Niigata - magical land of beer

And yet another marvelous microbrew from Niigata~ fantastic taste and a cool woodcut print of a cloud to boot. I like the name: Eight Ocean Mountain Spring.

Tragedy is, I can't remember where I bought the damn thing...

autumnal flavors

No one enjoys the change of seasons more than the Japanese and about every 3 months the consumers are dazzled by new products themed on Spring, Summer, Winter or Autumn. On the left we have the latest seasonally-flavored gum: chestnut.

...

I didn't try it.

Cool n Easy

Bite-sized cubes of raw tuna chilled overnight in a drizzling of sesame seed oil, dry chilis, garlic and sea salt. Pulled out of the icebox and tossed onto a mess of mizuna and quartered, yellow cherry tomatoes.

Dammit! I forgot to add the avocado... :(

(Adapted from Joy's original yummy recipe)

Economic Armageddon

Confused about how we got to the Second Great Depression? Ira Glass helps us financial illiterates understand it all on This American Life in the broadcast The Giant Pool of Money.

MicroBottlers

Reduce your carbon footprint, rid the world of too many PET bottles, save money for some solar panels, and wet your whistle all at the same time! TAP'DNY bottled New York City tap water!

We're already doing it right here in Tokyo. Although I admit to filtering it twice before it goes into my bottle.

Separated at birth

Hirano Remi, the domestic goddess of sparkling clean kitchen counters, and the Alaskan governor.

खाना खाने ठाउँ कहाँ छ?

The good thing about visiting the dentist every week is that there is a fantastic Nepalese curry shop close by. My mouth is usually numb, bleeding or sore, so I get my curry&nan set to go. I get a kick out of the guys who run the place - Tara and Ali. We communicate in half-Japanese and half-English and Tara sometimes speaks German to me - "Ja, sehr gut ja!"

Up at Nojiri, Joy gave me a jar of her homemade rhubarb chutney. It went so well with last night's dahl.