Whimsical Japan

誕生日

2012-01-24T10:18:00.000-08:00

Well, it rained on my birthday, but I'm usually pretty good about not letting that get me down.

What a yummy day it turned out to be.

好きな「アローマ」でサーモンベネディクト

誕生日プレゼントとして贅沢なルルエモンでヨガマットを買ってもらっちゃって

好きなカフェでチーズケーキを

そしてまるでそれが満たさないように、夜にも久しぶりに「チーズケーキファクトリー」で誕生日夕飯を。

美味しい一日でした。好きな人と一緒に過ごせて嬉しかった。ありがとう、亮ちゃん。

Japan Day 21Last Day in Japan 2011

2012-01-05T13:13:00.000-08:00

この引き続けてきた日記をここまで読んでくれて、ありがとうございました。お疲れ様でした。いよいよ終わりになります。

Ryo's dad left really early in the morning. We went out to say goodbye but I guess he doesn't say much first thing in the morning. We finished packing, writing thank you cards; Ryo's mom called him downstairs to have a long conversation about how I don't meet their expectations which they'd made clear to me on our first night here. Ryo and I walked to the station for last minute omiyage, stopped by the bank so we could leave some money towards food money, got another Ohonopono book for his mom; ate lunch at Mos Burger.

We found a pomegranate (!) and a persimmon tree.

Says 'don't stand and pee here'.

The ceramics teacher brought over my bowl and cup, all finished! Thanks Danjo 先生！

We ate one last dinner together. Wow. It's fun how Japanese meals have so many little things.

Ryo's mom drove us to the station, then we took a huge, fancy, completely empty except for me, Ryo and one lady, charter bus to Haneda. We opened up the huge window wide and heaved sighs of reliefs.

Man, Haneda's so cool! We didn't notice on the way in because we were so beat, but there are all kinds of little cool shops with every kind of omiyage you can imagine available; we got maccha ice cream and it was awesome. If you're deciding which of Tokyo's airports to come into, definitely go with Haneda.

Ryo called both his mom and dad to say one last 'thanks for the thrills'.

And that was it.

I was still excited over the Japanese yogurt on the plane back. 単純だね、やっぱり。

読んでくれて、本当にありがとうございます。Thank you for reading.

Japan Day 20 Last day in Hakone

2012-01-05T11:51:00.000-08:00

This morning we went with the Japanese style breakfast at the Fujiya Hotel before heading out.

Then we kinda wandered around the few old shops down the street from the hotel.

Yuri took this commemorative photo of us at the world famous Fujiya dustball Hotel just before we checked out.

I'm not sure what the name of this place was we went next, but it was the most beautiful viewpoint and garden.

It looked like nothing much was around that area for a town, but then suddenly we walked into this like, almost movie set town,it looked like a samurai or ninja could come walking around the corner at any second. It was full of shops and vendors and people selling manju and hot yuzu lemonade and little toys and stuff...

After that we found this huge forest, where Yuri screamed and ran around and played for about 3 minutes till she tripped over a branch and didn't stop crying till we separated and they headed back to Chiba.

Japan has such cool ice cream flavors!! This sign advertises maccha, custard pudding, lavendar, black sesame seed, kyoho grape, caramel, strawberry, banana, white peach, twist, vanilla and strawberry twist, maccha and vanilla twist, 中華杏仁 (Chinese almond), mango, chestnut, purple potato, yuzu peel and tofu.

Finally we made it back to Kamakura after buying plenty of omiyage at Hakone's fun little omiyage district; dropped some off at one lady's house right away. It felt good to be 'home' and just do laundry and get organized and cleaned up and not be living out of a bag. I must be kind of a home body after all I guess.

Or maybe it's just that Kamakura's such a nice place, it's hard not to feel like coming home when you're here.

Japan day 19 Hakone Open-Air Museum

2012-01-05T10:51:00.000-08:00

This morning we met his parents at 8:30 in the fancy Fujiya Hotel Hakone restaurant. It was quite the little fufu breakfast. The view was amazing. And look at that tiny plate of fries!! For breakfast!

This was peeking outside one of the hotel doors when you walked back to our room:

After breakfast we went to the Hakone Open Air Museum. It was raining but cleared up later.

They had stuff made of salt.

It was really interesting listening to the tour guide talk about the sculptures here in Japanese. I think I'd enjoy taking more tours in Japanese, 'cause it's like learning twice as much at once - you're learning the content of his 'speech', but also getting listening practice in Japanese. I guess I kinda remember getting the same feeling when I used to take ski day trips by bus from Nagoya and the tour guide would explain how everything worked or have a vote over which movie to watch on the way home.

They had this cool little kids play area that could've been called Dr. Seuss Land or something. And the coolest part was that the parents had no choice but to wait for their kids to come out, because it was so intricate, they couldn't go in after them.

Ryo had a friend's wedding reception to go to so his dad and I dropped him off at Hakone Jinja. This is the torii there.　すごいでしょう？また行きたい！

We forgot our little stamp book, the 御朱印帳 (goshuincho) but I guess you can pay for the paper and glue it in your book later, so I forked over 300円 or so and this girl just gave us a little piece of paper with the stamp on it for this shrine that she'd already calligraphed earlier - it wasn't cool at all. Got to remember our 御朱印帳 next time.

Then it was back to the Hakone Open-Air Museum.

Lunch and a quick peek at the cool art books in the bookstore - I love this kind of thing.

That night we had dinner at a fancy sushi place. Like, a 'real' sushi place, I guess, where it's just a tiny little place with just the 6 of us at the bar and just two or three small tables behind us on tatami. There was another group from the hotel having some kind of big sushi party. I cannot for the life of me read a single thing on a sushi menu. Someday, far in the future, if I ever can, that moment is when I'll call myself fluent I think. :)

The taicho even whipped out the gaijin menu for me, but I soon realized I didn't know the meanings of most of the English names either, haha.

I thought I could handle a shrimp, if not the curled-up in their shells, covered in green slime snails everyone was eating, but I almost started to cry when I tried to take off the head and all this like, brain matter or something came out. Ew, ew, ew, ew.

It was a really long day. Five total hours at the art museum and another two at the sushi place; add to that some passive aggressive comments, plenty of awkwardness, some mocking and then the old dusty Fujiya hotel... It was draining.

Just for fun, and speaking of sushi:

Japan trip day 18 Ōwakudani & Hakone

2011-12-24T17:27:00.000-08:00

Today after a quick run through the Japanese McDonald's drive thru, which was very fun for me, and which I'll be doing frequently if I ever have a car in Japan, we headed to Hakone for the weekend.

Below is the view coming into town - the place sticking up in the middle is the Fujiya Hotel, which everyone'd been talking about nonstop since reservations were made months ago.

First stop though, was Owakudani.

It's hard to see what's going on in the picture below, but basically we're peeling egg shells here. Or rather, Japanese school children in their little yellow hats are.

I took a picture of the bag of eggs, but not the black eggs themselves. Ahh, you can imagine. Anyway, they were tasty. Like an egg.

This is the guy who pulls up the eggs from the boiling natural hot spring. It was really smelly.

We ate soba at a random place on the side of the road near Owakudani. Everyone was cracking jokes about how bad it was, but I couldn't really tell the difference, since I'm not a big soba fan to begin with. Japan's little mom-and-pop restaurants like this are so funny though - there's no one inside, it's totally silent - you're sure you've made a mistake and they're not open for business anymore - but then someone comes over and hands you a menu and then brings you water, then they start up the stove, and voila! It's like havin' lunch at your grandma's place.

We strolled around the gardens of XIV （エクシブ？） Hotel, where his sister's family was staying.

That night was the big event, a fancy dinner at Fujiya Hotel celebrating Ryo's dad's 還暦, his 60th birthday, which in Japan means he's completed one cycle of life and gets to start over as a baby. Everything was super expensive and small, lol, and I tried not to think about how it was costing $8 per bite.

At night we checked out the hotel's onsen but alas, the famous Fujiya Hotel failed to live up to all the hype. It was just a dim, dark, moldy-looking enclosed single bath, totally crowded with people. The rooms were spacious enough, but old and dusty and...smelly, like, I don't know if it was the onsen water smell or wood cleaner or what, but there was this awful smell pervading everything. I just kept picturing John Lennon and Yoko Ono staying here and shaking their heads at how behind the times Japan can be, lol.

Friday Oct 21 2011

Japan trip day 17 Yokohama Chinatown

2011-12-23T15:29:00.000-08:00

Today I went to two shrines in Chinatown - the last time I'd been there was over two years ago, just a few days after I met Ryo in person for the first time. At that time, I, who never prays, prayed that things would go well between us and that we'd be able to be together. And it worked! So this time, I prayed again: that we would be able to be strong together, help and understand each other, accept each other's flaws、not be quick to get angry; that we'd be full of love and that that'd be able to carry us through the difficult times.

Yokohama's 中華街　has so many fun things to eat, lots of little shops selling tea and dried fruit and keyholders and pudding and things; there are all these tiny little alleys and shady restaurants and signs warning that people will try to sell you chestnuts, but you shouldn't let them bother you. I wanna go back again, at night maybe, with Ryo.　きっと楽しいよね。

Thursday Oct 20 2011

Japan trip day 15 おばあさんとお墓参りに

2011-12-23T14:58:00.000-08:00

This frog was handing out tissues at the station.

