Yesterday the JJs took me to see the hydrangeas at Kobe Arboretum.  As some of you may know, I detest hydrandea – indeed I fear them – and so had a very hard time looking pleased and excited as we marched through the lanes of pink, blue and purple flowers, along with several hundred other tourists armed with cameras and tripods, but somehow I managed it.  After our mercifully brisk walk around the park, we went to a small, private dairy farm (yes, they exist in Japan) for lunch.  That’s where I had one of the most wonderful culinary experiences of my life that didn’t involve sushi, lamb, or whipped cream. 

This tiny (by NZ standards) farm supplies local high-end supermarkets with cheese and milk and has a simply wonderful restaurant, based in a log cabin, that allows regular visitors to stop in for lunch, cheese, freshly picked herbs, and whey soap.  In our case, we chose to go with the lunchtime whey stew with freshly picked organic salad, and although it was expensive – 25 bucks a head - we didn’t regret it.  It was really, really wonderful!  For the first time in my life I tasted the distinct difference between home-grown vegetables, and mass-grown ones.  Why had no-one ever told me of this before?  My only regret was that the servings weren’t larger, being tiny Japanese-sized portions designed to leave your tummy only 80% full.   But perhaps it’s just as well.  If all food tasted like this, I’d never stop eating. 

Pictured is chiffon cake with blueberry jam, made from dairy produced milk and fruit.  Other dessert options were homebaked scones – my choice – mango pudding, and vanilla ice cream, accompanied by Kobe tea or organic coffee.   We were all very satisfied.  I’m not a farm girl myself, but I can’t wait to go back, especially when someone else is picking up the tab.

Fact:  New Zealand is now the world’s safest country.

Fact:  I no longer live there.

Coincidence?  I wonder.

Today I had my usual Sunday lesson with a young couple on the other side of the island.  They had some very good personal news to share, and wanted to celebrate by cracking open a bottle of wine with me.  The wine they chose to drink was something called Canadian Icewine, which I had never heard of before (actually, it was the first time for all of us).  Now don’t get me wrong, I like sweet things, but this wine was so cloyingly sweet that we nearly spat it out at first sip!   Oh, you would’ve laughed to see our faces!  It was a great effort to choke the rest of the bottle down, which we did out of politeness, and we were relieved when it was finished.  Have you ever tried ”ice wine” before?  If so, how on earth did you stand it?

This summer we lucky ones in western Japan are being treated to not one, but two exhibitions from the Louvre.  The first, which seems to be all about children as featured in art throughout the ages (please let me know if you have a more satisfactory rendering of “L’enfant dans les collections du musee du Louvre” because my French is pretty much limited to “j’et adore chat” which I once saw on a t-shirt) is taking place at the Osaka National Museum of Art until late September.  I think it might be worth a visit for the Egyptian section alone, but apart from that I’m not too interested.

The second, more interesting one at the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art will feature works of Velasquez, Vermeer (yay!), Rembrandt, and Rubens amongst others.  If I have to choose between the two exhibitions – and I probably will, because it’s 15 bucks each – then I’ll definitely go to this one, just for the Vermeer.  (I’m hoping that I get free tickets from my students for both of them, though.)

Anyway, I’m so excited!  There’s always something to look forward to, here.

I’m afraid that I would fail all the tests mentioned here.  Not only do I regularly forget the date, I forget my own name and age.  I’ve also forgotten what sex is like.

“TOKYO — Despite years of child molestation accusations and deep financial difficulties, Michael Jackson could always count on one nation for unquestioning fan loyalty and lucrative advertising deals — Japan.

His death in California on Thursday at age 50 shook the country. Many Japanese TV channels switched to special programming and a major Japanese online retailer was flooded with orders for Jackson’s recordings. The top government spokesman and other ministers expressed their condolences.

“He was a superstar. It is an extremely tragic loss. But it is fantastic he was able to give so many dreams and so much hope to the people of the world,” said Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe.

Jackson chose Japan — the biggest pop music market in Asia — for his first public appearance after he was acquitted of molestation charges in 2005, a delicate period in his career when his marketability had started to tank elsewhere.

