Oseibo!

Hello everyone,

I haven't posted for a while, but I am still here! The job is keeping me exhausted but the end of this year is in sight, with the promise of a winter holiday to recover...

The year-end in Japan is special on a few levels, and one custom for this season is "Oseibo", or the giving of gifts to our acquaintences, usually on a household to household scale. This probably originated from the sharing of crops at the end of the harvest, so today still many of the common gifts are really staples, for example large packs of coffee, beer, detergent, etc. I was humored recently by this department store's catalog ad for a gift package of ham:












Yep, those are $50 & $60 pairs of ham and bacon. The funny thing, more than the price, is that immediately above the ad is this picture...












assuring us that the source of the bacon is from two terrified pigs trapped on an island, next to nature's perfect smokehouse! Mmmmm.

Luckily I received Oseibo today in the form of a bag of apples ;)

Self-Identifying and Coming Out

Yes, it is time for me to come out of the closet. I have acknowledged who I am, and feel the time is now for me to declare it, to friends and family (and, in fact, whoever in cyberspace trips across this blog).

My name is Tracy. And I am an introvert.

There. I said it.

So what has dragged me out of the closet, you ask (or, more likely, you don't ask). I stumbled across a very well-written article by Jonathan Rauch in The Atlantic Online titled, "Caring for Your Introvert". Rauch declares himself an introvert, and, while humourously discussing the research done regarding introverts vs. extroverts, he has some sound advice for introverts' loved ones:

" 'How can I let the introvert in my life know that I support him and respect his choice?' First, recognize that it's not a choice. It's not a lifestyle. It's an orientation.

Second, when you see an introvert lost in thought, don't say "What's the matter?" or "Are you all right?"

Third, don't say anything else, either. "

So there you have it. If you have an introvert on your hands, that's how you deal with him.

(I am a faithful subscriber to The Atlantic, an always well-written magazine. I have full access to their online archives, etc... and while I can't link to this article, I CAN email to people. So if you want to read the full article, let me know and I will email it to you ASAP!).

Nostalgia

Just a brief post today - I wanted to talk about nostalgia, that phenomenon of memories frequently triggered by scents and sounds.

When we think of nostalgia, we think we can only feel nostalgic for things long past; well, I have to say, that is not so. The other night, while cooking dinner and sipping red wine, I heard the "fire truck" go by outside; most people here (including me) use kerosene heaters in the winter, and the fire truck is just a small truck with a loud speaker and a bell that drives around the neighborhood at night issuing warnings to be careful of fire. When I heard the bells I was struck unexpectedly with a bout of nostalgia - just a nice, warm feeling that caused me to remember being warm and comfortable indoors and made me look forward to the coming winter.

Horai Bashi and more praise for Nikon Japan

The weekend was hectic, involving a BBQ party, a short visit to a famous bridge, and a few hours of work. Altogether, I'd have to say it was a great weekend. We had fantastic weather for the BBQ and the food was good. After the BBQ we stayed in Shimada city and took a trip to the Horai Bashi, the longest wooden pedestrian bridge at 892 meters.

Horai Bashi (photo by Brian with the D50 and a polarizing filter)


Not only am I satisfied with the photo quality of the D50, but let me once again congratulate Nikon Japan on their great service. Since I had bought the camera here in Japan, the owner's manual that came with the camera was of course in Japanese. So, I called Nikon and asked whether I could get an English manual. Easy - the helpful customer service representative gave me an address and told me to mail my Japanese manual back and Nikon would send me an English one. So, I dropped my manual in the mail on Friday afternoon, and on Tuesday I recieved a brand-new English version of the manual. How awesome is that?

Front and Back with the D50

The air has been clear, providing good views of Mount Fuji from my front balcony:



The view from the back balcony is not quite as nice, but the sunrise sure helps:




And today Brian and I are off to a Fall BBQ party, so hopefully more opportunity to practice witht the new camera!

The Ordinary and A Recipe for Takikomi Gohan

Autumn is fully here now, having followed through on its promise of shorter days and colder nights. In honour of the season, I cooked the popular autumn dish, takikomi gohan (or, mixed rice). The smell of the steaming seasoned rice, the heat cast by the simmering miso soup that took some of the chill off the room - I knew that these were nothing special. Why, then, do I want to recapture the moment?

