Kaori Square Feet

The Trip to Los Angeles

You know you’re on the west coast when you see flowers like these outside! So pretty!

This was actually my first time in Los Angeles. I never really thought about it but LA is so much closer to Japan than the midwest or east coast. But this was only my second time on the west coast, the last time being a trip to Sacramento when I was in sixth grade.

It’s probably because not very many of my friends lived on this side. But now that my grade school friend R lives there, I had a reason to go visit. It was so much fun! I feel like I got to see this lovely city through his eyes and it was one full of creativity, determination, and love.

He also asked me what I wanted to do in LA and I had very specific requests. I wanted to go to the Griffith Observatory, a bookstore called The Last Bookstore, and a farmers market. We only had a weekend but R fit all my requests and even more in my short time there. I had the very best time catching up and exploring the city of angels with him! xx

(Pictures to come…)

I got to see where R works as an editor…and also got my first ever fist bump!!! x

The Goodbye to Chicago

American breakfasts are so awesome. I can only eat a third of it…but still awesome!

I insisted I don’t eat breakfast but C and T took me out anyways before heading to the airport. Also, T gave me the breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-of-the-day-Kaori speech. He never changes.

My stay in Chicago was really short but I’m so glad I came. xx

O’hare airport is so quirky.

Good-bye Chicago…I’ll be back. x

The Breakfast in Michigan

Michigan is where I called home for nine years growing up and I feel lucky that I still get the chance to go back. This town (technically it’s a village!) is tucked in a cozy corner of Michigan where downtown is one street and you bump into people you know all the time. It’s the town that teenagers can’t wait to get out of and the town parents dream of once they have a family.

One of the greatest things about Michigan is that it has all four seasons. And fall is quite glorious here. Unfortunately I brought the rainy weather with me from DC and it was like that my whole stay here. But the leaves were just starting to change color and I thought it was beautiful anyway. I even brought back a few, pressed between my book! 😀

My other best friend from grade school currently lives here with her family and I was really excited to see her. We got our girl time together to catch up and I also got to hang out with her husband and adorable girls (she has three!). I sometimes still can’t believe she’s a mom but she’s an amazing one and I loved seeing her in her element.

On my first morning there, I also got to see one of my old friends. D and I went to school and church together when we were younger and and I hadn’t seen her in years. But (thanks to facebook) we’d kept in touch here and there over the years and I finally got to see her over breakfast!

To tell you the truth, I was nervous. I always am when I’m meet someone I haven’t seen in a while. Am I the only one? I think, what if there’s nothing to talk about and we end up having awkward pauses? What if we’re on a different page and don’t like each other anymore? What if she can’t understand my English? So many awful possibilities.

I really had nothing to worry about though. Breakfast with D was great! It certainly was kind of odd, in the sense that the last time I’d seen her we were both nine years old, and here we were catching up as adults, talking about family, work, and men. Very surreal. But we had tons of laughs and hush-hush talks. It was great.

Reconnecting with old friends always puts a smile on my face and I was beyond happy to see D during my short stay in Michigan. Can’t wait until the next time! xx

Would you believe this gigantic omelette was the “half omelette“ on the menu?

The only selfie photo, after a few dozen, that included both our faces in the shot! 😀

Oh Michigan, you are truly beautiful and will always be home to me.

The Other Day in Chicago

Back in the city of Chicago.

Something about this city just makes me want to go shopping. It’s weird. Maybe it’s associated with all the shopping I did here when I was younger, or all the shopping I did just last year?

Either way, the minute I got back, I went straight to Starbucks to grab a drink (with my name on it!!!) and then ran over to my favorite store, Anthropologie. I literally want to live in this store, it’s so great. They have everything from kitchenware to shoes to books and I love them all. It’s probably a good thing for me that they don’t have this store in Tokyo. Ha.

After my short shopping spree, I met up with my friends T and C and we went shopping for dinner at the local grocery store. It’s sort of become a tradition to buy all the junk food I can’t get in Japan and eat in at their place. It’s the very best because we can talk and talk and talk, all the while petting Remy, their beautiful dog.

I always have so much fun with these two because they feel like family. The kind of family you really wished lived right down the street from you. x

Here are some pictures from that night:

My very first Starbucks cup with my name on it…chocolate chai is amazing!

Some of the buildings in Chicago are massive.

Remy has the cutest curly tail.

I’ve realized that walking the dog is also a great way to see the city!

Everyone takes a picture in front of this spot…as did we.

My aim is so bad when taking selfies but this is us playing tourists!

I love the pretty lights of The Chicago Theatre.

Having fun with Chicago street art.

How pretty is this skyline?

