{"id":29459,"date":"2013-03-20T12:05:32","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T16:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=29459"},"modified":"2013-03-20T12:12:25","modified_gmt":"2013-03-20T16:12:25","slug":"wit-life-228-japan-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2013\/03\/20\/wit-life-228-japan-week\/","title":{"rendered":"WIT Life #228: Japan Week!"},"content":{"rendered":"

WIT Life<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/a> is <\/strong><\/em>a periodic series written<\/strong><\/em> by professional Writer\/Interpreter\/Translator <\/strong><\/em>Stacy Smith<\/strong><\/a> <\/em>(Kumamo<\/a><\/strong><\/em>to-ken<\/a> CIR, 2000-<\/strong><\/em>03). She starts<\/strong><\/em> her day by watching Fujisankei\u2019s newscast in Japanese, and here she sha<\/strong><\/em>r<\/strong><\/em>es s<\/strong><\/em>ome of the interesting<\/strong><\/em> tidb<\/strong><\/em>its and t<\/strong><\/em>r<\/strong><\/em>ends together with her own observations.<\/strong><\/em>\"20130319_195510\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yesterday began the second annual Japan Week<\/a> here in NYC, a bit of a misnomer as it only goes for the three days of March 19-21.\u00a0 The venue is Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall, where you can find 18 booths featuring Japanese food, drink and culture.\u00a0 Last night I was lucky enough to attend a kick-off event at the Japanese ambassador’s residence that highlighted Japan’s unique food culture and traditional arts.<\/p>\n

One of the gue\"20130319_175136\"<\/a>st speakers was Michael Romano, director of culinary development for Union Square Hospitality Group, whose restaurants include Union Square Cafe and Gramercy Tavern.\u00a0 Romano was also instrumental in the creation of Union Square Tokyo in 2007.\u00a0 He spoke of his love affair with Japan which began later in life, but has become a full-fledged passion.\u00a0 Romano espoused his devotion to Japanese knives, and shared how a craftsman in Sakai, a city once known for samurai swords but now famous for its kitchen knives<\/em>, made him a customized one to celebrate his \u9084\u66a6 (kanreki)<\/em> or 60th birthday.\u00a0 As a chef, Romano appreciates the attention to detail ubiquitous in Japan, whether in regard to knife-making or customer service.\u00a0 His extreme passion for and extensive knowledge of Japanese culture recently earned him the title of\u00a0Ambassador of Culture and Fine Dining from the governor of Ishikawa Prefect\"20130319_192631\"<\/a>ure!<\/p>\n

After the presentations, we were escorted to Grand Central to check out the actual event.\u00a0 It was around 7 o’clock, and the place was packed with curious passerbys, as well as dedicated Japanophiles.\u00a0 Aside from the offerings of the various booths, nights at Japan Week enable visitors to take part in a wonderful aspect of Japanese food\/drink culture, \u7acb\u3061\u98f2\u307f\u5c4b (tachinomiya)<\/em>.\u00a0 These are bars where you drink and eat while standing, allowing for casual mixing and mingling.\u00a0 With 90 sakes (as well as beer and other drinks) and several sake samurai on hand to guide your drink choices, the array of selections at the tachinomiya is sure to satisfy everyone.<\/p>\n

And of course you are going to want some food to go along with your drinks, so you can find \u99c5\u5f01 (ekiben<\/em>) being sold at the surrounding booths.\u00a0 Familiar Japanese stores and restaurants like Sunrise Mart and Kyotofu are selling these bento boxes, usually found at Japanese train stations and often reflecting local specialties.\u00a0 I tried the Hiroshima ekiben \u3042\u306a\u3054\u98ef (anago meshi<\/em>) or sea eel rice bowl from Ronin restaurant, and it did not disappoint.\u00a0 Make sure to swing by Grand Central to share in the festivities of Japan Week before they end tomorrow!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WIT Life is a periodic series written by professional Writer\/Interpreter\/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei\u2019s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations. Yesterday began the second annual Japan Week here in NYC, a bit of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[53,70,18,36,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-food-drink","category-translatinginterpreting","category-wit-life","category-writers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-7F9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29459"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29488,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29459\/revisions\/29488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}