Miyagi Trip (finally)

We went on a 4 day road trip up to Miyagi for O-bon, hoping to escape a bit of the heat. But it turned out to be pretty hot up there too!! And rainy! We took the tent with the intention (haha) of camping out, but a serious lack of camping areas meant that the tent never got to see the light of day. A week later here is the round up of our trip.

Wed August 13th
We left home at about 8:30pm, so K pretty much fell asleep right away in the car.And she stayed that way until 10minutes after we stopped for "the night" at about 4:30am at a service area, when she decided to wake up (just as J and I were finishing counting sheep) so I had to then entertain her in the back of the car (as it was raining outside) for 2 hours.

Thursday August 14th
When J woke up we drove to the nearest town, stopped again and we all had a very average breakfast of soba noodles at a 道の駅.
Today we went to Kesennuma city, to the Ice Aquarium, which I had seen on TV recently. It was bloody cold in there - they have the aquarium in a walk-in freezer, basically, and hand out thick coats to wear as you are going around. It is only really tiny, thank goodness - only took about 3 mins to walk around it, because did I mention it was cold in there?!? Not really worth it, but hey, you get that. It was still raining and K was getting grumpy after this, so we stopped off at Aeon to get some sushi packs for lunch, which we ate in the Aeon carpark then drove on to Onagawa, another sea port, where we set up camp (well, parked the car)for another night.

Friday August 15th
Let R and K run around the sea port in the morning to burn off some pent-up energy, then drove down the Oshika Peninsula. It was a lovely drive - nice coastline. We stopped at Oshika Town for lunch at this little place. J and I both had uni (sea urchin) rice bowls and they were delish!! Oshika (Ayukawa) is an old whaling town, so there was a whale museum there too, but at 700yen entrance fee, we decided to skip it and drive further down the peninsula in search of a camp site to relax at for the day. Found a park at the end of the peninsula that had these gorgeous orchards growing in the wild
I had to really control myself not to pull out a few to throw in a vase!

Unfortunately the beach that J camped at when he was a wee lad with his parents was no longer there, and the only other campsite an expensive "auto camp site" so we stopped off at the roller-slider for a bit of a slide with R and K (they lurve their slippery dips) before heading towards Ishinomaki, then Okumatsushima in search of a better campsite.....only to be dissapointed that there was nothing better, in fact, the closer we got to Matsushima, the less chance we had of finding a campsite, as apparently you are not allowed to camp anywhere in the Matsushima region. Even the youth hostel wouldn't let us set up camp on their lawn, so we got ourselves a dorm room and stayed in the youth hostel for about 4000yen each for the night.

Saturday August 15th
We set off early to get to Matushima, the main attraction of this trip. It is known as one of the top three panoramic spots in Japan. Hmm, I am not sure if I agree or not. It was nice, but I think I have seen more beautiful spots too. I don't know, maybe Matsuhima just didn't do it for me. The town is located on a bay of 260 islands of various sizes, which all have pine trees(matsu) on them, hence the name. The thing to do there is take a sightseeing boat cruise around the islands - 50minutes for about 1400yen. We stopped off at a 7-11 about 1km from the main town area, and I asked for a discount ticket for the boats....well, they showed me the computer ticket selling machine and rushed me through to the boat cruise, so I bought the tickets there for 1260yen - only to find out we had bought tickets for the most obscure boat that only had 2 departures each day, so we had to fill in time before our 10am boat ride, only to find ourselves the only passengers!! At least it worked out well because it meant that K could run around as much as she wanted without having to worry about other passengers. lol.




