KG's Verses KM's

In the words of ABBA " Thank-you For The Memories " hum hum hum !!!

We have saved hard over the past couple of years to do our Italian & Beyond  FOOD TOUR , the Research & Development budget has had a real workout over the past couple of months that's for sure.

We have both sooooo enjoyed every KG's that has been " loving " put on !!!
Enjoyed  even more and more the 100's , proberly 1000's of  KM's that we have had to do to keep that belt in the same hole ... Ouch  now that was hard...
I must admit the cruise was my big down fall, as the walking did not out way the KG's ..
So we had to do some serious KM's in Venice and Italy over the next several weeks as our punishment, but not a bad punishment...
We have lost 2 inches ... Ha ray..  But not from the hips !!!
From the bottoms of our feet ....
We have walked heaps,  I would say to Sandy.... I just want to see what's over that hill ..... What's around that corner...  Sandy has humoured me and walked every Km with me.

As for the food journey
We have been to some truly amazing cooking schools and classes, cooked and eaten with fantastic  local families at their homes, cooked and eaten in some of the most traditional Osteria and Trattoria right up to misrule star restaurants,
meet many a world class chef, was wined and dined in the worlds 3rd best restaurant, tasted and made a variety of Italian and Japanese food ...
Two really truly amazing food cultures.

Sooooo Many Memories ...

- Oh a bit more breakfast R & D is needed ...

- Need to try that new dish we have leant to make ...

- Off to the markets to try some local inspired food ...

- Another cooking class and so much we have learnt ...

- 5 tastes of Italy - sweet - acid - fat - salt - aromatics ...

- Out to dinner so where should we go tonight ? what about the worlds No. 3
or a small local Osteria ...

I feel that all we have done over the past months is eaten ... " Poor Pete, where's the little violin so the readers can play you a sad squikey tune " !! ...

But really we have sooooo enjoyed the whole amazing food experience ...

I put it down not as a holiday, but as one of life's great experiences, and one that I have truly been sooooo blessed to have had and who else other than MY Sandy would I have wanted to do it with ... Love you

Also Ciao to my readers and thanks for coming on Our Food Tour with us ...
Hope you picked up a recipe or two and have given them a try ...
Can't wait to get home and try some ourselves.

All thought I was a very dislecticly writer,  with my bad spelling and not enough  of those little " , " and " . " thingy's I wrote as I speak , without drawing a breath.

But after all grammar is soooo overrated !!!! , don't ya think !!!

Love to you all  Pete xoxo
See you next time in the south of Italy and Scotland...
Bonanotte from Italy
Ita tera shai  from Japan

My own house scuffs

After a day out tramping in the streets around Yokohama  I get home and Hiroko presents us with our own house scuffs.
Early in the week when she asked if she could measure how long my feet were I was slightly suspicious that a foot cover up was in order. They are made by some of her arty friends from Summer kimonos plated to form the sole and straps very cleaver soft and comfortable. All her friends were fascinated as they had never made a pair for such big feet so photos were taken and shared amongst the group. I am thinking of a career in male foot modelling for the larger fellas.

Careful Don't Get Lost In A Grey Grey World

back in Yokohama Hiroko has so many traditional friends and she is also a volunteers at a Op Shop in the little cluster of shops at the end of her street. Mind you the streets are not as we know them and the houses are also not as we know them. The streets are a bit of a navigational nightmare as they are on a grid of some square blocks but a lot of triangle blocks so it is very easy for me to get lost and never to be found again!
Now I know that sounds a bit melodramatic but I get lost in David Jones in Sydney. So letting me loose in this small sector of Yohahama is a bit of a worry but one that I am trying to navigate around. So many of the houses look the same and as they are all very narrow and appearing much taller than they are. The streets are extremely narrow and very hilly and the houses are built up towering over their own little off street concrete car space and a very little garden if any.
Went past many a double and even a triple story domestic car park,  you drive in and then the lift takes the car up 2 m and you can then drive your other car in under it. There is no on street car parking in this densely populated sector of Yohahama. Even at a school that I walked past the kids bikes were stored in multi storage racks as ground space is such a premium.
A lot of the houses are grey and  a lot of the cars are grey and the streets are grey so one block just seams to blend into the other so a real mine field for the disorientated and me!!

Another Cooking Lesson With Hiroko

Its an early morning wake up by many rays of sun streaming in the window.
The sun is up so early, but one can't complain as it makes me get up early to enjoy the ever changing view over Mount Fuji, it  is so beautiful early in the morning. The band of fog in the valley and at the base of the mountain and Fuji's peak pushing through to get the first touches of sunlight. I grab a coffee and sit in the lounge and marvel at her beauty, as we are heading back to Yohahama the day after tomorrow.

Today after another great breakfast it is some traditional cooking lesson with Hiroko. to start it was beautiful fruit and some special white peaches that Hiroko's son in-law had sent up for us to have from his family farm in another province, they were the size of a small rockmelon and so sweet and juicy. Following that was the typical smorgasbord of delectable food delights. Red Onion is often eaten it is so soft in flavour that you can easily eat it at breakfast.

