*wonders if acorn jelly is a brand name for a product he's never encountered*

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Isakaya High School Roleplaying Info

"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)

Acorns were a staple diet of many North American Indians. You can't just grind them up and use them, they have to be soaked for a period of time to leach the bad stuff (?) out after grinding. I'm not sure offhand what the bad stuff is other than it was unhealthy to humans...

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I think I've eaten acorn jelly before.

I love to eat yokan, mostly with tea. I liked to keep it on hand for guests or going to people's houses. Luckily most of the Korean markets around seem to carry it. ^^ I wonder if my family would like it..

I also really, really love warabimochi. My friend used to make it often. Mostly because I love the taste of kinako. Over the summer, we went to a sake brewery that sold sake infused soy ice cream. One flavour offered was kinako but sadly it was sold out.

I thought that this news article might be of interest to our people currently in Japan...
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Ancient Roman coins turn up in Japanese ruins

A interesting Article
Ancient Roman coins turn up in Japanese ruins

A haul of coins from halfway across the world turned up on an archaeological site in Japan. Exactly how they got there is a fascinating mystery.

Global trade has been a thing for a long time, with items occasionally showing up in odd places. For instance, blue glass beads from Egypt showing up in Bronze-Age Denmark. Now a small cache of ancient Roman coins has popped up in Japan, the first ever found there.

The coins turned up in Okinawa Prefecture, in the UNESCO World Heritage-listed ruins of Katsuren Castle. The building stood from the 12th century to the mid-15th century, when it fell to the army of Ryukyu after the castle's lord, Amawari, plotted against the king.

Among the haul were 4 copper coins dating back to the Roman Empire in around 300 to 400 AD. They had been excavated among with other artefacts, but only identified when visiting archaeologist Toshio Tsukamoto saw them.

"I'd come to analyse artefacts like Japanese samurai armour that had been found there when I spotted the coins," he told CNN. "I'd been on excavation sites in Egypt and Italy and had seen a lot of Roman coins before, so I recognised them immediately."

X-ray analysis confirmed the find. On one side, they bear the likeness of Roman emperor Constantine the Great, who died in 372; on the other, a spear-bearing soldier. Another coin discovered on the site was Ottoman, dating back to 1687.

How they got there is unknown. It was almost definitely trade, but since there is no direct link between Japan and Rome, the coins had to come via China or Southeast Asia. Katsuren Castle had trade relations with both in the 14th and 15th centuries, but the next step will be trying to retrace the exact route the coins travelled.

If you're in or headed to Japan, you can go see these anomalous artefacts for yourself. They'll be on display at the Uruma City Yonagusuku Historical Museum in central Okinawa until November 25.

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It's really delicious! Everyone come over and let's have an acorn jelly party...

*grows increasingly mistrustful of Japanese confectionery*

*it looked like chocolate cake, it was bean paste cake*

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Isn't chocolate really a kind of bean paste though?

Actually just earlier today I was talking to a colleague who is an anko hater. He told me how he once got an unpleasant surprise when he bought dorayaki thinking it was just ordinary pancakes.

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I LOVE DORAYAKI!

This discussion is really making me hungry. Doesn't help that it's breakfast/brunch time on my side of the world. Where is every body from?

England. And still there!

That Roman coin find is very interesting but I suspect its not a sign of trade with Rome at the time Rome was in power, but more likely a medieval or renaissance trader taking ancient Roman coins and other goods to Japan to sell as curios or something like that.

Mm. Chocolate.

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Isakaya High School Roleplaying Info

"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)

I always love chocolate, unfortunately...lol

The coins may have been used merely for the metal contained within them, which has been a common occurrence worldwide... That is my thought...

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I love anko. <3 It took awhile for it to grow on me. It reminds me a lot of chocolate and I'll eat it with just about anything.

My ex-friend used to make me dorayaki. I really miss it. The store bought kind just isn't the same, but it's so hard to find red bean paste around here.

I think anko is like chocolate too! I don't think I've heard anybody else say so, but I've always thought that.

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And what, may I ask, is anko? Other than something that tastes like chocolate...

I know, I know, I could Google it, but this is more fun...

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google is not definite on this, but it looks like food made by robots https://www.anko.com.tw/en/food/index.html

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It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so loving what - Stephen Fry.

Anko is sweetened red bean paste. It's in a lot of Japanese confections.

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Thank you, Kaz... I can relate to red bean paste, just didn't know it by that name...

edit:
(dang cc key)

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I've always been kind of embarrassed by how much J-rock has influenced my life. I know that's silly, to the point I even intentionally left my love of it off my JET application last year and was later told it would have been a good thing had I included it.

After Isshi from Kagrra's death in 2011, I almost couldn't bare following anything to do with J-rock. It was that way until 2013, after my first big breakup, that I wound up looking for new music and came across a plethora of Japanese indie and alternative bands. I think Japanese music has always been something I've gone back to repeatedly when I need to find myself. For me, J-rock is like "home". I don't know any other way to explain.

I think we had a discussion about the wrong portrayal of human body in anime. Where i said it affects thinking pattern and might make someone prefer anime than real person(as real person tends to visually less attractive and mentally more complex). The general consensus among most (most probably nc, kaz, saddle and arren; i maybe wrong and i forgot) was that fantasy does not hurt and people do understand the difference between fantasy and reality.

Here in this article on japanese population states one of those problems

www.unilad.co.uk/featured/how-japans-sex...in-the-country/

It seems to support my point of view but
it does not provide any scientific reason but rather provide views from domain expert.

If it interests someone, what do think after reading the article? and the people who have been to japan do you agree? It is preety interesting that population can decrease in a country.

Do you think it is because
1. Lack of support from goverment so that it is difficult to raise a family.(actually in which country it is easy, i am not sure)
2.or , cultural phenomenon like addiction to virtual life in the male population?
or both.

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Watch everything but only take the good things from it

Ask, think and learn. Because the more we know the more we grow.

Watching the wrong to happen is the same as commiting the wrong.

If it looks like things are forcing you to be creative, Then be creative.

its a uniquely Miyazaki film, one only he could make and its uniqueness places it beyond being easily critiqued.[About Porco Rosso]
taken from a quote of Saddletank and Orphic Okapi

^ I'll take a look at that and get back to you tomorrow, Saviour.

Though I just noticed it's from Unilad. Not the best source in the world...


@FFF
That reminds me, I have you to thank for introducing me to my great love, Kamijo, all those years ago. I'm intending to go and see him (back with Versailles, at last!!) for the fourth time in February. ♥ I still remember watching the PV of The Revenant Choir for the first time...

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You're welcome, Kaz. <3 That's so exciting. Wait, are Versailles back together now?

I'm hoping before I move to Japan that ONE OK ROCK will come back to Canada so I can buy VIP tickets this time. lol I wanna meet them and turn into goo. I keep saying Taka is the most handsome but I think Toru might be.

How hard is it to purchase concert tickets in Japan? I dunno what sort of venues the bands I like now would perform at because some are really not well known while others are pretty popular but idk if they ever perform at the bigger venues. I really want to make a Japanese friend with the same taste in music as me to go to concerts with and luckily I know a few people who do, although what I like causes some of them to go, "wtf???? How do you know of that band??? Why do you know all the members by name?!"