Could you please correct my English? ↓ ↓ Fermented Foods / 発酵食品 ② （ぬか漬け） To elevate your leftover veggies, why don’t you get microorganisms to be your cooking assistants? (👈 Does this make sense? Is this sentence redundant? ) Just by pickling your vegetables in “nukadoko” paste 6 to 12 hours, you can create gut-friendly lifestyle. Nukadoko is lacto-fermented rice bran, which is available at any Japanese supermarkets. Lactic acid bacteria are most active between 20°C and 25°C. When are you going to do it? Now, that's when! 残り物の野菜をガラリと変身させるために、微生物に料理のアシスタントになってもらったらどうですか？ 野菜を「ぬかどこ」に６〜１２時間漬けるだけで、腸にやさしいライフスタイルが生まれます。 ぬかどこは、乳酸発酵した米ぬかです。乳酸菌は20°Cから25°Cの間が１番元気です。いつやるつもり？　今でしょ！

🙏Could someone correct my English? Thank you in advance. Miki🙏 Fermented Foods / 発酵食品 ①-２ （たくあん） One day, TOKUGAWA Iemitsu, the third shōgun of the Tokugawa dynasty, complained that no matter what he ate, nothing tasted good to him anymore. “Your Highness, why don’t you come over my temple for breakfast tomorrow?”, TAKUAN Sōhō, a prelate (high ranking zen monk), said to Iemitsu. The next morning in the temple, Iemitsu waited and waited, but his breakfast wasn’t served at all. He was about to leave the temple, when Takuan appeared with a few slices of “daikon” radish and rice with hot water poured over it. Iemitsu were so hungry that he found this humble meal quite delicious. Iemitsu asked the prelate about the radish. “This is “takuwae-mono”, Your Highness”, Takuan answered. “Takuwae-mono” literally means something to be stocked, and is preserved food or a pickle in this context. “You might want to eat only after you feel hungry”, Takuan continued. Back to his castle, the shōgun recommended that the people should make this pickle. Although there are various theories, some people believe that Iemitsu named the pickle after the prelate. Does this story sound ironic to you? Common people at that time always had frugal meals and they were never ever epicures like Iemitsu. Do you consider these Iemitsu’s remarks frivolous disregard for the starving people or his poor understanding of their plight? When I heard the history of this pickle, I wasn’t aware of the unfairness hidden in his words. Rather, I felt like appreciating that Iemitsu and Takuan promulgated this pickle all across Japan. With hindsight, the story teaches me that we are truly fortunate that we almost no longer have class system, and that we have food to eat.

🙏Could someone correct my English? Thank you in advance. Miki🙏 I love train travel, but I have never taken a sleeper train. Most sleeper trains in Japan have been replaced with the Shinkansen. Currently, only a couple of sleeper cars make regular service run. Besides these, we have several luxury sleeper trains. As I am a typical Japanese, I sometimes fall asleep on the train. When I can hear the conductor announcing the next station, I have a bad habit of getting off the train in my hurry. And, the moment the train doors close, I realize that I am at one station before my stop. So, I wish I could someday have a sound sleep in bed while being in the train💤 Today, my language partner told me that he has just returned from Scotland by sleeper train. I am sooo jelly😑 📷 ①A single room of the Sunrise, which is the last sleeper train that runs everyday. ②③④ A luxury sleeper train, Nanatsu-boshi 私は列車の旅が大好きですが、寝台列車に乗ったことはありません。日本のほとんどの寝台列車は新幹線に取って代わりました。現在、定期運行をしている寝台車は2台のみです。これら以外には、豪華寝台列車がいくつかあります。 私は典型的な日本人なので、電車の中で寝てしまう事があります。車掌さんが次の駅名をアナウンスしているのが聞こえると、慌てて電車を降りてしまう悪い癖があります。そして、ドアが閉まった瞬間、一駅前で降りてしまっている事に気付くんです。だからいつか電車に乗りながらベッドでぐっすり寝てみたいな、と思います💤 今日、私のラングエージパートナーが寝台列車でスコットランドから帰ってきたばかりだと教えてくれました。すんごくうらやましいです😑

🙏Could you correct my English? Thank you in advance. Miki🙏 ⭐︎Today’s News⭐︎ A famous Japanese author, SETOUCHI Jakuchō (瀬戸内 寂聴) passed away at the age of 99. Her life and novels are being featured all day on TV. I have never read her novels. When I think about Jakuchō, the first thing that pops up in my head is infidelity. As a result of Jakuchō’s affair with her husband’s former student, she had no choice but to separate from her 4 year old daughter. Even after their divorce, Jakuchō had been stuck in love triangles and affairs. She began writing for her living, and as a modern woman, she didn’t hesitate to write about her unconventional love life in her books. Then, she had been labeled disgracefully by the nickname "womb novelist”, which means a writer who thinks with her womb. Eventually by becoming a Buddhist nun, she cut all toxic relationships with her men. After that, she completed her translation of the Japanese classic court literature, “The Tale of Genji (源氏物語)” into modern Japanese. I have not been intrigued by her so much. But today, I found it interesting that INOUE Areno (井上 荒野), the daughter of a writer, INOUE Mitsuharu, who also had an affair with Jakuchō, recently released a novel written about the relationship between her family and Jakuchō. Areno claims that this is fiction, but she met Jakuchō several times to write her novel. Areno is a Naoki Award winner. Naoki Prize is one of two prestigious literary awards in Japan. I definitely prefer non-fiction. Now, I feel like taking a peep into the real life, where three famous novelists were involved, but I still have a pile of books to read📚 Phew!

