Katsu curry; Keiko Whitlock

as you know very well, Las Vegas has a china town on Spring Mountain.

I had a shoot for a music video on Spring Mountain last Sunday, and I visited shops there after the shoot!

and this is Natto I bought at the Chinese grocery store.  Japan and China are totally seperate countries, but they sell Japanese food too.

Aaaand, this is Katsu curry!!!

My favorite!!

It's hard to find good Katsu curry in Las Vegas.

This shop is "Yagyu".

Sushi is not the only Japanese food.

Should Obama apologize in Hiroshima?; Keiko Whitlock

Well, I have been busy in my private life, and I haven't updated this blog...

Actually Spring semester has already finished and Summer semester will begin next week!!

As you may know, this semester, I planned to coordinate a very sensational classes with emotionaly heated discussions!!

So, the title this semester is

"Prayer for the world peace; one summer in 1945"

Yes!! One summer in 1945, America dropped an atomic bomb to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan!!

According tho Wikipedia,

"The two bombings, which killed at least 129.000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history."

"the acute effects of the atomic bombings killed 90,000-146.000 people in Hiroshima and 39.000-80.000 people in Nagasaki, roughly half of the deths in each city occurred on the first day. During the following month, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness and malnutrition.  In bothe cities, most of the dead were civilians"

Well, I know you might say that it was necessary to end the war, but why don't you just look at the same thing from Japanese side this summer?

Totally different thing things will emerge in your sight and mind.....

Coincidentaly, President Obama will visit Hiroshima next Friday for the first time as a sitting president of the United States!!

We will discuss whether President Obama should apologize or not in Hiroshima!!

Everybody, come along and let me hear your voice as American!!!

May 24th, Tuesday, 11:00 at 401

Geisha dance and Tea ceremony; Keiko Whitlock

We had an awesome Japanese event on April 6!!

Geisha dance was beautiful!

Some of our class attendees dressed in Kimono and joined Japanese dance!!

In the end everyone joined and had a great time!!

Tea Ceremony was awesome too.

The tea ceremony teacher explained the history, benefits, and all the other thing about Japanese green tea and the tea ceremony.

It was a solemn experience!

We also shared Japanese sweets with Japanese green tea.

I would like to say thank you to Carolyn and Dawn who let us use the biggest room 133 for this event.

Carolyn also brought this beautiful flowers for this event.

I didn't know that she was the master of Japanese flower arrangements!!

Thank you all who sacrificed your time and came and enjoy this event as well as all the staff who helped us make this event a success!!

Thank you all!!

OODOLEE SUSHI: KEIKO WHITLOCK

A NEW SUSHI RESTAURANT WAS OPEN NEAR UNLV.

I TRIED SUSHI COMBO AFTER AN AUDITION.

THE INTERESTING THING IS THAT RICE FOR THE ROLL WAS MULTI-GRAIN RICE.

IT IS NOT STICKY, BUT I LIKED IT BECAUSE IT'S HEALTHY.

THE PRICE WAS NOT BAD.

ANYWAY WE WILL SEE THE MOVIE NEXT MONDAY.

THAT'S 'MITOKOMON', WHICH IS A SMURAI HERO COMEDY!!

Geisha dance and tea ceremony: Keiko Whitlock

Last Saturday I, Hidemi, and her husband went to see Geisha dance which we asked Tendo-ryu Las Vegas branch to perform for our special event on March 6.

It was so beautiful and amusing!!

I liked it!!

We also visited Tea Ceremony master's house and were treated wouderful tea and Japanese sweets.

This is what Tea Ceremony Master bought in Kyoto, Japan and froze.  It tasted a supreme delicacy!!

They will also come and demonstrate the tea ceremony for us on March 6th.

Mark your calender!!

Makino Sushi; Keiko Whitlock

I and Hidemi and Sachiko went to Makino at Desert-in and Decatur. It was a buffet and they had a huge variety of food like crazy!!

Sushi was good and pretty, and I was totally satisfied!!

Anyway special thanks to Hidemi!!

The class, "Japan!" was not done without her..

I really appreciate her hard work as a great researcher..

Thank you again!!

Hagi Sushi ; Keiko Whitlock

This is Hagi Sushi at Pecos and Tropicana.

This place serves real Japanese food!!

The atmosphere including table setting was exactly like a Japanese style, and I completely fell under the illusion that I might be in Japan...

Look at this!! This is a grilled Saba combo(??).

This is what exactly our moms cook for us!!

The end of the year party of Japan Nevada Society of Japan at Sushi Roku

There was an end-of-the-year party of Japan America Society of Nevada last Friday.

Japanese enjoy end-of-the-year parties, or Bonenkai忘年会every year in December.

The place was Sushi Roku in the Forum Shops on the Strip.

In fact it was my first time to eat sushi on the Strip....

Nnnnnnnn....

I love to dress up and enjoy the upscale atmosphere, but..

As a local here, eating on the Strip is not so clever choices to make....maybe......

Well, but dating should be on the Strip for sure, though!!

Anyway Sushi Roku was the place I had long wanted to go since I came to Las Vegas, so my dream came true!!

Also I could tell easily that at least chief chef should be genuine Japanese, because green tea was good, I mean, rich, nice and bitter, and tempura breading(???) was nice and crispy!!  I liked that, sushi was very American though...

Anyway I met a lot of interesting people and enjoyed the party very much.

Thank you!!

Japanese straightening in Las Vegas : Keiko Whitlock

Yesterday's class was great, didn't you think?

I really liked Hidemi's presentation!!

It was awesome!!

Anyway I went to a hairstylist yesterday after the class.

I needed to have "syukumoukyousei", or Japanese straightening.

But I was surprised to know that American hairstylists don't to Japanse straightening!!!

I searched and found out that there are only 2 Japanese hairstylists who give Japanese straightening.

One of them is Ikuko and I went to her.

I like my hair right now!!

Ikebana class at Japan America Society of Nevada; Keiko Whitlock

There was an Ikebana class at Japan America Society of Nevada yesterday!

There are some rules to arrange flowers in Japanese ways and it was really interesting and fun!

The below is 'California roll' we were served there.

And I will give a presentation about Japanese culture soon at JASN too!