The Petite Palate

Last week, my childhood friend Deepa came for a visit.  I've known Dee since I was 6 years old and she was 5.  We were in first grade.  Now we are both lawyers for large law firms, she being a litigator and me being a corporate attorney.  Dee loves food as much as I do, so we did the touristy things along with eating at a number of great places.  It was wallet-draining, but I rarely get to spend this much time with Dee, so all money was well-spent.  

One thing we talked about is what we expected to be growing up.   Everyone thought Deepa would be Lois Lane.  She was editor of the school paper and the school yearbook, with no previous editor I knew of having filled both sets of shoes in the same year.  She won the San Jose Mercury News high school reporter competition.  She even won an award for best script at the local high school French festival, where our French class had acted out her script that she based on an Indian folk tale and based on our personalities.  (I, surprisingly enough, won best actress for my portrayal of a very superficial princess who was far too into her clothes and looks.  Some said I really wasn't acting.)    Dee graduated from Berkeley with degrees in communication and politcal science, the degrees that journalism careers are built on.  She has a has a huge heart and believes in fighting causes.

I was considered an artistic type in high school.  I made costumes for Ami and Dee.  I drew pictures.  I cooked food.  I did artistic gymnastics.  I was even president of our school's anime club (which is actually really embarassing to admit at this age).   I even dabbled with art school in college.  My friends called me a "fashionista."  Nothing as obvious as Dee's obvious talents for reporting, but certainly no one back then expected me to be a lawyer.  I thought I would be a designer or at least working in some way with the arts. 
 
So what happened to us?  Apparently, Dee and I were unable to shake off the expectations to succeed as Asian-American children.  Dee had a huge shadow hanging over her cast by her older brother,  who is handsome, popular and successful.  I am the oldest child of a self-made CEO who immigrated from Taiwan via a national scholarship program with only one recipient per year.  Despite us being different personalities, Dee and I both ended up turning to the same  "suitable" career option to buy us some thinking time.

While we admit that things aren't all bad (we have nice things, stability, etc), we do look at some our friends who took a risk to make their own dreams come true with envy.  But, neither she nor I expect to be in law forever, and someday we will find our true paths in life.  For now, I would at least like to have enjoyable hobby projects like those I enjoyed when I was younger.  I started my food coordinator classes recently and while I do not like the current section we are studying, I am looking forward to the table styling sector of the class.   I also haven't sewn anything in a while, but I do have a great sewing machine at home so it may be a good time to refresh myself on that.  The firm is reducing our benefits on the premise that our hours at work from here on will be greatly reduced.  I hope this is the case, as I'd like to enjoy life a little bit more and as no one likes their benefits and compensation to be reduced on a false premise. 

Saly arrives today, so perhaps she and I will head to her brother's favorite store Tokyu Hands, the best place in Tokyo for general craft goods. 

Things have been pretty busy all around, but this seemed like a good opportunity to go over some of the great things that have happened lately.

Today, I turned 29.  It's scary really, since I don't know if I'm ready to get older and grow up.  The twenties are sort of a last childhood.  And like last year, I will probably spend this birthday in the office as well. 

However, my mother and my aunt were here until today, and it was great to spend time with them.  Though I've lived on my own for the last 8 years, I do love and miss my family.  My aunt and my mother are a great combination and someday, I hope that my sister and I can have that sort of relationship.  They arrived Friday, and I treated them to dinners.  Their visit was last minute, with a purpose which leads to the next positive thing on my list.

My parents have been wanting to purchase property in Tokyo for some time.  The idea was that they would purchase and that I would pay them rent, rather than my rent being some empty expense that goes out the window to an unknown third party.  Due to the poor economy, prices have come down, but selection also was sparse.   Discovering our lack of options, my mom flew out to view properties.   She preferred Akasaka, with it's hotel-like tower condominiums, but in the end my choice of Roppongi won.   After we review all the papers, my parents plan to sign next month.  Hopefully, things will go smoothly here.

The place is slightly smaller than my current place, but by Tokyo Midtown and very convenient in nearly every aspect.  My mother's choice of condominium really only was convenient for stalking idols, as it is by both TBS (a local tv station that features Arashi on many shows) and the Johnny's & Associates' building.  I get home late and need an area, such as Roppongi, with an active enough night scene that many restaurants and stores are still open.  Saly would have loved the Akasaka place, but I unfortunately need to eat at night.   

I also saw my friends at Tokyo Anime Fair, which was a blast.  I love the people in the entertainment business, especially the animation business.  My friends in the animation business are laid back wonderful people, and there was lots of fun and parties.  I was especially glad to see my friend Stephanie Sheh after so many years of not seeing her.  We sat by each other at dinner where I forcefed her roasted fava beans and monjayaki.  

I won't get a chance to celebrate my birthday today, but hopefully, I will later on.  I've been so much happier this year than on previous birthdays that I didn't even buy myself a present as I would have normally done.  I did get a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my girlfriends at work though.  A deep crimson red, my favorite color.  
 

I have a love-hate relationship with my job.  I like the people I work with, I like my company, I like my paycheck and sometimes, I even love the content of the work I do, even if real estate has never been my thing.  However, the long hours of my job cause me to spiral in a state of self-loathing that makes me ponder anti-depressants.  I feel like my job is meaningful.  Lawyers help people accomplish things.   I like helping people.  But I also want my own life and to be able to maintain some hope that I won't have to live the rest of my life dedicated solely to my job. 

When things are slow, life is pretty good.  However, in the real estate finance group of my firm, when things are busy, clients want everything ASAP and they expect you to work all night until they get it.  It doesn't help that the clients themselves get even less sleep than their lawyers do and may not be in the best mood on the planet.   You feel rushed and stressed and ponder the lives of people who actually think that working past 7 is late. 

This weekend, I worked on a refinance loan agreement for one of our major clients.  I learned a lot about doing this and overall, it was an extremely interesting process.  I could say that I actually enjoyed it.  However, I didn't enjoy working until 4 am on each weekday and working both on the weekend and the national holiday.  Not to mention the various issues that I was having with my growlamp (which I finally managed to get up, but the moving light track broke) and with my mother regarding our search for purchase properties.  If I didn't have Pippy, I'd probably dig a hole in the ground and hide in it until the end of time during these periods.  However, I understand to a degree that this is a given in this work and at least I found the loan agreement interesting.

The task I dislike the most at work is legal analysis.  And not because it is hard, but because of the environment where I am learning to analyze.  Legal analysis takes experience.  You have no idea what you are looking for or what the right answer is without this experience.  Even legal partners run into new issues that they don't necessarily know how to explan.  I spent the first 3 years of my career as an attorney doing almost no legal analysis and was a bit shocked to see that I was criticised heavily on my last evaluation for not being very skilled at doing it.  I'm not certain where I should have picked up that education.  One of my bosses is a kind man.  However, he is not a great teacher.  He gives extremely vague instructions and his idea of education is, "Well, you try to figure it out".  And I am guaranteed a lecture when I don't get it correct (which is guaranteed given my lack of experience.)  They say they want me to be more proactive and get more involved with analysis, but it's difficult to desire that when there are obvious consequences even at the internal level to being wrong and I can't figure out how to do it right due to the lack of guidance.  My other boss is much kinder about this and will work with me regarding this and never lectures about incorrect answers.  This makes it much easier to figure out where I am going wrong and I learn a great deal more when I get an explanation and run-through rather than a lecture about how I should know better.     

Most days though, I don't feel like I'm suited for this job.  My skill is probably more in human interaction and management rather than desk work.  I've always received high marks in dealing with clients and closing transactions (which involves coordinating with people to have all items delivered).  In fact, my boss said that I am probably the best at the firm at closing transactions.  Unfortunately, as I get more advanced, I move away from these areas of human interaction and more into analysis and drafting.  I don't know if I will enjoy my job more as I move along.  Judging by the people around me, the answer seems to be no.  Associates in my group generally quit within 2 years.  I have lasted the longest by passing the three year mark.  I don't know if the firm has put much consideration into why they cannot keep people in the real estate finance group despite that litigation and general corporate has had no problems retaining most of their staff. 

Work is hard.  That is the nature of work, and I accept that.  I think , however, that these types of stressful jobs are easiler when you have an emotional support system.  Most of the members of this firm are married with children.  Sometimes, family obligations get in the way of work, but in general, I believe that the support of their own families help them work through these difficult times at work.  However, the firm probably prefers young associates that have no familial obligations (such as myself) as we have no excuses against working late.  This is also why many young associates have difficulty starting families.  You can't exactly date anyone if you're at the office all the time.  And it's not exactly easy to keep someone interested when you keep cancelling appointments.  I suppose it is in the firm's interests that the single members of the firm stay single. 

