Me, gG, and our fern house

Guess who welcomed me at our front porch

2009-10-15T15:16:00.000-07:00

Came back from Czech Republic, and one night I was snuggling with gG on our couch when I heard a big noise outside on my front porch. Guess who I found watching the street for us from our front porch.

City of Brno in Czech Republic

2009-10-11T16:00:00.000-07:00

September went by so quickly as we were going through lots of changes in our lives. Yep, my hubby got a job offer in Czech Republic. He spent most of his time this summer working as a consultant for a company in a town called Brno, and they decided to offer him a job.

Brno is the second biggest city in Czech Republic, and it is rather closer to Vienna than to Prague. I have never been to the part of Europe in my life, so I decided to hop on a plane and check it out before he signs the offer letter. Hey... I have to like that place before committing myself to move there :)

Brno was indeed a beautiful city. The center of city is very small. You can basically walk from end to end in 30 mins or less. That's one thing that I loved about the town. It reminded me of my hometown Shizuoka in a way.

Another thing was the cleaness of the town. Streets were clean, buildings were old but very clean, and people were so behaved. It might be the influence from the communist time, but there seems to be enough of everything but not too much of everything.

Here are some pictures from Brno city.

Loved it!

Utsuwa no Yakata

2009-09-16T15:13:00.000-07:00

I have been living in LA for almost 10 years, but I never went into the building called Little Tokyo Galleria Market. The building is semi empty but has several stores including Utsuwa no Yakata, discount shop, and several Japanese restaurants. The grocery store there turned into a Korean store, but you can still get lots of Japanese items in there, too.

Anyway, the purpose of this trip was to look for some souvenirs we will take to Czech Republic. We used to go to a store called "Wabi Sabi" which used to be in West Hollywood whenever we wanted to get something nice from Japan. They eventually moved to Santa Monica, but I heard they closed off. Too bad. We really liked the lacquer dishes and trays they had.

So, I did some search and found this place called "Utsuwa no Yakata." The store got variety of tableware and other cool stuff like "noren" and handmade artwork. They also had a set that you can use to do tea ceremony. Believe it or not, I used to do tea, meaning I learned Sado - how to serve tea in a traditional ceremonial way when I was in Junior High School (okay, long time ago). The tea served in Sado is differnt from the tea you are used to drink at the American sushi places. It is called Matcha, and it is finely powdered. The store sold everything you need for Sado including Matcha!

If you are looking for Japanese style tableware, I would definitely recommend this place.

Backyard Picnic

2009-09-05T17:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is the special long weekend for most people. For me, it is just another day. I was not feeling that well, but I wanted to do something fun with my hubby and gG. So, we decided to do a picnic in our backyard.

Luckily the temperature was not too high and it was almost perfect for eating out and sleeping out. Yes, we ended up spending the whole afternoon on the grass eating, chatting, drinking (water! but could had been wine), reading, and napping. gG basically loved just hanging out with us.

gG also enjoyed a couple of spoonful of ice cream.

The sun was shining through our trees around 4pm. I felt the departure of summer and arrival of autumn.

Great Zinfandel

2009-09-04T10:51:00.000-07:00

This red Zinfandel called Sextant recommended by Steve at The Whole Foods in Glendale was just so perfect for its price. It has a jammy blackberry flavor without faky sweetness. My kind of wine for sure. Worked well with the grilled meat.

Japanese mini "Kaiseki"

2009-08-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

Kaiseki Ryori (meal) is an multi-course Japanese cusine consisting of a number of small dishes. Since Aug 16 was my father's birthday, we went to eat mini-Kaiseki for dinner in Shizuoka. Why mini? Nope we didn't lose our appetites. We decided to go with the mini course, as my father eats like a bird. And we didn't want to eat different dishes on his birthday :-) Overall, we were satisfied with the quantity as well as the quality.

Kaiseki uses fresh seasonal ingredients, and the dishes are presented so that you can feel the season by looking at them, too. Each dish is simply seasoned, so that you can enjoy the pure palate of each ingredient, and presented beautifully in nice dinnerware. Kaiseki is vegetarian in origin, but modern Kaiseki meals may include meat and seafood.

The mini course started out with appetizers in five different small dishes. The menu said 8 ingredients, and as you can see in each individual dish, some of them contained several ingredients.

And then, you were served a soup with simple broth probably made with bonito and Konbu. It looked very pretty and tasted very easy on your palate.

Then we were given a choice between steak and sashimi. All but my father chose steak. The servings were so tiny that I would imagine most American would be surprised.

Then for the fried course, you are given a choice between Sakura-ebi (cherry shrimp) Kakiage (mixed tempura), and Shrimp Shinjo-age. All of us chose Kakiage, as Sakura-ebi is a noted Shizuoka delicacy.

After all that, you get to choose between steam rice topped with Maguro (tuna) sashimi, or with Ikura (salmon roe). My father and I chose Maguro, and my sister, my neices, and Bob chose Ikura. I forgot to take pictures :-(

And finally your choice of desert was served. I got a mousse with Matcha, and some got sherbet or fruit.

All in all, this meal was very good on both eyes and tummy! And, I was happy to see my father being happy to see all of us together dining with him.

Onsen (hot spring)

2009-08-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

I must say that Japanese people cannot live without Onsen (hot spring). During the vacation time, Japanese travelers typically stay at Ryokan (inn) with Onsen. It is a way to relax and be rejuvenated.

Since another purpose of our trip to Japan was to celebrate my father's birthday, we took him to an Onsen while we were in Kumamoto. We picked an area called Kurokawa, a very famous Onsen place in Kumamoto.

The Ryokan (Inn) where we stayed was called "Shinmeikan." Originally we wanted to stay at another Ryokan, but it was all booked even 2 months in advance. However, we were very pleased with "Shinmeikan." Most Ryokan have several soaking pools as did Shinmeikan. It had two outside baths called Roten (one coed, and one private), two cave baths (one for men, one for women), and two inside baths (one for men, one for women). I didn't have the guts to go into the Roten with men in the same bath, so my hubby and I rented the Roten for our private use. Roten is great, as you can feel the nature around you on your flesh. I'd rather bathe by myself, but hey being with hubby was also okay :-)

Another thing to enjoy at Ryokan is the cuisine. People typically check in around 3pm and take a dip in Onsen before dinner (maybe having one or two beers or sake before dinner, too), and then enjoy a huge dinner. The dinner at Shimeikan was also huge but great. It started out with small dishes with veggies, tofu, and Sashimi (raw fish), and Basashi (raw horse meat - Kumamoto's famous delicacy).

Then more dishes such as grilled fish, grilled meat, soup, and Tempura were served. I forgot what else, but we had A LOT of food.

I hope my dad enjoyed our birthay present.

Going around my aunts in Kumamoto

2009-08-20T16:13:00.000-07:00

The reason why we went to Kumamoto this time was to see my father's sisters who are 101, 95, and 86 years old. My father had 9 siblings (10 including my father), but most of them have passed away. The 101 year old aunt is Aunt Teiko, the oldest girl of the ten children. There were two more brothers above her. One of them died when he was very young, and the other one lived a good life in Tokyo but didn't live as long as Aunt Teiko. Aunt Teiko is into making Japanese dolls. She made about 100 of them, but she has given a number away to many people, and in fact we were given a cute doll during this trip. She has a hearing problem, but other than that she seems to be perfectly healthy and her brain is working like a 60 year old.

