Saturday, October 15, 2011

[10-14-11] Park, Park, Park!!

やはりここLAには、あちらこちらに公園がある。小さいもので、Playgroundと呼ばれる遊具のある場所のみから、広い芝生のある所、野球場やスケートリンクがある場所もある。

最近は、便利なiPhoneのおかげで、ちょっと買い物に出てついでに、これまで行ったことのない公園を探して、出向いてみるようなことをしたりしている。

まぁそれでも各シティーごとに、遊具は同じような感じですけれど。。。

Google Mapで、自分のいる場所を示し、Parkとタイプするだけ!これで今日はどんな公園に行けるか。。。子供以上に私がたのしみだったりして。

息子とお友達!




なぜか岩が置いてあって、これは彼のお気に入り。この公園で毎回上り下り。



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

[09-28-11] LA Play Spot With Little Guys

先日日本から出張中にロサンゼルスに立ち寄った友人(2児のパパ)を空港近くのマンハッタンビーチに案内した。

帰国便をその日の午後にひかえていたので、LAXの近場で!という選択でしたが、結果的に彼にとてもいい印象を与えたそう。とくに「小さい子供がいるファミリー向け」と思ったそうです。

というわけで、私がママ生活を送る中で集めた情報たちは、実は旅行でLAを訪れようとしている小さなお子様連れファミリーにとって、実はとってもやくだつのでは、と今更ながら思ったので、ブログで紹介していこうと思います。

まず先述のマンハッタンビーチ。ここのピアにはドネーション(寄付)ベースで運営されている小さな水族館があります。小さいサメから大きなヒトデまで。意外に沢山の種類の魚や海の生物がいるので、とても楽しいです。ドネーションは家族で5ドルが目安。ちなみに、ウチの息子はココがすっかりお気に入りに。2Fには、お絵かきしたり、パズルを楽しむ場所も。

海のことを勉強することができる、楽しいスポット!オススメです。



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Friday, September 16, 2011

[09-16-11] yummy tuna bread!

I'm too busy of Facebooking and tweeting, and this blog update is always behind...

Anyway my son is now 17 months old, and he is super active and fun!

He eats well, so I cook recently a lot!

I made tuna bread for snack yesterday. Regular Mayo flavor and curry flavor :)

Both were yummy!!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

[08-02-11] two days of shooting

Last 4-5days, I spent for LA Body vol 10 shooting. Location hunting, meeting and shooting.. Luckily weather was wonderful for both days, and my models and crew worked so hard !!!

Now I'm finishing up some stuff, and write articles then I'm done :)

I'm very excited to publish magazine in Sep!!

Few scenes from shooting..














Monday, June 20, 2011

[06-20-11] Working Working...

New projects will come up. July will be the busiest time for me this year!
SO recently I've been working at night time.
After my son goes to bed, I'll work thru my computer...

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

[05-25-11] My Sewing Time



I just feel like sewing, and I also inspired by a Japanese fashion stylist, Naoko Okusa, I decided to sew a heather gray skirt! There are two long darts in the back, and mini ones on a front. It will work with a white shirt for sure this summer!!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

[05-14-11] Fashion Snaps In Manhattan Beach & Beverly Hills

Yesterday, I went to Manhattan Beach and Beverly Hill to do fashion snap shooting for Japanese fashion magazine with my favorite photographer, Kaori.

Kaori is one of the amazing photographers who shot many many celebrities, too!
Kaori Suzuki Photo

We shot Cinzia of Moni Moni bag, and some other fashion people.

Whenever I asked to get a permission to take a picture, somehow most of them work in fashion industry...
It's funny, but as long as you do street snapping, you have a chance to brush your EYES skills to find the right person!!

Will upload once the magazine comes out, but I like what I do!

While I'm working, my son has been with his baby sitter, then being with his daddy:)
He was a very good boy while I was away, but he seemed missing mommy a lot, so as soon as I'm home, he wanted to be with me all the time. How cute he is!!

