Archive for the 'Culture' Category

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Heirloom Cutlery?

I just rediscovered the drawer full of sharp things. The good ones are knives that she brought back from my grandparents place. The couple junk ones you can barely see are the ones she got here that don’t get used anymore. But those Japanese knives look pretty nice, and I don’t even think they’re the real good ones. One of them I spotted a price tag of +5,000 yen, around $50 so not your dollar/yen shop variety, but the super good ones run into multiple hundreds. There was a couple of the veggie cutting blades, sorta cleaver shaped, broad squarish and pretty thin.  Decided to bring one of them out and use it yesterday. It’s a three layer blade, apparently fairly common for the consumer grade Japanese kitchen knives. Side plates are a softer more ductile steel, in this case stainless, and the center the harder grade edge steel. I thought this one might also be stainless, but apprently hagane as labeled on packaging is normal carbon steel. The knife is nice. Cuts amazing! Made some paper thin cucmber slices. Continue reading ‘Heirloom Cutlery?’

Engrish?

On cover of Japanese mini tupperware like container, I didn’t notice until I was eating my lunch the other day. I can’t figure out if this was a mistake and they meant to have “KITCHENWARE” and it got by spell check since its valid words, or if they really meant “KITCHEN WAR”. You can never tell. Sounds like an anime show. Don’t laugh, a few seasons ago there was Library Wars. And yes, it really was about special forces librarians battling an evil purple oppressive nazi looking government faction. The military hardware and action was actually pretty detailed. Almost believable if it weren’t for the pretty silly premise. I don’t have a problem with the information controlling regime, I have a problem with that regime and these library forces are supposed to be both sanctioned government branches of the same country, and that aside from this conflict, the lifestyle of the populace seems quite normal. Anyway, the same country that presented Library Wars made this container, so look out oppresive mass produced prefabed food outlets, the forces of home cooked packed lunches are valiantly battling to uphold the virtues of cooking with freely grown local produce! No preformed chicken blob for me, homemade daikon, carrot, and kuuri amamsu sumono for me! (Yes, that’s what I had in my Kitchen War container)

So Long

Good bye, my beard. It’s been three months, but it’s time for me to start over with something new.

50mm – that’s a new record for me!

59th Kohaku Uta Gassen

Fabio’s favorites Pabo performed, but unfortunately, paired with some old guys. Perfume got to do a solo, but they were pretty terrible with the synthesized Cher-o-phonic distortion thing going, but they still weren’t as bad as show opener Hamasaki Ayumi. I wonder how long it will take people in Japan to wake up and realize that she really sucks jagged kidney stones? Speaking of suck, NHK resurrected the dead with a performance by washed-up has-beens,Speed. Last year it was TMR who got a chance to reprise his youthful days as a top-selling artist. This year, Speed went on to prove that time and a mediocre wine yield an old, mediocre wine. They were still as bad as they were when they were on the Oricon charts, with flat notes and voices strained on the high-pitched edge of cracking in the same places they have always been. Mikawa Kenichi’s performance was somewhat rudely intruded upon by some gangly tall transvestite. I guess recently, they have felt the need to have something on the shocking side – last year it was that naked fitness dude, and the year before that it was HG. Probably the best performances of the night were the operatic tenor dude and Jero (Jerome Charles White, Jr.). Angela Aki, Aoyama Thelma, and Hirai Ken performed well, although I am not a big fan of their genre of pop. Needless to say ,there was no good rock. There have been rock acts in the past, but nothing harder than L’arc en Ciel. They really needed Krauser II and DMC! Here’s the official site if you’re interested.

Hatsuhinode

Just about now, the sun is rising in Japan for the first time in 2009. On the webcams in Hokkaido, people have been up since dark, getting ready to photograph it at various scenic spots. Being the furthest part of Japan to the East, Hokkaido will get the sunrise first.

Just watching now to see the moment…

Oh… there it goes!

Shin-nen akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!

Got “F”?

Cade Roster’s Cade Roster puts the “F” in “Fine Art” show opens at Chinatown Boardroom tonight at 18:00. The show will run thru the 27th, so go check it out! The gallery’s normal hours are Tuesday thru Saturday, 11:00-16:00. From the info I have received so far, he’s painted on skateboard decks, so this might be your chance to get some sweet custom wood by a great local artist.

Stay tuned for some highlights from the show…

Downtown Devil

I saw this neat paint chip at the Downtown Post Office loading dock that looks like a galvanized-colored version of the popular image of what a devil is supposed to look like in Western culture.

No, and No

Saw this sticker on the back window of an old Honda Civic.

No, I will not.

No, this isn’t.

No Aloha for You!

I really hate when people take the “Drive with Aloha” thing to inappropriate levels. If you’re on the freeway and it’s gridlocked and someone is trying to merge in at an on-ramp, sure, show some Aloha and let ‘da bruddah’ or sistah’ in. It’s when people go out of their way to let you in and cause inconvenience to everyone else around them is where I draw the line. Yesterday I was making a right turn from a side street onto a divided highway, and there was a space coming up in traffic that I could pull into. Continue reading ‘No Aloha for You!’

He Grew Here: You Flew Here

Where does Aunty Linda get the audacity to attempt to downplay Barry’s connection to Hawai’i?  He was born here and spent the formative years of his youth here for crying out loud!  She was just the opposite, arriving as an immigrant from the contiguous 48 after graduating from college.

Give me a break!

And what of the  fact that she’s off lame-ducking it on the mainland on some party-sponsored junket while her adopted home state faces critical economic issues?  Nero’s off playing the lyre as Rome burns…