epik_noodles | Entries tagged with my day

So I woke up, ate breakfast... spam and eggs.
I actually didn't leave Arata's house today. Miki left the house with Arata and Chizu-san to go grocery shopping. They were out for half the day. I stayed home with Arata's Grandma. I sat around playing on my laptop. I was watching a drama special. While I was watching, Arata's grandma came up to me and gave me red bean ice cream, I was so touched, grandma was worried because I didn't eat lunch. Miki and everyone else still didn't return, so I watched something else.

I had been itching to see the One Piece: Strong World movie, I remember Ex kept raving about wanting to see it. I got it on my computer and I just watched it. Strong World was so good. This movie was one of the somewhat rare occasions that Nami gets kidnapped again. I liked Biri, so cute, there's shops all over Japan that sell Biri plushies. The Straw Hat Crew looked so badass in this movie. Overall, it was good, but I have to say, my favorite all time One Piece movie would be "Dead End Adventure."

After Miki and everyone got back, Miki made a delicious dumpling soup. Arata's mom made a wonderful tempura platter with all sorts of vegetables and lots of shrimp. I ate a lot of fried lotus roots, my favorite.

After dinner, Arata took us bowling at a place near the house. There was a special discount today, it was 850 yen a game. The average cost of bowling is about 3000 yen everywhere else. We did one game of bowling.

Striking a cool pose..... then falling onto the ground miserably.
I had fun... it's sad that the bowling alley prints out your scores, I did horribly. I had a lot of fun! We hit the arcade after bowling. This place had a lot of games, most of which I have never seen before. Many claw games too. And Miki's favorite, the picture machines. We did two rounds of pictures and then returned to Arata's house.

Now I'm tired, I need to wake up super early tomorrow so I can go ice skating!
I'll write soon.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Yashio, Saitama Pref, Japan

This morning, after my well deserved sleep, I woke up early and went to the open-air bath / hot spring. Hakone is loaded with tons of underwater hot springs and geysers. It's my first time going to a Japanese hot spring. It was so weird at first, "whoa there's A LOT of naked people!" The Japanese don't get fussy over nudity like most foreigners do. Before you enter the spring, after putting away your shoes and undressing, you have to rinse yourself with hot water. Then you can go into the hot spring pool. There's more things I want to say regarding the hot spring, but I shouldn't because it'll be very awkward.

Here's a cute illustration to show my trip to the hot spring.

Yes, that would be me clinging to the side of the spring. Miki and Arata were talking to each other a good distance from me. I moved away from them because the area I was sitting in was where the water was being heated. I was flailing around in the shallow water like a dying fish because the heating mechanism in the water was burning me and I really didn't know it was behind me, which is why I moved away from everyone else.

After a nice relaxing soak in the hot spring, we hit the road again. We drove up a mountain on the other side of Hakone to go see where the steam rises out of the rocks. In that tourist area, there were a lot of suspended cable cars that took you across the mountains. Hakone is also known for it's "black eggs." What makes these eggs special and black is only regional to Hakone. These black Hakone eggs were baked in an underwater hotspring at the base of the Mount Hakone Volcano. They've been baked until the egg shells turned black. According to Hakone folklore, If you eat one "kuro-tamago" (black egg), it'll extend your lifespan by 7 years.

I tried one... and you know... it tastes like a normal hard-boiled egg. I also tried egg ice cream and wasabi ice cream while I was there. Both ice creams were very interesting.

Our next stop was the premium outlets. When we got there, I wasn't all that impressed. It looked exactly like the outlet center that's nearby my restaurant back in Batavia. It had serval shops that were different, other than that it look like an American outlet center. The weirdest part is that the outlet is divided by a valley right in the middle. To get from one side of the outlet to the other, you need to cross a very big bridge.

None of us actually bought anything, so we got on the expressway again. We were on our way back to Saitama. Before returning, we stopped in Ikebukuro for dinner. According to Hiro, Ikebukuro has the best and most famous ramen. Hiro took us to a place where he's a regular at. We know this because we saw the amount of stamps on his stamp card when the waiter asked for it. I had one of those dipping ramens, ohhhhh the noodles were so delicious. We ate and chatted, it was fun. After the meal, we continued back to Arata's house. Now I've figured out the best signal spot for internet which is why this entry exists.

I might go ice skating tomorrow, yay!!!
I'll write again soon, time to go to sleep.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Yashio, Saitama Pref, Japan

My meeting plan was a fail yesterday, mostly on my part for not even checking my stuff on DW. I partially blame my faulty e-mail too. But in this case it was primarily my fault.

I wandered around Hachiko plaza for about two hours and wow did I see interesting sights. Everyone is familiar with the "Tale of Hachiko," right? You know, the dog with extreme loyalty, he escorted his master to Shibuya station every day and even went back to the station to pick up his master. One day his master died at work and Hachiko still waited even though his master would never return. After decades have passed, Hachiko's statue has become a landmark spot for people who want to meet up. Everyone who waits there is usually waiting to meet up with a friend.

While I was sitting on the uncomfortable bench, there were a lot of people waiting for others. I saw a lot of interesting things. There was this old man next to me, he ended up falling asleep while waiting. Now, these benches are a little weird and painful to sit on. Think of a two-tiered railing, one railing you sit on and the other you lean back on. You need to sit upright to balance and even stay on. The old man feel asleep and just completely fell over and landed on his face. The impact woke him up right away. When he woke up, the person he was waiting for just arrived.

I think I also may have spotted "Wakaba Ryuya" walking out of Shibuya station. It's a possibility, he was in a horrible disguise though (he was wearing a nasty wig). There were a lot of screeching girls taking his picture. Maybe it was him afterall...

So... while I continued waiting, there was another Japanese guy sitting next me. He appeared a little older than me with somewhat short red dyed hair. He too was waiting for his friend to show up. When it's uncomfortably hot outside, most people scratch their neck, wipe their foreheads, or fan themselves. I'm not trying to be weird and I WASN'T directly looking at this guy. More like saw it out of the corner of my good eye. While this guy was talking on his phone... he actually reached under his shirt, pulled his shirt up, and started scratching his nipple. That was really weird! I'm slightly disturbed he did that in public. About 15 minutes later his guitarist friend showed up and they crossed the street.

Continuing... I ran out of water at one point. My refusal to leave my spot made me super thirsty and hungry. Now I know how Hachiko felt... Anyways, there was this other Japanese guy. Umm... I forgot what it's called but it's a popular trend in Shibuya for a specific style? Super tan skin and outrageous hair? I know what it's called for girls, but the term for guys is different. He waited by the Hachiko statue to meet up with his friend. So... this guy was REALLY tan!!! The pigment was disturbingly dark! This guy's skintone was equal to a Hershey bar! Not only did his complexion stand out but he wanted to be noticed... He was dark and his hair was bright hot pink!!! Dark skin and pink hair just clash, it screams "look at me!"

I got tired and Miki swung by to take me off to an amazing food wonderland located several meters from where I was waiting. It was an amazing super market. There were foods from all over Japan. All the ingredients were fresh. After being immersed in that beautiful underground paradise of food, we were on a mission to find "Tokyu Hands." Tokyu Hands is a shop that sells almost anything craft related or collectible. There's even random pharmacy stuff too. I went for the toys! There was one floor that had a lot of toys. I bought a robotic nano bug, oh it's so creepy. I bought some chibi Gundam models to build for fun in the hotel room. I also bought some randomized "One Piece" collectible pirate ships. When I opened the boxes, I got everything BUT the "Going Merry."

