An Unseasonal Cottage Pie

Last week we were rather unexpectedly invited to address the Kure Film Circle. Their film this month is "Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont" which is set in London, and they wanted a British person to come and talk to them about Britain, and also answer any questions they might have. "Oh, and by the way, please could you cook something typically British and bring it along to the small party we are having after your talk?"!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not much of a cook, unless it is Christmas and Jamie Oliver is helping, or if I can be bothered to make a lasagne - my absolute favourite. The problem was compounded by the Film Circle saying that they didn't have an oven, something that is not that unusual in Japan.

So... something in one dish, which has a chance of staying hot for three hours (I cannot abide cold food if it is meant to be hot) and will be deemed passably edible.

And here is the solution - a cottage pie.

The weather is moving towards sweltering in Japan, so this is not really the ideal food. I would prefer to eat this on a cold winter's day, but my culinary skills meant my options were limited!

Dead easy to make if you want to try. This is how I make mine.

First brown some minced beef, then add some chopped garlic, salt, and freshly ground black pepper. Add some coarsely chopped onions, carrots and mushrooms, and pour in some beef stock (consomme if you don't have any), and leave to bubble away for around about an hour.

While you are waiting, peel and chop up some potatoes, put them in some lightly-salted water, bring to the boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. When they are ready, drain off the water, then add some milk, butter and more of that black pepper, and mash them until smooth.

Put the meat and vegetables into an ovenproof dish, and then put the mashed potatoes on top. Smooth out the potato with a fork to get those lines, put some dabs of butter on the top and then put in the oven at about 190 degrees for 25 minutes. The potato will turn crispy and golden.

That's it - easy!

You'll notice I haven't given the amounts of any of the ingredients. That is because I think this is very much a "personal taste" dish, so you need to find the taste you like. My mother, for example, doesn't like mushrooms so she doesn't use them. I saw one recipe that included a tin of tomatoes - good heavens! What a terrible idea! But each to his own, I suppose.

Back to the Film Circle, and how to keep it hot for three hours... Again, easy as it turned out - a couple of sheets of tin foil, a towel, and an old biscuit tin, and it was still piping hot when we finally got around to eating it. I THINK it was well received!

Fathers' Day

Oh, goodness... even the title of this blog has had me checking for the spelling. Despite what Wikipedia has to say about it, I'm sticking with the apostrophe where it is, thank you very much!

So quite the lie-in yesterday. I think it was about 8 o'clock when I got up. Although Kayo gets up early with the children through the week, it comes round to me to get up at the weekend - usually around 6:30...ouch! I don't mind so much on Saturday, as I often head off to the squash courts quite early anyway, but it is a rare treat on a Sunday. It did cross my mind to ask the children to stay with their grandparents on Saturday night, ensuring the lie-in, but then thought that having NO children was hardly the right way to go about celebrating Fathers' Day...

So here we are caught in the middle of the rainy season, and for sure it was a "Cat in the Hat" kind of day, sitting around not doing too much, however my presents were a highlight.

First I should tell you about some gardening Aimi and I have been doing. Come Christmas (especially) there is one vegetable that I miss, and have been unable to buy in Japan, namely, runner beans. My mum came up trumps this year and sent me some seeds, and here is the result thus far. Aimi helped me plant them although when I told her how quickly and tall they would grow she was initially concerned about attracting giants... Anyway, they certainly seem to be coming along OK, and I'll keep you posted when we start picking them. The T-shirt I am wearing, also shown here,

is Aimi's picture of herself with the beans, and they are obviously much bigger than her. This is the latest in a growing line of quite unique shirts that I have been given by my children, and they are all terrific.

My other present was a couple of cans of "draft" Guinness to have with dinner. A welcome change from the ice-cold fizzy lager (bleugh!) that is the norm here. Obviously Kayo had arranged for there to be two cans so that I would share them with her, which, much to my surprise, I did!

