Ochazuke no aji

Posted on 2008/06/09 23:32:14 (June 2008).

[Sunday 8th June]
We'd stayed at my brother's house the night before, and so were woken up early by the kids.

After breakfast with the family, Adrian gave us a lift to the station, and we were back in London by 11.

The weather was quite lovely day today, and we originally planned to go and sit out in the garden for some of it, but ended up lethargic and just stayed in most of the day, with the exception of a trip out to the supermarket.

I fancied a G&T in the afternoon, and we'd ran out of 'G', so at the supermarket I got a new bottle. Ever craving new and different things, I thought I'd give Blackwood's gin a go this time. It was jolly nice - very refreshing.

Made curry for dinner, although was a little disappointed with the end result. Every time I make mutter paneer it seems to come out differently. I remember a while back making one that came out very well indeed (apparently over a year ago!) and since then I've never quite been able to recreate it. Ho, hum.

After dinner we watched an Ozu film Chie had recently got from Love Film - Ochazuke no aji. The title means "the taste of green tea on rice", which was in this context a metaphor for the simple things in life.

It was a tale of arranged marriages and the Japanese class divide, both aspects of Japanese culture which have gradually dwindled away over the last 50 years. It featured all the usual telltale traits of Ozu films, the first person perspective shots of the actors during dialog, the strange cut away scenes, the gentle observation of a country undergoing huge cultural change, and best of all my favourite Chishu Ryu, albeit only in a small part in this one.

Weekly New Year's Resolution Status:

1) Doing stuff in London. Pretty good here - went to see that musical my friend from work was in on Thursday, plus also a nice stroll through the centre on Saturday afternoon.

2) Meeting up with old friends. Did pretty well here too (although without any planning on my part) - saw Simon Friday night / Saturday morning.

3) Exercise bike. Not as good as previous weeks here - only got on once this week, and wasn't feeling 100% either, so just did 20 minutes / 7.4km / 152.8 cal.

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