Japan

Making Japanese Pickles the Washoku Way

I am excited to bring you this guest post by Shane Sakata who writes about Japan Travel and Culture at The Nihon Sun. Shane is on her second stint living in Japan. She loves the culture, the lifestyle and especially the food! ******************************************* Japanese pickles, or tsukemono, really aren’t pickles at all says Elizabeth Andoh, […]

Washoku Warriors

Elizabeth Andoh may not be a name that you are familiar with, but if you have any interest in learning to cook Japanese food, it should be. Ms. Andoh is American born and raised, but has made Japan her home. She did her formal culinary training at the Yanagihara Kinsaryu School of Traditional Japanese Cuisine, […]

Who’s your Papa? Beard Papa’s Cream Puffs

No, I’m not back in Tokyo to go to my favorite Beard Papa’s in Shibuya station (I wish!), and no, I didn’t drive back to the Costa Mesa Marukai to check out the Beard Papa’s there either. When I discovered that Beard Papa’s had made its way to the US, I looked up the different […]

Cram time! A trip to Matsumoto and the Kiso Valley.

The Fuji family has been trying to cram as much fun as possible into our remaining days in Tokyo. The clock is ticking! Last week I was involved in putting on a performing arts camp here in Tokyo for girls between the ages of 12 and 18. It was exhausting, but great fun. Then the […]

It’s not over until I say it’s over!

I hope you’re not sick of sakura and hanami, because here we go again! Today Squirrel and I took advantage of a beautiful day to squeeze another day of hanami into the small Tokyo hanami window. We went a little farther afield to some places near Komagome Station (on the JR Yamanote train line). We […]

Heavenly Hanami

Do you remember how I said in my post yesterday that, “Cherry blossom season = heaven on earth!”? Well with a statement like that, do you really think I would limit my comments on cherry blossoms to only part of one post? No! As an old Japanese proverb says: “The cherry is first among flowers, […]

Taking time to stop and smell the flowers . . . .

I Failed to realize, with the Frenetic pace of March, that my deadline for “F” had Flown past me! Luckily, I got a gentle nudge yesterday from Fuji-san who decided to make an appearance. As I was admiring my patron mountain yesterday morning it reminded me that I needed to do an “F” post. “F” […]

Hinamatsuri—Part Deux

It has been one of those weeks where it seems that hours disappear each time I blink. So here I am finally telling you what we did to celebrate Hinamatsuri! As I explained before, Hinamatsuri is celebrated on March 3rd. Families with young daughters celebrate this event at home to ensure their daughter’s future happiness. […]

Story of a Day in Two Parts–Part I: Bad Day

I was already slightly depressed when I woke up yesterday because Hubby was out of town on Business. Then I looked out the window and it was snowing. It hardly ever snows here in Tokyo. However, snow it did, all day long. This is the first time it has snowed while we have been living […]

Onigiri Oblations

I love onigiri. So does Squirrel. Onigiri (御握り; おにぎり) is a Japanese rice ball snack–mmmm. These rice balls are often shaped into triangles or rounds and have a variety of fillings and are often wrapped with a sheet of nori, or seaweed. However they can also be simple balls/triangles of rice that are dipped in […]

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