Every now and then I get an urge to try making Japanese cuisine. This time it's the Oyakodon - literally the 'parent and child bowl', so named because it features a chicken and egg together.

Well, this isn't really an oyakodon; practically speaking it's just inspired by the concept. I don't know anything about making Japanese dashi, but I do know how to make a chicken stirfry!

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The other week, [Bad username: dracosphynx.livejournal.com] dragged me up to the San Francisco Japantown for their 50th Cherry Blossom Festival. Whee! It was fun, though at this point we both know pretty much what to expect.

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The other weekend, dracosphynx mentioned wanting to go to an interesting Japanese restaurant up in my area. Not having gotten out in a while, I importuned him to let me come along, and he was kind enough to oblige. So...

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Finding Dory: a Pixar movie currently out in theaters, centered around Dory, the fish with short term memory issues. It was pretty good, really! I thought the titular Dory's mental handicap was handled fairly and with respect. It got pretty gonzo in storytelling toward the end, straining suspension of disbelief a bit, but it managed to hold together and get to a satisfying end. I'd rate it 7/10.

The Beast And His Boy: a Japanese anime that hearkens to old-school Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki in looks, featuring a young boy who, distraught by the abandonment of his father and the death of his mother, runs away and is adopted by (surprise!) a Beast. He's far from being a stereotypical 'hero' who does no wrong-- honestly he starts out as a brat, but then you wouldn't have much of a story if he was the obedient type, since he wouldn't have run away. Pretty solid IMO, 9/10.

Is it that time of the year already? Yes, and past by two weeks-- well, better than two months of photos languishing in my phone before I get around to posting them. :)

kagetsume was out in the area and by happy chance, there was a Cherry Blossom festival going on in Japantown, SF, on that weekend. He was quite interested so he willingly drove me up there on that Saturday. Good for me, since I hate driving past my 'leash range', especially up in San Francisco.

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You might recall that about a year ago, I took a donut making class. At the end of the class, I picked up a box of apple spice donut mix because I was fairly sure it would be a flavor I'd enjoy, without being ridiculously sweet.

Well. The other day I glanced at the package sitting all alone in my pantry and noticed the expiration date was a month ago. Oops. o_o

So I figured I'd better get around to using it up. It's fall, a good time for fall flavors, anyway. Fortunately the box instructions weren't too complicated... These are cake donuts after all, not fried donuts, so I didn't have to mess with yeast rising, or breaking out a whole bottle of oil to deep fry anything. This is good for my sanity.

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Oh yeah, I guess I should give a rundown of FanimeCon, the Memorial Day con that dracosphynx and I went to on Saturday. (Sunday was tugrik's excellent barbecue)

Overall, it was pretty good. The con is *HUGE*. The artist's alley alone could have eaten two of Further Confusion's dealer rooms and had room for dessert. The dealer's room was bigger, but didn't seem that packed since they had wider-spaced aisles and bigger dealers' booths... Largely necessary because the dealers each had huge arrays of merchandise.

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Around this time of the year, the Cherry Blossom Festival crops up in San Francisco, and dracosphynx shanghai'd me once again.

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So, Further Confusion happened. A month later, I finally get around to blogging it.

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dracosphynx missed the J-Pop festival in San Francisco he'd wanted to go to because he came down with something around then, but he's been feeling better recently. I noticed thanks to a co-worker that there was going to be a Japan Expo in San Mateo this weekend. We made it up there today. It was pretty decently fun! Not too crowded, thanksfully.

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