Today I wanted to take him to the music class from 10:30am, but he just started sleeping...
Let's try the next class, shall we??

I like slow weekend after working hard!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

[04-27-11] My recent work- Casting and Coordination






American Rag Cie Japan Men's collection COAST

I did this work in March. I was involved as a casting director and coordinator for this project.
It turned out we have an amazing catalog!!!

American Rag Cie Japan features Riviera Clubin this spring, and we asked Greg, Joe and Derek to be a model for this shooting.

I also found young skate/surf boys, Chaz, Zeke, Christian and Mark.
They did amazing job in our shooting!!

The photographer, Yoshi, is also famous as stylist in Japan.
The art director, Ryuji, is also very famous as art director!

Yoshiyuki Nagatomo
Ryuji Oya


I'm looking forward to hearing what people think about it!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

[04-16-11] Baking Breads For Babies...

Recently I have been baking many breads. First, I need variety for my son's snack and second he has milk allergy now..

I gave him a piece of bread from the Japanese bakery, which bake fresh bread, he still got few redness on his face. So I decided to bake bread by myself and avoid all milk stuff.

Since I have a basic knowledge how to bake bread, I have tried different ingredients and baking time. ( I even has a teaching license of baking bread from Japanese baking school!!!)

So here is the simplest bread I can bake, and you don't even need to use oven. I just use toaster!!! Fermentation takes time, but it worths it!!! My son loves eating my bread.

I use Panettone dry yeast which you can buy from Nijiya market.( they have online store, too)
Compared with regular dry yeast, its less stinky I think.

----
Bread flour (unbleached from wholefood) ----1c (180g)
Panettone dry yeast --- 2t (7-8g)
Salt (sea salt) --- 1t (3-4g)
White Sugar --- 1/2T and 1t (9-10g)
Warm Water (50/50 cold and hot)--- 120cc

If you make it more flavorful and tasty, put dry milk ( I use one in organic and can get from
Whole foods) 1t(3-4g) and butter (unsalted) 1T(12g). Heat butter with microwave for 30 sec-1min, and make it melt.

1. Put flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl. Make sure put yeast and sugar together and put salt on the other side of the bowl.

2. Put warm water in the bowl. When you out it in, aiming sugar and yeast. Mix them well and out dough on a table. Mixing until all powder is gone, and feel like the dough becomes your ear lobe.

3. Put melted butter into the dough.Keep mixing until it's soft yet bouncy.

4. Make a big ball with dough, and put it back in the bowl. Put warp and mark the size of current dough, and put it somewhere warm. ( I use microwave. Put 1cut of water and heat up for 1-2min. Inside of microwave gets moistened and warm. Use that as fermentation room)





5. Wait for 1-2 hours until the dough becomes 3 times larger that the original.

6. Put flour on your finger, and do finger test. Make a little hole, and check the dough is only a bit bounce back yet not too sticky.

7. Use fist and take out the gas from the dough. Divide dough into 8-10. And make a ball.

8. Put wet cloth onto the ball doughs, and rest for 10min

9. Remake into a ball again ( to make it look better..) and put them onto the cooking pan.( don't forget to put parchment paper!) put wrap ( which you used for the first fermentation) and put the wet cloth onto the doughs.

10. Heat the lowest (90F) temp to set your toaster, and wait for 5min. The put doughs into the toaster.

11. Second fermentation for 20-30 min. To wait till the doughs get double size.

13. Take out doughs and preheat toaster to set 375. Put doughs into the toaster. Check 6-8 mins, if the surface is getting burn, put aluminum foil to cover the breads.

14. Total 13-15 mins, your bread should be ready!!!





Put comment or send my message to my twitter, if you have any questions or advice :)

Enjoy !!!
Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Friday, April 01, 2011

[04-01-11] Baby Snack Tip!

