Only in Japan would the highest-grossing character be edible. And literally full of beans. He's not really even based on a pastry- he IS a pastry. Well, his head is. That is the part that is edible. Don't worry, Chef will bake him a new head.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Byebye Kitty
Just kidding- nothing is official yet. This article from the NYT suggests that Kitty's days may be numbered, but I think that's far off yet. She may be declining in popularity, but she's still everywhere. I was surprised to read she's not the highest-grossing character in Japan. No, that honor goes to Anpanman, who is, as the article states, "based on a Japanese jam-filled pastry." It can sometimes be called jam, but the more standard English term is bean paste.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Best since Koizumi
In two years and ten months total in Japan, I've lived under 5 prime ministers. Koizumi was in his third term (terms are only two years) when I first arrived in 2006. Upon returning in 2007, we had Abe, Fukuda, Aso, and now Hatoyama. Quite a lot in two years, huh? Abe and Fukuda resigned over scandals and declining popularity; Aso stayed in office despite scandals and declining popularity. His party was resoundingly defeated in the election last summer. The Japanese don't use the electoral college system (being, you know, not America) but I saw a great American-style map of the winning party by prefecture. 45 prefectures went majority Democratic Party of Japan, while only two stuck with the incumbent Liberal Democratic Party. Japanese politics works a little differently than anywhere else I know of. Cabinet members are always being indicted for their role in some scandal or making ridiculous statements such as "Japan has only one culture, one civilization, one language and one ethnic group." (Courtesy Taro Aso; at the opening of a museum whose displays tell about the influence China and Korea have had on Japan's heritage.) Fukuda also made comments (off-the-record) that some college women who were raped were "dressing as if to say 'Give it to me.'" Yikes. Before you get too mad, remember that comments like this are what helped force him to resign.
Political families are the norm- rags-to-riches tales hold no sway here. Americans have the Kennedys and the Bushes, but just imagine if EVERYONE was from that type of family. Technically, Fukuda was the first PM (in over 100 years of prime ministers) whose father was also a PM, but it is very typical for your close relations to have been Cabinet ministers or members of the Diet. Many political families are related by marriage, too; Aso's and Abe's fathers-in-law were PMs. It's rather incestuous. The average Japanese is not very political; you can guess why. My friend Kayoko once told me she feels she can't trust any politician. People are interested in local politics- I saw plenty of parades leading up to Hyogo's prefectural election day last summer, and some campaign offices for city councilmember hopefuls were located on my street, so I got a front-row seat to the action. But national politics is so full of corruption and scandal that it seems to be a big turnoff. Sidenote: I read a review of Jenny Sanford's book-- juicy!
But I think the revolving door of prime ministers has stopped for now. Since Hatoyama was elected in August, I felt that he was different. He is from a different party, the DPJ, whose image is not as scandal-tarnished as the LDP's. He went to Stanford for grad school (met his wife Miyuki there) and his son is a visiting researcher at Moscow State University, so I thought he'd be more worldly than past PMs. Just as I thought: he has been praised for improving ties with Asian neighbors and making American policy decisions more transparent. But lately he also made a controversial statement: Hatoyama is antihuman!
What he actually said, in Japanese, was that the earth would return to a natural state if there were no more humans. He went on to say that "Since we humans are here, we must take responsibility for the Earth." He also made statements about global warming and how it is a big mistake on our part. In Japan, global climate change is accepted as fact and we have all moved on with our lives and begun to ecologize.
The ironic thing here is that in a country where politicians are constantly making gaffes and saying things they should not, this was not one of them. The Japanese are so much more environmentally-minded than most Americans I've met, and would not have viewed Hatoyama's comments as controversial. Thanks to CNNgo for trying to kick up a storm about his statements. Aren't there real controversies you can cover? Another sidenote: Do you really think Paterson will stay in office?
In fact, I think Hatoyama is the best PM we've had since Koizumi, and perhaps may prove to have a better foreign policy. I'm excited for Japan's near future.
Political families are the norm- rags-to-riches tales hold no sway here. Americans have the Kennedys and the Bushes, but just imagine if EVERYONE was from that type of family. Technically, Fukuda was the first PM (in over 100 years of prime ministers) whose father was also a PM, but it is very typical for your close relations to have been Cabinet ministers or members of the Diet. Many political families are related by marriage, too; Aso's and Abe's fathers-in-law were PMs. It's rather incestuous. The average Japanese is not very political; you can guess why. My friend Kayoko once told me she feels she can't trust any politician. People are interested in local politics- I saw plenty of parades leading up to Hyogo's prefectural election day last summer, and some campaign offices for city councilmember hopefuls were located on my street, so I got a front-row seat to the action. But national politics is so full of corruption and scandal that it seems to be a big turnoff. Sidenote: I read a review of Jenny Sanford's book-- juicy!
