ingrid

My sister Anne and I share many interests; composting, growing things, running (sometimes), art and fabric, weird exhibitions of language and learning, and bitching about why people can’t get their shit together.  For me, perhaps one of the most fun and surprising of our shared interests is our enthusiasm for eating…. most anything.  My most recent trip to Kobe was a great opportunity to indulge our shared love of good and pretty simple food.

When I first met up with Anne right off the plane, she had a long list of “things we would eat”.  Whereas many travelers might arrange their week around things to see, our week was shaping up to incorporate “the best sushi in this little shop”, “okonomiyaki that this old woman makes near my house”, and food on sticks in China town and at a little alley yakatori.

First stop after dropping off my wet luggage at her place was okonomiyaki, a fried pancake of egg & vegetables topped with sauciness.  I think they usually have meat in them, but Anne has hers “like the monks”, which essentially means vegetarian.  It was full of those long stringy mushrooms which I think would have been better if they were of a larger, less ropey variety.  Anne eschews meat, but admits she is a sucker for mayonnaise, an ingredient I have something of a weakness for to.  The whole thing was great!  The shop that she took me to was charming—an old woman worked over a grill in front of us so we were able to watch her creation while drinking super cold beers.  Anne kept up a comfortable banter in Japanese with the owners and I felt like a bit of a superstar to get to be eating okonomiyaki in a tiny hole-in-the-wall in Japan.

4 Comments | In: family, food, on the road again | | #

Actually I don’t always feel that way and neither do my kids, but today it is all stars for me.  We are taking off on our annual trip to Ashland to “get culture”, and I figured that as I hate driving anyway, how about taking the train the first leg to Eugene and letting Brad schlep his way down the freeway in the car tomorrow after work?  Viola!  Kids are beside themselves with happiness.  Now all I have to do is get ready for a big trip a day earlier, but hey— I also get to get out of here a day earlier!  And I figure this might be a bit like wedding planning—-if you give yourselves 2 years for planning, you are seriously going to RUIN that 2 years.  Better to get it all over with.

So off we go to Ashland via Amtrak Cascades.  We’re pulling into Eugene and my sister’s house at about 9 pm tonight.  If I am really organized, the kids will have a nutritious picnic dinner on the train.  If I am not, $6 corndogs in the dining car everyone!  Either way, I am about breaking my arm patting myself on the back.

Have a great week!  I’ll be back next Monday or so with all new tales to tell (and a wrap up on Japan—-sorry!).

4 Comments | In: My super freakin' cute kids, The Arts, family, on the road again | | #

I went to the informational meeting for the coop hosts for the Tour de Coops and oh-my-holy-Jesus, these people are intense!  I had considered getting the chicken coop all prettied up for the tour, but it hadn’t occurred to me that really these people are gardeners—intense, crazy gardeners.  They are going to care about things like my invasive species and such, and my wilted and dying basil, and my patch that was suppose to be cauliflower but is actually some crazy chrysanthemum that seems to spread wildly all over my yard.  And what with my trip to Ashland next week (poor me!), I only have 9 days to get the entire yard totally whipped into shape and ready to be oooed and ahhhed at.  I’m a bit stressed out about this.

The tour is going to be fun though.  The organizers said that we should expect between 300 and 500 people to come visit our yard.  With that many feet, maybe I should make a path right through the invasive ivy.  They could trample it to death, right?  The previous owners of this house were great believers in plants that spread, so most of my work these days is ripping out, not putting in.  I picked up an invasive weed pamphlet up on the Wildwood trail and saw not one but five weeds that are in residence in my yard (blackberry, ivy, pokeweed, morning glory, and old man’s beard or clematis).  That isn’t even counting spearmint, which perhaps is not invasive but still makes me do battle yearly pushing it back so that I don’t have an entire yard of cocktail garnish.

To be fair, my yard is better every year.  Sometimes it is even pretty.  I’m thinking that if I can pace myself over the next couple weeks I can arrive at something lovely in time for the tour.  I’ll let you know!

