Today's our wedding anniversary so when my wife suggested she wanted to go and visit the Earth Day Market in Yoyogi I had no choice but to go along.
After negotiating Tokyo's most recent addition to its already sufficient underground network, the Fukutoshin Line, we arrrived at Omotesando station. Stepping out of the station into the Saturday crowds was like arriving in some foreign country, so many affulent foreign faces of all nationalities were swarming the streets doing whatever it is that one does in Omotesando.
...I felt quite out of place.
The Earth Day Market was located round the back of one of the old Olympic Stadiums and comprised of two rows of stalls. It had a farmer's market type feel and alongside the expected offering of seasonal vegetables there were stalls selling organic cotton clothing, organic wine (Japanese and foreign), organic beer and various other craft type stalls.
Although the market wasn't as large as we'd expected it was certainly interesting and great to see people taking the initiative to get the farmer's market thing going in Tokyo. Check out the website at www.earthdaymarket.com/ unfortuantely only in Japanese at but the dates of forthcoming market days are easy to find. A map link is also included.
We then attempted to walk back towards Shinjuku, and home, through Yoyogi Park. The park is great as it has a slightly wild feel to it but a word of warning: there's no way of getting to the Yoyogi station area through the park. We ended up on a massive 3km detour from the north west(?) exit walking alongside the expressway to get to Kita-Sando station.
Not much fun with two young children and a pushchair!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo
Took the two older children to the National Museum of Nature and Science, or Kahaku, in Ueno Park. If you haven't been I'd throughly recommend it as a good day out. Cheap also as adult entry is only 600 yen and children up to 18 get in free. (Mind you, the restaurant is a little on the pricey side, espcially as the menu consists of the Japanese attraction standard fare; curry rice, meat sauce spaghetti etc.)
The museum itself is split over two buildings. The older building or The Japan Pavillion, which in itself is worth the visit as old buildings are few and far between in Tokyo, houses mainly a collection animal and plant species native to Japan. Although at this present moment it is closed for refurbishment. The newer building, The Earth Pavillion, house dinosaurs (big with my children!) and six other floors of exhibits of showing the relationship between the earth and the creatures upon it. My children enjoyed looking for the animals in the third floor Woodland Wonder and playing with experiments on the second floor.
If you visit and it's not raining take your kids up to the roof where you'll find about half a dozen giant parasols that open and close when triggered by movement sensors.
But the really great thing about the National Museum of Nature and Science are the multi-lingual explanations. Next to each exhibit are touch screens that explain what it is you're looking at. A simple touch switches the language to English, Chinese or Korean. The museum also rents an IC card device that you carry around and touch against the explanation stations, when you return your IC card you take the paper card from the device and using the log in and password provided can access the explanations again at home over the internet. Great if you have impatient kids, like mine! Be sure to ask for an IC card at the desk just after you enter the museum.
The museum itself is split over two buildings. The older building or The Japan Pavillion, which in itself is worth the visit as old buildings are few and far between in Tokyo, houses mainly a collection animal and plant species native to Japan. Although at this present moment it is closed for refurbishment. The newer building, The Earth Pavillion, house dinosaurs (big with my children!) and six other floors of exhibits of showing the relationship between the earth and the creatures upon it. My children enjoyed looking for the animals in the third floor Woodland Wonder and playing with experiments on the second floor.
If you visit and it's not raining take your kids up to the roof where you'll find about half a dozen giant parasols that open and close when triggered by movement sensors.
But the really great thing about the National Museum of Nature and Science are the multi-lingual explanations. Next to each exhibit are touch screens that explain what it is you're looking at. A simple touch switches the language to English, Chinese or Korean. The museum also rents an IC card device that you carry around and touch against the explanation stations, when you return your IC card you take the paper card from the device and using the log in and password provided can access the explanations again at home over the internet. Great if you have impatient kids, like mine! Be sure to ask for an IC card at the desk just after you enter the museum.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Wallpapering and keeping the kids happy
This weekend my darling wife decided that she didn't like the way the furniture was arranged in our living room, come bedroom. So when I put my head around the door on Saturday afternoon she'd emptied the many contents of various cupboards over the tatami and was well into the process of rearranging our lives with very little help required of me. Great...as I hate moving stuff around.
