Harem Confusion

Last year, towards the end of my stay in Japan, these there lovely ladies came to visit me to do a bit of travelling around the country. One of them is my much better half. The others are two good friends. 

One of the highlights of our tour was a night spent in a remote traditional ryokan in the Izu Peninsula that had its own natural hot spring (onsen). The location was just fantastic and the baths that I took relaxed every muscle in my body and every thought in my brain. 

In the evening we were offered a weird and wonderful dinner that included among other things, raw fish served with soy sauce and wasabi (sashimi) and a Japanese hot pot (shabu-shabu). Seeing our naive wonder at all these nice strange things, an older couple approached us and welcomed us to Japan. They then told us how proud they were that we were visiting their country and offered us a bottle of sake, which I gladly accepted. I introduced myself and then my travel companions. He then very politely introduced his wife: 

“- This is my wife, Mariko. In Japan, only one wife!”
 

Mermaid

This mermaid was for sale in my local supermarket back home. Obviously it was in the fresh fish department. Where else?

Aubergines

I love aubergines. I really do. I love their shape, their colour, their texture, not to mention their unique taste. One can cook so many nice dishes with aubergines.

And they seem to be coming in all sort of sizes as well. Here are two extreme examples.

Aubergines in Romania:

Aubergines in Japan:

Double Crème de la Gruyère

Memorable dictum by my friend Antonio:

- “Do you know what ‘double crème de la Gruyère’ is?”
- “!?”
- “It’s like cream, but double, and from Gruyère!”
- “!!!”