Tag: A to Z challenge

A blog post each day, with the topic being something that starts with that particular letter of the alphabet. I completed this challenge for the month of April, 2016.

A-Z Challenge – S

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S is for “Spicy”

Spicy foods are my favorite, and if I have the change to add hot pepper, sriracha, rayu, jalapenos, etc… I will do so! I’m not sure when I started loving extra hot flavors, but it must have been in high school.

I think there have only been three times when something has been too spicy for me to eat… Mariko and I went to an Indonesian restaurant in Akasaka and whew!!! it was so spicy we couldn’t continue! I was sweating like crazy… then in Malaysia, a friend took us out to eat and one of the dishes was crazy. Probably not as hot as the Indonesian food, but hot enough where we couldn’t eat it. And the other time was something I don’t think I ate, because maybe I was too young, but my parents made shish-kebab when my grandparents were visiting, and for some reason, the peppers used were too potent, and no one could eat the grilled meats. I don’t think I had any of it though.

The photo below was taken in 2011 in Osaka at a curry restaurant we went to. The curry was extra spicy, and I was in a bit of pain, but I was able to finish. Wow, though… have you ever eaten something so spicy that your throat kind of has a reaction? Almost like gagging, but nothing to do with the stomach. It’s purely in the throat. It’s a little scary! But I think at the curry restaurant, I was really sweating and my eyes did water! Koa insists that I was crying… but I can’t really remember

Osaka, 2011
Photo info: OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. E-PL1, 14mm, f/3.5, 1/60 sec, ISO1600
 Osaka, 2011

But of all the people I know, I think I enjoy the hotness the most. When we go to Coco Ichiban curry, I would get level 10 spiciness, which is pretty hot, but not nearly as hot as the Indonesian food! Yow! 🔥

A-Z Challenge – R

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R is for “Rushing”

I don’t like rushing.

In my experience, when I have to rush to get work done, the quality goes down. Or the solution is not as good as it could have been. Time shouldn’t be a luxury, but it often seems like it is. To adequately explore creative solutions, you need time… not only to produce different options to solve problems, but to properly evaluate those options. For myself, a design might seem good, but if I look at my work the next day, I can tell that it wasn’t so great… That’s part of my process so I try to allocate time for that. But if I have to rush, or a deadline is very short, the design doesn’t go through proper revisions, and it goes out the door in a poor state. It’s unfortunate, but it happens.

I really dislike rushing to get places. I like to leave early and take my time. Thank goodness for Google Maps! Their directions and the ETA associated with them is amazing! Love it! But I see so many people rushing to get places… speeding, weaving in and out of traffic, looking for shortcuts. It must be stressful! So, I try to make sure I don’t put myself in a situation where I have to leave late.  Then I can drive relaxed, stay in one lane instead of constantly searching for the faster one, and listen to podcasts. And if there is a traffic jam, I don’t stress! I enjoy the extra time I have to listen to the programs.

I like to live life at a relaxed pace… you know, maybe my “R” word should have been “Relax”! 🐢

A-Z Challenge – Q

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Q is for “Quilting”

One thing that my Mom does is quilting, specifically Hawaiian designs. And she makes them into cushions for the family. They are beautiful. I really don’t know much about the process, but I think it is great to keep active with a hobby.

Torrance, 2015
Torrance, 2015

As you might have guessed, my main hobby at this point in my life is photography. It’s still very interesting to me, and the technology keeps improving so that there is always something new to learn. And then my other hobby is blogging, which I have bee doing since 2000. It’s something that I’d like to continue doing as long as I can. It’s fun!

So, like my Mom’s quilting, I’d like to keep active with a hobby, even if it may change (and I am sure it will!)

A-Z Challenge – P

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P is for “Pizza”

Austin, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO3200
 Austin, 2016

Hello pizza fans! I think just about everyone loves pizza, and most have a favorite, right? Well, I love all kinds of pizza, from a loaded Chicago style, to a plain NY slice. For toppings, I’ll eat just about anything, including anchovies. In fact, I love anchovy pizza! So salty and delicious. Plus, not many people like anchovies, so that means more for me. 😊

I also love Japanese pizza toppings, which can be a bit different from American-style. For instance, corn-mayo pizza is great, also ebi (shrimp) pizza is wonderful. We used to order a lot from a chain called “pizza-la”. Click on this link to their site’s English menu and tell me those don’t look great. 😛

At home, Mariko sometimes makes a yummy negi (green onion) pizza which is super-popular at parties. Other memorable pizzas/toppings I’ve had are the Portuguese sausage pizza in Hawaii, mentaiko pizza, and lobster cream. And I love Costco pizzas as well. I don’t think I’ve tried a pizza I didn’t like!

