Let's Hang Out In Hong Kong! (The Flower Market)

In my real, United States life, I arrange flowers!  I started off in high school, designed all through college, and then kept it up until we found out there would be a Little TF.  Being a floral designer turned out to be a great, military wife job. There are flower shops everywhere! The business naturally has a high-turnover rate, so no one gives me the stink eye over my work history and how many places at which I've been employed. Hours are usually flexible; plus, working in a mostly-female environment is a nice antidote to the machismo of my other half's chosen profession.

So, speaking as a professional, I must insist that you don't miss Hong Kong's Flower Market!  The market is filled to bursting with the familiar and (to the average Westerner) the unknown. You don't have to be particularly interested in flowers or plants to enjoy this stop.  The cacophany of noise and smell and color guarantee the Flower Market to be a stop worthy of your Hong Kong itinerary!

We went to Hong Kong right before Chinese New Year.  Sellers offered little red and gold
charms to jazz up a plant or arrangement, and wish recipients luck in the New Year!

Pots of kumquat trees.  Kumquat trees are especially New Year appropriate, as the Chinese name rhymes with the
words for "gold" and "luck." Little, red bows create the traditional red and gold color scheme of Chinese New Year.

Plum blossom trees.  The plum is one of the "Three Friends Of Winter" (along with the pine and bamboo).  Relatively mild winter climates in Hong Kong (and other parts of China and Japan) mean that plum blossoms typically
start to bloom in late January.  Their delicate beauty in spite of the cold is always an encouraging sight!

Lucky bamboo surrounded by Solanum Mammosum.  In Chinese, the golden plant's name means "Five
Generations Living Harmoniously Under One Roof."  The name's wish for peace, longevity, and prosperity
makes it another appropriate plant for Chinese New Year.  I see these in Japan fairly often, as well.

Orchids!  Orchids of every size, shape, and color!

Are these even considered bonzai anymore?  They are huge!

More orchids!

This market is huge! We're just now getting to the fresh cuts!  In fact, this was
all that I got to see of the fresh flowers.  Little TF had had enough of being a good
sport.  I quickly snapped this photo and we headed off on a snack hunt.

The Flower Market is located on mainland Hong Kong, in Kowloon.  According to guide books, the hours are from 9-6.  Try to get there in the morning, when the flowers are at their best.  Lonely Planet's Hong Kong Encounter recommends taking the MTR to Mong Kok Station.  Fodor's City Pack Hong Kong recommends taking the MTR to Prince Edward Station.  We took a taxi and asked for "the flower market."  


Disclaimer:  I do my best to make sure all my information is accurate.  However, details may change or I may just be flat-out wrong.  Please let me know if something needs a correction.  Thank-you!

Today's Photo!

Prayers are written on decorated, wooden blocks and hung at temples and shrines.

Disclaimer:  I do my best to make sure all my information is accurate.  However, details may change or I may just be flat-out wrong.  Please let me know if something needs a correction.  Thank-you!

Today's Photo!

Hidden behind frosted glass or slatted, wooden doors, izakaya (the pub's rough equivalent) are where Japan's comfort foods can be found.  As well as lots of beer.  Modest to the point of near-invisibility, the izakaya advertises its presence with a red, swinging lantern.  Sliding open that opaque door can require a bit of bravery. But the warmth and laughter on the other side guarantees that no one will be uncomfortable for long! Once you're inside, kick off your shoes and get comfortable on the tatami floors.  Many izakaya don't have English menus, but that's ok.  Request what other patrons are enjoying, or employ my personal, favorite strategy- pointing at the menu and seeing what shows up.  It's all delicious!

One of our neighborhood izakaya.

Disclaimer:  I do my best to make sure all my information is accurate.  However, details may change or I may just be flat-out wrong.  Please let me know if something needs a correction.  Thank-you!

What Is It And How Do I Cook It: Uh...Whelks?

Deployment Day has come and gone, so the TF girls are a little blue.  I repeat my deployment mantra, "It Could Always Be Worse" (because it could and sometimes it is), and will consider this time a gift of further Japan exploration.  Much more can fit into my life when I'm not cooking dinner!

Our tradition is for Mr. TF to grill as much as possible in the week leading up to D-Day.  One, because I am too depressed.  Two, because I won't learn can't grill and that means no delicious steak for a least half a year.  Three, no one's firing up the old, charcoal grill during deployment, so no delicious steaks for Mr. TF, either.  On this grilling occasion, we decided seafood sounded perfect, so he went out to pick up some salmon and scallops!

