“L&R” Made the Press Shut Up
L&R is one of my favourite songs by ASKA.
Each line of words are so meaningful, sincere and deep. I want to jot down everything here, but maybe it’s better and easier just to listen to the song.
When Chage & Aska broke up as a unit, it became big news in Japan. The press were wondering if they were fighting or if there were any problems between them. But after they listened to this song, no more questions. They have calmed down. This song explains Aska’s feelings perfectly.
The words are not too straight but are kind of playing with laughter, and there is his expression of love towards Chage. That’s the beginning of the song.
Chage & Aska are just like the sky and the ocean: they are both blue but never mix together. “We are a left fielder and a right fielder”. That’s one metaphor Aska makes as a baseball lover. I don’t know anything about baseball though. Being these fielders, they catch everything side by side.
“When we get together someday…” give us fans hope and he is expressing the feeling and love that he doesn’t feel too bad about being with Chage. It’s very nice.
The moon appears in the song. In his songs, the moon often means a woman. But in this song, the moon could mean the bigger crowd like fans or the media, I’m guessing.
Also this song makes us think about passing the time.
Time doesn’t just pass by. Time disappears. Yes, that’s true. We can never bring the past back again. This makes me feel that each day is very important, and we should try to make the most out of it.
This song was one of two for “Anata ga nakukotohanai”. And this time, it was re-mixed and included on the album “SCRAMBLE”. The re-mix was different from the original. He was using a more dynamic tone (strong and weak) with his voice and I really liked it.
A dream of “When we get together someday…” came true earlier than I thought. They are getting together again in this summer. Wow!
Aska has almost finished his current tour, ROCKET. Only one is left. I wish we were there. The concert will come out as a blue-ray (why not a DVD!?). Hmmm.
The music from the concert also came out on iTunes to sell. But it’s only inside Japan.
Not too friendly for overseas fans…
Quinoa
I can’t forget about the quinoa that we ate at the Lake Louise Chateau restaurant, and I checked it online.
Quinoa has been harvested at an altitude of 2,500 – 4,000m in Bolivia and Peru mainly. I wonder if we ate some when we were there but just didn’t know…?
According to Wiki:
“Quinoa (the name is derived from the Spanish spelling of the Quechua name kinwa or occasionally “Qin-wah”) originated in the Andean region of Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru, where it was successfully domesticated 3,000 to 4,000 years ago for human consumption, though archeological evidence shows a non-domesticated association with pastoral herding some 5,200 to 7,000 years ago.
The nutrient composition is very good compared with common cereals. Quinoa seeds contain essential amino acids like lysine and good quantities of calcium, phosphorus, and iron.”
The waitress said it was a “super food”. Now I understand. It has a nice texture when you crunch it. It’s light and delicious, so I can eat a lot.
When you boil it, some kind of sprout-looking thing comes out. So I was guessing it’s some kind of sprout or bean, but it says it’s a grain and seed. A bean is a seed. So my guessing was right?
We found it at a supermarket.
Just wash and boil them. That’s all. We can eat it as salad or throw them in anywhere you like.
At the restaurant, it was red quinoa, but the one we bought was not.
The year 2013 is supposed to be the United Nations International Quinoa Year! If you’ve never tried it, give it a try!
Noorish Conscious Eatery and Superfood Elixir Bar
Mar 13 (Wed)
My Japanese girlfriends and I gathered at a vegan restaurant, Noorish for lunch. It’s been about 2 months since the last gathering. It was a fun time.
My friend was writing about this restaurant and it was in my wanna-go list but I didn’t have a chance. So that was good!
This place also has a yoga school, often carries music events and sells healthy food inside the restaurant. A high-end hippie kind of place. It was already quite full by 12 o’clock. It was a good thinking that one of us made a reservation already. A lot of items on the menu sounded very yummy.
This was what I ordered: Kelp noodles (CAN$16). I think this was flavoured with sun-dried tomatoes and so on. It looks like Harusame noodles with ground meat, but noodles are actually kelp noodles and of course, no meat. The firmness of the noodles were like Shirataki noodles (very low carbohydrate, low calorie, thin, translucent, gelatinous traditional Japanese noodles made from devil’s tongue yam (elephant yam or the konjac yam)), which I liked. We felt it was a little bit salty. It would be nice to have some plain bread or rice as a side to go with this. But still it was really good and tasty. For a pregnant woman, the amount was a bit too small. I finished eating it all the fastest among us! ^^
These were the friends’ orders:
It’s a vegan restaurant. So they don’t use milk and eggs either. Not even soy milk for cakes! How can they make cakes? We asked and a waitress said they use coconut oil and so on and on (I forgot).
