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I’m fascinated by Japanese food, but from a position of profound ignorance. I’ve never been there and I’ve never having eaten anything I could definitely say was “genuine,” aside from a wasabi chocolate cake baked by a Japanese friend. So the opportunity to talk to a Westerner living in Japan was one I leaped at. Jason Irwin is a Canadian who has been helping people in Japan learn English for the past seven years. He’s not in a big city, and he is part of a Japanese family, so he probably has a better understanding than many. He’s also leaving Japan soon. Time, obviously, to talk.
As I mention in the podcast outro, I still find it rather remarkable that I can be online friends with a Canadian living in Japan and record us having a conversation. The recording bit is nothing special these days, I suppose, but the online friendship is the result of this thing called app dot net, aka ADN. It’s a special kind of social platform, one where the people who use it are the customers, as opposed to the others, where users are just a bulk commodity to be sold to the highest bidder. ADN celebrated its second birthday two days ago, and I’ve been there two years today. I’ve I get a lot out of ADN, not least my conversations with Jason, although I have never done anything to evangelize about it. Consider this a plug.
Notes
- Cover photo is Ise-ebi: Crawfish or Spiny Lobster and Ebi: shrimp by Utagawa Hiroshige.
- Jason’s website is well worth a read.
- Aside from everything else that people say it could be, I find ADN to be just a very fine micro-blogging platform. You might too.
- Banner photograph modified from an original by Linh Nguyen.
On food, I thought I would single out two posts about some of the Canadian foods he missed in Japan: Food I miss the most and I am not a chef … but you’ll have to ask him yourself for the details of how to prepare ham cooked in Canada Dry Ginger ale.
Really enjoyed the interview. As a Korea born food blogger, writer and living in South Bucks for a long time. Even I lived longer oust side of Korea than in Korea, I still miss my childhood family food so much.
This is the very reason, I try to make in UK and an accidental blogger.
I understand how he will miss Japanese food when he move to Canada.
Thank you.
Kie-Jo Sarsfield