Curry Remedy

I came down with colds a few days ago, and so of course, I had a stuffy nose. To get some relief, I wanted to make soup. There were not a lot of ingredients I could choose from in the fridge, so I decided to try my luck on a Japanese curry mixture. 

I've always made my curry quite saucy and thick, but since I didn't have much left of the mixture, I made it light that time. I couldn't find any fresh vegetables in our fridge, so I sliced a piece of onion and put it in I didn't expect much from my curry soup, but lo and behold--it did the trick! It was quite delicious and cleared my stuffy nose almost immediately.

I was pleasantly surprised with the quick relief so I did some reading on the web. Curry is indeed a wonderful cure for a stuffed nose! It's because spicy food contain capsaicin, a chemical that causes inflammation in the nerves and increases the production of mucus in the nasal membranes. Spicy food will  basically make your nose run... which means you won't have a clogged nose!

I know they say that chicken soup is all you need when you've got colds or the flu, and in all fairness to the well-celebrated chicken, I did try making chicken soup the next day after my curry mixture ran out. But you know what? The curry soup did the job better. So I braved traffic and rain yesterday afternoon and went to the supermarket to buy more of my trusty curry mixture. Since my nose was especially stuffy tonight, I made this:

To make the soup, I used S&B Golden Curry Sauce (a Japanese curry mixture I discovered while I was in Japan and have been using ever since; this should be available at a local supermarket), put in some onions, tomatoes, and included a bell pepper because of its Vitamin C content (it has more Vitamin C that citrus fruits). To amp the heat factor, I sliced two cayenne peppers and added them in. And just because I love experimenting in the kitchen, I threw in a handful of whole wheat fusilli pasta and some Chinese cabbage as well.

I have to admit that the pasta did not quite fit (LOL), but the rest of the ingredients worked perfectly! I am now quite happy that I have finally found a remedy for annoying stuffed noses. This concoction does need a bit of courage if you are afraid of hot and spicy food, but do try it the next time you get a cold. It works wonders!

Read More

The Art of Ukiyo-e

The other day, someone finally said they liked the appearance of my blog. That comes as a huge relief to me because I literally spent days--like 2 or 3--looking for a blog theme that I liked. I self-hosted my own WordPress blog for the purpose of being able to fully customize its appearance, but when time came for me to pick an actual theme, I was totally confused. I think I browsed more than 500 themes, and tried on more than 30, before I finally decided on the current one. After I made up my mind about it, I further customized it to suit my preferences.

This theme is called Japan-Style. I don't know how fitting a Japanese theme is to me, but I guess it's not so far out, considering Japan is the only foreign country I've lived in. At first, I didn't care about whatever was in this theme. The important thing was that it appealed to me. Upon closer inspection, however, I realized that this was no common Japanese theme with sakura or geisha. It showcased the ancient Japanese art of ukiyo-e (I confirmed this with Annie).

Ukiyo-e, translated as "pictures of the floating world", is a genre of woodblock prints and paintings popularized in Edo (modern day Tokyo) between the 17th and 20th centuries. Woodblock prints were produced when an artist made an original drawing on ink, which would then be traced by an assistant and glued face-down to a block of wood. The wood would then be chiseled to follow the print and later inked, then pressed on to paper, sequentially and often repeatedly, to achieve the desired painting. It was a genre that became popular with the "regular people" of society, because they could be mass-produced and were cheaper than original paintings. The subject of ukiyo-e was originally the city life, especially scenes from the entertainment district. Other popular subjects were sumo wrestlers, courtesans, popular actors, and then later on, landscapes.

One of the most recognizable ukiyo-e is Katsushika Hokusai's The Great Wave Off Kanagawa (Kanagawa Oki Nami Ura).

One of the original types of ukiyo-e, a single-color painting by Hishikawa Moronobu.

A colored print depicting the Eijuan Tea House by Suzuki Harunobu, the artist who developed the technique of multi-color printing.

If you can see, my blog's background depicts a couple of fish--koi, to be exact, also known as carp in English. Another meaning of koi in Japanese is "love or affection", thus the koi is a symbol of love and friendship in Japan. And that, my friends, makes this theme so much more meaningful.

Read More

All Things Japanese

Okay.

Before that job recruitment last Saturday, I didn't want to work for EPSON. After all, I don't (or didn't) want to be a programmer. But after they presented their compensation package, well... I drooled! I don't exactly know how much their entrance pay is (they only told us it was above average),but their benefits are great! Plus, they have added incentives for people who can speak Japanese because EPSON is a Japanese company and they send people to Japan all the time. Isn't that just great for me? Also, their office is located in a swanky area in Cebu. Cebu! Not Manila! Perfect, huh? But... I still don't know what will happen to my application. I don't even know when I'll get the results.

