Ev'ryting Irie in Jamaica

Trip to Jamaica for a beautiful wedding! No words can be said.

友人の結婚式にジャマイカへ！言葉が出ないほど最高な時期だった。

Thank you to everyone who was there, you made this trip such an amazing experience for me. I was so touched by the quality of each friend and family I met there. Congratulations to my beautiful couple, I am so happy for you.
新郎と新婦、おめでとうございます！

Holy Crap Cereal

Ladies and gentlemen: this is THE management cereal of choice. The secret is out; eating the right breakfast might get you your promotion! (Or not. But this is the cereal of one of the supervisors at work.)

English exclamations in North America tend to have Christian allusions. "Holy cow" is another example of this phenomenon, and was supposedly a replacement exclamation for the term "holy Christ".

In trying for a replacement for "holy cow" many years back I came up with "holy socks". Since holy and holey sound about the same, "holey socks" is the new exclamation of trendy, worldly, shoe-loving people like you and me. Holey socks!

...But I confess: I must have a hankering for the word "cow" because when something surprises/shocks me, what often slips out? ..."Holy cow".

Midnight Bakery

Today while eating breakfast (at around 1 in the afternoon because it is the weekend) I thought about how the shape of bread in Canada and Japan are different. In Japanese supermarkets, most of the bread I see tends to be square, and the size is roughly half a typical loaf of bread that you would see in Canada. One reason is likely that Japan is relatively hotter and more humid than Canada so the bread doesn't last as long.

Canada's typical bread loaf looks more like Kogepan:

Kogepan, the burnt toast

The top is rounded, and the bottom is kind of square.

The top part doesn't always look so perfect depending on when and where you buy
Photo credit: dunbarsystems.com

Bread in Japanese supermarkets are almost always sliced. In Canada, you can get sliced and unsliced, which sit next to each other at the grocery store, and typically the unsliced bread is slightly cheaper.　

Of course, both Canada and Japan have all sorts of different breads and bakeries available so you can often get similar breads in both countries.

★★★

Recently I watched the winter drama Mayonaka no Panya-san.
It's a slice-of-life story about a bakery that opens only from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. based on the manga by Oonuma Noriko.
While slice-of-life works well in manga and animation, I don't usually do slice-of-life dramas, but this one was decent. I watched it after a stressful time and it gave me tranquility. My chinchilla also likes relaxing shows a lot more than mystery/suspense types.

The main character Kurebayashi Yousuke is played by Takizawa Hideaki of Johnny's Entertainment.
I've known about Tackey for quite some time but have never watched any of his dramas.
(I did try to watch Antique, which was a well received story with a similar setting but didn't in the end.)
Tackey's filled out and looks cooler in his 30's, and was a good choice for the role of the kind bakery owner.

The role of boulanger went to Kiriyama Akito, who was a kid not too long ago but does a good job with this older brother character, and demonstrates that he could suit a variety of roles and age ranges. I didn't know that Kiriyama was from Johnny's as well, but looking at his personality I did inadvertently think, "He must be from Osaka." Lo and behold, I was right. (There's a sort of stereotype that the Kansai west region of Japan has more outgoing/comedic people, while Kanto east, where Tokyo is, has the more formal/proper/rigid population. It's kind of like California v.s. New York.)

Kiriyama on the left, Takizawa on the right
Photo: jenewsdaily.wordpress.com

What spoke to me in the first episode was when the character Nozomi, who lives at the bakery, gets picked on at school by another girl and they all end up in a parent-teacher meeting. Kurebayashi offers breads from his bakery to the student and her mother, saying that he thought maybe the two girls fought because they were hungry, since when people get hungry they become irritable (so true), but he gets laughed off for being an idiot by the student, who says she's not hungry. Kurebayashi says,"Then what are you lacking that makes you so angry?" In Japanese, one common way to say "I'm hungry", onaka ga hetta, more literally means "the stomach is lacking".

I am in agreement with the midnight bakery idea and have thought of the concept myself (except as a cafe). I would like to see more places come into being that allow people to have a retreat from their thoughts or troubles. Nighttime has a mysterious aura for me, and a lot of emotions and thoughts often pop up then, as do sudden urges for cake, sweets, and food in general. Though, instead of 11 p.m. I'd probably want one that starts closer to 9 p.m.

