Insta-Mitsu-gram

I've been meaning to update the layout of my blog for a while now and have been hoping for a clean, fresh, minimalistic, streamlined, easy-to-use and -look-at aesthetic, but sometimes that or parts of that description is code for "trendy" or "lazy." Not sure which is worse. I think I will be turning to a white background, at least, and then the real work is in making decisions about fonts and header. Any suggestions are welcome.

The latest place of web-social activity for me has been Instagram. I was kind of oblivious to it, but then Jenni pointed out to me that there were some cute, popular dogs there, like a Border Collie who lets its owner balance objects on his head, and a round, fluffy Shiba named "Maru." Lately, I've also been seeing some Shibas as models (on a can of Science Diet food, on the Target website for Halloween costumes), so I've decided if the opportunities for fame and fortune come by Mitsu, I will do like Usher's mom, Jessica Simpson's dad, Beyonce's dad, and become a "momager." My main concerns have been, how does a dog open up a bank account (Bridgeview gives away stuffed teddy bears!), and how can I convince airlines that Shibas should be carry-on dogs, not stow-away dogs. She would have been perfect for a cameo, especially in the second half, in this lovely dog friendly music video by Real Estate !

Here are some recent Insta-Mitsu-gram outtakes:

I've found that there's a simple way to get lots of "likes" aside from hashtagging pictures, and it's to follow other people and like their pictures. Sometimes I can't help but also comment, so I've been exercising my written Japanese (in addition to hiragana, katakana, and kanji, you need to know the proper [ab]use of emoticons, too). I guess that for the most part, I "think in English," but given the right context, it appears that I can channel my Japanese-ness pretty well, almost like a "real" native. So anyway, now my feed is overflowing with Shibas from what appear to be various parts of Japan (I love the rural-ish backgrounds, the black beach sand near Maru's home, playdates with other dogs, and stylish dog-apparel). I also search rather desperately for pictures of Yokohama (pictures of the Minato Mirai skyline do not count), particularly the Kannai and Totsuka area. So far, there's one picture of a man doing a handstand at the Totsuka station with the caption "Totsuka yabai," which may translate roughly to "Oh shit, Totsuka"...? Kannai searches produce photos of the New Grand Hotel, which I can't help but "like." As cheesy as it sounds, Instagram has been helping me feel less second-home-ish-place-sick.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Long Island Weekend

We took a quick weekend trip to Long Island to celebrate Mordecai's dad's X0th birthday. I basically ate and slept all weekend, which were kind of exhausting activities, but of course, in a good way. No matter how often I travel, and how far away or nearby I go, it appears that I never pack well. But at the last minute, I decided to take my DSLR (but forgot to remove the relatively compact but dense G9 from my suitcase), and this turned out to be a smart move because we visited the north shore after receiving only residual effects of the weird winter storm that passed through the east coast. I've decided that I need to either see a skyscraper or set foot into Target while I'm away from home; we didn't go to the city this time, but thankfully, Commack has Targets, and one of them even has Mordecai's giraffe-loving former substitute teacher browsing the cleaning product aisle!

In other news: I'm falling in love with the iPad2; baseball is over (farewell Tigers/baseball post on TBOB still planned); I'm waiting until I can drink ginger ale again with baseball award announcements; I don't know why it's so hard to come up with a prospectus; I'm inspired by Aoyama Thelma (in bed by 10PM) and Crystal Kay (in bed by 9:30PM!) to sleep and rise early; I ran into Dr. Chrucky, the reason why I am studying philosophy, and he is as eccentric as ever; and I'm looking forward to the holidays. But most of all, why is it so hard to come up with the prospectus, even when you're told you won't follow it?!

Tart Tatin

Yesterday I made a tart tatin using Anne Burrell's recipe. I think it was Emily who said that she is basically a female Guy Fieri, an observation that makes me not want to watch her show. But I was looking into tart tatin recipes, starting with Smitten Kitchen's, and then I looked it up on Food Network just to see what other people did. I landed on Burrell's video, and I think what won me over was the suggestion of adding lemon juice and apple cider to the caramel mixture. This seemed to be, indeed, a secret from a restaurant chef. I was also turned off by SK's endless tale of how she's failed at this supposedly simple tart so many times. I acquired some Golden Supreme apples at the Logan Square farmer's market, Pepperidge Farm's frozen puff pastry at Mariano's, and decided to make this on a slow, gray, Tuesday afternoon.

Everything was going smoothly, especially since I didn't have to make the puff pastry. Which is easy to make with a food processor, but I just didn't feel like it and if you aren't impressing anyone then frozen puff pastry is sufficient, even pretty good. (It seems to have a crispy yet chewy texture, maybe because of all the syrupy awesomeness, but I really like that effect.) I wasn't quite sure how the apples away from the bottom of the pan were going to get blessed by the delicious caramel sauce, but with some flipping and submerging in bubbling caramel using mismatched chopsticks, the apples started to brown.

