Bug Eaters?

It was about 2 weeks after my son started going to kindy that I found out there is a backpack filled with books and toys to borrow from local library (part of Better Beginnings service) to encourage kids to participate in reading books.  I went to local library and borrowed this Discovery Backpack, and found some books & toys inside.  The theme was “insects”, and one of the books was The Very Hungry Caterpillar and a toy was a caterpillar which can be turned into a butterfly.  I thought it’s a very good service for kids.  My son Hiro started talking about these small creatures a lot and clearly he became a bug lover, thanks to these books.

Then, I was stunned… I was reading one of the books “Ask A Bug”, and spotted a page saying “In Japan, sushi is topped with insects”!!!!

OMG, this is not true….!!!!

My reaction was bit too eccentric, it’s just because I hate insects….

Sushi we eat in Japan is mostly seafood. Some are meat, egg and vegetables, but never insect.  Besides, I do not want to imagine sushi with insect on top.  It’s disgusting…!! I’m not against people in the world who eat insects, just that we do not eat insect sushi in Japan!

Anyway, I was shocked and talked to my friends who are also Japanese.  They were surprised, laughed, and some were furious.  These books should be educational, especially it was part of Better Beginnings program.  I don’t want children to think Japanese people eat insect sushi and my son to get buried.  So I contacted the publisher of the book to let them know my concern.

As soon as I emailed them the story, they replied to me with apologies and told me that they’d investigate where the sources came from. The publisher was very nice and responded promptly, and it seemed that my story spread to their head office in UK very quickly.

I received an email from an editor in UK last night.  It also began with an apology, and said they’ve been consulting with the senior editor on the book.  They were informed  that actually there has been a relatively recent (since 2000) revival of the insect-eating traditions that actually stem from mountainous areas of Japan, and some restaurants in Tokyo serve insect-based dishes as a special offering….  OMG, and there were some links that show articles and photos of sushi with insects!  So Japanese people do eat insects!!!
(Here is the link if you want to see these images of insect sushi… but I warn you they looks gross!!!)

I was shocked, to be honest.  I’ve never seen such sushi (gross…) in Japan and can’t imagine eating them.  Well, I guess some people get appetite when they see insects..  I now know my own country better, haha.

I still think the wording on the book Ask A Bug was inappropriate.  The editor also said that it should have been something like
“In Japan, insect eating once happened in mountainous areas.”
I agree!!

I’m still going to talk to the library to eliminate this book from the library though, till reprints are issued with different wording.

Ramune drinks

Ramune is a carbonated soft drink which you can find in Japan. Ramune is one of the symbols of summer in Japan and you’ll see this drink during warm festival days and nights.

Ramune’s bottle is known for its very distinctive design: they are made of glass and sealed with a marble.  The marble is held on the narrowest part of the bottle to keep pressure of the carbon in the drink. To open the bottle, a device to push the marble inward is provided with the bottle. The marble is pushed inside the neck of the bottle where it rattles around while drinking.

The flavor of Ramune I know is sweet, it’s almost like sprite.  It’s transparent but it looks like it’s blue color because of the blue colored bottle.  That’s the original Ramune which I used to drink when I was little.

…. now, I found these!

Left: Curry Flavored Ramune

Middle: Wasabi Flavored Ramune

Right: Almond Jelly Flavored Ramune

They are genuinely made in Japan, by the way.

… Would you drink them?  I mean, curry flavored soda drinks?!  Wasabi?  … Almond Jelly may be fine, but other two are not really tempting.

I’m curious though, how it tastes like…

In Perth they are available in some places…  if you wanna try those.

Mother’s Day

Tomorrow is mother’s day!  What’s your plan?

There’re so many things you can get for your mam from shopping centre, florist, book shops etc…  I got this massage thing for mother_in_law (to be).  I didn’t have any other ideas what to get for her.. :p

My mam is in Japan, so it’s not easy to organize something for her from here 🙁  I know my mam wouldn’t care, but I thought it’d be nice if I do something..

I usually buy something online and send it to mam’s house.  This time, I chose to send flower to her 🙂

This shop does FREE delivery on Mother’s day.  I hope she’ll like it!

By the way the name of this shop is “Flower for Mother’s Day”.  This means the shop only gets customers on this day?  I wonder how they can get profit…..  In Perth I see “Christmas shop” which sells only Christmas goods.  I understand this business as Christmas is a big day of the year.

…. I think I should have written this post in Japanese as this flower shop is in Japan :p

…って事で、海外に住んでる日本人の方、日本に居るお母さんにお花を送ってみませんか？

Bijin Tokei

Bijin Tokei (English) means “beautiful clock” in Japanese.  Someone started this website where you can see beautiful Japanese girls holding a black board with time, and it changes every minute.  That means, one girl is holding “3:15: board, and next minute another girl is hodling “3:16” board.

Some people (especially guys, of course!) are crazy about this and keep checking girls evey minute!

You can set this bijin tokei on the sidebar of your site, email page etc, (my husband actually set this on my gmail so I have to look at Japanese girls every minute :p)