I'm sure that this drama will be the force behind a sudden income spike in the Japanese baking industry. One type of bread that is virtually nonexistent in Canada is the iconic melon bread of Japan, featured prominently in this drama. I'm not a particular fan of melon bread but I do love a really good one. Like all cakes and breads, a good melon bread from a good bakery is completely different from regular melon bread. The next chance I get to spend time in Japan, I am definitely going to find a good bakery like Boulangerie Kurebayashi. If anyone has suggestions, be sure to let me know!

Summer, Love, and Weddings

I was honored to be able to attend a good friend's wedding this summer:

Beautiful flower petals for tossing at the bride and groom.

Bubbles!

The scenery.

In the end I didn't catch the name of this appetizer.

Snapshot taken from the window during the reception dinner.

Crazy cake pops that the groom and his friends made as wedding favors (the little ones are the wedding favors).

This is the cake pop I brought home. Many congrats to the bride and groom!

One pulse in time

I was waiting for the bus on Monday morning and not really looking at anything in particular, when I realized there was a cat in the middle of the road. It was down and its tail was flailing as it was trying to get back up, and I realized it must have been hit by a car. It was a small tabby cat, not quite a kitten but not an old friend of the road.

It all happened in the matter of a few seconds, but as it dawned on me that the cat was injured a sporty white car had pulled up to the curb, and a guy that looked to be in his early 30's got out of the car and started walking over to the cat. I felt a rush of gratitude as I thought, "He's going to help save it, and he even has a car, he'll get to the vet faster than I will."

As soon as that thought went through my mind, the man grabbed the cat by its neck, took a knife that I didn't see he had in his hand and slit the cat's throat without hesitation. He hurled it from the middle of the road to the grass on the other side of the sidewalk, got back in his car, and drove off.

I was so shocked I cried on the bus afterwards. There has been the suggestion that maybe he had good intentions to put the cat out of its misery ... but I think if he was truly doing it out of concern for the cat, he wouldn't have disrespected it by tossing it away. The lack of hesitation also told me he was very comfortable with using his knife to slice flesh.

If it had been a human whose neck was sliced after being hit by a car, society would never have forgiven that act so easily.

As one who can offer only my prayers, I wish the cat well on it's journey to the next world.

The Avocado Prosciutto Sandwich

My 8:30 p.m. avocado prosciutto sandwich, while waiting for my sour-cabbage-roll dinner to finish cooking. (What?) That's right, 8:30 p.m is before dinner.

I did t to make the avocado slices look pretty...but hey, substance over form!

And of course Toto (Tidbit) the chinchilla has to check out at what I'm eating. I'm not sure that the avocado gained his approval.

Calgary Flood 2013

Many who know Calgary have heard news of its recent flooding by now. For a city that is relatively dry and serene, the sudden emergency that hit on Thursday, June 20th took many by surprise.

I am safe, and incredibly grateful to have avoided evacuation and flooding by about one block of neighborhood space. I stayed home with my beloved chinchilla and family, minimized water usage and lived without electricity and gas, and those with a situation similar to mine (minus the cute chinchilla) or who were unaffected entirely are very lucky.

So far I've been thankful to avoid having my life torn apart by the 2011 Japan Tohoku Earthquake, and a flood in the city I was living in that same summer. For a family that has been struggling with financially tough times, the fear of losing everything we've worked for, or tried to maintain, or pieced back together, hovers in the corner. Still, I do not like to think about falling off the tightrope and instead try to focus on what I can do. And on the other side of the same coin is the perpetual thankfulness for the many blessings I do have.

The Memorial Drive that I often pass through
Photo credit: photography.ca

Memorial Drive at night
Photo credit: Flickr

While I come across many friendly and courteous people in Calgary, I am also often disappointed by those that spend their day being rude, snide, inconsiderate, impatient, or downright mean. However, this time it was a relief to see Calgary come through as a team. The city government called a state of emergency and set a plan of action rolling before the general public even considered the possibility of flooding. There was no overflowing burden on emergency evacuation shelters, because friends, family, and even strangers offered up their places to stay. For someone who was on standby for mandatory evacuation, it was incredibly heartwarming and reassuring on a personal level to have friends who extended their hands to me.

