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My friends, Nina and Zio
This is Zio, who I helped welcome to the world in December. He is growing big and healthy. I just got to feed him a bottle for the first time yesterday. Hard to believe he is already three months old. He smiles when he sees me; I wonder if he remembers my voice from the…
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Happy Equinox
We celebrated the equinox with a party featuring way too much food, just enough drink, so many friends, and a musical theme. After creating our own handmade musical instruments from odds and ends, Huw conducted us in an improvised concert. Paul made an amazing tuned instrument from rubber bands and a tea tin. Shinji’s beer…
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Butterfly: Country Roads
Here’s the video that Swinky, Jesse, and the Frolicaholics made earlier this week in our living room for The Butterfly Project. Swinky will be appearing on a popular Japanese tv show later this month and John Denver’s “Country Roads,” which is probably the most famous English language song in Japan, is her way of saying…
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Butterfly Project Session
Last night, Tod & I were inducted into the Butterfly Project, Swinky’s collection of casual music videos. Jesse brought a ton of equipment from their studio and while I made us some dinner, Jesse set up a six-mic-four-camera studio in our living room, including my special double mic stand kludged together with chopsticks and hoop…
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Frolicaholics: Radioactivity
A couple of weeks back on the ukulele subReddit, there was a challenge to cover a Kraftwerk song. Electronic music on the ukulele, really? I was intrigued and Tod was interested, too, so we decided to make it a Frolciaholics project. We spent two weeks selecting a song, breaking it down into bits, learning to…
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Sardine & Tomato Risotto
This is one of Tod’s inspired creations the fuses Japanese stock with a classically Italian dish. It fits into the veg-aquarian mode of eating and is so full of umami that all you will need to accompany it is a salad. Sardine & Tomato Risotto serves 2 20 g dried konbu 1 cup katsuobushi flakes…
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Acrobalance
Miki and I got together this afternoon to do some acrobalance. Although I lead an acro segment in the Circus Fitness workshops, I’m not an expert. Miki’s got lots of experience and I was happy to get some new ideas from her today, especially for training. I need more flexible hips and a stronger core…
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Ceramics
I spent a pleasant hour this afternoon painting ceramics with Jason and Pinky at Harajuku Togasha. This shop on the corner at Jingumae crossing has a “mini experience” program that ends this month, so we jumped on the chance to play. I am tempted to return before Friday for some more painting. Today I…
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Kafunsho already?
The hayfever forecast says we are only barely feeling the effects of cedar pollen, but my body is ramping up with itchy eyes, a sore throat and sneezes. Even my skin itches already! Gone are the years when my allergies were still tuned to the pollen of Pennsylvania. I am fully allergic to spring in…
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Strawberry Fields Forever
Ichigo-gari with Heather and Zio yesterday in Tochigi yielded 1.6 kg of berries. The berries are grown in long hothouses through the winter. Another month or so and strawberries will be off the local produce menu until autumn, so I am glad to have picked some this season. We’ll have frozen strawberries for summer smoothies. Tod was…
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