ペプシしそはやっぱり不味いですよ。

You might want to skip this new drink. Pepsi Shiso tastes like mouthwash.
ペプシしそはやっぱり不味いですよ。

八橋 Kyoto Yatsuhashi Recipe: How to make those little triangle things

Whenever anyone goes to Kyoto, they come back with a box of those little triangle-shaped mochi things with anko inside. Those are called Yatsuhashi. (八ツ橋 or 八橋) They are my favorite type of Japanese sweets. My Mahjong teacher lives in Kyoto, so I spent the day there with her. After the lesson, we went to eat at my favorite restaurant in Japan and on the way home, I picked up a box of Yatsuhashi.

Yatsuhashi is my favorite type of Japanese dessert and I thought I'd write to tell you to try it. While I was searching for information about it, I came across this excellent Yatsuhashi recipe full of photos of what the Yatsuhashi should look like at different stages. If you decide to make your own Yatsuhashi someday, take lots of pictures and post them to your blog. I'll show eveyone your post. I love Yatsuhashi!!

The best kind is the plain cinnamon flavor with chocolate inside. The worst kind is the orange flavor. The most traditional kinds are the plain cinnamon and Matcha (green tea) kinds.

Harold and Maude = Designer clothing?

You will not believe what happened yesterday. I had a very wealthy friend who lived near Omotesando in Tokyo. We drifted apart, but last month, I got an email from her dad. (She lives with her parents) Her father is a really good artist and a nice person. When I'd visit her, I'd always talk to him because his English was really good and at the time, I did not speak much Japanese. In total, I met him about 4 times. I recommended the movie "Harold and Maude" to him because I recommend it to absolutely everyone, all the time.So the email said "Hello Julie, Hisashiburidesune. I am writing to say that I looked at Harold and Maude this afternoon and maybe it changed my life. Hiroko loves it, also. I can see now why you decided to start playing the banjo. It is a very nice film. I hope it does not bother you that I wrote to you. Maiko taught me your email address. I want to say thank you for an excellent recommendation. I also have a little something to send you in the mail. Please teach me your mailing address and I will send shortly."

So yesterday in the mail, I got a beautiful, black See By Chloe t-shirt with a little card from him and his wife.
Wow. I think I may have the best life in the world.

Oh Michael...

Watching The Wiz now.
This is so sad.
Michael Jackson reminds me of someone I love very much.
One of my favorite people in the world had this record hanging on the wall in his bedroom.

Non-Japanese fluent in Japanese: a bunch of good videos

Last week, I posted a video of Julie Dreyfus and Satoshi Tsumabuki speaking Japanese in a commercial. I got a lot of people posting and emailing me about how hard it is for non-Japanese people to learn Japanese. I searched around a bit and found some more examples of young, Western people speaking quality Japanese. Please watch these videos for inspiration, if you want. These people are good! I love this girl. She's sarcastic and funny in the two videos I watched. She even has English subtitles on this one. This girl is insane and amazing and speaks Chinese, French and some Korean, along with probably English and possibly more. Her Japanese is nice.Koichi is American and I love Tofugu and if you read this blog, you already know about him. This video is about how he learned Japanese (he does a good Yakuza impression). He recommends watching dramas to learn regular Japanese. My roommates suggested the same thing to me when I first met them. Good advice. Here is another one.This girl talks about why she darkened her hair color, among other things. Anyway, her Japanese is nice in this video. Joking, Joking...A Caucasian guy who was born in Japan. I don't know if that's true, but he really sounds like a Japanese person. I also just love Ken Tanaka, too.

Another girl speaking Japanese who doesn't allow embedding.

I think that most people who make Vlogs are completely full of themselves. If you search for this kind of thing, you'll find loads of unbearable videos on youtube. These are some of the best and least nauseating (most are not nauseating at all) of the bunch! Please enjoy them!

Japanese air suck and ehhhhh

This video is so funny because it's true. KEN TANAKA!

