Finally it has come to the day that I am sitting at a coffee shop, by my self, typing up my blog. (I actually don’t like the smell of Starbucks, but I didn’t know anywhere else to go…)

Dropped off Zu, she didn’t cry and just said “Bye.”
Last week was the first time she didn’t cry at preschool.  We were about to give up on the Preschool thing, but I am so glad that she is finally getting used to it.

I am doing something on my own.  By my self…  Strange…  A little uneasy of the fact that I am not running around doing something for the house, Zu, or us.  I am sitting down, sipping on tea at a coffee shop.
I said I wanted to do this when I find time for myself, but when it actually happens it just doesn’t feel right that I am not “Working” (mom job), you know!?

I even have a lunch date today with my girl friends!  It’s mid-day, and we are hanging out!  We usually have “Ladies Night”, where we all leave our kids with the dads and the Girls get together for a gourme potluck and drinks at one of our houses.  Lot’s of fun.  These are the times we get to let loose.  But this time it’s strange because it’s day time!  Our kids are in school or some of the girls are just coming out durning their lunch break from work.  I’m really excited!  We are going to a really good Japanese restaurant called Sharaku.  And it just so happens to be my cousins place, where I work!  I may like this lunch thing a lot.

So as I am typing this up, I am talking to my husband via iChat.  He says I need some “me time”.  What’s that?  Who’s me?  Me = ME! Ahhhh…  Such a strange concept that I haven’t had a chance to think about since before Zu!  Wow…  I feel a bit more comfortable with this “Me” thing now, than I did a year ago for sure!  I’m happier, more organized, and things are more under control.  Let’s see how this “Me” thing pans out in the next coming months.  I know I am going to start enjoying this.  Can’t get too cofortable though, we may want another little terror of joy.

Here’s a link to the lettus wrap recipe in the photo: my friend made it, I made the samosa’s.

http://cookpad.com/recipe/397456

Need it in English?  Just let me know and I will put up a post.

Our 3 year old has started Preschool this week.  She was so excited about going for the past week that we used Preschool as a tool for repremanding her now.  “You won’t be able to go to school if you don’t listen…”  It’s been working very well.

So she took off this past Tuesday, with her uniform hat, badge, princess lunch bag and back pack my grandmother made for her.  Very excited that she was going with daddy.  Although we were half an hour late, I had to stop and take pictures. 
I was so happy that she actually made the school year.  She couldn’t go if she wasn’t properly potty trained.  Loads of photo’s and excitement later.  I was FREE!  No kid to watch all day.  Wow…  This was an exciting day.  Or was it?

I’ve decided to occupy my time by working at my cousins restaurant.  The extra cash & awesome Japanese lunches they give us was a plus too.  I’ve never waited tables before, but it’s not too bad.  I’m such a slow pace person, I have to get used to the fast paced 3 hours.  I’ll get a hang of it I hope… It was so busy, from time in to time out, I didn’t even get a chance to think of what Zu was doing.

After work it’s time to pick up the munchkin.  This preschool is 10 miles away from my cousins restaurant.  A lot of driving…  (Is it worth it?)  Any who, on the way there on my 30 min. drive, it dawned on me.  It’s such a strange feeling to be this far from my child, and on top of that this is the first time that I have no idea what she’s been doing!  Did she eat all of her lunch, did she get to the bathroom OK, is she getting along with others, is she lonely without me…?  I don’t know if I can get used to this.
Now I have to depend on what Zu tells me and the one sentence the teacher writes on a little piece of paper, “She played house and didn’t cry even though it was her first day.”  That’s it!?  Who did she play with?  Was she alone?  Did she make friends?  Was she listening to the teachers?  Was she ALL BY HER SELF!? Alone???

Her lunch box was empty and she seemed fine.  Did she really eat all the food or did they dump what was left over, or did she spill all her food, or did some other kid eat her lunch?  I don’t know if I like not knowing…

I asked her how school was and she seems to not remember anything…  This really sucks.

Obentou

Day #2

New bento (lunch), and off she goes.

I guess this time letting go was hard for Zu and daddy.  Daddy was dropping her off with the teacher, she grabbed on and didn’t want to let go.  “Don’t go daddy. (sob)”  Teacher tears her away and daddy bolts away without looking back.  He said it was very sad.  Poor daddy…

So, my 2nd day at work.  Busier than before, it was over in a flash!  Grab my bento from the chef, and off to pick up the Zu-meister.  This day was “Everybody get in my way and drive super super slow day.”  It took me 35 min. to get there.  (IS it worth it?)

I walk in, she sees me, runs to me, “MAMA!”  All smiles, seconds later, crying.  “I want to go on the bus with my friends!”  There’s a school bus for this preschool, but it costs more to put her on the bus, and it doesn’t stop anywhere near our side of town so we are not using it.  I tell her, “If you go on the bus, you can’t go home with mama.”  She sais, “I want to go on the bus with you… (sob)”  I say, “That bus is for little people and not for mama’s.”  She stops crying and just starts walking towards the car.

