Category: 未分類

WASABI ENDANGERED!!!

WASABI ENDANGERED!!! The front page of today’s (February 9, 2022) New York Times International Edition featured a story that took up over half the page about Japanese wasabi being endangered, mainly because of environmental factors (“A Fiery Delicacy in Peril”). Native to Japan, wasabi has been eaten for over one-thousand years, not so much as a food but as a condiment with beneficial medicinal properties. Until quite recently, wasabi was grown only in Japan, making it, in […]

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Sushi Sugita

An interesting thing happened back in mid-December; thanks to the corona virus, my wife and I were able to eat at Sugita Sushi twice in a week (actually, the full name is Nihonbashi Kakigarachō Sushi Sugita, which is really way too much to write over and over). I had talked to Sugita san’s wife (Okamisan) sometime in November about making reservations, and she said there were plenty of openings and to give her a call. So my […]

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Setsubun (節分): The End of Winter

Today is Setsubun (節分), the last day of winter according to the traditional lunar calendar in Japan. So as has been a custom for several hundred years on this day, I did mamemaki (豆撒き), which consists of throwing dried or roasted soy beans out of each window and outside door of one’s house while saying “oni ha soto, fuku wa uchi!,” meaning something like “demons out, fortune in!” before eating one bean for each year of your […]

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Day Trip to Enoshima (江の島)

This past Saturday I took a short trip down to Enoshima, a small island just south of Kamakura that is famous for being home to Benzaiten, the deity associated with music and entertainment, and a popular travel destination for the Kantō region for hundreds of years. It’s also where the 1964 and 2020 Olympic sailing competitions were held. I’d been there once before several years ago. This time the plan was to meet two friends, one Japanese […]

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Too Much Plastic

A few days before New Years, as part of our annual household cleaning, my wife made a small change to our recycling and trash sorting. Rather than put plastics, the kind food comes in, not PET bottles, into the general nama gomi (basic trash), she made a separate sort in the same box with our unburnable trash. Most plastic is not recyclable where we live, the exceptions being PET plastics and Styrofoam food trays which are not […]

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Yamanashi Wine Country (short version)

My wife and I recently took an overnight trip to Yamanashi’s wine country, the area around the city of Katsunuma in the Kōfu district. It was my first visit to area, and really the introduction of my knowledge of Japanese wines. The area is just over an hour from Shinjuku by express train, with lots of things to do, especially for people that enjoy wine. There are some historic temples, onsen, and quite a few wineries, many […]

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Ōki Shichimitōgarashi (大木七味唐辛子屋) Has Closed

Ōki Shichimitōgarashi Closed After some 400 years in business, Higashinihinbashi’s Ōki Shichimitōgarashi has closed. It actually closed back in July of 2021, but despite passing by the shop quite frequently, I was not aware of the closing until I saw a notice on the door last week. Ōki Shichimitōgarashi, along with its previous other half, Yagen Shichimitōgarashi, based in Asakusa, is considered to be the first shop to make the now ubiquitous seven spice mix known as […]

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Not Just Any Pizza

Outside of Japan, the art of professional cooking is almost always performer in a kitchen, out of site from the dining area. But not in Japan, where counter seating is common and diners can watch chefs at work, making cooking, or chefing, a performing art. Restaurants designed with the kitchen work area on the far side of a counter allows personal interaction and communication between diners and the person or people preparing the meal, as well as—at […]

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Nikkō

As part of my great endeavor to walk all of the five highways of old Japan (the go kaidō, or 五街道), this summer a friend and I set out to walk the shortest of the five, the old Nikkō Kaidō from Nihonbaashi to Nikkō and its main attraction, the Tōshōgū, the mausoleum honoring the first shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu. The distance for this journey is not too great, only around 140 km. Walking an average of around 30 […]

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Sushi Yoshitake 鮨よしたけ

鮨よしたけ　Sushi Yoshitake Another great meal at the main counter at Sushi Yoshitake in Ginza, this time with a 6:00 start rather than the late seating as last time. No more restrictions on serving alcohol, or business hours, which is a great relief to everyone in Tokyo, or at least every adult. Once again, no photos are allowed, so the list that follows of what we ate is from memory only. I have a feeling one dish may […]

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