A Fish Out of Water

Canada Part Three

Well, it's about time I finished posting about our trip to Canada this summer (the first parts of the trip were blogged here and here). We've been back for over five months and it still feels like yesterday. And I want to be back so badly, and looking at these pictures again makes me so, so homesick. Warning: this post contains about eight hundred pictures, and is good proof that I am just blogging for myself these days.

Shuma continued to spend a lot of time outdoors, especially as it started to warm up. Watermelon season came, which is always cause for great joy for everyone except myself. It turns out that Shuma likes the vile fruit (I have no idea where that came from, as Hideaki hates it as much as I do).

Not only to eat, but to roll around. And wear.

Shuma was just learning to eat, and had some setbacks (his initial jet lag caused some serious lack of appetite) but eventually he ate well, and cost my family a fortune in fruit. I ate well too. Oh the food I ate! I didn't take pictures of every memorable meal, but here are a few in no particular order:

I finally got to try Portuguese chicken that is so popular. Wow was it ever good (as were the greasy potatoes that came with it), and now it's just one more thing I can never have here in Japan.

Here's another: tomatillo tortilla soup, made by my brother Greg and his girlfriend Sherry. I've never even seen tomatillos in Japan, so I'll just have to wait till my next visit home and hope to get served this again.

After the soup they served these beautiful steaks, with refried beans and salsa.

My mom baked some lovely halibut with bacon and leeks.

And made a wonderful rhubarb crisp. The ice cream was totally unnecessary, but what the hell.

Another Greg and Sherry meal fajitas and black bean salsa.

I think this yummy meal was a whole family collaboration: chicken souvlaki with tzaziki sauce, tomato and feta cheese salad, sauteed greens of some sort, rice pilaf and corn on the cob. 

Sherry made this blueberry pie, and it was every bit as amazing as it looks.

It's hard to tell what you're looking at, and the picture doesn't do it justice, but this is my mom's cheese bread and it's deadly. It's bread baked with butter, onions, poppy seeds and cheese, and it's rich, gooey, crisp on the outside and so so good.

Served with steak, baked potato and veggies.

This is Sherry's strawberry shortcake, with strawberries she picked herself.

I went out for sushi with my sister Julie and her daughter Zoe, and was surprised at how good it was. I think it's pretty funny that they serve this bento with sushi AND rice, and a few things weren't quite right from a Japanese perspective, but it was great. I think the salmon sashimi is as good or better than what we get in Japan (which is often imported anyway).

Zoe introduced me to the dragon roll, which has unagi (eel) and avocado. I know very little about kawarimaki (the creative sushi rolls mostly found outside of Japan) but want to try more.

This beef, barley and porcini soup my mom made was so rich and satisfying, more of a stew than a soup really. I want some right now.

Zoe made her specialty, chicken brian, and Sherry helped out by making the pasta and side dishes. Everyone loved it, including Shuma (who loves any kind of noodle).

We liked my mom's pineapple cake so much she made it twice.

And I've never liked the combination of fruit and chocolate but Sherry converted me with these.

My last dinner at home was a Korean feast cooked by Sherry. I had requested ddukbokki, a dish of rice cake in spicy sauce which is also popular in Japan (where it is called topokki). Next came pajeon (spring onion pancake, called chijimi in Japan), which was eaten up before I thought to take a picture.

Then came thinly sliced beef, to be cooked at the table and eaten with a variety of kimchi, sauces and greens.

Here is one bite: a lettuce leaf, about to be rolled up with a sesame leaf, chrysanthemum leaves, cooked beef, kimichi and gochujang (spicy bean sauce). Yum!

All those calories needed to be burned off, so we tried to get out for exercise as much as possible. Baboo took Zoe, Shuma and I to Kelso for a bit of hiking.

And even though I kept worrying they'd fall, I even let Baboo carry Shuma.

We drove down to Toronto's lakefront and spent some time walking around. Shuma loved this splash pool and Cletis (my sister's dog) loved the geese that were everywhere.

And we all loved posing for some highly original pictures with a monument to the QEW (a local highway).

Closer to home, Shuma made many visits to our local park, here with his cousin Zoe.

But it was nice just to hang out at home. Look how pretty these flower baskets are! They are mostly Sherry's work.

There was always something fun to do, like hang around with Cletis.

Or jump around on the air mattress. I couldn't get any actual jumping on camera, because any commotion would attract Cletis and then Shuma would stop jumping and play with the dog.

Cletis managed to perfect the art of the photobomb, and starred in many, many pictures intended for Shuma.

Sherry was mostly in charge of bath time, and from the sounds of it they had great fun in the big bath. But when his eczema flared up we gave him an oatmeal bath in the kitchen sink. He'd never had a sink bath before as our sink is the wrong type, but it was the perfect size. He thought it was pretty nifty too.

And of course he liked his pool time out in the backyard. Basically he likes anything involving being naked, as it gives him access to his favourite toy.

But he really does seem to love the combination of water, the outdoors and nudity.

And then came Canada Day.

We all get dressed up in our finest patriotic finery.

The hockey stick was a big hit, and Baboo has great hope that he'll grow up knowing how to use it.

We played bocce in the field behind our house, which as always was really just an excuse to mock each other. Mom, Cletis and Shuma sensibly chose to watch.

And enjoy some snacks.

We taught Shuma how to stick a maple seed to his nose, which he took to right away. He's definitely one of us.

Zoe, as you may guess from these pictures, is a model and just got back from a few months in Bangkok.

She is known for professionalism and laid-back, sweet personality.

As well as her high standards of personal grooming.

Which is something we have in common.

Dinner was outside on the patio, which was a treat as most of the evenings until then were too cool to eat outside.

Shuma really enjoyed dining al fresco.

We had a lovely seafood dinner, including these clams roasted with potatoes and chorizo, and corn on the cob that came with little baby corns attached (the mini cobs were kind of disappointing actually).

And then it was fireworks time. This was Shuma's second pyrotechnic experience and he was very brave. His first time was Victoria Day five weeks before, and he'd been a little scared at first, but obviously interested. This time he really enjoyed them, despite being a little nervous.

On our last morning we went out for one last swing. I wanted to take the swing set with me, and I'm sure Shuma felt the same.

Back home we posed for some family pictures before I got ready to go.

And then it was goodbye. The flight home was uneventful and Shuma was well-behaved, which is pretty normal for a 9-month old. I know the next trip won't be so easy, but I can't wait.

See more pictures from the visit here. Please note that many of these pictures are not mine (namely: the good ones, which are by my brother Greg Bishop, his girlfriend Sherry Park or my father Jim Bishop).

Canada, Part One

Has it really been almost four weeks since Shuma and I returned from our visit back home? I don't know how I went so long without posting about it. Whoops, yes I do: I was hindered by a cranky baby with adjustment issues, jet lag and a cold. It took him nearly three weeks to get back to normal, and while he's probably forgotten all about the visit by now, he probably missed Canada more than I did at first.

And no wonder, with a house full of people fawning over him. For those just tuning in, my parents live in Brampton, a suburb or Toronto. It's the same house I grew up in (well, from the age of four) and aside from my parents it contains my brother Greg and his long-term girlfriend Sherry in a basement apartment, along with frequent visitors. My sister Julie came a few weeks after I did, soon followed by her daughter Zoe, so it was kind of like a family reunion.

There were friends visiting as well when I arrived on a long weekend in May (Victoria Day, the de-facto beginning of summer in my parts, I guess kind of like Memorial Day in parts of the US). I naively expected Shuma to delight in having so many people to play with, but I under-estimated the effects of jet lag and stranger anxiety. He had a few charming moments, but for the most part he spent his first several days napping and crying (and seemed to be widest awake just when I was at my sleepiest). And even after he got over the worst of his jet lag he was cranky and wouldn't eat. I guess he's just a sensitive guy who needs time to get used to changes.

There he is above, during an epic nap on his grandfather Baboo (a nickname given to him by his first grandson about sixteen years ago). While I was having a wonderful nap all by myself, poor Baboo couldn't move for a good part of the afternoon and got his shirt soaked with baby sweat for his trouble.

When Shuma was awake, he did tend to cheer up for walks with Baboo and I. We tried to get in at least one a day, an easy feat since we live near a very nice system of parks centred along Etobicoke Creek, which flows by our city on its way to Lake Ontario.

I still get excited to see bunnies- they just weren't around when I was still living at home. This little guy was enjoying the dandelions in a very neat way: he'd bite off a stalk at the base then chomp the stalk all the way up to the puffy end, then eat that too. Too cute.

Not quite the tortoise and the hare, but along with all of the rabbits we came across this snapping turtle, the first time we've seen one in these parts. We actually spent a good deal of time trying to rescue it as it seemed injured and we didn't want to leave it out in the open for it to get run over or bothered or kidnapped. We even went home and coming back with equipment to safely move it to a more sheltered area with, but when it finally had enough of our pestering it just up and walked away, obviously perfectly healthy. Served us right for anthropomorphising.

Shuma fell in love with the baby swings that are at every playground. Swinging was probably his favourite part of the visit, and I'm really sad to be back here in Japan where this type of swing is rare. I've done a bit of research and they can be found here and there, but nowhere near me. If you're interested in checking it out for yourself, they are called omutsu-gata buranko (おむつ型ブランコ, literally diaper-shaped swing). Let me know in the comments if you find these swings anywhere.

So I took a million pictures of Shuma on the swings, of course.

Back at home, Shuma quickly found a few favourite places. The best was the hallway above the kitchen (our house is a split-level), where he could watch the action and play with the bars of the banister.

I had really been looking forward to letting him loose on the lawn, hoping he'd learn to crawl there, and maybe even stand and walk. But they had a month of almost non-stop rain before we arrived, and it was hardly better after we got there. The ground was often too wet to sit on, so when it was warm enough to be out we put him in this kiddie pool.

And it would occasionally warm up enough for us to use the pool as a pool! Unfortunately most of the pictures we took are X-rated. He did have a swimsuit and swimming diapers, but we had him naked as often as possible to help clear up a diaper rash.

Greg's into mountain biking and would take off nearly every day to careen down some hill or other. One weekend he invited us to come along, and we went up to Blue Mountain, a ski resort near Georgian Bay. We took a gondola up the hill and while Greg and Sherry endangered their lives on their bikes, Baboo Shuma and I walked around on top of the hill (Mom, not much of a walker, guarded the car).

 

This is a small remnant of the first chair lift in Ontario. Both Baboo and I are completely incapable of using a chair lift and always manage to fall as we get off, which has to be one of the most embarrassing things in the world. We've seriously developed major phobias, and won't even try skiing anymore. I actually didn't even know this about Baboo until this trip, and it was kind of a relief finding out: if both of us are the same maybe I can blame my genes? This lift, being out of service, wasn't so scary and we totally conquered it.

 

After our little hike we drove to the nearby Craigleith Provincial Park for a picnic. The park is on Georgian Bay and has a shore lined with shale, rich with 455 million year-old fossils.

The thing to do is break apart the fragile rocks to find trilobites and other ancient critters, and although we found some good ones I forgot to take pictures (here is a trilobite found there a few years back).

Normally I find myself wishing there was just a bit of sand so we could take a dip (the shale underwater is covered in algae and way too slippery for swimming), but it was freezing this day so I was fine with it. We saw a loon in the water, which was a huge highlight (it turned up as a tiny black smudge in the pictures I attempted).

Shuma had a spontaneous nap while we ate, so a thousand pictures were taken. Not many pictures of the actual bbq and picnic though, as my hands were nearly frozen. A very nice day though.

Back home, Shuma really enjoyed watching the cats. They weren't particularly thrilled with him, but Toki (shown above) started to warm up to him a little, so much so that she could even stand to be in the same room for a few seconds.

More swinging.

Some frolicking on the lawn waiting for the pool to fill.

Drying off after the pool.

And all dressed again. Note that the pictures above, and all other suspiciously good photos in this post, were taken by Sherry or Greg and not me.

Shuma's appetite returned little by little, and he developed an obsession with berries. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries: if it was expensive, out of season, and imported from far south, he approved.

He also approved of the thousands of toys my mom had stocked the house with. She actually fixed up my room really nicely with a beautiful new crib with cute bedding, a fully stocked change table, and the aforementioned toys. I meant to take a picture but by the time I got around to it I'd messed the room up too much. But Shuma was never without a nice place to sleep, a nice place to be changed, and a nice toy.

And some nice tickles.

He even had a bunch of equipment loaned to him from a friend, including this exersaucer.

And after a few weeks, he was back to his happy self.

Here he is with uncle Greg.

Speaking of Greg, this is one of his (many) aquascape aquariums. They are constantly changing so I'm sure this one looks totally different by now, but this particular display was entered in a contest at the time. Shuma loved the aquariums and was happy to look at them until my arms hurt from holding him, and often when he was fussy Sherry would whisk him downstairs to be calmed down by the plants and fishies (although I'm sure Sherry herself was just as effective).

My sister Julie arrived in a rental car from Buffalo, where she'd been dropped off by her fiance. He is a trucker and she travels with him all over the states, which sounds like lots of fun.

Julie brought along her corgi, Cletis Van Damme, and he became Shuma's new best friend. But the cats, just as they'd almost accepted Shuma (Toki had actually allowed Shuma to make eye contact), disappeared into the basement, never to be seen again.

Right on schedule, Shuma learned to pull himself up to standing at nearly nine months old. He was naked the first time, and although the event was heavily photographed and video'd, this is all I can show you.

To be continued. See more pictures here.

We're back

Shuma and I got back from a wonderful visit back home last Friday and have been busy fighting off the jet lag. Yes, babies get it too. It's usually not so bad when returning to Japan, but this is the worst jet lag I've ever experienced thanks to the little insomniac who shares my bed. I'm getting less sleep now than when he was a newborn.

I'm really enjoying one side effect of the jet lag though: the loss of appetite. As you might notice in the picture above, Shuma chunked out quite a bit. Well so did I, and sadly it's less cute on me than it is on him. Seriously, I was already disappointed at the slow pace at which I was losing my baby weight, but this trip has put me back up near my pregnancy weight. Actually, considering that a large portion of that weight consisted of a baby, placenta, amniotic fluid, extra blood, and other stuff that isn't around anymore, I guess I'm fatter than I was when I was pregnant. Yikes.