When I flipped the tart over, to both my horror and delight, this is what emerged:

The apples shrunk in the oven! And they all shifted over to one side! I thought they were fine when I put the pastry over the pan. Even though there was this size problem, and generally, I think tart tatins are not the prettiest things you can bake, this looked alright. The apples themselves looked just as I expected--basically, like in Burrell's video--which is a pretty good feeling one gets in the kitchen, particularly when baking. I wouldn't mind just folding this mess in half to get a big tart tatin croisstant-like thing, but I've been consuming it in slices like a civilized person. There's really nothing to say about the way this thing tastes except, to put it succinctly, "this shit real good." You can never go wrong with recipe that involves a stick of butter and a cup of sugar simmering and baking over the course of an hour. That is just a fundamental principle of LIFE!

Vegetable Soup in Nodame Cantabile

I realize that to most people, this is a movie and not real life, but to me...it is what it is. Chiaki helps Nodame cram for a number of piano sonatas so that she can be considered to enter competitions while studying abroad in Paris. In addition to assisting her analyze, interpret and play better (not that she can't do these things on her own, but I think she tends to, in her own charming but not necessarily approved manner, get carried away and ignore the notes and directions on the page more than the average student), he prepares her meals. Here, he's made "vegetable soup" (yasai soup) even though I spy a rather conspicuous wiener. She leans in to smell his concoction while holding a baguette, with which she has just been humorously struck by Chiaki, and then sees that he has been up all night preparing to prepare Nodame. They're currently working on Beethoven's Sonata No.31, Op.110, which she will later play for Stresemann, a.k.a. Milch (played so wonderfully by Naoto Takenaka, who was in the original/native version of "Shall We Dance?"), which will significantly stir things up later. This chapter in the DVD is referred to as "Love's Lecture." I think. 

When I watch this scene, I can smell that soup. I imagine it to be a dish that is a Japanese cook's take on Western food, which reminds me of Chiaki himself. He was raised to eat with a fork and knife rather than chopsticks, at a dining table rather than on the floor with a low table, but at the core, he is Japanese. Anyway, I WANT THAT SOUP. 

Chicago weather has been pretty steady and nice, but generally, I wasn't looking forward to the fall. Then I revisited part two of the Nodame movie series the other day, and realized a couple of things. One is that I need to revisit Nodame once a year. The other is that it's good to do this during the fall and winter, because most of her outfits involve plaid and are perfect for those seasons. So for the past week, I've been perusing style.com for Nodame-like outfits at New York's Fashion Week, trying to see if there are any designers who have the same eye for fashion like Nodame's mom, who makes her outfits. (In "real life," if you must, "Nodame's mother," in the sense that she makes her daughter's clothes, is this store.) Then I remembered that there are other fashion weeks in other cities, and I will want to save some perusing energy for at least Paris. And then I realized that they're all showing spring designs, but I'm too excited to be looking for Nodame clothes again that I don't really care. 

VEGETABLE WIENER SOUP!

Repertoire

I like to cook, but lately I've been making lots of the same. Salmon with lentils, breakfast for dinner, and I've been trying out pad thai as well. The vegetable garden continues to produce cucumbers, sometimes as much as ten per week. I enjoy handing them out like candy (Nik's mom and I recently exchanged six cucumbers for homemade banana bread and salsa), and I've been rarely preparing or eating them myself. But just now, I peeled and sliced two of this batch to make lots of Japanese-style vinegared cucumbers (I skipped the grated ginger and added a tablespoon of mentsuyu [soup base] and a drizzle of sesame oil). It smells good, and I imagine that it'll be edible even if the vinegaring is weak. Mitsu happens to like cucumbers, too, so as I was slicing them, I gave her some chunks to chew on. They sounded so crunchy in her tiny but powerful jaws (super teeth!), so I had some too. So fresh, crispy, and tasty! Maybe I'll have the other eight this weekend. And then there will be at least three or four more to pick by then. I can't wait to wonder what to do with a million radishes when they're ready.

Osaka/Kyoto

I've been meaning to post these photos from my Osaka/Kyoto trip. Perhaps I'm nostalgic for the summer.

1. Fushimi-Inari in Kyoto, where you can walk through the long row of shrine gates.
2. Fushimi-Inari is surrounded by statues of foxes. Here, you can write your wish or whatever you want on a wooden fox tablet. Mitsu was everywhere!
3. Entrance to Kinkakuji, Kyoto. I'm not sure if he noticed that I was taking his picture "in passing." I stole his image.

