Tag Archives: ramen

Personal Musings

Diary-ish: typhoons, corn, tidying up + RR

Aug. 6 I tried to clean up some email inboxes, got a bit done, so much behind on correspondence of all sorts. Can’t dare open up Messenger or Messages or DMs or whatever else is lingering. My brain just cannot get going and sleep remain elusive. Did an unscheduled clean of bedroom :( – let’s just say there are challenges involved with not having a foundation on the house

Aug. 7 A new stamp to track how I’m doing as i add different supplements, medications, processes and procedures / today is really tough as to low barometric pressure from a typhoon “somewhere nearby” is crushing my little head.

Kinda doesn’t look like it but did a little bit of a tidy up of the writing & misc desk/bookshelf area which is sort of squeezed in the corner next to the piano.

[No big deal but if you look really close you’ll notice several interesting artifacts and art pieces including an original Nick Bantock piece and some exceptional books on the shelf]

{there’s probably a German word to say how “every available flat surface quickly gets covered up by stuff”}

And that Kenwood audio deck has turned out to be a great purchase! Plays CDs plus AM/FM (all three of which we use often), also Bluetooth and USB which are used much less frequently. We’re kind of a physical media family. The two record players are in the kura.

Two headscarves (what’s the proper term?), one from Oman and one from Dubai (or is that the one from Jordan?) and a handmade cloth from island of Yap on top of the piano (which, along with the kamidana are next for a tidy up)

Family shrine in tidy up process… Top of piano not improved as yet

Aug. 8 The typhoons don’t seem close to us but a couple clicks up, down rather I guess… or lower or whatever on the barometric pressure wreaks havoc…

Borrowed from someone else’s post. Is that you? If so, thank you

and I’ve managed to pick up a lousy cold/fever from the kiddo so I’m just a big pile of grumpiness right now :(

I can see my house from here (arrow not exactly accurate, im clumsy)

Aug. 9 Not sure I’ve ever seen wife quite as happy as coming into the room to say “with that typhoon, I better cancel the trip to Tokyo”. She & Ichi were going for niece’s 1st birthday but traveling during Obon on holiday is already a drag & torrential downpours won’t make it easier.

Of course she wants to meet wee baby (Rio chan) and also had arranged with her University jazz circle friends to see their big band concert in Yokohama-area but it’s all just a bit too much.

Autumn / winter are her busy arborist seasons so we’ll look for a chance.

{And while I would love to go to see the relatives and whatnot, there’s no way I’m capable of a six hour shinkansen ride and going into the big smoke of Tokyo right now, like 0% chance. I’m in total bed lock mode with crushing head, fever etc}

To clarify, wife is happy because we’re still spinning catching up on projects from a rocky reentry from #BCInvasion + traveling during Obon holiday (when folks return to their home village to clean ancestors graves etc.) is a busy expensive hectic slog + such humid right now

A sweet and wise friend reminded me,

“You don’t owe anyone anything”

which I get however, nothing is better for wee heart and aching head then making creative projects (besides sleep) & have so many in mind from trip + tender words to say in commemoration of humans passed.

But I’m in total bed lock mode anyway so resets my parameters of what I’m capable of… I might do a bit of rough sewing as a lap project.

Also have to send notes to my big-time international accountant (who is quite literally, a legend/rockstar) so I can do in bed too.

And, finally broke down and ordered a foldable bamboo “bed desk” // wanted one for years but thought if purchased, might make me too comfortable and then remembered ‘being comfortable it’s kind of the fcking point of healing’

Memo: I didn’t do either of the above

Aug. 10

Oh my goodness, just learned Robbie Robertson passed on.

What an incredible storyteller // and while the conflicts inside “the band” break my wee heart, the music they created is beyond timeless, redefined genre and the epitome of ensemble.

Onwards to the showdown at big sky.