Mr. TF bought the salmon, but the grocery store was out of scallops.  So he purchased these, instead.

 Me (dubiously): "What are those?"
Mr. TF: "I have no idea!  Don't they look delicious?
Me (more dubiously): "Ummmm...not really.  How are we going to cook them?"
Mr. TF:  "On the grill, and stop making that face.  This is an adventure!  We'll just top them with a little butter, garlic, and salt, and be good to go!"

I love seafood.  I love food in general.  Except for bananas, because they are gross and have this weird texture and a bad smell and my parents made me eat one every Sunday on the way to church and I would crack open our van's third row window and quietly poke pieces out into the street until we'd pull up to church and my banana would magically be all gone. Even sushi does not generally pose a problem (except for the sea urchin...vile stuff), as I am usually game to try anything and everything. This...slimy thing, still in its shell, was making me nervous.  I tried to look up the kanji on the computer...no luck.  That made me even more leery.  A seafood so obscure that even online dictionaries didn't recognize it?  Sketchy.

This being the 21st century, I didn't need to be in suspense for long.  I whipped out my iPhone, took a photo of the aforementioned seafood and emailed it to one of my English Students.

"Dear English Student,


     So sorry to bother you.  I sent my husband to the grocery store for scallops and salmon, and he came back with this. What is this?  I apologize for any inconvenience.  Thank-you so much."

 While we waited for her reply, I inspected the shell a little more closely.  It was soft and fleshy, with what appeared to be a sort of elongated foot.  On dry ground, soft and fleshy things that live in shells are...snails.  Was this a sea snail?  An immediate visit to Google Image confirmed my suspicions.  These were, indeed, sea snails.  Also known, in a less gorge-affecting term, as whelks.  As I like to consider myself an adventurous sort of person, and since one can't really blog about cooking something that one hasn't actually eaten, I gamely took photos as Mr. TF prepped the whelks.

Adding the garlic, salt, and pepper.

An reply from my student arrived.  She wasn't sure of the English name.  But she did have some helpful tips:

"There are three kanji in the yellow box.  Separate them into two wards.  The two separate wards mean For Sashimi.  My mom recommends cooking them in butter, like escargot."


There was never any chance that we were going to eat these as sashimi- raw.  But there was really no chance, once we realized that the whelks were retracting themselves deep inside their shells.

Yes.  The whelks were still alive.

Mr. TF was right on the money with his butter idea!

 Since our apartment is located on the top floor of our building, we have sole access to the roof (as previously seen in Adventures In Laundry: How To Dry Stuff).  Our grill is up there.  Grilling has a place in Japanese culture, but is done outside at local parks or inside with very small, table-top grills.  Every so often, we hear stories of neighbors calling the fire department, because of flames shooting up from an American backyard or balcony.  It appears that our neighbors have decided that our grill- located in the middle of a concrete roof- doesn't pose a threat.  No fire trucks, yet!

All prep work being complete, Mr. TF took the whelks up to the roof to meet their doom.

Smelling yummy...

I popped up on the roof just long enough to take the above photo.  Nothing like watching your dinner die.

Finished!  Almost time to eat!

Once off the grill, the whelks smelled delicious!  Hard to go wrong with butter, garlic, salt, and pepper! Removing them was fairly easy, once the shells cooled.  A stab of a fork, a gentle tug, and the meat corkscrewed right out of the shell.  The "foot" easily peeled off.  The foot didn't seem edible (and I don't really want to eat the foot of anything), so we set it aside.

My whelk.

Watching my dinner move during prep proved to be a little too much.  I ate one whelk and let Mr. TF have the rest.  In spite of my squeamishness, I have to admit that the whelk was delicious- if chewy.  I did a recipe search for other ways to prepare whelks.  Foodandwine.com had zero recipes, Saveur.com had one.  Clearly, whelks do not fare well with the American palate.  Which means you don't want to miss your chance while in Japan!

As for me, next time I will send Mr. TF back out for the scallops.

Ganbatte!

-The Tofu Fox

How To Prepare Whelks The Mr. Tofu Fox Way:

Whelks

Pinch of salt per whelk

Pinch of pepper per whelk

Pat of butter per whelk

Half a clove of minced garlic per whelk.

