Lunch Box Catch-up (the end of Summer School Period)

やっと集中学習の時期が去った！は～、は～。本当、毎日お弁当作るママたちはすっごいと思います！大変でした！

さあ、木・金・土のお弁当は以下になります。

Well, finally my son's two weeks of J school everyday have finished!! I really have a new appreciation for all the mamas that make a bento lunch everyday!! It was tough!

Below are the missing lunches from Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Cheers!

Thurs/木：
Two lightly salted rice balls with sesame seeds, carrots, yakitori style chicken and rolled omelets.

ゴマ入り（「入り」かな混ぜたものだケンド…）の塩むすびｘ２、ニンジン、焼き鳥、卵焼き
 

After I finished my son's bento, my daughter said she wanted one too. She's not in school yet, but I made one for her too: lightly salted rice ball, hotdog flowers, cherries and omelets (one is a heart; she really liked it -- she's three and really enjoys small cute things like this).

 

娘も作ってほしくなっちゃったので息子のほうの弁当ができたら、↓も作りました。

ソーセージのお花、さからんぼ、卵焼き、塩むすび。

Fri/金:

 

Friday was thinly sliced pork with ground ginger and onions (season with salt, sear, then add cooking sake (probably white wine would work as well), ground ginger, soy sauce and a bit of sugar; then reduce), boiled broccoli, grape tomatoes and rolled omelets.

金曜日は、生姜焼きにブロッコリー、グレープトマトと卵焼きでした。

 

Sat/土:

土曜日は、集中学習の最後の日でしたので、カツ（！）にしました。↓はチキンカツです。前の日作っておいて、ブロッコリー、豆と卵焼きと一緒にペアリングしました。息子はソース系が気持ち悪い（唯一の好き嫌い…）とかというので、しっかり味付けをしました。おいしく食べてくれました。v(^_^)o

Saturday was the last day of the summer school period (made it!), so I made a chicken cutlet. Well, in order to pull this off, I had to make it the night before and then just arrange things in the morning. It's presented with broccoli, green beans, and rolled omelet. Chicken cutlets are normally served with "sauce" (its a Worcestershire sauce-like (based?) dark sauce that is just referred to as "sauce" in Japanese), but my son doesn't like anything sauce-like (in the English since of "sauce", so no ketchup or bbq sauce, etc.), so it's just a bit more heavily seasoned than normal. He gobbled it up though! Whew!

There's actually four cuts of katu, one is hiding under the middle cut.

And with that J-school entered summer vacation! Whew! I bit of a breather is nice too!!

土曜日をもって、夏休みに入りました。よかった!

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Gittin aaaaall purdied up (おしゃれしていいかな？)

So “summers” are here. People who work at law firms will know that this means “summer associates” (law students who work at law firms during the summer between years at law school). This is a joyous time of the year because associates tend to get budgets to take summers out for coffee, lunch, dinner and, in the case of this office, manicures. The Tokyo office did not have a manicure budget…and manicures in Japan (although they do end up fabulous) are too expensive for me to splurge on (never mind that I would never have enough time to leave the office to get my nails done in a million years). So, for the last five years or so my nails have been bare.

Today, that changed. Another transaction done and done, so I got my nails done with a summer this afternoon (then I came back to work -- haha). I've never tried such a bold color before (I'm generally pretty conservative and go with light pinks when I did used to get my nails done so long ago)...but this office is soooooo casual (and I'm somewhat senior -- senior-esque?) that I think I can pull it off. Cheers!

5年ぶりにマニキュアしてもらって、いいきぶんに！↑↑^_^

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Emergency bento change up! (集中学習のお弁当 -- そのV (Summer School Lunches -- Part V))

今朝、お弁当つめようとしたら、ふたの羽（ってゆうの？）のところがパッチと取れちゃったw(￣Д￣ w のぉぉぉぉぉぉぉ~！これはこれは。。。

でも大丈夫。ちっちゃいのがいっぱいあるので、早速弁当箱をチェンジ‎する事ができました！ヨシ！

さあ、今日は、アスパラの豚バラまき、ソーセージ、さくらんぼです。やっぱ毎日お弁当を作るとクオリティが下がりぎみですね。ふ～ん。

This morning, when I went to put together my son’s lunch, the snap part of the lid broke off in my hand (∑(O_O；)Shock!!!). Well, it’s okay. For one, it was only about a dollar or so for the lunch box from Daiso in Japan (I guess if I went to Daiso here it would be a $1.50, because Daiso in the U.S. is a $1.50 store instead of a JPY100 store – even though with today’s rate 100 yen is only  about $0.81). But more importantly, I have a slew of other smaller lunch boxes for just such an emergency (not really for just such an emergency, but because I used to put my son’s snack in little lunch boxes when he was in preschool/kinder so it wouldn’t get crushed in his backpack).

Today’s lunch is ↓. Asparagus wrapped in uncured bacon (the cut is the same as bacon), Japanese sausage, cherries. It’s hard to keep up the quality of bento ingredients when making bento every day. Hm. Not sure what to do about it. Got to get more creative!

