Welcome Back
2023 is rolling on and Spring is closing in so I put up some fresh tunes in my music catalog.
If you’d like to listen go here.
Hope you had a great winter holiday & celebrated the changing of seasons with friends & family - as time is always going by, we have to make the best of what we have to spread good vibes.
So happy Lunar New Year as we’ve just entered the Year of the Rabbit
I’m especially fond of the Rabbit as Alitta & I are both born under the Rabbit sign (I’m water, she’s fire )
To celebrate, my girl & I attended 2 Lunar New Year Celebrations.
First we headed Downtown to Little Tokyo seeking out the Japanese Cultural Museum.
They were hosting an event for the Los Angeles community. Our friend & her daughter invited us to join in on the fun. We thought it’d be a few people - Boy were we surprised...
Driving by, looking for parking, the line to get in was out the door & zig zagging all down the steps & through the courtyard like a fortune dragon the size of an air bus.
We looked at each other & knew we might not have the day we planned for, but as always, we’d make the best of it.
If you aren’t aware of our situation, Alitta does dialysis 4 times a week, 4 hours a day. As her care giver, I help set up her machine & bring her what she needs while she sits in her chair for treatment.
Providing her treatment to keep her body as well as we can takes up a good portion of our week, and sometimes there are set backs. To make our days as stress-free as can be, we keep the day to ourselves to take it easy & focus on our health & well-being, but occasionally we try to plan & rearrange our days to meet up with others & enjoy a bit of time together.
We made time on this day to spend, but one look at the line at the museum & it seemed that by the time we got through the doors we’d have to head back out & race home
But why waste the day?
Alitta & I decided we made it out to Little Tokyo, so might as well look around & explore. And it was fun!
Cute shops - LOTS of animé. Tons of scenes & characters & worlds of artwork. And they have EVERYTHING for your every desire. Plushies, swords, stationary, stickers, posters, magnets, pins, figurines, life-sized models, trading cards, keychains, toys, manga, tiny sets of food.
Some of it is the same, some of it cheaply made, and some are unique & quality finds.
Plus, there are so many food choices. Lunch specials, curry, sushi, karage, tempura, okonomiyaki, don bowls, noodle soups, dumplings, mochi, sandwiches, desserts, buns, breads. And all of it looks delicious!
But all in all, it’s good to explore & good exercise to walk around.
We even it made it to the museum grounds & was able to catch some of the outdoor entertainment.
They performed traditional mochi making with taki drums & taught the audience a few Japanese words engaging us with call backs & hand claps.
They wore traditional Japanese clothes & used massive wooden mallets to hammer at rice until it turns into mochi.
They even called up a few kids to take turns pounding the mochi.
It was cute.
Unfortunately, we never worked out meeting up with our friends. We kept missing each other and ultimately had to quickly snag lunch & leave. Luckily they had their own great experience playing, so we didn’t feel too bad about missing them.
The second Lunar New Year Celebration was at the Santa Monica mall at the end of 3rd St and Broadway.
It was rather small, but very playful and they did a nice performance of the Lion Dance. They also had a New Year's wishing tree, dough art and balloon art for the kids. We didn't stay long, but it was still a good time.
In any case, we enjoyed ringing in the New Year and hope you did too. To make it a little more special, I put up some new music tracks I’ve been sitting on for awhile. Calling this collection "Loved By the Moon". You can listen here.
Alitta really wants me to share my music more often, so we’re going to try to post music on a regular basis for your listening pleasure.
If you like it, send me a message
I’d love to hear what you think. Let me know which track you love the most.
In other news, I’ve got 2 ukuleles for sale you can find out more about at my Ukulele Shop.
Listen to my other Songs here.
See my Leather Creations I design & produce.
Visit my Online Store here.
Stay well & see you soon.
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