This week’s blog post is devoted to the dizzying array of culinary delights that I came across in Japan.
Osechi (see below) is traditional Japanese New Year’s fare. Osechi are served in boxes called jūbako(重箱).
On New Year’s Day there was also an abundance of sushi on offer.
Noodles are very popular in Japan, particularly at lunchtime. Below is a picture of a bowl of Soba noodles complete with egg, spinach and a tempura prawn.
Here is a picture I took of a chef making Soba noodles.
In my humble opinion Japanese KFC is far superior to the British version, and that is to say nothing of the customer service – read smiling and servility (including bowing). What more could anyone ask for from a fast food restaurant?
Whale meat is still widely eaten in Japan, much to the annoyance of Greenpeace. Below is a picture of whale bacon for sale in a fish market that I visited.
A strawberry and wasabi flavoured ice-cream.
There are a number of different types of restaurants that serve meat in Japan, including Teppanyaki and Yaki Niku (see below), where the customer cooks the meat themselves.
Below are two plates of gyoza. I went on to order a third. Gyoza are delicious but not particularly healthy.
A bowl of eel (unagi) on rice that I had for lunch one day in a traditional Japanese restaurant.
This sausage on a stick (see below) was probably the least appetising thing I ate in Japan. They can be purchased from service stations, and are best avoided.
The Japanese love ornate culinary displays (see below).
As I have just returned from Japan I have decided to dedicate a couple of blog posts to my trip. I will return to my usual author/book related themed posts in a couple of weeks.
This week’s post takes the form of a tour of a high-tech Japanese house.
Below is a cross-section of someone’s kitchen wall. I have no idea what half of these do.
The picture below is of a Japanese bath. What more could you possibly want from a bath, except taps, I asked myself as I tried to figure out how to fill it with water.
As I don’t have an engineering degree and only a rudimentary knowledge of Japanese Kanji, it took quite a while to work out out how to fill the bath with water of the desired temperature.
It took me an eternity to figure out how to drain the water at the end of my bath. I assumed that as 出 means exit in Japanese that the button on the left of the control with the symbol 出 would do exactly that. However, despite hitting the button numerous times while cursing loudly, nothing happened. Eventually, after considerable trial and error, I discovered that to drain the bath one must press a manual plunger on the right of the tub. Later when I went to the living room I heard the house’s resident Japanese infant swearing in English. This Ied me to discover that the button with the 出 was a telecom system.
Above is a Japanese lavatory. It can initially be quite alarming when the seat opens automatically on entering the room. Below is the controller for the lavatory. It is not necessary to become familiar with the multitude of buttons, as it performs its one necessary function automatically.
I was so keen to show you my magic trick involving a tap that I purchased a WordPress premium package, in order to embed this video in the post, so I do hope you click on it.
I was very fatigued after trying to figure out the technological complexities of the Japanese house, so I went to the shop to buy an energy tonic. The shop had tonics for just about everything (see below).
Authors’ suffering from mental instability is a subject that has interested me since reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.
Here are 7 female writers who were institutionalised:
Unica Zürn(July 6th 1916 – 19th October 1970)
Unica Zürn was a German born author, poet and painter. Zürn began writing radio plays and short stories shortly after the end of World War II. In 1957 whilst living in France she began to suffer increasingly from mental health issues. The writer went on to spend time in various psychiatric facilities in Paris and Berlin. Her struggle with mental illness influenced much of her writing, most notably Der Mann im Jasmin. She committed suicide in 1970.
Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald(July 24th 1900 – March 10th 1948)
Novelist, poet and short story writer Zelda Fitzgerald was the wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. The party-going pair’s tempestuous marriage came under strain due to Scott’s rampant alcoholism. Zelda suffered from increasing mental instability, and in 1930 she was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Zelda was a patient in the Sheppard Pratt sanatorium in Towson when in 1932 she wrote the semi-autobiographical novel Save Me the Waltz. In 1948 the author died when the mental hospital she was residing in burnt down.
Janet Frame(August 28th 1924 – January 29th 2004)
Novelist, poet, short story writer and essayist Janet Frame is widely considered to be one of New Zealand’s best ever authors. Frame’s traumatic childhood saw 2 of her sisters drowned. In 1945 she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalised. The author was saved from a lobotomy, when days prior to the procedure, she unexpectedly won a national literary contest. In 1961 her novel Faces in the Water was published. It went on to become a best seller in her native country.
Sylvia Plath(October 27th 1932 – February 11th 1963)
Sylvia Plath was well known for her poetry during her short-life. Examples of her early success included winning The Glascock Prize for poetry in 1955. Plath suffered from bipolar disorder, and in 1953 spent 6 months in a psychiatric facility after a suicide attempt. In 1963 Plath committed suicide. She went on to achieve posthumous fame for her mental health themed semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, which was published in the UK a month after her death.
Suzanna Kaysen(Born: November 11th 1948)
American author Suzanna Kaysen is best remembered for her memoir Girl, Interrupted. In 1967 she was sent to the McClean Hospital for psychiatric treatment for depression. It was here that she was diagnosed as having borderline personality disorder. Her 18-month stint in the facility provided the material for her seminal work, Girl, Interrupted. In 1999 the book was adapted for the silver screen. In the film Winona Ryder portrays Kaysen.
