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.

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).

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.

Goodbye, Rodger Swan



Rodger Swan was a popular American Youtuber who did videos about his life in Japan and also reviews of Japanese horror films. He passed away suddenly last week at the age of 23, of a disease called "acute pancreatitis". The video above was his final video.
He was very passionate about his love of Japan and his life there. It makes me very sad to know that he is gone.

The Real Los Angeles Street ARt

I hear many people talking about street art in Los Angeles, and the popular artists like shepard Fairey, Buff Monster and Kaws who started as grafitti artists and became more mainstream artists.

British artist Banksy is also very popular and you can see some of his paintings on LA buildings in the trendy Melrose area.

But i think the best Los Angeles street art is still not noticed and is hidden away in small neighborhoods.



Here the artist has combined many different worlds....showing Pooh, Elmo and Sponge Bob living together in peace. Eeyore is holding a sausage on a string.... What is the meaning?



Here Mickey Mouse ( a popular American mouse) has been made to be a more chubby mouse to fit in with the modern American diet. If you look at the larger photo, you can find that Mickey has now only one arm.... mouse's life is not easy.

Big City Pelican



Most pelicans live on the beach, or on small rocky islands, but many pelicans have also become adjusted to life in the big city. This is Wendy. She is a modern pelican.



Wendy works at a large finance firm and doesn't have a long enough lunch hour to go out and hunt for fish, so she usually goes to the drive thru at KFC.

When not working, Wendy writes about life on her blog Urbanpelican.com