Buckled in with her snack in hand, we are off.  Bus passes by, and cue the water works.  “My friends are leaving me~!!”  A minute of crying and 2 minutes later, “I LOVE MAMA, DADDY, AND OTIS, AND SIMON, AND I MISSED YOU!  YOU WERE WITHOUT ME!!”  Niagara Falls.  Poor baby, she was so tired and lonely she just couldn’t controll herself anymore.  I had to stop the car and calm her down.  2 minutes later, she passed out.  Poor thing…  I was so sad, I thought maybe we can wait a little longer for her to go to school?  She doesn’t really have to go yet.  Preschool is not a requirement…

But then I remembered why she’s going to that preschool that is 30 minutes from our house and is a full day.  It’s for her language skills, mainly.  This is a Japanese speaking preschool.  A full day of playing and communicating in Japanese.  We thought it was important for her to grow up knowing 2 languages.  I’ve been raising her speaking only Japanese to her, and her daddy only speaking English to her.  Living in the US, surrounded by English most of the time, you start losing the secondary language.  She was actually starting to lose some of her Japanese recently, so I really wanted her to go to a Japanese speaking school to be able to keep her heritage.

It was the same for me, my parents spoke Japanese, but I learned English anyway because we lived in the States.  Eventually we moved to Japan and I learned the language very quickly after we moved, but Zu may never live in Japan.  We’ll visit, but living there may never happen.
They say that if a child learns a 2nd language (conversational) perfectly by the age of 7, they will carry that with them forever.  I really am counting on this.  So up till the point that she goes on to 1st grade, I am going to try very hard for her to learn Japanese.  It is very important for her to learn Japanese now, at her age, or she may lose it forever.

Well, hopefully she will do better next week.  I’m sure it has a lot getting used to for her and for us.  This is a big step, and a good one.  Everything will work out at the end, I know it.

I saw this AD when I was searching on the internet on tips of how to potty train my daughter. “Potty Training in 3 Days!” Sounds wonderful, but I didn’t really want to pay to get that tip. Part of me was asking, “What if it’s all some kind of scam…?” So I just decided to take the advice of others and start potty training early, at 20 months. And if you have read my previous post, you know what happened, “Chronic Constipation.” It’s been almost a year from the diagnosis of my child not being able to poo because she is scared to poop in the toilet. They said it would take about 6 months to a year for her to start having a normal bowl movement (everyday).
So here we are today, proud parents of the child who, most of the time, poops every day. It has been a long battle and I am so glad that it’s almost over. She is almost completely potty trained, and guess what, it happened in a matter of 3 Days.

Because of her constipation, we were told to just quit potty training her and let her just go in her diaper, so I did just that. She was struggling with the pooping, so if she didn’t go in 3 days we had to bust out the suppository, which is the worst thing ever. You feel like you are torturing the kid. It hurt mentally so bad, every time we had to do it…
Any who, that is basically all over, and since she started wearing undies, and not diapers, I have some cool items that helped us out.