Hopefully the appetite-surpressing effects of crossing twelve time zones will stick around long enough to let me get into healthier eating habits than those I developed at the non-stop smorgasbord that is my parents' house.

This might help: while back home we discovered that Shuma has a dairy allergy, and I'm giving up dairy too so I don't pass any on through my milk. I'm not sure yet if this is temporary or will last for as long as I nurse, but even a few weeks without cheese, ice cream, chocolate and pastries should be good.

Wish us luck.

Meahwhile, here's Shuma's Canada Day outfit. Those shorts were a gift from a family friend, who sewed them herself (her husband also gave Shuma a whole fleet of handmade wooden cars and trucks- a very talented couple).

Canada Part Two

During my trip back home earlier this summer (read Part One here) my belly received plenty of attention, and everyone got to feel the baby move (and hiccup, which it does daily) at least once. I also accidentally cured one of the minor pregnancy woes that had been waking me up at night for a few weeks.

I'd been having leg cramps and noticed that they disappeared after I arrived in Canada, and suspected it was because the super-soft and comfy down mattress topper that was on my bed in the guest room, and maybe also the very big fluffy pillow that I was putting between my knees to help with my lower back pain (as opposed to the firm latex foam mattress and hard pillows I have at home Japan). I didn't have "proof" until I was moved to another bed to make room for more guests. It turns out that an air mattress, even a really good one, is just as bad for leg cramps as a foam mattress. The cramps improved when I added the down topper to the air mattress, and completely disappeared again as soon as I was back on the down topped-regular mattress. And back home in Japan, with a brand-new fluffy mattress topper on top of our latex mattress and a rolled-up sheepskin between my knees replacing the pillows I used to use, my leg cramps haven't returned. I'm guessing that the mattress topper and sheepskin allow for better circulation, and simply by changing my bedding I've cured something that no amount of stretching or walking was able fix.

So as a public service to any pregnant ladies out there suffering from leg cramps: change your bedding! If you don't have a soft mattress that allows for circulation get a mattress topper, and if you sleep with a pillow under or between your knees change it to something fluffier.

Anyway, back to the trip home. The main reason I'd been invited back home was for a baby shower, which my mom threw in our backyard. It was a beautiful day and it was wonderful to see everyone and they all brought lovely presents that were both cute and portable (as I'd have to carry everything back with me), and I wish I could show pictures of the loot (but I won't because that seems wrong somehow).But I treasure it and already have it packed away in the baby's dresser and I can't wait to start using it all.

I was busy being the guest of honour (OK, technically I'm merely hosting the guest of honour) and opening presents so didn't take any pictures, and pretty much all of the pictures other people took were of me. So please bear with me for a while, and to make up for all the me pictures I've included some cute kid and sister pics as well.

Maggie learned how to make a maple seed into a rhinoceros horn, and did it more cutely than it's ever been done before.

My Dad got back with the other menfolk near the end of the day, just in time to grill some burgers for us. It was a wonderful day and I very much appreciate that people came and gave nice stuff to the baby.

The next day my brother Greg took over the grilling and did his famous beef ribs. He'd been smoking them for a few days and by the time they got to the table they were smokey, soft, and delicious.

After all of his hard work it seems a bit mean to post this sign, but what the hell. The sign was miraculously discovered in near-perfect condition behind the sink during a recent bathroom renovation and kept for historical and/or humiliation purposes. It dates from nearly three decades ago, when Greg was a little kid, and was written by my sister Julie (who doesn't remember writing it but recognizes her handwriting). To be fair, Greg claims it was all a case of mistaken identity and that the real culprit in the apparent messy bathroom crisis was our dad. To be even more fair, I can imagine that every single bathroom used by a male member of the species could use a sign like this.

Julie, who is probably a little more laid back about bathroom cleanliness these days, having raised a son of her own, joined my Dad and I on one of our morning walks.

We stopped at a park for some swing time, and I discovered something: if you're pregnant, swinging can be a major workout.

My mom took all us kids out for dim sum one day at a local place called Kingsley Chinese Restaurant. We have good Chinese food in Japan, but not really any proper dim sum places, so this was a big treat.

At the bottom of the above plate is one of my favourites, which I identified as radish cake but was corrected- the trolley lady called it turnip cake. I've always thought it was made with daikon or radish (it's called daikon mochi in Japan) so am now a bit confused. Anyway, it turns out that everybody hated it, so I had to eat the whole order (a plate of six giant pieces) by myself. How can anyone not like daikon mochi/turnip cake?

We finished with egg tarts and the mango pudding above. I always avoid mango pudding as I assume, since I don't like pudding, that I won't like it. But it's nothing like regular pudding at all! Now that I know what I've been missing, it's my goal to eat as much mango pudding as possible.

I had really been looking forward to some fruit picking and jam making, but backed out of a trip to Niagara to pick cherries (I was tired and suffering from leg cramps and figured I shouldn't be up in a ladder in my delicate condition). So I just helped with the jam making. We made batches and batches of plain cherry jam, and one batch each of cherry-rhubarb and cherry with mixed berries (wild and farmed blueberries, farmed raspberries, and some raspberries from our garden, all added to stretch out the last of the cherries), above.

The next morning a taste test showed that they all turned out deliciously, although the jam with the mixed berries didn't set (we were out of pectin by then so it wasn't a surprise).

On another day my Dad took Julie and I out for Indian food at a place called Village of India, which does a very good and cheap vegetarian buffet.

My sister is far more familiar with Indian food than we are so I got to find out what everything actually was, and I tried all of the desserts for once (usually Indian desserts kind of scare me, as the ones I've tried were super sweet). They were indeed sweet, but in a very soothing way after the spicy food, and with hints of herbs and spice and honey. Unfortunately Indian restaurants in Japan tend to have a very small dessert selection, if they have desserts at all, so I'll probably have to wait until my next visit home to try more.

Near the end of my visit I met my friend Aspasia for brunch at a nearby breakfast place called Flips. I thought the prices on the menu seemed a bit high, and then my food came and I realized that a single order is actually about the size of three meals. It was tasty, especially the prefect home fries, and I'm really going to miss breakfasts like this here in Japan (and knowing this would be the last such breakfast in a long time, I managed to eat almost everything on my plate).

Sherry, my brother's girlfriend, took to lunch at Man Doo Hyang, a Korean restaurant in Mississauga. It was really interesting seeing how Canadian Korean food, which seems to be more authentic, differs from Japanese Korean food. One big difference in Canada is the free banchan (kimchi and other little side dishes), above.

Sherry had a few questions about the different kinds of dumplings, so we were brought a small plate to sample. These are called "Boiled Chinese Style Dumplings" and seem to be a cross between wontons and what's known in Japan as suigyoza (boiled gyoza dumplings).

We finally decided to share jajangyeon (identified as Korean Style Handmade Noodles with Black Bean Sauce) and soon dubu chigae (spicy tofu and seafood soup), which came in a hot stone bowl with a raw egg (to be added just before eating) and pot of rice on the side.

I had expected the jajangmyeon to be similar to Japan's jajamen (both being based on a Chinese dish) but was surprised to see it was quite different. The noodles were chewier than the udon-like noodles used in Japan, and the sauce was much darker and tasted strongly of black beans (Japanese jajamen uses miso and ground pork). It was tasty, as was the chigae.

The rice that came with the chigae was cooked with black beans, kabocha squash and sweet potato (and maybe some chestnut too, can't remember). After scooping it into bowls I was looking forward to eating the crunchy bits that stuck to the pot, but then the waiter came and filled the pot with boiling water! I figured he'd done it to get a head start on washing the dishes and was outraged that he'd ruined our rice, but Sherry assured me that adding hot water to crusted rice is normal and we were to eat it as a soup. So I tried some, and almost liked it. It started off well, with that lovely nutty burnt rice aroma, but then on tasting it had a flavour of... nothing. Apparently this is a wildly popular thing to do with rice in Korea, but I guess you have to grow up eating it to really appreciate it. I'd rather have the un-soaked crusty rice any day.

Except for the rice water this was a very tasty- and highly educational- meal and I hope to go back some day.

After lunch we stopped at a Korean market and Sherry bought ingredients for miyeok guk, a special soup served to pregnant ladies and nursing mothers. It is a simple but very delicious soup made with wakame seaweed and beef, and the version she made was excellent. This is one of the rare new foods I discovered back home that I can recreate here in Japan, and I'll be trying it soon.

My last lunch out was at Rapinis, a local Italian restaurant, with my mom and dad. I had veal picatta, the first time I've had veal in ages (having long considered it cruel). It was delicious, but not substantially more delicious than any other meat, so I can now happily go back to not eating veal for a few more decades.

And my last dinner was pickerel, a local fish that I love and had really been hoping to try while I was home. We hadn't been able to find it until my last full day, so I made my mom buy it and cook it up for me. She dredges it with flour and paprika and fries it in butter, which is one of the best ways to do fish ever.

Served with roasted potatoes and Swiss chard (which I also made my mom make, since I've never tried it before- sadly I was the only one who liked it). A wonderful last supper.

The good eating continued on the flight home. My mom had cleaned out her air mile savings to get me seats in Air Canada's executive class, which of course was wonderful. As with my flight in, I chose the kaiseki dinner, and was again served several tiny dishes of lovely tasty things.

Again, the little dishes were better than the main course, which this time was salmon with tofu and vegetables, served with rice and miso soup. But the salmon was quite tasty and only fared badly because the first part of the meal was so good.

For dessert I had the molten chocolate cake, which wasn't quite molten but very, very tasty.

This time I didn't sleep much, so I was awake for a mid-flight snack. Out of several choices I went with a croque monsieur and salad, and was amazed that the sandwich was freshly made from scratch- this was definitely the best airplane snack I've had. The Japanese first class passengers all seemed to have instant ramen for their snacks, which I find hilarious. Hideaki said it must be because wealthy people never eat stuff like that so it's kind of a treat for them, which makes sense but doesn't make it any less funny.

For breakfast I had banana pancakes with strawberries, which came with fresh fruit, yogurt, a nice flaky croissant (but not as good as the one I'd had on the way over- not surprising since Japan does pastry so much better than Canada), two little jars of jam and a jar of real maple syrup.

Sorry for the lighting: the sun never sets during the entire fourteen hour flight so we had to keep the windows covered at all times, and they keep the lights low for most of the flight as well. This is great for sleepers, not great for taking pictures of food.

I was a bit reluctant to get off the plane, knowing it would probably be my last time ever in first class, but I eventually disembarked and entered regular life once again. On the bus home I rediscovered what discomfort is and found myself wondering why airport buses don't have a first class (but even if they did I'm pretty sure my mom doesn't have any surplus bus miles to share). I did get some neat views of Tokyo Sky Tree, the new tower currently under construction in eastern Tokyo, shown above with the Arakawa river in the foreground and Mount Fuji (you have to look really hard) behind it.

And then I was back home, tired but very happy to see Hideaki and eager to spend a final two months together as a couple.

See more pictures from the trip here.

Canada Part One

I'm back from what will likely be my last solo trip in a very long time: a three week visit back home to Canada. I was traveling during my 28th to 30th weeks of pregnancy, just at the beginning of my third trimester, so was a bit worried that I'd be uncomfortable or have some kind of emergency. But everything went well. In fact, I discovered a cure for the leg cramps that have recently been bothering me, so for that alone the trip was well worth it. Let me say a big "Phooey!" to all the pregnancy experts who recommend against traveling during the third trimester, my midwives who were reluctant to let me go, and all the Japanese people who expressed shock that I would even consider flying in my delicate condition.

Of course, things might have been different if I was flying back in coach. But I wasn't- my mother, who was already kind enough to give me her airmiles for my trip home, couldn't find any economy seats for nonstop flight so she upgraded me to executive class (the woman apparently has an endless supply of airmiles). Needless to say it was the best flight I've ever had, and the next time I fly it will be hard to adjust to flying with the plebes back in economy class.

Above is the view of Chiba prefecture as we were flying out of Narita, with Tokyo way in the background. I could actually see Tokyo Sky Tree, the new mega-tower under construction, fairly well, although it barely shows up in the picture- bonus points for anyone who can spot it (clicking on the picture will bring you to Flickr, where I've marked the tower's location).

Air Canada's international flights have just two classes- economy and executive first, and they are as different as night and day. Our seats were more like little cubicles (Air Canada calls them "suites"), with walls separating each passenger from each other (this would actually suck for couples or friends traveling together) and seats that fully recline into beds. Unfortunately I completely forgot to take pictures of the seats but you can see for yourself how the other half travels on AC's website, here. The only downside: I was unable to take advantage of the the limitless free alcohol during the flight (or in the executive lounge at the airport- itself a major treat). Plus it was slightly embarrassing to see the looks of the economy class passengers as they passed by during boarding, eying our comfy nests with longing and envy and sighing "ii na" (must be nice). But I got over it.

The food was mostly great, with three choices offered for dinner. I went with the Japanese kaiseki course, and although it wasn't quite served kaiseki style (one tiny dish at a time) it was very good. The first course is shown above, and although I can't tell you what was in each dish (I forgot to keep the menu, which wasn't very specific anyway), I can tell you that each item was well made and delicious.

The second course was steak teriyaki, and this was slightly disappointing. Not that I was expecting wagyu or anything, but this was a very lean cut of beef and the presentation not so different from economy class. It did taste good and was the softest, best lean steak I'd had in ages, but still. (It's kind of scary that within hours of boarding I was already used to executive class enough to be that picky.) Dessert was offered but I skipped it, and dozed through the mid-flight snack (of which we had several choices). I didn't sleep deeply, but it was the most I've ever slept in the air and I really think that helped with my jet lag later.

There were three choices for breakfast and I went with the omelet, which turned out to be just as rubbery as in economy class. Everything else was good though, especially the super flaky croissants. And then, almost too soon, I was landing in Toronto.

