Searing heat and City Pop
2024-Jun-17, Monday 09:48![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorchadas
On Thursday my parents came out and picked up Laila and thus began our weekend of adventure.
It started on a bad note, with workers unable to deliver most of our appliances, but after that Laila went off with Papa and Nana to have an exciting time and we spent most of the rest of the day doing not much of anything.![[instagram.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/profile_icons/instagram.png)
sashagee fished up a bunch of fish in Final Fantasy XIV and I read and played Fallout. It was the tail end of Shavuot, the holiday where G-d gave us in the Torah on Mount Sinai, so I took it off and spent it at home with my family, eating cheesecake and ice cream. I was tempted to go to the Tikken Leil Shavuot at Anshe Emet, but maybe next year.
Friday was another work day, so I spent most of the day working whilesashagee cleaned up the house (replacing things that we had moved to prepare for the new appliances) and recovering from a headache. I went to work early and left early (by "went to work" I mean "logged on" since I work from home Fridays) since I had a vision appointment to get to--the first in six years. I last went in 2018 and my glasses have been getting increasingly less good at fixing my vision over the last year, to the point where I have to take them off sometimes now to actually see things. The people at the clinic were a bit chiding and told me multiple times to be sure to come in every year, but my worst fears were not realized--they changed the machines. I hate having anything near my eyes, it's the reason I can't wear contacts, and there was a machine when I went in 2018 that required contact with your eyes. I refused to do it and the optometrist acquiesced, but said that I'd need to do something when I came in next. Well...I came in next in 2024, and by that point the machine had become a small handheld device requiring less than a second's contact with your eye, so it was fine! I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have anything to worry about an eye appointment anymore.
My eyes are fine. My nearsightedness is getting better, but it's because I'm old. The exam took only a few minutes as the optometrist talked at a breakneck pace, and then I got sent out with a prescription. We picked out a set of minimalist glasses, paid (expensive but not as expensive as last time), and left to do some errands. We went to the Middle Eastern Grocery Store for more halvah and hummus, to Penelope's for vegan tacos--incredibly good, so glad we discovered them on the Taste of Andersonville last year--and ended up ordering way too much food and having to bring our entrees home, and to Heirloom Books becausesashagee wanted to find some sewing and crafting books. She found a few, as well as The Kosher Cookbook Trilogy (The Italian Kosher Cookbook, The French Kosher Cookbook, and The Chinese Kosher Cookbook), which she was very happy about because she's always trying to find food I can eat. We skipped the olive oil store (because it was closed) and then we went home.
Saturday was the big day. We originally weren't going to do anything in the morning, but![[twitter.com profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/e0caa790ec10/-/twitter.com/favicon.ico)
spacedragon had put out a call to come to Ribfest which we didn't even know was happening that weekend, and I convinced sashagee to go. She was leery of it since the previous year we walked about for a few minutes, she didn't smell anything appetizing, and we left and got dinner at The Bad Apple. This year within a minute she found a stall with some ribs that smelled good, so we got them and sat down at a table with an umbrella and the others. ![[facebook.com profile]](https://www.facebook.com/favicon.ico)
gmarchan said that Mr. Green was where he got his ribs after hearing a couple other people say that they were the best at the fest, so I got a brisket sandwich from them and it was delicious. Both sashagee and I were still hungry afterwards, so we went out for more food. She got ribs at Mr. Green and I kept wandering, and much further north I found a stall selling Jamaican food--"Hawai'ian" ribs, maybe with pineapple; jerk chicken egg rolls, jollof rice, etc. I got the latter two and sashagee banana cream pudding, complaining all the while that she was too full to get another set of ribs, and we went back to eat more with the others. Not a lot to do at ribfest when you're full, though, so once we had all eaten we all went our separate ways. Our way was down to Trader Joe's for food, and we got back home around 4 p.m.
At 6:30 p.m., we left again for the second event--stephen.poon.716 and his brother's birthday! I had never previously met his brother and did not meet him now, though I did finally see him in person when they gave a brief speech in the courtyard of the Palette and Chisel where the party was held. We spent most of it talking to redpikachu and her boyfriend, who had flown in for the birthday, and had a lovely time. The courtyard was cool in the dusk and filled up with fireflies as the night closed in, which really excited redpikachu's boyfriend (apparently there are no fireflies in southern California?). She didn't get to meet Laila, but hopefully she'll have time to do it this week before she heads back to California.
We briefly got to say hi toworldbshiny as she arrived, just as we were leaving.