1. Okay, so lets start with the training pants. The “Imse Vimse Training Pants” are really nice for little accidents. It’s really soft, and absorbs a lot. They’re not water proof, so not recommended for nap time or bed time. They are a little on the pricey side, so we only bought 2 and one water proof one. Which we use the “Happy Heinys Pocket Trainers“. You can stuff it with cloth diapers for extra protection if you desire, it’s soft, and it’s water proof. Also, if they have a #2 accident, the sides snap off so that it’s easy to take off.
   My little girl still wears night time diapers at night though, because I know she will go while she’s sleeping. That will be the next step, but I’m not rushing. I’ve watched my friend run to grab her kid in the middle of the night, so she won’t wet the bed. I like the relaxation I have at the moment.
2. Next the “Potty”. I think it’s important that you keep the comfort of your child and their likes and dislikes in mind when you are choosing a potty. It’s a whole new world to them, having to take their pants off, diapers off and sitting on a cold seat. We first got the “Safety 1st Comfy Cushy 3-in-1 Potty“, because it seemed most practical. It’s a potty, and could be converted onto a training seat. We also liked the fact that it is very cushy and comfortable. I think it’s good to have both a potty and a toilet trainer, because you never know what they are most comfortable with.
   Because we were having her sit on this seat before we would change her at 22 months, she was not uncomfortable with the transition to the toilet.
   Now, the seat seems a little bit too small for her heinie, so we got her a new trainer.
   We have been to a friends that have the “BabyBjörn Toilet Trainer“, which is very nice, it stays in place very well, love the design and color, and is pretty sturdy. It’s a hard seat, but that doesn’t seem to bother Zu. She seems to think it’s more grown up. I would have bought this one if I could do it over. We considered it, but we chose something cheaper, because we didn’t know how long she would be using it. We bought the “Soft Seat Toilet Trainer – Disney Winnie the Pooh” It’s cushy, not too ugly (not Disney Princess or Dora) and affordable. Forget the design, Zu seems to like it a lot.
3. Travel Potty’s are very important for me right now. There are those times when we would be in a place where there is no restroom in sight. And at the park, I DO NOT want to go near those public restrooms, I don’t even like to use those, they give me the creeps… So this is what we have, “Kalencom POTETTE – On the Go Potty“. You can get it at Babies R Us. It comes with a bag that has a absorbent sheet in it, that I personally think it was meant for a Chipmunk it’s so small… We just use regular plastic grocery bags with our left over “gDiapers Flushable Refills“. It’s just plain easy and wonderful. The Kalencom Potette is small, you can fold it up and leave it in the car. We took it camping, to the park, very long car rides, bike rides, and just any where. I really love this!! I am so much more comfortable when she says “おしっこ！(oshikko:I need to pee).”, that she gets to go in a more sanitary environment.
4. The other thing is a trainer seat for traveling. I like the “Mommy’s Helper Cushie Traveler” because it’s cushy and comfortable. It’s perfect for traveling and staying in a hotel or a relatives house for a long weekend. The first travel one we had, “Safety 1st Easy Care Adapter Seat“, is probably why Zu got scared of the toilet. This travel seat does not stay in place, is flimsy and really, I have nothing good to say about it… I sat Zu down on it while we were traveling in California, and it pinched her butt. She was so scared of the toilet with that thing on it, she refused to sit on the toilet again. This was a disaster. I should have read the review, rather than just buying it on the spot.
   Originally I bought a travel seat because I hated the idea of my daughter having to sit on a public toilet. I got one and it very quickly was just one more thing that took up space and another thing I had to lug around in my already huge bag. I soon stopped going everywhere with it and just sprayed the seats with the “Clean Well Pocket Sanitizer“. This stuff smells like eucalyptus, it’s all natural, safe for kids, and it kills 99.9% of germs. It’s a spray and not a gel, so it’s fast and easy to sanitize the seats. Also it really keeps your skin smooth, not dried up feeling like those gel ones with alcohol.
5. Finally, a good reward. Zu doesn’t normally get certain stickers, so we made a sticker chart, and she got to stick a “Littlest Pet Shop” sticker on it every time she pooped in the toilet. And sometimes she gets a manicure, if she goes.

Potty training was a territory that seemed so unapproachable, but in reality, I think you just have to sit back and just let them get there at their own pace. I really felt the pressure and tried early on, but it totally back fired on me. She knew how to go, she just couldn’t tell when to go. Now, I don’t think there should be any rush to get them out of their diapers. To tell you the truth, I think it’s easier when they are in their diapers sometimes…
OK, so after her 3rd birthday, we decided to try again. I did exactly what my friend did when her daughter potty trained when she was a little over 3. They potty trained in 3 days.
We got a pack of Princess Undies and I told her, “Princesses use the toilet, they don’t pee and poop in their diaper. You’re a big girl now, would you like to join the princesses and become one too?” She jumped to the idea. She put the undies on, we played outside, she wet herself. She was extremely upset. “I won’t be a princess!” So we tried again. Again she wet herself… She was really mad. This day was a failure.
Next day, we tried again. We went to the bathroom when she woke up, a couple hours after she had something to drink, before and after lunch, a couple of hours after her juice, before and after her nap, before and after dinner, and before bed time. No accidents. Yeah!!
3rd day, we try again. First we went to the toilet when she woke up, and then I tried to let her tell me when she needed to go. She wet herself… She was very frustrated. We tried again. This time, right after lunch she told me she had to go, and only one accident since then. That was about a month ago. Yeah!!! We did it!

So it’s true, you CAN potty train in 3 days. You just need to find the right timing. Here’s a tip, put your child in undies, if they get upset when they wet themselves, you can quite possibly start potty training. If not, wait a little longer. There’s no rush. You could feel the pressure when some people around you are potty trained, but seriously, what is the rush?

Oh, I love IKEA! We just got a shoe cabinet there for our shoes that sit around in front of our back door. Sukkiri shimashita (translation: feels very clean).

Anyway, IKEA has great affordable stuff, but also some great grocery items. They have these awesome thin crunchy cookies that are dipped in semi-sweet chocolate, that comes in a ginormous box of maybe 100 cookies, that I really know I shouldn’t buy… (drool) Or that Lingenberry Juice concentrate and Lingenberry jelly. Well this time, I found something that I’ve actually been wanting. This was not an impulse buy, I actually have seen it in a magazine and really wanted to try it, but I could not find it any where! But now, the fabulous have-it-all IKEA had it.

