K-ON! PV Outfit figures

K-ON! has been one of those series that one gets obsessed about. For me I heard about the series in passing but never checked it out. It wasn't until i won the PV Yui figure from a UFO catcher, posted my winnings on twitter and then had people chime in how awesome the show…

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Rilakkuma 7th anniversary Bento

We recently had a chance to play a new demo of Mafia II–an open-world action game set against the backdrop of organized crime families vying for power in the 1950s. At the beginning of the demo, we saw Vito Scaletta–the game’s lead character–inside of his home just as he receives…

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Evangelion Movie figure UFO GETO!

The gameplay mechanics for Rising were made known initially at E3 2010, and are based around a concept known as “zan-datsu”, literally “cut and take.” Matsumaya and Kimura explained in Konami’s press conference that the “take” part revolves around Raiden literally taking power from enemies, a concept shown in the…

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THIS BLOG HAS MOVED!

Posted by Greg Narvasa On Sunday, February 2, 2014 0 comments

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Posted by Greg Narvasa at 2:56 AM 0 comments

FOOD: strawberry overload

Posted by Greg Narvasa On Wednesday, January 29, 2014 0 comments


This time if the year in Japan everything is all about strawberries (苺／いちご). As seen in this photo you have kit kats, cake, corn puffs and chocolates galore are all enhanced with strawberry flavoring. It's kind if nice that it's only seasonal, as after a while you get sick of them, suddenly a year later they pop up again and you have the craving for all things strawberry. 

I'm not sure if there is the same strawberry like season in America, I'm from Miami so it's like a foreign fruit that we can only get in the supermarket.


Posted by Greg Narvasa at 5:55 PM 0 comments
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ENGRISH: fried salad

Posted by Greg Narvasa On 0 comments


I didn't know that fried salad was a thing! But in Japan how can one be shocked anymore, right? Before coming to Japan I though healthy food was prevalent across Japan, as it hold the crown of highest life expectancy. But that does not had true to the generation after. The generation in their 50-60s have a much higher rate of high cholesterol, high blood pressure and have more westernized oversized diets. 

Now many would like to call me out as this being untrue, but approx 32% of men are overweight, which is several points higher than just a few years prior. On the opposite about 1 in 4 women are considered too under weight. But due to bad starvation eating habits.

Getting back to the fried salad, of course this is misuse of English here in Japan, as they wanted to say they have many fried items and separate salads available. A simple mistake that could have avoided if they just asked a native English speaker before throwing the text up on the wall.

But if it had not been done, this post would not have been made... Cuts both ways...

Posted by Greg Narvasa at 3:06 PM 0 comments
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Peanut butter?! How dare you!!

Posted by Greg Narvasa On 0 comments

I didn't have a chance to capture the reaction shot, but this tv cooking personality was preparing a dish using peanut butter! Shocking right?! No?? 

Well in Japan peanut butter only recently (3years ago?) became available IN supermarkets. Prior to this you had to buy very overpriced peanut butter at import shops. For me a foreigner who has been living in Japan for over 5 years now I think it's surprising he used this as ingredient. 

For most Japanese, they are used to eating "peanut cream". I feel thus invention of "cream substance" and "peanut flavor" is a terrible thing for ones pallet. But anyways this is about peanut butter in cooking on Japanese tv. 

After when the 'talento' got their dish to try, they were all quite surprised how good food could taste with peanut butter in it. But I can never see Japanese taking peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to work as an alternative to a bento anytime soon.

Posted by Greg Narvasa at 2:01 PM 0 comments
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Cheap meat

Posted by Greg Narvasa On 0 comments

In this photo I was trying not to be so obvious I was taking a photo, thus the poor quality. The awning above is of the meat shop called Jump. In the first hour or so they have huge sales on the meat. I'd assume it's on the meat that had been cut the day before. If one has studied Japanese culture, one would know freshness is very important in Japan.

The average Japanese person buys food from a supermarket or convenience store virtually everyday, I included. The meat on sale here is super fresh, compared to America where it can be sitting there for days before it's put on sale.

So for this shop, almost every morning there is a line of 20-30 people waiting to get cheap meat.

Would you line up at 10am just to buy meat? Please leave comments below.

Posted by Greg Narvasa at 1:56 PM 0 comments
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Not so wintery

Posted by Greg Narvasa On 0 comments

Tokyo winters are not as cold per se as North America but Tokyo is a very draw winter every year. I've had Canadian friends who say it feels colder in Tokyo! The coldness likes to bury itself in your bones, that is how the cold is here. 


But as of the last week it's been oddly warm, more like spring weather, that of April during the day time. As for snow we haven't had any that stuck, just some wet flurries as pictured in this photo. And this was about 30 minutes at 3am in west tokyo.

I love winter fashion but I'll be happy again once the warm sun returns. And of course I'll be complaining when the summer heat creeps on in!

Posted by Greg Narvasa at 1:39 PM 0 comments
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