Japanese things I will never understand

-People who count ''sleeping'' and ''eating'' as their hobbies

-People who don't count fish as meat

-Why people still use hanko stamps instead of signatures

-Why even the ATM machines are closed on public holidays

-Karaoke as a talent contest and not as a big, silly dance party

-People over 19 who still watch Disney cartoons in their free time

-That one shade of reddish-brown that everyone dyes their hair these days

-Fish for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks

-The appeal of Pachinko

-How a lot of young people here like to go bowling every weekend

-Straight men who shave their eyebrows into thin lines and/or wear barrettes and colored hair bands

-Mayonnaise and corn pizza topping

-Very strict seasonal fashion (If it’s still rainy, wintry and freezing cold in the early spring, girls are wearing short shorts because it’s SPRING. Same goes for when September is still unbearably, swelteringly hot and girls are breaking out the scarves and knitted hats because it is AUTUMN.)

-Tons of massive, heavy, jingly cell phone straps

-Girls who shave their arms but leave their bikini lines untouched

-Katakana

-Why everyone at clubs dances facing the DJ and not with each other

-Why anyone would want to eat soy sauce and grilled corn flavored Kit Kat bars

-Why there is no expression for ‘’I miss you’’ in Japanese

Can Japanese food make you fat?

Here are two unlikely Japanese foods that are secretly fattening: things made from white rice and things made from anko (bean paste). This said, I often eat Anko and white rice. I sometimes crave the simplicity of rice, so I don’t really care if it has a lot of calories. There is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying what you love. I just hate the idea of eating something all the time and not realizing what is in it. That’s why I wrote this for you guys. Most people think that because white rice is "nothing" they can eat it to lose weight. Most people think "beans are healthier than cake" so they eat it to lose weight and it won't work. Here you go.
Things made with white rice
Three of my Chinese friends want to beat me for saying this, but white rice is not nutritious. I know that white rice is a cultural treasure of Asia, but like a baguette (cultural treasure of France) it’s all just refined, empty calories. This doesn’t mean I don’t like it. In fact, I LOVE WHITE RICE. I also love all the things you can make with white rice, like mochi, okayu (congee!!) and onigiri. If you eat a lot of white rice, though, you will not lose weight. Just saying.There are around 180-250 calories in one onigiri, and since one onigiri is a small, sad and lonely lunch, most people eat two or three. If that’s all you’re eating, (and usually that isn’t all) that’s around 600 calories for almost no nutritional value. Wouldn’t you rather have some soup, a salad and a sandwich full of vegetables with a tofu patty / meat? Less calories and far more vitamins and nutrients than a bunch of rice. If you need rice, at least make it genmai / brown rice so that you can enjoy the fiber and nutrients.

Anko Anko is that red bean paste that is in almost every sweet Japanese food. A lot of people think that eating beans as dessert must be healthier than eating chocolate. They’re right in that Anko certainly has less fat than chocolate does, but remember what Anko actually is. It’s basically all sugar. Beans + white sugar = Anko. One daifuku has about 250 calories in it because of all the sugar. My old roommate and I used to eat 3 in one evening. 750 calories is insane for one night of dessert. Even though it has no fat, Anko can make you fat.

Japanese food may be a whole lot healthier overall than Western food, but that doesn’t mean that it’s all good for you. I know that a few Western people living in Japan have written to me about the pressure that they face to lose weight in Japan. You can either choose to completely ignore that pressure (I personally think that most Japanese people are far too strict about what they consider fat, so don’t worry.) or you can choose to lose a bit of weight. If you do it in a healthy way, gradually, (through good food and exercise) losing a bit of weight is a great idea. Summer is a great time to start.

First, the absolute easiest way to shape up your body is to cut out bad food and empty calories. For Western food, the biggest problem is portion size. Regular sized coffee is 16 ml back home, and that is nuts. Eating meals in "courses" is also nuts if you don’t want to overeat. In these respects, Japan has the right idea. Portion size is small and balanced. Most main courses are shared. This is good news for you.

