going to be trying something new second semester.

you don't have to come back here.

and journals are discontinued as well.

updates to come in class.

La befana

The Christmas season is beginning here in Italia. One of their customs is kind of strange to me.

La Befana is one of Italy's oldest and most celebrated legends. Each year on January 6 the children of Italy awaken in hopes that La Befana has made a visit to their house. This is a significant day to Italians because it marks the end of the Christmas season and the day that the three Wise Men arrived at the manger of the Christ child. Over the years the Epiphany has been a more celebrated holiday for the children of Italy than even Christmas.

As legend has it the three Wise Men were in search of the Christ child when they decided to stop at a small house to ask for directions. Upon knocking, an old woman holding a broom opened the door slightly to see who was there. Standing at her doorstep were three colorfully dressed men who were in need of directions to find the Christ child. The old woman was unaware of who these three men were looking for and could not point them in the right direction. Prior to the three men leaving they kindly asked the old woman to join them on their journey. She declined because she had much housework to do. After they left she felt as though she had made a mistake and decided to go and catch up with the kind men. After many hours of searching she could not find them. Thinking of the opportunity she had missed the old woman stopped every child to give them a small treat in hopes that one was the Christ child. Each year on the eve of the Epiphany she sets out looking for the baby Jesus. She stops at each child's house to leave those who were good treats in their stockings and those who were bad a lump of coal.
Make sure to keep those stockings hung by the chimney in hopes that La Befana will soon be there. Buona Festa!

What kind of traditions do you have for Christmas?

Working for food and fruit

Food. Italy. The two are inseparable. It's gastronomia brought to the level of art. What makes Italy so special is the attenzione it gives to the everyday elements of successful living; therefore, it's natural that food plays an important ruolo in the Italian lifestyle. Italians know that fine cuisine is a precursor to living la dolce vita.

An increasingly popular way for families to vacation abroad and a new form of turismo in general is called agriturismo. Guests stay in the countryside on working farms or vineyards, which are usually equipped with all the amenities while maintaining a rustic, natural feel. It's a great way to experience Italy as it has existed for centuries, close to the land, but near enough to the sites that you can have the best of both worlds. But would you stay here?

Something else to keep in mind, when you are at the market to buy food:

In Italy, you should never pick out your own fruits or vegetables unless you're told that it's okay to do so. The commessa will carefully choose the best, ripest, most succulent produce you could want.

Want a treat, try this:

In Rome, a favorite summertime treat is il cocomero (watermelon), which can be bought at brightly lit bancarelle (stands). It's as red as a pepper, so sweet your teeth will hurt, and as wet as a waterfall (get extra napkins). Somehow, the Italians manage to eat the thickly sliced pieces with a plastic spoon (good luck!).

Another piece of fruit advice: Italians rarely bite into an apple. They peel it with a knife in one long curl and then slice it into bite-sized chunks, which they then share with everyone at the table!

What do you think of all that? Do we have any weird eating customs that you can think of?

Teen fashion in Italia

You don't have to wear Dolce e Gabbana to be in fashion in Italia, but it may help!!

Ok. You sloppy American teens, pay attention. Here is the low down on teen fashion in Italia. Be ready and leave those darn pjs and hoodies at home. It is time to DRESS yourself well.

Sloppy is definitely fuori stagione...actually it was never di moda in Italia. Italians dress well; that means nicely. Teens are no exception.

Girls would wear nice jeans, tops, skirts and dresses.

Girls love to wear skirts and cute shoes.

Clothes are fitted, not sloppy or baggy. Fitted is clean cut and classy. They are always very well put together and at least one year ahead of everyone else with their fashion trends.

If you show up wearing a spaghetti strp belly baring tank... you will be flagged as an American right away.

Boys wear nice jeans, khakis, and what you guys would consider dress tops. But to them are just fashionable. Polo shirts are a standard for males in Italia. You will rarely see a boy in shorts. They just aren't di moda.

So guys forget about packing all those crappy Ts with the funny slogans. They aren't cool in Italia. Dress for success!! Pull out your best and pack them to bring along.

This is a fashion magazine from Italia. What magazines do you look at for inspiration for your fashion style??

Un caffè y l'aperitivo

While I am here in Rome I wanted to stay somewhere nice and kind of funky. Not old and traditional. I had to call a month and a half ahead of time to reserve this room in the Beehive.

It is run by an American couple very into "green" living. They have recycling bins everywhere, organic food in their café, handmade soaps in the bathroom, and no air conditioning (which is fine since I am here in the fall). There is a yoga studio too. There are only two double bedrooms (I got one) and one big bedroom that sleeps 8. Not into sharing, although, we do have to share the showers, we have our own toilets and sinks.

In the café, I wanted some real Italian coffee. So here is how you order coffee in Italy: BE PRECISE! For expresso, ask for un caffè. Want a drop of milk, un caffè macchiato. A long black coffee is un caffè lungo o un caffè all'american. In the summer order iced coffee like un caffè freddo, un cappuccino freddo (iced coffee with milk), or una granite di caffè (frozen coffee, usually with cream).

