Posted on October 25, 2010

Today I am thankful for a day off. I’ve had a terrible headache yesterday and this morning, and I took a sick leave.

I just stayed home and watched Grey’s Anatomy, season 4, which I bought a year ago but haven’t watched.

I am also thankful for the series, that watching it makes my life look a lot better, less of a mess.

(It also helps me get used to the natural speaking speed at the same time. Kills two birds with one shot. I also have to add that Meredith and Derek came together at the end of the season 4, so I can sleep happily tonight.)

Photos from yesterday. Look at the alan sweater dress!

I can totally knit this. Lovely.

There had been an opening of a film festival in my neighborhood, and I didn’t know about it, watched it on the news in the evening.
Anyway, the Armani boutique has these fantastic dresses on their window now. It’s my 8-year-old-ish dream to one day wear that kind of dress for an occasion. Just once. I love the blue one.

At a book store, the craft and architecture sections are on my regular route. I found two new books by my favorite architect, but didn’t buy them because my piles of books are growing and growing.

Among Japanese architects, Hiroshi Naito is one of my favorites. He is a good educator and a good person too. These books, his interviews with other architects and designers, should be really a great read.

Categories: **ENGLISH**, 2. Diary, Meri is Grateful

Sick

Posted on October 24, 2010

Perhaps because of the weather, or perhaps I caught cold, I am not sure, but I am feeling sick today.
I will post more tomorrow.

Categories: Uncategorized

Tarte Tatin – I peeled 12 apples today

Posted on October 23, 2010

English follows.　Later.

今日は日本語から！という作戦で。これでバイリンガルを目指します。

思わず早起きしてしまったので散歩に出かけて、半分部屋着のままスタバでコーヒーとマフィンを頂き、編物をして朝を過ごしました。帰り道、広場で「信州物産展」なるものに遭遇。まあ小ちゃなファーマーズマーケットです。紅玉を一袋買いました。５００円で９個くらい入っていた！
お店のおじさんに「何に使うの？」と聞かれ思わず「もちろん食べるんです」と答えそうになったところ、別な種類の甘いリンゴと一緒にジャムにすると美味しいと教えてもらいました。家に帰って早速皮むき。紅玉の煮えた匂いって、コーヒーの次くらいに良い匂いだと思います。

紅玉が思ったより熟していたこともあって、残りの５個も使ってしまうことにしました。

今では買い食いを極めるわたくしからは想像もつかないかもしれませんが、大学くらいまではほぼ毎日のようにお菓子やパンを焼いていました。今考えれば、母もよくあれだけバターや小麦粉を買ってくれたものだと思う。バターだって高いのに。
当時、秋といえば「紅玉でアップルタルト」が作れる季節。で、久しぶりにタルトタタンを作ろうと思い立ったものの、もう作り方が分からない！ネットで探して１５年ぶりにタルトのクラストを作ってしまいました。

使ったのはこのレシピ。大好きなSmitten Kitchenを検索して見つけました。

クックパッドのレシピは冷凍パイ生地やホットケーキミックスを使ってお手軽に作るものばかりで、却下。（冷凍パイ生地は不味いです。）

リンゴを剥きすぎて手が疲れた。
ストウブの鍋を使い、鍋が深すぎたこともあって水分が蒸発せずリンゴがすぐに煮えてしまって、結果的にキャラメルっぽくならず。クラスト生地の上にリンゴのコンポートが載ったようなかたちになってしまいました。

でも！美味しい。。。。。。。

やっぱり砂糖はこれ以上入れられないので（今でも十分過ぎるくらい甘い。紅玉って砂糖入れなくても美味しいし）、焼き時間を次回は２７分ではなくて３５分くらいにしてみようかな。

美味しすぎる！ただ、バター２００gと砂糖１カップ、小麦粉１．５カップを総て一人きりで消費するのかと思うと、非常に哀しいものがあります。だから一人暮らしって嫌なんですよね。

今日は早起きに感謝！かな〜。う〜ん。

友達に「美味しそう、あれ、カボチャじゃないの？」とメールで言われたので、次はカボチャに挑戦しようかなと闘志を燃やしているところ。

Farmers’ Market, Japanese Style…
売っているものはファーマーズマーケットなのに、見た目がここまで違う。。

I happened to have a very early start this morning, against my will, so I really treated myself well.

