Elephant Bar in Burlingame, Restaurant Review

I know there are many Elephant Bar restaurants in California. According to their website, they have restaurants in Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona. My wife and I know at least three Elephant Bars that we occasionally visit in our area. The closest to our house is in Hayward. It is on Hesperian Boulevard in the Southland shopping mall. This is the one we eat at most. The other one is on the other side of San Francisco Bay. It is in Daly City, in the Serramonte shopping mall. Since the shopping mall is our favorite, my wife and I eat lunch or dinner whenever we happen to be there. The third one is one in Burlingame. Burlingame is the place where I first lived when I arrived in the San Francisco Bay area. It was the first Elephant Bar restaurant that I dined at.

When I was living in Burlingame and working in the office in Brisbane, I used to lunch or dine in this restaurant at least once a week. This Burlingame Elephant Bar is uniquely located. It is on the Old Bayshore Highway, running to the San Francisco International Airport. The restaurant building is facing San Francisco Bay. Park your car and walk into the restaurant. Although the lighting inside is indirect and relatively dim, the inside of the restaurant is bright during the daytime as the Californian sun shines into the dining area from the bay.

Elephant Bar is a fusion-style cuisine restaurant. They have ethnic style dishes, mostly originating from South East Asian countries, China, or Japan. They have a great variety of salad or vegetable-based dishes. My favorite is Caesar salad. My wife always takes the salad combination with fruit and crab meat. The fruit that comes with the salad varies, such as pineapples, apples, or pears. My favorite appetizer is the salmon tempura roll. My wife's selection is always the Vietnamese shrimp spring roll. They serve fabulous steak sandwiches. Their variations of fish are excellent, including salmon steak, ahi tuna, or rainbow trout.

We like the restaurant's selections for the lunch and dinner menus. However, there is one thing that this Burlingame Elephant Bar has that no other one does. It is the view of the San Francisco Bay. From almost all of the tables and booths, customers enjoy the view over the ocean of the San Francisco Bay during a sunny lunch time. The blue sky of Northern California is a great and relaxing view. Since the restaurant is close to the airport, customers can also enjoy the world famous parallel landing to San Francisco International Airport.



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Restaurant Review, The Slanted Door: Neo-Vietnamese Cuisine

I visited Vietnam for the first time in September 1996. I was impressed in many ways, but I was impressed most by their cuisine. My friend, who was stationed in Ho Chi Minh City, took to me several restaurants he knew. The food I experienced in those restaurants was excellent. Their dishes were very well presented and visually enjoyable. The spring rolls, which were made rice paper, were fresh and lightly seasoned; they were best suited for people had newly arrived in the country and who were tired after their long airplane ride. Chicken-based rice noodle soup was also lightly salted and tasty. Later I learned that the Vietnamese are proud of their cuisine since it is a mixture of Chinese, French, and native Vietnamese influences. Their pride is quite understandable.

Although it is not easy to find an authentic Vietnamese restaurant in Japan, I have found many good Vietnamese restaurants in San Francisco and in the Bay Area. They are generally good; however, I was looking for something more. There had to be a restaurant in this area that served the same amazing food I tasted in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

It was my wife who told me about the Slanted Door after hearing about the restaurant from her Vietnamese friends. I would have liked to have known the reason for the Slanted Door's impressive name, but there was nothing on its website to tell me the reason behind it. The restaurant is located in Ferry Building 1, near the Bay Bridge, and has very good views of the Bay Bridge. There is a bar to the left of the entrance.

The dining floor is located along the bay coast, and there is patio dining outside. The interior of the restaurant is modern and futuristic. I like how the windows facing the bay coast bring in sunshine.

The dining was superb. My wife ordered spring rolls for an appetizer, and I ordered the green papaya salad and oyster. My wife ordered noodles with crab meat for her main course. I ordered the restaurant's famous "shaking beef." My wife loved her meal. She later told me that the restaurant had the best Vietnamese-style dishes she had ever had. My oysters were fresh and tasty, and I loved my beef dish. The meat was tender and juicy. The sauce was the combination of fruity sweet, Vietnamese-style spicy sauce, and a little bit of sour vinegar. I told my wife how good the beef was and she became interested in my dish, although she does not usually eat beef. She tried some and ended up eating half of it.

The only problem with this restaurant is that it is very popular and crowded. Since we went there without a reservation, we needed to kill more than one hour before we got our table. Though it was worth the wait, we recommend making a reservation for lunch and dinner.



