I went to my favorite Asian store the other day, Tokyo Market, to purchase udonko – udon flour. Whilst I was there nosing about, a young couple came in with their toddler daughter. She was transfixed by the round eyed stranger and suddenly shouted: Annie May! and was quite happy about it.
Her parents looked at me and shrugged and I smiled to say, “It’s cool’. She did it several times until finally, the father picked her up and very embarrassedly told her to shush. She giggled and whispered to him. He smiled and asked me, “Do you know about anime?” Of course I know about anime! He explained she was calling me “Anime” because one of the animes he watches, Bleach, has a couple of characters white hair. I myself follow Bleach. My hair is long and silver white.
I solemnly took her little paw in mine and thanked her for the special name. She just giggled and said, “Bye Bye Annie May” as they left the store.
Misosazai (wren) no Chesterfield has now added Annie May no Chesterfield to her several titles. I like it.
![images[5]](https://kanzensakura.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/images5.jpg)
kanzen sakura 
Jan 26, 2014 @ 14:24:04
Kids are soooooo c.u.t.e. Don’t they add sunshine to everyone around them? This post makes me smile.
Jan 26, 2014 @ 16:12:26
Me too. It has made my month.
Jan 27, 2014 @ 16:30:29
I know what you mean. 😀
Jan 27, 2014 @ 02:09:11
I went to my favorite Asian store the other day
*sigh* My favorite Asian grocery seems to have closed shop. I have never seen udonko at the one I frequent now. I will probably look into this King Arthur bread flour, since I know I can get it at Wallyworld.
More on-topic: my daughter is going to our local con as a vocaloid character.
Jan 27, 2014 @ 18:38:15
Since Cimmy is the baker, ask her about a very high gluten flour. The King Arthur is in our area and not sure if in yours. But it is made with winter wheat and high gluten and has worked well in the past.
How cool about your daughter! You will post a pic, won’t you?
Jan 27, 2014 @ 18:54:59
We have King Arthur at our local Supercenter– I will have to check to make sure to get the right one.
Yep, I do understand the difference… you understand we’re not too far from wheat country, right? Hard red winter wheat is very easy to get here, actually. It’s the softer summer wheats that are a little more difficult to obtain.
And yes, I fully intend to post a photo– along with several others at the con. Stay tuned 🙂
Jan 27, 2014 @ 19:38:42
I am pleased you know about wheat. Sadly, most folks just look at flour as self-rising or all purpose and what is on sale. I am looking forward to pics of the con. We ate sadly deficient on such events in this area.
Jan 27, 2014 @ 14:00:56
Love it! Annie May…Anime!
Jan 27, 2014 @ 18:34:53
I agree. Two friends have started calling me Annie Mae
Jan 27, 2014 @ 19:18:17
Fun!
Jan 27, 2014 @ 19:39:07
Very fun!
Jan 27, 2014 @ 14:34:35
What a Lovely story!! Interesting choice of graphic also. This was from the final fight between Ichigo Kurosaki and the “Vasto Lorde,” Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra Cifer was a very interestingly crafted character. During the original release I recall there was some speculation as to whether he would turn out to be a “stealth goodguy,” But alas no…
I find it interesting that most of the names in Bleach have a pleasant sound to them whether they are read western or eastern style. I mean this in both senses using Japanese syllables or English, and names reversed first name last, or the proper way. I wonder if this is intentional.
Jan 27, 2014 @ 18:34:31
I am sure it is intentional. I called my Samurai by his last name (as did his co-workers and acquaintances). After a bit, I called him by his “first” name. I find many of the Japanese words/names pleasant and rhythmic. Several other Japanese friends (usually the male ones) go by their last names. The graphic I thought gave a good idea of white hair – and I liked the story behind it.
Jan 28, 2014 @ 09:41:38
I have a colleague–American, but a Japanese scholar of some merit. I believe I shall put this to him and see what he thinks about it.
Jan 28, 2014 @ 10:52:07
That would be interesting as I am certainly no scholar in this. I do have a love for their seasonal words and meanings. Iteboshi is one of my favorites = frozen stars
Jan 28, 2014 @ 11:03:19
my how beautiful…
This individual of whom I write is the very same who originally introduced us to animé. Although I remember watching and enjoying something called “Marine Boy” in the 1960ies with a young nephew of mine. I remember thinking it was like no other cartoon I had ever seen. Some research much later yielded the knowledge that it was actually the very first animé/Japanese/American collaboration to be released in the US. Strange I had an affinity for it then and I did not even realise this fact.
Jan 28, 2014 @ 11:08:55
I remember Marine Boy! Friends and I would get high and watch it.
Jan 28, 2014 @ 13:37:31
If I remember correctly, my more recent research had the Japanese title, translated as something like:
“Sea-Bottom Boy Marine” or something similar. Yes, I just looked it up again Kaitei Shonen Marien
Jan 28, 2014 @ 14:29:15
I remember it in a pleasant haze. ahh, to be young, free and stupid again. I am always amazed and amused at how things translate. and how they take things from us and incorporate into their culture and create words for the new creation use – such as Kentucky Fried Chicken and how it is a big thing there on Christmas Eve. and bracksu – black suit – meaning, those black suited executives. One day, I shall win the lottery and go back – take advantage of the public baths, get stuffed in a train, eat kentakkii again – which tastes exactly the same there as here. I’ve told my dear lad he is welcome to go but if he stays, that’s his choice.
As a mutual good friend has stayed in close touch with my Samurai (the Jeff in the story), he kept us up to date with each other – more guarded on my part. it was hard to have to call and inform him of the suicide of Jeff. his voice has not changed.
> Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 18:37:31 +0000 > To: thspencer51@hotmail.com >
Jan 27, 2014 @ 14:37:12
On another note, my white-haired friend, On the occation that I might find myself playing an MMORPG, I tend to design my female characters with white hair. I think it looks… well… cool….
