Ep.92 Convenience Store Oden: Japan's Autumn Signal

<p>Welcome to Episode 92 of Real Japanese Talk with Haruka &amp; Saki! 🗼🐙</p><p><br></p><p>🍢 &quot;There&#39;s stuff floating in brown water.&quot; That was Saki&#39;s friend describing the pot beside the register - and being too nervous to order from it. Fair enough. Nobody explains oden to you. 🎯</p><p><br></p><p>You&#39;ll learn three words:</p><p><br></p><p>• 温める (atatameru) - to heat something up; the question every convenience store asks you</p><p><br></p><p>• 染みる (shimiru) - for flavour to soak all the way in; the whole point of oden</p><p><br></p><p>• 季節 (kisetsu) - the season, and the very Japanese pleasure of feeling one arrive</p><p><br></p><p>💡 Inside: how to answer 「温めますか？」 - and how to decline it; why the daikon soaked through since morning is the piece everyone wants, and why oden is a dish that cannot be rushed; the pot appearing in shops around September as a signal that autumn has started, and vanishing again in summer; what&#39;s actually in there - daikon, egg, konnyaku, chikuwa, and the mysterious white fluffy hanpen; the east-west split, with beef tendon and pale kelp broth in Kansai against darker soy sauce in Kanto; the mustard warning; and the fact that you can order the whole thing by pointing.</p><p><br></p><p>Perfect for N4-N3 learners who want to eat well in Japan. Tokyo &amp; Kansai dialogue, fully shadowable. Full transcript &amp; study notes on Patreon. 🎧</p><p><br></p><p><strong>【Today&#39;s Vocabulary / 今日の言葉】</strong></p><p>・温める (あたためる) - To warm something up. This is the transitive verb - you 温める the food; the food 「温まる」 (atatamaru) by itself. You will hear it at every convenience store till as 「温めますか？」, to which 「はい、お願いします」 or 「そのままで大丈夫です」 are the two answers you need. Note the second reading 「あたたかい」 for 温かい (warm, of food and of people), and the writing 「暖める」, used for rooms and air rather than objects. Related words: 「冷やす」 (hiyasu, to chill), 「レンジでチンする」 (renji de chin suru, to microwave, colloquial), 「湯気」 (yuge, steam).</p><p>・染みる (しみる) - To soak in, to permeate. In the kitchen it is what you want: 「だしが染みる」, 「味が染みた大根」. Beyond food it stretches in two directions - physical sting (「目に染みる」, it stings my eyes; 「傷に染みる」) and emotion (「心に染みる」, it touches me deeply; 「染み込んだ習慣」, a habit soaked into you). The noun 「染み」 (shimi) is a stain, and 「染み込む」 (shimikomu) intensifies the soaking. Related words: 「煮込む」 (nikomu, to simmer at length), 「味が濃い」 (aji ga koi, strongly flavoured), 「だし」 (dashi, the broth itself).</p><p>・季節 (きせつ