A Japanese Brog

Cave!

2010-10-31T05:26:00.000-07:00

It has been more than a year since we moved to Porto, and surprisingly, I went to a port wine cave for the first time this weekend.

Before going to UK, I did not know the existence of sweet desert wine like port. I always wondered how would it be like if wine was a bit sweeter since it was made from grapes after all. So you can imagine my excitement when I actually realised there is such a kind of wine.

So there we were in Vila Nova de Gaia, across the river from Porto, at the cave of Sandeman. The cave is a warehouse on the banks of the Douro river where the port is aged. Sandeman was founded by a Scotsman, whose name was George Sandeman, in the late 1700s. It is one of the largest port sellers in the world. Port wine is produced only in Douro region of Portugal. It is sweet because the process of fermentation is stopped by adding Brandy before all the sugar becomes alcohol. Because of the fortification, its alcohol content is usually about 20%.

There are three kinds of port wine: Ruby, white, and tawny. White port is made from white grapes. Ruby and tawny are made from red grapes but the processes of fermentation are different. Ruby port is fermented in a large barrel for relatively short time while tawny is fermented in a smaller barrel for longer. As a result, Ruby port looks very red with aroma of red fruits, and tawny port's colour is much paler and it has nutty flavour.

Another kind of port, which is aged in a bottle, is vintage port. they are bottled when it was young (other kinds of port is bottled at least after three years of fermentation in the barrel), to be aged in the bottle for long time. Some of the bottles we saw in the cave was about 100 years old. Port usually keeps longer than wine after it is opened, but the vintage port should be consumed quickly after it is opened. Another thing needs to be noted is that if you buy non-vintage ruby or tawny port at shop, it is ready to drink: in other words, it is not good to wait for years to open because the wine does not become vintage or better in anyway: better to open and drink before you have vinegar instead of port.

We tasted two different kinds of port at the end, and they were lovely.

Gravura

2010-10-10T07:52:00.000-07:00

I attended a short course on etching taught by a friend of mine.
This is my first etching. Check out their website! I am on the short video!!

http://matrizassociaodegravuradoporto.blogspot.com/

Sympathetic and encouraging wife

2010-10-05T12:54:00.000-07:00

Otto: "I miss my youth..."

Tsuma: "Don't worry about that. You never had one anyway."

Otto: "I won't make many friends like that..."

Tsuma: "Don't worry about that! You don't have many friends anyway."

Otto: "... Thanks for your sympathetic understanding..., Tsuma..."

Japanese traditional painting -- Sumie

2010-09-20T14:56:00.000-07:00

I have a friend who is an artist. :)
Last week, she informed me about one of the exhibitions at the University of Porto, so I went.
It was the exhibition of "Sumie". Sumie is a drawing which was drawn by brush and only black paint. It does not use "colours", but it uses the colours "in" the brush. That is, the painter draws making contrast gradation only by looking at how much water and paint are mixed in the brush. They also do not make any sketch on the canvas, but draw by paint and brush from the start.

The artist, Takayuki Shinohara studied sculpture before he moved on to Sumie. When he uses the traditional brush, he just draw lines audaciously and freely, yet the work looks as if it was planned and sketched many times. It was breathtaking. Here is his website:

http://www.shinoharatakayuki.jp/workdigest2.html

Serendipity

2010-09-04T04:53:00.000-07:00

Something incredible happened yesterday, and I must share it.

A good friend of ours works in a publisher, and she was looking up something to do with "Japanese".
Then, for some reason, she misspelled "blog", and guess what!? She ran into our "brog"!!
More interestingly, we were planned to have dinner together that night.

Can you imagine what's like to discover your friend's blog, in which they are talking about your daughter? We both thought it was incredible and great.

This incident made me think: maybe, there are some people who accidentally come across with this blog. This blog may have higher publicity than I thought. I must update it more with a lot of fun stuff!!

Back in Porto

2010-07-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

I am back in Porto! I could not update my blog while I was in Japan, but now I am back in Portugal, I am going to write more about the gorgeous summer here in Porto.

Anyway, my stay in Japan was fruitful, and surely good to see my family, but it is also good to be back to "my" house. "Mine". It means that the bathroom is as clean as I wanted it to be, I know what's where in the kitchen, and I have a lot of free time to read, think, and write. Now for the first time, I realised how nice it is to have my own space.

The photos here were taken in Frankfurt on my way back from Japan. Because I had six hours + to my second flight, I decided to go out to the city. I spent two hours in the Jewish museum, and had nice and crisp German beer, applewine, and sausage as you can see in the photo. (Apple wine was not my taste. I asked the waitress whether people in Frankfurt really like this stuff, and she answered that they are actually very much fond of it, thought she prefers "normal" wine since she is not from Frankfurt! )

I have been welcomed by my husband and friends, and especially by my little friend Bea. I was worried that she may have forgotten me, but no she remembers! (heart). She's now 2 years old, grown taller, and speaks Portuguese beyond my ability to understand. I wonder if she knows that...

Alan and I are planning to go to downtown today to enjoy everything good in Porto. Bon dia!

Obrigada.

2010-05-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

A b-day card from Otto.
Thank you.
Why do you choose a card with number every time?

more blossoms

2010-05-03T05:21:00.000-07:00

I have to do a lot of preparation for this new job in Japan, and have not been able to update this blog. Until I manage to write the next post, please enjoy more cherry blossoms.

http://picasaweb.google.com/yumesyumis/Sakura#

cherry blossoms

2010-04-04T02:16:00.000-07:00

When I was still in Porto, I found cherry trees and took some photos, one of which is in the previous post. When I was looking at the cherry trees in Porto, I thought the cherry blossoms were somewhat different from the ones I know, but I could not remember exactly what they were like. Now in Tokyo, I witnessed the cherry trees in full bloom, so I post some of the photos I took. I want to take more photos when the sky is clear.

A collection of photos taken recently

2010-03-09T00:27:00.000-08:00

Steak, as the matter of fact.

2010-02-27T05:06:00.000-08:00

In past several weeks, I have been thinking about updating the blog with some photos, and have not done so because either I did not take good photos or simply too lazy to upload the photos from my camera. For example, we were invited the day before yesterday to a French cheese party, but I forgot to take my camera, and it is much less interesting to describe the event without a nice photo of many different kinds of cheese.

Yet, sometimes, a report of an event can be fairly interesting without having any pictures if the writer has good expression skills. This is what I am going to try today and the theme is, as usual, "food".

We have two favourite restaurants in Porto now, one of which is a Japanese buffet restaurant just downstairs of us and the other is a BBQ grill house. We discovered latter when we first came to Porto because the restaurant was just some meters away from the hotel we were staying. You enter the restaurant, and find the counter much like that of a butcher, where the meat is laid out. Behind the counter is a charcoal grill, where the slightly scary looking chef grill the meat. We have tried different things there, but what we thought the best was their tenderloin steak.

Beef is more commonly eaten in Porto than in Lisbon, where pork is main. The menu of the steak for two in this restaurant includes rice and chips, and it costs 17.50€. Their chips is very good as well, but the most amazing is the steak.

It is 2cm thick and is about the size of a table-tennis racket. We order it medium, and it comes perfectly pink inside. We cut it with little force, and consume the perfectly tender meat, from which one notice that the taste is maximised by the perfect length of time it spent on the grill.

Yesterday, I went to IKEA (as one does after moving), and walked some miles to and from. By the time I came back home, it was past 6:00pm and soon after that the husband arrived home from work. Both of us were hungry (I was starving), and it was a Friday night. There was no reason not to walk down to the restaurant. It is about 20 minutes walk, but it's worth it. Having walked all afternoon, I ate more than he did last night. So he said anyway.

Got Sushi.

2010-02-19T06:22:00.000-08:00

Tsuma: "Thank you very much for making sushi."

Otto: "You are welcome."

Both: "Itadakimasu."

....

Tsuma: "I am trying to understand the fiscal problem in Greece. What do you know about it?"

Otto: (Explaining.....)

Tsuma: As he explains, thinking, "(More sushi for me...!)"

soooo - sheeee

2010-02-15T09:30:00.000-08:00

sushi sushi sushi sushi sushi ...sushi sushi.... I want sushi.

sushi!

How does one think up what to eat for dinner everyday? How did I do it? Why can't I think of anything lately, but,

SUSHI. (the ones made by someone else, not by me).

We moved to a new flat. It's small and nice. It feels very cozy. :)

And, top of my wisdom tooth is all out! Good things.... :)

soooo sheeee soooo sheeee soooo sheeee.

A True Story

2010-01-25T00:58:00.000-08:00

This morning:

Y: "Otto, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are going to break up."

A: "I have heard of Brad Pitt, but who is Angelina Jolie?"

Y: "............."

A: "She is presumably the partner of Brad Pitt, unless, of course, the verb is transitive and they together are going to break up something else."

Y: "..........................."

Fireplace

2010-01-22T03:17:00.000-08:00

This apartment where we live and leave soon has a fireplace.

The other day, at about 5pm, I thought the place was cold and wanted to put fire on the fireplace so that it would be warm by the time Otto would come back.

So I cleaned the ash and put it into a waste basket, and light the fire. It was a very windy day.

I love looking at fire, so I did that for a while, but after a while, because it was windy, the smoke was backing up into the room. I did not know what to do but to beat frantically the wood with the poker to extinguish the fire.

I was still coughing when the fire was subdued. I sat back in front of the fireplace, and glanced at the other corner of the room, where there was the waste basket, smoking.

The room was smoky... not because the wind pushed back the smoke, but because the hot ash in the waste basket was smoking.

