by Rebecca Copeland | Apr 26, 2023 | Japanese Culture
Yesterday was a day for curry rice. By “curry rice,” of course, I mean “karee raisu,” the delicious Japanese concoction made from curry bullion paste. The paste blends with the ingredients of your choice to create a thick aromatic stew at once sweet and savory. I’ve... 
by Rebecca Copeland | Aug 3, 2022 | Japanese Culture
I stood on the bridge feeling perplexed. Nothing was right. There should have been a small lane here next to a beauty salon. It was gone. Not just the beauty salon, but the lane, too. Perhaps I was on the wrong bridge. I looked up and down the river and saw bridges in... 
by Rebecca Copeland | Oct 21, 2020 | Japanese Culture
For part one of this story, see previous post, My first—and only—Omiai. And you thought omiai were just for fictional characters in Japanese novels! It was April 1977. I had a dance recital in the large auditorium of a fancy hotel across from Hakata Station. I had... 
by Rebecca Copeland | Oct 7, 2020 | Japanese Culture
In Tanizaki Jun’ichirō’s novel, Sasameyuki (serialized 1943-1948; translated The Makioka Sisters by Edward Seidensticker, 1957), the action centers around finding the third sister a suitable marriage partner. Matchmakers busily scour the field in search of... 
by Rebecca Copeland | Sep 23, 2020 | Japanese Culture
Mother bought me a kimono of my own for my birthday. When she understood my love of Japanese dance and my deep and growing interest in Japanese culture, she wanted me to have a kimono. She had one. Or at least she had, had one. When she lived in Japan in the 1950s a...
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