Hunkabutta Archives
12.14.02

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I never thought that I'd be writing these words: I ate my first raw chicken meat yesterday. Actually, it was pretty good, very tender. It came with a savory soy sauce-based dip.

I ate the chicken at an after-work going away party for a couple of guys who left my company last month. As far as these types of parties go it was a good one, probably because none of the upper management people were there so everyone was more relaxed.

The party was at a yaki-niku restaurant. These are really fun places to eat because you grill your own meat on a brazier that sits in the middle of the table. The raw chicken was just an appetizer.

On of my ongoing jokes to my Japanese friends is, ' why is Japanese food so expensive when it's either served to you raw or else you have to cook it yourself?'

Anyway, I got some pretty good pictures of the event which I'll probably post on Monday.

Just for the record, I am not endorsing raw chicken consumption -- do not try this at home!

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12.12.02

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A little while ago I wrote a post on racism in Japan that was inspired by an article that I read in the Japan Times. The article was about a new police white paper which claims that crimes committed by foreigners serve as a model for Japanese criminals. The implication is that crimes committed by foreigners are more violent and dastardly than indigenous crimes, and consequently foreign criminals are causing the general level of crime to worsen.

Recently the Japan Times wrote an editorial addressing the same topic.

A local foreign activist also wrote an interesting rebuttal.

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Here's a really interesting story about a Canadian woman who is in Kabul right now teaching IT courses to government and university officials. It sounds like a great adventure, and the best thing is that you can tag along with her because she is blogging her trip. I'm checking it daily.

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12.09.02

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We had the first snowfall of the year today. I loved it, it reminded me of home -- I think that it had something to do with seeing my breath as I walked along through the slowly falling flakes that reminded me of being young and in Ontario.

It probably doesn't snow more than than three or four times a year on average in central Tokyo. Maybe it's a bit more, I could be wrong.

Only a few centimeters fell today, what we in Canada would call a 'flurry', but it caused a ridiculous amount of havoc. Hundreds of schools were closed; Dozens of train lines were stopped or delayed; More than 500,000 commuters got to work late.

I take two trains to work in the morning. The first one I'm only on for two stops, and that usually takes about 5 minutes, but today it took over twenty. I don't know why, but the train just c...r...a...w...l...e...d along. Sometimes it would just stop and sit in the middle of nowhere.

When I got to work I noticed something that I thought was a bit strange: People in Tokyo use umbrellas when it snows. Is it just me and my Canadian bias, or is this kind of odd? I mean, c'mon, it's only snow. The way these people were running around with their umbrellas you'd think it was ash from Chernobyl.

I've traveled quite a bit, but always in the tropics, so I'm not sure what other people do in countries where it snows.

Do other people use umbrellas in the snow?

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12.06.02

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A forest of garish tinsel and plastic stars has sprouted in Shibuya recently and that can only mean one thing: It's Christmas time in Tokyo.

The other day Karen reminded me of a funny Japanese Christmas practice that she thought you might find funny. For some reason, a lot of people in Japan think that Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and strawberry shortcake are Christmas foods. Apparently, KFC is booked solid with special take-out orders for Christmas day.

I don't know why this is, but it probably has something to do with a long forgotten KFC ad campaign way back when. I suppose that both the KFC logo and strawberry shortcake are red and white, which a lot of people, because of Santa Claus, associate with Christmas. The funny thing about that is that the commonly known red-and-white Santa image is actually from a 1930' Coca Cola ad, hence all of the red and white.

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