Summer in the City

Time has slipped away on me again with three weeks seeming to vanish into thin air. While I write an actual post about our lives, here are some photos of what our summer has looked like so far.

On July 1st we celebrated our third Canada Day in Japan. I made poutine and the boys tried it for the first time. Theo seemed to really like it, but as always with anything containing potatoes, William was not too excited.

Rosie was happiest of all with her piece of barbecued corn on the cob.

Even though we barbecue A LOT in the summer, we occasionally head over to the local 100 yen sushi restaurant to change things up a bit. The boys decided that during this meal they would be sushi zombies. 

Rosie, who can never be left out of their shenanigans, tried her hardest to be a sushi zombie too.

We've also been working on removing the training wheels from Theo's bicycle. He has been wanting us to do this for a while, but his balance still needs a little work. Here he is taking a popsicle break on one of our biking trips.

Summer time at our house means trying to avoid using the air conditioner as much as possible. Instead I boot the kids outside and let them splash around in the kiddie pool if they get sweaty.

"I yam wot I yam and that's all wot I yam!"

Rosie enjoying taking a stroll around the block.

Inspecting a large caterpillar we found on the bike shelter. 

The Japanese star festival, Tanabata, is held on July 7th. People write wishes on coloured strips of paper and hang them along with paper cut into pretty shapes and designs on a young bamboo tree. Here are the boys posing in front of a Tanabata tree we found at a local department store.

Some people also go star gazing on the evening of the 7th, but since it was pouring rain it was kind of out of the question. With all this rain we've been having, I got to see a gorgeous double rainbow.

Another way we enjoy summer is with one of our favourite traditional Mennonite meals, rollkuchen and watermelon. It is quick to make and really light but best of all there are never any complaints no matter how many times we have it in a week.

And that's a little glimpse into our world these past few weeks. Hopefully I'll be able to get a real post up soon! 

The Flavours of Autumn

Did you notice that I neglected autumn in my post about the seasonal flavours of Japan? I enjoy fall foods so much that I thought I would give them a whole post to their lonesome. When I think of autumnal foods, the first things that come to mind are pumpkin, apples, cinnamon, corn on the cob, and traditional Thanksgiving food. In Japan, fall brings with it a whole slew of delicious seasonal treats. There are all sorts of delectable yam, chestnut, and pumpkin goodies. Here are a few sweet snacks in flavours that you can only come across during the fall: 

A maple flavoured version of the normally chocolate biscuit bamboo shoots

A chestnut version of the normally chocolate biscuit mushrooms. These were so good!

A purple yam  and black sesame flavoured version of the normally chocolate biscuit bamboo shoots

Pumpkin pudding Kit Kats

Another food that is representative of autumn in Japan is a thin silver fish called sanma, or Pacific saury. They cost only about 100 yen a fish in this season and are served grilled with grated daikon,  and soy sauce. This fish is one of the numerous reasons that fall is my favourite seasons for food in Japan. It is just so amazingly good! 

This year we had (maybe a new tradition?) a Japanese style autumn feast and of course invited our friends the Oshimas to join us. We barbecued sanma, and made a huge pot of miso soup, steamy rice, and chestnut pumpkin cake for desert. 

Sanma, cut in half and popped on the barbecue. That lone little
pork cutlet was for Dustin, who really only eats fish when
it is absolutely necessary or battered and deep fried. 

Usually sanma is grilled whole, with the head on, and not gutted. Mrs. Oshima wasn't sure the kids would be too fond of that, since the guts are pretty bitter, so she beheaded them, cut them in half, and gutted about half the fish for the boys. I tried one with the guts but found them to be so taste smotheringly bitter that I couldn't enjoy the mild fish flavour at all. I ended up joining the boys eating their gutless ones. Maybe one day I'll learn to eat what the grownups are eating!

A close up of the beauties

All crisp and ready to eat. 

Fish is one of Theo's favourite foods. He really anticipated this meal!