As you can imagine, I’m getting hungry now! 🍕

A-Z Challenge – O

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Redondo Beach, 2013
Photo info: SONY NEX-6, 28mm, f/13, 1/160 sec, ISO100
 Redondo Beach, 2013

O is for “Ocean”

I’ve always loved the ocean… swimming in it, listening to the waves, or hanging out at the beach during the summer… so many good memories! Living in Central Texas for the past 16 years, I really miss the water. Sure, there are lakes and rivers here, but swimming in them gives me the creeps! Salt water is much more to my liking. Scuba diving in clear tropical waters is such an amazing experience! 🐠

A few of my fondest ocean memories are:

  • Torrance Beach (California) – My hometown actually has a small strip of beach, just south of Redondo Beach (my birth city), and the strongest memory I have of this beach is going there with my family when I was really little, and the smell of french fries from the snack bar was so strong and good! I have a vague memory of eating some fries, and they were limp and greasy but yummy all the same! 🍟
  • Manhattan Beach (California) – During my high school years, my friends and I would hang out here during the summers. A great period of my life, driving our used cars, working part-time jobs, and looking for parties. At the beach, we worked on our tans, but maybe now we are paying for it with extra wrinkles! 😝
  • Ho’okipa Park (Maui) – We visited my Dad’s hometown (Wailuku) on Maui during the summers when I was under 10 years old, and we would often go to this small beach. These days it is famous for windsurfing, but back then in the mid-’70s, there was surfing and spearfishing. While my oldest brother was riding the waves, my dad was spearfishing and my other brother and I would float along in inner tubes (real car inner tubes made of rubber) following my dad as he speared fish. Fun! 🐟
  • Enoshima (Japan) – This touristy island can be reached by a long bridge, and Mariko and I explored the island for a whole day. Lots of great views of the Pacific… a wonderful memory shared by us newlyweds. 💞

We are planning on moving to Japan when our kids are independent, and I’d love to live near the ocean again. Even if we don’t live in a coastal town, Japan is small compared to Texas, so we should be able to visit the ocean much easier. I need to hear the sound of the ocean waves on the shore again. It makes me feel alive! 🌊

A-Z Challenge – N

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N is for “Nostalgic 懐かしい”

One of my favorite Japanes words is “Natsukashii” which means “nostalgic”. For instance, when talking with a friend and you reminisice about an old time, you will say “natsukashii”. Or if something spurs an old memory, you can say the same thing.

As I get older, I often have these moments where I remember something from log ago and I think back fondly about it. I was listening to some music from my library, and a song came on that always brings back a certain memory… it was 1996 and I was watching tv at my shared apartment in Tokyo and a commercial came on that had a song that I really liked. One of my housemates told me who it was (Sakamoto Ruichi and Fujitani Miki) and I told her that I really wanted to find that song. So a couple weekends later, we went to Tower Records Shibuya and at a listening station, we found that cd… Ten seconds into the song, the main melody came thru our headphones*, I looked at my friend and she looked at me and we both said, “that’s it!”. Needless to say, I bought that cd.

It’s so fun when natsukashii moments happen. I wish I could share memories better… if there were some sort of memory recorder, that would be amazing. I admire people who can illustrate on paper so much. If I could I’d love to documents some of these memories like that. Or writing as well… I wonder if it is something I should work on. It’s a worthwhile thing, I think.

But maybe these memories are so personal, that they will have no meaning to strangers. Which is why that shared experiences are so special. Now I want to get in touch with my friend to see if she remember that moment too.

*The listening stations were set up so with a pair of headphones for each station

A-Z Challenge – M

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M stands for “Maps”

I’ve been kind of a map otaku ever since I was little. In my previous post, I talked about visiting the library when I was young, and one of the things I loved to look at there was the atlases and map books. These were the large books that were near the reference librarians and were items that you couldn’t borrow. But they were so fascinating to me! I actually have a bunch of maps I saved from National Geographic magazines that I had subscribed to. In fact, that was kind of the reason I had a subscription… because the Nat Geo maps were so nice! 🌐

These days, I like to explore using Google Maps, but it’s fun to look at paper maps still. I have a few road atlases, and my old Tokyo map that I used so much. I’ll never get rid of that one! It was my constant companion when I moved to Japan. A real life-saver.

Right now I am reading a book that I borrowed from the library called “On the Map” which is all about the history of maps (so far). It’s fascinating! I highly recommend it if you are a map otaku like I am. 😄