Did you know the name “L” train comes from the fact that it is “elevated?”

Chicago has a bike sharing system called Divvy, just like Amsterdam and New York!

My decadent carrot cake cupcake that I devoured.

So many types of cheese at the grocery store, it made me jealous.

The time flew by while we talked and Remy kept my feet warm by sitting on me. x

The Movie: Before Midnight

(photo via Collider.com)

This was my third time flying from Tokyo to Washington DC and I feel like I’ve gotten my inflight schedule down to a T so I don’t get jet lag. I usually watch a couple of movies or just read, then sleep for about 6 hours, and then wake up and watch another movie and get ready to land. The posh older lady who sat next to me on my first flight there told me that I need to sleep at least 5 hours or I won’t hold the rest of my day once I land. She drank wine the whole flight and even tossed down sleeping pills with the wine after her advice to me. I’m so glad she woke up.

Anyways, this time I ended up watching three movies: Thor, The Heat, and Before Midnight.

Have you seen any of them? The storyline for Thor was meh but Chris Hemsworth was super hot so that was good. (Who knew Kenneth Branagh directed the movie?) The Heat was hilarious and how could it not be when it features Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy? I think I laughed out loud a few times.

But the movie I really REALLY wanted to see even before going to DC was Before Midnight. I’ve been waiting for this movie to come out forever and had no idea if it would even make its way over to Japan, so I was pretty excited to find it on the inflight movie list and ended up watching it twice!

For those who don’t know, this story really starts when an American man meets a French woman on a train in Before Sunrise and they end up talking the night away in Vienna. They part ways but meet nine years later in Before Sunset where the man, who wrote about their previous encounter, is on a book tour in Paris, and the woman comes to hear one of his readings. He has a flight to catch in an hour so they have a short time to catch up and they do so by talking while roaming the streets of Paris.

I should warn you, there is a lot of talking in all of these movies. And I mean, A LOT.

So in Before Midnight, it is once again nine years after their encounter in Paris and the man and woman are now married and have two daughters. They are on vacation in Greece and…(you guessed it)…they once again do a lot of talking about their life, marriage, and dreams.

It’s a good movie and you should try watching it if you don’t mind constant conversation and no action whatsoever. Plus the scenery in all the movies are just gorgeous. Personally, I really like it because the end of the story is always sort of vague, which I feel like is part of life. You just don’t know what’s going to happen or what will change in you or others. But that’s what makes life interesting, right? xx

The Afternoon in Chicago

Chicago is my city.

It was the nearest large city for me growing up. We would take school trips here to visit museums. My family would camp along Lake Michigan and go to Six Flags Great America every summer. It’s just a city full of old memories for me. And now that I’m older I get to see it from a different point of view and I love it even more.

I get pretty excited about the fact that I know my way around Chicago a little more each time I’m there. I took the metro to my friend’s apartment, then found my way over to where he works all by myself. It felt so good (even though I did have my handy sidekick Google Map) that I almost wished someone would stop me on the street and say “Wow, you seem to know your way around this city!” Kind of crazy…but that’s how proud I was of myself. Haha.

Anyways, my friend T took me out to lunch that afternoon at the Water Tower Place. This is where my girl friends and I would beg our parents to take us in grade school and also where I first saw the classic movie Clueless (remember that one?) in sixth grade. I hadn’t been inside in years but it brought back memories.

We went to Mity Nice and I ordered their amazing veggie burger that is made from a blend of portobello, spinach, pumpkin seeds, parmesan cheese and covered in panko. It was hands down the best veggie burger I’ve ever eaten. Especially with the sweet potato fries on the side. So so good.

We spent our lunch catching up and talking about anything and everything. T and I stepped into kindergarten together and we’ve known each other ever since. He’s like the big brother I never had and has always watched out for me. I still feel like that hasn’t changed, even though we live hundreds of miles apart, and I really love that. xx

Mity Nice

Water Tower Place

835 N. Michigan Ave.

Chicago, Illinois 60611 U.S.A.

312-335-4745

Hours:

Sun: 12:00pm-8:00pm

Mon-Thu: 11:30am-9:00pm

Fri-Sat: 11:30am-9:30pm

This was taken on T’s iphone but I loved it so much, I’m posting it here.

It was a rainy day but it didn’t dampen my day at all.

Architecture in Chicago is one of it’s charms.

The John B. Murphy Memorial Auditorium I ran past on my way back…isn’t it pretty?

The November Link Love

Hello there November!

Fall is truly here and I could not be happier. I cannot wait until the ginkgo trees turn that gorgeous shade of yellow. Or the Japanese maple that stunning red. I think I appreciate fall because it’s all about the warm bold colors. I love it, even if the days are getting shorter.

