Seth C Paul
 
This was the first week that I really felt like I was on the tourist loop. It started in Kunming and has stayed with me in Dali. I had to shift the purpose of the last few days to just enjoying myself. A few days of relaxation is alright. It has helped remind me how much I like working in some way.

Kunming: I was invited to  the weekly english discussion at Kunming Yunnan Hospital. I walked around the city a lot and saw some beautiful gates and temples.  I met  many travellers and English teachers.

Dali: The last few days I've been meeting a few local guys to teach me how to do traditaional Bai woodworking.  I went rock climbing on a cliff face to the east of Lake Erhai. That was beautiful and fun. I'm going to try to involve more climbing in my future travels. I took a Chinese cooking class. We made some delicious dishes. If your're in Dali try ClimbDali  for outdoor activity and Rice and Friends for learning about Chinese food.

My plan is to head to Chaingmai, Thailand and get my Indian visa. I hope to arrange some WWOOFing in India. Maybe on my reentry to China I will try some WWOOFing but as I was looking before it didn't look like it is quite WWOOFing as I believe it to be.

I wish China had better internet I'd love to upload these photos.
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I spent 4 days in Shanghai. They were great. I went to Jing'An Temple, the Bund, amd East Nanjing road. I wouldn't really recommend any of those places. All very touristy. The Jing'An temple is nice but I had the impression it was built in the last five years beacuse of the concrete work and everything else despite it being hundreds of years old. 

However as I said I had a great time. I stayed in the Blue Mountain Hongqiao outside the city center. The sataff were really nice and I had a great time talking with them. I walked the area where my hostel was and had a wonderful time. Near my hostel there were several street markets where I saw fresh and live everything ready for dinner.  I saw a woman cut a frog in half to sell it. That was a first.  I also found some parks and some local resturants. I made some good friends through couchsurfing and I hope to see them again some day.

Then I hopped on a train for Kunming and arrived in Kunming four days later. The trainride was 40 hours but I hoppedoff at Hongguo  and stayed with an amazing family for three days.  I saw the beautiful city and surrounding area. I am so grateful to the Xiao family. Thank you so much for everything.

And now I'm in Kunming.

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The trip was great. I really liked the ferry. Everyone has been helpful and kind. 
I met my first couch surf contact. That was really fun.

Few things, Facebook is blocked and photos might not be posted for a bit since internet is a little slowish.
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First off, winter was chilly... very chilly. It was great to learn how to keep warm and to be able to reflect on how much I took for granted.

My mom came to visit in December. We were able to do a lot of touristy things I had not done in my time here. We went to the Todaiji Temple in Nara, Heian Jingu Shrine in Kyoto, the Kawashima textile school near Ichihara, and Sasayama, of course. 
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We built a house frame and I was able to learn about working with wood and designing a house. It has been surreal at times.
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I have had an amazing stay in Japan. People have been wonderful, the sights have been amazing, I've made some really great friends and learned a few things a long the way.  I have added a page for all the Tsuji WWOOFers that stayed with me at the house and one or two  that had  great influence on the year but I didn't meet personally.
 I will be travelling to Shanghai on Friday by ferry from Osaka. I am setting out to continue the journey I started a year ago.
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Things are starting to cool off in Sasayama. This month we've been trimming edamame from the kuromame fields. It makes for several hours in a shed with clippers and a bunch of wannabe bonsai. Kuroedamame are delicious. I'm not sure if they are worth the effort but they are delicious.


Last month we harvested rice. I was lucky enough to ride a harvester around the local fields. It is was a lot of fun helping Habe-san, as it always is. They are very nice farmers that live near by. We also had the opportunity to hand harvest rice with the nearby agricultural high school. The kids were actually from an international junior high near Kobe. So it was a very international experience.


