May 2003 Archives

To me there is nothing more specail than the bond between a mother and a child. I have to admit that Ia m deeply saddened to learn that my older sister is seriously thinking of moving to Los Vegas, taking my niece with her. You would think that a person would learn from their past mistakes. I guess you can only warn them and move on with your own life if they don't listen.

Today is looking like it is going to be a perfect summer.spring day here in the "north country". When I say perfect I mean it is so nice out that you can literally walk out in a t-shirt and it isn't too hot or too humid. Perfect! I love this weather and I wish I could take some of it with me to Osaka, Japan.

Last weekend I watched a wonderful movie called, The Way Home. It is a Korean film that deals with a young mother in the midst of sever money troubles, who leaves her son at her mother's house while she looks for a new job. Here is a small glipse into the story:

"More accustomed to the luxuries of the modern world, a spoiled seven-year old boy must stay with his old-fashioned grandmother in a small rural village while his mother looks for work. At first Sang-woo rudely rejects his grandmother's way of life. But gradually, through her constant show of kindness and love, he learns to accept and understand the simple pleasures of nature and her lifestyle. Sang-woo leaves the village a different boy. Because of his grandmother, he sees the world around him with a new found respect and appreciation. "

Front Cover of DVD | Back Cover Of DVD

I would highly recomend this title as I found it very moving. I have come away from this movie really understanding that what has ruined america and a lot of other places, including Japan, is that people have lost contact from where we have come from. Nowadays it seems like everyone thinks that money grows on trees when if fact that they have no idea of what it is like to have to go without money, as depicted in The Way Home.

Well this is a little glipse into my unified theory about people.

What Can I say, but this baby is sooooo cute! This is group 2 from our trip to visit the folks.

Here are some pictures from our last trip to my parents house to visit and see my sister and her new baby girl, Jillian. Can you beleive this baby is almost 8 months and 25 pounds?

Yesterday, I took my bicycle down to Calhon Squre to check out Border's current slection of Photograpy magizines. I happened to pick up two magazines, Colors and Popular Photograpy.

I am thinking about getting a Canon Rebel 2000, or a Nikkon N55 or Nikkon N65. All of these camera's are closesly priced. Does anyone know which is better or worse? Please let me know.

Whoever stole my bicycle I hope you enjoy it. If I see you riding my bike you are going to be in trouble. Enjoy the ride.

I got a chance the other day to play with the Fuji Film FinePix 3800. It is a nice camera. As you may know, or not, I am looking into getting a new camera so I can ease into photography. Well I take that back because I guess I never ease into anything. Let's hit the ground running!

The Japanese have a saying, "Going my way?" wich basicly means that I am going to do something at my own pace, wether it be faster or slower than you are able to do it and it also conveys a feeling that you don't care. In Japan it is important to think about the situation, before one acts as our actions are judge vewry sternly and 'rocking the boat' is very frowned apon.

Well anyways I degressed. Sorry!

I was one of the offices that my company has and I was to instruct on the ladies on the use of this camera and how to take the best pictures of someone's veiny legs. At the max resalution that the Finepix was able to do I was still a little disapointed at the quality of the highest resalution that I got.

I have to remeber that it was only a 3.2 megapixel camera. I am really wanting to move in to the 6.3 megapixel Cannon EIS-10D, but I can't make the leap. Well I mean that I could get the camera but I am on a 'saving money budget' for my future move to Osaka, Japan. This camera is the top of the line currently for the cameras that I can really afford at a sub 1500.00 price.

I really didn't know about your site. So I didn't steal your site or your ideas. So please don't accuse me of doing this. Yes you are right that I registered my domain name www.japanish.org in april. It wasn't taken at that time so I choose it. If you are really mad about it and want the domain name then I will sell it to you. You got some cash? It has taken me a lot of time and effort to get this site up and running. It wasn't intentional to steal an idea you thought you had.

If you really wanted this domain name why didn't you by it? :-)

Well anyways, don't be mad about it because it isn't a big deal. I will sell it to you if you want it. Just come up with the cash and it will be yours.

Dave

I am adding some links to the right hand side of the site as you may see. These links are the sites that I am intersted in and I visit these at least once a day. If you have a blog about Japan or in someway involed with things that are Japanese, please drop me a line and I will add you to the blogroll.

Well it seems that I have missed the boat for having a blog of any importance based in Japan. If you are a little behind the times here is a defination of a blog or weblog:

"Blog” is short for “Web log.” Several years ago, heavy Web surfers began creating logs—compendia of curious information and interesting links they encountered in their travels through cyberspace.