This was Sunday June 27th, right during the G8 and G20 summits, and as we were taxiing to our gate the pilot announced that we could see some of the delegations' official planes, including that of the Japanese prime minister and Air Force One. Sadly it was on the wrong side of the plane, and as I struggled to see I noticed that nobody who actually had a view was bothering to look. I felt slightly loserish to be so excited, but really, wouldn't you be at least slightly thrilled to see the president's plane? As it turns out, I didn't see it, nor did I see any official looking types at the airport, and as my family lives in Brampton (a suburb northwest of Toronto) my visit was completely unaffected by the summits.

My Dad picked me up at the airport (he wasn't impressed by my near Air Force One sighting either) and brought me home, and after checking out the changes (a bathroom reno, a guest room converted into an office, Toki the cat doubling in size, a gaping hole in the backyard's tree coverage where two dead poplars were cut down) we sat down to dinner.

My Mom made spaghetti carbonara, and after all the food I got on the plane I didn't think I'd be able to finish it, but before I knew it I was getting seconds. This was a very special carbonara, at least to me- I always make the simple version, with just cheese, eggs and bacon (not pancetta, which is too hard to find, and not even good bacon, which doesn't exist in Japan). But this was the cream version, made even better by using both real pancetta and very good bacon. I may not be able to recreate this in Japan, given the lack of good bacon and pancetta, but I think I'll try a creamy carbonara recipe next time.

Another big treat was chicken souvlaki, served with tzatziki, hummus, onions and good soft tortillas (apparently good pitas can't be found in Brampton), along with orzo and Greek salad.

I was skeptical, but the tortillas worked really well. This is definitely something I can't recreate at home in Japan, since neither good pitas or tortillas are available and I lack a barbeque- not to mention my brother's bbq skills.

Soon after I arrived we were hit with a heat wave, with the temperature getting up to 34C at one point- far hotter than Tokyo at the time. So a nice light cold food platter was just the thing. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the lovingly arranged platter before we mangled it, but but that's my selection above. Included are a few illicit slices of proscuitto and mortadella (which pregnant women in Canada are told not to eat) and lots of naughty raw vegetables (strictly banned by my Japanese midwife).

Toki, the kitty in the above picture, likes to watch us eat from the hallway above the kitchen. She entertains us by squirming around, usually upside down, and generally acting goofy, but unfortunately she mostly does this in the evening when the lighting is poor and I never manage to get a picture of her at her silliest.

Toki is a very sensual cat, who likes to cuddle with Cocoa, above, and to be photographed in sexy poses, below.

But cats aren't the only pets in the house:

This is my brother Greg's new hobby: aquascaping (note that these are his pictures, not mine).

His great big aquarium holds a few kinds of fish, but they're on the plain side and almost beside the point (although he does plan to add more).

The real focus of the aquarium is the plantlife and how its arranged. Apparently a lot of the inspiration of aquascaping comes from Japanese hobbyists like Takashi Amano, who himself is inspired by traditional Japanese gardening and landscaping (check out his aquariums here).

Aquascaping makes use of freshwater shrimp to keep algae under control, and my brother currently has three types, the easiest to spot being the crystal red shrimp seen above and below.

It's a very cool hobby and I could spend hours staring at the aquarium. If we ever have the space I'll be trying this out myself.

All of the aquarium pictures above were taken by Greg Bishop. See more of them in his Aquarium album on Flickr.

All those shrimp pictures are making me hungry, so let's get back to food. Pizza is fun to make anywhere, but especially in places where you can buy an amazing selection of salamis and other cured meat. Instead of the ultra simple pizzas we usually make at home in Japan, I had a couple that were loaded with yummy meat.

My brother's girlfriend Sherry made this pecan pie, which is something I thought I didn't like but just had to try. And thanks to the rich, nutty filling I can now say I'm a pecan pie fan.

Another Sherry creation was this breakfast burrito. It's really good that she made this, as it ensured that I wouldn't be spending the day without filling my required bacon quota (seriously, I had bacon in some for or other every single day of my trip).

My Dad bought a new barbeque, and we christened it with hot dogs. Of course in my family a simple hot dog cookout is anything but simple, and here there are five types of sausages and dogs, along with corn on the cob and skewers of bacon-wrapped sausage, pineapple and onion.

There was also coleslaw and a wonderful potato salad made by Greg's friend Jim which I really should have taken a picture of in its dish, as it was lovely.

No trip home is complete without pierogies.

Or a visit to the Brampton farmer's market. Just to show that I ate more than bacon, here's the loot we got during a shopping spree at the farmer's market and Asian grocery. My Mom made that rhubarb (yet another thing I can't get in Japan, unless you count the single 20 cm stalk I saw recently that went for 700 yen- about eight Canadian dollars) into a beautiful strawberry-rhubarb crisp that I unfortunately devoured without taking a picture.

To work off all of the desserts and bacon (and because I'm under orders to do so by my midwife), I got out most days for a walk. Usually my Dad came, and usually we went to the local park, which runs along Etobicoke Creek. I would have gone more but all of the paths had been torn up and the city was taking its time repaving them. It was also so hot that I had to cut a few walks short, as I never got out as early as I wanted- I usually woke up around six, before it got too hot, but then I'd spend a few hours leisurely reading the newspaper, drinking coffee, and eating breakfast. The lack of decent newspapers in Japan means this morning ritual is a luxury that I really, really enjoy when I'm in Canada.

We discovered something new at the creek: fire ants have arrived. We didn't used to have them, but now they're everywhere. And I quickly discovered that if I stopped walking for more than a few seconds and was wearing sandals, I'd be attacked. So after that first painful lesson I either wore shoes and socks or kept walking without pause.

I took the picture above not for the ants but to identify the plant they're on, since we'd just read an article about another invader: hogweed. Rather sensationally, the weed was described as causing blisters and blindness (with no explanation how, leaving us to wonder if merely looking at it would strike you blind or if you'd have to actually rub it onto your eyeballs). And helpfully there was one tiny picture with no tips on how to identify the week. So naturally we were on the lookout that day and saw several potentially deadly plants. This one turned out to not be the dreaded hogweed, but we're still wondering what it was.

We saw plenty of neat birds, including this cardinal (yes, that's the closest I could get) and a budgie that frequented our backyard feeders for a few weeks. It stopped coming around before I could get a picture, and I hope that no cats were involved in its disappearance.

We had a seafood feast one night, starting with crab legs served with Canadian and Japanese style- with both butter and ponzu (a citrusy soy sauce).

Next up were clams, plump and juicy and delicious steamed plain (forgot to get a pic), and a very complicated mussel dish. We were trying to recreate the mussels we love at a local Italian place (the flavours are actually more Thai than Italian), and a recipe from my Mom's Tribeca Grill Cookbook looked close. It turned out to taste close, but we had to go through so much work and use so many ingredients, some of them far more expensive than the mussels themselves (like six cups of clam juice!) that as good as it tasted we figured it wasn't worth trying again. After all, isn't one of the great things about mussels that they don't need a lot of fancy preparation? There has to be a better recipe out there. Very fine meal though.

Other seafood included fish and chips. Above is haddock and chips with a side of poutine.

Here we have some kind of steak wrapped in-what else- bacon, with beans, potatoes and beet greens. This was the first time I'd had beet greens and I liked them very much (and of course they are yet another thing that I can't find in Japan).

As much as I love the seafood in Japan, I really miss the way my Mom does fish: lightly dredged in flour and paprika and sauteed in butter. Here we have halibut, perfectly cooked.

This is the Thai curry I had with my friend Aspasia when I visited her in North York. It was a very hot day and I must have baked my brain or something, because I completely forgot to take pictures of her beautiful old house and cute kitties (I'm especially sad that I didn't get one of the impossibly huge-eyed Anime Cat). There might be some pictures on her blog though, so check it out.

When I got back from Toronto my sister Julie was home! She'd just flown up from Texas and although she only stayed for a week it was great to see her.

My Mom took Julie, Sherry and I out for brunch at Cora's, home of giant fruit-intensive breakfasts. That's my Mom's eggs Benedict above, and below is my giant buckwheat crepe with spinach and cheddar (ordered from the lunch menu so lacking the fruit).

Greg treated us to his amazing beef fajitas, with Sherry's guacamole and mango salsa on the side. I could eat this every day.

Soon we had more visitors, with family friends Penny and Ira and their daughter Melissa stopping by for the weekend. Ira's hobby is woodworking and he brought along a special present for my Mom. It's a very cute little cabinet that sits on the counter and hides...

My Mom's rum stash! For as long as I remember there's always been a giant bottle of Bacardi on the kitchen counter, but now the bottle has a discreet little hideaway and our kitchen is much classier.

In other alcohol related developments, I finally achieved one of my lifelong dreams: my bump has finally grown big enough to support a cold mug of beer. This not only keeps me cool in hot weather, but means that I no longer have to limit my drinking to locations that include tables or cupholders.

Read Part Two here, and more pictures can be seen here.

Hello from Canada

Hello from Canada, where not much has changed since my last visit except the size of the TV (bigger than our bathtub in Tokyo) and the number of remote controls required to view it.

Canada, week four

My last week in Canada began with lunch for everyone at Kingsley, a Chinese restaurant in Brampton with all-day dim sum. This was a very big treat for Hideaki and me: dim sum does exist in Japan, but it's done a bit differently. Customers ordering from menus rather than choosing dishes from passing carts, which is way less fun. The one time we found a proper dim sum place in Tokyo, with carts and all, we loved it, right up until we were hit with the $80 bill.

Everything was delicious, with stronger flavours compared to Japanese dim sum, which is usually lightly flavoured and always dipped in a sauce before eating. Here, although soy sauce was available for dipping, nothing really needed it (and the short, unbroken journey from plate to mouth was a big relief for those of us not used to slippery, blunt-ended Chinese chopsticks). Above is beef rib in black bean sauce with sticky rice (which came wrapped in a lotus leaf, unlike Japanese chimaki which comes wrapped in a bamboo leaf).

The two vegetable dishes, ordered from the menu, were a welcome break. On the left is baby bok choy with garlic, and on the right are snow pea greens with garlic.

This was my favourite dish: eggplant stuffed with minced shrimp. A tad on the greasy side but so, so good.

The garlic chive dumplings were very good too, stuffed with a mixture of pork, shrimp and a restrained amount of garlic chives, compared to the usual Japanese nira manju most often made with pork only and an aggressive amount of garlic chives.

The only disappointment was that many of the dumpling style dishes came with broken wraps, as shown above. This is probably the only way that Japanese style dim sum is better, and I wonder how important it is. Are broken wraps a major flaw in authentic Chinese cooking? All in all, I vastly prefer Canadian style dim sum, Kingsley's included, to Japanese style. But which is more authentic?

We finished with two of my favourite sweets: sesame balls (which came stuffed with lotus seed paste instead of the sweet bean paste found in Japanese goma dango), and egg tarts (which for some reason I've never seen offered at any kind of Chinese restaurant in Japan).

My sister Julie with my nephew Aaron and niece Zoe.

My dad and Julie.

Me and my mom.

Back at home, I spent some quality time with the cats. Below is the newest member of the family, Toki (I can't take credit for the pretty picture, unfortunately: it was taken with my brother Greg's camera, either by him or his girlfriend Sherry):

I don't remember exactly how Toki entered our family (we have so many cat acquisition stories that it's hard to keep them straight), except that she was a kitten in need of a home and my family happened to have a cat vacancy at the time. After a trip home last year I blogged about Angus, the handsome cat who was the newest member of the family at the time. Sadly, just a few weeks after that post, I was told that Angus was hit by a car. It was devastating, but a few months later there was more news: a brand new kitten was working some kitten magic on my family, and although Angus will never be forgotten, his replacement was pretty awesome.

Toki gets along with Cocoa, the earless and not very photogenic (but really cute in person) cat shown above. Cocoa is a very easy going and and affectionate cat, who also got along really well with Angus. Toki is not quite as loving as Cocoa, but she's also not quite fully grown, and her kittenish antics are lots of fun to watch.

For more pictures of Cocoa, Angus, Toki, and other kitties I've known, see my Cat Album. 

I got to see some cats of a bigger kind when my dad took Aaron, Zoe, Hideaki and me for a trip to the Toronto Zoo. It was Hideaki's first time, and my first visit in over a decade, and as usual we only got to see a small part of it.

Also as usual, most of the animals were napping, but there was a bit of excitement when this tiger stalked and chased a chipmunk. Above it's cooling down after the hunt (the chipmunk escaped), but in full sprint it was amazingly fast.

Our trip was just a few days after we'd read in the paper about the death of one of the oldest elephants. She had died in an accident, after being knocked over by another elephant during feeding time and not being able to get back up. Watching a few of them eating peacefully it was hard to imagine the aggression that would cause such an accident.

 

Not all of the animals were in cages:

Caged and not, there were plenty of happy couples (some of them were really happy):

More zoo pictures can be found in my Zoo album.

Soon it was Canada Day, and we celebrated with a backyard get-together. We started by being underwhelmed by a Mentos soda-pop geyser:

Then were blown away by Greg's bbq ribs:

Along with burgers and other good stuff:

Then we were blown away again when Greg and his friend Jim did these fireworks:

And then I was underwhelmed again when I saw the pictures:

  

Oh well, fireworks always look better in real life.

I took a couple more trips downtown, once with Hideaki, Julie and Zoe for some rainy day shopping. Nobody got lost on this trip, and we even had time to admire Union Station. It looks really different from a tourist's perspective, especially looking up above the utilitarian signs and booths. I never noticed that each province's flag is displayed and that the names of major train stations across Canada are carved into the walls.

On the last trip downtown I returned to the Royal Ontario Museum with my friend Aspasia and checked out the old lobby, which I'd missed on my previous visit with my dad.

The stained glass windows and mosaic ceiling were just as impressive as ever, as were the totem poles that guard the stairs.

But we were there to see the Wedgewood exhibit. I'm not really a Wedgewood fan and my impression of the company was mostly as a maker of pricey wedding gifts, so I wasn't expecting to be particularly impressed. But I really enjoyed it and some of the pieces, especially the older ones, were breathtaking. I had no idea that Josiah Wedgwood was such a forward-thinking innovator, nor did I know of his relation to Darwin.

Sadly, the lighting made the exhibit hard to photograph, but here are some of the pieces I liked (and Aspasia shows her pictures here on her blog Domicile).

