TILT

- Morinaga Greek yoghurt with raspberry sauce
- new pjs (from Uniqlo!)
- workday lunch dates with friends
- people wearing my knitting!!
- trying (and succeeding with!) new yummy dinner recipes

What are you loving this Thursday?

A Tale of two Tassels

Maybe it is the cold weather, but I've been knitting quite a bit lately - making scarves to warm the necks of friends and coworkers as fast as I can. I've also managed to start using up some of the yarn sitting in my cupboards that has been given to me by friends and coworkers. Choosing the yarn, however, is just the first step. Then I have to choose a pattern, and then, with scarves, whether or not to add tassels. 

But sometimes it isn't just a decision about whether to tassel or not, but what to call those tassels... Are they tassels? Or a fringe? (Or just a really good way to use up the very last bit of the yarn?) 

I give you two takes:

Triangles and tassels (to warm the neck of a certain nomadic South African)

and ｃabled tassels (to warm the neck of a male coworker)

Tuesday Then & Now - Nikko Cedar Lane

I recently discovered Nagasaki University's Metadatabase of Japanese Old Photographs. There went a few hours of clicking through to photos and comparing them to what you can find now! So I decided to see if I could find my own photos of some of the places in the Nagasaki U database.

Here goes number one - of course I have to start with Nikko!!

The Nikko Cedar Road, the old approach road to Nikko.

Sometime in the late 19th or early 20th centuries:

and

January 3, 2013

Cross-lingual Miscommunication

I'm putting on my make-up this morning as U is shaving, bot of squeezing into the small space in front of the mirror. He looks at me with an adoring smile and says,

"I look at you sometimes and want to put you into business!" (shobai - a word which is often used for a certain type of... ah... business!)

"YOU WHAT?!"

He repeats himself, mumbling around the razor, "invitation!" (shokai)

"Huh?!" Now I'm just confused, and pretty sure I'm just not hearing him properly.

Finally he puts down the razor and starts poking my cheek, "chokai!" He says, with a smile.

My Japanese lesson for the day: "chokai," which apparently means to annoy the hell out of your partner and dawdle over morning preparations while half asleep but be adorable about it all so your partner can't get angry (or at least stay angry) with you. Either that or it means to poke somebody repeatedly. Yes, there is a word for that.

At least he wasn't trying to say that the sight of me in the morning made him want to sell me off into a life of prostitution, eh?!

Round-up

I knitted both of these back in early 2011, but they've been sitting in a box ever since as I didn't know who to give them to. But they have both finally found homes!

Both are cowls, and both were made with a single ball of yarn. The darker, a lightweight lacy cowl in a traditional feather and fan pattern, will be decorating the neck of a amazing woman I met my last visit to Vancouver - kind and gentle, beautiful, and amazingly awe-inspiringly strong.

The lighter cowl is smaller and simpler - a basic cable pattern. I gave it to the lady who runs the towel store near work. I was introduced to her a year or so ago by a coworker, and every day when I walk to or from work we exchange greetings and random comments on the weather / her friend's daughter who has moved to Canada / seasonal happenings / etc. This summer she gave me a bright pink towel as a midsummer gift, then last week she gave me a new year's towel with a snake design and ever since I had been trying to figure out how to repay her kindnesses...

Jello - not just for children any more!

I like umeshu. I REALLY like umeshu. I'm not picky about it - I'll drink the cheap stuff with soda, I'll savour award winning umeshu on the rocks (a bottle U's father bought, from Wakayama and made with honey instead of sugar - WOW! really really really good).

So when I found a recipe for ume-shu jello I was intrigued to say the least.  I made up a batch, pouring it into two glasses instead of five as the recipe suggested as only two of the nice glasses were clean, the others were in the dishwasher.

A friend came over for dinner and after we ate I brought out the desert, and my friend and I each  had one glass. "Funny," I thought to myself, "I don't usually get tipsy on one glass of umeshu!". Of course, I don't normally down an entire glass of straight umeshu in under 5 minutes either... Really really good.

