Sunday Salon #8 – Going Japanese in London!
This weekend I flew back home to London. All to attend Hyper Japan for the first time. Hyper Japan is an extremely popular convention of all things Japanese. At least, it tries to be. As it was my first time and I’d heard quite a bit about the popularity of the event, I had rather high expectations. And they were a little dashed.
I have been a fan of Japan and all things Japanese since I was 8, when I watched a documentary about a young girl who decided to become a geisha and the film follows her as she achieves that goal. I t was more than the clothes and the make-up that did it for me, it was the girl’s willingness and stubbornness to preserve the tradition. I was more than a little impressed. Since then my interest grew to included the Japanese language, cuisine and literature (of course!). So it was more than a little disappointing to see that in the pavilion (which is in dire need of refurbishment) there were mostly stands dedicated to stereotypical Japanese activities – games, cards, game music, figurines, manga, anime – very much directed to the Western otaku (people who are die hard fans of something or anything Japanese). I was disappointed in the food that was served, the performances that were put on which were mostly a guy playing his violin and playing Mario video games songs, which was a little weird. It wasn’t all bad, my favorite bits were seeing the not too expensive yukata (summer kimonos), free Yakult (they are at every Japanese event!), cosplay and a stand from Third Window movies, a company that releases, mostly independent, Japanese movies in the UK.
I am very interested, sometime in the future, to live in Japan for a few years and soak up some of the culture from the source – so to speak.
Bun Thit Nuong (Vietnamese Grilled Pork with Vermicelli) - one of my favourite things in the WORLD!
In short though, it was great being back in London and seeing my friend Kerreshea and my boyfriend and eat to my heart’s content. Eating is so great and greatly unappreciated. And when I’m talking about eating, I’m talking about eating good food. Food is not bad per se here in Denmark – just different. I am a Southern European girl who is into Asian food. Denmark is a very expensive country, so to accommodate my cuisine tastes would take a veritable small fortune. Since I moved here a month ago – already! – I had to learn how to do everything when it came to living by myself; cooking, laundry and so on, so I might just take the plunge and just learn how to cook some Asian food, so I can somehow try to allay my hunger for yummy, light food. Danish fare is rather heavy and even looking at the huge amount of shelves dedicated to cold meat makes my tummy and head ache. I am rather sick of meat, must admit. I thought that Denmark, having some much sea around, would have some fish, but it does not. Supermarkets are bereaved of good fish – literally little cod and huge amounts of expensive salmon. I am so hungry all the time, so the trip to London was God given. Man, I want to go back already!