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My FB Page, "CrossCultureSquare" gained more than 500 "like"s

My Facebook Page, "Cross Culture Square", based on my website "Cross Culture Square", has passed 2 months since its launch, in June.  I provide links and image of the page below, but you can easily search in Facebook by keyword of "CrossCulturalSquare".

The purpose of this page was to promote and sooth the communication between different cultural background.  I hope it would help promoting not only communication, but also understanding, further the spirit of helping each other in cross-cultural community.

Although I had prepared this page for months, it was officially launched and shared in my own Facebook wall last Wednesday, June 8th.  The third day from the launch, 25 people liked it, and could formally named it "CrossCultureSquare".  Although the page has short history of about one week and still not so many posts, it gathered "likes" in 7 days.  Now I am pleased to inform you that people who "like"ed this page went over 200.  How are people in the world today conscious about communication over cultural difference and gaps.

Actually, the number of people who "like"ed this page continued to grow and it is over 512, today.  I would like to express my hearty appreciation to the people who gave me "like" on the CrossCulturalExchange FB Page for past 1 week.  Also deep gratitude for people who have written on the wall and gave me messages.

There were many impressive messages to the "CrossCulturalSquare".  Here is a message from Joseph in New York.  He said "Understanding and respecting each others cultures leads to better friends all over the world."  Akira of Japan wrote "5 Elements may or may not be all.  But I think "discussing" itself would promote cross-cultural understanding.  It would also deepen "respecting" and "understanding" the different culture."  I agree with both gentlemen.  Thank you, Joseph and Akira.

I cannot thank enough for your help.  I will do my very best not to disappoint you on my operation in CrossCultureSquare.

Link:  http://www.facebook.com/CrossCultureSquare

My "zi" iFrame Link: http://www.facebook.com/CrossCultureSquare?sk=app_229239457102605









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Kiyomori Taira Built the Foundation for Samurai Age

History teaches in Japanese elementary and middle schools teach students that 1492 is the beginning of Samurai government. 1492 is the year when Yoritomo Minamoto established Kamakura Shogunate. Samurais, from its word origin, were warriors who fought for emperors before this Kamakura Samurai government. The word Samurai came from a verb "Saburau" in Japanese language. "Saburau" means service. Samurais were servants to emperors and aristocratic government before the sixteenth century.

There were, however, Samurai family who took control of government before Yoritomo Minamoto in the fifteenth century. By the early twelfth century, after their peak time in ruling power, aristocratic government started to be corrupted. People from Fujiwara family were dominating high positions in government that time. They did not care about people who were starving to death and struggling for life due to long-lasting drought. Aristocrats were enjoying their lives, playing, dancing, drinking, or partying. No aristocrat thought about reforming Japan and its control.

When a civil war broke out based on a power struggle for selecting next emperor, aristocrats did not have any way to stop the violence. Kiyomori Taira was the leader of "Heike" family. He fought for Goshirakawa emperor and won the war. This civil war brought significant changes in Japanese social structure. Although the sovereign power of the imperial family was preserved, aristocrats were no longer as powerful as before, due to ongoing power struggle. The situation was favorable for Samurai families, led by Kiyomori, because they held large army to fight.

After two major civil wars, Emperor Goshirakawa appointed Kiyomori a highest rank which Samurai could become before him. His position was functions of Police Chief together with Chiefs of Staff. His influential power to the government became huge. In addition, Emperor Goshirakawa trusted him and respected him. Kiyomori started to participate in politics. He appointed his family members to be government officers and his clan, "Heike" replaced aristocrats who were the center of politics.

He failed to maintain the success because he copied aristocrats' way. He made his daughter married royal family's son and became a grandfather of the next emperor. In the process of his political game, he and his family lost their original power of fighting. They were no longer "Samurai", but just emerging new aristocratic family.

The royal family started to be apprehensive of Kiyomori family's power became too large. After Kiyomori's death, his clan's enemy family, Minamoto rose from their suppressed situation and destroyed Heike family.

People have regarded Kiyomori and his family, "Heike" as inimical family, which controlled royal family. Kiyomori changed the concept of Samurai to be just servants. He proved that Samurai could take part of politics. He built the foundation of coming Samurai era.






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Zen Story

Zen became one of main streams of Buddhism in China in 6th century. The form sitting both legs crossed is famous worldwide. This style of sitting was not invented in China. It was there since Yoga in India. Chinese priest, Daruma, used this sitting form in 6th century. He was against King that time and put in jail. He kept himself sitting for 9 years and lost both arms and legs, but he gained ultimate status of mind and opened his Buddhism, Zen.

