Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Today is the first day of the Year of the Monkey, according to the Chinese lunar calendar. Not that the Japanese really keep track of the lunar calendar.

There is a sizable Chinatown in Yokohama, though, and of course they had some lion dances and fireworks and whatnot there today. We'd sorta planned to make a trip down, but had to abort because it was getting pretty late by the time we'd got the aforementioned scanner-printer back home.

Oh well. I want to make a trip out there soon, anyway. Maybe next week. I'm really craving some authentic cha shu. It's remarkably hard to find decent cha shu out here. Oh, they've got stuff they call cha shu, but it's some kind of cruel joke, some bizarre simulacrum. It's full of fat--basically just fatty pork. And it's not even red, ferchrissakes, not even a little! But they've got the real deal in the Yokohama Chinatown--I know, because I've seen it on TV. Yeah, we're definitely making a trip out there next week, dammit, and I'm coming back with half a pig, chopped into strips of neon red.