Japanese dinner

I just had to blog about how pleased I am with how tonight's dinner turned out. And yes, I realize this is something else I can add to my list of why I am lame.

A few months ago, the Sunday paper listed a recipe for Miso soup that I have made once before and loved! I made it for my friends Wendy and Eilene when Christian was out at a work function, so he had not tasted it yet.

I wanted something Japanese to go with the miso soup, so I searched the faithful AllRecipes.com and found this recipe for Hiyashi Chuka Noodles. It was a super easy recipe to make, and it really did remind me of dishes we had while we were in Japan. It was also a great excuse to buy a package of nori...hopefully soon we can buy a rice maker with a timer and eat the traditional nori and rice for breakfast! That was one of my favorite things to eat in Japan.

Anyway, I wish I had taken a picture of the Hiyashi Chuka Noodles. Since I did not, I will just list out both the recipes, in case anyone is interested! Have fun!

Hiyashi Chuka Noodles
(original recipe: AllRecipes.com - I made some changes)

3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons white sugar
3 tablespoons white vinegar
5 tablespoons chicken stock
1 teaspoon sesame/sunflower oil
1 squirt of chili sauce (optional)
1 (3 ounce) packages ramen noodles
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cucumber, julienned
1 carrot, grated
1/4 sheet nori, cut into thin slices
1 tablespoon hot Chinese mustard

Mix the soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, chicken stock, sesame oil, and chili sauce together in a small bowl, and stir until the sugar dissolves. Set aside.

Bring a saucepan of water to a boil. Add the ramen noodles and cook for 2 minutes. Drain immediately, and refrigerate noodles until cold. Meanwhile, heat a small nonstick skillet over medium heat. Pour in the beaten egg and tilt the pan to thinly coat the bottom with egg. When firm, fold the egg in half and remove from the pan. Slice into thin strips.

To serve, place cold noodles on serving plates. Top with separate piles of egg, cucumber, and carrot. Pour the sauce over the top and sprinkle with crumbled nori. Serve with a touch of hot mustard on the side.

Japanese Soup Bowl
(original recipe: Dallas Morning News - I made vegetarian adjustments)

2 ½ cups water
3 envelopes of instant white miso soup (a 1.05-ounce package contains 3 envelopes)
2 cups fresh baby spinach, sliced into thin strips
1 block tofu, sauteed until firm
1 (15-ounce) can straw mushrooms (available at large supermarkets, with the Asian products)
2 scallions, sliced (white part and some green), for garnish

Bring water to a boil in a 1.5 quart pot.
Turn heat off and stir in instant miso soup mix until dissolved.
Add spinach, tofu, and mushrooms.
Turn heat to low and heat until warmed through, about 1 minute.
Divide soup between 3 medium (or 2 extra large) bowls.
Garnish each with sliced scallions.

We are always laugh! laugh! laugh!

More fun with Japanese postcards

ARE YOU READY FOR IT??

In case you don't follow my Flickr photos, I am starting to scan in some marvelous postcards we got in Japan that are hilarious. I don't know if they were translated badly or what, but this is our favorite one. I don't know if you can read it but it has Strawberry Punch with the adorable mouse thing that says "I punched my opponent on the jaw! Are you ready for it?"
Now that is funny stuff.

Video of the ryokan

I have uploaded a short video of the traditional ryokan where we stayed the first night in Japan.
Here it is:



After the end of the video comes this photo from my photo stream, the maid came in and laid out the traditional Japanese breakfast:

Japan Photos are online

Well, I think I have completed uploading all the pictures I took of Japan, here they are.

I tried to add some fun narrative to help explain our trip to you.

Also, Christian will be continuing to add photos to his Flickr as well, right now I think there are only 50, and most have been auto-uploaded so they don't have as much commentary:

Be sure to keep checking his as he adds many more!

We are back

Sorry I didn't post sooner, but we are back. We basically slept all day today but hopefully if we can sleep all night tonight we'll be back on the right clock. I do have pictures, I am NOT a great photographer, as I have seen from the camera pics I've uploaded so far. But, here is a single photo of one of my favorite places we visited - the Kiyomizu Temple (Pure Water temple) in Kyoto, which was my favorite city to visit.

I'll try to get the other photos up on Flickr soon, and I do have some short videos of a few places as well. Back to work!

Leaving tomorrow

We had such a fun day in Kyoto visiting some beautiful temples and
then this evening on a really long shopping street in Osaka. We didn't
buy anything, just walked around and had dinner at a little ramen shop
- it was all neon and fashionable youngsters, like Times Square.

Tomorrow we ride the Shinkansen train from Osaka to Tokyo and then to
the airport. We are sad to be leaving -I fell in love with Kyoto and
the wonderful way they incorporate nature into their architecture and
places of worship. It makes me sad that over centuries of
Christianity, the church has traditionally destroyed nature to build
cold concrete monuments to God, rather than working in harmony with
His creation to build things that would continue to live and grow...we
could learn a lot from Buddists in that way, it seems.