Today was overcast and windy. We took the train and then a bus to the cemetery with Ryo's grandma, to visit her husband's grave. We lit incense and put new flowers there and poured water over the stone.

After, she took us to Goto, a tempura place... but she couldn't remember where it was, and Ryo and I were doubting its existence when finally we came upon it, lol. ああ、見つかって良かった。

Then we stopped by a friend of her's house. It was all very spontaneous. It's fun to see how everyone rushes to pick up and clear spots at the table, how they make tea right away and always have little cakes or sweets to put out. I guess my family didn't have much in the way of unexpected guests. We never did this.

We went to the ceramics studio and I put glaze on my cup and bowl.

That's me and Danjo sensei - it's his ceramics studio. He seems like a really cool guy.

The third day working on them - now they're ready to be fired.

Japan day 14 A rough day & Yokohama Izakaya

2011-12-23T14:27:00.000-08:00

Today I woke up at 7 and thought I'd read the Aida Mitsuo book I bought in Ginza for an hour or two before everyone else got up. Ryo's mom was up already though, and took the opportunity to question me while Ryo wasn't there - I totally got the third degree about everything - my divorce, my heart problem, a misunderstanding that'd happened a day or two earlier when I was told my sandals weren't appropriate (for visiting his aunt's house...) I should've got up and left; said I needed to go out for a cigarette; anything would've been fine; but I really believed that... I don't know, that she would accept me. That I would be enough for her.

We left the house, her and I, just the two of us... Originally it was on the pretext of us going to get a リンパマッサージ, a massage. Unfortunately it turned out to be just this lady's house, all the way in Fujisawa, a house full of dogs and cats - I apologized, explained I was allergic and wouldn't be able to go after all, and offered to walk around the neighborhood and wait for her to get a massage. Apparently though, I was the only one with an appointment that day - which was weird, 'cause what was she going to do while I was getting a massage - sit there next to naked me and talk to the lady?? Anyway, then I talked to the massage lady's husband in English for like half an hour, since he lived in the U.S. for a year 10 years ago or something... Finally we left, and I was so relieved we'd finally be going home, but then she stopped at a sewing shop.. and a power stone shop... and a muffin shop... and the grocery store... and we're driving in traffic jams...and it's Japan, so you've got to wait for a parking spot, and wait for old people to cross the street, and nothing is just...simple. I was so exhausted from listening to her and being social and upbeat and engaged and having this kind of little small talk conversation. I was so tired of walking and hungry and I couldn't buy anything because she would just judge it and talk about how I'd made a bad decision and say 「ふぅぅぅぅぅぅぅ」... When we finally finally got home, I actually cried for a little bit, I was so overwhelmed, and it took me a while to pull myself together. Sigh. Then we ate lunch and after Ryo and I got in a fight. Ahhhh, not a fun day.

At night we took the train to Yokohama and met Ryo's friend for dinner at an Izakaya. We had lots of fun izakaya foods and it was good, just the three of us - I don't do as well with big groups I guess, somehow.

We stopped at a konbini on the way walking home from Ofuna eki, and I bought Haagen Dasz maccha and pumpkin pudding ice cream, and my favorite 'nameraka' pudding.

At night there was an owl hooting outside. とってもすごいと思って興奮した私はみんなに聞かせようとしたけど、誰も興味なかったね。都会の子だからかな、私は。

Japan trip day 13 Asakusa's Sensoji & The Western Museum of Art

2011-12-22T17:42:00.000-08:00

That's the new Sky Tree in the background - you can see it from the front gate of Asakusa.

These little things were soooo good, and they were cheaper than all the other ones, 100円 each was it?

They had kakigori, meron pan, takoyaki, kids games... it was like a matsuri. If you're in Tokyo in the fall and can't find any festivals going on, just come here. : )

Those are all little keyholders of fake food!!!

After Sensoji, we went to the Western Museum of Art, in Ueno Koen. This sculpture by Rodin, right when you walk in, is so captivating...I think it was called 'Eternal Springtime'. ^

^This was a self portrait by the artist. すごいでしょう！

Ahhhh, what a day. I fell asleep in the car on the way back to Kamakura. When I woke up we were talking about where to go for dinner - we were supposed to go to some fufu soba place, but somehow we got talking about the things we'd done so far on our trip, and the things we hadn't yet that we still wanted to, and somehow Kappa Sushi was mentioned, and there just happened to be one next to Ryo's aunt and uncle's place, who we were to visit after dinner, sooooo.....

かっぱ寿司！やった！

Sunday October 16

Japan trip day 12 Taya onsen

2011-12-22T16:37:00.000-08:00

I loooove onsen. Today we finally got to go to one - Taya onsen. It took an hour and a half on foot from Ryo's house, lol, just past this rice field. They had brown water pools and there were a lot of people and I didn't feel entirely comfortable but when the wind blew outside my skin felt so good. Ryo was such a good sport to go with me. I found out later he only spent a short period of time in the baths, and was in the tatami 'lounge' the rest of the time, reading the paper and watching tv.

After that we took a bus to the station and I walked around the shops at 大船駅 while Ryo read a book at an always-super-crowded Starbucks. I struck up a conversation with some ladies at the bus stop - that's so fun, being able to understand everything they say, watching their reaction to my understanding Japanese - sometimes I'm so used to being a loner, I forget that I can interact with strangers.

I bought us pon de ring donuts at Mister Donut and stood in line for 20 minutes to buy them. Ahh, Japan. You still have so many not-evolved points, lol.

Japan day 11 運動会！4-year-old's sports festival!

2011-12-22T16:09:00.000-08:00

Today we all met to go to Ryo's niece's kindergarten 運動会, sports meet, in Chiba. I finally got to see what those are all about, and meet Ryo's sister's husband for the first time. My camera battery died right away, so luckily you'll be spared. It was pretty cute though, I guess - little kids running around and trying to roll balls and throw foam balls in baskets and dancing, playing instruments. The place was so big though, you couldn't get close enough to really see the kids' expressions... And it was held inside, which seemed kind of weird, since the kids practiced outside during the previous weeks. It lasted from 9am to 2pm. After that there was picture-taking and awards and Yuri's mom was a like, PTA member or something so she had to stay and do extra stuff.

We don't have these in the U.S., do we?

After we went to do お墓参り where Ryo's grandma's (ashes are?) buried. We ate おしるこ at a place called ゆめあん and that took a long time too. Drove and drove and drove in traffic jams and I fell asleep till Shinya dropped us off at Tsudanuma 駅. An hour and a half back to 大船駅, where we met Ryo's dad and waited half an hour for a taxi in the rain. Ate the bentos we bought at the station for dinner and then sat around the table talking for a long time.

It was a long day. It made me think I need a caffeine drip.

Japan day 10Ginza!

2011-12-22T15:33:00.000-08:00

A too sunny Shinjuku morning.

We walked to Ginza with his mom, stopping in bookstores, stationery and paper stores, kitchen stores, sweets shops and cafes, even the police station.

The memorial to Steve Jobs outside the Apple store. It was so weird - there were people like, camped out in front of the store. I don't know if they were waiting for something or what, but it looked like they were just there to show their support, their feelings of regret that he died, and appreciation for his life.

So many things I wanted to but didn't buy. Tiny envelopes to put money in to give to kids on holidays, or to adults for birthdays or lessons and things.

Ate at Maestro, at the top of a big department store. I'm sure they didn't have this type of American salad when I was in Japan two years ago.

It almost looked like New York in places, except cleaner and not so smelly.

We had fufu tea time at a rival of Ryo's dad's sweets company, Toraya.

I love fufu tea time. Especially when it comes with oshiruko.

I wanted to put that teapot in my purse.

Tokyo Tower in the distance, taken from Roppongi Hills.

I don't know why but I guess I'm not a big fan of anmitsu. This 'mall' in Roppongi was high class and cool though.

It's 'fu'!

I have a weakness for Japanese bakeries.

We met Ryo's dad for dinner in Shunjuku and the four of us ate at Aguri. It was busy and good, with lots of options for a pescatarian, including unlimited salad, which was really good.

Japan day 9 Daikanyama & Tokyo Dome

2011-12-22T14:47:00.000-08:00

We headed to Ryo's old university today in Tokyo today to see his old professors. We stopped at a little cafe on the way and had lunch.

We almost stopped at a love hotel.

But instead stopped at Freshness Burger.

We walked around tiny little boutique shops in Daikanyama.

Stopped at a konbini for onigiri and snacks and headed for Tokyo Dome.

The way they cheer for their teams here is incredible. I mean, they sing and chant, and there are instruments and flags and banners - it looks like a full time job just to be a baseball fan here.

We spent the night in Shinjuku at his dad's apartment. Look at the view...　すごいでしょう。

Japan day 8 Kamakura ceramics studio & cake shop

2011-12-22T14:10:00.000-08:00

We walked to Book Off and Itoyokado for 小説 and アンパン. It's a nice walk from Ryo's house to Ofuna station. About a half hour or so through quiet residential areas.

We saw a big snake, and two old geezers trying to catch it or something. That's it, in the middle of the picture. In the end it slithered into some tall grass next to a house and got away, lol.

