I Made Bread

 I love baking!

Some of my earliest memories are of helping Mom make apple pie and a Victoria sponge on Sunday mornings. While the oven was on for the roast, Mom would bake to use up the space in the oven. I remember her saying that it was a waste to heat the oven just for the meat!

When I was in my teens, it became my job to make the apple pie; apparently, my pastry turned out better than my Mom's!

When I had my own kids, I used to bake at least once a week. I found that the snacks and sweets here in Japan were too sweet. Also, the more I read about the obesity problems in the West, the more concerned I became about our health. By making cookies, cakes and occasionally bread, I could control what ingredients went in. One ingredient that is used in commercial snacks is high fructose corn syrup. It's one of the ingredients that the body can't use; it's converted into fat by the liver. Excess amounts of it lead to obesity, fatty liver and diabetes. 

Baking was my go-to thing to do when I got stressed. Measuring, mixing, pouring, waiting and of course eating the end product would relax me. One time, Hisao came home, and I had spent the afternoon baking 4 different kinds of cookies. The first question he asked me was, "Who upset you?" 

I used to bake for my students, for Halloween and Christmas. I stopped a few years ago as it was getting too much for me. But for the few years I did, I enjoyed the challenge.

Recently, however, I haven't taken time to bake. Sometimes I might make a cake or a few cookies, but I haven't really tried anything new. The other day, I came across a YouTube channel of a Japanese lady baking bread and cakes. I watched a few of her videos; she had English subtitles, which helps, and because she's in Japan, the ingredients she uses are easily available.

I decided to try her Garlic Cheese Bread. A simple, no-knead bread!

This is how it started.

Water, yeast, sugar, oil, skim milk powder.

Add the bread flour

Add the flour and mix to make a dough.

Let the dough rest, then stretch it out, let it rest again.

After stretching the dough a second time, it has to prove. This is where I realised that I hadn't watched the video carefully. The proving time was 2 hours. I somehow missed that bit of information when I first watched the video.

It wasn't a big problem. I had taken my computer to the dining area, so while I was waiting for the bread to prove, I messed around on my computer. I also washed dishes and cleaned part of the fridge!

After the dough had doubled, it had to be rolled out.

It worked; the dough doubled in size.

Once it was rolled out, I put a mix of butter, garlic and parsley on it and sprinkled it with shredded cheese, a lot of cheese! Then cut it into strips; each strip is then rolled up and put in a muffin tin.

Before baking.

The dough has to prove again and then be baked.

The finished bread.

They were really nice. The only problem is that the recipe makes just six buns. I'll have to double the recipe next time.

I think I should try some other easy breads. I know that they aren't that good for my diet, but I get so much joy out of making them.  I was actually dancing around the kitchen when I saw the dough had doubled in size. I was so happy that it worked!

May I Ask A Favor?

 I cringe when I hear those words on a YouTube channel; it's usually asking people to subscribe.

But I'm asking here, not to subscribe but to go to my Ko-fi page and leave a small donation!

Cheeky, I know, but we are really struggling at the moment.

David is trying to set up an English school here; he's been posting leaflets and has set up a web page, but no calls at all! 

I know the middle of the countryside isn't the best place to start an English school, but this is where we are. There's a junior high school about 20 minutes' walk from here, so I was hoping to get some students from there, but nothing no calls at all.

I've been trying to get online students, not really my thing, but I'm willing to try. 

I'm trying to keep positive, but it's getting harder and harder.

We are living month to month, there is nothing left over to save. I've been trying to save to do some work on this house. At the moment, it's more cosmetic work that needs to be done, but I noticed this morning an awful smell coming from under the bathroom sink. I opened the cupboard and noticed that the area is very wet, looks like there's a leak somewhere. The water has started to rot the bottom of the cupboard, and maybe the floor underneath! That is more than just changing the sink; I might need to redo the floor as well.

I've watched hours and hours of videos on how to make money, but it all seems so hard! I thought about making colouring books to sell on KDP, but I would have to use AI to generate the pictures and that can run into problems with copyrights and other legal issues that I just don't get. I thought I could get around that by using my own photos of the cats to make pictures to colour. But I would still have problems, maybe.

This is one of the pictures that I made using AI. Cute!

I need to figure out a few other income streams. I think a lot of people are in the same boat. 

Any ideas?

Of Course.....