Anyway on Saturday evening I managed to create a home renewal project all of my very own when I prised the cork board off the kitchen wall for use in the the rearranged living room. I'd used strong tape' to secure it to the kitchen wall a few years ago, which meant that removing it was near impossible without bringing a few pieces of wall off in the process. So by the end of Saturday evening I had created a very sorry looking kitchen wall...her indoors was not impressed.
Woke up this morning and started the process of fixing the wall. The wall had originally been covered with wallpaper when we first moved in but we had since given it a couple of layers of paint. I knew there were a few rolls of the wallpaper lying around and so went to search them out. Next I needed to buy some polyfilla and wallpaper paste so it being Sunday meant a trip to my local, and slightly over-priced DIY store, to purchase the goods. The nearest thing to polyfilla turned out to only come in a 500 gram mix yourself pot...which would make loads, when I only needed a little bit to fill the tears in the paper. (If you find yourself in the future wanting a bit of polyfilla let me know...I've got lots to share!)
Fortunately the landlord had left his wallpapering tools behind, so the next four to five hours were spent stripping and making good the previous evenings damage. Got to admit that it looks pretty good...although I've been asked to paint over the wallpaper.
We bought a new laptop a couple of months back which spends most of its time on our kitchen table. Occasionally I'll use it with the two older kids to play a game from the BBC kids site or something but on Friday I launched the web cam program so that my kids could pull faces at the built-in web cam and see the results. The program also has a set of effects and we had a load of fun distorting our faces and laughing at the results, especially my son whose head shape seemed to fit some of the filters perfectly. I was surfing this evening and found this clip which has given me an idea...
Pure genius
Anyway on Saturday evening I managed to create a home renewal project all of my very own when I prised the cork board off the kitchen wall for use in the the rearranged living room. I'd used strong tape' to secure it to the kitchen wall a few years ago, which meant that removing it was near impossible without bringing a few pieces of wall off in the process. So by the end of Saturday evening I had created a very sorry looking kitchen wall...her indoors was not impressed.
Woke up this morning and started the process of fixing the wall. The wall had originally been covered with wallpaper when we first moved in but we had since given it a couple of layers of paint. I knew there were a few rolls of the wallpaper lying around and so went to search them out. Next I needed to buy some polyfilla and wallpaper paste so it being Sunday meant a trip to my local, and slightly over-priced DIY store, to purchase the goods. The nearest thing to polyfilla turned out to only come in a 500 gram mix yourself pot...which would make loads, when I only needed a little bit to fill the tears in the paper. (If you find yourself in the future wanting a bit of polyfilla let me know...I've got lots to share!)
Fortunately the landlord had left his wallpapering tools behind, so the next four to five hours were spent stripping and making good the previous evenings damage. Got to admit that it looks pretty good...although I've been asked to paint over the wallpaper.
We bought a new laptop a couple of months back which spends most of its time on our kitchen table. Occasionally I'll use it with the two older kids to play a game from the BBC kids site or something but on Friday I launched the web cam program so that my kids could pull faces at the built-in web cam and see the results. The program also has a set of effects and we had a load of fun distorting our faces and laughing at the results, especially my son whose head shape seemed to fit some of the filters perfectly. I was surfing this evening and found this clip which has given me an idea...
Pure genius
Friday, September 19, 2008
Lasagna
After the festivities of last weekend, and with a nagging hangover, the family demanded to be fed something healthy and satisfying.
What better to fulfill this request than a vegetable lasagna. It's rammed full of vegetables, so potentially healthy, and has the pasta and sauce to give it some body. Perfect for clearing my hangover also. Only problem is that making a decent lasagna in Japan needs some careful preparation.
First, you obviously need lasagna sheets...not an easy task even in the center of Tokyo. Or maybe it's because we are in the center that it's so bloody difficult to find them! Anyway the only place close to us that constantly stocks lasagna sheets is Miuraya, a supermarket in the Ramla Shopping Center next to Iidabashi Station. It's also a good supermarket to find other foodstuffs and snacks from overseas.
