• Fukkatsu T.A.O. H.G.
  • Midnight, the First: Epilogue for a disappeared ending
  • GRIMMEGANS WAKE TAO HG BOOK 2 JAPAN
  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Grimm: Book 1, Vol 1-4 (SPAIN)

Huckleberry Grimm

~ TAO HG

Huckleberry Grimm

Category Archives: Japan 2020

Episode November Lost and Retrieved

19 Tuesday Jan 2021

Posted by Huckleberry Grimm in Japan 2020

≈ Leave a comment

The following is a lost episode from Huckleberry’s podcast series. It’s been dug up from early November, 2020. 

Pen Ginichiro has sacrificed an afternoon to writing out the transcript below. 

Well, you can’t really go shopping now that a gob of egg yolk has tainted the crotch of your jeans, now can you?

Poached egg yolk had apparently lept from the purchase of the springy udon noodles making the Kessel Run through my lips and into my gullet.

Dab, don’t smear.

But the deed was done. Now I had the most suspicious stain mark on my upper left thigh. 

This, folks, is how my evening started. 

And it’s ending back in ‘the cubicle.’ Three walls, a futon, a light, and a heartily frosted window playing clueless third wheel to my day-dates with the sun. 

It’s sincerely hard to focus. 

Doing what I can, drawing what I can from the drapes. While I’m feeling more and more on top of things as we round out the last third of the semester, I would be lying to say that it’s a total breeze. 

Got a lot nagging on me – things that can’t wait on Corona to simply pass on over. Recontracting requirements are time consuming.

…All and everything is done within this small apartment room – no matter how you slice it – when there’s this much work to do all play gets tainted with the ghost of Christmas exploitation… 

…As you play guitar, that smudge stain hits the corner of your eye and distracts you from the burst-flury of Bach-ish 32-second note runs. 

“Research” “Grading” “Both teaching and taking online courses” 

All this, so much smudge and stain. 

I’ve been risking leisure outside the home by jimminy-gym’ing. Risking to weigh possible exposure to coronavirus against the mental and physical stability it brings to this one frosted window weary sun-deprived screen leech. I didn’t know phosphorescent opals could chase this deep. Right?

It seems being holed up in this room everyday is already doing a number on my sleep as it is. Without the exercise, I can’t imagine what life rhythm I’d be slacking. It’s a get up and work till 4, 5, 9? Depends on the weekday. 

To think I grew up purposefully deciding to pursue careers which wouldn’t bind me to a chair and hunched over computer all day – but here we are. Here I am. Bound even in leisure to the screen fiend. 

Alright, let’s get to the first question of the night.

From listener name, ‘Sir Chuck.’

“You’ve been in Kawagoe for 8, 9 months now? I don’t think you’ve told us much about the town, yet. If you would, could you tell us what it’s like?”

Excellent request, Chuck. It’s a small town on the fringe of the Tokyo metropolitan sprawl. Oddly, it retains architecture from several distinct eras in Japan. A day’s walk around town and your eyes will staycate roughly in the 1700’s, 1910’s, 1950’s, 1980’s, and 2010’s. The parts of town are designated by these eras: pre-Edo, Edo, Taisho, Showa, Heisei, Reiwa. No one talks of Crea Mall (Claire Mall) as the “Historical Heisei Street,” and no one talks of the modern leisure temples south-west of the station as the “Historical Reiwa Town,” but that’s just a matter of cosmic perspective. Check back in several decades. You’ll see what I mean. 

Point is, this place is deeply historical and – subsequently – the ‘old town’ has lots of tourism and – subsequently – the city in general is bursting at the seams with nice restaurants (no matter your budget). Reason is, these restaurants all have to satisfy what is perhaps the most aesthetically demanding bourgeois on the planet: the Tokyo Metropolitan’s Middle Class. The food here will surpass your expectations given the town’s relative ‘remoteness’ (a whopping 40-45 minute train ride away from the central Tokyo Metropolis). I suppose that also hinges on how seriously you actually invest yourself into learning about and taking part in the local culture (i.e., not being a colonial imperialist) and/or your attitude towards using whatever Japanese skills you do have. 

