This morning before work, I had to put my bank in Paris on the phone through to my bank in Tokyo.
I seriously don’t know which one of the two spoke the least English.
Category: Japan
Cultural Interlude
Today was the 6th of August, a special day for the Japanese people (I blogged about it a year ago).
Threading on this very tenuous connection, here are a few links of interest to japan-curious readers:
- Japan Pop socio-czar and unconsolable mourner of yesterdays, Marxy offers an insightful dissection of Fujiwara Masahiko’s Dignity of a Nation: ‘a book that openly calls for the end of democracy and the return of “warrior ethics.”‘ (yea, that’s what the Japanese write about when they are not busy building flying cars or giant cat-eared robots).
- Moresukine is a small webcomic documenting its author’s life in Tokyo from January to June of 2006 through a series of “assignments” submitted by his readers. It’s pretty entertaining and only ever so slightly orientalist. I found it via this guy, who used to maintain a most delightfully fucked-up repository of all things pleonastically weird and Japanese.
- Of course, the Links section above, holds even more Japanese goodness for you to peruse (both colourful words and insightful photographs).
In case you are wondering (you probably aren’t) about this sudden surge in Japan-related material: it’s not [just] me getting all mushy on a Sunday evening and missing people and places 10,000 miles away…
You see, August is also the month where one has to send in their application to take the JLPT in December. Being a glutton for punishment, and despite standing absolutely no chance whatsoever, I have decided to go for Level 2 this year. Well, I think I have. I still have three weeks of studious browsing of the Japanese web to convince myself that this money would be much better spent on cheap imported shochu.
More thongs…
- Tired of wearing a tie at the office?
- Want to dress more comfortably, yet remain appropriately formal for a work environment?
- Love traditional Japanese clothing?
Say no more!
We have what you need:
Behold, the
Wear one at the office and get envious looks from all your coworkers (possibly a few sexual harassment lawsuits too).
Tempura & Tapas
Yesterday, I had convincingly authentic Japanese food for the first time in Paris and felt it deserved a mention here.
Issé restaurant (“tempuras & tapas”) has a soberly stylish decoration and seemingly caters to a large japanese-speaking clientele, both reassuring points when compared to the flurry of Chinese-speaking sushi chefs and horrifyingly cheesy pseudo-oriental kanji signs, customary of most other places that claim to offer Japanese cuisine in this city.
The menu there is classic, yet not stereotypical, which means a lot of small dishes, no ramen, and only a few makis on offer. Somewhere between a typical Tokyo restaurant and a high-end izakaya (lots of the same food, but less greasy): we had loads of tempuras (shiso, seafood, a bunch of other veggies… even mozzarella…), seaweed salad, agedashi tofu, and a couple other dishes. All great and tasty (ok: I reckon my agedashi tofu is better, but I may be biased) and infinitely more reminiscent of the whole Tokyo experience than many a j-food joints on rue Saint Anne.
Prices were about average to high, but very reasonable for the quality of food (around 20-30 euros/person for dinner and a drink).
And for those who ever lived in Japan: sit there, sipping an iced ohlong-cha with schochu and nibbling on edamame, and I swear you won’t be able to shake the natsukashiness away.
Desperately Seeking in Paris II (the aftermath)
A while back, I posted about finding some specific ingredients in Paris (mainly Japanese but also Thai and generally all sorts of non-French food) without having to pay for overseas shipping each time.
Following some kind readers’ suggestions and with a bit additional exploration, I have since resolved all my culinary woes. I figured I’d post a quick recap and a few extra advice for the sake of past and future seekers of exotic food in Paris:
First off: the bestest, cheaperest, fresh tofu, along with countless other goodies (can you believe they even had konnyaku!?!) was found at Supermarket Paris Store on Avenue d’Ivry (about 10 minutes from Place d’Italie, on the left side), thanks to Chrys, whom we shall dearly miss now that she has relocated…
Unlike most other Asian stores in the area (Tang Frères etc.), this one stocks up a fairly consequent aisle of typically Japanese products.
