While there are a lot of well known types of sushi - many Americans do not know that sushi rolls (makizushi) are rare in Japan except for the ubiquitous tekkamaki (tuna meat roll) and kappamaki (cucumber roll). Almost all other sushi is nigirizushi (sushi on top of rice). Anyway to further that, there are some types of sushi that people know little about and are very rare (or non-existent) in America. One of my favorites is Uni (sea urchin):
It doesn't look that appetizing, I admit, but there is something about the taste that makes me willing to shell out the $6 for a couple of these babies. And if you're ever snorkeling in Japan - do what I've done. Find a purple sea urchin, break off its spines, break it open, and dip its reproductive organs in the sea water for survivor sashimi:
If that makes you a bit ill, try basashi - horse sushi. It's usually raw too!
My favorite, destined to piss off the liberal, sushi-eating type, is kujirazushi, or whale sushi. It's very good.
On a side note, 99 (the Japanese comedy group has a segment in their show where Yabe, the tall one, introduces some weird sushi idea he thought up. Some of them were actually sold at Kappa Sushi. I ate Yabe's Corned Beef Sushi and Tofu Sushi, and both were ok. Here's an example segment:
Since it's late and it's time for Japanese rap, maybe we should start with the basics. That's right, there is no other Gaijin instructor that could teach you better - lets begin with Buddah Brand - BTW DJ Masterkey, DevLArge and NIPPS started this group when NO ONE in Japan knew what was happening:
Ok, Buddha Brand was pretty unpopular, because they started it off in the early 90's and not many Japanese could understand what was going on. After that m-flo and Dragon Ash kinda pushed it a bit until crappy groups like KICK THE CAN CREW and good groups like Rip Slyme pushed it a bit:
Again, many rap groups needed some kind of support to make their music popular - then Rip Slyme suddenly got famous as hell with "Rakuen Baby," a song that played in every convenience store in Japan:
This hit like crazy in 2002, and Japan had finally been initiated into hip-hop. But J-hop was all dance, because there was and never was a ghetto to derive hate against the establishment from. KICK THE CAN CREW attempted to be different, but it was more crappy music:
What does fencing have to do with rap? WTFK! Anyway, so then Rip Slyme started dropping some crazy stuff that included interesting mixes from DJ Fujiya and good lyrics:
Again, J-hop began to expand with real talent, but even EGG-MAN and his ilk couldn't defeat Rip and their industry inspired compatriots.
Now that's pretty awesome and different from the dance inspired KTCC and RipSlyme type backbeats. In fact, MURO almost made a East Side (Tokyo Style) J-hop with his music. The hardest fact for most Americans and Japanese to understand is the abject difficulty in trying to translate the roaming and beat-driven English into the very restrictive linguistics of a verb-ending language:
This is probably the biggest hit in J-rap simply because of its original sound. SOUL SCREAMS Tokyo suddenly abandons all other sounds in J- and A-rap and becomes its own chill dance style while not being totally dance or rap. As crappy D/South rap blossoms (or rather rots) in America, Japan starts its own sound. Ironically, the sound splits into the indie Tokyo sound and the capitalistic Rip Slyme dance style, just as American rap splits in to the sellout/dirty South (boosey, h chris, 3.6 mafia) style and the real East Coast style.
Rip selling computers.
MURO selling nothing. And he seems to need O.C. (whoever he is) to do it. Anyway - it's still better than Rip until you consider some of Rip's old school sounding stuff like Nettaiya - where they'd rather dance with one another than the hot women around them:
I hope you enjoyed this informational program. NOW GO TO BED.
I shouldn't be up this late...but I was listening to Sambomaster. How can you not be positive after hearing their music???
"The days of a beautiful human being"
"Becoming a flower that blooms in the moonlight"
And God forgive the Japanese record company bastards that never released the band with at least 30X the amount of talent that Sambomaster had: Clingon.
