Australia Sans-Photos

I hate blogging without photos but I'm on the computer at the State Library in Sydney. This morning my friend Chrissy and I strolled through the Royal Botanic Gardens en route to Mcquaries Chair, which boasts some of the best views of the Sydney skyline, the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge. On the way there, we wandered through the exotic palms section, where we were surprised to find tree after tree....filled with BATS!! Not just any bats, but flying foxes = VERY BIG BATS!! We said, "eeeEEEEEEEEE!!" and ran under them, got lost on the twisting paths lined with all kinds of exotic South Pacific flowers and birds we'd never seen before, and finally passed through the Lion Gate to the lower gardens, where we found a flock of cockatoos pecking at the lawn. I had saved some cereal in case I saw some more parrots, but cockatoos would work too! Toss, toss, AMBUSH!! Chrissy took several pictures of me covered in wild, hungry cockatoos. What a great way to spend our last day in Sydney! Tonight we fly to Perth, on Australia's west coast. I'm reading a book called "The Dakota Diamond Mystery," written by an investigative journalist about the true story of Australians fleeing from Japanese attacks on northern Australia during World War II, and one plane that was unknowingly carrying a package of diamonds from the bank down to Sydney....but they were attacked by Japanese bombers and crash landed on the beach in the middle of nowhere! It's exciting, just like this country. I love it here!

Trip Journal---Australia

The most important part of any trip's preparation is selecting and cultivating a travel journal. Everybody knows this. Because while the rest of the crap you bring will prepare you for your touring, the journal prepares your memories. And which will last longer?? I have a couple of hat boxes full of carefully selected journals that fit the style and adventure of each place I've gone: blue and grey for Canada, brown and turquoise for the Bahamas, a map with a silver airplane for Germany. Anywho, I've been saving this journal since college for just the right adventure. And here it is. Some input from CIA World Factbook and my journal is well on its way to ROCKING. Bonus: I found my colored pencils AND did an online tutorial on how to sketch kangaroos!!

How To Address Mail in Japan

"Please fill out this invoice and mail it to our office within one month of the publication date of your article." Ok, I can handle that. Wait...can I? It was time for a trip to the post office. Japan Post, here I come! To mail a standard sized letter within Japan, it costs 80 yen. For other sizes of mail, check the Japan Post website. Now comes the tricky part: the address. It is written upside-down, which sort of makes sense. On the top line, write the post code symbol and the postal code. Line two has the prefecture and city, followed on the next line by the block (three numbers seperated by dashes, which essentially zooms in on the corresponding coordinates on the mail map in place of street names) and neighborhood area. On the bottom line is the specific person or business who will receive the mail. Japanese envelopes have boxes at the top of the right side for the postal code, and the address should be written below it (a 90 degree counter-clockwise turn from how I addressed the one below). It turns out the Japanese postal system is very gracious to silly foreigners who can't be bothered to address letters correctly....like me....and they also accept mail addressed in the western format. But if you were so inclined to make a go of it like I did, here's what it might look like. This isn't perfect, but it got there! And that's better than...NOT getting there!
To mail postcards and letters to the USA from Japan, it costs 110 yen to send it airmail. The post offices are red and red Japan Post delivery boxes are everywhere and state in English what type of mail may be deposited. Some accept only local mail; others have different slots for international and regional mail. I addressed an air mail letter to my parents complete with my return address, which I hand-wrote in kanji, and mailed it from a train station post box. Silly me---the post office saw the part they could read and delivered it to my house. Well at least it got somewhere. Small victories.

Singapore Pirate Curry and a Jade Mojito

It was really warm and sunny for the first time (in my opinion) Saturday. The sun rarely conquers the clouds for more than an hour or two lately, so I headed directly for the pool. UV light has been proven to make you happy and give you a little fix in kind of the same way nicotine does. The pool speakers streamed Jimmy Buffet, which coupled with the warm weather to make me want to cook dinner. Ah, I loved cooking in Florida. So lying in the warm sun I thought about food and my Florida summer favorites: Pineapple Chicken, Spiced Floridian Chicken, etc. (both photos are Enoshima Island, Japan, not Florida or Singapore)That made me think about how just about a year ago Chris and I spent a nice day reading and swimming in Jacksonville, then as some storm clouds rolled in and we turned to figuring out what to do the rest of our Saturday evening, we decided to go get the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie. And then we drove by Chili's and decided to have dinner first. It was the perfect summer date: beach, dinner near the beach, summer movie at home. I had the usual: those Shanghai Boneless Buffalo Wings in the wasabi ranch sauce that they discontinued. We probably shared the 2 for 1 margaritas. So musing over this inspired my dinner, and the result was tasty and made it feel like a normal Mari-Chris summer weekend.