Kalles

“Kalles: Creamed Smoked Roe” from Switzerland.
Roe is fish eggs, fancy people call it caviar. It’s those tiny little balls that are on top of a California Roll. Japanese people just love roe. It’s a really fancy thing to eat. We put roe on things to make food look festive. Mentaiko is my favorite, walleye pollack roe that has been salted and spiced up with some red pepper. And one of my favorite things to do with this Mentaiko is to make Mentai Spaghetti! It is SO GOOD!!
Back to the Kalles, in a Japanese magazine, this lady who lived in the UK reported about this Kalles, to substitute the Tarako, which is the non spicy version of my favorite Mentaiko. I’m thinking, “I need this magic in a tube! Deliciouse Tarako anytime I want, whenever I want is a beautiful thing!!!” And now I have my magic in a tube, all thanks to the importing of IKEA gourmet grocery’s.

After bringing home my Kalles, I have immediately opened the tube and tried a little. Not exactly what I had in mind… A little more sweet… A bit more smokey… But good! It was one of those, put on your cracker or put on your toast kind of creamy, smokey, and roe-y. I could make my pasta with this!

Here’s my recipe for this Kalles Spaghettini for 2

• 1 tbsp of Kalles, Creamed Smoked Roe
• 80 grams of Spaghettini
• A knob of Butter
• 1/4 tsp Red Chili Pepper Flakes
• 1 knob of garlic minced
• 1 tsp Goma (Toasted Sesame Seeds)
• 1/2 sheet of Nori (Sea Weed) cut into paper shredder thin strips that are about 2 inches long
• 1/2 a pack of Kaiware (Radish Sprouts)
• Salt to taste

Boil the spaghettini in well salted water and drain. This is a very quick cook so the pasta shouldn’t cool.

In a large pan, melt the butter with the red chili pepper flakes and garlic. When you start smelling the garlic, turn off the burner and add the Kalles. Mix swift and well, add the spaghettini and toss with the Goma and sprouts. Salt to taste and serve with the sea weed sprinkled on top. Yummmm.

So Hollywood came to Michigan.

The State where I am living, is giving a 40% tax break to Hollywood to film here. This is great for our economy. Hopefully it will drive different businesses to our state, because we really need it right now…

They are filming a Clint Eastwood movie, some TV series from the makers of “Lost”, and they are filming on our street, basically right in front of my house for some Indi production.
It was exciting at first, annoying after a while, and now I can’t wait for them to be gone tomorrow.

They started shooting last week, for this movie called “Youth in Revolt” directed by Miguel Arteta, and starring Michael Cera (Juno’s boyfriend), Steve Buscemi, Ray Liotta, Jean Smart, etc. Story is “While his trailer trash parents teeter on the edge of divorce, 14-year-old Nick (Michael Cera) sets his sights on dream girl Sheeni Saunders, hoping that she’ll be the one to take away his virginity.” It’s supposedly a comedy. I feel that they are stretching it a bit to make a 20 year old as a 14 year old character. Maybe make him at least 16 for the sake of putting too much pressure on all the 14 year olds about loosing their virginity out there. (I know, having a child as a teenager is so Hollywood right now…)
Yeah, anyway we were not happy that we were made into the trailer trash neighborhood at first, but we heard that they are shooting not the trash part here so… (We’ll see, once the movie comes out.)
Any who, we saw Fred Willard, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, and Jean Smart, so far in person. Jean Smart seems to be a very nice lady. Tall, and very pretty. I guess she hurt her leg so she is walking with a cane right now. I feel bad… I only got to see Fred Willard from afar, and Zach Galifianakis sat in front of our house on the steps talking on his cell phone.
I tried to get my friend an autograph by Michael Cera, on the “Super Bad” DVD that we borrowed from him, and failed the first attempt.

There have been so many people, that I have never seen before, on our street ” On Their Walks”, that it started to get a bit annoying. My dog was going nuts from all the traffic we were getting in front of our house. (I seriously think he was freaking out.)
I can’t just walk up and down the street with my daughter because they are shooting. I have to go around the block to get out of my neighborhood now, not the simple drive down the street. And the waiting in my car or side walk for them to call “CUT”. 2 weeks is more than enough.
Our street has never been so lively, more so than Gay Day and the Dream Cruse. Which is a big deal around here. It’s just a little too much now though…

So today is the final day of shooting in front of my house, and I cannot be happier. I just had one mission to get done. Have Michael Cera sign the DVD.
We were across the street today at our neighbors, when we spotted him. He was coming down the side walk to come to the Craft Services truck for some snacks. We spotted that opportunity, and we took it. We had my 3 year old daughter take the “Super Bad (Unrated Extended Edition)” down the drive way to the truck where Michael Cera was standing. She looks up to hand him the DVD. My cute little daughter in her night gown, who can resist that!? It was too cute! Then it happened. Michael Cera gave us the “What the #$%& look”. I’m a little pissed. You don’t do that in front of my daughter! I don’t care who the funk you are. She is awesome and cute and is doing this for me (and a bag of chips). But seriously, who does that in front of a 3 year old!? To make her feel like she was doing something wrong for even a second. That’s upsetting. He just acted like a spoiled Hollywood kid that didn’t want anyone in his space. He didn’t even see any of the cuteness in that. And look at the body guard, looking all tough, intimidating my little princess. Michael Cera’s not that cool, kind of strange, he seems to be the same person he is in the movies. Does that mean he’s not really acting…?
Well, I am going to wait for the movie to come out on On Demand anyways.

