I’m Arun Venkatesan, and this is the arun.is newsletter, where I share my current obsessions, inspiration from around the web, behind-the-scenes content, and more. 

In this week’s issue:

• How to cook anything Japanese style  
• New blog posts since last time
• Inspiration: a game, a documentary series, and a podcast

How to cook anything Japanese style 

It's not a secret that I love Japan. That love isn’t just for Japanese design or media like anime, but for the culture, especially the food. 

I started cooking Japanese food quite often at home after a friend introduced me to the excellent show Cooking with Dog. This show, like recipe books, can be great when you seek out a particular dish or are planning a meal. 

Often though, I have some ingredients on hand and need to find a way to cook them. That’s when I turn to Kurashiru, a Japanese recipe-sharing site. 

Let’s say that I have celery on hand and want to find a use. I’ll translate the word to Japanese and copy the Japanese translation.

Then I’ll paste that into the search box at kurashiru.com. I then use the handy built-in translation feature on iOS and Mac to translate the entire webpage.

I usually find common ingredients like celery page upon page of results. While browsing, I look for a picture that looks good and doesn’t require anything exotic I may not have. Once I find something I like, I watch the video and look at the translated recipe. The apple and celery salad below has become a favorite in my family. I’d recommend checking it out!

New blog posts since last time

My long-running essay series about Japan finally came to an end last week. In all, there were 141 photographs and 7,849 words spread out over the four parts. 

I initially thought it would be a chance to revisit some photos and re-edit them with my current style. It turned out to be so much more. As I scrolled through the photos and read my journals, vivid memories and emotions returned. 

Earlier this week, I also published a tutorial. It describes how I created a custom app to close all Mac apps quickly. It’s part of my shut down routine that ensures my computer is clean when I next turn it on.

Inspiration: a game, a documentary series, and a podcast

This week I have a mix of recommendations.

Hades

Hades fits none of those criteria, but that isn’t to say that it isn’t excellent. 

I’ve always had a distant interest in the rogue-like genre, where I control a character slashing their way through programmatically-generated dungeons. One day, I bought Hades on a whim after months of being recommended to me.

I love that it is endlessly replayable, offers a gradual learning curve that rewards every session, and has a fascinating story deeply intertwined with the game mechanics. 

It may be the best game I’ve played since The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

NHK Train Cruise

There is an astonishing amount of publicly-funded documentaries freely available on the internet. One source of such content is NHK, essentially the Japanese counterpart to the BBC in the UK.

They produce Train Cruise, a series that takes viewers across Japan by train to experience the variety of Japanese culture.

We often sit down as a family and watch it together at the end of the day. Train Cruise is a calm way to do some sightseeing from home.

I Dream of Cameras

The focus is not on their notable professional careers but their obsession with film cameras. I love it because they don’t take themselves too seriously. Yet, they are more than happy to respond to listener messages or debate the merits of camera gear and shooting techniques.

That's it for this issue. As always, this is my personal email, so feel free to respond directly.

Stay curious,
Arun Venkatesan