rainy season

Rainy season started on Monday for our area.

Apparently, Kyushu, and the rest of Southern Honshu haven't started their rainy season yet.

So weird, yeah?!

Not to mention that the temps went backwards to April…brr

Global warming...

city bakery

Krazy weather this week...Tuesday, we had a typhoon pass over, luckily we didn't have any damage.

Then yesterday, it rained all.day.long.

Kyushu wasn't lucky and got hit the hardest with flooding and landslides.

I hope they find those missing and are able to return to their daily routines soon.

On to today's post...the last time I had a shakerato, was when I tried it for the first time at Coffee Labo Frank.

When I saw it on the menu at City Bakery, I didn't see the "alcohol" written next to it...

City Bakery's version has some red wine in it...

Not the best choice with breakfast (mixed berry scone)...but as reader V says..."it was 5 somewhere"

Am looking forward to trying their espresso soda (non-alcohol) next...

summer

The weather has been depressingly grey and super humid.

Poor Kyushu, they got a month's worth of rain in a couple of hours...

We've had some rain too, at times it rains in sheets.

It makes getting to the market a challenge for me, but I still try to get out so that I can get in a little walk.

We've been enjoying peaches.

The first couple of peaches were on the firm side but this morning the peach was perfectly ripe.

They are super sweet and juicy.

Satoshi and I stand over the kitchen sink eating them in the morning before sitting down to breakfast.

Summer is here.

tachiaoi

Okinawa started their rainy season early on May 16th. Kyushu hasn't even started theirs yet...

But I've been seeing the hollyhock (tachiaoi) blooming here.

And have written about how it is an indication of the rainy season coming here.

The weather dude isn't too sure and says maybe next week or the following one...we'll see.

rainy season

The rainy season is pretty much here, especially with our weather forecast looking like this.

The weather dude seems to disagree though.

Hope your week is going well.

kero kero

The rainy season is over but we've been having rain for the past two days, go figure...

As Satoshi was leaving for work this morning, we noticed this guy on our wall right outside of our front door.

What amazed us is that we live a couple of stories up, so we wondered how he got up so high?

Here's a close up.

If I'm not mistaken this type of frog is what the Japanese call an "amagaeru" literally "rain frog" (hyla japonica is the scientific name).

When I left for the market he was staring out at the rain, possibly wondering when it would stop.

And when I came back from the market, he was still there.

We'll probably have to start charging him rent if he continues to stay...

Oh, frogs in Japan say "kero kero"...what do frogs in your country say?

rainy season

The other day, our area started rainy season.

We were actually lucky because on the same day, the people in Shikoku also started their rainy season and got slammed with buckets and buckets of rain (like a month's worth of rain?!).

According to the weather dudes, the average rainy season is supposed to last 40 days.

But, apparently this year is El Niño so the weather people are forecasting the rainy season to be prolonged. You know what that means?

More frequent typhoons and the rainy season extending all the way until the beginning of August.

The photo above is of the skies the other day. Weird looking, yeah?!

I think this summer will be interesting...stay safe everyone!

wi-fi

We just got this portable wi-fi router. Our internet provider said for an extra 300 yen a month, we could use this router for 2 years.

Pretty good deal as my cell phone provider wants to charge 490 yen a month for wi-fi service at their gazillion spots.

Since we still have our LAN service (we still have a laptop not a tablet), I didn't set up our computer to use the wi-fi, just my iPhone.

Next step is to get Satoshi to start using a smartphone, though he's waiting for the iPhone 5...

Oh and our rainy season has started...let the humidity and uncomfortableness begin...

staying dry

Since the rainy season started, I found the perfect way not to get my wallet and some groceries wet...oilcloth bags!

I don't know why I didn't go through my stash of bags before, but this is definitely a great way not to get stuff wet.

The cloth is coated on the outside with what seems to me like vinyl or plastic, so when the rain hits it, the rain repels.

Just wipe the bag when you get back and your wallet, cell phone and digital camera will be dry!

