Taiko, Tulips, and Three years!

This past weekend was Ricky and I's three year anniversary! We celebrated by going to festivals. On Saturday there was a Taiko drum festival in Narita. It was really cool, tons of different drum bands from all over the world playing in the streets all over the place. There were mostly taiko drums, but there were also some steel drums, and even some xylophones.


Sunday was the tulip festival here in Sakura. It celebrates the 300th year of the friendsip between Japan and Holland. Amsterdam and Sakura are sister cities so there is a big windmill here and the plant like 130,000 tulips. It is beautiful and you can dig up 6 tulips for 500円 (that is like $5). So we dun up some tulips and ate lot of fair food. Yummy yummy!

Hanami and Penis festival

So this weekend marks the end of the Sakura (cherry blossom) season in our area of Japan. The sakuras were beautiful and the weather has been beautiful! Last weekend I went with friends into Tokyo for some shopping and to see the sakura at Ueno park. We had a lovely day of Sakuras, swan boats, goldfish, and FEVER! (don't ask, we spent way too long in an arcade playing medal games:) Unfortuniately Ricky has to work on Saturdays so he missed all fun.

On Sunday we went to Yokohama for a the Kanamara Matsuri aka Penis festival. Apparently it is a shinto religious festival the is supposed to help with fertility. You can look it up on Wikipedia. It was a very interesting event. When we got there, there was a parade of groups of men and one group of transsexuals carrying giant penises down the street. Good weekend! more to come later

How to make okinamiyaki

Okinamiyaki is a Japanese "anyway-you-like-it" pancake. To make okinamiyaki you will need:

flour
water
egg
cabbage
green onion
carrots

and any other ingredients that you like. It can be made with seafood, pork, beef or even chicken.





Start by mixing a slurry of flour and water

Add your chosen ingredients. We like cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, onion, dried mini shrimp, shrimp (frozen is okay) green onion, and mushrooms.

Add an egg and mix it all together.

In a frying pan or an electric skillet make a thick "pancake".

Cook a few minuets on each side or until they are brown on both sides.

Top with okinamiyaki sauce (much like BBQ sauce), mayonnaise, fish flakes, and nori (seaweed) flakes.


EAT!