It took me a while to hone in on it, but the sounds of Tokyo are vastly different from those of New York. It is a subtle thing, not something that you immediately notice. Instead, it gradually dawned on me that one aspect to the shift in tone from one city to the next had …
I do not have a very high opinion of humanity. Nothing surprises me when it comes to bad behavior — betrayal, thieving, perversions, lying, cheating, sexual foibles, drug addiction, animal fucking. As far as I can tell, the range of bad shit people do is pretty limitless. I don’t harbor any resentment about this state …
I have lived a fortunate life. I have been blessed with good health, good friends, wonderful family and privileges and opportunities that others could only dream of. I have seen a fair amount of the world — Europe, South America, Australia, the Caribbean. In Paris, I dined in some of the most classic brassieres and …
It is with great humbleness and an appeal to the spirit of forgiveness that I approach this post. I have shamed my family and my friends with a terrible first BBQ here in Japan. It was, in all ways, a culinary disaster. My backyard Brooklyn barbecues have always been the stuff of legend. It was something …
I want to like Tsukemen Ramen. I want to appreciate it. But, I just don’t and it makes me feel like I am not getting something essential about living in Tokyo. My taste buds have betrayed me as I kind of think Tsukemen tsucks. Tsukemen Ramen is essentially deconstructed ramen. Each component of the classic …
This year was the first time I have been in Tokyo during cherry blossom season. It wasn’t particularly something I was excited about — after all, in Brooklyn, spring comes just as it does in Japan and trees flower and it is beautiful. In the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens there is a Cherry Blossom festival that …
