Typhooon

The forecasted path for the most recent Typhoon......Typhoon season has been abundant with wind and rain but lacking in full frontal TYPHOOOOOOONS! This new one is just teasing us by running back and forth in front (behind) us. You go Typhoon.... You GO!

KAJIMAYA

Today was A's Grandmother's Kajimaya Celebration! This year, she turns 97 years old!!!!! In Okinawa, when you turn 97 there is a big ol' celebration held in your honor. It is common during this celebration for the honoree to ride around their neighbourhood in an open car holding colourful pinwheels. It is believed that when a person turns 97 they once again, begin to have the heart of a child. Therefore, the Pinwheel is a symbol of the regaining of one's childhood. A's grandmother is currently in a Nursing Home and not well enough to be riding around in an open car, plus the rain this weekend has been incredible as another Typhoon is approaching Okinawa. So here is a picture of me rocking out with a pinwheel! Keeping it real and Genki.

In this pic, yes, I am wearing a hoodie. It's not actually cold though I just have the A/C on sucking the humidity out of my apato. Yes, I am using a fancy "Photo Book" background...the clouds in Okinawa have been dark and wet for the past 2 weeks.....

Check out this website about Celebrations and old age http://www.okinawateacompany.com/html/t-wisdom.php

I keep wanting to add random bits of info to this post. I watched this documentary on the National Film Board of Canada's website about a Canadian woman who is 105. It was very cute. Check it out if you want. This website is cool because you can watch all kinds of Canadian Films free of charge! http://nfb.ca/film/sunday_at_105/

Neighbourhood Changes

There is always construction going on in Haebaru. Very slowly mind you, but still, there is a lot on the go....it just never gets finished. The most recent and interesting development is that they demolished the apartment building adjacent to mine. This lead to a few weeks of limited parking, lots of dust, and some noisy weekends. Here is the process.....as seen from my balcony.

Island Pork Tenderloin

I love pork tenderloin. The meat is always tender and low in fat, therefore quite healthy. Usually it is quite expensive to buy, so what I like to do is stock up on it when it is on sale. I found 2 big tenderloins for only about 700 yen (about 7 dollars).

I usually marinade the meat in a red wine/rosemary/garlic type sauce, or soy/garlic. I wanted to step out of the box so I gave this recipe for Island Pork Tenderloin from Epicurious a try. It was shockingly DELICIOUS! The pictures do not do it any justice :( but believe me when I say that it ROCKED!

I did not make the salad as instructed in the recipe. I bought a pre-made goya salad from Max-Valu and it was great. As well, I changed the dressing a bit by using fresh shiquasa and orange juice, and a bit of sugar to keep it from being overly sour.

I paired the meal up with some Sour Cream and Carrot Mashed Potatoes. Boiled potatoes and carrots mashed up with butter, sour cream, freshly diced parsley, and salt & pepper.

The Goya Salad with "Curry" dressing" Nice and light and refreshing.

The pork tenderloin with the glaze.

Seasonal Beverage

Introducing the highly anticipated フライドチキン Beer from Sapporo!!!! That's right folks ... every Fall this super awesome beer appears on Family Mart shelves for a limited time.

フライドチキン = Fu-ra-i-do-chi-ki-n = Fried Chicken !!!!!! Thats right ladies and gentlemen...Fried Chicken Beer! Now to be fair, this beer does not taste like Fried Chicken, I think it is just some sort of advertisement...but for real!? AWESOME!

Slow Cooked Chicken Soup/Stew

I love slow cookers and slow cooking. They are INGENIOUS !

I had boiled some chicken drumsticks to make "chicken wings" the other day and I had the leftover chicken stock. I hate throwing it away, it seems like such a waste. So I took a quick peak in my tiny freezer and somewhat bare cupboards in search of a few items that I could easily throw into the slow cooker. I ended up creating a somewhat simple Tomato Chicken Soup Base with minced Onions, Celery, Carrot, Parsley, Garlic ... corn, a can of tomato sauce, white wine, and S&P. I put two frozen chicken thighs (with skin) on top and put it in the fridge until the next morning.

