this and that

The other day I was reading an article written in Japanese online and the author talked about a Japanese brand of kim chee that does not use additives or preservatives.

Luckily, the supermarket I go to had this brand for us to try.

It is made in Nagano, which in recent years has surpassed Okinawa for longevity.

The kim chee is not overly spicy and I hope we can eat it up before the expiry date.

I'm glad we got to try this and that I was able to use the points on my point card to pay for the kim chee and bell peppers (top photo).

Satoshi has been working long hours, coming home close to 23:00 some nights.

This also means I wait up, then serve him dinner only to get up at 5:00 to make bento for him to take to work.

Napping has become a very important part of my day...ahem!

As for the amount of cases in Tokyo... in the past week, we went as low as 77 to as high as 276.

I hope our numbers will get even lower.

I try to keep off our train lines and only stay close to home...this means we are kind of getting bored with our rotation for take out.

Even on rainy days, the temperature is quite blazing and humid (at night too) so our ac/dehumidifier has been working hard...

Anyway, I hope you are keeping safe where you are.

Have a good week.

virtual hugs

Sending virtual hugs to New York and all the surrounding areas.

It's hard to believe that 19 years have passed.

Have a safe weekend everyone.

 

genghis khan

If you visit Hokkaido, one of their local foods is called Genghis Khan, which should actually be called Mongolian Barbecue.

Not to burst your bubble about Japan, but the Japanese language can be kind of racist...using descriptions of a culture as the name of a food or person.

Like Caucasians are literally "white people" in Japanese and  colored people (can you still say that?!) are literally "black people" in Japanese.

Anyway, Genghis Khan uses lamb as the main ingredient of this dish which apparently was the protein of choice of the Mongol soldiers back in the day.

The convex shaped pan that the dish is cooked on apparently resembles the Mongol soldiers helmets which they used to cook their foods on. (photo from internet)

Apparently the Japanese government had intended to increase their sheep flocks in 1918 but most of the sheep farms around Japan were destroyed with the only 2 sheep farms surviving in Hokkaido.

Which is why you can easily find lamb to consume at their markets.
 (photo fro the internet)

I had recently seen an episode of "Kodoku no Gurume" and he had eaten Genghis Khan.

While at the market yesterday, I ran across lamb from New Zealand (top photo), so using my grill pan, I cooked up some lamb for our dinner.

This dish is usually served with moyashi (bean sprouts) but the market I had bought the lamb at didn't have any! so I just served it with the veggies I had at home.

The meat was tender but there was also lots of fat and some gristle.

The sauce that came with the lamb was shoyu based, a little sweet from apple and punch from a little ginger and onion.

I would definitely buy lamb again especially if I come across Hokkaido lamb, to make this dish again.

sunrise

This was the sunrise this morning.

Pretty yeah?!

It's still blazing and humid here.

Hope you have a safe weekend.

 

this and that

Yesterday, Hawaii made the news here when they showed the mass testing in the H-3 tunnel.

Hoping everyone's numbers will start to go down.

Tokyo's numbers have come down to 100+ per day over the last week and today was a little over 200, instead of the 400 we had a couple of weeks back.

Made korinki and renkon (lotus root) pickles yesterday.

Both are crunchy and puckery.

Bought this yakiimo (roasted sweet potato) yesterday, it was so dry and junk...boo!

After discovering yakiimo last year, I have noticed that a lot of markets have them year round, though if you find yakiimo during Spring and Summer, the sweet potato tends to be teeny.

Hope to come across better yakiimo in the coming months.

This morning we had "excitement"...no internet nor landline service.

Of course, Satoshi is non-tech so was of no help.

After waiting until 9 am (there is nothing 24 hours here), the tech guy that did help me was super nice.

You should know that Satoshi and I have different cell carriers and our internet and landline service is under Satoshi's cell plan.

While talking to the tech guy, he mentioned that he needed to have Satoshi's cell membership number and have Satoshi call in to verify that I was "family"...