We shared a cake of the day: Chai Cheesecake (CAN$9.5). Very smooth and delicious!
We were all shocked by the news that Ms. K is leaving Edmonton in summer… Hope we can gather a few more times before she leaves.
Noorish Conscious Eatery and Superfood Elixir Bar (780) 756-6880 8440 109 St NW, Edmonton
Lake Louise 4
Feb 20 (Wed) – 21 (Thu)
This day, we tried cross-country skiing for the first time.
We were going to rent skis for a half day as we were going to use them for maybe 2 hours. I thought a half day can be a few hours in the morning or a few hours in the afternoon, but the half day price only started after 12:30. It was still before noon and we didn’t want to pay for a full day. When we asked if we could start earlier they said no problem. Thanks a lot!
There are some courses we can take to learn how to cross-country ski, but the course time was fixed and required a reservation, and it was quite expensive, so we just went by ourselves. It should be OK because we would do it just like walking on the very flat frozen lake. We wouldn’t fall down and we didn’t. The skis were thinner than normal skis and our heals can be lifted from them. Different, but we got used to it soon after. It was a nice walk around the lake.
Look! Some people were ice-climbing! So scary!!
It was a nice experience.
In the afternoon, we had afternoon tea at the Lakeview Lounge @ the hotel !
We shared one.
The same chain hotel in Victoria, BC, has a nice afternoon tea too, but they require the guest to have a set once they sit at the table (I had never heard of such a policy before). So I thought there was a chance this place had the same policy, so I asked. Phew, they don’t require that.
This afternoon tea comes with a glass of champagne. I’m pregnant. I actually don’t need such a thing. Can you reduce the price and you can take it away… My hubby drank it. Please enjoy.
It was really good! The fruits were nice. The unique variety of tea was nice too.
Afternoon teas in Hong Kong might have a better deal for the cost, but this place has the great view of the lake. So I shouldn’t compare.
After this, we went to Banff again. It takes about 1 hour. The sky and mountains were beautiful and we enjoyed the drive very much.
The other day it was so packed and this day wasn’t.
I didn’t photoshop the picture, but the sky below looks strange… the lens filter?
Caribou Street. Nice!
At night, we went to Miki, a Japanese restaurant. I knew this restaurant from reading my friend’s blog. The food looked great.
It’s inside a hotel.
This is my order: Chirashi Don. You can’t see the scallops, squid and octopus. It was really good.
This restaurant offers a good deal for a buffet for only $30. My husband was confident that he could eat a lot, so he ordered a lot and ate them all. I would have had the same if I was hungrier… Please open up a chain in Edmonton. We will go often! They make the food after ordering. It might take some time especially if it’s crowded. On this day and at this time, it wasn’t. We were lucky.
Miki Japanese Restaurant (403) 762-0600 600 Banff Ave, Banff
It was about – 5 c degree during the day, but when we went back to the hotel, it was -17! So cold!!
Next day…
The morning we were checking out, I had a Japanese breakfast set. Yes, there is such a thing at this hotel. With Natto (fermented soybeans)! Amazing! I love it and I eat it at least a few times a month at home. It’s so healthy and delicious with rice.
It was a perfect breakfast, even though the rice felt like it was microwaved. The fact that we can eat this in the middle of the Canadian Rockies amazes me! Thank you very much.
We bought some lunch at the Deli again and hit the road. It’s about 5 hours to Edmonton.
Looked like Edmonton had a snow storm. The trees were all white.
There was a day that I could have only 3 hours sleep, but the last night I had a good long sleep. Is it because I had a lot of Gari (sweetened ginger that often comes with sushi). So that was good.
Finally my husband got a cold from me. I’m very sorry about that. I respect how strong he is, thinking of the fact that he hadn’t gotten cold by this time.
The Lake Louise is very popular and a lot of Japanese couples come for their honeymoons. It’s a romantic nice place. We really enjoyed it. We made nice memories for the last time (?) only by ourselves before having a BB.
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