Did you have your mochi yet? Chan and I had ours early. Chan has been feeling a bit under the weather so I grabbed this pack at Nijiya when I picked up some food for us. Cute yeah the decoration? I learned my lesson from last year, avoid all Japanese markets during this time because of the preparations for New Years! We missed out on mochi making at a friends house this past weekend but I do hope Chan gets better enough for the NYE get-together. Poor thing.

Did you folks have a good year in 2025? I’m trying to remember all the good that happened and the bad (not to be negative, just to reflect on) but I can’t seem to recall much. I remember the big things/memories, like our trips! But gosh, everything else is such a blur. It’s so hard to remember little details and moments. How can I get back to that? My mind is always racing from one thought to another…or stuck in the mundane humdrum of the day-to-day. 2026 is upon us! And surprisingly, I haven’t heard as much firebombs and fireworks this year thus far. Usually I start hearing it around thanksgiving. Perhaps last year really served as a tragic lesson? It’s too bad we can’t even play with sparklers anymore! Ah. Anyway, Happy New Year to you all and I’ll see you with new posts next year (next week)! 🙂

Pileus Cloud
(If this photo is yours, please let me know so I can credit you)

Not much of a mixed plate today, just a bit of storytelling. About a year ago, I went to a conference and was speaking with a fellow attendee who is originally from China. Part of our introduction assignment was to discuss the origin of our names. I have never asked or been told about the origins of my Chinese name. My English name, yes. My parents did not know English and asked either the doctor or a friend to name me and were given the name Jenny.

Anyway, the Chinese colleague I was seated next to was so warm and genuine that I felt inclined to ask her about my name. I’ve had a complicated relationship with Chinese people, a lot of my family members are directly from China and I have been treated quite poorly in my upbringing which has brought a hesitancy to talk to or be nice to other Chinese people in fear of getting hurt like I have in the past. Anyway, I wrote my Chinese name out for her in Chinese and she diligently started up looking the characters to find the meaning.

Soon, she told me it meant little cloud which was amazing to me because I just never assumed my name had any meaning (much like Jenny). Then something told me to look up my mom’s name and asked her to look it up as well. I forget the exact meaning of my mom’s name but it is associated with clouds as well which really touched me, that I was called little cloud after my mom.

Now about a year later, I got asked about the origins of my name again but decided to do the googling on my own. I looked up the name myself and pulled up pileus cloud. Do you see that image on the top of this post? Apparently the iridescent pileus cloud occurred in China, isn’t it just such a majestic sight? I feel so creatively charged when I think about this image and my name’s connection. I think about how much thought and consideration was taken in coming up with my name. The meaning is so deep. I do hope I have a chance of seeing an iridescent pileus cloud in person one day. Something about my name now brings me such a heartwarming feeling. If you don’t know the origins of your name, I do hope you go out and find it. You could be very pleasantly surprised like I was.