I was pleasantly surprised with their exam, however. It was in 3 parts: a psychological exam, Numerical Reasoning, and Abstract Reasoning. For the first time in my life, I found the Numerical Reasoning section the easiest. That was a real surprise, considering how lazy I am with Math. The first part was not very good because there was a time limit, but the third part was, in my opinion, the most difficult. The crazy thing is, in all exams I've taken in the past, my highest scores are in English and Abstract Reasoning, even if I always find the latter part difficult. So, really, I have no idea how that exam turns out. Apparently, they'll just contact the people who qualify for the interview. Ohhh, I'll have to cross my fingers real tight. Just imagine how great it would be if you had a job waiting for you even before graduation!

Anyhow, Uchida Sensei and some Japanese girls from Ferris are in the Philippines right now. They came to my house last night, and we had lechon because Sensei really loves it. They also cooked Japanese food, which was really nice. They brought me Japanese foods that I missed, too! So I am ureshii.

Aya, one of the girls who was here as an exchange student last year, was with the group, and she gave me a copy of her pictures of Ferris. I wanted to share them with you...

So here are the pictures of my school when I was an exchange student in Japan--Ferris University, in Yokohama:

The main entrance.

One of the classrooms.

The swanky computer room.

My favorite rest room.
It's big, and the lights automatically turn off if there's no one in the room. Each stall also has a noise-emitting device so your neighbors won't hear whatever sounds you're making.
No kidding!

The multimedia section of the library.

And they even have a fitness gym now. Crazy, huh?

Anyway, if you know a Japanese, ask him/her about Ferris. He/She probably knows about it. It's seriously the most sophisticated "all-girls" university in the country. That's how lucky I am to have been given the opportunity to be there.

lechon - roasted whole, young pig
ureshii - Japanese term for happy

Read More

Whew.

Busy, busy, busy! But thank God it's finally over now!

Annie and myself all dressed up for hanabi

My friends and I went to hanabi last Saturday. Hanabi is the summer fireworks festival in Japan. We went to the one that was held in the water near Yamashita Park. Oh my God, there were so many poeple in the Yamashita Park/Minato Mirai area. I have never seen so many people in my entire life! There's supposed to be almost 500,000 people who go to that affair every year. Now, just imagine that number!

As expected, the fireworks were amazing. However, there was this big-ass ship docked right in front of where we were staying, so we couldn't see the fireworks leave the ground. That's ok, though, we could still see them up in the sky. Nevertheless, we kept on wishing that ship would just sink. :P We all wore a yukata to the hanabi, by the way (quite a number of Japanese people do that). :)

Saturday was also when Annie's parents arrived from the States. Her mom is gonna stay for two weeks, her dad, a week. I went to Kamakura and Enoshima with them yesterday, and they are two of the nicest people I have ever met!

The Great Buddha of Kamakura

It was my first time to go to Kamakura, and it was beautiful (don't ask me, I just didn't get the chance to go in the past). For those of you who don't know, Kamakura lies about 30 minutes in the south-west of Yokohama and was an old capital of Japan. It's where a huge Bronze statue of Buddha that was built in the 13th century stands to this day, withstanding a tidal wave that destroyed a temple surrounding it in the 15th century, and the Great Kanto quake of 1923 that only destroyed its base (that has been fixed and is now designed to make the Buddha just sway in case of another strong quake). We also went to the Hase Temple in Kamukura. It was just so beautiful with its amazing gardens, and the altars were so majestic.

Kaikōzan Jishōin Hase-dera, one of the great Buddhist temples in Kamakura

The sunset from Enoshima

After that, we went to Enoshima, a tiny rock of an island that lies south-west of Kamakura. It's connected to the main land by a long bridge. There were no beaches, but up at the top of the island, there's a shrine, and an observatory where you can see all around you. They have this sunset deck, and since we went there in the afternoon, we were able to catch the sunset at that place. What was more, just a little to the side of the sun setting was Mount Fuji. It was amazing.

Today, I had my oral exam in Japanese. We had it here at the dorm because we planned to have lunch together with our teacher, Ito Sensei. It was great having lunch with sensei. She's very nice and I'm so greatful for all the things she's done to help us with our stay here. I made adobo, April made a kinda Japanese rice, and our other classmate, a Chinese girl we call Shu-san, made a Chinese dish with eggplants. It was all good. I was so full afterwards. ^^;

And now, two weeks to go till we go home. What's next? Cleaning and packing. Ugh.

adobo - a Filipino dish cooked with meat that has been marinated in soy sauce and vinegar

yukata - summery, Japanese kimono made of cotton

Read More