winter is coming

Finally got some snow. Yada. I'll take the sweat and humidity of summer any day.

flix and fam

I was able to go to Oregon for a few days over the holidays to hang out with the fam. One cool thing that we did was hire a friend who has a freelance photography business to take some family shots. We went to the park near the house with the dogs and took a bunch of pictures. Snapshots are great but it's nice to be intentional sometimes and make pictures with everyone present and accounted for.

Yam-kun

Peetie on the left, Yamato on the right

My foster kitty Yamato passed away last night.

Yamato was a Fukushima kitty rescued last winter by Naoyuki Seki in Namie. He was very skinny and hungry. After a few weeks at the shelter, he came down to Tokyo for his neuter and ended up s...

taying with me. Relatively feral at first, he slowly over the months warmed up to us, though he was always very loving of his fellow felines in the house, Timothy and Peetie. In the last couple of months, I was able to pet him.

Yamato was diagnosed as FIV+ and in the last few weeks got very sick and stopped eating. Though he went to the vet several times and received daily syringe feeding and subcutaneous fluids at home for the last week, he was found to have FIP, a fatal disease with no proven cure.

He passed away at home, in our arms, with Peetie snuggled up next to him, purring and bathing him. I am relieved his suffering is over. I am so thankful for his companionship and growing trust over the past few months. Rest in peace, Yam-kun. Thanks for spending a little of your life with us. We love you.

bats in my belfry

Does anyone remember the Dick Tracy soundtrack, which was all sung by Madonna? I had it when I was a kid and there's a song called "Going Bananas" where she's singing in an accented Carmen Miranda-type accent.
I was just at the supermarket and the guy bagging his groceries next to me had this HUGE bunch of bananas. There must have been about twenty bananas in that bunch. I was super SUPER tempted to ask him if he was a monkey, or had a monkey at home. It was on the tip of my tongue, I was looking at him and smiling, but he was this really wan timid tired looking early-thirties salarymandude and he probably would have had me arrested.
I also have some bananas to use up and I made these really kick ass banana flapjacks yesterday. So easy, so delicious. The recipe is from Vegan Vittles.

3/4 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder


1/3 cup mashed banana (about one small)
1/2 cup soy milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix dry, then mix wet, then combine. Fry in a non-stick or lightly oiled pan on medium high until golden on both sides. The batter's thicker than traditional pancake batter, but they turned out great. The recipe says it makes 2-4 servings, but I think it's closer to two. I made about three six inch pancakes, could have made four slightly smaller ones.

jiichan baachan

I've been doing a lot of bitching lately about nosey aunties and uncles, so let me mention some of the non-aggravating encounters I've had lately.

It makes me unreasonably happy when people (usually oldsters) ask me directions. I feel so NORMAL. An old guy with a hearing aid today stopped me in the street and asked me where a certain dentist was, and I was able to help him find it. Yes, I do live in this neighborhood! Yes, I do know where things are!

Yesterday at the supermarket, an old lady (Let me clarify old: they have wrinkles, and sweater vests, and are probably 70 at least. What Gaijinwife would call vestlings.) in front of me in line let me, nay, insisted that I get in front of her in line, since I was buying only one thing and she had a cartful. I declined but she wouldn't hear of it and practically pushed me to go first, the old sweetie, smiling at me the whole time.

And one more this week, a takkyubin guy (not the same one as previously mentioned) came to the door to bring me an Amazon delivery (thanks mom! I won't open it 'til my birthday), and spent the entire time in conversation with my cat. Just chatting with and doting on Timothy. It was super adorable. He spent more time talking to the cat than me.  

Oh, hello, sir! How are you? You want to go outside? Well, maybe you shouldn't, because it's so cold, you know? What's that? You'll just stay here? You're a handsome one. {To me: Please stamp here. I say, Timothy! Come in now!} Oh, wow! He's so distinguished! (How do you translate えらいえらい　when an old man is talking to a cat?) What a good boy.

This was so cute, and reminded me of my grandpa, who couldn't walk anywhere without grinning and nodding at people's dogs, stray cats, and small children.

