And this little piggy…

As seems to be the case each November, work interferes with the celebration of Pam’s birthday.  Birthdays though should be treated like a slowly smoked pig in a BBQ pit, not like a hot dog nuked in a microwave.  In that vein, we took the slow roast approach with a nibble here and a nibble there, and strung the whole thing, like link sausages, out for an entire week.

Finding appropriate gifts for Pam is always a challenge.  But Sachan and I know what it takes to make her happy.  And that comes down to two things:  pork and chocolate.  In fact, if I can figure out how to serve bacon with special dark chocolate sauce I would be named husband of the year.  Finding real bacon in Japan is no small feat.  Don’t get me wrong, pork belly is widely popular and when sliced its still called bacon here.  Straight pork belly don’t fry up crisp and crunchy though.  No sir ree.  For that, you need to cure that there pork belly.  And I am here to tell ya, they don’t do that in these here parts.  “Damn shame” ifin’s you were to ask me my real thoughts on it.  Not to worry though.  This is my wife we are talkin’ ’bout.  So if a bit of pork is what it takes to please her, then by golly I was going find her some pork done up right.

It took some hunting.  And some fishing.  And something resembling work, but choo know what?  I up and found her some properly prepared pork products.  SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!  As we like to say down south.

Now I know you all think I am prone to exaggerate, but let me ask you this:  When is the last time you saw Pam this happy?  That’s right some real bacon and some real pepperoni and the girl will smile like a southern belle at her débutante ball.

By the way, I firmly believe that serving your wife real bacon with chocolate chip pancakes at least once a month will keep her happy and healthy.  It’s the secret to a solid marriage.

Speaking of marriage, we decided to help our friend Ueda-san celebrate her first wedding anniversary this weekend.  You may recall we went down to Kobe to attend the wedding last November.  To celebrate the anniversary and Pam’s birthday we ran out to Mitaka (about a half hour outside of Shinjuku) to the Ghibli Museum.  Studio Ghibli is the animation studio run by Hayao Miyazaki who is the Walt Disney of Japanese animation.  You may be familiar with Spirited Away, which won an Oscar in 2003 for Best Animated Film.  In that film a family gets lost, ends up in a ghost town of sorts where the parents eat food intended for visiting spirits and end up turning into pigs.  It’s a wonderfully complex and beautiful film.  Our three favorite movies by this studio are Totoro, about two girls who move to the country with their father only to find they live next to a family of friendly wood spirits; Kiki’s Delivery Service, about a twelve year old girl who needs to leave home to complete her apprenticeship as a witch; and Laputa, Castles in the Sky, about a young girl who is a descendant of the royal family of Laputa, who through a very twisted path, finds herself back on her ancestors island in the sky.

The pictures below are of Pam and Sachan waiting for Totoro to let them into the museum; the flying robot from Laputa on top of the museum; and some pictures Ueda-san took of Samantha while they were on the roof.  You can check out more information on the Studio Ghibli and the Ghibli museum at this link
http://www.ghibliworld.com/index.html