We ate at a tempura place near the station for lunch.

His mom picked us up in front of the station and we went to Danjo 先生's 陶芸スタジオ and I worked on my little cup and bowl again, trimming and smoothing them out. Ryo was our photographer. :)

At first I was saying how I could do it all day, I was having so much fun, and I was drinking flower tea and listening happily to people around me speaking Japanese. After 3 hours though, my wrists started hurting and I was like fuck it, it's fine how it is, it has that 'unfinished' look, lol.

Ryo and I went to a little fufu cake shop up the street from the ceramics studio. This part of Kamakura in the fall is so beautiful, so quaint.

We ate nabe and namafu for dinner - soooooo good; then at night his mom showed me albums from the 300 pieces she made for a gallery opening she held in 2007. Sigh. Fall in Japan - so lovely.

Tuesday October 11th 2011.

Japan day 7Kamakura barbecue party, take 2

2011-12-22T13:25:00.000-08:00

Today we went to Ofuna station and saw Papa off to work.

Then Ryo's sister and mom wanted to take me shopping which was...awkward... After all this time I am still not used to the kind of direct questions Japanese people, especially women, ask, which would seem totally rude in the U.S. - 'Don't you ever wear like, sweaters? Or just that hoody all the time?' 'Don't you ever like, buy new clothes?' I suddenly came to see exactly how Ryo feels when he goes shopping with them. I made him promise never to leave me alone with them again to go shopping.

In the afternoon there was round two of the barbecue party, this time with the family. Everyone did the being surprised about Ryo marrying a 外人 thing, his cousin even going as far to say 心の準備が ... No one really tried to look at or talk to me much, but I guess these things take time. And anyway I know I shouldn't expect to have a close relationship with any of them, ever really, because that's just how it is. I know that but still I hope.

Look at the cute little cakes, again, that people bring when they visit someone's house! So cute and fancy. I love it.

JLPT1 2011 - また失敗したのかよ。。。

2011-12-04T20:13:00.000-08:00

Today was the JLPT.
I couldn't find my drivers license in the morning. I must have lost it on the street somewhere downtown or something.
We missed the exit for USC.

I didn't try sharpening my non-mechanical pencils Ryo bought me so I didn't know until just before the test that the wood would splinter and that they'd totally not work as pencils.
I forgot ear plugs so I had to listen to all the know-it-alls before the test - 'Look at all the idiots cramming before the test - if you don't know Japanese by now, geez.'; 'Why is it so quiet in here?' '-Everybody's scared, that's why.'...
The whole thing, from the very beginning, was much harder than any of the practice tests I'd been taking, and I'd taken 16 of them.
I couldn't believe the type of thoughts that were going through my head, not helpful thoughts, in the middle of the test: I'm going to get drunk after this. I'm going to walk out without even bothering to finish the test. I'm going to give up Japanese. This year of studying, this burying my nose in a textbook every single time we go to a cafe so I can pass, was all a complete waste of time.

It seems the test was harder than expected for other people too - I heard them saying they felt defeated. Yeah, that's a nicer way of putting it than how I was putting it in my own head.

I had just enough time to complete all of the vocabulary/grammar/reading section, but no time to check things
over. And I didn't have a clue what a couple of the reading passages were even about.

Compared to the old JLPT 1 which I first took two years ago, I hate to say it, but it seems like what I read on some random dude's blog who supposedly passed 1級 in July without even looking at a textbook, is true - it would have been better to just play video games and watch dramas and anime that whole time. It was almost as if the committee who created the test made it a point not to include any of the kanji or vocabulary in any of the 日本語能力試験1級 prep books.

Sigh. In any case, I'm done with 1級。 I definitely don't feel like retaking it again, ever.

It was another long 2 hour drive back to San Diego from Los Angeles. It's cold and my fingers are cold as I type this. Ryo is out to dinner with his friend who's come to visit us from Japan, and I feel bad for not being more...hospitable, but I just can't.　なんて落胆させるような一日だったんだよね。　ハァ。

Japan day 6 Kamakura barbeque party

2011-11-24T10:49:00.000-08:00

Even as we ate breakfast on Sunday, Ryo's dad was up and smoking eggs and cheese to get ready for the party being thrown for Ryo's friends.

I guess at their house, growing up, Ryo's mom did most of the cooking.

Ryo's people started showing up around noon, and we started cutting up and cooking food.

This was all the inner organs and junk from the squid, before they cooked it. I didn't try it.

It was such a long, sunny, exhausting day. People didn't start leaving till around 7. Even Ryo's grandma came out around sunset and sat on her little stoop and ate the veggies Ryo grilled for her. :) It was interesting meeting Ryo's friends though I guess. I think there would've had to have been a lot more alcohol, and less of Ryo's family involved if we would've been going to actually get to know each other and even have a chance of having a good time together without everything being super awkward. There was one girl who apparently was invited because she liked speaking English, but try as I might to engage her in conversation, she didn't seem interested at all and eventually went inside to join Ryo's family. Sigh. I couldn't help but think his mom was using the get-together as a last ditch effort to throw some Japanese girls in front of him. I know it's awful to say, but that's kinda how it looked.

Japan trip day 5 生麩!

2011-11-24T09:30:00.000-08:00

Today's breakfast - yogurt and sour rhubarb jam. Mmm! On this day, Saturday, we didn't do much but go to little shops around Kamakura for groceries for the next day's big party. The first shop was Fuhan. I tried their nama-fu manju or whatever it was called but couldn't eat it.

We bought sazae, turban shells (?) at the grocery store. I guess they're considered a really expensive, extravagant food.

I saw one of Kamakura's famous Enoden trains from the window of the meat and croquette shop by the station.

Hooray for fun drinks at the konbini!

Making mochi.

We ate lunch (?) at Starbucks.

That's Ryo's dad in the oshare purple shirt.

Ryo's sister and niece came to spend the weekend and Ryo taught Yuri-chan how to play Tiny Tower and Flight Control.

She liked my color/shape cards I gave her! It's so funny how girls like organizing and lining things up like this. I think it was after dinner on this night that she gave us a puppet show behind this couch - hilarious. She's so smart and creative, it's amazing.

For dinner we had sanma gohan, nama-fu, potato egg salad and miso shiru with some green vegetable in it.

Ryo and I still had jisa-boke and were taking kanpouyaku. I was being careful not to step on his or his mom's 地雷. It was all fun and new but exhausting and awkward too.

Japan trip day 4 Enkakuji, Kenchoji, Hachimangu

2011-11-16T10:34:00.000-08:00

We spent a long, fun but in the end exhausting day walking around Kamakura on this day, a Friday.

First we went to a Mos Burger 'cafe' along the shore. Yay!! Mos Burger!! Yum!

Then we walked around the touristy part of Kamakura, down to the station.

Finally we made it to Hachimangu!

That's the goshuuin, a fu-fu blank book to have stamped and calligraphed at each shrine, as a record of all the ones you go to. Ryo bought one for us. ♥

Next we went to Kenchoji. It was so beautiful.

This was the most beautiful calligraphy we had done of all the places we went to.

Next was Enkakuji.

This dude didn't seem too thrilled about drawing in our goshuuin.

After that we started the long walk home.

On the way we stopped at this tiny little cafe in the middle of nowhere called 'Fue' that Ryo's old classmate's dad runs. We drank fresh squeezed orange juice.

We saw a minomushi, bagworm, on the walk home.

Finally got back and had a snack of daifuku and tea.

Dinner was scallop and daikon soup and sashimi, eggplant and hojiki sarada.

It was a long, tiring but really great day. And autumn is such a great season for doing the shrine-hopping thing - so beautiful and pleasant.

Japan Trip Day 3 Yokohama!

2011-11-09T14:08:00.000-08:00

I had forgotten so many things about Japan - how the crows sound like people - the motorbikes coming and going, delivering newspapers at 4 in the morning. People with umbrellas all heading to the station. Vending machines all in a row. The school bell ringing slowly, dully.

We ate figs in red wine for breakfast - BREAKFAST! then his mom drove us to the station - we passed Hachimangu in the kind of touristy area near Kamakura station.

Before reaching Ofuna station, which we would walk to quite a few times during our stay

Mister Donut!

We took the train to and spent an exhausting day in Yokohama! Checked out the station...

Took a peek at the cute little pastries they have at Japanese Starbucks'...

Ate lunch at a Korean restaurant in the station...

Failed to get $120 or so from my still-active Japanese bank account...Went to Loft and Muji for pens and fun stationery stuff... Took a boat to Sakuragi-cho...

and finally made it back to the station, energy and camera batteries exhausted...

Had ebi-furai for dinner and again talked at the table after, which normally I would enjoy but I was just soooo tired, I could barely eat, let alone listen to and participate in Japanese conversation and then help with the dishes after... Ahh, jet lag is soooo rough - all I could do was swear I'd rest more the next day... and drink more caffeine.

Japan Trip day 2!

2011-11-09T11:00:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, October 5th, Kamakura was rainy, cloudy and dark all day.

I love Ryo's house, it's Japanese and homey smells.