Sprinkle the salt, pepper, and minced garlic on top of each whelk.  Top each whelk with a pat of butter.  Grill to taste (only if your whelks are sashimi-grade) or until well-done.  If you want to make sure your whelks are dead, grill till very well-done.  Enjoy with a glass of wine and the snobbish certainty that you have attained Elite Foodie Status.


Disclaimer:  I do my best to make sure all my information is accurate.  However, details may change or I may just be flat-out wrong.  Please let me know if something needs a correction.  Thank-you!

Today's Photo!

Stop your car when you see a child holding one of these yellow flags or raising a hand in the air- the child wants to cross the street.  Watch in amazement as the kid crosses the street and then carefully places the yellow flag in its corresponding bucket.  Kids in the rest of the world don't even pick up their toys!

Street-crossing flags for kids.  A second, flag-holding bucket is across the street.

Disclaimer:  I do my best to make sure all my information is accurate.  However, details may change or I may just be flat-out wrong.  Please let me know if something needs a correction.  Thank-you!

Is Your Handbag Summer-Ready?

All my windows were open yesterday, with breeze and sunshine pouring in.  It is a beautiful, late spring!  But those of us who have experienced it know that the hot, humid beast that is summer-time Tokyo lurks just around the corner.  America's citizens, on the other hand, are weak.  As with rain, we are used to our climate-controlled bubbles and have little need to develop the weapons necessary to fight the ravages of weather.  

Not so Japan!  The Japanese Woman encounters many challenges as she cycles to work, climbs stairs in 4 inch heels (ok, not everyone is in 4 inch heels, but it sure seems that way), takes her child to the park, squeezes onto a rush-hour train, waits in stuffy elevators, and swelters through last summer's Electricity Savings  (will this year be easier?).  Yet, she almost always looks serene and...cool?  How is this super-human feat possible?  I consider myself to be generally put together, but leave me outside for 10 minutes in August and I am a hot, drippy mess.  Makeup starts to run, hair starts to frizz, and my kid starts to grouch.  Meanwhile, my train station platform companion is elegantly sleek-haired and her face is completely matte.  Her kid is also quiet. I hate her.

For the past two summers, I simply resigned myself to the truth: I am a less-completely evolved female.  Until I was bitterly commenting on my envy of the Japanese woman's perfect hair, and the utter uselessness of my hair straightener after June 1st, and my friend said,

"Oh, we all get our hair straightened."

"Wha....what?  WHAT!?"

"Oh yes, Japanese permanent straightening.  I go to the salon every six months.  It's amazing!"

The hair straightening is for another post.  But the conversation did engage my mental cogs.  If Japanese women had found a way to have perfect, summer-time hair, could there be other secret weapons that I didn't know about?

Yes.  Yes, there could.

My case has cherry blossoms and bunnies.  Ridiculously cute!

Say hello to face-blotting papers!  I know, we have these in the States.  But have you ever actually used one?  Do you know anyone who's used one?  Professional makeup artists, I guess.  I have had a drawer packed full of beauty products for over a decade, and face-blotting papers have never taken up residence.  Until I was on a March MWR sightseeing tour to Nara, and stumbled upon a Face-Blotting Paper Store.  Yes, a store entirely devoted to scented face-blotting papers and their cute carrying cases, that are also perfectly purse-sized.  This is why shopping in Japan is awesome.

After picking out the most attractively scented papers and the cutest paper case, my makeup is now prepared to handle the worst that summer can throw at me!  I cycled home yesterday, Little TF on the back, and worked up a slight sweat.  So I took my face-blotting papers out of my handbag for their inaugural spin.  That little square soaked up everything. No more shiny face!  No more runny makeup!  Now I can finally hold my own next to that cool and serene platform companion. If we're talking about matte faces, that is.

Remember, check the mirror.  You don't want to leave a shiny spot!

If you can't make it to the cute Face-Blotting Paper Store in Nara, just pop in your local drugstore or 100 yen store.  I've seen the papers at both kinds of stores.  This summer, enjoy a face that looks fresh and cool (even if the rest of you isn't)!

Ganbatte,

-The Tofu Fox

The Super Cute Face-Blotting Paper Store in Nara is located down the street from the Kofukuji Temple.  It's on the street that runs past an enormous pond.  If the Kofukuji Temple is on your right and the pond is on your left, the store is a block or two down, on the left-hand side.


