Browsing posts in the ‘The Day Events’ category
Tokeshi Mouri Family Reunion
Aqua has a lot of family in Southern California and one of his uncles organizes a family reunion once every 3 years. It’s a pretty big deal. Everyone brings a dish and there are activities, scrapbooks, group photos, and games.
I’m not sure how this happened but I ended up taking more pictures of Tofu than family members. I met some new family members, and there were also some cute additions to the family, just like me! Except they were babies.
They had badminton set up and I hadn’t played since high school so that was fun. The net was set up too high so you couldn’t really smash it.
There were lots of other dogs too. Tofu was mostly shy and let other dogs sniff her. She’s more comfortable with the smaller dogs.
Some highlights:
Aqua made an awesome pirate doll. He was so creative, from the hook he made from taking out the pipe cleaner fuzz to the peg leg.
Tofu really enjoys the park and gurgling down water from the bottle.
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- Tofu’s name tag. Very useful!
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- Picnic table
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- The awning
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- Eating lunch
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- Aqua enjoys the food.
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- Tofu enjoys the grass
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- Play with me!
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- She likes crunching the water bottle
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- Cool grass
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- Gurgle gurgle
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- She has a toy that can hide a water bottle in its body, but she likes to take it out
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- I made a doll of me in my wedding dress
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- Arggh
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- My pink veil. My hair took a long time to get right.
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- Pose!
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- What is this?!
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- The other dolls and monsters
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- Tofu plays with a volleyball.
Caroline, Fighting!
My good friends are few. I don’t know how this happened, nor am I complaining. And of my few good friends, the number of girl friends is an even smaller percentage of that. I know how this happened. Girl are more maintenance and drama than boys. There is only so much conversation that I can take about clothing, boys, things happened during their day. Though I live vicariously through the stories, I need this kind of information in limited quantities.
Anyway, this post is about Caroline.
Caroline went back to Korea to attend university. Though this limits the girl friends I have near me to…oh…one, I’m happy for her because she seemed anxious to get into the school and she did! So congratulations on the new chapter of your life. I hope you learn lots over there. Shock the staunch machismo Korean boys with your “American” ways and start a revolution! And then tell me all about it. ^_^
Here we are, the day before she left, at BCD Tofu House. I correctly guessed there would be 12 people in there.
Preparing soumen at home and nagashi soumen at Hirobun in Kibune
It’s getting pretty hot where I live and I had been craving the nagashi soumen I ate during my honeymoon to Japan in June so I did it!
Yummers
I added the cucumber slices for some color. It’s all about presentation! The noodles are also twirled into circles.
My first time making poached eggs. I love semi firm yolks with viscous yolk inside.
The dipping sauce. I didn’t have green onions so I put in julienne slices of cucumber. Cut by self because I don’t have a julienne slicer. I should probably invest in one.
This is his “eeeeeee” face. Excuse the mess…we’re in the process of moving.
Pick up…
And dip!
It was very refreshing and satisfying. It’s different from what I’ve been normally cooking. This isn’t something you can have everyday, though, because it’s easy to get sick of.
Anyhow, the best soumen I’ve had was in Kibune, Japan. It’s a special, kind, called nagashi soumen which means “flowing noodles.” After researching around, I discovered that I had to go to Kibune for its atmosphere. The area is very cool, even in the summer, and heavily forested with bamboos and trees. It is unique because the river runs through the strip of inns and restaurants which are built over the river and small waterfalls.
The restaurant we went to was called Hirobun
Here is a video that sums it up pretty quickly.
The train ride is about 30 minutes. We were lucky enough to get the new train with wide windows and seats that face outwards.
A a 30 minute walk from the station, we finally arrived to Kibune. There are several restaurants built over the river. Most of them have the expensive set meals.
A nice lady advertising her own restaurant pointed out how much longer we would have to walk to reach Hirobun. We felt bad. Most of the restaurants are split to two floors since the river flows downward with waterfalls.
The bottom floor. The top floor has low tables for the big set meals
Anticipating epicness
We wait for the waitress to set up before being seated there.
The nagashi soumen meal comes with a poached egg. Looooove.
After us, some Taiwanese people came down to eat as well. There are two tracks the noodles go on, and two sets of bamboo. There was also a Japanese woman who sat to the right of us. She took noodles from the top track and we took noodles from the bottom. The chef in the hut sends down the small bundles of soumen one at a time in spurts. For instances “one soumen, second soumen, one soumen in other track, wait…….one soume, second soumen, one soumen in other track, wait……” It gives you time to eat before you ready your chopsticks again.
The last noodle is flavored with ume to make it pink. That way, you know it’s over so you don’t sit there waiting for more noodles, variable interval style.
I totally recommend going to this place if you’re not afraid to get lost. Otherwise, be prepared to stare at train schedules and figure out platforms very carefully! I think it was totally worth it.