🙏Could you correct my English? Thank you in advance.🙏　　Miki Today’s Lunch / 今日のおべんとう ⑬ Have you ever had gobō? Gobō is the Japanese name for burdock root and a popular winter vegetable in Japan. Before being cooked, it is hard and looks similar to a long slender tree root. But, when cooked, it has a mild and a distinct earthy taste. The root is very high in dietary fiber and seems to be beneficial for your skin, liver, large intestine, etc. When WWII ended, several POW camp officials were tried for having maltreated POWs by feeding wood. Could this be attributed to terrible cooks at the camp? Anyway, I hope there comes a day when this vegetable will be popular all over the world. Today, I mixed gobō with minced pork and made “tsukune”, which are, I would say, “teriyaki” meat balls. I had this obento in the hope that my skin will be smoother and shinier! [Here is the Japanese translation for those who are learning Japanese.] ゴボウを食べたことがありますか？ ゴボウとはburdockのことで、日本では人気の冬野菜です。 調理する前は固くて、細長い木の根っこのように似ています。でも調理すると、苦みなどはなく、独特な大地の味がします。ゴボウは食物繊維が非常に多く含まれていて、肌や肝臓、大腸などに良いとされています。 第二次世界大戦が終わった時、収容所の職員は、木を食べさせて捕虜を虐待したとして軍事裁判にかけられました。でも、これって収容所のスタッフが料理が下手だっただけじゃないの？　それはさておき、いつかこの野菜が世界中で人気になる日が来ると良いな、と思います。 今日は、ごぼうと豚肉のミンチを混ぜて、つくねを作りました。つくねとは照り焼きのミートボールみたいなものかな。私の肌がつるつるピカピカになることを願って、お弁当を頂きました。

Today’s Lunch Rihei chestnut is a hybrid of Waguri (Japanese chestnut) and Tianjin chestnut. Rihei is called the King of chestnuts as it is big, flavourful and very sweet. It accounts for 6% of the chestnuts harvested in Japan🌰 I cooked mochi rice with chestnuts, which is called “kuri-okowa” in Japan. Kuri (栗) means chestnuts. My mother makes kuri-okowa with Rihei. So, I did the same. The inner skin was so hard to peel because it sticks to the nut like glue. I didn’t want to cut my fingers with the knife because I have a piano lesson 5 days later. It ended up with taking 3 hours for me to peel off all the shells and inner skins. It was a real pain in the neck😭 Since I became allergic to matsutake mushrooms, the autumn gastronomy highlight has been kuri for me, and this kuri-okowa was delicious. My effort paid off and I am glad that I could indulge in this autumnal delight🍁🍂 I appreciate the bounty of nature🥰 利平栗は、和栗と天津甘栗の交配種です。利平は大きく、風味豊かでとても甘いので「栗の王様」と呼ばれています。利平は日本で収穫される栗の6％を占めています🌰 私はもち米を栗と一緒に炊きました。日本ではこれを「栗おこわ」と呼びます。 母は利平栗で栗おこわを作ります。 だから、私もそうしました。 渋皮がのりでくっつけたよう付着しているので、剥くのが大変です。５日後にピアノのレッスンが控えているので、ナイフで指を切りたくありませんでした。結局、鬼皮と渋皮を全部剥くのに3時間かかってしまいました。これには本当にうんざりしました😭 私は松茸アレルギーになって以来、秋の美食のハイライトは栗になりました。そして、この栗おこわはとても美味しかったです。皮剥きの努力が報われ、秋の味覚の喜びに耽る事ができてうれしいです🍁🍂自然の恵みに感謝します🥰

🙏Could someone correct me?🙏　 Miki When I got into to a whole foods store last Saturday, I saw a POP ad, saying that FOOD RESUCUE: Salvage food that would otherwise go to waste. A shelf filler was placing many bags there. She told me that each bag had a set of 3 packs of salad chicken and 2 packs of small hamburgers. I grabbed one bag and felt like I was a mini superhero. After I got home, I noticed that the set was called a “Giri Giri Set.” I felt disappointed. “Giri giri” means “just barely made it”, barely OK”, “barely accepted”, etc. It felt like I was being told, “You just made it to our discount. Woohoo!” I realized that I did good thing just because I wanted to feel good about myself. Also, this reminded me of the Japanese saying, “Mono wa iiyou (ものは いいよう). The English equivalent is “A good tale ill told is a bad one” or “ Smooth words make smooth ways.”