adekun’s japan blog

A year and two weeks ago I put up a post about haruichiban, the first strong winds of the year. Just as this year’s winds arrived we had our own mini whirlwind as the Yoshihara family descended upon us. Both parents are long time friends of my wife and the have four young daughters; there must be some truth in old wives’ tales. Their planned visit had been put off three successive weeks because of the snow. I kept to the kitchen with my heavy cold and got to try out the pie dish my parents kindly sent me. O what excitement enamelware can bring. To try to clear the guise of sarcasm, I’ve have been waiting for the right moment and I’m really happy with it. You just can’t get stuff like that here.
In the news, along the coast to the east, a breakwater in Toyama was breached forcing 150 families to evacuate their homes. An old man was swept out to sea as he watched the waves from a costal road. It’s been calmer here and today the sun is out. The compost has defrosted. Soon I hope, I’ll be able to get some digging done in the garden.

Plenty of snow fell over the weekend. On Sunday I started heaping some on the half buried snowman. The carrot nose and hair we gave him was nowhere to be seen. Despite a late start, it was still light as my fingers grew purple. Maybe with a wooden handle and the warmth from shovelling I could have continued into the evening. Anyhow the mound was complete enough so I headed in. Curry and rice for dinner.

After padding out the top further the next day and a break to let it refreeze, the fun bit started. It was warm and sunny mid morning and I found the carrot.

Kento had woken up. We spent some time together inside peering out, as the snow tumbled like those small polystyrene balls. Inside the quinze (quinzee, quinzhee etc.) it was snug.

The other day, I got to try my hand at making nihachi soba (lit. two eight soba). Despite the measures being simple, two parts flour to eight parts buckwheat, the motions are best watched at least once. I will post a recipe at some point. In lieu of that; in essence, to the sifted flour half the weight of water is added. Once brought together, fifty presses are applied (seventy for the girls). It is rolled and stretched out to a square, folded and chopped.

The resulting noodles are dropped into a pan of boiling water for sixty seconds before being plunged into ice cold water.

A typical accompaniment would be a sauce of dashi, soy and mirin.

On Sunday we spent a few hours at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Park. Although the setting is at odds to the camps at Auschwitz, it is none the less moving. I was keen to find out what the museum cited as reasons for the attack and what mention it gave to activities in Asia prior to WWII.
For me the often stated reason never answered the questions. Reading at school, it was easy to spot contradictions. It just seemed the most palatable. What does seem common is Truman’s and Tibbets’s sentiments, and that of Bomber Harris.

I was unaware of the forced demolished of homes to provide fire breaks. In addition to the civilians from neighbouring towns, schoolchildren were mobilized for demolition duty. At the time of the attack they were outside. The bomb was a little off target and detonated above the Shima hospital. A plaque marking the hypocentre can be found in front of an apartment block a street back from the Dome.

Above, the targeted T shaped Aoio bridge and Hiroshima Peace Memorial (A-Bomb Dome).

There didn’t seem much information on the subsequent bombing of Nagasaki. The focus was on the after effects, the rebuilding and peace activities. Towards the end of the exhibition, of note was the numbers of times nuclear weapon use has since been contemplated. The 13 kiloton yield of ‘Little Boy’ compared to the 50 megatons of ‘Tsar Bomba’. While it’s all too easy to comment on the past, only the other week NATO’s top five were asserting “first strike nuclear option remains an indispensable instrument”.

Early Saturday morning accompanied (and funded) by my wife’s aunty, I boarded a bus bound for Hiroshima. Instead of the expressway we took a route that meandered south through small snow covered towns. Even half way through the four hour journey the signs outside read 0°C. By lunchtime, having been collected by her boyfriend, we were aboard the JR Miyajima Ferry. Since the island is sacred trees are not cut for lumber. Aside from the vista, the first surprise were wild deer roaming about. From the terminal it was only a short walk to the Itsukushima Shrine.

It would be great to spend more time in the autumn, when the leaves turn.

Or see the place set under a bluer sky.

The heavy rain washed away the plan to visit Iwakuni, as did the traffic to the plan to visit the naval museum at Kure. I did get to bed early though.

Having run with Adsense for over a year, I’m well on my way to meeting half my web hosting costs for a year. I’m sure there’s plenty I can do to improve this. It’s little surprise that gardening isn’t amongst the more lucrative subjects.
The other day I was accepted to join the Rubicon Project’s beta. It claims to automagically optimize your ad space. At present with the tiniest snippet of javascript, one of nine ad networks is picked. It’s incredibly easy to setup and offers plenty of scope to tweak if required. Although it’s early days it looks rather special.
On the other foot, please have look at the first comment. It’s the recent dialog between a text link peddler with his good offer and myself. If you want to make a quick buck at least type text link pr into Google beforehand.