Hiromi Usagi!

There are two major changes in my life and I am super excited about them.  The first one is a huge change, but it’s not official, so I will let you guys know in details later, but trust me, I am really happy about this one.  I can’t wait to tell everyone!!, but I want to wait until it is officially done.

Ok, the second one is that I started a new position at my work.  It is a full-time manager position and it is very different from what I have done until last month.  I won’t teach many lessons any more unless I have to cover someone who calls in sick or something unusal happens.  I will take care of instructors at my studio which is very small compared to the one I worked before.  It is a good size for me to manage and learn many new things.

The training started yesterday, and there are so much information and the most of them don’t make sense until I actually do them by myself, but good stuff.  I feel like I have done so many trainings since I started working here.  I have met nice people so far and it seems a good start.

Ok, I need to go to bed now, but I will keep updating what’s happening.

good night

ahhh…Chicago is definitely my second home. I felt so relaxed and nostalgic when I arrived at O’hare airport. Everything seemed spacious and relaxed in Chicago, compared to Tokyo. Here I am sitting in my room in Tokyo in a rainy day, listening to Pinback’s “Summer in Abaddon”, sipping a cup of detox tea, doing laundry, using dry mode on the airconditioner, I miss Harper, my friends, and Chicago already.

What did I do in Chicago? Many things, but not so many. I hang out with Harper a lot, Becca a lot, and with myself a lot as well. I intentionally didn’t make any solid plan this time. I decided what to do when I woke up on the day. Harper was working and so was becca and other friends, so I wondered around in Chicago just as I did on my day off before.

I ate a lot this time, well, surprise? not really, hahaha. Well, the best place of dinning in this trip was at Green Zebra. Harper took me there on Friday! and it was a date which I haven’t gotten for a while. They are vegetarian friendly, but meat eaters can enjoy their food as well. I loved vegan dish on the day, Black bean cake with stingy fennel. ohhh so yummy and I crave for it. They have province Rose wine! What a surprise! I had it when I went to Nice, France several years ago with my friend, Yurie. Her friend (she is French) told me about Province Rose which is inexpensive yet different from standard rose wine. It is not sweet like regular rose and goes really well with meal. I was so excited to try it at Green zebra and it was delicious. If you like dry wine, go for it! It is a perfect Spring/ Summer wine I think.

Anyhow, Harper spent a lot of time with me after work and on the weekends, and I had a great time with him. I was jet lagged again..ahhh, but I woke up not too early, so I felt as if I became a morning person which made me feel good. I took a nap to stay up late, but I basically passed out every night, ahhhh. Now at the apartment where I used to live, there are new roommates of his and Matiss moved out. The things are diffirent now. Chicago seemed the same, but there are many small changes like that. Those changes made me feel nostalgic and sad and excited at the same time, you know, how that is.

I had a nice dinner with Matiss and Erica at their favorite Italian restaurant. It was nice and delicious, and I had a good time with them. It was nice to see them being happy together.

There is a nice small farmer’s market at the logan square on Sunday (they started right after I moved, of course) and I had great ripe strawberries which I almost ate up by myself, haha and a vegan muffin with berries. yummy.. Becca took me to the farmer’s market on Lincoln park and I bought great mixed green salad, spring onions, and baby beats. Harper liked them when I made salad and steamed Greek style vege dish with green olive. I have been into organic, local, sesonal vegetables lately.

I bought a book about Macrobiotics at the women’s book store in Anderson ville. The book is very funny and it’s called “the Hip Chick’s guide to Macrobiotics” by Jessica Porter. yeah, it’s about me (j/k)…the book started off talking about how the author loved junk food and how difficult yet easy to change her diet. She is really cool and I really like how she wrote it. There were several times I laughted while reading..
For me, it is easy to do macrobiotics because it is based on japanese dietary and I have an easy access to most of the foods she mentioned. If you go to a health food store, you can find them easily too. Since I get organic vege and food delivery, I can do macrobiotics easily, but I have to think about what my body needs now. The book was educational and makes me think about listening to my body more. It taught me that I shouldn’t be controlled by strict diet, but think about how to balance my body with the environment. great book..