微妙～

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Fried Dumplings 揚げギョーザ入りのお弁当 (集中学習のお弁当 -- そのIV (Summer School Lunches -- Part IV))

Fried dumplings are surprisingly not time consuming to make if you only make a few in the morning. I buy pre-made skins and fill them with pork (seasoned with hondashi (bonito stock powder), salt and scallop soup powder -- tastes like chicken stock I swear), corn and cheese. Deep fry until they float back to the top. Fried dumplings last better in a lunchbox than regular pan-fried (seared?) dumplings.

The lunch below consists of boiled broccoli, tamago-yaki, grapes and fried dumplings. The rice is white rice cooked with gokokumai (five grain rice) mix.

揚げギョーザは以外と時間がかかんないです（四つしか作らないときは）。↓の中身は、豚肉（＋ほんだし、お塩と帆立スープのもと（こっちはなぜか鶏殻スープは売ってないので））、コーンとチーズ。出来上がったものに少々お塩をかけるので、味ポンなどはいらないです。

卵焼き、ブロッコリー、焼きギョーザ、葡萄、五穀米ミックスと一緒に炊いたご飯

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卵が笑った A smiling sun ^ヮ^ (集中学習のお弁当 -- そのIII (Summer School Lunches -- Part III))

さあ、またまたお弁当です。

ゆで卵は楽しい。朝は子供が三人ですと、きゃら弁なんてはとても無理です。が、ゆで卵を入れると太陽などをイメージして、ワンポイントの楽しいところを入れることができます。では、昨日のお弁当を紹介します。↓のおかずはゆでたブロッコリー、グレープトマト、ハンバーグ（豚肉、溶いた卵、お豆腐（＋塩＆ホンだし））、ゆで卵にゴマ＆海苔です。

Mornings with three little, little ones means that elaborate lunches for my son for J school are mostly out of the question. But with the help of boiled eggs and seaweed, a slightly fun lunch is achieved!! Yesterday's lunch is below.

boiled broccoli; grape tomato; hamburger patties made of pork, egg and tofu; boiled egg with seaweed smile and sesame seed eyes

UPDATE: Fyi, if you're wondering what happened on Friday. Friday's bento was substantially similar to that of Thursday (sans the smiling onigiri), so I shall refrain from posting. There is no J school on Monday, so my everyday trying-my-best will continue on Tuesday! ^_^;;

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集中学習のお弁当 -- そのII (Summer School Lunches -- Part II)

Well, just as I imagined would happen, I was in too much of a hurry to take a picture of yesterday's lunch. I had to stay up until about 2am the day before for work, and barely woke up in time to whip something together before running out the door.

Today's lunch too was a bit rushed and not very well composed, but at least there is evidence of its existence, haha! Today's lunch is grilled chicken that is then braised in chicken stock (I usually marinade my chicken overnight in shio koji (a kind of fermented salted rice -- I'm not a good translator. Here is a site that explains a bit on it in English (it will open a new window to a site that is not my site. I cannot speak to its content): Kojiya), but I didn't have time last night, so I used braising to get some flavor into it), tamago-yaki (rolled omelet), grape tomatoes and snap peas. The two onigiri are just seasoned shio musubi (lightly salted rice balls). One is saying "doh!" because he is upside down!

昨日は急いでて、写真撮るチャンスがなかったのぅ↓↓↓。今日もあんまり時間がなかったので、構成がイマイチなんだけど、写真は撮れました。今日のお弁当はチキンコンソメで蒸し煮したチキン（普通は塩糀で一晩寝かすけど、時間がなくて…）、卵焼き、グレープトマト、えんどう豆、塩むすびx2。卵焼きなんだけんど、いつもより10倍ぐらいのホンだし入れてしまった（眠くて、面倒くさくて、指でつままないで容器からトントンと出そうとしたらバ～～と出てしまった）けど、それでもまずくはなっていない。ホンだしスゴイ!!

Doh! -- Onigiri (rice balls)

Does onigiri = rice ball? I remember when I was in New York for law school, I was behind a woman and her daughter who had just bought onigiri at Kinokuniya. The mother said to the girl "don't forget to eat your triangle rice". I thought this was very clever. Indeed, Kantou (eastern Japan) onigiri are triangular, and even Kansai (western Japan) onigiri are not "balls" (although Chubu/Kinki (middle Japan? Translation is hard...) region apparently used to have more ball-like shaped onigiri). Well of course, "rice ball" is not a literal translation of お握り, which comes from the verb meaning something like "to grasp", also "to mold into a shape" (its the same as the nigiri in nigiri sushi -- the other option to "rolls" in the U.S.).  

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Workwear

Today's a workday. But I had a bit of time in the morning. Here's some workwear in my U.S. office. It's a lot more casual than in Tokyo. Hair and make-up were done before leaving my house. Yes, I have a tent in my living room...

