moko0609 on Xanga

Monday, 03 May 2010

I'm very sorry I couldn't have updated my blog on this Xanga-site for a long time because of my busy work. If you are interested in about Japan and Japanese , please visite my another blog whenever you like. MOKO
http://20615769.at.webry.info/
To my dearest friend Tima.
I'm so sorry I will stop blogging here for a while. I feel it's difficult to manage a couple of web-sites at the same time. But... I will keep on writing my blog and of course I will vistit yours and your friends' as well.
MOKO

Saturday, 07 November 2009

Yesterday


　   I visited the Ueno Park solitarily last Sunday after a long time. The last time I visited there was almost ten years ago and the grand was covered with the yellow carpet made of fallen leaves.
　　First of all, I tried to see the exhibition of Vermeer at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. But it was too crowded to see it. Then, I gave it up. Suddenly ,there came a nostalgic beautiful sound I'd ever heard. That tune was "Yesterday ",one of the great hit numbers of the Beatles.       There are several museums in Ueno Park in Tokyo.
　　An old street performer was playing the saw ! Yes, a SAW ! in Japanese nokogiri, believe or not, he makes sentimental, nostalgic, sensitive sound with the edge of the saw and a piece of small leather. So beautiful ....That reminds me ,Only once I've sung " Yesterday " along with the piano at the small pub by The Pond Shinobazu before. The sound sank into my soul deeply and touched my heart a lot.
　　Walking through the park, I met another street performers playing the folk music " El Condor Pasa "in Japanese Kondoru wa tondeiku コンドルは飛んでいく. They looked like Indio in the Andes. As for me , It reminds me the days in Junior High School. We sang this song in English , ♪ Ado rada be a rada be a ye sa woo　～♪　in very fishy strange English.

　　Going down through the cool shady path, some homeless cats welcomed me and staring me. The Pond Shinobazu were down below having plenty of huge leaves of Lotus. I felt strange feeling because when I was young those lotus leaves were not so huge. Are the lotus leaves growing year by year? Hmmm I puzzled my mind. The flowers of lotus had already gone though if I saw blooming lovely lotus floweres, I might have felt as if I were in Heaven and seen my mother..

　
    I walked aroundUeno,ABAB,Matsuzakaya,Suzumoto,Takeya,Higashi-Ueno Korea Town where I had lunch . Finally got to Mihashi ,Japanese sweets shop　みはしtoday's highlight. I ate "Cream Anmitsu " take one bite and you"ll melt. So scrumptious !!
    I really enjoyed walking around Ueno where the autumn winds of my good old memories blew...
　　
　　Thank you so much for reading .
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Sunday, 01 November 2009

Rice Balls

　　

Rice ball is a food made from white rice formed into triangular, round, or oval shape and usually wrapped in dried seaweed , Japanese nori. we call it onigiri or omusubi. It has been loved to eat in Japan since ancient days . 　　My earliest memory with rice ball was at the age of seven, when I was an elementary school pupil. On the morning of the day of the the first field trip in May. My mother asked me " How many rice balls do you want? MOKO." " Six, please " I replied right away. I brought six my mother's hand made rice balls for my lunch. Two for salted salmon flakes , tuna, kombu( salted seaweed ) ,okaka ( dried bonito flakes ) and umeboshi (pickled Japanese plum ). As I opened my lunch box with my classmates sitting in a circle. One boy asked me " How many rice balls do you have?" " Six ". " Me,too " he said and we smiled each other and ate up them all ! What a big eater I was! Since on that day, I had brought six rice balls to school day after day. He also had brought them as well. He asked me whenever we had lunch " How many rice balls do you have?"" Six !"I replied. We beamed together and ate them up all ! 　　

When I was a Junior High School student, One of my classmates who was so pretty girl brought so lovely rice balls to school.　They looked just like beautiful flowers and I'd never seen such lovely ones nor eaten them before. When my sons were kindergarten. I made them Ninja rice balls. I cut nori into ninja face shape and put it on the rice ball. They were so pleased and excited to eat them. 　　
　　
The most precious memory was after marriage, our family had had a trip to Hakodate in Hokkaido from my husband's home town Aomori by ferry with his parents. My father in law had been suffered from lung cancer in those days, so we thought it would be the last memory with him. I made two kinds of rice balls, grilled salted salmon and umeboshi with some pickled cucumbers for them in the very busy morning before we left home. As he had a bite of rice ball, he said " I've never eaten such a delicious rice ball." My mother in law also said to me " MOKO chan's rice ball is the best in the world ." I was really glad to hear the words. 　　

　　Although rice ball is just a very simple, easy-to-make food, I love to eat them still now on and sometimes it reminds me the memories in each occasion and in each moment in the past. I bought 30kg bag of new rice and 3kg glutinous rice at neighbor hood farmer. I made those rice balls recalling their unforgettable faces, besides I made oseki-han ( steamed rice with red beans)for myself to celebrate on my recovery. 　　

Thank you so much for reading.