The 95 year old aunt is Aunt Mikiko. She has been studying and teaching Ikebana for many years, and about three years ago she became a Iemoto (head master) of Kodo-ryu. Kodo-ryu is a school that is established during the year of 1716 to 1804. Unlike other Ikebana, it does not use the "kenzan" which is typically used to hold the bottom of flowers and twigs to arrange them.

The 86 year old aunt is Aunt Tayoko. She was a teacher of Japanese dance, but about two years ago, she and her husband got into an accident (and soon after that her husband unfortunately passed away because of it), and she doesn't seem to be teaching any more. She comes across to me as a most caring person.

Kofun (Ancient Tombs) in Tamana, Kumamoto

2009-08-20T06:47:00.001-07:00

While I was in Kumamoto, we had a chance to visit kofun (ancient tombs). There are many in Kumamoto, but we chose to go to the ones in Tamana city, as it was only a 45 min. drive from Kumamoto city.

Before going we did some research on the net, so we knew which kofun we wanted to visit, but we didn't realize that they were completely closed off from the public for preservation purposes. We called Tamana City Hall and asked how we could see inside the kofun. They told us to call the Tamana History Museum. So we did. The person who answered the phone was very nice, but he needed to stick with the rule which is to go through the school board. He asked us to get permission from the school board, but then when I mentioned that we were visiting Kumamoto for a short period of time and had to go back to the States, he invited us over to the museum and told us that we could join a private tour which happened to be scheduled for that afternoon. We were very lucky! We drove down to the museum right away.

Mr. Araki, the man on the phone, was waiting for us outside of the museum (in the very hot and humid weather!!). I had forgotten such a spirit of hospitality. We felt very welcomed. We went in and said hi to some of the museum staf and those who would join the tour. We had about an hour till the tour, so we decided to explore the museum. The museum was incredibly great. It contained all kinds of information about the kofun that we would go to see. It gave us good information prior to visiting the kofun.

The first kofun we visited was called Taibo Kofun. We enjoyed strolling along the scenic country road to get there. It was extremely hot that day, but I certainly enjoyed the scenery.

Taibo Kofun is said to have been built in the 6th century. The outside is about 43 meters long, the inside about 6 meters long. The inside is divided into three rooms, but you can only see a little bit of them as the entrance is securely sealed with a heavy-duty glass window. There are triangular patterns of blue and red on the wall. The museum had some items found in the tomb such as a gold earring, pearls, and weapons.

The next kofuns we visited were called Eianji Higashi (East) and Nishi (West) Kofun. Unfortunately they were doing some testing on Nishi Kofun, so we only got to see the inside of Higashi Kofun. They are both built side by side. It looks like the east one was built first in the 6th century and the west one right after that. They were both discovered long before the researchers got to them, so all of the items perhaps buried with the body were all gone. What's amazing about the Higashi Kofun is the patterns on the wall painted with red. You can see triangles, circles, ship-like figures, and a horse-like figure. One of the cicles even has the dripping of red ink, which I heard is very rare.

The tour was supposed to end there, but we were pretty excited and decided to go further into the mountain side to see more kofun. Yay! The area we headed for is called Ishinuki. The first one we went to see had an array of 48 tombs on the side of a rock cliff. The cliff is about 300 meters long and 7 meters high. The entrance to each tomb is trapezoid-shaped that are doubled or tripled. Inside, you see carved knives and other weapons on the side wall.

We also visited another kofun in Ishinuki which has a figure of Kannon carved into the wall. This area had three tombs in a row, and the middle one had the Kannon figure in the center of the wall as you go in.

So, that was the end of the tour. It was very educational and fun. Thanks to the director of Tamana History Museum for allowing us to be on the tour, and thanks to Mr. Araki, and Ms. Matsunaga, who guided us through the tombs! Both Mr. Araki and Ms. Matsunaga were experts on kofun, and we were very lucky to have them as tour guides. Although the outside temperature was probably way above 100F and very humid, we enjoyed every single moment of the tour.

Trip to Mount Aso

2009-08-18T17:39:00.000-07:00

We made a quick trip to my father's birthplace called Kumamoto during our trip to Japan recently. Kumamoto is located on the southern island of Japan. It is famous for many things, and Mount Aso is definitely one of them.

Mount Aso is the largest active volcano in Japan, which rises to 1592 m above sea level. There are several craters, holes formed by various eruptions. You can go up to see one of the craters by car.

It was very windy that day, but we managed to peek into the crator. It had a pool of water of a beautiful emerald green color, which was pretty much covered by steam coming from the water most of the time. I heard the the temparature of the water is around 50-60 centigrade, which is quite a bit hotter than the normal Japanese bath. The water is heated by the volcano gas. The fact that it has a pool of water seemed to mean that the volcano is very active, and when the water changes its color to black, the eruption occurs in the crator.

Aso weather is pretty unique, as it got nice when you go down the mountain but it was very windy, cloudy, and foggy as we went up. Here is the photo of a very cozy family of "red cows."

Friend's Wedding

2009-07-14T16:26:00.001-07:00

It was truely great to see one of our favorite friends getting married happily ever after. He was comfortably happy, witty as usual, and proudly acknowleging the fact that he is now starting a new family. Congratulations friend!

Temakizushi

2009-07-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

"Temakizushi" means hand-wrapped (="temaki") sushi. It is easy to prepare and great for any size of party. All you have to do is to get sashimi plate with assorted raw fish, make sushi rice, and it's ready :) I typically make "Atsuyaki Tamago" (egg omelet type if dish but without butter and instead with sake, mirin, sugar, fish broth, and a bit of salt) as my hubby loves it. I also recommend getting some "shiso" leaves if you mind the smell of fish. Its minty flavor will ease out the fish smell. You can also add avocado, immitation crab meat, or tuna mixed with mayonnaise. You serve all that with "Nori" and "Wasabi", and it is ready to eat!

What you do is to get a sheet of nori, put enough amount of sushi rice on either side of nori to cover up approx. 1/3 of nori sheet. Then put wasabi on rice, put shiso (if you like), and put ingredients like fish, eggs, avocado, etc, diagonally, and finally wrap everything with the remaining portion of nori.

After eating sushi, hubby served us his souvenir from Czech Republic. It was a plum-based liquor called Slivovice. I thought it was a liqueur which would be somewhat sweet, but I was very wrong. It was a heavy duty liquor with 45%(!!) alcohol. I thought my tongue would get numbed. I put a piece of ice cube in a shot glass and slowly enjoyed it, but by the time I finished a shot, I was very ready to fall asleep. Strong stuff!

Outside, lots of legal & illegal fireworks were going. Since gG was so scared with all the noise, he hid himself in my closet. It took me about 5 mins to find him :). Poor gG. He was shivering in a dark closet. But he calmed down once my hubby held him in his arm.

gG's Paws

2009-06-14T11:02:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is, but gG's paws always give me very special feelings. It is almost nostalgic, as if I am reminded of some sweet memory with feather-like touch to my heart. Is it because he got these extra soft and pure snow white paws? I just love them!