Anyway, this will be my last post from Japan. See you all back in the
US!

Sent from my iPhone

In Kyoto now

Finally have internet access again! We are now in Kyoto, yesterday we spent in Harkone which is a kind of resort area with natural sulphur springs, and went to Mt Fuji. Our guide says we are very lucky because Mt Fuji had no fog at all the entire time we are here. Often, visitors to Japan will go the entire time without being able to fully see the mountain because she is covered in fog.

We got to go to our second Japanese bath in the Harkone area, this one with the natural sulphur minerals. A little stinky but really it comes right off and they are very relaxing. Because we are married, we can use the Family Baths, which are private. For those of you not familiar with Japanese baths, they are like hot tub only you do not wear any clothing. You wash yourself first and then get in without anything on. Men are in one and women in another. They are public, but of course since it is gender separated that is not too bad. However, since we are married we use the Family Bath which is private with only the two of us. We had baths at the ryokan the first night with regular water and then yesterday with the special mineral water in Harkone. We also ate black eggs which are cooked in the natural sulphur springs in that area. Eating one is supposed to extend your life by 7 years :-)

Other things we have done include visiting 2 shrines which were very nice. Also several supermarkets, and riding the slower Shinkansen train. We will ride the fastest one on our last day here. I sure do miss our kitties. I am sorry they are throwing up, mom! :-( Gabby will eat anything that is left out! Well, will try to blog tomorrow before we leave but I am not sure.

From the Mac store in Tokyo

We are online from the Apple store here in Tokyo on Ginza, which is the expensive fashion area. Apparently after designers unveil their designs in Paris they come here next.  Of course we are up for seeing anything, but fashion did not interest us as much as when the guide told us there was a Mac store, and we went straight here.

We have now joined up with the tour group (we were on our own until yesterday evening). Our guide is really nice and this tour is going to be great! I have photos but I think they would frown on my trying to plug my camera into this MacBook Air. 

So, holler to our all-Mac community group! We took some pics for yall. (I can:t find the apostrophe on this Japanese keyboard...sorry!)

We are here in Tokyo

It's actually been more than 24 hours now since we landed, it is late Monday night here. I think it is early Monday in the U.S.
So far:

• 13 hours on a plane - I am too old for this! Despite taking sleeping pills, I still could not really sleep. I watched: June (2nd time), some 30 Rock episodes (never seen before - good show), Becoming Jane, and Echanted (cute, but Oscar nominated? Really?? Why??!!!).
• We got lost pretty much immediately upon leaving Tokyo Station. Ended up taking a cab.
• The people here are so helpful! The cab driver worked so hard to get us to the ryokan (thank the Lord Christian can speak some Japanese), and then when he got us to the sister site, he and the ryokan lady helped figure out how to get to the right building. And pretty much no one here accepts tips, so they just do this to be nice.
• The ryokan the first night was amazing! It was completely traditional with tatami mats, we wore yukatas and slept on futons in a room with rice paper walls. We got to use the traditional Japanese baths twice and it was so relaxing. In the morning, the lady brought us traditional Japanese breakfast with nori and rice, curried veggies, miso, green tea (always green tea, everywhere), and some pickled things I don't know the names of. It was very filling and delicious!
• It is only Day 2 and I am about done with Japanese curry. No more of that, thanks.
• I now have a better understanding of women who struggle with weight/body issues. All the women here are tiny, have flawless skin, and dress way more stylish and sophisticated than anyone in Dallas, especially me. I feel huge, ugly, and frumpy just walking down the street. Good times.
• Millie - I got you a pressed penny at the Tokyo Station Snoopy store.

OK gotta go, internet costs 100 yen/minute (about $1). Love ya'll!

Perfect timing!

5 business days until we go to Japan! We'll be leaving on Saturday. I checked online and we have hit the cherry blossoms blooming time exactly! They started blooming yesterday and should continue throughout the time we're there. This is awesome news for my first trip to Japan!

In other "perfect timing" news, when we went to collect waste vegetable oil for our car to run on, we got permission from the owners of the seafood restaurant next to our usual Chinese food restaurant to start collecting their waste veggie oil too. This expands our sources to 2 restaurants and will really help, as we plan to ramp up our veggie oil collection soon due to rising gas prices.

Happy Easter!

We finally have enough miles!!!

In addition to celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary, we also celebrate 2 years of saving airline miles so that we finally have enough miles for 2 free round-trip tickets to Japan!!

This has been quite a feat. I have had to buy groceries exclusively from one particular store for 2 years (because it gives us 250 airline miles for every accumulated $200 in purchases), and we have funneled all our purchases through our airline miles credit card, including one car and 2 new couches. We would participate in pretty much any promotion that would give us airline miles. But it worked! We have enough miles for both our tickets! We've also found a great tour we'd like to do. We are picking out dates right now and we might have the flight reserved by the end of this week. Exciting!

Will have pictures of the holidays posted, maybe later today.