Daily Doodlings

Happy Holidays! - 2011 ~ 2012

2011-12-23T22:36:00.000-10:00

2012 is Year of Dragon. Hope it will be a safe and happy one.

Riding a slightly bigger wave

2011-05-15T21:58:00.002-10:00

Unbelievably one year has passed since the last picture of my super small wave... Terry was out on the beach taking pictures last Saturday (May 14), and here's what he shot for me. I'm on a little bigger wave this year. :) What a fun day it was. He told me this picture made it on the KGMB 5 o'clock news!
See more of Terry's pictures at:
http://surfshooterhawaii.smugmug.com/White-Plains-Beach/WPB-14May2011/17056527_XBp6TB#1291596545_Vwdq2d8

The world's smallest wave anybody has ever ridden

2010-04-29T17:52:00.000-10:00

Photo by Terry Reis, surfshooterhawaii.smugmug.com

Finally understood who cut the cheese?

2010-04-12T12:42:00.000-10:00

I'm always amazed to find how language reflects culture. There are many phrases in Japanese that are hard to understand unless you really know the culture there. And I face the language problems in English sometimes. For a long time, I didn't know why "Who cut the cheese?" meant who farted. I just couldn't see the relationship between cheese and gas. But then recently I was cutting a cheese, and it finally clicked... aah, this is why... To smell is to believe....

Go ahead, pick on women's vulnerability but ....

2009-11-24T11:01:00.000-10:00

This is what happens when women do make decisions....

Potato Salad plus raisins, persimmons, apples

2009-11-07T11:44:00.000-10:00

Have you ever had potato salad with persimmons? My mother used to make it that way in fall, in the searon for persimmons. I also liked when she threw some raisins in it, too. In winter, she'd make it with fresh apples. She'd cut up apples in small pieces with skin on. And raisins. Aaaahh.

Smart Gekko

2009-10-21T00:00:00.001-10:00

We have a gekko living in our back porch. He comes out in the evening, right around our dinner time, and wait by the screen door for a pray. When a termite or a moss comes attracted to the light inside, he comes out of nowhere and rushes for his dinner. It is quite amazing how quickly he can move. Sometimes he even goes for a moss much bigger than himself. We watch his struggle to secure the bite and swallow the whole thing. What a sight! I'd say, this is the real "reality show".

Tropical Depression

2009-10-20T16:17:00.000-10:00

"Tropical Depression" is the phrase we see in weather section of the news paper. This is one of the words that make my "English as a second language" mind wonder... does it also mean depressed people in tropics? I've read a while ago that people's depression was related to the hours of sun light during the day. That's understandable ... when it's dark, people get depressed... But then, living in tropics may be depressing sometimes because it's just so hot all the time. Anyway... I have a pretty yellow parekeet sleeping on my typing wrist. Gotta go. No time to get depressed...

Standing at the corner of Nimitz and Kalihi

2009-10-12T00:00:00.001-10:00

The Newspapaer Man at the corner patiently waits for red light so that cars will stop and buy his paper. Sometimes when the lights are not in sync and I had to stop at every intersection, I get irritated. But when I see him, I bow my head for his patience.

Season of Plover again

2009-10-11T00:00:00.000-10:00

Every year in the fall, Plovers make a grand journey to Hawaii from Alaska, and spend winter here and fly back to Alaska in the spring. When I first see them in the season, it is a reminder that Halloween is near, followed by Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Plovers are very cautious birds. You see all kinds of birds hit by cars and dead on the streets, but not Plover. They stand tall and still to watch, then move quickly when they do. The pattern of their movement reminds me of a Japanese kids’ game called “Darumasanga Koronda”. All the kids have to stand still when one kid designated as “Oni” is watching, then move swiftly when “Oni” turns around, to reach him to cut the spell.

Music I got hooked on

2009-10-10T08:48:00.005-10:00

Call me old but I don’t know how to appreciate some new music, like rap and gang kind. They don’t have much rhythm but too many words too fast. If music is not enjoyable, I don’t need to hear it. But sometimes I get into songs that I had no interested in in the past. Last spring I got hooked on Queen after a ski trip. Then about 1 ~ 2 years ago Tom Jobim mesmerized me with Portuguese version of “Girl from Ipanema”.

