Japan Fest with Japan Friends at Kennedy Ctr

Today, the three of us experienced the Japan Culture + Hyper Culture festival at the Kennedy Center.  This event has been several years in the making and planning.  Yes, I went w/ my blessed Japanese tutors: Masaki and Kimiko and they were even absolutely impressed and spellbound.

What a perfect timing, the three of us have been spending so much time together at GWU Hospital cafeteria going over Kanji, Hiragana, Katagana.

They have been my answer to prayer and in return I tutor them English.  But the little English I share with them pales in comparison to the complex Japanese that they teach me.

As a bonus, sometimes, we even spend time chatting or writing in Mandarin.

Now we took time off to celebrate and to recreate and yes practice my Japanese with real life Japanese.

The festival was just admirable and amazing and we enjoyed shows, music, poetry, Millenium shows, etc.

My personal favorite was Shintoku-Maru -- a tragic fable of love, lust and revenge -- story of a young man drawn to his new stepmother.

The Japanese cuisines were also awesome.  Lots of sushi, tempura in a cute, delicious Bento box that made you just crave Japanese cuisine.

Now what -- in a month, we have the Cherry Blossom Festival.  I love DC, but do beam me up to Japan now, Scotty.

Colin Christens the Cichlids

Today, Colin and I launched our new aquarium by dropping the first African Cichlids into our 75 gallon tank. Beautiful. fish!

The aquarium was a project in the making. I actually purchased the tank a few weeks before this picture was taken. I had the water already prepped (Danielle and I) had to remove the chlorine by using Tetra Aquasafe. A las, we waited and waited and then waited some more. this long period of waiting was to ensure the aquarium has cycled properly, but I also wanted my son to be the one to bless the tank with its new aquatic inhabitants.

Christening day--a big day to introduce our newfound friends from the Lakes of Malawi in Africa to Chito and Colin's little aquarium in Anacostia, Washington, DC.

You see in the picture above, Colin is slowly allowing the new fish to get adjusted to the water temperature in the tank. I reminded Colin not to pour the contents of the bag in the water because it may contain contaminants.

As I sit there watching the Cichlids become accustomed to there new home i wonder if like humans they miss the familiar surroundings they were accustomed to. I know how i would feel if I was extracted from my home and placed into unfamiliar surroundings. It is amazing how much we don't see and pay attention to or even focus on. In a way those fishes are like me. They have anew home in Anacostia and so do I. I can't wait now for our Cichlids to get acclimated to their new home, to mature, to mate, and one day bring forth a school of newborn Cichlids--the first ones to be born in Anacostia.

Green Street Wallsome Views

Today, we pushed back the fenceline and installed a 30 foot long retainer wall as high as 4 foot.

The views from on top of the wall is just spectacular.

You can see from the National Cathedral to the Washington Monument to the US Capitol building.

You can even see the ship USS Barry.