Royal Robertson requested donations to the Woodland cultural center in Memorial which you can find: https://woodlandculturalcentre.ca/support-us/

Our home in #Okayama is right in the “Venn diagram” where they connect

Typhoon update: Handy link for anyone who wants to follow real time these two typhoons buffet in Japan… https://www.jma.go.jp/bosai/map.html#4/32.176/136.187/&elem=root&typhoon=all&lang=en&contents=typhoon

Aug. 12 Two days ago was really blustery and the bamboo trees were swaying heavily, but yesterday and it looks like today are just hot humid and sunny.

We will be OK, remember I was a Cub Scout so I have all alarm urgency supplies :) We’re tracking it, the first typhoon has peeled off away from us and the second is slowly making its way towards us but a little bit to the east. Landfall around August 15.

Spruced up the shrine in cottage // family went up to clean up graves, usually i love love love this task but completely wiped out from yesterday’s seitai treatment.

There was also ramen involved, artfully designed shop as well as the ramen (unphotographed because “ramen is not a fashion” but my selection was delightfully fresh, zesty cold variety

I will not tell you the name of this shop

Arrived by post today:

  • Box of corn, on cob (from Gandalf’s hipper brother in Nagano)
  • Classic book of epistolary literature (used) to send to a friend, elsewhere in Japan
  • Also, Received yesterday: variety of sweet cakes from Taiwan from a visiting Canadian with Singapore ties
The aforementioned gift from Taiwan also came with a photograph of postbox from the same charming gentleman. Gratefully received
Healing Ramble, Personal Musings

Cartagena to Carolinas (notes from a dream) + ramen vending, octopus slides #diary

2 Comments

It’s March, and I’m so tired. But I was tired and February too so I guess nothing’s changed :) but hey, April is going to be a beauty

This is not a postcard, it’s a cassette tape but hey, it might be traveling from Cartagena to the Carolinas or maybe just to Japan ++ there is a minor chance that the typed liner notes don’t match the actual contents (i started this project before holidays and ended up with a bunch of scattered sheets of different tracklists so I hope I matched the right one up)

Went out for medical treatment today (seitai), had a lovely chat with 2 elder ladies also waiting in tatami mat room clinic, also scribbled some postcards.

Wife and kiddo went for lunch and afterwards, we all went to the park. I sat on the bench.

Now resting in bed.

Noting postcards are mostly for folks who are having a rough time with health challenges themselves. I know how much it means to me when I get a note in the post wormhole so I try to always remember to share a piece of magic paper with a specific thrifty sticker on it with others

I think postal mail c/should be made as though they were generational artifacts. This is not required, just a thought I like to think.

So much fun dropping off letters with the kiddo. Chance to talk about where the letters/cards are going, who the recipient is, and why you’re sending. Geography, communications, empathy, friendship… All in one lesson <3

[Update} Gosh, craziest dreams last night… So vivid and all over the place.

Hit up seitai again and holy smokes… That fccked up vertebrae (lumbar number two) is finally starting to move after a couple years of working around it and today my entire nervous system is buzzing with electricity. Going from my left second toe tracing lines up through my shoulder blade into the back of my skull

Completely wild, I’m trying to lay still but feel like I got jumper cables attached

Just needed to tell someone in case I levitate and float up to outer space

I guess thoughts of passing of a friend combined with seitai treatment, changing of seasons, + medications all cooked up a perfect stew of mental chaos (plus lingering anxiety of leaving in Japan for a trip)

Scenes in Cartegena & Carolinas, various cargo transport airplanes, clues hidden in a smuggled menus, hitchhiking in Spain & meeting up with a band who were partying hard before doing a show at 4 AM at a festival a long way away. Nothing I haven’t done before but still… collaged

Ergo: *finally* getting some L2 nerve compression released after decades of doctors saying “oh it’s nothing, here’s some painkillers” Neural synapses reconnecting is a completely psychedelic & exhausting experience. However i am unable to explain this to my doctor (esp in Japanese)

A picture of the cottage and the tool shed and carport snapped to explain where the solar panels will go but for now… it’s just a picture of the cottage, the tool shed and the car port

Other dis-intermediated maybe semi-related but probably not notes:

Indeed, we’re not “standing on the shoulders of giants” were “leaning against normal sized humans” - like *us* who have just done other things similar before us… Reminds me of cultures passing from shiitake log to shiitake log as they’re leaned up against each other in the woods
(life in Japan is a constant barrage of “wait what? Seriously, they can do that?”)

