After the egg is cooked it is removed from the pan and cooled. It takes on a nice yellow color when it is finished.
The egg is placed on a mat and then the other ingredients are placed on top in a pattern. The picture below shows the egg and rice base layer.
Next each additional ingredient is strategically placed on top of the rice base layer. There is seaweed, kelp, root, etc..
Once everything is in position everything is rolled in the mat too give it a nice cylindrical shape.
When everything is rolled and compressed tightly the outer mat is removed and the cylinder is cut into thin portion sized slices.
Here is the finished product wrapped and ready for eating. The end result is pretty impressive, but Kate said it took so much work that she most likely will not make it a second time in the near future.
The children have been working on different art projects at school recently. Liam is using a carving set to make stamps. The picture below is one of his finished pieces. The negative shape was cut into a wooden plate and then ink was rolled on the surface to produce the print. This is an image of him holding a starfish. Probably influenced by our trip to the Philippines .
Colleen made two different. The one below was made by cutting paper and then like Liam's it was rolled with ink to create a stamp print. This is an image of her holding a Kewpie doll. She has really taken a liking to them and has collected a handful of different ones.
Here is her other piece of work. It is of her being surprised by a lobster. I think living here has really helped foster creativity in both children.
On Sunday we went to the Utsunomiya cultural festival. We went last year and wore kimonos at this same event, this year we decided to just enjoy the different activities. We all got to try our hand at calligraphy. Liam has taken this in school and is pretty familiar with it, but the rest of us have not so it is fun to try.
Both Liam and Colleen made flower arrangements.
They were able to bring the flowers home, but not the pot so when we got home they organized them again into some of the vases we had.
The children also tried their hand at hanamusubi (decorative knot tying) Different colors of stiff string are used to produce colorful decorations. We have received gifts before with these applied in place of bows for decoration.
There was also an origami station. We were told the group of cranes below were made from one piece of paper. I am not sure how that would be done, but they were all connected together.
While we made our way from station to station there was a stage that had a variety of different cultural activities for viewing. I was able to tape a little with my cell phone of an O-Koto (Japanese harp) performance by school aged girls. The sound of the harps is very calming.
After leaving the festival we went bowling with the Shionome sans. Bowling is basically the same regardless of where you go. One thing that did stand out for me was the smoke. When I was young I remember watching my parents bowl in a smokey bowling alley. Today smoking is no longer allowed in the bowling alleys in the states, but it is still OK here and that brought back some memories.
The bowling alley was on the second floor of a large building, on the first floor was a gaming area. As we walked in to bowl I noticed an Initial D video game. When we finished bowling I talked Kate and Chizuko san into playing the game with me. We tried the Irohizaka which is the mountain road in Nikko that I have both driven on and ridden my bicycle on. It was interesting to drive in the game because I can remember the majority of the course. Kate said it was actually a pretty fun game to play, and of course we all had to drive the AE86 of Takumi while playing.
That is all for this week, next week looks like we may see 60°, I can't wait..
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