At some time we started a beard competition. Everyone pulled a choice beard from a selection within our cup. I pulled muttonchops which with consent from the committee changed to friendly mutton chops. Aidan pulled the baron look, mustache with puff. Toby pulled goatee that later morphed to a Hulk Hogan handle bar absurdity.  Since the commencement we have added Merric, neck beard, Nic, full Sabretooth-esqe mutton chops, and Ricky, burnside.  


Also in September, Toby and I took a trek to Tokyo... 
I consider it an adventure. The adventure had many facets to it, the luxuries of the big city, the oddities of Tokyo, the trials of travel on the cheap, and the I-don't-know-what's of unexpected experiences. We hitchhiked to Tokyo in a single day, 15 hours. We made some bad choices on our way and were optimistic we could be that time coming back. We stayed at Ray's house. We were able to eat toad-in-the-hole any day we felt like it. This may be my favorite way to eat toast and eggs. I ate a few corn dogs as well.  We went to Akihabara, a name that makes most Japanese either chuckle or blush.  We went to "niche department stores" as I might call them; one was solely toy figurines, one was nothing but arcades, and a third was... a bit more ... different. Suffice to say there was some culture shocking going on.  


One day while walking around a more chic part of the city we spotted a parade of shrines. We followed until we saw they were heading back our way so we took a seat. The shrines bearers stopped in front of us took a break and offered a beer after Toby offered the generic "atsui ne?" They asked us to pose for some photos with the shrine bearer gear. (Keep in mind beard competition was in full swing.) Next thing we knew it we were carrying a shrine through Shibuya. This parade was fueled on alcohol and homosausages. We concluded the day with dinner with all our new friends and me feeling very sick from too much nihonshu.


The return trip was not faster. The return was a great deal slower, 32.5 hours.  Overall, the hitchhiking experience was great. The people are kind and the conversations are great. The rest stops were okay. The Brazilian musicians that picked us up in Nagoya at 1am were as awakening as three espressos.


Next month the house closes up and I'll be the sole inhabitant of the good ship Tsuji. I'll be caring for the chickens and working on Gen's house while my teaching hours climb. I'm currently at 8.5 hours or so.



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New Photos 08/27/2010
 
I've posted some new photos. Included are photos from the the recent festivals, the Hitchhiking Race, the Fancy Dress Night, and My Crazy Trip to Kyoto.
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Broken Camera 08/22/2010
 
Quick post to say my camera is broken. :S I have some photos to upload but no more photos will be taken for awhile.
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Granola:
While I’ve been staying at the Tsuji house I have been making granola on occasion. Anna gave me the recipe and since then I’ve made several batches. Since several people have been interested in how I make granola (or what some might call toasted muesli) I thought I’d post it here. This recipe is for non-cookers pretty much thus I apologize that it’s really long and detailed (like I could do it any other way).  Also, given I don’t have any idea what I’m doing outside of a few dozen batches I am happy to receive suggestions. So down to business,

Ingredients:
Must haves:
Oats
A bit of oil (I prefer olive oil if available)
A big pot that allows for rigorous stirring of a bunch of granola

Additions:
Nuts, Seeds, Sugar, Honey, Coconut/coconut oil, Salt, Citrus rind, Raisins, Cinnamon, Whatever else you want to try

If you use a citrus rind I’ve been recommended to use corn oil or something similar instead of olive oil as olive oil takes a spoiled taste when heated with the rind.

The typical granola: (I use less of the additions in the house as they are rather rare and expensive here.)
10 cups of oats
Oil to coat the bottom of the pot 3 times
Sugar to taste (roughly ¼ cup for sweetness and no clumps  - 1 ½ cups to approach a granola brick)
1 cup of diced walnuts
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds
 ½  teaspoonish of salt
 
Instructions:
Roasting oats:
Coat the pan with oil. Place the burner on medium to high heat. Keep in mind the hotter the pan, the faster you need to stir but the quicker the roasting is done.  Add the oats and stir until the oat dust at the bottom of the pan starts to brown. Remove oats from the pan.

 The nuts:
Dice up some walnuts. Oil the pan. Add the nuts. Stir until slightly brown. 

