London, Holland, Japan
We would like to share our little ‘in-house-news’, which, otherwise getting rotten. While everyday updates are a bit difficult, we will try to assure you with accurate & informative topics/stories we come across in everyday life.
Neither of us is a native speaker of English, however, we both have lived in London for the last two decades. If you see some (or severe) imperfections, please do not hesitate to let us know. We would like to keep up with the language. Thank you for visiting our site!
Fiber-optic is arriving!
The Hague is the first city to have Fiber-optic in the Netherlands! Yeay!!
As you may know, the most parts of the city is covered by brick pavements. Herringbone layout is very beautiful.
I have thought previously that it was fixed permanently and when thing like an earthquake happens(very unlikely here though), it would be nightmare to dig all out by shovel car. Then Of course, new bricks to lay would be too far too expensive and the beauty would be lost…
No. It isn’t the case!
The pavement’s bricks are laid on sand and a team of people like four or five can dig up a street by scoop, can insert cables & put the bricks in place within a half day.
We had our pavement removed in early December for the Fiber-optic cables. They came in the morning, by the end of the day all bricks were put back as perfect Herringbone.
Not only Fiber-optic came, the uneven surfaces were laid newly, it looks neat and beautiful !
Yeay! It’s very promising. We will have super fast internet soon in the Hague!
新年おめでとうございます。
お正月はやっぱりお酒に限るっ、と前から気になっていた月桂冠、買ってきましたよー。
京都のお酒でお正月感バッチリです。
普段はワインばかりなので久々の日本酒、キリッとしてて美味しいです。
イギリスのスーパーではこう簡単に日本から輸入されたお酒は売り場にないのでこれはやはり欧州最大ののロッテルダム港があるおかげなのでしょうか。嬉しい限りです。
お正月といえば、実はお屠蘇が大好物。
…あのハーブたっぷりの甘いお酒、そこらのバーの日本酒カクテルより西洋の人に受けると思うんだが。
そうだ。今度ティーパックをいれて作ってみよう！
美味しく出来たらアップしますね！(しばらく日本酒にハマりそうな感じ)
地上スタッフの休憩時間の束縛になるからという理由で乗せてもらえなかったアムス発ヴエリング、その後も同じ理由でアドリア航空のスロベニア行きに乗り損ねた事があります。アムス空港のゲートの閉鎖が異様に素早い事は以前にもお話ししましたが最近空港の中まで入るのに異常に時間がかかります。
ここで言う中、というのは
手荷物検査の後、
つまり免税店がある場所、
です。
空港では通常まず始めにスーツケースなどの預ける荷物がある場合カウンターに荷物を預けます。搭乗券が必要な場合、ここで受け取ります。
それから搭乗券をかざして入る自動ゲートへ進み手荷物検査へと進みます。←この自動ゲートの直後からが長蛇の行列なのです。
免税店が並ぶ場所に行き着くまでに約１時間が普通、になってきました。
新し物好き、綿密に計画をする事が得意でハイテク大好きのオランダの事ですからもう既に解決法はあるのだろうと思われます。
しかし、その計画実行までには人の数が全~然足りていません。
日本やロンドンの各空港に設置されている様な、手荷物検査前に搭乗券をかざして入る自動ゲートはスムーズに通れます。
行列の先にある手荷物検査も最新機器を導入してあって液体類も電子機器類もカバンから出さなくて良い、という素晴らしいものです。
自動ゲートを入ってからその素晴らしい手荷物／人体スキャナーに行き着くまでに三、四十分ぐらいかかります。
何故かというとその機器類を監視する人が十分いないからです。
監視できる人が足りていないからか設置されているその素晴らしい機械の約5割が使われていません。
それなのに「僕のシフトは後5分なんだよねー」
と明るく他の同僚にアナウンスしホントに5分後には人だかりを横目に残り少ない荷物検査レーンを閉じちゃったりします。乗り遅れるのでは、と心配する旅行者を認識しつつゲートの閉鎖処理をできるのはチョット日本だったら有り得ない事かなぁと考える時間ができるぐらいノロノロと行列は進みます。
その後のパスポートの自動検査機器も半分が閉鎖されている事がほとんど。それも日本の入国審査に導入されている物にそっくりの最新機器と思われる物なんですが。
（出国スタンプはこの機械の後にスタンプを手にしたおじさんが待機してるのでそこで押してもらいます。）
免税店をお目当てにしている場合は特に早めにチェックインを目指しましょう♪
Where do you get the best Smoked Salmon from?
It probably is from Scotland and it must be ‘Purrfectly’ cared !
These cats know How to select best fish and How to smoke :)))
Rejecting large-sized salmon is, of course, Purrfect solution!
This is really good one.
“A Homemade-Panko maker”
You can make Panko out of yesterday’s baguette and left over bread.
So, wholemeal bread Panko is easy-peasy!
When Panko is made from yeasty bread, the deep fried meat tastes better.
And of course, this is only 100 Japanese yen!!!
I just could not resist buying this “¥100 Kitchen Scale”.
Do you believe the price??
Anyway, with hope and scepticism, I tried for a few recipes.
The result is that it is usable & useful indeed.
Usually recipes involve yeast, it anyway tell you to adjust the amount of flour or water.
This scale can weigh up to a kilo with a minimum measurement of 20g.
So for people like me – not so great with making pastries = impatience for precise measurements, this kitchen scale does good job and for occasional desires for baking.
Yet I cannot recommend for recipes requiring grams to grams measuring, this is a compact and probably great for the rear of your caravan. Another great finding!
For having Yakisoba or Ramen, this Dishwasher safe nonslip chopsticks become very useful. Oiliness can be removed in the machine!
And it serves very well for several months, even after everyday machine-wash.
This is one of the products I repeat buying.
If you don’t put them in Dishwasher, then it would probably serve you for several years. Very durable!
I was sceptical when I saw it. How does it work?
Is it safe to use?
Is the plastic container not going to melt?
No problem!! No melt-down and no stink, it is durable!!
Also this can go to dishwasher, so it is easy to look after too.
This is very handy for cooking frozen Chinese Ban to Syumai, or vegetable.
Potato comes out just perfectly on skin. So within 3 minutes, we have a jacket potato!!
This is the most innovative cooking chopsticks I’ve ever used.
It has a useful 5cc spoon at the other end, also has a folk that you can pick up slippery or large objects.
The 5cc teaspoonful is very handy for seasoning of little salty like soy sauce and oyster sauce.
Often Japanese recipes come with 2parts soy sauce to 2 parts Mirin, the spoon become really handy during quick measuring.
And they are Dishwasher safe!!
Many visitors to Japan think of Japan as exotic and expensive place to go.
Indeed, price of the acoomodation can be very high if it is well located in big cities.
Many Youtubers have uploaded videos of street food to groumet resturantes from Japan, you would probably already know that dining out can be extremely cheap and tasty.
In this topic, I would like to share my love for Hyakkin, which is ‘100yen shop’.
It is worth visiting once!!
Highly recommended. The most well known is Daiso, Cando is another good store.
You can find all sorts of things for 100Yen. It can be very good quality made in Japan, the findings feels really awesome.
I will upload example photos one by one to share my best findings from recent trip to Japan !