Let's face it, I will only buy toys, Japan is nothing more than a giant toy trip to me. I love being a kid (from my point of view I'm still 9).

On the way back from Tokyu Hands, which we technically got lost, we found..... what my friends were talking about "MANDARAKE!" It is well hidden on a side street. Mandarake isn't truly a building... We walked and I noticed the sign and I got excited, "WHOA!!! It's Mandarake! My friends were talking about this place! I can't believe we found it!" The sign was small and said "MANDARAKE" on it with an arrow pointing down towards a staircase. At first we were a little skeptical, should we go, should we not? We began to walk down the stairs... then a second flight of stairs... then a third flight of stairs... Then we were greeted by a blacklight lit entrance followed by an enormous windowless utopia of anime goodness. But then I had my crazy thoughts! THIS PLACE IS 3 FLOORS BELOW BASEMENT LEVEL!!! IT LOOKS LIKE AN UNDERGROUND ANIME CLUB!!! HOW BIG IS THIS PLACE?! THERE'S NO WINDOWS DOWN HERE!!! WHAT IF THERE'S A FIRE?! I explored a little the first aisle I checked out had... Zoids... Kid in a candy store... I picked out the ones that weren't sold in the states and when I walked to the back to go check out the display cases before paying. There it was... in the display case... an ultra rare... Japan exclusive... discontinued production since 2005... "Murasame Liger!" It was priced at $170... "Must have..." Am I insane for being a hardcore Zoid collector? I bought it... now I'm super happy and will not buy anything unfood related for my entire trip here!

I was busy for the rest of the night because we met up with Arata later. We ate. We did each others' nails (excluding me, I hate nail polish). We watched a Taiwanese drama which was on a Japanese channel? I think it was called, "Miss No Good" or something like that.

Well, today, we woke up early and went to the "Tsukiji Fish Market!" Its the largest fresh fish market / tuna auction in Japan. They had so many live fish!!! Thanks to the kind fish monger at the market, he let me film him paralyzing the fish in very violent ways. There was blood everywhere. I had a lot of fun! We then went to another section which also sold seafood and produce. There was another kind man that sold us a cut open / ready-to-eat sea urchin. He was happy to take pictures with us. We bought some fresh oysters from his place too. He poured soy sauce into the shells for us to eat right away. Obviously I'm an American, so I ate my oyster American style... which is to practically inhale them like shots or chucking them, as to Arata who slowly nibbled at the oyster. I quickly slurped the oyster whole, that oyster was gone in the blink of an eye. The guy who sold it to us was amazed and yelled, "SUGOI!!!" I'm guessing that oyster chucking is uncommon here.

We then got on the train and went to Harajuku. We found "Kiddy Land" an awesome toy store! They had a lot of Pullips. I bought a giant plush Ghibli cat, more One Piece ships, a Final Fantasy figurine, and two Bey-Blades. I was so excited over the Bey-Blades. They discontinued in the States a long time ago, the tournament leagues were disbanded all together. But the sport is still going strong and continues in Japan. I didn't know that Japan had new seasons of the anime and they even modified the overall designs of the Bey-Blades themselves. It used to be full plastic with a small metal weight ring to keep it balanced while spinning. Now, the center is full metal and the balancing weight ring has now become the main attack ring. Before, the top plastic panel was primarily used for attacks. Now, the full metal center is used for attacking instead.

Look at me going on about toys.
The main highlight was the Tsukiji Fish Market!

I hope Arata's house has internet.
I'll write soon.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Shinagawa, Japan

YATTA!!!!!! I have internet again, thanks to wonderful Arata for retrieving my laptop charger.

I ended up waking up at 7:00am...
I don't know what it is with Japan that makes me wake up early. It could be because nearly everything closes around 9:00pm, resulting in me sleeping early.

We checked out of our shady "Asuka Hotel" and took the Yamanote line down to Shinagawa for our next hotel. So... this new hotel is friggin awesome!!! It's called the "Prince Hotel." There's a 60 lane bowling alley, an arcade, a penthouse bar, indoor amusement park, aquarium stadium, mall, and movie theater ALL INSIDE THE HOTEL!!!!!!!! It's possibly the biggest hotel I've ever seen upon arriving in Japan. The two previous hotels were tiny and had one twin sized bed (imagine sharing the bed). This one has two beds and lots of space and a working fridge (Asuka's fridge was broken).

Later, we took a short walk to find a place to eat in Shinagawa. One of Arata's wise tips about Japan "Shinagawa is like Ginza, it's a real wallet buster, be wise to not shop here and shop at the other train stops (ex: Shibuya, Harajuku)." While walking, we found a nice little "yakitori" place. How I love to try strange things. We ordered the works: liver, tongue, heart, kiel bone(chicken sternum), cartilage, tripe, raw alcohol soaked squid, chicken skin, and bacon wrapped quail eggs. Arata ordered German potatoes for some reason. But it was a great meal, so delicious. The restaurant owner came and chatted with us for a bit. Arata told the owner that we were Thai and we were on vacation visiting her. The owner said something along the lines of "wow, that's interesting, Thai people huh, I like Thai food, do they eat spicy? If they do, I have some pickled peppers on the house for them if they want." So we got ourselves a free bowl of pickled peppers... Arata can't eat super spicy things. Miki's tolerance is up to par with mine. I eat insane heat, but my sense of taste is really sensitive, but I can handle super spicy food. Arata and Miki just lightly nibbled on the pepper, while I just plopped the entire thing into my mouth. I felt that heat right away, my entire mouth was burning. I had to wait and cool down a bit. Then Miki told me to continue eating the peppers (since I can handle them) because we shouldn't waste the old lady's (owner's) kindness. As I finished off the remaining peppers, I said, "ohh... this is so going to hurt tomorrow..."

Anyways, tomorrow, I "might" be meeting up with some friends. I hope everyone's available. I know I have time for all of this week. I will be off to Yokohama, Hakone, and Fujiyama next week! Roadtrip!!! (yes, we're taking a car, shockingly not going by train) YAY! Yokohama: Chinatown is next week, I'll try my best to have as much fun as possible before the roadtrip.

I just noticed...
I'm doing a lot of hotel/city hopping, aren't I?

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Shinagawa, Japan

Some bad luck lately.
First off, we seperated our bags and gave some to Arata to drop off at her house. Bad news is, we accidentally packed all our important cords and chargers into the bags we handed over.

So my laptop is dead and I can`t use it for internet. Right now I`m stuck using the pay by the minute computer in the hotel lobby and I just used up my last 100yen. Not only that, but the hotel we booked is shady and hidden in an alley. Shinjuku is HUGE!!! We got lost trying to find our way back to the hidden hotel. We changed it, so we will only stay at this hotel for one night instead of four nights. We`re moving to another hotel tomorrow morning.

Right now I`m trying to contact friends, but it`s difficult because I have limited internet access. What bad luck I`ve been have since arriving in Japan. My feet really hurt from walking around so much too.

Okay, I got two minutes left on this computer.
I`ll try to write again soon.