So it was a 40 minute round bicycle trip just to get the lasagna sheets! But the result was well worth the effort with my visiting mother-in-law even enjoying the meal.
What better to fulfill this request than a vegetable lasagna. It's rammed full of vegetables, so potentially healthy, and has the pasta and sauce to give it some body. Perfect for clearing my hangover also. Only problem is that making a decent lasagna in Japan needs some careful preparation.
First, you obviously need lasagna sheets...not an easy task even in the center of Tokyo. Or maybe it's because we are in the center that it's so bloody difficult to find them! Anyway the only place close to us that constantly stocks lasagna sheets is Miuraya, a supermarket in the Ramla Shopping Center next to Iidabashi Station. It's also a good supermarket to find other foodstuffs and snacks from overseas.
So it was a 40 minute round bicycle trip just to get the lasagna sheets! But the result was well worth the effort with my visiting mother-in-law even enjoying the meal.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Lehman Brothers etc...yawn...
I was thinking to write more about the summer festival last weekend, and maybe I'll get round to it some day, but watching the news about the collapse of Lehman Brothers brought back a few memories.
No, before you even start I was never a wanker-banker.
I was thinking more about the couple of years I spent working in Canary Wharf, London, where until very recently Lehman Brothers had it's UK headquarters. In fact I didn't work as such, it was more standing around in a shop waiting for the occasional customer to drop in. As shop staff we were very much the bottom layer, well aside from the cleaners, to be based in the corporate temple that is Cabot Place.
It was during those long hours of not really doing much at all that I made the decision to move to Japan with my girlfriend, as I couldn't imagine spending another year looking out the shop window at the over affluent banking employees 'living the dream'.
That was six years ago and it was probably the best decision I ever made, as I'd spent my twenties just kicking around, not really doing much but having a lot of short lived fun.
I suppose we should feel sorry for those employees that turned up on Monday to find they didn't have a job anymore but, aside from a few exceptions, a fair proportion of the staff were are damn good money and what's more probably highly employable so the hardship for them will be short lived.
No, before you even start I was never a wanker-banker.
I was thinking more about the couple of years I spent working in Canary Wharf, London, where until very recently Lehman Brothers had it's UK headquarters. In fact I didn't work as such, it was more standing around in a shop waiting for the occasional customer to drop in. As shop staff we were very much the bottom layer, well aside from the cleaners, to be based in the corporate temple that is Cabot Place.
It was during those long hours of not really doing much at all that I made the decision to move to Japan with my girlfriend, as I couldn't imagine spending another year looking out the shop window at the over affluent banking employees 'living the dream'.
That was six years ago and it was probably the best decision I ever made, as I'd spent my twenties just kicking around, not really doing much but having a lot of short lived fun.
I suppose we should feel sorry for those employees that turned up on Monday to find they didn't have a job anymore but, aside from a few exceptions, a fair proportion of the staff were are damn good money and what's more probably highly employable so the hardship for them will be short lived.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Matsuri
Today's a national holiday, apparently to celebrate the old people, although around these parts I'd reckon you'd need a week as there are so many!
The weekend just gone was our local Matsuri, or summer festival. I think it's one of the great things about sticking the summer out in Tokyo is that we're rewarded with these street parties. Saturday was a regular bon-odori with local folks (mostly comprising of women over 60) dancing traditional dances around a central stage while a couple of young kids bashed a rhythm out on a taiko drum. There were quite a few stalls selling the standard matsuri food, yakisoba, yakitori, takoyaki, grilled squid (is that yaki-ika?) etc...which is great as I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff. Especially when washed down with the odd beer or two. This year didn't get the chance to drink so much beer as I had my two older kids in tow, who would rather have me buy them candyfloss than queue with me for a beer. It was a good couple of hours none the less, and a great chance to chat to some of the regular faces you see around.
