The other day my fountain pen wasn’t writing well. I thought the nib must be messed up because the ink wasn’t being applied to the paper as smoothly as before. The lines were broken and uneven. Could something be plugging up the slit that the ink flows down? Maybe the tines got skewed a bit. Is there a bit of dried ink somewhere in the nib? I treat my pens gently, so I was kind of angry that the pen company could manufacture something that only writes nicely for about a month, and then breaks from normal use!! Garbage! 😤
Then I realized… the pen was out of ink. 🤭
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Today’s photo is of a “Dogijuku” hot dog that I had for lunch at work. It’s the Japanese-style hot dog that I was reluctant to get because I love authentic Japanese food, and often the fusion type foods are not so great. But I have to say, this hot dog was yummy! It had nori, ginger, and wasabi mayo on top of the bacon-wrapped hot dog. So yummy!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/30 sec, ISO800 “Still Life by Otaku” Cedar Park, 2018
こんばんは。How’s it going?
So today the taco trailer visited our office building and of course I couldn’t resist. I have a view of the parking lot from my desk so I can see which food truck is gracing us with its presence, and also see how long the line is. And one of my co-workers is my taco-buddy so I enjoy Taco Tuesday at the office. 🌮
When I was growing up, and there was the choice between corn or flour tortillas, I always chose flour. I really couldn’t understand why anyone would prefer corn tortillas. I’m pretty sure it was because I liked to eat tortillas plain, and I once chose corn tortillas which were really dry. So, I kept with flour as my choice all these years.
But now, living in the land of central Texas, we eat soft tacos a lot. And I prefer the double-corn tortilla style for these smaller tacos. I think it just tastes amazing! I could eat carnitas, onion, cilantro on corn tortillas every day.
Today, however, I decided to try flour tortillas with a pork-belly filling and it was really delicious. The pork belly is really greasy and the flour tortillas soaked up all those flavorful juices nicely. It was somewhat eye-opening! I guess I have to rethink my tortilla game, or maybe just get used to calling an audible every time I order. 😆
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Today’s photo is what I call an Otaku Still-life, with Fuchico in the starring role. These little toys are nerdy things from Japan but they are really fun to take photos of. And then I had to also put some pencils and washi tape in the background to fill the frame. I admit it’s an “11:59 pm photo”, but I like it nonetheless.
I used my Ultrapod to hold the camera, then I positioned the elements while referencing the LCD screen. I then used the 2-second timer feature to reduce camera shake. In Lightroom, I added some grain to the final image, which I think adds a lot of character. I prefer a little roughness over a super clean look.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO2500 “Dinner” Cedar Park, 2018
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Today was a tiring day… I didn’t have a chance to sleep in because Bay had an SAT test at 8 am, so I needed to make him breakfast and drive him over to the high school, 25 minutes away. After that I went to the local library to vote in the city elections, then I went back home to pick up Koa and take him to the high school for his percussion contest.
I had a couple hours before picking up the kids so I went to Strait Music to see if they had a set of special ukulele strings. The set of strings I wanted is called “Low G” because the G is an octave lower than standard ukulele tuning. That particular string is a heavier gauge. Anyways, Strait Music didn’t have it in stock, so I called Guitar Center to see if they did. The salesman there confirmed that they had it in stock, and I specifically asked if it was “Low G” and he said yes. So I made the drive over, which was not an insignificant one, but when I arrived, they only had the regular sets of ukulele strings. The guy said, “Sorry about that. I don’t really know about ukuleles.” I was pretty pissed. 😤
Ugh. Anyways, I headed back home, then picked up Koa from the contest, and then made the trek over to the other high school to pick up Bay.
When we got home, Mariko had returned from work and we had some time to relax a bit before some friends came over for dinner. It was so delicious! We had a Korean-style dish with chili paste, mochi, veggies, chicken, and cheese. Accompanying that was an assortment of Korean veggies and then chawanmushi. And as a bonus, our friends brought over some uni! I was so full, but so tired too from a long day.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/9 sec, ISO800 “Bread Fails” Cedar Park, 2018
こんばんは。How’s it going?
The past few days, Mariko has been baking a ton and sharing/selling bread to friends. And sometimes (not often) she has a bread fail… which is great for me because while the bread might not look perfect, it tastes great. 😀
The photo above shows some of the bread fails, but they still look great, don’t they?
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/20 sec, ISO3200 “Favorite Meal” Cedar Park, 2018
こなばんは。 How’s it going?
Tonight Mariko went out to a movie with a friend, but before she left, she prepared my favorite meal for us: oyakodon (親子丼). I’ve mentioned it before, but the word “oyakodon” means “parent and child donburi”, and it refers to it being chicken and egg. Kind of macabre, but oh so yummy!
Anyways, Mariko prepared the chicken, onion, and broth and left the covered pan on the stove for us to finish cooking. I basically just had to add the lightly beaten eggs and cook until the desired doneness. Sometime we’ll top it with nori (seaweed) and/or scallion, but tonight, we just had it plain with a bit of hot pepper. To me, it’s a perfect meal!
When I lived in Japan I used to go to a bento place called Hokka Hokka Tei. It was fast, convenient, and inexpensive. Although I wasn’t a huge fan of oyakodon back then, my favorite dish was a similar one called “katsu-ju”, which was breaded pork cutlet with egg on rice. Mmmmm! If I remember correctly, it was one of the more expensive items on the menu, at around 500 yen. But if I was short on cash that day, the noriben was also yummy, and only something like 220 yen. I miss those days!
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In other news, I caught up with Segodon (episode 10 currently) and am still enjoying it. The character Princess Atsu (played by Kitagawa Keiko) is the subject of another Taiga drama from several years ago, Atsuhime (hime=princess). I’m going to start watching that one too, but at 50 episodes, it’s going to be a long haul. 😀
I hope you had a nice Monday!
またね～
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I use a Fujifilm X-series camera for most of the photos on this site and my Instagram. Why not pick one up for yourself?
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