Ryo was gone to an interview for a grant, one of the reasons we came to Japan this time, so his mom and I went to the grocery store, then came home and ate umeboshi onigiri and drank tea that tasted of campfires and burnt leaves. She made a little okazu with hijiki, chikuwa, agedoufu, carrots, dashi, shoyu, sugar and vinegar in it.

She told me about our fortunes, our futures (apparently she's a fortune teller... of sorts). She said my stars say I'm stubborn, just like her, and that I will be towards my kids, if I have any; that I'm sensitive, that it was good for me that my parents died, to become independent; that I should figure out what I can do to create, so I can channel my 気難しい (hard to please/moody) energy into making something good instead of just being difficult... She said Ryo and I both have the star of saving money, not wasting it. He has the star of

ぼーっとする, spacing out, so if I try to get him to do something he might not notice how important it is, or might say he'll do it later, which for me might mean later that day, but that he will be looking much more toward the future, thinking we have a long time to do things.

His mom taught a cooking class and two students came over so that was a big flurry of activity for a couple hours - I 'participated' and it was cool that I could understand everything, but I was still so tired and jet lagged and it was awkward trying to be the good little gaijin girlfriend.

For dinner we had the fish they made - aji furai.

His family's big on sitting around after dinner and talking, which was sooo hard for me with the jet lag - I had it so bad the first week or two - felt sick and just off - that I'd randomly fall asleep without saying goodnight to everyone. At night his mom made figs with red wine and the whole house smelled of them. We picked his grandma up from an elderly center she goes to a few times a month - when we greeted her (something that is soooo important in this family, always, always the greetings) she completely lit up when she saw Ryo. That was amazing to see, though Ryo's mom says she always smiles and looks happy but actually she's just hiding her true feelings.

Japan trip 2011 - Day 1 Kamakura

2011-11-09T10:08:00.001-08:00

Tuesday morning we walked around Ryo's childhood neighborhood after waking up at 6:30 and eating breakfast together quietly in the dark.

I found the source of the citrusy smell that pervades Japanese neighborhoods that I always thought was air freshener or toilet cleaner - this flower:

We ate 2nd breakfast with his parents and went into town to a couple of grocery stores.

We ate pasta for lunch at home

In the afternoon his mom took me to the ceramics studio she goes to and I made a bowl and a cup.

I'd forgotten how I love the breeze, the signs, the smell, the roads in Japan - especially the area around the ceramics studio, it was so quaint and lovely..

At night I made Thai curry for his mom and dad and us, and whether because I doubled the recipe, or because the water was different,... it bombed. Ah well.

日本に行ってきたI went to Japan!

2011-11-09T10:01:00.000-08:00

We got in Monday night October 3rd to Haneda and I was too tired after the flight to notice what a great airport it is. We flew from S.D. to L.A. and then to Japan on American. I forgot to take the melatonin I specifically bought so I could sleep.

We drank hoji-cha and ate pears at the big wooden dining room table with his parents at midnight and had a serious talk... I almost started crying a couple of times - exhaustion, nervousness, the pressure of his parents telling me I need to learn more about Japanese culture, be 社交的, listening to their lists of expectations, all while my body still feels like it's moving at 500 mph from the plane. Finally the futons were laid out, the bathtub explained, towels handed out, parents to bed, and we could sleep.

恩着せがましい

2011-11-08T07:19:00.000-08:00

I learned a new word. 恩着せがましい.

The English definition says condescending; patronizing. But the Japanese definition doesn't seem to have that nuance. The word comes from 恩に着せる - to want people to say thank you to you. That's a bit different from the image of 'condescending' or 'patronizing', isn't it? Just because you like when people say thank you to you doesn't necessarily mean you're acting superior to them - maybe you just innocently like to know someone appreciated what you did, to know you did something good for someone else.

Incidentally, I learned it after Ryo called himself 恩着せがましい, but interestingly, when I called him 恩着せがましい he got mad, lol. I guess maybe it does have a negative nuance after all. 気をつけて使いましょうね. (苦笑)

The JLPT 1... again

2011-09-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I filled out my application for the JLPT 1 today and mailed it in. Two years ago their system was hacked and credit card numbers were possibly leaked so this year everyone has to send in a check, lol. I actually almost forgot that the deadline is the end of September this year. My whole year of studying would have been for nothing!! Scary....

In case you forgot, which I haven't and probably won't until I finally pass, I took the test in 2009 and failed by a measly 16 points... I passed the JLPT 2 in 2008 with a pretty good score, though, and I feel better about the test this year, though I haven't taken any practice tests at all. Gotta find some old ones online.

I'm not sure if I'm totally ready or not, but I'm on lesson 26 of 31 in my kanji/vocabulary book...

and I've been doing speedanki like crazy...

That oughta help with the kanji and surprisingly I'm learning a ton of vocab too... I'm also still trying to listen to listen to and read along with song lyrics (really good practice for me), and I've got three or four good podcasts I listen to. I've got stacks of Japanese kids books from the library and self-help ones from Book Off ;) I'm going to Japan next month, hooray!! so that should help with listening....and then by the time I come back I'll only have a month or so till the test. Wow.

I'm wondering if I should be watching more Japanese tv for listening practice, and if I should be trying to watch the news or read news articles. Hmmm...

Any tips? What are you doing to study for the JLPT?

お互いに頑張ろう!

Little Tokyo

2011-07-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

We went to L.A. two weeks ago to the hospital for my echo.
Afterwards we celebrated the fact that it doesn't appear I'll be dying or having any surgeries soon, and lived it up for a few hours in the neighborhood around UCLA and then in Little Tokyo.

There were sooo many places in 'Westwood' to eat lunch - just standing at one intersection we could see like 10 places that looked good. :) We decided on bibimbap at bibigo! and that was interesting. I love eating outside, and surprisingly, it doesn't usually bother me sitting at the same table as other diners, which we had to do because it was so busy.

After that we stopped to buy cheap but good cookies at Diddy Riese.

Then we drove East to Little Tokyo.

Ryo almost beat me at Bananagrams. 'Genome'??? さすが. 研究者さんならでは言葉であった.

Of course we had to stop at Fugetsu-do for strawberry peanut butter mochi, but look what else they had!

Walked around some other little shops we'd never been inside.

I ate the takoyaki faster than I could take a picture of it, but we also had dango and imagawayaki, whose name I've finally memorized.

It was a good day.

San Diego Fair!!!

2011-07-28T12:48:00.000-07:00

Ahh the fair.

We got to ride a school bus this year! That's Ryo, a student of mine and a coworker of his. I think we invited them expecting they'd say no but surprisingly they wanted to come along. I guess no Japanese person can turn down a good festival. :) We ended up having a good, yet exhausting time, and while if it had been just the two of us, we probably would have pressed on, we ended up leaving before even seeing the photography or art exhibits, which had been my favorite part last year. Still a good time though.

I ate a corn with chili pepper and turned my student on to funnel cakes. Next time we'll get one with ice cream and strawberries. :) Ryo had a one pound hot dog right off the bat. My goodness.

The boys, to prove their manliness, tried and failed to win the girls stuffed animals.

Afterwards just three of us went to our favorite cafe and played 'five-in-a-row' or 'go-ko-narabe' or whatever the kids' version of 'go' is called.

It was a good, hot, fulfilling day.

Seaport Village

2011-06-20T13:04:00.000-07:00

We spent the morning and afternoon in Seaport Village yesterday!

We found the most beautiful bougainvillea along the trolley tracks on trellises.

Some boats in the harbor.

We had free tickets for a 'Seals' tour so for 90 minutes we drove past the airport, towards Point Loma and into the water over there. It was cold and the tour guide wouldn't shut up, but we saw sea lions and sea birds and it was windy which I love.

We got back to Seaport Village and fed the ducks, which is soo much fun since there are so many ducklings....If you go to Seaport Village, you really have to take some bread with you.

Had some tasty chai and a cappucino at Upstart Crow, and some cookies at the little cookie shop.

Stopped to smell the hyacinths.

We had parked at India and Ash underneath the Jacaranda trees and found the windshield covered in purple blooms. Soo nice.

I ♥ reading Japanese novels

2011-06-16T07:50:00.000-07:00

I'm halfway through 角田光代's 『対岸の彼女』.

It seems I like Japanese novels much more than short stories.

When I read I go along the lines with a pencil and make marks all over the place, rendering all my books un-resellable to Book Off. I still want to know every word so I usually look up the ones I don't know or have forgotten in my DS. It's amazing the number of new words I learn, and come up against again and again, which is cool 'cause then I can skip the step in my Japanese language-learning where I wonder whether the word or phrase is even commonly used or not.

I'm already wondering what I can read next. Any suggestions? What are you reading these days?

p.s. If you haven't already, check out 角田光代's other novel, 八日目の蝉. That one was more of a page-turner than 対岸の彼女 is so far. Wow, it's already been a year since I read that one...

Cake pops!

2011-06-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

I finally made these this weekend. The weirdest part was destroying a freshly baked cake. It was fun but sooo messy. Much more tricky than I thought, not letting the chocolate cake balls fall off when you're dipping them in the white chocolate, and standing them up to dry too. Good project when you have absolutely nothing to do all day long. ;)

It's weird - they look so cute and perfect, like they'd be popular in Japan. But there are no ovens in Japan to bake the cake in, and the $300+ microwaves that double as ovens over there aren't big enough to hold the 9 1/2 x 11 cake pan I used. I'm sure you could do it, but to me, these just seem very American.

