When Kumi comes in the kitchen

Today, I cleaned the living room, washroom, kitchen and sorted out some garbage,
so it was nice to take care of few things in the house.

I then prepared dinner for my grandma and I before leaving to the gym, so I took a few photos of them:

I wanted to eat lots of vegetables, so here is a dish with colorful veges,
slice of ham and peanuts for crunchy asian taste. Was very tasty!!! :)

I boiled a bunch of spinach and sliced carrot and wrapped them around with a slice of beef, sprinkled salt and pepper and fly pan them until cooked. Once it was cooked, I removed them and pour 2 tbsp of sake, 2 tbsp of mirin, 1 tbsp of soy sauce and 1 tbsp of sugar to make the sauce. This dish turned out pretty good. So try it if you like:

Boiled beans with sesame dressing:

Cucumber and crab meat salad (sunomono-vinegar dressing):

All turned out pretty tasty and healthy that my grandma was happy. :)
It's always nice to have lots of different ingredients in a meal. That is my ideal meal to get all the nutrients for the day :)

Attending Taka-chan's Funeral

I woke up at 5:15 am to catch the 6am train to my cousin's baby's funeral today.

Because of this, I had an opportunity to unite with a few of my cousins whom I have not met for over a decade.

Most of them now are a parent, and it was really sweet seeing their child(ren).

Below is the photo of my cousin's baby who past away.

I have mentioned how I had a surrealistic dream when he died in my blog entry dated May 30th, 2005

I decided to write the detail of the visual image and its message that I experienced in my dream for my cousin, and while I was writing it, I came to realize that the message the baby had absolutely matched with the meaning of his name. In the dream, this baby was spreading his love to everyone around him and wishing a peace of mind and happiness for those who cared and loved him from a high up in the sky. Apparently, his name (which I learned from my grandma after his death) "Takaharu" was named after his dad hoping him to become an individual who could bring cheerful and happy energy to many people's lives (flying like an eagle). So although he passed away at the age of 10 month old, him trying to spread much love and the sense of peace over people were very touching, as if his parent's wish had always been understood by this littlebaby.

At the funeral, I was able to see him for the first and last time. I touched his face before a cremation, as I learned how cold his skin was, big tears fall off from my eyes. At the same time, all the sadness that I kept inside me bursted out and I could not stop crying quite loud. But he was soon to be cremated, so I thought that I had to take care of my feelings and not to drag my sadness with me, when there are people who have gone thru such a difficult time in thepast 1 month since he lost is consciousness.

After the funeral, we returned to my uncle's place and had lunch with everyone.
There I took a few photos of my relatives, so I would like to share below:

my cousin's first son:

My different cousin's daughters. The photos do not tell how cute they are in real life. VERY LOVELY GIRLS.

After lunch and a great chat with relatives, my grandma and I bought a lunchbox for our supper at a dept store that was connected to a train station. Ilooked around some stuff there (clothing/accssories etc), but nothing I wanted to buy badly, so we decided to get on the train home. On the way home while travelling on a train, I mistook and got off at a wrong station (3 stops before the destinated exit)! LOL So my grandma and I decided to eat the lunch box since we had to wait for about 20 minutes.

It was very tasty!!!!

Anyhow, we got home just over 8:30pm. Although it was such a sad day, I am glad that I was able to see Taka-chan. May he rest in peace and harmony. Alwayswishing the best for my cousin and her family. ....

Excellent Work on the Hot Swim Wear Show by Beautiful Ladies

Well, I could not sit still but to post a few photos that were shared with me from my friend, Dawn, of a recent fashion show, where she performed a remarkable work on the make up on the swim-wear models with her partner, Shannon. These swim-wears were designed by her friends, Britt and Michelle. and what do you say people? HOWT LOOKING SHIT!

It is always very very inspiring to see an image or experience a moment where people are manifesting their true passion. Say it is a fashion show, or a live house music performance. I can not get enough of witnessing these hot moments of other people's lives. I was very inspired by these photos and wanted to share what I was most positively influenced by in the past couple of days. :)

For those who are interested in purchasing their swim-wears, please visit: www.fascinodiva.com
Also, those individuals (living in west Canada) who are interested in getting a fabulous make up work, please email me so that I can forward you a contact after getting a permission of my friend :) (the name of their company is: Shadan Artists).

