Kelly Azuma

I was searching for a recipe on taste.com.au when i came across this very interesting article about substituting breast milk for cows milk in icecream.

Apparently PETA is urging some very well known icecream brands to switch from using cows milk to using breast milk in their icecreams because they think it’s bad that baby cows miss out on drinking their own mother’s milk. And we all know breast milk is better right? Apparently.

A swiss restaurant owner is set to begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers to use in 75% of the food he serves containing milk. Holy crap. I was under the impression that if adults drink breast milk, they get diarrhea. I could be wrong but that’s what i’ve heard. So this guy could be setting his customers up for a worse than food poisoning experience when they dine at the restaurant. And will he be telling his customers, or keeping them in the dark?

When it comes down to it though, comparing women and cows is a very dangerous thing…

Yesterday we ventured out to the Perth Royal Show for the day. Yasu looks forward to going every year, i guess because when he was a kid he never went to anything like that. I’ve been every year since i was a baby, and have never missed one.

It was nice just to spend some “us time” together, as we haven’t had much of that lately due to his work commitments. I loved just being able to walk around and soak up the atmosphere, eat a few treats and have a good look at all the displays. There were lots of animals to see, but we didn’t watch a lot though we did watch the dog trials and i went and visited the mama pigs who were all worn out after feeding their 10 odd babies.

We headed into the food pavilions but it was so crowded and hot in there, i had to get out. While in the dairy pavilion we tried a new type of icecream called Dippin’ Dots, they are basically small dots or balls of icecream with a flavour. Very yummy and something different. We had cookies n’ cream flavour which had big pieces of Oreo cookies in it.

Cookies n cream dippin' dots

Along the way Yasu bought an Aussie bush hat, as he’d wanted one for a while. It really suits him. I’m thinking about getting him a Crocodile Dundee Style hat  for christmas, as he was looking for that kind, i guess Dundee resonates with a lot of Japanese.

This year the show’s guest city was Dezhou City, in Shandong Province, China. They had the Dezhou City Acrobats which were performing just as we got there. They were awesome! There was a girl there who could hula hoop (not sure what the sport is actually called) with 100 rings on her waist! Then there was a girl on a unicycle who could throw bowls that were balanced on her feet and catch them on her head. There was also a man who’s skill was using whips, and he grabbed an audience member and got him to hold a flower in his mouth while he whipped it in half while he was wearing a blindfold. They also had a girl who could juggle parasols with her feet. Such talent but i imagine it would take many years of practice.

I would like to upload some videos to you tube or google videos but it seems to be taking way too long. I wonder if there is a way to make them smaller? I’ve managed to upload one of them just now, but if anyone knows how to make them smaller or less mb, could you let me know? I have no idea about these things!

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3946327610292315248&hl=en]

Some random photo’s taken at the show below.

Yasu with an insulated mug he bought for work

Yasu standing with the tree that inspired Hayao Miyazaki : Boab

A lesson in history: A blacksmith makes tools the old-fashioned way

So many varieties of eggs available in Western Australia

Yasu was being difficult and wouldn't look at the camera. We were in the tractor shed - every boys dream.

And finally, we saw an interesting act while we were having a rest. An alien/Sonic Manipulator with some funky alien sounds. I have a video of him too, which i will upload when i figure out how to get it smaller. For now here’s a pic of him. Unique music made with his own inventions, also pretty funny at times.

The Sonic Manipulator - Funky Alien Soundz

 [googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6169285977912653700&hl=en]

I have some more photo’s to add but they’re on my mobile, they are of some of the most beautiful cakes that were in the cake competitions. I will add them in the next post.

Yasu’s cousin and his wife gave birth to their second child about 6 months ago. Her name is Niko. I have no idea what the kanji is for that, but i can’t help but call her “niko niko” even though i’ve never seen what she looks like. Niko has an older brother called Yuuto, but luckily i have seen what he looks like.

Well anyway, back in the day when Yuuto was born, i was being the dutiful wife and sending out obligatory presents to births, marriages, and any other events like new years cards and stuff like that. However, being as we’re living in Australia, and i have my own social obligations such as birthdays, christmas, easter, and my own aussie family to do stuff for as well, it sort of got too much and i stopped doing it. I didn’t actually say i was going to stop, i just stopped. That was just about 2 years ago, right after Yuuto was born.

No one seemed to mind, well if they did, they never said anything. Until Niko came along that is. Since she was born, the pressure was on to buy a gift and send it to Japan. But because i don’t do that anymore, the duty fell to Yasu, and as we all know he’s so busy with work he barely gets time to sit down and relax let alone go out baby clothes shopping. So anyway, i left it alone. I wasn’t going to go there. Soon enough, when he called his mum every two weeks she started nagging him about the present. Every time he got on the phone to her she asked him “have you sent the present to Niko yet?” and Yasu would respond “no, but i’ll send one next week”, this kept on for 6 months, by which time i was having a big inside chuckle every time he got on the phone and got asked the same question. Ahh so now you know Yasu, what a pain in the ass it is to have to do this crap for people i’ve never even met!

