Garden update yet again

At the rate of the plants are growing, it is going to be overwhelming for us to finish them all. Now just 1 cucumber plant is driving me crazy. I did not expect it can grow so many cucumbers and in a rapid pace. So far we collect more than 15-20 cucumbers and i had been trying to eat 1 everyday. Its getting abit scary :p. Tomato been next to follow the cucumber footstep and we have 5 of them. Can't wait for corn and edamame! I wish i can put pause on the cucumber plant !!

from different breed of tomato plants

grow slowly... i don't like u

the 1st big tomato this season

corn corn corn!!!

i ended up cooking all of them.

lunch @ kristi! she whipped all up thanks!

Baby Sparrows

Discovered the old Misawa station (just beside the new misawa station) became nests for the sparrows. Went there few weeks ago and there were 4 -6 nests of them! All young ones were chirping and the adults were flying in and out to feed them. This time when we went again, most of them were gone and only 1 nest remained. Wonder if they will be back again to make new nests, what a sight to see!

went to oirase sushi restaurant again, its always so pack now, super good business

additional order

babies sparrow!

HACHINOHE TANABATA FESTIVAL 2015

Went to Hachinohe Tanabata festival yesterday. Not sure why but he sudden thought of bringing me to experience, probably feel guilty that he has 2 more trips without me lol... Please remember you still have to bring me to eat legendary uni don! Do not pretend that you are deaf ok?!

Judging that he wanted to drink alcohol and i have no courage to drive to Hachinohe, we took train instead. But after tabulating all the expenses, return ticket cost 1500yen each and took 1 1/2 hours of transit, waiting time and journey. It was actually better to drive instead and paid for the parking fee, which only cost 400 yen per hour? 

This is one of the famous summer festival in Hachinohe and lasted 3 days where they would closed 1 stretch of main street, allowing everyone to walk freely with performances and all sorts of food and games stores. As Aomori prefecture has very long winter (5 months), summer is very precious to them and is the perfect season for celebration. We brought along our own drinks so not to overspend and before we even reached the destination. This alcoholic man had finished his 3 beers and wanted to go home. Of course i ignored him and we ate and tour around.  

u see drinking even before we board the train to Hachinohe

yum yum

seem to be high school rock band

alot young ladies wearing yukata, so pretty!

jazz performance

sleepy and sweaty!

My cooking

Beside watering the plants, i was tasked with another mission: to prepare dinner and tomorrow lunch and dinner for us once he's back. So far in our past 4 years relationship + 2 years marriage life, he only ate my cooking that's countable in 1 hand! He is not only the only a GREAT cook and he's fast! My parents were very impressed with him when they came to Japan for a visit and he whipped out dishes in a breeze! We predicted that he would be pretty tired from his mountain trip so its better that i prepare all the meals. 

Thanks to my 2 recipe books, all the meals turned out to be a success! Tasted and review by chef penguin~ (Him of course)! Ya!! What a relief to hear.. It took me half a day to prepare and in the midst i had to drive out to buy ingredients that i left over and took a nap as i was so tired after cooking and washing ;p. Full time housewife especially with kids is so noble, no idea how all of them handle all that. Salute! 

Terriyaki chicken 

fried rice

cold noodle

Garden Update

Starting to be harvest season very soon! These plants are growing so rapidly! While he is away, i been tasked to take care of the plants but the weather is so hot that i feel the moment i step out i will melt right away. Even in the house, i am sweating half of the time.  

cucumber! didn't know the surface is originally spiky 

green bell pepper!

tomatos!

corns! close to my height!

onion! didn't know that how it grow

another tomato plants

fresh cucumber has a slight sweetness taste, like a melon thats not sweet

Short trip to Kuji

Went down to Iwate prefecture Kuji again as S wanted to stock up his food products that only Kuji produced. While heading down, visited a ramen shop that was introduced in one coin lunch book. From the exterior of the shop, i would thought its served yakiniku but actually the menu was mainly consisted of ramen. Taste was ok but we both agreed that its not worth a hour trip just to drive here for a bowl of ramen. Especially when our favourite uni don is just further down the road.

