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April 1, 2020　(no foolin’) I have been holed up all day in my office writing and listening to recordings of Eric Clapton’s Derek and the Dominos concerts from 1970, venturing out just a couple times to take care of some errands.  I am staying inside not because of the coronavirus but because it is cold and rainy.  Just like a typical day in Oregon.  Although the virus scare isn’t what is keeping me indoors today, it has […]

March 16, 2020 Whisky.  Or for where I am from, Whiskey Two summers ago I started drinking whisky highballs.  I found the drink to be very refreshing and not too filling on a hot Tokyo summer day.  Sometimes in the heat of August I just cannot drink much beer as it is too hot.  Highballs turned out to be a nice alternative.  Honestly, until three years ago, I never even liked whiskey.  The reason was probably because […]

March 19, 2020 Sugita Sushi Yesterday was my wife’s birthday and in what is getting to be an annual way to celebrate, we went to Sugita Sushi for dinner.  This was the third year in a row for her birthday.  And as always, it was a great meal.  Because it was a Wednesday, this time I chose the 8:30, second seating, figuring we wouldn’t be so rushed to finish as 8:30 approached.  It turned out I made […]

March 7, 2020 I was supposed to be down the street from my home at the Meijiza Theater right now to watch kabuki with my wife and a group of friends, then have dinner afterwards, but it is not happening thanks to the coronavirus.  I felt bad when I had to cancel reservations for 21 people at a local restaurant, but when I did I had a feeling they were expecting it.  Last night, a Friday, local […]

January 11, 2020 It is back to Kōenji for another noodle party, this time udon rather than soba.  I met my friend Fu-chan at Suitengumae station to catch the train to Kudanshita where we changed to the Tōzai line and on to Kōenji, an area I rarely venture out to.  When we got to Seiko-san’s bar/restaurant, the same place where we had the soba party a month before, there were already eight or nine people there, enough […]

January 4, 2020 Today’s date is unimportant and irrelevant to what I am about to write.  I just happened to have the time to sit down and write today, and I walked by the place that inspired me to write, even though the shop was closed.  I am talking about halal food in Japan, specifically, halal ramen. Perhaps a year and a half ago a new ramen restaurant opened in my neighborhood.  A place called Shi-bei Ramen […]

December 11, 2019 I went to a party last night in Koenji.  I thought it was going to be at a small izakaya run by someone I know, but I wasn’t sure as the party was going to have soba and Yo-chan’s place doesn’t serve soba.  I went with my friend Fu-chan who usually goes to the Nihonbashi Soba Club events with me.  I was a bit surprised when she led me up some stairs above some […]

September 28, 2019 Another Soba no Kai day.  And this time the weather is relatively cool, so no worry about sweating.  Once again we used soba from Horokanai, Hokaido, the number one soba producing region in Japan.  But this time we had shin soba, soba flour freshly milled from freshly harvested soba.  The aroma that was released kneading and rolling the dough was wonderful.  I did okay.   Not great, but not bad.  No major problems like last […]

August 30, 2019  UBER EATS A couple days ago I saw someone delivering a tray of noodles by bicycle.  I could not see what kind of noodles he was carrying as the food was mostly covered up by a furoshiki, a traditional cloth used for carrying or wrapping clothing or other items.  I always enjoy seeing people riding along delivering traditional Japanese fast-food, balancing a tray of sushi or noodles on an upturned hand.  The riders never […]

Update: As far as I am aware, there was enough beer for the RWC. Every once in a while I come across a news item that reminds me that I am still in Japan.  The latest was a small article in The Japan Times this past Monday about the Japanese organizing committee for the 2019 Rugby World Cup worrying if there will be enough beer for the 400,000 foreign rugby fans coming to Japan for the games.  […]