JANM

Another road trip to LA! This time, we play at the Japanese American Nat'l Museum (JANM).

On the way, we stop for the night in Arroyo Grande. It's a cute little town with lots of adorable restaurants & quaint shops.


Gina's Italian restaurant:



The butternut squash ravioli were pretty awesome.













Firestone, the local beer.

Drink locally!

















Doc Burnstein's Ice Cream Lab:





I got the pineapple sorbet, which was okay.

Britt's coffee ice cream was really good. Nice & bitter.





The sizes here are quite generous.

Adam got the large, which was, I think, a whole pint.

Oy.







Wis had the brownie ice cream sammie, which was dipped in chocolate.








Eventually, we make it to LA. And we play:



I found this photo online, somewhere. Can't remember where...


The band that played before us was a latino band called Cava. Check them out! They were awesome!



Afterwards - ramen @Koraku:

Second Annual Triathlon

For the second year in a row, we tackle the Pleasanton Tri-for-Fun.

It's a sprint tri (400 yd/12 mi?/5K), and most of us were on relay teams, so don't be impressed. There were 70-year olds and little kids doing the whole thing.

Our goal: don't die.


The "before" photo:




The swimmers:




















Our team:




Me in the water, Gina on the bike, and Britt on the run.





Alex & Stew did the whole thing.

Most of us did one leg. Some did two.


The finish:







































The "after" photo:

Is this kosher???

I'm not sure how the NY Times can run a review of this today.




Read the review at your own risk.

I'm not gonna.


Update:
Salon.com has a review, too.
My two favorite papers have sold out.
Jerks.

Coming soon...

- This weekend: SJT's second annual Triathlon

- Next week: another trip down south, this time to JANM

- August: North American Taiko Conference in Seattle
We'll be busy, but if we have time, would love to go here. And of course, we'll try to go here.

Obon 2007

Obon!

The traditional kakigori (shaved ice) breakfast:



And by traditional, I mean it's traditional for us.

Don't go to Japan and ask for the kakigori breakfast.

















Making obon snacks:

















UCI Jodaiko & SJT:













A little bit o' taiko (photos courtesy of Pear):








































































































And a little bit o' odori:





































More than 900 dancers on Saturday!

This photo courtesy of some guy on Flickr.










This one, too.

Pala Casino

We play a gig at Pala Casino, near San Diego.

Our stage:














Trish's sister Pam and her family were there, including her nephew Wally, our biggest fan.





He watches our DVD twice a day, every day.

Sorry, Pam.













After the performance (which was not bad), we went to into the casino to check out the action (such as it was). Since I have absolutely no interest in gambling and even less in playing cards, I have never been to a casino before. So what did I think of Pala?

Eh. I lost $4 on the quarter slot machines.

But the hotel rooms were very nice, and the bathrooms were ridiculously posh. While the others made money playing blackjack and video poker, I spent the rest of the evening swimming laps in the giant tub.



Almost as nice as the Hotel Pattee (which has since closed).









Oh. The food...

The star attraction seemed to be the giant buffet, which was not bad. We were there on shrimp night, which made Adam very, very happy...























and it made the rest of us a little nauseous.

Photo update

As promised, Puka Dog photos are up.

Enjoy! We did!

Bobby Flay Can't Bake

That's right.

Jo kicks Bobby Flay's sorry butt.

Check it out.

Anyone else notice that his personality is totally different when he's talking to an attractive female competitor?

Punk...

Two quickie reviews

On a rare non-taiko Sunday, we went museum- and snack-hopping in San Francisco.



Astro Boy welcomes us to the Asian Art Museum.













Anyway, here is our snack summary...

Out the Door (a downscale version of Slanted Door)
Cuisine: fancy Vietnamese
Location: in the San Francisco Centre, Market & 5th

Well, this is the schmanciest downscale version of anything I've seen. It's billed as a takeout place, but there's table service as well. The food was pretty good. As far as mall food court cuisine goes, this is about as good as it gets.

No food photos (I forgot my camera - these are from Yurika's camera), but here's something I might try next time:




Has anyone out there ever tried it?

Dr. Mike?









BTW, it kills me to have to buy rhubarb. It should be free. And corn. That should be free, too.

Sigh.

Then again, there were no free Meyer lemons in Pennsylvania...



Citizen Cupcake (a downscale version of Citizen Cake)
Cuisine: fancy bakery
Location: in the Virigin Megastore, Market & Stockton

















Limited stuff here at the Cupcake. The original place (near Davies) has a much wider selection. Here, there were only 7 or 8 cupcakes/cookies to choose from.

Yumz got the Signature Cupcake - chocolate with white frosting in the middle & ganache on top.

Now, I realize you're supposed to put a fair amount of salt in chocolate things, but this finished salty. Ack. And Yumi's chai was really weak, like chai-flavored hot milk. Ack, ack.

But I don't want to slam this place. So if you want to try the Cupcake, I say go to the original Citizen Cake instead. And get something non-chocolate. And maybe not the chai.