Jan 27, 2014 @ 18:30:40
It is. my friend Beni has started calling me Annie Mae and thinks my white hair is cool. A young Japanese friend is doing a hybrid anime comic and has me as one of the characters – Misosazai – I asked him to please make me tall and voluptuous and not like the beach ball I am in real life. he is obliging me, kind lad that he is.
Jan 28, 2014 @ 08:07:18
Really when I think of it with more depth of attention, Annie Mae is really a very clever nickname–particularly for you. (And I must admit, in the MMORPG vein, I too tend to make my characters voluptuous also…..
It is an interesting phenomenon that I am not addicted to such games considering how particular I can be regarding my environs. After all, I can have everything look as I wish. Of course… It is very much like writing, or any even more creative endeavour wherein one shapes the world to suit his ethics. There are, for example several universes in which I write wherein I do just that. It is all for my own comfort and Mrs. Emeron is my only companion in such places.
Jan 28, 2014 @ 11:04:30
I am the same way about the games and have noticed, through comes history, women are voluptuous and men are racked. Perhaps some of that geek wish fulfillment. Do you know the term “bishi”? The Japanese use it for beautiful boy or young male, particularly shounen and bishounen anime. If you look at many of the male singers/actors, you see a lot of that pretty thing going on there. Odd and interesting.
Jan 28, 2014 @ 11:09:54
Re Bishi. I am familiar with the term. In Animé I see the concept strangely taken seriously and simultaneously spoofed. The Japanese, take together, are an interesting lot!
And one see that crop up in game character creation also.
Jan 28, 2014 @ 14:22:49
Yes, I can personally attest they are an odd lot. but I like ’em! In gaming, anime, music. I call a lot of the female JPop cat music – they sound like little cats recorded on 34 rpm and played at 78 rpm.
> Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 16:09:55 +0000 > To: thspencer51@hotmail.com >
Jan 28, 2014 @ 17:22:00
Odd and fascinating. I am not sure another country has a Cuteness Ambassador, or as Mrs. Emeron will oft remind me when I bring this up, more than one Cuteness Ambassadors. Japan actually has a small delightfully cute army of them, apparently….
Jan 28, 2014 @ 19:36:17
Ninjas, assassins, and cuteness ambassadors….yeppers. All in a nice rice paper bundle. > Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 22:22:01 +0000 > To: thspencer51@hotmail.com >
Jan 28, 2014 @ 19:51:43
These are state-sponsored, as well. I am not quite sure why the Japanese government decided that these were necessary, but they are indeed very cute.
http://goo.gl/bNGsrc
Jan 28, 2014 @ 20:26:47
I certainly prefer to the secretive and dyspeptic representatives seem to have. I think one would have a hard.time lying to one about stockpiled weapons, for example.
Jan 28, 2014 @ 20:37:04
Yes I do not believe I would have the heart to do so….
Jan 28, 2014 @ 20:40:29
Think of the uproar if someone tried to.imprison Pokemon.
Jan 28, 2014 @ 20:47:22
heh…
Jan 27, 2014 @ 19:46:11
And I have gone back to wearing it in one long braid. Sometimes free of but it likes to fly about on its own, as if put my hand on one of those round electro-stayic thingies. Fun but several very of white hair flying about can be annoying. My lad said I should dye it red. I had to explain it would end up reddish pink, which amused him greatly. Now that he said would cool. Maybe but a 62 year old round midget with rose colored hair I think would be rather frightful.
Jan 28, 2014 @ 09:19:57
Such a character, pictured in the abstract, I imagine to be endearing. And on another note… I recently researched how one can colour ones hair to be stark white (as in AnnieMae, for example) It appears to be a two step process. First an extreme bleaching with colour correction followed with “purple” shampoo and conditioner. This apparently give a very light blonde colour. Second, a toner application with similar colour correction followed by the same purpule regimen. These are suggested to be most effective if done on successive days, so I have learned. My hair–a deep auburn now shot though with grey would be a fairly easy canvas to achieve this, I am give to understand. Mrs. Emeron, graced (or she would claim “cursed”) with very little grey and hair much darker than mine would have more trouble. But I understand it would be possible for anyone to achieve this.
And… On a further related topic. I recently read that some team of research biologists have recently earned the Wossname Prise for discovering the mechanism behind the greying of hair.
It turns out that it is not as was once supposed: that some pigment mechanism wears out, or turns off. Quite to the contrary. As we become more old and wise, a bleaching mechanism in the follicle actually “turns on.” This understanding promises to give us a drug or treatment to return our hair to its youthful colour (if desired) in fairly short order (measured in “research years-“-which, in my experiecne are similar to “dog Years.”
Jan 28, 2014 @ 10:58:44
I had been told if I wanted ref hair about the two step process. Brown and blonde shades do not require the process. I am happy with the whitey silvery hair and occasionally use that purple shampoo because at times, the white hair can become brassy. I started the graying process in my 20’s. When I went in hospital for cancer, I was well on the way to iron gray. When I woke from anesthesia, it was white with just a few errant strands on black. Apparently nature just decided to award me with wisdom, such as it is.
Jan 28, 2014 @ 11:13:58
And a good deal of it; that much is certain!
Jan 28, 2014 @ 06:39:58
Lovely indeed! Thanks for such a great post, and more power!
Jan 28, 2014 @ 07:13:31
Thank you very much. I am glad you enjoyed.
Feb 02, 2014 @ 12:42:02
Oh, This is such a beautiful poem, I simply love it! I am so excited to have found your blog! It is inspiring and I am hoping to visit often!
Feb 02, 2014 @ 13:54:22
Thank you! I hope you will visit often. it will be good to see you.