Blooming by the Bay – Page 163 – The Endless Stories of Dan & Misono & Their Beloved Mio

Remains of Missing Virginia Tech Student Found

January 27, 2010 By Misono in In the Headlines Tags: April 16, Charlottesville, concert, disappearance, Jay Warren, Metallica, missing, Moran Harrington, shooting, Southwest Virginia, student, University of Virginia, Virginia, Virginia Tech

I’ve been following the case of missing Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington since she disappeared in mid-October of last year. Her family and Virginia State Police had been searching tirelessly for her for the past three months since she disappeared in Charlottesville after attending a Metallica concert at the University of Virginia. Today, Virginia State Police have confirmed that the human remains found on a farm southwest of Charlottesville have been conclusively identified as Morgan Harrington’s.

Here is the report from a local televisions news network in Southwest Virginia. (Coincidentally, the anchor is Jay Warren, who was my senior year Broadcast Writing teacher.)

Although I didn’t know Morgan, I have a few friends back at Tech who knew her, and the fact that a student from my alma mater had mysteriously gone missing alarmed me. Not to mention, the story has been all over the media since the weekend of her disappearance.

It’s interesting to me that despite the fact that over 2,500 missing persons reports are filed daily within this country and few of them receive any attention from the media, the disappearance of Morgan Harrington shot straight from local news to national news within 48 hours. Was her connection to Virginia Tech, the place that many Americans still associate with the largest mass school shooting in US history, a factor in the story exploding onto national news? I definitely think it was one of the largest factors that came into play. As much as it hurts myself and many other members of the Virginia Tech community to be reminded of it, the university has been indelibly branded as a site of a major school shooting and national tragedy. As we have seen in the past two and a half years, the slightest bit of negative news that sparks in relation to Virginia Tech or Blacksburg will somehow make it to national headlines.

Robert Thompson, one of the country’s most-respected media experts told The Roanoke Times,Â “Part of this is when you think ‘Virginia Tech,’ it carries certain sacred overtones to the country. Not only do you have a young college student in danger, but when you attach the words ‘Virginia Tech’ … Virginia Tech is one of those sets of words like ‘9/11’ and ‘Oklahoma City.’ It means more than just the college name.Â The whole country has strong sympathy and empathy for the university. It’s still recent in their minds, the last big national story to happen there.

Whatever the reason that Morgan’s story received national coverage, it doesn’t change the fact that those who knew her have suffered an unimaginable loss. My heart goes out to them; I can’t even fathom the pain that her family and friends are going through at this time. It’s been an emotionally taxing search for the last few months, with the Virginia State Police receiving over 600 leads. It’s a heartbreaking reality that oftentimes our wishes and prayers for a happy ending do not get rewarded, but at least Morgan can finally be laid to rest and the community can reach some semblance of closure, however sad it may be. There are still many unanswered questions, however, and the possibility of this case being a homicide is strong (as the State Police are investigating it as one). We can only hope that there will be answers soon, and that justice will be served.

UTADA “In the Flesh” Tour 2010 in San Francisco

January 25, 2010 By Misono in Arts and Culture, News and Updates, Recreational Fun Tags: Can You Keep a Secret, concert, dramas, Eternally, Exodus, First Love, Flavor of Life, Hikaru Utada, In the Flesh, Japan, Japanese, Japanese musicians, jpop, music, Prisoner of Love, Sakura Drops, San Francisco, songs, The Fillmore, This is the One, tour, UTADA, Utada Hikaru

Last night, my sister and I went to watch UTADA in concert at The Fillmore in San Francisco.

UTADA

I’ve been a longtime fan of Utada Hikaru since she first debuted at the end of 1998 with her single “Automatic.” I was a junior in high school and was in my final year of chuugakkou (middle school) in Japanese Saturday School, and I remember the whole class was buzzing about her as soon as she came on the scene. She was an instant hit in Japan, and I remember having her first album First Love on repeat for months — it was one of those albums in which pretty much every track was good, and it amazed me that this girl who was one month younger than me was writing and singing these songs. What talent! She continued to churn out hit after hit in the coming years. The Japanese drama-holic that I am, I came to associate a lot of her songs with the dramas they became theme songs for. First Love with Majo no Jouken, Can You Keep a Secret? with HERO, Sakura Drops with First Love, Flavor of Life with Hana Yori Dango 2, Prisoner of Love with Last Friends, and more recently, Eternally with Innocent Love. (All great songs paired with great, addictive dramas… although now that I look back on them, with the exception of HERO and Hana Yori Dango, they’re all pretty dark, depressing “forbidden love” type dramas. But I digress.)