Photo credit: imgur.com

Photo credit: o.canada.com

It was also great to see (later when I had electricity) the Facebook pages that were set up with people offering tips, help, and updates, community pages set up for location specific information, stores offering free ice or cleanup services, and redistributed positive Twitter tweets from our Mayor and local police force. I saw many individuals offering help, or even just genuine words of encouragement, and thought, "these are the people I'm glad to know," and, "these are the people I want to meet."

Classy Tweets from the Calgary Police
Photo credit: unknown

People will be people, but I hope this spirit of Calgary will continue to stay with us in our every day connections with each other, and that we can act as an example for the world with our open minds and kindness.

Waiting for the train ・ 待ちながら

Waiting for the train one day I noticed these colorful bystanders on the platform.

ある日電車を待ちながらこの色っぽい。。。あら失礼、。。。カラフルな傍観者を見かけました。

These bystanders were not originally waiting for the train when I left the city to go abroad; it really made me feel the time lapse between now and then.

As you may have guessed, at the time of this post the ground is already covered in snow.

あたしが町を出た前この傍観者はいませんでした。時間が経ったな～と思いっきり知ったわ。

因みに今の地面は雪だらけです。

Falafels and Baggles

In my perfect world, falafel would be renamed to flaffle. Or maybe floffle. And bagel will be baggle. And of course, veggietables will be veggietables, as always.

Memories

Going through my room again I came upon my little "treasure box". It's interesting to see the items that come into your possession throughout the years, and how they reflect a part of you - who you were, who you are, who you become. My Chuck e Cheese coins, the badly folded dragonfly that I made for my friend's wedding reception. Things that may have no value to anyone else can be of infinite meaning, to the right person.

My baby bracelet was not made of gold or platinum, but has attained quite some character over the years. The best part? It still fits.

Free Wishes

(Photo courtesy of Jeff Chan)

So it took me a couple months to get the pictures ready and another few months to finish writing this...

I went to visit the Market Collective back in March. It was my first time seeing it since being back in Canada, and it was also something I hadn't done pretty much since Market Collective first came into existence.

Market Collective is just one of numerous initiatives in Calgary that have taken off in recent years, connecting local artists' works and products with the surrounding community.

My main motive for dropping by the March Market Collective was to see the Free Wishes project set up by Jeff Chan and Jamie Hobbs. I learned from Jeff Chan's blog that Free Wishes was a community project he originally did with Jamie Hobbs at the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. I didn't know this, but according to Jeff, more people die from suicide at the Golden Gate Bridge than any other location in the world.

Jeff and Jamie aimed to turn this location into a place of hope, even if for only a few moments, by inviting anyone to come and write down their wish on a rock.

Jeff and Jamie then brought the project to their hometown of Calgary, so I thought I would go check out the project, as well as write down a wish of my own.

It turns out that they put up a number of posters for people to write down their wishes. I did think the rocks were more interesting, but then I realized the great thing about these posters was that people were responding to each others' wishes. My favorite was one that said, "I wish we could have a rainbow everyday," to which someone else wrote, "but then it would rain everyday..."

(Photo courtesy of Jeff Chan)

As for my wish:

Visit Jeff Chan's website: jeffchanat.blogspot.ca
Visit Jamie Hobb's website: jamie-hobbs.com

Friends

Lately I've become bogged down with an undercurrent of stress. I know I can deal with a lot of things and I always try to change things up to keep the good and minimize the bad, but sometimes circumstances slowly strip away my spiritual energy.

I deal with my fast paced life by retreating into mu-ness (無 mu: nothingness, emptiness; serenity, peace, zen) and introspection; the more "undercurrently" stressed I am and the less "retreatment" time I have, the less I want to face outwards and deal with outward things like having parties and talking to people (albeit great people).

Today I am finally catching up with some messages and came across some left for me by a friend in Japan. Her honest and open generosity really warmed my heart and reminded me again of how some really amazing people there, and anywhere, have become a part of my life despite some of the setbacks I experienced.

Even though I need time alone and don't always want to interact (can you imagine? Interacting? Like, who does that, ever)  ... it's so nice to have sweet messages waiting for me whenever I take a peek out from under my shell.

Good Things

Good things
Apr 30 2012

I'm still healthy.
I have Toto and my fam (and Flumpy in my heart).
I'm not on the street.
I can eat Bernard Callebaut chocolate instead of being tortured by it.
Bernard Callebaut chocolate still exists.
(Although unfortunately it is not longer being run by Bernard.)
I still exist.
I can still look forward to the things I don't know.

I can still sing.