Grammar Books in Japanese

I am currently reading a book on Japanese grammar （24週日本語文法ツアー、益岡隆志筆） . It is a complement to a comprehensive grammar book by the same author in that he focuses on sample sentences rather than grammatical theory.

Despite many attempts this past winter break to obtain such a book in a retail bookstore, I was unsuccessful and relied on the seller of last resort -- Amazon Japan.

Now, I am relearning ideas about various verb tenses, rules on how to use particles, and other minor facets of the Japanese language, all illuminated by clear examples. I am sometimes unclear or unsure about certain particles, so in that sense I am glad I spent 2000 yen on this book.

It took much effort to finally obtain this book. There were myriad books in retail bookstores on correct usage of polite Japanese (keigo), but virtually nothing on other topics.

Sure, the most difficult part about Japanese is keigo, often referred to in English as honorific form. There are two sub-categories of keigo; one way shows respect for the person being addressed (sonkeigo) while the other is polite and places yourself below the party you are speaking to (kenjougo). Verb conjugations between the two forms sound nothing like each other. Iku (to go) becomes irassharu in its sonkeigo form and ukagau or mairu in its kenjougo form.

Most Japanese grammar books deal with correct usage of polite Japanese. Young Japanese employees are often scorned by their elders for improper use of keigo, and honorific Japanese misuse is more common than misplaced apostrophe's in the English language.

I have enough keigo books to last a lifetime, and was not interested in adding another to my collection this time. My questions about 'basic' Japanese grammar books, however, were countered with confused or scornful looks. I felt like a circus clown who had trouble communicating with his audience.

Not that Americans are any different. Our computer screens littered with typos and incorrect grammar usage, and there is little impetus for people to polish their mediocre English grammar. Amazon user reviews for most English grammar books are filled with errors ("The index is very thoroughly laid out. I had seen this book on my writing workshop.")

As a side note, I was less successful in finding books on effective ways to write. Strunk & White's Elements of Style is required reading for all American schoolchildren, and every adult should take the time to re-read this book once in a while. I could not find such a book for Japanese, but I will continue to search for one.

Restaurant - Spoon House

Spoon House Bakery & Restaurant
1601 W Redondo Beach Blvd
Gardena, CA 90247
(310) 538-0376

I have never had an unpleasant experience at Spoon House. A local favorite of mine since my elementary school days as an Asian kid with a bowl cut, it's a convenient place to stop by if you are interested in Japanese style pasta. Best of all, the understand what al dente means - a source of relief in a city where most Italian places will serve you a plate of crunchy spaghetti if you utter those two words.

Bacon, shiitake mushroom, shrimp, and spinach pasta
Their bread isn't bad either, but you are better off only eating a couple of bites if you want to avoid baguettes that are loaded with butter even before you take your butter knife to them.

Spaghetti bolognese with meatballs
I would personally recommend their spaghetti bolognese with sausage and egg, or if you prefer a creamy (but not buttery) sauce, their chicken cream sauce spaghetti. For the adventurous, their cold California pasta (avocados, vegetables, and canned crab meat in a light cream sauce) or spaghetti neapolitan (ketchup instead of tomato paste) may be to your liking.

As long as you don't go during a time they are super busy, you will get relatively fast and efficient service, and don't forget to pay at the cash register at the front of the store. You can buy some of their bread to take home, if you are so inclined.

Restaurant - Ryo Zan Paku

Ryo Zan Paku
2589 Pacific Coast Hwy
Torrance, CA 90505
(310) 530-8720

A recent visit to the Torrance area a dozen or so miles south of Los Angeles put me face to face with some of the newer Japanese Izakaya establishments set up in the area. Longtime establishments such as Iccho and Musha, it seems, no longer enjoy their oligopoly over the izakaya-starved Japanese businesspeople that wade through the South Bay.

One such location is Ryo Zan Paku, a retro-style izakaya that boasts a decor similar to the kind of Japanese bar that Japanese businessmen would escape to for a few beers after a long day at work. As it turns out, it's a US location of an izakaya chain that originates from Japan.

The food was probably a hair below the standard as far as what Japanese businessmen would find acceptable. Not that anything was particularly bad; the place boasts a menu with a wide variety of assorted sushi rolls, yakitori sticks, rice dishes and fried dishes. Then again, everything was sort of not good. If a Japanese businessman were to eat these dishes and you asked him how he felt, he wouldn't say it was bad, but he would look at you apologetically, narrow his eyes a little bit and subtly shake his head.

Hiyayakko (cold tofu)
Did they try to dress it up too much? I personally am not a fan of tofu on ice.

Tamago yaki (eggs cooked like a layered omelette)
The big slices are usually how izakaya showcase their tamago when they make it themselves; it is actually difficult to cook well, and the strangely lukewarm nature of the tamago made it clear to me that they don't make their own. And it really doesn't taste as good when you have to eat a huge chunk of it, like in this picture.

Calamari salad
No, those aren't chicken strips. They have small pieces of squid inside, surrounded by lots of fried batter. Lots and lots of it.

By the way, if you notice that the food is decorated by either parsley or sprouts, that's because all of their dishes come out like so. Except for their crab cream croquettes, I suppose (which were actually somewhat decent).

