Swimming

Today was the yearly swimming on the lake day for the local elementary school children.
The kids were swimming and adults helped them by swimming next to the kids and on boats.
There was one police boat in case of an accident.
All of the kids swam about 1 km safely to other side of the lake.

Hot Cross Buns

It is the second time for me to bake hot cross buns. The buns were very hard when I baked them last year.
I got some help from my bread machine. The machine helped me knead the dough. The bread was great! It was soft, spicy and sweet. I can count on the bread machine everytime.

Princess Parade

On Saturday, we went to our local spring festival in town. I expected to see one nice group of people who we don't know well but we have seen at the festival for the past 3 years.
There were many people and food vendors.
It was a perfect day for a picnic. We sat down under some cherry blossom trees and had lunch while we waited for the highlight of the festival to come, the princess parade.
The parade re-enacts the traveling of the nobles and ladies of the Imperial Court during the Edo Period (1603-1868). First, the female servants came by ahead of the princess.
The picture below is of the princess this year.
Unfortunately we couldn't see the group of friends this year. I hope I will see them next year.

Hamanako Cycling Tour & Filming

Today is the day of Hamanako Cycling Tour 2010. I enjoy seeing many cyclists pass in front of my house every year for this annual event. The touring course has some different routes with the main course being 75 km around Hamana Lake. About 2,000 cyclists started cycling at about 7:30AM. Here is a picture I took from my house.
I went up to my balcony and saw more than 20 people standing on the point near my house.
They were a film crew. I thought the crew were filming the cyclists at first.
Soon I found that they were not filming the cyclists because they had to stop filming when many cyclists passed the crew.
While I was watching the filming, I figured out that there were 3 main characters in the film. The first person was this girl in the centre of the picture below. She was wearing a high school uniform and she wore a compact digital camera around her neck.
The second person was this boy in the picture below. He was also wearing a high school uniform and stood with a bicycle. He had a plastic grocery bag filled with food in his bicycle basket .
The third person was this boy in the centre of this picture below. He looked like an elementary school student. He carried a net in his hand and a school bag on his back.
When a director said "action!", the high school boy started to walk with his bicycle toward to the girl. The kid waited until his turn.
One of the film crew waited with the kid to tell him when to enter the scene.
Just after that, the kid ran and followed the boy and shouted "brother!".
The crew stayed about 3 hours filming the exact same scene many times. I thought about how difficult and expensive it is to make a movie. They spent a long time for such a short, simple scene and needed many workers on the crew. It was fun to watch them though.

Ekiden

It was a beautiful day on Sunday and I felt spring had come to my town. When we were driving in the morning, we noticed something was going on.
We saw people were running on the road. It was Ekiden! (Road relay)
Some runners were running in front of our car. I drove around 20 km/hour just after them and tried not to hit them. All of the runners were in good shape and had good running form.
Local people were everywhere along the road. They cheered for the runners who were running around Hamana Lake. It was interesting to drive with Ekiden runners.

Shrove Tuesday

Today is Shrove Tuesday. We had pancakes as is the tradition. The pancakes are thin because you don't add baking powder in the batter. We squeezed lemon juice and sprinkled sugar on the hot pancakes and rolled them up. This is my husband's family's way. The taste was very fresh and lemony. I liked the pancakes a lot.

Valentine's Day Pancakes

On the morning of Valentine's day, I cooked raspberry and chocolate pancakes. I melted some chocolate chunks into the pancakes. It was very nice.

Setsubun

Today is Setsubun. Setsubun means the division of seasons and this day is the end of winter. On the evening of this day, we throw roasted soybeans inside and outside our houses while shouting "Oniwa-soto, Fukuwa-uchi!" which means "Devils out! Good luck in!". As the beans are thrown, it is believed good luck is invited in and bad luck is driven out. It is also customary to eat as many roasted beans as your age plus one. It is a charm against ill luck for this year.

