DalaiMarmot's Xanga

Too much to tell

Fri, 22 May 2009 22:04:47 GMT

Ah, where to begin? Fair my blog, why have I abandoned thee? My life isn't all that crazy interesting, truth to tell. But I did want to share one of my travel experiences that I'm fairly sure will strike a common chord.

While I was waiting for my flight in Seattle, I heard an announcement. It said something to the effect that nobody was going to be allowed off the plane in Tokyo until all health surveys were collected and all temperatures taken. If someone was found to have a fever, they and all passengers seated within a six foot radius would be taken off and put into quarantine for 7 days! They advised anyone not feeling well to change their travel schedules. Isn't that some good advice!

I boarded the plane and endured a fairly pleasant (as such journeys go) 10 hour flight. When we landed, we were instructed to stay in our seats. That's when the Swine Flu Brigade boarded and started taking temperatures. Here's a shot:

That's dude with his laser body temperature-taking device. He shot everyone, and another dude came behind him, glanced at our surveys, and gave us yellow slips to present to customs saying we were presumed healthy. Here's another shot:

I apologize for the quality, I was trying not to be a jerk gaijin and be obtrusive with my amused photo taking. So I turned the flash off, and that makes the thing all blurry.

So, everything appeared to be proceeding apace. And then one of the dudes came and camped out beside the seat in front of me. He didn't move, he just stood there. That's when I noticed the masks on two of the women in the row in front of me. I didn't think anything of it at first; Japanese people wear those surgical masks as a matter of course, either to protect themselves or other people from illness. But when the dude was presented with red dot stickers and started applying them to seats, including MINE, I started to get worried. When a lady came through and instructed all passengers with red dots on their seats to remain behind while the rest of the passengers disembarked, I got more worried. We sat for another 1/2 hour or so...and then were told all passengers could deplane. Whew, I really felt like I dodged a bullet there! That said, I fully expect to get a call from the Japanese health department in a few days. These Nihon-jin, they don't mess around with the swine flu!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:13:17 GMT

It's V-day everyone! Hope it's happy and filled with loved ones.

A-MAZE-ing

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 06:16:54 GMT

Good thing Rich isn't here this V-day, or I'd be spending it in the kitchen making a huge mess trying to duplicate this and instead pulling all my hair out. (Didn't mean that...I do wish you were here, baby.)

In other news, I've got several great blogs planned out, but I'm waiting on other people's pictures to be shared...they're better (and more observant!) photographers than I am. Stay tuned!

HOW SWEET!

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:21:09 GMT

Amazing.

I think I might just have to cry. :)

On our way!

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 03:06:41 GMT

We're sitting in the airport at Taipei, getting ready for the last leg of our journey to Hong Kong! Wish us luck and safe travels, I'll be posting when we get home! :)

Meri Kurisumasu!

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 12:23:03 GMT

We've had a good one. Since it's our first Christmas as a married couple, we wanted to spend it quietly at home. Which we did...except for a minor fiasco with the ham (turns out it needs to be cooked to 160, NOT 260, wups), everything turned out great. We exchanged gifts in the morning, and wow, did I get a good one! My laptop was slower than snail mail, wouldn't charge, and was falling apart. So Rich got me a Mac. SWEET! I'm still figuring it out, but I can tell already it's going to be awesome. :) No snow, unfortunately. We'll have to go to Sapporo for that, I think. Here are some photos from the day.

We didn't bring much of our Christmas stuff, since I was afraid we wouldn't have room to store it. So this is our tree, a lovely yellow and green, 3 ft tall specimen from the hundred yen store. The theme is "A taste of Japan," since it's decorated with felt sushi ornaments and my recently finished peppermint scarf. Here are a few closeups.

Tamagoyaki sushi (egg omelet), commonly found at our favorite kaiten (sushi-go-round, or sushi on a conveyer belt).

Ikura sushi, or salmon roe.