I've searched American hobby stores just hoping and praying that there will be a Gundam Pro Model set sitting there in the same way that manga suddenly appeared on bookstore shelves in the mid 2000's. I've made about four when I was living in Japan: Gundam, Zakku, Zock, and Char's Red Comet Zakku:
For the complete Pro model Newb out there - you need at least glue and paint for a lot of the models, but some of the Gundam ones come as paintless snaptogether kits. I found a dirt cheap example for sale:
If you have ever been to an 居酒屋 (izakaya - somewhere between a bar and a restaurant) or a 食堂 (shokudoh - a kind of community drink&eat), you've seen the beer poster with the hot swimsuit gravure idol. I think that you can tell the quality of the establishment by the quality of the beer poster. A ratty old poster from the 80's denotes a stubborn and unrefined cook. A new poster fresh from the beer company says that the cook keeps his store clean and that you'll never get salmonella. But a carefully kept Yuko Aoki poster, clean as the day it was hung, says that this guy has taste and runs a clean store. Something like this, but with beer:
Here are some examples of good Japanese beer posters: Sapporo:
Asahi Super Dry Bottle:
Asahi Draft:
I couldn't find any Kirin, but I'm hoping SOMEBODY gets the joke!
Hey everyone, since I'm in the middle of doing something productive - my master's thesis - let me do something completely unproductive like teach you Japanese!!!
Here are the first five syllables of Japanese (and you need to learn their sounds as they are the root vowels used in EVERY JAPANESE syllable following):
ALL LINES ARE WRITTEN FROM TOP TO BOTTOM OR FROM LEFT TO RIGHT
あ (ah) - draw the horizontal line, the vertical, then the curly one
い (ee) - draw the left line, then the right
う (oo) - draw the top line, then the backward "c"
え (eh) - same as う
お (oh) - draw horizontal line, then vertical into curly one, then little mark.
Say these words いえ - ee-eh - House あい - ah-ee - Love あう - ah-oo - to meet あおい - ah/oh/ee - (say each sound separate but fast) Blue いう - ee/oo - to say いい - eee - good おい - oi! - Hey!
Practice speaking and writing these on your own time!!
This group of four from Aomori were my favorite when I was living in Japan, along with Rip Slyme, Sambomaster, and a few other small indie bands (Art School, Kiseru, and so on). You can't find a ban with abject originality like Supercar in Japan - most groups like Orange Range, Gackt, Dir en Ciel, and the like are just cut copies from either visual-kei molds or industry inspired groups that are one step away from being the rock version of Morning Musume.
I was in a bar in the Kansai area in 2000 when this song came on and I fell in love:
I can remember what I was drinking (Yebisu draft) and what I was eating (shelled peanuts) and what the bartenderess looked like, only because the music was so new to me that it made an indelible impression of that particular moment.
The clay, the salt, the sake, the wonderful tradition of sumo will continue this July (12-23rd) in Nagoya. My favorite wrestlers are KotoOhshuu, Takamizakari, and Ama. I've been following Kotooshuu since his entry in the early 2000's, and he's always been a very powerful wrestler, but he lacks the ability to really surprise his enemies with anything other than brute strength. He is, or is near, 7 feet tall. He's next in line for Yokozuna, and if he wins a couple of tournaments we might have the first caucasian Yokozuna.
Takamizakari is a mediocre wrestler, but he's beaten Asashoryu (probably the strongest wrestler in the last ten years) before, so he has the element to surprise. He's nearsighted almost to blindness (big coke bottle glasses outside the ring) and he does a really funny opening kiai (an athletes way of powering up) that makes the crowd go wild.
Asashoryu (yokozuna) is in black and Takamizakari is in blue. Takamizakari starts pleasing the crowd from 4:55 and he gets a lot of applause for an exciting tachiai (fight). Takamizakari really doesn't have much of a chance though against Asashoryu.
Finally, I really have liked Ama from the beginning because of his somewhat small stature but awesome technical skill. He's almost the opposite of Kotoohshu. In this video, you can see Hakuho (the other yokozuna) has about 100lbs on Ama, and Ama puts up a very strong defense. Hakuho is out of strength, but gets Ama in a headlock and delivers him down to the dohyo.
Any sumo questions? Ask me. I've loved the sport since I first started watching it in the Akebono/Musashimaru days.
Man I wish there was a machine that could send me back to Kyoto for a quick sit down lunch at めしや (Meshiya). They had the greatest seasonal food, and reimen (cold noodles) are awesome.