Disclaimer:  I do my best to make sure all my information is accurate.  However, details may change or I may just be flat-out wrong.  Please let me know if something needs a correction.  Thank-you!

Narita Airport: Getting In and Getting Out!

I apparently haven't taken ANY photos of Narita Airport, in spite of flying through there about a bazillion times.  As no
 blog post is complete without images, I bring you the Official Narita Illustration, courtesy of Narita-airport.jp.

Narita is the airport that military spouses (myself included) love to hate.  It's inconveniently located an hour from Tokyo, and for many of us, the drive can take at least two hours.  Toss in Japanese expressways, crazy kanji road signs, the potential for hours' worth of traffic, a whiny kid or two, and it's enough to cause even the most seasoned traveler to stress!

Accessing Narita is tricky.  If you're brave enough (and trust your car enough) to drive, long-term parking can get expensive.  You can take a bus and risk the traffic...but then at least you're not driving.  You can take the Narita Express or the Skyliner- special high-speed trains with direct service to Tokyo's major stations- but these are expensive and you'll probably still have to take local trains to reach your final destination.  Don't even bother to ask about taxis. Their fares from Narita are fixed and range from $200-$350, just to get to Tokyo.  A lot of military wives just book a private shuttle* from the on-base tour office (hooray for no thinking required!), but base policy requires young children to be buckled into applicable child seats.  Who wants to drag a car seat around Hong Kong?

But perhaps you'd rather drag the familiar car seat onto a base shuttle than risk a kid bouncing all over the Narita Express? Or maybe you don't mind traffic, with the ease- and price- of the bus sounds better?  An informed decision can now be yours!  The routes, timetables, and prices for all options can be found (in English) at the Official Narita Access page.

Allow me to now direct your attention to my preferred way to burn through a few bags of money:

What better way to splurge?

To book a private shuttle from base, call your military installation's tour office to inquire about availability and pricing.  Make sure to inquire ahead of time, as shuttle services are popular and can be unavailable for last-minute bookings.

Ganbatte!

-The Tofu Fox

*Many bases also provide a free airport shuttle that operates under space-a rules.  Please contact them (MWR can probably point you in the right direction if you need a phone number) for specifics.  

It's Peony Season!

The peony's brief season is happening, right now.  Hurry to your local florist before it's too late!  These luscious flowers are shown to their best advantage either single-stem or in a large, loose mass.  No need to add other flowers or greenery...these blooms can hold their own just fine!

The bud vase is from the souvenir shop that is located immediately outside
 the Kotokuin Temple, home of Kamakura's Great Buddha (Daibutsu).

Today's Photo!

Where does the washing machine go when indoor space is at a premium?  Outside, of course!

A house I pass on the way to our favorite park.

In Which I Buy Groceries And Stand Corrected.

"The nail that sticks out gets hammered down." -Old, Japanese proverb.

Taiga is one of my preferred grocery stores.  It's conveniently located, sells good quality produce at excellent prices, and has a 100 yen store in the second floor.  Food and fun shopping in the same location?  Done!

The first visit to a Japanese grocery store is super-overwhelming.  Think new smells, unrecognizable produce, a different catchy song in each department, intelligible product labels, and everyone (of course) speaking Japanese.  It's incredibly stressful when you just want to buy your kid an apple!  So let's break it down, step by step.

If you rode your bike, make sure to park it neatly!  Take care
not to bump other bikes and start a game of bicycle dominos.

Step #1: Grab a basket and a cart.  The green basket goes on top of the cart!  Only certain carts have child seats, so if you brought your kid, double-check.

What if your grocery list is bigger than your shopping basket?  As it turns out, the United States is the only country in which shoppers drive their SUVs to the nearest Super Walmart, in order to cram them them full of food.  In a Japanese grocery store, buy only what you need for a day or two.  Food will be at its most fresh and less will be wasted.  Win-win!

Step 2:  Grocery shop!

Step 3:  When you are finished, get in the checkout line.  Line your green basket up neatly on the counter when space becomes available. The cashier has a stack of red baskets by her feet. As the cashier scans each of your items, she will take them out of the old, green basket and place them in one of her new, red ones.

My basket is the closest red one.  The old basket of the patron in front
of me is the green one,and the patron's new basket is the far red one.  Please
note that the color of my unpaid basket and the color of the previous patron's
unpaid basket are different.  This will become relevant, shortly.

