I placed the knife on top of it, and in one smooth motion, the blade sank into the mochi, splitting it with ease. Nothing can resist the edge of a Japanese knife. It split in two as if it'd been

By the time I was ready to treat myself to these snowball-shaped beauties, I was really excited. I set the table with a boho-styled placemat (lacking something more ad hoc), a pair of chopsticks (I

I've been hearing a lot about mochi lately—the Japanese cake—not only here on Journaly but also from people close to me. As far as I know, it's considered a treat in Japanese cuisine and also a

There 's been a fly in the room for the past three days. I've tried to shoo it away several times, but it keeps resisting. The door is closed, yet the windows are wide open. I don't get why it

Once, I was lining up at one of those huge supermarkets and the guy next to me said, "You can't pay at this checkout. Your cart is spilling out with groceries. You'd better find out where the right

I can't afford to buy a cave, you know, because of the housing bubble. I also refuse to pay for rent, but since I'm a lucky bear, I didn’t have to wait to find an empty one. It's been three days

We bears don't mess with nature, and we don't put up with nonsense either. Nature doesn't jest, so we prefer to homeschool our cubs. There are at least five laws of physics you can learn just by

This morning I changed my mind. I'm not hibernating this winter. It's not worth wasting time sleeping when there's so much I could be doing instead, like getting fit, going to the mall, or eating

It's really hot outside today, stupid hot, I would say. Just yesterday I was wearing a really long scarf and a pair of ridiculously thick gloves. I don't think this weather is going to last much.

Valeria was a girl who was very upset about her dad. Some time ago, she had noticed that he was going bald and losing more and more of his hair. One day, she worked up the courage to ask him about

In Spain, in the midst of the post-war period, a man in his early thirties and a woman of twenty-three maintain a romantic relationship the old-school way — they always meet in public places, she

I'm reading a book full of idioms. I crammed as many as I could into this post 🤞🏼. "I'm all ears," I said to my parents, unaware of the cropper that was about to come. My mother had put some food

That summmer, I was seventeen and had two scorching months ahead of me. At the time, it felt like a nightmare, but now I'd sell my soul to the devil to go back to that moment in my life. During your

In my stubbornness to find answers to the "Show, don't tell" phenomenon (I'm not talking about the principle, but the hype), I was surprised to find that some of my suspicions were quite correct,

I've read that there's a science to the madness of writing prose in English, and that there's a set of rules you're supposed to follow if you don't want your writing to sound fledgling but advanced.

It’s not easy to explain the magic that surrounds this night in Spain: the night of January 5th. Tonight, the Three Wise Men visit every home to bring gifts for the children. In fact, Their

"I said no." "But why?" "Because I say so." "That's not an answer, Mom. It's my hair. Why do you care?" "Because you're my daughter, so technically, your hair is mine too." "Well, by that rule of

I'm at the hairdresser's. It's been a while since a deft pair of scissors cut my hair. During the pandemic, I had to make do with ordinary scissors, but I learned how to cut my hair with not too

Proofreading is definitely one of the challenges we face here. Not just because there are an infinite number of dialects, but also because languages are malleable and changeable. And, to be honest,

Life is a practical joke. We spent most of our childhood longing to grow up, to become adults and independent. From a "short/shorty" point of view, life looks fantastic and promising. Well, it really