やってみ!

3EB @ Temecula Balloon & Wine Festival

2011-06-10T12:45:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday after morning soccer and an afternoon nap, I shook myself out of my drowsiness to head up to Lake Skinner in Winchester, CA for the annual Temecula Balloon and Wine Festival to see one of my all-time favorite bands, Third Eye Blind!

I guess since it's out in the middle of nowhere, I assumed there wouldn't be that many people there but...

we ran into a traffic jam already 30 minutes away. Like, standstill-type traffic jam. It was a beautiful day out though, so I amused myself by sticking my head out the window and looking at all the roses and orange trees and grape vines going by and asking Ryo a hundred random questions.

What a cool, totally laid-back atmosphere when we finally arrived and parked and paid $26 each for admission. They had two different stages, tons of booths giving wine tastings and selling random things like they sell at fairs. Everyone was carrying wine glasses and beer mugs and listening to music and talking and having a grand old time.

It would've been nice to have gotten there a bit earlier - there was a ton to look around at and do; but as it was, we made it just in time to catch the last of Candlebox, buy a few drink tickets and find a good spot to stand for Third Eye Blind.

They even had the almond champagne from Wilson Creek! I'm totally getting that next time!!! :)

It was pretty surreal hearing Candlebox sing 'Far Behind' live. I never thought I'd see them in concert, and I hadn't heard their music since my dad used to play it all the time more than 10 years ago in his tiny apartment kitchen while making me and my sister breakfast when we'd spend the weekend over there.

There was a balloon glow, too, but it started at the same time as the concert, and Ryo'd done such a great job squeezing us in to a good spot, we couldn't give it up.

They played three or four songs I didn't even know, which surprised me, but everyone else knew the lyrics so they must have been from their Ursa Major album which I haven't heard. They played God of Wine, Losing a Whole Year, Semi-Charmed Life, Jumper, Slow Motion, My Hit and Run, Crystal Baller.. They didn't play Red Summer Sun or Camouflage. I wonder if those two aren't as popular or if they just ran out of time or what?..

I'm glad we went, and the drive back wasn't as bad as I thought, thanks to drinking a couple of teas that day, but it was so stressful being crammed together and stepped on and pushed and shoved, having beer thrown around; Ryo was bored and tired from standing the whole time. I guess I just expected it to be more like it was when I saw them some 10 years ago in Milwaukee; the lighting and the sound, the proximity to the stage, everything then was perfect and magical. Was it because I was younger then? どうかな.

Disneyland!

2011-05-16T13:28:00.000-07:00

For Christmas Ryo got us tickets to Disneyland, and we decided to go this last weekend. It'd been 15 years since I'd been to Disneyworld in Florida and all I remembered about that trip was a sudden 90 degree turn 10 or so stories up in the air on their Space Mountain roller coaster. I've been kind of wondering what the deal is with people and Disneyland, especially people who go again and again and again. I was excited to see what all the fuss was about.

They had a little town with all these fun, clean, old-fashioned buildings and it really looked like a real town. I actually had a fleeting wish that a real town somewhere could look that endearing. I guess that wouldn't be very original, though.

I was as impressed by the flowers and landscaping there as I was by anything else, I think. Maybe it's the part of me that's been cultivated by visiting shrines and temples in Japan. Maybe it wasn't that amazing, it's just that I wasn't expecting there to be that much green for some reason.

We rode a Mark Twain boat and a jungle cruise.

We ate lots of fun foods. Churros at $3.50 a pop were admittedly outrageous but sooo tasty. I had a still-warm, white chocolate covered macaroon that was to die for for just $2. They had delicious looking English toffee, and we had strawberry and chocolate ice cream, mint juleps and a pickle. Nom noms, as my sister would say.

Everything was bright colored and clean. There were so many people, it being Saturday and all. I feel like I kind of walked around in a daze for the first couple hours till I got used to all the people. I just couldn't figure out what all the hype was about. I mean people fly across the country to come here, right? It was exhausting, but Ryo let me take a 45-minute (本当???) nap with my head in his lap on a bench after lunch. ありがとう!!!! 優しい!

Space Mountain was the best ride. I screamed and laughed the whole time. Look at the guy behind us.

Indiana Jones was fun too, and surreal and... creepy. I thought I was gonna fall out of the car a bunch of times, and Ryo got me good when he put his hand on the back of my neck in the middle of it. I thought it was one of those giant centipedes or something from the movie.

We stayed till the show started at 9 but we were soooooo tired, we headed back before the fireworks. I feel like 11 hours at an amusement park didn't used to phase me, but I was still exhausted even all the next day. We're lucky to live so close to so many fun things that we can just go and come back over the weekend. It was a good experience and a great Christmas present.

Fun, Sneaky Ways to Learn Japanese

2011-05-04T08:27:00.000-07:00

Love learning Japanese, but need a little nudge every now and then to keep you motivated? The key is to make it fun and to keep trying new things. With an interest as wide as 'Japanese,' there are tons of materials available. Here are some I've used over the years that are good for people studying all levels of Japanese.

If you have Japanese stuff sent to your inbox, it's kind of hard to ignore it when you open your email, so it's really useful for making you get into the rhythm of Japanese first thing. One of the email lists I subscribe to for learning Japanese is About.com: Japanese. Most of the stuff is more beginner-oriented, but once in a while their grammar tips are useful, like this one for Wa and Ga. Their Phrase of the Day is always fun for learning natural expressions, too. They send you an email once a week.

Yookoso! does both a JLPT grammar-a-day email list and a kanji-a-day blog geared towards people studying for different levels of the JLPT. They've got a lot of other stuff over there, including plenty of links to other useful sites for learning Japanese.

If you like writing, you can post journal entries in Japanese over at Lang-8 and have them corrected by native speakers.

You can subscribe to the site All Japanese All the Time, and the guy who runs it always posts motivational stuff and interesting links to videos and stuff.

Eight hundred and eight towns are Japanese blog posts by a German girl who's been living in Japan for years and years.

Japanese podcasts are good - news, comedy, whatever you like. A friend recommended this one the other day, it's a kind of 子供の悩み相談. It's a good start, if you're not ready for all the formal words packed with kanji they use on the news.

You can check if you have a Book Off near you...

I discovered that our local library has tons of Japanese adult and kids books, and it's so easy to just pick one up and start reading it.

The point with learning Japanese is to have fun, right? Yesterday on a whim I looked up やがる on ALC and found all kinds of fun stuff. I can't believe I didn't know how to say 'smart-ass' or 'Fuck off' in Japanese before. (the latter of which apparently can also be translated as 'Don't come here again', lol.

There are a ton of other sites I've bookmarked over the years but these are the ones I look at on a regular basis. We don't have the JLPT here in summer, but I'm hoping to try for 1級 again in December... 頑張ってみようね!

p.s. Feel free to post a comment with any other sources you find useful for learning Japanese! 宜しくお願いします!

Favorite Japanese Songs to Learn Japanese from

2011-04-23T18:14:00.000-07:00

I love a good Japanese rap song.
The words spill out so fast and you learn so many of them.
I used to think I'd get really good and then have a few songs under my belt for spontaneous invitations to karaoke. Too late for that, now that I'm back living in the U.S., but you never know. ; )

Here are some of my favorite (確かに old but) good Japanese songs that helped me learn new Japanese words.

Dragon Ash's 'Fever', 'Under Age Song' and 'Viva la Revolution' are all really good for learning Japanese. Here, the lyrics to 'Fever'.

ありふれた毎日の日々の中降りてくるすべてのものに感謝
頭に微熱抱えたままもう一度前へ歩き出そうとする
焦るがゆえに迫りくる恐怖吐き出せないままそれは流れて
背負いきれると軽視した結果終りのないスピードレース開始
目標はまだ夢のまた夢で到達するにはかなり困難な道
着地成功は難しく世代の知性は足踏み状態
それでも何か考え出す脳行き止まりと知らずに前進
つぶれかけたこめかみで感じながら方向見つけてさらに前進

生きた証を立てようとしたそれだけで少し誇らしげな態度
支離滅裂な行動それを補う子供じみた一面
ありふれた毎日の日々の中降りてくるすべてのものに感謝
頭に微熱抱えたままもう一度前へ歩き出そうとする

逃げ道をなくすことによって前に進むしか術を無くした
否定するのに疲れを感じて少し利口に振る舞ったりした
生きた証を立てようとしたそれだけで少し誇らしげな態度
支離滅裂な行動裏側にある自信はさらに膨張

Utada Hikaru's song lyrics are much slower, but still good. A lot of the songs are in English, but you can hear a lot of good Japanese in 'Time Will tell', 'Never Let Go' and 'B&C'.

