Tidbits

Just came back from the nearby coin laundromat.  While I was there I took notice of the music being played over the PA.  It was a kind of catchy R&B fused dance/lounge tune, the type which one would catch by chance whilst dining or shopping in Tokyo.  I thought to myself "This kind of music is so far from Yonezawa".  Then it struck, "Yes, of course...if the coin laundromat is about the only place in town where one would hear something like that".  Given that this particular coin laundromat just opened a month and half ago, it's decor, equipment, furnishings, and style is very much up to date.  This is in comparison to the place I used to go to which someone I know labelled as "Showa", meaning it's at least thirty years behind the times in looks.

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Over the last seven years I have on a number of times caught myself thinking "I'm washing my garbage".  Well, not exactly garbage.  Recyclable plastic items.  But it's something which never crossed my mind back in Canada.

Oh, yes.  I remember reading about an issue with recycling on the CBC website last year.  The article was looking at the problem with plastic labels left on recyclable PET bottles.  It was being made out as an issue since people don't remove the labels before tossing the bottles into a recycling bin.  If I recall correctly there was a fuss being made about manufacturers not coming up with a solution.  I find that a bit odd.  Over here, plastic labels can be quickly removed from PET bottles.  There's usually a tab of some sort which can be pulled on to peel off the label.  For the type which are snug on the bottle, such as those for Coca Cola or Pepsi, there is perforated tear-off strip.  Tear off the strip and the label falls off easily.  There.  Done.

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The manager at a cafe I frequent, mentioned that she had seen pickled crickets/grass hoppers on sale at a local shop.  She wondered out loud who would purchase any.  "Probably some grannies", she said.  Then the conversation with her daughter, who also works at the cafe, went off on a tangent to their experiences with eating "inago"(sic).  Her daughter mentioned that her son was introduced to them by her grandma.  At first her son wouldn't go for them but later on seemed to like them.  The cafe manager recalled when she was a kid and her mom told that "chawan mushi" contained "mushi", insects.  She refused to eat it for some time.  "Yes, grannie is like that", she said....

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I still had more than half a bag of agetofu left from my "akebi" cooking experiment of the previous week.  So I decided to make a quick stir fry dish.  When I was at the supermarket I decided to purchase sliced bamboo shoots as a substitute for water chestnuts.  The verdict on that experiment: No.  It doesn't work.  Oh well.  Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.

あけび...Akebi

On Thursday night a student mentioned at the start of class that she had brought some "akebi".  I didn't have a clue as to what she was talking about but one other student's face lit up to show that he knew.  After class, we all stepped out to check out a woven basket lid filled with akebi.  It was then that I recalled seeing them back in 2012 or so.

"Akebi" is a somewhat odd looking fruit.  The exterior of the ones my student had brought were covered with a brown skin that gave the fruit a resemblance to potatoes.  All of these particular examples had split open to reveal their payload of white fruit flesh and a whole lot of black seeds.   To the uninitiated, the contents are a bit challenging looking.  I didn't tackle one because of that.  The fuzzy white coat of the fruit "sack" is what made me pause and decide not to sample any.

As it turned out, there were seven unclaimed akebi on Saturday evening when we were closing up shop.  Our office manager didn't want to lay claim to the fruit and neither did my teaching co-worker.  So I ended up being the one who took the remaining akebi home.

While some people mentioned that they didn't quite like the bitter taste of akebi, the ones I had had no such taste at all.  If anything they were very mildly sweet.  The taste vaguely reminded me of lycees...but not quite as distinct.

Having consumed all the fruit, tonight I will go about cooking the fruit rind following the method described by our office manager.  I remember hearing in the past that people will stuff the rinds with meat and miso.  I'm not sure if they're baked, steamed, or broiled.

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I did check online to see if I could find some information about akebi.  I came upon a page on a site called kyotofoodie.com (http://kyotofoodie.com/japanese-fruit-akebi/) which suggested eating the fruit whole with the seeds.  The bitter taste comes from biting on the seeds.  Also, the ones mentioned on that site had purple skin.  Because their examples were cultivated, the pods don't split open naturally.

Okay... So September Has Come and Gone

Random thoughts and recollections:

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I went to the McDonald's up in Kanaike to grab a quick bite to eat between lessons.  I took a seat "galley seating" area and looked over towards the windows.  What caught my eye immediately was a "chonmage", a topknot, being sported by a young fellow.  There were three youths sitting at that table; two looked like high school students and the last one, the one sporting the chonmage, was wearing a heavy yukata/light kimono.  He obviously was a sumo wrestler.  Given his looks, his somewhat slim build for a sumo wrestler, and his company I figured he probably would've been in one of the lower divisions, perhaps Sandanme or Jonidan.

When I got back to work and mentioned who I had seen to my co-worker, he immediately said "Wow! I would've chatted him up right away".  I pointed out that the young wrestler was with friends and I wasn't about to intrude on the group.  My co-worker agreed with "Yeah, I see what you mean"....

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One of my kids classes consists of four sixth graders and one fifth grader.  They've just completed a text and to my surprise they were able to pass the final test on their first attempt.  Thus I'm going to spend a working on their English phonics skills and review the text before moving them along to the next level textbook.  In order to add a little variety to the class I decided it would be a good time to teach them a song to sing in English.  My choice was The Beatles "Yellow Submarine".  I distinctly remember learning Beatles tunes when I was back in fourth grade so I figured "Why not?".

After a first reading of the lyrics I went back to see how much the kids understood.  I picked a few phrases which I figured the kids probably wouldn't be able to suss out and gave them rough translations.  One student is quite bright and he made inquiries as to the meanings of some other words and phrases.  I sang the tune to them once, where the kids snickered a bit, and then had them go at it.  First they read it with some semblance of the song's melody.  Then I pulled out a CD and played the track for them.  Finally I had them sing along with the CD.

At the end of all that the fifth grader looked at me and asked "What's the purpose of this?".  "It's just for fun", was my reply.   I told one of my co-workers about that exchange and he laughed and said "That's just like him!".

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