White Rose for Mother's Day!

I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!

Here is a lovely white rose for everyone.

Thank you very much.

[Abstraction White Rose by Georgia O'Keeffe, 1927, oil on canvas.]

Happy that we can help the others!

During our two days of "Casual Day", we raised $42 by selling lowered price of J vineyard sparkling wine. To this we added $21, which we promised to donate $1 per Buddha's Blend roll sold on April, and on top of that total, $144 was added by owner and employees of Sushi Mono.

So, total of $207 is donated to Zimbabwe families through GlobalGiving Foundation.

Our donation of $180 will be feeding 3 families of 4 people for 4 months! How great is that!

We are very happy that we really can help the others, and will keep on going to make this world a better place! Thank you.

http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/food-for-400-orphan-families/

Sushi Mono's Casual Day (April 30th & May 1st)

Have you seen J Vineyards Brut Rose Sparkling Wine in our wine list?

This wine is from Russian River Valley, and has won a best of best sweepstake sparkling wine medal in 2010 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.

We only sold this wine by the bottle. However, we decided to sell this by the glass on our Casual Day, which is this coming Friday & Saturday.

So, come and taste this special wine! Thank you very much.

- Posted on Sushi Mono's Facebook Fan Page

Get the Ideas from the Past

Bankei Yōtaku (盤珪永琢, 1622~1693) was a well-known Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhist master, and the abbot of the Ryomon-ji and Nyoho-ji.

Bankei is most well known for his talks on the "Unborn" as he called it. Bankei's brilliance and directness reminds one of the style and approach of the ancient masters of the Ch'an tradition during the T'ang Dynasty.

Bankei evolved his personal calligraphic style. Other monks have made this circle with a single stroke, symbolizing the all, the void, and the moment of enlightenment when samsara, this world of sorrow, becomes nirvana. Bankei, ever the individualist, used two strokes, each strongly and quickly articulated. The effect is to give an entirely new meaning to the form; the strokes enclose each other like an embrace yet still suggest both emptiness and completion.

Guess where Sushi Mono's symbol came from?

Again, in Japanese "mono" means "human being(者)" and also it means "things in universe(物)". In English, we could say it represents "One". Hence, Sushi Mono logo has a meaning of "unify all things in universe".

Sushi Mono Mission
+ Support our Community + Build our Friendship + Link our World

"Let all unite as one through Sushi Mono!"

Cross Streets of Sushi Mono

I just took this picture with my iPhone today at noon. It shows our restaurant's two major cross streets: Front Street & N Wheaton Avenue.

It's very nice outside getting a lot of sunshine. Nice warm spring weather. I like it. Feel so alive!

Have a wonderful day!

Design Idea

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
-Leonardo da Vinci

Favorite Words

What We Think, We Become.
-Buddha

The Lady of Shallot, 1888

This was painted by John William Waterhouse(1849~1917) in 1888.

Wow! It looks like a photograph. Unbelievable.

Based on the poem with the same title, written by Lord Alfred Tennyson's in 1832.

Oil on Canvas
153 cm × 200 cm (60 in × 79 in)
London

Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette, 1886

Exactly 1 year and 2 months ago from today, I have quit smoking.

Yes! I usually smoked Camel Lights. I recently found out about this painting by Vincent van Gogh(1853-1890). I am lucky that I could quit smoking, and hope to keep this till the end!

Let's be healthy!

Oil on Canvas, 32 X 24.5 cm
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Importance of the Host

"The taste of the roast is often determined by the handshake of the host."
- Benjamin Franklin

Museum of Contemporary Art at Chicago

Finally, I've visited one of the art museums in USA. I accidently went this place, instead of going to the Art Institute of Chicago, however, I learned a lot from the visit.
Especially, I was impressed by the works presented by Olafur Eliasson. Also many inspiration came from R. Buckminster Fuller, the guru of the design and architecture.

These words written on the walls by Mr. Fuller hit me.
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
"A designer is an emerging synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist and evolutionary strategist." Untill here: Written on June 29th, 2009.

This guru actually gave me the idea to design my restaurant. Thank you.

Newman's Own Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006

I bought this wonderful wine today.

I admired how Paul Newman, the actor, dedicated his fame and wealth to produce love in our world. I haven't tried this wine yet, but I'm sure it will give me pleasure in my heart.

The label at the back of this wine has these words:
"Newman's Own Foundation continues Paul Newman's commitment to donate all royalties and after tax profits from this product for educational and charitable purposes.

Paul Newman and the Newman's Own Foundation have given over $250 MILLION to thousands of charities SINCE 1982"
How wonderful these words are! To tell the truth, not by the taste, but these lovely words made me buy this wine today.

Paul Newman gave me a huge inspiration, and made me a NEW MAN! I'm sure Mr. Newman is in the heaven watching over us. This wine will definitely be in our wine list.

Written on June 21st, 2009.

Started with a little Help through Global Giving!

About a year ago, my wife and I have started our giving through Global Giving Organization, which I noticed from the book "Giving" by Bill Clinton.

The amounts are not that much, but we felt warmth in our heart. We are happy that we really began giving, and this will keep us go further.

I started with the project "Save the Children Empowering Girls in Bangladesh", because I know how harsh their environments are since I have lived there when young.

My wife with the project "Help Millions of North Koreans Facing Food Crisis". North Korean people are in hunger, because of their false minded ruler who is spending tons of money by making nuclear matters. We hope we can reduce their stress with our little help.

Hope all help others. IMU URI.

Visit http://www.globalgiving.org/ for more information.

Setting the Admirer - Danny Meyer

My mother, our investor, gave me this book about 2 years ago.
She read this before me, and suggested that I should read this to become better in managing restaurants.

I learned a lot from Mr. Meyer's business philosophy, and understood the importance of hospitality. I admire his achievements, especially his dedication to develop that generous "enlightened hospitality".

I never met him, but he will be my mentor. He not only taught me how to open and manage my restaurant, but also how entrepreneur should act to help the poor.

Visit his company's websites, then you will know a little about him. http://www.ushg.org/

Let's start GIVING!

The book that I have read is "Giving" by Former President Bill Clinton. It contains much information about how we can share our love and help those who are in needs.

When young, I lived in the poorest country in this world, Bangladesh, and there are tremendous people who are waiting for our help.

Let's start GIVING!

The Importance of Wine's Locations & Vintages

Romans loved wines.

They began to find better wines by locations and also knew the importance of its vintages.
It's not hard to see that Romans spread grape trees all over the Europe, especially to France and Spain. To England, however, they knew the soil wasn't fit for grape trees, thus it is difficult to find English wines. Maybe that's why the region became famous for Whiskeys???

Did you know that one of the top class trading items of Roman Empire to India at that time was Italian wines? I hope that I could try one of those wines (in my dreams perhaps).

Let's help others!

I'm so happy that I can help others as planned.
Starting with small, but I'm not stopping.