Kenji Ozawa's　流れ星ビバップ (shooting star bebop) 's BPM perfectly matches my 5.2 mph jogging speed. ;)

Rip Slyme's 'Strange' is fun:

Radwimp's オーダーメイド (ordermade)

Remioromen's　粉雪 (powdered snow)

If you have a chance to watch the three-part anime 秒速5センチメートル, you'll hear this song:

Hideaki Tokunaga's voice.. there's nothing like it.
Listen to 僕のそばに (by my side) and 最後の言い訳 (the last excuse)

Tell me your favorite Japanese songs! I need some new ones. :)

La Jolla Shores 5K

2011-04-22T07:48:00.000-07:00

Last August I ran the AFC 5K at Balboa Park in 37:50.
Last Sunday I ran my second 5K, the La Jolla Shores 5K in 35:54!
凄いでしょ!

I had shin splints the next day for the first time in my life, and they lasted all week. I guess it was all that running downhill. Got a really cool tshirt, some orange quarters and banana halves, a bag of flat pretzels and some packets of vitamin c powder. Not half as much shwag as we got at the AFC, but still fun.

Washington D.C., day six! (the last day)

2011-03-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

Our flight wasn't till 5pm and we still hadn't had enough of walking around D.C. ;) Still overcast.

I wish we had these flower sellers in downtown San Diego, but the Horton Plaza farmers market just started again this week, on Thursdays, and that will do just fine I think. We went to the Freer and Sackler galleries.

Amazing ancient Egyptian art; and an American's take on Japanese art, which was inspiring too, in its own way.

Grabbed one last espresso drink at a Caribou Coffee, lol...

Got our luggage from the hotel and hailed a cab, having him stop at an ATM on the way when we realized we didn't have any cash and he didn't take credit cards, lol. Sigh.

All those little lights in the air are flights coming in to Chicago Airport. Sugoi deshou!

It was a good trip but we were both happy to be back home.

I wonder where our next trip will be to?! : ) Tanoshimi!!

Washington D.C. day five!

2011-03-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning we walked in the rain to the Museum of National History with a girl that Ryo used to work with in Kanazawa, Raiwan -san.

They had all kinds of cool rocks and stuff.

This one, below, if I remember right, is like asbestos, and if you breathe around it it gets in your lungs and you can die.... Scary...

They had all kinds of jewels, the Hope Diamond, and a cool exhibit on evolution, complete with all these models of cavemen and stuff that we took our pictures next to. ; )

After that we walked to the National Gallery of Art one last time.

They had so much cool stuff in their gift shop. Really inspiring for an artist.

We ran into another one of Ryo's friends from Kanazawa, Akai-kun, at the art gallery after we'd split up from Raiwan-san, so the three of us ended up walking to Chinatown together for tapas and drinks at La Tasca, then walking back to Logan Circle from there. Ryo and I went to Caribou again that night, since we couldn't get enough of it, then walked back to the hotel in the rain.

Washington D.C. day four!!

2011-03-24T18:12:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday morning, I walked to Caribou Coffee for cinnamon tea, mmm. We walked to Dupont Circle to check out a chocolate store, Biagio, stopping at a cafe next door to grab a snack while we waited for Biagio to open at noon. What a lot of different brands of fufu chocolate all in one little spot. I would definitely go back if I were rich enough to regularly spend upwards of $8 on a single bar of fufu chocolate.

We ate some yummy pasta at an Italian place.

Took the subway to Union Station and walked to the Library of Congress. That was surprisingly interesting, (and free) reading actual old letters between like, Thomas Jefferson and his friends and stuff, lol.

We walked alllll the way back to Union Station and took the train to Dupont Circle where we checked out Teaism. It seemed nice and they had good ginger limeade and really good tea; the food looked good too. It was just so crowded that I couldn't really relax. If I lived nearby and knew when to go so it wouldn't be so busy, I'm sure I'd go all the time.

We stopped at Chop't for a really really cool salad to put California salads to shame and ate in the hotel room.

Man we had some good salads in D.C.

Between Cosi and Chop't, I could get used to D.C. I think.

Washington D.C., Day Three!!!

2011-03-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday we walked to Dupont Circle, which was my favorite neighborhood of all in D.C. There were all kinds of fun little stores, selling everything from books and beads to cupcakes and cafe lattes...

After that we stopped in at the Utrecht art store one last time ;) before walking allll the way to the Lincoln Memorial. God it's a long walk.

We had dim sum for dinner at Ping Pong in Chinatown - very fun. They served my umeshu in a little ceramic sake pitcher with a tiny sake cup. ;) We sat at the dim sum bar and got to watch everything happening.

I ♥ dim sum. Mmmmm!!

Washington D.C. trip, Day two!

2011-03-23T12:16:00.000-07:00

On Monday I stopped by an art store, Utrecht, we ate lunch at Cosi and then went to Washington's Old Post Office, another place we'd heard about in guidebooks.

It was kind of a letdown, except for the view from the clock tower!!

I'd accidentally found the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Portrait Gallery, walking around south of Chinatown in the morning, so while Ryo had dinner with people from his conference, I walked around inside for hours. It was so much cooler than I thought it would be. The portraits and sculptures were soooo captivating, the stone-carved women's faces soooo soft and beautiful, their bodies and expressions frozen in mid-movement.

The girl on the right in this portrait looks like my sister. : )

The American Art part of it was also very cool.

They had a more modern art section too which was fun.

I feel like I'm not usually as impressed as I should be by modern art, but I really liked this one - I sat in a quiet, dark room as the lighting on this piece changed... It really did stimulate your imagination - kind of like being in a dream or like being high - very interesting work by David Hockney and the last thing I looked at at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.

We discovered and came to love Caribou Coffee, and I accidentally ordered something with two shots of espresso in it. Oops.

Got home and mapped out all the places I'd been that day. Sigh. No wonder I was exhausted.

Fun, fun day.

Washington D.C. trip, Day one!

2011-03-22T07:40:00.000-07:00

Our flight left on a beautiful Saturday morning. This was the view of San Diego from the plane.

I'm so used to flying places by myself, but it's also nice to have someone next to you to talk to and be silly with and squeeze their hand during takeoff.

Sunday morning we ate breakfast at Au Bon Pain, then first thing we checked out Eastern Market, which was as far from the hotel as Georgetown, which we didn't get to on our trip, but we'd heard good things about it from guidebooks so we went. Kinda disappointing after stumbling upon a much bigger and cooler open market in L.A. near little Tokyo a few months ago.

It was all rainy Sunday, that first day, so I lost my motivation to draw the city right away from the start...Sigh. Here we were trying to find the Library of Congress but it ended up being closed.

A (back?) view of... The White House? The capitol? I kept mixing them up. I think this is the capitol, though.

The entire city was just full of these ooooooold old cool looking buildings that my heart wanted to draw but that my mind and body were just not up to.

We walked to Union Station. It would be the first of many times... Oh! We went to the Post Office Museum too, which was right next door.

The National Gallery of Art: very very cool, and so much to see that we ended up going back on Thursday. Huuuuuuge gift shops with lots of cool journals and postcards and books and everything, too.

Rodin's 'The Kiss' was tiny, just a foot or so high, when all my life I'd thought it was life size.

Just gorgeous stuff. It's amazing how much work one artist can create, how much beauty can come out of their hands, how much hard work they can do in just their short lifetime. Very inspiring.

Funny English Mistakes my Japanese bf makes ベスト10

2011-02-19T17:20:00.000-08:00

Perhaps because we live in the U.S., we tend to speak more English to each other than Japanese, and undoubtedly because of that, my bf's English gets better and better and there are fewer and fewer of these cute mistakes. When one does come out, though, I try so hard to remember it because they make me smile. :)

10. "What just did you say??" It's amazing how funny a few misplaced words are for me. Especially when the person is trying to be taken seriously.

9. "Look just what I made!" Ahhh it's the same thing, still funny.

8. "How's your migration?" My migraine's always better when you make me laugh.

7. "That's kind of awesome, is it?" Is it? or isn't it?

6. "It won't be taste good." Will it be feel good?

5. "I can't still forget." It's confusing if you think about what this really means.

4. 'twinkles' for 'wrinkles' I don't mind them being pointed out as long as you keep calling them twinkles.

3. 'pups' for 'puppies' "Aww look at the cute little pups." This may be a scientist way of speaking, not a Japanese way, if all scientists call tiny baby mice 'pups'.

2. 'Japanese people don't like that kind of artifact color.' Kind of, but not really, like 'That's species difference!' for 'that's racism!'

1. 'Take care!' for 'watch out'. Stepping off a curb into traffic? Take care! lol

Did you enjoy? lol
Fun fun.

L.A.'s Chinatown

2011-02-12T16:50:00.000-08:00

Fi---nally made it to Chinatown last weekend! So many cool new things to see!! Like like like! It was the Chinese New Year dragon parade so we parked all the way over by Little Tokyo and walked. It was suuuuch a beautiful day.
Lots of buff, bad-ass martial arts guys holding up dragon heads and showing their tricks.Ryo parked us right in front of the firecrackers that'd be lit at the end of the parade, lol.The aftermath: I love how this picture blurred out. It was fun walking in the confetti-covered streets after the parade and firecrackers and dragons were over.We always manage to find someplace that has tea, if not boba when we travel, and this time was no exception, although we didn't go to this particular place. Samboluong?!Kept walking and found a big open air area with tents and a stage and fun, strange Chinese street foods.We got two free fresh roasted chestnuts - really good!!!$2 HOT red bean paste sesame ball - mmmmmmmmm, soo good.Kept walkin' around.Stumbled on this little sweatshop:We decided to go by train next time, since traffic's always so bad. That'll be much easier on Ryo since he usually does most of the driving (all of it this time). I guess this is the train station we'd come into!I really liked the feel of their Chinatown. I didn't feel it was dangerous, or too big, or shady at all. It had just the right number of shops per street; there weren't too many crazy homeless people wandering around. Maybe I'm just used to San Diego, though.On the way back to the car, we stopped at the fu-fu Kyoto Grand Hotel to use their bathrooms - it was Ryo's brillant idea to sneak in, and I found some key cards to unlock the bathrooms on an unmanned hostess desk, so between the two of us it worked out and we even sat in the lobby to rest our feet for a few minutes. Ryo took off his shoes..We walked through Little Tokyo and stopped at Fugetsudo for a coupla mochi and then headed back.