Current Mood: confused
Current Location: Shinjuku, Japan

I arrived here yesterday at 3:30 pm.
We were a little lost after getting off the airplane and Arata was waiting for us at the wrong gate. Then we took a train (don't know which one) and it took an hour... we were horribly crushed by the mass of people on the train and by our own luggage.

Me, Miki, and Arata finally arrived in Asakusa.
We settled into our hotel...
Not too long after that... we (mostly Arata) were hungry. So we went to a nearby place. Miki and Arata ordered ramen. I had a tonkatsu meal set, my first meal in Japan!

Today, I ended up waking up super early, like 6:00 am, still adjusting.
We went to Asakusa temple for a while. We then went to Akihabara with Arata and her boyfriend, Hiro. Poor guy... I bought a ton of zoids in Akihabara, he carried all of them for me.

I don't have my laptop charger.
I'll write again, maybe Thursday?

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: Asakusa, Japan

I learned about an interesting anime from ACen this year.
There was this must see short online series called "Hetelia: Axis Powers." I saw plenty of cosplayers this year, but Jason and I weren't familiar with the series. Jason asked, "what's with the fascist outfits?" Well, Hetelia is about WWII, so the characters are in military uniforms. In this anime, each of the characters are personified forms of the nations they represent. I started watching today!

Japan is on the left. Italy is in the center, and Germany is on the right.
Besides the amount of fanservice in this anime, I mostly watch it for the humor and cuteness. To my surprise, it was a very educational anime. The anime explained the relation between the nations and things that happened in the past. It is fun, but it doesn't change the fact that this anime is somewhat racist and stereotypical. Unintended offensiveness, I'm sure. But, most of the assumptions claimed in the anime are based on true facts from the countries' pasts.

In this series, Italy (often called 'Italia') is the main character. Back then, Italy was split in two, north and south. So Italy is portrayed as a pair of twin brothers. Veneciano representing northern Italy and his twin brother Romano representing southern Italy. Veneciano (who is pictured above) is the true main character. He has a scary obsession with pasta, but he's very kind to everyone and all the other nations. Italia is the only nation that didn't really want to fight anyone. It's interesting, every time the allied forces shows up, Italia quickly pulls out his white surrender flag and waves it around to avoid fighting. Although, he angers Germany whenever he does that.

So, lets go back to the beginning of WWII. Basically, Germany bumped into Italy and kidnaps him so they can form an alliance. Germany is very surprised that Italy shows no resistance after allowing Germany to conquer him. Germany asks confusingly, "Hey, Italia... don't you want to retaliate or escape or something?" Italy replies, "Hmm? Why??? You feed me yummy bratwurst and you protect me from scary enemies... Let's be friends!" After that... Italy develops a co-dependency complex and is constantly being rescued by Germany. America and England constantly bully and attack Italy because he was considered the weakest (mean assumption) amongst the axis powers. Germany rescues Italy a lot in this anime. At one point, they made a reference I understood. Germany, Italy and Japan are preparing for war. Italy gets super excited and shows everyone that he made surrender flags for all of them, Germany gets annoyed and tells Italy to come up with something more practical. Later on, Italy comes back and announces that he made more surrender flags. Germany yells, "HEY! That was no different from before! You got anything else?!" Italy replies, "but... all I have *pulls out suitcase* is Niccolo Machiavelli *Machiavelli pops out of suitcase*" Germany says, "sadly we can't use him." I know that reference! Machiavelli was a famous Italian writer a long time ago, he wrote a lot of controversial stuff. One of his books was about military strategies, which ironically, when an Italian general used the book's advice for battle, he failed miserably and lost every battle.

This anime is so good, I can't stop watching it!
Each episode does not exceed over 5 minutes and it's really cute! Even the ending song is adorable, this is just the ending video, it's very short, english translation below:

Hey hey papa, give me wine!
Hey hey mama, hey hey mama!
I can't forget that taste
of the bolognese I ate before!

Draw a circle, there's Earth!
Draw a circle, there's Earth!
Draw a circle, there's Earth!
I'm Hetelia!

Ah, a fabulous world...
That can be seen with the stroke of a paintbrush.
Let's have a toast with our boots!
Hetelia!!!

Yeah... I'll write about Gameworks tomorrow, I'm tired.

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: Chicago

I haven't been online as much as I usually am.
I've been working non-stop as I said in a previous entry to earn some extra cash for my trip. Working leaves me with almost no time to relax on the net, even after work. I would've posted more stuff but... I'm an idiot and I left my stupid charger and cellphone cord all the way in Chicago. I had pictures from my dinner, Thai fest, and Jame's b-day at the restaurant

So it turns out...
I'M GOING TO JAPAN ON JULY 22!!!
I also have a list of people to notify before and after I get to Japan... friends, cell service, bank, host family, etc...

One of my crazy friends, Maciek, decided that I should have a "going-away" party. Funny thing is... I planned a day (this Monday) and he wasn't even available to attend. Unlike me, Maciek's job requires him to be there and not miss days left and right (unlike Roel). I have job security, Maciek doesn't, so he needs to work his shift and hopefully get promoted. So... my party is this upcoming Monday, I was thinking... Gameworks and eating out. After Maciek, I sent a message to Jason. Jason's first response is that he couldn't go because he's broke, thanks Jason. He apologized though. My unreliable friends, I can't blame them though, they go through something called "life," it's something I have yet to understand the concept of. I sadly, have no knowledge of responsibilities and independence. Those are the main things holding me back from "growing up." It's also the reason why I'm still childish and have the logic and reasoning abilities equivalent to a child.

Those two are out. I was on the verge of canceling my party. Then I got a response from Marvin and he's totally up for my party. He was a little disappointed when I nearly canceled the party. As long as one person is willing to go, the party is still open. That's one check for Marvin! Today I called Izzy, but I called from the restaurant phone and she didn't recognize the number so she didn't answer until my second call. I haven't talked to Izzy since ACen, it was nice to talk to her again. I told her about my party and she's available on Monday, yay! It's the first time that Izzy and I will hang out outside of ACen and Harold Washington College.

By the way, did you guys know I go to two colleges?
I switch back and forth between Wilbur Wright College and Harold Washington College. My grades are valid for both colleges and it transfers easily. Same school system, no hassle, it's like going to the same school in a different part of town.

So far, just Izzy and Marvin are available for my party.

Okay, when I get to Japan.......
I want to buy a lot of "Zoids!" My mind is set on buying toys! Zoids are my absolute favorite motorized model kits. They're like robotic animals and they walk and roar after you assemble them. They were popular in the States for a while then popularity declined and they ceased all productions of all the Zoids products. That made them really difficult to find, since they weren't sold anymore. The US only had certain Zoid releases, well... a few of them and Japan had all the exclusive ones. While I'm in Japan, I'm going to buy the Zoids I never could buy over here. Like the "Murasame Liger," it roars and swings a katana around as it walks. Or the "Shadow Fox," it has launching missiles. There's a rare one I want too, it's called the "Whitz Tiger: Imitate Edition," it sounds like a fake but it's not, in the Zoids series, the Whitz Tiger is a reflection of the Whitz Wolf, which is why it's called the imitate. It's a very detailed model, it's so beautiful. I want this Zoid so bad, I hope I'll find it in a shop somewhere in Japan. This is a picture of the box.