Hi! My son will be 1 years old in 10 days!!! I skyped my friend in London who also has 12 1/2 year old son. Since boys have three meals and 2 snacks now, we have the same problems that planning meals and snacks' variety.

She mentioned that she made banana muffin for her son,I soon decided to get the recipe from her.

Flour 100g
Baking Powder 1tea spoon

Banana 1/2 piece ( about 1/2 cup)
Water or milk 100cc
Steamed sweet potato 1/2 cup

First making banana smoothy with banana, water or milk and steamed sweet potato. Then the smoothy will be 180-200cc.

Then put smoothy into the flour and baking powder. Mix together roughly. Then put them into the muffin bowl.

Steamed for 15min until it's done. If you think it's too much sticky, put less smoothy into the flour.

It doesn't look like the muffin at the store, but it's good enough, right???

It's pretty tasty and healthy snack!!!





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Friday, March 25, 2011

[03-25-11] Since Last Month...

It's been more than a month since my last post.

Regarding our personal life, my son is now 11 1/2mos old, and almost his 1 year birthday!!
We have been taking few classes of mommy and me.
One is run by the city where we live. It's called "Family Fun Time".
The program is about learning singing, then play at the activity room. My son has been playing with balls, crawling everywhere, and laughing a lot!
Another one is run by the Japanese preschool in Southbay.
The program is focusing on learning basic Japanese culture including all festivals and more general behaviors (cf:bowing and greeting). Since most of his classmates are older, and they walk pretty well, he has been trying to walk more than before!!
I think those bit old kids inspires him a lot!!

We also have playdates with other mommies and babies, who took the class at Bright Beginning and Beyond in Redondo Beach.
We play at someone's place, so sometimes we go out like Wilderness park or Botanical garden.
Being with them is such a great, and for our babies/kids, meeting with the same friends are precious!

Then the night of March 10, Thursday night, I got a text from my friend and he noticed that my country is in trouble.
Soon I checked the news, and I found the devastating country and cities I saw.
I've been using my facebook, twitter and emails to check my family and friend's status.
Luckily my family are ok, and so do my friends. However I've seen too many bad things...

As a writer, and a member of a Japanese journalist group, I got busy all of sudden.
I've reported what happened in the US, or what kind of helps the US government and organization has been issued.

Here are few articles that I reported thru Yahoo! News in Japan:
政・財・スポーツ界から日本支援 米国の震災対応
集らない東日本大震災向け義援金 米国
被災地へ50万足の靴 米国のNPOが提供

I can't imagine what happened if I were there with my little baby. I feel so vulnerable...

Now many Japanese communities have been donating by so many ways.
We are going to have some donation sales all over in Southbay, where is the largest community in Southern California, in next few weeks.

If you have a chance, please stop by and think about the victims in Japan...


On April 2, Sat from 9am-3pm
"MAMA TOMO" Tohuku Support Sale
at 23740 Hawthorne Blvd Torrance 90505
All sales will donate to Japanese Red Cross.

Friday, February 04, 2011

[02-04-11] Aw... Time flies TOO fast!!

I haven't written anything in January. A Happy New Year!
I know it's kind of too late to say that, but still I feel some kind of fresh feeling as a new year.

My baby boy has been doing great. He's now unfortunately in 30% tile,who used to be in 90% tile, but now he crawls fast and step walking with touching furniture and so on. Just being with him is 100% fun and I think I'm so enjoying being MOM.

Today I went to the italian restaurant in Gardena, EATALIAN, with my girl friend.
She's also a mom of 3 years old girl, and run her own business as a creative director.
So we had a lot of things we can share and discuss.
Ended up her friends joined our tables, then we really couldn't stop talking.

Parenting, cosmetic, mutual friends, business as a mom etc...

2011 would be the year to live as mom for me. I think I need to reconsider about my own career.
I don't feel that I give up my own, and I feel that I need to go on to the next stage of my life.
So it's very positive, and almost excited!!