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. 

Updates

What have I been doing recently? Just the usual... Baking, playing futsal, teaching English and continuing my mastery of the Japanese medical system.

On thanksgiving weekend, I baked an apple tarte with the usual ladies. It was a perfect project for that weekend, as it was thanksgiving. Apples are now in season, but it doesn't make them any more affordable. I miss Canadian apples!

The recipe was a little strange in that it called for panko, which means bread crumbs, and it was topped with apricot jelly. Japanese recipes do weird things. For the tarte, we made a crust, and then layered it with fresh bread crumbs, then we layered apples on top of that. The apples were mixed with sugar and cinnamon, which gave the tarte a nice flavour. The finishing touch was raisins, and then it was baked. After baking, the apples were brushed with apricot jelly. It was delicious.

In Japan we also have the Monday off, just like in Canada, except that holiday is called 体育の日, or physical education day. So on thanksgiving Monday I tried to bake a flour-less pumpkin loaf, but it was more pumpkin mush than anything. It was perfectly tasty, but it just didn't look good. Good thing I don't care about how food looks!

The next weekend, I had my third league game with my futsal team. I was unsure whether I'd be able to play, but I could! However, I played goal for half the game. It was a throwback to my youth! I like playing, but it sure is stressful! Luckily, I had a shut out. I played the second half on the field, and I didn't manage to score, but I did set up goals. We won that game 9-1.

Guess which one is me... I didn't realize how much of a giant I am! Ugh!

This is our team meeting before the game. I don't think our uniforms could be any uglier...

Of course, I'm still doing my usual thing, teaching. This month was a little fun in that I got to meet future students and give them a sample class. Every year, junior high students interested in the foreign language department at school come and learn about it. They listen to speeches by students in the program, as well as our exchange students and then they get to try two sample classes. One of those is with me. The other class is an online listening and learning program. In my class, we made hand turkeys, since it was thanksgiving, and the students made up an introduction for their hand turkey. Then they wrote what they were grateful  for, again, in honour of thanksgiving. The students seemed to enjoy it, which is good, because pressure is high for that day. The teachers and principals are always anxious, because if the day doesn't go well, then not many students will apply for the program and the school will be ranked lower.

Also, last week a former exchange student visited from Sweden. She came to see her class, but it was a surprise, so I had to help organize it. The students were all really surprised, and it was a wonderful reunion for them :)

And of course, I continue to see the doctor every two weeks regarding my herniated disc. Both the doctor and the physio say my pain is not a result of the hernia. Whatever. The pain has significantly improved and I can play sports without too much discomfort, so I'm happy. I'm perfectly happy to stop this nonsense and get over this part of the year... All bad things seem to happen from August to December... Every year. It's quite an incredible coincidence, or not.

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!

2 years - August 5, 2012 - August 5, 2014 - Japanniversary

Today marks the two year anniversary of my arrival in Japan. It's crazy how time flies. I remember feeling like I made the wrong choice when I said good bye and got on the plane to Tokyo. Those thoughts are long gone, but new questions and fears have replaced them, mainly concerning the next step. I'm not sure what's next. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I do know that my Japanese must improve though. This summer I will study study study. Maybe I'll be able to string a sensible sentence together soon. Next Japanesey thing to try is Kyudo, or Japanese archery. After trying it and hitting 3 of 4 arrows on target, the teacher encouraged me to join. Soon I will hopefully learn a new skill.

Japan has changed me and made me grow in so many ways. I've had a lot of new experiences, some good and some not, but all educational.

I've had run-ins with all manner of bugs and animals. Off the top of my head, giant moths, horrifying bright orange-striped wasps with powerful stings, praying mantises (?), cockroaches, tanuki, deer, ducks, various waterfowl, a burgeoning stray cat problem, too many daschunds, corgis, and chihuahuas to count, large spiders, hopping spiders, bunnies on leashes, cats in strollers, jelly fish, flying fish, raw fish, raw chicken, raw whale, raw horse, raw beef, and other raw things, and of course cicadas!

I've climbed many mountains including the beast that is Mt. Fuji. And for sure, my future involves many more mountains. I've fallen in love with nature here in Japan. I enjoyed, loved, and bragged about Canada's nature, but it seems more precious in Japan because the concrete, the trains, the noise, the light and the crowds get to you. 

I've had surgery and turned into a major hypochondriac! Japan gifted me with a week long hospital stay complete with surgical battle scars. This is a unique experience not too many temporary residents get to have. It was character building. I'd much rather have surgery in English, though. Since everything is strange and I'm alone here, every little thing worries me. I should learn to trust that my body is healthy and very sturdy, so I don't really have to worry so much. But every ache, fever and stomach ache still stresses me out. I think it's more worrying about how to explain it in Japanese to the doctor. Haha. 

I got hit by a car and survived! This is not unique. Drivers here in Japan are terrible and the roads are narrow with tonnes of blind corners and intersections. Bike and pedestrian collisions with cars are a very common occurrence here. Less common, is the hit and run. While I survived my inevitable meeting with the front end of a car, it still plagues me to this day, almost one year later. It was also the cause of my second MRI in Japan. It's the reason I go to a hospital weekly, even though I'm perfectly healthy. At least my Japanese has improved greatly because of this... Or at least my listening comprehension has.

In the past two years I've become a surfer! And I live in a land locked prefecture! Ha! I loved surfing before Japan, but here I have the opportunity to go surfing way more often than I would be able to in Canada, and I've been able to improve. I love surfing. I love my board. I love the feeling of catching a wave. I love falling off my board. I love the soothing movement of the waves. I love the mountains, but I'm still a water baby at the core.

I've reconnected with soccer and I've been introduced to futsal here. I love playing futsal. I love playing soccer. I've been able to continue dancing as well. Through both activities I've met great people! 

I've collected so many cards. Seriously. Everyone and their dog has a card. First, there are name cards or business cards, which you receive at first meetings with people. Second, there are membership cards for things like the gym, the pool, the futsal court. Third, my necessary cards: foreign residency card, health insurance card, bank cards, credit cards, etc. Fourth, my hospital cards. Each clinic or hospital you visit gives you a card. You must use it whenever you go to that clinic or hospital. I've got quite a collection. And fifth, point cards. Oh my goodness! Grocery stores, clothing stores, malls, restaurants, coffee shops, massage places, movie theaters... Everyone has a point card or loyalty card. It's nuts. I thought I had a lot of cards in Canada, but it doesn't come close to what I've accumulated here...

Thankfully and finally as well, I collected another degree. It only took 4.5 years, 3 or 4 leaves of absence, 130-something pages of rambling and countless hours of torture, guilt, and depression. I'm a Master of Science now. Not any better for it though.

I've had some run-ins with the cops. Don't worry, nothing too serious ;p I've had some run-ins with yakuza. The former not being related to the latter, of course. Really though, what Japan experience is complete without stories of cops and gangsters? 

It's been a wild two years full of new experiences, new people and lots of cards. Happy 2nd anniversary to us, Japan!

上園 💝 日本