We had to leave because it was finally time to takesashagee to something I've been wanting to take her to for four years at this point--city pop night at Murasaki. I had texted a few people about it as well as asking redpikachu, but the one person who could come was lisekatevans. Just like old times, as she told sashagee when we arrived slightly after her. We got a seat at the couch near the DJ booth just as the set started (around 10:30 p.m.) and ordered yuzu umeshu to split, kara-age for the table, and I got a glass of matcha nigorizake which was delicious. Looking it up, it's called Kizakura Matcha Nigori and now I have to go check Binny's for it or see if I can order it somehow, because it was delicious. As was the kara-age--we actually got two orders somehow, I'm not sure why but I won't complain--but the real crowning jewel was when I ordered ochazuke. I've told sashagee that I always used to get ochazuke whenever I went out to an izakaya as the last item, so when the waitress told us it was last call for food, I ordered some and expected a small dish, maybe the size of a tea bowl.
What I got was this:
It was the size of a ramen bowl, filled with probably an entire pot's worth of tea. It was delicious but definitely way more than I was expecting from a simple ochazuke bowl to end the night.
lisekatevans had left at that point because afschifler was supposed to join us, but he drove around for around forty minutes and could not get a parking spot, so she went home with him. We stayed another twenty minutes, long enough for Van Paugam to play >真夜中のドア〜Stay with Me, the song sashagee most associates with city pop, and then we took a lyft home.
There was a funny interaction we saw while we were there. There were two Japanese men sitting at the bar, talking in a mix of English and Japanese, and they started talking to Van Paugam about his upcoming set, leading to the following conversation:
On Sunday, we woke up relatively early and got ready because it was yet another day of activities, albeit a brief one. However, Sunday was different--the weather for most of the previous week had been a nice early-summer feel, with daytime temps of maybe 25-27°C at the highest and dipping down to as low as 13°C at night, meaning I'd still bring a spring jacket when I went out in the evening. Saturday was warmer but with a nice cool breeze, and then Sunday the full force of the heat hit--high of 35°C and sunny. But the event was one day only, so we still went. My father dropped off Laila at 10:30, we changed her clothes and got ready, and then he drove us down to Millennium Park to go to the Japan Festival Chicago.
Japan Festival Chicago used to be up at Mitsuwa in Arlington Heights, out in the suburbs, and I'd only read about it and never be able to go. But around 2018 or so, they moved it to downtown Chicago. Way more exposure but it must have been nice to just be able to go to Mitsuwa in between seeing the sights.dinaraua came with us and described it as more of a food festival, which at least from the part we went to was right, but that is accurate to how festivals in Japan usually go. We didn't stay very long--though it was still early in the day, it was already 29°C and getting hotter--but we did arrive just as the kendō demonstration was beginning:
Laila kept saying "Wait a little longer" and asking them to "make more X!" After the demonstration was over, we took her over to meet the kendō practitioners afterwards and one of them let her hold a bokken (they said they usually use metal blades in competition but the city of Chicago was not okay with that during the festival) and bonk her on the head. I tried to get Laila to yell a kiai like they had been doing on stage too, but she was too shy to do it. Still, she was smiling like crazy and obviously really happy. We may have a future kendō champion on our hands.
There were more events and booths, but it was starting to get even hotter--there were more people off to the side than at the festival sometimes--so we headed back home and spent the rest of the day indoors.
It started on a bad note, with workers unable to deliver most of our appliances, but after that Laila went off with Papa and Nana to have an exciting time and we spent most of the rest of the day doing not much of anything.
sashagee fished up a bunch of fish in Final Fantasy XIV and I read and played Fallout. It was the tail end of Shavuot, the holiday where G-d gave us in the Torah on Mount Sinai, so I took it off and spent it at home with my family, eating cheesecake and ice cream. I was tempted to go to the Tikken Leil Shavuot at Anshe Emet, but maybe next year.Friday was another work day, so I spent most of the day working while
sashagee cleaned up the house (replacing things that we had moved to prepare for the new appliances) and recovering from a headache. I went to work early and left early (by "went to work" I mean "logged on" since I work from home Fridays) since I had a vision appointment to get to--the first in six years. I last went in 2018 and my glasses have been getting increasingly less good at fixing my vision over the last year, to the point where I have to take them off sometimes now to actually see things. The people at the clinic were a bit chiding and told me multiple times to be sure to come in every year, but my worst fears were not realized--they changed the machines. I hate having anything near my eyes, it's the reason I can't wear contacts, and there was a machine when I went in 2018 that required contact with your eyes. I refused to do it and the optometrist acquiesced, but said that I'd need to do something when I came in next. Well...I came in next in 2024, and by that point the machine had become a small handheld device requiring less than a second's contact with your eye, so it was fine! I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have anything to worry about an eye appointment anymore.My eyes are fine. My nearsightedness is getting better, but it's because I'm old. The exam took only a few minutes as the optometrist talked at a breakneck pace, and then I got sent out with a prescription. We picked out a set of minimalist glasses, paid (expensive but not as expensive as last time), and left to do some errands. We went to the Middle Eastern Grocery Store for more halvah and hummus, to Penelope's for vegan tacos--incredibly good, so glad we discovered them on the Taste of Andersonville last year--and ended up ordering way too much food and having to bring our entrees home, and to Heirloom Books because