What do you do about your bag when it rains?

p.s. my two oilcloth bags are: Hello Kitty (which I got from a friend in Hawaii) and Laduree, Paris macarons! (which I got as a freebie inside a Japan fashion magazine)

p.p.s. How was/is your 4th of July? We technically don't celebrate here, but here's what we had for dinner, in case you were curious...steak, chirmol (made with okra, tomato, lime, onion, cucumber, italian parsley (didn't have cilantro at the store)), carrot salad, baked onion rings and La Guillotine beer. The maker is the same that makes Delirium Tremens though not as fruity, it had the same alcohol content (8.5%), it also had a little bite to it but went nicely with our meal.

Have a nice week!

rainy season

Apparently today, our area will enter the rainy season and according to the weather guy, the next week will be rainy...blah!

The rainy season in Japan is kinda depressing (to me), it is humid, it rains, you think the weather will cool off because it rains, but then it is humid again. In fact, the rain is warm...ew! (See? depressing right?)

Growing up in Hawaii, it gets humid, it rains and then there are tradewinds which come back and all is well. So this humid-rain-humid combo is something that doesn't make any sense to me, even after living in Japan for as long as we have.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings...The other weekend the weather was so beautiful and sunny that we went to check out Suigetsu Park.

We bought some sandwiches from Ferdinand and some cold drinks (coffee and tea) from 7-eleven and walked to the park.

There were several benches under the weeping willow trees, so we took one and had our lunch.

The shobu (iris) was in bloom and the ajisai (hydrangea) too. Some of the ajisai buds looked like candy.

I hope the rainy season will end quickly, though the weather guys aren't so sure about that.

Hope you have a good week.

rain rain go away...

The weather has been awful. It has been raining off and on, which doesn't help dry all the laundry that I had after our climb...sigh!

Changing the subject, I've started eating Dagoba's Mon Cherri bar. It is a 72% cacao with cherries, cranberries and vanilla. It is a very good dark chocolate, but I'm a little disappointed though since there aren't many cherries or cranberries and you can't really taste the vanilla in it.

I've read on their site that they will come out with covered nibs soon--will be on the lookout for these and their singles (small squares of dark chocolate).

Hope you are keeping cool & dry where you are!

the rainy season

The rainy season (tsuyu) started in mid-May for Okinawa and started last Friday for Kyushu, it's just a matter of time before we get our share here in Osaka, as it is slowly making its way up the chain of islands.

One way to tell that the rainy season is coming are with these flowers called tachiaoi. The weatherman once said that when you see this flower start to bloom, the rainy season has started and by the time the top flowers bloom, the rainy season will be in full-swing.

Tachiaoi is also called hollyhock. Archeologists thought that this flower is one of the oldest, since it was found about 60,000 years ago in the Neanderthal's graves, apparently as an offering to the dead in the Northern part of Iraq. This flower travelled the Silk Road to the Shisen Province of China, where it was propagated and before the Tang Dynasty it was called shokuki--the name which it is well-known by. In the Heian period in Japan, it was called karaaoi and then in the Edo period the name was changed to tachiaoi.

Changing the subject, there is a fruit called, amanatsu literally means "sweet summer", this citrus fruit is a yellowish-orange and thought to be derived from the pomelo (zabon). This fruit is mainly grown in Kumamoto (Kyushu) and Ehime (Shikoku).

I thought it would be sweeter, but it was quite sour, more like zabon...so I took the zest and put it aside for something I have planned (probably a new scone recipe...)--and decided to add sugar to the juice and make it into a sweet dessert.

Here's the recipe: (translated and adapted from the Japanese version)--original recipe by Kosuge Yoko

1 orange (1/2 cup juiced)
1/2 kiwi fruit (about 50g)
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp powdered kanten (agar-agar)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp grand marnier

1. squeeze juice from orange
2. peel kiwi and cut fruit into thirds lengthwise
3. in a pot, put the water and powdered kanten in and heat, when it starts bubbling, turn heat down and let simmer for 2 minutes, add sugar.
4. add lemon juice, orange juice, and grand marnier to the pot.
5. put everything into a long, narrow measuring cup and when the mixture has cooled a bit, add the kiwi vertically, put into the refrig.
6. take out from the cup and slice into 3.
7. Enjoy!

