pleasures

[bronze_ribbons]

* Coming across Spanish scanlations of the extras from the Japanese reissues of FAKE. Now if I could only find a reputable North American source for the licensed Spanish editions. (I'm steering clear of alibris.)

* Ryotaro Iwanaga's Pumpkin Scissors: Imperial Army State Section III. The manga is up to nine or ten volumes in Japan, with four volumes translated into English so far; I borrowed the first three from my local library and devoured them this afternoon. I am impressed by Del Rey/Ballantine/Kodansha's efforts: the first volume includes a good guide about Japanese honorifics, and each volume includes some translation notes at the end, where Ikoi Hiroe notes several spots where different choices could have been made, or provides additional cultural context.

Also, it has several kickass female characters - the field commander of the unit is 2nd Lt. Alice Malkin - and there's a doggie, and some cats... (am softie. Don't tell! *g*).

* We're currently stove-less, so we've been exploring various "just add hot water" and/or microwavable products. Today's was Shirakiku brand "Fresh Japanese Style Sanukiya Udon." I admit to picking it up partly because I just liked the cartoon of two country dudes with their noodles (whoa, that came out way more filthy than I intended), and this review pretty much nails the experience (including the spongy veggie bits I didn't care for either; I can't comment on the openability of the packets, though, since I approached the bowl with scissors in hand). In a nutshell: good noodles, and the water doesn't actually have to be hot before you add it.

Comments

[dianamoon.insanejournal.com]

what's wrong with alibris? i keep getting recc'd to shop/sell there.

microwavable pizza are good and addicting. XD

[bronze_ribbons.insanejournal.com]

alibris: They won't let you know how much shipping will cost until they've already charged your credit card, their customer service is non-existent (this one I've experienced directly -- I asked for clarification on a listing where the language and publiser info didn't match, and got nowhere), and I've read too many horror stories about people having trouble obtaining refunds for items that turned out to be out of stock. My guess is that they're fine for straightforward mainstream transactions, but I've got amazon, abebooks, and powells for those.

I do like microwaveable pizzas, but I have next to zero freezer space right now. Hence the adventures in just-add-water. ;-)