Yuki's Web

Category: Eating and Cooking 食・料理

  • Visiting United States military bases in Japan

    Visiting United States military bases in Japan

    Visiting US military bases is fun for me. The US Army, US Navy, US Air Force and US Marine Corps use 75 facilities within Japan and Okinawa, 51 of which are dedicated and the rest 24 shared with Japan Self Defense Force. Though those facilities are usually closed to civilians, they are open to residents around them once or twice a year, and you can get inside the military places during these festivals.

    Visiting those facilities is one of the few occasions to get in touch with the United States. You can eat American-made hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks, turkey legs, and other American foods. You can pay foods, sodas, beer, sweets, and souvenirs with US dollars. You can talk to Americans in English. And, you can find out how average Americans live their daily life. What kind of groceries do they buy? What kind of foods do they eat? What kind of newspapers do they read? What kind of school do they make their children attend? You can catch a glimpse of those things without flying more than 12 hours to get to mainland America.

    I have visited US bases and facilities in Japan and Okinawa for more than 15 years. With respect to what I have experienced, I’m grading each of these out of 5 by categories of accessibility, smoothness of entry and exit, freedom of movement, and availability of on-base building. 5 is the most excellent, and 0 the worst.

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  • 近江友里恵さんのこと

    近江友里恵さんのこと

    ＮＨＫのアナウンサーの近江友里恵さんのファンです。といっても今年のお正月に実家に帰省していたときにたまたま「ブラタモリ」をＴＶで見て初めて知ったんですが。「ブラタモリ」自体、桑子真帆アナウンサーがアシスタントをしていた時代に一度見たきりで、それまでほとんど見たことなかったのですが、このときは、昼に「伊勢」「横浜」の回の再放送をやっていて、さらに夜には「鶴瓶の家族に乾杯」とのコラボレーションスペシャルで成田山に行っていた回の放送があって、そこに出ていたアシスタントの近江アナウンサーがなんかいい味を出していて、注目するようになりました。

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  • Yurie Omi

    Yurie Omi

    According to Wikipedia, “Yurie Omi (born July 27, 1988) is a Japanese female announcer, television reporter, television personality, and news anchor for NHK. Omi is one of the hosts of NHK morning news show NHK News Ohayō Nippon. She is also the co-host of NHK television series Bura Tamori aired from April 2016.”

    I’ve been a big fan of Yurie Omi since the beginning of this year when I sat in front of the TV by chance at my parents’ house and watched her for the first time in Bura Tamori (I had rarely seen it before, though). This program is a travel show where NHK’s broadcaster strolls Japan’s particular town or area with Tamori, one of Japan’s renowned TV personalities, and a geophysicist, a local historian, or a curator, to investigate the place’s topics such as terrain features, history, culture, and civil engineering.

    Why do I think she is so attractive? I think the reason is three-fold. Firstly, she sometimes shows goofy behavior in her TV programs, although she is actually very smart and good-looking. She wore her dress back to front in the news show. In Bura Tamori, she read the thermometer incorrectly. (She said the temperature of hot spring water was 940 degrees Celcius while it really pointed 94.0 degrees.) Such slight weaknesses mean imperfection, which is what Japanese people value in tradition. This mentality makes the Japanese regard her weaknesses as charming. Secondly, she acts or speaks less highhandedly than average so-called “joshi-ana” and TV personalities. They often show off, but she doesn’t. They often speak aggressively, but she never does it. Her attitude like this gives a favorable impression to many Japanese viewers. Thirdly, most of her personality looks so similar to mine that I find something congenial in her. I don’t think she is such a personality that is good at thinking on her feet and speaking off the cuff with a ready wit. Rather, she looks genuine, and she can only do diligently what she has to do with simple honesty. Such characteristics are just like mine.

    For those reasons, I got fascinated by her. I watch every TV program she appears in. I get up at five in the morning on weekdays to watch NHK’s morning news show she hosts. In Saturday evening I watch Bura Tamori to see her traveling with Tamori.

    In addition to watching her on TV, I had a chance to see her with the naked eye. One day I got the information that she was going to hold a lecture presentation at Nagoya on September 30 and was requesting for audience. I applied for it because it might be my once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet her up.

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  • Japan’s northernmost end / 日本のさいはてへ

    Japan’s northernmost end / 日本のさいはてへ

    Wakkanai dome

    日本文はフォートラベルに転載しました。

    https://4travel.jp/travelogue/11321411

    Though it was almost half a year ago, I visited Wakkanai, the northernmost end of Hokkaido. Since it was the beginning of January this year, it was extremely cold outside with plenty of snow and the streets were very slippery.

    Field of Hokkaido
    Field of Hokkaido
    Wakkanai Station
    Wakkanai Station
    The northern end of Japan's railway

    Wakkanai is deeply related to Russia, since this city is just 40 kilometers away from the southern end of Sakhalin. When Sakhalin was part of Japan in the beginning of the 20th century, the city of Wakkanai played an important role in connecting to ports of Sakhalin by ferry.

