Author Archives: Daniel

商店街 (shōtengai)

Tenjinbashi-suji Shotengai in Osaka.It’s difficult to recommend places for tourists in Osaka. I’ve tried, but there’s nothing with quite as much “impact” as in Tokyo and Kyoto. Of course there’s Osaka Castle and Dōtonbori, but the castle is a recent reconstruction, and other than the admittedly very picturesque views along the river, the Dōtonbori area is now filled with the same brand shops that tourists can access back home. It’s all a bit manufactured and crowded, even this year’s Expo and other sights such as the aquarium and the retro neighborhood Shinsekai.

This gets to the heart of the tourism question: What is “impact”? What is worth visiting and what isn’t? How does this get decided?

Craig Mod has an interesting piece of writing that addresses overtourism in Japan, and the underlying premise is that social media (and in particular short-form video) creates targets that tourists feel they must hit in order to achieve “tourism.” If you don’t visit Fushimi Inari, have you even been to Kyoto?

I think that’s part of the charm of Osaka. It defies tourist expectations despite their best efforts. I’m glad that the tourists in Shinsaibashi feel like they’re accessing Japan, but the best parts of Osaka are the parts that people actually live in, not the selfie destinations. Many tourists are missing these neighborhoods completely.

I’ve argued that Osaka is best enjoyed as “matte finish” city, and nothing exemplifies that more than neighborhood 商店街 (shōtengai, shopping arcades). I’m always tempted to translate 商店街 as “covered” shopping arcade until I remember that not all are covered. Some are just a collection of shops along a neighborhood street, organized by a community association with flags or decorated light poles to signal their alliance. However, the best are covered, and they are scattered across the city.

A shopping arcade in the Fukushima neighborhood of Osaka.

Tokyo has 2,374 registered 商店街, but they are spread across 2,194 square kilometers. Osaka is only 225 square kilometers, a tenth of the size, yet it has 460: The density of 商店街 in Osaka is double that of Tokyo. This confirms my lived experience that you come across shopping arcades in Osaka much more frequently than in Tokyo.

Tenjinbashi-suji Shotengai in Osaka.

I spent my first week here in August 2022 walking around the city, trying to get a sense of the place and find somewhere to live. I asked for recommendations on Reddit and was directed to Nakazakichō and Temma. Knowing nothing of either, I headed for Nakazakichō only to exit from the Tenroku subway stop and immediately be drawn in by the Tenjinbashi-suji Shōtengai. This is the longest covered shopping arcade in Japan. I specify “covered” here because I’m skeptical of the claims that Asakusa’s Kokusai-dōri, recently recognized as the longest 商店街 in Japan, is covered and connected over its entirety.

Tenjinbashi-suji is remarkable. It starts near the Ōkawa river, a diversion of the Yodogawa, with two uncovered blocks that I would argue still fit the shopping arcade bill. There are cafes, boutiques, and bakeries along this stretch, and during the Tenjin Festival in July it fills with stalls selling skewered meat, okonomiyaki, and other festival foods. From here the arcade is covered and runs north, counting up from the “Ten’ichi” neighborhood (shorthand for Tenjinbashi 1) all the way north to “Tenroku” (Tenjinbashi 6).

Tejinbashi-suji Shotengai in Osaka on New Year's Day.

The character of the arcade shifts over the run. The area around Osaka Temmangu Shrine close to the river is filled with longtime holdouts like a hardware store, a knife shop, and a number of handsome cafes in addition to newer spots, chain restaurants, chiropractors/acupuncturists, and others. A few blocks north of Minami-Morimachi, the arcade gets slightly quieter with a number of bookstores marking this section as well as an open-air green grocer, before becoming lively again around Ōgi-machi with lots of restaurants, more bakeries, chain pharmacies, kushikatsu and okonomiyaki restaurants, a taiyaki/ice monaka shop, takoyaki vendors, and a well lit gachapon store, which all spill into the JR Temma crowds. The patio outside JR Temma station was previously carts and tables, giving it a very ramshackle feel, but at some point in the last two years the patio was cleared and semi-permanent structures built to house three standing bar/restaurants. After the JR station, the arcade narrows noticeably. There’s a Doutor and an international food store, but also dueling sushi shops (a small restaurant and a Sushiro location), a futon store, other boutiques, a Gusto family restaurant location, and convenience stores. The arcade ends at the subway station which is right next to the Osaka Museum of Housing and Living.

