It's Bento Time

Becky has taken up the art of making Japanese bento, or lunch boxes. The goal of this 'art' is to prepare a lunch box of Japanese food that not only tastes delicious but also looks super kawaii (cute)! We bought a bunch of bento accessories at a ¥100 shop, so expect to see some cute and creative cuisine from here on out!

Umeshu

This year, for the first time, I took part in the seasonal tradition of making umeshu. Umeshu is often translated as 'plum wine' in English, but it is actually plum liqueur. Wine would indicate fermentation, whereas umeshu is simply clear alcohol steeped with Japanese plums and sweetened with rock sugar.

Umeshu is available commercially all year, but you can only make it yourself in late-May/early-June when unripe Japanese plums are available for purchase. Making umeshu is extremely simple, and they make it even simpler by putting all required ingredients in the same section at the grocery store. They even go so far as to package the ingredients so that you don't even need to measure them out; just empty all three packs into a jar!

For our umeshu, we bought a 4-liter jar from Muji, a 1 kg pack of plums, a 1 kg pack of rock sugar, and a 1.8 liter bottle of white liquor. We literally bought a carton labeled "white liquor," but any shochu or vodka would work. Simply layer plums and rock sugar (recipes recommend anywhere from 500 grams to the whole 1 kg) and cover with the whole bottle of white liquor. The umeshu should be drinkable in three months and ideal in six. It's recommended to store it in a cool dark place while it steeps and to occasionally shake it to make sure the sugar is mixing well.

Umeshu can be drunk on the rocks or mixed with soda. It is extremely sweet and easy to drink, and I recommend that everyone give it a try. It's rich and fruity flavor is appreciated by connoisseurs as well as those who typically don't drink alcohol at all. We'll be sampling ours around Christmas time!

Tetsujin 28

We finally stopped by the park in Kobe where there is an 18 meter-tall statue of the robot Tetsujin 28, or Gigantor, as was his American moniker. Kobe was the birthplace of Mitsuteru Yokoyama, the writer of the original 1956 manga.

Cat Colony

Our long time readers may remember nine months ago when we discovered that two new-born kittens (which we later named Oni and Chibi) had been born under our house. Eventually their mother moved on when they got old enough, and we continued to feeding them as if they were our own. Oni and Chibi expect food from us twice a day, although they are still fairly wild. Oni constantly wants attention from us, but he refuses to be touched. Chibi occasionally will let you pet her but mostly lives to eat dry cat food.

A few weeks ago, the cats were acting particulalry strange. Oni was uncharictaristically hissing at Chibi. Chibi finally confirmed what we had suspected for a while: she had been pregant. She had been getting pretty fat, but it wasn't until she dropped a day-old kitten on our porch that we could confirm she had had kittens! Her two kittens were born under our neighbor's porch and were later moved to the foundation of our house (where Chibi and Oni were originally born) during a typhoon. Oni was mad at Chibi for a couple of weeks, but eventually got over it. Chibi's lazy character makes her a pretty awful mother, often failing to guard her kittens and forgetting how to get to them under the apartment building.

We are obviously very concerned about a situation that I have ignored for a long: we need to deal with these cats! Japan has a stray cat problem, and we've been told that there are little local resources for dealing with them. If we wanted to keep them and get them fixed, we would have to pay premium prices at a vet's office. We did finally find a humane shelter called Ark in Osaka that will apparently retrieve the cats and take care of them. We may be calling soon, but hopefully we can play with the kittens a bit before we have to.

Kasai Sake and Slides

Last month, we decided to drive about 45 minutes to Kasai, a rural town, two towns north of Miki. Years ago, I visited a sake brewery in Kasai, and we thought we would check it out again. The brewery had a fantasic restaurant with with great decor and excellent Japanese cuisine. Becky got to sample sevel sakes and plum liquers (I couldn't because I was driving), and we bought some to take home.

After the brewery, we went to a nearby park, where we were immediatley greeted by some park cats. The park is famous for having the largest globe clock in the world, which was not terribly impressive. Far more impressive, were the giant roller slides! Of course, we were the only ones going down the slides who didn't have children with us, but that didn't mean we weren't having just as much fun as the kids!

Camping in the Country

During my parents recent visit, they brought along a suitcase for us that included a new tent, sleeping bags, and camping accessories that I ordered online and had shipped to them. Most American outdoor gear has a HUGE markup in Japan, and the Japanese brands aren't much cheaper because they typically have a luxury focus. If you live in Japan and you like camping, I recommend having visitors shuttle cheap gear for you!

With our new gear, we were finally able to go camping. We did a bit of research on places that were within driving distance and picked a place just over an hour away in a rural part of Sanda. During our research, we noted that a lot of camp grounds are not cheap, which defeats half the purpose of camping! The Sanda Yagai Katsudo Center was one of the cheap ones though.

It was amazing to drive just over an hour away and suddenly be in tranquil, rural, farm country. The camp ground was small, but nice. There was a good hiking trail up the little mountain beside the camp, so we got in our exercise. We made some delicious yaki niku (Korean inspired Japanese-BBQ), and it was my first time using a Japanese grill by myself. The charcoal here is not quick-light, so you essentially have to build a small fire beneath your charcoal to really get it going.

The Kobe Sanda Premium Outlet mall was on the way home, so we stopped there and made a great camping weekend even better. We need a few more bits of gear to be ready for any circumstance, but expect to hear about more camping trips in the near future!

Vegetables: For your Health!

While Mom & Dad were here, Mom helped us finally get our garden planted. We decided to start small, only utilizing a small portion of our "back yard." In the bricked area, we have eggplants, cucumbers, various kinds of tomatoes, carrots, and lettuce. The grassy area is home to one watermelon plant.

We also watched the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" while my parents were here. It was about a guy who was unhealthy and who decided a 60-day juice fast might be his last ticket to turn his life around. I highly recommend it, and it prompted us to buy a new Breville juicer. The new juicer, new garden, and new Costco that opened a few months ago create the perfect storm for the Stock's to get super healthy in Japan!