rinsemiddlebliss
"At the mercy of the geography"
The best damn udon in San Francisco
My udon quest led me to the surprisingly good Stonestown mall
by AK Krajewska
In 2020, I made a New Year's resolution to find the best udon in San Francisco. I thought it would be easy and fun. I planned to go to restaurants and order udon and decide if I liked it or not. Almost all the udon I've had in San Francisco has been disappointing, and a resolution to find the... Continue reading (1734 words)
Neither waffle nor a cold open
In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg is my model for topic introductions
by AK Krajewska
It's hard to write a good first sentence these days. Apologetic preemptory waffle is the reflexive post-traumatic response to having said, or even witnessed someone else say, something on social media that got picked up by reply guys, well- and ill-meaning scolds, and people who missed the point... Continue reading (1311 words)
Breaking down Breaking Dawn
I accidentally reread the Twilight Saga and I have thoughts
by AK Krajewska
Breaking Dawn, the last book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series about a teenage girl and her vampire boyfriend who wants to eat her but doesn't because that would be immoral, represents a structural and dramatic break from the previous three novels. Hello, I accidentally... Continue reading (1636 words)
Magic balls, psychic aliens, and part-time yokai
The versatile sources of magic powers in Danadan
by AK Krajewska
The residual effects of demon possession, a traumatic encounter with space aliens, and touching magic balls are some of the charming and unusual ways that characters in Dandadan (ダンダダン) get their magic powers. Dandadan is a delightfully bizarre anime about... Continue reading (1316 words)
Escape from the horrors
by AK Krajewska
I'm watching my cat sleep as I write this. She keeps shifting between various cute, curled up positions on her warming pad. My favorite is the slightly goofy one where she puts her head down sideways directly on the pad, which seems to be a new one she's invented recently. Her favorite, based on... Continue reading (713 words)
Learning hiragana
The easy part of Japanese
by AK Krajewska
Three days into my week in Tokyo I got tired of being illiterate. Four or five days into it, I figured out what to do about: I would reverse-engineer the accessible syllabic writing system from train station announcements. Despite my passion for decoding secret writing and dedication to sounding... Continue reading (1156 words)
Fushimi Inari Taisha
Kyoto's famous Shinto shrine
by AK Krajewska
I took one trip outside of Tokyo while I was in Japan, and that was to Kyoto to visit the famous Shinto shrine there, Fushimi Inari Taisha. It takes just a bit over two hours on the Tokaido Shinkansen line from Tokyo, plus you get to ride the Shinkansen and if... Continue reading (1782 words)
Dispatch from Tokyo
by AK Krajewska
I landed in Tokyo around 6 a.m. on my birthday. I got to the hotel, took a shower, a short nap, stepped into the street, chose a ramen shop at random, and had the best ramen I had ever had in my life. It was not a fluke. I keep typing and deleting things to say about Tokyo, to try to summarize it... Continue reading (1578 words)
Dispatch from Bengaluru
by AK Krajewska
My week in Bengaluru (aka Bangalore) ends today. The second time visiting was easier, because even though the only things I remembered from the outside were that everything was a huge hassle and the food was delicious, as soon as I landed I recalled how to be here. I'm sure the experience is... Continue reading (992 words)
Dispatch from the road
by AK Krajewska
Today, I'm flying to Bangalore. I'll be away from home for the following two Fridays as well. I thought about getting some blog posts prepared ahead of time, but despite my good intentions I did not do it. So today I'm back to the old school style of blogging, where I just wing it. I've been... Continue reading (512 words)