Zen teaches that anybody can reach ultimate status of mind if one trains him. Origin of Kung Fu is Zen. Kung Fu is dynamic style of training, while Zen meditation is static. World famous meditation started from this Buddhism. Because it asks people train themselves, this was well adopted by Samurai people in Japan in 15th - 17th century. It is under Zen philosophy Samurai believed to die or to live should have the same meaning if meaningful. Later, Zen philosophy became one of key principle of Bushido, doctrine of Samurai.

Although Zen was undoubtedly adopted and known by people all over the world by its powerful meditation practices, there is a part of Zen, which is not well-known. It is brain training. If one is interested in Asian Philosophy, readers might have heard "Everything is nothing. Nothing is everything". It is difficult to understand for modern ordinary people. There are reasons for Karate, Kendo, and Martial Arts Trainings to seek for ultimate master status to Zen Spirit.

It is extremely profound philosophy, which makes one think in-depth and length. Zen seeks for the ultimate status of mind to be blank and pure so that one can accept everything like a baby, but at the same time, to be separated from any influence that accompanies pain, agony, fear, and anger.

A famous ancient Japanese Zen priest said that the fire burning him would not be hot, since he controlled his mind so that nothing could affect him. This brief statement conspicuously shows the ultimate status for which Zen is seeking.

The other famous statement of Zen world is; "Everything is nothing. Nothing is everything." There is millions of interpretation on this statement. The fact is there is no correct interpretation, at the same time. Think about Roman Empire, Mongolian Kingdom, Third Reich, and Japan Pacific Empire. Historically, they were there prosperous and powerful. They looked like imperishable. All of them have gone now, however. They perished as if they did not exist at all. Still it does not mean all human society has gone. It is still there. In this sense, this statement is quite right when we take a look at history from time length. They were there, then. They are not here, now.





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Do Not Prepare Excuses First

When I was working in a Japanese electronics company, I saw many people who were reluctant to participate in a new trial. In a competitive situation involving salary raises and position promotions, the best method for ensuring one's salary and position is to not make any mistakes. The best approach for not making any mistakes is to do nothing. However, there is a problem. If one does nothing, he may not make a mistake, but neither will he make himself stand out from the crowd. What can he do? He can create excuses in order to prepare for his failure. Then, a person would be armed with thousands of reasons for his failure. In this way, he would be able to justify any failure.

This is a little different from taking a constructive approach to being prepared for the worst scenario, because building logical excuses is not constructive. In the process of preparing excuses, a person will have to imagine how things can go wrong. Therefore, he is subconsciously imprinting the failure pattern in his brain. If one is serious about being successful in his trial, this is the worst approach. Although a person can avoid losing face or losing his position, he will also diminish his chances of success in the attempt. He would hope to be successful if he tried something new, right? I would.

Taro was an assistant manager in a software company.

He was good at blaming others for his project failures. He made his colleagues responsible for the results and accused their venders. He also made his subordinates scapegoats. Therefore, he avoided direct responsibility for his failures. A big project caught his attention because with it he might obtain a promotion. He could expect a significant raise if he succeeded. However, by that time, he had become infamous for his excuses. Therefore, Taro's boss did not recommend him to the company's management, and he could not get the job he wanted because of his excuses.

Obviously, there is doubt about how to effectively prepare an excuse. Repeating excuses could backfire as in Taro's case. I have seen my colleague's boss call him "Cry-Wolf Peter" because of his many excuses. Management tends to favor subordinates who try their best. When they fail, they should accept responsibility and apologize. Using too many excuses is like digging your own grave. In addition, in the cases of self-employed people or entrepreneurs, there is no reason for preparing excuses. We try and either succeed or fail. If we fail, we analyze the reasons and try again.






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Historical Figures Who Stabilized Buddhism in China and Japan

There are some people we learn about in history lessons during high school. It is clear what years they lived and what they did. These facts may be seen as the X-axis of history. They form a chronological horizontal line using time as variables. But usually we do not pay much attention to the people who lived in the same era but in different places. Those people may have interactive roles in history. They form the vertical axis. The Y-axis of history uses places as variables. We may be able to find interesting facts about history if we pay attention to both the X- and Y-axes of history.