It was very nice to see becca too. I missed hanging out with her on my day off. We cooked, had coffee, chatted, did yoga and hang out with Alva together. We both bought a dress. it was fun! We talked about many things: moving, acupuncture, organic, food, relationship, family.. I love spending time with her. too bad we don’t live close anymore. oh well, we can visit each other. yeah..
On the tuesday, I went to yoga in the morning and walked to my friend, Valentina’s house and we had a yummy korean lunch. I had hot stone cooked dish with black rice with tree nuts. I love eating korean food with her because I usually have so many questions about food, haha… it was nice to see her again.

I had a lot of thinking and feeling happy when I was there. This was my best vacation. I am sure that a lot of thoughts will come out soon..I will save them for later entries.

I had great days off this week.  Yesterday, I hang out with John in Akasakamitsuke and Ebisu Garden place.  We just talked and caught up with our latest.  He has been doing well and happy where he is.  good!!  I took him to this wonderful tempura place where Kaori also liked it.  I took people who are into more non-vegan food there.  It was a little bit heavy on my stomach and I guess my gallbladder cannot digest fat quickly enough, but I was ok and the food tasted great.  It was nice to see him.  All I talked about was how excited I was to visit Harper.  I hope I wasn’t annoying..

Today, I was productive in the morning doing laundry and cooking since my organic food delivery comes every Friday.  I quicky preped lunch boxes for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and I realize that I will be in Chicago so soon!  I cannot believe it!

I went to Mizonoguchi which is about 20 min west of Shibuya to get face wash and other facial products and how-to-use them lecture.  They don’t let you buy it unless you learn how to use it (it’s free, by the way).  It sounded easy, but it was pretty informative and I was surprised to see these people who are much much older (sorry) had great skin!  Kayo, my hairstylist whom I met through Kumi, my friend from highschool, introduced me to this product.  I usually don’t believe those types of deals, you know, it could be sketchy (sorry again!), but looking at her skin and how I felt after using them and they don’t push for sales at all (in fact, I couldn’t buy it for a few weeks because I couldn’t take the study thing..sad)  There was a nail artist joined the study, and she took care of my finger nails.  I like keep them simple, and she just basically took care of dead skin and smooth them out.  I felt pretty good today, being a pretty? woman surrounded by great women in various ages (22 to 70s!!)

After my natural beauty make over (hahaha), we had some dinner/ drink by the station, and Miki joined us.  Kayo, the hairstylist, Hana, her daughter (super cute!), Shiho, the nail artist, and Miki, the translator and I went to this beer place.  I had a few glasses of white wine since a character in the Murakami book I was reading in a train was drinking a glass of chilled white wine and made me want one.

It was super fun to hang out with these ladies because they all are independent and have good tastes and tough yet sweet.  ohhhh..I love them.

Last week, Yurie came and we had a great time as well.  Lately, I have been surrounded by great women.  Yurie and I just chilled and cooked one dish and ate it and cooked another and kept doing this at my place.  She got us a half bottle of champagne!  Thanks!  I took her to all-you-can-eat macrobiotic lunch and we took a long time and fully enjoyed our meals there.

Next week, I will be in Chicago and I am sure it will be super fun too!!  I don’t have any specific plans, but I don’t need any.

oh well, I have two more days of work before my vacation.  yea, I can do it! so excited, can’t you tell?

It was sunny today and I love sunny weather which makes me happy with no specific reasons.  As I mentioned in the last entry, I am going to Chicago soon!  I can’t wait and it just seems long to wait for the day.  I know I am pretty patient, but I am super excited about visiting Harper.

I exchanged my email address with a newspaper journalist today and tried to make a dinner plan with her, but I realized that I don’t have any free day until Chicago trip.  I guess I have to see her after that.  I do have a plan on all of my day off which is sort of unusual for me.  I work until late on weekdays, so it’s difficult for me to make a plan in evenings, except on my day off.  Oh well, I am getting out of anti-social-ish mode which makes me feel much better.

Oh I made this yummy soup with natural yeast which I made with tomatoes.  It was surprisingly good and I am so into it.  I think that I can even bake bread with this home made yeast, but I don’t know how yet..hahaha…

I went to my parents for two days and tried to relax, but I was exhausted because of my sleeping schedule.  I had to get up early to catch a highway bus and almost missed it and got yelled by the ticket counter clerk….ahhhh…I had a good excuse, but I decided not ot tell him….at my nearest train station, the trains were delayed and super packed, and I had to pass two trains.  It was insane and I saw two “pusher guys” pushed people in the train.  It was the end of rush hours…. “why do I want to be pushed like that?  I can catch the next bus” I thought, but I made it to the terminal just 2 min before it departed.  phew…good job…patting my shoulder, but I already felt exhausted at the beginning of my short trip.

