Category: Slice of Life

Holiday Mahjong

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"Holiday Mahjong" Torrance, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.2, 1/125 sec, ISO4000
 “Holiday Mahjong” Torrance, 2016

こんばんは！How’s it going?

Tonight’s photo is of a tradition we have had in our family since we were kids – Mahjong. The tradition started probably back in the early 80s when my grandparents would visit us over the Christmas and summer holidays, and we learned how to play the game. We’d often play late into the night and had such a great time!

These days, my kids and their cousins are all joining in on the tradition and it is a ton of fun. I have to admit that the game is a lot slower because the kids pair up and so there is a lot of deliberation and discussion before each play so each game takes a while to play and we don’t get to play as many before it gets late.

As I may have mentioned before, our family plays the game with some strange rules, probably to make it easier to learn for us when we were kids, so if I ever play Mahjong with other people, I have to adjust a bit. And our family uses poker chips to keep score, which of course is not normal. I’d love to learn how to play with traditional counters someday.

I hope you had a great day!

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto

At Home

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"The Old Kitchen" Torrance, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO640
 “The Old Kitchen” Torrance, 2016

こんばんは！How’s it going

Today’s photo is of the kitchen area of my parents’ house. It’s looked pretty much the same since I was a kid which I am happy for. Sure, there have been changes throughout the years such as a new stove, painted walls, and most recently a new floor, but it still has the original feeling. I was thinking how sad it would be if the kitchen got a total remodel… so much would be lost and swept into family history. Makes me sad to think of it!

For now, I’m happy to be able to come back to my childhood home, with the original charm still intact.

I hope you had a great day!

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto

Busy Anniversary

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"Anniversary Card" Cedar Park
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/40 sec, ISO3200
 “Anniversary Card” Cedar Park

こんばんは！How’s it going?

Today is Mariko and my 20th Anniversary! I cannot believe that the time has gone by so quickly. It’s funny, but we don’t really celebrate our anniversaries so much, in fact one year we kind of forgot about it. Also, we’ve never really been 100% certain when we should celebrate it! What I mean is that we were officially married on December 16th (at the city hall in Osaka) but we had our ceremony on the 18th in Guam. We sort of eloped…

But yeah, I guess we’ve settled on the 18th since it gives us a couple more days to figure out where we want to go out to eat. 😜

Speaking of anniversary dinner, tomorrow we are flying to SoCal to spend the holidays at my parents’ house and we are going to have a nice anniversary dinner at a restaurant nearby. I can’t wait!

So, besides our anniversary, today was kind of busy taking care of things, like dropping off our dog at the sitter’s house, picking up Koa after he returned from Chicago, calling AAA to give me a jumpstart, doing laundry, packing, etc etc ettttcccc…. I guess we’re all ready for vacation. Maybe?

Have a good evening!

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto

Kindle

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/100 sec, ISO1250
 “Kindle PaperWhite” Cedar Park, 2016

For my birthday this year, my parents bought me a new Kindle Paperwhite. It is awesome! I’ve had an older Kindle “Keyboard” version for a while now (I blogged about it here) but have wanted a new Paperwhite version because of the upgrades.

Here is a list of advantages of new Kindle PaperWhite (which I named “Echo”):

  • Backlight: Not only can I read at night without the light on (which bothered Mariko), but the backlight adds some contrast for increased readability in daylight
  • Higher resolution: The text looks sharper and the display is more like a printed page
  • Smaller: Although the screen size is the same as my old Kindle, the bezel is smaller and I can “palm” it with one hand
  • X-Ray: I can find out more about the characters in the story by tapping on a name
  • Goodreads: I can update my reading status on Goodreads directly from the Kindle Paperwhite

Although the new Kindle is superior to my old Kindle (which I named “Persephone”), the old one is still useful and works great. And it has a couple of advantages over the Paperwhite:

  • Lock screen art: I hacked the OS so that I could load custom lock screen images
  • Audio: I have loaded some nice classical guitar mp3s onto the Kindle, which I can play via the built-in speakers or the headphone jack

Having two Kindles is nice. I keep Echo (the new one) by my bed, and Persephone is in my messenger bag. Do you own a Kindle? I have to say, my Kindles are possibly my favorite technology gadgets. ❤