Enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of first-time parenthood. Progress on the vegetable garden and other ramblings of a gaijin in Japan’s least populous prefecture.
The last broccoli was cut yesterday as I didn’t want to run the risk of it flowering. Out of the six I planted, only three came good. One lost everything above the waist in a typhoon, another turned out to be a cabbage and the other grew yellow flowers instead of a head. There was a little snow this morning and if it warms up a little, I will dig up the rest of the potatoes. If the number of weeds that have spawned over the past month is a decent guide, spring is not that far away.
On the local news this evening there was a report about a power station outage. There wasn’t much detail, but it was due to a water leak. What surprised me was that the nuclear plant mentioned was only a short drive away. Interested, having spent an extended stint in the UK energy industry (the later part focusing on renewables), I had a search about. Although difficult to see the detail, this map gives an idea of the system in the Chugoku region.
The red/white facing chevrons are nuclear
The blue rectangles are +10MW hydro
Red/white and blue/white bends are thermal
Yesterday began what has been the heaviest rain since October. It has been the first real test of the mizo (trenches) and I am pleased to see they performed better than expected. What instigated the digging, was the flooding of the Onion Stronghold. The photo was taken early on, already the rain was collecting around the asparagus.
During the night there were frequent bursts of kami nari (lit. God heard – thunder), so we sandwiched Kento between ourselves in case he became frightened. Instead of tears I got an earful of giggles.
No one wants to be caught in the rain, especially
torrential rain. Keep yourself dry when the rain tries to ruin your outside fun with
patio umbrellas. Make sure you have a nice, sturdy
umbrella stand to hold up against the powerful winds that can accompany rain storms. A large
market umbrella could make the difference between a sad,
rainy day inside and the ability to enjoy the weather outside, even when it’s raining.
As mentioned before, I said I would continue to press Dell’s Technical Support department. My replacement hard disk came unformatted without the integral MediaDirect program. I requested the CD’s I needed to restore the system to what it was sold with. Today I got a response. My transferred warranty doesn’t cover the missing CD’s. These are usually included with the system sold in Asia. However, I have the option of completing an online form, to receive a quote. Posts on a few forums mention invoices to be three figures US.
The system I bought was probably amongst the earliest batches shipped in the UK. I paid extra for the NVIDIA 7800 Go graphics card, top spec a year ago. I am dumbfounded as to why that the latest drivers on the Dell site are still those released 18-Jan-06. None of the standard NVIDIA drivers are compatible. I discovered during my first rebuild, the card is underclocked to 250 MHz rather than the usual 400 MHz – to keep the temperature down. That wasn’t in the sales literature.
I don’t usually feel the urge to advertise Coca Cola’s products. Tea is clearly popular here in Japan and just as in any other country, the company produces it’s localised range of drinks. What is attractive about this bottle of tea is the number of seemingly natural ingredients.
puer (a Chinese tea)
reishi (mushroom)
ryokucha (a Japanese green tea)
kicha (a Japanese tea)
kuko
korai ninjin (Chinese ginseng)*
dokudami
oolong
orange peel
kumazasa
hasu
It doesn’t taste too bad either, though I’d probably best stick to the beer.
*Thank you Dave.
Before moving out to Japan I ordered a laptop from Dell. Having spent quite a while researching what was on the market I opted for the familiar company. Although paying a premium price, I hoped that any problems that might arise would be remedied with little fuss and the system would be reliable. Sadly, I found this was not the case.
Within a couple of weeks of moving out to Japan I found that the hard disk was full of bad sectors. After several attempts to repair the problem it was with reluctance, I formatted the drive and reinstalled Windows. It was fortunate I paid extra for the OS CD having paid extra for the Professional edition.
The warranty didn’t extend beyond the UK & Ireland, since these problems arose so soon I thought Dell might have gone the extra mile. Being a global company I thought it little hassle for them to either send me a replacement or contact details of somebody that spoke English in Japan. I would have used the Japanese support page if I would have been able to translate the pages and if the service recognised my system.
