No Soy Sauce For You!

Olympic training includes more than fitness. Athletes need stamina. Focus. Specialized diets. And, apparently, foreign food survival and utensil adaptation lessons.

Every Wednesday, a special menu based on the food that will be available at the Olympic Village in Beijing, is served at Japan’s National Training Center. A sign at the NTC declares the food is offered so athletes can get used to unfamiliar tastes.

Miso soup and soy sauce is not available on Wednesdays. Athletes can instead enjoy spring rolls and dumplings. Japanese rice is not offered, replaced by rice from India and Thailand. Plastic knives and forks substituted for chopsticks. The Olympic menus will be offered every Wednesday until the end of July.

Name that Plan

This special Olympic menu training needs a name. May we suggest:
Good Eating Rules Instruction (GERI)
Japanese Inedible Nutrients Information (JINI)

Suggest a name!

photos: NTC; JOC; NTC table; NTC table Sponichi; Athlete eats

Of course I want the Japanese rice. It is difficult to buy where I am living now for my work in America. I miss unagi eels. No restoran makes here! Maybe I can buy at sometimes at import shop. So you can send me tare! Taka, in Arkansas USA.

The price of unleaded gasoline sold on US military installations in Japan has gone up to USD 4.004 per gallon. A price of $3.47 per gallon for unleaded is available only at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni. That price has been unchanged since December.

The average US mainland price June 28 was 4.59 per gallon. The June 28 Japan nationwide average price for one gallon of regular was USD 6.20 per gallon (sold at JPY163.88 per liter). convert$

The price is expected to rise to JPY180 by mid-July.

At least one Japanese oil company has surplus gasoline that could be exported to the US. Reuters reports Nippon Oil Corp President Shinji Nishio said Japan’s oil demand will decline 2 percent per year through 2010. But as the Asian market is set to grow 4-5 percent a year, Japan can export domestic surplus overseas. He said Nippon Oil had considered shipping gasoline to the United States to meet peak summer demand, but it was difficult due to the variety of gasoline specifications that exist in the country.

In May 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy, Japan’s trade ministry and oil companies including Exxon Mobil Corp and Nippon Oil held a meeting in San Francisco to discuss gasoline exports to the US from Japan. According to the Reuters story, Japanese exports to the United States of distillates such as gas oil have been steadily increasing, but exports of gasoline are relatively uncommon. The meeting ended with no detailed arrangements of exports, but both countries agreed that the US would stand to gain as it has consistently suffered from a lack of refinery capacity and gasoline shortages, especially in the summer.

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Japan’s annual “Cool Biz” energy-saving campaign began June 1, 2008.

The fashion campaign was initiated in 2005 by former Japan environment minister Yuriko Koike. She argued that by getting men out of suits, office building air conditioning thermostats could be raised to 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit) and would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. story

Now, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda leads the way in no-tie short-sleeve work attire. Or does he?

The 71-year-old prime minister seems reluctant to give up that necktie. Asked how he will dress when the campaign starts this year, Fukuda, on May 27 said “I don’t want to look shabby. But there is no need to go against the trend.”

Cool Biz Photos (more…)

I miss the politeness of the Japanese people, their humility and general respect for one another. Also the safety, not having to worry about being streetwise and seeing people in cafes being able to leave their mobile
phones and wallets on tables without worrying about getting them stolen. My wife, being Japanese, misses speaking her own language. SM, Haslemere, Surrey, UK

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Bye Buy Butter

Thirty-five years ago, it was toilet paper. Now, consumers and bakeries are hunting butter as Japan is suffering a butter shortage.

Supermarkets are limiting butter to one per customer. At OK Mart, Hokkaido butter brand was available, up 100 yen from it’s previous price of 199 yen. Buyers were allowed only one package of the precious gold.

Manufacturers are apologizing as usual.

Bakeries and restaurants have been having butter troubles since late 2007.

Falling butter production in Japan is due to a variety of factors since 2006, including government efforts to maintain prices for local milk farmers, dairy closures, a decline in milk consumption, excessive import tariffs, and worldwide grain-feed price rises.

French bakery chefs are concerned: “We’ve had to come up with some new items that use less butter, like cookies. But you’re talking about flavor. How can you replace butter?” says a pastry chef at a bakery in Tokyo. la times

Butt Shortage Not First

Japan went into “oil shock” in 1973 when Arab members of OPEC set policies that would quadruple the price of oil. Reports predicted a shortage of goods, including (more…)