The Guardian recently covered the rise of supermarkets and how these have hollowed out shopping arcades by making business more difficult for individual proprietors. But I’m not sure it’s quite that simple. Supermarkets have long coexisted and even anchored shopping arcades. Tenjinbashi-suji, for example, has several in close proximity. In addition to smaller, konbini-like options along the arcade, there’s a larger Kohyo near Minami-Morimachi and a Hankyu Oasis at the northern terminal. There are even the bright neon lights of the Osaka chain Tamade right on the arcade just south of JR Temma.

Tenjinbashi-suji Shotengai in Osaka.

I think it’s more likely that shopping arcades have delicate and intricate ecosystems much like rainforests. Larger entities such as stations, major cultural institutions (shrines, museums, etc.), offices, residences, pachinko parlors, and even chain stores like supermarkets form the larger trees that funnel traffic to the smaller businesses on the arcade. If any of these pieces are significantly dislodged or absent to begin with, the long-term health of the whole ecosystem is at risk.

Suburban America lacked the transportation infrastructure to incorporate shopping malls naturally within residential areas, and thus malls were vulnerable to the boom in online shopping. (This has given us the excellent mallchitecture.com.) In Japan, many people will walk through a shopping arcade as part of their daily life. Going to the mall back home was always an event. Going to the shopping arcade can be the same thing as going to school or going to work. There are even apartment buildings built directly into shopping arcades in Japan, including ones as large as Tenjinbashi-suji.

Dilapidated Inari Shotengai in Osaka with the lights from an izakaya visible.

Many shopping arcades have seen better times. When I was looking for new apartments in 2023, I came across Inari Shōtengai near Kamishinjō Station, one of the local stops on the Hankyu Line out to Kyoto. At just two short blocks in length, Inari is very much the polar opposite of Tenjinbashi-suji. The plastic roofing is torn and shredded, hanging down from the skeleton girding of the arched roof. There is a cafe and an izakaya, a men’s clothing store that may be permanently shuttered, and one of the stalls has been converted into monthly bike parking. Apartments surround the arcade, so people pass through, but there are not enough of the major economic pillars that would drive people there in large enough numbers to sustain the covered arcade.

Sekime Shotengai in Osaka.

Another less extreme example might be Sekime Shōtengai. Sekime is a dim, three-block covered arcade near Sekime Station on the Keihan Line to Kyoto. Like Inari, it has the foot traffic from transportation and residential buildings in neighboring blocks, but it also has an Appro supermarket on the arcade. Perhaps this is why there are a handful of stores both on the arcade and in the immediate blocks before and after that seem to be surviving if not thriving. There’s a open-air green grocer, a takoyaki grill, a coffee and curry restaurant, and a handful of izakaya. Nearby but not right on the arcade, there are a 駄菓子屋 (dagashiya, traditional Japanese candy store), a patisserie, and a number of restaurants.

I’d be hesitant to recommend that tourists visit Sekime Shōtengai, but at the same time, I do think they’d be getting a much more authentically Japanese experience than visiting Dōtonbori. In the end, I guess it really depends on the tourist. If you’re looking for an immediate caffeine rush, then 商店街 may not be the right tourist destination for you. Surrounded by other tourists at Kiyomizu-dera, there’s easy confirmation that you’re in the right spot; the temple is massive, the crowds provide reassurance, and there are any number of polished treats, both edible and inedible, to further stoke the sensation. But if you’re fine with a dull ache instead, that at-times-impossible-to-pinpoint, ASMR-like recognition that you are amongst the gritty reality of another place, then Osaka may be the city for you.

A shotengai in the Tsuruhashi neighborhood of Osaka.