Just on this day we’d gone to a park with an octopus slide, a medical treatment in a tatami room, a 7-11 for ¥900 lunch/world tour of food, stopped at a bakery that looked like was airdropped in from provincial France… while listening to Wes Anderson’s Isle of dogs soundtrack.


Today saw an oddly placed ramen & gyoza vending machine. no idea how it works nor why *here*
From the van window. We called the van Agnes. Shall I post a zoomed in shot? OK.
No, I do not know how this works and I would investigate but the placement is very strange and inconvenient. So we go on
Healing Ramble

Healing: rocking hospital visit (plus green kei-truck & ramen)

Image

(Brief) Diary:

Rocked Okayama Uni hospital visit with 4 check points (#mecfs specialist, TCM kampo, IV cocktail & admin tasks)

Thanked the doctors so much for what they’re doing for this weird illness and yes, there’s suddenly so much more research going on. The revolution continues for the missing millions.

+ saw sweet green kei-truck; ate ramen waiting for scrips; & spotted cute Indian/Nepali resto for next time

Came home, long hot bath, now in bed, much medicines to organize. I’m trying…

Bonus: the Ramen shop from the outside, kind of classic

Personal Musings

Diary: sparking tiny fires

Fresh tray of fire starters made from paper egg cartons, sawdust, wood chips, dryer lint, soy wax // not the most aesthetically pleasing batch I’ve made but they’ll keep us going through the winter / One match is all you need

Diary notes:

Saturday included: new orthotic inserts, made on site to order, plus reviewed/evaluated big bag of shoes for sturdiness and arch support / very diligent and serious practitioner

had ramen with my duo after shoes dealio / such kind folks + Ichi was charming (also hit up a park & community centre in wife’s childhood neighbourhood)

Also recently:

mixed CD arrived by post, looking forward to enjoying

packet mailed to Kentucky river region came back with “address not found“ hmmm

postcard from India received, my attempts to reply have been denied so far

did I mention that 2 Canadian passport with middle name “Thorvald“ arrived?

Mac the goat farmer came for oden dinner couple nights back /he forgot his pickles gift but remembered signed/stamped poetry book

expecting a pleasant guest from Vancouver on Nov 28

Family Ramen time / dang they are cuuute

read Tintin books, watched Country Bears, practiced English with Ichiro

previewed a pod im a guest on taking about writing “early sht” {oh my!}

limited project on the #Circumnavigation book this week as interrupted by medical appointments and recovery but still, 90+ pages drafted in so far

Re: books

finished Tanizaki’s Makioka Sisters (making a note to watch the movie adaptation during New Year’s)

now working through:

  • Alex Kerr, Heart Sutra
  • Murakami Ryu, 69
  • e.e. cummings, 100 selected poems
  • (sorta) DT Suzuki, Zen & Japanese Culture
  • Deep Kyoto Walks, various (ed. Ted)
  • Tokyo Van Nuys Express, Rick Lupert
  • various others

tomorrow (probably):

hanging family photo corner, bringing in some firewood, maybe harvesting some persimmons, and making ginger/turmeric syrup

Carrying on:

“yesterday’s tomorrow, is right now”

And I love waking up to the sound of rain / I live in the sunniest prefecture in all of Japan (really!) but still, I’m (partially) a #cascadia human/Sasquatch

Did some tasks:

  • Recycling (plastic food trays) done (mostly) // As “rebellious“ as I get these days is overfilling the plastic recycling bin at the grocery store that we don’t necessarily always shop at (90% of our groceries are delivered through the Co Op) / Yep, it’s a wild lifestyle
  • Hung buncha great family photos / more to say & the location, lighting & wall are hardly ideal, but we’ve made a start!

