Kokochi

Natto

 

I love natto, and it's one of my comfort foods. When I'm sick, I like freshly cooked rice, natto, soysauce, and a raw egg all mixed together. Natto is usually not super popular with non-Japanese, as well as some Japanese, as it stinks, and looks like it's way past its expiration date... but it's healthy! Luckily, Dav has taken a liking to it, although not yet Tesla.

One of my favorite blogs, Serious Eats, recently had a nice article on natto. I've been meaning to post about my humble favorite food, but any pics I took just looked horrible. So it's nice I also saw this article in the Wall Street Journal on a local natto maker (I've had his fresh natto here) trying to introduce natto. He has a bruschetta recipe with natto that I'll try on my next guests ; )

It's also good, apparently, to avoid osteoporosis.

Here comes natto!!

Yann in town

Our friend Yann is in town, whom we met via Elida. He will be staying at our place while we are away at Strawberry which is perfect because he can care for my kitties, including the insulin shot Wakame needs twice a day. Makes going on vacation so much better for me.

Still, he kindly brought fancy gifts from France for Tesla (that I will be "borrowing" since they are way to fine and nice for her age, and I don't want them destroyed), and also brought a giant chunk of 14 month old Comte with a matching Yellow Wine.

Last night we basically had salad and lots of cheese! Love it when Yann is in town!

The last 2 weeks

Been offline for 2 weeks! Busy with life as usual, but nice to take a break from posting. Lots been going on, however.

First, we were rather lame with pics from Russian River. We have some of T in the pool - because she was in the pool A LOT, pretty much all day when we let her. The pool was heated and of salt water, meaning no nasty chlorine. Can't get much better than that. With a hot tub just next to the pool, well, you get why we just were having too much fun to take pics.

Luckily, lovely Sasha (movie star in the first pic between Tesla and Aesha) with her mad photography skills captured snippets of the long weekend for all 22+ of us. I've snatched a few of her pics from Facebook to show here. Thank you, Sasha.

These 2 pics represent a good part of the weekend: pool fun, friend fun, kid fun.

These next ones are from Sasha of T and us family hot-tubbing : )

Next big news: we had T's hair cut, as in for reals for the first time vs. me just trimming her hair. It's short!! And she loves it. Bangs too. I still have to take a double look  when searching for her at preschool pick-up. 

We took tons of photos (was so cute with the hair cut bib on, or when her bangs were cut, how she diligently kept her eyes closed), but our camera isn't downloading pics at the moment. So my cellphone will have to do until we get those pics. South Park Stylist Allison, who comes to our house and snips our hair, cut T's so she was familiar with her, and it was comfy at home. Right after, T ran to the mirror to check herself out. Overall, big success. No more rice stuck in her hair everyday!

 

And get this: as Allison was packing up, T blurted out to Allison, "You have a nice vagina!" Really! Thankfully, we know Allison so I wasn't horrified, and I explained that I had just given T a bath, and "vagina" came up randomly. I don't use kiddie words, and prefer real words for body parts so there's no weird connotation on certain areas, especially areas I want her to be comfortable with and in control of. However, she's at the age to be delighted to joke about whatever she senses makes adults giggle. If a foot is a foot, that's boring, but she knows "vagina" is special. And she totally knows "peepee" and "poopoo" elicit a reaction so who knows what she'll shout out at our next restaurant dinner...

Next up: Maker Faire tomorrow! And Strawberry from Thu~Sun (our 4th year), at Camp Mather, our favorite spot in Yosemite (our 5th time there since we went there too for Symbiosis)

Summer is looking full with a visit from Yann, Ian & fam from Finland, Rachel & fam (my first time to meet precious Zev so I'm dying for this!), my parents, then Camp Tipsy, and......wohoooooo, BM! And, eh hem, we're applying to be a theme camp: tiny authentic Japanese tea house. Unique and serene. If we get accepted, I'll share the deets. I hope it will be beautiful and amazing, even though it's just tiny as can be.

And, in 2 weeks, LCD Sound System, we go! Click on the Play button. [Sorry, show sold out in 20 minutes]

off to Russian River

Totally looking forward to a long weekend in Russian River with friends visiting from Dubai. About 20 of us our gathering to hang out in a giant house with a pool surrounded by trees. Tesla is excited as we are! Will be offline : )

Playing with Tesla

Play with Tesla has gotten more intricate, her imagination so rich of scenarios. Hanging out with her while she genuinely wants us to play with her is so precious as I keep imagining how hard it will be when she's a teenager and wants her "own time."

Anyway, last Sunday Dav and I just hung around the house in the afternoon as my energy is still low from all my coughing (although I am getting better). She brought out her tinker toys given to her by Rachel. She really liked her star configuration so she bossed both Dav and I to copy her (she likes being Ms. Bossy-pants), and we all ended up with star-embeded machines that we played with for a good hour. I felt like both Dav and I were at her level, and I really enjoyed playing together.

On Monday, a flower hat that Tesla glued together on Sunday was dry, so T was eager to wear hers, and stick one on my forehead. We played hide and seek in a forest (ie. curling up close to our houseplants). At one point she made me wear the flower right on my face to hide since she thinks hiding is basically covering your eyes. Oh, and a few catch ups: The sleepover gals gang up on Dav. And pics from the Sakura Parade, especially proud T post parade : )

cough cough cough

I feel like I've been coughing for a week. And although I expected this to be gone by now, it hit me with an extra slap today...on this gorgeous beautiful Saturday. Boo! Luckily T got some outdoor time at Fia's, a nice good nap, and a dance party. I napped, and watched Pretty in Pink. Not bad, but I hope to be better soon!

Auntie Ellen

Dav's auntie, Gran Marie's older sister had a medical emergency today, and then went into a coma. It was sudden, and there was nothing anyone could do. The family let her go, as she would have wanted, gifting to donate what will save lives. I don't know what to say. My heart goes out to Granny, Ellen's mama, and to all her sisters and brothers. Such a close family with an amazing history I am touched to be part of. I am thinking of Ellen, sending her good wishes, hoping she is with her granny she loved, and maybe bumping into my ancestors, marveling at the wide variety of people she is connected to.

Rest in peace.

Sleepover tonight!

Tesla asked for a sleepover last week, so I organized for Fia and Firefly to come over for dinner, mayhem fun, then a sleepover. T has been asking pretty much everyday if the girls were coming over, and I had to explain, "2 more days" etc. Waiting days is an eternity for a 3 year old.

Today is the day, and T's cousin might join too. T is so excited not just that the girls will be here to play, but it's at her house with her toys. She has asked for an ice cream dessert, so I will oblige.

I have allergies which dampens my energy, but actually when there are playmates for Tesla, it's a lot less work for me - I just let them play.

[Update] 2 of Tesla's cousins (Maria-Rose and Ava) came over, so we had a grand total of 5 girls! It wasn't too wild, and luckily Michelle and Anna & Gordon (Ava's parents) hung out, so for brushing teeth/bedtime, there was tons of help. Overall went well. In the morning, they watched a video, and by late morning, it was time to disperse the group when some sticking out tongues, claims to no longer play with each other, and even some hitting went on...

Kyrgystan in the news

Kyrgystan has been in the news in a big way. When there is so much news in the world, it's hard to focus at times, but Kyrgystan is close to me. I wonder about the people I know there. Are they ok?

It's been a while, and before I started blogging, but I went to Bishkek, Kyrgystan for work. I used to work for the I.M.F. Regioinal Pacific Office based in Tokyo. I ran 2 scholarship programs for young government officials from emerging economies to study macro economics. I loved it. I loved making a huge difference for each student, and it was pretty much a dream job. Bonus was I got to travel to far out places to interview students (I even had a U.N. passport). It was a truly amazing job.

In 2002, I went to Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, and a quick stop in Kazakhstan. I spent most of my time in Tajikistan (due to few flights), and Krygystan (where we had lots of applicants). It's crazy since now I try to document as much as I can as memory gets fuzzy, and I am bummed I didn't keep at least a diary back then. Even after I started blogging in Tokyo, I never mentioned work. I am still very grateful for that  experience.

I do think of the students. I hope they are well. I wanted to finally get my pictures online after dusting them off, so here they are.

Fox theater in Oakland

We saw Hot Chip at the Fox theater in Oakland. My 2nd Hot Chip concert, and very first time at the Fox. I was taken aback at how beautiful the place is. They recently refurbished it, but the Moroccan theme decor and details were gorgeous. The music and crowd was awesome, and the show rocked everyone's socks off, but that experience within the Fox theater made my night.

p.s. The show ended at 11pm, quite early when compared to shows say at the Independent where the headliner starts at 11. We were with the Regenbogens, so we drove back to S.F., parked the car on Pier 30, played (blasted) the new LCD Soundsystem album from the car, got out and danced with the Bay Bride lit up right in front of us. We felt like we were in high school, but it beat going to a club! We all have tickets to the LCD Soundsystem show in June!!