Thank you very much for the true inspiration and your great vibe, Dawn. You ROCK!! :)

Wanna see some Japanese hip hop dancing crew?

While staying up late last nite, there was this tv show where some Japanese dancer crews come on the tv studio for their performance. It is always SWEET watching some kick ass dancers do their thing, so I video recorded one of the most better crew shown on the show. Although it is a hip hop dancer crew (and not house), I am still going to give a high five to the boys. Good stuff.

	Hip Hop Crew First Clip
	Second Clip

Quick Tour to My Parent's Restaurant & Garden

As to meet this request from my friend, I am going to give you a quick tour of my parent's restaurant. On the second floor of this building that you are going to see, a sleeping beauty kumi sleeps forEVER. LOL

Enjoy!

	From outside to the entrance of the restaurant
	From the entrance->kitchen-hallway->garden
	View of the garden from inside
	Garden when the window is opened. Can you hear the splatter sound of water off the falls?

Stillness of Beauty

Yesterday, I did a bit of gardening and cleaned the parking lot, which took over 3 hrs.
So today, I took things easy in the late morning after consulting a couple customers who came by to make a reservation for their daughter's engagement party. I like chilling by the garden, hearing the water sprashing from the little falls that lead to a pond. I took a small film recording the garden today, so I plan on uploading it later on.

I took a photo of me chilling laying down on the tatami-matt. I will surely miss my Japanese home, the garden, the Japanese moss, bonsai trees, ponds, carp fish, green tea...

I wished people who have never been to Japan experience what it is like to live here.
Very comforting. soothing. chilling. I like the art that I see in the stillness of our living here.



Peace

P.S.
My way to visit the moon light temple to burn some incents for my ancestor's gravestone.

Finally... My deepest condolence for my cousin and her family

I had such a surrealistic dream today. Of an angel like creature flying up to the sky with the gentle wind around him, up to wherever he now belongs to, the heaven. It felt as though he was thanking all the people who cared and loved him, and he was trying to spread the love and peace back to us. That was the sort of feelings that I gained. When I opened my eyes and woke up from the dream, I instinctly knew what had just happened. As I walked into the living room, my grandma's mobile rang, and the phone call meant the death of my cousin's baby, who struggled to live his life even for a little longer after the accident shakened his life like a sudden earth quake putting people's lives on its edge.

As I learned this news, I felt strange. I felt immense sadness for my cousin and her family. But I knew that he tried his best, and he was heading to where he belongs, on his own strongly, so I felt that we had to appreciate the life that he had, everything that he shared and taught us and cherish the memory we have of him.

Unfortunately, I have never met him, so the funeral that I will be attending (most likely after tomorrow) will be my first and last time I see him. I feel terribly sorry for my cousin, and do not know how to comfort her, but I am going to tell her the dream that I had, hoping that will make her feel better, even a little bit.

Life is so precious. But we are so lucky to have the ability to keep and cherish the memory in our life. I feel graceful that the human psychology and some memories trigger us to remember certain emotions that we experience in our life (of course, having a bad flashback is not nice, but you know what I mean here). It's kind of like having the gift of experience more than once (thanks to our memory)!!

Anyway, I hope and wish all my best for my cousin and her upcoming delivery of her baby, which she carries with her right now.

Being a gangster on the road ain't easy

Well, I washed my mom's car first thing in the morning after I had breakfast. I even waxed it, and turned out pretty nice and fresh. :)

Then later on, I made a simple sammich for my grandma and my lunch, and this sleepy-ness hacked me, so I took a nap like a big sloth forever sleeping on a tree.

Then it was time to water the plants, vegetables and flowers outside, so I decided to move the clean car to the side. Then I realized something was different about it. Shite. Seems as though the buttery is gone! :( I must have set the light on mistakenly while cleaning earlier today.
My grandma called a relative for a rescue, and he flew down here right away. He transfered the battery from his car and fixed the problem like a magic.

Phew.

So I am charging up some battery right now, and it's been about 45 minutes now, so I plan on driving to the gym soon.

Hopefully the car will not die down when I need to return home from the gym though. SO wish me good luck.

Okay, I must check everything when handling my power-tool on the road. Peace