I enjoyed!!!!!

2010 Top 10

2011-01-05T08:27:00.001-08:00

I've been inspired by the (Japanese?) tradition of looking back on your year and making a top 10 list of events in your life. It's actually quite an eye-opening thing to do. It made me realize that I hadn't traveled at all in 2010, and that even though I studied kanji and Japanese (casually?..), I didn't try taking the JLPT level 1 again or anything. Without further ado, here are my Top 10 of 2010 - what are yours?

10. I found our favorite cafe hangout
9. took a self-defense class
8. ran a 2 mile and 5K race
7. read my second Japanese novel, 角田光代の「八日の蝉」
6. started teaching private English lessons
5. made lots of new foods
4. went to a Jewel concert!! but...she didn't show up
3. Read all the manga in both Nana and Chibi Maruko-chan
2. visited Little Tokyo in L.A.
1. entered my first (very informal) art contest

Happy new year! May we accomplish more than ever before.

Phew, just in time

2011-01-05T06:55:00.000-08:00

Last night I was organizing some paperwork and stacks of books when I found this one I bought sometime last year: 'How to make a fresh start for a great life at age 29' Holy crap! It was almost too late! lolYou can learn lots of psychological words from reading Japanese self-help books.

おろそかにする to neglect
もろに completely, all the way
のめり込む to be completely absorbed in; to fall for
葛藤する be in conflict (about a decision, etc.)
惑う to have doubts, to feel lost, to be at sea
しがみつく cling
突きつけられる to be confronted with ~
存分に楽しむ enjoy very much/indulge inI love Japanese books. :)

Mountain High

2011-01-01T16:30:00.001-08:00

Friday we went skiing at Mountain High for the first time this season. Had to get up at the crack of dawn to get there before the crowds, and to take this picture from a Starbucks on the way there, but it was worth it.For being the last day of the year, when people should be putting the finishing touches on their crudite platters and buying new dresses and making punch, there were quite a lot of people there. We were in a traffic jam for a good while the last couple miles to the mountain but finally made it.There were plenty of jumps, the snow quality was good, the sky was clear, and a guy sitting at our table at lunch gave me his chocolate donuts. What's not to like? It was a cold but good last day of 2010.

豪雨

2010-12-22T06:27:00.000-08:00

This morning, driving to work at half the speed I usually drive, I found two expressions kept coming to mind. The first was 'sheets of rain'. The second was 怖くなくもない. The closest English - 'not just a little bit scary'.

Finally reaching downtown, the rain also made me think of Henderson Cisz's incredible paintings of rain-soaked streets.It's supposed to let up after today.

The ski trip that almost was (but wasn't)

2010-12-20T09:20:00.000-08:00

We drove up to Riverside Thursday night for a two night ski trip. The weather looked like it miiiight clear up at first (we even saw a rainbow!) but it was cold, with the wind blowing rain into you sideways when we pulled into Mountain High Friday morning. After sitting in the car contemplating the situation for a good 10 minutes we got out and went inside, only to find out the rain was supposed to continue through Wednesday. We decided we wouldn't have fun anyway even if we went out so, already freezing cold just from the walk from the car to the lodge, we walked back to the car and drove back to the hotel.

Riverside, at least the downtown part of it, is really small, and surprisingly doesn't have much for restaurant choices. We found Simple Simons though, a sandwich shop, and had breakfast/lunch.Then we read books and had passionfruit tea and mint hot cocoa at a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, the only cafe we could even find. That was some good mint cocoa. When night came there was a light festival at the Mission Inn, so we walked around there. There were reindeer, kettle corn, sugared nuts and mini donuts stands, horse pulled cinderella carriages, a singing quartet, an ice rink, and looooots of lights.I always forget how interesting it is for my brain (soul?) to explore a new city, just walking and looking and occasionally stopping for cocoa and snacks.We ate dinner at Bella Trattoria, one of the restaurants attached to the Mission Inn, and had fancy clam linguine and white wine.Made our way home Saturday. Still raining. Sigh. Better luck (for skiing) next time. :)

Winter Wonderland (of cookies)

2010-12-11T06:47:00.000-08:00

Last night I made a double batch of the gingerbread dough my family made every Christmas when I was little. I found a copy of the recipe in my mother's handwriting:This morning I'm going to cut out the shapes and bake them, then while they're cooling I'm going here to buy fun decorating stuff. I'm so excited, and just look at all the inspiring ideas online:I hadn't even really considered being that creative with the icing; I was thinking what I could do with plain old sprinkles and tiny rainbow balls would have to suffice. Good thing I set aside a whole weekend for Christmas cookie-making. I'm slightly worried about how much going crazy at a cake decorating supplies shop is going to cost, especially seeing as how I already spent an extra $43 at Ralph's last night buying last minute ingredients, but... it's still going to cost less than buying a tree and lights and ornaments like I'd wanted to do... Plus you can eat them!

Wish me cookie-making energy and disco dust-finding luck!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

2010-12-02T12:38:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again. They've been playing Christmas songs since before Thanksgiving; friends say they've got their Christmas shopping done; we've been to the tree lot, just to look. And even though it's a pain, I'm starting to think saying 'Happy holidays' every time I pick up the phone at work is getting me into the holiday spirit. All that's left to do now is ski and make tooooons of cookies, both of which I'm reeeeeally looking forward to. :) Hopefully we'll have a chance to drive around and look at Christmas lights this year, or go to one of the events where all the sailboats in the harbor get all decked out and lit up. And I'm still holding out a small chance we'll get a real tree, yay! :) :) :)

Happy holidays!

Little Tokyo Road Trip

2010-11-30T06:26:00.000-08:00

We went to Little Tokyo in downtown L.A. on Saturday. I'd heard it wasn't that impressive compared to other cities' so I wasn't expecting much more than a Mitsuwa and a Book Off, but we had a really good time and enjoyed the adventure. :)After stopping at a Book Off and little Japanese grocery on the way, Ryo wanted to go to Grauman's Chinese Theater, so we drove past downtown to Hollywood to check it out.There was a big mall with a huge tree, a guy giving out free tastings of hot chocolate, and a Beard Papa's where Ryo got a shu-cream.After that we headed for downtown just as the sun was going down to check out Little Tokyo.We stumbled on this little dreamlike, open air Mexican shopping center.We finally found Little Tokyo, and then right away Fugetsu-do where I couldn't help buying peanut butter mochi.We tried mochi gelato and takoyaki then found a cool little store called blooming art where I finally got a fuurin!Walking around looking for a fancy macaron place called Paulette, we found Chado and stopped in just to look at the place. Looked pretty intimate and quiet but too fufu for our mood at the time. They had cool little gifts like double glass tea cups and this assorted tea gift box. For dinner, we chose the place that was closest to where we were when we decided we absolutely HAD to find a bathroom, lol: Ebisu. It turned out to be alright, a dim little izakaya-type place.Grabbed ginger and honey lemon tea to go at Four Leaf walked back to the car It was a liiiiittle bit sketchy there for a second as we parked a little ways away from Little Tokyo. Ryo said "kowaiyo-" as two normal looking American guys walked by us. "Those guys aren't scary, but that guy is." I said, just as a tattered, scraggly yelling guy starting weaving across the street right toward us. Next time we'll park right in the bustle of Little Tokyo itself. We made it to the car just as it started to rain and headed home.So many adventures and new, fun things, all in one day. That's what I love about traveling. :)

Top 15 Christmas Movies

2010-11-26T08:16:00.001-08:00

It's about that time... Hope you have a wonderful December, filled with hot teas and chocolates, toasty hats and scarves, loved ones to snuggle up with, crackling fireplaces, plenty of vacation days and all your favorite movies.

Here, a few of my suggestions - some (A Christmas Story, It's a Wonderful Life, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation) I probably just like because I watched them every year as a kid; others (One Magic Christmas, Home Alone) are truly wonderful and I never tire of them. Enjoy!

