Magazine I like to share - Palm Magazine

This magazine 'Palm' published by japan is about 2 years old, I think (publishes twice a year, and there is only 4 Vol. now...). I love it very much, the image & the mood is what I fantasy when I was young. The magical in it just touches me and inspires me. Vol. 4 is out, just can't wait to get it from the bookstore.

Summer Festivals - Japan

Summer is a season for festivals in japan. Fireworks, Mikoshi parade (portable shrine), harvest celebrations, etc etc. In the province that I lived also have this incredible big festival every year. While the station I lived in is the main station for this province, we were always able to just walk there!!

As all years, each shrine or district will bring out their Mikoshi for a parade. Mikoshi are small little buildings like a shrine. It is known to be use when you need to bring the god out of the shrine. In another words, you can say its the god's car!! Seems like it started in the past so as to pray for good harvest. (For more details you can go over here for a look 'Mikoshi'.) You can also see a lot of traditional performance from the Mikoshi, where people wears the traditional character mask and dance. A lot of these dancers are children too!!

Some province Mikoshi are just used to walk around the districts, some other places will have lots of them from different shrines (like where I lived), where they will act like showing their fierce when they come into each other on the way. So as to stimulate more power to bless the peasants.

Anyway, most of the people that come to join the crowd - like me, will be dressed in yukata (summer casual traditional japanese wear like kimono) and are here to enjoy the energy and power and have a nice time with the hawkers food!! If you have the chance to come to Japan in the summers, I do recommend late July & Aug, where it is the peak season for festivals!!

Street Food Revolution

Food trucks have been around in the U.S. for a while, but they're usually cheap, convenient lunch eats, offering burritos, hoagie sandwiches, and the like. 7-11 type food on wheels and that's already heated. Something you eat because you have no time or money, and you're tired of the vending machine. Nothing exciting.

For the last few years, a new breed of food trucks, food carts, and pop-up food places have been springing up around town in San Francisco. Fusian foodie stuff that creatively mixes all kinds of International flavors—French tacos with seared foie gras, Filipino Sisig wrapped in seaweed like a handroll, handmade organic ramen, creme brulees, pies, chai tea, etc. One of Aaron and my favorites is Chairman Bao, especially their melt-in-your-mouth pork belly in a Chinese bun. They also have the most creative-looking truck! And, well, our good friend Claire worked on it too ;-)

This new breed of digitally-savvy food vendors often use Twitter to let you know where they are. So when you're out and about town, tipsy after happy hour and hungry, you can check out who's nearby from your Twitter feed.

Also, these trucks sometimes gather in one location, to attract more customers with their collective variety. One of these gatherings, Off the Grid, is now happening regularly on Friday nights at Fort Mason. Last Friday was one of those super-wintry San Francisco summer nights, but it didn't stop us or the other people in the crowd from going to check it out!

I miss the late night "dai pai dong" hawkers in Asia, but this is quite a nice substitution.

Vanilla, lingerie and tea

I want to share three blogs I really like.

Vanilla & Lace is a new discovery through a friend's Facebook post. When I saw these bloomers, I felt inspired to take the sewing machine out of storage! I decided to subscribe because I like her photos, and enjoy reading about the things that this blogger has made.

************

The way some women obsess about shoes, I do about lingerie! La Petite Coquette satisfies and stokes that obsession. I love being teased by the latest designs from my favorite designers, being introduced to new designers I didn't know, and tempted with news of sales and promotions.

************

Stephane at Tea Master's inspires me with his beautiful photography and thoughtful tea rituals. I love seeing what tea ware he has decided to pair with his tea choice, and how he creates the perfect environment to enjoy it. He alternates between writing in French and in English.