Mari - diary

My affordable accomodations list for Tokyo

Since I don't wish to go shopping for expensive brand names when I go abroad, I allow myself to choose a nice hotel to stay in. A nice accommodation is my only hang up! I really don't care about food. My friend, on the other hand, is quite the opposite She does not doesn't care where she sleeps as long as she can enjoy fine dining wherever she goes.

Finally, I have made my affodable accomodation of Tokyo list. It is not yet finished and I still need to research a bit more, but since I am asked about hotels sometimes, I wanted to put this up as soon as possible. The list would might be helpful for someone who wants to stay in Tokyo for a reasonable price.

Mama loves you

Yomiuri recently had a poll. "What is your mom's most common cooking?" 19% those polled responded "it is "it is Nikujag "(simmered meat and potato), 16% said Miso soup, 15% of people responded "Nimono" (Simmered Dishes), No.4 is Curry rice, No.5 is "Imo no nimono"(Potato soy sauce stew).

They don't reveal all the details of their research such as age, gender etc. But most of those responding were likely adults in their 30's and probably not teenagers. Generally speaking, our image for "mom's most common cooking" are those types of food which are kind of simple, but we never get tired of it, even though we eat it everyday. I feel as if Japanese have some sort of soy sauce DNA, during childhood we loved eating hamburg steak, pasta, and fried chicken, and curry. Those in their 20's might respond, BBQ, Beef Bowl, Sukiyaki, Pasta, such large portions and meat intensive dishes. But when we reach a certain generation maturity, I think most people start to enjoy Nimono, Fish, Tofu or such simple, soy sauce based meals, less oily dishes. I suppose in other countries these kinds of changing tastes would happen as well.

Perhaps it is our common perception that is being revealed here. I mean even though the results of the poll were such, I imagine the mother's of those surveyed had much more variety in their cooking. For example, speaking of my mom's common cooking, her jiao-zi, ground meat rolled in cabbage leaves, and tomato stew were always very delicious, yet I would still choose Nimono as my mom's most common cooking. Because the warmth of the kitchen, an apron, a bit of steam rising from a pot of simmering Nimono, the sound of food being chopped on a cutting board, those are the common warm images associated with mom like in these TV commercials.

Get an award on short movie festival in Japan

I always feel it is hard to find good short movies on the Internet. I've complained about it in this post too. Am I too severe about this? Of course I am not expecting Hollywood quality production for each movie, but thinking about some of the high quality web design and flash work like this, this, this, I cannot be satisfied with most of these movies. Simply they are boring. What do you think?

This site introduces some short films from around the world. Please go to menu and read their ubiquitous stories, and then view the stories. Each movie is very short, and they are not so bad to me.

By the way, TBS(Tokyo Broadcasting System,Inc.) will host DigiCon6. This is the film from last year's winner'. The quality of animation is high, but the story is boring. :-p On this page, you can check out some of other winners. Fun? For me, not at all. The best film winner gets 500,000yen. Not so Bad. Here is another film festival; this Con-can offers $10,000 to the winner. Pretty good. If you like to make short movies, you could have a chance of winning. Please challenge them!

Strange magazine and comic recycle

Unfortunately the death toll from Monday's train derailment is up to 91. I'm talking about the train accident in Hyogo pref. And sicne there are still some people trapped inside one of the train car, that number will likelly increase. Is it because the driver was trying to recover a 90 second scheduling delay? What a news...

In Japan, and especially in the Tokyo area, most people go to work by train. I have to take a one-hour train ride everyday tp get to my job. Like I wrote before, every morning people have to have stress. On the train, some people spend their time playing games on their cell or gameboy, listening to music, reading book, magazine or comic. Monday through Friday, it seems everyday some weekly magazine or comic is published. For example, Shonen Jump is on Monday. Informative culture magazine Shukan SPA is on Tuesday. anan is on Wednesday. Social and political Shukan Shincho and Shukan Bunshun are published on Thursday. And picture gossip magazine Friday comes out on, surprise, Friday. People buy those magazines and comics everyday to read on the train. Actually my co-worker buys a comic at the staion near his home and discards it 45 minutes later when he arrives at the station near work. A waste of money? Hmm yes. Probably. However, those magazines get recycled very very quickly. How?

