asazuke

Life in Japan, food, music, whatever…

Farmlog 14th September 2009 15 September, 2009

Filed under: countryside — johnraff @ 2:57 pm
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Autumn’s coming on so fast Winter seems to be breathing down our necks, though we don’t usually get the first frost till November. Last night however was cold. Dinner outside under the stars is still the more attractive option, but even with a jacket over a trainer over a T-shirt we were huddled up near the fire, sipping shochu with hot water and inhaling the wood smoke. I had a sore throat the next morning.

  • Now the sansho is ripening, our annual visitor pigeons are busy eating them. We don’t see those pigeons any other time of year- they must be quite tasty after eating all that sansho…
  • Last week I noticed a papaya plant had sprouted from last year’s compost heap – get it through the winter in a pot and it should grow quite big in the garden next year. But I forgot to dig it up, and this week the deer had got in first and chewed all the leaves and top shoot off. Drat.
  • I’ve been bringing the organic refuse from Raffles to make compost. It’s not as easy as it sounds: if you just leave it around the animals will come and mess with it, while an enclosed plastic container makes drainage difficult and it gets all wet and slimy. I’ve found mixing in some dry leaf mould helps, but a neighbour suggested another use- give it to the fish. He had put some carp in our pond for us a while ago and they seem to be surviving on whatever they can find there, but I tried throwing in some of the food scraps. It all disappeared in a few minutes, but the next offering was ignored so they don’t seem to want too much of it…
  • T. was busy taking advantage of the hot sun and dry breeze to dry her umeboshi pickles. About half done now. The home-made ones are definitely good, and cheap if you don’t count the labour.
Umeboshi pickles drying in the autumn sun.

Umeboshi pickles drying in the autumn sun.

 

Farmlog 7th September 2009 10 September, 2009

Filed under: countryside — johnraff @ 2:58 pm
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Those of you who live up in the Northern latitudes know all about this, but the shadows are slowly getting longer, and the days a bit shorter. It’s nothing as extreme as in the UK, for example, though- even in the Winter we get a fair amount of sunshine. Still, the sun that blazed almost straight down a month ago has levelled off a bit, and there’s a hint of gold in it, a cool wind is blowing from the North: Autumn. It can be one of the best times of the year, as long as a typhoon isn’t messing things up, and this year looks set to be a nice one, if the long-range weather forecasts can be trusted at all. (hmm…) Well, down on the farm:

  • One dragonfly showed up; there should be more to come, and the Autumn evening insect chorus is building up nicely. Every week it’s a bit different.
  • Another voice from the evening darkness was the unholy screech of a deer in the mating season. Not a cute sound at all, and too early really. They just couldn’t wait.
  • T. found three more leeches, just when we thought the dry weather had got rid of them. One bit her, and it’s still itching.
  • Along with worrying about deer eating my chilli plants (nothing yet, touch wood) a major feature of life up here is trying to keep the weeds under control. Put in a couple of hours more slashing with a sickle, somewhat enjoying the mixed aromas that some of the more fragrant plants come out with as they’re cut down – sansho, dokudami and something that smells a bit like “curry leaves” (if you know them).
  • min 17°C max 28°C
 

Farmlog 31st August 2009 1 September, 2009

Filed under: countryside — johnraff @ 2:16 pm
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These habanero chillis are probably hot already. They're really too hot to use in the restaurant - I'm not sure why I grow them...

These habanero chillis are probably hot already. They're really too hot to use in the restaurant - I'm not sure why I grow them...

Last week’s chill was a bit of an abberation, and we were back to the sweltering hot weather, though nice and sunny and it cools right down in the late afternoon. In the evening we listened to the Autumn insects starting up, and the election results on the radio. (The minshuto got their expected landslide.) Those dragonflies of last week disappeared again however, and the Summer Cicadas made a comeback. The chillis are trying to catch up on the cloudy July, and some are turning red.

min 19°C max about 28 (forgot to check)

These medium-hot Malaysian chillis are just starting to turn red.

These medium-hot Malaysian chillis are just starting to turn red.

 

Farmlog 24th August 2009 26 August, 2009

Filed under: countryside — johnraff @ 2:20 pm
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Finally we get a break from all that mugginess with some proper clear Summer weather. A perfect weekend in fact, with a delicious cool breeze along with the sun, and in the evening you could enjoy the novelty of feeling cold, even with a long-sleeved shirt!

  • Dragonflies are a traditional sign of Autumn, and there were lots around, though I didn’t see any red ones. “Aka tombo” will be out soon I expect, flying in hordes over the golden rice fields.
  • min 14°C max 28°C
 

Farmlog 17th August 2009 23 August, 2009

Filed under: countryside — johnraff @ 2:24 am
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A three-day weekend this time; our summer holiday for which we finally got some real summer weather.