Tenjinbashi-suji may have the most “impact,” but plenty of Osaka’s shopping arcades are worth a visit. Spend an afternoon walking around Fuse Shōtengai or Sembayashi Shōtengai. Go get breakfast on Sky Dome Kosaka Hon-dōri Shōtengai before checking out the beautiful Shiba Ryōtarō Memorial Museum designed by Ando Tadao. Or grab a beer and Korean food on Tsuruhashi Shōtengai. These may require more work to pry open, but the pearls you’ll find inside will be more than worth the effort even if they aren’t exactly the color you expect them to be.

Sembayashi Shotengai in Osaka.Sky Dome Kosaka Hon-dori Shotengai in Osaka.

 

Recipes, Annotated

Breakfast

Mains

  • The Best Lasagna Recipe {Simple & Classic} (simplyrecipes.com)
    • This recipe worked really well. I would probably do half beef/half Italian sausage next time.
  • Sheet Pan Pork Chops With Brussels Sprouts — Baking with Josh & Ange (bakingwithjoshandange.com)
    • My oven doesn’t get very hot, but I still overcooked the pork. I think six minutes on each side might be enough, even at 350F.
  • Beef and Burdock Takikomi Rice
    • This recipe was super easy in a rice cooker. The best part is that you can clean up while it cooks. Going to be making this a lot during the winter.
  • 5-Minute Miso Glazed Salmon
    • Super easy recipe. Add miso soup, rice, and tsukemono and you’ve got a super easy Japanese meal ready to go in five minutes. I’ve been eating this like twice a week, ha.
  • Beef Enoki Rolls
    • Super quick, easy, and fun meal. Wrap beef around little bits of enoki – I used toothpicks because it was easier than trying to tuck or tie the beef slices. Stir fry onions in a little oil until they are soft. Put enoki rolls on top of onions. Pour on sauce (1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/2 cup dashi stock, 1-2 tbsp honey, salt and pepper). Simmer until beef is cooked. Drizzle two whisked eggs over meat and cook for a few minutes. Serve over rice!

Rice

  • One Pot Mushroom Rice
    • Add 1 cup washed rice, 3/4 cup water, 2 shiitake mushrooms sliced, 1 cup cooked bamboo shoots sliced, 1 tbsp ginger, a bunch of garlic, minced shallot/onion, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tbsp olive oil to rice cooker and mix well. I cooked on the takikomi setting, and I made a double portion. Came out super great.

Noodles

  • Creamy Gochujang Mushroom Udon
    • This recipe was great. I made a single serving but kept the mushrooms the same. They need to be sautéed for a lot longer than 3-4 minutes to get them to brown. Adjust the amount of gochujang for your spice level.
  • Creamy Sesame Noodles
    • Another go-to. Super quick. I put together the sauce while the noodles are boiling. I usually make about half of what’s recommended in the recipe, and recently I just eyeball the sauce: peanut butter, sesame paste, sugar, soy sauce, black vinegar, sesame oil, grated garlic and ginger. Stir it up with a little noodle water.
  • Soy Milk Kimchi Udon
    • Super easy recipe from a Japanese site. Unfreeze some frozen udon in warm water, drain it and set aside. Saute 100g of kimchi in sesame oil. Add 300ml of soy milk, 2 tbsp sesame paste, and bring to boil. Add a bit of dashi, soy sauce, and gochujang to taste. Bring to a boil. Add udon and then let it boil for 2 minutes and then serve.
  • Fried Sauce Noodles (Zhajiangmian)
    • Saw someone make this on TikTok, so I found a recipe that I could make with ingredients here in Japan (with a few special items from Kaldi – the sauces). Comes together super easy. Really fatty, depending on the pork. Next time I might try to drain the pork somehow. But all in all, a nice easy meal. I used regular ramen noodles because they have tasty fresh ones at the grocery store.

