omino （おみの）

It's been a while since my mom went to Germany to visit my sis there and as I've been stuck at home doing household things for a while, my mom's friend pitied on me and she took me out for a dinner. It was kind of awkward to eat out with my mom's friend as I've never met her without my mom's presence but I had a great time.

She took me to a fancy restaurant called "Omino" in Nishiogi and yumyumyumm ... it was so good! Omino is a kyoto-styled "Kaiseki" restaurant and Kaiseki was one of the things I missed so much while I was in Canada. When I was in Toronto I enjoyed rich food culture there but unfortunately they don't have nice Japanese food because of the small Japanese population. Of course you can enjoy inexpensive sushi and home-made style Japanese food such as "Oyako don" in Toronto but not "Kaiseki". Kaiseki is a kind of dish you enjoy by seeing and tasting　(目で楽しみ舌で楽しむ！） and accomplished only by well-skilled artistic chef. It is like Japanese version of french full-coursed dish and requires exquisite taste as each of the dish should be displayed with matching plate.

Things I ate...(things only I remember. as there were so many plates served after and after I might have missed any)

-Ohitashi (kind of new taste as kaiseki as they use western ingredient like bacon)
-Nama yuba (my favorite!)
-Osumashi (with Hamo on season. that was damn good)
-Tougan and other vegetables (in a chilled summer-looking bowl. was pretty)
-Otsukuri (Hirame with momiji oroshi, oishii~~)
-grilled fish (fish i don't know its name)
-huge oyster (tastes so rich! according to the chef, the bigger oysters taste the richer, and the smaller oysters tastes "sappari")
-Akadashi
-matsutake gohan!(matsutake is a fungi everyone fancy about)
-caramel ice cream

you can tell how much nice food I got from the above menu. mmmm....I love eating foods that I can't cook by my own. they are art!

The interior coordinate was great too. all the tiles around kitchen are "Masuko yaki" and big counter-table is made of "ichimai-ita (one-sliced thick wood. no seal). cupboards seem like "Edo-style" and they have nice "Rankan" and "Sashiko" from Ishikawa. everything was so deliverate and professional.

脱帽。やっぱおいしいものって人を幸せにするなあ～。
おいしそ～うなお肉も焼いてましたがさすがにこれだけ食べた後だと何にも入りません。はも、おいしいのでおすすめです。

ジョンベネちゃんケース

JonBenetちゃん殺害事件の容疑者が逮捕されましたね。いや、いきなりでかなりびっくりしました。
このジョンベネちゃん事件は既にもう１０年も前のことだけれどやはり記憶に大きい事件だった。やはり背景がサスペンス小説そのままに使えそうなネタにあふれたものであったし、北米のtabloid紙の騒ぎ方にもびっくりするようなものがあった。まるで全てが”女性自身”調な報道の仕方。警察が父親に疑いの目を向けるのは性犯罪の多発するアメリカのこと、全てを疑わなくてはいけない、と言う意味では仕様がないかもしれないけどさすがにお兄ちゃんまで疑われたのは辛いものがある。

私個人としてはこの事件そのものより美少女コンテストというものにびっくりしたのを覚えてる。あのド派手な化粧やごてごて衣装の趣味の悪さ！子供本来の可愛さというものを半減させている。やっぱり子供のお遊戯はスモッグでしょ～、というのはもう古い趣味なんでしょう。子供はFamiliarのようなclassyな服のほうが可愛いと思うんだけどまあそれは人の好き好きなので。

でも今回のJohn容疑者が本当に犯人なのかな？あの"I love JonBenet"なんて言ってしまうところ、多分精神的にはおかしいんだろうな、というのは分かるんだけど何しろ異様なほどジョンベネ事件に執着して全て記事を集めていたと言うし、単にのめりこんで自分を犯人と思い込んでしまったということもあり得る。嘘もつき続けると自分でもどこからが嘘か分からなくなるっていうしね。
でもこのジョン容疑者、JonBenet Caseについて documentaryを作っていたある大学教授に４年も前からコンタクトを取っていたとのこと。無害にみえたらしいので検察側もずっとそのまま流していたけど何故かこの過去数ヶ月の間に捜査をheatupさせ、今回の逮捕につながったらしい。まあこんだけ泳がせておいて急に逮捕にいったということはそれだけの確証があるのかな。もし彼が犯人でなかったとしてもジョンベネちゃん家族に同情の目を向けられるチャンスが与えられたということで報道被害などについて考えさせられるいい機会になったのかも。とにかく早くDNA鑑定してみないことにはね。

