Fiddling at work

As a child I was overflowing with energy, ideas, and words. It drove my parents crazy at times. The energy has slowed over the years, but you can still see the restlessness in me if you look closely. I need to be physically comfortable and have a tendency to wriggle. I also fiddle. A lot. I do it in a way that most people don't notice: with a pencil, a seam on my clothes, a fold in a piece of paper. As I just re-read this paragraph, my left hand slipped off the keyboard and over to a nearby black pen and tried to balance it on its plastic clip.

My desk, with fiddle objects in plain sight.

I have never been one to tolerate long periods of sitting still, unless my attention is riveted on a book, the conversation, or the task that I'm doing, but even then I fiddle. I find it difficult to pay close attention to meetings that I don't have deep involvement in. I have been known to occasionally take cross-stitch to meetings.

On my desk are several things that I use for fiddling. Most are usual desk equipment, but one is a bit more unusual, my twelve-sided fidget toy. I've found it helpful this year during Zoom meetings when my fingers long to be busy and my attention is flagging. I believe it used to belong to one of my boys, who was given it during the "fidget spinner" craze a few years back.

I know I'm not the only one who fiddles. I am experienced at using small objects to help my boys in a quiet situation to settle or distract them from whatever is bothering them (yes, as teenagers). I carry a couple of small things in my handbag for just that purpose and have occasionally used them myself. There is even research out there about fiddling! In the process of writing this blog post I found a Youtube video rating various items people fiddle with in 2020 in the office.

Do you fiddle compulsively? What is your preferred go-to object?

Camping food

If you’re new here, please don’t think we camp all the time, we’ve only managed three camping trips in 2020, That’s about our average. However, we’ve been doing it since 2011, so we’ve got a bit of camping-in-Japan experience.

A friend recently asked for camp food advice/recipes. So I thought I’d write a blog post just about that.

Our philosophy for camping has always been: keep it as simple as possible. That means it’s not hard to pack up and go camping. That’s essential if it’s going to be a relaxing experience for us. This extends to the food side of things.

The menu is simple. I almost never pre-prepare any main meal, unless it’s going to be late before we get camp set up on the first night, or it’s going to be very cold that first night. That meant it was not hard to do a couple of “camping tours”, where we camped for two weeks (using several different campsites). We bought food as we needed it—usually every couple of days.

We have a standard camp packing list that we rely on heavily, I also plan the meals and write a food list. This makes packing easy and eases anxiety.

Here are some standard camping meals we have (understanding these are easy-to-buy foods in Japan, so aren’t all suitable to other places):

Things we eat for breakfast
Bacon, sausages, and eggs (or variations of that combo)

Pancakes

English muffins or sometimes bread

Above usually supplemented by tinned peaches

Sometimes yoghurt, fruit, and cereal (this was mostly for a fast pack up on our camping tours, without starting a fire, it was easier to pack up and move on)

Things we’ve eaten for dinner

Yakisoba (Japanese stir fried pork and noodles)
BBQ meat and foil-wrapped veggies

Wraps (tortillas with salad and cooked meat)

Rice (cooked on the fire with Japanese campfire rice cookers!)

Japanese curry rice

I’ve even made Tuna Mornay

This is Yakisoba: Japanese stir-fried pork and noodles. So yummy and so easy if you’ve got a large group to cater for.

Lunch

This is generally a low-profile affair. We’ll have sandwiches, or two-minute ramen, or tinned soup.

Dessert

In my opinion this is the most fun part of camping. Cooking with the fire after the main meal is done is usually pretty fun. My favourite is the Chocolate, banana, marshmallow boats (two layers of greased foil loaded up with a banana, chocolate pieces and two or three marshmallows, and cooked over the fire).

We’ve also made damper: and Australian non-yeast bread, something like a scone and eaten with butter, syrup, jam or honey. Very yummy! 

Of course there’s always marshmallows to cook, and when our American friends come they bring the fixings for S’mores.

We don’t use bread much, mostly because it takes up a lot of room. Rice or noodles fill up hungry boys and are more compact for packing. Larger sized savoury bread rolls are also not super common in most Japanese supermarkets.

And of course snacks and hot drinks are important. I’ve often made brownies to take on our shorter camps: again they are compact and filling, but also hold together well and are very popular. Nothing quite like a brownie snack after setting up camp for raising the mood and filling the gap while dinner is prepared. Hot chocolate, coffee, peppermint and ordinary tea bags are also always in our camping “larder”.