After the boat ride, we went to the Kanreitei Tea house, which had such a good write up in the tourist books. But I was VERY dissapointed by this. Yes, the view was very quaint,

but the tea they served (at 700yen with a small zunda mochi) was terrible. I am no tea expert, but I have done tea ceremony for a few years(BK), and always look forward to being able enjoy a matcha, but they always dissapoint me. Green tea really needs to be prepared properly to taste nice. This means warming the tea bowl, and definately not using water out of those electric pots because they are just not hot enough. Very very dissapointed (sigh) and I wouldn't recommend anyone going there. Even J's iced macha was bad - it had lumps of green tea floating around in it. Oh, and the thing that amazed me the most - you had to actually put your own tray away - they had 4 different plastic containers to put the tea bowl, plate, tray etc in seperately. That is like blasphemy. The tea bowl is supposed to be one of the most important (and usually expensive!) parts of the tea ceremony, chosen to show your hospitality for your guests. I couldn't believe that any one who actually knows anything at all about tea would be fine with stacking the tea bowls up in a plastic container. (end rant, lol)



After sightseeing we headed off to our pet hotel, booked especially for R! It was up in the mountains, so really quite cool, the first nice cool weather we had - seems Miyagi had a bit of a heat wave for the first few days we were there. Here she is (photo is on the side, can't turn it, sorry) enjoying herself. The pet hotel simply means that she is allowed into our room, as opposed to being stuck alone in the car again. She also got some doggy champagne and cigars when we checked in (no not really haha). The ofuro here was nice, so J and K went in first, then I went in by myself, then later on K and I went in again. We also had a nice morning bath. Being cool outside meant the ofuro was just right!

Sunday August 17th

Had a bit of a sleep in, enjoyed a leasurely breakky and bath, then drove off to see Mt. Zao, but got halfway there and turned back since there was fog about as thick as those o-baka-charachters on Japanese tv, so figured we wouldn't be able to see much there anyway. Also, I got very VERY car-sick on the windy road up there. I never used to get car sick, but ever since being preggars, I guess my body has changed. I get it a lot now. (boo-hoo) Stopped off at a cool little farm that was free to pat the rabbits and goats and sheep. K enjoyed it so much - she is definately not afraid of animals. There was also a cheese factory there, so we spent 30mins sampling all their cream cheeses 20 times over before buying nothing and leaving.

The car ride home was LONG. We got stuck in 2 big traffic jams, the first one 5mins after J decided thatit was time to change drivers as he was sleepy so I got to crawl along the highway at 15km an hour....for over an hour. Fun fun. The second was closer to Tokyo, but just as long. K did a fantastic job for being stuck in a car seat for most of the day, chucking an understandable wobbly at about 6pm when we still had over an hour and half to go to get home.

And finally, last photo is for Gaijin Wife - thought she might like to see that we somwhow ended up in Kunimi!! hahah!


I am buggered now - talk about mammoth post. It has only taken me over a week to get this done, mainly because K really hasn't wanted to leave me alone and gets pissed off whenever I sit at the computer, and because the computer has been playing up a bit recently and making everything twice as long to get done. Congratulations to anyone who read this far - hope I didn't bore you too much, lol!

r-chan's first ever ryokan!

After a day sightseeing in Matsushima we are staying the night in a doggy hotel! R is soooo happy at her first ever hotel stay- she normally gets stuck in the car (which is why we only ever go north in summer)
we havent been able to set up camp on this trip, so we spent the first 2nights in the car, and last night at a youth hostel (haha, at our age! there were mainly families there anyway- not a backpacker in sight). We reserved tonight's doggy hotel for tonight on one of those last minute dot com sites.
J is in the onsen now with K, and I am spending some quality time with R, something we dont get to do much AK(after K). ooh, they're back! my turn in the onsen!

buta bara, natto & obon

buta bara: (definition 1) last night's dinner. Followed recipe to a t, only to get a "this has too strong a sake taste too it" (@@~)sigh. i think i've lost my kitchen mojo - the rice was マズイ, too カタイ for the second time this week!!Its not like I am doing anything different with the rice - just throwing it in the same old rice cooker.
(definition 2) what seems to be going on around my waste. I was embarrased the other day when I was walking R, with K in the ergo carrier- I looked down and saw not one but several rolls of flabby tummy waving at (think:jelly on a plate)me through my top. the strap on the ergo really accentuated it, lol! I guess it IS true that your metabolism slows down after 30. maybe i should lay off the 八つ橋 お土産 from J's trip to kyoto
natto: apparently k's latest fav food. yet for some reason apples still dont make the cut. go figure
obon: 5am&we are currently stopped at a parking area somewhere in Sendai. Apparently i thought 2 tired adults, a 16month old and a dog in one car for 4days was a good idea!?
but the cool thing is that K says 出発! everytime we start off, which is pretty cute.
just had some very average soba for breakky, now we are off to a frozen aquarium - shuppatsu!

nudy run

I am giddy with excitement - they are finally cleaning the staircase! It is worse than disgusting, a layer of dust about 20cm thick adorning it. The guy cleaning it has been sneezing for the last 15minutes! I guess the staircase gets the same status as the gravesites, only being cleaned once a year for obon.

