Spring Break: Workin' in Ashton

Let me tell ya, it was sure nice being in Ashton this last week for my week off in between semesters! My activities in Ashton have been somewhat limited but I was fine with that because I really wanted to unwind a little bit. But I wasn't just relaxing all the time; if you've been recently following along with my blog updates, you might recall my uncle Sam's furniture store. I also just want to reiterate that my uncle Sam DOES NOT have white hair or wear patriotic attire with a patriotic top hat and points at you! I've tried to make myself useful (because my dad taught me to be so!) and I've offered to watch over my uncle's furniture store while he was out doing field work (ie. laying carpet, tile and delivering furniture, etc.) and he said "You're hired!"

It's a little hard to tell, but he sells some really... "tasteful" furniture.

Carpet and tile samples.

Did I also mention a locksmith business is a part of the store???

If you're ever in eastern Idaho and stupidly lock yourself out of your car or need some spare house keys made, let me know; I've got connections!

Here's where I spent most of my "work hours."

This is worth sharing:

As you can see, the boss is always right!

My uncle's store houses something a lot of you probably never heard of. Let me ask you something: Have you ever heard of an 8-track player???

I don't know about you, but I think having something old school (not to mention short-lived) such as this in your own home would be pretty sweet!

As you can probably tell, there is also a record player on the left part of the machine.

Bachman-Turner Overdrive baby! Best Canadian rock group I've ever heard!

During one of my work days, I took a lunch break at a local place for a bite to eat known as the "Five 11 Main", a soda fountain and pizzeria. It used to be the City Drug Store simply called "City Drug." The place had good service in my opinion. As a kid, I always loved getting a milkshake from the soda fountain here and I'm glad the new management kept the soda fountain. Here are some pictures:

It's called Five 11 Main because it's on Main Street that goes through downtown Ashton and the  mailing address is 511. But you probably figured that out, right?

I really like their sign!

Soda fountain

They cut holes in the walls to expose the original brick in shape of potatoes or the Teton mountains, as pictured here. Ashton may be a small town, but with the right connections, I believe adventures are around the corner!

Here's what I had for lunch one day:

Personal-size pizza. I think they taste really good.

Cherry-Chocolate milkshake. Slightly changed over time but still brings back memories!

Also during this week, I've fallen in love...

(Commence jaw drop in your initial reaction)

...with a pick up truck. A Ford F-150 my uncle nicknamed "The Black Mamba." If you've seen the movie Megamind, you'll know what the reference is. Actually, I never heard of the movie and when I told my uncle Sam that, he freaked. So we watched Megamind at one point during my week off! I really don't like Will Ferrell but I find this movie absolutely hilarious!

I've driven a few vehicles in my short life span thus far, but this has to be the most retro, beaten-up vehicle I've ever driven!

The speedometer doesn't work so that's what the GPS is for! But it still runs and drives like a champ!

Totally a beater-upper right?

Needless to say, I want one of these for my personal use! My uncle says this is a chick magnet!

And because I love my awesome relatives, I made gyoza for them:

To feed a family who loves gyoza, it takes a little over 7 pounds of ground beef, pork, cabbage , green onions,  a few spices and a couple of hours of labor with your hands!

Usually, you dip your gyoza in sauce composed of soy sauce, rice vinegar, and hot sesame oil. But my late-uncle Paul preferred cayenne pepper over the hot sesame oil:

I've made gyoza several times now, but doing so this time with thoughts about my late-uncle Paul made it a little poignant...

Suddenly, my thoughts turned towards him; I still miss him. He would have loved to have been with us chowing down gyoza... In honor and remembrance of my uncle Paul, Sam and I dipped our gyoza the way he would, with cayenne pepper-laced gyoza sauce! It was a kicker to the tongue but tasted good nonetheless.

As expected, the gyoza feast was a success. There are a few things in my life that makes me happy. One is my passion for aviation. Other times, it's my ability to prepare and cook gyoza and feed it to people who really appreciate them. Oh, on the topic of flying, uncle Sam did take me flying. You can read about it here on my aviation blog.

Let's end this with a beautiful sunset photo:

We've had a few gorgeous days of weather during my week off and I'm grateful for it.

Spring Break: Down in Utah

Last Friday, after cleaning out the apartment and checking out for the break, my uncle Sam picked me up and we drove down to Salt Lake City, Utah for the weekend. It was a drop-dead gorgeous day:

My uncle is a flight instructor and he had to be in Salt Lake City in order to attend a refresher course on the Westminster College campus hosted by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and renew his instructor certification. It was a nice little trip to get out of Idaho for a bit. We stayed with my aunt Loila who lives in West Jordan, Utah. It was just a good time to relax and enjoy some of the nice weather we saw; there was one day when the place looked like rainy Oregon. I did a little planespotting while I was there because my aunt's home is right underneath the Salt Lake Airport approach/departure path so we see planes often at low altitude.

Also, I got my Crown Burgers fix in:

I cannot go to Utah and not eat a Crown Burger! I'd be a fool not to!

