i spent 2 hours today simmering hard-boiled eggs with cracked shells in tea and soy sauce. the result is really pretty, and taste very much like egg. i actually have no idea how tea eggs should taste like, but the eggs are so fun to look at that the taste is quite secondary.
i’m intending to serve up these eggs at a farewell pot-luck party on thursday. many of the jets are leaving this season. while i’m not particularly close to the jet community, there are a few people i will miss. in japan, the whole 出会いと別れ thing is particularly pronounced. perhaps it’s a part of their culture, perhaps it’s the situation i’m in. but i can’t help feeling that i’ve said goodbye a thousand times. and i’m not the person leaving this time.
the rainy season is not over yet and real summer is about 10 days overdue. it is not the i don’t appreciate the prolonged cooler weather. and i’ve always liked rain, the smell, the sound and how a rainy day can make me feel mellow and relaxed to the point of sleepy. but here in japan, i am coming up with new word associations for rainy days. and one of them, is itchy.
and she made this herself! isn’t it amazing? my fabric is kinda brownish with blue threads running through it. jay bought two. a dark-grey-good-for-all-occasions piece, and a very japanese-dark-blue-hakama-lookalike one with subtle white stripes. nozomi’s was a really soft beige colour, perfect for tie pants.
i wish i knew where to start when it comes to being crafty and all. but according to the random wisdom that gmail sometimes generates, the very apt advice of this morning went something like “the best way to do something, is to do it.”
on another note, i think i am pretty much in a どうでもいい phase right now. i can only do what i can do, as best as i know how. and since the rest is really not within my control, i shouldn’t need to worry about it.
the photo above is courtesy of inas. you can see more of her works at rebites.blogspot.com
when we saw ines, the new portuguese artist of nishi aizu, and the cool tie-pants she made from traditional japanese woven fabric, we all wanted one. inas offered to make them for us if we bought the fabric. and for payment, we would give her the rest of the fabric so she could make new pants for herself! how cool is that?
so jay, megu, nozomi and i went fabric choosing and were also shown the really old machines, supposedly more than a hundred years old, which made them. it was amazing.
then we drove down to where inas is living with another fellow portuguese artist. an old elementary school building, no longer used for that purpose, in the rural countryside. i saw her art works and they were so pretty.
dinner was yaki udon and avocado mousse.
i feel so inspired. and i guess it is a really good start.
and this time, with a little less double-guessing, a bit more doing and a whole lot more believing.
will slowly work out the details for this site, my pace.
