K and I have been bandying about the notion of buying a house...she really wants to settle in, but I keep balking at how much homes cost here and the fact that they are like cars...once bought they depreciate immediately.
I related to her that in the US, homes are considered investments...built to last and usually worth more when it comes time to sell than when you bought it. Then I saw this. Funny thing is, we used to live just down the street from that house...25 years ago...
All of a sudden, Japanese real estate ain't looking so bad.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Caption Contest Anyone?
Came across this picture posted in the hall of the hotle we stayed at in Nagano last weekend. I can't love it any more than I possible do right now...but I do wonder what exactly is going on ...
I'd love to hear what you folks out there think the folks in there are saying....
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Third time's a charm!
I've been learning judo for about six months now. Its a lot of fun, a good workout, and a very good way to meet interesting folks. I've lost some weight, learned some things, and hurt some people.
Funny thing about that.
In the six months since I started, I've had three fairly significant injuries. First, I pulled my groin doing practice falls...I was scared and tense, and just pulled it. That sidelined me for a week or so.
Then, on about christmas time, I stepped funny and bent my big toe back under my foot, spraining it pretty badly. It took a little over two weeks before I was ready to try it out again.
Just the other day, training at the local prison, I got my third, and arguably most serious injury. The prison is run by the prefecture, and as a public institution, its gym is open to the public...kinda. The prison guards are required to practice martial arts a certain number of hours per week, and as long as you know a bit about what you are doing, you are welcome to join in the practice sessions. Wednesday was about my fourth time out to the prison...I was getting better...getting some confidence....when BAM! a stocky little dude tossed me on my shoulder, dislocating it. Hurt like a @#$$@##%.
Apparently, a dislocated shoulder is one of the most common injuries in judo, and just the week before at the prison, I had done basically the same thing to one of the guards...tendon Karma perhaps. I'm taking care of it tho....
One problem....tomorrow is skiing in Nagano, the last trip of the season...and I can't not go....its gonna be interesting....
Funny thing about that.
In the six months since I started, I've had three fairly significant injuries. First, I pulled my groin doing practice falls...I was scared and tense, and just pulled it. That sidelined me for a week or so.
Then, on about christmas time, I stepped funny and bent my big toe back under my foot, spraining it pretty badly. It took a little over two weeks before I was ready to try it out again.
Just the other day, training at the local prison, I got my third, and arguably most serious injury. The prison is run by the prefecture, and as a public institution, its gym is open to the public...kinda. The prison guards are required to practice martial arts a certain number of hours per week, and as long as you know a bit about what you are doing, you are welcome to join in the practice sessions. Wednesday was about my fourth time out to the prison...I was getting better...getting some confidence....when BAM! a stocky little dude tossed me on my shoulder, dislocating it. Hurt like a @#$$@##%.
Apparently, a dislocated shoulder is one of the most common injuries in judo, and just the week before at the prison, I had done basically the same thing to one of the guards...tendon Karma perhaps. I'm taking care of it tho....
One problem....tomorrow is skiing in Nagano, the last trip of the season...and I can't not go....its gonna be interesting....
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
sKIING
Skiing was great! We went up to Gifu Prefecture, near a town called Takayama, and stayed at a hot spring called Fukuchi Onsen.
We had iffy weather on Saturday, but we got out early enough
that we had no problems. Some other people were supposed to meet up with us later, but got caught in the BLIZZARD that hit central Japan on Saturday afternoon.
Now, when I say blizzard, I'm merely repeating the terminolgy used by the local news media to describe the weather event. What happened...what caused trains to suspend service and highways to close...was simply snow. Here in Tsu, where everything ground to a halt, the accumulated snowfall was ONE CENTIMETER. Half an inch...and the world stops. In Nagoya, which is about 50 miles north, there was 11 centimeters of snow...less than 6 inches.
Huh.
Worked out great for us tho, we skiied in the snow, and relaxed in the open air bath under the still falling snow, and on Sunday, when many of the highways were still closed (!), we had fresh powder to ski on and few other skiiers to compete with. It was great.
We skiied on Monday morning too, then backed up and headed home, stopping off in Takayama to drop Dr. Ferrari and his son off at the train station and to nosh on some Hida Beef sushi (deeeeevine).
I was whupped today tho, and had an off night at judo practice (still going!). Its going to take a few days for the old body to recuperate, I think.
We had iffy weather on Saturday, but we got out early enough
that we had no problems. Some other people were supposed to meet up with us later, but got caught in the BLIZZARD that hit central Japan on Saturday afternoon.
Now, when I say blizzard, I'm merely repeating the terminolgy used by the local news media to describe the weather event. What happened...what caused trains to suspend service and highways to close...was simply snow. Here in Tsu, where everything ground to a halt, the accumulated snowfall was ONE CENTIMETER. Half an inch...and the world stops. In Nagoya, which is about 50 miles north, there was 11 centimeters of snow...less than 6 inches.