"One Magic Christmas"

"Home Alone"

"Home Alone 2"

"Santa Claus the Movie"

"The Santa Clause"

"Prancer"

"Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer"

"The Nightmare Before Christmas"

"Love Actually"

"A Christmas Story"

"National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"

"A Charlie Brown Christmas"

"How the Grinch Stole Christmas"

"It's a Wonderful Life"

"White Christmas"

Am I missing any? Leave a comment! :)

Mmmm, food in San Diego

2010-11-09T07:47:00.000-08:00

Living in the U.S., and especially San Diego, with it's hundreds of Asian restaurants on Convoy Street, tiny cafes in Little Italy, fun ethnic places in Hillcrest, fancy places in La Jolla and fun places with outdoor seating in the Gaslamp District downtown, there's a lot of great food. There are still a ton of new places I want to try, (Buca di Beppo, Taste of Thai, Mr. A's, Mimi's Cafe, Harar Ethiopian, George's at the Cove) and new stuff I want to cook (enchiladas, butternut squash lasagna) so I imagine that'll keep us busy here for a while.Pumpkin smoothie @ Jamba Juice. It's like sweet, liquid pumpkin pie, but tastes even better than that description sounds. Mmm.Vegetable and tofu phocaesar saladfresh brussels sproutsPanerajujubeswhite cake with vanilla buttercream frosting (my first homemade two layer cake :))watermelon (even one that's been dropped in the elevator like this one)fortune cookies (prepare to burn your fingers making these)fufu sashimi from my hotel's restaurantgreen tea frappucinos (still addicted to these)unbelievable veggie burger from Burger Loungethe amazing thai curry I can make (and you can too!) with just these simple ingredients (and some frozen peas)mochi ginger okonomiyakifresh carrot celery apple pear ginger juicered bean paste and mochi-filled fish (taiyaki)

I'm so grateful to be able to try such an abundance of new amazing foods here. I felt like in Japan it was always yakisoba, udon, tofu, sushi or salad. Or make the trek to Osu for a vegetarian burrito, or to Okazaki for Shubakamana's curry and naan. Okay, okay, maybe both places have yummy stuff. :) Maybe it's just cause we're in Southern California, but it seems so much easier here knowing they'll have decent vegetarian options no matter where you go - I love that.

What's your favorite food/restaurant lately?

The 3D Fish are Movable

2010-10-15T17:23:00.000-07:00

I'm the unofficial creative director at the hotel where I work. I pimp out the daily employee briefing, make suggestions for the monthly newsletter and make birthday cards and go around getting everyone to sign them.It's been a year at this job. I need to do something different. I wonder if I could somehow find enough work to keep me busy to invent a new, fun, creative position for myself here. That'd be cool.

Julian in the fall...

2010-10-11T21:38:00.000-07:00

Nothin' like heading up to Julian in October for some warm apple pie and cinnamon ice cream. I felt like I was in Japan with the hot weather we're finally getting, and the long lines this weekend. (Outside bakeries in Julian on Saturday and again at Little Italy Festa in San Diego on Sunday.)I've had enough of standing in line, antique stores, greasy pizza and chocolate gelato for a while. What a homebody I am! I had just as much fun reading my book and playing kids-version igo with Ryo at a tea shop afterwards. Sigh.

Wine Tasting in Temecula

2010-10-03T15:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we drove an hour north to drink wine, on the pretense of buying omiyage for his cousin who just got married. There are tens of different wineries you can check out, but we went to Callaway, Wilson Creek, Faulkner, and one more whose name I don't remember (actually that was the one place we didn't do a tasting, but were just checking it out) but that was brand new, super busy and that had a see-through, glass floor looking down into a cellar full of wine barrels.These are all views from Callaway. We went here last year and I'm not sure why, but just as he said it, I'd had the same feeling as Ryo - I never would've thought we'd be coming back here again.We ate lunch at their fancy 'Meritage' restaurant and sat right by the windows. We had shrimp bisque, swiss chard with raisins and almonds, steak fries with different cheeses on top and moscato wine. Very relaxing and hot, but a good hot, like when you actually enjoy the feeling of sweat on your skin. I guess it might've been the wine, lol.We left and headed towards Wilson Creek, first stopping at the winery just south of there on accident, but still getting out to look around, lol. Wilson Creek, just 10 years old, was the biggest place we went to - huge damp, dim warehouses of barrels that smell like wine before you open the door. We tried their famous almond champagne, port wine, and a bunch of other red ones on their tour, and even some... mourvedre? that was still fermenting and had only had yeast strands added to it weeks ago. He turned on the spigot of a huge tank and purple juice splashed into our glass with grape pieces still in it. It was sooo good. Half-finished wine, mmmm. The tour guide said we shouldn't drink too much of it though cause it has a laxative effect. We learned lots of other stuff about wine on the tour too, which was cool, but with our tour guide's too-loud voice and arm-flinging gestures too close to your face, I think maybe he'd had too much to drink. Yes, he was drinking on the tour. Nice of him to forget to charge us at the end of the hour though, lol.Our last stop of the day, and to me the most beautiful, was Faulkner. It was 4:40 or so and everybody was about ready to close up. They didn't have much of a gift shop or much for sweet white wines, the inside was small and unimpressive and the lady serving us wine wasn't friendly; but we tried a Chardonnay Sangria, a Reisling and a couple others before being ushered out, without even being able to take a glass with us. There'd been a wedding and the bride was still having pictures taken while her family strolled around in suits and magenta dresses. It was really gorgeous outside, everything old old beautiful wood and dark green ivy and trees everywhere. Stepping outside, while Ryo took a picture for a big group of tipsy happy women, an older woman who worked there suddenly brought me two wine glasses and thanked us for coming even though we couldn't stay long.The drive home was tough and I felt weird at night from all the sun and wine but it was a good day.

Kumon Kanji Book Review

2010-09-23T12:26:00.000-07:00

Kumon makes some really great books. They really know what they're doing over there. I've seen cool kumon flashcards for learning the Japanese names of bugs and dinosaurs, and kumon English books that teach it way better than I can. How could I've missed their kanji books? First, a page of the book:As you can see, you've got the practice for each kanji happening right next to where the kanji is introduced, which to me was less useful than having it on the next page like the last kanji book I bought. The cool thing about this book though, if you check out the little cloud next to each kanji....It explains how the kanji came about! (it's 成り立ち). Furthermore, as you see here...this book introduces kanji with the same radical together, and each chapter has a little chart like this showing all the kanji with that radical that you should already know, and the ones you'll be learning in that chapter.It has lots of good Japanese reading practice where it talks about points not to mix up and cool kanji facts. The cons?
•it's more expensive than the other kanji book I bought and reviewed
•it's 4 or 5 times thicker, which seems to make it harder to get through, but which also invalidates the first con...
•it has some of the reading practice on the same page as the kanji being introduced, and the writing practice, which means you're just copying; to compensate for that, I just do the reading practice a few days later.

All in all, if you think studying all the kanji with a particular radical in it at the same would be helpful, this series is for you. Also, the little picture explanations of kanji facts and tricks, and the information about each kanji's origin are fun and useful.

Despite all that, somehow I still like the other book better...

The Best Kanji Study Book! (2)

2010-09-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

A few posts ago I mentioned how excited I was about the new kanji book I got (and finished in 4 days!). Now I'm going to show you the inside of it.First of all, it has a great design. It's laid out nice and simple; first learn 6 new kanji...Then on the next page there's a quiz, which, granted, for now, is just filling in the same kanji for each four questions.Then at the end of a few chapters there's a review quiz checking that you know the readings:and how to write each kanji as well.At the end of the book there's a fun couple of quizzes to see if you pass to the next level.There's also a space at the end of the book where you can chart your progress, which could be good for motivation.I just really liked the book; the feel of the pages, the size of the font, the new words and sentences they teach you using the new kanji. I guess it makes sense to use the same type of book Japanese kids use to learn kanji. I definitely recommend it, if for nothing else because it makes learning kanji fun and easy, and what else do you need?Now available in a variety of levels. ;)

Advanced Japanese Verb Vocabulary Review

2010-09-16T15:59:00.000-07:00

成し遂げる: accomplish
切り抜ける: struggle through; get over; survive
萎える: to wither, wilt, weaken
言触らす: spread a rumor
挑む: challenge
塞がる: close (mouth/eyes); also, to be busy/occupied
紛れ込む: to mingle with/be lost in (the crowd)
紛れ込む: to be crowded/busy
白ける: to become spoiled (~に白ける: get disenchanted with) (しらけさせるな: You're no fun.)
発する and 放つ: emit, give off. (light, smell, an alarm)
付きまとう: follow around, tag along after, hang around
そわそわする: fidget; be impatient
ひけらかす: show off; flaunt
いばる: act big, swagger, have one's nose in the air
雲隠れする: disappear
拒む: to refuse
忍び寄る: to sneak/creep up on
夜更かしする: stay up late at night
取り合う: keep in contact with; also, fight over
裂ける: to split; tear
うっとりする: to be enchanted with, fascinated by; to be miles away, in a world of one's own.
明かす: to pass, spend (the night); to reveal
懲らしめる: punish, chastise
惚気る (のろける): to speak fondly, talk proudly of
思いとどまる: to persuade not to do, dissuade, talk out of
寝込む: to be sick in bed
処分する: get rid of
切り出す: to broach (the subject), break the ice
かこつける: to pretend that; to use ~ as an excuse
(思い)煩う (わずらう): to worry about; suffer from
弾ける (はじける): burst, pop, split open
すっぽかす: to stand someone up; to leave something undone
明滅する: blink, flicker
駆られる: to be driven by (feelings); be consumed with

A sketch of my busy day (and all before work!)

2010-09-14T17:19:00.000-07:00