The only thing I've had in common with "Lost in Translation": this view, from where I stayed in Osaka with lovely family.

Food thoughts

I've been meaning to write about my recent interest in eating and being more healthy. Sources of inspiration include being exhausted in and after Japan, feeling older more generally, reading about a favorite fashion blogger's take on food (somewhere buried in there), watching "Food, Inc.," having a vegetable garden, wanting to cure my eczema, and needing to be productive. With a recent purchase of a blender, which was meant for summer smoothies to beat the heat, I've been making "Green Monsters." I make one serving, and split it with Mordecai (he gets the Burger King cup today). I'm not sure if I really feel more energized, but I appreciate that it just tastes like banana but supposedly gives me all this vitamin A, E, and whatever chia seeds (!!) offer.

"Food, Inc." was not as scary as I thought it would be, possibly because I tend to be antagonistic, or guarded, with message-infused documentaries. I didn't think this one was obnoxious, and found myself being able to comfortably be impressed by Monsanto's insanity, to crave McDonald's afterwards, and to love Stonyfield yogurt more than ever. (That scene where Stonyfield gets the organic farmer to meet Wal-Mart higher ups...I love it so much.) It's disturbing to see oversized chickens and cows unable to walk, but it was also horrifying to see the throat-slitting of even the lucky chickens who, as Mordecai's mom once put it while we were waiting for our chicken to be wrapped up at Whole Foods, had stories read to them at night. On Sunday, I also saw "The September Issue," which was fun to watch, and it made me think about documentaries. Two documentaries I would watch (or would be happy to participate in) are humanities grad school (get on it, Pannapacker!) and the nail industry (nail polish, gel, acrylic, etc.). The only documentary I could make is one about Mitsu Scheckter, which would be funny if I really could document her many antics and adventures on video. For a special DVD release, I'd make furry Mitsu cell phone straps and key chains, and bonus features would include a full catalog and explanation of her nicknames (Darkest Muzzle, Mi-chan, Minmi, Redheaded Stepdaughter, Car Fox...), video footage of her at daycare, and a rendering of what her puppies would look like if Sinbad were the father. The credits would roll as I play her favorite song on the piano and she sings along, which she still does, maybe with even more confidence and fervor than before (her muzzle was so dark!).

Weekend photo overload

The Polaroid-look is a little overdone, but I still find it appealing. Here's my weekend in photos.
1. Got a little too excited at Costco. Moet and Chandon and gummy bears for a going away party.
2. Shiba dog, anyone? Dress from Rose Bud in Osaka.
3. Curiosity killed the carrot.
4. Saturday hail.
5. Parking lot debris. Thumb wrestling?
6. Unnecessary Golden Nugget menu.
7. Guadalajara Skillet ♥
8. In the car on the way to a garden center. (Why does no one sell spinach seeds for a fall harvest???)
9. Rilakkuma iPhone case from Jenni!
10. Scarechild at the garden center.
11. Mitsu and her 1994 Coca Cola polar bear friend. She removed its nose.

Ofuna, Kamakura, Yokohama

1. Hydrangea, Kamakura

2. Kannon, Ofuna

3. Tree roots as stairs (?), Kamakura

4. Garden, Kamakura

5. Mossy enormous rocks, Yokohama (my cousins' house)

It was really nice to see my childhood favorites this summer--the Kannon at Ofuna and the Daibutsu in Kamakura. This year, my mom's friend Naomi navigated the way to the Daibutsu (and two purple potato soft serve [per person]) by way of Kita-Kamakura. She said she and my mom used to walk from Kita-Kamakura to Kamakura all the time when they were in junior high school. The path was littered with temples, so we stopped by a lot of them on the way. There were lots of hydrangeas, national treasures, and paradigmatic Japanese gardens. I'd like to cultivate a Japanese-ish garden, but it would clash so badly with our not-at-all-Japanese-ish house. I wonder if there are certain elements though, like mossy rocks, or pea gravel-type things, that would work in our garden. It turns out Toguri on Belmont has one enormous rock (not sure if it was for sale...) and a variety of pebbles if one is interested in adding Japanese touches to their garden. I know Gethsemane has some rocks, too, but they look more...man-made?

This post should be on my home & garden blog, which I am currently updating as well. There is much to report on my vegetable garden. Mitsu's blog is up and running as well!