I don’t care about him, Zu did a great job! She is awesome. Very ballsy, just like her mother. She also got some chips out of the deal. Thank you Reva from Craft Services!

Well, the mac guy is supposed to be coming to my friends block next week, so I would like to go see that from her front porch. Maybe… Maybe he’ll sign my iBook for me.

It’s been a year since we signed up for having the same monthly payment on our electric bill. They base it on how much energy you spent the year before and take the guesswork out of the bill by paying the same amount every month.
So this is our 12th month and we have seen the results.

Since last year, we’ve changed most of our lights to energy efficient lights, turned up the AC of our house about 2 degrees, unplugging electronics not in use, and made sure we didn’t have any lights on rooms we weren’t using.

Here are the results. Our bill for electricity this month is at $0.00! And our next months bill will be credited about a fifth of the amount we usually pay!! This is awesome!!! This makes me very excited. To see these results make me know that I AM making a difference. Extremely rewarding.
Also if you consider the fact that we got a 5 gallon fish tank with filter, air bubbling thing, and heater for it that runs 24/7 , which I feel extremely guilty about, and is connected to a power strip. (Purchased for the 3 gold fish my daughter won at a Japanese festival, that have since all been replaced with 3 tropical fish within a year…)
We’ve done extremely well this year! Good job me.

There are small things that make a difference and I think everyone can start by turning their AC to 1 degree higher than what they usually have it set at. Trust me, your body will get used to it after a while and you’ll feel great about the difference you are making. It’s summer, it’s supposed to be hot, naturally your body is not made to go from 86 degrees outside to 75 degrees inside. I challenge you. Try 78 or 79 this year. Turn the air off at night and circulate the air in your home with a fan facing out. We have our AC set at 80 when my husbands home, and 81 when he’s not. 82 for the pets when we all leave the house.

Maybe next year we’ll be up to 82! I don’t think John can handle that, he does not like the humidity… but a little humidity is great for the skin. Less wrinkles.

So lets all try to get healthier and pretty, and save our environment all at the same time.

Food in Japan is incredible. I’m not just talking about the Japanese food, I’m talking about any kind of food.  You can get Italian food and it tastes better, Chinese food is authentic, even a hamburger tastes better.  How is that? Is it possible that they have better, more fresh, ingredients than what we have here in the U.S.?  That has to be the answer!

I come home from my long, wonderful stay in Japan, and I am not in the slightest mood of getting back in the swing of, having to cook every meal in order to have a decent one, so we get carry out.  It wasn’t bad.  We got my favorite Lebanese food, from the Lebanese (Anita’s) restaurant 2 blocks away from us.  Since you can’t find Lebanese food that easily in Japan, I was craving it!
But the next day I go to our local Japanese market, because of the empty bachelor fridge my husband left for me, it was actually depressing.  There is a limit to what you can buy, since they only import 2 options of one thing, and the look of the fish in the cases not that great.  Is this because we are in the Mid-West and have to have everything shipped frozen, or packed in ice?  Before I left for Japan, this was the most fresh place to buy fish.  Doesn’t look anything like what I had in Japan.  Now it doesn’t seem that great.  My mouth has been spoiled.

Being by the ocean, eating fresh caught fish is like eating something from heaven, compared to the once frozen, possibly was caught last week, kind of fish you can buy here…  I pretended that I didn’t know it wasn’t that fresh, and thought maybe I can trick myself into thinking the Sashimi here would be good, so I got some tuna, some salmon, and some yellow tail to take home to have sushi hand rolls that evening.
I also had to stop at the market for some veggies.  I expect Whole Foods to have the best ingredient I can find, since you dish out a bit more to shop there.  So I’m looking, looking, looking…  It’s summer, where are the fresh good lookin’ veggies?
When you shop for veggies in Japan, the super markets are loaded with great looking veggies that are in season.  When I say good looking, I really mean good looking!  The carrots are all the same size, amazingly orange, the strawberries are all the same size in each packet, and are bright red.  Nothing at all close to being wilted or even bruised!  Almost too good looking that I feel guilty cutting it up to use it.
Then back to my real world in the U.S., where the carrots are mostly crooked and for some reason split down the middle, the banana is either green or bruised, and anything with leaves, you can’t use the first 5 layers because they are crushed.
I know it just sounds like I’m just complaining, and I’m just some kind of Japan lover, WHICH I am…, but it’s true!  You really have to see it to believe it.  Even the meat is so much better!  Beautifully marbled and so fantastic that you don’t have to worry about eating Organic.  They don’t use hormones to grow the cows!!  You can also have pork & chicken rare, and not worry about getting salmonella poisoning.  Now that is amazing.  Even the cheap meat at the supermarket is GOOD!!
Anyway, back to my dinner that night.  Disappointing. My lovely sushi dinner that I expected, turned out that I couldn’t cheat myself.  What am I going to do…

I know what exactly is going to happen.  I am going to be disappointed for a little while, then the whole denial thing kicks into my brain, and things I eat here start tasting better again.  Maybe it’s the same chemical that is dispersed after you give birth, so that you forget about the pain you go through during child birth so that you would actually consider having another child.  OK, maybe I’m exaggerating but I’m still a bit disappointed in what I’m getting…

Next weekend, I am planning on going to the farmers market, hoping for something better.  Also my friend has told me of a local organic farmer that will sell a whole pig for a fantastic price!  She also has mentioned how delicious the eggs are too.  I would love to try some.