Not that I would know even where to find people to date.  One problem stated by many foreign-raised females in Japan is that there aren't exactly a huge array of choices in Japan.  One of my girlfriends, Lily, points out, "All the good ones are married."  Serious men do tend to marry young here, leaving many girls in their late 20's and early 30's to head into panic mode.  Luckily, I have no prejudices towards younger men (in fact, I adore them), so I am somewhat safer than many.   But where are the fascinating boys who would sweep us off our feet anyway?  

My mother has been talking about purchasing a condominimum in Japan for some time.  I have been against the idea due to the fact that Japanese condos do not appreciate much in price and that single women owning property in Japan has generally been frowned upon.  For a long time banks in Japan were even reluctant to give single women mortgage loans.  At this point though, prices are lower than they have ever been and if there was ever a time to buy, now is a good time.  Plus, I'm pretty sure at this point that Prince Charming isn't going to be knocking on my door. 

A partner at the office once called me Schleprock when I mentioned how prone to misfortune that I tended to be.  And for me calamity does come in multiples.  Generally though, it tends to be minor calamity, but annoying none the less.

The bottom of my wine cellar broke, and the seller was scheduled to have a new one delivered to me yesterday morning.  I had warned the partner that I am working with that I would not be in that morning.  I waited, worked from home and waited. 

Eventually, it was past the scheduled time.  Unlike the US, if the delivery company is scheduled to deliver it during a certain time frame, they will actually deliver it during that time frame (usually between 2-3 hour frames).  If they fail to make the time frame, you expect massive apologies.   UPS could learn a lesson from these guys. 

I called the delivery company, and they tracked down the driver who was set to be at my place in another hour.  I waited some more, and they brought the new wine cellar.  We took it out of the box and put the old, defective one into the box.

But then I noticed some glass shards in my feet.  And I kept stepping on more glass shards.  Finally, I noticed that the bottom door of the new wine cellar was completely shattered and was leaking glass shards all over my floor.  The delivery company was extremely apologetic, asked to borrow my vacuum to clean it off (I did it myself instead) and contacted the seller for me.  They took the new wine cellar away as well, and I was left with no wine cellar.

Since I had a few small cuts in the soles of my feet, I decided not to head to work.  The last thing I wanted was an infection from wearing shoes (the haven of bacteria).  Instead, I worked from home and hung out with my maid.

As I no longer had a wine cellar, I cut up my homemade cheese that had been aging for us to eat.  It was very creamy and smooth.  I was amazed.  When cheese is freshly pressed, it is very crumbly.  However, in a very short time, this had already become as smooth as storebought cheddar.  I was considering lowering the amount of cultures, but my friends at the office like it as is.   I wish I could have aged it longer, but I'll have plenty of chances to make more cheese, especially once I get the cheese press. 

And once I have a wine cellar that works and that doesn't have a shattered door...

My freezer has been pretty full lately, and for me, that's a happy thing.  I like being able to have ingredients on hand for those random cooking urges.  I used to like to keep my refrigerator full as well, until my maid scolded me on the amount of food that was going bad before I could use it.  Luckily, many foods keep for a very long time in the freezer. 

I had bought a package of kiritampo, these sticks of cooked rice which are lightly roasted.  These are usually cooked in a nabe, which is somewhere between a stew and fondue (you can cook as you eat).   They are a regional specialty of Akita Prefecture, and I loved them at the nabe place that we went for my friend Francis' going away party.  Traditionally, kiritanpo nabe includes chicken, long onions, maitake mushrooms, gobo (burdock root) and other variable ingredients. 

I was too lazy to go to the supermarket and checked the fridge.  I had some green onions, and I also had tons of garlic from my last Costco trip.  After defrosting some chicken in the microwave, I chopped up the whites of the green onions and smashed some garlic.  I browned the chicken, added in the green onions and garlic and then added some white wine.  I thought this would be a bit boring as is, so I also added some of my homemade miso paste and some chicken broth.  I let this stew for a while before I added up the sliced up kiritampo.  Pippy enjoyed the aroma so much that he refused to leave the kitchen unless I carried him to my bedroom where he could not as easily smell the stew. 

In addition, I decided to enjoy the caviar I received in the lucky bag last month.  At nice restaurants, caviar often comes with creme fraiche, blini and an assortment of toppings.  I didn't have creme fraiche, so I used sour cream, which is the poor man's substitute for sour cream.  Sour cream is unfortunately more sour than creme fraiche and less delicate.  Originally, I tried sour cream and caviar on some pita chips, but the pita chips were too strong tasting.  So I decided to make my own blini using my sourdough starter.  Basically, I ended up making mini injeras which I topped with sour cream and caviar.   The downside of sour cream is that while I could eat blini after blini of creme fraiche and caviar, sour cream feels extremely heavy after a point.  Caviar however tastes best at the first opening and I tend to forget about it afterwards.  I still have a little bit left which I will eat after this. 

I also made another batch of cheese on friday, which turned out well enough to actually press and put in my wine cellar.  I had to make some adjustments to the cellar before it would have the right humidity, but I now have it at a relatively stable 85% humidity.   I am not sure how long I will age this one, as I had to add so much extra starter and rennet just to get it to set.  It may end up rubbery or bitter due to that.  I am thinking perhaps one month, but we will see. 

I took Pippy on a walk today to meet my trainer.  Most people adore Pippy quite a bit as he looks like a "plushy toy."  I dress him before his walks, as his fur is actually quite thin compared to dogs that actually shed, and today, we just happened to be wearing matching sweaters. 

I woke up late today to a phone call by Ayako.  I met her up at a tableware show at Tokyo Dome today, where we saw many table placements and kitchen goods.  I didn't see too many things I was interested in, though I did see some potato/onion/garlic jars from Spain that I could have used in my kitchen.  However, I didn't see any designs that I particularly liked. 

Ayako came over afterwards to meet Pippy and have a bowl of menudo.  She is a big tripe fan, so she thrilled with the soup.  We parted ways so that I could head to the gym, where I had my usual fun with my trainer who is a girl a few years older than I.

My trainer and I talk about all sorts of random things, especially during training.  Unlike the rest of her clientale, who are usually there for dieting or being trendy, I am a former athlete and find most of the things that they ask me to do fairly easy.  Thus, we can hold long conversations through situps and other conditioning.

Today, she shared a fun piece of gossip with me.  There is a rather ghetto sauna by my place.  I live in a very expensive neighborhood, so this sauna especially stands out.  It is a old pastel green building in an awkward shape.  The paint is chipped and old, and even more shady is the fact that it doesn't have a signboard.  It's name is written in neon lights, as if this were an alley in Oakland.  Such a sight leads you to think that the mob is involved with keeping the place alive.  I've walked by it many times, but never have thought to go in. 

She tells me that this sauna in fact is one that is favored by celebrities (as well as the mob).  The exterior drives away the cautious and the high prices drive away people of less auspicious incomes.  One of my sister's favorite male celebrities in fact apparently frequents the place.  (He lives in the same neighborhood, so I suppose this is not entirely surprising.)  Even more surprising was that the spa menu there (which happens to be the same as your average spa in Korea)  is extremely highly esteemed by its patrons.  My trainer's friend apparently has been to massages all over Tokyo and none match the skill of this place.  Sounds like the place to go.  I called Ayako and we will be making plans to go soon.  What I am most interested in having done is Akasuri, a Korean scrub treatment, where they very painfully rub you down with a scouring pad.  I break out in a rash for a day afterwards, but my skin is so soft afterwards.  Like I have said, I like strange treatments.

After my training today (and after a bowl of menudo), I decided to practice injera (ethiopian bread) making.  I have quite a bit of starter accumulated at this point, despite that I only feed it once a week.  I am not a fan of the method where people throw out half the starter before each feeding.  It seems like a waste, though I understand that this is actually better for the overall health of the starter. 

Today, I actually made my first batch of good injera.  Until today, I generally would inadvertantly brown the bottoms of the injera, as I couldn't get them cooked on top without doing so.  They would be edible (and not bad tasting), but not attractive and not very useable in dishes.  I used more white flour this time, added baking powder and salt, and didn't allow it to sit on the counter as long.   In addition, I scrubbed the pan with salt before each cooking.  This is not good for the pan, but is good for the injera.  (I apologize profusely to my "big brother " Richard who bought me this pan.)  The result was pretty good.  While I have yet to master making the right size and shape of injera, I managed to get them off without a browned spot in sight.  In addition, they lifted food very well and were perfectly spongy.  I rolled each up as they do in restaurants and took the following picture.



Eventually, I hope to get the shape worked out so that they're actually round.  They're far from perfect, but practice is helping them look better.   I don't have the type of turner (called a sufid, apparently) that they use in Ethiopia, which is about the size of the entire injera and really helps to lift the pieces off perfectly.  Instead, I use a spatula designed for tempering chocolate, which is not very wide.  (Note:  I do not recommend this, as these types of spatulas are actually very expensive.)  I'd love to get the real thing as it is actually very difficult to use a tempering spatula for this, but I get the feeling that the closest Ethiopian goods store is about a continent away from me... literally.   

