Reader, how are you celebrating Burns Night? With some help I assembled a passable haggis, neeps & tatties and a cheese board.
Some wisdom I was taught a while ago: Whenever you see cheap/discounted sea urchin sushi, buy it and eat it immediately. Mid-week, it was sea urchin sushi which fuelled me through a surprise karaoke session, where I piloted The Black Parade.
Very nice yakiniku in Ueno. Maybe my favourite memory of Tokyo yakiniku since last summer.
You know how the old saying goes about language exchange programmes: Third time’s the charm!
Conversation practice genuinely feels like an accelerant and this week as since my class was out, we spent more time in practice, which felt pretty incredible.
The YotsuyaShinjuku crew came back together for one night and one night only. Stalled by three train delays, I joined them late for sake and ratatouille. Even later I got ohisashiburi’d by one of my favourite monks, but didn’t do any calligraphy.
Met up in Nakakobu for some Ekiben, only the Ekiben was all sold out so I was made to eat raw shrimp instead. It was OK, maybe I’ll pass next time. Coffee and strawberry cake followed, they’re in season don’t you know?
New Knives Out movie was pretty alright. Wake Up Dead Man (2025) did some ambitious things but slightly undid them to get a 3/5.
