Super sunny saturday

It was blazing hot today.

The laundry all dried out so well!!!

And we find ourselves reaching for the aircon remote control very often.

But it IS the peak of summer and i am trying to just enjoy it and the superbly colourful vegetables and fruits it is bringing us.

Lunch today was cold soba

Tofu cream soba

Dinner was curry & salad and edamame to munch on

Beef curry with summer vegetables

corn & cheese rice

This is the first time i am using inka potatoes for curry and it was really yummy!!!

the chestnut colour flesh was really appetising to look at, and itself was sweet and creamy.

And the shape remained the same even after so much simmering in the shuttle chef.

The local farmers seem to be making a whole variety of potatoes and i can't wait to try the others too!

Benz?

An old lady who was at the farmers' mart shopping today commented that our pram is so luxurious. Like a benz.

?

haha

cute comment; she probably hasn't seen such sports prams before.

We had fish burger for dinner tonight.

In loco moco style

with lettuce, and tomatoes, a sunny-side-up and corn rice.

drizzled with demiglace sauce

and some baby star noodle snack to up our appetite on this hot evening

Edamame hanpen

It was soooooooooooooooooo hot today it was hard to finish dinner.

The rainy season is officially over as announced by the weather forecast.

The cicadas are creaking, and we are in for a few weeks of immense heat.

OUR 3rd month check up

H finally got his first immunisation jab today.

phew~ Guess who was the nervous one.

Furtheremore it was done at the end of the day, which means the butterflies in my tummy were fluttering for almost 3 hours.

The check up started with a briefing on weaning foods.

So we were taught what weaning foods were, how to prepare them, how they taste like through a tasting session.

Then, there was a session with the staff who checked up on how mother and child were doing.

Which really impressed me. I am so surprised that i am still cared for even at my baby's check up!

The very detailed questionaire made me realise that mummy's welfare is taken seriously here. Are you coping well? Do you have people to talk to if you need help? When baby cries, are you coping OK? On a usual day, what is your mood like? Are you enjoying yourself?, etc etc

I am honestly amazed.

Then after the doctor's clinic visit and immunisation, there was a round up session with the same staff again.

OK, all is good, but i am worried for you since you have no friends in Japan.

And she checked with all the other staff for me if they knew of any english speaking mothers at the moment. wow! she says she will make a note on our health card for a staff to call me up half a year later to check if i am doing well.

I felt so included today which is why i call it OUR 3rd month check up.

Dinner was simple traditional Japanese Western

Omurice (omelette rice)

with demiglace mushroom sauce

Kangkong salad

with light herb dressing

I am so into kangkong eaten as salad now. The natural sweetness and crunch is really refreshing in this hot summer. I have learnt to appreciate kangkong more too since we only get this for a short period each year. So even if i were craving yong tao foo in winter, i won't get kangkong. teehee

Our nice drive to the hospital

I drove the baby car out to the hospital today for our mama gathering.

And am so satisfied with the 3 wheel drive.

The pneumatic wheels really make a difference and of course being able to enjoy my outing without aching shoulders really lifted my mood.

What used to be a looooooooong walk (when H was still swimming in my tum tum), was a nice 20 min walk. =) i now wish mama gathering was weekly!

Dinner tonight was

Fresh tomatoes from the next door garden to munch on

Nikujaga

Japanese meat and potatoes stew

moloheya & natto sticky hitashi

I used Nasa kun (my shuttle chef's name) for the nikujaga and we were both soooooo satisfied with the superbly simmered beef and potatoes. As if it has been simmering for 2 days! And i only spent 15 minutes heating it up before putting it into its vacuum case.

Our nice afternoon nap together

The weather was sooooooooooooo good to sleep through the whole day cos of the rain.

It rained the whoooooooooole day since last night.

We took the pram out the first time in the rain and boy did the little fella love it! the rain cover over the pram made pitter patter sounds and i guess that amused him.

Well, i did catch up on sleep in the afternoon since i went caffeineless this morning. the 2 sleepyheads slept so nicely till that idiotic newspaper man came.

rang the doorbell, i answered, and he refused to answer me. =(

i refused to open the door.

why don't they just remember that I DON'T READ THE JAPANESE NEWPAPERS!!!

there are a few companies here and they come so many times a year thinking i will change my mind.

Dinner was

Edamame to munch on

Cabbage stew made with the char siew sauce

Grilled squids

bought from the supermart

These days i am learning to go a bit simpler with dinners cos i am getting exhausted really easily.

Another exhausting day

The little one has his new passport now.

A cool brand new navy blue one while his folks hold on to garish red ones.

We took him to collect his passport at the office in Tachikawa, and again i am exhausted from slinging him almost the whole day while shopping.

But, BUT, BUUUUUUUT i buttoned up my pre baby slim jeans today!!!

