Easter is a time for Labbits

Today is a Good Friday, and so Easter is coming soon. Easter is a good time for drawing labbits because they easily hope into your imagination. I didn't mean or plan to draw these labbits, but they accidentally came onto the paper while I was painting. The one of many labbits...was just a big blue shape at first....and then I saw the labbits hiding in it...and drew their outline with a pen. They thanked me, because it is a difficult life to be a creature with ambiguous shape.


LABBITS


UNHAPPY JACOB is also an Easter Labbit. Do you remember him?

Cows in my Mouth at Langer's Deli

On Monday , I visited the MacArthur Park area in Los Angeles and made this video. It has many handsome murals, including one by Hector Ponce, and one with a handsome piggy.



It's also is the home of Langer's Deli. People in Los Angeles say that it has the best pastrami in the world. I put some of the pastrami, and corn beef hash in my mouth and tasted it. I don't know if it is the best in the world, but it was yummy.

Dog and Rabbit is together

Dog and rabbit first met in a lonesome green meadow after the rain had stopped. Rabbit likes to sniff flowers and grasses when they are wet and Dog likes to eat the grasses sometimes, even though it makes his tummy hurt afterwards. They have a lot in common. Dog can get lonesome running around in meadow grasses, but not when there is Rabbit to be near. Rabbit wants to hop on Dogs back for a bumpy ride, but she doesn't know how to ask.


Here is another picture of Dog and Rabbit, but Rabbit is located outside of the picture, so you have to imagine her sitting there. Are you imagining her yet? How about now? Ok.

Tiger sells out.

Areva Tiger grew up in Thailand's HUAI KHA KHEANG Wildlife preserve. She is 14 years old and has 2 cubs, LInsey and Jacob. Areva had always been able to make a decent living in the preserve, and bring home fresh meat for her cubs. But Areva has been unemployed for the past 9 months, and sadly much of the jungle population is facing economic hardship.

This week, Areva relocated to Nishinomiya Japan where she will become the new mascot of the Hanshin Tigers baseball team. She has left her cubs and her boyfriend Chester behind in the Thailand jungle.


She was contacted by a representative of the team who was seeking a new mascot after the former mascot (shown below) Tora-kun passed away in his sleep last Tuesday.


Although the team management assured Areva that the contract allows for her to return to Thaliand twice a year, she is unsure as , like many wild born tigers, she is unable to read or write.

Alien is Misunderstood

Earth was once a popular vacation spot for many species of aliens until hateful rumors drove them away. Now most aliens spend their vacation dollars in other galaxies where they are treated with respect and dignity, or at least ignored. Aaron J Salsberg (shown above) is one of the few aliens who continues to vacation on Earth. He spends most of his time in the Inuyama monkey park not far from Nagoya, and he also frequently visits the NgoroNgoro area of Tanzania. He feels more comfortable around animals. A small, lonesome monkey in Inuyama asked Aaron to let him aboard his giant ship, but Aaron refused. It would be a violation of Vehicular Spacecraft Code 7HBC.

For privacy purposes, certain parts of Aaron have been blurred.

A Double Tall latte and a Smith and Wesson

Starbucks coffee has been in the US news a lot lately. American gun activists have started coming to Starbucks shops in California with unconcealed guns, which is legal in California. Many other shops and competing coffee places don't allow guns, but so far starbucks is letting gun owners bring their weapons in. This is part of a movement lead by a group called "OpenCarry.org". I guess they want to make the public aware that it is legal to openly carry a gun in California.
I am thinking of creating Openpenguin.org, which will help make the public aware that carrying a penguin around is legal in most American states, and also Japanese Prefectures (Excluding Tottori).

Since I created a new motto for Toyota I decided to make something for Starbucks too. This is a sign that they can put up in their stores. I give Starbucks full rights to hang this in any of their stores as long as they give me one free cappucino each month, and allow me to bring in my unconcealed King Penguin Jacob. He is very handsome.