After spending a few hours knitting at Starbucks, I found a small farmers’ market in the neighborhood, and bought a bag of cooking apples. It’s my favorite kind of apple, called “Red Ball”(sort of). In fact, I don’t like any other kinds.
So anyway, a man at the apple stand told me how to make apple jam without adding any sugar – just add another sweeter apple. So I was compelled to try that myself.

On returning home, I peeled 7 apples (I could not fit any more apples in my cooking pot), started an oven, then my room was filled with an amazing aroma of cooking apples. Hmmmmm!
Three big jars were now full.

While chopping up the apples, I noticed that some of them were rather soft. Instead of saving them for eating, I decided to make a tartlet. There is a fairly easy but great recipe on Smitten Kitchen, linked here.

The process was fairly easy. The only issue was that, because I used Staub deep pot, the apples were cooked too soon and it became more saucy. After baking it for about 27 minutes, it was not yet caramelized as it was supposed to be. Next time I will try 35 minutes.

Anyway, though it looks like some apple comport on top of a crust, rather than Tart Tatin, it taste soooo delicious! My god.

But if you imagine the 9 ounces of butter, 1 & 1/2 cup of flour, a cup of sugar, all destined to go into my belly, it makes you a little scared. I hate living by myself.

Nevertheless. Today I am thankful that I couldn’t sleep in, that I had a wonderful start of the day, and ended up with a delicious tarte.

The best part is looking into the oven and breathing in the gorgeous smell.

Categories: **ENGLISH**, **日本語**, 2. Diary, Meri is Grateful

Therapy

Posted on October 22, 2010

Yesterday was another difficult day, although, I felt stronger myself and felt it easier to endure. Perhaps thanks to this dog, Bailey! He is a therapy dog, owned by the Tyler Foundation, for those children with cancer. People from the Foundation visited our company for a charity event. They said they traveled all the way from Hamamatsu driving, because in Japan, therapy dogs are not allowed on public transportation.
Bailey is a very very calm and sweet dog… he won’t hurt anyone at all.

I could not sleep well and am up before 6 AM…

Also yesterday, a friend of mine sent me this photo. It was such a coincidence that I met him for the first time, exactly 10 years ago yesterday.
Hope it is alright to show to everyone, especially to Retta!
I am more of a dog person, but still, the kitten is so so cute.

Thank you, all!

Categories: **ENGLISH**, 2. Diary, Meri is Grateful

Recovery Notice

Posted on October 22, 2010

すごいモノグサ太郎なので、なかなか日本語で書けずに済みません。。。（翻訳が面倒くさい）。
毎日ブログを書くって大変。もう10月が過ぎたら止めようと思います。
昨日落ち込んでアジのたたきを食べた話を書きましたが、今日はもう大丈夫！It’s a new challenge!

全然どうでも良い話なのですが、夢で会社のトイレがすご～く広くって、個室や洗面台以外にソファやテーブルもあって、窓があって明るくって、なんか女性だけで秘密の無駄話をして盛り上がっている、なんていうシーンを見ました。夢に見るほど、会社で休憩場所が欲しいっていう意味なのか、考え込んでいます。。

I just wanted to tell you that I am completely, fully, wholeheartedly recovered this morning. Thank you, fish! I will come up with a new idea and plan B. Yes!

Categories: **ENGLISH**, **日本語**, 2. Diary

A Shrine

Posted on October 21, 2010

As it turns out, my mother’s father (never met him) came from a family that runs a shrine as a (shinto) priest from 1200 years ago. We had been talking about visiting the place forever, so I imagined some distant place up on a high mountain. As it turned out, it was just a town right next to my mom’s home town.

It’s called Ogura Shrine in Kusu, Oita Prefecture. It’s still very well-kept, although the family now live someplace else, and only come here for occasions.

It seems that the ceiling of the main building was covered with paintings, but now it had faded.

This is a very very old oak tree that belongs to the shrine (but I forgot how old it is).

I always thought that my mom does not have any sibling. It turned out several years ago that she has several half siblings (she never really told us about them). This time, I learned that she also had about 35 cousins, mostly on her father’s side. 35 is now beyond my imagination.