I know that I am sounding a little cynical, but doesn't someone have to be? I mean there are a million and one fads that have come and gone in Japan and I have to get upset at one? I guess so because I am feeling the way that I do. I mean isn't almost cliche' now? I mean the long beaten to death horse of a gaijin sob story about how they hate the food, the city, heat, ect. Isn't it that a another set of eyes will see every situation differently, even in the same country, let alone a totally different country like japan? That is to be expected, naturally. I am left asking if we need any more of these blogs clogging up search engines and other 'net pipes? I can't wait until there are moblogs from hobos on the street corner as they are panhandling. I guess I spoke too soon.

I know that there are going to be people in the blogging community that are going to want to nail me to the wall and tell me that I am totally wrong. Well I would tell these critics of mine that blogging and mobloging are just the re-invention editorials that were so comman only 10 years ago before the megahit of the internet. They could be found in the daily newspaper and in the weekly magizines that everyone used to get. Now they are a dieing breed. We are still dealing with the written word here and nothing that wasn't invented 553 years ago with the Gutenberg Bible. The meduim has changed that is for sure. I will have to concede on this point.

Well I think that it all boils down to the fact that we as humans haven't come that far since the invention of the Gutenberg Printing Press. I know that some would argue with me on this fact alone, but I am going to stand my ground because man is still neglecting man and we are forever killing each other as people soon had hoped would stop after the bible was able to be freely distubuted to all.

So yes, we still need blogs until we can beat the humanity of each other into all that will listen. If we don't write it then there is no hope.

Check out this feature in the Metropolis to get a current picture of the blogging scene there.

The 'Plan' is slowly coming into shape, or more likely it is solidifying faster than a blink of the eye. I am refering to our 'Plan' to save a small fortune to make a move from the 'hood in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Osaka, Japan. It is going to take a lot of resistence on my part.... I can feel the mocha's calling to me all day long and I just ingore their calls.

This is part of the plan, to cut back all unnecessary spending and mochas fall into this catagory... ok maybe not, yes, no, yes. Ok for now I am fighting the urge to rush out and grab one at the local Starbuck's.

It is raining cats abd dogs today. I know that we need the rain, but I am left wondering if I need the rain to. I mena that it could be the reason that I am losing my hair. I have neglected to properly water my head and now all the hair is falling out....

Well it seems that SARS has hit the Kinki region and that has me really worried. Their are a few reasons that I am worried but the first and most importanly is that my wife and in-laws live in Osaka. We also have lots of friends that live in and around Osaka and if there a rampant SARS outbreak it wouldn't take long before it made all over Japan.

As I promised Yuko, it is my turn and you can see my lack of hair....

Copyrighted D. Marquis 2003

Japanesegifts.com

Today I bought a Donabe pot. If you are unsure what that exactly is, I have included a picture for you to get the idea. It is a earthenware pot that can withstand high heat.

Awhile ago I also bought a portable butane stove that I can use in my living room on my low Japanese table. It is nice to be sitting right there next to the cooking food. Let me tell you, the smells coming from the Donabe pot are so mouth watering. I wonder why Europeans never discovered this little custom.

On tonight's menu happened to be, Nabeyaki Udon. I used, premade udon that I bought at United Noodles, Enoki Mushrooms, chicken thighs, dried shitake mushrooms, Kamboku, dashi stock. After about 15 minutes boiling the Nabeyaki Udon was ready.

I have to say that I am now in love with this style of cooking. I fell in love with shabu shabu when I was last in Osaka, Japan for my wedding. I will have to try this when I get the chance.

You might be wondering here I have been, but let me asure you that I have been busy. It is true! Well I am getting interested in photography, but as I have found out it is hard to get regular pictures from photo form into a form that can be made avaliable on the internet. Well the perfect answer is a digital SLR. They have come down to a price range that I can afford in the sub 2000.00 range. I happened to pick up a couple of magizines yesterday.

Time goes by so fast while I am at my new job at St. Paul Radiology. I am so engrossed with the areas that I am incharge of. tere are many, many things to learn and understand. I am much happier now then I was at SheaPC.

A new job, wife, and apartment is enought to push me over the edge that I am standing at. Gravity is trying to pull me down into the depths of stress, but if you really want to know the truth, I am perfectly fine. I love being under the gun, so to speak. I am good at working with computers and not so good with people. I believe that everyone has something that they are good at, a perfect match, so to speak betwwen the work preformed and the people doing it. Mine jus happens to be with the silicon world.

I think that for the most part that life should be enjoyable, not the world we have now where poeple steal your newspaper. Where people are messing with your stuff..... I know I am probably an idealist, but that is the way it should be, right?

Life is too short anyways to be dealing with things like these....

Tonight I went out to a Indian resturant here in uptown called A Passage to India. The food there is pretty close to what you can have in India, or at least that is what I have read. I had a dish that consisted of spinach and potatoes in a mildly spicy curry. I also has a piece of garlic Nan Bread. It was all very good.