しんどい shindoi - Osaka way of saying tsukareta/kurushii 疲れた tsukareta - Tired (usually from work) 眠い nemui - sleepy (not from being tired) 苦しい kurushii - tired because of an oppressive weight (heat, exhaustion) 死にそう shinisou - close to death 寝ぼけてる neboketeru - half-asleep
I started watching this team after they won Senpatsu 2004, and they are awesome. Saibi High School, located in the relatively rural Ehime prefecture and formerly an all girl's school, has a great high school baseball team (two years old when it won senpatsu, since boys entered the school in 2002) and could be a contender again. Maybe people were expecting Tohoku High to win the 2004 Senpatsu (even though Yuu Darvish was pitching) and the coach made the mistake of putting Darvish in the field.
One 3-run home run later, one of the most meaningful high school songs was played over the sound system as Saibi went home with the Senpatsu flag.
By the way, as a former Osaka resident, I certainly don't mind Osaka Toin winning again like they did last year (17-0), but it's refreshing to see teams like Saibi win.
Well, folks, I wish I could bestow upon you the ability to instantly understand Japanese, but I can't. But for all of you anime freaks out there that think they know something about anime, well, I hate to disappoint you, but I win. After all, I AM A HUGE DORK!
So, without ado, I present to you the greatest anime of the 1970's. Before the commercialism, before all the toys, and before anime was based less on a salespoint than the artist pushing a great idea.
#1 - 未来少年コナン Mirai Shonen Konan - Future Boy Conan
I'm sorry, but this has got to be number one, even over Gundam and Ashita no Joe. This anime is so well written and never has a dull moment. You never even question Conan's ability to stay underwater for dozens of minutes or rip sheet metal off of a plane. The best thing about this anime is that if anyone marketed this in English it would be golden. It's ecological, anti-war, and it teaches kids they can do anything. It also spawned Miyazaki's career, which says the most.
#2 明日のジョー Ashita no Joe - Tomorrow's Joe
Yeah, I'm sorry to say that Joe and his legendary battle with Rikiishi beats Amuro and Char. There is no way anyone can deny the power of the musical track, the battles Joe and Danpei fight against others and themselves, and the pure realism of the boxing match and it' smetaphor for life. Japan was emerging from recession and the loss of WWII, what to do next? Fight.
#3 機動戦士ガンダム - Kidousenshi Gundam - Gundam (the Original)
There have been more interpretations of this series than necessary, in my opinion, and a lot of the newer Gundams lose sight of the original point of the old one: self-sacrifice for freedom in the face of insurmountable odds. It teaches another lesson, it's ok for the enemy (Char) to be way cooler than you (Amuro) and you can still whoop his butt. Give up all the Gundams with the extra letters tacked on to them and watch the only real one.
Yeah, Amuro's a REAL MAN. Actually this scene is pretty deep.
#4 うる星やつら Urusei Yatsura - Lum
You know, a lot of people watch Rumiko Takahashi's Inuyasha and don't realize that she used to make good animation. It's true! Anyway, I love this series. It's so irrelevant and I need a comedy anime somewhere in this list. Plus, most guys know (or remember) how much women turned us on in the old days with just the slightest burlesque flourishes, and Lum is the master of them. Also Lum's not technically a 70's anime, but it is a 70's MANGA DANGIT! The final OP almost sounds like the Cardigans stole their material from UY.
#5 どかべん Dokaben
This is the hidden beauty of this sports anime lies in its wacko characters and the determination and spirit of Tarou Yamada (who has one of the most boring names in Japan). Through heart work and constant encouragement of his teammates, they make it to Koshien three times, and lose the last time. It's extremely rare to find, but I am madly in love with it.
(trans)What is youth? It's a white ball, that flies to the heavens. Because we have dreams, we are young. We hit and we throw with all the strength that we have. The time to set our life on fire is now, like that faultless white ball. Such is the way of youth.
I sent an email recently to Trevor Corson (Sushi Concierge) about basashi (horse sushi) and such and he told me he had trouble with Kansaiben (Osaka area dialect). I'm not near my Japanese enabled computer right now, but I can certainly give some pointers into kansaiben using romanji.
First is verb endings:
Wakaranai (I dont understand) -> Wakarahen Wakarimasu (I understand, polite) -> Wakarimasse~ (polite w/ emphasis)
Kyoto variety (-haru) - A lot of older women in the Kansai area have picked up the Kyoto dialect varient that is considered quite polite for that area
Wakatteru (I understand it) -> Wakkatteharu (polite Kyoto ben)
Kobe variety (-toru) This is more prevalent in the Kobe area and sounds a bit rude to my ears.
