Kyoto bus station sign with bus tracker

Pure genious...

Yu Choy/Chinese broccoli... Preparing what very well might be the best steamed veggie ever.

1. Purchase!

A delicious bunch of fresh Yu Choy from Super H Mart.

2. Cook!

Rinse, then steam it.

3. Consume!

Good alone or mixed with Japanese Tofu and rice

No added anything necessary.  It tastes like butter all by itself!

Craft Project: Make your own homemade dining chair pads

My parents have had cane seat dining room chairs since they got married a few decades ago.  Great chairs, very nice, but they have one major drawback.  The cane seats are not super comfortable and not super strong so eventually they break.  Ours broke.  My parents were thinking that they would simply get the chairs re-caned, but I convinced them that I could do one better and make built-in padded seats for them instead.  Thus, the project was born.

First, I looked online to find some instructions and I found them at ehow.com.  

How to remove cane:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4407773_remove-chair-cane-webbing-spline.html

How to make a chair pad:
http://www.ehow.com/how_7815799_make-dining-room-chair-pads.html

I essentially followed these instructions, and I give you my photos of my process:

1. Original Cane Chair

2. Removing the cane and spline.

First, I cut a square hole in the middle (notice the piece on the floor).  I used a hammer, chisel and needle nosed pliers to *carefully* remove the spline that anchors the cane into the groove.  Then, I slid the chisel in between the cane and the top surface and gently tapped it, doing this all the way around the chair to loosen the cane from the glue that holds it in the groove. When I had all the cane out, I used a chisel, flat head screw driver and rough grit sand paper to clean out the inside of the groove. 

3. Caning cut and removed.

4. 3/8" plywood boards cut and sanded

I traced the opening with newspaper, which was not easy and not recommended, and then cut out my template.  I originally had 4 templates, but ended up just using one of them four times because they were trivially different.  I bought the plywood from home depot in two 2'x4' boards along with some 1/2" mounting brackets.  I cut the boards into 4 squares using a table saw, and then traced my template onto the squares and cut that template using an old (like 20+ years) Sears electric reciprocating saw.  I then used an electric sander with 100+ grit sandpaper to smooth the edges and the top and bottom surfaces.

5. Plywood seat

6. Staining, sealing the boards.  Optional.

I used some leftover Minwax stuff that would pretty closely match the color of the chair. 

7. Board with mounting brackets attached to 2" batting.

I set each board on a chair, trying to line up the edges so that they covered as much of the groove as possible.  With the board in place, I marked where I wanted each bracket then drilled small pilot holes and attached each bracket.  Make sure you mark which plywood board goes with which chair, which side of the board goes up and which side matches to the back of the chair, otherwise you'll have a hard time matching them up later on, especially after the fabric is attached!  I used a can of spray-on adhesive to attach the 2" batting (15" x 17" x 2" Nu-Foam, $11/ea. from Jo-Ann Fabrics) to the plywood.  I had to wait a while to get a day above 65 degrees so that I could do this outside.  In hind-sight, the adhesive step seems completely unnecessary and I would skip it next time.

8. Batting trimmed

I used some standard Fiskars multipurpose scissors to trim the batting.  Ouch.  This was very difficult as they were not fabric shears designed to cut through 2" batting.  Next time I would try this with fabric shears or something that is better able to cut through very thick material.  I wore a mask to avoid breathing the loose fibers (just in case). 

9. Attaching the fabric with staple gun.

We picked out our fabric, 2 yards of a soft green/brown fabric to match the chairs and the green paint scheme we have in the room ($15.99/yard, from Jo-Ann's as well but we used a 40% off any single item coupon).  My method for attaching fabric:
1. place the fabric good side down, place batting on top of that, and the plywood board with brackets on top of that.
2. Choose a bracket to start.  Staple about 1/2" in from the edge of the fabric and 1/2" away from the bracket.
3. Move the the bracket directly opposite the one you just stapled.  Pull the fabric as tight as you want it, staple that one.
4. Move to one of the remaining two sides, repeat 1 & 2.
5. Staple once on either side of the original staples so that each side has 3 staples about 3 inches apart. Make sure to pull the fabric as tight as you want it, and check how it looks from the  opposite side often!
6. Now pull a corner directly towards the center of the board, check the tension and staple it.  Go to the corner opposite and repeat.  Repeat for the remaining two corners.
7. Now if you want a smooth corner (i did), you have to make several folds (rather like a chinese fan) and staple each. (wing it, that's what I did).
8. Trim any excess fabric that is sticking out at the corners, but don't cut it too close to the staples, you don't want the fabric to pull through the staple!
9. My pads did not completely cover the grooves that the spline had been in, so I used some long 1" wide scrap strips of the new fabric, folded them long ways and stuck them into the groove before attaching the pad.  This way, the groove wouldn't show and it would simply look like an extension of the pad.
10.  Final step, attach the pad to the chair.  Put the pad into the chair, mark the holes in the bracket, take out the pad, drill pilot holes, put the pad back into the chair, screw in the screws to attach the pad.  If you are having a hard time screwing in the screws, either drill a slightly bigger pilot hole, or try rubbing the screws on a bar of (cheap!) soap, or both.

