For a while, I was under the impression that all spiciness, or burning sensation in food flavoring, would come from capsaicin, the compound that causes it in chili peppers. Then I realized that Sichuan peppers are a quite different kind of heat. Wasabi (horseradish) is different yet again.
How many hot-flavored compounds are there? At least five!
Kalsec: "The Elements of Heat"
A Lawson in a historical area is a ろう村. Get it? Get it? 😂
Welp. I gave it my best shot to try and process on the new Zonos website the birthday present I wanted to send to my father in the USA. However, the nice Japanese box of chocolate is apparently Chinese, according to the photo I took for their AI, and there’s no way to change it. So, I will enjoy a nice box of chocolate and buy something else for my father on Amazon, which is probably what the Internet Overlords wanted me to do all along.
ブッ！👻
I was told a long time ago by a Japanese person that a "bouncy castle" at a children's carnival is フワフワ in Japanese. I was shocked this weekend to find out that this is not necessarily true. Do you call it a フワフワ?
I guess I will have to make a color copy of the balloons and send that. No fun at all! I miss the old days when things weren’t so strict.
RE: https://famichiki.jp/@softicecreamlesley/117266490667186410
THEY WOULDN’T LET ME MAIL THIS TO THE USA 😭😭😭
Mailing my brother grey and black balloons and a banner that says “IT IS YOUR BIRTHDAY”. Plus a signed letter from Dwight asking if he wants to nap for an hour or watch TV. I hope nobody has ever done this for him before, but it is not my fault it took this long for all of The Office episodes to come on Netflix here.
Currently 31.7C. Don’t hate me because I’m すずしい
After much procrastination, I have finally finished most of the prep for the intensive graduate course on teaching young learners I’ll be teaching in August. I figured out the Moodle and revised it all by myself! Yayyy for me! 🥳
RE: https://famichiki.jp/@mainichi/116940393836114325
Goodness gracious, finally!
Okinawan hospitality
I was really hoping to take N2 in December, as my own personal challenge, but I don’t think I’m going to be ready. I’ve been trying to do practice reading questions here and there, and while I know most of the vocabulary and can get the general meaning, I can never really understand it enough to confidently answer. I’ve come a long way (esp. w/kanji), but I’m not there yet. This realization makes me a little sad and very disappointed. 😢 I’m already studying as much as my schedule will allow.
Please help. I am teaching an intensive course this summer at a university and am drowning in admin tasks. Now I am supposed to state my AI policy for this course. It seems that I have a number of students whose first language is not English, so I was hoping to just let them use Grammarly. However, I found out now that Grammarly has recently changed and is using Gen AI. Should I just say "No AI" and be on the safe side? I don't use AI much, so I feel unqualified making this call.
If you are wondering about the story of the wallet, the owner was a Lady of the Night and the wallet was full of cash and stamp cards for love hotels. She was so grateful we found her wallet and gave us ¥5,000 and an assortment of bakery bread.
Just FYI, you absolutely must report any wallet you find to the police within two weeks. You'll usually receive a small reward for doing so. (And in my case, you'll end up with a really interesting story about the owner of the wallet!)
Although, it is a bit odd here that someone immediately called 911. In our case, we didn't report it to the police until 2 days later because we couldn't find a koban with a police officer inside!
So Japan. Gorgeous wisteria tree planted in an ugly styrofoam container that used to contain fish. 🤣
I read in an overseas news article that Japan is having another run on toilet paper? 🧻 I haven’t noticed anything. Have you?
Quiz: What is this?
4/4 Theo and Jo had only one child, named after Vincent van Gogh. Baby Vincent grew up and continued the legacy of promoting his uncle's work, helping to open the Van Gogh museum in the Netherlands in 1973.
This thread was inspired by the current exhibit being held at the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art. I'm pleased to be taking 37 children and their parents to this exhibit on Sunday.