Summer

Summer has come.

The reading list for this summer has been picked out and I've got plans to see my friends everywhere.

My summer has just kick-started.

Hate Hay Fever

All of a sudden, unexpected spring heat hit the city today. As the temperature got about 21 degrees mid-afternoon, huge waves of pollen started wafting in the air, which caused me super annoying sneezing and eye irritation all day. It lasted until near midnight.


Do you know what happen when you have continuous bad sneezing and corresponding sore throat and painful back part of nose? Brain freeze. You can't think right. You don't even want to think. Only thing in your mind is to get the irritation away.

"mens sana in corpore sano"

             -from the Roman poet Juvenal

Meaning "A healthy mind in a healthy body." Just like he says, everything begins from a healthy body. Without it, you are unable of more than you expect.

Beautiful Encounter

I've been off from this blog for few months now since started the one in Japanese, but I came across this inspiring blog by a Japanese/English bilingual guy. He is blogging in English and first I thought he is native in English, but as I read on the back number of his blog postings, found out that he and I had almost the same path of learning English. I was simply amazed. By his linguistic skill, and also by his positively deep thoughts. I instantly became a big fun of him. And that's how I was inspired and started posting again:)

a lost baby lamb

A baby lamb is lost.

Though knowing something is fatally missing, just don't know what.

We share the same birthday:)

I for the first time in my life met a girl who has the same birthday as mine. It was pretty exciting to talk to her about life. Shearing the same birthday means that we have exactly the same astrology, and supposedly we share the up and down of life and their timings too. Though it was our second time to see each other, we found things and big parts of personalities in common. We both hate to lose no matter what, very strait forward yet somehow dependent. Maybe because she grew up in many different countries in Asia since she was little until the end of the college in China, we understand each other deeply. I am glad that I met her now. She said "my 25 years old was pretty tough and made me feel rushed and gave me a lot of pressure, but very recently those pressures went away. Don't know why. I'm just somewhat relieved." And I know what she meant because I just felt like that recently. Well, of course, coz we share the same birthday, right? ;p We celebrated our 26th birthday together with great food, great music and greatest laugh, hoping wonderful years for both.

Stand by Me

Last night, a sunday night, we had a guest. He brought a Japanese movie to watch with us, but it was little too early for movie time, so we had chat for a couple of hours or so. And he grabbed the guitar laying in the room, and started to play with it. It was fantastic. He played few name-unknow songs which everybody knows, then Eric Clapton, John Lennon, switched it to ukulele and few more songs like "I'm yours."
He asked Kanta if he could play a "Stand by Me" and Kanta said "vaguely." And they started to play the song with guitar and ukulele. It was beautiful. He asked me if I could sing the song. I really wanted to, but I can't, so he sang as well. I was laying on the couch, with minimum orange lighting, having two guys playing live "Stand by Me" right there. Still not sure if it was sunday night or the heaven.

a night with Eric

I was waiting for the carrot cookies to be baked, listening to Eric Clapton.
I borrowed Murakami Haruki's Norwegian Wood today from the library. I also borrowed many books like William Somerset Maugham's Cakes and Ale, a couple of mysteries by Higashino Keigo, and some cook books. While waiting for cookies and listening to Eric Clapton, I was deciding what to read first, then realized how happy that moment was. I was struggling, I mean literally suffering from many things recently, and forgot how it was like to just feel happy from bottom of your heart. It wasn't like YAY!-kind happy, but more like I-know-that-I-am-happy-at-this-moment-but-there's-nothing-I-can-put-this-feeling-into-the-human-words-kind happy. So nothing could be more important than this, don't you think?

a rainy morning

a rainy morning.

the dinning room is pale look unlike until yesterday.
without any music, you still have natural raining back ground music.

I am cooking a ham + egg breakfast and a ginger milk tea with lots of sugar in it.
sweet and warm milk tea melts my body into a drop of rain.

Norwegian Wood

When I first read Murakami Haruki's book, I was only 18 years old and suffering from everything. I was too young and not mature enough to enjoy in a total alien country.

One winter night, I was reading his "Norwegian Wood" all night long until dawn. At the time of winter dawn, I finished the book and what I felt at that moment is somehow still living in me. My first experience of his book was and has been huge impact on me.

I have once been to his talk show in Berkeley. He had great atmosphere around him, and the way he talked was somehow but clearly related to his words and his world. And I loved it. So if his novels were made into movies, I wanted it to have the temperature he has in his works. And this time, the director of Norwegian Wood, Trần Anh Hùng, said that she focused on the original story's temperature and atmosphere, not just followed the story. Now I really want to see the movie. And I love the Beatles' song Norwegian Wood as well.

Dawn of Summer

The last day of summer.
Last winter, I was dreaming about early summer mornings. Before sunrise, the moment of the dawn, sky is getting bright but not quite yet, crisp air unlike sauna-like daytime, then sunrise in the world of pinkish-orange blue color... I was craving for this for all winter long. However, I am a famous big sleeping monster and never got up before 8 recently, so it has been a big challenge for me to get up that early. And the last day, I made it! It was just like I had expected. Beautiful and refreshing. I hope I can do that again sometime before this savage heat will be gone.

Green Curry from Muji

It was unexpected. Green curry kit from Muji is real good.
It tastes exactly like the one from the Thai restaurant on Polk Street in San Francisco. I know some of you know what I am talking about.

It's really hot for sure, but it's not just that. It has sweetness from coconut and very tasty. I made it with eggplants, bamboo shoots, shrimps, and green peppers. Although it was my first time to actually cook it, it came out really good. Well, all I did was cut veges, stair them, and pour all pastes from the kit though. oh, and added EXTRA sugar, too. haha

Anyways, finding things like that that help my cooking easier and tastier always make me happy smile:)

almost 100 degrees

I had forgotten what it was like 100 degrees outside.

Now I know. I can't sleep right. I can't eat right. I can't move right. Sitting on a chair and reading books is just pain in the a--. But put pains aside, it's always super exciting when the rainy season's over and you feel so much summer around you.

The past weekend, I went up the Mt. Takao with Kanta and friends. It was a beautiful day. We walked up and down for 5 hours. Then the treat was beer garden on the mountainside! Night view from there was gorgeous and above all, we were all really tired and hungry, so food + drinks were absorbed into the body. We had a really good time.

a pasta master.

One of my favorite meal is pasta. To eat, and to cook.
It should be simple enough to take less than 15 mins to cook. And it has to be real good.

I've been making lots of kinds of pasta for few years now, and recently, I get surprised by how well-made my pasta is. It happens one out of two or three times now. I seriously never had better one at any restaurant or in any country. They are GOOD! Well, I know I can say whatever I want here, but trust me, they are good.

However, as I mentioned above, it doesn't happen all the time. It most likely happens at home and ones for me and my buddy. Maybe because I have herbs from my garden. Maybe because I'm most comfortable in my kitchen. Or maybe I love me and my man so much and some kind of psychological power is working. Who knows :)

lately...

It's been a while since the last post.
So for last 2 months, things have changed a lot.
I've moved in with my boyfriend. The new place has an own balcony where I can have my little garden. Now there are basil, Japanese basil (shiso), small green pepper (shishito), parsley, green onions, cucumber and mini tomatoes. They have been growing well under this humid rainy weather.
And I've got a new Macbook! Still working on shortcuts and many things but I'm loving it already.
Lastly, I've got a new cell phone that I have been rejecting for a year now. My family worry about me too much without one, so finally I gave in.

Motivation for my job has been up because of my lovely Macbook.
On the other hand, I often have arguement with my boyfriend over silly stuff, which is absolutely a waste of energy and time. I have to work on that now.

Tomato & Basil Pasta

The basil I was bought last week is growing like crazy now under this beautiful weather.

I picked some and cooked tomato & basil pasta for lunch yesterday. The tomatoes picked in the morning and basil picked few minutes before served added fresh and great flavor to the plates. Huge motivation to cook for all summer long.

A new life

It's raining. It's raining hard out.

To my surprise, we've got a new place to move in after a weekend searching. It was a great deal, and on top on anything, we'll have a own balcony/ garden! After a long period of web search, I was expecting kind of old building with Japanese tatami room, no exception, for the price we've set. But the one we've decided on is taking up all the first floor in a duplex house, all wooden floor, which is very rare in Japan for our price range, and amazingly pretty and new. AND this kick-ass OUR garden. Seriously, after all rooms we have searched on web site and actually went to see, this place is drop-dead heaven.

I am thinking of having BBQ and tea party, and planting many kinds of herbs and vegetables. A brilliant new life shall be coming soon...

Home-made international food day

I've been fancying having home-made international food day.

Cocina española night.
Seafood paella, ensalada española, sopa, y red wine.

Korean style lunch.
Kimbap, kimchee, mashroom soup, and tofu salad with spicy miso dressing.

Italian night.
White cream pasta, tomato and tuna salad, cheese-on-bread, and red/ white wine.

A rainy day

It was a cold rainy day unlike normal late Aprils.

The article from the morning news paper made me sick.
My day has been unproductive at all.
I only can follow the words, not understanding anything on the book I wanted to read today.

Cooking turnip stew, pizza, and home-made hamburger for lunch...
a banana cake and English tea for tea time...

What I need now is something hands-on and constructive. 

Wisdom tooth again.

I had my last wisdom tooth pulled out yesterday. You don't get knocked out for the surgery here in Japan, so you hear the drill's making the cracking, popping, and a high-pitched squealing sound that hurt your ear and your mind. But I endured, though my heart was beating real fast and my hands started shaking. That was like one of my worst experience in my life.
But anyway, that was the last one! My nightmare has finished! I will never go there again. No wonder, I started brushing my teeth a lot more.

Blurred spring

Spring.
Blurred sunset.
Cherry blossom in full bloom.

The moment I am proud of being a Japanese.