My Crazy Trip to Japan Travel Memoir

Posted on January 15, 2023 by moonbridgebooks

I did it! After 7 years I finally put together my notes, memories, and photos and published a family-only little travel memoir of the October 2015 first-time trip to Japan I took with my sister and our daughters to see the land of our heritage and to meet cousins (who could not speak English). That week-plus visit was so challenging for me as to be almost ridiculous. Why? A couple of my language school friends had gone with few Nihongo skills and had a great time. I could speak rudimentary Japanese although I could not understand much when people spoke it back to me (in rapid-fire words I did not know yet). Organized and detail-oriented me had everything planned out with copious notes. Yet still we were “lost” so often it was maddening – I had a bucket list to attend to and no time to waste.

That was probably the problem. I am not a particularly good traveler as I like everything just so with no bumps in the road, and I do not like to be the leader. Since I and most of our group would likely not ever go back to Japan, I wanted to get the most out of that trip. We had only one tour booked and that was just an overnighter, otherwise I was the illiterate guide in a foreign land. I had nervous nightmares beforehand and quite a few came true, hence the title of our book.

The family-only paperback of My Crazy Trip to Japan (via Lulu.com) only went to us travelers, and they loved reliving the memories. Then my dad wanted to read it so I had a copy shipped to him. He and my stepmom LOVED it! When I posted about it on Facebook and told some friends, quite a few wanted to read it. I did not want to publish it for others since it had some family-personal details and photos of us and, most importantly, I did not want to scare people away from visiting Japan. Japan is an amazing country of impressive ancient history mixed with modern plus beautiful rural areas we all fell in love with! With so many others loving their Japan travels with no problems to speak of, I knew it was just me, my OCD personality and expectations, travel inexperience, and some bad luck.

Well, I just put the e-book version on Amazon through its Kindle Direct Publishing arm. I did know how to format the manuscript for e-book and it looks good. KDP has a super-limited cover creator that re-created the one I made for the Lulu paperback original well enough. This e-version is edited to alter the names of my reticent Japanese family members but my fellow travelers were fine with using their real first names. I removed the photos with us in them for our (their) privacy, whether they cared or not. I was pleased to see the photos showed up very well and placed correctly. KDP will take a paperback-formatted manuscript and auto-convert to e-book, but I only uploaded directly for e-book since I figured no one would really want a print version. I priced the e-book as low as possible ($2.99) to still get the 70% royalty (minus Amazon fees). It is available almost worldwide, for laptop and most any device, and it’s free for Kindle Unlimited customers.

So if you’re interested in a boots-on-the-ground experience of my challenging trip to Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, and the Japanese Alps, I welcome you to read – and leave review comments please. You can laugh, but I’m not over my exhaustion yet!

My Crazy Trip to Japan e-version

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Merry Old Christmas Stuff

Posted on December 24, 2022 by moonbridgebooks

Since our kids are grown and we have no grandchildren yet, I’ve been putting up just a 3-foot tree. Sometimes real, sometimes not. This year not. As I pulled out our rather sad little old fake tree I noticed my mom’s sadder little old fake tree. What should I do with that scraggly thing with the frayed needles? Mom wired small pinecones on it to “look natural.” Just like her to do something like that. Mom has been gone ten years now and her little tree pulled at my heart.

I put my tree on the end table by the window in our living room and put my mom’s tree on the floor in the corner by the TV and bookcase. My little tree has colored lights and some shiny German ornaments but on my mom’s tree I put a strand of red wooden beads that are supposed to be like strung berries. More natural, like the pinecones. I put a few of my oldest ornaments on it, some from my childhood and some wooden ones made by my mom’s friend years ago. I added a couple clusters of shiny fake berries – Mom would have approved. And just like that, I love that scraggly little tree. A Charlie Brown Christmas moment.

Merry Christmas! Wishing all a warm and safe holiday season and a new year of good health and many blessings!

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Homemade fresh pumpkin pie – yum!

Posted on November 13, 2022 by moonbridgebooks

Naughty Squirrel Nutkin destroyed one of my pie pumpkins! I always buy two and brought the other in to safety. Because I MUST have fresh pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving! My sister clued me in to using fresh pumpkin puree a number of years ago and I cannot go back to using canned, and I especially do not want a storebought pie. The recipe she (now we) use does not have all those spices like the usual pies, which can be intense. This recipe only uses cinnamon, and the simple ingredients make for a lovely, light, custardy autumn pie with vanilla accent.

People love this alternate version of the often not-that-well-liked usual pumpkin pies. Of course, I only use Penzey’s cinnamon and vanilla – or that from The Spice House (a Penzey online relative). Quality matters, especially when baking. I’m sharing our “secret” recipe, below.

Homemade Fresh Pumpkin Pie

1.5 cups fresh pumpkin puree*

3/4 cup sugar (I use less)

1 egg

1/2 cup milk (the mild flavor of oat milk probably okay)

1.5 tsp real vanilla

Preheat oven to 375F. Mix all ingredients together using a blender. Pour into a smaller-sized, not deep-dish unbaked pie shell. The aluminum pans from the store are the right size. I use a homemade graham cracker crust with cinnamon and ginger added. Carefully push the filling up a bit along the sides so it doesn’t shrink from the crust while baking. Sprinkle cinnamon across the top – don’t forget! Bake about 45 minutes until set, like a custard pie. Cover crust edges with strips of tinfoil if it starts getting too brown.

*Cut a pie pumpkin (not the big Halloween ones) in half and clean out seeds. One at a time, place a half cut side down on a glass pie plate and add water to about 1/4 inch high. Use a paring knife to cut slits in the skin. Microwave on High for about 5 minutes. Keep microwaving, checking every few minutes, until flesh is soft and can be scraped out into a bowl. Repeat with the other half. (Alternately, bake cut sides down in the oven at 350F until soft.) Puree the flesh with a blender. Unused puree can be put in your breakfast oatmeal or yogurt or added to pancake batter to make amazing fluffy orangey pancakes.

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