Saturday was a rainy day so we met with my uncle Sam and had lunch at a Red Lobster; food was okay but I'm not eat there again! Other than that, I just watched movies, and took a nap because I didn't even have to think about school! Sunday was more or less the same when it comes to what we did. My uncle was done with his class that same Sunday afternoon so we drove back up to Ashton, stopping in Ogden to visit my aunt Kathy (As I mentioned before, I have A LOT of aunts and uncles!) and measure her floor because apparently she's remodeling her home.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, but I'm gonna find stuff to do while I stay in Ashton for the week.

Finals Week: The End of a Semester

I read a good quote this week:

"When something is lost, that thing transforms, escaping time and becoming a memory. Memories are immortal: they stay the same forever, their beauty never fading. Immortals yearn for mortality, and mortals yearn for immortality. To find peace, the two worlds must exist in harmony. Though they are apart, memory is the link that binds them together."   -Dan Merrill ('Immortal Childhood')

This week is finals week for the Winter 2013 semester. I finished my last final today! Drinks all around! I already mentioned this past Monday's "final exam" for English. Yesterday, I took my Geography final in the testing center on campus and did well. I already got my religion final out of the way last week. Again, an easy final considering it had to be some kind of presentation or an essay. And then today, I took my Science final this morning and the Math final about two hours after class, both in the testing center. And that was that, I got one semester of college under my belt. I've already calculated my grades and I'm looking at A's and B's. But there is still room for improvement.

Tonight, we celebrated! We as a group drove down to Idaho Falls and ate at Buffalo Wild Wings; tonight was the 40 cents per wing night so we took advantage of that. I ordered myself a platter of 25 pieces and stuffed my face.

Ah, yes. Buffalo Wings. An American staple!

I will admit though, these wings were a little dry. My dad had Buffalo Wild Wings once and he said they're okay, and he was right. This was a family issue; ever since we moved to Salem, Oregon, we've been searching for a good wings place. Back when we were living in Maryland, we just loved eating at a place called Buffalo Wings & Beer. I kid you not, this was the best wings place we've ever known! It just sucks that there are none of these establishments in the western United States! I don't care what anyone says! BWB is so much better! But I'll take what I can take. Besides, we enjoyed ourselves this evening since most of us were done with classes and their respective final exams.

We had quite a large group.

I made some great friends this semester.

Useless fact: Buffalo Wings originated in Buffalo, New York.

Even more useless, yet controversial fact: there are five different claims as to how this American staple came to be. None of these five claims are well substantiated.

Look it up here. My roommates asked me to because one of their "girlfriends" asked if Buffalo Wings came from the actual Buffalo animal. We all just snickered at her question! Buffalo don't have wings, and they are an endangered species so I highly doubt we're allowed to eat them! And I wasted 5 minutes of my life that I can't get back researching the origins of Buffalo Wings!

Well, I get a week off and then it's back into the grind for the Spring Semester. I don't think I'll forget this past semester anytime soon though. It was my first at college and needless to say, it was a rough start. But who hasn't had a rough start at anything these days? I've enjoyed my classes and I had great roommates. Many times over, it has been a battle of emotions. But I think the one thing that sticks out the most that happened this semester, wasn't what happened at school, but within the family when my uncle Paul passed away last month. That was by far the hardest moments I had to face. It was during that time when I had the greatest difficulty focusing on my studies and trying to grasp reality. To me, those moments were a game-changer. To me, that's when perspective completely changed; it was a time to keep moving forward and appreciate the memories. A lot of people affected by my uncle's passing would have wanted it that way. And I'm pretty sure I needed it to be that way even if I didn't realize it at the time. I've gained new memories to supplement the old ones, but it's time for a change of pace.

It's definitely time for me to take a well-deserved break and breathe easy for a little bit.

Finals Week: This I Believe

Did I tell you how awesome my English 101 professor is??? No? Well she is! Tonight we had to "take" the final exam for her class. What we did was go to her house and read out loud our final essay in front of her and our classmates. It was a unique and fun way to end the semester. We as a class developed a unique relationship with each other and needless to say, I love my classmates and teacher. I usually suck at the English subject in school but for some reason, this class is the class where I have the highest grade out of all my classes I've taken this semester. For our English Writing & Reasoning final, we had a little fun by writing a "This I Believe" essay. And guess what? I'm hooked to not only the essay I just wrote but the entire concept. I have found myself going to the organization's website often and even liking their Facebook page. The organization also has an official Podcast that you can download off of iTunes and listen to audio of the latest essays submitted by average Joe's like me and you. I highly recommend looking it up; you get to hear the beliefs of others. Sometimes they're just silly and fun to listen to. Other times, they're more serious and you can learn from them. Even well-known people like Penn Jillette or Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden have been featured with their essays with audio on the website.

