Ochazuke

What is it? Ochazuke is green tea over rice with some flavoring such as dried plum, seaweed, or salmon. Personally, I like the plum. For those who like recipes, make Japanese sticky rice and buy a packet of the instant mix. Pour packet over hot rice and add some hot water. Eat. I made this bowl myself. Yummy. I took the picture with my cell phone.

For various reasons I have been thinking about travel lately. It has gotten to be a real hassle. If you travel too much the sense of adventure is lost and it does that.

I was at the airport the other day and saw something I haven't seen in a long time. There was a tearful family saying goodbye to a loved one and clogging up the entrance. Of course you used to see this all the time before travel became so commonplace and they put up the metal detectors and screened people out of the concourse. Now I travel half way around the world like it was a trip to Walmart and leave an email to tell people where I went instead of a note on the counter.

I was reminded of this when I took the first helicopter trip out to the Diana Platform a few years ago. I got up early and drove down to Galveston, way too early for anybody in my family to get up. We had a couple of 100 workers from the fabrication yard who were going out for a one month tour. I was amazed - tearful families and it was 5:30 in the morning. They had never seen their father leave for any time before.

In Qatar we are building a camp for 20,000 workers who will be there for a year at a time. The workers will be coming from India, Pakistan, Phillipines, etc. Many will have never left their home. There will probably be some more tears at the airport.

Momiji Chizu

It is definitely autumn and the weather is really getting nice. This map shows the colors of the maple trees in Japan (red is full color, yellow is turning, you can guess green). It is from the Yahoo! Japan weather site. In the Tokyo area, the weather is in the 50s at night and 70s in the day. There has been rain but since I returned from Qatar it has been sunny and nice.

Too much work and travel leaves me with little to write about. I did learn an interesting thing about the pre-made meals you can buy in the 7-11. Don't buy the ones that come in an aluminum bowl. The bowl is aluminum because you have to heat it up over the stove! This is of course too much cooking so be forewarned.

I was talking to someone in Doha the other day about men cooking for themselves alone. He said he had never heard of "eating over the sink". I wondered where this guy had been all his life? What did he think garbage disposals were made for if not a method of avoiding cleaning dishes?

Anyway, enjoy the autumn. This is one of the nicest times of the year.

Autumn Haiku

It is time for another haiku since the weather is changing. This is another one by Basho.

この　みち　や
ゆく　ひと　なし　に
あき　の　くれ

Along this road
There are no travelers
Night fall in autumn

This time, I encourage my readers to publish their interpretation in the comments section.

V = 4486

Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday and the secretaries gave me flowers and brought in everything to make maki sushi for lunch. (We ate the cake a little later in the day after the sushi had settled). Gave me flowers - is this a great place or what?

Thanks for the phone calls, cards, and emails. I am thinking of you too....

V = 4377

Where is Waldo Now?

Here is a hint - look at the sign. I haven't been spending much time in Japan lately. Always on the move.

We had a good time visiting Dave - enjoyed the football game, enjoyed the concert, enjoyed Hollywood, enjoyed Catalina Island, just enjoyed being together.

I am back in Japan and the weather is starting to cool off but is still very nice - shirt sleeves to sweater weather.

Hope you are enjoying things too :-)

Where is Waldo?

OK, it has been pointed out that I haven't been blogging lately. It is true. I have been doing two things - travel (work related) and work (work related). Guess where Waldo was most recently from the picture. I wasn't actually working here, but on my way to Massa. Massa is the town on the coast just below the place where Michelangelo used to get his marble.

Anyway, this blog space is about Japan and I have recently proved something which I had previously though I had disproved: Socks can disappear during clothes washing in Japan - it is not just an American phenomenon or one related to having kids around. I have recently lost about 4 socks after going nearly two years without losing a single one. I don't know if the gremlin followed me here or if they live here and just hadn't noticed me before now. Very strange.

Anyway, I am now trying to figure out if they are eaten by the washer or the dryer. I always assumed the dryer but that was just an assumption. Hopefully I will find something more exciting to write about soon...