My menudo last week turned out far better than planned.  I loved it so much, I've eaten it every single day since I cooked the batch.  While I must have cooked about 3 gallons, I don't think this will last more than a month.  For this, I must thank Diana Kennedy, the queen of Mexican cookery books, and my friend Annie, who gave me a cheat which helped add extra zing.  I also topped the soup with the cheese that I made last week, which had the perfect acidity for soup. 

My week at work was quite stressful this week, and adding to the stress was the realization that the maintenance people at the building could not hang up my growlamp.  After fuming for a bit, I have come up with a few ideas which may help me finally get the lamp up, and will post whatever works. 

I lost one anemone this week.  I was expecting to lose the bleached ones, but I was expecting to lose the wispy completely bleach-white sebae.  The other bleached sebae seemed to be regaining color and seemed to be sufficiently absorbing water.  Alas, I found it shiveled and disintegrating in the tank and into the garbage it went.  It is likely that I will lose most of the sebae, if not all of them.  The bubble tip anemones are still doing well, and my carpet anemone is still alive.  I have a flatworm problem in my plant tank, so I plan to buy some fish or slugs to take care of that.  Kaisuigyo.jp has some great specials, including a spinecheek clownfish for only 780 yen.  Since I lost one of my fake perculas, I have been considering getting another clown, and I love the colors of the spinecheek clownfish.  However, I still  haven't decided whether to go pick up fish at the store (much more expensive, but no shipping and you can pick; less shipping stress on the fish too) or buy online (cheaper, but expensive shipping; way convenient, but potentially stressed fish).  I will probably drop by PauPau Aqua Garden and see if they have anything good.  Otherwise, Kaisuigyo.jp it is. 

My assistant Rui and I went clubbing last night.  We put on cute clothes, made ourselves up and headed to A.I., club of cute boy celebrities and pretty girls.  We had barely gotten situated with our drinks when a group of people dragged us into their private party in one of the VIP rooms.  It seemed odd that we were called in, but drinks were passed around.  Things were awkward, as Rui and I were both raised in the US and don't know how to deal with a bunch of random drunk middle-aged executives.  Things became even more awkward when I was based a tequila shot and they started egging me on to drink.  Instead of "ikki" ("chug") as would be normally expected, they chanted, "oppai" ("boobs").  As attention was constantly brought to my breasts, it became clear to both me and Rui that these salarymen didn't invite *us* to the party.  They invited my chest to the party, and I was the "boob girl".   One guy even said, point blank to me,  "Girl, you have huge breasts, don't you?"  This is bizarre to me, as In American reality, I am considered to have a small chest.  However, in Japanese reality (bizarro reality), especially paired with a bra slightly smaller than my actual size (this is actually more effective than padding), it apparently was hard to ignore my chest.  Eventually, Rui and I decided to leave because these people were boring us.  They tried to guilt us about not giving them our business cards, but I really had no desire to see or hear from any of these people again.  Better luck next time, I suppose.

Today, after my treatment at FBS (an aestestic salon that specializes in bust treatments, a must when gravity is starting to be less than kind), I decided to get a headspa treatment at Salon de Rejue, which happened to be across the street from FBS.  A headspa treatment treats your hair and scalp.  When I am busy and stressed, my scalp (and the skin on the rest of my body) tends to suffer pretty badly.  This week, due to work stress, I had started to get dandruff (as well as flaky skin on my hands).  I also hate shampooing my own hair and was inspired by an episode of Utaban where singer Hitoto Yo (who is half-Taiwanese) said that the trend in Taiwan is for girls to get all of their shampooing done at salons, several times a week (usually at lunch), rather than washing their hair at home (I've gotten this done a few times in Taiwan myself, actually, and love it).  They first used a probe to examine my scalp via a magnifying camera which projected onto a computer.  My hair follicles were completely blocked and overall, my scalp was in horrible shape.  So they rubbed treatments into my scalp, ran steam through it, shampooed it in regular water and carbonated water and gave a series of massages.  The most interesting part of the treatment was a machine which required you to have a rubber tight headpiece that looked like the end of a toilet plunger.  The machine would then suck out all of the air  in the headpiece, which would vacuum out the dirt in the hair follicles, as well as stimulate the nerves under the scalp.  I've been to head massages where just stimulating the scalp actually helped drooping in the face.  This, however, was much more hardcore and the suction action was borderline painful at times.  However, afterwards, my head felt better, as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.   This should also reduce the amount of hair I lose each time I shampoo and in general help the health of my hair and scalp.  I've booked my next appointment already for two weeks from now, but once the follicles are clean enough, I probably will go less frequently.   I seem to be addicted (perhaps even coincidentally) to finding strange beauty treatments. 

In other strange beauty news, I read an article on Dita Von Teese, the beautiful burlesque queen, which said that she had managed to whittle down her waist through corsetry.  I happen to own a corset from the period when Moulin Rouge costumes were popular, and this inspired me to break it out and start wearing it around the house.  Corsets need to be broken in slowly to prevent ripping, and this corset has become quite stiff since the last time I wore it.  Not sure if I will get the same results Dita did though.

On facebook, I was tagged to write 25 random facts about myself.  I generally don't play along with these meme games, but I had a little down time and it seemed like it would be fun to do.  It seems like it would be appropriate to post them here as well.

This morning I received many deliveries of things I had ordered online and largely made it an at-home day.

One of the items was my new wine cellar. It is basically a small refrigerator with temperature control used largely to store wine. However, I don't plan on storing many wines in this. I have decided to start cheesemaking again, and cheese and wine are aged in similar conditions. Thus, the wine cellar is perfect for aging cheese. However, I'm also going to have to get a new cheesepress (all my old equipment was very ghetto and back in California), as well as some new cheese cultures. My friend Matt is helping me with this quest and plans to give me a list of cheeses to make.

Since I had some old rennet and other cheese cultures left over in the freezer and wanted some fresh cheese, I ordered some low temperature pasteurized milk. While my flower arrangement teacher was over today, I slowly heated the milk in the sink (the stove will burn the milk curds) and hopefully will have a mound of something today. Unfortunately, as expected, the rennet and cultures do not seem to be working well. Rennet can be kept indefinitely in the freezer, but since my friend Marc sent these by mail to me, customs held on to them for 4 months before sending them to me and they only last about one month outside of the freezer. We'll see how this works out.

For my menudo this weekend, I need to boil the hominy in powdered lime, and I purchased on rush order some calcium hydroxide from a konnyaku (cassava jelly) ingredients site. 500 grams of this arrived in a small envelope this morning. I will have plenty for many batches to come, but I can't boil the corn until the milk is out of the sink. In addition, 7.5 pounds of tripe and 2 pounds of calf feet arrived this morning in time for me to thaw them for my menudo tomorrow.

The highlight of my morning, however, was the surprise bag that I ordered from Hai Shokuzai Shitu, one of my favorite websites for gourmet ingredients. The bag was said to hold 8 items that were worth more than the value of the bag. I like almost everything sold on the site and the bag was guaranteed to contain at least foie gras and caviar. At only 15,000 yen, I figured that I could not lose. It arrived this morning in three boxes.

The first box contained the following:

1) Half a lobe of fresh Hungarian goose foie gras. French duck foie gras is generally considered to be better, but I look forward to trying this. I placed this in the freezer for now.
2) One thawed magret duck breast. Unfortunately, since this was thawed once already, I cannot refreeze and will have to cook this soon. Serves one male, but probably can make two servings for me.
3) One black truffle. Judging by the poor surface quality and the somewhat rancid smell, this appears to be a cheap Chinese truffle, rather than a quality one from Europe or North America. I have found Chinese truffles to taste like cardboard, but for now, I have put this in a little tupperware filled with rice in the refrigerator.
4) One 6 month aged Australian veal shank. The beauty of this item was that it had never been frozen and was large enough to serve at least 4 people. Unfortunately, I have so much food already that I cut this up into individual servings and into the freezer for use later on.
5) 24 months aged sliced proscuitto and salami. I'm not much of a cold cuts person, but these can be incorporated into other things.
6) Russian osetra caviar. One of the finest types of caviar in the world, though Russian caviar is now banned from sale in the US. My sister is huge fan of this.
 7) Package of spaghettini from Italy.   They didn't even bother listing this on the contents list. 

Here is a picture of the above on my counter:


The second box was greeted with a scream from me when I opened it. Because it was a styrofoam box, I assumed it was frozen seafood. I did not expect a live lobster to be inside. Unfortunately, I didn't think it would live until tomorrow, so I quickly boiled it and ate it dipped in butter. It was just the right size for one person.



