Cai

Our son, Cai, was born earlier this week on September 18, 2023.

We are blown away by the sheer amount of love we have for this little guy. He’s been keeping us busy and on our toes but it's worth every precious moment.

I’ll be posting pictures here and there in a gallery specifically made for Cai. It's password protected so if you want access, just message me directly.

Thanks everyone for your love and support so far and we look forward to introducing you to Cai.

Take care!

Kasey Ramen →

A new ramen post is up! It’s been awhile so go take a look here.

I hope to log my ramen journey more properly moving forward from my experiences locally (Edmonton) and elsewhere (hopefully soon).

Stay tuned for more!

Merry Christmas

This Christmas is going to be a weird one. I have to really go out of my way to make it even remotely seem like Christmas is around me this year. I knew it would be like this, but knowing that I’ll be missing all the festive activities with Mindy, my family and her family is still a bummer no matter how you look at it. Nonetheless, there is always next year so I’ll have to double down on the festivities then.

I’ll be at school on Christmas Day but I plan on eating chicken and cake during my lunch to celebrate Japanese style since that’s what a lot of people here think is the traditional style meal. You should see how busy it is at KFC. It’s crazy town. I’m tempted to go, but battling the lines and the long wait times don’t seem like a fun way to spend the time.

Also, I have to prepare a short little presentation on a movie review on the 26th. Naturally, I’m choosing Scott Pilgrim vs the World since it’s got a great mix of pop culture and some Canadiana mixed in. So needless to say, I’ll be studying on Christmas, like a good boy. Did you hear that Santa?

We did have a pretty rad Christmas Eve dinner tonight. Homemade pizza and various types of fried meats (beef, pork, fish, etc.) but all roads lead to chicken always tasting the best. There was also a cake, but everyone ate so much dinner that there was no room for dessert. Alas, we can go crazy on the cake tomorrow.

I hope you all have a great Christmas holiday and really cherish the moments you have with others. Those specific moments will only ever happen once, so don’t let them pass carelessly.

I also hope you find your Christmas Unicorn.

n_n

Please enjoy this little Christmas tune courtesy of the super cool Sufjan Stevens.

Writer's Block

Howdy! I am still alive and kicking over here in Japan. I have lots of pictures and things to write about, but after trying to update the blog often, I kinda hit a block after about a month where I just wanted to take a little break.

I will add those past events here eventually which includes a soccer match, a weird and somewhat dangerous optical outdoor park thing which was really fun but could easily lead to a hurting body and/or death (haha), and a Meiji style town which resembles uh, the look of the Meiji period in Japan. Yup!

Oh, and food. I have some more ramen posts to get up as well. The backlog is growing, just like the endless amounts of vocabulary and grammar points that I need to memorize.

Since you like pictures, here is one of me and the three kids which are part of my homestay family. They are super cool and I take no shame at defeating them in Street Fighter often. Hadouken!

Tsukemen Ikki Ramen →

I had a new ramen experience today so go check it out on the Ramen page or by clicking the title above.

enjoi

Nabana no Sato

As previously mentioned, my shenanigans didn't end on Saturday when I left Nagoya and returned back home in Okazaki.

No, they were only just beginning.

After returning, I spent a little bit of time in my room and then hung out with the family until it was time for dinner. During dinner, they asked if I wanted to visit Nabana no Sato, a garden with a special illumination during the winter season. When I asked when, they said right after dinner.

So I soon found myself in the backseat of their van, heading down the expressway towards our end destination. It was about a 40 min drive or so and technically, in a different prefecture, Mie-ken, so I can check off another prefecture off of my list of the many I still need to set my foot in.

It cools off a lot during the evenings now so I am glad I threw on a sweater before heading out since our entire time at the gardens was obviously spent outdoors.

Upon arriving though, we weren't greeted by various flowers, but instead strings and strings of lights everywhere. Thinking about it now, I wonder how long it took the crew to set this all up and also, how many individual lights was I surrounded by. Too many. Naturally, I didn't take many pictures of the lights cause that's way too cool.

The most impressive sights though were the trees (with momiji) along a pond that were reflecting perfectly along the surface of the water. My pictures don't do the the sight any justice.

After proceeding through a massive light tunnel where everyone and their mom wanted to take pictures, we were introduced to the main attraction, a giant backdrop to recreate a mountain forest scene. From here, well, was an amazing light show supported by different music tracks.

In the video below, this is just one of the short light shows that was on display. I think the entire loop took about 15 min and was comprised of probably 5 or 6 short themes.

Viewing this spectacle was definitely worth the price of admission and definitely secured this as something I was glad to participate in.

After heading back to the main area, we did some omiyage (souvenir) shopping since our ticket included a voucher to buy stuff at their shop. It was a use it or lose it sort of thing so I ended up buying some random stuff which is to be kept a secret for now.

So yah, if you're ever randomly in Japan at this time of year and enjoy lights, music and action, go to Nabana no Sato. And then maybe catch a film after to really solidify an awesome day in Japan.