I found “chili con carne seasoning” at the store the other day. Chili is not very popular in Japan, especially in the countryside, and it had been so long since the last time Dave and I had chili. So we decided to try it. 先日スーパーで「チリコンカンシーズニング」を見つけました。初めて見た！ アメリカでは何度か食べたことがあるけれど、日本ではあまり一般的ではないですよね。特にこんな田舎で。久しぶりに食べてみようということになり、シーズニングを買ってみました。 I added green peppers and red peppers from our garden […]
Category: English blog
Fresh start! ブログ再開
Hi! I’m Dave’s wife and I will write about our daily life here in the countryside of Japan. We moved here 10 years ago, when our son was 5 month old. Dave had been wanting to grow his own rice, and that is the main reason why we moved here. We have a rice paddy […]
Black Swamp Art Festival
Last weekend was the first time for me to participate in the Wood County Invitational part of the Black Swamp Art Festival. Thank you very much to everyone, both those I already knew and those I met for the first time, for stopping in and saying hi. It was an enjoyable weekend, and hopefully I […]
Maple and gingko leaf bowls
I was able to finish everything on today’s must-do list fairly quickly and made time to add the leaf decoration to a number of bowls. Now that I have made a few already, I am getting used to the whole process, and although it still takes quite […]
Good to be home again
Thanks to all of the people who braved the cold weather and poor lighting to come see me in Toledo last weekend. It was not the greatest venue to depth of the beauty that lacquer offers, but it was a good chance to spread the word about this little known craft. I look forward seeing […]
Busy times and idle thoughts
November is over and what a busy month it turned out to be. I had planned a relatively relaxing month mainly of rough turning and getting the house ready for winter, but due to my cousin gratiously agreeing to appear at a local craft sales event next week, my plans were suddenly upended. It’s one […]
Early start to rough turning
Starting partially from last year, I am shifting to a new schedule where I do all my rough turning during the winter. This way I don’t have to worry about the wood starting to discolor to worse, so I can take my time without feeling rushed. My plan was to buy some wood at auction in […]
Using and making wood spatulas
I read a while back in a old book written by a master Japanese craftsman that lacquering truly becomes fun once a person becomes adept at using the wooden spatulas. In lacquer work they are used for a variety of tasks such as mixing pigments into the lacquer, cleaning the brushes and transfering lacquer from […]
Harvest is finally over
I beat the approaching rains and finished harvesting all of the rice today. It is a good feeling to have this behind me now. No more worrying about wild boars or typhoons or anything else until next May. Through my experience growing rice, I have developed a true respect for farming. No two years are […]
Open for business!
I have finished my final checks for the time being, and the online shop is now open for business! I am still getting used to designing the layout and pages, so I will likely be making some cosmetic changes here and there. However, for the most part, it should have all the basic information and […]