The third box led to bewilderment. Inside were two small live abalone gripping to each other inside a plastic bag of water. I am aware that abalone is considered one of the finest luxuries of the seafood world. I unfortunately don't eat abalone often enough to know what to do with them. I will cook these tomorrow after consulting my library tonight.



Currently, I am waiting for my milk to set a clean curd before I cook dinner for myself and prepare the ingredients for tomorrow's menudo. Liang and Akiho will be over and perhaps other people will drop by. Menudo keeps well in the freezer, so I plan on making a very large quantity.

My anemones are currently doing well. Much better than I would have expected. However, anemones are mysterious creatures that can pass away at any time. One of my clownfish though has mysteriously passed away after being rejected by his mate.

Recently, I have been sleeping alot, but I can't seem to shake off the fatique of last year. People seem to think that I look rather different with my new makeup regiment, but I think I look about the same. At Albert's request, I took a picture in my office with my iphone.



I've never been photogenic though, so I'm not sure if the above is indicative of anything.

My sunday evenings are generally spent the same way. I cook dinner beginning in the late afternoon, and Hide shows up late, just in time for his favorite television shows. After dinner, I either work or chat online with Hide's fans, via the online Ah My Goddess fan community, while Hide plays with Pippy and watches his favorite variety shows. I think there is an innocence and naivete found among fans of the Ah My Goddess franchaise that makes the fans pleasant to talk with (though sometimes they are a little obsessive).

Hide could easily watch his shows at the Khara studio (where he has been working long hours as an animator on the Evangelion movies), but Hide comes over each week just for Pippy. He adores Pippy so much that Pippy has been packing on the grams due to Hide feeding him tablescraps. My housekeeper has since put Pippy on a diet and Hide has been prohibited from feeding Pippy anymore table food. Hide, unable to bear Pippy's whines and cries, announced that we would now be eating out on Sunday nights so that Pippy wouldn't have to suffer.

Yesterday, we decided to eat at a Tex-Mex canteen-type chain called Zest, where they have a nacho fries dish that I am fond of (french fries topped with all the toppings of your usual nacho grande dish). I put on my jacket and we were ready to head out. Pippy ran up to Hide with a toy in his mouth. Hide said to Pippy, "Pippy, orusuban da yo!", which loosely translates to "(we are heading out while) you are staying home". Hide uses this line everytime we head out, and Pippy's eyes went wide and Pippy dropped his toy. Clearly, he understood what it meant and he was not happy about it. He followed us to the door sadly to see us off.

When we returned, Pippy was sleeping on his heated sofa in his play area and he ran down to greet us at the door. Since discovering that the sofa is warm, he has actually been using it quite a bit. Hide did not stay long (he only watched two of his favorite shows), as he needed to return to the studio, but Pippy was too busy eating his kibbles to notice Hide leaving, which made Hide a little sad.

Pippy and his sofa: 




Pippy and I played for a little while before I prepared to go to bed. I have found that the Chocomint bathbomb from Lush is their best bathbomb yet. It actually moisturizes as it claims to do, and I'm tempted to use this everyday of winter.

Pippy was feeling a bit whiny in his cage, so I let him sleep on my bed. I haven't quite figured out quite how to do this yet, as I move in my sleep and inevitably push Pippy from his spot or put my foot on him, causing him to become rather angry at me. However, with practice, it's been getting better. It'd be nice if he could sleep more than a few hours at a time though...

Pippy on the bed:

New Years is a big sale period in Japan, and after giving several of my SPS (small polyp corals) to my friend James, my tank had been noticeably emptier and lonelier. I had been intending to eventually make the transition to a sea anemone tank, so I looked online for some nice anemones. While browsing, I came upon a New Years' special anemone lucky bag. An undisclosed amount of random anemones for $100. Seemed like a fun idea, so I ordered them.

What I was not expecting was a huge styrofoam box filled with *eight* anemones of different sizes. Some of them survived shipping better than others, and it was a challenge getting them all in. I am doubtful that all will survive, but for now, I have taken a picture of the tank.




All of the new anemones were placed on the right of the tank, though one has gone into hiding for now. Several of my hard corals will be passed down to James again, if the anemones survive, as they will eventually take over the tank and kill the corals. The mouths of the large purple sebae anemones are gaping open, which means it is unlikely that they will survive. Most important to me is that the 4 bubble tipped anemones survive. It was definitely fun opening the package, so I would say that I got my money's worth.

Another happy part of my weekend is that I have finally found a place where I can buy hominy, which means I can finally make homemade posole/pozole and menudo. There is an online store, located at Shinagawa, which offers Peruvian ingredients. This is extremely exciting for me and now I just need to figure out which type of "maiz" is appropriate.

My father visited during the first weekend of the new year, a short stopover before he headed to his meetings in China. He bought me a gorgeous white Chanel bag for Christmas and took me out to Otawara steak dinner. Otawara steak has put any other steak that I have had to shame (and this includes Kobe steak). My father declared that he could never eat an American steak again and made plans to bring my mother to the same restaurant. He also enjoyed playing with Pippy very much to the extent that when he woke up at 5 am, so did Pippy. And by extension so did I due to Pippy's excited barks.

My father and I can discuss many things, including world politics and family gossip. I've always been daddy's girl and my father has always been proud of the many things that I have learned to do. He, however, expressed a grave worry that if I do not spend more time and effort on finding "a suitable life companion" that I may miss my chances. When I told him that I was going to invest a little more in my appearance this year, he encouraged this as part of spending more effort towards something other than work. He worries a great deal about me being alone in Tokyo and my mother has a hard time understanding why I haven't had a boyfriend in 3 years.

I started off buying a few new wardrobe pieces. Rather than fight through New Years sales in Japan and get still expensive prices, I went online. European sizes are a perfect fit for me, so I shopped on my favorite online clothing sites: yoox.com and net-a-porter.com. 3 skirts and 2 sweaters from Yoox.com cost me a mere 2200 yen in shipping. And cost me about what one sweater would cost in Japan.

It was also time to cover up the black roots which had grown in since I had visited a stylist last. Being raised in the U.S., I prefer highlighting rather than a single flat color. Unfortunately, most Japanese girls prefer a flat color (Asian hair generally is a flat dark color) and most salons in Japan do highlights extremely poorly, including most places I have gone to. The best highlighting job I have ever had done was by a French stylist at Okyo Salon in Washington DC, which was rated by Elle magazine as one of the best salons in the entire US. It also cost more than most expensive salons in Japan, despite that US prices are in general much lower for these types of services, so we are not talking about the everyman's salon.

I thought I would try a celebrity salon in Tokyo, as celebrities are notoriously hard to please and have the greatest array of choices. Said salon that I knew of didn't take anyone that didn't come with a referral. Instead, I found a local salon in Azabu Juban that got me an appointment within 10 minutes of my call. The highlighting job came out better than I expected, and I have since decided to make it my regular salon. The salon is called Sora and it is by the Oedo line Azabu Juban station. I am quite fond of their grapefruit scented shampoo.

I've been continuing with going to the gym and going to my regular massage treatments, but my assistants encouraged me to try something different. Soon, at their urging I found myself at the eyelash salon on the 3rd floor of my office building getting an eyelash perm. At first I found the look to be strange, as I rarely used an eyelash curler (and am poorly skilled at it to begin with). My assistants thought it looked great and encouraged me to buy some makeup to accentuate the look.

Next, I found myself at the Clarins counter buying new makeup. I picked up a few items and have increased the amount of makeup I now wear. It is still not as much makeup as most Japanese girls typically wear, but I'm beginning to accept that heavier makeup is the more accepted look in Japan. Eventually, when in Rome, you need to meet the Romans halfway in between even if you don't want to do as the Romans do. I still refuse to wear foundation or blusher, but I think this is a good compromise.

The clinician at FBS (my regular aesthetic salon)had expressed concern that my skin had become very dry and flaky. There is a Lush by FBS, so dropped in. Lush is a chain of stores from England that offer organic, freshly made beauty products such as shampoos, lotions, bath gels and overall skincare. I do not buy Lush products regularly, as I generally find that chemicals work more efficiently than organic products do. Not to mention that Lush products actually have expiration dates, while chemical products do not. However, Lush products are similar to the type of products used at your usual trendy spa, so it's nice to indulge once in a while, especially since Lush products are incredibly inexpensive by Japanese standards.

I picked up an entire basket filled with hydrating products and have been trying them out. So far, I have tried the following (not including what I have tried in the past):

Kasan Mask (Volcano Mask): Foot/leg scrub. It works great on calves and shins, but isn't quite powerful enough to scrub heels. It also smells rather unpleasant.

AshiShiastu (Foot Shiatsu): Lotion for your legs and feet. Not quite thick enough to stay on the feet, but good for calves and shin. Not a very pleasant smell.