Singapore Pirate Curry

Heat 1 can coconut milk. When it boils, add a few tablespoons of sweet red curry, then add 1.5 lbs beef chunks and cover until cooked. Stir in a half-cup of crushed, roasted peanuts, a dash-ish of chili pepper, salt to taste, and some basil in the amount that the wind broke off the plant. Optional: Add some sugar. I did not because I ate it with the sweet rice below. Serves 4, or two normal-sized people and one Chris.

Spiced Pineapple Rice

Boil two cups of water in a saucepan. Add one cup of rice and a can of crushed pineapple, plus galangal, sweet Thai cinnamon, and cardamom (all from Penzey's). Reduce heat and cook until fluffy. Top with Singapore Pirate Curry and eat while watching a pirate movie!

Jade Mojito

Muddle fruit mint with a hint of brown sugar in the bottom of a glass. Fill halfway with limeade, splash with coconut rum, top with club soda and garnish with fruit mint.

In other food news, a nice elderly Japanese couple at church this morning brought potatos and bamboo shoots fresh from their garden. I'm excited about my local, organic Japanese produce.....but what do I do with bamboo shoots?? Please advise!

Note: just found this on chinesefood-recipes.com: "Fresh shoots are sometimes available in Asian markets, however they must be parboiled or they will be toxic. To prepare raw bamboo shoots, cut them into sticks, cubes, or slices and cook them in lightly salted water for thirty minutes or until tender; then prepare them according to the recipe directions. Fresh bamboo shoots will last for several days in the refrigerator." GOOD TO KNOW!

This Is Supposed To Be My Name

Calligraphy class---so fun. The sensai, or teacher, and in full kimono no less, translates your name into kanji and brushes it gracefully across a practice sheet. Then she comes behind you and holds your hand to show you how to make the brush strokes. Then it's just you, a brush and some ink, and a whoooooooole stack of practice paper! I was working on our family name: Krueger, or Ka-ru-ga, which in kanji means "Hill Oneself Leave." I don't get it. For several hours the award-winning calligrapher tried several things to promote improvement: she drew orange flowers around kanji painted correctly. She numbered the strokes in the correct order. She wrote it in ballpoint pen to help us see it at its most basic. At the end, she ended up doing an entire character for one student, and when we joked about how our characters probably weren't very good but our American friends would be impressed, she nodded and deadpanned, "Maybe just do not show it to a Japanese person."

Lost in Translation---Notices From Our Realtor

"The request

Mr. Krueger, Christopher

I become caring.

There is request.

As for 1 nail, I want to exchange an old pope in the place of the water supply meter from this pipe part at the water supply.

This construction can do construction when absent.

I report later what time to construct if it is possible to get a permission.

2 nails be able to point to the confirmation indoors because they do the soundproof construction to do at the Defense Agency in Japan and I want to get it on Friday or Saturday of this week.

As for the construction fo this time, I plan to exchange a window and a shutter at the 2nd floor big rooms.

I think whether or not that it is possible to enter construction is completed next year probably.

Decide Metoki if it is possible to have gotten a permission.

I request cooperation.

Make not injure physical condition because the day of rain on about 40 days increases from now.

June 9th

Sanyu Housing"

Our realtor handed me this notice, stood there while I read it, then asked which day. Huh? Friday or Saturday? I said Friday and asked if I needed to be home. He indicated he has a key. So Friday rolls around and I'm cleaning my upstairs like crazy, expecting a construction crew up there replacing windows or something, and the realtor arrives with one guy in a suit who goes upstairs, opens and closes the windows and comes back down with his clipboard all checked off. "Ok! Sank yu!" they chirp merrily, we all bow, and they leave. Huh?

"The request

Mr. Krueger, Christopher

I confirm a room and there is today in thanking you.

It is possible to mean the pruning of a tree in the request of the landlord from about 8 o'clocks of tomorrow morning.

I do by the 3 hour schedule.

I request in the cooperation because there is not a problem even if it is absent.

June 12th

Sanyu Housing"

The next morning I woke up and the big bonsai tree just inside our gate was manicured and all the shrubbery I hadn't removed (not knowing whether it was weeds or flowers) was nicely cleared out. Ah! Sank yu!

Ikebana Class---Moribana and a Natural Development

I got to try the moribana style of ikebana at the most recent class. Ta-da! I also did a traditional arrangement with Turkish flowers. "That's not their real name," said the instructor, "but they grow in Turkey, so that's what Japanese people call them." She also explained that some western-style arrangements seem claustrophobic to her because all the flowers are smothered in with each other, while ikebana leads the focus to one point, then compliments it. Notice the fronds/leaves all face the tallest pink flower, and all the smaller flowers seem to look up at it. And here are some plants that look like playdoh and are growing all along the houses by the river now. It's a natural ikebana arrangement. That doesn't really make sense, because ikebana is supposed to look like nature but better, but what I mean is the flowers are naturally in an arrangement of five. That's lucky because the Japanese word for five--'go'--sounds like the word for luck. Ikebana class is excellent, and, again, I'm usually the only person there and get tons of individual attention and training (second and fourth Mondays at 10:30 a.m., MWR shop).