2 Comments | In: Environment, chickens, projects, urban farming | | #

Devoted fans, I am hearing that you are not intrigued by the bus ride into Kobe.  Why not?  Public transit and what we can see from our windows is deeply philosophical.  I encourage you to consider these moments more deeply.

But more about Japan.  I had a few small goals for my time there:

1)  Bond with the sister.  Get the dirt on her life straight from the source.  Take advantage of the time she remains in Japan to get a free tour guide.  Check out her apartment, neighborhood, the school where she teaches— just see and touch the everyday things that she sees and touches.

2)  Eat super good food.  I like Japanese food for both its flavor and aesthetic.  I am an adventurous eater, so I wanted to try as many wonderful things as possible.

3)  Run a bit.  See if I could still pull off 4 to 6 miles in preparation for the 5K I was to run in Willamina on the 4th of July.

I guess I am a bit embarrassed to say that I didn’t feel any need to see many historical or culturally significant sights.  It isn’t so much that I didn’t want to, it is more that I felt no need to seek them out.  I figured they would come to me when they were good and ready.  Is it bad?  When I travel, I prefer to plan very little about what I will do, learn little or nothing about the place, and just sort of plunge in and experience things.  I like to be ignorant and unprepared, but with my eyes and ears wide open, and my feet flexible and ready to wander miles to check out the lay of the land.  Granted, it is sort of a stupid way to travel sometimes, and it has resulted in some really miserable situations, but I pride myself in being unfailingly cheery in the worst of situations, so it seems to work for me.  No one else might want to go with me, but it is my most natural way.

Following my hobo heart, I got off the bus in downtown Sannomiya Kobe 2 hours early in a massive downpour, wearing just a sweater and cap to protect against the rain.  It turns out that the Japanese love their umbrellas–something that Portlanders, even in the rain don’t seem to possess.  I figured that I could sit out the deluge in a tea shop, but I didn’t have any money because I figured I would find an ATM once in Japan.  I was carrying heavy bags full of too many pairs of shoes (a weakness of mine), huge hardback books, and a couple extra pounds of coffee and chocolate as gifts.  My number one priority was to find money, make change, plop my 30 pounds of chocolate and coffee and shoes in a coin locker at the station and find a place to wait.  Instead, tired, penniless, and conspicuously western, I wandered around in circles in the rain toting my huge bag, and looking for an ATM that would take my foreign bankcard.  Five ATMs later, I learned something new—you need to bring cash to Japan.  Preferably Japanese cash.  Who knew?!

Midway in my wanderings, I hopped under this temple tucked in between two huge office buildings just to get out of the rain.  I considered sitting down right there in front of the altar, but that seemed tacky.

Japan is so fascinating in its conjunction of the old and the new.

I did find a lovely lady (God Bless her!) who drew me a detailed map of where to find a “foreign ATM”.  Once there, I came smack up against my ignorance again when it was time to select the amount that I wanted to withdraw.  I had no clue as to the exchange rate.  What should I take out?  100,000 yen?  5000 yen?  Or just 2500?  What amount would be acceptable to pull out at the tea shop while making it clear that I only wanted tea, not to become an investing partner?  And what amount would not make Brad back in Oregon gasp too loudly while checking our online banking?  And WOA!  Which button do I press to show I accept the charges?  It looks like a little gate and a squiggle and then a slash and oh my eyes are blurring!

You’ll be pleased to know that I figured it out.  I got out a decent amount, (it turned out to be about $50 USD), and found a dry tea shop that didn’t look too hoity-toity for my disheveled self.

Stay tuned for EAT SUPER GOOD FOOD!

2 Comments | In: on the road again | | #

Sorry I haven’t posted for a bit.  I am recovering, kind of slowly I might add.  Something about returning on a serious red-eye and going straight back to the needs of clamoring children plus a big old house to pull together makes for, well, tiredness.  Returning from Japan was sort of bittersweet.  I missed Brad and the kids of course.  I didn’t miss the laundry.  I didn’t miss keeping the refrigerator stocked.  Or the construction dust that covers every surface around our house right now.  Or waking up to no milk for my coffee.  Time out for some self-talk—-(Stay positive.  Quit bitching!)  Okay!  So I am glad to be back!  And all the things I just named can only predicate MORE TRIPS, so what is so bad about that?