Really good.

The recipe was one I found on Cookpad (original cookpad recipe), so was in Japanese, but I've included it here in translation.


****************
Ingredients (for 5 servings - or two if I'm cooking!)

5 g   gelatin
2 tbsp  water
150 cc  umeshu
50 cc  water (or skip the water and up the umeshu to 200 cc - what I did!)
300 cc Mitsuya Cider / Sprite (I went with plain soda water and was very happy with the flavour)
50 g   sugar (I don't remember exactly, but I think I cut the amount of sugar)


Steps

- add gelatin to first amount of water, mix and set aside
- add umeshu, second amount of water, and sugar to a pot, heat on low heat until sugar dissolves, turn off heat
- pour gelatin/water mixture into pot with umeshu, mix until gelatin has completely absorbed into umeshu mixture
- add cider/etc and stir very gently, pour into cups and cool in fridge


I had a bunch of ume in the bottom of the bottle that I fished out, pitted, and cut up. The were a nice textural addition, but I'm not sure if I would put them in again. But the desert itself? Oh yes! Definitely a keeper!!

Skytree in Nikko!

Photos I promised a few weeks ago... Skytree as spotted in Nikko at New Years!

Happy, Rurousha? ;)

Sorry about the crap quality - planning to upload them immediately I took them on my phone, and didn't realize how bad they were until I went to upload them today...

Sunday Buddha

Last Sunday was a gorgeous sunny warm day (giving no hint of the snow and cold that was to hit the next day). I went to Kamakura with a British friend visiting Japan with her family. Despite the hordes of people we managed to meet up, see the major sights, go souvenir shopping, and have a lovely lunch in between. My favourite day trip from Tokyo will always be Nikko, but Kamakura is a strong #2.

TILT

- coworkers who know how to cheer me up and make me laugh
- making new professional contacts
- good multi-disciplinary academic discussions
- umeshu! (see #3 above)
- sunny days and SNOW!

What about you? What are you loving this Thursday?

Snow falling on Rainbow Scarves

With the weather getting colder I've turned to making things to keep people warm, and have been working on scarves. This one ended up turning out very differently than I had expected, and thus is going to U's middle sister instead of the coworker I had started it for. It is soft and cushy and bright and colourful - all good things in a winter scarf, especially when it goes and snows, which is rather uncommon in this part of the world!

Snowday!

After spending yesterday with friends in Kamakura - wandering around in gorgeous sunny weather I woke up this morning to a whole different world. Heavy wet white snow is covering everything and every once in a while comes sliding off the roof in a long loud avalanche. Today we're tucked under a knitted afghan on the heated carpet studying - a way we feel is perfect to spend today, but somebody in the garden seems to disagree...

The Dangers of Face Masks

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TILS

Who said you can only post about things you love on a Thursday? Why not Saturday? There is so much more to love about a Saturday anyways (especially since my days off are Sunday - Monday and thus Saturday is the last day of my work week and an easier commute to boot).

So here goes, a few things I'm loving this Saturday.

- electric blankets - snuggling into a warm bed in an unheated room at night is the best feeling ever
- making a big decision about my next (professional) step and knowing it is right for me
- being supported in that decision by coworkers, bosses, and best of all, U
- (almost!!) finishing a big project at work and knowing (and having my coworkers and boss appreciate) that while it was a first time attempt for me and isn't perfect by far, it is a useful an important contribution and one that would not have happened at all had I not been there
- making a warming winter dinner largely from my own creation (cabbage gratin - yummmmm!) and having U literally scrape out the bowl to get the last drop!

Happy New Year!

U and I escaped Tokyo for a few days - studying and onsen-ing.

Oh, and visiting Nikko Toshogu in the wee hours of the morning to ring in the new year!

Happy New Years to you and yours. Wishing you the best for 2013!