 

Apparently the exhibit has been extended and will be open until Spring 2010.

After the Wedgewood show we saw a bit more of the museum. I liked the section showing early plastic items, especially the plastic shoe heels in the picture above. I'd love to have a pair of these! 

I was also intrigued by this early timepiece, dating from the 16th century and featuring a rotating globe instead of a flat face. A figure of a black child (or baby faced man?) in a Roman gladiator costume holds a staff, the tip of which shows the time; meanwhile a weasel-like creature runs by his feet. What does it all mean? The black child seems majestic and dignified, which seems odd considering what Europeans were doing to Africans at the time. Or is the childish face and silly getup condescending? It is certainly nicer than the lawn jockeys that would be popular centuries later, but something seems off. And what's going on with the weasel?

More museum pictures can be seen here.

I continued to fill up on good food during my last week, including a long awaited Greek meal, Greek restaurants being a rarity in Japan. I fought with my family over yummy appetizers like the calimari above before settling down to a Greek salad, while Hideaki had his very first taste of moussaka, below.

He loved it and has requested I make it for him, pointing out that it's a lot like sheppard's pie so it really couldn't be so hard. We'll see.

I accompanied my Mom on a Costco shopping trip, which probably sounds boring to most people but for me, a Costco addict, was great. I was fascinated to see the differences between the Costco cafeteria menus in Brampton and Tokyo. The whole Costco experience tends to be extremely similar no matter where in the world you are so I've always assumed the cafeteria is the same too. But there aren't french fries at Japanese Costcos, and certainly not french fries with gravy, and definitely not poutine. Also, cheeseburgers, chicken strips, and Montreal smoked meat sandwiches. I do love the bulgogi bakes at Japanese Costcos, but I'd gladly trade them for poutine. Or at least a tub of gravy.

We'd been lusting over the summer edition of Food and Drink, the wonderful free magazine put out by the LCBO (Ontario's government controlled liquor retailer) when Sherry suddenly surprised us with a dessert made with the magazine's recipes (a big surprise, as I tend to treat food magazines as food porn rather than actually trying their recipes). Based on the Nectarine and Apricot Cookie Crumble  (page 169), but with strawberries, peaches and apricots. It was delicious, and although she thought there was too much liquid, I thought it was wonderful that way.

My mom made her famous lasagna and caesar salad based on a request by Hideaki (sloppy plating my fault). I thought it was a silly choice for summer, but the weather was so cool that it all worked out.

More classics: bacon-wrapped scallops and bacon-wrapped water chestnuts. They never went out of style as far as I'm concerned.

Another first for Hideaki: crumpets. I've never seen one in Japan, which is crazy considering how good they are. Maybe I should go into the crumpet business.

But we waited for Hideaki to leave (he went home a few days ahead of me) to eat the really good stuff. We bought live clams, mussels and lobsters from the Asian market, and while none of them were local (we live in southern Ontario, after all), they were a huge treat. Proper lobsters, with claws, are extremely rare in Japan, and although I occasionally come across mussels, I've never had a good one.

The lobsters were steamed and served in halves with garlic butter.

The mussels were steamed in wine and served with a baguette.

And my mom put the clams went into a pasta sauce, along with cherry tomatoes and pancetta. Yum!

For dessert, Sherry made strawberry shortcake with fresh local strawberries. Mine above was done with just a touch of cream as I'm not a whipped cream fan, but even if I was I wouldn't need much as our Ontario berries need no embellishment.

And suddenly I found myself on a plane home, my belly full of good food and my head full of happy memories. I can't wait for the next visit.

See more pictures from my visit here.

Tobermory

While we were at Sauble Beach we drove up the Bruce Peninsula for an afternoon of hiking, stopping first for lunch in Tobermory, at the tip of the peninsula. We ate at a pirate-themed restaurant called the Shipwreck, with a cheese factor that was outweighed by the good food (and the cute pirate waiters).

We started with fried pickles, a delicacy that was new to me but stayed true to the "anything can be good when deep-fried" rule, and then went on to fish & chips. We all chose the local whitefish and were rewarded with a very tasty fish, with a mild, slightly oily flavour and delicate flesh, unlike anything I can get in Japan (where river and sea fish are plentiful but lake fish rather rare).

Then we drove to the Bruce Peninsula National Park for a few hours of leisurely hiking. It was a beautiful park bordered by rugged cliffs and the occasional rocky beach along Georgian Bay on the east and Lake Huron on the west. There isn't much explanation needed, so here's an uninterrupted stream of pictures:

I was impressed by the washrooms, which were much nicer than the usual toilets found in parks. Large open windows let in light and offered ventilation, the wooden construction looked nice, and best of all there was no running water: instead of flushing away waste it stayed where it was and, with the help of woodchips, turned into compost. I'd love to see this type of toilet in Japan.

I slept through most of the drive back to Sauble (I had insisted on carrying a backpack full of beer and water for the hike, which made an easy hike into a tiring one) but woke up to take a picture of this very pretty field of canola flowers:

Note that some of these pictures were taken by my brother Greg and his girlfriend Sherry. See lots more by them and by me in my Sauble album at Flickr.

Sauble

 

During my trip back home this summer the whole family drove up for a four day visit to Sauble Beach, a place we've been visiting since before I was born. Located at base of the Bruce Peninsula on Lake Huron, the beach is one of the longest freshwater beaches in the world but is relatively undeveloped, and everything is still pretty much the same as when I was little, including the vintage sign at the south end of the beach. We stayed, like we usually do, at a rented cottage, and spent our time swimming, building sandcastles, and strolling along the beach.

We barbecued steaks and hot dogs and ate lots of fruits and vegetables (I ate more fruit in the lunch below than I do in an average week in Japan).

We also ate plenty of greasy local food, like beach poutine and Canadian-Chinese food (which I'd been craving for ages as it's completely different from the Chinese food in Japan). And of course there were a few trips Dairy Queen, but instead of the dipped cones I had there as a kid I went for Skor Blizzards, another craving of mine.

One of the few new things in Sauble is the Two Chicks Cafe, which offers relatively healthy food and outdoor seats that are a good place to don your shades and try to look cool.

On our last morning we saw another new thing: the the piping plover, an endangered bird that in the past few summers has been coming to the beach to breed. Two sections of the beach are designated breeding spots guarded by volunteers, who offer passersby binoculars to see the two pairs of very shy birds and their handful of chicks.

The two-hour drive back home to Brampton passes through some very pretty country on long, straight rodes that are a novelty for Hideaki and I, as rodes like this simply don't exist in compact, mountainous Japan.

Another novelty is the old barns and farmhouses and newer wind turbines that we pass by, and for some reason they fascinate me, especially the barns. Greg was nice enough to stop to let me take a few pictures by the side of the rode, but one of these days I'm going to have to get a closer look at a run-down barn.

 

Some of these pictures were taken by my brother Greg and his girlfriend Sherry. See tonnes more by them and by me in my Sauble album over at Flickr.

Canada, week three

This week's park was Jack Darling, another Mississauga waterfront park. We really liked this place and again wished we'd brought a picnic, so we could join one of the many families who'd set up for the day on the grass. A lot of these people were serious picnickers, who'd brought a backyard's worth of outdoor furniture, gas grills and hibachis, parasols and tents, and even hammocks. We really have to do that someday.

There are also sandy beaches, some of them even swimmable, although the beach above was completely taken over by Canada geese.

The park is next to Rattray Marsh, a pretty wetland that can be explored from raised wooden boardwalks. The paths continue into a forest, which was very nice and cool on this hot day, and although it was a weekend and fairly crowded we managed to see some neat stuff, including a family of weasels. OK, I didn't actually see them myself, but everyone else did and seemed to think they were neat.

The visit ended in the traditional way, with sausages and pop from a hot dog stand. Hideaki was really impressed with the stand and wished we had them in Tokyo. I guess I'm lucky to have such an easy to impress husband.

My sister had recently arrived from Texas, making this a complete family reunion. She and my Mom had stayed behind while we went to the park, and when we got back there was a feast waiting for us. It started with the amazing appetizer above, which was prosciutto-wrapped dates stuffed with blue cheese, broiled and topped with almonds and honey. This seems to be a popular recipe, judging by a search I just did, but I'd never heard of it before and was blown away. It was just amazing and very hard not to eat it all myself.

Then I put together some more traditional appetizers, and since this was Fathers' Day, these were Dad-oriented stinky canned and pickled things (and happily my Dad and I share similar tastes). Smoked oysters, smoked mussels, several kinds of sardines, pickled beets, pickled onions, dill pickles, plus crab dip and crackers. Most of this stuff can't be easily found in Japan, so I was probably even happier than Dad was.

After Fathers' Day festivities dinner was served. This was a whole salmon (head and tail cut off only because we didn't have a pan big enough for it) stuffed with spinach and baked. This is another dish I request often, and this might have been the best version ever (I think I say that every time, but this time I really mean it). The salmon came from Ocean's, the new(ish) Asian market in town, and seemed to be better than any we've bought in recent years. Great new Asian markets have popped up all over recently, making visits to the old dingy one unnecessary. Funny how things improve after I move away.

This is the salmon and its stuffing, served with new potatoes and green beans. I regretted eating all those appetizers, because I could have had three plates of this.

And more regret when dessert came: a fancy chocolate cake, apple tart, and fresh local strawberries (or what was left of them, for as soon as they hit the table hands were grabbing them).

Another night we went out for dinner, to Osso Bucco's, our local casual Italian place. Here Julie doles out the mussels for Zoe.

The mussels here are fantastic, but have a mysteriously Thai flavour. The sauce is billed as a spicy white wine cream sauce, and indeed it is, but there also seems to be coconut milk and curry. We always order these, and then everyone discusses what's in the recipe and we all vow to try making it ourselves. So far no one has, but one of these days...

Baked goat cheese, which you've all probably seen a million times but I can't get enough of it (goat cheese not being terribly popular in Japan).

I've always thought there's something wrong with people who order a soup or salad as their main dish at a nice restaurant. Why would anyone pass up delicious pastas, steaks, and other wonderful things for a boring dish that anyone can make at home? Well, something strange possessed me that night and I found myself ordering zuppa di pesce (seafood soup).

Possibly the giant servings at Osso Bucco had something to do with my odd behavior: I knew most of the main dishes would leave me stuffed beyond comfort, and I also knew that everyone else would have so much food that they'd be happy to share once I got tired of my soup. But there was no getting tired of this soup, it was fantastic. Yes, I did sample everyone else's dinners, but only to assure myself that I'd ordered the best thing on the menu. Bonus: I was able to finish it all and didn't feel like exploding afterward.

Another night it was Sherry's turn to cook dinner. She made a Korean feast of miso soup, bulgogi beef, rice, sauteed greens of some kind and garlicky broccoli. It was wonderful, and I was especially happy to eat white rice and miso soup as I was starting to miss Japanese food. But I got a shock when I tried the soup: it was spicy! It looked just like Japanese miso soup, with tofu and green onions floating around, but it turned out there were green chillies lurking at the bottom. Once I got over my surprise I realized it was delicious. Chilli goes really well with miso, and it's such a genius combination that I'll be making it myself soon.

Another day Hideaki and I hitched a ride into Toronto with my Dad. We all parted ways in the morning: Dad for an appointment, me to meet my friend Aspasia, and Hideaki to explore the city by himself. I had a great day roaming the city, doing stuff like eating the excellent pho above, lots of chatting over lots of coffee, spending my useless Canadian dollars on pretty clothes in Kensington market, and a fruitless search for a certain kind of tomato that apparently doesn't exist in Toronto.

Hideaki also had a good day, mostly, and upon looking at the hundreds of pictures he took (typical Japanese tourist, hehe) I realized he went to many of the same places we went, mostly at the same time. It's amazing we didn't bump into each other, and when I heard about his later misadventures I wished we had (or at least I wished we'd had cell phones).

His route took him from the Tourist Information office at Yonge and Dundas (where I set him up with a map and left him to it), over to Little Italy at College and Bathurst, where he had lunch, above.

Then he headed down to Kensington Market, then Chinatown, then along Queen Street West, then down to Front Street and on to the St. Lawrence Market.

And finally he ended up at Union Station. Not particularly impressive, except that it was all on foot, on one of the hottest days in June. I'd given him tokens for the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission, consisting of buses, streetcars and subways) but he hadn't used them for some reason.

Unfortunately I been told that the GO (Ontario public transit) trains to Brampton ran all day, and had supplied Hideaki with the same incorrect information. I had had a little trouble myself getting home, having just missed the last train but not knowing it until I was almost on the platforms. Funny how when I asked the teller for a one-way train ticket to Brampton she didn't tell me there were no trains. Of course there are buses, which cost the same, so it's all the same to her, but that (plus the typically Canadian lack of any kind of useful signage) led to some confusion and I barely managed to find and catch the right bus home.

And if I, as a native English speaker who actually used to live in Toronto, had trouble, I figured Hideaki would too. I hoped that he had gone home early and managed to catch a train like I told him.

But when I got home he wasn't there, and it was a suspenseful few hours until we heard from him. When he finally called I was ready to call the police to report him missing, but he was fine, having gone through nothing worse than falling victim to a couple of useless transport systems staffed by useless people.

Just like me, He'd bought a ticket to Brampton after the trains had stopped, and also not been told there were no trains. He'd also later been unable to find the (nonexistent) platform and asked a GO employee what to do, and was told to take the train to Bramalea (the stop before Brampton) and then take a Brampton Transit bus to Brampton station. A completely different (and completely asinine) answer to the same question I had asked.

So he did what he was told (having a snack of timbits and iced coffee first at his favourite place in the world, Tim Hortons), and at Bramalea tried to find a bus to take him to the Brampton GO station, but none of the maps and schedules could help. He did ask the teller at the terminal and two bus drivers, and was told by all three that there is no bus to downtown Brampton. True, and so far so good. But two of those three didn't know which combination of buses would get him there (and didn't bother to find out) and one of them did, but Hideaki couldn't understand and/or remember the instructions. I suppose he could have tried writing them down asked the driver to repeat the instructions or speak more slowly, but I'm just proud of him for overcoming his gender and asking for directions in the first place. He could also have called us at that point, but again: Y chromosome and all that.