Am actually so excited I am gonna do a nudy run up and down the stairs once they finish. Thank goodness I didn't ever get around to cleaning the stairs myself (gee would I be mighty pissed off about now if i did!), OR writing that "anonymous" letter to the landlords saying "Please clean the stairs, signed, your tenants （住居者一同）"

just me then?

so, am I the only one on the planet who didn't know (think about it) that putting boiled up tomatoes in 90deg water in blender is not a good idea? The kitchen looks like I just took part in a massacre, and am blending up the body pieces. Hope we don't have any visitors today.... I may be taken away in the back of a paddy van if I can't get this cleaned up - it's ALL over the place, hehe.

so guess what K's lunch is today..... tomato sauce pasta (scraped off the walls, floors, sink, my ear, R's tail....)

I've got gas

I was just about to ring the gas company to abuse them, after finding a postcard in the letter box today reminding me to pay for the last 2 months worth of gas bills. I was going to abuse them and say "but how can I pay when I never got the bills in the first place"....luckily I did a quick flick through the bills folder before I rang them. I found not only 2 outstanding gas bills, but also an electricity bill just waiting for it's turn too. Oops. I thought it was strange that I didn't have to pay many bills last month - turns out it was only coz I was hiding the unpaid bills in amongst the paid ones. Must have been when I was overzealously cleaning for my 2 visitors. haha.

And I was telling J that he was loosing it (after the key incident last weekend). I need to be more on-the-ball myself, it seems - and more careful with sorting the mail (flash back to the Losing Kei saga too!!) How long can you blame it all on mummy-brain again?

go aussie go!

I am feeling very nationalistic today.

We went in to the Embassy to apply for K's Aussie citizenship. I have attempted to do this since she was about 4months old, when we took the first lot of photos, but have had several hiccups along the way, mainly trying to find someone to endorse the photos of her (to say it is really her) and sign the application form, again to say (wow, we just had an earthquake, R still seems a bit shocked. It hasnt come up on tv yet, but. there it is, I think it was a "3". The glass doors were rattling, no damage or things falling tho, thank goodness)
where was I? right, so we needed someone to sign the application form as well to say that it really is little K. It needs to be someone who is in a certain profession (such as lawyer, doctor, teacher, nurse, policeman etc) and must have known K since birth. I had several failed attempts to get friends in such occupations to sign - I usually asked them, then forgot to get the documents to them or whatever. Well, finally on Tuesday I got nurse friend to sign away. The photos were taken about 2 months ago when we went to Embassy to confirm what docs were needed, and get the specific photos for the Aussie application forms from the tiny little camera shop down the road from the embassy (Aussie passport photos are very strict about the size of your head in the shot - you look like a giant head in your passport).

So finally thought I had everything under control, stat decs from both J and I to declare that K's name was to be spelt the English way, as opposed to the Japanese way on her birth certificate. As I was completing the application form last night, I realised though that I got nurse friend to sign the OLD application form - it was updated a few months ago apparently. I had a new copy from when I went to the Embassy AAAGGGGHHHH. I was *so* sure they were gonna tell me that no I needed the new application form signed,so would have to start all over again, but they were very nice and said, sure, no problem! Love being an Aussie!!!!

So we went in on the train, about 35mins, so not too bad, and only 1 change of trains. K was an angel on the train going in there, and an angel in the Embassy - we were only there for about 10mins max as we handed the docs over and they took some copies of our passports etc. The we came straight home again. By this time K was hot and getting tired (sick and tired most likely of being strapped to the pram the whole time) so on the train I let her get out and play on the seat with me, then we put her shoes on to walk when we changed trains. The last train ride about 6mins she was not a happy chappy, and screamed nearly all the way home from the train station, and at home she was still upset until she finally fell asleep - she is recuperating in bed now. I know it was a long morning for her, so I guess she did pretty well.

