Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

On the streets of Katsuura, a small coastal town on the far side of Chiba prefecture is a scene that one will never see on the streets of Tokyo today. Two brightly lit stores with giant "Sale!" signs specialize in the latest repertoire of portable fireworks, for people to enjoy in their backyards. The stores are not meant to be discreet. Occupying the two prime spots across each other on one of the town's main shopping streets, their wares spill onto the streets on carefully laid out tables, standing out from the other, much more dimly light lit outlets of restaurants and banks.

It's rather odd for me to hear people question my Japanese-ness even implicitly in Japan. Granted, I am by no means Japanese by ethnicity or nationality, but speaking Japanese without much of a foreign accent while having the looks to fit straight into the mainstream, I am accustomed to people assuming that I am Japanese as long as they don't ask for my real name or a copy of my identity card.

Japan has not heretofore been known much for gin. While the country's whiskeys and beers are garnering global recognition for taste and quality in recent years, not all Western liquors are equally taken on by the general public. But as major distillery Suntory has started marketing its own domestically produced gin to a domestic audience, it could be a harbinger of not only Japanese but global, interest in a more wide-ranging alcoholic experience. Indeed, if the new opening of bars and pubs in Tokyo is anything to go by, previously little consumed liquors, from mezcal to pisco sour, are gradually becoming mainstream.