Living the so called life in the Tokyo sabaku..
Looming over me is my goal to come back to america this year. Both for issues of my mothers deteriorating health and a really good job offer…
E-san… please come work for us in America.. Where would you like to work? We have offices all over the US! San Jose, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, New York… Please choose where!
San Jose is looking might nice, seconded by New Yawk….
2008 All Japan Kagami-biraki pictures are up.. here.
Sumo is interesting..
More pictures to come from Akita..
I really dislike shaving… I have really thick facial hairs, probably from my irish and scottish roots. Thick red and brown ones that don’t particularly enjoy being ripped out of their warm pores.. I have been using an electric razor for about a year and a half now. It is hit and miss, but about 75% of the time it leaves me with horrible razor burn. I have tried various oils and shaving gels and creams, art of shaving has had the best effects, especially in combination with wet shaving.
I dislike the cartridge shavers, A they cost to much and B they are not easily recyclable. So with the recommendation of a friend here, I invested 25$ in a safety razor and 12$ in 30 double edge safety razors and 20$ on a badger fur brush. After two shaves, I have to say, my skin loves me. It is recommended to replace blades ever week, but since I shave everyother day I can probably extend that out.
Eitherway, it is more ecofriendly as the blades are easier to recycle, and it seems to be more eRoku skin friendly.
Now I just have to hope for no large earthquakes as I am shaving myself.
Murkel heavy28c for those of you interested.
My girfriend’s parents make their own yogurt. In particular, Caspian Sea Yogurt (see wiki,) which is really popular in japan. Since I eat yogurt on a daily basis, usally for breakfast with fruit or as a snack in late evening, I thought I would try my hand at making it.
The nice thing about caspian yogurt is that it is one of a few yogurt strains that does not need to be boiled and heated for the culture to activate. So it is really easy to make and continue to make.
I was able to track down the culture here in the Tokyo-sabaku and decided to make some. It is pretty straight forward and easy to make..
Clean a seal-able container (I used a 1L rubbermaid container,) 600ml of milk warmed to room temperature (around 22C,) and the caspian culture. In my case I used a frozen powdered culture.
Put the culture in the container and add the milk, stirring to make sure the the culture doesn’t clump together. Seal the container and leave in a warm place for about 12 hours.
After 12 hours, nothing had happened. It dawned on me that my room was pretty cold as it is winter here. So the next day I put it in my shower room with the hot-blower going and some hot water in the tub. I came home yesterday and to my surprise, I had a container full of yogurt! Easy and delicious!
So the next phase is making more. Theoretically, all I have to do is add 1/2 cup of the yogurt to another 500 mL of milk and wait another 24 hours… so I’ll let you know soon..
Monday was a holiday here, 成人の日 (seijinnohi- coming of age day..) A lot of girls dressed up in beautiful kimono and go out for a day on the town to show that this year they turn 20, age of majority here. Just way to show how beautiful japanese women are, especially in kimono.
Also, it was the kagamibaraki at the budokan. The official starting day in japan for all budo. Represenitives from aikido, iaito, karate, kendo, kenpo, kobutsu (ryuha), kyudo, judo, jukendo, naginata and few others were present to give demonstrations and then participate in practice afterwards.
All of the demos were interesting. Kyudo was pretty to watch. Hombu dojo sent about 8 or so people to demonstrate aikikai hombu flavor waza. The kenpo demo was pretty intense and the jukendo was laughable. The judo demonstration was of one of the katas and a sensei from our club was uke, while technically perfect, the kata wasn’t so interesting (I forget the name..)
Afterwards, I went to have drinks with him and a few high ranking kodokan/goshin jujitsu senseis. It was an interesting time being around the guys that helped develop and spread judo throughout europe of the past 30 years. Some very interesting stories..
Pictures to come soon..
Almost as cool as the GI Joe action figures I blogged about a few months back!