Rice and Ramen

Happy 2019 everyone! Though to be fair, it is already the end of January, and even by Japanese standards it's too late to say "Happy New Year." I just realized I haven't written since November, back when Troy and I climbed Mount Takao to take a look at the fall foliage. Needless to say, there's no more autumn colors here in Tokyo (though still shocking amounts of green on trees everywhere; it NEVER feels like winter here to me despite the somewhat chilly temperatures). The end of 2018 was a bit of a hectic rush, what with the natural chaos of the Christmas holidays colliding with a lot of advanced work to prepare for my two-week vacation. I used up the rest of my vacation days to spend some well-deserved and much-needed RR back in Chicago, where I did nothing except sleep, eat, watch TV, and catch up with friends and family. Returning to the "real world" after that was a bit of a shock to the system! But I'm all settled into my usual routine...

The humble plum blossom is like, perhaps, the sakura's often overlooked younger sister. A bit of a wallflower, you might say. Sakura blossoms get most of the love both in Japan and overseas--you don't see Starbucks, for instance, putting out a line of ume-themed snacks and drinks. I would argue, however, that ume are just as, if not more, delightful than sakura. Ume bloom in a variety of colors, from a sort of pearly white to pale pink to a deep fuchsia. They also bloom as early as late February and truly seem to herald the beginning of spring, and if sakura are "cute" ume are "elegant." Hana-mi (lit. "flower viewing") is just as pleasant for ume as it is for sakura, with the added benefit of fewer crowds. With these delights in mind I met up with my friend Kat for an afternoon of flower viewing and other traditional Japanese cultural delights. We elected to meet at Yushima Tenman-gu, a Shinto shrine near the Hongo campus of Tokyo University ...

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! OK so it's still a bit early for everyone in the US, but I celebrated Thanksgiving this past Saturday. Someone from the Yale Club of Japan was kind enough to plan, cook, and co-host a party that had a strong cohort of Yalies present. Here we are, along with the gracious host who opened her house for the event (she's in the center right, next to me).  Dinner was DELICIOUS. All the traditional trappings of Thanksgiving: butter corn, green beans, collard greens, ham, stuffing, turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots, sweet potatoes glazed in brown sugar and (not pictured) squash soup and cornbread.  There was even pie, and everyone knows how much I LOVE pie.  It was great to get together with everyone again, catch up on how we had been doing, and have some libations together--in advance of Yale's excellent win against Harvard! Boola boola! That being said, Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without a littl...

The other day I was browsing the internet for something to do today and the internet rewarded me with the knowledge that there was going to be a Tokyo Ramen Show where visitors could go and, you guessed it, eat ramen from all over Japan. Since my blog is aptly titled "Rice and Ramen" it had to be some sort of cosmic destiny. So of course I went. The Ramen Show was held in the Komazawa Olympic Park, which was used for the 1964 Summer Olympics. It was a charming place, full of open spaces where people were lounging or picnicking with their kids (Tokyo had 16 days of rain in a row and today was a rare sunny day so it didn't surprise me that so many people were out and about) or playing sports. The Ramen Show was set up in the park's main plaza: Altogether there were 18 different varieties of ramen you could try. There were also booths selling ramen-related products (or even just really classy-looking instant ramen) and a performance stage where, apparently, ...

A few days ago I found myself in the Kiyosumi neighborhood, an area on the far East side of Tokyo, with my fearless companion Troy (his blog is  HERE  if anyone is interested). To some of you long-time readers the name "Troy" might sound somewhat familiar and that is because Troy and I met in Japan six years ago when we were both exchange students with AFS! I went to find a photo of us from then, just for the comparison, but after seeing what I looked like (have I ever mentioned that I gained approximately 15 pounds when I lived in Japan the first time? No? I wonder why...) I think I'll pass on that front. Have this picture of the view over the river in Kiyosumi instead: Our Kiyosumi day basically consisted of walking around the quaint neighborhood and popping into interesting stores. The first was a local chocolate shop called Artichoke Chocolate. I had the most divine raspberry hot chocolate that, to my knowledge, contained no artichokes whatsoever. It did have...