A little before that was Amy Winehouse. She was totally amazing to sing on stage with that much intoxication, and still held grand existence.

Sunny Sunday afternoon at McDonald’s

2009-08-25T14:27:00.000-10:00

One Sunday afternoon, I was running around doing errands, and stopped by at a McDonald’s to take a quick bite and break. As I sat down with my tray, I started reading McCafe ad on the place mat. It said:

”Aromatic espresso beans are freshly ground, right before your eyes. Rich chocolate syrup splashes in. Next, luscious milk (you pick from whole or nonfat) is artfully poured into your cup. Then comes the irresistible whipped cream, sculpted perfectly. And it’s all drizzled with thick, velvety chocolate.”

Maybe it’s just me but in my head I followed this instruction and made an image of a cup full of grounded espresso beans soaked in syrup and drowned in milk……

Mottainai Earth - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

2009-08-17T21:05:00.001-10:00

There are so many things around us that we waste, and it’s depressing to see the amount of trash we create. Back home in Japan I may be the last tear of the dinosaurs who remember the times our mothers would go to fish store or meat shop to buy fresh produce. Unlike supermarkets, they’d wrap their merchandise simple and minimal, usually with thin paper, or sometimes not at all; vegetables etc. were just thrown in the baskets that we’d bring. Several blocks away there was a Tofu store where the family got up very early in the morning to make fresh Tofu every day. The husband would carry a wooden crate full of Tofu on the back of his scooter every late afternoon to deliver to the neighborhood. When he blew his horn to announce his arrival, we’d come out with a bowl and he’d delicately scoop up a Tofu into it. Sadly, nowadays all those small stores are gone and replaced by supermarkets.

Anyway … I just watched a program about the formation of the earth on the History Channel. It took hundreds of millions of years to get where we are. It is sad that human can destroy all that in mere couple of hundred years.

We Have Time

2009-08-08T00:00:00.000-10:00

A big portion of our time is spent for commitments, whether it is work, school, chores, or sleeping. But whatever happened to all the free time I had outside of those commitments when I was younger?? Nowadays, squeezing out just a little bit of time to get anything done seems like impossible sometimes. It has become one of my habits to think that "I don't have enough time". Maybe I will simplify my life, and maybe I get to say, “I have time!”

It’s easy to get big in Hawaii

2009-07-18T00:00:00.000-10:00

It’s really easy to get fat in Hawaii. It’s been 6 years since I moved to Honolulu from San Francisco, and I gained about 10 pounds in the first couple of years. The reasons are pretty obvious. First of all, because there is no train here and people depend on cars for transportation, we hardly walk. It’s too hot to walk anyway during the day, and streets may not be that safe either (with the exception of touristy places like Waikiki). In addition, it’s too hot to wear any tight clothes; people usually wear flabby loose clothes that you won’t recognize when your waist line expands an inch or two. On top of it, the quantity of food they serve is way too much. The stomach fills up half way into the plate, but we still try unnecessarily hard to finish them all. I wasn’t paying attention, and when I realized I was already unable to fit into some of the clothes I brought from SF.

But once I realized something needed to be done, it wasn’t hard to correct my life style. Small wave surfing every once in a while was not enough exercise, so I’ve tried to make some time to walk around the neighborhood and go swimming. At 3 p.m., I go into an empty conference room and do a round of stretch. Then I made a point of eating only half of what’s served, and take home the other half. Just small changes and nothing like structured diet programs, but it didn’t take long for my weight to come down to the same when I got here.

I didn’t pack my lunch yesterday, so I went to L&L across the street. They are very generous with portions, and since they know us (the “regulars”) they’ll put some more on the top. $6.28, what a deal. I came back to the office and ate enough to fill my appetite. Then today, I ate some more, but still couldn’t finish them all.

