Congrats Bro

So my brother was one of nine public officials recognized by Governing magazine for 2014. As you may know he is currently the General Manager of DC Water Way to go bro! We are all, as always, proud of you. George is the one in the upper left corner of the picture below.

Governing Article:

Introducing the 2014 Public Officials of the Year

I went to http://www.governing.com and what do I see on the top page? A big picture of Cleveland! Check it out, it's an article about where people have lived the longest.

Google Comments - The Right Way

So I occasionally head over to theciviccommons.com to catch up on some of the conversations and projects they are nurturing.  I like the concept that they are trying to build a community around engaging in civil discussion especially when we disagree.

Today I made a comment on a post and it was cross posted to Facebook by Jill Miller-Zimon. I happened to be logged into Facebook at the time as was pleased to see 4 or 5 comments and responses come in  a short period of time.  All very interesting and informative.  Unfortunately, the comments don't show up on theciviccommons.com.

Google recently announced the availability of Google Plus Comments integration with Blogger, the service I use to host this blog. In a recent post, I tried out this new capability.

Walk to Remember at the Cleveland Zoo

Several weeks back, Arisa and I joined Team Hyland to participate in the "Walk To Remember", a fundraiser walk for the Hospice of the Western Reserve. The great thing about the walk was that it was through the Cleveland Zoo which I haven't been to since I got there on a yellow bus. You can check out some of the pics from the event at hospicewr.org : http://goo.gl/hQkCL. My pics are below:




If you need to know, here is the map to the Cleveland Zoo:


View Cleveland Zoo in a larger map

I think I'd do it again next year since it's for a good cause.

映画情報：ノルウエイの森

明日の夜(3月9日）、Cleveland Institute of Artのシネマテックで放映されます。

ノルウェイの森
２０１０年

監督：　トラン・アン・ユン
原作：　村上春樹
音楽：　ジョニー・グリーンウッド
脚本：　トラン・アン・ユン

1987年に刊行されベストセラーとなった村上春樹の代表作「ノルウェイの森」を、『青いパパイヤの香り』『夏至』などのトラン・アン・ユン監督が映画化。亡くなった親友の恋人との関係を通し、主人公の青年の愛と性、生と死を叙情的につづる。主人公には松山ケンイチ、大切な人の死をきっかけに主人公と心を通わせていく女子大生に菊地凛子がふんし、複雑な人間性を繊細に演じる。トラン・アン・ユン監督のみずみずしい世界観と、深遠な村上春樹ワールドの融合に期待。

出演：　松山ケンイチ　菊地凛子　水原希子　高良健吾　霧島れいか　初音映莉子　柄本時生

International Folk Festival - June 26

Upcoming Events at Arts Collinwood - Waterloo Arts Fest

Med Mart Thoughts

Recently, I read in a Bloomberg article that Toby Cosgrove, CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, was quoted as saying this about the Med Mart planned for Cleveland:

“What’s the worst thing that could happen if this fails?” he said. “You have a brand new building and a new convention center. So the downside isn’t too bad.”

This strikes me as complete hubris related to his brainchild. What we get it is an empty new building and 20 years of taxes to pay for a failure.

Note, I am not against the Medical Mart per se. In fact, I like the idea of trying to leverage the Clinic's and University Hospital's expertise in the Medical industry. It's one industry that while it may have ups and downs, you can't export it to a different country.

What bothers me about the plan for the Med Mart and convention center is that there appear to be no plans b and c in case our competitors, Nashville and New York City pound us(Cleveland) in the market place. It seems an awful large burden to place on Cuyahoga County residents with no safety net if it fails to generate the business that they claim.

Now the reality the problem isn't Toby Cosgrove since he simply is pushing for what he thinks is a good idea. My problem comes in with the stewardship of Tim Hagan. He and Dimora (Peter Lawson voted against it I gather) have put all the eggs in the med mart basket with zero risk management or planning in the case it doesn't work. I've heard Tim on the radio a couple of times and I actually kind of like him (the mark of a professional politician), but in this particular instance he has not done the job.

Regardless, now that we are down the path and too far to back out, I'd like to see the Med Mart/Convention center succeed. But I'd also like to see some alternate planning and ideas.

