Tag: life-style

Saturday morning

After our long and busy week we were happy to go to the country and enjoy a peaceful week-end. After a nice breakfast, I decided to check my device and discovered a message from my old friend Debbie from the USA that was mentioning something that has happened in France which surprised me. I checked right away the news and discovered what was happening in Paris. 

I think there’s nothing to say about it.

It has shadowed our day and made us talked a lot, and I guess it has also limited my ability to write today.

Plain and simple

Well well well… I was hoping that this week would be slightly less busy than the previous but, we’re Friday and it’s not going to happen. Running from one meeting to an other, from a lecture to an other, to solving problems in the lab, and revising papers, preparing my next talk coming much too fast, I hardly managed to squeeze in time to study Japanese and to practice kyudo but that’s all I could do. So food-wise we’ve been going for super plain and simple food: veggies, pasta, rice and beans. It’s also getting colder and a lot of people seem to have caught colds, so we’re packing on fresh fruits: tangerine, apple…

Not to say that I can’t wait to be tonight for two reasons: 1st because I’m supposed to receive a present, oh oh oh!; 2d because we should spend the week end in Ohara and I’ll have plenty of time to cook and paint (and see if Pablo is still there!)

A bowl of plain Japanese rice with soya beans and sesame
A bowl of plain Japanese rice with soya beans and sesame

Adopt me!

Or how to be or not to be trapped by a stray cat with a lovely fur and a cute face… Indeed, it’s been a few weeks this cat has been around our house (basically since we came back from France) but I thought it my have been some of our neighbors cat so I didn’t give her anything and anyway couldn’t approach her. But then when 3 weeks ago we learn from our old neighbor that it is indeed a stray cat I thought she might be hungry so I started to feed her with katsuobushi and she seemed to like it very much, spent most of her time with us but still was innaprochable, yet we named Pablo. Last week-end we made a move and decided to build her a little place since it’s getting colder at night, she started to answer her name or it seemed and didn’t leave the premises of the house, even more, she’s been staying literally with us while we were gardening, she tried many times to get in the house and succeeded twice, and she broke my heart when we left, since she accompanied us to the car, a place she never go with us usually. Now, this week end I’m working and we are staying in Tokyo, and I wonder if she’s waiting for us. I’m not sure we want to adopt a cat but this one is definitely trying her luck with us, and already adopted us.

Unpredictability

Well, well, well, Friday evening after an other long day at work and a busy week, I was really happy to get back home, finish packing for the week-end and go and pick-up the car downstairs to leave.

It was without counting on a little unexpected event: damned new car with tones of high tech sensors and the ones measuring tire pressure… OK, so let’s put some air in the damn tire, drive a bit, decide that it’s not a good idea to drive to the country in the middle of a rainy night with a defective tire, park the car back and go back home with the luggage and just a bit upset: it’s rainy, and I can sleep one more night on my dream pillows!!!

Saturday morning we went to had our tire check: flat tire due to a vis!!! And while it got repaired we walked in a nearby open house village, you know these places where they have models home you can visit. Found a nice one and decided to visit, and got plenty of ideas and hints for the reform of our bathroom in Ohara, a thing that we’ve had in mind for a few years already!!! First nice discovery of the day!

With our repaired tire and ready to drive car we finally head to the country but we decide on our way to stop at Ichihara lakeside museum to try their pizzeria with view on the lake. They serve homemade pizze prepared with local products, and really enjoyed it: fresh, simple, delicious, and local! Perfect, second nice discovery of the day!

We then decided to have fun and drive the small roads of inner Chiba: Naka Bosso (中房総) and took the long way to Ohara. We discovered the beautiful Yoro valley, its old fashioned onsen and a very mountain like landscape and atmosphere, extremely different than the one of the Pacific coast, though it’s only 30km away!  A recommendation to enjoy soon the autumn colors and a good fun drive! Third discovery!

And we finally arrived home at tea-time, for which I quickly baked an apple tart with a thin sable dough and one apple thinly sliced on top, nothing else. This unpredictable flat tire just led us into a beautiful day!

The perfect pillows

I can fell asleep and nap pretty much anywhere, even at the dentist during a consultation, or during my pilates sole work out! Yet I’m very sensitive to sleeping quality, and it’s gotten worst in the past tears with a constant lack of sleep. So finding the perfect sleeping gears has been quite difficult but I think that now I have finally it!!! Several years ago when we settled in Japan I bought a big duvet at Muji and I must say that I’ve never expected it to be so nice, and fluffy and warm after all these years. For the bed we once decided to get rid of our futon and got a wonderful Simons  bed. Never regretted that investment! I even often miss it when we are traveling!!! But for the pillows it’s been more difficult. We’ve had plenty but never satisfied until we stayed at the Mandarin Oriental in Paris and I tried their pillows. The first time I thought it was just by chance that I slept so well, but after a few nights I was just in love with these pillows, super voluminous, yet like giant marshmallows, with super support and softness. 

So finally I undressed one pillow to check out where they came from and discovered Ploh (http://www.ploh.com). Ploh is Singapore based company making luxury down bedding. Once back in Tokyo I started to hate my pillows and finally ordered Ploh pillows. After one week they were delivered via Fedex. And no disappointment! They are just as great as I hope they would be!!!

