LIFE UNLEASHED

Food in Japan isn’t just about eating. Sometimes it’s about “How the hell do I order something?!?!?” Our first night in Tokyo we had gotten in fairly late and walked down the street to what looked like a pretty good local soup shop. It was busy which is always a good sign so we grabbed a seat at the counter. At this point we spoke no Japanese. The guy behind the counter came over and we said hello and he blinked at us. We blinked back. He blinked a few times. I looked at Lisa. Lisa looked at me. We blinked. We looked back at the :waiter and he blinked. This was going to be hard! Very hard! Luckily, just then an short squat member of the kitchen staff came from around back and realized there was a “Japanese blinking standoff” happening at the counter. He led us to what we thought was a cigarette vending machine in the corner. Then, slightly trembling, he spoke the 12 English words he had practiced so many times in case of just such an incident: “one pork — one pork one egg –three pork –three pork one egg”. With each option he clearly pointed to one of the four buttons on the machine that had a price listed on it. He also looked at Lisa while going through the one pork options, and me while saying the three pork options, lol. We put in the appropriate funds and out came a little ticket we then took to our first friend, whom I shall call “Blinky”. Blinky took our tickets and a few minutes later hot bowls of delicious pork noodle soup appeared in front of us. Easy peasy Japanesy.

Most of you know that we are foodies and that we have travelled to some pretty far flung places and eaten some pretty strange things (BBQ flies on the Thai/Burma boarder, cow brains in Cambodia, mutton in Mongolia) but we would say Japan might be the most confronting to the western palette. The reason we say this is not necessarily because of taste, although it can at times be a little on the fishy side, but because of texture. The Japanese palette seems to lend itself to the oowie, the gooie, the mushy, the sticky, the gummy and the slimy. It certainly doesn’t lend itself the squirmy. For any of you who might be afraid of this; have no fear, there is a MacDonald’s on every corner. For us it was an opportunity to try some unique things.

 

Let’s start with the ubiquitous Japanese moon cake. There are thousands of moon cake purchasing opportunities. Every subway stop seems to have 20 or 30 stands all selling their own variety of small round cake with some exotic looking filling. On our first attempt to buy some of these enticing sweet cakes we bought 6 or seven different looking ones from several different vendors. Later that day when we sat down in a park to consume our sumptuous feast of different cakes we realized we had been taken! As we bit into each one, they were exactly the same filling: red bean paste. We had encountered red bean sweets before in other parts of Asia such as red bean ice cream, red bean jam…and, yes, even the same “Bean Cake”. How could we be so dumb as to not realize what we were looking at. The overly sweet cakes were of a taste and pasty texture not to our liking previously and it seemed things had not changed in the bean cake department.   Further on down the track in Kyoto we actually did have some tasty bean cakes that were baked rather than steamed and some others with a cinnamon flavour that were delicious.  So I guess they did grow on us a bit though and there were so many shops selling bean cakes everywhere that to ask “Bean cake?” in an offering tone became a running joke.

 

Old bean cake proverb: A young boy is asked by his parents, “which one of us do you love more?” His reply is to tear a bean cake in half and ask “which half of this moon cake is sweeter?”

Amongst the oowie and gooie there are heaps of jellied things often served as a sweet with a cup of tea. Sometimes what looks like a jelly is actually a congee (congealed thing) that is served in soups and side dishes. Imagine eating some soup and then ending up with something the texture of overly firm Jello but tasting a little fishy. Another common sweet treat are little balls of rice flour dough that have the texture of a stale marshmallow and for all the world remind you of those National Geographic documentaries where the aboriginals dig up grubs and eat them live. There were the organs and end trails that could end up in you food if you ordered incorrectly. There was the raw sashimi chicken we didn’t try that was only topped by the raw horse we saw elsewhere (we do believe we ate some seared horse but really aren’t sure). Lastly, and one of our favourites, the little accompaniment of seaweed that is sitting happily in a bowl of green slime. “Kids, be sure to eat your slime or you won’t grow up to be big and… slimey!”

