Image source: Japanese Cooking 101 More valuable than you thought I ran about 12 miles one Sunday in February to the Shinagawa Yakiimo Terrace to join crowds of people like me: Yakiimo Otaku. At Tokyo’s annual Yakiimo festival, Japanese sweet potato lovers stand in line for 30 freezing minutes or more, in 20 degree weather […]
Illustration: Margot Whipps In Philadelphia, if you live in Allegheny or around the Health Science campus like I used to, we can safely call this a semi food desert, if not a full food desert. I couldn’t find fresh fruit in the area for about one year until the Rite Aid across from the Dental […]
When we rip our calendar’s pages to reveal the orange letters of “November”, it’s a popular topic for American journalists to revisit the origins of Thanksgiving and how it relates to Native America. I wanted to try relating my own life story in my newly appointed position of global kitchen columnist to have a chance […]
Photo by Gor Davtyan on Unsplash I finally discovered one of the best potluck ice breakers which avoids the cliche and overly-exhausted question, “So where have you traveled?” Instead, simply ask, “What is your most memorable international food experience?” Hopefully, your conversation partner or the entire room will smile to themselves remembering their indulgences. If […]
Foraging in Action with my permaculture friend Truman Traveling from Philadelphia to New Hampshire is on par with traveling to a different country. The entire population of Philadelphia is larger than that of New Hampshire’s (1.5 million vs. 1.3 million). While the rustic, country stores and charming fields of small farms sometimes make me want […]
The second of a three part series about food as both an international cultural experience and nutrition education. What memories about food do you take away from your childhood? What kinds of foods are your comfort foods? What does this say about your culture and how you were socialized into thinking about food? Does this […]
When I was in Tokyo my freshman year, March arrived with hanami. My friends and I packed some chilled drinks and mochi, got on our bikes, and rode through the streets. We rounded a corner on Yasukuni Doori and I was hit with a ripple of pink flowers in the air that I had never […]
We are not born with culture, but we are born into it. As we grow from babies into children into teenagers and finally adults, we collect memories, languages, behaviors, and customs. In this Freely Free Write, we asked writers to tell us a story from childhood in 10 minutes. Here are the responses… Chick By […]
Graphic: Margaret Whipps There is one critical difference between Valentine’s Day in the United States and Valentine’s Day in Japan: only women give chocolates to men on Valentine’s Day. Chocolate does not discriminate so balance is restored one month later on March 14th when men return the favor and bestow sweets to the women in […]
Some of you might have caught a whiff of the matcha cookies, miso glazed yakitori, pristine platters of sushi, and pork gyoza on the ground floor of the Paley Library on December 12th, 2018. This delicious washoku spread was laid for admirers, reporters, esteemed staff and faculty celebrating a very special moment in global education. […]
I assumed I would be liberated by a week in France during this past Thanksgiving break. I thought I could escape the gravy laden madness, but most especially the frenzy of black Friday mobs crowding the sales aisles at malls, overloading bandwidth connections in an attempt to get the best cyber deals from online clothing […]
Philadelphia, with one of the largest Asian American populations in the continental United States, was an ideal location for the eleventh annual Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, PAAFF. Featuring a variety of musical performances, workshops, films, conferences and galleries around Center City Philadelphia, the aim of the annual festival was to spark questions rather than […]
We have discussed how to find intrinsic motivation through a variety of methods, and I think that there is no better person to learn from than someone who is actually bilingual. I turned to my friend Yuri Suzuki, a current Temple Sophomore from Tokyo, Japan who is studying Communication Studies in Philadelphia for one year. […]
Language learning is not always the easiest path. I am currently in Japanese Advanced Level One, and I ask myself why I spend hours drawing miniature kanji, glaring at grammar notes, and breaking pencil tips over vocabulary I can’t remember after a week of studying. The reason I persevere though is as easy as this: […]
I came home from a long day of school at Temple Japan Campus in Tokyo and was reflecting on how the week went when my thoughts were interrupted by the incessant snoring from my neighbor in the room next door. Genji-san was a typical salaryman, a Japanese white-collar worker in a middle to large company. […]
