Funny Maru...(see the full blog post about Maru and the Cherry Blossoms here)...
...then, of course, Maru wants to know where the dumplings are. See--even kittehs know you're supposed to have dango when viewing the cherry blossoms (the flowers in the photo--via ShishinMaru-- are artificial, according to Maru's human).
These are Dango--see how the word "dumpling" doesn't bring the right image up? The dango at left are "sanshoku dango"--three color dumplings, sticky because they're made from mochi rice flour (and so are similar to mochi).
These are slightly sweetened, but usually the dango themselves don't really have much taste and are dipped in a sweet soy-sugar syrup or covered in sweet anko bean paste.
Also popular this time of year are "sakura mochi"--cherry blossom mochi. Appropriately pink, sticky mochi wrapped in a cherry leaf which you can eat...
...or Kashiwa Mochi, wrapped in a smooth, young oak leaf. Lovely, no?
Dochira ga ii ka naaa...
(Which one will you choose, Maru?;-))
*********
Alert reader Roy noted below that I forgot the Dango Tango! D'oh! This was on O-Kaasan to Issho for at least a year. We listened to this when Koshi was in Kindergarten at least once a day... and they had it playing on a CD player in Daiei next to the area where they had the dango for sale. It's about the Dango San Kyoudai (the Three Dango Brothers)--so cute! Dozo:
You wanted to have that stuck in your head all day... right? ;-))
Itadakima---su!
p.s.--there seems to be some problem showing all recent posts on the main page. For some unfathomable Blogger-ly reason, only the most recent post comes up. For the time being, click on "older posts" below this post to see other recent posts. Or click on a link in the archives on the right. Gomen!
When O-Jiisan and O-Baasan (grandpa and grandma) had a new house built a year and a half ago, naturally it was outfitted with the latest in Japanese toilet technology. Heated toilet seats have been around for a while (I seem to recall Madonna mentioning how taken she was by the heated toilet seats the last time she was on tour here), but lately the lid goes up automatically as you enter the WC. The heated seat thing is basically a good thing, I think--and it certainly makes sense in a country where homes are not centrally heated. Allow me to assure you that toilet seats in an unheated part of the house in January are... cold. That's in italics because it looks more shivery than bold.
Here's the Magic Toilet (which, I noticed on YouTube, apparently everybody who comes to Japan videos and sticks on YouTube, and I have now unknowingly joined the stampede):
The lights in the WC at my in-laws are also on motion-sensor, so at night they come on automatically when you walk in and go out after you do. This seems like good design--surely it must save electricity if the toilet light is never accidentally left on. Right? Well, probably. But the first time we went down to Kawana to visit them in the new house, Teddy (of course) went to the toilet at bedtime. Teddy, being Teddy, was in and out of the Magic Toilet all day, watching that lid go up, and so he just had to make one last visit to ToiletLand before bed. Except it was dark, and the motion-sensor light system was on.
Five minutes later, the most frightening, bloodcurdling screams imaginable from the WC. We all raced to the door--which he had locked. "Teddy! Teddy! Are you alright?!" I shouted helplessly at the door, picturing aliens bursting from my son's stomach.
"Ku-ra-iiiii...." came the crying, trembling reply. Dark. He had sat so still on the toilet, that the motion sensors assumed no one was in the room, and out went the lights. And Teddy was too scared to move, so they didn't come back on when he started screaming. The sound shock waves weren't enough to turn the lights back on, apparently.
"Move, Teddy! Wave your hands around! The lights will come back on if you move around!" Since, of course, he couldn't unlock the door in the dark and he was sitting frozen to the toilet seat in fear, this was all we could do to help him help himself get the lights on.
And you'll be relieved to know, I'm sure, that Teddy is now a healthy second-grader, and seems not to have been permanently traumatized by the event.
Moral: The people who designed the motion-sensor lights forgot about the people with constipation.
This has nothing to do with anything, just caught my eye. As a naturalist and a skeptic, nothing angers me more than the claims of so-called psychics, paranormals, alternative healers, new agers, and frankly most self-help gurus as well. My dad spent a significant part of his career detecting fraud, so I guess I come by it honest:-)).