今日は平日とゆうのに、今朝はちょっとした時間があったので、朝の一枚。こっちのオフィスは金曜じゃなくてもビジネスカジュアルとなっているようです。ヘアメークは出勤する前に済んだ。

後ろは子供関係でテントです。そうです。居間にテントがあります。

洋服は日本のブルックス ブラザーズのパンツにこっちのユニクロのノースリーブシャツです。



Brooks Brothers bottoms (last summer) and Uniqlo top ^^;;

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集中学習のお弁当 (Summer School Lunches)

こっちの現地校が先週、長～い夏休みに入ったため、今日補習校の集中学習が始まりました。とゆうことは、今週・来週は毎日お弁当が必要です。朝まで働いて、その後、早起き＋お弁当作り。。。2週間生き抜けるかな(^_^;;;)。
がんばりますP(^-^)o！！

Now that regular school is out on summer break, J school has entered its summer school period. During the next two weeks, my eldest will have J school every day...which means he needs a packed lunch every day. Which means that after working until morning, I will have to wake up early and make bento! HAAHHAHA! Weeeell, these two weeks may result in some "interesting" lunches, but I will try my best! ^_^!!

Today's lunch was ↓. Well, I didn't have so much time today before work, so it's pretty simple: boiled broccoli, grape tomato, boiled egg, apple slices x 2, cut Japanese hotdogs x 2, with rice and sesame seeds.

ちょっと手抜きですが、ブロッコリー、プチトマト、ゆで卵、りんごのスライス、ウィーナーｘ２

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Hotdog flowers

Here's another J school bento (lunch box) -- a croquette (mashed potato balls with corn (it's in there!) that are deep fried) cut in half, tamago-yaki (rolled omelet), hotdog flowers (the yellow in the middle is a single corn kernel -- these come out cuter if you use Japanese mini hotdogs, but we didn't have any) and edamame. My kid has trouble opening edamame shells by himself, so these are preopened, but left in the shells (to give the illusion of being able to open them).




卵焼き、コロッケ、ホットドッグのお花（男の子だけんど＾＾;;）と枝豆

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Casual Friday

東京オフィスも、カジュアルフライデーってゆうのはあったけれど、普通にクライアントがよくオフィスにくるので、誰もカジュアルな格好しないのが基本。だが、アメリカですと、オフィスに来るクライアントが少ない上、金曜日はファイナンシャルディストリックの人間も含め、サンフラン中はみんなカジュアルのようです。

ですけど、東京オフィスにずっといたあたしは、カジュアルのものが正直言って少ないです。いつこっちのオフィスの人よりカジュアルじゃない気がします。

今日は、↓。珍しくカーディガンなしで行こうと。そして面白いところは、↓の靴下。あんまり目立たないところなんで、カラフルなのを。



 

No cardigan today



Shoes (Clarks), socks (Daiso) -- own your own crazy

 

close up on the socks

here's what everyone else sees





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Field day (運動会)

In Japan, no child's education is complete without plenty of friendly undoukai, or "field days", during which include events like relay races and throwing balls into a basket (tamaire). Because my children attend international school in Japan, they were formerly deprived such experiences. Now that we attend J-school in the US, my eldest had finally his first undoukai. For mamas, this day means making a grand obentou...

先週の土曜日は、長男の人生初の運動会でした。そして、ママの初めての運動会のお弁当は↓です。

So despite waking up with more than two hours to finish everything, I failed to achieve maximum cuteness. Additionally, I got called into a teleconference for work just as lunch happened, so I missed the entire period allotted for lunch T_T!!! So, I actually didn't know how everyone liked my lunch >.<.

 

Fried dumplings -- filled with pork, cheese and tofu (and salt and hondashi)

 

Inarizushi -- although my husband is a sushi chef, I used oinarisan set to save time!

 

The main race scene...I didn't have time to make it very well. I had a plan for a goal line and "ganbare" in circle hotdogs...but oh well...

The scene here is running a race -- my kid is on the white team (the other team is the red team).

Hotdogs made to look like octopi, boiled broccoli, hearts made out of tamago yaki (rolled omelet) and grape tomatoes.

 

Small onigiri for small hands -- just shio musubi (lightly salted rice ball) with sesame seeds

 

Hotdog parts that couldn't get incorporated

 

 

Four tiers of lunch for a 7 y.o., a 3 y.o. and a 1 y.o. and one mama and one papa.

 

Well, overall, a bento failure. I will try harder next year!!

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Sesame seed pudding for two

Sunday snack brought black sesame pudding for the two older ones (one boy, one girl). My husband criticized my use of kinako (roasted soybean flour) as a topping because the flavor is similar to sesame seed already.

日曜のおやつはゴマプディングでした。きなこをトッピングにしたのはよくないって主人に批判されました（味がゴマに似すぎているので。）＾＾;;。右のカップはディズニーのもので、娘の気に入りです。

The cup on the right is from Tokyo Disney ☆

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Coffee break カフェで一息

In between big transactions at work. Finally a chance to get a cup of coffee during the day!　Lattes here are fabulous -- although I make mine a brevé for extra rich unhealthiness (I have an unhealthy love of cream)!

珍しくちょっとした暇があったため、職場の近くのカフェでコーヒーをいただいちゃおう。

こっちのラッテは最高！！
（ハーフアンドハーフ（ミルクとクリーム）で作ってもらって高カロリーのものにしてしまうけど！ホホ！）

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