Of course, by about nine o'clock, the sun had risen high enough to melt the ice, but it was still cool to see it.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Ice on Lake Hamana
We woke up today to find the outside temperature at zero degrees (and thus an inside temperature of two degrees). Thus, for the first time, we saw ice that had formed on the lake as you can see below:
Of course, by about nine o'clock, the sun had risen high enough to melt the ice, but it was still cool to see it.
Of course, by about nine o'clock, the sun had risen high enough to melt the ice, but it was still cool to see it.
Homemade Mexican dinner
On Saturday, we went over to Christine's house where she cooked us some wonderful Mexican food. More importantly for Ayako though, was how to cook authentic Mexican food. Here's Ayako learning how to make taco shells:
And here's Christine teaching Ayako how to put the tacos together:
Martin and Megumi also joined us for dinner and you can see all the delicious food that we got to enjoy:
Here's Ayako patiently waiting for me to take a photo so that she start enjoying the meal:
Since Christine will be leaving Japan and heading off to Kenya next month, it was a bit sad knowing that this will be the last time having a dinner party at her place. We wish her Godspeed and hope it's not long before we meet with her again.
And here's Christine teaching Ayako how to put the tacos together:
Martin and Megumi also joined us for dinner and you can see all the delicious food that we got to enjoy:
Here's Ayako patiently waiting for me to take a photo so that she start enjoying the meal:
Since Christine will be leaving Japan and heading off to Kenya next month, it was a bit sad knowing that this will be the last time having a dinner party at her place. We wish her Godspeed and hope it's not long before we meet with her again.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
My second and last Kit Kat post
Almost two years ago I did a post on my collection of Kit Kat packages, which you can see here. Now the collection has almost doubled and has 53 packages. In the past year though, I've found that new flavours have not been coming out as frequently and that living outside the city makes it more difficult to find the new flavours. Therefore, I've decided to give up collecting Kit Kat packages and thus making this the last post I will do on them. Below are the boxes that I collected in total:
I'll break down the different variety of flavours that we tried. I only kept the flavours that came in the boxes. At the same time, there are big bags of mini Kit Kats that are also produced. The flavours of the boxes and the bags are often not the same, and even if a flavour is produced for the bags, it might not be produced for the boxes (and vice versa). I have no idea why. In fact, Ayako and my favourite flavour, pumpkin, was never produced in the box variety, and thus doesn't show up in these pictures. Some flavours are slightly altered every few years. Some of my collection are of the slightly different flavours.
The first group are the fairly ordinary flavours. These include regular chocolate, vanilla, bitter, 60% cocoa, caramel, espresso coffee and milk (fresh from the cows in Hokkaido):
The second group contains the fancy (and slightly more expensive) varieties that had creamy fillings. The flavours here are apple, matcha green tea, chestnut, tea, and brandy & orange:
The third group has all fruit flavours including melon (from a small town in Hokkaido), strawberry, orange, apple, pineapple, grape, kiwi, and ume (Japanese plum):
The next group is made up of two traditional Japanese flavours, matcha green tea and adzuki beans. These are both quite tasty and popular, and thus a slight variation comes out each year as well as the combination of the flavours that you see in the middle:
Following this is the pink group. This is made up of peach and cherry flavours. Both of these come from trees that have pink flowers that bloom in the spring time. The cherry blossom trees are even popular enough for Kit Kat to have a cherry blossom flavour as well. The large box in the middle is contains some mini Kit Kats and is meant to be mailed to a sweetheart for Valentine's Day (or White Day):
The last three groups are the stranger flavours that Kit Kat has come out with. The first group are the slightly strange varieties including soy bean powder (kinako), chesnut, sweet potato in syrup (daigaku imo), ginger ale (nice ginger taste) and roasted tea (hojicha):
Our second last group is the quite strange flavours including apple vinegar, vegetables, sports drink and salt:
The last group contains the very strange but very Japanese flavours of miso and wasabi. Miso is used for making miso soup and comes from fermented soybeans. We found it didn't have that much flavour, which is maybe good since miso is normally very salty and has a very strong taste. Wasabi should only be eaten in small quantities since it is strong like horseradish. Luckily, just a little bit of wasabi is used in the bars to give it a bit of kick and tastes alright. We brought these two boxes over to Canada for people to try:
So there you go. The end of the Kit Kat collection. Fanatics in Japanese are called otaku. I've now stopped being a Kit Kat otaku, but Ayako reminds me that I'm still a birding otaku. Any conversation automatically stops when I see an interesting bird just outside our house ready to be photographed.
