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Genevieve: Did I mention my mom was visiting? Well she’s been here for a month now and is actually leaving for home tomorrow (frown)! We’re way behind in posting on this blog, otherwise you would have heard about it sooner.
Anyways, she’s been traveling around a lot since she’s been here–although she’s mostly stayed with us. Earlier this month, we went to Kyoto together (where I lived and studied 10 yrs ago while in college) and she stayed with her dear friend Tara, whom she met 20 yrs ago on our first trip to Japan. We also went up to Yamagata (N Japan) over Thanksgiving and visited with family. (More posts on this later)
Anyways, she’s flying back home tomorrow to my much relieved dad (he’ll be visiting in mid-Dec). I’m sure he’s gotten sick of the ramen, egg, pizza, and natto (fermented soybean diet). And he might just be a little lonely too. 
Here are some pics from her visit.
Walter: Or at least I think it’s beer. Most of the major Japanese brands (Kirin, Ebisu, Asahi) seem to have invented new beer variants which are usually only sold in individual cans. I’ve bought two: Kirin’s Enjuku-Kuro and Asahi’s Zeitaku Biyori.
So, I’ve tasted a can of Enjuku-Kuro, um, actually two cans because I forgot to take a photo of the beer the first time, so I stopped for another can last night. It did have creaminess to it, but with a much lighter body than, say, a stout or most dark beers. The Zeitaku Biyori tasted more or less like regular beer to me. It was a very nice beer none-the-less, but pretty much just beer.
I was hoping for some goofy Janglish on the cans, but I only found this well phased and grammatically correct description that’s still a bit entertaining: “Enjoy the rich and deep taste harmony of Enjuku-kuro. Fine barley aroma and creamy foam bring you relaxing times.” The marketers over at Asahi came up with “Rigorously selected ingredients, rich yeast and a leisurely brewing process produce the mellow and satisfying taste of high-quality Asahi Zeitaku Biyori . Enjoy the taste of luxury.” In fact Zeitaku Biyori translates as “Luxury Weather.” Don’t ask me to explain the weather part, just go with it.
I think these beer companies are pretty smart with “…bring you relaxing times” and “Enjoy the taste of luxury.” One thing is for sure – most Japanese, especially those who live in big cities, work very hard and have plenty of stress in their lives. They also need to conform to a rigorous set of social rules at work that makes it difficult to relax and freely express themselves most of the time.
Drinking is one way that they can relax and one of the only socially sanctioned situations where they can speak their minds to their boss and co-workers. It’s acceptable to unleash your complaints about the company or your job during these after-work drinking sessions. At the same time, the boss takes advantage of this situation to find out what his staff really thinks. I was told by a coworker over a cup of sake that this is called “nomunication” – a combination of nomimasu (to drink) and communication.
So there are more choices now of things to drink. My preferred choice, Sake, is relatively out of favor. Shochu (a distilled rice spirit that can also use sweet potatoes, buckwheat or barley as raw materials) is very popular now, especially amoung young people. I don’t like it because it’s like drinking rice whiskey – usually mixed with water…not a lot going on. In my opinion, Sake is surrounded my more tradition and a broader range of flavors. Then there is always Enjuku-kuro and Zeitaku Biyori. Cheers.
The views contained herein are solely those of the author. This post may contain trademarks of Asahi Beer Co. or Kirin Beer Co., but I wouldn’t know because I can’t read most of what’s on the label. Please respect these trademarks.
Genevieve: In our neighborhood of Shirokane (which literally translates to white money or platinum) it’s hard to believe that one exist, but hooray! and thank god! there is a 100 YEN store. In most cases, 100 ￥ can’t buy you much in Japan. After all it’s about the equivalent to 87 cents. You’d be hard pressed to even find a bottle of water at that price, let alone something that you could actually use and not just eat or drink. I leave the regular grocery store with 2 bags and have often spent nearly $50–it’s worse than a trip to Whole Foods (or Whole Paycheck as we refer to it back home). So when I came upon the 100 ￥ store I was elated and relieved. Although most of the food items are a little on the junky side, there are tons of other things to buy.
There are huge multi-story 100 yen stores and small ones, 
like the one up the street from our apartment. The other day, I went to the big one in Harajuku on Takeshita guchi. It’s called Daiso and is 3 stories. I ended up buying a bunch of cute lunch boxes with little carrying cases plus a view other items I didn’t need…of course there’s always some indispensable thing that I never knew I needed. Like some of the items pictured here. Like say you forgot your tie at home (ties are a MUST in Japanese business settings), you can pick one up for 100 yen! Or what about one of those face masks for people suffering from a cold (boy do I wish people would wear those in the US). Plus they have tons of cute dishes and cooking parephanalia. I picked up a really handy little grater to turn my ginger into a fine paste.
While I’m not quite sure I really needed the cute little soysauce dishes or half the other stuff I’ve bought there (but hey, it’s only 100￥), Kenji wouldn’t enjoy his bathtime nearly as much without the 100￥plastic trumpet.
Genevieve: This is just a super short post to show some pics of Kenji’s little cousins in Tokyo. Later this month, he’ll get to meet some other cousins when we visit Yamagata.
Unfortunately, we’ve only seen them a couple of times. Although we’d all be happy to see them a lot more. Anyways, the younger one in the mini mouse dress is Kaho. She’s my cousin Haruki’s daughter. Her mom Grace or “Cho-chan” is Chinese, so Kaho is growing up bilingually–cool! In fact, their company’s business brings them both to China and Japan, so they have an apartment in Shanghai as well as in Tokyo.
The other young cousin pictured is Yuka. Yuka just turned 6 and is very precocious. Kenji totally adores her and won’t leave her alone–as in wants to be as close as possible to her at all times.