The Battle of Takkyubin

Brrrr! It's cold up in this piece! Blast these barely-insulated un-centrally-heated Japanese houses. I'm having trouble getting out of bed.

Speaking of which, the takkyubin man came to the door this morning. I suppose I didn't hear his first few knocks, being burrowed deep into the covers, because suddenly someone's in the genkan and SHOUTING, "GOOD MORNING! DELIVERY! WATERFALLRIVER-SAN, DELIVERY!" 

Well! He had woken me up, and it wasn't a scheduled delivery, and I was in my underwear. I wasn't about to go scrambling around, bleary eyed, to try to get down there and face an INTRUDER in my house.

It may be the neighborhood, but a lot of these people DON'T KNOCK. They just barge right in. This has happened on several occasions. Maybe I'm not home, maybe I'm in the shower or some other compromising position, maybe I JUST DON'T FEEL LIKE ANSWERING THE DOOR.

Oops. This post is getting a bit shouty. Sorry about that.

Anyway, he left with a great deal of muttering and cursing. Right back atcha, dude.

If I am home and available, I will answer the door, even though it's frequently someone trying to sell me a newspaper that I don't want to (and can barely) read, or the milkman trying to get me to sign up for a weekly delivery (this still exists?!?)(he also repeatedly asked me if my parents were home, fuck off), or some Jehovah's witnesses who exclaim about my gaijin-ness before going into their sales pitch. And if I have scheduled a delivery, I will certainly answer the door. Other that than, bugger off!

if I won the lottery

I've been driving a lot in the last few days, as you do when you try to fit Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver into a single weekend. In the late night/early morning darkness the powerball sign blinking at me sent me into the kind of reverie that you can afford when there's a long stretch of highway in front of you and not much good on the radio.

If I won the lottery (the powerball was advertising $35 million), I'd hire an accountant. Nothing fancy, just someone who could tell me the rules about taxes and stuff. For instance, they say stuff in movies about the ability to make a one-time tax free gift of up to XX amount to someone. Is that true? Etc.

I'd pay off all my debt: student loans, back taxes, unpaid parking tickets. I'd figure out the best way to pay off my family's debt, whether just by paying it all or through the aforementioned (utterly made up?) tax free gift thing.

There's a thing when you win the lottery about either getting a lump sum at once, but accepting a reduced amount, or getting a certain amount per month or year for a number of years. I'd take the long road.

I'd take my whole family on a vacation. Either to Ireland, because my grandpa did a lot of genealogy research and I'd like to follow up on it and think my dad would too. And we've talked about going. Or to Argentina and Dominican Republic, because my mom partially grew up there and I want her to show me her childhood spots.

I'd donate a lot of money to causes that I care about, especially ones that I've been involved with in some way. I'd have the accountant help me give it in a way that would put me in a lower tax bracket too.

There's not very much I'd like to buy. Maybe upgrade this computer since it randomly blacks out a lot. Or just get it fixed.

For work, I think I'd probably do mostly what I'm doing now. Maybe I'd reduce my hours a bit so I could volunteer at doing some of the stuff I enjoy more. And I think I would study for a degree if I didn't have to worry about making an income.

Of course, in order to win the lottery, you have to play the lottery. I buy a ticket every year or two at most. Maybe I should buy one... does anyone play Takarakuji?

What would you do if you won?

foreigners like you

Sorry for the silence! I've been hanging out on the couch, going to brunch, taking walks among the pine trees, listening to the geese everywhere, and chilling with the beagles.

My uncle just posted this picture of my grandpa with my mom and her siblings, I love it. It was taken in Buenos Aires when they were stationed there.

It just doesn't stop.

More stuff I did in Oregon

It was really hot one day, and we went to the soapbox derby race on Mt. Tabor. We gorged ourselves silly on vegan pastries from Sweetpea Bakery and sat around in hats amidst scratchy weeds.

We bowled at a benefit for the food pantry where Kelly works, and won all kinds of stupid keychains and slices of pizza.

