American Foods I miss 1) sharp cheddar cheese 2) cinnamon rolls 3) kimchi (in Japan it’s too sweet unless I make it myself) 4) chewy chocolate chip cookies 5) Mission burritos 6) New York pizza 7) Seattle teriyaki 8) Tim’s Cascade salt & vinegar potato chips 9) tree-ripe yellow peaches

Are you interested in the ethics and craft of food writing? Join me, cookbook author @dearclarissa.bsky.social, and novelist Bryan Washington for a writing retreat in Yamanaka Onsen this October. The application is pretty painless and we have a few scholarships available. Apply by May 15!

Last chance to apply

I cannot recite my phone number in Japanese unless I write it down. The recall happens it in English and when I try to remember the numbers and translate them at the same time I get lost.

Drivers blame peds. Peds blame drivers. Everyone hates cyclists. In reality, we should all hate politicians for not fixing the infrastructure.

This is NOT only for professional food writers. It’s for someone who wants to make a family recipe book or a zine. Someone who writes but doesn’t consider themselves a Writer. Someone writing about other stuff who wants to do more with food. Someone working on their first book proposal...

Are you interested in the ethics and craft of food writing? Join me, cookbook author @dearclarissa.bsky.social, and novelist Bryan Washington for a writing retreat in Yamanaka Onsen this October. The application is pretty painless and we have a few scholarships available. Apply by May 15!

It is some real bullshit that Microsoft Word makes you give up privacy in order to turn on autosave.

I wish more of this could happen in Japan too

every time I am tempted to make a snide comment back at another account, I remember I can literally do anything else instead and my dog cannot read at all

Someone on X asks what the writing on these beautiful Shinto toriii gates means. A Japanese user, unwilling to kill the magic and inform them these are the names of individual & corporate shrine donors, replies, "There are things best left unknown."

Although @smithsonianmag.bsky.social hasn’t made any posts yet, I’m delighted to share this article featuring the experiences of a photographer on our Cascade Red Fox team! She made some of the first and most detailed recorded observations at 🦊 den sites www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

It seems like Netflix is using crappy AI translation for the subtitles on FAKE MARRIAGE. メール gets translated as e-mail when they are clearly talking about texting. And 二日酔い (futsukayoi) as ”drunk fir two days” instead of hungover.

I definitely recommend buying a “cheap” old house in Japanese if you like feeling the outside temperature inside, you would like to wage a lifelong battle against mold, and you are totally cool with parts of the abandoned house next door flying through your window in a wind storm. #cheaphousesjapan

The horse op-ed is an instant classic. I can't tell you how much joy this piece gives me. It should be taught in every introductory writing class in no small part because the horse arguments are so compelling. "I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children."

The Japanese translation of WATER, WOOD & WILD THINGS is out now, with my illustrations on the cover 🥹🌸🌱 www.kodansha.co.jp/book/product...

#ハナの山里の暮らし　#booksonjapan #yamanakaonsen #山中温泉

The Japanese translation of WATER, WOOD & WILD THINGS is out now, with my illustrations on the cover 🥹🌸🌱 www.kodansha.co.jp/book/product...

Beautiful essay from @samhenri.gold about the joy of hacking, disguised as a review of the MacBook Neo. samhenri.gold/blog/2026031...

Another tough day for team “there’s no point in complaining about AI, just accept it.”

I'm suing Grammarly over its paid AI feature that presented editing suggestions as if they came from me - and many other writers and journalists - without consent. State law requires consent before someone's name can be used for commercial purposes. www.wired.com/story/gramma...

Before universities opened their doors to women, one woman spent 7 years making a quilt of the Solar System to teach other women astronomy: www.themarginalian.org/2018/12/06/e...

Most people also won’t finish your 500-word article. So write at whatever length is appropriate for the subject.

Both are very human/humane investigations of new technology, one as nonfiction, the other as fiction.

it costs $$ to be considered for awards

My friend @alekskrotoski.bsky.social’s new book ”The Imortalists“ is out now in the US and UK, and it pairs well with “Toward Eternity,” by @antonhur.com

I really want to see how people are using their #hobonichi and other planners for actual planning. the aesthetic journals are lovely, but I’m more interested in the planner as a tool.

If you haven't alread, pull your stuff from Academia edu IMMEDIATELY, especially if you have unpublished and draft ideas on there.

What are your favorite podcasts where artists/writers talk about their process? I’m tired of the ones that are like 90% white men, and some of my old faves no longer exist.

I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland. And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.

some of you are looksmaxxing when you need to be booksmaxxing

What are your favorite podcasts where artists/writers talk about their process? I’m tired of the ones that are like 90% white men, and some of my old faves no longer exist.

Are you hoping to travel to a library for your research? NCC’s Outreach Working Group lists some of the grants that are available to take advantage of library resources! Take a look at the OWG’s page here: guides.nccjapan.org/outreach/gra...

There isn't a sigh hard enough for these dumbass headlines. Warriors were a SOCIAL GROUP, and later a legal classification. Gender was not relevant to whether one was part of a warrior group/family/etc. You might as well write: THIS JUST IN: WOMEN EXISTED! www.the-independent.com/asia/japan/b...

If you wait for a better world to make art, you'll wait a long time.

And could it be not ugly?

If you have ever struggled to get digital copies of research material from the NDL while NOT in Japan, this is the survey you want to participate in! ⬇️

I came across this post while looking for alternate language to use when talking about "invasive species." If you have any other suggestions or sources to share, I'd love to hear them!

She loves sunshine and soft things.

Delivery workers are less likely to run red lights, ride on sidewalks and ride without helmets than their recreational counterparts — defying claims that they sow street chaos, according to a new observational study of more than 1,700 cyclists.

I love when my translators have questions. The splendid Mikael Cabon in France needs to know if a river in Written on the Dark flows into the sea or into another river: his word choice will be different. When translators are careful it is a gift to an author AND a reminder to protect them from AI.

🫘👋DRIVING OUT DEMONS👹💨 It is time to gather your lucky beans, 'fukumame' (福豆), for Setsubun and the first day of lunar spring is almost here! Let's drive away misfortune for another year! 🫘👹🚪➡️ "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" 🍀➡️🚪😊 "Devils out! Fortune in!" (鬼は外! 福は内!)

Beans. Once you try Rancho Gordo it’s like you’ve been eating beans in black and white up to that point, but now you know what they’re like in technicolor. Plus, the Rancho Gordo people seem like good folks.

Really hoping for one of these moments soon

Imagine being the equivalent of 90 years old, and clearly seeing your reflection for the first time. Tory is mesmerized. Chickens, it turns out, can recognize themselves in a mirror.

Recently, Tory (our elderly house chicken) has decided that the bed is an ideal place to lay her eggs. She spends the entire morning arranging her nest, which lately includes a lavender-scented stuffed animal.

New year, new you, new writing, new etc. Just trying to make it easier for you...

In 2026 I want all of the decent people to remember one thing. You aren’t meant to be this disciplined, this self-sacrificing to survive. The environment is supposed to support good living. We can have that. You are not a failure. That is politics. That is all.

She put the stuffed animal there herself

If you’d like to watch something sweet and quirky about finding/making family and home in all sorts of surprising forms: “Chosen Home“ on Netflix