Had a great time. Japan has changed a lot. Now they have rice that you don't
have to wash. Actually what is the white stuff that you normally have to
wash off of rice? Is it part of the rice itself or is it something that is
added during the milling?

Among the collection of useless things I brought back from Japan was a
high-tech rice cooker, about $300. But it is very voltage sensitive, I had
to spend another $70 on a 1000 watt voltage transformer in order to use it
here. The transformer is actually bigger than the rice cooker itself. So I
ended up hard-wiring the thing in the basement and now I have a dedicated
100 volt outlet in my kitchen just for the rice cooker. Now my problem is I
can't kind a place that sells decent gyouza.