10. Finished chairs with pads!  Comfy!

Original cane chair again (for comparison)

Spring flower quiz

What are these flowers?

California koshihikari rice.

Yum!

Epic Snow Blizzard '11

Woke up to 3-4 foot snow drifts at 9am today.

Helped Mom & Dad clear snow in front of the house.

...and helped clear our neighbors' driveways.

Before:

After:

Now time for hot chocolate and a hot bath.

Cookies for the Blizzard of 2011

In honor of the thundersnow blizzard of 2011 that we are currently experiencing in Chicago, we have made one of Mia's favorite recipes:

Pumpkin Ginger Pecan Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar (or 50% white sugar, 50% dark brown sugar)

1/2 cup nonfat plain Greek-style yogurt

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups sifted cake flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

pecans for topping

Directions:

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat it to 350 degrees. Coat 2 baking sheets with cooking spray or line with parchment.

In a large bowl, combine the pumpkin, sugar, yogurt, oil and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.

In a medium-size bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, ground ginger, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet, mixing until just blended. Top with pecans.

Drop tablespoons of the batter onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing cookies about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake, in 2 batches if necessary, until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

Eat! Yum!

Turtle Maki

Now that I have a proper phone camera, I am back to blogging.

I give you... Turtle Maki. From Dozika restaurant in Evanston.

We're still alive!

Here in the Chicago area, both going to school and working part-time jobs (Mia's is very very part-time). Happy to be home, but still missing Japan.

Mia wants a bunny. Brian wants Shinkansens. Both want winter to be over. We miss all our Japanese friends and students. Hope you all are doing well!!

A new blog

I've started a new transportation blog for my ramblings about transportation-related stuff. 
it's here: http://publictransitbug.blogspot.com/

Public transit, traffic, highways, bicycles, whatever I feel like ranting or raving about at the moment.

enjoy if you will...

-Brian

Word of the Week

Blue Butterfly at the Morton Arboretum

Predilection

Meaning "a disposition in favor of something" or "preference."

When I went to the Morton Arboretum with my family, I took photos which suggested an overwhelming predilection for nature photography.

-B

Metra's Free Rides

Image: http://chicagowildernessmag.org/issues/summer2007/images/transit_first.jpg

Chicago's Metra commuter trains provide a vital service to the public and are an asset to the entire area. However, their ability to handle high capacities leaves something to be desired.

When Chicago's Metra commuter trains are at capacity or over (during Ravinia concerts, Lollapalooza, Taste of Chicago, the recent Chicago Blackhawks celebration (429,000 people?), to name a few examples), the policy is to not charge the people that conductors cannot reach, which ends up being pretty much everyone. Those of you not familiar with the Metra system might not understand. If the average round-trip fare is $5, that's over $2.1 million for the Blackhawks event alone, if they collect all the fares. One Ravinia evening concert might overfill 8-10 trains round trip, at $5 per person, 200 people per train car, and 8 train cars, that's about $80,000, if they collect all the fares. There are Ravinia concerts all summer long.

A little background: Quaintly, in the Metra system, conductors still collect fares and hole-punch tickets by hand (no digital assistance, no automatic fare cards, etc.) while walking through the train trying to remember who they've charged, where they're getting on and off at, etc. You can board a train without a ticket and purchase one from the conductor when (if) he/she walks by and asks for your tickets. In some cases, this is your only option since there are no automated ticket purchasing machines, station houses have extremely limited hours, and many station houses are unmanned.

Metra's trains are bi-level, and have narrow aisles that make the task of ticket checking and collecting neither easy nor quick... fortunately, the assistant conductor doesn't have to go up to the 2nd level.