Which makes me soooooooooooooooooooo ELATED!!!

cos though i was so tired out, i went shopping in my nicey clothes just like the thousands of young mamas here. wheeeeeee~!

Dinner tonight was

Black bean and chicken simmer

finished with onions, mushrooms and tomatoes

garlic shoyu base

I don't know what genre of food this belongs to.

A fusion of America, Singaporean and Japanese i guess.

Grilled scallop fish cake

(bought from a Hokkaido fair at Takashimaya; grilled in the pan)

cucumber yukari salad

Quick quick H, you have to grow up quickly cos i now like the shopping are at Tachikawa so much, i want to take you out in that lightweight pram!!!

My new friend in the kitchen

The cicadas have started to call.

iii iii iii mii mii mii mii mii mii mii...

It is (almost) the peak of summer.

Lunch was

Nishin soba with an ice cold barley tea

Nishin is a shoyu simmered sardine which is commonly eaten with hot soba.

It's been quite some time since we last had a hot hot lunch.

Feels good too after all that perspiration.

Oh, and did i mention? I received a new toy from Okaasan yesterday.

Tada~!

My very own shuttle chef!!!

I made braised pork for dinner

Tomato shoyu & herbs braised pork

with lots of vegetables

Lalala cooking time was so short too!!!

It really was a breeze cooking this since i didn't have to use the gas stove much. Switching on the gas can up the humidity level in the already warm kitchen and it is tough to cook in summer. Well, and now with my schedule working around a little one, this shuttle chef is going to help so much since i don't have to watch the stove with this.

Out comes the claypot

The walk with the pram today was niiiiiiiice~

But H was awake the whole walk! so what usually was nap time in the sling became playtime.

Needless to say, he was exhausted by the time we came back.

While J and i were tired from setting up the pram and coping with the nervousness that came with using the pram for the first time. And super hungry too!

We had udon salad for lunch

The usual chilled noodles topping of chicken shreds, egg and cucumber strips, tomatoes, and some grilled mushrooms.

I was doing some rearranging of the pots and pans at home last night and wondered if i could do something with the claypot even in summer.

Well, we found fresh red snaper at the supermart today, and being saturday, as usual, it is tofu day, and we usually get a block.

So steamed fish and tofu in claypot was for mains today.

Steamed fish & tofu with mushrooms

garlic black bean sauce

The sauce was yummy!

All i did was pan fry chopped japanese leek, ginger and garlic black bean paste, mix some shoyu in, and drizzle over the filled claypot already bubbling with sake.

moloheya hitashi

Mixed vegetable pickles with kamaboko fish cake pieces

burdock miso & sakura prawns saute

We had our second chapter sleep this morning, which was super recharging.

I was sooooooooo exhausted this morning, it was impossible to get out of bed at our usual 7.30.

I wonder if H will join the sleep in on a saturday morning party or be the ready to get up and play type.

My very own 3 wheeler jogging pram!

We finally got our baby pram!!!

After searching so much online and thinking of even getting one from Australia while we are there, i FINALLY settled for this one.

I wanted a jogger pram so much but it is soooooooooooo tough looking for one here since it is not common to jog with a baby here. Plus, with the perpetually packed trains and buses here, it is impossible to take this when using public transport. But since we have a light weight stroller waiting to be used when H turns 7mths old, we can get another pram, whichever we like without worrying about it being unusable on train outings.

There are sooooooooo many types of 3 wheeler prams in the market now ever since Air Buggy made its debut here, but they are mostly prams which cannot be used for jogging. I am soooooooooooooooooooo elated i found one that has a lockable front wheel which allows me to jog with it!

TADA~

Arrived this morning after we placed the order on wednesday evening.

Fast eh?!

I can't wait to use it!

Today, i made my way to the immigration bureau to get my re-entry pass done.

=(

As usual, i get irritated each time i have to go there.

It is not exactly very near, so the train ride is long. The 2 long packed train rides are usually what drains me out. And when i reach the station, i have to hop onto the bus to get to this really rural area near the sea port.

Next, the place is always packed. AND VERY NOISY!!! For some reason, a lot of people there talk like they are quarreling all the time. And it gets onto my nerves.

The good thing, J was able to meet us at Shinjuku late afternoon before we head home, which lightened my mood. =)

I was way too tired to cook anything fancy, so guess what was for dinner?

Japanese curry and salad

Summer vegetableful pork curry

with miso based ginger pickles

Funny how i was itching like crazy after lunch.

probably the stress from going to that alien centre.

Now, after dinner, it has disappeared. I think i have a weird stress linked itch problem.

My new star system

Breastfeeding is not tough but yet it is so tiring.