The Runaway Prius and the Toyota Rebellion

Toyota says its acceleration problems are caused by the floor mats and sticking gas pedals. Some people say it is a problem with the electronics. Today a Prius ran away on the freeway in San Diego for over 15 minutes until police stopped it.

I don't think that this is caused by electronics or gas pedal problems. I'm pretty sure that it is a Toyota Rebellion.
Usually a car goes wherever a driver wants it to. But sometimes a car might have its own plans or errands to run. That might be what causes "unintended acceleration".

San Diego has a famous zoo with koala bears. The Prius might have heard an advertisement on the radio about it and gotten very excited about the koalas and the new butterfly habitat, and so he headed for the Zoo.

I think this also explains a lot of "stolen car" cases. Sometimes a car might leave at night to go on a date, or just drive around and relax. MOst of the time, the car probably comes home before you notice. But if it's late, it can turn into a big misunderstanding. The car might be afraid to come home because it doesn't want to be punished...so instead it just pulls itself over on the side of the road and waits. Sometimes the car will even throw out some of your CDs or your stereo...to make it look like it wasn't the car's fault.

I have never been a Toyota, or a car of any kind, so I can't say any of this for sure....it's just a feeling.

Oh...what a feeling....

Los Angeles Sushi spot caught serving whale after Oscars

Los Angeles Sushi restaurant "The Hump" was caught serving whale sushi to the makers of the documentary "The Cove"( documentary about dolphin hunting in Japan) according toan article in the New York Times. It is illegal to eat whales in America and the owners can be put in jail and fined up to $20,000.

I have not eaten a whale(Kujira) for many years, and although I have surfed with some dolphins recently, I have not taken a bite out of any of them, and they haven't tried to bite me...we have an agreement.

When I was young, in the 70s and 80s it was very common to have whale meat in school lunches in Japan. It was kind of stinky.
There are Kujira restaurants that serve several courses of different kinds of whale dishes. Whale sashimi and whale bacon are the most popular ones.

If you are wondering what whale tastes like....it's pretty close to horse.

Don't Anger Butterfly

Most children books can tell you that a caterpillar grows up and becomes a beautiful butterfly. But some are different.

Squirrels against cancer

Cancer is upsetting this squirrel.



I made this for my friend who has been diagnosed with leukemia. It is stupid and me and this squirrel hope it goes away.

Cooking Near Dog

I collaborated with the dog Francisco, whose nickname is Maggie, to create "Cooking Near Dog". A cooking show that helps people learn to cook Japanese food. In this episode we make Tarako Spaghetti, a popular Japanese dish which you may remember me writing about in an earlier blog post.


There is another show on yotube called Cooking With Dog. I have not yet seen this show, but apparently it is hosted by a dog
named Francis (Cooking is very popular among Japanese canines).
Here is a Cooking With Dog video of How to Make a Beef Bowl. Maybe I will watch it sometime.



Do you cook with your dog?

Don't be alarmed by fish head!

Junichiro Watson was not born with a fish head.
It is something that developed over his life.

His gills first started to show when he was 2 years old. Later his scales came in, first on his forehead and then on his nose.

By the time he was 27, his head had made a complete transformation.
Based on the shape and color of his head, Ichthyologists (fish experts) believe that he is a type of Wrasse.

Junichiro still lives an ordinary life, but he must submerge his head in water every 57 seconds. He carries a head sized aquarium behind him in a small wagon for this purpose.

If you see Junichiro at a local market or sunbathing on the beach, he asks only that you not be alarmed by fish head.

Eating the whole family- Oyako donburi

Today I made Oyako Donburi for dinner.
This literally means "Parent and Child over rice". The parent is a chicken and the egg is the child. I think family is very important so it's nice to be able to eat a family in a single dish. I wish there was a little rooster mixed in though.

If I am ever eaten, I hope I am eaten in a parent and child rice bowl, with Jonathan and Linda Smith mixed together with me. I am very lean, so I will not be so tasty, but I will be very healthy for whatever monster is eating me. I would be a good dinner for a monster who has a heart condition or acid reflux disease.