Huh.
Worked out great for us tho, we skiied in the snow, and relaxed in the open air bath under the still falling snow, and on Sunday, when many of the highways were still closed (!), we had fresh powder to ski on and few other skiiers to compete with. It was great.
We skiied on Monday morning too, then backed up and headed home, stopping off in Takayama to drop Dr. Ferrari and his son off at the train station and to nosh on some Hida Beef sushi (deeeeevine).
I was whupped today tho, and had an off night at judo practice (still going!). Its going to take a few days for the old body to recuperate, I think.
Friday, February 08, 2008
Had a big-ish fight with K tonite. Seems like our blowups always come over dinner, and are usually about dinner. This time, the kernel, the basis, was ketchup.
The last time K made spaghetti, she took a very nice sauce that I had made...ground beef, mushrooms, fresh garlic, etc...and added canned tuna and ketchup. I was very angry that she had chosen to take something I had made and without even tasting it adulterated it and, in my view, ruined it. Ketchup, for gods sake.
Now, I'll be the first to admit that I don't know everything, but that being said, I do know some things very well. One thing I do know is that you don't put f-ing ketchup on yer pasta. I mean, you can...and some people do...but I like to think that no one I know would consider that acceptable. Ketchup is a condiment, not an ingredient. It goes great on french fries and on mediocre hamburgers, but if what you're eating is up to par, ketchup is really not necessary... Am I wrong?
Now, K has taken it upon herself to become a first class stay-at-home wife and mother. We have no children, so the mother thing is on the back burner. As a wife, she has a kind of 1950s ideal...do the laundry, cook and clean, take care of her man like his mother used to do. All well and good I suppose...not the path I'd prefer for her to take, but this is what she wants. To that end, she prepares all the meals (I'm no longer allowed to cook...she takes it as a personal insult
when I take up pan and knife). The problem is, she is still deep in the learning curve in the kitchen.
Most of the time she comes up aces, especially when she is cooking in her comfort zone...japanese and korean stuff she can turn out with aplomb. She also does well improvising in that vein. No complaints here. The problem is when she turns her hand to more western fare.
There is an axiom amongst westerners in japan that if you serve up authentic fare to Japanese, they will politely tucker in, but will not come back for seconds. Reason being, and I guess rightly so, that the flavor palette of western cuisine and japanese cuisine are so different that if you don't take pains to tailor your cooking to japanese tastes that the Japanese will not go for it. I've seen this in action at countless restaurants...K's father will not eat Fench food, even japanese french...pizza comes with tuna and corn...you get the idea.
While I'm prepared to accept this fact on a cultural level, in my own home on my own table is a different story. Right or wrong, some thingsw I simply like the way I like and that is it. Pasta, case in point. I've lived alone for years, done all my own cooking, and enjoyed the fruits of my labours. I can cook the heck out of some pasta...a myriad of sauces and treatments at my disposal. Thus, when something comes down the pipe that I deem sub par, I feel free to say so...the old "if you don't like it, make it yourself" assault my dearest hope. Seldom do I get that opportunity tho.
Instead, I get sulking and evil looks...the fact that I didn't like what was for dinner K takes as a personal insult. I can understand her point of view here as well, but we are in the early going here, and if I don't make my preferences known now, I face a lifetime of politely nibbling and going away hungry. I don't want that, and I know K wants to make food we can both enjoy, but it is such an ordeal every time.
Ketchup has become the scapegoat...I don't like mayonnaise either, and K has taken that to heart...a big sacrifice in her mind, seeing as how mayonnaise figures heavily in westernish japanese popular cuisine. Some people even put it on their rice (gah!). She even whipped out some (japanese) cooking magazines to prove to me that ketchup is an ingredient in many recipies. Fine...but really...in minestrone soup? Its a short cut for the lazy and inept in my opinion...put it on my fries but never in my soup.
These cooking magazines are awful anyway. She has dogeared stacks of them...they are famous, she says....they are popular, she says...to which I say (to myself) is the reason they are crap. I know I can be a bit of a snob...but I'd prefer to have something a bit different than what millions of other 20something housewives are serving up, regardless of whether it is in a magazine or not. Indie rock cuisine for me.
She has been sulking for the past two hours, but seems to be coming out of it now...eating ice cream. I've apologized for dissing on ketchup and not eating my spinach twice already tonite... I hope she works this through by tomorrow, because we are off skiing in the morning. Yay!
The last time K made spaghetti, she took a very nice sauce that I had made...ground beef, mushrooms, fresh garlic, etc...and added canned tuna and ketchup. I was very angry that she had chosen to take something I had made and without even tasting it adulterated it and, in my view, ruined it. Ketchup, for gods sake.