My home town is in a country side, but not inconvenient and not so far from Tokyo either.  this summer, I really want to enjoy fresh herbs, so I sowed some seeds in my parents farm and I will sow more in my balcony after I came back from Chicago.   I hope they sprout and grow!

On Friday, I fell asleep and slept and slept for longer than 12 hours..perhaps longer than that…from 6 pm to 8 am…ahhh  I thought I started hibernating.  Luckly, I am awake now.  I had my scalp and shoulders massaged on that day before my hibernation.  I just needed to rest, I guess.

Ok..I will take a long bath and sleep.  sweet dreams for you guys as well

I didn’t have a break, but instead I worked a lot and had a stomach problem for a few days and work work work. Some reasons, my work has been crazy busy and so have I. I am doing well though. I called in sick two weeks ago because I could not get up from my bed. My stomach was upsentting like no one’s business. I’ve got a No Show (my client doesn’t show up) so I decided to update my blog. I am going to Chicago in two weeks! It is Harper’s treat and I am super excited to see him. I will stay there for 11 days from June 5th to 16th, so if you live in the area, I would love to see you guys.

Because of Harper’s fancy tech tricks, I am able to talk to him everyday. It has been very nice!

Last Friday, I had my hair cut and permed at my friend’s salon and I really liked how she did it. I met up with Miki afterward and she took me to a cool Izakaya/ Japanese pub. There were a lot of small booths with nice quiet interior with many narrow staircases. She is a really fun person to talk to, and I discovered she loved philosophy and philosophers. She is definitely one of the people who give me hope to look forward to future.

Well. well, I need to go back to my work, but I will update my blog soon. Oh, I will go to my parents for 2 days to sow some herb seeds into my parents farm and get some fresh air.

The weather is getting warm for sure and cherry blossoms are in full bloom, but it gets cold later night and I had to use my heater last night and this morning. I am at work having a short break and decided to update my blog. One of my coworkers told me that he looked at my blog which left a history on the laptop, haha I don’t mind it at all though…yea, this is in public, I sometimes forget that or I am not conscious about it all the time. It goes quick today at work, probably because I had a day off yesterday.

I am thinking about having a dinner party at my place. yea, I should do that sometime soon. Kaori’s b-day is coming up soon! I wonder what I should do for her…. We should have fun together though..going to DOux cafe, eat out, chitchat, and more. I want to go to DOux cafe NOW, hahaha….. it is such a cool place with yummy drinks. yea, next time I go to yamanashi, I will make a short or long stop there.

One guy told me that he had been to Bali more than 10 times and he said that Bali was a great place to visit and to loosen up. I want to go there….I want to travel…ummmm..some day…well..

well, my time is almost up, and I am kind of getting sleepy…oh noooooo..well, I have only 4 lessons to go. I can do it, can’t I?

I call my day-off weekends because I usually have weekdays off and work on weekends. I still need weekends just like everybody else does, so I call it weekends.

I started getting food delivery serivice since last week. the first one was very nice and I loved them. I’ve got fresh seasonal vegetable set (7 veges, all tastes amazing!!), yummy bread with no dairy and egg (yes!), and sashimi (tuna tataki/ seared tuna). They were all so good! I’ve been reading a blog about raw food diet, and its blogger suggested this delivery company. The company has a lot of meat, dairy, egg, and fish as well, but they do organic and low pesticide and absolutely no additives. Oh I’ve got tofu/ soy products set which came with 3 items. they were all great. I was surprised that the company’s products were so tasty!! so I didn’t have to cook them much, just simple basic cooking is more than enough. ohhhh their carrots are so sweet. I made a great carrot salad with them.
So I was looking forward to the second delivery this morning. I woke up early not because I was too excited about it, but stomachache. ahhhh…It ended up okay, but ohhh it was a reminder that being a woman is not easy. This yummy delivery cheered me up though.
I didn’t feel good although I became okay in the afternoon, so I decided to do something indoor. I didn’t want to leave my place, but I went shopping in my neighborhood and got a pressure cooker. it was a short trip though.

