One of the most charming shows to come along in a while is Kin’iro Mosaic (Golden Mosaic), about a Japanese girl named Shinobu who does a homestay in the United Kingdom, where she befriends Alice, a blonde-haired girl who loves Japan. When Alice and her half-Japanese friend Karen both come to study at Shinobu’s school in Japan, mass cuteness generally ensues. While the show follows the well-established “super cute moe girls doing cute things” slice of life pattern established by Hidamari Sketch or GochuUsa (“Is the Order a Rabbit?”), I like it because of the cultural lessons we can learn from Shinobu and Alice, who are each in love with the other’s country. (In one scene Shino eats an English breakfast of toast and jam while Alice rice and seaweed.) They’re a lot like Mrs. J-List and me: my dream vacation would be to explore temples and shrines in Kyoto, but she’d much rather visit Los Angeles or New York. The show is also good because it highlights the cultural and/or linguistic misunderstandings that are a part of living in another country, though they’re not usually as cute when they happen to me. In keeping with the recent trend of basing anime in actual locations, Alice’s home in the U.K. is a real place you can visit, the Fosse Farmhouse bed and breakfast near Bristol. You can probably even sleep in Alice’s bed if you’re really into the show.
One of the fun things about visiting another country is exploring the fast food that people eat everyday. Of course Japan has McDonald’s and KFC and Subway — incredibly, we’re set to even get a few Taco Bell locations in Tokyo this year — but happily there are a lot of home-grown options for eating while on the go. First, there are plenty of chains selling ramen or soba noodles, which you can usually get in and out of in 15 minutes or less. I’ve been on an udon kick lately, and one of my favorite chains is Hanamaru Udon, which is sort of like the Chipotle of noodles, with staff adding various ingredients to your noodles as you request them. Sushi can make for a quick meal as long as it’s not too close to the rush periods, and I often dash into my local mawari-zushi restaurant for a few plates of conveyor belt sushi and some green tea. By far the most popular fast food in Japan is gyudon or steamed beef and onions eaten over rice, and every day Japanese consumers eat 2000 head of cattle worth of the stuff, imported from the U.S. and Australia. And now that I’ve once again made myself hungry by writing about food, I think I’ll go get some beef bowl…
Folks in the U.S. and several other countries have just completed income tax season, and J-List is celebrating with a special sale through April 30th, giving you 10% off all products using code JLIST10. That’s 10% off awesome bento boxes and accessories, wonderful Japanese snacks, sexy anime figures and even our world-famous “naughty items.” As usual, the 10% discount doesn’t apply to items like iTunes prepaid cards or grab bags.
