Kizuna on Blog Leave

Because I am sick...I have a high fever of 38- 39 degree c since yesterday and Wakaba' s school just resumed last Wednesday and there' s no one to pick her up at school and my husband cannot have some day-off so I called my MIL for help-- she' s been here last night to tend for me and the kids. She have to closed her ramen shop though(T_T).

Just a quick note to everybody

Clang

Tanabata and the Summer Starry Night

Japanese dressed in yukata at Tanabata Festival

Another summer event in Japan is called the Tanabata Festival-- it is the day when you write your wish on a piece of paper hanging from a bamboo branch and it is a time that parents and children spend together. During the day, me and the kids minus their Daddy ( he' s on work ) went to the Tanabata Festival and enjoyed the day. Tanabata is filled with fun where everybody can see lots of unique and beautiful hanging decorations of the event. You can see everybody wearing their summer yukata and I' ve met a woman from U.S.A. wearing her yukata and she really looks great on it and so I called her attention and said: " You look gorgeous on your yukata! " and she smiled at me and said " Thank you! ". I guess it' s been looong months now that I haven' t spoken in english-- yun lang ang nasabi ko, kinabahan pa ako lol!!\(^0^)/
What I love during the tanabata festival is the gourmet!! LOTS OF GOURMET!! The family is always looking forward to this event!! Tanabata is to celebrate the summer starry night, we went back at home, wore our summer yukata and this time with Daddy!! We can' t celebrate the starry night without him!! \(^0^)/ After enjoying our eyes with lots of dances at the parade, we dine out at a Japanese restaurant. Here's the photos taken during the whole day event!! Enjoy!!^_^

Tanabata Streamers
For a closer look--- they' re made of colorful origami papers!!

Tanabata Festival is always flooding of people!!
Outdoor stalls and Tanabata gourmets!!
Takoyaki ( octopus balls )-- if you love Japanese gourmet, you should not miss to eat this one!! Best with beer and great snacks, too!! And of course, you can do takoyaki at home as long as you have a takoyaki machine.

Okonomiyaki ( Japanese assorted pancake ) and this one is Hiroshima style ( with yakisoba ). Japanese add all kinds of ingrediends to a batter which is popular. You can also do them at home ( I' ll post mine at Food Trip Friday with the recipe soon ). Wakaba and Haruka having a refresh--Kakigori, a Japanese dessert made from shaved ice, strawberry flavored.
Can you guess Wakaba' s wish?? Wakaba and Haruka ( in summer yukata ) with Dad
Food sharing is fun!!

Super balls tsukui---Wakaba was able to get 6 balls in a cup while Haruka get 4 balls only
Izakaya

Mom should have at least one pic lol!!


I hope everyone is enjoying their summer, too!! Wakaba' s school days will start next week---my busy days will start again!!


Have a nice day to everybody!! ^_^

Tags and Awards Day!!

Getting to Know Each Other Tag

I' d like to give thanks to Mommy Yami of Mom Writes For A Cause and to Mommy Chris of
Mommy Journey for giving me this fun tag. Thank you Mommies!! ^_^

To do this, Create a New Blog Post, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your title as "Getting to Know Each Other!", then tagged as many people as you like :) Don't forget to leave a message to those you have tagged so that they will know :)

1. What time did you get up this morning? 4:30 A.M.

2. How do you like your steak? Well done

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Rookies, Evangelion:2.0 ( same day lol!! )

4. What is your favorite TV show? SMAPxSMAP

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Philippines

6. What did you have for breakfast? Coffee and sliced bread with butter and honey

7. What is your favorite cuisine? Pinoy and Japanese dish

8. What foods do you dislike? Natto, okra, anything raw and neba-neba

9. Favorite place to eat? Bikkuri Donkey

10. Favorite dressing? Goma ( sesame dressing )

11. What kind of vehicle do you drive? Mama Chari ^_^

12. What are your favorite clothes? Straight cut jeans, t-shirt and a chucks.

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Philippines

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? ???????????

