Another American restaurant chain coming to Japan

This one should be a HUGE hit:

http://www.japantoday.com/category/picture-of-the-day/view/girls-girls-girls

Christmas in Japan mean KFC

http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/haruka-ayase-launches-kfc-christmas-campaign

Too much wine

And the prices they've paid seem excessive as well.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20101020a4.html

Special rice for special Tigers

Hanshin Tigers

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20101019a5.html

Amazake

Sweet sake. Actually, briefly fermented sake, very low in alcohol. It's sometimes served hot as osettai (a free gift for visitors) at temples which, actually, is where I first had it. It's particularly nice with a little fresh grated ginger.

A little more sushi

It looks like a fancy cake, doesn't it? But it's cooked shrimp topped with avocado topped with shreds of raw squid topped with mayonnaise.

Sweet potato pie -- seriously!

Eggplant with miso sauce.

Sakidori

Sakidori is an old Japanese word that nobody under 50 who I've asked has ever heard it. It means feeling a season before it arrives. As I've said, fall seemed to arrive right on time, and the weather has generally felt cool though actually the temperature has been above normal every day except for two days of this past week of seemingly cooler weather. Obviously the low humidity has something to do with how comfortable it's felt. It's only been 50% or less most of the past week and, after this summer, that counts as dry.

Some of the stores are obviously feeling season that haven't come yet. Yesterday I stopped off at a lawson's conbini (convenience store) and found these brochures, for ordering your Christmas cake, toshikoshi soba, and osechi ryori.

YOur last meal of the year is supposed to be noodles, preferably soba. Long noodles = long life

I started this blog in late December, talking about almost nothing but osechi rypori. I'll get back to this topic in late December.

How white is your rice?

Usual white rice, usual brown rice, and less usual haiga mai (mai mean rice, haiga means germ, the nutrient-rich part of the grain). My mother-in-law dropped some off at our house on her way home from milling a few tens of kilos for household use. It's much milder in flavor than brown rice and much higher in nutrition than white rice. A pretty good compromise.

Cha no yu (tea ceremony) for the rest of us

It had to happen. Actually, it's probably happened many time, but this is the first time I've read about someone taking the traditional Japanese tea ceremony and making it attractive to a new generation.

http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/drink/japanese-tea-ceremony-gets-fresh-update-busy-salarymen-and-office-ladies-774458?hpt=Mid

How weather

This morning it's FINALLY a little cooler, about 24 at dawn instead of 26 or 27, though it's still expected to get up to 33 today and 34 tomorrow. Still, every little bit helps.

We've concentrated on cold meals lately, some rather inventive.

Rice harvest

Now you see it

and

now you don't.

Whale meat in schools

The government's so-called "scientific" whaling has accumulated a surplus of whale meat, so the're selling it at a steep discount to schools.

According to the article, the average price for whale meat is over 2,000 yen per kilo. That's over US $10 per pound. Rather high, I think.


"Whale meat back on school lunch menus" in the Japan Times.