a husband who is into Mochi

My husband is into mochi now. Mochi is not a hot girl.
Mochi is a traditional Japanese food (see the picture). It is a sticky rice cake and very yummy :)
In the past I made mochi dish enough number of times. I wonder why he gets into mochi so much this year....

His mochi boom started after one of my friends gave us freshly made mochi at the end of last year. The friend owns a mochi maker. We enjoyed mochi during the new year holidays like most of Japanese people do in Japan. Mochi is usually eaten in wintertime especially during new year's holidays. There is one dish called zoni which is a mochi soup and also a traditional new year food for the Japanese. There are many other ways to eat mochi. Fresh mochi is really soft and soon becomes hard. You can eat fresh mochi as is and you toast hard mochi. If you toast mochi it becomes soft inside and crispy outside. You eat it with anko (sweet red bean paste), kinako (yellow soy flower with sugar) or sugary soy sauce. My husband loves to eat with anko and kinako very much. After finishing all of the mochi from my friend, he said "Let's buy a mochi maker!". Wait a second. Our kitchen counter is already full of other kitchen stuff and barely has enough space for cooking. Our shelves are full too. Also, new year's holiday is over. I said "You like it now. But you might get tired of it soon and stop using it."

I went to Mitsuwa (Japanese grocery store) and bought a 1kg mochi pack. He ate it all within few days. Then I went to Nijiya (another Japanese grocery store) and bought a mochi pack. He finished it quickly. I went to Mitsuwa again and noticed that the mochi selling section was reduced. Hummmm... I guess Japanese new year stuff is over. I bought another 1kg pack there and asked the casher about mochi stock in the future. They said after all mochi is sold, they don't sell it until around the end of this year. I told my husband about it. Then he said "Then, we have to buy a mochi maker." hummm... He is still saying, isn't he? He keeps checking amazon.com and bringing up a mochi maker picture and dreaming.

I have wanted to have a toaster oven for quite awhile and the idea had been always rejected by him. BTW, toaster oven is a must item for the Japanese. We do have a toaster but it is different. If you think I don't need a toaster oven, that simply means you are not Japanese :) Anyway, I said "I don't want to buy a mochi maker unless we buy a toaster oven." The idea was suddenly approved after many years. Now the crowded kitchen counter is even more crowded because of the new toaster oven. That night I said "There is no space for a mochi maker anymore, honey." He goes "No problem". No problem about what?
Next morning I woke up and went to the kitchen. His (only he uses) espresso machine and grinder were gone from the counter. He was always saying they should not be put away because he uses them every single day. Where did they go then? They were moved to the garage! Since then, every morning he grinds coffee beans in the garage and makes espresso or coffee stuff there. Whenever he disappears in the house, that means he is in the garage. The last mochi pack I got was finished again. I went to Mitsuwa again and bought another 1kg pack few days ago. Only few packs were left there. It will be sold out soon.

Now we have a little more space on the kitchen counter. But I still have a little bit of resistance to purchase a mochi maker now because it is already the end of January. I also wonder if a mochi maker would go the way of our bread maker which was put away long time ago not being used.

Livedoor employees are at a loss to what to do after Takafumi Horie's arrest

CEO of Japanese Internet portal website Livedoor, Takafumi Horie, was arrested Monday evening for violations of Japan's Securities and Exchange Law. The picture was taken on 1/23 at night inside the livedoor office. The employees looked so worried and were carefully listening to leftover executives explaining CEO's arrest. According to the latest news Horie-mon is denying all the allegations while all other 3 executives arrested admit.
When I first heard of his arrest news, it reminded me of Martha Stewart. I think both Horie-mon (his nickname) and Martha have such charisma. I have just checked Horie's blog which he last updated on 1/22 the day before his arrest. There were already 6797 comments on his last post and 351 track backs. Surprisingly there are a lot more cheering and supporting messages than I thought there would.One of his fun's comment was "I was hoping you would run away by your private jet". (he owns a private jet, of course!) Lots said "come back!". He is still very popular. He might have wanted to become Japanese Bill Gates. So far he failed once. But I don't know the future. I don't know if he is guilty or not. He probably is. I'm not his fan or anything, but I am interested in his future and hoping him to come back soon. Because he is unusual enough for that country and there are not so many interesting CEOs in Japan.
I'd like to succeed in business and become a millionaire someday too :) But I want to do it somehow quietly with nobody noticing. Because If you become famous like Martha and Horie-mon, you get marked and attacked constantly.