A recent example: My wife and I went to see Rodrigo y Gabriela at Ravinia on Saturday Aug. 28, 2010. The train we rode to Ravinia Park was packed (as were the 2 or 3 after us), and nobody was charged a dime. When we returned that night, the trains were even more packed, and they ran extra trains in order to meet the extraordinary demand (this happens regularly for Ravinia concerts, as the exact same thing happened to us 2 years ago when we went to see Feist on July 11, 2008). Once again, nobody was charged a dime in either direction. In fact, this doesn't just happen during special events. On Sunday Aug. 1, 2010 I took the train into the city. It wasn't particularly busy, but nobody in my train car was charged because the conductor never came by to check tickets.

Stop.

Think about that.

When you take the CTA train or bus home after a Cubs game or after Lollapalooza, do they let you ride for free? No.
When you drive to the Taste of Chicago, and the Millennium Park garages are packed, do they just open the gates and let everyone park for free? No.


This is, in essence, what Metra is doing... whenever their trains are too full for the conductors to walk the aisle and collect fares.

Why?

Their system does not scale. It cannot handle high capacity. It's not the fault of the conductors, it's the system. The fare collection system must be updated, able to handle all capacities, especially at the high end. In a time when companies and families are tightening their belts and trying to run more efficiently, it is baffling why Metra would be allowed to continue to forego collecting fares during the very times when their revenue and profits would be highest. Back of the envelope calculations suggest that they are forgoing hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions... every year.

Metra needs to find a way to charge all of their customers, all of the time, ESPECIALLY during the times when the trains are the most packed. Private companies live and die by their highest volume days. However, by virtue of being a public entity, Metra doesn't seem to have to follow the same rules. But as a taxpayer, and a regular, avid Metra rider, I believe that this is unfair to the taxpayers of Illinois and unfair to other Metra riders who have to pay their fares.

B

Full disclosure: I love public transportation. I love trains. I love transit. I've been to Japan and South Korea. They charge all of their customers, all the time (unless the train is extremely, horribly late, in which case you can apply for a refund).

Homemade Pizza & More

Upon our return to the States, we decided to take advantage of the weather and make our own homemade grilled pizza -
- Pizza crust (available at our local Jewel-Osco supermarket, NOT the frozen kind)
- Fresh Mozzarella cheese (round, sliced)
- fresh herbs from the garden - basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, etc.
- fresh tomatoes from the garden (this is tomato season after all...)
- Red bell peppers
- Pizza 1 : Turkey pieces (pre-cooked, chopped small)
- Pizza 2 : Turkey sausage (pre-cooked, chopped small)
- artichoke hearts
- button mushrooms
- Pesto, olive oil
- Peachy Canyon Red Zinfandel (wine, very good)
- Yeti Imperial Stout (beer, not my favorite, but not bad)

Word of the Week...

Our extemporaneous dancing/jumping party in the Cherry Blossom park near the Fushinogawa.

Extemporaneous

Meaning improvised; done without preparation.

Merriam-Webster's definition:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extemporaneous

1. a (1) : composed, performed, or uttered on the spur of the moment : impromptu

(2) : carefully prepared but delivered without notes or text

b: skilled at or given to extemporaneous utterance

c : happening suddenly and often unexpectedly and usually without clearly known causes or relationships

"a great deal of criminal and delinquent behavior is…extemporaneous — W. C. Reckless"

2 : provided, made, or put to use as an expedient : makeshift

— ex·tem·po·ra·ne·ous·ly adverb

— ex·tem·po·ra·ne·ous·ness noun

One of my students was inclined to give extemporaneous piano performances, though she often said she played "at random." At the time, I suggested she use "I played an improvised piano piece" (suggesting no prior preparation) but she could say: "I played an extemporaneous piano piece" if there were some preparation ahead of time...

-Brian

Chicago Pizza

Here is a faux wedding photo that we had taken during a photo shoot a few years ago.

One in particular gives a very nice example of what Chicago-style deep dish pizza looks like:

And here are some of the more famous Chicago-Style Pizza restaurants:

Edwardo's

Gino's East

Giordano's

Lou Malnati's

Pizzeria Uno

If you ever visit Chicago and want to go on a guided tour of Chicago-style pizza restaurants, these folks have a nice tour package: http://www.secondcitypizzatours.com/

And this page has several downloadable audio tours of Chicago (including Japanese!): http://www.downloadchicagotours.com/

Finally, here's what the Wikipedia community has to say about Chicago-style deep dish pizza:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago-style_pizza

Take care!

-Brian

Footprints in Hawaii...

On our way back from Japan, we stopped in Hawaii. Staying in a hostel, which means we could stay there much longer, for much cheaper than would be possible in a regular hotel. :)

We did all regular tourist stuff near Honolulu, nothing fancy:


We visited Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona battleship memorial monument. Climbed up to the top of Diamond Head (not actually that exciting...). And we spent a lot of time on Waikiki Beach relaxing, watching a canoe race, enjoying 4th of July fireworks, tanning, boogie boarding and bodyboarding.