Here's my recipe for takikomi gohan:

Ingredients
2 cups rice
1 small carrot
2 dried shiitake mushrooms
80 grams chicken thigh
1 tsp cooking sake (for seasoning the chicken)
1 cup stock
1/2 cup of water left from soaking the mushrooms
1 1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbsps sake
1 1/2 soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt.

1. Wash the rice.
2. remove the fat from the chicken, cut into small peices, sprinkle the sake on and let stand for about 10 mins.; cut the carrot into very thing julienne strips. Soak the shiitake in 1/2 water.
3. Pour the stock, mushroom-water, and the ingredients from #2 above into a pot and heat. When it begins to boil, add the sugar and sake, and continue to simmer for about 2 minutes. Add the soy sauce and salt, and continue to simmer briefly.
4. Prepare a sieve with a bowl underneath to catch the liquid. Transfer the ingredients of the pot into the sieve.
5. Pace the rice in the simmering liquid (in the bowl). If you need, you can add some water. Add the solid ingredients from the sieve and mix evenly. Put everything in the rice cooker and turn it on (or put everything in a pot if you don't have a cooker and begin cooking the rice as per usual).
6. When the cooking is done, mix everything well and eat.
6.

Great Service and the Nikon D50

In the wonderful after-glow of having sold four bicycles and two frames between us, Brian and I bought a new camera - the Nikon D50, an entry-level DSLR. This camera was released earlier this year, and received rave reviews from PC Magazine and DP Review (which you can read here and here). I can now add my own opinions to these professioanl reviewers: This camera rocks! It is a good size with a nice grip, and I love the way it feels in my hand; it fires up very quickly and there is no noticeable shutter lag when snapping photos. It is also loaded with functions, allowing plenty of control. As for picture quality - I will load up some photos soon!

Now, anyone out there who reads photo magazines, etc... will have heard that there was a world-wide recall on the batteries that are in the D50. I surfed over to the Nikon page (here in English and here in Japanese) and checked out the recall codes, and sure enough, my battery was one of the ones being recalled. So, I called up the phone number provided on the Japanese page, where I spoke to A PERSON (not a computer!) at about 5 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon. Very politely I was asked for my address, and told that a new battery would be sent to me. On Tuesday evening, a delivery service arrived at my door, prepared to make the swap - he gave me the new battery, I gave him my old battery - no questions asked.

Now, I'm not criticizing Western society, but I have to say, I have never received such good service as I do here. And I love my Nikon D50!

Flattery and Feel Goods

I was looking a bit more into NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), an area that explores techniques of interpersonal communication and self-improvement that has a very new-age feel to it. It's really about positive thinking, I suppose, and how we can use language to help others (and ourselves) develop positive feelings. Just let's be careful not to slip into flattery!


To get a little flattery yourself, click here(after you click, just enter your name in the little pop-up window).

Skype

Is anyone out there using Skype? If not, perhaps you should be.

Skype is a free program that uses VOIP to allow users to talk from PC to PC. It's like windows Messanger, but the voice is crisper and there is less interference. More news - Skype has made such a splash that it was recently acquired by E-Bay.

I have been using Skype for about a year and a half, and I recently convinced my mother to download it. This morning I saw that she was online, so I hit the old dial button on Skype. My niece and nephew happened to be visiting (which explains why the "phone" was answered - my mom still hasn't quite figured the whole thing out yet). So, for no cost at all, I got to talk to my niece, nephew and mother back in Montreal; way cool.

Also, for a very very small price, you can make long distance phone calls around the world (to telephones, that is). So, if your loved ones haven't quite gotten the hang of modern technology, just phone them the old fashioned way!

Skype is still free, and can be downloaded here, at www.skype.com .

Spam

There is SPAM, the canned luncheon meat. It's fairly harmless and I don't hate it; I used to eat it once in a while back in Canada, and I even liked it sometimes. Spam is also sold in Japan, but mainly in specialty food shops, not regular supermarkets. It isn't cheap, either, selling for roughly 600 yen a can. While I wouldn't pay 600 yen for a tin of fake meat, I can understand the people who do - I recognize that it is the price of the familiar in a new and strange world.

And then there is spam - those annoying, obnoxious, uneducated advertisements that I receive daily. The spam comes in many disguises, promising to make my body thinner, my hair thicker and my penis bigger. Naturally, I have yet to actually be taken in by these numerous promises!

The term spam in reference to bulk email advertisements has its origin in the Monty Python SPAM skit in The Flying Circus. The skit features a couple who go into a cafe that only has SPAM (the meat) on the menu, and a group of vikings who burst into song everytime the word SPAM is uttered. Classic Monty Python humour.

