Miho's favorites

                                  photo credit: Not Another Desk Setup via photopin (license)  When evening time comes, from around 4pm , I often get sleepy feeling and could not focus on what I was doing.  and as a result, I started taking a nap for about 2 hours.  I tried to take some kind of supplements for energy boost , but in the summer time like now, it didn't work for me.  and what I discovered to improve my concentration and energy boost is below,  Quickest way to get energy and improve concentration  * Do Meditation Jogging  This is just jogging in the same place about 3 to 5 minutes . and if possible, slightly close your eyes while jogging.  But this is not required. In the beginning, you may lose your balance, so it's better to limit yourself . and while jogging, rhythmically move your arms from front to back .  Before starting , it's good to take a deep breath and steady your breathing until you feel c

Coffee jelly was one of my favorite desserts when I was in Japan , so I often ordered it whenever I went to a cafe. Many cafes or family restaurants put whip cream on top, but the cafe I was working for when I was a teenager was putting vanilla ice cream on top with coffee cream. I really loved this way. A nd recently , suddenly I was craving for that coffee Jelly. I haven't eaten coffee jelly since I came to the USA,  because there are no such a menu in cafe or restaurants here. But I didn't know it's so easy to make it by myself. My husband has never eaten coffee jelly, only fruit jelly. Maybe in western countries, there is no coffee jelly ? Anyway, we both really enjoyed eating it so wanted to share it. Here is the recipe of the coffee Jelly.       For two people Ingredients *Gelatin - 0.25oz ( about 7g ) *Water -  Three table spoons *Coffee -  250cc *Sugar or honey -  Two table spoons ( but depending on your taste )   How to mak

It was very shocking to hear about the Huge earthquake that hit the Middle Kyushu, Japan,  mainly Kumamoto area on April 14 and 16.  and small earthquakes have still been continuing. Huge one happened twice within a short time. and first one was magnitude 6.4 ,  earthquake, and the second one was magnitude 7.3, with an intensity on the Japanese scale of 7. According to the news, nearly 1,200 houses had been destroyed. and after 1 week past, 48 people died from it. and while people were taking refuge in shelters, there were 11 people who died from their injuries from the earthquake. Over 1,310 got serious injury. In the present, about 81,253 people are in shelter in all the areas that got damaged by the earthquake.  and many people who could not be in the shelter centers are staying outside. and also recently, almost same week as  Japan,  Ecuador was hit by 7.8 magnitude earthquake last week and 646 died and around 12,500 people were injured and left 130 missing along the co

  Here is my review for some of men's world figure skating championship below, Men  Overall Results   1. Javier FERNANDEZ ESP 314.93  2. Yuzuru HANYU JPN 295.17  3. Boyang JIN CHN 270.99  4. Mikhail KOLYADA RUS 267.97  5. Patrick CHAN CAN 266.75  6. Adam RIPPON USA 264.44  7. Shoma UNO JPN 264.25 4  8. Max AARON USA 254.14  9. Michal BREZINA CZE 237.99  10. Grant HOCHSTEIN USA 237.25  Congratulations on all the medallists !  In this men's world championship,  Shoma Uno  My favorite is Shoma Uno 's performances, both SP and FP.     Yes, he made some errors but the way he moved on ice was charismatic and impressive. I've watched both of his performances a few times already.  I love the short program music, it's very unique and the choreography is interesting. His movements are well-balanced.  His first spin combo , especially bent let lay back camel spin looked

We were watching World Figure skating championships in the beginning of th is month  on NBCSN and NBC channel.   It was nice to see Johnny & Tara in the commentary, but was wondering what happened to Terry Gannon ?  We both always love to see all three together.  About competitions, I liked the ladies competition this season the most.  The location is Boston, USA, so I was guessing it will be a great opportunity for top two USA skaters to be on the podiums.  Maybe except for France, all the other countries Russia, Canada, Japan, China also do the same thing , when the location is their hometown, usually the hometown skaters who are the top two can get bonus scores.  and this was the USA skater's turn.  Ladies Overall Results  1.  Evgenia MEDVEDEVA RUS 223.86  2.  Ashley WAGNER USA 215.39  3.  Anna POGORILAYA RUS 213.69  4.  Gracie GOLD USA 211.29  5.  Satoko MIYAHARA JPN 210.61  6.  Elena RADIONOVA RUS 209.81  7.  Mao A

Today, I made a banana smoothie ! We had a mixer but I haven't been using it since we bought it a long time ago.  I didn't even open it until today. Somehow, suddenly I started getting interested in smoothie recently. It was my husband's day off today, so he also drank it. Here is the ingredients of the banana smoothie below, Ingredients * Banana -  2 * Plain Yogurt - 4 table spoons * Honey - 2 or 3 table spoons * Milk -  300 cc * Virgin coconut oil  - 1 table spoon * Ice cube -  4 or 5 Just put all the ingredients into the mixer. Also if you prefer sweeter taste, good to put one table spoon of vanilla ice cream over the smoothie. It's very yummy !  My husband also really loves it. For a while , I will drink the smoothie for my brunch , and will make many kind of smoothies.

Japanese breakfast menu One of the happiest moments I feel is eating my favorite foods at home. This is my today's brunch.  The menu is * A bowl of plane white rice with vegetable seasonings over it. * Two sunny-side-ups and a slice of chicken ham , * Green asparagus , * Seaweed called Nori ,  ( Thank you to my aunt Miyoko & Uncle Sakae ) * Miso soup with Daikon ( Japanese radish), Satoimo ( Japanese potato ), green onion, The sauce I use for Nori and the main dish is soy sauce . It's one of the Japanese breakfast menus but I rarely eat breakfast, so I often eat this menu or similar menu for my brunch. This kind of Japanese menu never bores me , and it shows I'm really Japanese.  But I sometimes eat garlic toast with cheese and Tuna, and egg and salad instead of the menu. Also in my husband's days off, we sometimes eat French toast or pancake for brunch. Depending on our mood, sometimes we have different feeling of what to eat, so sometimes I make diffe