New Ways (to use old shrimp)


The Baron and I were watching a film last night and decided we should have some beverages. A quick trip to Sanko later, we had a bottle of Asti and a bottle of wine. The champagne was not chilled. Adam had the bright idea of chilling it in a bucket with ice, but alas... no ice was to be found in my tightly packed freezer. What did I have? Freezer burned shrimp.


I have a thing about eating shrimp poopies. I won't do it. I make it a point to cut out the little poopchute before I cook them. But, the frozen shrimp I bought were so small, that painstakingly cleaning out all the poopers would have taken ages. I am lazy. So, they got freezer burned something vicious.

Step 1: Breaking up the chunks of icy shrimp.


Step 2: Repeat step 1 more violently.


Step 3: Pour shrimp around bottle in bowl.


Step 4: Admire your handiwork.


Step 5: Add water.


Step 6: Rotate briskly.


Step 7: Strain shrimp... eeew.


Step 8: Pop cork and make me scream like a little girl.


Step 9: Enjoy!









This is what happens when we get bored...

The weekend in brief

The bravest knight of Slimpsonium is leaving our fair city to experience all the Germanic wonders Deutschland has to offer. To celebrate his moving onto darker beers and stronger currency was celebrated on Saturday evening with the moving of his couch. Its new home was about as far away from Simpon's house as possible, so we saddled up with some tall boys and had ourselves a singing transport session.

Afterwards was hiroshimanomiyaki at Yacchin's.

Fair thee well Ittyan and Kaoru, you will be missed!

Sunday consisted of Charity Show practice, which went quite well, after a bumpy start. Then, I joined Kazuto for a party at his dad/my sensei's house. Hurrah for homemade pizza and tacos! I failed to bring my camera, so you will just have to trust me when I say it was a lot of fun. A few things I learned from a full evening of Japanese.

• Kazuto's name sounds a lot like when I pronounce pirate wrong in Japanese *kaizoku (I say kazuko sometimes). He kept insisting that he is not a pirate.
• O-naka ga ippai - I am full!
• One can pan for sapphires in Gifu
• His sister is nicknamed Chibi *little, and he is Saru *monkey... we had a battle over who gets to keep "saru" and decided we have to share.
• I have a new no hassle eikaiwa starting in August, 5 minutes away from my apt!

Sansai (and falling in mud)


I was asked to go to a party at the Okada's last week. We were going to have a lunch composed primarily of mountain vegetable *sansai. I eagerly accepted the invite, and was thrilled to hear the update from Yoshi... "we will be picking vegetables in the morning, do you still want to come, it is hard work!" I told him I was "even more excited" and he commented on what a "unique" girl I was. Offhanded compliment, I suppose, but I will take what I can get.

We headed to the mountains just outside of Oyabe and started the hunt. Our crew included the Okada's, Yoshi, me, the Nakayama's, and two women, their husbands, and 3 little ones (6, 8, and 10 years). Their mom is sister to one of my sensei here at school. Thought that was pretty cool, small world.

First off was teaching me what was what. Helps to know what you are hunting. Wabari are long stemmed, with a little curlie deal at the top, they are usually served after soaking in some kind of dashi or vinegar.




Next up were a small bud that grew on the very top of a bare spikey tree. I found a bunch of these, because Nakayama-san was really excited about how delicious they were when used for tempura. Also, I noticed that they are home to a small black beetle. I had to wack them on the trunk of the tree to rid them of their occupants. Got over the guilt when I tasted them, though. Almost like the stem of broccoli, but a little sweeter.


These lovely things look like lilypads, and you eat the stem after soaking in vinegar. I actually eat them all the time in my Sanko bento, and never knew.


The zenmai were a bit tricky to find. They are essentially rolled up ferns. I was taught that you should pick the ones stil wrapped up tightly with the fuzzy outer shell around the coil. It is the best tasting kind. Some of my first efforts were tossed to the side because they "are not as delicious!" Ooops. We still had bags full, so I wasn't too concerned. I slid down the side of a hill once, since it had been raining the two days prior. No one saw me though... ;)

*not my photo


Lunch rest stop.


These were our hunting grounds for the mid-morning.

Our spoils...