Delicious food when you want to keep fit
Amaguri (Japanese chestnuts - tons of protein and nothing else), Konnyaku (made from potato extract - all natural but contains absolutely nothing at all), Konnyaku variations (konnyaku jelly is amazing when you stick it in the freezer. Konnyaku sashimi is delicious and green. Shirataki noodles are also delicious), Family Mart also has a delicious salad with okra and daikon it it.

Does anyone know any more healthy, low calorie Japanese foods?

Being Vegetarian in Japan: The Worst Things

The most annoying things about being a vegetarian in Japan

Dashi In Everything

Dashi (fish paste, fish broth, fish flakes) is annoying even for non-vegetarians because it, along with bonito flakes (AKA Katsuo AKA the thin fish skin topping that wiggles around on top of hot food) is what makes almost every Japanese food taste like fish. Even things (like Italian-style pasta) that aren’t supposed to taste fishy taste like fish in Japan because of dashi.

For vegetarians, dashi is even more annoying because it’s not considered meat or fish. Dashi is The Secret Meat that most vegetarians don’t even realize that they’re eating. Dashi is why most vegetarians can’t eat miso soup, tamago-yaki, oden and even most vegetable dishes at restaurants. Dashi is in almost all soup broths. Dashi is mixed into egg, takoyaki and Okonomiyaki batter. Dashi is in almost everything, and it kills me.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner and snacks are meat.

I think that besides Korea and Vietnam, Japan is the least vegetarian country in the world. Absolutely everything has fish in it. Even a typical breakfast = a grilled fish with fishy soup and eggs with fish sauce mixed into it. Most snacks are full of fish. Most salad dressing is full of fish. Beware of crackers with very, very thin red lines woven into them. The red bits are shrimp. These crackers are totally delicious, and I loved them until I learned enough kanji to read the package. Most desserts are OK, but some cookies have fish in them. These cookies have pictures of fish on the package, though, so they’re easy to spot.

Japanese people don’t think that fish is meat.

This is so irritating. Fish is a type of meat in most Western countries. Meat is anything that is made from a dead thing, isn’t it? Fish have blood and eyes and organs, so I consider them meat. In Japan, though, if you ask if a dish has meat in it and are told that it is meat-free, you’ll likely be served a dish full of prawns or Mackerel.

People share meals in Japan

On the rare occasion that you find a restaurant that serves vegetarian food, remember that whatever you order will be shared by everyone else in your group. People in Asian countries share their food. This is nice, until you think about a few things.

1) 1. Your food has no meat in it, so it takes less time to cook. That means it will be brought out first.

2) 2. Everyone is hungry at first, so the first few dishes always get wolfed down by everyone.

3) 3. Everyone else has meat dishes coming but you only have that one dish. Once everyone eats it, you’re not getting anything else. You’ll either have to order more of whatever it was, or just shut up and be hungry.

Japanese people split the bill evenly

Vegetarian food usually costs less than meat, for obvious reasons. This is a nice perk of being vegetarian. My entrée is usually going to cost about two third of what my friend’s meals cost. In Japan, though, if I go out with four people and the bill comes to 100 dollars, I have to pay 25 dollars even if I ate an 8 dollar meal and I only had one drink. I have declined going out with some really fun guy friends simply because I know that I’ll have one drink and some salad all night and they’ll drink beer and eat yakiniku (grilled meat) all night and I don’t have enough money to pay for their drinks.

This post isn’t meant to complain. It's just stating the facts. This blog is full of mostly only positive things about this country, so you can tell that I love Japan. I just don't think that vegetarians have it easy in this country at all.

I know that if it bothered me that much, I could just leave Japan. It doesn’t.

I am oddly kind of grateful for it, too. I learned to be a better cook.

I also used to spend too much money on restaurants and now I rarely ever go out to eat.

Past "vegetarian in Japan" posts... Okinawan food has a lot of vegetarian dishes. Momo curry in Kichijoji, Tokyo makes really good veggie curry in a nice atmosphere. Mos Burger has a vegan veggie burger called a Kinpira burger. Seaweed is good for you. Japanese Hare Krishnas. Vegetarian miso soup recipe. Watch out for the Fish Eraser. Organic / veggie foods in Japan.

