Being nostalgic and funny survived me from those days in parents beating me with chopsticks, people fucking up my name and to huge Prada sunglass.

When I read "My Chinese parents used to beat me with a feather duster" in Facebook Group, I felt very nostalgic and could visualize the scene that parents punishing the children with whatever they happen to have in their hands, chopstick, spatula, slipper, etc, however, I never saw my parents using a feather duster maybe because I am a native Japanese.

I burst into laughing after pondering Chinese parents' feather duster and started searching more funny group names to make me feel either nostalgic or funny.

Against Gay Marriage? Then Don't Get One and Shut the Fuck Up... 

I agree. 

No, I Don't Care If I Die At 12AM, I Refuse To Pass On Your Chain Letter...

Remembering those days that I was so naive that I tried to pass those letters but always gave up in the first one or two people. 

Keep Your Fucking Hand Down in Lecture and Shut Up. No One Cares...

Nostalgic scene when I was a student. I experience this at my company meetings sometimes..."Any questions?", the boss asked with gracious smile, and I looked at the people with gracious smile saying to myself, "Please don't...don't ask ...just let it go."

I have to sing the ABC's to know which letter comes before the other...

Unfortunately, Japanese characters consists of 52 not 26 and we don't have the ''あいうえお..." songs, so we had no choice but to remember which letter comes before the other.

I'm Tired Of People Fucking Up My Name...

I have changed my jobs many times and every time I started a new job, I had to talk to mean IT staffs and had them change my last name from Lida to Iida almost 20 years here in US and it still happens.

I Want To Punch Slow Walking People In The Back Of The Head...

We walk a lot in Japan and I felt like this a lot in Japan, but here in Texas, I drive a lot and see so many Slow Walking People at parking lots, so I have to wait forever to park my car at a perfect spot which is right before my face, and wondering if they are doing it intentionally right before my face. 

If 500 000 join this group I will change my middle name to Facebook...

We don't have middle name in Japan, so I don't know how it is like to change middle name.

When I was your age, Christmas had snow...

I miss seeing adults shoveling snow at a roof so that we don't have to get in and out from the second floor window. (Aomori prefecture in Japan)

Whatever I did when i was drunk didn't happen if i can't remember it...

Those days of Wine and Roses are gone...I am a proud recovery alcoholic!

I FLIP MY PILLOW OVER TO GET TO THE COLD SIDE...

Yes, I do and it felt so good...nothing makes me feel so refreshed than the cold side of my pillow in the middle of night.

How to get GAS back down to $1.30 per gallon...

Hope those days will be back because I have to go to a grocery shopping on my lunch break. Wish my company's refrigerator equipped with freezer so I can buy frozen natto (fermented soy beans).

Honestly, I write "lol" and I'm not Even Laughing...

Nowadays, it is easy to fool people through our advanced technology, but the same time, I have learned to grasp the energy when I read email or text...I am not psychic, but I do. 

People who press the handicap button when they are not handicapped...

I never did this because I felt like I would be punished if I did.

Be a good friend... don't tag that unattractive picture of me....

I admit that I have to take so many pictures of myself in order to get a decent one to be shown in public or hide majority of my face with a huge Prada sunglass which I bought with a gift card given by the company I work for and be creative hitting the right angles the pictures to be taken at.

Japanese Marinated Soft Boiled Eggs - New flavor in a process of Self Revitalization

Have you ever done something for yourself by yourself 

to view a true beauty of the world? 

I mean not to be done by somebody else for you but by yourself for YOU....

I realized the reason why I have been enjoying my life so much lately.

It is because I rearrange the flowers on my kitchen table not because my long time wonderful friend coming over for dinner (she just visited me recently and enjoyed the same flower) but because for my soul to enjoy its beauty in my room.

This act, changing the water, cutting the stems and rearranging the flower, led me to think of the pains of people whose life are so numbed with self-deceiving that they cannot even change the water of the flower vase in order to view its sustainable and continuous beauty.

Of course, the flower will die soon and I will die some day.

But the act trying to sustain the beauty of the flower is not only about viewing the true beauty but also leading me to a self revitalization, and it engraves in my energy (storage of my karma) and take me to the next journey.

I call this act as - self-revitalization- and realize that it is everywhere in my daily life.