Step 4:  If you brought your own shopping bag, grab one of these little, laminated tags and toss it into your grocery basket.  The tag tells the clerk not to give you any plastic, grocery bags.  A couple yen will be taken off your purchase.

Give yourself a smug pat on the back for being so earth-friendly!

Step 5:  Take your newly purchased groceries to one of the little tables on the other side of the cash registers.  This is where you take them out of your red basket and put them in your shopping bag. If you want to bag your seafood or loose produce, use the small plastic bags that are on the table.

If you use the mini plastic bags, immediately deduct
previously earned earth-friendly points.

Step 6: Return your now-empty shopping basket to one of the little racks at the end of each checkout lane.  Grab your groceries and exit the store with confidence!

The wheeled racks are holding returned baskets.  Simply drop yours on top!

Now, that we've gotten that out of the way, let's have a small Japanese Culture Lesson. In Japan, there is a very specific way to do absolutely everything.  Thou Shalt: cook certain foods at certain times of the year. Wash the car every week.  Hang umbrellas outside to dry.  Go distance running in proper, distance running gear.  Go distance cycling in proper, distance cycling gear.  Line up at specific platform locations to board trains.  Stop wearing summer clothing on October 1st.  Thou Shalt Not: Talk in public on a cell phone (go hide in a corner somewhere). Mix different kinds of trash in trash cans.  Wear shoes in the house.  Go out in public wearing sloppy clothing.  One may wear a pink wig, thigh-highs, and three pairs of fake eyelashes at ten in the morning and not attract a second glance; show even the slightest bit of anger in public and watch every head snap in your direction.  

Though these rules are generally not applied to children and foreigners (children and foreigners being on the same level, cognitively speaking), these are rules I have tried to abide by.  I try really hard to be respectful in a country that isn't mine.  Plus, I absolutely love lining up for trains.  I appreciate being appropriately dressed for the occasion.  I could weep with gratitude that there is still a country in this world that bans loud, public cellphone usage.  Most of the rules are so civilized.  So it was with complete awareness- and guilt- that I began to cheat the Japanese grocery store system.  

My grocery store has two entrances.  Only one entrance has the green baskets stacked outside of it.  One day, I was running short on time and ducked in the nearest (and green basket-less) entrance.  I casually swiped a basket off the previously mentioned "returned basket rack" that stood at the end of the nearest cash register, and even more casually walked to the front of the store to proceed with my grocery shopping.  Nothing happened.  No raised eyebrows, no sidelong glances.  I was emboldened!  No one noticed my rule-breaking!  So I continued to engage in my secret, cultural rebellion of taking a grocery basket from the wrong place.  I kind of enjoyed it.  I should also mentioned that, when I began doing this, all the baskets in the grocery store were green.

(Looking back, this was a exercise in utter self-deception.  I am almost always the only non-Japanese person shopping in this grocery store.  Absolutely everyone saw me do this.  Every time. There is no hiding anything in this country, but especially not when you are the only somewhat tall, caucasian woman for half a mile, dragging along a blonde- haired, blue-eyed toddler, squinting at labels and clumsily asking where the bathroom is.)

One day, I popped in the basket-less door as usual, only to find stacks of returned RED baskets.  "Huh, they got new baskets," I briefly thought, before grabbing a red basket and continuing on with my shopping.  Take a moment now, if you will, to scroll up to the third photo from the top of this post.  Note the color of my basket (red).  Now note the used shopping basket of the shopper in front of me (green).  Now note the color of the new basket, into which the clerk is putting the purchased groceries (red).  Clearly, someone is being a incorrect customer (fortunately for this blog, this was the shopping trip on which I decided to take photos for this post).  Completely oblivious to all basket colors, I blithely paid for my groceries, bagged them up, returned my red basket to the stack of other returned red baskets, and continued on with my day.

I returned two days later, and began my usual routine of used basket-snatching.  This time, I was confronted.  

Store Clerk: "Sumimasen..." (Excuse me...)

Me: "?" (Expression of surprise and inquiry) 

Store Clerk: "somethingsomethingsomething...midori...somethingsomethingsomething...aka...

somethingsomethingsomething."

Me: Midori means green...aka means red... CLICK. 

