I visited a relatively new museum called Kagoshima Museum of Environment. It was a small understated place but I really liked the installation that they had on the wall. It was made out of grids each consists of a collection of random abandoned objects landed on the Japanese seaside. They are fundamentally rubbish items but they are fun to look at like this and make you think & dream (as some of them were drifted from overseas). I like this kind of piece of art.
My grand parents used to live in this house in Ibusuki – country side of Kagoshima. No one lives there anymore but my mum and aunties look after it and spend their weekends sometimes. I love this house, it’s so old and full of old timber.
I enjoyed making Akumaki the traditional preservative food with my aunties and cousins.
How to make Akumaki?
Wash a lot of bamboo shoot skin,
Wrap a cup of sticky rice with the bamboo shoot skin and tie them with the strings,
Boil them in Aku (the plant based ash diluted water) in the biggest cast-iron pot that you can find for over 2 hours – make sure to keep the fire going.
That’s it – simple but hot and heavy duty.
Allocate them for your friends and family.
To be honest, I like making them more than eating…
I attended one of my cousins wedding in the beautifully converted manor house built in the 19 century. It was once owned by one of the prince of Shimazu clan in the Satuma domain (it is now a part of Kagoshima prefecture) that played a major role in the Meiji Restoration that led to enormous changes in Japan’s political and social structure.
The garden was so perfect and flawless, looked almost like a beautiful painting.
One of my favorite things of Kagoshima the volcanic mountain Sakurajima on the background.
I was aware that I hadn’t been updating the blog FOR A WHILE, but I was not aware that nearly 6 months had gone since the last update… now that is pretty slack of me.
I have been working on a few smaller projects this year, taking it slow under the current economic climate with its vague future.
In the mean time, I went back to Japan for 1 month – it’s my first proper holiday in the last 3 years! I am going to upload some of the photos that I took while I was there…