Cleveland Asian Festival 2011 - Save The Date

The date is set for the 2nd Annual Cleveland Asian Festival - May 21 and 22, 2011.

First Snow of 2010

Yes. It is snowing today. The first of this year. Well, first of this year on this side of summer anyway.

 

Oberlin Hosts Kenny Endo Taiko Concert

Kenny Endo, a world-renowned taiko player, along with four other equally talented musicians in a concert that focuses on Traditional Japanese instruments, like fue, shamisen, and koto, as well as contemporary jazz influences, like the vibraphone will have a concert sponsored by a taiko group at Oberlin University.

ガーリックフェスティバル

ツィッターで知りましたが、来週末にシェーカースクウェアで行うクリーブランドの第一回ガーリックフェスティバル（ニンニク祭り？）があります。なんか、面白そうです。得にカーリックが好き僕にとってクックオフが楽しみなんですよ。

大まかなスケジュールは以下のとおりです

9月11日　13:00～22:00
9月12日　12:00～20:00

今週はまたロスへの出張ですが、これに行けると思います。土曜日にケンとジョージの試合があるかもしれませんけど、このガーリックフェスティバルに行きたいです。

 

ハイランドハイツホームデーでの資金繰り

昨日、ハイランドハイツのホームデーがありました。ホームデーというのは夏祭りみたいなことです。8月になるとそれぞれの町でホームデーが毎週末に行われます。我々の周辺では、各町のホームデーが重ねないように調整しているらしいです。メイフィルド学区はハイランド・ハイツ、メイフィルド・ハイツ、メイフィルドビレッジとゲーツミルズという町を含んでいることで、ハイラインド・ハイツのホームデーでメイフィルド高校男子サーかーチームが資金繰りの活動をしました。

JACL&CJAF 奨学金ランチ

久しぶりに日本語で投稿させていただきます。日本語あんまり使っていないんで忘れています。　これからもう少し日本語でブログに記事を投稿しようと思っています。日本語が間違ってもやはり使わないとドンドンと忘れてしまいます。ということで、今日はJACLとCJAFの賞学金奨学金ランチについて日本語で述べさせていただきます。

ご存知のようにエリーがアメリカン大学に来月に入学する予定です。５つの大学に申し込んで、４校に受かったんですが、提示されたファイナンシャルエイド額及びその内訳構成よりアメリカン大学を入学すると決めました。金銭的な観点だけでなく、やはりエリーがクリーブランドから離れたいという気持ちも強かったわけで親としてやはり大事な娘の希望に答えたくています。エリーがやはりボストンかワシントンDCに行きたい希望でした。

Lake Erie Crushers' Japanese Night

This last Thursday night was Japanese Night at the Lake Erie Crushers game. Since the Crushers' stadium is on Avon about 15 minutes from work, I went straight from work. Well, I took a detour to pick up a friend since his wife and kid was coming later to meet up with Arisa and another couple, also good friends. In each of our cases, the husband is American and the wife is Japanese. So it's cool to hook up with them every when we can.

And it was even better on this night since the Crushers were putting on Japanese night. Ken Hill, an American Japanese, or Japanese American, not sure which, is on a summer internship at the Crushers and this was his brainchild apparently. He did a great job getting participation from a variety of groups including JANO, the Cleveland Chapter of the Japanese American Citizen League including Mame Daiko and the Sho-jo-ji Dancers, a Japanese restaurant and a women who teaches shodou, and couple of folks from the Cleveland Japanese Meetup.com group. There were a couple of Japanese folks who are currently working at the Cleveland Clinic. I grabbed some pictures with my cell phone hence they are not that great. Arisa had the camera but she didn't arrive in time for the drumming or dance.

 

 

Arisa was going to volunteer at a ongiri contest and some other things, but unfortunately the rest of the evening got rained out. Just as they were about to start, the rain came down and reports of Tornado warnings/watches a county to the west. We waited for about 20 minutes then left for the evening. While we're disappointed that it didn't work out for a longer evening, it was certainly a lot of fun. I really wanted to wear my jimbei but its stored away somewhere and we couldn't find it in time. Next time though!