I’ve been working on how I best like to prepare the nuts. I like to use a bit more oil here to infuse the oil with the nutty goodness. I like to roast them a little bit and maybe sprinkle a little sugar after they have cooled just a bit.

The mix:
Oil the pan. Add the sugar and honey. Heat the sugar until it liquefies. Drop the heat.  Add the oats and begin stirring immediately. Once the oats are coated and things are starting to cool you can add the walnuts, the sesame seeds, and the salt. Take it off the burner and spread on parchment paper. (I haven’t used parchment paper for awhile. We’ve been out.) If you’re making a bar, you can clump it back together and shape it while it’s still warm. 

Let the granola cool before eating. It doesn’t really have much taste until it’s down to room temperature.

Something I have wanted to try for a while is heating up some coconut oil and using that as the binder instead of sugar. I’m thinking that would make for some delicious granola bar snacks. I’ll probably someday try pouring it over the granola after the last step.

Also it is worth mentioning granola does not have to be sweet. A good friend tried a spicy type granola that turned out pretty well. Curry spices or Jamaican spices could really make some interesting treats.

Happy Cooking.

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Well. Things have been very good on the Tsuji Ranch. The weather is beautiful and we are starting to get spring plants. I hope to increase to maybe at least monthly postings

Today was interesting... I have received a job to teach. This job allows sponsorship to get a working visa. We have been waiting to hear from the immigration office about my change of visa status. I thought my current visa expired on the thirteenth. It did not... slightly earlier. This is a story I choose to share in person to fully express the full experience but the result is Seth is able to continue to stay in Japan for one year from today and Seth is still feeling the effects of the adrenaline. 

Ask me to tell you sometime of how I made a mistake that was almost the biggest mistake of my life (Most my mistakes don't involve deportation and making huge business  for .) 
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In the last two weeks I have done some things that make me feel like I'm enjoying the whole Sasayama/Japan experience while looking as American as a apple pie at times. 


Over the last three weeks ago I've had a "bug." This bug wasn't so bad, then it went away, then it came back and it was mean as hell, then I escaped its deadly grip, then I was feeling good, I started to feel sick again, then I realized it was allergies. Allergies suck. Along this venture I started wearing the masks common in Asia. It comes from the novel idea of keeping others healthy if you feel ill. I'm not sure if I support the use of masks or not based on several points, that is aside from the point. The point is masks are common and walking around a masked country while coughing is a little inconsiderate. So I somewhat looked Japanese for a time. Then I realized it was allergies so I started donning a mask of my own design (Asian illness masks seem mostly for show. They don't have a very good seal.) My mask was of a red bandanna my dad lent me and with the accompaniment of my brown fedora, I looked less Japanese hospital and more spaghetti Western. "Bandit" may have been my new nickname for a period of time. 


During this episode of illness and such I had the luck of feeling well during a rice planting demonstration for a local high school. I was able to do what I thought I would do in Japan, go knee deep and barefoot in a rice field. It was quite a blast. I was in a line with 15 and 16 year old kids along with my Wwoofing buddies. A string was laid across the field and we spaced out evenly. The planting began. Each step backwards included smoothing out the soil that we had stepped in, planting three rice saplings at each knot on the string, and stepping backwards yet again. We planted a whole field, a small field but a whole field. I can check barefoot rice planting in Japan off my list. 


Just yesterday we planted black bean sprouts. That hadn't been on my list until I arrived in Sasayama. Sasayama is famous for its kuromame, pretty much edamame harvested later. It has a really sweet delicious flavor. Kuromame tea is really damn good. We had a great day in the fields planting sprout after sprout. I hope I get to help with the harvest (and maybe reap a little bit of the rewards.)


If you wish you were here in Japan your homework this week is to go stand in a mud puddle with 4 in. of water and 4 in. deep mud wearing a particle filter mask while humming those Western showdown tunes to yourself. Enjoy the experience. 
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