I can’t stress enough how lucky I am to be here. Yes, lucky of course in so many other ways: a killer job situation, stable and above subsistence salary, health insurance, pension plan, good health, as well as pretty much my entire lucky life leading up to this moment. Yet, I certainly did not expect to land in a city with so much good food to be had – whether as street food or in a restaurant. When I moved in my main priority was, “Ain’t no way I’m commuting two hours a day for work.” So I moved to the town one station away from campus. Guess I got lucky. Culinarily speaking, there’s everything from multi-generation maintained eel restaurants(1, 2, 3, 4),  high end sushi, less expensive and edomae-style sushi (1, 2, 3), Kappou Ryori (Traditional Japanese cuisine. Here’s another Kappou joint.  This other Kappo Ryori restaurant has a wide menu including Kaiseki), Ryoutei and Kaiseki Ryori (Also, traditional Japanese cuisine. This place is a ceramic shop which both serves Kaiseki Ryori as well as offers pottery wheel experiences. I haven’t had their food…yet.), exquisitely prepared French cuisine (1, 2, 3),  to ‘New-Japanese’ woodfire delights using local Saitama produce, to traditional tea + Japanese garden experiences,  to deep fried shumai on a stick. Yeah. Deep. Fried. Shumai. On a stick. There’s so much more I won’t even attempt to condense it all into one blog post. The items listed above aren’t even the half of an eighth of Kawagoe’s food scene. 

The center of the town is essentially structured around the 3 main streets leading north from the main station to the part of town which retains a healthy dose of old Edo era (1603 – 1868) merchant buildings. Kawagoe was a stop from many places on the way into Edo (what is modern day Tokyo). Subsequently, a successful merchant community prospered there and with their wealth they built hefty houses to protect their goods. These houses are effectively a fusion between ‘kura’ or warehouses and well to do estates. They are still quite impressive. 

Throughout Kawagoe you’ll find well maintained or repaired temples and shrines. Some of them are quite famous, honestly. New Year’s Day here was insane when I came January 1st, 2020. The city was flooded with people going to hatsumoude (ritual first trip to a shrine/temple in the new year, in modern times typically done on January 1st.) Some of the shrines that were packed include Hachimangu, Kumano Jinja, Hyouga Jinja, Renkeiji, and Kita-in. There’s architecture here at Kita-in (a Buddhist temple) that was physically moved here from the Edo Castle by none other than the Tokugawa Ieyasu (You may not know this historical figure, but let’s just say that the Tokugawa family was a pretty big deal). Kita-in itself and the surrounding area has a wide variety of historical pleasures which really deserves it’s own blog post / podcast episode.  

As long as you keep your north and south bearings, Kawagoe makes for a truly pleasant town to walk around. As you’d expect of a Japanese town, there are endless safe alleys that bleed off the main streets between the station and Old Edo: most of the alleys hide something unexpected and delightful. For example, a dried flower shop + coffee stand who’s interior was constructed to like an old Japanese home.

Two things to look out for in Kawagoe are craft stores (For example, there’s an excellent shop which makes beautiful handmade cloth book covers, stationery, and traditional painted masks) and traditional candy/snack shops. If Dalgone alley was about candy and snacks instead of magic, and set in the 1600’s Japan, it would be Kashiya Yokocho in Kawagoe. 

I think that gives a messy idea of what the town is like, but – to be fair – there’s shockingly much more to this town than you might think even after a couple of visits. If possible, one day, I’d like to have you all visit! It is an absolutely charming city. Until then 〜

Alright, on to the next letter from the audience. 

From listener name, ‘HangTen.’ 

“AJ, when have you felt extremely lucky? Also, what was difficult for you when you first started learning Japanese?”

Excellent questions. As I said before in response to Sir Chuck (see response above), I feel grateful for the luck I’ve enjoyed in life – throughout. And it has been immense. But, I don’t think that’s what your question is really about. Kind of like when people ask an ice-breaker like, “What would you do if you had 5 million dollars?” If you answer too seriously like, “I’d give half of it away to a good cause and then invest the other half in another good cause’s development,” then it kind of kills the mood. Sure, we all know what the ‘morally’ correct thing to do is. But, that’s not really the type of conversation an ice-breaker is looking for. 

