How to make Amazake of Sakekasu

- Sakekasu: leas from making sake

- Amazake: traditional New Year hot (cloudy) sake (rice wine) drink. Often drunk when you visit a shrine after New Year; you can buy it from a stall there.

 

Do you know you can make Amazake from Sakekasu?

You may think Amazake is made of Komekoji, but you can also make Amazake from Sakekasu.

First, I’d like to the introduce ingredients.

The ingredients are for two people.

 

Sakekasu 50g

Sugar 2 tablespoons

Water 400cc

That's all you need.

Now, let’s see each step to make Amazake.

First, I will use Itakasu. you need to tear Itakasu into pieces before you use it.

 

Second step is boiling the water.

After the water is boiled, you need to turn down to a low flame and put Sakekasu into the water.

It’s ready to go to next step when the Sakekasu has dissolved at sugar.

 

Third step is adding sugar.

You turn up to a high flame

The drink is ready when the sugar has completely dissolved.

You can just serve the Amazake to your favorite teacup and enjoy it.

Amazake made of Sakekasu gives you gentle flavors of sake.

If you like, you can add ginger.

So far, I wrote about how to make Amazake on a stove.

Actually, there is an easier way to make it by using a microwave.

If you just want one cup of Amazake, microwave is very convenient.

You put about 30g of Sakekasu and a little hot water into a teacup and microwave it for 10 to 20 sec.

Then, you add sugar and hot water after you mix sakekasu in the cup.

It’s very easy for you to enjoy a cup of Amazake.

I hope you can have some peace and calm time with rich Amazake.

Super-easy recipe to make a chocolate cake

 I would like to introduce a super-easy recipe to make a chocolate cake.  I myself haven’t tried yet but will try before Valentine’s Day:)

You only need to prepare four ingredients; Oreo cookies, milk, chocolate chip, and whipping cream.

First, put 12 pcs of Oreo cookies in a zip-lock and crush the cookies.

Next, put the crushed cookies in a bowl and blend with 150ml of milk until you have a smooth batter.

Then, put it in a cake pan and place it into the microwave and cook at 500W for 5-6 minutes.

After that, put the baked cake in the fridge for 1 hour.

While you are waiting, prepare the chocolate cream.  Put chocolate chips and whipping cream in a bowl and place it into the microwave.  Cook it at 600W for 50 seconds.

Then, pour the chocolate cream on top of the cake.  Again, put it in a fridge for 3 hours.

Jainism and Hinduism

 Jainism:

Jainism is an ancient religion from India that teaches that the way to liberation and bliss is to live a life of harmlessness and renunciation. The aim of Jain life is to achieve the liberation of the soul.

Jains believe that animals and plants, as well as human beings, contain living souls. Each of these souls is considered of equal value and should be treated with respect and compassion. Jains practice vegetarianism strictly and live in a way that minimizes their use of the world's resources.

Jains believe in reincarnation and seek to attain ultimate liberation - which means escaping the continuous cycle of birth, death, and rebirth so that the immortal soul lives forever in a state of bliss.

There are no gods or spiritual beings that will help human beings. The three guiding principles of Jainism, the 'three jewels', are right belief, right knowledge, and right conduct. The supreme principle of Jain living is non-violence (ahimsa). This is one of the 5 mahavratas (the 5 great vows). The other mahavratas are non-attachment to possessions, not lying, not stealing, and sexual restraint. Mahavira is regarded as the man who gave Jainism its present-day form. The texts containing the teachings of Mahavira are called the Agamas. Jains are divided into two major sects; the Digambara (meaning "sky clad") sect and the Svetambara (meaning "white clad") sect. Jainism has no priests. Its professional religious people are monks and nuns, who lead strict and ascetic lives.

Hinduism:

Hinduism is a religion with various Gods and Goddesses. According to Hinduism, three Gods rule the world. Brahma: the creator; Vishnu: the preserver and Shiva: the destroyer. The Hindu Trimurti consists of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer. Most Hindus are principally devoted to the god Vishnu, the god Shiva, or the Goddess.

The Vedas are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism.

Hindus consider the Vedas to be timeless revelation, apauruṣeya, which means "not of a man, superhuman" and "impersonal, authorless". The knowledge in the Vedas is believed in Hinduism to be eternal, uncreated, neither authored by human nor by divine source, but seen, heard and transmitted by sages.

Diwali is the festival of lights for Hindus and Sikhs. The celebration lasts for five days and is marked by sweets, fireworks and lights. It celebrates the triumph of good, light and knowledge over evil, darkness and ignorance. Diwali celebrates a good year of harvesting and honors the Goddess of Wealth.

