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Blythe turned 20-something yesterday in London.

We took her out for British “health food”.

The great thing about a free all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet in a 5 star tropical hotel is that you can choose exactly what fruits & vegetables you want, in exactly the quantities you want.

Avoiding fattening oranges can keep your most important meal under 300 calories.

… by the way, does anyone recognize this exotic food?

Doesn’t look edible.

… apologies for all the (delicious) dead animals on this blog of late. Yet here are more creatures put in pain for our pleasure.

I’d avoided the usual Japanese tourist “attractions” — fish markets … until Hokodate.

At that seaport it’s near impossible for a passerby to avoid the cruelty zoo.

Crabs and squid seem to object more strenuously than the rest.

The shark tried to make a run for it.

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Let’s say you believe in trying to reduce global warming. Like this guy:

… There’s not a single person who’s done more to fight climate change than Bill McKibben. Through thoughtful books, ubiquitous magazine contributions, and, most notably, the founding of 350.org (an international non-profit dedicated to fighting global warming), McKibben has committed his life to saving the planet. For all the passion fueling his efforts, though, there’s something weirdly amiss in his approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions: neither he nor 350.org will actively promote a vegan diet. …

… as a recent report from the World Preservation Foundation confirms, ignoring veganism in the fight against climate change is sort of like ignoring fast food in the fight against obesity. Forget ending dirty coal or natural gas pipelines. As the WPF report shows, veganism offers the single most effective path to reducing global climate change. …

read more on Freakonomics – Agnostic Carnivores and Global Warming: Why Enviros Go After Coal and Not Cows

Big in Osaka, where they were first introduced.

Takoyaki (たこ焼き or 蛸焼) (literally fried or grilled octopus) is a popular ball-shaped Japanese dumpling or more like a savory pancake made of batter and cooked in a special takoyaki pan (see below). It is typically filled with diced or whole baby octopus, tempura scraps (tenkasu), pickled ginger, and green onion. …

The performance making them is as important as the taste.

photos and video

If you’ve been hosted in Japan, you know this story.

… starts with a few beer. Then Sushi and Sashimi.

Your host orders in Japanese, then asks you if you enjoyed the whale after you’ve tried it.

Whiskey is mandatory. A couple of kinds. And Shōchū, of course.

The evening inevitably ends like this.

THANKS A LOT, Shiro.

When Blythe got to Japan I’d already been there a week.

“Where are you eating“, she asked.

Sheepishly I replied: “Mostly 7-11. … But I’m planning on a dinner at Denny’s“, a popular chain also owned by 7-11.

In fact I did eat more at convenience stores than anywhere else in Japan. Day or night, if I got a pang it was sated by a piece of fried chicken and an ice-cream treat.

For some reason foreign bank cards do not work in Japanese ATMs. Yet they do in 7-11 ATMs, maximum 30,000 Yen in my case.

UPDATE from Blythe:

7-11 food was amazing in Japan! Rick’s advice was stellar — I snacked there every day and night for three weeks in Tokyo, and it was genuinely delicious.

However, I wouldn’t recommend taking money out of a 7-11 ATM. I did it once, and my bank charged a $20 fee for using an “international ATM.” At the post office, however, I was able to use the ATM and the transaction fee was only $0.60 per 10,000 yen withdrawn.

Read the latest from Kate Greatest – Canadian? Australian? What’s the difference?

For years I’ve occasionally followed a photo blog from northern, rural Japan.

An American guy with a wife and daughter trying to build a life in the Japan countryside – and share some of it along the way.

There’s much about food and family.

Bastish.net/blog/

Here I am at Sugatami-ike in Daisetsuzan National Park, an impressive look-out over the fumaroles.

This volcano is LIVE.

From there the top of the volcano was shrouded. Myself and Kim from Belgium were the only hikers bold (stupid) enough to climb higher.

We might have made it to 1900m before being driven off the mountain by wind and freezing, horizontal rain. The summit is about 2200m.

Happily, there was a hot springs and gourmet dinner awaiting me below in Japan’s best and most expensive alpine hostel.

This ain’t the usual hostel grub.

more photos … or read my hiking trip report

If it’s raining in the morning, I’ll hop back on the train until I find better weather.

It’s been over 25yrs since I last saw one of my gymnastics mentors. (One of us is losing his hair.)

We finally got together last night in his home town, Osaka, to catch up on old times. Shiro took me to this famous and historic restaurant.

It looks old, but is actually located in a brand new and modern shopping centre. They’ve kept the same look and décor as decades ago.