HadanoOasis (Skin Oasis): Body lotion for dry skin. Not quite thick enough to treat dry skin for lasting results and smells quite, quite putrid. To describe the scent, it smells like rotten sesame cream (it is largely made from sesame paste).

BlackVelvet: Body butter for the bath. I actually received this as a free sample and loved it so much that I went back to buy the full bar. It has charcoal in it and it has a mild exfoliating effect while moisturizing your body. The downside is that your bathtub turns black, but the upside is great and it doesn't smell unpleasant. This is my favorite of the products I tried. Full bar only lasts a few days, but completely worth it.

PowerMask: Face and body scrub. This has to be the most amazing feeling scrub I have tried in a long time. The effects of the diamond-based scrub by La Mer are significantly greater, but the La Mer's scrub costs ten times as much and is harder to wash off. This scrub has peppermint oils in it which leaves a soothing cooling feeling on your face and could easily become an addiction.

Ningyohime (Little Mermaid): Raw face mask. Lush has this series of face masks made from raw ingredients that need to be refrigerated (which I often forget to do). They're incredibly difficult to apply to the face and I'm not so convinced of their effect. This one was a moisturizing mask, but my face did not feel any different from before. Maybe a few more attempts will change my mind.

KareinaruKyoen (the Great Feast): Another raw face mask, with a ginger base for invigorating and cleaning impurities from the face. Felt nice and smelled nice, but I'll need a few more test runs with this one. In general, the raw mask series doesn't seem to be hitting my list of favorites. Not to mention that I keep forgetting to return them to the refrigerator...

Miserarete (Charmed): Lotion for the eye area. Kind of thin for an eye lotion. I think thicker tends to be better for areas prone to dryness.

OusamatoWatashi (The King and I): Moisturizing bath cream. While there is cocoa butter in this soap, it washes away as soon as you wash the soap away. I would recommend Black Velvet over this, though this has a greater cleansing effect. It certainly dries less than regular soap, but it seems that regular Dove bodywash could do the same more efficiently (but with chemicals).

Bathbombs/bathmelts: What attracted me to Lush initially is their vast array of bath products, including their bathbombs, which is a baseball-sized alka-seltzer-like ball that you dissolve in your bath for aromatherapy bath fun. Several of these also have moisturing or other effects. This time I bought two of the Avobath (avocado-based moisturizing type) and one of the MitsubachiB(BeeB, honey-based moisturizing type). I don't know if these actually offer much moisturizing, but they are certainly fun. Lush's Bubblebars and Bathmelts probably offer more in the way of moisturizing as they have more water content than the Bathbombs and resemble semi-hard bars of clay. I purchased one of the Ukio-e Bathmelts this time which is high in cocoa butter, but have yet to try this. The effects of these matter little to me, as they're mostly to enliven the bath experience, so I tend to buy these from time to time.

In general, I had fun buying and trying the products, and plan to do so again with a different batch of products once the above run out, perhaps with a different store. For now at least, my skin feels a bit smoother and feels less burn in the wind.

Recently, I have been collecting tropical fruit plants. I had quite a collection when I lived in DC, but abandoned them all when I came back to Japan. Then, I found out that Yahoo Auctions sold a variety of fruit plants for reasonable prices, and the gardenfest began.

At the suggestion of my friend, Megu, I turned my window counter into a sort of terranium. She suggested a waterfall, but it didn't seem too plausible. Not to mention that Pippy would turn the waterfall into a personal drinking fountain.

Currently, my collection includes the following:

- Passifloras (Passionfruit/Passion Flowers): these have always been my favorite. Fragrant, delicious and beautiful. I have about 6 varieties currently.

- Bananas: Since my garden is indoors, I had to stick with the miniature varieties and currently have three different varieties.

- Monstera: This is a generic houseplant, but actually bears delicious (though slow-ripening) fruit when grown outdoors. Fruiting is rare indoors, but I found a large, pretty plant for a very good price, so I've decided to give it a try.

- Mangos: I'm a big fan of green mangos, so I have picked up three mango varieties (Keets, Thai and Indian). These will not fruit for sometime, but are beautiful houseplants.

- Dragonfruit: I picked this up on vacation in Okinawa. They were selling dragonfruit stalks and it seemed like a fun idea. This thing hasn't grown an inch since I have bought it, however.

- Jaboticaba: This plant is extremely slow growing, some trees not bearing fruit for 10 years, but oddly, I found a 15 year old fruiting tree on Yahoo. The fruits taste like very tasty grapes and grow on the trunk of the tree.

- Miracle Fruit Tree: This is a fruit that covers the sour receptors on the tongue and causes fruits like lemons to taste sweet. (However, you will still sense the high acid levels if you are sensitive to citrus.) Mine currently has two fruits on it.

-Others: I also have some non-fruiting fragrant plants that I purchased out of interest, such as ylang-ylang, plumeria and jasmine.

My ex-boyfriend Aki has promised (in exchange for a favor I did for him) to buy me a 800W growlamp for my indoor garden, which shall help me actually have some harvests in the future. As soon as this is up, I will post some pictures.

I moved my old glass desk onto the counter and originally had the passifloras underneath it with some flourescent growlights. However, this worked poorly, so I moved out the passifloras and turned this area into a small nursery/play area for Pippy. It will have two of his little cushion houses, and eventually, maybe a heated pillow bed, as it is cold by the window. My work area is currently right in front of this area, so Pippy can play behind me when I work from home.

I have been working so much lately that I'm starting to feel like Ebeneezer Scrooge this holiday season. At my firm, 1950 billable hours is the first tier for the hours bonus, with 2100 and 2300 billable hours being the higher tiers. For those unaware, not every hour at work counts as a billable hour, and 1950 can be quite difficult to achieve even with regular work. Due to the financial crisis, my clients were in watch-and-wait mode for the earlier part of the year, and I did not expect to get anywhere close to 1950 hours. However, my clients entered into "save the sinking ship" mode upon the crash of the markets, and I have now passed the very unexpected 2100 hour mark, thanks to many all-nighters and many days of working on national holidays. The firm has announced that they plan to pay the hours bonuses as expected, and it is a sizeable amount of money. My mother would like me to save the entire amount, but I'd rather make up for the time I lost trying to achieve those 2100 billable hours.

Unfortunately, despite hitting 2100 billable hours, I am still incredibly busy at work. Yesterday was a national holiday and I spent it on my computer at home working. My maid, who normally comes over every weekday, was feeling under the weather, so it was best to stay home with Pippy and at least cook myself some food.

While waiting in agony for documents to arrive, I made some Ethiopian food using the cookbook that my friend Hank got for me one Christmas and this amazing crepe pan that my "brother" Richard got for me on my birthday. While I had only fermented regular wheat flour for a day, I finally managed to make some edible injera (Ethiopian flatbread). This is a huge accomplishment, as injera just happened to be the one item that I had attempted several times and could never get right. This inspired me, and I decided to research into authentic injera-making a bit more and make properly fermented injeras, like the ones I enjoy at Ethiopian restaurants so much.

True injera has a sour taste, similar to sourdough bread from San Francisco, and a spongy texture. The best sourdough uses a sourdough starter made from natural (not commercial) yeast. Many homecooks cheat by using yogurt or vinegar to skip the fermentation process, but the taste and texture aren't quite the same (I used vinegar). A natural yeast stater would take nearly a month to stabilize, so I decided to include commercial yeast in mine. One site recommended kefir cultures to compensate for the flavor lacking in commercial yeast. I was out of kefir cultures, but I stirred in some buttermilk cultures from my freezer. After the third day, I will need to feed my starter with warm water and flour each day, until it is stable enough to be refrigerated (and feedings will be reduced to once a week). The starter will live forever, as long as you keep feeding it. Apparently, the original Gold Rush sourdough starter is still alive and being used in San Francisco.

In Ethiopia, injera is made with a dark grain called T'ef, but, aside from the fact that my T'ef supply had run out, it apparently is easier to begin the starter with white flour and add in a quantity T'ef later. Pure T'ef injeras are also apparently harder to cook and very grainy in taste, which explains in part my previous failings. Most restaurants apparently use a combination of flours, including T'ef. Some T'ef will definitely be necessary for the right flavor, however.

Luckily, my friend Albert will be bringing me some T'ef (and some Posole!), and it will take only two feedings of T'ef to get the right flavor. I may also end up making some sour dough bread with the extra starter. My friends in Japan say that I only seem to carry strange items in my cupboards, and I must admit this is probably true.

Now if I only I could get enough goat's milk to make a block of chevre cheese.

This past weekend, I made good on a promise I made to a dear friend. My dear friend Mikey asked me, as present to him, to allow him to see me drunk once. And I don't mean the giggling, tipsy sort of drunk, but a rolling on the ground sort of drunk. Since Mikey rarely asks me for anything and I was a bit curious, I agreed.