*whine* I WANT THIS ZOID SOOOOOO BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I really hope that I'll find this in Japan. Everyone says I'm too old for this... I DON'T CARE! I WANT THIS ZOID!!!

Current Location: Housing HQ

Like my Yokoyama Yu icon?
I made it from the "Kanfuu Fighting" video.
I didn't have time to write yesterday. I need to make this quick because I want to hang out with Miki.

Yesterday in Batavia it was "Windmill Fest." Batavia's birthday. It was like a mini carnival, it had rides, games, and food. It was near my restaurant too. I snuck out of work and went to go play at the festival. I rode the ferris wheel, ate 3 funnel cakes, a one foot corndog, and kettle corn. Is it suspicious at all that the Chinese food stall sold funnel cake, corndogs, hamburgers, fajitas, crab rangoon, and Italian beef? I kid you not, the name of the stall was "East China Inn." What a fun filled day for me.

Today was Christina's birthday. She invited me to Gameworks for her party. I haven't been to Gameworks in a long time. When I got there, I refilled my playcard with $10. I was hoping to win a plushie out of those clawgame machines for her, but that ended up being a fail... After I walked away to go refill my card again, Christina got on the clawgame and instantly won a Chimchar plushie. Why do I now feel that unfairness enjoys taunting me? Anyways, we went to go play the "House of the Dead 4" ride/game. It was really cool, you even need to put a seat belt on. The seats for the game actually moved and rotated as if you were in the game. What I didn't like was the bursts of air that would hit you when a zombie from behind you is breathing down your neck... way to make it realistic. It freaked me out. But I did shoot the most zombies.

After we died on level 2 of that game, we went upstairs to the arcade games. We were looking around the DDR machines and fortunately we found a gamecard with 247 credits on it. That's a lot of money, I can't believe someone lost it.

After the party, my aunt picked me up and I ate a lot of yummy food. Now my stomach really really hurts.

Current Mood: bored
Current Location: housing HQ

Independence Day was fun... sort of.
I took a few pictures of my family lighting some fireworks in the backyard. Later we went to a friends house for some party food. We went to a nearby park to watch people light the illegal fireworks too. I have video footage, but I'm too lazy to edit them and put them on here.

I had to make a "closed" sign for the restaurant to notify customers that we are closed on a holiday. Do you like my pretty sign? I made it by hand.

While Miki was in Minnesota, she bought some cool fireworks you can't get in Illinois. The fountains are always pretty.

I'm not a big fan of the flashing whistling ones though.

This one was a cool fountain, it actually shot up a little.

We had some sparklers too. Can you see Miki's face in the dark?

We have more than this, but not enough time to light them. Miki was supposed to come back home tonight so we can finish lighting the other hundred or so left... But Miki had to be stubborn and spend the night over at a friend's house.

The party I went to was pretty fun. I saw some friends I hadn't seen in a long while. Like Peter... Peter brought some firecrackers to the party and we lit them in the park. Peter almost blew off his hand with an M-1000 on a few occasions. Poorly designed short wicks... Because of state regulations, we can't get the good stuff. The laws are... smoke bombs. smoke rockets(that don't launch), pop-its, bottle rockets, ash snakes, small firecrackers, and party poppers. Sparklers are illegal in Chicago now... fun killer!

Before all of this nighttime stuff, I was actually house sitting for Buffy. Buffy is a busy traveling singer. Buffy and Bill got a new puppy... It kept bothering me because it wanted attention.

Anyways, since we were there, we cooked stuff to eat. Miki and I made a delicious mushroom and snail pasta!!!

Look at the yummy sauce. I was left with the task of seasoning it because the stuff that Miki threw together was really bland. Salt and onion powder are my best friends...

I ate and forgot to take a picture...

I ate most of it already. It was originally topped with Parmesan cheese. The snails tasted so good in this!

I think I got some stuff to take care of tomorrow. Japan stuff and I've been ordering ridiculous stuff off the internet non-stop. Hopefully my packages will arrive before I leave for Japan.

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: Chicago

Everyone is probably wondering what Tessie found this time?

Okay, well... today was another ordinary day at work, the lunch shift is dead as usual. A customer steps in and tells me that he's alone so a "table for one." I noticed that the young man was carrying something familiar in his arm. I guided him to his seat and I pointed out, "Dude! Nice longboard!" He was a bit surprised when I said that, he replied, "What?! You actually know what this is?! Yeah, thanks, I just got it recently."

I FOUND A LONGBOARDER IN BATAVIA!!!

I just got into a little conversation with this guy, "Wow, that's really cool! And yeah I know it's a longboard, because my friend bought a custom longboard back in high school and he's a member of the 'Chicago Longboard Society.'" Then he asked me, "Do you know what shop your friend got his longboard from? I was thinking about getting a custom for myself." I told him, "I don't really know, my friend told me that he bought it from Michigan, but no details about the shop, sorry."

Now I should explain what a longboard is...
It basically looks like a skateboard, only bigger and longer. The material for the board is sturdy but really flexible. The trunks are larger and have a wider range of motion compared to a skateboard. The wheels are much bigger (double that of a skateboard) and made of a gummier softer translucent polymer. It's a bit of an underground sport. Not very many people practice this type of boarding nor do most people know about it. Finding other longboarders is like trying to win the lottery... very random and slim chances.

After the guy finished eating, he walked to the counter to pay for his lunch. I made a strange request after he finished paying. I said, "I have a strange request, can I take a picture of you with your longboard?" The guy said very happily, "Hahaha, why of course you can!"

Here he is!
The longboarder I found in Batavia. I so want to show this to Maciek. Maciek is still an active longboarder, I'm sure he'd enjoy hearing about how I found another longboarder. What I found strange in this picture... this guy's longboard is rather small. Every time I visit Maciek's house, I can see his longboard sitting in the corner of the basement. Maciek's longboard was definitely bigger than this one. It's a different shape too. Oh well, I need to ask Maciek about it then...

It was fun talking to this guy today. Unfortunately I didn't catch his name. I wonder if he'll stop by to eat again... In the future, I can probably give him the name of that custom longboard shop in Michigan. But I would need to ask Maciek first.

Until next time, bye for now.

Current Mood: blank
Current Location: housing HQ

I've been bored during my freetime and times where I choose to neglect my job at work. I've just been looking around at some dramas to watch. Like I said before, I "was" watching "Shibatora," but I put it on hold because I can't get the 7th episode. Teppei is so great in that drama. I haven't seen him in anything else lately. Shibatora is an "old" series, so I guess I'm a little behind. But that's just the way I am, I don't always get to watch something the same year it comes out. Sometimes because I haven't heard about it at the time or I'm not familiar with the cast yet.

This will seem a little off topic, but just recently I finished the entire "Meitantei Loki Ragnarok" anime series.

Approximately 26 episodes in total. It's a mystery genre anime about how the Norse "God of Mischief" (Loki) was exiled from Asgard, sent to earth, turned into a child by his father Odin, had his memories wiped, his powers limited, he searches for the truth behind all of it and gathers evil energy on earth in order to return to the realm of the gods so he can face Odin. That was the reason why he opened a detective agency, strange mysteries often result in evil energy. In the first episode, Loki is joined by a human high school girl named Mayura, whom is obsessed with occult and paranormal mysteries. Mayura just ends up stalking Loki the entire series because they always encounter strange mysteries together. Throughout the whole series, Odin sends the other gods to assassinate Loki, but most of them fail and become Loki's friends. For the entire series, Mayura has no idea of Loki's true identity as a Norse god. It wasn't until much later in the series that Mayura begun to question the fact that Loki was different from everyone else, but even then... she still had no clue... part of it was due to the fact that she was always unconscious or not present when Loki used his magical powers to fight.

