Automatic Fried Rice Stir Fry Machine

This is something I never notice before but it must have been around for a long time, Auto Fried Rice Machine. 

But there it is!  

It looks like, on the bottom is a burner that 'fires' the rice.  And as that is burning away the drum is spinning like a cement truck and flipping the rice around.  The rice was falling in like waves, similar to someone flipping it in a wok. 

The dish looks and tastes really good!

The fried rice dish was 920 yen or about $6.10  The actual dish look almost exactly like the menu photo.

Study in Economics

 This past week I had the opportunity to visit the Seattle area and made a stop at Whole Foods where I saw this particular beer from Japan.

The beer on the left is Aooni, a craft beer from Yo-Ho brewery in Nagano.  At Whole foods it was on sale for $4.99, which on this day was approximately 815 Yen.  

A few days later in Japan, the same beer was available at a grocery store for 288 Yen or about $1.92.

I was surprised just how expensive everything in the US was, $4.99 was a lot for a can of beer but it was not really priced that much above other local Seattle brands like Rainier or Fremont.  Not sure this post really has a point, but the cost of beer is like the early 2000's in the US.  You can't really compare the cost of Asahi or Sapporo because those beers in the US don't come from Japan.  They are made in Canada or somewhere else.  But this Aooni in the US and Japan comes from the same brewery. 

Anyway, Aooni is a good IPA, if you are in the US and near a Whole Foods, try it out. 

Four Summits

 Summer 2023, I had the opportunity to summit 4 mountains in Japan. 

1st mountain was Yurugi-san, 604m. 

Second mountain was Fujisahgatake, 941.9m

Third mountain was Akausagi, this mountain was the most difficult to reach, you really need a car to get here.  1628m

The last mountain was Hakusan. 2702.2m.  Hakusan is one of three holy mountains which include Take-san and Fuji.   Our plan is to summit the remaining two mountains, next summer will focus on Fuji Gotemba trail. 

Each summit was unique, amazing and beautiful, but Hakusan was very special.  It was a two day hike with camping one night. 

Fuji, the 5th station from Tokyo, the path you will probably take, is always over crowded.  The best trail is Gotemba because it's normally not backed up.  But if you can, hike Hakusan.  Compared to Fuji, it's less crowed and the 'nature' as you assent is more interesting.  Fuji is basically rocks, Haku is a forest most of the route. 

H.L.N.A SkyGarden, Tokyo

 HLNA Tokyo is amazing.

First things first, they have a Wahoo Taco, if you are from California that is nice but I did not bother eating at this one.

This park is amazing.  It's on Odaiba Island in Tokyo, on the roof of a shopping mall.  In the evening, it's nice to just chill on the roof and board.  If it's any rain, this place will close. 

Lesson is, if you are going to visit Tokyo and you skateboard... bring your board. 

SkateParks: Shonai Nagoya

 We moved from Southern California and prior to moving here I visited skateparks all over that area.  Now  I'm visiting parks here in Japan and although many websites exist for parks in Japan, I can add a few photos for each park I visit.  Photos and some thoughts.  

First park is Shonai Nagoya.

This park, if you read online reviews people will warn you that there are a lot of rough kids here.... not really, I talked to lots of kids in the park and everyone is very friendly.   

But if you are in Nagoya and you skateboard, this park is worth a visit.... technically you need to sign a waver and get a blue wrist band before you board.  But as far as I can tell, no one checks till about 10 minutes prior to closing. 

Return to Japan

9 Years later, I'm returning to Japan with my family.

I won't get into the details but I will start posting on this blog again.  Japan is slowly opening up the boarders and I can share random observations.  So, please enjoy! 

Repatriation, kind of...

This past weekend my assignment in Japan ended. You can see my effort to clean up my apartment actually ended up producing what seemed to be a larger mess.

Amazingly, I was in Japan exactly 5 years, I landed on March 10, 2008 and left on March 10, 2013.  Well, a little less then 5 years, I arrived at 4pm and departed at 9:30am.  It's sad to leave, I made many good friends, found lots of great food and traveled around like I never imagined I would during my time in Japan.

After a cold winter, I was lucky to see my garden bloom one last time (no effort on my part). 

 Typically when an assignment like this ends you repatriate. Repatriation is the process of returning to ones place of origin or citizenship. It turns out I'm not really going to do that.  I am returning to Seattle for a couple of weeks but will start a new assignment in Italy later this month.

These movers are actually packing up stuff and sending it direct to Italy, but I have not told them where in Italy to send it yet, because I don't know.  The shipment also includes two folding bikes.  I'm still working on the details but I'm planning on living in town in Southern Italy called Martina Franca (in the heel).  

For now I will pause from updating this blog, but will keep this blog on-deck for next time I visit Japan or Asia, hopefully after my Italian assignment ends.

Shortly after handing over my keys, the management company quickly taped over my mailbox.

Like Son Seals said "when you got to go, you got to go...  ...hopefully we'll get together again real soon."

I am starting a new blog for Italy, bookmark it: Mediterranean Central