Akita hotpot & Italian miso stew

We met up with Js uni prof for dinner last night being the last day of most of his major work in school. Retiring after this semester, but still still full of energy. And as usual, full of warmth.

The place we had dinner featured Akita hotpot for its winter hoptot special.

=) n coincidentally prof was raised in Akita!

Yeah, as usual his hairstyle doesnt change

Akita hotpot with the famous Akita rice rolls and hinai chicken

Japan has a few different birds that look like chicken and taste like chicken, but being rare birds, they are grown under very good care, and taste really a level up from the usual chicken meat.

And before meeting up with the guys from dinner, i was walking around on my own in town, and during lunch time while i was fussing over what to eat, look what i found!!!

PAIN buffet?!

Then pausing to figure out japanese engrish, i realised, yeah the word パンpan (read as PUN)　is adapted from the french word for bread pain which is also read as PUN.

But buffet is english isnt it? so put the french word pain and the english word buffet, you either think in english and read it literally as pain buffet think in engrish and figure it means bread buffet =P

a lot of japanese words are adapted from foreign languages, which makes the japanese very open to fusing other culture/words/habits into their own. basically, in other words, washi–ing everything and anything around the world is possible. which is one of the aspects of japanese culture that i really admire and adore. and speaking of which, washism is about washi–ing too =)

Dinner tonight, Italian washified

instead of bread, in the washi world, rice =)

Tomato miso beef & potatoes stew with lots of shimeji mushrooms

We have a public holiday tmr! whee~