Tag: family

Early Father’s Day Dinner

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"Korean BBQ" Austin, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO2500
 “Korean BBQ” Austin, 2016

こんばんは！How’s it going?

Tomorrow is Father’s Day, but we celebrated an early Father’s Day dinner this year because tomorrow we’ll be very busy and our family won’t be together at dinner time. We’re taking Koa to a Percussion camp, where he will stay for the week. But we often celebrate special occasions early because we like to avoid the dinner crowds, especially on Mother’s and Father’s days.

For this year, I decided that I wanted to go out for Korean BBQ since we haven’t had it in a while. Plus I know the kids like it and Mariko won’t have to cook. 😀 We have two go-to Korean BBQ restaurants we like here in Austin, but there is a new one that recently opened and we decided to give it a try. Charm Korean BBQ is about 25 minutes away from our house and since Mariko and the boys were out watching “Finding Dory” down in South Austin, we figured I’d just meet them at the restaurant after the movie was finished.

"Waiting" Austin, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/1900 sec, ISO400
 “Waiting” Austin, 2016

I arrived a bit before Mariko and the kids, so I had time to take the photo above from the lobby. By the way, temperatures went over 100°F here in Austin. That seems a bit early in the year, doesn’t it? 😓

"Charm Korean BBQ" Austin, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/7.1, 1/25 sec, ISO3200
 “Charm Korean BBQ” Austin, 2016

We ordered three meat dishes – marinated beef, spicy pork belly, and beef tongue. They were all tasty, but my favorite was the spicy pork. Of course I love the spicy foods, and I even added some raw jalapeño slices to give it even more heat. 🔥 Koa’s favorite was the beef tongue, which was really flavorful. I’m surprised that he likes it because I thought he would object to eating “weird” meat. 🐮

I’d say that Charm Korean BBQ is pretty good, but I think I prefer our old stand-byes: Korea House and Chosun. The side dishes at those two restaurants is superior to those at Charm, and I’d also say the meat is tastier at the older restaurants. Still, it’s nice to have options, and if you want all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ, Charm offers it while the other two don’t. So there’s that. ☺️

I hope you had a nice Saturday!

おやすみなさい！ – B Barron Fujimoto

Girls Night

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"Acai Bowl Boy" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO400
 “Acai Bowl Boy” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！Hi, how’s it going?

Tonight was Girls Night at our house in which my wife and her girlfriends got together for a potluck and late-night chatting. In fact, it’s about 11:30pm now, and they are still going strong downstairs!

It’s nice for me and the boys because we get to eat the delicious food and tonight was no different, with karaage (Japanese fried chicken), noodle salad, prosciutto and cheeses, etc. It was all so good! And then coffee and dessert was great as well… a nice light cheesecake. Mmmmm!

While the ladies hung out in the dining room eating, drinking, and chatting, Koa, a friend’s daughter Kaya, and I watched several episodes of Parks and Recreation, which is a super-funny show. We enjoyed it a lot!

Tonight’s photo is of Koa enjoying an acai bowl… He really loves it. In fact, this was his dessert. 😄

So, a great Friday evening, and a wonderful start to the weekend!

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto

Cage Work

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"At the Cages" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/15 sec, ISO800
 “At the Cages” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！

Well, the weather is heating up around here. ☀️ I received an email from the electric company asking us to try not to use lots of energy between the hours of 2pm and 6pm. They recommend setting the thermostat to 80° F and not to use appliances. I guess setting the thermostat to use less energy is a good thing at all times, right?

Today’s photo is of my son Koa at the batting cages. This session, he did great, and was hitting the balls much better than last time. It was funny because the batting cage facility was crowded with high school girls practicing their softball batting. I think Koa was trying to concentrate more because of the female presence! He usually goofs around more, but tonight he was more serious and the results were that he was able to connect a lot more consistently. One of the softball coaches actually told Koa that he had a good swing!

For the photo I used a slower shutter speed of 1/15 second so I could show some of the motion instead of just freezing the action. The shutter clicked right after he hit the ball, and you can see the white streak of the ball shooting up towards center field.

I hope you had a nice Wednesday!

おやすみなさい！ – B Barron Fujimoto

Summer style

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"Cheesecake on the Floor" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/60 sec, ISO3200
 “Cheesecake on the Floor” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！Good evening, how are you doing?

Well, the kids officially started summer vacation this week, and Koa has been spending a lot of time at the neighborhood pool having fun and getting very tan. In the above photo, you can see the summer attitude – eating dessert on the floor, still in swimming trunks, under the piano. What a life!😎

Thinking back to my childhood summers, I also spent quite a bit of time swimming at the pool. 🏊 My parents belonged to a tennis club 🎾 and my brother and I would amuse ourselves with swimming, playing racquetball, or playing the pinball machine at the snack bar. I have a wonderful memory of eating a delicious burger 🍔 on a wheat bun with alfalfa sprouts, then playing the “Supersonic” pinball machine. Good times!

I hope you had a nice Tuesday!

おやすみなさい！ – B Barron Fujimoto

Fun Saturday

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"Autographs" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/50 sec, ISO3200
 “Autographs” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！ Hello! How was your Saturday?

Mine was pretty great! I actually had to work a bit this morning, and I went into the office which was nice because I got to enjoy coffee from our fancy machine (which my friend calls “barista in a box”) and concentrate in a quiet office. Then I picked up my kids from Japanese school, and we relaxed at home and watched the X-Games on tv.

What made the day really fun was that Mariko is working at the X-Games, helping out two Japanese skateboarders who are competing. And one of the skaters, Kisa Nakamura, won the gold medal in the Park event! She did amazing! The other skater, Aori Nishimura also did well competing in the Street event, placing 7th place. And what was really cool was that Mariko got both their autographs for my helmet. 😊 And an even cooler bonus was that she got Mimi Knoop’s autograph too! w00t!

So, today was a good day. I think Mariko really enjoyed the experience… she worked hard but I think it was very rewarding.

I hope you had a great day!

おやすみなさい！

– バロン Barron Fujimoto