Jingu Fireworks Festival

　

観ました、神宮花火大会。小学校のときは毎年恒例だったけど家の屋上に上ってみたのは何年ぶりだろう。大学のときとかは友達とわいわい集まって東京体育館の広場で場所取りをしてみたものですが、妹が去年か一昨年か見に行って、将棋倒しになりそうなほど沢山の人で押し合いへし合いしており、そのうち絶対圧迫死の事故が起きるから行かない、とのコメントを聞いてからはちょっと足が遠ざかってしまった。
でもせっかくの日本の夏の風物詩、地元にいながら観ないのは勿体無いのでぐらつく梯子の恐怖をこらえながら屋上登りました。高所恐怖症気味なのにね。

実際の花火、数は一万発とのことだけどやはり河川敷でする花火大会ではなく街中だからか、決してサイズは大きくない。しかも風が弱くて花火から出る煙が流れないから、全てもうもうとたちこめてしまって肝心の花火が見えにくい。家の周りのほうまで煙が流れてきて辺り一帯白～くけむがかかってました。まあでも花火も花見といっしょで雰囲気を楽しむものだものね。お酒とおつまみと一緒に普段とは違う視点から街なかを見下ろすことができたのは楽しかった。
さすがに締めに連発した大きな花火はそれなりに迫力あったし。

ということで神宮花火大会はお酒のおつまみに花火、というくらいで見るのが丁度いい。

でも技術屋の日本のことだからそのうち熱くない花火とか煙の出ない花火とか開発してくれないかなあ。それだったらどこでももっと大きな花火打ち上げられるようになるのではと思うのだけれど。

The tale from Earthsea

As a one of Studio Ghibli fan I felt like watching their latest movie "the tale from Earthsea" although I'd never heard any positive critics about that. Luckily my friend got the ticket for me and we went to watch the movie without any anticipation. I've read the original books but it was really long long time ago and I don't remember any main story of the book (some parts I remember are only episodes like everyone has true name and this one shouldn't revealed to others without discretion, and the main character Sparrowhawk got his first girlfriend in his late years). But this ignorance of the original story did good to me this time (scarce movies are better than the original novels they are based. like Harry Potter or Da Vinci Code. The lord of the rings is the only exception) as you can accept the movie as it is.

As a conclusion first I kinda liked this movie (contrary to the fact most of the ppl rated this movie like 2~5 out of 10). If you like movies which have black and white clearly like Disney movies, this isn't for you. There are so many parts like ??? in this movie and as they tried to condense everything in 2 hours show time you won't understand many details (like "is Tehanu the dragon?", "Is she dead or not?" or "Did Allen kill his father because of the effect of the world being destroyed?"). but you don't have to get obvious answers for everything (for the same reason one of my favorite movier is "Mulholland Dr". You've got to check it out!).
It is fun thing that you can have your own interpretation of the movie which can be different from others and in most of that kind of movies you'll have nice fuzzy feeling which is called afterglow.
As it contains many characters it seems complicated but the theme from this movie is really clear, "Seize the day","Denying death equals to denying life". Some of you maybe be annoyed by its lines cause they keep saying "Live! Life is important!" but you'll easily understand what they wanted to tell you in this movie.
So I rate this movie around 7.5.

まあやはり絵も歌も綺麗だしね。怖い描写も従来よりちょっと増えていてある意味いわゆるオタク系の人のほうが好む映画かもと思った。
声優を担当した田中裕子さんも含めてクモ役が良い。菅原文太も合っていた。風吹ジュンがちょっと舌がまわってない気が・・・テルー役も声はいいけどちょっと棒読みかなあ。まあ歌がよいから許す。