Another Yakitori Night

2009-06-10T14:03:00.000-07:00

We had another yakitori night. This time, I made some turkey tsukune (meatballs) as well. Ingredients for turkey tsukune are: ground turkey, green onion, mushrooms, egg, breadcrumbs, miso, ginger, soy sauce, sake, and salt. What you have to do is: 1) mince 1-2 green onion and 1-2 mushrooms, 2) put ground turkey (1/4 pound) and an egg in a bowl, 3) put 1) in the bowl and mix everything (lightly please and don't mush them), 4) in a separate bowl, mix miso (1/2 table spoon), soy sauce (1/2 table spoon), sake (1/2 table spoon), ginger (1 tea spoon), and a little bit of salt, and 5) dump the mixture 4) into 3) bowl. Mix well but don't mush. 6) add breadcrumbs little by little until it forms enough consistency to make balls.

Once the mixture is ready, you make it into balls and sautee them for about 2 mins in a pan and add water, put a lid, and boil them for about 5 mins. And, it is ready to be skewered! All you have to do is grilling them with the rest of skewers

Major Haircut

2009-06-10T08:57:00.000-07:00

The previous owner of our house did a wonderful job planting trees all over on our premises, but they never stop growing! The olive tree in the back grew so tall that the branches were spread widey because of the weight of overgrown twigs and leaves. And in front, we have so many plants, you could never see our house from the street, or likewise, I could never see the street from my house, either.

It was definitely the time for a major haircut! Our gardeners worked for 3 hours on Sunday cutting leaves and branches off the trees. Now trees look very clean and rejuvenated.

We also replanted some of the plants in the front to several pots and placed them on the front porch and backyard.

Found a great Peruvian restaurant!

2009-06-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

Ever since my hubby visited Peru, we had several chances to visit different Peruvian restaurants in LA. Recently my hubby found an article about a new Peruvian restaurant close to our house (and yes, it means close to USC), so we decided to check it out.

The restaurant is called MO-CHICA. Is it only me? It sounds very joyful to me. It is in a food court, so the ambience-wise it is not so spiffy, but wait until you taste the food! Anyway, unlike some restaurants which have hundreds of menu items, the number of dishes on the menu was just right, which I really loved. The menu basically has "Starters" and "Main Course." The "Starters" contains 4 dishes. Each costs only about $3-$5. And the "Main Course" contains 8 dishes ranging from $6 to $13. Great deal!! What intrigued me was the presentation of each dish. They were presented as if you were in a high-end restaurant where you are typically charged $30/dish.

I followed my hubby's suggestions, and we got 2 starters and 2 main courses. Yes, it was more than plenty, but we wanted to try as much as we can :). 2 starters we got were Papa ala Huancaina (roasted potatoes, boiled eggs, huancaina sauce) and Ceviche del Dia. I am not a huge fan of creamy stuff, but even I could enjoy this Papa ala Huancaina. The sauce had a mild spice to it, and it wasn't as creamy as it looked (loved that!). We also got a glass of Chicha Morada (purple corn tea), which was very good, too.

Just by the time we are done with our starters, our main dishes were served. Great timing! We ordered Quinotto (wild mushroom, quinua grain rissotto, crema fraiche) and Seco de Cordero (Lamb shank, canario beans, salsa criolla, cilantoro beer sauce). Quinotto was served with green salad and Lamb was served with rice (with corn in it!). Both looked and tasted amazing. I was indeed astonished with their price performance!!

I would definitely go back again and would also recommend this place to anyone. If you are interested in, check out their web site: www.mo-chica.com

Finally done with the Community Site

2009-06-05T14:19:00.001-07:00

I couldn't update the blog as I had been bogged down with Drupal in order to build a community site for my neighborhood association. I started to work on it (or I should say I took over the work after my hubby sat on it for a year) in April. I had no knowledge about Drupal then, and I certainly did underestimate the magnitude of the project.

As a product person, I had to create a requirement document. So, that was the first thing that I did. Conceptualizing what people are hoping to accomplish with the site, and writing down the requirements. But that is just a beginning. Adding frame to it and sculpting it takes long time. And, yes, it did take two full months. I took 1.5 weeks off due to my family visit, but I was pretty much working fulltime on it. And now, I am happy to announce the version 1.0 is done!!

One thing I realized about Drupal is that it is a wide-open-source. It seemed to me like everyone is working on random things and all the information is all over the place. People keep saying how robus and wonderful it is, but I really have to scratch my head when I hear that. I mean, yes, it has lots of themes and modules available, but different versions of Drupal and modules and updates are all nested and you need to spend quite a lot of time sorting things out (if you encounter issues).

After all, though, two months of struggling with Drupal surely gave me lots of insights and knowledge about Drupal. Another site with Drupal? Ah... don't want to think about it for a while. I am moving on with my life!

Nectarine update

2009-05-17T18:39:00.000-07:00

I couldn't update my blog while my sister and her daughter were here. They had great time hanging out in our old fern house with gG. Took them all over the places including the Fashion District, Venice beach, Universal Studio, and Watts Tower. Ate out at The Lobster in Santa Monica, made wonderful petit steaks you can get at the Bristol Farms, let them bake their own pizzas, etc. I hope they had fun.

While I was busy entertaining my family, nectarines became RED! They are about 20% bigger than last year and they are VERY RED also. We tried one of them to see if it is ripe enough to eat, but it wasn't. I would say we need to wait for about a week or so. Can't wait to taste them!!

Thinning Nectarine Tree

2009-05-04T17:40:00.000-07:00

It has been almost a month since I wrote about our nectarine tree. Our neighbor Ed came by and checked on the tree and suggested to thin the tree. Yes, the branches were draping like willows. It was gettig heavy with lots of nectarines.

So, over the weekend, I searched over the web and found this eHow article) and tried it myself. It looked to me that there were fewer nectarines than last year, but that may be due to the fact that we picked many what appeared-to-be--olives-but-then-turned-out-to-be-nectarines early on to cure them (yes^^;) last year. Maybe that did well on the tree accidentaly. Anyway I managed to take out about 50 of them. May not be enough but we'll see.

Of course gG came by and enjoyed watching me puzzlingly taking out some of the nectarines. Such a cutie.

Ants society

2009-05-04T17:32:00.000-07:00

My hubby sent me this article and....reminded me of the company that I used to work for. Here is the excerpt:

Dr. Dornhaus is breaking new ground in her studies of whether the efficiency of ant society, based on a division of labor among ant specialists, is important to their success. To do that, she said, “I briefly anesthetized 1,200 ants, one by one, and painted them using a single wire-size brush, with model airplane paint — Rally Green, Racing Red, Daytona Yellow.”

After recording their behavior with two video cameras aiming down on an insect-size stage, she analyzed 300 hours of videotape of the ants in action. She discovered behavior more worthy of Aesop’s grasshopper than the proverbial industrious ants.

“The specialists aren’t necessarily good at their jobs,” she said. “And the other ants don’t seem to recognize their lack of ability.”

Dr. Dornhaus found that fast ants took one to five minutes to perform a task — collecting a piece of food, fetching a sand-grain stone to build a wall, transporting a brood item — while slow ants took more than an hour, and sometimes two. And she discovered that about 50 percent of the other ants do not do any work at all. In fact, small colonies may sometimes rely on a single hyperactive overachiever.