We did it of cause.

Fukuwa-uchi!

A neighbour's funeral

I helped at a funeral at my neighbours' house yesterday. If you live in the countryside, funerals are fancy and take a long time. I had to take a day off from work and take care of many guests and the 6 monks at their house. After that I went to a crematorium to help serve the family. Actually it was a good chance to talk to all of my neighbours and help with the ceremony. I think this is why people in the countryside have a strong connection with each other. The picture below is a small gift from the family.

Happy belated Birthday!

Andrew's birthday was January 4th. We couldn't celebrate his birthday because we were on a plane returning from Canada. I decided to surprise him 10 days later after his birthday. I baked a cake one day before and hid it with a present in our house. I put candles on the small cake and sang Happy Birthday to him.

I know he likes lemon cake. I chose to make a lemon blueberry cheesecake. First of all, I pressed cookies crumbs into the bottom of my tin and baked it.

I prepared lemon peel and juice using a new grater I bought in Canada. This tool is a star in my kitchen. I can grate much more lemon peel with the grater than my old one.
I mixed cream cheese, an egg, sugar, lemon juice and lemon peel together.

And I poured blueberries over the cream cheese mixture.

After I baked it, I hid the cheesecake in a secret place.

I liked the cake because it had a good lemon taste. The birthday boy liked it too. He liked the bottom crust a lot.

Witches Fingers

”不気味な 魔女の指”のつもりでクッキーを作りました。バターがたくさん入った、やわらかい生地は扱いにくく、なんとか棒状にして、爪に見立てたアーモンドを埋めるのがやっとでした。

焼き上がりは膨らみ、”全然怖くない むくんだ指”ができあがりました。余裕があれば、もっと細く、節や筋もいれて、それらしくしたいです。少したらしたアーモンドオイルがきいて、味はおいしかったです。

Canadian Thanksgiving 2009

食事は夕方から夜まで時間をかけたものになり、最後にはお腹がいっぱいになりました。今回、鶏肉が最初のお店で売り切れていてあせりましたが、余裕を持って準備をしていたので、そんな出来事も含めて、楽しみながら料理ができ、今年も良い思い出になりました。

Tofu Pumpkin Pie

最後はかぼちゃのパイです。蒸したかぼちゃを豆腐や砂糖と混ぜてから、準備しておいたパイ皮に流し込み焼きました。今回は香辛料の量を多めにしてみました。

Apple Pie à la Mode

食後のパイは最後にオーブンに入れ、食事が終わる頃に焼き上がるようにしました。2日前に作っておいたアイスクリームを添えます。

Roast Chicken with Gravy and Cranberry Sauce

今年も七面鳥ではなく、2kgの若鶏です。前の晩から塩水、月桂樹の葉などの香草、レモンの皮、にんにく、砂糖、こしょうに漬けておきました。
鶏のお腹の中には焼いてから細かく切ったローズマリー入りのパン、くるみ、炒めた玉ねぎ、セロリを詰めました。焼いているうちに、これに鶏肉のだし汁がしみておいしくなります。手羽と足をたこ糸で縛り、下にはじゃがいもを敷き、鶏肉の脂がかかるようにしました。
乾燥クランベリーはお湯で戻してから赤ワイン、レモン、りんごなどと一緒に煮ました。ソースは鶏肉を焼いた後の天板にお湯を張り、それを煮詰めます。
午後3時頃に食事の準備が整いました。肉を切り、料理を好きなだけお皿に取り頂きます。

Sweet Potato Casserole

次に、さつまいもを蒸してつぶし、上にくるみ、バター、砂糖、小麦粉を振りかけオーブンで焼きました。この料理を初めて作ったのは、主人から「感謝祭にはさつまいもを食べる」と聞いたからなのですが、実はさつまいもは切ってオーブンで焼いただけのものだったと後で分かりました。それでも初めて作って以来気に入っている料理です。