Utada is one of the few Japanese artists out there who have the English language skills to make for viable success in the international market, since she grew up going back and forth between Japan and New York. Even before Utada set her sights overseas, she was starting to attract international audiences and fans. Unfortunately, her first major debut attempt in the US with the album EXODUS sort of bombed (in my personal opinion), and for a few years, she seemed to go back to focusing on her already-hugely-successful musical career in Japan. She came out with a second album early last year titled This is the One, which seems to show more promise.

This month marked the beginning of Utada’s first official American tour. So far, she’d performed in Honolulu, Los Angeles, and Seattle before coming to San Francisco. I went to the concert under the impression that she would probably be singing mostly if not all English songs as her set list, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that she sang almost half and half in terms of English songs vs. Japanese songs throughout the concert. I think she understood that much of the audience was of Asian background and that there were some fans who had come from Japan as well, and so she catered to the hopes that she’d sing some of Japanese classics. Among the songs she sang were Sakura Drops, Automatic, First Love, Stay Gold and Can You Keep a Secret?. We were able to meet up with my fun coworker Estella and her brother at the concert, and we nostalgically rocked out to some of our Utada favorites.

I couldn’t take any pictures or video footage because cameras were strictly forbidden at the concert, but my friend Vince found this clip that had been taken at the concert last night and sent it to me. It’s of First Love. (Thanks Vince!)

There are some more videos online (although not of the San Francisco performance) that showcase more clips from the rest of her set list. I think they’re from her concert at the House of Blues in LA on the 19th.

From here, Utada will go on to perform in Las Vegas, Chicago, Boston, and then to her hometown here in the States, New York City. I hope that the rest of her tour is a success and hope that she can continue to break into the US music industry — I’m excited to see what the future has in store for her. I’m happy that I finally got to see her live, and hearing her sing took me back to the starry-eyed high schooler I was ten years ago. I feel like digging up that dusty First Love album from my closet and once again putting it on repeat.

Cupkates Truck

January 23, 2010 By Misono in Foodie Love, Local Gems Tags: bakery, Berkeley, cupcake, cupcake truck, cupcakery, Cupkates Truck, Facebook, lemon raspberry, Oakland, red velvet, s'mores, Twitter

If you know me, you know that one of my latest obsessions is cupcakes — more in terms of eating them, rather than making them (although I do enjoy trying my hand at a few cupcake recipes here and there).

So when I heard about Cupkates Truck from a friend recently, I was immediately intrigued. Cupkates Truck is a mobile cupcakery, and the very first “cupcake truck” in the whole Bay Area. They wander around Berkeley and Oakland selling delicious cupcakes straight from the truck (like a taco truck, except with cupcakes!) Their cupcakes are apparently baked fresh daily with local high-quality ingredients. Sounds like a winner to me! 🙂

We actually didn’t get a chance to try them until today, since aside from us being busy, the truck moves to a different location everyday and sells out promptly within a couple hours of arriving. You have to be on the ball to catch them before they’re out of cupcakes, especially on a weekend (which is really the only time we can get them, since we’re both at work when they’re out and about during the weekdays).

Let me tell you right now that Cupkates Truck is a slice of heaven that you will not want to miss out on. If you don’t believe me, here are some mouthwatering photos.

Cupkates Truck parked in Elmwood — Today, the Cupkates Truck vending cupcakes in Elmwood.

Got my cupcakes! (Note: This photo of me is not one of the mouthwatering photos I was referring to... haha* Just keep scrolling down to see the good stuff.)

