Only one spcecial marmalade in the world

So as I worte before about Chinese citron fruits in my garden, the next job for me was to cook them into homemade marmalade. I've been doing this for years and years since I got married and moved to this house. It is nothing new to me all. However, after I went through all the steps to marmalade and taste it, it was not as good as usual. Where did I made a mistake? I did something wrong? I pictured all the steps I had followed and all of a sudden I realized that I failed to wash the sliced peels in the water more than twice so that scums are removed. I skipped this step only to mix the peels into sugar. That explained it. No wonder it tasts a bit bitter. Well then since I didn't put any poison into the ingredients, just a taste of bitterness won't do any harm on you. In fact my family like it. After all it is the only one unique marmalade in the world.

Living in a big city may not be so bad

Along with my new digital camera,I went up to the new skyscraper called Midland square, a 247-meter skyscraper, the tallest building in Central Japan, where Toyota offices moved in. It has an observation dec called Sky Promenade, fills three floors from 44 to 46 where you can excitedly enjoy the grand panorama of Nagoya city. Night view is really something.
This newly opened building has many luxurious brand shops and restaurants of the world. I'm sure I can enjoy windowshopping for the time being. Well, I can drop by for a scoop of icecream from Pierre Marcolini Chocolatier on the basement floor. Mmmm---I can't wait. It was too bad last night when I came down from the deck, it was almost 9 o'clock and the shop was already closed.

Spring is with us now

Spring has just arrived here much earlier than usual owing to the global warming.
We have two Chinese citron trees in our garden and they both have fruited earlier as well. So this morning I picked them up from the trees. It's fun. You can pick them up by twisting the stems as high as my arms reach. Otherwise, I use the shears with a long handle to pick up the fruits way high up in the trees. Once I start it, it is really fun to do. It didn't take long to find dozens of fruits landing on the ground.
Well, it's not the end of the story. What will become of those fruits? I gave some to my neighbors and I'm going to cook the rest of them into handmade marmalade. It's such a nice treat that the great grand mother had once planted the trees way back in the past.

Getting ready for the Doll Festival

In most of all Japanese families, we celebrate the day of March 3rd as the Doll Festival by setting up a display of traditional Japanese dolls called "Ohinasama". It's a historical culture of ours ever since 300 years before to pray for girls' good health and happiness throughout their lives keeping away from the bad evils. People had believed that those dolls were to take girls' places in carrying away every bad evil.

I have a daughter who has just turned to 20 years old. Even now, though she is away from home for her university , I make it a rule to set up her "Ohinasama" at home which her grandmother gave her for her first Doll Festival twenty years ago.

Dolls are carefully put into a wooden box for almost 12 months except a month or shorter than a month before the arrival of the first day of spring in the lunatic calendar.

It's such an exciting moment for girls and their families to open the box , set them up on the display with some spring flowers arrangements and some special sweets.

Where should I start ?

I've been writing my blog at another site for years in English. As I've been updating my blog, I' ve reallized that that site was not really adequate for writing in English. It is basically programmed for the Japanese language. As the english sentences go to the end at the right margin, the words are cut halfway and the rest of the letters go on to the next line. I handled this by arranging the tugs on the sheet. This hasn't cleared every thing yet. Whenever I wanted to change the template, the same trouble came up to me. So I'v just lost my interest in updating my blog then.
Well, since I want to write in English, why not using the English blog site. Then I won't have any troubles in styles and my site won't get garbled. So I arrived at this Blogger a couple years ago and still was not able to give up on my another site. Today I 'm back again hoping I will be able to stay writiing on this blog as I used to in my old one.
Just for my own interest, here is my blog in english which I had been working on so long.

I'm back again!

After a long long break, I've finally tried to come up with my site again and rebuild my network with some of my fellow bloggers I'd known. Hoping to see them around here. I'm now trying to recall how to post in my own blog. That's the key.
It's a shame that it took for a while for me to log in my own blog. I've forgotten my ID and password. I typed every that word and this word one after another which came to my mind as passwords and finally I made it.OK that's enough for now.
I'll be back soon with my next story.

This evening, I had to stop at three different department stores one after another to do some shopping. When I finished all these shopping, I felt quite exhausted. Honestly speaking, I don't feel like making a rush to the parking. Do I have to hurry back home? Then I heard some one whispering in my ear, "Gee, you look so awful with those bags. Why don't you take a rest? After all you will be tied up with a lot of housework right after you get home. Just ten-minute break won't hurt you. While listening to this voice, I've already looked around and found one nice coffee shop across the aisle., well, strictly speaking, a traditional Japanese pastry house called "Akafuku". I rushed to the shop and dashed to the table, then I was stopped by the clerk. "Get the meal ticket first, please." "Oh, the ticket." They make it a rule to have the customers pay in advance. Gee, she didn!t have a mercy on me to have a seat and get free from these bags. Eventually I had to put these bags on the floor to pay. " Two pieces of Akafuku on the plate with tea please."
They serve several tiny mochi named "Akafuku" (soft rice cake wrapped with smoothly pasted sweetened beans) on the plate with Japanese tea or green tea as shown in the picture. They have served them ever since 300 years before at the shop in Ise, Mie prefecture primarily for Ise Shrine visitors who walked all the way from different areas throughout the country on those days. Here people used to take a rest and feel happy about the safe arrival to Ise Shrine and after visiting the shrine, they used to drop by at the shop again to feel refreshed with some "Akafuku-mochi" before starting a long journey way back home on foot.
Well, time went by. Nowadays this "Akafuku" are loved especially by many women and visitors from other parts of Japan at the shops in many department stores. Apart from the story of visiting Ise Shrine, when I get exhausted from walking in the department stores and feel like to have a coffee break, dropping by at "Akafuku" is undoubtedly the right way to take a rest and get my enegy full again to play my role of housewife or whatever.
So I went home with a feeling of happiness. Happiness is having something sweet, maybe.

Tulips tulips tulips!

Enjoy the flowers!By the way,this is not Holland, but Japan.

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Shachi-bon

One of the fascinating things about making a trip is to encounter something really delicious or something really unique food you have never had before at any other places but "there".
Here is something that makes you feel you can't miss it before you leave Nagoya by all means. Let me introduce you tonight the famouse cream puff named "Shachi-bon". "Shachi" is legendally "dolfin-like- fish" and a symbol of the city of Nagoya where you can find a gold pair of "Shachi" statues on the top of the Nagoya Castle roof. The cream puff is actually shaped like this symbol of Nagoya and made out of many parts of crispy crust :body and several fins. And it has full of whisked fresh cream inside its body crust and eyes are formed with chocolate chips and it has a strawberry tongue as well. Isn't it an irresistible face ! You'll love it at first sight. Don't miss it when you land at JR Nagoya Station.
You will be able to have "Shachi-bon" only at this cafe at the undergound shopping archade just below the station concourse.

Can't wait for the arrival of the spring

clike on the picture to get a larger image

Enjoy the bees dancing with my message.
(Sorry this page may not work properly on Macs.)
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