But I think the revolving door of prime ministers has stopped for now. Since Hatoyama was elected in August, I felt that he was different. He is from a different party, the DPJ, whose image is not as scandal-tarnished as the LDP's. He went to Stanford for grad school (met his wife Miyuki there) and his son is a visiting researcher at Moscow State University, so I thought he'd be more worldly than past PMs. Just as I thought: he has been praised for improving ties with Asian neighbors and making American policy decisions more transparent. But lately he also made a controversial statement: Hatoyama is antihuman!
What he actually said, in Japanese, was that the earth would return to a natural state if there were no more humans. He went on to say that "Since we humans are here, we must take responsibility for the Earth." He also made statements about global warming and how it is a big mistake on our part. In Japan, global climate change is accepted as fact and we have all moved on with our lives and begun to ecologize.
The ironic thing here is that in a country where politicians are constantly making gaffes and saying things they should not, this was not one of them. The Japanese are so much more environmentally-minded than most Americans I've met, and would not have viewed Hatoyama's comments as controversial. Thanks to CNNgo for trying to kick up a storm about his statements. Aren't there real controversies you can cover? Another sidenote: Do you really think Paterson will stay in office?
In fact, I think Hatoyama is the best PM we've had since Koizumi, and perhaps may prove to have a better foreign policy. I'm excited for Japan's near future.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Adventures Await
So what is this fabulous adventure I mysteriously alluded to in my last post?
Well, it all started a few years ago, even before we left for Japan. Actually, I can even trace it back to an AIM conversation between me and Bob before we started dating. We were doing the all the "get-to-know-you" stuff, and Bob said that his passion in life was to travel. I agreed. At that time neither of us had been to more than a few foreign countries, and had barely seen any of our own country, but what traveling we had done, we liked. And we wanted to do more. So when we were moving to Japan, one of noted Japan's proximity to Russia. I don't remember who first suggested that perhaps we could ride the Trans-Siberian Railroad when we were done with Japan. The original plan was to stay one year, then go home via train all the way to Western Europe, maybe London, and then fly home. I even bought a Trans-Sib guidebook back in July 2007 with some Barnes and Noble gift cards I got for graduating college. Then we arrived in Japan. The plan soon snowballed. We liked living abroad so much that we wanted to do it in more places. So we got to thinking. The plan became to ride the Trans-Sib to Europe and then work there, probably teaching English, perhaps in Poland or Turkey. Or the Czech Republic...or Greece...or Spain... so many opportunities!
At some point we ended up staying three years in Japan, and while we still like living abroad, we want to do more traveling. We do travel every break we get, which has allowed us to see the Philippines, Vietnam, Korea (twice!), Hong Kong, and quite a bit of Japan. But on these travels, especially in Southeast Asia, one always meets long term and round-the-world travelers. I met quite a few of these people when I went to Malaysia and Singapore four years ago, and Bob met several when he went the year after. Meeting people in hostels and hearing their fabulous stories is so inspiring, and also quite jealousy-inducing. The icing on the cake was when I found this great blog of an American family of six who went the whole way around the world without losing a single kid. At first I thought, I'd love to do that with my kids one day. It didn't occur to me that I have a great opportunity to do it right now.
Luckily it did finally occur to me, or Bob, and we started making plans. They were small-scale at first. Well, we already have this plan to go to Russia and Europe. Why don't we add in Southeast Asia at the beginning? It's quite easy to get from Japan to Bangkok, Singapore, Manila, or Jakarta. Then we could just work our way up through China and hook up with the Trans-Sib. And Bob has always wanted to go to the Middle East, so... why not go through Eastern Europe to Turkey, then swing down and see Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt? Then from Egypt, Africa is right there....
Several good friends who we met here in Japan have returned or moved to the southern hemisphere, so we decided to add Australia and New Zealand as our first stop. And we had such a good time at home last summer, plus Bob's got a free plane ticket home, that we decided we should go back to America for a month or two. We've also got two weddings to attend. So the trip as it now stands:
Fly to Virginia- stay through at least October 2nd- drive cross-country to California- fly to New Zealand- Australia- Southeast Asia, most likely including Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao- China- Mongolia- Russia- Eastern Europe, most likely including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and others?- Turkey- Syria- Lebanon- Israel- Jordan- Egypt- down the coast to South Africa- fly to South America- meander about with a sort of northward direction, and eventually find our way back to VA.