So he just gave up and took a taxi to the downtown Brampton GO station, then called us for a ride home as planned. Little did he know that Bramalea is a 10-minute drive from our home and that he could have called us from there and saved himself the twenty-five dollar cab fare.

OK, a long, not very interesting story, but after over a decade of living in Japan I found it all shocking, as Tokyo and its suburbs have a transportation system that's a hundred times bigger and more complicated yet is far easier to navigate thanks to well-coordinated systems, sensible design, good signage, and employees who are generally very helpful and extremely knowledgeable. It's not perfect in Japan and I've gotten lost plenty of times or occasionally dealt with a nasty driver or teller, but every time I've asked a question to any kind of transportation official he's either immediately given me a clear and correct answer, or directed me to another who could do so.

I'm actually kind of glad it happened though, because Hideaki has fallen in love with Canada and I don't want him to be too impressed, lest he be disappointed later. Better to let him see the faults from the beginning.

Back at home we were keeping ourselves amused with Sorry, our favorite board game. Dad likes to keep it interesting by adding little extras to the board, but it soon became clear that Sorry wasn't going to be enough: it's made for four players but there were eight of us.

So I searched my Dad's office (which was doubling as our guest room) and found an old piece of poster board (with a chart on one side made by my Mom for a PTA meeting 30 years ago--Dad is quite the pack rat). After hours of excruciating mathematical calculations and several re-dos (I'm math-challenged) Zoe and I designed a bigger and better board with room for eight players. We all took turns decorating each player's home base, and then we gave the board a try.

Or rather, the board was put away and tried a week later, as nobody really seemed that impressed for some reason. I think it's pure genius, with extra slides that take players all the way to the other side of the board and certain places that allow you to trade positions with other players (without which the game would take longer than Monopoly to finish). When we finally got around to playing it, with clips, chopstick rests, erasers and other pieces we'd found around the house, I loved it. And although everyone else fell asleep at the table I think with a few refinements this could be a winner. I'll be contacting Parker Brothers soon, and within a year or two I'm quite sure I'll be retiring as a billionaire. Contact me if you're interested in a partnership.

Canada, week two

Another week, another park. This time we drove down to Mississauga's Lakefront Promenade Park, a collection of parks and trails running along the shores of Lake Ontario.

The area used to be dominated by the four ugly smokestacks of the Lakeview Generation Station, but as it was demolished two years ago the focus is on the parks, as well as on the lake itself. It turns out to be a pretty area, and I wondered why I'd never been before, despite going to high school (Cawthra Park) just blocks away for a year. Maybe I never ventured down to the lake because the smokestacks didn't prome much, or maybe much of the parkland just didn't exist then: I've read that many of the parks along the waterfront are relatively new.

We saw a bunch of swans, including a family with an aggressive daddy, shown charging seagulls below. But without a picnic there wasn't much to do, so once we'd walked all the paths and munched on some sausages from the requisite hot dog stand, we headed home.

This is the view from the west-facing side of our house, and once upon a time we could see clear across fields and valleys. But little by little, starting with a distant Walmart and ending with this school across the street, the view has disappeared. It's still a million times better from the view from our apartment in Tokyo though, and I saw more sunsets in my month-long visit than I normally do in a year.

Things continued to go well in the eating department. Above are some bbq shrimp done my brother Greg, who is in charge of the outdoor cooking.

Indoor eating happened more often than we would have liked (thanks to the cool and rainy weather), but we didn't mind, because my Mom served us yummy stuff like the dinner above: orzo with parsley and lemon, prosciutto-wrapped halibut, grilled fennel and carrots. The full meal (minus the carrots, meant for those who don't like fennel) was taken straight from a wonderful new cookbook of hers called The Main that features main dishes with suggested sides. It was all good, including the fennel, which I'd never had before. I wonder if I can find it in Japan?

I request Swedish meatballs every time I go home for a visit and my Mom, who is half Swedish, is usually happy to oblige. Here they are served with cranberry sauce (we were out of lingonberry sauce), new potatoes, pickled red cabbage, pickled beets, and asparagus.

Swedish food tends to bring on pangs of nostalgia in my Mom, which for some unfortunate reason can only be eased by playing Swedish folk music. Luckily we only have the one album, and a few songs (preferably including the classic "Ack Varmeland, du Skona") usually do the trick. To help keep things interesting, we read some liner notes my Dad wrote years ago when he made tapes of the album for non-record player owning family members.

For one short day I flew up to Ottawa to visit my friend Krista and meet her new baby boy. He has beautiful blue eyes and is one of the happiest, cutest, and most laid-back babies I've met. I still don't really know what to do with babies (as in, how to hold them, what to say to them, etc) but this little guy was fun just to watch.

They're about to move, so I got to say good-bye to their lovely old house and see their even lovelier new house. Well, new to them I mean: I think it's about 80 years old and comes with beautiful wood finishings, stained glass doors and windows, and a shady back garden. I would love to have a house like this someday.

Just before I left, Krista's parents came back from a visit to Thunder Bay, and among the souvenirs were these pastries. Called Persians, they're a bit like a cinnamon roll but topped with pink strawberry icing, and apparently a Thunder Bay institution.

Another day was spent with my Dad and the kids at the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum), checking out the Book of the Dead exhibit in the ancient Egypt section (it was too dark for any pictures), the gems and minerals exhibit, and of course the dinosaurs.

I could have spent hours in the Earth's Treasures gallery looking at the minerals, the vast majority of which I'd never heard of, and the adjoining gallery's Light & Stone: Gems from the Collection of Michael Scott was just stunning.

These are tourmalines, which come in way more colours than I knew about.

This bust, called Mephisto, was carved from a single ruby, set on an obsidian base, and embellished with gold.

I don't remember what these are. The colour of the stone on the left looks like amethyst, but the crystal in the middle is the wrong shape and the stones seem too sparkly (although the stones were so well lit that they all sparkled beautifully).

This looks like a cameo cut from a seashell but is actually an agate, carved to take advantage of the differently coloured layers.

This mouse is also agate, with sapphire eyes, an aquamarine sheet of ice, and gold whiskers, tail and skates.

The dinosaurs were in the new Michael Lee-Chin wing, and whatever you might think about the architecture from the outside, I think it's a nice looking space from the inside, well suited to to the old bones housed there.

The gem exhibit will be at the ROM until November this year, so don't miss it.

When it was nice enough to eat outside again, Greg set up a complicated fajita station. He grilled some steaks, chopped up some vegetables, sliced up the steaks, the fried them with the veggies.

We each got to grill our tortillas and top them with the beef filling and our choice of guacamole, four kinds of cheese, and three kinds of salsa (plus cucumber salad on the side).

And then of course there were the hot sauces. I really liked Mountain Man, but the rest were way too spicy for me.

Here's mine before wrapping, and wow was it ever good.

The Brampton Farmers' Market is held every Saturday throughout the summer, with the opening day in mid-June featuring an and all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast. Big and fluffy and topped with real maple syrup, they were delicious, but sadly the first two I got were all I could eat.

Oh yeah, there's Hideaki. He came for a two week visit during my stay, his first trip to Canada in four years.

There wasn't as much produce as I'd hoped (did I mention the crappy weather? yes? well, it had been going on long before I arrived, and caused crops to be late) but I consoled myself with a back bacon sandwich.

It started to rain so we gave up on the market as soon as we'd bought our stuff, and after finding some bargains at a church bazaar we went to the nearby Art Gallery of Peel. Part of the Peel Heritage Complex, where my Mom used to work, it was holding an exhibit called Arresting Images that featured mugshots from the Ontario Provincial Police Museum.

We stopped to pose as jailbirds in front of the gallery, and Aaron played the part particularly well. The museum adjoining the gallery is housed in the old Peel County Jail, built in 1867, and a quick tour of the museum's jail exhibit went well with the mugshot exhibit.

The collection was fascinating, with mugshots dating from the 1880s to the early 1900s. They were all proper portraits, most of them beautifully done and featuring studio backdrops. In most cases both the front and back were displayed, so we could see what details were thought to be important enough to record. This information included complicated body measurements (head width, forearm length), whether the suspect could read and write, and details about facial features ("nose: good"). It was also an interesting look at the writing of the time, with much of the script unreadable and a surprising number of spelling mistakes.

My favourite was this double mugshot, and if you look carefully at the man on the left's right hand (click here for a larger view) you'll see why.

There were just two or three women (all sporting great hats), including this lady who was apparently arrested for being suspicious.

Many suspects were from the US, but there were also a few overseas foreigners as well, including this gentleman from India who was suspected of fraud and the young suspected thief from Italy below, whose card notes he "speaks good English".

There were three mugshots of black suspects, and these two were especially poignant. The remarks on the card above say "This Nigro was Arrested on Suspicions of Commited Murder in Washington DC..." followed by "Not the Man" and "Discharged" (hopefully I misread the writing, and the spelling and grammar are not really that atrocious). The man below was also arrested on suspicion of murder. He was a horseman with the nickname of "Peewee", he couldn't read or write, and he ended up with a life sentence. His mugshot not only shows him in handcuffs, one of just a few mugshots to do so, but has him holding an actual gun.

The gallery had an old-fashioned backdrop set up along with a small collection of old timey clothes and hats, so we went ahead and took some mugshots of ourselves. Here is Zoe, very much in character, next is my brother's girlfriend Sherry, who is the least likely of all of us to ever end up in a real mugshot, then Aaron, rocking the bowler hat (not, it's not a miniature), me, a little too happy to be in a mugshot, and Hideaki, looking right at home.

The Arresting Images Exhibit is already over at the Art Gallery of Peel, but will be travelling around Ontario for the next year or so (click the link above to find a schedule). It's definitely worth a visit if it comes near you.

See more pictures from the ROM and the mugshot collection in my Museum and Gallery album, and more pictures of my visit in my Canada 2009 album.

Canada, week one

My trip to Canada last month started as it always does, with a dose of jetlag. But I don't know if it was the result of a pleasant flight (did I really just describe a 12 hour flight as "pleasant"? why yes, yes I did. thanks Air Canada and your endless stream of movies and TV shows) or the homeopathic anti-jet lag pills I took, but this time around I had the mildest jet lag ever. The worst I had to deal with was a week of early nights, spontaneous naps and very early mornings, which wasn't bad at all. And I have a feeling that even without jet lag I'd be waking up at 4:00, because that's when our backyard starts to come alive with robins and other birds announcing the coming day.

The early mornings were also a nice for walks in the nearby park, as that's the best time for picturesque fog, dewy flowers and active birds. The birds (and a local beaver) eluded my camera but the snails, which seemed to be everywhere thanks to some very wet weather, obligingly stayed still for me.

That wet weather kept us indoors more than I would have liked, but as a consolation there was lots of good food. Some of the biggest cravings I get in Japan are for simple, humble food like Jamaican hot patties or perogies, shown above.

I also miss Mexican and Tex-mex food, which although available in Tokyo is either prohibitively expensive or not very good. Luckily my brother Greg and his girlfriend Sherry are masters of Mexican cooking and whipped up several excellent meals for us. Above are condiments for quesadillas: mango salsa, sour cream, mild tomato salsa, guacamole, hot salsa and a side dish of (why not?) sauteed gai lan (a rapini-like Chinese green).

These were chicken quesadillas, cooked up on the barbeque and so, so good.

And of course no trip back home is complete without a few big breakfasts.This one was at Cora's, an lovely breakfast chain that originated in Montreal but has happily spread across Canada. Tempted by waffles and omelets, I chose brioche French toast topped with a poached egg, bacon, and mounds of fruit. Yum.

My niece Zoe and nephew Aaron flew up from  for a visit shortly after I arrived and we tried to keep them busy, starting with a trip with my Dad to Belfountain, a local conservation area with some nice and easy hiking trails. The area once belonged to a wealthy and slightly eccentric inventor, who in addition to building a house and trails also put up a fountain topped with a bell (get it?),

 a small and mysterious cave, (called Yellowstone Cave, and said to be modeled after a similar cave in Yellowstone Park, although I don't know if such a cave actually exists),

a miniature Niagara Falls,

and a suspension bridge (also shown in the previous post).

One of the trails is a loop that runs along the West Credit River and takes about an hour to complete, so we had a nice little walk.

There were flowers blooming everywhere, from the exotic yellow lady slipper orchids, below, to mundane but pretty buttercups and brassicas.

We were also lucky enough to see three salamanders, which I think were easter redbacks. Not much wildlife otherwise.

Except for the kids, of course.

See more pictures from Belfountain in my Hikes and Walks album, and all the pictures from my visit in my Canada 2009 album.

Back home Part 2

The purpose of my trips home is to see family and friends, but there are plenty of other highlights--eating food that I can't get in Japan, buying clothes and shoes that fit, browsing through bookstores (and my parent's living room) filled with books in English, and raiding my father's beer and wine fridge. But an unexpected highlight is the cats. They aren't my cats so I don't actually miss them when I'm in Japan, but when I'm back in Canada they are such a joy to have around.

They are not the cats I grew up with (Mama Kitty and Manute left for the Happy Hunting Grounds years ago), and I can't actually play with them very much, having finally learned that the only way to keep my cat allergies in check is to keep away from them. But they are plenty cute and watching them do their cat thing is nice enough.

The handsome cat above is Angus, the newest addition to the family. He was brought to the the door as a tiny kitten a few years ago, by a couple of neighborhood girls going door to door looking for someone to adopt him. My family is powerless to refuse a kitten in need of a home, so they took him in and raised him to be both the fattest and friendliest cat they've had.

Cocoa, the black cat in the picture above (he's nothing more than a blur as he was in his crazed horizontal climbing mode at the time), has been around a bit longer. He hardly has any ears, as they fell off due to frostbite after he was abandoned in the woods during a snowstorm. Wait, I've told his story before. A few times. Anyway, they are both great cats, and far more gregarious than our previous cats which makes them really easy to like. Being a person with severe allergies, living in an apartment that doesn't allow pets in a dog-loving country, it's nice to be reminded why I'm a cat person.

