What do the new Miyazaki film, fried fishcakes and gelatinous coffee have in common? I experienced all of them last week!
First of all, we can all pretty much agree that Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro) is a fantastic film. I’ve seen most of Miyazaki’s and Studio Ghibli’s releases, and Totoro is pretty close to the top for me. As a result, I kinda basically flipped out when I learned about Gake no Ue no Ponyo (Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea), Miyazaki’s recently released masterpiece. Recently released, that is, in Japan.
Well, I really wanted to see it. Actually, I thought I was downloading just the soundtrack and trailer, and it turned out to be the entire film. It was filmed in a theater screening via digital camcorder, and someone gets up to use the bathroom or something in one part, partially blocking the awesomeness of the film for like four seconds. The sound is scratchy and crappy and the video quality is terrible. There are no English subtitles but I could pick up most of the Japanese. That said, it is an amazing film. It is all hand animated, flows beautifully and is incredibly complex. The soundtrack is adorable. The characters are adorable. It has quickly become one of my favorite movies. I intend on purchasing it as soon as I am able.
If you recall my earlier post about Uwajimaya’s 80th anniversary, you will also recall my mentioning something called ‘satsumage’. A bit of searching around revealed thet this is simply a deep fried fishcake. A DELICIOUS deep-fried fishcake, that is! I bought four of them (they were only 25 cents a piece!) and I should have bought more. Uwajimaya was crazy-insane packed with people, but we spent money and got 10% off, a free bag and some fishcakes, so it was a great sucess.
Finally, last but not least… coffee jelly is my new favorite dessert. I buy them in a 3-pack at Uwajimaya, and you also get 3 little coffee creamers to pour on top, but they are incredibly easy to make at home. This stuff is really big in Japan right now, or was a few months ago. It’s basically chilled, sweetened coffee jelly with cream on top. So good!
And here’s an uncanny picture I took of it…
UM… HOW ARE YOU DOING?
Good golly, coffee jelly blew my mind. Also, I’m in a band now, and you should come see us on Halloween. Our first gig, and we don’t have a bass player.
RACHEL AND I MISS YOU AND SANDY. So we’re probably going to visit you soon.
Love,
Herbert Moosestache
Posted by Esa on October 26th, 2008.