We take two cooking options: a single table-top gas ring (fueled by easily available small gas canisters) and a simple folding campfire stove (because most campsites you have to bring your own and can’t make a fire on the ground). The gas ring is great for heating water for drinks and washing up water, and as a backup to the fire. The fire obviously takes more work, but it’s also more fun. I don’t see the joy in just cooking by gas like you do at home when you could light a fire!

Food is one of the things I love most about camping. Cooking and eating outdoors is really very relaxing most of the time and you’re completely focused on what you’re doing. That focus is what means that camping is so relaxing. Because you’re so zoned in on taking care of basics like food and shelter, you forget about the pressures that you’ve left behind at home and the office.

Do you have a favourite camping meal? Or a favourite camping food memory?

Fixing my eyes on Jesus

Yesterday I read a chapter in a book that's been sitting on my bedside table for a few months now: Enjoying God: Experience the power and love of God, by Tim Chester. The chapter mentioned fixing our eyes on Jesus. It's a concept that I return to time and time again in my life, so it was good to think about it again with some concrete ideas on how to do it. Simply: remembering what God has done, what he continues to do in us and around us, and what he's got planned:

You can look back to his work on the cross; you can look up to his presence in heaven for you; and you can look forward to the day when he returns for his people. (Chester, p 84)

I'd completely forgotten my 2014 goal of blogging once a month on one of my favourite Bible passages: Hebrews 12:1-3, but it came up when I did a search of my blog before I started writing a new blog post today. In June that year, 2014, we went on our third home assignment. At the start of the year I knew it was going to be a challenging year, so the challenge of focussing my thoughts and words on this passage, was important. I ended up only writing six times (though I've blogged about or mentioned this passage numerous other times through the years, for example here).

2014 blogging on Heb. 12:1-3:

February: pushing through, remembering Jesus and others who have gone before us

March: who is Jesus?

April: heavenly perspective

May: setting goals

June: the stuff we see now is temporary

September: fixing our eyes on Jesus despite the hardships

Today was a difficult day. I had goals for the day—a long To Do list for work, on which very little got done because a couple of other urgent matters arose that I had no control over. So when I rode in the rain to get some groceries, it was good to remember that chapter I read yesterday and ask myself some questions:

• What's unchanging here? God! He's God whether or not I do what I'd intended to do. He's God even when things don't go the way I want them to, when the future looks murky.
• What's my ultimate goal? That I serve God wherever I am. If that means doing something other than what I'd planned, then that is okay too.
• What is my hope based on? God, it all comes back to him. No one else is the Rock on which I can base my hope (Psalm 18:2,31).

While I rode my bike along a familiar route and peered through the raindrops on my glasses, it was good to remind myself of these foundational things that my faith is based on. And that is "fixing my eyes on Jesus". Do you have a recent story where you deliberately focused your eyes on Jesus?

Gunma Prefecture camp

On Sunday we went on another camping trip, our third and final one for 2020. From here on it gets too cold to comfortably camp without more expensive gear, so even though we've camped in November in the past, we've decided those days are over...and our kids are older and not so interested!

So, we left with our camping buddies around 11.30, after we'd been to church, and got to the campsite around mid afternoon. We drove about 55 km on the expressway, and then over an hour was spent on slow roads, many of them "spaghetti" roads (on the map, looks like someone's thrown noodles down).

Monday we got up late and meandered through the day. The chief theme of our camping is "low key". We generally have no major agenda on the "whole days" we are at a campsite. 

I was talking with Japanese friends about our trip the other day and said that for the days we were away we didn't wear masks (except when buying lunch on the way there and back) and didn't really have to think about COVID at all—although of course it came up in conversation sometimes. My friends were amazed. Camping in more remote places during non-Japanese school-holiday weeks is indeed a great way to escape this pandemic in Japan.

Our house is the blue dot. The green flag in the top left corner is where we've been for longer holidays in the last couple of years (and will be heading there just before Christmas). The yellow star near the middle is where we camped the other two times in 2020. It's only about 50km from the Noguri campsite, but on mountain roads would take at least an hour.

This was our first time to camp in Gunma Prefecture. Our 15th prefecture (see our big camping goal here). The writing down the side of this photo says "Gunma Visitor Toilet". The campsite was very cheap (cost us ¥2,500 for two of us for two nights). The campsite had toilets but no shower. The toilets were in reasonable shape (if a bit smelly on the male side!).

We camped next to a fast-flowing stream called the Nogurisawa River. Not far downstream it merges into the Kanna River, which eventually joins the Tone River which is the second longest river in Japan (322 km, for those who want to know).