Soups and Stews

Vege/Vegan

  • Thai Coconut Red Lentil Soup
    • Super easy and reliable. Don’t forget the cilantro.
  • Kali Dal (Rooted in Spice)
    • Ingredients: 1 cup black lentils, 3 cups water, 2 green chilis, 1 inch ginger grated, 1/4 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp coriander powder, salt. Add these ingredients to pot, cook for 20 mins unless you’re soaking lentils beforehand in which case 15 mins. For tempered spices, 1 tbsp ghee, 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, 1 small onion, 3 garlic cloves, 1/2 tsp chili powder, 1 large tomato; start with cumin seeds, then add onion, then garlic and chili powder, then tomatoes. Add into lentils after they cook.
  • Garlic Spinach Dal (Rooted in Spice)
    • Ingredients: 1 cup split green moong dal, 4 cups water, 1 large tomato diced, 3 green chilis, 1/2 inch ginger, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp coriander powder, salt to taste, 2 cups frozen spinach. Add to Instant Pot, cook for 7 mins. In a small pan, 1 tbsp ghee or avocado oil, 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, 6 cloves garlic, 1/4 tsp red chili powder, 1 dried red chili, juice of one lime. In a small pan heat ghee/oil, cook cumin seeds then add garlic and red chili powder. Add to dal then add lime juice and mix.
  • Khichdi (Rooted in Spice)
    • Lentils blend: 1 cup split green moong, 1 cup yellow split pigeon peas (arhar/toor), 1/2 cup red lentils (masoor), 1/2 cup yellow moong, 1/2 cup white lentils (split white urad)
    • Rinse 1/2 cup lentils blend and 1/2 cup basmati white rice. Soak in water for 15 mins while prepping ingredients. Sautee 1 tbsp of ghee and 1/2 tsp cumin seeds. Add 1 small red onion finely diced, sautee until translucent. Add 4 garlic cloves and 3 green chiles, all chopped/diced, and 1/2 inch grated ginger. Add 1/8 tsp asafoetida (hing), 1/4 tsp turmeric, 1/4 tsp red chili powder, salt to taste, and 1 large tomato or 2 medium tomatoes (I do a half can of diced tomatoes). Sautee until tomatoes are soft. Add fenugreek leaves (1 frozen block) and 1 cup frozen peas. Add drained rice/lentils mix, add 4 cups water and mix. Manual cook in Instant Pot for 7 minutes. Top with sumac chopped cilantro, and drizzle of ghee.
  • Kabocha Red Lentil Soup
    • This was also super easy. I cooked the red lentils in an Instant Pot after getting the kabocha into the oven. Stirs together easily.
  • Easy Instant Chana Masala
    • This comes together super quickly. In 2 tbsp of olive oil, fry up garlic and ginger (as much as you’d like), 1 tbsp garam masala, and 1 tsp turmeric for 30 seconds. Add 1 can of chopped tomatoes and half a can of water. Drain 2 cans of chickpeas and add them. Add 1 can of coconut milk (I did 1/2). Simmer for 20-30 mins on low. Add 3 oz (I guess one bunch from the store?) of spinach and stir until wilted.

Sides

  • Highlands Bar and Grill’s Cornbread | The Local Palate
    • Used soybean oil in place of bacon fat. Also used masa in place of cornmeal and it came out fine. Didn’t use any of the add-ins.
    • Rice Cooker Cornbread
    • This is a random recipe from a Japanese site, but it’s super simple. I use the “cake” setting on my rice cooker and make some adjustments. I add a little sour cream and baking soda. Game changer.

Dessert

  • Lemon Bread and Butter Pudding
    • I did a double portion. Two egg yolks, 5 tbsp heavy cream, 4 tbsp whole milk, splash of vanilla, 3 tbsp sugar, 50g lemon curd, 2 Japanese slices of bread (really thick – probably three thin US slices), a good bit of lemon zest. Mix liquids and sugar. Cut bread into cubes and squish in. Bake at 350F (180C) for 25-30 minutes. It was only slightly lemony. I would try to get it more lemony next time, maybe by adding lemon juice directly. But super easy and quick.
  • The Cookie
    • Easy and addictively good.

This page is updated somewhat regularly.

