It's Tina again with your Kitchen Update for this month! This month marks THREE YEARS of the Tasting Room Pin Club! Behind the scenes, I've been learning more managerial stuff in a very trial-by-fire way as I learn the skills I need to serve you even better, but by fire is how food is cooked anyway. I really wanted to offer something special to commemorate the occasion, but one of those skills I'm learning to improve at is delegation. I'm not super good at it yet, so there's a LOT of behind the scenes work I'm doing that isn't drawing, and learning to be able to hand that stuff has been a tricky process for me but I'm so excited for what comes next as I get better at it, I have so much planned that I can't wait to share with you!

It has been an absolutely jam packed month as I've been hopping from con to con to con. We did Megaplex, then Stratosfur, Matsuricon AND Furry Migration! HUURRRKK. I AM EXHAUSTED and it was SO hard to keep up the menu while being on the road so much, but things are slowly getting easier and easier as I learn better ways of doing things. We have a break for a few weeks, but we'll be at BLFC, Anime Weekend Atlanta, Anime Frontier, Midwest Furfest and we -might- try to squeeze in another con or two. If you'll be attending any of those, make sure you RSVP so you can start working on unlocking your Maneki Nekos early! Visit http://www.sushitomodachi.co/kitchenupdate for links to RSVP!

During our travels, it became extremely clear that we need an official Sushi Tomodachi Ita Bag. Now, knowing me, the patron saint of perpetual overcomplication, I want it to be functional. I'm not satisfied with just a simple ita bag, and maybe that is part of why my menu is the way it is... Here's a sneak peek at what ive drawn up. I want this bag to be on theme while also offering the best pin protection money can get. I'm also designing it to be a transport bag - Not shown is the pin page insert I plan to offer as well. There's a LOT of development I need to do to get this dream bag made, but stay tuned and I'll show you how it all unfolds.

We've gotten in mold photos since the last update, and a few pins are being painted now! 

In the last month, I've made some big improvements to the Maneki Neko Achievements game as well. While I had created themed tasks to try to give folks a 'checklist' for each neko, it felt like the tasks were difficult for folks to complete. I simplified the game a bit to lower the barrier to entry - There's now a very simple neko that anyone can earn very easily. The Wasabi Neko is being produced in my next pin order, but I've made it 

so that anyone who sticks around for even a little bit can very, very easily achieve this neko. In fact, there's almost no way to NOT get it unless you're choosing not to! That's the goal, so if you are wondering what this neko is or how to get it, write us at shop@sushitomodachi.co OR drop a message in the #testing-grounds channel on Discord and let me know if you didn't get the details. You telling me will help me close up those gaps to help make sure that you and others will get that neko. A lot of things around here are broken, but that's part of what we do. We just go and fix things along the way as we discover they need to be fixed - It may not be the most glamourous, but we trust the process around here, and you're a part of it!

Remember to check sushitomodachi.co/kitchen for the very latest updates! There was probably a delay since this Kitchen Update was created, so check there or your e-mail inbox for the latest news. In case you haven't seen them yet, check your email to see if you're getting messages from us 

~ Tina

Head Chef
Sushi Tomodachi