spring outings part 1

So, I know it's kind of late to be posting this, especially since I'm no longer living in Wakayama... but whatever! 

Spring is a great time in Japan. it's no longer cruelly cold, but the unrelenting sun and hot / humid temperatures of summer have not set in. also you can see many trees blooming with cherry blossoms, but there is only a full week or so of them in full bloom before they all fall to the wind.

My first blossom sighting was at Kimiidera on March 3rd

On March 4th I cycled out to Nara prefecture 

which was about 100 km ride both ways,

I didn't really go there to do anything, but there was a sort of fox shrine.

cute :)

Late in February I started to get really sad

because the weather was starting to get warmer

and I didn't feel like the winter had been satisfactory

so on March 10th I up and left to Niigata for a weekend!

Niigata is a long ways north from wakayama, in the Hokuriku region.

it's also north of nagano.

I went skiing at Ishiuchi Maruyama and Gala ski resort.
it rained a bit Sunday morning, but quickly turned to snow and then snowed nonstop for 26 hours.
on monday, my second day skiing, I ducked a rope and ended up in the woods between two mountains.

I was out there for a long time, maybe 4 or 5 hours. oops. but check out this sweet picture I got.

it was really amazing to be out in the snow trekking around after such a long time away. eventually I made my way to the bottom of the mountain, and took a gondola up to midstation again!

here's me after the gondola ride!

a beautiful view. there is amazing skiing in japan other than nagano and hokkaido!

The town, Minami Uonuma, reminded me of Vernon or someplace like that.
it's kind of out of the way--but still easy to get to, as I only had to take one train from the bus depot.

I did another bike ride on March 18th... this one was about 70km, I think.

 I went up to Sennan in Osaka prefecture, then got lost for a bit 

and somehow managed to get back to Wakayama by a winding road. 

After these pictures were taken it started raining heavily. 

and then it would stop and start sometimes.

the last half hour or so of my ride I was really fighting the wind and rain. 

and when I got home, I found out an inclement weather warning had been issued for that day. oops!

What tree is this?

I kind of liked this scene... the cherry tree in the middle of a dead field was striking!

on the 24th I had another crazy ride. I rode about 70 km to koyasan mountain. in total my trip was 130 km, I think. Koyasan is a historical town famous for buddhist temples, and it's one of Wakayama's popular tourist sights, and also a world heritage site so I knew I had to see it before I left Wakayama. 

Being in the middle of nowhere, and so high up in the mountains it's a bit hard to get to though.
I wrote a separate entry here!

On March 25th (the day after my 130 km trip to Koyasan... what was I thinking?!) I decided to do a bit more exploring around Wakayama city. I guess there are quite a few spots that I haven't seen yet. 

first I went to Wakaura and ended up in the southwestern tip of Wakayama city, which has a small mountain and is hard to get to. I found a pleasant garden called Bandoko Teien where I ate my lunch :)

Later I went to Marina city, a tourist trap on the border of Wakayama and Kainan.

A view of Wakaura.

a view of part of bandoko Teien. (the peninsula, not the islands)

a view from Bandoko Teien.

A view from Bandoko Teien.

Bandoko Teien.

A view from Bandoko Teien

Flowers near Bandoko Teien

Near Wakaura and Bandoko Teien 

Wild sakura trees at Wakaura

At Wakaura

a view of Marina city (not an actual city)

adventures in new wave japanese vegan cooking and cycling extremely long distances!

hi folks! it's getting colder these days... but around noontime it's still nice and warm, like a september day in vancouver. in any case, I'm gonna break out the winter blankets tonight because it's too chilly to sleep already.
I'm doing well. we are celebrating halloween in our english classes. people here love halloween but the kids don't go around door to door. it's just our classroom that organizes a door-to-door event.
I also bought a road bike and last sunday rode it to the beach in Tanabe which is about 65 km south of here. so that day I rode nearly 130 km total. I'm sure that if I left earlier i could go further though. maybe one of these days I'll go to osaka... or Nara. or even Tohoku! I bet on this bike I could go anywhere. here's a video of my ride back in september... I was riding my regular bike (the townie) but I still went 108 km. total.

I thought of the title because whenever i go deep

into the countryside on my bike, I get a lot of stares.

I guess they don't see many people like me on bikes!

my second adventure tonight was an experiment in cooking! have you ever thought, "I really hate pork, but I really love gyoza. I cannot accept such a cruel fate! alas!"?
you have?! wow, me too! so that's why I made up this recipe for vegan gyoza. it's easy to make and rich in protein. the measurements are extremely inaccurate (I used my eyes!) so just add as much or as little as you see fit.