Humourous though its roots, spam is not so funny when it forces bloggers to turn off commenting on their blogs, forcing us to admit that, in some small way, we are allowing spam into our lives.

29ers and Singlespeeds...

Brian and I have, officially, found our niche in mountain biking. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you will know that we were already into singlespeeding.

Singlespeeds are bicycles that have only one gear - one ring in the front and one cog in the rear - so we can't (don't want to!) shift to a faster/harder, slower/easier gear. Brian had converted his Cannondale more than a year ago, and I followed suit not long after. Of course, a "converted" singlespeed is not the same as a real singlespeed - a bike made with either special drop-outs to let you move the wheel/cog back and forth to get the right chain tension, or an eccentric bottom bracket, which allows you to adjust the bottom bracket to get the right chain tension. Enter the Gary Fisher Rig, which Brian in February, and I in August.

Not only is the Rig a singlespeed (with an eccentric bottom bracket), it is also a 29er, and we are wholly in love with it. A 29er is a bicycle that has 29 inch tires instead of 26 inch tires. What does this mean? For Brian, who is a tall person, it mean he finally has a bicycle that is proportionate. For me, a rather "vertically challenged" person (only 156cm, or 5'1"), it means that my bike looks like it is all tire! 29ers also provide a lot more traction, and more momentum once you get started. There are hills I can roll up now that I couldn't conquer on my 26" bike.

We are solidly into 29ers and singlespeeds (in the Rig we have both!), and we don't even want to ride our geared 26" bikes anymore. So - we are selling them. My Rockhopper FSR and Brian's Yeti AS-R are now up for auction at Yahoo Japan. To get a look at my Rockhopper, click here and to get a look at Brian's Yeti, click here .

Tokyo International Cycle Show 2005

Yesterday we caught the early express train to Shinjuku (in Tokyo) and from there we made our way to the Tokyo International Cycle Show, being held at Tokyo Big Site near Kokusai-tenjijo station. It was not nearly as crowded as the Auto Show that we went to a few years ago, but there were a lot of great displays of new product line-ups, as well as exihibitions from lesser known bicycle parts manufacturers. Great new forks by Rockshox and Manitou, mouth-watering bicycles from Giant and Surly, and some excellent lights by Cateye. We've marked out a Cateye Heart Rate monitor that Brian will likely buy when it is released in December.

Always on the lookout for 29er products, we found these tires by WTB:



Hodaka, a bicycle manufacturer we hadn't heard of before (except in association with motorcycles) had this cool display:



And finally, this advertisement says it all:

"Oh my God, I thought you were dead!"

Ok, my mother didn't say that EXACTLY. But after ignoring my cell phone (of COURSE I didn't know it was my mother!), I actually answered my land-line, only to hear my mother's distraught voice on the other end, "Oh, my God. Tracy. Are you OK? Your web thing was old. The last date was October 30th". Shaken, but relieved to actually hear my voice, she continued, "I was so WORRIED!"

So there you have it - the eleventh commandment: Thou Shalt Not Be Tardy in Blogging!

The Week in Review

Time passes - today is Friday, November 4th, the close of another week. This week went by quickly, the result of being busy (but productive) and of a national holiday falling on Thursday.

Yesterday, Brian and I did some impromtu shopping (1GB SD cards for only 4,800 yen); then we spontaneously stopped at the Komakado Kazaana lava cave. It is just a few kilometers up the road from here, but we'd never gotten around to going, so when we were driving past it on a nice day, with no tour buses lined up, we decided to pull into the parking lot, pay our 200 yen and spend some time wandering around the cave. Very cool, really. Here is a picture taken inside the cave:



And now the weekend is upon us again. Tomorrow we are going to the Tokyo International Cycle Show, where we hope to get an insider look at some of the newest cyling technology and products. We'll be sure to take lots of pics!

And then it will be Monday again. Time passes - the harder we try to grip it, wrestle with it, hold onto it, the more quickly it slips through our fingers and we find the future enclosing on us, sometimes with great fury, sometimes with slow suffocation. But the future is now; the past is now, too. Kabat-Zinn, a professor and sometime-guru of modern alternative medicine and meditative techniques, titled one of his books very appropriately - Wherever You Go, There You Are (2004). What a catchy title and how important to remember that, indeed, we (and the past and the future) are embodied in this moment alone. Let's enjoy today.