Hello all, and welcome to 2022! Ok, I know it’s a little way into the year already, but for this blog it is the start of the year. The year of the Tiger, and I’m hoping that a cat, a very big and fearsome cat, may frighten off both The Virus and those who seem hellbent on spreading it, or letting it spread. This really is a make or break year for us – I don’t think the government can continue to hand out support to businesses, and we have fixed costs to cover, so there has to be a point at which we will just not be able to continue. I am still hopeful it won’t come to this…fingers crossed.

It is, of course, winter here at the moment, and while it has not been as cold overall as last year (Goddy still hasn’t been out for a skate), there has been some snow. The first snow we had was on 26 December, and we have had further light falls since then, with heavier falls on New Year’s Eve and then on the 14^th of this month.

This morning, however, we woke up to quite a covering (which we didn’t expect) – a very white morning, and it was still snowing. It didn’t stop snowing until just before 1pm. So, while Friday is ballet day, I decided to delay my class until tomorrow and go out to have a look around. This is the heaviest fall we have had since January 2017, which was considerably heavier, but still it was nice to see.

Weather aside, the last month has been quite eventful for us, with many things happening, with most of them involving food in some way. Starting before xmas, we were asked to provide some food for an end of year event for some students and staff at Kyoto University, where our friend Lilia has been studying for a postgraduate qualification. This was going to be her final event, as she has now handed in her thesis, and she told the organisers that she wanted to have some proper vegan food, since all the others attending would be getting something substantial to eat. She suggested we could cater for her and a couple of others who were vegetarians.

We didn’t know what the others would be getting, and the organiser didn’t get in touch by email, as he was supposed to, so we decided to make some bread and lasagna. After checking with Lilia re the cost, we then made enough for at least eight people, and added some mini ‘sausage rolls’. Apparently it was very successful, with many people enjoying the food. Funnily enough, I later found a message request on Instagram, with the organiser asking us to provide some hummus – nothing else! Interestingly, the other people got pizza…

On xmas day we had our neighbour friend over for dinner, which was most pleasant and we also caught up with some of our Oz friends for xmas and New Year’s Eve. Subsequently, we had our Spanish friend, Nacho, here with his business partner to make lunch for us – a trial run of the food they were thinking of serving at their tapas event. It was very nice food, and it was really nice to have someone cooking for us, in our kitchen! Nacho decided to go ahead with the tapas event, scheduling it for the 15th of January.

He advertised it one week before the event (!) and in the end we had two sittings, the first with six people (two cancelled at the last minute), and the second with eight. Overall, it went well, though Craig and I ended up helping a lot, mainly as kitchenhands. We also provided all the drinks and Craig cooked apple galette for dessert. The guests seemed to enjoy the lunch, and it helped Nacho and his friend get an idea of what they would need to improve and how to run a restaurant.

We also had our friends, Lilia and Yuval over for dinner during this period, serving up a Tex Mex meal, which was fun. We hadn’t seen them for a while (although we had corresponded via Instagram) as they had been back to Israel for a month, and then had to quarantine on their return. About a week later we met up with them to attend the annual Ebisu festival, which we have been to before. This year there were many more food stalls lining the streets around the shrine, with fewer other stalls selling Ebisu souvenirs and other craft items. We ate some samosas at the same stall as we do every year, and they were still as good as they always have been.

The final food related item is about our feeding of a couple of local street cats. It started with just one cat, who we called Ralphy because we weren’t sure of the sex of the cat. We did know, however, that she (as it turned out) had been desexed. Within two weeks another cat turned up, a bobtail cat with very long legs who we have called Elle McPhearless. Elle doesn’t appear to have been desexed, and we are considering trapping her soon to remedy this problem.

The watcher…

The watched...

Ralphy looked a lot healthier than Elle, and she was a lot less afraid of me when I went out to put the food out. Both of them disappeared about two weeks ago, after a biggish ginger tom came to visit. Ralphy has not come back since, but Elle returned after a few days, and has been eating here ever since. The tom, as far as we know, has not returned. Very suddenly, a few days ago, Elle’s behaviour changed a bit, with her actually staying nearby while I put out the food, and she has even mewed at me a few times 😊. She definitely has the endemic Japanese bobtail cat genes in her.

The two final things for this post, are not food related, with the first being about my new hobby – Ikebana. As may be fairly obvious from reading my blog, I love flowers. I have always been interested in Ikebana, but hadn’t really done much about it, until I bought one of the kenzan (which literally means sword mountain), the spiky plates you stick the stems onto. I have a few vases, but what I really wanted was a bowl to create arrangements using the kenzan. This is called the moribana style.

Kenzan

So, I decided to go to the Toji antiques market on 21 December, to see if I could find an old, more rustic looking bowl. This is the last market of the year, and just before xmas…Unsurprisingly, there were many people there, so it took quite a while to get around and, despite it being designated the antiques market, there were many other stalls there. As it happens I didn’t find any secondhand bowls the ‘grabbed me’. I did, however, find one stall of new pottery, being run by the maker, which had the more rustic style I was looking for – so I ended up buying one of them.

I have watched a few people building arrangements, and seen quite a few different Ikebana arrangements, so I had some basic idea of what I wanted to do. Once the shops re-opened after new year, I went to the local florist and found a few flowers I thought would work well together, and, combined with some new year’s greenery (houses are often decorated with greenery for good luck, especially pine) I put together my first arrangement.

Since then I have started reading an Ikebana book, and have updated my arrangement as parts died off. I am looking forward to creating with different flowers, stems and leaves as the seasons roll through 😊. I have also used my favourite vase to create little arrangements for our living area.

Finally, I am including the ceramic juunishi that I have bought for this year. The juunishi are the twelve animals of the zodiac, generally known as the Chinese zodiac. The Japanese adopted these many centuries ago, and each year ceramic figurines of the relevant animal are sold and displayed for good luck. They can also be made from papier mache or fabric. This year is the year of the Tiger, and I have made it a habit to buy one for our front desk and one for the car. Sometimes finding a figurine that isn’t too kawaii can be tricky, this is especially true for tigers. After much searching around I finally found two which I was happy with. I was particularly happy finding a somewhat cubist style tiger.

Cheers for now!

Must haves/do’s for new year – door decoration, visit to shrine, Kabuki on TV

An Aussie at the Toji market

!!!

Outside a hairdressing salon

Our own snow creation

How many cooks does it take to weigh something?

Zowie wasn’t overly fussed by the arrangement, but the water, on the other hand…

A new type of parsley?

Here’s the answer to the naming issue!

Valentine’s Day is coming, and the chocolate displays have started – yes, they are all packaging for chocolate

Look – something for us!!! Very nice they were too

I really like Starbucks in the BAL building

A new little art gallery near us

Has she been keeping something from us?

Creepy dolls in a secondhand shop window…

…but, it’s not over yet!!!

I just like this vase

Bye from Ziggy!