Onigiri, which is really just a triangle-shaped rice ball. I've developed a taste for them, sprinkled with gomashio (sesame salt).

This is supposed to e a seaweed salad. The idea was cute, but the execution needs a little work.

This is my favorite--the ebi, or shrimp sushi. He's so cute I just want to eat him up...so to speak. :)

Here's me posing in my newly completed peppermint scarf. Surprisingly, not having a job seems to have done wonders for my creativity. :)

Here is Rich, lounging on the couch. This is something he hasn't been able to do in quite a while, since the ship's schedule has been all kinds o' crazy lately.

This is him rolling his eyes at my attempts to chivy him into smiling for the camera.

6 attempts later, success!

I hope everyone has a blessed and happy Christmas!

My blogging conscience

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:46:26 GMT

Thanks for reminding me to post, Shelly. :) Unfortunately, I don't have the time to do it justice this morning. December is one of two months out of the year the American side of the International Ladies' Club hosts an event, and it starts around 10 this morning. So I've got to get in the shower and off to the post office to send more gifts before it starts. I'm going to bug Rich more about posting...he did the photography at the Dutch theme park, so I'm making him post the blog about it.

Thanksgiving prep

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:27:39 GMT

Whew! Thanksgiving is a lot of work!

I've helped in the past, and I've prepared a dish or two to contribute, but this is my first time to actually make the whole meal. It's been quite an experience, and it's not even here yet! Today I've concocted a brine for the turkey, baked and iced caramel cake, and baked biscuits and cornbread for dressing. It doesn't sound like much for 6 solid hours in the kitchen, does it? There have been moments of triumph, and moments that have been...well...not quite so triumphant. Let me illustrate.

This is my first batch of Meme's biscuits that came out. Hooray!

This is the mess I made in the kitchen trying to get to that point.

And this...this is my crowning achievement.

Ahem. It was supposed to be a caramel cake...and probably, under all that crystallized sugar, it does taste like a caramel cake. You see, this caramel sets up QUICKLY. Once you cook it and let it cool, you're supposed to stick a hand mixer in it and beat it. I don't have one, so I transferred the whole kit-n-caboodle into my glorious stand mixer and set to. I thought there was no circumstance imaginable that my stand mixer would not be superior to a hand mixer, but I was wrong. I think transferring it from the pot to the mixing bowl caused it to cool too quickly. So by the time I got it on the cake, it ripped crumbs loose, clumped, and fell off. Instead of gracefully smoothing the icing, I ended up mooshing it between my hands and sticking it on. And that, my friends, is what you get when you employ the mooshing technique! This is my grandparents' recipe. I've made it under my grandfather's supervision once. That time, my cakes weren't flat, and the layers started to slide. I managed to arrest the cake's demise by shoring it up with toothpicks until the icing hardened. Unfortunately, the cake still had a Piza-type lean to it. Still, it beats this one! I think next time I'll heat the mixing bowl over boiling water, just so the icing doesn't harden so quickly. Still, I don't think I'll be chancing it on any occasions where visual appeal is important. :)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

On a roll!

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 11:15:58 GMT

Why quit now? I'm in the groove.

These are some photos of my house. I couldn't get far enough to get the whole house in one shot, so I had to break it up. Here's the front, and our garden we haven't done anything with yet except put some soil down.

The balcony outside the master bedroom:

The entrance:

This is the genkan, or entryway. It's a lowered area, and the shoes must come off before you step up into the house. There is a strict shoes-off policy in Japan, and that applies for every home you go to...and some restaurants! That cabinet you see is actually a shoe cabinet. It's chock-full of little shoe-sized slots...no more are they taking up valuable closet space. I'm such a convert...I'll definitely be adopting this custom when I get back to the US.

This is the view from the kitchen. The front door is just to the left of the bookshelf, and the staircase is to the left of the sofa.