Astounding Ignorance

Today, the Cavs posted an advertisement to follow them on Twitter for a prize pack to be given away during the Cavs - Bulls game. They tweeted it first, but it also made it to facebook. On the facebook version, a Toyota add was posted along with it.

And sure enough, some of the ignorance that is killing Cleveland rears its ugly head.

Umami Asian Kitchen

Last night, Mom took us out to celebrate Arisa's birthday.  We went to Umami Asian Kitchen in Chagrin Falls.

The menu says that Umami is the "fifth taste", as in sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami.  Umami is a Japanese word.  See the wikipedia article for a description.  Also see the "basic tastes" article too.

I see why they call it Asian Kitchen as it's not really a Japanese restaurant.  They take some Japanese foods and make it all their own.  For example, they have an Udon Noodle dish, but it's not what one would expect from a Japanese restaurant.  It was really very good.  We had Seared Red Tuna, Spicy Tuna Rolls, and Calamari.  I had the halibut with sweet potatoes and ginger, Arisa had one of the specials which was scallops (hotate) on Jasmine rice.  Ken had the Seared Salmon, and George had the curry chicken entree.  Elly had Calamari and Assorted Sushi appetizers as her entree.  Mom had crabcakes.  I tried everything except the crabcakes and it all was very, very good.

Oh, and Chagrin Falls looks great at night.  The whole town is decorated in Christmas Lights.  If you get a chance, I'd check it out.

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Case University Intiative: Gigabit to the Home

Hattip to George Nemeth.  Case announces a project to provide 1000mb/sec internet service to the community surrounding it.

The details are over at Lev Gonick's blog. They'll start with 100 households but hope to grow to 25,000.

Note, this is just the announcment of the initiative not announcement of service.  It appears that they have some review hurdles to overcome.

Regardless, this is a great initiative!  Kudos to Case.

Japanese American Fair

This last Saturday, Arisa and I headed out to St. Ignaitus High School to attend the JACL's 40th Japanese American Holiday Fair. I had a errand to run at Micro Center and so we were running a little bit late. We got there probably about 2PM.

By the time we got there, it was packed. I'd say close to a hundred folks or so were there. The Mame Taiko Drummers were already in action. At the entrance to what I assume is the cafeteria, there were booths with a silent auction, origami, and other things like soap sales.

It was our first "Japanese-American" event, as opposed to JANO, but I'm glad we went.

40th Annual Japanese American Holiday Fair

40^th Annual Japanese American HOLIDAY FAIR

Saturday, November 7, 2009 at St. Ignatius High School from 1pm to 5pm

FOOD, ARTS AND CRAFTS BOOTHS AND ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM

1:30-2:10 2:15-2:45

JACL Sho Jo Ji Billy "The Kid"

Japanese Dancers Matsumoto Juggler

3:00-3:45 4:00-4:30

JACL Mame Daiko Mentor Karate

Taiko Drumming Institute Martial Arts

Also see the Japanese Holiday Fair 2009 PDF

うさぎ、＊＊やろう

うさぎ、馬鹿やろう！　といって仕方がないじゃないんですか。　分かっているけど、やっぱ頭が来ますわ。

いや、実は前から小さなうさぎちゃんが何回もバークヤードに発見しています。　しかも、殆ど人間に怖がらないやつなですよ。　子供のうさぎだから可愛いし、ガーデンではなくクローバ(Clover)とか食べていたのであんまり気にしていないのです。でも、こんなにやられると、あいつがピーターラビットと同じ経験させようかなと思っています。　でも、昨夜隣に住んでいる方と話しをしたら、やっぱうさぎではんくグラウンドホグが犯人だと思います。

僕も前に見たことがあって、デカーーーーイやつんですわ。　多分２ー３フィートぐらいの大きさです。　隣の方が一昨日に我が庭にいることを見たそうです。　こういつをどう追い出すかが今の課題です。　もちろん、フェンスを買った方が良いでしょうけど、まず他の手段を使う予定です。　非常にシャイだそうで、風鈴を出しました。これからグラウンドホグが嫌いな石けんとかアモニアとかを使って見ます。

結局、フェンスしかないと気がするけれど、フェンスだって登ることが出来るし、下に掘ることも出来るなので困りますわ。