My English professor tweaked the requirements for our essays by giving us a word limit of somewhere between 450-750 words. She also encourages us to throw our works out there for people to notice and hopefully, read. Chances are, I probably won't submit my essay to the "This I Believe" website because they ask writers to limit the word count to approximately 500 words; my essay is somewhere under the maximum limit my teacher set and I don't think I'm willing to make anymore changes than the ones I had to do for the final draft I had to turn in. Unless you beg to differ and would like me to submit it to the website, drop me a line. Otherwise, I'm going to take the opportunity to post my essay here on my blog for anyone interested in reading it. I hope you enjoy!

Filling the Space Between Two Countries, and Two Cultures

I believe in mutual respect, especially within a family. Mutual respect helps mend and strengthen relationships. Mutual respect brings nations together.

I grew up in a family with two different backgrounds. From my father’s side, I am an American. From my mother’s side, I am Japanese. From a cultural and religious point of view, the United States and Japan are different places. Because of that, I felt that there was always this space of separation between us religiously and culturally. But I believe that mutual respect can and should fill in that space. It is a great advantage to be able to speak two different languages and I can do it because of the dual backgrounds I inherited. It is also a great advantage to be a Japanese-American because I’ve gotten many opportunities to meet and get acquainted with people from both countries. 

I believe in maintaining a good, strong relationship with those we are close to via mutual respect. Mutual respect is an achievement and in order to do so, I believe in respecting each other’s culture and ways of life. It’s a privilege to get to know and experience the different cultures.

I was raised in Tokyo up until the age of five. And yes, I spoke Japanese, which I consider to be my first language. I would then be raised in different parts of the United States, depending on where my dad’s occupation would take us. Within a few years’ time, I have forgotten my childhood Japanese, making English my primary means of communication. From the day I left Tokyo, 15 years would pass until I returned to Japan. I spent two years in central Japan doing voluntary missionary service for my church. Everywhere I went, I was reacquainted with the beautiful language and the wonderful culture I was used to experiencing as a child.

I believe in mutual respect even when different cultures clash from time to time.Because of my background, I believe in the Japanese way of life. But because I spent most of my life here in the states, I also believe in the American way of life. I have a great deal of respect for both the Japanese and American cultures.

At the conclusion of my two year stay in central Japan, I reunited with my family in Nagoya. We travelled to a city north of Tokyo called Utsunomiya; my mother was born and raised in a town near there. We still have family living there and Ihaven’t seen them since moving out of Japan so this visit was long overdue.

In our 15 year absence, my grandfather, my mother’s father died of cancer.Japanese funerals and Japanese graves are quite different from the American ones. One of the customary things Japanese family members do after the death of a loved one is to visit the burial site on a frequent basis in order to place flowers,clean the grave stone, and pay their respect.

I was unable to attend my grandfather’s funeral after his passing. But coming to his resting place and finally pay my respect was the next best thing. I felt it a tremendous honor to do so. We polished up the grave stone, poured water into two goblets and replaced the withering flowers held in them with fresh ones. We then lit some incense and placed them at the base of the gravestone to smolder.I stepped back and stood there for a minute. My aunt who was accompanying us said to me in Japanese, “It’s okay if you do not understand completely what this all means.” She was referring to all that is symbolic in what we did in our visit to the grave site.

My response: “I do not understand every meaning of what we have done, but I wish to respect it.” Ignoring cultural and religious barriers, I closed my eyes,clasped my hands, and bowed my head towards grandfather’s grave and I just talked to him in my mind. Yes, I talked to him, even though he was gone. It just felt right.

We all hold true to different ways of life. We as a family understand the value of respect. I as an American paid my respect to the Japanese and my relatives. And in exchange, I was paid back with their respect. Mutual respect is a precious accomplishment and of great value. This, I believe.

Weekend Updates: Alone in Ashton/Abnormal Weather!

Well, this weekend was General Conference, where the leaders of the LDS church address its members via satellite broadcast, Internet, and television from HQ down in Salt Lake City, Utah. The downside? ALL of my roommates left town. They either went home to nearby Idaho Falls or Pocatello, OR they drove down to Utah for mission reunions with fellow Latter-day Saints they served their missions with and attend a session or two for General Conference.

As for me, I went up to Ashton to hang out with my relatives. It was a boring weekend but it was good to get out of Rexburg; I haven't been out of town since my uncle's funeral last month. My aunt Stacy picked me up we drove up to St. Anthony and ate dinner at Chiz's.

Can't really tell in this picture, but the place was packed and busy. People really like Chiz's.

Other than that, I spent the weekend listening to the conference sessions and writing up some essays for my classes; finals week is just around the corner and these medium-sized essays are probably going to be the last of my homework assignments before review time.

It started getting really warm these two weeks then BAM! Mother nature throws us a curve ball and we get colder weather.

Taken from my uncle's home overlooking his back patio and yard. You can't even see the Ashton Hill in this weather!

Here are some shots from my apartment:

I had to get a sunset shot while I was at it:

A little eerie, but beautiful.

Oh, well. Winter semester is over this upcoming week and we're bound to have more permanent warm weather sooner or later. Besides, I'm probably gonna start complaining about how hot it's going to be! At least in winter time, you can bundle up to your hearts desire. Unlike summer, you can only go so far before you can't take any layers off without embarrassing yourself!