Wakatteru -> Wakattoru
Some common words:
Tokyo -> Osaka Cho (very ) Meccha - and mecha is getting much more popular these days ~ja nai (not ~) ~ chau - also more popular recently Honto ni (really) Homma (ni)
And then there is the change of sentence emphatic ending from ~jan to ~yan, along with other words.
Kyo ga cho atsui kara honto ni kurushi jan! (Tokyo for "It's so hot today I feel really tired!" Kyo ga meccha atsuiyanka~ homma ni kurushiyanen! (Osaka)
I did the wiki page for him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramo_Nakajima
I love his books, and I think he's one of the weirdest raging alcoholics ever to be arrested for marijuana possession and die falling down some stairs while walking out of a bar. My favorites from him are "Tonight, From Every Bar in Town" is a semi-autobiographical look at a raging alcoholic dealing with recovery, his short essays, and "Gadara no Buta" (The pigs of gadara - the ones that jumped off the cliff after Jesus exorcised Legion from the insane man) which is a very deep and beautiful look at religion's stupidity as well as its necessity. He also was on some TV shows in the late 90's early 2000's, and my favorite was a collection of Kansai (Kyoto/Osaka/Kobe) comedian's called "Saigo no Bansan" (The Last Supper):
If you can understand Japanese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygFP78_5z24
You can tell all the liquor and drugs have destroyed his speech permanently.
There are four basic types of ramen, and some types are more prevalent in certain areas of Japan (Shio is big in Tokyo, but not so big in Osaka). So lets go through them, shall we?
Shio Ramen (Salt-based):This ramen is one of the lightest and easiest to make, and comprises maybe about 20% of the ramen market. Its a little more popular in Tokyo, and is made by taking a secret mix of bones, veggies, and salt and slowboiling or simmering it over night to make soup. I don't like to eat shio unless it's highly recommended by some magazine - it tends to be thin and while many Japanese love it because of the subtlety of its taste, I usually will end up dunking garlic or shichimi (a type of spice) in it to make it taste better. The soup is usually a thin color.
Shoyu Ramen (Soy sauce-based):
Shoyu is the same boiling process for the soup with less salt to compensate for the salty soy sauce, and the soy sauce is added either in the soup-making stage or right before the noodles are put in. As far as I've seen, this type is quite popular and has about a 35% share in the market. Its got an easy to distinguish brown color.
Miso Ramen (Bean paste-based):
Now we're starting to get into the thick stuff, and miso really brings a lot of thickness to the soup. Some miso can actually get almost chowdery with viscosity, and this makes miso ramen a very powerful weapon against winter colds (and cold itself!) Green onions and garlic compliment this ramen very well. Notice the lack of seaweed as well, you don't see it that often in miso ramen.
Tonkotsu Ramen (pig bone-based):
Tonkotsu is pig bones boiled with miso, shoyu, or salt to get all the fat in the bones out in the soup. During winter, this soup will literally force all the phlegm out of your lungs due to the warm fat that sits adjacent to your lungs - pulsating and loosening all the mucus in your lungs. Needless to say, this soup is very thick and if mixed with miso, can be almost like a cream based soup. This pic is of my favorite ramenya in Kyoto - Hakata Ramen Miyoshi.
There are several others: Tantan men - hot noodles with ground beef as topping Kimchi men - hot soup with a kimchi/miso base Champon - seafood ramen Butter ramen - usually miso/shoyu with a slab of butter on top. Reimen - cold ramen
Well, welcome to my humble blog. I'll try to talk about everything that I know about Japan, which is a lot. In fact, I know too much. But anyway...I was watching this cheesy movie called "Ramen Girl" the other day with that one really skinny Brittney Murphy girl. It was looking to be a cheap "Lost in Translation" movie without the talent, but I was surprised that Nishida Toshiyuki of Tsuribaka fame (YES IN ITS 19th MOVIE) was in it...
The thing that really depressed me about the movie was not Brittney Murphy's beat-up New Jersey girl look, but the fact that the ramen always looked pretty bad: always one or two slices of yakibuta, a little bit of moyashi, and virtually no fixins or anything (Kimchee, tongarashi, goma). I never even was informed what kind of ramen it was (shio, shoyu, tonkotsu, miso), which is absolutely critical.
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