To sum the anime up... detective mystery + comedy + Norse mythology + Japanese randomness. The first time I saw this series was in English dub. This is my second time watching, but in Japanese this time. Even after watching this for a second time... I still did not understand the series! The reason for Loki's exile still remained unclear no matter how many times I've rewatched it. They kept changing the reasons in the show, all of them proven false too. It's a good anime, watch it. If you get lost in the story like most other people, it's alright, there are plenty of Japanese jokes that will keep you entertained.

Since "I am" supposed to be talking about Japanese dramas, let's get down to what else I've been watching lately...

Okay, so I did mention that I was watching "The Quiz Show 2." I was watching by myself, but then I got Miki into it, so we watched together. I don't care much for Sakurai Sho, I was watching because of Yokoyama Yu. You know... I thought he was going to have another cool yet silly role like in "Yukan Club," but I was totally wrong!!! At first in this drama, he was kind of funny, his character was a cool and persuasive show director. Sakurai Sho's character is apparently kept in a mental institution when he's not hosting the Quiz Show as he suffers from severe amnesia. It was shocking for me to see Yu's character portrayed as the evil villain pulling all the strings on/off the show.

Now remember, the Quiz Show is a somewhat falsely set up gameshow created to lure greedy people in. As innocent as the game questions start off, these contestants are tricked into confessing their own unsolved crimes or guilt until they break down or go insane.

It was convincingly well done to look like a real gameshow spin-off of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." Everything is normal and okay on the set of the Quiz Show. See, Sakurai Sho's character (pictured above), named Kamiyama, looks fine like this, but then...

Yu's character (dressed in black), named Honma, keeps him in the cell of a mental institution and forces Kamiyama (dressed in white) to remember his difficult past that was suppressed by amnesia. Honma basically tortures Kamiyama at the end of each episode, trying to force a memory out of Kamiyama.

I'm not enjoying this evil Yokoyama Yu. I prefer him as that silly guy who keeps the rest of Kanjani 8 laughing with delight. Honma appeared as the one with the mental disorder, not Kamiyama.

It's creepy.
If you're well adjusted to repetition and easily amused by twisted mind bending logic, WATCH THIS DRAMA, it's a power trip. If con-artists, dark secrets, and gameshows bore you, then you will be bored after ten minutes of the first episode. But I thought it was a great drama. Yokoyama Yu crying... the most amusing thing to watch... I'm serious, but you'd need to watch the series all the way through to know what I was talking about.

Next series I started watching is "Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge."
Okay, so this series is about these four handsome guys (F4 rip-off? I'm kidding) which all comfortably live together in a nice big mansion. Living in the mansion with them is the mansion owner's son. One day they get a video call from the mansion owner saying that the four guys will be forced to pay rent(which had always been free) or if they couldn't pay, they'd be evicted. However, the mansion owner negotiates a deal with the guys if they wish to remain in the mansion free of charge... The deal was, if they can transform the mansion owner's niece into the perfect proper lady, then they would be allowed to continue living in the mansion. The biggest problem is... the so-called-niece is far off from being a "proper lady." The niece has an interest in darkness, anatomic plastic models, skulls, and all things death related. Looks like the boys have one tough mission ahead.

Kame has the lead role in this one. He always gets all the major roles, it can't be helped... he's a good actor afterall. In this drama, Kame seems very straight-forward. He's ill-tempered and impatient, but you can tell his intentions are good. He tries his best everyday, even after many failed attempts. He'll do anything to maintain his "free rent." However... if Kame used the same training method from "Nobuta wo Produce," I bet the drama would end too quickly.

But also co-starring a few other Johnnys as well, Tegoshi and Uchi. Oh wow, the triple threat.

I remember how awesome Tegoshi was in "My Boss, My Hero." I haven't seen Tegoshi actually act very much in a while. In this drama, his character was super feminine for a guy. As a matter of fact, he looked stunningly gorgeous in drag with that cute pink dress and hair extensions in this first episode. I had no idea his figure actually suited him well as a girl too. His reputation has apparently gone downhill, so I don't know what the situation with his popularity is anymore. I still think you're awesome (as an actor).

As for Uchi... he was demoted and on the verge of getting fired the last time I saw him. So Uchi is making a comeback in the drama world huh? Well, the first time I noticed his comeback was in "Osen," ah the wonderful drama about old style food. In this drama, Uchi plays the ONLY responsible/mature guy in the household, everybody else in the house doesn't exactly think straight... Uchi's plans and reasoning actually works, while the other three guys' logic always seem to end in disaster. Miki finds Uchi to be attractive and she claims he's hot. Really? Uhh... Miki... I'm not seeing it... I don't know, I'm not into Uchi. But I loved his role in Osen. Ohh... that OP... Uchi crashing into the floor in slow motion... EPIC!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways... Yamato is by far excellent. It's funny and cute and therefore awesome. I'd recommend this! It has so many cliches but you can't help but want to watch for the pure enjoyment of the cheesiness factor. You wanna know what I think about this drama? "I think it's t-t-t... too... too... DAZZLING!!!!!!" *hiss, run away from brightness* But seriously, this drama is good.

That's all I got for now, I might find some more dramas to watch in the near future.
Until next time, see you again later.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Chicago

Sorry for not writing for a very long time... again.
Miki even warned me too. She said... never look back(I'm kidding, "kat-tun joke"), what she really said was "careful Tess, people might think you're dead from not writing." Well! I am very much alive. See! I AM NOT DEAD!!! I'm still very busy with lots of stuff you know, I don't have all the time I want anymore.

Ha! Like it matters, no one would notice if I died. I'm too quiet to begin with... wouldn't be noticed at all.

With that out of the way, what is "The Taste?"

Well, it's short for "The Taste of Chicago." It's the largest outdoor food fair we have every summer in Chicago. Restaurants from all over Chicago gather and set up tents and sell their best dishes for tickets.

Dominick's Grocery sponsors the festival every year and like I said earlier, you need tickets to purchase food. It's $8 for 12 tickets, which equals about a strip. There's rides, free concerts, raffles, food, and test samples for drinks or products that haven't been released yet.

I went with Miki by train. It was so scary because we were the only ones waiting for the train.

Chi-an wanted to meet up... so after we got off the train, we wandered around(we were lost for a while) until we made our way to the "John Marshall Law School."

Right on the corner of the street... there was this giant eyeball that just stared off towards the lake(Lake Michigan). It was still being assembled... I wonder what it's for???

We looked around and we didn't see Chi-an. We called her and all of the information we could give her was... "we're next to the giant eyeball, in the corner of "State" and "Van Buren." What I didn't realize was that Chi-an was right next to us when we called her. We didn't notice until we walked apart.

Every year, I always buy crawfish from the same place, but this year they withdrew from the vendor's list. But my other favorites were there, like homemade potato chips, giant bbq turkey leg, and fried okra.