Further annotations:

For the record: im never sarcastic, very rarely cynical, mostly sincere, often enthusiastic, frequently curious, enjoy offering compliments, and always (try to be) kind

Buddha Annapurna – Annapurna Sunrise
Be rich when “poor” by giving more

Also noting it’s great seeing more kids/toddler/babies out and about… The first couple years of our kiddos life, we hardly saw any other parents out with their kids that we could do that “I know what’s up with this“ nod with

Asked darling wife what she would like for a Christmas present(s). The answer “a chainsaw and/or a sewing machine“. Sums her up. (Oddly enough, you could maybe buy both of those from the same brand but seems Husqvarna doesn’t make sewing machines anymore)

A trio of great poems by Jason Emde (of Gifu rock city and creator of the “writers read their early shit“ podcast) in “hole in the head review”. High-quality writing (and yes, I’m a guest on his next episode in which I reveal *way too much*) mentioned above

{While not as well known and heralded as some others}, “Ken Sanders Rare Books“ in Salt Lake City is one of all-time favorites book shops. Sometimes, i browse around and fill up carts but then again my nemesis: shipping fees comes to thwart the plan :( kensandersbooks.com

Ahead:

Monday Morning is grocery delivery & order + garbage out.

Backing up twtr in case, locked down to be tight & tidy, security hygiene.

(Hopefully) back to barn to finish packet to Gary S. & notes for The Matinée, more poems & stories for book. Tuesday meeting at pre-school + wife’s band comes to rehearse. No scheduled medical appts! Oh order something for festive dinner & work plan for card (design, quantity, production).

Just talked to my brother who happens to be in Muscat, Oman. However, he did not use this #payphone
Personal Musings

Diary: secret restos, airport hangs, voting, drums & creative acts

2 Comments

Restaurants x2: yes our Ramen place is listed in the Michelin guide, we’re pretty fancy after all / maximum stars

For the record, the best restaurant in all of Japan has *no* Michelin stars, nor does it exist in any guide books, map apps, or fancy magazines.

must know codeword

The proprietor has painted the interior completely with her own (rather psychedelic) art.

The menu is succinct (okonomiyaki mostly) and inexpensive, and she (80-ish) sends you home with extra food “just because” + there is the ubiquitous goldfish tank, and even one of my paintings displayed.

Clientele includes noted artists, politicians, community organizers, professors, kimono merchants, curators… But it’s a secret.

Also her end-of-the-year parties at a fancy hotel ballroom are quite legendary for entirely different reasons.

Tomatoes: Mother-in-law‘s garden is producing bumper crop of tomatoes, small and medium ones. Ideas for preserving? I/we can’t seem to eat them fast enough but don’t want to waste any of them. Tried salt ferment and was so so, Freezer seems like a no go, Pasta sauce seems meh.

Rick Rubin: preordered. sometimes i think “im *pretty cool* but im not Rick Rubin cool” and this concerns me. i mean, i’ve done/made/gone plenty in my 51.8 years but dang, ummm i look at RR and think i’ve slacked somehow (yeah i know this isn’t the point) anyhow, this book comes out in 1/23

comes out next January…

Off and Away: Well my darling wife and adorable son are off to Noto for a festival and sensei visit. Guess im gonna *let loose* maybe wash dishes, fold laundry and write some aerogrammes. Yup, scored a 10 pack of legit aerogrammes, smells like victory. I know, slow down Dave, slow down.

Oh put on kettle of hot water to make some barley tea with real barley tea bags. i’ll chill it first. before i get too far ahead of myself, lemon water and couple of acetaminophen and maybe look at buying a massage chair.