I'll break down the different variety of flavours that we tried. I only kept the flavours that came in the boxes. At the same time, there are big bags of mini Kit Kats that are also produced. The flavours of the boxes and the bags are often not the same, and even if a flavour is produced for the bags, it might not be produced for the boxes (and vice versa). I have no idea why. In fact, Ayako and my favourite flavour, pumpkin, was never produced in the box variety, and thus doesn't show up in these pictures. Some flavours are slightly altered every few years. Some of my collection are of the slightly different flavours.The first group are the fairly ordinary flavours. These include regular chocolate, vanilla, bitter, 60% cocoa, caramel, espresso coffee and milk (fresh from the cows in Hokkaido):
The second group contains the fancy (and slightly more expensive) varieties that had creamy fillings. The flavours here are apple, matcha green tea, chestnut, tea, and brandy & orange:
The third group has all fruit flavours including melon (from a small town in Hokkaido), strawberry, orange, apple, pineapple, grape, kiwi, and ume (Japanese plum):
The next group is made up of two traditional Japanese flavours, matcha green tea and adzuki beans. These are both quite tasty and popular, and thus a slight variation comes out each year as well as the combination of the flavours that you see in the middle:
Following this is the pink group. This is made up of peach and cherry flavours. Both of these come from trees that have pink flowers that bloom in the spring time. The cherry blossom trees are even popular enough for Kit Kat to have a cherry blossom flavour as well. The large box in the middle is contains some mini Kit Kats and is meant to be mailed to a sweetheart for Valentine's Day (or White Day):
The last three groups are the stranger flavours that Kit Kat has come out with. The first group are the slightly strange varieties including soy bean powder (kinako), chesnut, sweet potato in syrup (daigaku imo), ginger ale (nice ginger taste) and roasted tea (hojicha):
Our second last group is the quite strange flavours including apple vinegar, vegetables, sports drink and salt:
The last group contains the very strange but very Japanese flavours of miso and wasabi. Miso is used for making miso soup and comes from fermented soybeans. We found it didn't have that much flavour, which is maybe good since miso is normally very salty and has a very strong taste. Wasabi should only be eaten in small quantities since it is strong like horseradish. Luckily, just a little bit of wasabi is used in the bars to give it a bit of kick and tastes alright. We brought these two boxes over to Canada for people to try:
So there you go. The end of the Kit Kat collection. Fanatics in Japanese are called otaku. I've now stopped being a Kit Kat otaku, but Ayako reminds me that I'm still a birding otaku. Any conversation automatically stops when I see an interesting bird just outside our house ready to be photographed.
New Year gathering
Similar to the end-of-year parties that I went to last year, this year starts off with a shinnenkai, or new year gathering. I met with my previous students from Photonics along with another previous teacher, Bill, and their current teacher, Abby, and her boyfriend, Daniel.
Before we left, one of the neighbourhood dogs was running around and wanting to play. I went to see if the neighbours were in since the dog is usually in his yard, but there weren't. Since I couldn't catch him, we had to leave while he went yapping to other neighbours:
We met the group at El Techo restaurant, which we had previously been to once before:
We had a set menu of 7 courses and all we could drink. We could enjoy many Mexican cocktails.
It was nice to see that the old group hasn't changed and good to see Bill after quite a while.
Before we left, one of the neighbourhood dogs was running around and wanting to play. I went to see if the neighbours were in since the dog is usually in his yard, but there weren't. Since I couldn't catch him, we had to leave while he went yapping to other neighbours:
We met the group at El Techo restaurant, which we had previously been to once before:
We had a set menu of 7 courses and all we could drink. We could enjoy many Mexican cocktails.
