Eating Japanese rice daily

July 24, 2015 electric rice cooker food how to make rice japanese rice Le Creuset making rice rice shamoji staple food traditional white rice

Staple food of Japan

I never thought I’d be eating so much rice. I mean I went from no rice, to rice all the time. Not that I mind rice but you know how it is. It’s like going to the same job everyday and not wanting to go back the next. It’s like taking that same bus over and over again with that same guy sitting across from you not knowing what he’s thinking, and he just stares. It’s like, well you get the idea. I kid though, it’s not that bad. Rice, among others, is a staple food in Japanese cuisine. It has to be expected that ones Japanese wife would be eating Japanese rice daily. And to clarify, I don’t mean morning noon and night or anything but everyday at least with one meal.

Eating Japanese rice daily for me wasn’t that big of a deal to start doing. I’ve always enjoyed many asian dishes, in which of course in many other asian counties, rice is also a staple food. If not in direct rice form then in some other prepared fashion such as rice noodles. One of which is my all time favorite Vietnamese Rice vermicelli with grilled pork and fried egg noodles. Another is the all time classic Thailand Pad Thai made with wider flat rice noodles. Pad Thai is great with a different assortment of meats. The last one that comes to mind is Chinese Chow Fun with wider stickier noodles. Holy crap I am making myself hungry now.

Cool Devices

July 17, 2015 anime cool devices Fallen Angel Rina hentai porn pornography sex

Dirty talk and Hentai

So the time has come for me to get a bit dirty and talk about something taboo here in the U.S. which is of course, pornography. Specifically porn of the anime type or more commercially known as Hentai. Talking with my wife about this, yes we talk about everything, she said the term hentai is used for describing more, hardcore porn. I thought all porn was hardcore? Interestingly enough tracing back to the origins of hentai I found that one of the first movies was produced in Japan in 1969 called A Thousand and One Nights. It was poorly accepted at the time but set the scene for later films to come. Though there are many hentai films, one that comes to mind in particular is a series called Cool Devices. Not that I’ve watched a lot of porn or anything. Cool Devices is an anime series of 11 episodes of unrelated topics mostly centered around fetish and BDSM types of situations and imagery. Good explanation, right?

But back to my point of porn being taboo here in the U.S. compared to Japan, and elsewhere for that matter. I can’t say I fully understand why that is other than the powers that be have instilled the values of sexuality on the people, rather than the other way around. From my perspective anyway, we here are a more conservative Christian based society that has learned that it’s bad to be sexual in nature or to have thoughts about it. Hence pornography is looked upon as something that is “dirty” and not “normal”. As we have seen in the recent Supreme Court ruling, gay marriage is now legal in the United States. There are still many who oppose the decision and idea the of it based on outdated values. Though everyone is welcome to have their own opinion on any topic, that’s what makes being alive wonderful. Another and more powerful reason why sexuality is looked down upon in the U.S. is that sex sells. The more “taboo” you make something the more people want it. The more you shun sex and sexuality the more money you can make from it. I mean just look at the recent buzz about Miley Cyrus and the “shock value” on her actions being sexual in nature. Don’t think for a moment that was something she thought of doing herself. Once people start to really, really see things for what they are, their mind begins to open to other possibilities. It’s pretty amazing, give it a try.

Death Note

July 2, 2015 anime anime series death note death notebook L (Death Note)Light Yagami tv show

A notebook about death

There are still many things I have yet to discover about Japan or Japanese or something Japanish or Japaneseish, you get the picture. Through my extensive research so far of everything Japan, I am becoming and expert of course, I have found something called Death Note. Death Note is an anime series about exactly what it says in the name, a note about death. More to the point however it’s a notebook that is used to write someones name in to have them die. Quite something if you ask me. Could you imagine a notebook written for the soul purpose of the systematic destruction of a people(s) of your choosing? Come to think of it, it’s happened already many time throughout our history. Probably the most recent and notable is Mein Kampf authored by Hitler outlining his political agenda and plans for the new world Germany. With that there was also a book at the time called Sonderfahndungsliste G.B or better known as The Black Book which was a list of 2,820 Britons to be arrested by Nazi Germany of her successful invasion of England by 1940. So I guess an anime series about something similar isn’t too far off.

The Death Note series is composed of 37 roughly 20 minute blurbs taking you through a dramatic process of conflict and resolution around the notebook. The series starts with a shinigami or death god that drops the notebook from the “underworld”. Death gods are supernatural gods in Japanese culture who invite humans to their death. In the case of the Death Note series, a shinigami writes down a humans name they choose to die. The notebook is dropped by the god because he’s basically bored with the underworld and wants to give the power of the notebook to a human for his own personal “entertainment”. The notebook is picked up by Light Yagami who is a highly intelligent young high school student who believes the god picked him for the purpose to use the book. He immediately is enamored with the power of the notebook and wants to become his own god of a “new world” to rid the planet of anyone he’s see’s fit to die. Yeah, you can see where this is going already. Light is challenged by L, who is rivaled by Light’s intelligence and youth, to find who the user of the book is and bring him to justice. The notebook also has a set of particular rules to follow when using it. It’s quite an extensive list to describe but basically if you don’t follow the rules properly, bad things can happen to the user or otherwise.

Public bath? I have to think about that.

June 3, 2015 bathhouse expectations hot spring onsen public bath ritual tradition traditional

Onsen ritual

Of the many things I was able to experience while in Japan, can’t wait go to back by the way, was the public bath. My wife told me long before we went that she had expected me to participate in this ritualistic event. This was the first time I was to meet her entire family so we, had to take a bath together? Of course I had asked many questions about what it was like and what I had to do. And of course being American, was anyone going to see my penis? I don’t make a habit of showing just anyone. She teased the hell out of me about my questions of course. She kept telling me that more than likely, they had probably wanted to check out my penis. Not in any weird way, but to just “see it”. A particular day while driving around in Japan with the family we had passed by a bathhouse and we turned around to go back. I asked what was going on and my wife said “We just passed a bathhouse so we are going.”. I was half asleep in the car at the time but woke quickly and asked “Right now? As in we are going now? I am not mentally ready for this!”. Her parents laughed at me and thought I was being a child so we waited.

Needless to say I was nervous about it. The reason she expected me to participate is that we all were to go to Onsen for a couple days. Onsen is the Japanese term for a hot spring or even more to the point a bathhouse inn or as such fed by a hot spring. Technically however I don’t think all bathhouses are fed by a hot spring only onsen. There are many bathhouses scattered all over the place. Mostly easy to spot just because, to me anyway, they had this indoor pool type of building familiarly about them.

What is Marimokkori anyway?

May 30, 2015 character culture Hokkaido marimo Marimokkori mascot traditional weird

Japanese mascot characters

Ok so you might be thinking to yourself right now. What is this green character and why is there some type of huge ball thing where his package should be? Better yet, why is he reaching out to a child and trying to touch his hand? I can tell you right now, something like this in America would never fly. There would be protesting and riots in the streets if this were going on. Again however, this is the kind of thing the American mentality would never fully embrace or understand. Which, I understand. My first reaction was one of shock for the reason alone that Americans have been taught certain things about sexuality that traverses through our adults years as being “bad” or not “normal”. I am not saying there isn’t problems in Japan with sexuality or behaviors but from what have experienced, it’s just not the same. There is a lot of sexual connotations in Japanese culture which I have yet to fully understand though it seems a lot of it comes from the Edo period as well as other cultural values and ideas. Though don’t quote me on that.

My Japanese Wife

Category Archives: Japanese