Why do some worker ants lean on their shovels and let the rest of the workers do all the work? “It’s like students living together — you’ll always find one will have a lower threshold for doing the washing up and will end up always doing it all,” she said.

Perhaps the division of labor — which the economist Adam Smith linked to human achievement — may not be the key to ant success. Possibly, Dr. Dornhaus said, “the lazing ants are resting, or are waiting in reserve in case something goes wrong.” Or the laggards may be cooking up some biochemical nest protection. (All ant species manufacture a fungicide to stave off mold in their nests.) Or, she said, “It’s possible they aren’t doing anything at all.”

Sunday gardening with gG

2009-04-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

We had an old wooden planter which was looking very sad with a couple of overgrown chrysanthemums. It was time for me to do something about it, so I went out to get four pots of flowers to decorate the planter.

gG loved the smell of flowers (or soil) as I placed them on the patio table while I was cleaning up the old soil in the planter. He came right next to them and enjoyed them as he sipped a glass of water (he loves drinking out of the "blue cup" that we get from our dentist office).

We had great time to spend the sunny and not-to-hot Sunday afternoon! End result? I think we did okay:)

Hiking at Wilacre Park

2009-04-19T23:20:00.000-07:00

Amazingly there are lots of hiking trails around Hollywood. Wilacre Park is one of them. It is located on the north side of Hollywood Hills and the trail is faily short although some parts are steep and perfect for a strenuous workout if you can jog up. In fact, we saw a few people jogging up and down the trail despite the heat wave of 95F!

Park Entrance

Yep, we picked the best day and best time of the day to hike up to 1,060 elevation^^; It was around 95F outside, and we started the hike right around 1:30pm when the sun was attacking us like laser beam. But the view along the way to the top was great and the plants were beautiful.

View of Valley

Me at the top - water time!

Little Friend

Beautiful Flower

Close to the top, the trail merges with two other trails. One goes down to the paved road and the other goes down to another park and another trail. Most people just turned back around and take the same trail back to the parking lot, which we also did except at the half way, we explored wilder and narrower trail for a while. Yet, downhill was indeed a joy :) It was almost 4pm when we got to the bottom and the tilted sun was beaming through the trees calmly. Trail Map of Wilacre Pak can be found here.

How Bob spent his birthday

2009-04-18T10:03:00.000-07:00

April 18th was Bob's birthday. It was a gorgeous day. The morning sun was beaming into our living room beautifully. As I went out to the backyard wondering what my hubby and cat were doing, I found them on the grass :) I had to take a few pics. Bob was as if back in the life of hippie era. Then he made himself a toast with lots of butter and cinnamon sugar. To my comment of "hmmm, is that enough butter?," he replied back "it is my birthday."... Okay. Then to burn the calories he has taken, we went to gym and worked out. But then, Bob wanted to have a carrot cake at Tender Greens since "it was his birthday"...ugh ^^; In order to maximize the calories anyone can take in one day, I took him out to dinner to Palm. Palm is a famous steak house which we used to go quite often when we lived in West Hollowood. We found another branch in downtown LA about 5 mins drive from our house. The place was rather full but we managed to get a booth seat. Stuffed ourselves up with 3lb lobster, 14oz filet minion, wild mashrooms, and keylime pie! Oh boy. Birthday is all about all you can eat!

Japanese dinner week

2009-04-17T22:11:00.000-07:00

Somehow after coming back from Japan, I had more craving for Japanese food. So, on Monday night, I made four dishes. One was a little dish with very thinly sliced pork, which I can only get at the Japanese grocery stores. I wrapped cheese and green beans in them, lightly breaded them, and fried them. Then I made "Asari Sakamushi" by steaming Asari with Sake..literally, Tofu Salad with sesame and vinaigrette dressing, and simly boiled Satoimo (type of taro). My hubby who typically doesn't like taro even liked these boiled ones. You peal the skin off and eat it as is (with maybe a bit of salt). And on Thursday, I made a very simple dinner with five dishes. Well, two out of five were already made, so I only made three by myself. The main dish that day was "Unagi", my hubby's favorite. You can buy a packed Unagi, and you just have to warm it up using microwave :) For the side dishes, I made Miso soup with Tofu and Aburaage (take a look at the definition here: Wikipedia - Aburaage), Naganegi Sumiso Ae (boiled leek with Miso and vinaigrette), Itame Yamaimo with cheese and Shiso (lightly sauté Yamaimo=yam with Ponzu topped with cheese and Shiso leaves) assorted with boiled celery, and Gobo Salad (gobo=burdock) which we just bought as is. And on Friday, we just grilled a whole bunch of Kushis like chicken, shrimps, quail eggs, sausages, pearl onions, and small rice balls. Althuogh they look burned in the pic below, they were actually perfectly done! And they are so easy to make. Try!

Japanese Food

2009-04-10T10:55:00.000-07:00

Everytime I go back to Japan, I get intrigued with the culnary culture there. Japanese food, unlike French or Chinese, it typically try to emphasize the natural taste of the seasonal ingredients rather than putting taste to them with heavy sauce. Maybe I am biased as I grew up with the food, but I just love the "simplicity," although I admit I am also a huge fan of French and Chinese :)

These are the spring veggies. You do Tempura with them, or you could simply grill them or saute them with soy sauce, mirin, sake, or dashi or any combination of them.

"Izakaya" we went during my recent visit had many great fish dishes. And they were unbelivably fresh and great. I can no longer tolerate any kind of sashimi we get here in LA :-(

Three small dishes. The top right dish is boiled Hotaruika (small squid). The top left dish is coocked scallop. The bottom dish is coocked scallop egg and organ (probably liver part based on the black color, which you typically don't eat unless it is VERY fresh)

Sashimi and Sushi. All fresh!

And, of course, you cannot forget Yakitori and Kushiage! Kushiage is typically prepared individually in front of you, so that you get to eat freshly fried Kushi=skewer.

Angeles National Park: Picnic near Switzer Falls: Apr 5, 2009

2009-04-05T23:37:00.000-07:00

Drive north on route 2 until you come to La Canada Flintridge and climb up the mountain road for about 10 miles, you come to this beautiful area called Angeles National Park. Drive further up the mountain, there is a picnic area which leads to the road to Switzer Falls.

Okay, this was the first time for us to be up there, and we didn't know what kind of picnic area it would be, so we were not prepaed for hiking at all, but we did enjoy lunching out in the woods and did some strolling towards the falls.

The picnic area is equipped with grills (not fancy but functional enough). You can do BBQ and enjoy dipping your feet into the creek - during the summer. You can hike to Switzer Falls, but you do need a pair of walking shoes for sure. According to the guy who went to the falls, it looks like 2 miles to the bottom of the falls and 2 miles up and 2 miles down to and from the falls. We are up for it next time!

Nectarine Tree

2009-04-05T18:08:00.000-07:00

You might remember last year's sad event of us trying to cure what appeared-to-be--olives-but-then-turned-out-to-be-nectarines:( The tree gave us hundreds of nectarines last year, but over time it started to get too tall and branches were hanging downwards. During the winter time, without the leaves or nectarines, it looked sad.

