Fascinating Food Finds in Japan

Kumajiru (Bear meat soup)

The kumajiru is a specialty of Osenkaku Ryokan at Takaragawa Hot Springs. Our server says there are many bears in the surrounding hills but they also dish out many bowls of kumajiru daily at Osenkaku so I don't know how that works out. Anyway, the soup was very tasty. It had thick chunks of bear meat, sweet potatoes and burdock.

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Kuzukiri

Tomo introduced me to this dessert at the Zara izakaya in Shibuya. The long,transparent noodles are made from the kuzu/kudzu plant and served in a bowl of iced water. It's smooth, has a chewy bite and gets a thin sweet coating when quickly dipped into the black sugar syrup. Simple and summery. We chased the kuzukiri to Nara, where it's a famous local product. We had a big bowl each in a little shop near Seikan-so Ryokan that specialises in kuzu products.

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Choco Banana

There were no fewer than 5 Choco Banana stalls in the grounds of the Asakusa Kannon during the Sanja Matsuri weekend. Phallic funfair food!

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Eki Bentos (Train Station Lunchbox)

Always prettily packaged, always delicious. We usually bought local or regional specialties. A memorable one was the one we bought in Takasaki,Gunma Prefecture. Takasaki Station sells many eki-bens in boxes that look like Daruma-san because Takasaki makes about 80% of those red dolls beloved by Japanese for their promise of wish fulfilment.

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Maido Cafes

We went to a maido (maido=French maid) cafe in Akihabara, the electronics district in Tokyo. The waitresses were dressed as French maids w/ platform Mary Janes, knee-high socks and lamb tails and lamb ears. More into subservient Lil Miss Muffets than overtly sexual Playboy bunnies here. There are other cos-play (costume play) cafes in the area and most are maido cafes because the French Maid is apparently the Ichiban fantasy of Japanese males. But there's one where you can ask the waitresses to dress up in any of the costumes available and the choice ranges from Santa's elf (!) to high school girl.

Read more about this Japanese phenomenon here:
www.iht.com/articles/2005/04/28/news/trmanga.php

The cafe we went to is called Cos-Cha (Costume Tea). There's a little 'classroom' area w/ desks and a chalkboard and you've to address the waitresses as 'Miss Angel'. Pictures weren't allowed but here's one of the shop sign.

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Eel Liver

We had this eel liver soup in Edogawa, an unagi specialty restaurant in Nara. It had a really really strange taste. Don't know how to describe it. I guess my palate will just label that taste henceforth as "EEL LIVER!".

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Hitsumabashi

Howie had the unagi hitsumabushi, a Nagoya specialty and a dish for which the restaurant is famous. It was quite a sight. He got a little wooden bucket of rice and thick slices of grilled and sauced unagi, layered ala lasagna. The waitress then tossed the contents w/ spring onions, chives and shredded nori. Howie ate 3/4 of the bucket (spooned into a little bowl) and had the rest drowned w/ soup that the waitress brings in towards the end of the meal in a teapot. My unajyu was a lot less exotic.

Yuba

We had a yuba kaiseki at Junsei restaurant in Kyoto. It was 3 pm so we were alone in the dining hall that overlooks the gorgeous iris-covered landscaped grounds. The copper pot in the photo is shallow and divided into 2 halves for Howie and myself. It's filled w/ soy milk and as it heats up, a layer of 'skin' forms on top. You gently skim it out w/ a small bamboo spatula and have it w/ the dipping sauce. I've had yuba a lot but never fresh off the pot like this. My grandma makes Kuah Kembang Tahu, an awesome soup w/ dried yuba ribbons and pork ribs. It's far less refined but far more yumms.

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Weird Rice Ball Drink

I bought this drink which is called 'Onigiri to Doozo' ('To Enjoy With A Rice Ball'). I read it and I understood it but somehow, this and the rice ball picture didn't really register. I just read some small label on the box that says it's a soy drink. So I was in for a rude shock when I took a sip. It tasted like fishy seaweed, tofu and rice! Think liquefied sushi. Don't spoil the enjoyment of your onigiri w/ this weird neither-sweet-nor-savoury soy stuff.

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Ayu

Ayu is a freshwater fish unique to Japan. It has an light, aromatic flavour that comes from the algae it feeds on. Rubbed w/ copious amounts of salt and grilled, the sight a plump ayu on a stick gets me salivating. It's a common summer treat.

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Funky Food Signs

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Legends and Genitals of Japan

Vagina Epilogue: A Royal Mess

I was reading up yet another travel site in preparation for my trip to Japan. At one informative and earnest government tourism site, I came upon this description for an ancient tomb:

A large tomb mound that is said to be the burial ground of a noble princess. The princess married "Ohmononushi", the deity of Mt. Miwa. One day the princess learned that her husband was a snake and screamed aloud in surprise. Her husband, the deity, returned to Mt. Miwa.

So far so good, right? In fact, you're probably already rather bored. You think she's gonna kill herself in despair and thousands of years later, her burial ground becomes the tourist attraction of a rather sleepy town. Think again.

The princess was so distraught she killed her private parts by stabbing herself with hashi(chopsticks). This is how Hashihaka (the Chopstick Tomb) was named.

Pretty violent and pornographic even by the standards of legends, no? And wait, why was she so distraught she decides to 'kill her private parts'? It wasn't her private parts that screamed and scared away her husband, was it? Why didn't she just slit her throat? And besides, how do you 'kill' your private parts? Suicide by self-mutilation of the genitalia - with chopsticks! - has got to be the worst and stupidest way to die.

Legends & Genitals of Japan Part II

The Festival of the Steel Phallus

I was scrolling down another article on Japan when I saw a giant penis.

I was in the office so I immediately minimised the window and stealthily looked right, left, behind me; checked again to make sure no one was paying attention to my screen and looked at the page again. Yup, there it was. Big, bright pink, proudly pointing heavenward.

So began my online introduction to Kawasaki's Kanamara Matsuri - The Festival of the Steel Phallus. It is to celebrate the vanquishing of a demon that lived in a woman's vagina and who had the nasty habit of biting off the penises of her lovers. (How did this Japanese ancestress of Lorraina Bobbit have plural lovers? Why didn't the local boys satisfy their lust w/ normal, non-penis chomping hoochies??)

So anyway, a local craftsman fashioned a steel phallus which broke the demon's teeth. Since then, this triumphant act of bedroom cunning has been celebrated as a fertility festival of sorts. In the Edo period, courtesans would come to pray for good business and protection from STDs and today it is used to promote AIDS awareness and safe sex.

Get Wood

If steel phalluses are not your thing, check out Tagata Jinja Hounen Matsuri where a giant wooden phallus is paraded during the annual festival. If you're male and 42 years old, you should be part of the exclusive team of 42-year- old men carrying the floats through town. The main float has a giant wooden phallus. Why 42? Because it's considered to be a rather inauspicious year. Why haul a giant dick through town? Just do it.

And so...

the story begins.

A nice sunrise visual to commemorate the posting of my first photo in my first blog. But actually, it's almost midnight and I've taken far too long to figure out how this works. So I'm off to bed. Oh, photo credits:

Hand Talent: Myself

Photographer: Brother

Location: Nagarkot, Nepal