We’ve seen sumo now, so I guess we can come home.
I like to say that I don’t enjoy watching sport, but every live event I’ve been to has been brilliant. Sumo was particularly good. Before each bout, the officials perform a slow ceremony with a fan and ancient singing.
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We reserved the cheapest seats available, which were considerably better than they appeared to be from the map. Arriving very early for the low-level matches meant there was hardly anyone there, so I snuck up the front with Charlie to take photos by the ring. Every so often we were ousted from our cushions by their rightful owners. The people who paid for them thought it was very amusing.
I’ve always wanted to bake a whole pumpkin. Living in Japan Having no oven turns out to be only a minor hurdle – just use a saucepan.
I figured I could heat the air in the pot by keeping the lid on tight and using a low flame. People grease trays when they cook in ovens, don’t they? So I put some oil in too. But the pumpkin started to fry. I realised that the water in the pumpkin would evaporate anyway, so it’d end up steamed. Helping it along with some extra water stopped it from frying and worked really well.
It’s easy: cut the lid off a small pumpkin and scoop out the seeds. Put some seasoning in (like curry paste) and replace the lid. Put it in a saucepan with an inch or so of water. With the lid on the saucepan, bring the water to the boil then turn it down low. Poke it with a skewer to see if it’s ready. I think mine took about 20 minutes. Then I stuffed it with bread and leftover spaghetti sauce, and cooked it for another 5 minutes.
The nice thing about this is the skin of the pumpkin stops it from all turning into mush. Just make sure the water doesn’t all evaporate. If you put a bit of oil in you’ll hear it sizzling when the water level gets too low.
I’ve heard of lots of recipes for whole baked pumpkin, including cooking custard in it. For some things I think you should stuff it at the start of cooking instead of at the end. Let me know if you how you fare!
Finally, try to accompany it with something. Last night I ate half a pumpkin. Even with the stuffing, it was just too much all at once.
It was a long hike. We started in Yagyu, where we hoped to find some lovely eyepatch souvenirs. There didn’t seem to be any, but Charlie took us to a sake brewery were we sampled many types. One was cloudy and lumpy. It wasn’t exactly bad, but a bit disconcerting. We bought one that everyone agreed was “the apple one”, although no one could explain why.
The farmland was interesting to walk through. An old woman digging in a field kindly let me take her photo. She muttered something about being an “oba-chan” as we walked away. She thought it was very funny. Another group was playing croquet, but they were camera-shy.
I saw my first tea plantation; an incredibly neat crop. The long lines of bushes look soft and inviting. I took some photos, but sadly they’re blurry. Instead I hope you’ll enjoy this photo of a scarecrow that guarded it:
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And some others for good measure.
Jodie is great at organising surprises. Last year she and my other house mates held a surprise party for me. Shadowy figures moving around our lounge room turned out to be a whole bunch of friends, including my family who had come to Sydney from Canberra for the occasion. It was really awesome.
This year I knew there would be a surprise, but I didn’t know where. We caught an early southbound train to the east of Wakayama. There we took the funicular railway far above the plain to Kōya-san, a village built around many ancient temples. We stayed the night in an amazing temple ryokan. We ate shojin-ryori (the food of vegetarian monks) for dinner and breakfast.
At first sight it seemed like a tiny amount of food, but it took us almost two hours to eat dinner. For want of a better word, it was divine. Everything had such a delicate flavour, and each dish complemented the others perfectly. The tofu was the creamiest thing I’ve ever eaten (surpassing even cream). Compared to it, the Japanese chocolate I’d previously held in high regard just doesn’t taste good any more (not that I’ll stop eating it). I think my favourite dish was the ginger soup.
On our second day there we hiked over three mountains. I didn’t realise how unfit I’d become, but it was certainly worth the effort. It reminded me that hiking was one of the main reasons I came to Japan. The forests were beautiful, and the cold night had forced water out of the ground in a frost surge.
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That morning we had risen early to attend a morning service by the monks. I suppose their chanting could be called monotonous, but it was fascinating. The 40 minutes went by quickly. Since then we have bought a packet of the incense they were burning (sandalwood, I think). Even the smell is mystical.
Thank you, Jodie!
Spring came suddenly and with precision. Sunday was a whopping 22 degrees. Today it rained, but it was warm and pleasant to walk in.
Catching the train home today was terrific. There’s something really nice about rain beading on rails.