Blogs from Japan, Asia - page 794

So the first project I needed to accomplish was to learn to cook some Japanese foods. I enjoy cooking, and have learned a lot from doing it last summer. The whole summer I tried to make everything from scratch, which turned out to be expensive and very difficult, but I learned a lot about how to create foods. What sorts of things to mix in with what to achieve a certain consistency, taste, color, or accent - that sort of generally applicable stuff. So I wanted to apply that knowledge this summer and learn how to adjust traditional Japanese foods to my taste. Japan has some strange restrictions on my cooking ability, however: 1) My pantry where I can store things is, in fact, a shelf above the sink. My entire store of foodage has to ... read more

Just a quick entry to say hello, no I haven´t forgot about my blog recently but between the humid weather and working quite abit I´ve scaled my touring back a bit in the last couple of weeks, but fear not I am really just saving my energy and bucks for my upcoming vacation! Summer vacation is almost here, in a few short weeks I have TWO, count´em TWO glorious weeks off of work and I am really excited! I am headed to Tokyo to check out the sights and sounds of Japan´s capital city. I´ve been leafing through my LonelyPlanet for ideas and so far I think I´ll be checking out Harajuku, Shinjuku (where a million + people use a single train station each day) Ginza (which is supposed to be one of the world´s great ... read more

I wanted to leave one more entry while I am here in Tokyo with unlimited internet access at the hostel. We are leaving for Korea on Saturday morning and I dont think we will have it there. Also, the weather has improved so we may be attempting the climb up to Fujisan tonight...I really don't want to, I don't think we are prepared. Yesterday it poured all day so we thought it would be a good day for Tokyo National Museum. I never saw so many buddha's in my life. Golden, bronze, siver, limestone, marble, big, medium, small Budda statues. You name it they had it. Lots of interesting stuff in that museum. Yesterday we experienced probably our most interesting display of Japanese tradition and culture. We attended a Tea Ceremony in one of the really ... read more

****************************************** But, regretfully, not a good one. It's seems I'm quite unable to write this time, so I'm just gonna shove these posts out into the internet mostly unedited and let the pictures tell the story of what I've been up to - lest they become so stale I don't even remember them. Allow me to provide but a thin drapery of narrative for some images... ****************************************** Well, the last few days at the center passed fairly uneventfully. I headed back to the center and hung out with people, but priorities had definitely changed by then. People were focused on moving out, packing up, and rocking their new locations. Selling bikes, paying up center debts, returning things, and wrapping up Kyoto dominated thoughts. So, it turned out to be fairly uneventful for those of us staying ... read more

Just wanted to send off a quick blog to mainly share some photos from my birthday. Words can't describe how wonderful my birthday here in Japan was. I had to work, which wasn't really that bad as it was a quiet day due to the 17th being a public holiday in Japan - Marine Day, apparantly. Afterwards a big group of workmates and friends went out for dinner at our favourite restaurant - The Chopstick Cafe. It's always hard when you are away from friends and family back home, especially on special occasions, and I was quite overwhelmed at the number of special friends we have here in Japan who went to the effort of making my birthday such a special time. The wonderful staff at the Chopstick Cafe (who now know us by name and ... read more