Great day, great dinner of tempura, and good company as always. Days like this make me love Japan all the more.

The kids were a little timid at first, but after they found out they could practice their English on me, and then fall into Japanese if necessary, they wouldn't leave my side. We were climbing on cows,


racing up stairs (note, this is before the racing),


playing with *kemushi caterpillar(毛虫）well,the one in the photo isn't so *ke (fuzzy)


And just hanging out with everyone in the mountains. There was a beautiful temple up there as well, and I got my first *goshuin in almost a year. (御朱印）Which are stamps and *shodou calligraphy(書道) that you can collect in a book that you purchase at shrine or temple in Japan. The shrine maiden or priest will whip out the shodou brush and write the name of the temple and the date of your visit over the red stamp that symbolizes the temple/shrine itself. They are beautiful, and a great way to remember which temples and shrines you visited and when. Thank you Saffer for suggesting I get one almost two years ago in Kyoto!


Here is Yoshi ringing the miniature bell next to the main building.


Very relaxing day, couldn't have had a better time... and I made some new friends. In a few weeks it will be rice planting time!

The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife


I was having a discussion the other day about an ema, that J and I procured in Kyoto last year. It was from a small shrine devoted to tako *octopus. The image is simple, a woman praying on her knees to a large googley-eyed tako.


The Baron commented on how apeshit Westerners would have gone had they seen this shrine back in the days of conquest and cultural misunderstanding. I could only imagine the Japanese being seen as even more pagan because they appear to be praying to sea creatures. Ahh... ignorance in history. Anyways, I was researching the first forms of tako/woman love, since an entire genre of anime *hentai has been born from it. I am going to blame Hokusai, who brought us the titular piece of today's post, The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife. I like how he cunningly doesn't mention if it is a nightmare or not... left open to perverted interpretation.

A simple artistic interpretation of maritime fantasy becomes a future generation's whap fodder. I was reading an interview with one of the "hentai legends" Toshio Maeda, who had this to say about tentacles:

At that time [pre-Urotsuki Doji], it was illegal to create a sensual scene in bed. I thought I should do something to avoid drawing such a normal sensual scene. So I just created a creature. [His tentacle] is not a [penis] as a pretext. I could say, as an excuse, this is not a [penis], this is just a part of the creature. You know, the creatures, they don't have a gender. A creature is a creature. So it is not obscene - not illegal.

I guess that makes sense, when you consider that even pubic hair is considered vulgar in most Japanese pornography. Funny how they could get away with a woman clutching an oozing tentacle. Ha ha! Gotta give the gentleman props for imagination! This has become a pretty common theme in contemporary art, not just manga and the like.

I will leave you with some real tentacle porn...


might have to watch this and educate myself more...click!

And they said it couldn't be done


Ahh... America... land of the rude and home of the obese. My trip was planned. I was to hit Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Florida, and Michigan again. Many called me a fool. Others were convinced I would lose my tremulous grip on sanity. All were correct. It went by in a blur, so here is a briefing.

Upon entering Detroit's International Airport, I was bombarded with my first cursing rant. Just your average spoiled business man not wanting to wait his turn to change over his yen into dollars like the average plebian. My favorite line from the exchange between us, "I don't want to go upstairs. My car... I mean, my LIMO is waiting down here for me." Sigh. Yes, I know you have money. Most overweight middle-aged men on an international flight from Japan to the US are probably comfortable enough in their finances to take trips such as that. He ended up cussing at the poor woman working the exchange counter and storming off. Classy.

The trip was great, besides my raging culture shock. I can only imagine what it has been like for my comrades who have been home for nearly 9 months now. The meals were huge, and no matter how much J claims that his Big Boy is better, I am still going to be scared if I ever enter one again. I probably gained about 3-4 lbs in a matter of 7 days. That is pretty impressive. We were consuming a lot of beer, however... and some margheritas for good measure.



I arrived in Michigan to guacamole and a monkey. We went to watch a college hockey game in Joe Louis Arena, which made me quite happy! Then headed to Toledo. Toledo was a completely random, yet very fun choice. The art museum had wonky hours, and made for a good wander and lovely arting on a Sunday afternoon. Josh scouted out a little jazz bar near the hotel, while I snuck in a jetlag induced mid-afternoon nap. Then we celebrated St. Patrick's Day in style with Mexican food and jazz. What can I say, we are unconventional... and we had fish & chips with beer the previous evening.