*******

For example, marinated soft boiled eggs had been nothing but just a topping for Ramen (Japanese egg noodle soup) when I was in Japan and never thought I would make it by myself and eat it in the corner of my small kitchen, and feeling so melted at the moment I put it in my mouth, and said, "Ohhhhh....is this real?"

This is a self revitalization....something I never imagined that I would do it for myself. Nothing making me more happier than eating soft boiled eggs right after pondering the pains of people.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 1 cupt of water
• 1/2 cup of Mirin
• 1/2 cup of Soy sauce
• sugar (optional)
• 1/2 cup dashi soup stock (dissolve 2 teaspoon gragules or 1 stick) *Refer to Ingredients for Hijiki Dish in Pages

Cooking:

• Combine Mirin, Soy Sauce, Sugar (1 tsp or more) and Dashi soup to a boil in a medium sauce pan.  Set aside
• Bring water to a boil and carefully put 4 eggs in the boiling water. Cook for about 6 minutes. (Pierce fat end of egg with a thumbtack to make a tiny hole. This prevents the egg from cracking, I never did this). 
• Drain hot water and soak the eggs under the cold running water, and peel carefully.
• Soak the eggs in the Sauce and store in the refrigerator.
• Will be ready after 12 hours for sure but still delicious in a few hours!

My Hand Roll Sushi Party....Revealing truly who we are...food monsters

It is like a domino effect. It just keep going and going... 

I am becoming happier, healthier and funnier once I  become more aware of the unnecessary things in my life that I need to sift through and courageously recognized that I no longer connect with miseries and angers which comes from poor souls.

I guess we are all insecure to a certain degree and don't want to lose connections with something that you don't have such as social status, wealth, the physical beauty, talent, persuasive eloquence and charisma, etc.

However, the domino effect of the awareness which leads me to a disconnection with poor souls and me becoming happier, healthier and funnier is so tremendous that I can even appreciate things that I could never appreciate before such as eating girl scout cookies and watching a football game that I don't care so much, and I realize that I really care what I am doing with these amazing friends who do not care what I am but care who I am.

I can now gladly lose connections with something I don't have - social status, wealth, talent, charisma, etc, but I realize, in fact, I got all!

My social status - happy blogger

My wealth - T-Bone, my dog

My physical beauty - iron skin and thick skin coming from no strict diet

My talent - cooking and eating with food friend monsters

My charisma - honest eloquence

Oh my!!!! Is this really happening? This is my fifth adopted family and friends that I regularly cook for.....but you know what?  life will be so bored without cooking and eating together with food friend monsters.

いただきま～す！

Hand Roll Sushi

Ingredients:

For Sushi Rice:

3 cup Japanese rice

*1/3 cup rice vinegar

*3 Tbsp sugar

*1tsp salt

(substitute for 1/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar)

For Fillings:

Cucumber

Avocado

Eggs

Sashimi grade fish of your choice

salmon, tuna, salmon roe

spicy scallop (see the recipe)

1 sheet of Nori (seaweed)

Soy sauce

Wasabi tube

Picked ginger

• Spicy scallop - chopped bay scallop and mix with Japanese mayonnaise, sesame oil, red pepper flakes, ponzu sauce
• Slice the fish, cucumber, avocado, and other ingredients into the long stick size
• Cut sheets of seaweed into quarters. Put some Sushi Rice on left third of seaweed, add fillings in the middle of the rice. Roll it into a cone shape.

My book...revealing who truly I am

I have received my first autobiographic non-fiction novel, which will be released in Japan on 12/1 nationwide. I am so overwhelmed with joys and tears.

This book is filled with my many tears, broken hearts, feeling of rock bottom, regrets and Buddhism essence which ultimately transforms all these experiences into hopes, joys and a courage to live.

Responses from those who already read this book are beyond my imagination. 

I know they are my close friends and family who play roles in my book... but the fact that my young friend who is characterized as a hippie guitar boy in San Francisco sobbing the entire time while reading the book, the fact my childhood friend in Japan bursting into tears at the scene my big brother saving me at a crucial time, the fact my old friend in McAllen Texas reading it twice in two days and the fact they read it without putting my book down are all overwhelming.

These responses are extraordinary events to me.

Through this experience, I started pondering the purpose of expressing ourselves through the arts.

Is it for fame, self-complacency, recognition, or just simply making money? 

The more I think about it, the more I feel that unnecessary things and people in my life are naturally fading away from me.

