Japan in Seattle: Maneki Japanese Restaurant, the Oldest in the USA?

Maneki is the oldest Japanese Restaurant in Seattle. We were fortunate enough to spend a few minutes chatting to Jean Nakayama who is now shouldering the responsibilities of this restaurant started 107 years ago in this part of town where most of the Japanese had settled down. It served as a gathering place, wedding receptions were held here and after the detention of the japanese during the war was over, Mr Sato continued until the job fell on the shoulders of Jean's husband, who had come from Japan. At one time there were boarders and the whole area had the atmosphere of an Japanese suburb.

I wanted to eat some authentic japanese food having tired and disappointed at some "japanese" restaurants in Paris and elsewhere..

I was lucky to have the help of a Japanese visitor to these shores and she chose the dishes.

Kinpira

Burdock root and carrrot cooked in soy sauce with a chili pepper

Age Nasu

eggplant with daikon, ginger and dashi sacuce

Beef Sukiyaki with udon noodles

Mackerel Yakizakana with teriyaki sauce

Unagi Kamamishi

hot pot style (this dish was excellent and mouth watering in its flavour)

I thought of ordering Natto for old times sake or Miso soup but as it turned out we couldnt even finish

these dishes..

Excellent Choices and I truly enjoyed the dinner in the company of K from Nagoya. Arigato Gozaimasu

http://www.manekirestaurant.com/

Seattle and what else but a Starbucks!

After a short and pleasant ride through the scenery hazed by the pre spring weather, arrived at the centre of Seattle: Microsoft, Boeing and Starbucks!

the first thing to do would be to drink a cup of coffee.. yes and it tasted good..

After checking into the hotel, the destination is Seattle Art Museum!

And I am looking forward to a Japanese meal, possibly at the oldest Japanese Resto in Seattle..

which day is it anyway?

Intrusion into Personal LIfe by Wire Less Internet

I am writing this, sitting INSIDE a bus, while the middle aged levantine (irani?) driver is negotiating through the traffic. We are still in Vancouver, Canada and our destination is the border with USA and destinations beyond.. Seattle, Washington.
I am connected to the Internet through the wifi provided by this bus! this is the first time i am connecting to wi fi in a bus! normally at airports, hotels, even in air planes but inside a bus? very soon, taxi cabs will have internet available, if not already so. also shows that this technology is cheap and the hotels who charge 14.95 per 24 hours of your stay is gouging you for the usage of a cheap technology.
Where is the remotest place that i have connected to the Internet? Could it be Rapa Nui, Easter Island in the middle of the pacific ocean? Takeo in Cambodia?
the pervasion of technology of this sort is welcome and mind boggling. In India, I am told 20 million people sign for cellular phone service a month! that is almost the same number of all the people with cellular phones in Australia!
I visit Native Indians in remote parts of the American Continent and it gives me pleasure to see them using cellular phones even though internet is not that easily available and the cell phone connections are spotty.
The wise use of Internet technology in the recent uprisings in the Arab world also gives us hope, as well as the prudent use of this technology in Iran. I watched a documentary about the rights of women in Saudi Arabia (almost nothing) but they express their frustrations through FaceBook or similar or with emails and blogs. The conservative thinkers who live in another century (or other centuries past) will soon realize that it is they who are the dinosaurs of this earth and not the oppression they cause their women which is sure to melt away..
There must be some connection between this attitude and the number of new books published in the Moslem world, just a small fraction of what is published in one small country, Israel.
The bus is gliding along smoothly. it is still drizzling outside. I am happy to be in vancouver, in canada. I am impressed with their friendliness.
May the wind spirits bring me back soon to Vancouver, Canada..
for the next 18 days, my days and nights will be filled with lots of conversations, with friends and lovers, new and old and I look forward to that.
As the poet would say, those who left taking their kisses leaving no memories, become shadows. But each one of us have the right to decide the kind of happiness we wish to pursue..
what a blog.. started with something and wandered all around the place and here I am heading on a bus towards the canadian USA border.. on a day of drizzle..
PS the levantine bus driver turned out to be Amir, who was Iranian and he had lots of stories to tell me. When I told him I was jewish, he said, we dont hate Jews, when was the last time you heard of an Iranian suicide bomber who killed the Jews?
would like to see him again if I get back to BC and he said he just finished the end of Narwooz yesterday with a picnic. he is not a moslem but a Zoroastrian, and he said there are nearly 5000 iranians in BC.. ah well little gifts of time...

The New KLM World Class.. Truly Enjoyable CDG AMS YVR

I have not enjoyed long haul lights as much I enjoyed my recent flight on KLM from Paris to Vancouver via Amsterdam. A Full Blog would follow. But the photos are uploaded at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/Angkor.Diabetes/ParisToAmsterdamToVancouver#

Bon Apetite et Bon Voyage

The Best Medical Anthropology Programme. BRUNEL UNIVERSITY LONDON

I was educated both in Medicine and Medical Anthropology and the education that keeps on giving me more and more is the education I received at Brunel University London in Medical Anthropology. I had good teachers: Adam Kuper, Ronnie Frankenberg, Cecil Helman, Ian Robinson and Charles Stewart. If life was a fiesta before, it became a moveable feast afterwards.. not to mention the arrival of La Havana and Paris , the two moveable feasts of Ernest Hemingway soon after my graduation from the programme.
Recently I had the honour to talk to the students at the Medical Anthropology Programme. I have uploaded the slides, most of which I used in the lecture, but not all. you are welcome to look at them if you like..
also if any one of you is interested in pursuing a little knowledge in Medical Anthropology, I highly recommend Brunel University London Medical Anthropology Programme.

https://picasaweb.google.com/cochinyehuda/BrunelMedAnthroPresentation#

San Cristobal de la Havana, TE EXTRANO

Hora en La Habana -

Tale of Traveler: A Never Ending Story

Today at the Paris CDG airport, I looked at the Asian Travelers, young men and women disembarking after long flights from Far East.. I tried to analyze my feelings..I was happy that they are traveling, I no longer travel like them, but then again, my contemporaries do not travel like me either. It is foolish to compare.. Each of us have our own style of travel and let us make the best of it..
I had to make dramatic changes in my itinerary for the coming weeks.
The last few days in London was so delightful, my friend at the Pavillion Hotel reserving a blue room for me with reflections.. was able to taste cheese and wine in the study of the hotel.. just delightful. The area is surrounded by immigrants from war torn moslem countries or unstables ones in the middle east, so it is full of restaurants .. iraqi and iranian (here they are friends), kurds and turks (ditto), yemeni, and of course Lebanese who were the first to conquer this street. Gone are the wealthy Qatari or Emirati, they have moved elsewhere it looks like.. this street has a definite middle eastern feeling to it.. all signs are in Arabic or Persian, shisha and outdoor cafes even in this mild wintry english weather...
I am off once again tomorrow, to an unexplained adventure.. I have to be with the Indians in two weeks that is all I know, what will happen, Inshallah... it is welcome..
I was thinking of Dubai this weekend but the person I was to meet was not available and I was going there specifically to meet this american lady interested in Yoga and who might be available to teach Indians, I means Native Indians, Yoga or at least some introduction to it...
My best friend in Asia is traveling and because of her non presence in KL, my travel plans are chaotic.. normally on a day like this i would be making plans to go to KL..
Come Home, MunChing... We need you in KL..
But very happy with London, a city which has always been present in my life...
Food included: Pakistani Dinner, Lebanese Dinner. English Lunch and Wine and Cheese.
it is 6 pm in Paris and I am still full from the dinner last night..
Life is too short not to enjoy ones food...