15. Where would you want to retire? Retiring place lol!

16. Favorite time of day? Daytime

17. Where were you born? Quezon City

18. What is your favorite sport to watch? F1, MLB

19. Who do you think will not tag you back? Dunno

20. Person you expect to tag you back first? I' m not sure

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? Dunno

22. Bird watcher? Yah, if there is

23. Are you a morning person or a night person? Morning person!! I sleep at night!!

24. Do you have any pets? Nope

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? I lost 2 kilos in one month but after the summer holidays, I gained 2 kilos in a week!! (T_T)

26. What did you want to be when you were little? A Nun!!

27. What is your best childhood memory? I remember going to a cockfight together with my late father, natalo ang manok nya then I guess we ate them after. ^_^

28. Are you a cat or dog person? Dog person. I love Inu!

29. Are you married? Yes

30. Always wear your seat belt? Yes

31. Been in a car accident? Nope

32. Any pet peeves? Too many of them to mention

33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Camembert cheese and ham

34. Favorite Flower? Tulip, Roses

35. Favorite ice cream? Millefeuille of Haagen-Dazs

36. Favorite fast food restaurant? McDonalds, MOS

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? I don' t need a driver's test to ride a Mama Chari lol!!

38. From whom did you get your last email? Ate Rose and Niko

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Grocery

40. Do anything spontaneous lately?Giving up sit-ups lol!

41. Like your job? Jobless

42. Broccoli? Nutritious

43. What was your favorite vacation? Everything in the Philippines!

44. Last person you went out to dinner with? Hubby

45. What are you listening to right now? J-pop

46. What is your favorite color? Anything dark

47. How many tattoos do you have? One

48. How many are you tagging for this quiz? All of them

49. What time did you finish this quiz? 10:20 A.M. ( ang haba!! )

50. Coffee drinker? Yes.

I'm tagging everybody!! Happy Blogging!! ^_^

How Old is Old Tag

I was tagged by Niko of Niko' s Blog and Mommy Jac of Mom's Special Diary asking me How old is old?

" Habang pataas ng pataas ang edad ko, pababa naman ng pababa ang edad ng nagiging crush ko sa mga palabas sa T.V. "

If you consider them getting old, then yes I' m 100 percent obachan or O-L-D!! \(^0^)/

The Humane award was given by Mommy Enchie of Sweet Nothings and Mr. David Funk of Basic Bloganomics , Ate Cecille of Life is Good and Beautiful and grabbed from Ate Vhing of Yanorzah' s Journey . Thank you so much!!!

Happy Sunday morning to everyone!!I' m passing the tags and awards to everybody!Happy Blogging!! ^_^

Food Trip Friday--Japanese Hors d' oeuvres

Yakitori ( skewered chicken ) and Odoburu

Odoburu

My Food Trip Friday entry --- This is called the Odoburu ( Japanese style Hors d' oeuvres or appetizers ) in Japan. They' re small in sizes but you' ll love them because of their wide varieties. They are usualy called " everything in mini size ". Odoburu can be served on holiday parties, small or large.^_^ Here are some glazed octopus, potato salad, cheese fry, shrimp tempura, scallops with sesame seeds, boiled shrimp, tamago yaki, boiled crab legs, tsukune ( chicken meatball ), pineapples, grapes and raw shrimps are among the odoburu varieties served during the O-bon holiday. ( I will post some of the photos soon! ). And because they' re appetizers, they' re best with B-E-E-R!! \(^0^)/

For Food trippers join us here. Chibugan na!!! \(^0^)/

Mommy Moments

It' s Friday once again and today' s theme is ---- Rain, Rain Go Away!!

I' m afraid my kids don' t have much photos playing with the rain or wearing more on their booties even though they wear them on rainy days or playing with water and muds . But here are some stories behind the photos.