It got so that Yasu stopped calling his mum altogether. He waited a month, then he called. The first thing his mum said was “have you sent that present yet?”. Haha, she doesn’t give up. Ever.

Finally Yasu turned to me and said, “i have to get that present for Niko”. I said, “ok, do you know what size she is?” Uh, no. He hadn’t checked. This resulted in another phone call to mum to ask what size Niko is. Mum didn’t know of course so then she had to ring the cousin to find out. The only thing wrong with that is that now cousin is definitely expecting a present any time soon.

Yasu kept getting more hours at work and didn’t end up buying the present. I got sick of all the waiting around and went out and bought two pink jumpsuits with cutesy frills and butterflies and an educational toy that squeaks and crinkles when Target was having 20% off in their baby products. I bought wrapping paper and a card. I brought it home. Yasu was ever so grateful he didn’t have to go looking at baby stuff. I told him to pull his finger out and start writing the card, wrap it and i would post it. That was two weeks ago. The baby clothes and toy is still sitting in the bag on the kitchen table. It hasn’t been wrapped, the card not written on.

I have no intention of doing this for him no matter how much i love him. Firstly because i have no idea the names of Niko’s parents (i’ve forgotten) and secondly that’s his job at least, i’ve done everything else. It might seem selfish of me, but jeez, in my mind the selfish one is his mother and cousin…they obviously forget that we have our own life here, in Australia, with cousins and uncles and nephews that we know. Also, postage to Japan for a small thing starts at $10, then on top of that the present, wrapping, card…it all adds up big time. Whatever happened to sending a card as an acknowledgement? Now we have these presents we have to send internationally as well. In my family it’s the thought that counts, but not in Yasu’s. It’s some social/family obligation. His mum says if we don’t do it they will look bad as they are in Japan and we are not. I have a solution to that problem – why doesn’t she just buy the present and say it’s from all of us? It would save a lot of time and money. Why do Japanese always have to do things the hard way?

So anyway, i’m not pushing it any further. I’m just letting the present sit on the kitchen table. I move everything around it. Yasu hasn’t even glanced at it. By the time he gets around to sending it she will be too big to wear it, probably. In the meantime every phone call to mum will result in a question about the present. Life! Sometimes you have to laugh or you’ll cry.

I’m sitting here at the computer doing some research on organic foods. I like the idea of changing my, well, our, lifestyle over to eating more healthy, wholesome foods, and less over-processed unnatural foods.

Yasu always makes jokes about organic foods, but now i’ve seen the light in terms of eating them, after studying Reflexology. The book “The complete illustrated guide to reflexology by Inge Dougans” theorises that many modern dis-eases can be put down to an incorrect diet and that there is a real link between poor diet and poor behaviour. I’ve started to notice that my body is craving fresh healthy food, and none of that over-processed chemical crap they usually sell on the supermarket shelves.

Suprisingly, alot of the foods i thought of as being healthy in a diet are actually not, this, shock horror, includes white rice. In fact we should be eating more foods with less sodium and more potassium. So we should be eating brown rice as it is unrefined and retains natural goodness and fibre. Oh woah….wait til i pass that little gem onto Yasu. He bucked about eating less rice…but changing the colour? Heaven forbid. It could start a war.

Anyways, i am thinking of slowly introducing organic foods into our diet, hopefully without Yasu noticing. As he doesn’t really go anywhere near the kitchen unless he’s snooping in the cupboard for some chocolate or trying to make a mess, i’m hoping he won’t pay too much attention to what i’m actually cooking up.

Maybe if i do the grocery shopping without him actually present would be a better idea. Actually Yasu hasn’t been very well the last couple of weeks. I think it’s a matter of over-work, over-stress, and fighting off two colds in a very short space of time that has left him lethargic, emotional, and weak. I feel sorry for the guy, working 70-80 hours per week is too hard for him. If only his boss would wake up and give him a break.

Besides that, the kids next door keep throwing a football at the fence at the side, right next to my open sliding door. I feel like taking that ball and shoving it up their you know whats, but instead i just turned up NHK to max level, and let Asshole sorry, Aso Sorry Daijin scare the wits out of them, that made them scurry round the corner away from my hearing, thank god for small mercies. At least NHK is good for something…

Yasu is having baseball training tonight so he won’t be home until about 6:30pm, i’m just deciding whether to fold up the washing or have a nap. A nap would be nice but maybe i should start cooking, that man is always hungry, it’s like his stomach is a bottomless pit.

