kimono, this week

About this kimono.  I bought it in Tokyo a few years ago at a department store that was having a sale of "antique" (mainly Taisho, Showa -early to mid 20th century) kimonos.  Very reasonable too, since it had tiny repairs on it.  I liked the design on this summer, unlined silk  one and was thinking of
making a runner.  Luckily I didn't.
The haori, or covering, is summer silk too and belonged to my mother.

Sunn's first visit.
The scroll was painted by her great, great- grandfather.

Enjoying a glass of wine and sharing the hamburger and tempura mahimahi sandwich at the Pineapple Room with friend Linda on tuesday.
If  you don't mind the calories, the mahimahi sandwich is very good.

Yesterday, we decided to try the new Manichi Ramen store on Kona street.  It always looked so inviting when we were having our shaved ices next door.

Red and black decor.

The shibori ramen.  The soup is thick and slightly sticky with the goodness from the boiled pork bones.
Will go again and try it with the watercress salad.

Extra chilled Martini and beer.  Great on a very hot day!   At Panya.

I, of course, get left at puppy day care.

Summer Showcase

Shimizu Voice put on another organized, relaxed, beautiful and enjoyable student program, Summer Showcase 2015.

There were 54 numbers full of a variety of ages, genres and languages.
My contribution was what it was, but despite all the nerves , I had an enjoyable time.

Kanto Harusame Gasa.
Trying to be a woman making her way in a yakuza world.

Helping me to relax and have fun were a table full of relatives and friends. 

Talking and laughing with Amy and Tevita before going on stage, and having Denise's warm support was invaluable.

A couple of sips of the wine (which turned out to be a Martini in a wine glass) brought by M to calm my nerves, also helped, although maybe it's better to wait until after singing.

Miura Sensei, our naginata sensei, and four of her students.

Miura Sensei and Yukie who sang beautifully.

Craig Shimizu, our vocal instructor,  always puts on a great Recital at the Japanese Cultural Center for his students.
There is a lot of time and effort involved and we appreciate it.
Did I mention that the food is great too?

Eat, eat, eat

Back at Orchids, saturday, before A san returns to Tokyo.
Thank you for coming to Grandma's memorial.

She had the Crab Benedict.

Les ordered the egg white omelet, looks like.
Too much in shape, Les - order some bacon.

R and CL had the usual American, and Liz and I , as usual opted for the Japanese breakfast.

Sunday evening we met at Nico's.

Hi hi.  Such a sweet and happy baby.  
Loves her food too.

Last night we had take out from Sorabol.
There was Carole Sakata's lovely Sogetsu arrangement in the lobby.  We had first met in college when we were in the same club, and then later again in Tokyo where we were both living.  Now we're back in Hawaii.

In the little dog park in the rec area,  Penny, not used to dog parks and being off leash, didn't know what to do.  Luckily she was the only one there.  After investigating she came and sat by me.

Another night ,with M, who wanted to go to Gazen
to have sushi.  Not many sushi places on Maui, aside from the resort areas.

My favorite, the grilled salmon and ikura suhi.

At Palm D'Or at the Mall, we managed to shove in more calories with the jellied mocha and tea drinks (different day).  Also a dessert which is like a mille-feuille, but with layers of crepe, which we used to like in Japan.

For exercise, M gave Penny a bath.

Halekulani moments

Ward's Warehouse's birds.

The other day M and I were browsing at Ward's and who should I see but our sempai friend from naginata at Happy Haleiwa, a cute shop selling their logo goods.

That evening we met up with family members at House Without a Key, our usual dinner spot whenever they come in to Hawaii.
What a surprise to see the youngest member - they do grow so fast! (Trite but true)

And finally, our Remembrance Luncheon for grandma, held at the same place where we celebrated her 90th birthday, and were all set to gather for her 100th birthday in a few years.

"Da Kids"

Next time we see the baby, she won't be one.

Here we are at House Without a Key again.
We sure can eat!

Aloha Penny, Tokoname

Penny's summer grooming photo from Aloha Dog.

The other day we stopped in at Tokoname for an early supper.

Ikura sushi and their pupu,
Vegetable Tempura French Fries.

Crispy tempura veggie sticks-carrots, green beans, eggplant, and sweet potatoes.

Ramen and Shinobue

Another set of questions for the Techies at the Apple store at the Mall.  (What would I do without them!)

Since we had a two hour wait for our appointment we had lunch at Gomatei, one of the first ramen restaurants that became popular here.
Pork charsiu shoyu ramen.  The noodles had body and the broth wasn't too salty and it satisfied my craving for ramen.

Still killing time, this time at at one of Shirokiya's numerous food stalls.  While having iced coffee, we saw Yukie san, a fellow student of Shimizu Voice.

Together with my Naginata teacher, we had taken Yokobue (Japanese flute) lessons about eight years ago from the Reverend Masatoshi Shamoto, who is the founder of the Hawaii Gagaku Kenkyukai, the Gagaku professor at the UH Manoa,  a Reverend at the Tenrikyo,  and friend of Miura Sensei my naginata sensei.

Under his considerable guidance, we had made our own flutes out of bamboo he had gathered from the mountains here.

This one was made by Shamoto Sensei.  It is a Shinobue which is not tuned for a western scale and has a high pitch and can be heard in festival music as well as traditional theater and classical music.

T

Busy days

We've been moving furniture around and having plumbing work
done so Pudgie has to change his lifestyle, from free wheeling flyer to bird in a cage.

The vet said he should do fine and clipped his wings.   Pudge is 15 years old and sleeps most of the day anyway, but I take him out of the cage for some beak rubbing and exercise in the morning.

Between Penny's pee and Pudgie's poo we were having a too busy time cleaning up.  What a relief to have Pudge safely in his cage.

Speaking of poo, we received a call from Aloha Dog where we had dropped Penny off for the day.  It seems Penny slipped in some poop so and needed a bath, so we ordered a basic grooming for her.  Second time this has happened.  Guess Penny doesn't watch where she runs.

We had brought our computer to the Apple Store in the Mall where the nice Tech support young man fixed some glitches and got my photo library caught up (I recently upgraded to OS X).

We  had to leave the computer for two hours so, of course,
we had to de-stress with a glass of wine.

And a hamburger at Alan Wong's Pineapple Room in Macy's!

Penny wishes you a....

Happy Fourth of July

Have a safe

and happy weekend.

Bobby from the past, House w/o a Key, MW

Liz sent this photo of her childhood dogs, Bobby and Lani, Bobby being the dachshund.
According to grandma, many Japanese, like the vet and police officer thought the dogs were very smart since they could understand English.

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The other day we had lunch at House Without a Key and had curry.  The view was beautiful and peaceful as usual but
the curry was very flat, and the rice was too soft.

Chicken curry and mango chutney.
So disappointing since we were craving curry.

The colorful arrangement at the entrance.
I was happy to see the thistles, as they are one of my favorite flowers.
****

Happy Hour at MW today.
The butterfish and unagi arancini on nori tsukudani (seaweed paste).
Everything on the Happy Hour menu was $5 (except for the Martini)

Very tasty Bruschetta with goat cheese.

And the very light and airy MW doughnuts for dessert.

Open and clean kitchen, good service and tasty food, served until 4 pm.