I do, however, appreciate watching good magicians. Why? Because although their performances involve fooling the audience, they are honest about their skills. Note the use of the word skill--real working magicians don't claim to have 'supernatural' powers. They have actual skills which they honed over thousands upon thousands of hours of practice--one hundred minutes of practice for every minute on stage, or so I've heard. I enjoy watching magicians like Penn & Teller or James Randi who from time to time show you exactly how they did what they did--which astounds me all the more when they do it again and I *still* can't see them doing what they did. It's the same pleasure I get from watching skilled ballroom or tap dancers or basketball players or opera singers. It's just that, that kind of skill is natural--not supernatural. I don't doubt that there are 'psychics' who are, in fact, very good at cold reading--that they have indeed mastered a skill which allows them to make on-target guesses about a person whom they've just met, using physical clues that most people simply overlook. But that is a *natural* skill--and to claim otherwise is simply fraudulent.
The other day, though, over at Break.com, I watched, for the first time, a real magician. This man has powers that all the psychics, paranormals, aura-aligners, homeopathers, chackra-openers, lucid dreamers, and astral projectors can only dream about....
(Note: the following was written while suffering from a fever, a racking cough, and under the influence of drugs whose names I can't pronounce... beware...)
This is my favorite bowl--really!
I love the handmade look of it, and the fact that it was less than sen yen (ten dollars). It's a nice size to put side dishes of vegetables in. It has a beautiful green crackle glaze:
...deepest sea green in the center, fading to pale
celadon...
....which in turn blends smoothly into the dark fired rim. And it is unusually shaped--somewhat oval, but not quite.
...and the edges are fluted, but irregular. It makes me think of that Chinese word that means "the small imperfection which lends perfection to the whole". I like that they have a word for that:)) I also like that I instantly understood what that word was supposed to mean, and could perceive a need for such a word. Puts such a damper on the Sapir-Worf hypothesis.
I love this bowl--I really do. But as soon as I got it home, a name for it sprang unbidden to my mind. "No!" I like this bowl, and I'm going to put food in it! But... this will not do! In vain have I struggled. My feelings will not be repressed- I must be allowed to say (that I have read Pride and Prejudice way too many times)...
...that my lovely bowl is, and shall forever remain,
Just a note, because this is too cool to let anyone wallow in ignorance any longer! Commenter Daz has put me onto what may be the coolest, yet most unheralded, website ever:
It's down in the Links section under Astronomy Picture of the Day--prepare yourself for some seriously mind-blowing photos! I'm willing to let my legs get bit by a hundred mosquitos to get good shots of spiders, but there's no way I can get shots like NASA. So, bowing to their superior technology, go have a look at *their* shots! Thanks, Daz!
update: ...and another link, seriously wacky, I found clicking around over at the NASA site--
Or, maybe, Setsu-buns. A bit late (Setsubun was the 3rd), but it's my favorite festival (apart from all those Japanese festivals featuring slim young men in loin cloths, or less, which never seem to take place anywhere close enough for me to get to...). There's just something deliciously wacky about standing in the doorway throwing beans outside while shouting "devils out!" (an appropriate sentiment after being shut up all winter). When you throw beans back inside whilst shouting "happiness in!", you're supposed to eat one bean for each year old you are. So Koshi ate 9, Teddy ate 7, Cici ate 6, and Mommy declined because she didn't feel like eating *that* damn many beans...
And since we live in the Land of the Eternal Cute, I figured I should share pics of the cream buns I found at the pastry shop. Little oni buns, love it:
Horns, fangs, and custard cream filling! Happy setsubun!
This has nothing to do with anything in particular, except I figure everybody needs a laugh. Two things--
USB flash memory sticks and Kindergartners, both of which have to do with Sushi. (eh?) Yes, sushi.
Let me explain. First, the kindergartners. You wanted to see pics of 4-year-olds with sushi strapped to their heads, didn't you? I thought so. That's why I took some pics of the little first year kids at my daughter's kindergarten, even though I didn't know a one of them. They were darling, jumping up and down and dancing to a song about Sushi going on a Picnic--every one of them with a different type of sushi strapped like a hat to their heads. The teachers *hand-make* all of those costumes out colored plastic trash bags, I'll have you know. They work so hard, I figured somebody should know about it. Here they are:
So the kindergartners have, what?, to do with USB flash memory? Well, later the same day, I went up to Yodobashi Camera to look at a new video camera for us (since the old one is, well, Pre-Cambrian....) and serendipitously got off on the wrong floor. Right in front of the media cards and USB stuff. And there they were--only in Japan, I swear (I'm thinking about getting my sister one for her birthday:)):
Ikura, futomaki, ebi, shake--yeah , baby! Take your pick. I'm betting it's a toss-up between the ebi and the ikura for my sis... I'm swimming in sushi today! Which must be my excuse for this post. Ok, that's all the silliness anybody needs for one day--Thanks for having a look.
