New Mug

At my work, we just launched a new logo. Along with that, we got new goodies, one of them being a nice new coffee mug. The only problem is that they are white, which means I can’t spend a month between cleanings like I am used to doing with my black mug… dang. I’d take a photo of it to show you all, but it’s already kinda gross-looking.

Betty Blue

I already have the Japanese DVD release of Betty Blue, but the US release is the “Unrated Director’s Cut”, which is supposed to have some restored and extra scenes. It’s less than $10, so I ordered it. I remember seeing this movie at the Bijou Theater in Hermosa Beach when it came out. I was really looking forward to Jean-Jacques Beineix’s follow-up film to Diva, which is my all-time favorite movie. Betty Blue is definitely up there in my list of favorite movies as well, and has much of the same style as Diva, but the story is completely different. It’s got a lot more mature scenes (the opening scene is a pretty graphic love scene), and the story has a lot of situations that aren’t appropriate for kids. Nothing violent, but just things that kids wouldn’t understand. Anyway, the film is shot beautifully, with excellent use of color and dreamy locations. The acting is great, there are good comic situations as well as serious ones, and to top it off, the soundtrack is fantastic.

Perfect Father’s Day

I had a great Father’s Day yesterday! It started out early, with Bay nudging me awake at about 7:00, whispering, “Papa, Papa!”. I looked over and asked him what was the matter. He said, “Happy Father’s Day” and then went back to sleep. It was pretty darned cool. A half hour or so later, I heard them all go downstairs and they left me to sleep an extra hour. What a bonus! When I finally made my was downstairs, Bay gave me a card and my gift, which was a great cookbook of donburi dishes. Mariko knows I love donburi, and now I can’t wait to try making some of the dishes in the cookbook. Next, I had my morning coffee and relaxed in front of the tv.

Mariko told me earlier that she would be making brisket, corn on the cob, potato salad, and sausage for dinner, so I was looking forward to that all day. We went to the supermarket to buy all the food, then came home and the boys and I played and watched tv while Mariko prepared the food. I even was able to watch an episode of Trick on my laptop! Around 6pm we had the big bbq feast. The bbq brisket was excellent, and I ate it on homemade rolls, with bbq sauce, pickle slices, and onions. The corn on the cob was sweet, and the potato salad was perfect. I was stuffed!!! That evening, the kids fell asleep early because they didn’t have their naps, and I got to play computer games until midnight. That’s pretty much a perfect Father’s Day!

Trick

I have watched all the Gokusen episodes I have that are subbed, so I started on another drama which stars Nakama Yukie (仲間由紀恵) and Namase Katsuhisa (生瀬勝久) of Gokusen fame. This show is called “Trick”, and it is also highly addictive. I was up until 4:30AM *again* on Sunday night watching. This drama has been called “a Japanese X-Files”, and there are some similarities, but it is definitely not a copy.

The general storyline is that Naoko Yamada (Nakama), a magician by trade, teams up with a physicist Jiro Ueda (Abe Hiroshi 阿部寛) to expose fake spiritualists and psychic mediums. Yamada knows all about magic tricks and is a true skeptic, while Ueda is science focused, and had some martial arts training. Along the way, they meet up with police detective Kenzo Yabe (Namase), who is hilarious as the silly, toupe-wearing lawman. The stories (I have watched the first two already) span three episodes each, and are kind of serious, but have their funny parts, mostly in the dialogue between the main characters. It’s interesting to see how Nakama and Uedo figure out the hoaxes and tricks to solve the mysteries. There is an overarching storyline as well, with a foretelling of Nakama’s confrontation with a genuine spiritualist, who killed her skeptic father, and is foretold to also kill her.

I can’t wait to watch more of this drama (there are a total of three seasons), and I hear that a movie is being made based on the TV show. That would be awesome!

Trick 1 Website
Trick 2 Website
Trick 3 Website

Dinner Party

Two weeks in a row we have had takoyaki parties! This last one was at a friend’s house, and not only did we have takoyaki, but we also had Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. It was basically a small amount of batter, like a creped, and on top of that went cabbage, egg noodles (like yakisoba-style), and thinly sliced pork. There was also fried egg, plus the toppings of okonomiyaki sauce, green onion, that green stuff, bonito flakes, and some kewpie mayo. I took some video, so I will upload that soon. It was sooo good! There were also other goodies, like karaage, edamame, a small taco bar, chips, queso, and salsa. It was quite a combination! To go along with the meal, we had lots of beer, including some ales, Mexican beers (Carta Blanca and Tecate), Japanese beers (Asahi Super Dry and Sapporo), and Margaritas. We all had a great time eating and drinking and watching various things on the background TV, including Anpanman, Stanley Cup Finals, and Harry Potter. It was a great evening!

Neighborhood Pool

What a nice weekend we had! On Saturday, Koa, Bay and I went to the neighborhood pool for the first time. There are two pools available to us, a big pool which is just the normal all-around type, and a smaller, kids pool. We went to the latter. When we arrived at 10:30am, there was only one other person there, so we pretty much had the pool to ourselves. The main pool is divided into two sections, and are only 3.5 and 4.5 feet deep, and there is an area that is only a few inces deep for the toddlers to play in. There’s also a smaller pool which is only 1.5 feet deep, and is covered with a big shade. That was nice, but the water was too cold that day. There is also a pretty good sized waterslide that goes to the bigger pool, but it wasn’t working. The lifeguard said that some of the rubber pellets that are stuck on the bottom of the wading area were getting stuck in the pump, and they needed to replace it. We had fun anyways, floating around the pool in our inflatable contraptions. A couple other families arrived at the pool as we were leaving. Speaking of leaving, that was an adventure, since Koa didn’t want to go and then threw a giant tantrum, screaming at the top of his lungs. A fellow father helped me carry our cooler and Koa’s sandal that he kicked off to the car, saying, “I feel your pain.” 🙂 Anyways, it was really nice to go swimming again, and I’m sure we will visit many times this summer!