On Sunday, I went to a Japanese Home Cooking class with my Canadian friend Kim, and Aussie friend Maggie. The class is run voluntarily by some very kind Japanese women who like to mix with foreigners. We only had to pay for the ingredients.

First, we took a walk through the oldest food market in Kyoto. It's full of interesting fresh seafood and fresh fruit / veges / flowers, pottery, sweets, tea, etc.

Kim & Maggie checking out the barrels of pickled veges.

We saw Whale Meat being sold!! Look how fatty it is. It's expensive, about NZ$30 for a few thin slices.

Baby Bamboo Shoots - Special Spring Food.

Ever wonder where the hot green wasabi comes from?? In Japan, you can buy a fresh Wasabi Plant and grate it to get fresh wasabi for your sushi. "HOT!"

Japanese 'Okashi' (Sweets) - I love Japanese sweets...soft and freshly made from a fine sweet white bean paste, with red bean paste 'anko' on the inside, and softly colored to look like seasonal flowers and fruit. (In 2 weeks time, I'm going to learn how to make them!)

COOKING CLASS:

We learned how to make 'Yuba'. YUBA is made in the same process as TOFU. It is essentially like the skin of milk that you see when you heat milk up in a pot. Except, it's the skin of Tofu. It's kind of got a rubbery texture when dried, but if you heat it, it's got a slippery texture.

We made 'Yuba-Unagi Donburi' which is sticky white rice, with a mixture of Yuba & Eel on top. We also made 'Yuba Miso soup', and a side-dish of vinegared Yuba & cucumber.

Served with hot tea. It made a good lunch!
Oh, except the rice dish was a little slimy/gluey for me...but maybe that was my fault for adding too much cornflour...?!

Full and Happy after the meal.

Watched the Da Vinci Code this weekend. My expectations were low because of all the bad reviews that movie has received. But, it wasn't as bad as I expected. In fact, I quite enjoyed it. People complain (besides the religious controversy) that the movie is boring, and the actors lack chemistry. But, what were you expecting? If you want action, go watch Mission Impossible 3! If you want chemistry, then go watch James Bond! Da Vinci Code didn't get popular for it's great action or romance! It got popular because of it's information and controversy. So, the movie was full of historical and religious information. It was to the book. What do you expect?! Sure, it didn't have much chemistry between the actors, if you expect people in movies to get together on the first day, when they're trying to solve a religious mystery of how someone's grandfather died, then you have been watching too many hollywood flicks.

Sure, Tom Hanks was a little old for the part...When I was reading the book, I didn't imagine the main character to be old and flabby with receeding hairline. (Sorry, Tom Hanks...) Perhaps the movie would have been better if they found someone in their 30s instead, and with Hair, and who actually looked like the 'swimmer' he was supposed to be.

I went to a theatre in Kyoto city. The whole theatre was nearly booked up by the time Michael and I got there (45 minutes early). Looks like many Japanese people have an interest in Western religion and art-history. I wondered if Japanese people really understand the importance and controversy of this movie, and if they really understand why it is so 'shocking' to Christian sociey. I probably wouldn't be able to empathise with a Buddhism movie, so why is a Christian-controversy-type movie so popular in Japan? Is it because it's a 'Must See' Hollywood Movie with lots of advertising funds?? Or are they truely interested in Christianity? Art / Architecture / History?? What is it about the movie that interests Japanese people?

Finally, I received a copy of Adeline and Simon's wedding photos. This March, I went back to NZ to be a bridesmaid at their wedding. It was a really fun day! But, very freakishly cold weather for summer! We managed to get some good photos in between the rain-showers.

My Very Proud Parents, and new son-in-law.

The Groom and Best Men!

The Bridesmaids.

Flower Girl, Adeline, Me.

Walking up the Isle.

Photos in the ChCh Botanical Gardens.

The Delicious Wedding Cake - Dark Chocolate mud cake with White Chocolate Icing. yummy.

Ok, so having lunch with a lonely Japanese Housewife wasn't so bad as I thought it might have been.
Actually, Michael and I were at her house from 1pm till 5pm!

She had also invited another friend along for lunch. Her friend was a busy, motivated woman, a nurse part-time, a cooking teacher part-time, and she also works out at the gym! Oh, and she's started English lessons! What a lot of energy.

We were all a bit tense at first, but we warmed up and talked about lots of different things. So, although I thought we'd have nothing to talk about, actually, I shouldn't have worried.

I still stand by my opinion that she should find something to do, like a hobby, or volunteer work, or a part time job. That's my opinion because she does tend to talk about how her husband is never home, and her house is cold and empty. But, if she were busy doing something that she loves, instead of hanging around an empty home with nothing to do, she would feel a lot better about her life. Whereas now, she is stressed and listless. Why complain about life if you are not doing anything to improve it??