So then I jumped up and got a jug of water, pored it into the waste basket, repeated the same action three times, then open all the windows in the apartment.

Now, all the windows were open, and air pressure was low in the room, so the smoke was pushed back through the chimney, and the fireplace began to smoke into the room.

As you can imagine, the room was very cold when the husband came back. Oh, I should add, it was smoky too.

Porto's dark side

2010-01-17T08:53:00.000-08:00

So we are back in Porto now and guess what we get: a full week of dark rainy days.

You know that British people talk a lot about weather, and yes I did think that it is rather waste of time before I actually went there. While I was there, about 50 % of what I discussed with others was weather. It was that important. It affected my whole being. Now I understand why the primitive people worshipped the sun: I would be tempted myself if I could see the sun in this instant.

I must do something. I must do something about this because I know what I am going to get otherwise. The worst advice I received was to "decide" to like it. You know, the outrageously ineffective, "positive thinking". I would like to ask, could the positive thinkers abolish all their luxury, such as their automobiles and air flights, which are bad for the environment, and decide to like it: it will do so much good for nature.

One thing helping me at the moment is a new DVD, Yes, Minister. It is brilliant. It makes me laugh so much even in this weather. One thing I highly admire the British TV programmes is their ability to make fun of politics and politicians. I have never seen such a thing in my country though the politicians are highly laughable.

Oh by the way, we are going to move to a different flat in Porto. More about that later!

2010

2010-01-01T17:40:00.000-08:00

December seems to me always the shortest month of the year. This year, Alan and I did not really celebrate Christmas, but it still seemed quite busy month for me. Here in Japan, the 28th of December was the last work-day of the year, and people resume their work on the 5th of January. Even then, all the supermarket, department stores, and convenience stores are open.

At the end of the year 2009, I caught a cold and now trying to get over with it. Today, the Otto is visiting the imperial palace to see the emperor and his family. I hope he will be able to write about the experience later on this blog.

Happy New Year!

Our Wedding Anniversary

2009-11-27T21:21:00.000-08:00

Today is our second wedding anniversary. We are two people who are very bad about "anniversaries", and in my husband's case, it was so much so that he forbade me to celebrate his birthday. Apparently, he hates making a big deal out of the birthday, and when we were still dating, solemnly declared that I should not do anything special. I don't mind my birthday, but we don't do much then either. So just like that, our first wedding anniversary last year was just another day.

But this year, since we are apart, I decided to write about Otto and I just a little bit.

Our wedding was very small: it was because I always thought that the married life is much more important than one day of ceremony. Nonetheless, my parents managed to come to Scotland, and I was very happy that day. Due to my aversion for the Victorian-origin-white-fluff, my dress was not a typical white wedding dress, and I loved it. My dear friend came with me and helped me to pick the dress when I was visiting Tokyo.

Since then, We moved to Lisbon then to Porto. Of course I always love him more than anything in the whole world, I also like him more now than two years ago. I think Otto became kinder and funnier. He is now quite skilled in working around the house, and tells me that he cooks his favorite Thai noodle soup now that I am away.

During weekdays in Porto, after work, he texts me when he get on the bus, and I come to the bus stop to meet him. He usually gets off the bus just before I get to the bus stop, and I see him turn the corner striding along. Then Otto looks at me always with a big smile. Whatever have happened during the day, it makes my day so much better.

Thank you Otto, and let's be together for long long time.

The Cat's Name is Miss Yumi

2009-11-14T01:57:00.000-08:00

I have friends who live in Detroit, and they have a 4 year-old son. I have only met him once when he was a newborn. Now he is in a preschool.

His mom and dad told me an interesting story: one day, the boy met someone who had a dog with her, and he told her he has a cat (it's a stuffed toy cat). She asked,

"Oh, what's the name of your cat?"

He said,

"The cat's name is... the cat's name is..."

And thought about for a minute or so, and finally exclamed,

"The cat's name is Miss Yumi!!"

He knows Miss Yumi because his parents talk to her on the computer occasionally. His mom said, he sometimes talks to "Miss Yumi" himself in front of the computer (This, Miss Yumi was not aware of).

I would love to meet him again someday soon, but I do not want to destroy his image of "Miss Yumi", because he must already have a preconceived image of her.

masque masque máscara!

2009-11-10T23:32:00.000-08:00

In the discussion of integration or multiculturalism of Muslims in Europe, one of the topics that people refer to the most is the issue of the headscarves of women. Whether society at large should respect this particular dress code, especially the one only shows the eyes, for the conservative Muslim women or they should dress according to the dress code of a company, school, or institute to which they belong is a debate one would encounter in Europe. It is interesting that this is one of the most debated topics among various issues of religious and cultural diversity. The reason may be rather emotional than rational: for those who are not used to this custom, to see someone's face mostly covered causes a feeling of unease.

Personally, I have not seen many people with the head covering myself: I have seen some people who wear the type of covering that shows their face, but not the one that covers most of the face. Here in Japan, however, I am seeing something quite similar to the head covering. That is, the big white masks people wear.

They wear those big white masks to prevent Influenza A from spreading. But it can be described as "phenomenon" as so many people wear this same kind of big white mask, which covers two third of their face. I have never seen so many people only partially showing their face: it almost feels like I am in a futuristic science fiction film or something. And, I must say, it is slightly disconcerting to interact with those shopkeepers, doctors, station masters, and so many others whose faces are covered by the big white masks.

And my brother... as well. Though his son seems to be able to recognize the father without any confusion or difficulty. For those who wear the mask, I am the one who lacks proper caution against the flu pandemic. Also, I believe that the mask is neither prohibited nor required for them to wear. They wear the mask voluntarily and no one makes a fuss about it.

Now, shall I make a comparison between the Japanese mask and Muslim hijab? One is temporary while the other is permanent, you may say. One difference is that the Japanese mask communicate its significance much more clearly, or rather, people seem to know what the "meaning" of wearing the mask is: that is, the caution against the flu, which says, "I do not want to get this" or "I am not going to give it to others". But do we really understand the meaning of the hijab? Submission? Modesty? Or defiance? I do not know and am very curious.

So We Met

2009-11-08T06:01:00.000-08:00

I am back in Japan and finally met the little guy, and I think I can say that we get along well.

It's a terrible photo of me, but I put it anyway because Yoshichika is very cute here. He is always cute.

I have been in and out of the country in the last ten years, and I always enjoyed coming back to visit Tokyo, but this time is especially so. I was struck by the high quality of service provided in the Japanese airplane, the airport, shops, or train stations. To me, it feels that everyone is exceptionally kind and polite. The shop-keepers in Portugal, for example, are very nice, but the Japanese ones take it to the level of professional. For the first day or two, I was almost "touched", and was showing my gratitude to them with words and attitudes, to which my brother said, "You don't need to say these things to them: they are just doing their job and you would appear odd!"

Another interesting event was going to a Japanese Episcopal Church. This is the church I have visited a couple of years ago, and I was taken by some of my friends who now attend there. There I was, hardly keeping back my tears when I heard the familiar episcopal liturgy (though I am more familiar with the English version) and hymns in Japanese. I am not quite sure why myself, but I think without even knowing I miss my mother tongue, as well as the basic Christian values and conviction, by which my personality and life itself were deeply affected in the past. Though, there were many German and English names cited during the service, which made me cynically think of the colonizing nature of the Christian Church.

If I say it without fearing a gross generalization, not only in the church but also in the Japanese society itself, there is still a tendency to admire the English-speaking white people. The reason behind (discourse...) this phenomenon makes it improbable that a Chinese or Korean people in Japan would be treated in the way that foreigners from other parts are treated. I am not saying that they should treat Anglo-Saxon people poorly or anything, but simple act of asking questions about it may make some difference. If a Japanese person goes to abroad, they themselves may experience prejudice from the people who they admire. Of course there are many open-minded people everywhere in the world, who would not judge people by their nationality or skin colour.

I end this long blog post with a story. In the are where there area not many Asians around, we Asians could get a lot of "stares". My first experience of a "stare" was in the suburb of Illinois shortly after I moved to the States. In a restaurant, I noticed an old man who was looking at me intently. I thought, however, he found me attractive or something, and I was very self-conscious rest of the time there. Later experiences made me think that I may have been mistaken. It is a good thing to be young and ignorant.

Waistcoat from 1940s.

2009-10-20T03:45:00.000-07:00

This is my most recent work. It's 1940s style waistcoat for Otto.

It took loooooong time but I am glad it's done and turned out well.

The needles used are 2.5mm and 3.0mm.

I used cloth from his old blue shirts to make the pocket lining.

I think he is pleased.

Invention

2009-10-16T05:20:00.000-07:00

Two days ago, I confessed that I have not been making any effort to improve my cooking skill. That is true for lunch as well as dinner. When we lived in Scotland, "A" used to come home for lunch, but now, because it takes about an hour to come back from the university, I usually have lunch alone.

... and the standard menu has been "plums and yogurt". Day after day. Sometimes just plums, or plums and bread.

After writing the previous post, a thought came to my mind. Perhaps, I should make a proper lunch for myself once in a while. So today, I made myself "ethnic pasta", which was a random invention. I just put cabbage and egg into the wok, pour the "ethnic" sauce I spontaneously made, and tossed the pasta. The sauce was a combination of fish sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, lemon juice, and Cayenne pepper. The topping is parsley. I have a lot of parsley in the freezer, because the lady at the green grocer always gives us parsley free. The cooking time is 10-15 minutes because the kind of pasta I used does not take long time to cook.

And it was good. Surprising, but true.

It has been very nice and sunny, though a bit windy, in Porto this week. On weekends, we sometimes go to the city park to spend hours reading on a bench. Last time we were there, we took packed lunch and had a picnic. It was the very first picnic we ever had together. Of course, we took plums too.

Francesinha

2009-10-11T03:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is it. The "French Girl". The picture is only half of the normal size.
It's a favorite dish of Porto. It's basically a big sandwich with melted cheese and special sauce. Inside is steak and several kinds of sausages and I like it with fried egg too. There's no vegetable involved, and the sauce goes wonderfully with french fries.

It's not good for you if you have not noticed yet.

I am not a beer-drinker, but it's inconceivable not to order beer when I have francesinha. Perhaps it's because of the spicy beer sauce.

So for a while I was thinking about reproducing this dish at home, but have not had a chance to do so until now. If I really make it at home, I think I would replace those sausages with something else... like, sauteed mushrooms and onions, to make it slightly less unhealthy.

I did make the sauce at home, though. It contained onions, garlic, tomato paste, milk, dried chili pepper, and a substantial amount of beer and porto wine. The most "alcoholic" thing I have ever made. I served it with meat and potatoes, and it was good, I thought.

I'm not cooking much at home lately. We do eat at home, but often it's grilled fish or something very easy, like chicken cooked with beef (beer again...!?). Both my husband and I do not mind same kind of dish appearing often at our dinner table when we like it, so we have our favorite Thai noodle soup once a week, sushi once a week, which leaves 5 days a week. I grill fish about twice a week, so it's now down to three. We have been eating out about once a week, because it's quite cheap to eat out in Porto, so then, it's only two evenings a week that I have to think about what to cook.

But then, there is that "BBQ chicken." In Porto, there are many take-out BBQ shops, and whole chicken is 4.50€ at a shop near our apartment. Uncooked chicken at a supermarket is about 3€, so I reckon it's much better to get the delicious spicy BBQ chicken by paying 1.50€ more.

So this is why I spend less time in kitchen nowadays. It's also that I am not motivated lately to try something new. If I try to cook a new dish next time, I think it will be octopus because the grilled octopus I had at a restaurant was delicious.
... I am hungry... :(

Forth Coming Blog Posts

2009-09-22T10:57:00.000-07:00

I've been a bit occupied, but have been thinking about blog posts. I don't know what Otto's planing to write, but I am planning to write about,
- The local festival last week
- My new knitting pattern book from Japan
- A Portuguese dish called, "Francesinha"
- My rediscovery of Japanese film made by Kurosawa

They may or may not appear on the brog near future.

So, please, stay tuned!!

Bread etc.

2009-09-02T01:23:00.000-07:00

In front of our apartment, there is a bakery that is open everyday and bakes good bread. They also have a cafe. Because the bread is so good and the shop is so close that we go almost everyday, and I noticed the same person is always helping us, whether we go in the morning or night (it opens before 8 and closes at about 11). So, one day, I talked to him, and found out that he works 18 hours a day, everyday. We have nicknamed him "Superman".

There is also a market nearby on Tuesdays. We go there to buy vegetables, fruit, and fish. The first time we went, people were very impressed by Alan's height: someone exclaimed "Dois metros! Dois metros!" ("Two metres! Two metres!").

I got some plums yesterday from the market and made jam. Strawberries appeared and disappeared, cherries appeared and disappeared, so plums and nectarines will soon disappear from the market. Then, there will be apples and oranges through the winter, and strawberries re-appear in the spring.

Yoshichika Presented

2009-08-31T03:44:00.000-07:00

My brother realised that it is very, very common for parents to put photos of their baby on the blog, and gave me permission to do it (And after having given me permission, he's been asking me, "have you done it?" "have you done it?"). So here are the photos of my nephew Yoshichika, who was born on March 13th (Friday).

A friend of mine who lives in Chicago once told me that it is a "bad luck" for a child to have a hair-cut before the age of one (she is a Chinese-Filipino). Yoshichika had to choose one of the two: bad luck and a enormous head with extravagant hair. He courageously and triumphantly chose to have hair-cuts, and has done so many times until today.

The other day, I was on the phone with my brother, and Yoshichi was crying on his laps, which was picked up by the microphone right in front of this baby. I was in the middle of a heated conversation, and I commented, "Yoshichi's bloody noisy." (I spoke it in Japanese but this is one of the acceptable translations.) My brother was taken a back with my comment, which was a true statement, and teased me for being a terrible aunt. I am not a terrible aunt. I am an aunt who is not afraid to tell the truth about the world to this young child, who will occasionally have to see the harsh face of Fortuna, just like every one of us.

But I am also an aunt who knits for Yoshichika. This is my most recent work for Yoshichi. I love the two buttons on the shoulder. I'm going to post it today.

The Transition

2009-08-25T01:37:00.000-07:00

These are photos from past month.
the first one (I am not sure in what order you see them.) is us saying good-bye to our favorite fishmonger in Lisbon.
The second and third are taken when we went out to Serra de Gerres, and swam in a lake.

The move was... stressful. Can you notice that I lost some weight: compare me in the first photo and the second.

We are slowly settling down in our new place in Porto (it's actually in Maia). In the meantime, we are also repeating a singular act which is to say, "I am going to visit you (Japan or the States)!", and realize we really cannot. We usually go to the stage where we try to book the tickets, and then find out that there's a problem. One problem is financial, but the timing of the travel also can be an issue. The reality is, I don't know when I can visit Japan and meet my family and more importantly, my nephew or when I can reconnect with my friends in the States ever again. I hope one of the two can be achieved in the beginning of the next year, but it may be as late as next summer, and when I think how long I have to wait, my heart sinks. Porto is a very nice place, but what I really want to do is to see my brother and talk with him all night like we did in the past.

Ok, I don't know how to conclude this, so I stop. I am settling down very very slowly.

The Residency Card

2009-08-21T07:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to SEF (the Portuguese immigration service) to apply for Yumi's residency card. Yumi had called on Monday and had made an appointment (after spending 25 minutes on hold), but when we got there, we still had to take a number and sit and wait for our number to be called.

Then, when it was finally our turn, we went to hand in our application. We were then told we didn't have all the necessary documents. The SEF website lists one set of documents, the person Yumi spoke to on the telephone gave a different set, and the person we saw at SEF has another list. (Each of the three lists is incomparable to the others: each contains at least one item that doesn't appear on the other two.)

One particularly galling item was having to get the proof of address. I had my tax registration document, which gives my address, and I assumed that they would accept that and the wedding certificate as evidence of Yumi's address. But no, they wanted a particular document ("Atestado de residencia") from the Junta da Fregusia (parish council). We went to get that document, and the Junta accepted the tax document and the marriage certificate as evidence to issue it.

For the use of anyone who is in the same situation as us and finds this blog entry via a web search, here is what you actually need to obtain a Cartao da Residencia in Portugal for the spouse of an EU citizen:

Passport of EU citizen + photocopy of same;
Passport of spouse + photocopy of ID page and all visa pages;
Certificado do registo of EU citizen + photocopy;
Application form;
Sponsorship form;
Three passport-sized photographs;
Evidence that the EU citizen has financial resources to support the spouse (like a job contract);
Cartao doente (from Centro de saúde or ministerio de saúde at the Loja da cidadao. You need Atestado de residencia, which must include a sentence to indicate the marital status with whom.);
Marriage certificate (which must have been issued within the last six months);
Atestado de residencia (proof of address from Junta da Fregusia);
Criminal record check (from Loja da Cidadao);

2009-08-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

Today we were packing our belongings and sending them to Porto.

The highlight (in some sense) of the day was when Yumi called me to the kitchen and told me that she had been cleaning out a ceramic salt & pepper shaker set we brought from St Andrews. She said she had accidentally dropped the stopper for the salt shaker in the bin and asked if this was a "sign" that we shouldn't take it with us to Porto. What she was really asking was for yours truly to roll up his sleeve and rake around at the bottom of the bin (among the salt, flour, tissues, tea leaves, ground coffee, and miscellaneous animal innards) to find the lost stopper. I dutifully performed said task and located the stopper and handed it to Yumi, who washed it.

I then washed my hands (very thoroughly) and turned to pick up the towel. Yumi, trying to be helpful, went to pick up the towel and pass it to me. In doing so, she knocked the salt shaker off the table and it smashed on the floor.

Sigh...

La Nausée

2009-07-15T14:37:00.000-07:00

I have been being troubled with nausea for a week, and I have no idea why. It's just nausea, nothing more, and not constant. I always get motion sickness, but I felt that it was worse last week. I wondered if it was because of my spectacles, but changing to contact lenses did not make a difference. I have no idea why. None.

Should I go looking for a chestnut tree?

Well, I don't think my nausea was caused by the same reason for the protagonists of Sartre's novel. Is it a part of getting old? No, I am getting old, but nausea should not be because of that. I will eat cabbage tomorrow and see.

Busy and Fun Week in Porto

2009-07-12T02:56:00.000-07:00

This past week, we were in Porto being very busy and also enjoying ourselves. Alan came here to attend a conference, and I was looking for a apartment. Fortunately, I found a very nice apartment in the middle of the week, and we are moving to Porto in the beginning of August.

We have been in Porto only for a week, but we like the city a lot. We met wonderful people, and the food is great too.

A Consolation of My Soul

2009-06-30T02:57:00.000-07:00

I've got something I have to do this summer (as some of you know), and have been busy a bit. As a result, we had frozen pizza for dinner last two days. We have not been to the market for quite longtime... The cleaning has to wait. I don't seem to be able to do two things at once.