Here's where you come in. If you are moving abroad, live abroad, or have a good friend who does, let me know! We want to visit as many people as possible. Heck, you don't even have to live abroad; we'd love to come visit you on our cross-country trip. We will definitely be seeing friends/family in South Carolina, Texas, Colorado, Christchurch, NZ; Canberra, Melbourne, and Perth, Australia; Damascus, Syria; and possibly Liverpool, England. Know anyone else we should visit? Let us know!
Well, it all started a few years ago, even before we left for Japan. Actually, I can even trace it back to an AIM conversation between me and Bob before we started dating. We were doing the all the "get-to-know-you" stuff, and Bob said that his passion in life was to travel. I agreed. At that time neither of us had been to more than a few foreign countries, and had barely seen any of our own country, but what traveling we had done, we liked. And we wanted to do more. So when we were moving to Japan, one of noted Japan's proximity to Russia. I don't remember who first suggested that perhaps we could ride the Trans-Siberian Railroad when we were done with Japan. The original plan was to stay one year, then go home via train all the way to Western Europe, maybe London, and then fly home. I even bought a Trans-Sib guidebook back in July 2007 with some Barnes and Noble gift cards I got for graduating college. Then we arrived in Japan. The plan soon snowballed. We liked living abroad so much that we wanted to do it in more places. So we got to thinking. The plan became to ride the Trans-Sib to Europe and then work there, probably teaching English, perhaps in Poland or Turkey. Or the Czech Republic...or Greece...or Spain... so many opportunities!
At some point we ended up staying three years in Japan, and while we still like living abroad, we want to do more traveling. We do travel every break we get, which has allowed us to see the Philippines, Vietnam, Korea (twice!), Hong Kong, and quite a bit of Japan. But on these travels, especially in Southeast Asia, one always meets long term and round-the-world travelers. I met quite a few of these people when I went to Malaysia and Singapore four years ago, and Bob met several when he went the year after. Meeting people in hostels and hearing their fabulous stories is so inspiring, and also quite jealousy-inducing. The icing on the cake was when I found this great blog of an American family of six who went the whole way around the world without losing a single kid. At first I thought, I'd love to do that with my kids one day. It didn't occur to me that I have a great opportunity to do it right now.
Luckily it did finally occur to me, or Bob, and we started making plans. They were small-scale at first. Well, we already have this plan to go to Russia and Europe. Why don't we add in Southeast Asia at the beginning? It's quite easy to get from Japan to Bangkok, Singapore, Manila, or Jakarta. Then we could just work our way up through China and hook up with the Trans-Sib. And Bob has always wanted to go to the Middle East, so... why not go through Eastern Europe to Turkey, then swing down and see Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt? Then from Egypt, Africa is right there....
Several good friends who we met here in Japan have returned or moved to the southern hemisphere, so we decided to add Australia and New Zealand as our first stop. And we had such a good time at home last summer, plus Bob's got a free plane ticket home, that we decided we should go back to America for a month or two. We've also got two weddings to attend. So the trip as it now stands:
Fly to Virginia- stay through at least October 2nd- drive cross-country to California- fly to New Zealand- Australia- Southeast Asia, most likely including Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao- China- Mongolia- Russia- Eastern Europe, most likely including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and others?- Turkey- Syria- Lebanon- Israel- Jordan- Egypt- down the coast to South Africa- fly to South America- meander about with a sort of northward direction, and eventually find our way back to VA.
Here's where you come in. If you are moving abroad, live abroad, or have a good friend who does, let me know! We want to visit as many people as possible. Heck, you don't even have to live abroad; we'd love to come visit you on our cross-country trip. We will definitely be seeing friends/family in South Carolina, Texas, Colorado, Christchurch, NZ; Canberra, Melbourne, and Perth, Australia; Damascus, Syria; and possibly Liverpool, England. Know anyone else we should visit? Let us know!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
New Year's Resolution
I'm going to be a better blogger.
