Thanksgiving Ritual 2018

Fields burst with ripening fruits and vegetables, gorgeous gourds in a startling array of shades crowd fields with their vines and rotund bodies. Autumn time is a prodigious season for feasting, with so many varied crops coming to full harvest and abundance, well, prominently abundant. Given this state of affairs, and a particular set of historical myths and traditions built upon the mistreatment and forcible expunging of indigenous people from their homes in "The New World" by land and resource hungry Europeans, most citizens of the United States these days find themselves celebrating a holiday dubbed "Thanksgiving". Ostensibly, the holiday is a period of reflection and a time to pause and be grateful for the many blessings we may be so fortunate to have in our lives, which in and of itself is a nice message... There's nothing wrong with appreciating what you have and being mindful of it, but there are some issues with trampling over the historical facts leading to the situation for more euphemistic ideas. 

Anyhow, to celebrate this time of year, many Americans opt to roast, fry, or otherwise find a means of preparing a turkey. Antho and I wanted to partake in this ritualistic consumption of big birds since we had access to a full oven for the first time in quite a while, though it was just the two of us celebrating so we opted for a smaller roughly 8 pound bird. Still, that's quite a lot of bird to work through, but we had no issues eating leftovers on sandwiches or in soups over the next week! I always save the vegetable scraps and shrapnel from the bird's carcass, bones, and skin along with whatever leftover bits remain, as I use it to make stock/broth. This means my stocks and broths are always perpetually changing and evolving with whatever vegetables and meats we're eating the most, along with what's in season.  To each their own, but it works for us! Since I roasted the turkey with lemons stuffed into it's gaping innards cavern, they went in with the stock, lending it a nice citrusy tang along with boosting the vitamin and mineral content of the end result. Can't really go wrong with that when there are so many bugs going around, right? I've got a case of the sniffles as I write this, in fact... 

If you're traveling these days to go visit family and friends for the holidays, be safe out there! Happy holidays!

Korea: Christmas at Yonie's

While it's a bit early for Christmas yet, as we haven't even had Halloween yet, the nostalgia of winter holidays seems fitting enough to roll out this post celebrating the last (and only!) Christmas I spent in Seoul, living with Yonie. It had been quite a ride! I lived in Korea for six months, the entirety of which I spent living in her apartment, which I shared with a rotating roster of various other guests (who booked on AirBnB) along with other artists who would sometimes stop through to visit. The caricature community is a small one, after all, so most of us end up knowing eachother, especially when we tend to spend extended stays in the same countries. Sometimes this rotating company meant letting a small, quiet Japanese girl in some evening after 11pm, when the creepypasta I'd been reading had thoroughly tainted the tone with spoopies and I was disproportionately spooked by the doorbell, others it meant an impromptu evening of shopping and Doctor Strange with Yonie and Sam. Yonie always takes pride in her hostess skills and as such, she arranged quite a lot of activities for everyone throughout my time there- including this Christmas eve celebration, replete with caricature-themed (or named) wine, red velvet cake, candles and company. It was a lovely evening, and while I had a nice time with everyone, I was more wrapped up with my preparations for leaving Korea in the next 24 hours or so. This was the final stretch of my time living in Seoul, and it was a nice gathering to top it off. While at times I may not have always agreed with Yonie, like when it comes to leaving an oscillating fan on overnight (there's a Korean superstition that leaving a fan on overnight can lead to death) or the scent of cooked fish, I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity she allowed me to have and the incredible adventure I was able to embark upon thanks to her kindness, openness, and hospitality. While nothing is ever perfect, it was pretty fun overall and was absolutely a learning experience. 

Vegas: the Springs Preserve Sustainability Gallery

Have I made it clear yet how much I love the Springs Preserve? Whether we're talking about their seasonally-limited but wonderful butterfly exhibit, their live animal exhibits, the Nevada State Museum, seeing where the city and our water came/comes from in Boomtown & Waterworks, hiking the trails along the expansive grounds, wandering the gardens in summer or late fall, getting spooky during the Haunted Harvest event for Halloween, or scoping out one of their limited exhibits like the Space Exhibit in the OriGen museum last September we always have a blast when we visit the Preserve! Antho and I are both members and have been since shortly after our very first visit. It's been well worth it- even though the cost of admission is quite reasonable, we've gone so many times that the memberships have more than paid for themselves. 