After leaving Toledo behind for the bright lights of Howell, hee hee, I headed out to Indiana at 4:30am. The gods of travel were not with me, as per usual, and I took about an hour detour between Ft. Wayne and Indianapolis in a gas guzzling shiny red Jeep Wrangler. Fun. I did make it, however, and got to hang out with my grandma and my sister!


The red theme was purely coincidental. It was really nice to eat lots of grandma pancakes and catch up being a smartass little sister for a while. I was out of practice...

Next on the list was Florida to see my folks, and to meet up with some friends from college/Boca. I say some, but I really mean Mike who gets props for coming all the way down from Satellite Beach to see me. You are a star, and it was wonderful to see you. Remember to call me long distance when you cross the state border on the way out of Florida! ;) I also saw John at good ol' Mizner Starbucks. Everyone is moving on to bigger and better things and I am happy for you all! The downside of the Boca visit was that Blane and Dr. Courtney both had the day off from FAU, so no professor visiting for me. Sadness.

My parents and the dog were happy to have me home. We celebrated with key lime pie and feet licking (well, Buffy did). I got to teach at my mom's school one afternoon, and the kids asked me a bunch of random questions about Japan. My mom also wanted me to explain why my boys were dressed up in drag in a picture I sent her (from an old school festival pic). I got to explain the Japanese view of homosexuality, etc. to a bunch of special ed. kids. Intriguing.

Back to Michigan for a final evening, and the DIA! Icing on the cake was the Diego Rivera mural, I was led into the room by J and "released" to my geekery. It was amazing, and I have been looking forward to seeing it for YEARS. I was a melty pile of happy art nerd.

Meiers has a lot of cereal. We took this photos to taunt the Baron of Breakfast. Let us see if he retaliates. Thanx for getting my camera from the car, and not minding me embarassing you in your hometown grocery store too much ;).










The next afternoon was my flight out, and after a soggy and difficult goodbye, I sauntered my emo ass around the airport till boarding time. The flight was rather painless, as I was exhausted as all hell. The little girl with the melon head, next to me, did try sleeping on my lap twice. I had to remove her gently both times, to her dismay. Then began the 11 hour marathon vom fest. When she wasn't hurling, she was crinkling the barf bag, or her brother was killing goombas with his DS volume on max. I came milimeters away from committing multiple counts of manslaughter on the plane. Good thing I passed out!

I made it back to Takaoka just in time to hear about the 6.1 earthquake that rocked our neighboring ken, Ishikawa. We felt aftershocks all last week, and one of my Christmas Cacti was not happy to have been knocked over, but little other damage came to my abode.

A farewell to Roo

My nearly 20 year old cat, that has been around since I was the tender age of 6 has left us. After a horribly sad email, I knew her end was nigh. Very sad. In the past few years, she has lost most of her hearing, and a good portion of her eyesight, but was still pretty damn genki. Her recent claim to fame was her love of getting "vacuumed" by Brenndan (my brother-in-law). I suppose without any sound, a vacuum would feel pretty good on you if you were furry, ne? We will miss you Roo.

My favorite Roo story was definitely when my dad shot her in the ass with a bb-gun. Now, before you call animal cruelty, hear me out. I had a pet squirrel when I was younger, and we had released him into the wild when he was old enough to handle himself. He would often come back to the porch to eat peanut butter and other goodies we left out for him. One day, Roo was laying in wait. She was a seasoned hunter, often leaving mouse, squirrel, and bird heads for us at the back door. Such a thoughtful dear. Anyways, Casey (ze squirrel) was heading back for his little forest home with a stomach full of nuts, when Roo attacked. I was screaming, and my dad (who is not the biggest fan of cats, but LOVED the squirrel) heard me saying Casey was gonna get killed by Roo, and he grabbed his bb-gun.

Honestly, it was just to scare her out of the tree/fence where she was perched. It was a bb-gun after all. So, he shot, I screamed more, she fell out of the tree with a "MROoooowWrrR!" Turns out, she was fine, just a little blood. She managed to get a mouthful of Casey's tail, but just fur. Everyone was ok, just a bit worse for wear. As a bonus, she never had the bb removed (we were a little afraid of telling the vet that we shot the cat in the ass), and would love getting her buttscratched after it healed.