Now, when her citizenship comes through, we have to do it all again and go back to the embassy to apply for her passport!! At least I have all the documents ready.

The Olympics start today - they sort of crept up on me. I will of course be barracking for the Aussies, "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, oi, oi" and "Come on Aussie, c'mon, c'mon, Come on Aussie c'mon" and all that. If I get to see any of their events on TV here in Japan though it will be a miracle! And "ganbare" Japan too!

hyaku

This is my 100th post! yay!

Am celebrating with 100 candles on a cupcake.... I really should take a photo of *that*!

I was going to write more random stuff, but I think the 100th post deserves to be just about being 100. So happy 100th birthday to me (sort of?!?).

all martha-ed out

my two days of visits went well, and it was so nice to have people over. Anyone ever in the vacinity, please drop in!

K had lots of fun playing with friend's daughter R-chan(or is it L-chan? transliterists, what are your thoughts? Can i choose as i see fit? I go for L-chan on this one) on Tuesday, although since they got here at about 11:30am, K was having soooo much fun that she forgot to nap. So when they left about 4pm, it didn't take long for K to get grumpy. She ended up falling asleep in my arms as we were skyping my folks just before 5pm. Classic. I decided to let her sleep (like I really had any say in it) and took R for a walk, with K in the ergo, then put her on the bed for more napping. She woke up after about an hour, but was still obviously sleepy, so I thought a shower would freshen her up, and tide her over at least until normal bedtime, which it did. She was still a bit tired today though, so I put her down earlier than normal for a nap, at about noon, then she slept a good 2 and a half hours, waking up just before our friends came over for a cuppa this arvo.

Yesterday I made a quiche using this recipe for the pie crust, and this recipe for the Brocolli filling (although I did add mushrooms and bacon). The filling was very very yum-yum, but I failed miserably on the pie crust. My symptoms - crumbly crust, which apparently means I overworked the dough. I also think it may have something to do with the fact that I can't work out the US measurements (yes, I realise that you can change the units on Zaar Recipies but then you end up with something like 15.67ml of blah blah blah), so I might have added too much butter to start with, then ran out of flour when I realised I had added too much butter, so couldn't even tweak the dough. Oh well. I am having another attempt this saturday in my quest for the perfect quich pie crust. Did I really just write that - god my life is boring.

Today I made lasagna for dinner - I know, I must be going through a yo(洋)phase this time. I used a recipe off the internet very loosley, with mince, onions and mushrooms in a jar of pasta sauce, but made my own white sauce (the only thing made as per the recipe), and used red cheddar cheese and mozzarella cheese, as well as some parmasan for sprinkling on the top. (gaijin wife...I will still accept your lasagna recipe if you ever want to send it my way!) and I thought it tasted good, but J said it was lacking a bit. He *always* says that though (rolls eyes) , so I just told him that just because all Japanese food tastes like soy sauce, doesn't mean that western food needs to have an overbearing flavour to it, and he should learn to appreciate subtle flavours (or starve - his choice really, hehe).

tomorrow we are going out to play - have to be out of the house before 10am to catch a train. God help me. In this heat, I can barely even sleep at night, and that is WITH acey on in the next room (not in the room we sleep in).

and finally some great news - I got two fantastic packages in the post today. One was the book LOSING KEI which I won on Nay's blog, (yay, I finally got it...bit of a mix up at this end, oops, with not realising the postie has tried to deliver the book while I was out one day, as the message card they leave was tossed in amongst some pizza-la campaign fliers so I almost lost Losing Kei, but all is well now, and I am really looking forward to reading it - thanks Nay, and Nay's mum for sending it!) and a friend from home send over a care package of magazines! yay! So I can find out now that Brangelina are expecting a baby - ok, the mags might be a *bit* old, but hey, English lit. Gotta love it!