Here is the back of the shirt as drawn by Tadashi. It is, apparently, and I am no expert, a Dragonball character. I suppose I should take more of an interest... In the background, the computer is displaying the ball-by-ball update of the third cricket test match between England and Sri Lanka. If I could, I would sit up and follow the cricket until close of play at around 2:30 in the morning Japan-time, but work and early-rising children don't allow it.

Oh, the joys of fatherhood!

Kyushu Open Squash Tournament

Since living in Japan, what used to be something of a passing interest has become more of an obsession - namely, squash. At the weekend I made what is an annual trip to Fukuoka, where I once again played in the Kyushu Open. If truth be known, I am far too old to have any hope of playing at the top level in Japan (arguably the best player in Japan is only 23!), but I love the game, and even though I have been playing on and off since I was 14, I think I am still improving, and I still have goals to fulfil.

So on Friday, Greg and I set off to Fukuoka on the kodama - the slowest of the shinkansen, which stops at all the stations en route. This was a money-saving measure as there was quite a big discount for buying our tickets together. Here I am at Hakata station in Fukuoka. Am I very small, or is the station very big?! (A brief break here for a bowl of Hakata ramen - a must for any visitor)

Greg, in fact, wasn't scheduled to play until Saturday, but we rather fancied the idea of arriving in plenty of time, and warming up on one of the courts at the tournament venue which has an idiosyncracy that can cause problems if you aren't used to it.

As much as I enjoy the squash, a big part of the weekend is meeting up with friends. Once we arrived at the sports club we hooked up with Richard who works in Tokyo, and Joakim who is based in Seoul at the moment - he was able to arrange a business trip to coincide with the tournament. The banter for the whole weekend was terrific!

Richard, Greg and I warmed up for an hour and a half, before checking into the conveniently situated hotel next door to the sports club, and having a bite to eat. Richard, Joakim and I then got ready for our first matches in the evening. Sadly Joakim had a very tough first match and lost. The only consolation was that the guy who beat him went on to have a very successful tournament (...until he played Greg in the Best 16 round!) Richard had no problem, and I was pleased with the way I played, and we advanced to the Best 32 round on Saturday morning. I finished in the Best 64 last year, so this was already an improvement, and my first goal for the weekend.

Interestingly on Saturday I played against the same player who beat me last year (Taro Sakamaki), so I was eager to have another shot at him. I thought I gave him a much better game this year, but unfortunately lost again. Nothing to do now but watch and chat!

Rchard kept winning until he came up against on of Japan's top juniors, Hayate Gunji, in the Best 8 round. He enjoyed his match, but Hayate prevailed. Greg meanwhile was marching on unhindered to the final on Sunday afternoon, where he triumphed over Hayate. (Here he is with his winner's medal!)

We had so much time to kill before our train home that I half-jokingly suggested to Greg that we have a game. He was all for it, so, much to the disbelief of the tournament organisers, we went back on court for almost an hour and did some practice routines, joined by Kazuko Michishita, one of the top ladies players in Japan. We got so involved that we ended up having to run for our train! The journey back allowed for some relaxing reflection on an enjoyable and, for Greg, very successful weekend.

If you are interested in learning more about the tournament, and seeing the full results, please follow this link - it's in Japanese!

http://www.squash-japan.org/jsa-event2010/archives/508

Azaleas at Ondo Bridge

Slightly later than I expected, but here, as promised in my last blog, are the famous azaleas at Ondo Bridge - the cause of many a traffic jam in and around Golden Week! On the far side of the bridge you can just about see the "multi-storey car park" approach road. As much as I like this bridge, I am looking forward to the convenience of the new one.

It will also mean that we won't have to plan alternative routes to get home when the azaleas are in bloom - the tailback from the bridge often stretches the three miles back to where we live. Hopefully we didn't add too much to the traffic congestion this day, as Kayo and I took advantage of some time without the children and went on my bike - the only way to travel at this time of year!

