You want to go to this.

Tickets for our annual home concert series are still available. Call (408) 866-2700 or go here.

And check out our YouTube channel.

And Gelato Classico is offering a 20% discount to ticket-holders for the entire month of September. Woot!

Roy's Station

If I were the Emperor of the Universe, I would require an indy coffeeshop in every neighborhood.



Like this one!

After several years of planning and construction, Roy's Station opened last Monday. It's small, adorable, family-owned, has free wi-fi, impeccably friendly service, and excellent coffee. The space is too small for a kitchen, so they don't make any food on site, but they have prefab snacks.

Once it stops raining and the sun comes back out (this weather is ridiculous - I'm starting to sprout mold spores), I plan on spending some quality time on their patio. And so should you.

Opening Monday!

From today's Merc:

For nearly two years, folks in San Jose's Japantown have watched the transformation of a gas station into a coffee shop. The wait will be over when Roy's Station opens Monday.

There's some family history behind the cozy spot at Fifth and Jackson streets. The building dates to 1935 and was bought by Roy Murotsune's parents in the late 1940s. Murotsune ran the service station — first with his brothers and later on his own — until he retired in 1990.

Roy's will serve coffee from Santa Clara-based Barefoot Coffee Roasters and loose-leaf teas from Teance in Berkeley. It will also offer free Wi-Fi.

"Our daughter, Jasmine, will be running the shop once it is open, with the help of her brother and sister, Miles and Tamiko," Carole Rast said in an e-mail. "We are all very excited about this, and so are my parents, Roy and Esther Murotsune — who will certainly be checking in on things."

By the way, siblings Miles and Tamiko Rast already operate Rasteroids, a graphic and Web design business in Japantown.

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.

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.