Well, night feeds are of course tough because my head is heavy. But day feeds are sometimes tough too cos i have so many things on my to-do list, and feeding takes time at the breast compared to the bottle. So sometimes i get pretty stressed when i know feeding time is nearing.

But when he latches on, i feel at ease cos i know he is comforted by it. So to prevent me from giving up too soon, i have decided to encourage myself by counting the number of days i have been breastfeeding! Like how i used to receive star stickers in school, this is my star system now on the blog. Let's see how long i can hang on.

Today i saw this at the farmers' mart and though i know it is crazy to lug this big branch home with a baby in the sling, it was irresistable.

Fresh edamame with the branches plus leaves too!!!

Yeah, i don't know why but i go gah gah when i see vegetable plants.

Dinner tonight was

Inari sushi

soba version, daikon leaves version, and plain sushi rice version

Pumpkin and corn salt simmer

Green peppers and maitake mushrooms stir fry with yuzupeppers

These green peppers are called shishito and are a slimmer version of the green capsicum. They look like green chillies with plenty of seeds in there too, but are not spicy at all, tasting exactly like capsicums. But the skins are so thin, i don't have to stir fry them for long. I guess green chillies, green capsicums and shishito come from the same family.

where are all the mamas?

Happily i made my way to the hospital today for the mama gathering i have been looking forward to. But when the elavator doors opened. Eh? Nobody's around.

Then i whipped out my calendar and checked. today is wednesday. and last week, there was no gathering, so there should be one today?

Wrong.

It is supposed to be the 2nd and 4th wednesday of each month and last wednesday was still a day in June!!! Blur head me.

Well, it was a good walk though since it was a cool 27degC today. Dropped by the church and the shopping centre before making my way back with terrible shoulder ache.

I was super hungry today, but dinner was simple since we still have more charsiew in stock.

RAMEN~

and edamame to nibble on after dinner

with spicy miso dip sauce

This sauce had a flavour that was OH SO NOSTALGIC!

It reminds me of the fermented beancurd that i love with my porridge!

J says i am crazy. cos he thinks it is smelly tofu. But nonononono this is really tasty and if you think about it, it tastes like miso since miso is fermented too!!!

oh dear i am now sooooooooooooo craving this, so please, anyone out there, if you are coming to tokyo, bring a bottle for me pleeeeeeeeeeeeease!!!

first aircon switch on this summer

I am starting to need the aircon.

And for the first time this summer, i am using it in the hot stuffy afternoon.

It is soooooooooo addictive.

Dinner tonight was

Japanese charsiew, long broccoli sprouts and giant mini carrots

hijiki salad

Tomatoes i bought from the garden next door

It is not even mid summer yet but it is already a hot 31degC everyday.

A baby in the sling

The more baby prams i search for, more n more types catch my attention and now my list to choose from is long. my head is really spinning.

Today at the farmers' mart, there was an old lady who asked, " Is that a baby in there?" pointing to the little bump i was carrying in my sling.

Apparently, the baby sling is a new idea here cos this was not the first time i was asked this question by old ladies. Even the middle aged lady cashier at the farmers' mart said "oh, i saw this on TV before." What the Southeast asians have been using for ages, i have been taking for granted.

Today i finally got to making mapo eggplants!

I don't exactly like the ingredients in mapo sauce.

minced garlic, ginger and chopped leek.

means lots of chopping, and smelly fingers after cooking.

But oh man, eggplants are so in season now and those spices in the mapo sauce are good for pepping us up on hot summer evenings, so i just had to do it.

Tonight's dinner

Besides the vegetable egg soup,

Mapo eggplant

Kangkong hitashi

Hitashi is a vegetable dish simply blanched, drizzled with shoyu and topped with bonito flakes, and can be done with any vegetable. Very common on the japanese dinner table.

soft beancurd skins salad with crunchy anchovies and nori

I still can't decide which baby jogging stroller i want.

The usual indecisive gemini me wishes for some decisiveness!

Somen for summer

I remember loving meesua as a child, and this summer, i am discovering how meesua is really tasty when eaten in japanese style cold too. Easy to digest, fast to finish!

We had it for lunch today

Somen salad with chicken and lettuce and tomato cubes

with sesame sauce

Dinner was stamina boosting again, with

peanut & lotus root soup (with lots of garlic!)

Simmered fish

natto sticky salad

Sour plum simmered horse makerel

found a tiny baby fish that it swallowed while i was preparing the fish,

tossed that into the pot too

Sticky natto salad with okra and daikon pickles

One of our all time favourite peanut soup

End of dinner

(Only J manages to do this all the time)

It's been 3 months since i last used the bath tub, and since J was kind enough to scrub up the whole tub yesterday, it was so clean and welcoming, i just had to have a hot dip today.

hehe even in summer, it feeeeeeeeeeels soooooooooo good.