Muffin Talk

I've been experimenting with muffins a lot. The above muffins are lemon ginger muffins with trail mix. The trail mix I get has cranberries, raisins, dried pineapple cubes, almonds, and cashews.

More recently, I made some muffins with which I was trying to capture something of the season. Sakura or cherry blossom mochi is a popular treat in Japan in the spring. It's pink mochi wrapped in pickled cherry tree leaves. I thought I could use whatever presumably cherry flavouring was in the mochi to make muffins but it turns out the sakura mochi only has sugar and food colouring. The only genuine sakura flavour comes from what little seeps into it from the leaves.

Then I thought, what if I mix cherry syrup into the muffin batter? I thought at least that would make the muffins kind of pink-ish and I could make them visually recall cherry blossoms by adding white chocolate chips. I use almond milk instead of real milk and since cherry and almond is a classic pairing, I thought it might make for a good muffin all around. Well, the muffins came out more brownish than pink. The cherry flavour is really subtle, kind of an aftertaste. It needed a boost so for the next batch I added cranberries and cinnamon. I'm basically happy with the result and gave a bunch of them to my coworkers. They seem more Christmasy than spring timey, though.

X Sonnet #1835

A soldier's sleep invades the honey air.
For toxic beds, the trooper pines at heart.
The pastel kids were lost amidst the fair.
An angry message spurred the brain to start.
Repeating quacks announced approaching ducks.
No time was better poised to build balloons.
A secret void with friendly vigour sucks.
In harder chess you play with eight dragoons.
Some soggy flakes descend from almond skies.
With toneless jokes the dame retreats in haste.
Decided posts construct the noiseless lies.
A vicious box supports the kind of waste.
With spiky chairs the office changed to death.
A box of flowers steals the human's breath.

Sport Pumpkin

Happy Sports Day, everyone. Yes, sports are so important in Japan there's in fact a holiday for them. Sports really are like a religion in Japan, as you can see from the tradition for Japanese baseball players to shave their heads (though that particular tradition is in decline). I suspect it's partly related to the fact that western style sports were only introduced to Japan at the end of the 19th century. Before that, there were only martial arts, which tend to have religious or at least ritualistic connotations. So it makes sense playing baseball would be like becoming a monk.

Last week, the schools had their sports festivals in which an entire day was given over for students to compete in relay races, tugs of war, and obstacle courses. It happened to be my last day at one particular school. The school's brass band, whom I often visited after school, gave me these flowers and they all sang for me the theme from Space Battleship Yamato.

I was overwhelmed, to say the least. It's truly an honour to work with such lovely students.

To-day, of course, I haven't been playing sports. I have been making pumpkin muffins:

Pumpkin muffin recipes I found online called for pumpkin puree but I decided to mince it instead.

I used a quarter of a green Japanese pumpkin for a batch of six muffins, chopping that quarter into four parts. Three parts I chop into tiny pieces to mix into the batter and the fourth part I chop into large chunks to sprinkle on the tops.

Normally in Japan, pumpkin is eaten, with the rind, boiled in soups or fried as tempura. So I thought, why not bake it? The muffins are pretty tasty, if I do say so myself. I used cinnamon and brown sugar.

Halloween in Japan is kind of seen as an adult holiday due to the wild Halloween parties held in Shibuya every year. But a lot of people, especially people selling sweets, are trying to make Halloween happen for kids. I'm trying to do my part. Here's a worksheet I made recently to teach relative pronouns:

By the way, my preferred relative pronouns are that, who, and whom.

X Sonnet #1747

The living truth was far behind the tube.
A trusting god would eat the breakfast cake.
So place the proper squares around the cube.
You're gonna buy another bridge to stake.
The lengthy lizard bugs devour guts.
Remember looking lost the Nazis skins.
Exploding heads compete with rifle butts.
An angry sky attests the end begins.
Descending guests concealed their eyes from view.
The mountainside was shaken past resolve.
The atmosphere was orange and liquid blue.
A thousand grains do morbid plans involve.
Approaching pumpkin moons survey the ground.
The nights absorb a shaky screaming sound.