On January 18th, our kind neighbor Ed came to fix it by pruning the tree! It was the first experience for us to learn how to prune the tree, too. In fact, pruning is artwork. It is almost like sculpturing. Take a look at the before and after pictures below.

Now it is April. The nectarine tree is getting bushier than ever and started to form many little nectarines all around the tree. We should have lots of nectarines this year, too!

Wild animals in our backyard!

2009-03-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

One morning early March, I found an area of rather extensive damage to our backyard lawn. It was the first time that happened and we didn't know how it got there. Consequently we didn't do anything. And, a couple of days later, again in the morning, I noticed several areas of extensive damage! I was panicked, did some research, and hypothesized that it was done by either a raccoon or some kind of wild animal. Talked with my hubby and thought about sprinkling soap water, etc, but none of the treatments seemed to work permanently. Then my hubby found a service specialized in setting up traps to capture wild animals. They came around 9am on March 13, set up a trap (cage with a can of sardines), and left.

Two hours later, I heard a noise from the direction of the trap. Something about the thought of potentially catching an animal in the trap gave me an uneasy feeling. I was afraid. Or I was scared that an animal might be scared. I approached the cage and found a big furry grey animal. I was getting even more uneasy. I peeked into the cage... AND guess what was in it!!! A CAT! A huge grey cat! He looked at me with a set of scared eyes and meowed. I felt so bad and immediately called down my hubby who was doing some work upstairs. He opened the trap, and immediately the cat ran away. Boy, it was a HUGE cat, though. I thought it was a raccoon from the size. Anyway, that was the first animal that got caught.

Nothing else was caught that evening. The cat obviously never came back despite another fresh can of sardine:-)

Next morning, my hubby woke me up in the morning with an excited voice. I knew something was caught. I went downstairs with him and peeked into the trap. It was an opposum (or possum). We've seen him once before in our backyard, but not sure if it was the same one. He was small and shivering from fear. His eyes were full of sorrow and I felt really bad. And, he was way too small to do such big damage to our lawn. Anyway, we called the service provider immediately, as we wanted to release him as quickly as possible. They came by noon and he was taken away to an appropriate site to be released.

The service man thought he was NOT IT! He recommended that we leave the trap for a while. He set up another one with peanut butter like substance this time. Nothing was caught that evening or the day after. Then two mornings later, this time I woke up earlier, and heard a rather loud clinging sound from the trap. I was afraid that another small animal might have been caught, but when I got closer to the trap I knew from the size of the capture that this might be IT. It was big. It was grey. It had a striped tail. And I also saw a hand with five long slim fingers vigorously trying to open the cage. I was like... oh my... He looked at me with his eyes - looking rather vicious to me. I immediately woke my hubby up, and we called the service provider again to have him taken away and released to somewhere immediately. We were 100% confident that he was IT. We haven't had any damage to our lawn ever since. I am hoping that both opposum and raccoon are back in the woods being happy.

Watts Tower: Feb 15, 2009

2009-02-15T18:12:00.000-08:00

We found out about Watts Tower while we were watching one of the famous game shows called "Jeopardy." Never knew or heard of such a tower, and I did some research online and immediately got very interested in it. Plus we only live 15 mins away from the tower.

So, on Feb 15, we decided to drive down to the site. There are tours on a daily basis and you can learn quite a bit about the creator of the tower, a man named Simon Rodia, a very small Italian man who single-handedly constructed the amazingly "fun" and "exciting" towers. Simon spent 33 years from 1921 to 1954 to construct the towers. Given the fact that he was already 42 years old when he decided to build the towers and that they didn't have robust equipment back then, it is truly amazing how he did all the work by himself in his spare time after work!

The towers are full of "joy" "love" and "fun." Everything about the towers made me cheerful. Highly recommended for at least one visit.

If you want to learn more about the Watts Towers, check Wikipedia article about Watts Tower here.

More pictures are available on my Flickr stream. Enjoy!

Chinese New Year Dinner: Jan 24, 2009

2009-01-24T18:35:00.000-08:00

We had the honor of celebrating Chinese New Year over a wonderful dinner with our friend Erin Chao's family on January 24th. Erin's mother who was visiting from Taiwan cooked amazing dishes for us. Just imagine the taste by looking at the pictures here :)

お正月

2009-01-01T18:26:00.000-08:00

Unlike past years, this year's new year reminded me of お正月 in Japan - basically because of the weather. Very crisp air but still contains a scent of spring.

I cooked お雑煮 in the morning, いくらうに丼 (which btw gG loved - especially うに) and おせち for lunch, and えびフライ and other stuff for dinner. Yep, I cooked again all day :)

The new year resolution? I have one. I am going to spend more time on myself and think how I really want to live the rest of my life. I think it is time!

December 2008 thru X'mas to New Year Eve

2008-12-31T17:03:00.000-08:00

The word "師走" literally fit our December life. We had a quick trip to Japan at the beginning of December, and then Bob had to go up to SF area for a couple of days, while I was busy with the neighborhood's activities and work-related mess. Then Ko-chan arrived and helped us going into the holiday mode.

Right before X'mas, we were invited to my friend's B'day party, which was nice, but when we came back learned that our pot was burnt to unusable. Good that it was just a pot. And X'mas was here. Not sure if it is because of the economy or what, Christmas was rather quiet all around. But, we had very cozy and good Christmas holidays. In the morning on X'mas, we opened up each other's presents - just like every year. Then for dinner, we had Ko-chan's friend come over. We had the first attempt of a duck cooking, which came out very well. Yummy!

And the weekend after X'mas, we had a luxury of finally meeting Chris and Mag's lovely son Brandon. He reminded me of 一休さん character I used to watch on TV when I was a kid. He will be a great thinker and philosopher!

Then our long awaited friends came! Marc and Kyoko. It has been a while since I saw Marc the last time. I believe it was at the United lounge in Narita. I bumped into him accidentally on the way to Korea. It was certainly great to see Marc and lovely Kyoko again. A bit of too much partying on the first night (but with lots o great talks!), which affected the second day - yikes - can't do that at this age! But both Bob and I had lots of fun!

Somehow I was a day behind from the reality. When I realized it was the 30th, I got panicked. I realized I couldn't do 大掃除 :(. Instead, I spent the last day of 2008 just doing shopping for お正月 and cooking おせち料理! But we got to watch 紅白 on TV and spent very laid back 大晦日.

Thanksgiving! : Nov 27, 2008

2008-11-27T15:07:00.000-08:00

This year, we had a luxuary of having both Ken-chan and Ko-chan here at our house for Thanksgiving. In addition to that, we invited our friends over for the traditional Thanksgiving dinner which every year my husband cooks using his family receipe :)

Anniversary - Nov 14, 2008

2008-11-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

Anniversay started with a gorgeous meal at Providence restaurant followed by a long-wished purchase of "wii" and finalized with a surprising delivery of beautiful flowers form my hubby. Thanks for being a great husband, and most of all, my best friend!

Madagascar 2! - Nov 09, 2008

2008-11-16T10:36:00.000-08:00

Went to The Grove and saw Madagascar 2. Kid's movie? No, adults can enjoy it very much. Alex and his buddies are now on their way home to NY city but end up being in Africa, which apparently was Alex's real home. He reencounters with his dad and mom and starts learning the societal harshness and politics. But, he sticks with his own belief and shtick and finally becomes a part of the society. No no, the story was not explicitly serious like that. It was full of witty humour and laughs. Highly recommend the movie.