Me:  "Hai! Gomen nasai!  Sumimasen! Gomen nasai! (Yes! Apology!  Excuse me! Apology!)

I immediately dumped my red basket back with its fellow used baskets and hustled to the front of the store to grab a green basket.  You see, this grocery store had switched to red baskets so that it could be easy to tell who had paid for their groceries and who had not.  Green for unpaid groceries, red for paid groceries. Like an idiot, I had obliviously been carrying a "paid" basket throughout the whole store and filling it with as-yet-unpaid-for items.  Which, of course, told absolutely everyone that I had cheated the system and taken my basket from the incorrect location.  

Perhaps the store employee had finally had enough of how far this foreign nail was sticking out.  In any case, I am glad he said something.  Nothing like finding out that a secret rebellion is not- and never has been- secret.

My basket is green.  No more reprimands, here!

The moral of the story?  Shop at a Japanese grocery store with confidence...just make sure to take your basket from the correct location!

Ganbatte!

-The Tofu Fox

Not all grocery stores employ the two-color basket system.  This should not concern you all that much, as you will now be taking your basket from the correct location.

Some of the more inexpensive grocery stores do not offer plastic, grocery bags at all.  In general, bringing your own tote is a good policy to have.


Disclaimer:  I do my best to make sure all my information is accurate.  However, details may change or I may just be flat-out wrong.  Please let me know if something needs a correction.  Thank-you!

Hundred Yen Haul!

This is today's Public Service Announcement, reminding you to never underestimate the power of the 100 Yen Store!

Clockwise from top left:  Two pairs of rubber gloves (size L), one sleeve of super-cute stickers,
a jumbo package of six  tissue packs, fingernail stickers for a mommy/daughter deployment
pedicure night, a pack of two metal scrubbers, a pack of six super-cute animal erasers, and
a pack of three kitchen sponges.  Total number of items: 8.  Total cost: 840 yen ($10.61)!

Today's Photo!

One day, I will visit our local park to find the Hubble getting great nature shots.

What Is It And How Do I Cook It: Gyoza!

Our gyoza contained ground pork, chopped shrimp, scallions,
 ginger, dried shrimp, garlic, and chopped, steamed cabbage.

Last week's Cooking Class had gyoza on the menu. YUM!  Gyoza (aka potstickers) are often seen floating in hot and tasty noodle bowls.  Chopped ingredients are seasoned and sealed inside a dough packet, then fried and steamed.  Even the pickiest eaters enjoy gyoza!  The Japanese members of the group explained that, while gyoza are a traditional, Chinese food, adding many chopped items to the filling makes these gyoza more "Japanese." So grab a bunch of veggies, seafood, or meat, and start chopping!

Chop ingredients as small as possible.  Everything is chopped in its raw state, except for cabbage.  Steam the cabbage before chopping.  After chopping, make sure to squeeze out the excess water.

Squeeze out the water several times!  You may even want to
roll the cabbage inside a clean, kitchen towel to get it more dry.

Once all ingredients are chopped, and the cabbage is dry, mix ingredients thoroughly.  Add a little salt, pepper, and soy sauce.

If desired (and available), add a packet of Chinese seasoning.

Grab a pre-made gyoza wrapper (the ladies showed us how to make them from scratch.  I am not even going to go there. Just buy some from your local, grocery store).  Dampen the edges with water, and add a small spoonful of mixture to the middle of the wrapper.  Fold the wrapper in half. Pinch the edges together, fluting the wrapper as you go.

My sad ones are at the top left.  The pretty ones are the ones made by our
 Japanese instructors.  I think I spied someone"fixing" mine, later.  Haha.

Heat some vegetable oil in a frying pan.  Brown the gyoza on each side. Add enough water to cover just the bottom of the gyoza.  Cover the pan and steam until the water is evaporated.

Remove and serve hot, either alone or in noodle bowls!

A delicious, dipping sauce can be made with a little soy sauce, vinegar, and Chinese chili oil.  So good!

(Bonus points for a cute, sauce dish.)

Here's the chili sauce, so you know what you're looking for. Enjoy delicious, homemade gyoza!


Ganbatte!

-The Tofu Fox


Ingredients:


24 Wrapping sheets for gyoza
100g ground meat
4 leaves cabbage
Half bunch scallions
1 clove garlic
1 knob ginger root
Pinch each of salt and pepper
Dash of soy sauce
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
Any other veggies you want to toss in!