It would be hard to be worse, considering my last post was over a year ago. There's nowhere to go but up! That is good news. I don't even know if anyone reads this... it's not like I've given you any good reason to, with my erratic/ nonexistent updates. But I've got only about 200 days left in the Land of the Rising Sun. Okay, maybe a little more, maybe as many as 220. Still, not many. I want to document this whole experience... well, I wanted to document this whole experience, but it seems that I will have documented just a little here and there and (hopefully!) a lot in my final months. Whatever. Point is, I don't want to forget everything that happened. My life in Japan is fantastic. Honestly, I don't want to go. But Bob is ready to leave, and we've had three great years here, so I guess it's time. Little known fact: we originally came planning to stay only one year,but ended up staying three. For that I am eternally grateful to my husband. And, even better, a new adventure is starting soon.
So. I need to get back into the habit of blogging (or into it for the first time) so that I won't forget the end of this adventure, or the beginning of the next one.
What's your New Year's Resolution?
It would be hard to be worse, considering my last post was over a year ago. There's nowhere to go but up! That is good news. I don't even know if anyone reads this... it's not like I've given you any good reason to, with my erratic/ nonexistent updates. But I've got only about 200 days left in the Land of the Rising Sun. Okay, maybe a little more, maybe as many as 220. Still, not many. I want to document this whole experience... well, I wanted to document this whole experience, but it seems that I will have documented just a little here and there and (hopefully!) a lot in my final months. Whatever. Point is, I don't want to forget everything that happened. My life in Japan is fantastic. Honestly, I don't want to go. But Bob is ready to leave, and we've had three great years here, so I guess it's time. Little known fact: we originally came planning to stay only one year,but ended up staying three. For that I am eternally grateful to my husband. And, even better, a new adventure is starting soon.
So. I need to get back into the habit of blogging (or into it for the first time) so that I won't forget the end of this adventure, or the beginning of the next one.
What's your New Year's Resolution?
Saturday, December 6, 2008
That's Why I'm Not the Iron Chef
Bob and I have been watching a lot of "Ryoori no Tetsujin" lately. That's Iron Chef to you. It's not on the air anymore but many of the episodes are on Youtube, including some fantastic ones on milk, natto (fermented soybeans,) and umeboshi (pickled Japanese plums.) I started to play Iron Chef in my own kitchen, trying to come up with "original dishes that can truly be called works of art." I'm afraid, though, that my creativity is severely lacking compared to anything the Japanese pizza companies can dream up.
I like to read the ads that come through my mail slot purely for humor value. I've never ordered a pizza here, at least not for delivery. Dominos and Pizza Hut do exist here and I think they do a pretty brisk business (pizzas cost 18-30 bucks a pop, so I think they must be making money.) Papa John's is still limited to South Korea, sadly. If any Papa John's authorities are reading this now- GET OVER HERE!
But do not think that the pizzas here are the same as your precious American Dominos. No no no. It has all been reenvisioned, repackaged and renamed for the Japanese consumer. They have the fairly normal ones like Margherita, Pepperoni and Mozzarella, and the "American Special." None of these are on the top 3 "Most Popular" list or the 5 "Children's Favorites." No, to understand what makes a Japanese pizza, you need to go back to the very foundation of pizza. First, take the crust. Crust can be either regular, thin, mille-feuille (kinda like puff pastry, with many layers), or double mille-feuille (that means two thousand layers!) Camembert cheese often makes an appearance, layered between two crusts or sneaking in between the sauce and the mozzarella cheese. Moving on to the sauce- normal tomato sauce is used on about half of all pizzas, and pesto maybe once or twice. But the rest feature bolognese sauce, chili sauce, teriyaki sauce, curry sauce, SPICY FISH EGG SAUCE, and the vaguely named "white sauce."
I cannot even begin to describe toppings to you other than to say: Potatoes. Corn. Mayonnaise. Scallops. Anything goes. And this is at one of the more Americanized pizza chains. Expect seaweed, cauliflower, canned tuna and fried glutinous rice at the homegrown chains. Yes, you can order a la carte toppings, on a normal cheese pizza, but the instructions for doing so take up about a 1-inch width at the bottom of the 2-page menu spread. It seems that is not done here. The pizza topping that sticks up must be hammered down. I will give Japan points for one thing- pizza technology, it seems, has advanced further than in America, and pizzas can not only be divided into halves but QUARTERS. With radically different toppings. And no tipping your delivery guy!
So now with a bit of background, you understand how bizarre pizzas can get. But even knowing all this, and feeling quite original lately in the kitchen, I was gobsmacked when I got the Dominos ad today. Yes- they have figured out a way to combine STEW and PIZZA. Their new "Cheese Ristorante" line of pizzas has 2 options. You can get the Truffled Beef Stew: a pizza crust, smothered with the aforementioned beef stew, covered in mozzarella cheese, and for the finishing touch, dollops of whipped cream cheese adorn the edges like the numbers on a clock.