The weekend just gone was our local Matsuri, or summer festival. I think it's one of the great things about sticking the summer out in Tokyo is that we're rewarded with these street parties. Saturday was a regular bon-odori with local folks (mostly comprising of women over 60) dancing traditional dances around a central stage while a couple of young kids bashed a rhythm out on a taiko drum. There were quite a few stalls selling the standard matsuri food, yakisoba, yakitori, takoyaki, grilled squid (is that yaki-ika?) etc...which is great as I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff. Especially when washed down with the odd beer or two. This year didn't get the chance to drink so much beer as I had my two older kids in tow, who would rather have me buy them candyfloss than queue with me for a beer. It was a good couple of hours none the less, and a great chance to chat to some of the regular faces you see around.
Monday, September 8, 2008
BBC - CBeebies Fun and Games - Bob the Builder Sunflower Park
I let my children play on the computer today, as part of my uphill battle to expose them to the English language and British culture, and somehow they managed to get this link to the Bob the Builder game into my blog.
BBC - CBeebies Fun and Games - Bob the Builder Sunflower Park
Well, I guess I'd better leave it in then.
Have fun.
Can we fix it? Yes we can!
BBC - CBeebies Fun and Games - Bob the Builder Sunflower Park
Well, I guess I'd better leave it in then.
Have fun.
Can we fix it? Yes we can!
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Takoyaki
The end of another hectic week...work wise and at home.
With our youngest child being born last month we've had my mother-in-law staying with us to help out with the new baby and the two other children. Whilst the help is greatly appreciated (I don't think we could manage by ourselves!) it has meant eating a very typical Japanese type diet; rice, fish and some vegetables. Which is great but there's a limit to just how many times a week I can eat that ans still find it interesting...
...so tonight was my turn to cook. And what did I decide upon...yes, takoyaki. For those who don't know what takoyaki are, let me explain. Basically they are balls of batter containing a piece of octopus. Sound good? Well let me give you a rough recipe;
First you're going to need a takoyaki cooker. Many types available but all consist of a griddle type pan but with hollowed out cups. I got my electric one from Olympic and it cost about 3,000 yen. I've included a link to the address on the side of my takoyaki cooker box.
Now onto the actual takoyaki recipe:
Take about 200 grams of plain flour and add 2 eggs, a little soy sauce, a dash of milk, some dashi stock (I usually use the powdered type), some grated mountain potato yamaimo (I used a normal potato a few weeks ago and it tasted great.
Add water and whisk to form a fairly runny batter.
Next finely chop a leek and some benishoga (pickled ginger)
Chop 150-200 grams into about 1cm cubes.
Switch the takoyaki cooker on and wait for it heat up before adding a little oil to each cup. Don't fill the cups full of oil but then again don't put too little in either. You need a certain of amount of oil to cook the batter properly.
Gather your batter, chopped leek, chopped benishouga, octopus bits and ,if you can find it, tenkasu (the bits left over from making tempura that look like rice crispies.)
Pour the batter mixture into the cups, don't worry about over filling them. Pop one octopus piece in each cup, sprinkle the leek, benishouga and tenkasu over the top.
And wait...
Take a wooden skewer (if using a non-stick cooker) and try to turn each ball around. If they are cooking each ball should twist around when prodded. Don't worry too much about the shape at this stage. Wait some more...
Use the skewer to turn the balls around in their cups and gradually work at creating an even ball.
When browned all over, lift out of the cooker and place on a plate.
Drizzle okonomiyaki sauce over balls, follow with mayonnaise, aonori (a kind of powdered seaweed) and katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes.)
Serve while hot...
Delicious.
With our youngest child being born last month we've had my mother-in-law staying with us to help out with the new baby and the two other children. Whilst the help is greatly appreciated (I don't think we could manage by ourselves!) it has meant eating a very typical Japanese type diet; rice, fish and some vegetables. Which is great but there's a limit to just how many times a week I can eat that ans still find it interesting...
...so tonight was my turn to cook. And what did I decide upon...yes, takoyaki. For those who don't know what takoyaki are, let me explain. Basically they are balls of batter containing a piece of octopus. Sound good? Well let me give you a rough recipe;
First you're going to need a takoyaki cooker. Many types available but all consist of a griddle type pan but with hollowed out cups. I got my electric one from Olympic and it cost about 3,000 yen. I've included a link to the address on the side of my takoyaki cooker box.