Sweet dreams! 

A strange experience

My husband helps me a lot at home and we share the house chores, but he likes to joke and say that he is the one doing everything at home, once he has just finished washing the dishes once in a while! So l’ve decided to let him experience what it is really to do everything! He is now in charge of the grocery shopping, the laundry, the cooking, the cleaning, the driving, the bill paying, the movie picking, the holidays planning and so on. Funnily enough but totally un-correlated this experience coincides with a number of studies I’ve found and discussions I’ve had about how men are happier when sharing house chores with their partner, about how important a supportive partner is to a woman’s career etc…

I’m having an other busy week at work so I won’t enjoy it too much lazying around and I must admit for this first evening it was quite strange to sit on the sofa and browse Wired while he was cooking (or let say struggling) in the kitchen. I felt like I was sick, which happened may be two or three times in the 15 years we’ve been together, I also felt like jealous not to have fun cooking in the kitchen with him, but I felt grateful for the simple meal he prepared for us! Last night the experience was more delectable. I had a late call for work (damned time difference!) and I was delighted to see the dinner ready when I finished, a delicious set of grilled eggplants whith pasta.

With this experience I realized that many of the things I do at home are mechanical and it takes a lot of effort for me not to do them. They are part of a sort of routine just like brushing teeth and require no effort. Also that I  easily accept to give away tasks in which I don’t especiacilly take pride in, but cooking!!! this is much harder… For me it’s like sleeping, exercising or going outside, I need it! Please! Give me my kitchen back! I just can’t stand seating and doing nothing while you somebody else is in my kitchen!

Summer in Japan

Ichinomiya hanabi taikai
Ichinomiya hanabi taikai

Tokyo summer is hot and often humid but it’s an amazing season and it’s usually short (too short), with the peak of summer starting from the second half of July until usually the first typhoon of August. During the summer there are two things really important: summer festivals (夏祭り-natsu matsuri) and fireworks (花火大会-hanabi taikai). Recently we haven’t beeb to often to summer festivals, they’re often too early during weekdays (they usually start at dusk and last only one or two hours), too crowded on weekends.  For fireworks, well, it’s a bit the same actually. There are a lot of huge fireworks all around Japan, and we’ve seen plenty. In Tokyo: Arakawa hanabi, Sumidagawa hanabi, Edogawa hanabi, Tokyowan hanabi… are probably the most famous. We are lucky enough to live by the Sumida river and have an ideal view on Sumidagawa hanabi taikai so usually we would watch it from home. But this year we had the chance to watch also seaside hanabi taikai: the one from Ichinomiya, and the small one from our village Ohara. Big hanabi drain a real lot of crowd and require a real organization if you want to attend and see them properly, you need to secure a place to park your car/bike/bicycle, to secure a spot with a good view, and a return route. Taking the train is usually not an option, most stations around are either closed or just so crowded that it’s almost insane. How many times did we get caught in traffic, in crowd flows of drunken people, for me it spoils the whole event… Smaller hanabi taikai in the countryside are shorter, less impressive, more confidential but much easier for logistics and with a local family atmosphere that beat largely the the huge ones. Now, I definitely like that one better. The one in Ohara for example lasted only 30min, but we could easily access to the beach and find a nice and quiet spot to enjoy it. There are many all around Japan, I can only but recommend you to try!

And if you don’t have the chance to see a big one at least you can buy fireworks in any konbini and have your own little firework at home or on the beach) and that is a lot of fun!!! 

Playing with fireworks in the garden
Playing with fireworks in the garden

Pain de mie

Pain de mie is a classic and delicious bread, very easy to use in many different ways: toast for breakfast, sandwiches, snack… There are two ways to prepare it based on the same recipe depending on what you want: a fluffy golden bread or a perfectly square and uniformly baked bread. I was opting for the latter and wanted to use my covered pie dish. Yet this dish is really huge and I needed to prepare a large bread, and needed a large bowl to knead.

Finally all equipped I prepare my bread with the following ingredients and proportions:

500g of flour; 280g of water; 20g of sourdough; 20g of yeast; 13g of salt; 15g of powdered milk; 40g of sugar; 45g of butter. After mixing all the ingredients wait for 90min before putting the dough in the greased dish and close the lid. Wait an extra 60 to 90min before baking at 170deg for 30-35min. 

This made a large bread, slightly too big for my dish wich is about 12cmx12cmx30cm but the result was perfect to make our breakfast sandwiches to eat on the beach after our bodyboarding early morning sessions.

Power lunch

My husband and I usually play tennis together every Saturday morning for aboug 2h, and sometimes the stakes are really high: we play for the color of our new car, its model, the options,  and sometimes even what we’ll have for lunch. That’s how my husband win his piece of meat ;). After our game we usually head to the beach for a refreshing swim, so once we’re back home we’re literally starving so I need to fix something quick and nourishing. Japanese rice is always a good option because it can be cooked unsupervised and gives me enough time to drop by the shower! Cucumbers, tomatoes and all other vegetables that can be eaten raw, Japanese pickles, scrambled eggs… are also very handy. Finally, leftover and tofu make our lunch look like something awesome.

This time it’s a mixture of all that. Plain white rice topped with some sesame seeds, sesame-tofu from Mount Koya, miso green beans, and raw cucumber.

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