Valerie Valere(November 1st 1961- 17th December 1982)
French author Valerie Valere was only 13 years old when she was incarcerated in an asylum due to her anorexia. She later wrote a novel, Le Pavillon des infants fous, which is about this traumatic period in her life. Valere went on to write several other books before her premature demise at the age of 21. The exact cause of her death remains unknown, but it is suspected it was due to an overdose.
Anne Sexton(November 9th 1928 – October 4th 1974)
Anne Sexton was a Pulitzer Prize winning American poet. Themes in her confessional style verse included her mental instability and depression. Sexton, who suffered from bipolar disorder and had suicidal tendencies, was institutionalised on multiple occasions. It was during a stint in Glenside Hospital that her therapist suggested she start writing poetry as a form of therapy. Madness and depression are reoccurring themes in much of Sexton’s writing. The poet committed suicide at the age of 45.
I haven’t forgotten about male authors who were institutionalised. There will be a post dedicated to them.
After hours of arduous research I have concluded that the following are the top 20 best-selling novelists of all time. Unfortunately I didn’t make the list.
20. Dan Brown – (Born: 1964) – Brown is a thriller fiction author, whose seminal work was the 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code. Total Books Sold:circa 210 million
19. J. R. R. Tolkien – (1892-1973) – High fantasy novelist Tolkien is best remembered for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Total Books Sold:circa 240 million
18. Horatio Alger – (1832-1899) – All of 19th Century American author Horatio Alger’s books are about boys from poor backgrounds, who become successful. Total Books Sold: circa 250 million
17. Louis L’Amour – (1908-1988) – L’Amour is the top-selling author of Western novels ever. He wrote 105 books. Total Books Sold: circa 300 million
16. James Patterson – (Born: 1947) – This American thriller and romance author is one of the World’s bestselling living authors. Total Books Sold: circa 310 million
15. Stephen King – (Born: 1947) – Contemporary author Stephen King is a prolific author of horror, science fiction, fantasy and supernatural fiction. Total Books Sold: circa 350 million
14. Robert Ludlum – (1927-2001) – Ludlum wrote 27 thriller novels. His most famous being The Bourne Trilogy. Total Books Sold: circa 370 million
13. Leo Tolstoy – (1828-1910) – This iconic Russian novelist and short story writer is best remembered for his epic novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Total Books Sold: circa 380 million
12. Corin Tellado – (1927-2009) – Tellado published more than 4,000 novels. In 1994 she was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having sold the most books written in Spanish. Total Books Sold: circa 400 million
11. Sidney Sheldon – (1917-2007) – After a successful career writing for television Sheldon started writing novels at the age of 50. Total Books Sold: circa 400 million
10. Dean Koontz – (Born: 1945) – This American author of suspense thrillers is one of the world’s best-selling living authors. Total Books Sold: circa 450 million
09. J.K. Rowling – (Born: 1965) – Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling is the United Kingdom’s best-selling living author. Total Books Sold: circa 460 million
08. Jackie Collins – (Born: 1937) – English novelist Jackie Collins has written 29 novels, all of which went on to become best-sellers. Total Books Sold: circa 500 million
07. Georges Simenon – (1903-1989) – This prolific Belgian author wrote nearly 200 novels in addition to many shorter works of fiction. Total Books Sold: circa 550 million
06. Charles Dickens – (1812-1870) – Widely regarded as the greatest writer of the Victorian era, Dickens is also one of the biggest selling authors ever. Total Books Sold: circa 550 million
05. Gilbert Patten – (1866-1945) – The King of the dime novels is best remembered as the author of the Frank Merriwell stories. Total Books Sold: circa 600 million
04. Danielle Steel – (Born: 1947) – American romance and mainstream fiction novelist Danielle Steel is the World’s bestselling living novelist. Total Books Sold:circa 800 million
03. Harold Robbins – (1916-1997) – The New York born playboy and master of publicity penned 25 bestselling novels. Total Books Sold: circa 800 million
02. Barbara Cartland – (1901-2000) – This prolific romance author penned 723 novel over the course of her long life. Total Books Sold:1 billion
01. Agatha Christie – (1890-1976) – The Guinness Book of World Records lists the creator of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple as the best-selling novelist of all time. Total Books Sold:2 billion
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This week I look back on my 2014. It takes the form of concise extracts from my diary. This might seem a rather narcissistic thing to do, but hopefully some of you might find the entries mildly amusing and/or be interested in the links to the book reviews/blog posts/YouTube video.
January
Wednesday 1st – Have I ever had a less memorable New Year’s?
Wednesday 9th – Hope deserted this launderette a long time ago.
Thursday 17th – Still thinking about The Old Man and The Sea.
Sunday 20th – Catacombs tour of Brompton Cemetery.
August
Monday 5th – The Gym – I am getting really good at these leg presses; I must be getting close to the World record. Oh maybe not – Ronnie Coleman did x8 reps of 1.043 tons.
Tuesday 14th – Dinner – Pleased to be eating something other than steak for a change. A chicken and pigeon combo – delicious.
Wednesday 15th – Santiago del Estero – Northern Argentina – How can it be 40C on a spring day?
Sunday 26th – Go to NFL game between Atlanta Falcons and Detroit Giants at Wembley. I don’t even know the rules. Eat a MacDonald’s, a TGI Friday’s & 3 donuts before 1pm.
Monday 27th – Finish reading and reviewing my first Ballard novel – High-Rise.
November
Monday 10th – Another day another gym mishap – Squashed under bench press, have to cry out for assistance. How embarrassing.