asazuke

Life in Japan, food, music, whatever…

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.

 

(a little) change is coming to Japan (maybe) 28 August, 2009

Filed under: politics — johnraff @ 2:27 pm
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Well, we’re just a couple of days away from the election that the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party, or jiminto) have been putting off and putting off in the desperate hope that their miserable opinion poll ratings might pick up. Aso, the current prime minister, was supposed to have been picked last October to lead the LDP into a quick election, as he was somewhat more popular than anyone else in the party at the time. He dithered a bit, came out with one inept remark after another, and his approval just went down and down. Like an animal caught in a car’s headlights the LDP just froze and now their rule finally seems to be coming to an end. They were slaughtered in the Tokyo local election last month and now seem to be in for more of the same on a national level. All the opinion polls are predicting a landslide victory for the opposition DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan, or minshuto). Of course, opinion polls have got things pretty seriously wrong in the past…

This is nothing like the Obama campaign in January, though. No tidal waves of enthusiasm – it’s more that people are just fed up. Of course they have many good reasons to be fed up:

  • one LDP politician’s funding scandal after another
  • the succession of unpopular prime ministers imposed on the country without the courtesy of an election since Koizumi’s resignation
  • the amakudari (“descent from heaven”) system where bureaucrats can retire from public service and be seconded to some token position in a company that just happens to be involved in public works… The potential for corruption, along with gross waste of tax money, is obvious.
  • millions of pension records that were lost when being transferred from paper to computer some years ago – more bureaucratic bungling
  • Even before the Liemann shock, the economy has been slipping down and down and income gaps between the haves and havenots getting wider and wider, largely blamed on ex-PM Koizumi’s reforms. (Raffles’ customers have not been exempt from seeing their incomes fall… 😦 )
  • record unemployment, especially for young people, a lot of whom are stuck in temporary work with outsourcing companies
  • The LDP seem to have just run out of ideas.

I’m not really that impressed with the minshuto to be honest; they seem to be a bit better than the LDP, have younger members, slightly more enlightened policies and fewer unhealthy links with construction companies… But even so, daft ideas like reducing petrol tax and making motorways free won’t exactly help Japan live up to the commitments to reducing CO2 emissions that must be coming up soon. Still, just changing governments per se must be a healthy development in a democracy, and help to loosen the bureaucrats’ grip on power. Bureaucrat-bashing has become a major theme of late; I rather pity anyone in public service right now, but some head-cutting at the top would probably be a great idea. (They will resist fiercely no doubt.)

Some oddities:

  • Bicycles are in: this was started by our own dear Nagoya mayor Takashi Kawamura who regularly used one on the campaign trail.
  • This mysterious “happiness party” has suddenly appeared, running candidates in nearly every constituency. It seems to be some religious thing and is being carefully ignored by the media in opinion polls etc.
  • The “revolution club” whose representative on TV the other day complained that for the state to aid old people was socialism, and causing the breakdown of family values!

Whatever, we’ll see on Sunday how big the minshuto’s majority is, and after that if anything has really changed…

 

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
Tags: , , , , ,
  • 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
 

Revisited 8 August, 2009

Filed under: food & drink — johnraff @ 3:07 pm
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“Hey, this place hasn’t changed a bit!” …and it was true – a typical Japanese izakaya with a counter, a couple of small tables and some tatami space at the back. The interior is mainly brownish wood, a bit like an Amsterdam “brown cafe”, with the odd beer poster covering some of the sprayed-on wall stuff, a TV in one corner, a “maneki neko” in another to welcome in customers, and a blackboard with a selection of food to order with your beer.

Typical, that is, of izakaya about thirty years ago, when I used to frequent this place along with other members of Daihachi Ryodan, which I’d just joined. Right in front of a college it was always packed out, but since the students moved out of town things have quietened down a bit, which might be just as well since the owners are now 78 and 80-something, although still amazingly lively. Even more amazingly, the menu on the wall looked just the same as I remembered it, including the prices! (Of course Japan’s just been through a long periiod of deflation, but even so…) Great food too. Fresh broad beans, squid tempura, beef salad… simple but tasty.

I think izakaya like that are a major Japanese contribution to civilisation and at that time there was one on every street corner, but now you really have to search around, especially for a “Mum and Dad” type, privately-owned place. 80% of the eating-out market in Japan is now taken by 10 companies, who are offering something a notch above junk food. Nearly everything is cooked in factories and carried out to the shops in trucks to be microwaved or put in the fryer. They’ve got the technology down so that it doesn’t taste all that terrible, but it’s the same everywhere and the staff are all working to some Manual so there’s no human contact at all. The remaining 20% is shared out between places like Raffles and, what seems to be the current trend, sort of “neo Japanesque” restaurants with modern decor and “international” cuisine.

Another few years and you’ll have to go to the nearby “Showa Village” theme park to find places like our rediscovery, so in the meantime I’d better make a point of getting over there more often!

 

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
 

Where’s our Summer? 27 July, 2009

Filed under: Uncategorized — johnraff @ 8:26 pm
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Hey, come on, the Rainy Season should have ended around the 20th, and by rights we’d now be basking in day after day of blistering sunshine, with temperatures peaking in the high 30’s (°C). Hmm… well there’s been another outbreak of devastating floods in Kyushu, with people killed, houses destroyed and over 20,000 taking refuge in school halls. Meanwhile, yesterday we gave up trying to drive out to the farm as the road had been washed away in one place, and here in Nagoya it’s been rain every day, as the humidity goes up and up.

According to the weather forecast we’re in for another straight week of cloud and rain, and no particular guarantee of Summer starting even after that! There’s an “El Nino” phenomenon going on apparently, so the usual Pacific high pressure area is not doing it’s stuff.

(-sigh-)

 

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.