One of the evening tv specials had a Japanese title, and an English title for that extra special touch.

The show was mostly about a 19 year old policewoman, who is working in an area with bars and whatnot, so she's seeing some of the best drunks around. Also a mother and daughter team working in a grocery store, picking up shoplifters. And a woman ( Read more... )

I was thinking about a little incident that happened a few years back today, and considering how modern technology would have changed things.

( an incident from the past... )

Okay. I know I'm missing something here.

Let's start with the basic product, because it isn't well-known in America. Basically, peep ee- rehkey-ban. (ビッブエレキバン, if you want the Japanese) The peep seems to be just noise. The rest of the name seems to be a shortened version of electric bandage, interestingly enough. What it actually is, is little ( Read more... )

If you were in Japan, the odds are good that you were outside, trying to see the solar eclipse. Despite clouds here and there, most of us got at least a glimpse of a fiery ring, or a fingernail clipping of bright light with a dark shadow over it. Along with all the fun of trying out pinhole cameras and various solar glasses that had been on ( Read more... )

We went to lunch with a friend to a new restaurant in a nearby mall. The name is Baqet. I had sesame roast chicken, coated in black sesame. The friend had chicken in tomato sauce and basil, Florentine style, according to the menu. Mitsuko had some kind of gratin ( Read more... )

Okay, now that's amusing. I may not have the figures exactly right, but basically...from the news last night.

One of the small towns here in Japan hit by the earthquake and tsunami last year has carefully converted a lot of the trash into a pile of woodchips, ready for slow burning. Let's be honest, it was more like a small hill of woodchips. ( Read more... )

Yomogi mochi (toasted), a little brown sugar and soy sauce, and cinnamon?
( A winter treat )

This morning's news had a visit with an 80-year-old Japanese woman basically to talk about her hobby. It started with her explaining that when she was 50, she was having trouble remembering things. She said that she would look up a phone number in her address book, then start to punch it into the phone, and realize partway through that she had ( Read more... )

One of the TV shows recently showed us some of the back story for the sushi that we all enjoy here in Japan. Negitoro, kazunoko, and amaebi.
( add a bit of corn oil? )

Oh, drat... we had a visiting group of Japanese high schoolers here, and I was invited to join them for lunch. Talk and lunch, that is -- I know we're the exotic entertainment. Faculty, that is ( Read more... )