Substack Hack – Template

I’ve been using Substack for the past few months to send out a monthly How to Japanese newsletter. It’s basically a mini version of my Japan Times column, a little something on beer or booze, and a collection of links/thoughts at the bottom. You can see more about my thinking behind the newsletter in the first issue.

I’m not familiar with Constant Contact or MailChimp or other newsletter services, so I don’t have anything in the way of comparison, but I do like Substack’s features and the way it looks. It took me a second to figure out how to edit the url slug (a feature which I think they’ve added in the past few months; it’s in the “Settings” down near the “Publish” button), but other than that, the only feature I wish they’d add is a template feature. I solved this issue by creating a template draft and just always keep it as a draft.

When I start a new month I just copy and paste the template over into the next month’s issue.

Resolutions

The only New Year’s resolution I can remember making was back in 2012 when I resolved to learn more about wine. I failed spectacularly. Once a week for the first couple weeks of the year, I walked over to Whole Foods and picked out a bottle, but it was always too much to finish on my own, and they ended up sitting half-empty in the fridge until I dumped them out a few days later.

https://twitter.com/howtojapanese/status/154647997530128386?s=20

I can’t say for certain, but I think this likely serves as a stand in for most of my past resolutions, which makes me similar to many.

A quick Twitter search is instructive: I won’t share all of them, but I have at times resolved to ferment more foods, to want less, to read my RSS feed regularly, and to listen to more Johnny Hodges/Gerry Mulligan.

https://twitter.com/howtojapanese/status/419264033758265345?s=20

https://twitter.com/howtojapanese/status/18778232282?s=20

I do very few of these right now. I’m coming down off a year or two of wanting, Johnny Hodges only occasionally pops up in my play list, I can’t remember the last time I opened Feedly, and while I do still brew beer, my fermentation game has lagged in food categories…until recently.

And that is because I was fulfilling a new style of resolution that I implemented in 2017. I’d have to do a deeper dive into my journals or my Twitter feed to know exactly why I made this decision, but that year I decided that I would cook something I’d never cooked before, and that this new dish would be my New Year’s resolution.

https://twitter.com/howtojapanese/status/1212476418548011008?s=20

That year it was ribs, the next saag paneer. And onward. I’ve kept it up for four consecutive years. Here’s the list so far:

2017 – ribs
2018 – saag paneer
2019 – pupusas
2020 – natto

Not everything was ‘gram-worthy, so I won’t share pictures, but I will say that it felt good to be expanding my cooking repertoire, and to be accomplishing something. When I started, I imagine my thinking was that a clearly defined accomplishment was more important than a more vague, sustained change in lifestyle, or perhaps that small, actionable items rather than broader ideals would necessarily lead to a change in lifestyle.

When life gets busy, I still reach for Trader Joe’s Indian food, as by chance I happened to do last night as I was writing this, but I also have a freezer full of food I’ve prepared myself in advance—Japanese hambagu, lentil soup, lamb meatballs, black beans.

I keep a short list for future resolutions. Lasagna and ramen are near the top. But I find myself trying out new recipes more often, without needing a prompt from the calendar. When I’m shopping, I’ll pick up something I haven’t tried before and spend a minute Googling to see if I have enough at home to turn it into something.

There are a couple of other benefits, in addition to the food itself and the sense of improvement.

I’ve experienced a heightened sense of memory related to these recipes. I remember picking up ribs from the grocery store and cooking them for friends who came over last minute to play board games. I remember venturing out early in 2018 during a snowstorm, when I still had a blissful Japanese New Year’s holiday, to find a cheesecloth for the paneer at Sur La Table and go shopping at Uniqlo downtown. And I remember picking up the wrong type of masa for my pupusas, which sadly resulted in throwing out a lot of wet cornmeal.

This exercise has taught me that you don’t have to do too much. This isn’t an excuse for me to acquire new kitchen equipment or half a dozen obscure spices. A few tomatillos or a head of cabbage can be enough. (Especially if you use the cabbage to make bigos.)