It was nice to see that the old group hasn't changed and good to see Bill after quite a while.
Friday, January 08, 2010
Christmas trip to Canada
Ayako and I started off our journey to Canada by leaving our house at 6 am, driving for an hour to catch a bus that dropped us off in Tokyo 4 hours later. We took a one-hour train ride to Narita airport and waited three hours to get on our plane. Twelve hours later, we were met by my parents at the airport and two hours later, we were in Peterborough. Needless to say, some jetlag had built up in us and took three or four nights before we were really on Canadian time.
We were just relaxing and wrapping presents on Christmas Eve and then were up on Christmas day to see what had been left in our stockings:
Here's Mom and Dad getting ready to open their stockings:
And Ayako enjoying seeing what she got in her stocking:
There were lots of presents under the tree, but we were waiting for Barbara, Jason and Justin to arrive before we started opening them:
They arrived in the afternoon and Justin got lots of presents that he could try on:
And put in his mouth:
Here's son and dad trying on the hats that they received for Christmas:
And Dad and Mom opening their presents:
Ayako loved getting lots of presents that were related to cooking:
And Jason was happy to have some more Lego to add to his collection:
In the evening, the Scotts came over for dinner. Ayako was very happy to have a Canadian Christmas dinner with us:
Here's me helping light the Christmas pudding for dessert:
Things were pretty relaxed on Boxing Day, so we had time to take more photos of Justin:
The 27th of December was Mom and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary. I was out in the morning to clear the path for the three waves of people that would be visiting our house that day:
Before the event, we took a good group shot together:
And then got a nice shot of Mom and Dad with Justin before giving them a anniversary gift:
The party was busy from early afternoon till the night time with the relatives in the first wave, the Toronto crowd in the second wave and the Peterborough crowd in the third wave. It was a good idea to have a caterer do the food for us:
We did some shopping in Peterborough on the 28th and then on the 29th, Ayako and I headed down to Toronto. We did some shopping there as well and I also showed her around the Annex area where I used to live. Here I am in from of the house I live in on Huron Street:
We then went to Union Station to catch a train to Dundas to meet Robin and her family:
Here are Grace (2 years old) and Adam (5 years old) playing on some toys in their basement:
It was our first time to meet Grace and she enjoyed playing with us a lot. Here she is with Dad (Insung) on her toy:
On December 30th, we all went to Ikea to look around and buy a few things. In the evening, Robin took Grace and us to Niagara Falls:
The was a lot of mist which felt like walking through rain on the walkway:
The mist then froze on us which made it feel quite cold. Luckily we could still show some good smiles for a picture:
On New Year's Eve, we got a train to Ajax to stay with Barbara, Jason and Justin for a couple of days. In the evening, Tony and Steph came over with their one-month old baby, Luciano:
Ayako enjoyed having Canadian-Chinese food that night:
Since there were two babies in the house, it was a fairly quiet New Year's Eve, and we were up in good time the next day. We got to spend more time with Justin. Here's Ayako enjoying that fresh baby smell:
We went out to lunch at East Side Mario's. This was Justin's first time eating in a restaurant:
Here's Justin eyeing our waitress after touch her bum. Justin definitely liked giving cute smiles whenever he looked at a woman:
In the afternoon, we relaxed at home and had time to take more photos with Justin:
On the 2nd of January, Mom and Dad came over and we all went out to dinner at The Keg. This was already Justin's second time out at a restaurant:
We all ate lots and Ayako especially liked the large brownie sundae she ordered for dessert, even if she couldn't finish it. Good thing for doggy bags:
We returned to Peterborough after that. On the 3rd of January, Ayako enjoyed going to a museum and doing some shopping with Mom while I stayed home and started packing. In the evening, we could enjoy a fire in the fireplace and watching the movie "Julie and Julia" that Ayako received for Christmas:
All of a sudden it was the 4th of January and we were up early in the morning to drive down to the airport for our flight back to Japan. I had some time in the car to open some birthday presents. At least we didn't have to wait long at the airport and the flight back was a bit easier. The two weeks flew by, but I'm glad we could see lots of relatives and friends and we could spend some quality time with my parents and Barbara, Jason and of course, Justin.
