Hello everyone. Before we get into this week's episode, just a quick programming note.

For as long as I've been doing the show, people have been asking me for episode transcripts.

My response has always been the same. The time necessary to take notes and transpose them into a useful transcript would simply be prohibitive, given how much work production already is.

Now, however, thanks to our generous patrons, we can finally start working on this at long last.

It's going to take a while, given 500 episodes, and some of my old notes are no longer with us,

thanks to some issues with my old University of Washington

account, but it's still a fantastic undertaking, and it is only possible because of our patrons,

both for history of Japan and for the Facing Backward Network. So, patrons, one more time,

thank you all so much for your support.

Thank you all so much for your support. Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 490, The Nation's Kitchen, Part 4.

Before we get into things, I just want to say, now that I can actually do so publicly,

how excited I have been to be working on that project that you heard about last week with Paradox Interactive.

It's been really cool to hear from those of you who've been playing around with the DLC

and just enjoying the offering.

So I'm really glad folks have been liking it,

and I'm really glad to have had a chance to work on it.

And if you play video games and you like

Paradox's stuff, check it out. With that said, let's get on with the show.

Last week, we took a look at Olsaka during its pre-modern zenith, giving you some sense

of what the city called the nation's kitchen looked like during the height of the Tokugawa years.

It's pretty incredible as a picture and a testament to the structure and stability of Tokugawa governance.

But the thing is, I don't really want you to get the wrong idea here.

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