Me Time Japan Team - Me Time Japan

Experience the Best – Ultimate Curry Lover’s Guide In Osaka

Me Time Japan Team | January 11, 2023

Many international travelers who have visited Japan say that Osaka is their favorite destination in Japan, especially for foodies and excursionists. One of the exciting attractions of the city is its food. You can enjoy traditional dishes to inexpensive street foods, including a vast variety of curry dishes. Osaka is known as the “kitchen of the nation” after this port city flourished and became the center of commercial industry as well as of culinary expressions during the Edo period (1603-1868). Osaka has a famous saying called Kuidaore(食い倒れ), which means to spoil yourself with extravagant food. Osaka-style Curry Makes Room for a Raw Egg in the Middle The Osaka curry usually cracks a …

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Where to Eat in Tokyo: The Real Curry Guide

Me Time Japan Team | January 6, 2023

The food experience is one of the best attractions in Japan. When people typically think of Japanese food, many of us imagine sushi, soba, ramen, and yakitori. The fact is that Japan is the world’s second-largest curry-loving country! In Tokyo, Jinbōchō is an essential place when talking about curry. Since the Meiji era, the area has been known as a student town populated with many schools and bookstores. There are over 150 antiquarian bookstores still located there today. According to curry lovers, Jinbōchō had an abundance of curry restaurants from 1965 to 1984. Many of the men in their late teens to 30s used to come here to buy old books and …

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Me Time Guide Table For One

Uncovering the Best “Old School” Ramen Shops in Japan

Me Time Japan Team | December 26, 2022

Ramen is a world-famous noodle dish and certainly a must try food in Japan! Many ramen lovers in Japan say, “the best way to know the local culture here is to try their ramen.” All over the world, we can find fine and casual ramen dinning, but ramen in Japan remains different with these other places. One of the reasons international ramen tastes different from the Japanese ramen is the water. We spoke with a Japanese master/chef from a popular Japanese ramen shop opened which opened a few new branches in New York a few years ago. The master/chef said “it’s very unfortunate that we aren’t be able to produce …

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Japanese Diaspora Life Style

Fermented Foods Bring a Wealth of Health to the U.S.

Me Time Japan Team | December 20, 2022

Fermented foods have been gaining popularity in the United States for some time now. In 2003, Sandor Ellix Katz, a leader in the fermentation movement and a self-described fermentation geek, published his first book on fermented foods, Basic Fermentation. Since then, he has written numerous books ranging from adventures in the world’s fermented food cultures to advanced, specialized cookbooks, one of which has been translated into Japanese: Sandor Katz’s Fermentation Journeys: Recipes, Techniques, and Traditions from around the World. If one were to trace the history of fermented foods in the U.S., one would find The Book of Tofu at the beginning. Co-authors Akiko Aoyagi and her American husband William Shurtleff began their research …

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Cultural Footprint Japanese Diaspora

Looking Back to the Past: Re-examining Seattle’s Once Vibrant Japantown

Me Time Japan Team | November 29, 2022

Seattle’s Chinatown-International District (CID) was once home to the largest Japantown in North America and remains to be one of the most historically significant places for Japanese Americans. In the 1880s, the first wave of Japanese laborers arrived in the Northwestern United States and undertook hard labor to build railroads, sawmills, and farms. Amid the prewar global population growth, by 1930, 8,500 Japanese Americans were living in what is known as the CID today. The district was home to Japanese language schools, newspaper offices, religious institutions, and dojos, which represented Japanese culture and became known as Japantown. The streets were filled with lodgings, restaurants, and stores run by Japanese American …

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Life Style Me Time Guide

The Great Self Re-Evaluation: Discovering Modern Minimalism

Me Time Japan Team | November 14, 2022

In 2015, the word “Minimalist” began to attract attention in Japan as this word was nominated for the New Word/Buzzword Awards, an annual contest in Japan. In 2017, the word became increasingly popular internationally after Fumio Sasaki, a well-known Japanese Minimalist, published a book titled, Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism. Sasaki’s lifestyle book was published in English and uniquely became a reverse import back to Japan from the States after the book became a best-selling phenomenon elsewhere. Before the development of the Minimalist mindset, many Japanese spent excessive hours/days for work and believed that money could buy happiness. However, in 2011, there was a significant earthquake in Japan, and …

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Japanese Diaspora Life Style

Your Path to Happiness, Ikigai is the Way

Me Time Japan Team | October 21, 2022

Based on a philosophy of emotional independence and overcoming reliance on others, “solo activities” can serve as the starting point for cultivating a whole new you. Our Me Time (solo activities) rules for finding happiness on our own that are taking the West by storm. In Japan drinking alone, traveling alone, eating alone has been a growing awareness and understanding which refer to actions and experiences where the individual values going at their own pace and their own thoughts. Based on a philosophy of emotional independence and overcoming reliance on others, these are gaining widespread acceptance as the starting point for cultivating a whole new you, rather than being seen …

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Life Style Me Time Guide

Learning to Eventually Thrive in Your Alone Time

Me Time Japan Team | October 7, 2022

In this article, we explore ways to maintain mental health of those living the solo lifestyle. One of those methods is seeking help though psychotherapy and approaching it from an American perspective, which appears to be more open and progressive. Japan is seeing a surge of suicides among women and young people during the pandemic, according to a recent news report. There is a dire need for mental healthcare, including therapy, especially for those who are socially isolated or living alone and have limited social interaction with the outside world. In comparison to the U.S., it is not as common for the Japanese to seek help from a therapist. There is still …

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Cultural Footprint Japanese Diaspora

Found Photos of Japanese-Australians Uncover Historical Journeys of the Past

Me Time Japan Team | August 12, 2022

It’s not a well-known fact that Japanese people lived in Australia before the war. When we trace back the friendly relations between Australia and Japan today, we realize that it is thanks to the achievements of Japanese immigrants in the past. In 2015, Mayu Kanamori came across more than 300 photos featuring Japanese nationals at a flea market in a rural town in Australia. The discovery led Kanamori, an artist based in Sydney, to launch a project, Untitled.Showa, to try to identify the people in the photos and the story behind them, for instance why they were found in Australia. Anyone can participate in the project. Participants are asked to explore ways …

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Cultural Footprint Japanese Diaspora

Deconstructing Creativity: ‘Japas’ Craft Beer, Created by a Trio of Female Japanese-Brazilians

Me Time Japan Team | July 29, 2022

Brazil is home to the world’s largest Japanese populations outside of Japan, numbering about 1.5 million people. The Japanese Brazilians are either 1) Japanese people from Japan who immigrated to Brazil and then became naturalized Brazilian citizens; or 2) those born in Brazil with varying degrees of Japanese ethnicity. There were many reasons why there was an influx of Japanese people coming to Brazil. Back in 1868, Japan was suffering from poverty and high unemployment during the Mejii Period (1868-1912). Consequently, the number of Japanese wishing to emigrate increased. Many of them were dreaming of working abroad to save money and eventually return to Japan. However once they arrived, many others …

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