As you may know, it seems that for the most part that here in Minnesota, we can only get sushi. It really is a shame because there are so many delicious Japanese dishes. I love this place, Tanpopo Noodle Shop. It is the closest that I can come to Japanese home style cooking. I also think that Midori's Floating World Cafe is good to. I am craving udon. I have a couple of packs of small servings in the refrige that are tempting me. Also check out this review for another view on Tanpopo.

I have been robed. I know this might sound like I am making a big deal about something so small as a newspaper, but let me reassure you that it is serious to me. I wonder who could be taking my newspaper. Who could be desprate enough to take my damn paper? A homeless person? Would a homeless person want to clip the coupons like I do? I really doubt it.

I am thinking that this low life is a resident of my apartment complex. I mean that, this person is desprate to save $.30 on cream of corn. They have to be! To beat me out to the paper before I have a chance to clip the precious coupons. To Be Continued........

Today was a very rainy day. I mean that it started out nice and sunny, but by 12:00 Pm it was raining and cold and chilly. I guess that it has more to do with the fact that my wife hide the umbrella on me. So I had the chance to walk to the store in the rain and get nice and wet. Needless to say, I bought one for the walk home. I think I will put this umbrella in the car for those times that I am in a hurry.

I miss my Y700 umbrella that I got in Tokyo last year when I was there in Janurary. I miss Shinjuku so much lately. Everything there was so convienent. I wonder if my wife can be talked into moving there.... I guess we will see.

Well it looks like we are in for 2 more days of nasty weather in the land of God's frozen people. Well as you may know, we have about 5 months of winter here in the "Northwoods" or as we pronounce it "Nordwoods". If you are wondering you can always checkout my web cam on the right-hand-side of the window.

Link Updates:

I have finally done it. What I really mean is that I am done working on my Japanese low table. It have been a long process that probably wasn't worth the time and pain, but I am happy with the results. As you may know, I bought this table some time ago and I had cracking problems. I have solved those problems now by stripping of the thick polyurathane finish. I then re-finished the table with a standard Tung oil from Minwax.

uggg.... I am up at the crack of dawn. Today is the day that I had hopped wouldn't come. The day that Yuko has to go back to Japan. She promises that it will be the last long time for us to be apart, but it is still hard to let her go.

I am off to the airport to drop my lovely wife off.

I am really getting into photography. I blame it on Kurt for this condition that I am now feeling, over at easterwood.org. Well I guess I have always liked it from the minute that I was my High School photographer for my school's year book. So I have to let Kurt off the hook a little. I think I will look into what a good camera set up will run me. I would also like to get a dark room going also for black and white.

Photo Links I like:

Ruin Japan<

Don't let the Japanese scary you. You won't be dissapointed!

Today for breakfast I had the standard Osaka meal. It consisted of: Sake filet(Salmon), Gohan (steamed rice), Miso, Umeboshi (pickled plums), Ochya (green tea).

Cooking Blogs:

• Gohan Taberu: Cooking in Tokyo

  The pefrect rice has a nice soft texture and has lots of taste also contray to popular ideas. I love it with all kinds of toppings. I know that a lot of people like it with green tea over the top, but I have yet to try it.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

I ran across this article in the Metroplis and I know that it was fate. It just can't be a chance sighting can it? I am not a strong believer in God or anything like that, but it is a little creepy. Well anyways, I feel a strong desire to go to Shikoku and see some of the temples. I know that probably will not be able to take the 2 months it usually takes to make the journey unless me wife lets me. Well, I doubt that will be the case if you know what I mean.

Simon Rowe

Mr. Rowe gives a outstanding description of life on Shikoku. I wish I could live there, but then I remember the description of the typhoon season makes me think twice about that. "From June through September, Shikoku takes the brunt of the typhoon season, so much so that the Cape’s inhabitants jokingly refer to their stretch of coastline as the “Typhoon Ginza” of Japan and have incorporated bunker specifications into their houses—steel window shutters and reinforced walls clamped down by heavy clay roof tiles—to ensure the village doesn’t flutter off to Siberia each year."

I have been adding some new links to the site on the right hand side. If you have a site that is Japan related, please e-mail me and let me know and I will review your site.

Yuchan and I went to this resturant to have dinner Midori's Floating World Cafe Home Page. I have never been there before as this place has just opened for business a couple of 1 month ago. Well, to our surprise the place was just packed with people. We believe that they even ran out of rice for the dinner shift and the smell of fresh gohan could be had as the rice steamer cooked up a fresh batch.

I had the sashimi and tenpura combo and Yuchan went with the old standby favorite, tendon. Tendon is tenpura on top of a bowl of rice with a sweet sauce. I fell in love with tendon in Tokyo when I first meet my best friend, Makichan.

The service at Mirodi's was slow, but I think they are still learning how to properly run a resturant and I will certainly return for their delicous food.