Today, I was thinking about Buddhism. I know several famous historical figures. I picked four key people from the history of Buddhism, without paying much attention to which age they lived in, and discovered an interesting fact. Buddhism, an Indian-born religion, propagated to China between the first and the second century. It became popular in China and was introduced to Korea in the fourth century and Japan in the sixth century. The following are the four key features that stabilized Buddhism in China and Japan.

Bodhidharma; He was an Indian monk and the founder of Zen. He was active in the 5th and 6th centuries in China.

Xuanzang; He was a Chinese Monk. He traveled to India to obtain and deliver original Buddhist documents to China. (602 - 664 AD.)

Prince Shotoku; He was a Japanese imperial crown prince. He was the key person who brought Buddhism to Japan. He built the foundation for the stabilization of Buddhism in Japan. (574 - 622 AD.)

Jian Zhen (Ganjin in Japanese) was a Chinese Monk. He propagated and stabilized Buddhism in Japan. (688 - 763 AD.)

While thinking about early days of Buddhism in China and Japan, I selected these people without knowing their chronology. It is evident from this list that the propagation of Buddhism from India to China and Japan happened in a relatively short period between the sixth and seventh centuries.

Buddhism today would not exist without all the efforts of the foregoing four people, especially Jian Zhen (Ganjin in Japanese), who was invited to teach and guide Japanese Buddhist monks and to stabilize Japanese Buddhism in the early stages. He tried to travel to Japan six times. However, his first five attempts failed due to political reasons and storms. He lost his eyesight during the storm that occurred on his fifth attempt. At the time of his final attempt to travel to Japan, he was sixty-six years old. He did not give up going to Japan to propagate Buddhism. He finally made it in 753 AD. His contribution to Japanese Buddhism is priceless.



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Respect Your Enemy

Bowing before a fighting match is a Japanese Martial Arts tradition. China is the origin started this practice. This practice can be seen in any fighting art, in Asia, not just in Japan. Western chivalry carries same spirits and overlaps the principles. Basic principle in bowing to one's enemy before fighting is to show respect to his enemy.

There were some Samurai Leaders who did not respect their enemies in Japanese history. One Local Lord who almost unified Japan in 16th Century was one of them. He destroyed and changed Japanese Ancient Regime. In this sense, he is noteworthy figure in Japanese history. His approach, however, to his enemy, was with hatred and destruction. He attacked a temple, killed all priest, and burned down the temple. He did the same to Ninja village. According to the history, he drunk Japanese Sake with a cup made by his enemy leader's skull. He was like Earl Dracula, the Japanese Version.

On the other hand, there were some others who gave full respect to their enemies. A Local Lord in the backside of Japan repeated fierce fights against his enemy over a mountain area territory in early 16th Century. He respected his enemy so much that he had sent salt and saved his enemy and his country, when his enemy suffered from lack of salt because of stopped supply.

Why did a Samurai need to respect his Enemy? Why they had bowed, before they fought for their lives? By bowing and showing respect to his opponent, they were sending wordless message to his enemy. Their messages were like the followings:

I respect you as a Samurai. I promise you that I will fight you under rules of Samurai fighting. I promise that I do not do anything disgraceful to win. If I win and you lose your life, I will not disgrace your body, soul, and family. I will respect them as I respect you.

In other words, the one fighting under Samurai spirit must be philosophical, spiritual, ideological, and strong in giving this message. They must be fighting for the reason they believe to be right, to the extent that he can kill or die. This concept defines the base for Samurai fighting spirit. They fought just for righteousness. They did not fight for any disgraceful reason.

An interesting fact is that Samurai, who respected their enemies, and fought under righteousness and justice in their history, had rewarded with somehow happy ending. On the other hand, ones, who did not respect their enemies, who fought for their own aims and greed, had tragic results. Betrayal of his own subject killed this Japanese version of Earl Dracula before he unified Japan. The family of Samurai, who sent salt to his enemy, survived long and chaotic period.





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Origin of Samurai

There are a lot of Japanese words that become known worldwide. Judo might have been the first one as the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 introduced it to be an official sport in the Olympic games. Other examples are Karate, Shogun, Keiretsu, Bushido, and Samurai. As one types these words, word processor software does not give the typist the warning of a typo or a misspelling. How do non-Japanese people in the world picture "Samurai"? They may think they are warriors who are skillful on using the world deadliest swords.