There is a lot of Japanese cuisine that you will probably already be familiar with. Things like Sushi, tempura, udon noodle soup, Ton Katsu (Pork Schnitzel) have been eaten in western society for years. We did have great sushi in Japan, from nice restaurants to sushi trains and plain old grocery store sushi made fresh that day. It was abundant and excellent and focused much more on the fish than western sushi meaning that there wasn’t a “California roll” in site. Udon (wheat) and Soba (buckwheat) noodles are the lunch time staple of Japan. Sometimes they are served in a soup, sometimes they are served on a bamboo basket plate with a light soy for dipping but always they are slurped up in the noisiest fashion possible. They slurp them up with such gusto you would swear that they hadn’t had noodles in years but you know they had the same noodles yesterday and the day before that because, you see, once you have had those things there is not much else easily available in Japan, especially for foreigners like us who can‘t read Japanese (and who were refusing to eat western food). The Japanese food was very good but maybe not as varied as we had hoped.

Where it did meet this expectation was in some of the nicer meals we had in either “Ryokans” (old Japanese style hotels) or in some of the fancier restaurants we went to for dinner. In these types of establishments you often get 12 or so small dishes each with a few bites of different flavoured food. You might get several different pickle dishes, a fish (raw or cooked), a tofu, a salad or two, some tempura, some beef plus miso soup and rice. Those were some pretty good meals!

One memorable meal of this type was Shabu Shabu (Japanese for Swish Swish) where you cook the various meets and vegetables in a pot of boiling soup buy gently grasping the items with your chopsticks and swishing them back and forth in a boiling soup broth king of like a Fondu. Another memorable meal was a vegetarian meal served to us by Monks in a temple high in the mountains of Kyo-san. There were so many little dishes we didn’t know where to start. Ahhhh, that’s just what the foodie ordered.

Despite our early posts on modern Japan, our trip was not solely for us to get a neon tan in Tokyo and warm ourselves to Japan’s modern washroom conveniences.  Of course one of our main goals was to explore Japan’s more refined side in temples, stroll gardens of both traditional and Zen rock style. The trouble is, how to summarize the experience without making you wish you were a monk yourself and didn’t have to read boring travel blogs? So I focus on one of our favourite Zen temples/gardens and let the photos tell you the rest (which have been posted to Flickr but not yet organized or labelled.  Feel free to browse anyway from the link on our site). 

Japan is known for it’s simplicity and refined presentation in everything from food to house wares & service. One early morning in Kyoto we hoped to achieve a moment of zen-like peace amongst the throngs of Japanese tour buses at one of the most famous Zen gardens in Japan. As we entered the small rock garden, our zippy western minds wondered what all the fuss was about. Barely 20m wide and 30 m long the ‘garden’ was made up of 14 rocks arranged in groupings of 2 or 3. You glance around feverishly wondering if this is it. Your mind races to the next site you’ve planned to visit.

 But then it happens. You decide to sit down for a while and just absorb the view. Its then that you start to make your own mind up about what the rock scene before you is meant to represent. Perhaps a giant ocean with islands. Or the sky with various shaped clouds. Others say it’s a mother tiger crossing a river with her cubs behind. Whatever it may be to each visitor, as you sit there minute by minute, a calmness takes over.

 After 20 minutes or so, Brad tells me his interpretation: although the garden seems to only have 14 rocks, there are actually 15 rocks –you just can’t see one of them at any given time. So if you move to any spot viewing the garden there is always one hidden from view. Perhaps this means that no matter what you want to achieve in this life, there will always be something out of your grasp to possess or understand and true contentment comes from not seeing or having it all.

 Truly a lovely travel moment.

As expected Kyoto, was a beautiful city if you were able to see a few temples without the hundreds of tour buses, wander the back streets that still house Geisha’s in the evening, eat in 200 year old restaurants that have seen the like of Frank Sinatra, Prince Charles & Charlie Chaplin (which we stumbled on by accident and enjoyed some amazing veggie tempura) and take a little of the zen away with you.

We also enjoyed 2 days living in a temple in Kyosan, a mountain region south of Kyoto. Our very own temple for the night had a lovely garden at its center that we gazed upon as we were served our meticulously prepared vegetarian evening meal by brown robed monks. Who ever said temple life was hard ?

