Walked into one of the Issey Miyake shops on Omotesando yesterday afternoon and walked out with a piece of origami. The 1325 Collection is kind of boggling, because all the skirts and pants etc. fold down to beautiful flat pieces of geometry. The summer offerings are all made of precisely folded gray and black andContinueContinue reading “Origami/Skirt”
Monthly Archives: August 2011
Personal Size Incinerator
Last night this was: four slices of fish past their eat-by date, a banana peel, three used teabags, two handfuls of soybean pods, an eggshell, and various don’t-look-too-close flotsam caught by the kitchen sink strainer. This morning: dry, crumbly compost, suitable for feeding to your plants or storing until next week when the day rollsContinueContinue reading “Personal Size Incinerator”
Pizza Taco
Sometimes “foreign food” is REALLY foreign in Japan. Like “Mayo Con Beef Tacos.” Or, even more mysterious, “Egg Feeling Tacos.” Basically: Anything in a folded tortilla? It’s a taco! A first I was puzzled by why “pizza” was mentioned – since it seems to be missing from the menu altogether – but I bet they’reContinueContinue reading “Pizza Taco”
Winter In A Can
Used to be that Japanese people kept cool in the summer by hanging little bells that rang in the barest breeze, gazing at goldfish in clear globes, and listening to ghost stories that sent shivers up their spines, but now technology has had its evil way with tradition. Behold…Ice Wear! It’s only one of manyContinueContinue reading “Winter In A Can”
Failing at Putting Out The Trash
Tomorrow’s trash challenge, as outlined on my handy garbage guidelines poster. Foreigners are legendary at garbage fail in Japan, but anxiety about Doing Trash Right runs deep here, even among native-born Nihon-jin. In a Japanese soap opera I watched recently, one housewife mercilessly bullies her neighbor by sneaking The Wrong Kind Of Trash into herContinueContinue reading “Failing at Putting Out The Trash”
Canine Dining At The Dog Café!
Fuki and Sala’s gourmet cheesy bites at the Puppies Café After cavorting at the Dog Petit Resort Joker, Yoko and I took Fuki and Sala to their favorite Odaiba lunch spot: the Puppies Café. Every table comes equipped with a water dish for the dogs and a canine menu. While we ate indifferent “American style”ContinueContinue reading “Canine Dining At The Dog Café!”
The Most Expensive Bonito Guts I Ever Ate
The first course of kaiseki at Hamada-ya In case you didn’t immediately recognize the gourmet tidbits in the lovely dishes above, the one on the left is “Shrimp and udo plants dressed with salted and fermented bonito guts” and the one in the center is “Hairy crab and butterbur dressed with egg yolk and vinegar.”ContinueContinue reading “The Most Expensive Bonito Guts I Ever Ate”
Bottle of Dom, Anyone?
Got to bed last night at 2:00 after passively breathing in about two packs-worth of cigarette smoke at a most excellent host club. These days in Kabuki-chō, it’s illegal to smoke out on the street, but inside a club? Fire ‘em up! It was pouring rain and freezing cold outside. I thought it’d be aContinueContinue reading “Bottle of Dom, Anyone?”
Make Your Own Sushi With Faces!
Now any kid can whip up sushi rolls that look like Anpan Man’s face after school. Or maybe they can be enticed to eat some nice raw fish for dinner if you deliver it by bullet train… Saw these in the toy section of the Labi electronics megastore in Ikebukuro today. •
Host Club 101
Tomoya-san, me, and my second cousin Yuki enjoying ourselves beyond the call of duty at the Excellent Club Zero in Kabuki-chō. I’m happy to report that the geisha world is alive and well in Kabuki-chō…only these days it’s populated by gorgeous young guys decked out in visual-kei style whose job it is to entertain women like the princesses weContinueContinue reading “Host Club 101”
Only In Japan 