  • Sun! More important, our encounters with blood-sucking creatures limited to insects like mosquitos and buyo: no more leeches! Quite a relief I must say – let’s hope the end of the long drawn out rainy season has seen them off.
  • Most of our stay was taken up with using the sun to dry out some of our mouldy tatami matting, and spraying it with mould-killer. Hardly anybody does it these days, but it used to be a regular task to lift up the tatami mats and dry them in the sun once in a while. Ours are now so old there’s a danger they’ll fall apart before being returned to place, but we just managed it. I think some day we’ll replace them with plain wood flooring.
  • The chilli plants are coming on, though held back because of lack of sunshine in July. The first red chillies appeared but most are still green and not yet hot.
  • Got up at the (for me) incredibly early hour of 7am and was rewarded with one of those perfect mornings. A totally clear blue sky, lush greenery and a morning chorus of birds and insects. (Later it got sweltering hot, though.)
  • minimum temp 19.5°C, maximum 31.5°C
 

Farmlog 10th August 2009 14 August, 2009

Filed under: countryside — johnraff @ 3:05 pm
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  • Well, here in Nagoya a couple of days later we’ve finally got a bit of Summer, but last weekend was yet more rainy, muggy, wet, slimy, mouldy, sweaty, sticky… (you get the idea)
  • Hey, enough leeches too, OK? A real plague of them this year; up to now I’d hardly ever seen one. I had no idea they could be this common in Japan. I read it could be something to do with the tendancy for wild animals like deer and wild boar to show up more around human settlements. The leeches ride into town on their backs. Anyway, both of us got bitten this week. This time I tried sprinkling salt to make them fall off, which seemed to work at the time, but by bite, although small, got itchy the next day. According to the Wikipedia you’re supposed to ease them off with your fingernail, which sounds tricky, but I’ll try it next time. I’d just as soon there wasn’t a next time to be honest.
  • Some more gaps in the net round the chillies, which the deer might have been getting in, hastily patched up. If they ever start eating the chilli leaves it’s a disaster for the plants, which are already a bit unhappy from lack of sunlight.
  • Min temp ?°C (the magnet stuck, but about 19~20) Max 25°C
 

Farmlog 3rd August 2009 4 August, 2009

Filed under: countryside — johnraff @ 2:46 pm
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Last week we couldn’t even get up to the farm because torrential rain had caused a landslip and blocked the road. Sunday started out the same way; the rain followed us most of the way, rivers were swollen and brown with mud, but we got through OK.

Chinese Trumpet Vine or "nozenkazura".

Chinese Trumpet Vine or "nozenkazura", typical summer flower in full bloom in front of the house.

  • Hey! No leech encounters this time! (relief)
  • Monday turned out to be the first day of Summer – hot and sweltering. The weather bureau got tired of answering “when will the Rainy Season end?” and officially announced it was over, although we’re due more rain on Wednesday and Thursday…
  • Sinister footprints inside the Green Zone netted off and supposedly deer-free where the chillies are trying to grow. Hmm, no damage to the plants yet, so I closed off any gaps I could see in the net, but I’m not sure how they got in, if they were deer footprints. Fingers crossed…
  • Min temp unknown (I forgot to check) max 25°C
 

Farmlog 20th July 2009 23 July, 2009

Filed under: countryside — johnraff @ 2:33 pm
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Not much to report this week- more of the same really, ie:

  • More sliminess, damp, wet (had to put newspaper on the porch floor to soak some of it up), humidity, lush vegetation… and more leeches! We seem to be getting a plague of them. I found one under my T-shirt just before it had got its teeth (or whatever leeches have) into me, and T found another one in the bathroom. Ugh!
  • Another, biggish, snake in the drain ditch by the road. It’s getting so it’s hard to go outside without feeling nervous about what might be about to go for you. I’ll be quite happy when this Rainy Season is finally over.
  • Usually when we head back to Nagoya on Monday evening to I hate to leave, but this week it was like escaping from a hostile jungle…
  • Minimum temp. 20°C, max. 26°C.
 

Farmlog 13th July 2009 18 July, 2009

Filed under: countryside — johnraff @ 2:44 pm
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  • Gets hotter and stickier all the time. This week the theme was damp. Sticky, squelchy, slippery, slimy, squishy… You get the idea. Water somehow naturally appears on surfaces, just out of the air. Mould everywhere – anyway, as long as it’s not actually raining you can see why we prefer to have dinner outside.
  • The Snake Incident!
  • The uguisu was singing away all weekend.
  • Minimum temp. 20°C, mavimum 26°C.
 

Snakes! 17 July, 2009

Filed under: countryside — johnraff @ 2:44 pm
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Snakes making love?

Snakes making love?

There are quite a lot of snakes in Japan; mostly they keep to themselves, to our mutual relief, and only a couple are poisonous: the deadly Habu in Okinawa, and here in mainland Japan we’ve got the Mamushi, a kind of adder, which is only dangerous if you don’t go straight to a hospital after being bitten, and the Yamakakashi which was thought non-poisonous but turns out to have venom in its back teeth… The only time you might run into one is in the Spring, when they’re warming themselves in some sunny spot and still too drowsy from hibernation to get away.

A few weeks ago I lifted up the shutter of our garage in Nagoya to see a big snake was sitting on that ledge at the bottom, so had been raised right to eye level… I think (hope) it was a harmless Aodaisho. Then last week out in the country there were the two snakes in the photo coiled up in front of our back door. One larger one with dark patches, and a smaller smooth brown one. I’m presuming the larger one was a female. but they might just have been two different species. It looked as if they were having Snake Sex, with lots of writhing, biting and coiling – very passionate. When they noticed we were looking the female grabbed the male by the head, dragged him to a slightly more secluded spot and ate him. Just swallowed him whole, from the head. I was so surprised that by the time I thought of going back to get the camera again there was just an inch or so of tail sticking out of her mouth. She then raised her head, gave us a defiant look and slid off into the bushes to sleep for a few days I suppose.

Pretty kinky eh?