Rosie didn't know what she was missing

But at least she didn't miss out on a good opportunity to have a nap in the cozy arms of Obaasan

Another, not to be forgotten, star of the fall foodscape is the mushroom. Japan in autumn is the place to be for mushroom lovers. There are so many varieties and they so inexpensive that there is no reason no to eat them all the time. I think I could eat them for every meal! 

Birthday Barbecue

The past month has been so full of visiting and traveling that now I have some major catching up to do on blog posts!

On March 20th, Dustin's parents arrived from Canada for a month long visit. Theo was so excited about their arrival and even took it pretty well when flight issues delayed them by a day. Every morning  when he woke up, he would rush down from his bedroom to make sure that they were still here and didn't leave during the night. This continued for a week or so until he was content that they were sticking around for a bit, or at least weren't going to leave without telling him first.

Going for a train ride with Grandma

Exploring the forest with Grandpa

A few days after they arrived, we had a low key barbecue with Obaasan and Ojiisan to celebrate William's birthday. Theo had decided earlier in the evening that he was a brachiosaurus and therefore was exclusively herbivorous. He would only eat the grilled vegetables and at one point asked for a bowl of spinach leaves which he proceeded to eat with his face in the bowl. When his overactive imagination causes him to eat copious amounts of vegetables, who am I to complain?

William had tons of fun puttering around the yard on the little bike that Obaasan and Ojiisan gave him for his birthday and compensating for his brother by making rounds eating everyone else's meat.

William absolutely loves trains. Even seeing a train pass by our house at least every hour doesn't stop him from running to the window or gate, pointing, and hopping up and down excitedly. So, I wasn't  surprised to find that he was absolutely overjoyed by the train cake the Dustin's mom and I hastily put together that afternoon.

Cake overload!

Afterward he opened some presents and birthday cards from his family back in Canada

Finally, an electronic card that doesn't scare him to tears!

The drum set William got from his friends here in Japan

Even Theo got a few little gifts sent over by his great-grandparents

A great way to kick off a month of spring break and visiting grandparents!

Germany in Japan

As I was looking over some of our photos from the year so far, I realized that there were a few little trips we made that I neglected to blog about.

In the end of April, we went with some friends of ours to a  German village themed park in Okayama Prefecture. It is called Doitsu no Mori, or the German Forest. It was a beautifully warm  spring day and the little "village" was so picturesque. It is in a very rural part of the prefecture surrounded on all sides by rolling green mountains. It took us about an hour and a half to drive there from Fukuyama. When approaching the front gate, you already feel like you have stepped into another country. Except for the katakana on all the signs, that is.

One thing I love about Japan is that I very often find plaques on trees and other plants indicating what species they are. Since I am always trying to learn what species grow commonly in our area, it is nice to see these signs. Have I ever mentioned how much joy I get from binomial nomenclature?

The village square, surrounded by restaurants, bakeries, and shops.

There was a lot of open space for the children to run around and burn off some energy.

There was also an astroturf toboggan hill that was fun for both the kids and us.

Next we headed over to the petting zoo where there were goats, sheep, rabbits, pot bellied pigs and miniature horses. William was not too sure about the goats and spent the first five minutes watching them from a safe distance, tense and silently terrified. 

He kept this guarded expression throughout almost our whole visit to the petting zoo area.

Meanwhile, Theo could have spent all day there taking care of "his" bunnies.

We found a field of blooming canola which was a very familiar sight to us Manitobans. It turns out that they think of canola as a quintessential spring flower. I have never seen it blooming in Manitoba before July!

There were a few restaurant options for lunch, but since the German and European style restaurants were packed full of people, we decided to have Japanese style barbecue instead.

Yum!

Then off to let the kids enjoy a few more things, like bumper cars,

driving a bus,

taking a ride around the park on a little train,

and jumping around in a bouncy castle.

Finally, after the children were good and tired, we were able to enjoy some more adult sights. There were dozens of beautiful flower beds fully blooming with spring flowers.

A fun day was had by all. I would really recommend this park to anyone with children, but I might have found it very dull if I had gone only with adults. There is a bit of shopping and the flowers are pretty, but most of the attractions are for the 12 and under crowd.