Perhaps the Tomato Cream and Crab sounds better. It's similar to the above but instead of stew the crust is topped with a tomato cream sauce, crab meat, and broccoli. That is then covered with mozzarella cheese and artistically arranged Camembert cheese. (I don't get it with the Camembert here.) I wish I had a scanner so I could show you the scientific-looking cross sections of pizza, on page 3 of the ad. Oh, and by the way, these cost 4500 yen each, which right now is about $40 or $42. Just can't decide which one to get? Simple! You can order the Half and Half, and try them both. Honestly, if I had my whole life to do it, I don't think I could have ever come up with such a pizza. Bob told me, "That's why you're not the Iron Chef." That's true. Once again, the Japanese Dominos has astounded me with their creativity. I'm not sure why they were never on Iron Chef- though I have a sneaking suspicion that they'd get all points for originality and none for taste. All I know is, I don't want to be eating that middle piece where the stew and crab cream blended together.
I like to read the ads that come through my mail slot purely for humor value. I've never ordered a pizza here, at least not for delivery. Dominos and Pizza Hut do exist here and I think they do a pretty brisk business (pizzas cost 18-30 bucks a pop, so I think they must be making money.) Papa John's is still limited to South Korea, sadly. If any Papa John's authorities are reading this now- GET OVER HERE!
But do not think that the pizzas here are the same as your precious American Dominos. No no no. It has all been reenvisioned, repackaged and renamed for the Japanese consumer. They have the fairly normal ones like Margherita, Pepperoni and Mozzarella, and the "American Special." None of these are on the top 3 "Most Popular" list or the 5 "Children's Favorites." No, to understand what makes a Japanese pizza, you need to go back to the very foundation of pizza. First, take the crust. Crust can be either regular, thin, mille-feuille (kinda like puff pastry, with many layers), or double mille-feuille (that means two thousand layers!) Camembert cheese often makes an appearance, layered between two crusts or sneaking in between the sauce and the mozzarella cheese. Moving on to the sauce- normal tomato sauce is used on about half of all pizzas, and pesto maybe once or twice. But the rest feature bolognese sauce, chili sauce, teriyaki sauce, curry sauce, SPICY FISH EGG SAUCE, and the vaguely named "white sauce."
I cannot even begin to describe toppings to you other than to say: Potatoes. Corn. Mayonnaise. Scallops. Anything goes. And this is at one of the more Americanized pizza chains. Expect seaweed, cauliflower, canned tuna and fried glutinous rice at the homegrown chains. Yes, you can order a la carte toppings, on a normal cheese pizza, but the instructions for doing so take up about a 1-inch width at the bottom of the 2-page menu spread. It seems that is not done here. The pizza topping that sticks up must be hammered down. I will give Japan points for one thing- pizza technology, it seems, has advanced further than in America, and pizzas can not only be divided into halves but QUARTERS. With radically different toppings. And no tipping your delivery guy!
So now with a bit of background, you understand how bizarre pizzas can get. But even knowing all this, and feeling quite original lately in the kitchen, I was gobsmacked when I got the Dominos ad today. Yes- they have figured out a way to combine STEW and PIZZA. Their new "Cheese Ristorante" line of pizzas has 2 options. You can get the Truffled Beef Stew: a pizza crust, smothered with the aforementioned beef stew, covered in mozzarella cheese, and for the finishing touch, dollops of whipped cream cheese adorn the edges like the numbers on a clock.
Perhaps the Tomato Cream and Crab sounds better. It's similar to the above but instead of stew the crust is topped with a tomato cream sauce, crab meat, and broccoli. That is then covered with mozzarella cheese and artistically arranged Camembert cheese. (I don't get it with the Camembert here.) I wish I had a scanner so I could show you the scientific-looking cross sections of pizza, on page 3 of the ad. Oh, and by the way, these cost 4500 yen each, which right now is about $40 or $42. Just can't decide which one to get? Simple! You can order the Half and Half, and try them both. Honestly, if I had my whole life to do it, I don't think I could have ever come up with such a pizza. Bob told me, "That's why you're not the Iron Chef." That's true. Once again, the Japanese Dominos has astounded me with their creativity. I'm not sure why they were never on Iron Chef- though I have a sneaking suspicion that they'd get all points for originality and none for taste. All I know is, I don't want to be eating that middle piece where the stew and crab cream blended together.
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