If you have a good
and a good
you might want to serve the latter on the former. Scratch that, I know you want to.
I can’t wait to tell you all about it. But I will wait, because I am so jetlagged that I awoke from my nap convinced that we were having a major earthquake, but it was just my head sloshing.
A few things I miss about Japan already:
1. **Convenience store rice balls.** In fact, Japanese convenience stores in general. They sell panko, and all sorts of good savory snacks, and banana Kit Kats, and _onigiri,_ rice balls stuffed with a bit of something salty (tuna, cod roe, salmon, umeboshi).
2. **Izakayas.** Iris and I spent a lot of time in bars. I got sake and sashimi, and we shared crispy fried stuff. (I did not order the whale bacon on the menu last night, no matter how hard Iris tried to lobby me.) It’s possible people were annoyed that I was bringing my kid into the bar. Since it was Japan, however, they would have been too polite to say so. Heh heh.
3. **Trains.** Getting around in Japan is practically free of annoyances. In fact, our entire trip was like being in one of those restaurants where they know what you need a moment before you do.
4. **Futons.** Our beds seem so galumphing now.
5. **Restaurants that would never meet the fire code in the US.** Iris and I were delighted every time we were escorted up a rickety staircase to sit on the floor in our socks and eat something special.
and one thing I don’t:
1. **Smoking in restaurants.**
More soon!
How much do you enjoy planning for a vacation when compared to the actual vacation? If you’re typical, according to [a study reported in the New York Times](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/how-vacations-affect-your-happiness/), the anticipation is better than the actual trip:
> The study, published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, showed that the largest boost in happiness comes from the simple act of planning a vacation. In the study, the effect of vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks.
I’m going to go ahead and misinterpret these results for my own ends, because why not?
Iris and I have been planning our trip to Japan for _over three years._ Any time we don’t know what to talk about, we plan our trip. We’ve been working on it since Iris was two and it was just a crazy idea (“someday I want to take my kid to Japan”). Now we leave in about two weeks.
What’s going to happen in Tokyo? Who knows? Maybe it’ll be a disaster and we’ll spend the whole time overtired and grumpy:
> And for some travelers, the holiday itself was stressful. “In comments from people, the thing they mentioned most referred to disagreements with a travel partner or being ill,†Mr. Nawijn said.
I hope not. But it doesn’t matter. When this trip is over, we get to start planning the next one. I’m looking forward to that as much as the shinkansen and sukiyaki.
Iris and I do a Mad Libs desk calendar every morning. This morning’s installment was especially food-related:
> VACATION WANT ADS
> Do you need a house sitter? While you are frying around the country, who is looking after your furry house? Burglars could steal your biscuits. Who will feed your pet lion? We will unwittingly take care of everything. Call Bacon Sitters Unlimited.
We can’t stop saying “burglars could steal your biscuits.” And now you can’t either.
If you’re not interested in audio, I promise not to flog my new project too often. But wow, the response to [Spilled Milk](http://www.spilledmilkpodcast.com/) has been insane. Either I am as great as I think I am, or I teamed up with the world’s most popular food blogger. In any case, check this out:
Those are the absolutely unretouched rankings of food podcasts on iTunes, as of 8am on January 23, 2010.
We released episode two yesterday, our celebration of winter squash and how to bust it open, and you can get it right now, for free, on the [Spilled Milk site](http://www.spilledmilkpodcast.com/2010/01/21/episode-2-winter-squash/) or [on iTunes](http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=349527672).
We’ll be working hard throughout 2010 to bring you more shows, better audio, and dumber jokes. Thanks for listening.