 I got sick!

Not really sick, just very bad seasonal allergies. Actually, this season it's the first time I've felt really sick because of allergies. I've been eating yoghurt almost every day for the past few months, maybe half a year now, and I've noticed that my allergies aren't that bad. Most years, by this time, I would have been sick for about 10 days, with really heavy sneezing, maybe 3 or 4 hours non-stop sneezing, sinus headaches, sore throat and low-grade fever. This season, however, I've only had two days like that. I'm still taking medicine, but a lot less than usual.

Of course, I got sick just as I started to use my planning book! But I didn't give up on it. I realised that this is my problem. I start something, a new diet, exercise routine, study program, whatever I'm working on, then life happens, and I give up.

Not this time. One of the ideas behind my planning book is to see what I need to do to make my life better. Giving up because things aren't working out how they should defeats the purpose of the book. 

Life is messy. It's full of starts and stops, of nights lying awake, wondering how to pay the bills, of days feeling like you've been hit by a bus. Days when just the thought of exercise makes you cringe, or seeing another salad makes you run for the hills.  At least my life feels like this sometimes, most of the time, maybe!

This is real life. Not some YouTube or Instagram snapshot. It's my life, running on empty most of the time. But I need to find a way to be accountable and consistent in my choices.

Like eating yoghurt every day, I read that eating fermented food can help with gut health, which helps with allergies. I don't really understand the science behind but I figured, why not give it a go? I like yoghurt, plain with no sugar. I add a banana or some other fruit and have it for breakfast. I was consistent with that, and now I can see that my allergies aren't as crippling as in the past. So, being consistent in one small habit is reaping the rewards a few months down the line.

This is the reason behind the planning book: being consistent in areas of my life that, at this moment in time, are important.

A few people have left comments or reached out to me personally. First of all, a big thank you, it's nice to get comments!

Secondly, I realised, after my last post, that it seemed like I was trying to tackle a lot at once. I'm not, I've done that so many times, and it has never lasted more than a few days.

My focus now is on my health, especially eating and moving. I'm not going to diet as in follow a set program. I've done that so many times in the past and never lost any weight or felt better in myself. I'm trying to be mindful of what I eat, making sure I get enough protein every day and plenty of vegetables. But if I have a bad day, I'm not going to beat myself up about it! The same with exercise, today I went shopping, so I'm counting that as part of my exercise for today! I'm not looking for perfection, just consistency!

The other things I wrote, sleep, study and cleaning, I'm not actively trying to do more, just being aware that these are areas of my life that I do need to address!

I've only had the planning book set up for 3 days, so I'll write more on how it's helping once I've used it for a few more days!

The other day, I was shopping when I noticed these bikes parked outside the store.

Bikes outside a store.

The bags in the basket are from the clothes shop, just over the road. This is so Japanese. In the UK, the bikes would have been taken. Here you can leave your shopping in the basket while you shop!

Crime does happen! But not as epidemic as in other countries. It was nice to see this somehow. 

My Planning Book

 Today I managed to go out and pull some weeds in between rain showers.

This is how much I could pull out.

A lot of weeds.

But when I looked at where I was working, it didn't look any different.

Did I make a difference?

I felt this is what my life is like at the moment. 

I'm trying to reset my life, make changes that I need to make, but it all feels futile. I keep working on routines, on doing the things that I need to do to make my life better, but I don't see any progress.

I still haven't lost weight, haven't gained any, which is good, I guess. My eating is all over the place; some days are very good, other days are very bad. 

I ache and feel like I have no strength in my legs. 

I sleep too much during the day and watch TV until late at night.

I haven't picked up a study book in weeks. 

The house and garden are still a mess.

Before I went on my little trip, I bought a planning notebook. Just a simple 100yen book. It's been sitting on my desk, staring at me since then.

Today, after the weeding that had me so frustrated, I decided that I had to set up this book. Start tracking what I'm doing, what I need to do to improve my life.

This is how I've set it up for now.

Just a place to note what I'm doing.

