sake

Today I went to a chinese super market in Birmingham to buy sushi rice.
Sushi rice is essential for me as you can easily imagine. It is quite difficult to live without Japanese sushi rice although I have already survived several years without quite a few Japanese groceries.


Today I bought something special, which is Japanese sake "ozeki dry."

I have never bought any kinds of Japanese sake for drinking myself even when I was in Japan. But when I bought a tiny 180ml bottle of sake to make a special BBQ sauce last year, I tasted it and found it quite tasty!!!

Half of the pleasure might have been one way of expression of just a homesickness. But I have missed the taste of sake since then.


So I bought one bottle which is larger than the previous one, with an excuse of making the special BBQ sauce again.

hahaha.



I tasted a tiny bit after supper today. Just a tiny bit is enough to feel "Japanese" mood.



This sake was made in California, and imported to England.
Actually, the sake factory is fairly close to the city of Sacramento where I used to live.


I knew there were a few Japanese sake companies around the city because there is a good water source from American River and Sacramento River.

But isn't it quite interesting?

I myself , Japanese,
Japanese sake made in California where I used to live.
The sake imported to England where I currently live.


And now I am sending this blog to all over the world via Internet, and many of the readers are Japanese.


Japan → California → England → Japan

It is just a sake, but it is going round the world connecting people.







By the way, it has been freezing cold these days because of the cold wave in Europe. Somebody said it is the coldest winter in the last thirty years in England. In fact, the temperatures these day have been under zero degree Celsius. Several people have frozen to death in the continental Europe. It is nice to see white snow and children playing with the snow, but I hope it will be warmer soon!



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Magazine

I recently enjoy spending my spare time as I read magazines.
I subscribe one of the BBC magazines called "Gardener's world." It helped me to learn English botanical names. Flowers and plants are named with unfamiliar language especially for Japanese. So it is hard to learn. However magazines are generally written in a casual language, and are with beautiful photos in nice layout, which is fun to look at. So I think reading or looking at magazines are helpful to learn specialized English terms.

After one and a half year of subscription, I got bored with this magazine.
Loss of interest in gardening was one of the reasons that I recently don't read it seriously.



Now I found a lot of fun in science magazines.



For now my favorite magazine is "New Scientist." You see one of the issues on the photo above.
It is interesting, not formal, and I think editor has a good sense of humor.


Thanks for the GCSE science studies, I have learned English basic scientific terms a lot. That made me possible to enjoy the contents of the science articles.

Originally I bought a science magazine to find more and more interests in sciences. As I study sciences for the exams, the dry scientific information bored me. Science is happening around us all over the world. Science should be lively and interesting. Then I thought that articles in magazines should be something new, latest technology, and easy to make connections between the dry academic information and our real lives.


I am now enjoying both English and sciences by reading this magazine!!
It is fun!


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rice noodle

I am a noodle lover.
Japanese udon, soba, somen, ramen, and other noodles like pasta are essential for my life. I crave for noodle if I miss one noodle meal per day.

After I moved to England, I discovered "rice noodle" which is from South East Asia. I often use it as an alternative to ramen noodle. I make soup similar to ramen soup and eat it as a soup noodle.

The rice noodle I recently bought was from irregular company which I have never heard. I cooked it as usual, but taste was disappointing. So I explored new recipe, and deep fried the noodle as I followed the instruction on the package.

It was my first experience. I have seen the deep fried rice noodle in cook books or Thai restaurant. However I have never made it myself before.

This was a surprise!

Let me not tell you what the surprise was.



Just get a bunch of thin rice noodles, and deep fry it in a hot oil.
Make sure that the oil is hot enough, and you fry a little amount of noodles, not too little though, at a time.



I am sure you will enjoy the process of deep frying.


Enjoy!!


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turning point

When a new year begins, people hope the new year would be great. On the new year's day it is not so difficult to believe that the new year will be brilliant. There is something magical in the beginning of the year. We expect the change of year is a turning point. Even after experiencing a series of terrible events in the previous year, we can feel that the new year could be different and nicer.

I myself had a troublesome year in 2008. However I feel something good will happen to me this year.

2009 would be wonderful.
I believe it.

When I believe it, I feel good about it.
Nothing good has happened yet though I am feeling good.
It is nice to feel good, isn't it?


Do you think I am just a dreamer?
It really helps me to be positive. More positive ideas and thoughts just appear. Positive thoughts multiply and bring more and more happy thoughts.

I think believing and imagining happiness are wonderful positivity exercises.





Anyway, I started my new year with the feeling of happiness, and I thought "why don't I apply this to shorter periods, such as a month, a week, or a day?" If I feel good in the beginning of a new year, why don't I feel good in the beginning of a month?

I will have a good month.
The new month would be different from the previous month, and it definitely will be wonderful.

Can I think like that?


We say "tomorrow is another day."

It is same.



If you can transform your dark mood to brighter, you would perform more happily.


If I have a bad experience one day, I expect happier and nicer day on the next day.
If I have a awful week, I can say "next week would be brilliant."
If I have a dark and blue month, I can imagine a terrific month is approaching.

This way of thinking would give me energy-- good and powerful energy to live and enlighten my life.




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Happy New Year

A new year has come. Now it is 2009!

I wish you a happy new year filled with delightful experiences!!



The first thing I did this morning was smiling.
I just wanted to begin my new year with happiness, joy, and appreciation, hoping the new year will be filled with them!

It is nice to smile.
It is wonderful to feel joy, appreciation and gratitude.

I believe that having these positive feelings invites more happiness to me.


Happy new year to you!

Love and peace....for everybody all over the world.




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