Gasp! Nooo...then he gave me a hint..."the number starts with CA"...

I found the number in our papers and told him the number...he said normal procedure would still be Satoshi having to call in to verify that I was "family" but he would make an exception...thank goodness!

Then we went over what my wifi router looked like, what was lit up, what was not.

Did I pull the cord out of the socket and put it back...

And then he told me that someone would contact me, they might need to come into the house to look at the wires and router.

If they found that it was the router, we might be responsible to pay for it (since we rent it), but if it was something outside of the building, then we would not be responsible to pay for it.

He asked if I needed someone to translate when they called or came to check, I told him that I think I would be okay as long as they spoke slowly.

So I went to get some groceries while I waited for the person to call me back.

Man, you don’t realize how much you depend on the internet until you cannot connect to it.

I had major anxiety knowing I was only connected to the world by cell phone (thank goodness we still had television service)...

Then after lunch, when I looked at my cell phone, I realized we had internet!

And I also noticed I missed "the call"....gasp!

So I called the number and left a message.

And the guy called me back.

I couldn't understand the whole conversation, but what I think he said was that he checked the lines outside the building and that we should be connected now.

I told him that I had just noticed we had internet and landline phone service too....ah relief!

And then someone else called us.

I guess we had missed each other's calls, so I explained to the woman on the line that I think we were all okay now...whew! so grateful to be connected again!

Oh and if you do not believe that global warming exists, it is real. 

Apparently the ocean temps around Japan are so warm 30C (86F) that it is causing typhoons to form  (cooler oceans would break up typhoons before hitting land).

So there are now 2 typhoons getting ready to hit Honshu and Kyushu over the next couple of days...

Talk about stress and 1st world problems...

Be well everyone. 

korinki

Came across this squash called Korinki.

At first, I thought it might be called an Acorn Squash in English, but upon researching, I found out it is a relative of Red Kuri Squash.

It is teeny about the size of a baseball.

The outer peel was not as thick as squash and the seeds inside were more like a cucumber, which is why most Japanese recipes online use this to make pickles or use it raw in salads.

I put half of it into our green curry last night and plan to make pickles with the other half.

new month new things

It's a new month, but can we back up a couple of days so that I can show you this?!

It is called an anvil cloud (cumulonimbus incus) or kanatokogumo in Japanese.

When I looked out the window on Sunday, I was surprised to see it, scary looking yeah?!

The weather dude said if you happen to see a cloud like this, take cover because besides heavy rain, there could be lightning...um, yeah..

So...it's the start of a new month...Satoshi's workplace was supposed to change from Shinbashi to Kamiya-cho, which isn’t far from each other, just the train lines are different.

He was bummed because he wouldn't be able to eat lunch at Hibiya Park and would need to change his commute route...

Then yesterday he told me that they didn’t need to move (Actually the office he is at is always changing what they do, he said it is super frustrating not knowing, and says he’ll be working “for love” (no overtime pay) & less salary.)...

So he will still be able to eat at Hibiya Park and go to work on the same trains that he's been riding.

BUT his schedule changed so he has to work on some weekends and holidays.

Which means “normal” weekend days or holidays could end up being a “weekday”.

I’m pretty good at waking up early, but with the inconsistency of days off, I hope I’ll be able to wake up when I need to...what will probably happen is I'll wake up everyday at the same time and just take a nap when needed...

You may have heard, but in a couple of weeks, we’ll have a new Prime Minister.

What surprised me was the way they will choose the new Prime Minister.

Who knew the politicians in the ruling party (Liberal Democratic Party) were as cliquey and catty as those people you see on a reality show?!

Whoever gets chosen (the people in the ruling party get to decide), I hope he/she has an idea of which direction we need to go to beat this pandemic.

I'm hoping for cooler weather soon..it has been so miserable, plus typhoons have started to pop up here and there, so there is just another thing we all need to worry about...

Hope you are all hanging in there.