I’ve talked about the origin of Itadakimasu and the significance of Mottaitai.

Today i want to talk about this word called “umami“, it’s not a phrase like itadakimasu or mottainai, but still related to food, veeeery yummy food, because i know you guys love eating XD.

So let’s see!

You may have heard of umami, since there’s the famous “Umami Burger” in the US. But what is it?

If you watch anime or Japanese drama, i’m sure you know the word umai, which means “delicious“. And mi means taste, simply: “delicious taste“. read more

This post is an extension to the previous post on the meaning of itadakimasu.

You now know that when one says Itadakimasu, one is humbly expressing his gratitude to mother nature, and everything that brought the meal on his plate. And when you feel thankful for your food, naturally you will want to savor the very last bit and not waste any of it.

And that is the concept of Mottainai, which closest translation in English is “wasteful”.

But just like itadakimasu, there is a much deeper meaning to that. Mottainai expresses the feeling of awe and appreciation for the gifts of nature or the sincere conduct of other people, and to show one’s gratitude, you will use/consume something in its entirety. read more

Many of us love Japanese food.

If you are a little familiar with Japanese culture, you may have noticed that Japanese people say “Itadakimasu” before they start eating at the table.

You put both your hands together and with a slight bow, you say Itadakimasu, and then pick up the chopsticks and start eating. We practice this at our home every day as the danna is really strict with table manners. Junya will have to do it too lol.

Anyway, people usually translate Itadakimasu as “Bon Appetit” or “Let’s eat” (Or in Hokkien “lai lai lai jiak jiak jiak!!!” lolol), which is correct, but doesn’t reflect its true meaning. read more

Today is the danna’s birthday, we decided to go for something simple, so we went to his favorite Okinawan restaurant.

It’s an old, narrow little izakaya in Shibuya.

And here’s what we had:

1

Okinawa Shikuwasa juice. No, the owner isn’t that stingy lol. I almost finished drinking it before i realized i haven’t had a picture of this yummy fruit juice.

2

Salted cucumber.

3

Stir fried Goya Champuru (bitter gourd) with tofu and egg.

4

Stir fried stomach with leek and mushroom read more

Hi. This is not really a real blog post.

About 1-2 years ago i had a tweet that says,

“i will give one year of my life just to see Nakata Yasutaka spin live.”

It was sort of a wrong thing to ask for.

Because i think i have just used up my entire life time last night at Sound Museum VISION Tokyo.

I died.

Sometimes the universe answers you in different ways.

So guys, this is not really a blog post, because it’s not really written by me.

It’s written by the dead me sent to you all on this blog via phantom morse code. From World of Fantasy. read more

Japan?

I’m starting to think that it has become my new religion.

It is starting to scare me that i have become so insanely religious that i can’t stop thinking and talking about it all. the. damn. time, to the extend that i am also preaching this new found faith to everyone around me (including all of you reading this right now). To the point my friend warned her roommate to stop talking to me, else she would be brainwashed and lose all her money (buying air tickets etc) wtf.

My devotion to this new belief is shocking even to myself. I apologize in advance in case anyone here find my incessant preaching revolting, and that i have become this evangelist who gives sermon about how Japanese air cleanses my soul. If that is the case, you can maybe skip this and read an old post about… a dish washer. Or something. Unless the dish washer is made in Japan. Then i apologize in advance, twice. read more

I just got back from Guangzhou China and I have never missed home so badly before until Audrey and i both decided to fuck it and paid RM900 each for a new flight just to come home two days earlier.

Now i am really really thankful to be staying in Malaysia!!! And go to Japan so often. And apparently Malaysia is also the most desired country for Japanese people, so I’m literally living in the best of both worlds lol.

Thank you life. Thank you thank you thank you.

It had been a relaxing week for me before my trip so most of the time i just stayed home and secretly leveled up my Secret & Magic Skill lol. read more

It wasn’t even a joke. Unlike killing sixteen-eared raccoons for a bowl of Okinawa Soba. That was a joke. I mean, i will NEVER kill a sixteen-eared raccoon because ears are very precious. Plus we are allowed to eat squid right? Right???

Ok imma blog about my first LIVE SQUID experience. You guys should get a bucket or something. Just in case.

I had no idea what it was about i just blindly followed the native kareshi into the shop not knowing that someone’s gonna shove a LIVE SQUID EYE BALL into my mouth wtf. read more

Basically this is a post about why i love Japan.

I have been wanting to write this post for a long time, but keep procrastinating it because i couldn’t seem to find the right tone and angle to fully express what i wanted to say (also every day i find a new reason to love it so it become very long). Also because i potentially might get stoned to death by patriots, because even i feel like i’m betraying my own country. So it also involves a lot of complicated feelings.

But they are good rather than bad feelings. Sort of like a piece of nutella flavored bacon. Something like that. read more

Since i’m kinda running out of things to blog i think the easiest is to go back to blogging about things you like.

I can do this all the time, every single day until everyone pukes sushi.

(Note to self: sound track to play for this post)

Here are some of the things (not all of them) i love about Japan. And some photos i have never published before. Took me a long time to go through all my photo archive to compile this!

#1

Host family in Nagano

#2

Host family in Sapporo

#3

Host family in Nagoya read more

Haih.

Cancelled my trip to Japan. It’s more like for the sake of not worrying people who care about me since there are so many rumors and warnings, like not to eat Japanese food for the next 10 years if not your baby will become a mutant octopus or something like that.

Ok i exaggerated. But that’s exactly how rumors come about.

So i was very sad. Listening to Japanese songs also sad. Eat Japanese food also sad. Wear Japanese make up also sad. Totally unnecessarily dramatic and overreacting and utterly whiny and annoying. read more