Tag Archives: tsuchida cottage

Diary: arborist test, sumo, salad + sckness, campaigns, ideas

Saturday: My sweet wife Ryoko started day at a funeral for a dear fellow who always supported her band & community and then, changed outfits and hopped the train to Fukuoka for a big test to level up her tree doctor credentials.

Back at Tsuchida station, we watched final bout of Nagoya sumo basho (yowza!) & i made caprese salad with garden tomatoes (& bonus avocado).

The brutal elbows to the face & the full meaty hand slaps were heavy duty. More about this epic & historic sumo bout.

I know avocados aren’t usually included but when it is ripe, i’m using it! 

Sunday: she’s home! we all (me, father and mother in law) all managed Ichiro just fine though he def missed his mom and clung when she arrived home.

PS yup, i set up hotel, breakfast and walking route to test for her (i’m helping :)) feel a cold coming on though… 

on the bus, in the hood

Monday: went to mall by bus to get some Pokéman things for sick lil dude in Canada. I have no idea what i’m doing or wtf Pokéman is, but double-masked, sunglasses and hat and a mysterious foreigner met me to hand off some treats. Parcel coming soon (as well as a video to answer some questions about Japan). Continue reading Diary: arborist test, sumo, salad + sckness, campaigns, ideas

Music theory, thunder & friendships #diary

From a rainy porch, riffing gratefulness for friends with kind words and packages, minimal commentary about ridiculous Olympics and various public health situations, hello to my favourite arborist and rain songs ++ tree doctor tests, Kerouac exhibits, future global expeditions with in-laws and importantly, the elusive D chord.

New Album “Freedom Venture Spirits” by “Captain Stag” coming soon ~ pre-order all usual outlets

Kitchen: Ume vinegar, syrup & cordial (bottling etc)

[continuing from: Kitchen: Umeboshi Time with Crock & Rocks (+ pickles & jam)Kitchen: Umeboshi update (drying after salting, before salting again) &  Umeboshi update, part 3 (adding shiso and back into the crock}

Ume Chronicles continue (catching up from April 16, 2021)

Last year June, we harvested a load of Ume (Japanese small sour plums of a sort) from the neighbour’s tree and made several items while coincidentally waiting for our little baby to arrive (as you can see from my *sophisticated labeling system*, was started June 16) Oh and the baby arrived a  few days later on June 23rd).

Continue reading Kitchen: Ume vinegar, syrup & cordial (bottling etc)

Kitchen: Kaki (persimmon) vinegar (filtering & bottling)

Kaki Vinegar, Bottled-up (catching up from April 21, 2021)

Kaki (persimmons) are all around us here in Okayama so we end up with bushels > I’m finding every which way to use: from jam to dried to pickled/lacto-fermented and specifically today, vinegar.

While getting the kitchen ready for construction, so… figured should bottle the batch started last year. 

Started by stashing a bunch of chopped up, unwashed persimmons in a big glass jar with “the mother” from some apple cider vinegar – weighed down with rocks to keep submerged – last year in November (as seen on label above). Continue reading Kitchen: Kaki (persimmon) vinegar (filtering & bottling)

Diary: Tsuchida Oasis (& sleep + Nick Suzuki)

Watched hockey game (!), posted a few riffs at my creative life archive (you are here) then put together this lounging oasis at Tsuchida Station. Yup, screened in tent canopy with inflatable swimming pool with peach tree inside and bamboo forest behind. 

Tsuchida Station oasis (in process)

Re: Canadiens in Stanley Cup final & east Asian heritage players ~ I’m wondering if Nick Suzuki might have a chance to be in first Japanese-heritage player to hoist the cup? Paul Kariya went to the finals of course but didn’t win the chalice. I’m probably forgetting someone – who?

Jim Paek who won 2 Stanleys (had short-time Canuck Richard Park in my tired head) with Mario and Penguins in early 90s. 

Note: Nick Suzuki – who wears #14 for Habs – is 5th(?) generation Japanese and, not-surprisingly, related to noted Canadian eco-biologist David Suzuki

(Note: some new sleeping medication making a huge difference)

Gratitude Omnibus (with ukulele and K trucks)

A round-up for musings from the kura grain barn studio with several topics: new records, summer starts, fathers (various), mentors, Kerouac in Kobe event, construction (on-going), summer projects, healing ramble series, and of course Ichiro.

Note: Painting in background by my wonderful niece Hannah Olson

++ Name checks for Ken Bole, Larry Harper, Ed Saukkooja, Matt Theado, Bill Janovitz, RJ Garn, Dan Mangan, Fujita Takushi, Lorne Olson, Joe Strummer, Luca Fogale, Colin McTaggart… Plus a mention of the Seeking sustainability in Japan talk show w/ Walsh JJ and a couple of other radio/pod hits I did about the Olympics with outlets in Vancouver on CKNW & The Breaker News.