Appearing at a ceremony in Tokyo in 2006, Jackson choked up before fans screaming “I love you” as he accepted a Japan MTV “Legend Award.” He later visited an orphanage on a trip largely untarnished by the bad press he had received back home.

Japan has long been famous for the royal treatment it gives visiting foreign musicians, and the courteous and deferential coverage it gives to American celebrities. Reports of Jackson’s court proceedings didn’t fascinate the Japanese as much as his high-spending late-night shopping spree at an electronics store and his visits to Tokyo Disneyland after the park had closed.

Steve McClure, the former Tokyo bureau chief for Billboard magazine, said Japanese fans are fiercely loyal, even with stars who have fallen from grace elsewhere, and that was likely an attraction for Jackson.  He often visited Japan and showed a lot of affection for his fans there; he often became tearful when met with emotional displays from cheering Japanese crowds.”

I must be getting jaded or something (I’ve come a long way since Diana), but I’m like, dude enough already!  Can normal programming resume soon, please?

Thank you for the memories.  Oh … I do feel old.

Today at the mums-and-babes cafe, we were discussing TV watching habits.   Most of the young mothers admitted that they had no other way of winding down at the end of the day except to sit and watch the goggle box. (Personally, I think that Japanese TV programming is puerile, and almost never watch it.  I’d rather curl up with a good computer.)  And because Japanese men work very long hours – often arriving home around midnight – and because it is considered very rude for a wife to go bed before her husband turns in, there is usually nothing else for a housebound mother to do after the kids have been fed, bathed, and put to bed.  

One of them told us that she always sneaks in a precious half-hour watching her favourite drama every evening, but as soon as she hears her husband’s key turn in the lock, she sprints up, switches off the telly, and gets busy doing something else.  She never, ever wants her husband to catch her watching TV when he comes home.  When we asked her why, she said “because he disapproves of my having fun while he’s out working hard to support us” (I hope he never finds out about Little Piggies Cafe, ’cos she has a lot of fun with us!).   Well, fair enough.  Besides which, it’s his TV anyway, bought and paid for with his money …  therefore, he alone has the right to decide who gets to watch it, and when.  Her respectful attitude is becoming uncommon in Japan, and we all praised her for being such a good wife. Still, I wouldn’t like being dictated to like that.   It’s bad enough that I can’t sleep on my own futon sometimes, because of a certain male chauvinist puss.

I am so tired of my sweets going mysteriously missing.  I don’t usually buy fancy cakes, candies, or cookies, but I receive them quite regularly as souvenirs from my well-travelled friends and students.  Unfortunately, I rarely get the chance to eat them myself … no, as soon as I leave them on the table, they disappear, courtesy of a mysterious someone (who probably isn’t a cat).  I try hiding them, but that same someone has a special sense that enables him to sniff them out in record time.   Hence I’ve never been able to enjoy eating sweets in the privacy of my own home, not once.

Yesterday I took a delicious revenge.  I left some yummy-looking whiskey bon-bons on my kitchen table.  Only minutes later, they went missing.  And only a few minutes after that, I was treated to the sound of someone (who has never touched alcohol in his life) suddenly coughing and spluttering alone in his room. 

It was such a satisfying sound.  I bet he didn’t expect that at all.

Although I’m genuinely sympathetic to the woes and worries of this working mother regarding her search for a good nursery (sigh, I see nothing has changed in the last 25 years), I have to wonder: why did she and her husband choose to have a child and expect to continue their careers, without first thoroughly checking out childcare options in their region?  She’s obviously not a single parent who has no choice but to work, so surely one or the other of them can either give up work temporarily, or switch to part-time.  And if they can’t do that because they need the money so badly to sustain their lifestyles, then what on earth are they doing adding a baby to the equation anyway? 

And furthermore, if she’s so frightened of earthquakes, then why is she living in Tokyo of all places, and raising a child there?

Anyway, I’m starting to see why the birthrate is so low in Japan.  People literally cannot afford to have kids.