We cooked some " Eggplant Oysters " which are made without oysters !!! But they look like oysters !!! and also made some Pot Stickers a real BIG Yumo....
So for the Eggplant Oysters get your your long style eggplant and cut into thick sections on a 30deg cut say about 20mm thick
Then cut this into 1/2 along the length but stoping say 10mm in from the other end so you now have 2 flaps of eggplant and a hinge so like a Oyster Shell !!!
So now for the filling a mix of minced pork and beef with fine onion, salt and pepper Stuff, roll in beaten egg and sake mix then in breadcrumbs. Fry in oil till golden at 180 deg. Hiroko had a great cook top that you can preset the temp you want your pan to be heated to and maintain the same temp during the cooking process very clever.
Before you fill your " Oyster " coat the inside and outside with flour so that the filling sticks and stays in the middle.
Now off to the local village shops and yet another fascinating food experience.  Venders selling eel off the BBQ coated in sweet soy sauce sent an aroma through the car park that made you just have to try one. This is festival foods and now eel is getting very expensive they are trying to mimic the flavour and texture with such things as tofu and eggplant. But the real deal was amazing. The door opened and there was oysters as big as the palm of your hands, 100s of different raw fish choose from, octopus, monster scallops and prawns in every size. What really strikes you is there you are in a huge fish supermarket and there is NO fish smell it is just so fresh and beautifully clean. Japan is an amazing Asian country like no other.

Now with shopping done we head past the local bakery to buy sandwiches Japanese style for lunch the bread bun was pipped with different flavoured fillings prior to baking the result was full of flavour and the softest bread we have ever eaten. They were all individually wrapped and decorated. In all our trios to Japan this is the first time we have tried this style of food but we will be looking for it next time. Luckily for me we had them many times during our stay.

Out to dinner and to Kens favourite restaurant further up in the hills it is an Italian restaurant that serves German beer and you eat with Japanese chopsticks. Hmm and we though we were multicultural!
After a huge day back to our country house to drink some local Japanese scotch night caps for tomorrow we head back to Yokohama.

Traditional Japanese B & B!!!

So many surprises and things we have done and experienced and today Hiroko and Ken wanted to present us with a present. As our bags are a bit on the overweight size Hiroko wants to give us an experience rather than more stuff to transport home. So tonight they have treated us to a night in a traditional Japanese B & B!!!
First today they drove us to a traditional timber shrine high in the mountains that sits isolated and hidden away from the highways on a small lake. We wander for an hour or so and take in the views of this historical building with it beautifully laid out gardens and the oh so few visitors.
This place is huge and only comes to life on special occasions but being in the mountains it is a great place for someone to escape the crowds and heat of the city's below.
Not many places that we have been able to do that in Japan so it has been a great look into an area that is more remote and without tourists.
Then it was off to the snow fields that have been transported into a flower wonderland. This area is normally covered in skiers but in spring the grounds under the snow when it melts come alive with millions of Lillim's a beautiful tall Lilly that comes up each year in huge rectangular beds down the slopes. There is no better way to see them than to walk down the hill side through the strong smell of spring.
Once we were at the bottom the ski lifts took you back up the hill and you could then view them from above, a truly magical site and 10's of 1,000's of people.
The money goes to charities so the cash registers were red hot that day.
Then finally we are dropped off to the B & B like two little school kids and told to enjoy our time and you will be picked up again tomorrow at 10.
I have no idea where we are as we have been driven around all day but it is still high in the mountains.
Our hosts Speak NO English!! but Hiroko has instructed them to look after us and given us a contact No. if we get into verbal difficulty.
So we are taken to our room with our host pointing out all the features to us in Japanese so missing most of the important details! But we all keep smiling and nodding at each other. We are on the 1st floor and we walk past 6 closed doors with Japanese writing on them so assuming they are the other guest rooms.
Our room is in 2 section and very traditional area with it tatami floor and a low table and two cushions and a TV from the 60's. Off to the other side are 3 single beds and a door into a toilet ( buttons and all ) but no bathroom.
The room lacks some details ... like maybe a picture but is comfortable and I'm sure we can rearrange the bedding to suit.

Through Hiroko dinner was arranged for 6 pm hmmm a bit nursing home time so I will try to rearrange a late time so we can enjoy the traditional bath facilities.
We are then taken down stairs and shown the bathrooms there are 2 private bathrooms for all guests to share. It is a two room configuration. The first area was 2 meters by 2 meters for you to undress you go through a down a step into the open wet area. There was 2 little (tiny) white stools with a shower novel and 2 taps each only 600mm off the floor. So you first shower and soap and wash off then plunge into the huge 2 person hot deep square bath. Well as we had checked it out before we went in we were armed with bottles of sake and glasses.....and as we were not able to understand any instructions we had no time limit so after spending maybe a little too much time in the bath we emerged ready for dinner and a que. Opps so empty sake bottle in hand we head to the dinning room.