    Wakkanai Station
    Wakkanai Station
    Street of Wakkanai
    Sign at Wakkanai
    Russian food at Wakkanai
    Russian grocery store at Wakkanai

    Defense is also important since it is very close to the border and there is such a risk to let illegal immigrants in and to let foreign ships invade this town.

    Coast Guard ship

    Wakkanai is one of Japan’s cities symbolizing tragedy of the WWII. When the USSR began invasion to the southern half of the Sakhalin Island after Japan’s surrender in August 1945, nine young women were working at a telephone exchange in the island. They were encouraged to escape from the island to flee to Hokkaido as it was going to be a dangerous place very soon. They refused to do it and chose to stay there because they wanted to do their job until the last time. At the time when Soviet Union’s soldiers came to where they worked, they took their lives as they didn’t want to be captured and molested by the soldiers. The memorial monument for them is build on the hill of Wakkanai city. I was eager to see this monument, but I couldn’t do it since the hill was closed due to the heavy winter snow.

    Wakkanai Park

    With one more day I could’ve visited the Cape Soya and see the Sakhalin Island over the Soya Channel. This would be a good reason for me to visit Wakkanai again this summer.

    Crab meal
    Cape Noshappu
    Wakkanai ramen
    Wakkanai Airport

  • Taco Bell in Japan / タコベルがとうとう日本に！

    Taco Bell in Japan / タコベルがとうとう日本に！

    日本文が後ろに続きます。

    Today I went to Taco Bell at Shibuya, which had opened last Tuesday as Japan’s first Taco Bell store and hundreds of people had waited in the queue for more than two hours in front of the store on the first day only. Today there was a long queue, too. A staff member standing at the end of the queue said that I had to wait up to two hours to be served from there. It was a bit tough for me to wait such a long time, but it couldn’t be helped to do it to enjoy the American taste I’d ever had in New York where I had travelled for a business trip.

    先週の火曜日にいよいよ来日したタコベル（渋谷・道玄坂１号店）に今日やっと行ってきました。初日は何百人もが列をなして待っていたそうですが、今日もすごい長い列で、最後尾のスタッフ曰く２時間待ちとか。それでも前に出張で行ったニューヨークで食べた味をもう一度味わうべく、頑張って並ぶことにしました。

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  • ロンドン散歩

    （ハワース散策からの続きです）

    ３日目の朝、雨の降る中、Ｂ＆Ｂをチェックアウトしました。

    平日なので蒸気機関車はやっておらず、Ｂ＆Ｂの奥さんがロードン・ロードにある最寄りのバス停まで連れて行ってくれ、そこでキースリー行きのバスを待つようにと言ってくれました。

    バスを待っていると、年配のご婦人が話しかけてきて、どこまで行くのかと尋ねられたので、「ロンドンまでです」と答えると、もう１人のご婦人が話に加わり、バスがくるまでの間、３人でお話してました。

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  • A walk in London

    (Continued from A stroll in Haworth)

    On the third day, I checked out of the Heathfield B&B on the rainy morning. Since it was a weekday, Keighley Worth & Valley Railway was out of service. The mistress took me to the nearest bus stop on Rawdon Road and told me to wait there for the bus for Keighley.

    While waiting for the bus, an old lady talked to me. She asked me where I was going. I answered that I was going to London. Another lady joined us, and they and I talked a bit until the bus was coming.

    On the bus, I sit on the upper front seat, and the ladies stayed downstairs. Arriving at Keighley bus terminus, I got out of the bus. The train station was a bit distant from the terminus, so I didn’t know how to get there.

    Then the lady who had talked to me first at the Rawdon Road bus stop found me standing there, and told me to follow her to the train station as she was just going for shopping near there. How kind of her! I was able to get to the Keighley train station with her help.

    Waiting room of Keighley station
    Lunch
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  • ハワース散策

    English breakfast
    （本当のイギリスへの旅からの続きです）

    ヒースフィールド・ベッド＆ブレックファーストの朝食はまさにブリティッシュ・ブレックファーストで、目玉焼き、フライドポテト、マッシュルーム、トマトを半分にして焼いたやつ、ベーコン、ソーセージ２本、そしてシリアル、トースト、オレンジジュースに紅茶とすごいボリュームでした。イギリスの朝食時間帯はちょうど日本の夕食どきなので、一番食が進む時です。

    朝食中にも宿のご夫婦はいろいろ話しかけてくれます。食事しながら英会話するのは少しハードですが、お話するのは楽しいものです。

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  • 本当のイギリスへの旅

    Town in Haworth
    ちょっと前の話ですが、イギリスに行ってきました。ブリティッシュ・ヒルズでも英語村でも栃木あたりにある英国風のコテージでも日本にある他の「ニセ英国」でもなく、死ぬまでに一度は訪れてみたかった本当のイングランドです。行き先は、森薫「エマ」の舞台のロンドンと、ハワースです。

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