Update: with wife out of town, did a lot of tidying up, now eating fancy macaroni and cheese (with tomatoes, avocado and back bacon), banana milkshake and watching Godfather. Yep, it’s a wild wild life + also re-watched last 3 Obi-Wan Kenobi with F-i-L while eating taco chips.

LDN … which reminds me of my quest to find Low Dose Naltrexone in Japan from a reputable source. It’s not illegal here but usually only available as full dose (used in various addiction treatments). However, in low dose (colloquially LDN) is used as pain management for Fibro MECFS #hashtags

Vote: Feeling left out from not voting in Japan (wife voted before hopping on plane, early and easy) so doing Thurston county, Washington primary ballot… It might be last one I do in USA #Foreshadowing (for the record, yes I have *several* citizenships) / ps WA State AFAIK does all voting by mail and my ballots are always early

use a dark pen

Drums / Things I want: a cocktail drum kit like this one (belonging to Stewart Copeland, I asked if he’ll sell it to me or trade for like a bonsai tree or something) if ya see something like this in Japan, let me know OK.

Stewart Copeland’s drum kit and photo thereof

Update: There’s one for a reasonable price but it’s in Staten Island New York… The kit does come with shipping bags… Wonder that what that would cost to Japan :-)

Airport: Darlings went to Noto, Ishikawa to visit Hongo-sensei… so, Now we (f-in-l and me)’re killing time at the Momotaro Okayama airport observation deck like big timers drinking our robot made beverages. Oh they travelled by plane via Haneda as trains are tricky to find way to that corner.

Good news is, with only 1 or 2 flights an hour arriving, we’ll readily see their ANA jet land, taxi up to the gangplank (that’s not the word is it? airbridge? idk) and then just elevator down to meet on 1st floor & 2 mins to car.

got ’em Band is back together #io

He came running out of the domestic arrivals and jumped into my arms and I just about wanted to bawl my face off with proud papa but I was so busy telling him how much I love him and then he told me about the airplane and the fireworks and all of it
Improving Campsite, Personal Musings

Diary: apropos of nothing (sleeping masks, hockey, mosquito net, laundry)

1 Comment

Really nothing to the usual days except for the brilliance of usual days, appros of really nothing, i annotate for amusement. Carry on in a disinter-mediated manner:

new kamidana house shrine for ancestors – made in Tottori from a slab of gingko wood

Okayama memo: The thing I really like most about is its very “usualness” {aside from being famous for the Momotaro peach boy story and being a “place you pass through to get to other places”} is also almost always sunny but not today (this Cascadian doesn’t mind the rain though).

My 1st era in Japan in the early 90s, was in Tottori (remote w/ kei-truck), later hiding out near Miasa, Nagano. When came back few years ago, found Okayama was just right / Not a hectic sensory overload city but has big hospital, Immigration etc.

Yes, we “lean heavily” into Momotaro folktale here and the image of a peach is scattered all over from statues to utility pole covers and gosh, peaches with a boy coming out of them can look really funny! And apparently it’s the sunniest prefecture in Japan. 

By post: Three pack of organic oatmeal arrived. {always mean to scribble down “tasting notes“ with all the different kinds but never do and never remember which ones were “great“ but all are, you know, good enough} ~ Eat each morning with variety of nuts, berries and sometimes yogurt.

Today by post: hori hori garden tool (this one is artisan made, previously ordered for wife and mother-in-law from off-the-shelf made-in-Japan company) / this one needs sharpened up and it didn’t come with a case/holster :( feels good in the hand though.

can dig, cut, scoop and thwack and wathever else in the garden with this tool

Day in the life:

  • ate salad with smoked salmon for lunch
  • loaded our new tiny dishwasher
  • sent a telegram, really
  • attempting to remove chewing gum from a pocket of a favorite shirt with ice packs #pending

now a rest before finishing laundry

Next day: One oatmeal, three coffees, two baskets of laundry, two hockey games… Now switching to loungewear and some tax paperwork. Then maybe repair a wicker stool after lunch.

Update: some arcane tax documents prepared, stamped, notarized, faxed, ready to mail in Duplicate etc. Indian curry and smoked salmon/avocado/lettuce salad lunch with darling. Next (going to try) to put a new seat on this wicker stool with hemp cloth and upholstery thumbtacks.

It’s not a masterpiece but it’s decent. Sturdy Polish hemp cloth, rugged long tacks & see how it goes. Hooray for hexagons!

Continue reading Diary: apropos of nothing (sleeping masks, hockey, mosquito net, laundry) →
Personal Musings

Item: Boots (at Hospital) + safety ramen

Image

Today’s boots and socks combo for hospital visit. #looksharp / easy on and off is key in Japan / gotta make a simple outing for enjoyable somehow

not only did I wear these sharp boots, I also purchased gum, three packs (1 for back, 1 for car, 1 by door) & a pocari sweat (electrolytes :)) at the embedded 7-11 in hospital

PS Safety ramen before as well #important

Personal Musings

Diary, three unrelated stops

Seitai treatment room

Today went “over the wall“ for some seitai treatment / stiiiiilllll trying to bust outta this ME/CFS crashmode.

Good news is: my head and heart are so happy and filled with wonder every day. And I’m managing a few little creative dispatches through the fog. Thanks to each of you for chiming in, so very noticed.

PS I wish all medical offices were this level of aesthetic loveliness as well as phenomenal hi-fi system and exceptional records

Notice the everyday normalness because the usual days are hidden goodness

Whilst out, noticed a cute house café nestled in amongst some concrete buildings with an orange bicycle in front. I found that if you stay focused on the goal, I miss all the good stuff which get filed as “distractions”… It turns out the things like hobbies and digressions are the best parts of life.

Anyhow, stopped in for some “safety Ramen” at really the best place > one owner operator and everything is just “perfect” – the seats, the size, the decorations, the music, everything tidy and just well thought out and of course the Ramen is top level. (Brian Ceci can attest ;)).

Gakucho / miso tonkatsu (w/ butter, really)

Ichiro was as always his jolly self. He also had some injections today and got to say hello to the doctor that helped bring him into the world. She’s (Moe-sensei) a really wonderful lady and she was so happy to see him growing up so happy, healthy and strong.

Jolly lil dude

Recap: Haven’t left the house for sometime so three stops today, quite significant.

Next activity: on the 18th I will be “socially distant Santa Claus” for a few kids at a local community center. Yes I will be using natural beard. And we ordered appropriate costume, the “luxury/deluxe” version but I would describe it more just as “adequate but with some extra gold bits (and a little cape!)”. Ryoko Olson will assist me in a super cute red velvet dress, likely with the little dude on her back. I may take a clipboard to take notes about the children’s requests before I tell them “no, none of this is possible, here is an orange :-)”.

Practicing Santa, Moab 1987

Back home, warming up – it’s sunny but chilly and even a few flakes of snow (!), folded laundry, made tea, a few dishes to wash, have something to write about Vincent van Gogh, and some Hokusai postcards. Oh and i hope to sleep, really – I mean I can dream, right?

Fondly from Tsuchida Cottage, dvo/UW

Ephemeral Tidbits

Diary: Observed in Okayama (library, bicycle, bird, ramen, etc)

Over the wall, observed the following (sequentially below):

* compass to sibling cities
* pleasing canal (w/ public art)
* (another) library
* hello! a bird with yellow eyes
* such a nice bicycle & set-up
* Ramen is Not Fashion
* ramen is for eating (done)

compass to sibling cities
pleasing canal (w/ public art)
(another) library
hello! a bird with yellow eyes
such a nice bicycle & set-up
Ramen is Not Fashion
ramen is for eating (done)