Laid out on the table was an amazing Dinner many tiny dishes of just perfectly presented food tastes there was some Tempura grated daikon and Japanese mustard, Lotus root sandwich with fish cake and shiso leaves, Sesame silken tofu in light soy, whole fish skewered and cooked over a smoker with all the little sauces and pickles.

After a great night sleep we against went to the the dinning room as had breakfast all laid out it was truly a work of art. There was a grape that he'd been cut and 4 petals peeled back to exposed the fruit all we can say is presentation presentation presentation....and yes another bath :) sadly with no sake Hiroko was there waiting outside the door to collect us and take us back to the country house.

Japanese BBQ & Mount Fuji

Our days at the mountain house have been so magical and an experience into a culture so steeped in tradition.

At 6pm every evening a cute Japanese song comes over the loud speaker from the village below and the music wafts up to greet us like a rising mist from the valley. This is to announce to us and the rest of the community that it is the end of the working day in the fields around us and that dinner is soon on the table. Kens 90 year old mother is ready to eat and as she is the head of the family that's what time we all eat ...

But today is extra special as we are being treated to a Japanese BBQ on the front deck with Mount Fuji as the backdrop.

Good things come to those who wait and me wanting to work for my keep was let's loose on some gardening,  I offered to trim a pine hedge that had spring up a meter too high in the front garden and starting to hide THAT view so with a blunt saw, and trimmers I persist and several blisters later the view is reinstated.

Ken is mowing the lawn with an little electric toy mower and with ALL his safety outfit on he looked more like a spaceman, Ken is more at home in front of a computer!!!

Meet some great locals while I was in the front garden pruning the hedge and before you know it we are all invited to some neighbours places for garden and house tours over the next couple of days. Hiroko was amazed and said that they have been coming up country for the past several years and have not managed an invite but me being me will befriend everyone...

Over the next few day while we were out walking the lanes is was like we were royalty and the local cars would slow down and wave to the 2 Aussies. The old market gardner over the front lane I also befriended and got to walk around his plot, he had pretty good English and before you knew it I was bringing home veggies for the family, Hiroko didn't know that he even spoke English.

So after the gardening was finished Ken sparks up the portable BBQ on the front lawn and with a blow touch and a Japanese fan it is not long before the charcoal is smoking and food is sizzling.

Tonights BBQ dinner is very casual dinner still in our work cloths and is at a more appropriate hour as the sun is still very high over Mount Fuji and with several beers in all hands and a happy 90 year old mother in a chair dinner is served late on the deck and around the BBQ.

The BBQ was more of a as it is cooked you would eat it and than other foods are then cooked. We started with boiled salted soybeans in their pods with a beer or three, so a bit similar to a Aussie BBQ!!! The furry pods 50 mm long are warm and you squeeze the 3 or 4 salty beans directly into your mouth, a great salty warm snack with a beer a great way to start. The whole skewered local freshwater fish and sardine are first on the BBQ and the smell is devine, got to say it was a bit trick eating fish off the bone with chopsticks but one soon masters the art! or at least with a few beers no one seams to notice a way-would finger or two too help....

Followed by high altitude corn basted with soy sauce and the flavour was so sweet. Burnt potatoes that you cracked open and smothered in butter, long baby green pepper cooked on the stove in mirin, soy sauce, sake and bonitto flakes ( the magical 4 ingredients ) then roasted on the BBQ.

Zucchini rounds, rice balls painted with soy sauce during the cooking processed they were crispy and also yum. 

Cold pumpkin cubes that had been boiled in bonitto flakes, sake, mirin, sugar,salt and soy sauce, they had such a delicate hit of flavour and great as a side salad + fresh green salads, young ginger shoots blanched in boiling water for a minuet then pickled in mirin and sake. What a taste sensation this BBQ was.

Before you knew it, it is 10pm and the sky has turned into a bluster of pinks and muted mauves and Mount Fuji starts to again disappears into the mist of the nights sky so with a local Japanese scotch in hand admiring the view and still sitting around the fire to keep warm than followed by a hot Japanese  bath what a great way to finish a day. 

Traditional Soba Noodle Cooking Lesson

So today it is off to a soba cooking lessons in a traditional Soba Noodle cooking  school in the small town down the road from the country cottage. Hiroko will be our interpreter for the day as the lesson is taught by an old lady from the village that speaks only Japanese,  how traditionally  amazing will today be.

We arrive for our lesson and even in this style of country business it is still the tradition of taking off your outside shoes and replacing them for scuffs.... kitchen scuffs... Not OH&S footwear by anyone's standards thats for sure!!

The scuffs are a plastic slip on version of the house scuffs that covers your toes.. well they would cover all your toes if you have a size 7 foot but if you have been paying attention to my past posts my feet are a delicate size 12 so the scuffs only manage to cover the top digit of my toes and go nowhere near the heal so I look more like miss piggy than a kitchen hand . 