During this visit it was a cool, crisp December day and the Springs had gotten themselves gussied up for the winter Holidays. There were very few other visitors on this day, probably because it was pretty chilly out. We found our way to the Sustainability gallery, which we had walked by several times but never ventured into- a shame because we had a lot of fun! It was a wonderful surprise and we enjoyed exploring the exhibits. Upon exiting the Sustainability Gallery we found our way to the actual food gardens where we were pleased to find tomatillos, peppers and broccoli all going strong- though the broccoli was covered in aphids. Creepy little buggers...we didn't realize they were even bugs until we got closer and inspected the broccoli, at which point we were both a bit skeeved out. Antho went in for more photos trying to capture a good close-up of the little crawlies, though! I kept a safe distance and looked at the other plants while he did that... it's not that I'm terrible with bugs, if need be I can catch a spider, I would just rather not interact with them unless I really have to. I've handled tarantulas and various roaches in museums and biology classes, things of that nature, but I'm good with that being the end of it. Luckily there were plenty of other plants to enjoy! 

Yuck!

More photos below!

Vegas: Ethel M. Chocolate Factory Cactus Garden Illuminations

Ethel M. Chocolate Factory is a true Las Vegas institution, having been in the city since1981 after being opened by Forrest Mars Sr., of the Mars chocolate brand- if you didn't know, Mars is the company behind Snickers and M&Ms so you know that if their mass-produced candies are reliably good then their specialty stuff is going to be something else. Their goal at the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory is to produce some of the finest chocolates in the entire Mars company's portfolio using recipes handed down from Forrest's own grandmother Ethel. Ethel was the inspiration for what Forrest later went on to do with chocolate in his company later on, so we're pretty lucky to have this place in our little valley. There are some real world class chefs and culinary artists throughout Vegas due to our profile as a world-class tourism destination and the locals get to reap the rewards of that, too. 

The factory will be especially familiar for any Vegas locals who went to school here, I bet.  I grew up in the city and attended several schools around town and one of the strongest memories I have is going on a field trip to the factory! It's a lot of fun and you can catch a glimpse at the magic going on behind the scenes. During this visit we were stopping in with a lot of other folks as the factory has a large cactus garden that lights up for the holidays and is free to the public! Not surprisingly it's a popular attraction and a great boon to the profits of the factory too, as people stopping in to see the free tour will get a delicious piece of chocolate before finding themselves in the gift shop. The sweet taste of the decadent chocolate lingering on the tongue makes it hard to resist when confronted with multiple displays of glossy, sprinkled, filled, cream, dipped, assorted chocolates here! There's bound to be one for every taste, whether you're a fan of nougat or chocolate covered cherries, hot chocolate or boozy barrel chocolates bursting with depth and flavour.  You can make your own boxes, too, which is genius! Never again will you have to nibble your way cautiously through a box of unbeknown flavours trying to avoid a landmine. Take that, Forrest Gump! This is 2018, baby, and we can select whatever chocolates we want in our boxes, thank you very much. 

The illuminations in the garden are, of course, stunning! We had a lot of fun wandering the paths and looking at the displays, hot chocolates in hand. If you stop in for a visit during the winter we can definitely recommend their hot chocolate, they were delicious! Photos of the lights and the rest of our visit will follow below. 

Japan: Harajuku Illuminations 2012-11-22

Harajuku is a vivacious and colorful district of Tokyo renowned for it's "Harajuku girl" fashions. 

Trendy and fun though the fashions may be, they are primarily geared towards teenaged girls rather than 20-something adults…that's where Omotesando comes in!

Catering to a slightly more mature audience, the styles are still eclectic and fun without being quite as avant garde (and the prices reflect it). Don't be too quick to dismiss either neighborhood as there are all sorts of fun shops and unexpected surprises around every corner. 

You can quite literally shop high & low by walking only a few short blocks! 

Whichever your preference, there's no denying the charm of walking through the winding streets of these neighborhoods and good company just makes it better.

On this particular evening, Kazu and I met in Harajuku with plans to take in some of the illumination displays that were going on. Several of the displays crept through the entire building, causing the crowds of curious to wind their way up to the roof. Kazu had the map and led the way, I gawked and took photos. 

Halloweenies in Japan 2012

Halloween isn't typically celebrated in Japan. It's not a traditional part of the culture, though dressing in costume is obviously a much loved hobby for many Japanese. It's not really surprising that after appropriating Christmas (it ain't about Jeebus in Japan, I can tell you that much) the next holiday to gain momentum would be Halloween. Who doesn't love an excuse to dress up and have fun?!

While I encountered some festively dressed folks on my way to work, the real Halloween hijinks were to be had at a party with coworkers afterwords. 

Several of my coworkers were Americans as well, so we had our own version…which involved watching Nightmare before Christmas in Japanese. My favorite Japanese version song was "What's This?!", though, as Jyakku shouting "NANDA?! Nani-?!" repeatedly amuses me.