Summer in Japan

June is almost over and it's just starting to get uncomfortably humid. Today and yesterday, it rained a lot. When the rainy season ends, it will start getting horrible, but I don't mind. Summer is my favorite season in any country, though Japan's seasons are all great.

Three things that mean Summer in Japan...
1. Humid Japanese Summers
Japanese summers are so HOT and humid that a number of things begin to happen. My hair develops a sexy frizz. My windows get all fogged up. I have to flip my futon every day so that the bottom doesn't develop mold. I have to drink all my tea in the PET bottles before bed so that the tea doesn't mold when I'm sleeping. Shiny face in photos. Must wear all black so that sweat doesn't show. Two showers or more a day. Long baths in cold water. Lower tolerance for annoying things (people playing music so loud that I can hear it through their iPods, etc).

2. Japanese cockroaches
There are tons of cockroaches in Japan and they mainly come out in the Summer. The ones in Japan are able to fly. Too disgusting to describe. They come into your house mainly through the drains. Cover/close your drains while you sleep, and don't leave food sitting out.
3. Japanese Fireworks
Even though they're too crowded and it's far too hot, I love 花-火 Japan's summer fireworks! Do you have a yukata? What do you people feel about seeing non-Japanese (Western) people dressed in Japanese yukata for the fireworks? Just curious.

More "Summer in Japan" things...
-Riding my bike around Kyoto
-Somen
-Old ladies carrying umbrellas and wearing armwarmers to ward off the sun
-More couples arguing because the hot, sticky weather makes everyone irritable
-Everyone is eating ice cream. (An Ice cream / popsicle in Japan is just called ICE.)
-Lots of girls in Japan wear bikinis with high heels to the beach. That is awesome.

Happy Father's Day!!

Even if he weren't my father, he'd still be one of my favorite people in the world. I absolutely can't wait to see you this summer! Let's talk soon. Do you have time this week? We can talk about what day will be best to arrive. I hope you have a wonderful day today. Happy father's day.
I am so, so proud of my parents. I love them more than anyone else.
xox

Wakayama's EUROPA FAKE

These pictures are pretty old, but when we went to Wakayama, we drove past this Europe-themed amusement park. We didn't know what it was called but my friend Hiroki kept calling it EUROPA FAKE, so that stuck. It is worth going to because it is so trashy and fantastic and there's hardly anyone there. It's surrounded by something that looks like a power plant and a bunch of factories. It's got a nice view of the ocean. It's vaguely split into "lands" like Spain land and Italy land, but the signs blur and there are some signs written in French, too. It's all just EUROPE land.
Then, there's this Medieval axe. Amazing. Every day, there are hawk and owl shows. I don't like owls, so I didn't want to watch. My friends watched and they said it was pretty average.
You can get omrice at the "Italian" restaurant in the Italian part. Let's go EUROPA FAKE.

Wakayama is gorgeous, though, and cheap with delicious oranges and tons of thriftshops everywhere. I had a great time. It's a nice little weekend / daytrip.

Why did you start learning Japanese?

People always ask me this. There are a bunch of reasons.

1. If I live in a country for longer than two months or so, I feel ashamed not to speak any of the language. I speak French and English well already, so I usually have no problems when I travel, but it still seems a bit arrogant to expect everyone to address you in your language when you're in their country.

2. Learning Japanese is fun and interesting for me. I'm never bored here partly because when I feel bored, I start to study and learn something new every day. I really like studying kanji.

3. One of my best friends in high school was a girl called Reiko from Kobe. She was an international student and she played the drums and we had the same taste in music. At the time, I went to a private school and she was so different from most of the people at the school. She was far more experienced in life and had done things I hadn't even though about doing yet, so she used to tell me wild stories and I developed a curiosity about Japan through her.