This seams to bring much entertainment to the japanese teacher but no action on her behalf to rectify the situation.... Well I'm guessing they don't get many non traditional students in this class so far off the tourist tracks. So feeling like a naughty school boy when she is not watching I unplug them from my big toe...and stand behind my bench on top of my scuffs. Normally I may have requested a solution to the problem ... BUT today princess suck it up as you are in there world and not yours... Now their  holds the next " little" issue ... the benches are so low ... I'm in a world of short people, very short people with little, very little feet !!! So all I can do is laugh and watch on as the lesson is about to start.

The kitchen is a large cooking class with several benches and workstations and several huge stainless steel vats of boiling water for many students but our beautiful Hiroko has organised this private lesson today so we can have one on one with the teacher.

First we make the Soba Sauce it is a simple process but as it is where most of the flavour comes from I should pay attention, so no Sake drinking in these class this is deadly traditional and serious stuff!! unlike some of the Italian classes.

Soba Sauce

Put Bonetto flakes into simmering water for about 5 minutes place in a cloth bag to strain off the fish flakes

Add soy sauce and Mirin to taste 

Serve Soba sauce in a jug next to the noodles with  sliced shallots and wasabi.

At the end of the meal put the remaining sauce with some soba noodle cooking water and drink, nothing is wasted in Japan. Hmmmm

It is said in Japan that buckwheat ( Soba Noodle ) is cooling for your body and the hot liquid at the end of the meal warms your body back up again.

So now it is onto the Soba noodles preparation this is the part I've been waiting for to compare Japanese noodles technic to the Italian pasta. Should be fun to see the difference and " wow " what a difference their truly was. 

Italian pasta is so much more forgiving to make, rough and tumbled, fun and easy to achieve for the novice. Throw it around ... add in to many a different sauce or ragu, make it into many a different shape even turn it into a ravioli,

so versatile and such a huge part of the Italian staple diet. Something that anyone could and should try at home, can't wait to get home and give it a try.

Now the Japanese Soba Noodle .... that's a whole different ball game ...

Looks easy enough but even our host Hiroko won't make it at home and she is an amazing and traditional Japanese cook. Most Japanese won't even attempt to make Soba, this is why they have so many Soba Noodle Houses and that's basically all they serve is the Soba Noodle. The cultural food between the two countries is so varied and diverse and unlike Italy, Japan use so many more different ingredients in their diet and cooking.

Soba is so full of technic and gentle handling and of course tradition.

500 grams flour to 250 mls water

8 parts soba flour ( Buckwheat )

2 parts 0 flour

Water cold 1/2 to flour weight

So as you can tell from the 2  ingredients that you need a sauce...

Today

Sift all the flour,

Add 150 mls water into a 5 litre timber flat bottom container and work with fingers tips to make look like the size of rice grain.

Couple of minutes than add another 50 mls and keep working to keep still as loose like rice grains, this is how they work the glutens.

Last 50 mls water, still using tips of fingers now it is starting to look more like bread crumbs.

As the flour we are using today has come from a dry season ( go figure that that would make a difference but apparently it does ) so we need to add another 20 mls today. Once it has come together in the timber bowl start to knead very gently for 5 minuets, very gentle, not like Italian pasta, don't stretch.

Gently knead into a round in your palms and folding into the middle as you go and you will eventually form a belly bottom on the bottom side. About 5 more minutes of gentle kneading then use your palm to knead and thumb to turn to form a cone with an outy belly button look. Flour lightley, very lightley the timber bench, sit it on the bench and squash ever so softly, the belly button will disappear.  

Using your palm only, gently squash and turn to form a disk there will be a rise in the middle which you squash gently as you go. You need to get the round to about 250 mm dia by hand, then with a timber roller (about 900 long x 25 mm dowel, much thiner than the Italian one ) gently roll and turning at 45 deg. While rolling, now this is the tricky technic, run the palms of your hands from the outside of the dowel to the centre. Don't put to much pressure on the pin you need to be gentle. 

This is to make it about 400 mm round and level, very level.Hmmm years of practice still needed, many years, proberly still need some more practise in Japan !!!

Once you have it to 3mm thick you roll it onto the pin and roll once with hands pressing gently on outside, one turn then move hands in, one turn, then hands to the middle one turn.  Repeat several times.

Remove from the pin and you will have rectangle forming. Amazing how did she do that a round into a square and into a rectangle super cool technics.

Roll the Soba diagonally back onto the pin again and repeat to form a square. Your dough should finish about 1, 1/2 mm thick. Sounds complicated well it was and is !! Years of technical experience and Japanese patience. This had better taste good for all this work.

Now lightly flour the large rectangle and fold both ends into the centre repeat and then fold the other way. You will have a thick block now cut in 2 mm wide strips unfold to reveal the noodle at about 300 mm long 

Cook in a large pot boiling water, add dipper cold water after 30 seconds to stop the boil then bring back to boil for another 30 seconds.

Bring noodles out and drop into cold water and gentley wash off the flour and drain.

Place twirls of noodle on individual bamboo serving trays and put sauce next to for service. Find a low traditional table and some comfy cushions on the floor take of your cooking scuffs and put on your eating scuffs sit back and enjoy with friends new and old...