Which would you choose?

I chose the caffè macchiato.

Then I went to Freni e Frizioni for aperitivo.

Aperitivo is a tradition from Milan that has spread around Italy of eating an array of hot and cold snacks. Bars, restaurants and some cafes offer them from 6pm - 9pm.

Here is what I got...

What would you eat for a snack??

Next up a trip on foot around Rome for some gorgeous pictures.

And the famous Collosseum built by the Romans back in the day for gladiatorial fights.

Here is what the inside looks like today. You can take tours all around the existing parts. It is pretty cool!

And finally... the best part... The Mouth of Truth. This is the famous stone from the movie Roman Holiday with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn.

Legend has it that if you tell it a lie and then stick your hand in its mouth, it will devour your hand.

And of course, everyone has to try!

Next stop, Milan fashion capital of Italy!!! Can't wait. My pocketbook is going to hate me!!

Italy

So I flew out of Tokyo to Rome, the capital of Italy to start my Italian adventures. The flight left at 10:45 am and I got here at 7:10am the next morning. Man, I don't think that I will ever do that again!!

Here is some info about Italy:

much of it is covered by mountains. The Dolomite Mountains in the north are part of the Alps and the Apennine Mountains divide the country in half, separating the west from the East.

Italy is a peninsula. It is a boot shape that juts out into the Mediterranean Sea. So there is a lot of coast line and beautiful coastal cities.

Many cities are built on the sides of mountains and cliffs.

Some of the major cities in Italy are Rome, Milan, Naples, Genoa, Siena, and Venice.

Italy has two major islands: Sicily, which is full of volcanoes and has lots of earthquakes, and Sardinia, which is basically mountains jutting up from the sea.

Venice is a large tourist attraction in itself. It is divided by canals and is slowing sinking into the sea.

Tuscany is another big tourist area.

Italy also contains 2 independent countries in its borders: Vatican City, home to the Roman Catholic Church, and San Marino, in the northeast of Italy.

So check out this map. Where should I go first? Or what should I check out first?

harajuku

Harajuku Fashion is a sub set of Tokyo Fashion

Takeshita-dori - Harajuku Fashion
A narrow street packed with young fashionable people and lined with fashion boutiques and cafes. This is definitely the place to be seen if you are young Tokyoite, but well worth visiting as a tourist. Takeshita-dori represents the cutting edge of fashion in Tokyo where you can see all the latest in Japanese street fashion and then buy in the boutiques. Takeshita-dori is opposite the exit to Harajuku station. You can see over 40 photographs of Takeshita-dori in our picture gallery.

Harajuku Fashion - Youth Culture
If it's Harajuku's youth culture you want to see, don't even bother unless it's the weekend and preferably a Sunday. The bridge across the train tracks from Harajuku station to Yoyogi Park is full of Gothic Lolita or GothLoli. The costumes are very outstanding and you can't miss them. It is funny to see the surprise of the western tourists heading to Yoyogi Park and Meiji Jingu who clearly had not read their guide books fully on Harajuku. You can hear their comments that make it very clear they just don't understand what is going on. Essentially the youth who have dressed up are just hanging out with friends, many of them come with the hope of being snapped by one of the many magazine photographers who mingle in the crowd. Failing that there are lots of western tourist happy to take their pictures. See nearly 50 exclusive pictures of GothLoli in Harajuku.

Harajuku Fashion Omote-sando
The broad, tree-lined avenue leading downhill from the southern end of the JR Harajuku station is Omote-sandō (表参道). This is the other side to Harajuku fashion and its challenge to Shibuya and Ginza. Not only is the street full of cafes and clothing boutiques, but now features the very up market Omote-sando Hills. This very stylish centre is full of the who's who of the world fashion brands.

Harajuku Girls - Harajuku fashion is a hot Tokyo fashion style of Harajuku girls with many pictures and shopping guide.
Harajuku Girls is a term to describe women and teenaged girls in Harajuku (Tokyo Japan) who wear a style of clothing that originated in the street culture of major cities in Japan, i.e. Tokyo and Osaka. The "Harajuku style," named for the Harajuku district of Tokyo, combines a wide range of diverse influences, and is also known as "Fruits Fashion" by followers of Fruits Magazine. The terms "Harajuku Girls" and "Fruits" are not used by the Japanese to describe themselves.The term has come into popular use via Gwen Stefani's music videos and songs from her Love.Angel.Music.Baby album.

There are many fashion styles, and many different groups who spend time in this area. You may see people dressed in the following styles: Gothic Lolita, Decora, Kogal, Ganguro, Wamono, Second-Hand Fashion, Cyber Fashion.

Decora comes from the word "Decoration" and is a colorful style, usually with layered bright clothing and an emphasis on "cute" and brightly colored accessories.

