Peg Leg Pete's

The fishing was a bit slow but the company (and food) was good in Florida this last week. I went fishing with my Uncle Jack, cousin David, brothers Stuart and Cody, and son David. Here are the men on the Milburn side posing with an old family friend. We also enjoyed the Naval Air Station Museum, which I recommend, and goofing off. There is a picture of the whole crew behind the Yebisu button.

With regard to the fishing, it is like Wes, our guide, said: they don't call it "catching", they call it "fishing". We did catch some mackerel and trout however. Here is the recipe of the week, which while too complicated for me to attempt, might be good.

Fried Mackerel

• Filet mackerel and get ALL the red flesh out
  
• Marinate mackerel in Italian Dressing with Basalmic Vinegar about 15 min
  
• Cover filets with milk and refrigerate at least 3 hours
• Fry in Zatarains fish fry

Happy Father's Day to all the dads....

T-Shirt Season

KAWAII OTONA NO ONNA! SMART PINK

It is getting warm again and everyone is starting to wear T-shirts (ti-shatsu), frequently with some kind of saying in English so I should report on that. Here are recent sightings:

• "Critical Beat Down" - Young man with neat appearance
• "I left all my exes in Texas" - 30's woman
• "By Bathing Ape" - Young woman
• "Napalm Death" - Long haired young man
• "I may not be perfect - but I'm getting pretty close" - Young woman with freckles
• "Paints - Power Groove has come" - Preteen girl
• "Loneliness is part of Being Human" - Pretty young woman
• "Freaks of GoGo Spectators" - Young man

What more can I say? Taken together, that pretty much sums up life.

Oh yes. The woman in the picture is one of the secretaries from work. Her T-shirt says "Kawaii Otona no Onna - Smart Pink". This is an interesting mixture of Japanese and English with the Japanese written in Romaji (western alphabet). It translates to something like "Cute Woman Person - Smart Pink". It is more polite to say woman person than just say woman. And she is using the traditional V sign for photographs called "pisu" (peace) and holding a "dijikamu" (digital camera).

Very Japanese. I like just about everything about Japan but the best part is the people. This picture was taken at the Bowling Party we had last weekend. The project team and their families all went bowling - see the group photo by pushing the Yebisu button.

Did you notice my counter is over 3000 viewings now? I should be charging people to read this foolishness. Since I am travelling back to the USA I'll see many of you soon...

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ごがつびょう

Rody

I don't have very much exciting news this week. The picture is of children and their parentls playing on rubber donkey looking toys named "Rody" at Ebisu Gardens (home of the famous beer museum).

The hiragana in the title (gogatsubyoo) means May Sickness. If you remember, we had Golden Week at the beginning of the month - after Golden week nobody wants to come back to work - hence May Sickness. Another term about the month of May I like is さつきばれ (satsukibare) which kind of translates into a clear day in May. This is because the weather starts to become very nice in Japan this time of year and we have had many nice days. The word satsuki also means Azalea which were in bloom earlier in the month.

I have been really bad about my study of Japanese lately - I think I'll go study...

味噌汁

Chef Frank's Guide to Japanese Cooking

This week's topic is misoshiru (Miso Soup) which of course is made from soy bean paste. I love misoshiru and can't believe it is not popular in the United States.

The traditional way is to take dried bonito (fish) flakes called katsuo and steep them in hot water. Then you strain the katsuo out to make a broth called dashi. Then you then put the miso paste, some onion maybe, and some seaweed in to make the base soup. From there you can put clams, tofu, mushrooms, etc. in to make something a little more substantial. There are all kinds of miso but I like the red miso which is a little stronger.

This is a simple recipe as any Japanese person can tell you. So simple that nobody could tell me what the measurements were. I am an engineer, and any decent engineer knows that measurements for recipes are to be followed exactly, the same as any other specification or code requirement. To cook without a recipe is akin to installing wiring without knowledge of the National Electrical Code in my opinion.

But then I found "instant misoshiru". This is pretty good stuff, so I am going to publish the recipe so the rest of you won't have the problems I experienced. I am also giving the cost, converted to US$ so you can see just how economic this stuff is - not to mention delicious, healthful, and easy to make.

Misoshiru with Tofu

Ingredients:

• (1) 18g packet misoshiru, with dashi - about 10 cents each when bought in package of 12
• (1) 200g package tofu, divided in 1/4 - about 70 cents per package
• 300 ml water

Recipe:

As in many good recipes, the first step is critical to the success of the dish.

1. Bring the water to a very light boil.
2. Cut the tofu into chunks the size of a big sugar cube.
   
3. Put the tofu in a cup and just cover with hot water to heat it.
   
4. Put the misoshiru in another cup and pour hot water in it leaving enough room for tofu. Stir briskly.
   
5. Pour water off the tofu when warm and spoon into the soup.

Enjoy - makes a serving for one.

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Weekend Holiday in Doha

Intercontinental Hotel Beach - Doha

I had to fly to Doha on fairly short notice Friday for meetings on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I got in about 5:00 AM this morning and was unexpectedly met by a driver with a new BMW 7 series who took me to the Intercontinental Hotel. Immediately after having a shower and unpacking I got a phonecall that my meeting for Saturday had been cancelled.

So I ate a club sandwich, put on shorts and a T-shirt, and went to the beach. It was warm with a gentle breeze and I found a chaise lounge under a palm tree and took a nap.

I hope your day takes an unexpected turn for the better too.

こい の ぶり

こども　の　日

I have decided to go a little more bilingual on my blog and start putting some of the Japanese words in ひりがな。 Can you see the characters OK? I would be interested in who can and who can't. To read it you will need unicode on your computer. I went a little further and installed IME so that I can enter and edit it. Kind of neat...

Anyway, this week was Golden Week. We had a number of days off and a lot of the Japanese left town but I got sick and just stayed in my apartment two days instead and then had to do income tax. On Saturday I went into work because I was so far behind there. Some Golden Week. Anyway, the end of Golden Week is called こども　の　ひ　(kodomo no hi) or Children's Day.

For boys especially, it is traditional to fly streamers of a carp design called こい　の　ぶり　(koi no buri) which means rising carp. The streamers are flown at schools, temples, from balconies, etc. The design is meant to show the strength that the carp have in rising and swimming against the current and parents hope that there children will grow strong and have be able to do the same.

May your children, and their children, and ... have the same strength and determination.

Singer in Shibuya

Shibuya is known as a place for young people but I was there the other day at Tower Records because they have a good English book section and I wanted a ひらがな language book for English speakers. This young woman was at the train station singing traditional Japanese songs and there was a group of people gathered around - mostly old folk about my age. I stopped and listened too. I like just about all kinds of music. Is there something I am missing with rap though?

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Festival Food

Life Cycle of the Noodle

It seems like there is a festival somewhere every weekend and every festival has food. Today's pictures are from Hibiya Park just up the road from the apartment. There was some kind of a festival which seemed to involve wood because there were a lot of wood crafts there. There was also a band playing Brazilian tunes. Nice band although I'm not sure of the connection (not that it matters).

Noodles aren't exotic food at festivals but seeing them made fresh is a bit different. Here we can observe the more important phases of the noodle life cycle:

1. Roll the dough out very flat with a big pole the size of closet rod
2. Fold the dough up and then cut it with a big knife into long noodles
3. Cook the noodles in a great big pot and put some tempura on it
4. Eat the noodles and go back to step 1. because there are more hungry people

I had a bowl of the noodles and thought they were oishii but not outstanding.

Cooking Pancakes on a Stick

OK, so noodles aren't exotic enough for you. How about cooking your own pancake thingy (or maybe it is an omelet? I should have been more observant) on a big bamboo pole. This is a two person job and I was by myself today so I didn't get to try it. But basically you put the dough on a stick, rotate it over a charcoal fire until it is done, and then cut it off and eat it.

Those are today's recipes. Please try them yourself at home and enjoy.

Happy Birthday Megan!....

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Nihonbashi Bridge Dragon

I may have written about this bridge before. It is located on the edge of Ginza as you head North away from where I live. It was designated as the starting place for roads in Japan during the Edo period. The bridge itself isn't too impressive anymore. It is relatively new and looks pretty insignificant compared to the buildings and overpasses that jut out around it. But I liked this dragon.

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International Expo in Nagoya

Yesterday I went to the International Exposition in Nagoya. Nagoya is about a 2 hour ride away on the Shinkansen. The exposition is pretty good sized and countries from all over the world participated. Qatargas has a liason office there and we were invited there as guests to see the "Gas Pavillion" which has a theatrical demonstration of natural gas.

Anyway, we were VIP guests at the "Gas Pavillion". I am not going to try and hide from you the disappointment I experienced when I got home, downloaded my pictures, and realized I did not have a single picture of the Gas Pavillion! Not inside or out. Instead, all I had was these pictures of pretty girls in native dress posing with me. Can you believe it?!

It really was an enjoyable day. The weather was beautiful and the exhibits were interesting. The people at the exhibits were genuinely nice. Most of them spoke English and I think they enjoyed the odd gai-jin going by. It reminds me of all the places in the world there are left to visit. Maybe I should go back - we only got half way around and didn't get to see the South America or European exhibits.

Note to young people (and their parents): Get out and see things and meet people - it is a lot more interesting than watching TV. How can "Road Rules" compare to even the county fair or a trip to the local craft show?

Note to Cody: I put a picture taken in Shimbashi in the Yebisu pictures just for you. See if you can guess which one it is.

Nikko Shinkyo Bridge - Daiya River

The lacquered carmine bridge crossing the Daiyo River at Nikko was originally built in 1636 for the exclusive use of the Shogun. Even today we peasants aren't allowed to cross it. It was rebuilt in 1907 after a flood. I had never seen it befoe this month because it was covered and undergoing restoration again. This is not the normal angle from which photographs are taken of it but being an engineer I liked the way the stone supports are shown here - shaped like a torii gate. The water is beautiful too.

This week I've been doing "stuff". I had management in to see the project earlier in the week and spent a bit of yesterday catching up. I've been negligent in my study of the Japanese language and so I am rededicating myself. I have set out a 8 week course of study and plan to learn hirigana, katakana, and the first 100 or so kanji characters. I figure if I put it down in electrons and tell people about it then maybe I'll actually do it.

The weather was gorgeous today and I rode my bike to Asakusa which is a fair ride. I went through Akihibara on the way up and then back through Ginza. It was the first day I have seen many people wearing short sleeves outside. Next week there are several of us thinking about going to the World Expo at Nagoya. Take care and try to get out and do something while the weather is nice...

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Street Entertainment is Alive in Japan

The smile and costume are enough for me but she can sing too. There is lots of street entertainment in Japan. This pretty woman was singing on the quayside in Yokohama along Yamashita Park. You can see lots of musical entertainment consisting of anything from a single accoustic guitar player to an electric jazz band.

I've seen Peruvian Indians, Scottish bagpipes, Croatian marching bands, high school bands, garage bands, and a guy playing violin tunes on a saw. There have been jugglers, mimes, acrobats, balancing acts, and several guys with monkeys. One of the monkeys played the drums.

Of course there are fortune tellers and caricature artists. I saw a guy who would write a poem based on your name and birthday and there are people who write your name in beautiful artisic kanji calligraphy.

All of this is on the streets. If you want to go into clubs and theaters I am convinced there is just about everything here. That is one of the pleasures of a big cosmopolitan city.

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This was the Best Weekend for Sakura

Shades of Cherry

The Sakura come in all shades of pink from almost white to nearly maroon. There are single flowers and doubles. Some bloom early, some later. When they fall it can look like it is snowing. The peak only lasts a few days so enjoy them while you can!

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Shinjuku Gyoen

It was a beautiful day for viewing the cherry blossoms. It was very crowded at the parks. I've posted a few more pictures that you can see by clicking on Yebisu.

Carps Rule!

Nishiki-goi at Atago-yama Shrine enjoying Ohanami (and hoping to get a handout).

Liberty and Justice for all...

Hana Matsuri - Buddha's Birthday

Hana Matsuri - Ceremony as seen from my balcony

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Hana Matsuri - Buddha pointing to heaven and earth after birth.

Count the good luck charms in this photograph. How many do you get?

Sumo Groupies

Ohanami at the Park

Mitsuike Koen

Qatargas II Ohanami

Fuji-san and Hakone

Sisters at Fuji-san

Ohanami - The flowers are coming!

Aunt Pauline and Mother under a cherry tree at Zojo-ji.

Aunt Pauline and Mother at the red brick warehouses in Yokahama.

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Batter up!

I like the Carps this year.

Godzilla in Yurakucho

Oh Nooo....

See the new "Chili's" header? I took pictures of the Chili's Restaurant sign in Doha - Arabic on one side and English on the other - and pasted them together for the header. Neat and Texas Cool. Really sets off Godzilla nicely too.

Computer Controlled Massage Chair

When I first came to Japan I thought I had a pretty cool apartment - view of Tokyo Tower, Temple below my balcony, free breakfast on the 42nd floor, etc. but there were obvious things missing. Sure, I had a computerized toilet, thermostatically controlled heated floor, and a bath that turned itself on and off but some of the niceties of life in Japan were missing.

So I have recently taken advantage of my rental allowance and got a massage chair and a home theater system.

I hadn't got a chair before because the foot rests weren't quite long enough and to be honest I didn't find the leg part that comfortable. Then I found this one that has a rest that zooms in and out to fit me perfectly. Further, it has little pads that come out and massage the tops as well as the bottoms of your feet. AND, it runs up and down your back before starting to find your shoulders so it can knead them just right. Plus 4 user customized settings, heated pad for back, background music, arm and hand massager, automatic drink dispenser (just kidding), etc.

What good is this without a home theater? Mine was dated - probably at least 3 years old - so I got a new Onkyo which is apparently the Japanese brand to have. Note the four controllers on the table next to me. That's a lot of digital audio horsepower to handle, especially when all the directions and stuff are in Kanji. I finally have the radio and television working again, and will try to get the 3D hologram function working when I have the time.

Have a nice Easter and try not to get caught up in material things.

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