Rife Rist

I'm subscribed to the design/lifestyle/randomfemininewhimsy blog 'Making it Lovely'. Yes, it's pink and girly and I don't much care for the posts about doll houses, but I'm comfy enough in my manhood to ignore the fey bits and appreciate the cool things such as the author's once-a-month progressive photos of her now 9-months old son in the same get-up and chair.

A recent post mentions a less gloomy take on the Bucket List called a Life List or in 'Making it Lovely' parlance A Lovely Life List. We'll forgo the overwhelming loveliness of it all and go with Life List or Rife Rist in Engrish.  Unlike a Bucket List, it's less fatalistic, more fun, and more of a reminder of things that would be cool to keep one eye on and get around to doing as time and mood permit than an unneeded reminder that we're going to kick the bucket one day. I thought it would be fun to start by sharing my Rife Rist, adding more in later posts. Would love to see your Rist in the comments (yes, you, the only person who reads this).

Here's mine for a start:

Live in Europe for a few years (top choices are Denmark, Germany, and France but open to suggestions)
Climb Mt. Fuji again
Spend more than a day in Paris (ten years ago I spent a day in the city in between trains)
Drink an amazing year of Cheval Blanc (contrary to its name, it's a red wine)
Fly in a hot air balloon
Have a part in a movie
Date a redhead
Grow a garden
Have dinner at French Laundry
Throw a full-on wine dinner party for close friends
Write a novel
Write a non-fiction book about multi-ethnic society
Make and drink maccha green tea every day
Have big muscles (let me be honest... have muscles)
Learn French
Have a few nice pieces of clothes and keep them for a long time
Learn to tango
Only eat what I cooked myself for a month
Own a dog (or a cool cat but not a bitchy? one that doesn't know its place)
Do a ramen tour of Japan
Learn to play the piano or guitar
Run a bar (called Bar Poon with my buddy Taka)

I think this is good for now.

Tofu Tofu Tofu (include own fake Chinese inflection)

Destitution is the mother of vegetarianism. Ok, I'm not destitute but my ass is pretty poor lately. So... I've been eating a lot of tofu (which I sometimes say with a grating and grossly un-PC Chinese inflection when I need a little extra encouragement to eat fermented bean curd for the fifth day in a row).

Japan, not surprisingly, is tofu paradise. Here are some types and ways of eating tofu in Japan.
Kinugoshi - Soft tofu often eaten with a splash of soy sauce, grated ginger, and scallions
Momen - Firmer tofu great for stir frys or fake steak dishes. Similar but not as rubbery or as hard as the tofu wannabe hippies eat in the US.
Yudofu - Translates as hot water tofu and is boiled tofu dipped in a vinegar soy sauce called ponzu.
Tamago - Egg tofu. Breaks strict vegetarian rules but adds springier texture and egg-licious flavor. Who doesn't need a little egg added to their soy bean?
Gomadofu - Sesame tofu. Rich in flavor with a creamy texture. Its flavor can come on strong for some folks but worth acquiring a taste for if you're getting bored of standard tofu. A much better way to add excitement to your tofu diet than insulting the Chinese and their lovely language.

I'm no culinary genius but here is a fun way I've used tofu in my cooking:
Sliced in ramen noodles as a chashu (roasted pork) replacement. Chashu is another fun word to say in fake Chinese. Extra tip. Make Top Ramen or instant noodle of choice bearable by adding a soft-boiled egg sliced in half and a butt load of chopped green onions as toppings.

The red stuff is Korean spicy fermented cabbage called kimchi. If you look carefully you can see noodle peaking out from the bowl at 4 o'clock.

Learning Japanese (1) Do not avoid Kanji

Series on my personal and opinionated views about learning Japanese. Especially focused toward English speakers, who have the bad habit of thinking English is like the universal language on Star Trek. Yes, English is the most widely understood language in the world, but you made the choice to live outside of your home country. Stop acting like a 19th century British Empire colonial and start learning the local language.


Do not avoid Kanji

You can learn to communicate well without a comprehensive understanding of kanji but you will never become truly fluent. Also, in many jobs Japanese will hesitate to hire someone who can't read the memos or proactively participate in meetings because of a lack of reading and writing skills. You don't have to be perfect but learn enough to get around and to write via aid of a computer or a mobile device.

The English alphabet is not a good equivalent to the difficulties of learning this daunting writing system, but before you dismiss kanji as arcane, difficult and unnecessary, first spend 30 minutes teaching non-English speakers the rules of English spelling and phonetics. Or think about this phonetic joke. Read this word ghoti. Most will read it as something like 'gotty' but if you get creative with the English rules of phonetics it could be read as 'fish'. Now, multiply this silly occurrence by many thousands of words and you have the hurdles non-native English speakers face learning English writing and reading.

Kanji is not an letter system, it's a character system. This means each character holds a lot of information. Explaining the beauty and elegance of kanji is sort of like explaining the beauty and elegance of Shakespeare to a beginning English speaker. Near impossible, but nonetheless there. If you don't like Shakespeare's writing replace it with another writer you think is great. If you don't like reading, go fuck yourself.

There are several good systems for learning kanji but I'll leave those up to you to find. Overall, I think learning kanji is a matter of balance- textbook study and repetition but also reading books you enjoy and making the effort to handwrite letters or memos whenever you can.