At train stations, you might notice people with big bags picking up these magazines from inside the train cars and trash cans. Usually they are the homeless or street bums. They sell those magazines to brokers and the brokers resell them near the station. In those places, magazines that were published "today" are sold much cheaper than regular vendors. Yes it is a kind of 45 minute recycle exercise, it seems a little strange to me. But I suppose it is a another type of economy.

Japanese designs in Milano Salone

Milano Salone is over. As an interior design lover, just seeing reports of those events brings me happiness.. I will introduce the work of some Japaneese designer's, work which I like.

According to one report, Toyota's Lexas exhibition "Lexus L-finesse" got a good reaction in Milan. Setsu ITO & Shinobu ITO's NU and YU chair have cute curves. maruni is a very old furniture maker in Japan, they have a project called "next maruni 12 chairs". I like this hotel idea by Mifune design. I would certainly able to be relax in such bed. Kazuhiro Tomita's work has an oriental mood; his work is featured in many shops in Milan. Wa-qu is a project by 12 Japanese designer; its theme is traditional Japanese method. Personally I like this little stuff! "sweet clock- waiting for 3 o'clock" . Well I cannot find good reports yet, but maybe soon we can find some more information and photos.*

Tuna steak and Tofu sesame sauce, Mari recipe!

My chicken soup rice recipe got a good reaction. Thank you!  I was delighted by that, and I would like to try some more! :-)
Last Saturday, I invited some friends over for a little drinking party. I cooked some dishes that were very easy to serve. Since my friends said they were good, I will introduce them here today. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures. The picture I attached today is just a similar image! Sorry.

Tuna Steak with grated Japanese radish
You will need Tuna for eating raw, Japanese radish, fried garlic.

1.Slightly braise the Tuna. (rare)
2.Some grated Japanese radish and crispy fried garlic on them.
3.Use Ponzu (Mitsukan Citrus Seasoned Soy sauce /Ajipon is nice!) as a dipping sauce when served.
If you cannot find Ponzu, please try to make it.

Ponzu sauce
1 cup of soy sauce
3/4 cup of lemon juice
1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar
Some Japanese soup stock powder(bonito type)

Tofu wish sesame sauce and Japanese yam
Japanese yam(Tororo imo), Tofu, sesame sauce

1.Cut Japanese yam into strips and grate it a little too.
2.Cut the tofu and add some of the Japanese yam strips and grated Japanese yam, and put them on top of the Tofu.
3.Garnish with a sesame paste type dressing when serving.
If you cannot find Sesame sauce, please try to make it.

Sesame sauce
1+1/2 tbsps of Sesame paste
1+1/2 of vinegar
1+1/2 of sugar
4 tbsps of Soya sauce
grated sesame seeds
some mayonnaise

This Miso sesame dressing would be fine too. I suppose peanut butter would be okay and taste nice too?  What do you think? 

Tanuki!

Today I went for a walk around my apartment. I walked for probably 4 hours, so I am a little tired tonight. This is a road sign I saw today. This is not a raccoon, it is a Tanuki . They are indigenous to Japan. I suppose some Hayao Miyazaki fans might know about Tanuki because of Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko. Yes just as they are featured in the movie, Tanuki are said to tease people by changing themselves into something else. We also have these kinds of stories about foxes. In the old days when people had something strange happen, some enigmatic accident, they would ofaten attribute it to animals. There were so many Tanuki and Fox in the forests. People often have a negative image when it comes to the Fox. "As sly as a fox" is a  saying that Japan too. (to such an extent that we have these woeful tales of tragedy .) On the other hand, the Fox is also said to be a divine messenger. So many times you will find a Fox at the gates of a Shrine.

