that also talked about free ice.

Other stores have re-useable ice called horeizai, it looks like those big blue ice packs for your ice chests or lunch bags only smaller. I like these because they are re-useable. Plus, if you wrap a couple in a towel and place it around your neck, you can feel cool for a couple of hours! (at least long enough to catch a nap without the a/c on...) Oh, and if you happen to buy ice cream, you can purchase dry ice for a small cost.

Changing the subject again, there is another dish that reminds me of Okinawa called goya champuru. Goya is the Okinawan name for bittermelon (nigauri in Japanese). Champuru means to mix.

This dish is a type of stir fry and is really easy to make. I usually make this dish during the summertime because goya is plentiful and also has a lot of vitamin C, almost 4 lemons worth. It is supposedly a good food to help your body shield the sun's rays.

To make this dish you need a block of tofu (firm type) (soy bean curd), some bacon/luncheon meat (sliced), a goya and an egg.

When buying goya, make sure that the bumps on the outside are rather large, if they are small, this means your goya is too young (and VERY bitter!).

To prepare the goya, first cut it in half. You'll notice there is a lot of fuzzy stuff inside, this is called wata (literally cotton), use a spoon and get as much of this "cotton" out, the more you take out the less bitter it will taste. After taking the "cotton" out, slice thin and rub with salt. This is supposed to also take some of the bitterness away, then rinse.

Open the container of tofu and put it over a strainer to get out as much water . Cut up your tofu into bite size pieces. Put a tablespoon of oil in a pan and "fry" your tofu, this is also to get out a lot of the water. Take the tofu out of the pan and set aside.

Add the sliced bacon/luncheon meat and goya and cook until the goya is tender, then add the tofu back into the pan. Lastly, scramble an egg and pour over the whole thing and cook until the egg is cooked, mixing every so often....dinner is served!

Hope you all are keeping cool where you are!