I also find these cooking adventures useful ways to dissipate the sort of restless anxiousness I find myself experiencing from time to time. Cooking new recipes gets me out into Chicago, up to Devon to pick up ground lamb, to Argyle for daikon, and to Lincoln Square for bacon from Gene’s Sausage Shop. And there’s the focus in the kitchen. Too much of my time gets spent in front of the screen. Much of it is required for work and for writing, and I sometimes hate myself a little for not writing and translating more in my free time, but relief from the screen is also critical.

My next challenge, free from the need to fulfill a resolution, is chashu. This will be the first step toward my ramen goal, but I’ve realized it’s also a key ingredient in Japanese fried rice, which has been stuck in my mind recently. I have such strong memories of eating fried rice during summer holidays in Japan.

I have just about everything I need other than the pork belly and butcher’s twine. This recipe will give me direction for a bike ride, help me restock my freezer, and focus my time during this wild and still young October 2020.

How to Japanese Podcast

I spent this summer working on a podcast project that just wrapped up in November. You can see all 10 episodes here or over on the blog:

It was a fun process! I got to figure out all the technical stuff (and make a few consumer purchases), but putting together the content, creating a replicable system to put that content into the world, and kind of sculpting it all into something meaningful was the most fulfilling part.

Life has been busy the last two months (I finished up the bulk of the podcast work by September and really just had to piece together the episodes once I launched), but I’m already starting to think about a second season. I wish it was something I could commit to every week, but things are just too busy for that, unfortunately. And I think there is something to be said for creating more concentrated doses of content. It definitely helps build anticipation. Hopefully with 10 episodes in the bag, the second season will not only be better but easier to put together. This first season is pretty, pretty good if I do say so myself!

If you’re looking to start your own podcast, I’d recommend checking out Podcastage, specifically this post about equipment. There are a lot of really good recommendations. It doesn’t have to be all that expensive.

Translation – Masquerade and the Nameless Women

Some folks go to the beach during the summer. I translate Japanese fiction.

The book I worked on this summer is available for pre-order and will be published by Vertical on January 29. The book is titled “Masquerade and the Nameless Women” by author Eiji Mikage.

Follow along over at How to Japanese for more information. Pre-order on Amazon or at your preferred bookseller.

Content Pastures

“Passive income” is a relatively newly minted oxymoron. I’m not certain exactly where the term originated, but my best guess would be real estate and investing. The idea of rental income or dividends steadily filling a savings account over the course of the year is intoxicating (mostly to the Olds).

“Passive income” is trending up in Google Trends from around 2012-2013 onward. Monetizing “content” and the internet economy probably has something to do with this.

The investing podcast “Animal Spirits” recently had a conversation about how passive income is actually quite active. Plunging plugged toilets is far less exciting and less passive than sitting on the couch and checking a bank statement, as is tracking down and paying plumbers to plunge said plugged toilets for that matter.

Writing blog posts each month, each week, or three times each week as I was when I first started blogging is the equivalent of plunging cultural toilets (to loosely borrow a concept from Murakami). Generating money from online content seems like it would be a fun, “passive” thing to do, but I think that’s only in comparison to a regular 9-5 job. It’s actually a good bit of work, and there are very few who are able to turn a content library into a full time job. Even then, once your consumers are accustomed to a schedule, you have to feed them or risk them leaving for fairer content pastures. I get far fewer commenters on my blog posts now than I did when I had something for them to read every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

In September I wrote my fiftieth column for the Japan Times Bilingual page. This is kind of crazy for me to think about, mostly because I vividly remember writing my ninth column during the winter of 2014. It was a cold, snowy Chicago weekend during the extended polar vortex that year. I was single and lonely, but I hadn’t written for the paper in nearly two years, so I was happy and fulfilled at the prospect of being paid for my writing again, and of having something to say.

I put on Beck’s “Morning Phase,” which I believe was streaming as a preview on NPR before the album release, made a cup of tea, and sat in front of the computer for most of the day. It was great.

At some point I stepped outside onto the back staircase of my apartment and took a photo of my mug with the weather.