Nothing special about this day but this is Wakaba' s 1st red umbrella and red booties bought by her Granny.
This was taken last year during ' I Heart Honda 2008 ' event wherein the weather is on and off that we have to take our umbrellas with us because of scattered rains but it ended up the hottest!! Good thing I have some extra clothes for the kids for a change that day.
This was taken by my husband during a Pitt Walk during ' Enjoy Honda Thanks Day 2008 ' event--- I never thought it will be the last time I would be ever seeing F1 Honda driver Jenson Button doing some crazy doughnut spin over the rain for Honda . ( read story Here

My husband and ex- F1 Honda driver Satoru Nakajima ( father of F1 Toyota driver Kazuki Nakajima )--this photo is priceless!! Thank God it rains!!\(^0^)/
Haruka has an umbrella of her own but she wanted mine lol!!
We always watched the weather report in the morning and let Wakaba bring her umbrella with her at school.


To see more cuties, head up and join us here. We' d love to see some cuties, too! ^_^

Happy Birthday, Mommy Dhemz!!

A Happy Birthday greetings to Mommy Dhemz of My Life's Perception and Inspiration who has given much happiness to many here at blogosphere!! Wishing you all the best dearie!!


( click play to view )


Comments by ZingerBug.com

Happy Birthday, Mommy Dhemz!! Burp!!And thanks to Ate Rose for letting me know about the day!! ^_^

Hanabi Spectacular Night

I love summer time!!! Summer means fireworks season in Japan!!\(^0^)/ And it also means a lot of people wearing their summer yukata while watching fireworks. We went to Onahama to watch the beautiful fireworks beside the sea--thousands of fireworks display are done into the sky for hours. We were supposedly there early to get a perfect place to watch the fireworks but we went there late right after my husbands work and luckily find a good place. ^_^It' s very hard to find a parking area during this kind of event, flooding of people and everywhere is crowded!! No wonder everybody wants their summer to be a memorable one!! The family enjoyed at the park before the firework show. The firework show is traditionally done during summer here in Japan. Here are some photos taken during the event--enjoy!!^_^

Wakaba and Haruka
With their Dad!
Just having fun!!
Opening -- it' s very hard to take hanabi shots and these three shots passed as good ones, others are blurry.
Colorful hanabi
Hanabi means fireworks in Japan
Wanton Ramen after the hanabi show

Guess what?? After the firework show, we almost waited for an hour just to get outside the parking area!!(T_T) The road is really, really a chaos!! Good thing that Wakaba and Haruka slept after the show and didn' t experience some boringness while waiting. We went to my husbands friend who' s an owner of a ramen shop near our place after the show. After our move here in our new apartment, we' ve been ramen hopping and looking all over for best and oishii ( delicious ) ramen shops to try and this one is good!! I ordered a shio wanton ramen ( shio soup base ).


I have taken a video of the firework show myself but the pole is kind -a- disturbing and decided to take this video from youtube, it' s the same of what we saw there. Here' s the Grand finale show. Enjoy!! ^_^
Excess:
Please turn off " My Music " at the right corner to hear MISIA' s Everything song while watching the fireworks video. Thanks!! ^_^