Before the movie, we had a luxury to enjoy cajun food at the farmer's market.

We had our all time favorites, which we haven't had a chance to eat for a while. They are Blacken Catfish Po'boy and Gumbo Yaya! Mmmm mmm GOOD!

Halloween trick-or-treat

2008-11-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

We had our 2nd Halloween here on Hobart. The 1st one was rather shocking, as we underestimated the number of kids coming to trick-or-treat. We ended up making two additional trips to get more candy. This year, we wanted to be a bit more prepared. Instead of giving away three or four pieces of candy per kid, we were being conservative at the beginning and limited our offering to one or two pieces. Guess what? Around 8:30pm or so, kids stopped coming. Unlike last year, there were no 2nd or 3rd waves of kids. Why? Is it because of the ressession? We ended up haivng 200+ pieces of candy left over :( ... Sorry kids. We could have given you more candy...

But, there were some very cute costumes this year, too. Here are some of them.

More pics on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/52413134@N00/sets/72157608596719119/show/with/2996252400/

Finding a sunny spot

2008-11-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

Yakitori Night!

2008-10-25T08:37:00.000-07:00

"Yakitori" became a well-known cusine in the US. It is a grilled chicken speared on stick. "yaki" means grilled or baked or broiled, and "tori" means bird. How simple is that? Nowadays, most Yakitori places not only serves skewered chicken but also serve skewered veggies, quail eggs, and all kinds of meet. "Kushiyaki" is another word which people use to represent such style of cooking. "kushi" is skewer and "yaki" again is grilled, baked, or broiled. :)

"Yakitori" is almost a part of Japanese "salary man's" after-work life. Poeple would say "yakitori de ippai yarouka" meaning "let's have a drink over yakitori."

All of a sudden, I had an urge to make my own yakitori the other night. We skewered chickens, pearl onions, green peppers, quail eggs, and shrimps and BBQed in our backyard. They were just simple and soooooo good!

Oh btw, you can skewer chicken skin and grill it until it gets very crispy. Not my favorite, but my hubby loves it!

Tickle me!

2008-10-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

Don't take this wrong. We wern't posing him. gG voluntarily posed this way and kept the pose for a while.

Helms Bakery - Oct 12,2008

2008-10-18T10:16:00.000-07:00

As you know, we have been looking for furniture to put in our living room. We went to a party last Saturday and there we were having a precise discussion about where we can find good piece of furniture. People mentioned to me "Helms Bakery." ?? Why bakery? We are talking about furniture here. Apparently it used to be a huge and successful bakery from 1930s up to the late 1960s. Paul Helm is the guy who started it, and it became an official baker of the 1932 Summer Olympics! Find more details here.

Anyway, we finally went there! It was amazing--a huge compelx full of stores and cafe-style restaurants. We went into a rug store, spending a fair amount of time learning about different types of rugs from the owner-like lady. She was very helpful. We didn't buy anything, as we didn't take the measurements :( But, we will definitely go back there. Everything was on sale. We also went into H.D. Buttercup. HUGE! Very good looking furniture. We couldn't find the exact piece we wanted to get, but it is worth visiting.

Santa Monica Swap Meet - Oct 5, 2008

2008-10-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to find something good for our living room, we went to this swap meet in Santa Monica. We have been in LA for almost 9 years now, but we only went to a swap meet once; that time it was the Melrose one.

Santa Monica one is famous for the antiques. Hmmm, there is a fine line between "antiques" and "old junks." I have to say most of the items belonged in the category of the latter :( But, we found a couple of items which reminded of our childhood like old tricycle and rollerskate! Rollerskate became pretty popular when I was in elementary school in Japan. I remember wanting a pair so much. And, it was that X'mas my parents bought me a pair as a X'mas present. I used to come home from school around 3pm and head immediately to the side street and practiced. Did I become a great skater? Nope, but I loved the concept of "trying to be a rollerskater."

Tender Greens in Culver City

2008-10-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

We had a party to go to in Culver City last night, so we said why not dine out in Culver City? We live only about 20 mins away from Culver City, but we never got around to going there. The area is filled with lots of good-looking restaurants and shops. A beautiful array of trees separates the wide pedestrian walkway from the traffic. Almost all the restaurants have outside seating. It was rainy last night for a change, and there weren't too many out, but it was still beautiful.

We went into this restaurant called Tender Greens. Not too fancy compared to other ones. You order food in advance and wait in line until you get your food. Semi-like fast food + carfeteria mixed together, but the big difference is what you get is much healthier and fancier. The menu choices are really simple. Either you get a "big salad" or "hot stuff from the grill" (four choices there - angus flank steak, "rocky junior" chicken, herb brushed local albacore, and oxnard vegetables). All dishes cost the same - just $10! We ordered angus beef, which came with mashed potatoes and a small salad on the side, and happy vegan salad, which had tabbouleh, green hummus, farro wheat, and some kind of eggplant stuff with lots of greens! Loved it.

2008-09-28T10:34:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to do what I have been wanting to do - moving furniture around. We used to have a semi-sizy piece of furniture (my mon's old chest of drawers) at the entrance hallway, but I moved it to the TV room, and replaced it with a smaller one with mirror. I also reallocated all the little items which were clutered around the living room floor, which made the living room much more organized. Now all I need there is chairs!

Harvard Heights: 2008 Wine Tour

2008-09-21T10:46:00.000-07:00

Our neighborhood has this event called "Wine Tour" every year. I missed the last year's, as I was in Japan at that time. So, I was very excited to be able to join for the first time! This is a neigborhood-only tour to visit 6 or 7 houses and enjoy the wine&food and conversation. Each is paired with a house and prepare food and drinks for the tour. This year, we were paired with a Pinot Noir house. We got three bottles of Pinot Noir, some smoked salmon, smoked sausages, two kinds of cheese, and crackers.

The tour started out from Jennifer's house, which has been recently remodeled completely. Gorgerously done. The color scheme reminded me of Tiffany. Very elegant and not in your face. The kicken had comtenporarly aspects to it functionality wise but kept the old look and feel to it.

Other houses were just so gorgeous as well. Every one of them had good square footage, but they maintained the historic aspects which we liked. As lovers of old era and houses, we exchanged information as to where you get the light fixures, rugs, etc.

BBQ - Buffalo Burger!

2008-09-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

Yum! Baison/Buffalo meat is supposedly healthier than beef.

NUTRITIONAL COMPARISON: Per 100 GRAM SERVING – COOKED MEAT

SPECIES	FAT GRAMS	CALORIES KCAL	CHOLESTEROL MG	IRON MG	VITAMIN B-12 MCG
Bison	2.42	143	82	3.42	2.86
Beef(choice)	10.15	219	86	2.99	2.65
Beef(select)	8.09	201	86	2.99	2.64
Pork	9.66	212	86	1.1	0.75
Chicken(skinless)	7.41	190	89	1.21	0.33
Salmon	10.97	216	87	0.55	5.80

Little alien in my backyard

2008-09-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

He looked like he was resting his head on his crossed arms behind it, just being relaxed, as if he was on a beach or something. He was certainly enjoying the early morning calmness.