big few days

We went down to the (PILs's) summer house for the weekend, left Fri night after J got home from work. Decided to try the local roads instead of the highway, and got every single red light for about 40kms straight. J said we would stop at a supermarket along the way to get some supplies, but it was after 10pm before we got to our destination - we were so sure the supermarkets would be shut, but lucked out with one open. J bought up while I waited in car with sleeping K (and sleeping R). When he got back in the car, I said that he should go into the house first and lay out the futons so that I could just run in with K and not wake her up too much. He slapped the steering wheel and let out an expletive as he said "I forgot the keys". We had just driven nearly 2hours, and were 5 minutes away from the house. I did the only thing I could do - laugh! We tried the house just in case his parent's were there (they weren't) or there was a spare key hidden somewhere (there wasn't) then decided that we would head back to pick up the key and come back again - another 2-3hours of driving! Since K was asleep, it didn't really make much difference, except that everytime I was about the nod off in the car, he would turn around and ask a question or make a comment about the car in front or something. Oh well. Finally got to the house (with the key!) at about 1:40am. K woke up and took a while to settle again. Then I couldn't sleep anyway. I think I got about 4hours sleep before K woke up at the crack of dawn. Normally at home, I just let her run amok because really there is not much she can get into, But at the house, it is like one big amusement park (read = danger zone) for K, so I had to be up to supervise her too. We still get to relax a bit(J usually does all the cooking etc on the weekends)but it was a big weekend with lots of playing in the blow-up pool, running around the garden with R, walking down to the fishing port etc etc, so I was buggered by Sunday night.

Tomorrow, a friend is coming over with her daughter who is 3 months older than K to visit. I am usually the visitor - no one ever comes here. And when they do, I spend days before hand SLOWLY cleaning the place up (i.e. I tidy the area near the genkan, then procrastinate for an hour, then I might hit the kitchen, only to wipe the benches before I start thinking about something else and end up on the sofa watching the 2pm drama on tv (which is "鬼嫁日記" or "The Housewife from Hell Diaries" with Goro, comedian from Garage Sale in it. I quite enjoy it, even though I think I have seen the whole series twice already....)oops, double bracket here, see, I am pretty good at getting OFF track....)

so, the friend tomorrow, I met her while I was doing tea ceremony lessons - she was preggars when I joined, then I got preggars, and saw her at the same hospital I was going to, at the preggar's yoga classes. She got a shock to see me there, as I hadn't told my tea ceremony teacher or the others that I was "with child" yet. So we gave birth at the same hospital, and used to catch up with a few other mums from the same hospital for the first several months or so after all the kids were born, then we moved, and I haven't really seen her (or the others) for ages. So she is coming all the way down (nearly an hour by local trains) to see us tomorrow and we are excited!! yay!

Then have another friend coming over Wednesday afternoon with her kindy aged daughter. So with all these visitors (yes, only 2, but as I said, noone ever visits,so I am psyched!) I hit Costco today to get some goodies. Actually, J has been a member for years, and until now, we used to go every other month or so and get stuff, and it was fun going once in a while and buying up big! But we recently moved close to a costco - only 20mins drive away, so I started getting the urge to go there to just buy a few things....like the yummy cakes or muffins, or a frozen lasagna that I could simply pop in the oven tomorrow when friend comes. So I joined up for myself today! yay! But for some reason, everything I wanted, they didn't have it today. There was no frozen anything that could be used for lunch tomorrow, so I am going to have to make a quiche up I think instead (gonna start on the pie crust after I finish this) and I also wanted to buy K this bathing suit that had floaties in the top of it which I saw a few weeks ago when I went, but they were not there any more!!! I was also looking for some unagi (eel) if they had it, to try to beat this dull feeling both J and I have in this heat (夏ばて - why does it sound so stuid when you try to translate it into English?), but it was really expensive there, so I ended up getting it at local supermarket anyway. All in all, a bit dissapointed in becoming a fully-fledged member. Oh, and K cracked a willy-wonker as I was trying to get through the check-out, but that was more my fault for taking her out when it was nap time (I stooopidly thought she would sleep as we went around the store - I was gonna Ergo carry her on my back, but the excitement of Costco obviously got to her too, and she was wide awake, but TIRED!!!and getting grumpy)
We enjoyed the hot dog though.

Right, off to the kitchen with me I guess - pie sheet here I come.