A very delicate process shrouded with traditional technics, loved the Soba Noodles and will always enjoy them at a traditional Soba Noodle House. 

The Country House

The cottage is an open floor plan down stairs and a bedroom up in the peak of the A frame for Ken and Hiroko. It is all in a light oak timber, polished floors and white walls with a modern feel. Not a traditional Japanese build more of a western style A frame with a slight modern mountain chalet feel.

There is still the step down tiled area at the entrance to deposit shoes prior to donning your house slippers.

On the ground floor to the right end is a very large room for Ken's mum which has windows that open to the view of Mt Fiji and in the middle of her room is a table where she plays traditional tile games and reads her ancient Japanese poetry.

This table is about the size of a dining table with a dooner that covers it and touches to the floor, on top of this is a piece of glass and under the table well is a bit like an electric blanket. Saw one of these 10 year ago as a coffee table in the middle of a lounge room in a house and you all sit around it eat dinner and the blankets keeps you warm. As temperatures in winter in this area get way way below freezing its a good option I'm sure.

Our sleeping area is at the left hand end of the house via 3 large sliding panels doors for privacy, there is a piano in this area and a walkin robe where our bedding is kept by day. By day this area is just an open space.

Our space is also very large and opens on to the timber deck and that amazing view, I'm in heaven again. In the middle of the cottage is the lounge dining and and the kitchen at the back. 

Off to the back of the cottage and far right is the long bathroom and this is where the tradition kicks back in. I LOVE Japan baths they are so relaxing.

It is a very long narrow room with the toilet at one end, and yes its got all the bells, whistles and water buttons that I have come to now require from a 

toilet !! 

A laundry in the middle of the space and at the other far end is the bathroom. It's a step down into the bathroom and with a bifold frosted glass door to keep in the heat and steam. Before you step down into the bathroom there is a area with a curtain that closes this space from the laundry and this is the dressing area. Steeping down into the bathroom there is a small plastic seat sitting on the floor about as big and as high as a upturned  bucket with beautiful soft edges. Here is where you sit and do the whole soapy washy thing with a plastic dipper that you fill with hot water from the pre filled bath or use the low shower 

head that is attached to the wall at sitting height.

Next it's into the hot " very hot " plunge bath. It about 800 mm deep and about 1500 x 1000. One sits and basically stews at 43 deg supplied by the temperature controlled panel displayed on the wall. The bath water is for the whole family to use as you are clean when you get in and on the next morning it is piped into the washing machine to do they daily cloths wash or garden watering, very water wise indeed.  The large window off to the side of the bath gives a lovely view of the pine tree that surround the cottage.

So sit back stew and enjoy ...

Mt Fuji

We arrive to the country house and wow wow wow I'm sooooo gobsmacked by the view.

The location is truly beautiful,  the A framed cottage sitting on 500m / 2 of land and is bordered on 3 sides by tall pine trees and its oh so peaceful. The smell in the air is sweet and moist. We are on the edge of a little farming community and town as well as in an area for Japanese retirees to have little places in the country to escape the 20 + million people of Tokyo and the hectic city life 250 km down the hill. Life up here is at a very slow pace, and the temperature is a good 15 deg cooler and as it was 39 deg on the freeway in Yokahama it is a relief to be  back to 24 degs here and it will get down to 16 over night.

We make our way from the car to the front timber deck and turn around to see the view " spectacular " and it is one of the best locations  in this area to see Mt Fuji, she looks like a postcard all in haze of pastel pinks and soft blue. We can see her sitting ever so proud over the small paddock of spring veggies that are growing  just across the little lane in front of the cottage. It may be summer in the city's below but it is certainly still spring up here.

Mt Fuji looks like it is cut in 1/2 as it is so high that the top 1/3 sticks out above the band of cloud cover. So all those misty pastel pictures of the mount that I have seen are actually true to how she really does looks and we will be waking up to that view every morning while we are up here.

Sooooo cool is all I can say! !! And how privilege we are to be here.

Car Treats

Like an excited kid I yell out look it's Mt Fuji ... After about 2 hours of driving we start to see glimpse of the majestic Mountain, it so cool to see and so huge standing high above the rest of the mountains.

Ken says its a great view from here but wait till we get to the country house as the view from there is better. 

We pull over for a doggie stop and some refreshments, what's a car trip without goodies I say... but wait...  Hiroko wants to treat us to a special road trip treat but Japanese style of course, well after all we are now in the so called sticks and the road house has a very Japanese feel, a bit like a big supermarket but they only sell treats Hmmmm they must get a lot of passing traffic as this place it's fairly big and stuck out in the middle of nowhere.

Japanese love little cuties stuff and sweet and sour treats and this place was full of it you feel like you are 8, its all so kiddish there food culture is so refined but the treats are so childlike.