Hot & Dangerous

1. I did a load of laundry and did not use the dryer. However, a quick Google search shows that drying clothes outdoors is not necessarily permitted in all parts of this country. Then another quick Google search failed to reveal what the rules are in Chicago. But the relentless sun today did its job in a short amount of time, and none of the items being dried were scandalous, so I don't think the rules really matter.
2. My gel nails are holding up really well! I got them done three weeks ago (that's moyashi [bean sprouts] in the background!) at Kupu Kupu in Higashi-Totsuka (Yokohama), by my cousin's friend Aya. She runs her own business successfully all by herself, it's pretty amazing. I went to see her last year and got a mani-pedi fancy gel manicure; I really like the glitter gradation. It seems that as long as I continue to cut and file them, even with the gel on, they last fine. The color I picked (I copied my cousin) lends itself well to growing them out, too.
3. Roses in the front.
4. Every day, I check on the cucumbers to make sure they're not trying to strangle the maybe-bell peppers or themselves. Every day, when I peek around, I go, "WTF!" and end up harvesting at least one or two cucumbers. Today I found three. I also trimmed down the arugula patches and supposedly-mesculin lettuce leaves. They taste more like...what I imagine grass or leaves from a tree taste like. My mom says they're good when you cook them.
5. Making arugula pesto.
6. Eating arugula pesto pasta and bread from La Boulangerie.

This year's trip to Japan went by as quickly as ever, but maybe with a stronger force. I was mildly exhausted from a non-stop schedule for fourteen straight days. There were at least two days where I walked for hours temple-hopping and I was surprised that I didn't pass out. What this all means is that I need to spread out my energy more wisely and rest, or in other words, I am getting older. But there is so much to buy, so much to eat, and so many good places and wonderful people to see! 

Since the earthquake and tsunami, the most visible effect of the disasters is the cutting back of electricity. Owners of large buildings and corporations have to cut back 15% of their normal usage to avoid a fine, and the general population seems to be doing their part voluntarily at home. There's solidarity, but there's also the practical matter of avoiding scheduled blackouts. In the summer, maybe the most noticeable consequence of cutting back ("setsuden") is that the air conditioners are weak and the escalators don't operate during off-peak hours. When everyone else around you is into setsuden--whether it's felt in conversations with neighbors, on the trains, in the stores, or even when watching commercials or glancing at skylines--it's easy to fall into the habit of cutting back. I've been unplugging unused things at home since returning to Chicago (at least more so than when I saw "An Inconvenient Truth" and saw those poorly drawn CG polar bears drowning and felt faintly bad about wasting energy), and I've even considered minimizing the use of the laundry dryer. However, I am having a hard time even thinking about giving up the dishwasher (heaven-sent) and increasing AC temps (Mitsu has two coats of fur! [Or 1.5, as she's blowing the undercoat out right now]).

After observing Japanese women's fashion (and men's, to an extent) and reflecting on past observations, I've concluded that I must be more American (Midwestern?) in my approach to fashion. I tried, with my collared shirts and not-cut-off-denim-shorts (I cannot wear them stylishly like the Osakan girl above); I even wore heels twice (Birks or Top Siders were on standby in an extra tote). But I just cannot keep up with them! In my eyes, the Japanese know how to dress impeccably, from head to toe, as if every move were not only calculated, but also perfected since, say, junior high. I get the feeling that people over there are also aware of what looks good on them, and what doesn't, which I think this is an impressive, if slightly vain, accomplishment for any person. I remember one girl pinning her bangs on the train to maintain an ever-so-subtle but important curl, and by the time she got to her destination (Shibuya), she unpinned them and they indeed curled out to the side in a delicate, airy, magazine perfection sort of way. Anyway, it just seems like there is so much detail-oriented care put into every single decision regarding clothes, accessories, hair, and makeup. One of my cousins suggests that everyone does it because everyone else does it, which I think is a similar spirit behind everyone setsuden-ing with one another. I wonder if I would pick up on the "society > individual" mentality if I was ever in Japan for a longer period of time, or if I would grow tired of it. But I did catch the shopping bug, especially since it was "soldes"/"bargain"/"sale" season right when I was there, so I have some new outfits, as well as a somewhat renewed sense of caring how I look. We'll see how long this lasts, because it's hard to care about anything when it feels like a sauna when you step outside even for a brief moment.

iPhone photo diary

1. "Premium Economy" seats
2. Keisuke Toyama concert, Suntory Hall
3. "Bo Boo" print reunion, Sakuragicho's Marimekko store
4. Domino's
5. Summer tangerines and hydrangea in my mother's childhood neighborhood
6. Fauchon mini-eclair
7. Daibutsu, Kamakura
8. "Lost In Translation"-esque view, Osaka
9. Making fun of young Osaka girls who wear big nerdy glasses, Zara
10. Carleton-esque badger advertising okonomiyaki, Osaka 
11. Byodouin, Uji
12. Mimiu, yuzu udon
13. Watermelon cocktail at Hotel JAL City, Yokohama