First Blog

It's a fine and sunny Sunday morning and I am sitting down to write the first blog entry for the Yokomatsu family. Kanji is at work, Amy stayed the night with Baachan, and Lena is desperately searching for the little green Lego baby.Jiichan just came around to set fire to the lawn. Apparently that's what you do. Then you plant new grass in spring. I didn't question it, after all, Japanese grass is just different. I got out there and turned on the hose though, only to find the water came to a halt for some mysterious reason. So I went back inside and filled up the spaghetti pot with water instead. Jiichan gave up his pyromania in half an hour though, complaining that the grass was too 'blue' (which is Japanese for green, eg, traffic lights in Japan are blue).(I did discover however, that the burnt bottom of the spaghetti pot flaked off into the water, despite Kanji and Koutaku's reassurances that it was perfectly okay, and I should remove it from the toy closet and put it back in the kitchen. Mind you, they were drunk when they said that.)I am very busy today, with recipes to write for the Muroya soy sauce site, tests to mark for college, AFWJ's membership list to check, a play-group proposal to prepare, a postcard asking for soft toys to write and this blog to start!Shoichi told me on Wednesday that he and a friend are setting up a website for Yori, hopefully to sell the soy sauce overseas. He mentioned that he'd asked Justin to take care of sales in Australia - then asked me to help with NZ. So I am preparing some comments for the English page, selecting recipes using soy sauce, and researching NZ's import and customs laws. I am quite excited about it, because I love the soy sauce and I am always trying to impress on people the joys and delights of Japanese cuisine.I have also started selling our second-hand books at amazon japan, and signed up at a website to find new students. Thus, the chances of finding time to clean out the spare room are ever diminishing...