スーパーマン

この間、友達がスーパーマンの映画券を当て誘われて試写会にいってきました。
それなりにアメコミも好きでSpawnとかX-Men（X-Menはアニメがよい。スピーディな動きには見入るものがあります）とかアニメでちょこちょこ観たこともあったけれど、何故かSupermanは赤と青のどぎついタイツ姿だからかドクタースランプのスッパマンを思い出させるからか、comicもアニメも映画も観たことなかった。だから全くストーリー知らずに今回のSuperman Returns鑑賞ということになり、そういう意味でところどころ背景が分かりにくいところもあった。異星から帰ってくるところや親子関係などね。

でも全体的によくできた映画だと思う。現代と昔とが融合したような時代設定も面白かった。とにかくスーパーマン役のブランドンラウスが適役！さすが何千人の応募人数の中から抜擢されただけあって体型的にもあの派手なコスチュームを着ても笑うどころか似合ってると思えてしまうのがすごい。新聞記者の時のshyな感じとsupermanになるといきなり甘～い雰囲気の頼もしいheroとを演じ分けてました。superheroでありながらあのタイツ姿になるとromanticなフェロモンぷんぷんとかもし出している感じです。女記者のロイスがメロメロになるのも分かる。ただこのいまいちこのロイス役が可もなく不可もなくという感じであまり印象に残らなかった。
今回悪役のケビンスペイシーもさすが演技派だけあって上手く雰囲気出してるけど（怒鳴るシーン好き）、コミカルな感じにしたかったからかところどころにコメディ調の演技を取り入れてる。それがちょっとブツ切れの印象を与えててどうなんだろう？あれは北米的に受け入れやすい型なのかな？

でもいいバランスでアクションとロマンス組み込まれていると思います。少なくともスターウォーズ２，３みたいなベタベタな恋愛ではなかった。ということで映画館で見ても○。
ところで子供役の子、マコーレーカルキンの生まれ変わりみたい、と思ったのは私だけかな。ハリウッドではあのような顔の子役が受けるみたいなのね。

コミケ

For the first time in my life I went to コミケ(comic market) at Tokyo Big Sights yesterday. Don't get me wrong. I am not a オタク. I grew up with comics but it's only because I'm a Japanese and mangas are already Japanese culture. Even you think you know much about comics, if you go to comic market you'll know you were wrong. Surrounded by half million geeks (half million! that many ppl join the comic market held for 3 days. it's a population 5 times bigger than that of Guelph), you'll feel like you are loser (and I'm glad to be a loser this time).

Tokyo Big Sights consists of many halls (like East Hall, West Hall...) and each of them are huge. These huge halls were full of people who are selling their self-printed comics and ppl who are buying these "Doujinshi".
I didn't buy any comics and I just kept browsing their 同人誌 but I felt a kind of awkwardness in even this browsing action cause it seems that there are certain manners for everything. Each booth is really small but when you check the magazines you have to be careful not to hog the next space, some of the sellers were so absorbed into reading comics which makes you wonder if you can disturb them, and you are allowed to take pics only at specific site.....

So I coudln't spend much time in checking the comics themselves(anyway it is impossible to check all. there are too many) but instead I enjoyed watching ppl in their costumes. Girls wore costumes of ancient Japan, nurse, hardgay and various characters from manga.... Guys in costume of SailorMoon, french cafe maid and TigerMask..... It was a shame that I run out of time to go to Costume Play Hall to take their photos. Yesterday was so hot (air conditioner was not working good in some of the halls) and I was impressed to see they decided to wear those heavy layered costumes. A lot of guts.

Things I found out from this event....
- comics in trend drawn by girls is "boys on boys". Soooo many comic about boys fall in love with boys. There is a specific name for this kind of comics but I forgot. Like comics about Wolverine from X-Men had crush on Cyclopes, Lupin the third on Jigen..... Some of them were even non-stop hardcore.
-I don't mean to offend Otaku ppl but there are so many real real geeks at Company booth sections. You'll know what I mean if you go there.
-ppl here look so energetic and focused. They don't mind getting lined up for everything (if you want to make it to door opening time, the average lineup time is 5 hours!), don't mind carrying heavy magazines with them...... I wonder what do they do for the rest of things. Is there any energy left?
I think we can create new power system using these air of excitement from them. the temperature in the halls were raised by at least 2 degree from their ferver and sweat.....

Anyways it was an experience. Thank you Paulさん! I would never had a chance to go to this kind of event in my life if you didn't ask me to join. すごかったねえ～。