Having taken (and nearly failed) more chemistry courses than I would like to remember, I’m usually not particularly enthusiastic about molecular engineering. However, a recent news story caught my eye this morning. Apparently, Masayuki Nakao, a professor at Todai, has just debuted the smallest bowl of ramen known to man.
December 27, 2007 – January 4, 2008 Every week (i.e. whenever time allows), I’ll be doing a “Japan week in review.” These segments will cover smaller news articles from throughout the week that we don’t want to cover individually. Although these articles of news won’t necessarily be very important, they’ll surely be interesting instead. Included [...]
Unsurprisingly, we’ve recently gotten quite a few emails asking about Christmas (クリスマス or kurisumasu) in Japan. Though this might be a bit late, I thought I’d endeavor to answer those questions today, unwrapping my presents with one hand and typing this up with the other. A Brief History of Kurisumasu Christmas in Japan is an [...]
Come lunchtime sophomore year of high school, all the cool kids were eating Cup Noodles. I wasn’t cool, unfortunately, but I loved them as well—with an instant ramen in my hands, I looked very much like that kid in the picture up there: excited, elated, and full of MSG-goodness. Towards the end of the school [...]
You’d think that after possible nuclear meltdown, a heat wave, minor tsunami, and regular Godzilla attacks, people would be tired of canned disaster food. Problem is, people can’t get enough of it. Fujitaka, a Kyoto-based vending machine manufacturer came up with the idea of serving people ramen out of the can. The Japanese people can’t [...]
A little while back, the Tofugu team went on an excursion to Japan. One of the things we really wanted to see was the Mori building. More specifically, we wanted to ascend the Mori building and then look at everything not inside it. Being one of the best city-views Japan had to offer, we thought [...]
I came upon this Ninja Akasaka’s website while planning a trip to Japan with the Tofugu team; when I presented the idea of going there to the boys, they were excited, to say the least. Even when I started to have second thoughts and tried to talk them out of going, they wouldn’t hear of [...]
While every country has its own unique foodstuffs, Japan definitely has some strange flavor combinations. Somehow, though, I think this is one of the most unappetizing ones I’ve come upon so far. Wendy’s Japan has created product with a pun-derful name: The An Burger (あんバーガー, pronounced ahn baa gaa)! It’s basically cheese, an (sweet azuki [...]
The other day, one of the little elementary kids I watch (for my job) offered me something from her snack box. It was a packet of dry (かんそう) natto. I’d heard about dry natto before, but had never had it. Now, let me stop here and say this: if you don’t know what natto is, [...]
Ah, tenmusu, one of my favorites. Basically, tenmusu is a little piece of tempura (天ぷら) snuggled away in a miniaturized nori-covered rice ball (おむすび). It is most famous in Nagoya, but available all over Japan. Its popularity could be attributed to the fact that it’s a perfectly-balanced snack, with carbohydrates from the rice, protein from [...]