Now onto the actual takoyaki recipe:
Take about 200 grams of plain flour and add 2 eggs, a little soy sauce, a dash of milk, some dashi stock (I usually use the powdered type), some grated mountain potato yamaimo (I used a normal potato a few weeks ago and it tasted great.
Add water and whisk to form a fairly runny batter.
Next finely chop a leek and some benishoga (pickled ginger)
Chop 150-200 grams into about 1cm cubes.
Switch the takoyaki cooker on and wait for it heat up before adding a little oil to each cup. Don't fill the cups full of oil but then again don't put too little in either. You need a certain of amount of oil to cook the batter properly.
Gather your batter, chopped leek, chopped benishouga, octopus bits and ,if you can find it, tenkasu (the bits left over from making tempura that look like rice crispies.)
Pour the batter mixture into the cups, don't worry about over filling them. Pop one octopus piece in each cup, sprinkle the leek, benishouga and tenkasu over the top.
And wait...
Take a wooden skewer (if using a non-stick cooker) and try to turn each ball around. If they are cooking each ball should twist around when prodded. Don't worry too much about the shape at this stage. Wait some more...
Use the skewer to turn the balls around in their cups and gradually work at creating an even ball.
When browned all over, lift out of the cooker and place on a plate.
Drizzle okonomiyaki sauce over balls, follow with mayonnaise, aonori (a kind of powdered seaweed) and katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes.)
Serve while hot...
Delicious.
Monday, September 1, 2008
And then it's over...
Well after months of speculation and plummeting approval ratings Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda finally threw in the towel.
In a hastily arranged press conference, and in front of all the major television channel's cameras, he announced his resignation to the Japanese public.
He cited the difficulties of dealing with Ozawa's opposition party (DPJ) as being a major reason for his decision to quit. And with the way the DPJ has behaved over some fairly major issues in the last year you can hardly blame him; they have opposed every bill just because they could.
And it seemed only last year when we witnessed Shinzo Abe's resignation...oh! It was last year.
Well at least we may see an improvement in the weather from now.
In a hastily arranged press conference, and in front of all the major television channel's cameras, he announced his resignation to the Japanese public.
He cited the difficulties of dealing with Ozawa's opposition party (DPJ) as being a major reason for his decision to quit. And with the way the DPJ has behaved over some fairly major issues in the last year you can hardly blame him; they have opposed every bill just because they could.
And it seemed only last year when we witnessed Shinzo Abe's resignation...oh! It was last year.
Well at least we may see an improvement in the weather from now.
Megumi
Although pretty much off the radar on the world stage the tension between The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (or North Korea as it's more commonly referred to) and her East Asian neighbours is a constant source of news in Japan.
After years of denial, North Korea finally admitted that it had abducted Japanese nationals during the 70's and 80's. This was a great relief to those families who had had relatives seemingly disappear, never to be heard of again, and a group of abductees were repatriated a few years back.
Of course not all the stories had a happy end and some of those abducted were discovered to have later died in captivity. North Korea provided some details but then, as is Kim Jong II's prerogative, the clouds of mystery closed over the unresolved cases.
And so it was with the case of Megumi, abducted at the age of 13 (making her the youngest to be abducted) from Niigata on November 15, 1977. During talks with the North Koreans in 2004 she was said to have committed suicide and her remains were returned to the Japanese government. DNA testing on these remains on behalf of the Japanese government failed to link them to Megumi and reports from her former husband in North Korea have had a heavy hint of coercion from the authorities.
This has left her parents with no definitive answer to the fate of their daughter and they have campaigned relentlessly to persuade the Japanese government to take up the case of the remaining abductees whose fate is unresolved.
We have already seen a manga type comic excerpt available here, a song from Paul Stookey and now we have a 25minute animated story available here.
You can also find a lot more information about the abduction issue on the same website, the English pages can be found at http://www.rachi.go.jp/en/index.html.
You can watch Anime Megumi below:
After years of denial, North Korea finally admitted that it had abducted Japanese nationals during the 70's and 80's. This was a great relief to those families who had had relatives seemingly disappear, never to be heard of again, and a group of abductees were repatriated a few years back.
