A Quiet Day at Home

So, all my friends went to Universal Studios Japan (USJ) today. They invited me to go, and it was a tough decision... on the one hand, it's an exciting cool theme park with state-of-the-art technology and thrilling rides, and a group of eight of my good friends was going. On the other hand, I've been burning my candles at both ends for an awfully long time, and I've been feeling a real need for some downtime. Plus I have never had any interest whatsoever in USJ.

I ended up not going, and I stayed home doing exciting things like: buying one of those blue tablet things for my toilet, scrubbing underneath and behind my bath, doing laundry, washing dishes, and organizing my files. I also managed to reduce my "starred emails" pile by 15 messages (from 243 to 227), and I put a dent in the enormous pile of ancient frozen foods taking up my freezer, some of them left by people who moved away so long ago that nobody here today even knows who they were...

I also finally got around to some tasks that were on my "to-do" list for a long time. One of them was preparing my karin-shu, which is a liqueur made of an odd fruit called "Chinese quince" in my dictionary. I'm not sure it's edible. Anyway, that's soaking now and should be ready in six months.


Karin-shu

I'm making some mikan-shu as well, which is a liqueur made of mandarin oranges. I made some ume-shu (often translated as "plum wine") over the summer, which came out very well, and in the past I've experimented with making prune-shu and strawberry-shu, which were both pretty harsh, although the prune-shu was much more drinkable. The strawberry-shu tasted like paint thinner with a slight hint of strawberry.


Mikan-shu

All of these things are basically the same idea - take some fruit, some sugar or honey, and a whole bunch of "white liquor", which is low-grade shochu (distilled sake). You put it in a sealed glass container and let it sit for several months, by which time the shochu, originally as strong and harsh as cheap vodka, becomes a nice, fruity liqueur. The fruits, on the other hand, absorb a huge amount of the alcohol, as will become immediately obvious to you when you bite into the plum sitting at the bottom of your ume-shu. :)

The karin is an extremely strong fruit, and it's very hard to cut, even with a sharp knife. As I was wrestling with the fourth one, I accidentally slipped and gashed one of my fingers on my right hand. I finished the karin-shu preparation one-handed, with my bleeding finger high in the air, and then I bandaged it up. It's not too bad of a cut, fortunately, but I have started noticing things that I do with my right hand. The two that I noticed today were (1) peeling fruit, and (2) opening bottles and milk cartons. Why do I use my right hand for these tasks? I have no idea.

Anyway, I'm going to finish packing up my summer clothes and camping gear and going through some piles before I call it a night. I didn't get to go on the Spiderman or Jurassic Park rides today, but I think I came closer to achieving some peace of mind.