And it is my mother’s family that was up on a mountain. This is her birth home, and it has been like this as long as I remember (there is a house inside the wooden fence). My sister and I used to run up these stone steps, but the steps were too wide for us.

There used to be a peach tree beside the steps, and I always wanted to eat some. But it turned out to be a neighbor’s tree, I just didn’t know until now.

Looking down, there is a huge ginkgo tree, and beyond, it’s just mountains after mountains. It took my mom 1 hour one way to walk to her elementary school, 2 hours to a middle school.

Categories: **ENGLISH**, 2. Diary

Bloom True

Posted on October 21, 2010

My third and the last Squam class was a painting class called Bloom True. We did acquilyc painting on huge 30″ x 30″ canvases. We had 2 canvases to finish in 3 hours, which, in my case, was completely impossible.

Flora showed us how to start – sprinkle different colors of paints and just spread thinly across the canvas.

In the end, we do many many layers of colors, so that the original layer sometimes will be completely covered up. Below is one of her work… so truly pretty.

I didn’t get to finish neither of my paintings, and I didn’t really have time to take photos of them. Hopefully, I will finish them someday…

Categories: Uncategorized

Mix It Up!

Posted on October 21, 2010

Since it’s been a month passed after the Squam is over, I decided to hastily post some photos from my classes.

On my first day, I took a mixed media class taught by our lovely teacher, Sarah.

After a brief introduction, we went outside and did some sketch. I took this photo too.

My sketch pad on the right.

Then, we played a little game. With a prompt, we passed around a bunch of cards with instructions such as “use a stamp”, “draw something with your eyes closed”, “cut something from a book and paste onto your board”. A new card comes every 2 minutes, and boy, that was hard!!!! I never imagined 2 minutes was that short.

I also made my name tag during the class.

Below is my second piece. I created a theme around the photo I found in Sarah’s stack. The couple looked so happy, that I wanted a happy picture all around them.

In reality, we didn’t really have any time to think, so I just put whatever came to my mind…

And then this one, the motif is from my sketch I’d done at the beginning of the class. It’s still half done.

It was fun! I think Mix Media will become one of my things.

Categories: **ENGLISH**, 2. Diary, 8. Craft

Fish

Posted on October 21, 2010

I am thankful for a fish in a depth of the sea, which traveled all the way to a supermarket around the corner, so that I can eat for dinner and make up for my bad day.

Today was another bad day. Not because of the meetings all day (even during lunch hour), but because, oh gosh, we are stuck again. And I feel so down for so many other reasons, too.

So I needed some fish. (And I am not a cat. And do cats eat a lot of fish in the States? Perhaps it’s just in Japan.)

I feel down because my vacation is over,

because I wasted the best part of my 30s,

because I can’t spend all my time reading the huge piles of books in my room,

and because there is nothing in my life that I am looking forward to right now.

But then, pain and hardships are sometimes good for us.

Yesterday, I was watching Grey’s Anatomy. There was an episode with a little girl who cannot feel any physical pain from a genetic disorder. She keeps getting badly injured, and she could not even feel her stomach bleeding internally to the extent that she needed immediate surgery. Someone said in the end, “We feel pain for a reason.”

And I am also reading a book called “Giver”. It’s supposed to be a Young Adult fiction, but the theme is so profound that I wonder whether a young kid really understands.

I am still in the middle of it, but the book seems to be about experiencing pains and developing wisdom.

So, in addition to the fish in the water (subsequently at the supermarket), I am also thankful for a life that doesn’t go so well, so that I can learn.

Post Script:

I wanted to add that, one of my ex-boyfriends used to smile everytime things wouldn’t go well. When I asked him why, he simply said “well, it’s a new challenge.” I really loved that about him.

Categories: **ENGLISH**, 2. Diary, Meri is Grateful

Soup

Posted on October 20, 2010

Today I am thankful for a soup restaurant chain in Japan. I go eat there quite often when I am too tired to cook but still want something healthy. They usually have several kinds of soup, plus you can choose bread or rice for a set.

Categories: **ENGLISH**, 2. Diary, Meri is Grateful