Winter Solstice

 

Do you have any customs in your culture on the longest night of the winter solstice? The winter solstice is called “Toji” in Japanese. In Japan the custom is to eat kabocha ( pumpkin) and to take a hot citron bath, called "YUZU-YU" . Yuzu is a small citrus fruit. Both are rich in vitamins and help us to not catch a cold. The yuzu trees in my Grandpa’s garden in Japan should be bearing a lot of fruit now. I would like to bathe in yuzu tub and breathe in hot steam with the scent of citrus!

Happy Holidays

and best wishes for the new year!!

"JACO PASTORIUS ('76)"

Today I am listening over and over to the legendary album, Jaco's "JACO PASTORIUS ('76)". Herbie's Fender Rhodes/piano is all over this album!! I loved it! and I still love it now, in 2010!

"The Trio in Tokyo" by Michel Petrucciani

Recorded live at the Tokyo club Blue Note, ‘The Trio’ features the late Michel Petrucciani (P), Anthony Jackson (B) and Steve Gadd (ds). This combination may sound a bit more aggressive than most traditional straight ahead jazz trios, but it sounds GREAT!! Petrucciani has been my #1 jazz pianist in recent years, not only because he’s an excellent pianist, but also because of his lively and “happy” feelings. In this album, especially with Gadd, his piano sounds even happier. He must have enjoyed this performance. Tokyo was a lively and exciting city back then, and I think this happy jazz live feel really represents to me the atmosphere in the Tokyo of the 90s.

The crafter return!

I have been beading all day today with my new glasses with the new prescription. I'm a bit sad about the fact that I need tri-focal glasses, but I am very happy that I am back to being a crafter again!!

 

Lapsang souchong tea

Tea sure tastes good when the weather cools down. I especially enjoy Lapsang souchong tea during this season. Black tea with the flavour of the pine smoke

Life is good!!

I have been waiting sixteen years for this boy to be able to open jam jars or move furniture for me. He gets the things from the top shelf for his vertically challenged mom. Life is good!!!!


Even before I became a mom, my dream was to someday play music with my children. Even though my precious music collection was messed up with drool or ice cream, I let my son play with my cds. Now He is a teenager who likes Stevie Wonder. YAY!, An excellent bassist (and a drummer), good at jazz-funk stuff! Life is good!!!!

"The New Standard " By Herbie Hancock

 Hancock  covers the songs by Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Prince, The Beatles, Kurt Cobain and more. I love most of the original songs and one of my favorite pianists Herbie Hancock has reworked them into jazz. Great album!!

Passport in his hand

A shy little boy used to panic and cry when he could not see his mama around.

 He disappeared at the departure gate all by himself with his passport in his hand ...all by himself, smiling and waving his hand...

May lots of happiness and joy come to that beautiful young man.

Michel Petrucciani

I would say Michel Petrucciani is one of the greatest jazz pianists of my generation. He had been my NO.1 artist for the last couple of years!! Michel was a French pianist who died in 1999 from complications from a life-long bone disease at his early 30′s. I cannot overstate the contributions of Michel to the world through his musical power and technic, emotion, imagination and sophistication. 

30years with Jazz!!

  This is my 30th year anniversary of being a jazz listener. Recently I have gone back and started re-listening to all the music I have listened for last 30 years. Lots of memories of each stage of my life come up with the music. Most of the music is still cool after many years. How much I have been given by all that music!! I am really happy to have something that I love so much!

"The Gardener" by Sarah Stewart

This story takes place during the depression in 1930s. Due to economic hardships, Lydia, a girl who loves gardening, living in a small town, is forced to go to one of her relatives in the big city. She doesn’t forget her gardener’s heart, creates happiness around her with flowers. The story is told as a collection of her letters to her family. As we are currently experiencing hard economic times worldwide, this book inspires us to not forget the value of beauty in life. One of the 10 books I would bring to the desert!!

Haiku- Unconscious mistakes

Once I was talking about how beautiful daffodils are.

I thought I was saying "daffodil",

I kept saying " dandruff".

Once I was talking about how cute squirrels are.

I thought I was saying "squirrels",

I kept saying "squids".

This is how Mama learned American culture

My boys were born in Japan. We moved to the U.S. in 1996, when EL was four and RL was two years old. As soon as we moved, I started searching through suggested readings for kids their age from the library by asking their preschool teachers, and by just browsing bookstore shelves. Since then, we have been reading lots of good books. And we watched kids' TV shows such as "Sesame Street" and "Barney" everyday together.


There are a lot of things that are "common knowledge" for most people who grew up in the U.S., or something they must have learned in schools. And those things(Kids stuff) are used in the movies, TV shows, news headlines, jokes and such. For example, quotes from "Mother Goose" used in a paper, or making joke songs out of famous nursery rhymes sung on TV show, something like that. I didn't understand why it was funny or what implication it had. I had to ask someone. But even after the explanation, I still didn't get them because I didn't know the originals either.


Many years have passed since I first came to this country, I have read and sung "Mother Goose", read lots of famous picture books and chapter books that school age children tend to read.


I find I feel less left out these days. I find myself laughing with Americans spontaneously sometimes (even with Jay Leno jokes...:-) ). I am very lucky to have my boys! They grew up enjoying reading and singing with TV shows, and so did I!. We have been absorbing American kid's culture together.


But they have learned things so quickly, five times faster than I did (maybe ten! maybe fifty!!). I still have someone to explain when I don't get the meaning. But now the boys help me by explaining me "American Culture" and more. Teenagers know a lot! A lot more than their Mama thinks!!