Only the Two of Us

My Mother- In- Law has been grateful to take the kids ahead of us to their place and left us to enjoy for a couple of days just the two of us at home..... Yochan and I.....
That evening, we went to our fave ramen shop to eat our dinner then Wakaba and Haruka went ahead to their Dad's hometown together with their GrandMa. Wakaba left me a message before she left: " Deito shicha dame da yo!! " ( don' t have a date! ) said Wakaba. Hhmmmnn...she' s worried about spending the time only the two of us and so I told her: " Shimpai nara ikanakutemo iindayo " ( You don' t have to go if you' re that worried ) grinning to myself. She' s jealoused but she wanted to go lol!! Haruka was cool sitting on a child seat beside her big sissy and she told her: " Nakanaide, onechan! " ( don' t cry ) because Wakaba is teary eyed. God forgive me, but I was laughing inside!! Kawaii!! Wakaba loves her Daddy that much!! \(^0^)/ And they left after Wakaba and I did a yubikiri genma ( pinky swear ) promising not to have a date with his father. ^_^
Yochan and I went back to the apartment--- I don' t know why but the apartment feels so huge na dating masikip pag nandito ang mga bata. And the mood was kind-a-so-so....We' re not used without the kids and it' s our first time spending days without them and it' s kind-a unhappy and sad and we both felt that there' s somethin' is missing... the kids! The kids both decided to go ahead of us and it' s only a couple of days, Yochan and I decided to enjoy ourselves just like the old days and had a date!! What?? Are you thinkin' about the promise I made to Wakaba? Nani??Wakaba chan to no yakusoku datte?? Shhhh!!! This lil secret is between you and me ^_^ After an hour and a half we were given a call from my MIL that they arrived safely at home and that the kids were asleep. And off we go to a nearby Izakaya , a walking distance from our apartment. We had a 2 hours nomihodai ( drink til you puke lol!! ) you can drink all you can such as beer, sour ( mixed drinks ) or shochu based drinks ( distilled spirits ) and ordered some appetizers. ( I' m sorry but I want them off cam--pagbigyan nyo na ako, I didn' t took photos coz I really enjoyed the night ONLY the two of us together that even a flash of a camera is becoming annoying to me although the room is private no other customer but us. I' ll post the other photos with the kids as promised. ) The last time we went for a date was a MISIA concert ( read story here ) last Febuary. A lot talkings that brings out the memories of the past, most especially our ' against all odds lovestory' lol!--I don' t know if I have posted them here already! We didn' t even recognized the time not until the staff asked our last order. でも　何だかんだ　と言って、話のネタは　子供の事　ばっかり　だから。子供て　愛されている　だよね！！
1st day: It' s our first time to wake up until noon---no waking up early for obento ( lunch boxes ) and waking up at midnight for Haruka' s pee time. We went for a karaoke for two hours and had fun there!! At dahil nga uugod-ugod na ako, di ko na alam kung ano ang bagong kanta lol! We just bought an obento and cup ramen for dinner na pwede lang namin magawa kung wala ang mga bata.
2nd day: We did a general cleaning at home and watched DVD and had some popcorn and a cola. We went to Aquamarine, Fukushima ( a sea museum ) and watched a nightime aquarium--it' s kind a romatic!! I will post other entry at the day time aquarium with the kids.
3rd day: We spent an hour an a half drive to Yochan' s hometown using the highway and soon as we arrived I finally hugged my children!! Oh dear, I really missed them!! Wakaba whispered to me: ' Mama, tanoshinda deshou? ' ( Mama, did you enjoy? ) and said Yes! ' Mama zurui yo!! ' ( Mama, a cheater!!) we were laughing when Wakaba jumped to her Dad. She was smiling when her Dad promised to take Wakaba and Haruka only for a date lol!! ^_^
こんな　ママで　ごめんなさいね！！ママは　楽しいかったよ！！\(^0^)/

Thank you so much for the visits and for dropping messages here at Kizuna -- I' m back and it' s really great to be back!! ^_^

Just for a week...

family pic at Lake Hibara

Dear Friends,

In observance of Japan' s O-bon , an All Soul' s Day in Japan and although it' s not a national holiday here but the family will be out for a week, plus it' s a summer holiday, we will be spending the rest of the fun at my husband' s hometown. Too many events to share to all of you!! Wakaba and Haruka went ahead of us and was picked up by their Grand Mother.

Thanks for dropping by and for leaving your comments and messages--I will be back to visit you again next week. I' m gonna miss you all!! Have a blessed day to everybody!! ^_^

With Love,

Clarissa

Food Trip Friday&requested recipe, answered!!