So, one of the times in my life that I felt truly lucky was when I was about 16 years old. At that time I was looking to buy a new electric guitar. One day at a shop I was testing out a few guitars when I noticed an extremely nice studio-musician level guitar that was nearly half off. It was sleek, fast, sounded great, offered a variety of tones, and felt good to play. I noticed that the tremolo arm rocked significantly in its socket before it would stretch the pitch of the strings, but – other than that – it was in perfect condition. More importantly, it provided both the exact sounds I was looking to get out of a guitar as well as the perfect physical playability. 

I asked a staff member in the shop why the guitar was discounted so heavily. 

“The vibrato arm is broken. With this type of bridge, a broken tremolo arm isn’t an easy sell,” he told me. 

I smiled a most devilish smile and thanked him. As the staff walked away, I unscrewed the tremolo arm from the bridge of the electric guitar. After unscrewing the cap, I pulled the vibrato arm out. In the socket, there was quite clearly space for a single washer missing. 

I looked up. 

I looked around. 

Had no one thought that something so simple could be the cause of this ‘defective guitar’? 

Like hell I would tell them, though. 

Instead, I bought it right there and then. The price was reduced by about 600 dollars. 

On the way home, I stopped by a shop to get a single washer. It cost me a few cents. 

I got home, installed the washer in the socket of the guitar’s bridge, inserted the tremolo arm, screwed on the cap, and played the hell out of that incredible guitar. 

I’d say I was pretty lucky to get the electric guitar of my dreams at a price I could afford just by noticing that a single washer was missing from the interior of the guitar.  

Now, on to the difficulties of learning a language. 

Sorry, HangTen, but I started learning Japanese a little over a decade ago so I am probably out of touch with some of the initial difficulties I faced. 

Naturally, learning kanji was difficult. But, the grammar of Japanese seemed really straightforward to me – generally. Apparently, I often mixed up usage of intransitive and transitive verbs without knowing it (決める、決まる?始まる、始める?). I still mix intransitive and transitive up from time to time! In fact, I make mistakes speaking all the time.

When I first started learning Japanese I had an ideal learning environment: lots of time to practice (not study, but practice! …and with enthusiasm…), superb teachers, an excellent learning program at university, personal diligence, access to coffee and study spaces at any hour of day, access to a wide variety of both media and genres (music, tv shows, anime, manga, books, novels, etc.), and conversation partners to chat with. At first, I remember learning Japanese being something into which I poured a lot of effort and joy, but I don’t remember it being difficult. I guess I still feel this way. In fact, of the three languages I know, Japanese comes to me most naturally – though not most idiomatically (English) and not most embodied (Spanish: Boy oh boy, don’t talk to me when I have a hangover, unless you want to talk to me in Spanish). For me, Japanese might also be the language I have the most fun using – and that’s important. Conversations in English are – as part and parcel of many English speaking cultures – insufferably egocentric and wrapped up in incessant power plays. It’s exhausting. It’s also literally my job to teach English so when I’m not ‘at work,’ I’d rather not ‘English’ off the clock. 

However, and here’s my warning to you, HangTen, the most difficult part of ‘learning’ Japanese came after all the time and resources disappeared. After graduating from university, there was far less time to pursue anything outside of working to pay rent, there were no teachers to guide you & cheer you on, there were far less resources available (Graduated? Goodbye Japanese library access!).

At that point, I could make time for personal study but I didn’t have much opportunity to physically speak. So, for the past…eight years…?…I’ve had an ungodly amount of exposure to Japanese in the written word. I’ve read all kinds of things from the poppiest of pop-culture to graduate school seminars reading Japanese literature dealing with the aftermath of 3.11 (東日本大震災, East Japan Triple Disaster of Earthquake, Tsunami, Nuclear Disaster)  . 