I made my first pickles. well, I have made Japanese pickles before , but for me the Western style pickles are sort of something I usually buy from a store. It was not difficult, but I have no idea how it will turn out. I can taste it next week, i think. there are so many kinds of receipes on line and I was confused. it was fun though.

I got only 4 hours sleep last night, so I took a nap. I didn’t plan it, but it just happened. In the past a few days I was super emotional, but now I am okay. I blame on my hormonal changes. Cooking definitely helps. I cooked all afternoon. I did prep cooking for my fresh vegetables, so that they won’t go bad. I steamed them for a short time or stewed them, and etc. I can use them for my cooking or just simply heat them up.

I made salad with a spring onion which is called a new onion. it is very soft and juicy and the skin is not dry like the one you buy at a grocery store. it is sweet and does not have strong oniony smell. It went well with velvety and crispy red lettuce. ummm…i love vegetables.

Now my day off/ weekend is almost over. this week, i have only one day off, but that is okay because i had 8 days off last week.  cherry blossom is so beautiful here.  I love looking at them.

Some guy told me about his pet rabbit and showed me the picture of his bunny.  he is so cute with long ears.  I want one, but he said that it was difficult to raise his bunny because bunnies are really delicate.  ummm… some day, yeah, some day..haha

good night,  I will dream of bunnies

I had a good time hanging out with Harper. I felt like I tried to catch up the time I couldn’t get to spend time with him. We did many things in many places, but our schedule wasn’t that crazy. In fact, we didn’t miss the last train or didn’t have to take the last train. I am glad that he met some of my friends here in Tokyo and my hometown, Yamanashi.

Because he already thought Japan was a weird country in terms of pop culture, I decided to show him the heart of Tokyo with traditional kick at first and comtemporary parts later. Actually it ended up mixing both up, because that’s how tokyo is. I was thinking about going to Kyoto/ an old capital, but instead, I took him to another old capital, Kamakura where you can see a big buddha statue. It is only one hour away from tokyo and you can enjoy nice traditional temples and shrines. We had converyer belt sushi in Kamakura after visiting the big buddha place. It was tasty and had some seasonal and rare kinds of fish which I truly enjoyed.

After the big buddha trip, we met up with my friend, Kumi and her husband, Dai. They both work for a music magazine company, and they are really fun to hang out. Ohhh I meant to keep this entry general and add details later, but I started, huh? Well, we had a great sumo wrestler dish called Chanko (chunko–harper would like to call) by a sumor ring, they took us to Kabuki cho, which is a red light district. We just walked through because it is a dangerous area where people got shot and died once a while. I know!! I thought we can’t have a gun, but I guess some people have those apparently. It was a really fun night and Harper and I had a great time with them.

On his b-day we went to Ikebukuro to have Elvis noodle for lunch. It was fun and I could find something for me too. It was very good, but we had no idea why it is called Elvis. I forgot to ask them…well, next time for sure. We went to Tokyo station underground shopping street and had scalp and shoulder massage. The therapist didn’t speak any English, so I helped her a little bit, but poor Harper, he couldn’t relax much. After that, we hang out in Ginza which is a fancy disctric with many fancy shops.

We had a dinner at a small Italian restaurant in Ginza. Harper’s b-day is a national holiday in Japan. It is a vernal equinox day, so many restaurants were closed, but this one had good reputations and someone said it was very private, and it was. We had a great dinner with a couple glasses of red wine. No one was at the restaurant, so it was like a private party, haha. My sardine pasta was excellent and his broiled fillet with balsamic vinegrette looked great. He had smoked baby yellow tail with aioli sause. it looked yummy. too bad with mayo..not for me… The dinner course came with 4 dishes!! small portions, and very fresh ingredients. It is called Via Nuova Rondo and located in Ginza. sooo yummy and it was easy for me to eat without meat, dairy, and egg.

Well, we ate well everyday. I cooked only once, just because we had to try many places! Harper liked most of the food we tried. We didn’t challenge though, except once my frined made him try marinated/farmented squid, which I liked it, but he didn’t.

ok..here is what we ate: I have to do this, this is my department…
Friday: Night: my cooking! grilled tuna with garlic flavor, green green salad (many greens), brown rice (from my parents’ rice paddy), and miso soup with homemade broth.