This means that I assured that life is too short to waste my time being around those who only hope that writing a book is equal to being famous and rich.

A process of publishing my book taught me a truth which only comes from pure hearts that never know how to do fake smiles and never know how to turn on charm and tell people exactly what people want to hear such as "you are so special (important) person in my life" in order to disguise their deceptions.

The truth I learned is the two extreme realities, the authenticity in simply beautiful people and the fake in complex and confused people. 

Therefore, the purpose of expressing myself through my writing is becoming clearer...it is to reveal who I am and help me to live true to myself so that I can inspire others do the same.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

People in US can order my book from Japanese bookstore in US such as Kinokuniya. 

Also, you can buy from Amazon Japan or any online bookstores. 

Please refer to the links below.

http://www.kinokuniya.com/us/index.php/jpn/fbs003?common_param=9784776537137

http://www.7netshopping.jp/books/detail/-/accd/1106354033/

http://www.e-hon.ne.jp/bec/SA/Detail?refShinCode=0100000000000033011828&Action_id=121&Sza_id=GG

I can feel yours...

How many times did I wish I could stop time?  

I cannot remember...

Time would never stop and ticks away.

I used to feel that it is the most cruel thing.

Now, I am getting to discover that it is the most compassionate thing,

because I can gaze into my past, present and bright future and feel a dynamism in me, and I can feel yours.

Indestructible treasure tower - my mother's lunch box

The night was a night that I realized amazing facts of life.

The fact that I would no longer have someone who would embrace me so deeply, having someone who cuddle me from behind in the bed, or I would no longer fall in love with anybody else did not crush me, but the fact that I would never receive phone calls from him crushed me to pieces.

The night was bizarrely quiet and cold and it matched his death beautifully.

I was so tired after working ten hours in bustling San Francisco Financial District and on the way to my car which was parked at BART station parking lot.

I was heading to my car and could hear my shoes clicking clicking. 

Nothing but a beautiful full moon and a sensational feeling of enigmatic time accompanied me. 

This enigmatic time made me feel that I could go through my car like a ghost and keep walking...and finally reach to where he would be...not in this planet but beyond time and space.

The enigmatic night made me realize that I was not able to see his greatness while he was alive due to a cloudy mirror called "life" and now see it clearly because of a clear mirror called "death".  

Now, I can see his greatness more and more every day, which makes 'life" so cruelly bittersweet.

I remember that I have always believed a wonderful Buddhism teaching which elucidated that "our life is a treasure tower".  

This is the very time that I have to engrave this fact of life in me besides things to crush me to pieces....that his life is a treasure tower which is indestructible, therefore, he will never leave me.

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Speaking of Treasure tower, what could ever make me so happy and healthy regardless of  bittersweet facts of life but my mother's indestructible lunch when I was in Elementary school in Japan. 

It was truly a treasure tower in my life and eternally was engraved in me physically and spiritually.

お母さん、万歳！

Rice with Umeboshi <Ultra sour picked plum>; boiled eggs, stir fried vegetables and meats

Nishoku Gohan (means two-colored rice); rice with scrambled eggs and minced meat.

Life is so amazing....just a piece of Universe

When I saw a man who looked drunk with very sad eyes standing at my door asking if he could come to my soul mate's funeral with T-shirt and jeans, I said to him, " Of course. I remember you, Jim-boooo, right? Clark used to call you like that" 

It was so incredible that I was looking at someone who took my soul mate to a hospital for a surgery in the summer of 2007, and, now 2009 January, that same person was standing in front of me looking like he was going to burst into tears at my door.

I said to him, "Thank you for taking Clark to the hospital... I was in Japan that summer and you were so kind to take him..." and I thought, "What am I saying? He is dead, it does not matter any more"

Life is so amazing....because we never know what will happen next moment.

When I see those moments objectively and ponder it later, I realize that I, who live in the moments, am just a piece of Universe and can only live in those moments.

As I was looking at Jim-boooo, I also realized that when we die, we all surely die, so Clark will never come back to me.

When the drunk Jim-booooo stood in front of a microphone at the funeral service, I knew it would become the most heartfelt condolence.  

And yes, it did. 

I will never forget Jim-boooo, his sad eyes, shabby jeans and tipsy eulogy and always remember his heart and those days that I honestly so much in love with someone.