So here is my future menu for my organic pig & eggs.

Niku-jaga (Pork and Potato’s)

• Half a pound of pork belly meat cubed. (This is hard to find in regular grocery stores here so having my own pig butchered gives me this opportunity. You can also find pigs belly meat at most Korean or Japanese Markets frozen)
• 1 knob ginger sliced
• 3 Yukon Gold potato’s
• 1 or 2 carrots
• 1 large Vidal Onion sliced
• 1 block of Konnyaku (Konjac)
• 4 hard boiled eggs peeled.
• 4 Tbsp of Sake (cooking rice wine)
• 3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 2 Tbsp Mirin (or half honey, half white wine)
• 1/2 to 1 Tbsp of Sugar (depending on how sweet you like it) Start out with 1/2 and add more to taste)

Cut all ingredients into bite size pieces and soak the potatoes in water for about 10 min.  Heat up you Le Creuset pot and melt a small knob of butter. Brown the pork on both sides, add enough water to cover the pork and boil for 10 min.  When done, dump water and rinse off the pork.
Put another small knob of butter in the pot and fry up the ginger on medium low heat until fragrant, about a minute.  Put the carrots, potato’s, in the pot and add the pork, eggs, and Konnyaku on top of that and finally cover with the onions.  In a small bowl add the Sake, Soy Sauce, Mirin, & Sugar and put in microwave for 1 min and dissolve sugar.  Pour sauce over the pot with the pork, cover and simmer on medium low for 15 ~ 20 min. Stir and finish cooking with no lid until all veggies are cooked through.

Enjoy with rice & Miso soup or even Udon Noodles.

It’s been a while since my last post.
We’ve been running around for 3 weeks straight that the exhaustion has finally caught up with me. We have been staying in for 3 days now because of my cold.

Any who, let’s finish the 26 hour trip.

After the 13 hour flight we finally arrived at Tokyo Narita Air Port, which is not really in Tokyo. It’s actually in Chiba, which is about an hour out of the city of Tokyo.
There was a mom with 2 kids, a 3 year old boy and a 1 year old girl, sitting in the row in front of us on the flight. The boy was extremely active (kind of hyper), and I don’t think he slept at all. He kept bouncing on the seat, wanting to walk around, and throwing things at our seat. Having a 1 year old, who is trying to sleep, and can’t because of the unfamiliar surroundings, and the awfully impatient son, I felt so bad for the mom, I almost offered her the Benedryl I broughtto knock the boy out for just a little bit. The mom looked exhausted after the flight. I hope I never have to experience what she had to go through.

At the airport, we picked up our luggage and tried to find a place that sold a pre-paid SIM card. No one knew where to get one. Since we had 20 minutes to catch the bus to Tama Plaza, where my mom was picking us up, we had to rush to buy the ticket and find the bus stop. Although I speak the every day language pretty fluently, there are a lot of words I don’t know. Since it’s been a while since I’ve been in the world of Japanese people, it was a bit hard to understand the explanation of where the bus stop was. They just talk so fast, and the Japanese business language (proper language) is not commonly used around me, it’s hard for me to understand. I ended up just followed the pointing.

I finally slept on the one and a half hour bus ride to Tama Plaza, in Yokohama. John got to see the out skirts of Tokyo on the way into the city from the Inaka (country side) of Chiba.
From the Tama Plaza station, we drove another one hour to get to Shizuokaken, Susonoshi (on Mt. Fuji), where my parents now live with my 87 year old grandmother.

After a long, long 26 hours of traveling, and a quick stop at the super market, we have finally arrived at our destination at 7:00 pm Japan time (6:00 am Eastern Time).

Our first meal, super market bought Sushi and Karaage (Japanese Fried Chicken). Compared to the sushi you can buy at the super market in the US, this was like going to Nobu or one of those expensive sushi restaurants. It was really good.
So, I will share my sushi rice recipe & Karaage recipe.

Sushi Rice:

• 2 cups of short grain rice (half white half brown)
• About 5 cm (2 inches) of Dashi Kombu (Kelp)
• 2 and a half tbsp of sugar
• 1/2 tbsp of salt
• 3 and a half tbsp rice vinegar

Clean the rice and let it sit in a strainer for about 30 minutes. Then add the Kombu on top of the rice and cook in a rice cooker, with the appropriate amount of water (about 2 cups).

