I had a Christmas Eve feast of raw fish.
A student of mine took me out to a sushi restaurant for dinner. It was a good restaurant, and they served an enormous and well-prepared meal of serious sashimi. I’ve been enjoying sushi during my time in Japan, but it’s been fairly tame as far as raw fish goes — mostly salmon and tuna. Last night I took the plunge and braved what seemed like a never ending parade of creatures from the deep.
The dinner was an extreme exercise in will power — I was determined to eat it all. And I did, except for the creature pictured above.
A little background. When I first visited Japan, I was thirteen years old and a very picky eater. I survived mostly on rice during the weeks my family traveled around the county. Although I’ve become much more willing to try new foods, I still don’t venture too far afield when it comes to edibles that once were alive. But last night I wanted to give it my all.
I tried octopus, squid, various types of fish, clams in miso soup, sea urchin and still more that I didn’t get the names of. I even ate the shrimp that was still moving (I’m not kidding) when I put it in my mouth. And when they presented the flash-fried head of that very same moving shrimp, I was going to eat it to. No, I wasn’t. Yes, I was. No, I wasn’t. Yes, I was.
In the end, I just couldn’t. So I left one little critter behind and apologized profusely. Even with that one failure, though, I’m fairly impressed with what I managed to put down last night.
Category: Entries with Images
Snow Day
Hakuba 47 area, boarding down a gully with Al and Scott.
WTC Designs
New World Trade Center Designs Unveiled
After the first round of designs were heavily criticized for lacking vision (and rightly so), new proposals for a rebuilt New York City World Trade Center have been unveiled. There’s a lot more of interest in these designs, and on first glance I especially like the one pictured above.
Unlike the other proposals, this one looks unfinished, like a shell of what used to be there. It evokes memories of the original structures, without being too fussy about it.
The Rawhide Kid
Marvel Comics to unveil gay gunslinger
In a bubble in the first edition of the series, Rawhide Kid comments about the Lone Ranger: “I think that mask and the powder blue outfit are fantastic. I can certainly see why the Indian follows him around.”
Martin Pointdexter: J’accuse
Trent Lott’s recent comments aren’t really that shocking, are they? It’s not as if anyone needed further proof that the senator from Mississippi is a reactionary toad.
“I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either.”
Nothing new there.
The real news here comes from Al Gore’s reaction, which is just the latest embarrassment from the desperately over-eager former Vice-President.
“To say that the problems that we have in America today, some of them, stem from not electing a segregationist candidate for president … is fundamentally racist,” Gore said.
Asked if he believes Lott is a racist, Gore said, “Trent Lott made a statement that I think is a racist statement, yes. That’s why I think he should withdraw those comments or I think the United States Senate should undertake a censure of those comments.
Racist? Censure? Come on. Lott is an idiot. And his politics are despicable and destructive. But is it really so bad that he says what he feels? Isn’t this the way we find out who a person really is? His words speak for themselves, and are rightfully being publicized and derided. Do we really need Gore rushing to be the first to scream “racist” at the top of his lungs? Talk about zealous overkill.
It’s way past time to put Gore out to pasture. He means well, but he’s not leadership material. And he’s never going to be President.
It’s Snowing
Things I Do NOT Want For Christmas
Nice Mind
Short Films
Hollywood movies generally show up in Japan three to six months after they are released in the States. And then they are shown at expensive theaters where your ticket doesn’t even guarantee you a seat. If you happen to live, as I do, in a slightly sleepy city in the mountains, that expensive ticket doesn’t even get you a decent venue. All this helps explain why I’ve only seen one film in a theater in the six months I’ve been here.
If I can’t see the movies, though, I’m not going to miss the trailers. Every once in a while, I’ll spend a good chunk of time on Apple’s “Trailers” site, perusing the movies I won’t be seeing at a theatre near me soon.
I watched a batch of trailers last night, and…
I hate it that I’ll be missing Almodovar’s new movie, Talk to Her. Even if it’s released here in Japan during my stay, the subtitles will be in Japanese rather than in English.
There’s an art to making a good trailer, though the talentless advertising hacks in charge usually screw it up. Case in point: The Hours. Watch this trailer and tell me that, towards the end, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be one of those bad Michael Douglas suspense movies. Please, please, please let the movie be better than this trailer makes it out to be.
Ben Affleck as Daredevil? They’ll have to change the tag line from “The man without fear” to “The man without charisma.” Click below to see a real superhero.
Full-Body Scans
A Kyoto company offered full-body scans at the Tokyo Game Show recently. This site collects the results.
I want one. Looks well worth the approximately US $18.
Scroll all the way through; there are some great scans at the end, including one of a woman who doesn’t need a push-up bra.