To Paradise and Back

It's been over 2 months since my last post. If anyone's out there, sorry for the long gap in posts. Papa is lazy and doesn't help me. I'd type myself but papa hates when I chew the keys on his laptop.

In mid-May, mama and papa went to a friend's wedding in Hawaii on the big island. They've been to Oahu and Maui before but this was their first time to Hawaii Island. They flew there on Japan Airlines and were a little surprised that they had to walk from the plane to the airport on the tarmac...

They stayed at The Mauna Lani Bay Hotel and had an ocean view room! The hotel was beautiful and the staff were so friendly. The first day in Hawaii was spent shopping and eating. Mama and papa had to buy clothes to wear at the wedding since it was on the beach and the dress code was beach casual. The next day, mama and papa rented a car and drove to the other side of the island to see the Kilauea volcano! They said it was really impressive to see a live volcano. Mama and papa managed to go golfing twice during their stay, the second time being on the day of the wedding. They played both the North Course and the South Course at Mauna Lani. The first round of golf on Wednesday was followed by a Lomi Lomi massage at the Mauna Lani spa. The courses were beautiful and extremely challenging. They were built in a lava field right beside the ocean. Miss the fairway and you'll find yourself trying to chip out of lava rock or pitch out of the water...

















After the second round of golf on Thursday, they went to the main event of the vacation, the wedding of their friends. The wedding was really nice. The ceremony was on the beach at the Mauna Lani and was followed by an outdoor reception near the beach.
The food at the reception was delicious. Papa said that they had had a pig cooked specially for the wedding. It was wrapped and cooked in the ground for 8 hours. It was so tender and juicy! Papa had 2 plates of it!
The next day, mama and papa were in for some cold weather...is this really Hawaii???

Actually, the above picture is in Hawaii. Near the top of Hawaii to be exact. Mama and papa went on the star gazing tour. The bus picked them up at 3:30pm and they were off to the top of Mauna Kea at 4,207 metres where it was about zero degrees celcius. They were so high that they were above the clouds! The top of Mauna Kea provides some of the best views of the sky anywhere in the world so it is also the home of 8 observatories and a number of satellite dishes.

They got to the top of Mauna Kea in time for sunset. Mama and papa said the view was absolutely amazing...

As for me, well I got to stay at Log World again! I love that place! I played every day at the dog run and lived like a king. I was also very lucky that my friend Caina was there too! Her papa works with my papa. Caina's mama and papa went to Canada during the same time mama and papa were in Hawaii so I got to play with her for a few days!
After all the excitement of Log World and Hawaii, it was nice to get home and relax...
Papa made sweet and sour pork for dinner...
2 weeks ago, mama and papa got me a new TV, a 46" plasma Panasonic Viela. I sure look good on TV!
Mama and papa have been doing their best to support the economy with their own stimulus package. Before going to Hawaii, papa bought a new set of Cleveland CG7 Tour irons...


Then a few days ago, papa replaced his 10 year old, 20 degree Dunlop 5-wood with a 18 degree King Cobra S9-1 Pro...

Meanwhile, for her part, mama got a new Nike Xtreme caddy bag (which, by the way, match the shoes she bought in Canada)...
...and a Taylor Made R7 XR 3-wood...

What's with the crazy North Koreans launching 7 missiles today and testing a nuclear bomb a few weeks ago. Papa thinks they are either really stupid or smoking crack...probably both. And the response from the UN??? Sanctions!!! Hahaha, what a joke! Like, the North Koreans really care about sanctions. Obama and the rest of the world leaders might as well throw cotton balls at Kim Jong Il because the effect would be the same. Kim Jong Il must be laughing his head off at our pathetic response...

Takenoko

Mama and papa went for their official anniversary dinner last Sunday to the Westin Hotel in Ebisu which is the same place where they were married and had their wedding reception. The food was good but not as good as the menu prepared by Chef Ohno who prepared the dinner for mama's and papa's wedding. This new chef, Nicolas Chevrollier, is not as good at putting courses together. He's too pretentious and arrogant with his mediocre food and he seems to barely tolerate his customers. He has Gordon Ramsay's attitude minus Gordon's talent.

Too bad mama and papa kept forgetting to take pictures of each dish to show me. Here are some of the dishes that they remembered to take a snap of...

The place setting...very cool!

The appetizer was maguro (tuna) and tofu carpaccio. It was a little too big for an appetizer but was quite good. Very light and clean tasting, but twice as big as it needed to be.

Papa's main course was veal. There was also ravioli but papa ate it before he remembered to take a picture of the dish.

And mama's main was Japanese Spanish mackerel.

After dinner, they had a special anniversary dessert compliments of the Westin Hotel. They also had espresso and ordered another dessert but they forgot to take a picture so I can't show you what they had.

Last Wednesday, the first official day of Golden Week holidays in Japan (papa loves these made-up holidays we have here), mama and papa were invited by their friend Q-chan to go to Tochigi prefecture to pick takenoko (bamboo shoots) which are a spring delicacy in Japan. The best thing was that I was also invited!!! It was my first time to see bamboo. It was also papa's first time to pick bamboo shoots. He was mighty proud of his first one...but it doesn't look that special to me...





After the takenoko is picked and cleaned, it must be cooked quickly to avoid having it become bitter. The best time to pick takenoko is after a rainfall when they are just coming out of the ground about 10 to 20 cm and the spouts at the top are yellow, not green. It takes about 90 minutes to boil the takenoko using a wood heated pot.