Of course not all the stories had a happy end and some of those abducted were discovered to have later died in captivity. North Korea provided some details but then, as is Kim Jong II's prerogative, the clouds of mystery closed over the unresolved cases.
And so it was with the case of Megumi, abducted at the age of 13 (making her the youngest to be abducted) from Niigata on November 15, 1977. During talks with the North Koreans in 2004 she was said to have committed suicide and her remains were returned to the Japanese government. DNA testing on these remains on behalf of the Japanese government failed to link them to Megumi and reports from her former husband in North Korea have had a heavy hint of coercion from the authorities.
This has left her parents with no definitive answer to the fate of their daughter and they have campaigned relentlessly to persuade the Japanese government to take up the case of the remaining abductees whose fate is unresolved.
We have already seen a manga type comic excerpt available here, a song from Paul Stookey and now we have a 25minute animated story available here.
You can also find a lot more information about the abduction issue on the same website, the English pages can be found at http://www.rachi.go.jp/en/index.html.
You can watch Anime Megumi below:
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Windows Vista (Japanese Premium Home Edition)
I HATE BILL GATES, I HATE BILL GATES, I HATE BILL GATES.
Why oh why do they have to go and create a totally topsy turvey OS? As someone who started his PC love affair with Windows 95 and has progressed through 98, ME, 2000 and XP I just can't get my head around bloody Vista.
As someone who often finds himself with computers running either Japanese or English language OS the previous incarnations have shared a similar basic structure: you may not read a single character of Japanese but you know that if you point and click your mouse at that point it will have the desired effect. I managed to use Japanese language Word and Excel based solely on my memory of the buttons.
Vista takes the old OS and turns it on its head. And yes I have the Japanese version and the lowly Home Premium version at that so if I wanted it in dual language I'd have to upgrade.
No way Bill!
and don't even get me started on the advanced security features of Vista...
Why oh why do they have to go and create a totally topsy turvey OS? As someone who started his PC love affair with Windows 95 and has progressed through 98, ME, 2000 and XP I just can't get my head around bloody Vista.
As someone who often finds himself with computers running either Japanese or English language OS the previous incarnations have shared a similar basic structure: you may not read a single character of Japanese but you know that if you point and click your mouse at that point it will have the desired effect. I managed to use Japanese language Word and Excel based solely on my memory of the buttons.
Vista takes the old OS and turns it on its head. And yes I have the Japanese version and the lowly Home Premium version at that so if I wanted it in dual language I'd have to upgrade.
No way Bill!
and don't even get me started on the advanced security features of Vista...
Saturday, August 30, 2008
What happened to the Summer?
Well here we are at the end of August and the weather in Tokyo is atrocious. Last night we had a thunder storm that lasted from about 8ish in the evening until around 3 a.m.
Today we had a few glimpses of sunshine mixed with torrential downpours...it's raining now...
All this rain is seriously affecting my mood, I think it's rained everyday for the past 10 days, I just want to go out without running the risk of getting soaked. Although with the oldest daughter back at kindergarten next Monday I suppose my options of what to do if it does clear are running out.
I blame it on Prime Minister Fukuda, crap PM's always equal crap weather. Look at the UK, you've got Gordon Brown in charge and the weather has been rubbish since he came to power.
There's a whole lot of other similarities between the beleaguered Brown and the 'playing for time' Fukuda but just thinking about the two of them has left me empty...time to crack open another can of Kirin Stout and maybe another pack of kaki-no-tani.
Today we had a few glimpses of sunshine mixed with torrential downpours...it's raining now...
All this rain is seriously affecting my mood, I think it's rained everyday for the past 10 days, I just want to go out without running the risk of getting soaked. Although with the oldest daughter back at kindergarten next Monday I suppose my options of what to do if it does clear are running out.
I blame it on Prime Minister Fukuda, crap PM's always equal crap weather. Look at the UK, you've got Gordon Brown in charge and the weather has been rubbish since he came to power.
There's a whole lot of other similarities between the beleaguered Brown and the 'playing for time' Fukuda but just thinking about the two of them has left me empty...time to crack open another can of Kirin Stout and maybe another pack of kaki-no-tani.
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