I’ve also read things I wasn’t really even ‘into’ like books called “fashion for middle aged men” (and I ended up enjoying it!). I’ve listened to podcasts which I would probably never have thought to listen to with themes like celebrity/reality tv gossip + 20-something hues (yutotawa), teenage humor (creepy nuts, all night nippon), absolutely inoffensive vanilla extreme discussions of what’s hip in Japan (hiiki biiki), 30-something dorks (Donguri FM), a comparably anarchical and unpredictable / hilarious should be manzai-comedy-duo podcast (maburu maaburu), unbearably plain celebrity talk shows (hoshino gen, all night nippon), and even Japanese idol talk shows (nogizaka, all night nippon). I’ve read books written for grade schoolers. I’ve read manga for kids. I’ve watched all manner of tv shows I never would have watched otherwise (which I can go into another time). I’ve read instruction manuals for whatever I purchase (I save these in a binder. Excellent grammar resource, my friends, when learning verbs in a new language.) I’ve read magazines themed for hobbies ‘I’m not entirely interested in.’ I’ve read the liner notes and lyrics to the cd’s I’ve rented from Tsutaya (also, renting music from random sections of random genres is a wonderful way to find new words, expressions, etc.) I’ve listened to pop songs I honestly ‘never want to hear again’ because they are so plastic, overproduced, rife with barrages of hollow harmonic moves, and lack genuine character: what’s that? you’re going to put The Official Hige Dandism’s Pretender on? Sure, why not, I don’t care. I don’t like it anyway. It doesn’t move me. … It’s a bit quiet though, don’t you think? …

Big language learning tip: devour everything. Even things you may think “aren’t you.”

I’ve self-studied for and passed first the JLPT N2 in 2015 and then the JLPT N1 in 2018. 

But, the most difficult thing for me is not learning new words, learning grammar, learning to comprehend fast speech, learning colloquial speech variations, or learning cultural nuances. 

The hardest thing – forever – has been balanced progress. And, right now, I feel the weight of incredibly imbalanced progress like a pile of bricks on my chest. Why? Over the past several years I haven’t had that much practice physically speaking at length on personal topics. Most of my verbal conversations in Japanese were about goal oriented tasks, dealing with bureaucracy, handling societal rituals, or discussing Japanese literature in graduate school. 

I can take you to the doctor and renew your visa like the brushing my teeth – almost without thinking. 

But, I have had so little opportunity to just speak at length with other people in Japanese about just whatever-the-hell (“shoot the shit”) and speak on personal experiences, stories, feelings,…that – despite an obnoxiously large vocabulary bank and grasp of formal grammar – at times it takes me great effort to verbalize at tempo with the Japanese people I speak with. I don’t mean at the bank, with the doctor, or with government workers. I mean with the people you have deep relationships with in life. This is most painfully evident when talking with my girlfriend now. 

Technically speaking, I should be able to communicate much better than I am; but, my progress since university until now has mainly been reading, writing, TEXTING (sweet Tokimo, so much texting), and impersonal ritual exchanges in society. My comprehension vastly outweighs my verbal production. And I don’t mean the type of verbal production that you think of or translate in your head first. I mean that instantaneous explosion of words that happens almost as a reflex – like a sneeze. Like speaking without thinking. We all know you should “think before you speak,” but to truly feel like you are gelling fluently with someone else in a new language, the words must be born of you like gestures are born of your body in response to your environment – like a hot frying pan in the kitchen. You don’t have to think how to move each individual muscle fiber, how to communicate to which nerves what needs to happen: something outside you ‘moves you,’ and you move almost reflexively in response. That is a level of fluency my written/typed Japanese has: my verbal Japanese (outside of formally bureaucratic situations [Thanks, JLPT!]) is not this ‘fluent’ at this moment. I was probably more verbally ‘fluent’ during university, despite having far less vocabulary, grammar, and cultural knowledge. 

[*In reading this now (January, 2021), I think this self description may be harsher than reality. In some ways, my verbal fluency has never been better. But, I guess that’s just the thing – proficiency is not a linear scale from 0 to 100, it’s an ecosystem in constant flux with the surrounding environment.]

