My taxi driver now using a newspaper to demonstrate how to make sushi rolls while waiting in traffic. He was a sushi chef until he was replaced by robots at a kaiten sushi restaurant and realized he could make a better living behind the wheel.
Invited Japanese friends to come over to exchange Christmas gifts today. They asked very politely for me to make cheeseburgers to celebrate. Never made burgers for Christmas before, but who am I to deny my friends their idea of a Christmas dinner? 🎄🍔🎄🍔🎄🍔
@swiftrocky
He’s about 80. Not sure he’s up for the journey. Took about 10 minutes longer than usual to get home and he nearly ran over a cyclist turning onto my street. Friendly guy tho.
I am ready to crown a new best NY style pizza in Japan. That honor goes to the newly opened Pizza Stand NY in American Village - Chatan, Okinawa. Apparently there is also a location in Osaka, but I will reserve judgment there. These pies are massive and delicious!
I wrote a thing for this excellent print magazine about the only craftsman in Japan still making cedar pot stills without the use of metal fittings. Here he is pounding a bamboo brace into place.
The new issue of the Whisky & Spirits Journal of Japan is out, featuring MARS, Sakurao, several gin distilleries, Yokohama, and much more.
Available from our website (along with the previous issue). We ship worldwide!
Please help spread the word.
My local hamburg shop has prepared for the onslaught of international tourists who expect a 🍔 rather than a hamburg (I swear iPhone used to have an emoji for that - it appears to have been replaced with Swedish meatballs 🧆).
Alright, Japanese learners? What’s your best app or website for self instruction in kanji? I have been using Drops but their kanji teaching order is phonetic rather than teaching the radicals first - or in primary school proficiency order. Need an alternative.
Did a deep clean of my office closet and found an envelope from a shochu maker from 2018. I had voluntarily translated for a foreign tour group. I should have looked in the envelope he gave me.
Today’s Lunch. Nepali chicken curry naan set. ¥790 ($5.40 USD). Been walking by almost every day the last few weeks hoping the daily special would be chicken. Today it happened.
This weekend marked my 2nd anniversary living in Japan. 1st year was tough, 2nd was tougher, but never been happier to be living here than I am right now.
Anthony Bourdain’s hot mortadella sandwich for the 1st time. OMG. Where have you been all my life? 🤤
Don’t @ me about the bread. Needed to use up some leftover garlic bread. Didn’t suck.
Fortunately mortadella is hard to find & ¥¥¥¥ in Fukuoka so I won’t make this every day.
One goal on moving to Japan nearly 2 years ago was to lose 9kg (~20lbs). Well, as of yesterday I have lost 7.1 and am under 77kg (170lbs) for the first time in over a decade. Still haven’t met my goal, but at least it’s still trending in the right direction.
@the_lettuce_cat
Interesting thread. Thanks for sharing. But how much of this comes down to lack of imagination? The Kyushu Yusen jetfoil (capacity 247) covers 50 miles of open water between Fukuoka’s Hakata Port and Iki Island in just over an hour for $53 round trip.
I suppose everyone who had lived in Japan long enough has the lost item story. Mine begins like so many others. As I got up from dinner to pay the check, I realized my wallet was missing. 💴💸 1/
A sample of today’s
@BromptonBicycle
ride. Gorgeous Japanese countryside. 9 Bromptons. No frame color repeated. 55km and lots of good food and scenery.
Given yesterday’s chuhai rather than beer I was given a reprieve for my first beer of the year.
This delay allowed me to come up with an impromptu New Years resolution: only get to drink beer after a run. 1 beer per 5km.
Today’s 1st run and 1st beer. 5K in 25:03.
Received an invitation to test a new tourist activity in Kyushu and the invite described me as "high profile non-Japanese" ... so I've got that going for me.
Just received notice from
@TuttleBooks
that “The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks” will have a 2nd printing just a few months after release!
@Chris_Bunting
& I are so grateful. Thank you so much to everyone for your support! 🙇♂️
#japandrinks
(borrowing Tuttle’s lovely pic)
September 2018 I moved to Japan. Among my many goals was to drop from 84 to 75kg (185 to 165 lbs). Today that goal was achieved. Now I expect I will continue to drop. I suspect 73 kg (161 lb) will be my sweet spot.
I’ve had to keep this under my hat, but I was asked by
@lonelyplanet
(⁉️) to write up my adopted home of Fukuoka, Japan for a culinary visit. My 1st commissioned piece of journalism! Thank you so much for the opportunity,
@melissayeagr
!
I present you with my 16 pepper Texas style chili. 16 different kinds of chilis/peppers were used along with nearly 3lbs (1.3kg) of wagyu. Topped with sour cream, cheddar, onions, and cilantro.
#chili
#チリコンカン
#nobeans
I feel like we don’t talk enough about Japanese citrus. I grew up in Florida eating oranges straight off of trees, but I have to say I prefer the wide variety of types I’m able to enjoy here.
Today’s lunch is “Taiwan ramen” from the same restaurant as yesterday. This time no side dishes. ¥880. $5.81 USD.
Will order their tantanmen next time to see how they differ. Sesame sauce I am guessing.
Had a 4 hour zoom birthday party with 4 generations of my family and lots of long time friends. Honestly could not ask for a better 50th birthday party. And all before lunch!
@jpwarchaeology
Interesting thread, but relies on the very western concept that a building makes the place. Here in Japan, the building can (and is) replaced over and over again while still being that entity. There is a pagoda in Kyoto that is over 800 yrs old but has been rebuilt a dozen times.