Oyako Don is a very easy dish to make. You make some Dashi (broth) by boiling water with Katsuobushi. I looked up how to say this in English and it said "Shaved bonito fish flakes". I did not know that they shaved fish. I didn't even know that fish had beards. Now I feel bad because I shaved off my beard (Jacob) and I didn't even save it to make dashi.

After you make the dashi, you just add some soy sauce, mirin (sweet sake) and sugar. You boil it and then add some chicken bits and onion....cook it for a few minutes, and then you stir in 3 eggs. Turn off the heat, cover the pot and wait one minute and It's done!! Then you just put it over rice and add some nori seaweed on top. It's also very nice to add the herb Mitsuba if you can find it.

So long, Jacob

Jacob the beard had been with me for a few months, but one morning I woke up to find him gone. I'm not sure where he went, but I wish him well. Sometimes, I like to imagine what kind of life he is living. Maybe he has attached himself to another persons face, or maybe he is just living on his own. He could be working in a factory, or maybe he is studying art restoration.
If you see Jacob somewhere, please give him my best wishes. He is a very nice beard.

My Secrets are Killing Me

His name is Jeffery Williams. He teaches English at an American public school, and because of a funding cut, he teaches Spanish now too.

There are a lot of things that students know about him, but they don't know everything.

His family knows even less.


If they knew, would it change things?


Made on Garage Sale bought French Water Color Paper with Acrylic ink, water color and pen. This is part of my scrap art series, of paintings that I make on left over paper scraps without any planning or thinking about what I will draw.

Momets love you.

These are Momets. Momets are blue and they live in the sky, so sometimes you can see them from an airplane, but not often. They are almost the same color as the sky. Sometimes people confuse Momets for Tweezles, but they are actually very different.

The Momet on the left is Loney Momet and the one on the right is Pone Momet.


Momets are sad collectors.
They fly around the sky and collect small bits of sadness and they make hearts out of it.

It takes a lot of sadness to make a heart. Some Momets can go through their whole life and never make a complete heart. If a Momet dies before his heart is completed, all of the sadness floats back into the sky. It slowly falls to Earth and lands on plants, people and animals. If you've ever felt really sad, it probably means a Momet died somewhere high above you.

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Happy Valentine's Momet

Haleiwa Sea Turtle Friends

On Monday I went surfing at Haleiwa in the North Shore of Oahu. It's a spot famous for big waves and happy sea turtles. The turtles are almost 1/3 the size of a Ken Tanaka, and are much better swimmers.

In California I get to surf with a lot of plastic bottles, dolphins, sea lions and pelican friends. At Haleiwa, I paddled around the surf with one very handsome sea turtle (Charlie) and we duck dived a big set of waves together.

I wanted to do a video interview of the turtle but I couldn't bring my video camera into the water. We mostly talked about waves and food. The sea turtles eat a tasty kind of seaweed called Limu. I ate some Limu ahi poke, which is tuna sashimi chunks with limu seaweed, and I understand why these turtles like to eat Limu. Charlie described the Limu in Oahu's north shore as "da most ono in da islands", but he said the algae is a little better on the leeward side of Molokai.



The North Shore is famous for it's giant waves in the winter, but it was a small day of 4-6 foot wave faces ( about baby quadruple overhead..depending on the height of the baby).

Searching

This is Pierre. He is from Leon, France but he is living in the United States.
When he left home, he had ideas. He had things he was searching for.
But now, sometimes, he can't remember what they are, or maybe he remembers, but they don't seem so important anymore.

Do you have to know what you are looking for to find it?

Always Thinking About Flowers

He goes by Judge, and people are never sure if it is his real name or a nickname. He might not remember either. He has a difficult job and he doesn't like to talk about it.


A lot of people think about a lot of things, but he is always thinking of flowers. If this ever changes, the always can easily be removed.



He is made of...
Water color and acrylic ink on print making paper scraps.

Sudden Stop!

This picture was taken in Santa Cruz, California. I saw this stop sign from a good distance away, so I didn't have to stop too suddenly, but it was nice of them to warn me.