last night me, eric and ben ate at hakata ramen in gardena (just a few blocks away from all the other places we’ve been eating at). with all the good japanese restaurants around, we’ve started to migrate our weekly in-n-out lunches to bi-weekly japanese dinners, which is healthier and has beer, so our arguments about how the brain reacts in a threatening moment and self awareness are all the more entertaining.

we’d been excited to go to hakata ramen, because it got some of the highest reviews on yelp.com, and both my dad and taka recommended it. but now with a bit of ramen expertise under our belts, or above our belts, i wasn’t terribly impressed. the ramen was good, and i liked how i could choose the thickness of the broth, the firmness of the noodles and add options, but it wasn’t amazing. it’s probably my fault for building it up so high. the noodles seemed too thin, the edamame was overcooked and the gyoza was pretty small and unspectacular. we did order these bacon ball croquettes which were really good, but the artery-clogging imagery i got when i ate them prevented me from enjoying them fully.

taka wants to go there, so i’m going to give it another shot and try ordering another type of ramen with different options. the place was packed, and there were only a couple of individual tables, we and most everyone else were sitting either at the bar or around a large community table. i must be missing something. b-

thanks for the pic ben!

hakata ramen shinsengumi
2015 Redondo Beach Blvd
Gardena Ca. 90247

those wacky japanese held a press conference so that the chief cabinet secretary, nobutaka machimura, could make the official announcement that japan can not confirm the existence of UFOs. seriously? shouldn’t they have saved the press conference for when they had confirmed it? machimura went on to say:

“Personally, I believe that they definitely exist.”

ha, ha? i’m assuming something was lost in the translation of this article.

[read the mdn article]

i ran across this video again today when i was backing up some files. i know i’ve posted it on here before, but it’s classic enough to post again. this is from 2004 at a conveyor belt sushi bar in shinjuku ikebukuro, japan.

i remember in highschool, i thought i was cool, because i could twirl a pen between four fingers. these crazy nips put me to shame.

shali hosted a sushi party at her place. we all made our own rolls and all got drunk. i actually got much drunker than i should’ve, being on the dietary supplements i’m on, but wtf ever. it was worth it and ben was driving =p people made california rolls, spicy tuna rolls, philly rolls, steak rolls and other weird combos. it was all pretty good and was definitely a good time. here’s a couple of pics:

jinro BON!

oh, and btw, all those “bon!” shenanigans were from these ads (peep the “jinro bar” and “jinro home” ads”)

http://www.thedirectorsbureau.com/archives.php?director_id=20&archive_type_id=2 

some of the sushi chefs… we had 14 in all:

the shali roll:

the mikey blue roll:

can’t wait for the next one ;)

why are the bananas that taka buys me from the japanese super market so much smaller than the ones at ralphs?

The number of shooting-related crimes to occur this year stood at 25 as of April 24 — nearly double the figure for the same period last year, a National Police Agency (NPA) report has shown.

Five people died in the shootings. Last year just 13 shooting-related crimes were reported during the same period, with only one victim dying.

In response to the rise in such crimes, the government on Wednesday held a meeting of its gun countermeasure promotion headquarters, and agreed on steps for the 2007 fiscal year.

The committee’s proposals include strengthening a system to expose use of guns, and building closer cooperation with organizations to control the weapons; putting more effort in investigating gun crimes; promoting measures to stop gun smuggling; finding secretly possessed weapons; promoting international cooperation to fight crimes; and securing residents’ understanding of measures.

The government’s gun countermeasure promotion headquarters was established in 1995. Each year it decides on measures government ministries should take to control weapons.

NPA officials said that 16 of the 25 crimes involving shootings that have occurred this year were yakuza-related. In one incident, a high-ranking member of the Sumiyoshi-kai crime syndicate was gunned down on a road in Tokyo’s Minato-ku in February. This month, a gangster fatally shot Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito in front of his election campaign office, and in another incident an armed gangster holed himself up in his apartment in the Tokyo city of Machida.

On April 20, the NPA ordered police across the nation to crack down on gun use connected to gangs.

“The dangerousness of armed gangs is vividly behind the large number of incidents this year,” an NPA representative said. (Mainichi)

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070425p2a00m0na023000c.html

ueba.com via gizmodo.com:

these don’t need much comment.

http://uebanet.ueba.com.br/hosted_pages/Top-12-Weird-Japanese-Inventions-20060511

well, it’s all very simple actually:

Because of all the preservatives in food, people today can consume enormous quantities of organic phosphorus. Once a certain amount of organic phosphorus builds up in the body, it attaches itself to calcium and is expelled through waste products. But what this means is that a large build-up of organic phosphorus leads directly to a calcium deficiency,” Yamanaka tells Weekly Playboy. “Then you’ve got the human nervous system, which is made up of sympathetic nerves and parasympathetic nerves. Parasympathetic nerves feed only on calcium. When the body doesn’t have enough calcium, the parasympathetic nerves don’t work as well as they should. That sends the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves all skew-whiff. When the sympathetic nerves work stronger than the parasympathetic nerves, it becomes easier to get nervous and aroused. ‘Rage’ attacks have been discussed pretty frequently in recent years and they’re probably triggered by this mechanism. If there is a decreased sexual desire or erection problems, it probably means the parasympathetic nerves aren’t working as well as they should be.

the rest of the wacky article:

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/news/20070220p2g00m0dm023000c.html