LA Zoo

2008-09-14T22:02:00.000-07:00

I've been living in LA for almost 8 years, and I realized I never visited LA Zoo.

We had a late start but got around to see lots of animals. The highlight was the gorilla family! We first saw one gorilla sitting lonely facing backwards. Beautiful gorilla, but we were wondering what he was doing. Then, we saw mommy-looking gorilla and the baby coming from the left hand side. Yep, the gorilla we saw was a dad, and he was patiently waiting for his kid finishing up his play. Mommy and baby gorilla walked towards Daddy, and all three of them cudlingly head home.

We also saw an animal called Gerenuk that is typically from Ethiopia, Kenia, an Somalia area. Beautiful creature indeed.

2008-09-12T21:55:00.000-07:00

Look what I found in front of the Shabu-Shabu slash Sushi restaurant near my house. Sato-chan!! Hmmm...Sato-chan usually goes with drug store, right?

Spicy HOT Wasabi Ice Cream!

2008-09-07T11:27:00.000-07:00

Guess what I found in Japan. All kinds of different flavors of ice cream (soft cream) like Wasabi flavor, green tea flavor, and even combinations of them! We tried Wasabi. Wow, it still is ice cream but will give you a tingling sensation on your tongue and it was HOT!

Fish Market in Yaizu, Japan

2008-09-07T10:22:00.000-07:00

I made a very quick trip back to Japan during the week of 9/1. Had a good talk with my dad, visited my mother's grave, saw some of my highschool classmates, and went to a nearby spa. Very hectic but had lots of fun!

On the way to the spa, we stopped at "Yaizu Sakana Center" (Yaizu Fish Center). It was something. All kinds of fish at very reasonable prices (at least for Japan). Yea, it is like COSTCO for fish :) They had a 10 pack of salmon for only $15 and 40 Amaebi for $10!

Madonna and Ed's Brunch Party

2008-08-24T11:46:00.001-07:00

Our fern house is located on the street called Hobart, which has an array of old houses from the early 20st centry.

Our beloved neighbors Madonna and Ed invited us to a brunch party on their front porch. Madonna made great french toast stuffed with peaches and cream cheese... Mmm Mmm. Saturday brunch with a group of friendly neighbors was a real treat!

Heritage Square Museum

2008-08-17T17:21:00.000-07:00

After a quick ride on 10 to 110, we visited Heritage Square Museum. The eight historic structures constructed during the Victorian Era were saved from demolition and moved to the museum.

Something about these old houses always intrigues me so much. It is not the structures themselves. Of course they are beautiful. Little details here and there make you appreciate the architecture of that past era. Yet, what really makes me feel special is the lives the houses embody. People talked, ate, laughed, cried, and lived in the houses. The people died but the houses lived. If you are interested in the Heritage Square Museum, here is their web site: http://www.heritagesquare.org/index.htm

gG's Uncle Rick

2008-08-07T22:10:00.000-07:00

It's been a while Rick visited us in LA. We had a small BBQ dinner outside on our deck. gG loved Bob's creative pork burger!

gG waiting for everyone to be seated

Food is ready!

Rick, Bob, and gG... totally blurred :(

Roof cleaning

2008-07-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

Get rid of the leaves

clean surface finally revealed

Final wash off

Malibu party

2008-07-27T09:11:00.000-07:00

"Malibu" sounds so "rich", doesn't it? Yep, it is rich. We had the luxury of attending a pary held in one of the houses on the beachline of Malibu. The view of ocean was magnificent. The house is not on a sandy side of Malibu, so no foot steps of seagulls which I just cannot take (don't ask me why). And, the fun part is the house itself. Lots of entertaining stuff.

First, right beside the main entrance, there is a little door with stuffed wolf in it. I have been to this house before, and I know in fact, it actually comes out when you press a button.

And there was another surprise. By the pool there was a plant. Very normal looking, and all of a sudden with a scary noise, ghost (of course fake!) rise up from beneath the tree.

And the dogs. They are just so cute and hilarious. Both of them are fixiated on a ball, and whenever someone throws the ball into water, they would jump in and try to catch it. And, one of them supposedly cannot swim, so it piggy back on the other one!

FIrst Congregational Church of Los Angeles

2008-07-19T09:14:00.000-07:00

We have been going to this church on and off for the last five years or so, not to be faithful to god (sorry! differnet god) but to listen to the organ music. The church has the largest church organ in the WORLD (according to the church press)! Truely, the organ is beautiful.

This year, they are planning to have a "40th Annual Organ Concert Series" starting on Octorber 19, 2008. The church is located at 540 So. Commonwealth Ave., Los Angeles, CA. Check it out.

gG enjoying the moment of being loooong

2008-06-26T08:04:00.000-07:00

WILD banana!

2008-06-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

Our front yard is getting like a jungle. There are about five banana trees, and they are growing taller and putting more bananas these days. One night, our neighbor knocked on our door and informed us one of the banana trees was knocked down. Not sure what happened, but yep, it was down. The tree had very cute looking wild babanas on it!! We, the first time, opened up a wild banana. WOW! It is full of sizable black seeds. Not an attractive look for banana for sure. I was too afraid to taste it, but enjoy the look of it here.

Olive vs. Nectarine

2008-05-31T09:14:00.001-07:00

I confess. I didn't write for a while as I was depressed with the fact that I discovered somthing new about our 'olive' tree. One day, my friend who was helping me pick the 'olives' from the tree said, 'they look like peaches.' By that time, yes, the 'olives' had started to grow bigger, pinkish, and peach-like. And I said, 'hmmm, yeah, they do look like peaches, don't they? but they are supposed to be olives.' She tasted one, I tasted one, and we realized they were peaches (nectarines, actually)!!!

We threw away all the curing 'nectarines' :(

But, guess what? Even after picking 100s of 'used-to-be-olives' from the tree, it kept growing more 'in-fact-nectarines.' We have been enjoying the nectarines every day.

Hide and Seek

2008-05-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

I would say he tried his best :(

Curing Olives: Day 14

2008-05-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

It has been 14 days since we started the olive curing. We tried two methods: water curing and brine curing. Guess what? We killed the water curing one. I think the bacteria grew, as we weren't dumping the olives completely and wash them throughly :(

Brine curing one is very alive. You can see that the reddish color is almost gone, and some of the olives started to sink to the bottom of container. We are curing!

Compare the Day 1 picture to Day 14 picture!

gG zoning out

2008-04-30T22:57:00.000-07:00

Another finding in our backyard

2008-04-27T08:02:00.001-07:00

As usual, I was walking around my backyard in the morning. And, I found another new "something" in the deepest corner of our backyard. At first glance, I thought they were branches of the tree, drooping from the top towards the ground. But, the leaves looked slightly different from the ones on the tree. Could it be another plant just wrapping around the tree? If so, what was it???

There was a beautiful whitish flower and a bunch of little buds (or whatever they are). If you know of such plant, leave a comment.

Curing Olives!

2008-04-26T10:23:00.000-07:00

We have an Olive tree in our backyard. About two months ago, it put out beautiful flowers which reminded me of Japanese "sakura" (cherry blossom). Although I thought I knew it was an olive tree, I started to wonder if it might actually be a cherry tree.