Kobe, where my dear sister is living, is an interesting little corner of the planet.  Osaka/Kobe itself is not a gorgeous place.  It has some nice elements like the way that the city nestles in between the mountains and the ocean.  It is clean and orderly.  The hills are green and the ocean is wild and lovely.  Coming in from the airport is a trip though!  I couldn’t figure out if it was just the efficiency of a port area, good zoning, or if I should be incredibly depressed with the consumerism that fuels so much industry, because all you see for the first hour on the bus in from Kansai International airport is just warehouses, docks, and manufacturing for miles and miles and miles.

These two photos are actually sort of charming, but I truly saw electrical plants the size of cities.  And no actual housing to be seen for miles and miles.  Is this good or bad?  I guess it is good.  Keep all the ugly stuff that keeps society going in one place…and yet to see it all in one place is sort of depressing.  Some of the factories looked like sets from apocalyptic movies.

Oh dear.  I’ve run out of time.  I have to get to chores around here.  Today is the day to run stuff to proper recycling places: namely, Free Geek and Rebuilding Center.  Stay tuned for Japan Rocks the Asian Continent Part 2!

2 Comments | In: Environment, General bitchin', on the road again | | #

I can’t seem to quit waking up at 6am.  It’s ironic too as I sort of expected that coming to Japan would allow me all this excellent, unbroken sleep.  Anne asked me the other day if the kids slept through the night and I didn’t really know what to say.  I mean, technically, everyone sleeps through the night, but when you take the combined needs of three small children, I would say that I wake up from 2 to 3 times all together.  Inez drops her comfort object (the lamb) out of the crib and cries like someone has died (or wandered off as the case may be), Zephyr wakes all distraught and confused because he needs to go to the bathroom, Francis THINKS she has wet her bed (I swear this has happened 5 times where she comes crying to me because she has wet her bed and I truly can not find where the sheet is wet).  Last week Zephyr went into a crazy fit seemingly running into the closet. When I picked him up to comfort him, I seriously got peed on.  The guy was trying to find the bathroom and wasn’t awake enough to pick the right door. All told, I can’t remember the last full night of sleep.  And now I am here in Japan where I should be able to make it from 11pm to 8 or so, and I am waking up ready to go at 6am. Oh well.  The body clock is mysterious.

Anne and I had a fun day yesterday eating street food in China town and then going to her school for a few classes.  She had students interview me, which was fun but sort of exhausting. I am sure that she feels this way at the end of the day—-listening so hard and trying to understand another person is super tiring.  Last night we ate fantastic sushi at this tiny little hole in the wall place.  Then we hoofed it up the hill to her friend’s place.  Japanese people are funny socially.  It isn’t so strange to me that they are excited about drinking, but man, they sit down to drink and go for both quantity and variation of alcohol.  Twice now I have ended up at parties where people have just continued opening bottles of wide-ranging beverages, none of which are water.  Last night it was beer, then shoju, then wine, “where’s that sake?”…I can’t do that.  That is a sure recipe for sick, sick, sick.  I was handed a glass of wine and I gasped, “Oh no, I CAN’T!”, which was confusing to my hostess.  ”Can’t?” she asked.  Yes, can’t.

Today we go for a run with Anne’s American girlfriend, then hopefully to the onsen by the beach.  I am campaigning for massages as I am still totally creaky from the plane ride and just generally being old.  After Anne finishes teaching, we hop a train to Kyoto where we are staying at a monastery. I can’t wait.

Well it is now officially morning as the crossing guard who stand below Anne’s window has started his chorus of “Oh-hi-o!” to the children on their way to school.  Anne had told me that kids go by her window every morning, and I had at first thought that sounded charming.  They are LOUD though.  Who knew that Japanese elementary kids could yell so loud?  Besides the kids’ “Azakabaaaaaaakkarisoooooon!” (just a word I made up), the crossing guard keeps up a steady stream of greetings.  This dude is cheerful…and a little repetitive.  I think Anne will miss waking up to him when she leaves Japan.  I won’t though.