We met up on Friday. I was unable to reach him on his cel phone, but due to my nerd prowess, it took only one guess which arcade to locate him in. We went to my favorite fishing restaurant, where I managed to embarass myself by getting my fishing hook caught to the ceiling light and dropping my fish on the table.

For Saturday night, we bought two bottles of wine and rented the cheeziest movie we could find. Even getting drunk couldn't save this movie. And the alcohol tasted pretty bad. But it was fun for about a half hour.

Unfortunately, I also drank all too quickly, and my body went into poison control mode. I threw up about 6 times throughout the night and next morning and couldn't even keep water down. My head pounded and I could barely stand.

Mikey handed me water and helped me get into bed. He even helped Pippy get onto the bed so that Pippy could sleep by me. Everytime I got out of bed, Pippy followed me to the toilet and watched me puke. And after each time he crawled up his puppy stairs onto the bed to get into a spot next to me to sleep. This continued several times, and Pippy, who does not normally sleep in my bed, stayed close the entire time. I don't know if he knew I was not feeling well, but he obediently stayed by my side and never bothered me to play with him, as he usually does.

Sunday was shot for me, and I desperately craved a bowl of menudo (Mexico's hangover cure), only to find out that posole (the dried corn in Latin American stews) cannot be purchased in Japan. I have recently been corresponding with Hide's fans in Latin America. Perhaps they could send me a supply of posole for my next poison disaster.

Anyhow, the lesson that I learned from this is that I do not want to be this drunk ever again. It is truly for the best that I never learned to like the flavor of alcohol.

My day began early today at my gym in Nishi-Azabu and later took me to Shibuya for my massage treatment. After my treatment, I headed to Seibu department store to pick up the lingerie I had ordered.

At Seibu, I remembered that I need fennel for my party next week. Fennel is not available in all stores here, and usually department stores have a great (but expensive) food section. So after picking up my order from the innerwear department, I headed to basement level 1 which is always the food section of the department store (known in Japanese as the DepaChika). Usually you can find a variety of prepared foods, produce, fish meat and all sorts of treats in the Depachika, and my entire family is a big fan.

The Depachika did not have any fennel today, though I was tempted by some of their large fishes. I may decide to pick some up for next week. Instead, I found the grape confectionaries that I was so interested in after seeing them in Nikkei Woman magazine. They are gourmet grapes covered in a sugar-like coating. They had some samples out, and they tasted even better than I had imagined, as they managed to retain some tartness to go with the coating. I bought ten for my own consumption, as they have a freshness period of only 4 days.

After Seibu, I rode the bus back to Roppongi. However, I decided to get off at Nishi-Azabu and go to some of the import supermarkets in Hiroo. Despite having lived in Roppongi for over two years now, I had not been in Hiroo since the time I lived in Azabu Juuban. Hiroo is much closer to Roppongi than it is to Juban, so this didn't make much sense. Today was the day to fix that.

I walked from the bus stop to Hiroo and wondered why the journey was taking so long. I passed a number of restaurants and began to consider whether I should have taken a cab instead. Finally, I arrived in the area and walked into Meidiya Supermarket. They had no fennel, so I moved onto National Azabu.

National Azabu is somehow always completely full on the weekends. Nevermind that National Azabu costs more than Nissin, the import supermarket in Higashi Azabu blessed with autograph of Arnold the California Gubernator, and nevermind that the parking lot for National Azabu always looks like a disaster zone with how small and crowded it is. The selection between National and Nissin does differ a bit, but in general, Nissin does better in produce and ingredients, while National does better with snacks and other prepared foods. I managed to find fennel (picked up one pretty bulb), as well as leeks (picked up three long stalks), and paid an overpriced $25 for what Europeans would consider peasant groceries. (Fennel grows like a weed in California.)

Walking back was a more direct path and actually pretty reasonably short. I found many things of mild interest on the way, but mostly, I was glad that it was a direct path home.

Soon, I need to find some fish carcasses (readily available at most fishmongers) and make my fish broth base for bouillabaise next week. I am wondering whether to buy another monkfish, but will probably buy some sea bream instead.

Recently, I keep having flashbacks of eating at Tomichan with Ami. Tomichan is a blowfish/turtle restaurant. The turtle served is river turtle (which are a far cry from the cute turtles in pet stores), which is considered very good for beauty and health. Some rumors say that Consort Yang, one of the four beauties of Chinese legend/history kept herself beautiful through a diet that also contained turtle. (However, she was also quite overweight, and my mother adds that she probably had diabetes.) Supposedly, turtle blood helps circulation, which is good for the skin. The first time I had turtle, the next day my skin glowed and any sag that I could have imagined in my skin was significantly reduced. Of course, the results are only temporary, but all the more reason to eat there more often.

I took Ami to the restaurant on her last visit. We had the turtle course, which is really too much food for just two people. Because we made a reservation (we live only down the street from the restaurant, so we rarely do so), we had a nice private room to ourselves. When we returned from the restaurant, Ami announced that she was sleepy. Ami generally suffers from chronic insomnia and never sleeps early. This was pretty surprising. She disappeared to the bedroom. (We share a bed when she in town, as it makes her feel like a "little kid" again.) When I came in later to pick up a book from the bookshelf, she was sound asleep. I even woke her for a bit to see if she was ok, and she smiled angelically (despite usually being very cranky if awoken) and said, "I don't know why, but I am so sleepy," and fell back asleep instantly.

When she woke up the next day, some 10 hours later, she was very cheery (she usually hates mornings) and said, "Wow, I don't know what got into me. I was so sleepy."

I asked her recently about turtle soup and she said, "mmm, yummy." And I additionally asked her if she had slept well that night. She said yes and that she needed more turtle soup. I could go for some turtle soup tonight as well. Unfortunately, Hide is coming by for dinner and turtle soup is probably a trifle too extravangant for his tastes. We'll probably end up eating Chex Mix as we decide what to eat.

addendum:
Me and Pippy sharing a popsicle:

Have you ever been to an event and wished the entire time that a certain someone was there with you? I felt that way today at the Arashi concert at the former Tokyo Olympic stadium. When the boys came on stage, I suddenly wished that Saly was there with me. And when they started with her favorite song, "Love so Sweet", suddenly the concert wasn't all that it could be, because she was not there.

Not to say that I didn't enjoy the show. It was probably the best boy band concert that I had ever been to, despite that being in an open stadium meant that there weer going to be less theatrics. However, this was a difference between great and even better.

Arashi is Saly's favorite boyband. I introduced her to their music and videos when she and her brother Savy first came to visit me. She has since fallen in love with one of the members of the band, and her father is going to kill me the day that Saly announces to him that she will not be marrying an Indian boy.

The band has five members and are promoted by the local boy band agency, Johnny's entertainment. They have movies, tv shows, CDs and various other sort of promotions. Currently, they are probably Japan's most popular boyband. And it couldn't happen to a nicer group of boys really. Unlike the majority of Japan's boybands, the members of Arashi actually appear to like each other and generally manage to stay out of trouble. They're five individual personalities, but the fact that they actually seem to enjoy time with each other makes their performances more enjoyable to watch.

The members are as follows:

Satoshi "Leader" Ono: Only leader in name, Ono is the eccentric genius of the group. He sings lead, as he is the most talented singer in the group, and also choregraphs, acts and recently opened his own gallery show of his art works. However, Ono's thoughts seem to be lacking other areas. He rarely talks and is so uneloquent when he does, some comedians asked if he was "alingual". He's notorious for having no taste in food, has no driver's license and relies on his mother to pick out and buy his clothing. He would rather go fishing than sleep (and often goes fishing right after concerts and pulls fishing all-nighters). He's rarely affected by anything anyone says (Nino calls him a weirdo to his face), and in some ways appears to be mentally the youngest in the group, despite actually being the oldest. (Rumor is that he became leader merely by losing at rock-paper-scissors, which he appears to lose at quite often.

Jun "MatsuJun" Matsumoto: Saly's favorite member, MatsuJun is the passionate, if not sadistic, egoist of the group. With his manly chiseled features, he's well aware that he's the most handsome and most popular member of the group and plays on it. However, he's also very bright and quick to react, especially in anger. while the preference these days in Japan is for less intelligent women, MatsuJun has shown little patience for those not as bright as him. He has mentioned on television that, while he has no "type" perse when it comes to women, he hates repeating himself and thus, cannot date women "who are uncapable of learning." When "obaka" (stupid) talent Mai Satoda (rumored to be dating Leader) was rambling gibberish on Arashi's late night variety show during MatsuJun's explanation, MatsuJun hastily interrupted and basically asked her to shut up for a moment. MatsuJun shines in roles where he plays an incredible egoist, such as Tsukasa Domyoji from Hana Yori Dango, and he's eloquent and polite in interviews. However, as the weakest singer in Arashi, MatsuJun's major failing is singing. Because he is the most popular member, the agency gives him a significant amount of singing parts. And sometimes, the intended notes just don't get executed as intended.