Note: I didn't add the kiwi or the grand marnier. Also, since this recipe only serves 3, I doubled it and put the mixture into 6 little ramekins.

Extra stuff to ramble about: as I went to the grocery store today, I went past a construction area. About a month ago, they had built two houses, side-by-side. As I went past today, I realized that they were building ANOTHER house right in front of the two that were already there! Although this type of construction is really common here in Japan, I still haven't gotten used to the idea and cannot understand how these people buying the houses stand for it. I mean, if my houseplans show a window in the front of the house, I would think it should be functional, right? The big blue sheet is to protect the surrounding from dust and noise (how thoughtful), and the little driveway, is also the parking area for the house that is pictured at the end of the driveway!

As I was making my way home, I was crossing over a bridge and saw a couple of men looking down into the river. I also heard a very LOUD, ruu-mmuu, ruu-mmuu sound. I stopped to see what they were looking at and lo and behold! Huge frogs! Okay, my lens isn't that strong, so decided to draw in an arrow so you could see him. In Japan, these big boys are called ushigaeru--literally bullfrogs.

Hope you are keeping cool where you are, it is 30C (87F) here and HUMID here!

clouds, rain, vosges

We are nearing the rainy season here (I think I saw that Kyushu entered their rainy season today). Today's weather forecast was cloudy in the morning and rain in the afternoon. This usually means from 6am-12pm it will be cloudy and from 12pm-6pm it will be rainy. I had some errands to run, so I wanted to try to be back before 12 noon. (You definitely want to check the forecasts before leaving your house especially during the rainy season!)

Luckily, I was almost home when it started to drizzle at about noon (I am amazed at how they can pinpoint the weather almost to the minutes!)

My afternoon snack were a couple of squares of Vosges' Red Fire Bar and coffee. This bar is a 55% cacao dark chocolate with Mexican ancho and chipotle peppers with Ceylon cinnamon. The first thing you notice as you put a piece onto your tongue is the cinnamon. There is a lot of cinnamon in this bar. As the bar begins to melt, a fiery kick comes from the ancho and chipotle, almost enough to make you cough a little from the punch! 2 squares was just the right amount.

Satoshi has to work tomorrow, and I have a lesson, plus I think it will be a rainy weekend....since we won't be able to galavant around much, hopefully we'll have some nice foodie experiences.

Have a nice weekend!

goodbye old friend

We decided to give up Satoshi's old book shelf and buy (3) new ones. His book shelf which he bought and assembled when he first went to Hawaii in 1996 has held a LOT of books, folders and papers. (Here's where the shelves will be going, by the phone and by the dining area.)

In buying these new shelves, the rule was no overloading and to purge whatever was not needed. (Here's what they look like after being delivered.)

As I look around our apartment that we have been in for the past 5 years, I can see how much our "nimotsu" (stuff) has accumulated.

When we came over from Hawaii, we had 60 boxes of "stuff", then when we moved from the company housing into this place, we added another 20 boxes...Anyway, we've been working on purging and cleaning up the clutter.

So, thanks, dear friend, we really appreciated all that you did, especially when we had that earthquake the other year and you didn't topple over!
"Otsukaresama" (thanks for all of your hard work)

I also wanted to share with you a snack that I recently found here in Japan. These cookies are made by Beard Papa and an oil called Oillio (which is oil forward and backward).

Beard Papa is the maker of cream puffs, they opened their first store in New York about 2 years ago. When they came to Shirokiya (a Japanese retail and food store) in Hawaii, the line to buy these cream puffs were over 2 hours! I really like the ones in Japan, but were disappointed with the ones I tasted in Hawaii. Somehow the cream filling was kind of heavy and didn't have much taste.

These cookies weren't particularly different from other cookies that I have tasted here, oh well, it was nice to try them. Here are the links: Beard Papa USA & Beard Papa Japan.

Okinawa has gone into their rainy season (tsuyuhairi), so it is just a matter of time before we (Honshu--mainland Japan) do, too. The weather has been very overcast and kind of cold. And I am knocking on wood as I say this, at least it is not humid!

Have a great day, I am off to the dentist to have my 3-month cleaning...sigh...