Food
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How Many Hours Should You Fast Before a Health Check—8 or 10?
Quick guide to how long to stop eating before a health check, how triglycerides and blood sugar recover, and what to avoid the day before (alcohol, heavy meals, hard workouts).
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The Imagawa-yaki Name Wars—That stuffed, griddled pancake with endless nicknames
Imagawa-yaki, Oban-yaki, Kaiten-yaki, Gozasoro, Futatsu-yaki, Taiko Manju, Disk Yaki… one food, too many names. Here’s a look at the nationwide naming map Nichirei Foods compiled.
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Love Sori Yanagi. Except That Soup Spoon.
We’ve collected plenty of Sori Yanagi kitchen tools—huge fan of the ladle, not so much the spoons.
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Choosing the right plastic wrap for the job
Cheap wraps barely cling. The material matters: PVDC sticks best, PVC is in-between, PE is gentle but weak. I keep coming back to Saran Wrap.
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Kakkonto for early colds and mastitis—apparently it eases leg cramps too
Kakkonto is the go-to herbal remedy for early colds and mastitis. A tweet claimed it helped leg cramps; digging into its ingredients (and shakuyaku-kanzo-to) showed why—and what to use for sports cramps.
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Does resistant dextrin really help with weight loss?
Looked into resistant dextrin—the soluble fiber inside many “tokuho” drinks—to see if it really slows carb/fat absorption, how to take it, and what research and users say.
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Perfect for dry goods storage: finally bought a Freshlock
My cheap containers leaked and warped, so I tried the much-hyped Freshlock airtight jars. The 500 ml snapped shut cleanly, the seal works, replacement gaskets are cheap—and four years later it’s holding up.
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At 7‑Eleven, only the old-fashioned donut tastes good
Convenience stores jumped into donuts. After eating across chains and revisiting Mister Donut, 7‑Eleven’s old-fashioned is the only keeper (and it’s smaller than Misdo’s).
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Hunting for good spice jars for salt and seasonings
After bingeing cleaning/organizing books, I wanted tidy spice storage. Seria’s popular Inomata bottles tempted me; I compared them to what I had at home, Amazon options, and IKEA jars—and realized I should prune my spices first.
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IKEA glass jar gaskets: 5 for ¥199 (fit MUJI, Le Parfait, WECK too)
The rubber seal on my MUJI soda-glass jar cracked. MUJI sells spares via customer service, but IKEA’s KORKEN gasket set (5 for ¥199) fit perfectly—cheapest fix, likely for Le Parfait/WECK sizes too.
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Looking for a better container for ground coffee
Bag clips on silver coffee pouches got annoying. I tried glass jars (heavy), cheap plastic (leaky), and ended up hunting proper canisters for ground coffee.
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Deepening my milk knowledge with Snow Brand Acady
Regular milk gave me stomach pain and the runs. Switching to Snow Brand Acady fixed it and sent me down a rabbit hole on lactose intolerance, gut bacteria, and even dental health.
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Learning cooking, storage, and interiors via Japanese Instagram hashtags
Browsing Japanese Instagram hashtags is a rabbit hole—fridges, meal prep, enamelware, toast hacks, even a celebrity croquette account. Here are the tags I binge.
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Moldy Mochi? Don’t Eat It—Here’s How to Prevent Mold Next Time
My New Year’s mochi molded overnight. While scraping it, I dug into how to remove mold safely (spoiler: you probably shouldn’t) and how to store mochi longer.
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Aohata peach jam is so good I now subscribe to it on Amazon
The “Marugoto Kajitsu” white-peach jam is hard to find in stores. It’s mellow, not too peachy, and available as a 4-pack Subscribe & Save.
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Butter coffee for weight loss—does it work? At least it tastes good.
I tried the “bulletproof” butter/MCT coffee trend from the Silicon Valley diet book. The hype is shaky, but the drink is tasty if you use unsalted butter.
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Norovirus prep for homes with small kids: what to keep on hand
Norovirus is brutal for two days, highly infectious, and shrugs off alcohol. I pulled together a home kit and notes on what actually works (heat, bleach) and how to handle vomit/poop.
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Sodium hypochlorite (bleach) kills norovirus—and it’s banned for sesame
Kitchen bleach uses sodium hypochlorite, which inactivates norovirus. While researching, I stumbled on odd rules (no bleach on sesame) and a bunch of related disinfectant trivia.
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Why restaurants whisk away the menu after you order
I hate losing the menu before dessert, so I asked why. Staff shared the unglamorous reasons: damage, theft, not enough copies, and space for plates.
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How many sugar cubes are in this juice? A reality check on carbs
Sugar-shock photos pile cubes next to soda, but rice and bread are “cube bombs” too. A quick walkthrough of carbs vs sugars, daily calories, WHO limits, and why cube math without context misleads.
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Hunting for a bread knife that stays sharp and slices clean
Our freebie bread knife shredded crusty loaves. I looked into price tiers, blade shapes, steels, and brands to find a cleaner-cut upgrade.
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White specks in my tea pitcher weren’t mold—they were limescale
Water-brewed tea left white bumps on the pitcher walls. Turns out it’s mineral scale from tap water sticking to micro-scratches in plastic, not mold.