Christmas Day

"Cards" Torrance, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/70 sec, ISO6400
“Cards” Torrance, 2016

こんばんは!How’s it going?

Merry Christmas everyone! 🎅 Today the entire immediate family was together to celebrate Christmas, open presents, eat our traditional meals, and enjoy each other’s company. It began with the handing out of the stockings and then we dug into our brunch, which is always bagels, lox, roast beef, pastrami, corned beef, potato/mac salad. In addition, we had a few Jamaican patties. 🍴😃

"Christmas Breakfast" Torrance, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/100 sec, ISO3200
“Christmas Breakfast” Torrance, 2016

After we stuffed ourselves, it was time to open presents! 🎁 I think everyone received some nice gifts this year, and our suitcases will be full of goodies for the return trip home.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, hanging out, a little street football, and then our traditional Christmas dinner – the Hawaiian feast! 🌴 It was delicious as usual. Lomi salmon, kalua pig, chicken and pork lau-lau, two types of poke, chicken long rice, spare ribs, and macaroni salad. Once again we were stuffed with good food. One of the highlights every year!

"Hawaiian Dinner" Torrance, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/50 sec, ISO6400
“Hawaiian Dinner” Torrance, 2016

I hope you had a nice Christmas! 🎄

おやすみなさい!

– B Barron Fujimoto

By the Sea

"Windy Day" Redondo Beach, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/550 sec, ISO400
“Windy Day” Redondo Beach, 2016

こんばんは!How’s it going?

Today we visited the Redondo Beach Pier, and while there wasn’t any rain, the wind was blowing like crazy.🌬 It was a beautiful day, though as you can see from the photo above. ☀️

The kids were excited to go on the Tilt-a-Whirl ride and play games in the arcade there. Us parents didn’t go on the ride. I think we all would get sick on that kind of ride now. A couple years ago, Mariko went on the Tilt-a-Whirl and didn’t feel good for the next couple days! 😵

"Whirl" Redondo Beach, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/30 sec, ISO3200
“Whirl” Redondo Beach, 2016
"Clowns" Redondo Beach, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/9 sec, ISO3200
“Clowns” Redondo Beach, 2016

We also enjoyed some of the fresh seafood at the market there – oyster-shooters, poke, fried squid, and fried clams. It was yummy! I didn’t take any photos of the food we ate, but you can see some of the other food in the photo below.

"Oysters" Redondo Beach, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/90 sec, ISO3200
“Oysters” Redondo Beach, 2016
"Fried Seafood" Redondo Beach, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/125 sec, ISO4000
“Fried Seafood” Redondo Beach, 2016
"Lunch Spot" Redondo Beach, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/90 sec, ISO400
“Lunch Spot” Redondo Beach, 2016

I hope you had a nice Christmas Eve day!

おやすみなさい!

– B Barron Fujimoto

Home Cooking

"Breakfast Fixins" Torrance, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/125 sec, ISO3200
“Breakfast Fixins” Torrance, 2016

こんばんは!How’s it going?

My mom makes some amazing Jamaican food (she grew up in Port Antonio, Jamaica) and over the holidays, she always prepares a huge Jamaican feast. The Jamaican dinner will be for Christmas eve, but today we had a Jamaican breakfast, which consisted of ackee and saltfish and hard dough bread. It’s a super-special treat to eat this yummy food!

"Ackee and Saltfish" Torrance, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO640
“Ackee and Saltfish” Torrance, 2016

I hope you had a nice day!

おやすみなさい!

– B Barron Fujimoto

Holiday Mahjong

"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