But beware of anything that looks too colourfull and pretty in very expensive decorative boxes as you may well be shocked. These are made from red beans and look pretty and sweet but hmmmm are more like a gluey paste with no sweetness and taste of beans. Bit disappointing considering how beautiful they look, perhaps an acquired taste. Oh and the other sweet to beware of is sweets that taste like salt or the strongest lemon flavour that sucks every last drop of moisture from your mouth. 

So Hiroko assure us that she has a western sweet tooth so it will be OK.

So its back into the car and our treat is revealed, " Pokos " it is a small chocolate coated vanilla ice cream .... yep you may ask ... what's different or special about that, well the taste firstly it was so creamy, they are about the size of a marshmallow and come in a tray like a box of chocolates and with no stick... Well hmmmm how do we eat them ... at the end of the box is several little plastic prongs that you push into the top of them, so it was like eating a box of creamy chocolate coated milky frozen treats on a little prongs and was all so delicate and oh so beautifully Japanese.

I do I do I do I do I do

So after a great breakfast it's into the car all 5 of us and Choco the dog as Ken wants to be on the road by 8.30am sharp. Any earlier and it is the peak hours of the morning workers with huge traffic delays coming into the city and 1/2 an hour later it the peak hours of the local moving around the busy city of Yohahama. 

As it is it still takes us about an hour to get out of the city traffic and hit the open roads for the country. We only traveled about 15km in the first hour and  even though Ken said it is that 1/2 hour window where the traffic is OK to us it is still so intense and busy, not thinking that I will be moving to Yohahama any time soon. The traffic is just so heavy and we are heading away from it. 

So we hit the open road well freeways 4 and 5 lanes at first then down to 2 way by mid morning.

Ken puts on a CD to entertain the troops and I think to stop from me asking too many questions that he would have to think and translate in his head before an answer is given so I think he was wanting to concentrate on the traffic and not my hundred and one questions. He did say last night that he has not spoken to a English speaking person for the past 4 years now he is retired so he is a bit rusty, but truth be know he is just a bit shy. Well give me a week and we will be talking ten to the dozen!!!

The CD  is the extended version of ABBA's greatest hits ... Japanese love them and as I too am still a big fan .... yes tragic ... REAL tragic I know but I,m  sooooo impressed with the music choice. But as I can see Sandy in the back seat, yep sorry it was boys in the front, Hiroko would have it no other way, men in the front talking men business so the girls and the dog could chat in the back.... Sorry Sands .... Hmmm as I look over my shoulder to give a sneaky smile to Sandy ... as she ... well is not such a ABBA fan and the only ABBA record she had was the Norman Gunston rip out of them......

But Sandy being Sandy with her wicked sense of humour and her huge big smile tell them all that Pete Loves ABBA .. yep ... I do I do I do I do I do ... but then she goes just that one step further and tell them that I love to sing karaoke to ABBA... go on Pete sing for everyone ... go on Pete you know you want too.... She's a bad woman and I think it was a pay back for me sitting in the front !!

So What's For Breakfast.

Well it's a beautiful humid hot day and today we are off to Hiroko and Ken's country house which is  200 km west of  Yokohama to escape city life and the summer heatwave for the next 4 days. 

Breakfast this morning was a traditional Japanese breakfast, sort of the same as yesterdays lunch and dinner but with out the raw fish and the beer. But I'm sure if I wanted beer it would have been there as Hiriko would bend over backwards for the Neill family after all that they did for her when she was a exchange student in Australia back in 1968.

Mind you it is still a bit embarrassing at times as we just can't pay for anything, the cab driver was discretely  payed when we arrived yesterday, no money seamed to changed hands so not sure how that all happened...and if you know me I don't like to not pay my fair share ... BUT I will just have to deal with that and see what I can do to help out someway as the week progresses.

Well back to breakfast and I did say there was no raw fish for breakfast but there were little fish about 1/2 the length  of a match with 2 big black spots

 " eyes " looking at you and floating by the 100's in the hot, salty and strangely fishy breakfast soup, Hmmmm .... Interesting and at breakfast.... but that's different cultures for you and I'm loving all the different flavours and foods... Well mostly that is ... The fishy soup and could take or leave and the fermented soybeans are just as awful, smelly and slimy as they were 10 years ago so that's a big NO thanks at breakfast. Theres something strange about eating something that really looks and smells off that is a bit of a challenge....

But as for the rest of the tastes so far big winners...

So now humming to a great 80's tune ...

I think I'm turning Japenese, I think I'm turning Japenese I really think so......dar da da da da

How Polite " Japanese Polite "

Everybody DOES stand to the left on the escalators.

One waits in line at a train station behind each other while waiting for the train.

No mobile phone on the bus as to not disturb your neighbour.

Smoking rooms out the front of the airport in the open air spaces.

All so polite, even the road works signs people had a soft large red flag to warn you to slow and stop and with a bow and a white flag you are off again.

Some signs we encountered as you are in the road works area

Slow like a turtle,  NOT fast like a bunny 

Slow like a turtle,  NOT fast like a bunny

All done like a set from a Walt Disney cartoon and oh so colourful. 

And once you are leaving there was a cartoon cutout waving you a goodby.

