because i haven't done enough reviews or blogging lately:
haagen-dazs' newest flavor, nagomi azuki!
nagomi azuki? the heck's that mean?
azuki is "red bean" and nagomi is like...ugh..."relaxing" or something but i'mma just call this ice cream "red bean ice cream" because they're just trying to make it sound cooler than it is.
which isn't to say that this ice cream isn't AMAZINGLY good because IT IS.
let's have a look.
pretty packaging, check.
azuki ice cream base with swirls of sweetened red bean paste and actual whole red beans? check.
oh haagen-dazs, you GET me. lightly sweet with that slightly thick, grainy taste of azuki -- i could eat this all year long. even people who are all "ewww red beans~" (not to name names or anything, but you know who you are) will find themselves wondering why they ever doubted the ways of azuki. it's THAT good.
A＋＋＋ MOAR
【台風】taifuu
it's typhoon season (well, okay, it's been typhoon season since like september) and that means one thing for hiroshima: rain, rain, and more rain (three things?).
so what's up with typhoons? well, they spin the opposite direction of hurricanes and have names like bad sci-fi villians (vongfong, phanfone, kalmaegi...? bad sci-fi, that is). they also bring nothing but rain and strong winds and typically tend to destroy okinawa first before moving on to the rest of japan, so okinawa is kinda like florida.
in fact, there's a typhoon here now. it's actually the biggest typhoon to hit hiroshima in like 7-8 years. but you won't see me panicking. why? well, because even though hiroshima is pretty near the storm, all we've gotten is a bunch of rain and some gusty winds -- it's nothing more than a really rainy day. i'm not complaining, mind you, but i do sorta feel like if we're going to have a typhoon, then we should have a fucking TYPHOON, y'know? hiroshima's got that maryland thing going on where everyone on TV will say "OMG GOING TO SNOW" "OMG GOING TO STORM" and then like nothing happens except for like this:
we do tend to get some sideways rain.
oh, and to top things off, today is a national holiday (sports day...? i dunno) and a monday, making it the last day of a three day weekend so basically this typhoon wrecked everyone's weekend (not that it matters to people like me who don't get three day weekends but...). we actually had a typhoon barrel in last week too (though we didn't get nearly as much rain), so it's just been fabulous weather these days.
the moral of the story?
don't visit japan from september to october.
unless you really love typhoons, then by all means you should head to okinawa.
【皆既月食】
kaiki-gesshoku otherwise known as "full lunar eclipse" happened tonight.
to be precise, from about 18:30 to 19:30 the moon slowly turned rust-red, and from 20:30 it started to turn back to its usual colour.
now this all happened during my dinner shift, but that wasn't going to stop me from going to see it. i would step outside and scope around, but being surrounded by buildings, i couldn't see a thing. i was about to resign myself to an eclipse-less night when one of my regulars came in to buy the rest of the cookies we had. he's all excited when he asks if i saw the moon, to which i replied that i hadn't. he points down the street and says "but it's right there!" and so of course, i had to go see. down the street, i can see about 6 people gathered, all looking at the vacant lot where there used to be 3 different houses (all demolished last year). there's a perfect view of the moon, silvery white on the top and rust-red on the bottom.
gathered there are our neighbors (they own the fresh fish store), the ladies from the korean bbq place across from us, and more keep coming. strangers that happened to be on their way home from work see us all gathered there and come to join us, making polite conversation. one of the korean bbq ladies asks, "will we get to see the moon come back tomorrow?" to which the fish market husband replies, "it's not like soccer where you get to see them tomorrow if they win! it's just tonight." the korean bbq lady presses on, "so you mean we can't see this tomorrow then?" fish market husband chuckles, "no, just tonight." they all start joking about how they gotta see it now 'cause who knows if they'll be alive to see the next one (they're all 60s-70s) and our group grows to about 10 or 11. there's another group on the other side of about 8 or 9.
it's a chill autumn night and the good people of dobashi are watching the lunar eclipse.
it's funny how things like this can bring perfect strangers together. i can't remember the last time i really talked to my neighbors more than just saying "good morning" or "good afternoon" -- the moon turns completely to rust and i have to get back to the store -- by the time i return with my camera it's about 20:30 and the moon is peeking back out again, but the crowds are gone.
happy monday!
typhoon 18 is causing havoc across the kantou area (which includes tokyo) but not to worry! hiroshima only got some rain and occasional gusty wind. hiroshima really misses all the weird weather it seems -- much like maryland actually. but that's not what i'm here to talk about today. today is all about sashi-ire.
so, sashi-ire (sa-shee-ee-ray) is basically something that someone brings for you. so like say i'm going to a friend's house, then i would bring her something sorta as a way of saying thanks for having me over. the "something" is usually food (snacks, sweets, etc) but it can also be drinks, magazines, comics -- most anything. so like when our friends were revamping their restaurant (by hand), we brought them energy drinks as sashi-ire.
i kinda feel like being a foreigner entails you to slightly more sashi-ire than your usual japanese guy/girl -- i get stuff from people i haven't even met before. okay, wait, that sounds really sketchy. lemme rephrase. so i'm on instagram, and some of my followers live in hiroshima and they'll come to my store for the first time, usually with some kinda cookie-type thing. i haven't met them before per say, but we've "met" on instagram -- yeah, that doesn't make it less sketchy, but they're all like 20-30 year old women so... less sketchy? i dunno. anyway!
sashi-ire is one of those omotenashi things they do here -- omotenashi basically means being a good host or visitor. and hey, everyone loves free food, right?
P.S. i totally got some sashi-ire today, which reminded me to write a blog about it. the sashi-ire came from the mother of a (former) regular customer who came by for the first time in like...a year today, with his mom and dad in tow. the mother was so super sweet -- actually, the whole family was. anyway, when they get up to pay the bill, the mother hands me a small bag with these guy inside:
score! odango from my beloved momiji-an! from left to right, mitarashi (sugar, soy sauce, good stuff), spicy peanut, and isobe (soy sauce-dipped with seaweed on top -- i LOVE isobe). odango are made of rice flour and water, rolled into balls, and then boiled until chewy and soft before they roast them. if you're lucky to get one freshly roasted, they're AMAZING. not that they're horrible if they've been sitting around -- they're still awesome, but oh man, freshly roasted odango are like getting a freshly baked pizza, y'know, with the cheese still bubbling and stuff? heaven.