 

But Angus and Cocoa weren't the only cuties I encountered on my visit. The purpose of the trip was to attend a wedding, and here the niece of the bride poses with the wedding cake (the photographer is one of her nephews.

Getting married was Krista, who's been my friend since we were four. My goodness, I just realized: we met on the first day of kindergarten, and this being the start of the school year that makes us friends for exactly 30 years. Holy cow.

 

And speaking of cuties, here's me, Krista, and Johanna, another friend who came along just after that first day of school. We were inseparable back then (we were described in one of the wedding speeches as a gang) and it was great to see them both, and especially great to see Krista married. The wedding itself was lovely, held at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa (mastodon fossils and replicas of giant beavers added a certain special something to the atmosphere).

Sadly, I missed out on mingling and dancing as my back had gone out the day before. I've been bothered by a sore lower back for over a year (which I now wish I had checked out) but this was the first time I was struck by a sudden debilitating attack. It was quite terrifying, as it happened when we were staying at the bride's parents house (our folks became friends soon after we did) and I was all alone, everyone else busy with wedding preparations. I didn't do anything special to hurt it, it just suddenly went, and I was barely able to make it to bed. Where I laid, unable to move, for what seemed like all day until someone finally heard my pathetic cries for help. I was starting to freak out by that time, being a minor hypochondriac: I was sure that I'd broken my back and was imagining living the rest of my life in a wheel chair, or at least racking up outrageous hospital bills (as a non-resident I no longer have health insurance back home) during months of rehabilitation.

But I was lucky, as many of the people who had gathered for the wedding (including the bride herself) were well experienced with back pain and had plenty of sympathy and advice. Neither of which took the pain away (the meds they shared were fairly effective though), but it was so reassuring to learn that this was so common, and that everyone recovers.

Even more lucky was that there were doctors among the wedding guests, and one was at my side very quickly. My mother took him aside before he saw me and explained that I had no insurance, which he said was just fine since he wasn't licensed to practice medicine in Ontario anyway. Not terribly reassuring, but he turned out to be a great doctor: friendly and kind with the perfect gentle and assured bedside manner--something I've not seen in a single doctor (and I've seen a lot) here in Japan. He was quickly able to determine that it was likely just a pinched nerve and immediately did some manipulations that helped. It hurt like the devil but on the last stretch my back did a nearly orgasmic pop (loud enough for the whole room to hear) and although I wasn't cured, the pain reduced dramatically.

So I was lucky, and I there were only a four half days of being in pain and immobile. The other half of those days, and every day since, there was only minor pain, and now the only lasting affects are the occasional touch of discomfort and my new status as an official Old Person. Because now fully half of my conversations are about my health. And now it's happening on my blog too--sorry, I'll stop now.

 

After my back got better good stuff kept happening. I met up with some old friends I hadn't seen in a decade or two, who I assumed I'd never see again (and then Facebook came along). And my sister flew up from San Antonio for a surprise visit. It was just two days and it was very low-key, thanks to my back (there I go again), but it was great to see her. We got in some very good eating, much of which I didn't have the patience to photograph well. The osso bucco above doesn't look like much, but it was pure heaven. It was served at a Brampton restaurantcalled, funnily enough, Osso Bucco, where a family dinner has become a tradition during my visits home.

 

We went with the aforementioned Johanna and her family. That's her daughter Maggie, thoroughly enjoying her dessert.

 

The weather stayed nice and we had a few meals and happy hours outside, including this one that started with my sister's baked goat cheese, which is supposed to be a dip but I always end up eating by the spoonful.

 

The Flintstone-esque hunks of meat above are my brothers doing. The dish is called "beef bones" (and indeed that's what they are sold as at the Asian market, so I have no idea what cut this is--shank?) and is the result of hours, maybe days, of slow roasting. If you're a meat lover I don't have to tell you how good these were (and if you're not, sorry for the gratuitous picture--the rest of this post is meat-free, I promise).

 

Another craving satisfied: pie. Actually two, as it's a strawberry-rhubarb pie, and rhubarb doesn't exist in Japan. While I've never been a huge dessert person, and of the stuff that I do like 99% of it is far better in Japan than in Canada, pie is something I miss terribly. There is apple pie in Japan, or at least something that they call apple pie, but it's not the same. Dainty, with hard thin crust that requires a heavy duty knife to cut, and when you do cut it the wedge keeps its shape perfectly because the filling is dry and firm, and there is no juice, no spice, no flavour. Horrible, horriblestuff. The pie above was a regular grocery store pie, but it was immensely better than Japanese pie, with a soft flaky crust and soft gooey innards with the right sweet-tart flavour. I only regret that there were so many other good meals that I was too well-stuffed to eat the whole pie. 

 

I didn't spend as much time out of doors as I would have liked, but I did have time to admire the garden, which seems to get prettier every year. The strawberry flower above puzzled me a bit, because I've never seen one with pink blossoms, nor one that bore fruit in September. I guess ornamental hanging strawberries are special.

 

The morning glories were as glorious as I've ever seen them, with impossibly vibrant blues and purples. I don't know what colours they appear to my colour-blind father, but I hope they are as beautiful as I see them.

 

 

And then it was time to go. The cats planted themselves on or in my suitcases, and Cocoa especially seemed to want to go home with me. I know he'd love it in Japan, where black cats aren't bad luck and there's all the fish you can eat, but my family felt differently so he stayed behind. So good-bye Cocoa, good-by Angus, and good-bye to family, old friends, newlyweds, cute children, and back-fixers. See you all next year!

Back home

Having been back in Japan for days, a report of my trip home is overdue. So here goes: I spent 13 days back home in Brampton (a suburb of Toronto, Can), and it was both the best and worst visit home ever. It started out well enough, or at least as well as a 14 hour flight can be: I had a window seat with a decent view, and next to me were two handsome rock stars. Unfortunately they were sitting on the side of my bad ear I didn't really catch the name of the band, and because I don't keep track of music these days I have no idea who they were (but if anyone knows any 4-member Toronto-based band that toured in Japan for 6 weeks this summer, do let me know).

Upon arrival home I was treated to a lovely dinner outdoors, featuring steak of course (as my family has long been under the impression that there is a beef shortage in Japan). It was perfectly cooked (by my brother, the bbq master) and everything was delicious, so I didn't complain. All of the food was good, and so was the wine, and so was eating out in the backyard--next to my family, a backyard is what I miss the most in Japan.

 

The bbq (or bbqs, since my bro has several) were in use pretty much every day I was back. The next day was cedar-planked salmon with a maple-whiskey glaze, and it was far better than this picture would have you believe.

 

Feeling nostalgic, I grabbed lunch one day at Sonny's, a burger place across from my old high school. Sonny's has been around forever, and while I don't think I ever went when I was actually going to school across the road, my family used to go when I was little and I have fond memories. My high hopes were only heightened when I entered the shop and saw a man in the back cutting up potatoes for the fries. So I ordered a burger and poutine (for you non-Canadians that's french fries topped with gravy and cheese curds) and then had my hopes horribly crushed: the burger was nothing special, the fries were barely cooked, and the cheese was all wrong. And I'd forgive the burger and cheese, but as far as I'm concerned there is nothing more ghastly than a pale, limp, undercooked french fry.

Another trip down memory lane involved this pizza, ordered from Joe's Pizzeria and Spaghetti House: something my family seems to do every Friday night. And I only just found out that this is the same Joe's we used to go to when I was little (it was always either Joe's or Sonny's) to enjoy panzerotti and Brio. Brio, if you don't know, is an Italian cola that I didn't even like but was so different and exotic that I always felt compelled to drink it, and panzerotti is what most of the world (except for Ontario and, for some reason, New Jersey) calls calzone. Anyway, I highly approve of the Friday night Joe's tradition, as the pizza is good. I do prefer the Neapolitan style pizza widely available--for a pretty penny--in restaurants in Tokyo, but Japanese delivery pizza is another story and Joe's beats it hands-down.

But my trip home wasn't just about eating. There was also plenty of napping (jet lag never spares me), and I even managed to get out for a nice walk. Everything looked very lush and green in my neighborhood, which was probably due to the very cool and rainy summer--Southern Ontario experienced the wettest summer on record, I'm told.

 

Sadly my foraging plans were derailed: the strange weather prevented the raspberries, usually just coming into their second crop at that time, from developing. And the saskatoon berry bushes (they're a bit like blueberries) we'd discovered on my last visit were nothing more than a few stumps. The culprit: the local beaver population.

 

The sight of these berries perked me right up though. The pretty little purple and yellow flowers identified them as a member of the nightshade family (members include tomatoes, eggplants, and potatoes), and the berries looked like teeny little tomatoes. I ignored my father's warning about certain other, less reputable, nightshade plants and took a little tiny taste. It was sweet and intensely tomatoey, so I popped the whole thing in my mouth and gulped it down--and instantly my mouth was filled with a horrible bitter flavour. It was a long walk home, and never having actually seen deadly nightshade (aka the highly toxic belladonna) I had no way of knowing whether or not I'd just poisoned myself.

Wikipedia put my mind at ease, as the berry I ate seems to have been bittersweet, a relative of deadly nightshade that is only just mildly toxic. Nothing at all happened, which was actually a bit of a disappointment as I had read online that while the berries weren't extremely toxic, they will "clean you out at both ends". And if you suffer from a certain travel-induced condition like I do, you'll understand how that sounded like something I wanted to experience. But nope, no effect at all (I remember where they were though, and next time I'm eating three).

Surviving a near-poisoning is something to celebrate, so the family and I went to Symposion, a Greek restautant in Brampton. Living in Japan, Greek is one of the cuisines--along with West Indian--that I miss the most, and I go here nearly every visit home.

We started with saganaki, a gooey cheese dish that is set ablaze at the table and is sinfully good but requires a lot of bread to tame the copious amount of salt. It was the first time I tried it and I couldn't get its name right, and perhaps influenced by the flames, I kept calling it "nagasaki" (which amused no one but myself).

 

Next up: dolmades, or dolomades, or dolma, or whatever you want to call it: grape leaves stuffed with meat, served in a rich lemony sauce.

 

My brother, who has only recently discovered seafood, ordered this giant platter of shrimp, scallops and calamari. And was kind enough to share.

 

I had roasted lamb shank, and was so excited to see it that I couldn't even keep my camera steady (sorry about the blur). It was perfect, and made me wish that lamb was more popular in Japan.

Another fine meal was at Village of India, which serves a bargain-priced vegetarian Indian buffet. I only discovered this place on my last visit (thanks to a taxi driver's recommendation) but it is already a favourite. 

 

I wish I could tell you what all that stuff on my plate is, but I don't know. The only drawback to the place is that none of the food is labeled, but then again most of the customers seem to know what everything is so I guess it's not really necessary.

 

The place also sells Indian sweets to go, but they are all a bit too mysterious for me so I made do with a pinch of pan masala (candied fennel seeds).

 

The good eating continued on to Owl of Minerva, a Korean restaurant in North York. We were there to eat their famous pork bone soup but began with pajeon, a savoury pancake filled with long onion and squid (it's called chijimi in Japanese, where it is considered a Korean form of okonomiyaki).  

We also had deep-fried pork which was good and would have been amazing, except for the too-sweet sauce. Still, the combination of my favourite food themes--pork and deep frying--can never really be bad. The banchan (kimchi and other little dishes that are served free) were a treat, since they don't exist in Japan: you actually have to pay for them.

 

Next was dolsot bibimbap (called ishiyaki bibimba in Japan, where it is hugely popular), which is a searing hot stone bowl filled with rice and various toppings. Mashed up with a spoon, flavoured with kochujang (a hot and sweet chili paste) it is delicious, and is even better when left alone to sear for a while in hot bowl, in order to let the rice get crispy. 

 

And the main event: gamjatang (pork bone soup). I had heard all about how wonderful it was, and it didn't disappoint. The pork was tender enough to fall off the bone with little work, and the broth was rich, hearty, perfectly spiced, and wonderfully porky. Gamjatang is new to me (Korean restaurants in Japan focus on beef) but is now a favourite. I doubt if I can find pork bones in Japan so I won't be trying recreate it myself, but if anybody in Tokyo knows of a place that serves this, please leave a comment. Because I'm not due for another visit home until next year, and I don't think I can wait that long.

Next up, the last half of my visit. For now, you can check out a few more pictures from the trip in my Summer 2008 album.

Eyes, teeth, and ankles

My trip back home to Canada was not just about eating-- I actually had a few other reasons for going. One of them was LASIK, a procedure that is not yet very popular here in Japan. It does exist and I could easily have done it here, but with the language barrier and my general dislike for the Japanese medical system I decided that Canada was the place to do it (plus it's quite a bit cheaper there).

The surgery was done exactly one month ago. I was terribly nervous but the clinic was efficient and comfortable and everything went very smoothly. Everything, that is, except for meeting a disgruntled patient as I was waiting outside the operating room. We struck up a conversation and it turned out he had already had his surgery, which naturally led me to ask how it had gone. "Great, except that I can't see at night" was his reply, and then the nurse called me in. The sedative they had given me earlier had been working fine up to that point, but now I was ready to make a run for it. Somehow I didn't, and a few minutes later it was all over.

There was never any pain, although few hours of extreme sensitivity to light made the ride home pretty uncomfortable and my eyes were pretty dry. I was supposed to rest in a dark room and not read or watch TV for the rest of the day and had anticipated being bored, but I mostly just slept. And when I woke up the next day I was fine.

My vision is now 20-20, and yes, I can see in the dark. Strangely, being able to see hasn't had the big, dramatic impact I had expected, perhaps since I always wore contacts anyway. It's not like when I first got my glasses (back when I was 12 or so) and spent the ride home from the optometrists with my face glued to the car window, amazed at how beautiful everything was. I remember how thrilled I was to be able to see the individual leaves on all the trees. But LASIK was not like that, and the only time I really notice is when I reach for my glasses in the morning and realize they're not there.

