Rice and Ramen

As some of you may have known, this past weekend Typhoon Hagibis blew through Japan, specifically the Kanto region where Tokyo is. It had the grim distinction of being the strongest/most deadly storm to hit the region since Typhoon Ida in 1958. Typhoon classification scales are confusing (and, interestingly, the only difference between a "typhoon" and a "hurricane" is the naming convention of the region in which it occurs ), but at one point Hagibis was classified as a "violent typhoon," the strongest category the Japan Meteorological Agency has, roughly the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane. Fortunately it didn't make landfall at that strength, downgrading to a Category 3 equivalent storm. Personally, although Typhoon Hagibis (which means, appropriately, "speed" in Tagalog) was not the first typhoon I've (pardon the pun) weathered here in Japan, it was most certainly the most extreme. Most typhoons don't directly hit Kanto, inst...

One of the amazing things about living in Tokyo is that I still regularly discover something new about my adopted city, if not my immediate neighborhood. Tokyo is a city that reveals itself slowly; to the unsuspecting, yes, but it is a place that favors those who take the initiative to explore. By wandering around back alleys, following interesting sounds and smells and bursts of color. By listening to the people around you: "Did you know...?, Have you heard...?. You should..." A while ago I heard about a Buddhist temple, Kogenin, that was near-ish to my apartment. It was pretty, as temples went, so I put a pin in it and decided that if I ever had a free afternoon I would make the 40-minute walk there and check it out. Cue the passing of some months and, finally, the advent of Golden Week. Some of you might remember my Golden Week adventures last year, when I took advantage of the series of consecutive national holidays that fall annually around this time to visit  Nikk...

A few weeks ago I got the best news: A museum was reopening in Tokyo. (OK, yes, I probably have gotten better news than that in my life, but this was still pretty good.) The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT)  had been closed for three years in order to renovate the building. And since I only moved to Tokyo just under two years ago, I had not yet gone! I promise, for me this was quite exhilarating. So this past Saturday I took myself all the way out to Kiba Park, where the museum is, on the other side of the city from my apartment. And after a full two hours in its current exhibit, "Weavers of Worlds: A Century of Flux in Japanese Modern/Contemporary Art," I just wandered around taking pictures of some of its better architectural features. Some architecture details: The museum was designed by Takahiko Yangisawa, who also worked on several other notable buildings, such as the MOA Museum in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture (1981); New National Theatre, Tokyo (1997); and To...

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...

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Although I wish I could be back Stateside, celebrating with family and friends and generally overeating on pumpkin bread, frozen fruit salad (it's a family thing, don't ask), and pie, I know I have plenty to be thankful about here in Tokyo. Tokyo hasn't gotten snow at all, unlike most of Chicago or the East Coast, from what I've been told. In fact, it's not even peak fall leaves season yet, which remains mind-boggling to me on many levels. It's too warm. It's weird. Anyways. One popular fall activity is to head out of the city and into nature for some good ol' leaf peeping, so that's just what  Troy  and I decided to do this past weekend. Our destination of choice was Mount Takao, a small 599-meter mountain that's easily accessible from Tokyo and a popular day trip getaway. In fact, Takao is the last stop on my usual train line -- yet I'd never been. The climb is neither technically difficult nor overly st...