sashagee wanted to find some sewing and crafting books. She found a few, as well as The Kosher Cookbook Trilogy (The Italian Kosher Cookbook, The French Kosher Cookbook, and The Chinese Kosher Cookbook), which she was very happy about because she's always trying to find food I can eat. We skipped the olive oil store (because it was closed) and then we went home.Saturday was the big day. We originally weren't going to do anything in the morning, but
sashagee to go. She was leery of it since the previous year we walked about for a few minutes, she didn't smell anything appetizing, and we left and got dinner at The Bad Apple. This year within a minute she found a stall with some ribs that smelled good, so we got them and sat down at a table with an umbrella and the others. sashagee and I were still hungry afterwards, so we went out for more food. She got ribs at Mr. Green and I kept wandering, and much further north I found a stall selling Jamaican food--"Hawai'ian" ribs, maybe with pineapple; jerk chicken egg rolls, jollof rice, etc. I got the latter two and sashagee banana cream pudding, complaining all the while that she was too full to get another set of ribs, and we went back to eat more with the others. Not a lot to do at ribfest when you're full, though, so once we had all eaten we all went our separate ways. Our way was down to Trader Joe's for food, and we got back home around 4 p.m.At 6:30 p.m., we left again for the second event--
We briefly got to say hi to
We had to leave because it was finally time to take
sashagee to something I've been wanting to take her to for four years at this point--city pop night at Murasaki. I had texted a few people about it as well as asking sashagee when we arrived slightly after her. We got a seat at the couch near the DJ booth just as the set started (around 10:30 p.m.) and ordered yuzu umeshu to split, kara-age for the table, and I got a glass of matcha nigorizake which was delicious. Looking it up, it's called Kizakura Matcha Nigori and now I have to go check Binny's for it or see if I can order it somehow, because it was delicious. As was the kara-age--we actually got two orders somehow, I'm not sure why but I won't complain--but the real crowning jewel was when I ordered ochazuke. I've told sashagee that I always used to get ochazuke whenever I went out to an izakaya as the last item, so when the waitress told us it was last call for food, I ordered some and expected a small dish, maybe the size of a tea bowl.What I got was this:
It was the size of a ramen bowl, filled with probably an entire pot's worth of tea. It was delicious but definitely way more than I was expecting from a simple ochazuke bowl to end the night.
sashagee most associates with city pop, and then we took a lyft home.There was a funny interaction we saw while we were there. There were two Japanese men sitting at the bar, talking in a mix of English and Japanese, and they started talking to Van Paugam about his upcoming set, leading to the following conversation:
Japanese guy: "American city pop?"I did not strike up a conversation because he seemed to be trying to chat up the woman at the bar next to him and being mostly successful.
Van Paugam: "No, it's from Japan." *hands over a record*
Japanese guy: "うおおぉ、日本じゃ！ (Oh wow, it is from Japan!)" *waves over the other guyt*
On Sunday, we woke up relatively early and got ready because it was yet another day of activities, albeit a brief one. However, Sunday was different--the weather for most of the previous week had been a nice early-summer feel, with daytime temps of maybe 25-27°C at the highest and dipping down to as low as 13°C at night, meaning I'd still bring a spring jacket when I went out in the evening. Saturday was warmer but with a nice cool breeze, and then Sunday the full force of the heat hit--high of 35°C and sunny. But the event was one day only, so we still went. My father dropped off Laila at 10:30, we changed her clothes and got ready, and then he drove us down to Millennium Park to go to the Japan Festival Chicago.
Japan Festival Chicago used to be up at Mitsuwa in Arlington Heights, out in the suburbs, and I'd only read about it and never be able to go. But around 2018 or so, they moved it to downtown Chicago. Way more exposure but it must have been nice to just be able to go to Mitsuwa in between seeing the sights.
dinaraua came with us and described it as more of a food festival, which at least from the part we went to was right, but that is accurate to how festivals in Japan usually go. We didn't stay very long--though it was still early in the day, it was already 29°C and getting hotter--but we did arrive just as the kendō demonstration was beginning: Laila kept saying "Wait a little longer" and asking them to "make more X!" After the demonstration was over, we took her over to meet the kendō practitioners afterwards and one of them let her hold a bokken (they said they usually use metal blades in competition but the city of Chicago was not okay with that during the festival) and bonk her on the head. I tried to get Laila to yell a kiai like they had been doing on stage too, but she was too shy to do it. Still, she was smiling like crazy and obviously really happy. We may have a future kendō champion on our hands.
There were more events and booths, but it was starting to get even hotter--there were more people off to the side than at the festival sometimes--so we headed back home and spent the rest of the day indoors.
