Do you have any unfulfilled dreams from your childhood?  Do you sometimes wish that you were a better cartwheeler or double dutch jump-roper?  I never learned to properly ride a bike as a kid, but I finally learned recently.  And now it’s my favorite thing in the world!  I like biking everywhere, all the time.  I bike around Golden Gate park.  I bike to Ocean Beach.  I ride to work every day- a 15 minute breezy, sunny ride.  It’s the best start to any day.

How did I end up finally learning to ride after 26 years?  After living in Boston and Tokyo, I’ve come to love getting around by public transportation and walking.  I feel like it keeps me active and helps me get to know the city better.  But it’s also hard to depend on public transport schedules, and in San Francisco, public transport is good, but not amazing.  So I’ve been contemplating learning to ride a bike for about a year.  I studied different bikes online.  I asked my friend Erek what kind of bike I ought to get.  He told me the most important part of a bike was the color.  “Get a cute one”, he said.  Finally, after a long period of researching and waffling, I got a bike.  Erek ended up being right.  The cuteness of my bike was the major motivator for learning to ride it.  But, it’s also a good bike.  It’s from Public Bikes.  Their bikes were near the top of my waffling list for about a year because their bikes are cute, light (lighter than some folding bikes, even!  it’s a concern to me because I carry my bike up 3 flights of stairs every day) and “ride like butter”.  I only hesitated because their bikes didn’t come in pink or light green, only primary colors.  But in December, they came out with limited edition pastels and on first sight, I knew that the mint green one was my bike soul mate.

If you’re learning to ride in San Francisco (are there are other people who never learned as a kid?!) I’d recommend Golden Gate Park!  They close it off to cars on the weekend, so it’s perfect for getting used to the idea of riding on a street.  And Public bikes is super about making bike noobs feel comfortable.  They’ll adjust your seat perfectly to your height and give you tips!  They think of everything– they gave me the tiniest bottle of the mint green paint for any future scratches.  I double recommend Public bikes if you’re short and have never found a bike that suits your height (or lack of it)!

Strangers often come up to me to tell me how beautiful Peppermint Patty is.  I’m pretty sure Peppermint Patty gets told that more often than me.

Dress: Karen Walker

Earrings: Pacman & Ghost, gift from the sweet Cheray!

More minty things: peppermint bubble tea with mint green straw from Boba Guys, Frankie Journal from Cheray!

I’m lusting after this book on how to throw a Vintage Tea Party.  I couldn’t tell you the first thing on how to throw a proper tea party, except that it should probably have Devonshire clotted cream.  You know what I can tell you, though?  How to throw a Star Wars Tea Party.  It even includes Devonshire clotted cream.  Plus, there’s something to be said for the juxtaposition of doilies and Boba Fett.

Party Ideas!

Fancy plates

A normal party can just have paper plates, but if you’re going to tack on a Star Wars theme, while still hoping it looks like something outta Martha Stewart, you’re going to have to pull out your fanciest china.  Don’t have any?  Pick up a bunch of cheap but floral/gold trimmed porcelain plates from Goodwill.  They don’t even have to match!  They’ll still look pretty together.

Character-shaped cookies

Shortbread holds shape best.  I like this recipe!  You can get Star Wars ones from Williams Sonoma.  Or you can make your own with these instructions from anna the red!

Foods from the story

Some stories, like Harry Potter, talk about food extensively: chocolate frogs, treacle tart, butter beer.  Some stories, like Star Wars, have blue milk.

Foods that remind you of characters/places

If you were to stretch your imagination a little bit, scones can become Death Stars, and cinnamon rolls can become Princess Leia buns.

Action figures

You’ll get to show them off!  Take them out of their packaging/special shrine.  They’ll make amazing table decorations.

Balloons in relevant colors

Balloons are the easiest, cheapest way to make something look like a Party.  2nd runner up– party hats.

Classy wall hangings of related art

Did you know that they make sakura-adorned Japanese Star Wars tea towels?  Well now you do.

Music

Jazz is always classy.

Don’t forget

It’s still a serious tea party, so be supply your guests with: jams, preserves, devonshire cream, cubes of brown sugar, honey, a variety of teas.

All these could be expanded instead to an X-Files, Sweeny Todd, or Parks and Rec tea party!  Party away!

I have a complicated relationship with fish.  I really want to be friends with them.  I have fantasies of having a colorful pet fish in a clean glass bowl that does a flip whenever I come home, or if I’m feeling particularly grandiose, a whole tank of tropical fish built into the wall.  But those are just fantasies.  Every pet fish I’ve had has died earlier than its predecessors– the last one, on it’s way to my home.

