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| Wednesday, 26-Nov-2003 00:00 |
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Seppuku - A Practical Guide
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This is very funny! 
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| Monday, 24-Nov-2003 00:00 |
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Recipe Number 1: Kimuchi Nabe
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Thought a few of you would appreciate some Japanese recipes.
First, a classic winter warmer, which (strictly speaking) is Korean rather than Japanese: Kimuchi Nabe. Its incredibly easy to make and the recipe below should be enough for at least four people. The exact quantities depend on how hungry you are and how spicy you like it. If you don't like it so hot, go easy on the amount of kimuchi base you use and add more water instead.
Ingredients
1 Chinese cabbage (or normal cabbage)
1 Welsh onion
1 Pack tofu
1 handfull of Enoki mushrooms
Meat (chicken or pork)
Noodles (udon or ramen)
Bean sprouts
1 bottle of kimuchi base and kimuchi
Sesame oil
First, pour water and kimuchi base into a saucepan, and bring it to the boil. Next, put in the meat and wait for it to change a colour. While the meat is cooking, cut the cabbage and the welsh onion roughly and add them to the meat. Now throw in the enoki, bean sprouts and the tofu with just a little bit of sesame oil. Finally, add the noodles and serve.
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| Tuesday, 18-Nov-2003 00:00 |
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Dinner Time
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Drinks Machine
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Tonights Bento
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My Dinner
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| Sunday, 16-Nov-2003 00:00 |
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Thanks for stopping by!
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Fotopages have now updated their software to include stats on the number of readers. I was a little surprised to learn just how many of you there are! Thanks for checking the page and don't forget that you can post your own comments...
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| Saturday, 15-Nov-2003 00:00 |
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More travel pics
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I've been meaning to post more photos. Mario took the first one of Andrew and I in Berlin. We were VERY hungover from the night before (in fact, I think I was still drunk considering how much I'm hamming it up for the camera).  The others are mine - all taken in Paris.
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| Monday, 10-Nov-2003 00:00 |
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Yum cha Japanese style
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Dishes on the carousel
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Blue plates = Y480
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In the kitchen
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Went down to Kawasaki today to see "The Matrix: Revolutions". Wasn't very impressed - it falls somewhere in between a propaganda film and a Playstation II game. I'd go so far as to say the highlight of the screening was watching the trailer for the final Lord of the Rings film... 
At lunch I stumbled across this amazing place that does yum cha like kaiten sushi. You sit at a bar while the food passes by on a carousel. Brilliant idea - someone should open one in Melbourne!
Took these pics with my new mobile. Still experimenting with compression and the best ways to get them from my phone to the web.
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| Thursday, 6-Nov-2003 00:00 |
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Geriatric Japanese (or: Please stop staring!)
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Had yet another run-in with an old guy yesterday - again it was on the Yamanote line on the way to work. Am I being paranoid or do men here hit retirement age and suddenly become elderly bigots? I'm fed up with being told off for trivial things by old men with nothing better to do than talk rudely to foreigners on the trains. First it was talking on the train. Then eating on the train. Then sitting with my legs crossed (I think that was his problem)!
Elderly women don't spend their time admonishing foreigners. But they love to stare, particularly if I am walking alongside a Japanese girl. Its as if they are thinking "Look at that gaijin - he's dating one of The Collective!" It wouldn't be so offensive if it wern't so bloody obvious. You can be crossing the street talking to a female collegue when, hearing English, the woman in front of you turns 180 degrees and just looks at you...
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| Saturday, 1-Nov-2003 00:00 |
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Movie Buffs
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Well the whole I'm-sick-and-I'm-not-working thing didn't last long. Made it through work yesterday without any problems. Even went for a drink with Russell after work.
Russell is this film-mad guy from England (as he says, NOT the U.K.). He was a film editor in London before moving to Japan, and even worked on one of those "100 Greatest Film" shows. Suffice to say when we get together after work its all "did you ever see that movie with so and so" and "yeah, but that other movie is much better". I remember that at some point last night I was seriously considering hiring out half a dozen "Carry On..." films in the name of research (I don't know if I've ever watched one from start to finish). Things you say when you're pissed, eh?
On the subject of films, anyone in Australia who has a television (I know you're out there!) should watch this little documentary screening on SBS at 7pm on the 9th November. Its called "Grandpa's Games" and will no doubt be one of the highlights of the televisual decade.
Oh, did I mention my brother directed it? I've only seen a rough cut, however it promises to be typically Zane - very funny, very cynical.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/04/1067708201635.html
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| Thursday, 30-Oct-2003 00:00 |
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Called in sick...
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At home with the flu. Feel absolutely miserable, although its the thought of not getting paid rather than the illness itself which is annoying me most. Grrrr.
And this was going to be a BIG weekend - I was supposed to meet Garrett tonight, have a Japanese lesson in the morning, meet Naomi Saturday night after work and Lucy Sunday in Shimbashi. So far I've cancelled on Gadge and my Japanese class in the morning.
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| Saturday, 25-Oct-2003 00:00 |
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Time to sleep...
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Writing this entry at about 9 in the morning while sitting on the Keio train between Seisekisakuragaoka (yeah... bit of a tounge-twister, that one) and Shinjuku. While I managed to squeeze into the last remaining seat in my carriage, its busy, and I had to jostle with the bags of the woman sitting next to me to pull out my computer.
As always, almost every one of the seated passengers is sitting with their heads bowed and their eyes closed. The carriages is silent (just now not one conversation is taking place) save for the sound of the wheels against the tracks. The passengers are 'sleeping' - shutting out the claustrophobic confines of the carriage and imagining they are someplace else. For the most part, few are really dozing. The ones who are slowly let their heads fall onto the shoulders of the person next to them.
Is this a uniquely Japanese trait? Are there other places in the world where people shut themselves off from reality en mass?
No doubt 'sleeping' on the train is closely related to two other truly Japanese qualities: avoiding physical contact (see Tuesday's entry on http://www.hunkabutta.com/ ) and the Japanese love/hate relationship with noise. Alex Kerr writes about this in his book "Lost Japan". You can sit on a crowded train without one conversation taking place in your carriage. Walking out of the train station however, you are assulted by the sound of pachinko parlours and yakitori-ya screaming "Irrashaimase!!!" at the top of their lungs...
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