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What are your future travel plans?
Next week, Jian, his parents, our little bean & I are celebrating Jian’s birthday in Manhattan a.k.a. New York City. This was the place Jian & his parents first lived when they immigrated to the United States. So this city holds a special place in their hearts. Jian& his parents haven’t been back there for over 15 years. I haven’t been back there since 2009. I got violently sick on my last visit, so I never got to fully experience New York, but at least I fully utilized our hotel room. (Silver linings!)
Yes, the main reason we are all traveling to New York City is to celebrate Jian’s birthday. However, our second most important reason is to test our little bean on her first airplane ride. We as a trio are ultimately planning on going to Japan later this year, & we don’t want our little bean’s first plane ride to be a 12 hour flight across the International Date Line without any practice.
That brings me to our second major travel plans for the year. WE ARE GOING BACK TO JAPAN! WOO-HOO!! I don’t know if we will visit my family burial plot at the cemetery in Kamakura. It’s a tradition we do every time we go back to visit family, but according to our culture’s superstitions & beliefs, young children should not visit the dead. They are more susceptible to attracting spirits.
This upcoming trip to Japan is going to be a huge undertaking, one that Jian & I have never done before, even when we were childless. We are planning on city hopping this time on our 2 week vacation. We will first stay in Osaka, then migrate over to Tokyo for the second leg of our trip. Somewhere in between, we will have contact with my cousins who are based in Yokohama & Tokyo. We won’t be able to meet everyone, as my family is too big to see everybody, but we will at least get to introduce our little bean to a couple of close relatives.
I am really excited but also incredibly nervous to be traveling to such far away places with my little bean. Yes, these once-in-a-lifetime memories far outweigh the worries, but as a parent, I am a worrier by nature. I am praying like crazy that my kid will at least be moderately civilized on all her airplane rides. That is a ginormous hope, but I am crossing my fingers every time the thought crosses my mind.
I have been reading & seeing more news lately about more & more weather anomalies & extremely violent turbulence causing huge problems with airplanes & flights. As a professional overthinker, this terrifies me to no end. I know I cannot control any of these things, but still, these thoughts are sitting in the back of my mind. I can only hope for the best. That’s all I can do for now. At the very least, I am extremely grateful to have the opportunity & means to travel at all. For that, I shall focus all of my thoughts on gratitude & appreciation for my advantages. Until the next one, Bon Voyage & cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
What do you listen to while you work?
I got so overjoyed this morning when I picked up my smartphone & saw this topic prompt light up my notification screen. My mind went into overdrive, thinking of all the ways I could approach this prompt, but stopped short when I tried to think of a way to write without word vomiting a whole bunch of things that would turn into tangents only myself would understand, & that you probably wouldn’t give two shits about. (See what I mean? A stupid tangent.)
So let me get straight to the answer. The things I listen to while I am working totally depends on my mood, but also my current obsession. I have a couple of pinned Spotify playlists that I have personally curated that I will rotate through. I will listen to ambient background sounds on YouTube as well. However, in the most recent weeks, I have been predominantly listening to a couple of select artists on repeat: Fuji Kaze, imase, that Polish guitarist I want to interview, Lucky Kilimanjaro & Arctic Monkeys. I’m going to an Arctic Monkeys concert in September, so I am trying to brush up on their discography at the moment. My mommy brain has forgotten a lot of the lyrics that used to be easy for me to memorize.
As of today, I am totally obsessed with Fuji Kaze‘s music. I have been listening to his album LOVE ALL SERVE ALL on repeat for the past several days. Fuji Kaze‘s music is super catchy & the lyrics are so thoughtful & full of meaning/intention/purpose. I think I am slowly becoming a, as he would put it, Kazetarian. I don’t think I would become a devout vegetarian like he is, but I absolutely would follow his philosophies & world views. This artist has such a pure & open heart. It’s hard not to fall in love with his melodic tunes. Listening to Fuji Kaze’s music totally puts me in a good mood, & helps improve my productivity. I get all excited listening to his music, & continuously work without stopping, which is rare because I very, very easily get distracted by anything & everything around me.
That’s all for now. I am going to continue working on this blog, & listening to some killer jams. Until the next beat, cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
What’s your go-to comfort food?
My absolute comfort food is kind of boring, but actually isn’t. It’s a sandwich; just a sandwich. It’s not my family staples of Chinese or Japanese food. It’s just a good old fashioned sandwich.
I won’t get into all the details of which sandwiches are my favorite, or which condiments I like to put in those sandwiches. That topic would take way too long for me to explain. Also, I won’t get into the whole debate on whether or not a hot dog is considered a sandwich, which by association, that should mean that a hamburger is also a sandwich. Lots of American eateries even use sandwich bread to make their own hamburger recipes.
I have been eating sandwiches ever since I started going to school, even in pre-school & summer school where we were asked to bring our own brown bag lunches. My mom would make me a ham & cheese sandwich with mayonnaise on white bread (until I found out I was supposed to be allergic to white bread). That was my earliest memory of eating sandwiches. Ever since then, I have grown very fond of eating sandwiches.
Sandwiches are easy to throw together when you can’t think of anything to actually cook. They are versatile; I mean, you can put just about anything you want in a sandwich, savory or sweet, & you can use any kind of bread you want. Sandwiches are also very portable & easy to eat when you’re on the go rushing out the door, or having a leisurely picnic.
I just very much enjoy eating sandwiches. That’s why I would say a sandwich is my go-to comfort food. It’s something I have always eaten since childhood, & besides, who would actually say that duck a l’orange or coq a vin served with a side of haricots vert is their comfort food? That’s ridiculous. I want to eat something quick, easy, & delicious. Sandwiches. Boo-ya! Cheers.
Today’s song of the day:
Rabbits & Foxes 
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