This, for me, reflects one of the hardest things about learning a language: balanced progress. 

There are others who get in a ton of verbal production practice but fail to become functionally literate. This effectively bars them off from advancing their speech through studying the written word. 

Having balanced progress is not entirely within your control; but, make the best of what you can.

Seek out help when you can. 

Be diligent and consistent in your practice. 

Play the long game. 

Love the process. 

Don’t waste the opportunities you have. 

Enjoy the experience. 

Acquiring a new language is much more akin to becoming a professional athlete, a professional musician or dancer, or a highly skilled chef than it is to studying law in a seminar, studying math in a lecture, or learning chemistry in a laboratory. It takes uninterrupted and consistent ‘rehearsal,’ constant physical maintenance over a long period of time, and forever shooting for ‘what’s next.’ It takes both endlessly returning to the basics as well as a thirst for pushing your current ability further.  

Ok, HangTen, I hope that answers your questions!

Alright, well, that’s probably all the time we have today. 

If you have any questions you’d like answer on this blog/podcast, please send them to andrew.john.grimm@gmail.com. In the subject line, write: Dear Huckleberry.

I hope you’re all well and hanging in there. 

Catch you next time.

Advertisement

List of 32: We take a break from our usual programming to bring you this message from our sponsor, Huckleberry Grimm.

07 Tuesday Jul 2020

Posted by Huckleberry Grimm in Japan, Japan 2020, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

32, 32 years old, birthday, confections and confessions, gourmand, Japan, japanese cuisine, japanese food, lists because everyone is doing it, my favorite things, sins, the things we eat

We take a break from our usual programming to bring you this message from our sponsor, Huckleberry Grimm.

It’s my 32 second birthday, and I haven’t written anything in English for a while. Naturally, it is appropriate – then – to offer a list of 32 of my favorite Japanese dishes, meals, drinks, ingredients, or simply things that one can enjoy in Japan.

Why?

People often ask about my favorite Japanese foods, or new things that I’ve tried. Ramen and sushi are frequently asked about, too. I love ramen. I love sushi. But there is a world of Japanese cuisine that I’m just as smitten with that extends beyond these two genres of gastronomic performance art.

So, in no particular order, here are 32 of my favorite ingestibles from Japan. And this isn’t even exhaustive. Just wait till I turn 100. (I didn’t even have space for O-chazuke!)

  1. ごぼうGobo (Burdock root)

Skinny, Hairy, Lanky, Bougie: Burdock. It’s a root thing.

  1. 沢庵漬け Takuwan zuke

Yellow pickled daikon. Oh, sweet Mothers of Invention.

  1. 乾物 kanbutsu Dried goods for the pantry

Example: Dried squid for when your soups need that extra kick of sea brine and umami.

Example: Dried gourd strips for when you need to bind food items up, or tie them shut. Strong, elastic, practical, edible.

Example: Konbu varieties because dashi is the wellspring of creative cooking life.

I know what you’re thinking: yes, all cuisines have dried goods. Yes, they do. Such is the way of sustenance and subsistence. Have you filled your pantry with the dried goods sold in grocery stores here? Your cooking will never be the same. Ever.

  1. 寒天 Kanten

Seaweed makes for excellent jelly products that also happen to contain a lot of fiber.

  1. 茶碗蒸し Chawanmushi

Savory egg custard stuffed with an assortment of treasures like mushrooms, or herbs, or shrimp, or white fish, or whatever the doctor foraged/caught that day.

  1. 胡麻和え goma ae

A ‘dressing’ which is more like a ‘tossing’ which is like an imagine if you crushed up sesame seeds, mixed them with savory sauces and a hint of sweetness now rub it all over any vegetable of your choice kind of thing.

Word to the wise: goma ae is like peanut butter for adults and is the perfect addition to that boring fresh vegetable side dish you just laid down to rest.