Now, I'll be the first to admit that I don't know everything, but that being said, I do know some things very well. One thing I do know is that you don't put f-ing ketchup on yer pasta. I mean, you can...and some people do...but I like to think that no one I know would consider that acceptable. Ketchup is a condiment, not an ingredient. It goes great on french fries and on mediocre hamburgers, but if what you're eating is up to par, ketchup is really not necessary... Am I wrong?
Now, K has taken it upon herself to become a first class stay-at-home wife and mother. We have no children, so the mother thing is on the back burner. As a wife, she has a kind of 1950s ideal...do the laundry, cook and clean, take care of her man like his mother used to do. All well and good I suppose...not the path I'd prefer for her to take, but this is what she wants. To that end, she prepares all the meals (I'm no longer allowed to cook...she takes it as a personal insult
when I take up pan and knife). The problem is, she is still deep in the learning curve in the kitchen.
Most of the time she comes up aces, especially when she is cooking in her comfort zone...japanese and korean stuff she can turn out with aplomb. She also does well improvising in that vein. No complaints here. The problem is when she turns her hand to more western fare.
There is an axiom amongst westerners in japan that if you serve up authentic fare to Japanese, they will politely tucker in, but will not come back for seconds. Reason being, and I guess rightly so, that the flavor palette of western cuisine and japanese cuisine are so different that if you don't take pains to tailor your cooking to japanese tastes that the Japanese will not go for it. I've seen this in action at countless restaurants...K's father will not eat Fench food, even japanese french...pizza comes with tuna and corn...you get the idea.
While I'm prepared to accept this fact on a cultural level, in my own home on my own table is a different story. Right or wrong, some thingsw I simply like the way I like and that is it. Pasta, case in point. I've lived alone for years, done all my own cooking, and enjoyed the fruits of my labours. I can cook the heck out of some pasta...a myriad of sauces and treatments at my disposal. Thus, when something comes down the pipe that I deem sub par, I feel free to say so...the old "if you don't like it, make it yourself" assault my dearest hope. Seldom do I get that opportunity tho.
Instead, I get sulking and evil looks...the fact that I didn't like what was for dinner K takes as a personal insult. I can understand her point of view here as well, but we are in the early going here, and if I don't make my preferences known now, I face a lifetime of politely nibbling and going away hungry. I don't want that, and I know K wants to make food we can both enjoy, but it is such an ordeal every time.
Ketchup has become the scapegoat...I don't like mayonnaise either, and K has taken that to heart...a big sacrifice in her mind, seeing as how mayonnaise figures heavily in westernish japanese popular cuisine. Some people even put it on their rice (gah!). She even whipped out some (japanese) cooking magazines to prove to me that ketchup is an ingredient in many recipies. Fine...but really...in minestrone soup? Its a short cut for the lazy and inept in my opinion...put it on my fries but never in my soup.
These cooking magazines are awful anyway. She has dogeared stacks of them...they are famous, she says....they are popular, she says...to which I say (to myself) is the reason they are crap. I know I can be a bit of a snob...but I'd prefer to have something a bit different than what millions of other 20something housewives are serving up, regardless of whether it is in a magazine or not. Indie rock cuisine for me.
She has been sulking for the past two hours, but seems to be coming out of it now...eating ice cream. I've apologized for dissing on ketchup and not eating my spinach twice already tonite... I hope she works this through by tomorrow, because we are off skiing in the morning. Yay!
Monday, December 03, 2007
Shazam!
Is this guy awesome or what!? He's the Siberian Santa Claus...and he will totally pwnzrr your sorry butt. Looks like a Jack Kirby-era Avengers villain, eh? No wonder them Russians is so durn tuff...
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Korea hoooo
Off to Korea tomorrow! I'm all packed and ready go, and we are looking forward to the trip. Gonna see Jema, gonna eat meat...it's gonna be cool.
We'll be thinking of all of you, and as always, if our plane packs into the side of a mountain, we here in the LotRS love you all! KANBE!
We'll be thinking of all of you, and as always, if our plane packs into the side of a mountain, we here in the LotRS love you all! KANBE!
Thursday, November 08, 2007
On the way home tonite, I saw a barber shop with a sign declaring "This shop is safe". I can't imagine why one might be led to think otherwise.
On a brighter note...or at least less ominous, I've yet to permanently injure myself in almost two months of judo. Yay! It's a heck of a workout, and I've come to enjoy being hurled to the mat.
We're headed to Korea next week...kimchee farts and cheap beer ahoy!
On a brighter note...or at least less ominous, I've yet to permanently injure myself in almost two months of judo. Yay! It's a heck of a workout, and I've come to enjoy being hurled to the mat.
We're headed to Korea next week...kimchee farts and cheap beer ahoy!
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