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After living here for
After living here for four years, I think I know Tokyo pretty well. It’s vast, but I try to get around to see it. Yet when I met my friend MJ for lunch yesterday, it was in a completely new part of town for me. Bakuro-yokoyama is a quiet area with a mix of high-rise…
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Last night in Japanese
Last night in Japanese class, we encountered an example sentence that Tod & I agreed made us uncomfortable. We were practicing with “teki,” a suffix that’s equivalent to -ish or -like. For each sentence using Nihonteki (Japan-ish or Japanese), we had to describe the qualities of the thing. For example, “This is a Japanese house.”…
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This morning I’m making
This morning I’m making a list of all the things we need to sell or give away before we move. There’s quite a bit of stuff to shed before we’ll fit into the new, compact apartment. Some of it we’ll give away to friends. But I don’t think I know anyone who wants a coffee…
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Househunting is done. Here’s
Househunting is done. Here’s where we’re going to live, if the contract is successfully completed. It’s on the 2nd floor of a 5 story building near the Marunouchi subway line at Korakuen station–about a fifteen minute walk southeast of where we live now. The terrace looks out over the Japanese gardens of the downstairs neighbors.…
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Foreigners who live in
Foreigners who live in Tokyo are rarely lukewarm about it. They either love it or hate it. It’s a beautiful place or an ugly place. It’s wonderful or terrible. This is the view from my balcony. I overlook the entrance to another building’s garage (on the left) and collection of low rooves and wires. In…
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Well, we’re officially househunting
Well, we’re officially househunting again. The current house is just too big, too cold and most importantly, too expensive. The rent here is equal to about 7 months of mortgage payments on our house in Pittsburgh. In our Bunkyo neightborhood, one Pittsburgh mortgage payment rents a 9×12 foot room with a galley kitchen and a…
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What’s up with Japan’s
What’s up with Japan’s soft punishments for crimes against young women? This week there have been two remarkable examples. In the first case, a man abducted a 9 year old girl and held her prisoner in a room of his home for more than nine years. It was reported in the courtroom that girl was…
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Oops, they did it
Oops, they did it again. Snow Brand’s in the news for some rather unethical actions. About 18 months ago, their milk products company failed to follow safety procedures (or even basic common sense) and recycled old milk into the new milk supply. Yuck! 10,000 people contracted food poisoning. This time, their meat group tried to…
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It’s that time again
It’s that time again and a feeling of dread is building. Our Japanese teacher announced the school’s upcoming (mandatory) speech contest. This year’s contest theme is “Nihongo ga jouzu ni natara…” which means “When I become skilled in Japanese…” I think my opening sentence is going to have to be “When I become skilled in…
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Kani Ryouri is Japanese
Kani Ryouri is Japanese for “crab cuisine.” There’s a fantastic kani ryouri restaurant in Azabu Juban, about 20 minutes away. I’m sure it has a real name, but we call it the crab restaurant. Their crab set lunch (1,200 yen) is a delight. It’s hard to decide what’s most delicious: crab sashimi served with tiny…
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