Other than temples, to me traditional Japan was Kenrouken stroll garden in Kanazawa, Edo period mountain towns ablaze in autumn colours perfect for a sunny day’s walk and bathing in 100 year old outdoor onsens while the Japanese ladies next to me chatter about the days shopping purchases. It was staying in old Ryokans (Japanese guest houses) where you dress in your Yukuta (summer kimono/bath robe) for the evening meal and learn traditional folk dancing from the owner.

And finally it was about trying even a little to understand a culture that is so different from mine. The smiles from Japanese hikers on the trails, guest house owners & people on the street that stopped to say “Kanichiwa” (hello) certainly brought our cultures much closer together.  That’s what I will remember about Japan.

 Ultra Service Model

By far, our favourite would have to be the toilet that does it all for you. Yes, many toilets in Japan heat the seat, have all manners of washing buttons for men, women, front, back, washing pressures, auto flushing and making a flushing sound to block any unwanted noise. But the best toilet is one who’s lid opens as you go to use it and then promptly upon standing, it flushes and closes on its own. Now that’s service! Did we video-tape this marvel. You bet your bottom dollar we did J

Forest Symphony model

Many toilets have an automatic swirling or flushing noise that comes on as you are using it. This is meant to block an undesirable noises you might be making. However, one flashy department store model had a whole forest orchestration playing in the cubicle. This included sounds of rustling leaves, a babbling brook, birds chirping and towards the end something like a bear growling. I wondered what must be going on in there that you require a bears growl to cover the noise!.

What we’ve learned from the Japanese dedication to loo experience is that you can’t afford to fall behind in technology.

As I snapped away and enjoyed their coy smiles and willingness to be photographed I can only imagine what they thought of my outfit that day. Merrell sport hikers, baggy cargo pants and a brown t-shirt? You know you’re a backpacker when someone dressed like a pink nightmare looks better than you!  I miss my Mimco handbag already…..

At this point, we are a few weeks behind in our blogging and it’s only post number three. Might as well get used to it as I don’t expect we’ll catch up any time soon. As usual, I wish for a time travel device to allow me several more hours spent in each day. The real question is, would I use it wisely and spend more time lingering in my favourite places (serene Japanese gardens sipping frothy green tea) or exploring those ‘missed’ opportunities likely best missed?

But lets go back to the future and finish up with Tokyo before getting to the rest of Japan.

Perhaps in our first post we left you thinking Tokyo was all about the modern, bright lights and action that it’s famous for. Yes that’s a large part but so to was some history and culture. We enjoyed a lovely afternoon at a local festival with hundred year old wooden floats, stumbled on a another local temple’s evening market & explored local shrines. At each one your choice of amulets, good luck charms and general trinkets would leave any spiritual deity spoilt for choice.

 You can buy amulets for Sound Body & Spirit, Good Marriage, Safe Travels, General Happiness and Keen Fashion Sense (ha ha). The list goes on. Each temple has it’s own recognizable symbol, whether it be an emblem, animal or picture of the temple lovingly adorned on metal, ceramic, glass and wood.

But that’s not the only place to get trinkets. The toy stores, clothing stores, mobile phone shops and many other business’s were also filled with racks of bling.  It may be based on your favourite Anime or Manga character, sports team logo or just about any other piece of pop culture. 

What is someone to do with all these trinkets??? Hang them from your purse, cell phone, wallet, handbag or whatever you can attach them to. You would be hard pressed to find a local Tokyoite without some kind of trinket strapped to their mobile phone. Our favourite was one typical dark suited 50 year old salary man with way more phone bling than any of the 14 year old girls seated next to him on the train. His bling included a tiny smiling bear, several silver balls, a red string and other Japanese amulets of unknown power and origin to us. Perhaps in a city the size of Tokyo your bling is a method of expressing the individuality of you?

 I am now officially part of the obsessed and have my own jangly collection hanging from my Crumpler camera bag. My bling includes a Sound Body and Mind amulet from a Tokyo temple (not quite working yet), the “3 Monkeys” from a famous shrine in Nikko where the original See-Speak-Hear no evil originated, Hello Kitty Harajuku girl, Domo (from NHK –read last post), a 5 cent piece I found on a cobblestone street in Kyoto and one from my friend Pam in Canada who, as always, was in tune with my life and sent a Gratitude amulet to me before my trip started.

To feed my addiction I now stop at every shop or stand tempted to add to my collection.

Perhaps I need a trinket to prevent shopping extravagance.