Walnut Brownies

Today I decided to make some brownies, which might not sound that special, but it's the first time i've baked something in quite a few years! We taste-tested them with after-dinner coffee at Chihiro's parents place and they were a big hit! I wonder if this earns me some brownie points!

Elections

Local elections are on, so every day from morning to night various vans and cars of different politicians and their supporters drive slowly through all the backstreets with megaphones blaring. They loudly (but politely) encourage people to vote for them, and thank the local residents (I'm not sure what for... maybe for putting up with the noise?) A few middle-aged women sometimes come outside to wave to them, and the politicians and supporters wearing their bright pink team tracksuits wave back.

Toro Ruins

Last week we went to the Toro Ruins, which are the archaeological remains of a small village from the late Yayoi period (100-300AD). There are reconstructions of several rice storage buildings, and family round-houses, as well as a museum. Because of flooding, the rice is stored several metres above ground, and the houses are slightly raised with moats around them.

Apart from the reconstructed buildings, the museum provides reconstructed versions of their tools, foods, clothes, etc, so that you can actually try them all out! You can see how they made and used their tools, some of which are very clever, like their fire-starter (kind of like a weighted spinning top with a string and handle attached to rev it up with). I found grinding the rice in their mortars(to separate the seeds from the stalks) to be a lot easier than I thought it would be too.

The original artefacts are on display too, and whenever I see things like this I alway wonder about the actual person who used that very same thing so long ago...

Izakaya!

This is a photo of us at one of the ubiquitous Japanese izakayas. They are a cross between a bar and a restraunt, where you can have some beer or sake along with a wide variety of food. You can get a seat at the bar, or your own table, and some even have private booths. Izakayas are typically where businessmen come to relax after work. Most of the food is grilled, fried, or stewed, and goes VERY well with beer! You can buy small servings pretty cheaply, which lets you try out a lot of different dishes.

Haircut

I had my hair cut today, which was an interesting experience. I used some inventive Japanese to describe what I wanted. "Here, small hair. Here, big hair. A Little more please. Shaving back is good." Plus a lot of hand gesticulation. I couldn't be too picky so I got a standard haircut. After that came a relaxing head and shoulders massage. I wish Australian barbers did that!
Edit: here's a photo just in case you're wondering what the results were...

White Day

In Japan, St. Valentine's Day is only for women to give gifts to men. Originally this idea was pushed by a big Tokyo department store as the day women can confess their love to a man with a gift of chocolate, giving women a chance to voice their desires. To balance this out, White Day (14th of March) was invented for men to give gifts back. It was popularised by a confectionery maker, which launched a campaign in 1965 urging men to repay valentine gifts with soft, fluffy marshmallows. The name White Day comes from the color of the marchmallows, and at first it was called Marshmallow Day. Anyway, if you ignore all the commercialisation, it's a good excuse to do something nice and eat some chocolate!

Kawazu Sakura Festival

A couple of weeks ago we had a relaxing weekend away in Kawazu for the sakura festival there. We had to get up early to catch a train to Izu and I found frost covering my bike so it was a very chilly cycle into the city! The train ride was very picturesque, passing mount fuji in all its splendour, and some snow-covered countryside north of Izu. As it wound around the coast, it alternately ducked through tunnels and overlooked quiet seaside tourist towns.

The sakura festival was amazing, with all the trees in full bloom. There were a lot of tourists from all over Japan, mostly oyaji and obasan (middle-aged men and women)! We had lunch at a local izakaya where the obasan workers were frantically making enough food for all the tourists. It was so funny for Chihiro to listen to them shouting at each other and using very coarse language.

There were a lot of food and gift stalls where we sampled sweets and ocha for free, and for some reason there was also a trained monkey show!I felt a bit sorry for the monkey, because it was so perfectly trained and obedient...I hope it's treated well. We found these poor melted snowmen who had been stabbed to death with discarded yakitori skewers. Building two little snowmen next to each other is a bit of a craze here at the moment because two lovers from a very popular soap opera did it. Notice how everyone behind the snowmen are more interested in the food stalls than the cherry trees!

We tried not to get too distracted by the food and entertainment, and spent some time just appreciating the beautiful cherry trees.

Initially I was tempted by the sign saying there was a free natural spring footbath, but given the number of people crowded in it, I thought I'd be better off without the tinea! Another strange thing I saw, was dolphin meat in the markets. I haven't seen it anywhere else in Japan, so it can't be common, but I wonder if it's legal...

The Japanese Inn we stayed at was quite nice. We had a massive seafood dinner there, with so many different things like whole roasted squid, slimy seaweed (wakame), and many types of sashimi. After dinner we went out to see the cherry trees lit up at night, and came back to relax in the hotel onsen (natural spring bath).

Something to think about

A while ago, we went to the Shizuoka art museum to see an exhibition of several Kyoto artists. That was very interesting, and there were a wide variety of styles, but taking photos is not allowed. While we were there though, we explored the "Rodin wing", where many of the French artist's works now live. The "gates of hell" were very impressive in their scale and detail, and I couldn't help wondering what would happen if I tried to open them.

The Witness

Yesterday I was having a shower when the doorbell rang, so I quickly dried off and wrapped a towel around me before answering the door. I couldn't see anyone through the spyhole, but when I opened the door a shocked and incredibly embarrassed middle-aged Japanese lady was standing there! She apologised profusely for interrupting me, and quickly left. I found out later that she was actually a Jehova's Witness friend of my girlfriend's mother! I didn't didn't think about it at the time, but Japan is quite conservative compared to Australia, especially when it comes to privacy. I reckon that I must seem like some kind of Bohemian nudist to them!

da 'hood

These are a couple of photos of the area around my apartment. It's a mixture of suburbia and small old farms. The river is a great place to go for jogs when I feel like I've eaten too much the night before!

Lovely Food

The day before valentines we had this delicious cake (made by Chihiro of course!) and Japanese tea, and for valentines day we went to dinner at a very swish restraunt where we ate a fabulous five course French dinner, were serenaded on a grand piano, and supplied with an endless variety of freshly baked buns (which we hid in our bags to take home for later).