View this post on Instagram

Had to pick an appropriate mug for today. #sapporo #時計台

A post shared by Daniel Morales (@howtojapanese) on

And I tweeted out a preview of the article I was working on:

Being a writer these days is a bit like being the captain and sole crew of a ship. You put up new sails, take others down, redeploy things from the past, all in the hopes that a breath of wind will come along and propel you forward.

Strangely enough, this article got a draft from the official Haruki Murakami Facebook page:

There’s a difference between attention and money. The plug on this page got that article far more clicks than it otherwise would have had, and I imagine that didn’t hurt my chances to keep writing for the JT. In a sense it increased my potential earnings. But it wasn’t money in the bank.

I got a more financially lucrative gust of wind earlier this spring when Keio University used one of my articles (“Japanese humor: more universally funny than you think”) on their entrance exam.

My initial reaction:

But it wasn’t totally unexpected. Starting in 2011, I received half a dozen or so requests to reprint a few of my JT articles in Japanese textbooks for prep study courses. I was confused at first but later it became a nice surprise; I would wake up in the morning bleary eyed, find an email from the JT asking me for reprint permission and my author’s fee, and punch in a quick reply.

In these cases, I received money but no attention. The small author’s fees dropped into my bank account silently a month later.

But Keio was big enough that it set off a quick series of requests. Not a huge amount, but about the same as in the previous few years. It’s been a nice little windfall.

And now that I look back at my emails (that I clearly wasn’t reading closely enough), I’m realizing that another article (“Tanka help Japanese express emotions”) was used on the entrance exam for Fukuyama City University and that Senshu University used the same article on their test that Keio did. Crazy.

The last reprint request came in October, and I asked for a 15-dollar increase to cover the international wire fee I get charged by my bank. I haven’t heard back from the JT, so I may have accidentally shut off my stream of passive income, although it’s never been clear to me whether the JT is shopping around my articles (and their own content library, which is quite vast) or these prep courses and universities are discovering the writing on their own.

I did discover that university entrance exams have a history of “borrowing” material from foreign writers. Tim Murphey of Dokkyo University wrote an article in 2005 for “Shiken: JALT Testing & Evaluation SIG Newsletter” titled “Entrance exams breaking copyright law? Academically unethical?

It sounds like things have changed for the better in the past 13 years. As you can see above, I was cited, which wasn’t always the case. However, the JT and I were only paid because the test question was reprinted in an exam book. They didn’t have to ask permission or pay us to use the writing on the original exam, which feels a bit strange.

I’m not getting my hopes up that the work I’ve produced will bring in a massive amount of passive income. This next statement might come from a place of extreme privilege (this is me checking my proverbial self before I wreck my proverbial self), but I’m not sure if earning money was ever the point. I started writing How to Japanese because I needed to produce something. I needed to connect with people and share things. There was a sense of justice, a light outrage that no one was able to communicate certain things to me. And I wanted to pass those things on.

It feels good to have succeeded on that front, to be reaching out from my laptop onto the screens of others learning Japanese. And now onto the pages in front of Japanese high school kids taking their entrance exams…who hopefully glean something from my words despite the testing fervor that surrounds them.

I do appreciate the extra income, but mostly as a trophy of sorts because I know how awful a writer I was at age 23, and I know how actively I had to work to get where I am now.

The Disease

It’s funny where you find insight about writing. I was listening to the BeerSmith Podcast the other day and was struck by something Homebrew All Stars author Drew Beechum said:

“…if you want to get something written, you have to have somebody who has a sort of disease in their brain that says ‘You know what I have to do? I have to write.’ A lot of people don’t suffer from that impulse.”

It does feel like an impulse. Especially taking that first step. Shaping a finished piece of writing–editing it–feels to me like a more conscious, controllable act. I step back from the impulse to see what it is that I’ve produced.

Craft Beer in Japan

beer essentials2

I was in The Japan Times a week or so ago with an article about craft beer in Japan: “Beer Essentials: The craft beer boom in Japan shows no signs of running dry.” I’m pretty happy with the way it came out, both the text and the awesome layout they put together. This is my first feature article anywhere and my first non-Bilingual, non-Murakami article in the JT.

