Lately, I had been feeling that my connection to Japan had started to wane. I hadn’t eaten any Japanese food recently. I hadn’t watched any Jvloggers–or at least the Jvloggers I had watched were reporting from places other than Japan. Despite the fact that my house is littered with “things Japanese” (one of the first books I read on Japan) like Sumo Banzuke, kanji workbooks and flashcards, tonkatsu sauce bottles and more, I had been thinking that maybe it was time to pack it all away.
Luckily for me, a new co-worker and I arranged to go out for ramen–we finally have some decent if rather expensive places to eat ramen in Toronto after years of neglect. She had recently come back from Japan before starting work at my school, so she was still jonesing for Japanese food. I don’t blame her. As you can see from this post, or this one, or even this one, I do a fair bit of that in my life.
She ordered the soy based ramen while I had the spicy pork based version. I ordered some gyoza, expecting to share at least one of them. She declined my offer twice, so I quickly ate the delicious little buggers up before she could change her mind.
I don’t know whether it was the spicy ramen that I ate, or the loud and genki (look it up) staff, or just the positive nostalgia we were sharing, but after going for ramen, my positive feeling of Japan returned.
That seems reason enough to call it Today’s Perfect Moment.
Anything that connects you with happy memories is a perfect moment indeed.
Yum yum yum! I would definitely not have let you eat all those gyoza if I were her though hahah.
I would have let you have one…the other three were in more of a “fight to the death” kind of situation.
The sauce on the gyoza was not what I normally use…or have ever seen. It was, however, rather delicious.
I just had this today at lunch and it was delish! 🙂
Where did you go for lunch?
It was in Richmond Hill at a small plaza – the name fails me now but it was really good. 🙂
Wait, I don’t know your back story, but were you in japan before, but now you’re in Toronto? Regardless, I feel your pain, I had lived in LA for 14 years, and I’m temporarily in Colorado which has an extremely tiny Japanese population, and I’m dying.
I lived in Japan for three years. I moved back to Toronto and brought my Japanese wife with me. In those days, there were some Japanese food options, but no ramen.
After getting a divorce, I continued to do many Japanese things and still shop at the Japanese shop from time to time. Around the time of that blog, I had been doing less and less of that. I had also been watching fewer Japan related things on the internet. I was, consciously or unconsciously, letting go of that chapter in my life. Maybe it was trying to move on, or maybe it was just loosening its hold on me. However, going for Ramen and speaking a little Japanese made me feel better. It made me realize why I had felt so at home in Japan. I don’t want to give that part of my life up, but I don’t want to be stuck there.
I hope that answered your question.
Sorry that you are feeling isolated. I only hope you can find something there to tide you over until you get to a better place.
Gambatte.
Regardless of the association with your ex, I hope you can still in the food and all the other cultural crap. As for me, I’m not isolated, I’m without the foods that I miss, like you because you can isolate me as long as you toss in a bunch of good food, if that’s the case, I’m coo.
Now I am craving some Japanese food.
Hahahahaha!!
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