Sayonara USS Kitty Hawk!





























Today, the USS Kitty Hawk left Yokosuka, Japan forever. Here's a photo of it "turning the corner" (literally and figuratively) as it speeds past our neighborhood and leaves Tokyo Bay.

It's on its way back to the States to be decommissioned after more than 47 years of service. The USS George Washington, a nuclear powered carrier, is on its way in the next few months to Yokosuka to replace it as the nation's only permanently forward deployed carrier.

Although Brian's on a shore command at USNH, I enjoyed witnessing a little bit of American history as it happens halfway around the world. If you're wondering what it must be like living on a ship this size for months at a time, check out the great PBS documentary series "Carrier," which you can watch online.

Cooking With Keiko

Lesson One: Tamago-yaki

About a month ago, my friend Keiko offered to give me lessons on how to cook Japanese foods. Her co-worker Sumiko, our other friend Noriko, and she came over last week and brought all of the essential ingredients to make tamago-yaki. It is a sweet, egg omelet that is often served over rice as bite size nigiri sushi.

Here's Sydney's version of it (on the red plate) and all the pieces to her Hello Kitty sushi set. (There's velcro between the rice and the fish and there's even velcro between the rolls so she can cut them. Yes, I bought this more for me than her, although she likes some sushi.)

So, Keiko brought her special frying pan needed to make tamago-yaki, bonito flakes to make dashi (a Japanese fish broth essential to all Japanese foods), and also supplied the proper light colored soy sauce for seasoning.

What was funny to me is that she also brought a small metal bowl ("because everything American is big"), a spatula, and vegetable oil, I guess thinking I wouldn't have these things.

What's even more funny is that--probably because Japanese women are very meticulous housekeepers--she even brought her own roll of paper towels! Since she's seen my house many times, it is likely she assumes I must not use paper towels or my house would be cleaner! The sad thing is I spend the better part of an entire day cleaning up before she comes over and the remaining part of the day trying to keep the kids and dog from undoing it all.

Here are the steps we took to make tamago-yaki:

1) First we made a simple dashi by putting a handful of bonito flakes into boiling water for a few minutes. Then we let it cool off for several minutes.

2) Next, we beat 3 eggs with a small wire whisk ("yes, it's American," I told them). In a measuring cup, we added some seasonings to include 1 teaspoon of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of sake that I happened to have open in the fridge, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and a little salt. Then we poured enough dashi to make about 100 mL of liquid (slightly less than 1/2 cup). We poured our liquid into the eggs and whisked until combined.

3) Next we heated the special frying pan and poured a little vegetable oil into it. We poured about 1/4 of the egg into the pan, or until the egg covers the pan slightly beyond the upward curve of the frying pan. We scrambled the egg slightly and once solid enough, we began to roll the egg into an omelet.

4) We then pushed the omelet roll all the way to the end of the pan (farthest away from the handle) toward the upward curve of the frying pan to let it rest a minute. Then in the same pan, we added another 1/4 of the egg mixture to cover the length of the pan. After scrambling a bit, we lifted the 1st omelet roll up to allow the liquid egg to cook, therefore, fusing to the original omelet. Then we rolled the 1st omelet roll over the 2nd egg omelet, making a larger egg omelet roll--our finished product. (Repeat steps 3 and 4 to make two rolled tamago-yaki.)

5) If the omelet turns out a little misshapen, you can cheat like we did and place it in a bamboo roll and cover with saran wrap for a few minutes (if eaten warm) or store in the refrigerator overnight before serving chilled.

6) Unwrap, slice and eat or place over sushi rice. Oishi!

We're all "Supertasters"!

Well, technically Ami was the only real supertaster among us. This she knows from her R&D work at McCormick. The rest of us just ate a lot. Here are a few Japanese foods and drinks Pete and Ami tried during their visit:

Sushi
Sake
Ramen
"Waffle bites"
Yakiniku
Chu-hi
"A Candied Kyoho Grape on a Stick"
Tsukiji fish market sushi
Tako (octopus) balls
Izakaya (pub food)
Okonomiyaki
Yakitori
Miso soup
"Cold Tofu"
Green Tea Ice Cream
Yuzu Ice Cream
Yuzu honey
Anpan
Mochi
Tempura
Japanese curry
Yuba
Fried Oysters
And everyone's favorite: Natto!

Konnichiwa and Arigato...

When in doubt, use whichever comes to mind. That's what Pete did when he and Ami visited us.

They've since gone home, but Sydney still asks me, "Where's Crazy Pete?!"

We had a great visit with Pete and Ami. (I went to high school with Pete in Trumbull, CT, and Brian went to college with Pete at Bates in Maine. Then Pete introduced us and the rest is his fault, I mean, history!)

Before their trip to visit us in Japan, of course we warned our friends that traveling around with two small children might brand their trip "once-in-a-lifetime" for other (negative) reasons. But they were willing to take the good (our arranging for them to see 6 Japanese cities in 13 days and the chance to try more than 20 different Japanese foods), with the bad (them hauling extra weight occasionally and stopping for diaper changes and temper tantrums).