4. Some of my favorite writers are Japanese. Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Junichiro Tanizaki, even Haruki Murakami are writers I really enjoy reading. Even as a teenager reading books by Banana Yoshimoto and Natsuo Kirino and magazines like Fruits, I loved Japanese things. I didn't like Japanese movies before I started learning Japanese, though. I'm still not a huge fan of manga or anime.

5. I think that when a foreign person is really good at speaking Japanese, it looks really cool because nobody expects it. Remember Julie Dreyfus playing Sofie Fatale in Kill Bill? (she's the assassin who was always talking on the phone in Japanese) She is actually really good at Japanese and sometimes acts in Japanese commercials, too. I also love Satoshi Tsumabuki. Gratuitous video.

6. I have a lot of Japanese friends. I thought I'd fit in well in Japan, and I do. I thought it would be a great place to live, and it is.

I think that's it. No huge reason in particular.
What about you?

She Loves You

This is completely unrelated to Japan, but I love this picture. Even if you haven't seen the painful original, this picture is hilarious.

Nostalgia: What would you miss about Japan if you left?

Lately I have been thinking about what I am doing living here in Japan. Originally, I only wanted to be here for a year or two but now I honestly have no plans to leave in the near future. I'm going back home in August for my sister's wedding and I know that when I go back, it's going to be the exact same as it was last year. I miss my family and close friends a lot and I think about them often but besides that, I love Japan and I can't think of anywhere in the world I'd rather be. I feel healthiest and happiest here. These photos are from this blog, Tokyoundressed, that I've been reading for the past year, but I thought I'd tell you about it. Her photos are often not suitable for work, so don't say that I didn't warn you. Let the blog title be a warning. I think that her photographs are beautiful, though, with a nostalgic quality. I think her photographs capture Japan and Japanese life perfectly.If I moved back, I don't know how I could ever stop thinking about Japan. I know that I'll think about Japan on every January 1st of my life from now on because I hear Auld Lang Syne every day here. It's the song that comes on at around 8 PM in every store and around 11 PM in every restaurant. (Playing Auld Lang Syne means, "closing time: go home" in Japan.) There are so many things I'd miss about Japan if I moved back.

I'd miss seeing everyone's clothes hanging on lines out their apartment windows. I'd miss the train station jingles I know by heart. I'd miss my friends taking pictures of my food before I eat it. I'd miss "せやなぁ". I'd miss my adorable students. I'd miss all the seasonal fruit and vegetables. I'd miss riding my bike on the sidewalk. I'd miss seeing those towel-ghosts that Japanese children make and hang outside their houses to stop the rain.
I'd miss my phone, better than any phone I could possibly get in any other country. I'd miss hearing people talk about their boyfriend's blood types as indicators of their personalities. I'd miss being able to get natural green tea / mugicha / genmaicha Jasmine tea from a vending machine or a convenience store. I'd miss how guys hold my bag when I go for a walk with them. I'd miss going to the countryside on the weekends.
I'd miss being about to rent CDs at Tsutaya. I'd miss eating Japanese pumpkin for breakfast. I'd miss learning Kanji. I'd miss frozen Konyakkyu Jelly in the summer. I'd miss Warabi Mochi and Ichigo Daifuku. I'd miss how everything is so seasonal here. I'd miss seeing kids with their big, red, square-shaped schoolbags.

What about you?

All pictures by Rikki Kasso from http://tokyoundressed.blogspot.com

Shaving differences in Japan

Japan takes people watching to an entirely different level with their onsens (hot springs) and sentos (public baths). When I go, I usually try to avoid looking at anyone else, but sometimes I can't help noticing things. Like the fact that almost all Japanese women shave their arms. I saw a girl doing it last year at the sento and it shocked me. I couldn't (and still can't) imagine why anyone would want to do that. I don't even notice arm hair, so it seems really unnecessary to me. I had a roommate who used to shave her arms in the living room in front of the TV.

