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!

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!

I have been enjoying my iPod (and iTunes) a lot lately and spend quite a bit of time organizing my music library. I am trying to get cover art for all my music, which usually involves google image search. It’s very easy and I can usually find anything in a minute or so. I have also started fine tuning the way my smart playlists work. Since I started ripping all my music to .mp3, I have usually lumped all my Japanese music into the Jpop genre. But I am starting to convert my mp3 tags and iTunes xml tags to use the comment field to put in the language. First, to all the songs that are currently labeled with the genre Jpop, I put Japanese in the Comment field. And now I am starting to update the genre fields to be a bit more specific. The problem I was having was that artists like Utada Hikaru, Zard, M-Flo, and Morning Musume were all in the Jpop genre, but their sounds are very different. Now I tagged my Utada songs with R&B, Zard is Rock/Pop, M-Flo is Rap/HipHop, and Morning Musume is Pop. I think this will give me a lot more flexibility when I make my smart playlists. Not sure yet if it will really be easier or just a hassle, but at least it will be more accurate. **-_More below_-**

My mini-infatuation with Yukie Nakama, Yankumi from Gokusen, has led me to the Japanese movie, Shinobi: Heart Under Blade, which was released last year. It looks really good, with some cool fighting and beautiful scenery, and of course Yukie Nakama in the starring role. I haven’t found any info about a U.S. release, either big screen or dvd, but I’m hoping it comes out, as I’d like to have my precious subtitles. It’ll be on dvd in Japan in a couple weeks, but poor Mariko is not into the whole “what is he saying?” bit throughout the entire movie.

QuickTime Trailer: 320×137 | 480×205

You can view the HD version here.