Posted for Reiko

My lovely dogs

My family had two dogs. The first dog was sheltie and lived for 4 years. The second dog was beagle and lived for 15 years. The first dog called “BAU” liked to look for animals in the ground. When she winded a mole, she spent long time to dig a hole, and my family surprised much when she hunted animals.

The second dog called “ARAN” was very active and liked humans. When she went to a park only for dog, she did not play with other dogs and was always near other dogs’ owners.

They make us happy and taught us how tough we have a dog. We went walk a dog every day and sometimes went to big park on weekends. However, after they left, we think that we wanted to give them happiness more. We should have talked with them more because they could understand what we said thought they could not answer.　Also, we should have made more time to play with them because they have no one to play other than my family.

We have regrets a little for the two dog’s life, so we often recall the life with two dogs. The memories with our dogs make us happy again. 

Christmas Party photographs

Apologies that it has taken me a long time to edit the Christmas party photographs & post them to Flickr 

We had a super gathering and were thrilled especially to see Santa looking fit & well after a couple of years 'off''. Rinka & Yukari worked really hard to get our venue & food sorted out; Eleanor & Hinata really stepped up as big sisters and ran two of our crafts stations, and Naomi was a star getting the koinobori painting station sorted out! Thank you Miriam, and unfortunate Simon missed out having to isolate before his trip home to family.

A postcard from...Bath, England

Hi everyone,

I'm having a great time!

Wish you were here!

See you soon!
 

Simon

Hinata's country guide to - The UK

 

Hinata's travel guide to - The Vatican

 

Hazuki's pizza presentation

 

Taisei's quick guide to: France

 

Haruto's curry recipe

 

Hinata's UK travel plan

Canterbury cathedral

First, I will fly to London. Then, I will take a train east to Canterbury, because I want to see the cathedral.Thomas Becket was murdered in the cathedral in 1170 after quarrelling with his former friend, King Henry II.

Cambridge

Next day, I will take a train north to Cambridge, because I want to visit this university. I took the Cambridge English exam in Matsumoto. Then, I will take a train north to Sheffield, because I want to visit this city hall. Sheffield is famous for steel and engineering. My English teacher comes from there.

Snowdon Mountain Railway

After that, I will take a train west to Llanberis in Wales, because I want to take a steam train, up the Snowdon Mountain Railway.

Edinburgh

The day after, I will take a train to Scotland and visit the capital, Edinburgh. There is a Festival every year and also the Military Tattoo. Finally I will visit Aberdeen, because I want to have a look around the university, and then fly back to London from Dyce Airport.

by Hinata

Kyoko's plan for a three-day trip to the Hudson River area

 After reading "The Master of Ballantrae" (Black Cat cideb graded reader), Kyoko challenged herself to come up with a plan for a 3-day excursion around Albany, New York state (USA). 

This area was the setting for the second half of the tale, and a place she was really interested in visiting...I've been there myself, but now really want to go back and explore so much more (and for more than three days!)

 Lots of hard work went into this project, as you can tell!

Well done Kyoko :)

My favorite Urban Myths

 I have three favorite stories.

The first one is story “Cheap and Easy” on page 6. It is a story that a library needed to move to new bigger library and the library found a good idea to minimize the books to move. The library’s idea is to allow people to take 6 books irregularly. Normally, only 4 books are allowed to check-out, so People can enjoy choosing a lot of books. The library can minimize the books to move to new library and the library staffs can move them without extra cost. The library’s idea is happy for both people in the town and library.I could not find this idea, and I think I need to be a little flexible.

The next story “Hit and Hear” on page 9. It is a story that an about 75 years-old man who couldn’t hear anything in his left ear regains hearing in his left ear by an accident.The bus hit a car and the man hit his head on the bus floor when he was a small boy, and from that day, he could only hear in his right ear. However, when the man met his friends for a drink, he laughed and laughed and fell out of his chair. He hit his head on the table and the bus ticket fell out of his left ear. From that accident, he can hear in his both ears.This story is very strange but is very good story for me.

The last story “Dead Cold” on page 30. It is a story that a woman took a frozen chicken and put it under her hat which has high height which you may have an image that Russian people wear. However, the frozen chicken frozen her head and killed her.In Japan, we usually say “Jigojitoku” (自業自得) and I think that it is a good story to tell that your acts will ultimately come back to you.

A letter to nice guy from Mrs. Slater

Hi,

I’m writing this letter to let you know that I want to say sorry & thank you.

First, I apologize for our behavior on the lift.

It was our first time away from home in England. We heard that New York’s a dangerous place and there are a lot of very strange people. So, we were really nervous to visit many places in NY.