Sleep is the first thing on the list. I struggle so much with staying awake during the day. Sometimes I am really tired or sleepy. At the moment, I'm taking a load of allergy meds, which make me so sleepy. When I'm like that, a little nap helps; otherwise, I get awful headaches. But I know that crawling into bed during the day is just an escape. I don't want to deal with the stress that I have, especially our money situation. It's bad, I know, but I haven't been able to break this awful cycle. I've proved to myself that I can get up and keep going all day, but most days I don't want to. My plan for this week is to get up at 5am (except Tuesday, I don't have to make obento on Tuesdays), make breakfast and obento, then sleep again until about 9 o'clock. On Tuesday, I want to get up at 7am and start my day!

The next two things are water and eating. I'm good at drinking enough water, most days. My eating needs a lot of work. Last year, I managed to stop eating carbs at breakfast and dinner, just a small portion at lunch. I lost a bit of weight doing that. At the moment, I don't eat carbs at breakfast, but dinner is a lot harder. Some days I have a sandwich for dinner, if I could get good bread, it might be alright, but the bread here is very light and not filling at all! Also, I need to stay away from sweets; I've been backsliding on that lately.

Next is cleaning. I've let that slide. I do the dishes; it feels constant, but I know it isn't. Other than that, I haven't kept up with housework. Everywhere is a mess. I always feel that this house is tatty and uncared for; the tiles in the bathroom are broken, there are holes in the walls and doors (not just the cats, but from when we lived here before). I don't like this house; cleaning feels like a waste of time. I have to change this attitude, try to make it nice, somehow! 

 Exercise, I need to do some every day. Either walking, stretching or something. I really don't enjoy exercising; maybe walking is alright, but other than that, it really is a burden. I know that if I don't start and keep it up, then in a few years, I won't have the strength or energy to do anything. I want to have energy as I get older. I don't want to end up being unable to do anything for myself, so I have to start now!

I added going outside to my list. I was going to put gardening, but some days I don't have the energy to do anything but I like to just walk around the garden, see what flowers are blooming, check on the blueberries. I spend so much time in my room, so just getting outside is good for me.

The last thing on my list is to study. Japanese, of course, but also history. I've found that I'm really fascinated by history. I want to try to learn more about Japanese history, especially this area. Also, I realised that I don't know much about English history.

At the bottom of the page, I've left a space to write down the positive things from the day. I need to have a much more positive outlook on life. 

I don't know if I'll keep this planning book like this or change it as I go along. We will see.

If anyone else is doing anything similar, drop me a comment.

Shopping

 Shopping is a love/hate experience for me!

I love to find bargains, but hate it when everything I usually buy keeps going up.

I remember when we used to visit home, in the 1990s, my Mom would do a big weekly shop at Tesco. The store she went to was a massive place which sold all the groceries Mom wanted, plus clothes, household items, toys and books. All the shopping was done in one place, and the prices always seemed reasonable. I'm guessing that's not the reality in the UK now!

Here I go to about 7 different supermarkets and two different drug stores in the hope of getting what I need. David usually stops by a discount supermarket on the way back from work. He gets a lot of daily things like bread, milk, cheese, eggs, and cleaning supplies. That helps a lot!

I buy most of the vegetables, meat, fish and yoghurts. Between us, we spend over 10,000 yen a week, about £50. Sometimes less, most of the time more. Plus, Christopher picks up things from his supermarket if there's a sale on stuff that we use.

Today, Mikey took me to two supermarkets. One has a good selection of fruits and vegetables, plus the fish was reasonable today; the other usually has good meat.

Today, however, everything was very expensive! I know that a lot of items went up this month, but I wasn't expecting to see such a large increase in basic foodstuffs!

These packs of beans used to be 70 yen, now they are 88 yen.

They are small packs, but great for putting on salads or throwing into soups. But a price increase of 18 yen was rather shocking.

The same with breast chicken. For many years, the price was 39 yen for 100 grams, making it a good choice for a tight budget. Today, in a discount supermarket, breast chicken was 129 yen for 100 grams. I know that there's been a problem with chickens and eggs worldwide because of the bird flu, but that's a crazy increase.

If it's just one or two items that have gone up, it's not a problem, but it looks like everything is a lot more expensive. According to the news, about 2,000 items have gone up.

I wanted to try something new, so I bought these today.  

Quail eggs.

I plan to wrap them in pork mince and bread crumbs and fry them. Mini scotch eggs! These are for Christopher's obento; he likes these quail eggs, I don't know if anyone else does!

We really have to grow some vegetables. David has bought a few little plants to start. At the moment, they are in my room. I hope they grow!

pumpkin plants

Watermelon and green pepper.

