adekun's japan blog

Bloody hot

adekun — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:32:06 +0000

Finally some rain. A typhoon passing up the west and over has brought a change to the weather. For months it has been hot and dry. The summer has been blood heat; daytime temperatures reverberating between 35°C and 37°C each day. It brings hope of an end to the accompanying humidity. Someone told me the spotted 39 degrees on a nearby road gantry. That’s twice a typical summer temperature back home.

Switcheroo Shogun

adekun — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:07:11 +0000

It was with some disbelief to see Ichirō Ozawa gracing the television a couple of weeks ago. No stranger to scandal(s), when Hatoyama recently resigned taking him down too, people expected him out of the picture. Ozawa stood down as party leader just prior to last year’s general election amid inappropriate funding claims and for being deeply unpopular with the public. He now stands to contest the party leadership, in short, to secure the PM spot. More than two-thirds of the (perhaps flabbergasted) public polled favour the incumbent.
Dubbed the Shadow Shogun, Ozawa wields great power and has a lot of followers. Something many of the recent leaders have lacked. Regardless of how unsavoury he might be, he could be Japan’s best hope to stem the country’s ballooning debt and currency value.
He looks certain to provide more “witticisms” such as I don’t like British people. During the same seminar he branded Americans as simple minded and monocellular, only to pay tribute to their commitment to democracy.

One year’s seeding is seven years weeding

adekun — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 06:33:41 +0000

No different to last year

Littering the garden floor, millions of tiny grass seeds lay as ticking time bombs. They are waiting for typhoons and a second rainy season. I am waiting with my hoe and spade; more so, in want of a good idea on how best to tackle the job.
One of those garden flame throwers (flame weeder) would bring some fun to the task and no doubt effective. Perhaps a good opportunity to skip the traditional fare and sow a green manure.

Neglected garden

adekun — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 06:02:38 +0000

Some herbs and rogue grasses at the start of last month

I’ve hardly watered the garden this year. The summer has been very dry and very hot. It looks set to be long too. This year’s summer vegetables have finished. All that seems to be doing well are the weeds. What herbs that go to seed have done so leaving little worth checking upon except pumpkins. I should have done a lot more. It is remarkable just how quickly things go awry.

Rum & raisin ice cream

adekun — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:51:12 +0000

Nearly gone

Flambéing half the rum seemed to dull the coarseness. Perhaps ice cream is best use of Barcardi.

65 g raisins
65 ml dark rum
4 egg yolks
80 g caster sugar
200 ml milk
200 ml cream

Soak the raisins in the rum a good few hours prior. Warm in a pan, switch off and leave.
Bring the milk to just below boiling point. At the same time, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until golden. Add the hot milk to the eggs, combine and pour back into the pan.
Over a low heat, stir continuously whilst the custard thickens (obviously do not boil or get distracted).
Run your finger through the back of a coated spoon to test. If it leaves a clear line then it’s good. Add the rum, raisins and the cream. Thicken a bit more.
Leave to cool before pouring into an ice cream maker.

Freezer full of sweet corn

adekun — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:51:34 +0000

Sweet corn in the freezer

From upon my perch, I espied a good many crows circling the sweet corn. Perhaps unbeknown to them, worms burrowing away have already started to dine. Bustling in on the love triangle, beetles also threaten. I decided to grab the lot. Without shucking the ears, a few dozen were crammed into the freezer within twenty minutes.
I do wonder the best way of storing food; how to deal with those short-term gluts. How this frozen sweet corn will compare to that just picked?

Tomato heaven

adekun — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 01:48:53 +0000

アイコ (aiko) tomatoes

This year by far, has been the best for tomatoes. They were looking good before, since then, quite perfect. Only about six feet away, the father-in-law’s specially fed vines have started to shrivel. One in the corner began to yellow, soon after the rest like dominoes. Hopefully, there is enough space between each other’s and not too much flying back and forth.

The plan has always been to grow a variety of tomatoes, with the expectation that some will be a bit hit and miss. I think the yellow cherry tomatoes boast the best flavour with the yellow aiko down at the other end. The first time 少桃 (little peach) bring a nice change, not something to be seen at the supermarket. Swelling beyond expectation, are the heavyweight 桃太 (momotaro) plants. No green crowns or split fruit so far. Most fruit above the 200-250 gram range printed on the seed packet.

Desperately seeking sunblock

adekun — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 00:57:25 +0000

It might not be the case in the larger cities, but here it is impossible to find affordable sunscreen/sunblock. There seems to be only a few other alternatives: imported Hawaiian Tropic (SPF 0) at ￥1600 a bottle, or bottles (SPF 50) the size of a dental floss dispenser, about half the price. Probably need one bottle of the latter for the front and another for the back. Luckily, I’m the first to burn; about ninety minutes of early morning sun. Red shoulders are a sign to get the kids away. We did get a 100ml bottle with the consistency of milk, doubt it any good after a swim, at least something. The internet offers more choices, but again not cheap. Bringing some sun lotion would be a good idea for any fairer skinned would be traveller.

Quadrupled charges

adekun — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 07:06:00 +0000

The children started nursery earlier in the year. As the charges are income based, we had a letter from the city office beforehand. It was a bit of a surprise months later, to get another letter to say the fees have been increased c. 400% and will be applied retrospectively.
After all the monthly expenses, there isn’t really much money left over to buy food. This oversight really eats into that. At the same time the government wants to stop the child benefit they just introduced and double sales tax (food not excluded).
The OH’s income barely covered the childcare before. Now it is the same rate as private daycare.
Bravo!

Kabocha peekaboo

adekun — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:24:05 +0000

Kabocha sitting on garlic necks

Amongst the sea of grasses a couple of kabocha have plumped up nicely. They look to be somewhere in the expected 500 g to 800 g range. Not sure when will be the best time to harvest them. The skin should be darker anyway.
Tomatoes are good. Following a deluge the larger ones tend to burst before the crowns have had chance to turn red. However, this year, the fruit have ripened fully and been picked before any such calamity. Not so many made the kitchen.

Summer fungi

adekun — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:57:24 +0000

Not for the pot?

There has been quite a lot of rain fall recently. Weeds are running rampant despite weekly culls. The odd day of sunshine offers a chance make things a little more orderly.

Quite mushroomy

Several mushrooms have popped up. It would be nice to know what they are. No doubt they are common; somebody will know. The second has a strong mushroomy smell and appears to be more Agaricus than Amanita.

Biwa

adekun — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:09:39 +0000

Biwa

Known as Japanese medlar or loquat, biwa are a member of the rose family. Pictured are some slightly under ripened, ideal for jam or chutney; and some perfect for eating once they have been peeled. They can be used to flavour shōchū, much like umeshu or sloe gin. In addition, the leaves can be used to make tea (biwa cha):

Rub the leaves to remove the bristles
Leave to dry a few days
Chop
Add five grams of the leaves to a litre and a half of boiling water

There’s also a biwa pale ale brewed down in Kagoshima.

adekun's japan blog

Bloody hot

Related posts

Switcheroo Shogun

Related posts

One year’s seeding is seven years weeding

Related posts

Neglected garden

Related posts

Rum & raisin ice cream

Related posts

Freezer full of sweet corn

Related posts

Tomato heaven

Related posts

Desperately seeking sunblock

Related posts

Quadrupled charges

Related posts

Kabocha peekaboo

Related posts

Summer fungi

Related posts

Biwa

Related posts