Cocho the dog is a true Japanese house dog and Hiroko after he has gone outside for a walk comes back in and his paws are wiped with wet-ones

" Ita ducky muss " are the words that you say as you sit at the table with your head bowed and your hands clasped for prey and even Cocho is made to clasps his paws as Hiroko says his prays for him before he eats ...

JAL business book-in you wait in a carpeted screened area and when the next assistant is ready then one of the girls comes over to collect you and take you personally to the checkin counter. Non of this " next please " as that would not be polite, well not Japanese Polite.

Your Sooooo Terrible Muriel

Now this is an experience ... Is it a toilet? Or is it a some sort of computerised flying machine ...

From the minute you see it it looks complicated with a series of buttons on a wall panel next to you once seated. All the instruction and in Japanese ( well Pete what do you expect you are in Japan ) and some pictures ... so that's  helpful. 

When you flush the water that goes to refill the cistern it is via a tap over the cistern for you to wash your hands so that the water to refill for the next flush is recycled, cool recycle of water idea could use these on Aus that for sure.

The seat is warm ... how nice ... and a fan comes on when you sit but it speeds up when you get off hmmmm not so good for your selfasteam as it almost sounds a bit too relieved .

Now for the other buttons ... how much fun ... there are blue and pink bottoms !!! and buttons !!!  ... So what's the point of having all these buttons if you can't press them just to see what they do ! So I did.

Well lets just say that I'm now clean front, middle and back ...

But I don't think I was supposed to enjoy it that much !!!! 

But with a smile from ear to ear can't wait for tomorrow... 

Your sooooo terrible  Muriel 

First Traditional Japanese Lunch

We are now settled very comfortably into our beautiful traditional room and lunch in on the table and waiting for us. Out of our cool air-condition room and into the humid heat of the corridor and then back into the cool of the main centre of the house through a very very narrow and very very low door, with my hight and my broad shoulders and my little slip-on scuffs clinging to my toes and stooping and bowing not to knock any bark of my head it doesn't take long before I look very humble indeed bowing and shuffling around, I am walking,  well shuffling like a ... true ... Japanese ...

The lunch table just looked amazing, all the food is laid out in the traditional family way in the centre of the large table, a western style table and with several little bowls of various shapes and sizes all in Japanese patterns and colours and carefully arranged on a blue fabric placemat on front of each of the five of us. Hmmmm which bowl is to go with hmmmm which food ... now that a question !! At least with western cutlery one works from the outside and in, but with several bowls and only 1 pair of chopsticks ... tricky ... Kens mum who speaks no english is now 89 and still being the head of the family starts first ...  I sit back, watch and follower her lead. She is so fit and looks a good 20 to 30 years younger than she is, come to think of it they all do Japanese people are quite ageless and smooth skinned so sometimes very hard to pick an age.

Mum is concerned that she and  I don't have a beer poured as yet and grabs a can of Ashi from the centre of the table and pours it into both of the cut crystal tumbler sitting in front of her and I .

This is the start of a beautiful relationship, she smiles and bows her head at me and hand gestures to drink up, so with me bowing my head back at her we both drink up ... 

With in seconds and after the first couple of sips of our beers she is again pouring more beer more she smiles and bows her head again, then again gestures to drink up so who am I to disappoint.

With much Japanese talking to and at her 65 year old son and looking back at me I recon she said to him something along the words like  " well we don't want the man to dehydrate do we" ...

So with glasses up and a " Camp-pie " ... yep yep more of my bad spelling but you get the gist, then we all clasped our hands and its a "  I ta daki ma su " which is sort of a thank you to the chef, the people who have grown the food and the creator of the food.

The food on the table was like a big buffet, with miso but instead of tofu it was made with little clams in their shells, rice and several different pickled radish, cucumber and greens.  A Yumo pumpkin dish like I have never tasted before, so how do you make that Hiroko? 

Its from a small dark green skined hard pumpkin ebesu type, about the size of a small rockmelon.

Cut into bit sized bits and semi skin so leave about 50% of the green skin on for looks and texture. ( The shin was soft and added to the texture perfectly ) Put in a pot and just cover with water some sake, sugar, mirin and bonito

 ( fish ) flakes, cook all together no lid for 3 mins then add salt and soy sauce, turn down heat and pop on lid cook another 8 mins. Serve hot or cold. Today it was served cold and the flavour was devine, so different and the fish and the sweet of the soy really came through. A real winner for me so will try that when I get home but will have to experiment with quantities as it was a bit hard to get that from her.

We also had several different types of raw fishes, squid and prawns ... hmmm love the tuna and salmon but as for the squid and some of the white fish ... well a bit to sticky, firm on the tooth and in your mouth a bit to long. 

Mind you I will give anything a try but I think I'm still a cooked prawn on the barbie sort of a guy. 

The table was full of so many different foods, the fresh pickle young ginger, amazing and the ginger had  a bite but was sort of sweet too. Sandy loved this so it was her turn to ask ... so how do we do this Hiriko.

