little-known holidays

Today was a holiday that I had completely forgotten. It's celebrated more in some areas than others, but seems to be a pretty big thing in Shibamata. I guess the literal translation would be: Be-Tolerant-of-the-Terminally Rude-Obnoxious-and-Just-Plain-Stupid-or-Stay-at-Home Day. I think the more acceptable translation would be something like: Saturday. Granted that today was in the 90's (pretty hot!) and 92% humidity (damned humid!) might have had something to do with it...or at least how I perceived things.

SIDE NOTE: I'll always try to convert temperatures, weights, money and the like into something easily understandable by both family and friends. ;-)

It's not really a joke when I say that my iPod and the Kirin Company may have actually saved lives today (not to mention run-in's with what passes for the law around here).

On the more positive side:

Another care package from Taka's family today. We have so much stuff, we're talking about dishes we can prepare over the weekend to freeze for later. Taka is making gyoza tonight (half are vegetarian and half are with shrimp). She's cooking now and can't stand my hovering on one of the few occasions she makes use of my kitchen. Don't get me wrong. She's a fantastic cook. It's just that with our schedules such as they are, the kitchen has been my realm for a while now and I get a little...well...I hover.

I learned a new phrase today that worked great. I'll likely forget it in about no time flat because 1) Hey, this is me! and B) I will only be able to use it a maximum of once a month or so. It's, "San mai oroshi, onegaishimasu.". I can also possibly manage, "San mai oroshi onegai dekimasuka?". The first more or less translates to: "Filet that into two pieces please." and the second one is, "Can you (Is it possible) to filet that into two pieces (for me)?". One is for the fish store near here and the other for one of the supermarkets. As we only eat fish maybe once a week and even then in really small quantities, who knows when I'll get to use it again. It worked well enough today though.

...Back from dinner.

It was beyond great. We had half the gyoza parboiled, then fried in the same pan with soy and sesame oils. When they're done, the gyoza get dipped in a combination of soy sauce and rice vinegar (with a drop or two of some Chinese pepper oil I forget the name of) as you eat them. The other half were boiled and served in a bowl with just a little of the water they were cooked in and some ponzu. Taka's combination of ingredients for the gyoza filling tonight were the best we've had to date. We also had a salad of boiled eggplant topped with shiso, myoga (which I knew as a food item, but found out tonight is the bulb of a ginger plant), shredded grilled saba (a kind of mackerel) and finished with ponzu.

As you can tell. My rant at the world phase has ended by more than a little. A bit of relaxing, some left-over dishes to be washed, a little watermelon and then it'll be a fast shower and off to bed. Not really as bad a day as the beginning of this post lead you to believe.