adekun’s japan blog

Apple Pie is off the menu. Very keen to make a few fruit pies, especially as it is now very autumnal. Already knew apples were expensive here, but quite put off at ¥150 (75p) each.

Felt pretty rough this morning after last night’s jaunt. Heard there was a gathering of gaijin. It turned out to be a Halloween fancy dress party at HiHighs nightclub. ¥1500 got you entry and a drink, thereafter ¥500 a pop. The beer cans were served up by the most obnoxious Filipinas. Got to meet a few people, but it wasn’t the place to chat. Pretty glad with both decided to cut and run, early on.
Still hot a the moment, I guess early twenties? Ended up having a barbecue. Once I teased out the slugs, had the Shiitake as pictured on the previous post.
Rather pooped, feel to old to go out ‘clubbing’

I tried earlier in the year to grow Shiitake and had no joy. Thought I’d have another go last week.
Immersed my inoculated log in the outdoor sink for a couple of days and within a week…

Can’t think of anything witty to say. Been kept awake since the wee hourse by the wee one.
He’s full of gas can’t but really change his diet. Little chance of me getting back to sleep now, although I’m sure he’ll have no trouble.
Cold now in the mornings, so have donned my winter jinbei (japanese pyjamas). I’m going to mooch around the garden in a vain attempt to wake up.

Not quite the bumper sweet potato harvest I was hoping for, the two I pulled last week must have been the biggest. My neighbour said what I took was good, but I have decided to leave the other row for another month. Stiil, the smaller ones are quicker to cook and I’m less inclined to scoff them all myself.
I’ll probably leave them in until just before I transplant some onions.

The past week I’ve been watching the garlic sprout. So far about a quarter have pushed through. Having read up about planting them afterwards, I’m a little worried that I removed all of the outer layers. Probably doesn’t matter as long as they are not damaged. The Aomori garlic I moved is as yet to make an appearance.

It’s been pretty good to go back a recheck them after a couple of hours to find another has popped up.

He’s going to be eight weeks old on Wednesday.

I’ve been expecting a meagre harvest of sweet potatoes in November. They were planted in a rush and pretty much left to it. Today I thought I’d have a quick peek and see what’s going on. It would appear there is a promising supply of baby food.
A reasonable sized sweet potato costs about ¥200 (£1), so I’m well chuffed with this.

Following on from the previous entry, I haven’t seen any slugs since I put down the eggshells. I have overlooked things that fly, namely butterflies. I suspect the caterpillars I found today had caused most of the damage to date.
So I charged my new carrot shaped hand sprayer with milk and gave them a good dousing. I hope it will work?

Recovering somewhat for my cold (still dogged by it after a week), I ventured out to the garden. We had a typhoon the other day and sadly one of the newly transplanted broccoli fell victim. I’m unsure if it will regrow?
The only other bad thing about the heavy rain, was that it washed away the crushed eggshells. This left an exposed front which the slugs quickly took advantage of.

Below is some regular garlic against a Japanese variety (Aomori).

Got a little carried away with the eggshells but not going to take any chances. Will add some beer traps.

In Japan there is a whole plethora of amusing english mistakes. I could spend plenty of time uploading photos, but there are  already some good sources out there.

Anyway, I shall probably add a few special ones from time to time. Here’s my mother-in-law’s newest frying pan. It’s only a couple of months old, so thought I’d get this up before she burns the paint off.

Bon Appetit!

it abba abundant frightness of plêasure of the table