Well it looks like you two after lunch and for the next week need to help with lunch and dinner so you can learn some traditional Japanese cooking, yes please ...

So the ginger is easy ... Need fresh ginger with green stems ( hmmmm not something that we have seen in our green grocers back home ) leave about 100 mm of  the green top on for a handle as you only eat the bulb bit, scape clean and slice down if to thick. Blanch for 1 min and make a mix of soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. Sit in soy mix and leave to marinate for a few hours. Simple but oh so tasty.

Another simple one, Beans with Sesame just cook the green beans and toss in soy sauce and a bit of sugar then toss in crushed and toasted sesame seeds.

Pickled plums ... now these suckers are salty and sour, but a great side dish for Japanese food. 

Get some Red plum not to ripe. Put in glass bottle with salt. This will draw the water out of plums.

Then remove the plums and dry in the sun for a few days. Put back in the jar with salt and the drawn juice, get some Shiso leaves ( the one Pete loves ) which I  have now learnt is a type of Japanese mint, but this time it is a red one, add these to the jar and a very little vinegar, store for a month or so to mature the flavour, but beware they are salty and sour.

Japanese food is all about many different little dishes of many different flavours to mix and match I'm in food heaven ...

The food at lunch was all so fresh, light and good for you ... great this week may help loose a couple of the Italian pasta KG's !!!!

Tatami Floor

It was like coming  home to this traditional Japanese home, nothing has changed over the 10 year since we were there last. The amazingly red pine that lays so proud and pruned horizontal over the steps that leads us up the 10 steps from the street to the front tiny Japanese garden, the warm many bowing greetings, Japanese Style of course. 

We again are staying in the down stairs room with it's Tatami floor, how special, and how traditional is this Japanese house. It has a little front entrance foyer in tiles and a small step up to the beautiful timber floors. 

At this point it's off with the outside shoes and into our little and I mean little Japanese scuffs ,  me looking more like a Sumo with them on !! But how sweet that they though I may have shrunk in my old age...

We enter our room via a sliding timber and paper inserted door and is another small step up to the left and on to the Tatami floor, this is a total bare foot room " I'm so confused " shoes on, shoes off, scuff on, scuff off ... The Tatami floor is of panels 1800 x 900 and out of a woven reed that is so beautiful to walk on and sit on.  Our beds are rolled up in the corner so tonight we are sleeping the traditional Japanese way.

Our room is the prey room and where the traditional Japanese tea ceremony is preformed. There is a large cane birdcage looking light hanging in the centre of the room that hangs very low. One of the walls being totally of sliding panels of timber panelling with the white tissue inserts it is all so traditional,  the natural light streaming in from the garden. The room is void of any furniture except for a timber wardrobe and a shrine for quite time.... + some scatter cushions and a low coffee table for the tea ceremony. 

Good Morning Japan

So we are back to within 1 hour of Australian time, didn't get much sleep last night but I did rest so that's good,  somehow even a flatbed seat this time just didn't cut the mustard, maybe it was because we had that little wall between us.

It took about 11 hours to fly and we arriving 8 am 18th July into Japan. As much as I tried I just couldn't get to sleep, something that is alway fairly easy for me oh well it will be a long day and a early night then ready for our next adventure tomorrow.

Sandy's Japanese friend Hiroko who Sandy meet when she was 7 and Hiriko was a 17 year old rotary exchange student of Sandy's grandmother & her husband Ken now in their early 60's are retired and have a house in the country and as it is cooler up in the mountains they want to take us there away for the heat of the Yokahama City also suffering under the heatwave conditions. Already 28 deg here and expecting mid 30's and humid also, fantastic ... can't wait for that one!!!. That will teach us for staying away so long, spring is now long over and summer that was a month late is here and here with a bang.

We hop a bus, a beautifully air conditioned one from Narita Airport to Yokohama City for ¥7,000.00 so about $70 Aus it will take about 1.5 hours for the 100km trip and we will skirt Tokyo which is 60 km southwest from the airport. Today the driver has just informed us that there is traffic conjunction on the freeway so expect it to take 2 hours and with his many apologies. Japanese people are so polite and even as we were leaving the terminal the bus staff that put our luggage under the bus stood back and lined up and all bowed as we departed. That's right I remember from our last trip, everyone seams to do all day is lots of bowing so must get that back into practice also. Our trip on the bus to Yokohama City was on the biggest freeways that I have ever seen, when we were here last we took the train so do dent get to experience the traffic. The roads crisscross under and over and in some place it is a 10 wide highway and it is like this the whole 100 km amazing but could I live in this sort or overpopulation, keep think and seeing things that make me so grateful to be Australia.

We should never take for granted our open space.

We arrive into the bus terminal at Yokohama City and are greeted by Hiroko for the 20 min cab ride to her home. 

5 - 1 Minamikibogaoka, 

Asahi - ku,

Yokohama - shi.

241 - 0824 

Japan 

Now that's an address if ever there was, thank goodness she came to travel in the cab to her place other wise we may be still in a Japanese cab somewhere.