On my last day in Japan: It is glorious weather – cool, bright and breezy, smelling of new green life. I am hungover from the previous night’s hot sake bomb marathon It is a Good Japanese Day; I can conduct my final bank transfer with ease and ask appropriate questions at the Post Office Bleary-eyed […]
Food Culture
Adult Spice
This is the new flavor of Pringles I saw in the conbini the other day. Night Club, you say? Intriguing. I’ve always wanted a potato chip that tastes like cigarette smoke, tequila and desperation. How nice of the Japanese Pringles sector to predict my needs. Alas, friends. As I soon discovered, popping the top reveals […]
Girl, I Wanna Make You Sweat
I’ve come to the internet cafe – the one I practically lived in during my first internet-less 4 months in Japan – to print out an invoice for the magazine article I had published last month. Since I have so much time to kill after the printing, I shall share with you a recipe from Miho. It […]
Un-wrappers’ Delight
January 8th was the 2-year anniversary of my move to Japan. Because it’s my third January here, I can now notice the common signs of the new year in Japan: bright and nippy weather, massive New Year’s sales, giggling 20 year-old girls clomping down the streets in vibrant kimonos on Coming of Age Day, bamboo […]
Hot Pastrami
Sean and I are at Madison Diner and he has ordered a pastrami sandwich on rye. It is his first. He doesn’t like mustard and I told him he’d be stoned if he requested mayonnaise so he’s ordered it plain, just meat and bread. The sandwich arrives, easily 7 inches thick; layers upon layers of […]
The Darker the Broth
Yesterday, I made my last cranberry chain and didn’t care that Daisuke was complaining loudly to his friends that he didn’t want to do the Christmas lesson craft. I bid goodbye to my coworkers and wished them a happy New Year in Japanese; correctly, I might add, since that morning I had embarrassed myself by […]
Hot Lunch
The quality of my work day lunch depends on where I’m teaching. On Thursdays, I work near a seemingly endless shopping arcade and the choices are rich. I favor a steaming bowl of ika tempura udon soup, spiked with lots of spicy red pepper and black sesame seeds. For my mid-evening snack, I stroll past […]
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You Are Jealous of My Lunch, Again
It’s a chicken katsu bento, complete with black sesame-flecked rice, raw cabbage, pickled radish, pickled cucumbers (hidden behind the luscious, plum sauce slathered chicken katsu), a hunk of steamed egg, some spaghetti and a fresh slice of satsuma. Note, the beer is not mine; its empty shell is another leftover “present” from Sean.
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Conbini Lunch
Sometimes, when you’re rooting around for the day’s lunch in the conbini next to school, the choice is immediately clear: Note the Southeast Asia on a Shoestring guidebook in my lunch tableau. Plans are a-stirring.
Your 183-Word Mini Japanese Culture Lesson
Britain isn’t the only nation to enjoy flavors of the month; Japanese chain restaurants, too, are extremely fond of offering “limited time only” menu selections in honor of the new month or the new season. Colorful posters bearing the images of the offering will be splashed across the restaurant’s windows from the first of the […]