I've uploaded the photos straight from my phone and they've appeared randomly! So I'm "going with the flow". A big advantage of this campsite was very cheap wood that we could use in an open fire on the ground. Both of these elements are rare in Japan. The wood was a little damp, however, so a good deal of fire-tending was needed. But later I realised that while playing around with a fire like this, you aren't really thinking about other things. Camping in general is a great way to shut off from the world. We come back from a camping trip feeling like we've taken a true break from the mental load that we carry on a daily basis.

The banks of the stream were steep, so we looked down on it, more than saw it up-close.

The view from behind the fire: very easy on the eyes! This large tarp functions as the "living area" for our camps: it's where we cook and hang out.

Beautiful trees everywhere!

Our camp as we set it up (not much under the tarp at this point). Our spot was a "dead end" so we had no close neighbours, yet it was not a long walk to a tap with running water or the toilets.

Thankful our camping buddies insisted on taking this photo. Good memories! It was the first time we've gone camping without any of our kids. The two we have in Japan decided to stay home/visit with a friend instead of coming. This is the foreshadowing of many more couples-only camping!

Tatsugamino Falls. This is only about a minute walk from our campsite and so it was quite
loud at night!

Moss, moss, everywhere!

Landslide prevention is everywhere in the Japanese countryside. When typhoons come through, the two greatest risks are flooding and landslides.

Sometimes people ask us if we see wild animals while camping. Generally we don't, though this time we saw a lot of domestic cats (or maybe multiple appearances of the same cat?). On the first night we heard a deer "scream" three times. It was eerie. We also had some small critters in camp. Our friends accidentally left two loaves of bread out and they were found. Maybe by something like a squirrel or weasel? There were muddy footprints over a lot of our stuff the next morning.

Fern growing out between two stone steps down to the stream.

We went for a short hike up the mountain. It was a pine forest with very little undergrowth, and steep. Hikes in Japan are rarely moderate affairs, you have to have a bit of mountain goat in you.

A poor attempt to show the mountain rising up behind our tent. Not easy to capture. We truly were in a small valley.

Another couple of photos of Tatsugamino Falls. It isn't a huge tourist site. In fact it's rather remote. For anyone who's been to Japan, saying that we were about an hour from the nearest convenience store will help you understand how relatively remote this is. Interestingly, there was no shrine or other religious elements in evidence. That is also pretty rare at a place like this.

I pulled out my fancy camera for almost the first time since this pandemic began. Found me accessing memories about information like "shutter speed" and "aperture". I didn't end up taking too many photos with it, though—it is still far easier to whip out my iPhone from my  pocket! Still, I think I should make more of an effort to put that fancy camera to work in the months to come!

To add to the flowing water noise, this weir was just downstream from us! If you look carefully, in some of these photos you can see evidence that autumn is on its way. It's a bit more obvious in this next photo.

On our way home, as we wound our way through the mountain valleys, we drove alongside this artificial lake, Kanna Lake, for some time. The green colour was amazing. Alas, because I get travel sick, I was driving, so I didn't get to do much looking!

Part of my view while eating breakfast on the last morning. The sun finally broke through and made the trees even prettier.

Cooking rice and chicken shoulders on the fire. The food/fire/cooking challenge of camping remains one of my favourite parts.

Our "blue" ambient light. This is our plate/utensil camping cupboard. I put an LED light on top and it produced quite a nice effect!

Looking away from the waterfall towards our camp (tents hiding up on the righthand side).

One-man tents! We had quite a number of bikers and others who camped in tiny tents like these.

So, it's a wrap for 2020 and camping. We're now starting to think about our spring camp for next year. We're looking at Ibaraki, which is another prefecture we haven't visited. It is north-east of here and borders the Pacific Ocean just above Chiba Prefecture.

Big historically significant park in Yokohama

We had online conference meetings for our mission from Tuesday to Thursday last week. Usually an in-person conference is five days long and very social. Online is much harder, so our leaders urged us to spend time with missionaries who live closer to us on the days surrounding the online meetings. In that spirit, we had lunch with another family with teens last Sunday (27th) and then last Friday (2nd) I met two colleagues for a day at a park in Yokohama. 

At the end of a week of being stuck to screens, of straining to connect with others in a large group, connecting really fast in small groups, and processing all the other information being given to us, it was a relief to get outside and hang out in nature. Even the train trip was good. Yokohama is a fair way from us, but from our local station we can catch a direct train there. It takes a bit over an hour, but I got a seat at the very start, so it wasn't a hard journey. At the end of the day I had usual end-of-week fatigue, but a whole day of nature and talking for several hours in-person had rejuvenated my soul.

