Makin’ Soba

Every August a bunch of foreigners (from all different countries–USA, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Brazil, Korea and Mongolia last year) who are all studying near Tokyo come to Nanae and other towns and cities in Hokkaido to have a 2 week homestay. During the day they visit schools and experience the culture of Japan. Lucky for me, I got to participate in all of these fun activities. One of the highlights was making soba. Soba noodles are grey-ish in color because they are made with buckwheat flour rather than wheat flour. They can be eaten hot or cold but are a very popular summer dish served cold on a bamboo strainer above a plate, dipped into a cup of cold soy sauce based broth and slurped up.

 

Kiyou wa…Kodomo no Hi (Kids’ Day)

We’re just about finished with Golden Week over here: Saturday was Constitution Memorial Day, Sunday was Green Day and Monday waclass=”alignnone size-medium wp-image-43″s Children’s Day. Because Green Day fell on a Sunday this year (which every already has off), Tuesday is a Substitute Holiday. Children’s Day used to be called Boy’s Festival and is often still referred to this way as a counterpart to Hina Matsuri (which isn’t a national holiday, btw), often called “Girls’ Festival” even though this isn’t the correct translation. These two holidays (along with Tanabata in July) are very old and traditional and always fall on the same dates 3/3, 5/5 and 7/7. This day is supposed to celebrate children’s happiness.

 

Money, money, money, moooney

You hear all the time about how expensive Japan is and in some regards that is true.  Traveling around within Japan is pretty expensive.  The trains are great and everything–clean, safe, punctual etc– but it comes at a cost.  You can buy plane tickets to most places in Japan for around $100 each way if you buy it 28 days before but this isn’t always the case.  There are really only 2 airlines in Japan (JAL, and ANA) and they control everything, even the “budget” airlines (although I think there is only one left).  

Hotels can be expensive and confusing since the charge is per person not per room.  Good food is expensive here but there are cheaper options (ramen, soba, Y100 kaiten sushi (depending on how hungry you are), some chain take-out bento places and the ubiquitous convenience stores [whose food by the way is much better than in the States]).  Produce can be expensive though, especially fruit.  People (ie housewives) don’t often cook with fruit here the way we do in the States (cobblers, crisps, pies, etc) partly because it is more expensive and partly because the fruit is such good quality it would be a shame to mar its beauty by chemically changing it.  

 

Fugu part 2

Yes, I’m still alive. I know I was gone for a while… but I was writing a lot of posts in my head if that counts.

I wanted to show you a photo of the actual fugu, blowfish, that I ate– it didn’t much look like the puffed up fish photo I showed last time.

My understanding is that you have to be fugu certified in order to cook/serve fugu. I’m not sure exactly what that process entails but most of the deaths from eating fugu are from fisherman who try to cut it up and eat it themselves after catching one.

It was tempura-ed so it mostly just tasted like tempura-ed fish. It wasn’t so distinctive but then again it came at the end of a long meal so it is kind of hard to remember.

More coming soon…promise.

 

And I survived!!!

Breaking news:

I ate fugu and lived to tell about it!