Wabisabi - Blog -

During the last weekend of summer I had a chance to take my family to Northeastern Japan for three days. On the way up we decided to stop by Sendai, Miyagi prefecture, to sample some famous beef tongue. Our destination was a restaurant called Tasuke- supposedly the first restaurant in Sendai to serve beef tongue. I frequented this restaurant about 15 years ago when I lived in the area and was really familiar with the food.

We arrived at the restaurant around 3 in the afternoon only to find there was already a long line of customers waiting to get in. To be honest, I was actually relieved to see the restaurant still doing well (and open for business). A lot of the beef tongue restaurants in Sendai went out of business during the mad cow disease outbreak (Japan gets a lot of its beef from the US).

Now down to the menu. Well, of course there was charcoal grilled beef tongue, ox tail soup and cooked barley-that’s it. Simple menu. The food comes out in about 3 minutes. The only thing about the restaurant…nobody talks while eating. It’s not that you aren’t allowed to talk. Everybody is just focused on eating. You felt like you would get yelled at if you had a conversation. Anyway, the restaurant is not really set up as a place to really relax and eat. Chairs are packed in tight and the pace it fast. But the beef tongue….. excellent. The more you chew the better it tastes.

I had seconds. B

During spawning season the freshwater Ayu (Sweet Fish) move downstream and are trapped using wood or bamboo rigs. The rigs are set up where the flowing river water push the fish up onto the traps. Pretty clever! Most of the places that set these rigs will grill the caught fish for you on the spot. Of course we had to stop by and try the rare treat. Not surprisingly the fish were a lot tastier than store bought fish. That’s because on top of eating the fish in the great outdoors most of the Ayu sold in markets are farmed. I was told that Ayu is called Sweet Fish in English since they give off a sweet aroma when cooked. However, most people do not know that farmed Ayu do not give off the signature sweet aroma. This is due to the different diets of the fish. Naturally raised Ayu eat algae off the rocks while farmed Ayu eat processed fish food. Ultimately the sweet aroma will tell you if the Ayu you are about to eat is naturally raised or farmed. Well, of course the kids had a blast and we all ate a ton. It’s not everyday you can enjoy fresh fish grilled on the spot

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（2009.9.15）

You hardly see any fireflies in urban areas. When I was a growing up I would go to the countryside in the summer and see a lot of them flying around the rice paddies. Sometimes they would get into your mosquito tent and you can watch them floating around while you fell asleep. Fast forward to today- if you want to see fireflies you usually have to pay to see ones in a cage. Most of the fireflies have even disappeared from the country areas due to climate change and the pesticides used in farming. You won’t be able to find any of them in the wild…..well until recently.

A couple of weeks ago I heard from a neighbor of a place near our house where you can see wild fireflies. I took the kids to investigate and to my surprise they were everywhere! The rice paddy nearby is said to use no pesticides and grow the rice only using ancient methods. While watching my kids run around the blinking lights I was overcome misplaced memories of when I was a kid in the country. I tried to take a picture… but only got the glow.

Oni

By chance I ran across a strange amusement park in Shizuoka prefecture called “GokurakuEn”. Well I guess “amusement park” is a bit of an exaggeration since it was actually only one building-the size of a house. However, it was really interesting since the theme of this so called park was “hell”. With a large “oni” or “devil” statue at the entrance I just had to stop and check it out.

I rang the bell at the entrance but nobody came out-creepy already. There didn’t seem to be a lot of patrons-not unusual since I visited the “park” in middle of the day. As you can see from my picture, the Japanese devil is a little different than what one would think of in the west. The Japanese devil is known to be more of a ghoul and looks like a cross between a red cow with tiger teeth wearing a caveman ‘s outfit (hard to explain). I guess the Japanese devil is closer to what you would call an Ogre. (However, the devil statue in the picture is ridiculous….in any culture).

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As you may have noticed from my blog, I love to drink and smoke cigarettes. Out of all the different types of alcohol I drink I would have to say my favorite to be Japanese Sake. If I ever had to choose one or the other I would always give up smoking over drinking Sake.
“Dried snacks” or “Himono” as it is called in Japanese, go well with Sake. Not unlike the beef jerky or smoked salmon I enjoyed in the U.S., Himono snacks are usually made from naturally dried fish or squid. These dried snacks really enhance the flavor of Sake. Historically you can see that fish paired well with Sake. In fact, a lot of Sake have grilled river fish or blowfish as an underlying flavor. Traditional Japanese cooking also relies on Sake to help bring out flavors. The picture I posted is of a dried goods store that I ran into while driving the coast on the weekend. Not only did they carry dried fish but had an array of items naturally dried in the sun. After writing this article I feel like drinking again.
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Here I am again, drinking with the hotel staff from the Hotel Katara-Fukushima-ya at the “Summer Kick-Off BBQ”.  With the help of good Sake I thought this would be a good opportunity to hang out with the staff and talk about what’s really on their mind!

As usual, we started out drinking beer but gradually worked our way to my favorite….Sake! Quality Sake not only tastes good but goes down pretty smooth. On top of that, you don’t get the bloated feeling you would when you drink beer. However, this usually leads to drinking way too much and having no recollection of the conversations I had (which really defeats the purpose of the “getting to know the staff” BBQ).
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Thank you for reading my blog. I wanted to take this opportunity to write a little bit about me-the blogger…
I am a Japanese native originally from Tokushima prefecture, island of Shikoku. For generations my family carried on a Buddhist temple in Shikoku. However, my father decided not to continue the family tradition and moved to Tokyo when I was young. Currently, my cousin is carrying on the family temple sparing me from becoming a Buddhist priest. At 40 years old I work hard to support my family, which include three children- a seven-year-old daughter, five-year-old son and a seven-month-old baby. My passions in life include finding the best Sake and eating really good food. I started my blog to introduce all things Japanese-culture, food, sightseeing spots, trends, etc. I hope you had a chance to check out all the “Made in Japan” items on our website. A lot of the items listed are items I found on my numerous trips around Japan. I hope you enjoy my entries and please contribute comments!

The rainy season in Japan starts right before summer and usually lasts for about a month. The constant drizzle is just enough to annoy you since you have to lug your umbrella everywhere (not to mention bad hair days for the ladies and bored kids stuck indoors). I was wondering if other countries had such long rainy seasons and found it quite common. Korea, Taiwan, China, and most of the southeast Asian countries all have long rainy seasons.
By the way, I posted a picture of a “TeruTeruBozu”. You usually see the TeruTeruBozu hanging from windows or balconies to ward off the rain. A custom from the olden days, TeruTeruBozus are usually made from white cloth. If you want it to rain you use black cloth instead.

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