On a day trip to Okutama (about an hour west of Shinjuku), I met with wasabi cultivator David Hulme, an Australian ex-pat in Japan and former journalist who has been working hard to expand knowledge of wasabi growing while restoring an old wasabi patch!
奥多摩への日帰り旅行で、ワサビ栽培者David Hulmeさん（在日在住オーストラリア人の元記者）と出会いました！彼は古い山葵谷を復元するように成長しているワサビの知識を拡大するために懸命に働いています。
Recently, I visited Asahi Beer’s Fukushima Brewery for the first time. Fukushima Prefecture is famous for its sake, where the Fukushima Sake Brewers Cooperative consists of nearly 60 sake breweries. Moreover, the annual Japan Sake Awards has awarded the prefecture the most gold prizes of all of Japan for four years running as of 2016! Given this longstanding reputation for sake breweries, I was very excited to learn about how beer breweries might compare.
最近、アサヒ福島工場を初めて訪れました。 福島県は、福島酒造協同組合が約60酒蔵で構成されていることから有名らしいです。 また、毎年恒例の日本酒賞は、2012年～2016年の4年間にわたり、全国で最も多く金賞を授与されました！ とても評価のあるビール醸造所ですので、ビールと日本酒がどのように比較されるかを知ることに興味がありました。
Iwami-san, one of the fund managers at Whiz Partners, invited me to join him and his wife at Asakusa’s Sanja Festival (三社祭, Sanja Matsuri) held during the end of May. One of Iwami-san’s former colleagues, Yamaguchi-san, is a local from the area and has been involved in organizing one of the main attractions of the festival for more than 20 years!
皆様、三社祭に行ったことがありますか？石見さんは浅草の三社祭に招待されました。 石見さんの元同僚の山口さんは、浅草の地元の人ですので、20年以上にわたって、この祭りを長く組織しています。
To the Japanese, sumo is not merely a popular wrestling sport, it has long been performed ritually at festivals since ancient times. Many ancient traditions have been preserved in sumo, and even today the sport includes many ritual elements, such as the use of salt purification, from Shinto. Life as a wrestler is highly regimented, with rules regulated by the Japan Sumo Association, and tickets to sumo tournaments are pricey and often sold out. This is one of the reasons why, besides watching sumo matches on TV, we usually have few occasions to enter the world of sumo.
日本人にとって、相撲はとても大事なスポーツですね。皆様、自分自身で、直接お相撲さんに会ったことがありますか？先日、私は武蔵川部屋に行く機会がありました！朝稽古を見学に行きました。素晴らしい経験でした！
The island nation lies along the western edge of the Ring of Fire, making it one of the most tectonically active places on Earth, with as much as 10% of the world’s volcanic activity!
Most local Japanese have practiced various disaster drills (for earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.) since their childhood years. Foreigners like myself who have never grown up with the frequent risk of earthquakes, however, have to take extra measures to get familiar with what to do in the case of a disaster in Tokyo. Recently I took part in my office building’s earthquake drill and also a Disaster Preparedness Drill for Foreign Residents government sponsored by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
Went to the ArtBar studio in Daikanyama recently for a painting session on “Greek Islands: Santorini”! Painting themes change every session~ The philosophy of “Paint & Sip” is brought to Tokyo from New York and emphasizes having fun painting while sipping wine. Free flow wine, soft drinks, and snacks are included in the lesson fee! (Although you are allowed to bring your own wine as well, which is what I did~) I have not painted for a very long time since art class in school and was a little worried I wouldn’t be able to complete a full painting in 2 hours, but it turned out alright (or so I think – check out the photos)!