But there have been other changes, one of which was completely unanticipated:

• My eyes are very dry, and may continue to be so for several more months, but the problem is nothing that eyedrops can't fix and is actually not as bad as the dry eyes I often had with contacts.
• My morning and evening routines are a lot quicker without having to fiddle with my contact lenses.
• Traveling and camping are so much easier since I don't have to lug around all my gear.
• I no longer have the scary red eyes I frequently got from wearing my contacts for too long.
• There is way less gunk in the corners of my eyes.
• I look better, with the dark circles under my eyes less noticeable. Maybe because I'm not prodding my eyes twice a day putting in and taking out my contacts?
• My allergies have disappeared. I have no idea how to explain it, and extensive searches on the internet haven't helped. But I swear to god it's true. I have hayfever, year-round allergies to dust and severe allergies to cats-- always a problem when I go home because my family has two of them. This visit I was just as allergic as always, until the day I came back from my surgery. Almost as soon as I lay down, Coco the cat (who has a magical sick people detector) came and purred on me for a while, and I was too tired to resist. Afterwords, the usual allergy attack didn't come-- not so much as a sniffle. And since then I haven't sneezed or sniffled at all, despite coming down with a cold and living in the same dusty conditions as before. I suppose it has something to do with the dryness-- maybe my body is directing all its water to my eyes? Whatever the reason, I hope to god it lasts.

So I came back with better eyes, but my teeth didn't fare that well: during a tooth cleaning (I always get that done back home as I'm too scared to see a Japanese dentist) two small cavities were discovered. No big deal, you may think, but it was for me as these were my first two cavities, ever. I've always been rather proud of my good teeth, you see. Perhaps a bit smug, even. Especially here in Japan, where people tend not to have very good teeth (and revealing my non-cavity status to people here can induce feelings of awe and envy, which is fun). Plus, I'm deathly afraid of dentists, and expected having my cavities filled to be a traumatic and painful business.

It wasn't, thanks to laughing gas. My cavities were small enough that a needle was not necessary, so all I had to do was breath in a steady dose of nitrous oxide and I was fine, floating around on a gentle, comfy cloud and enjoying some funky acoustic hallucinations. I could still feel what was going on in my mouth, only it didn't hurt. And of course I felt great. I'm now a big fan of laughing gas and quite looking forward to my next cavity.

The LASIK and tooth stuff were nice little bonuses on this trip, but my main reason for going home was to see my mother. A mole just above her inner ankle had been diagnosed as melanoma early this year, and various complications prevented further tests and surgeries until May. She had a lymph node biopsy, a large chunk of her leg taken out, and a skin graft, and although I wanted to go home at that time I was asked not to (there was talk about me stressing her out or something-- obviously the endless tests and treatments made her a bit deranged). So by the time I came home Mom had had a few weeks to recover, and her results were back: the cancer hadn't spread.

When I arrived she had a nurse coming in every day to change the dressings and was in bed, only getting up for bathroom or hospital visits, with the help of a walker. And by the time I left, one month later, she was up and walking around normally, with the nurse coming every other day. She definitely over-exerted herself with all her kids and grandkids visiting, but it was great to see her up, recovering, and cancer-free. So although this visit back was rather quiet for me, with less shopping and going out than usual, it was my best visit back yet.

I'm trying to be more careful about the sun, but really there's not much more I can do as I've already picked up some healthy habits here in Japan. For a few years now I haven't been going out in the daytime without sunglasses and a hat, year-round. I haven't gotten to the point where I'm carrying a parasol and wearing gloves and arm protectors like Japanese women, but that may happen. I still love the beach but am trying to go less often (although my not going to Okinawa or other sunny places this year is more about economics than anything else). And if one of my many moles starts to look funny, I'm going straight to the doctor.

I hope to stay healthy for a long time, and wish the same for my Mom, the rest of my family, and all of you. 

Canada visit: last week

After my sister, niece and nephew flew back to Texas I had a last relaxing week at home. I finished up my shopping, thrilled to be able to find things in my size (and not so thrilled at the lack of variety available, with dozens of different shops selling exactly the same stuff). I ate well. And I took a few walks around the neighborhood, especially down to the creek.

The creek is surrounded by parkland and is full of flowers, birds, and bugs, like this tiny woolly aphid, which being just a few millimetres in size I originally mistook for a little fluff of cotton.

It is also full of fruit, like red raspberries, saskatoon berries and these black raspberries. The black raspberries were especially abundant, and since nobody else seems to know about them there were always plenty ready to be picked.

My brother did a few more excellent barbecue meals, like this roast. It was done on a spit (yup-- he actually has one of his grills set up with a rotisserie) with the juices falling into a pan of potatoes underneath. The meal started with a thick minestrone-like soup made by Sherry and a salad made by me-- pretty much the only "cooking" I did all month.

Greek food is a must on my visits home, since it hardly exists in Japan. This time my Mom took me out for lunch and I had dolmades, which are grape leaves stuffed with ground lamb and rice, served in a lemony cream sauce. This is what it looks like inside, and it tasted even better than it looks.

One busy evening we got take-out at the local grocery store: a whole roasted chicken, wings and potato wedges, served with wild rice mix and salad. I love the take-out available in Japan, but it's hard to beat a rotisserie chicken when it comes to both convenience and deliciousness.

My Dad took me out for Indian food, to a place that had been recommended to me by a very friendly taxi driver. He said it was cheap and good, but I wasn't prepared for just how cheap and how good it was. The place is called Village of India, and if you live in or near Brampton I highly recommend a visit (address is here-- be sure to watch the video of their commercial). We were halfway through our meal when we realized that the food was vegetarian, and we didn't miss the meat at all.

The desserts were a bit bewildering, since I know nothing about Indian sweets. But I did try a few and really liked this one, called gajar halva, made with cashews and carrots and flavoured with cardamom and lots of sugar. And my Dad loved his handful of fennel candy so much that I regret not going back and buying him some (the place also sells sweets and candies to go).

We also got take-out from a local Jamaican place. This is escovitch fish, a whole fried snapper with onions and a tangy sauce, served with rice and peas, cole slaw and fried plantain. We also got some patties and oxtail soup with spinners, which was fantastic.

On my last full day we celebrated my Dad's birthday. We began with a selection of his favourite stinky foods: cheese, olives, pickled herrings and pickled eggs. Then I taught him how to grill squid, something he loves but doesn't get to eat much of as my Mom doesn't like it at all.

This was followed by a salad, our first taste of the year of local corn, and a delicious stewy dish of clams, chorizo and tomatoes. Since I now know where to find chorizo in Tokyo, I'm looking forward to making this soon.

And then before I knew it, my trip was over. And the good eating stopped. I had requested low-calorie meals on both flights, and instead of the reasonable good food I'd had on the Tokyo to Toronto flight, this time I was served the exact same awful meal twice. Ugh. And when I got back home jet-lag, a cold and the heat all took away my appetite, an extremely rare occurrence. Not that I'm complaining-- after my trip back home I could stand to use a kilogram or three.

Canada visit: Niagara

When Julie, Aaron and Zoe headed back to Texas, we made a trip out of taking them to the airport. This made sense because rather than flying out from the nearby Toronto Pearson airport they used the Buffalo Niagara airport a few hours' drive away (a move that saved them quite a bit of money). And Niagara Falls is an attractive destination for certain members of my family, thanks to its casinos.

We didn't actually go to the falls this time ("I've already seen them" was Aaron's view), so the picture above is as close as we got. Instead my Mom and Julie went gambling and my Dad and the kids went swimming in the hotel pool (the best thing about the Niagara Hilton). And I, recovering from LASIK and not able to go in the water, relaxed in our room.

Flipping through the channels on TV, I came upon NHK (Japan's public broadcaster). It was near the end of my visit home and I had been feeling a bit homesick for Japan, so it was kind of a treat to hear Japanese. The show itself was less of a treat: their normally excellent cooking show featured sauteed pork with ice cream sauce.

Dad and the kids came back just in time for a little sumo wrestling, and after tiring of watching that (it doesn't take long) we went for a walk. These beetles were all over the place, and apparently it was mating season. After looking them up online, I discovered they were called Japanese beetles, which is odd because I've never seen them in Japan.

The view from our hotel wasn't great, with the Fallsview Casino blocking the falls. After coming home from dinner though, it was a bit spiffier.

And here's the early morning view, with the Skylon Tower.

After crossing to the American side on the way to the airport, we searched for a truckstop or roadside diner like the kind we used to eat at decades ago on our stateside road trips. But there were none to be found so instead we stopped at Denny's and I had the biggest breakfast I've had in ages (aside from the two eggs, two slices of bacon, two sausages, two pieces of toast and two orders of hash browns above, I also put a big dent in my Dad's stack of pancakes).

After saying good-bye to Julie and the kids we returned to Canada and did a quick tour of the Niagara Wine country and the quiant town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. We hit three wineries, tasting plenty of wines at each, and especially liked Pallatine Hills with its delicious Gewurztraminer icewine which I regret not buying a bottle of. My Dad did though, and if he is nice he will hold off on opening it until my next visit home...

Canada visit: third week

When we got back from Sauble Beach nobody was in a cooking mood, so we ate take-out from a fish and chips shop. The traditional cod has long been in short supply so we had halibut, haddock and polluck, and for chips we had both plain and poutine (fries covered with cheese curds and gravy, a Quebec specialty).

The next day my sister spent hours the kitchen making a huge batch of tomato sauce, which was put to use a few ways. First she made a wicked appetizer (it had a silly name that I can't recall now) with slices of goat cheese nestled in the sauce and baked. This is something I will definitely be recreating, and without worrying about goat cheese haters: the heat and sauce mellow the cheese out enough that anyone would love it.

Next, the sauce showed up on spaghetti. There are two versions, one with cream and one without, and they were both fantastic.

During my visit Sherry had her ice cream maker out often, usually to make strawberry sorbet. It was delicious plain, and even better topped with hand-picked berries. It made me seriously consider buying an ice cream maker, but the idea was rejected when I realized I'd need a bigger freezer (and for a bigger freezer I'd need a bigger kitchen, and for a bigger kitchen I'd need a bigger apartment, and for a bigger apartment I'd need to not live in Japan).

And here's something I'd really been waiting for: spinach-stuffed salmon. My Mom makes this with a classic recipe from the Provincial France book of the Time Life Foods of the World series (she has almost the complete collection), and it is just amazing. She had to go to a few places to find a suitable whole salmon, and the one she bought (at the local Asian market, after overcoming a bit of a language barrier) was so big it had to have its head and tail removed to fit in the roasting pan.

This is the best I've ever had it, with the salmon extra fresh and fatty. Served with the stuffing and a rich sauce made from the cooking juices, it only needed a few simple boiled vegetables on the side.

On the Canada Day weekend we threw a little party in the backyard, during which I had such a good time catching up with friends and family that I almost completely forgot to take pictures. This was the first time I met Maggie, the 17-month old daughter of an old friend, and I'm really regretting not getting a photo of her. Before the party I did manage to get a snap of the two berry flans my Mom made though.

I flew up to Ottawa for a short visit with Krista, a friend since kindergarten. At the time Canada was hosting the FIFA U-20 World Cup (for all you non-soccer fans, that's the world cup for the International Federation of Association Football's division for players under 20), and Krista had tickets to the Panama vs Argentina game. Not knowing much about soccer, and nothing at all about either team, it was a bit hard to follow, but it was fun to watch and interesting to see the fans get worked up. Argentina was so good, winning 6-0, that it was hard not to feel sorry for Panama.

Krista and her boyfriend Bruce made falafels, which was a huge treat. Once upon a time I practically lived off falafels, as they were pretty much the only vegetarian lunch option within walking distance from high school. Never having seen them in Japan, I'd almost forgotten about them, but now that I know they can be made at home I hope to be eating them regularly again soon (I even brought a box of falafel mix home to Japan). Again, I didn't get so many pictures from the trip, but this time I have an excuse: Krista kept making funny faces, making me laugh so hard I couldn't keep the camera still. This is the most normal one I got of her.

Back in Brampton I enjoyed this lovely dinner, featuring steak with fresh green peppercorn sauce. The peppercorns were new to me and really nice, and I'm wondering if I can get them in Japan.

Back home again, Julie, Zoe and I hopped on a train for a trip to Toronto. We started with a visit to the St. Lawrence Market, having a mandatory breakfast of delicious back bacon sandwiches and buying a bunch of olives and cheese.

It was a hot day and we got tired out pretty fast, so after a few more hours of shopping and walking around we headed home. I did get a few great pictures, but you'll never see them-- along with all the pictures from the next few days, they were accidentally deleted when I tried to burn a CD on my parent's crummy computer. This isn't the first time I've lost pictures, but it still hurts-- because these ones were especially precious. I took fewer pictures than usual this trip, and as always there were very few people pictures. But the ones I lost included some excellent shots of my family out to dinner, having fun and looking happy. I guess I'll just have to keep those memories the old-fashioned way-- stored in my brain.

Canada visit: strawberries

Strawberry season was in full swing during my trip back home, which means I was able to enjoy two strawberry seasons this year (in Japan strawberries peak in February). Sadly, most supermarkets in our area don't carry local strawberries, instead stocking cheap but inferior California fruit. Luckily we live just a short drive from strawberry country, so my sister, Dad, and niece Zoe went to pick our own.

We picked about 7 kgs (16 lbs) between us, and on the tractor ride back to the parking area Zoe showed off her stained legs. That'll teach her to wear white for picking strawberries. Once home, most of the berries were immediately made into jam, with my sister, Mom and I teaching Zoe how it's done.

The jam was tasty and has a beautiful bright red colour, but is a bit too sweet for my tastes. We followed the recipe that came with the Certo, so I'm surprised the results weren't perfect: we used a Certo recipe for the cherry jam we made last time and it turned out wonderfully. Anyway, the strawberry jam is still pretty good, and we ended up with about a zillion jars of it. I brought as much as I could carry back to Japan with me, but unfortunately over half of them became unset on the trip home, despite my careful wrapping. If anyone has any tips for re-setting or otherwise using the ruined jam, I'd love to hear them (and for future reference, any advice on how to safely transport jam would be highly appreciated too).

See more jam pictures on Flickr.

Canada visit: Sauble

The second week of my visit back home we went up to Sauble Beach, a place my family has been going to since before I was born. We rented a couple of cottages for 6 days and got a lot of relaxing done. We also did quite a bit of sightseeing, visiting 4 different waterfalls in the area.

