It has been forever

It has been almost three months since I posted an entry and so much has happened. Alex started his career path as a financial consultant, and he will be commuting to Troy, MI for the next three months and I am starting business school at MSU, which will be a year long program for me. We are taking some steps I would have no seen three months ago, God is good. We were upset about not being able to live in Japan, but we now realize God has different plans for us. :) We are definitely going to visit Japan, and I can't wait for our next trip to Kyoto. Today is a great day that I shall remember forever because: It is the first time I have ever seen my parents eat sushi (sure, it was the most basic sushi, a sushi roll, but they're just starting!!). Here is a little background of my family: They are definitely comfort food type of people, their favorite restaurants are applebees, chilis, etc. Which is fine, but I am the COMPLETE OPPOSITE. I hate Applebees and Chili's! I love trying new things all the time, and I love ethnic foods. I have no idea how/why I am so different from them, but I will embrace it. Tonight we went to a local sushi restaurant, and ordered a roll with shrimp and avocado in the middle, with salmon on the top. It came with Masago (Capellin roe) but I asked them to put it on the side, I wasn't too sure how my parents would feel about Capellin roe, haha. The roll arrives, and my dad takes out his chopsticks and can barely hold them in his giant Irish hands. He pours a generous amount of soy sauce into a dipping tray, and prepares himself for his first battle: picking up the damn sushi roll. This was a feat in itself, he slowly conquered this battle, and his technique improved slowly. When he grabbed his first roll he let it sit in the soy sauce for literally 30 seconds, I was trying so hard not to laugh, it was so cute. He picked it up, put it in his mouth, then gave a nod of approval. Afterwards he washed it down with some green tea which I had ordered. This story seems pointless, but to me it was a huge stepping stone in our relationship, for the last couple of years I have been bugging my parents to see a side of me which I embrace, my husbands culture, the language I love, and they have slowly been coming out of their shells. Last month my dad had mochi, he absolutely hated it (haha), but I was so proud that he tried. After tonight, my desire to show my parents Japan increased ten fold.

私の休みが終わった (My vacation is over) T_T;

even though it's over, I was happy to arrive back home in cold, snowy, dark, Michigan. Alex and I had so much fun, I didn't take many pictures, but we did take tons of video! I think one of most important parts about traveling isn't about having time for yourself, but learning about the culture around you. We took time to learn about the Dominican Culture, and it was very different from what we are use to. It is a very beautiful country, with very beautiful people, but the tragedy which struck Republic of Haiti last year has effected the Dominican Republic very much. Here are some pictures!

On the first morning <3

On one of our adventures outside the resort my husband and I found a cute bakery on the side of the road. It was a European inspired bakery, and the portions were rather American. haha :)

I did a lot of this. ^.^

We had a couple photos taken, so I can make a little album for us, this is one of the shots. <3

Next update, food! Valentines day goodies and my exploration into making Bentos! よっしゅ！

I bought another bathing suit!

I'm super excited because it is exactly three weeks until we arrive at our warm destination. One way to express my excitement is to browse Japanese clothing websites and find a cute, yet unique suit. I love one pieces, I feel like they are really sexy, but it's hard to find one that's a.) under $160 and b.) one in my size. I don't know why companies assume just because you're a size 2, means you want to show everything you have.

Dominican Republic 2012 by mrsp0tter featuring vintage sunglasses

If you click on it you can see all of the angels and awesome pictures of the suits. I bought the pink and brown one, and it's arriving in 3 business days.

long time no posts...

久さしぶり〜
この日記のエンタリーはたくさん写真があるんです。
a.k.a. this entry will be pic heavy
It has been a while since I posted. I've been extremely busy with fun family activities, snowboarding, skiing, and of course, eating. Luckily, I didn't gain any holiday weight with our vacation right around the corner. Yay! ^.~
I had some fun holiday adventures trying to cook some Japanese dishes, first, I made kani udon (udon noodles with crab) for my husband one day.

here is the HUGE crab leg. Crabs are spiders of the sea, I wonder if spiders taste as good as crabs...hmmm..

the finished product.

On Christmas we started our tradition for the first time, EVER! We made Crepes! I love crepes, because they aren't too sweet and with Japanese style crepes you can pretty much stuff anything in them, ranging from fruit, to even raw fish. Yummy ^.^

This was our little crepe station we set up, I melted down some 72% dark coco from ghirardelli and drizzled it on our crepes.

Then it was my mother-in-laws birthday, so we made crepes again. My sister-in-law also made a German pancake, I fell in love with it and I want to make it on my own. It wasn't very sweet, it had a touch of powdered sugar on it, and I had it with fruit and really good maple syrup.

For Hiromi's birthday I decided to make a Japanese cake, Japanese cakes are very tedious because they are so precise. Instead of measuring it out by cups, Japanese recipes call for weight, which I am use to because of school, and I prefer to bake in oz and g's, it reads for more accurate nutritional intake. My sister-in-law helped me bake it, and I decorated it. Thank you Heidi! <3

end result. :3

Now that I look at this entry, all of these recipes were foreign haha. The key for me this holiday was to not over indulge, I ate until I was satisfied, and I ate a variety of foods. Also, I hate eating past 6 p.m. :3.
What are some of your food habits you have?
Happy eating~ xoxox