ingredients
15 round gyoza (potsticker) skins
50 grams okara* (soy pulp, a byproduct of making soy milk)
1-2 thirds of a nagaimo/yamaimo*
1 tsp. yuzu or lemon juice
a medium carrot, sliced with a mandolin and then finely chopped
a bunch of mushrooms, finely chopped (I used maitake, but you can use any mushroom, really!)
a stalk of green onion, finely chopped
a couple cloves of garlic, finely chopped (I did not use this)
a dash of salt (I did not use this)

a small dish of water
water for steaming
oil for frying
ponzu (or soy sauce with lemon/lime/yuzu juice) for dipping

make the filling

1. peel the skin of the nagaimo with a vegetable peeler. make sure all sides are peeled and that there are no dry areas left. when you are done, it should be more slippery than a bar of wet soap. get a fine-tooth grater and grate the whole thing into a bowl. when you are done, you should have something that feels like beaten raw eggs. mix the yuzu or lemon juice into this to prevent browning
2. into this bowl, dump the okara. mix it around well until it is the same consistency of ground meat. this means you can make a ball with the stuff without it crumbling or dripping.
3. mix in the remaining vegetables and mushrooms. the reason the carrot should be sliced with a mandolin first is because carrots are hard to cook through if they're thick at all, and this filling will be cooked from raw. so make sure your ingredients are small enough and then mix them well into the okara mixture.

assemble and cook

1. take about a teaspoon and a half worth of filling and put it in the centre of a gyoza skin. wet the tip of your finger with the water from the dish and wet the skin in a ring. I don't know how to explain how to pleat the outside skin so I found this video for you. basically you hold the bottom part flat and fold the top part in several "Z" shaped pleats using both of your thumbs. she did two big pleats, but I did pleats of about 1 cm all facing in the same direction. do whatever works for you. it takes some practice. if the pleats start coming undone, just go back and press on the seam harder :)
2. do this until you've run out of filling or skins.
3. get a big pan and fill it with 0.5-1 cm of water and start to boil it. when it has almost boiled place the gyoza filling side down and pleats facing UP, all in a row so they are all in a tight line. steam for, I don't know, 5-10 minutes.
4. when the water is gone or before they start to get too puffy, drain any remaining water and fry them in oil. I used the same pan. if you move them around too much, they stick to the pan and tear. just let them fry and the pan will take care of it. after a few minutes, take off the heat and they should come free with some coaxing.

Notes

*items can be bought at a japanese grocer or other asian grocer. nagaimo are regularly stocked at T&T but I'm not sure about okara. Fujiya carries both (along with aji-pon ponzu, the best ponzu in a thousand suns)! 

*okara might sound disgusting or bad when you describe it as "soy milk byproduct" but all it is is 100% soybean pulp and is naturally flavourless, and naturally good for you :) 

my dinner tonight (I had seconds of gyoza :3)

it's too hot and this is how I deal with it

yes... too hot. too, too hot.

but this is normal for japan in july! I sometimes ask my students if it's humid today... they always say "no, it's pretty dry today. just really hot." well dang, it feels humid to me. still nothing compared to june/july humidity, I suppose...
whatever.

I don't care because I found a fun and economical way to cool off (fun and economical ways are the best ways). there is a river in Kanaya (still in Aridagawa town but 30 minutes by bike inland) which is fun to go swimming in.

and I recently got a GoPro (an underwater sports camera), so I made the following video for you.

just so you can see exactly how awesome this river is!

enjoy.

I has a bucket (list)... Noooo they be stealin' my bike

Last week I felt like this sea lion...

Last time I came to Japan, Boy said I had to do things I had done in Canada, again in Japan. I guess you could call it a sort of bucket list (except I don't make a list of things to do, but rather of things I've done)...
Anyhow, last week I added another thing to my list: having my bike stolen! It was actually an interesting experience, in hindsight...
First I should explain about Japanese "mama chari" bikes. They all have built-in locks on the back wheel... Too flimsy by western standards, but they do the trick in Japan! To ride the bike, you put the key in the lock and leave it in there. To lock it, you take the key out.

Sooo last Thursday I went to Wakayama city by train to teach my lesson at GLS and I left my bike at the station--unlocked (aho ka!)
Now I have done this before and yes, it was okay. But this time of course I got back in the evening and it was not there! I was afraid I would never see it again, but luckily I had it registered with the police when I bought it.
So the next day I went to the police station to report it stolen (actually something I've never done in Canada)!
Then Machiko's sister-in-law told me that the bike thieves are often high school students with too much time on their hands, who take bikes from the station and ride to a konbini/karaoke/bookstore.. Etc.
Anyhow to make a long story less long, this morning I was riding around on Keiko (Machiko's niece)'s bike and found my bike near a juku, an after-hours exam prep school.

That's my bike, right there. "Axis" is the cram school.

The key was still in the lock! So I took the key and went to retrieve the bike later... I also went to the police station and got my fingerprints done (they will compare the prints on the bike to try and find the culprit).
So, what are the things on my bucket list now?

• eating at a McDonald's (completed in 2008)
• going skiing
• going to a movie
• feeling an earthquake
• having my bike stolen

Things I've done in Japan that I haven't in Canada:

• found my bike that was stolen

And what did I learn from all this? That whereas in Canada, bike thieves are electric-saw-and-wire-cutter-wielding junkies who will stop at nothing (even a kryptonite U-lock) to sell your bike for a bag of, uh.. sandwiches; bike thieves in Japan are 16 year olds going to their cram school or playing hooky.. and they leave the key in the lock. They are a kind and innocent brand of thieves (at least in Aridagawa).
Oh yeah, and always lock my bike.. Yeah. That.