Something I've been meaning to blog about, but haven't gotten around to. I have discovered not one, but two, yes, TWO new uses for a rice cooker!
Now, I've had conversations about rice cookers before. I talked to my friend Jenn about rice cookers and how I don't know how to cook rice without one. She doesn't know how to cook rice with one, heheh.
So yes, I love rice cookers. I was even more impressed when I read about a recipe to make banana bread in a rice cooker. It appealed to me since I don't have a real oven. So I came up with this great idea. I filled the pot with water and chicken bones, and left it overnight. The next day, I had some fantastic chicken stock. This has some great potential. Who'da thunk a rice cooker would work as a slow cooker? Who needs a crock pot?
I howled with laughter when my friend Mel and I were talking about rice cookers during a cooking class a couple of weeks ago. We talked about how dry it is these days since we have our heaters on all the time. Mel's solution: she filled her rice cooker with water and put it in her bedroom. She uses it as a humidifier.
Necessity is the mother of all invention...and creative uses for what you have.

This weekend I went on a ski trip with the kiddies from my school. Over 200 students and about 15 teachers went by bus to the prefecture north of us, Tottori. (Yes, we have made jokes about "Tonari no Tottori," for those that get it). Mount Daisen is a big mountain. It's SO big that "Daisen" means "Big Mountain" in Japanese (and Chinese too, if you think about it). The teachers were somewhat shocked when I said I wasn't a good skier. They seem to think that all Canadians are Olympic-calibre skiers. When the teachers told me that the hills were not steep and not to worry, I was relieved and thought maybe it's a dinky mountain. A search online told me that Daisen is taller than Tremblant. Doh. This picture was taken on the Sunday afternoon from the bus on the way home. For those astute readers, it is indeed volcanic. And big.


Saturday was the Japanese holiday known as Setsubun. Beans are thrown at the oni (ogre, demon) to chase it away. Children yell "oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi" which pretty much means "ogre out, good luck in." I wore an ogre mask on Saturday, much to the delight/horror of the students. I scared a few, and made quite a few laugh. Later that night, I made a snowman and stuck the mask on it. Literally, oni wa soto. The teachers were impressed that I'd captured the spirit of the Japanese language and culture in such a way (I just thought it was funny....).

While skiing, I mastered the 2 easiest slopes. The easiest one...well, I'm not sure if that's even difficult enough to be considered a bunny hill. I practiced on an easy one, and then the teacher I was with convinced me to go one up. When I got to the top, I was shakin' in my boots. It was HIGH. I wasn't sure if I was more scared of skiing down it, or the sheer height of it. I made sure to take some good pictures because I didn't think I'd go back up there again. It was a gorgeous view and you can see the ocean in the distance. Also notice the steep drop a few meters from where I took the picture. I wiped out halfway down the hill, and thought it was absolutely hilarious. The other teacher was so concerned, but I assured him I had fun falling! I probably could've done the hill if I tried again, I think.

Here is a view of the beast from the bottom. It's long and kinda steep, especially at the top. I had no problems after I wiped out tho, so I think the slope eases up a bit after the halfway mark. We stayed at a lovely place called Hotel Daisen. It was rather ryokan-ish. Here is a picture of the room I stayed in with 3 other teachers. There's a little sitting area by the window and there were lovely giant pines right outside the window.

That was pretty much my weekend adventure in a nutshell. I must say, teachers here get serious respect and special treatment. It was a fair walk from the bus in the parking lot to the hotel itself. They sent a little truck with treads to pick up the teachers' luggage. Meanwhile the poor kids had to tough it out, carrying all their crap uphill in a fresh dump of snow. We also got to toss our stuff in the truck again to load it onto the bus when we left. I believe teachers got free lift passes for the weekend. I think I also got free ski rentals. In the teacher rooms, we got a thermos of hot water and a tray full of teacups and snackies. Not to mention towels and toiletries. Oh, and we had a washroom (read: squatty toilet) ensuite. We got our futons put out in the evening and put away in the mornings. We had constant coffee service to our tables set up in the lobby (as a sort of school check-point). And on top of that, I inexplicably got some money refunded to me yesterday. All the teachers did. I didn't quite understand why, but I didn't argue.

The weather this weekend was absolutely gorgeous. There was a dump of snow while we were driving up on Friday, and it was so snowy that the busses had to stop to put chains on! I was impressed. There was so much snow that I felt really homesick. I wistfully looked out the window and told everyone it was just like home. I ran around outside jumping around and going "wheee, it's so warm" while everyone was huddled up and complaining of the cold. The ski conditions on Saturday were absolutely perfect, but overnight it'd warmed up and on Sunday the hills were a little icy. It was SO warm on Sunday tho, that I would've skied in a fleece and down vest if I'd brought one. It felt like spring in Ottawa - so warm yet still so much snow.

Well, 200+ kids (most of whom were skiing for the first time) and about 15 teachers (most of whom are very good skiers and half of whom brought their own skis), and only 2 trips to the hospital and 1 broken wrist. Thank goodness we have a school nurse. She was definitely popular this weekend! Chalk up another interesting and adventurous weekend in Japan.