Tomorrow, Michael and I are having lunch with this random bored Japanese housewife that we met last year...she just struck up random conversation. It's a very strange situation (to me, anyway). This woman's husband works long hours, and is hardly ever home (ooh, how unusual...for Japan..) and her daughter (who was her 'life') has left home for a university in Tokyo(probably because her mother was stifling her). So, one day, she just strikes up conversation with some foreigners, and invites them to her house, and wants to 'hang out' because apparently she's lonely. It's kind of strange. Why doesn't she do volunteer work for a cause that she's interested in? Or, why doesn't she study something? or why doesn't she look for a job in an area she's intersted in, so she can meet people? and enrich her life? I don't understand people who have money at their disposal so much so, that they can be 'bored'.

So, anyway, I wonder what lunch with a lonely Japanese housewife will be like? I wonder what we'll have in common to talk about?
I wonder if she likes Michael and I for who we are...Or if any ol' foreigner would do?

IS IT A BIRD? Quick! Everyone! Michael's getting away in his invisible plane !

For those who know me, you know I'm not much of a 'gardener'-type. But, last year, I planted 3 strawberry plants, and they have sent out 'runners' and totally taken over the garden! This year, I have so many strawberries! And they're sweet too! My thumb is looking green...
Michael and I are also growing a Jasmine plant - smells beautiful, and Cammomile - we want to pick the flowers and make cammomile tea!
Cammomile.

We were hangin' out by the Kamo River, where teenagers love to do fireworks in spring/summer. This teenager did some impressive bicycle-fireworks!

Rafting Team!
Went rafting this weekend with a group of 10 other JETs, it was so much fun! I was a bit worried at first, about being trapped under the raft, about hitting my head on a rock... but it didn't turn out to be so dangerous.

FRIDAY night, Erik from South Africa came to stay with Michael and me. He very easily persuaded us to go to the Philippines in August! So, I'm looking forward to the beaches, food, and friendly people in the Philippines! Apparently there's also this cuuute little monkey called the Tarsier that they have there, and I really want to hold one! It's as small as your hand!

SATURDAY: boy, it was an early start. We woke up at 4am. The sun came up at 4:30, and it felt surprisigly good to see what the outside world looks like at that time of morning. We caught a taxi down the hill to the train station. (Yeah, shame, caught a taxi down the hill...it was early ok?!) The next 3-4 hours was a blur of 3 trains, 1 bus, and 1 van ride to the rafting place in Gifu. But, we were all in good spirits, and the time went quickly.

In Gifu, it started to pour with rain. In fact, it thunderstormed. So, we postponed rafting to Sunday.
The rafting staff took us down to the nearest town to explore for the day. It was a beautiful town, nestled in a valley. Hills surrounded us, and the river ran through the main part of town. It was a town of running water. There were little streams everywhere. We drank from the 'special water' of the town. It was from a stream, and there were little teacups to scoop up the running water and be cleansed by it.

I made friends with a dragon at the nearby Shrine.

This town had a castle on top of a hill. It looks really high up, but actually, it wasn't too hard to climb.
My reward for climbing the hill was a strawberry ice-cream.

Apparently this town is famous for it's "Plastic Food Replicas". How strange. Why does every town in Japan have something it's 'famous' for? I thought they did good plastic mandarins...

That night, we had a bbq and sat around chatting and drinking with the rafting staff. The American & Canadian JETs suggested making 'smores' and Michael and I didn't know what they were. Apparently it's 'The Thing' to do around campfires. What you do, is you get a biscuit, put a piece of chocolate on top, melt a marshmallow on a stick, and put the melted marshmallow on top of the chocolate and eat! We tried to melt the marshmallows with a lighter... it didn't really work. Just ended up tasting like gas... But then someone got the bright idea to bring down a portable gas-stove, and we toasted marshmallows like that.

I was worried coz the rafting instructor was getting really trashed, and stayed up the latest of all of us. He also wanted to ride his motorcycle into town (drunk!) and invited people to hop on the back with him! So dangerous! No one was silly enough to do that, so he went off on his own. Apparently that night, he wiped out on the bike. But, he was there the next day, with no visible bruises, so looks like he was lucky. Some early-birds found him sleeping upright in a dining-room chair the next morning. Is this the kind of guy you want teaching you how to raft? hmmm...

SUNDAY: I had such a good sleep, and woke up feeling refreshed. There's something about being in nature, that is energizing and refreshing! We all ate ramen (Instant Noodles) for breakfast. It felt like I was living in a student flat!

We finally started rafting at 10:30am. We put on wetsuits, wetsuit jackets, life-jacket, and boat-shoes. And took lots of photos of each other. It was turning out to be a really hot day. We cooled off in the river before getting in the rafts. The rafts were surprisingly stable. We went down a couple of 'drops' and there were a few exciting moments when the raft would get into the fast 'white water'. But most of the time, it was pretty peaceful. We spent the time pushing each other off the rafts, and diving into deep water from the rocks onshore.

The trip home was spent in a satisfied silence, we were all tuckered out!

The next day, my abs hurt from rowing...but it was nice to know they still existed!