Marxy, when will you learn that Real Gold expresses the inner samurai spirit of Natsume Soseki in a way that no Jewish New York food can? You can practice criticizing Japan all you want, but until you learn to praise mayo-tuna pizza and denigrate America's culture of eating Mac & Cheese while watching Judge Judy, you'll never be able to admit that this entry was inspired by your Japanese girlfriend's inate postmodernism.

…damn, now, I kinda got a hankering for some New York food…

Oy vei, what a kvetch!

But there are some serious issues for observant Jews in Japan. For instance, Coca Cola drinks. Now, I mentioned before that Coke made concessions to the Japanese market by selling sugar-free green tea in Japan. They made similar concessions to Jews in the US by changing some of their secret ingredients in order to win the drink a hechsher (rabbinic certification) from Rabbi Tobias Geffen. One of Coke's ingredients used to be glycerin made from nonkosher beef tallow, but Coca Cola replaced it with a vegetable product. And so from 1935 on Coke, in the US, was kosher.

But one problem still remained, according to Shalom Atlanta: passover certification. Coke was sweetened by corn syrup, a substance considered hametz. The company agreed to substitute beet and cane sugar during the manufacture a few weeks before the passover holiday. Coke, concludes Shalom Atlanta, is “The Real Jewish Thing.” I'm sure that goes for their green tea too.

Momus: stop it! This has nothing to do with Japan, you're just showing-off some cute anecdote you stumbled across on the internet!

Momus seems to have a rather unhealthy fascination with Jewish things. I remember at a party in Tokyo he refer to Marxy as an "irritating kike". It was said in a light-hearted manner, but still ...

I did not, you rude troll!

I recall him at the same party railing against what he termed "the chosen" and "judeo-christians" interfering in Japanese life. I expect this is at the root of his occasional tirades against Marxy.

Ah, I remember that party now, Terry, you were swinging from the chandeliers wearing nothing but ear-rings and a small swastika cock ring, gibbering like a baboon and playing "Those Were The Days" on a small mandolin.

Well you were quite drunk, so you may remember it like that. I'm sure no harm was meant by your comments though.

Are you still beating your wife, by the way?

I think wife-beating is more common among people who desire "third-world wives"...

By the way, I've just noticed Momus' bizarre rant about Jerry Seinfeld and Laywers in the "Everything is bad for you" comments. Some things never change I guess.

If you really find yourself wanting matso ball soup, I assume a good place to start would be Friday night dinner at the Tokyo JCC: http://www.jccjapan.or.jp/. Watch out for proselytizing Hasids, though.

Jeeez, today's discussion makes me feel like I'm in the wrong place. It really makes me feel like the blue collar, born peasant, aspiring to be white collar, frustrated social climber that I am.

Keep fighting the power, Tomek.

ewwww...i just read the exchange above, and now i just wanna take a shower.
propers (hi brad b.),
r.

Who is this Terry B? Have there ever been posts by him/her here before? This person is a troll who, I'm sure it's pretty clear, was making up the exchange s/he maliciously invented. I've never made disparaging remarks about Marxy at parties. (I made up the bit about seeing "Terry" swinging from the chandeliers, obviously.) While I do know what words like kvetsch and schlemiel mean, I don't come from a culture where people talk about kikes and would actually have to look the word up on the internet to know what it even means.

Yeah, I can lookup the IP of Terry for you. I didn't really think you were throwing around the K-word at Japanese soirees.

r: I hope you showered at least once since the the party the other night.

Momus: seriously, why would you of all people be concerned with a troll?

Wow, Chris, you're running with the ex-pat gang now! You go, Scooter! Make the pass, Big Boy!

I dont get it...