Hannō 飯能

These are a few photos I took during our layover (can I use that for train transfers) in Hannō on our way to Koma last weekend: some strips of iron, the official Hannō manhole cover (full-color edition), an alley location (partial), and a Singer sewing machines sign (again, partial). I’m especially fond of the third, although I’m certain some will find that the least “aesthetic” of the bunch. (I should reference that I’ve mentioned before the ubiquity of this “blue-red-rust-old wood” combo in the corners of Japan.)

In Honor of Cat Day ニャン・ニャン・ニャン

I was actually supposed to post this photo two days ago on 22 February, Cat Day here in Japan. It's not a national holiday or anything of the sort; some individuals in the pet food industry got together and designated it as such.

I took this picture outside of the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park. There are a lot of feral cats in the park, but they get so much attention from people (and I think some of the grounds keepers as well) that they are tamer and healthier than you'd expect. But they're definitely wild. I learned as much when I saw one stalking a pigeon. That's the equivalent of "big game" for a house cat.

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Postscript: Off the top of my head, I can think of five animal names that are also used as verbs: cow, snake, ferret, bat, and grouse. Am I missing any? Moose? Mouse? Suricate Suricata suricatta? Let me know.

EDIT: Of course: duck!

EDIT: Crow, pony, weasel, pigeonhole, hog, pig, monkey, rat, buffalo, ram, squirrel, horse... Good thing I included that "off the top of my head" clause. Thanks Justin and Jen.

EDIT: Last night (10 March) before falling asleep: badger, bull, bear, fish, dog.

Kotesashi 小手指

These are some photos from a recent trip to Kotesashi: an elephant statue outside a curry establishment, plum blossoms, and the colored version of the Tokorozawa manhole cover.

Daytrip to Koma 阿里山

Today I had one of my best meals since coming to Japan last year. I’m speaking as a vegetarian and aficionado of organic foods, of course. In the hinterlands near Tokyo there is a restaurant and grocery of a sort that is ever so rare in this country: Alisan. I cannot even begin to describe how wonderful it is to know this place exists, and so close to home…kinda.

Featured here is today’s lunch. I had a veggie burger and vegetable soup, and my wife a soup-and-salad set with a side of (real) bread and hummus. Fantastic.

We stocked up on a few things from the market after lunch. Expensive, but what are you gonna do?

Blue Whale ロールシャッハ・テスト

This is a life-size replica of a blue whale. It’s in front of the National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno Park. It’s massive, as it should be.

Like a pilgrimage, I make a beeline for this whale every time I visit the park, mainly because it fills me with a sense of awe. I’ve brought friends to see the whale on more than one occasion, so that I might share in the experience. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find someone who enjoys my enthusiasm for such things. Pointing at the whale, I exclaim, “Just look at the thing,” and the reply is always the same: “What?” I guess in some way the whale is a kind of Rorschach print: either you see it, or you don’t.

Ameyoko アメ横

I took this photo at the end of my excursion to Ueno, today. It’s a part of a clothes shop display at one of the entrances to Ameyoko, a popular shopping quarter.

I took more pictures in the park, and will upload some samples over the coming days after I sort through them.

I’m an Addict マタマタカレー

I finished a massive project for school the other day, and therefore resolved to take things kind of easy this week. I’ve spent a lot of time walking in the city, visiting museums and other sites of interest. But yesterday I opted to stay home and cook. I’m enjoying my experiments with curry and recently purchased a new cookbook for inspiration, so I decided to whip up an Indian smorgasbord. I started around 10:30 and finished at 5:00. I cooked four dishes, including 1) a dal, 2) palak paneer, which is a creamy spinach puree with paneer cheese (I didn’t have paneer so I used squares of tofu sautéed in sesame oil as a substitute), 3) potatoes and peas in a cashew cream sauce, and 4) spicy eggplant with tomatoes). My plate alone probably weighed in at about 2000 calories, but it was worth it.

Be sure to click on the picture for a larger image.

Shintokorozawa 久し振り

I took these "innocuous" photos several days ago – I’ve been busy – after my wife and I recovered from our colds (which was probably the flu, but I can’t say for sure). I hadn’t been out of the house for a week, and was antsy to go somewhere. I opted to listen to my stomach, and decided Thai curry was in order.

I recalled a promising establishment just a couple stations away in Shintokorozawa, and thereafter settled on it as the only restaurant that could satiate my cravings. My wife was still a bit stricken, but I followed her around the house begging her like an eight-year-old to come with me until she finally caved.

The food was fantastic.



I still find rusty signs interesting. It’s the combination of shapes and colors that appeals to me, I guess.


Again, the colors appealed to me.



This kinda creeps me out. It’s like something out of a childhood nightmare.


Nice symmetry, though.



A (defunct?) kimchi house and grocery. More nice colors and contrasts.

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Postscript: I was prompted to do a little sleuthing this morning into the noone/no-one phenomenon after starting a new before-bed book last night, Simon Scarrow’s Under the Eagle, which features the no-one variant. Scarrow is British, so I decided it best to consult the online Oxford English Dictionary for some answers. (I’m going to miss having access to this resource after I graduate.) According to the OED etymology of the pronoun “no one,”

"The hyphenated form no-one seems to have been introduced in the mid 19th cent. and to have remained uncommon until the late 20th cent. It remains a minority variant."

Interesting.

Raging Fevers 風邪にはカレー

My wife and I were brought down recently by a vicious little virus. The ambitious animal came with the typical assortment of fantastic fun that one expects from the common cold, but amplified and tweaked a bit here and there to make things interesting. God forbid man should suffer a boring cold; we all know how tedious an oozing nose and sore throat can be. Fortunately, this tenacious little bug came equipped with a sandpaper rasp, cleaving spike, heating iron, and meat mallet for our enjoyment. I was down for five days with a fever that peaked at 38.8 (102.85 for those of you still on the F scale), and my wife is now on the mend after a fever that climaxed just slightly south of that.

I cracked a couple days ago. I couldn’t stand it any longer; I needed to apply myself to something, anything. Study was out, as my brain was mush. Cooking was the elected salvation, and a good one at that.

Knowing how much I love Indian food, my wife recently brought home an Indian cookbook from one of her excavations at the local library. I’ve dabbled in Indian cooking off and on over the past few years, but it’s always been too much work for a decided failure. I flipped through her selection and proffered the expected “this is great” response, but without a thought that I might actually try to cook something using it.

…Enter storied instigator, the Cold.

I decided about Friday that I’d had it. Viral infuction be damned; I’m making something, today. I hadn’t eaten anything solid and hearty for about four days, and a glance at the curry book on the kitchen table was the tipper.

“That’s it!”

Plus, I reasoned, a good sweat after a full meal of thoroughly seasoned and spiced goodness might just be the thing to turn this cold once and for all. Yep, yep—all’s well.

Featured here is a photo of the meal we ingested on the first night (modified slightly from the recipes in the book): green dal, garbanzo bean curry with hardboiled egg halves, and butter rice with turmeric. And for those of you with astute color sensitivity, No, the placemats were not selected to match the dishes; that was pure happenstance.

This is a plug, for a book that will mean nothing to those of you who don’t speak Japanese, so pardon me for recommending the following to a limited percentage of my already limited audience:

香取 薫、インド家庭料理「カレーとサブジ」