Do you know the song “Mayim Mayim?” Maybe you learned it at Hebrew School, or sleepaway camp. It’s a celebratory Israeli folk classic based on text from the book of Isaiah about, as the title suggests, water. The song’s composer is Emanuel Amiran-Pougatchov, who would go on to be the country’s Minister of Music Education, and in 1937 choreographer Else I. Dublin created the dance still used today.

But other than your summer camp or Israel, the places you’re most likely to hear this song are Japan or Taiwan.

Seriously, everyone in Japan knows “Mayim Mayim.”

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Jewcy is on a summer residency! To read this piece, and our others for July and August 2017, go to our big sister site, Tablet Magazine!

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A kosher restaurant will open to the public in Tokyo next month, reports JTA. The restaurant, which is located at the Chabad house run by Rabbi Mendy Sudakevich in the Takanawa neighborhood, has been feeding customers for several weeks—but by appointment only. Once it officially opens, “Chana Place’s” will serve classic Israeli/Middle Eastern cuisine to up to 14 guests at one time. And believe it or not, they’ll have competition—there’s already a kosher felafel cart operated by the other Chabad rabbi in Tokyo, Binyomin Edery.

Tokyo might seem like a surprising place for a kosher restaurant, but there are a few hundred Jews living in the city, and thousands of Israeli tourists pass through Japan each year—plus there’s plenty of interest from Japanese diners, who have already embraced several non-kosher Jewish eateries. The two countries have positive diplomatic relations, with a new reciprocal one-year work-holiday visa program, and a concerted marketing effort to woo Japanese tourists to the Holy Land. (We’ve been following the anime series Israel, Like! with delight for the last couple of months.)

Behatzlacha and itadakimasu!

(Image: a_b_normal123/Flickr)

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Yay! The internet Gods have bestowed upon us a pre-Christmas amuse-bouche gift: episode 3 of the bizarre-but-delightful anime web series, Israel, Like!

In case you missed it, the series was launched by the Israeli embassy in Tokyo back in November as part of a campaign to attract Japanese visitors to the Holy Land. It presents an oddly neutered, pareve version of Israel (no war or Palestinians, only Ashkenazi Jews, and abundant Dead Sea cosmetics), as explored by two sisters: the savvy but troubled Noriki, and the infantile, co-dependent Saki.

I know, I know, I’m not exactly selling it right now, am I? But though there’s plenty to critique, Israel, Like! is also oddly compelling. The portrayal of Israel as a land of exotic foods, good weather, and good-looking soldiers—minus the conflict—is wistfully utopian and idealistic, like a tourism reel from the 1950s. And there’s a strong current of dramatic tension pulling you through the stream of hasbara: Will Noriki reconcile with her husband? Will Saki ever learn to fend for herself? Will the two sisters make it through the trip without killing each other?

In episode 3, those questions are meaningfully teased out for the first time: Noriki ditches Saki for a couple of days of quiet marital brooding, and Saki flips out—only to be rescued by a Japanese-speaking, manga-loving, 20-something Western male stereotype called Itai. Jachnun is savored, the kotel is visited, and a lot of feelings are felt. Plus—there’s a surprise visitor from home and a kind of suspenseful ending.

(Click here for episode one, and here for episode two.)

(Image: YouTube)

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The good news: episode 2 of Israel, Like!, the web series created by the Israeli embassy in Tokyo to entice Japanese visitors to the Holy Land, is live. The bad news: there are no English subtitles, so we’re not really sure what happens. The fundamentals of the plot are clear—sisters Saki and Noriki visit the Dead Sea and Masada, have their photo taken with an Israeli soldier, go shopping in Tel Aviv, enjoy felafel and Israeli breakfasts—but the subtleties of the subplot about Noriki’s crumbling marriage are frustratingly beyond our understanding. She seems to spend a lot of time on her cell phone. Is she texting her estranged husband? Hooking up with hot Israeli guys on Tinder? We just don’t know.

Do you speak Japanese? Do a blog a mitzvah and leave a summary in the comments. Arigatō!

Update, 10:30pm: Closed captions have been activated!

Related: Watch the Israeli Government’s Anime Tourism Pitch

(Image: YouTube)

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“Saki, let’s go to Israel!”

Thus begins a new anime web series called Israel, Like!, launched by the Israeli embassy in Tokyo as part of a campaign to entice Japanese visitors to the Holy Land. In the debut episode—the first in a series of seven—sisters Saki and Noriki travel to Israel on the strength of its famed “chocolate bar” (i.e. Max Brenner), marvel at the clapping when their airplane lands (“many Israeli are cheerful people”), admire the “cool” airport (there’s never been a more enthusiastic response to Ben Gurion) and relaxed locals (“many guys are good looking!”), then get plastered on Israeli wine at a Tel Aviv bar in a evening of sisterly bonding.

Ruth Kahanoff, Israel’s ambassador to Japan, told Ynet that the series aims to “use anime to reach the Japanese audience, especially youth, and display the Israel beyond the conflict.” Embassy spokesman Ronen Medzini says the response has been “unprecedented,” and that the show is garnering “massive media attention all across Japan.”

The video is interspersed with cameos from “Shalom Chan,” the embassy’s Pikachu-esque mascot who delivers little factoids about Israeli life and culture. Subsequent episodes will take the sisters all over Israel, from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to the Negev to a kibbutz. (I guess the West Bank and Hebron are off the list?)

Episode one is full of many strange and unexpected moments, but it’s also fun and super-watchable. A melodramatic cliffhanger relating to Noriki’s marriage—which comes out of nowhere but is totally compelling—has me hanging out for episode two. According to the embassy’s Facebook page (which has a solid following of about 7,000), it should be live soon, and promises a visit to the Dead Sea and a closer look at Noriko’s past. I’ll admit it: I can’t wait.

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• Maggie Gyllenhaal’s other co-star in Won’t Back Down? Orthodox Jewish lawyer Jay Lefkowitz, the man behind the public-school reform legal battles.

• Sarah Silverman talks about why she made that expletive-laced voting video in an interview with the New York Times.

• Steven Spielberg opens up about his childhood struggle with Dyslexia.

• Meet Japan’s bagelheads.

• That new Philip Roth biography? Author Blake Bailey will have “unrestricted access” to him Roth and his material.

• Michael Richards gets real with Jerry Seinfeld about his stalled post-Seinfeld career:

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