Fare thee well in the afterlife, scritchy ass cat.

Hokkaido!

I am leaving tomorrow morning for the snowy white land to the north. Timmy, Francois, Danielle, BC, and I will be descending upon the northern island in approximately 19 hours! Excited about boarding on the powdery goodness that everyone keeps talking about up there. First, however, will be the revelry and pancakes in Inami.

Also, I just spent the afternoon rebooking my transport for my US trip next month. The folks flipped about me driving 18 hours on my own, and upon realizing that, yes, I am admitting it... they were right. I have instead bought a plane ticket from Indiana to Florida, and set up two separate car rentals. Whew. I am finished.

More when I return from the Yuki Matsuri! (snow festival)

Less Artsy, more well... you know

More pictures from Oz on demand. Enjoy. Above, is me looking like a hillbillie. Gotta love wifebeaters!

After Sat-chan's friend's party. Hooched and waiting on the bus.



Tree-huggers.



We headed into New South Wales to go to the beach. It was pretty fabulous. Here is Steveo soaking in the sun.


We walked a bit and generally chilled out. I also got to break in my new diving knife, albeit to cut an avocado for lunch.


Couldn't help myself from taking some footprint and shadow shots, sorry.



At sunset, the shore was amazing. Check out the way the light, sand, and water look in the background of this shot. Oh, and of course, the photo is 100% more saucy with the addition of a wombat.



After the long windy road through the mountains, and a closecall with a certain lady in the backseat, we arrived in the middle of the rainforest!


Where there was the waterfall...


And the ridiculously cold rockpool. Notice me, in the background clutching my towel for warmth.


Along the newly named, Steve Irwin Highway, we stopped to check out the Glass House Mountains.

Hell of a view! The Sauce was telling me the legend of the mountains. Thanks to wikipedia for this synopsis:

In the Aboriginal legend the mountains are members of a family with the father being Mount Tibrogargan and the mother Mount Beerwah. All of the other mountains are sons and daughters with the eldest being Mount Coonowrin.

Tibrogargan, the father, observes that the sea is rising and asks that Conowrin the eldest son help their pregnant mother to safety. Terrified, Coonowrin instead flees. Infuriated by his sons cowardice Tibrogargan pursues him and strikes him so hard that he dislocates Coonowrin's neck.

Once the danger passes Coonowrin feels tremendous guilt for his actions and asks his father, brothers and sisters for forgiveness but all wept with shame. This is said to explain the many small streams that flow through the area. Tibrogargan turned his back on Coonowrin and gazes out to sea refusing to look at his son Coonowrin who continues to hang his head in shame and cry.

We drove to the town of 1770 for a camping and diving adventure on the 28th. Here is the sunset we missed the closing of the campsite for. A great mistake on our part! We ended up driving through 18km of bush, past numerous kangaroo and cows, to a hidden awesome campsite, where I proceded to get us stuck in the sand, we made friends with some dirty hippies from Brisbane, and we spent the night in our lowly tent, listening to forest critters. Good times.


We dove off of Lady Musgrave Island, and this is a shot from the boat. The water was gorgeous. And well worth the vomit-frenzied 2 hour plus 3ft chop boat ride out there! There was a point where we were literally surrounded by our fellow passengers spewing up their toenails. The crew was running around laughing and joking about how the guy behind us needed to be sick more to catch up to some other dude. "Oh man, 1 liter?! You will never beat the record with that little!" Nice... Note: Steveo and I were one of the few of the 150 people aboard who DID NOT vom. Go us!


Here is a pic on the S.S. Vom-a-thon. Note the look of abject terror.


Steveo did his first dive ever! Yeah! I had two dives and saw many sea turtles. The variety of coral was staggering as well. I didn't know what to expect from the Great Barrier Reef, but besides a meager 15-20m visibility, they were great dives. Oh, and I found a spoon. Yup. A Great Barrier Reef spoon. I win so hard! There I be on a boat!


And one final shot of us looking so good in our dive gear.