Anyway, because my brother said I cannot put up any photos of my beautiful nephew Yoshichika, I've drawn a picture of him. Those photos and videos from Japan really cheer me up in this dark period of my life. He's now three and half months old.

My brother tells me that people on the street look at Yoshichika and make a comment on what a beautiful baby he is. But..., I know that it seems every baby gets that type of comments. According to the mother, my brother received such comments when he was a baby.

...

She did not say anything about me though...

The Market

2009-06-21T13:01:00.000-07:00

I finally took TWO photos of the market we go every weekend. As you see, they have stalls for clothes, shoes, fabric, etc. It's very lively, and as I hear what the stall holders are shouting, things are low-priced.

Inside of the dome-shaped building is the food market, and they sell fish, meat, cheese, fruits and vegetables. We have our favorite fish stall there, and also buy fresh fruits and vegetables that are much cheaper than the ones in a supermarket. They are very tasty too... just lovely. We have been getting 1-2 kg of strawberries every week since Spring. They started to have cherries, melons, and watermelons that we are going to try next.

The sushi is Otto's expertise. The bottom photo is a red-snapper.

Summer in Lisbon

2009-06-20T04:54:00.000-07:00

Finally, the long awaited summer has come to Lisbon. The maximum temperature has been 33-36 C and the lowest has been over 20. Is this going to last?

We don't have an air-conditioner. We are expecting some friends coming to visit in July. I hope they don't mind the heat for a long weekend.

Everymorning, I begin my day with what I call, "urban hunting", which consist of swatting several flys. I am getting better at that everyday.

In the evening, we admire the beautiful sunset. Alan once commented that the reason why a sunset is beautiful is because of the pollution. hmmm...

Maybe next month, I will go and buy some summer clothes because I got rid of many of them when I was in Scotland for the reason that I never wore them. In the mean time, if you know how to be "cool" without relying on electric device, please let us know!!

The happiest moment of the week

2009-06-14T05:01:00.000-07:00

This week's happiest moment was the crepe no centro do comercio.
You have a choice of icecreme (1 scoup).

It's a large mall near our apartment.

But... but but but ...

The crepe cost 5 €!!!! (with the choice of drink).

... 5€!?!?!?!

So, we decided to make it at home, because it's much cheaper that way. The presentation was by Dr Alan Cain. What makes this plate "art" is chiefly defined by the fine line of whip creme and the randomness of the blob in the center.

European election results and the BNP

2009-06-10T03:40:00.000-07:00

This article has some interesting observations about the election to the European Parliament of two British National Party candidates, namely their leader Nick Griffin and his henchman Ug. (Here I'm assigning the same amount of individuality to BNP members as they do to anyone who is "not from around here".)

A particular observation in the article with which I agree is the foolishness of some Labour MPs trying to shore up their vote by sounding "tough on immigration", instead of arguing why immigration is a good thing.

Best quotation from the article: "The BNP itself has had to increasingly temper its message as it moved closer towards power (apparently, it is not a racist party any more, which should come as a great disappointment to many of its rabid supporters, who say they're proud to be racist)."

The BNP's policy is that immigrants to the UK and their descendants should be "voluntarily repatriated" (whatever that means). If the BNP are, as they now claim, not racist, this presumably applies to white immigrants too. And since the name "Griffin" originated as an anglicized form of an Irish name (Ó Gríobhtha and other spellings), presumably Nick Griffin is going to voluntarily repatriate himself to Ireland. My sympathies, Eire...

torment

2009-06-07T12:29:00.000-07:00

The tip of my second wisdom tooth has erupted and coming through. I have another one that came out just fine long time ago, and now working hard with its brothers in my mouth. When that came out, it did not take a long time... in fact, it was there almost suddenly.

Not this one... it does not hurt, but I feel the unpleasant sensation most of the day. All I want it for it to come out completely, but it's coming out very very slowly.

Well... that's all. Thank you.

cake

2009-06-05T08:27:00.000-07:00

I made a cake.

When I was a child, "cake" meant this type of fresh creme and strawberry cake. Every Christmas, all the bakeries sell Christmas cakes, which are fresh creme and strawberry cake. I once heard that most of the strawberries produced in Japan are for Christmas cakes, and fresh strawberries in stores are usually imported from abroad.

I wanted to make one before strawberries dissapear from the market.

News from Japan

2009-06-04T05:17:00.000-07:00

Yumi told me about the most-read news story on MSN Japan this morning. It was not about tensions with North Korea, nor the economy, nor politics. It was about a shinkansen being 15 minutes late.

In the UK, of course, such delays are commonplace. Indeed, one feels lucky if the train is only 15 minutes late. But in Japan, it is front-page news.

My friend was on the Wall Street Journal

2009-06-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

It's been a while ago, but my friend, Angie, was on the Wall Street Journal.

Here's the article and here's some photos (yes, even with photos!!!)

Angie and I took a course together in one semester, and she always gave me a ride after the class, which ended 8.30pm (This was at the "local seminary"). In the car, we always had an interesting talk, which I still remember. In fact, the talk with her gave me a lot of inspiration for writing a thesis proposal for my Ph.D. I also remember thinking that she seemed quite young to have many children. I was not sure if she was a full time student, and I was amazed at the fact someone with several children and work can survive the amount of classes, homework, and exams we had to wade through. But I thought I should not ask questions that were too private, you know.

I did not know that she had overcome a lot in her life before she met me until I read the article in the Wall Street Journal. One of my "stereotypes" of Americans was "boastful", but she never boasted about overcoming difficulties or her accomplishments. So much so that I had to read that in a newspaper... years after I moved from Chicago.

In the article, it is also written that she belongs to the church that Obama had to leave during his campaign because of some comments the pastor made. Now I think of it, I know several people from the church, but I did not realize that when I was reading the news about Obama. I don't mean to say that things that the pastor said (allegedly) were right, but everyone I know from the church was such a good person, who was the last person to be associated with the demonic discriminator that the media made the pastor sound like. I don't know the pastor at all, and he may not say the right things in a right manner, but his church was the one supporting the program for the children on a street, not the people who always say right things in a right manner.

I felt ashamed after reading the article, because, I thought, I grew up in a much better (though far from perfect) circumstance than Angie's, yet I thought I was just meandering through life without doing much. But I just have to fight my own battle if I like it or not.

Alcohol in Cooking

2009-06-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

It is a well known fact that Portuguese wine is veeeeeeeery good. You can get a nice bottle of wine really cheap. Lately, we discovered that a boxed wine is also nice. In the cardboard box, there is a foil bag, which contains the wine, and the wine emerges from a small tap in the bottom. And the bag collapses as the wine used up, so no air gets in and the wine does not oxidise, so stays tasty even though you do not finish it and leave it for some days.

However, we pushed the lower price limit too far, and ended up with a 5 liter boxed wine. And it was not good. The husband smiles and says, "You can use it for cooking, can't you?" And you make Coq au vin (chicken cooked in wine) twice, and realize the box seems still as heavy as before. Now, what would you do?

A solution I came up with was sangria.
Here's the sketch recipe:

- some strawberries
- 1 orange
- 2 peaces
- 2 medium bananas
- lemon juice (I forgot this time)
- 50-80mg sugar (I'm not sure. It's just a little bit).
- red terrible wine
- a cinnamon stick and 3-4 mint leaves (I didn't put them this time)
- 7 up
cut up fruits and put them into a jar. a jar looks almost half full (If you use a bigger jar, the jar is not half-filled: then, cut up more fruits). Put every thing else, and add wine until the jar is full. Leave it in a fridge for overnight. I mix with 7up or lemonade when I drink.

Another favorite recipe using alcohol is beer chicken. I got this recipe from our Professora de Portugues. We don't drink beer, but I go and buy it just to make this delicious dish.

- 1 Chicken (about 1.2K) cut into 6-8 pieces
- 1 large onion
- 1 can of mushroom or fresh mushroom as much as you like.
- mustard
- 1 dry bay leaf
- 1 -2 dry red chili pepper

Wash chicken pieces and dry them with paper towel. Spread mustard on both sides of the chicken pieces. Fry them with olive oil both sides to brown and take them out from the pan. In the pan, put onion, mushroom, bay leaf, and chili pepper and fry for a while. (I put salt here... but you are not supposed to put any salt because mustard is usually salty). Put the chicken pieces into the pan, pour the beer to cover everything, and cook until the sauce is thicker.

Bom apetite!

On Patoriotism

2009-05-28T10:03:00.000-07:00

Thinking about the current incident in the Korean peninsula, my thoughts wandered to the issue of nationalism. It is a topic I often... maybe too often contemplated and aggravated over, so it's about the time to write a brog post on that.

I had never been patriotic even before I became a Christian or had a opportunity to go abroad. I have always been towards the left as far back as I can remember. I still do not know what it means to love my country. I love my husband. I love my family in Japan. I love Japanese rail system, the tall beautiful buildings, and the food. But I don't know what it means to love "the country". If it means to love all the people who have Japanese citizenship, well.. I don't love them all. I don't know them all, and I have people I don't like amongst those who are called Japanese. I am anti-monarchist by the way. If it is the culture to be loved, it means that I also ought to love China and Korea in the same way because these countries share much in common in terms of culture. If it means to love Japanese literature, religion, historical heritage, I like them but I also adore those of different countries. Also, after not living there for close to 10 years, I feel further estranged from the country year after year. I am not just non-patriotic. I really, really don't know what it means. I cannot "be" something I have no idea what it is. Especially these things are about some sentiment, and I cannot evoke any sentiment without knowing why or what. For the same reason, I don't know how to "hate" my country, either. It means very little to me to insist on our nationalities whether Chinese or Japanese or Korean in the land, which is thousands miles away from any of them, where I am always called "Chinese" anyway.