The place that sold these chips was nearby the "Buckingham Fountain."

There it is, all the way in back.
I tried a few new things too because there were also some new restaurants selling food at "The Taste." There was this one Afrian cuisine place called "Iyanze," that had the most spectacular Hibiscus sorbet. They also had a very interesting stewed goat which I regret not taking pictures of.

Later we met up with Santi, Chi-an's husband. Santi is awesome! He made a great list of places he wanted to sample food from. We did save him some goat, but because he was a little late, we kept teasing him about the goat getting tough because it had taken him so long to find us. But yeah, he recommended a mustard fried catfish... and the aroma... the herbs... seasoning.. texture... they all complemented each other so well. So mustardy, the catfish smelled fishy... seeing as it's one of the most smelliest fishes you'll ever find, in my opinion... the batter would work on tilapia very nicely. Sorry, no pictures of it.

For dessert we chose to try out "Churro Factory." The line was really long, the churros must've been really good. That's why we waited in line. They piped filling into the churros... melt in your mouth deliciousness. Freshly made churros are unbeatable.

On the way back to the main side of the fair we saw something interesting being sold at another restaurant. The "Abbey Pub"(it's actually near my house) had a stall at "The Taste" and one of their items was "Irish Curry w/fries." We all had a "lol...what?" moment,,, it was great. But out of curiosity we wondered, "what on earth is Irish Curry?!" Santi, who was laughing behind me said, "HA! No such thing, curry isn't Irish! It must be 'Japanese curry' or something." Chi-an and Miki were super curious and asked one of the workers what exactly was the Irish Curry and what was in it. The guy had no clue, he just sold the food. Out of fear, he ran to the back and got their chef to talk to us. He was laughing and said we were the first ones who actually asked about the curry in detail. Out of refusal to reveal anything, the chef just started lying his way through all of our questions like a joke. In a rather good Irish accent he said, "ah... the herbs picked from the highest peaks to season tis fine curry... made by laughing leprechauns with pinch of shamrock under a rainbow..." What a load of bull, now that we're suspicious, we ordered a taste portion. I tried the the curry... I recognized the scent and taste and I yelled, "you were right Santi!" The restaurant workers and their chef giggled as they had no idea about our secret conversation. Miki and I then screamed "IT'S JAPANESE CURRY!!!" Their chef was shocked and said, "now now, what's tis about? Hush down, tis Irish Curry, no no no, just fine Irish Curry." After we walked off, the chef had a grumpy look... Sorry... but you can't fool me, you can't call it Irish when it's clearly Japanese curry. Though he could easily fool people who have aged/dulled taste buds. Hehehe... Irish curry wasn't worth a photo, sorry again.

As my first day at "The Taste" grew closer to an end, we made another round back to Iyanze for some more Hibiscus sorbet. After that we all parted ways.

NOW! Day two!!!
Yeah I went back for a second day, this time with my parents. I did try more food today though. I had a plantain pork dumpling, more churros, chorizo w/yuca fries, hibiscus sorbet, rainbow ice cream, and bananas topped with mayonnaise(which was really an accident on Miki's part). Oh man... Miki... the bananas with mayonnaise were foul... don't ever do that again.

Speaking of bananas, Chiquita Bananas had their own tent. I got myself a banana hat and it was awesome! They were giving them out for free, but they were cool! I had so much fun wearing it.

I'm wearing it over my Tanaka Koki hat and it still looks ok.

While we were waling around in the back area, we could see all the grills they were using for "Robinson's Ribs." They were smoking and grilling a lot of meat. There was so much smoke everywhere.

It was so nice, we had a little picnic in the shade. Almost the perfect picnic.
My parents fell asleep after eating...

After the festival, we went into Chinatown because it was nearby. We were by New Chinatown.

My mom needed groceries... I wanted to take some pictures near zodiac square because they had all the cool statues, but it was a bit far(not really, it was a 2 minute walk) and we didn't have time. I did get a quick picture of the entrance of zodiac square.

As we left I also got a quick picture of the pagoda located in the center of the area.

And that was what happened recently. If I have more time again, I actually have some really interesting stuff to post.

Until next time, bye again.

Current Mood: bored
Current Location: Chicago

There was a rather annoying tornado warning for all of Fox River Valley, that includes Batavia. Just in case anything does happen, all we need to do is cross the bridge over the fox river and go to the tornado shelter in city hall. My restaurant doesn't have a basement... The Fox Valley area is a tornado hotspot in Illinois. It was so weird... It was hot and sunny this morning and then it got really dark, I mean REALLY dark. Next thing I knew... there were whole tree branches flying pass my windows. As strong as the wind was, it wasn't true tornado speed. Tornado speed wind can lift you off the ground and knock over powerlines... I won't explain how I know that. But it was strong enough to rip the trees apart. There was a heavy downpour too. Visibility was horrible, all you could see was water and mist, it was like a thick fog of water, you couldn't see anything in front of you. The thunder was really loud and scary too. The Fox River is going to crest, I know it will. Tomorrow will be a day of shovels and sandbags.

Besides the freaky weather, I found an agreeable Yokoyama Yu drama. Again, a minorly major role. This drama is called, "The Quiz Show 2" as it is the second season of the installment.

It's about a crazy gameshow host with a "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" setup and he tricks a group of contestants into a sort of dilemma regarding confessing to convictions/crimes and winning or saving their own skins and losing. The whole show is mind-bending! It's very psychological and very much fictional. It's like "Kurosagi" all over again, but in the innocent cover of a gameshow. Except Sakurai Sho has the lead role in this one. I know Yu will end up with a comedic role as usual. I can't wait to start watching this one. Then again, it would be really awkward if Yu got a serious role...

Arata kept recommending "Mr. Brain" because it has a similar feel to "Galileo." I don't know... I'm getting mixed opinions about that one from many people. I liked Galileo a lot, but the mysteries in it were baffling. No normal person would be able to figure them out, the murders were very complex. As for Mr. Brain, Arata kept stressing on Gackt's guest appearance in the drama and mentioned Kame making an appearance too.

My summer is beyond boring! Will someone... anyone give me j-drama suggestions that aren't "Wallflower" or "Mr. Brain," please...

Until next time, bye again.

Current Mood: bored
Current Location: housing HQ

So last week, I had the same lady who had high expectations. Since I had some basic knowledge of skating, she always asked me to do basic things like I should already know what they are. She would skate up to me and say, "work on swizzles and holding-strokes, I'll be right back." Because I'm just a beginner who pretty much skated for an entire season without any guidance, so I'm like, "WTF?! What's a friggin swizzle?! *dumbfound* A what stroke...? Hey, help me out, I have no idea what you're talking about." Her method is "listen to me and do it and I'll be right back." It doesn't help that she doesn't pay attention to our mistakes or even corrects them. I understand her, she needed to teach two classes at once because the second instructor had personal problems and was away for two sessions. Leaving her to watch two classes.

So today, the other instructor finally returned. His name is Adam and he's my new skating instructor. Apparently he's the crazy technical guy who wants everything to be perfect. He's a drill sergeant when it comes to posture and technique. He won't let you move on to the next lesson until you've mastered your current lesson. Miki was jealous because she prefers Adam. Miki got stuck with that other lady because Miki's in a different level from me. Miki told me that Adam is good because he works with everyone individually to perfect every detail.

