Shrink in the Kitchen

Being both scientifically minded as well as hungry, I like to know about what I eat.  For example, in the late summer, in certain regions of Japan, many people eat certain varieties of eel “in season” and last night an important question arose regarding what I like to think of as, The Great Eel Controversy.
En [...]

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I’m not showing disrespect to the delicious meals and hard work of the chefs this week by saying that one of the best meals I had was in the apartment of my friend Yuko.  She lives in Shibuya, overlooking a junior high school, in a small apartment where I’d not been before.
Kids were suited up [...]

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I left the ryokan noted this early A.M. and after a long, mountainous drive through challenging and exquisite roads reached another ryokan.  I would like to live like this: Ryokan to ryokan, bathrobes most of the day, and 5-6 baths a day.
It’s sort of the Japanese version of certain, um, institutions in the West one [...]

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Yesterday, which is today in Boston, and tomorrow somewhere, I was put in a car and driven to Osaka where, nearly missing it, a train took me north to Kanazawa.  The drive was just over two hours.  Ditto: the train.  Nearly missing the latter due to a jam in which the former was caught, there [...]

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