Yet, from those who are in Asia, I am always Japanese. I hated being treated like a representative from Japan when I attended conferences relating to my Ph.D. I study about politics and religion in Japan because I want to know about it; not because I am somehow patriotic and took it as my service to the country to do so. They --the Asian scholars-- saw me with the presumption that I am an earnest advocate of my own country... because they themselves were quite patriotic. I do not advocate for my country; I want to know about my country, and I am willing to hear all the view from the people in Asia. I hear about Japanese atrocities during the war without taking it personally. It seems that people can be irritated with my detached attitude. Like the awful old woman at the conference, who spoke of the misery of her country (which is true) and cried (I would too) blamed Japan (fair), and was rude to me because I did not respond with tears and bending knees to her. I am not apathetic about Japan's past crimes. I did a fair amount of study and think those atrocities are unacceptable, inexcusable, and should not be repeated. (She later asked about why I became a Christian but was not in the least interested in my response.) At the last night of the conference, I felt really bad... due to the fact I was not taking a prescribed medicine for my medical condition. And someone told me that no matter how terrible I felt, my situation was much better than any of those who were in Myanmar, so enough is enough. Enough is enough? I wish I could say that to myself and be well all together.

Well... so far, nothing to do with current situation. It doesn't matter anymore. This post is too long. I may write about the current issue in another time.

Queria um café, por favor.

2009-05-24T02:04:00.000-07:00

Because this is supposedly a blog about our life in Lisbon, I think I should write something more informative about the city. When we were first coming here, this is how I gathered information about Lisbon and Portugal: from other people's blogs. Many of them have pretty pictures with every post, and they were really helpful. I continue to write anything in this brog, though.

So, today, it is about café. This is one of the most important topics in the life in Lisbon. There are numerous cafés in the city, and it is an indispensable part of people's life.

These cafés are called, "Pastelaria", which literally means "pastry shop". It's very common to have a breakfast in a pasteralia, and they usually open very early. They have small cakes or sandwiches, and that's the breakfast Portuguese style: coffee and pastry. You can sit down or just eat and drink standing at the counter.

The small cup in the photo is of "café", which is just like espresso in everywhere else. When you ask for "café", this is what you get. It is quite strong, and a bag of sugar comes with it. It's usually 50-60 cents. The coffee is not always hot. I think almost always luke warm. If you ask for "um café, escaldada", they pour hot water into the cup and throw the water, then, pour the coffee. It would warm up the cup, and it may also disinfect the cup a little. :)

Another kinds of coffee I have had are "galao" and "meia de leite". Both of them are milk coffee, and the difference seems that galao comes in a glass and meia de leite is in a coffee cup. Both of them are warm. They are good when you have something to eat with it, because there's more than a small cafe.

The pastries in the photo are pasteis de nata (pastel de nata). It's a famous cake of Lisbon, and there is a super famous shop in Belém. they are basically egg tarts, but it's quite difficult to make them at home (I've tried). There are lots of other kinds of cakes made with the flaky pastry, but that's the difficult part to reproduce at home.

There are other types of coffee, but gets complicated. If you know the café, galao, and meia de leite, you can get by with them.

Exam results

2009-05-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, we sat the exams for our Portuguese course, and today we received the results (unofficially -- we will get the diplomas later).

Yumi did well and received a 17. The pass mark was 10, the maximum was 20, and Yumi's score placed in the "Muito bom" ("very good") range. I think she did very well, given that she was using her second language to learn a third language, and had not my advantaged of having learned French once upon a time.

Language Lnaugega

2009-04-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

During the first couple of years of living in Chicago, when I was asked about what I missed the most being away from home, my usual answer was,

"Myself."

Really, I did not miss Japanese food so much, and of course, I missed my family to some extent, but what I missed the most was myself, who could listen, speak, and do whatever I want much more easily ... just like when I was in Japan.

It has been 10 years since then. Now I do not miss myself anymore. After the long time, I now feel that I am one person again, instead of two. It does not mean that my English is perfect... it's not. But somehow, I am much more comfortable and confident even when I speak English. I cannot explain when and how the change occurred, but speaking English does not rob me of a part of myself anymore.

Well....

Until I started learning Portuguese.

It's like the same old story all over again. Only difference is, however, here in Portugal, when I squeeze a sentence in Portuguese out of my brain through lips, often people answer to me in English.

I get discouraged from time to time, thinking that it would take forever to be able to communicate in Portuguese efficiently.

By the way, when the Otto and I talk, our language becomes a mixture of English, Japanese, and Portuguese, and our dialogue would surely sound like a series of secret codes to others. On the top of that, we don't even follow the rules of each language. For example, a Japanese married couple would never call each other, "Otto" and "Tsuma" instead of their names, but we do.

This week, I spoke with my brother a few times, and so many times I called him, "Otto". I think my brain is just coping the whole situation.

The Mouse Had Enough Dance

2009-04-21T13:46:00.001-07:00

I'm bored. Bored bored bored!! BORED!!!!!!!

I was so bored today that I was looking at youtube on Miss California's pronouncement on marriage being between man and woman.

Let me assume that she comes from a Christian background (in fact it was reported so).
In the Christian religion, historically, a marriage has been only for a man and a woman.
Also in the Christian religion, women have been very much encouraged to dance in bikinis in a public place (like on TV) in front of many... historically speaking, of course....

I don't have a problem with either, but saying one is ok and the other is not sounds hypocritical to me.

A problem always belongs to other people, doesn't it.

The Mouse Prays 1.5

2009-04-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to understand the situation in Sri Lanka, where the civilians are suffering from the violent conflict between the government and the Tamil Tigers, thinking about two of my friends from Sri Lanka. They are safe (because they are in Japan) and their families are probably safe (since I don't think they live in the northern part of the country, but I am not certain). But I don't know what they are thinking or feeling because I am rather afraid of asking... or saying anything.

Because, at the end, what would I say?

I experienced the same feeling of helplessness when I met people from Myanmar, Korea (which has "the past" with Japan), or other parts of Asia. It seems that when I try to say anything, it does not come out "right". After all, who am I to care about these issues when I cannot even change the things in my own life, over which I have much control?

Helpless but hoping, praying.

A Mouse Plays 1

2009-04-15T08:19:00.000-07:00

I saw off the Otto, who is attending a conference in UK, this morning. I will be home alone for 11 days.

I was not exactly looking forward to this, but planned some things to do while the Otto's away. I already accomplished one, which was cleaning, this morning. My place is very clean. Also, I bought 1 kg of shrimps to eat on my own, since he does not eat shrimps. I also got other good things I usually don't buy because he does not eat them, and they are all in my fridge waiting to be cooked and eaten.

But when all is ready and I sat down on a sofa, I have to admit, it's very lonely. :(

Take heart, Mouse! Cabbage for lunch and shrimp for dinner!!!

Competing with Mary

2009-04-14T04:40:00.000-07:00

My nephew Yoshichika is now a month old. A joy of my brother is that his son was big to begin with, and getting even taller, since he himself was a small baby of only 1600g when he was born. Yoshichika, though he is not fat (yet), is well build as a baby.

My brother then tells me that Yoshichika "stood up" while bathing. No way, for a month old, I thought. But the story goes that when Yoshichika was being washed the back, he pushed himself against my brother's arm underneath his body, and "stood up". "Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is said to have walked only 6 months after she was born. Yoshichika may break the record," says the brother.

My sympathy is for Yoshichika who is set to compete with the Mother of God. I hope, he bears as little Original Sin as possible to lift himself upright.

Happy

2009-04-12T06:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!!

Going to Porto!

2009-04-10T03:23:00.000-07:00

The Otto got a job in Porto starting in September. I am beside myself for we get to stay in Portugal some more years!!

Porto (Oporto in English) is a city in the north of Portugal. It is the second largest city after Lisbon (I think it's fairly small, in other words). We have not been there yet, but hope to visit sometime soon and see how it's like. It should be a couple of hours from Lisbon by train.

A Big Lunch

2009-04-08T05:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we invited friends over for lunch. In the past, when we had people over, I tended to make more food than necessary, and also tried to make something I was not used to making. So, I learned from the past and this time, limited myself within my familiar recipes.

First of all, please notice the plate of sushi in two of these pictures. They were of couse produced by Otto, and are always very good. Ever since we got married (or even before that), it is Otto's job to make sushi, and I have been eating them almost once a week, yet have not made them for about two years. It's nice that I can count on him at least for one dish when we have people over. When I took the photo, they were almost gone.

What I made was my common or garden Chinese pork, Chinese fried noodles, and smoked salmon potato salad. The potato salad's recipe came from our professora de Portuguese, and I have been making it repeatedly since she gave me the recipe.

The dessert was strawberry pie. This recipe came from my pastor in Chicago. I did not have the exact recipe with me, but I remembered making it with them, so tried to reproduce it. Otto and I got 1 kg of strawberries for 99 cents at the market in the morning. They were shiny red and very sweet! I must take advantage of these law-cost high-quality strawberries before they dissapear from the market.

We had a good time with good company. Not everyone spoke English, so we tried to communicate in Portuguese. I had to look at the verb conjugation charts for the past tense of the irregular verbs though.

If I had not stuffed myself as much as I did, I could have been a little more perky after the lunch. Here is another lesson for me for the next time.

The Tsuma Spring Collection

2009-04-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

I asked my mother-in-law to teach me how to knit during the holidays in the beginning of this year. Since then, these are the project I completed.

here is the complete collection of Yumi Murayama Spring 2009.