While the takenoko was cooking, everyone (about 30 people) had a barbecue lunch with nagashi somen.

It was so nice being out in the countryside and away from the noise and pollution of the cesspool we call Tokyo.

For dinner on Wednesday, mama made takenoko gohan and a stir fry with takenoko. Papa cooked up a steak. Mama's takenoko gohan was soooooooooooo delicious!!!
Mama and papa had takenoko again last night for dinner. This time, papa made the takenoko gohan. Papa has had so much takenoko lately that he thinks he is starting to look like a bamboo shoot.

Today we went to Jonan-jima park again. I love running around and playing with MY toys and then chillin' out in the shade with MY toys.

We went to the park with one of mama's friends and their puppies, Riku-chan the Miniature Dachshund and Maro-chan the Chihuahua.

There's so much talk and over-reaction about the Mexican swine flu. I mean, tens of thousands of people die each year from the regular flu, which is a tragedy, but comparatively, the Mexican swine flu has not claimed nearly as many people. You humans are too susceptible to panic...grow up and act like a dog! Or be like Joe Biden and advise people not to take airplanes or subways. What a paranoid putz! I wonder if he's related to George W.

Papa took Monday off to go golfing. That was his 4th time in April. Given how often he goes, you'd think he'd be much better :-)

Platinum me!

Today is mama's and papa's 3rd wedding anniversary! Happy anniversary!!! They celebrated with sushi and Sauvignon Blanc. Next weekend they will have dinner at the Westin Hotel in Ebisu where they got married and had their reception. Papa got mama earrings. Look familiar? Platinum me???

We went to the park last weekend and I had fun playing in the mud. Mama and papa were not impressed...

The next morning, I was awake, alert and ready to play at 6am! But not papa...so I found a good place to wait for him...on top of him :-)

So much to catch up on!

Papa has been so lazy lately and wouldn't help me update my blog for the past 6 weeks. And yet he still has time to play golf (3 times this month already)...

The cherry blossoms were amazing this year. With the warm weather we had in March and early April, the sakura were much more beautiful than in previous years and stayed with us for longer than usual. Mama and papa took me for a walk every night near Meguro River for o-hanami!

We also went to Yutenji Temple to see the cherry blossoms there...

...and to Yoyogi Park...there were quite a few people there to say the least... Even Meguro River was really crowded, especially on weekends. Mama and papa had Turkish kebabs for dinner a few times but it was so hard to walk along the river because of the people...and when you're my height, it's even more dangerous...but I have a good view of everyone's footwear. A few weeks ago, papa went to dinner with a few friends to an Italian restaurant, Il Pinolo, in Ginza. They were able to bring their own wine (no corking charge!) and the chef matched the meal to the wine. The 3 of them made it through 3 bottles of wine! The food was excellent and papa highly recommends this restaurant. Can you guess which bottle papa brought?
2 weeks ago, mama and papa went to see Corteo by Cirque du Soleil. They really liked the show although papa mentioned that he thought Dralion was better. As they were walking out of the building, papa thought he saw one of the clowns walking in front of him but it turned out to be a simple case of a fashion faux pas...some people really shouldn't be allowed to dress themselves.

The Formula 1 season has started again!!! Who would have believed that Jensen Button would win the first 2 races and be leading the championship??!??! I guess it goes to show what an average driver can do when he has a faster car due to an interpretation of the rules which allows the Brawn (formerly Honda) team to use a part which may or may not be legal...

Papa made Fettucine Carbonara with Veal Diane a few weeks ago. Man, I wish he'd share some with me.
I've been having a great time playing with other JRTs at Jonan-jima Park...

...and playing with my toys (which no one else is allowed to touch)...

...and keeping away from papa when he mentions anything about cleaning ears...
...and spending time playing in the sun on the roof balcony...Hello? Anyone home??? Will someone come out and entertain me???
...and then curling up for a nap with (on top of?) papa...
Papa calls me an old man just because I like to keep warm by wearing my favorite futon while I walk around the house.

But would an old man be able to do this??? I think I scared this Doberman! Of course, given our size difference (I'm somewhat bigger than him), it isn't surprising that I had him on the run!

Huh???

OK, so, I can't help myself and papa won't let it rest until we get this off our chests. Korea is up 1-0 in the final game of the first round of the World Baseball Classic this evening. 8th inning, 1 out and Ichiro singles. With the meat of the order coming up, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th batters, the manager of the Japan team, Tatsunori Hara (roughly translated means "Freakishly Asinine"), inexplicably calls a sacrifice bunt...huh??? What was he thinking? Did he learn baseball from a video game? Or from "Baseball for Extreme Dummies"? Is that a meatball that he uses for a head? Sure, he gets Ichiro in scoring position, but at the expense of sacrificing a batter who's hitting .500, followed by a .364 hitter, and he guarantees himself 2 outs. I may be a Jack Russell Terrier, but even I know stupidity when I see it.

Then he switches pitchers. Darvish, a natural starter during the regular season, came in fresh as a reliever in the 8th and struck out the side. Again, inexplicably, the manager changes pitchers and Japan barely survived the top of the 9th, only managing to get out of the inning with a very lucky double play.

If Japan wins the WBC this time, it will be due to the skill of the team despite Hara. If they lose...well...Hara-Kiri??? :-)

Funny thing...none of the post-game sports casts that I saw showed the bunt. I feel like I'm living in a controlled news environment like North Korea...