While driving in Kuji, i noticed something special and we stopped by the road for a closer look. Someone/ some family had done tree trimming or should i say brushes and created various animal or cute characters! Not just a few but at least over 30s!  

We took a few pictures and i pestered S to submit the discovery to a weekly TV program that specializes in reporting special appearances that's rarely or never seen elsewhere before in Japan. Its one of my favourite TV shows. Will update on my blog if it got pick up...

We were the 1st customers

ordered extra goyza

this is the 1!  cannot imagine the effort one took to create all these!

so artistic! 

JLPT 4 Take 1

Went for JLPT test for the first time in Hirosaki and it took 2 hours to reach the test site. Haven't thought of taking the paper seriously but in order to get a job in Japan. I would need at least JLPT 2 to get a decent job on base. Didn't think i was nervous until i ended up not able to sleep most of the night. Moreover, S who only occasionally snore at times, snored most of the time loud and long lol. There were twice he woke himself up due to his loud snores and i was laughing secretly.

There were 3 sections for the exam and only 6 of us taking JLPT 4. Majority of the examinees came for JLPT
1 and 2, there were many Taiwanese students. Poor S had to drive 4 hours back and fro and waited another 4 hours in Hirosaki University while i was taking the exam and then he had to rush back to work since he only took half day leave. In fact, we only reached back home 30 mins earlier before his reporting time. Thank you very much BuBu! Hopefully i can pass i hope! For now i have to continue to work on my grammar in case i have to retake again in Dec.

Since the JLPT is only held twice a year, July and Dec. Usually July examination will be held in Hirosaki as there are more foreigners applying from that area while Dec will be in Hachinohe. However they might change it any time based on location where majority apply from.

The number of examinees for each level taken that day

 

ひっちぎうどんがにひろ River Crab Ramen in Hachinohe

Recently the one coin lunch book launched their second series and we brought the book again! We be a fool not to! Where else can you have lunch set for just 500 yen ($6)?! This time round we went to a ramen store which specialized in river crabs soup base. Usually in Japan the ramen base is either make from chicken or pork. This store is also featured on tv show before so it is very popular with the locals. 

Here is the website and facebook for those interested:

http://ganihiro.com/shop/

https://www.facebook.com/ganihiro

plenty of choices 

our 500 yen ramen, love the crab base soup!

Finally i can hear!

Last week i had problem hearing with my right ear after my shower. It felt like the sound was being block and reduced to 30%. Initially i was not bothered by it although S wanted to take leave to bring me to clinic. Thinking i should be fine in a few days....i told him "seemed" that i could hear so should be fine. However, 4 days passed and my hearing did not recover at all. I started to worry and i am going to take the Japanese test which include hearing test on the upcoming week.

Finally, S also realised that my hearing was not getting better at all and this time i admitted. Of course i was being lectured by him for good amount of time especially its Friday night and i had to wait to visit the doctor on next Tuesday when he is off. I guess this is my family habit, we usually don't visit the doctor first thinking it will recover by itself. S thinks differently, the moment you realise there's problem, we should visit the doctor immediately.

Tuesday came and the result was both my ears were clogged with ear wax! Just the right side completely blocked my ear hole and i was clenching my fist when the doctor is removing it. Very uncomfortable sensation and everyone (including the doc, nurse, me and S) was shocked to see the ear wax turned out to be smallest finger size block of black ball! The doctor told S that he had yet to see this big before. After that i could hear so well that i could hear echo when i speak for first few hours.

P.S: Now my hearing is back to normal, only realised every sound is so loud. During my poor hearing time, my volume in the computer almost to max. tv volume is 10 notches higher lol... Did not realise that at all.