Hyogo has a ton of great food to offer, from fantastic Awaji onions to some truly succulent beef, but it doesn’t have a specific style of ramen as its own. Sapporo is king of miso, Fukuoka runs the tonkotsu game, and Kyoto boasts a thick, chicken based brew as the local choice. Shops all over Japan have variations on your typical shoyu or shio broths, with noodles varying in thickness, straightness, chewiness, color, and flavor.
Beppu is located on the coast of Beppu Bay. This is the place for onsens – natural water and steam comes out of the ground all over the city, and the water is full of natural minerals.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., by my own personal standards, is quite possibly the God of creativity and existential thought.….at least as far as putting it to literature goes. Lately, I’ve decided to ‘go back’ and read some of his classics. For those who haven’t yet already read Cat’s Cradle please do, as it will make your head spin in all the right ways. I am definitely one who has added “busy, busy, busy†to my list of appropriate responses of the question, “how are you?â€
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On August 30th of last year, Yukio Hatoyama and his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) were swept into power in a landmark election that saw dissatisfied Japanese voters turn out in droves to expel the former ruling Liberal Democrats (LDP) in favor of Hatoyama and his reformist pledges.
I did not know how to cook fish before coming to Japan, mostly because fish in Michigan is either dreadfully expensive or of very poor quality. In Japan, things are obviously different. Sure, Greenpeace would have you believe we’re over fishing the oceans and will run out of fish sometime this century, but I believe in moderation.
Miyazaki? What is that? Do you mean Hayao Miyazaki, the famous animator or perhaps his son, Gorou Miyazaki? Or perhaps you are more familiar with the words Hamasaki (Ayumi Hamasaki), or Miyagi? No, I meant Miyazaki, as in Miyazaki prefecture. Before I came to Japan, I also had no idea about this prefecture. Now, I would like to introduce you to wonderful Miyazaki Prefecture and all it has to offer.
If you consider yourself a cinema enthusiast, you need to see the Hirokazu Koreeda (pronounced Kore-eda) film After Life (ワンダフルライフ). After Life is more than just a good movie; it presents a vision of life after death that can give anyone hope. Film lovers especially, however, will find themselves nodding in ferocious agreement when one of the deceased remarks, “…that really is heaven.â€
It’s a bit of an unsung hero for those who have read it. It was recommended to me as a good plane book and while I read it on both my connecting flights, I had someone comment on how much they loved it each time. I also find myself doing the same if I hear anyone mention it. I can’t help it; I just start to ask questions: “Don’t you love it?â€; “Isn’t that exactly what it would be like if someone could time travel?â€; “How far are you in the book?†I just convulse with happiness that someone else is reading this book and I want to bond with them over our mutual reading.