日報

No one asked, but I'm going to share Jiro's fruit rankings anyway.
Since I'm doing it, I'll divide it into childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

Childhood Fruit Rankings
1st Place: Pear
2nd Place: Peach
3rd Place: Strawberry

During childhood, pear was overwhelmingly number one.
My autumn delight wasn't the sports festival or my birthday; it was when pears came into season.

Adolescence Fruit Rankings
1st Place: Pear
2nd Place: Mango
3rd Place: Peach

Even in adolescence, pear remained the undisputed number one, but a new star,
mango, suddenly entered the rankings.
I didn't even know it existed in childhood, but then it suddenly appeared before my eyes,
and there was a time when I was captivated by how surprisingly delicious mangoes were.

Adulthood Fruit Rankings
1st Place: Strawberry
2nd Place: Peach
3rd Place: Mandarin Orange

In adulthood, which is my current ranking,
strawberry has become number one.
As I've gotten older, my interest in pears has faded,
and strawberries, being easy to eat, easy to buy, and delicious,
have become my favorite fruit.

As I was writing this, I felt like I had written about this before,
so I looked back at my past daily entries
and found that I had written about a similar fruit ranking!
How much do I love fruit?!

My former senior colleague used to say, "Natto tastes better if you mix it before adding the sauce." I didn't believe him at all. I thought whether you mix it first and then add the sauce, or add the sauce first and then mix, the result would be the same, so there wouldn't be any difference in taste.

Later, watching TV, I heard on an information program, "Natto tastes better if you mix it before adding the sauce, as it makes the umami more noticeable." I'm sorry for not believing you, Senior. Since I didn't believe it, I never even tried it.

In hindsight, it makes sense. The order of cooking steps can't just be random; it's quite normal for the order of adding ingredients to change the outcome.

Order. It's important.

Suddenly it's summer, isn't it? I feel like there used to be a little more of something between spring and summer. I wonder if it just disappeared.

There are two signs for me that tell me, "Ah, it's summer." One is when I no longer feel like taking a bath. Suddenly, the thought comes, "Oh, I don't need to take a bath today." When that happens, it's summer.

The other sign is when I pick up Ibonoito somen noodles at the supermarket. In summer, Ibonoito appears at the end of the supermarket shelf, and I can't help but pick it up. If I pick it up, that means it's summer.

The end of the supermarket shelf, if illustrated, is here:

|--------------------| ← Here

Another hot summer has arrived, hasn't it? Let's be careful not to catch a cold!

Yesterday, my YouTube channel reached 10,000 subscribers.

When I imagine that 10,000 people have pressed the subscribe button, it really makes me realize what an amazing and trulyありがたいこと (thankful/grateful thing) it is.

It was a number I had set as a goal, so I'm very happy to have achieved it, and the fact that it's the result of building things up one step at a time has also given me confidence.

Considering that I started YouTube last November with just two subscribers—my own personal account and my videographer/editor Konegi's—it's quite moving to realize that I've come quite a long way without even noticing, just by walking one step at a time.

Once again, thank you very much to everyone who watches my YouTube videos, visits the kikkake website, and places orders. I will continue to create content that you can enjoy, so I hope you will keep watching.

When I started YouTube, I said, "If I'm going to start, I want a Silver Play Button!" (a commemorative award given when a channel reaches 100,000 subscribers). Since I've come this far, I think I'll aim for that next, moving forward one step at a time.

For now, yay!!!!!

The other day, I made green sangria. It was a luxurious sangria made with three shades of green: Shine Muscat grapes, melon, and kiwi.

These were all fruits I wanted to eat as they were. I thought a sangria unified by the color green would be cute, so I tried it, and it turned out just as cute as I imagined. The visual impact was amazing.

When I first tasted it right after making it, the white wine flavor was still quite vibrant, and it felt like I was eating fruit coated in wine. Each of the three fruits had a different sweetness, and it was enjoyable to eat each one while slowly sipping the wine.

A few days later, I tried the mellowed sangria again, and I was surprised by how different the atmosphere was.

The alcohol aroma had mellowed considerably, and the fruit flavors had spread throughout the wine. It had transformed into something like a luxurious adult fruit bonbon, and since I'm not a big drinker, I preferred the sangria after a few days.

There's no definitive "which is better" answer; it's just nice to enjoy the gradual changes in flavor as you slowly drink it.

I think there's so much I've realized and learned since I started filming cooking videos.

Initially, it was embarrassing because I never thought I'd actually see myself cooking.

Then, various things started bothering me. My knife grip, how I cut vegetables, how I hold my chopsticks, my posture—many things just looked "off" when I saw them on video.

Since I can fix what bothers me, I'm still a work in progress, but I think I'm gradually correcting things.

I had a similar experience in the past. At an end-of-year party at my previous job, I ended up participating in a project where colleagues and I performed a song. We went to karaoke to practice and recorded ourselves, but watching it was truly awful because it was so embarrassing and poorly done. I remember disliking performing in front of everyone, but seeing my own video was exponentially worse.

However, as we continued with the cycle of recording → practicing → recording → practicing, we clearly improved. By around the third time, I no longer minded watching myself on video and even started thinking things like, "I should do this a little differently."

I tend to overestimate my own abilities, so seeing myself from a third-person perspective, like on video, helps me understand my true skill level. I've realized again that it's essential for growth. Still, I'd rather not watch myself too much, to be honest.