We also enjoyed some tasty meals, including the following one at the fancy pink hotel's restaurant, Azure.

On our second-to-last day, we managed to take the bus up to Shark's Cove for some snorkeling. The bus trip is really long (passes by the Dole Pineapple Plantation halfway through), so for anyone planning on doing this I'd highly recommend renting a car/motorbike, or just staying at a hotel/hostel on the north shore, far away from touristy Waikiki.

Next time, we'll have to go to Kawaii, Maui and the other islands.

I leave you with this photo, my homage to a very beautiful poem, which also follows:

Footprints in the Sand

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.

In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.

This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord,

“You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”

The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”

Mary Stevenson, 1936

National bike to work week!

Yamaguchi, Japan makes it pretty easy to bike anyplace by providing covered bike parking.

At the community center where I teach class... it's a lifesaver on rainy Fridays. I have to bike on Fridays, so it's nice to know that I won't have to deal with a soaked bicycle at the end of the day. Just put on my rain coat, pop open my clear, see-through umbrella, and ride single-handed back to the office. (Also helps to have a wheel-friction-powered LED headlight, sturdy metal basket, splash guards, and built-in rear wheel lock as standard equipment on my inexpensive, but solidly-built grandma bike).

Covered bicycle parking outside the central post office...

Supermarket bicycle parking (right in front of the entrance), sharing the lot with cars (but the bicycles are much higher density).

Library bicycle (and scooter) parking.

-Brian

Rappers for sale..¥210

Whale meat for sale at our local supermarket, YouMe Town.

Rappers, a new Wrap-style sandwich...haha! silent W tripped someone up.

Neighbors out planting their rice field. Ain't springtime great?

-Brian

Revisiting Mt. Ishizuchi

I wonder why people are so enamored with climbing mountains. You go up only to come down again. Your muscles burn and your feet hurt. Before climbing Mt. Ishizuchi the second time around (we couldn't finish the first time due to time constraints) I kept joking that I wanted to conquer the mountain. But after passing through the torii marking the end of our climb I realized the reason why we climb: mountains help us conquer ourselves. Mountains give us a concrete way of overcoming our fears, our laziness, our desire for comfort and the desire to do a million things at once. All you can do is put one foot in front of the other, try not to fall, and tell yourself to just keep going.

Mt. Ishizuchi is the tallest mountain in western Japan and is located on the island of Shikoku. It's one of Japan's 7 holy mountains and the shrine at the top is accessible only by foot. The climb takes 6 hours (round-trip) at a moderate pace with a 45 minute break at the top. The most interesting features of the mountain, however, are the chains. There are 3 chains that "short-cut" the hiking path, as well as a bonus "Trial Chain" (which we climbed last time, discovering that it leads to a lonely peak, beautiful view, and another chain down). They range in length from 38-74 meters long. You don't have to be an experienced climber to do them, but you do need some faith in yourself. You can do it! This was definitely one of the best experiences we've had in Japan.

Brian on the 3rd set of chains, halfway through. I'm standing on a small ledge with one hand on the chains.

Here's a map I edited for English speakers (full size here):



The final chain leads directly to the small shrine on top of the mountain. You can then proceed to Tengu-dake, or Goblin-nose Point, the very distinctive tip of the mountain. Sadly when we went it was so foggy we could barely see in front of us so the tip was completely shrouded in clouds.

See? It was so cloudy! And yes, that's all I carried with me.

There's also a small restaurant there with cup noodles, water, snacks, trinkets, curry rice, toilets and a heater. The staff live up there! I wanted to ask how often they go down, but my Japanese isn't that good. I'm happy to report that they were open for service even on a Monday in off-season. You can sleep here for roughly $90 a night (per person), but it makes more sense to climb the mountain in 6 hours and go camp nearby at Furei No Sato which has big baths. Mmm....

The best part of the trip (other than the chains) was the people. The man who ran the parking lot chatted us up and gave us a banana (so sweet and random). Only one other couple was climbing that day and we talked with them several times on the trail and at the top, and they gave us candy!

Oh Japan, we're going to miss you so much.

-Mia

A Challenge to Democracy, 1944

Was looking at this NPR report today: The Creative Art Of Coping In Japanese Internment
by Susan Stamberg


and it linked to this video from 1944 (Government-produced film attempting to defend the massive internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II.):


-Brian