I wish I had better news to report: Japanese craft beer is gradually becoming more plentiful, but it’s still expensive and the quality isn’t improving as quickly. Although, to be perfectly honest, I think the quality of American craft beer isn’t all it’s made out to be.

Yes, we have a lot to choose from, but it’s not cheap, and it can be difficult to find reliable breweries. The truly excellent breweries are thriving: Sierra Nevada, Goose Island, Ommegang, Boulevard, Brooklyn…in terms of smaller more regional breweries that I’m familiar with, Urban Chestnut, Revolution, Prairie, Cigar City.

But for each of these you have smaller breweries that are producing subpar beer. Breweries that will devote half of their tap selection to IPAs that are difficult to distinguish.

So I think the comparison with the U.S. scene is overblown. I was impressed with Japanese macrobrew on my last trip. Yebisu and Yebisu Black are delicious beers. Even Super Dry is very drinkable…it has a nice bitterness not present in most American macrobrew. If only it were a bit cheaper…maybe 50-80 yen cheaper per can? I guess we just have to hope for a tax equalization at some point.

What I think about when I think about Monk

Monk

When I graduated from college I got an assortment of gifts from friends and family. Few of them stand out because they were mostly checks and gift cards, but one of our family friends got me a large beach towel in addition to a $50 gift card about a year after I finished.

At the time I had just gotten into Thelonious Monk. I visited a friend in New York for a quick vacation before shipping out to Japan on the JET Program, and my friend’s roommate had two huge folders of CDs. This was the tail end of the CD era. I didn’t have an iPod yet, but I did have a nice collection of music on my computer. I spent a few hours going through the folders and ripping things that looked interesting into iTunes.

I know I took a T-Rex album, but I can’t remember anything else other than the Monk’s Straight, No Chaser, an album the roommate recommend as a first step into his music, and Alone in San Francisco.

Once in Japan I hooked my laptop up to the large television supplied by the town and piped music through its speakers while I cooked dinner or cleaned around the house. This is how I fell in love with Monk. Chopping onions for an omelet, hanging wet clothes to dry outside (or inside if it was too cold), sweeping and wiping the tatami mats cleans. I also played Monk while driving around Fukushima Prefecture in my tiny Daihatsu Mira.

I took a few trips into Tokyo for a conference and for the winter holidays, and each time I returned with more Monk. His solo albums, his work with Sonny Rollins, his early bebop and the wild Brilliant Corners. The RECOfan in Shibuya was my go-to shop. They always had good deals or a surprising find.

I also picked up the first iteration of the iPod Mini, which enabled me to play them in the car more easily. It only had 1GB of storage, so I was forced to swap albums in and out, but I always reserved space for Alone in San Francisco and Thelonious Himself. During my first winter, I was driving a friend home to Inawashiro and had Thelonious Himself playing as we passed the snowy fields between the foot of Mt. Bandai and Lake Inawashiro. We must’ve been toward the end, right around where Coltrane comes in with the sax on “‘Round Midnight” after just piano for five straight tracks. My friend turned to me and said, “This album is pretty amazing.”

When I went home to New Orleans to see my brothers graduate in May and was surprised by the belated graduation gift, Monk was the first thing I thought to buy with the gift card. I used it on Monk’s Dream and the documentary Straight, No Chaser. We went to dinner with the family at one point while I was home, and I told them what I had bought.

“Thelonious Monk?!” the mother said with half-sincere, half-joking incredulity. “We wanted you to have some fun! That’s why we got you the towel.” She then laughed a little.

I am certain she had no real idea who Thelonious Monk was. Which is too bad. There aren’t many musicians with a greater spirit of fun than Monk.

towel4

I’ve never been able to forget her comment. I actually think about it pretty often. When I’m listening to Monk. When I use the towel, which I’ve brought to music festivals and events but not yet an actual beach that I can remember. More recently I’ve been using it to prevent bottled homebrew from becoming light struck. And to dry out my equipment after brewing.

towel3

I’m sure these aren’t the uses that she imagined, but they’re still fun. Happy 10th birthday, beach towel.