Wamono is a style that mixes traditional Japanese clothing with western clothing styles. (See the brand name Takuya Angel for an example). Visual Kei or Anime Cosplayers also gather in Harajuku. However, these are not fashion movements.

so would you dress this way? what is the craziest or most daring outfit that you have ever worn?

replica food

How's this sound? An ice cream parfait in a tall, frosty glass with fat scoops of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla topped by milky clouds of whipped cream and a single, shiny, red cherry.
The cost is steep -- about 5,000 yen -- but the calories are no problem at all. For there are none. The parfait, in all its creamy majesty, has a calorie count of precisely zero. That's because this parfait is not meant to be eaten, except with the eyes. It's a yummy example of another unique Japanese innovation -- replica food.

From sleek Chinese noodles glistening in pork broth, to pepperoni pizza dripping with extra cheese, to charbroiled steak straight from the grill, to freshly-sliced sashimi atop slender fingertips of white rice and on and on -- if a restaurant in Japan serves the real McCoy, odds are that a plastic replica of it is sitting outside in its showcase. The food replicas serve several purposes. They attract customers, advertise menus and whet appetites. A common sight at any Japanese row of restaurants is hungry customers drifting from one window to the next, trying to decide which display looks tastiest.

All the replicas are handcrafted to perfection. They are not mere rubbery copies of grapes or bananas, as one might find in the West, but rather stunning imitations of cookery at its finest. More than one customer has noted that the plastic model in the window can sometimes look more sumptuous than what arrives on the plate.

The concept is certainly tied to Japanese dining aesthetics, where items are arranged on the plate with beauty in mind. Yet, oddly enough, the custom of replica food was born from contact with the West.

In the Meiji era at the end of the 19th century, Japanese restaurant-goers were frequently confounded by the strange new Western cuisines flooding into the country. Even with Japanese translations of menu items, most guests had no idea what they were ordering. To help, many restaurants took the expensive and space-consuming means of preparing samples for their customers to peruse. To cut costs, some restaurants provided elaborate drawings or photos. But these one-dimensional presentations did not pique many appetites. The Meiji era slowly gave way to Taisho and then to Showa with little change.

Enter an entrepreneur from Gifu. Takizo Iwasaki was a young man bent on making an impact in the business world. By 1926 -- the first year of Showa -- Iwasaki had yet to find his niche. So he left Gifu for Osaka in search of his fortune.

Life was hard for Iwasaki in Osaka as well until one day -- perhaps while eating a rice omelet in a crowded lunch shop -- something clicked in his imagination. He remembered the wax models of the human body on display at most Japanese apothecaries and the wax fruit and vegetables used in school nutrition classes and thought: "Why not!"

Iwasaki hurried back to his cramped apartment and -- after days of trial and error -- finally perfected a wax model of a rice omelet. Other models followed. Then he loaded them on his bicycle to see if any shops would buy his replica food. To his joy, they all did.

Even among imitators, success leads to imitation, and Iwasaki soon had competitors across Japan. Yet the company he founded in his Osaka apartment -- Iwasaki Be-I -- remains the largest purveyor of replica food to this day.

Wax eventually gave way to high quality plastic. The replicating process goes like this:
A restaurant wishing to have a model of one of its dishes first prepares that dish for the replica food company, which takes photographs and makes sketches of each item's placement on the plate. The sketches are then whisked to the factory where the actual food is dipped in silicon. When the silicon dries, the food is popped free, leaving exact-size molds for hamburger patties, deep-fried prawns, spring rolls or whatever the dish requires.

Replica artists then prepare sauces and garnishes flawlessly matched with the photographs. The factory wall is lined with drawers and sacks containing plastic copies of any food conceivable: fake carrots, onions, eggplant, cabbage, shrimp, bacon, squid, rice, noodles of all varieties and much, much more.

To make a meat sauce, for example, the replica artist will first stir up a synthetic tomato-like paste to match the colors in the photograph. Next he or she will dice up phony carrots and onions, exactly like a real chef. A handful of artificial ground beef is mixed with the paste to give it authenticity, and the final production is topped with a sprinkle of winter green peas -- bogus ones, of course.

Just like real chefs, replica artists spend a lot of time mastering their craft. Full training can take as long as two years.

And the time needed to make the meat sauce, including ladling it onto a heap of synthetic spaghetti, microwaved to give it that "just boiled" look? No more than 15 minutes. And in the end, the real thing and the ersatz model may be indistinguishable.

The heart of the replica food world is the wholesale shopping district of Kappabashi in northeast Tokyo. Here various stores peddle nothing but imitation goodies for restaurants across the land and around the world. Tourists are welcome too, and many come to take home copies of their favorite Japanese delicacies.

Looking for a brimming bowl of tempura udon? In Kappabashi it can be yours for 4,000 yen. Or how about a massive strawberry frappe, just like the one you enjoyed at the beach in Kamakura? There it is, for just 5,000 yen. And the cost for that perfect food souvenir -- a full tray of counterfeit sushi? Over 20,000 yen -- a lot more than the genuine article perhaps, but not nearly as perishable. Would you buy fake food for a souvenier??? Curious.

Replica food can last for years if kept out of the damaging rays of sunlight which bleach the coloring. For this reason most restaurants renew the displays in their windows every few months.

Amazing. Tantalizing? Possibly. If you could replicate the best of the best of Anerican cuisine, what would you choose and why?