At that time, we came back from dinner to hotel. We were tired because we had spent all day in a state of awed nervousness due to a rumor. After eating dinner, our feeling was stupefied. We thought tough day was almost over, however, we were really surprised because you & your dog got into the lift. You wore a black nice suits and sunglasses. In addition, your dog was German Shepherd Dog, big and black color. We felt intimidated by yours, so we gave all money in order to escape from you.

Secondly, thank you for paying instead of us. If I were you, I would take the money or buy something. So, I was impressed that you paid our accommodation fee with our money.

If you haven’t paid the cost, my first traveling abroad would be bad memory.

Again, thank you for your kindness.

Best regards,

Slater

Letter for Florence's parents

 Dear Florence’s parents,

I am Philip Marlowe and am a private detective. When I am working to find Crystal Kingsley as per Mr. Kingsley’ order, I knew a death of your daughter Florence Almore and writing this letter.

Your daughter’s death was judged a suicide by police, but I do not think so. I heard some oral evidence during I talked with some people who have relationship with Crystal Kingsley as below. Florence had become hysterical earlier that evening while at bar. As you know well, your daughter’s husband Mr. Almore is famous to rush from bar to bar to give drugged persons a shot to help them. At that night, he gave Florence a shot to calm her down and called his nurse to check on her later before continuing his rounds. And then, your daughter’s friend Conreid drove Florence back home. She could not go to her bedroom without help.So, I think that she could not go to a garage for the suicide, and it is natural that she was killed by someone.

I would like to support you as much as possible to know the truth for the last night of your daughter, so please call me if I can help you.

My grandma

The author (left!)

My maternal grandma was very elegant and she always wore a kimono. She sewed kimonos by herself, and made some beautiful kimonos for me as well, which includes a special one for my coming-of-age ceremony.

She married a military officer, who was held as a detainee for seven years in a Siberian internment camp. That must have been a very difficult time for her, with three children during and after the war, but unfortunately I never had any opportunity to listen to her recollections.

I remember her sitting still and sewing a kimono in the sunshine with a beautiful picture, more than two tatami-mats in size, hanging beside her. I also remember her back when she was about to go out, which was quite often. She was a member of the Red Cross Society, LDP, Women's association and so on. She also learned traditional Japanese dance and did some volunteer work; she liked reading historical novels, such as Eiji Yoshikawa's. She always wrote as well, so she was always quite busy and seemed to get involved in something all the time.

She liked eating good food and drinking a little sake and enjoyed the company of friends. She was very pleased with my marriage and welcomed my husband so much whenever we visited her, and she gave him the full treatment with her generosity - so he liked her very much as well.

My grandma enjoyed her life in many ways with a lot of friends, she always did something fun and she was always beautiful. I would love to be like her!

Traveling in Germany - paperless, convenient & cheap; why can't Japan?

 

Dresden

Last month, I traveled Europe for the first time in three years.  First, I went to Germany to visit several interesting cites, Leipzig, Eisenach, and Weimar, which are remembered in connection with Johann Sebastian Bach and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, as well as Dresden. After that, for my husband’s research about Kaii Higashiyama, the Japanese famous painter, we also visited Berlin and Lübeck.

 

This visit, we mainly used trains. When I was thinking of how I should get the train tickets, one of our friends who lives in Germany advised me to buy them on the website of DB (Deutsche Bahn AG), so I tried. Soon I found the application of DB for my iPhone. From my experience, apps are easier to use than websites, so I downloaded it without hesitation. 

First, you enter the stations where you want to board and get off, and the departure time. Then some variations of tickets are shown, and you choose the type of train, class, cancellation conditions and so on. Of course, the price depends on the conditions. 

You can also choose your seat. After all that, you proceed to paying by credit card. Finally, you get your digital tickets on the app or in your email and you just board to the train. If you have checked in on the app after being seated, the conductor recognizes you are seated right place with the ticket.  If you manage your ticketing with the app, you don’t need to wait in the long queues in front of the ticket counter or panicking about your turn and missing the train you want. 

 

Nowadays, also we can buy air tickets on app paper waste. 

 

9 Euro Ticket

One more good thing about travelling in Germany by train was that I could use a one-month ticket for only 9 Euro. It is a special ticket by the German government to save energy. This vacation season, even tourists can travel around Germany on all local public transport, such as buses and trams, and in second class on regional trains, except Intercity Express, Intercity and Eurocity. What a wonderful scheme!! 

After I arrived at the airport in Germany, I bought this useful ticket and later I didn’t need to buy any more tickets (except for using Intercity). By the way, I didn’t have a chance to show my ticket during the journey, because there was no ticket gate at stations, and no one checked my ticket for boarding to each transportation in Germany. This time I felt the generosity of Germany. Why can’t the Japanese government?

 

Teruki