The waitress at our table was energetic and was helpful in helping us select our order. I would imagine service would get rather sparse during busy hours, but fortunately Sunday night did not seem to be one of their busier nights. I was not too sure why she recommended we get some American-style sushi rolls when we said we wanted to order a rice dish or two. At $2.00 to $2.50 per pop, one of their onigiri (rice balls) would have sufficed, but we paid three to four times that amount for a salty clump of rice and assorted vegetables. And there was very little rice in those sushi rolls.

Unfortunately the retro music playlist is analogous to an entourage of some of the sadder oldies tunes that our grandmothers probably cried to, such as "Nature Boy" by Nat King Cole or "In The Ghetto" by Elvis Presley. There were few songs that were similar in mood to Frank Sinatra's livelier tunes, making the dark, lonesome stool at the edge of the bar counter an appealing place to drown one's sorrows in.

The tab came out to $26 per person, which seemed a bit pricey considering we didn't have a single drop of alcohol between the five of us. If I was a Japanese businessman, I would only come here if my wife had left me for the young college student next door, since the dim lighting, depressing music, and dishes that will leave you wanting something just a little better forms a solid foundation for any depressed Japanese businessman's Shangri-La.

It's the kind of place you would go to with a crestfallen sigh, when your options really have run dry and want to go to a place that you know won't be crowded. It looks nice, the service is friendly, but the food isn't that great.

Restaurant - Curry House

Curry House
123 S Onizuka St. # 204
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 620-0855
Genre: Japanese

Curry House is the El Pollo Loco of Japanese style curry. It's been there forever, you rarely go there, and when curiosity gets the better of you and you sit down at one of their locations, you do you notice that prices have gone up, some curious seasonal items have invaded the menu list, and you end up leaving without any real desire to return at any time in the near future.

My last such trip to a Curry House location produced the following dish above. I think it was a spicy ginger chicken curry. I had never seen it before, but the 11.00+ price tag didn't seem so expensive compared to the price of their regular curries, which had inflated to 9.50 and up.

It seemed like a better choice than getting a curry wrap, but I'm not sure. Like marinara sauce without any garlic, you're left with a distant feeling of something missing from your tastebuds, searching for a taste that isn't going to hit you any time soon.

At least the service wasn't bad; not to say that it was great, but it's what I expected from having paid $11.00 plus tax and tip for a plate of spicy ginger chicken curry.

Restaurant - Santouka Ramen

Santouka Ramen
3760 S Centinela Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90066
(310) 391-1101
Genre: Japanese

I've heard a lot about this place, since it's a real Japanese ramen chain that made it to the states (and is a chain over here as well; there are at least three locations in the Southern California area).

If you're the kind of person who won't order ramen at a ramen place, then they have rice dishes for you, but seriously, the only place where you wouldn't want to order a restaurant's "specialty menu" is Curry House.

Zoom up and joy the view.
I guess if you've never had the chance to enjoy the frozen ramen you can buy at Japanese supermarkets, Santouka Ramen sounds like quite an interesting proposal. It sure beats the crap out of Top Ramen or whatever the heck most people think of when they hear the word "ramen," but their $6.95 ramen could easily be made for 1/3 of the price, sans the fatty piece of char-siu pork. And really, it only takes 5 or 6 minutes to prepare.

The soy sauce ramen.
Service-wise, you get what you expect out of a food court eatery. They call your number, and then you go get your food. Unless you stare down at the food you're eating, you're gonna be locked in a staring contest with someone else in the same situation you are.

So just stare down and enjoy your noodles. Because you won't be coming back again for a while, unless you want to slurp down enough sodium for 3 days and enough oil to last you the entire winter.

As a final note, "Santouka" literally means "mountain head fire." No, I have no idea why anyone would want to name his or her restaurant like that. They even make you go through the trouble of reading the restaurant name backwards. And it doesn't sound cool at all, even if we're surrounded by other mediocre-sounding ramen shop names like Orochon.

Restaurant - Musha

Musha Restaurant
424 Wilshire Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 576-6330
Genre: Japanese

Musha is the kind of place you want to go to if you want to enjoy some alcohol and tasty food that comes in small proportions. I can see why some would classify Musha as a Japanese tapas bar.

Anyways, a picture is worth a thousand words, so several pictures therefore would be worth several thousand words. I will let the food do all the explaining, and interject as needed.

The Japanese-influenced cocktails are beautiful in taste and presentation. Just don't let the beer pitchers fool you; they hold a lot less beer than you would think at first glance.

You can order a seaweed salad at Nobu for 15 dollars, or something comprable for 6. Of course it's not going to be loaded with seaweed, but it does the trick.

Their signature dish is the MFC (Musha fried chicken), although I'm not 100% sure why. I mean, it's chicken, and it's fried -- perhaps the soft crust is what keeps many people coming back from more.

A much tastier fried dish is the pumpkin croquette, pictured above. Then again, with a few beers, the fried chicken COULD taste better...

And of course, you can't finish off a Japanese meal with some rice! Enjoying some salmon yaki-onigiri is indeed an excellent way to finish a meal.

Long story short, the food is indeed as tasty as it looks. The service is nothing to rave about, and while it can get a little dodgy during super busy times, they are never pretentious or condescending.

Expect to pay around $30 per person for dinner and a drink.