Meanwhile, combine the rice vinegar, salt and sugar.

When the rice is done, place the rice in a large bowl and add the vinegar mixture. Combine well.
The rice may seem very wet, but as you combine the rice with the vinegar, the rice will suck up the vinegar and will start to get sticky again. Constantly mix the rice until sticky.

Now you have the perfect sushi rice to make your own sushi.

Karaage:

• Boneless chicken thigh meat (recommended with skin), cut into chunks.
• 1 knob of ground ginger
• 1~2 knobs of garlic minced
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 4 tbsp sake
• Pinch of salt & pepper
• Potato starch or corn strach for batter

Take all the ingredients except for the potato starch and combine well to marinade the chicken for about 10~30 minutes.

Heat oil to about 350°F.

Take the chicken and cover with the potato starch batter. Fry for about 5 minutes each. Batter may look white in parts when done, but that’s just fine. It’s actually tastier that way. Sprinkle with a little bit of salt, and enjoy.

Our long travel ended with us not even finishing our sushi dinner. I was exhausted…

4:30 in the morning we are dropped off at the air port with 3 bags to check, 2 carry on bags, 2 personal bags and a stroller. 3 check in bags are on wheels. 1 carry on is on wheels, 1 is a duffel bag, and we had the stroller… Wait a minute. We have 2 adults, and a 2 year old. Who is going to pull the 5 things on wheels and carry the half asleep toddler? We should of listened to Johns friend and got one of those carts to put all the bags.
Oh well, so I push the stroller with the toddler, carrying 1 personal bag, the duffel bag, while pulling the other carry on and John tried to push and pull 3 big bags on rollers. That’s my man. (hee hee hee)
We get to the check in counter. All of our bags check in at under 40 pounds. Oooooh, I’m good…

On to the next hurdle, “Going through Security”.

Take off the shoes, take off the jackets, take out the 2 lap tops and put them on separate trays, fold the stroller down, take out both of the 7.5 by 8 baggies with our 3.4 ounces or less liquids, and the other zip lock bag for the toddler with all of her 2 packs of 8 oz Organic Milk and 1 pack of 8 oz Soy Dream + 2 fruit cups (which may be allowed on board but must be declared to the TSA at the security checkpoint for screening.), have toddler put stuffed animal to be screened as well.
We got our bag on rollers checked because of our camera, but everything else went surprisingly smooth.

Before getting on the flight I get a mocha and a bagel and take my echinacea. The flight from Detroit to Newark was very rocky. I got air sick for the very first time in 31 years of traveling. I’m regretting the Mocha I decided to get before I got on the plane. Thank GOD it was a short flight.

Newark Air Port is HUGE. We got out, started to walk, John calling T-Mobile to tell them to unlock our phones for the ???teen time before we leave the country and end up not having a phone. Yes, they can unlock your phone and you can buy a pre-paid SIM card in the other country and use your PHONE!! (I do recommend you on doing this maybe a month ahead of time to avoid what we went through. We just found out that Japanese cel phones don’t use sim cards though… So can’t use the phone anyway for other countries that do have sim cards.)
Any who, we had to walk a bit and then catch the little People Mover to go to the next terminal, where our plane was taking off from. We had to go through security again. (ugh) This time the TSA stopped me and told me that I couldn’t bring in that much milk. I told him that I knew that you could bring that amount for my Toddler as long as I declared it, do to the information on their web site, he let us go. And he thought I had no clue… (But just in case they give you a hard time, make sure you bring a print out of the airline carry on restrictions so that you have proof.)

It was about 11 am, so we decided to get some subs before we board onto our 13 hour flight. As some of you may know, I thought we were only going to get a lunch on this 13 hour flight so I thought about eating and packing as much food as I can before I got onto this plane… Turns out I was a bit wrong.
During this 13 hour flight we got lunch, a snack of pretzels, dinner, breakfast and even ice cream. I’ve always hated food on the plane, especially the meat and fish are gross! So I called ahead of time and ordered a special needs meal for Zu and myself. We are vegetarian for this flight and Zu, because of her chronic constipation, is Vegan. Our meal turned out to be surprisingly good, but one of the bad things was, is that they only got Zu’s special needs order, and not mine… (sob) That’s okay though, Zu ended up sleeping through the Palak Paneer dinner, which was pretty good, except for the fact that Continental doesn’t know what Vegan means, or they don’t know that Paneer is cheese. And during lunch, she wanted the chicken nugget like patty that was in my Chicken sandwich, that the flight attendant said, “Sorry for not having your Vegetarian meal, but we have chicken or fish, would you like that instead?” Vegetarian…, chicken…? fish…? I had no idea those were vegetables. Well, I went for the, vegetarian meal substitute, Chicken and Zu liked it. Breakfast was a more curry like dish. Zu was sleeping so I ate it for her. Apparently all vegetarians are Indian, or Indian lovers to have some sort of curry in all 3 meals of the day. Oh, did I forget to mention that the veggie burger served for lunch had a hint of curry and coriander to it?

So in honor of my pretty good Vegan (Indian) flight menu, here’s a recipe for the Continental Vegan.

Chicken Tomato Curry:

• 400g of Boneless Skinless Chicken Thigh Meat
• 1 onion
• 1~2 carrots
• 1 can of black beans (drained)
• 1~2 knobs of garlic (minced)
• 1 knob of ginger (grated)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp curry powder
• 1 large can of crushed tomato
• 1 cube of chicken bullon
• 1/4 tsp galam masala (if available)
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 1 tbsp basil
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 a lemon
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• a dollop of plain yogurt for garnishment

In a large Le Creuset pot (or large pot with lid), on medium heat, brown the chicken with 1 tbsp of the butter. To the same pan, add the vegetables with the rest of the butter and saute until tender. Add all other ingredients except the yogurt and mix well. Cover and turn heat down to simmer. Cook for about an hour. That’s all! Serve with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream and eat it with your favorite Nan or rice.

Not sleeping yet…

This could get long so I am splitting this story in several parts.

It’s been 8 years since I’ve been in Japan, and our first trip as a family to Japan.

Flying with my daughter has always been surprisingly fabulous. She sleeps, hangs out in the seat, and just chills. But this time it’s not that 4~5 hour flight to San Diego, it’s a 1 hour flight to Newark, 3 hour wait until the next flight, then a 13 hour flight to Narita (Tokyo, Japan), 2 hour bus ride, then the one and a half hour car ride to Mt. Fuji. A lot longer.

Our day started at 4 am (Eastern Time) and ended at 6 am (Eastern Time) = 26 hours.

10:30pm, we go to bed. An hour later than when we really wanted to, but we had to get all of our bags to weigh less than 40 lb. I’ve been packing and getting ready for this trip for a week! Making sure I had everything I need and not more than what I need. Packing for 2 months is kind of hard. Luckily we are flying to a country that has everything, if we forgot anything.
Packing carry-on for toddlers takes a lot of thinking. Let’s go over my list:

1. Laptop with toddler games (Sesame Street), DVD’s in a small CD case, and head set.
2. Playdough (pack of 3, $1) with plastic knife and fork (disposable, just in case they lose it, it doesn’t matter)
3. Crayons and coloring book. Compliments of the Mazda dealership)
4. Stickers, to stick anywhere. Thank you Whole foods for all the free stickers!
5. Lots of small snacks, salty to the savory. Not too many sweets or they will be so hyper that they won’t stay in their seats.
6. Sweatshirt for the cold flight.
7. An extra set of clothing. Just in case of an accident.
8. Night time diapers, so you don’t have to freqent the bathroom to change them.
9. Ear Planes. For air pressure relief. & a echinacea sucker for strengthening immune system and pressure relief.
10. And a secret life saver. One fun toy that you don’t let your child know that you bought, and bust it out when you ran out of everything and you need something. I got her a few pets from the Pet Shop collection.

That’s all that was in Zu’s bag for this flight.
Our other carry on (since I read the itinerary wrong and thought they ONLY served lunch on this 13 hour flight), we packed grapes, bananas (you can buy fruit at the airport but they tend to be over priced), sandwiches, a couple onigiri, snacks, candy, neck pillows, eye mask, ear plugs, thick socks, poncho (can be used to wear or as a blanket), books, sudoku (get a gel pen, they usually don’t explode on flights), plug adapter for laptop (most of the time you need a EmPower adapter, you can find one at Target for about $40 in the electronics section), camera, and toiletry kit.

Our alarm clock went off at 3:30am. John (my husband) tells me that we have 30 more minutes until we have to wake up. So Not True!! We had to leave in 30 minutes to check in for our flight at 6:40am. He’s lucky I’m one of those people who can’t really fall back asleep after once waken up.
We get ready, Johns friend comes to pick us up. 3:50am get Zu (our daughter) and put her in the car. We packed most of the stuff in the car the night before. Smart way to travel if your leaving on a Red Eye or some thing super early like our flight. We got out of the house with practically no delay.

Now here’s a menu for some carry on food that I packed.
Onigiri (rice ball) for 2+toddler

• 1 and 1/4 cup frozen rice nuked.
• Salt & pepper
• Tuna
• Vinegar (you can use tuna, but I don’t recommend it for long flights)
• Sugar
• Soy Sauce
• Scallions finely chopped
• Sea Weed

In a bowl mix 2 tbsp tuna or salmon, 1/2 tsp vinegar, 1/2 tsp soy sauce, 1/4 tsp sugar, scallions and salt & pepper to taste.
Take 1/2 cup rice, make a little ball wrapping the 1/3 of the tuna mixture. Wrap with sea weed.
Repeat with 1/2 cup rice, and finally with 1/4 cup rice for toddler.
Very yummy and very satisfying for a small snack. Here’s a link to How To Video.

This is all for prepping for that International flight. This is “PreRestless in 26 hours”.

Continues….