Category Archives: Daily Sketch

The thing that I remember most of living in Los Angeles, is the orange haze.  Like the fires of hell, Los Angeles was bathed in orange.  During the late afternoon, the sunlight filtered through the smog.  And a filthy orange tinge would infect the buildings, sidewalks, and the sky.  It still sours my memory.

カリフォルニアの夢

　ロサンゼルス生活で、一番、思い出に残っていることは、オレンジ色のもやです。まるで地獄の火のようにロサンゼルスの町はオレンジ色を浴びていました。夕方になると、スモッグで濾過（ろか）され、よごれたオレンジ色に染められた太陽の光は、ビルや歩道、そして、空を汚染しました。それはまだ不快な思い出として残っています。 Continue reading →

 
Maki Sushi , a Traditional Japanese Grandmother, and Me

     My boyfriend’s grandmother wanted to teach me how to make maki sushi, so she asked my boyfriend and me to come over recently.  She said, "Alli, I’m teaching you how to make sushi so that you can make it for Mike, since he loves my sushi so much."  Then she had me make the vinegar sauce, mix it with the rice, season canned tuna with shoyu and sugar, cut the vegetables, and roll the sushi.  It took all morning, because she wanted me to make ten rolls!  While I was making the sushi, Mike’s grandma told him to just watch.

I appreciated that Mike’s grandma took the time to teach me to make maki sushi, but I also think it’s funny what an old-fashioned Japanese lady Mike’s grandma is.  You would think that since her grandson loves her sushi, she would teach him to make it, but she taught her grandson’s girlfriend instead! Continue reading →

 I think she still likes him!

      My high school friend recently came back from the mainland, so he decided to help judge for the last speech competition during the spring. He used to be on the speech team.  His ex-girlfriend also used to be on the speech team, but even though she’s been in Hawaii this whole year, she has refused to judge any of the competitions.  However, when she found out that my friend was judging, she came to judge at the competition!

    After the speech competition was over, the ex-girlfriend invited my friend to go dancing, but he was already planning to go to the speech awards ceremony in the evening.  That evening, a little while after the awards ceremony had started, the ex-girlfriend showed up!  After the awards ceremony, my friend and I were planning on going out for drinks,  and the ex-girlfriend barged in and invited herself along.   How strange! Continue reading →

My father’s feather leis

A couple of years ago, my dad took up feather lei making as a hobby.  He’s very enthusiastic about it, and he works on them every night.  He usually gives the leis away as gifts, but about a year ago, he actually sold one! My parents were at a store getting some of my dad’s leis framed in a shadowbox, and the salesperson really liked them.  She asked my mom where leis were from, and when she found out, she asked if my dad would sell any to her.  He did, and I think the salesperson paid a little over $100 for one, which is actually a pretty good deal for a feather lei.
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Disappointed Chinese Man

One Friday afternoon, the telephone rang.  I said "hello?", and after the man on the phone replied "hello," he started speaking in Chinese!  I can’t understand Chinese, but the man spoke so fast that I couldn’t get a word in to tell him.  However, I was finally able to say, "I don’t understand Chinese," and he just exclaimed "Really?" before he hung up.

当て外れの中国人男性

　ある金曜日の午後、電話のベルが鳴りました。私は受話器を取り、「ハロー」と答えました。すると、電話の男性は、「ハロー」と言った後、中国語で話し始めたのです。私は中国語が、まったくわかりません。しかも、その男性は大変な早口だったので、なかなか口をはさむことが出来ませんでした。しかし、やっと、「中国語はわかりません」と言うことができました。ところが、その男性は、ただ、「リアリー（本当） ! 」と驚いた声を出して電話を切ってしまいました。 Continue reading →

I was hanging out with my friends one night down the street from one of their houses. It was totally quiet. All we could hear was a dog nearby that always barked at us, but he was chained up. On this night, it was pitch black. We could hear the dog barking again. We decided to walk back to my friends house, when we heard a chain rattling.

The chain was rattling really close to us. The dog had somehow broken his chain and was following us. We decided to run back to the house. The chain rattled louder and faster. The dog was chasing us. So we ran faster and the rattling became louder. We got tired from the running and slowed down.
Eventually we stopped and tried to listen for the dog. It was so dark we couldn’t see down the road or see each other. We didn’t hear the chain anymore so we decided the dog had run away. When we started walking again, though, the chain started rattling again. We were scared. Somehow, this dog was playing with our minds. It stopped when we stopped and ran when we ran. We were just about to run off again when one of our friends said for us to stop. We asked why we should stop. There was a crazy dog chasing us. He said to stop, that there was no dog chasing us. He realized he had a chain attached to his wallet to keep him from losing it. Continue reading →

When I was seven, I had a bicycle with training wheels. Training wheels are small tires attached by metal bars to the sides of your rear bicycle tire so you don’t tip over. I asked my father to remove them as the other kids bikes didn’t have them. He said no.

 So everyday after school, I would ride my bike in sharp right circles to bend the training wheel. Everyday I would ride in circles until I fell down and cut my knee on the ground. Eventually the training wheel was so damaged that it snapped off. I also had holes on the right knee of all my pants, which my mom sewed a patch on.

When I had done this, I asked my father if he would take the other training wheel off.He said no again. So everyday after school, I would ride my bike in sharp left circles until I finally broke the other training wheel off. In the end, there were two sharp metal pieces sticking out the sides of my rear tire where my training wheels used to be and all my pants had patches on both knees.

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私の日本語の旅

２００３年４月１日　　　今日から日本語学習を始めました。

週２回　各１時間半
 

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　Though Nathan is now a strong man on his own and of great wisdom and
strength. A son that fills my heart as his Mother with much pride, I would like to share a story of love from his days of youth. When he was very young we stopped to visit with a friend who happened to be trying to find homes for a new litter of puppies. As we peered into the box of bouncing bundles of joy, there was a quiet little one who seemed the runt. The smallest shiny black smiling pup focused its attention to Nate. It was as though they looked at each and knew they belonged together. A boy and his dog.

　Nate named him Duke. He filled our lives with extreme loyalty and hours of entertainment. We also had another dog named Candy that became Dukes best friend when Nate was busy with other things such as school and outside interests. Continue reading →

On my last trip to Japan, my wife’s parents took us to an onsen. After about a two hour drive and a day of sight seeing we finally arrived at the Onsen. I could tell that my wife’s father was disappointed with the hotel. The hotel was nice but it was old. I didn’t really care because I was just happy to enjoy the bath and the atmosphere at an Onsen. After resting for about a half an hour. I decided to go to the bath. When I arrived there were 10 people in the bath including my father in law. I felt a little funny because I felt that they were staring at me. I didn’t really think a whole lot about it. I spent about 5 minutes washing the days dirt from my body. When I turned around to enter the bath there was only my father in law. I wasn’t sure if they all left because I was there or if it just time for them to leave. Continue reading →