November

I can't believe today is the last day of November. Time is flying by, which is nice because soon I'll be able to surf and play Futsal again! I can't wait!! 

Physio Update: 

I'm almost 4 months post-op and that means I can jog and jump and things like that. Actually, I've been jogging since I was given the okay at 12 weeks or 3 months. I'm getting my speed back and I can comfortably run about 6.5 km. I think I could run more, but I don't want to push too hard. I've also started lightly break dancing again and it feels great :) I missed dancing so much. As for my progress in physio, my extension is fine, but my knee flexion is not quite there yet. I think the problem is my patellar tendon. The area is numb and it also feels tight. I think the tightness is preventing me from bending farther. My leg muscle is coming back, but it's still skinnier than the other one. Hahaha. I think running has helped bring it back. Now that I can skip rope, I hope it will improve even more.

I returned these babies too. Good bye crutches! May I never need you again!

I also got new running shoes! So far so good!

Halloween:

I didn't really celebrate Halloween, but I am proud of my costume, which was a slice of pizza :)

Miscellaneous:

I went to Asakusa to have dinner with my soccer coach. We went to a restaurant on the Sumida River. It was beautiful and you could see the poop building, which was all lit up.

We also went to Sensōji, where I got a fortune. Recently I've had a slew of bad fortunes, and this one was no exception...

Surprises in the mail:

Over the past month or so, I have received lots of surprises. I got a package from a friend, another from a former student, and one from my aunt! I even received a letter from my Granma! I love receiving mail, so this was soooo exciting for me :)

Package from my aunt :)

Baking:

I have been baking and cooking a lot. Here are some of my recent projects:

Roasted pumpkin seeds in cinnamon and shichimi flavours.

Soy flour and pumpkin pie muffins... These were sooooo good!

Pumpkin spice and okara cookies. These were also tasty :)

Gateau au chocolat

My first ever roll cake - Matcha and cream roll cake.

I have been cooking with Japanese melon, called uri (瓜).

Tokyo's first November snow in 54 years!!

On November 24 it snowed! It was the first November snowfall in a long time and it was beautiful!

I couldn't believe my eyes! Good bye November, you were fun!

Recently

Recently... What have I been doing? Mostly stressing out. I have been doing other things too.

I saw some pretty persimmon flowers.

I played Futsal (a lot!). While going to the court I stopped to admire the sunset through a grove of bamboo trees.

I had my knee MRI'd again. I also got conflicting results from different doctors about whether my ACL is torn. You be the judge... 

I went surfing (quite a few times). This a view of the Skytree from Kinshicho station, which is on the way to Onjuku.

I had a birthday and received lots of presents! Thanks mom, dad, and granma!

I volunteered at a 2 day, 1 night sports camp for elementary children twice. We played basket ball, badminton, sepak tekraw, and soccer. Each time was sooo fun, if tiring :)

I went mountain climbing with the Kasujo girls :) We climbed Kawanoriyama.

I have been baking a few things. I made this Okara pound cake:

 

And these cornflake cookies and chocolate pineapple cake:

There was a farewell/welcome party for Kasujo. 

 

I also celebrated the end of classes with some drinks and yakitori.

Then there was my trip to Onjuku (1 night), when I got to go surfing two days in a row... It was so nice. I'll write about that later. 

That's life recently, just normal life dotted with lots of physio and doctor appointments in preparation for my surgery. 

Baking adventures

I know I've already posted my baking projects on Instagram, but I feel I should address how they came to be.

Once I got a microwave oven that was capable of baking things, I started to bake things like Christmas cookies or persimmon loaf, and I gave them away to my adult classes. One of them has a wife who was trained in baking, and she wanted to bake with me. So, we got a group of ladies together and rented out a community hall kitchen.  The idea was to bake together and chat in English, or Japanese. Some of the ladies want to learn or practice English and others don't, so we chat in two languages.