Today, Adam kept picking on me because I don't hold my arms out for balance, I don't bend my knees, I don't skate with my feet together, I don't stroke properly, and I slouch. He made me do a whole bunch of ridiculous exercises because I lacked basics, understandable because I'm untrained. Besides being a crazy neat-freak, Adam's a cool instructor. I look forward to future sessions.

I've been taken to work again...
While at work. I was really bored and started looking up drama series to watch. I was in the mood for a Yokoyama Yu drama, I haven't seen him since "Yukan Club."

I really like Yokoyama Yu, he looks funny(in a good way) and he's very silly. I like hearing his ever-so-rare cheesy Chinese. Yu also does the best/funniest manzai acts I have ever seen. I was looking up both new and old dramas. I found one.... but... I was a little shocked. I ended up finding... I found yet another "Hey Say" drama with the same kid, Yamada Ryosuke. That boy shows up in everything I watch and he's on the cover of almost every magazine I look at.

This drama is called "Hidarime Tantei EYE." I spotted it because Yokoyama was on the cast list. I know for a fact that Yokoyama never gets major roles, but even though his roles are minor, he still plays a significant character. Anyways, Yokoyama gets killed in this drama and Yamada's character gets an eye transplant from deceased Yokoyama(they play brothers) and now he gets weird visions of what events led up to Yokoyama's death. I haven't watched this drama yet but I was like, "noooooo they killed off Yokoyama, oh wow Yu's gone downhill since Yukan Club." So... the debuted Johnny plays a dead guy with a minor yet significant role and the Jr. gets the lead role... Can't blame them, Yamada Ryosuke's got a good amount of acting experience and he's adorable. I remember from a while back, he had a minor role in "One Pound Gospel." That was one interesting drama, but I couldn't take it seriously nor could it's silliness hold my attention for long... because it was just another "Kame" drama and it felt a bit repetitive. Moving back to Hidarime Tantei EYE... I will attempt to watch this new detective drama, also because "Meitantei no Okite's" subs are taking forever and "Shibatora" refuses to let me obtain it. But yeah... this boy... Yamada Ryosuke... is everywhere...

Until next time... Hey... anyone have any j-drama recommendations???
I could really use some, I need to watch something during my rare freetime.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: housing HQ

Still playing Ragnarok Online DS. I beat the main story line but I'm still working on my guild fame and the other side quests. All the side quests are now available, but they're really difficult. I have 70% of missions left to do.

I'm going to sleep now... I have skating classes tomorrow morning.
Okay, see ya!

Current Mood: bored
Current Location: Chicago

Once I get a new game...
I won't put it down until I beat it...
Yup, still playing Ragnarok DS. So.... sorry, but I'll just post a little bit and go continue playing Ragnarok. Wah! My main party is nothing without Aoi as my "Shaman." I'm stuck with Lucifi (knight) and Lisir (wizard) who have no healing capabilities whatsoever. So I'm stuck wasting tons of zeny on potions, all because Aoi got kidnapped by evil forces. My current in-game mission is to rescue Aoi from being killed by the evil people. Aoi was my auto-healer, now she's unplayable, which means I need to manually heal everybody in my party.

Enough about my game!
I went to the dentist today and got some cavities filled... it hurt! Then we stopped at Ikea for lunch. I had a Swedish meatball meal with a yummy apple cake for dessert.

Along with mashed potatoes and lingon berry sauce. It was as good as always.

Apple cake.... *gulp*
It was..... very.... delicious... and it had such a cute little Swedish flag on it.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Chicago

I've been so busy this month.
I've been working on a personal project, working on myself, working at work, working on my Japan schedule and working on skating techniques. My journals have been unusually short because of it. Part of the lost time is from me playing video games all day just because I now have time for that.

Is it super lame of me to be playing a "Bakugan" game on my DS? Because I've been really bored too. My status bar says I've finished 64% of the game. the game is very repetitive. I got a little bored and got Ragnarok online for my DS. I've always played the online version of it. My "gunslinger," Ueda, is already at level 99 and I have the best weapon too. I like the DS one because I don't need to talk to other people. The other players are nice, but sometimes I run into jackasses every once and a while.

Was it weird of me to name my "archer" character "Shuta?"

The one with the red hair is Shuta.
For those familiar with Ragnarok, I've already got him up to "hunter" class. But I was thinking... wouldn't it be be cool if I named my arrow shooter Shuta? If I made a knight character, I probably would've named him something silly, like "Sir Scaredalot." As far as rpgs go, I'm well known for my hit and run style... It's mostly a lot of running.
My custom screen validates my character's name.

You can see the name in the upper-left corner. You can tell that I was pretty bored. I'm currently 17% through the game. Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures. I snapped some shots on my DS with my phone. I've been spending my freetime training Shuta, basically...

I wasn't even supposed to go to work today. Monday isn't my shift, it's my day off. My roommate was already there, there was no point for me to even go. They had all the help they needed!!! But NO!!! They still insisted that I go over there too. I was really mad, I didn't need to be there! I ended up going to work today, but I didn't enjoy it. I just sat and played Ragnarok on my DS. I refused to work today. I answered a few phone calls, but that was the extent of my services because everyone else there had no right to force me out to Batavia to work on a day I don't work on. I just sat and stared at customers that walked in and scanned the room, looking for a waitress to seat them. When customers signaled for help or their bill, I just ignored them, because I'm just a cashier, I don't do tables. I was informed that my task for the day was ONLY cashier. Other tasks are optional, but I was pissed and didn't feel like doing anything.

Also, the head chef was fed up with my immaturity and hit me. Literally HIT ME! It wasn't the usual nudge, it was a full on punch that left a bruise. I SAID THAT I WASN'T GOING TO WORK BECAUSE IT'S NOT MY SHIFT, YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO HIT ME!!!!!!!!!!! I can hardly move my arm, it's bruised up really bad. It hurt so much. I stood at the cash register crying. I cried for half the day. Customers walking in had very confused looks when they saw me crying. I cry looking down, so it was difficult to tell I was crying. I did not deserve to get beaten up in the kitchen when I didn't belong there today in the first place. SERIOUSLY!!!! WHAT IS THE HEAD CHEF'S PROBLEM?! WHY DID YOU NEED TO BEAT ME UP IN FRONT OF EVERYONE?! I WOULD'VE PREFERRED SCOLDING!

I'm sort of still mad, I'll recover.
I'm off to sleep....
until next time, bye again.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Chicago

Yesterday was Santi and Chi-an's wedding!
Miki and I had to cater for the entire party. A lot of people turned up for the wedding. It was a lot of work and I was working for free. The party took place at Santi's house. His house has no air conditioning. Not like it mattered, the majority of the party was outdoors. Not to mention that it rained all day, it was a good thing they set up tents. A lot of people still got soaked though.

Santi and Chi-an really wanted their food theme to be a full "Tapas" menu.

Appetizers

Empanadas
Steak w/ chimichurri
Bacon wrapped dates
Caprese
Arugula Salad

Main Entrees

Black beans
Rice
Grilled vegetables
Cuban pork roast
Paella con mariscos
Picadillo
Grilled plantains

Dessert

Madelines
Blueberry au citron
Flan cheesecake
Lemon cookies
Creampuffs

As we were discussing the menu, both of us gave Santi this weird look and said, "Santi... Caprese.. IS NOT Spanish!" But he wanted it anyways. As long as his wife could get the bacon wrapped dates, he didn't really care.