It’s a little bit messy right now to say the least but… Big moves in the kura barn studio >> now fortified with proper electrical outlets and a breaker box!

As such, re-ran some cords and connected a cassette /cd / usb player to my early 1980s vintage Yamaha amp and 100 pound record player.

Tested out with vinyl by The Weakerthans and CD by Hey Rosetta and USB by RJ Garn’s Retrospective. Cassettes are all bundled in boxes behind the chaos so waiting until the heat pump/cooler is installed to do a big rearrange including a new shelf for all this gear.

Will be all nice and tidy and ready for relaxing times when you come to visit #hint

Oh yeah, got some new records (shock!) I’ll share with you another time.

Kitchen: Ume Ferments and Garden Veg ~ round-up

Harvesting Ume: Ryoko Olson in her professional environment climbing trees (note her awesome boots and toolbelt), trimming branches and raining down Ume. No cape required for this superhero! She totally re-did the tree & harvested the fruit while talked to neighbour obaachan & held basket.

Yeah, we filled up a whole laundry basket, seriously, plus some other baskets for neighbors etc. Continue reading Kitchen: Ume Ferments and Garden Veg ~ round-up

Tsuchida Station Construction Walkthrough

The construction folks have a day off, the cleaners came this morning, the protective sheets came off yesterday so,… did a “cheap and cheerful” look around the new big room, the renovated room, the hallway and closet with maple flooring showing off a couple things including: hand wash sink, vintage doors on genkon, woodstove alcove, tile backsplash, strategically-placed windows, and pickle storage etc.

Anyhow, hang out for 5 mins and see how we are time traveling in Okayama.

Entranceway to our new living/everything/music room features vintage sliding doors (from their parents’ house remodel) + outer (new) genkon doors plus (quite brilliantly) a hand wash sink as soon as your enter / Will be fantastic for our little guy and his buddies, as well as everyone else, keeping it clean. Wood counter, tile backsplash – lots of different textures and surfaces throughout the house.

Note the maple floors, plaster walls and a hint of the big patio doors to the carport which will become party/barbecue/multipurpose space and has another sink, 1.5 m stainless steel with counter for pickling, tool washing, plant potting etc.

Diary: What Comes Next? Shambling along on Summer schemes

What happens next? Summertime schemes…

Siding into slacker summer projects at Tsuchida Station

So, the mysterious “operation turtle” is as wrapped up as gonna get
The “healing ramble” project is nervously, bravely & quietly going out into the world at random intervals

Caught up on the “postcards as a service” supporters and dossier customers – a few friends to return correspondence but easy goodtimes

I’m staying on top of the laundry & i tidy up & sortganize like Japan’s version of Marie Kondo :) Continue reading Diary: What Comes Next? Shambling along on Summer schemes

Japan Generational farm house and cottage story

+ Introducing our compound in Tsuchida, Okayama +

I joined a Kominka (trad Japanese country home) renovation, acquisition & enjoyment group and made a video introduction – sharing here in case you are curious.

‘Tis a little intimidating cause a load of people are doing incredible detailed projects in remote locations with all sorts of hand-tools and techniques but hey, i am adding to the generation story of our land – its all about the cycles.

Riff includes parents’ renovated farm house and our “cottage” under construction.

In brief: Both of these homes were empty from the 1990s until about 7 years ago when my (arborist/jazz singer) wife re-opened the cottage, the parents followed and the dilapidated old farm house was reno’d keeping all the beams, much character and details.
Now the cottage (which sits where other buildings did in the past) is getting a big new room plus a load of other upgrades to add to the story. A mix of trad joinery and materials and a few touches from the parent’s reno (genkon doors etc) and also insulation, woodstove, tea ceremony area, and big doors out to the carport as i hope our place becomes the local hangout for our son Ichiro’s pals in years to come.

Also a peek at wife’s Naya toolshed and glance at garden. Oh yeah, i also ramble on about my “origin story” of coming to Japan in early 1990s and working as a mushroom farmer in Tottori before running away and hitchhiking from Shikoku to Nagano where i first experience renegade inaka living.

Very pleased to add to my local community and respect the work of the ancestors.

the “Sistine Chapel” of kura granary barns

PS If curious i have time-lapse video of the roof raising and other artifacts from the kura which is now my arts and crafts studio and music lounge.

panorama of the backyard with garden, kura barn and bamboo grove