I didn't get to blog about it last week, though. I spent Saturday catching up on some urgent things I didn't get done on Friday and Sunday catching up on rest. So today, I'm catching up on the less urgent things, including this. Here are some photos, with commentary. This is a fascinating park! I love history, and this park has a few centuries of history attached to it. I'm thankful that there were lots of signs around explaining elements of the park, and they were all bilingual.

This park used to be, as many of these old parks were, a private property. It has about 20 buildings, many of which were brought to the park in the early 1900s by the then-owner of the park, Sankei, a successful Yokohama businessman (silk). Many of the buildings come from the Kansai area (around Nara/Kyoto). Though it used to be the family's private property, the "outer garden" was opened to the public for free from 1906 (we had to pay!).

This is the "Main Pond". Intuitively named! It is the first feature of the park that you come across when you come through the main entrance. Note the red spider lily flowers, late-summer early-autumn flowers that we're seeing a lot of at the moment.

A small bamboo "arbour" that was unlabelled.

This is the only building that we were allowed inside. It was designed for farmers, but is grander than what most farmers lived in.  It was large, but very dark and dusty inside this building. Not the warmest place to live in winter either!  

Pictured is part of an autumn-moon-viewing tradition, the purpose is to give thanks to the gods for a harvest (as best as I understand it).

This is the front of the same building. I'm not sure what was stored in the ceiling.

This fire is kept burning all day long. It was very smoky. I find it hard to imagine living in this house: with the smoke, dust, and draftiness!

This bridge had unusual "railings". Many of the structures in the park were damaged in the 1923 earthquake, rebuilt, then damaged again during WW2. Additionally, they've struggled with the flora. Several thousand plum trees were planted at one point, and destroyed by wind. Not to mention the proximity to the ocean, so salinity has also been an issue. It's quite remarkable how much work has gone into this park and understandable that it has been named an official cultural asset. The family gave the park to a foundation for its management and it was opened for the public again in 1958, this time the "inner garden" was also opened.

A bridge with a covered place to rest halfway across.

One of several water features.

This was our lunch view! Serene.

Beautifully manicured banks of the Main Pond.

This building was built in the mid-1500s at a temple in Kyoto, the same temple as the
three-story pagoda that you'll see if you stick with this blog post! This building housed

a Buddha statue. It was damaged by a typhoon after WW2 and disassembled.

In 1987 it was relocated to this garden. It is listed as an Important National Cultural Property. 

From under a wisteria trelllis, we spied a couple having pre-wedding photos taken.

And later we saw another couple doing the same thing (pre-wedding photos).

Cute gateway into the "inner" garden, where the family used to live in the early 1900s. Pictured are the two colleagues I spent the day with.

The garden is in a shallow valley, somehow all the noise from the nearby expressways, heavy industry, and closely built residential areas didn't penetrate the garden. The signs promised a view here, but though we could see the ocean, the foreground overwhelmed it. One of the original buildings on the property was built on this high vantage point (1887), presumably because of the seaside views at the time!

Lots of water features and bridges, as is typical in a Japanese garden.

This wooden pagoda was originally constructed in 1457 and moved to the garden from an 
abandoned temple in Kyoto in 1914. 

This little building fascinated me. It was moved to the garden in 1905, but was
originally build by a feudal lord (son of the first shogunate of the Edo period,
Ieyasu Tokugawa). It contains a stone monument to wish for his mother's
health and long life. In the foreground you can see thick moss.

It wasn't easy to take this photo. I discovered the dragonfly next to my leg and
tried not to move suddenly to startle it. I love seeing these insects.

In the Main Pond, they've anchored this wooden boat that the birds were enjoying. In the foreground you can see a big spot light. There were a number around. As the gardens shut by 5pm, I can only imagine these are for special nighttime events (the gardens can be hired for private events).

At this time of year there weren't many flowers around, but red spider lilies 
(and these rarer white versions) were looking brilliant. I love how they
randomly appear in the least likely places.

Well done for sticking around to the end of this post! A bit lengthy. But I enjoy the discipline of looking up some of the history to go with my photos when I do get to visit these historical sites in Japan. This nation has many many centuries of history. Of which I know only a tiny smidgen and have no hope of learning a large chunk. However, little tidbits every now and then is fascinating and gives a little more insight into this place I've lived most of my adult life.