Almost too cute to eat. But we ate them (of course).

s'mores cupcake — S'mores cupcake. It really did taste as amazing as it looked.

lemon raspberry cupcake — Lemon Raspberry. Unfortunately, the frosting took a hit during the drive home so the tip is gone. The raspberry buttercream was too buttery and not fruity enough for my taste, but the lemon cake portion was pretty awesome even by itself.

red velvet cupcake — Red Velvet. I'm a huge fan of red velvet, and this one did not disappoint. I took a bite and felt like I died and went to heaven. I didn't want to come back down.

I’m so glad that we were finally able to track down Cupkates Truck after stalking them on Twitter for quite some time now. Their cupcakes are definitely some of the best in the area, and have a great balance of seasonal/unique flavors and traditional (like double chocolate and double vanilla). You can follow them on Twitter or Facebook to see where they are daily, and look up their available flavors on their Menu. I know I will definitely be paying them another visit soon to get my cupcake fix.

Mochitsuki in San Francisco

January 21, 2010 By Misono in Arts and Culture, Local Gems Tags: Asian Art Museum, Japan, Japanese, Kagamikai, mochi, mochitsuki, New Years, San Francisco, SF

I am so behind on updating our blog. The beginning of the year is somehow always so busy. I promised myself that I would make some solid New Years resolutions but I haven’t even gotten a chance to sit down and do that yet. Is it too late? It’s still January… maybe as long as I can get them figured out by the end of this month, I will be okay.

So another fun thing we did earlier this month was attending the Mochitsuki event at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Once essential to the Japanese New Year celebration, the practice of mochitsuki (mochi pounding) is now rare even in Japan, as people tend to eat store-bought mochi rather than make their own in today’s hustle and bustle society. San Francisco-based Kagami-kai is a group dedicated to maintaining the Japanese tradition of mochitsuki, and this was their sixth year performing and churning out mochi for the masses at the Asian Art Museum.

My friend Akiho was visiting from Virginia Tech because she was interviewing for an internship position at UC Berkeley, so she, Dan, and I went together with some of our friends from the San Francisco Bay Area Japanese Language and Culture meetup group. It was quite an experience — the Kagamikai’s mochitsuki performance was very impressive, and the taiko drumming accompanying it was equally breathtaking. We even got to have a bite of mochi at the end. Growing up with Japanese traditions, it really doesn’t feel like the New Year has come until you have some mochi. 🙂

Below are some photos and video footage of the mochitsuki action:

For more information on this yearly event, please hop over here.

Send Relief to Haiti

January 14, 2010 By Misono in In the Headlines Tags: earthquake, fund, Haiti, One Day's Wages, relief, rescue

As many of you know, on January 12, 2010, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the country of Haiti, just 10 miles from the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince. There have been at least 13 aftershocks with magnitudes above 5.0, according to the USGS. At least one major hospital was destroyed, and the city of Port-au-Prince is particularly vulnerable to damage due to its high population density.

Haiti ranks as one of the least developed countries in the world, and has an approximate population of 10 million,with most citizens living below $2 per day. According to the World Food Program, more than half live on less than $1 per day – in extreme global poverty. A series of major hurricanes in 2008 left the country with soaring food prices and major flood damage.

We don’t have much, but millions of people in Haiti have far, far less — so we have been trying to find ways that we can help.

You can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 via the Red Cross, and text “YELE” to 501501 to donate $5 to Yele Haiti’s efforts.

If you want to help with larger donations, there are several organizations that are currently trying to send relief to Haiti. The organization of our choice was One Day’s Wages.

For most of us, a typical workday is just 8 hours. For the people of Haiti, their lives drastically changed in just one moment. How can we use our 8 hours of work – our One Day’s Wage – to offer compassion and support to Haiti that will far outlast our workday today?

My friend Diesa has been in Haiti for a few weeks, and we’ve been able to determine that she is safe and unharmed, but she has not been able to receive or send out any calls. She said that countries are sending way too many reporters with cameras and not enough relief. Please donate (either through One Day’s Wages or another organization of your choice) to help send Haiti what it needs most, which is more rescue workers and medical supplies.

To them, every little bit counts.

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