I played lots of scrabble in bars and parks and living rooms. Represent! I miss scrabble.

veggie japan hacks #1: hummus

Living here, I don't have access to some of those ready-made vegetarian products that I'm so spoiled by back home. There are no faux deli slices, tofurkeys, or other processed veggie standins.  (Even things that are veg and easier to find in Japan, like natto, sometimes have hidden fish stock in them.) I've resigned myself to that, and it's probably better in the long run, because it's forced me to cook from scratch things I used to be able to pick up for a song at the supermarket. 

One staple food that is ubiquitous on the west coast of old Rice Country is hummus, almost impossible to find here on the island. Most of the ingredients of this simple dip are relatively easy to suss out (I've found garbanzo beans at Seijo Ishii, Kaldi Coffee, and Don Quixote), but one thing, tahini, is a bit more difficult, unless you drag yourself over to Shamiam in Ekoda, western Tokyo.

There are a couple of ways I've gotten around this. One is to just pulverize sesame seeds in a food processor, maybe with some added sesame or olive oil to get it smooth. I haven't managed to get it as smooth as tahini, but it works.

Something that works much better is Japan's answer to tahini, nerigoma. It's just sesame paste, sold in little jars, usually near the other sesame products. The only ingredient is sesame seeds, and it comes in white or black.

I used black the last time I made hummus, because it was what I had on hand. The result looked like wet concrete, but the taste was the same, and really easy.

hairdo, oh yeah

I went to a gross smoky place and then to a friend's house. I couldn't handle the stench in my hair anymore so I took a shower. And they were all, you can use the hair dryer. I was like, you have a hair dryer? They were all, of course!

Of course? That is not my world. I mean, I have a hair dryer, but I never use it. It's not mine. It's from the 70s, and I love it. It's one of the relics. But I never turn it ON, for chrissakes. I mean, I barely owned a comb for awhile there.

Awhile ago Beth posted some videos about how to make simple, fabulous hairdos. I pretty much always have messy hair but I'm trying to do better, really.

fight to the death

March is a battle between winter and spring. Spring creeps up and slides a sweet day into the mix early on, giving her supporters hope; winter responds by pummeling us with wind and cold. Spring parries with a couple of warm days and early blooms; winter throws a hard punch complete with snow and sleet.

Today, spring seems to be winning. Tomorrow, who knows?

Also, why do they make nail polish with brushes that don't reach the bottom of the bottle?

graduation (or why my hair has looked a fright recently)

I'm a hoarder and a user. I'm not a penny pincher, but I am unable to throw away usable stuff. My phone is at least five years old and I inherited it from my mom. I have tons of mismatched dishes. I don't always love this way of being - sometimes I wish I could just throw it all out and buy new shit and start with a clean slate.

I actually like it when stuff well and truly breaks, when I've used it into the ground and it can't be used no mo'. Then I feel really justified in getting a new one.

Awhile ago, a long while ago, I got a hair trim at QB House. They use disposable combs there and when my trim was finished, the stylist gave one to me, saying he was just going to throw it away otherwise. I took it. Stuck it in my bag and occasionally combed my hair with it.

One day it broke in half. Then one half got lost.

I had some other hairbrushes and combs, but somehow they've all gotten lost or misplaced lately. So I was using half a QB House comb to (occasionally) de-rat my hair.

Due to the tangled nature of my neglected hair, the comb started to take a beating and the teeth started breaking off, one by one.

Last weekend I went to Sapporo and stayed in a cheap business hotel that included a bagful of "ladies' amenities". This bag included TWO, count 'em, TWO hairbrushes; a full-sized one and a folding model.

I feel I can finally retire ol' QB. Rest in peace.

(I also got a bunch of facial care samples and one of those emollient masks. They have collagen in them, however, which I don't want to use since I'm vegetarian. Anyone want them? I can post them to you.)

Throw the bums out.