I've had this bike for over twelve years now and we made quite a few memorable trips on it before the children came along - Shimane, Tottori, Kobe, Shikoku... Having said that, I don't think Kayo has quite forgiven me for classing a bike trip to Kyushu and the the Oita Squash Open as our honeymoon... Apparently I still owe her one! There's just no pleasing some people...

The new Ondo Bridge

Not far from where we live is the Ondo Bridge, most notable, perhaps, for its multi-storey car park-like approach roads, and the fabulous azaleas that can be seen in full bloom in a week or two - I'll do my best to post a picture if we can beat the traffic and find a good vantage point!

As of today there is a new bridge which should eventually alleviate the traffic problem that the original bridge sometimes suffers from. The bridge won't be open for another couple of years, but today we got up (quite!) early to watch what I think is the largest floating crane in Japan lower the centre span of the bridge in place.

Fortunately one of my students lives within sight of the bridge, and we were able to park at her place and have a perfect view of what was going on.

I think work began at 5:30 this morning, and we watched the crane being hauled back to the dock at around 3 o'clock this afternoon. What struck me as the most extraordinary thing about the whole operation was the apparent pinpoint accuracy with which the crane was able to position the bridge. It looked like a tremendous team effort.

Now we are looking forward to the bridge opening. The new bridge will take us to a hot spring that we regularly go to, and the old one (visible in the background of the photograph) to the swimming pool... Cool!

Many thanks to my student, Hiromi, and her family for a great afternoon at their barbecue, from where we were able to watch the end of what I suppose is quite a historic event.

bus or bath?

One of my students told me that he had a bad back after playing basketball. At the end of the class we had this conversation:

Paul:　You should go home and have a bath.

Student: No, I came by car.

I think what he heard was, "You should go home by bus". Of course, we laughed about it, but it does show how important pronunciation is to your listening skills.

So, here is a challenge:

How many pronunciation differences are there between "bus" and "bath"? And what are they?

一人の生徒さんがレッスンの中でバスケットをしていて腰を痛めたという話をしてくれた。そして、英語のレッスンの終わりに私たちはこんな会話をした。

Paul:家に帰ってお風呂に入ったらいいよ。

生徒さん：いいえ、いいえ私は車で来ました。

彼にはたぶん「バスで家に帰った方がいいよ」と聞こえたのだろう。もちろん私たちは大笑いをした。でも、この中からリスニングの重要さがすごくよくわかる。

では、トライしてみてください：

「bus」と「bath」のこの二つの中でいくつ違う発音があるでしょう？そしてそれらは何がどう違いますか？

Pronunciation IS Important

I am always impressed by anyone who tries to communicate in a language that is not their own. In Japan most of the people I meet have to, or have had to, study English. The focus at school is very much on memorising pointless vocabulary and passing exams. Students are seldom required to produce any English.

It seems a shame to me that despite how much effort is expended in studying, so many people have difficulty communicating in English. It may well be that they have studied the grammar that a native English speaker is using, but because their listening skills are not very good, conversations often break down before they have started.

I firmly believe that good pronunciation will improve your listening and thus improve your ability to communicate.

外国語でコミュニケーションをとる人たちにいつも感動する。日本で私が過去あった人のほとんどが英語の勉強をしなくてはいけない、またはしてきた人だ。学校が焦点を当てているのはあまり要領を得ない語彙を記憶することと試験に合格すること。学生たちは英語というものを作り出すということはほとんどしない。

たくさんの時間を英語に費やしたにもかかわらずあまり効果が見られなず、結局多くの人がコミュニケーションをとる事を問題としているのは残念でしょうがない。たぶんネイティブスピーカーが使う文法はちゃんと勉強してきているのだと思うが、リスニングスキルがよくなくて、会話が始まる前に会話が進まない。

私は確固として、リスニングがよくあんればコミュニケーション能力が上がるものだと確信しています。