When I turned the slow cooker on low at about 8:15 am, I threw in some chopped fresh basil and gave it a little stir. I returned home at 4:30 pm and gave it a taste .. it was not very good .. it tasted like carrot water .. eeew. So I had to make some adjustments. A was not to be home from work until 9 pm, so I had some time to fix it. I took the chicken out, removed the skin, shred it with 2 forks, and put it back in the slow cooker. I added some Thyme, Tarragon, Spicy Chili Garlic Sauce (quite a bit), and a few boiled and chopped potatoes.

By 9 pm it had turned into a MASTERPIECE! For realz. I put dollop of Sour Cream and chopped fresh parsley on top and away we went. I would recommend experimenting with slow cookers! So fun and so easy!

Tune in Tokyo - Part 4 - The Final Episode

The 3rd day of our Tokyo Adventure was filled with all kinds of exciting things. Very early in the morning we went to the hospital to have a Health Check done for A by a Canadian Government recognized practitioner. It went smoothly, despite how early it was and how tricky the train transfers were. After some EXPENSIVE, but good breakfast, and a nap...we headed off for the Canadian Embassy. It was a beautiful day!

[View from the Embassy]

[Tokyo Tower from the Embassy]

[Innukshuk - Canadian Embassy]

The signing of our Common-Law agreement went really well! It was much easier than I expected it to be. Which is good. They signed it without any questions or demands for any of the documents that I carefully prepared. It was very exciting and liberating. I am so lucky to be from a country that is so accepting of all kinds of people, cultures, and relationships!

[Happy Signing Day]

After the Embassy, we walked around a bit and found a lovely park beside the embassy and a neat shrine near the train station. Here are a few pictures from the shrine. I have no idea what the name of it is.

Our last evening in Tokyo was spent with A's Cousin, Shoko. Shoko's husband has a restaurant in Ikebukuro. The first floor is a Sushi Bar run by her husbands father. While the upstairs is his Italian Restaurant. Quite an interesting and delicious mix of flavours. We sat downstairs first and ate some fabulously fresh Sashimi and Sushi.

[Restaurant Entrance]

Shoko's husbands father was a very charming man....and magical too! He has the ability to use Energies to Heal. He took some time to do some work on A's back. A suffers from chronic back pain. Barely touching A's back he was able to relieve most of the pain!

PHOTO TEMPORARILY REMOVED

[Sashimi]

[Sushi]

[Ika]

[Anago in Yuzu Sauce - Rare Salt Water Eel]

[Lightly Toasted Fatty Tuna - YUMMM]

After we ate, and spent some time upstairs in the Italian Restaurant, we headed over to Shoko's place for some wine and cheese. I had brought a bottle of wine from Leonie's Wedding (2 years ago) back to Okinawa from Canada and from Okinawa to Tokyo. The three of us enjoyed drinking such a special bottle of wine.

We had a good time chillin and visiting with Shoko and her cat Ikura. The cat was adorable and attention seeking :) My kind of cat!

[Julie, Shoko, Ikura]

We headed back to Okinawa the next day. It was an easy trip home. We were lucky enough to catch a ride from the airport from Mr. Madole. Good to be back in Oki~

[Okinawa Ocean]

Tune in Tokyo - Part 3 - The Monja Issue

Our second night in Tokyo was a new delicious experience for me. We met up with an old work friend of A's, her husband and two small children. We went to this very charming little restaurant in the back streets of Shibuya.

The restaurant specializes in teppanyaki/okonomiyaki/monja. Inside the restaurant, we were taken to our private tatami room and seated at a knee height table with a large open grill in the middle. The idea is that you order your food and cook it yourself on the grill.