Momo fruit


My Food trip entry--- Seasonal fruit in Japan--- Peach is called Momo in Japanese. Another sought-after fruit in Japan is now on season!! \(^0^)/

This is an answer to all who requested for the hamburger steak recipe of my entry for Food Trip Friday.

Hamburger steak

Ingredients: ( good for 4 persons )

Ground Beef or ground chicken-- 400 grams
Vegetable/ cooking oil-- 1 and 1/2 teaspoon
Onion--- finely chopped, 1/2 piece ( big )

A:

Bread Crumbs--- 1 cup
Egg--- 1 pc
Milk-- 1/4 cup

B:

Nutmeg-- 1 teaspoon
Salt-- 1/3 teaspoon
Pepper-- a few

C:

Water-- 1 cup
Tomato ketchap-- 4 tablespoon
Oyster sauce-- 2 tablespoon
Sake-- 1 tablespoon
Butter -- 1 tablespoon
Soysauce-- 1 teaspoon

Directions:

1: Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, fry the onion until brown. Set aside to warm.
2: In a large bowl, mix together with the ground meat and B until the meat turns out into 'whitish' then add #1 and A and mix.
3: Spread some oil to your hands ( can be messy if you don' t ) divide the meat into four and form into patties and flatten the center.
4: Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, fry the patties until brown then add water till the height of the patties for steaming and cover.
5: When water is almost gone, add C and simmer. Gradually mix the sauce over the patties until sauce thickens turning heat to low. Taste.
6: Arrange platter, garnish with some potatoes and brocolli or any vegetable of your choice. Serve with rice and soup.
7: Enjoy!! ^_^

Happy eating everyone!! ^_^

option: you can put your patties into oven if you want to do so.Simmer the sauce,continue instruction #6. Enjoy!!

And another requested recipe for this Japanese- style-chicken-wings called Tebasaki--here' s the recipe:

Tebasaki

Ingredients: ( good for 4 persons )

Chicken wings - 16 pcs

White sesame seeds ( shiro goma ) - 2 tablespoon

Potato starch ( katakuriko ) or cornstarch - 2 tablespoon

A:

Sake - 4 tablespoon

Salt, Pepper - a few

Sauce:

Grated garlic - 1 pc.

Soy sauce - 6 tablespoon

Mirin - 4 tablespoon

Sugar - 2 tablespoon

Directions:

1: Put chicken wings and A in a bowl and let stand for 1o minutes. Add katakuriko or cornstarch and lightly coat the chicken.

2: Deep fry chicken wings at 170 degree C, 4 to 5 each at a time until golden brown and set aside.

3: Put the sauce to a skillet, bring to a boil and add the chicken wings in the skillet and coat with the sauce. Add white sesame seed and mix.

4: Arrange platter with lettuce and tomatoes.

5: Best with beer!! ^_^

For Food trippers join us here. Chibugan na!!! \(^0^)/

Mommy Moments

Today' s theme: Part of the Family

Meet a part of the family--- Elmo!! Aside from their loving Aunties and Uncle, playful cousins, Elmo is a big part of the family when Wakaba was 2 and she can' t sleep without Elmo with her. Wherever we go, Elmo goes, too!! My kids love to play with Elmo-- they keep on changing Elmo' s clothing and changing diapers, too.We have lots of Elmo variety with us but ever since we moved out from my MIL's place, we only brought 2 of them so that they can still play with them whenever we visit their Grandparents. The picture above is her favorite 3!

Wakaba, sleeping with Elmo!
Wakaba posing for the camera!
Wakaba loves Elmo hand puppet, too!
Anywhere she goes, Elmo is there, too!!
Wakaba: Look at me, Elmo!!
Haruka with Elmo
Elmo with diaper!!

My girls ^_^


To see more cuties, head up and join us here. We' d love to see some cuties, too! ^_^