One of the downsides to catering is... you work in a place where no one sees you. You're in an enclosed area with little ventilation and near heat blasting stoves. I have to stand all day and it hurts my feet. It feels different to be backstage during a wedding. You get to see the bride get ready. The make up artist cakes her face with tons of make up and she puts on her amazing wedding dress. As they announce her arrival from outside, as she walks out that door, she holds her breath and gives a big wide smile of relief. Then she gracefully glides through the door that separates her from the groom. As Chi-an walked out that door, I could hear people in the hallway crying. Being backstage during a wedding truly is an amazing experience.
After the ceremony finished, we already finished preparing the appetizers. We begun to work on the main dishes. For the steak appetizer, we cubed the steak and trimmed the ends and fat off and left them on the side of the cutting board to not be served. Unfortunately... the groom snuck into the cooking area and he starting eating all the unusable meat-ends we left on the cutting board. Santi was stuffing his face with steak as he was telling us that they already ran out of steak outside. Then he started hoarding the fatty pieces of meat-ends on the cutting board. Santi said, "I know it's bad for my heart, but it's where all the flavor is!!!" He left us to work on the other food. We took the pork roast out of the oven and it was so juicy and tender. Not to long after we carved the roast and served it... Santi's brother, Victor... saw the pork fat we trimmed off the roast and he started attacking the cutting board just like his brother. Both of us yelled, "Victor! Away from the pork fat!!!" Victor, who was still stuffing himself with pork fat said, "but it's so yummy and it melts in your mouth." In my mind I was thinking, you're a doctor Victor, you more than anyone would know how horribly unhealthy consuming pork fat is.

While I was working on the paella, I was opening the Arborio rice with a really sharp knife. There's a saying between people who know me and it's "Never give Tessie a knife!" I tend to accidentally injure myself when using a knife. Commonly I've chopped off my own fingernails... and that's a normal occurrence. On some occasions I have bled. When I was cutting open the Arborio, I held the knife in my right hand and the bag of Arborio with my left. My left thumb and index held the top of the rice bag open while my right hand sliced the bag open. Because the Arborio is vacuum sealed, the bag will move when you puncture it. When I sliced through the bag, the bag puffed up and the bag became thinner. Because the knife was still going, I underestimated the strength I was using to cut the bag open. All of this happened very quickly, so there wasn't enough time to think. The knife ripped through the Arborio bag very quickly and sliced right through my thumb. I had cut so deep into the flesh of my thumb that it actually reached the bone. I started bleeding all over the kitchen sink. I thought I had lost my thumb, it was a lot of blood. This is the second time I have nearly cut my same thumb in half. The first time was from a meat cleaver. First impulse from getting cut is for me to rinse it in the sink. Conveniently right in front of me. Then I got a sheet of paper towel and applied a lot of pressure onto the cut. I was squeezing the cut shut with my index finger and continued cooking with my clean right hand. I was cooking with one hand for the rest of the wedding. You know, from the time I got cut, I've been requesting a bandage through Miki... and I never got it until the end of the wedding because Miki kept forgetting. For the whole wedding, I was clutching onto a paper towel because "someone" never grabbed me a bandage!

This catering job was a success and everybody loved the food. By the end of yesterday, I was really tired and in pain. Victor's wife, Sue, knew I worked really hard on the food and gave me a nice long back massage. After Sue was done, Santi attacked me with his chair massager. It was a basic wall plug-in massage device you attached to any chair. I was sitting on a stool so Santi just held it up to my back and pushed up against it. Ouch! It really hurt! He was jabbing that thing into my back, actually, he was leaning on it. He said the deep tissue massage is even better with applied pressure. Yeah right! My back still hurts even right now.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Chicago

I need to stop watching "We Got Married?!"
Crown J and his Atlanta obsession...

I've been suber busy lately! I almost have no time for LJ either. I need to be quick about this because I'm still at work, but I need to go into Chicago today, because of my insane schedule.

6/5   Santi and Chian's wedding
6/5   Catering for their wedding
6/6   Return to Batavia for work
6/7   Return to Chicago
6/8   Wondergirls/2PM concert
6/9   Go to work in Batavia
6/9   Commute back to Chicago
6/10 Skating lessons
6/10 Go to work in Batavia
6/16 Commute back to Chicago
6/17 Skating lessons
7/26 Leave for Japan...

My work schedule is still undecided. My feet are already bruised from working so much. Well, I need to work to have some spending money for Japan, even if it means I'll get lots of blisters. I'll work hard and try my best!

Regarding the wedding tomorrow, Miki went to go check out the banquet kitchen and I heard the landlady was really snippy about letting Miki use the banquet kitchen. She was concerned for liability issues and whether Miki was a professional or not. She kept saying she won't let non-professionals use the banquet kitchen. Really? She thinks Miki isn't a professional?! In order to handle food at all, you can't hire just anyone. Caterers need to have licenses to cook. Miki is a licensed and insured cook, she went to culinary school lady!!! That lady just took one look at Miki and said, "uh, no!" My guesses are... Miki forgot to mention that we are licensed under "Prangtipaya Inc." and the fact that we do own a restaurant. If that doesn't scream professional, then that lady is beyond stupid!

While all the wedding planners were over there, they were trying to haggle for a lower price to rent the banquet hall. Chian really wanted the price to be $1000, but the lowest that landlady would go is $2000. Someone made a comment that Santi refuses to admit that his fiancee is cheap. Chian's mother overheard and said, "NO... you no cheap, you rich... in mind!" Miki then said, "but I'm really cheap! I'm always on low budget!" Chian's mother kept saying, "Nooooo... you rich in mind!" Miki replied, "yeah, but I'm poor financially." Happiness within yourself is what makes you rich, not the amount of capital. Imagination goes a long way too. Chian's mother is awesome.

More about the wedding. I remember hearing stories about Santi's days as a model. He was really a model. He was in a lot of ads and magazines. I think I saw him in a "Johnny" magazine before, meh... it could've been my imagination(then again, it was confirmed). One of his modeling jobs was for "Levis." I only heard about one, but he's been in many things. I wonder what he does for a living now... Well, I'll get to see him tomorrow anyways. I wish Santi and Chian a long and happy marriage, best of luck to the happy couple!

Now... I must return to my relentless busy schedule. Oh, and I need to gather more intell on Japan.

Current Mood: bored
Current Location: Tusk Thai Cuisine

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epik_noodles

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August 2012

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Page generated Jul. 18th, 2025 11:09 am

Life's short and boring...

But I just want to write about it!

Entries tagged with my day

Sat Around.

Relaxation

Ahh... Mmm... I Don't Know.

New Hotel, New Day.

Wah....ha...

I'm in Japan...

This Anime is So Fun!

I Feel Bad...

Tummy Ache.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Found One!

Japanese Drama-a-thon!

I'm Not Dead, THE TASTE.

Scary Weather.

Instructor Change?! Yamada Ryosuke is Everywhere!

Continued...

Game Marathon...

Very Busy Week.

Here Comes the Bride...

"Too Much... A!"