Though, we don't have a holy image, neighter do we have a negative image for the Tanuki. Actually Sigaraki pottery is famous for its Tanuki motif. Now we can see it all over Japan. And sometimes they are of an unreasonably large size!　No matter what size they are, they always have a "Big bag" :-) -biologically external generative organs? . And sometime the Tanuki has costumes too. Look at this, ah terrible.

Who will buy this?

I will introduce some funny items today. This is MA MAIL.(Mame means bean in Japanese) Live plants seems to be seeling well lately. This bean comes out with a small message on its body. It seems a message is burned on the bean right before they germinate. Anyway 5 days later the message is revealed. This is a very interesting gift.

One more. You know many Japanese people sit on cushions on the floor. And "a guy might pillow his head on his sweetie's lap" whilst lounging upon an "Engawa"=veranda-like parch to get mimikaki service. It is sort of symbolic of happy relaxation time for a couple. Now it is hard to find to a house that has this type of porch, however still this is a happy mood symbol. However if he does't have a wife or girlfriend?!!  Then this cushion is a commodity!..... Of course not. What a strange items. Who would buy them?

Geisha? Mikado? What is a popular shop name?

My favorite site nifty PortalZ's special today is "let's check the meanings of shop name. Yeah, I must tell you there has named in foreign words. Abby Slug? Pupa? My favorite bookstore is named "Village Vanguard". Near my house there is a shopping mall named "OPA", Is it Portguese? At least it's not the Office of Price Administration. My French friend laughed upon hearing that a very popular fashion brand has the doubious title "comme ca du mode". (they have kubrick!!, cute!)It is not correct French, and in translation, it means "like a fashion". By the way NiftyPZ said that English names are the most popular in their research. The next most popular are the French names, then Spanish and Italian.

What name do Japanese shops and restaurants in foreign countries have?  I searched using some simple keywords plus "restaurant" on Google just now. The result were "Mikado restaurant" 2560, "Sakura restaurant" 931, "Shogun restaurant" 679, "Fuji restaurant" 601, "Geisha restaurant" 328.
Hmm I thought Sakura would be the most popular, but Mikado is more exotic sounding? To be honest with you, I think many Japanese have never even met a real Geisha. We know that Geisha is a popular keyword overseas, yet in our daily life, we hardly every encounter a geisha. Why? Perhaps it's because we imagine that it is a kind of old person's expensive entertainment or a tour course in Kyoto. However I can understand how people from other country might find geisha interesting, because it is catchy and easy to identiry. But I cannot understand this, why is this chocolete bar named "Geisha"? (weird display) This is funny :-)  I laughed when I saw this. This Yogurt is named ONAKA =stomach. And this cafe is Sushi Coffee, Iguess smells like fish?. This is Video Sushi, what a combination...

Ah! Right after I memtioned that I hardly ever see a Geisha, this new TV ad is aired. Yes, they will need a lot of cleansing cream. *

Doughnuts Plant & mister Donut

I had heard American Doughnut shop Doughnut Plan has great stuff. This spring, they finally came to Japan. Here is the English page of their Japanese site. Okay they seem to have a formula for success; they feature this Japanese item. Recently someone reported on their site that Doughnut Plant didn’t have the long lines anymore. But, I’ve heard they’re still quite popular. I will try them sooner or later.

I am happy that we can finally eat genuine doughnuts in Japan. Before the arrival of DoughnutPlant the Japanese doughnut market was an open oligopoly of Mister Donut. "Mister Donut" is a subsidiary of Daskin, which manufactures cleaning tools. I am not a big fan of Mister Donut, my impression is that they are too sweet, and their pies and muffins are so dry. Also I cannot understand their half-hearted way, why dothey serve dim sum ?

However their original goods and characters (of course!!) are cute!! I always wanted to their items. Look at this Pon De Lion . He first appeared in Mister Donut stores last year. Osamu Harada's illustrations were often used for their items in the 90's. They’ve also used some famous characters like Pingu, the characters from Sesame Street etc. Here is a link to their goods museum. Ah they opened in 1973! I did not know they were such an old shop.