I emailed technical support, detailing the problem. I was asked to run a full diagnostics test, having sent the results I was then told “The error message you have got indicates that the hard drive is faulty” - pull the other one I thought.
Once established, the rollercoaster of conflicting emails, Escalations, passing the buck, one liners began.
After six months, I was about to cut my losses, when the 90W battery, (which I paid extra for) started to fail. I’d only run it on batteries a few times. I tried a different method in contacting Dell and was given a link to transfer my warranty to Japan. I did so and received a snotty reply stating the person was Technical Support not Customer Service. Trying again I was given the correct link and managed to get my warranty transferred. After a couple of hours with my wife navigating, we made a request to get parts replaced. The replies were in English and courteous, the parts came promptly as directed. I am pleased to get the parts replaced but as expected I do not have the functions of the original system, no diagnostics and in particular MediaDirect – I assume a selling point for some people.
Anyway, I was thinking about those less fortunate than me. I like the idea of Reduce, Reuse & Recycle. Given the amount of heat this kicks out, (enough BTU’s to heat a small church) I thought it could be married with other defunct devices, such as the George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine. Perhaps those adventurous, with a working machine could try really multi-tasking.
I’ve not used the computer as a football, to flambé food, or in the jungle, in addition to the above…
Coating on the underside is flaking.
A lug in the middle of one of the USB sockets broke.
DVD R/RW eject button is usually unresponsive.
Decals peeling.
I will try the Japanese support again as they seem willing to help. Maybe after a year of trying I will get back to what I started with.
Earlyish yesterday, I made had a batch of dough with the intention of giving it a good few hours to rise. Using some bread flour found in one of the larger supermarkets, it was clear from the onset I had a better hand than previously. By lunchtime, I had a bowl brimming with dough. To finish I used a milk glaze. At the local boutique, loaves are priced between 600 and 1200 yen (£3 - £6).
Plain bread recipe
I did plan to make some bread this weekend. Having found a bag of oats yesterday whilst shopping, I decided on something biscuity. Sugar, butter, oats seemed just right for a drab Sunday afternoon. The morning was much better.
Whilst my wife and her sister took Kento for a walk I hurriedly set about the biscuits. It was fairly straightforward but could have made a bit more space for the baking tray. By the time I’d done that the mixture had cooled and started to harden making it difficult to fashion. Fortunately it was rescued, by crumbling it up and adding a little water. I got nine good-sized cookies which were well appreciated.
Walnut Oaties
The snow it seems has been rained off. Saturday was spent making bread which didn’t rise properly. It wasn’t doughy, just dense which made a welcome change to the usual shop bought pap. The Yoshihara tribe from Okayama came to visit. It was like a mini typhoon indoors, with the three young daughters busy circling the kotatsu. The two eldest took half the dough and beat it into Anpanmans, snails and shooting stars.
Monday was a public holiday in Japan, a day for those to celebrate their coming of age. I made pizza and calzone. Whilst shopping for some stronger flour, I happened upon a bottle of Żubrówka. The vodka is flavoured with a herb, known as bison grass. My first introduction was with a friend whilst holed up in a hotel in Poland. What started off as a few reciprocal drinks with the staff, turned into a game of top shelf with the coaches of the Polish Olympic team. At ¥650 a bottle I couldn’t resist.
The snow didn’t last long, but it did finish off the potato plants that were coming to an end. I’ll make a start harvesting them over the coming week. There is a rumour of snow over the weekend so I took the chance to give the garden a quick tidy up. The two remaining cauliflower’s headed towards the compost stack. The heads already yellow had turned brown, if I grow cauliflower again I will cover them.
Across the other side of the patch, the onions had perked up. I did notice one that looking a little poorly and another devoid of a top. Checking the first, it looked intact, however a tug on the stem revealed it was missing it’s middle. Was this the latest ploy of the nekirimushi? Armed with my trowel, I had a dig around the sick and apprehended the two perpetrators.