Japanese Emperor & Empress visit Hawaii

2009-07-17T11:53:00.001-10:00

Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko finished a short 3-day stay in Hawaii and went back to Japan. Having parents who experienced war, I cannot help feeling mixed emotion every time I hear about the Emperor or “Kimigayo”, the Japanese “national anthem” depicting Emperor worship. But to a degree I feel sorry for the imperial family for the position they are in. They came to Hawaii but it’s not like they could lie on the beach and relax. Instead, they had to attend numerous public appearances for most of the time in suits and tie, and Kimono for the lady. They must have been pretty tired already after visiting Canada before stopping by here. But they had to be pleasant and smiling the whole time, just as they are always. Security blocked the streets as they passed by so passerby traffic was standstill for 20 minutes.

A while ago, I’ve read about what Michiko-sama said about the family. Her husband was raised by nannies and felt very lonely as a child. She felt a deep empathy toward then Crown Prince Akihito, and when they got married, they decided to raise their children on their own. We all have troubles, no matter who we are.

To Smile or not to smile

2009-07-15T00:00:00.000-10:00

In Hawaii, smiling is encouraged. If you watch Hula dancers dance, they always have smile on their faces, and I used to think they must be having a lot of fun for smiling like that, and that’s probably true. But I was told that smiling is part of the dance, and they have to put a smiley face when they dance Hula. Male dancers perform with smiles, too, and, well, that’s a little different story…

In Japan, if we smile for no reason, people consider you crazy or non-serious untrustworthy person. In mainland, they’d think we are flirting. So shall I smile or not to smile?

Cell Phone Manner

2009-07-12T00:00:00.002-10:00

It always amazes me how good cell phone manners are in Japan. Almost all the people there obey the rule and try very hard not to annoy the other people around.

In U.S., it is nothing like that. Often we are forced to listen to other peoples’ conversation in public places like airport, train, and waiting room at doctor’s office. Alas, however, this is the “land of free”, common sense doesn’t play much of a role and rules cannot be enforced unless they become law. So even if vast majority around the annoying cell phone talkers might have been irritated, I’ve never seen anybody say anything to those people.

We have a neighbor dude whose voice is naturally loud and annoying, and it gets louder on the phone. He has a bad habit of taking his cell phone out to the small yard, which is right up against other neighbors’, and makes a dreading long conversation. Hey kido, we have no interest in your personal life, so keep it to yourself, talk inside the house and close the window. You probably want us to hear it all, but we really don’t want to.

Smoke on the water, Hormone in the water

2009-07-11T13:43:00.003-10:00

They say that the hormones passed through human bodies (food, pills, etc.) and went into the sewages are altering the behavior or creatures living in the water. Male started to act like female… We see so much confusion in sexuality nowadays because the same thing is affecting human, too?

Out of breath to show appreciation

2009-07-09T13:07:00.006-10:00

It’s already been several years that I have been going to annual mammogram. It used to scare me a lot; the thought of my breast fat squished to the max and feeling the pain and helplessness. But I no longer have that dreading feeling when the appointment fast approaches. Why? Partly because I’m getting used to it after doing it for several times. But most importantly because I come to like the technician lady.

So for all my past exams, except for the first one which I had at the different place, she’s the one who’s taken my images. Her name is Jean; she is a little older than me, very professional and efficient, yet polite and warm. She moves fast and gets the once-a-year experience done without lingering feeling of pain.

Every year while Jean pushes my skin, collect my fat, and presses against the tray, I wonder just how many breasts she has to deal with? Surely, it is her “job”, but there must be some days that she just wishes not to see another breast… But then my mind has to move on fast because right around there, she’s already done with me and I have to move myself back to the dressing room.

So before I leave the X-ray room, I want to say, “Thank you, Jean,” but as I held my breath four times for the pictures, all the air left in my lung is just enough to squeeze out a faint “thank you…”

All these years, I have not been able to finish my sentence to her, but I sure hope she knows that she makes my annual mammogram easy, and I do appreciate her taking care of me the way she does. I even look forward to seeing her for this 15-minutes-a- year exam, even though I may be just one of the patients to her. So here’s for her as I regained my composure, “Thank you, Jean, I appreciate you very much.”