26 July 2005

Scooter trip, Rye beer bread & more...

Yeah for summer! Toyama H.S. is now "officially" on break...meaning, the students only have to attend classes in the a.m. versus all day! I still have to make appearances at school, but I'm allowed to deviate from the 8-4 monotonous grind. Yesterday I spent the morning finishing J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (which I highly recommend!), and today I'm baking rye beer bread. I just got a loaf out of the oven and had a substantial slice smothered in raspberry jam. Good food is just the greatest...I couldn't say that enough.

On the subject of taste buds and such...I joined a gourmet club! We meet monthly, and potluck specialty dishes of a pre-determined theme. Last Sunday we did Indian cuisine. I made a chickpea curry salad which went over well! We'll do Spain next so I'm entertaining the idea of making some gazpacho. That is Spanish isn't it? Any other creative ideas are most certainly welcome!

Then, to address today's title "scooter trip"...I took one last weekend to visit my friend R.A. The drive was spectacular, the sun was shining, and by the time I reached "Shiura" my thighs and forearms were the same color as my red Yamaha Beluga! I have got to start using sunscreen. We spent the afternoon trekking around, posing for pictures, and in the evening at a campfire for a BBQ. I indulged on grilled "kabocha" (pumpkin), some skewered chicken, and "hotate" (scallops) in soy sauce.

The highlight of the evening was a conversation with a local surfer where we spoke of the Japanese spirit and how it's expressed in events like the Aomori Nebuta Matsuri...which is coming up the first week of August! From the 2nd-7th the population of Aomori City will nearly triple with festival enthusiasts to partake in the parades, view the fireworks, and listen to the rhythms and melodies of the Nebuta drums and flutes!

02 July 2005

Birthday Musings...

Wow, the last week has been a bizarre one! I played in a sand VB tourney with B.Y. and D.Y., swam to an island 850 meters away from Asamushi sunset beach, attended a massive end of the year Aomori Rotary party where I was coerced to solo on "Edelweiss" accompanied by E.P. on the saxophone, and I celebrated my 25th birthday! I received many e-mails and cards saying "Can you believe you are a quarter of a century old?!" And yep, I guess I can believe that I've lived 9,100 and some days on this earth. During that time I've been super fortunate to have met and befriended some really cool people, traveled to wonderful places around the globe, loved a lot, cried a little, and learned more about myself, others, and the weird and wacky ways of the world than I could ever realize.

For some reason this year a multitude of people remembered my birthday. It might have been the increasing popularity of sites like bebo.com, or maybe it was because I celebrated my 1/2 birthday with a bash and reminded family and friends on the 29th of each month how many months were left until the ultra important day-June 29th! He he he...anyway, I have about 20 e-mails I've yet to respond to, and many more people to thank for their cards and gifts. The best birthday prezzie of this year was probably the one I gave to myself: my undergraduate loans are finally paid off! Yippee...it feels really good to be debt free.

Friday night T.B. threw me a wild birthday party in Aomori after the Governor’s farewell party. We kicked things off at "Crazy Horse", a quaint bar in a pedestrian alley off of Shinmachi. There were 40 invites so we were jam packed shoulder to shoulder but it was great! The "ni jikai" brought us to "King of Kings", which blared a lot of 80's dance tunes. The entrance fee was 1,500 yen for ladies and 2,500 yen for gents (roughly $15 & $25) which included two drink tix. We took over the dance floor and and A.B. and I twirled around combining a bit of swing, hip hop and complete craziness. At one point I had the grand idea of trying to crowd surf. But unfortunately, I could only get two other enthusiasts to join me in this venture. T.Y. kept me in check as I tried several times to perform acrobatic moves which weren't conducive to keeping my short black skirt in an appropriate position. I'm told F.C. took some amusing photos which I'm excited (& nervous!) to see. Maybe they'll fill in the bits of the evening which are presently a tad hazy.