This vision is right. For those who are not familiar with the word, Samurai, Samurai is a Japanese term referring to Japanese soldiers. Even Japanese people assume Edo, Shogun era Samurai when they refer to Samurai. A Samurai started to appear in Japanese history around early 8th Century. The Great Generals became official positions when then government was fighting against local tribes in Japan for unifying all Japan. There were 4 Great Generals depending their defense responsibilities. They were Great Generals for the East, for the West, for the North, and for the South. Before the Great Generals, the difference between Emperor's noblemen and generals were not clear. Noblemen were politicians, but they were warriors at the same time, upon the order from Emperor.

The Great Generals were professional warriors, and they formed their own professional soldiers forces. In 796, Tamuramaro Sakanoue became Grand General on top of Great Generals and became head of warriors. People called his position of Grand General Shogun. He is the first Shogun in Japanese history. Then the difference between lawmakers and warriors became clear. Aristocrats did not go to war any more. Fighting became the profession for soldiers.

Even Grand General being a position of Emperor's government, those soldiers were Emperor's army. Emperor and people called soldiers Samurai. The meaning of Samurai in Japanese is men of service for Emperor, government, and the people. The word Samurai became usual word in Japanese referring to soldiers.

As Aristocrats' government got corrupted in 10th century, Yoritomo Minaamoto, a Great General's son became Shogun in 1192. He opened independent administration in East Area of Japan. He is the first Shogun of Samurai government. After the Dark Age of wars and fighting in 15th and 16th century, as Emperor's power became weak, Samurai had been the center of Japanese politics and military system for almost 700 years.

Samurai government period ended in 1868, as then Shogun, Yoshinobu Tokugawa declared to return the political power to Emperor. Samurai was no longer governing group of Japan. Later part of 18th Century, after China-Japan war and Russian-Japan war, the doctrine of Samurai, Bushido became the center of attention. Bushi and Samurai have the same meaning, soldiers in Japanese. Bushido is the base principle of Bushi or Samurai. It was because Japanese education system needed to re-establish Japanese spirit and patriotism competing against foreign countries.

It was interesting historical fact that the first modern textbook of "Bushido" was written in English and published in the US in 1900. The title of the book was "Bushido: The Soul of Japan". The author was a young diplomat, Inazo Niitobe. It is also fascinating that the author was a Christian, since the last Shogun government, Tokugawa regime was persecuting Christianity so hard. In 1938, the first Japanese version of this English book is published in Japan. The military government before World War II, to drive Japanese to the war, abused Bushido. Bushido does not recommend dying when defeated.

Spirits of Bushido, however, survived this abuse. Based on never give up spirit for fighting to the end, deeply under the influence of Confucius, Sun-Zu, and Zen, Bushido is alive today, as the strongest principles of Japanese people believes.






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Be Kind to Yourself

According to a reliable psychology source, people who are kind to themselves tend to be kind to others.

If one likes relaxing in a coffee shop near his or her office during breaks from work, he or she would be happy to receive a discount coupon for the coffee shop. However, if one just concentrated on work, he or she would not appreciate the discount coupon for the coffee shop. Instead, he or she would be upset for thinking that a friend might want him or her to relax at a coffee shop during work hours. Such a workaholic would not be able to appreciate the kindness of his or her friend, although such kindness would be a wish for the workaholic's relaxation and unwinding.

Keiko is a relaxed girl who likes everything that most girls like. She likes flowers, and decorates her apartment with a lot of them. She brings flowers to her office for others to enjoy during busy work hours. One of her colleagues noticed her habit, and brought in a bouquet of flowers for her. Keiko was grateful, and used the flowers to decorate her office for everybody to see.

On the other hand, Haruko is career oriented. She works in Keiko's office, but is a business warrior. Haruko pretended not to notice Keiko's flowers because she was not interested in them. She hated flowers that took up her working space. When Haruko was given a bouquet of flowers for a Valentine's Day present, she called her flower-giving friend a hypocrite.

What made them so different? Keiko knows how to be kind to herself by relaxing and enjoying her flowers, which is why she can appreciate and enjoy her gift of flowers. She can also be kind to her friend who gave her the flower bouquet.

In contrast, Haruko does not know how to be kind to herself. She does not understand that relaxing and enjoying herself is a good way to show kindness to herself. Because she cannot be kind to herself, Haruko cannot be kind to her friend who gave her flowers on Valentine's Day.

However, we should be careful of one thing. We should be aware that there are differences between being kind to ourselves and overindulging ourselves. One should reward himself or herself, even if there is no one to applaud him or her. Yet, spoiling oneself is a self-centered and self-justifying process. For example, enjoying a bottle of wine with your spouse is rewarding yourself. However, drinking too much and complaining about your boss is spoiling yourself.




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