Birthday boy’s dinner

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"Mountain of Karaage" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO640
 “Mountain of Karaage” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！ Happy Monday!

Today is Koa’s 12th birthday 🎂… just one more year before he becomes a teenager. He’s still a little kid in so many ways, but he’s growing up too fast! It’s really true what they say about how they become grown before you know it. Actually, it seems like they were young boys for a long time, but suddenly at about 6th grade they change and are little adults. The time really flies by! I still can’t believe Bay is a freshman in high school. 😮

Today’s photo is of a mountain of Japanese fried chicken , which is called “karaage”. We like to call it JFC. 😋 It is so yummy, and Koa requested NO VEGGIES. But we did have grilled asparagus as well, although I don’t think Koa ate any. We let him pass on it on his special day.

The karaage was so good that now I am thinking that I want to request it for my Father’s Day dinner. This year, my family will be with me for Father’s Day, which hasn’t happened in a long time! Usually they are in Japan for over a month in early summer, so I am alone on Father’s Day, but this summer they are making their Japan trip a month or so later than usual.

Time flies so quickly these days that I know that summer is just around the corner!

Take care, and good night for now. おやすみなさい！

– バロン Barron Fujimoto

A-Z Challenge – C

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C is for “Chop”

hanko-seal-chop

The term “chop” is a common name for a stamp used in Asian cultures which shows your name. Here are two “Gagō-in” that I have… the one on the left is from my grandfather, who was an artist and art teacher when he was alive. In the chop he gave me, the family name “Fujimoto” is written above the letter “B”, and I have used this in some of my paintings that I did when I was in art school. This chop is one of my cherished possessions. The other chop is one that I bought when I visited Hong Kong, and it is a more stylized version, left-to-right, and my first name below.

These two are not used in official documents – for that, my wife and I have another smaller seal, called a Mitome-in, which is used to sign documents in Japan. I won’t display that here, of course, but it’s really nothing special. I think we bought it at a stationery store for ¥1,000.

Below is a photo of the chop that I bought in Hong Kong. It’s made of stone, and has a really nice dragon carving on the top. I think it’s pretty cool!

Black Dragon

 

End of the tournament

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Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/420 sec, ISO200
 Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！ Hello! How was your Sunday? Our day was pretty good, starting off with a 10 AM little league baseball game for Koa. Today was the day that mattered in the tournament, with yesterday’s games determining the seeding for today.

It was too bad that the kids couldn’t keep the high-level of play going, though, and they fell big-time to the opposing team. They didn’t play too badly, but the other team was on fire, scoring five runs in the first inning. Koa’s team put a couple of runs on the board, but it wasn’t enough. However, they did play pretty good, and Koa came in to pitch in the final inning. You can see him throw one inside below:

Koa got out of a jam when the opposing hitter lined into a double play. But it was right at the end of the game, when the outcome was already decided. Still, Koa was pumped after that great outing.

After the game, most of the team went out for pizza and frozen yogurt and had a lot of fun. Koa told me that he’s having the most fun this season, and I can tell from the way everyone gets along that the team enjoys playing together. It’s good that they can support each other, especially because the team doesn’t have a great win-loss record.

FJKO7923Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/100 sec, ISO2000

Well, it’s almost Monday and the work weeks continue to be busy. The upcoming week promises to keep that trend alive!

おやすみなさい！ See ya tomorrow!

– B Barron Fujimoto

A sci-fi classic

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Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/30 sec, ISO3200
 Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！

I hope you had a great Saturday. Mine was pretty good! This afternoon Koa played two games in the baseball tournament, and although they lost both, they played well. Probably the best they have played as a team so far this year! However, the teams they went up against were very good… a “select” team, and then the team with the second-best record in the season so far.

Koa did great at the plate, knocking a double over the left-fielder’s head, and then coming round to score later in the evening. He later walked, but got stranded on third. In the next game, he had another hit into the outfield, getting a couple RBIs. He did great! Tomorrow, they have one more game, and I hope they continue with their great play.

After we came back home, I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey with Bay, as you can see in the photo. It’s amazing to think that this movie was release on this day back in 1968, which is the year I was born. The special effects were incredible for the time, and still look great. If you haven’t seen the movie before, or if it has been a while as it was in my case, I recommend watching it again. It’s a true classic.

Well, it’s almost bed time for me, so I’ll sign off for now!

おやすみなさい！

– バロン Barron Fujimoto

A-Z Challenge – B

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B is for “Blossom”

FJKO7885Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/800 sec, ISO200

I see many photos in my Instagram feed of the sakura (cherry blossoms) in Japan, which are blooming right now. Several years ago, when we moved into our house, we planted a cherry blossom tree in our backyard so we could enjoy the sakura each year as well. Although the blossoms look beautiful, Mariko pointed out that they are not as nice as the ones in Japan because the trees are not supposed to have leaves on them at the same time as the blossoms. And it’s true, the ones in Japan are all flowers, and no green. Nevertheless, I still think the flowers look terrific.