No organics tonight though, Thursday is our weekly shop so i will have to get it all tomorrow. Maybe a Japanese Curry courtesy of House Vermont Curry though. Enjoy your dinner wherever you are

Recently while watching popular programs on NHK such as “ためしてガッテン！” i’ve started noticing the sexism displayed. Considering that our satellite NHK is “World Premium” and airs to every other country on the planet, Japan is showing to all how sexist they are.

On Gatten yesterday they were talking about Charcoal used in bbq’s. The woman co-host on the show had to lug a big bucket filled with charcoal and water all the way across the studio, with the camera focused on her, while the male co-host stood there with some tongs in his hand. You could clearly see the poor woman could barely lift the bucket and she was hunched over trying to lift it. Not only did the male co-host not offer a hand, the fact that the cameraman showed her trying to lift it and not getting any help or offer of help is bloody depressing. It just reinforced to me that Japan hasn’t changed one iota, they still view women as lower than they are. It really incensed me, as a woman. Then after she had brought the bucket of water over to the male co-host she had to scurry back to the platform and give a talk about charcoal while the male co-host put two pieces of charcoal on the bbq table. Woah! Big effort there man, don’t break your back!

Yakiniku on Tameshite Gatten

Of course Yasu thinks it’s hilarious that i find it so infuriating. He can see my point of view but it doesn’t stick out to him like it does to me. I guess Japanese males have been conditioned to not notice these things. How much easier would it have been for the guy to get the bucket and carry it over for his co-host? Such a simple thing. But he stood there like an idiot and watched with everyone else as she struggled with the bucket. These kind of things just make me so angry.

I think men and women are equal, in fact when i married Yasu i told him in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t and would never be higher than me. It’s a fact he accepted. Yet when we were in Japan he was always treated like he was higher than me, especially by his parents. This is digressing but when we went to a Japanese restaurant as a family, the restaurant served my father in law first, and then my mother in law, then Yasu and his sister, and lastly me (if ever i felt like an outsider it was then!). My father in law ate his meal and was finished before anyone even got theirs, and when i was living with Yasu’s parents, my father in law was always served first and started eating, not waiting for anyone else.

When i grew up it was just basic table manners to wait for everyone else to get their meals before starting. And even if male relatives did get served first, they waited until everyone else to get theirs before starting.

I know it’s a cultural difference, something that is offensive to me is normal to them. But Yasu expects that when his family comes to stay with us, his father is shown the same form of “respect”. Uh, hello, but we are all equal here, and as much as i respect his family, i won’t be allowing the father to just chow down before anyone else. “So maybe my family shouldn’t come to Perth then” is Yasu’s response. So that means Japanese guys shouldn’t have to change just because they go to someone else’s country?? Give me a break.

There is a great saying “when in Rome, do as the Roman’s do”, which i love. I just think it exemplifies what going to another country is all about.

Will his parents ever come to Perth? I’m not sure if his father could handle it. That’s going to be massive culture shock for him, but devil as i am, i’d love to see it.

For all the people currently living in Japan male or female, does sexism bother you? Do you even notice it anymore? Does it make you angry? Have you ever tried to change it?

Celebrating World Peace JAPANITE is back by popular demand with the catchphrase “Experince Japan in Perth”. It is on Friday 26th September @ The Deen. Advance Tickets $5, at the door $10. Enjoy Japanese Music by a Japanese DJ, Prize Draw, Edamame and a Takoyaki Stall!! You might even meet your next Japanese girlfriend/boyfriend there! So who knows… Limited Tickets available see the flier for more info.

Japanite

I’ve had two bottles of the latest weird Japanese Pepsi sitting in my pantry for the last month. After the reviews i had read on the internet, i was a little bit scared to try it. All over the net people have been reviewing it and saying they hated it so i wasn’t sure what to expect.

Yasu went first and gulped his down “yum”, he said. “It doesn’t taste like pepsi”.
I had a sip of his, and yes, first impression was very good. Second taste, very very good! It’s very tropical flavoured, like pineapple and lemon and sun all mixed together. I love it! I can’t understand why so many people hate it? Because it doesn’t taste like cola? I love the blue colour of the drink, it’s so pretty! And the fact that i paid $8 for each bottle on ebay, and a further $17 shipping makes the fact that it tastes great all worthwhile. It would have been terrible if it had tasted bad, i would have felt worse about the cost.

I helped Yasu drink his, and now i’m holding onto my bottle. I know, unfair. I just can’t get myself to open it and drink it because it’s the last and only bottle i have and i LOVE the flavour! But after this bottle it’s all gone, i can never have it again. I know i felt like that a little while back with GoGo Tea, but now it’s become readily available here, i don’t cherish it as much. But i know for sure i won’t be getting this again. I have to wait to Japan’s next summer for the next weird Pepsi edition. Wonder what it will be…? I think they should do Pepsi: Rising Sun - White bottle with red Pepsi the flavour of ume!

Japanese "Blue Hawaii" Pineapple & Lemon Pepsi