This month I’m planning a wedding party for my friend and also getting started on my embroidery stitch project (details to come later!). I’m also trying to figure out my nengajo design for the new year. Did you know that 2014 is the Year of Horse?

It’s going to be another busy month but I’m excited for the holidays! Hope you all have a wonderful fall month, too! xx

——————————————————-Link Love——————————————————-

– My favorite season at Starbucks starts today.

– Tales you lose.

– I laugh and laugh every time I see this poor frog.

– My next book.

– These creative naps are adorable.

– This chart came to mind when I saw the 400+ emails in my inbox.

The Surprise Birthday Party

I love parties.

Especially when it’s not all on you and you have a great organizer like my friend E. There’s really nothing worse than hosting a party by yourself and your ideas become too elaborate and you’re short on time and you end up crying from fatigue when the time finally comes (this was my thanksgiving dinner last year…haha!).

So when E mentioned that they were throwing her sister-in-law a surprise birthday party during my stay in DC, I was excited. E always has the best party ideas and is a magician in the kitchen. Her husband Y is an artist and can make pretty much anything into a masterpiece. I get to take pictures and also help out here and there, all while humming a little tune. It’s really great.

While her brother took the birthday girl out for coffee, we snuck into their house and started decorating and preparing food. Did I mention that E made a chocolate cake with chocolate cheese cream frosting? YUM! Their friends started coming over and we put them to work, too. We all gathered in the living room when we got the text message saying they were coming back and kept quiet enough to surprise the birthday girl with a big “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”

It was a really fun party and because I was the unofficial photographer, I will warn you in advance…there are a lot of pictures.

Here they are:

We decorated the table with fall items like mums, pumpkins, and acorns.

Presents for the birthday girl 😀

Fall apples are so delicious.

Aren’t the mums pretty?

I thought the table looked really pretty with all the flowers and food.

The fabulous birthday cake! (The banner and number of candles may confuse you…haha)

E and Y doing their thing in the kitchen. They are a great team 😀

The surprised birthday girl! 😀

The kids mingling.

I ate every last bite of this cake…it was so so good! 😀

K was trying to get cousin Walter (aka the cat) to come join the party.

We ate and chat and even played this game.

Group picture before we left so the kids could go wild without us older people ;D

I think she liked her birthday party…love these two. x

The Afternoon at Sweetgreen

Have you ever heard of sweetgreen?

I’ve had a big vegetarian crush on this store ever since I read about it on this blog. It’s an amazing store that mainly serves delicious and healthy salads, pressed juice, and frozen yogurt. The organic produce are from local farmers, which I think is a great concept. Naturally I looked up where their stores were but found they were mostly located in the DC metro area.

So imagine how excited I was to hear that my friend E started working for them! Woohoo!

During my stay in DC, I begged E to take me to her store and I got to try their seasonal October Salad! It was a bowl full of organic mesclun & shredded kale with local apples, pears, organic basil, organic white cheddar and candied pecans, and topped off with balsamic vinaigrette. Doesn’t that sound fabulous? Oh, and I got roasted tofu, too. It was so so good and surprisingly very fulfilling!

I feel like we need more places to eat like this in Tokyo. I’m am now hooked on their salads and I’m crossing my fingers that this store makes it’s way to this side of the world sometime soon. *hint hint*

Here are some pictures:

Checking out the store with this sweet girl.

Did I mention the bread? It was also amazing…yum yum!

You can get one of the salads on their menu, or you can make your own salad, too!

K and I shared a cup of frozen yogurt 😀

Doesn’t the salad look delicious? I could eat it every day. x

I loved their shelf full of salad greens.

This is actually a different sweetgreen and not my friend’s store…but you get the idea! 😀

The Trip to Washington DC

There is nothing like this view above the clouds to get me excited for a trip ahead!

Especially when the trip starts in Washington DC. My five days there with my grade school bff’s family were filled with lots of laughs, good food, and seeing old friends. And when my favorite two year old welcomes me with an excited high-pitched “Auntie Kaoriiiiiiiiiiiiiii” at the door, it really doesn’t get any better than that.

I can’t believe how fast this little girl is growing. The last time I saw her, we had her first birthday party and she wasn’t talking yet. Just a word here or there. But now she’s chattering away and it completely blew me away! Every time we would get in the car, she would remind me, “Auntie Kaori, seat belt!” Yes, ma’am! Oh, and her prayers before her bedtime? So stinkin’ precious, I melt every time.

Every time I come to DC it feels more like home because of this family. I love getting to visit and spend time with them. And you know I’m already looking forward to the next time! xx

Here are some pictures: