Since I have come to Japan I have taken up the specialized art of making "Ume Boshi", or pickled plums. The process is fairly involved and you have to be extremely careful that you don't allow any mold to get in. Here is my recipe:

Ume Boshi

Ingredients:

• 5kg "ume" (plums)

• 500g "shio" (sea salt)

• 1500g "aka shiso" (red beefsteak plant)

• 35% white liquor

Step 1:

• destem ume with toothpick, wash in water, rinse

• dry thoroughly overnight

• wash vessel, "omoshi" (stone weight), "ita" (wooden plate) and dry thoroughly

Step 2:

• wash hands, sterilize in alcohol

• sterilize vessel, omoshi, ita with boiling water, then alcohol

• sterilize ume in alcohol

• rub ume with shio - don't overdo it

• layer ume/shio/ume etc. in vessel

• note: use 10% shio (if pickling 5kg of ume, use 500g shio). Don't use too much!

• pour 250cc alcohol into vessel

• place ita and omoshi over ume (be sure to use as heavy a weight as you can get - 20kg or so should do it)

• cover top of vessel with saran wrap

Step 3: (crucial step)

• watch for liquid rising over ume. This takes about 3-7 days. If liquid does not rise, then "kabi" (mold) can set in and ruin everything so be extremely careful.

• if liquid does not rise, add alcohol and pray

Step 4:

• sterilize hands

• carefully remove wrap, omoshi and ita

• add about 1500g of aka shiso (good luck finding that outside Japan). Don't add too much!

• re-sterilize ita and omoshi, then replace them in vessel and cover with fresh saran wrap

Step 5:

• occasionally check liquid for mold. If there is a white scum on top you have problems and need to add more alcohol and dump in more shio and then pray for a miracle

• leave for about 35-40 days (the end of July in Japan)

Step 6:

• carefully remove ita and omoshi

• sterilize tools in alcohol

• remove aka shiso and ume with "ohashi" (chopsticks) and place on washed slats

• put ume out in the sun for four days. Take in every night except for the last night where you must leave it out to finish the process with a night dew

Step 7:

• replace shiso and ume in broth

• wash and sterilize (boiling water and alcohol) the vessel lid

• cover vessel with lid and then fresh saran wrap; close in black garbage bag (keeps dust and light away)

• leave in a cool, dark place until January 1st.

And when they come out you can enjoy eating the saltiest things in the whole wide world. They taste really great with a big bowl of rice.

Feel free to copy this page and put it in your recipe book. When you are feeling "international" one day you may want to give it a whirl.

So why am I talking about Ume Boshi you are probably asking yourself. This is a very traditional Japanese food and many people now-a-days don't know how to do it properly. I have learned a lot of interesting things during my more than 7 years in Japan and sometimes I even had my camera with me! On those fortuitous days, I tried to take a picture of what I was seeing so that I could "capture the moment". Since Mayu was born and raised here, she has even more interesting photos and if you are really nice to here, she might just show you one or two. We just thought that we might like to share some of those moments with you.

Until I was 24 years old I lived with my family. We never moved from the house that they bought just before I was born. I was really comfortable there and thought I could live there forever.

Then I took a big step and my first move was to Japan, of all places! Talk about stepping out! It was a big move from "big city" Canada to "megalopolis" Yokohama, Japan. A year later, when the old working-holiday visa ran out my new girlfriend, Mayu, and I decided to try living in Canada for a year so she got herself one of those visas and away we went. We lived in an apartment and enjoyed every minute of it (except for my unemployment).

After that year was up, we came back to Japan to live in a prefecture on the Japan Sea side of the country. For three years we lived in a small town called Ono, in the prefecture of Fukui. It is pretty deep in the mountains so there was a lot of snow and Mayu, not coming from snow country and having to drive through treacherous mountain roads to work every day decided that after my contract with the Japanese Board of Education ran out (I was on the JET Program; Japan Exchange Teaching) we would move to a place nearer the city and with less snow.

Now we live in a great big farm house made of clay, straw, tin and wood. Cold in the winter when the wind whips through the walls and really hot and sweaty in the summer (no insulation or A/C here). We love it and wish we could stay here forever but as it is a rental, we will have to eventually make tracks again.

If you are interested in where we live, what the neighborhood and the local people look like, then this is the place for you.

(note: Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and Japanese can get a reciprocal one-year visa that permits them to work up to 20 hours a week in order to finance their cultural travels through the abovementioned countries. Check your local embassy for more details)