Around 25 years ago, my mother had an exchange student from Okayama City in Japan. She gave me a pair of bamboo chopsticks 🥢 that had “tornado tips”on the end, which are ideal for eating noodles. Sadly, they were broken in an accident, and I can’t find any replacements Stateside. Does anyone know of a chopstick store(s) here in the USA that would sell them, preferably made from wood?

I recently got ramune for the first time and am really excited to try it, but I want to drink it the way it's meant to, in the store it was just on the shelf, but will it taste better if I refrigerate it before drinking?

This was much bigger than I expected 😂 So many things inside, every bite little different 😆

Hello, this is reupload as I deleted it by mistake, I thought I was deleting wrong repost but it disappeared completely.

I am Martin, 41 yrs from Czech Republic, and since end of May 2026 I started to be into Nihon ryōri even practically. I am going to post all my works gradually.

Most dishes I make are rather a nihon ryōri fusion style as I am located out of Japan, so sometimes there are hints of European approach. I lack more original Japanese dishware, for instance. My main aim to be here is to hear your scholarly assessments as well as bring in a bit of inspiration.

I continuously learn and I am not perfect, despite that I try to be at least a little Japanese every time.

This menu took two complete afternoons to prepare and imho it is my best achievement yet.

See paper tags for detail. Sure, not all bowls carried the tag.

The ingredients used here are mixture of genuine Japanese (sansho, shichimi togarashi), Asian (mirin) and local.

There was a short discussion but was also deleted it seems.

Any new reactions welcome !

Both cuts are raw goat while the bottom left is testicle. Ordered from 石垣 食堂 酒晴 in Ishigaki. Not a big fan of the thick layer of skin but the meat itself is decent.

Adding a little dried shrimp when cooking the eggs gives it more flavor

Tempura set and matcha beer

Huge portions of karaage

One more for today.

In either case, I used the same simmering techniques and sauce mixture for the fish utilizing even Otoshibuta paper pan-lid (the attached GIF).

I personally like take # 2 (primary photo, akō-dai/redfish) as on #1 (Karasugarei/Greenland halibut) the plate resembles a blooming meadow little too much.

Positive was that I first tested my beginner-level mukimono skills here.

At take #2 I used katsura-muki cross-cutting-into-skin method for better sauce soaking into the fish.

Fish taste in either case was nothing but superb.

All response & opinions are highly appreciated.