Because most Japanese girls shave their arms, Japanese people often look at my arm and ask to touch the hair. It's white-blonde, so it's sort of hard to see, but I have hair on my arms if you actually look. I think it's interesting to see what people shave and don't shave in different countries. In Tanzania, most girls didn't shave their legs because they hardly had any leg hair at all. I was so jealous of them. Ha.

-Japanese men usually pluck and shave their eyebrows into thin points.
-Japanese women shave their arms.
-Usually, Western men do not pluck or shave their eyebrows.
-Western women don't usually shave their arms.
-Japanese women often get their faces professionally shaved as part of a facial treatment.
-Western women don't usually shave their eyebrows, though they do pluck them.
-There's something else that isn't shaved, waxed or trimmed in Japan. I'll give you a quote about from this blog I love: "Tell me this, if you look at someone in profile, should you be able to see their pubic hair?"
-Japanese girls and Western girls usually always shave their legs and underarms.

The picture of the girl in the Onsen was taken by Rikki Kasso, whose blog is absolutely gorgeous but NSFW.

Lady gaga brought back 1999

Lady Gaga was in Japan last week and dressed in the EGL style (Gothic Lolita style) that Tokyo teenagers used to wear 7-9 years ago and suburban teenagers now wear when their parents drive them in to spend the day in Tokyo. Then, she showed up at some stores dressed in another EGL dress with Yamamba / Ganguro raccoon-eyed makeup. She also carried around a Hello Kitty doll.

In other words, she looked like the biggest tourist ever.
She should just stick to wearing the "weird hats + underpants" thing she does back in America.

Rookies: playing baseball and crying their eyes out

I went and saw Rookies last week. It made me happy because I can add it to the growing list of Japanese movies I've seen without subtitles and 100% completely understood. Unfortunately, though, anyone who doesn't understand this movie can't be a very intelligent person.Basically


D2 The Mighty Ducks
-
hockey and English
+
baseball and Japanese
-
a romantic interest for the Coach Bombay character
+
about 40 minutes of crying and crying and crying
=
Rookies

I loved D2 when I was a little kid. I loved that movie so much. I'm not little anymore, though, and I don't know anything about baseball and I didn't love Rookies. When it got too boring, I tried to concentrate on Yusuke Yamamoto, AKA the guy who played the talented slacker AKA only somewhat attractive actor in the movie. When I was a kid, I loved the D2 character "Charlie".

Whoever the stylist for Rookies is should get some sort of horrible award for succeeding in making 佐藤健 Takeru Sato unattractive for this movie. That was truly sad. I didn't even recognize him until 5 minutes before the very end. Takeru Sato was turned into this. Remarkable.

You might get dragged to this movie, too. Everyone is talking about it and the poster is up all over the country.

Vending machines: Japan is such an easy place to live

Reading my friend Saelan's Twitter made me
1) miss him
2) feel lucky to live in Japan.
He wrote about seeing Fellini's Amarcord in the theatre."It was really good. Fellini in the theater is such a treat. The only thing that would have made it better is if I could have copped a bottle of wine to sneak in…but the Granville liquor store closed at NINE! On a saturday! WTF? Someone should run for office on a platform of “People should be able to buy liquor any time, anywhere they want, like in civilized countries.”

I don't even really drink alcohol, but it's even available in special vending machines in Japan. (Side note: so are other things. Check out this pizza vending machine. It's not a joke.) And it's always available in convenience stores, and it's cheap. Most of the world is like this. In France, we asked the shop clerk to borrow a corkscrew so that we could have a lovely picnic in the park. In Vancouver, you can't legally sit in the park with any drink other than juice. Why are Western Canada's liquor laws so strict? What are they afraid Canadians will do if they are able to buy a bottle of red wine at 9:15 on a Saturday night?


Aside:
Japanese vending machines are so thorough.
You can buy family games,

eggs and fresh vegetables,

Casual frozen foods like yaki-onigiri, fries, taiyaki or a hot dog,

Uniqlo t-shirts,

Whole Italian dinners,

live lobsters!!

Bread IN A CAN!!