The first was Hogg's Falls, about halfway between Brampton and Sauble. They were impressive and had a small pool at the bottom, and if it had been a few degrees warmer we would have taken a dip. We'll have to remember this place for next time.

The cottages were small and basic but nice, with a large yard frequented by chipmunks, bluejays and other critters. The yard came with a fire pit which we made good use of (not every night though-- more than once we were in bed before sundown). The cottages are owned by a sweet lady who kept popping by with delicious treats like espresso (brewed on the bbq!) and cherries from her garden. She and her husband actually live quite close to us in Brampton, and I have a feeling we'll bump into eachother again. 

The only problem with the place was that, like all of Sauble, it was inundated with seagulls. These birds may not look so terrible to those unfamiliar with them, but they are nasty little buggers: when the nice weather inspires us humans to eat outdoors, the little buggers take full advantage, stealing as much food as they can. The feet in the picture below belong to a gull sitting on the roof of our enclosed patio watching for unguarded treats. And not long after I took the picture I had half of my lunch eaten by a quick-moving gull. I had only turned away for second.

Our cottages were just a few minutes' walk to the beach, so we were back and forth all day. Since it was early summer, the water was still freezing cold, but we swam anyway. And when we got tired of that, we built sandcastles.   

And when we got tired of that, we went fossil hunting. Not far from Sauble is Craiglieth Conservation Area, which has a beach lined not in sand, but in shale. This rock is brittle and can be easily broken, which reveals a faint smell of oil (there was once an oil-extracting operation here).

The broken rocks also sometimes reveal ancient fossils, especially trilobites, little creatues that lived here 445 million years ago. Below is the tail of a trilobite, one of the many we found on our visit.

Another day found us at another conservation area, to see another waterfall. This time it was Indian Falls in the Indian Falls Conservation Area, which was a great place to walk around and explore. 

 

 

Back at the beach, the weather cooled down enough to keep us out of the water. We still managed to stay on the beach, and got plenty of other stuff done to: a short canoe trip up Sauble River (we saw a porcupine on the riverbank); a walk to the local Dairy Queen for a long sought-after Skor Blizzard; a few meals of french fries or poutine from the excellent chip stand on the beach; a visit to Sauble Falls (no pictures this time but here's one from a few years ago) and a couple of night walks on the beach to see the stars (and the occasional firefly). 

Finally, on our way home we stopped for one last waterfall, Jones Falls. This one was a bit harder to get close to so I couldn't get many pictures, but here's a nice one of my Dad just upstream from the falls.

As always, more pictures can be seen on Flickr.

Canada visit: first week

My first week back home was spent recovering from jet-lag (which was much milder than usual, perhaps due to the smooth flight) and eating well. The first night, like most nights, was done on the bbq: shrimp, above, and pepper steak and potato wedges below (with non-bbq rapini and salad).   

Greg and Sherry did most of the cooking, and sometimes Greg's friend Jim helped, like with these chicken wings. They were marinated in orange-chili sauce and served with corn with chive butter, steamed asparagus, and Caesar salad (with some bruschetta appetizer).   

A few days after I arrived, my sister Julie up from Texas with two of her kids, Aaron and Zoe. To celebrate, we went to Osso Bucco, a favourite local Italian place.   

I had rabbit stewed with vegetables, served over spaghetti. It was delicious and it's true what they say: it tastes like chicken, only a bit heartier and meatier. 

Here is my brother Greg, my Dad and my sister Julie.

And my nephew Aaron, my Mom, my niece Zoe, and Greg's girlfriend Sherry.

After dinner we had a rousing game of Pictionary, which is way more fun than it sounds. Especially for me, since I completely kicked everyone's arses. I was so good that I was accused of cheating. If only I was that skilled at something useful...

One of Greg's bbqs has a smoker, and he put it to good use with ribs. These were rubbed with a spice mix and smoked with cherrywood.

After hours of smoking, they were slathered with barbecue sauce and put back on the grill.

And finally served. With fresh green beans, carrots baked in butter sauce, baby zucchinis, potato salad with sun-dried tomatoes and bacon, grilled tomatoes and corn grilled with soy sauce and butter. This was easily one of my favourite meals of the trip. And definitely something I can't duplicate here in Japan, so I hope I make it back home again soon.

See more pictures here.

Around the house

My trip back home was a fairly relaxed, low-key visit this time, with lots of time spent hanging out at home. And thanks to some lovely weather, much of that time was spent out in the yard. Here is some of the stuff we did.

The back yard was just as inviting as ever, with the patio playing host to family meals and a lounge chair on the grass always available for a few hours of lazy reading. Back here in Japan, this is one of the things I'm missing the most. My little balcony just doesn't compare.

Most of the yard work is done by my brother Greg and his girlfriend Sherry. Greg can also be frequently found manning one of his three barbeques, providing us with many memoriable meals.

Sherry has a way with flowers, with flower beds and hanging baskets full of blooms in all the colours of the rainbow . The poppies were especially pretty.

These lilies, however, seem to grow all by themselves. They've been popping up every year since before I can remember, and are one of the few things back home that never change.

Within a week of my arrival the raspberries were ready. No coincedence: the raspberry, strawberry and cherry seasons were no small factor in the timing of my trip.

It was a good crop, but with several fruit lovers in the house there was never quite enough to go around. Thankfully there are some good patches of wild black raspberries nearby to supplement our berry supply. Add to that a strawberry-picking trip and some neighbors who are always generous with their cherries, and I ate more fruit my one month at home than I do in a year in Japan.

Angus, the newest member of the family, loves the backyard as much as the people do. The other cat Coco (whose pictures were lost, sadly) spent plenty of time outdoors too, but prefered to view the yard from the back door (where there was a greater chance of catching a tasty fly).

One of the reasons the cats like the outdoors: that's where the squirrels are. Thanks to a steady supply of birdseed and peanuts, there are several who either live in the yard or frequent it daily. And soon to be more: we were treated to the spectacle of a squirrel couple "courting" for a few days straight, and then building nests for the upcoming brood.

At night the fireworks came out. Greg and his friend Jim put on several shows in the backyard or, for the serious blasts, in the field behind our house:

See more pictures here.

New Canada posts

My camera arrived safe and sound on Saturday (thanks Mom!), just in time for Hideaki's birthday. But before I can post any birthday pics, I have to show you how I spent my holiday in Canada. I'm adding my Canada posts retroactively, which means that you won't see them at the top of this page- you have to scroll down.

Oh hell, I know nobody's going to actually go to the effort of scrolling down, and besides the main page doesn't fit all the new posts. So I'll just put links here for you. Here they are, starting with the most recent:

Day 31: Last day

Day 30: Toronto (recommended)

Day 29: Toronto  (recommended)

Day 28: Cheltenham Badlands  (recommended)

Day 27: Swedish food and the power of tape

Day 26: New car

Day 25: Barbeque

Day 23: Sauble Beach (recommended)

Day 22: Sauble Beach (recommended)

Day 19: Birthday party

Day 18: More people!  (recommended)

Day 17: Barbeque

Day 15: Coco, fish, and chips

Day 11: Pot roast

Day 10: To Market

Day 7: Shopping

Day 6: Meech Lake  (recommended)

Day 5: Ottawa

Day 4: Ottawa

Day 3: Jam (recommended)

Day 2: Niagara (recommended)

Day 1: Niagara Falls

Also, check out some albums I made of pictures from our visit:

Cherry picking and jam-making

Food in Canada

Day 31: Last day in Canada

On our last day in Canada Dad came home from work early in the day, thinking we'd all go for a big bike ride. But rain and our slow packing put and end to that plan, so he took us out to lunch instead. We had Greek, a cuisine I always took for granted but really miss in Japan. We started with an appetizer of three dips: red pepper; tzatziki* (yogurt and cucumber flavoured with dill); and hummus (pureed chick peas and sesame with olive oil, lemon juice and garlic). With pita bread and feta cheese, olives and marinated octopus.

Next, Hideaki had lamb souvlaki, Dad had roast lamb and I had moussaka. A first for me, moussaka is like a Greek lasagna or Sheppard's pie- layers of eggplant, ground meat cooked with onions and tomatoes, potatoes, and bechamel sauce. 

The rest of the day was spent finishing up our packing, which gave Coco an opportunity to do that typical cat thing- sniff suitcases, rub up against suitcases, sit on suitcases, and hide in suitcases. He was a happy cat, but we were a bit sad to have to leave him and were very tempted to pack him up and bring him home.

Then the feast continued with a dinner at Osso Bucco, the local place we went to a few weeks back. Hide had manicotti and I ordered the place's namesake. Osso bucco means braised veal shanks and it's something I've never tried before, due to squeamishness about the cruelty of milk-fed veal farming. But I figured I ought to try it at least once, especially at a restaurant that was named after it (and considering other factory farming practices are just as cruel, yet I happily eat chickens, pigs and adult cows).

I'm so glad I tried it- it was soft, succulent and delicious, right down to the marrow. Served with a summer risotto with green beans, red peppers and green onions.

And then it was back home to finish packing and try to catch a few hours of sleep. And I mean a few hours- we had a ridiculously early flight and had set the alarm for at 2:50am. That's usually my bedtime. That's when Hideaki eats his dinner.

But we managed, and after saying goodbye to my groggy parents we taxied off to the airport to start our journey home.

It was a great trip and we're sad to leave. My posts have mostly focused on food, but it wasn't the food that made this trip so great- it was the people that we came for, and it was the people that made this visit so nice, and it's the people we'll miss. So to those people, let me just say:

Thank you, Trailer Park Boys!

* My spell check (yes, I actually use it once in a while) doesn't think tzatziki is a word, and suggested testis instead. Just thought you'd like to know.

Day 30: Toronto

We got a good deal on our hotel room- just the room, with no extras like breakfast. So we went out for dimsum. May seem strange considering the Metropolitan is the home of Lai Wah Heen, restaurant renowned for its dimsum. But Lai Wah Heen is very expensive, and serves a more fancy high-class kind version of dimsum. Since we'd just had a fancy high-class dinner the night before, we figured it would be best to head to Chinatown for some regular dimsum.

We walked around Chinatown a bit first. Notice that the street signs in the picture above are in both English and Chinese. This place is very different from Yokohama's Chinatown, which is a place for Japanese people to come eat Chinese food rather than an authentic Chinese neighborhood.

At this early hour many of the shops weren't open yet, so we didn't get the full experience. But the lack of crowds was nice.

Breakfast was at the Bright Pearl Restaurant- it's the yellow building with the green tiled roof in the above picture. This place is huge, with all-day dimsum. It has a few Happy Hours and the one in on weekday mornings is great- each dish is just $1.68. 

We loved the trolly service. This is not common in Japan (in fact we've only ever found one restaurant that serves dimsum this way, and it's too expensive to ever go back), so we made the most of it and ate lots.

Here are some bbq pork buns, sweet bean-stuff rice cakes with sesame seeds, and fried squid. The rest of the dimsum pictures start here. 

After looking around Chinatown a bit more (and shopping- Hide scored a baseball hat for $3!) we went down to Queen St to see my old neighborhood. I actually lived in two places here- once at Augusta, near the Cameron House in the above picture (check out the ants!), and once further west near Trinity Bellwoods Park. It was great to see my old neighborhood again, but in the decade I've gone it's changed a lot. The trendy area has spread far west, erasing the most of the scuzziness. (How scuzzy was it? Well, there were hookers on the corner most nights, and it wasn't uncommon for men to mistake me for one and proposition me. Although come to think of it, that probably had more to do with my appearance at than time than with my neighborhood...) Also, lots of funky little independantly owned and mom-and-pop type shops have been replaced by big chains, so it looks much like any other downtown street in any other city of the world.

Next we took the streetcar to the Eaton Centre and looked around a bit, then took the subway up to another old neighborhood of mine- Bloor and Christie. This was the first place I had after moving out, back when I was going to college. It was a cool neighborhood, with a big park (Christie Pitts), nice old houses, and an intersting ethnic mix- mostly Korean with some Portugese, Brazilian and a little bit of everything else thrown in.

Since I've been gone, the neighborhood has truly become Koreatown, with virtually all shops and businesses along the stretch being Korean. This is not a surprise, since my brother's girlfriend Sherry, who is Korean, works in the area and I've been there a few times in recent years.  But I'd never had time to really explore the area, so I was glad to be able to walk around at leisure. Many of the restaurants looked really good, and we were sorry we weren't hungrier. We did have room in our stomachs for one thing though: walnut cakes. This was the only Korean food I had tried when I lived here (not knowing anything about Korean cuisine at the time, I found the restaurants intimidating), and they were big favourites of mine. So I was really looking forward to having them again. We were surprised to see that there are now two walnut cake shops, just a few doors down from eachother. We went to the "new" one.

This is the machine that makes the cakes. It's a lot of fun to watch, but unfortunately it wasn't being used when we stopped by. If you've never had a walnut cake (also called "walnut cookies", or "hodo kwaja" in Korean), it's a tiny cake made of a pancake-like batter, the shape and size of a walnut. The batter contains peices of the nut, and it is stuffed with a sweet bean filling. When fresh, they smell wonderful and are slightly crisp on the outside, with a springy cake coating and a soft and sweet filling. Check them out:

I love them and really wish we had them in Japan (and with such a large community of Koreans in Japan,it's surprising that walnut cakes can't be found).

After a dozen (or two or three- who's counting?) little cakes, we walked east on Bloor, going through the Annex, stopping by Honest Eds, and stopping at Yorkville. Yorkville is not a neighborhood I'm familiar with, having almost never been there. But there is a nice little park with some fun people-watching, so bought a hotdog from a street vendor and stopped to rest.

That's my streetmeat- covered with onions, hot peppers and corn relish. I love street hotdogs (yet another thing I wish they had in Japan).

Then we went down to Ontario Place to meet the family and see Corteo, the new Cirque du Soleil show. It was fantastic, though not as impressive as Allegria, which I saw last year. Sherry and I each bought overpriced tops (here's mine) to commemorate the event.

And then we went home. It was a great little trip but all that walking and backpack carrying had really tired us out. Next time we'll stay two nights (gotta find a cheaper hotel) and take it a bit more slowly.

More Toronto pictures start here.