As soon as Pete and Ami arrived, we hit the ground running. After one quick night in Yokosuka (city #1) at our house, we whisked them away to Tokyo (city #2) and stayed two nights at the military New Sanno Hotel.

We ventured out first to the Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo on a Sunday afternoon, which is a real hangout for young fashion enthusiasts, particularly those sporting "Little Bo Peep" attire. (I have no idea why.) And also men wishing they were Elvis reincarnated.

Near this area, (and not far from Takeshita Street, which generated a few chuckles), is Tokyo's most famous shrine, Meiji Jinga Shrine. It was here that we first suspected Pete and Ami might have different agendas in Japan, particularly Kyoto--which is known for its many shrines and temples. Pete said, after a mere minute of looking at the shrine, "Okay, it's a shrine," and was ready to move on...

So, move on we did. To a temple! After a quick whiz through the Tsukiji fish market and Ginza, we visited Asakusa Kannon Temple. I convinced Pete it was worth stopping for some "holy smoke" to cure his aching knees and feet, since it seems to have worked for me. Of course, maybe it's because I've had three prior doses of holy smoke in nearly two years.




There was plenty of eating and shopping along the way. We learned early on if we incorporated enough snacks ("waffle bites," octopus balls, green tea or yuzu ice cream, sweet bean paste filled mochi, to name a few), shopping, and even playgrounds in between sights, everyone was happy. We all have an inner two year old.

From Tokyo, we drove to Nikko (city #3), which is about 3 hours northwest of Yokosuka. We stayed two nights at the Japanese-style Annex Turtle Inn (a ryokan) in this mountain town, which is famous for several historical shrines and temples (uh oh!) as well as beautiful scenery. We spent the first part of our trip climbing up the hill of shrines within walking distance of our hotel. We saw the Sacred Bridge (Shinkyo), the Toshogu shrine, the Futarasan-jinja shrine and the Rinnoji temple.

Hey, hey, we're the monkeys! Not those monkeys. In the Shinkyusha (sacred stable), for the horses serving god, there is a series of 8 carved boards on which the life of a monkey is illustrated, from birth to pregnancy, caricaturing human life. One of the sculptures, the "Three Monkeys", is famous throughout the world for the "see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil" poses. The carved monkeys covering their eyes, ears and mouth, respectively, were inspired by the Buddhist teaching that if we do not hear, see or speak evil, we ourselves shall be spared from evil, and the theme was chosen here in the belief that the monkeys would protect the horses from disease.

We spent the afternoon in the Chuzenji Lake area. To get there, we took a 40-minute bus ride up a mountain on a winding one-way road. We explored the lake area and enjoyed visiting Kegon Falls, which required taking an elevator through bedrock to reach the observation deck for viewing this famous waterfall. Then, running low on energy and time, we unloaded both kids on Pete and Ami and returned back to Nikko to have dinner, drink sake, and try out the onsen (natural hot springs bath) at the ryokan.

Our last morning in Nikko we took a very scenic walk along the river right outside our ryokan. Then we packed up and set out by car to find a glass blowing studio on our way out of town. It was a miracle we found it, thanks to Pete's free-spirited, wishful thinking and Brian's expert ability to drive and "read" Japanese signs at the same time. Good thing, because now we have a mismatched set of two very expensive sake glasses that we haven't used yet; they're sitting right next to the Kiyomizuyaki sake set we haven't used from our trip to Kyoto a year and a half ago.

Once back home in Yokosuka, we didn't stay long before heading by 20-minute train ride to Kamakura (city #4), despite the rain. We saw the Great Buddha, of course. (We even saw two cute bumble bees buzzing around in the rain! See photo.) Then we barely visited Hachimangu Shrine, so Ami and I stayed longer to shop while the guys took the kids home and cooked dinner--our consolation prize for not seeing any other shrines in Kamakura. No problem, I've already seen them and you can never have too much yuzu honey and yuzu chu, which we stocked up on. We also visited Reiko's new store, where Ami bought two adorable little purses made from vintage kimonos and obis. I would've bought one if any of them would have held my cell phone, two diapers and a pack of wipes.

After a week with us in training, we then sent Pete and Ami on their own to visit Kyoto (city #5) and Hiroshima (city #6) for two nights each. They were armed with Pasmo cards, maps and information. But the only Japanese words they had acquired in a week were "konnichiwa" (hello) and "arigato" (thank you), which seriously Pete often used interchangably. We all got a couple of good laughs when he said "hello" as he exited the bus one day, and "thank you" after bumping into a pretty woman in a restaurant another day. So, we were nervous about sending them both out into Japan alone with only a week of orientation and no cell phone for emergencies. But they actually came back and taught us a thing or two about Japan! Lest we forget, we are all gaijin here.

See the photo gallery for more pictures of Pete and Ami in Tokyo and Nikko!