Of course they also carry the usual south-east asian fare, though their curry paste didn’t turn out all that convincing to my humble curry-loving tastebuds (their coconut paste: not at all). But these are much easier to find anywhere else in the neighbourhood… I still want to find some of this mucho combiniente cononut powder (same taste, much lighter to carry around), but the canned stuff is available everywhere… On my next trip, I might even try some of their kimchee (kimchee ramen… yay!).
Japanese Pantheon Update
A new minor Japanese deity is born and she specializes in keitais (Japanese cellphones)…
You may remember Tracey from her previous moblogging contributions to this blog. She is now flying her own colors and has started blogging about her cosmopolitan life in Tokyo and around, at keitaigoddess.com (on a theme beautifully designed by MJ)…
Go check it out now!
Good to know
- In Paris, Tokyo Lamen (40, rue Ste Anne, near Opera) looks and tastes considerably more like the real thing than the somewhat overrated Higuma (a block up in the same street).
- Ramen and gyozas get two thumbs up, yakisoba wasn’t that convincing… but then again: who orders yakisoba in a ramen-ya? (an idiot, that’s who).
- When experimenting with a new ramen place, always order the miso ramen: less chances for anything to go wrong than shoyu or other more delicate ramens (says Saeko).
What does your iPod do?
I just got a brand new handheld Japanese dictionary. It’s very complete, using one of the best database out there, smaller than a few credit cards stacked together and I paid 20,000 yens for it.
Oh, it also plays mp3s.
And movies.
In fact, it does a whole lot of things, pretty much anything I want it to do, provided I have time to write a program for it.
It’s an iPod Nano, running µClinux, thanks to the brilliant work of the iPod Linux team.
JLPT Results
To file under: News that you should only care about if you are my mom…
I was just communicated by my Man in Japan, the results of the JLPT test Level 3 (yea, not feeling that ambitious at the time)… The one I took back in December of last year…
And it would appear I do indeed speak some Japanese. At least just enough to fool the government officials who passed me.
And to quote some hopelessly optimistic piece of j-pop fluff:
Yatta!!!
I soooo 0wN0rz N1h0|\|Gø!!!11!1
Things I Will Miss – Pt. 1: My Bike
Recent dearth of posts had more to do with lack of time than lack of inspiration. Nonetheless, I figured I would end the Tokyo-based era of this blog with a special series dedicated to the many differences between the place I’m leaving and the place I’m moving to.
For one: angry people in Japan do not burn cars or people.
Oops, I did it again.
Alright, let me backtrack on that and establish the outline of that new series…
Of course, it would be all too easy to spend the next four-something-weeks ranting about all the crappy aspects of Japanese life I am happy to leave behind. Then switch over to my numerous objects of dislikes with the Parisians and Parisian life.
But I won’t.
Instead, we are gonna focus on the positive: things I will be dearly missing once departed and until a possible return in some distant future. Some you may identify with if you live in Japan, others probably more personal or mundane but still relevant to what makes life in a foreign country enjoyable. All presented in no particular order, time and mood permitting.
For our first installment, let me tell you about:
My Bike
Absolute ignoramus of Japanese culture that I was until the day I landed in Narita, I had always thought of those crazy bike-infested cities as being a staple of China and perhaps a few other South-East Asian countries. Japan sounded way too modern and busy riding magnetic levitation trains, to bother with such lo-tech means of transportation.
As it turns out, Japan loves bikes.
Of course, Japan also loves trains and subways, and for the most part: I do too (outside of peak hours).
To own a car in Tokyo, you not only have to be seriously wealthy and dedicated, you also have to be quite stupid: free street parking is practically unheard of, private monthly parking will set you back roughly the price of a second apartment (not counting daily parking, wherever you go) and apart from the many expensive toll-highways that circle major neighbourhoods, driving around Tokyo is as frustrating and pointless as any other metropolis. With the added bonus of a labyrinthine layout of streets that commonly narrows down to the point where a single pedestrian couldn’t walk arms outstretched. Trains are a far better choice for long distances, bicycles for short ones.
Bikes (the motorized kind, including scooters, as will always be implied when you use the word in Japan) are also a very cool way to go around easily without most of the downsides of cars: during my years here, Atsushi’s faithful scooter has taken us everywhere and back… But they are also not a great idea when most of your outings end up at 4 in the morning somewhere far from home with more alcohol than blood running through your veins…