We started off with some appetizers, including a melt in your mouth Tuna Steak (まぐろ) with Avocado, Wasabi, and Lime. We threw the tuna on the grill for only a few seconds to lightly grill it (keeping it at a blue rare), dipped it in soy sauce and wasabi, and combined it with a piece of Avocado!

Next up we had Okonomiyaki. Which is kind of like a giant savory pancake topped with sauce, seaweed flakes, and fish flakes.

[Okonomiyaki - Before]

[Okonomiyaki - Cooking]

[Okonomiyaki - Ready to Eat!]

Up next, we had Monja. It was my first time to hear of or taste Monja. It was very interesting and quite tasty. Monja is similar to Okonomiyaki, except the batter is less thick. The first Monja we had was flavoured with Cheese, Curry, and Mochi.

[Monja - Before]

The first step is to grill the meat and chop it into smaller pieces.

2. Scoop out all of the veggies onto the grill ... keeping the thin batter in the mixing dish.

3. Saute the veggies on the grill

4. Make a hole in the middle of the cooked veggie mixture.

5. Slowly pour bits of the batter into the hole. Stirring it on the bottom occasionally . There should be about half of the liquid batter remaining in the mixing dish.

7. Put the rest of the liquid on top of the cooking Monja. It will overflow. Spread it all out on the grill.

8. Monja is now ready to eat. It looks like vomit...but it's not vomit...it's really yummy!

9. Scrape the Monja off the grill using this mini metal spatula and enjoy!

[Monja Time]

[Exit of Monja House]

Tune in Tokyo - Part 2

I think Japanese Art is pretty sweet to look at! Here is a nice specimen A and I found in a bar in Shinjuku 2-Chome.

[Fascinating Art in Shinjuku 2-Chome]

The 2nd day in Tokyo we went out for an early lunch just across from our hotel in Shibuya. We found this awesome place called J.S. Burgers Cafe. Flaunting the slogan "Life is Burgers". Now I know I am in Japan and I should be eating different forms of raw fish for every meal BUT I've been here long enough to appreciate and CRAVE a decent burger. This place satiated my cravings for at least a month! These burgers were HUGE and TASTY! We feasted on their Cheeseburger Lunch Special with Fries, Salad, and a Drink for 1200 yen (about $12).

[J.S. Burgers - Bacon Cheeseburger]

Fake (plastic) food displays are very popular in Japan, to draw in customers with the realistic food displays out in the front of the shop, or even outside. I found this dessert display to be especially tantalizing.

[Fake (plastic) Food Display]

After lunch we went on a little tour of Tokyo. We went to a cute little shrine called Hie-Jinja in Akasaka. A was an amazing train navigator the entire trip and I felt very thankful that we were able to get around quickly and painlessly, for the most part. There was no avoiding the mass crowding and squishy squashy train situations. Hie-Jinja was very nice and peaceful. We walked up to the shrine through a 'tunnel' of orange torii (shrine gates).

[Hie-Jinja Torii Gates]

At the Shrine we each got an Omikuji (おみくじ), which is basically a random fortune written a strip of paper and found at Shinto Shrines and Buddhist Temples in Japan. You read your fortune and if it is good you keep it, but if it is bad you fold it up and tie it onto these special poles/trees in the shrine grounds. It is believed then that the bad fortune will not attach itself it to you, but rather stay where it was tied. A and I both got bad ones.... but I've never gotten a good one from these places. Its like a fortune cookie...just a more detailed fortune.

『おみくじ』

After Akasaka, we headed for the most popular Temple in Tokyo, Senso-ji in Asakusa. The area around Senso-ji is very quaint, filled with interesting shops and vendors. This Japanese relative of mine was stopping in a restaurant for an afternoon snack.

[I'm Hungry]

The big souvenir to buy at Senso-ji Temple is Osenbei (おせんべい), which is a cooked rice cake/cracker . Here are a couple of vendors down the main street.

[おせんべい]

[firing up the おせんべい grill]

[what flavour would you like?]

[Asakusa, Tokyo]