Biography of Otto

2009-03-29T07:46:00.000-07:00

I don't know why, but I just went to my Otto's homepage and looked up his "biography" section. And, it says this:

"Born 9th March 1981. M.Sci. in Mathematics (First-class Hons), University of Glasgow 2002; Ph.D. in Mathematics (Thesis: Presentations for Subsemigroups of Groups), University of St Andrews 2006. Research Fellow, University of St Andrews 2005–8. Presently Research Fellow at the Centro de Álgebra da Universidade de Lisboa. Author or co-author of 17 research articles. Married Yumi Murayama (村山由美) in 2007."

I mean... er... well, I am not sure what to say. This is not a biography. This is his educational history. Last time I checked, it was not like this. It was like, "I was born in 1981 in a small village called Darvel in Scotland...I did my Ph.D in the University of St Andrews... I enjoy reading..." like that. I prefer the old biographical note. the new one looks like as if I was one of his minor academic achievement or something. And for some unknown reason, he went through the bother to put Chinese characters for my name. It's so funny!

O Meu Sobrinho é Bonitissimo.

2009-03-25T10:04:00.001-07:00

On the 13th of this month, Friday, I became an aunt.

In my pre-aunt days, I was rather cynical about those who are crazy about their nephews and nieces, thinking, "that's not even your own child!" However, now, I found myself in the same camp with them...

I was on the phone with my brother yesterday, and talked about my nephew, Yoshichika, for 2 and half hours.

On the phone...

I: "So, tell me what kind of things he says."
Brother: "He says things like umgamgnungaumng (imitating Yoshichika)."
I: "No. That cannot be right... well, do it again."
Brother: "Umgamgnungaumng. Like this."
I: "Mmmmmm... (rather impressed)."

Yoshichika is getting a lot of compliments from people that he is "handsome". However, his father confined with me that he was afraid that Yoshichika's nose and mouth may be too far apart. I don't think so.

Notice: For the privacy of persons involved, photographs of Yoshichika cannot be posted in a public space. Pity.

Laundry: a portuguese way.

2009-03-21T07:24:00.000-07:00

Hmmm... it's nice to be able to put the laundry outside.

This is where I hang the laundry. I was scared in the beginning, but now am used to using it. By the way, we are on the 7th floor. (In Portuguese, it's 6th floor.) Every appartment has one of these, and colofully decorated by different pieces of clothes on a sunny day.

Sometimes, when it's very windy, I lose a piece or two.

And, behold!

bolinhas!

2009-02-24T05:25:00.000-08:00

When I go shopping, of course I go to a supermarket sometimes, but more often I go to a large market or small specialized shops. There is a small bakery near our place, and we really like their bread. The small rolls are called, bolinhas.
It's also nice to be able to talk and understand the shop-keeper little better now. They open at 7:00am and close before 1:00pm.

The shop is closed on Sunday, but there is another one that is open on Sunday. One Sunday, I went the other shop to buy bolinhas early in the morning. I was still waking up, and instead of "Queria dez bolinhas (I would like 10 bolinhas)", I said, "Queria dez bonitas (I would like 10 pretty girls)". I noticed what I said from the confused look on the shop-keeper.

Food, ethically

2009-02-19T11:21:00.001-08:00

I had a strange dream last night, in which I was a minister of some sort talking with Obama.

In my dream...

Obama: You realise your country is fishing too much.
I: We are fishing only within the limit of the treaty (In reality, I have no idea if such a treaty exists).
Obama: But you know that the treaty was signed long before we have this crisis of amount of fish in the sea.
I: (Cynically) I did not know that instead of the treaty you became the law.

Back to the reality, it is true that fish is being fished too much not only by Japan, but by many other countries. I saw an ad put by a NGO group, which was entitled "Pirates of the Mediterranean". It looked like a poster of the Pirates of the Caribbean, except the faces of the pirates were fisheries ministers of Italy, Spain, and I think, Greece. The message is that they fish too much... basically.

In Economist a couple of months ago, there was a special article about how fish in the sea are decreasing in numbers because of over-fishing. The technological development also contributes to this situation. Otto would tell you more if it was him who is writing.

The reaction to this in our household was one of the pity. Otto and I love fish. He especially prefers chicken and fish to red meat. Here in Lisbon, beef and lamb are more expensive than chicken or pork, so we did not eat them much anyway, but fish was regularly served for dinner. I also quite fond of pork, but according to the report, pigs are often fed fish, the fact which reinforced Otto's position not to eat them.

If I haven't had known that, I would still buy lots of fish from the fishmonger at the market, but now it makes me feel a little guilty. We have to eat something to keep alive though. Otto says that salmon can be farmed, so would be a better option... well, maybe. It's also the case that only a political action by governments could make a difference; not by individual consumers. For me, the ideal solution would be to "create" meat or fish in a lab. That would solve quite a few problems, wouldn't it?

Secret ID

2009-02-16T10:43:00.000-08:00

It has been now two weeks since the language course started. My body seems finally adjusted to the routine.

We noticed that everyone in the class is very good at learning a language. They are disciplined, quick to learn new grammatical rules, and make very few mistakes when answering questions. Today, when the teacher tested our knowledge on irregular verbs, no one made any mistake. The course progresses not too fast, but certainly not too slow. Also, from the day one, the teacher only spoke Portuguese, which is very good for us.

Once I thought I was ahead of others answering questions on the board, so I picked up my Otto's wedding ring (he took it out for a moment because his finger was too cold or something) and plunged my nose into it and was showing it to him just to be generally annoying. Then, I realised that I missed a half of the questions that were written on the other side of the board.

In the class, there are 9 nationalities (10 people in total) and everyone (except Otto, I am afraid) speaks at least two languages fluently. We are also mixed age group, but everyone seems to be used to classroom learning style. Otto and I always sit next to a lady from Congo, who said that she was a seamstress during one of the conversations for exercise. I thought it was a bit incredible because she picks up things very quickly. I do not mean that a seamstress should not be good at languages, but this person is comfortable being a student. Then, today, we discovered that she is a Benedictine nun, who was theologically trained in Belgium, when she said (in Portuguese of course) that she liked reading books on Philosophy and Theology.

I told to the class that I am a housewife, and has always been a housewife. So that's all they know except... well how is that possible?

and exhausted.

2009-02-05T08:50:00.000-08:00

Now that we've done with the first week of the language course, I feel tired. Thank goodness that we have a weekend to recover. We find that course itself is very interesting and useful. I think that my body is in a shock from waking up early and from the power-walk every morning.

There is no good way to get to the university except taking a metro. But the metro station is ten minute walk from home, and after getting off at two stations away, it is about 25-30 minute walk from the station to the university. It rains often here in Lisbon in winter, so a 30 minute walk juggling an umbrella to keep up with someone with extra long legs can be challenging.

Consequently, my legs worked harder than my brain this week. It's nice if I can get good exercise and get into a good shape. I had a few biscuits today to release the stress though. Round and nice "Maria bisquites". "Bolacha Maria" to be precise. It reminds me of the "Tesco Nice Biscuits," each of which has "nice" written on it. A Bolacha Maria has "Maria" written on it. I think I am tired.

The first day of the language course

2009-02-02T12:00:00.001-08:00

We attended the first class of the Portuguese language course at the university of Lisbon today. We decided that we needed to be forced to learn since teaching ourselves was not fast enough. The class starts 8am... which was a challenge for me, but I managed. I cannot remember if I ever attended a class that starts at 8. I think it was usually at 8.30. So a new record.

Otto is in the same class as well, and the only male amongst us girls. Today's highlights were me saying a wrong sentence three times and Otto saying "He is avocado" in Portuguese. (Otto wanted to say, "Ele é advogado," which means, "He is a lawyer.")

The other students seem very nice and we like the teacher. It is a beginner's course, so the most challenging part is waking up at 6am.

Train through Europe

2009-01-25T05:53:00.000-08:00

On the 8th of January, we set out to come back from UK to Lisbon all by train.

First, we took eurostar from St Pancras, London, to Paris. Here's a photo.

The leg room was not wonderful (not for me, but for Otto), but the train was fast and smooth. Oh, by the way, I have to open up my suitcase for the inspection because, I think, a pair of weights I got were (being lead) opaque to the x-ray.

Then, we had to take the Paris metro to get to the next station from which the TGV leaves. Paris metro has few escalators...

At the Gare Montparnasse, Otto tried to speak in French with moderate success. He says that it had been 11 years since he did it at school. We had lunch there at the station threaten by hungry pigeons.

TGV was clean, comfortable, and fast. Better legroom and generally more spacious than the eurostar. I saw the marvellous scenery from the window. I could not take a good photo of it though.

And then, we reached Irun, Spain, where we changed to the Sud express. This is a sleeper train, which takes 13 hours from Irun to Lisbon. We boarded and were shown to our compartment by the attendant. The room was small, but very cosy. There were bunks, a sink, and some storage place for luggage. Some toiletries are provided, but the flow of water was slow. The train had a restaurant carriage, where we went shortly after leaving Irun at 10 pm. Here's some photos from the Sud express and the restaurant. We went back to the restaurant car the following morning for breakfast, and admired a beautiful mountain scenary.

I must say, however, the train's toilet was just what you expect from the old...old train.

Sleeping on the train was, to my surprise, very comfortable. The motion of the train felt good as I fell asleep. Next morning, while we were at breakfast, the attendant came and converted our beds to a sofa.

My singular problem was motion sickness. I was fine when I was lying and sleeping, but I was nauseated a bit most of the time. It was not bad enough to ruin the fun of the journey though.
As we approached Lisbon at 11am, there was a knock on the door warning us to get ready for arrival. All and all, it was a very fun experience except the metro in Paris... well Paris in general.

Internet connection fiasco

2009-01-24T03:54:00.000-08:00

We finally have an internet connection at home. We had decided to go for a mobile internet connection since all of the fixed-line suppliers has a minimum of a 12-month contract and we are unlikely to be staying in this flat for more than 8 months.

After investigating various possibilities, we chose clix.pt, because I knew the 3G modem they supplied would work with the Linux OS of Yumi's new laptop, and because clix.pt explicitly said they supported Mac OS X.

We sent off for the kit and it duly arrived. As per the instructions, I plugged it into my iBook (Yumi's computer is temporarily out of use because the power supply gave up the ghost -- a replacement is en route) and waited... And waited... and finally an error message appeared "The disk you have inserted cannot be read by this computer". Hmmm.

The next day, from the office, I downloaded and installed updated drivers for the modem (which wasn't easy since the download from the manufacturer's website was an untyped file -- I had to rename it to .zip, .gz, .pkg, and a few others before it would open as a .dmg).

I could then tell the modem to dial, but clix.pt, in its infinite wisdom, didn't supply the number (or any other details) in the manual. A bit of hunting through clix.pt's forums turned up the necessary data. (Other Mac users had had the same problem.)

Finally I could connect! But any attempt to access a web page redirected to an online form at clix.pt that I needed to fill in first to activate the connection. Fair enough, I thought, and went to fill in the form. But of course, that would have been too easy. The form demanded a contact mobile phone number. It wouldn't accept a landline number. So I had to order a pre-pay SIM card to obtain a Portuguese mobile number. (Which admittedly I should have done long ago.)

Last night we finally connected to the internet. There was great rejoicing, bells rang out, people danced in the streets, gods descended from heaven, demons arose from hell, etc.

Update!

2008-12-30T02:20:00.001-08:00

It has been two months since I wrote anything on this blog... I was without Internet, we moved to a flat, we also had a guest for a month... it has been busy but we survived.

We are back in Scotland for two weeks to be with Alan's family. We had a wonderful Christmas... the Otto surprised me with a new computer for a Christmas present. I had such attachment to my old computer, which had been having minor problems here and there, that I was going to bury my academic life with the death of the computer. It went with me everywhere... Korea, Japan, other parts of UK, the US, and Lisbon... It's got a nice apple mark on the back of the screen though it's contrary to its nature. I reckoned that it had still several years of life and when it dies, I thought, I would retire into the life of cooking, knitting, stitching, and so forth (which I seem to enjoy doing the most lately). But now, it looks like I still have to do something worthwhile with my new computer. It's actually very convenient to have two computers when I have to read electric files and write at the same time.

Besides my computer, I received many gifts which I do not deserve since I was not quite so "nice" this year. I feel a little bad about the fact that I just got for my husband a set of DVD and nine pairs of socks when he gave me the computer and MP3 player. I also feel bad that all I got for my brother in law is a ceramic mug from Lisbon when he got me music CDs I really like. It was me who wanted a mug, and that reflected on the choice I made. I got a big mug from the parents for myself.

When we go back to Lisbon, we are definitely get Internet at home. We moved from the university flat, and have been researching about what type of Internet connection is available.

No Internet

2008-11-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

It has been almost two weeks since I came to Alan's office to use internet. Another visitor now shares the office with Alan, so I cannot just pop in. He seems to work until quite late as well.
I also got used to the life without internet, and feel a bit lazy about checking emails as often as it's necessary. I asked Alan to check my emails daily if I have important emails that requires my response so that I don't become completely irresponsible.

Meanwhile, I am very much fond of Lisbon. There were two cities I ever loved: Chicago and Tokyo. Chicago was multicultural city with very tasty food. It is also a quite big city, and I would love it if I could ever live there again. It had everything I needed in downtown, but was not too big like Tokyo. Things I did not appreciate was the crimes and snow in winter. I really loved Chicago nonetheless, and often day dreamed thinking what would be like if I could live in downtown.

Tokyo is alright. The city obsessed with convenience. It can be too impersonal, though, and high population density can be a bit too much.

Lisbon has everything I liked about the two cities without the negatives. The weather is superb. People are kind and helpful. There's so much to occupy myself in a small contained area. What did I do to deserve this?! :D

Coffee and Butter

2008-10-15T02:37:00.000-07:00

Mantiga, is "butter" in Portuguese, and I did not know that when we first arrived. So, when I was looking for "margarine", and there was this thing in a small tub that said, "Mantiga", my brain made a connection, mantiga... mantiga... maga... margarine. And I purchased it.

To fill you the background, for a health reason I was told by a doctor not to take too much animal fat. That is why I usually buy margarine with 100% vegetable oil, and I thought that was what I had done this time as well.

The "margarine" tasted delightful on a slice of bread. I was very impressed and asked myself, "Why Portuguese margarine is so tasty?" Much later I realised that what I had tasted was my rare guilt-free butter.

More important thing than margarine in my life is coffee. One day I found a 250g bag of coffee for 85 cents. Naturally, I purchased it. When I came home, however, I noticed that there is a sentence on the bag, which I could only read as "real coffee 30%". It turned out that I bought a bag of coffee, barley, and chicory mixture. I have heard that people put up with substituted "coffee" during the war, but I never expected that I would encounter it myself. (On record, the pseudo-coffee tastes much like coffee, but there is no aroma that is quintessential for coffee.)

I also bought another bag of coffee, which tasted awefull. I suspected that it was again the clever mixture, but that was just bad coffee.

The Man Spoke!

2008-10-07T06:47:00.001-07:00

Today is the first day I wore a long-sleeve shirt in Lisbon. It is finally getting a bit cooler. I have no complain.

Last weekend, when Otto and I went for a walk, it was still quite warm. Here's some photos.

After the walk, we went to a department store. I told Otto, who was trying to purchase something, that the department staff speak English very well. Otto sort of acknowledged my comment, and looked at one of the staff. When she came to help, he spoke,

"Desculpe. Queria comprar alguma coisa no armario."

as if he always spoke Portuguese!

She answered,

"No vidro?"

"Sim."

I was astonished. He spoke Portuguese, and the interaction was so normal!
I must study harder to show the confidence like he does... !

Na rua

2008-10-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

Dogs in Lisbon have a certain characteristic, which I have never seen in dogs in Japan. They leave excrement in the middle of a road. IN THE MIDDLE OF... the road.

I observed several times when dogs in Lisbon (I shall call them LisDog from now) came into a park with their owner, unleashed, happily ran around, and all of a sudden, "went" in the middle of the park. I had a dog once, but he preferred to go to some rather quieter corner.

AND, unfortunately, some of the stuff is left on a street. This is most disturbing. I have to be very careful to walk without stamping on it.

Speaking of a street, streets in Lisbon is cobbled. I heard about how difficult to walk on it with high-heels, so I did not bring my high-heel shoes. Except one with about 2cm-heels. Yet, it's still quite hard to walk gracefully in those heels. The other day, I was self-aware, trying to walk straight. Then, I felt suffocated... I stopped and gasped. ... I was concentrating on my walk so much that I was holding my breath.

Tentacles

2008-09-26T12:11:00.000-07:00

Yumi has a Portuguese cookbook. We have looked through it to see which dishes we would like to try.

I think a good guideline is this: do not try any recipe that includes the instruction "beat the tentacles lightly with a rolling pin".

Water.....

2008-09-23T03:27:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning, I woke up and went to toilet like one does. I did what I needed to do and flush the toilet, like one does. Then, all of a sudden, there came this loud noise from the tank.

I went back to the room, and stood there, looking at Otto.

He was looking at me.

We were like that for about 10 seconds, and Otto came out of bed to check what exactly happened.

It turned out that it was just air coming out from the water pipe into the tank, which was very loud.

He turned off the pipe. The noise stopped.

However, from every tap we turn, the noise and air came out. When water finally came out of the tap, it was reddish brown.

So this was our Sunday morning this week. Somehow, however, we managed breakfast and did laundry (by hands, of course) that day. It was a miracle.

Bread and Pastry

2008-09-16T02:45:00.001-07:00

After moving to Lisbon, I stopped baking bread. It's because I can get very nice bread from a supermarket. I do not need to take time and energy to bake bread anymore since I can just go and get one from a shop.

They also have good pastries. The other day, we got a pack of four egg tarts. I ate two of them while Otto was away, and another one late at night after he went to bed. Next day, naturally, there was one egg tart left. Otto is such a wonderful person, and said, if I like it so much I should have the last tart.

Otto: "You eat it."

Yet, I felt bad about eating three of them already, so I said,

Tsuma: "No, you eat it. I already ate three."

Otto: "Don't worry. You eat it."

Tsuma: "You eat it."

Otto: "You eat it."

Tsuma: "No, you."

Otto: "Fine then. I will eat it later."

Tsuma: ".......... oh."

Otto: "What?"

Tsuma: "Now I am a little disappointed."

Otto: "YOU EAT IT THEN!!!"

I hope I can bake the pastry myself since it does not look like very difficult to make.

Atomic bomb, torture, and persecutions

2008-09-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

My research is such that I have been reading and writing about these things quite a bit. I recently read a story (or had the story read to me) of a British POW, who experienced a horrifying torture by Japanese imperial army during the last war (That is, the last war for Japan). It is very hard to think about human suffering, especially when my country was responsible for it. I also read about an A-bomb victim and the Christian persecutions in my country in 17th century. They are all very heavy stuff.

I found it quite difficult to maintain my emotional stability reading these things.

However, the most difficult reading for me includes some discussion of an Institutional Church being very prone to oppression. These types of stories bring up all the negative experiences I had in churches in Japan and else where. And that is difficult.

I am, at the same time, trying to find a church to go to in Lisbon. I wonder sometimes if this is a good move, thinking I was hurt so much in a church especially when I was in Japan. I don't know why I want to go back. Just by looking at myself, and from my own experience, I know so well that Christians are not only "good" people, but just like others, who can be selfish, wrong, and self-justifying. And, they can hurt people. They can hurt people in such a way that leaves a scar for the rest of one's life because they use the magic word, such as, God, God's will, God's work, His word, Service, Sin, you name it.

I was hopeless one day from reading very difficult documents, and opened my Book of Common Prayer. I prayed, but when I started reading a Psalm I could not bear it and closed the book. The Psalm was full of hatred against "enemy"... whoever that was.

Fresh and "Scary" Food

2008-09-12T07:54:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my photo album, seafood is very tasty and reasonably priced here in Lisbon. We usually use the nearest supermarket for grocery shopping. It is not just fish, but bread, fruits, cheese, sausage, vegetable... they are all very tasty.

Unfortunately, however, I am not used to "deal with" some fresh fish and meat. I almost screamed when a customer in front of us at a cashier had two crabs "alive" in plastic bags. I felt dizzy when I read how to prepare a octopus in my cookbook. I also got a chill when I saw a small pig ... as a small pig... tightly wrapped by plastic, laying (and smiling) in the meat section. My foremost weakness is yet perhaps skinned rabbits.

Thanks to the fact that those animals die and people prepare them for us to dine...

Cleaner and Washing Machine

2008-09-08T02:43:00.000-07:00

Not having internet at home, it's not easy to update this blog. Anyway, we are doing well.

I am now at Alan's new office to use internet. It is also good to be away from home in the morning because a cleaner comes to clean our apartment during the week. It is included in our contract of the apartment. I am not sure what to think of it though. First, I do not like the sound of it: having a cleaner. It sounds too bourgeois. Also, it is a little uneasy to have someone come into our place without knowing exactly when. The apartment is not too big, so I would have no difficulty cleaning myself...

I have not seen the cleaner, but I have seen how they CAN clean. One day last week when I came home, the place was not only clean but tidy. It was a work of someone who loves cleaning and has a strong opinion where things should belong.

So I am stalling here in his office this morning. By the way, although we have a cleaner, we do not have a laundry machine in our apartment. So much for our bourgeoisie.

Arrived in Lisboa!

2008-08-29T11:56:00.000-07:00

After three moderately chaotic days, we finally arrived in Lisbon last night. The final event in London was to drive down by a taxi from Gatwick airport to a nearest post office to mail a parcel and drive back to the airport. I really appreciate Otto's unceasing devotion to accomplish what is necessary. Such as running to the post office, running around in the post office, and paying for the taxi.

Anyway, finally we are here in Lisbon. Otto went to see meet people at the maths department in the University of Lisbon, and made an initial contact. He begins his work with attending a conference on Monday.

At every restaurants and shop, my dubious Portuguese is accepted with smiles. We had a fairly big lunch at a local cafe, which was great in taste and price. I had a plate piled with broccoli and something with salted cod, which was delicious. I wish I had taken a photo of it, but we did not have a camera then. Otto had a salmon and some grilled vegetables, which was very good as well.

We were free by the late afternoon, and started walking toward the city centre without a specific plan. We may not make good tourists, because we got tired before arriving to the city centre and decided to head back to the hotel by subway. On the way back, we stopped at a supermarket, and picked up bread, smoked salmon, salad, and a pastry called pasteis de nata for dinner. Tomorrow, we may try to be a bit ambitious and head toward downtown early in the morning.

Packing

2008-08-25T12:07:00.000-07:00

Here is Yumi's method of packing a suitcase:

Place clothes loosely into plastic bags: shirts in one bag, warm clothes in another, socks in another, and so on. (About five bags in total.)
Place shoes (still in their boxes) into suitcase.
Stuff two or three of the aforementioned plastic bags into suitcase.
Complain to Alan that the suitcase is full.

Whereupon yours truly notices how inefficiently the suitcase is packed and re-packs it sans shoeboxes/plastic bags, folding clothes tightly to achieve efficient use of space. Result: the suitcase now holds two or three times as much. Consequently, Yumi needs only one large and one small suitcase now, instead of one large and one very large.

My insistence on preliminary sorting of clothes into "likely to wear"/"unlikely to wear, but want to keep for after the stay in Portugal"/"ghastly and never to be worn again" also reduced the volume of clothes to be packed by about 20%.

Why couldn't Yumi do all this by herself? Suggestions in the comments, please.

wrinkle, spot, blemish

2008-08-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

"...Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind-yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25-27)"

Spot... wrinkle... anything of the kind... Is this imagery of a WOMAN'S FACE!?!?

..... I never noticed when I was younger.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH SPOT OR WRINKLE OR BLEMISH OR THAT SORT!! (sob sob sob sob)

Who wrote this? Who wrote this? Eh? EH? It must be PAUL. It's always PAUL who writes these things. I thought that Ephesians' author was unknown (even thought it says that Paul wrote it... the authorship was debated), but now I see this, I think it's Paul.

So, the Apostle Paul made me worry, and I asked my Otto what he thinks about my spots or wrinkles or things of the kind.

Thus says the Otto:

"You are vain. If you worry, worry more about your stomach."

..... MEN.......

Living with someone "Slim"

2008-08-23T01:38:00.000-07:00

I don't like this culture of wondering-one's-weight-all-the-time, but it is interesting and quite educational to see a life style of someone slim. I always thought that some people never gain weight no matter what they do, but now I think that may not be true.

As some of you know, my Otto is a super-slim-2-meter-tall man.

He goes swimming sometimes, but besides exercising, there are some things he does or does not do to stay slim... unconsciously, I think.

In the morning, he always have breakfast, and it is always bran flakes and sultanas.
At lunch, he always eats salad and a small amount of healthy sandwiches of his choice (tuna, pickle, cheese, or something like that).

We don't eat same things for breakfast and lunch. In Asian countries, sandwich is not considered to be a proper meal. So, I may have pancakes for breakfast, and something easy and creative for lunch.

We eat dinner together, but Otto prefers fish to meat.

And he never eats anything in between. Never seems to crave for anything. Sometimes he munches sultanas... picking one by one using a pair of tweezers and throwing it into his mouth with incredible speed.

The difference in our diet results in several different ways. One of them is that Otto owns small collection of cloths, and I keep some "a little tight" cloths in hope of losing weight someday and "a little loose" clothes for a realistic reason.

Learning Portuguese = Annoyed Tsuma

2008-08-16T04:17:00.000-07:00

We are slowly but steadily making progress in learning the Portuguese language. I have an advantage in that I studied French at high school and I can recognize many words already. Tsuma find this sukoshi annoying, since she is naturally very good at learning languages and expected to learn Portuguese faster than me. (She'll probably overtake me soon despite my head start...)

In two weeks...

2008-08-14T03:13:00.000-07:00

We will be in Lisbon in two weeks... TWO WEEKS! I am not sure if I should be excited about it or stressed about the fact I am not really ready for it. I am very much looking forward it, though.

We have been studying Portuguese very slowly together. We also have been doing some research on Lisbon and Portugal (especially regarding food and apartment). Our minimalist life-style is finally paying off... we really don't own much of anything (apart from books), thus the packing is very easy. Otto has been collecting cardboard boxes and bubble wrap ever since I met him, which I bitterly complained after our marriage, but even this is paying off. Most of Otto's books are staying with his parents in Scotland. Please pray that the ceiling of their house will not fall from the weight of the books in the attic. That's why I am not particularly fond of Folio Society books... they are unnecessarily heavy in my opinion.

You cannot take your books to heaven... or hell, you know. Especially, not to hell since books are combustible.

Another thing I learned about Portugal is that there is no letter "y". I wonder what would happen to my name. Am I going to become "Umi" or "Jumi" or what?

The photos above shows the progress of baby seagull outside our flat. We are leaving before the seagulls do...

On R and L and accents

2008-08-11T11:42:00.000-07:00

In my defence, I should point out that I do not mock Yumi's occasional R/L substitution. I actually like it; hence my collection of examples. Furthermore, Yumi mocks my Scottish accent and laughs at the mistakes I make in Japanese. "All's fair in love and war."

And no, I shall not publish my list of examples... not a rot, anyway.

Why "BROG"?

2008-08-11T04:42:00.000-07:00

You may have thought that I misspelled "Blog". I did... intentionally this time. When I speak, however, L and R are still difficult to pronounce correctly. I usually pronounce R in the place of L. My mean Otto, then, made a list of words I mispronounced in the past. There are about 50 words in the list now and "Japanese Brog" is one of them.

I personally think that even if I make mistakes, it's alright as long as the word communicates the basic meaning. English language is wide-spread in the world because of the colonialism by the English speaking people through violence and oppression, and it is shameful that so many people speak English for that reason. Thus, it is ethically questionable for an English native speaker to "correct" non-native speakers' pronunciation; instead, they should simply accept this beautiful Japanese "accent".

In fact, English dictionaries should have an entry, "brog".

Welcome to a Japanese Brog!!

2008-08-10T08:01:00.000-07:00

This is a blog space for Tsuma and Otto Cain. We are moving to Lisbon at the end of this month, and will show you faces of the town. (Tsuma)