This is the kitchen. Notice the few cabinets available. Notice also how high the upper ones are...I have to climb to reach things. I've often wondered why exactly it is that Japanese people, who generally aren't the largest people in the world, have such high cabinets. *shrug*

Here is my stove/oven/microwave combo. No, really, it is! But unless you can read Kanji, you'll have to take my word for it. The part in the upper middle is a fish broiler. Most kitchens in most houses only have that and no oven, so that was a major concern for me in finding a place to live. Even so, the oven is more like a cube than the typical one, and my 9 x 13 pans don't fit. So I've had to adapt my baking habits a bit.

This is the closet under the stairs which has now been turned into a pantry and place to house all the appliances since there's no counter space to hold them or outlets to plug them in. To the left is:

The main room is a combo sink/laundry room. Notice the abundance of pink...they seem to like it here. You'll see it throughout the house. Such a yummy pepto-bismol color it is. You never know, maybe I'll grow to like it. :) You can see the actual *bath* room from here.

This room is completely waterproof, with a door that seals shut. You can spray water harmlessly in any direction...tee hee. See that little stool? You're supposed to sit on that and wash yourself before you get in the tub. You see, you have to be clean when you get in there, since everyone in the family uses the same bath water. Yup.

Backing out of the shower room and to the left, is the potty room. Thankfully, this is not a squatty potty. But it's still a bit complicated.

I mean, would you want to have that many decisions to make first thing in the morning?

This is the grooming/laundry area.

Talk about complex! This washer is only for sale in Japan, so no English manual. That was an entertaining episode, the day Susumu-san brought his wife, daughter, and Fumie-san (and her 1 year old) to teach us how to use the washer/dryer. This little unit does both...but you should expect upward of 5 hours to dry a load and a whole mess of wrinkles to deal with when it's done. So I just hang all my laundry in one of the upstairs rooms to dry.

Going upstairs, this is our bedroom. It's narrow but long. Built into the wall is a set of little cabinets with cubbies and a slipper-holder in the bottom. The mini-bath is to the left.

And here it is! Coincidentally, I saw an exact replica of this micro-bath on TV in a Japanese hotel. I think it's a single unit that they just hooked up here in the house. You can't see the shower, but it's to the left. It's about 1.5 ft wide by 3 ft long by 3 ft deep. It's a bit claustrophobic, and I avoid it whenever possible.

But here's the best part of the master bedroom--the CLOSET! That's a box of Cheez-Its for scale. There are two bars for hanging clothing, and a double row does fit in there. It's practically another bedroom--I think a twin bed would actually fit in there! Yes, the shot you're getting is before we moved in. I'm not showing it to you in its current condition, so stop asking.

That's my house. Even though it's a little different, it's got all the comforts of home. I think I'm becoming a bit Easternized...that toilet might have to come with us when we leave.

Oyster festival

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 09:52:57 GMT

So after I got back from the tea ceremony on Saturday, we went to Kyujukyushima's oyster festival. Kyujukyushima translates as 99 islands. There are a ton of little islands on this side of Kyushu, and the first people that laid eyes on it said, "Wow, there must be 99 islands here!" When they actually counted, they got up to 208. But by then, the name had stuck. :) Anyways, they had a bunch of little grilling areas set up on the lawn, and they were selling fresh oysters, charcoal, gloves, oyster knives, and limes. We got ours to go and took them home to be prepared on our brand new grill! That's right, sports fans. No longer are we cooking on a $4 rusted-through K-mart grill. We've actually got a Weber now. We were dead lucky the box fit in the back of our Suzuki WagonR to get the thing home! (My Civic will feel like a 20 ton tank after driving this guy.)

This is Rich shucking our oysters.

This is Rich doctoring our oysters. He came up with some pretty original (and tasty) combinations. Yay for improvisation! A capability I, sadly, do not have.

This is the oysters all lined up on the grill. Aren't they beautiful?

We went back for more today. We decided to make oyster poboys. They were damn tasty...but deep-frying the oysters and then onion rings contributed to the consumption of far too much grease. So maybe we'll take an oyster break next weekend. :)