Today’s lunch is a weird ass curry shop
@MyTwoYen
introduced me to a few years back. This is the chicken katsu curry, which like so many restaurants in this hood uses thigh rather than breast meat (more on that later). ¥850 ($5.34) and I couldn’t even finish the rice. 1/
Fukuoka is such a convenient arrival city via air. Domestic terminal is 10 minutes to Hakata Station and less than 20 to Tenjin. International terminal doesn’t have train service, but no lines for anything and if you have time to kill there is a free bus to the main terminal.
There’s been a recent blossoming of sake-beer hybrids in Japan. This was a wild one. All the aroma you’d expect from a ginjo sake with the grapefruit you find in IPAs.
Did not count it against my beer bank since I tried it as a public service to the Japanese drinks community.
If you had told me when I woke up this morning that I would have the most amazing pizza I’ve ever had in Japan in a gypsy cafe in an onsen village, I would have thought you were nuts. Yet here we are.
I’ve decided to cut out beer and bread for a month to see if I can finally reach the weight loss goal I set in 2018.
So of course last night I sessioned beer and pretzels to prep for this period of deprivation.
#MidnightDiner
(深夜食堂, Shinya shokudō), on
#Netflix
(8.6 on
#IMDB
), is an absolute gem. The "normal" lives of the customers are contrasted by an almost otherworldly (Reikai), whimsical setting. What an awesome show!
Down in
#Kagoshima
you can still sometimes find cedar and bamboo pot stills in
#shochu
distilleries. Despite the ferment spending just a few hours in the still, the final spirit has a hint of cedar. This example is at Komasa Distillery in Hioki.
Inflation has finally hit Fukuoka.
Neighborhood ramen shop has raised prices from ¥390 to a ¥450 for their standard bowl. That’s an increase of 41 cents from $2.68 to $3.09.
My 1st homemade premium wagyu burger. Used Saga beef. Topped w white cheddar, butter-vermouth sautéed mushrooms & scallions, pickled jalapeños, & secret burger sauce on homemade buns. Paired w my signature cole slaw, tater tots, & a peanut butter stout. Yes it’s a Monday. Why?
As an American I cringed a bit when I saw this Welch’s grape chuhai. And it tastes exactly like you would expect. Boozy Welch’s grape soda. Believe this is a crime in 17 states.
For context the toilet I used was ~50 feet from the police box. Had I gone to the police box closest to dinner it probably wouldn’t have been logged yet and I would have spent the next 12–24 hours canceling credit cards and stressed out. What are the chances?
Charmed life. /end
Last stop today was the amazing Takechiho Gorge in Miyazaki, a spiritual area and the site of one of the first legends of the Japanese gods where Amaterasu hid in a cave and her brother threw pooh or something.
Last night had a proper Showa era izakaya experience. Chain-smoking yak with his middle aged girlfriend at the next table and a guy I just met lighting up at my table without so much as a fake apology. 🚭
But the food was salaryman approved and the shochu did flow.
I've been contemplating how to share this story as many of us are dealing with
#COVID19
right now. As I've recently made obvious, I'm a clinical epidemiologist in my "real life" - you can follow my research adventures
@orthoepi
. I tweet health stuff, but less frequently. 1/25
Finding proper steak in Japanese supermarkets can be a challenge, but found this 200g Saga wagyu filet. This cut of meat cost more than the bottle of 2013 Barolo so not for the faint of heart trying to reverse sear for the 1st time with wagyu. 👨🏻🍳🐂🥩🍷
“Acted” in my 1st commercial today. Played a foreigner hoping to introduce shochu to foreign markets so it was in my wheel house. But all of the hand shaking was stress inducing. 🤝😨
The other night I met the president of the last independent soy sauce maker in Fukuoka. All others are apparently made in a central factory and then finished/packaged as independent brands. Reminds me that we need to support these shokunin (職人).
Been wanting to try this falafel since
@hizaga
posted about it a couple years back. Finally made it. Not only the best falafel I’ve had in Japan, but probably the best falafel sandwich I’ve ever had. Lentil soup was great too. Kuumba du Falafel in Shibuya.
Had a Tampopo Italian restaurant moment when I ordered a glass of Italian wine after speaking with the chef. Within 5 minutes every single Japanese man in the dining room who had witnessed the exchange ordered a glass of the exact same wine.
Good thing I decided taco shells were exempt from my bread and beer diet. These Okinawan tacos are addictive. House made salsa was great too at Amigo Tacos in Naha.
April of next year Tokyo bans smoking in most bars and restaurants ... a full 18 years after NYC took a similar measure. This, to me, is Japan's greatest social failure. Glad it's finally starting to change.
My shokupan battles with Bobby Judo ended when he left Twitter, but I’d like to believe this tuna melt would have him finally admitting defeat. Grilled covered to steam the inside & melt the cheese. Trick was low heat & a non-cast iron skillet. Worked like a charm.
In preparation for the super typhoon I have decided to make an enormous batch of Texas style chili with a Japanese twist or two. I hope
@Brian_Ashcraft
will approve.
I don’t not remember who recommended this. Was it in reply to
@conbiniboys
? I topped my yaki-pudding with whisky and this may be the best dessert I’ve had this year. Convenience store pudding and a mystery whisky sample. 🍨🥃
When visiting Japan, the train platform noodle stands should not be ignored. This one is on platform 2 at Hakata Station, and, of course, serves Hakata ramen.