Mom.River.Flowers.

went upstate for mother's day and finally took that river adventure.  It was a dreary day with a little drizzle here and there and also cold, as most of the spring has been.

This is looking upriver.  Where are you going stevie?  to be fair it is hard to control this sit on top kayak (which I would learn later on after we switched vessels).  We'd look back and he'd be swirling around in circles.

jasonflipskayak from Jason Raish on Vimeo.

Mother's day ikebana materials gathering session.  Surveying the land and harvesting it's "fruits".  On the way mom sprayed these gross things cuz they will get outta control and eat everything.

Steven has gone moss and terrarium building crazy

Oh?  A rare Trillium flower grows in the forest.

our haul this spring.  got some great mosses, a bird's nest, dogwood, lilacs, apple blossoms, honeysuckles, and more.

our 5 ikebana arrangements (Steven is the honorary and arguably better Bob stand in)

Mom's

second place winner Dad

my mostly dead statement piece.  The flower represents the glimmer of hope we have left on our dying planet.  I'm more of a cascading style guy but sometimes you don't choose your ikebana, it chooses you.

Jen's

and the winner of the mother's day ikebana 2017 invitational, Steven's

2nd place winner of the Mother's Day Archery Invitational 2017 was me, Dad won first.

they told steven at the archery place that leaning forward a little helps some peeps

What a dog.  There's no Brody because he was off at the laboratory.

Post Japan Blues

Back in new york and low on happy juice

we noticed that the cherry blossoms were in full bloom in nyc (not the yoshino variety but the puffy chiffon-y dark pink kind) so we were still able to organize our annual cherry blossom picnic.

looks like Zabars is trying to save this Banksy street art on the side of their building in the upper west side by bob's house

I did illustrations for Banana magazine issue 3, an Asian American magazine and they had an issue launch party at the Ludlow house in the lower east side.

writer Peter Trinh writes about being ostracized for his weird asian lunch

and how now that weird asian food is cool

the same asian haircut everyone had in highschool

seeing bruce lee as one of the only asians on tv

I called up Foo and we went to williamsburg for a show he was in

first a snack at Snacky on grand street

we regularly get a whole chicken and make stock out of it and its satisfying to see it all lined up.  We use a lot of it and usually get like 10 or more cups.  I feel like a regular pioneer woman.

craft beer gettin' more play in these Nunu chocolates, there are all breweries including The Other Half down the street from us.  Good stuff.

they came everyday for a week for Rose downstairs who is like 85.  They can't do anything for her so they bring her back later in the day.  One day the locked the ambulance keys in the ambulance and she was locked in there by herself for like 10 minutes.

the very miss-able and old school Italian mobster era place "Sam's" has been passed by by us and most people until one night we gave it a try and their pizza is really good.  It's in carroll gardens by the theatre.

9th street by the bridge flooded

at court street grocers I spotted this expensive little guy of water from the atlantic ocean by amagansett long island for sale as culinary sea water.  Old bay seasoning for scale.  What will they think of next.

wish they hadn't thought of these chips.  I love kettle chips (not the brand kettle chips though) and Korean BBQ but of course they had to go and make it super sweet and nothing like korean bbq and are just using the goodwill and hype that korean food has around it these days to sell us more sugary chips.

A Honeymoon in Asia - It's Over

the final day of our honeymoon in asia was spent traveling back to NYC

we had a 9am flight so we had to wake up super early.  We didn't ride this cool looking tetsujin like train to the airport.

we had wifi the whole time in Japan thanks to their pocket wifi technology that you can rent and drop off in a mailbox when you're done (in an envelope of course).  Benefits of pocket wifi is multiple devices can connect to it at the same time as opposed to renting a sim card.  Down side is it's another device that runs out of battery power.  We rented from Pupuru.

in the bathroom

was digging the style of this terminal at Kansai international airport.

gifts from friends and fam from Japan and Korea

our purchases from left to right:  kukuri zaru, daruma, bowls, ceramic tanukis, look at their precious eyes, alas the pair went to my parents.  traffic safety charm from a shrine in kyoto, japanese kids cups, little monkey bell, tickets that are 3 frames of ghibli films from the ghibli museum, and ghibli pins.

jen got this furoshiki at Kyoto Musubi at the tokyo shop in harajuku.  We met the artist Kata Kata who was in the back hanging out.  http://kata-kata04.com/ 

got these big khakis in Seoul, my skinny khakis on the left.  gonna try to make it work this summer

bought this traditional indigo dyed jinbei style thing in daikanyama, the brand is "gaijin made".

top two found in tokyo, i've been looking for that erroll garner record and its in great condition.  bottom two are ebay buys, that ralph burns spring sequence album is my fav spring jazz record.

tried to recreate the onion we ate in tokyo, miso tamanegi and it was ok.  There aren't recipes online so I had to guess, also they are made with fresh in season new Japanese onions so I don't think i'll ever get it right.

Kansai (Osaka and Kyoto)

Tokyo (missing a few taken of mt fuji along the bullet train line)

Korea

So in conclusion we had a great time, it was jen's first time in japan and she loved it.  After 3 weeks we were destroyed.  Having friends in Japan allowed us to have a different kind of experience than the normal tourist so that was cool.  It was good to see all my asia buddies again.  The flight back with a stop over in beijing was relatively uneventful.  After 3 weeks of fun times and seeing a glimpse of my old life i had a few depressing weeks.  But you can't sustain that kind of life forever and there are different fun times back here in America.  Hopefully this isn't our last time in Japan.  Ok honeymoon achieved!  Now onto life including moving into a new apt and beyond!