  1. 紫蘇 Shiso

I don’t think we have a word to describe the flavor of shiso in English. It is a leaf thing, but not an herb. It’s like if mint had an electrically enigmatic cousin who you just knew had the knowledge of where the lucky charms are hidden but it would be taboo to ask and reveal your knowledge of their secret knowledge thereby putting everyone at risk. That’s shiso.

25.ミョウガ・茗荷 myoga

So, you like ginger, eh? Well, let me let you in on a little secret: myoga.

24. あら汁 arajiru

あら(ara) refers to the scraps of fish left over after butchering and preparing the “good” parts. 汁(shiru) means soup. Yes, the sh- in ‘soup’ often becomes j- because linguistics is probably not the reason you are reading this.

  1. たれ tare

The word ‘tare’ in Japanese cuisine can be so many things. It’s usually some variation on a soy-sauce based sauce. Also, can we stop calling soy sauce a sauce? It’s not very saucy, is it? Isn’t there a viscosity requirement for something to be considered a sauce? Anyhow, tares come in many varieties and are multipurpose. In sum, it is a viscous sauce made largely from fermented soy product liquid.  Not to be confused with soy sauce.

  1. 大根おろし Daikon oroshi

Grated daikon. Sweet Potato of Time, what a difference this makes to some dishes. With a drop of ponzu on top? Good Gourd, someone turn on the AC.

  1. ポン酢 ponzu

If you’ve never heard of ponzu, just never let anyone make you do ponzu shots. I know drinking vinegar is a fad and all, but this might be a bit too citrusy for even the tartest cider vinegar enthusiasts out there.

  1. 焼き芋 yaki-imo

Japan’s equivalent to our hometown’s feel for corn on the cobb. If you’ve never had the pleasure of a freshly grilled sweet potato. End of sentence. Full stop. Fin.

  1. 洋麺屋五右衛門和風パスタ goemonwafuupasuta

Hey, I know this is gonna hurt so you might want to sit down. What if western pasta tasted better with a Japanese cuisine twist? Well, it does. And there’s a place to get it – named after the Robin Hood of Japan, Goemon! No. No. Goemon is not a pokemon. He was a bandit whose influence was so feared by the government that they slaughtered all of his relatives and relations. And now the dominant hegemony and capitalist empires have appropriated the heroic narratives of his life to proliferate some mighty fine pasta all across Japan.

  1. もんじゃ焼き monjayaki

I love this so much, once I even forgot I loved it. It’s so close to my heart, I slipped into taking it for granted – forgetting that it is one of the most fun foods to play around with. Sorry, Monjayaki.  You deserved better.

  1. 塩昆布 shio konbu

Watch out crutons, there’s a new topping in town. Put shio konbu on your salads, your pastas, your ochazukes, your risottos…let this garnish your stairway to heaven. *Use in moderation*

  1. 糠漬け nukazuke

Like pickling projects? Like creating a system of organisms to preserve your food, or transform it?

Then nooking your veggies in Nuka is for you! I’m just waiting for the home foodie trend to graduate from sourdough starters to nuka beds for nukazuke.

  1. 会話の場、和 kaiwa no ba, wa

Japanese conversations are regulated by a sense of ba which could literally be translated as “place,” but functionally impacts conversation a bit more than where it takes place. It’s a bit closer to the sense that the conversation is a space, and that all speakers present contribute to that space as an event rather than the linear back and forth, incessant one-upmanship, and I-statement powerplay posturing of most English speaking conversations.

Don’t even get me started on 和, wa (harmony).

  1. デミグラス demiglasu

Yes. Yes, demiglace is a western thing. You’ll just find it done more often in Japan than in most western cuisine.

Also. Miso demiglace? Sweet Pickle does that hit the spot on a rainy November evening.

  1. 味噌 miso

To think I’d have gotten this far and forgotten to list miso. What a world of miso there is to explore. If you’ve only cooked with one type of miso, go get your mind blown. Go. Now.

  1. 分からない wakaranai

“I don’t know.” The Japanese language is much more accepting of people being honest about what they know, and what they don’t know. The English-speaking world could use more of that, instead of feeling that we need to defend our self-assumed status as omniscient and in the right while also being more informed on a scale which is linear with us at the extreme of more and everyone else at the extreme of less.

