Your Name 君の名は (2017) – Movie Review

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"Movie Night" Austin, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO1250
 “Movie Night” Austin, 2017

こんばんは。

This evening I went with my friend Mikey to watch the Japanese anime blockbuster “Your Name / 君の名は”. It’s the highest-grossing animated movie in Japan of all-time, surpassing even Spirited Away, which is my favorite Studio Ghibli film. I’ve heard so many great things about Your Name that I had high expectations for it, and I have to say that I wasn’t disappointed! I thought the story was amazing, the visuals stunning, and the soundtrack was great. There were several powerful moments, where I could forget that I am a 48-year old 伯父さん and just simply shed an emotional tear or two. Dark theaters you know! But to me, the movie was that good.

But, the only negative to me (pointed out by my more perceptive viewing companion, Mikey) was the placement of the Radwimps song at the beginning of the film. I do like the song a lot, but it “cheapened” the movie a little bit. Instead of a pure cinematic epic, the song brought it down to a tv-like quality since it looked like the opening of a tv anime. And they showed a lot snippets of upcoming scenes. It was weird.

Despite the opening, I thought Your Name was a brilliant movie. I plan on seeing it again soon, and of course owning it when it is released in stores. Recommended, but bring tissues!

Here’s the official trailer:

And another Radwimps tune from the movie, with plenty of great movie scenes:

My rating: 10/10!

I hope you had a nice Friday!

またね～

So much food

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"Mt. Karaage" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: SONY SLT-A77V, 10mm, f/4, 1/60 sec, ISO1000
 “Mt. Karaage” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How was your Tuesday?

Today is my younger son’s 13th birthday… yes, he’s a teenager! And now both my kids are in their teens. I can’t believe time flies so quickly. 😱

Koa has requested the same birthday dinner this year: karaage (Japanese style fried chicken). As you can see in the photo, the chicken was piled high! In fact, I knew there would be a mountain of karaage again so I got out my ultra-wide-angle lens for my dslr to give it even more emphasis. It was so delicious, that I am thinking that I might want karaage for my birthday dinner as well. 😄

Seems like these days I’ve been posting about food A LOT. Well, yes. I guess it’s fun to take photos of the yummy food that Mariko prepares, and then I need to share that of course. 😘

In other news, I’ve been enjoying the book “The School for Good and Evil”. It’s fun and funny! But, I have a reading problem in that I find so many books I want to read, but cannot read fast enough to get to all of them. And the sales that Amazon has on their kindle books doesn’t help either. My library of unread books keeps growing and I may never be able to catch up. 📚 Oh well. しょうがない

I hope you had a nice day!

またね～

Pizza Nite

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"Pizza Nite" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO1600
 “Pizza Nite” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。

What a beautiful day it was here in Austin today. I took advantage of the sun and took a nice walk at lunchtime, burned some calories, got some fresh air, and caught a few Pokemon. 😄 It was nice to recharge a bit before going back to work, which is super busy! But it’s a good type of busy… I can’t really complain.

Ok, on to the pizza part of this post. 🍕 Tonight we made a couple of homemade pizza pies, using dough that has been resting for a few days. A good dough is really important and can make or break a pizza… tonight’s was some of the best dough I’ve had in a long time! It was a little crispy and firm, but also moist, chewy and flavorful. It also had a few air pockets which I think is the mark of a great dough!

For toppings, we used a homemade tomato sauce, then the kids had Italian sausage, and two kinds of cheese (Mozzarella and another that I can’t remember), plus black pepper, oregano, and basil. Mariko and my pizza had Italian sausage, red onion, black olives, mushrooms, sun-dried tomato, jalapeno, and the same cheeses as the kids’ pizza.

Needless to say, there were no leftovers!

"Adult Pizza" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO1250
 “Adult Pizza” Cedar Park, 2017

I seriously think that I can eat pizza every day. I❤️🍕!

またね～

– B Barron Fujimoto