The group meets once a month (we didn't meet in August). The first thing we made was strawberry and cream sponge cake. I don't have pictures of that. Let's just say, I'm getting good at making Japanese style sponge cake now. Next up was cream puffs or  シュークリーム　(shu cream, it comes from the French word for cream puffs). We made these on February 15, just after Valentines' Day, so I presented them to my break dancer buddies as tomochoco. They approved of them :)

The next time we met to bake was in March. We made gateau chocolat (ガトウショコラー). It was a chocolate sponge cake filled with chocolate ganache and covered in a fudgey icing. It was delicious. We made that on March 29.

Next, we took a break from cakes, and we made Linzer torte, which has a cake-ish bottom layer, but is filled with jam and then topped with a criss-cross of dough and almonds. I haven't made something like that before, and as you can guess, it was delicious. It was kind of Eastery and springey, so it was a good recipe for the day we met- April 19.

In June we made a tricky cake. The preparation time was very long, and there were many steps. This cake was called Jelly Cake. First we had to make a sponge cake, then we made the jelly with agar and gelatin, and then we had to decorate the cake with fruit, placed in the semi-solidified jelly and topped with more jelly. This cake took a while to solidify. It was another first for me, combining cake and jelly.

In July we made L'Acapulco Cointreau. This cake has chocolate sponge cake with chantilly chocolate filling. Then we topped with with mousse and finally orange jelly. This was another complicated recipe with many parts. This recipe is my favourite so far, it was so tasty! I shared the cake with a former exchange student who was visiting, as well as my break dancing buddies. It was quickly demolished.

The latest baking project was making Souffle Cheese Cake. It's essentially a baked cheese cake. Compared to recent projects, this one was quick and easy. I gave the cake to my land lady and her son. They enjoyed it. The cake was heavily lemon flavoured, but it was a good mix with the cheese.

I'm sorry the photography is bad, they might not look good, but everything tasted great!

So there you have it, an account of my baking activities with my group of ladies. It's a really good opportunity to branch out and meet new people, as well as practice Japanese, and brush up on (or acquire) cooking skills. I'm not sure what's next, but I can't wait!

I have a microwave oven!

Over the summer I acquired a microwave oven from a friend who was moving away from Japan. Up until recently it was too warm to use it for baking. However, I've been a busy bee making baked goods, something I haven't done for awhile, and have never really done in Japan. 

Before getting the microwave oven, I just had a plain old microwave, so if couldn't bake. I think most foreigners living in Japan, the ones that can cook anyway, miss their home kitchens. Having a microwave oven truly increases quality of life. 

So far, I have cooked two delicious things with my oven. The first thing I ventured to make was persimmon gingerbread loaf. Unfortunately, I couldn't find ground cloves, so the taste wasn't perfect. It was pretty good though. 

Persimmon Gingerbread Loaf

Since I don't have a mixer or blender, I mixed everything by hand, I was worried it wouldn't turn out, but all was fine. I chose this recipe because I received a lot of persimmons from a local farmer I know. There were too many to simply eat, so I made something with them. 

This recipe was well-received and I will make it again, especially since I just received another large amount of persimmons. 

My second adventure in baking was actually cheating. I used a muffin mix I found online. The mix is a high fibre, low calorie, wheat free mix. The muffins are a little bland, but they were very easy to make. I'll be making them again, too.

Chocolate Oat Muffins

Because they were bland, I will level up (Japanese English...) with cinnamon and maybe some coconut. 

I'm really happy to be baking again. It's so fun. At first I was worried, because I wasn't sure what I made would be tasty, but my guinea pigs gobbled it up :)

In other news:

At the grocery store near my house, I found these very large pumpkins. They're just being thrown away... What a waste! I would have loved to steal them, but they were too big.

Red cups were in Starbucks shops all over Japan on November 1... This isn't my first and it won't be my last, but the barista drew me a cute picture of a polar bear! It made me smile.

Played futsal with other ALTs. It was a gong show, but fun, nevertheless. In our group, there are many different countries represented, we have such an international group!

On the express trains, they have catalogues full if crazy things to buy. One morning on my way to Onjuku, I found this lovely suit. I need this. So. Bad. It's like a sleeping bag with arms and legs!

After surfing in Onjuku, I found a beautiful butterfly.

This contraption is to keep your feet warm while sitting. I want this too. It was so soft!

The fields in Onjuku have all been harvested. Fall is here and winter is on its way.