The beauty of gyoza is that almost anything goes.  Toss in almost any vegetable/meat/seafood combo.  Shrimp, pork, and beef are equally delicious!

Why Do Monkeys Care About Evil?

"Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil."

It's such a cliche, right?  Appropriated by famous artists and tattoo junkies alike, the Three Wise Monkeys are ubiquitous.  Is there anyone who hasn't seen the ear-covering, eye-covering, mouth-covering simians?  Originating in the Confucian moral code, the Wise Monkeys' philosophy most likely made its way from China to Japan during the Nara Period.  From Japan, the Wise Monkeys traveled to both international ethics (one of Gandhi's only possessions was a small, Three Wise Monkeys sculpture) and modern, pop culture.  But why are the Wise Ones monkeys?

If you visit Japan, Nikko is a city not to be missed.  The shrines and temples of Nikko have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Nine buildings are National Treasures Of Japan, with a remaining 94 designated as Important Cultural Properties.  A visit to Nikko is kind of a big deal.  When visiting Nikko, you can't miss the Tōshō-gū Shrine.  Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founding shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate, is buried here. To honor his dying wish that he be enshrined in Nikko- that his spirit may forever protect Japan from her enemies- the enormous and ornate Tōshō-gū Shrine was built.

When you visit the Tōshō-gū Shrine, enter the first torii gate and turn left.  Just up ahead, on your left-hand side, is the stable for the shrine's sacred horse.  Above the doors, carved and painted in ornate detail, are the original, Three Wise Monkeys.

In Japanese, monkey and not are homophones (same word, different meaning).  Japanese dictionaries also define the Japanese word, saru, as meaning "to leave, go away."  A clever, Japanese word play, the Three Wise Monkeys of Nikko are also the very first, illustrated example of "See No Evil, Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil."  Ta da!

The original artist probably had no idea how many tattoos and tchotchkes he would eventually inspire!

Disclaimer:  I do my best to make sure all my information is accurate.  However, details may change or I may just be flat-out wrong.  Please let me know if something needs a correction.  Thank-you!

Hello Kitty Cuteness

I'm going to let the photos do all the talking for this one.

Hello Kitty's Kawaii Paradise is located in Palette Town, Odaiba, in Tokyo!  Don't miss the cuteness!

Disclaimer:  I do my best to make sure all my information is accurate.  However, details may change or I may just be flat-out wrong.  Please let me know if something needs a correction.  Thank-you!

Let's Appreciate Kimono!

This may have been the first time I've ever been emotionally moved by a piece of clothing (unless you count the Louis Vuitton bag I bought at my local pawn shop.  But that emotion was different).  

So often, I see kimono designs that are exquisitely precise and detailed.  They are gorgeous.  But when I rounded the corner to see if my local, kimono shop had changed their display kimono, I literally gasped out loud. 

Note the long sleeves.  This is a furisode kimono, worn by a young, unmarried woman, for a formal
occasion (since I am married, this is not a kimono for me.  Sad).  The obi is hanging to the right.

Without a doubt, this is the most beautiful kimono that I- in my limited experience- have ever seen.  Techniques similar to those used in watercolor painting create a stunning work of textile art.

Bottom, left hem detail.  Shades of sea glass fade to ink.

Dreamy ripples are accompanied by the detailing on the obi, of proud sailing ships with snapping pennants.

A very foreign element on a very national form of dress.

While the obi complements the kimono to perfection, I was having a hard time imagining a young woman wearing such a pattern.  Something about the combination seemed off.  So I asked a friend, who confirmed my hunch.  The obi's more subdued colors and maturity of subject matter don't seem to belong to the kimono's targeted age demographic (remember, the long sleeves are for the young and unmarried).  In general, according to Kimono: Fashioning Culture (and my friend),  age-appropriate color choices begin with the almost-gaudy combinations for children, and gradually fade to the soft colors acceptable for older woman.  The ocean kimono- with its vivid teal, chartreuse, and indigo- is in the perfect color range for a young, unmarried woman.  The obi, with its mauve, persimmon, and lilac, would be better suited to a more mature lady. 

As for the occasion on which one could wear the ocean kimono, my friend tells me this pattern is appropriate for a very limited range of activities.  Tea Ceremony, or perhaps a koto (stringed instrument) performance, make the "acceptable occasion" list.