Since I've already talked about Setsubun, let's just look at some pretty snack packaging. Here's hoping you can drive out all your demons.

you get the ankles, I'll get the wrists

Some of my threadbarest socks have been sprouting holes lately.
So rather than mend them or throw them out, I've been cutting off the feet.
And with a quick snip of my scissors, voila! Instant arm warmers. It's the current trend at my house.
It makes February a little bit better.

+2kg

I really enjoyed my vacation. I got to see family, friends, meet new babies, and see movies for four dollars in old indie theaters. But mostly, I ate.
Corn muffins.
It's a Beautiful Pizza.
Mexican take-out.
Oh, with freshly fried tortilla chips and super spicy salsa.
Ethiopian food. (I found an Ethiopian restaurant in Tokyo! More on that later.)
Delicious, delicious Stumptown.

Cowberry???

I made jammy cocoa cookies to send off in batches today. I reached into the pantry for a jar of jam and came up with... こけもも.

Kokemomo? A peach of some kind? I searched my pocket dictionary, my phone dictionary, and my electronic dictionary. Finally, Jim Breen came to the rescue. As usual.
苔桃 【こけもも; コケモモ】 (n) (uk) cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea); mountain cranberry; foxberry; partridgeberry.

Partridgeberry?!? Excellent! Since I made gingerbread, coconut macaroons, cashew-cranberry chocolates, partridge-berry jam cookies are the perfect way to round out the packages.

Some random guy added me on Facebook today. I have a general preference for not adding people I've never met in real life. The last time I bent this rule is when some guy who CLAIMED to have met me lied his way into making me agree by furnishing fake details of our meeting circumstances (a party in Ebisu; I HAD been to a party in Ebisu, and there were a lot of people there). I later found out he was a LIAR with 800 friends and about as many updates per day. Blegh.

Anyhow, I didn't think I knew today's adder. When I looked at his info to try to jog my memory, he had a website link (and 800 friends). I clicked on it. And I don't know him, after all. But his photos are pretty awesome. And it's a really pretty slideshow. I would even put this on as a screensaver if I wasn't using the computer.

fat spread is not vegetarian

Hungry for lunch, I decided to make a veggie burger but had no bread. I threw on three layers and went to the store two blocks away for something bun-like. I picked up this pack of kurumi onsen pan because it most closely resembled the right size and shape for a burger. I didn't even look at the ingredients because walnut bread should be fine, right? It practically has EAT ME VEGETARIAN written all over it.Until I got home and read the package. Uh, shortening. Hmm. And fat spread?? What's this? This was a first for me. So I googled it.
Not satisfied with the sketchy information presented on wiki I called the company.
_________________
Hello, Onsen Bread HQ!
Um, hello? Uh, I have a question about your walnut onsen bread...
Absolutely, what is it?
Well, there's this stuff called fat spread... what is that exactly?
Uh, it's a kind of margarine-
Yes, but what's it made of? Is it vegetable or animal?
Please wait.
...
Hello? Yes, fat spread can be made from both vegetable and animal sources.
Oh. Well, milk is okay but what about animal fat?
Yes, it's made from animal fat.
Alrighty then. Thanks.
Thanks for calling Onsen Bread HQ! We are eagerly awaiting your favor!
Yup, bye.
_________________

Dammit. It sneaks up on you. Does anyone want a two-pack of walnut hot-spring bread? It expires December 2nd.

Every shing-a-ling-a-ling (obligatory kit kat post)

Everyone seems to post about KitKat sooner or later, so I thought I'd get on in there.

Apple carrot KitKat: pretty good!It's so fucking cold lately, I hate it. It's dry and my skin is angry. I live in a house, which of course doesn't have central heating, so my heating/electricity bills are astronomical yet it's always freezing in here. Wearing a sweater in the house in winter seems reasonable but a scarf, slippers, and a jacket does not. Dammit.

One slim ray of sunshine in this dark, cold period is the song that the kerosene truck plays. Last year it was always The Carpenters (that Every Sha-la-la-la song) but this year it seems to be song kind of nostalgic kindy tune, with kiddy voices. I like it.

Why are The Carpenters so freaking popular in Japan? It's a mystery.