Masaki "Aiba-chan" Aiba: Aiba-chan is the polar opposite of MatsuJun, as well as MatsuJun's best friend. Seen as the obaka (idiot) character of the group, Aiba-chan gets the least amount of attention from fans and is often a victim of MatsuJun's anger due to his less intelligent character. (In one interview, when the group is complaining about MatsuJun's huge rings, Aiba-chan comments, "Sometimes when he smacks me in the head, I have to check to see if my head is bleeding because it hurts so much!") However, despite his short attention span and moronic ideas, Aiba-chan is the caring, encouraging member of the group and does well on variety shows where an emotional element is involved. He loves to do impressions, and laughs and cries easily at the smallest things. My friends have implied to me that sometimes boys here need a stupid friend they can yell at who will never take things personally and who will still be there for them. Aiba-chan seems to serve this function in this group, and they appreciate him, despite him being neither a good singer or actor.

Sho "Sho-kun" Sakurai: Sho-kun is not your likely boy idol. His father is a high ranking bureaucrat in the Tokyo government, and Sho-kun himself graduated from the prestigious Keio University. This child of the elite is the rapper in Arashi. (Somehow, the rapper in boy bands here is always the "smart" kid of the group.) Incredibly book-smart and forward-thinking, Sho-kun has been acting as a part-time anchor on a news show, tackling serious topics. My friend Ayako knows him, and he told her that he didn't see much future for him in sticking only with the boy band act and felt that he could extend the life of his career this way. However, Sho-kun is terrible at sports (Ayako says, "You can tell he's unathletic just by looking at him!") and doesn't have the same social charisma that MatsuJun has, despite being very eloquent. He can be self-deprecating at times, but he is probably the actual leader of Arashi.

Kazunari "Nino" Ninomiya: Nino is known for his laid-back gamer image. He loves video games and plays them everywhere he goes. He's extremely skilled at everything but doesn't seem to even recognize this or make note of it it. He's most well known for his role as Saigo in the award-winning Western film "Letters from Iwo Jima", directed by Clint Eastwood. But he's also a talented singer and dancer as well. He cares little about things such as fashion and MatsuJun has said that Nino is definitely the kind of guy who wouldn't mind going out in the same outfit for days at a time. His bandmembers have accusd him of being cheap and will forget his wallet, only to have his bandmembers pay for his lunch. He is rumored to be dating popular actress Masami Nagasawa, who being rather down-to-earth herself, seems to make a good match for him. He's well liked, though a bit of a smartass at times. Nino probably resembles most of my friends back home, and even Mikey has said that he finds something very likeable about Nino (even before knowing that they are both down-to-earth, smartass gamer types).

The highlight of the concert was Nino's solo. Being that Nino presents himself as a s smartass that doesn't really care too much about what people think of him, I didn't have an impression of him one way or another as an artist. However, he came out dressed well, in glasses sitting at a piano. As he began playing and singing, his presence, singing style and the lyrics channeled Jay Chou, my favorite Taiwanese singer who is an incredible songwriter and incredible performer. It was beautiful and impressive. Jay Chou also is a down-to-earth gamer type, and his concert had to be the best concert that I had seen, including his silly piano tribute to Super Mario Brothers (a big plus being that I saw this show with Saly). It's a shame that Nino does not have more singing parts. However, Nino seems happy not being the center of attention.

The low point had to be MatsuJun's solo parts . . of which there were many. Often his voice cracked or he swung his voice wildly as he seemed to fail to find the notes. But still, I knew Saly would have wanted to be there to call him a "dork" and fawn wildly over him. My friend Natsuko provided some entertainment in her own way, as she is an obsessive boyband fan, who attends every single concert to the point where the boy bands recognize her in the audience. She knows every rumor and every song. She's incredibly kind and always invites to me to concerts with her, which is especially nice since she always gets amazing seats.

However, I couldn't help but miss Saly the entire time. Being in an open stadium, there were less theatrics which they made up for with fireworks and other displays. At one point, they released hundreds of balloons into the sky. Unlike the other fangirls who were upset at not being able to grab the balloons, I was worried about the impact of releasing so many balloons into the environment that way. Did the producers of the concert even think about where all the ballons will end up? (Usually in the stomachs of sea animals...) Unfortunately, it began to rain, so Natsuko and I left before the encore.

The rain has turned now into a storm ("Arashi" means storm in Japanese), which seems like an appropriate ending to the evening. Hopefully, Saly will be able to join me next year and make it not the best boy band concert I have been to, but the best concert I have ever been to.

I woke up to the first day of September via my alarm clock. Generally, I do not set the alarm, because once Pippy hears it, there is no going back to sleep. Instead, I set the radio function which makes a faint buzz due to it not being set to any station. I am a light sleeper, so this buzz is enough to wake me up in the morning. Unfortunately, I set the clock to alarm, and the sounds of Pippy attempting to break out of his cage meant that I needed to wake.

Pippy started his day by stealing underwear from my laundry hamper. And then he decided to steal some tissue paper. He ran with the tissue paper in his mouth. Unfortunately, the sheet was larger than his head and running blindly at full speed, he smacked into the wall. He let out a cry, but only briefly, as he appeared to be more concerned with not getting in trouble, and ran quickly off to another corner of the room.

Despite being tired most of the day, I started buying online the ingredients for my next dinner party. I have decided to serve as appetizers, batter fried white shrimp (which are very small and fry up very crisp) and batter fried island shallots (shima rakkyo). It seems that monkfish from the fishmonger will indeed come through and I've also ordered enough mussels to serve 12 people as a main dish. Currently, my guest list is only about 8 people, but I admit that I haven't decided whom else to invite yet.

After work, I played with Pippy for about an hour before running to a hair salon in Harajuku for a highlighting job. This is the third attempt I have made to get highlights done in Japan. I don't like the result this time particularly either. I miss my stylist from DC, who was a flamboyantly gay French man who took hair extremely seriously. When he styled my hair, my sister showered me with compliments on my hairstyle and she is not usually prone to doing so. I suppose I will never find another like him here in Tokyo.

Coming home, I cooked a simple dinner for myself, with pasta, nuts, onions, beef, yogurt and eggs. I used Middle Eastern seasoning for the beef and enjoyed my dinner while feeding Pippy some snacks. Currently, he is squeaking his bunny toy. He only recently gained enough strength to squeak his own toys and appears to be currently obsessed with the sound.

I ponder putting in some Muppet Show episodes to watch. I realize that I haven't watched any DVDs or movies in a while, aside from the nerd-tastic Iron Man. It takes energy to get into a movie, and sometimes, I get drained emotionally after watching certain films. Luckily, there are Disney films, teen films and plenty of low budget Japanese films that offer no emotional value and thus no emotional drainage. But, at the end of the day, it always takes less effort to turn on the tv and browse through the many stations on cable. I do enjoy tv greatly, and not knowing the contents of every channel adds some excitement to my evening. Mundane, yes, but sometimes it's the little things that matter.

The memory foam mattress hasn't offered me much relief yet from fatigue and even my friend Scotty noticed my fatigue on webcam chat today. I have this strange premonition that it's going to be a very tiring month. However, I plan to take a vacation next month, so there is always something to look forward to. And I'm always glad when Pippy gets very absorbed with doing something . . even if it means that he has been squeaking the same bunny for 20 minutes now.

We've reached the end of August. When I think of Japan in August, I think of unbearably hot, humid days, filled with the promise of many things to do. I have fond memories of summer in Tokyo as a teenager, despite the sweltering weather, and even if the reality of no longer being a student means that the weekends in actuality will be far less exciting than planned, I always enjoy the daydreams and potential of summer.

However, August this year has been quite different from expected. For plum pickles, you need four days of sun to dry them outside. I can't recall any week in August that has granted me four perfect days of sun. It has rained so much that you would think that it was June, the rainy season of Japan. In fact, this weekend consisted of terrible storms of rain showers so heavy that my shower in comparison seems to offer no more water than a park water fountain. Zeus sent his anger down in constant flashes of lightning and thunder. I spent much of the weekend home, where I thought I was safe from the weather. However, my cable satelite connection was not safe and I endured several periods of interrupted cable service, much to my dismay.

I did make some more jelly, which turned out like jelly, but was sweeter than hoped. However, I've now figured out what I need to do and will adjust accordingly once the next batch of jalapenos are harvested. Pippy stole some jelly ingredients for his consumption and has been having terrible gas all weekend. This doesn't seem to disturb him in the least, however.