We were just relaxing and wrapping presents on Christmas Eve and then were up on Christmas day to see what had been left in our stockings:
Here's Mom and Dad getting ready to open their stockings:
And Ayako enjoying seeing what she got in her stocking:
There were lots of presents under the tree, but we were waiting for Barbara, Jason and Justin to arrive before we started opening them:
They arrived in the afternoon and Justin got lots of presents that he could try on:
And put in his mouth:
Here's son and dad trying on the hats that they received for Christmas:
And Dad and Mom opening their presents:
Ayako loved getting lots of presents that were related to cooking:
And Jason was happy to have some more Lego to add to his collection:
In the evening, the Scotts came over for dinner. Ayako was very happy to have a Canadian Christmas dinner with us:
Here's me helping light the Christmas pudding for dessert:
Things were pretty relaxed on Boxing Day, so we had time to take more photos of Justin:
The 27th of December was Mom and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary. I was out in the morning to clear the path for the three waves of people that would be visiting our house that day:
Before the event, we took a good group shot together:
And then got a nice shot of Mom and Dad with Justin before giving them a anniversary gift:
The party was busy from early afternoon till the night time with the relatives in the first wave, the Toronto crowd in the second wave and the Peterborough crowd in the third wave. It was a good idea to have a caterer do the food for us:
We did some shopping in Peterborough on the 28th and then on the 29th, Ayako and I headed down to Toronto. We did some shopping there as well and I also showed her around the Annex area where I used to live. Here I am in from of the house I live in on Huron Street:
We then went to Union Station to catch a train to Dundas to meet Robin and her family:
Here are Grace (2 years old) and Adam (5 years old) playing on some toys in their basement:
It was our first time to meet Grace and she enjoyed playing with us a lot. Here she is with Dad (Insung) on her toy:
On December 30th, we all went to Ikea to look around and buy a few things. In the evening, Robin took Grace and us to Niagara Falls:
The was a lot of mist which felt like walking through rain on the walkway:
The mist then froze on us which made it feel quite cold. Luckily we could still show some good smiles for a picture:
On New Year's Eve, we got a train to Ajax to stay with Barbara, Jason and Justin for a couple of days. In the evening, Tony and Steph came over with their one-month old baby, Luciano:
Ayako enjoyed having Canadian-Chinese food that night:
Since there were two babies in the house, it was a fairly quiet New Year's Eve, and we were up in good time the next day. We got to spend more time with Justin. Here's Ayako enjoying that fresh baby smell:
We went out to lunch at East Side Mario's. This was Justin's first time eating in a restaurant:
Here's Justin eyeing our waitress after touch her bum. Justin definitely liked giving cute smiles whenever he looked at a woman:
In the afternoon, we relaxed at home and had time to take more photos with Justin:
On the 2nd of January, Mom and Dad came over and we all went out to dinner at The Keg. This was already Justin's second time out at a restaurant:
We all ate lots and Ayako especially liked the large brownie sundae she ordered for dessert, even if she couldn't finish it. Good thing for doggy bags:
We returned to Peterborough after that. On the 3rd of January, Ayako enjoyed going to a museum and doing some shopping with Mom while I stayed home and started packing. In the evening, we could enjoy a fire in the fireplace and watching the movie "Julie and Julia" that Ayako received for Christmas:
All of a sudden it was the 4th of January and we were up early in the morning to drive down to the airport for our flight back to Japan. I had some time in the car to open some birthday presents. At least we didn't have to wait long at the airport and the flight back was a bit easier. The two weeks flew by, but I'm glad we could see lots of relatives and friends and we could spend some quality time with my parents and Barbara, Jason and of course, Justin.
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