We wanted to get some strawberry plants, but they didn't look healthy at all!

I'm really trying to save money and be frugal, but it feels like a losing battle.  I cook mainly Japanese-style meals, as buying imported food is very expensive.

Any ideas for budget meals?

I have a few that I'm trying out, I'll let you know how that goes in another post!

Ten Years Ago

 This week, 10 years ago, the Kumamoto Earthquake happened.

I can't believe it's 10 years, feels like just a couple of years ago.

I wrote about it here: Jackie's Japan Journal: EARTHQUAKE

I remember thinking that this was the closest I had been to a large earthquake,the epicentre was about 2 hours drive from where we lived and I don't want to get any closer.

I've been through typhoons and thunderstorms that were scary, but an earthquake is on a whole different level of fear, at least for me.

With weather disasters, you can track the storm's location and prepare. With an earthquake, it just happens, no warning, sometimes the phone alert will go off, but that is only a few seconds before the quake hits. The closest weather disaster like that is a tornado. 

One thing I want to know is how the Japanese people keep so calm when these disasters happen.

I remember watching the news, the station was reporting on one area that was badly hit, showing some of the damage to the roads and buildings. This was a live report. During the report, there was an aftershock; the camera panned to the entrance of the shopping mall. People were walking out very calmly, parents were reassuring their kids, and staff were helping older customers who weren't steady on their feet. No screaming, no hysterics, just moving to safety.  

Another scene I remember was of a line of people that had to evacuate, this was the morning after the big quake, M7 at the epicentre. They were waiting to get a riceball and some tea. Again, everyone was very calm, the old ladies stood talking like this was an everyday occurrence. There was no pushing, no demanding special treatment.

My reaction was an overreaction. I felt so vulnerable. Maybe because it was just a few years after Hisao died, maybe it was because I had never experienced anything that terrifying before, maybe it was because I felt that the safety of my kids depended on me. Maybe a bit of everything. One of the first things I did was to check the price of tickets back to the UK! I knew I couldn't go back, but I wanted an option! 

Since then, we've had a few jolts, nothing that bad though. The past couple of months, there has been a swarm of small earthquakes south of where Hannah lives. Hannah calls me to see if we felt the earthquake, but usually we don't!  

One thing in Japan is that there is a lot of awareness of earthquakes. From a young age, children are taught what to do in case of an earthquake; it is drilled into them. One thing they are told is to follow instructions and not panic. I think I need this training!

I hope I never go through another earthquake like that!

I talk to the mountain that we are at the base of, I ask it not to fall on us! I worry a lot about landslides caused by rainstorms or earthquakes.

The mountain.

I know it looks faraway but a road that runs parrell to here was inundated by a landslide a few years ago. If I hadn't seen that maybe I wouldn't worry so much!

The Garden.....Again

 It has been raining continuously for the past few days. Not heavy downpours, just constant, non-stop rain.

This area has needed this rain; actually, more rain would help. The winter was very dry, with very little rain and almost no snow, even in the mountains. Some of the dams that serve the area are very low, about 30% of capacity! I don't know if a few days of rain helped, but at least the fields and gardens got watered.

This was on Tuesday, going to teach. The clouds were so low that you couldn't see the mountains!

Today, however, the sun is shining, the temperature is just right at 22℃, and the garden is coming alive again.

It's still a mess. We need to get out and really pull the weeds and start to plant a few things. But even with the weeds, the bushes and trees look beautiful.

These flowers are so beautiful; the tree is full of them. They are Japanese snowball flowers, I think.

I'm not good with flower, tree or shrub names, I just know what I like!

This is just outside my window.

The last of the cherry blossoms!

Another beautiful azalea.

I took a little video. The first bush in the videos is the blueberry bush; it's really blooming. I hope that we can get some fruit this summer. When it's really hot, I love to mix yoghurt and blueberries, then put them in the freezer as a nice cool snack.

I sat outside for a bit, just enjoying the sun and the warm breeze, listening to the birds in the distance. I was joined by this little guy.

A new friend?

I don't like insects, but I'm trying to appreciate their place in the ecosystem. I told him to stay outside, where he'll be safe! 

David bought a couple of pumpkin plants, which are sitting on my windowsill. I hope we can plant them out soon.

We are going to the home centre tomorrow, so I might pick up a couple more little plants to try.