Sunshine was my first victim and first heartbreak.  Sunshine was a goldfish that wasn’t gold but rather an ugly copper color, but Sunshine was my very own so I loved him/her/it anyway.  I won Sunshine at a school fair.  I did everything I thought I should do to a fish.  I fed Sunshine fish flakes.  I cleaned Sunshine’s water.  Sunshine lived in a cookie jar.  A few weeks later, Sunshine died in a cookie jar.

Strawberry was a pretty pink betta fish who wooed me by blowing bubbles at the top of his bowl.  Two weeks after he became my friend he tried to commit suicide by jumping out of his tank and subsequently died of ammonia poisoning.  I actually had a signal processing test the next day, that I should have been studying for.  Instead I showed up, tear stained, at my dorm floor GRT’s door.  “What happened?” Tara asked, expecting something about my recent breakup.  “My fish died,” I sobbed.  Tara hugged me and listened to my story, and fed me cookies, even though I’m sure she wanted to laugh, bless her.

The last one, Yuzu, was a gorgeous orange and white mottled goldfish with flowy fins and bulgy eyes, from a Tanabata festival in Setagaya-ku, who I promptly named, and carried in a plastic bag during the 1 hour train ride home.  At Ikebukuro, 5 stops and 15 minutes from mine, Yuzu started flopping.  “NO YUZU” I pleaded.  “Just 15 more minutes okay?  And I’ll give you the most beautiful glass bowl as your home”.  At Akasaka, 1 stop away from my apartment, Yuzu had stopped moving entirely.

Now I won’t even contemplate buying fish anymore, for fear that they would die as soon as I point to them out to the pet sales person.  I’m content with just watching them from afar, at the aquarium.

Ok, let’s instead talk about my more successful relationship with fish, the food kind.  I love fish fried, grilled, and stuffed, but I particularly like it raw because that form makes me feel healthy and refreshed.  If you’re lucky enough to live near a market with sashimi-grade fish (I miss you Daikanyama!) then you can make this super simple but amazing dinner: 1) sushi-grade raw yellowtail or toro or salmon 2) an avacado 3) brown rice 4) optional: mentaiko spicy roe dressing 5) optional: seaweed strips.  Cube the avacado, stick everything in a bowl, eat!

The pictures shown here are are ones I took at Monterey Bay Aquarium, California, and Tsukiji Market in Tokyo, in Tokyo, depicting my two very different relationships with fish.  The Monterey Bay Aquarium is my favorite aquarium, huge and full of colorful displays.  If you’re at the Monterey Bay Aquarium you can sign up for texts to see them feed the fish.  And then afterwards, have delicious sea food.  That’s the circle of life.

This post was written in anticipation of going to see Jiro Dreams of Sushi this weekend!

The treehouse I stayed in a few weeks ago felt so cozy since it was decorated with patchwork quilts, and well actually, it itself is also patchwork– its lovely owners built it with found windows and doors (see the cute stained glass one?) that are all different.

I think that everyone should experience at least one treehouse morning in their life.  My treehouse morning was full of fresh fruit, toast and butter, and tea.

While we’re on the subject of treehouses, here are some pictures of one of my favorite cafes in Tokyo, the Treehouse Cafe in Koenji.  The inside is painted with animals and trees, and there’s a lofted area to sit and eat.  The menu is hand-drawn and the food is simple and tastes home-cooked.  They serve an avocado taco rice that I love– is it weird that it’s the Japanese food I miss most?  It’s kind of like Japanese soul food.  I miss it and kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) desserts.  And of course I miss treehouse parties with my friends.

The villains of Batman, The Animated Series left little valentines around my apartment, all addressed to Batman, the days leading up to February 14th.  Lovely gestures, really.  But all in vain– everyone knows it’s the Joker and Batman that are true soulmates.

A few weeks ago, I spent the night in a treehouse 30 minutes south of San Francisco, eating Chinese delivery, watching Batman, and sipping tea and reading picture books by candlelight.  It was maybe the best night of my life.  Here’s a sneak peak at the pictures I took!

At the Otago penninsula in New Zealand, we got to see gorgeous views, cliffs, hills, birds, and baby seals.  (And blue penguins nesting, but we couldn’t take pictures or it would frighten them!  Also it would be rude.)  Baby seals are wriggly and furry!

My winter vacation was green, flowery, and warm– except for the afternoon we spent at Mt Cook Glacier. I was super proud of my grandmother then– she hiked up with us, and our guide said “If I’m that healthy when I’m in my 70′s, I’ll consider myself lucky”. As a side note, drinking water that is from a glacier is the most delicious drinking water.