I was wrong. In March, I started to notice little olives here and there. In April, I took off for Japan and came back and guess what I found!!! Hundreds of HUGE olives growing all over the tree.

Its branches were drooping with the weight of huge olives. I felt like the tree was begging me for help. So, I did. My hubby and I picked the olives from the tree. I believe we picked more than several hundred for sure. And, we still have more to go.

We found an article on how to cure olives (http://www.wikihow.com/Cure-Olives) and we decided to go with "Water Curing" and "Brine Curing".

It has been 6 days, and I have started to see a reddish color in salt water. We are curing them! - I hope.

On the same day, we also found some more strawberries and oranges. You can tell how big these olives are in comparison to strawberries and oranges.Spring harvest!

Sushi Experience in Shizuoka

2008-04-21T22:21:00.000-07:00

There is a Sushi restaurant that I have to visit whenever I go back to Shizuoka. "Neta" (what's on top of rice) is pretty fresh and the price is very reasonable. They have great selections of "Kai" (shell fish), which I LOVE but am usually scared to eat here in the States and never got around to satisfy my cravings. So, this time as usual, I visited the same restaurant. I know the chefs there very well. They showed me a plate of "Kai" with gorgeously lined up shell fish. They are usually pricier than regular fish, but boy... you cannot say you know Sushi without knowing the taste of "Kai". Our chef also made us a cute cartoon character called "Anpan-Man" with fish and pickles. Two hearts besides the face are made out of pickled radish. The face is made out of scallops, orange cheeks are made out of salmon, nose is made out of tuna, mouth is made out of picked carrot, and the two yes are made out of some sort of pickles as well. It was just very tasty... sorry I did eat. So... here are the Sushi Chefs.

My Mom's Memorial Day

2008-04-19T16:19:00.000-07:00

Just came back from a trip to my home town Shizuoka, Japan. Sakura season was almost ending in Shizuoka, but I found a couple of trees with good amount of blossom. We call the stage "Ha-Zakura". "Ha" means leaves, and "Zakura" is Sakura. :) Sakura has been associated with many Japanese events. At the time of full blossom, friends and family gather and sit underneath the Sakura trees and enjoy the blossom with food and drinks. I was too late for that unfortunately, but I was happy to be able to see some blossom. It certainly soothes you. It was a short trip, but I also managed to visit my family's grave. March 15th is my mother's memorial day. This year it was a bit late, but it would be better than not visiting at all. So... what do we do at the grave? We clean around the grave, pour water from top of the tombstone, put flowers in the vase, burn incense, and pray by telling how well you are doing, how much you thank them for what they have done, and just be in a state of "mu" to enjoy the moment of being with the memories. Our grave was one of the first ones built in the cemetery. Now the cemetery is packed with rows of graves. These days it is fairly expensive and difficult to find the cemetary, and people started to use what's called "Noukotsu-Do"; literally meaning place to store bones. Some of them have a coin locker look alike system. Yes, the mentality is certainly changing.

Driving through Hobart

2008-04-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we had a chance to explore a good portion of Hobart Blvd., the street our fern house is on.
Hobart Blvd. goes quite a long way from south to north. The most southern part of Hobart seems to be around Torrance Blvd and Western. It disappears for a while until you go up north of 405 and keeps re-appearing and re-disappearing until you go above 105. After that, it appears most of the way till you hit W Florence Ave (around 72nd St) and disappear again. Then, around W Vermon Ave (44th St), it appears again. It gets cut with the Martin Luther King Jr. Park around 39th St. Skip one block and reappear at W Jefferson Blvd. and all the way up to Los Feliz and above to the very gorgeous hillside top.
We drove starting at Jefferson Blvd all the way up to the top of the hill. We also got to see the iconic Wilshire Boulevard Temple, which Samuel Tilden Norton who architected our fern house served as one of three architects. The temple was completed in 1929. See the pics of Hoboart Blvd: http://www.flickr.com/photos/52413134@N00/sets/72157604395845426/

Typical night of gG

2008-04-01T23:18:00.000-07:00

He just loooves being on my lap all night long. Me? Hmmmm.

Ice cream truck

2008-03-29T10:39:00.001-07:00

I have never seen an ice cream truck until I moved to this area of LA. Every Fridays around 6pm, you would hear music coming from the street. Yep, it is the ice cream truck. Friday is a great day for the ice cream guy. This area is filled with kids and families, and all of them rush around the truck once they hear the music. This past Friday, too, there were at least 30 people buying ice cream! When I was a kid back in Japan, there were still lots of retailers selling stuff with the cart, bicycle, etc. Tofu was one of them. They usually played very distinctive melody with little trumpet (rappa). Whenever my mom heard the music, she asked me to grab a pot and run to the street. And, I did. The Tofu man scooped Tofu out of a big pot with water and put it into my small pot. I remember Tofu tasted soooo good. They also sold a bag of "okara", which we often used to either cook "unohana" (http://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/jagaimo/cabinet/00186491/img14328128.jpg) or give it to our beloved rabbits at school. The guy who sold us "okara" often gave us "okara" free or even if we had to pay I believe it was like 10 yen. To learn more about "okara", go to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okara_(food). # I also found out that Okara was the name of a city in Pakistan. I don't see them any longer.

gG goes into Zen mode

2008-03-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

What I love these days is to walk around the backyard with gG in the morning. He would sniff around the flowers and weeds and goes into Zen mode. Do you feel the same "wabi sabi" with this gG's shot as I did?

"wabi" and "sabi" are the highest aesthetic values aimed at by traditional Japanese arts, particularly the tea ceremony and poems called Haiku."wabi" exoresses a way of being quietly clear and calm. "sabi" means having well-seasoned, refined simplicity.

Freshly mowed lawn

2008-03-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

Can you smell the freshly mowed lawn?

Spring Bloom!

2008-03-23T11:54:00.000-07:00

Spring is here... or I should say summer is here all of a sudden. Yep, it was 88 degree outside around my house today. HOT!!! ...and guess where he ran into :)

Despite of the heat, or being helped by the heat, our backyard is getting pretty colorful with different colored flowers all around.

Oh no! Peanut butter manifesto!

2008-03-22T09:46:00.001-07:00

Okay... I understand people love peanut butter, but this was the first I saw. Created by my beloved hubby.

This is our fern house

2008-03-21T17:08:00.001-07:00

This is our fern house. Yep, it is very green and very old (100 years old!!). This house was build in 1907 by a famous architect called Samuel Tilden Norton who also designed Greek Theater in Griffith Park. The house was first owned by a member of well-known pioneer family called John B. Amestoy. Mr. Amstoy was the son of Domingo Amstory, an early property owner in San Fernando Valley. You can find the rancho they owned in Encino still today with a little museum about the family. Our fern house is a HPOZ property with Mills Act. gG also loves the backyard with 100 year old barn.

This is gG

2008-03-15T10:13:00.000-07:00

This is gG, our beloved furry son who looks like a cat but acts like a dog. He sometimes reminds me of one of those programed icons following wherever your mouse cursor goes. Yep, gG follows me around the house. Up and down, left and right, day and night, constantly.