Famously, you can also buy used schoolgirl underwear in a very few vending machines. I've seen it.

Ganbanyoku - Japan's Hot Stone Skin Detox

Today I tried 岩盤浴 Ganbanyoku. It wasn't what I expected it to be at all. It's a detox spa in Japan that's really popular right now and involves lying on hot stones for 15 minute intervals and sweating out toxins.

I got there with my co-workers and was given a bag with three towels and a little pajama set to wear. I took a shower and washed my face. Then I went to the water room and drank tons of water. Then I went to the stone room, put down my towels are started the Ganbanyoku. After 15 minutes of lying there and not really feeling anything interesting, I was kind of disappointed. I wasn't even sweaty. During the 5 minute break between intervals, I drank more water and breathed special lemongrass air out of an oxygen tank. When I went back into the stone room, I started feeling hot after the first 5 minutes, but again, not as hot as I thought I was going to feel. In the end, I ended up sweaty but not any more sweaty than I would get on a normal summer day in Japan. It was slightly disappointing, but the skin on my body felt really smooth.

Now I'm home and my face looks shining and new. It looks fresh and radiant like I got a new face made out of soft plastic. Weird. Two hours of lying around in a hot room did something great to my skin and it was also super cheap. After the Ganbanyoku, they fed me a clear, cold gel and Kinako powder as a calorie-free dessert. It did not taste as bad as it sounds. I drank some yuzu tea. I got a coupon for a facial at the Ganbanyoku spa.

Final 岩盤浴 rating:
-If I have tons of time to kill someday after work, I will certainly do this again.
-It was really long and painfully boring.
-Next time, I'll try to fall asleep or else I'll bring my iPod.
-Even though I didn't actually enjoy it, I'd recommend Ganbanyoku to anyone.
-My skin feels amazing.

岩盤浴 - Ganbanyoku is a Japanese stone spa

岩盤浴
This week, my co-worker is taking me to do Ganbanyoku. It's a detox treatment that's popular in Japan. It's similar to a sauna and involves lying on a heated rock. It's pretty cheap (around 1200 yen/10 dollars to stay as long as you like) and done fully clothed wearing a ganbanyoku gown that they give you when you arrive."Ganbanyoku is a sauna and a bath in one. It heats your body deeply from the inside and makes you drip with sweat. The Japanese word “Ganban” means “rock”. The Ganban used at stone-spa parlors contains a lot of minerals and emits far-infrared ray. At such places, the rock is heated up to about 40c (105F) and you spread a towel and lie on the rock for 15 minutes. After taking a break for 5 to 10 minutes, you will repeat the same set for 3~4 times."Ganbanyoku is supposed to activate the metabolism, increase blood circulation, promote detoxification and relieve stress. Have any of you ever done it? My co-worker says that it's very strange because of the infrared they use. If you lick your arm (she says) the sweat doesn't taste like salt. It just tastes like water. I don't feel like licking a sweaty arm, but I'll tell you how it goes this week.

More Bento

Bento making is a new hobby. I hope to one day make Japanese-style bento boxed lunches, but for now I will stick to what I am good at. What I am good at is making vegetarian boxed lunches with a variety of food that doesn't quite match. This one has Chinese style noodles, potato casserole, regular salad and a bunch of snacks. I made it for my friend before test day.
My last Bento picture was here.

Jesus Body

Want To Buy! This is almost better than F Cup Cookies.

sorry for not writing.

Here are some things that have happened recently.
-It became June. It feels hot and sunny so I started walking home from work (45 minutes) and staying out in the fresh air more often.
-I quit my lessons and gym for the month to focus on saving money to buy a plane ticket to my sister's wedding.
-I went to Himeji, Wakayama and Kakogawa (all close day trips)
-I made some new friends.
-Maiko beach is better than Suma beach.
-Summer means cockroach season in Japan, which means my room is once again immaculate.
-The new students I teach are absolutely adorable.
-It's test time and I am absolutely swamped with marking.
-I'm looking forward to going home for two weeks in the summer and seeing my family and friends.