"marc" <spambots@eatthis.com> wrote in message news:<5Dx3b.287138$o%2.133804@sccrnsc02>...
> Had a great time. Japan has changed a lot. 

But real brown bread is still hard to find, isn't it. ;)

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?

It's talc that's used in the milling process but I don't know why -
maybe to polish the rice.  For many years, California rice brands have
been using some kind of powdered cereal instead of talc so you don't
have to wash it.  That practice has been introduced here.
  
> 
> 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. 

Next time you come here you can pick up a region 2 dvd player and some
region 2 discs.

Now my problem is I
> can't kind a place that sells decent gyouza.

Have you checked the frozen food section in an Asian supermarket. 
Ajinomoto sells worldwide.