When asked a question in English, you’d rather be caught dead than to say, “I don’t know.” Likewise, you must defend whatever position you came into the conversation with at all costs – why? Pride? Power? A false belief in a stable, fixed, and singular identity which – by the way – was in the right before this conversation even started? Check. Check. And Check.

  1. ねばねば nebaneba

All things sticky, slimy, and gooey. So much wonderfully delicious and sticky foods to boost your gut biome. Slimy okra, slimy yamaimo, slimy soybeans, slimy mushrooms…the list goes on and on my friends.

  1. アイス aisu

Ice cream, itself, in Japan isn’t actually that good.

But the toppings and flavorings are absolutely dynamite.

Have you ever had a thick and mildly sweetened shoyu sauce/syrup on top of vanilla ice cream?

Good gables.

Sweet summer melon flavored ice cream with honeycomb on top?

Maaaaaaaa(d)re mia.

  1. なんでも卵かけ putting raw egg on everything and anything

Udon? Throw an egg on it. Soba? Throw an egg on it. Rice? Throw an egg on it. Pork cutlet? Throw an egg on it. Pasta? (and I don’t mean jussss carbonara, I mean flippin any pasta dish) Throw an egg on it. Yeah, that Genovese will astral project with a little help from Gudetama.

Chocolate? Don’t know. Haven’t tried.

  1. 梅干し umeboshi

Dried plums…but not like any prune you’ve had. Umeboshi are smaller, and sour, and a little rough on the outside, but chewy on the inside, and chewing them results in juicy fruit snack experience.

Umeboshi’s are a journey. Get in for the ride.

(I know there was a section for ‘dried goods’ above, but these little plums deserved their own section.)

  1. タイ焼き taiyaki

The language of love cooked into a sweet-bean stuffed waffle that’s the shape of a sea bream.

  1. カレーパン karee pan

Curry, inside a doughnut-like bread which has then been lightly breaded with crumbs and sealed by the heat of a frying pan.

Don’t get the convenience store versions of this.

Go and get a legit curry bread somewhere.

It will bring a whole new meaning to the term “buddha belly.”

  1. 懐石料理 kaiseki ryouri

Look it up. Many of the reasons that Japanese cuisine is considered a world heritage can be found in this culinary tradition.

  1. 精進料理 Shoujin ryori

The first character compound involves “spirit+progress” which means “asceticism” or “devotion and diligence” depending on the context. The second character compound is “cuisine/cooking.”

Cuisine for ascetics. Think your palette is too needy for vegan food? Think again.

Also, Sesame pudding for dessert? Get. Out. Of. Here.

  1. 思いやり omoiyari

Omoiyari is about ‘considerateness.’ Empathy. The ability to imagine what limitations, restrictions, difficulties, etc. impact the other people you interact with. Having a trained and developed intelligence regarding, “what has/is the other person going through/ have to do in order for _____?” would really benefit my home culture.

That’s just one facet of omoiyari. If you’re intrigued, I highly recommend a personal investigation. Omoiyari makes the world a better place.

  1. ハイボール highball

Yes, that simple cocktail from the universe of yesteryear still holds court in Japan. Highballs and highball variations are everywhere.

Perfect on muggy summer nights.

  1. せんべい senbei

Have you ever had an octopus senbei (タコせんべい)? A shrimp senbei (エビせんべい)? They are at least the size of two of your faces.

Senbei’s come in all shapes, sizes, flavors, and wrappings. Oh, so much wrapping.

  1. 天ぷら tempura

Did I already cover this? No? Good. You probably know what tempura is.

But you probably haven’t experienced the world of tempura.

It’s like deep fried foods in the USA. Deep fried foods isn’t just chicken and pork.

It’s pickles.

It’s beer battered cheese curds.

It’s twinkies and oreos.

Now, think of how crafty the culinary arts are in Japan. Imagine the things they do with tempura. (see #26 ‘shiso’)

  1. ナッツ等 All things nuts, ginnnan, and a singular devotion to Montblanc 

I never thought I’d get into things like mont blanc. Then I moved to Japan.