USB Sushi Disk for sushi lovers

Here is another neat USB product from Japan. Aren't they really cute? I want to collect all of them. Depends on the type of sushi the disk sizes are different. For instance, Kappa maki (cucumber roll) is only 32MB and it is an inexpensive sushi. Otoro (fatty tuna) is 1GB and it is an expensive sushi and my favorite! Hungry......

USB slippers

These days in order to save energy (and money mostly) I started setting the heater temperature low especially during the day. I used to set to 77 degree or so. But now instead I put on a cardigan or something first before turning the heat up when I feel cold. Currently the room temperature is set to 73 and my toesies are very cold! Can't stand it.
I started searching on the internet. It took me less than a minute to find this. There it is! It is a very useful (?) product from Japan. USB slippers.
Oh, they even have USB gloves and coffee cups! You can enjoy browsing internet comfortably in wintertime!

Home of Ninja

Are Ninja spies or assassins or both? Only thing I know for sure is that they are not turtles. That's pretty much of what an ordinary young Japanese person knows.
Anyway, I just read Japanese Yahoo news and they said the number of foreign travelers visited Japan in 2005 was the highest ever in the history. 6.73 million people went to Japan last year! Japanese government just started "the visit Japan campaign" (http://www.vjc.jp/) to bring more travelers. Their goal is to increase the number of visitors to 10 million people within the next 10 years. BTW, although the website is meant for foreigners, they have information more in Japanese than in English. This is actually typical for that country. When a Japanese website has an English page, they almost always have a lot less contents in English compare to the original Japanese one.

In my blog whenever I feel like, I want to give Japan travel guide for those who are interested in visiting Japan someday. However, I am not planning to introduce typical tourist spots such as Tokyo down town, Kyoto temples and so on... Because those are already well covered by real guide books.
Here is Today's recommended spot!

Iga-ryu Ninja Museum http://www.iganinja.jp/
This interesting Ninja museum consist of a Virtual Ninja House with hidden stairs, secret passages and revolving doors, virtual Ninja experience area where you can use weapons and learn Ninja skills. They have exciting Ninja shows too. Fun fun fun!

Coming of Age in Japan

Yeah! I found it. This is it. This is what I did when I was 20 year's old. I got on a roller coaster in Kimono with my girlfriends. We celebrated the fact that we became legally an adult this day. This picture was taken on the Coming of Age day, 1/9/2006, in Japan and taken actually in the same amusement park where I went for my day.

Japan's Coming of Age day is known as "Seijin no Hi" which is every second Monday of January. It is a national holiday. On this special day all streets of Japan are filled with happy boys and girls in Kimono, Hakama and etc. They usually attend the ceremony prepared by the city government. I heard that this year there was one Seijin no Hi ceremony inside Disney Land for 20-year-olds in Urayasu area. I envy them. After the ceremony they party, go sing Karaoke and dancing. Always some boys fight and get in trouble. It's a fun day.
Did you know that in Japan they can start drinking alcohol and voting after they turn 20 year's old? When you become 20, you are a legal adult in Japan. If you commit a crime they show your full name and face on TV news and the newspapers. But until you are 20, you are boy A and boy B.
Here in the United States you can vote if you are 18 or above. But somehow you cannot drink until you are 21. You are mature enough to vote at 18, but not mature enough to drink. Is that the reason why? Interesting...

p.s. For Japanese language learners,
Only Japanese people in the U. S. say "Disney Land". People in Japan say "TDL" which is a short for "Tokyo Disney Land". "TDL" sounds cooler, I guess. And also we love to abbreviate everything.