Saturday: lunch: Onigiri (rice triangle= Harper’s new favorite 7/11 food)
Dinner: Sashimi and other seafood at a seafood restaurant in Azabujuban (close to Roppongi) Harper was on liquid diet and the waitress was surprised that we ordered many drinks.haha…

Sunday: lunch: Onigiri again! at Marunouchi building
Dinner: Japanese diner/ family restaurant (we call it this way or fami-res) I had a pasta and Harper had beef stew with fatty meat which he hated…but after the dinner he had a great time in Bic Camera and the crazy intersection in Shibuya. I am sure he will talk about it soon.

Monday: lunch: Soba noodle at Yabusoba (beautiful building) near Akihabara which is an electronics district. funny…contrast.. and japanese sweets at Takamura. Harper didn’t like it though.
Dinner: Mos burger (Japanese hamburger shop they use organic stuff) pretty good. I had a rice burger with seafood. ohh we went to a small darts bar called triple twenty. we didn’t know it was a darts bar, and everyone played darts except us…ahhh..it was a nice and short stop after the dinner on my way home.

Tuesday: lunch: Elvis noodle/ ramen noodle
dinner: Itanlian course as I mentioned before.

Wednesday: lunch: conveyer belt sushi
Dinner: Chunko(sumo wrestler dish)/ hot pot on the table.

Thursday: lunch: Mos burger again!
Dinner: Goth?? Italian-ish dinner with yoyo-champion, Black. very good…he was super nice and such a gentle man. The restaurant was soooo goth, but not in a trashy way, more fancy way. it was very dark and decorative with goth waiters and waitresses who were extremely nice! Black surprised Harper with a b-day cake. That was sooooo nice!
Friday: lunch: Harper had Kamameshi (steamed rice with crab) and I had fried oyster. We had lunch with my parents in my hometown.

at my favorite, DOux cafe, he had cheese cake with Orangina, and I had caramel flavored tea. Yurie joined us and the owner, Shiho was very very kind!!

dinner: Onigiri (rice triangle)…I wanted to have a nice dinner, but we had to catch a bus to come back to tokyo, so Japanese fastfood, Onigiri, but it is Harper’s favorite.

ohhh…we ate a lot, probably because of me…we did a lot of gadget shopping, Japanese deathmetal CD store which sucked my energy out, hahah…and crazy street walking, crazy shops and a parasite museum, haha soooo gross but I am glad I went. I am sure that Harper will take care of this part in his entry. I had gotten to go to many places because of his visit. However, the best part of this vacation is hanging out with Harper a lot!! I miss him already, but I am hoping to see him sometime soon…

This is my first time to pick up someone at Narita/ tokyo international airport.  Yes, I have used this airport many times, but had never picked up someone.  It was exciting to look for Harper at the airport with thousands of people.  Oh..so many people..  Time difference is huge and Harper passed out after dinner.  It is 6 am in chicago, and 9 pm in tokyo.  All he has seen so far is the way from Narita to my house, basically trains and people.  Tomorrow I want to take him to many places.  I am wondering if I should take him traditional places first or very crazy parts first.  umm…maybe both..  yea

I am so happy to see him and we will have a good time together!

oh..it has been a long time since I update my blog. Where have I been? working working working. Well, I had a mini vacation on my birthday and went to Izu peninsula which is one hour and half away from Tokyo. My friend and I stayed there for one night. We had an ocean view hotel (old, but pretty nice) and fresh seafood buffet and hot spring!! Aroma therapy massage was included too. It was sooooooooooo nice! I chose geranium oil which had rose-like scent. My therapist loved me so much and gave me many good praises about me. I had a good birthday.

And this day is coming so soon! Harper is coming to Tokyo tomorrow. I am so excited to see him and planning to take him many cool places, but I just want to see him, you know. This is his first trip to Japan, and I hope he will enjoy it. His birthday is coming up so soon too. I promise all of you that I will write an entry about his visit. His visit gives me a chance to explore Tokyo area. You know when you live there, you don’t go to certain spots but work and simply make living.

I have been doing well here in Tokyo and my work likes me which is a big plus. Ohanami (cherry blossom party) season is coming soon, and I wonder if Harper can catch the first part of it. It is so beautiful with pale pink flowers. I should plan nice Ohanami parties with my friends for sure.

Come to Japan, guys!! there are a lot of things to see….