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On the Shin Kobe Ropeway

You know how sometimes you have to ditch the husband and kids and just take off for foreign countries?  Well, that is how awesome I am.

I’m in Kobe Japan with my sister Anne… I traveled all by myself and it is awesome.  Anne has been here for a year and a half and I knew I needed to get over to see her life while she was still living it in this locale.  This was the right time to go, while the kids didn’t have much going on and could safely be sequestered at their grandparents’ houses (Thanks Mom and Dad & Dennis and Sue!).  I have had some pangs of guilt, but not many when I think of them having the time of their lives being all spoiled and entertained in the country.  Inez is probably being licked by a dog right now.  Scratch that.  It’s 1 am Oregon time, so that baby had better be sleeping!

Anyway, I don’t intend to be updating this blog much while I am here, but I did want to let people know where I am.  Eating awesome food!  Chatting non-stop with my little sister!  Going running with Kobe Hash Hound Harriers!  In Freakin’ Japan!

In the herb gardens at the top of the rope way

7 Comments | In: Awesome!, family, on the road again | | #

Okay, so this is Parmeter.net, so maybe it is a bit self-serving to devote a blog entry to this, but I do just need to tell you all about how talented my uncle is (and YOUR uncle is if I have an adequate grasp of the bulk of my readership).  Yes, Rick Parmeter is good at what he does, and as I live in a house that has millions of problems needing to be solved with finesse and cleverness, I am a big fan of a craftsman who can solve them.  He thinks through things in a very interesting way that manages to be thorough and yet fluid, practical and yet still creative.  He is picky with details and yet open to different ways to solve problems.  Here is the reading nook that he created under our stairs in the basement:

Where once there was chaos and cardboard boxes stacked in dusty piles, now there is something pretty…. with storage space!  Victory!  We spend a lot of time here now.

Another Uncle Rick creation is poised and ready to go.  The bathroom isn’t quite done yet, but the cabinets for it sit in the dining room, preparing themselves to launch into their new and long-lived service.  (They have sat in a corner of our dining room for over a year because we weren’t really ready to start the actual remodel.)  Will I miss them from that corner?  Not really.

Next up is the stairs to the basement.  Everything is so nice down there, but the entryway is not.  It hasn’t helped that we knew we would replace them and sort of purposely abused them.  (“Don’t bother putting down that paint drop cloth!”  ”Don’t worry about the stairs!  They can be ripped up!”).  They look really bad next to the daybed nook, but Rick is on it!  Here is a view I will not miss:

Can’t wait to show you what he’ll come up with!

6 Comments | In: Awesome!, family, projects | | #

How about you?

Maybe it is the morbid in me, but I simply love these boney folks from Mexico.  They make me smile, and I guess it is as simple as that.

1 Comment | In: Awesome! | | #

The coop is looking pretty nice.  The girls (chicken variety) and I are gearing up for a week or so of elementary school visits.  I sent a cute little flier to the teachers at a nearby school advertising our willingness to host students.  I figured that what with being walking distance from school, we were the perfect end-of-the-year field trip.  And chickens are a perfect study in social groups, sustainability, and compost, not to mention how pretty and funny they are.  I can think of  a million art and writing activities for chickens, (FOR kids, I mean, WITH chickens).  So far we have two classes slated to make the visit.  I only wish that it wasn’t so wet and dreary out.  Nothing like a rainy day to bring the gross elements out in a chicken run… I am talking about wet poop sitting in the mud of course.  Oh well.  I will just throw some straw around and hope that covers it a bit.

I didn’t do many art projects this week, but I did finish the board of glory— a ceramic chicken for each hen (and the one rooster) who has passed through our yard.  How many are up there?  11!  All of them have their names stamped on the side and an attempt at depicting their size and coloring.  This is a quickie project, so the results were sort of a mixed bag.  Some glazes were right on and others left something to be desired.  The important thing for me at this point is that I have caught up.  Now if no one dies or we don’t add any new hens, I can relax for awhile.

3 Comments | In: chickens, projects | | #