The red banner on the side of the road read “brakku basu ryori.” Largemouth bass cuisine has come to Japan.

I saw a few banners like that as my friend and I were driving along the shore of Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture. I came to realize that largemouth bass, known in Japanese as brakku basu, is now being promoted as fish for eating in the area surrounding the biggest lake in Japan. I learned that the fisherman’s co-op, which is similar to a state fish and wildlife department in the US, is trying to promote “catch and keep or kill” by buying the bass from the anglers. (more…)

My grandmother in a black suit with my mother holding my hand and my father holding my brother at Sumiyoshi Shrine. We celebrated Shichi-Go-San, a popular traditional event to pray for the longevity and health of three- and five-year-old boys and three- and seven-year-old girls. I was three when this photo was taken by my grandfather.

My paternal grandmother, Sumie Ono, is a funny character. She took deep pride in her work as a treasurer at a local post office and enjoyed working with numbers until her retirement at 64. She received a high-school diploma by completing the curriculum in a distant-learning program when she was in her late 60s. She took care of her mother-in-law, who passed away at the age of 99, and she used to hike and run a lot until she injured her knees running in her late 70s. She taught me how to use the abacus and is still good at numbers at the age of 83, even though she suffers from dementia. But she usually kept her true feelings under wraps and became the very affectionate grandmother whenever my brother and I were around. (more…)

Political analyst Minoru Morita was a fixture on a Fuji TV morning news program until several years ago. He would appear clad in kimono and deliver his erudite political commentary, which was typically laced with ancient proverbs and historical observations. But Morita, now 75, was also a harsh critic of the once wildly popular Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. While the rest of the media fawned over the “lion-maned” prime minister, Morita had a different interpretation:

“In my view, Koizumi was the most irresponsible and frivolous prime minister in Japan’s postwar history.”

Not one to mince words, Morita went on TV in the late summer of 2005 and called the dissolution of the Diet by Koizumi “unconstitutional.” Here’s how Morita describes what happened next in his upcoming book, Curing Japan’s America Addiction:

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When you first enter the warehouse a half block northwest of Safeco Field on the south edge of Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood, the vast array of antiques piled high and deep is intimidating. An enormous wooden god of some sort peers down at you; an ancient-looking boat leans against the wall; ink paintings, carvings and ceramic ware are piled willy-nilly. And the tansu — those beautiful heavy wooden chests — seem to crowd you in as you walk through the maze of Japanese antiques and curiosities.

But after awhile, you start to develop buyers’ eyes. Details spring out at you. An elephant carved from a single piece of wood catches your eye. Some of the ink paintings you unroll seem like ancient treasures. And the secret drawers in the far back of some of the tansu conjure up images of someone in 19th century Japan hiding an illicit love letter or a precious family heirloom. (more…)

Koto master Elizabeth Falconer first visited Japan as a summer exchange student in 1973. During that summer, Elizabeth became fascinated with the country and vowed to return. When she did in 1979, an English student of hers told her to check out the koto. That advice would end up altering Elizabeth’s life.

Elizabeth took to the koto right away, and began studying under Utayumi Nagane, and later under Tadao and Kazue Sawai. Elizabeth proved a quick study, perhaps because of her background in violin and the diligence with which she practiced in those early days. The koto, a relation to the Chinese zither that was introduced to Japan about two thousand years ago, has a strict, codified culture around it which Elizabeth excelled in through hard work.

Eventually, Elizabeth married John Falconer, a shakuhachi player, forming a group they call Duo-en. When Elizabeth returned to the US after a dozen years in Japan, she and John went through some fiscal hard times. (more…)

Forget sushi and ramen noodles — the Mega Mac is hot in Japan. Ever since the beefed up version of the Big Mac with four patties and an extra slice of cheese was introduced to the Japanese, McDonald’s Japan has enjoyed a major increase in sales, up 11% in 2007 to $3.5 billion. (more…)

A photo of my grandmother and my mother in front of their house in Ashiya in 1948.

When my maternal grandmother, Sugayo, passed away in 2001 shortly after 9/11, my mom told me not to fly back to Japan for the funeral. “I don’t want to be worried about your safety on an airplane flying back to Japan.” I understood my mother’s concern and decided to stay in Seattle, but I had a hard time with the fact that the grandmother with whom I shared some girlish secrets — secrets I couldn’t even tell my own mother as I was growing up — was no longer with us in this world. (more…)

In case you missed it, The New York Times featured the latest fad from Japan — cellphone novels — on its front page recently. The gist of the piece was that cellphone novels republished as books have begun to dominate the best-seller lists in Japan. Five of the 10 best-selling novels of 2007 were originally cellphone novels. Twenty-one-year-old cellphone novelist Rin’s first novel sold 400,000 copies last year. “My mother didn’t even know that I was writing a novel,” she told the Times. (more…)

I am a big fan of the Iron Chef TV series. When it was first aired in the 90s in Japan, my mother used to videotape every episode and send it to me in America. I learned a lot from the show, especially how to use different ingredients that I had never seen in the kitchen where I worked. The show helped me become a better chef.

The most infamous moment of the show, however, was when Bobby Flay stood on top of the cutting board and challenged Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto. (more…)

A snapshot from the New Year’s feast at my cousins’ house when I was 4. My dad is in the middle smiling with me sitting on his lap.

My dad must be getting to the stage where he looks back and wonders if he has done the right thing or made the right choices in life. Once in a while, he voices his subtle concerns about the seemingly small but important choices he made for me and my brother. Over a dinner my mom and I prepared when we visited last November, he asked us whether he did enough to teach us the importance of good food. (more…)