But, it doesn’t stop there.

There are just so many nutty things hidden in Japanese cuisine in places you might not expect.

So, you go to a grilled chicken joint.

You mostly get skewers upon skewers of delicious chicken bits or veggies.

When you leave, the thing you remember most – though – is the satisfying texture and aroma of the grilled innards of gingko tree nut. (銀杏Ginnan)

Huh.

  1. マスク着用 Masuku chakuyou

Wearing a mask because

a. 会話の場、和 kaiwa no ba – Against all English language logic, solipsism is a joke and other people do in fact exist. The health and well-being of other people is our prerogative.

b. 分からない wakaranai – we still have very little understanding about this virus and no available cure for the masses. There is so much we don’t know about it. We know so little, we often don’t even know when we have Covid-19. So, better wear a mask, just in case.

c. 思いやり omoiyari – Does the person I’m talking to have kids? Are they pregnant? Is their partner pregnant? Do they live with the elderly? Do they live, actually, with anyone? Maybe I should wear a mask, because there’s a possibility that we’ll never know I’m contagious and passing this virus on to the people I meet who’s lives (and family lives) might be irrevocably changed or taken away as a consequence.

 

3. 日本酒 nihonshu

I did it. I turned the page. I took out the trash. I turned 32.

My body just does not process certain alcohols like it used to. (I love you whisky, and you too, whiskey, but, we gotta talk about ‘space.’)

Nihonshu (called ‘sake’ in English) happens to be really easy on my body.

It also has a wide sphere of flavor variety to offer the aforementioned needy palette. I don’t think you’ll really be able to get your hands on good ‘rice wine’ in the USA unless you have insane cash. Even then, I’m not sure you’ll get much variety. Most of the sake sold in the USA is actually made in California and mass produced for chain restaurants.

You’ll just have to come to Japan and ‘tour around’ (Challenge: Try buying sake from a different prefecture each time) to taste a whole new world, a new fantastic point of view. No one can tell us no, or which sake is ‘gold.’ It’s all a go, in this whole new world: nihonshu.

  1. ハヤシオムライス hayashi omlette rice

I didn’t grow up in Japan, but when I eat hayashi omlette rice I feel like I’m a 6-year-old boy eating grandma’s cooking in that tiny kitchen with the view of the trees and the squirrels messing up the bird feeders and that flooring and the wooden chairs which were just a bit too big for my frame and the chair arms would get in the way of my elbows and the cat would jump on the table and Mom and Gma would be talking by the sink and the flavor of nostalgia just overwhelms you. Did I mention the perfectly fluffed egg omlette? Oh, Tokimo, Sweet Potato of Time!

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd

#1. 和菓子: wagashi

Traditional Japanese ‘snacks and treats’

Example:

餅・モチ mochi

Lude Jaw described it as ‘Elasticity inglutimate.’

You may be thinking, “Oh, but Huck! We alllllll know mochi.”

But, there’s much more to ‘mochi’ than mochi daifuku and mochi ice cream sold at your – well, not your neighborhood – but that neighborhood with the Trader Joe’s.

Further, you’ll find mochi in all sorts of unexpected places.

Footnote unhinged: Mochi is often used in savory dishes (nabe, monjyayaki), and it delivers a satisfying crunch if you play your cards right.

For starters, here’s a page that lists ten types of mochi.

Mochi, in a word?

Flexibility.

Stretchiness.

Adaptability.

Versatility.

In other words…

Complementary.

Collaborative.

Tenacious.

Forgiving.

Boundless.

Receptive.

Supportive.

It comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors.

Sometimes mochi are very different feeling on the inside…

but, they’re all divine.

 

Thanks for listening.

And now, we’ll return to our usual broadcasting.

 

 

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • January 2021
  • July 2020
  • May 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • July 2016
  • May 2016
  • December 2015

Categories

  • Japan
  • Japan 2019
  • Japan 2020
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Huckleberry Grimm
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Huckleberry Grimm
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar