Ishikawa AJET Charity Cookbook
22 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Books, Food, Recipes Tags: AJET, Asian food, charity, ishikawa, Japanese food, Jet Programme, Recipes
Congratulations to all the people in Ishikawa Prefecture who have finally finished their charity cookbook, “The Ishikawa JET Kitchen.” They’ve spent the last 2 years developing and testing recipes that have been adapted for ex-pats living in Japan.
Are all the new foods you’re finding at the supermarket a bit overwhelming? Have you been wracking your brain trying to convert your favorite chocolate chip recipe to your metric measuring cups? Are you sick of not knowing which flour you need for what kind of cooking?
Cooking in Japan can be a challenge, but now it just got a little bit easier with The Ishikawa JET Kitchen, an interactive digital cookbook from Ishikawa AJET. This cookbook is the brainchild of former Anamizu CIR Leah Zoller. With the help of a dedicated group of recipe contributors and testers, the penultimate cookbook that every JET should own. Whether you’re new to cooking, or a culinary whiz you will benefit from the wide range of traditional Japanese and homegrown recipes from Ishikawa JETs around the world.
Recipes for people with dietary restrictions have been tagged for easy searching – so whether you’re vegetarian, vegan, lactose intolerant, or keep gluten-free you can find what recipe will work for you in no time.
For only ¥1000 you can get over your fear of the supermarket and use your kitchen like a pro. All proceeds from The Ishikawa JET Kitchen will go to Second Harvest charity. If you like the cookbook, make sure to tell your friends, family and coworkers!
The cookbook is beautifully laid-out, well-planned, and a great present for anyone looking to get into Asian cooking or a friend or family member who lives in Japan. Head over to their blog to purchase a copy!
~MS the Younger
Speaking of old books…
20 Sep 2011 2 Comments
in Ephemera, Food, Inspiration, Uncategorized Tags: bookmarks, Food, food blogs, inspirational, Recipes
I love when you open an old book or magazine and find a bookmark, or forgotten picture, or scrap of receipt or a recipe scribbled on a tattered old piece of paper. I found this little bookmark on a piece of heavy card tucked into the front of “Mysterious Japan.” I’m a little curious what the center roundel depicts. At first I thought it was a religious scene, the woman wearing a veil and kneeling in the middle of her… bedroom? Is it an allusion to an old biblical story or myth? It’s probably not from classical antiquity…not with those robes! There’s no poetry or quote on the back, and no publisher or printer marked on it either. Anybody have any ideas what or who this picture might depict?
I was surprised to learn there are entire websites dedicated to those lost bookmarks and 
recipes. The first is Forgotten Bookmarks. Their sister site, Handwritten Recipes, collects all the recipes into one place, and people are already testing and trying them out! There’s a recipe for “Pasta with Artichokes” that sounds absolutely fab(!!) and was tested by the ladies over at A Tale of 2 Kitchens. It was the first time I’d heard about their blog, and I’m taken by 
their ingredient-driven, seasonal food blogging. They’re definitely going on my to-read list! I think the first thing I’ll try making is their Warm Breakfast Quinoa. I’m always looking for another excuse to eat quinoa! Also new to my blog-list this week is the lovely Two Lazy Gourmets. The recipes are fresh, pictures inspiring, and there are also informative videos. I’m looking forward to reading more of their blog!
…. (a little bit later)…
I took a little break while writing this post to go through some boxes from my grandmother’s house. She sadly passed away about 3 weeks before I came home from Japan, and it was a real blow for me. While I was sorting through some things, I found another bookmark! The front has a scene from the Nativity, but it’s the poem on the back that really got me.
The poem continues:
How close he was the the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit, -
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit!
It’s kind of like my grandma is sending me a message – I like to think she’s watching from Heaven and cheering me and my family on!
~MS the Younger
Literary Journeys
16 Sep 2011 1 Comment
in Book Store Tourism, Books, MadSilence, On Books & Reading Tags: antiques, Books, Travel, Vermont
Every year the MadSilence family goes up to Vermont for vacation. If you asked your normal person on the street what their favorite part of vacation was, they would probably say “skiing” or “swimming” or “relaxing,” but for me and the MS Seniors the best part of vacation is the drive! Just the views of sweeping fields, rolling hills, and unusual livestock make the normally dull task of driving more like watching a movie than work.
Wish I could have gotten a picture of the camel running around with the cattle in the field around the corner from here!
But never mind the view, the main attraction of these country roads is the awesome antiquing and book shopping that can be done along the way! We randomly saw a tiny “used books” sign on the side of the road and detoured to check it out. Hidden in the tiny town of Benson, Vermont, was The Book Shed. After searching through the dusty piles and stacks for almost an hour, we came away with a paper bag full of unusual books. I have a bit of a thing for old travel books – take a look at some of the beauties I found!
Published in 1910 by Seeley and Co. Ltd, London.
First was this:
The inside cover bears the handwritten dedication “Ours: Cairo, October 28 1911″ and the stamp “Florence E. Smith” and “J. Winter Smith.” I love old travel guides and accounts, and I especially love the mystery of annotated books. 
Who were the Smiths? Where did they live? Was their trip to Cairo their honeymoon? How did this book, published in the UK, end up in a dusty Vermont barn?
Mysterious Japan by Julius Street. Published 1922 by Doubleday, Page and Company.
I also love the antique photos of life in Egypt:
Under a dusty pile of old magazines I found a book on Japan from the 1920′s with some other fun pictures inside! I love the fact that it was printed in NY and ended up in Vermont. I can’t wait to sit
down and read what the authors have to say about these exotic destinations from their viewpoint of a century ago. This is my kind
of time travel <3
~MS the Younger
PS: Preview for next time! WTF is this?
Unity in sorrow – 2 tragic anniversaries on 9/11
14 Sep 2011 1 Comment
in Japan, Music, News, September 11, Uncategorized, videos Tags: 9/11, earthquake, Japan, Music, World Trade Center
Since coming back from Japan, I’ve been trying to keep a finger on the pulse of the country I left by reading the news on the internet. In the midst of my own personal whirlwind of home-coming, I was shocked to realize that this past Sunday was not only the anniversary of 9/11 here in America, but also the six month anniversary of the Great Tohoku Earthquake. I was so lucky in both cases – I didn’t lose anyone in the terrorist attacks and was lucky enough to live in a part of Japan that was not directly affected by the earthquake either. I still felt the terror, though, in both cases and in full measure. When you’re from the Tri-state area, there’s no way that you could not be shocked at the vulnerability of your country and not feel the shadow of death pass by you that day. In Japan, there was not a single person I knew who wasn’t connected to the tragedy in Tohoku in some way, and though I was an outsider, I felt that pain with them.
I will never forget either of those days, and the world won’t either. For people of my parent’s generation, the question that defined them was “Where were you when John Lennon was shot?” For the grannies and grandpas of Japan it was probably “Where were you when Hiroshima happened?” As a wanderer of my generation, I bear the memories of tragedies of both sides of the world, and can answer to questions that define the youth of 2 nations: “Where were you on 9/11?” and “Where were you on the day of the Great Earthquake?” There are also many others who answer the same question. Sugiyama Taichi, whose banker father was killed during the attack, came to read his father’s name and represent the 24 other Japanese who were killed during the attack. The Daily Yomiyuri Online reports that he thanked his father and asked him to continue watching over his family, and then asked people to think of and pray for Japan in its current troubles.
Sugiyama Taichi (a middle school student) honors his father, a banker who was killed while working at the Trade Center at the time of the attack, at this week's memorial for the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
These tragedies are a hard burden for the world to bear. But it is the nature of humans to continue living, and no matter what we persevere. So I think that there was as much hope in September 11th this year as there was sorrow. The whole country, and other countries as well, were united in sorrow but also in hope for a new, peaceful world where people won’t have to be united in tragedy. And through this the JET Programme continues to act as a way to unify countries and spread global awareness through the people who live and work in Japan.
A picture of the destruction on Nonoshima Island, where ALT Tanya Gardecki once worked. Picture by Tanya Gardecki.
Canada’s CBC reports that “months after the March 11 disaster, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs put out a call to alumni, offering to send a limited number back to hard-hit areas where they’d worked to see the progress for themselves.” Many have
Tanya Gardecki and her students on her visit back to Japan. Picture by Tanya Gardecki.
gone back to the towns they once lived in to see the destruction, and the recovery, with their own eyes, to be carried back as words, memories, and pictures to the people and media of their home countries. I hope that these visits will prevent the disaster in Japan from fading in the world’s memory and that people will continue to think carefully of the price that we might pay for using nuclear power. I hope it will also assure people that the area outside of Tohoku is safe for travel, and that people won’t cancel the trips that bring them and badly-needed tourism-generated money into the country.
In the end, I’d like to share with you an interesting piece of music that was posted on Over a Hedge, a blog “dedicated to Japan and writing, among other things…” I like to think that music is a language that transcends words, and no matter where you are from, what culture you are most familiar with, or what language you speak, you will understand music. This song is called “9.11″ and was performed by Kakushin Nishihara on biwa, a kind of ancient Chinese lute, and Gaspar Claus on cello. Although it’s difficult to understand the lyrics, you can hear the word “hikooki” or airplane, through the song. I think that the music really says it all – communicated through a skillful combination of something so ancient and Eastern, the biwa, with something so modern and Western, the cello. When I listen to it, it evokes both tragedies that occurred on the 11th, and hopefully the healing and unity that will come after them.
~MS the Younger
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