I went out to pick up groceries and also went to dinner with friends. As I hate carrying umbrellas, I wore a cheap plastic poncho to protect myself from getting soaked, and threw the wet poncho on the marble tiles in my doorway once I returned home. No matter how short of a period I am away from the home, Pippy is always excited to see me. However, as I was watching tv, I noticed that he was missing. I finally called his name and he ran towards me from the direction of the doorway. I looked at his face, and it was clear that he had been playing with my wet poncho. He resembled a wet rat more than a dog, as his face was completely soaked. My poncho on the other hand was now completely dry. It was just too amusing a sight for me, and I had to take a photo.



The rain also ran hard while I was at my gym, which has skylights in the ceiling, causing the noise of the rain to be more noticeable than usual. The impressive percussion of the rain was a welcome distraction to the music played in the gym. While I understand the point of mood music in general, I do not think that the managers of my gym have given much consideration to music selection. From what I have seen, the members of my gym are mostly middle aged women, younger women such as myself being a rarity. Thus, I do not understand why the selections include Tupac and other hip hop voices of the dead from the 90's. My trainer is younger than I am and doesn't even know who Tupac is. How are middle aged Japanese women supposed to work out to the gangsta jams of 1990? I suppose the saving grace is that they don't understand the lyrics and that they probably have never heard a rap tune in their lives, but nonetheless, who exactly are these managers catering to? Mood music should be appropriate to the audience. Unfortunately for me, I understand the lyrics, and they've been less than helpful in getting me inspired to work out. Instead, I stare at the ceiling in bewilderment and wonder if I have been transported back to junior high.

The rainfall is continuing at the moment, as is Pippy's gas. Hopefully things clear up eventually so that I can finally put these plum pickles outside. I have an idea for some green thai mango preserves later on, which I think Hide will enjoy quite a bit. For the moment, I am watching the usual brainless Japanese tv shows.

My friend Mayu came by today and played with Pippy. We ordered a pizza set while she was here, and it came with far too much food. Mayu is from a family of incredible manners, and she washed the dishes for me while I started to set my jelly.

This was my first attempt at jelly, and I added about 2 cups of sugar to my 2 cups of juice. It's quite a bit of sugar for so little juice, but I noticed that the jalapeno jelly recipe I was referencing used more sugar than that. One of the apple jelly recipe called for one cup of sugar per cup of juice and yet another called for an amount of sugar that did not seem to be in ratio to any amount of juice.

Next, came the heating. Most recipes said to heat rapidly on high heat and stir frequently. Another said to cook on low heat after boiling. Yet another does not bother with much heating and uses pectin to set the jelly. I decided to go with high heat. As it boiled, I noticed that almost all of the liquid had turned into foam, as caramel would. This worried me, as the spoon test seemed to indicate that it had not turned hard enough yet. The usual test is using a spoon and letting the liquid drip off and observing the drops that come from the spoon. At the point that it seemed like I was getting the right type of drops, I poured the liquid into my prepared jar. At this point, I had less than 1/2 cup liquid.

However, I noticed that the "jelly" was leaving strings, which likely meant that I had overheated the jelly and it had started to candy. I tasted the strings and the taste was better than I was expecting. Quite to my liking, in fact. But, this wasn't the consistency of jelly. I looked at the settling jar on my counter and suddenly was worried. ]

How am I going to get it out of the jar?

I do like the taste, so I just need to work on figuring out a more accurate test of consistency. It's hard to call this a total failure considering that I actually think I have a good ratio of ingredients, and I like the taste very much. I think one problem is quantity. I used a very small amount of ingredients, which meant that the mixture was more prone to caramelization over high heat. Also, I think using green apples would also lead to better results. I will look into calling orchards later this week and beg for some fallen green apples. But then again, I do like the taste of the red apples in the jelly, confection or whatever I may call this.

Hopefully the next attempt will be spreadable on corn bread at least. I look forward to it.

Addendum: I ended up reheating the jar and pouring out the contents onto a sheet. I have decided to cut the results once it hardens and will coat in powdered sugar. Should make nice candy.

I had a hard time sleeping last night. It wasn't just the occasional insomnia I feel from time to time, but I also suffered allergy symptoms throughout the night and woke up to a terrible headache and a general feeling of unwellness that could be summed up at the moment as, "Ugh . . I wanna die." Rather than force myself into the office when the recent holiday season and sluggish real estate market has meant slow days at work, I decided to address my general unwellness and try to get some rest. Unfortunately, the headache pounded and pounded badly, and sleep only came after hours of distracting myself by reading comics.

I woke up early afternoon only to feel just as sluggish, nasal passages just as strained as before, but with a much milder headache. I thought I would stay in bed until my maid came in, but she was late and I felt it best to begin working on the comments that the main partners I work with sent me. Pippy was glad to see me around, but pounding on the keys on the slow network server was frustrating given my state of general unwellness. Not to mention Pippy's little calls for attention every few minutes didn't help the frustration.

My maid saved the day as usual with her cheery chatty manner. She took Pippy to the bathroom to wash his toes, and he ran out half wet to block my keyboard once again with a cheerful smile on his face. My keyboard and monitor on a marble counter which is only slightly above the sofa (the actual computer unit is under the tv). Pippy likes to jump on this counter and lick my face. My maid locked him in the bedroom for a bit while I worked and she cleaned up the box from my dear friend Olivier.

Olivier lives in France, and like his fellow countrymen, Olivier loves wine and food. However, unlike his fellow countrymen, Olivier has no interest in women or romance. He prefers his dating simulation games and cute figurines from Japan. Being that he is a kind friend to me and always generous, I help him purchase several items from Japan. Unlike many people in this world, Olivier makes huge efforts to repay any debts and the idea of owing anyone anything bothers him to no end. He begged me to quickly find some way for him to repay me for the recent shipment of figures that I sent him. I am quite a Francophile, but for a while I couldn't think of any specific items that I wanted from France.

However, recently, I bought a bouquet of lavender from a local market and thought that it would be incredibly nice to have pillows stuffed with lavender. Something larger than the sachets that can be bought locally. And when I think of lavender, I think of Provence. I love the scent of lavender and even love foods that use lavender in them to the extent that I own a cookbook dedicated to lavender recipes.

I asked Olivier to find me some lavender pillows. However, being a boy, he asked me if you could find these items at the supermarket. Eventually, I found a catalog online that sold lavender pillows. Even better, the site even had syrups made from flower essences. Olivier ordered me a set of pillows, as well as a case of lavender syrup.

My head had been hurting so terribly this morning that I probably would have never woken if the postman had not rung my door. Despite my headache, it was incredibly exciting to unwrap the pillows and place them on my bed. My room smells incredible. The syrups also taste great, and I have decided to steep some pickled plums in them instead of honey.

Unfortunately, the box was filled with packing peanuts, and Pippy liked stealing these away. Locked in the bedroom while my maid cleaned up the box, Pippy first started sniffing the door, and eventually he cried for us to let him out. My maid is constantly amused at Pippy, and her presence is always comforting to me. She's like a mother to me and currently is trying to set me up with a son of one of her friends. I've so far only promised to meet the guy.

After my maid left, I turned on the tv and finished the remainder of my work that could be handled today. I found a recipe for red apple jelly in one of my cookbooks and decided to go out to buy ingredients to make my jelly without green apples.

I was feeling somewhat impatient and somewhat adventurous, so I combined the recipes for pepper jelly and red apple jelly, as green apples are proving to be a challenge to find. Cooking is the ultimate medicine for me, and Pippy sniffed around the kitchen as I chopped, stirred and cooked. The big secret to the lack of pectin in red apple jelly appears to be to use lemon peel. Citrus fruits are high in pectin in the pith and membrane, which is why marmalade does not need pectin to set. The recipe I saw called for the peel of one lemon. But I thought to myself, "Why stop there?" and threw in the lemon membrane as well. The pepper jelly originally called for vinegar, so this was reduced with the addition of the lemon. I added a bell pepper (as is traditional) along with the hot peppers, but I am not sure I am thrilled with the coloring caused by the red pepper. Currently, the solution is sitting in a butter-cloth (finer than cheese-cloth) lined colander over a bowl. The jelly making will continue tomorrow.

After this, I made myself pasta with yogurt, pinenuts and browned onions. This recipe is quite comforting for me to eat, but due to my state of health, I nearly passed out before finishing the first bowl. Even better, House was on tv.

I love the show House. It combines entertainment with (pseudo-)science. I feel like I learn something each episode, and House's lack of social graces amuse me. However, it is not the show to watch when you are feeling ill. If it doesn't make you sicker, it will make you paranoid that something else could be wrong with you.

I've finally managed to finish a bowl of my pasta, as well as this fascinating episode of House, and Pippy is asleep on the counter by my monitor. I'm glad to have had the day to myself at home, but I wish I felt a little more well. It's likely that I may be up sleepless again due to allergies or headache, but hopefully, the pillows from Olivier shall fix that.