Planet Earth is blue
And there’s nothing I can do
No post last week, but that’s not because nothing happened, just that I’ve been too busy. Saturday saw us at Nozomi’s uncle’s house, helping him out with orange picking. He has a big farm and gets professional pickers to help pick the higher graded fruit. There is quite a bit of fruit left over after that which still needs picking, and the whole family go over to help with that.
After getting kitted out with gloves, scissors, and basket I got some basic pointers from Nozomi on how to pick the oranges. Snip the stem to get the orange, then trim the stem right down as flat as you can so that it doesn’t poke the other oranges when they’re packed together. Easy peasy orange squeezy. I suppose other countries must have something similar, but I really like the scissors that they have for orange picking. Big grip, tiny blades shaped to let you snip the stem close to the fruit. Perfect design, not just using any old shears you have kicking about.
It was hard work, starting around 9:00am through till 3:00pm with a break for tea and lunch. Squeezing underneath the tree, in the gaps between branches, and climbing the tree - whatever it takes to get all the fruit. Enjoyable but hard work. The oranges he grows are really tasty and well renowned. People come from all over for his oranges, queuing up in their cars. Some order boxes over the phone, some just stop to pick up the bags of oranges at a bargain price of JPY100. The bags run out so quick he has to keep running over to stock them up!
As a reward for our help we got to take some oranges home :-)
Sunday was out with Nozomi’s parents to their ancestors’ graves. There is a tradition of visiting the graves a few times in the year - cleaning them, offering flowers, incense, and water. After that it was time for a meal, and then Nozomi and I headed off for a bit of shopping. Winter is starting to set in and I really need some warm clothes. After much hunting I managed to find a nice jacket, but still need to get a decent jumper. The one I had has been attacked by moths when we were in the UK.
Nozomi’s parents run a rental studio space that has various classes. We’ve started going to a yoga class on Monday mornings but we gave it a miss the Monday after the orange picking because we were absolutely knackered. I still had my Japanese lessons on Tuesday and Wednesday. Between that and work, the week went by pretty quick again. We did find time to go to a local ramen place for lunch. We’ve been there once before and enjoyed it. This time around we both ordered a dish that we were told is their speciality. It was good, but I think I preferred the one I had before. Nozomi didn’t like it too much either - mostly because of the corn starch they add to it which makes it a bit gloopy. I guess we’ll both be ordering something else the next time we go there.
I also stumbled across a store in Odawara (the town where I go for my Japanese lessons) that has some foreign groceries. Cheese is one of the things that we really miss from the UK. The range of cheese available here is woeful. Most supermarkets have sliced cheese, some grated cheese, and brie. That’s it. The shop in Odawara has a good range of cheese, but of course it is expensive. Still, I did pick up some Gouda, along with some Good Earth peanut butter. Japanese peanut butter is far too sweet. I have had the Good Earth peanut butter in the UK before but did not realise how salty it is. I’ve been having the Meridian one recently which is 100% peanuts and far superior to the Good Earth one. Unfortunately I haven’t spotted that in any shops here. I’ve considered making my own here, but can’t find peanuts! I suppose I’ve dropped enough hints about what to bring if you’re coming to visit us :-)
I realised a week or so ago that the Christmas holidays are Monday-Tuesday, so along with the weekend we have 4 days off. So I looked around and managed to find a not-too-expenseive room at a hotel in one of the ski resorts near Nagano. Nagano is not too far away, so a half day travelling each day would still give us two days on the slopes. Nozomi is a skier and I snowboard, but we both haven’t been for a few years. Nozomi is still getting over her fears of skiing from a childhood incident and I’m just a bit uncoordinated, so having had a long break I decided to go for the beginner-friendly resort of Tsugaike. Despite that, Nozomi was still very worried about getting on her skis again.
We were originally planning to take the train but we had access to the in-laws’ car so thought it might be easier to drive. The journey there was quite easy and we got there in time to relax before dinner. Tsugaike has many green runs and the day ended with both Nozomi and me feeling really happy. Nozomi was definitely over her worries and enjoying herself. There was a lot of snow overnight Sunday and all through Monday so even the normally groomed slopes had a good layer of powder. I haven’t ridden much on powder and it definitely changes the nature of the runs. We swapped from the runs we liked on Sunday to the ones we didn’t like, and these were much better with the powder.
We finished off the weekend by going to a restaurant with a grill at the table where you can cook your own okonomiyaki! The snow didn’t stop though, and we were a bit concerned about the journey back home. Neither of us has driven in snow before so it could end up being tricky. It wasn’t as bad as we thought it might be, and a slow drive down the mountain brought us on to more clear roads and a simple run home. The route back home brought us closer to Mt Fuji than the route we took going to Nagano, affording us some really good views. There is just something about Mt Fuji that makes it a brilliant sight.
Fun over, it’s back to work this week. No rest for the wicked.